more letterpress ......

I forgot to post this a while ago so here it is now...

I was experimenting with the letterpress inks to see if they woul blend and yes they will! You have to be a little careful about contaminating across and getting one big midway colour on the plate (1st couple of attempts) but I managed to get 2 colours on - but maybe all that is out wayed by the fact that this background plate just makes your eyes go a bit funny - it seems to move if you look at it too hard.. look away! look away!

colours I used were blue and green, maybe if I'd used more diverse colours it would have been more obvious but as I said I was just playing around and these were the colours I had to hand.

The other thing to note is that the big background plate (left) did not want to go all the way through the machine with a complete piece of card stock - I used a small postcard sized piece in the end... I'd hate to damage anything (lol).

Suze Weinberg, Claudine Hellmuth and Tim Holtz....

I finally finished it - my sampler frame from Saturday's workshop... well there's only so many times you can move tiles around until they look just right! lol  I added a few elements of my own in place of a couple of those created - but only because they were outside the finished colour palette.. I created a cute little canvas resist panel (one of Claudine's elements) that was too close to the background colour so I'll use that on something else further down the line 'cos I really liked how she achieved the resist.  I added the silver buckle - bottom right, the clock face and of course some buttons (well how could I not!)
(and I'm sure you've realised but just in case - the centre bit of cardboard is just to cover the mirror while I photographed).
Colours on the frame itself are stronger in reality.

Look what I found in the jewellery shop!

I bought this from a shop in town - I like to go in every-so-often to get some 'junk' jewellery to take apart and re-use on something else - normally arty.. and this is what I came out with today:

look at all those lovely medallion shapes - I'm thinking they'll look great to be made to look worn and verdigris'd.  The centre panel is about 4-5 inches long.  I did try it on - just to make sure I would never want to wear it - too much of a statement piece for me I'm afraid!!

and check out all the metal and pearl strands that have been braided on this choker - and I'm loving the big diamante pearl 'brooch' pieces.... ooooh so many applications...  I tried this one on too (lol) again too much of a statement piece (!)

I went, I learned, I looked and got inspired..

.. at Stitches.  The show was smaller than previous ones... but still lots of eye candy:

Couldn't help but stroke and touch these on the Button Company stand:

Look at the lovely colours of felt!  I couldn't help but stroke those - charcoal grey is hard to get and its soooo lovely!  And thats not just rik-rak its HUGE rik-rak - measures about 2.5cm on the band - would make such a cool embellishment - LOVE IT - but it would be hard to choose a colour wouldn't it! lol

Buttons and button display - love this vintage mix! things that make you go mmmmmmmm.

Now for my next pictures we must speak in hushed tones so not to upset my Cuttlebug, who I am very fond of as we know, but look at this:

This is the Big Shot Pro... a brute of a machine! Its a BigShot on steroids! lol. the paper laying to the side is a sheet of 12x12!!!!!! I can almost hear my little Cuttlebug shaking on its little suckered feet! lol

The Sizzix stands are always dressed well with great use of their dies and products and if my camera wasn't playing silly whatsits I'd show you pictures of nice things! So I'll show you Tim Holtz's new line of Sizziz dies and embossing folders and projects made from them instead! loving the birdcage and birdie (reminding me of my Tweets from way back - see here and here)

and while we're speaking Mr Holtz check this out: this is my friend Rachael, Tim and Me at the end of the Ranger-on-the-road workshop on saturday - I'll post a picture of the project we made when I've stuck all the pieces down....

The workshop was good - I've never seen Suze Weinberg and Claudine Hellmuth demo/teach and I really enjoyed it.  It was comfortably fast paced and enjoyable - lots of tasters of techniques - made me want to go and get busy with all the products - but thats the point isn't it! lol

All in all its been a busy and knackering weekend - but well worth it!!

Snow or no snow we are going....

