Ta Daaaaaa!!

This is what cupcakes should look like!!!!!!!!!! mmmmm yummy!!

Die Cuts n buttons n felt... Oh My!!

Am LOVING making these little pretties!! Could get quite obsessive though maybe - all the colours and options........ and I went to HobbyCraft in Basildon and they stocked SPOTTED felt!!!

Ah these simple things keep me happy!!

And YES Tricia, I will be putting some on Etsy!! So quit your naggin' already!! lol

Mutant CupCakes!!

I think I should have used bigger cupcake cases!!

(Nigella Lawson (who's recipe was recommended to me) used muffin cases so maybe that's where I went wrong - the cupcake cases just weren't up to the job!!

Tasted good though - even if I do say so myself!! :o) lol

Salt effects.....

I taught Resisting and Distressing at CI on Friday and Saturday (taught through a killer headache on Saturday and was quite proud of myself for not throwing up mid class! Thanks go to Lin for supplying FANTASTIC painkillers and for saving the day by popping out and buying an iron!)
During the Distress Inks class someone asked what would happen to the colour/inks if you added rock salt as you would in silk painting..... ? I couldn't give a definite answer but I explained that if you paint waterbased dye on paper and add salt while the dye/paper is still wet the salt drags up the colour from the surrounding area . . . . so the same might happen with Distress Inks (dye based)

So I've done a bit of a test:


Distress Inks direct to paper (stronger colour), spritzed with water and sprinkled with rock salts, spritzed with water again (optional)

Before it's dried

I don't have a heat tool at home and so I had to improvise - under the grill (I knew when I needed to take it out as 'smoke/steam' was streaming out of the grill!)(I never said this was a sceintific approach!)

'Cooked' - the colour has faded a little - I don't know if this is because it was under the grill - I'll try it at a later date with the heat tool and see if there is any noticable difference

The little rings with the darker centre is where the salts were laying... nice effect.

This is the same effect on blue and green distress inks - I like the effect on green - like little patches of mould or lichen on a bark.

GRUNGEBOARD! Yay!

ooooh I've got GrungeBoard! At last! All hail the mighty Tim Holtz!! lol

I'd seen but not held/touched grungeboard so couldn't really get my head round what this 'wonder stuff' was going to be like - it doesn't tear or warp, you can paint it, distress it etc etc etc.

So, for those of you who haven't held it this is the best comparison I can come up with..... (based on the smell and texture..) a cheap 'leather' handbag - you know the ones where the fabric (which doesn't bend or crease) looks as though its been made from a mix of cardboard and plastic and then had the 'leather effect' top coat added? - well this is what its like but without the leather layer and probably a bit of something added - maybe tyvek.

That's about as clear as mud isn't it! lol

Great stuff though - and you get LOADS in packet! (234 letters, 9 complete fonts)

So exciting.

Made for my Valentine.....

Graduated chipboard hearts, covered in a bit of this n that. I would have put this up on the blog before now but M had it on his desk at work. I tried sooo hard not to make it too soppy girly romantic (hence the black!) .... just about made it! (well, M had it on his desk under the pc screen for all to see so can't have been that soppy can it!?)

Has anyone seen my tin?

I altered a small square tin last year (?) - really nice piece - with a maze concertina book in side featuring photos I'd taken of flowers and using Art-o-matic stamps ... and I've put it somewhere safe (!) and now I CAN'T FIND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! aaaaaarrgh! and I need it!!!!!!

HAS ANYONE SEEN THE TIN???????????????

I'd show you a photo to prompt a memory but I can't find those either (which is wierd because I photograph EVERYTHING) ... So now I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going mad and I just imagined the whole thing and I haven't actually created it at all ... but I know I have because I've shown it to people! :o)

Finding the tin has become all consuming ...... WHERE IS THE TIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've got a Cuttlebug and I'm not afraid to use it!.....

Ha Ha! Just when you thought this blog would never be updated.......




I may not have been posting (bad blogger, bad blogger!) but I have been busy... here are some tasters of things I've done, things I'm doing, and things I'm going to do ... its all exciting ..... and kn*ckering at the same time!! :o/
Cramming lots of photos in one post to make up the lack of posting over the last....erm...oooh two weeks! (again - bad blogger, bad blogger!!).