Finding Fun

I thought I would join in with this fun challenge over at Mess, Muddle and Fun, the theme this week is walking.  I already do lots of walking and the first four parts of the challenge were probably written with me in mind as I take full advantage of having two little boys and already go skipping down the street with them, play i-spy, go looking for lions and tigers in the local woods, hunt for mushrooms and go jumping in puddles too - funny the looks you get from the grumpy car drivers that stare at us whilst they are stuck in the long queue waiting to turn right from the lane into the main senior school road!

Anyway the sixth part of the challenge was to draw a pirate map - I have been meaning to make a pirate map to go in my pirate themed bathroom for ages now (the bathroom was painted bright yellow over a year ago and just has my pirate ship cross stitch on the wall and a half painted pirate ship bird box on the windowsill so far! although DS2 has now decided that he no longer wants the pirate bunting up in his room anymore (remember that??) so I am going to take his name off it and put BATHROOM on it instead too (that has been sitting on my to do pile for about six months so shouldn't be long now......)), anyway I am digressing, I started my treasure map on Sunday at my crop and have managed to finish it off this morning (quite quick for me!!):

For this I have used:  Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Mustard Seed, Crushed Olive, Black Soot, Broken China distress inks.  Magnolia Message in a Bottle stamp, Pirate stamp – cant remember the make, Pirate ship and flag are a Mickey Mouse cuttlebug die, Quickutz Skull, Sizzix Palm Trees.  The Compass Stamp I think is Unity inked in Chocolate Archival Ink.  Promarkers used: Black, Chestnut, Berry Red, Lipstick Red, Saffron, Blush, Sunkissed Pink, Ice Grey 1, 2,3, 4, & 5, Moss, Gold, Cyan, Aegean, Sky Blue, Marsh Green and Cinnamon.

Had great fun with this and its helped cheer me up as yesterday was another sad day in my house as I went to my third funeral in as many months.  Yesterday was for my Great Uncle Wilf who was my Nan's brother-in-law so the funeral was held at the same crematorium, the wake at the same Working Mens club and the family members were much the same who attended my Nan's funeral so it bought it all back home to me, so where I finally felt last week that I was getting to the edge of the forest and could see the light through the leaves, yesterday I felt that I had taken a wrong path right back into the middle of the forest again and now have to find my way back out.  Oh well it's just life isn't it and thankfully I feel a bit better again today (especially since I have just been to Starbucks and had cake!!).

A big hello to Carolyn, Ruby, Tgerber and Madame Samm - thank you so much for following me.

Thanks for looking - Can't see the woods for the trees from Solihull

12 tags of 2012 - april

Here is my tag for the April tag over on Tims Blog:

I actually made it a couple of weeks ago but wasnt keen on the colour scheme and was going to redo it using reds as it would go more with my British theme but the tag has grown on me since then and I don't want all red tags so I have kept it as is.

Stash used was Wild Honey, Crushed Olive, Brushed Corduroy, Broken China, Tea Dye distress inks. Tea Dye embossing powder.  Pinecone leaves from Sizzix die (have since bought the bird on a branch die for the crop but its still unused in the box!), bird and wing are the from Birdcage die.  For the background I used Couture Creations World Map embossing folder with the Numbers reflections stamp inked with Jet Black Archival Ink.  To keep with my British theme I used the Inkylicious Union Jack 2 part – Keep Calm and Carry On stamp and the Artemio - London Landscape stamp.  Metal crown is from one of T!ms metal sets.  To finish the tag I used a piece of muslin died with Broken China and Wild Honey distress stains, a vintage lace diecut inked with Mustard Seed and Vintage Photo and then the lovely little soldier you see standing in the bottom right hand corner is cut out from a ribbon.

Thanks for looking :)  Off to Tennis from Solihull

If anyone is interested there is some blog candy for any of my followers on this post here

Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge 2

Wanted to take part in this challenge earlier in the week but Mr Mojo took a little holiday! Oh No! all day Tuesday to myself to play too but nothing happened I just ended up shuffling around in my button tin trying to organise a piece of crazy quilting but nothing was sparking my imagination - in the end I put it all away and put the telly on instead!  Thankfully though he has come back to visit this morning (yes this tag was done this morning before my school run!) so I can enter the super challenge here at Studio L3.

