2011 - 2012

So we say goodbye to another year that had been filled with crafty inkyness and hello to a new year which once my Mojo returns should hopefully be even more colourful.
Looking back at the year it has certainly been an interesting one. I managed to get my crafty creations published in both Craft Stamper and Stampers Sampler and started as a permanent team member for Just Stamps magazine.
I also went to my first ever workshops starting off with the Tim Holtz Artsy Crafts one in February, followed by another 2 Artsy Crafts where I met some lovely people and learned new techniques, esp off the lovely Lynne Perrella.
I took part in my first craft fair, a fun day and great confidence boost as people really enjoyed my makes.
I lost my mojo a bit in June which was scary but I soon turned it around by taking up art journaling or at least the techniques used in art journaling. I am not much of a journal writer but I gave it my own twist and created home decor objects in a painty, inky art journal style. Some of my favourite creations were my mirrors last year hence I am entering this one into The Stamp Man Awards for favourite project of 2011.

I also discovered my love for Stampotique stamp.


These are two of my favourite projects. The card I sent to my sister's boyfriend for his birthday, I think he wasn't too impressed with Uncle Buck on the front. Ah well, I think he's such an adorable character.

I also started painting canvases last year, mainly using collage sheet images as the main focus. I esp like working with the kids pics from Lisa's Altered Art, and also my own family photos.

These are just a few things I really enjoyed making last year, of course there were many cards and challenges I entered, let's hope 2012 will be just as fun filled. I have set myself a few goals for the year and once my mojo returns I will get making. I am currently updating and redesigning my whole website so I am concentrating on that for now. There will be some candy coming soon too. I had promised this a while ago but never got round to taking a picture of the goodies and writing the post so I will make that a priority!

Happy 2012 everyone!!!

My blog makeover is complete.... and a journal page

Welcome to my newly designed and improved blog. Things have changed a little around here, out with the old tired looking design and in with a new fresh design, all in white with a few splatters of colour around. I have been working hard on the new design and layout and hopefully it'll make it a bit more userfriendly and more pleasurable to read for my followers. I have also improved the presentation of my photos, been a busy bee playing with my camera and photoshop, so bear with me it's work in progress.

To get started I would like to share my first "real" journal page with you. I say real because before I have only done art journaling style things on canvases and decorated mirrors with it, but this one if actually a page in a book. But not an ordinary journal, no, this is a board book. It's chunky and durable and I won't lose interest in finishing it as it only has 10 odd pages or so. I hope to do one page every week - inspiration allowing!

I would like to enter this page into the following challenges:

Happy Daze - Explosion of Colour (Distress Ink and gold Paint Dabber available from the shop)
Stamp Man - Backgrounds
The Artistic Stamper - Backgrounds

So let me know what you think of the new blog. I will try to post every other day from now on, hopefully I can keep up. I still have to overhaul my website too, which is a little more work than the blog was. Laters!

The Craft Barn Calendar Challenge..... Week 4

Another week, another Craft Barn Calendar Challenge.
Most people in this challenge create a page each week and then have a calendar at the end of the 12 weeks. I thought about it but couldnt come up with a concept of how to make that calendar and have a page each month and also have all the pages in a style that they fit into one calendar. So I just make a whole calendar each week. I hope all my friends and family like calendars cause they will all be getting one for Christmas this year. Haha.

This week the theme is yellow and masking.
I used a strong card backing for this and sprayed with with various spray inks, then kept layering over it with more sprays using masks and stencils either sraying more colour or water for a ghosting technique.
This is in the same style as last weeks calendar with more sewing and splatters and all that. I used an image from Lisa's Altered Art Sheets and a little quote I stamped out on white card.

More ATC's to share

Yes I have gone a bit ATC crazy again, I always do things in phases and I think I just entered another ATC phase.

This one is inked with distress inks, stamped, sewn, collaged. I just love sewing on card at the moment. Bought a few rolls of nice coloured cotton, now I just need to fix the light in my sewing machine, the bulb broke not long after I bought it. Oops.

This is being entered into the current Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge.

I'm off now. Ally Pally and my bloggy friend Kim Dellow are waiting!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Wild Challenge.... an yet another canvas....

fairy canvas1
Originally uploaded by Anikraft

Yes it is indeed another canvas. I just can't stop making them. I am very quickly running out of space in my house now.

I made this one for the new Tando Creative Challenge where this month the theme is Go Wild. I know a butterfly is not really that wild but still an animal, also I went a bit wild on the colours with the pink and orange. Not normally a colour combo I'd go for.

Mixed Media Canvas

I was working on 2 things at once the other day, one being a mirror that I will share with you in the next few days and the other is this canvas.
I've nit worked on canvas for ages as I always like to make "practical" things like picture frames or mirrors or clocks. But I like this little picture, in fact it's goin on my wall rather than towards the craft fair I am making things for at the mo.
It is made up from enless layers of paints and sprays. It is also the first time I worked with printed images from Lisas Altered Art. I'm not normally one for using digital sheets but she sells some great images or kids and also old photographs.