It's a Creative World

Sat Nav Bag

My daughter recently passed her driving test and when I saw some beautiful trim in a local fabric shop I could not resist. It has beautiful organza type flowers and beaded bits, there is no way on this earth I could possibly make anything resembling it, and it was in her favourite colour - purple.

I made a t shaped pattern from paper to fit around the sat nav.

I had to move Kami our cat first because he decided the wadding was a perfect place to sleep lol.

I sandwiched the purple fabric with padding in the middle and plain calico on the other side, they were sewn on the 'wrong side' and then turned the right way around to make a neat seam.

I sewed along each corner/edge  of the bag so the sides and the top would fold in the correct place.

 

Once the basic bag was assembled, I added some lace to the top of the bag and used lace and fabric to stitch on a handle.

I hand sewed the flowers on to make sure I got each little end of ribbon and beads to stop any chance of fraying.

Hope you have enjoyed seeing my little bag, now I need to make one for myself I think.

 

Debbie xxx

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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Washday Blues (or pinks, browns and yellow in this case)

Happy Thursday! Today I am here with something of a departure for me. Sewing. Not on paper. Nope. This time I've actually used fabric! 

For a long while (all year) I have needed a new peg bag. I've been using an empty biscuit tin which, frankly, wasn't really upto the job I was asking it to do. I had also, for a long while, had a set of three pretty cotton tea towels I bought from Home Bargains (something like £3 for three) with the express intention of creating something with them. So today was the day to gather myself together and get the thing made.

I'm not much good at sewing, following patterns and the like, so a foolproof design and instructions were a must. I did a bit of Googling and decided upon the instructions at this website for a really easy to make peg bag. 

And, just for the fun of it (and so you can see that I really am not good at sewing and not just saying that) here are the photos that show the simple steps involved.

Lay tea towel face up and turn over the top about 4" (or whatever depth required to accommodate your hanger).  The only wooden hangers I had were those with the trouser hanger bit on them, so I delved into one of the kid's wardrobes and found a plastic one with a narrower design. I also did without tailor's chalk (used a laundry pen) or the tape measure (I'm more of an 'ish' girl when it comes to measurements).

Mark the shape of the hanger for your sewing line.

 

Sew each edge of the folded section upto to the middle, leaving 1/4 inch gap unsewn at the middle for the hanger to be poked through later. (Remember, if you use your sewing machine a lot for sewing on paper, like I do, change to a new needle before starting.)

Fold up the bottom section of the tea towel so it overlaps the top section by about 1/2 inch. Sew up both edges just beyond the point where the top section is sewn on either side.

 

Cut away the excess fabric and create a notch for the hanger to go through (I used pinking shears as these help prevent fraying.

 

Turn inside out, add your hanger and fill with pegs. And hope for some more good drying days! Mine is here pictured with the other two tea towels that came in the set. Aren't they so pretty? I've have a bit of a trawl back through the posts here at It's a Creative World and bookmarked a couple of projects I may attempt next.

If you use a plainer fabric, you could always pretty it up by adding flowers, ribbons and buttons, but I thought this fabric was gorgeous enough without anything else added to it. They would also make really great gifts (especially for anyone setting up home) and craft fair items too.

xxx's

Suzanne

 

Gingerbread things

When my friend went shopping for nursery items I just loved the gingerbread and bunting theme. I decided to try and make a tissue box cover and a fabric container to match some of the things she had already bought.

I decorated plain calico for the fabric container, it is much easier to decorate while flat and then sew to the base.

I used blanket stitch, back stitch and a couple of crosses with co-ordinating thread.

I sewed the strip of fabric together and then attatched it to a circle to make the bottom. Around the top I used plastic boning sewn into a hem of ribbon to make it stand properly. This is definitely the cheats method and probably will make proper seamstresses shudder lol.

I painted the tissue box cover with white acrylic paint. I cut a triangle from paper so I could space the flags evenly around the box and keep them the same size.

