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

A6 Travelers Notebooks And Ephemera

I decided it was about time I moved into a more seasonable colour of Travelers Notebook cover and the obvious choice was the bright green one.  After cutting out the felt for the covers I had some strips of felt left over and used one to make myself a pen holder. It’s a perfect addition too on the front of my notebook and gives me the idea to make a few more in other colours to co-ordinate with the covers.

I’ve actually managed to get four books in this one quite easily with some extra bands as the size is slightly bigger than my old one.

If you’d like one of your own I’m selling them in my Etsy shop at the moment and I plan to add more colours to the range too.

One of the books I have inside is a mini notebook which came with my Sweet Treat box from Paperpenandplan.

It’s gorgeous, hand stitched by Ali-Beth and even though it was already a beautiful blue colour I thought I’d give it a bit of a distressed beachy feel and dry brushed some white paint over the cover. I gave the letters the same treatment before layering my elements together.

From the same kit I also decorated the pages of my Carpe Diem planner

I love all the elements from this kit, including the extra little snippets of washi tape which closed the packet tops. Nothing should go to waste.

For the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with making my own stickers too and finally I think I’ve got it.  It’s all my original artwork and I’m really happy how they turned out.  I’ll be adding them to my shop in the near future so keep a look out.

Also from my shop I had a bit of a sort out of my ephemera packs repackaging them to present them a bit better.

They’re great for Junk Journaling or mini book making and are full of bits and pieces.  Each pack contains 50 elements which include book pages, playing cards, vintage postcards and tags as well as lots of other ephemera and ribbons.  They’re in my shop here.

I hope you all have a good weekend and I’ll be back with more news soon.

Jaine x

Catching Up for May

I hadn’t realised just how long it had been since I last posted an update. Such alot has been going on and I’ve been really busy on and off. This weekend in particular was a local Arts and Crafts market which I decided to take part in. It’s been many many years since I did this sort of thing and I have to say I was very nervous. It’s easy to get really comfortable when you’ve built up an online community where everyone else knows everyone else and if you don’t want to show your face you don’t have to. So I wasn’t sure how well my stuff would be received by the public and explaining what I do to people who mostly have never heard of me was a scary thing. I needn’t have worried though as I had some amazing feed back and people genuinly liked what I was doing.

Half of my tent was me and my cards, books, book covers, kits etc and the other half was my connection to workshops, so my two friends Katherine and Lena helped me out to do a Make and Take table with the aim of hopefully getting a few more people interested in signing up for workshops.

Make and take ATC.

I spent a few weeks putting together notebooks and sketchbooks by hand and making Travelers Notebook covers out of felt.

I also made mini junk journals too but I had no idea how these would go down. It’s not a concept which has taken off here at all and explaining how to use a mini journal with each page made from different materials would be a challenge but on the whole they were loved and I did sell more of these than the plain notebooks.

Inside watercolour pages had been tea dyed to create an antique feel.

 

Before all that though I’ve been working on a few other projects like this journal page which is the latest in the Canvas Corp Brands Traveling Art Journal project. This is the April page. I really enjoyed creating it but was a little worried I’d gone a bit over the top this time.

This is the March page which looking at it now is just as busy. I must be going through a busy faze.

I did have to have a little titter to myself when an ooops moment provided a bit of extra publicity. I designed this little birdy stamp for the cover of the June Craft Stamper magazine but it came out a month early by mistake with the projects which went with it appearing in the June issue but the birdy on the cover of May. So although it was a headache for the Craft Stamper team it meant an extra month for me of my little birdy stamp. Win win.

I’ll be listing my notebooks and covers in the shop and on Etsy along with other colours and notebook designs so look out for those.

Have a good week

Jaine xx

 

Friday In The Studio, Small Is Beautiful

Oh bother, I’ve missed a few posts, I’ve not been well so I’m afraid my best of intentions went right out of the window.

I’m having a good day today so I can catch you up on the good stuff which did happen last week.

Well for starters the sun came out and made us all feel really Springy. As much as could be done outside was done outside and a spot of sketching was right up there. By the end of the week it started pouring with rain and I  ended up with a jumper on again which goes to show we shouldn’t take these moments for granted.  As I said I wasn’t feeling well so I ended up watching my neighbours digging over their plots ready for the new season and all I can do is imagine their thoughts as they look over at mine, destroyed by the dog and full of weeds.  Hubby and I have got a plan up our sleeves though which will knock their socks off!!  Maybe.  This week the sun came back and we were treated to some truly warm days.

I did receive a very welcome package from Paperpenandplan just over a week ago containing some Simple Stories goodies. Planner stickers, stamp, washi and paper pack. I couldn’t wait to open and use it.

As the title suggests, small is indeed beautiful to coin a cliché and my passport sized Travelers Notebook is fast becoming my absolute favourite planner of all time.

I decided to make a mini insert for it using some of the Simple Stories Domestic Bliss papers which arrived from Paperpenandplan.

As before the binding is hand sewn as that’s my favourite method of binding.

I love it.

Have a good weekend and for now Happy Friday.

Jaine x