"Untamed Hearts" Mini Journal

Hello! I'm busting to share my art journal I made using Tracy Verdugo's papers from ArtStacks!

I was really inspired by the gorgeous women and hearts in Tracy's "Love Lives Here" pack. I got to thinking about women and their hearts and I realised I know so many women who use their love and their hearts in different ways. I wanted to journal about that.

I simply glued the pages together to make the journal and I stitched a contrasting piece of paper along the spine.

This is the cover of the journal:

The title on the second page was an obvious one for me. I think we all know people like this! I typed my titles. I love Tracy's colourful moons that I could use to decorate the pages.

I inserted a pocket and tag into the journal.

The next page is printed on translucent paper. I left it unadorned as I love the gorgeous colours and it allows us to partly see the next page which is arouses our curiosity.

Once we turn the page we can see the following page in detail:

The final page is the back cover of the book. I used a quote from Khe Sanh by Cold Chisel and I crocheted the 'chains'.

All the papers in this journal are from Tracy Verdugo's packs. The women, hearts and moons are from her Love Lives here pack:

Those gorgeous background papers, dripping with colour, are from her Under the Sea pack:

I hope this gives you some ideas how you can incorporate these stunning papers into your work!

Happy creating!
Heather

I'm Back!

Hello and welcome back! Sorry for my absence - I've been away.

I was keen to get back to my craft desk and I was excited to get to play with some recent releases over at ArtStacks. This page was created for December's More than Words challenge using Tracy Verdugo's "Under the Sea" pack.

The theme at More Than Words this month is "Seasons". Summer is my favourite season so I chose to create about that. Even though the papers in this pack are sea-themed, I felt the page I used for my background captured the feeling of a hot summer perfectly. I enjoy using papers in a different way than the obvious uses.

The woman is from Tracy's other pack - "Love Lives Here". She's printed on tissue so I painted the background behind her white then adhered the tissue image to the page with gel medium. I put another coat over the top and the tissue disappeared. I then used watercolour pencils to colour her features.

I love the paint dribbles on the background page so I highlighted them by adding the rest of my title along them: "and the livin' is easy....."

I hope you can create an art journal page and join us this month. You can find the challenge here.

Happy journaling!
Heather

Getting Sketchy at Kraft +

Hello and welcome back!

Kraft + have a fabulous sketch this month. I  made my project partly digital and I had a lot of fun doing it.

Will you join in the challenge? You can find it here.

Happy krafting!
Heather

A Collage of a Collage!

The challenge at More Than Words this month is "Collage or College". So you can create an art journal page about college or collage or both! 

I went crazy with the collage theme, layering all sorts of offcuts, textural items and images into a vintage book. 

The quote and the tissue flowers are from ArtStacks. My focal piece on the right is a stunning image created entirely by collaging strips of gelatin-printed papers. It's by the artist Amber Bennison and is also from ArtStacks, in a pack called "Art & Life".

Will you join us? You can find the challenge details here.

A Quick ArtStacks Card

Hi there!

I needed to make a card recently and I couldn't go past the oh-so-cute birds in ArtStacks' "Art & Nature" pack. I adore these little cuties!

I simply wrote "Happy Birthday" multiple times around the edges of the card to cerate a border then added "You old chook" under the picture.

You can find this wonderful pack here.

Happy creating!
Heather

Inherit the Earth

Hello! This month over at More Than Words, the challenge is "Mash Up". Simply combine any two challenges form the last six months.

Here's a reminder of those challenges:

January - Time
February - Love Letters
March - Home
April - Being Green
May - Celebrations
June - Art Supplies 

Feel free to interpret the theme in any way that speaks to you!

I used the April and June challenges - 'Being Green' and 'Art Supplies' - for my inspiration. I adore this quote and thought it was perfect for the 'Being Green' topic. The stunning kingfisher and the quote are both from ArtStacks packs, my favourite 'Art Supplies'.  

I made the geli-print background. It feels very Australian to me.

Here's the challenge board. 

You can find the challenge here.

Which two challenges will you combine?

Happy art journaling!

Heather

Hello! I’ve been having a blast playing with the new Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts packs over at ArtStacks! I love that we can create art and support artists at the same time! I used one of Nitsa Malik’s images from the Art & Life pack.

In keeping with the gelatin printing theme, all the papers are my own geli-prints.

I thought the image of the surfer against a colourful sunrise was very evocative and it inspired me to write these words. I find it challenging to write lettering like this but I really like the result and I’m glad I took the time to do it.