  Once I had the outline I used a fine brush and water colours to start adding detail.

  I finished all the edges with a light blue paint and then sprayed it with a craft spray to seal the watercolours and paint.

I really enjoyed making these and my friend was really pleased with them too.

 

Debbie x

PUT THE FLAGS OUT, BELT UP AND SKIRT AROUND.

Ahoy there, Eleanor here.

Bunting has been everywhere this year, and it was high time I made some of my own, so when a friend gave me a bag of old clothes, I was delighted to see a shirt, ready for the scissors treatment.

This fine blue and white striped garment spurred me on, and I went off on a trip around the local car boot sales in search of more, all in patterns of reds, whites and blues. A total of 6 shirts for less than a fiver and I was ready to start.

First I cut the shirts up into large seamless pieces, and then I drew a triangle template on cardboard. Before cutting fabric triangles, though, I ironed my strips of material onto Bondaweb, double sided interfacing.

I then frugally cut as many triangles as I could from each piece,

before ironing them onto another piece of fabric,

and cutting out. I didn't edge the triangles or top-stitch them, I rather like the idea that they might become tattered and wind torn with use, rather like real flags on a sailing boat might.

All that remained was to string them along, and I had the ideal thing, remember this:

Well, perhaps you don't, it was one of my bargains, whole reels of bias binding for pennies each, and the blue one was just perfect. Simply folded and stitched along (these are 4 inches wide by 5 inches long)

and ready to hang:

With remnants of fabric, I decided to liven up the hem of a plain navy blue linen skirt I have, and then, not content with that, I decided a belt was needed. No belt loops? Simple (excuse my colour issues here):

First stitch 3 long straight stitches with all six strands of stranded cotton

then buttonhole stitch along the threads

making sure not to catch in any fabric underneath

and you have a belt loop.

Here's my mini bunting belt:

And so, here I am, ready for the regatta..

Until next time, fair winds and following seas.

x

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

Ruffles

(and I don't mean Jamesons raspberry ones, delicious though those are, with the pinkly coconutty raspberryish fondant.)

I mean these:

It's common knowledge that I love skirts, and make them in great numbers:

but, cheery though these are, sometimes it's nice to wear a skirt that's a little, well, frilly.

So when I spotted a ruffled skirt tutorial by Jona, I positively twirled for joy. Out came the 1.5 meter piece of flower fairy material I'd been hoarding and, joy of joys, it was so easy to follow, that I am tempted to add frills to everything I see.

Find the tutorial here, thank you Jona, it's brill. (that's pronounced John-uh, by the way)

Never made a skirt? Can't find a pattern to fit you properly?  Jona has that covered too, here.

Here's hers (that's a single ruffle but look at the fabric, isn't it yum ):

Here's mine:

and because a photo is cuter (and less self conscious!) with something small and sweet in it (hey, it turned out long but that's OK, I'm 50 now you know, time to cover those gooseberry knees):

My next project will be to learn to make a simple blouse, this one ^^^ is Florence and Fred, and whilst I love the colour (and the ruffles) Jona could teach them a lot about making a blouse that fits properly. I'm off to find a good tutorial.

Thanks again Jona!

Bye for now from Eleanor and Pretty the kitten.

Puff tote

Hello, Eleanor here with another bag variation, this time with co-ordinating suffolk puffs, or yo-yos, stitched to the border. 

The material I used for the bag was the soft wrapping around a gift from a dear Aberdeenshire friend, Bobs, one of our past design guests, here. She knew I would eventually find a good use for the material, and this is my first project with it.

It's actually a print dating back to the 18th century, originating, not, as many believe, in France, but actually in Ireland. The French liked it so much, they set up a factory producing it in Jouy en Josas, and the fabric became known as Toile de Jouy. This particular print is called Lovers Toile,

 

Another popular print was

'The Miller, his Wife and his Ass' !

