Something Very Different!

This certainly is something a bit different for me ... hardly any stamping or inks or nuffink!

That is one of the best things about being on a design team ... you get sent goodies that you would overlook when laid out in a shop. I received these Nikki Sivil chipboard trees ... the 6X6 papers ... some breadless tags and some journal stamps! The remit was to create a challenge for the Fall Fling ... an online crop that was held on the Kit 'n' Kaboodles forum Saturday last. Thank you all for your well wishes by the way ... it all went very smoothly and was really good fun!

I went through so many different ideas before I settled on this mini book.  I am still not sure if I like it ... LOVE the pictures of my babies of course ... they will moan ... publishing pictures again without consent ... but if you read my lovely daughter's comment here outting me ... well you will see it as reasonable retort I'm sure! What they have to complain about is beyond me ... they are sooooooooooo cute :0) And is n't it a mother's duty to embarrass her children from time to time?

Anyway this particular cutie is graduating on Wednesday and I am extremely proud of her! I shall move swiftly on before this post gets really slushy and sentimental!

The lovely, very funny and ever so slightly mad Carmen gave me a blog award at the weekend for which I am truly grateful ... I shall ponder what to do with it and pass it on in due course! Thank you Carmen.

If you have missed me talking about Tim ... the man that could construct London Bridge with a spare half hour and a handful of brads ... Holtz ... have no fear ... I got to talk all about him in my blog post for Bubbly Scrumptious today ... do pop over and say Hi!

I hope your week's all started well ... and they continue that way!

Keeping Promises!

I am not sure how many of you will remember this card ... from last Christmas ... hands up please :0)

Well ... just to update those of you still with your hands down ... I made several ... all very similar but in different colours and blogged them all.

So Why are you blogging them again? I hear you ask ... probably those of you still with your hands up anyway :0) ... Well they were a bit of a palaver to make to be honest ... and everyone asked if I could explain how I made them ... I promised I would ... and then never did!

This week the lovely people at Scor-it sent me one of their Scor-it mini embossing boards to play with ... it makes the whole card really easy ... I am soooooo chuffed with it ... I can't put it down and have started making these cards in time for Christmas again this year ... I say card ... it is more of a fancy fold book thingy!

I always keep my promises ... I may be a bit slow sometimes ... but I always keep them ... So I thought I would do you a little tutorial to show how they are made ... it is here ... as promised :0)

If you make one ... please come back and share it on this thread and if you don't Hey-Ho or HO HO :0)

Have a good evening ... oh ...

You can put your hands down now :0)

Chip and Bling!

Shall I tell you where I am? Shall I? Huh? Shall I?

I am at my first ever online crop with my CB teamies ... exciting huh? I have to admit to being a tiny bit terrified ... I am posting both my projects between 9pm and 10pm GMT ... which is 4 - 5pm on the message board. I have been pacing up and down for most of the day ... I have checked my internet access 60 zillion times and right at this precise moment ... I will be posting my first challenge thread!

One of my challenges is called Chip and Bling ... hence the beer mat/coaster ... in Aged Mahogany, I might add ... so it will fit in nicely with my Distress inked collection ... I am adding cup hooks to my shelves and when I feel strong I put another one in ... they are a bit tricky to get the thread straight ... but it is too late now to ask John ... Can you imagine the fuss he will make when he see's I have n't measured them or used a spirit level? Nah ... I shall suffer in silence!

The stamps I have used on this mat are mainly Wendy Vecchi ... but the cute little cherries and the sentiment is from Nikki Sivil's "My Sweet Cherry Pie" set. Of course the philosophy tag and the grunge paper are from Tim ... the man that can make the earth move with one finger, some stickles and a vintage game piece ... Holtz.

I hope you are all having a pleasant day - see ya!

Just For the Record!

I have had so many comments of concern about my diet ... whether just eating beans is good for me??? ... the simple truth is I don't! I don't eat many beans at all ... in fact I rarely eat beans ... unless of course I am in the mood for altering a tin and my supply of empty tins has run out! Then I pretend to have a sudden craving and have managed to convince John to change the menu on at least one occasion!

