Merry Christmas . . . .

to all my friends in blog land, sorry haven't been on much, but you are all probably under the same pressure trying to create the perfect christmas for all your loved ones, so I wish you all a peaceful, happy and an alcoholic christmas.

This is a pic my husband took earlier today, I had to go to work . .

, I think its stunning . .

and heres one I took when I got home, next years xmas cards I think, its gotta be easier, dont ya think

HO HO HO

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

Craft Sale

My local craft store, The Card Studio, owned by Jayne Harrow has decided to close its 'real' shop and just do 'online' shopping and craft events.  So a sale was required, well our Jayne, does like to slash her prices, so it's a must attend.  Me and my good buddie Sue arrived at about 9.20, due to start at 9.30, about 30 people in front of us in the queue, it was freezing and Iwasnt feeling too good, but wild horses wouldnt have dragged me away.  Doors open and the fun begins, well nearly three hours later, a hot  and sweaty, and feeling crap Siobhan emerges triumphant.  I've taken some pictures of my haul so you can all be envious, I spent more than I meant to, but hey who can pass up bargains like these.  Total spend £113.50, actual value of goods over £420 . . . .  OMG it was brill.

First photo is an overall picture of the haul, its everything on the surface, rest of it is pre existing haul. LOL

next some close ups for you, yup alcohol ink 50p instead of nearly £5,

 and finally a picture of the stuff that got hidden by the stuff in front, some scrapbooks and alterable stuff and come canvas's.

Christmas Tree

Used a wooden xmas tree from Hobby Craft 99p, and decided to try altering it with alluminium tape, cuttlebug embossing folders, some black paint, alcohol ink, glimmer mists, wire, sequins and stickles.  My tape was too short, but I thought what the hell and went for it, my embossing folders were too narrow, but again what the hell.  Took me about 3-4 days playing with this, had decided if I could get it to work would make them as christmas cards for my family, (only 6), I think its worked, what do you think, would you be pleased to receive one.  I'm hoping they will  pack them away and get them out each year.As you can see there are two sides and Ive done them slightly different, tried to recreate garlands using twisted wire and sequins.

Photo's are not brill Im afraid, but they give a taste I hope, think I will do them in different colours schemes, ie traditional, modern etc

Finally here is a picture of my brothers dog Nelson, he is very cute and I want him, think I may dognap him at christmas, very wierd feeling like this as not a doggy person, or any animal come to that. LOLBut who could resist the cuteness of him.  Also he is very forward and showed me his man bits, LOL

Journalling, work in progress

had some ideas for journal pages so have started some new ones, beginning to think these pages will not be for family reading, they might think I am a wee bit wierder than they thought I was, LOL.

The two nearly finished ones, just need some finishing touches, and the blank one, I love the image and have crackle painted over the top,  well the image is now falling off, oops, but  creating a nice effect if I am able to preserve it, only time will tell.

Classy Supplier

Just thought I would show you this package I received today from Art from The Heart, first time I've ordered from them, and what a surprise once I opened the jiffy bag.  A beautiful package, so well done to all over there, I'll be back.

Jo Capper-Sandon

is a favourite artist of mine, she has such style and creativity.  Yesterday I was lucky enough to get my Craft Stamper December issue, (thanks postie).  Well straight away jumping off the Front Cover was the most beautiful card, designed by the uber talented Jo, well after making my sister in laws birthday card (to the right), I decided to go for it and give it a go, obviously haven't got the stamps Jo used so improvised from my selection, apart from that followed the instructions, and here it is . . .It was fairly simple to make once all the materials had been found, didnt have any large acrylic snowflakes, (cant believe my own little shop didn't have them, LOL) and I am pleased with it, Jo's card however is just stunningly beautiful, you can see more of Jo's work by going here

Well worth getting Craft Stamper this month as lots of brilliant,  inventive and creative projects to have a go at.  It is my fave magazine as it deals with he artists I really enjoy such as Jo, Leandra, Linda & Sue, to name just a few, oh and not to forget Katy the editor..

Addiction . . .

. .  .is a side effect of being a crafter, as I am sure many of you have discovered, once something new is discovered you can't be satisfied with just one item, you have to buy as many as you possibly can. (dont be ashamed girls, stick your heads up and admit to it "I am a craft addict, and have been for xx years") LOL

 A recent addiction of mine was pro-markers, imagine my relief when I had bought them all and could look out for a new addiction. then blow me down they released 56 new colours, yes you have heard me right 56, thats another £90 buying them at Joanne Sheen's shop for the fab price of 1.59 and free P + P, so I have started again buying a few at a time, only 29 more to go, but I also have to save for Artsy Crafty and Ally Pally next year, but I know by hook or by crook I will get the remaining 29, and will be able to rest easy again, until the next addiction hits

Anyway to get back to the main crux of this post, I have been playing with my colouring and love using digi stamps, attached photos are pics of my recent work, snow baby image is by the lovely Jenni and the rest of the images are from Mo's Digital Pencil, I am particularly proud of my blue fairy, Hope you all like and enjoy.

metal etc . .

