Major catch up!

Oh my poor neglected blog!

A fair bit to catch up on lol...

Firstly, the circle journal I was taking part in came to a close in July.

Here is the page I did for Tracey, whose favourite book is "The Book Thief". I haven't read it but thanks to the joys of the internet I found a quote that I thought I could work with. I wasn't sure how this page would go down as it's a bit different but I liked it!

 

And the accompanying tag.

 

And my last page (apart from the final page in my own journal) was for Catherine. Catherine loves the BFG so I had a go at some drawing...

 

And the tag...

 

So as this was the end of our journals we had decided to meet up for the final exchange of journals. We're dotted about all over the country so we met roughly in the middle in Harrogate, home of AFTH (no coincidence!). Unfortunately Tracey and Janey couldn't make it  but the remaining eight of us had a whale of a time! Lots of laughter and a class with Dyan at AFTH made for an unforgettable weekend. Most of us are starting another journal in the New Year which, after our little break, we're all looking forward to.

 

Here are a couple of cards too using images from the Octopode Factory...

 

 

I'm in the process of moving all my crafty stuff from the spare room into our bedroom (which needed decorating first) so there hasn't been a whole lot of crafting round here recently - hence my absence. Hopefully I can resume normal service soon!

Darcy's journal

So the Circle Journal this month saw me with Darcy's journal - eeek! I was a tad nervous about doing a page for Darcy but am pretty pleased with how it turned out. Her favourite film is Labyrinth and as luck would have it, Lily at The Octopode Factory has done a Jareth image! I used a couple of Labyrinth film posters as inspiration and came up with this...

We only have two months left but we're already planning on what our theme will be for the next one!

I also promised I'd show my calendar journal page for March - three months into the year before I gave up - not bad!

Now...to try and catch up a bit with the Postcard challenge...

Not enough hours in the day!

Here are my postcards for Weeks 11 and 12 of Darcy's postcard challenge. I'm way behind but hey ho, I'll get there in my own time!

Week 11 saw us in The Netherlands. I had to go with Van Gogh - and here one of the reasons I'm so behind - I faffed around trying to decide which painting I wanted to do. I decided to just pick some detail from "Road with Cypress and Star" and, major mistake, decided to use oil paints. My postcard was dry approximately 3 weeks later...(only a slight exaggeration).

And here is Week 12 - Israel. I've gone down the religious route and drawn Solomons Seal...

That's it for tonight. My monthly calendar pages have gone by the wayside but I'll blog February and March's pages soon!

Circle Journal Catch-up

So, I haven't shown the last couple of pages from our Circle Journal.

Here is Lynn's, once again I've gone with an Octopode image - Breakfast at Tiffany's. When asked, Lynn couldn't name just one film, book or song which were her favourite so I just chose a quote that I thought suited her.

 And the tag...

And here is Jayne's journal - her favourite book is "Where Rainbows End" by Cecelia Ahern (a fab book by the way) so the quotes I've used are from there. And yes, another Octopode image - Imelda. It took some thinking about this journal but I was really pleased with it in the end.

I now have Darcy's journal - eeek!

Postcard Challenge Week 10 - Canada

Week 10 in Darcy's Postcard Challenge sees us visiting Canada. Once again I was struggling with inspiration as all that kept coming to me was the Blame Canada song from the South Park film! As I'm behind I had a look round at what other people had done and saw that someone had found an artist called Timothy Sorsdahl (apologies - I don't know whose blog it was as blogger was being silly when I tried to go back and find out). Anyway, I took an element from his "Near Emerald Lake Lodge, Banff Alberta National Park"...I'm not sure if that's the actual title of the piece, not very snappy is it?!

So...here's the postcard...

Next is The Netherlands!

Cards!

Here are a few of my recent cards.

Jolee from The Octopode Factory...

Stuart the Giraffe, also from The Octopode Factory - love the words which come with him!

I've just discovered Dillybeans - fab images!

That's it for the minute - short but sweet ;)

Hopefully I can show a few more postcards this weekend and I'm hoping to finish my March calendar page too...we'll see!

Also - if you're wanting to get a head start on your Christmas cards then check out Catherine's Christmas blog. She's running a Christmas card swap in April - you send off four identical cards and get four different cards in return for your Christmas box - a fab idea!

Postcard Challenge - Switzerland

Yes, I'm behind again in Darcy's Postcard Challenge - I blame Switzerland! I could NOT decide what to do for my postcard...I really didn't want to do mountains! Hubby pointed out that CERN is in Switzerland and said to Google image LHC collisions. Lots of pretty pictures turned up and I decided that's what I was doing, but, I just wasn't feeling it.

So...then I Googled Swiss artists and who did I find? HR Giger. I LOVE the Alien films so knew this had to be the right path. However, not being an amazing artist I couldn't draw the image I wanted (here) though I did try...so went with an Alien silhouette instead. Now, just to catch up with the next three countries!

An Award!

Ooh, I've been given the Leibster blog award by my lovely Circle Journal friend Catherine.

Thank you Catherine - especially for your lovely comments!

There are some conditions that come with the award...

