February already

Already a month has past this new year!

Well January was very hectic as I left my job on 19th January and 21st was my birthday and oh boy did I get some fabulous pressies.

All for my art journalling...

Can't believe how lovely it all is especially my new Distress Oxide inks and new Brusho colours. I also have new corner punches and a big circle punch, that's the big Green one in bottom right corner. Stamps and templates for circles, oblongs and ovals (bright orange can't miss them).
Then other bits and bobs.... posca pens, knife and blending tools... etc.

I'm having fun playing now that I have no work....

Heres my family with me on my birthday having a lovely Sunday dinner.

I had a fabulous weekend..... oh and I picked up this beauty on Monday

Sizzix Big Shot Die cutting machine

Must stop looking at it and get on with using it..... I have put the handle on and unpacked it though!

I have a few dies on the way but I do have a few dies already.


So I must read how to use it and give it a go 😮😮😮

Bit scared!!!


Maybe tonight I will.


Wish me luck 🙃


Toodleoo for now


E x

Busy Beavering Away

I have been busy doing different things.  I have joined a different group called Mission Inspirations which is run by Mike Deakin.

Again it is an art journalling group with 8 promps each month to follow along with words and colours to also inspire.

I have found this more challenging than Art Journal Prompts as those are single word prompts which I enjoy as I'm more free to choose the colours and what I want to do.

I have given some ago though but not all have been successful.

I would just like to add that I now have a WordPress blog as well and I have been using that for my journalling.

Here's the link to that if you fancy checking it out.

Www.chatelainecreations.wordpress.com

But Missions for September and October are below

These are the prompts for September and here's my piece

Magpies ... I've used the word Vagabond as Magpies are right little thieves even though them 'collecting shiny things' is apparently a bit of a myth. They just pick up all sorts of things.

I wasn't too happy with this one as the early stages didn't come out too well but I think the gold may have saved the day!!

Here comes October Mission....

It had to be Halloween like, of course, I just love Halloween .....

Autumn's Bounty

Oh I did have fun with this though.... I used embossing powder for the cobwebs and my new Tim Holtz Pumpkin Patch stamps along with a few extra card cutouts I found on a Mr Kipling cakes box. ... very cool, matched perfectly!! (The flying witch, cat, bats and spider all came from the box).

I'm a bit stuck on Novembers but I think December's is going to be much easier. I might just skip November's for the time being as I keep changing things and I'm  not sure about my focal image.

Its all in the learning and practice of course.

If you check out my other blog you will find more things I've been doing over there.


Until next time

Bye for now

E x

First page complete....

Yes here is my first journal page which is completely finished..... Yay!!!

I have others in various stages of completion but I am pretty happy with this one...

TIME - Week 25
(with a little steampunkesque to it)

I have joined a group on fb called Art Journal Prompts. Each week they have a new prompt (usually just one word) and you make a page using the prompt.

So 'Time' was a past weeks' prompt (25) but I had already started this page so I thought it fitted the prompt well.


The groups admin is called Nina Ribena who is in the UK so that's great as I understand where she gets her 'stuff' from which is so helpful. I found her YouTube channel and it's very inspirational and she always makes a video for each weeks prompt as well as other ones on various art journalling processes etc.

I'm enjoying this group and hope to do more prompts soon.

This week's is Nature so will love this one.... now to decide what to do!! 😆😆😆


Till next time

E x

Art Journalling... my new adventure!!!

Hi there

I have been getting some new goodies for my art journalling adventure!! (I LOVE MY MUM - she's been treating me!!)

Stencils arrived from China and the UK

And I got some Gesso too. Oh and Billie found some Mod Podge as well as other pens and pencils in her stash for Uni (I have to give those back though 😁😁)

I also bought some bits and bobs from my local pound shop as well as finding my fairy stamps..... Yay! !!

And a few others I had picked up from a free goody bag from some show I had gone too?? Can't remember which one it was!!

I was so pleased to find them as I wasn't sure where they were!!  They were buried in a cupboard in my workshop.... the reason why my workshop is NOT called a studio .. as I have many different crafts I've dabbled with in the past and that's where all my supplies and equipment are stored 😊😊 along with my Beadmaking equipment.

