Art Journal Flip Through

Hi all,



I had my journal home from the store where I teach a monthly art journal class and decided to do a quick flip through. Looking at the pages like this I realise I like to create scenes rather than more abstract pages, plus I generally like to incorporate a quote or saying.



Any way have a look and if you live local ring Made With Memories and join the class!



take care, Helen

My name is Helen . . .

Hello all,

I feel like I need to reintroduce myself seeing as I haven't been around for a while. My creative mojo went on a world tour and left me behind! I think it should be returning home soon, well I'm hopeful!
I'm starting school holidays next week so I want it back to start creating again. So please if you see my creative mojo near your place can you please tell it to return home.

I have managed to create a art journal page or two for my class at Made With Memories in Rockingham. Here is the November page my lovely class of ladies created.

This is a sneak peek of December's class, taking place in two weeks time.

This is a painting I did for a friend for her wedding but I haven't actually given it to her yet as not sure if I actually like it. I am so tempted to get the gesso and cover it all up and start again.

Anyway that's it for now. Have a good day and take care,
Helen xx

And the winner is . . . .

Hi all,

I copied all the comments, cut them up, folded them and placed them in basket and then my son, Sam, selected a winner.

 And the winner is . . . Ruby9! Congratulations.

Please contact me, either a PM on Facebook or an email, so we can organise your prize.

Well that's it for tonight. Happy crafting,

Helen xx

Growing In Unity - Day 5

Good morning all

Well today is my last day as being the GIU gal and I have really enjoyed making my creations and posting them each day this week, plus I must admit I have loved the very positive comments I have received.

On to today's stamped goodness; I decided to create a page in my little Dylusions journal. I sprayed the background with Dylusions spray, didn't like where it was going and smudged it with a baby wipe and then decided I liked it! I painted in a gesso spot for my stamped girl Beautiful Soul. I coloured her in with Dylusions and a paint brush and then started adding some more images to the page. I randomly stamped Stronger Than You Think and Know Who You Are - It's Enough with Versamark ink and then the leaves from Wildflowers and Wings SMAK 4/14 in teal Stazon ink. I randomly coloured in some leaves with a teal Inktense pencil and then painted them with a wet paintbrush. Then I stamped the 3 little butterflies from the Moment by Moment set in pink Stazon ink. The quote from the Beautiful Soul set was stamped on some art paper, edged in Peacock Feathers Distress ink and popped on dots. To finish off I added some bling and edged the page in black ink.
Here it is:

 And a close up.

Hope you like it.

I will be drawing the winner from the comments left this week tomorrow morning and will post it here on my blog and Facebook. Thanks once again to all who have left comments and visited my blog this week.

Take care and happy crafting,

Helen xx

Growing In Unity - Day 4

Hello all, welcome to Thursday.

Today I have two more creations for you. My first card is a simple, quick card using one of the stamps from Pun in the Kitchen set. I coloured in the grater with my Big Brush pens and then added some glitter. I used 2 Distress Markers and my Tim Holtz spritz tool to add some colour around the grater. I pop dotted the coordinating quote and with some ink around the edge of the card it is finished.

For my second card I created the background by spraying some Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays on an acrylic block and the pressing the cardstock into it. After drying it with the heat gun I added some more colour in a few spots and then using the create stamp from the SMAK Kit July 2012 and a light archival ink I added some interest to the background. Then taking one of the flowers from the Insightful Meadows set I embossed it on the card. Added the quote from the set and then added the butterfly. I coloured the quote background with the same method as the card background.

Well that's it for today. Tanks, once again, for the lovely comments I have really enjoyed reading them.

Take care and happy crafting,

Helen xx

Growing In Unity - Day 3

Good morning all,

It's half way through the week already! Time goes fast when you're having fun (and have to go back to work next week!).

