Tag Swap

We have a tag swap running on our forum this year. As my first tag was for Carrie and she likes fabric creations, I thought I'd carry on in a Mary Ann Moss stylee! LOL

Journalling... it's everywhere

Have you noticed?? I'm getting sucked in too and because I'm also trying to incorporate fabric into my work at the moment, after much deliberation (who am I kidding!) I have signed up for Mary Ann Moss's class Remains of the Day. I've had a great afternoon messing about with bits of fabric and my sewing machine and eventually ended up with this. It won't be everyone's thing but I love the messy way it was created without too much thought and from my point of view, still ending up with something that I really like! The next stage is to make the pages. Watch this space!

The picture's not great but basically the right edge (the cut off triangular shape) folds over the front and is then casually wrapped shut with whatever you have to hand. Click on the pic to enlage for a better view.

More Stampotique mixed with my usual girly flowers and lace embellishments! This was for my mate Pen's birthday. She's only a week younger me so I guess I'm allowed to get away with the sentiment LOL.

Another day at The Stamp Attic

Pen and I spent Sunday at the Stamp Attic taking part in a class with Sue Roddis. This time it was all about faux metal which involved embossing card covered with foil with the Cuttlebug.

We also played with Stazon inks to create the really brightly coloured elements to decorate

our backgrounds with. I must say this is the MESSIEST class I have ever been to. I even decided I needed to resort to rubber gloves for the first time ever LOL.

The front and the back were both decorated and the pieces joined together with twill tape.

This is the final product. The undecorated pieces forming the back cover. Thanks to Wendy and Sue and all the other class members for a very entertaining day!

Deb's birthday

I had such fun making this for Deb. It was inspired by the class that I did with Sue Roddis recently. You can always rely on Stampotique stamps to add humour. Again it's ripped up books smooshed with distress inks and sprayed to blend, with an added rubon, some grungeboard, German scrap painted black and the Stampotique stamps.

You can't see the added sparkle in the top pic so here's a close up.

Craftstamper Feb 2010

Must admit, I'm really excited about my most recent article in Craftstamper. It's the most complex article I've written so far so I hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Let me know what you think.

There are four different techniques to try out, so hopefully one or two will appeal. The one above is using Lazertran

This is the acrylic paint transfer - lots of finger rubbing here!


...and finally, the smelliest, using essential oils. So get out your oils and give it a go LOL.

Blog Candy Giveaway

Craftstamper are having a blog candy giveaway worth £350 running at the moment. Ten lucky readers will get a goodie bag stuffed with Sharpie markers (wish I could enter sigh.... LOL). Having a few myself, I could recommend them. They're good on acetate and for writing in your hand decorated journals for starters.

Instructions are over on the Craftstamper blog . You've got until midnight on 30th December.

Another birthday card.....

And here's the one I recently made for Audrey

... the one below is to give you a better idea of the colour of the mosaic tiles

sUE RoDdIS @ ThE STAmp ATtiC

Well, you know from the title, it's likely to be slightly wacky! Sue was teaching at The Stamp Attic this weekend and Pen and I managed to book a place. The class was called "Down my Street" (or it might have been "up my street" LOL) and you can see why! We had a wonderful time in the new workshop mucking about with ink and stamps and ripping up old books and the day went in a flash. I think my favourite part of this is the birdy's headdress. He's definitely a character that bird! I'm not quite sure I've finished the front yet....

.... and I definitely haven't finished the back but I wanted you to see the "garden fence" made out of BBQ skewers and wire. I definitely learnt a few new tips and tricks.

It was also good to have a chance to play with all the quirky stamps that Wendy has on offer. Thanks Sue and Wendy for a brilliant day out!

And the winner is.........................

I've just done the draw for the PBS stamp and the winner is no 13 who is .................................. Sid!!
Lucky for some eh Sid??? Email me your address and I'll put the stamp in the post to you. Congrats!

For Karin.....

We haven't had a birthday on the forum for a while so it was nice to be able to make this for Karin. Love this Japanese stamp. It's very detailed. Click on the image to enlarge if you want to see more closely.

Something different

I spent Saturday at my local embroiderers guild (and most of yesterday) putting this bag together. Quite a change for me to cut out something like this from scratch. I found it really challenging trying to cut out the pieces accurately just using a cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler. Anyway, the result's good and I've got a really useful bag. Anyone who's interested the pattern can be bought here. The colours are slightly too bright and it's really a more mellow, autumnal colour than this.

For information....

I've had a few questions over the months about who makes this stamp but unfortunately as I'd bought if from an Etsy seller I had no idea. I can now reveal for those who want to know that it's from Rubber Poet!

An award

Thanks very much to Julie for this award. Apparently I'm supposed to share 5 little known facts about myself. I've previously done something very similar here if you care to look.

I have way too many blogs that I love to pick any at the moment. So as usual thanks to all you guys out there for all the wonderful inspiration!

Paperbag Studios December Challenge - and a freebie!

The December Stamp Challenge is up on the PBS blog. The challenge is to think about the holidays…snow, trees, gifts, and all that means to you. There are also some gorgeous samples from the design team to inspire you. Here's my little hanging that I made from the Delight plate. It's the same background that I used for the Smile project (previous post) and looks quite different with this stamp.

Now for the freebie. I have an unmounted version of this stamp to give away so just leave a comment and I'll do a random generator thingy on Saturday 28th November and let you know who the winner is.

Smile......

I love the Stampotique stamps and don't do nearly enough with them. I've had this little chap for a while. Really, I've been spurred on by Jo's recent creations with backgrounds and fab makes with these stamps. This background was made with a mixture of Glimmer Mists and Crafty Notions sprays. It is an acetate card but slightly difficult to see. Yay - I've finally made something with no frills and lace!

