I'm a little Late!

I sound like the white rabbit or maybe its the Mad March Hare! at last Ive managed to finish my March calendar page.  Ive still got the virus I had 3 weeks ago so have not been feeling like doing any art or journalling.  Hopefully the antibios will start to kick in soon and I will feel more like my old self. (not that i'm old!) As promised it is a little green lol!  Spring is just around the corner ! Green paint is dylusions Moss and a little spiced marmalade distress ink around the edges. The chickens and flowers are dylusions too and I drew the spring sign! White daisies were stencilled with gesso. The papers are Tim Holtz err Retro I think.

I had a fabulous time at Artsy Crafty last week and throughly enjoyed Tims class.  We made a lovely configurations box and once i've finally glued the rest of my precious embleshiments in I will take a picture and put it on my blog.  Hope the green won't have put you all off and you will come back to see!!

I shall try to look at everyones pages over the weekend .

Hope everyone has a creative weekend

thanks for stopping by

Maggie

Time Flies!

Wow where did February go? can't believe we are in the last week.  I intended to blog before this but life and viruses took me over.  I've been feeling quite rough for the last two weeks but hopefully I'm on the mend now - I need to be as i'm off to the Artsy Crafty Tim Holtz event!!! I'm in the Friday morning group but will be there on Thursday evening as its an early start on Friday!.  I've not felt much like doing art at all and just seemed to stare at blank pages in my journal -nothing inspired me.  However I managed to do a couple of postcard size pieces over the last two days - sometimes tackling something a little smaller gets me started again. oops I meant to put these pics in the middle of my ramblings!


The little guy is a stampotique stamp, german scrap wings, dabber aqua and orange paint, grid stamp with distress rusty hinge, the music paper is from an old piano music book found in a charity book shop.
The little lady (Love her) is a Tim Holtz stamp ( I think!) the background colours are distress inks dusty concord and olive green which I spritzed with water , background stamps are paper artsy and the stars are from a tim holtz set.   It felt good to be making art again! get me in the mood for Friday!

I have also treated myself to a new book - Art at the Speed of Life by Pam Carriker Its fab am going to enjoy trying out all the techniques and ideas in it. worth a look if your looking for inspiration.and motivation.

I've started my March calendar page I must warn you that I'm Irish (all be it Northern Ireland) so expect a lot of Green!

If your'e lucky enough to be at Artsycrafty on Thursday or Friday have a fabulous time.  Look out for me on Friday I'll be in the corner with a box of tissues and a red nose!

Have a creative weekend

Just made it!

Literally Ive just finished my February Calendar challenge page! I seem to have hurtled through January and am skidding into February hopefully Ive caught up with all my work and chores and can now slow down and get some studio time.  I never managed to tidy my studio! I will get around to it soon I'm getting desperate for some desk space.... mess piles up when your not looking and I'm sure it takes longer to clear away than it did to get on your desk!.  Anyho I've enjoyed making the February calendar page even if I couldn't find the bits and bobs I was looking for to complete it and I started with one idea and finished up with something completely different !  I am struggling to fill those little squares with anything exciting to say! I will have to think out of the square! you don't want to know how boring my day can be!

The beginning of January was exciting I got to meet my new Twin Granddaughters so I wont top that this month.  However I'm booked on the Artsy Crafty day with Tim Holtz!!! on Feb 25 so really looking forward to that.. the countdown begins.

 Here is my January page all filled in and to follow some views of the Feb page, Ive not quite managed to get the hang of getting the pictures in order and putting them in individually!  I actually took these pics with my iphone and am quite pleased with them.

I'm using an old ledger for the challenge and have stuck two pages together but will stick three together from now on as two are a little flimsy especially if I'm spraying with inks or water.  I gessoed the pages then rubbed a distress Victorian velvet pad over it spritzed with water dried it and used a foam pad to add more ink spritzed again did this twice then  a few blasts of dylusions hot pink ink spray dried it then added a text stamp (paper artsy) bottom swirl stamp is from a tim holtz set.  Chinese writing is a tattoo from Claire's accessories love these almost like rub ons.  The roses have been cut from a journalling pad .  I'm not happy with the black swirls at the bottom or the black strip of paper lace - my plan changed at this stage but hey ho you learn as you go.

