It's a Creative World

SIMPLE THINGS - A final round up

Just over twelve months ago, the girls on It’s A Creative World started on an extended project that would run all year.
Like all embryonic ideas, we were not sure quite how it would run until we started it, but knew that the aim was to record, each in our own unique way, a project based on simple little words.
We had great fun coming up with words that were at the same time simple and yet terrifically complex in the ideas they portrayed. The words were emotive and conjured up all sorts of different feelings and memories, inspiring each of us to create in different ways.
And create we did; some made albums, some made art journals, some used paper and paint, some used fabric and stitchery magic, some created boxes of treasure in different forms. The talents that the girls of IACW have are so varied, which is why you will always find something here to inspire you, no matter what you enjoy doing.
It was such fun to see, each month, how everyone interpreted the words in different ways and then expressed that interpretation creatively.
Although the year is up I know many of use will continue with the project in our time and our own ways, adding to the albums or journals or quilts as words move us and ideas come to us.

However, whilst we may continue individual projects it is time to wrap up the project as a whole and what better way to do it than each of us showing our favourite creation from the past twelve months of Simple Things.

Here are our own favourites.

I have to say I am loving my little album and I will carry on doing other words throughout this year too so I end up with a good sized book at the end.

I am glad I went with a floral theme and picking my favourite entry was hard, but in the end I have gone with this one....

 
I selected this one because gratitude means a great deal to me plus I loved the photo and the colours.

Dolly x

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I loved that entry of Dolly's as well, but I didn't actually manage to make my own Gratitude square yet, not because I am not grateful, but precisely because the things I am so grateful for just now, our new home, new jobs and new life, mean that I am so busy, I haven't as much time for crafting as I used to have.

However, I did manage time to stitch many squares, and even though they will not now be a quilt, but individual items like wall hangings, I am glad I chose fabric as my medium. My favourite of all my 'words' was honesty, and this was my interpretation of it.

Eleanor

xx

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It is really hard to pick a favourite page as I have really enjoyed the challenge every month. I never fail to be amazed  by the entries every month by the other girls. My personal favourite was inspire because I got so many different techniques on my page.

Debbie  x

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When I started the 'Simple Things'  year long project, one of my aims was to try out new products and techniques.  The word back in May was 'CREATE' and I really really enjoyed creating this page.  I played with mists, gesso, alcohol inks, wire and beads.  I layered up loads of texture and drilled dominoes for the first time.  This all went on a page made of felt to go into my fabric book.  I had a blast and that's why it's my favourite page.

Thanks for following along.

Mandy.

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Hi, Kel here. I hesitated to post today, because for me this project has been a rocky road. It reminds me of the difficulty I used to have with circle journals. I love the idea, and I love seeing the incredible variety in everyone's take on a theme. I have trouble though, it seems, working to the timetable and the theme. The posting day (whether project or CJ) always seems to come in a week of craziness. I feel intimidated by the quality of the other work, and my inspiration seems to flee when it comes to crunch time. My work ends up feeling flat and mediocre. I decided to share these thoughts today, in case some of you have felt the same sometimes - I wanted you to know that you're not alone!

My first page is still my favourite, and like some others, part of the reason is my attachment to the word itself. It's also a page I did before I got hung up and started to find the project so hard. What I have learned about CJs and projects like this, is to push through (and try to relax). I am excited about spending some time with this journal and completing the words I had to miss out. Today has rekindled my initial excitement and I feel challenged to tie it up into something that I will love to revisit.

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 Hiya Claireliz here...

I've loved the Simple Things project & seeing the different ways in which we all interpret the words each month & then created something in our own crafty styles, we have had a huge range of different ideas on this project & all from a few little words. My favourite page from my simple things album was this one...

 

for me this was when my album statred to come together & I found my groove, paper, ink, fabric & messiness.

Thanks for joining us in our Simple Things project & for stopping by to see us on Its A Creative World.

Hope to see you soon

C xx

Simple Things - Believe/Belief

Happy Sunday, Eleanor here, with my 8 inch fabric square.

No-one ever promised us a smooth journey through life, and some have a rougher ride than others, with greater obstacles and more challenges to overcome, but whatever your path, wherever your steps take you, if you believe in yourself, have confidence in your own judgement, and keep focused on what is important to you, it will make a positive difference to the outcome.

Troubled times in my own life have strengthened me and, in my middle years, I feel I have greater confidence and self belief than I could have dreamt of. With every set-back, my calm resolve and quiet determination not to let it bring me down has increased.

To illustrate self-belief, I have drawn and embroidered a self portrait, with appliqued printed cotton fabric for my red top. It's not a perfect likeness, but that's OK, I loved making it, and every stitch re-affirms my belief that I can DO anything.

I believe in myself, and I hope you believe in yourselves too.

Bye for now.

xxx

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 Hi, this is Mandy.