                                                 

Tag background was done with Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo and Picket Fence distress stains and then the edges inked with Vintage Photo distress ink, the background stamps are from the Wild Meadow stamp set from Indigo Blu - inked with Vintage Photo.  For the metal frame I used Snow Cap Mixative, Butterscotch and Hazlenut alcohol inks, the Butterfly word is stamped on kraft cardstock with a Cavallini & Co stamp in Chocolate archival ink and then inked with Vintage Photo.  The butterfly is a mover and shaker of T!ms coloured in Barn Door with a script stamp stamped with Vintage photo ink and some bling to finish.  The Flowers are another T!m die coloured with Faded Jeans, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo stains - I was going to keep the colour scheme all yellow and browns but decided to add a bit of colour in at the minute to make it all pop!  The flower centres are old Basic Grey brads.  The large flower is T!ms Tattered Flower die coloured with mustard seed distress ink, edged with Vintage Photo and finished with a Making Memories glass bead.  Tag is finished with two brown ribbons, a Barn Door inked piece of muslin and a Making Memories pearl drop bead.

The faux patina technique on the metal frame is taken from T!ms new book Compendium of Curiosities 2 - page 58.  If you enter you will be in with a chance to win an Idea-ology messenger bag that has been autographed by T!m!!! whoo hoo.

Thanks for looking :) 

Just Tagging Along from Solihull



WOYWW 51

Morning everyone,

I have to confess I wasn't going to join in this week as my mojo was on fire the end of last week and the weekend - for the first time ever my children were happy to entertain themselves during the last couple of the days of the holidays so it left me time to get on with crafty things and I did loads of sewing! will blog more about that later - anyhow yesterday I got the house to myself and my mojo mysteriously disappeared! How annoying - instead I spent most of the day sat on the settee doing some hand embroidery whilst catching up with the all the crime dramas I had taped over the holidays - how lazy!  Still I am hoping for  better things today....

Here is my desk with everything just dumped on it so no specific project at the moment:

Yes the table runner is new, that was just one of last weeks creations and its embroidered on the back too!  Mannequin is new - a great find for £3.99 in B&M bargains can't wait to pimp her up!  That lovely tin from Paperchase holds all my buttons, that plastic bag is a little giveaway as I am two posts away from 300!  The material piece to the left is a new project I am working on I think its called crazy quilting - not sure - anyway that was the one that stumped me yesterday - I got all all my buttons and ribbons to funk it up and kind of lost interest - hopefully that wont last. 

Thanks for joining me again this week - if you too would like to join in the fun of sharing your desk with the world pop over to Julias.

Can I just also say a big hello to Scrapfanaatpeter - thanks for following me :)

Thanks for looking - Rained in from Solihull

I have a confession - it was me!

This morning, after relooking at the picture I posted yesterday of my dresden plate,  I decided to

so I sat and unpicked my slightly puckered dresden plate, reironed it all (and cleaned the iron in the process too!).  Whilst I was doing this I quickly reread through the instructions and realised that instead of sewing around the outside of the circle template I had in fact sewn inside it with a quarter of an inch seam - therefore my circle was too small!  So I redid another circle too (properly this time!), ironed it and I have now completed my dresden plate (again!):

looks much better now doesnt it.  This time I used some 505 to glue it to the backing material along with a pin in each plate.  Just need to get some matching fabric to bind it into a little quilt and turn it into a little table mat (I feel a quick trip out to Hobbycraft coming on!).  Now need to decide whether the plates are big enough for me to cut my Alice in Wonderland material into without losing too much of the design.

Such fun!

Thanks for looking - Sad it's the last day of the school holidays from Solihull

May crop class

Enjoyed myself yesterday putting together the class for our 20th May crop, I rarely scrapbook these days so its nice to have play with 12x12 papers again once in a while:

Have used some lovely My Minds Eye "Follow Your Heart" papers.  For those that come to the crop hope you have all seen that we are now moving permanently to Shelly Farm Community Centre in Monkspath - more details are here http://www.whathouseworkblog.blogspot.co.uk/.

