Back to work . . . yee hah . . . NOT

I was so pleased to get up to the sound of ringing this am, I have missed it so much, LOL.

had a good christmas, but am showing my age, as so glad its over and done with for another year, bah humbug, but it is so much organising for one or two days.  Kids enjoyed themselves, which makes it worth it though.

Anyway found some time to do some art, pre xmas I got my 365 Calendar January journal page ready, really enjoyed looking at Kate's work last year, so am really pleased to see she is doing the challenge again this year, check out her blog here for more info.

Then after christmas when I finally got the dining craft table back, I sat and looked at a blank page for a long time, eventually this is what it evolved into

I say evolved because there are more layers to this than you can ever guess, most of them now hidden under a thick layer of black acrylic.  However I was determined not to rip the page out, so made it into a 2011 Priority page (not a resolution page), was mooching around doing this whilst watching the lovely Rpatz in Eclipse, swoon.

Done at last . .

yes the christmas cards are all done, the presents are bought and just gotta sort out a shopping list for next week,  We are having roast beef as the OH doesnt do turkey.  Should have had my roast turkey fix today, but my christmas do was cancelled, as was my hair appointment.  Was actually quite glad as wasn't feeling on top of the world, afternoon snooze seems to have helped though.  Has everybody else got that really annoying cough.  I had bought a great secret santa gift though, from Ann Summers, was really looking forward to seeing the recipients face, oh well, will have to wait . Had a great laugh in there with the OH,  they had a packet of p***c hair removers, looked a lot like tooth picks, LOL.

Anyway talking about the OH here is his card, my boys cards and a couple of others.

So wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, hope you all get through next week, getting everything that needs doing done with as least stress as possible.

WOYWW 80

WOW I've just looked back over my previous posts and my last WOYWW was no 72, 8 weeks ago, time has flown but I thought I must pop in to say hi to everyone and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

So here is my desk today

It's as I left it last night, a ten year old card for my niece, just two more pre xmas birthday cards to make and three xmas cards and I will be done and have some time to take myself down some other routes.  I have been following Tims 12 Tags of Christmas, but havent actually made anything so might try out some of his creative tips, like his stamp making out of his dies, brilliant, I knew id kept the funky foam for a reason.  It's also a great marketing tool as there is so many more of his thing I now need, LOL.

Little boast coming up...... but if I cant boast to you my fellow crafters, then who can I, my work colleagues try to look interested, LOL

For those that dont know I was lucky enought to be a Runner Up in the Altered Artist section of the Craft Stamper of the Year competition, it was with my Jewellery box.  I was as you can imagine absolutley flabbergasted to be placed, as the level of skills shown by the other winners far exceeded my own and the winners work was just amazing.

I t has really boosted my confidence and I cant wait to get my teeth into something new to alter.

So for those that have no idea what the phenomonom of WOYWW is, just pop along here to find out.

Tim Holtz blog candy

the lovely Lin is giving a heap of Tim goodies away to celebrate her year, and it has been a good one, pop here to find out more.

Oh Christmas cards, oh christmas card

all made and written just got to buy the stamps and seal the envelopes, one of my least enjoyable craft things of the year.  This year I went for the same card for everyone, just a slightly different method for the snowflakes. . .

From left to right the methods were, 1) stippled luminsce arts paints  2) ferro texture paste  3) irredescent embossing powder  4)  mica paint, which bled too much so traced in white Inkssentials pen 5) ferro paste  6)  Inka Gold.   All done through a Crafters workshop snowflake mask.  The photo was a tree in our garden in last years snow.

Big sigh of relief, just three more special ones to do for my men, and then I can forgot about it, and move onto presents and food.  We make a rod for our own back dont we girls.

Catch up time . .

Llife has been busy, hardly time to craft except for xmas cards and nearest and dearest's birthdays, am looking forward to post xmas then I am gonna indulge and do some journalling and perhaps some canvas work.  However  I do have a birthday card for a friends birthday, guess what age she is, LOL....

with flash

and without, quite a difference in colour, I prefer the more muted one.  Anyway started making this card and it went a bit different from what I was expecting, but I perservered and managed to bring it back to something OK, then gazing around my room for some further inspiration, and the birthday card Flutterby Crafter sent me in March caught my eye.  Embarasssingly it is Flutterby's bitrthday today and I have managed to miss it, so no card to send back. .  (bad friend).

