Woooo-Hooo! Yeay!!

The elusive tin (see an earlier post) has been located!!!!! YAAAAAY!!

See, I hadn't imagined creating it!! When I get it back I'll post a picture.

Yay!! I'm so pleased its been found!! Thanks to CI for finding it!!

(& just so you know- it was not in our flat or the studio under a pile of creative bits & pieces - contrary to popular belief & speculation! M!)

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!!).

Advertising doesn't get better than this does it?!?!

I don't watch breakfast TV very often but am SO GLAD I did this morning or I wouldn't have seen this...

How good is that - made me want to go and create pop-ups!!! LOVE IT!! advertising doesn't get better than this...

(. . . well apart from the ad where George Clooney arrives at a party with a bottle of Barcadi and doesn't get invited in.... which is just completely unrealistic.... he's definitely a Jack Daniels type of guy surely?!? .... lol .....)

Birthday Book

I came back from working at CI feeling very inspired and creative and so I made this Parcel Tag book (as well as some other bits but can't show those yet!) - just for the fun of it. Sometimes its nice to make something for no reason other than to make something. (Used stamps: Broken15 alphabet from PurpleOnion and Happy Wishes from Hero Arts.)

Books & Blooms

Ali Edwards featured a little scrapbook in her new (excellent) book using alphabet address tabs and this is my take on it.. its going to feature my favourite things under the relevant letter, but also its going to have lists:
When I can't sleep I pick a subject and try to find a word relevant the subject starting with each letter of the alphabet - its very calming and is very good at getting me back to sleep! Try it! And think how prepared you'll be for the next fun quiz!! lol
(but sometimes the process backfires - when you can't find a word for a certain letter ... and I've been told (by M) that waking your dh up in the middle in the night to ask for a suggestion for a country beginning with the letter X is not acceptable! lol )


I made these little flowers (unfinished) yesterday with my lovely little Cuttlebug! The more I use the Cuttlebug the more I like it.


The CB is really versatile - I'm feeding all types of things through it just to see if it works with them!!
My current challenge - and I won't be beaten - is to try and emboss with the machine and tradional brass embossing stencils... word is that you use the CBs embossing mat but it is SO hard to feed it through I'm frightened the pressure will break the machine.. I fed the suggested plates through a while ago and it all shot out of the other side of the machine with such force the plates shot across the room and hit the opposite wall !!!!!!!! Funny as it was at the time I don't think its the long time approach to the challenge... I've got a Wizard embossing mat which apperently works well... I'll let you kmow! lol

I've been tagged!!..........

by Sandra

1. Post rules before you give your answers.
2. List a fact about you that starts with each letter of your middle name. (if you don't have one use maiden name.)
3. Update your blog with your middle name and answers
4. Tag one person for each letter in your middle name.

No, poor me I don't have a middle name... deprived child ! .. no not really lol.
With my name being Joanne I have 2 names in my first name... no need for a middle name.. if you see what I mean?!

Anyway..

My maiden name is Firth... (I'll just state the obvious shall I? lol)

F.... First Prize was what I won dressed as a DairyLea Cream cheese triangle, aged 7. If you'd like to see what I looked like see earlier posting....
I.... Indecisive - when it comes to the small things.... I make a decision, change my mind, make a decision, change my mind... just ask anyone who has been clothes shopping with me!!
R.... Ranting... I rant when something annoys me... such as people parking across our drive... how RUDE is it when people do that... and inconsiderate... and selfish... and did I mention RUDE.. things like that turn me into Victor Meldrew! lol 'I don't believe it.. someone's parked across our drive again...' blah blah blah
T.... Time keeping is not my best feature!.. but I'm much better than I used to be... honest.... lol
H.... Hopelessly easily distracted!! walking from one end of our flat to the other I can find something to do along the way that is more interesting than what I was doing to start with!!....

Oops they are not very positive are they?... lol might have to think a bit harder about these...