Marit's Quirky Dutch Summer #1

I love the journalling work of the Dutch blogger, Marit, of Marit's Paperworld Blog.  It appealed to me so much that I did an online Summer course with her last year, purely on the strength of my liking her journal pages.  I saw them and decided there and then to go for it, about a week before it started.  I have since been an avid follower and always come away impressed by her creativity.  

This year she is offering a free mini course, held each Tuesday, called 'Quirky Dutch Summer' (link in my sidebar).

It started this week and the first assignment we have, with step-by-step instructions, was about 'tackling the blank page'.

Those that have been following me for a while may remember an altered book I started a while back called 'New to You' as in different techniques to have a go at.  It is also loosely based on religion and as such I have been adding hymns and carols I like to wail to, so with that in mind, I made myself a CHRISTMAS page! (sorry those of you of a nervous disposition, mentioning that word in June!)

There are lots of pictures to show you of how I made it, so without further ado, step 1 (click to enlarge):

If you are looking for something to kickstart your mojo, join in with us, everyone is welcome! 

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Finally today, yesterdays ICAD was this:

I remember this saying from when I was younger, strangely enough we were never warned about the sharks! 

Thanks for looking today and for any comments,

Nicky 

Mojo explosion

I'm not sure what it is but my somewhat dormant creative mojo has hit me for six and all I want to do is create!  Yay!  It helps that there are so many wonderful (free!) online courses running at the moment.  I'm in the process of doing three, so you will be getting more than the usual number of posts from me these days, hope you don't mind!

Yesterday I did the second day of Natalie Malik's 'In the Sun' course and it was a page on what we wanted for this Summer. 

This was mine:

The prompt was to get a magazine picture and doodle on it, add colour and write on it our hopes for this Summer. 

As you can see, my wish was very simple!  This Spring here in the UK has been so wet, we are desperate to get some sun!  (Although I must say, today here in the Midlands, it is glorious!)  On my picture from Junior magazine, I added my sun, sky and beach details with twinkling h20 watercolour paints (love the shimmer it gave the sun).  The other details, including the doodled bikini, were done with a highlighter pen, felt tips and a black outliner.

The second challenge I am taking part in is the ICAD and this was my card from Day 11:

One of the optional prompts was to use our alphabet stamps.  For this card I crayoned some of  the background with a watercolour crayon, washed over it with water and then dried it.  I then used a resist inkpad and clear embossing powder on my alphabet and grid stamps (This was a bit tricky because you couldn't see where you had stamped).  After heat embossing, I covered the whole card with black ink and then wiped it over with a baby wipe.  Finally I added some more alphabet stamps in black, on top.

I also started another course yesterday, this one is just one of those 'one challenge a week' type called Marit's Quirky Dutch Summer.  I will show you the pages I have done for that in my next post (later today),  but if you wish to take a look at the challenge, the link to it is in my sidebar.

Thanks for looking today and for any comments,

Nicky

In the Sun 2012

Here is a sneak peak of my introductory page for the 'In the Sun' journalling course:

Despite the miserable weather here in the UK again, I've cheered myself up by making a bright and colourful page to start off this year's 'In the Sun' course.

This was my full page:

The picture is of me sitting on a shell themed 'throne' at a children's theme park in Italy last year.  

I used a colourful postcard of some jelly flowers for my background and painted around the edge with Twinkling H20's, which are shimmery watercolour paints.   I made myself a box of summer images as Natalie suggested and used some of them for the subtitle and around the photo.   I painted the title with black acrylic paint and finished off with some wonderful washi tape (♥).

As I mentioned on my previous post, I am doing this year's 'In the Sun' course at the same time as completing last years, so I shall have plenty of sun related posts to show you!

Thanks for looking today and for any comments,

Nicky

In the Sun

As well as the Index Card a Day challenge I am currently taking part in, I have decided to do two other online courses, one of which started today and it is called 'In the Sun' by Natalie Malik.  This is a free - or donate what you can - journal course which also ran last Summer.  I was going to start doing this years (it was such fun last year) but remembered I hadn't quite finished doing all the prompts I started last year - so I am going to do those as well! (phew!)

Which is what I started doing today, this prompt from last year:

'In the Summer time I feel...'

There was a tip suggested to use with this prompt, about using the waste that is left behind when you use a shape punch.  I used that prompt and also multi-layered my punched flowers and shapes.  It turned out to be quite a challenge working out which layers I needed to glue and in which order.  

I'm also not normally a flowery type of person, but I can live with these simple daisy types! ☺ (and it is, after all, nearly Summer!) 

For my IDAC challenges, I made this one:

which was created by sticking down the wrappers from some 'Starburst' (I still like to call them 'Opal Fruits', much better name!) sweets.  Note if you ever have any, the green ones are really sour! :~O

 The second one I made, yesterday's card, was this:

Which I created by multi-layering the foam stamps I made last November (see here)   By using a Memento black inkpad to stamp them it created quite an interesting texture, like wax crayon.

Plenty more crafting to do today, best get on, I have another course starting tomorrow too! 

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

Nicky

ICAD Days 7 and 8

And here are my cards from the last couple of days:

This one was from today.  Anybody like to own up to recognising the lyrics?  lol.  They were from a 1970's hit called 'Circles' sung by 'The New Seekers.'  

The background of the card was created by drawing circles using water soluble felt pens and then washing over them with a water brush.   The lyrics were created by using Word.  

Yesterday's card was very different:

It's true I do!  (want to visit New York).  

This rather moody looking background was created by accident.  I decided to try a new technique (to me) of adding window cleaner to some acrylic paint, with the  hope of it creating some kind of a resist.  But whether it was the brand of window cleaner (Marks & Sparks) or the type of paint I used (the cheapest possible) I don't know but it wasn't working on the card.  It did, however, create quite an interesting blend on the kitchen roll that I used to clean up - so I stuck that onto the card instead!   

