Ooooppps . . been too busy to craft much, shock, horror

The last two weeks have been really busy both at work and at home, with the nice weather comes lots to do, both inside and out, I'm sure you all understand, time is precious and there most definitely isn't enough hours in the day. That said I have manged to do some bits and pieces in the last couple of weeks, I went to my first crop on Wednesday at the Card Studio, three hours just flew by, I knew I would be doing a lot of yacking so had semi prepared a layout in advance and was really happy that it came together nicely.

It's a layout of me with my sister a couple of years ago and then I found these great photo booth picture from more than a few years back, sometime in the 70's, it was a regular thing at that age to go to the photo booth with your friends and family and have some silly pictures taken, brings back good memories, so I hope you like it. Im going to try and do more scrapbooking in the future, especiallly if I can go to some more crops, they are such fun.

Also finished a wedding card this morning for a friends wedding, I think its really cute, hope you do too.

Hope you all have a good week and enjoy the sunshine, dont forget it might be our only shot at summer this year, going by the last two, cross fingers I'm wrong.

Barleylands

On Saturday I took a huge risk and crossed the Thames to the other side, LOL.

Was visiting the in-laws, they were very kind and took us out to lunch at a Vintage Inn, didn't realise it was a chain but had an absolutely yummy toad in the hole with mash and peas, unfortunately ma-in-law had crispy lemon chicken which wasnt so good, but hey she should have stuck with the original choice of Toad in the Hole, hehehe.

Anyway lunch over and we went off to visit Barleylands Craft Village, now the last time we visited was when no 1 son was about two or three and he loved, adored, worshipped tractors and they had a little tractor museum and a steam engine display, a few craft shops, (but shock horror wasnt into crafting then !!), great day was had by all especially no 1 son, ok I was a bit bored looking at tractors, but I was being a good mummy, LOL, so that was about 12 years ago.

Well I knew things had changed when we drove into the brick paved car park, last time it was a field, they have expanded significantly and there is lots to see and do, but best of all, two craft shops, both hitting different markets, one was more rangers/heidi swapp/glimmer mists/alcohol inks and the other was just about everything else. Well I was in clover in Sugar and Spice and managed to spend £20ish pounds, mother in law was with me so trying to be restrained, next shop was Pinnacle Crafts which was huge, unluckily everyone came into this shop with me and trailed me around, hubby spent whole time going "Look at this", when I was quite clearly looking at something else, anyway his evil plan worked and put me off my stride and only spend £6, £5 off that on LLB Vennaisance paper.

The only good news was we then discovered Choc and Fudge shop, and they had all your childhood sweets I got some Iced Caramels and chocolate tools. I would recommend it to anyone who is close by and can get there, there is a farm bit for kids, have to pay though to get in there, but hey the plan is go with in laws and kids, get in laws to do grandparent bit with kids whilst you mooch (shop).

Anyway today ended up playing with alcohol inks, and when I cleared out wardrobe the other day found some wine glass charms which I decided to alter, see pics below, had a great messy time, dont know when to stop though and had to then keep going as had messed up what I had done first, finally managed to stop myself though.

Back to work tomorrow, yee hah, NOT.

Oh and visit this blog, I find it really amusing and inspiring in equal amounts, Dyan's blog.

A teaser for you all

. . . so I have been busy this week, sorted out my wardrobe, finally admitted the size 16's I had kept hanging up were not going to miraculously fit me, with no effort on my part at all. So I have only clothes that actually fit hanging up, hopefully that will make me feel better about myself, ergo not so much food shoved in gob, well I can only hope. LOL

I have also made some new ATC's for swapping, three different series, so I preview one of each here and if you would like to see more pop on over to my flickr site.

Ghosts Chi-Chi Mash Up

Well my week off has gone far too quickly and its back to real life again next week, I have maanged to do some crafty stuff and get some other jobs that needed doing done, managed not to touch the garden at all which is now beginning to resemble a jungle, but hey ho what can a girl do.

Also I have been awarded some blog awards in the last month but have forgotten to put them on here and to say thank you to the lovely ladies who gave them to me.

ThAnK yOu LoVeLy LaDiEs

Have a great weekend everyone!

Mini Book

I have been doing this as an ongoing project for a couple of months, started off with good intentions and then the mojo went out of the window, so it took a back seat whilst niggling me that it hadnt been finished, so I made myself knuckle down to it this weekend and finished it yesterday. Its a woodware chipboard and acrylic book, and was only 3 or 4 pounds so good value, and Ive used some of my fave pictures of my eldest son, who is now 15 (going on 25), luckily he liked it.

I didnt realise how difficult a mini book would be, you need to decide a colour scheme and a style, which is then difficult to carry through with all the different sorts of photos, but I did my best, and picked a 6 x 6 pad of paper from my stash (Making Memories - Avenue Collection) as my starting point, then had to resist using glitter and sparkles as dont think son would have appreciated it, LOL.

So here it is finished, now why did I promise myself I would do one for my sisters upcoming significant birthday, aarrgggh.

Nature

I have had such a cr*p week, husband sick, manager off sick, feel like I am doing everything, aarrgghh!!! So thought I would share some photos I have taken in the last few weeks, Im really proud of them, though without the ability to take load of pics in order to get a good one, these moments may never have happened, thank god for the digital camera, Hope you like them.

Am on holiday next week so hope to fit in some crafty time, though lots of family birthdays coming up as well, anyway shall keep you all informed of my fascinating goings on, LOL, oh and got a new phone and it receives my emails its amazing.

Playing with my new stash

Got these gorgeous metallic paints from Ally Pally, called Viva, Precious Metal Colour, they are gorgeous so vibrant and Im thinking I may have to buy the other colours as well. Leandra French was demonstrating them and recommended getting three toning colours to start with, I followed her advice sort of, I got 4, LOL.


Anyway decided to play on some acrylic paper, I am no artist so was just brushing away and playing with it with no design in mind, they diluted with water really well and then decided to stamp all over it using various different stamps with staz on, then more paint on top until I was pleased with the effect, then managed to get four ATC's out of it.


I wanted to try out my distress embossing powders as well and used my Amy Butler stamps which I bought a while ago but hadnt got around to using, I was then going to make my own toppers using utee and amy butler paper but didnt quite turn out how Id imagined, so used a mask and more of the paints, also used some foil and transfers and die cuts until I was happy with the end results, so here they are for you to see, they are all available for trading, though Lubna is owed first pick.

( They are Cornocpia, Moonshine, Flight and Blackbird)

Hope you are all having a chilled and crafty weekend.

Metalwork

Here is my second attempt at making the Paper Artsy hinge in copper, first attempt I pressed a bit too hard and split the copper in a number of places, oops, oh well practice makes perfect, or better anyway, I am pleased with this and am going to make another one and then alter my very cheap address book, which has all my crafting information in, once I've done it I'll post it on here for you to see.