For today's stamped article I have made a card using one of my favourite stamp sets, Donna Poppies. I stamped the solid poppy with a light coloured big brush pen and coloured over it with my Inktense pencils and then used a waterbrush to activate the pencils. Then I stamped over it with the outline poppy with black archival ink. I cut out the coloured poppy and popped it up on foam squares. The background was created by spraying a piece of cardstock with Prima Color Bloom Spray and then I stamped over it with the Tattered Chicken Wire stamp. The Happy Birthday stamp is a little freebie I received with one of my orders earlier in the year. Here it is:

Hope you like it.

Once again thanks for all the wonderful comments, they are much appreciated.

See you all tomorrow with another stamped item. Take care and have lots of crafting fun,

Helen xx

Growing In Unity - Day 2

Good morning all,
Boy is it early here! My boys, my mum and I are off down south for a day of archery and ice cream so we are up early as we have a 2 hour drive ahead of us.

Now for today's piece of Unity goodness I decided to make a tag and I used different two stamps. Firstly I used the ....Wish With Your Heart August sentiment kit 2014 plus I used the Find the Happy Life Itty Bitty stamp. All the embellishments I used came from the grab bag that was available a few months ago. So here goes:

Here's a close up of the embellishment cluster.

Well that's it for today, hope you like it.

Thank you for the lovely comments yesterday and don't forget there will be one lucky winner drawn from the comments left this week that will receive 2 Itty Bitty stamps.

Take care and have fun crafting,
Helen xx

Growing In Unity - Day 1

Well hello all,

This week I am lucky enough to be the 'Growing in Unity Girl' where I get to showcase at least one item each day that I have made using Unity stamps. If anyone looked at my stamp collection they could easily see how much I love Unity Stamps!

Here's a selfie I took in May and you can see the the basket overflowing plus the 12x12 album where I store my Itty Bitty stamps behind the basket. Since then I have started on my second basket!

Anyway on to today's card. I just love Harrison Hedgehog (IB-689) so I knew my first item this week had to be centred around him. I created the background using gelatos, star stencil and Lindy's Stamp Gang spray in Tiffany's Blue plus some stamping in the grass with art-964A Artistic Brick and Archival Ink. Hope you like it:

I thought I would start with a bang so here is a second card, this one uses the 1,2,3,4,5 Thousand Cupcake Calories IB-222, Distress Markers, some lace, Lindy's Stamp Gang spray in Chateau Rose and lots of embossing powder. What do you think?

Well that's it for today, I will see you back for tomorrow's item. Don't forget that part of the fun this week is that one lucky commenter will receive 2 Itty Bitty Stamps so don't forget to comment!

Take care and craft lots,

Helen xx

Published work

I'm back . . . . still haven't started any cleaning!

I just realised that I never blogged about my second published piece, so I've updated my side bar and am actually documenting it now. I submitted a layout, earlier this year, which got accepted and published in Scrapbooking Memories, the Vol 17 No 1 issue. Here is the layout:

Take care (once again today!),

Helen xx

Holiday Fun

Hello my fellow crafters,

It's school holidays here and I've been pretty slack, haven't done much really other than watch a lot of home reno shows on Foxtel!

I did manage to play in my studio. I've worked on a few layouts and journal pages. I've submitted my pages for a design team call so I can only tease you with a few snippets. Here they are:

 And here is a snippet of a canvas I made.

Well that's it for now (I should be cleaning the house but am having trouble getting motivated!)

take care,

Helen xx

Up Early

Morning all,

I should be sleeping before the alarm goes off but not today. Woke really early so decided I should play before I need to get ready for work. I finished off a card I had started a few weeks ago and also added some touches to a layout I'm working on.

For this card I created the background with my Lindy's sprays and then used a couple of my Unity stamps for the foreground. Added a few paper butterflies and gems and it is done. Hope you like it.

Well I'm off to get ready for school. Until next time . . . .

Happy crafting!
Helen xx

Monthly Art Journalling Class

Hello all,

I hope you are all well and enjoying life. There has been some ups and downs here but I have still managed a few creative moments.

I should be in bed right now as I am teaching my monthly art journalling class in less than 10 hours! This is the double page that my lovely ladies will be creating.