I was watching a DVD of a film called 'New York, I Love You' (bit racey!) and decided that my wish to go there could be my theme.  I photocopied the cover from the DVD, cut it out and put it all together.  It's a bit dark and not my favourite card, but it counts as that day's ICAD.

Thanks for looking today and for any comments,

Nicky

ICAD Days 5 and 6

Here I have two days of the IDAC (Index Card a Day) to show you.  This one, which I have just literally finished a second ago:

Wondering whether I should add some words somewhere? 

It was made with some fountain pen cartridges I had spare (they didn't fit any pens I had so I just opened them up and splashed them about!)   I added the circular stamps from a collection I had in the post the other day.   This project is proving useful for trying out new - or indeed old - stash that may well get forgotten.

This was yesterday's card:

I must admit I had a battle with this one, it went through a stage where I wasn't liking it so I added more ... and now I feel better about it.   The quote, which I love, is from the book, 'Love Eternally' that I was reading and finished yesterday.  It was a real tearjerker and I needed my tissues!  (Husband and son were giving me a look)...

Thanks for looking today and for any comments,

Nicky

Jubilee Calligraphic Collage

Here is today's ICAD.  I put it together whilst the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert was playing on the TV in the background. It's lucky that this time the weather stayed dry for all those thousands of people who were there watching it live in London outside Buckingham Palace.

I love lettering and calligraphy and this is a collage of some lettering exercises that I got from an old, battered book on learning calligraphy.  I ripped up the individual strips of letters, then overlapped and stuck them down using some glue called 'Paper Effect' glue. The large letters already had the red colouring on them so I added red to some of the other letters for a co-ordinated look.  I then distressed the edge with my red ink pad to match the ones I've already done.

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Following yesterday's 'show and tell' of my friend's house, I found a few more pictures of her mosaics to show you:

She does work to commission and one of her pieces was shown recently on an episode of 'May the Best House Win'.

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Finally today, we went to a Vintage Fair on a local street.  I didn't buy anything or even take any photos, but I did spot this lovely scene on the canal as we walked there:

Awww! 

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

Nicky

Damp Diamond Day

What a washout the Queen's Jubilee street party celebrations have been here in the UK today! (Sunday) Non stop rain all day and all evening too!

One of the very wet street party decorations

(Those of you that follow me on Twitter may have seen this earlier)

We came back early from the one we attended today because it was so wet and cold.  But it wasn't all bad as I popped in to visit an artistic friend of mine.  Her house has so many interesting things on display.  Want a look?...

...Thought you might! ☺

This friend of mine makes all these fabulous mosaics herself (the bottom left picture is of her workshop in the garden) and her partner makes and teaches stained glass.  I always feel so inspired when I visit and it reminds me of the work of Ranger's Melting Pot Creator Suze Weinberg (love her blog by the way, take a look here).   My mosaic making friend doesn't have a blog, unfortunately - I ought to persuade her as I'm sure it would be fascinating!

Finally, I made today's ICAD (Index Card a Day) on a Jubilee/London theme.  I tried a technique I had spotted on pinterest which was to make a rubbing of a cuttlebug texture plate and then paint over it.  I used a rainbow coloured wax crayon and painted the sky with Blue Twinkling H20 (watercolour paint).  I typed out some journaling and then added some outline rubber stamped images of London. 

 Those of you in the UK do enjoy the rest of this long holiday weekend, whatever despite the weather. 

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

Nicky

Queen video

No, not the group, he,he.  I have a video I made of Our royal Queen when she visited our town last year.  Thought it was appropriate to show for this weekend as we celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.

But first, I have my second day's ICAD to show you:

This was the result of an exploration of materials, rather than a card with a theme.  

 I was delighted to find in my local Oxfam shop today a new box of 30 Caran D'Ache Watercolour crayons for £5! (even more delighted when I found them online later for the princely sum of £47!!....)  so for this materials experiment I used some on my card.  I was also going to use water but after several debates with myself I decided to leave the pencil strokes showing.  The curvy background pattern is from a new product called a 'Melt Art Texture Tread' made by Ranger.  It came in the post today so I thought it would be good to try it out on this project.  It wasn't quite enough by itself so I added these ancient (1980s!) rub-on-letters  (the distressed effect was deliberate by the way!)

Onto the video.  The early bit is particularly shakey, sorry, pesky, noisy crowd pushing me!  Worth perservering to the end though.

Many Congratulations to the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

Nicky

Daisy Yellow's ICAD 2012 - Jubilee Theme

I spotted this mini (free!) course on the internet today:

Daisy Yellow's Index-Card-A-Day 

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..and thought I'd give it a go this year.  All the information you need is on the Daisy Yellow site here, but basically it's about creating just one piece of art work  a day on a (cheap) 3 x 5" lined index card during June and July.   There is a list of prompts that you can use, but they are not compulsory. 

I decided to do my first card today (Monday 1st) on the theme of the Jubilee celebrations we have coming up this weekend:

I have a collection of old postage stamps that I made the banner out of and also the one of the ship, the QEII.  These were from back in the day when postage really did cost just 5p to post (sigh!)...   After aging the edges with red ink and putting in some journaling, I used my existing rubber stamp collection to finish off the postage & jubilee themed page.

I'm not sure whether I will be able to do a card every day as in July we are going to Ireland for 12 days where internet access may not be readily available.  I shall just do whatever I can and whenever... along with other types of crafting too.

Hope you enjoy your weekend whatever you are doing, I'm off to a few jubilee related celebrations including a street party on Sunday, but this could depend on the weather...

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

Nicky