I'm back and doing the Sunday Stamper too!

Can't believe it took so long to decorate the craftroom! I had even forgotten all my passwords etc for loading this post! Well I did have a new granddaughter Heidi Barbara Ann, finished a quilt, knitted baby clothes and two cardigans for myself, started a Christmas patchwork runner for the table, kept working, redecorated the dining end of the kitchen - ok, I'm stretching the truth a bit here, but I did keep dear Hubby supplied with refreshments while he did it, went up North to watch the Tour, explored Chatsworth, saw the poppies at the Tower, kept working, did the Beatles tour in Liverpool, had a short break in Cornwall with my dearest friend, kept working oh yes and kept working!

It is so good to be back playing again, here are a few photos of the newly organised craftroom!



One Christmas card made, santas sleigh on a dummy run! Ink pads to the ready.

 

I love my rainbow towers!  Can't find anything yet as labels not on but everything is in there!

 

Machines out on the work top. I used to work on a tiny ten inch square of this it got covered in so much! My table top is under siege but I did have four new crafters on Saturday trying it out!

 

Papers sorted, vagabond at attention, bookshelves cleared of things I will never read again, but full up already!

 

Colour and medium graded. Whoopeee!

 

Now for some work. I have made a fun stamp for Hels Sunday Stamper, the theme is anything Sewing and stitches.

 

To get me going again I did something simples, and stamped out two patchwork owls and then pieced them with different papers. I got the set some time ago out of a stamping magazine and hadn't used them. Put some faux stitched around and cut up a sentiment from another set. Inky fingers again, loverly! Sometimes simples does it for me. Think my dear friend will be receiving this one!

Thank you if you have called by, I shall post again soon. I went to the NEC on Friday and brought a lovely stamp set for Christmas, so I will show you those!

Goodbye for now from one happy crafter. x

This is just a quick post in despair! Has anyone else experienced redoing their craft room to find that it takes ten times as long as you think? I have thrown out or passed on countless bags of 'stuf' that i either forgot I had or in a fit think I will never use! I have a horrid feeling that I shall need these 'things' in the very near future if I ever get straight and can craft again. I am now pondering whether to buy a cheap kitchen table and chairs for the center of the room so that if I have friends round we could sit at it. I don't know whether this is a good idea or not, but in the past have had to bring down all my gear to the kitchen table if friends want to craft with me. I've purchased some rainbow coloured storage towers for my bits and will be so happy when I can post a completed photo and something I have made! Fingers crossed please peeps that it will not be too long, best crafting wishes to you all and any ideas for craft room heaven will be gratefully received!

I'm now going back upstairs armed with even more black dustbin bags.

This is the first month in years that I have missed doing at least Tim's tag, but I can't remember what drawer I have put things in as the labelling is not done yet.Wish me luck! xx

Tims' tag for July.

I haven't left the country honest! I am trying to re-fit my craft room which has meant taking everything out and stacking it in the spare room, not quite there yet I had more than I realised! I have kept one box of essentials which has meant that I cannot papercraft for a while but I wanted to try and keep up with Tims' tags, here is the link for his July one. Not quite everything I needed to hand but I did my best!



I have put my seahorse under the sea, I didn't mean to but couldn't put my computer in front of me while I worked and so got things slightly different from Tims' tag. Also I can't find the box with all of my distress bits in and the sand is a darker yellow, but I followed the recipe and love the technique! I didn't have the movers and shapers to get the size of the sand dollar right so I used a mother of pearl button and some gold paint that I could reach!

As well as the craft re-furbishment I have had the gift of a new grandchild, Heidi Barbara Ann and she is beautiful. I finished a summer cardigan, the top of a lap quilt, visited Yorkshire to see the Tour begin and am making what feels like hundreds of wedding invitations for my youngest daughter on my lap, so I have kept myself busy - oh yes and work of course!  If you are visiting me and haven't forgotten I exist then thank you so much, I miss you all and hope to be back in full swing in the not too distant future! Big hugs to everyone. xx

Tim's tag for June

I know, absent for ages! My eye has healed nicely now and I have been knitting and sewing which I will blog later, but just in time for Tim's tag for June which you can see here  and I love the stencilling technique he has shown us this month. I thought I would try for a summer version and knew I had some little metal flip flops in my stash that would go well, took me ages to find them tho'! 



 

 

 

I used his dot fade stencil and Mustard Seed, Squeezed Lemonade and Mowed Lawn DI using his taught method. Then I used the Mini Blueprint 6 set for the pop bottle and ice-cream cone which I layered up. Then the Lime Soda cap  and flip flops seemed to go just right with the sentiment on the side. Love this one Tim, can see me using the stencils for all sorts of backgrounds!

 

Sorry to my dear bogging friends for my absence in leaving comments, hopefully I will get into the rhythm now! See you soon, x.