I must admit I quite enjoyed creating this one, well it is my favourite colour and contains butterflies. I also created next month's page today and am quite happy with that one too. My ladies asked for a rainbow inspired page and this is what I came up with. Here is a sneak peek . . .

Well that's it for now, I have a few projects that I need to photograph and will then share. 

Take care and find some time to create.

Helen xx

Finally Made It Back to Blogland!

Hello fellow crafters,

Life has been busy and stressful these last few weeks and I haven't achieved much on the crafty stakes!
I did escape for 12 days and went to visit a friend on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and then a friend on Norfolk Island. It was a lovely relaxing time but boy have the last 3 weeks been an emotional roller coaster! Consequently my crafting mojo has vanished, I think I left it on Norfolk Island! I had every intention of entering the Scrapbooking Memories Masters competition, which closes next week, but no mojo means no work to enter!

The historic Kingston area on Norfolk Island. As you can see absolutely beautiful. 

I did create this layout using a selfie I took down on the Kingston jetty.

Tomorrow I am teaching my monthly art journal class at Made With Memories and the ladies wanted an Asian inspired page this month and this is what I came up with.

Here is a sneak peak of September's page. I had to go back and use my favourite colour, yay teal! It took a bit of effort today to get this finished but having said that I am really happy with the end result.

I did go to my friend's place a few week ends ago to create while she worked on her Donna Downey 48 Weeks' page, this is what I create inspired by what I saw.

Well that's about it folks, Happy crafting!

take care, Helen xx

Friday Night Fun

Well after the boys left for their dad's place I had the house to myself and headed to my studio to work on two canvases I had started a few weeks ago. I'm quite happy with how they turned out, very different from each other but both were loads of fun. What do you think?

 This canvas is quite long 38cm x 114cm (15in x 45in) and I'm sorry the photo is a bit dark in the top right hand corner. Here are a few close ups.

 This second canvas is 45cx 45cm (18inches square) followed by some more close ups.

I had a lot of fun creating these and I suppose they depict my mood at the moment. I would love to hear what you think, well positive constructive comments!
Night all, happy crafting,
take care, Helen xx

The Morning After . .

Hi all,

well the crafting won. I stayed up and worked on an art journal page, I challenged myself and used red, black and white oh and I chucked a bit of silver in there as well. Red is not normally a colour I reach for, having said that I like how this page turned out. Here it is:

I've also recently complete some more pages in my A3 Donna Downey inspired journal. I'm really enjoying working on the bigger format. Here they are:

Well that's it for now,

Happy crafting,

Helen

Crazy Life

Hi all,

Long time no posting, almost a month! Reason - hectic life, it just seems that all things hit at once! The house has been put on the market and hopefully it will sell soon, this will enable me to close one door of my life and hopefully start a new chapter. I have put an offer on a new place, my very own home, just the boys and I, and if it is meant to be then it will all fall into place, if not then it just means bigger and better things are just around the corner.
Here is the real estate.com advert if you would like to have a look:
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-baldivis-117266063
And a picture of my main living area:

I have managed to squeeze in a few crafty things when I should have been writing my reports for school, luckily I got those done too just had to miss some sleep!

Here is a page that I created using some Dusty Attic chipboard, a Scrap FX stencil, Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays and some Prima Junk pipes and faucets.

This second photo is a canvas I created for my May Design Team piece for Made With Memories. I used a Prima/Finnabair stencil, Lindy's sprays again (do love them) and loads of Kaiser Collectables from the Honey Chai range. I did create a scrapbook page as well with the Honey Chai range but the photo's not the best.

So that's about it for now. I should go to bed as it's getting late but I want to play . . . uhm which one will win!