I am a bit fussy about the tins I use too ... they have to be the ring pull ones ... so that I can get rid of any sharp edges with a pair of pliers ... round nose or otherwise ... in fact anything that comes to hand at the time.

John recently purchased a new tin opener though ... he insists on saving the pennies and not buying ring pull versions of tins and this method leaves a nasty and potentially hazardous sharp edge ... I moan ... and stamp ... he takes no notice whatsoever and continues to irritate me with his new toy!

The simple truth is I have empty bean can suppliers ... otherwise known as friends and family ... that collect the tins and even deliver them at no extra cost ... How cool is that?

My best supplier is a lovely lady that I don't even know ... she is the cook in a children's nursery where my daughter works ... she washes the tins and puts them to one side for me ... now that is real recycling.

The next question I get asked ... lots ...  is what I do with the altered tins ... most of the ones that you have seen on this blog are displayed either at shows or in shops ... I get to keep the occasional one ... I use those for storing pens and tools and brushes etc.,!

I have also given a few away as gifts for crafty mates and that is about it!

The tin I am displaying today was made with my lovely Bind-it-all ... some TSS pearl metal which I painted in Turquoise Precious metal colour and then decorated with the Swiss dots Cuttlebug folder ... the snowflakes were made using a Spellbinder die.

If you have a spare five minutes don't forget I am blogging here today too and I sure could use some of your lovely company! I am off to make a family tree ... nothing to do with beans what so ever :0)

Have a good weekend y'all!

Perfect Timing!

As many of you know I recently attended the ArtsyCrafts weekend at Newport Pagnall ... for those of you that don't know ... where have you been :0)

This time piece was the main project for the weekend and the making of it really was timed to perfection. I am not the fastest crafter and quite often I have to leave a workshop with a half finished piece ... but the weekend was so well organised that even I got to finish!

And let's be honest this is n't your run of the mill average workshop project either ... we played with canvas and gesso and paint and ink and glimmer mists and stamps and moulds and cuttlebug folders and that was just the canvas at the back. *Deep breath*

For the clock face there was Terra and paint and stamps and metal and glimmer mists and precious metal paints and even a sandwich ;0)

I learnt so much on this one project ... well to tell you about it all would take hours and hours ... best you go on the next ArtsyCrafts weekend and find out for yourself!

Have a great time [geddit???] whatever you are doing!

By Popular Demand!

I love that blogging peeps are so honest about being really nosey ... and being open and honest about nosiness has been transformed into the fashionable thing to do on a Wednesday by Mrs Dunnit ... it takes the form of WOYWW and all voyeurs will list themselves throughout the day on this link! So don't get left behind or be last season daahling ... join in :0) A quick aside to Trish here ... I don't watch Strictly but I do keep up to date with it and I love CRH on BBC breakfast on a Monday!

My desk today is rather dull ... it looks pretty much the same as it did last week ... only with a different project on it ... I am getting rather good at finding places for bits and bobs on the edge of my white space as Kathy .... so nicely puts it ... so I have gone for the please let's look in your drawers request ... I could not face opening each drawer ... taking a picture and then showing you the contents ... I have 69 drawers in my craft room ... yes ... I just went and counted them ... so you will have to squint to look at the contents ... having said that I am rather proud of the fact that they are all neatly labelled :0)

The mini arch book is another project from the ArtsyCrafts weekend ... this was the final project ... I still have the main project to blog ... but I am saving that for another day! It is definitely something I will be making again and again in different themes.

More Tin-kering!

First things first ... I am rather proud of that heading ... I was running out of bean headlines :0) I wonder if you are as impressed as I am? I am thinking probably not *LOL*

Lin and I thought that it was time to show you another metal bean tin ... this was actually the first of the three metal ones that I made. You can see the other two here and here ... just in case you missed them first time around!

