FILM STRIP ATCs

Several days ago, before my neck packed in on me and my stomach started a fight!!!! I made a few ATCs with some Darkroom Door film strip. They are nothing special, just some cards for my swap box. My lovely friend Lindsay Mason kindly gave me the strips as they were 'spares' and I'm sure she would have made far better cards than me whilst demoing with Darkroom Door goodies.

this one used some bits from my Sizzix drawer,

Right, off to do some of that ho*****rk, yak................

WOYWW #143

Well, Julia, today I thought I would show you what's in my cupboard rather than the clear space on my desk.
I have been busy making cards etc but as I always  try to clear away after one ready for the next, and as I have completed cards for the next few weeks, my space is tidy. So, here is my cupboard - plus the reason for one episode of tears yesterday:

Do you see the suitcase - alias - Vagabond?????
I went to see Hels Sheridan demo-ing at my local craft store yesterday, and my DH (somewhat embarrassingly) plonked this on my knee! Now I very rarely wear any makeup apart from a bit of mascara and lippy, but yesterday decided to go the whole hog and slap a bit of face paint on. Needless to say, I probably ended up with white lines down my cheeks. What a sight.
So, you can guess what I will be doing today, making use of all those dies on the shelf above. I must point out here that I generally ask for craft vouchers for my birthday and Xmas, so my wonderful Sizzix collection is growing thanks to my lovely family.
I wonder whether Tim will use a die cut on his tag for March or the catch-up one for January. I do hope so, hehe.
And - A VERY HAPPY LEAP YEAR TO YOU ALL

SUNSHINE and HARD WORK

This glorious weather has meant a catch up on the outside jobs. Most of my container trees have suffered this year and were so pot-bound too, that they were only destined for the tip! So for the last 4 days I have been hacking trees, fighting root-bound plants, moving great big heavy pots around and re-potting where needed. All that in between going out for new plants and re-painting my greenhouse. Phew!!

Anyway, I managed to make a couple of ATCs the first of which I am going to enter in the Totally Papercrafts Challenge #32 which is - Charming.

I used Victorian velvet and broken china distress inks for the background, spritzed with a perfect pearl concoction and over stamped with Tim's flourish stamp, again in Victorian velvet. The words are one of the Artistic Stamper stamps. I used a Sizzix die to cut flowers from material, net and Tim's vintage shabby paper stack. The little centre is a tiny piece of baby wipe coloured with a big and juicy ink pad and twisted into a mini rose. The ribbon is plain white but coloured by pulling it over the broken china DI. The little bird charm satisfies this challenge and finishes off the card.

I'll be back later with photos of the others and my fabulous seaside swaps from Heather.

WOYWW #60

#60 already. I haven't been joining in for that long, but look forward to Wednesdays so much now, mainly 'cos I'm nosey and love to see what all you crafters out there are up to. I always enjoy those house programmes on the tele, where you get to see inside people's houses!
Anyway, as you know it's also the summer CHA show this week and some of the new releases are going to upset a lot of people - me for one. I've been keeping up with all Tim's new designs and am crying already at the thought of buying them (the cost) or not buying them (the disappointment).
Last night I had a look at Twitter and found 2 photos that Mario had put on of a dangling charm Tim was holding. It looks like he has released some new shaped fragments to go with his new vintage Xmas papers.

So out came my box of tricks ready to make something similar today maybe.

I've been trying to make some big, multi-layered flowers. There are remnants of one on my craft sheet together with a little angel charm I made. Also, I've been die cutting some grunge paper using some of Tim's new dies. However, I was fed up of having to go into the kitchen to retrieve my machine and dies (yes, my craft stash has taken over a couple of kitchen cupboards too) so I had a little sort around and managed to get my machine and Tim's dies on shelves above my low down work desk.

At last I can just reach out and actually use the thing. Just need to find space for the new releases now ooops!!

One last photo, I bought the QVC TSV this week, the Christmas Martha Stewart punches. Well, I needed them. You understand.

Just to finish off, 'peg leg' went to the hospital yesterday to see the specialist about his knee. After waiting all this time, they wanted to treat the good knee!!! All their records stated the wrong knee, so now he has to start from the beginning by having another MRI scan just because they have made a mistake. In the meantime, he is swallowing pills like there is no tomorrow just to keep the pain at bay. We give up!!

BABY WIPE BUTTERFLY

One of the amazing techniques I learnt from Lindsay last week, was making a multi coloured background 'paper' using baby wipes.
You simply run a Big and Juicy multi coloured ink pad onto your craft sheet and then lay a baby wipe onto it to pick up the ink - a plastic glove is a must for this.
The end result is quite lovely and being a bit textured, adds to the appeal.
I used my piece to make a Tim butterfly to go on  a birthday card for a friend's little girl. (don't tell Emily if you are reading this Sharon).

I used bundled sage and shabby shutters distress ink to shade the card before stamping a swirl with shabby shutters ink. I then cut out the butterfly by putting 2 layers of black card through my Big Shot. I stuck the baby wipe onto the plain pieces of the butterfly and then overlaid the cut out layers. I then stuck each bit to the card using both extra sticky double-sided tape and 2 sizes of black 3D foam. I put a small purple brad through a green plastic flower then a purple Prima flower after which I wrapped the end of some purple wire round the stem of the brad which I had threaded through some seed beads and 2 metal charms.
I finished off with some gorgeous stickles on the butterfly body and a few sticky gems on the bottom of the card.
The butterfly die is really beautiful and cuts so cleanly and easily. I can see me using this a lot.