Edit: Thanks to Julie for pointing out it's the right colours for the third Play Date Cafe challenge!.

Craft Stamper December

I was asked to provide a couple of the samples with the fascinating Character Constructions stamps this month. You can also see more work by Sue Roddis, Gail Milburn and Rachel Jackson. As you probably know, CS only allow a sneak peak of the work so here we go......

This is a paper creation..

and this is a fabric creation...

Steampunk in Oxford

I don't often get round to visiting exhibitions but was keen to get to this one and it was pretty close to home as well. It's well worth a visit if you get a chance and is on till February. This is how the exhibition describes Steampunk..... (click to enlarge)

This is one of the more surreal exhibits - reminds me of an episode of Dr Who!

... and this is one of my favourite exhibits

I didn't take nearly as many photos as I should have done and some aren't good enough to reproduce here. If you get a chance Google Eric Freitas work he does the most beautiful, intricate clock designs. Actually Sarah Anderson has a few pics because she managed a visit too.

Playdate Cafe Challenge 2

I knew I had these lovely colours in my card stash when I saw the second Playdate Cafe challenge posted. The box template can be found in November's Craftstamper in a lovely article by Kate Crane. I also liked the lace that I used for my previous project so much that I had to use it again! It was raining when I took the pictures - hence the droplets and slight dampness on the second photo!

Lace and Theme Thursday and Something Completely Different!

I came across this challenge on Dezinaworld in my blog wandering and had to get out the lace box and have a go. I think the colours suit the time of year LOL

Here's a close up of the butterflies as the sparkle is not very obvious in the first pic.


Edit: I've also discovered that "Faces" is the challenge on Theme Thursday and Something Completely Different this week and as I think her face is just beautiful have entered for that too.

Karin's tiles

.... and finally, the last set of tiles to be made for our forum challenge. I think we were nearly all running late on this one - sorry Karin

I ran some metal through the zipemate in cuttlebug folders (yes - I still use it!) and then painted with a mixture of Stewart Gill and Viva paints. The butterflies are embossed with clear to give them more body and shine.

noT a ScRAPbOOker

Pen and I visited ArtSpecially in the Netherlands earlier in the year and if you ever get the chance, I would recommend it. Although not a scrapbooker, I decided I wanted a more visual record than just digital photos stuck on the hard drive of the PC. I came across this fab free tutorial from Donna Downey which was the sort of look I wanted to create. I really like the feel and texture of these newspaper layered pages apart from which I knew I wouldn't be very neat at doing this so if worked well LOL

So - on arrival in Amsterdam on a lovely warm day.....
There were lots of workshops to do in between the retail therapy....

You may recognise some of the faces here......

For Carrie

We haven't had a birthday on our forum for a while. This month it belongs to Carrie and this is what I made. I covered the chipboard frame in the background paper and then distressed and painted it. The flourish is also painted in matching colours. I filled in the frame with glossy accents to create a glass effect. It is starting to crack (which I thought might happen) and hopefully will add to the aged effect!

Autumn

Paula made a lovely card the other day with one of my favourite stamps which I ended up playing with. I had already made the tag envelope and tag a couple of weeks ago and not done anything with them so the two ended up together. Thanks for the inspiration Paula.

My local branch of the Range was also having a clear out of rubons and I bought 4 sheets - one for each season for a total of 50p - bargain!

A close up so you can see the glitter on the leaves which isn't clear from the main photo.

Busy Life

Life seems to be getting away from me at the moment and crafting always goes first. Pen and I managed to spend most of the weekend at the Artisan show near Leamington Spa though and had a great time. If you haven't heard about this one, it's been organised through Traplet Publications (publishers of Craft Stamper) and the first time it's been held. The show organisers had arranged workshops to take place all day for a nominal fee. I think it really added to the show to be able to try products in between the retail therapy, meet stamping friends and to come away with something that you've made at the same time. The new Viva paint products look fab and I can't wait to have a play with them, as well as all the other products I managed to buy. (Couldn't resist the stash shot below!)

Get well soon!

My dearest friend Pen, who I've known way longer than I haven't known her, is going through a tough time at the moment. She was diagnosed with breast cancer recently and yesterday had a mastectomy. She's been unbelievably up beat (most of the time) and I'm so proud of her. So I've made her a tag with a little case for it to go in.

Some of you may know Pen through her work with Craftstamper and The Stamp Bug. I know she would really appreciate any support offered at the moment so if you fancy sending her a card, just let me know and I'll pass on her address (no spammers pleeeze!!!)

This has always been one of my fave Paperbag Studios stamps not only because of the obvious joy in the girl's face but also because of the great sentiment down the side. The second pic just shows the detail of how I attached the ribbon to the tag with wire.

I'm also putting it into this week's challenge on Crazy Amigos - rubons

.. another two challenges

This week's "Tag it on" challenge is as follows: "please make a tag of any shape or size, with lots of text of your choice, but in basic purple colour tones. Your work should include at least one REAL stamp." The background is created with glimmer mist and a glimmer screen and over stamped with a text stamp. I also added some newspaper text and sprayed that too.

Edit: Also entered for Crazy Amigos this week which is "rub-ons" as I love the rub on quote used here. Pity it's not available as a rubber stamp!

Gingersnap Creations - Movie Stars

Thought it was about time I got out my Stampsmith stamps again and one of the Gingersnap Challenges was the perfect excuse. This is Rita Hayworth for those who don't know. The background was made with a mixture of Crafty Notions sprays and Glimmer Missts. The quote is also a Stampsmith Stamp from the "Say it with Flair" plate.

Tiles Project

Just finished Pen's tiles as part of the next stage of our collaborative project. As her mojo's gone walkabout at the moment I hoped this might remind her that she does still love art (hope so anyway!) and it's in there somewhere!

