FRIENDLY FACES

Yesterday evening I went to a Scrapbooking workshop at the Craft Den, it was a first for me as I don't normally do Scrapbooking. We had a lovely evening with lots of friendly faces, it was so relaxing. We also had a wonderful piece of chocolate cake with cream as this weekend it will be someone in our group's birthday so we sang happy birthday and then stuffed our faces. Wednesday evening they apparently had white chocolate cheese cake with blueberries, I missed that one as I went for a curry that evening. They are a lovely group of friendly people at the Craft Den, they always make you so welcome, you want to give it a try if you haven't been there. I just wish I lived a bit closer. Here's the page layout which we did, I am going to have to make another one as I have another dog and I don't want him to feel left out or jealous. So it's a double spread for me.

A BIRTHDAY CARD

I made this birthday card for a friend, it is larger than I normally make but it had to be a certain size to fit all the elements. I used Adirondack inks pinks and coffee. The stamps I used are 7Gypsies bird, the letter B stamp is a Katzel Kraft stamps designed by Isa Norris and her mother. They are a set of French unmounted stamps. I also stamped inside the card and on the envelope using Ranger stampsand a Brilliance Ink pad pearlescent orchid. I gave the bird an eye using the Viva Pearl Pen and the flowers are from Hero Arts, I coloured them with Adirondack pink sherbert and put a pearl brad in the middle of each flower. I enjoyed making this card I hope she likes it.

Ready Steady Stamp Challenge 8

Here is a card I have just completed for the RSS Challenge 8 related to Christmas. The list of ingredients to use were:

C for Christmas

Lilac, black and silver

Snowflakes

Crackles

A skinny measuring 2"x4"/5x10cms

There are always 5 ingredients in each challenge.

I covered the card with Milled Lavender Distress ink, edged in silver using a Krylon pen and stamped snowflakes around the edge using both silver and grape inks. I put a piece of black card through the cuttlebug using the snowflake folder and chalked a pearlescent lilac on each snowflake and sprayed with hair lacquer. The card was edged in silver again. My skinny I covered in Milled lavender Distress Ink and painted Milled Lavender crackle paint over the card, stamped Merry Christmas in black, edged in silver, attached with 3 snowflake eyelets which I painted with a silver Dabber, punched the silver snowflake from glitter paper.

MY CRAFT ROOM

I have noticed people are putting photos of their craft rooms on their blogs so here's mine. I know, I know it is very tidy but that's me. Just because it is tidy doesn't mean I don't do very much in there, I just cannot work in a mess every thing has to be in an order (I think it's an illness)lol. I just can't wait to go to my craft room each day when I have finished my house work and the dogs have had their exercise. The only problem is I have to share this room with my husband and he is not the tidiest of people and besides that I want his half so as I can have room for more crafting stash, ah well. In fact I am so bad this morning my husband wanted the paper to read with his breakfast and couldn't find it, I had put it in the GREEN Bin. His response to that was, "why don't you just cut out the middle man, pay the newsagent for the papers and ask him to bin them instead of delivering them." Good thing he has a sense of humour and knows what I am like.

By the way I am not very good at taking or blogging photos so my art work doesn't always look as it should, I need some lessons in photography but then I have to learn to accept that not everything can be perfect.

A LOVELY WAY TO SPEND A SUNDAY

I had a lovely day today I went to the Stamp Magic Paper Craft Show at Doncaster Dome. It is not a very big show but there are lots of interesting stalls and demos. Dyan was there from Art From The Heart demoing her usual fantastic stuff, there's always a crowd at her stand. The place was full and I met up with quite a few friends from the crafting world, it was lovely to see everyone and have a chat. Of course I spent way too much money, what's new.lol. I came home and took my 2 dogs for a long walk before it got too dark, I hate these short days and long dark evenings the only consolation is that I can come upstairs into my cosy craft room and play.