It's a sturdy, lined bag, (no, this is not the miller's wife, nor his ass)

with a beautiful traditional print, and one thing's for sure, no-one else will have one like it.

There are plenty of tote bag tutorials on here, here's one of mine, Pillowslip tote, and here's how you make  Suffolk Puffs, also known as YoYos!

Cut a square of fabric just over twice the width you want the finished puff to be, mine here is 7 inches:

 

Draw around something circular approximately the size you need, then cut it out:

 

Turn over a small hem and stitch all the way around with doubled thread for strength:

 

Back to where you started, grab the little knot and the trailing thread and pull:

 

Until it is all gathered up:

 

Tie the two ends together with several knots, and rethread the needle with all four strands, as you will use these to attach a button:

 

Stitch on your button and if wanted, sew all the way through to the back to attach onto your bag.

I chose 8 different toning buttons:

Oh, and  I still have enough fabric left to make a skirt. Watch this space.

Bye for now.

Sew a basket lining.

Hi from Caz!

Today i'm sharing my experiences with sewing linings for my baskets. I love baskets and I love to use them, but if using them for knitting or crochet the little sticky outy bits can cause havoc!

I was really lucky with this little basket as it already had a plastic lining which I cut out and used it as a template to cut my fabric.

 

I wanted a double sided side so the pattern was inside and seen through the basket on the outside too. Once I had cut, pinned and sewn the sides to the top bottom, I hand stitched the underside bottom on. It was easier to hand stitch this bit as the fabric by the stage was quite layered thick and as i'm not a very good seamstress it was easier!

 

 

On this basket I chose not to have a frill, so I sewed the lining around the top to the basket using fishing line.

 

A ribbon threaded through the wicker finishes this basket off nicely.

 

I have made a lining with a frill, and found it quite a challenge! I'm sure it's not really, but I overthink these things and complicate matter some what!

 

For the basket above, I used newspaper to make a pattern. I placed the basket on the newspaper and drew around the base (sticking quite close because the inside of the basket base is much smaller than the outside). For the sides I wrapped the newspaper around the basket and cut out the size I wanted.

I bought a cute basket a few weeks back in Sainsburys and i'm waiting for pay day to go buy some Cath Kidston fabric to make the lining :) LOVE those apples!!

Thanks for visiting and haPPy wEEkend :)
Caz
xx

SIMPLE THINGS JULY - ACHIEVEMENT

 For our Simple Things project this month, we are delighted to showcase a wonderful art journal

by a guest designer Jayne Loughlin.

    First entry of my Art Journal – Achievement  By Jayne Loughlin

  

Hiya, I’m Jayne Loughlin. I’m married with 3 girls & work p/t in a Garden Centre. I also help run a craft blog for Fiskars called www.fiskarettes.co.uk . 

I was so proud to be asked to create a project for IACW .  I love the variety of the posts & can’t believe the ladies on the blog better their projects time and time again. 

I was asked to do an entry for Simple Things titled ‘Achievement’ & thought this would be ideal to kick start an Art Journal a friend gave me for my Birthday. My friend had decorated the book and added an entry & I love it but haven’t done anything with it & I’ve had it for nearly 3 weeks !   This type of craft is really new to me and very much out of my box seeing as I really don’t play with paints, or Gesso, and have never done anything like an Art Journal in my life !  I usually Scrapbook & dabble with cards, not to mention my Tiara making for my website, but I wanted to give it a try.

Items needed : Notebook , watercolours, patterned paper, photos, Gesso, brushes, black, orange & red felts, black acrylic paint, chequered stamp, scissors, adhesive.

So to start off on the first pages I used watercolours (2 different colours) and painted a frame then filled in the middle. It was really slapdash and not painted perfectly (see below)

 

Then I chose some photos and cut around the images. These were placed on the pages but not glued down yet...I  drew light squiggly lines with pencil where I was going to put the journaling. The photos helped with the placement of the lines, You might be able to just see them faintly.

