Beautiful Bonnets

I have been playing with stencils & paint and I had loads of fun, what is not to love about that? I used mostly new things stamps stencils etc. But I have committed to using up old things, things I thought were too precious (papers/elements) I had decided it was better to use them finally, instead of hoarding these yummy treasures. So I have used some Tim Holtz 'Grunge Board' the swirls you can see. I painted it to match the bonnet.

Some close ups. All I could think of when I started to add the images was a silly song from forever ago, called 'Tip toe through the tulips' by Tiny Tim,  made me laugh. I had to look it up on you tube and here it is hope you like the journaling as well as this barmy song.

There is still plenty of time to join in with Journal Journey's ch19 Which this month is 'BIRDS' please join in we all love to see what you have been up to Dxx

ARC March

There is a link in the side bar for this monthly challenge, I have been meaning to join in since Feb. when I found it but time got the better for me, I was going to put April in the title but it seems we run a month behind. Any way I usually read at least two books a month and so far I have read three this month but I am going to talk about this amazing book today 'The Vintage Teacup Club' by Vanessa Greene.

Now this is not my usual sort of book at all. But, it had some really good reviews from people, so I went for it, and I am so glad that I did. This is about three beautiful (as people) women and they meet at a car boot and all of them fall in love with a vintage tea set. They decided to share it and their relationship begins there.

The three women are called Jenny, young works in an office & soon to be married, Maggie, single has her own flower shop and Alison, who crafts from home and has a family. What is not to like about these women? They are all of differing ages & experience in life and this is where the book is so good each helps one another in the different problems that they begin to experience. They all want the teacup set for different reasons, Jenny wants them for her wedding theme, Maggie because a client want's an AIWL wedding and Alison wants to make candles out of them.

So Now you know why AIWL theme in my journal. Vanessa writes so beautifully, I could imagine everything and I love it when this happens with a book (well it always happens). Beautiful imagery came to mind and I loved being part of their world and I felt like a friend to them all by the end. This is a 10/10 book for me. I have a board on pinterest with lots of book reviews if your interested. I really enjoyed playing in my journal for this challenge, thanks Darcy it's a great idea and I hope to play again next month. Love Dawn xx

Playing

I really loved this image I have been meaning to use it for a while. It reminds me of what my dad would have done when he was a kid, just playing out on a lamp post. Children so easily amused then and were always out. Come to think of it so was I playing skipping, two ball, elastics, hop scotch, walking on stilts (that my dad made) when there was a mad craze, loads of games. 

I can't remember where the image is from (maybe google) However, I have cut it right down to the focus which is the boy playing. And I really like the quote by George Bernard Shaw. You can still join in with the monthly Journal Journey's challenge Here which is 'Quotes' this month. Hope you can find time to play along Dxx

All children are wise

I have been journaling & painting loads, I love this quote. I have heard something similar about give me a child until he's seven & I''l show you the man. This is put better though I think. 'It is easier to build strong children than to repair a broken man/woman' I think of the times I was called a 'Dummy/Stupid' as a child and it still effects me even now. Hence, the little boy with the hat on (I didn't want to put a D for dummy/dunce on even now) because I truly believe all children are wise and it is for us to nurture and show them how truly wonderful they are and what they can become.

I am linking this to PPF & Art Journal Journey. Have a wonderful weekend and show any children you meet how precious they are, even if it's just a big smile you give to the kids in the shops. Love Dawn xx

Blue & Orange?

As it was Easter I went a bit mad on religious quotes so here is the last one (for the time being ;) I worked hard on the back ground, layers & layers of stencils, stamps, paints, texture paste & doodling. All good fun I loved the contrast between the blues & orange.

You can't really see the texture in these photos. But I thought that Blues & Orange really worked on this spread. I am etering this in to Paint Party Friday PPF Thank you for stopping by to see & any comments you have left Dawn xx

Special Moments

I have scanned this page not sure I like it scanned as the colour doesn't seem right but I thought I would try if for this post. I am entering this almost too late in to the lovely monthly challenge that is Art Journal Journey which for the rest of this month is about special moments.

