Category: Friday in the Studio

Ireland And The End Of Summer

Things here have turned cold, windy and very wet and I get the feeling Autumn has come in with a kick. We’ve just returned home from a holiday in Ireland where we had the same weather on the whole but at least there we were expecting it and it didn’t spoil any of our enjoyment of the country in the least.

Ireland was fab. We walked and walked for km’s taking in some stunning scenery along the way.

Of course I took my Travelers Notebook with me and kept up my weekly journal spreads.

The backgrounds were painted before I left as I don’t think I could have got away with putting any more stuff in my suitcase. There was already alot of tutting and exclaiming every time my other half had to load and unload my case from the car.

Now home I’ve been catching up and just before I left I received my Sweet Treat box for September from Paper Pen and Plan and have been keen to play with the kit in this months box which includes a stencil (by me) and a Tattered Angels spray mist. I used the mist to make these two journaling cards and I’m so pleased with how they look.

The first one is fairly straight forward with some spraying through the stencil.

holding the spray not to close to the paper, I sprayed ink lightly to give my paper a bit of a background.

 

 

 

I placed the stencil on the lower part of the paper and covered the rest up with some scrap before spraying again through the stencil.

 

I trimmed down the paper into the size I wanted and used some Distress ink to darken the edges.

On the bigger card I first scrunched up some tissue paper and used it to cover the surface which gave it this distressed surface.

 

 

I wiped over this with a baby wipe just to spread the ink around more.

 

 

 

Again I sort of wiped over it with some Distress ink to enhance the creases in the tissue.

 

 

 

I think it looks really cracked and distressed with the ink.

 

 

 

Anyway, that’s about it for today in the studio, have a good weekend all and I’ll catch up next week.

Jaine xx

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Junk Journaling

This week I’ve been playing in my junk journal which is in my travelers notebook. I find this very quick to work in as the pages aren’t big and it’s not one of my best journals so I’m not afraid of messing it up. Great for experimentation and letting go. This one I’ve used the Dylusions paints from the shop.

After a conversation with Clare from Paper Pen and Plan we both came to the conclusion we really missed our Messy Mondays so she decided to bring it back but this time in the Facebook group so everyone else could join us. To join in visit paperpenandplan on Facebook.

Since posting my junk journal in the group I had a couple of questions about the paper I used and I thought I’d post a little show and tell here but it was so long and picture heavy I decided to make a little video instead showing how this……….

became this……..

So here’s the video.

https://youtu.be/o_gPspGNZT8

Have a good weekend

Jaine xx

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The Word Of The Week – FOCUS

Focus, it’s a good word. One I use often but totally ignore. I’m one of the worlds worst procrastinators so my to do list just gets longer and longer. I’ve been trying to get through the list this week before I go away at the end of the month but I think I’m finally there.

I’ve been so good that today I actually had some time to do a bit of art journaling. Oh I have missed it. I can’t remember the last time I got the paints out and just created something. The starting point was the feather picked up on a walk this week. I used the Dylusions paints from the shop for my background and glued in the feather. A bit of collage and journaling finished it off and I think I’m a happy bunny again.

Here’s a closer look at it.

We’ve had some pretty sad weather this week, for August anyway. Not as bad as some folk in the UK but still cooler and at times wet, so an afternoon of lovely warm sunshine was very welcome and provided the perfect opportunity to get outside to do some sketching.

I made a start on this weeks planner pages laying down some watercolour and marking out my grids and days.

This is how it looks today, friday and almost finished. I’m loving this sort of layout and for the moment I don’t see myself changing it at all.

After the success of last weekends felt TN launch in the Etsy shop, I added to that family some pen holders also in felt. I’m very proud of them all and I’m hoping they’ll be as popular as my notebook covers. To find yours you can follow the link here.

Well that’s it for today. Have a good one where ever you are and stay creative.

Jaine x

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Bikes, Mushrooms And Christmas In July

I missed blogging for a couple of weeks and I feel really bad about it. I’ve no idea where the time went except to say I wasn’t slacking off at all. Far from it, this week has been a little bit bonkers in the basement as at one time I’d actually got projects for Halloween, Christmas and New Year on the go all at the same time.  I suppose that’s a result of doing what I do in the industry I do and having to work ahead most of the time.  I also go away on holiday at the end of August so I needed to catch up quite a bit.

Well since I last wrote, the Summer holidays have kicked in and all those annual activities which make living here in Luxembourg a joy began, such as the day the main road through our village was closed to traffic except for bicycles. All 15km of it I think it is. As we live directly on this road we always invite friends over to join us and share our BBQ later on. It’s always a wonderful day and we love it. I do confess to have felt a bit sad though as I couldn’t take part with the others and had to watch them go off on their bikes. Instead Cooper and I took the opportunity to walk down the road and see the valley from a different angle.

The weather changed a bit too and after the intensly hot weather of June and early July the cloud and rain which arrived was very welcome. Strangly enough though it brought with it an abundance of mushrooms in the fields and forests which I do think is a bit early, for here anyway. My morning walks with Cooper have been combined with mushroom foraging and one walk turned up this beauty.

This morning my friend Kate who’s a brilliant forager went with me on a walk and we came back with this lot. Some of it I’m not too sure about but she tells me they’re delicious and if she’s still here to tell me that then it must be true.

This week I received  several packages of happy mail each one exciting for different reasons.

As it’s time for Christmas In July, I received a Special Edition Sweet Treat Box from Paper Pen and Plan with their Christmas goodies in it. It’s packed full of stuff and my Christmas Planner is all ready to go.

I’m going to be using this gorgeous rose gold notebook my sister in law gave me for my birthday. It’s perfect and I have to thank her and my nephew lots and lots for buying it.

My first page is decorated with my Christmas Elf.  I’ll show you how I use it in a later post.

Meanwhile also in the post I received a sketchbook which I’m particularly excited about. It’s from The Brooklyn Art Library as part of The Sketchbook Project.

The idea is you fill a notebook with anything you like, send it back and it’s archived in the huge sketchbook library in Brooklyn and taken on tour around the States. I’ve also taken out the option to have it digitized so my book will be scanned and each page can be viewed online. How cool is that? I’ll post here what I do with it so look out for sketchbook tours.

Well that’s it for this Friday catch up. Have a good weekend and I’ll speak to you soon.

Jaine x

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