This week I have been on holiday and the week was meant to be crafting time but I managed to keep myself quite busy doing other things, Monday I even defrosted the fridge freezer's, that only took about three hours, now I know why I avoid that job, another job I avoid is cleaning the oven, luckily managed to avoid that, if I had the money I'd rather buy a new one, LOL.
Anyway when I had time I played with metals and acrylic paint, First of all made three ATC's using alluminium foil and the lovely stampotique stamps, Im loving these a lot, but may well be an acquired taste, dont think my mum would like one on her birthday card, LOL. These are available for trading, let me know if you are interested, might be a heartwrench as I really like these.

I also bought this cardboard box from HobbyCraft and decided to try and decorate it using metals, I am pleased with it, though would do some things differently if I had another go. Next effort will be covering a plywood hanging xmas tree, if it works might send these as cards to immediate family members, might be a bit hopeful though. Had ordered Tim Hotlz's reindeer and xmas tree sheet to make xmas cards this year, but its still not in stock where I ordered it from, so may have to do some rethinking.

Did sell about 30 xmas stamps on ebay last week, cheapskate that I am put them on at starting price of 50p to avoid listing fees, backfired as quite a few sold at 50p or just above, grrrrr. Never mind they were just gathering dust here, defn not a good time to sell the other stamps and things Ive got sitting here, they shall have to gather dust for a bit longer.

Back to work Monday, woo hoo. But I am now officially saving to go on the March 2010 Artsy Crafty weekend.

err hello. . .

the lovely Pattie has awarded me a Kreative Blogger Award, now usually I get these and thank the person but don't bother passing it on, why I am doing it this time is beyond me as it is a particularly yeuk image and not at all my style, but hey ho, here we go.

Perhaps it is because I want seven people to know that I love their blogs, so Thank You Pattie and if you hadn't given it to me I would have given it to you!!

There are seven rules in accepting the award

1 Thank the person

2 Copy logo to your blog

3 Link person to your blog

4 Name seven things that no-one really knows about you, that's a difficult one I am particularly honest, perhaps too much, often accused of "too much information" - haha, ooh I think that can count as number 1, now number 2, I'm actually older than I behave, no 3, I am a skinny bitch trapped in a fat persons body, no 4, I am the illegitimate daughter of David Beckham & Yasmin le Bon, no 5, I hallucinate some times, no 6, I am also quite possbily mad and finally no 7, I love to craft more than anything in the world, including hoovering, washing up, clothes washing and particularly ironing. So thats the 7 done.

5 Nominate 7 blogs for the award

Dylan's Blog always amusing, inspiring and often leads to unexpected tears.

Jo's blog quite simply brilliant, full of lovely projects that have erupted from her creativity, I am so jealous

Paper Artsy blog, I have to put this one on otherwise Leandra wont send me any more Pink Cows !!!!!

Flutterby Crafter, the lovely Ann who always leaves me lovely comments and has her own very beautiful work as well

The Rusty Cage, good old Rusty who took my fledgling creativity and taught me how to explore the inner me, (whoa that was deep), no really she encouraged me past pretty cards.

Happy Daze, tis only new, but I know its gonna be a brilliant blog

Artwork by Leanne Ellis, an artist whose style I adore.

So that's it hope you visit all of them and enjoy.

6 Post a link to each blog

7 Leave a comment on each blog telling them about the award

you know actually Ive quite enjoyed this, but probaly wont be doing it again anytime soon.

Hope you are all having a great weekend, Ive got next week off so hoping to do lots of messy play.

been a busy bee ....

. . . . so yesterday had the day off and decided was just going to do things for me, not be beholden to anyone, bliss, or it would have been, eldest rang me at 8am, waking me up telling me he had forgotten his football kit and could i bring it in, grrrrrrr, told him I was asleep and would think about it, snoozed for a while but lay-in ruined, now knew I had to get up, get washed and dressed to take the blimmin' kit in. Anyway did that had some lunch, treated myself to a chip butty from the chippy, reward for taking kit in, it was yummy. Then sat down to craft .

Decided to follow some recent postings by Leandra on the Paper Artsy blog, using metal, well worth a look if you would like to learn more techniques, and had a lovely couple of hours making a mess, ended up working on a small piece of desk, as rest covered by all the bits I had hauled out to use, anyway enough chatter, here are some piccies of what I did, not the best photography in the world, but hopefully you can get the idea.

1. used some flower stamps outlined, blank areas doodled into and then black acrylic paint added and wiped away, and then distressed flower petals by scouring off colour to make them shiny and stand out.

2 & 3. used a mould for the twist then added some ferro stamped into then just played with colouring

4. this was a stamp, that I outlined and puffed out.

5. This is a mould with just some distressing, had filled it with 3d clear gloss which went everywhere, and got some on the metal, when I wiped it off it took off the colouring, yay instant distressing..

Busy doing nothing . . .

Well hello my fellow bloggers, sorry havent been on to say hello for a while, but time has just fast forwarded recently, Ive made some cards with some of my pro marker images, find it quite hard to do this style of card, have to work quite hard at it to get it to work.