This evening I have made this birthday card for my neighbour, I hope she likes it. I took the idea from Wendy Vecchi's book "Make Art" Studio 490 Style. Most of the projects are made from Maya Road chipboard books, the colours are Ranger Distress Inks and the embellishments are stamped with Archival inks. On my card the flowers etc are from Grunge paper with a button centre. I punched holes in the chipboard, placed eyelets and threaded the ribbon through. I also stamped on the back of the card using a Crafty Individuals stamp. The project is not exactly the same as the one in the book as I don't have all the stamps unfortunately. All of the ingredients can be bought at the Craft Den.

Another Halloween Swap

Once a month I do an ATC swap with a friend. I try to make it as appropriate to the month as possible, so of course next week is Halloween need I say more. I stole the twisted wire technique from Sue Roddis, she used this technique on an ATC she made for RSS challenge this month. The wire is fixed on to the card using the Tiny Attacher by Tim Holtz. The Distress crackle paint is again a Tim Holtz product. I went over the whole thing using Walnut Stain and Peeled Paint Distress inks. It doesn't show up on the photo but the inks soak into the cracks of the paint. Underneath the wire I had stamped a branch image and along the bottom edge a black cat. The numbers are from Tims Ideology, I coloured them with the alcohol inks and used brads to fix them on to the ATC.

I love doing ATC's but I always need one suggestion to set me off and Sue's wire idea which actually came from Tim Holtz was perfect.

Hello, recently i have received this blogger award from my friend Ann (Flutterbycrafter)
I am very honoured to be nominated, so thank you very much. There are a few rules
you have to follow inorder to accept this award.

The rules are:
1. Thank the person who awarded it to you.
2. Copy logo onto your blog.
3. Link the person to your blog.
4. Name seven things that no-one really knows about you.
5. Nominate 7 blogs for the award
6. Post a link to each blog
7. Leave a comment on each blog telling them about the award.


Here are the seven things about me you probably do not know.
1. I am a chocoholic
2. I broke my leg when i was rollerskating (yes, rollerskating) at the age of twelve.
3. I love going for pedicures each month.
4. I'm really quite a 'quiet' person.
5. I am an Elvis fan.
6. I would like to be musical and to play a musical instrument.
7. I used to dye my hair blonde, to cover up the grey.

...That was pretty hard.

Now on to the nominating!
1. Jo Blogs because I love her work-so creative and I take inspiration from her work.

2. Angel whispers because she makes wonderfull cards and she's a genuinely nice,friendly person.

3. Daisy236 because I LOVE her dogs, they are adorable.Not only does she do scrapbooking and cards she also does beautiful needlework.

4. Lynne at the Craft Den because she has made me feel so welcome.

5. Dyan at ART FROM THE HEART because she taught me everything I know in art & crafting and opened up a whole new world for me and through Dyan I have made lots of new friends in the crafting world.Thank you.

6.) Jabberwocky because she produces the kind of art work I love and is sooooooooooo inspirational.

7.) And last but not least- Wendyat the STAMP ATTIC because her shop is full of wonderful crafting stash and she is so approachable.

Halloween blog candy

Click on the link below, to enter a great halloween competition, you can win lots of prizes, just by guessing what Ava, a nine month old baby will be wearing for halloween.
http://craftden-lynne.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-blog-candy-time.html

Ready Steady Stamp Challenge

I really enjoy taking part in these challenges, they give me something to aim for.This is another fat quarter I've done for RSS challenge number 7, I missed challenge 6 as I was away but I think I will do it to keep as a record of my art work. There are always 5 items which must be incorporated into the art work and cute is not allowed. This time it is all about Autumn, you are required to use the colours brown, cream and ochre, staples a distress ink background and hessian. So I stamped the word Autumn on to cream card attached this to a distress bacground using Tim Holtz mini stapler and staples. I stamped the tree with a Paper Artsy stamp using Adirondack coffee ink pad, the birds from Tim Holtz. The leaves and sun I punched from appropriate coloured papers. I attached a leaf embellishment, once more one of Tim's. The whole is stapled to a hessian background.

