New year, new projects

We’re well into 2021 by now and here in the studio I’m trying to focus on anything which takes attention away from the on going pandemic blues.

My morning forest walks with Cooper are helping immensely and give me time to reflect and imagine new projects and ideas.

These New Year cards are in the shop at the moment in packs of 3 and are the perfect way to stay in touch with people who you can’t see right now. You can find them here by following this link.

Last summer I made this cute little art journal from a pile of geli prints but since then it’s been on my shelf and admired but not added to. I’ve decided to put that right this year and add a quick collage or piece of artwork once a week. Being so small it’s the perfect place to create something quick and with the backgrounds already painted, less intimidating and satisfies a need for me to create art in some way. I recommend it to anyone, get out your stash, make a mini journal and keep a few scraps in a box for collage, add a sticker and it’s done!

Stencil production has resumed in the studio and these have gone out to Paper Pen and Plan to use in their monthly subscription boxes. If you fancy a mini bullet journal stencil why not visit Paper Pen and Plan on Etsy and sign up for the next box? Just follow this link.

rbt

Well that’s all for now, as it’s Wednesday I’m working on new things for the shop and right now I’m making memory albums for Valentine’s Day.

Have a great week

Jaine xx

The end of 2020 and a very different christmas

Usually about this time I’d be stressing about decorations, food, drinks and everything else which goes with this festive time of year. I’m a total Christmas control freak, everything has to be perfect. Turkey dinner is sacred. Even when we lived in the Middle East, I insisted we sourced a turkey, had stuffing and bread sauce sent from England and the year we were invited to have BBQ lobster on the beach, I made us go home afterwards to eat the obligatory turkey!

This Christmas will obviously be a very different one all round. Having a large family used to gathering together for sunday lunches, the rule of two visitors only is proving challenging. We’ve had to work out who is available when, so we can see each other over the holiday period. It’s all put a bit of a different spin on the festivities. I’m thinking we’ll break with tradition on Christmas day and all eat vegetarian. I seem to be the only one these days eating meat anyway so what the heck! I’m not sure yet what it’ll be but it won’t be a nut roast and it may involve a lobster!

With Christmas in sight that means a shiny new year is dawning and finally we get to draw a line under this dreadful year. In anticipation of this awaited event, I’ve started preparing my planner for the January hand over by creating the first dashboard. After a few months ago switching back to my ringed planner but using bullet journal pages, I’m sticking with this hybrid formula excited to start a brand new year in it.

I hope everyone has a good Christmas and a stress free journey into 2021.

Jaine xxxx

From masterboard to mini abstracts

I think as time goes by, the way I work changes and evolves and the things I used to hold on to as my foundations have been overtaken by other ideas.

It took a visit to a very good friend to remind me of the love we both had for creating masterboards. We used to create these magical backgrounds regularly and I think I even gave a workshop based around one at some time in the past.

It was a visit to Lena’s last week when she produced a big sheet of 50 x 70cm white card and challenged me to make a masterboard from it. So challenge accepted, I took it home and took out the acrylic paints. I rolled, smeared and scraped three colours plus a white randomly over the surface, then used a stick to scribble black ink. Masterboards always get to a point when you think, what the heck am I doing? but you have to push on knowing that the end result will be all worth it.

Once dry, I cut the whole sheet into 10cm squares. Immediately you can see these mini abstract works start to look like masterpieces. I had some left over to cut a few ATC’s too.

I took the squares back to Lena’s this week and added the torn book page and copper paper strips. I mounted some of my favourite ones onto a strip of white accordion folded card and immediately they started to sing to me.

It’s such a satisfying process. It takes a leap of faith to firstly, stick with it and carry on regardless of what sort of a mess you think you’re making and secondly to cut up the finished artwork into smaller chunks.

Thank you Lena for the inspiration and card. Same time next week then?

Jaine x

WOW! and coffee lovers

Welcome to the Autumn Coffee Lovers Blog Hop hosted by Coffee Loving Cardmakers. WOW! Embossing are donating a $20 gift card to the event as one of the sponsors and I’m happy to be taking part in this fun event today.

As a member of the WOW! Embossing Powder team, I’m joining in by showing a fun card created by adding Provencal Embossing powder from the Riviera Trio over texture paste, spread through a stencil. It’s a fun technique which I enjoy using often.

Here’s a closer look at some of the details.

You can start your hop at the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog which is here, and if you go to the WOW! blog there you’ll find the links to the WOW! team blogs. Don’t forget to leave a comment, they’re all so very welcome.

From WOW! I used Provencal from the Riviera Trio and Galaxy Glow which is most fun in the dark!

Have fun hopping

Jaine x