25 April 2010

Marking overload and Romeo & Juliet - Ballet

Note to self try to avoid marking overload next year. It's that time of year again. Older pupils about to sit exams and suddenly want extra essays etc marked. Drowning in paper and red pen. I don't care what the edu pyscho babble people say - it's much easier to use a red pen,  green doesn't show up in same way. Need to resign myself  to the fact that if they don't know what demonstrate, technique, paradox, metaphor etc are now they never will.
We went to see Scottish Ballet's version of Romeo and Juliet on Saturday. The second act was excellent but the first act was a little messy and the storytelling got lost in the creative director's mind. The set was interesting but not sure why playing images of earthquake victimes when Tybalt murdered and someone should tell designer scooters and fascists were not really same era. Have promised we will do more cultural stuff but somehow great idea get lost along the way.
Oh and I started trying to loose weight today - which why I typing away trying to avoid eating chocolate...

20 April 2010

20% of staff are stranded abroad

Really, that many are waiting for the cloud of volcanic ash to disperse. Eldest son is stranded in Berlin - although not sure how much effort he making to get back. Considering this is meant to be my paper adventures there has been a distinct lack so far. I have made my circle journal and posted it so here is a little peek at what it might look like... I don't want to put up pics of completed journal as that might spoil the surprise. I received a fab one this morning to complete on the theme of cupcakes and recipes - think I can manage that.

Why is it impossible to get them to sit still?

The cousins came to visit which necessitated a quick photo shoot but they weren't keen on sitting still...

11 April 2010

The sun is out and it makes me smile...and garden...

As it is such beautiful weather I have been working on garden whilst I get the chance. Got so much to do this week may not get a chance to post for a few days.  The Lidl clematis is growing :) and I planted more pots and seedlings to feed the muddy slope. Invested in a cheap grow frame as every windowsill in house overflowing with seeds.

7 April 2010

Loving that transparency vibe

The transparency prompt from Shimelle has been fun. I have created a wholly digital page which I printed onto acetate and then a page using acetate print outs. The elements for my seeds page all came from free downloads from Shabby Princess Happy Go Lucky and other sets. I set the background paper to almost transparent to get that faint washed out look - although why I am creating a digital transparent page in an acrylic album I am not sure. I think this page may end up being printed again and being used in my garden journal. I then printed another page of digital elements and used them on the next page.
The lo was dictated by the page again but I am loving this page. The class has inspired the layered flowers and I found scrap vellum (almost transparent) and used this as a mount which then improved the look of the page on the other side. The blue flower is three layered transparencies and the snowflake flowers are made of snowflakes and purple flowers layered up. I think page below is improved by vellum and transparencies on other side.
The small blue flower was made using a circle torn into a spiral and reglued into a flower. The album is getting thick now. 

5 April 2010

Inspiring LOs - from butterflies to cats to dragonflies.

I owe the inspiration for this page to DaphneW and  Anesha This page appears quite simple but took lots of work. I started with a DCWV paper from the all about girls range. The centre of this was lined like a notebook but I didn't want that so I cut out the centre and then tore and inked the edges. I wanted a particular soft turquoise for the background and didn't have anything suitable so I found plain cream card stock and applied layers of cobalt blue watercolour washes. I will photograph this is the daylight and these details will be more obvious. The photo is mounted on turquoise card stock and then another DCWV paper with lots of writing on it (which does not show here). I added a row of butterflies on acetate at the bottom and printed out various other butterfly images onto acetate. The butterfly at bottom is made from three pieces of sea glass found on our favourite beach stuck to a piece of capiz from an old light. Buttons make up the dragonflies body whilst the wings are made from acetates I cut out and coloured with pro markers. This is my new favourite LO. The journalling explains the link between the photo, title and bugs.

