more sketchbook pages...

Things you learn when you're wandering around the web...: that twinkling H2Os are affected by bleach... that was a lightbulb moment! which got me thinking - would other dye based inks be affected also? - might sound like a 'doh, yes!' question but I didn't know so I had a bit of a play.... and YES is the answer - very exciting - lots of applications me thinks......

(the swirl stamp (hero arts) is one I've had for a few months and haven't had a chance to play with it - love it! versatile... and the postage address is an old favourite)

I work out all my designs and ideas into a 25cm square sketchbook but when I ordered my last lot (I buy them in 'bulk' - saves money etc) I bought a 14cm sketchbook to see what it was like to work in.... so good! - its a really nice size to work in - pages aren't too big, aren't too small and - trying not to sound too much like Goldilocks - these pages are just right! great for trying out new surfaces - above are pics of the first 4 pages. The pics aren't really showing the surfaces too well - there's some great metallic paints on there (Viva, available from PaperArtsy) and rub-ons, crackle paints, distressing, resisting, embossing, perfect pearls...........

Happy Birthday M!!

Happy Birthday. Love you.

!!

does anyone else think we should give the floor of the studio a quick wash?! roflmao

bunting, bunting and more bunting....

I took my bunting in to the workshop yesterday...

Progress is going really well apparently - LOADS of flags have been coming in: from the local schools, Brownies, Guides etc and one WI group made 1000!!!!!
(wouldn't expect anything less from the WI would you?!)

This is the webbing that the flags are sewn onto.... it has to be one continuous length.... that's a lot of webbing! ... and a lot of flags!! lol as I mentioned before - 8991!!

Can't wait to see it all strung up around Chalkwell Park on the 26th. They've got some other creations going up as well so I think its all going to look really interesting.

Such a talented boy!!...

I sat for nephews No.3 & 4 last week - and got re-acquainted with lego : J & I built a v nice house with shaped roof, sun loungers, garden (with flowers) and pool!!.
These stones (found on holiday) were on the table - J has decorated them... how great are they!! Love their happy little faces!
(I'm glad to see that I'm not the only member of the family that brings stones back from holiday! lol)

Ortho & a 'girly' crafts supply fix

On the way home from my last visit to the orthodontist for a year - yay (no more grinning and bearing it! - maybe one I'll share a piccy of my lovely straight gnashers... though they can only be truly appreciated if I share the before and the after photos - but not sure I'm ready to put those piccies on the www !!! lol - not that my teeth were very bad but ..erm ..you know......) aaaanyhooo I digress - so on the way home from those appointments I like to treat myself to some craft goodness (to counteract the orthodontistry nastiness!) and normally I would go to an independent shop but this time I popped into Hobbycraft - they had a lot of loveliness in there and the above piccy is of the stash I left the shop with..... I haven't bought supplies that girlie for ages! lol Could they be any pinker! I was particularly pleased with the two rolls at the top of the photo: the beige and blue - its 'carpet' for dolls houses and HC had it in lots of colours, its sticky-backed, goes through the Cuttlebug brilliantly and produces lovely tactile shapes etc...coming soon to cards by me!
The stamps and papers are by Imaginisce - soooooo cute - slightly gloss embossed, double sided and the stamps give really clear impressions... I was just going to buy the fairy castle but then decided if a princess has a castle she also has to have a carriage!
...and pink velvet ribbons! lush
.... and notelets from Making Memories .. and the co-ordinating flowers......
..ooh and last but not least a really basic (and bargain) 'happy birthday' stamp.
Phew.
I was quite girlie giddy by the time I left the shop! lol

bunting and bargains!

So, I'm LOVING bunting at the moment - like I said before it makes me happy! :o)

So, I've made this short bunting out of scrapbook card (tilda from panduro - quite vintage and really nice colours) and the letters were cut with my Slice. It's going to hang along the front of my table next time (!?) I do a craft sale.... love it.

and these little tubs were a recent find at the local stationers - 99p for a pack of 3!!!!!! Great purchase - I have no idea yet when, or on what, I'm going to use them but one day they will be the perfect embellishment for a project!
Can't go wrong for under £1 each! ;o)

Southend's Bunting World Record Challenge

'Southend-on-Sea attempts the Guinness World Record for the Longest line of Bunting'

Its going to be the length of the pier - 2158m - and will take..... wait for it.... drum roll please....

8991 flags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew thats a lot of flags! lol

And here are the 5 I'm putting in! :o)

were you expecting me to make more??! I had to reign myself in with 5! (and they each represent something to me) Which makes me think: could make a line of bunting that was like a scrapbook of a year in a life or something ...hhhmmmm .....

I really enjoyed making these - really simple, quick and happy - bunting makes me smile! Why is that? aaaanyhooo.

The line of bunting will be hung around Chalkwell Park as part of the Village Green arts festival on 26 September.

I found this slightly wierd object in a second hand shop yesterday... Its a bit of this and a bit of that - all its elements are a slightly at odds with each other (may be due to the colour of the birdhouse! lol) but I liked it - quirky..

aaaanyhooo I think it has make over possibilities (or up-cycling I'd like to think of it as)...

I have a bit of 'house' thing going on at the moment... I started off with 1 little birdhouse that I altered and now on the hearth in our lounge there are FIVE! this lilac one being the fifth....

its not going to be lilac much longer.......

Apologies for the photograph - don't know what the camera was doing! I would take the photograph again but M & I took everything apart last night! It had several wobbly bits so we took a hammer to it!..... next step paint stripper!

Retreat!!!!!!!

