creative wrapping

 It was one of my very best friend's birthdays last weekend and although I'd bought part of her present, I made the rest.  It was a handmade present that grew and grew and I'll share it in another post, but today I'm sharing the fun I also had gift wrapping it!

After splashing paint and ink around on some paper along with some doodles and rubber stamps I added some double sided adhesive sheet to the back of part of it, punched some circles in the style of Roben-Marie Smith and used the circular stickers I created to hold down the tissue wrapping paper.

I then added some more to a tag, added some collage and a declaration of truth, punched a hole and added some thread.  Now, can you guess what the present was?!!

do you clean your stencils?

Don't you just love to get parcels?  This stunning stamp, Butterfly Pattern by Stampendous, was amongst many goodies in my parcel this morning.

As soon as I saw it on The Stampman's website I knew it was one of those 'must have' stamps!!  It looks like it would sit well in the corner of a journal page or card, and it's full of tiny patterns that can be used in numerous ways.

The background is a mop up page from some more 'creative palette' play this morning.  I find I often like these papers more than my intended piece!  Amongst the stamps (yes, there were more!!) Jill had included some stencils for me to borrow.  She was a little concerned that she hadn't had time to clean them ..

... but I have to say, they look right at home!! (Mine are the ones on the left, Jill's the three on the right).

The colour in the photo above really isn't true but hopefully you get the idea.  It's one of the tags that I mentioned was waiting to be finished in my last but one post and has a 'creative palette' monoprinted background.  It uses two more of my very favourite new stamps, a gorgeous, gorgeous text stamp from the Stampendous stack art set 'Royal Heart Stack' and the beautiful 'cow parsley' by Jane Gill for Woodware.  And don't you just love 'found poetry'?

There are a couple more sneak peeks of my preparations for this weekend's Great British Craft Festival over on The StampMan blog if you'd like to look.  Please come and say hi if you are visiting the show.  It's at Bolton Arena, Horwich, BL6 6LB and starts both days at 10am.  You'll find us on stand 34A, opposite the seating area which I understand has a handy cafe pod!! 

The StampMan Challenge # 15 Oriental

I love to challenge myself, and this theme did just that!  I rarely work to an 'oriental' theme, despite owning a few suitable stamps, but just LoVe the way this card turned out.

I made some red and gold paper using starburst stains and some plain copier paper then made a little folded pocket for the front of the card.  I wanted to include some origami in my piece.  The tiny book inside doesn't contain a message yet, that will be added when I send the card as this could be for a birthday, get well or just to say hello!  My good friend Sue (who swanned off to CHA this week ;)  gave me the japanese text a while back so thanks Sue :)  And enjoy CHA; I'm looking forward to your blog posts :)

Head on over to The StampMan Challenge blog to see more ideas for this theme, and to join us with this challenge :)  Happy Crafting!

PDCC63 I suffer from Attention Deficit Oooooh Shiny!

"In England's* green and pleasant land" [Blake 1804] coming across waterfalls or tiny streams is one of my very favourite things whilst out walking.  I love the movement of the water as it falls, the fresh greenery surrounding it, and best of all, the wonderful sound it makes. 

This photograph brought all this to mind for me, and also suggested the unusual colour combination of gold and silver, which I NeVeR put together. 

But I have to say, I just LoVe how it turned out on my journal page!  In fact, when I'd finished it, it evoked an almost audible "ooooooooooo".

I will explain.  You may have noticed that when you are with friends and admire another's work or see something gorgeous in a shop (especially if you are in a stamp shop when the owner opens a recently arrived box of goodies) you will all, simultaneously, say "oooooooooooooo" in wonderment.  This always, always, always makes me think of the aliens in toy story...

Not that I am in any way suggesting we are all aliens lol!

I decided to do a journal page for this week's challenge as I've never used metallics on a journal page, and I'm not sure it would ever have occurred to me to use embossing powder on my pages!  I'd already decided I'd tackle the silver/gold combo by using silver and white in the background and adding a 'something' in green and gold.  I like green and gold.  I like silver and white.  I do not usually like silver and gold together.

I do now though!!!  I had great fun playing with my metallics Mica Watercolour Palette and my embossing powders.  I also incorporated some paper I'd made at The StampMan using Starburst Stains.  In fact, I'm dedicating this to my crafty, StampMan DT colleague Vixykins as she invited me to be part of the facebook group 

I suffer from A.D.O.S - Attention Deficit Oooooh Shiny

There are lots more shiny projects to be inspired by over at The Play Date Cafe, so don't forget to check out what our other designers made :)

decorate a tag with The Stampman Challenge#12

I'm still in Christmas mode at my making table, I don't give up on snowflakes that easily, and I'm a bit of a last minuter so still have cards and gifts to make before the big day :)  Of Tim's tags my favourite was day 9; I just loved that colour combo so decided to use something similar for mine.