Anyway hope you are all enjoying the lead up to xmas, I have managed to not buy one present or any food yet, a record I think.  In the time of having Credit cards I would start buying in September for the boys and not stop till xmas, then wonder why they had a mountain of presents to unwrap and I was in debt up to my eyeballs.  Having to buy what you can afford is not only enlightining (sp!) but is actually quite relaxing, as you cant just buy, because you've seen the perfect present, which then means you have to buy another present for the other one, which costs more, so then the other one needs another pressie and so it goes on and on.  All that disappears and so the stress of xmas does as well, I would recommend it.  My boys this year have asked for only  a few presents each, not totalling more than £50 (eldest) and £70 (youngest), bless them, wish I could buy them more, when you hear what other children get just in their stockings, but that's life and we will still have a great xmas.  Sorry that came from nowhere, but I would honestly recommend it.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Birthday Cards, a hard week and a lovely surprise

Hard week at work, manager has been on holiday and Ive been trying to hold the fort, it was tough, but I am a woman and I can take it, LOL, actually I am cream crackered, hence all I've managed craft wise this week is two birthday cards for my lovely niece Aislinn who turned 18 and my goddaughter Amy who turned 7, both on the 25th, (now why does that number ring a bell).  One is cute and sweet and the other one,well my niece is an independant, trendy little arty person so really had to try and think outside the box, so two more different cards would be hard to find.

and as for the surprise check out page 74 of the new Craft Stamper, I've only managed to be runner up in the Altered/Mixed Media Category.

Now I have been very good, because I knew I had been shortlisted a few weeks ago and I managed to keep it to myself, (it was hard, I can tell you), I was so excited and honoured and having seen the winners I consider myself very lucky to have been considered alongside them as they have produced some seriously great pieces of work, and as for the winner, woweee, absolutely fantastic work, and so well done I stand in awe.

Now, I do'nt think I can reproduce the page for you to see, but I can put up the photos that I sent in for my entry, I hope, I sent in two pieces the altered jewellery box and Stampotique Street

Just a taste of the pages of Stampotique Street, think it might be better if a do a blog post showing it all of, gawd knows when though.  So this weekend finds me tired, cold and very happy.

Hope you are all having a good one, and those that have already congratulated me, thank you so much xxxx



A blog award for me

The lovely Ann (Flutterby Crafter), has gifted me this award

I have to tell you 3 things about myself that make me different from everyone else, so here goes:

1 -   I am a guilt laden lapsed catholic

2  -  I have danced in Trafalgar Square's fountains, (drink may have been involved)

3  -  I have only ever done the splits once in my life (again drink was involved)

And then I have the pleasure of passing it on to 5 of my talented and attitude laden blog land friends.

1   Kate Crane of the Kathryn Wheel

2   Debs of Rusty Cage fame

3  The Octopode Factory, for her sheer drawing genius with tons of attitude

4  Lin at Yours Artfully

5  Donna at  The Doings of Doone

So enjoy and thank you all for sharing your art with us all in blogland.



I love Tim Holtz

Had a busy week off but have found some time to play with my new Tim toy the tag die, it is a lovely size to work on so Ive had some fun cutting out different materials, two more to show you, also been playing some more with the Octopode images, Ive heard that theres something afoot with Stampotique and the designer (she is 17  - - wow), I predict big things ahead for her, as you can see she has a lovely kooky quirkiness to her art.  She is very prolific and keeps adding new images, will never be able to keep up.

Now my plans for the weekend was to do some chores around the house and find some time to play, unfortunately most of today has been taken up with this . . . .

This is the bank where I work, and at 0338 this am, some people decided to make an unauthorised withdrawal, I was woken by our security team at 0415, because the Police needed a key to get in, hahaha, I had however had a wee drink and didnt have any cash for a taxi, so one of my other colleagues had to go out and sort it out, I have however been there on and off during the day trying to organise things for Monday, we wont be open, in case anyone is wondering.  So the start of a nice quiet weekend rudely interrupted.  Lets hope for a peaceful Sunday.

Compendium of Craft Challenge 21

Found this challenge a couple of weeks ago and this is the first chance I have had to participate, each week a technique from Tim's bible is chosen and all you have to do is follow the instructions, adding your own little flair, (if you can), post to your blog and link to the L3 studio blog.  Only other rule is that you don't post how to do the technique.

So for my first attempt it was Perfect Distress, page 38 of afore mentioned book.  Well I tried it last night and it was all looking great until I added water, just a spray honest, then it all seemed to dissolve before my very eyes, boo hoo, gave up then and went off to bed so that I could do my nightly snoring to annoy my OH.  (he misses me if Im not  there, LOL).

Then this morning had another go and I present to you my succesful attempt at Perfect Distressing, showing two photos 'cos one shows up the detail and the colours as they are, the other is with a flash and shows up the glimmer, and I couldn't choose between the two.