Also how annoying is this:

and I followed a pattern and everything!  my sewing skills aren't perfect though and the background material is slightly puckered (the instructions said use one pin per dresden piece however I think I should have used two or three!) - luckily for me this is actually a test piece as I wanted to see how it easy it was to put together (very in fact! and also this only took me a couple of hours including all the cutting out) - but I wanted to try it out on scrap fabrics first so that I could size it all and see if I liked it enough before cutting out all my Alice In Wonderland fat quarters.  Think I will be doing another one though as they do look effective don't they.  I will repost the finished version of this when I have made a slightly bigger centre and edged it.  Will probably use it as a table mat when its completed.  If you want to have a go I got the pattern from here: Sew Mama Sew - I am sure yours will turn out just fine!

Also talking of disasters - spot the mistake on this one:

ho hum (and yes it is the same way up (or is that down?) all the way round - no putting it up against a wall and pretending its ok!!).
A big hello to Suzanne - thanks for following me, hope my disasters don't frighten you away!

Thanks for looking - Slightly askew from Solihull

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge week 1

Bernice sent me an email yesterday which I read first thing this morning asking if I was taking part in the new Compendium of Curiosities Challenges over at http://studiol3.blogspot.co.uk/.  I wasn't going to but when I read the challenge I had one of those moments of inspiration and creativity strike and I thought "ooooh I could make..." and so I have spent the last hour and half (yes I got up early today!) making this:

For the tag background I used Picket Fence, Barn Door, Faded Jeans and Vintage Photo stains and then I have inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.  The stamps are by Artemio (stamped in Crimson archival and Vintage Photo) and the telephone is custom die made from a mover and shaker (only bought it yesterday and its already been used! whoo hoo!) stamped in Black Archival and the letters are again from a new die bought yesterday which is the new Word Play die (again whooo hooo!!) - these are inked with Vintage Photo and then stamped over with T!ms reflection number stamp (thought that was cute using numbers and telephones) again in Black Archival, the alphabet stamps are a little boxed set that I have had for years.  Finished off with flower ribbon, Barn Door and Black Soot muslin ribbons and then the two cutest English ribbons I have of soldiers and, of course, Tea.  Thought I would go along with an English theme like I am with T!ms monthly tags.
In order to take part in the challenge you need to use the technique on Page 66 of T!ms new Compendium of Curiosities 2 book and then you will be put into a random draw to win a $25 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp  so go on have a go - it's lots of fun!

Thanks for looking - Having Fun from Solihull

WOYWW 150

Chaos!

start of a dresden plate quilt on the left hand side there so a bit of sewing going on, some new ribbons on the right from a fabulous little stall find in Wolverhampton market, I am testing out some new sizzix dies I have bought for the crop and preparing the next class layout so a bit of allsorts going on today! (well yesterday afternoon in the light but the desk still looks roughly the same this dark rainy morning!).

If you would like to see why I am baring my chaotic mess to the world then pop over to Julias and join in all the fun of her weekly desk blog hop.
A big hi to Kaz - thanks for following me :)

Thanks for looking - hoping to get a bit tidier today from Solihull

I've done a challenge

First time in absolutely ages - quite possibly a year in fact!  I realised yesterday that I still hadn't opened the new dies and stamps that I bought at the NEC last month so I got out my craft table in the lounge, whilst the rest of the family were watching Moonraker I thought I would do some papercrafting.  I got out all my bits and pieces and then sat there completely flummoxed (happens far too often at the moment!) and my mind went blank so I went online and looked through some of the challenges on my challenge page and went for a sketch from Sketch Saturday:

Here is my take on their sketch.  I used a book page, Sizzix doily die (my new purchase!), sizzix circle, T!ms butterfly kraft cardstock which I coloured with Vintage Photo distress stain, ribbons, T!ms butterfly mover and shaker die, script stamp, Indigo Blu grass and dandelion leaves stamps (another new purchase), the sentiment is by Whimsy Stamps from their Birthday Letter Seals collection.  The inks I used on this card are Crushed Olive, Ripe Persimmon, Vintage Photo and Tea Dye.
I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday for the sketch

Moving Along With the Times  - Shabby Chic/Vintage

Scrapbook Sisters - Anything Goes

and then as I sat there the film still hadn't finished and my mojo had started flowing slightly I actually did two more cards albeit the same but in different colour schemes:

here I used Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo and Crushed Olive inkpads.

and for this one I used Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Vintage Photo and Crushed Olive ink pads.

So I am happy today that I have a little stockpile of cards for those birthdays that creep up on me when I have no mojo!