Night, take care and happy creating,
Helen

July's Art Journal Class Sneak Peak

Hi all,

I've had a busy day today helping my friend Trisha organise and tidy her craft room. We had a lot of fun and the day went really quickly but by the time I left it looked wonderful (not sure about the hallway as that is where all the sewing stuff got dumped! Oh well a job for another day!). I've come home and looked at my messy room and have shot a quick video which is getting uploaded to YouTube right now (well when I'm writing this post!) and after I clean and straighten up I'm going to take another one to show it all nice and tidy.

I have finished my art journal page for July and will be taking the book into the shop, Made With Memories, tomorrow so it can go up in the class cupboard but here is a sneak peak of the double page.

So if you're in the Rockingham area on the third Sunday in July then this is the page we'll be working on.

I'm off to tidy!

Have fun crafting,
Helen

Sunday Crafting Time

Hi all,

I got up early today to finish off a canvas I started on Friday night for my friend Liz. She is retiring from years of teaching and I wanted to make her something unique, well a Helen original anyway! On her last visit to my house she did hint that she would love a canvas one day and well, today is that day. Her sons and their wives held her a retirement party and I gave her my canvas and she loved it. Unfortunately the pictures I took of it aren't that great, the camera on my phone has gone blurry and I forgot to take decent photos with my good camera before leaving the house. Here it is:

I used a 12x12 inch canvas, lots of Dusty Attic chipboard pieces and a few other random pieces I've had around for a while, Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays and some PaperArtsy Treasure Gold. I really enjoyed making this piece and quite happy with how it turned out.

That's it for now, happy crafting,

Helen

Guest spot on PaperArtsy Blog!

Hi all,

I was lucky enough to be asked to do a second guest design post for PaperArtsy and of course I jumped at the chance! I love their stamps and their paint and had fun creating a journal page. Here's a glimpse but to get a better look pop on over to the PaperArtsy blog to find out what I did.

Hope you enjoy it! Thanks for looking.

Happy crafting,
Helen

I think I'm starting a series . . .

Hi all,

I should be in bed but I made the mistake of sitting down with my half finished canvas and now it is complete. My little friend from my previous canvas popped up so maybe I can feel a series coming on. This one has the words " Happiness in a way of travel not a destination" in the background so maybe there is a theme happening here . . . inspirational messages me thinks. Well here is my dodgy iPhone photo taken way too late tonight. It is acrylics with a layer of Lindy's Stamp Gang spays - Jack in the Pulpit Teal (over the water) and Whale Watch Blue (over the sky).

Night, night,

Helen

May Madness

Hi all,

It hasn't really been that mad around here but I have been busy. Firstly, we had National Scrapbook Day celebrations at my local scrapbook shop and I did a mixed media demonstration. Here is a snippet of the journal page created on the day:

Lately, I have been creating in my little Dylusions journal, this is where the demonstration was done. Here is another double page created using Lindy's Stamp gang sprays and magical micas and a small stencil for the Stencil Girl club.

I just love this Donna Downey stamp at the moment as the words really speak to me. It seems to be popping up everywhere! Actually, soon my little journal will be popping up linked to another blog so keep watching this space . . .

Last weekend was my monthly art journalling class at Made With Memories and even though it was Mother's Day we had a fun time creating a double spread inspired by the art work all our mothers have hung up on their fridges over the years. Here are 2 photos of different parts of the page.

Well that's it for today.
Take care and happy crafting,
Helen xx

My bedroom artwork!

Hi all,

I wanted to create a piece of artwork for my bedroom and I started an abstract piece a week or so ago but it just sat there waiting for me to work on it. Then all of a sudden I knew where I wanted to take it and spent hours last night working on it. I am rather proud of my finished piece, what do you think?

I've used lots of Golden products, such as paint, glass bead gel, fibre paste and molding paste, pages from an old book, Prima stencil and Lindy's Stamp Gang Glitz Spray over sections of the top layer and inspiration and stamp from Donna Downey.

I took it to school today for some show and tell and my students are just delightful praising me and saying how good I am at painting, nothing like the praise from kids to make your head swell!

Well that's it, off to play some more as I got a parcel delivered from Paper Artsy! Good times ahead.

As always take care,
Helen