Flu and all that....

Oh my. It's been a bit crazy here for the last fortnight! Both DH and I came down with the dreaded lurgy, and are only just feeling normal, aside from a nasty cough that just won't shift!

Despite that, I've managed to get pretty much all my cards and presents out on time, and have taken part in an Ornament swap on Aunty's Forum

I made this for Pauline.....



....using a basic beaded net pattern by Jill Oxton, to which I added my own design of drops.

In return I got this from Lynne...



which I just love and have got on my Christmas tree.


I so enjoyed doing the purple one, I decided to make another one for my friend Debs. It would all have been ok if she'd used purple and silver on her tree this year! But no, she opted for gold and green, so I couldn't use the purple baubles I still had from before. I had to wait until we were fit enough to get the decorations down from the loft, so I could furtle around in the boxes to find a gold bauble with the "right" sort of top (has to have straight sides round the loop, not slanted - sigh!). Luckily we did have a spare one, so I then proceeded to make this.....



I hope she likes it! It took a little bit longer than I'd hoped for, partly because it's bigger than the lilac one! Count the rows of beads - there's 3 rows on the purple, and 5 on the gold.... LOL

Right - I'm off - my ironing board awaits and I have bedlinen to get in the machine ready for the impending arrival of my Mother..... TTFN!

The Big Reveal

Now that the lucky recipient has confirmed receipt of her prize, I can reveal what I actually made for the UK Art Raffle .

The theme was circles, and I kept thinking about what I wanted to do, but kept.... going round in circles.... oh ROFL....

That was until I paid a visit to my local poundstretcher, and there in their shop they had a wooden ornament. Really naff, I should say (though apologies to anyone who loves them). Just a slab of wood painted black with a couple of swipes of gold.



My darling hubby drilled the holes I needed in the wood. I then coated it with grey paint that I'd mixed roughly myself, so it didn't give an even coat - I needed a marbled effect, which I got ever so subtly.

Once that had dried I used some dark grey ink to stamp the images.

First of all I used the Judikins Artifacts Cube - the "stone" side. I used some very dilute white paint (and occasionally, a sakura pen!) to highlight the seams created - almost giving the effect of marbling.

Once dry, I repeated this with the Celtic Knot stamps (all from The Stampsmith (gotta love that sea horse!)) and the Mayan (?) stamps. I'm not sure if the Mayan stamps ARE Mayan - all I know is they're an ancient culture, and I got the stamps off ebay years ago. There's no maker's mark either - so if anyone can identify them, I'd be much obliged!!! I have to say, it's the first time I've used them too, and I'm very impressed (oh, pun) with them.

With these I used a paintbrush with dilute white acrylic paint again, to highlight the outside of the image, or the whole thing in the case of the celtic knotwork. I images it kind of came off more like grafitti!!! I still like how it came out, though.

The base wasn't painted, I left it black for contrast, but I also stamped it with the Artifacts Cube using white Stazon.

All edges were then given a rub with Pewter rub-on.

Once all dry, I gave it a coat of gloss acrylic varnish.

The last question was "what to hang from the holes?" right from the word go, I felt it certainly needed something which was why the holes were drilled in the first place. Then it hit me - many MANY years ago, an ex-boyfriend of mine who was heavily into Star Trek bought me a Bajoran ear cuff. Beautiful. But I like wearing pairs and this was a one off. I still had it - not sure what to do with it, but I hadn't worn it in 15 years. It was sat on a shelf in my craft room, crying out for a special project - and hear it was. Perfect. The only bit I didn't use was the actual cuff. The stones in question are Swarovski crystals, and hematite.

My piece was one of 31; lucky Sheila - very well done to you on your win!













One amusing thing though - before I posted it I took it into work, cos they're always interested in what I've been creating. One guy saw it, picked it up and then gasped... "I thought it was metal - I wasn't expecting it to be so light!"....

And I enjoyed doing this so much, I bought two more to do! Well, at £1 each, it's not a bad price, eh?

Inchies, ATCs and a sneaky peak.....

Ooh - I'm enjoying this creative malarkey! Thanks everyone for your very kind comments....

Along with the Little Book of Purple, I sent nine inchies to Sid for the November swap on UK STampers . The theme was Christmas - I guess these are more wintery, but I'd just seen some gorgeous serviettes in Tesco that were this colour combo, and was inspired. They're a more greeny blue in real life... The stamp is by All Night Media.



Then over on the Inchy by Inch blog we've had a Christmas Inchy Swap, where we've had to make 12 inchies. I can't remember where the stamps came from, some cheap and tacky set, but they are quite sweet, and the perfect size. Background is 140lb watercolour paper, with DTP background in Fluid Chalk Ink. Images coloured in with Twinkling H2Os.



