Friday In The Studio – Planning Planning Planning

I really should call this Catching Up In The Studio as it’s now Sunday and I’m only now finding the time to do my catch up. It’s been a busy week as usual and the weather hasn’t helped. We’ve had some snow and having a dog who constantly wants to come in and out the floors are always wet and dirty so I spend my time cleaning up after him.

Anyway, that aside, I’ve prepared my planners and journals for this new year and I thought I’d share that with you seeing as I’ll be using them from time to time in blog posts. The four above are the ones I’ll be using on a regular basis and from the top they are, a Websters Pages Travelers Notebook which holds a sketchbook and journal in at the moment but I have the ability to be able to add other books as I go along. Next is my desk diary which is my daily agenda, always on my desk with my to do lists, money matters and notes etc, then comes my Simple Stories Carpe Diem planner which I started last year and abandoned after January! I’m hoping this year to really use it properly and after making new inserts and dashboards for it I feel it’s really my own style. Finally I’ve a gardening diary which was a gift a couple of years ago and although I’ve started it I don’t feel as if I’ve really got into it yet. I’ve lots of ideas for how I’ll use this one so you may see it from time to time here.

As I said in my travelers notebook I’ve included a sketchbook. I do have a much bigger sketchbook which I’ll continue to use from time to time but for a quick sketch on the go I’ll be using this one.  It’s a Moleskine as I absolutely love the paper even though it’s thin and buckles and warps when I use watercolour paint on it, this is why I like it so much.

A couple of sketches created after walks with the dog.

My planner is a Simple Stories ring binder style and now I’ve made my own dashboards it feels more like me so I’m hoping that will encourage me to keep up with it.

I’d love to know if any of you are using planners or journals this year and what system you’re using?

Hopefully I can inspire you a little bit to get out a pencil and maybe start something new.

See you soon

Jaine x

Friday In The Studio – December Daily

This is where I was a couple of weeks or so ago, all happy happy and totally prepared to fill my December Daily with lots of mixed media goodness and Christmas cheer but after filling only the first 3 pages I left it and pushed it to one side.

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The reason was hard for me to admit to but I simply didn’t like it. I really didn’t like anything about it. After all that work and all that expectation that my tea dyed pages would look aged and wonderful, in fact they left me feeling disappointed and let down. The pages were too stiff being water colour paper, the look I was going for wasn’t an antique one but bright white and clean like the robin paper on the left. I just pushed it to one side and left it not knowing whether to go on with it or not. Several times I opened my travelers notebook and wondered whether I should carry on in that instead.  The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea sooooooo…..

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last weekend I started to deconstruct my original DD and use the photos and some of the stickers I could rescue and start from scratch in my TN.

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Now I feel so much better. I love how the pages which have been painted on go all crinkly once they’re dry and I love the size and format of the whole thing.

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I’m now up to date with it and much more content.

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Have a good weekend everyone.

Jaine x

Friday In The Studio, Hello December

Here we are at the beginning of December and the madness of the season is upon us. I have been itching to start my December Daily and at last I get to play in its pages. Here is the first of my three books which are inside the altered book cover and it features my robin design which I love to bits and have plastered on anything and everything this year. I should make him into a stamp for next year.

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I’m also very happy to say that I’m helping out Clare Brown at Paper Pen And Plan with her December Daily photo challenge.  Basically there are 31 prompts to follow every day in December which are used as inspiration for a photo which is uploaded to Instagram or their Facebook group using the hashtag #PaperpenandplanDec2016 and there’s a prize on offer for someone who has followed all of the prompts with the hashtag linking them to the group.

Hubby came back from Hong Kong last week bringing this cute little red bag with him which I thought was perfect to keep my supplies in for my DD.

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Here’s day 1 complete,

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and day 2.

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Have a good weekend where ever you are and what ever you’re doing.

Jaine x

Friday In The Studio – Christmas Workshop

Ok so I’m not actually posting this on Friday but a day late on Saturday. I’ve a good reason but the day just whizzed by in a blur as I’ve been preparing for a Christmas workshop in a couple of weeks.

I’ll be teaching the group how to use Mega flakes by Indigoblu which I love love love using plus we’ll put together a few cards for Christmas. I’ll also show them some techniques with Distress Inks to create a few backgrounds which I know they’ll love.

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For the moment my table looks like this as I sort out the kits. There’s plenty of sparkle going on here.

Hopefully I can get to update my planners this weekend too and start preparations for next year.

Happy Saturday everyone.

Jaine