 

Next on gloss paper I drew a thin strip & coloured it in with a chequered effect . This was repeated as shown in the photo below. Trim these two lines and glue to the top of your pages (i’ll trim edges overlapping pages later)

 

A few triangles cut out of patterned paper were glued to the bottom of the stripy lines. Now paint the whole pages and strips of paper you have glued down with Gesso in messy brush strokes  (this helps lessen the brightness of the colours ) Leave to dry.

I’ve now put a puddle of Black Acrylic paint onto a paper plate and stamped chequer board patterns using a stamp around some of the edges.

Again paint with more Gesso using messy paint strokes.

 

Glue the photos on top of the page and Journal what you would like to say straight onto the page...I like to not write notes so that the thoughts are from within; it can look like someone else writes this if you plan what to say and not be true to your feelings. There’s nothing wrong with this however, if you get a little worried writing off the cuff and want to jot notes down -  its your preference.

Last but not least I’ve doodled a little on the top border with the title Achievement.

I hope you all like it, and hope it inspires at least one person to create an Art Journal...If I can do it anyone can .

.There’s quite a good little link to help you choose themes, materials etc http://www.wikihow.com/Use-an-Art-Journal

Oh and a BIG thank you to IACW for letting me join you this month,

J

It's been our pleasure Jayne.

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Hiya Claire here with my take on the word of the month - achievement...

I'm using a lot of quotes in my little pizza box album & this quote from Walt Disney really struck a chord with me, The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.

This is something I should remember, there are many things I would like to achieve but I never get round to doing anything about it as other things crop up... so from here on in less talking, more doing :)

The quote is written on 2 little tickets cut with a Sizzix machine & a Tim Holtz Alteration die, they slide into a little pocket on the page

 

The pocket was made by using a strip of spotty patterned paper, stuck with double sided sticky tape but with a gap for the tickets to slot into, I then used some more die cut tickets to mount the title then added the dictionary definition & a small metal key...

 

thanks for stopping by to see what we've made & hope you enjoy playing along too...

See you next month

Claire

xx

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Hi Debbie here with my page on achievement.

I decided to focus on five things that have required perseverance or confidence to give it a go, and things I have enjoyed. Working in an infant school, being a mum, being a wife and creating a home, growing my own vegetables and becoming one of the girls on It's a Creative World.

 


I ended up making a double page as I wanted to put more detail into this page.

I started off by stamping a green background on my pages.  

I then stamped a flower pattern randomly over the top masking off the area for my title.

I cut flowers using a sizzix die and and circular punches and inked the edges with brown ink.

The tags were made using sizzix dies and are decorated to represent each achievement I wanted to remember. The tags are decorated with quickutz dies, stuck on with velcro and there is hidden journalling on the reverse.

The tags were a little too purple, so I toned them down using dusty concord distress inks.

The flowers were layered using foam dots to create a 3D effect.

I have really enjoyed making this entry, and I am really enjoying looking at everyone else's entries. Why don't you come along and join in?

Debbie x

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Eleanor here, still working on my quilt squares, and for this one I used both paint and embroidery thread.

I personally feel that one of the biggest and most important achievements for any of us is to have learnt to read. Of course we all did it, for some of us it was so long ago we can barely remember, but a huge achievement nonetheless.

I taught all of my children to read, and the books in the reading scheme we used at home have remained very special, to them, and to me. All three are now avid readers, and I thought that the word this month was a good way of preserving a memory of these books. Now that I've started, I don't want to stop, and I'm working on my second square right now.

I lightly pencilled  on my cotton fabric, selected a few colours of thread and green acrylic paint, and the result was this.

The green paint on the left dries well and if used straight from the pot, doesn't bleed (I used freezer paper to mask off the area). I then stitched the tree in mainly French knots and the words in white cotton backstitch.

The colour in the illustration was done with pencil crayons, and the line work simply backstitched. The red lead and the stripes on the cat were stitched, and finally, I made up a short verse about learning to read.

