Saturday 31 December 2011

The Stamp Man's third annual awards.....

Hi there everyone.
Hope you are all well. As this year draws to a close it's time to pause and reflect again. Time to look back over the last twelve months... Over at The Stamp Man we are doing that too and you can also join in by linking your favourite creation from the last year into the 3rd annual awards 2011.


There is a £30.00 Stamp Man voucher for one lucky person and 4 runner up prizes too.
It's been an amazing year for me and looking back there have been many highlights but in the end I think that the first project I did for The Stamp Man has to be my favourite! The embossed memo pad.

It's been a funny old year in many respects with plenty of ups and downs but as I look back I can see just how much fun I've had!  So Happy New Year everyone and may 2012 bring creative joy and opportunity to you all.

Wednesday 28 December 2011

WOYWW #134

Hi there everyone.
I hope you have all had an amazing Christmas and are enjoying the holiday period. Though I have not had time to do anything in my room I have added to the general mess on my desk so thought I'd pop on and share it with you while the family are in slumberland still!
So; what's that I spy in the middle of the desk; something from Tim?!
Yes' just before Christmas; this package arrived from Tim and Mario with my gift from the 12 tags comment.
Ok ok, I know, you want to see what they sent.
Aren't I blessed; stamps and an embossing folder; neither of which I have so I am thrilled! Then also on my desk is this book which was from my wife, it's amazing and very inspirational!
I'm missing my space but am squeezing as much time with my family before elder daughter returns to Liverpool on Thursday and so hope to actually get some crafting done by next week's desk!
Be blessed everyone and don't forget there are more desks to be seen via Julia over at Stamping Ground.

Saturday 24 December 2011

Celebration Giveaway winner.

Hi there everyone.
It's the final countdown to Christmas morning and I think we are ready..... the builders are gone and it is very weird in a nice way to have a whole new room to play in!
Thank you for all the comments on my blog's celebration giveaway. I said I would draw the names Christmas eve so here they are.
I got my wife and daughters to choose a number each which gave me a name from the comments. These 3 names were jumbled and my wife pulled the winner of the main candy  which is .................................

Elizabeth R ( thecraftyrobin.blogspot.com  )

Then because I thought it would be nice I have a little something for the other two ladies who's names were chosen too. So if  Okinurse (okienurse.blogspot.com)  and Jude (crafts-international.blogspot.com) would email me too I have a little something for you too.
Congratulations; please email me with your snail mail details.

I Hope you all have a blessed Christmas day tomorrow and my prayer is that the God who's birth we celebrate, will bless you richly with His love.

Wednesday 21 December 2011

WOYWW #133

Hi there.
I know I've been quiet here so I do apologise and it will stay a bit quieter for the rest of the Christmas season as there is just so much going on at the moment!
Here's my desk this morning
Power restored so I have light but still a shamefully neglected place these last few days. Still there are some early Christmas gifts that I am itching to use.

These masks were a secret Santa gift, aren't they lovely?

A gift voucher helped me pick up these lovelies too. What else is on my desk; well some silver card and some deer die cuts I'm playing around with.

And I finally got round to doing a cover for my journal. (Blurry pic but hopefully you can see it ok)
So that's my desk this week; kick started as ever by Julia at Stamping Ground, so for more do pop on over so see a gathering of international workspaces.......
My last class for 2011 was last Sunday where we made a candle holder; here they are all hard at work.

And this is what we were doing. Thanks ladies, it was another fun class; thank you for your support!
There's a couple of days left to enter my celebration giveaway if you like, details are here and I'll be drawing the winner on Christmas Eve.
So all I want to do now is wish you a Very Merry Christmas; may the Joy of Christ's Birth fill your lives with peace and meaning this festive season and may you be truly blessed.
Happy Christmas everyone.

Friday 16 December 2011

Technique time at The Stamp Man

Hi there everyone.
It's a new challenge over at The Stamp Man. This week we want to see your projects using a technique you've not used before.
I made a page in my journal using  something I'd seen in a magazine ages ago using a glue gun.
I covered the page with distress stains before adding glue with the gun and allowing to cool. I used red acrylic paint to add more colour and then coloured the glue with autumn gold rub n buff.
I stamped various images from the aspects of design 55 plate around the edges of the page and some small butterflies in between.


I think it turned out ok, I like the randomness of the design and think i'll be playing around  with it a bit more.

