WOYWW, 2 cards and the last day of my bathroom redoing!

Hi Everybody! 

I am sorry I haven't been around - it has been a bit of a busy week for me - the bathroom is just about to be finished but I won't be able to take a photo till the afternoon so I will add it on later in the day! As you all know I haven't been living at home because at my age not having a toilet is a bit of a problem! I am sure some of you ladies out there will understand! Strangely although I have been  homeless my mind is buzzing with ideas and as soon as I get my home back I will be creating like mad! I have done a few bits on Saturday - not anything very cheerful! Years ago as a student I used to live with a lady and her father in a lovely flat in the old bit of Ljubljana city! The land ladies sister was a known Slovene painter and she was the first one that taught me about art! She died last week (at age 93!!!) and I made simpathy cards for her sister and son! Here are the cards....

Nooooo the desk is not my usual desk ( I wish I had a window in the back) it is my desk at work at the old library where I work a few days a week! I also made a very nice birthday card for my daughters boyfriend Jan but I forgot to take a picture - she will take it for me so I will show that later! The little time I had free I did create but most of the time I have been out and about looking for varios things for the bathroom! I still can't decide on the lights! I have walked through all the "light shops" you can imagine but nothing has caught my eye! I might just have bulbs hanging on a wire till I find something I really like! Decisions, decisions, decisions! Huh!

Anyway this will be short and sweet - I will be back late in the evening with photos of my finished bathroom but for now I am giving you a little sneak peek.......ha, ha bubbly and very colorful!

Have a lovely day, enjoy the snooping after my first bit of cleaning I will try to come round you folks but I am not promising too much as I have to clean a very, very, very dusty flat as tomorrow I have guests coming to visit from England!

Lots of hugs to all of you,

Cardarian

Lost a Wednesday - My bathroom monthly mojo!

Hi my dear friends!

It is horrible that I have to keep on apologising for not coming round to you but I had a mad week and I will explain all my problems!

Last week the man who was supposed to do my bathroom in September called and said that they could come this week! How often does it happen that the people who are doing bathrooms or any kind of work on your house say they want to come earlier then expected???? So I grabed the chance and I have been homeless all week! Twice a day - early in the morning and late in the afternoon I go to my flat and have a look what they have done and also tidy up the mess they make and water my plants! I have been staying in our visiting professors flat - luckily there were no professors visiting this week! :-)

The worse banging is over but the bathroom still won't be finished till next Wednesday! So I will be staying at my friends till Wednesday I guess! 

Before I show you my bathroom I have something for Sashas MY MONTHLY MOJO! The theme this month is Muse & Use it! As all of you know I rarely make a wall hanging or anything similar.... I could call my self a "practical" crafter because although I think wall hangings and similar things are really lovely pieces of art I just don't see my flat full of them! So I try to make sure that everything I make goes to someone - that is why I like to make cards - even if the card is for a challenge I make sure it soon goes to someone who will be happy to get it! Lately I have ventured into art journaling - I made an art joural - memory book for my daughter and I will start one for myself soon! 

Here is a card I have made recently for one of the students that used to work in our library - I really like to make birthday cards - as the color goes with a "yellow" challenge at "Craftalnica" I will also enter my work there! ( he, he another "use" of my card) 

 For this card I used a Suzi Blu stamp "party girl" and an Inkadinkado sunflower stamp! Bits of Tim Holtz stuff, Hero Arts alphas and a few black pearls! The backround of the card was made with distress inks so all in all a lot of stamping and inking!

Here I have another "use" of my art! I was thinking of what to make to notify the people in my block of flats that I will be doing my bathroom and they will have to put up with a lot of noise! So I made a "painting" to tell them what I will be doing....here it is!

I bought some of that new Paperartsy Fresco Finish paint at the Artful Splodger ( a good online shop with excellant service - I get my stuff in 4 days which is almost unheard of! I really recommend them!) and made a "cracle" backround - the base was pink, then I put over the cracle stuff and the blue one on top - it is fantastic to watch it cracle - almost magic! Beforhand I  gathered all the bits and bobs for the collage! I cut apart some cardboard and used the white acrylic dabber on it - to represent a worn out wall I stamped a few tools and colored them, buckets of paint and the word "bang" for lots and lots of banging! I wrote the actual note on the computer with a old typewriter font and then distressed it with vintage photo! I also stamped a lady in the bath and a shower on top to get the peoples attention to the point of this note! The edges are also distressed! The note was a success - everybody now knows I am doing up my bathroom!

 Here are a few details of this "mojo" of mine 

day one - morning - last shot of my 36 year old bathroom.....

day 1 - evening ....stripped down.....

Day 2 - lots of pipes and wires....

Day 3 - doomsday......the wall..... initially I wanted a shower with three walls and a door in the front - thinking it would be easy and practical to clean - well it turned out to be a big lump of cement  making the already small bathroom even smaller so - they had to tare it down and we found a new solution which will be shown to you in the next days!