Have you seen the new packs at ArtStacks yet? You can find them here.

Happy creating!
Heather

An Inspirational Board at Kraft +

Ohhh, the challenge this month at Kraft + is to be inspired by their challenge board and it's a beauty! I took my inspiration from the black and white stripes and the pink-orange pattern.

Here's the challenge board:

To make my stripes, I took a digital words and quotes page from an ArtStacks pack and printed it at half size on both white and kraft cardstock. I tore these into strips and layered them at different heights.

I found a piece of patterned paper that was almost identical to the one in the challenge board, however most of it is hidden behind the photo!

What will your photo inspiration be? You can find the challenge here.

Happy scrappin'! 

Heather

Stand Out From the Crowd

The May challenge over at Kraft + is to be inspired by "Words to Live By". In essence, you need to use a quote on your kraft-focussed project. I had so many quote options for this challenge that I found it hard to choose! I eventually decided to use a photo of some sunflowers that I took on a recent holiday and chose a quote from ArtStacks to suit. I used a digital file and printed the quote straight onto my page.

Will you join in this month? You can find the challenge here.

Happy scrappin'!
Heather

Embrace Life

Hello and welcome to a new month! The challenge for May at More Than Words is to create an art journal page inspired by the word "Celebrate"!

Here's what I made:

I adore this little boy from ArtStacks' "All Dressed Up" pack. The books and flower are from the same pack while the heart is from Lisa Oxley's "Bright and Bold" pack and the title is from the "Inspirational Words" MiniStack.

Will you join is this month? There's an ArtStacks prize for the winner! 

You can find the challenge here.

Happy creating!
Heather

Light in Your Heart

 Hello! 

I'm back today with an art journal page made using Tamara Laporte's new images over at ArtStacks. Tam, known as 'willowing' on Instagram, has released two packs. The owl and leaves are from her Artsy Animals pack and the quote is from her Fabulous Faces pack.

Pop over to the ArtStacks shop here to see what else is in her amazing packs!

Happy creatin'!
Heather

Don't Blame Me!

Hello again! There's an interesting challenge at More Than Words this month. Earth Day is on April 22nd so you have to be inspired by "Being Green". Now this one got me thinking - which is what a good challenge should do. 

I was really drawn to this image of a cow by the amazing Tamara Laporte (#willowing) in her Artsy Animals pack over at ArtStacks and I got thinking about how easy it is to blame cows and livestock for our greenhouse gas emission problems but we really need to look at ourselves. So many things can be improved by changing our habits.

I think the cow agrees - she's got that look in her eyes!

The hearts in the cluster in the corner are all from Lisa Oxley's Bright & Bold pack at ArtStacks too.

You can check out the challenge details here.

Happy art journaling!

Heather

Inspired by Lisa Oxley!

I was so excited when I saw this month's challenge over at Kraft Plus. The challenge is to be inspired by the amazing Lisa Oxley! Not only is Lisa Oxley an incredible artist who I really admire but I'm in the enviable position of publishing her papers over at ArtStacks!

I made this:

Lisa has so many gorgeous images to choose from in her ArtStacks packs. I really love this stunning pink floral background that's printed on canvas paper. I added Lisa's tissue leaves and other papers. In fact all the papers on this page, except for the kraft background, are Lisa's.

And one last surprise - if you look closely at the pictures you'll see I'm wearing one of Lisa's t-shirts! Can you tell I'm a big fan? Haha!

Will you join in this colourful challenge? Don't forget the kraft! You can find the details here.

Happy krafting!

Heather

Tamara Laporte has New Releases at ArtStacks!

Oh my goodness - I'm so excited to share my first post using Tamara Laporte's new releases over at ArtStacks! Tamara, known as willowing on Instagram, is an incredible artist and I'm thrilled to be able to create with her images.

To make my background I layered up random offcuts of my geli-prints. I adore these colours! I tore out the tissue lady from the page of images using a small wet paintbrush to get edges that blend in well then I adhered her with gel medium. I love how you can't see at all where the tissue is (no - it's not the large white rectangle - that's the geli-print paper underneath!) I used watercolours to add a few pops of colour to her lips and the butterfly/flower in her hair. I embellished her "Tam style" by adding a wing to her shoulder and an 'earring" to her ear. These, plus the flowers and the word "Shine" are all printed on tissue.

Gosh these images are wonderful to play with! They've only just been released. You can find them at the ArtStacks shop here.