When I came to think about the word 'BELIEVE' I found it impossible to limit myself to one thing as there is a pile of things I believe in.

 

I found a family photo from 2007 that summed us up, then typed the text into PSE and printed both out together onto printer-friendly canvas (the photo is not very clear because of my printer being low on ink).  I added a strip of butterfly trim, a K&Co chipboard word 'believe' and stitched them down with my sewing machine.  The crochet butterfly was made by my Gran. 

 

Here's an even closer look, with the brads and wire I added to the butterfly...

 

It was quick and fun to make and the canvas will be flexible in my fabric book.

Thanks for looking,

Mandy.

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Simple Things - Believe/Belief

Hi Debbie here with this months post on belief.

I found a butterfly in my garden with only half a wing, I couldn't believe it was still managing to fly, the quote I found seemed to go so well with the photo.

"Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around".

I brayered the white card background with a pale yellow and stuck on some glitter swirls. (The frame was too small for my photo so I cut it in half to look like brackets).

I stamped the title using versamark and brushed over copper perfect pearls. Then I cut out each letter individually to mount them on foam to give a 3D effect.

My quote was handwritten with a copper coloured pen, and I inked the edges and drew a (very) wobbly line around the whole page.

Debbie x

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 Hiya Claireliz here with my take on this months word.

Belief is something that is very important to me, I firmly believe that the 2 things we have to have in life are Belief & Hope, without those we have nothing, nothing to look forward to, nothing to build on, nothing to aspire to or dream of & that, to me, sounds like a very bleak exsistence. Like most people, I've had dark times in my life, but came through the other side as I believed things had to get better & they did, it may have taken time, but I never gave up hoping & believing & I never will. Belief is essential to me.

I found this page was quite theraputic to make, the journaling came easy to me, yet it really made me question myself & my values. As I got going with the journaling I realised that there was going to be a lot of it,so my use of pockets in this album really came in useful here, also I wanted to use bright colours, as to me, belief is a bright & colourful thing.

So with all of that in mind here is my Simple Things Belief page...

 

As throughout the rest of the album the page was made from pizza box & I've used Fancy Pants papers from their On A Whimsy range, along with various bits & bobs from my stash, the bunting was stamped using Banana Frog stamps. I've also stuck with using the dictionary definition of each throughout this project & this one reads: Belief: a principle or idea to be considered true, religious faith.

I really hope you've enjoyed your visit to Its A Creative World today & hope to see you soon.

Thanks for stopping by

Claireliz xx

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Simple Things - Believe/Belief

Hi everyone, Dolly here with my page for the word of the month.

When I initally thought about the word believe it was very linked in with faith for me. When I connected it with faith miracles sprang to mind and I was immediately sure what I wanted to use as the focus for my page. Do you beleieve in miracles? I do - and that's why this is the page for me this month.  

All of my pages have had flower pictures and this is no exception. The photos of this poppy field were very special.

 

They were taken at the end of October 2009 at Fontmell Down in Dorset. No, you didn't read that wrong. End of October in the UK. No, poppies don't flower at the end of October in this country. They flower in the early summer. But this field of poppies flowered at the end of October right through until remembrance Sunday that year. they even made the national newspapers. They called it a remembrance day miracle. It seems the field was ploughed at an unusual time, the weather conditions were just right for the seeds to germinate and though it was bitterly cold, they flowered. We happened on the view purely by accident when out driving. As we topped the hill I saw the field and couldn't believe my eyes. We turned round and went back to marvel at it. So you see why it had to be my page for believe.

 
I used a kit by Dawn Inskip called Heroes as well as some of her gorgeous fabric letters for the title.

 
So here is the complete page

 
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Hi Michelle ‘the fraud’ here with my offering for belief!! I call myself a fraud as I haven’t made my offering this month but I felt I couldn’t top this creation from my 5 year old niece!

 
It is officially called a ‘Sparkle’ and every member of the family got one over New Year when my family stayed at my house. Megan got out a crafting kit Santa had bought her and started creating (I add at this point all her own work with no adult interference!) We were given full instruction of use when we were presented with them and they all involve making fairy wishes some by tapping the stick on your head and some by waving it in a complex pattern! In that moment I was reminded of the belief we have as a child, when we’re freely allowed to believe in fairies and all things magical and a belief that our wishes will always be answered.

 
Not only were Meg’s creations extremely artistic, I love the fact it’s not just one lolly stick but two of different colours glued together with sparkly glue (to add extra magic I am assured!) and everyone was different, mine was the only one with a feather, some had crystal embellies on and others beads so each was unique but they were presented with a complete belief that these were works of art and they really do work!

