Can't believe that....

...my last blog was my 50th!! If I'd realised I would have done a little card or something to give away!! Bet you're all glad I didn't!!! Anyway, I thought I'd share my latest 'makings' and 'thinkings' in general!

Just watched the EuroVision Song Contest! I love it and have watched it for as long as I can remember!  I thought last night's show was the best in recent years, purely for song quality! I particularly liked the last song (yeah, I know it wasn't part of the competition!), when all the contestants took to the stage and joined Emmelie de Forest and joined in with her new song! The joy on their faces at just singing together made me quite emotional (yes. I cried. I do when something makes me happy!)- that is what music should be! As an aside, I had about 4 Facebook streams going on at the same time, all making comments on the show! Brilliant! It was like watching with all of my friends!  Which brings me neatly to my main bloggy bit!

I don't have my 'Chat' turned on when I'm on FB because Peeps can just access you instantly. I prefer to 'message', either privately or page to page (gives you time to think/have a wee!) Yesterday I pinged up a photo of a card I made, (bear with me, photos here soon! (can't believe I've just googled the correct 'Bare vs Bear!) and started a conversation with a FB friend who lives on the other side of the world! Yes, thanks to the powers of FaceBook, we were able to discuss the ins and outs of cards and papers to use!  Please check out Dot's blog here! (She's good!) Anyhoos, here are some piccies!

This is Liam's card for Poppy's 17th Birthday!

And here is mine! Outside first.....

And this is the inside - courtesy of beautiful free stamps by Indigo Blu that came with this month's 'Simply Cards & Papercraft' magazne!

And here is Sid - he loves to pose with my cards........

This is the other card I made this week for my mate Mark - lots of DI's in the brown tones!















Followed by my most favourite Stampin' Up! Stamp (at the moment - it changes on a regular basis!!) (ps - you can order it from me! Just go to the link above and 'find a demonstrator' enter my name and 'Shop'!)
 

Almost done! Just add a bottle of wine and a glass!

Hmmm.....needs a little bit more?

 Just needed some 'Petite Petals' stamped on book paper!

I loved how this turned out - so difficult to do Men cards!

Thank you for visiting my blog and spending time reading it - I really appreciate it!

Before I go, I would like to enter this in  The Artistic Stamper Monthly Challenge which this month is 'In The Garden!

TTFN! xxx

Happy Easter Everyone!

Yep! 2nd blog in a week! I've had a lovely week at home and managed to fit in some crafting! The Craft Room is still a Jumgle Room although I have tied up my 'heaps' into orderly 'piles'. So a bit like my Jumgle Room, where do I start? I think I might just upload random photo's and take it from there!

So, this is my April page for Kate Crane's Art Journalling Calendar, 1st two layers! The 'starburst' in purple at the top right and lower middle is actually a piece of 'mopping-up' kitchen roll that I saved from a workshop at the Artistic Stamper with Jennie! As I 'mod-podged' it onto the page it slightly disintegrated so I moved bits and pieces around until happy with the layout.  Yeah right! Actually, I stopped when my fingers got glued to the page!! I'm still peeling it off my fingers- very therapeutic!!

 Layer three is Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paint in Nougat through a TCW stencil and the hearts are from the 'cut-off' remaining when I die cut the hearts for the next layer! (My motto is 'Never throw anything away' - I'll probably be on telly in 10 years on that Hoarders programme!!)

And from a different angle.  I was really pleased with this!

 And for the first time, I remembered to add the month first before adding the calendar bits! I die cut the hearts using the small Tim Holtz Movers & Shapers mini hearts before colouring with DI. For some reason I went for Milled Lavender, Worn Lipstick and Dusty Concord rather than sticking with the yellow, orange and green of the back ground. Still not sure if it works!!

But I do quite like it!

And my workshop piece from the Artistic Stamper last weekend! Finally finished after inspiration came!