Weekend just gone was the Etsy Retreat... 2+ days of making stuff, meeting lovely people, learning new things, laughing long and hard, and generally having a great time!

This is some of what I made - not the JD obviously but a bit of that is never a bad thing is it?! lol

EDIT: I've just re-looked at the above photo and would like to clarify - that is a half bottle of JD - Much as I like JD I'm not a complete lush, thank you very much! :o)

Yesterday was also my day over at Banana Frog - so head on over there to see what I created this month....

oooh I do like to be beside the seaside..

oooh I do like to be beside the seeeeeeeeaaaaaa .. or well, the Thames to be more specific! lol

Today R, R, K & E popped in and we went down to the seafront in town for lunch in the Arches and a stroll along the seafront... can't remember the last time I did that.
Lovely to see them all.

And look at E's fantastic sparkly shoes! Do they make those in adult sizes do you think?! lol
I'd show you the cute the cute little dress she was wearing but by the time I took this photo she and it were covered in chocolate icecream. lol
Her dress was sooo cute - cord with pretty patches - you can see a little glimpse at the top of the page... I did drop subtle (not) hints that when she's outgrown it maybe it could be given to her godmummy (ie me) : It'd make a lovely stuffie! - (well if the chocolate icecream comes out in the wash) lol and also really inspiring for cards and scrap layouts......

Beautiful...

I felt grotty today and so I gave in and parked myself on the sofa. I did some design work for a while and then gave in completely and watched this film - really lovely, very gentle and beautifully shot.

Last moments were very moving - its well documented that Victoria never came out of mourning after Albert's death, but apparently she had his clothes laid out every day until she died aged 81. 40+ years. Heartbreaking.


Also, this book was recommended to me by a couple of people and so I thought I'd give it a read - OMG - it was soooooooooooo good!
I couldn't put it down.
Definitely worth reading - and possibly re-reading!

OK, you know how when you are looking on the www for one thing and you find something else?.. well today I found these! How did I not know about these? How had I not seen them before? How had they slipped under/through my radar???? the normal great Adirondack colours but pearly!!!!!!!!!! I have a feeling these may be LUSH in the flesh... may have to order a couple to find out...

(and hush all of you who are saying 'oh those, they've been around for ages'! )

btw now they're called Adirodack Acrylics..... maybe thats how I missed them - maybe I thought they were like Dabbers but in different packaging....

PAMM

This is PAMM (PaperArtsyMiniMan (now mini-mascot))

so called because he was created using PaperArtsy's new mini stamps... soon he's going to live in PaperArtsy land so here is a snapshot I've taken for the family album.... and its good that he's going to live somewhere else 'cos soon these little creations will start taking over the house! Evie's is leaving this week too... aaah the house will be so quiet without them! lol

Head on over to the PaperArtsy site to view/order the new images and to the blog to see what other members of the design team are creating with the images.

right - must put the fabric down and move back to the paper and paint..... christmas projects, card samples, stuffie orders, and card courses aren't going to make/write themselves are they!

a little teaser....

So here's a little sneak peak of what I was up to yesterday - this just a play piece, a 'getting a feel for it' piece from my sketchbook - so excuse the dodgy colouring, the pencil marks, the tippex... its just me playing around with 'stuff'... can you tell what it is yet! (yes, I know that's a cat doh! but what else.....)

Such a good day at the studio - so nice not to contend with a small cat who thinks pencils are for playtime and paper is for chewing!

off to the studio....

At last my desk has been put back in place, my dh has hung storage on the walls for me (to get it off the desk), I've tidied up (!) and cleared the desk (I forget how big it is when its not covered in creative crap! lol) and I am good to go - back into my creative corner with all by 'stuff' around me and get busy!!

So this arrived on my doorstep yesterday:

Look at all that lovely rubber!!! Thats the new PaperArtsy Ink and the Dog & christmas stamps (called Nut & Meg) - they are LOVELY so head on over to the site to check out the designs... I'm particularly liking the elf plate at the moment - maybe because in a class I taught last week the conversation got slightly bizarre and ended up with the conclusion that if elves vomitted, which they would never do 'cos they are too polite and happy, but if they did the vomit would be glittery/sparkly!
Yes, euch, I know! roflol Don't ask. But come to my classes, you learn all sorts! :o) lol

So, off to the studio...I've got my lunch, phone, camera, stamps, ink pads, sketchbook, (in fact I'm taking everything from home that should be at the studio anyway lol) (we'll have our kitchen back...lol.. yay) the cats have been fed (scrapping/ playing like all in wrestlers at the moment) so I'm off....

A whole day at the studio!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY :o)

Sometimes its good to just 'create'...

... something. ...anything... a card, minibook, or even just play around with new equipment ... anything to get the inspirational juices flowing again.

I've been given a few things to work with that throw up a few challenges for me - and I like that - it pushes me creatively which is always a good thing. I'll make quite a few items with the given products to see what I can come up with.

Anyhoo, here's a card I created while playing around at incorporating hemp fabric (the dark blue top right of card). The main image is from PaperBag Studio. Now I need to create a v similar card replacing the two other fabrics and images with paper products. I really like the tassel on the card - created by using the threads torn off the hemp piece when fraying the edges.... I like to use everything! lol This card is quite unusual for me because of its size - A5. I rarely make cards this card and it was quite liberating to have all that space to play in. lol.

I've just bought the 'flourish' set of 4 cuttlebug embossing folders and I'm really please with them - lots of possibilities and its got me thinking - a lot - and I'm sure these will make their way into my next batch of Cuttlebug classes running at Card Inspirations. Dates to follow soon. Class sign up is 05 September.