Happy New Year Everyone

Just posting to wish everyone who reads my blog a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

I would also just like to share my favourite 10 creations for this year:

Advent calendar - front (or is it the back??)

Advent calendar back (or is it the front??)

This had a personal thumbs up from Tim so just has to be my favourite creation this year really - it still has pride of place in my lounge and will have until the 12th day of Christmas!!

The rest in no particular order are:

Benjamins birthday card

My friend Julie's birthday card

A Crop class layout I taught earlier this year

A tag I made for a swap on WOYWW

A Crop class layout that I will be teaching on 15th January

A tag I made and have kept for myself!

A favourite mainly because I love the story behind the photo!

Another personal layout - I love this one as I adore the papers and the resins

Another card I have made and haven't the heart to give away as I like it so much - might just have to send it myself next year!

Well that's me signing out for 2011 now and I will be back, hopefully firing on all creative guns, early in the new year.

Thank you all for looking and all your lovely comments throughout 2011 - Wondering if I will stay awake until midnight from Solihull xxx

WOYWW 134

Here is a picture of my desk actually taken this morning and not the day before!  Bit easier when you get up a bit later isn't it!

Card there is a new home one for my Nan who moved into a nursing home last Thursday - haven't had chance to go and visit her yet with the children been off but she is settling in ok.

That roll up piece of kitchen roll at the back there is full of new coins! whoo hoo and the twine you see at the right hand side of the table is the expensive one from Hobbycraft (just thought I would share that!) and the little mushrooms beside it were also a Christmas present - they are little pots of rubbers and I got three of them as the children couldn't decide on which colour to get!  they will make little pots to keep "things" in and feed my mushroom addiction nicely!

If you are wondering why I am sharing a picture of my desk with the world then please pop over to Julia's where all be revealed!

Hope you all had a great Christmas.

Thanks for looking - a mushroom fan from Solihull

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Sorry I am late posting this - I didn't schedule anything for the big day and obviously have been a bit busy the past two days (to say my 7 year old has been excitable is an understatement!).

Here he is with our tree - as you can see I have finished the decorations (the children did all the rest which is why they are all precariously hanging off the edges and most are back to front!) with some of my T!m tags and lot of lovely handmade pinecones!

Here are a few of the cards I made:

Benjamin's

Jayne's (who loves purple!)

My parents - my OH parents had the same card but with Mum and Dad instead

OH's sister and brother in law card

Card for my Nan

and here is my favourite present:

a little R2D2 tin full of little tiny R2D2 mints! how cute is that - thought he would look nice talking to my table decoration snowman - and look 2 days on and there are still chocolates in there! (don't think the children have realised yet!!!!).

Thanks for looking everyone - overfed from Solihull.

WOYWW 133

Only four more sleeps!  whoo hoo.

Here is my table in front of telly as of yesterday afternoon:

Bargain Hunt on the telly there! I wasn't watching it but turned off Glee as I suddenly thought about taking a picture in the daylight!  Here I was working on my Nan's calendar - only two more months to do now and it will be finished.  Usual clutter on desk and also the last four Christmas cards that I had to make peeking out there in front of my portable bin.  In the background you can see my advent calendar has pride of place on the bookcase (in fact it's taken over from the configuration box I made at Artsycrafts earlier this year which has been temporarily laid down for a month!) - the advent is popular with the boys which I am pleased about as it has had to compete against a Star Wars lego one with one boy opening it on even numbered days and the other on odd days - thank goodness! It makes all the effort worthwhile doesn't it!

Also on the bookcase is a half decorated sleigh that I really must get around to finishing (I seem to remember that I said that last year too!).

Looking forward to visiting some desks today - all my presents are now wrapped and under the tree and also all the eight tags that I made following Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas are hanging on the tree - they look really great mixed amongst the assortment of Disney, other handmade, Starbucks, Knitted, Babys firsts etc ornaments.

To join in all the desk hopping fun pop over to Julias.
Thanks for looking - Excited from Solihull.

The Magic of hOltZ

I have enjoyed myself so much recently making 8 of the 12 Tags of christmas, then a couple of days ago I was having a little rummage through my smallish pile of papers as I need to start planning the calendar I make for my Nan as a Christmas present when I came across the Graphic 45 The Magic of Oz papers I have - then something just clicked and I thought that really Oz is just a secret code for hOltZ- after all he is a wizard at inspiring us all isn't he!  So, all thoughts of the calendar disappeared (after all I still have another whole 8 days to worry about that!) and I decided to make this instead:

and as you can see I have managed to incorporate T!ms Day 8 steam punk tag on it too.