Blog Award

Many thanks to Donna for the blog award while I was on holiday. Having done something similar recently, hope you don't mind if I just say thanks to all the blogs out there that inspire me (and there are many, many of you!)

I'm back....!

Just returned from a couple of week's holiday which is why the blog's been quiet. Apologies if I have missed commenting on anyone's posts but when I saw I had nearly 400 to go through, I decided it was just too much LOL!

Blog Giveaway

I don't usually do the blog giveaway thing but this looked pretty good to me:

Award.....

I have been deeply honoured to receive an award from one of my favourite bloggers Mad Aunt Bernard who describes herself as a warty old woman in a sack (LOL) If you haven't been to her blog before, pay it a visit. It'll cheer you up on a dull day.

If you wish to accept the award the rules of acceptance are:

List five current "obsessions".

Pass the award on to five other fabulous blogs.

On your post of receiving this award make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link back to them.

When you list your five winners of the award make sure you link back to them.

Let your five winners know they are in receipt of the award by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Hmmm, not a hugely obsessive person but here goes:

1. Going on holiday abroad soon for the first time in years. I'm obsessing about what to take.
   
2. Stargate - avid science fiction fan and I never get fed up with watching the repeats of these guys exploits
   
3. My computer and blogging - spend way too much time at this.
   
4. Jewel Quest - actually I am obsessed. Have to play at least 2 levels daily.
   
5. Crafting - goes without saying really otherwise I wouldn't be here.

I have lots of fave blogs but here are 5 of the best:

1. Cake Wrecks
   
2. Dog Daisy Chains
3. KO..... OK?
4. Little Princess Cards
   
5. Jabberwocky
   

Acetate Panel

I recently made some backgrounds with my new Crafty Notions sprays. They've just added some new colours (sigh...). I didn't really have anything in mind when I started out but ended up with an acetate panel. They're held together with jump rings and because the acetate is quite a heavy weight stand up happily. These stamps are from the PBS Delight plate.

PBS - hanging

I bought this huge set of scrapbook papers from QVC recently. A lot of them have quotes to do with family or life on them, slightly distressed looking and colour variety across the spectrum. This is one of them in conjunction with one of the Paperbag Studio stamps which you can buy separately or as part of a full plate. The colour is actually slightly more orange than this.

Scrapbook Page

I'm completely hooked on this little face stamp from the new PBS plate. This is probably only the second ever scrapbook page I've done. It's 8 x 8. I love this style of distressing and tearing the edges.

Card

Had some time to make a few birthday cards today. This is one of my fave stamps. The black decorative effect in the left corner is actually a rub on.

Blog Update

I'm doing some updates to my blog and I've decided to go over to 3 columns so bear with me if it goes a bit wonky LOL. If anyone else wants to do the same thing - here's a REALLY simple tutorial. I use Bloggers minima dark template and I had no trouble with it. If you have problems viewing it in any way or it looks off feel free to let me know!

Ready... Steady...Stamp

A new challenge - Ready Steady Stamp - has just started. The idea is to use a set of 5 listed ingredients, in this case: a cat or dog, black or gold, 3 different brads, faux batik technique, book or newpaper page.

It gave me the opportunity of using the lovely Art Journey plate that I won recently (thanks Godelieve!). With regard to the faux batik - I ended up incorporating the piece of paper that I used to iron off the stamped image - hope it's still allowed!!! I'm going to mount this on acetate to make a birthday card.

EDIT: ah well - I did make one mistake - I didn't use 3 DIFFERENT brads. sorry guys! LOL

Paperbag Studios - Home Sweet Home

Paperbag Studios have a new theme set for their July Stamp Challenge.

Theme: Home Sweet Home
Deadline: July 31
Details: Create your take on the “home” theme using any Paperbag Studios stamps! Upload your submission to your blog or the PBS gallery and comment on the July PBS stamp challenge post (found here) with a link to your creation!!!

Winner will be selected in early August and will receive a $10 coupon toward Paperbag Studios stamps!

The background was painted with a mixture of white acrylic and streaked with some pale blue and green Adirondack dabbers. Stamps are from the Flourish Plate.

Sunday Postcard Art - Fabric

Spent a lovely day yesterday with Cotswold Embroiderers Guild. The class was run by Carol Coleman who's recently published a book called Fibredance, making fabric jewellery. She's made some fabulous pieces so have a look at the website if you're interested in that sort of thing. Being a novice, I spent all day making this piece LOL. As this week's Sunday Postcard Art, set by Audrey Hernandez, is fabric, this seemed a perfect entry so I've made a background and I may well use it to decorate the cover of a journal. (click on the pic for a more detailed view)

Craftstamper August

Phew - it's all go at the moment! Several of our forum members took part in an inchie cube challenge a few months ago and you can see the results in this month's magazine. It's always fascinating how one item can be interpreted so differently. Here's a sneak peak of mine......

Paperbag Studios - New Stamps

Paperbag Studios are releasing a new half plate of stamps today.

Some weeks ago, I was a invited to join the Creative Team (probably one of the high moments of my life LOL) so I have had a chance to play with these already.

This is a 10 x 7 cm canvas

For this one, I stamped the image on claret coloured tissue paper and mod-podged it onto a wooden crown shape.

Just got carried away here.......!


... and this is corrugated card swiped with gesso

They're a gorgeous set of stamps and very easy to use. If you want to see more samples from the creative team, hop over to the PBS site for a look.

TMTA - frogs

Haven't had time to enter a challenge for ages. Anyone who's looked at my blog before knows I love the Gemini Angel Arts images and I've used one yet again here for this week's TMTA challenge.

