My Tuscany memories preserved forever

Thanks so much for all your support and lovely comments you left for my Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 103 over the last 2 weeks. I'm glad I did it "live" but it really was full on and I was pleased to have the time to finish off my holiday Journal from our recent trip to Tuscany.  I bought a Pink Pig sketchbook for this purpose and if you missed that post you can read about it here.

Daisy, despite only being 2 3/4 years old, is an avid crafter and I also bought her a little cheapie scrapbook to work in as I knew she would like to follow Nanna.  She loved it and we spend many moments putting them together at our glorious villa. I love this photo...so much concentration in one darling little girl.

We made backgrounds using Paperartsy infusions, stencils and stamps.
This was the idyllic terrace where we sat and crafted.

I also took my Instax camera and took lots of instant photos for us both.  I also used my regular camera and printed out some photos when I got home.

Each day I wrote an index card for Daisy and one for myself with a short summary of our day. For her cards she chatted about what we had done and then she agreed what she wanted me to write.
Here are some pages from my darling girls journal.
This is her little journal I bought (from Wilkinson's for just £3)

Here is one of her backgrounds she created. Impressive for a 2 year old I think!

and here are some of her sweet pages...she made these herself...I just stuck things in for her. I love the way she added her own "writing" after mine...she repeats the words as she add those squiggles, bless her.

Although I didn't have much time to sit and paint I did have 2 sessions when I got out my travel watercolour set and had my first try at "proper"painting.  I decided to try to paint the view from where we crafted. It was so idyllic and the only sound to be heard was the buzzing of the bees.

Below is my finished painting...please be gentle....I don't have any art training at all but I tried to get some shade and tones despite the limited palette of colours and time. I used some separate watercolour paper as I didn't want to risk ruining my journal with any spillage. I then mounted it in my journal when I got home.

So here is my completed holiday journal...I stuck some ribbon under some card on the inside covers so that I can tie it together. My added ephemera made it bulky.
The quality of the papers from Pink Pig is excellent and it really took the inks and water media really well.

Here are some of the pages from my journal

Little instax photos from our wedding anniversary celebrations in San Gimignano.

and remember the "Bliss" tag I created and blogged about whilst away. If you missed it have a look here first ........
Well here is it in my journal

The page below is special as Daisy picked up the doily from under a dish served to us at a restaurant we ate at. She gave it to me to "put in my scrapbook". She has the makings of a real crafter in her, seeing inspiration and useful ephemera everywhere.

It's a wonderful memory of our trip.

I would like to enter my holiday journal into the following challenges.

Anything but cute inspiration photo I was inspired by all photos, especially the flowers and created a very "vintage garden" themed Tuscan journal.
A Vintage Journal stencil it..I used lots!
Paperartsy patterns all my backgrounds were created using different patterns of stencils and stamps. Each double page is unique.
Snippets Playground 242 I have used soo many snippets to decorate my journal.
We love to create 1/2 anything creative/mixed media
Pile it on Make 3/3 your own background
Rhedd's Creative Spirit August
Stamplorations August mixed media stencil Sunday I used so many stencils in my journal!

I also added that wonderful Dr Zeuss quote in the back of  mine and Daisy's journal.

Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment.....
Until it becomes a memory.

How true that is and how many treasured memories I hold of our wonderful holiday we shared with Daisy and Co.
I just wanted to share 2 final photos from our Tuscany adventure...

 Do you think I love my sweet granddaughter.....just a bit ;0) What a lucky Nanna I am.

We've had a very chilled weekend as we babysat my furry grandson..the lovely Bear, my son's dog. He watched me craft too in my garden studio. I have been working on my Z piece for the latest letter in the dictionary challenge...it's a fun one!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A brand new art journal

My last post shared my final page of my small Dylusions art journal. Thanks so much for all the kind comments you left.....it's always hard using your own photo to create a journal page...not something we usually do.
Today I am going to share the very first page of my brand new large Dylusions journal. As I said last week there really is a big jump in size. Here is the old and the new together.

 I am not sure whether I prefer this or not but will see how I get on during the year. My initial reaction was wow....lots of lovely space.
My first project is a combination of several challenges as I do love entering them.

Over at the Craft Barn they have a new challenge starting which is the dictionary challenge. They are mixing up the letters and the first challenge is to use a word beginning with B .
My word beginning with B is beginning as I thought this was so apt for my first journal page.
I wanted a sentence to contain my word and came up with;

Every day is a new beginning.

I get so much inspiration from the area where I live and from my garden that I decided my first page had to feature flora and fauna. I decided to hand write my sentiment across my pages.  I wanted use lots of floral images and stamps to remind me of lovely sunny days in my garden and walking locally. Every time I open my journal I will have a sunny page to greet me, whatever the weather.


So here is what I got up to. I have a fun old dictionary which I use for some of my mixed media work...yes shock horror I rip out the pages.
I picked it up in a charity shop for a few pounds

I turned to the page for beginning and tore it out.

 I added the whole of the page in strips to my journal...keeping the "beginning" definition at the top left page. I added texture paste through several stencils.

I then added some green and blue acrylics, mixing around until I was happy.

 I highlighted my "beginning" words in yellow...like the sun in the sky and framed it with a Cheery Lynn heart die cut.

I also added my hand written sentiment and lots of floral stamping.
After lots of lovely paint and ink play this was my finished pages.

 Here is my dictionary page highlighted in a Cheery Lynn heart frame. If you look closely you will see some eye stamps...it represents me looking to nature for inspiration. I added some Tim Holtz, Crafty Individuals  and old tiny tapestry floral stamps. I needed some glitter too.....

