Roses on my table

I almost forgot to share this with you, just found it on my memory card !

This was my 'card' for Neil this Valentine's day.

It's actually a little tag book ( I think it is called a flag book in America) and was a class I attended with Linda, thanks hon - loved the class and the little book and so did Neil

I added a little pocket to the inside front cover when I got home, as I had bought Neil a magazine subscription as his Valentine gift and I wanted to include the details.

I added a photo of the two of us together in the back, he keeps nagging me for new photos and I can see why when I look at the photo. I was a size 16 here and a full two stones heavier than I am now, I have dropped down to a comfortable 12 and still have a little way to go. Why is it that we don't truly realise how chunky we are until we see a photo of ourselves ?

And a view of all the little tags (or flags)

They have all been decorated with Stampin' Up punches, stamps and die cuts.

The class was fabulous and fun, Linda is such a good teacher and has lots of tips and tricks up her sleeve, she also has oodles of patience. I did behave myself and Anita kind of did - just don't mention the glue !!!

It was also my lovely niece Katie's birthday yesterday, she turned 14  ( happy birthday Katie - love you xxx)

I created the background with Distress inks in Fired Brick, Worn Lipstick and Dusty Concord. I then spattered on some water and dried with my heat tool before stamping and embossing the images in black.

The sentiment was computer generated.

A second bouquet to share this week, this beautiful bunch of bulbs was given to me by Rose, thankyou so much, they are so bright and cheerful xxx

As I am signing of with a photo of some lovely flowers, I thought I would add a floral quote too.

I'd rather have roses on my table,

Than diamonds on my neck.

Emma Goldman

Heaven on earth

And again a few more cards to share with you this evening

First up the card I made Darcy for her birthday, Darcy's fave colours are black red and purple, so I thought - what the heck and managed to incorporate all three colours, she isn't keen on cutesy twee stuff either, so I went with a classic design

The 'happy birthday' sentiment is by Inkadinkadoo, the medallion is by Stampin' Up as is the flower stamped in versamark as a background on the Kraft cardstock

And I have the two class cards I taught this week

We used an embossing folder and brayered and stamped onto the reverse ie debossed side to create our own patterned paper

And, as masculine cards always seem to be a pain in the posterior, I also created this more manly style for our second card. We used white ink stencilled onto the die cut  fancy frame as a background for the vintage car, which was rubbed with coloured wax to highlight the embossing and to give a slightly metallic sheen.

And thats it for this evening, I will be back tomorrow with some more finished projects for you, but right now I have a book on my Kindle calling me, so I will bid you all a very goodnight and leave you with another quote from one of my little books.

On earth there is no heaven

But there are pieces of it

Jules Renard

I mentioned yesterday that February is a busy card-making month for me, here are another couple I have made this past week.

First up I have one I made for Andrea. Andrea is one of my special ladies from the shop and has recently celebrated one of the milestone birthdays.

I used Melissa Frances papers and lots of lovely flowers, the crocheted one was one from either Anita or Nicki, who both made me lots of flowers, they are all now mixed up and in one tin, so I can't remember which of my lovely friends is responsible for this particular one but I am grateful for them all, so thankyou girls xxx

I kept the inside simple with a stamped verse and some delicate stamped detailing around the edge of the insert.

It was also my granny's birthday on the 13th, she turned 96 bless her heart !

The image is a digi one and the sentiment computer generated, the papers are from a DCWV luxury stack and are beautifully pearlescent.

I added a little touch of stickles on the bouquet of flowers.

For my birthday Margaret gave me a gorgeous gift bag filled with quote books and note books. She knows me well, I love quotes and reading, I enjoy words fullstop but there is a special kind of magic when they are put together in quotes.

Quotes make beautiful and unusual sentiments in cards and interesting journalling for scrapbook pages, they are inspiring on many levels and have often been a catalyst for my art journalling pages, so the gift was both thoughtful and incredibly inspiring.

I have decided to share a quote from one or other of the books each time I blog.

In every out thrust headland,

In every curving beach,

In every grain of sand, 

There is a story of the earth

Rachel Carson

  

With all my heart

Happy valentines day to all my lovely blog readers, I hope you have all shared your day with someone you truly love - I know I have.

I have been in a crafting frenzy this week and have gazillions of little projects to share, february is a very very busy month birthday-wise in our house, but I won't bore you with all my projects in one post, I shall try and eek them out a little over the week.

First up I have a little mini book I made for my lovely friend Trish, it was her birthday on the 10th.

Trish has always been a big support to me and has become very dear to me over the last couple of years, I wanted to make a little something to let her know what a special friend she is.

The papers were really pretty colours and designs, so I kept my embellishments fairly simple.

I added lots of friendship quotes, mostly computer generated with a little stamping in there too.