Stampers Sampler Jun/July

Having whinged recently that I'd sent some work to SS nearly a year ago and that I didn't think it was going to be published, lo and behold this magazine plops through my letterbox today with a two page spread of the submitted samples. Moral of the story - never give up!!!

If you haven't seen the samples, here is the link to the item further down my blog. Stampers Sampler have used the top and bottom samples.

Craft Stamper July - Canvas Sampler

The new issue of Craft Stamper is out and this month's Craft Stamper is just full of inspiration and creativity again.

This month, I've made a canvas sampler which is just a fun way of recording different techniques and ideas in a decorative way on a canvas board. There are lots of different things to try. Hope you find it easy to understand and enjoy having a go at some of the techniques. Here's just a sneak peak at one part of the board as the magazine doesn't like us to show the whole item.

Collaborative project - part 4

It's Audrey's turn this month. The pictures are from Crafty Individulas, some rubons, a lovely swirl stamp that my friend decided she no longer wanted (although you may decide you like it after all Pen!) and some Papermania jewels.

.... and a couple more...

This one with the Art Journey plate in this month's Craft Stamper....

.. and this one using nestabilities dies, an SU punch (the top border) basic grey paper and the image is a rub on.

cards

I need to make a few birthday cards so here's the first. Stampotique (Rocky) and the lovely new Paper Artsy papers.

Still Stitching

I've not given up the paper arts, just trying different skills at the moment LOL. This is a project from an old Quilting Arts magazine which I've wanted to try for ages. It involves making a background with muslin covered in watered down PVA, tissue paper on top all crumpled and left to dry. I then painted it with Lumiere paints. The pattern was traced on the back and I pinned on the front a layer of kunin felt and 3 layers of gauze and stitched the pattern from the reverse side through all the layers. The fun part was cutting out the pattern shape with the soldering iron and the slow part was stitching on the beads! PS: It wasn't easy to get a good photograph.

Ooh fibre arts!

I've been fascinated by and following Sue Bleiweiss's work for some time now. Would love to do more fibre arts but am finding it difficult to make the cross over (I stick with what I know LOL!).

I finally got around to having a go at making some silk paper recently - which was great fun and then decided to make this booklet with it courtesy of a mish mash of instructions from the free projects on the Two Creative Studios site.

Don't look too closely at my stitching, it's not perfect - that's why there are two metal crimped pieces attached to each corner!

Three tags

Just goes to show how quickly you can make something if you have a great set of stamps. These are all from Michelle Ward, on the same sheet, and all for a good cause and took me about 10 minutes. I may embellish them slightly but I don't think they need more more decoration.

Mixed Themes

I really enjoyed making this. It just came together and it fits with three themes too: Saturday's Workout - Make a collage, Lots to do - Lets face it and Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Flowers. The background papers are new from Paper Artsy and the colours are just gorgeous. You can click on the image for a larger view as usual.

Twiddleybitz giveaway

These guys do some very interesting wooden shapes and have a blog giveaway ending on 10th May. Go here

Craftstamper June 09

Woo hoo - I've got some things in Craftstamper this month -

Items made with cover stamps from the fab Crafty Individuals

And two cards as part of the Art Journey Stamping Contrasts article using their Smile plate

The magazine looks really good again this month, packed with all sorts of different articles - go take a look!!

I pressed the send button too soon earlier so apologies to anyone who follows the blog if you got an empty post!

Thanks Kaz

For the blog award. Would you believe I subscribe to over 70 blogs at the moment. Thanks to everyone whose wonderful artwork and poetry (you know who you are!) inspire me! Kaz has some fab creations on her blog. Go visit here

Jo's birthday - shades of mauve

I often mess about with my craft things with no particular aim in mind and end up with lots of odds and ends. While having a sort out the other day I found this Stampsmith picture (Maude) that I'd tried stamping with Brilliance Pearlescent Crimson but never used as well as a piece of aluminium I'd embossed and then coloured with eggplant alcohol ink. After some rummaging through the old paper stash, I found a piece of Diane's Daughters Rustic Gems Amethyst range (still available) and some lace which I sprayed with Adirondack eggplant colourwash. Added some grungeboard wings and hinges (coloured in eggplant and smeared with silver wax) some dew drops and a couple of flowers layered together - hey presto one birthday card for Jo!

This close up was actually taken by Jo and is much more accurate colourwise than my garden one.

Collaborative project - part 2

It's now Joanne's turn to have her twinchies made as part of our forum's collaborative project. She chose cream and Sepia with black accents. The background was made with Glimmer mists and then run through the printer.

My Needlework Box

I made this pre-blogging and pre-rubber and ink days but I like it so much I thought I'd show it to you. Once I'd finished the stitching, I thought it would be nice to do something different other than framing it so had the needlework box specially made. I think what I like is the intricacy. I know I really enjoyed stitching it.

... some detail - note the little beads sewn over the ribbon

... and the finished item

Woo hoo! I've won a competition!

I'm so pleased and surprised LOL. I entered the picture below (also further down on my blog) into the Blade Rubber "Floral" competition and came first! Thanks to everyone who voted for the entry and congrats to Jo and Diane who came second and third.

Simple Pleasures

I made this a while back but didn't blog it. I printed one of the Prima iron orchid paintables onto acetate then cut out another one and layered it on top and embossed it with glitter embossing powder (it's quite subtle!)

ARTSpecially ATCs - the return trip

What a fantastic weekend we've had at ArtSpecially. If you ever get the chance to go, I can thoroughly recommend it!! What's so nice is having all the different workshops to attend inbetween the retail therapy. Penny and I went to workshops run by some of the well known names from the Dutch stamping world and it was lovely to meet up with old friends and new, not least Hermine, Nellie, Caz, Grietje and Mariska. Here are some of the ATCs that I managed to swap. (spot the accidental upside down one!LOL)

Where are we..........?


