Hiking with Coffee?

I thought I'd try something a bit different and 'stage' my photo, rather than just go with the close crop of the layout. I see some crafters do it so effortlessly and is really showcases their work. I don't think I quite nailed it, myself. 

Anyway, here is the close crop of the layout which I quite like. I got the roll of hession when my local Kaisercraft was going out of business and it is really so versatile. Background is gesso through a stencil, then some Color Crush powders used as watercolours to drip from the top of the page and flick everywhere, some subtle brown script stamping and then some last flicks of brown ink.

Gumleaves are chipboard by Scrapmatts, painted with acrylic paint. The scribble circles are die-cuts by Uniquely Creative, cut from watercolour paper and painted with brown ink. The sequins come from a cute collection I picked up from Scrapbook Fantasies, I really went nuts with the scattered clusters on this layout.

This layout was inspired by the 1st January sketch over at Stuck?! Sketches. I thought it was such an interesting looking sketch when I first saw it. I really liked the different ways the design team brought it to life.  I've really kept quite close to the design for this one.

I was also inspired by the January Kraft Plus challenge. Initially I couldn't think of any photos I had to match this challenge, then I was going to use some of my son drinking his 'coffee' in the morning before I changed my mind to a photo featuring my sister and I drinking espresso martinis. It was while I was looking for that photo that I came across these ones of us with our coffees before we went for a little hike at Curtis Falls. The memory was too funny not to scrapbook! I've used the scribbled circles to mirror the circle around the bottom right image in the mood board.

Kraft Plus is also challenging people to create cards using their leftover scraps from the layout. I always think this is such a good idea but forget to do it normally. Today I remembered to whip up a little 4"x4" card and it was so simple! I used the exact same layering pattern as I used to mat the main photo on my layout, the leftover watercolour to mirror the drips and I had the extra scribble circle already cut and painted.

I'm happy to have used up some more scraps, including this chipboard piece which I think is technically a milk saucer but was the only piece I had left from an old set. The patterned papers are all actually from Christmas ranges that I'm slowly working my way through.

Blessings

Finally finished my first layout for 2018! This is actually a page from a Scrappy Chat Designs kit by Beck BT I purchased back in 2015, so it's taken me quite a while to get around to. The original plan was to complete it at a retreat, but it unfortunately arrived too late. Better late than never though. :)

This was the first time I got to play with mica flakes or gold luxe paste so it was a lot of blingy, messy fun. Plus, now I've got heaps of these two products to use in future layouts. 

These photos are some of my favourites, of my husband and our little guy from when he turned one. We really should do another family shoot since he's 3.5 now but time keeps getting away from us.

I enjoyed rearing the paper and creating all the layers behind the holes. Quite a different experience for me, working backwards rather than up the page layers. My husband's only comment was 'it's quite different to your normal stuff'. I told him there wasn't much point to buying a kit if I was just going to do the same thing I always do. 

A Life Without Love Art Journal Page

I found a Facebook group call Soul Journey 2018 which runs a free guided art journal course over the whole year. Elisa Albett put up a quick video 'soul starter' which I followed to create this page. 

I've spent a long time thinking art journaling wasn't for me, but I've quite enjoyed this process. There are a few things I'd change if I was re-doing it, but it was also quite quick to do so I'm not that annoyed it's not perfect. 

I really enjoyed trying out a few new techniques too and love the effect of the yellow paint over a stencil onto a tea bag.

Recovery - My One Little Word for 2018

I'm starting off 2018 with something a little bit different for me. I dabbled a little bit in art journaling in January of 2015 but it didn't really fit with me. Since then I've created a couple more background pages but never went back to embellish any of them. I decided I wanted to do the #onelittleword thing this year (I think the other time I did it was also 2015 actually) and thought an art journal page would be the perfect way to illustrate it. 

I've picked 'recovery' as my word for 2018. The obvious reason is to do with me knee operation, as I will be spending the majority of this year completing rehabilitation. Right now I'm working on being able to walk without a limp and increasing my range of motion, long term goal is to get back to being able to play basketball. I'm hopeful this will occur by the end of the year. Also, I had a really hard time with anxiety in 2017 which knocked my confidence a fair bit. I'm looking to get this back under control in 2018.

I started the page by writing down everything that I need to recover from, just getting all the negative thoughts out of my head. I covered that all with three colours of acrylic paint, followed by a gesso wash to tone it down. The stitched circle stamps are one of my favourite sets so I had to use them. They have been coloured with Color Crush powders used as watercolour paints. I like the seed beads highlighting the yellow circles.  The stamped sentiment is by Kaisercraft, I've chosen to break it up across the page and highlight it with silver Sharpe. I also used some Colourblast texture paste through a Scrapmatts stencil at the bottom. Two types of washi tape have been randomly placed across the page. I watered down some acrylic paint for the drips at the top and then flicked this over the page. The butterfly rubon is a REALLY old Basic Grey one, I'm suprised it even transferred. Lastly, I used some punchinella as a stencil and applied white acrylic paint and two colours of distress inks to add some more depth to the background. 

Have you picked a One Little Word for this year?