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We at It's a Creative World love to experiment and dabble in all forms of Art and Creating.

And today we are so excited to be launching a project that we know you'll love!

On the 5th January 2008 we will be off on a year long journey.

A journey that will take us from A to Z.

We want you all to come with us as we learn about new medias, and discover ourselves.

So the plan is!

On the 5th January and every two weeks following, we will post a prompt starting with the letter A.

That prompt can be interpreted in any way you like.

The Creative World Girls have chosen their themes and here is the list of ones we have come up with...

1. A to Z Book of Me - e.g. A for Artistic

2. A to Z Crafters Journal - by products and techniques e.g. A for acetate

3. A-Z of Everyday, a sort of catalogue of ones day if you like

4. A-Z Crafters Journal - by theme e.g. A for Angel

5. A-Z Altered Art Journal

6. A-Z of Us

7. A-Z of Life e.g. A-Anniversary, B-Birthday C-Cooking H-Housework S-Shopping

8. A-Z of Baby e.g. C-Crying, T-Teething, L-Laughing, P-Playing

9. A- Z Occasions e.g. A-Autumn, B-Birthdays, C-Children

10 A-Z Book of You, could be for your children or husband

But of course you can choose a different theme for each letter too!

Lets talk about format!!

Art Journals.

Buy a sketch book from any good art supply shop, decorate the front and back covers, and art journal each letter on a new page. You will also have lots of pages to journal. And if this is going to be a BoM, life or everyday journal you will need the space!

Or in a Scrapbook Albums.

You can choose 6x6, 8x8, 8.5x11 or 12x12. You will need to decide how much information

How about an ATC for each letter.

ATC are cute and if you haven't got time to do large format this will be perfect.

Or tags, that can be bound together at the end.

Tag books are fun and easy to make, start by cutting out a tag for each letter so on prompt day you can just sit down and create!

However you choose to create your pages or whatever theme you choose, we want you to come and play, so email us at acreativeworld@hotmail.co.uk with A-Z as your subject to sign up :)

There will be spot prizes through out the year for the girls taking part and sharing their work. Pages emailed to us will be uploaded to a flickr album :)

And the best bit....it's FREE!!!

Here are a few examples of the books the Creative World Girls have made

Charlotte

I am going to make an "Everyday" journal which I hope will turn out to be a mini catalogue of our life right now, warts and all! When I look at photos of me when I was much younger I always find myself looking in the background - what was our furniture like, what our telly looked like etc. I find the everyday bits and bobs fascinating so I would like to have a record of 2008 life so we can look back with interest and a giggle in 30 years time.

To make the journal I cut out 4 sheets of card (the plain stiffener bits I keep from packs of patterned paper or cereal box card is a similar weight) and covered them with patterned paper (front and back of the front cover and front and back of the back cover). Once the card was covered I punched holes using my bind-it-all carefully ensuring that they lined up with each other when the front and backs of each cover were joined together. I then sandwiched two lengths of ribbon between the two sets of covers so that when the journal is completed and bound I can tie it shut if it's quite bulky.

I am going to use a double page for each letter and I think they will be mainly photos and journalling, then I will pick similar embellishments (in terms of type, colour etc.) for each page to carry some flow through the journal.

Di

Joy

Making your art journal cover is about doing something that shows a little bit of your soul. Find your favourite stamps, beads, paints, little pieces from other projects, embellishments.... anything goes!

On my art journal cover, I sprayed the covers with Ranger colour washes. I then build up layers of stamped images and bondaweb. I used the bondaweb to hold layers of tulle.

I used stamps from Tin Can Moon and Stampers Anonymous to stamp images on tissue paper. I added in painted and burned felt hearts and stars, little mirros, beads, pocket watches, and stained glass tiles.

I created paper casts of Claudine Hellmuth's stamps to make the hand, and I added pearl mica and gold leafing pens to the cover.

I added more burned felt tags, a pocket watch of seed beads, and small bead embellishments to the journal rings. I repeated the same process with the back, following similar techniques for consistency.

And now all that is left, is for you to decide if you want to do a themed album and what format you will work on.

There are 8 weeks till the first prompt, so plenty time to sign up and get ready :)

Come on you know you want to play!!

haPPy creATing!!

The Creative World Girls

xx

Easy Art Journal Pages and Inspiration

Easy Art Journal Pages

When I need some inspiration, or if I'm struggling with something, or if I want to try out a new technique, I start a page for my art journal.

1. Shiva Paint Sticks

This is a page using Shiva paint sticks - a little project that takes about 20 minutes.

There are 2 pics of the final product, one using a scanner and one using a camera, at the start and end of this post. This shows the variation as embossed images can be tricky to photograph due to light reflecting.) Step 1: Grab some paper and shiva paint sticks. You have to peel the skin off the paint sticks to start the paint flowing. I used red and purple for my background.

