My Mojo Monthly May-Floral Frenzy!

SEE THE NEW MY MOJO MONTHLY HERE! 

Hello again and welcome to another My Mojo Monthly! Well, last month the sun was encouraging the crafty bug and now a week of rain is also a reason to stay in, sit and play!  Whatever your crafty passion may be,  My Mojo Monthly is all about inspiration and exploring creativity in your own way. This month I'm in a Floral Frenzy to pretty up the Mojo! Firstly, let's talk to My Featured Artist, the very talented and inspiring Lin Brown.

FIVE QUESTIONS TO MY FEATURED ARTIST... The beauty is all in the details, the colours, the love of her art and a passion to share and teach. After leaving Holland my first serious dives into the inky, arty world over here were most definitely enriched by the fabulous ArtsyCrafts weekends and talents of Lin and Leandra. That's why I'm thrilled to feature Lin and her amazing creations...
Who is Lin in five words? Wife, Mother, Nanna & dabblerofallthingsarty!

Where are you right now as an artist?
At a crossroads. Having spent many years running my shop which was full of ink and paint, I spent all those years concentrating on the products that we sold. Now I feel that there is a whole new crafty world waiting for me. My direction is definitely heading down the fabric path. I have a new sewing machine which I absolutely adore and can really see myself making all sorts of fabric journals and collages. Of course I will never let all my other favourite mediums fall by the wayside, it’s my intention to incorporate those in my new adventure.
Which of your creations is closest to your heart? Penny and Bob are the two pieces that I love the most. Penny’s real name is Mrs Penny Pennypot and she was originally going to be a jar to store pennies in. Bob Sprocket is her boyfriend...

and they live next door to each other on the shelf in my studio. I put a lot of thought into each of these characters.

I must say that I just love a project where you can go to town with lots of detail. These two certainly tick all my boxes! 
Where do you find inspiration when feeling Mojoless? Everyone has days when inspiration seems to simply dry up. I usually reach for some old magazines or books. I have a huge collection of craft books including books on polymer clay, metal work, encaustic art, watercolour, journalling, you name it - I’ve probably got it! I find that it doesn’t take long to stumble across something that I like and I start to jot down a few ideas. Once I have a list of inklings, that’s usually enough to get me going.

You are going back-packing in the Himalayas for a year and may only take 3 crafting items. Which - and why? Only three items? This is the toughest question of all. I would have to take my scissors, a girl can’t do much with scissors. A journal and my sewing machine would be my other two items. I figure that I could probably find stuff to make paint with even if it’s only mud and water and the only colour I can make is brown….I like brown!!! And I could probably find some leaves and things to replace fabric.
Pay a visit to Lin's wonderful blog and be sure to sign up for the upcoming ArtsyCrafts happening in June. Choose between a day or the whole weekend... all full of amazing PaperArtsy goodies, fabric and art. They are truly fantastic creative events and you will want for nothing - except more of Lin and Leandra!

Back at HQ...Thanks so very much for sharing with us Lin. Utterly splendiforous creativity and a really wonderful read!!! So this month my theme is Flower Frenzy. Ah, the flower. Nearly every crafter's best friend and regular celebrity...and as I like to say, be they girly, grungy or glittery, we all seem to love them.

I cannot possibly do flowers without the wonderful world of Wendy Vecchi. So I went to town on a whimsical flying house adorned with blooms! I love to work with Wendy's stamps and Art Parts and create dimensional pieces to indulge the imagination. I chose subdued shades using Ranger Color Washes, Distress Stains and embossing powder to colour to the pieces...

Les fleurs! I stamped my fave Wendy flowers onto design papers from Tim Holtz's Destination Stash which I had first coloured with Stormy Sky Distress Stains. I like to stamp a basic flower image onto design papers to achieve an immediate 'new look'.

Art Parts come in all shapes and sizes and provide endless possibilities for moods, construction and designs! I made the house out of frames, bases and corner scallops and stamped just a portion of the face onto a smaller Art Part to 'capture' the eyes... surrounded by mini blooms!

The base is from using Large Art Parts Florals and the Spool collection and make wonderful pedestals for the pieces! Of course, two flutterbys could not be missed! Go on have a go - you'll love them and can find endless flowery inspiration on Wendy's blog here!

I like using the abundance of techniques out there in my own way... and unless you've been living under a rock all year you cannot miss the wave of art journalling and inky crazes running riot! I'm dabbling with an art journal at the moment but thought I would transpose some of the techniques onto a modern look canvas. I splashed and sploshed manilla card with inks, Color Washes and Distress Stains. I over stamped images in Archival ink, dots in white paint and added highlights with a white pen. I then punched and cut various shaped circles.

I distressed the flower edges, off set them and added random machine stitching to the centres for more texture. I kept the background canvas simple - just some light watery washes using Color Wash, Distress inks and stencilling before stitching the stems by machine and adding book scrap leaves... I love to add words and thought this sentiment was wonderful! So if you fancy a dabble into the journalling 'stuff' but not a whole book, have a go with something like this...but be warned, a journal will probably follow!

Finally, some old paper roses which make me think of Miss Faversham from Great Expections. I used vintage newspapers and tore the petals rather than cutting them to give a more natural look, lightly distressing them with Vintage Photo Ink. I started by creating a rolled bud which I glued to a wire stem and just kept building up the layers, increasing the sizes of the petals. I had to keep looking at real ones on Google to get the idea of the shape! Overlapping and uneven edges was the key.

I used lots of matt medium glue to adhere the petals as it dries clear and then I sprayed a little Gold Glimmer Mist over them for that aged and forgotten look, finishing with a very shabby tag. I'd love to make a whole bouquet some day... That book there is over 100 years old and the perfect setting!

Challenge, Nice Stuff and Info...
Fini! I really hope you've enjoyed my Floral Frenzy...! My Mojo Monthly is all about the why, the what and your creative adventures in crafting! So please feel free to join in and share your artful take and thoughts on all things flowery! Whatever your style... Thank you so very much to everyone for playing along last month. It was so hard to choose a winner! Congratulations to our April winner Maggie with her lovely dress-form tag. Well done Maggie and in June we'll be meeting the very talented Jean Hardy from Crafty Individuals! This month's giveaway are these fabulous stamps from Paper Artsy as seen in lots of Lin's work!

My Mojo Monthly welcomes all hand-made crafters and artists. A few guidelines on submitting your work:
- In the spirit of MMM please write a few lines in your post about your creativity and why you want to share your work.
- You are very welcome to share challenge pieces, just tell me a bit about your inspiration.
- Please link directly to your post and not your blog so I can find you.
- Please add a link in your post to My Mojo Monthly, thanks!
- You may enter more than once, but multiple challenge photos without description will be removed.
- Feel free to take the MMM button for your blog - please do!

Once again I'd like to say such a big, big thank you to all of you, your creativity and support and still making this all so worthwhile for me. It's good to share, inspire and savour!!!
Stay inspired and moreover yourself...
Sarah.