Chinese Triptych

I don't know weather it is the book I am reading or the fact it was Chinese New Year last Monday but all things Oriental have been catching my eye again. The Fruit Pixie dose some wonderful oriental goodies and I have used some here to make this Chinese Triptych. Visit the Fruit Pixie blog for instructions.

Birdsong journal page

Week 3 of the art journal caravan and the wordography was Soliloquy. I played around with gesso, palette knives and my new watercolours to get this background, great fun!! it reads - Bird song is natures soliloquy, all we have to do is listen - by me!!

Christmas layouts

I must admit I have enjoyed playing with digital scrapbooking, something I can do in front of the telly in the evenings. Here are a couple of Christmas ones I have been playing with.

Fortune Journal page

The next prompt I chose for the Art Journal Caravan was - If i could write my own fortune cookie fortune it would say ? I found an ideal digi kit form my fave designer Tumblefish and created this hybrid mixed media page.

My brain map

The thought of mapping my brain was quite a scary one, hehe but I managed it in the end. This time using my favorite method, mixed media.

Art Caravan 2012

One of my New Years resolutions for 2012 was to do a lot more art journaling. So I have joined Tangies Art Caravan, a year long art journaling course, to help me with that. It began on the 2nd January and so far I am loving it, although a bit bewildered by the amount of wonderful prompts and ideas Tangie has given us and also the really beautiful work that my fellow travelers have already done, most of it digital. I have decided to do a mix of both, just to be able to keep up with everyone, so my first page, a letter to ourselves, I have done digitally. Its a bit of an odd shape because, as you will see later, I have used an old book to alter to use as my journal cover. More on that when it's finished. The overall theme for this years travels is Cartography.

Handmade Christmas gifts

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2012 is a great year for you. I can now show you the things I made for Christmas to give as gifts, Andrew did think I had taken it a bit too far when I made a toy for Millie, my sisters dog but she loved it.

The felt monsters were from a pattern in Mollie Makes magazine. I made 3 in the end, these 2 for my nephews and then one for Andrew.

More Christmas cards

The fruit Pixie has some beautiful Christmas papers, the Blackmarket ones, though not my usual style, I really enjoyed working with and they have a wonderful feel and texture. Then the Bo Bunny Blitzen collection give a great traditional feel

Packaging decoration

When Sarah from the Fruit Pixie sent me the Jenni Bowlin Christmas chipboard buttons the second thing I noticed, after how lovely the chipboard buttons were, was what a nice shape the packaging was, I had to do something with that. Here is what I came up with. All the items, except the beads and snowflake dies, but I am sure you have some similar, can be bought from the Fruit Pixie.

Christmas bottle top decorations

I got the inspiration for this decoration form a cloths shop window in Westendorf Austria while we were on holiday. They had hung loads of bottle tops, unsquashed, in long lines in their window.I thought they looked great and thought of that when I needed a decoration to give to my Nephews ( I give them 1 each year so when they leave home they will have a set of decs for themselves) So here is this years HO HO HO decoration. All the things and the instructions from the Fruit Pixie.

Christmas cards

I was a very lucky girl this year, I was allowed a Cricut Expression 2 a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the machine was faulty, it took quite a while but it finally got sorted out and I am awaiting a new one, but we did manage to struggle through our cards, and it was a struggle at times. Here they are.

December art journal page

Well I got there at last. Unfortunately there were other projects that I had to get done this time of year but at last my December calendar page is finished. All the others will finish this month but I will go on to March to complete my year. Now where is my pen........

Christmas treat bags

When I sent in my Halloween treat bag kit to Altered pages, who I design for, Jean asked me to make some for Christmas. So now you can buy the kit to make these cute treat bags in a Christmas theme from Altered Pages. They have plenty of wonderful vintage Christmas images to buy for all you Christmas ideas.

Christmas fairy

We Have been looking for the right topper for our Christmas tree for ever, we have has a few but none of them looked quite right for our tree, a traditional red, gold and green tree. This year I made a felt angel for my friend in Australia and thought she would make a great tree topper so made her again in colours to match the tree and at last I think we have to it right!!

Little gifts

I like to give my German class mates a little handmade gift at Christmas and this year instead of the usual chocolates I decides to give them a couple of the flavoured hot choc sachets you can get these days. The inspiration came to me when I was making Andrew a coffee from his fave Starbucks sachets. It was the last one in the packet and as I took the box apart I thought hang on, I know what I could do .............

Football birthday card

It was my Uncles 87th birthday last week, here is his card. I remember him smoking players and have a collection of the cards he saved so the card was just right.

Advent house

When I made the Halloween witches house class up for Bristol I thought it would make a beautiful Christmas house. So here it is, made with the beautiful Bo Bunny limited edition glittered papers. Everything, including the instructions to make it, will be on the Fruit Pixie blog ( eventually, Sarah is having trouble at the moment with no land line ) The lid lifts up so you can get you chocolates out!!

New baby in the Family

We have a new baby in the Family, Tula Rose. I decide to make her a fairy to hang in her room and a little scrapbook for her parents, all ready for them to add her first photos.

New digital avatar

I thought it was time for a change of avatar. I used my new found digital skill, such as it is, and a bit of good old cut and paste to make this new avatar for the forums I visit. I must admit I do love playing on the computer now, time just flies!!

November Journal page

As a former nurse and member of the Red Cross, this page had to be about remembrance. Its a few days late as I had trouble tracking down a poppy!! But here it is.