..... and an Amsterdam canal.

TGIF - My Secret Garden

The TGIF theme this week is Secret Garden, hosted by multi-talented Jo Capper Sandon. I enjoyed making this.

Thanks Gillian...

Thanks Gillian for nominating me for the attached award. I'm supposed to nominate my top 10 fave bloggers but there are loads more than that on my list. So here's to all you fab bloggers out there who produce such wonderful art work..... cheers!!

ARTSpecially ATCs

I'm in the lucky position of going to ARTSpecially next weekend (all being well, no catastrophes she said.. hoping not to temp fate!). When Pen and I went to Stempelmekka last year, we did some major trading in ATCs so hoping that the same opportunity will arise this year, we've been busy making more. Here's a selection of mine.

unloved artwork! LOL

I submitted these for publication sometime back but it doesn't look like anything's going to come of it so I've blogged them because I REALLY liked them.

As you've probably guessed, the background paper is from Crafty Individuals overlaid with Iron Orchid paintables. I coloured the back of these with gold Krylon

Stamps are from Crafty Individuals, Third Coast and Lazar Studiowerx.

Click on the pics for a close up

Paula's birthday

There have been a lot of birthdays recently! This was for Paula.

There's a collaborative project taking place on our forum. Eight of us to make 3 tiles each in a colour scheme picked by one of the participants who will then receive them in the post . We all get to choose our own colour scheme and will end up with a set of 24 tiles to do with as we wish. Chris is the first person to receive her tiles. Can't wait to see what she does with them.

I had a couple of false starts. I did make this set but wasn't sure if Chris would like it. She'll have to chose LOL!

Calling all Zip-e-mate Owners....!

I may be way behind on this one but you may find this useful!

I bought a zip-e-mate some years back but never really got into die cutting until I recently discovered that the nestabilities dies and cuttlebug folders and dies ALL work in my zip-e-mate. So anyone out there who's about to chuck it away ... DON'T!!!

If you would like the sandwich list just email me......

Arty Girlz Challenge and Mixed Media Monday

I've just finished this today. Been working on it for a couple of weeks. I tried to choose cheerful spring time colours. It's just beginning to feel like there might be some brighter, slightly warmer weather on the way.... hooray!! You don't really get a sense of the depth from the photo but the box frame is about 2.5 cm deep and the inner pic with the checkered border is sitting on a block of wood to bring it forward from the base. The Arty Girlz Challenge this week is Smile.

Edit: Mixed Media Monday is Spring Colours so have entered that too.

.. another birthday card!

It was Galina's birthday recently. This card's on plasma and I had a go with the sewing machine too. Definitely need to do a bit more of that. The stamp is Lazar Studiowerx. Joanne - thanks for the lace(!)

I also made an alternative VERY bright version. The sun was shining directly on it when I took the photo. It's verging on lary. Thought you'd like to see the matching crocuses (crocii?)

Thanks to Pen for the idea with the metal shim round the flower.

A couple of acetate cards

It was recently Chris's birthday on our forum and I made this with one of my new Cornish Heritage Farm stamps. I really like their collage stamps.

I also made this card recently to send off but unfortunately, I haven't been able to part with it yet

...... lol

Socks

There seems to have been a lot of sock knitting going on this winter so I dug out the double ended needles which have nearly rusted away through lack of use (well not quite! LOL) and made these....... They're VERY cosy.

I've blogged!!!

Feels like it's been a while but I've been busy doing other stuff. Had fun making this although I've perhaps gone a bit over the top with the beading. It's still difficult to take photos outside even with the sun shining as it's still very low in the sky.

Edit: The stamp is from Lazar Studiowerx who sadly have just ceased trading in rubber stamps. I've collected a few of their artstamps and they're all gorgeous. The rest is rubons (not clever inking Joanne LOL!!)

Close up of the fringe....

Birthday daisy

Made this for my friend Pen's birthday. It's a great big daisy on a scalloped stamped acetate background. We always have a birthday guessing game on our forum as to who made what. I thought I'd done something different this time but most people still guessed it was me! LOL

TGIF - Houses

Haven't done a challenge for a while and this week's TGIF appealed. You could use this as a wacky invitation to a party.

Meet Sackboy

Anyone who's child has a PS3 will probably have come across this little character from Little Big Planet. There was a free knitting pattern in the current issue of Simply Knitting so I was persuaded that I would like to make him LOL. He's VERY cute and about 10.5" tall (about 25 cm).

Happy Christmas

I've been sending this to all my forum pals plus a few others. I've got very attached to these quirky Stampotique stamps this year. I didn't like them much at all when I first saw them. Funny how you get used to things.

Thanks to everyone who's left such great feedback. It's been so encouraging and I know it's helped me loads. Hope you all have a very happy Christmas and 2009 brings you what you want.

Sock monsters

I've been looking at these guys every day this week as I drove past the local art gallery. Eventually I had to have a go myself so bought the kit! They're ever so slightly bonkers LOL.


.... close up detail of the little one....

Christmas Noel

We put up the decorations on Monday and there are a few items that I made in my stitching era. This is one of my favourite pieces, partly because of the detail and all the different techniques that were employed. The hardanger was the scariest. Basically this is a drawn thread work technique where you stitch then cut away the unstitched spaces that are left. All that hard work, one snip in the wrong place and that's it. Eeek!! LOL

For the stitchers who are interested, this is the opposite to Lefkara lace (which the Cypriots produce) where they cut and draw the threads first before stitching. Dunno which is worse really! Here's a more detailed pic which you click on.

... And a wedding

One of our forum members Audrey is about to get married. Carrie, who is brilliant with textiles came up with the idea or making a wedding present from us all. We had to design 4 squares 2.5 x 2.5 inches in jade and cream (ish!) and she very kindly took on the job of putting it all together.

