A good read & excuse to get painty ......

... like I need an excuse to get painty! lol

I love it when a flat brown parcel arrives on the doorstep with the word 'amazon' on it!! Always exciting - aw come on - its nicer than a bill!! (anything is nicer than a bill! lol)
Yesterdays parcel contained this book - LOVE IT!!   'How to..' ideas on adding / drawing faces & other images onto mixed media backgrounds... .....lot of mixed media painty stuff too

I don't really 'draw' but this book made me feel that it wouldn't be too scary to have a go at drawing a face on a canvas or the like... .
Lots of nice samples too.... good for journaling techniques 
Liked it a lot.... so if you don't hear from me for a few days/weeks its because I'm reading/working through the book! (& also 'cos I'll be up to my ears catching up on 'stuff' I couldn't do between Christmas and last week... )

The PaperArtsy play day that wasn't!

I tried/planned to spend a day over the weekend with PaperArtsy stamps but the plan was hijacked slightly by M, but in a good way - a hallway destash/clearout was in order to get ready to pull up carpets so that new carpets could be laid - and one job seemed to have a knock-on effect to another...
so here's one of the pieces I made - keeping them simple was the aim of the day! oh, and flat!

(These stamps are from the 'Nature' plates of Urban Snapshots)... Simple & Flat! (well, simple-ish - distress inks, acrylic paint, stamping, embossing, colouring...)

PS - carpet is in (and looks really nice.... ) ..now to get the Estate Agents in for a valuation - and then the 'for sale' sign goes up....

Things that make you go 'hhmmmm'

Another 'something' where I was just playing with 'stuff'.... acrylic paint resist, stamping & resist, cuttlebug embossing, die cuts, shimmer sprays, perfect pearls sprays - you name it I used it - layer on layer, on layer, on layer...
Sometimes you have to get inky, and random, and Embrace the Inks!

Twinkie goes to School!

I've been toying with the idea of Stampotique images for a while and bought Twinkie to get me started. I like their battered look and that they're just a little bit 'wrong' .. like they have attitude and shouldn't really be messed with.. but at the same time seem slightly vulnerable...
I might be overthinking this obviously..

So here's Twinkie, on a school themed tag...

the tag's actually purple & dark in reality (dusty concord) - I might be embracing my inner Goth!

Adapting a kit..

Sometimes I buy an on-sale items as a bit of a challenge... and a WeRMemoryKeepers card making kit from TKMaxx was such an item... it has 'everything' you need to create the cards, I thought it'd be a quick way to make a few cards - but I think these can end up looking a bit flat and a bit generic (duh! obviously! lol - like painting by numbers) and so I decided to challenge myself to add some bits a pieces of my own (& change the designs, lol)... make them a bit more 'me'...
In the end it wasn't such a quick way to make a few cards ... lol ... but I had fun!  It was about working with what I had (attacking the stash)
(though sshhh... don't tell anyone... but I may have bought the co-ordinating plain card stock... but ssshhh... thats just between you and me OK?!)

 
 
To make them 'a bit more me' I sewed, I stamped, I added buttons & gems & flowers (oh my!)

VW: Genius, Funny & Cute Advertising...

If you don't smile at this then the Force is not with you......

Just playing....

I bought Kelly Rae Roberts' 'take flight' book a while ago - great book... & yesterday decided I was going to make something - nothing in particular - just something - just play around and see what happened and I took my inspiration from the book & made a mixed media panel.

Started with this:

I added pretty much every type of medium I had at my disposal and made this.  I cut the panel into 4 and accented each panel with different colours of pencil...

I really enjoyed making this - kept thinking ooh I'll add this and then worried about what if went wrong... so what?! - paint over it and try something else - its only cardboard & paper covered in ink & paint!
(and if its really terrible I'll keep it to myself and not tell anyone! rofl  but I quite liked it (well, liked it a lot actually) so I thought I'd show you....)

In case you're wondering what I used here is the roll call:

we are memory keepers scrapbook papers

watered down acrylic paint (blue - horrible, babywiped that straight off - though it did stain a little)

watered down acrylic paint - white

Glimmer mists over a flower stencil

Pearfect Pearl mists

CraftyNotions Shake'n'spray

CraftyNotions Opaque white

masked circles

stamping & embossing in white

Stamping & embossing in pearlescent green

colouring pencils - blue, black, green, white,

Phew that's a lot of stuff - could have used more...
and there still time......

but maybe i'll save that for the next masterboard.....

