Dylusions Dyary

Have you seen the new Dylusions Creative Dyary?

It's such a great idea, I love it!

And you can get tons of accessories for it too.

I've decorated the outside of mine with Dylusions Daisies coloured with my favourite product at the moment, the Ecoline Watercolour Brush Pens. I added some Stickles for a bit of bling too.

I've added some Little B's washi tape down the spine and some Liquid Pearls around the "year" box. 

The numbers I've stamped are from the New Tim Holtz Cling Foam Alphabet/numbers stamps (they work really great, and fit perfectly).

Look at these yummy accessories, there's lots of stickers, colouring sheets, die cuts to colour in, stamps and the large heart paperclips :)

This is the inside of the front cover. 

I stuck book pages down on the right. Then gessoed both sides, painted, stencilled and stamped the pages.  

I carried on with the bling theme by adding some gilding flakes to the circle stamping.

More accessories here too with the Stick Its slotted into the front wallet.

Shiny loveliness

The quote is a Project Life card.

This is from my first week, more colouring from the Ecoline Watercolour brush pens.

My second week

Love the fact that one side is for decorating :)

Such a great idea Dyan xx

Go get one they're great xx

Calendar Art Journal January 2016

I'm getting back into my Calendar Art Journal. 

I always like looking back at what I was doing and the arty pages I made. 

It really is a bit of a snapshot of how you were feeling at the time and you can see what crafty products were influencing you.

This is the Uber talented Kate Crane's idea, she has a whole Facebook Page dedicated to it. 

Art Journaling Calendar Challenge

She has a tutorial on her blog on how to start. 

Why not have a go.

I'm off to see what crafty products are in the New Year's sales :)

I went with an Icey blue theme. But it's still very warm!

Warm but windy though. I drew the blowing cloud with pencils but coloured it in with my NeoColour Crayons.

I drew trees that were being blown by the wind

The snow like media is DecoArt's Crackle Paste, which looks great when sprayed with a blue shimmer mist.

I've used Indigo Blu's gilding flakes and Flitter glue to make the lovely silvery flourishes. The stamp is a Crafty Individuals (CI -182) flourish.

I also used two stencils in the background, the blue swirls (Crafters Workshop) and the black arrows (Dylusions Arrows)

Did you spot the whether symbols that they use on the tele?

I just thought I'd draw them in too, seeing as we are having unusual weather this winter.

Tara for now xx

2015 A year to remember and a year to forget

Hello my crafty friends, you've not heard much from me in 2015, I'm very sorry about that.

I didn't lose my mojo or anything, I lost my Mum and it threw me for six. :(

But when one door closes another door opens and I was blessed with a beautiful granddaughter in June, called Autumn Rose. She's wonderful and she makes me smile lots. :)

So here's a round up of my crafty year, with many things that didn't make it on the blog.

Lots of painted driftwood

 

Painted wooden plaques

Driftwood Seahorses

I belong to the sea Canvas Class at Art from the Heart

Crackle ATC's playing with DecoArt Crackle Glaze

July Tag class at Poppy Rose in Stockton-on-Tees

25th July Seahorse Canvas at Art from the Heart

23rd July day out to York with Crafty friends :)
Mell, Kate and Gemma x

Gelli Plate beach huts, just playing in my craft room :)

19th September Cherry Blossom Canvas at Art from the Heart

4th October Cambridge, Mixed Media Fest, at It's Crafting Time

7th & 8th November Coventry.
DecoArt & Tando Creative classes The Beach Hut box
I'll do a separate blog post about this class :)

15th November Seth Apter class
I will do an update on this project when I finish it :) x

There are other things which I'd like to write a blog post for, but I'll put them on soon. xx

I hope you all have a fantastic 2016!

I'm starting the New Year as I mean to go on....with painty fingers!

Michelle xxxxx

Skeletons in the closet?

I've used my huge leather journal for this page. 

I've used Dylusions inks and the new Dylusions stamps 'Pin up Queen', 'Boney Maloney', 'Day of the Heads' and 'This old House'.

I wanted her to look like a carnival girl so I gave her a bit of bling with stickles.

I had to get my thinking cap on and draw the wardrobe and the effect on the stockings is from using Distress Ink through some lace.

I love the way Dyan's perfect skeleton's hand curls around the door.

