I had a fabulous day on Saturday at Paddy's Stamping Place. The lovely Sarah Anderson was taking a 'Journaling' class and I was so looking forward to it. There were four of us for the class, but we had a great time. (The class I think will be repeated on the Thursday). Sarah brought some of her own journals to look at and some printed books on art journaling. Her journals are just soooo scrumptious (I spent most of the day just stroking one journal in particular). I think the most surprising thing was how small the journal that she shares on her blog was. (well it was to me anyway LOL). I work on roughly A4 size for my daily log and A5 for my Wonderful Life and I've no idea why but I was anticipating her journal to be about 8x8 size if not bigger - this could be the scrapbooker in me I don't know. But it is a small 6x6 journal. I couldn't get my head around it at all - so much detail in this small book - it is a wonderful piece of work.

Sarah started the class at a brisk pace, identifying various techniques for us to try on small tags - given that we all had the same tools and paints, it was great to see everyone's interpretation of each technique. We then used some of the techniques to create a page in our journal. Sarah brought along her Cricut and sewing machine and throughout the class she was cutting tags for us to try our techniques on and creating masks and stencils for us. She also encouraged us to add some stitching to our journals and tags.

Some of the techniques I have used before and some were quite new to me. I think the most obvious thing that I took away from the class was to have fun with my journal. Although I love working on my journals I never regarded them as a tool to play with and that is what Sarah emphasised in the class. I do think that working alongside like minded people with similar interests helps the process also.

Now it would have helped if I had brought my camera for a few pictures, but I didn't! So Iwill try and scan some of my journal pages later.

Of course at the end of class we had the chance to purchase goodies from Paddy's shop. I had such an enjoyable day with such lovely ladies. Thank you to Emma, Cynthia and Sue for sharing you wonderful work and skills. Thanks to Paddy for arranging the class and providing such a wonderfully warm, friendly environment to play and for the delicious date and walnut cake and of course a huge thank you to Sarah for her patience and for sharing her amazing skills and knowledge.

Now I'm off to PLAY with my journal LOL

Eeek - is it that long since I blogged! (Ha doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself LOL).

I will try and do this blogging malarkey a bit more frequently in future I promise.

I'm getting all excited now as I'm off to Paddy's tomorrow for a Journaling class with the uber talented Sarah Anderson (http://sarahanderson1.blogspot.com/) and I can't wait. Her work is so srumptious and I have so much yet to learn about journaling, and who better to learn from? I am really looking forward to it.

What have I been doing during my absence? Well a bit of tickle and phaffing and of course my pages for Kate's 365 2010 Challenge. I had a slight accident with my first journal (tipped a mug of tea over it and the spray inks ran EVRYWHERE). What a disaster! So I ended up having to buy a new journal and start from scratch. Needless to say no spray paints were used on the pages so far LOL

This is my Feb page - All pink and lovey dovey LOL and I thought with the Irish connection I would go for the St. Patrick's lean on my March page. I quite like how they've turned out.

Have a look at some of the stunning pages produced so far by such amazing talented ladies here http://www.flickr.com/groups/2010_calendar_365_challenge/pool/