Its Oh So Quiet

on the crafting front I mean - not my house that's as hectic and noisy as usual! In fact more so with the children being off school.  I haven't had chance to play much this week - in fact the white tablecloth from Christmas Day is still on my dining room table so I can't get my inks out until I move it!

I did however paint two lovely pictures at my last two art classes which are on proud display in my dining room so I thought I would post them on here to show you all too.  Here is the one I did a week last Friday:

and the one I did the week before that:

both are done in acrylics.

Had a great time at the Solihull Pantomime on Friday and tomorrow I am taking DS2 to see the Gruffalo's Child in Birmingham, then we only have two more days until they go back to school! Boo. Oh well such is life as I will then have to catch up with the jobs I keep putting off as we are on holiday! 

So that's from me until next year! hope you all have a good one!

Thanks for looking - Off to play Lego Lord of the Rings from Solihull

WOYWW 186

Morning everyone, Hope you all had a super Christmas - we had a great time in our house apart from little one having a slight tumble down the stairs but apart from a red mark by his eye he was fine!  Bless - we had all the grandparents round for a lovely lunch and had a wonderful day opening presents and playing with the new games with the children.  Children got the Turtle Beach headphones and Hexbugs that they asked for, OH got his new tops and I got a new Windows Phone! whoo hooo.

I wont show you my table this week as we ate at it for Christmas dinner so it basically just has a white tablecloth on it and a neat pile of Christmas placemats, but as I would still like to join in I thought I would show you the Christmas table decoration I made (although he can also be used as a doorstop!) - Charlie the Turkey:

front

side

back - isnt that tail feather super!

I used some Westminster Fabrics that I won in a blog hop way back in July and a pattern fromThe Quilters Trader Post I bought whilst at the Malvern Quilt Show. He was called Lurkey the Turkey and I couldnt resist him but I am calling mine Charlie - much friendler!

I hope everyone has a great week off - the children are off until next Thursday now so we have a pantomime trip planned, a trip to see the Gruffalos Child at Birmingham Town Hall and various meet ups with friends and family so a nice fun packed week.

Hope you all got everything you wished for and more.  If you want to join in the fun and show your workspace to the world then pop over to Julias and join in the all the fun.

Thanks for looking - Feeling chilled from Solihull

More Festive Creativity

Felt like playing again yesterday so I gathered up all my spare configuration boxes that were left over from my gravestone and decided to make a Christmas Tree table decoration:

Just used various bits and pieces that were lying around really - T!ms pinecone, the mover and shaper Reindeer and 25, the large reindeer, ticket (and stamp), festive greenery, snowflake and Halloween shadows dies, two polysterene balls covered in glitter and made into a snowman - used bling for his nose and eyes, ribbon for scarf and buttons for his hat.  Parcels are simply handcut pieces of kraft card stock with the edges inked and tied with festive twine and a tag, the little jars are filled with glitter - here is a close up of their tags:

The Santa's washing line is made up from some old Penny Black (I think) stamps - inked with Jet Black archival, coloured with distress markers and then covered with glossy accents to add shine and puff paint to create a fur effect:

I only really used Vintage Photo ink on here with Broken China and Brushed Pewter stains on the snowflake. Finished the tree edges with festive pom pom ribbon, T!ms lantern - how cute is that! and a robin that I bought in a set of three last year.  The tree itself was made up from spare configuration boxes, painted green using PaperArtsys Fresco Finish Hyde Park paint, the insides were covered with some pages from Hamlet and then the whole thing sprayed with Old Lace glimmer mists - it has a lovely sparkle!

All in all a very nice days play - sorry for poor pictures its another rainy day here!

I am going to enter this into the following challenges:
http://pennybfriendssaturdaychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Glitter and Sparkle
http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Christmassy
http://stampinfortheweekend.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/challenge-24-anything-oes.html - Anything Goes
http://delightfulsketches.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/anything-goes-2-week-challenge.html - Anything Goes
http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/december-challenge.html?m=0 - Treemendous
http://abc-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/d-for-deck-halls.html - Deck the Halls
http://christmasatsweetstampinchallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/its-anything-goes-for-challenge-1.html - Anything Goes
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Merry Christmas
http://ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes at Christmas
http://www.craftingforallseasons.blogspot.co.uk/ - Green and Red plus Glitter and Sparkle
http://divasbydesignchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes

Only three more sleeps - whoo hooo.