Originally my quilt was going to need many plain squares, but now I want those squares to be stitched Oxford Reading Tree reading scheme book covers. Here's hoping I'll achieve this goal.

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Dolly here with the next page in my words album.

I have been focusing on photos of plants and flowers for the entire album and linking these in with definitions and quotes and this month is no exception.

I started as usual by thinking about how this word - achievement - translated to the project and what it made me think of.

I have to say this one came pretty quickly. The photo of the the new leaves unfurling on a horse chestnut tree that I took back in April popped straight into my mind.

I love spring and one of the things that fascinates me is how seemingly dead twigs burst into life.

Now THAT has to be quite some achievement!

Here is the whole page

 

  
I used lots of blending both with masks and with the eraser to try and get the softness I was hoping for.

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Hi, Mandy here...

I decided to focus on my own personal 'crafty' achievement and although I dabble in many different crafts (don't we all?)...making my first quilt was my greatest crafty achievement (to date).  There were so many times I nearly gave up and got 'off-the-scale' frustrated while making it.  I made heaps of mistakes and it didn't turn out anything like the one in the magazine I was copying.  So, even though my first quilt is full of (very noticable) mistakes, I DID finish it and it gets used by all the family to snuggle under and watch DVD's in the winter.  So, this page of my fabric book isn't a page at all but a mini quilt using leftover fabric from 'The Cupcake Quilt'. It's a bit rough because I knocked it up this afternoon but I remembered the joy of free-motion quilting the 'pebbles' or 'bubbles' which was a fave part of making that first quilt. 

It will be tucked-in but loose in the fabric book.  I put a quote on the back which links happiness & achievement...

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

Franklin D.Roosevelt."

 

I wish I'd taken the time to sew the words instead of writing them with pen, but time was short this month.

Bye,

Mandy.
  

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Hi all tis me, Michelle, sneaking in ‘graciously’ with two entries this month! As time got the better of me last month for the post on graciousness the creative girls, ever full of grace said I could sneak my project in here … ok enough of the play on words and on with the project!

When I was planning my project for graciousness I kept thinking of the three graces so I looked it up and wikipedia gave me this;

Charities – known in Greek mythology as the 3 graces, goddesses of such things as charm, beauty and creativity.

I decided this described the 3 most influential women in my life perfectly

 

My mum, my nanny and my gran!

I decided to make a triptych to echo the 3 idea and made it from corrugated card, ripped and stripped and painted with brown acrylics (eco green paints my new fave rave!) to look a little like wood.

 

I generated the backgrounds in the Serif Digital scrapbook artist 2 programme (another new fave rave of mine!) and had great fun layering up images of statues, greek architecture and script to create my own papers.

 

I cut out the photos in the cut out studio and applied a shabby effect to try and make them ‘belong’ to the papers.

 

Finally some ripping, tearing and inking ‘melded the pieces together and a bit of florists raffia joined the 3 sections of my 3 graces.

And so to moving on to achievement. I thought long and hard about this one, there are lots of forms that achievement could take, many things that I am proud to have achieved in my life but I decided to look further inside of me and record my every day life achievements so far.

 

 

 

And I decided to award myself a certificate from the university of life.

 

 

Again I generated this digitally, complete with my own little university of life shield, before printing it off and adding a little bit of ripping and inking to make it look a little like an old papyrus.

I like the fact this word made me look within myself and record things that have really made me appreciate where I am and who I am today. What achievements are you proud of in your life?

Enjoy the rest of the work from the creative girls in this post, I love our simple things project, it makes you think doesn’t it?!

Until soon Happy Crafting Love M x

The team on It's A Creative World have no other wish than to share projects and ideas with blog readers, in the hope that some of you will be inspired. If you are, please leave a comment or drop us a line, we love to hear from you, and with that in mind, the word this coming month in the SImple Things project is

INSPIRATION.

Please join us.