This one is made with the yummily luscious plum metal from Ten Second Studios and Big Daddy number 1 mould. The rose is made with the Wendy Vecchi dimensional rose art sheet as are the leafs. Both the leafs and the roses are backed with Claudine Hellmuth's sticky backed canvas.

This time the corset sides were bound using my crop-a-dile and large eyelets and then tied using 7 gypsies waxed cotton with a few beads to pretty it up a bit.

In case you are wondering how the synchronised blogging campaign is going ... well I am planning on lobbying the government ... it would be great to have it as a sport in the 2012 Olympics and Lin and I are just so good ... well we would definitely be favourites for the British team ... I have always wanted to be in the Olympics and the lack of any physical exertion involved in this new sport is very appealing to me :0)

Anybody else who has got any ideas for Olympic events ... which would be related to crafting and blogging and not actually moving from my craft room ... would be very welcome in the comments ... just in case I get turned down :0)

There Ought to be Clowns!

It has been a while ... but when Moira sent me some canvases to play with ... well I got stuck straight in! And play I did! The canvases came with an ickle mini easel which is totally cute!

This canvas is 10cmX10cm and I covered it with Claudine Hellmuth's matte multi-medium before painting and stamping... and then again to seal it. The stamps I have used are Artistic Outpost "Send in the Clowns" and they are my new favourite! 

I know there are probably several bloggers out there that don't like clowns ... perhaps you could tell me why in your comments ... I have never really got that one ... I get Marmite and Tilda ... but clowns are just there to make us laugh ... are n't they????

The harlequin border around the sides is a Crafty Individuals stamp and the text stamped on top of that is from the "Send in the clowns" sheet too. You get loads for your money on that sheet I can tell you!

You will all be totally relieved to know that I am still showing no signs of man flu ... well I say that ... I sneezed earlier when a bit of dust went up my nose ... perhaps I have got man flu and should lay down in a darkened room :0)

If you want to read some more of my inane drivel ... I can't believe I spelt that right first time ... truly I did ... without spell checking and everything ... I will now be appearing on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog ... starting today ... every Monday ... as part of the Bubbly funk design team ... it would be totally cool if you popped in and said Hi.

Happy Monday people ... see you tomorrow ... or later if you have blogged :0)

Nawty Blogger!

This time I am not the nawty blogger either ... tis blogger ... I wanted to post this card yesterday ... but blogger went down for hours and hours ... for me anyway! It was most frustrating ... and I hope somebody somewhere is doing their utmost to prevent it happening again ... ever :0)

Now I have got that off me chest I can tell you about this totally cute stamp ...

I have used most of the lime green promarkers on my card and I have added some paper flowers which were made using Basic Grey 6X6 Sultry range and the Artistic Stamper's flower power stamp. The totally cute stamp is again from the Artistic Stamper ... but this time from the Mabel Lucie Attwell range.

John has got man flu ... I am not good at sympathy ... so I am hiding in my craft room ... he is still managing to cook the dinner ... so you can all rest assured ... I won't starve :0)

Enjoy the last little bit of your weekends ... Byeeee!

**Blog Candy Winner**

I am delighted to announce the winner of my test card Halloween Blog Candy as chosen by Random.org was
**Drumroll**
Tanja Congratulations Tanja.

Thank you to everyone that took part!

All Hallow's Eve!

I have been pumpkin carving and this is the end result ... Happy Halloween everyone!
At midnight tonight I will be wrestling with Monsieur Random-org to find out the winner of the candy ... you still have time to join in ... just click here.
As part of my Zutter submission I made a little candy box from beer mats ... I see it is on the Bind it all blog too ... which is very exciting :0) For me anyway ... possibly not so exciting for you :0)
I stamped with those stamps again ... you know the ones that are grey rubber when you buy them at a show with the price scribbled on the back ... the ones that I can never remember who makes them and Hels has told me at least twice and I still can't remember ... old age don't you know!
The letters, bats, pumpkin are all grunge board die cuts from Tim ... the man that can make candy with a glue stick and some stickles while riding a unicycle up a very steep hill ... Holtz.
There was a slight problem with this piece though ... I had to open a rather large bag of chocolate to fill the box and then I ate the said rather large bag ... now I need to tell John that I have eaten it ... because I need him to go get more before all the littlies start knocking on the door later :0) Oops ... they were n't half good though ... especially the Skittles ... it has been yonks since I had them!
All that is left is for me to say a big Thank you so much to everyone that popped over to the Kaboodles blog yesterday ... to say Hi ... it really was very much appreciated.
Have a spookilicious day whatever you are doing!