Onto ATCs now - again, on UKSTampers there's an ATC swap - the theme being Da Vinci. Without running upstairs, I can't tell you where one of the stamps came from, but the other is by Cherry Pie. The papers are Joanna Sheen. I've distressed them a bit with Dark Brown and Burnt Umber chalk ink.



Last but not least - I'm finishing off a piece of art for the UK Art Raffle. This month's theme is Circles. I don't want to show the whole piece until it's received by the winner of the raffle, so for now, just a couple of sneaky peaks.

Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers #26

Ok, so I've taken the plunge - I'm joining in. Hopefully my new sisterhood will nudge me and prod me and inspire me....

I've got to say a bit more about myself than is in my profile, apparently, so here goes. It might just be new and entertaining info for some of my longer standing acquaintances.

I'm mid-thirties (don't wanna give too much away now, do I), married, and living in Hampshire, UK.

I was bought my first ever rubber stamp when I was 17 years old, and I can still remember how it felt walking in that shop, a complete rarity at the time. They were still demonstrating heat embossing with a toaster, then! I still have that stamp, and it still gets used. And I still love it. Now I have an embarrassing quantity of stamps and I need to use them more and be more creative with what I do.

So there you have it.

Greetings, Sisters!

I've been tagged!

How cool is this? My first ever tag! Sorry it took me a couple of days to notice...LOL


Well, Stitchinwitch over at Stitchinwitch's Rat Cage has tagged me to list 7 weird things about me. Ok, I know I'm a bit weird, but am I THAT weird? Let's see....

1) I have double jointed elbows. Not completely, but enough that when I lean on a table with my hands, and my arms are straight, they're not, they bend inwards. And I can rotate my arms on a 180 degree axis in a way that makes people go "eeeewww".

2) I used to like eating plain chocolate digestives with salt and vinegar crisps.

3) I'm a medieval re-enactor. Not weird to some, but weird to a lot of others!

4) I spent the last winter solstice watching the sun come up at Stonehenge - and hope to do the same thing this year.

5) Not sure if this counts as weird, but in 2006 I appeared in Panto in France....

6) I called my first car Frodo...

7) I really was one of those sad people who bought Kylie Minogue's "I should be so lucky" on a 7" single, just so I could play it at 33rpm to see if she sounded like Rick Astley. And she did! ROFLMAO.

Ok. I hope they're weird enough. Now I have to tag 7 people too.....

1. Fi on Magickdiva
2. Jo at Siggi Shop
3. Jan at Die Cut Queen - time you blogged, hun!
4. Sandie at The Cockney Crafter
5. Storm at Simply Storm
6. Julie on Scrapping Away
7. Grendel at Scrapbook Widower

Phew - that was hard work!!!!

Now to let them all know I've tagged them.... tee hee

A Little Book of Purple

OK. Finally I have the time to blog about a little adventure I'm going on. Actually, it's probably a BIG adventure. And it's what I've referred to on Aunty's Forum as my "Rosie-ism", in homage to our fabulous artist over there, Rosie

Over on the UK STampers forum, a group of us have got together and are starting a Circle Journal. We've each selected a rubber stamp, and picked a colour. Mine is a stamp by PaperArtsy, from their Dolls 4 plate, and I've chosen purple. It's my favourite colour, and the colour of creativity. And so we're off.



I've done my pages and they're ready to post out on Monday - I just need to do some Inchies too, as the person I'm posting to is the host for the UKST inchy swaps (may as well kill two birds with one stone!).

First things first - here's a picture of the cover. My apologies if the pictures are a little dark - I need to work on the lighting in my "Studio"! The cover actually really gleams!

The backbones of the book, or rather the front and back covers, start out as chipboard. I've not included a pic of the back because it's the same as the front without the wording. I've covered the chipboard with a layer of tissue paper, glued on with PVA and wrinkled attractively, and into which I've liberally sprinkled Beadazzles and Judikins' ROXS. I've then painted over the lot with various shades of purple acrylic paint, including a metallic one. Once that dried, I rubbed over the top with silver ink to highlight the texture, and then created the wording. The letter "A" is just a sticker on some paper, the word "Little" is created from heat embossing on Mirri board, "Book" is stamped on Shrink plastic and shrunk, "of" is letraset on purple mirri board (though you can't read it due to reflection), and the "urple" of purple is dry embossed into metal - a piece of pie case, actually. The big P is a Basic Grey chipboard letter which I did with UTEE, and then Moonglow EP on top. Edged with Gold Twinkling H20s



Next up we have inside the cover, and the intro page. They pretty much speak for themselves, I guess. On the tag you can see, I have stamped the images I used in my pages.



