Making books is addictive!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all well. I have been neglecting my blog for so long now I decided I really needed to get back on top of it. I have been a women on a mission since Christmas with so many projects on the go I don't know quite where to start!

I was bought some encaustic medium for Christmas and have been so excited to start experimenting, I have started up my workshops again. This month it is Intermediate art journaling, I have started a portrait of my youngest daughter and been trying out some abstract landscape painting...... but more on all that another time!

Today I wanted to tell you all about my recent bookbinding endeavours! I am most definitely in a binding phase and am looking to run a whole days workshop in May making Junk journals. Here is a few of my recent makes:

This is a little coptic stitched junk journal. The cover is made from an old book. I am using this as a creative journal to keep family memories in.

This one is made from a gorgeous second hand book. I didn't do anything to the cover cause I loved it as it was. I have tried to keep it pirate/nautical themed throughout.

This last one is made up of random pages I liked and lots of cool embellishments. The cover is an old cereal box. Throughout it I have included things like tags etc that have been sent to me. (apologies for the wonky filming, My 8 year old wanted to film it!)

I love love love making junk journals they are so satisfying to make, so tactile and so lovely to use. I am hoping to start making some to sell on Etsy. I will of course keep you posted on that!

I hope you enjoyed seeing them!

Bye for now xxx

Some Upcycled DIY decor

Hello All,

Well my creative frenzy continues and I am definitely into an upcycling crafty sort of phase. This coincides with a bit of reorganisation at home, I keep looking at every shelf and wall and thinking what I can make to improve this space. I went shopping and found in pound shops/charity shops/supermarkets bits and bobs to re-do,do-up and re-vamp as it were. Here is just a selection of what I have been up to:

Again inspired by Sealemon on you tube I took an old plain white mug I had already and had a go at some porcelain painting. It is a bit rough and ready but I quite like that about it and I love the text.

I found a plain cream blanket at the supermarket in the sale and some tea towels that I liked the pattern of. I got home and immediately set about making pom poms which I added to the blanket and I got my sewing machine out and sewed the tea towels into cushions. I love how these turned out, especially the blanket which was so simple to do!

This one has to be my favorite! The cushion here is made of a skirt I found at the charity shop. I liked the pattern but not the skirt itself. I cut off the waist band and cut the material to size before sewing it up and adding the cushion. To finish it off I added some tassels I made from some wool from my stash.

These are just a selection of what I have been up to, I really have the bug at the moment. I am looking at everything and trying to see what else it could be! I hope you like them and maybe are inspired to have a go at some upcycling too!

Bye for now! xxx

Bank holiday creative madness!

Hello All,

This lovely long bank holiday weekend saw me go creative mad! I started so many different projects at once and flicked from one to the other. My brain was filled with so many ideas and I couldn't wait to have a go.

Firstly I did a few journaling pages:

I was feeling happy and so inspired and I think the colours I went for in these pages reflect that. I just kept flitting back and adding a layer to these then moving on to something else and coming back once they were dry to add some more. I am really pleased how they turned out.

The other thing I was getting really excited about this weekend was some upcycling. I love the idea of taking something old and giving it a new lease of life. I have done a bit of this, some of my journals for instance are made from old boxes etc, but I would really like to get into this more. I was watching you tube vids for example Sealemon and Hermione Chantal who have some fab ideas. Turning something plain or forgotten into something that looks great. I particularly like DIY decor. I started thinking that once the kids are back at school I will start going around junk shops and seeing what I can find to revamp. I felt so inspired I couldn't wait and took a trip to my local poundland and chose a few bits to start with.

I am in the middle of turning a ice cream glass into a tea light holder and I also bought a few frames to do up:

I turned one into a shopping list by painting the frame and adding some nice paper inside. I found some little letter magnets in the shop too and glued these on to form 'shopping list' all it needs now is a whiteboard marker :) the little pot next to it is a pen holder made with craft foam. I got this idea from a sealemon vid and it looks really cute on my windowsill.

I hope you like these as much as I enjoyed making them! I will have a go with the other frame and finish the glass and post them up to see what you think! 

Bye for now xxx