Over at The Stamp man there's plenty more inspiration too and a £10.00 voucher for the winner of the challenge too. Hope you all have a great day.

Wednesday 14 December 2011

WOYWW #132

Good morning everyone
Pitch black outside still and I can't quite believe I'm up THIS early but after the cat decided to wake me up properly I thought I may as well nip out to my studio and pop the light on and tidy up a bit and take a photo.... only to discover that yesterday while I was at work the builders had disconnected the power supply to my place. Not good at all!
So, I warn you now; the photo's you are about to see are none to pretty! UN-edited, UN-sanitized; here is my space; in the dark and gloom of this December morn....
I blame Tim of course; he got me doing the tags this year which was fatally addictive so my desk is a creative war zone! And taking a picture in the dark with a flash makes it look worse.
So there are inks, my favourite seasonal stamp plate; joyful song, some sparkly tinselly stuff peeking out at the bottom and on the right is some cut lace from the vintage lace die which is an amazing die.
The back shelf is a little less messy (Unless you look closely!)
Still, I forgive Tim for this mess because on the twelf day of tags Tim pulled my comment from the few thousands and I join the lucky people who get a gift from him! Yay! So; why am I showing you my desk this dark and gloomy morn? All because 132 weeks ago, Julia over at Stamping Ground, thought it might be fun...
Perhaps I'll see you there?
Today I need to get power back to my place down there as it's too dark to work but the deadlines don't understand that excuse! I also want to remind you about my follower celebration giveaway - all the details are HERE and it closes on Christmas Eve.
Hope you all have a wonderful and creative day today.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Last Sunday's class at The Craft Barn

Good morning everyone;
If, like me, you were following along with the Twelve Tags of Christmas isn't today a "what do I do now?" kind of day? When I got up this morning I went straight onto the computer just to see if I'd missed a day and there was another tag hiding away......nope.
Anyway today I thought I'd share some of the photo's I took at Sunday's class at The Craft Barn. We used the Alterations Artful Dwellings die to create a seasonal banner.  We spent the morning exploring some of the fantastic properties of distress inks to create depth and layers of colour before adding stamping and shapes and glitter.
Here they are all hard at work on their banners.





One thing that I love about teaching these classes is seeing how by the end of the day everyone has created the same thing, but they are all so very different just by changing colour choice and sometimes a different stamp everyone creates their own personal piece. So thank you once again ladies for a lovely fun filled and lovely day!



This was mine so that was the starting point.And for those coming to my Seasonal candle holder class on Sunday the 18th December I look forward to seeing you there. (There are a couple of places left if anyone's interested details HERE)
Here's a sneak peek at what we're doing

Hope you all have a lovely creative day.

Monday 12 December 2011

Playing catch up! Tag 9 thru 12.....

Hi there everyone. Can't believe it's the last day of Tim's 12 tags; at what a finale! Well; I never quite managed to get finished over the weekend and as the builders arrived today too it's been a bit manic here but I'm done. All 12 tags finished and hanging on my wall..... So a bit of a photo heavy post but here are the last 4 tags. All the details of Tim's tags can be found HERE
Tag 9
I've done this technique before and love the effect so it was fun. I used the seasonal silhouettes to create the background and cut the candle out by hand as I don't have the die.

Tag 10

I did not have a lot of the ingredients for this tag so I had to keep it pretty simple and just did fragments with Crafty Individuals images to create a nostalgic romantic Christmas feel. I love the way it turned out though!

Tag 11




This one's growing on me! I think it would have worked better with the retro style stamps Tim used but I have nothing similar and my background went a bit funny but hey; that's life.....
Couple of things I do like though. I used the wise men stamp from joyful song; inking up with black archival and then stamping onto that stamp with the flourish from reindeer flight to remove some of the ink before stamping onto the glossy card and I love the way it turned out!
The shrink plastic I had to cut by hand (not very successfully) and not having a melt pot I shrank it then used a watermark pad and UTEE afterwards before adding the alcohol inks. Again, I do like the way they turned out in the end even though the leaves are a funny shape........