I was going to make some for this post but decided to use Meg’s as it’s part of the story for me to add to my Simple things treasure chest but rest assured I will be making some of these magical sparkles to send to friends and family at times when they just need something to make them smile and, even if only for a brief moment, make them believe in those magical beings and that wishes do come true! I hope you feel inspired to make your own Sparkles and allow yourself time to believe in magic!

Love M x

 Pop back tomorrow for more from the Simple Things girls.

SIMPLE THINGS NOVEMBER - GRATITUDE day 3

Hi all, Michelle here with my contribution to this month’s Simple things project and my  take on Gratitude. There are many things in my life that I am thankful for, from the big things, like my family, my health and my life in general, to the small things like having a roof over my head and being able to see a beautiful sunset, so, a project to sum all of this up proved a little difficult for me.

So I decided to create a small notebook to record all the things I have gratitude for

 

I wanted it to be an ‘oldey worldy’ looking leather bound book as I feel it fits well in my ‘treasure chest’

 
I used a small blank notebook and some woodware blank chip alphas

 
I spelt the word out, mixing up the alphas

 
And then mixing some PVA with water (about 70/30) and some loo roll (classy me!) I covered the book. The loo roll is very easy to mould around the letters and also to create a leather texture with, scrunching and folding it as I layered it up.

 
Once the papier mache covering was completely dry (an airing cupboard speeds up the process) I painted the cover with a mix of reds using acrylic paint.

 
After the paint layer was dry I then inked the cover with some walnut distress ink, catching the peaks of the papier mache creases. NB the ink will stay wet a while as it is being applied to an acrylic base, gently heating with a heat gun will heat set the ink.

 
Next came a dry brushing with gold acrylic

 
And then dipping my finger into the gold paint I picked out the letters some more

 
And that’s it, a little book I will fill with gratitude, recording the big and the small for me to look back on when the modern world get’s in the way and also a record of moments I can use in my future scrapping. What are you grateful for today? I think it does us all good to stop, take stock and have a think once in a while! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have been inspired by all the creative girls sharing some gratitude with you this month.

Love

MJM x

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Hello, Eleanor here, without a square to show this month, but I want to have a chat and share some photos, if that's alright.

As many of my friends know, those I've met, and those I have yet to meet, recent years have been something of a struggle in many ways. And yet, still there is always something to be grateful for; admittedly hard to find some weeks, but very often it's been one online friend or another, usually a blogger, who has reminded me that that I have so many blessings.

Here is one, a simple view from our cottage window, as we settle in our new environment:

And here's another view from that same cottage:

 

We now find ourselves living an altogether simpler life, the life I used to long for, and although far, in miles, from some of the people who are so very important to me, I know that happiness can be a weekly phone call, a welcome letter in the post, an unexpected email, or just looking at some special photos on Flickr.

I am so grateful this month, indeed this year, that we have been given an opportunity to enjoy a new life and a wonderful playground for our youngest son.

I am grateful to live at this foot of a mountain:

and beside this loch:

As Simple Things - Gratitude closes today, I am thankful for the opportunity to share a little of my new life in pictures, and promise I will somehow put all these things onto my fabric square to preserve them, and show you all very soon.

Bye for now.

xx

SIMPLE THINGS NOVEMBER - GRATITUDE day 2

Hiya Claireliz here with my take on this months word for Simple Things - Gratitude.

And I'd also like to mention Dolly's lovely page from yesterday, really gorgeous, I just cannot get to grips with digi scrapping.

So gratitude means to be grateful & thankful & the dictionary definition says Gratitude: Being thankful for favours received.

I also have to say I have a lot more to be thankful for this month than usual, as my family are helping me out, whilst I recover from a knee operation, and although everyone is helping, it's my Mum I'm most thankful to as she's doing so much to help me out (& she bought me cake & chocolate to cheer me up :D)

In honour of Mum I've made this page a bit more girly this month:

 

Once again the page is made from an old pizza box. The pale pink paper is stamped with a Stampotique stamp - Hanging Hearts - its one of my favourite ones. And again I have made a pocket to put tags, notes & cards in. I do like using pockets on 6x6 pages, I think its quite effective & also very simple (so it ties in nicely with Simple Things) it also gives a bit of continuity to the album to stop it from looking too random. The whole album is looking nice & chunky too. The pink flower sticker was a Sassfrass Lass sticker cut in half & stuck to either side of the page & I drew around the edges with black pen.

The dictionary definition is attached to a stamped circle (Banana Frog - Circus Stories) and a chipboard heart that came on a Winnie The Pooh pencil case...

 

I inked the heart with Barn Door Distress Ink, then gave it a thick coat of Tim Holtz Rock Candy Crackle Glaze. Once the Crackle Glaze had dried I inked it lightly with some Black Soot Distress Ink, tied a ribbon through the hole & glued to the page (the glue has since dried & is no longer visible lol). 

Well thats all from me for Simple Things, Stop by tomorrow & see what else we have been making.

