Autumn already!?

Where has the summer gone? I can't believe it's the first of September already.

Aaanyway, in August I spent just over a week travelling around the beautiful British countryside in our camper van (with my OH), followed by 4 nights in a hotel in Glasgow (work-related).

When I'm away from home I usually take some prepared backgrounds and my little travel kit because I like to create little pieces of art when I have the time. I've whittled down my travel kit over a number of trips and it works very well for me. Here it is:

On this trip I decided to make some ATCs as I have just joined a swap group, so it seemed like a good idea to stock up...

I absolutely adore anything miniature and it's very satisfying to have a stack of these completed by the end of a trip. I always keep a couple in my bag in case I need a little gift for someone - you never know!

Wedding Guest Book

No, not my wedding!!

I'm going to be a witness at my friend's wedding in August and recently decided to make a book for her that the guest can write messages in on the day. We made her invitations together which were purple and cream so I have made the book in similar colours. When I say I made the book what I actually mean is that I took a kraft spiral bound book with blank pages and made a layout to decorate the front cover. I haven't adhered it to the book yet so in the picture it's actually sitting on top of the book. 

I don't tend to follow any particular instructions or patterns and my artwork usually evolves as I go along. I like to build up layers of paper and ephemera and often use scraps, book pages, bits of lace, decorative pins etc. Occasionally I hit a wall and walk away from my craft desk for a little while, or I put my project on the mantelpiece in the living room where I look at it from time to time until I have an idea of how to carry on. I'm pretty pleased with this one and I'm fairly sure my friend will like it!