Finally, we have my pages for the CJ. I'm into all sorts of things, so in picking my stamp (which came with a crown!) it was a natural progression to think of Crowns and link it to the colour purple, hence the Crown Chakra pages. It took me ages to think of what to do, but after a long while of contemplation, it finally came to me - and I just "saw" these pages. Not quite as they've turned out, cos I made a couple of booboos, but they're happy accidents... I'm not going to bore you by defining their meaning - I will leave that up to each individual to surmise what they will. Anyway, I've used the same purple paint for the background, and coupled it wit torn purple glittery paper. I've stamped "Field of Sand" across the background in Opalite ink to give the impression of waves, and used a scroll stamp to give the impression of clouds. I'm not sure where the moon came from - the page just needed something, and it happened! LOL









I like it - not sure anyone else will, but that is what art is all about, eh?


Next one coming to me is from Efemera (Gail), and her colour is "Grey". Oh my. I wonder what stamp she's used?

Diamonds are Forever....

or at least, they've for November over on Aunty's Forum Yep, that's the theme for the team challenge. Here's a few of my offerings...

The first is a bookmark made for a bookmark swap - and I've used some Argyle (diamond paper) in one corner. The second pic shows a close up....





This card is made using a switch embossing stencil.



The last one is done using some embossed paper created with a cuttlebug embossing folder... I love the Mr Frosty image - I got the stamp from eBay, so have no idea who the manufacturer is.

Musical Inchy...

Over on the Inchy By Inch blog, Fi has set the challenge of a Music Inchy in honour of her appearance in The Magic Flute in Newbury. So here's mine!

Medieval card

I don't know why - maybe it's because of my interest in all things medieval - but I seem to be most comfortable creating with this theme. Here is my latest card, which I've made for my sister-in-law's birthday.

I scored and folded an A4 sheet of black card, onto which I layered two different patterns of paper from the Robert Adams Medieval CD; the rubber stamp is an unknown I picked up from ebay, stamped in black versafine onto white card and layered up onto silver mirri. The metal embellishment was a pie case dry embossed using a Dreamweaver stencil. I love it, I hope Ginnie does! It's quite a simple card, but looks very sophisticated.

Happy Samhain

Boo!!!

Over on the Inchy by Inch challenge blog, the theme is all things Halloween.... and here is my offering:



I love it, even if I do say so myself! It's not quite turned out how I expected/hoped/dreamed, but it's pretty darned close.

Ironically enough, I hadn't intended to make it to include as part of the latest team challenge on Aunty's Forum , but I didn't have any spiders, and wound up recycling an over-used, tiny cotton wool ball from one of my i-kan-dee chalk sets. I coloured it in with black felt tip pen, added some wire legs, et voila! One spider..... and one Halloween Inchy!

PS. The stamp is from All Night Media...

The Blog Candy Challenge Result!

Well, here we are - above are the entries for the challenge (plus my own card that started it), deadline was midnight last night, and we now have a result!

To get a winner, I input all the names into the List Randomizer, and got it to randomise the list 5 times, 5 being my numerology number.

And the winner is.....




Drum roll


Stitchinwitch!

Or Tracey, as she's more commonly known by!

Very, very well done - and thanks to all of you for entering my mini challenge! Every single one of your cards was fabulous, and if I could have divvied up the prize exactly between you, I would have done....

Tracey - please get in touch with your address so I can send your goodies!

Deadline Alert!

Midnight tonight folks......


Miss it, miss out!!!!

Deadline extension for the Blog Candy

Aside from the fact that I've had a request for this, I was contemplating extending the deadline. It's such a fabby prize, and I was later getting this on the blog than I had intended. I'd like as many folks as poss to enter... so the new deadline will be Saturday 25th October 2008!!!!

BLOG CANDY

OK

As promised....


The Blog Candy for the challenge.

For your delight, and delectation.....

Not one, not two but eleven.... YES ELEVEN..... of the Colorbox Cats Eye Chalk Ink pads.

They're duplicates that I've already got - and these are still sealed!

So, the challenge is that I'd like to see YOU make a card like the one in the other post. A maximum of two stamps, one colour of ink, one colour of embossing powder (can be the same or a tonal one). No pre-printed background papers!

As per usual, put your cards on your blog, and link back to mine. I'll then pick a winner out at random. Probably using Random.org as that seems to be flavour of the month! If you don't have a blog, email your work to me and I'll upload it to my blog.

And the deadline is....... ooh, let's have a long one! Midnight on Saturday the 18th October!