Papers used are: Graphic 45 - The Magic of hOltZ Collection namely The Magic of hOltZ and Journey to hOltZ, A Proper Gentleman Collection - Timely Point of View and Steampunk Debutante Collection - Mechanical Mind.  The Magic of Oz cards and header were cut from the Oz papers and I have cut out and added the hlt letters from T!ms Once Upon A Time alphabet, inked them with Aged Mahogany and Black Soot to match the other letters and adhered them to read hOltZ.  Of course as its a layout with T!m on it it needed lots of metal so I have used cogs, a crown - finished with a Primark pearl - and some spinners from T!ms metal collections, a metal clock charm (think I got this from Art From The Heart) and a metal pen nib.  The tag I based on the Day 8 Steampunk tag and didn't change it much but used Alice from the papers to point to the name hOltZ and a ticket - using T!ms ticket die and a stamp from the Odds and Ends collection - saying Artsycrafts and the date.  The clock is T!ms sizzix die as are all the cogs which I have painted with silver, bronze and gold metallic paints then inked with Vintage Photo distress ink.  I used a burgundy earthy pastel length of hemp which I always like to wrap around cogs and lay around a scrapbook page if I can.  Have inked all my edges with Vintage Photo and the tag background was made using Vintage Photo, Picket Fence and Broken China distress stains.

Hope you like it! Thanks for looking - Enjoying the magic of hOltZ from Solihull.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 7

Oooh glassine leaves!  I thought these looked lovely when I watched the video but, alas, I have no glassine!  However look at my results using freezer paper:

As I have a huge roll of freezer paper (150 metres! - well actually I have already used some so I probably only have about 148 metres now!) I thought I would give it a try instead of glassine paper, so I inked it up with Meadow and Bottle alcohol inks with some Copper mixative and then heated it - I half expected it to burn but no it was fine! so I turned it over and inked the back (something I always do!) and then when I had heated that side, I turned it back to the front and added blending solution, heated it, crumpled it and cut out some holly leaves with my sizzix die - I was very impressed with the results and have now made loads of these! (well with 148 metres of freezer paper I thought it was rude not too!).

I did the pearls the same way as T!m too with Red Pepper alcohol ink in a little bag.  The tag background is done in Wild Honey and Vintage Photo distress strains and stamped with a background stamp in Vintage Photo, edges are inked with Vintage Photo too.  Santa is from an Anita's set of stamps and he is inked onto kraft cardstock with Brown ink and cut out with a sizzix die.  Tag is then finished with the holly leaves, pearls (again taken from a trusty necklace from Primark), a bit of ribbon with silver stars on and some twine.  The top of the tag is finished with red and plain twine with two more pearls from a Primark necklace and a bell that I have coloured with Red Pepper alcohol ink too.

If you want to join in with the 12 Tags then pop over to T!ms and join in the fun.

Here are a couple more of these I have made too:

Thanks for looking - Loving my holly from Solihull

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 6

Am running a bit behind with these due to DS having a birthday in the middle and lots of celebrations going on all round!

Here is my take on Tag six:

The photo really doesn't do this tag any justice as it is really, really nice in real life.  I was actually quite surprised how nice it turned out as during it's creation it wasn't the best I can tell you!  Firstly I hadn't got a suitable colour metal so I used a dusky pink and then the only acrylics I had to hand (without going and moving presents and things to get in my craft cupboard) were pastels and browns, however I put the metal through the word embossing folder and then coloured it with stripes of sandal, espresso and hazlenut paints (and yes it really did look awful!).  I then sanded away and to be fair at that stage it already started to look better even with my strange colour mix.  I then thought in for a penny in for a pound and covered the whole tag, rather than just one area, with Festive Berries ink and embossed it and the transformation was fabulous and I ended up with a rather lovely piece of artwork just in itself.  So I have just finished the tag simply with a bit of black flower ribbon I bought in the rag market, two fabulous pinecones (spent a happy evening making up a few of these from the new T!m die, the pinecones are cut from Kraft card, inked with Gathered Twigs and then finished with Snowcap paint and rock candy stickles (they look very effective!) and the leaves are inked with Peeled Paint.  I used another of my metal angels which I painted with Snowcap, Pearl and Pitch Black acrylics and then tied on to the tag with red and black twine to tie all the colours together.