Step 2: Build up layers of colour. I added blue, pink, peach, and green.

Step 3: Use a baby wipe to blend and remove colours. Add additional colours as you feel they fit.

Step 4: Pick a stamp. I used a magenta one below. Stamp in archival ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Step 5: Build up colours....... Just go in any direction you want.

Creating art journal pages lets you have free expression - something to create without a set of precise instructions and something based on how you feel at that moment....... a good time to try out new and crazy things, too.

2. Angel Page

I made this page, again, when I was thinking over things... Art journals are good for working through feelings and situations.

I painted the background black, and then I blended in water soluble oil paints to colour the background. I left them to dry overnight.

I then stamped the angel wings (Stampers Anonymous) and the letters (Making Memories) white white brilliance ink. I blasted it with the heat gun to set it. Inspiration for Art Jouralling Here are some links for some great inspriration for your art journals.

Lynne Perrella http://www.lkperrella.com/ Alphabetica http://www.amazon.com/Alphabetica-Z-Creativity-Collage-Artists/dp/1592531768/sr=1-1/qid=1170036501/ref=sr_1_1/102-2398784-3728133?ie=UTF8&s=books

Artists' Journals and Sketchbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Artists-Journals-Sketchbooks-Exploring-Creating/dp/1592530192/sr=8-2/qid=1170036403/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-2398784-3728133?ie=UTF8&s=books

Beryl Taylor

http://www.beryltaylor.com/

Mixed Media Explorations

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A267435&page=1

Maggie Grey http://www.workshopontheweb.com/

Paper, Metal, Stitch

Raising the Surface

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b/026-1458728-2363625?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=maggie+grey

Techniques and Blog Eye Candy - More Inspiration

http://tryittuesdays.wordpress.com/

Claudine Hellmuth Cloth Paper Scissors

Quilting Arts Art by Laurence Menhinick - felt bags, felt beads, textile manipulation, mixed media( Laurence Moni)

Assemblog of Michael deMeng michelle ward

be crafty be happy Etsy Labs magstitch Purple Missus Tejae's Art http://20six.fr/anne/cat/211512/0/Mixed_Media The Artful Mama Stamping-Art

[i] LoveLife Nina Bagley

Aisling

Keeping an Art Journal

If you are interesting in starting an Art Journal or just looking for a project for 2008, be sure to pop back tomorrow. We have something planned that is so exciting!!!!!

Joy!!

HELP!!!

We are desperately trying to locate "Heather from Scotland" and "Sharon Peters" who both won prizes during our October Boobs campaign. Please send your addies to acreativeworld@hotmail.co.uk and we will send your prizes to you. If anyone knows these girls we would appreciate your help in contacting them

And just a reminder that our Just Giving Page is still open!!! Thanks for your generousity!!!

Funky Christmas Cards

This week I have been playing with a really funky and modern Christmas Digital Kit and making some hybrid cards. There are hundreds of digital kits available to buy and download from the Internet and by printing the papers and elements on your home printer you can make fantastic cards and even better - because it's a kit everything matches so no need to spend hours searching through your stash for a piece of paper to go with the other elements.

I bought the Funky Fa La La kit from The DigiChick and I added some Doodlebug paperfrills, my favourite 'can't make a card without it' black and white striped paper from Pink Petticoat, charcoal chalk ink and a black pen for my doodled edges.

Once I'd paid for, downloaded and unzipped the files all I had to do was print, cut out and glue down to make my cards. I used my charcoal chalk ink to ink around the edges and to give some added detail and stop them looking too plain I used my pen to quickly doodle a line all around the edge of the card blank. It's not really straight but that just adds to it's charm!

I challenge you to use a digital kit to make some cards this week!

Love from Andrea xx

CD case desk calendar - great for Christmas!

I'm not claiming this as an original idea - my DH was given a promotional calendar last year, and the cards were housed in an empty CD case, so I thought I'd give it a go and see how easy (and quick) it would be to make one myself. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and can almost guarantee that a number of our relatives will be getting one for Christmas! You will need: empty CD case (the kind that will fold back so that the lid will sit on your desk) sheets of A4 photo paper or cardstock paper trimmer ruler Measure the CD case - the paper inserts will need to fit inside (mine are 11.6cm x 13.5cm). I made my inserts by drawing a text box in Publisher the exact size that I wanted the finished cards to be, then filling the box with the calendar for each month, a photo and an image to finish it off. Once you get into the swing of it, it's really easy to cut and paste from one month to the next. Publisher has a variety of calendar styles you can use and manipulate, or you can create tables in Word for the calendar part, if you have a 2008 calendar to hand (Google can help with this!) I decided to use fairly random photos of my girls for the calendar I made, but you could match the theme of your photos to each particular month, so wintry photos for December, January, and February, fresher, greener photos for the spring months, ice-cream and holidays for the summer months, and beautiful autumn hues for September, October and November. I also found that I had gaps to fill, and used a lovely dingbat font by David Walker to add the fun images. Once I was happy with the layout for each month, I printed them off onto photo paper - cardstock would work just as well, you just need to ensure that you use something thick enough so that the cards will stand rigid in the CD case. Once I'd printed them off, I trimmed the months to size, following the thick black line I'd put around the text box. This is when it starts to come together. Put your months into the right order, et voila! A fairly quick and really straightforward gift. Once the calendar pages are in the closed CD case, tie the case with a brightly coloured ribbon, and add a handmade gift tag. If you wanted to make these as teacher gifts for Christmas you could use inspirational quotes, or seasonal stock photos instead of family snaps, or you could scan children's drawings and use those as your images. Enjoy!

