PLAY DAY

I played all day long yesterday and got very inky indeed. Had a jolly good laugh, saw some fabulous art, caught up on the goss' from the girls, learnt loads of new techniques, played with some wonderful stencils/masks, tried out various combinations of distress and all in all, had a ball.
I didn't finish my workshop project probably due to all of the above, but it is near completion and I'll show you when it is.
However, I took all my special crafty bits and bobs with me, made by my pal Sylvia, and boy oh boy did they make a difference, especially the cushion, plus they were admired by the girls who told me I was very lucky and that Sylvia is one clever lady. I took this to show them all in their glory at their first workshop -

The tote bag was amazing because it just expanded and held all I needed yesterday.
So, Hels took off back down the M6 after a successful demo day at Inspirations on Friday and then yesterday's workshop. We all just hope that she is invited back very soon indeed.

WE WINED AND DINED.......

Actually, we drank diet coke and coffee but we did dine and very tasty it was too. Above all, we nattered and nattered all the time we were together, except of course when we were chewing!!
So good to have a proper catch up made even more special by the most AMAZING canvas in the whole wide world - and it's all mine.
See what I mean -

Is this not THE most beautiful art ever? Who made it for me then, only the very talented HELS SHERIDAN.
I asked Hels some time ago if she would make me a canvas on the lines of some of the fabulous creations she has been producing this year. I was prepared to wait because I just knew that whatever she made for me would be spectacular. Not wrong there then.

Just look at the detail and the careful use of so many exciting embellishments. I am on cloud nine with this so THANK YOU lovely lady so very much.
I am off to see Hels at Inspirations as soon as the washer has done it's bit to get more of her inky talent. Tomorrow is a full day workshop which I am so looking forward to. Not much action on the big crafty project for me for a couple of days, but I did take a photo of it so far to show Hels and she - being a very polite lass - was in awe at it. I won't tempt you with a 'naughty' photo today because I want you to enjoy the 2 pictures above.

WICKED WEDNESDAY ATC #51 - BASED ON A STORY CHARACTER

I won a $10 voucher in week 49 from the Graphics Shoppe. There were so many images to pick from that it took me hours to choose. So thank you once more to WW for entering me into the random org.
This week has so many themes to pick from. I had a little freebie image from Whiff of Joy that has been sitting in my image file for ages and ages. Time to bring him out:

Watch out it's SPIDERMOUSE.
He's a cutie eh? I just used some Whispers pens to colour him before carefully 'fussy' cutting him out. There was a picture of Spiderman in next weeks What's On tv paper so I used that for my background on top of red card. The spider charm is covering some wording and Spidermouse is on 3D foam for added depth.
My big crafty project is coming along nicely and won't take much longer to complete. However, I am out on the town tonight with the one and only Hels Sheridan who is coming up north to Inspirations to demo tomorrow and then run a whole day's workshop on Saturday. Of course I am booked on that - first in the queue actually, so not much time for the project over the next few days. Want another little peek -----

Bye for now.

HELS CAME TO MY TOWN

That's right crafters, Hels Sheridan came to Inspirations in Preston today to demo at their 2nd birthday celebrations.
She brought some of her gorgeous tags with her and made more whilst we sat 'agog' watching.

Hels used Ranger products in the main, but she also made a gorgeous piece using the pocket watch Art Parts by Wendy Vecchi. I had a tremendous morning which brought me tears, not once but twice. More about that tomorrow when I show you whats on my workdesk. 'til then I'm playing happily.

PERFECT MIST

Well actually, I don't mean the freezing fog we have today which is showing no sign of clearing at all. No, I mean this:

Perfect Pearls Mists.
This one is heirloom gold and one of the 2 new colours I have my eye on. The 2nd is the pearl. I was so surprised to find this yesterday in Inspirations because I didn't know the mists had shipped out yet. Obviously they have.
Also, have you been watching Tim's blog this week and seen all the goodies he will be releasing at CHA. How about the Distress Coredinations card then? How fab will that be.
I have a couple of ideas going on in my head just now - it's a good job they are there 'cos there's not much else in there!!!! - so I'm off to have a think about them and if everything works out, I'll be back in the week to let you know, one way or the other.

COPIC COLOUR CHALLENGE #58

I keep having a go at the Copic Colour challenges in the hope that my colouring gets better and maybe one day I may just have my efforts picked out.

Challenge #58 was to use the following colours:

R17 - lipstick orange

Y13 - lemon yellow

YG21 - anise.

I only have R17 as the others aren't ciaos so I used Y11 and YG23 instead. The lovely little girl is a sugar nellie stamp called 'curtsy'. The background paper was part of a bundle I bought from Cardcraft plus - now Inspirations -in Preston, when they used to sell the misprints or test papers in a great big box for about £6. Alas, no more. The green was also from there and I've used a Martha Stewart deep edge punch on it. The gingham glitter card has been in my stash for years but the frame I used to cut it and the image is part of the new goodies I bought from Harrogate. The flowers are Prima apart from the roses which are from a wholesale warehouse locally, and the leaves were bought from a craft shop in the centre of Chester ages ago.

I leave most of my cards without a greeting so that when I come to send them, I can include one particular to the recipient.