All in all I am very happy with the results!  If you want to join in with the 12 Tags then pop over to T!ms and join in the fun.


Can I just say a big hello to RumTruffle - thank you for following me :)

Thanks for looking - Running behind from Solihull

WOYWW 131

Here is a view of my working desk as of yesterday afternoon:

Stripy piece of painted metal there is for T!ms tag yesterday (still not finished it!), the normal bits of clutter that surround me when I am crafting, the little box with flowers on next to my ink pads I made for our bumper crop last year out of the kit we made up - it contains my alcohol inks (for Monday's tag!), two extra alcohol ink tags are drying on top of my ink pads as I really loved making them, the Haribo's are for DS1 to take into school as it's his 11th birthday today - whoo hoo, and then to just to entertain and delight the other messy crafters out there here is a full view of my dining room, sorry, craft table!

Big shot, fold away bin, present for DS1 off DS2, DS2's book bag and letters home from school..... you get the picture!

DS1 is still in bed at the moment so am just waiting for him to wake up and open his presents - aren't birthdays just wonderful! then when they are both in school I am nipping to Morag's as our pinecone die turned up yesterday so I am off to have a quick play!  Whoo hoo - hopefully will visit a few of you later - managed over 100 last week!

Thanks for looking everyone - Mom of the Birthday Boy from Solihull.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 5

Love this technique - first learnt this in 2005 at one of T!ms classes at Bonanza but haven't used it much since - not sure why really as I do like it!

Anyway here is my tag for today - sorry the picture isn't the best but I took it at 3.30pm (had lunch out with the girl's today so did half this morning and half this afternoon before the school run) so as it's already getting dark by then it's not easy to get a good picture even with daylight bulbs!:

The bird is a sizzix one and I prepared this and a couple of others yesterday when I was doing the house tag - today it just needed a swish of black soot distress stain over it and his little eye - the tag is hazlenut alcohol ink and T!ms original script reflections stamp.  I needed a bit more fuss though so I have added some festive greenery finished off with a bit of doodling and pearls (off a necklace from Primark) and then the fence is a Wrought Iron Fence die from Memory Box, all mounted onto a white tag.  Nice and simples!  Will probably do a couple more these too later (especially as I have already prepared another 3 acetate backgrounds and have another bird ready too!

I would also like to say a big hello to Nicki - thanks for following me!

Thanks for looking - Full up from eating far too much at Giraffe from Solihull

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 4

Gosh I never thought this would dry in time! (family party in 1hour 22 mins and counting...)

Have used a cream cardstock for the base and inked it with picket fence, broken china and vintage photo distress stains (aren't these just the best!).  Then stamped with a swirl (have prepared quite a few of these and some I used a script stamp here instead - not only do I prefer a script but I always find that I have never got the right kind of swirl!) - however the swirl is one I made myself ages ago now and actually looked really good (shame its covered up really!), then I stamped several different snowflakes with broken china. 

The house was painted with hazlenut acrylic dabber (at least I think it was - I found it in my 'bung it in there it will come in useful one day boxes') and had already been run through the notebook embossing folder.  I then cut out the house (don't have that fabulous snowman die - boo hoo) and covered it with crackle glaze, when dry I rubbed over vintage photo distress strain.  Then when all that was dry I put the music paper behind it and filled all the windows with glossy accents - and then left aside to dry yet again!  Then I finished it with some metal smoke from the chimney (so love doing this to house chimneys!) and some liquid pearls and glitter for the snow. 

The large snowflakes are cut from glitter paper with sizzlets and the smaller ones are from a Martha Stewart die - all finished with bling - I did try and cut them out with acetate but no joy as it's too thick for punches and sizzlets.  The little silver brooch I have had in my stash for ages and I thought it looked a bit like a wreath - have no idea who the lady in it is.  I added a T!m Christmas tag in Festive Berries in the bottom corner to give it a bit of colour and finished with 2 holly leaves and some berries (out of my comfort zone here as I always use three holly leaves - who knows maybe I will have to add one later after my guests have gone.....). 

Have finished it simply with plain ribbons - this was just one white ribbon and have I coloured two bits with vintage photo and broken china to tie the whole tag together.