They're also perfect for this week's Arty Girlz small art challenge and Crazy Amigos hearts

Here are the squares .....



... and here's the fabulous finished article.

Another birthday card

Lots of forum birthdays this month. This was the card I made for Nellie

Birthday card

Audrey from our forum had a birthday a few days ago. Used one of my favourite stamps to make this. The image is on stampbord.

A tag

Had a chance to play this afternoon and amongst other things ended up with this slightly strange tag. Image is from Gemini Angel Arts.

LB Class - Dream, Believe, Create, Inspire

Had a fab day recently with my friend Pen at LB Crafts creating a canvas. I can't remember when I was last so covered in ink and goo LOL. Have only just managed to finally put it together although I'm not sure it's complete yet as well as find some daylight time to take a reasonable photo. You should be able to click on the pics for a more detailed view.

Birthday tag

I made this for my forum buddy Karin's birthday. The Stampotique image is stamped on acetate which gives it a slightly 3D effect.

Wednesday Stamper - Snowflake Kisses

Nice to have time to do a challenge again. This one's for Wednesday Stamper. This is an acrylic tag. A right wotsit to photograph.

A Tag

I made this about 3 weeks ago and was going to send it as an alternative birthday card but I can't bear to let it out of my site LOL

I made this about 3 weeks ago and was going to send it as an alternative birthday card but I can't bear to let it out of my site LOL

I've been tagged....

By Patti.... and I'm supposed to tell 6 random things about myself.

1. I've always fancied being an F16 fighter pilot (yes, I can see you've all collapsed in a heap laughing! LOL)
2. I've spent most of my life working in a hospital and wouldn't change it.
3. My nickname as a child was Wiggle
4. I like to eat hot lime pickle straight out of the jar
5. My favourite meal is steak, chips and salad
6. I've known my best mate since we were 12 and we still only live 12 miles from each other even though we're about 100 miles from where we grew up!

and the rules are:
The rules are as follows:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

The people I have tagged are:
1. Pen
2. Joanne
3. Deb
4. Karin
5. Paula
6. Chris

Thank you Sue Roddis!

I had a lovely visit to Stamp Attic recently and spent way too much money LOL. Whilst there I saw a little book that Sue Roddis had produced for a class that she had held there and had to have a go.....

Then I had a go at doing my own version.......

I think Sue's version is better! LOL

My creative brain cell's gone away!

I got stuck this afternoon with a few projects half finished and no idea what to do next so ended up finishing this cute little bind-it-all calendar from a tutorial I spotted on the Inspirational Tips, Techniques and Tutorials blog. I used one of the Crafty Individuals pads and then created a calendar template which I printed onto acetate and layered in between the CI sheets. It was basically just cutting and glueing which was about all my brain was capable of LOL!! The CI papers are gorgeous. By the way, there were lots of left over strips which I've recycled by glueing onto a piece of A4 card with spray mount. Hey presto - 2 sheets of collage paper.

Helpful Blogger Award

I was a bit blown away to receive this very unexpectedly from Calv, particularly when I read what he'd put about me and my blog..... and no I didn't realise I'd been a help LOL!! Thanks again Calv.

I'm supposed to pass this on but seeing there's at least 30 people whose blogs I regularly visit at the moment, it's very difficult to make a choice so I'm going to do my usual and say thanks to all the talented bloggers out there whose creativity just keeps growing and growing!

PS.... you must go and look Calv's blog and see his amazing inked fruit!

Wednesday Stamper and a birthday

I made this for Carrie's birthday. I really enjoyed making a different shape to usual. It also folds completely flat and fits into a normal C6(?) sized envelope. You can find the instructions here on Youtube. As the colour scheme also fits in with Wednesday Stamper, here's my entry.

Craft Stamper November

I've got an article about gothic arches in this month's Craft Stamper. The new format magazine seems to be going from strength to strength and there are some great contributors this month, not least my two forum buddies Jo and Penny. I'm only allowed to show a sneak peek as magazine policy doesn't allow the full pics for three months but you could always buy the magazine LOL!

Puzzle Piece Swap and TGIF Lace

I've been lace gathering recently (as opposed to wool gathering LOL!) and this weeks TGIF was the perfect opportunity to use some. This piece is also part of a swap that I'm in too. I'm really stuck on these little flowers at the moment. BTW - the image is actually a rub on.

Just playing.....

Had a chance to mess about with my new stamps this afternoon. I've been playing with this for a few days on and off and finally finished it. Not very clear but it's on an A5 acetate card. Can you tell the sun is actually shining today? LOL

EDIT: Just had a tip off that Crazy Amigos is flowers this week so off to enter. (thanks JO!)

Stempelmekka

As some of my stamping friends know, Penny and I managed to get ourselves to Stempelmekka this weekend. What a fabulous weekend we have had (apart from the 10 hour journey home!) If you have never been and want a show that's purely rubber stamping, no peel offs and lots of collagey artsy stamps, this is where you should be. It was fab to meet up with so many internet friends and put faces to names (you know who you are LOL) and I managed to some major ATC trading. Here's a pic of all the ATCs I traded. It was fascinating to see so many different styles. Can you see yours?

TMTA - Dancing

Here's my TMTA entry for this week. Love the colouring of this image.

Received a RAK

I received an unexpected RAK which I thought was gorgeous so thought I would post it. Thanks Sylvia!

Multi-challenge

I've managed to cover a few things here. Back at the beginning of August, Hermine created a beautiful background and set a challenge to make something with it; Jo has also set a challenge on our forum to make something that's "a set" and finally Crazy Amigo's has a tag challenge this week.

