An Elemental Challenge at More than Words!

Welcome to February!

The challenge this month at More Than Words is a bit different. Here it is:

To explain, Chinese New Year will be on Feb 3rd and it will be the Year of the Dragon.

Chinese astrology is based on the year of your birth, and you will be a specific animal depending on which year you were born, but you will also be a specific ELEMENT (eg you could be a metal tiger or a water rabbit). If you want to use your element here is an easy way to work it out:

If the last number in your birth year is 0 or 1, your element is Metal.
If the last number in your birth year is 2 or 3, your element is Water.
If the last number in your birth year is 4 or 5, your element is Wood.
If the last number in your birth year is 6 or 7, your element is Fire.
If the last number in your birth year is 8 or 9, your element is Earth.

So for example if you were born in 1981 your element would be Metal and so on.

Feel free to use your element (or not) and/or the prompt Dragon (for Year of the Dragon) or Red (considered to be the luckiest colour). You can also include your word of the year if you like.

For my page I used Water (my element) and Red.

I'm a bit besotted with Tracy Verdugo's watery images over at ArtStacks so using them was a no-brainer for me. In contrast to the busy left side of the page, I kept the right side uncluttered and created a little white-on-white effect using texture paste through a stencil. All the papers on the page, including the title, are from Tracy's packs.

Will you work out your element and join in this month?

Happy art journaling!

Heather

Full Deck Challenge Cards

Have you seen the Full Deck Challenge on Facebook? It's run by Shana Bebeklis, also known as shanoukiart on Instagram.

It's a fabulous challenge. The idea is to alter playing cards. Shana sets up new challenges regularly and the beauty of it is that you can join in any challenge at any time.

Shana also has paper packs at ArtStacks so I decided to give some of the challenges a go using only Shana's papers plus the other challenge requirements. Shana has two paper packs - "Full Deck" which is based around images (and distressed playing cards) specifically for these challenges. The second pack is called "Happy Scraps" and is equally suitable for these challenges. This really was a lot of fun!

For this piece, the base card is from the Full Deck pack and the gorgeous colourful paper, heart and sentiment are from the Happy Scraps pack.

For my second entry everything except the lace is from the Full Deck pack.

You can see Shana's stunning papers in detail here.

If you'd like to give the challenge a go you can join in here.

Happy creating!

Heather

A New Type of Challenge at More Than Words!

Hello and welcome to 2024!

More Than Words is back but with a different type of challenge this year. Here's what they say about it:

"Let's make 2024 our year of creativity!
Do you choose a "word of the year" each year? If so, be inspired by your word and/or the prompt to "open the door".

Ohhhh, this got me thinking! I decided to use both options - a "word of the year" PLUS "open the door" as it's relevant to my word.

Here's what I made:

I don't usually choose a word of the year but it didn't take me long to pick one. If I'm going to achieve the things I want to achieve this year, I'm going to need lots of determination.

The image and main papers are all from ArtStacks. I love this door image. The door and the quote are both from the "Doors & Windows" pack.  The background paper is a gorgeous one from Shana Bebeklis' "Full Deck" pack.

The dragonfly is from one of my favourite pages in the "Wings & Things" pack. These images are printed on self-adhesive paper and are set up in such a way that you can expose the adhesive on just the body of the flying critters so the image sticks to the page but the wings stand up beautifully.

It's been ages since I used Thickers. I couldn't believe I still had enough of the letter "e", lol!

I hope you can play along with us this year. These challenges are fantastic!

Happy creating!

Heather

"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.