Special Offers & Other Interesting things...

Hi everyone
Hope that you are all well and being creative and productive!  I have been busy this week working on some items to sell at the local Farmers Market on 17 November. Leave a comment and share with me what you have been working on.

I wanted to mention these super specials specially for South African Readers:

WOOLHOGS has a fun special for November 2012 - If you order wool for R200 or more you get two surprise colours for FREE!   (Geuss who's going to be ordering more wool?)

KALAHARI.COM has FREE shipping on all items ordered,  until 31 December 2012. A great place to get Christmas gifts!

And then another interesting bit of news I'd like to share. (Specifically because these are great ideas to get your CREATIVE JUICES flowing) I got a lovely surprise GIFT FROM OVER THE SEA this week from a very special aunt of mine who lives in Australia:

 

An extraordinary card with a fabric border, leaves and bird. Exquisitely detailed.

 

And a very unique scarf that she had made for me- in my favorite colour!

 

The little bird detaches from the card and you can hang him up as a decoration- how cool is THAT?!

Thirdly :  Have you noticed that I have added some delicious NEW BLOGS for you to explore? See the sidepanel on the right of the screen: "favorite blogs and websites"
ENJOY!!!!!

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview to life's coming attractions."
-Albert Einstein- 

To find out more about the above course go to: willowing.ning.com

No Words Wednesday & A Winner !

And now for the WINNER of the fabulous little recycled Journal.  And the winner is .....(drumroll)......

I put all the names into a box and asked my precious Mom to draw one card and the name she drew was:

CONGRATS  Helen Stevens!!!  Your prize will be finding its way to you in the next few days! Enjoy!!!

Thank you to all those who  joined in for your lovely comments- much appreciated.  Keep visiting - there will be plenty more GIVE-AWAYS coming up!

I (heart) Crafts

A symbol I have always loved is the heart .  One can just never have too many hearts!!!
Here are a few examples of  heart crafts that I have created:

 

The fabric for this calico heart was stamped with rubber stamps using Cocoa Bean Brilliance Ink

 

These hearts were made with printed fabric and I stamped the  words on using Stazon ink

 

I made this wreath with Grapevine branches from my yard and cut the hearts from MDF wood.

 

Another calico heart decorated with rubber stamps and ribbon roses + pearls.

 

 

A heart black board I made from 3mm MDF wood and added a little MDF bird and rubber stamp decorations.

 

 

A rag wreath made by creating a heart shape from wire and then tying little scraps of fabric onto the wire

"Wherever you go ... go with ALL your heart"

 Have a happy creative week!!

Junk Mail to Jazzy Journal

Here's a cute and quick recycling project TUTORIAL for you today:

You'll need a piece of Junk Mail which is printed on  nice firm paper like this one:

 

Cut it in half:

 

Then in half again:

  

Open the pages out and Gesso them on both sides:

 

I decorated my dry gesso-ed pages with Acrylic inks but you can use acrylic paint or craft paint or whatever you prefer- do this on both sides:

 When both sides are dry you can add stencils, stamps and others techniques to decorate your pages:

 

on both sides of course:

 

Then fold your dry decorated pages in half and pack them together in a pleasing sequence:

 

Here's where I cheated a bit. I couldnt find any recycled cardboard firm enough for my cover so I used a bought sheet 12x12 and cut it to size, just a few mm bigger than my pages:

 

So you will have your pack of folded pages and your folded cover:

 

Put them all together. Open them up in the middle and make 3 holes with a sharp object in the middle at the spine of your journal:

 

Sew the spine with a strong nylon thread:

 

Tie the thread off at the outside of the spine:

 

So your book will look like this:

 

Tie little bits of fibres, wool, ribbon etc onto the stitches on the outside of the spine- which disguises the stitches and also looks really cute! :

 

                                                          so this is what it will look like:

 

Then the really fun part- decorate your cover.  I used fabric and little bits of  lace & sewed it on with my sewing machine:

I finished this whole project in a morning.  There you have a journal ready for drawing, painting and writing in. Or to give as a very special hand-made gift.
For a chance to win this beautiful little journal leave a comment below.
Comments will close on Tuesday Oct 30th 2012.
The winners name will be posted on Wednesday Oct 31st 2012.
Overseas readers welcome to participate!

No Words Wednesday

Hi all
I am hoping to make this a weekly feature every Wednesday.  It will be just an image/photo of something beautiful, inspirational or touching - with no words. Hope you will enjoy this new feature. Here is today's image

MORE Art Journal Pages......

I have been quite busy art journaling lately.  My creative flow is in full swing.  I am always amazed at how therapeutic the process of art / journaling is.  I find too, that the more simple I keep my pages, the happier I am with them in the end.  It's all about enjoyment, FUN and relaxation . So here are some more of my doodles; scribbles and paintings:

These are done in my bought journal:

These are done in my home-made journal:

Remember my "groovy" journal that I showed you a while ago?  Its a tiny little journal - handmade.  I have made quite a lot of progress with filling it up lately. Not much drawing or painting in this one - I have used a lot of scrapbooking supplies etc (+ tons of my new favourite product: Washi Tape)

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do"
-John Wooden-

New Art Supplies....

I was looking for washi tape so I googled it and happily found Cathy at PaperPeony who keeps a wonderful supply and will mail it to you. YAY!  She also has a full range of bakers twine.  I must admit I have seen bakers twine in card-making and scrapbooking magazines and it never caught my fancy at all.  However, Cathy included a little bit of bakers twine in my parcel and once I started using it in my journals I fell in love with it!!!  Definitely HAVE to get some more!!!  As for the washi tape - I seem to be sticking it on to anything that doesnt move (hee hee).
It is very difficult NOT to use it on everything - love love love this stuff!!!
So if you want to try something new- hop on over to Cathy's blog and have a look.  (She also makes the most gorgeous bespoke stationery).
Here is how she sent my order - it was like receiving a present- all beautifully wrapped:

I also invested in some artists/illustrator's-quality markers.  If you are looking for these or any other good artist's-quality art supplies take a look at Natasha's website :Addicted to Art.  Her service is fast friendly and efficient.

"Use what talents you possess, the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." -Henry van Dyke-

 FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN TRYING TO POST COMMENTS AND FOUND THE PROCESS COMPLICATED - I HAVE CHANGED SOME SETTINGS - SO PLEASE TRY AGAIN AND SEE IF IT WORKS BETTER NOW - MUCH APPRECIATED - WOULD LOVE TO READ YOUR COMMENTS!!!- CLICK on "no comments" below to enter a comment.