Ohhh well! I hope you enjoyed " My Mojo Monthly" probably a bit different from others - I hope I can show something different next month! And I hope I will have a bathroom by then! :-)

My apologese again for being away but I will get back to normal after all this is done!

Lots of hugs to all of you,

Cardarian

WOYWW, 10th August 2011

Hi my dear Friends!

I am sorry I have been so quiet this week but after coming back to work things have piled up and I was rushing to finish the art journal for my daughter - it was really fun making it and she was really happy - I think quite surprised as she didn't expect it! But a note to myself is that from now on I should do art journaling a page at a time....doing a load of them is fun but on the other hand it takes all the energy out of you for other projects! This week I haven't done anything except a little drawing you will see on my desk! 

I must apologise to all the people who commented on my blog last week and I didn't get round to them I promise I will get round to all of you in the next days! 

Now about the journal - I won't show you all of the pages but just some so you see what I have been doing....you might be surprised that some of my text is in English - since my daughter was a little girl we spoke both in Slovene in English and we still do so now, so that is why some of the text is English and some Slovene! Ok then lets start with the photos:

I put some metal on the corner of the journal and a few dangling bits with her name, the nickname I call her and a little angel ! Also a button and ribbon!

Here are a few pages - the front page .....

and here are some others....  one in memory of our lovely dog Don.....

This one is one of my favourites.... I think I did well on this one....

I think this one also looks good - I saw something similar on the internet and adopted it so that it fits to what I wanted to say basicly it says that life is not always paved with flowers - you have to plant them if you want to be happy.....

Every now and then I left pages empty for her to either write or put photos on them......

This is a page with a photo I took of her a few years ago....I think this page is vibrant and fun....

The last one is about friends - I think all women should have women friends - no man can understand a women as good as a woman can so girly friends are VERY important!

I have shown you the pages that are not so personal as my daughter doesn't like me to show pictures of her on my blog - I will probably get told off for this too but I think you all understand I am  just showing the art of the journal as such ....

I didn't just give her the journal - I gave her a card too and made lovely chocolate cupcakes... very tasty....hmm I might be a better cook then an artist....but hay cooks are artists too....

Here is half of the face of the birthday girl hiding behind our little dog Flo!

 

Here is a photo of my desk - not very good though - I still haven't figured out this camera - some photos are so clear where as others are just rubbish! 

So thats all folks for today!

Have a lovely day and be sure I will be knocking on your door - I mean blog! He, he...

Lots of hugs to everybody

Cardarian

WOYWW, art journal, and the Mediteranean holiday!

Hi my dear friends! 

I am a bit late posting but I had a rather busy morning and now I finally have a bit free time to do this post! I won't be chatting much - this will be a "photo post".....What will I be showing you??? Well as you all know I was away last week with my friend - we went to the seaside to stay in her daughters house - ahhh I love the Mediterranean....the skies are blue. so is the sea, the air smells of pine trees, rosemary and lavender with a bit of bayleaf on the side - what else do you want??? It can be so inspiring - especially if you are doing art! My friend was all into knitting whereas I decided to make a special present for my daughter - she doesn't read my blog regularly so I think I won't ruin the surprise! Anyway I was making an art journal / memory book for my daughter! This my first attempt at altering a book and using acrylic paints ( well not since I was at school) so you can imagine this was a big step for me! I did do my homework - I talked to the expert on mosh books Donna who gave a lot of excellant advice, I read up a little bit and watched a few videos about using acrylics...bought tons of stuff ( don't ask this month I will be on bread and water ) amoung other things I bought the new Kate Crane double DVD on Art journaling ( some very good advice there too) and well then I started - I took an old book from the library - that was soon to be thrown away I covered the covers in silk paper ( or tissue paper ), cut out pages so I have a bit of space to work my embelishments in - I gessoed the whole book then started with the acrylic paints and "first layer decor" stamps and other home made stuff ....let me show you a bit of my work and also a few photos from my holiday and not to forget my desk from this morning! Did I say this was a no chatting post....sorry!

Here come the photos......

My desk this morning.....

I am now in the fase of writing and decorating my journal so that is what you see on my desk....

Now let me show you my basic work.....

The covers......

And here are a few pages....

I have now stuck photos and other stuff on the pages but it still needs a lot of tweeking - please if anyone has some suggestions I will be very greatful....

And now a few photos from my holiday.....this is the view I had all day long.....

I could get used to that.....

The house we stayed in.....

the huge garden.....

the beach......you just go down the steps from the house and jump into the water.....

Me on the beach - taking a picture of yourself isn't really easy......

and my friend cooking.....

Al fresco dining.....

My friend knitting.....

And me doing my stuff.....

and an arty photo .....

Thanks for hanging in there!

Lots of hugs to all of you....

Cardarian