THE END OF ANOTHER MONTH

So far so good I have managed to complete another month of my Art Calendar, now comes the difficult bit, how to load it on to FLICKR lol :) When I read it I think what a boring life I lead, no not true I went to see Elvis in concert that's so exciting. Now I have to go and prepare my March pages so I am going to be up all night, good thing I'm not working until the afternoon tomorrow.

THE KING

Yesterday I went to Manchester Arena with 4 girl friends to see ELVIS IN CONCERT. He wasn't there in person of course but it was fantastic the way they did it using footage from his concerts in America, they were even able to have him walk the corridor in the Arena and on to the stage, it was incredible. There were plenty of "look alikes" in the audience but it seemed that the real one was on the stage. His backing singers were there in person "The Sweet Inspirations" and so were the "Jordanaires". I had the time of my life as he was from day one and still is my idol, the KING. When you hear his voice, his singing it was incredible especially as he didn't have all the electrical and computerised system that they have today. It was such a waste and so sad that he died so young.

WOYWW that time again

I am early this week as I have a terrible cold so I'm not doing much today (housework) and the DH has taken my dogs for a walk and has now gone to Sainsburys for me so that leaves me free to do whatever, don't feel so bad that I can't craft!!!! On my work desk this week are my Art Journals there are 3 two A5 Moleskines and a small homemade journal. The one with the grey pages is for a "Circle Journal" at AFTH, I will be there on Sunday for the monthly journal workshop and I need to finish these 2 pages ready to pass on. The one with blue pages is my own personal journal. You may also see TIM's new book which Ben at AFTH saved for me, there are a couple of Stampotique stamps which I will be using in my journals and over to the right you may also glimpse my new "Somerset Apprentice"mag and "Somerset Studio" Wendy at the Stamp Attic very kindly posted to me this week. I seem to spend more time reading than crafting. I took a photo today of a cupboard, well actually it used to be a wardrobe as my craft room used to be my son's bedroom years ago and my DH very kindly (I say kindly because he doesn't think much to all the crafting I do or the money I spend LOL) built shelves for me to store some of my stash, next week I will show you the other half.

PRETTY PINK

This is a canvas I have done for a swap at the Cubby Hole Cheshire. This month we were asked to produce a set of nine inchies and mount on card, canvas, whatever but the theme had to be love and romance, so here's my interpretation. I am not into Valentine, pink or pretty so this was quite a difficult one for me plus I did not have any INCHIES, I had to go and buy some new stamps. The hearts I have used are not exactly inchies but they fitted my 1"squares of Blonde Moments paper, all the stamps I have used are from Paper Artsy. I painted with Tim's Dabbers and collaged the 6"x6" canvas with torn music sheets. I used a few of 7 Gypsies rub ons here and there. Using double sided I placed the 3 strips of lace all the way round, stamped the hearts with Versamark and embossed with Blonde Moments Sugar Lilac Lustre the same for the wording "Amore" fixed them on to the lace with Bostick. I cut out a Blonde Moments heart and placed one of Tim's Spinners over the middle and fixed with a brad then used Glossy Accents to highlight the edge of the heart. I made a 3 tier row of flowers and attached with Bostick and the same for the red heart pin. Now the difficult part, packing and posting to Crewe.

Fun with ATC's Challenge

It's time for another challenge over on "Fun with ATC's", this is their third challenge unfortunately I missed the first one. The 3rd challenge is to use anything of Tim's,you know the man who ----- as Linda E would say. My background colour is Pumice Stone one of Tim's new Distress Ink pads, I bought them all!!! I applied the ink using a piece of Ranger foam, stamped the background script (one of Tim's) with Archival Coffee. The faux stitching and the rabbit are both from Tim's new stamps. I stamped the rabbit again with Archival coffee, painted the image with Old Paper Distress ink cut him out and used mini pads to mount him on to the atc. I then stamped the rabbit again using Archival Cobalt blue, cut out the coat and glued it on to the main image. Finally I used Ranger stickles Frosted Lace on the white parts of his coat and Scattered Straw stickles on his paws and powder puff tail. I am quite pleased with the result I just hope my camera does not change the colours, in my last post the ATC looks to be pink and it is actually green and gold, my DH says it is because it is not natural light when I take the photos!

Something completely different

Friday is time for a new challenge over on "Something Completely Different". The challenge is to make an ATC with a given theme and this week it is Keys. For my entry I sprayed a plain card with CraftyNotions Grass Green and Gold, stamped the door, a Crafty Individuals stamp, with Adirondack Coffee ink. Using my Crop-A-Dile I punched a hole and inserted an eyelet in the top corner. I threaded a piece of Tim's Idea-ology ball and chain throught the eyelet and added my Key. I have titled it "My Door Key". Now I am going to look for some more ATC challenges as it is SNOWING like H--- here and there's nothing much else to do, that's my excuse anyway.

A DAY WITH CLAUDINE

Yesterday as you all know I went to a Claudine Hellmuth workshop at AFTH. It was a wonderful day apart from the fact that my friend Ann Briggs should have been there with me but I expect you know that she is in hospital. I heard today that she is now starting to improve and we all hope she makes a full recovery soon.

We began the day by watching Claudine demonstrating background techniques on an 8x8 canvas using book pages, torn music sheets, maps and old phone book pages, paints, gel medium and a resist technique using vaseline. We then had a play ourselves on our box canvas, on an 8x8 mountboard sheet and sticky back canvas. In the afternoon we learnt various transfer techniques. We were all provided with a printed book detailing all the techniques we had learnt. It was really relaxing as there was no pressure to make anything and so we just played but actually produced something in the end, see my photos.

Dyan, bezzie Sue and Dy's girlies put on a great lunch and also provided a coffee and crumpet breakfast. Bezzie Sue did a great job by continually replenishing all the paints, papers, gel medium etc, etc. that we required. A good day was had by all and now I am looking forward to the next one with Dina Wakely.