Ribbon Sorting

I had a bit of a brainwave this afternoon, and that doesn't often happen, and decided to put a string on the inside of one of my wardrobes in the studio and hang up some of my ribbon stash. At last I can more easily see what I've got and it looks pretty. But it also looks like a premier cat toy to certain members of the household so I'll be keeping the wardrobe door shut when I'm not around!

Ahh, the joy of eating your own runner beans, my plants down the garden are now producing lovely beans which I just love. Favourite recipe - toss pasta in butter with salt and pepper, runner beans on top and then drizzle with Cardini's Caesar Salad dressing, just divine :)

Diva ATC Swap

I've made 6 of these ATCs for a Diva themed swap over on Roses on My Table. I went for Anne Boleyn as she led Henry VIII a merry dance, at least according to the Tudors tv series!

Hemingway Journal

This is the second journal that I was commissioned to make. I initially found this harder to make as I didn't know much about Ernest Hemingway.

Also, with the subject I didn't feel that I could be too lacey or pretty. I choose instead to stick to a blue and brown colour scheme. Blue coming from his novel - The Old Man of the Sea, ie sea colours but I went for on a cloudy day as opposed to a bright sunny day kind of a blue.

The brown was to suggest the sand of beach as well as vintage browning of pages.

I used a lot of check patterns which I see as more masculine and therefore in keeping with the theme.

He spent some years in Paris so I used scrapbooking paper with french adverts on it.






Working on this commissioned journal and the peonies one in my previous post, has been a lot of fun. If anyone has an idea for a journal you would like me to make just drop me an email to discuss it :)

Peonies Journal

I can finally share this Peonies Journal that I made for a friends mum recently. I had great fun with this journal as I just adore peonies myself.


Out came the napkins and the lace,


the vintage paper and the stamps,


a bit of Stickles glitter,

a old botanical painting of a peony from an old diary,


an illustration from a seventies gardening book,


a photo of one of my own peonies,

I had to pop in a small fabric collage, a little bird amongst the flowers,

pink sprayed watercolour paper,

and another fabric collage with vintage buttons.

Homework and Baking

I've finally gotten around to 'finishing' my fabric collage page on my class with Cristina Zinnia Galliher at Artful Gathering. I'm not sure whether to have some words on there or not so going to leave it alone for a while to see what comes to me.


And I've finally done some baking, making some lovely, though I do say so myself, cheese and olice scones from this lovely little book sent to me by Anne of Nana Go Go fame.

I'm going to try making Spelt Buns from a Scandinavian Cookbook today. Happy Sunday!

WIP Journal Pages

I'm working on my pages for the Nellie Wortman's class, they are already looking full but aways to go yet .....
"What do you mean you didn't clear this space for me? You're not going to move me are you?" I only went out of the room to get some paper to work on and up pops Billy, who proceeds to sprawl just where I want to work, bless him.

New journal in Progress

I started work on a new journal today and I'm so excited. I'm taking Nellie Wortman's A Day in the Life of Fabrics, Paint and Paper class on Artful Gathering and it is worth every penny. She has the most amazing work, here's a link to her blog, and she's a great teacher, really going into depth and showing as a lot of different techniques as well as talking about her own inspirations.

I'm using an angel from Brompton Road Cemetary on the cover and my theme is Heavenly Gardens, so lots of flowers, greenery and angels.

If that theme is seems familar to regular readers of my blog it is! My journal for the International Journal swap has the same theme but as it is travelling to different artists I've only done the introductory pages and I wanted to do my own journal and interpretations. Now there must be something I can do with the off cuts???

Billyboy stopped play for a while as he took shelter from the rain and decided that my newly almost clear work table was the obvious choice of spot. Yup, I set too last night and tidied my studio and that almost never happens but knew I was going to need the space.


Isn't it great when something unexpected happens. When searching for some vintage ledger paper, which I know I have somewhere, I came across this patchwork plate of embossed wall papers that I'd last used 10 years ago on my degree. Well I just had to do a bit of printing with acrylics using it and was just loving the effects, reminding me of the decorative iron work often found in cemeteries.

I then found more wallpaper and had a jolly old time printing away. I think this plate is so beautiful it will find it's way into the journal somewhere.

I just love the way the print came out all imperfect, over this vintage book page.

Have a great and creative weekend wherever you are!

Ocean ATC Swap

I heard a thud on my door mat earlier and was delighted to find my ATCs from the Ocean Swap I did on Roses on the Table in July. I just love the variety of different interpretations and media used by the ladies there. Now I've got to find more room to display them, lol.

My faithful companion Mickey, my old boy, joined me for a bit in the garden as I sat reading. He and the rest of them are finding this hot and humid weather a bit too much, with a lot of flaking out and lying in the shade.

Bill is keeping me company now, tired out from his day down by the river. Somehow he's lost his whole collar this time, normally it's just his name tag, he's lost lots and lots of them. I keep spares in a drawer so he won't be bell-less for long. Mice of the world rejoice! But it seems he's more interested in flies at the moment, yuk.