Thanks for stopping by & hope to see you again soon

C

xx

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Hi, Mandy here.

I am so grateful for my wonderful husband and family.  My page this month (for my fabric book) is made with printer-friendly canvas.  I opened the photo in PSE and added the journalling, then printed both together on the printer-friendly canvas.  I machine-stitched on a scallop embellie with a little crochet flower (made by my Gran, Daisy - thanks Gran!) and a bit of red felt trim.  The photo was taken in October in the Tate Modern in London, where Husb and I had a few special days together, celebrating meeting each other 20 years ago that month.  I discovered a few of the ceramic sunflower seeds in my boots and on the ground outside the Turbine Gallery and saved them to bring home.  The little canvas drawstring bag will hold the seeds and add a tactile dimension to my fabric book.  I used STAZON ink to label the bag with the artist's name 'Ai Weiwei' and the date we visited.

 

When I attatch the page into my fabric book, it'll be a pocket into which I'm going to put some newspaper clippings about the exhibit.  This sort of hybrid page is what I'm enjoying making recently.    Also, using a very short depth of field on my camera, so the foreground is in focus and the rest of the photo out of focus, is another fave at the moment.  So is placing my camera on the ground... or in this case sitting in the ceramic seeds!

Have a lovely week-end and check back tomorrow for the third day of  'GRATITUDE'.

Mandy

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Hi, Kel here, with my latest Simple Things page. I have to confess that I have not always been able to do my page on time, but I plan to finish them all. I have the pages marked out in my journal so that they can be slotted in. 

Gratitude has been on my mind a lot lately. It's partly because Canadian Thanksgiving is in October and then American Thanksgiving is so publicised it gives me a full month of thinking about giving thanks. I have also been reading a book by a Buddhist monk called Thich Nhat Hahn. He talks about breathing in and smiling to your eyes and being thankful for your eyes. What really impressed upon me was another idea - of being grateful for your non-toothache. I may be fed-up or tired or even have a headache, but I am so grateful for all that is not wrong!

SIMPLE THINGS NOVEMBER - GRATITUDE day 1

Welcome everyone. This is Dolly starting off this month.

It is so appropriate that in November, as people prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, our word for the month is gratitude.

I thought I would start off with a few quotes about gratitude and thanfulness which might get your creative mojos moving ready for your own pages.

If you count all your assets, you always show a profit.  ~Robert Quillen

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.  ~William Faulkner


If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness.  It will change your life mightily.  ~Gerald Good

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel.  ~Author Unknown


There are so many quotes about thankfulness and gratitude that I am sure you will find one which says just what you want to say.

Once again my page has followed the same format so that my album is cohesive. I have again used a definition.

 

Once again my photo is flower based, although this month it has a butterfly as well as to me, thankfulness and gratitude is linked so closely witht he wonder of creation and the beauty of the world around us.

 

Once again I have used word art (and this word art is available for free download on my blog this week)

 

 

And this is the complete page, printed off and already in the album.

 

 

 

Have fun with your own gratitude page and I hope your lives are filled with blessings to count.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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SIMPLE THINGS OCTOBER - MEMORY

 
Welcome to Simple Things this month, where we have been looking at our memories and ways of recording them.

It's Eleanor here, and I must confess, I have been having serious second thoughts about the format I chose for this project. I have never made a full size quilt before, and whilst I am loving the process of creating the eight inch squares, I am beginning to wonder how I will ever make them into a quilt. It would be awful if I couldn't manage it and the squares languished in a drawer forever more.

I don't always get things right first time, and often redesign a project halfway through the process, SO - 

I have made a big decision, to abandon the quilt and make all of my squares into wall hangings, or framed pictures, canvases, or even bags. Being made of fabric, they will adapt easily to any of these.

I am a new grandmother, and every moment I spend with my grandson is making precious memories for me, and for him, so this month I tried out my revised idea, and made this:

I turned the photo to sepia, printed it onto cotton (which in its former life was a cot sheet belonging to my firstborn son, the father of this sweet baby) raided my boxes for lace, ribbon, velvet ricrac, beads, fibres, and buttons, and this is the result.

Being creative can be all about choices, and changing direction when something isn't working as originally planned, and here's to that!

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 Hi Debbie here with my take on memory.

I have found a quote for memory I really liked. "Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are and the things you never want to lose.

I have really got into Art Journalling so decided to use some of the techniques I have learnt on this page.

I painted the background with yellow water colour smooshed around with a baby wipe, and stamped the background with pale blue text and a crackle background stamp. The birdcage is cut from cardstock and the photo inside is a downloaded image from the internet of Marilyn Monroe.

 

I stamped bird cages over the background and then gessoed over them as they were too dark.

I then added a checkered stamp in blue over the top of the gesso.

I stamped around the edges of the page with versamark and then used a posca poster pen to draw around the border and add detail to it.