Blogging on Another Blog!

I am a member of the new Design Team at Creativity Boutique ... I have had sooooo much fun playing with Stampendous stamps and the other goodies I got to mess around with! Which I can't tell you about yet :0)

Totally yummy goodness!

But there is a scary side too ... I blog on their blog ... now ... you know me ... I ramble about all kinds of nonsense here ... well it's home ... and I can do what I like ... but now on a Friday ... I shall be appearing there too! Do you think they are expecting a grown up?

Later today is the first day and I am a little bit terrified ... I drafted my post yesterday and have checked it somewhere between one and two thousand times for spelling errors ... I keep making sure I have added my card ... oh the trauma!!!

You know what's coming ... don't you? ... please pop over and say Hi to me on there ... I don't want to be a "Billy no mates" as well as traumatised!!! Oh ... the shame!!!

You can read all about this card over there too ... My first ever Thanksgiving card ... I could do with a fanfare as well as the hard drugs that it is going to take to stop me worrying all night!

Do you know that is pretty Bonkers when you think about it ... well now I have typed it actually... so it does n't post when scheduled at 7am U.S time ... I can just publish as soon as I realise it failed ... so there is a typo ... so I shall just correct it ... so no one comments

... Well ... That will be YOUR fault won't it :0)

Have a good Friday everyone ... and don't forget ... you have another 24 hours exactly to register for this candy!

My Favourite Colour!

It has been ages and ages since I joined in the Theme Thursday blog challenge ... but today I have made myself find time!

The theme is your favourite colour ... no ... not your favourite colour ... mine :0)

My favourite colour at the moment is Brown ... I should put in a note here ... that it does change ... sometimes ... on a daily basis ... but today it is brown ... brushed corduroy brown in particular!

I have used a chipboard shape from a tag book ... another supply from the lovely Wendy Gale and then I have Made Art - Wendy Vecchi style ... I LOVE that lady.

I used all Wendy Vecchi stamps and Ranger inks .. just added a scrap of lace and a few buttons. Not forgetting the fabulous grunge paper of course from Tim ... the man that can tip toe on a high wire... oozing inspiration while designing works of art with his little toe ... and then I blitzed the whole thing with some glimmer mists. Nearly forgot the sewed on pearly beads ... oh yes ... I sewed ... with a needle and cotton and everything :0)

I am now off to argue with the man at Parcel Force ... or lady ... I am not fussed ... please just don't ask ... you really don't want to know!

Have a good day y'all!

This is it!

No ... Not the new Michael Jackson film documentary thingy ... but the state of my desk today!

I can't believe it is Wednesday already and I have only posted once since my last entry into WOYWW!

You are right ... my desk is a complete tip ... but I am in the middle of creating ... I will tidy up when I have finished ... erm ... possibly :0)

I am going to change the subject really quickly now ... the second ArtsyCrafts weekend took place last weekend so I can now share my finished projects with you. Out of the four fab projects we did this is my mostest favourite piece. I LOVE it! Now the regular viewers among you will know ... that for me this is a rarity ... I am my most severest critic and it is not often that I like some of the things I make and I rarely LOVE them! 

This project was called a "bit of me time" and I was lucky enough to be near Dan for this one! Why lucky you ask? ... well it was n't just his scintillating company, charm and talent ... and I am not shallow or nuffink ... but he had the letter "L" in his kit :0) Thanks Dan :0)

I added the little glass jar when I got home and filled it with the little watch parts we were given for decoration ... I have always wanted to bottle time ... well has n't everyone!