4 April 2010

Grow Your Own Flowers and have a kiss

More pages for Shimelle's class using up flowers. It could be about nothing else but the fact that my garden is a muddy slope and I need to Grow my own flowers. This layout was dictated by the page behind. I used my Martha Stewart flower punch to punch out loads of flowers that I edged with aqua promarkers and then just layered these on top of each other and around the cut out pic of my very muddy welly boots. The journalling is on the white flower and explains that Rule 6 means that if your garden is a muddy slope then you have to grow your own. The chipboard g was white and pink but I wanted more purple so promarkered the white. The three big flowers at the edge each has three layers of flower, felt and brad.
Why a kiss? Well apart from the obvious romantic meaning it also refers to the idea of keep it stupid simple - part of another shimelle prompt. I took the pretty pastel squares left over after I used the letters and inked them with Stazon, brushed acrylic over that and added more embellishing powder. These were then stuck on paper mache blue tissue and are in my album as not sure what to do with it next. I like that each letter has a different texture because of how much or little I layered the paint, ink and powder.

A Few of my Favourite Objects

For the circle journal challenge my UK scrappers group (All new Lost Girls)  is undertaking I have to produce a 6x6 album on the theme of my Favourite Object (originally it was going to be place but that was already suggested). I decided to wander around the house and see what I could find. It is so hard to choose just one as so many items have stories connected to them or mean something very personal to me. Before those cold unfeeling robbers broke in and stole it my ipod classic would have been up there in my top three, alas no more. In some ways our bookworm designed by that genius Ron Arad says it all - fabulous shape and colour that form a decorative sculptural piece of wall art but also houses some of my extremely large and eclectic collection of books and cds. It combines three of my loves - design, books and music.
Then there is my growing collection of glass objects, all of which have been given as presents to me by the children, Lens Guy or other family members. My love of aqua, green and purple are gorgeously showcased with these.










Plus I love the contrast of that red against the turquoise - must use that in a layout soon.
Then there is the functionality of the ikea spoon holders contrasted with an old bottle made into a spoon holder and finally there is the delicate yet robust orchid that was a Christmas present from the in laws and is still thriving.
Which object would you choose and why?

3 April 2010

111 items on the page and using Lens Guy camera


I was responding to the sticker prompt and discovered I had managed to get 111 items on the page. Quite a feat on an acrylic page. As youngest daughter is in China on a school trip (luckiest child ever) and taken my super easy point and click compact with her I am using Lens Guy's work camera. The body and lens are so heavy I can hardly lift the thing. I could give you all the boring details about shutter speeds and stuff and lens type but basically it's a pro users cannon camera.  I enjoyed doing this layout as although I buy stickers I don't use them very often. I enjoyed randomly putting eyelets around photos and I used the mix of colours to try and tie in with the letters I had chosen. I had two small alphabets that had very different colour schemes and no letter As so decided the eyelets would work as an A. The pics below show what the page would like with my homemade dots paper behind - think that might happen. A pic of the back of the page - I really don't make life easy for myself, plus a pic of the edge of the album as it takes shape. I like how all the paper, ribbon and lace edges are beginning to work together.

1 April 2010

Yeah it's the holidays, inspiration hanger and it's been a while

Been so busy not even had time to craft or blog - have managed a nifty line in falling asleep watching tv - not a good idea when watching Lost, Damages or Flash Forward. I think I will need to try again. The pics are of what I call my inspiration hanger which is made from a wall mounted metal mug hook hanger and some large pegs and random pieces I stick onto it. The first shows fab cards by an artist called Gayle Robinson and chinese lanterns from chinatown in Vancouver which hung there until last week. The second is a selection of homemade papers I made using acrylic paints, stamps, transparencies and punches. The close up below shows experiments with Banana Frog's paisley pattern stamps.
   The holidays start here. Youngest daughter left at 5.30 a.m. for school trip and we have a week of peace. Oldest son is back from university but living in a house has made him a lot more domesticated. In fact both boys are here tonight - I can still hear the beavis n butthead murmurs downstairs. However they are being very good and coming out to lunch with their grandmother on Monday - perhaps because it is posh nosh in a restaurant?
I made it to prompt 5 with Shimelle's class and have laid out a rough lo on desk for next prompts and hope to start tomorrow. Not sure if Lens Guy would appreciate me spending whole day crafting but sure we can agree time for both of us and we do want to go and see "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". There is also the small matter of Season 3 box set of  "The Wire" to watch and... a circle journal to create for my group, the muddy slope to tame and... time to chill.
 "Mum what are you doing? Why are you blogging?"
Need to go...