I added my quote with the posca marker and added a few more tiny flower stamps as I felt the background was a little. dull. I highlighted the image using a gold marker on the hair and a red one on the lips.

I thought the page looked a bit gloomy so I added pink glitter glue to the cage.

Debbie x

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 Dolly here with another word page for my album.

Memory (bearing in mind my album focuses on flower photos) made me think of Autumn and the passing of the summer and the beauty of the autumn colours all around.

So I went with an autumnal theme this week.

 
The photo was of some fallen leaves that just looked pretty.

 

I included a definition ,as I have done with every page for this project. This one was quite hard as there were so many sections in the dictionary. I went for a shortened simplified version.

 

I also used a word art which I will put on my blog for download as well

 

I love autumn and I am so glad I have a page that refelects that in the album.

 

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Hiya Claireliz here with my take on Memory

Now I admit I haven't done the journaling on this yet... why? I hear you ask, well I'll be honest,I thought of something really cool that I wanted to say on the journaling & found a great quote too, but, I didn't write it down & now I can't for the life of me remember what it was I was going to say. Really, I think that says a lot about the state of my memory, but this is why I scrapbook. I may inadvertently put the salt & pepper in the fridge & occasionally leave the house in my slippers (seriously, its happened more than once) but at least I can look back & remember the stories behind photos & events.

So here is my memory page...

 

My little pizza box book is looking very chunky right now. I have stuck with making pockets to hold journaling throughout the project. To decorate this page I used a bit of left over Grungepaper film strip, sprayed with Dylusions ink (granite) Then used a variety of ScrapaGoGo & Banana Frog stamps to decorate, the title is made using Jenni Bowlin bingo card alphas. I found a 7gypies fabric tab that says remember this & some acrylic & kraft Maya Road journaling cards that relate to memories. I also used a dictionary definition of memory which reads.... Memory: Process of retaining & reproducing past thoughts & sensations, sum of things remebered.

Well thats all from me, I'm going to try & remember what my journaling was & write it up... this is the reason I have countless lists & notebooks.

Thanks for stopping by & see you soon

Claireliz

xx

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Hi all, Michelle here with my offering for the Simple Things project this month. While thinking about the word Memory, I went through a whole range of thoughts and ideas and to be honest my little offering mutated quite a lot on its journey. It has ended up, however, being my favourite addition to my simple things treasure chest.

I made one of these

 
I cannot remember what we used to call them so I have called this my memory snapper! I started working on the word with a heritage feel, making a memory book but none of that felt right and when I thought about my memories I was transported to the late seventies/eighties where a lot of my memories are rooted ... an all together more colourful time than vintage/heritage. I then remembered these origami games we used to make and thought what a great way to hide memories to pluck out of the air when I need a smile!

For those of you that can’t remember how to make them and for those of you wondering what on earth I am whittering about here’s a quick folding step by step

 

The piece of paper for folding has to be square. I’ve used a 12 x 12. Fold the diagonals of the square corner to corner and lay out flat again.

 
Fold in all 4 corners to the centre point you have now created with the initial folds.

 
Flip the now smaller square over and fold in all the corners to the centre again.

 
Fold the piece in half both ways.

 
Slip your thumb and forefinger under the outside flaps and now you can make it move .... ah the memories heh!

I then marked each piece I would see with what I wanted on it, and the right way, so that when I unfolded the piece I could see what would go in each section. Originally the outside would be coloured sections and you would spell out the colour revealing the inner sections that would hold numbers which were counted out to then lift the inner flap where it stopped to reveal a message like ‘I love you’ or ‘you smell’ LOL. This time I made my outside spell Memories, the inner to read Remember and under the flaps I have recorded a main word with all the memories that conjures up.

 

I decided to doodle all my sections, in itself a memory, reminding me of my school books and pencil case!

 
And then I went to town colouring it in, a favourite childhood past time with memories of me and mum sat colouring in together! I used pro markers however, slightly better pens than my old favourite felt tips (of which I used to have hundreds as a kid!)

 
And that’s it, I have to say it’s the most fun I’ve had creating for a long time, back to basics and re living some wonderful memories along the way! Why not re live some memories yourself and maybe pass on our silly little origami game to some little ones....after all that’s how memories live on! See you next month when I’ll be full of GRATITUDE!

Love MJM x

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Next month we are thinking about GRATITUDE; we would love you to join us.

 

SIMPLE THINGS SEPTEMBER - JOY

Hiya Claireliz here with my take on this months Simple Things Project - Joy. Joy to me means Happiness, all the good stuff that makes you smile & to quote Aristotle ...

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human exsistence"

So I knew I was adding another list to this mini book of mine, a list of things that make me happy...