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

So join in!!!! What are you waiting for!!???

Strawsilk Glasswork

Right-oh. People have been demanding to see what I've been up to.

And here it is....

I'll edit this post with more details when I have a little more time!

Cards time again... and the chance to win some Blog Candy!!!!

Lately, I've had some odd flashes of inspiration. Funnily enough, these have come at moments when I've had to create a card in a hurry. Like the two following... I think I'm safe blogging them, because the first one should have been received by now, and the second one, well, the recipient is unlikely to browse my blog (not impossible, but unlikely!).

This first one definitely has an air of the black and white movies. Prompted by the "Oh Gawd, got to make a card now!" type sentiment, I dug in my box of tricks and came up with the pink edged card pre-stamped with the woman's face. 15 minutes later, I'd teamed this up with the black card, the monochrome background paper, and some silver peel-offs. Add a simple sentiment, et voila!



The second card was again born from speed, partly cos I knew my beloved would be fed up with watching TV on his own, and I need to post this card tomorrow. So what can you do with two stamps, one colour of ink and one colour of embossing powder, a small piece of rainbow coloured vellum, and a plain, purple pearlescent card?

This.....




Hope you like them!


In fact, I've had an idea.

Using the same criteria, I'd like to see YOU make a card. A maximum of two stamps, one colour of ink, one colour of embossing powder (can be the same or a tonal one). No pre-printed background papers!

And I'm even going to offer up some blog candy. Come back tomorrow, and see what's on offer.....

Then go and make your cards, stick them on your blog, and link back to mine. I'll then pick a winner out at random.

And the deadline is....... ooh, let's have a long one! Midnight on Saturday the 18th October!

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

More Inchies

Ok - a little late, but as promised, here is my other Star inchy.....




And here is one for the new Rain challenge!



Hope you like them!

Oooohhhhh - Changes!!!!

Well, whaddya fink?


I found this AWESOME site that allows you to pick up templates and attach them to your blog to add a bit more bling to it. It's bugged me for AGES that I had these blank panels either side of my blog, and now they're gone.

This template is a little bit full on for my liking, but was preferable to any others I saw on their website (see little tag, top left, for details). Once I can get my head round their "how to" template, I will have a stab at making my own on PSP. And if that fails, I shall have to sweet-talk an acquaintance of mine, the fabulous Inchy at Siggi Shop, to extend her range and maybe make something that matches my header. My fabulous header. Which she made.

Star

Over on the Inchy by Inch blog, the latest challenge is "Stars".

I went away, did mine, came back..... and realised that I'd done something almost identical. I'm just going to have to go away and do another one, aren't I?

Anyway, here's the one I've done for now... LOL

Arty Girlz

I made a last minute card for the challenge on Aunty's, and then after having a wee tiny surf around blogland, suddenly realised I'd done something that would count for the Arty Girlz Red Challenge! Yay!!!

So here it is....



The stamps are all from The Netherlands (thanks Anette!), apart from the alphabet which is Studio G. I did the background with perfect pearls, and the stamping was done with blue ink that came with the set, embossed with clear powder!

Oh, and the answer to the question.... "how do you build a home?"

Inside it says.... "With Love"

My favourite friends

I just had to share these pictures with you. I WAS going to use them on an Aunty's Challenge, but just didn't have the time to do the layouts. Hopefully I will sometime soon!

The challenge was, "What makes your house a home?"

I think the pictures say it all....

The end of summer for sure....

LOL

After all that - we've had more good weather. So it's the end of summer, take two.

This isn't exactly going to be a long post - I'm here mainly because I know one or two of you often check in to keep up to date with what's going on in my life.

Well, there's not much happening, if I'm honest.

My world mostly exists of staring at the ceiling at the moment. Any other position ranges from just uncomfortable, to downright agony. I'm not complaining - don't get me wrong about that - it's just a fact of my life right now, though how long for I don't know. I am still working - though I got sent home Thursday lunchtime and forced to take some extra time out of my holidays. That's ok as I still have plenty to take!

As mentioned in my previous post, my back is playing up. In fact it's creating merry hell, so sitting at a computer for any length of time is not good. Shame my work basically is all done on a computer, eh? ROFL. Ouch.

So I'm on Diclofenac Sodium, as much rest as I can get, and a healthy dose of physio that I had to crawl into the local hospital and practically beg for. Ho hum.

So my sincere apologies for not being here when I should have. I have no obligation to blog, but a desire to. And I miss it.

There you have it.

I will try and come back again soon!

The end of Summer.....

Hello readers!