Tag 12



I LOVE this tag! I stamped plain tissue paper for the background over the letter stamped background, added some blue and then glitter paste.  The tissue flower is fab and I used a flower trim in the middle.  The house shape is from mountboard and I coloured it with distress stains and used black soot on the edges before adding glitter paste.I do not have the doll so used a polymer clay face that I'd silvered with wings behind and a bit of a "crown" I love the lace die and the silver works really well though I used silver card I think it still gives a similar effect as with the letters. I stamped the "all is calm" rather than printing it and finished with some lovely translucent tinsel and the snowflake charm.
So that's all finished; what on earth am I going to do tomorrow!?
Hope you all have had a great time and be blessed in your creative journey!
Don't forget to enter my follower celebration candy (details on my sidebar) See you all later

Thursday 8 December 2011

Celebration giveaway!

Hi there.
I promised a little follower giveaway when I reached 300 followers; 304 people have blessed me by deciding that they want to follow my creative journey. Thank you one and all for joining me; you are the encouragement and blessings in my days,  leaving me such lovely feedback and keeping me going. So as a thank you I've put together this little pile of goodies which I will send to one of my followers.

There's rub ons; making memories stuff, glitter and flock, embellishments, card blanks, some of my own design lazer cuts and wood veneer embellishments too.
If you'd like to be in with a chance to win this lot then just leave me a comment on this post. (
Obviously you need to be a follower to have the chance too.)
I'll draw the name randomly on Christmas eve and post the winner on my blog. You'll need to email me to claim your prize within a week or I'll draw another name.
Once again thank you for your company; you've helped me have a fabulous year and I appreciate you all.

Tag #8

Hi there everyone.
Another day and another interesting tag from Tim. I just love how different each day's tag is and I am enjoying something just for my own pleasure in amongst all the design work and class prep I'm frantically trying to catch up on!
Tim's tag details are HERE and this is my take on it.
I do not have the stamps used so did my background with a letters stamp from the David stamp plate and my men are from Paperartsy (So glad I ordered that one and it arrived in time when I saw this morning's tag!)
I used alcohol ink mixative for the clock and gears, philosophy tag instead of the number plate.
Cut the man out 3 times and the holly is from the festive foliage cut down a bit and flat pearls coloured with red pepper alcohol ink.
I had the hand stamp in the wooden version so was pleased about that. I just love the steampunk style wreath too. I stamped a ticket and edged it in red to mimic the label he used and the joy is from the Carnivalle die.
So there you have it; another day done and edging us closer to the big day. Have a blessed time whatever you are doing today.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Tag #7

Hi there; only me again. I'm back with tag 7. I couldn't wait to do this one because I really love the stamp set and I've never really played with the Kraft Glassine properly before.
All the details of Tim's tag is HERE and this is my interpretation of it.
I don't have the holly die so I used tattered leaves instead. With copper mixative instead of gold so my leaves came out darker possibly because of the ink colours too but they look better in reality than in the photo. I decided to use the silver bells charm too as no baubles big enough .

I used bundled sage and frayed burlap for my background as I did not have the other stains and the joyful Christmas is just on plain card and as I have no black embossing powder I used some antique linen distress stickles to add a bit of sparkle.
I also did the second tag today because I made a second background tag with the left over stains on the mat so it was easy to do.
I did the same joyful Christmas; used the left over two leaves and stamped the images in black archival.
I love the background and like how this tag shows more of it too. I added some lace to the bottom to tie in with the tag tie and also to add a bit of lightness to the tag. To finish I added the muse token and pin.
So there you have my versions of tag #7. Now I'd better get back to reality and get some chores done before work. Have a great time everyone.

WOYWW 131 and Art Journalling at The Craft Barn

Good morning peeps
In the middle of the international frenzy of Tim Holtz and his 12 tags of Christmas I do not want to miss the gathering of desk hoppers that is WOYWW by Julia so here is my desk
There's not too much to see really as I am making a bit of an effort to clear each day's tag mess so I can start the next day with a bit of space on my desk. So you can see my computer is here too so I can follow the tags.
On the left are a couple of tags in progress
These two I coloured with the paint left over on my mat from yesterday's tag. (I hate wasting paint and ink!)
In the middle is my pad of Glassine ready for today's tag which looks super cool and uses my favourite stamp set of his.
On the left there are some new stamps from The Craft Barn. Paperartsy; aren't they lovely and steampunky?

So that's my desk this morning. Don't be shy, let us see yours too......
This week too; over at The Craft Barn blog we are spending the week looking at Art Journalling and I have my turn there today.  Here's my page

There are step by step details to show you how I did the background over on the blog HERE so do pop on over to take a closer look.
Right, I'm off to do tag 7 so I'll catch up with you all later. Whatever you do today; I hope it is blessed.