And the little pockets on each right hand page house tags, which I have written messages on the back of.

Each page opens at the top to create pockets, each of which houses a larger tag.

I also have my next page for my Life Book to share with you this evening.

Anyone who knows me well, knows I am drawn to hearts and all things cordate, it must be something to do with me being a valentine baby but regardless of the why's and wherefores I do tend to end up with hearts in most of my projects.  

I drew my girl in pencil ( if you look closely, you can see her face is also heart shaped) I painted her with neo colours and added further colour with polychromos pencils.

The background was all doodled and then painted with neocolours, I redefined the doodled lines with a Pitt Artist pen, I like to use the Superfine nib and use a medium one for bolder lines or shading.

I have had an amazing day, thankyou to everyone for their birthday wishes, cards and gifts, I have been spoiled rotten all day by my family, friends and exoteric family.

We had a lovely afternoon crafting, we have a tuesday afternoon crafters club at the shop ( looking for a catchy name - any suggestions ???)

We actually managed to get quite a lot done, almost finished a mini book, thanks Anita for the tutorial. We laughed all afternoon and also managed to stuff our faces full of cupcakes - thanks to Leanne, Lindas lovely daughter who makes the most amazing little edible wonders.

( Sorry for the poor photo, I left my Leica at home and took this with my iphone, love love love my iphone but it doesn't take the best pics)

And then after tea ( Dominoes pizza yummmmmmm) Neil brought out this fabulous chocolate indulgence ( everyone knows me sooooo well lol)

I truly am blessed to have so many wonderful, kind and supportive people in my life - thankyou all.

I love you all, with all my heart xxx

Fun and games

Last weeks class card

Some beautiful new papers which arrived in the shop last week and we used Distress inks in embossing folders for a lovely two toned embossed look

Also this week

Beryl brought me in these gorgeous flowers, a lovely nod to spring when the weather outside is anything but springlike, the weather failed to hit positive figures here in frosty Lincolnshire today.

Today was the day we celebrated the shops birthday, 3 years old this week

The time has just flown by and has been filled with so many wonderful experiences, especially the new friends we have made along the way.

We have built up class members from a mere 6 right at the beginning to over 60 regular crafters on the books for various classes

We have gone from one weekly card class, to classes on almost every day of the week with regluar special classes, crops, workshops and demonstrations

The stock has tripled since we took over in Feb 2009

We have had a complete refurbishment from the front of the shop right the way through to the kitchen

And this has all been possible because of all the fabulous support of our family, friends and customers

THANKYOU  ALL so very much

We had organised some quizzes and games to play, although it was hard to tell who actually won any of them as there was some pretty blatant cheating going on. I cannot depone positively to the culprits of the said cheating on the grounds it may incriminate me, suffice it to say both Anita and I were reprimanded by Margaret on more than one occasion, we were on the receiving end of several of her infamous bossy but good natured screeds. ( At least we all now know what a 'fluffer' does - thanks Anita lol)

Lots of food, fun, laughter and excellent company, it felt a little piacular to be having such a good time at work - I guess I have the best job ever !!!

Thankyou very much to Trish who provided us with the most delicious parkin loaf and chocolate cake.

We have three lovely baskets of goodies to raffle, all proceeds will be going to St Andrews Hospice, the tickets will be available to buy in the shop until next saturday.

Sorry there are no snapshots of the party itself, we were all having such a giggle we completely forgot about the camera, story of my life lol

Huge thanks to my ever reliable right hand ladies Anita and Margaret who both go above and beyond to help me organise events like these - thankyou both xxx

Thankyou to everyone who donated raffle prizes too.

Birthday wishes to both Trish ( for yesterday) and Andrea for today who both shared their celebrations with us today.

So on that note I will bid you all a very good night and here's to another 30 years of fun and laughter and happy crafting ( Rose informed me today that she is not going to allow me to stop for a good while yet lol xxx)

Art Calendar - February

My february pages for Kate Cranes art calendar challenge

I created the background with lots of layers of text pieces, all adhered to the page with Matt Medium. Once dry I scribbled randomly over the page in pinks, reds and apricot with my neocolours, which were then blended with water, I dabbed off some of the colour as I went along to give a random shabby look to the background.

February holds many birthdays for our family and of course Valentines day so I could not resist masses of hearts and one of the most famous love quotes, cribbed shamelessly from The Beatles.

And the pages from January all filled in with my daily journalling, I tried really hard not to write the boring stuff, ie did the ironing, cleaned the cooker ( although maybe one of two did slip in - oops) Those sort of things go without saying and happen on a daily basis, so, I am going to try and be a little more descriptive and include events and descriptions that are a little more revealing as to the way my day/week etc is going - well as much as the little space will allow ! 