To think this started life as a little white box ... clearly demonstrating what wonderful artists and teachers Leandra and Lin are!

Right ... I need to finish creating and then tidy up the mess and then hopefully create some more ... Catch you later!

Bad Blogger!

Sorry guys ... I have been a really bad blogger lately ... in my defence it was n't all my fault ... firstly my t'internet connection played up for two solid days ... I could n't even hop let alone Blog! Then I went to a party where I was plied with copious amounts of alcohol ... I did try to resist ... honest ... I then had to pay for my indulgence with about 16 hours of hang over and finally I have been busying myself making my first DT submissions for the Zutter Design Team ... of which this is one!

In the latest edition of Stamper's Sampler there is a little Christmas Screen and I was completely inspired to go away ... create a larger version and instead of just folding the screen ... binding it ...

I need to start telling you now exactly what I used coz there is a lot on it ... but basically ... chipboard; Bind-it-all; Round-it-all; ribbons; Grunge paper; bells; 3 sets of Dark Room Door stamps; Paper Artsy Egg and Nog plate 2; Gold embossing powder; Ranger Distress inks; Promarkers; Fired Brick Stickles and my favouritist ever Chrissy paper from Cosmo Cricket ... aptly named ... Be Good! ... Trust me ... I do try :0)

I hope you are all having a good week ... I promise I shall visit you all very shortly :0)

WOYWW!

I have n't gone mad ... I will show you my work desk in a mo ... it is just that the picture was pretty naff so I thought I would show the finished card first :0)
This is my entry for the Passion For Promarkers challenge this week where the colour challenge is Poppy red and Forest green.
Those Distress ink fans amongst you will also spot an abundance of Peeled Paint ... I have got a thing about stamping my own background papers at the moment ... I am sure just like all my other things ... this one will pass in time too :0)
All stamps used are by The Artistic Stamper ... the backgrounds and the Mabel Lucie Attwell chappy in his car!
The stitching is faux ... I am loving that word ... faux! I used my inkessentials white pen and my Timmy ... the man that can walk on hot coals with bare feet while making a souffle and grunge paper flowers at the same time ... ruler and pokey tool :0)
Now to the extremely bad piccy of my desk ... this card was on my desk when I entered my craft room this morning in an unfinished state ... along with my ATG gun ... that I LOVE ... and a load of other half finished embellishment things ... that will probably remain half finished until the end of time!
I am off to look at other people's desks now ... with the magic of the tinternet and if you all fancy a nosey then just visit Julia's blog ... where every one links up! And if you fancy joining in this week ... well please do ... the more ... the merrier :0)

Hi Honey ... I'm Home!

I had the best time at the weekend ... great friends ... great classes ... great teachers ... great projects ... great fun ...
And I cannot tell you anymore because I don't want to spoil anything for those lucky people that will be attending this weekend coming!
So instead... let me tell you how I managed to get in the bad books within a couple of hours of getting home. Well first ... I have to tell you that John works nights ... he usually works on a Sunday ... but he missed me soooo much he took the night off ... arrrr ... sweet :0)
I gets home ... totally shattered ... in a good way ... and within an hour I fell asleep ... oops!
Apparently I was snoring all night ... which I find hard to believe ... but the worse thing is yet to come ...
On Saturday I had set the alarm for 6 a.m! Classes were starting at 8 ... breakfast was at 7.30 blah blah blah ... you get the picture! Well the alarm did n't go off ... but that was n't a problem because I had n't slept so good and I awoke at 5.50 a.m anyway!
What I did n't realise was that I had set it for Monday morning! I usually get up at 7.30am ... unload the dishwasher ... sort the dog etc., for when John comes home at 8 a.m! Well ...
When the alarm went off this morning ... John got up and did all those jobs for me ... it took him a while before he realised it was only 6 a.m.
Let's just say he was n't best pleased when I got up at ... erm ... gone 10a.m :0)
Moving swiftly back to the crafting ... this is my Black Soot beer mat ... I have embossed the pattern in clear embossing powder ... coz you would n't be able to see it otherwise ... the metal is TSS Rock Star Black ... which I just had to buy at the weekend and I have embossed it with a Cuttlebug folder and backed it with Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas. The trinkets are all Tim...the man that can craft in one continent whilst doing Karaoke in another ... Holtz! And the stamps are from the extremely talented Mrs Vecchi!
I am really surprised at the results I have achieved with the Black Soot ... who would have thought you could do so much with it!
Have a good week everyone ...