 I coloured up a Tim dragonfly with inks and also added some sparkle to the wings.

I also added some PaperArtsy leaf stamps and some Cheery Lynn flowers with some sparkle.

I really loved creating my new beginnings pages.

I would like to enter my journal pages into the following fun challenges;

The craft barn dictionary challenge B is for beginning
Pixie's snippets playground  1/3 #212 I used a snippet of dictionary paper and a snippet of card for my dragonfly and flowers.
Cheery Lynn sweethearts
Sweet stampin 1/3  things with wings
Noor anything goes
Simon Says stamp Monday stencil it
Penny Black and More 3/3 one for the girls
Open minded crafting  3/3 something new my art journal is new.
Crafty catz  2/3 word art
Pile it on Use your first initial mine of course is J and this is J for journal pages.
Anything but cute Ring out the old...bring in the new this is my first page of my brand new art journal.
Bunny Zoe 2/3 hearts there are hearts surrounding my dictionary paper.
Crafty calendar something new this is my first page in my brand new art journal.

We had a wonderful first visit of the year from Daisy and Co yesterday. We were also joined by our son and my parents for a pre birthday party for my darling Hb. We managed a walk even though it was freeeezing out... can you see how I am  inspired by these surroundings.................?

the setting sun was so beautiful

We had a few flurries of snow this morning but nothing really lasted. It stayed very chilly though, so I had just a very quick visit down to my studio with Daisy Jane this morning. Every time she comes she points to Nanna's studio and takes my hand....how could I refuse ;0) Of course we had time for some inky play...I will share it soon.

Thanks for visiting and a warm welcome to my newest follower, it's always lovely to see someone new joining me on my creative journey. Keep snug everyone and carry on crafting.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

There are always flowers

I really adore flowers, they give me endless inspiration. Even in my tiny back garden I am able to grow lots and I am currently working on getting some summer bedding plants into my pots. I love that my darling granddaughter Daisy Jane is even named after a flower.

On a recent visit to Daisy and Co we went out for a walk and we always try to find a swing park at some point as Daisy adores swings and slides. I shared a joyful photo of her in a recent post coming down the slide and here are some more

whhhhheeeeeeeee.....down she goes.........

 How much joy can a simple slide bring to a small person

 As we left the park I noticed the daisies growing in the grass
 Daisy also has sweet new white daisy shoes (very similar to her first blue ones). Her Mummy and Daddy noticed that she has the exact colours in the cardi below which I knitted her.

Here is Daisy amongst the daisies

I had some more journal play in my studio yesterday after work and I decided to make some pages with daisies including her sweet Daisy shoes. I found this great quote to work with

 I wanted to play with my PA acrylics as they were the perfect colours in Daisy's cardigan

 I decided to create a brayered background adding one colour at a time

 I love the textures here

 For the daisies I used my cheery lynn die cuts and added some DIs for colour to the centres

 I won these fun Little Claire Designs stamps a while ago and decided to use them as a daisy rather than a sunflower

I pressed them into my paint and added some random stamping in pink

 and blue

I then had a think about my design and came up with this to start with...I wanted to add something more but I did not want to detract away from the background too much. I also wanted to try to link the daisies in some way. I had a light bulb moment as I remembered the stitching on her shoes...they are like doodles making a daisy chain.

So yes I had the idea to try my hand at doodling....if you have not seen this talented lady in blog land check her out here...Joanne Fink. She adds so many creative doodles to her work. I have been admiring her work for a while and I decided it was time to jump in feet first.

Now it was a brave idea of mine as I knew that if it went badly I could end up spoiling my lovely background. I also don't have the correct pens, I just used a thin black needle pen and a white cheap gel pen. But goodness me it was such fun......I spent ages doodling around my pages in black and white ink.

and this is my finished work.

I had SUCH fun doodling....I think this could become a new obsession. I have lots to learn but for a first attempt I was pleased. You can see I even had a go at hand doodling a flower on the left hand page

and a couple more close ups.

The other advantage with doodling is that I can add to my designs in the evening when we sit down.....all I need is a pen or two. I am checking out some pens. I think that Sakura look the best but if anyone else has used doodling on their artwork I would love to hear your thoughts. The only trouble now is that my head is buzzing with ideas....creativity is so infectious isn't it...and to think this started with a photo of Daisy amongst the daisies in her new shoes.

I would like to enter my journal pages into the following challenges;

Little Claire's outdoors
Paperartsy Topic 9 words I love using words in my art and as Darcy says in her introductory video there are so many ways adding them. She also showed some doodling and journal embellishments too.
Anything but cute vintage garden This is a new challenge run by blogging friend Pamellia, do pop on over and support her in her new venture.
Country View crafts simply scenic
Art with heart mixed media mahem
Love to create anything goes/mixed media
Our Creative Corner April showers bring May flowers
The Artistic stamper journalling your heart out
Frilly and Funkie happy, happy, happy I think my journal pages show how I am happy whenever I spend time with my darling granddaughter
Simon Says stamp Monday X,y,z this prompt made me think of school days and writing practice, we used have classes at primary school where we used to practice the shapes of letters and also make doodles...hence my pages today.

I am also going to link up with my friend Brenda with her visual journal. This is not a challenge, it's just for fun and inspiration. Please do pop over to see what latest journal pages people are making. The link is here #21

Enjoy your Thursday, the sun is up here and remember there are always flowers for everyone who wants to see them......just look around.... or in my case...they are at Daisy's feet.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x