[apologies for the shadows, the sun was out when I took these!]

I stamped this gorgeous Big Snowflake from Hero Arts [on offer now over at The Stampman!] with white acrylic paint, then used Starburst Stains and my Mica Paint palette to add a shimmery, watercolour background.

Moonglow embossing powder around the edge of the tag adds some more dimension.  I used the same powder to stamp and emboss the snowflake on some dark brown card followed by lots of fussy cutting!  That's only one snowflake on there so not too much cutting out.

Check out the rest of The StampMan DT tags

HERE

and don't forget to make and add yours :)

I just wanted to say THaNK You to my new followers - there's something so nice about crossing the 200 boundary of followers - I truly, truly appreciate it!

On a different note entirely - anyone had side effects from a Ventolin inhaler?  I've had the flu this week (swine or not we neither know or care, it was just nasty!) and I've been left with an annoying cough.  The doctor gave me an inhaler yesterday which worked wonders, but then I couldn't get to sleep and have been jittery ever since.  Aaaaagh, I just need to be well to get on with stuff!!!

Sorry, thanks for listening ;)

EDIT:  It's snowing :) :) :)

the stampman challenges you to...

make something Christmassy

with just

three colours

I'm in my colour comfort zone at the minute of blues and greens, and added a versamark 'vanilla' to my colour choice.  That last colour (neutral technically but hey!!) was a bit serendipitous, it was the easiest pad to get to and I just love how effective it is on the white card :)

I just LoVe that 'Fabulous Flourish' by Hero Arts, it's so, so versatile, and an exquisite image! 

I cut out my star using my friend's Sizzix die, but a punch or similar die would work just as well.  I distress inked it, and layered it over my moonglow paper made HERE.  Making batches of paper with Starburst Stains keeps the messy task separate from the card making and makes for a very clean card making process :)  There is a smidgeon of sequin waste (punchenella) sewn behind the star, along with a snippet of organza ribbon.

We're on Challenge #11 this week over at The StampMan.  Head over to the challenge site for some gorgeous inspiration from the design team, which includes

Michelle

Debbie

Jill

Frankie

Janet

Brenda

Lisa

Sue

Kay

Vix

then link up your own project so we can come and take a look at your work!!!  Have fun :)

The Stamp Man Blog Hop, Candy, and Award Event

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, and welcome to the Stamp Man's first blog hop.  Not that it's a just a blog hop!  Oh no, this is a special award event too, and a place to win blog candy.  To hop in the direction of the beat you need to start at the Stamp Man's blog so head over there if you came to me first.  If you're already hopping you should have come to me from the lovely Lisa's blog, Lisa's Craft Garden. 

Jill's wonderful idea is to share a project of your own from this year that is your best or favourite.  Isn't that a lovely idea!  A kind of show and tell of your best work.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what people choose to share.

For me, my favourite work has been art journalling.  I finally got going with it this year and discovered that it's an amazing stress reliever.  I've had a tough year with work and illness and found a quiet, peaceful space in my head when working in my art journals.  Splattering paint, spraying and smooching ink then cutting and sticking my favourite images are my favourite things to do and I get to do them all in my journals!!  I'm not a great journal writer, more of a 'colourer in' :)

I particularly like splatting paint with the adirondack paint dabbers :)  VERY satisfying!!  And I love getting the paint/ink to dribble down the page :)

It's also been a great excuse to buy new stamp images and I now have a better collection of Tim Holtz stamps, amongst others!! 

 

To get this award for yourself, head over to the Stamp Man blog for the info, and don't forget to leave a comment and link to your own favourite/best crafting project from 2009 whilst you're there!  We're looking forward to visiting you to see what your best crafting project has been.

Now if you fancy winning some blog candy, my giveaway is ... [imagine drum roll here :)]

 your choice of one Aspects of Design stamp sheet

So if you've been longing for Tracey's fairies or butterflies, or Kay's flowers and dragonflies, here's your chance!  Although there are lots of other yummy sheets available too.  Click here to have a look.

The code/letter you need from me is

Y  

At the end of the hop you'll be back with Jill where you'll email her with the answer.

And you now need to hop over to see the cheery Christine on her blog 'Ladylace's Crafting Space'.  But don't forget to leave me a comment before you go - you need to leave a message on ALL the blogs to be eligible for the prize. 