The chipboard background was coloured with Distress Stains in Pumice Stone, Tea Dye and Tumbled Glass. I then stamped 'Hardwood' from Stampin' Up! in Walnut Stain all over.

Must say, I'm rather pleased with this!!

Finally a couple of cards (yes, I'm still making cards!!)

This first one is from Georgina's free make and take for Easter at the Artistic Stamper yesterday, and yes, the stencil found it's way into my shopping basket!! This happens to be the same stencil I used on my Jig Saw piece (bottom middle panel - you can just about see it - purple shimmery bit) and it is also the pattern mopped up with kitchen roll and used on the journal page!!

 I used Cut 'n' Dry to colour using Distress Paints in Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon

I'm really pleased with this as I don't often use yellow and orange. I love the way it looks totally different depending on how you fold it!!

 And finally (thank you for being patient and getting this far!!). My dear friend Barry's uncle is 98 on St George's Day and Barry was bemoaning the fact that there weren't any combined St George - Birthday cards, so I stepped up to the plate and made this:

 I masked and painted the cross using Adirondack Paint Dabber in Watermelon.  The Lion is from the Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Regal Flourish Collection, and was embossed using Queens Gold embossing powder.

I added a sentiment .....

....and finished it off by stamping the name and date using the Tim Holtz Worn Text letters and numbers.

Thank you for popping by and I hope you enjoyed reading my blog!

TTFN xxx

P.S. Please can I enter my JigSaw piece in the following challenges:

Sunday Stampers - 304 - Memories

The Artistic Stamper April - Texture and Embossing

Sunday Special...

Number 6 I thinks!!!

I didn't do a Sunday Special last week and my WOYWW was a week out too! I actually attached the previous weeks photo to the blog! Blah is all I can say! I hope I don't get it wrong this week because I think it's WOYWW's special birthday where we get to send on our ATCs! I LOVE this idea! If anyone wants to swap... ..Any Hoos...........

This is what I made at The Artistic Stamper Workshop with Jennie yesterday

We used loads of different techniques...

Including melt-pot, wax and UTEE (spot the cats on the stairs !!)

Distress paints and Adirondack Dabbers were both gainfully employed!

 And some of the individual elements!

Distress paint and stamp

Poured UTEE and stamped with a bit of Gleam to highlight

3-layers of UTEE with a heat gun and stamped

Stencilled, stamped and covered with frost paper ('cos I didn't like it!)  Happy with it now!

Stamp and the one below is Grunge Paste stamped

Foil covered chip, coloured with alcohol inks and  embossed

Crackle - didn't photo too well!

It was a fantastic workshop!  We got loads done but didn't feel pressured!  If Jennie does this one again (which I think she will!) I would definitely recommend taking part!

That all from me! Bye bye xxx

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I wasn't going to blog this.....

....but as the Sunday Stampers Challenge is 'Shiny' this week I thought it sort of fitted!

It's my very simples Silver Anniversary card that I made for my lovely Nick (how he's put up with me for 25 years?? As my Mum would say 'he needs his bumps felt' Lol!!)

I used the free Craft Stamper Magazine stamp, stamped with embossing ink and embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail embossing powder in Silver.  The words were added using Weathered Wood Distress Marker and embossed in Silver (bet you couldn't tell they were hand-written lol!).  I then drew the little hearts in Fired Brick Distress Marker to add the finishing touch. Finally matted onto Silver Glitter card (Create and Craft) and onto a white card blank.  Very simple but I rather quite like it! More important though, Nick absolutely loved it!!

Anyhoo, short and sweet today! but before I go I'd like to enter this in:

 The Sunday Stampers Week 250 Challenge 

Do pop along - Hels has put together a real treasure trove of Blog Candy to give away this week and ....ooh what gorgeous Candy it is too!!

Bye bye for now from me! (I might be back later for WOYWW - depends on whether the pesky laptop plays nice with the camera - took me about 6 attempts to get them to talk to each other to download the pic above...gggrrrrrr!)