And still they come.....

Yayy, this challenge seems to have captured your imagination, well and truly. Desperately wanted to post these last night but wireless is really playing up at home, it is so slow at moment, cant understand it because I pay top whack for it..!!! I get so bored and irritated when it is

slow that I end up flinging it and going back to my art, lmao. You can just picture it cant you. Anyway I,m now at work and left the camera lead at home, lol, so can only show you what I,ve already uploaded...!!! Will have to blog again later tonight, so if you,ve any more to send in , keep them coming..

And please stop apologising and asking if the examples are what I want. There is no right or wrong in art and NO ONE is qualified enough to criticise what is in your heart. The biggest and most important step for me is that you START. The first step is always the hardest. I just make it up as I go along, I don't know the rules and I would just ignore them even if I did, lmao... Just because I do and teach Art Journaling doesn't mean I know what I,m doing..!!! I just know that what I get out of it is worth so much to me. And I just want to pass that on to as many people I can. I have years and years of shit inside my head that I didn't know how to clear and this is MY way of expressing it all.

At first I didn't realise that what I was doing was Art Journaling. I was just combining my love of "pratting around" with paints and magazine images that spoke to me. It was like going back to school and covering your books with meaningless images. I used to spend hours doing that. Then I realised these images meant something to me, something personal, and so I started writing the odd word here and there. Now you have to remember lots of people see my work all the time and I was frightened that people would think bad of me and my stupid insecurities. But that is not the case, because strangely the world does not revolve around me and people have more important things to think about, lol. They just loved looking at my way of expressing myself and wanted to join in. So I became daring and started writing a bit more and then a bit more and now you cant bloody shut me up..!!

I do have a lot of issues that I am in the process of working out and they are there in my work for all to see. But the only people who would really be able to understand what they are are those with the same issues themselves. So whats the harm in that..?? Art Journaling is not the be all and end all to solving whats in my head, but, frikk me, it empowers me so much that I don't care. So what you waiting for...??

This one is from Cath, her first ever attempt at any thing like this and totally out of her "box", and I think its great...You know what a button freak I am , so this really floats my boat.

This is from one of my regulars Pat. Just love the stitching on it.

And this is from her grand daughter Isabel . ant remember if she is 12 or 14, sorry Issy. You are fantastic any way, lol.

And I have to say I just love this one. The background is fabby, wish I had thought of it first. .!!! All I can say is, Bout time you pulled your finger out girl..!! Ha ha yes its Bezzie Su.. So there's no chance of you winning babe or there will be cries of "FIX" wont there..?? I,m not going to judge it any way , I think the standard is far too high for me to even begin ( yes that's a cop out, lol ).

So, I have to dash now because guess what workshop I am teaching today..?? Yes you're right Art Journaling..!!! Yayy, they are all arriving as I type so I,ll report back later..

Enjoy xx

A Quaggle of Queens...

Forgot to show you this pic of 2 of my Wed night girlies with the tags. They had great fun doing these under the supervision of Pam. Kids classes have now ended for the summer so I wont see any of them for over 6 weeks. They have all taken their art journals home and I cant wait to see what they produce over the summer. Have a good one , all of you...xx

Here's some better photos of the Step by Step Beauty Queen page I did, and it has stayed its true colour this time..!!

So the cry went out for your Queen creations, and respond you did. Here's some..

This is from Sharon, cool idea. There are a lot more piccies on her BLOG

This is from Ann J. Love the title...!!! That's her going mad on lingerie shopping seen as she doesn't have to buy the biggest pants in the world any more..!!!

The next four are from Janet K, and I am so pleased she has entered as she has no confidence in herself whatsoever..!! I think she has done a cracking job.

And this one is from her 14 yr old daughter Heather, who up until today has expressed no interest at all in art. But this grabbed her attention and she just had to have a go. Way to go Heather, keep it up.

And here's another one of mine...

Keep them coming in, I,m loving them... Sarah H - your link isn't working hun, can you email me another one..

Right, must dash, I am in the middle of designing new papers and stamps...Yayy...

Enjoy xx

Beeswax Queens...

Sorry didn't blog last night, couldn't work out how to do photos on our Tom's computer that I have commandeered. Poor thing he hasn't owned it a week yet and I,ve purloined it. By the time he gets it back it will be chocker with all my work, lol. I cant work out how to edit all the photos so you've got them "as is". Please address any complaints to my "do I look bothered " department, where I will collate them all and place in a bag...

So on to yesterdays workshop, which is one of my favourites...Beeswax Collage. Once again it was a really full class, with some lovely people attending. Jan brought along the shoes that she got married in for shoe watch...

Here they are in action

Lynn, Pat, Issy and Jan.

Anne, Janet and Jane

Shelley, Sandra and Sara

and Sue, Diane and Alison

A big thanks to Sara who brought me a big bunch of my favourite white lilies. And also to Jane who brought me a fabby tattoo book. cool...