Thanks for looking - Happy Crafter from Solihull

And yet another sewing accomplishment

This bag has been on my to do pile for a while now:

it's rather sweet isn't it!  It's a bolster bag that is fully lined:

I got it from my Quarterly Crafting club which is Daisy Chain Designs - I don't think I would have particularly chosen it as a kit normally but am still rather pleased with it.  I am going to keep my distress ink foams in it which I know is a bit extravagent but let's face it I really don't need another bag!  I started it yesterday afternoon and then spent two hours last night turning out that handle! and then have just finished off the rest this morning.

Learn't a really good tip making it on how to sew circles - could have done knowing about that on Tuesday when I made three of these:

See it's been a busy sewing week for me!  Five projects completed oodles more to go.....

Thanks for looking - Happy Sewer from Solihull

Meet Peggy Sue!

isn't she lovely:

she is my new peg bag - complete with zip and she is fully lined! Well that was my Wednesday - what did you do on yours?

A big hello to May - thanks for following me :)

Thanks for looking - All pegged out from Solihull

WOYWW 148

Sorry I have been awol for so long - my Nans death has had a big effect on me and I really havent been that chatty for the past few weeks - still I am feeling a lot better now and ready to start getting creative.

My desk is a bit staged as these are my two projects I hope to work on later today (am helping out at school this morning) - the house picture I bought as a kit when I went to Hobbycrafts at the NEC and the material to the left is a new technique I am trying (despite the fact that I kept telling myself I didnt need a new hobby I just caved in, again at the NEC), the house picture just needs sewing around in lots of different coloured threads and will be done, I have watercoloured the calico and the rest is straight from the pattern.  The left piece is some needlepunch felt and material that I have appliqued hearts on and then washed so it has shrunk and ruffled up just need to embellish it now.  Other than that my desk is relatively bare although I did take part in T!ms online class which, along with my crop commitments, got me back into doing some papercrafting but other than that I have just been doing some sewing and moping in front of the telly!

Can I just say a big thank you to Chris, Vanessa Scrap and Rita for following me.

Looking forward to getting around to some desks later and I have just looked out of my dining room window and notice it is slightly snowing here! whoo hoo.  If you would like to join in the fun desk hop too then pop over to Julias.
Thanks for looking - Cant Wait for the Holidays from Solihull

My crafting skills

obviously come from my Dads side of the family although my Nan was well known for her sewing and knitting skills too!

A while ago my Dad asked me if I would post some pictures on my blog so his friends could see his diarama so here they are:

isn't it fabulous!

another overall view shot

love the tyre tracks on this one

love the broken down roof on this one

and here is another!

I think my Dad should set up his own blog to show off his creations - do you??

Thanks for looking - Missing T!ms Creative Chemistry already from Solihull

Can you believe

that I painted this yesterday:

I have to say that I am really rather pleased with myself!  Am even going to frame it and put it up in the lounge.  Whoo hoo.

Also a big hello to Chris - thanks for following me.

Thanks for looking - Feeling like an artist from Solihull

Creative Chemistry Day 10

Wow how quick and easy is today's lesson!

I love this technique, I have four bottles of Distress Stickles but I have to confess I don't really use them but I think todays technique has changed my mind and I will be using them more often!

Have managed to do two tags (mainly because I messed up the stamping on the first one but it will be ok if I add some embellishments to it), will keep the second one for my techniques book.

First one I used Scattered Straw distress stain on the background edged with Vintage Photo ink.  The image is stamped in Broken China and Walnut Stain and covered in Spiced Marmalade distress stickles.  The second one is exactly the same apart from I used Bundled Sage distress stain on the background.

Thanks for looking - Off to my art class from Solihull

I have had a creative chemistry play!

Had a little play this afternoon and made some tags with some techniques I have learnt on the Creative Chemistry course.  I love to keep a little pile of handmade tags ready made as you never know when you need to drop a quick note to someone and I much prefer to send a tag made with love now rather than a bought notecard.  Here are my latest results:

These are from day 5 I used distress stains for the backgrounds - I haven't made a note of the colours but I think I used Barn Door, Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and either Black Soot or Vintage Photo on the tags and then I have stamped with Jet Black Archival on the first tag with Picket Fence stain over the top, the trees are Picket Fence too and the lampost is Black Archival.  On the second tag I stamped the house in Broken China distress ink with black archival over the top, the trees and lampost are the same as before.  The third tag has Cavallini & co butterflies stamped in Picket Fence distress stain on the background and Indigo Blu flower and butterfly stamped over the top in black archival.  All tags have been finished with random bits of ribbon, lace and charms.  Not sure if that key is a bit big for the first tag but isn't it fabulous! was a wonderful find in Primark with 9 keys on a necklace for about £3!! bargain.