Happy creating!

Heather

#seekgathercreate Challenge

Hello! ArtStacks is once again a proud sponsor of the #seekgathercreate challenge on Instagram so I thought I'd create something using this week's challenge criteria. The challenge is to seek and gather the following items then create anything you like with them:

1. Something green
2. An insect
3. Something sticky
4. Typography or letters

I came up with this:

All my ArtStacks pieces on this are from the All Dressed Up pack and the Wings & Things pack. I think these are among my favourite packs!

My 'something green' is the mushroom, the 'grass' and the flower stalk.
My 'insect' and my 'something sticky' are the same thing. The cool pink flying critter from the Wings & Things pack is printed on self-adhesive paper. It's designed in such a way that you just cut off part of the backing and the wings stand up as if the insect is flying!
My 'typography or letters' form my quote.

Here's the challenge. It runs until the end of February. You can find all the details on our Instagram page.

This was a lot of fun! I hope you can join in this week.

Happy creating!

Heather

Sunrises and Sunsets

Hello! The new challenge at Kraft + this month is to use red or orange and yellow on your kraft page. These are sunrise and sunset colours. I took my cue from the photo on the challenge board and used a sunset photo, plus orange and yellow. My photo had pinks in it too so I added plenty of pink around the photo. Pink, orange and yellow is one of my favourite colour combos.

I used almost entirely old papers and embellishments on this page. Some of them are ancient but they worked together well. The gorgeous chippie is fromDusty Attic.

Will you join us this month? You can find the challenge here.

Happy krafting!

Heather 

Love Letters

Hello and welcome to February! This being the month of love, the theme at More Than Words is to create about Love Letters. There is a second option to simply create about Love though which is what I did. I looked at the broader meaning of the word.

Different songs about Love kept running through my head but I settled on this one from the 60's by Jackie DeShannon in support of our Ukrainian friends.

I hope you can join us this month. Don't forget we now have a prize each month donated by ArtStacks!

You can find the challenge here.

Happy art journaling!

Heather

Rude but Funny Cards for ArtStacks!

Hi there! I'm being a bit rude today - I hope I don't offend anyone!

I wanted to use Deb's Weiers' gorgeous Wonky Birds to make some cards. I searched online to see if I could find an appropriate quote and I found one which made me laugh. 

I made three different cards using three different bird images from Deb Weiers' Wonky Critters pack. Without the quote inside, these cards could be given to anyone. I'll add the quote to the inside of cards where I think the recipient will get a laugh.

I made each card a different size and framed each bird in different paper.

And the wording inside is.......

I hope you found this funny! I confess, I didn't make the quote up myself. I found it online. You can see the original here.

There are so many birds on the one page of Deb Weiers' Wonky Critters pack that I realised I could easily make lots of these. I decided to print the wording as this would be quicker. Here's a step-by-step process of how to do this.

Step 1
Print the title on a plain piece of paper.

Step 2
Cut a piece of cardstock to size and add a line of glue lightly to the top of the cardstock. Glue it over the printed words with the glued edge at the top of the page.

Step 3
If you have a printer with more than one paper feeder, choose the option that lets the paper go through with minimal bending. Put your paper in the correct way, adjusting your printer for different print settings if needed, and print again.

Step 4
Remove the cardstock from the backing paper and you're done!

You can find Deb's amazing papers here.

I hope this brought a smile to your day :)

Happy cardmaking!

Heather

Everything Old is New Again!

Hello! At Kraft Plus this month you can choose to create from any of our past challenges! I went with something that's simple for me as I didn't have a lot of time. The August 2022 challenge was to Embrace Your Handwriting so I chose this.

I hand-wrote the large title, adding a bit of doodling as well. This is a fun page so I kept the colours bright. The chipboard arrow with feathers is from Dusty Attic and I added some extra feathers on top.

Which challenge will you choose? You can see more details about the challenge here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

New Year, New Style of Challenge!

Hello and welcome to my first post for 2023! The year is starting with a bang with More Than Words revamping their challenges. We still have the same amazing style of challenges but you have more options to set your creativity free!

This month, the challenge is to be inspired by TIME. There are even free printables you can use! It's a pity I forgot to use them, haha!

Here's my art journal page:

I used one of the gorgeous vintage framed faces from ArtStacks' "All Dressed Up" pack. You can find it HERE.

Head to More Than Words HERE for all the details on the new challenge format. I hope to see you there!

Happy art journaling!
Heather