Am so loving making these tags - if you want to join in pop over to T!ms and get crafty!

Thanks for looking - Sparkly from Solihull

And there's more

Just to show how quick these are to make I have been to Tennis (sat for an hour teaching myself how to crochet whilst watching DS1), nipped to Toys R Us for the free lego and then to Hobbycrafts to replace a faulty promarker (didn't think till I got home that I could have treated myself to a Barn Door or Fired Brick reinker - still never mind I will make sure it's in my stash for next year!!!) - have then got home and made some more of these:

all done in the same way just different colours and powders here and there.  Thought they would look good popped on a kraft card for some Christmas cards for friends, I have also prepared about 8 more of the backgrounds, cut out 10 lots of festive greenery as it looks like they will be used a lot over the next 9 days and have now just cleared away all my craft stuff ready for the 10 and 11 year olds coming to the party in 15 mins.  Phew.

Thanks for looking - Creative from Solihull.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 3

Oh my goodness - how quick are these to put together??  Managed this one in less than an hour because I have had to sort out a couple of things since 8am and still have managed to produce this by 9.10!

Have seen the technique of inking a piece of felt a few times but have never tried it before - now I am addicted! This will be appearing a lot in my artwork from now on - believe me!  I was a bit worried to start as I only have three distress reinkers - Rusty Hinge, Wethered Wood and Wild Honey - not really Christmassy colours are they! I also thought they might clash but no they look great!

Have used a Crafty Individuals stamp inked in the above colours, to keep it matching I have inked the tag with Wild Honey and then the edges with Rusty Hinge and then covered it with the lovely Dyan's (Blonde Moments) Festive Candy Lustre Pearl Pigment.  Admittedly the lampost was already cut out and inked so I just had to add the snow (with SnowWriter and glitter) and put on the holly leaves and finish with bling.  The snowman was also already cut - a left over from my advent calendar (for which I have had a personal email off T!m saying how much he liked it - whoo hooo can't get higher praise than that for a configuration box can you!!!), I just had to colour him in with promarkers and finish with bling and a pom pom (gotta be done hasn't it!).  Then I have just finished it off simply with a piece of calico inked with Vintage Photo and another Fairy (and yes it is another fairy as I bought 10 of them so they will be appearing on a few more tags yet - I haven't just pinched it off day 1 - honest!).

Well that's it for me at the moment am off to take DS1 to tennis, then the school Christmas Fayre then back for his Xbox party and sleepover and then prepare for our family birthday party tomorrow - gosh it's all go - thank goodness for a quick technique!  If you want to join in with the fun then pop over to T!ms.

Thanks for looking :)  Mojo's on fire from Solihull

edited to add I have since done loads more of these!  four more are displayed on the post above.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 2

Whoo hoo - two posts in one day! that doesn't happen very often does it!  Well if you are following along with T!ms 12 tags (and if not - why not??) then this is my take on today's:

As you can see I have kept mine nice and simple and basically copied T!ms by following his techniques.

I have used Kraft resist cardstock (not got the Seasonal one!), covered it with Picket Fence distress stain (so love this stuff!) and carried out the technique as described, inked the edges with Festive Berries and then, when distressed with my trustly old knife blade, with Vintage Photo.  I also sprayed the tag with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearl Mist (both the Vintage Photo distress ink and the Perfect Pearl Mist were given to me by T!m at ArtsyCrafts earlier this year so I had to use them!).  I don't own the Reindeer die but this was cut out for me by Jackie at a crop a few months ago (thanks Jackie!). 

I used the On the Edge Ornate die on grunge paper and painted it with the mouldy red inka paint that was sitting on my desk (as you do! and no I still haven't emailed them yet.....).  I tied a Lets Grow rope string around his neck with a yellow heart hanging off it (from Hobbycraft and the Works respectively) and then added a bling eye and a red pom pom to turn him into Rudolph.

I am not sure who manufactured the stamped circle but it is inked with Evergreen berries,  mounted onto a sizzix pinking edge circle inked with Iced Spruce and then covered with glossy accents (which is still wet!), the holly is from T!ms Festive Greenery die and the 3 berries were added with my Bejeweller.  I finished the tag with some earthy pastel and earthy hemp from which I have hung three pearls off a necklace from Primark and I think the Hope tag was given to me at a class sometime ago and never used!

Whole tag only took an hour which is very quick for me and I have also had a lovely morning at my art class learning (finally!) how to use water colour pencils - will post about that at a later time.