WOYWW #59

Well, this week I have been waiting anxiously for Wednesday so that I could get back in my little room, make a mess and hopefully, some nice looking crafty things.
Yesterday was one of those ' it's all that bloomin' Heather's fault' days. Not only did she drive me mad with her 'parrot' card - so much so that I just had to make a big photocopy of it and stick it on the inside of my cupboard door - she is now driving me potty with her dragonflies. (have a look at page 48 in her book to find out what the lure is).


'Peg Leg' and I drove all round Preston and Thornton yesterday looking for beads and wire so I could make some special ones for a couple of extra special cards I need to make, and not only did we clock up around 70miles, but I came back over £30 poorer!!!


I did however, come home to a lovely surprise. There is a sneak peek at it above, but here it is in full glory together with some more pesky parrots.


A massive and very grateful thanks to our woyww leader, Julia, and her DH, for letting me have this lovely keepsake. I will treasure it always - although in time I may just 'alter' it!

Anyway, my little workdesk is unusually messy for me. Generally I have to keep tidy 'cos I don't have room to do anything if I don't, but this week is a 'let your hair down and go for it' week after having spent the last 5 Wednesdays away. The shelves above it are in a mess too 'cos they are full of my recent Tim and Martha Stewart stash buys.



I have been playing with gesso and then putting alcohol inks over the top, to make some ATC backgrounds. It seems to work so I'll keep on with this little trick.


The wonderful Tim Holtz has been tempting us once again with sneaky peeks at his new summer CHA releases. His new Sizzix dies are amazing, especially the tree, which is going to be another necessity, but he is also bringing out new distress stickles to match his last set of 12 ink pads. My stickles storage is full, so I now have another job on - finding some more crafty space................
Have a wonderful day folk.

THE MATCHING PAGE

At last I've managed to make the matching page to the one a couple of posts below. I've now used all my large grungeboard swirls so that's another reason to be excited about the new Tim Holtz Sizzix die which is top of my 'want' - sorry - 'need' list.

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and that Santa came to your house.

My very best wishes for a wonderful 2010 to everyone out there. xx

ALTERATIONS

I just knew 2010 was going to be exciting.

Check out Tim Holtz's latest blog where he describes his new range - ALTERATIONS. This is the name of his range of dies which he has designed for Sizzix.

I for one cannot wait, especially for the scrolls and flourishes, which will be an amazing addition to the crafting booty. To be able to cut those intricate designs from grungeboard and papers ourselves will add such a lot to cards and scrap pages. I love flourishes of all kinds, stamps, rub ons, peel offs etc. so a die is a must for me.

I made this page a couple of months ago. The flourish is from a grungeboard set and shows the type which can be achieved with the new dies. I am about to make the facing page and now won't bother about using my last grunge flourish - not that Toby isn't worth it anyway!

21st DECEMBER

Today is such a great day to me. I spend time 'oodling' over all the gorgeous and generous presents I received the day before for my birthday whilst looking forward to tomorrow when the days begin to grow longer once again. Yes, the shortest day of the year is a good one.

Despite freezing conditions, snow flurries and not so good driving conditions, my hubby took me to Dawn's yesterday where I met up with the 'bubbly' Lindsay Mason, who was demoing, and where I spent some of my gift vouchers. Apart from some distress ink pads, the photo shows my purchases. I really enjoyed myself. He then whisked me back along the motorway to enjoy a birthday meal. I even relented and had pudding. Not something I usually do, but I had an enormous dark chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. It was really good.

Just had to include a photo of a beautiful card from my friend Sylvia. I love the colours, which are my favourite.

Also, a big thank you for all the emails and ecards.

2010 is going to be a fantastic crafting year - I've made my mind up! One of the best bits for me is the launch of 12 new distress ink pads from Tim Holtz. The colours look amazing and I will get every one! And, he has teamed up with Sizzix!! Now that really sounds exciting. I think another re-shuffle in my workroom is called for.

THE 12TH TAG

Well, Tim saved the best 'til last.

I have wanted to make grunge flowers since I saw them at CHA earlier in the year. Today was the day.

I didn't have the Sizzix die that Tim used, but I do have a 6 petal daisy die and as he said that almost any 6 petal flower would normally do, I proceeded. I did find however, that the petals were a bit long which made the cuts off line. After much fiddling, I finally made 2 roses.

The red rose is coloured with fired brick ink and red perfect pearls but the blue/green one is coloured with craftynotions spray inks. I used Hero Arts gems to make my own sparkly swirls. The photo is bad due to light, or lack of light but if I can, I intend to photo all 12 tomorrow in order to email Tim and hopefully, win the grand prize!

I have sooo enjoyed these past 12 days, so I send a great big THANK YOU to Tim Holtz for giving his time to create the 12 Tags of Christmas for the 3rd year running - roll on 2010!

PS Looking at the state of my hands, I bet Tim went to bed last night, laughing his head off knowing how many crafters throughout the world would have coloured fingers today. I've used everything, including blending solution, but nothing is working!!!! It's such fun.