These are a replay of this mornings tag - aren't they so much better!  The first two tags have Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Broken China and Barn door distress inks on the background along with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls, Iced Jade and Emerald Sparkle Cosmic Shimmers.  Interestingly they are both from the same batch of inks with the first one created with the first pass through of inks and the second one used with the remaining inks on the sheet - don't they look different!  I stamped the birdcages and birds with black archival - the first one I managed to mess up as I stamped the bird first and then the birdcage and it looked so obvious that the cage was over the bird but I rescued it by restamping over the bird with Picket Fence distress stain - I am so glad that I have learnt this technique as it made a fabulous finish to a piece of artwork that last week would have probably ended up in the bin!  Both tags have been finished with Vintage Photo around the edge and then some of T!ms new sizzix flowers, vintage lace, a charm and some ribbons.

The third tag is a replay of the inked tag (Tea Dye) dried and then the birdcage stamped out in Walnut Stain, Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany with Heirloom Gold perfect pearls I then sprayed this with water (a lot less this time!) and dried it and then stamped out the bird with Vintage Photo, Crushed Olive and Wild Honey and again Heirloom Gold perfects pearls.  Finished this tag with Vintage Photo around the edge, Vintage Lace, new sizzix flowers, ribbons and a charm.

All in all a very pleasant afternoon!

Thanks for looking - All tagged out from Solihull

Creative Chemistry Day 9

Flying visit from me today as Thursdays are a busy day for me - I have managed to get through the three techniques before school run this morning but am not particularly happy with the second one - I think these tags need a bit more time spent on them rather than just rushing through with the techniques - however this is a technique class and I do like to keep all things I make in a class so I can look back and see what I like and what I don't and learn from it!

For tag 1, I only have the Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearl mist and I didn't want to use the only ink and water mix I made up the other day in the only Mini Mister bottle I have so I have used Jazz Blue and Cranberry Zing glimmer mists instead - lovely results all the same.
For tag 2 I inked the tag in Tea Dye and dried it, then I discovered that I had the same stamp as T!m squirreled away although mine is an acrylic stamp so is slightly smaller.  I stamped this in Walnut Stain, Aged Mahogany and Fired Brick and then covered it with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls.  I think I sprayed too much water on it as it is more washed out than T!ms image but this can be perfected on my next attempt!
For tag 3 I put Fired Brick, Vintage Photo, Broken China and Crushed Olive inks on my mat and then added Heirloom Gold perfect pearls, Jays Blue Velvet Lustre from Blonde Moments and Festive Candy lustre again from Blonde Moments, then sprayed and swooshed - love this effect.  I then inked the tag with Broken China, Wild Honey, Broken China, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo.

Am loving all these effects!  If anyone can think where I could have possibly safely stored my tags from day 7 please let me know - they aren't in the box with all the others and I know I definately made them because I blogged them!!

Thanks for looking - Too busy to search for lost tags from Solihull

Edited to add: I have had a lovely play day this afternoon and recreated some more tags (and they are a vast improvement on the ones above!) - they are here if you would like to check them out.  Oh and I have found yesterdays tags too! they were hidden amongst my stamps of all places!

Creative Chemistry Day 8

Up a bit later today although I managed to watch half the video before I took DS2 early to school for his Judo class, went to the hairdressers and then met my friend for a coffee and a bit of retail therapy - so my tags were nice and crackled when I got back this lunchtime, here are my tags for today:

Tag 1: Here I used canvas! (not used this before but I treated myself to a pack last week when I went to the NEC show – have always put it off as its £10 for 5 sheets but there wasn’t much else I wanted so I thought it was time I moved on and got some!).  The stamp is an old one of T!ms and I used a pearl acrylic dabber.  Then I inked it with Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick, Broken China, Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint stains.  Fabulous stuff though so I am glad I caved in and got some.

