Inspiration: Altered Matchboxes

STAR ALTERED MATCHBOX - READY TO GO
Originally uploaded by MAD MUMMY

Moulin Rouge

"Coffee Break"

Digi LO: Tiz at the Park

The Decorated Journal

This book by Gwen Diehn arrived from Amazon this morning.

It's very interesting, but if you're after a book to tell you how to make pages, this is not the one. Diehn covers what to use, artistic techniques, how to alter books and how to make them from scratch, but there is no step-by-step page design.

I think this is a good thing - the book gives the means, but how the techniques are interpreted is entirely down to the reader. And there are plenty of photographs to give you inspiration.

The only complaint I have is that I wanted more in the way of prompts, but that is a minor quibble really.

Soul Journaling

I'd been following the prompts at Sarah Whitmere's website for about a week or so before I bought a hard-backed sketchbook... and it was another couple of days before I braved altering it.

Once I started, I quickly got caught up in the process!

This is the cover. Gone is the uniform black. The ephemria is from a copy of Mansfield Park by Jane Austin which I bought some time ago for the sum of £1. That was covered in blue, purple and black paint, then scattered with glitter.

I covered the whole thing in PVA glue, which sealed the glitter and varnished the cover.

The quotes... on the front it says "If you aim for the moon and miss... you still land amongst the stars" and I don't know who to attribute that to. The back one reads "There are no conventions other than the ones you want to break" and is part of a quote by Lani Tupu.

And here are the first pages.

I skipped a step here, because I caught myself procrastinating. There is no need to follow the steps absolutely - it does not need to be "perfect".

I was iffy about writing about what I felt, but again, once I'd started I found the whole thing very feeling.

The next stage involves covering up my words - which I mentally rebel at. So it'll be interesting to see if I can go through with that part or not.

"Plaid"

It's taken me two days... and it's a little sparse on the embellishment front, but here is my first self-designed digi kit!

The journaling paper is resized to fit on the thumbnail, everything else is to scale.

Featuring three 12x12 papers, one torn paper, a ribbon, a brad, two flowers, the journal scrap and a staple.

Xposted from my creative blog.

Postee goodies and art journaling

Last week's shopping sprees are starting to come in - I got some scrapbooking supplies on Friday and the suede I bought off eBay arrived today. This is gorgeous - and smells divine! - the plan is to make some hard-backed sketchbooks for selling on.

Talking of, I bought a sketchbook from Hobbycraft yesterday, along with some bits and bobs to finish off the ATCs for swapping. I have the "Signs of Summer" ones done bar my details. I still need to do the "ATC Trail" ones though.

Back to the journal. After some deliberation, I opted against the spiral-bound book, but the one I did get was a rather boring black. I couldn't find the big tube of white acrylic that I know is around somewhere, so I grabbed the pot of magnolia wall paint from the spare room LOL.

Mental, but it did work!

Graphic: Falling Through Space

Made for Illustration Friday in Paintshop Pro, using Flaming Pear's SolarCell, LunarCell and Glitterato plugins.

I can feel it -- the turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And if we let go...
~ the Doctor, "Rose"; Doctor Who [2005]

Digital Layout - "Imagination"

Using shabbyprincess.com's Urban Kiwi (hee!) I made this layout featuring the awesome Lani Tupu.

Crais is just so much my writing muse. I know that I wouldn't be where I am writing-wise had he not crashed into my subconscious. Which is a bit sappy but true none-the-less.