Thanks for looking - Feeling Festive from Solihull

My mojo is back!

whooo hooo!

It's about

been having a lovely crafty play on this dark and dismal day, and I have had over 3000 blog hits on my Santa Sleigh post via T!ms blog - how cool is that!

Used a new Timepiece embossing folder, lots of gears and new mini gears, Recollections Time Flies stamps, new bit of lace, T!ms alphabet die, Vintage Photo and Salty Ocean inks, some new Blue Patina perfect pearls and a new bit of ribbon.  So much new stuff - so little Time!!!! Where did it all come from I wonder? just sort of found it all lying around.....

Thanks for looking - Finally doing something from Solihull

WOYWW 185

Happy Christmas everyone!

Haven't joined in so much this year as I really haven't been as creative as I usually am but I have had so much fun when I have - not much on my desk this week:

am still struggling to get creative - in fact yesterday I wrote out a list of things I need to get done as I had a free afternoon and I still couldn't muster up the enthusiasm so I read a book instead!  That little pile of stuff in the middle is some new goodies I have to play with - kraft glassine, the Tim Spooky sizzix die, the two T!m snowflake dies (not new but so need to make my little Christmas trees still!) and some art parts.  The pile behind are my Christmas cards, no idea how that Santa hat got there and the pink pile at the back is a basket I have been crocheting - I have only just learnt how to crochet and I didn't have a pattern to follow so it's a bit rubbish but it will do the job!

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and new year.

If you want to join in the blog hopping fun then pop over to Julias.

Thanks for looking and keeping with me throughout 2012 - All ready for Christmas from Solihull

Dashing through the snow

Well here it is - my twelfth T!m tag of the year:

For this one I have used Barn Door and Tarnished Brass stains, an Artist Cellar Old World Map Series (London) mask, Evergreen Bough and Tea Dye distress inks, T!ms Reindeer and On the Edge Tree dies, 7 Gypsies tissue paper over grungepaper, Creative Journey London Stamp, Jet Black Archival Ink, Rock Candy Crackle Paint, Pearl Glitter, White Acrylic Paint, Muslin, Black Bling and a Red Seed Bead for the Reindeers eye and nose.

The colours arent the best on this photo so here is a shot of the tag before I added the trees and reindeer:

They are so vibrant in real life - photos never really give our tags justice do they!  I have added the stamp and mask to keep in with my British theme.

If I had realised 11 months ago that when I said "My 2012 tags are all going to have a British theme" just what an extra big challenge I had set myself I might not have attempted it.  However attempt it I did, and what a wonderful extra push it gave me - yes it was tricky and some of the tags actually took me a couple of weeks to ponder over just to come up with a British theme but it took me out of my comfort zone and made me a lot more creative.  I haven't made as much stuff as I usually do this year - I think losing my Nan in February has had me on an emotional roller coaster this year but when I havent felt like creating much I have just wondered off and done something else - I know creativity doesn't have a switch that you can just press when you want to make something but I do know that lack of creativity happens occasionally and not to stress about it but to go and do something else that fills your time and gives you pleasure rather than sitting at a desk for hours getting frustrated when nothing goes right (yes have been there too!).

Anyway I am digressing - all my T!ms tags this year have had a British theme:

February - Hearts with Union Flags
March - Tower Bridge with Union Flag bunting
April - "Keep Calm and Carry On"
May - Red, White and Blue
June - London scene
July- London eye scene with fireworks over the Thames
July again - City of London stamp with fireworks
August - Sherlock Holmes (which was a winner too - whoo hoo)
September - Union Flag done in metal
October - United Kingdom as a huge graveyard
November - London telephone box in Autumn
December - Snowman with Tower Bridge in the background with baubles hanging from it like the olympic rings
December again - Reindeer dancing over the streets of London.

Whew - I am amazed that I managed this myself - but what fun it was.  Wonder what the theme will be next year??  I also think it's funny that I have got to the end of all twelve without a Winnie The Pooh, Peter Pan or Alice In Wonderland one done - these were my main ideas to use way back in February!

