Bookmarks

During term time I'm a part-time school librarian, and I have wonderful students who help me in my job. Last year I made bookmarks from Pelmet Vilene for my head librarian and deputy. This year I decided I'd make one for every librarian.
Started with a base of watercolour paper and sprayed with dylusions inks

lots on the right side - less on the back (but still needs some interest)

Then trimmed and added stamping, before punching a hole for fibre tassels. 

Personalised by stamping their names on the back

They were fun to make and very well received :-)

Cheap and FREE Online artful class options for 2016

I've been a bit of a class junkie in the past. I have learned a LOT from fabulous international teachers that I would never have had the opportunity to learn from without being online. But there is a truth that you need to remember as you look ahead to 2016 :
You can do anything...but you can't do everything!
So many choices...how do you decide? One way is by price. There are a LOT of options out there and I have an extensive list of Cheap and FREE online artful class options which is always available from my sidebar - top right. I update as new information comes to hand and have just checked that all the links there are current. These are the most recent additions, in price order (US$) :: 

Brave Girl University - all information HERE (access to everything for $24.95 per month). Over 70 teachers together offering hundreds of classes to make life better, happier and more authentic for every woman. Although this would could not be called cheap if you kept renewing monthly for the whole year, I'm thinking this would be fun if you had some time off where you committed to staying home and playing instead of going away on holiday. There's a 90 second YouTube video introducing it HERE and you can look at part of a free lesson HERE.

Recently a blog reader alerted me to Creative Bug --Their advertising says 500+ award-winning art and craft video classes - $4.95 per month. You can try 14 days of unlimited access FREE and keep 1 FREE class lifetime access. The reader said "I'm not affiliated with them... just a happy student." Their art & design courses include Ceramics, Drawing & illustration, Lettering, Mixed Media, Painting, Printmaking, Sketchbooking, Art journaling.... Might be worth checking out in the holidays.

I really love having an art journal which also has space to incorporate daily journaling. Documented Life 2016 has just been released - there's a small fee this year of $12 for the whole 12 months. Begins 1 January 2016. 
And now for some FREE stuff :: 
Since in the southern hemisphere we're now in Summer, it might be fun to look at this :

Marit describes it as a free 10 week "summer art school". Read all about it HERE.
Recently my bloggy friend Zsuzsa of Inky Dinky Doodle shared a really cool cardboard journal she'd made -

This was from a FREE class by Carolyn Dube called Permission to Play. Find out all about it HERE.

I can't wait for the holidays so I can have time to play with this as well :-)
And at this time of year I always like to remind you about :
Alisa Burke : Holiday Play : A class to get you inspired to get you creative in all kinds of ways in the holiday season

and Joanne Sharpe : Five Golden Letterings

Check out the complete list HERE, and please let me know if you hear of anything else.

Documented Life : journal cover part 2

At the beginning of October, I was creatively inspired to tackle the cover of my Documented Life Journal. My cover ended up like this :

You can read about my process HERE. At the time I noted that next up was inside the front cover

When I began our Week 48 challenge to use stencils, masks, and stamps together (see previous post) I scraped excess paint off on these surfaces hoping that would inspire some progress

and it worked :-) ....it worked so well I forgot to take any more progress shots! But I enjoyed naming my journal

adding stamps, stencils, and other marks

and included a face - again this is a copy of the one I also used on the cover with the purple hair (top left)

And here's the inside front cover complete - much more inspiring than the brown blanks I was faced with previously

Click on the photo to enjoy it larger or see it in the Flickr album I've created for all my Documented Life 2015 spreads HERE. You can see all my posts about this project HERE.