Another wonderful day journaling at AFTH

I really look forward to these Sunday Art Journal workshops with Dyan at Art From The Heart. She is such a wonderful teacher and has us all hooked on journaling. It is such a relaxing day and so good to have the opportunity to work on the journals without interuption such as "are you taking the dogs out, what times dinner?" etc, you all know and understand what I mean. I managed to do 2 pages today in my Moleskine inbetween eating gorgeous cake brought by the lovely Olive. That is something else I normally don't do-eat cake but we get into allsorts of mischief at Dyan's especially when Ben isn't there LOL. Well I can't wait for the next workshop its also such a social event. Well I suppose I had better go and get the dinner ready!

HALLOWEEN

Here are a couple of ATC'S which I did for a swap at the Craft Den. The backgrounds are done using Versamgic Chalk Ink on one I glued a piece of torn old book paper, stamped over the top using the new Basic Grey Halloween acrylic stamps,the cat is a Hero Arts stamp. The face is a Stampotique stamp "Miss Snotty (from the Stampattic) which I stamped on to Grunge Paper,coloured using distress inks and a water brush, 2 black gems for the eyes. The bat wings, witches hat and "Boo" are all from Lisa's Altered Art images I used Ranger glossy accents to give them a shine, the birds are one of Tims stamps. The second ATC was done in a similar way except I stamped the background using Tims web and then over stamped the bats which are from Hero Arts. The spider hanging from a thread is anotherfrom Stampotique by Jill Penney. I got my ideas from this months Craft Stamper another Sue Roddis creation which I adapted.

DEZINAWORLD LACE CHALLENGE

This months (October) challenge at Dezinaworld is LACE. You can make anything you wish, card, ATC, whatever so long as you use lace. Here is mine it is a "Fat Quarter" ie. 4"x4". I used Ranger Milled Lavender for the background and stenciled a lace pattern top and bottom using a stencil from The Crafters Workshop and Dusty Concorde Distress Ink which just shows through the lace. The image is from Crafty Individuals which I attached to a Crafty Individuals frame, I painted this with one of my Adirondack Dabbers in raspberry and then glued my lace on to the frame. The larger frame I covered with Basic Grey paper from the Euphoria range. Using double sided I placed both frames on to my fat quarter attached lace all the way round the edge and placed the four flowers at each corner. All the materials I used can be bought from the Craft Den.

Now I just need to work out how to link this to Dezinalworld blog for June to pick up.

A BIRTHDAY CARD

Here's a birthday card I did for a friend, I knew her bithday was October but I wasn't quite sure of the date, however, I now know when it is. I hope she doesn't read my blog and see her card before she gets it. The card is copied from the new Wendy Vecchi's project book "Make Art Studio 490 Style". It is a wonderful book full of ideas and she takes you through each project step by step, very detailed. I had to adapt ideas for this card as I unfortunately do not have all Wendy Vecchi's stamps. She uses Rangers Distress Inks, Adirondack Ink pads and Tims Grunge paper all of which can be bought at the Art From The Heart and the Craft Den. I really enjoyed making this card especially as it took my mind off a big drama going on around me-my husband being admitted to hospital very ill. Today he is alot better but under going numerous tests to see what the problem is, he acctually should have been going to Paris today on business so that's put a stop to his "galivanting".

ATC SWAP

I made a set of ATC's for a monthly swap this evening I didn't know whether to do Hallowene or Breast Cancer Awareness, so as October is awareness month I decided on that. Two of the backgrounds are done with Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid and one is done with Adirondack Dabbers after having attached a torn piece of music sheet. On this one I stamped 3 tiny circles using a pen top and edged with one of the dabbers. All the images and wording are from Lisa's Altered Art. One of the backgrounds I stamped the numbers in Archival Ink Plum colour, the stamp is a Paper Artsy mini. I then used the zig-zag stitch on my machine to sew around the edges and with a straight stitch went twice around the images. The 3 ribbons were attached using Tims mini stapler. Finally on two of them I glued 3 tiny buttons using Art Glitter glue. The one with the sheet of music I went over the whole thing with Claudine Hellmuth's multi-medium gloss to give it a slight shine.