Thanks for looking - Inky from Solihull

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 1

I ummed and arred yesterday about making this tag - Morag and I looked and cooed over it yesterday morning and it took us about half an hour to cave in and order the pinecone die online between us (we sat and tried the Marianne rose die wrapped around a cocktail stick but despite the fact that it did look a bit like a pinecone it wasn't good enough for us so we had to treat ourselves!!), so I was going to wait until the new die arrived until I did the tag but then inspiration struck last night and I got on with it using stamps instead (this was after I had walked home from school frantically looking for some small pinecones but alas there aren't any on Widney Lane!) - in fact I sat down with both children to try and get them to join in and make a tag each too but after two mishaps with the embossing powder (I used the wrong ink) they were off to watch cartoons!

Anyway here is my tag (had to finish it this morning due to using crackle glaze!):

Used kraft cardstock for the tag and label, T!ms Christmas embossing folder and white embossing powder, Gathered Twigs, Festive Berries, Evergreen Bough and Iced Spruce distress inks, the Festive Greenery sizzix die, some scalloped lace inked with Evergreen Bough, one of T!ms Vintage Laces to edge the greeting, the greeting is an Anita's clear stamp (see Morag and I were very restrained not giving in and buying the NOEL die too although can I just say that it will be brilliant if T!m decides to use the Reindeer mover and shakers die one day too! wink, wink).  The string of pearls I picked up at a local haberdashery and the fairy I bought at Hobbycrafts at the NEC back in March.  The pinecones are a stamp (not sure what make) which I have coloured with Gathered Twigs and Evergreen Bough inks and then crackle glaze and then have mounted on using two heights of 3D foam so that they are 3D.  The red and green twines are by Creative Expressions.

Really enjoyed making this so can't wait for the next one!  Children loved opening the advent calendar yesterday (I have filled it with chocolate and some mini figures) but it still didn't compete with the Lego Star Wars one - in fact little one is up already this morning desperate to open it as it is his turn on even numbered days for the lego one!

Also can I just say a big hello to JB - thanks for following me :)

Thanks for looking - Pineconeless from Solihull.

WOYWW 130

Here we are again with yet another week gone!  That means it's only one more week to DS1's birthday and 3 weeks (just over) to Christmas!

Here is my desk as of yesterday afternoon:

I had a little flurry of activity on Sunday and have finally started some Christmas cards!  All very simple at the moment and everything I used was done last year and are leftovers in my Christmas box - very useful when you are busy!  There are some new distress stains by my inks and some new stamps there on the left which I treated myself to from AFTH on black Friday (facing the wrong way sorry!) and the inka gold paint is there for me to make a decision about whether to email a complaint to them as its gone mouldy (went mouldy about 4 months ago but I keep forgetting about it) - other than that its all much of a muchness this week as I haven't had much time for crafting.

If you want to know why I am sharing my desk with the world then pop over to Julia's and join in the fun - be warned though it's very addictive and you will lose a few hours visiting other desks!

Thanks for looking - Worn out from Solihull

A new arrival

My DS1's headmaster's wife gave birth to a little boy on Monday - I already knew that they were expecting a boy so here is the card I made for them last week:

I havent got a baby boy stamp but I thought little Hamish with tractor would suffice and this card actually fits in with my challenge from last week (Time is the Tim tag which I will circle with 21st Nov as this was the date he was born, I - it's well inked!, M - two of bits of metal there and E - the handmade embellishment is this tag:

- as  you can see the baby's name is William!).

I had also got out my knitting needles and made him this:

haven't ever knitted grey for a baby before but this wool was just so lovely and also Mr C (the headteacher) has a thing for wearing pink ties so I thought they would coordinate nicely!  Didn't want to post the pictures earlier in the week as I have only gotten around to delivering them this morning!

Another exciting thing to happen this week is this:

yes its a first tooth! - finally!  Sorry for the poor quality of the picture I have tried to fiddle with it in Windows Photo Gallery but its not as good as Photoshop and I havent had time for that yet!  and just to prove that it was his tooth here is little envelope to the Tooth Fairy:

how cute is that!

Thanks for looking - Glad its Friday from Solihull!

