Saturday 29 December 2012

Just checking in....

Good morning all
Nothing crafty to share yet I'm afraid, busy with family stuff. Hope you all had a good Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year.
I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a few of my Christmas picture and wish you and yours a very prosperous 2013. Normal crafting service should resume soonish!

 Christmas eve tradition - snacks and videos and family "secret Santa" gift.
 Christmas morning Breakfast table

 Looking rather bemused at this gift, but one they'd worked it out it was fun.
 Proudly wearing a moustache scarf.....
 Christmas dinner table
 Susan made everyone these lovely memory jars as table favours for us to capture memorable moments in the coming year.

 Construction began on Boxing day...... to create this

 When your ears get cold, steal dad's scarf, very stylish!

Then, the "I'd much rather be at home" face.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to one and all! I hope you have a great day, thank you for all your support, encouragement and comments on this blog over the past 12 months; they are greatly appreciated!
Hope your day is filled with joy, laughter, peace and mince pies, and may 2013 bring you all nothing but good.
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Sunday 23 December 2012

Didn't take long.....

Hi there folks, two more sleeps till Christmas day.
Still mince pies, fudge and truffles to make as well as some shopping too. Deep breath and relax; it'll all be fine......
So, what didn't take long I here you ask? It didn't take long for Alyssa to raid my studio, dive into my craft stash and generally have fun in my place! We spent time crafting away and since I can't share with you my project yet I thought I'd share with you the cards she made.


Aren't they great?
Merry Christmas everyone.

Friday 21 December 2012

The angel has landed

Good morning folks
Just 4 more sleeps till Christmas! Today is time to just sort out some last minute things, such as the ingredients for mince pies, fudge and muffins yum yum. Last minute family day shopping and enjoying the festive fun on Sunday and rest of the food shopping on Monday.......
In between all of that I have been doing some crafting but I can't share that yet as it's a gift that has not been given yet! But what was a pleasant surprise yesterday was this dropping through the letterbox. An angel from Morti. Isn't it lovely; a lovely steampunk angel. Thank you Morti.
 It is already hanging on our tree looking cool!

So, just a quick little look in to say hi today. Enjoy the rest of the day.

Wednesday 19 December 2012

WOYWW #185

Good morning all.
It's been a couple of weeks, but as this is the last WOYWW before Christmas; and I was WIDE awake at silly O clock this morning too; I popped on down to the bottom of the garden to the studio just so you could get these hot off the press, messy, creative , whatever you want to think, pictures of my work place. All because Julia over at Stamping Ground, has decreed that Wednesdays are share your workspace days!
So here you go then........
 There is the usual "stuff to be sorted but nowhere to sort it to" piles of stuff. You may not believe me but it was pretty neat and tidy last week.... anyway what can you see?
Well, after spending a gift voucher on the new(ish) Dyan Reavely journal I was very keen to give it a test run. I'm happy to report; it is fabulous to work in, the paper takes the ink beautifully! The left hand side is the greyboard cover and the gesso there looks a bit messy but I'm not finished yet!
 I used the large Dyan masks which are perfect for this size journal! Can't wait to add more!
 Then there's this Gorjuss girl who I started to colour for a card and then changed my mind!
 I picked this image up in Rochester the other week; I think it's wonderfully evocative and it'll turn up in a journal page sometime! The image is so expressive, you can almost feel the passion and tension!
 There you have it, my little world today. I'm writing this in the lounge, with the Christmas trees lights twinkling away and loving in. My eldest daughter gets home today for Christmas So I will be blessed to have my whole family to celebrate this special time.


Whatever you guys have planned, I do wish and hope that you all have a blessed and special Christmas and that 2013 brings only joy and good things your way.

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Bit of a round up.

Good morning everyone.
I hope you are all well and enjoying the run up to Christmas. I've had a busy weekend so not much time in the studio, but hope to rectify that today! There's always so much to do at this time of the year.....
On Friday evening it was our end of year dinner which was really good, secret Santa came out to play and I also received a gift voucher,what a treat! It of course has been spent already, on this
Dyan's journal! I just HAD to have it. The Vintaj embossing folder it one of my favourites so I was thrilled to receive that from my secret Santa!
On Sunday it was my last class for 2012 at The Craft Barn - Art Journalling #1
 All neat and tidy, ready and waiting for the ladies!

 Look at them all, hard at work, can you feel the concentration in the room! Seriously, I was worried, they're not usually that well behaved! It was a great day and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

I received this lovely card from Francesca, isn't it beautiful. There's a lovely shimmer and shine to it that doesn't show up on the photo.


On Monday I was out but when I got home Mr postman had been and dropped off a lovely surprise, this lovely gift from a DT "secret Santa" I love the hanging and it'll be displayed in my studio on my inspiration wall. The was also a lovely hand made small journal which I am looking forward to inking up! So THANK YOU VERY MUCH "not so secret Santa"!