Happy Hopping :)  You've got until Sunday 3rd January 2010 midnight [GMT] to play so plenty of time to join in.

ooo...ooo...ooo

I've got 50 followers!!!  Hee hee hee.  It's very, very nice to know that people like my blog enough to want to follow it and there's just something about having 50.  So thankyou all, and a special hello to the newbies :)

This is what I actually came to blog!!  Although the title still follows!! 

Jill's having a blog hop.  :) :) :)

I've only recently started doing these and they're great fun; you get to see loads of blogs you might never have found, and there are giveaways on the way.  Jill's treat is that this starts on the Sunday after Christmas so gives us all something to look forward to after the joy of Christmas. 

We'd love you to copy and paste the above image on your sidebar so we get lots of people joining in.  The more the merrier!  Visiting other people who leave comments is another way of finding new blogs to fall in love with :)

Now I can't say my sewing machine needle appreciated getting gunked up with embossing powder on occasion whilst getting these cards finished but it coped admirably.  I'm pleased with them.

Hope you can see these cards; sorry they're white on almost white!!

I woke to some amazement re the snow this am.  You saw the inch or so we had.  Well, it froze last night, so we woke to warnings on the radio from police and ambulance to only make essential journeys as the conditions were so treacherous.  But I guess ice is ice and it doesn't really matter if it's an inch thick or three inches thick, it's still nasty, nasty stuff.  And it was bad out there!  But the main roads improved throughout the day so driving was actually safer than walking!

that space you're watching...

Well!  News will be announced on Monday :) 

But whilst you're waiting, here's some fun from Port Sunny.   I took some photos of some of my fellow demonstrators.  Here's Jennie showing us how to make those fab grungepaper roses

She doesn't look like she's been doing this for three consecutive weekends at shows does she!!?  And look, I got my own rose

It's exactly my colours, blues and turquoises :)  I had an hour free at lunchtime to shop and chat whilst Sue Roddis signed copies of her new book

I meant to get someone to take a photo of me demoing but I forgot!!  Sorry!  But this is where I was demoing, and this is my sample

I was working on a jigsaw frame and demonstrating how you can add texture to your work.  You can heat Stewart Gill Metallica and Alchemy paints to make them bubble,  add layers of embossing powder and stamp into it, and then add collage pieces.  This isn't finished yet, but I'll keep working on it.

When I went to find Jill from the Stampman she wasn't demoing as Ian had gone for lunch and she had to cover on the till

but I did get a picture of her inky hands, just to prove she had been demoing ;)

Jill definitely won the dirtiest demonstrator's hands LOL!  Surprisingly I had the cleanest ;), although I bet Tracey's weren't particularly bad thinking about it.  I couldn't get near enough to get a photo but here is a demo piece that she made and gave me. 

I ended up getting all the stamps from this demo piece.  I knew I wanted the tree but had to choose between the door in a wall, the door in a tree, or a spider's web.  And I decided to treat myself to a new fairy as I've not had a new one in a long while.  Here's my complete stash.  I love looking at what others have bought so thought you might too.  I also got a lovely yummy piece of moonglow paper that Jill gave me as she said it was very 'Sarah' paper :)  (just my colours you see)

Can you see that corset stamp from Lost Coast Designs?  I had to buy that after my corset adventure this year, especially since just one has wings, just like mine!

stamp shops galore

I treated myself today to a trip up to Skipton to visit Jill and Ian in their stamp shop, The Stamp Man :)  It's a beautiful drive up there through the hills, especially as it is still so green yet with hints of autumn.  I saw the occasional tree with deep red leaves, yellow and orange but not one of them was in a convenient place to stop and take a photo...typical!

I hadn't been to the new shop so it was a real treat to see the new space full of yummy stamp supplies, collect my fairy stamps, have a sneak preview at what's in the offing (my lips are sealed but there's great stuff on it's way) and catch up with Jill and Ian, who I usually only see now at Port Sunlight.  Oh, and I saw Jill's weeny suitcase, which has a gorgeous accordion fold card/book inside, so of course I now have my own weeny suitcase!!!

I did take a picture of my stash but it appears to have got very late all of a sudden and I'm not sure my brain will cope with downloading more pics.  So I'll leave you with the card I made with my new stamps.

Not that these are the only stamps I got today you understand.  I got more bits off Jill, then stopped off at Paddy's on the way home (it's on the way, honest!) and we planned my demo project for Port Sunlight.

If you've not already done so, take a pic of your workspace for our 'Where Women REALLY Create' challenge (you can take a pic of the tiniest smidgen if you like, but you'll make us all feel better if you show at least the table).  I'm going to put blog candy up for this so watch this space!!

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Julie, it's her birthday today, well, it was when I started writing this post, and still is in the old US of A!!!