Tags 2:  Did two of these – both the same but I used Fired Brick crackle on one and Antique Linen on the other.  Stains used were Broken China, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo directly onto manila tags.  Edges and stamps were done with Vintage Photo with the main image stamped with Coffee Archival ink.

Tag 3: The birdies are cut from mountboard with a sizzix die, coated with Rock Candy crackle - although I think I have put it on a bit too thin so will have to replay around with these again another day.  Stains used were Mustard Seed, Broken China, Barn Door, Vintage Photo and Spiced Marmalade, tag is simply inked round with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.

A big hi to Creatique Candy - thanks for following me :)

Thanks for looking - off to do the ironing now much less fun!  Chilled from Solihull

Creative Chemistry Day 7

I am done first thing in the morning again!  Everyone still asleep upstairs too!  Today I have basically copied T!ms tags straight off but just used stamps from his Artful Flight set instead:

For tag one I used Barn Door for the bird, Crushed Olive, Broken China, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Wild Honey for the background with Black Soot for the other images.  I then I ironed it too! don't think I have ever ironed at 6.50am before!  Normally I would leave the powder as is as I like the raised shiny look but as this is a class I thought I would use it as a new technique and now I love this way too!  Knowing me I will now have to make two pieces of artwork each time I use this technique - one to iron and one to leave as is!!!

For tag two I followed T!ms instructions and used Evergreen Bough, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain - love this effect too.

For tag three I used Dried Marigold Distress Embossing Powder on a clear embossing ink, then Crushed Olive, Walnut Stain, Broken China, Wild Honey and Barn Door distress ink.  Love this tag too.

Can I also just say a big hello to Jenny Sullivan - thank you following me!

Thanks for looking - Learnt Lots Already Today from Solihull

Creative Chemistry Day 6

A very quick play from me this morning - in fact so quick the rest of the household are still all in bed!

I don't have any distress markers (woe is me!) but I still didn't want to miss out on the opportunity of a quiet house and a chance to play with my inks so I have followed the distress markers techniques using distress ink pads a blender pen, here are the results:

The butterflies are from a set by Cavallini & co.
First tag is on watercolour paper with the large butterfly the ink was applied on dry paper and the smaller one on wet - inks used are Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade and Barn Door and then Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet and Broken China and I edged the piece with Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves - all bodies throughout have been coloured in using Peeled Paint.

The second tag is exactly the same but here I used glossy paper and left the edges of the artwork plain.

For the third tag I used the same colour inks with the colours been applied directly to the stamp - love this technique.  Tag is edged with Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo.

Will definately use watercolour paper for the third technique again but I wasn't so keen on colouring directly onto the paper with a blender pen - much prefer to use a water pen - so in the future I will probably just use the technique on glossy paper.  Obviously I will invest in distress markers at some point so I will have a play with these techniques again then too.
Thanks for looking - Enjoying the Peace and Quiet from Solihull.

Edited to add:  Ooooh I am first on the list! see there are some bonuses at getting up at 5am!!

also remember I said on Friday that I had caved in and ordered some Inkssentials tags online to see the differences - well they turned up on Saturday morning and I had a quick chance to have a play using the same items and look at the results:

they are so much better - glad I made the investment now!!! will so be using these tags from now on!  Hopefully I will get a few mins later in the day to have a go at today's blending techniques on my Stampin Up paper (which I use for my Promarkers) to see if that is better than watercolour paper - must dash can hear little people stirring above......  Thanks for looking (again!).

Creative Chemistry Day 5

Not had much success art wise today - have a stinking cold though so I think it's having an effect on me!

I went to my art class this morning but wasn't happy with anything I produced there - we painted a silver birch, a small sea scene, some pebbles and a post in water but I will have to redo them all when I am feeling a bit better.

Have had a go at the tags today too but again they aren't my best efforts!

to start with I have realised that I am using the wrong type of cardstock - look at my second tag the inks didn't blend at all - the two smaller tags are on manilla shipping tags but I still don't seem to have the same results as T!m so I have caved in and ordered some Inkssential tags online which will hopefully arrive tomorrow and I will have another bash at them.

I know the first tag has come out really dark in the picture but this is the one that is actually fine in real life!!  I used Chipped Sapphire, Barn Door, Gathered Twigs and Wild Honey distress inks and the stamps are from T!ms Artful Flight set.