So there's a bit of a round up of my life, thank you for popping by. I can't promise that I'll be able to get back here too regularly over the Festive period, eldest daughter arrives home from Uni tomorrow so I'd better find her somewhere to sleep........
Have a blessed day everyone. I've tonnes to do but perhaps I'll just nip down and tease my new journal with a splash of colour......

Thursday 13 December 2012

Christmas card

Hi there everyone.
A little while ago someone told me about a Christmas card competition at Money Supermarket; so after checking it out and seeing the prizes I decided to enter. (And I needed to make another card too!) So here is my entry. (And HERE is the link for you if you want to go take a look.)

To make the background I used a Tando snowflake mask with Dylusions spray inks. I also used Ferro translucent glitter paste to create a lovely glittery background. I matted this his onto another card that I had edged with Evergreen Bough distress stain, glossy accents and Distress dry stickles, boy is that stuff messy! Fun though. When it was all dry I used Brushed Corduroy Distress ink to blend over everything before attaching it to a card blank.

The snowman is cut from a Tim Holtz die. The nose, hat, twigs and eye are coloured with Distress markers. The body was covered with glitter and rock candy stickles. I added Glossy accents to the hat too and made a scarf out of Distress ink dyed cord. The ground is made with a piece of card stamped and torn and coloured with Distress ink before attaching. The snowman is mounted onto this and another piece was curled and attached over this. I added two baubles to a piece of the cord and added the sentiment over that to finish.
 Merry Christmas everyone.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

One Stamp six ways at The Craft Barn

Good morning everyone.
I know, it's been a while since I last posted. Life has been getting in the way a bit and my computer has been giving me hassles. So all told, with one thing and another I've not got my act together properly!
Still, I'm here today to share my journal page for The Craft Barn. This week has all been about the team  using one stamp. It's amazing to see how we all use the stamp differently.
This is what I did.

 As always, the details of how can be found on The Craft Barn blog post HERE so I do hope you'll pop on over and take a look!
 Each little "bird house" has space for private journalling. The public journalling reads "Come back to roost, O my artistic muse, your room is ready, so do come and stay, even if only for a while....."
Hope you all have a good and creative day today.

Here are the product details and this weeks special offer.


Materials
Distress Stains - Vintage Photo and Stormy Sky
Distress Inks - Walnut stain and Mustard seed
Stamps - birds from Mini Ornates (Tim Holtz), 
Others are Katzelkraft - Mini Archmini MaudeTransportationKTZ65and KTZ100


Our special offer this week is 20% off all Katzelkraft 

stamps except the minis

Just enter the code KTZ20 when you checkout.

Monday 3 December 2012

Printers tray details, day two.

Good Morning everyone
Hope you all had a good weekend. I started sharing my finished printer tray yesterday, HERE if you missed it. So today here are the rest of the detail shots.
First, a reminder of the complete tray.
 Then, this background is done in a vintage shabby style with embossing and paint dabbers. The grunge plate has been aged with paint dabber and stamping, The numeral has been painted black and everything covered with a generous dollop of glossy accents.
 A simple flicked distress background for this tray, then back to the melt pot to create the textured frame (with Perfect Pearls) and a UTEE dip to transform the flower.
 Embossed and Perfect Pearl spritzed grunge background. A distress stain coloured lace ribbon flower. Ribbon tape stamped with the small men from warehouse district which are just the right size!
 Embossed aged metal effect background and distress embossed chipped metal flowers.
 Gesso carving creates this background, vivid acrylic paints really highlight the textures. A faux batik butterfly adds a funky touch to what appears to be a seaside theme. I've used glass fragments collected from the beach at Crosby. the shells are from the middle of Morecombe bay and the printed fragment is an "aged vintage" fragment created with UTEE and shrink plastic.
 A Perfect Pearl reverse stamping technique creates the background and a grunge rose fills this small section.
 Then, this flower is an alcohol ink resist technique onto acetate.
 Crackle glaze creates these cool large cracks inside the book plate.

Details of the blue section.

Detail of the Vintaj charm.
Lastly there is this, distress ink background with stamping. Tied with a ribbon and Idea-ology charm which has been sanded to highlight the edges and word.
 Which, when untied, open up to reveal a few more photos of the weekend.

Including certificate time!
So there you have it. My creative 3 days immersed in all things Ranger. What a time and so many fabulous techniques! Hope you've enjoyed sharing it with me.

On a different note; this week at The Craft Barn blog it's "cute" week and today I'm sharing my take HERE


Do pop on over and take a look at the details!


Stamp - Dylusions Tallulah Tripp


Remember that we offer free postage on all UK orders
from now until December 24th.
For EU destinations postage is free over £30 and 
for everywhere else postage is free on orders over £50