Sorry I've not been around for a while. Life kind of caught up with me - since I last posted we've had a long weekend in Cornwall (all fabulous, gorgeous weather and icky sunburn), spent 12 long days in Shropshire with Wolfshead Bowmen in the (mostly) pouring rain, and been to the Great Dorset Steam Rally.

I figured it was high time I shared some of this with you.

Here is a picture of a beach in Cornwall. Wa-hey. Thrilling, eh? We're the little shelter at the far end. Yes, a Cornish beach with no-one on it. Amazing for late July. Which I why I though to share it with you. It was like this for about 45 minutes after we got there, at about 12.30pm, but didn't exactly get packed. I think that was cos only locals knew about it. The reason we went there was that it was the only beach in about a 30 mile radius that was both clean, safe for swimming, AND allowed dogs.




By complete contrast, here are a couple of photos from our stay in Shropshire. Note the pouring rain. Note the rain, pouring off all the canvas. Note the mud. It was like that for about 8 out of the 12 days we were there. And all the while my back was playing up too. Ho hum. It did dry up towards the end of our time there, so it was fun in the end.....

Cards.....again..... LOL

I only ever seem to upload pictures of cards or ATCs these days. The cards following are for this month's challenge on Aunty's Forum (Yep, novel eh? Like you haven't heard THAT before!) which was set by "Full of Scrap" team and is "Things with Wings". HOWEVER. Whilst I uploaded them into the members gallery there, I didn't put any info about them. A cunning plan. That way I get to impart the information here, instead. And also, I didn't show a picture of the inside of the Oriental card - so there's also an exclusive here! PMSL

OK. Card Number One.



For a start - it's A5 sized, cloud 9 style in a duck egg blue. Or green, depending on how good you see colours and what you think is blue and what you think is gre.... I'm rambling, aren't I? Sorry. OK, to continue. On the right hand half of the card I stamped a stars and moons background (manufacturer - Anita's) using Brilliance Pearlescent Lavender ink. On the left side of the card I layered some lilacky-purple (ya like that word???), textured giftwrap, and edged it with a silver peeloff. I then put a mat of one of the sheets from the DCWV "Once Upon A Time" Mat Stack (gorgeous, drool). The Fairy is one of the Faerie Poppets die cut decoupage range. They're lovely, especially as all the cutting out is done for you! I felt she needed a "proper" background, so I watercoloured a blue and green background, and then tapestry-stamped a scene using a few random Clarity Stamp stamps that I own (small bare tree, grasses) in different shades of pigment greens and brown. Finally I layered this onto lilac cardstock, edged the picture in more silver peeloff, layered Madam Fairy up, and tied a spot of organza ribbon in a bow round the spine of the card. I think she's lovely!

Onto Card Number Two - the Oriental One.....





This one came about because it's my Mum's 77th Birthday tomorrow.... (Hi Mom)... and she loves all things Oriental. The eagle eyed amongst you may well have spotted that the pictures used are from the Papermania Oriental collection. I was lucky enough to acquire a boxed set of this from my local Range store at a bargain 33% off. It's been lurking on a shelf, waiting for me to visit Hong Kong with work (like that'll ever happen! Sheesh.... ) so I thought I'd use some of it to make a post pop-out card for Mum. The red and gold paper, I'm afraid to say, is actually gift wrap I bought in a craft shop in France. Sorry ladies....

I used a WS designs large popout rectangle template to make the card (I can do a tutorial if enough people ask, but it's too longwinded for now)and then basically decorated it with the gift wrap, some gold peeloffs and both the 3D and the flat stickers from the Oriental collection. Ta Dah! Done. Oh, and I added a verse behind the window... It reads:

Take a little pinch of comfort
Add warmth and kindness too
Throw in some love and tenderness
And the end result is you.
With all these fine ingredients
It's very plain to see,
Why you are extra special
The best Mother There could be

Not one of my own creations, I'm afraid - it came from Verse Writer by Kaz.

Good Grief....

Where DOES the time go? It's simply not on, you know! Somebody stop the world, I want to get off - at least for a little while!

There's nothing particularly exciting to report at the moment, so I thought I would do something I promised a long long while back. Remember the "Time" ATC swap I did ages ago? Well - here's the long awaited picture of the ATCs I received back...



Fabulous, aren't they???


Actually, what AM I saying??? Not much to report!!! I'm sure my pal Debs would be getting huffy right now because I went and stayed with her for the weekend in Cornwall (much to DHs disgust, LOL), and this photo was one of many taken over the weekend. But by far the funniest. There's a long story behind this, but I won't bore you all - you had to be there.



What I will say is - We love you Storm!

What else of note is there to impart to you, my humble readership? Not much, I spose, but if I remember, I will indeed return, and report!

Adieu.....