Gothic Arch Challenge - Black, white & a hint of red

I started this black and white fairy door some time back and never finished it so here was an excuse to get it done for this week's gothic arch challenge. It's not quite my usual style. The insects liked it. If you look closely, you can see a woodlouse crawling up the right door!

"I Love Your Blog" Award

I am very chuffed yet again to be nominated for a blog award. This time by Willy (from Tenerife) and Jo for the "I love your blog" award. I'm going to opt out from passing it on this time as I've only recently done this but I very much appreciate being nominated and many thanks again to everyone who leaves such lovely comments.

A few ATCs

My friend Pen and I are going to Stempel Mekka in September (yaaaaay!!) so I thought I'd better start making a few ATCs. Nothing spectacular but back on the old alchy inks and some of my fave images. I thought if I get a chance to trade with anyone from overseas they might appreciate the one with the Queen on. Perhaps I ought to add "My husband and I......" LOL

Rein's birthday blog challenge

Rein has a birthday challenge over on her blog. I thought this was such a cute pic (thanks for the heads up Jo!) and here's what I did with it... I've had the sheet of paper forever. It's one of those you don't want to cut up but I took the plunge LOL. I did have a minor catastrophe - or so I thought when I accidentally melted the acetate and it started to curl but in actual fact I quite like the effect and carried on melting it. See the pic below. I also really like the way the family appear over the top of the baby image.

Blogging Friends Forever Award

I have had my first award from overseas(!) Finn and I have been admiring each other's blogs for a while and she has given me the Blogging Friends Forever award - one of the people nominated has to live overseas so I guess thats me! I opted out of passing an award on last time but there are quite a few blogs that have given me inspiration lately so I'm going to pass this on.

Here are the rules:
1. Only five people allowed
2. 4 of them have to be dedicated followers of your blog and 1 has to be new and live in another part of the world.
3. You have to link back to who gave you the award.

1 Firstly to Patty who has finally started a blog. I love looking at the stitching
2 Nellie who's blog was one of the first to inspire me and does great things with colour
3 Kaz for her gorgeous artwork
4 Ingvild Bolme recently discovered and produces amazing creations on her scrap pages..
5 .. and finally Viola who creates the most divine mixed media work

Distress ink Challenge

One of the groups I belong to had a distress ink challenge this month. So I came up with this. Stamps are Artistic Outpost and Third Coast. It was quite difficult to get accurate reproduction of the colours. They are not as loud as this in real life.

Dans la maison il y a....la mer

First time I've done this challenge although I've liked the look of it since it started. I knew straight away which stamp to use.

TMTA - Turquoise

This week's these on Think Monday Think ATC is turquoise. Nice! Thanks to Hermine for the freebie background on her blog (from ages ago) which I used on this.

A blast from my past - stitching!

I was looking at Patti's blog the other night (see my sidebar) and it reminded me that I had done a sampler some time back and couldn't remember what I'd done with it. After some searching I dug it out and couldn't believe firstly it was so long since I'd stitched it (1998 - it says so!) and secondly that I'd gone into so much detail. I think it's gorgeous so thought I'd blog it. It's on 32 count linen for those of you who know and includes drawn thread work and different types of stitch. I'll have to get it framed instead of leaving it sitting in a box.

Tags - and a giveaway!

Had a go at messing about with the Tim's July technique challenge. The first one's very bright and turned out differently to what I expected(!) but I like it. The second's one's the complete opposite!

Um..if anyone's interested, I'm quite happy to give them away. I'm getting quite a collection of artwork and it would be nice if they had good homes to go to. If you leave a post over the next couple of weeks and which one you would particularly like, if there's enough interest, I'll draw a name for each at the end of that time and let you know. Closing date is 25th July LOL!

Edit: I feel very guilty - I completely forgot to do the draw. I hadn't realised it was so late in the month DOH!!. My son has pulled a couple of names and I am pleased to announce that the green/yellow tag is going to Barbara and the red tag to Em.

This one is VERY grungy!

Blog Award!

To my surprise (and pleasure!) both Kaz and Jackie have given me this award which I've never come across before. I'm supposed to nominate 7 other blogs that I admire and visit frequently. So I've been racking my brain and honestly there's way too many to chose so I'm going to be a complete wuss(?) and use the opportunity to thank everyone who's blogs I have visited for all the wonderful inspiration and to those who have visited my blog thank you for all the encouraging and positive comments. It's been an absolute joy!!!!!

TMTA - Colourful

This week's theme on TMTA was Colourful - brilliant!! The background was made months ago with a mixture of gesso, acrylic paint and Lumiere (I think). The image is Gemini Angel Arts.

Dotee Doll

Anyone who visits my blog regularly will know I'm a fan of Dot's blog (listed in the sidebar). Her Dotee Dolls have become world famous thanks to the internet. I've been wanting to make one for a while but not having much fabric or the right type of bead hadn't got round to it so I finally decided to order from her Etsy shop (yes, I know, all the way from Australia). So here she is and she was great fun to make! LOL

TMTA Stone (or Blue for You)

Made this by accident really. I was looking at the subject for TMTA this week and realised I had the opportunity to use one of the cemetery pics which I've started collecting recently. The image is actually a gel medium acetate transfer. The light outside's really weird at the moment - sort of pre-thunder storm, hence the slightly strange colour to it.

Be Inspired!

I thought the shape of this book was very interesting when I saw it on the Kaisercraft site but it was too big for me so I halved the dimensions. Papers are by K&Co and rub ons Rhonna Farrer. Front cover was done digitally with some Rhona Farrer borders, plus some Paper Whimsy images and Paperbag Studio stamps. I might add a few more bellies over the next few days but I've run out of steam for the moment. LOL For more detail click on the pics.

Quick cards

Got some stuff from Darkroom Door recently including the tags in the middle of these cards.