A big hello to my newest follower Linda F - hope you enjoy my blog and also a big thanks to everyone who visited and joined me from T!ms blogworthy link, I am just 73 hits off 3000! how amazing is that!  Beats my link from www.Microsoft.com which is just under 2000.  Who would have thought my little blog would generate that much interest - I am so pleased and grateful to you all for your lovely comments.

Busy day ahead for us as we are off to Cadbury World - whoo hoo.

Thanks for looking - Off to eat chocolate from Solihull

December Doings

Well it has been a busy week in our house - DS1 turned 12 on Friday so we were busy celebrating that Friday and Saturday with parties and then today we treated ourselves to a Christmas meal in Wetherspoons and had a visit to see Father Christmas too - all very enjoyable.

Yesterday I had a bit of mojo return although he seems to have wandered off again today but I have stuck some tissue paper onto some grungepaper in the hopes that he might return later!  Anyway here is my first T!m tag of December:

I kept the colours the same as T!ms as they are just wonderful also it gave me chance to play with my new Burnished Pewter stain which I have to say is my favourite at the moment and also I kept the Snowman as he is so cute.  To keep with my British theme for these tags I had a long think and then suddenly remembered that Tower Bridge had the Olympic Rings hung from it this summer so I replicated that by hanging three baubles spelling out joy.  I also changed the snowmans hat from his traditional square one to a typically English bowler hat - although I cut out and kept the holly on his new hat. 

The Tower Bridge and Snowman arms were stamped directly onto the tag using Jet Black archival and then I restamped the Snowman onto watercolour paper and coloured him using markers (Black Soot, Broken China, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Pine Needles, and Vintage Photo), cut him out and mounted him in the correct position on the tag.  I then stamped out three baubles and coloured them with Barn Door and Pine Needles markers and used Picket Fence to write the letters JOY, when the white had popped out I drew around the letters with a black pen to make them stand out even more.

Stamps used were T!ms Snowman and baubles, Artemio London Stamps (bowler hat and Tower Bridge).  I finished the tag with three red seed beads on the holly on the hat, Pom Pom ribbon, white ribbon, stain dyed ribbon to match and a Christmas muse token.

I must admit that although this tag is really plain and simple its one of my favourites so far - the colours are just fabulous and I love my baubles hanging from the bridge!

I would like to say a huge thank you to all my new followers - so many have you have joined me this past week! and also a big thanks to all of you subscribing by email - I didnt realise that there were so many of you until I found a link and kept on drilling down until I found my subscribers email list - wow!  And also a big thanks to everyone who emailed me asking for instructions on how to make a sleigh using T!ms signpost - there were so many of you! I hope you all have fun making one and come back and let me know as I would love to see them.

Thanks for looking - Still on Cloud Nine from Solihull

WOYWW 183 and a Toot!

Hi everyone,
I wasnt going to join in today even though I am planning a crafty day in my dining room but I have just seen that I have had a mention on T!ms blog and its put me in an incredibly happy mood that I feel that I can conquer the world! (that and I am addicted to peeking at others mess - sorry creativeness!)  plus I need some inspiration..... mojo has seriously left me these past few days although I have been doing an online Christy Tomlinson course and my normal painting class on Fridays so its not all bad!

Anyway here is my desk/dining room table:

as you can see not much craftiness going on!  I have printed out T!ms december tags there to get on with today and the pagemaps sketches were used to make a card yesterday but I have had to move that in case the recipient reads this!  The snowflake has been sitting there for almost two weeks - its part of a Christmas Tree decoration I am making similar to T!ms rosettes one last year - the tin is full of my handmade Christmas cards and a couple we have already received - including a birthday card for DS1 who will be 12 on Friday.  At the back are two presents waiting to be wrapped and a new phone and ear phones that are all mine - whoo hoo!

Thats my desk - hopefully it will be messier in a bit - if you want to join in the fun pop over to Julias and join in the fun!

Thanks for looking - a Happy Blogger from Solihull!

ps If you want instructions of how to make the sleigh using T!ms sign die on this post here http://www.sunshinegirlnicola.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-sign-that-christmas-is-on-its-way.html please email me and I will send you a pdf.  Thanks and Happy Christmas!