Thanks for popping by... I'm off to tidy my poor neglected craft room.

New Classes at Imagine That Papercrafts...

I'm teaching these two new classes at Imagine That in Upminster in February and March....

Butterfly Dreams:
03 February 2011 : 10.30-12.30
05 March 2011 : 10.30-12.30
25 March 2011 : 10.30-12.30
Card making class, with distress inks, stamps, and a bit of sparkly stuff!

Winter Joy:
03 February 2011 : 13.30-16.30
05 March 2011 : 13.30-16.30
25 March 2011 : 13.30-16.30
Making a gorgous (even if I do say so myself) scrapbook waiting to be filled with lovely christmas moments - die cuts, stamps and sparkly stuff (well it was christmas it would be rude not to have sparkly stuff!)

Call the shop to book a place.  Hope to see you there!

Scrap Cards...

I was trying to tidy my workroom the other day and I started with all the best intentions..... but I was constantly side-tracked by the bits and pieces I kept finding in the piles (which I swear arrive overnight and have nothing to do with me... at all).... I found a booklet of Making Memories notelet thingies and in another box I was clearing I found the matching flowers! Kerrching... so I made the above cards (stamps are Banana Frog, Basic Grey, Imagine That & I think the spots is Hero Arts..??)
Excuse the crease on the first card I didn't notice that until I photographed them - & thats because I didn't have my nice new glasses (reading glasses!!!  for goodness sake - I know they say it all goes wrong once you're 40 but seriously- its only been 3months!! gggrrrr)
(the glasses are nice tho- got sparklies on!... no not Dame Edna Everidge stylee.. but I thought if I had to wear them then I might as well have statement ones! rofl)
aaaanyhoo, the cards are the Kraft type from DoCrafts/Papermania - not as thick/heavyweight as I'd have liked - they've gone a bit bent - I'll put them under something heavy and flat which will hopefully sort that out - & I hope so 'cos I've got 100 of the devils! lol

Winter Cottage...

In my first post of the year I mentioned projects, & said I would show you... & I haven't (sorry!) ... well now I am!
Better late than never.... here is 'Winter Cottage'... it was a while in the making 'cos ...erm .... well... other things took precident.... & I couldn't decide how to finish it... blah blah blah

... on the bright side, & with a view of excellent planning (ahem) I've started the decorations for christmas 2011! :o)  I'd actually finished it before christmas but I kept adding bits to it, taking them off, adding them again ... generally faffing about with it really!

The cottage is quite small (as normal!) about 12cm tall.. & created with all sorts of dies (Tim Holtz' snow flurries & paper rosette; Quickutz scallop border) & punches (Martha Stewart snowflake)(had a lot of use out of that punch this christmas! lol) There's also a liberal sprinkling of 'frosted lace' Stickles ... snow snow snow

Getting all 'loved' up over at Banana Frog

Its my Project of the Day over on the Banana Frog blog.. go take a look - I've got something ready for Valentines day...
Bev (Queen of the lilypad) has asked me to stay on as a Design Team member for another year - yay! (that was my big news) and I'm hopping with happiness to do so! (get it? ..HOPPING.. banana FROG.. oh never mind)
Go take a look.....

Good news...

I had some great news today but I can't tell you what its about just yet but it has to do with an animal and a fruit.....

and on a completely different note - anyone listening to the Archers (yes, OK, I listen to the Archers - it doesn't make me a bad person!) - its soooooooooooooooooo good at the moment - but I won't say anymore in case any of you (you, yes you, the closet Archers fan out there) listen to the Omnibus edition on Sunday.  I wouldn't want to spoil the storyline...  Its been running for 60 YEARS!! Longest running soap in the world... a simple tale of country folk...

Happy New Year!!

So what's everyone got planned for 2011??  Its going to be a good one - I can feel it in my blood (which is probably still a little sparkly from all the glitter that was used over the festive period lol)

Later on today I'm going to upload some final bits/pics from christmas that for one reason or another didn't get shown over christmas - those reasons being snow, a last minute big commission (more about that later), another commission, a bit more snow and a touch of general disorganisation (add that last one to the 'things to address in 2011' list).

again:  Happy New Year!!

and here's a picture to brighten up this post:

yeah, yeah, yeah - I know its not Noel anymore - but technically its still can be 'til 12th night and until all presents are handed out and we've still got 3 to hand out so a christmas picture its is.... :o)