The Journey Within

I have continued to do occasional pages in my journal guided by Kelly Kilmer's online class ...

More classes

Earlier in September I took a class with Viv Denscombe ... she is a lovely tutor and I really enjoyed my day at The Bramble Patch .. best of all there are two more days booked with Viv in October and November ...

This is the project that Viv taught and for this first attempt I stuck fairly close to her colours and layout ...

I love how it turned out especially as I did the finishing at home alone! Adding my own colours using coloured pencils was lovely and I think it looks OK ...

The process uses Napkins, Paints, Stencils (hand cut), Die cuts, 'doodling' and stamping.

When I got home I tried a page of my own using similar techniques and this is progress so far ...

I wanted it to look like an old Fresco on a wall ... just got to work out a focal point now and finish it off.

Classes

I've been busy taking a few classes recently ...

Last weekend I was with Lin Brown and a group of  Twitter friends having a wonderful time with Paperartsy Fresco Finish paints, stamps, embellishments and cardboard ... these are the projects we made ...

I loved how this turned out and for the first time I got the crackle to work perfectly! Lin is repeating this class and there may be places left ... I wholeheartedly recommend it - great fun ...

This is the front of the second project ... Lin's version was oriental but I stayed with the Lyn Perrella stamps from Paperartsy which I love ... some of the very first stamps I bought 15 years ago were by Lyn Perrella (sent from USA in those days!) ...

... and this is what it looks like opened.

Lin's Class

How the weeks fly by ...

I went to a class with lovely Lin Brown a few weeks ago ... as usual I didn't finish the project there but I have now completed it at home ... pictures below. Classes are great and the venue superb.

The book is made from 1 sheet of 12 x 12 card and uses Paperartsy Fresco paints and stamps (gorgeous sewing themed ones!) and coloured pencils ... I haven't done this type of stamping/colouring for ages and it was good to go back to it.

Workshop

Had a lovely day yesterday at The Bead Scene with Lin of Yours Artfully getting painty and inky ... we were making this ...

This is my version in progress ...

The book on the right with the pages on the left ... here are my pages in more detail ...

The stamps are fabulous and are all Paperartsy.

I think I am going to finish this up in a different way to the class example so will show it again finished at a later date (hopefully!).

Thanks Lin!

Workshops

I love workshops - online and 'for real'. Some months ago I went on a 'real' workshop with Angie Hughes where we made woven bookwraps. I never really finished mine at the time but have just 'found' them and would like to to complete them - it's a cool idea. The idea was to weave strips of torn cloth, stamp and foil them, cover with organza and free machine over the top.

This is the first 'weaving stage

and here's one with some stamping and foiling added.

The finished piece below has been machined with gold thread and made into a book wrap.

I got quite carried away with these and have another ready to finish off ...

and here it is with red organza over - may decide to change this though - it's a bit too red for my liking!

Collaborative Book

I was invited to take part in a collaborative book project recently and here are the results! The book was themed 'Nature' and was to be a paper bag book. 12 participants made 2 pages each so that the resulting book would be 24 pages. All the pages were sent to the hostess who sent them back out to participants with the necessary number of paper bags. All went smoothly and the pages are gorgeous! However what hadn't been anticipated was the depth of the resulting book and how best to bind it!

I recently took an online class with Mary Ann Moss where we made a journal. I really enjoyed this class and heartily recommend it - it also teaches a fab way to use up all that paper you've bought or saved and can't get rid of. The cover technique seemed perfect for this project so off I went. I don't feel I can go into too much detail regarding the process because it was someone else's class but the basics are to create a lightweight cardboard template sized to go around the pages, including a spine deep enough for them and then to create a fabric slip cover. All this is machine sewn. The pages are then attached using a standard pamplet stitch - I did each of mine individually so have 6 signatures.

Book closed (sorry this one is a bit blurry - the rest are better)

Inside front cover and page 1 by Hilda

Pages 2 and 3 by Liz and Adrienne

Pages 4 and 5 by Annie and Annette

Pages 6 and 7 by me and Linda

Pages 8 and 9 by Hilda and Teresa

Pages 10 and 11 by Debbie and Wendy

Pages 12 and 13 by Linda and Wendy

Pages 14 and 15 by Rachel and Margaret

Pages 16 and 17 by Debbie and Annette

Pages 18 and 19 by me and Liz

Pages 20 and 21 by Teresa and Rachel

Pages 22 and 23 by Adrienne and Annie

Page 24 by Margaret and inside back cover

These pages are really lovely as you can see - they are even better in 'real life' - loads of different techniques, depth and layers. Thank you all.

Art From The Heart Workshop - Day 2

This two day Dina Wakley workshop in Harrogate was 'the best'. Day one was all about preparing, masking, painting, stenciling and a bit of journaling. Day two took it a bit further and was all about the layering process. The aim was 20 layers - a layer was any change e.g. colour, technique, direction etc and 20 'layers' was easier than it sounded. Here are my 3 'practice pieces.

Notice there is still no journaling - I have a big issue with my handwriting and plan to practice a bit more first. Well after these 3 pieces a bigger piece of paper was called for to get to the 20 'layers. Here's mine:

I rather liked this! You'll have to trust me re 'The 20 layers' - they are there - well 15 at least! This could be a finished piece of art or it could be turned into a mini book which is what I did. This worked amazingly well - not just for me - all the booklets were fabulous - each little page had a lovely coherency that was hard to believe. I can't wait to make another. Here is the booklet - I especially love the back page and hope you can see the texture which is modeling paste spread through a stencil - I will journal in it too - just need to get that handwriting better!

Art From The Heart Workshop

I just got back from fab two days at Dyan's Art From The Heart where I took a journaling workshop with the wonderful Dina Wakley (all the way from USA!). Everyone was lovely and there were a couple of 'famous' bloggers there too! Check out Sue's blog and Sarah's!

Dina was lovely - very encouraging and generous with her knowledge and comments.

Here's what I produced on the first day although none are finished yet - they will be though - I LOVED this class.

Unfortuntely the colours have not photographed great - they are more intense in real life.

I will be back later with the second days pages.