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog - done.

2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you - done.
3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog - done.

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed  - see below.

5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog - yep, will do!

So...I am awarding...

First of all, Trisha (my mam!) - she doesn't blog often but she has a knack of finding lovely images for colouring.

Next, the lovely Bethan - Bethan makes some beautiful cards but also dabbles in other crafts and has made some lovely cakes too!

And, the lovely Jackie - one of my fellow Circle Journal ladies, Jackie does some gorgeous work, some of which I happen to be the proud owner of! But Jackie - you need to blog more often!

Lea - another Circle Journal lady who is relatively new to crafting and has started to blog her efforts - go and show her some love!

And last, but by no means least, Jayne - who also needs to blog more! Jayne has done the She Art class which I'm currently doing and has produced some lovely pieces.

Right, off to notify the winners!

Postcard Challenge - All Caught Up

I'm up to date! I haven't been able to link up my postcards in time for the last few weeks so if you'd like to see those cards then here are China, France and Belgium.

So here are my postcards for Wales and Cuba...

Wales first...I found an artist called Amanda Hone, I liked the style of her art and she has handily done a canvas based on Portmeirion. We visited Portmeirion a few years ago and I knew as soon as Wales was announced that I wanted to use it as the inspiration for my postcard. I realised as I was doing the postcard though that it's very similar to my Brazil postcard!

And next we have Cuba - my friend visited Cuba last year so I borrowed one of her photos from Facebook :) I turned the photo to black and white then coloured the car with ProMarkers. Quite simple really.

If you've not come here as part of the Postcard Challenge then check out Darcy's blog to see what it's all about.

Circle Journal update

I've had a few days off this week and as I've had the house to myself I've been able to do a bit of crafting. I've been working on the next journal in our Circle Journal and it reminded me that I've not blogged the last few that I've done.

Here is Lea's (she's just started up her blog so go take a look here). Her favourite film is Dirty Dancing so you can see where I went!

And the tag...

And here is Janey's journal. Her favourite song is Wind Beneath My Wings as it means a lot to her.

And her tag...

I'm working on Lynn's at the moment and I'm really pleased with how it's going. I should get it finished this weekend and I'll actually be able to post it on to Catherine in time, most unlike me!

Belgium (yes, still behind!)

So here is my postcard for Belgium, based on the Atomium in Brussels (you can read about it here).

And the continuation of the story...

I kind of cheated a bit and mentioned the next country seeing as I'm behind and know which one is next!

Ingalilly

A few more cards to share today - February seems to be a busy month for birthdays!

The first two are rediscovered stamps since my clear up/out, and the papers are Basic Grey - LOVE their papers!

I also love this flower ribbon, I think it's by Maya Road, I must find some more as it's nearly finished :(

And my last card uses Ingalilly - a new digi image by Kirsty Wiseman. You can find her here. Isn't she a cutie?

Slooooowly catching up - Postcard Challenge Week 5

I've finished my France postcard! Just as Week 7 was announced this morning... :) I'll get there!

It took me a while to decide what to do for this one, I really wanted to do something around the Moulin Rouge but couldn't settle on an image so went with this image lifted from an Art Nouveau Absinthe poster - I had to alter it slightly to fit, but hey, it's my postcard right?!

Belgium next, and I already know what I'm doing, amazingly!

Playing catch up...

So, I'm a tad behind in Darcy's postcard challenge...! I've had a tooth infection this week - it was really painful :( it's only really started to clear up in the last couple of days and I spent most of last week with a hot water bottle on my face every night! I've not really felt like doing any crafting...

Anyway, week four's country was China - as it was Chinese New Year and it's now the Year of the Dragon I decided to go with a dragon on my card. The symbol under him is the symbol for "Dragon" - I didn't really mean for it to be covered up so much by the dragon, oops, so I put another symbol in the corner. Apologies for the rubbish pics, my card curled up a bit.

Just France and Belgium to do now! (and my February calendar page...)

I have managed to make some cards too recently using some images I rediscovered when stamping some images for a friend.

I've had a good clear up/out of my craft room today, I now have a nice clear desk - how long until I'm working in a 12" square space again I wonder?!

Week 3 - Brazil

The country this week at Darcy's Postcard Challenge is Brazil! A country I'd love to visit though I think I'll have to wait a few years until Connor is a bit older!

After doing a bit of research I came across the artist Romero Britto who is originally from Brazil. His biography says he started by drawing on surfaces such as newspaper so my postcard is his "Paradise Tondo" drawn with ProMarkers on book print which I ripped up and lightly gessoed...

I've reserved tonight for visiting the blogs of all the others taking part in this challenge, it may take a while, there are quite a few of us!

Week 2 - Spain

It's Week 2 of Darcy's Postcard Challenge (actually it's Week 3 but I'm a bit late in blogging this!). This week the country is Spain.

I was trawling the internet looking for inspiration when Tim mentioned that he liked the artist Gaudi - I looked on Google images and found Gaudi's lizard which is found in Park Guell, Barcelona.

So here it is...

As you can see I still need to stick the stamp on!