.... to Birmingham this weekend for the Stitches trade show.... its going to be good - hopefully lots of new exciting products to be looked at - i'll try and take lots of photos.
Saturday morning is going to be spent at the 'Ranger-on-the-Road' workshop - Suze Weinberg, Claudine Hellmuth and Tim Holtz - how good does that sound!!
I also received this morning a copy of Tim's new book - I haven't had a good look through but from my quick flick - its looking quite inspiring.... v hard not drop everything to go and play with ink, stamps and powders (oh my!)

enough about cakes how about a nice cuppa...

... its more about a nice cup actually - how cute is this cup that I bought in Primark the other week - too cute - they put these things in the racks along where you stand in the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge queue!  I love it - its going to sit on my desk providing somewhere to keep the camera and my mobile phone out of paints way.  I love the retroness of it.

So the mug inspired me to make these cards - the one of the far right was M's valentine card.. I couldn't decide which way to spell 'pair / pear' so in the end I left the picture to do it!  Lots of Kraft card stock, and my new favourite punches make quite a few appearances on these cards.

I particularly like the tall slim card on the right of this picture - all the little elements... its got a bit of everything going on - cuttlebug, text, nestabilities, stamping, buttons, sewing and of course more punching from my new favourite sets!  The stamps are from Hero Arts and the paper is Lemonade from Basic Grey.

All about CAKE!

Its the 16th of the month which means its my day over on Banana Frog... and this month my pieces are all about CAKE!!  Head on over later today for more nice mouth watering piccies......

How's this for good use of an empty shop....

.... instead of the shops sitting empty maybe they should be used to promote causes (or given to local artists for studio space (short term)) or the such - isn't that nicer than an empty shop on a high street where the windows will get covered in fly posters, the junk mail will pile up behind the door and it will generally become an eyesore?!
In the newly refurbed Victoria Circus shopping precinct in Southend there is one big space still not rented out and this is in the window:

Its a project by students of the Southend campus of South Essex College about disposable fashion.  How great is that - cardboard houses and highrises with the fashion spilling out.  I really like this - good use of unused space to promote the college, the shopping centre and the idea behind it.  The photo doesn't really do it justice.

Here's the accompanying explanation - on a huge swing tag - genius!

(I've had to make it a huge picture so you can read it! lol)

March Craft Stamper

...is on sale now!  Nice colourful issue packed with lots of inspiring creativity.....

Metal, Rubber & Inks.... oh my!

ArtsyCrafts have some more great weekend 'retreats/workshops' planned this year.  There are a few places left on these creativity packed events.  Watch this for more details or visit the PaperArtsy site for a booking form and all the details of the events written down in case you weren't paying attention (shame on you) to Leandra's lovely video! lol

(photo: PaperArtsy)

yet more yoyos...

After all that dismantling and destruction I thought I'd show something a little more gentle.

Destruction but in a good cause...

I've had some old watches for a while and today I started dismantling them.  It seems such a shame to take them apart when they are so well made but I did it anyway.  Brute force had to be employed a couple of times.  But I have a project in mind and needs must!

I really like the colours of these pieces - the muted gold against the brushed steel - nice colour scheme I think... mmmm coming to a project soon perhaps...

oooh so many possibilities....

TV debut...

I was quite excited when the cards shown here appeared on live TV at lunchtime today as part of the show where Bev of Banana Frog was demo'ing her products!
Please excuse the photo quality - I was photographing the computer screen!

photo quality bad on the above because the presenter was moving the tag to show that the space ship was mounted on acetate to give it movement!

and breeeeeaaaattthhhhe

On Monday I took a big(ish) step and resigned from one of my jobs - I'd been thinking about it for a while but because of this, that and the other I'd delayed it but on Monday I did it.
I'm working out my notice but already I feel all the better for the decision. Not physically (that wasn't the issue) but mentally, emotionally.  This decision has created space (in my head!?) for me to concentrate on existing, and other new, exciting ventures.
So now I can relax, concentrate and .......breeeeaaaathe.