I just love colouring with these pens, but am still trying to relax into using them rather than giving it all to much thought, which then can make them look a bit too stilted, not being a natural artist I struggle to work out light source and all that stuff, did an image the other day which i did bit by bit rather than trying to colour whole thing in one go, seeems to have created a more natural effect.

Have got the day off tomorrow so going to try and do some more altered messy things, been to the charity shop and picked up some things for altering, so hopefully back later in the week with some more exciting art.

Have also been taking some great photos out and around my home, love the effect of rain on spiders webs, and there are so many of them this year.

This was the view on Saturday night from the field near my home, just love the colour effects you get with these late autumn sunsets, have to make the most of them expect they will disappear when the clocks fall back, which cant be far off now.

Anyway off to watch Flash Forward on FIve now, catch u l8r. Siobhan

A T C 's . . . . new ones

So I spent today in a creative muse and managed to make my first three atc's since May, wow that's a long time, but of course I havent been doing nout in the meanwhile, as my blog shows I have dipped my toes in other creative past-times.

Most recently I have to say a huge thank you to those of you who have commented on my previous post on journals, Ive taken the first step and Ive gessoed up some other pages (sanded before, thanks Dyan) but now Ive got to think what to write, gotta be circumspect as the kids might read it, I shall wait for the muse to come, and I shall share it with you when it does.

Had a lovely saturday out and about with hubbie and youngest, really chilled and relaxed, today however was a different matter, homework needed doing and god how hard is it to keep reminding and nagging kids to get on with it, aaarrrgggghhhhh.

My youngest ended up having a bit of a gaga breakdown, (helped on by homework nagging) turns out he is not enjoying senior school and hasnt made any friends, finds the work really hard and is spending breaks on his own, also one of the kids from his old school had a fight with him this week, wants to go to a different school where his mates are, what can you do, so lots of positiveness and keeping an eye on him, and hope that it all settles down, he is going to go to some after school clubs so hopefully will meet some other kids that like his sort of things, fingers crossed for the little darling.

So here are my three ATC's images are from Lisa's altered art and I just loved this set of three, backgrounds with distress ink and old dictionary pages and some random stamping, hope you

like them they are available, particularly if I owe you one, OOPS.

hope you like!!!

Journalling

Had a mooch around a charity shop the other day and picked up a dictionary which I can rip to pieces as required for crafty projects, and a book bound kids board book, which I thought I could use a base for a journal. So gesso at the ready and I pasted all over the first double page spread, then left to dry overnight. The next day I checked out Dyan's blog as she has a tutorial on journalling on her sidebar, and got out the distress inks and my tim holtz masks, and away I went, it was really enjoyable. Thought the water spraying bit took most of the ink off, oops perhaps I was a bit too enthusiastic, but I carried on, but then what to write, so here you are my first attempt, what do you think?Came across a few problems, wanted to put a picture of Dyan on, decided image transfer would be good, not too in your face, so copied her header and printed off (hope you dont mind Dyan, it was only for this, honest Im not going to use it for my blog, LOL), then applied medium and put on the page, was really good and left it to dry properly. When I rubbed the paper off (gently, honest), I took most off Dyan's face off and then all the gesso lifted up as well, oops. . . . grrrr

So gritted my teeth and re gesso'd , decided this time to stamp Tim's umbrella man, but then eureka moment, decided to use my new Ferro paint and stamp into that, oops looked horrible so tried to wipe off gently, away came the gesso again . . . .grrrrrrrrrr

So gritted my teeth (here we go again) and re gesso'd, still going to use the stamp but radical decision will use ink, had to re blend it in again as a lot more gesso came off this time, should have took a picture of it at the beginning before I wrecked it (twice), anyway tried to blend the gesso away with some distress ink. OMG gesso starts lifting again, aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh, so leave it alone and when dry put some clear crackle paint over the area and cross my fingers, wont touch it again, so here is a close up of both pages . .

Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think, for those people in the know, should i sand the glossy page before the gesso, would it stay on better then?

Bat Photography . . . easy as 1,2,3

sat and watched a bat swooping over our neighbours garden for quite a while tonight, then decided to photgraph it, here is the evidence a photographer hard at work in search of that elusive shot . . .

now do you see that slight blacky grey blur across the two white lines in the sky, that's a BAT !!!, compare it with the other shot, see its most defn a bat, LOL

Some more cards

Here are the cards I have made for my BFF Jo who is *0 this coming week, and for my niece and her mum. I only have my son Taylors 16th to do, then I can play to my hearts content and go back to ATC's etc until the end of October, yee hah.

Went out to dinner at the local pub last night with my husband to celebrate the wedding anniversary, it is the first time we have gone out and left the kids on their own, they behaved brilliantly and we loved the freeedom of it and remembering why we married each other, and no it wasnt cos we are hormonal, shouty, grumpy etc etc.

Then proceeded to sleep through till 12 this am/pm! even though the orchard next to us was being harvested, I think I sleep too much, I do love my sleep though, but hate waking up so late feel like i have wasted half the day, what can I do though, Im asleep, LOL.