Mrs. Brimbles weaving project

Hi All, it's Anna aka Mrs Brimbles back again to share something different with you this week...

Many moons ago I went to college (I'm not gonna tell you how long because it makes me feel old he he!) and at college I studied art in many forms. I did the traditional drawing and painting but also some textile arts. I loved the textile arts more than I did the paining and drawing as I had less criticisms from the tutors for these. Yes I was criticised heavily by my teachers who just didn't 'get me', it's only because I loved art so much that I carried on regardless but that is another story for another day! The two textile art modules that I took where weaving and batik.

I haven't thought about my weaving for a long, long time. I used to love it though and got some very good marks for it. One day I was browsing on instagram and a weaving came up in my feed. I followed some of the hastags as I often do and found myself immersed in various weaving accounts which I have been lusting over ever since.

I decided to get my loom out again, I kept it because I knew one day I would use it again. Since I saw those photos I have actually made a few weavings, it's a bit like riding a bike, how to do it came flooding back to me. I am not quite as good as I used to be as following an accident I had last year with one of my hands my dexterity skills aren't quite as good as they used to be for finer work. Still I don't let that deter me, I enjoy it and find it very relaxing. As much as I like to paint and draw, there is something to be said for making or crafting somthing 3d with your hands and seeing it come to life.

I am always looking at different woold and fibres as my love for the art has never waivered. One of the things with weaving or textile arts is that it can be more pleasing to the eye to have more textures to look at so when I saw the twine from Timeless Twine I knew it would be perfect to incorporate into a weaving project!

I used the pink and white twine to create the warp. The warp is the vertical threads that you then weave your project onto. Once this was done I was then off! Here is what my finished piece looks like:

As you can see I used various shades of pink and white. I used this colour scheme as I had a friend in mind that I wanted to make this for and she loves pink!

I used a stick that I found when out on one of my walks in the woods near where I live. I love that you can bring personal elements that mean something to you into your art and your work. I used the same twine for the hanging loop.

Here are some close up images of the finished piece:

As I mentioned, this was a gift for a friend so I had to package it up all nicely. Funnily enough, packaging and wrapping is not my strong point what so ever! I have never been very good at it, I don't know why! Anyways I try my best. I used manilla tissue paper to wrap it up, folded a doilly round (I have Pinterest to thank for that!) and then used one of the other twines to 'string it up'. If I do say so myself, it looks rather nice.

I really hope my friend likes it and I hope you have enjoyed seeing something a little bit different to my usual art / journal / planner posts!

Mrs. Brimbles Smore love!!

Hi All, it's Anna aka Mrs Brimbles here to show you my planner pages again.

As you will see my stamping is coming on leaps and bounds! I seem to make less of a mess with an older ink pad and although the ink is paler, I am actually quite liking this looks as to me it does look more 'vintage' which matches the type writer font perfectly!

Mr B wears 'nerd glasses' so I thought it would be great to use that stamp for our date night he he!

I love the mix of my handwriting, stamping, my doodles, washi tape and stickers. It is all of me, all of who I am rolled into my planner pages. I keep my pages all decorated up to look back on as a reflection of what I have done and what we have been up to. For me 'creative planning' is just an extension of my memory keeping and journalling!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my pages as much as I enjoy sharing them with you!

Mrs Brimbles in the house!!

I had a really busy start to my week with personal stuff going on and therefore I didn't really have much need of my planner on Monday and Tuesday. That was fine with me though as it meant that I could stick pretty things down which does make me happ that and little doodles of ice creams. Well it has been hot and I have had ice cream on my mind lol!

This week I decided to change my ink pad. I decided to give my old drying up one a go to see what difference that would make in terms of my inking. I actually found it a bit on the easier side as it meant that I didn't make so many smudges although the ink colour isn't as intense as using the other ink pad. I really love the effect that it gave for the words and arrow that you can see on Wednesday. I really like that more muted / toned down look to the ink. I also realised that when I am stamping words, I quite like them without check off boxes next to them. I don't know why, but visually this speaks out to me a lot more. It looks much more 'typewritery' which I know isn't even proper English but I just love how it looks. 

I also decided to use little hearts for ticking off and I think I may be in love with them! It make the pesky housework all that much nicer don't you think!!

Guest Designer Anna Brim

My Foray into the Planner stamping World.

Hellloooooo everyone! Thank you so much for having me over on the blog to have a chat with you all and share my planner. So my name is Anna but most people in the social media world know me as Mrs Brimbles. This is a nickname that kind of, well stuck after I married Mr B lol! I live in a small village in Cambridgeshire, UK with my high school sweetheart, three bunnies and two guinea pigs. Life here is often loud and it is always fun. I have a little bit of a thing for 80s pop music and am not afraid to blast it round the house!

I have been a planner pretty much all my life. When I was in secondary school we were given planners from our teachers (branded with the school logo) to use for keeping track of homework and attendance that sort of thing. Little did they know that they were setting my up for a life as a planner addict huh. I wasn't too keen on school but I do have them to thank for getting me into planners. When I left University in 2002 (you can do the maths on my age) and stepped out into the World of 'real work', I bought my first Filofax. 13 years later (oh heck…really, is it 13 years!) I am well and truly a planner nerd with a variety of planners.

I love to use social media and ogle over the planner pages that people are often sharing, can we just say that some of them truly blow my mind with their creativity! I have been coveting planner stamps for a while now and have often wondered if I should take the plunge or not. Everyone loves them and really raves about them so I assume that people now class them as their planning essential? I really felt like I was missing out.

I have to say I part of the reason that I wasn't getting any or using any is a lack of confidence. I am not a paper crafter (really), I don't make cards and I don't scrapbook. I create messy, mixed media art, mainly in my journal. There is no room in what I do for precise stamped images and because of that I was a bit scared to use stamps. What if I messed up and didn't get that precise stamped look, my pages would then be ruined! This is the kind of thing I tell people off for when it comes to art yet here I am doing the same sort of thing with planner pages and stamps lol!

I have been doing One Book July which I started after I had already decorated a week in my Color Crush planner so I decided that this would be a really good week to try some stamping out on. I wasn't using it as my main planner so if I mucked it all up it wouldn't effect my week. I got everything out on the breakfast bar so I could see what I had and to let me familiarise myself with my stamps. Then off I went. I was like a kid in a sweet shop! It took me a while because I was learning how to use a stamping block as I have never used one before and the ink pad that I have is all dry and crusty so I had to get used to a nice brand new ink pad too. I did get ink all over my fingers which also resulted in a smudge on my page but it was all good fun. I managed to get a couple of snaps of the chaos with my iphone to show you...

So all in all, it took me a while to get used to because I had never done it before but it was super easy and super fun and I really love how it turned out in the end! I really enjoyed my foray into the planner stamp World and I am looking forward to sharing future posts with you!

**Thank you Anna for joining us!! You can look forward to several more post from Anna in the coming weeks!!! She has graciously said she would do several weeks with us and I can't wait to see what she shares!!