 

Such as Kisses, cuddles, hot chocolate etc. I have finally decided (8 months into this project) that pockets on these pages is the way to go so I can add in any little bits of journaling or ephemera or anything else really. I have also continued to use the dictionary definitions. My little album is looking very chunky now & I have to say I'm really rather pleased with it.

So what brings you Joy? Its still not too late to join in with us if you wish & we would love to see what you come up with.

Thanks for stopping by & see you soon

Claireliz

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Hi all, Michelle here with my little bit of JOY!

This word immediately made me think of the joy I felt when I swam with the Dolphins in Mexico (oh yes my beloved Mexico again!) In fact I didn’t just swim with them but me and hubby became trainers for the day and got to spend 7 glorious hours with these beautiful, amazing and joyous creatures in a most beautiful eco park and lagoon. I have used one of my favourite pictures from the day and it just sums up the joyous feeling I had and will never forget. I wanted the photo to pop out of my project to echo the elation I felt and found the perfect way to do this with a push me pull me card.

 
 

They really are so simple to make, and when you discover the secret ingredient you’ll say ‘no way’ just like me (well maybe you will LOL) Cut a piece of card 29.5cm x 14cm then score it 3 times at 9.5cm which will leave a 1cm tab at one end. Also cut 2 more bits of card 13.5cm x 8.5cm for the push me pull me bits.

 
I then made my own word confetti using all the words I think describe Joy and that joyous feeling by changing the font and size and colour in a word document, one in a dark blue and one in a light blue From the dark blue word paper I cut the word Joy and chalked some colour over the letters, I haven’t chalked in ages, isn’t it funny how you forget techniques and then suddenly they pop up in your brain!

 
I also made my decor trim from the same paper using my Purple Cows freestyle mouse and decorative blade, creating a panel for the front of the card and decorating my push me pull me tabs.

 
Now for the secret ingredient! A strip of polythene (I used an old bag that held some stash) 30cm x 3cm wrapped around the end panel of the large strip (the end without the extra tab bit) yes I know it’s that simple! That’s the mechanism!!

 
Stick the push me pull me tabs on either end of the plastic, one on top, one behind

 
Fold the card up, glue the tab down, add a little ribbon to the end of the pull me piece and decorate the front! Done!!

I found the making of this project as JOYous as the memory I was recording, so simple but so effective and now every time I pull that tab I re live the feelings and thoughts of a very special day full to the top with absolute, pure JOY. What’s your most JOYful memory? I’m sure you’ll feel inspired to create something after this post from all the talented creative girls, why not share your project with us? we’re a nosey bunch :) Enjoy the rest of your visit to this JOYous blog and until soon Happy Crafting

Love

MJM x

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 Hi everyone - Dolly here with my floral page for joy.

I am loving sticking to flowers for this album, especially when words like joy tie in so well.

One of the things that brings me immense joy, all the time, is a love of nature.

Looking at a beautiful view, a simple flower, a tiny bird, the ocean near my home or the stream at the end of our garden always fills me with joy. The beauty of creation gladens me always. So it was a great word to do.

 

For this page I used a lovely kit by Susan's designs at PickleberryPop  as it blended so well with the photo I wanted to use.

The picture was a near perfect rose that ! took two weeks ago on a visit to Mottisfont Abbey which houses the National Collection of old English roses.

 
The beautiful downy look to the petals, the way the blush deepens towards the centre, just a beautiful rose

I used lots of layers and lots of blending on the page to give a soft and hopefully unified feel to the page.

 

The birds and the waves were by Tiramisu designs

 
and here is my completed joyous page which does fill me with joy as it recalls a special day, things I love and the beauty of the world around me which I try never to take for granted.

 
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Hi, Mandy here with another page for my SIMPLE THINGS fabric book.

This month I went with a Bible quote... "The JOY of the Lord is my strength". 

I used some of my favourite 'Kaffe Fassett' fabric which I'd been saving for something special (I only have one fat quarter in this design). 

 

As you can see it's a very busy background so I kept it simple with just the words.  I began by ironing some bright limey-yellow fabric onto some iron-on interfacing to stiffen it, then I drew around some large letters backwards onto the interfacing side...

 

I laid out the word JOY onto an 8" by 8" fabric page and decided on the placement.  For the smaller words I ironed some brightly coloured bias-binding that I had in my stash in half lengthways, and stamped the words with brown STAZON ink. 

 

At this point I thought the word JOY needed something extra so I stamped over the letters with a swirly stamp...

 

It took a while to sew the large letters because of all the turns, then I sewed the small words on with two lines of stitching.

 

The page is quilted.  I am wondering if I should have used the fabric the other way around, with the limey-yellow fabric as the background and the busy fabric for the letters J-O-Y but I quite like how colourful the page turned out. 

Does anyone else think "Where has 2010 gone?"  I can't believe the next page is October!

Bye,

Mandy

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Hi Debbie here with my page for this month.

