#365Challenge.... February!!

Here are all the pages for February in one picture packed blog post - you might want to get a cuppa before you sit down... :o)

I'm simply going to show you the pages and give some background information/explanation on a few of them - when I think/hope it might be helpful to you in some way...

Here we go:

The pages in this book are 6x8inches, the book is an upcycled atlas I bought in a charity shop aaaaages ago (and according to the inscription on the front page is the property of the 'Geography department, South East Essex Sixth Form College'! lol)

 

Gelli printed page + stencilled flowers (PS055) + small flowers (JM49) in Snowflake Fresco Finish Paint.

This page was created from a piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper....
I really like the starburst effect but really couldn't use the cowboy illustration (!!) but I didn't want to waste the background, so I started thinking of ways to cover it up (still only using things from the stash)

I liked how the doily covered pretty much everything but the sparkly burst still shows from underneath which is what I wanted...

 Panel of paper added to cover the word 'cowboy' and another smaller one to stamp the date onto

 Then I realised that the whole page looked better rotated 180degrees - allowing for the binding holes and also for the other elements that I was planning on adding...

 The strips of music score running under and over the patterned strips help tie everything together (stops them 'floating'), the bird is die cut from a gelli print (there are lots of those in my workroom! lol) and the branch is a die cut (Tim Holtz/Sizzix). The phrase is from JOFY15.

and not a cowboy in sight! lol

 I've 'rediscovered' my spirograph! can you tell! (its cropping up on several pages this month)

This page was created by taking a clean-up gelli print, stencilling on top with  PS056 (using Snowflake Fresco Finish) and adding words from Emma Godfrey's EEG17 & 14

The question in the Flow calendar for the 22 February (yes, I'm still considering those questions when I make my pages) was 'Who knows you the best?'... well it has to Matt, my husband... but, he's not overly keen on having his photo taken so I disguised his face by writing over his photograph - I really like the way this looks and I think it works really well (& I think printing the page in black and white helped too)

lol, yep more spirograph! lol  I should clarify - this isn't the kit I had as a child. This is one I bought relatively recently (probably in The Works) - it came with an activity book - the book has long gone but I am making full use of the kit that was attached to the front!

Question for day 24 was 'does wisdom come with age?' hhhmm I hope so! but I also think that you should keep on learning, keep trying new things... learn something new every day - however big or small.

Phew... another month finished... 59 down, 306 to go.....

I'm still enjoying creating these pages - March's book is 5x7 inches in size and landscape!  oh yes.. another small challenge- most of my stamp designs are portrait ie tall rather than wide so working landscape might be a bit of a challenge but that is what this year long project is all about - goal setting and learning something along the way..,

Thanks for stopping by.

Jo

Paints, stencils and gelli prints... Oh my!

So I've been a bad/abset blogger for a few weeks... the reason for this is my PC became a victim of the curse of 2016 and we had to add it to the list of 2016's fatalities - it died the week before christmas! This was a drama for me because
a) I use it A LOT!!
b) EVERYTHING is stored on it - you know things like holiday photos, work bits and pieces, existing designs, working designs....
c)  I HADN'T BACKED IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My friend was brilliant & took the pc apart and retrieved the hard drive and all the information (he is now my tech'geek hero!) ... YAY! WOO HOOOOOO!! (a massive thank you to him!)
aaaand breeeeaaathe!

I can now see all my information and use it but I'm working on hubby's laptop which is good but its not like using my pc - I feel like I'm working with one hand tied behind my back!  sigh  but, I appreciate it could be worse & I could have no pc at all.... so I am grateful (very grateful!) for what I have.

aaaanyhooo enough about my PC/technical woes an on to prettier paintier things...

I made this box canvas late last summer (inspired by the gelli print play day I had with friends) and forgot to share it with you (like I said at the start  - bad blogger, bad blogger).. its a gelli plate printed box canvas, painted with Fresco Finish paints in various shades of green and blue and stencilled using Stencil Girl, Artemio & Donna Downey stencils.
I really like how it turned out - so much so its actually on the wall in the lounge! I know! Shocker!! My own work on the wall in my own home! Whatever next!

x

The perfect travel art kit...

.... is there even such a thing - I find what I want to pack depends on where I'm going, what the holiday plans are and what my favourite tool/ media is at the time of packing! 

While packing I try to be practical and stern with myself (listening to my little inner voice asking 'do you really need that? will you actually use it??')  This year in the lead up to our holiday I made a list of all the equipment I used when making something and kept it at the side of my desk, things I used repeatedly... it was quite a useful little list - really showed what is 'essential' and what isn't.. I'd recommend trying it, could also show what is actually needed on the desk.... (as opposed to all the 'stuff' that stays on the desk just in case..)

-  -  -  -  -

When putting this blog post together I looked for the photo of the kit I took the last time we had a holiday in Mexico (3 years ago)....

 

...and compared it to the kit I took this year.  It made me smile because 3 years on:

* I'm still using the same bag.

* I still pack: Archival Black ink, a diddy alphabet stamp set, craft sheet, Snowflake Fresco Finish paint, long rubber in pencil form, Tombow glue stick, Cut'n'Dry foam, and stencils....

There is much more in there that you can't see in the photo:

* Koh-i-noor paints - they've been replaced by Winsor & Newton watercolours
* Decorative tape - 2 rolls packed above- tape didn't make it at all this year and I missed it - I thought I'd packed tape but hadn't... gggrrrr (1 inch brown paper tape - the type you have to wet the back of to make it stick - I was quite disappointed because I had plans for that!!)... still packing double sided tape :o) (I remember thinking I don't need to pack tape because I can create tape with paper and glue... yeah right!)
* The flower stencil/mask was swapped for alphabet stencils

This year I think I'd planned more for journaling and painting, rather than packing with no plans as was the case last time....

Here's this year's kit:

Its all the things I would normally use at home but travel sized - an A5 cutting mat and craft sheet, a short metal ruler, very limited amount of stamps - I didn't take any of my motif stamps because that helpful little inner voice of mine was saying - 'you don't need to take stamps of images you've drawn, you can draw them - draw new ones'... lol the voice has quite a good point don't you think! (might have to give my little inner voice a name...)(suggestions welcomed)

I also pack a limited amount of other 'stuff' to use - stencils, papers to use as backgrounds (book text, captions from magazines, gelli printed pages (NB I liked the ones shown in the photo so much I couldn't bring myself to use them!), scrapbook pages.... and in the bottom left of the corner of the photo is the sketchbook I took with me - 6x6in spiral bound.... (most of this came back with me... but its better to pack it than not - see above re the paper tape!)

I planned ahead by creating a colour chart of my Winsor  & Newton watercolours in the back of my sketchbook - so glad I did this - it was really useful.  They worked really well with the Fresco Finish paints I'd packed.  I killed a couple of my drawing pens by writing on wet paint (I have limited patience, but in fairness to me Mexico is VERY humid this time of year and things were taking longer to dry)(no, I didn't pack a heat gun!)... and so I rediscovered biro pens.. aaaah the good old biro pen!

I'm not sure there is a 'perfect' travel kit but this one worked for me (this year!)... its all down to personal preference isn't it?

My major fail this year was not taking my everyday sketchbook - the 25x25cm sketchbook I 'think' in  (it also works as a good work surface because of its size..) I found it really hard to sketch and think in 6x6in sketchbook... sigh... I missed it.

I must remember the next time I pack the 'perfect' kit:

some things just can't be exchanged for 'travel size'

x