So for those that follow me on my blog, I can report a succesful attendance at my course last week and I am now licensed to lend money (form an orderly queue, LOL).  I used to travel up to London every day for work, dont know how I did it , it is exhausting and dirty and my poor feet hurt so much.  The course was opposite St Pauls Cathedral which was nice as I'd not worked at that end of town before, so did my touristy bit from the station, stopping to take in the sights, nothing to do with the fact I was running out of breath, I am so unfit, and this must change, it was embarrassing, having to pace myself to make the walk, whilst my tongue lolled out the side of my mouth and I had taken off everything I could to try and keep myself from overheating, being overtaken by Chelsea pensioners.  Totally didnt have the sophisticated city worker look.

Anyway it is done, I have this week off and then its back to the grind until xmas.  Hope all is well with everyone.

Bah humbug !!!!!

Yes its halloween, but all this trick and treating is an american tradition, not ours, I think its just another con by the retailers to make us buy lots of tut, bah humbug.

ROFL

How miserable am I........     :(

Anyway, busy busy week, am on a bank course next week and have a ton of things to learn before I attend, they make you do a test as soon as you arrive and if you fail you are sent home, how embarrasing, so am working really hard to avoid that scenario. Also dreading the travelling as it is in  the City for three days, so I've got to be up at the crack of dawn each day to get there. So will definitely be AWOL next week, unless of course the embarrassing scenario happens, (please god noooooooooooooooooo)

This week I have done some more purchasing, its Dyan's fault who did a link to some great new digi images, by The Octopode Factory, I couldnt resist and bought the Alice inWonderland set, decided to do a journal page, trying some new techniques, like the edging, how hard is it to get a black pen to work over acrylics, think I killed my black sharpie, ended up using a uni ball which flowed lovely,what pen does everyone else use?

I am pleased with the result the sort of grungey pastel effect, have even put it as my background image on my mobly, its my own personal art gallery, haha

Anyway wishing you all a brilliant week and cross your fingers for me on Wednesday.

Pink Ribbon Warrior Woman

Yesterday I had a great day at Pickleberry Crafts with my friend Sue and the lovely owner Kate, first things first, sarnie in the fridge then straight onto the shopping, I uhmed and ahhed over the Stampotique stamps, so having put them in my basket, I decided to think about it whilst playing in the studio, had a great time playing with all Tim's dies and was able to decide which ones I would want and I have to admit tattered Florals is a must.  Then onto the shopping, I even put some of the stamps back then thought oh what the hell and bought all the ones I had picked, and a few other things  :)

Now I've finished my entry for Craft Stamper, so can get on with other things and the Pink Ribbon Warrior Women blog hop was one of the things I had on my list, decided to use some of my new stamps and will be adding it to the Flickr site, it is in honour of Breast Cancer Awareness month and also has the lovely Sherry Goodloe as a focus, whom I have been following recently through WOYWW, who is braving her own battle against the Big C at the moment, to find out more click on the links, here however is my entry



Have really enjoyed doing this and enjoyed my week off, tomoz Im off to see the S-I-L another crafter so may have to pop into her local shops, and of course it would only be polite to make some small purchase, LOL.

Have a great weekend everyone.

WOYWW

Happy Wednesday everyone, well not for people trying to join in at 5pm for two hours, they are disabling upload photos for maintenance, what are they thinking about its WOYWW, dont they know what they are doing, millions of (hundreds ok then tens of) crafters will be trying to put their post up, whats wrong with the middle of the night . . . doh.

OK rant over, I would now like to submit my desk for inspection, ta da . .. . .

and its taken today,as I am off for the week, am loving it, trying to finish my entry for Craft Stamper and then found Ive got to write something as well, aarrggghhh, anyway this desk shows me ignoring the dealine fast approaching and doing a new journal page, its to be happier than the one in the post below (yesterday), but I might have gonna a bit bright and need to knock it back a bit, here is a close up, with a flash to show glittery pen, (im no fool).......

And also I have been doing some spending this week, and this is a photo of my purchase from TK Maxx, I think Minxy has one on her door, and I decided if Minxy can have one then so can I, gonna make it an art display, copying Minxy again, love you Minxy hope you are feeling better.

Now I have been having a wardrobe clearout this week and found a beautiful dress of mine, simular size to this, that I used to fit in,  boohoooooooooo, why cant I be slim again, nurse at GPs makes it all sound so simple to lose weight, but it s not, every morning I wake up positive and by lunchtime its all fell by the wayside and I grab whatever I can to eat with no thought for goodness or badness.  I even used this to photograph some dresses Im gonna sell on ebay, (very clever of me if I say so myself), they looked good, unlike what they look like on me, thats if I could get into them, double grrrrrrrrrrrr.

