Pin board - before & after

I had an old pin board/ notice board which was coming apart and didn't match my craft room, so I decided to alter it. It had very pretty material on it which I have kept for future projects

Pretty but I could see the potential! It's about 3ft x 2ft in size.

So I took it to pieces and used some hessian I have been itching to use for a while, got out my staple gun and some good old seam binder ribbon and after a flurry of activity came up with this.

But it's not meant to be bare, so I tried a few things out to make sure my little wooden pegs were strong enough...

And then I decided colour was the order of the day, so out came some of my more vibrant art work and voila - good old pin board works a treat!

The hessian background really makes the colours pop - and I couldn't leave my lil' gal out of the picture could I! It's perfect in my craft room and I get to show off some of my projects that are otherwise stuck in an art journal.

PS hope you like my art  :)  and here it is in the "Before" state!

prom dress grunge

Another layout from a while ago of Cara's prom dress. This was a very emotional purchase for us. I couldn't really afford it as it was a lot of money, but Cara was so determined to have it (bought from Molly Browns in York, a Sherri Hill designer dress size 0), that she withdrew some of her savings and paid half. It's such a beautiful dress and I have many photos. She looked amazing on prom night.

This particular layout is very shabby, grungy, messy. It's a "from the heart" layout.

Good Bad Grunge

A grungy mixed media 12 x 12 layout of Cara. She was actually posing for a drama assignment she was doing at college and I couldn't resist making something with the photos myself. at 16 she is full of ups and downs and I sometimes don't know where I am with her, but the love is, of course, unconditional. Check out the tights !!!

Shopping trip mini album

My daughter and I like to go on shopping trips together. This particular time, (Feb 2012), we decided to go to Manchester Trafford Centre. It's about one and a half hours away normally, but because of road works it took us over 2 hours. We were booked into the Premier Inn, (just over the road), for the night which gave us two shopping sessions. The hotel was great for us - our room was perfect. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we vowed to go back when the time, (and finances!), were right. I know it will happen! When we got back I decided to immediately set to and make a mini about the event, using pictures taken with my phone. I used Tim Holtz papers which were just right for the occasion, also used my own patterned paper, (rustled up with paint and spray inks), and memorabilia from the day. This was a very quick and simple little book - I turned my photos into polaroid shots and used a really scribbled handwriting and stamping technique for my journaling straight onto the photos. I echoed the architecture of the Centre with my choice of papers and inks. Here are a few pages - there are more of the same believe me! (If anyone wants to see more just ask and I will put them up.)

Art Journal page to share with you - using LaBlanche wing stamp, texture paste, gold leafing, inks and paints. I am quite light-hearted in my journals, I prefer to smile when I look at my stuff - although I have a few meaningful pages in me!!!