Sunday Special for the 1st December............

......really! December?? Already???  Just to cheer us all up after that thought, here is a totally gratuitous picture of my Sid:

(If you don't like cats, stop following my blog is all I can say!)

I've had a lovely craft-heavy weekend!  Yesterday, I spent the day at the wondrous emporium that is 

The Artistic Stamper, Craft Store and Art Bar!

We were very honoured to have the lovely and talented Jo Firth-Young come to teach us some Fresco Finish paint techniques to make a lovely Christmas Canvas. We used paints (got painty fingers), stamps (got inky fingers) and die-cuts (no - no die-cut fingers thank you!).  Here's my finished piece:

and some close ups.......

Unfortunately you can't see the glitter, but believe me, it's been 'blinged' to death!

And on to Sunday. Well, when it comes to crafting, I definitely have two personalities - number one is the 'create, misbehave, anything goes, slap it on a page/canvas/box and see what happens' which is what I did in yesterday's class, and then there's this weird person. Who makes cards. Very neat cards. When I say neat, I mean really neat! See what I mean:

  Yep! I've sold my soul. Only to Stampin' Up you understand! Me, Mum and Meryl (my lovely sister) had a great afternoon doing a dress rehearsal for my 1st proper demo next week! Mum and Meryl made 4 cards each and they were beautiful!

I was surprised at how exhausting it was! But thoroughly enjoyed my crafty weekend!!

 Just in case you missed him, here's Sid!! Again!!

Thanks for looking!

WOYWW 211

Is it just me or do the days between WOYWW get shorter and shorter? Maybe not as my desk looks slightly different this week!

 Colouring pages in my Moleskine in preparation for my holiday

 Torn page so taped up (happy face!)

 Blotty page ( I have an idea for this one)

Yep! I've been well and truly Dyan'ed!

That's all for now Peeps!

Thanks for looking xx

Sunday Special #1111228597

Yep! Lost count so from now on random numbers will be allocated!!  What a lovely Saturday!  I had a card for a parcel to collect from the post office!!  I knew what was in it but still excited.com!! And here is part of the contents:

 I also got three white pens of various thicknesses and happened to have my pack of 5 black pens in my handbag so there was no way I wasn't going to play!!  Half an hour later in the pub.......

 The long line of 'splats' was the first mark made!  Trying to get the ink to flow in the Posca pen!!  The ink trail went right across the book and onto my leg, foot and the pub floor.  I know have really cool purple converse with white spots!"

Developing nicely!

 

And I think the front is done! This book is going on my holiday with me.  I'm going to do some backgrounds on the pages and leave some blank.  I can then get my daily craft fix filling it in with sketches and doodles!!

 Later in the afternoon we had our 5 year old grandson over for a sleep-over.  He was playing with his PlayDoh so I thought I'd introduce him to Martha Stewart Crafters' Clay so we could make something permanent!  Here he is mixing up his favourite colour, purple!

Look at the concentration!

And the moulds - mix of Karantha and Martha Stewart.  And here's what Liam made:

Pretty good for a first go!! I showed him how to gild them this morning but didn't get any photos.  He used Cerise Gleam for the little face and Silver Treasure Gold for the others.  Hoping I've created another crafter!  I only needed to show him what to do once and he got it straight away!!

And Finally...

My Father's Day Card!

For once I have something that fits with a couple of challenges!  I would like to enter this into:

 Hels' Sunday Stampers  Week 262 'Guys'

and also

The Artistic Stamper Monthly Challenge June - Makes for Men

Matches my OH's little occasional table perfectly!!

Thanks for looking!

Ta ta from me!

WOYWW 210

I've got all my ATCs and they are super wonderful:

 From left to right (and up and down): Scrappymo, Kezzy, Maisie and Barf! Thank you!! I thought a couple of cards looked a bit subdued against my background so chose another (background that is!):

Gorgeous embossed shimmery Seahorse from Mo (Photo just doesn't do it justice - trust me. there's stamping, embossing, decoupage, colouring, shimmer. Love it ScrappyMo!
I love Kezzie's too! I got a hand-made crochet heart!

Maisie's is Vintage at it's best! It's got my favourite dragonflies and Lace)

I love the neutral colours!(I've got a rug that matches your colours perfectely)

And finally, Joel's ATC

My favourite distress paints! All on one ATC!

Thank you all for my ATCs!

I love them and will treasure them!

And on my desk this week:

 I've been playing with Martha Stewart Clay thingy stuff!! You definitely need the white but it was totally not available in the UK! It's on Create and Craft TV now! And Yes. I've been 'Dyan Reaveley'ed'

And loved it!
Tat ta for now peeps!

Sunday Special Number 2!

Wow! Sunday already! But at least it was sunny today!  A quick photo call of this weeks activities:
One (little) book of ruination completed last night:

Yay! Only 2 more to finish!  Here's his big brother that he hides inside....

I've only done the front cover so you'll have to wait a bit before I show the finished product!

Yesterday morning was spent at the Artistic Stamper with the lovely Jennie trying not to tread any wax into the carpet (otherwise I'd be barred for life!  I even got the 'Pointy Finger' oh yes!  I was very good tho so I think I'm allowed back?)   Anyway, This is the outcome of our 3 hour workshop:

Very subtle colouring for me! (and not sure why this one is on it's side?) Lurve the new Distress Paints! I do tend to use them with a lot of water in a water coloury way (but then my background is water colour/pen and ink so maybe not surprising?)

The flower and honeycomb are made from moulds.  The rest of the canvas is also covered in wax! How cool is that! (actually the wax was ...ahem....warmish?  Got a sore thumb ;-)  ) Oops, sorry! Sore thumb is from a nasty paper cut!  Who knew crafting could be so dangerous??!!! I love my canvas and was hoping to do one today....but the sun came out!!!

Before I go I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Anything goes at Hot Shot Craft

Texture at The Artistic Stamper

Anything Goes at Crafty Emblies

Paint at Ink on My Fingers

Thanks for looking and bye bye from me!

Whoops! Got it....

Wrong!!


I was making a box for Deb in Canada and Oh Boy! Did I get it wrong! Started out like this:

And became this:

All well and good. Papier mache box , gessoed and then attacked with Distress Paints in Bundled Sage,Victorian Velvet and Salty Ocean.

 I used a wet brush to get a drippy effect

Candy Pink Cosmic Shimmer sprayed through TCW 'Harlequin'

Lid Stamped with the main image from The Border Collie set (Jane Natley Mayhew Collection, from ThatsReallyCrafty.com)

I added some touches of colour using Distress Markers

Nancy lending her artistic input!!

 And stamped Water Droplets on Tissue ready for the inside

And then it went horribly wrong!  Well, it was OK at first!

Yep OK! 

Nice.........

And then I put the lid on the box.........can you see what's coming??

Oops!

so that was a bit of a 'Design FAIL'!  Memo to self:  When working on a two part piece, work on them as a whole and not in isolation!!

Oh well! Back to the drawing board (dining room table).