CCC Week 23...

Well here we are at week 23 of the challenge, please go and
visit Studio L3 for all the details. The challenges are now
going to be every 2 weeks during the holiday season, I
think that is a good idea with everyone being really busy
right now.

This week's challenge is Double Distress, don't forget you need
the book to play along. This is a technique I have not really
done much of and was worried about overdoing the inking
to the point you could not see the original colours I started
with. Still I did my best to not overdo it and here is my
finished piece. The Umbrella Man is my favourite stamp and
so I have been trying to not use him too much during this
challenge, I think I have been successful with that so far but
we still have 13 more challenges to go, lol!

I wish all my friends a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you
have fun spending time with your family.

Back to art journaling...

Last weekend I took a class with Kelly Kilmer at
the Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale, AZ. This is the book that
I made although I did not do the front cover there just made
the book completely from scratch and learned a fun new
binding too! If you ever get the chance to take a class with
Kelly I highly recommend it, she is so creative, very helpful
and is very hands on. This is the second class I have taken
with her and I loved the book I made in the first class too.
Now all I need to do is actually start working in them!

This book is different than the first one as we are not painting
the inside pages, we are using collage in it with papers,
images, washi tapes etc. This page above I actually started
in the class but added the doodling and journaling at home.
It is going to be interesting working in the 2 books and seeing

which I prefer.

This last page I did in yet another art journal that I am
working in. The background was already painted and I
just wanted to "do" something to be creative, you know
how that goes right? Well now I am getting back into
the art journaling groove I really want to keep it up.

CCC Week 22...

Well here it is the first day of this week's challenge over at
Linda's blog and I already completed it!
 
Again I did not have the required "tool" and had to make do
using Linda's suggestion. I am sure that it made a difference
as I can see it myself from the other photos posted. Oh well,
will have to go and buy it and try it again. I also had issues
stamping on top of the glossy card stock, I have noticed
before that stamps tend to stick to the surface and you do
not get a good imprint, had to stamp some parts of my bird
a couple of times. Anyway I love how colourful it looks and
now I have to wait a whole week for the next challenge,
what am I going to do until then??

CCC Week 21...

Here we are at week 21, hard to believe it is going by so fast.
Hop on over to Linda's blog to get all the information about
this week's technique.

This week's technique is one of the few from the book that I
have don before and is one that usually turns out great. Glad
to say that I had no problems this week, in fact was one of
the quickest ones I have done.

This week all of the stamps I used were Tim Holtz stamps. I
used the wrinkle free distress for the background using
Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage and Crushed Olive Distress Inks.
I really love it when something just comes together with
no problems, don't you?

December Daily...

 

I love following Ali Edwards blog and seeing all the great
projects that she comes up with. One that she has been
doing for the last few years is the December Daily, to see
how she is doing it this year go here.

I did it last year for the first time and really love looking back
on the 25 day run up to Christmas. I decided I would do it
again this year and the picture above is of my album that I
put together ready to start working in. It is actually a small
binder that measures 7"W x 9"H, I loved how Ali was doing
hers this year so based mine on that, my inside pages are
6"x8" so this binder is perfect for this. I had mentioned to
Melinda, the fabulous photographer, about this and she
decided to do it too.
In fact it was when I was picking up my photos from her
that she showed me a small little binder she had found
in her office that she was going to use for this. I loved
that idea and found something similar at an office supply store.

The picture below is my album from last year before I started

working in it. It is an 8"x8" size that is all random sizes and 

shapes inside. I used 2 pieces of acrylic for the front and back

covers and some binding rings to hold it all together. It is

definitely more eclectic and fun but I really liked the more

simple style for this year.

Is there anyone else that is going to do this project this year?
It was definitely a worthwhile album for me but you have to
keep on top of things. This is why preparing as much as
possible in advance is the best way to get it done. Take a look
at Ali's posts about this project and think about doing it too.

CCC Week 20...

So hard to believe that over on Linda's blog we are up to week
20, go visit her to find out all the details of this week's challenge.

This one actually was one of the quickest challenges for me,
as in I did not spend ages pondering over what to do. I did
not have one of the tools that was mentioned in the technique
so just made do with what I had on hand.

I decided I wanted to use metal tape for the wings but that
stuff is always so hard to photograph as it is so reflective,
didn't come out too bad though.

I also have decided that I need to get myself some more
quote/sayings kind of stamps, as every week I am going
through my limited supply trying to find something that
will work for the project. Any one have good

suggestions as to where I can find some good sayings?

Life...

Well I hope everyone enjoyed the Halloween weekend, we
had rather a strange visitor last night, apparently he is an
urban legend (although my husband and I have not heard
of him), Slender Man. Some kind of scary phenomenon that
teenage boys know about.

A while ago I posted some photos of various pots and vases
that my son had made in his high school ceramics class, here
are some of the latest ones he has brought home. He is now
going for "big" pots, not easy to see but these are quite a lot
bigger than the previous ones. We have amassed a rather
large collection of pots, in fact they are taking over our kitchen!
Need to come up with something creative to do with them all.

I feel that recently I have only had time to post my
challenges for the Compendium of Curiosities. Life has
been busy here, mostly we have been doing lots of
things to do with finding a college for our oldest, visiting
them, going to financial planning meetings, reading all
sorts of stuff. Then deciding and applying, and the hardest
part just waiting to hear back. I am happy to say that we
finally got a letter last Thursday that he had been accepted
to the school he wanted to go to, now it is all about paying out money!

We are happy that he won't be too far away but he will be far
enough that he will have a real college experience away from
his parents.

Thanks for sticking with me so far, just a brief update on life
here. One more thing is that I finally had some family
portraits taken, the first time in 14 years! I am so happy to
have had photos taken that reflect this time in our lives. I
was one of the lucky winners last May on Becky Higgins
Big Photography Giveaway. I won a session with
Melinda Kolker, she was wonderful to work with and took
some great pictures of us. She really captured the essence
of our family and the relationship between our 2 boys, I am
absolutely in love with the pictures she took. If you have a
minute or two please look at this slide show she put together for me.