Art Journaling !!

Just trying out some Art Journaling, it's not something I have done a lot of so please excuse any mistakes.

One thing I HAVE learned though...DON'T do any if you are in a bad mood....it can lead to some very dark and depressing images!! :(

Or maybe DO if you are into the 'intuitive art', It can be good therapy in a way.

As you can see I WASN'T in the best of moods when doing this piece, but I am quite surprised with the way it's turned out really, wasn't sure what to expect at all when I saw all those images I had printed out ... lol..

Just some Black and White "chains" images from Google, cut out out and coloured using some Distress inks, The background are actually just 'spare' paint from a palette that I had been working with on another project, as I'm pretty constantly skint I didn't want to waste it so just brushed it randomly over the two pages to use it up. Burnt Umber, Copper Metallic a little black and a little white, some spray inks and  a "Chicken wire" Background stamp!

All very dark and dingy !! I must admit to REALLY liking this intuitive art stuff though....wonder what I could come up with if I'm in a good mood !! lol !!

Anyway, Thanks for dropping by,

Take care

Jackie x

Sunday Stamper week 190 " Bubbles " !

Good Afternoon everyone, over on Hel's Blog The challenge for the Sunday Stamper this week is " Bubbles" !!


I decided to do some tags this time....plain white ones to be exact. I stamped and embossed in clear the Bubbles from the " Divas " stamps from Joanna Sheen . Then I coloured them using Faded Jeans Distress Stain, then spritzed with water and left it to dry.

The main image is coloured using promarkers as is the little jar of bubble bath... Added a phrase to another smaller tag then finished off with a couple of matching ribbons.!

Love the way this has turned out, I think it's such a fun image :D

Thanks for looking and enjoy your Sunday everyone

Take care

Jackie x

WOYWW 138 !

Lots of "stuff" !! As usual.... *sighs* ONE of these days I WILL get it tidied! ( looking very much like the day that pigs are gonna fly though)!!


Anyway, I'm in the process of altering a cigar tin! So far I've sanded it down and just painted it with cheap whit acrylic paint! If you look carefully you can see how professional my 'artists gear' is!! NOT ! One mucky plastic tub for the water and an old CD for a paint palette lol!!

There's also some finished / unfinished projects I've been working on over the past few weeks!

So if you want to see who's desks are tidier than mine then why not hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and see for yourself!

I'm off to do a ;little catch up on the blogs I've missed over the past couple of weeks!

Take care and Happy WOYWW !

Jackie xx

Sunday Stamper week 189 "Eyes" !

Sorry I'm a day late with this, I didn't really feel like crafting much yesterday after the funeral on Saturday, it was a tough day!

Anyway I DID manage something today though!

Over on Hels Sunday Stamper the theme is "eyes" !! And is that a tough one for me!! I have a 'thing' about eyes and they tend to freak me out! Silly I know but if they are 'detatched' in any way I just go cold!!...I'm fine as long as they are on faces!! lol

So without further ado I'll show you what I came up with....

See! The book DOES have something to do with eyes!! lol.... all be it in a round about way...but I got there in the end lol


I've had this Altered Book Stamp from Sunday International for years and only used it once!! How shocking is that cos it's simply fantastic! Absolutely LOVE the 3D - ness (is that a word?) lol... of this piece! And it wasn't hard to do either.....just stamp and cut it out! And then decorate to your choice! The only stamps  that aren't in the 'kit' are the Gibson Girl and the phrase....everything else came with it. I coloured all the embellishment lightly with Inktense watercolour pencils but left them dry then Distressed over them with Brushed Corduroy Distress ink to give them an aged look. The cover was done using Versafine Vintage Sepia for the stamp, then distressed with Brushed Corduroy and fired Brick, I used Walnut Stain, for the crackle background stamp and then just sprayed over some Antique Brown spray ink. I added some Glossy Accents to the eye glasses to make them look like glass, then just added some funky fibres to the 'bookmark'!

Really enjoyed doing this piece! And just simply had a blast watching it all come together, Hard to believe it's all done using two sheets of A4 cream card!!


Thanks for looking in,

Take care

Jackie x

Groovy Baby part II .

I wasn't quite sure what to do with this after inking it, but I showed my son what I'd done so far and he said " looks like flowers " .... referring to the running and bleeding of the ink! ...... Soooooo ......

I just drew some simple style flowers and highlighted them in white pen!!  Just added a white leaf to the empty space.

I do quite like this which is surprising because I'm not usually one for bright colours....maybe it has something to do with the 'plum/purple' ..... lol


Thanks for looking in


Jackie x

Groovy Baby !!

Woah! Pass the sunglasses!! lol....

I bought these nesting boxes from Ikea yonks ago and came across them again today when I was SUPPOSED to be tidying my craft desk ... *sighs* ....


I have that big canvas box at the back of my craft desk stuffed full of ... ermm ... well ... stuff !! lol... lots of little packs of embellishments and other things and it's driving me nuts looking at it overflowing all the time!! So thought I'd try and find another solution! Not sure if this will be any better but I DID enjoying playing lol !!

Anyway, as you can see, these boxes are just plain, but they are not a 'smooth' finish and are very VERY absorbent! I didn't really know what I was going to do with them but my distress stains were sitting on my desk.... soooo... Too good an opportunity to miss innit!! lol

Sooo I stained the box with Wild Honey, Faded Jeans and Forest Moss randomly on all four sides then spritzed with water! It was great to see all the colours 'bleed' and blend into each other, made it look a lot 'smoother'.... but it just needed something else.... AHA ! WILD PLUM Alcohol Ink !! EEKS !! But just such a strong and luscious colour! So I sprayed close up with water, dripped some ink, sprayed again and just left it to 'spread!! WOW!! Love it!! It has a Tied Dyed look and it's great!! All I need to do now is find some stamps to use on it! That should happen when I'm tidying my desk!! I WILL , honest!! lol....