For the second and third tags I used Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint and Mustard Seed stains with Faded Jeans stain on the first one and Broken China stain on the second and the stamps are T!ms Haberdashery set.  My Picket Fence images didn't come out well at all so I didn't even bother heat setting them - these are the tags I will retry again when I get better cardstock.

For the last tag I again used a Manilla Shipping Tag but I have to confess that I have managed much better results than this in the past on a plain cream cardstock but I am fairly happy with it to go in my Technique book as is.  I used Picket Fence, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Broken China stains and the stamps are from T!ms Nature's Discovery set.

Thanks for looking - All Bunged Up from Solihull

EDITED to add:
I have just relooked at my post and can't possibly leave you all looking at the dark and dingy first tag so here it is after a bit of tweeking:

the birdie is actually perched on a nest!  Oh for a bit more sunshine so we can take better photos eh! 

Creative Chemistry Day 4

And here is Day 4 - better late than never eh!  Was disappointed I couldn't watch the videos this morning before spending the day at Hobbycrafts/Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC but then it was probably a good thing as I would no doubt have ended up buying a couple more reinkers or something!!

Here are my takes on the tags:

My colouring skills with distress inks just aren't the best - I don't know why as I am getting on really well with my watercolour class but I don't seem to be able to blend light to dark with inks at the moment - need a lot more practice I guess!  Anyway the first tag was stamped with one of T!ms collage stamps and coloured in with Wethered Wood, Barn Door (which I did the dress in before I noticed that there was a handbag and - shock horror - I then realised that I didn't have a suitable colour to give the girl a nice co-ordinating handbag and gloves! so I went for Forest Green to give her a Christmassy look, Spun Sugar and Vintage Photo, I then inked the edges of the cardstock with Broken China and Vintage Photo and mounted it onto a Broken China and Vintage Photo tag.

For the second tag I had to cheat and use Jazz Blue Glimmer Mist as I only have two little applicator bottles but I did make up the Barn Door and Wild Honey ones.  I then used a Creative Expressions cog screen with Rich Gold Glimmer Mist over the top - it doesn't come out well on the photo but looks fabulous in real life.

For the last tag I cheated as I had used this technique to make some Christmas cards when following the 12 Tags of Christmas 2011 so I dug out the old piece of felt I used then and reinked up the stamp and hey presto it still worked!  As the piece was so tiny on the tag though I just had to have a little simple background so I stamped out some snowflakes in Stonewashed Adirondack ink and then inked the tag with Broken China distress, and that still wasn't quite enough so I had to just fill up the rest of the "white" space with a lovely Santa and sentiment stamp.

And here is another little quick practice piece with the watercolouring technique:

Told you I liked skulls didn't I! 

I would also just like to say a big hello to both Kim Rood and Playtime - thank you both for following me :)

Thanks for looking - All Shopped Out from Solihull

Creative Chemistry Day 3

Oooh what fun these were - I love playing around with alcohol inks, unfortunately I don't have any glossy cardstock so I have used glossy photo paper - I know T!m said not to but I don't want to nip out to the shops today as I am going to Hobbycrafts at the NEC tomorrow - whoo hoo! - so I will get some there instead and have another play with the proper tools at a later date!  Here are my creations so far though:

For the first tag I used Red Pepper, Denim and Snow Cap inks – the stamps are Creative Journey (the London scene), Artemio London Stamps and an old script stamp.

For the second tag I used a Prima brick wall stamp, Stampers Anonymous Mini Muse stamps, using Stazon in Mustard and Pumpkin (I only have two archival inks :( ) and Crimson Archival ink, Broken China distress ink then I used Black Archival ink to stamp out the Stampers Anonymous Haberdashery stamps.

For the third I used the Stampers Anonymous Reflections script stamp and Mini Muse skull.  Broken China, Vintage Photo, Crushed Olive and Dusty Concord distress inks.  For the back tag (I know I said I wasn’t going to finish any tags off as these are just to keep together for a techniques book but I have a soft spot for pirates and skulls so I had to put a bit extra on – it’s not like I have added lots of embellishments or ribbons is it!) – I used Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord and Vintage Photo along with the same Stampers Anonymous skull stamp and two Magnolia pirate stamps.  I have only got the small embossing folders with lots of empty space on as all the bigger ones I have emboss all over and although I have used the technique with reflections stamps on the folders before I haven't put another stamp directly on there as well (in this case the skull) so this was a fun thing to learn - can't wait to make some more now!