Fabric coasters

Do you have a little space just for you to create? Here is a way to personalise it with some little altered *fabric* coasters - perfect to hold your refreshments for an art party! Alternatively, you can create the fabric and use it for any other project (ATC, altered bag, etc).

Materials: muslin, paint, expanding paint, heat gun, transparency, adhesive, embossing powders, scissors, coaster Step 1 - Paint muslin. I've used pearlescent paints here to give a shiny effect.

Step 2 - Stamp an image using expanding paint (paint that expands with heat). I used a Stampers Anonymous harlequinn stamp. Then I added embossing powders into the paint.

Step 3: Heat. The paint will puff up, giving a great texture to the piece.

Step 4: Add paints as desired. Step 5: Trim to size for your coaster.

Step 6: Cut a transparency to wrap around the coaster. This will protect the fabric from spills. Step 7: Use a strong adhesive to glue to the back of the coaster. Weight the transparency down for 1-2 days to ensure it adheres.

Step 8: Enjoy! :)

x Joy

More Christmas Decorations

And a happy Monday to you all from Di.

I am the queen of easy peasy so I hve another simple project today that will be fun for the children to get involved in. It's some jolly star 'bunting'

I started with a simple star shape and some red raffia ribbon which I unrolled.

I cut out 9 star shapes from foam squares.

I then attatched the stars to the raffia ribbon with bling brads added a few smaller stars and finally messed some gold and silver glitter glue over the stars. Between the stars I tied a little raffia bow And Voila Viola we are done!!! Have a great week everyone. Thank You for visiting IACW

Holiday memories with Lousette

We are so excited to have Lousette Ashton join us today. Lousette is the most fabulously talented scrapbooker and cardmaker. So, while the weather outside might be frightful stay here where it really is delightful. Lousette's amazing holiday album will certainly put a spring in your step. Over to Lousette .......................

A big thanks to Maria for inviting me to do a guest spot on the blog.

This is a 6x6 themed album I did using some of the holiday pictures from a trip to South Africa. Whenever we go away on holiday we always come back with hundreds of photos (of course, who doesn’t).

Sadly though, most of our holiday shots just stay on the pc, along with all the other thousands of photos we have taken over the last few years. I vowed this year I was going to make a change and actually scrap a holiday from start to finish instead of just the odd page here and there.

I started with a 6x6 Heidi Swapp album 100 6x4 prints Some Scenic Route papers (Laurel range) Various embellies and rub-ons A heap of enthusiasm

The biggest challenge was to get as many photos into one little album as possible, have some journaling so that we could remember what happened etc., use up some of my embellishments that are piled high in my craft room, and still not have it all look too cluttered. In the end I managed to use 86 photos in a 20 page album (so a total of 40 6x6 single layouts). That might not sound like all that much, but as a generally simple, uncluttered scrapper I really felt as if I had achieved something. I am very happy with the results too and hopefully I can keep this up and document all of our big holidays.

Here are some tips I picked up along the way and would like to share with you: 1. Crop, crop and then crop some more. I left some photos large, but I cropped others down to quite small. At first this kind of freaked me out, but once I got chopping I really enjoying cutting the pictures into manageable chunks. 2. Forget about matting photos and just stick them down as is (add a bit of ink to the edges if you need some definition). 3. Create edge to edge photo collages. Some of the pages consist of only photos, a great way to incorporate a lot in a little space. 4. Use one range of papers. I used the Scenic Route papers, with just a little Basic Grey green and orange here and there. This way all of the pages co-ordinate, but they still each have their own identities and I only had to choose papers once. 5. Have fun, and don’t get stressed over time. This album took me a few weeks to complete, I did a page or three whenever I had a minute to spare.

These are a few pages from my album, I hope this will give you some inspiration for scrapping your holiday photos.

Wow!!! Thank you so much Lou for sharing your fabulous album with us. You've certainly got me revved up to finish our last holiday album. I started it in June and it's not been touched since.

*~*~*~*~*~* Oooh, don't forget that you can still download the fabbie doodles designed EXCLUSIVELY for us. Just help yourself and if you get a mo let us see what you've created with them.

You can find them here and here.