I found a quote by Mother Theresa which I really loved and started by covering my paper with some acrylic paint dabbers.

I then stamped three flowers and filled in the petals with cosmic shimmer paints.

I used white water soluble crayons to lighten parts of the page.

I glued some sequins in each corner with pva glue, and went around the petals of the flower and the page with a fine marker.

As I have really started to enjoy art journalling I decided to handwrite the quote rather than print or use cut out letters/stickers. I stamped a few images with versamark and went over with perfect pearls.

I am glad I tried using my own handwriting and think I need to practice more with the layout and sizes of my words.

Debbie x

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Hello Eleanor here, with another 8 inch embroidered quilt square.

In my life I gain a huge amount of joy from music; I love classical music especially, and particularly love to play Haydn, Mozart, Bach and Beethoven on the piano, and I also love to sing, anything from classical arias to show songs, jazz to country, and sacred, as well as silly ditties.

Here's my cotton square, the words and keys are all embroidered with a single strand of embroidery silk, the black keys are felt. The flourishes are stamped to frame to whole square.

I really must start work on putting all my squares together, any advice appreciated, since I have never done this before...

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 Hi from Caz, with not only September's, but also July and August's pages. I have had horrid broadband issues which have meant my pages couldn't be added in time for the last two months' posts.

So to recap July - Achievement.

 

Not only did I record an achievement but I also managed to fulfil a goal for Project 2010.....using my watercolour pencils!

And that INSPIRED (Augusts word is Inspiration) me to use them again.

 

Please excuse the rubbish scan! The colours have gone a bit pear shaped :(

I keep telling myself I can draw, in the hope that I keep practising and one day I will really be able to draw ;)

And September - JOY.

Now this page does worry me a little! I said Joy to myself a few times and then got down to doing my page. When I was scanning it I wondered what on earth this page had to do with JOY.......

 

Evidently my JOY is chocolate! Oh well :D

Caz
xx

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Next month our word is MEMORY, and I'm sure there are many scrappers out there with something to show us for this one. Do get in touch!

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SIMPLE THINGS AUGUST - INSPIRATION

This month we have been looking at the wide variety of sources of inspiration. As a team we inspire each other very much, and hope that we give our readers something to think about too. If you make anything as a result of inspiration found here, all the better. Don't forget to let us know!

Hi all Michelle here with my offering for inspiration

 
As some of you may know I have a passion for Mexico, no, really? I hear some of you shout LOL! When I am out there I get very snap happy with my camera and have literally hundreds of photos and a lot of them end up being pictures of sunsets, glorious moons over the sea, jungle settings and of course the sea but I just can't stop taking them as they inspire me at that moment and I always think it's the most beautiful picture ever! So for this project I wanted to collate some of these inspirational pictures and get them off my computer!!

 
I kept thinking of those view finders we had as kids, you know the ones that you put a disc of tiny slides in and clicked round to see pretty pictures and my version of that took the form of a little box with a fold out concertina to hold all my little pictures (with room to add more :))

 
The box was one of the many little gift boxes that I cannot throw away 'just in case' and I covered the top with 3 different colours of cosmic shimmer ultra thick embossing powders. I actually covered the lid top with some glue stick, lumpy in places to get that real distressed look with my embossing and I embossed the first layer with ordinary clear embossing powder to give the ultra thick crystals something to cling onto.

 
Once I'd built up my layers I stamped into the embossing with an invoke art stamp which I had covered in black ink.

 
The wings and crown are grungeboard shapes and again I used the glue stick trick to create distressed embossing, really making it lumpy in places!

 
And I embossed them with ordinary silver embossing powder from Cosmic shimmers, look at that aged affect!

 
I added the embellishments with some silicon glue and simply cut strips of a 12 x 12 to size making them into a concertina, joining them together to get the length I wanted and then added my photos, adhering the strip to the bottom of the box inside.

I love my little box of inspiration and think it may have inspired me to emboss some more little boxes, they would make great gifts wouldn't they!! Love M x

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Hi Debbie with my take on the word inspiration.

I wanted my page to be a collage of different techniques that I could use as a reminder.

I used acrylic gel medium to transfer a vintage photo onto a piece of canvas that had already been covered with a layer of gesso and stamped on. I covered the top with a layer of pva glue and the heat gun has given the wrinkled look!

 

I embossed a piece of clear laminate and then used black stazon to highlight the text. The butterflies were stamped with versamark onto black card and then I used perfect pearls so they would show up.

This part was created using alcohol inks on the reverse and then stamping with stazon on the front.

 

I used a dark piece of acetate (previously coloured using the floor polish/caught in crystal method) and stamped on it with white acrylic paint.

 

I used a stamp that I made of my Great Grandparents wedding and then distressed the top with green acrylic paint.