*** Blog Candy - NOW CLOSED ***

You guys all know by now that I have my own way of doing things ... this is my version of the old BBC Test Card! I will be away for the next few days having a simply fabulous time and unable to blog so I am leaving this here for you to enjoy.
Basically it is a pile of yummy stash that you could win!
Included is:-
A Spellbinders Shapabilities Sunflower [Set 2]; A Penny Black Hedgehog wood mounted stamp; 3 Reels of American crafts Elements Premium Ribbon; A circle chipboard tag book; 2 Sheets of un-mounted Design House stamps with an Art Deco theme; Paper Artsy un-mounted Femme -Plate 3; 1 sheet of EZ mount; 1 Pack Daisyd's Mistletoe memories chipboard frames; 2 packs of K & Co Beyond Postmarks card blanks and envelopes and 10 metal charms.
All you need to do is place a picture of this candy ... with a link to my blog ... on your blog ... leave a link to the candy in your comment at the end of this post so I know where to find you :0)
If you don't have a blog please leave a comment I will enter you into the drawer :0)
I will be drawing the winner for the candy at midnight on 31.10.09 ... I will post anywhere in the world.
I will be back and blogging on Monday or Tuesday next week. Good Luck and Thanks, as always, for visiting :0)
I am off to have a fabulous Artsy Crafts Weekend :0)

The Big Daddy Of Tins!

It is time to show you another metal bean tin!
Lin and I are having so much fun blogging these tins ... I don't get to see her post until it's blogged ... and we are becoming experts in synchronised blogging ... I am not one to brag ... but if they make it an Olympic sport ... we will probably win ... so as soon as 8.30pm comes and goes I shall be tearing over to her blog to read her write-up!
This tin was made using my favourite Big Daddy mould ... number 4 and Skinny Mini number 6 in Dark Chocolate metal ... yum yum :0)
This time the corset sides were joined using the Crop-a-dile and I hung a few of Tim's... the man that can water ski without water or skis... Idea-ology philosophy tags around the top to add a bit of interest. The beads were in my stash ... well they were n't actually ... they were on a bracelet that I chopped up because I needed brown wooden beads ... like now ... don't worry I will find a use for the rest of them too :0)
Am I alone thinking about Wrestling on a Saturday afternoon at the mere mention of the name Big Daddy? I am sat here desperate to say "A one-er, A two-er ... NO, NO, NO ... ask him ref" ... and Was n't his real name something girlie like Shirley Crabapple???  Anyone out there care to admit that they know what I am talking about??? Erm ... please??? Oh C'mon ... you have to remember Giant Haystacks surely???

WOYWW!

This is going to be a short post today ... my computer is on a go slow and it is driving me around the bend ... I need to "Stand Clear" before I inflict serious damage upon it!

After last week's WOYWW I had several requests to look in my drawers ... ooooer missus! Who am I to disappoint others with their wishes ... so here you go ...

These drawers are full of wooden stamps ... in fact I am contemplating buying a third set because as you can see my collection is over flowing on the top and on the floor ... and my Christmas stamps are very unsuitably stored in an entirely different place.

Look closely ... second drawer open on the right ... Tim ... the man that can perform life saving operations on cute fluffy  things with a paper punch and a pokey tool ... signed it for me ... in person ... oh yes ... when I met him ... Have I mentioned that before? ... at all? ... ever? ...