I keep thinking of the sun, which is still yet to arrive. Snow we have in March yes and April is all about rain but I need my sun & blooms. So I made my very own :) I painted, inked and stamped & drew my own garden with lots of wild flowers and warm sky's so it would cheer me up. Lots of you have played along on this challenge I hope you can stop by for my Journal Challenge on the 1st of each month. Dxx

We can never break the chain.....

Cracking tune this, and the guitar solo from this very famous track is used as the theme tune for a sport every time it's on BBC it's a Motor Sport...... yep Formula 1.  This was so much fun I really enjoyed doing this. We (hubby & I) were out in the car listening to Radio 2 and this song came on. Michael and I love the album this is from. Can you guess? Yep 'Rumours' But the song is 'The Chain - Fleetwood Mac' So many good songs on this record (CD) although Michael still has the vinyl version ;)

I painted the back ground put some stamps on there to give depth, then I drew the chain. I was really quite pleased with how this page turned out. I am enjoying doing this. Using songs as journal inspiration. It's not always easy as some songs have a lot of personal meaning (we all have them or from a part in our lives, school 1st loves etc. lol) and I want to stay clear of anything too deep. Just keep it to things so you maybe able to guess the song title from the page.

I have already finished my next page so you will have to come back to see that and I am starting a couple of free courses both of which are on my side bar. Strathmore are doing another THREE FREE workshops various and the ChakrArt journal workshop both start in March, so if you want to learn something new and mix it with art why not have a look in my side bar. Love Dawn xx

Journal challenge 17

February is gone YAY now it's March and the nights are getting lighter the days are longer and this is a good thing, because it means Spring and Summer will soon be here. (saying that we have had snow in March before now) Lets hope not, I have had enough with the cold.

You may have seen I kept a promise to my self to journal more (happy place) In fact I have been doing a lot more inky, painty stuff of late and it's such fun! I hope you're in the mood for this months challenge, because I thought long and hard about this..............

ANIMALS  

MINIMUM OF TWO DIFFERENT KINDS.

Whatcha think? I got five on my pages. Could even put more on as I still think I want to add to it a wee bit more. So here is my inspiration for you.

I started with sprays & stencils followed by lots of stamping and then some freebie and bought images. The bird is free from graphic fairy (in side bar) And the others I think (not sure) are from Artyfacts off esty. This is in my thankful journal which is A5 it's almost full now. What are you using as a journal? Have fun and don't forget as long as the animals are the focus of your page/pages there are no rules play to your hearts content and of course, please share your creations in the linky below. Love Dawn xx

Birds

I got carried away journaling so I thought I would save this for a post today. Lots of book pages (P&P again love this book) Stuck to the pages, gessoed, stamped then I drew some cute (well I think they're cute :) birds and added legs on the page got my Neo2s out to colour things in a bit of doodling and that's that.

Here are some close ups...........

Can you stand it?

More Journal pages from me that is? lol I have been beavering away like a good un lol I have so many pages done and I have to say I am LOVING IT!  So with out further ado. I thought I would have a go at the theme over at Art Journal they do a monthly challenge just like me, (how cool) I was sad not to get round to the one last month 'Crowns' But I may have a play with this word soon. No, this month it's all about the word 'Peace' and what that inspires so here is my spread hope you like it Love. 

I used Pride & Prejudice book paper (have lots of copies of this book) as back ground paper, gessoed, painted & stamped, then drew some hearts & books on more P&P sheets and then got the neo2s out and coloured them in added water and that's about it really, oh a bit of doodling and hey presto, enjoy Love Dawn xx

I said I wanted to journal more so .....

Here is my new journal and this is the first page ;) I used some scrap paper & ink splashes from some post cards I'm making for the back ground and then doodled. Dawn (not me) had a challenge last Nov. I have only just found it. It was a song every day and you had to use this as your inspiration. This song is 'Take it easy - The Eagles' Now the first thing that sprang to mind was this....

So I drew a bunny admittedly not as sexy as this one but I love my colourful bunny spread.

Don't forget to pop back for the journal challenge on the 1st of every month Dawn xx

Journal Journey's Ch 16

Hello all, so you made it through January, well done. It's such a long month isn't it. I hope your drying off from all the horrid weather we've had in the UK & abroad  I hope you are all safe and feeling warmer. I would like to say thankyou for everyone making a special effort joining us here at our monthly Journal Journey's challenge in January :) I also want to do more art journaling this year as well as the many other crafty hobbies I have. 

