Art Journaling Calendars

This month will mark the end of my 2nd year completing monthly Art Journaling Calendars ala the wonderfully fabulous and talented Kate Crane. 
I always split November into two parts - the first leading up to my birthday and the second from my birthday onwards. The first part marks my goodbye or ending of that year of my life and the second part is usually a hopeful look forward to the future year. Here's November 2015 part one:

The female image is a Carabelle Studios stamp, I love how she is looking up.

November is stamped onto tissue paper and Mod Podged onto the page. 

Letter stamps are Indigo Blu

The lovely star stencil is Seth Apter and I used Cosmic Shimmer texture paste

The quote is from a Walt Whitman poem "The Clear Midnight"

This quote I took from an old book of poetry I have. 

I've had a difficult year and this just summed up how I felt about certain things.

I used the blue to symbolise the night sky and saying goodnight to my 37th year.
Now onto part 2 - saying hello to 38!

I wanted to use colours for a pinky purple sunset to symbolise a new day

The large letters are an Autumn Leaves stamp set

The gorgeous female stamp is Carabelle Studios and again I love how she looks up.

The days are a Paperartsy stamp which I thoroughly enjoyed stamping and cutting out and I will be using it again - maybe cut in half?!

All pages were created with Dylusions acrylic paints then carious stamps and stencils helped to build up the backgrounds.

So I look forward (cautiously) to my 38th year - may it bring peace, joy and lots of creativity!

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Kate Crane & The Secret Swappers

Meeting people off the internet is never my favourite thing to do as I'm a shy, nervous person and feel I can be more myself on the net than in person but that didn't stop me meeting my friends the Secret Swappers who have supported me and been there for me for the past few years and I'm so glad I did because they were all lovely! And funny! I also made LOTS and LOTS of art journal pages including 5 in a class with Kate Crane, an additional bonus of the weekend at the beautiful Foxhill in Frodsham. Here's the pages I made in the Kate Crane class first of all:

And here's the pages I made in my own time:

Hogservations is a page about my youngest doggy, Henry who we have nicknamed Henhogs, shortened to Hogs. I got the silhouette in the second image from Silhouette and it looked so much like Henry that I had the idea to write some Hogservations, how Henry sees the world. I cut out his head and stuck it on a body from a magazine

Another image from Silhouette which made me think about what I would do if I wasn't afraid:

Two much darker pages in my Raw art journal. The images are from the internet/pinterest and I didn't want to do anything with them other than surround them in black and add a typed quote.

Another page from my Raw journal, this page is quite emotional as the lyrics from an Evanescence song, Snow White Queen remind me of a time when I had a breakdown as a new carer to my husband who was sectioned only months into our marriage. I printed the image on normal printer paper from an inkjet printer and used mod podge to do an image transfer, I like the way it comes out grainy as it suits the emotions I feel when I look at the page, ghost like and broken:

I LOVE this Rebecca Sinz image called Despair. I always imagined it on a darker page but I just started dabbing titan buff with paperartsy Moonlight and really liked the effect. I coloured the image in with promarkers and stamped the edges with a Tim Holtz stamp then added the typed quote

The next three pages are for an online Christy Tomlinson class I'm taking called She Had Three Hearts. A simple background created with paint dabbers, three pages the same but the first with writing outside the heart to describe the heart I share with the world, one with writing around the heart to describe the heart I share with my family and one with writing inside the heart to describe the heart I share only with myself

I was inspired by the lovely Gill and her gorgeous vintage ledger journal to journal straight into a music book I have, previously used to tear pages out of and use as backgrounds. This was one of the first page I completed at the Secret Swappers meet up and I gave myself permission to create art freely, without restrain or judgement, using a Finnabair image:

I started painting on the page opposite so I've included it here but I'm still working on this...

A page in my mini District Market Journal using Kate Crane image Angel Squared

 So I felt it was a very productive weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! Yay! Roll on next year! 

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Freak Art

Freak Art? Basically She Art but using alternative images and quotes 
:)

All completed on canvasses using a variety of mixed media products

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Twisted Sisters Lyrics

Another LO for the fabulous Twisted Sisters CJ on UKScrappers. This time the theme is lyrics - one of my favourite themes! I chose to use the song "Skin" by Sixx AM - a gorgeous song! And here's my page on top of the lovely Jules' background:

The lyrics are: 

"Cause they don't even know you

All they see is scars

They don't see the angel 

living in your heart

Let them find the real you

buried deep within

Let them know with all you've got

that you are not your skin"

I get goosebumps even typing the words. I can relate to it in all kinds of ways personally. I felt the Stampotique image, Angel Boy, went really well with the lyrics.

Finally we create a background for the next person to work on so I went for totally different colours:

Already got the next journal - Freak Art - another favourite :D

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Stamp Head Postcards

Another fab swap from UKScrappers and the talented Rebecca. This time it's stamp head postcards! Decorate 5 postcard size pieces and add bodies of some sort as long as they have a postage stamp as a head. Then finish it off with a quote/saying of some sort.
I mainly used Dina Wakley paints for my backgrounds and Finnabair stamps then added some washi tape and various bodies cut from magazines. Had lots of fun making these :)

Can't wait to see what everyone else has made!

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Six Word Story ATCs

Another fabulous idea for a swap form the lovely Rebecca over on UKScrappers: Create 6 ATCs on the theme of a six word story. If you google it you will find loads. I happened to have a Stampotique stamp that I love which fit the criteria. I used Ranger's Mixed Media Cardstock which I painted and stamped, mainly using some new Finnabair stamps. Then I coloured the Stampotique's Clover in Promarkers and plonked it on and added some doodling around the edges

Looking forward to receiving my ATC book back

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Twisted Sisters

I'm enjoying being part of the Twisted Sisters CJ on UKScrappers, I nearly didn't join but I'm really glad I did as it's FAB! We started by creating a full page and then creating a background. Then we sent our CJs onwards and the next person creates on your prepared background then makes another background for the next person. Confused? LOL
I received Jules gorgeous gorgeous journal with a beautiful green, pink and white background ready for me to work on. I happened to have about 6 quirky house images ready stamped and coloured in various pinks and greens - they matched really well. I also happened to be listening to the Pretty Reckless song House on a Hill - ok it's not a chirpy song by any means but I love it - so I based my page on it! Here it is:

I used Luminarte silks in Sunburst to paint the cog sun and the haunted house was cut on my silhouette. I wrote some of the lyrics along the sun rays in yellow pen.

I created the hills using neocolor wax pastels and wrote more lyrics along the tops in green pen.

The houses are a mix of Lavinia and Polka Doodles

The pink and black border is Suzi Blu - the circles are from my new favourite Finnabair stamp set, Don't Forget to Fly which I stamped onto my own scanned and printed backgrounds. I've had the two labels for ages and they matched the page... ooo House on a Hill just came on my spotify - :oD

Now to create a background for the next person to work on... I used paperartsy paints in Moonlight,  Mermaid and Nougat. 

I pasted a page from a Chinese book that Jules had included with the CJ and painted over it, then added some Kate Crane, JOFY, Finnabair and Stampin' Up! stamps and I finished with some strips of my own scanned and backgrounds.

 

I forgot to take a piccy of Jules' page but I added a dragonfly and some diamantes to her angel page :)

I've already got the next CJ from Twisted Sisters - can't wait!

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