Anyway here's a close up of the effects on the box ... cool or what!?!

Got another little surprise today too :D My Blog Candy winnings from Hels !! I was a winner in her Give away before Christmas and only found out last weeks! :o ..

I have already got a couple of ideas for a couple projects with some of the pieces in that pack so I will probably start next week, hopefully by then things will have settled down a little. It's my Mother in Law's funeral on Saturday so it's going to be tough.


I would just like to say a big Thank You to Hels for the lovely give away and also for making me smile! :D


Take care all and thanks for dropping by

Jackie x

Altered Picture Frame .

Another little plain wooden picture frame that I found in the 'box under the bed'!! lol

This one is slightly bigger than the Black one I showed previously so it gave me a bit more space to play!

I sanded it down and then painted it with Burnt Umber Acrylic paint, let it dry, then mixed up some white with the brown and randomly brushed over the top, then while it was still wet i rubbed it over with a damp cloth, it gave it a slightly 'limed' effect....nice...but not quite right, so, I dry brushed on some Gold Acrylic metallic paint, STILL not quite right lol...so...I sanded it quite roughly to show the wood underneath...looking better but I'm still not happy...so I sprayed over some Tattered Leather Glimmer Mists and brushed it in...ooooh yes!! I just then rubbed a little Fired Brick Distress Ink onto the bare wood that was sanded and THAT'S IT !!! That's the look!! Reeesult!!!

Sooo... after a hot cup of coffee... lol.... I then got to work on the background...Some plain brown Kraft card sprayed with Midnight and Tattered Leather Glimmer Mists, dried with a heat gun (yes I am impatient)! lol. Then sprayed over with an ordinary Antique Brown and Gold spray ink. When dried I randomly stamped The Chicken Wire Background stamp from The Artistic Stamper then heat embossed with Gold powder.

I cut the Alterations Caged Bird using brown Kraft card then sprayed it and distressed it before stamping and embossing with The Dots Background Stamp From The Artistic Stamper. I used the Branches and Birds for the trees (oddly enough) which were then distressed with Brushed Corduroy and Forest Moss inks. I just highlighted the details with a gold marker.

The Flowers were done using The Flower Power them plate and also The Tick Tock Flowers Steampunk theme plate, they were stamped onto  some plain and patterned paper then distressed with Fired Brick Distress ink. The big butterfly at the top of the frame was from The Tick Tock Butterflies themeplate and was stamped onto some patterned card then again Distressed with Fired Brick ink. The phrase was stamped using the words from The Rose Stem Script  plate from Chocolate Baroque. I just matted it onto some darker card then outlined with Gold marker to give it a nice border.

All in all this was a great wee project to work on and I did have loads of fun just using stuff from my stash! I am really pleased with the way it's turned out too and just love the whole 'muted' feel to this! Not sure if I want to sell now or just keep it for myself !!!


Thank you for bearing with me on the long post,

Take care and have a great day!

Jackie x

WOYWW 137 !

Yup! It's me again.... and back as 'creative' (that's messy to everyone else lol !) as ever!

As you can see I DO NOT do well at putting away !!!... *sighs* ..  I really must do something about that lol....now if I had a quid for every time I said that!!......


Anyway most of the 'stuff' you see on my wonderful creative messy desk is just from doing a couple of projects this week! So now they are finished it looks like I will have to be a brave wee girl and get tidying! ! !

Please pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground  and see how much tidier than me everyone else is !!! lol....


Have fun!

Thanks for dropping by


Jackie xx

Sunday Stampers Challenge.

Before I go any further I must apologise for my lack of blogging.

I have been sharing hospital duties with my sister in law, her mum took ill just before Christmas and was admitted to hospital, sadly we had the dreaded phone call this morning to say she had passed away in her sleep.

She will be sadly missed by everyone. RIP Margaret.





I had actually started this project yesterday with the intentions of finishing it this morning, but considering the circumstances I had to leave it for a while.

I decided to finish it off after dinner just to take my mind off things.

Anyway , this weeks challenge is " Gold"! So after finding this little picture frame in a box that was 'forgotten about'! lol...I thought I could do something with it! Looking at the finished article I think some of my inspiration has come from Jennie and Hels!! :D

Right enough waffling and lets get on with how it was done!


I painted the frame with Black Metallic paint, let it dry then dry brushed over some Gold Metallic paint, let that dry then gave the thing a rub with some sand paper to 'distress' it! Put it aside and got on with the backing, which is some Tim Holtz paper from the Crowded Attic pad. I distressed it with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, then sprayed some Antique Brown and some Gold spray inks over the top! Put the whole thing aside to dry.

The rose is from Chocolate Baroque an is one of my all time favourite stamps!! It's stamped onto some Tim Holtz paper then coloured using Inktense watercolour pencils. The Pocket Watches are from The Artistic Stamper, one is stamped onto plain card then heat embossed with Gold detail embossing powder, the other is stamped onto a chipboard shape which was distressed with Brushed Corduroy Distress in and then stamped  with Black Archival Ink.

The cute wee snail, the Butterfly and the Leaves from the 3D rose are all from The Artistic Stamper's Steampunk Range. The 3D rose was done using The Flower Power  plate , again from The Artistic Stamper . It was stamped onto some more of Tim's papers then Distressed with Fired Brick Distress inks.

Here's a close up of some of the details....

Quite pleased with the way has turned out because I wasn't really sure if I could concentrate enough to finish it off.

Thanks for taking time out to read this long post,

Take care

Jackie x