guest posting and art journal swap

Hi everyone

I have some exciting news to tell you today and to share some things as well.

I hope the rush up to Christmas is not getting too stressful for you. I just wanted to share some more Christmas cards that I am slowing doing in my lunch hour at work.

 Of course they are featuring Tatty Teddy. I embossed all the edges of the papers with Silver Lightening and on the bottom of the cards I added some detail with the Gelly Roll pens in Clear Sparkle and Silver. I just love these pens, they write over anything and are the sparkliest pens I have ever used.

Now for my exciting news

I am excited today to let you know I am guest posting over at Your Heart Makes a Difference. It is on my favourite subject of Gratitude. Please pop over and have a read and let me know what you think. I just love the group that Louise Gale has set up over there. It is a wonderful place to share and receive kindness, creativity and positive thoughts.

Remember the snippets of this page that I shared with you here. I had to hold off on showing you the rest as it was being used in my guest post. So here are the complete pages and how I did them.

So my first theme in the swap was "my favourite word".

My favourite word is Grateful and here are the two pages, front and back. I decided to art journal on the front page. I used bubble wrap, reverse stenciling with the Mums stencil, some border stamps, sentiment stamps, stamping on strips of ribbon that had a satin border, and then I embossed some butterflies on the page. I then wrote why I chose that word and what it means to me.

 here is a close up of the butterfly. I used a sparkle embossing powder and I liked the way it picked up the colours underneath. It then acted like a resist when I rubbed the inks over the top.

I then doodled a Mandala on the back.....

this page looks a bit lighter than it actually is but I think you get the idea. I rubbed my 3 favourite Impress ink colours on it, Pansy, Indigo Blue and Aqua and then rubbed the whole page with a wet baby wipe to blend the colours for the background. The doodling was done with a black Copic marker.

Yesterday was my birthday and I just had to share the beautiful bunch of roses that my husband and two boys gave me. Aren't they just gorgeous!

 We all went out for a lovely Thai dinner and then some yummy Chocolate mousse for desert.

I hope you are all having a sparkly week.

My quote today comes from one of my favourite authors, Sarah Ban Breathnach who actually started me keeping a gratitude journal as mentioned in her book, Simple Abundance. 

Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need.

Sarah Ban Breathnach

Namaste
Lee 

Simply Christmas and another swap page

Hi Everyone

Just wanted to share with you something that is happening over at Shabby Art Boutique. Kerryanne is once again hosting the Simply Christmas event which started this week and goes till Christmas, it is all about getting us ready for the silly season without going silly.

During Simply Christmas there are tutorials, starting with this great planner, as well as guest posters and giveaways. It is all about simplifying the run up to Christmas. 

I also wanted to show you my second page in the swap. This theme was vintage. I have decided I am going to art journal one page and doodle on the other. Hope they like them. I forgot to take step by step photos but I'll tell you what I did.

I based both pages in a cream mix. 

 The doodle was simply using a copic fineliner. I am enjoying getting back into my doodling.

 On the journal page I used some Kaisercraft papers from their little paper pad appropriately called Vintage Timeless. I ripped and cut pieces and stuck them randomly. Then I rubbed some Warm White around the edges of the paper to make them blend in a bit with the background. 

Stamped over the top with the Kaisercraft Sheet Music background stamp with the brown StazOn ink pad, randomly all over. 

I cut some clocks out of the sheet of paper from the Vintage Timeless range and a word from the paper pad. Then I got out an alphabet stamp set and stamped a quote I found. 

It needed a border so I had a piece of paper that I had punched with a Martha Stewart border punch so I used that as a stencil with the Chocolate Impress Ink pad and a piece of Cut and Dry foam. I rubbed some of this so it was not a stark border, like some had worn off with time.

And how appropriate but totally random was the quote that I found given my previous post.

"The chain of Friendship stretching far,

link days that were

with days that are"

I am truly blessed to have the friends that I do and I am grateful to have them in my life. 

I hope they know how much I treasure them.

Well it is off to do some art today. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked yesterday so it is head down and bum up and on to the next swap page.

Have a great day everyone

Namaste

Lee