WOYWW 129

It seems strange posting this picture as I took it yesterday afternoon and what I am working on is actually now finished and on the blog post below!  Oh well - at least the photo was taken in daylight and you get a gist of what I am/was doing:

today I will probably start my Christmas cards if I get time.  This is actually a very tidy desk for me and its even tidier now that my advent calendar is already proudly on display in my lounge (there is a really big reason for that which I am very excited about!) although I do now need to fill it with goodies - might just go for the easy option of chocolate as lego mini figures would be a tad expensive!

If you want to join in the fun and have a lovely peek around the world of desks out there in big wide world then pop over to Julias and join in all the fun!

Thanks for looking and have a great week :)

You know when....

you get an idea and it just has to be done regardless of other things going on around you?  Well I looked at Tim's blog last week and he had a link on there to thegentlemancrafter and I looked at the lovely robot on there and suddenly had the inspiration to use some of my configuration boxes into a snowman (how I got to a snowman from a robot I will never know - but get there I did) - so for the past 5 days whenever I have had a few spare minutes to sit in my craft room I been working on this:

this is the front of the advent - have made the brush from a paintbrush and raffia, the lantern is made from three of Tim's birdcages - honestly it was a lot trickier than it looks! the buttons and eyes are made from Tim's rosette dies and buttons (with stickles around the edges of the button rosettes), the mouth is made up from Tim's metal lock and spinners and the nose is an old metal disc with the word Wonderful on it.  The scarf was some fabulous crocheted material given to me by Chris at my crop and the robins I caved in and bought.

So, where is the advent calendar? I hear you ask, well if you turn the whole thing around you get this:

The Snowmen are from a sizzix long die and coloured with promarkers, I have doodled around the edges to define them and added pom poms here and there and used bling for their eyes and buttons.  The numbers are made from Tim's Upon a Time die and covered with glossy accents so they are nice and shiny.  The other bits decorating the boxes are from Tim's Festive Greenery die with some bits finished off with pearls and bling.  All the boxes, except the hat one, are painted white and inked with iced spruce - the hat is just painted black with one of Tim's Vintage Laces around the edge which is inked with Tea Dye.

Hope you like him! Now just need to go shopping and get all the bits and pieces to go in him!

Thanks for looking :) Oh and I won't be setting a fortnightly challenge today - sorry but too much going on at the moment! thanks for understanding.

Inspired!

Well so much for me putting out the papers on my desk this morning in order to spend some time this afternoon on a layout - I spent the morning look at 70 or so desks with WOYWW when I came across Tuire's blog and you see the little face with wings on the desk there?  Well it inspired me to make this:

what a lovely way to spend an hour!  Am really rather pleased with myself - now need to tidy up the table as DS2 has a friend over for tea - oh well it was great while it lasted!

Thanks for looking :)

WOYWW 128

Morning everyone - here is my desk on this very cold and dark morning:

think I might go back to photographing my desk on an Tuesday afternoon next time!  Promarkers are out as I have made a baby boy card to fit in with my fortnightly challenge - details here if you are interested in joining in!
Papers are out to hopefully inspire me to do another quick and simple layout - although these papers do all the work for you they are quite hard to use though - I am definately a sheet of plain cardstock and ink/paint it up girl at heart really!  Other than that its much the same as normal with my other new seasonal inks there (yes I caved in and treated myself to both sets - decided that I actually use my inks more than anything else so as I had spare money left over from my trip to Hobbycrafts at the NEC I thought I would spend it wisely on something useful!).  Have had a busy week mainly sewing and knitting and the only papercrafting I have done is the card you can just see peeking out on the right - will blog that when baby is born and I can complete the tag with the name!

If you would like to join in with the addictive Wednesday fun of showing your desk off to the world and then going and peeking at lots of others then pop over to Julias and join in the fun.  Not sure how many desks I can get round to this week as my Nan is in hospital but I am hoping to catch up with a few of you.

Thanks for looking :)

Lots going on

I am still here but have actually been too busy crafting to stop and blog! Bought some lovely wool on Friday night from Hobbycraft so I am busy knitting a lovely grey baby cardigan for an imminent arrival at school, my quilt is coming on well so there will pictures of that soon too and then at my art class I learnt how to do a portrait:

Am really pleased with this as its my first attempt at drawing a face.

Thanks for looking :)

Lets Think Creatively challenge no 9

It's Tuesday so,

My Grandma died 30 years ago today which has made me think about Time as it seems like just yesterday but also such a long time ago. 