Forum birthday

Jackie's birthday this month. I've been incredibly busy at work the past few weeks so it's been quite difficult to get my head round crafting recently but I was fascinated by this unusual card fold and had a play with it. (I've always loved origami)

... and here the link for the Youtube video if you want to have a go. (Thanks Leo!)

Pendant Challenge

May's challenge over on our forum was to make a pendant and at last I got around to soldering. I really enjoyed it and it was much easier than I thought it would be. I sent this one to Joanne.

I also made a background to keep it on when she wasn't wearing it. The butterfly stamp in the background is one of the first designs by my best mate Penny. You can buy them from The Stamp Bug. I think they're really good and I hope she carries on designing.

Then I had to make another one for me! LOL

Ozzie Owl

It's my dear ole Mum's birthday on Monday. She loves owls and this is one of her phrases when something's funny! The owl hasn't actually got earrings (although it does give him a slightly jaunty look LOL!) He's stuck on with Velcro and you can pull him off the card, attach a chain and turn him into a hanging.

We don't stop playing.....

..... well I certainly don't stop playing LOL. I downloaded some digital backgrounds from Iron Orchid via the Prima Hybrid site the other day and printed one of them onto watercolour paper and painted it. This is what I ended up with.....

A Play Day!

My friend Pen and I had a fab day last Friday at LB Crafts making a mini book. The class was held by Leandra who owns Paper Artsy and if you didn't already know, she has some fab stamps. We tried loads of different techniques, not least using the Ten Seconds Studio moulds (taught by Linda), making backgrounds with distress inks, gel medium, gesso, stamping on acetate, stamping on fabric etc. We came home feeling completely revitalised. Here are some of the pages. It's not quite finished yet but you get the idea.

and then we tried scrapbooking.....

The the April monthly workout challenge on the forum was making a scrapbook page with a happy theme. Never done scrapbooking before but playing with the digital kit from Shabby Princess was very interesting.

Angel of Death (!)

I made this recently. I was going to send it as a birthday gift/thingy but then I thought it might be considered a bit dark and depressing for a birthday. I love it so I'm happy it's still here. She's become known as the Angel of Death in our house though LOL! I think it shows off the old tree in our garden quite well too.

Notebook swap

We did a notebook swap on our forum recently and had to put either the name of the person we were sending to or something to indicate their name on the cover. This was my entry made with the new PA stamps.

Tales of a Blogger (or blowing my own trumpet again!)

Sometime back, I thought I would submit an article on blogging and challenge blogs to Craftstamper Magazine and this month it's been published! If you click on the second picture, you can see some of the challenge sites that I mentioned.

Triangle Card (and Mixed Media Monday)

I've been having fun with my Pearl-ex paints this afternoon and ended up with this. The triangle card idea came from Godelieve's blog . There's also a triangle envelope template to go with it. If you haven't come across this blog before, spend some time there, it's a great stamping resource.

EDIT: The theme is PAINT over on Mixed Media Monday this week so here's my first entry!

Saturday's Workout - AAI's

Being a bit dense sometimes, I couldn't work out what AAI meant on this week's Saturday Workout challenge and then it clicked "adirondack alcohol inks!" LOL - how could I resist!

and a variation..........

Finally another chance to blog! (and TGIF)

The weather's been so rubbish, I haven't been able to take any good photos of my recent efforts but here's a couple. As you can see, I've been enjoying using this stamp recently.

Edit: Joanne's just pointed out to me the theme on TGIF this week is acetate so here we go!

I got some really good clear stickers from QVC. They were hellishly expensive but I thought I would probably use most of them so kept them. You can hardly see they are stickers once you've burnished them on.

Not sure what I'm going to do with this - might make it into a hanging thingy. The flower embellishment at the bottom is from Papermania. There are a couple of different packets containing 3 different ones each. They're really good quality. Again - I've used a sticker for the quote.

Birthday

Made this for one of the girls on the forum and was really pleased with it. It's a 6 x 6 inch acrylic square. The image is an acrylic paint transfer. I really like making hanging thingys at the moment. The photo turned out really well too. I think the tree made a really good background (this is probably my 20th attempt at taking a picture - it travelled all round the garden before I was happy LOL ).

Quick card

Was in a hurry to make a card and came up with this. The DCWV Far East pack and sticker was just perfect.

RAK Received!

I received the most gorgeous card from Chris yesterday (and some lovely goodies too!!!). It's made with one of the new Art Journey plates and the colours are gorgeous as are the stamps used.

TMTA - Zentangle

This week's TMTA has taken me right back to school. This is not exactly a work of art but I've had fun recreating the doodles that we used to put on our school books in secondary school when we were bored in class! LOL

Art y Pico Award

I am so chuffed (!) Deb has given me an award. It's my first blog award. Thanks very much Deb!

The rules are as follows:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte Y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these conditions.http://arteypico.blogspot.com/

Here are my five choices: Penny, Hermine, Chris, Viola and Jo

I know some may already have received this award but it's in appreciation of their lovely artwork and inspiration to me.

Paper Whimsy Acetate Card

Decided I wanted to make something with one of the PW images yesterday and ended up with this... The background paper is a digital one from Lazar Studiowerx.

EDIT: I've just realised - the paper was not as above but a free download from Shabby Princess

Chunky Fat Book Swap

I entered a chunky fat book swap on one of the group's I belong to and so many joined we all ended up having to make 27 pages!!! Apparently it's called a chunky fat book because you're supposed to use lots of embellishments on the page. It was hard work, particularly as I don't do simple! I'm looking forward to getting the finished product and to see what everyone else has made.

Work in progress........

Finished!!!

For Emma

I made this for Emma's birthday. I wasn't sure about the Squiggly Ink stamps at first, always takes me a while to get used to anything(!) but I love them now! LOL