I'm enjoying looking at everyone's pages they are all fantastic !

Thanks for stopping by hope you enjoyed your visit.

Bye
Maggie

Back to porridge!

Ive been back over a week now from my trip to New York area.  As I predicted I never got any journalling done (in fact I didnt manage to pack any stash ) I didnt make it to the Ink Pad shop and only one trip to Michaels crafts! why? Well I had two beautiful Twin Granddaughters to cuddle and that was all I wanted to do! Spending our time with our new granddaughters was more important and very precious.

Its taken me over a week to recover from jet lag and to catch up with work and empty cases! I have been in my studio yesterday and to my horror I realised what a mess it is in I really need to have a good sort out and tidy up.. trip to Ikea coming up for yet more storage ! This will be my priority this week - I always feel blank when there is toooo much clutter around, my mind is full of ideas that I want to try out so its a good incentive to get clearing first.

I also need to think about preparing the February calendar page as February is just around the corner! looking forward to that. 

This is a postcard sized piece I did a little while ago.

Distress ink in wild Honey & Rusty Hinge spattered with water (love that effect) the stamp is Tim Holtz + the words and Twinkle & Marci (love Marci!) are stampotique stamps - stars are german scrap.

I haven't managed to Journal this week ! there just arent enough hours in the day or days in the week at the moment .  still its only Monday, Im sure I can sneek a journal page inbetween the clear up!

Send arty vibes my way please!

Bye

Maggie

Busy Bank Holiday

What do you do on a Bank Holiday Monday? If I'm on my own I like to spend the time in my little studio in the garden hours can pass by and I don't notice I'm so wrapped up in paper, ink and paint I don't even feel the need for food! But not today alas, Ive been busy packing suitcases -I'm off to meet my new Twin Granddaughters born Dec 5 in New York! Such a lot to do before you go away, my dilemma now is how much crafty bits can I get into my luggage! Ive bought a small journal (Rymans I think) and I've been trying to get pages prepped with gesso and paint and ink sprays so I only have to take glue, collage pages ink pad and background stamps, pens and crayons.  Hopefully I will have some time in the evenings to journal - I hate to be separated from my stash.... get withdrawal symptoms , Hoping to manage a visit to 'The Ink Pad' in NY city and conveniently there is a 'Michaels' craft store just down the road from my sons home! I probably wont have time to journal I shall be so busy cuddling the Twins!

Back to work tomorrow hope everyone got to do some art today.

Here are a couple of pictures of one of my favourite journal pages......

The Chicken is from a supermarket magazine - she just spoke to me - I love chickens(would love to have chickens in the garden but my Westies are not feather friendly!)
her feet are from a download from Dyan AFTH, the crown ,heart & wings are a Tim Holtz die; Fragile stamp is from a Darkroom Door set, other stamp from Paper Artsy.  Background is a happy accident, not everything turns out the way I want it to!

I'm off to finish packing :>))

bye for now....

New Year - New Beginnings

Happy New Year and welcome to my First Blog Post!  I have been Blog hopping for some time now and have been inspired by the many talented artists who so generously share their creations and techniques.  Today is the day!  the first day of the first month of the New Year 2011 seemed to be a good day to start my blog.  However its not as easy as it looks! I'm hoping to get this posted before midnight but I have lost so many posts in the last two hours! 

I have been following The Kathryn Wheel Calendar Challenge 2010 and decided I would enter the 2011 challenge.............
I have also started Art Journalling and can confirm that I am hooked! obsessed even!  I will post some pictures of some of my pages but first I need to understand Blogger better! Please bear with me whilst I figure it out!  I also need to perfect my photography too! Ive had a new camera and haven't quite worked out the best way to use it yet! I'm sure I'll get better with practise!

I enjoy playing with ink, acrylic paints, water soluble crayons and spray inks - love rubber stamping, stencilling and collage etc, Love altered art, working with paper, canvas and mini books.

I have decided to stretch myself this year and make more art, enter challenges, this blog is my first step on that road I hope you will join me.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to my blog and please pop back again.  Please leave me a comment I would love to hear from you.

Bye for now

Maggie