So anyway went to ASDA clothing this week and got some great jewellery bargains for altering (see post below) and bought some bra's cheap, whoop whoop mine are normally £20+ and some trousers, now Im thinking I bought them because I could do them up rather than for the style factor, so as Im going into Maidstone today shall see if  I can get something a bit more stylish, though we have to face facts girls, you cant dress up a sows purse (or something like that).  I am however quite cheerful about it,  A) because Im spending money and B) because thats all Ive got to work with for the moment.

However I am meeting the great Tim next Feb ( just to remind you all) and I think he deserves to meet a slimmer me, so I shall see what I can do, watch this space.

And finally, for those that have asked about my ink pad storage, it was another Charity shop find and I think it must have been a cassette holder, but it is ideal for ink pads and for DI's there is space for your cut n dry as well.

Right sorry its only been a quick one this week, LOL, enjoy and dont forget your linky no.

It's catch up time, or TALOT

TALOT = take a look on tuesday, its one and only appearance LOL

So some bits and pieces to show you, first of all just had to sign a permission form for my youngest to attend an open evening tonight, nothing like advance planning

now do you think the new strict headmaster will be amused, considering his latest edict is that male and female pupils must never be closer together than 12 inches , WTF    :)

Now I have some purchases to show you, I've been to ASDA again and got some bargains in the jewellery sale, they were on necklaces and cost me £2 each

 

Now dont they look lush, I bought three of them and am thinking maybe some alcohol ink, some utee, paint, wax, gonna try and take a mould to see if I can replicate in UTEE, dont you love the art scarred table , its the dining table , oooops

Now for my next bargain, it was a sewing box with loads of sewing items in it all for £5, but my beady eye thought I could come up with a much better use for it, so ta dah "metal accessory storage"

 

 

each tray detaches for access and each division within is kept separate, the lid area can take slightly larger pieces and take that out and there is room for three little tins with more metal accessories, brilliant dont you think, now I really  must start to use some of them.

And finally a journal page I did a couple of weeks ago, at the start of a depression, dont you hate them, all self pity and self loathing, but am out of it now, thankfully, so it was definitely a feeling sorry for myself, once I've done this post am gonna do another one with a more positive note

which you might see tomorrow on WOYWW.

WOYWW 71

Hello peeps, hope you didnt miss me too much last week, we had internet issues, like no access.  My OH was like a caged lion and spent virtually two days on the phone to the phone company and the internet provider, trying to get it sorted out.  I just got on with other things, though I did miss taking part in WOYWW.

My desk this week is just a mess of things, I have been trying to finish up Stampotique Street, so if you are canny you can have some sneak peeks of WIP.  And I have been painting my IKEA cabinet, we only got it ten years ago, so didnt take me long to get around to it, LOL

Anyway short one this week as I am so behind, dont forget your linky no if you leave a comment and I will try to do the visiting tomoz.  happy Woyww

WOYWW #69 (titter titter)

Yay its Wednesday and as usual I am languishing in the bottom part of the list, but numbers don't mean anything unless you are adding it after your comment and then its incredibly helpful.  Poor Julia is feeling a bit left out as she has no number, :(  but we all know her, dont we, but if you want Julia, you can use zero, hope that helps.

So quite a few pictures this week for you, thought I would start to show you around my drawers of stuff !!

Shot 1 is a straight on shot of said drawers, on top of the drawers is a spare drawer from a broken set, I love buying these plastic drawers as you can often pick them up dead cheap, anyway the extra drawer has a filing system, yes it does honest, it has masks in it, on no it doesn't I moved them (oops).  It has all my transfers, 3d stickers, flat stickers and also some letter books.  Stored on their side I can pull the drawer out onto my lap and have a good flick through for what I want, I must admit some of the stuff in this drawer is of the strokable status, I love them so much can't bear to use them.  Next drawer has all my embossing powders, which I used to use all the time on everything but havent really used for a while, but am getting back into using them more now.  Plastic bags are distress powders that I shared with a thrifty friend.

Next drawers are slightly more boring, there is the envelope drawer, can never have too many of them and the junk drawer, which has sequin waste, music sheets, pics Ive pulled out of magazines, clothing tags, pattern paper, basically anything Ive thought may come in use again some day.  So thats it for drawer set 1, come back next week for another exciting installment.  LOL

This what I made out of last weeks desk and is a card for my sister in laws birthday, I tried to be a bit more creative rather than just sticking the picture down, so played with Tim Holtz stuff and some Viva gunk, had really messy fingers by the end, but I enjoyed myself.

And finally my desk, have got creative this week and am making a mini book, called "Stampotique Street", (close up below). This is the front cover of a Holtz ruler book so I have about 10 pages to fill inside of it, have started doing this but nothing to show yet of the insides, but the clue is in the name LOL.

So for all that don't know and I can't believe there are that many now, this is the link to find out what I am yapping on about, press here.

Enjoy the journey through WOYWW land.