Here are there finished canvases

And here's one I threw together for a demo. Ads you can see it will need to be remelted because the underneath flower is showing through her coat, lol. See we all do silly things. But it will be easily remedied...

Here's the first entry for the Queens competition from Su.

And the 2nd from Fiona more pics over on her blog.

For those of you who haven't entered , you need to nip over to Lisa's altered art and purchase one of her digital downloads of the queens sheets. Then make something with one of the queens and send a piccy to me. Prizes up for grabs - goodies from me and digital downloads from Patti. Cool eh..??? You've got till the middle of next week to send them in so get going with your art...

Patty who owns Lisa's Altered Art is a little darling and I just wanted to share an email that she sent earlier today.

Hi Dyan,
Oh wow..did they ever come around!! It was pretty amazing. I have already had a few orders for the Zetti sheets as well!! You know I have to say...the ladies you sent me are some of the nicest people I have ever talked to. I was telling Sue Johnson...I wish so much I could take one of Dyan's classes. Just to hang out and talk with all of them all day!! I bet you have the best times in your classes!! They have all been so wonderful and friendly!! I love them all!! I think I will have to move there.
Thank you again so much!! You have been too good to me!!!
Patty

see she loves you all, yayy...

here's another few pages I made yesterday. Starting with a bit of a step by step.

I coloured a piece of card with Claudine Hellmuth paints.

I then placed a Crafters Workshop template on top and went over it with Distress ink.

I added stamps here and there

I then stamp spots onto painted book pages, and cut out the pennants and attached to page. Added paint in one corner and added the beauty queen.

And now for some totally unexplainable reason the whole thing appears to have changed colour,lmao. Sorry about that. I added lines and journaling, and topped it off with pencil crayons and oil pastels.

And another one. This is sewing queen. The spools etc are also a Lisa download sheet.

And the last one today, which is meant to be orange, honest. Not quite finished, but she is Glamour Queen.

I lurve em so much.

Enjoy xx

C'mon, bring it on....

C,mon y'all, take up the queen challenge, I dare you. Don't think you have to be really arty, I just want to see what you all come up with. I'll try and do some more simpler one.s for you over the next day or two. Cool prizes at stake.....

Altered the appointment with the Bank Manager till next week. He said he was expecting my call... Forgot that he reads the blog, lmao.... Sorry about that and I am working on the figures as I,m typing, honest..( it's really hard to type when you have the fingers of both hands crossed ) .

Now you know we have been putting all our ditsy Blonde Moments down to our age..?? Well what excuse does the Goddess have..???

She rang up to book her car in for an MOT today. She dropped it at the garage, I picked her up and brought her back to work. She rang up later in the day to see if it was ready, only to be told they were still waiting for her to arrive with it. She couldn't understand it and was insistent she had dropped it off and left the keys. Turns out she had booked it in at one garage and taken it to a completely different one who weren't expecting it at all..!!!! She had to ring the first garage back and apologise for not turning up and then ring the other garage to explain why some random woman had left them with a car and no name or contact details...!!!! Ha ha I think it is hilarious as they aren't even near each other. She,ll have a red face tomorrow when she goes to pick it up, I bet...

In the meantime I am doing all the running around so had to give the girlies a lift home. They decided to come to mine and cook tea. Yayy, they are like little mother hens. It was lovely being just girlies together and we had a nice big group cuddle. Love them to death.

Ben's last day tomorrow before he heads off for Egypt. Things could be a bit erratic at our place over the next month as one or the other of us vacate the country for foreign adventures. This means that because we are not fully staffed we will not always be around. If you are going to be travelling any distance it would be advisable to ring and check that we are there. \Would hate it if you missed us.

Ok really busy day tomorrow. Fabby packed Beeswax class during the day. Last Tues kids for the summer, and then my regular Tuesday ladies at night. Oh and a breakfast meeting at 8.30 am over in Leeds the following morning.. Must remember to put my Superwoman knickers on over my jeans before I set off...

Will be lap top less from tomorrow. The charger has stopped charging. To me it is a simple case of , its not working, here's a new one.. Oh no, its we will have to send it off so head office can confirm its not working, and your lap top has to go with it. Yes we know that there is nothing wrong with the lap top , but dem's da rules...!!! Don't worry , you will be reunited with it within 14 - 28 days.. WTF..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How fricking unbelievable is that...???? Just give me another charger for frikks sake... Anyway , I cannot go cold turkey, so its all backed up on my hard drive and I am nicking (sorry borrowing) our Tom,s. It will be nice to see which letters I am actually typing because they've all worn off on mine, lol. Whenever anyone borrows it they cant work it out. Luckily as a youngster I took all my RSA typing exams and can touch type quite well. And of course there is always the old faithful spell checker for if any untimely rudies slip through the net, lol.

Hey just realised this is a post without the usal 15 - 25 photos, in fact there isn't one photo on here at all. Simples...

Enjoy xx

Return of the Mojo...

