Skype And Art Journals!

We did it!!  On Thursday Twinnee and I skyped and worked on two pages together in our Dylusions Art Journals.  It was so much fun.  Earlier in the week we chose three projects each, emailed them to each other and then made our choices.  On Wednesday we did our prep work - gessoed our pages and gathered everything together so that on Thursday all we had to do was focus on the project.  Of course we found our ideas on Pinterest.  The one we chose was from Dina Wakley.  I'm really happy with how mine turned out and am looking forward to using the techniques we learned in other projects.

Then we moved on to the second page.  At first I wanted to do something that tied into the first page but that was a bit of a disaster so out came the gesso and I started again.  I used a cake decorating sheet that Twinnee had given me and pressed that into the gesso whilst it was still wet.  It's hard to see it in the photo but you can see it in the flesh!  I used the same colours as the first page and added a few butterfly stamps that I'd just bought at Michael's the day before!

The time flew by.  We were very happy with what we achieved and are planning on doing it again on Tuesday!

I've also been busy out in the garden.  I'm just doing "clean up" at the moment but have some big plans for my sad looking vegetable garden.  I'd like to set up my little bistro table and chairs and put up my umbrella that I made hubby carry home from Europe a few years ago - it's just a cheap thing we bought for the beach, but it has lots of fun memories of that holiday!  Hopefully I can get out there this week in between work and meeting up with a couple of girlfriends.  Maybe a trip out to some Garden Centers and a purchase of a vegetable or two might motivate me as well!!

And yes I've been taking my photo-a-day again.  It seems like I've taken quite a few from inside the house watching the birds and this one squirrel.  Well here goes, these are from this past week.

This weeks pix are my guinea pig mug with a hot cup of Vienna (the mug is from mum and dad from this last visit - we have a thing for mugs!?!), a Carolina Wren building a nest in a wall mounted planter by the kitchen window on the front porch, my work table with my stuff for my travel journal, the seat of a shopping cart (at Target) - we thought Bean was funny 'cos that's what I call my first grand daughter, my resident squirrel, the stamp on the package I received from Twinnee and lastly the beginnings of a fern unraveling - a bit blurry but you get the idea!

Hope you all had a fun weekend, looking forward to another busy week so until next time...

I'm Back!!

I had the best time with my Twinnee and BIL (brother-in-law) over in England.  Time flew by but I think we did just about everything we'd planned on doing.  We wanted to do a couple of projects in our Dylusions Art Journals, spending time with our parents, playing games and doing a little sewing.

We found a video on Pinterest (no surprise there!) by MixedMedia Jenn and followed that.  It was a good first project as it was quick and easy.  Mine is the first picture and Twinnee's is second,

Our next art project is not quite finished, mainly because we think it looks awful, but we have plans to work on that in the not too distant future so I'll hold off showing that pic at the moment.  Again we found our tutorial on Pinterest but when we work on them next, we'll be on our own!!  More on that in another post.

In between our art projects we began our vacation journals.  Twinnee chose to do hers in a mini Smash book and I was making mine as I went.  I took photos at the airport, on the plane and everywhere we went.  Picked up ephemera along the way and had planned on putting it all together so that when I got home all I had to do was to get my photos developed and put them in the journal in the appropriate place.  Let's just say it didn't quite happen that way!  I'm slowly working on the entire journal at home but I'm really enjoying putting it together.  I did journal most days in a small notebook that I'd bought from TJMaxx a long time ago (I have a love for notebooks) and that is a great reference for all my photos and stuff.  We also did some Zentangles in our composition notebooks.  I'd like to do more of that but have a bit too much going on right now so I'll look forward to that soon.

Over the first three days at Twinnee's we enjoyed a delicious home cooked meal the first night as I was a little tired from lack of sleep on the plane, a traditional English dinner the next night of good ol' Fish & Chips, a yummy Indian buffet the night after that, breakfast in bed each morning consisting of a cuppa (tea) and toasted hot cross buns, a trip to Hobby Craft and a follow-up appointment to the doctors for Twinnee's back surgery.  We then headed down to Mum and Dad's to spend a week or so with them.

Our plan at Mum and Dad's was to go out for coffee and cake in the mornings and browse some shops.  Come home and spend the afternoon up in Mum's sewing room making our bucket bags,

                                       

our aprons,

I made mine from a Crate & Barrel napkin - they have the best selection of napkins and dishtowels! and our leather journals - another from Crate & Barrel (leather swatches!!)

The journals aren't quite finished yet but they look pretty good so far!  And then in the evenings playing board and card games after eating delicious meals that Mum had prepared ahead of time.  We even got to spend some time with Big Brother and his family and Twinnee's best friend from school.  It was a busy time but we had the BEST time and were sad to leave to go back up to Twinnee's.

Once back at Twinnee's we did another Pinterest found art project - a cupcake collage inspired by a pin of a cupcake by Nancy Standlee.  I don't have a completed pic of Twinnee's but here's mine

I have to say this is my favourite so far.  I love it.  We tore pages out of my magazine I took from the plane and one I'd picked up when we met up with Twinnee's best friend.  I watercoloured the background and did a little stamping and that was about it.  The photography is not the best as you can see my shadow to the left but oh well!

Another trip out to the Indian Restaurant - Table 27,  lunch with my niece at Prezzo followed by cocktails at The Alchemist, a little shopping and then my vacation was over.  It went by so fast but we had so much fun being able to spend all that time together.  I can't wait until we can do it again!

So now that I'm home and back into my routine I'd like to get back to taking my photo-a-day and posting them here.  I also need to finish knitting my fox.  So for the remainder of this month I'm going to CHALLENGE myself to do just that!  So until next time...