So the challenge this fortnight (I am going to back to my old style of complicated challenges - I find I am much more creative then than when I set a simple challenge) is TIME with each letter being used to give me the theme - so we need to make a layout, card and/or tag that includes some kind of reference to time (T) on it, must use Ink (I), include some Metal (M) and have a handmade embellishment (E) on it.  If you fancy using an extra twist the item you create must be made in 30 minutes or less (bit difficult for me with the layout as they take me hours so I might skip that part then!).

I hope you will join in with me on my creative journey, if you do please leave me a link so I can come and have a look at your creations:



I have managed to get a quick tag done this morning to fit in with the last challenge (housework) - I wouldn't mind but I went to my weight watchers meeting (have lost 3lb! whoo hoo) and caught up with the housework so had some spare time so I got out the craft table and then got stuck despite having lots of ideas spinning around in my head! how annoying is that!  Anyway yesterday I put together some backgrounds on some tags using my new Autumn inks (Gathered Twigs, Ripe Persimmon and Seedless Preserves) and then stamped on them using bleach (it was a housework challenge remember!), so I already had one of these to base my tag on (I used salt on the last one on the right rather than bleach):

excuse the darkness I took the picture in my lounge which is quite dark!  and then I got out a couple of baskets in which I house a few bits of pieces of things I make but don't use immediately, bits of ribbon, die cuts, flowers - you get the picture!  so I decided to use only items from these baskets and made this:

the two brown birds and leaves are Prima Resistant Canvas pieces, the rest were just already prepared and just needed a touch of ink to tie in with the tag.

Thanks for looking :)

Busy Weekend

Spent the day yesterday (after DS1's tennis lesson) sorting out bedrooms and generally tidying up and clearing clutter, so today we are a little bit tidier and a little bit less cluttered! bin is full though!  Have had a lovely day today catching up with my Mandy Shaw quilt and organising the bindings and background squares - involved lots of ironing (could use this for my challenge couldn't I!), lots of cutting and getting busy on my sewing machine.  There is still a long way to go on the quilt but three of the applique squares are now completely finished and five just need a bit of tweeking - buttons and extra embroidery will all be done when the quilt is all put together - will be doing a bit more of this this week I think - it's been very relaxing!

Had a great day last Thursday at the NEC - bought a few bits and pieces but nothing major and actually came home with some pennies left over! A trip to Hobbycraft or Bramble Patch is on the cards I think!

Also did a fair bit of scrapping/crafting last week too - here I have two more items for my challenge, firstly the layout:

not much housework inspiration on there I hear you say but on the tag that is tucked away I crumpled and ironed it:

not very creative considering this is the same technique that I used on my tutorial but time wasn't really on my side last week!

Then I haven't managed to get a tag completed yet (still a day to go though!) but I have done these:

please excuse the background I don't know why I didn't put them on a sheet of paper first!  but they are little envelopes for when my children lose a tooth, we find it easier to put the tooth in an envelope and then the fairy finds it no problem!  These have again been crumpled, inked and ironed then I used some lovely Lavinia stamps and the two larger fairies are by Personal Impressions.  Also on all of these I put a cobweb - see I knew I would be able to get dusting in there somewhere!  And you see the little boy fairy on the first envelope well those little mushrooms either side of the big mushroom are actually my all time favourite stamp and I used to use it all the time - then I lost it!  can you imagine the disappointment - I never caved in and bought another one as it was actually £4 for such a tiny stamp - anyway it was lost for over a year and then we moved study/DS2's bedroom around last week I found it! Right there under the desk (I blame OH for knocking it off and not noticing!) - so then I put it in a safe place in DS2's bedroom as now all my stamps are housed downstairs and when I went to get it to use it - it was gone again! Honestly talk about having a life of it's own!  I didn't panic I just assumed I had moved it previously (as it was too high up for DS2 to interfere!), had it in my hand and then did another job (our work is never done is it!) and put it down somewhere - anyway yesterday I looked in a little basket full of some goodies I had put in to bring down to the craftroom (aka dining room) and it was in there! such a relief again - it is now in it's right place along with all my other Lavinia's.

Anyway enough of me waffling - I will finish here to give you all a breather!  A big hello to Susan - thanks for following me - hope I haven't waffled too much!

Thanks for looking and don't forget that there is still time to join in with my challenge of using housework as your inspiration - details are here.

Bye and thanks for looking!