Hopefully this will make the book a little more interesting to read back in years to come, although I have already caught AJ on several occasions reading through it, I love the way the family all take an interest in my art, this one especially as it is a little insight into our family times.

I will be back tomorrow with sneek peeks of my post for IACW, tomorrow is my next day for DT and I have a cute little something to share.

Circle of friends

For a friend who has just celebrated a birthday, she loves all things Tim Holtz, so I used Tim papers and ribbon to create the card

The stamp I used is a Hero Arts cling stamp, which I have stamped twice, the second time being to achieve the coloured butterflies, which have also been stickled to add a little sparkle.

I also have my pages for our circle journal, we are almost half way through the year now and these are my pages for Jackie

I used my gorgeous new mask, which was a gift from my lovely friend Nicki, thanks honey - I love it xxx

The hearts are a little filiopietistic, I have Tam to thanks for inspiring me with those, Tams Life book course has inspired me in many ways and it has been so easy to adopt some of the ideas and attach them to other projects.

And the tag, which also holds my personal information on the back so that Jackie knows who completed this page for her.

I have also finished my February pages for Kate Cranes art calendar challenge but I keep forgetting to take photos of them whilst the light is good, will try and get those shot and shared tomorrow.

Postcard challenge, week 5 - France

I prepared the background of my postcard by rubbing on three shades of distress inks ( old paper, antique linen and frayed burlap) and then spattering with water to create a pied appearance

I stamped the elegant doyenne Madame Berth with black waterproof ink, coloured her with my neocolours and then masked her off to create the frame

The frame was created by using a blending tool to apply milled lavender, dusty concord and fired brick distress inks, which I then over stamped with a black ink using a large backgrounder stamp

I finished the frame with some wavy lines drawn on with a superfine Pitt artist pen.

And the rear of the postcard with a genuine french postage stamp

Sammy has discovered a little about her parents from the documents forwarded to her by Kathy.

Her mood has deteriorated and she is not enjoying France. Her boss is not helping.

The back of the postcard reads :

Kathy

My father - Paul Franks, died in a motorcycle accident before I was born.

My mother disappeared after leaving me at the door of my adoptive parents. 

How could she leave me Kathy ???

I was all she had left, will I ever find her ?

Paris is awful, I hate it!!!

It is expensive, over-rated and dirty !

Carlton's short temper and quiet moods since I confided in him are making me even more miserable !

I would go home, but I don't feel like I belong anywhere !!!

S.

Her handwriting is more erratic as she scratches out the words, her disappointment at drawing a blank with her mother and the mixed feelings of losing a father she never knew are tainting her generally optimistic and sunny nature. There is none of the friendly enquiries regarding her friend Kathy and she has not even mentioned the mysterious Spencer. Will she continue to search for her mother ? Will she put up with her moody boss and all the constant travelling ? Can Kathy help her ?

To see all the other postcards and to find out what this postcard challenge is all about - hop on over to Darcy's blog HERE

Today is also an extra special day as my boy turns sweet 16

Happy birthday Rob - love you son xxx

This is the card I made for him from me and his dad

It's terrifying how quick time flies, a sixteen year old and an 18 year old in the house, it seems only yesterday when the house was cluttered with toy trucks, dolls and nappies.

Go forth

January's ATC's for the swap on our forum

The theme this month was NAUTICAL

Here is my swap

I created the background using the direct to paper technique with several shades of distress ink ( pumice stone, weathered wood, antique linen and frayed burlap) 

I then stamped the vintage maritime map in close to cocoa by Stampin' Up

Horatio was computer generated as was the quote, both were printed onto textured cardstock and inked

The compass was stamped and embossed in gold ink

This was actually my second series of ATC's for this month. Filling in the backs of my original set I was compelled to follow my caprice and move away from the original rather modern looking sailing ships and instead pursued a more historical theme and style.

And here are the swaps we received from our very talented ATC'ers

In no particular order

Nicki

Jan

 Debbie

Margaret

Anita

Janet

Thankyou to everyone who has taken part this month, it was fantastic to see the various ways the theme was interpreted. It always amazes me how each swapee manages to excogitate such variety from a single subject.

I am going to add a little spice to the challenge this month

There will be a winner chosen each month from february onwards.

The lucky winner will receive a small RAK from myself, ie a little baggie with some embellishments, just for fun

Also they will get to choose a future months theme

Up to now we have themes on the site up to and including May, so the winner of february's swap will receive a little bag of goodies, 5 yummy ATC's and will choose the winner for the month of June and so on throughout the year

The ATC swap is open to all so if you fancy playing along, the rules and guidelines are 

HERE

and the next months swap is HERE

February's theme is LOVE and you must include the colour PINK somewhere on your ATC

If you do take part please have your swaps into the shop by 29th February and you will need to send in a stamped and self addressed envelope for your returned swaps, please check the website for all other details including address and full details of the swap.