Happy December And Hello Daily Journal 2017

The madness has really started with shops heaving and roads full of traffic. I think this is why I prefer to do alot of my shopping on line to be honest. If I’m off to the shopping centre it’s to look at the pretty lights and get ideas not shop like a headless chicken for something I’ve no idea what.

Anyway that said, the best bits of the season have kicked off and that includes the first page in my daily journal for December which I’m doing in colaboration with Paper Pen and Plan. Day 1 is “One Happy Moment” which was most definitely going out with Cooper in the morning in the first real snow fall of the season. He loves it.

So far I’m not sure how it’s going to pan out using a junk journal for my daily with some of the pages being made out of thinner paper. This might restrict me from using too many wet media like paints and sprays. I’ll have to play it by ear and just see how it goes. If I have to use gesso or glue in extra pages then so be it. That’s just how it goes.

Have a good first weekend of advent everyone and I’ll speak soon.

Jaine x

December Daily Already?

Tis the season to be busy fa la la la la la la la la.

It’s that totally mad time of year again when in fact I’ve already celebrated Christmas and New Year believe it or not, way back in the summer after planning, creating and writing for Craft Stamper and  Paper Pen and Plan and here I am again planning and creating again like a crazy woman for an art and craft fair and my December Daily.

After a few false starts here (I just could not make up my mind which style of DD I wanted to go for this year) and a few abandoned choices I settled on using a travelers notebook style this year. Actually thinking about it I’m pretty sure it was the choice for last years too but that’s only because I totally love the style and format plus the idea of having it tucked in my Websters Pages TN cover appealed very much.

For my cover I’ve used papers and embellishments from both my November Sweet Treat Box from Paper Pen and Plan and some of the bits from the special bargain box which were available way back in the summer. There are still some bits left in the clearance section of the store if you’re quick.

To make my book I decided on a junk journal style for the inside pages. A few randomly chosen papers from magazines, music paper, a brown paper bag and ledger paper were put together and sewn simply down the middle with a long stitch.

Not terribly complicated stuff but non the less effective. I can’t wait to glue, paint and sketch inside it.

Quite by chance or maybe not, this month in Craft Stamper magazine I’ve an article featuring some planner pages using products also from Paper Pen and Plan and showing off their Sweet Treat Boxes.

It was a little bit bonkers writing up a planner page for the New Year when it was July but maybe just maybe it’s a little insight into how I hoped to see my New Year panning out. Anyway if you can get hold of a copy in your local newsagents or here online it’s a great read not just for my article but all of the other fab projects inside.

Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see you next week.

Jaine xx

Moving Into The Purple Orange And Black

It feels like since coming home from Ireland my life has been on full speed and in the blink of an eye Autumn is well and truly here with its colour changes and unpredictable weather. It’s a beautiful time of year though and we’re so lucky to live surrounded by forest so we can watch the changing season.

With Summer over we had our Autumn meeting of the Mosaik group and a few members were keen to make a junk journal. I put together a kit of materials and they loved it. The kit included book pages, paper bags, ephemera and patterned papers as well as tags and ribbons.

I love making mini versions too which will fit in my A6 Travelers notebook cover and they make a great place for jotting down notes or ideas on the go or somewhere for a quick sketch. This one is made using the mop up papers from my messy craft projects.

Even though the pages inside are grungy and messy it doesn’t mean the outside has to be too and of course I went mad on the decorating. I used the contents of my September box from Paper Pen and Plan and made a mini Halloween themed junk journal.

I’ve never been a big fan of the colour purple but since it’s been the most popular colour from my TN cover range I thought I’d use one myself seeing as it matches perfectly with the green and orange. I have to say the colour has warmed on me and I’m really loving it now.

The inserts are made by Ali-Beth of Paper Pen and Plan too and she makes sizes to fit most TN’s and planners.

At last I’ve found some time to fill out a page in my sketchbook from the Sketchbook project. Naturally mushrooms feature on the pages. I’ve become a bit obsessed with mushrooms from drawing them to foraging and eating them.

Finally for this week, the November issue of Craft Stamper is out and this month I’ve written the Masterclass feature. I used a stamp from my good friend Magda Polakow which I adore. If you have trouble finding a copy it’s available to buy here at Mags UK

Have a good weekend

Jaine xx

Ireland And The End Of Summer

Things here have turned cold, windy and very wet and I get the feeling Autumn has come in with a kick. We’ve just returned home from a holiday in Ireland where we had the same weather on the whole but at least there we were expecting it and it didn’t spoil any of our enjoyment of the country in the least.

Ireland was fab. We walked and walked for km’s taking in some stunning scenery along the way.

Of course I took my Travelers Notebook with me and kept up my weekly journal spreads.

The backgrounds were painted before I left as I don’t think I could have got away with putting any more stuff in my suitcase. There was already alot of tutting and exclaiming every time my other half had to load and unload my case from the car.

Now home I’ve been catching up and just before I left I received my Sweet Treat box for September from Paper Pen and Plan and have been keen to play with the kit in this months box which includes a stencil (by me) and a Tattered Angels spray mist. I used the mist to make these two journaling cards and I’m so pleased with how they look.

The first one is fairly straight forward with some spraying through the stencil.

holding the spray not to close to the paper, I sprayed ink lightly to give my paper a bit of a background.

 

 

 

I placed the stencil on the lower part of the paper and covered the rest up with some scrap before spraying again through the stencil.

 

I trimmed down the paper into the size I wanted and used some Distress ink to darken the edges.

On the bigger card I first scrunched up some tissue paper and used it to cover the surface which gave it this distressed surface.

 

 

I wiped over this with a baby wipe just to spread the ink around more.

 

 

 

Again I sort of wiped over it with some Distress ink to enhance the creases in the tissue.

 

 

 

I think it looks really cracked and distressed with the ink.

 

 

 

Anyway, that’s about it for today in the studio, have a good weekend all and I’ll catch up next week.

Jaine xx