Gosh !! I've just had a huge surprise when I arrived on my blog page :)  Thank you very much to all of the 75 lovely people now following my blog, i feel very blessed to have you joining my journey through blog land.

Today my blog post is going to be a little different,  I have been taking part in a mixed media art journal prompt challenge set up by Bernice Hopper called "12 months in view"

If you would like more information about these challenges follow these links  https://www.facebook.com/groups/578180182211960/12 months in view
http://12monthsinview.blogspot.co.uk

Bernice regularly encourages us to have a creative date based on the idea of Julia Cameron in The Artists Way suggested the idea of making time for a regular creative date.   This idea is also picked up by Matt Tommey in Unlocking the Heart of the Artist.   

For December's creative date I have decided to take you all on a virtual trip to Llandudno, North Wales (U.K). At this time of year they will be holding their famous Christmas market.

Take a seat and enjoy the ride :) !! lol 

We will start our virtual journey from Birmingham Coach Station (U.K), our coach journey will take approximately 2 hours.

   

During the journey we will pass through Shrewsbury and take a short tea break in Llangollen.

   

And off we go again on our way to Llandudno.  Not far to go now we'll be there in an hour.

Finally arrived at Llandudno Coach station and after a short walk into the town centre we will have a good browse around the different stalls in their Christmas market.

This year the Llandudno Christmas Fayre (formerly known as Celtic Winter Fayre) is once again being held in Madoc Street, which runs parallel to Mostyn Street, Llandudno's main retail area in the heart of Victorian Llandudno.

Following last year's very successful event which attracted around 30,000 visitors, the number of stalls offers everything you need for that festive cheer!
- Quality local food produce - Tastings and samples - Festive atmosphere
- Craft Demonstrations - Hand-made and unusual crafts and gifts - Seasonal cheer

       

    

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without Santa Claus himself and he’ll be delighting kids in the Alice and Wonderland grotto. Without doubt, this is the perfect way to introduce any young children to the magic of Christmas or to reinvigorate the passion in the older kids.

I think we are going to need another tea break after all this walking and browsing !!  I personally love the hustle and atmosphere that makes these Christmas markets more special.  

No trip to the seaside is the same without a bag of fish and chips 

Time to see the Christmas lights twinkling in the high street and then we will make our way back home 

I hope that you enjoyed our virtual coach trip to Llandudnos Christmas market (please note that the photographs shown in this blog are not mine, i have borrowed them from welsh tourist information websites that are advertising the market and other Christmas events around Llandudno)

card making samples

I am currently volunteering at Park Lane Garden Centre, Aston, Birmingham

as a Craft Assistant teaching adults recovering from mental health illnesses how to make handmade cards and gift tags.

My post today is showing the type of handmade cards i enjoy making the most.  The Majority of these cards have been made at Park Lane Garden Centre they are sold in their gift shop, these funds then go towards replacing the craft materials we have used and supplies used in their other college courses.

  

  

 

if i was a famous artist i would have painted .....

i recently took part in an art journaling challenge organised by Debs Mitchell in the MIXED MEDIA ART JOURNAL group ... https://www.facebook.com/groups/113744112134449/mixed media art journal

this month's prompt challenge (sponsored by http://www.barjanbcrafts.co.uk/index.asp or you can also
see there blog here http://craftbarjan.blogspot.co.uk/) is " If I was a Famous Artist... I would have Painted"


i have chosen the style of cecily mary barker and here is a photo of my entry

materials used ..  lilac paper soft colour dye

                          emerald soft colour dye

                          flower and butterfly stickers K&co

                          cecily mary barker fairy is a paper scrap from a decoupage kit

                          fairys were from a stencil and coloured in using oil pastel sticks

funny sheep story :)

i am currently joining in with @bernice hopper's 12 months to a view journalling prompt challenges.

for more info on how the challenges work please visit ..... http://12monthsinview.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/introducing-spring.html

this is my lamb page ...  the challenge was to use a collage of words associated with spring and a photo
of a lamb / sheep

i took the photos of the lambs at a farm cottage during a holiday we stayed at in north wales.  here is the original photo ...

and now for a funny story .... on our way home we decided to take the scenic route through the horseshoe pass.  we stopped by the gift shop which also has a posh cafe, well we then got stalked by a sheep !! 

she took a fancy to my boyfriend, mind you he did have food in his hands at the time!!, and then she started following me around

as you see from the photos she came right up to us to say hello !! ... and now for the extra funny bit
we went into the gift shop having a wonder around, and a couple who had seen what had happened with the sheep said to us "is your sheep following you"  ... and i was standing in the shop horrified that the sheep was there by me !!! it was so funny.

a-z of me ... shaving foam technique

i have been very naughty and been neglecting to update my blog

i recently joined in with the "an a-z of me" journal prompt challenges with @bernice hopper and i have
throughly enjoyed learning new art journaling techniques

this one was particularly fun but very messy ....

SHAVING FOAM AND ACRYLIC PAINTS


STEP 1) bought a cheap tin of shaving foam and squirted it into a small tray





STEP TWO)  i then splodged some acrylic paints onto the shaving foam

STEP THREE) using a barbeque skewer i dragged the paint into lines and swirls, then placed a piece of
of card on top


STEP FOUR) this is how it looked when the first one came out of the tray before wiping away the excess foam

STEP FIVE) the photos a little blurry, but i was thrilled with how this technique turned out and so as not to waste the paint or foam i got a little carried away .....

celebrating with words of me project

i have challenged myself to write about how much the words of me project means to me, in celebration of leslie jackson ackman writing her 600th blog

http://wordsofmeproject.blogspot.com/

http://wordsofmeproject.blogspot.com/2012/12/600th-post-party-give-away.html

i have been following and using word prompts set by Leslie Jackson Ackman for a while now, i am really inspired by her art work.  i have also really look forward to reading her blogs ^links^ ^up^ at top of page (hope they work !!)

the group that leslie runs https://www.facebook.com/groups/311556705573998/mind.body.soul-art journaling gives me so much encouragement, help and support which i really do appreciate and i admire
lelie's hard work and inspiration that she shares with us.

leslie's words have helped me spiritually, encouraged me to grow, and explore new techniques in my art work, so all that is left to say now is .....

after much persuasion i am going to be entering into a blog challenge !!!

i bought this love photo frame from the booty for £1 and it was crying out to be
altered ....

decorated in a vintage style using old buttons on the l, the o was decorated with
antique rose embellishment stickers, frabric remnant and sticky backed ribbon.
  on the v i have added a bit of bling flat backed gems, and the e i used sticky
backed lace and cream fabric hearts.