A Vintage Journey. challenge 7 - Get Some Texture.

Hi peeps. Feeling a tadge sore today. I won't bore you with gruesome pix but I had a BCC (not nice thingy) removed from my eyelid yesterday. The surgeon was marvelous, I'm glad it's gone but I'm sporting a lovely black eye today and I don't look my best. No work until tomorrow so I thought I would cheer myself up in the craftroom with the Vintage Journey challenge where Jenny from Pushing the Right Buttons has challenged us to make something Tim styled using textures. I decided to make a door hanging for the Craftroom, and as Hubby always asks if I'm off to 'play' that's the theme going on!

 

I painted the door hanging first with DS and then cut some manilla card to size. The layers are thus:

 

* I stamped randomly with some Tim stamps but they are covered over now and added some pieces of tissue tape.

* I inked and stencilled with a harlequin background stamp and stencil in DI's  

then I poured clear embossing powder over some of the images. 

* Next I layed the Clock stencil over the top and used Cosmic clear embossing paste over the top and before it was dry I sprinkled DG over the top. When I had brushed off some of the DG the background peeped through.

*Then I found a Time stamp which fitted over one of the clock shapes perfectly.

* Next I used an old clock face, a metal clog that I distressed with DP  and a Shrink Plastic clog that got the same treatment and hot glue gunned them into place.

* The 'Play' was die cut from a decorative strip die and placed over a piece of hesssian.

*The 'spend some time with me'  coin I coloured with alcohol ink.

* The little blackboard was a freebie from a magazine so I added a chalk effect 'Barb's' on top!

* Oh, and I mustn't forget the numbered rub-ons.

 

Quite a few Tim techniques here, but I guess the main one that is relevant to the challenge is to use embossing past through the stencil. See Tim's how to here.

Off now to 'play '-  oh life is so hard sometimes!!!

 

Tims tag for May.

Before I start waxing lyrical about Tims' tag for this month I have to say a big thank you to him for the Tonic shears! Loving my Tim scissors so much I have just invested in a new pair of his bigger shears and they are awesome, cut lovely long pieces straight and are really comfortable to use. A very good investment I think.

This months tag is beautiful, find Tims here where he has used some lovely treasures on his and invites us to do the same. I have had a small collection of RSPB metal pins for ages - even years, and so decided to use them on my tag.

 

I used different blue DS on the base of my tag against which my  birds can fly off into the summer sky! I love the wildflower paper stash it is my favourite so far, so used the Shadowpress 'beautiful to start me off. Then I cut the back off my little bird pins with my new scissors - so easy to cut so many different materials with them, and used appropriate bird theme pieces of the paper to cover.

 

 

I also had some beautiful spottted bird feathers that I used, I knew they would be useful one day!

Then I found some metal letters that I put on the metal frame with another feather.

 

Here are the other birds.

 

I finished it off with some black and white spotted ribbon to match the feathers. I am glad my little metal pins found such a good home! I'm off now to play with my new scissors to cut out some more tiles to put some other treasures on I have unearthed! Have a lovely bank holiday everyone. The sun has just come out again!  X

Compendium of Curiosities 3. Challenge 2.

I have enjoyed myself dreaming while I made my contribution to CC 3, hosted by the lovely Linda Ledbetter, press on the LINK here and be transported to the lovely projects everyone has made. The challenge this time is to use Tims' Distress Glitter technique, found on page 56 of his wonderful new book. The added bonus this time is that the challenge is sponsored by the wonderful Linda Coughlin of THE FUNKIE JUNKIE BOUTIQUE with a $25 gift cerfificate to one very lucky wonner. I'm dreaming because I spent last weekend at the seaside, with wonderfull weather here in the UK, so welcome after our wet winter, and all I want is a seaside house so that I can watch the sea and walk along the beach picking up bits and bobs! So I have tried to capture this in my tag,

 

I love weather-beaten, so here is my Rickety House, complete with acetate windows, a sea-view and pieces from the beach I picked up on Sunday. I took a Prima tag, used Broken china and Salty Ocean DI on the top half and Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey DI on the lower half. Then I die cut the Ricketty house from layered Grunge board and paper and coloured the roof with DM's in Walnut Stain, Frayed Burlap and Brushed Corduroy. I made the life belt (incase the sea gets rough) from scrap card coloured with DM's and then I used Tims' glitter technique on two pieces of torn manilla, using Mustard Seed glitter which I shadow inked with Walnut stain. The Sand Dune grass is cut from paper stamped and treated with the various green DI's and then I glued on some tiny pebbles and shells with Glossy Accents. The glitter makes very realistic sand I feel, glittering because the sun is shining! Then I found a small seabird stamp and a tiny sentiment that says it all! I topped it all with some scrim and inked the edges of the tag with Black soot DI.

Wish I was there! Thank you for looking. Love me. x