So what do I have planned for this month? Well, blog land really inspires me and that's what has got me thinking about this month's challenge. Every year I see many people in blog land (some of my friends included) chose a word for the year, I have noticed this trend a lot in blog land and I'ts something I have long thought about doing, and this year I have decided it was the right time for me. Here's what I would like you to do....

Choose A Word

Now I don't want you to necessarily choose a word for the year (although you can if you so choose to). However, you can also have a favourite word? However you decide to interpret this I would like one word to be the focus of your page. so there is lots of leigh-way here and I know you won't let me down. So go to it. Here is my word for the year I hope it gets you started :0)

I started off with scraps of paper, then added some distress inks and some water to blend the papers together, followed by some stamping. I went on a free site for fonts Da Font and printed the word joy out on some card and then put the DI on a matt and sprayed water top of the ink and dipped the card in the various colours until all the letters were covered in ink, I allowed them to dry and then stamped some more over the ink, I also stamped some dragon fly's on some pretty scrap paper and cut them out to add to the spread, all very simple techniques but I think they look really effective, so have fun and share your work  in the linky below and we can stop by and see what you have been up to :0) Dxx

Transfers

Morning peeps ;0) I couldn't sleep tonight so I thought I would just get some journaling done and here is what I have come up with.

After I took all the photos I decided to add another transfer with hot glue on the right to fill in the space and it's the first time I have used HG and it worked so well I will be using it again!

Here is a CU of a stamped image (Archival ink) over transferred images and with paint rings on top, I think you can see that this spread is about lots of layering as well as the transfers.

I found this image in a magazine (newspaper freebie) and I just loved all the geometric shapes in it I had to spread bits of this all over to bring the spread together. All these were Gel Medium easy to do and really enjoyable rubbing all the paper off to reveal this beauty. I love how all the paint, stencils & stamping shows through underneath.

And as I write in the journaling, I don't know why or what this page conveys and sometimes I don't think we need to know, do we? I just loved getting this work down in all its glory and I really liked how it looked when it was finished. I don't think all art has to mean anything it's simply come in to being and therefor is art of my creativity just the same but with know start or end point. It just simply is. Love Dawn xx

Summer Journal Page

Colour & texture are the focus of this spread. I have used lots of colour. And I have also used stencils, stamps, paint and canvas to create texture in these pages. As well as other things to create texture ;0) I am also sharing this with a NEW challenge My Mojo Monthly (MMM) Funny we both started our new challenges on the same day ;0) Well it's not really a challenge but I am happy I found this blog and I am more than happy to share what was the mojo that inspired this page ;0)

And here are another two photos so you can get a better close up ;0) This left me feeling light and airy. I love the way art can make you feel. This is the main reason I stay away from the darker stuff. Not that it isn't fantastic art I just don't like to delve in to those dark places that we all have within us. So I keep it light and happy and positive. Love Dawn xx

Altered Baby board book

Hello, Hope you are well and the sun is shining where you are ;0) It's shining here for once in the NW of UK for a change after all the horrid rain we have had it's lovely to catch up with some blogs and post a few things with the back door open and the sunlight streaming in. I am sure I have told you about the Free Classes Tam has on line. In week one I created This And now for week two I have created this and I am very proud  of it ;0) we have moved on to altering a baby board book, you now the ones I mean I am sure. Well grab one or get one from the charity/thrift shop and create this wonderful book all about you! There is a process of healing involved but you can always just do the techniques.

Here is a close up of the younger me and all the things I want for her when she grows up, this can be difficult if you haven't had the smoothest child hood because you can put all the things that you now would like for this child (even if it didn't happen).

A final close up. It's full of texture and transfers, stamping etc and I really enjoyed playing. The class is already finished (was in Oct 10) so you can go as quickly or as slowly as you like. I have already done the next two pages and I will be sharing these on PPF Love Fridays for another reason now ;0) Have a wonderful day full of warmth and smiles. Love Dawn xx