I've been trying to plough through my huge glut of courgettes from the garden.

I've been making flans, bakes, cakes you name it. I think I'm going to look like one soon!

Any ideas are very welcome. :)

Hope you have a fabulous week?

Michelle xxx

New Dylusions Goodies

This morning I could have shouted at someone. For the second time this month my Internet has gone off and had been off since yesterday morning, I had no means of nosing at the outside world.  I'm also trying to shake off a cold and I've got a mozzie bite that's ballooned on my ankle! It was safe to say I was in a very grumpy mood.....but..

Then there was a knock at the door and it was a parcel for me...but I wasn't expecting anything...it was from Art from the Heart.....what could it be?

IT WAS THIS!

One happy Shelley coming right up!

I had a big smile on my face and this lovely parcel instantly lifted my spirits and I was no longer in a cloud of doom. 

Shortly after this the Internet miraculously came back on! Happy days!

So I got to work on inking up my Spray Ink Pad.

These are my most favourite colours, London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise, and Crushed Grape.

As you can see on the pad I have already used the Dylusions Flower stamp to make some fab flowers on a journal page. It's like making your own Big n Juicy pad. I love it!

So I set to work making a journal page using the NEW!  Small Dylusions Journal, This Old House, Day of the Heads and Boney Maloney stamp sets.

I did the background by lying my journal page on the ink pad. Then drying it, then doing it again and drying it. Then I stamped the skulls using the ink pad. You can see the skulls in the background below. I really LOVE this stamp pad!

I cut out the glass of the windows and put one of the skulls behind the window so you could just see his eyes.

I coloured in the grass using Prisma Colour pencils and I coloured the house, hat and eyes with Promarkers.

The pages in the new smaller Dylusions Journal are great. Nice sturdy pages all the same this time and they hold the colour beautifully. Well worth getting the lot really!

Thank you Art from the Heart (Ben, Dyan & Ali xx)

You made my day!

Have a great week.

Michelle xxx

Life is a tiptoe through the tulips!

I've made a journal page for Creative Expression this week.

I've used the flourish and the tulips from the Floral Silhouette stamp set.

I painted a background of salmon and cream acrylic paint and stamped the lovely flourish stamp around the edge of the page. I added some more layering using a Tim Holtz text stamp, some dots and some black circles.  I stamped the tulips onto white card using Antique Linen Distress ink, so it would not be too dark, when I coloured it in with Promarkers.

I painted the blades of grass on the bottom of the page,and painted the leaves of the tulips too with the same green paint. I really love the way the tulips stand out.

I have my fingers crossed that we're going to get sunshine this weekend..

Here's hoping.

Michelle x

May sunshine & flowers for my Calendar Journal

I got a little bit behind with my Calendar Journal page this month, but I've been recording my days in a diary until I caught up. If your not familiar with the Calendar Journal revolution, the very talented Kate Crane has a Facebook page where everyone shares their wonderful monthly journal pages.

I've used the fab Delicate Aster's stamps from Creative expressions to make the colourful flowers on the bottom of the page.

I've used Dylusions Inks (Lemon zest, Squeezed Orange, Fresh Lime, Cut grass, cherry Pie) to create the background and also used various stencils to add more interest. 

Then I stamped the Aster's using Archival inks.

I painted the petals with white acrylic paint so it would show up the colour better when using my Prisma colouring pencils. Also this was easier than stamping them on white paper and cutting them all out too.

I've coloured each flower using bright contrasting colours, I love the way the blue just pops out!

Now I can start to fill in my days properly. Actually I have forgotten to put my days of the week on, but I will add them later.

***************

On another note, I've been a little preoccupied lately playing with a new medium for me, oil paints.

I decided to do a still life painting of a few things I had lying around the house and some fresh fruit.

The great thing about oil paints, I've discovered, is that the paint stays wet over a few days so you can change things you don't like all the time. So since I thought I was finished the painting, I've revisited it about 4 times to adjust the shadows and tweak it a little bit.

I only have to wait a month now to varnish it, then frame it.

There's a lot to be said for acrylic paints. However, I really like the feel and smell of working with oils.

I'm looking forward to doing another one, I'd like to include some geology into the next one, so maybe some fossils.  I'm excited!

I've submitted this painting to Paint Party Friday, it's been a while since I did that.

Have a great weekend

Michelle xx