I've often made special occasion cards in the past so I already had cardmaking supplies but now ... with all my YouTubeing, I have some better knowledge of what I would like and now need to find the things I like to do, and, of course, a better understanding of how to do it as well!

1. Texture:
Is definitely one of them (hence all the different stencils).  So far I've had a go at making my own Gesso and Texture Paste. Out of my 'workshop stash' came Plaster of Paris which has more texture to it than using Baby Talc Powder (which can also be used). But I might give that a go too, then I would have a smoother texture paste as well. I enjoyed making that, so more will be done....

This one has my texture paste on it....

I also like... Colour:

So my new Gelatos and Neocolour II are intense water soluble wax sticks/crayons... love them.

Acrylics of course...

This is my first Art Journal page... not quite finished but it has acrylics and a bit of pink Gelatos on the small script papers ( I'll do a new blog post with better photos when it's done).



And today my new Brushos arrived which are Pigment powders.... just add water..... can't wait to use them!

Oh and a few spritzer bottles to add the powders to the water in the bottles.

I'm gonna love trying those out.

So for now... I think I'm all set to go!!!

I'm sure there will be many more things I would love to buy... but for now.... I'm gonna crack on and ....


CREATE.....

Have fun

See you all next time

E x

THE FALL

Hi there...

Back in June, 14th to be precise, I was at work (at school) on the playground and had a FALL!!

WARNING:
If you are a bit squeemish.... look away now!!!

Yes...mmmm... wasn't really a little 'fall' I went down with quite a 'Whalp' cut my forehead open which required 32 stitches, 8 of them were internal to close it up.... I'm afraid it went down to the bone....

Aaaaarrrrggghhh!!!

I also twisted my knee before I landed on it and that has caused other problems with my hip now.

So, all in all, it's taken some time to recover and I would say I'm about 95% of the way there.

I will spare you the gruesome photos but here I am showing my scar off

and me more recently showing how well its covered up by my hair

I still get a bit tired but I am trying to get back to normal.... ha ha... whatever that is!!


On my road to recovery I've been a bit obsessed with Mixed Media/Art Journalling and have now decided to dabble in this genre!!!

I've been a YouTube fanatic for weeks now watching all sorts of techniques and inspirational mixed media videos.

So now I have a few bits and pieces to start me off

Stencils, Archival Ink (permanent), Tim Holtz Distress Inks (water soluble), Faber Castell Gelatos (water soluble wax based paint sticks) and Caran D'arche Neocolour II, also water soluble wax crayons....

This one has a few stamps and some lovely decorative paper bags...

As an 'arty' person anyway,  there are certain paints and cardmaking 'stuff' I already own... along with what Billie has too....

So with all that... I have finally started some pages, some nearly finished but lots in my head.....

My journey begins...    with my FALL. ...

My future posts will include journalling pages as I make them... 😊😊😊 so if you are interested you can come along .... on my journey into mixed media!


As for beadmaking I hope to get back to it...... sooooooon! 😜



Have a good day


E x

Susie's Birthday Earrings

My friend Susie had a big birthday last week so I set about making a pair of earrings for her as she had a BBQ party yesterday.

I decided to use some of my roses and I needed something to set them off.

I had recently purchased some poly clay leaves from the very talented Helen Backhouse. Along with a bit of wire wrapping here's what I ended up with

I was pretty happy with how they turned out.... I added some dark purple crystals and balanced them with some big copper earwires made by me.

Here are a few other earrings I made recently..

I have to say I can't believe I've made all these earrings.... its not something I make a lot of but just love earrings especially long and dangly!!

These are all for me but I will make some more for others to buy soon 😊

Ta tah for now

E x

Summer has arrived...

Yes what lovely sunny weather we are having right now....

Things have shot up in the garden since our bit of rain last week and yesterday I realised my peony has some lovely big blooms this year. So I decided to snap them and bits of the garden.