I also have a top tip for alcohol inks - put a blob of them onto pieces of acetate and label them so that you know what the finished colour is going to be, here are mine:

It's a very useful guide to use as the colours all look the same in the bottles.

Thanks for looking and enjoying my Creative Chemistry journey with me!  Still Happy Learning from Solihull.

Creative Chemistry Day 2

So here are my first set of tags for this fun class:

Tag 1: Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Barn Door, Broken China, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo.

Tag2: Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Broken China, Forest Moss and Iced Spruce - stamp is from Artful Flight by Stampers Anonymous mounted onto barn door inked tag.

Tag 3: Wild Honey, Milled Lavender, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Barn Door, Broken China and Vintage Photo.

Desperately want to add a bit of perfect pearls to the two end tags - but I won't! Honest! will keep the tags as taught in the class.

Have done all these techniques before but still learn't a couple of things today so am very glad I took the plunge to take the class.

Thanks for looking - Loving to learn from Solihull.

March Crop Class

It's my turn next week to do the crop class and my technique this time is a different way to distress edges - I have already uploaded a picture of this on the What Housework blog but I looked at it yesterday afternoon and decided it needed something else so this morning (it's looking like my mojo has returned as I have done this and now have the urge to do a scrapbook layout too! we shall see though as I have a busy two days this weekend (don't we always!!), so I have added a little cluster of handmade embellishments in the bottom left hand corner:

and have added some journalling to the hidden tag:

Thanks for looking - Feeling creative from Solihull

Tims March Tag

The theme over on Tim's blog this month is mosaics.  In order to keep my British theme I decided my mosaics would take the form of Union Flags in a bunting:

For this tag I have used:  Artemio London Stamps (the crown, Tower Bridge and the Union flag), Creative Journey London Stamp (the Police Box).  The inks I have used are:  Black and Crimson archival inks, Stonewashed Adirondack, Walnut Stain and Frayed Burlap distress inks along with Barn Door and Broken China stains for the ribbons.  The tag is sprayed with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls, the background image is actually a Couture Creations embossing folder of a World Map which I inked with Broken China and used as a stamp.  The flags are finished off with Judikins White embossing powder and glossy accents and then I finished the crown with bling and the bunting is held up with hemp (the expensive one no less!).  The tag is laid out on my dining room tablecloth which explains the leaning Big Ben next to it!

Took me an age to get the flags right - here are some disasters along the way:

The first one shows that Tim is right and other double sided tapes shrink with the heat!, the second is how all of my flags actually turned out until I realised that I could peel off the top layer of all the card pieces to get it looking better (as they are covered over in glossy accents it doesnt matter that they have been peeled down a layer), the third flag is a proper mosaic (using tiny pieces of cut up card) again this time I filled in the gaps with glitter but I still preferred the finish of the embossing powder so I redid the tag with larger pieces of mosaic bits which looked far better but then I didn't like the way I had cut the middle section into five so then I had to make another three flags which were the ones that have ended up on the finished version - took me hours this!  still they were happy hours.....

Thanks for looking - Relaxed from Solihull

Two years in the making

and it's still not quite finished but here is my Mandy Shaw quilt that I have been working on lately:

it's not quite finished as I still have a few ends to sew in on the back and also I need to add quite a few buttons (for birdies eyes, apples on trees, door handles and such like) and also add some charms to the title piece and centre piece.  I will have this as a work in progress though so it might still take me another two years to finish it completely!

Here are a couple of closeups:

This is the centre piece, it represents my family and the things I love - it still needs quite a few buttons and I have a load of lovely charms to add to it too.  Still pondering on how to jazz up the mannequin - any ideas gratefully received!

I like to think that this is me and my friend Louise going off to the quilt show!  (Malvern quilt show is only in a few weeks too - whoo hoo).

Sewing machine block - this just needs a button on the cupcake and it will be done.

I would also just like to say thank you everyone for all your good wishes, cards, flowers, emails and texts during this sad time for me - they have all helped immensely.

Thanks for looking - a bit chirpier and all sewn out from Solihull