Cool class today, it was the quote tag album.


removeable acetate pages

always ribbons

Hardware and paint

and of course ink...

Now I want you to have a close look at this picture of our Ben's other half, the lovely Katie. Spot anything odd...??

We had only been going 5 minutes when she got blathered in paint. All in her hair...How...???

Anyway here's the rest of the motley crew.

All the S's... Sue, Shelley and Sandra

Jeanne and Cath

Katie, Karen and Polly

Claire and Helen.

Much was made of the fact that ,because I am still not well, I was quiet..!! What are they trying to insinuate...??? They need talk , this class consisted of quite a few of the rowdier student's...You know who you are..!!! lmao. Love it when every ones having fun.

COMMENT WINNER

Earlier in the week I asked you to let me know your Blonde Moments, you know those stupid little things we do with out realising. They all made me ;laugh and I did feel better for not having done some of them myself, though I am sure it wont be that long before I do..!! This was my fave.

Katy said...
Fabby piccies :) My ditsy moment recently was when I was getting dressed I put my bra over the top of my tshirt!! I actually walked out of the house looking like that, it wasn't till the bloke across the road looked at me odd did I look down and see what I'd done I was mortified!!!xxxxp.s. my friend and I are paying a visit on friday if you around?!

I just love it. How the hell do you do that..?? So embarrassing or what. So Katy email me your address and I,ll get some goodies out to you..

And I just want to say a big welcome back to

MY MOJO..

Not sure if its just a flying visit or what , but I thought I would take advantage of it anyway. The gorgeous Patty, over at Lisa's altered art, sent me some new images to play with. Can i just say they are frikking gorgeous. Right up my alley way. It is a new range called queens and there is something for every one, from Shopping Queen to Cupcake queen. Ooooh I am going to get soooo much mileage out of these aren't I..

So what to do. All my art lately has been out of necessity, either preparing for classes, writing for magazines or personal art journaling as therapy. I can't remember when I last made a piece of art, just for me. Art just for the sake of art. How sad is that. I just don't get the time to play these days and its killing me. So the question tonight was , do I prepare all the paperwork needed for my appointment with the Bank Manager tomorrow or do I indulge my inner passion and play, just for the sake of playing..?? I know which was more important...Yes the Art...!!!!

So what to do, didn't want to do my journaling, just didn't want to go there, so started a new Art Journal, especially for ART. Ha ha that's six Art Journals on the go at once, all with different purposes. I started by enlarging one of the new queens, thought about it for 5 mins, and then I was off like a woman possessed. I had to get it done as quick as I could just in case my conscience popped by for a quick visit and made me stop... Here's the finished result and I am really pleased with it. Its nowhere near my best work, but I enjoyed myself so much and feel quite rejuvenated.... I,ll just tell the Bank Manager I,ve got swine flu, I'm sure he'll be fine..rofl...

I,ll talk you through it. First I add some colour with Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints. I then applied Tim's scroll mask and inked over in places. Two of his background stamps were inked up and stamped. I painted a book page and cur out the pennant shapes for down the sides of the pages. I enlarged the images and words and stuck them on with gel medium.

I then doodled along the top and bottom, and added journaling lines. I cut hearts out of the painted book page .

I then started my journaling

I added the finishing touches with Karisma pencils and oil pastels. They always make the colours pop.

I feel so much happier now that my soul has been fed and watered. And I refuse to feel one ounce of guilt at spending precious time on art for arts sake. If you have trouble with your guilt just screw the lid back on it tightly, and pop it in the fridge for another day.

Have loved this saying for years.

"Art washes away from the Soul, the Dust of Everyday Life"

I then hotfooted it over to the website and splurged on new images, Ha ha I never do things by half, I ordered 27 new download sheets and 2 special packages.. Yayy cant wait. Got some fabby images for the Christmas workshops and you just have to get the Halloween images. Oh and the 100 fairies special and the large fairies special. You see what am I like..?? Its no good you are just gonna have to get over there and see for yourselves, wont you. Go into the sale bit cos you can get any 10 sheets at a reduced price. Let Patty know where you,ve come from and say Hi from me.

So I thought we would have a little Art Journal challenge. Don't worry if you don't journal, just enter any way. I want you to purchase one of the queen digital down loads and do a page with it. It can be journally, scrappy, grungy. In fact anything as long as it isn't twee, and don't forget peel offs bring me out in a rash. Itsy bitsy cute little images will be instantly excommunicated lmao. No you can do anything you want just remember i will be picking my fave. So there will be 2 prizes, a big bundle of goodies from me. And - wait for it - Patty is going to give the winner 5 free down loads of their choice. Howe cool is that...????

So go over to Lisas Altered art, purchase one of the queen digital download sheets, tell Patty where you,ve come from, make some art incorporating it and send me a piccy. You,ve got a week to do it. Anyone game for the challenge...???? You know you want to...!!

Enjoy xx