Busy, Busy, Busy

I'm busy doing lots of work but not all of it visual! (ie nice piccies for blogging!)
So to summarise:

• Taught at CI for 2 days weekend before last - really good, I hope the customers/students enjoyed it as much as I did!
• Went to a Quickutz day at Gatwick yesterday - worth the drive - really enjoyed it, met some nice people, won a great prize (my name got picked out of a hat - how fab is that!)... and bought a digital die cut machine (birthday present) - that I can't/won't play with at the moment as I don't have time - humph! - I just know that if I unpack it and set it up I will play with it for hours and I just don't have the time (see to-do list on last post!)... but perhaps if I'm really good and get lots done maybe I can reward myself with a 'quick' 1/2 hour trial!
• Working on current courses...
• Getting ready for Art-o-matic classes starting this week - its christmas based and its going to be good!! I'm definitely(hopefully) going to be more in the mood for Christmas this year than I was last year - but that's not going to be hard: I was very 'bah humbug!' last year! lol
• Getting ready to run a class for the Tollesbury creative group this coming saturday...
• Still working on 23 ATCs......

See what I mean - not the most interesting of posts but they'll return to pretty pictures soon - promise! lol

Champagne, Elvis and Surgery!

Yep, its that time of year again - another year older and a little bit wiser (?) . . . . . .

Yesterday, to celebrate, we had lunch at The Glasshouse (mmmmm Lamb Shank),
then back to ours for cake and Grand Prix (J was rooting for Lewis Hamilton... ah well, nevermind),
then today (my actual birthday)(I like to eek it out as long as possible!) I was treated to breakfast in bed (Bucks Fizz is the best way to start the day!),
then an hour of the Elvis DVDs I was given as a pressie - the '68 comeback tv special - the iconic black leather outfit show (Elvis- "man, this suit is hot"),
then lunch with mum & dad,
followed by a trip to the Doc's surgery for minor surgery- mole removal (!!!). Just what everyone wants on their birthday isn't it! (and phrases you don't want to hear from the doctor who's doing the procedure - "your left arm? ... which one is that"?!) Eek!
Ending with a dinner with Matt....
(oh, and tomorrow its lunch with T, and then on Sunday I'm off to a Quickutz day to see if I like the Silhouette die cutting machine and maybe get it for my bday (and this day includes yet another lunch)).
I will be a blimp with legs at this rate - I think it may be possible to have too many meals out!.......
Good times and great pressies (and some more on their way)...
I want to get creative soon with a mini book so that I can use my new Bind-it-all!! mmmmmm -but its a bit low down my (ever growing) to-do list - much more pressing jobs: card samples, 23 ATC for the yearly 'Big One' over at ArtyATCs, a christmas card order and some class planning................. best I get on with all that and stop writing this! (and get some ibuprofen on the way to ease my wounds!!)

Tag using distress inks, and an image from PaperArtsy Noel Plate No.3. I love that image for its gothicness (not a real word I'm sure but you get what I mean!).. Mini flourishes from Hero Arts, and my usual faves - butterfly, gems and text.

(having uploaded the photo i've noticed its not quite in focus - will try again...)

New Cards.....

Christmas card designed for November's card class (using PaperArtsy Noel Plate 6) ......
















Do you think there's a health and safety issue here?!
(Phoebe snoozing on the paper trimmer/ guillotine !)

My name is ....

This is my name badge for when I go and teach independently - made from my current favourite things (and stuff off my desk!) - bit of felt, some felt balls, buttons, a bit of Hambly, a bit of corrugated cardboard, and some die cuts . . all mounted on a tag - could it be more me?? (oh, I forgot something sparkly... I'll save that for another badge!)

Eye Candy & Inspiration.....

... comes from everywhere:

Bag of sweets:

These are the fruit version of licourice allsorts. When I first saw these I thought the concept was just wrong - completely - because Licourice Allsorts are perfect as they are (except for the little blue Bertie that comes in every packet - gross - but that's a whole other debate!) so I bought them just to see what they were like..... this picture is of the second packet! M and I ate the sweets before I got a chance to photograph them! Speaks for itself really.... very tasty.. and SOOOOO PRETTY! Look at the pretty colours.....


Latest win from Ebay.. I bought it to use the number boards in ..erm.. well, erm something at some point.. but look at it! Its so lovely - how can I split it all up! I'm going to have to scan the boards and use it that way (the game set is quite old, has been well used and loved and now it would seem disrespectful in someway to take it apart!.... I might use the number disks in someway to start and take it from there...)


A metal shoe in Hobbycraft - really liked this but didn't buy it because I still have 3 wire handbags under the desk waiting to be dressed/altered so until I've done something with those I'm not buying any other wire forms (but a girl really should have shoes to match her handbags shouldn't she?!)

Christmas Dec's Artgirlz style!

I was sick yesterday - struck with a headache that started on Thursday morning (but I put it off with Ibuprofen because I had to be somewhere) but it arrived with a bit of a wallop again so I laid in bed all day feeling sorry for myself!

And then when I felt better I sat up in bed and made this...

How cute is this tree- its a kit from Artgirlz. It only measures 10 inches tall. Sitting and sewing all the embellishments on reminded me how much I like sewing . . . . .

Artgirlz make all these great felted items (I particularly like the felt/wool balls which now come in 3 sizes) - I used them on one of my ATC tins .

More items with felt and sewing to come - putting it on my ever growing to-do list... got to get my head in christmas mode.........

The Cat's Book....

I had a day in the Studio this week spent finishing projects... here is the finished book about our cats... it only measures about 8cm, using Adirondack dabber acrylic paints and PaperArtsy's Cats Meow 'Cats' plate.

I also cleared up a bit - couldn't quite see the desk top!
and although the desk is nice and big - about 1.2m I'm only working on a space slighly larger than A4! - the rest of the desk is covered in 'stuff' ... I've got to get back into the habit of tidying up at the end of each day (why spend the first 10 minutes of a day clearing up what you did yesterday??!)

(this picture (taken on Monday or Tuesday) is obviously before I cleared up!!) (but when I popped in yesterday as part of my search to find my diary (phew, found it!) to be honest it didn't look much different! lol)