The final finishing touches were a couple of old stamps and bus tickets, and some utee embellishments I have made by making my own moulds.

Would love to see your interpretation of the word inspire.

Debbie x

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Our reader Cal, at Clearing the Brambles, continues to join our Simple Things journey, working on her loo-roll book. She said "Here is my Achievement tag. It's slightly wonky on purpose as I am journaling that to me achievement is not about perfection but about loving what you are doing!"

We love what she is doing, for sure, and here is her take on the word grace:

Thanks for joining in Cal.

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Hiya Claireliz here with my take on Inspiration

 I tend to take inspiration from things all around me in my everyday life & I'm often heard wandering round the house saying "oooh there's an idea"

I wanted to be able to put some of the things that inspire me onto my pizza box page so I made a pocket to put flyers & other bits in...

The bird is cut using a Tim Holtz Alterations Die, my Sizzix & some Grungeboard, inked & stamped with tiny script writing, I have also used the dictionary definition of Inspiration.

Whilst attaching the Thickers I was using as the title I realised I had no more a's even though I'm sure I checked properly first so I quickly had to re-think, so changed the title to inspired :D

Thanks for stopping by to check out our Simple Things project & hope to see you next month

Claireliz

xx

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Dolly here with another flower page.

I was looking forward to this word as nature and flowers are something that really do inspire me to want to be creative.

I am loving using flower photos to support each word this year, but this one truly does 'fit'.

Nothing inspires me quite as much as nature. It makes me want to get out the camera, get out the paints, get out the paper and just create something.

I decided to try something different for this one and see if I could adapt a template to make the page.

The gorgeous template is by Dawn Inskip and is available at her Pickleberrypop Store HERE. It is such fun working with templates and I actually altered this one very little. Dawn's templates are very rich and lush - not like any others around actually.

The template is 12 x 12 format but it is really easy to change in a photo editing program like Adobe.

The flower with the bees was taken on a trip to Hampton Court a few years ago and I just love the photo and have been dying to use it in this album.

Once again I used a definition for the word as well.

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Eleanor here, still working on a large quilt.

I find a great deal of inspiration from books, and this latest square was no exception.

I got this book from my local library, and it has now gone onto my wanted books list, as it is one of those I simply have to own.

 

I love the background on this particular page (I love the owls too, but they are another project for another day):

 

This is my background, inspired by the owl page:

 

And here is a butterfly, chosen for the inspiration they give me, because of their fascinating metamorphosis. Mine changed from a pile of coloured organza scraps, some embroidery floss and a length of mohair:

   

into a butterfly.

Finally, this page in the book,

"Embroidered Flora and Fauna"

by Lesley Turpin-Delport and Nikki Delport-Wepener,

is another wonderful source of inspiration, and one I shall definitely be turning to in the future.

 

such wonderful little details, and so many beautiful techniques.

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Hi, this is Mandy.

Nothing gives me a bigger dose of INSPIRATION than the thought of trying new crafty techniques.  Recently I've been all inspired by the fab canvas projects I keep seeing all over the web.  So, what better than trying out new techniques on canvas for a page about 'inspiration'?  Here's my canvas page for my fabric book.  It's called 'Inspiration grows''...

I began by stamping some Paper Artsy flower stamps onto a piece of canvas, with brown STAZON ink...

Next I made a leaf-shaped mask out of white paper and stamped a text stamp through the mask to get a stamped leaf...

I cut some thin canvas stems and stamped them with a swirly stamp.

Next I coloured my leaves and stems with 3 shades of green 'Pebeo' fabric paints, blending with my finger.

I used pink, orange & bronze paint to colour the flowers and cut everything out.  I quickened up the drying process with my heat gun... 
 

I wanted the edges of the flowers and leaves to curl up off the canvas page so I only sewed the centres of the flowers and leaves, using yellow thread in my sewing machine...

here's a close-up...

Hope you're feeling inspired!

Bye,

Mandy.

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Well, I was beginning to worry that I had lost my steam for this project, seeing as in the last three months I've finished one late, started another and skipped out another altogether. However, I love my journal and I love the mix of creative styles at It's a Creative World, so I really wanted to stay involved.

 

My project is a tall skinny journal with collaged and painted pages, that I am using as an art journal for the project. I have many sorts of sketchbook/art journals at home, ranging from the brain dump books I carry around, filled with jottings and sketches and things glued in randomly; to books filled with experiments on techniques; to more planned and studied artworks contained in a book. This one falls in the middle, I'm trying to keep it very loose and spontaneous, and I've made it a rule that I add very free journalling, just stream of consciousness based on the word of the month. I used crayons this month both water soluble and non-soluble because I find crayons hugely inspiring!

Thanks for looking!

Kel x

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We hope you have been inspired by what inspires us. If you make anything as a result, please let us know, we'd love to show it next month, when our new word will be