oooh look at the prettiness...

 

My mum has sewn things - dolls, my clothes, furnishings - for as long as I can remember - these are pictures of the drawers she keeps the cotton reels in - how FAB are they!! all the colour groups in seperate drawers - LOVE THEM!! Very inspiring..

(Stored in Ikea Moppe drawers - love them too! - but who is the person(numpty) at Ikea responsible for deciding that Moppe drawers should now be sold flat and we should make them ourselves!! Send them to me 'cos I'd like to have a chat... I don't want to make them... I want to buy the drawers ready made so that I can bring them home and immediately fill them with stuff!

Another day...

... another one of my projects on the Banana Frog blog .....

Today's 'Lesson at the Lilypad' .....

... is mine so please hop on over to the Banana Frog blog for a bit of this:

Banana Frog on TV...

and a couple of my pieces were shown - apologies for dodgy photography - result of photographing the computer screen...

If you'd like to see these pieces with much better image quality (lol) go here...

Finished!!

ArtsyCrafts is taking place in Warrington this weekend - its a weekend of all the best bits (so many to choose from!).
I posted my arch to Leandra'n'Lin yesterday - I reeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaally hope it gets there! lol ... safely, in time, not bashed about! fingers crossed.
Here's a detail shot of my version of the Arch, its such a great project they designed - covers a whole range of techniques: metalwork, stamping, sewing (there's even a bit of cuttlebuging in there!)...   Love it!

I'll post bigger shots when the weekend workshops are over...

Eye candy / Inspiration M&S style

Shopping earlier this week in M&S couldn't help but grab a few photos when I came across lovely colour combos like the above:
Top left - loving the light olive, pink and maroon of these furnishings
Top right - was very tempted to buy a bowl in this crockery design just to have on the desk to keep 'stuff' in and be inspired by....  it was matched with aubergine wine glasses and dark grey chargers - very nice (as discussed with a lady also looking at it - she tried to convince me that it was so lovely I should have 6 of everything!)
Bottom left - very Doris Day - so cute and retro - definitely a colour/ pattern combo to bear in mind... again tempting to buy a piece to put on the desk to tidy and be inspired but at this rate there won't be any space to work on my desk 'cos its full of inspirational crockery! lol
Bottom right - don't these just make you want to carry a handkerchief! lol ... again - nice colour/pattern combo

You see - inspiration can come from anywhere - even Marks & Spencer!

Simple, modern, abstract cards

....are what the 'client' wanted and what they got!

For men:

LOVE the notepad edge punch from Stampin' up, and the star stamps from Banana Frog!  And the barcode stamp ...  oooh, hmmm, can't remember what make that is... but goes with everything! lol

For the girls:

I made this one using a set from Cuttlebug (square frames) -I  think these are going to be really useful -great that you get a frame and a square - bonus!  and even better if the paper is double-sided - it halves the die cutting!
the cute little cupcake is from Banana Frog.
 
All the greetings are Banana Frog.

bits of this'n'that...

When I need to get creative but haven't been in the sudio for a while I have to make an unimportant 'something' just to get the creative wheels turning... so the other week I coloured a page in my big (25x25cm) sketchbook... this is my sketchbook size of choice - its not to big, not too small, not the wrong orientation (I tried a portrait layout sketchbook once (hinge at top) and I couldn't work in at all - it felt completely wrong - I think I only got 2 pages in before I abandoned it! lol) so this one is just right!  :o) 
The page isn't part of something, its not for something.. it just is what it is - a sort of warm up exercise...

And here are Florence and Lawrence - don't know why I've called them that - maybe because they're flowery - who knows...(& its not really important!) lol  They're created with an oh-so-cute Quickutz die - one that I saw and thought I 'need'  that but I have no idea what I'll use it on!  And when I went in a certain craft 'supermarket' on Tuesday (shopping with my Mum) I found a stamp that said 'so tweet'!  Ta da!  Sorted. Cards!?

They're quite big - about 8-10cm, and I'm loving the googly eyes - took a while (and a certain amount of shaking) for Lawrence to stop being cross-eyed...I think he may need a bit more shaking - but its part of his charm.

doing a happy dance...doing a happy dance!

Please cast your eyes to the right hand side of the screen and take a moment to watch the slide shows - working just as I wanted - that have taken me aaaaaaaaaaaaallll day to sort out! (well apart from a few toilet breaks, a lovely 30 minutes spent with my new Tim Holtz dies and a further 45 minutes sorting out req's list for work) - so please:

sit back, relax.. maybe get a glass of wine, and enjoy the shows!

I now have square eyes!

.... because I feel I have been sitting in front of the PC AAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL day trying to make things work on this blog! 

I'm trying to streamline my blog - make it more 'professional'   ie more work and less waffle! 

With that in mind I'm trying to make nice little slide shows of my DT work on the right hand side of the screen.... there was one there already and I wanted to create 2 more - one for my PaperArtsy DT work and one for Banana Frog DT work.... one worked & the other not so much....

What I really want is a gallery page as you get on Typepad (I even went and signed up to see if I could create one and link it across..... I couldn't! lol).

Aaaaanyhooo, watch this space - I will not be beaten!

OK,... maybe I will.... but not just yet......

Card Inspirations....

... is where I spent a lovely couple of days (fri & sat) teaching and getting creative with the ladies - much fun had with shaving foam, inks, stamps and the Cuttlebug! (not all at the same time you understand! lol)

But there was a small hitch in the plan when one of the sample cards I'd made was awol from the shop - so to the ladies from that class who wondered what the card looked like...

...  here it is - its simple but v cute (even if I say so myself! lol) - its only a sneak peak because the class runs again towards the end of the month.... (and by then the card - and another thats m.i.a- will have been found - or I'll have recreated them... I think the latter will be the case! lol)

any questions - please email using the addy under photo top right.  (love the stamps used by the way - the detail inside the petals)

Nice post delivery!

It took a lot of self discipline not to drop everything to sit down with these and a cup of coffee this morning!
They arrived with M's magazine - he gets a big thick car magazine and I get these - I know which I'd rather read! lol

out of my head..

An idea, or chore, can sit naggingly in the back of your mind and so sometimes you  just have to do it - regardless of other pressing matters that should really take priority - to get it out of your head..

I had a little plastic tool roll which was free with a magazine aaaages ago and had definitely seen better days so I wanted to make a bigger/longer nicer one... felt was my fabric of choice and the roll had to have flap that came over the top of the tools to stop them sliding out....  and this is the result of such a 'nag/idea':

Its really simple - grey felt on the outside, pale blue on the inside, sewn with cream thread to coordinate with the cream ribbon which ties everything shut.  Am v please with myself (patting myself on the back! lol)... OK its not rocket science but I like it - and more importantly - it works!

Look at all the lovely tools I can get in there! Even room for a glue stick and a mini mister!  OK the only essential that's missing is a paire of scissors - they have to be just tucked in without being in a pocket - 'cos when they were in a pocket the tool roll didn't 'roll' up as nicely!  :o(   (though look carefully - there's a pair of tiny decopage scissors.... )  (oooh and my small metal will go in there - when I've found it)
please note the label sewn into the side - also coordinating nicely  :o)