My border is springing into life

Hubbie has just arrived home and now got his garden hat on and is tying things back so I just took these in time... hee hee!! Lots of string would now be in these photos.

Here is my Hosta which we have in pots to help discourage snails and slugs but it doesn't always work.

And the other border is looking a bit bedraggled as the tulips have started dying back now but the roses have started along with a few foxgloves and lupins..

 The rose on the fence behind will be awash with red roses by this time next month, always by my daughter Billie's birthday on the 24th June. One or two have started to appear.... I love it and the clematis which runs through it will have big very pale pink flowers too.

This is the view from my patio (excuse washing line I'm just about to put my washing out) which is much lower than the rest of the garden.... the 'hubster' terraced the garden when we originally moved in which is nearly 30yrs ago.

He does most of the gardening now as he loves it.... I enjoy being in it and being foreman of where I want new things to go, of course! 😊

So that's my garden in the sun today...

E x

Back into Action again!!

Yes I have been a bit out of action of late... but I am slowly getting back to it again.

I fired the torch up and first I had a little play at making some ball end headpins as this was practice for something else I am starting to work on (more about that soon)

And so I then made some more bud spike headpins with the Opalino glasses I hadn't used yet.

I love the pink ones

I think they will make lovely flowers as the yellow and Carnelian colour change the pink seems to a little but I will see if I can get it to do a more contrasting effect. ☺

The front pinky/orange ones are the Carnelian they go through a range of colours

Lovely!!

E x

Flowers ..... spring is in the air!

Yes oh yes ..... flowers!!

I am in flower mode as the weather has warmed up a little.  What a Spring like day it's been!

It's been lovely and bright here and I love to see the sun as well as various spring flowers trying to pop up through the ground as they spark into life.

I bought some daffodils recently and WOW the smell was so wonderful it just filled the room.

My tulips are all different colours I love them (my favourite)

Inspiration for beads I think!!

Here's a few I made recently

White Roses one on a headpin

Rose Bead

I am getting more confident making roses now, I do like doing the headpin ones.

And here are some lovely new bud spikes in Opalino Carnelian glass.

Carnelian Bud spikes

It's a colour changer and I love it as it has pinks through to orange which is brilliant.

I will use it for flowers I think it will look fab!

And I had a little play and come up with this...... dumbells.  I think I will shorten the wire seems a bit long.

I was concerned that the glass would crack and yes I did lose one on another one so I just cut the cracked one off!

I will get round to trying torch fired enamals as I think it might be easier.

Thanks for popping in

E x

Happy Earrings

I have been making some earrings over the last week or so, I wanted to do a bit of jewellery making partly because I wanted a bit of a rest from beadmaking also I lost some of mojo too.

It's been a strange few weeks as I've been a bit 'out of sorts' I suppose!!

Something to do with a near miss last week, with a car coming at me head on on my side of the road...... freaked me out... Big Time!! 😲😲😲

This, I realised had an adverse effect on me and I have been suffering with a painful shoulder and neck and then added a stomach bug to my pain! So as you can imagine I was feeling very sorry for myself.... indeed!  😟😟😟

I finally started feeling better this week my shoulder and neck have improved and my tummy finally calmed down.

So time for a bit of wirework ...... I had some fun searching for beads to pair up for earrings I wanted to make to go with some outfits!!

How can a jewellery and beadmaker go out and not have any jewellery to go with any of her wardrobe!

Scandalous I tell you.....


So here's what I have come up with so far....

Frozen Rose Earrings

Lovely white ceramic spikes by Petra Carpreau from Scorched Earth on Etsy.

Resin roses and tiny white Czech glass flowers and antique brass hoops and findings.

These will be lovely in the summer. I have many tops in this blue as it's my favourite blue..... 😊

Next, these

The black and white components by Nicola Morse are metal with painted detail with resin coating. They are beautiful and they match my top exactly.

I teamed them with my red Spitspot lampwork beads and crystals, I made my own brass earwires to compliment the design.

I love dangly earrings and I'm really happy with the way they turned out,
considering I had them apart twice before I was happy with them. 😀

I hope to have more to show you soon.

Thanks for visiting

E x