PDCC#47 is sponsored by PaperBagStudios! How cool is that :)

I was very excited when I found out they were sponsoring us, then when the stamps came through the door I was almost jumping up and down - they were on my list to buy as soon as they entered the UK :)  [You can buy them at The Stamp Attic now by the way :)]

It's my choice of colours this week and when I saw this picture I just fell in love with the house!  Isn't it gorgeous?  And the white picket fence with the bright red geraniums just looks stunning...and warm!  Not like the wet and windy weather we've been having for the last couple of days!  If anyone would like to share a photo of where they live, I'd love that!  When friends and family go away to foreign climes, it's photos of everyday houses and shops I'd like to see, even more than the famous places.  But it's rare that they take that kind of photo.

I made a 3d house from foamcore and painted it with a turquoise emulsion paint!  Whilst collaging the pieces I had the idea that the circular date stamp would make a cool tree.  It's leaning slightly to the right, but I'm still pleased with it lol.

I kept the side of the house limited in colour so it was obvious which was the front but I think it needs some red to 'lift' it a little, even if it's only a little red heart hanging from the roof, or red doors and windows.

Roben-Marie Smith, designer of these gorgeous stamps is our guest designer over at The Play Date Cafe, so head on over to see her piece, and those of my fellow designers.  It's really good to see these very 'grungy' stamps used in a very different way as designers who wouldn't naturally choose these images have produced some fabulous pieces! :)

 Julie Ranae

Suzanne Czosek

Andrea Ewen
Savannah O'Gwynn
Lisa Somerville
Ruby 2 Shoes

[Apologies for not visiting pdcc entrants this week just gone, my excuse is in the previous post!  Normal service will resume next week :)]

horses, toads and ... hang on, toads?

Armed with my lovely, new, internet-connected smartphone, I set off last Friday on a birthday weekend away (a 40th and a 50th) with 10 girlfriends.  We stayed in the very centre of England pretty much, and had NO MoBiLe ReCePTioN!!  So I am very behind on visiting blogs, especially saying hi to playdate entrants!  We had a fabulous time though.  Just look at the cottage we stayed in

It was beautiful inside, had ponies in the back field

and a stunning view from the front

The village was called Newborough and was in Staffordshire.  It had a pub (which served excellent food), a church, a telephone box and postbox, a school, but no shop.

Some gorgeous houses too!

As a treat for my 40year old friend, I took a craft activity to do.  We made 'pants' books, which those who've been on my workshop at Wendy's will remember!  

We got home late Monday night, and got up to some sad news on Tuesday - my guinea pig Winston had died in the night.  It's been heartbreaking seeing and hearing Scout look for him (he's Tom's guinea pig).  That same morning I found a baby toad in my cellar room (which houses my craft stuff)

I can't cope with frogs in the house but toads don't jump like frogs do so I could cope with catching this little man in a large jar!  Let him loose in the garden, didn't fancy him as a new pet lol

I really don't feel like my feet have stopped running since I got home.  I'm just putting the final touches to my piece for Elements this weekend.  Paddy asked me to let you all know that we had three cancellations due to really ill health (which is so sad when people are that poorly).  We've found a replacement for one of them, but if anyone would like to join us at the last minute, please phone Paddy on 0161 798 5115.

For those who are attending - really looking forward to seeing you there!   The workshops are fabulous and I'm really looking forward to teaching my 'element' :)

a steampunk wedding at the Play Date Cafe

This week we've been sponsored by Creative Cuts, who sent the whole team a collection of wedding themed die cuts.  And it's a colour splash week, which was great for a wedding theme.  Just look at the colours Julie chose:

This week you get to choose your 'splash' colour from pink, copper or gold.  I was going to turn my cake box into something with legs etc but then discovered that Steampunk Weddings are happening out in the wedding world (and there are some cool ideas out there, just google 'steampunk wedding' for some fab images!) so decided to go with that as a useable theme.

The cake boxes fit together (if you have enough of them!) to make a whole cake so I co-ordinated them to work in this way.  I cuttlebugged the boxes and added zips, lace, cuttlebugged copper and stamped clocks and butterflies.

The butterfly is by Memory Box, and the clocks by The Artistic Stamper.

The wedding card came as a blank white card with the die cut edge and dress shaped aperture.  I put the cuttlebugged copper sheet behind the aperture, and added the pearls, then sewed lace and zip along the fold.  The 7 gypsies paper inside and the snap fasteners are elements I only added because the colour challenge is 'black and white with a splash of ...', but I'm glad I did.  That's the great thing about challenges, sometimes you end up doing things you wouldn't otherwise do!

Although our design team are using Creative Cuts pieces,  you can enter with anything that is

black and white with a splash of

pink/gold/copper

Check out the design team's pieces over at the Play Date Cafe, or individually here:

 Julie Ranae

Suzanne Czosek

Andrea Ewen
Savannah O'Gwynn

Lisa Somerville
Ruby 2 Shoes

 

Have fun with these colours :)

What's on my work desk this Wednesday?

Well, prep for tomorrow's Play Date Cafe Challenge...

...and the reason that that's the only artwork I've got there!

I splashed out in the sale at Tesco and got myself a webcam and annoying headset.  It's been soooooooo cool to see my great friend Julie Ranae in the States and chat for ...er... ok, it has been hours! 

Enjoy a good nosy at other people's desks, and reassure yourself if you are an untidy kind of person (there's plenty of us out there lol) by heading over to the big boss's blog, The Stamping Ground :)

Smile!

I just love this guy by Lucy Casson - you can almost hear him saying 'look, look, I got to carry the brush!!'   

I have so much to catch up with with you here in blogland.  Sue and I went to Wales last week to visit the 'Smile' exhibition at Ruthin Craft Centre.  I'd particularly wanted to see Julie Arkell's work

but there was so many other artists exhibiting whose work I fell in love with!

 

Both Sue and I adored the little metal figurines created by Lucy Casson, especially the little 'borrower' type people she had taking a chair apart!

And their were more metal people created by Abbott and Ellwood.  Can't you just imagine this cart being brought into the market square for people to claim their 'Lost Adults' LOL

 

 

I'd also wanted to see the work of Tilleke Schwarz as I'd come across her work last year whilst blog hopping.  There's something that fascinates me about her work, and I'm planning a journal page inspired by it.  I was hoping to get it done today but it didn't happen - I went back to bed this am as I needed some extra sleep after driving down to Oxford this weekend to teach at The Stamp Attic, and staying up too late talking to Wendy lol

Whilst I was down there the new Invoke Arts stamps came in.  I just had to have this Paris Ledger stamp, and made a quick CAS card with it in my cardmaking workshop on Saturday,  More about the workshops tomorrow, but until then, I need to announce the winner of my USArtQuest giveaway.  Random.org picked 19 which is 

CeeJay's Journal

Congratulations!  I'll get your ATC out to you ASAP :)

I've now reached the end of my designer term with USArtQuest, but would like to thank them for having me, and for supplying me with such great product - I had fun!  Thanks :)

Play Date Cafe Challenge #45, and another DT project :)

I'm very honoured to be the contributing artist over at The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog for the month of September.  My 'Enveloped Steampunk' piece is featured over there today :)  But please remember to head back over here after taking a look as it's PLAY DATE time :)

 

Some beautifully warm, autumnal colours at the Play Date Cafe this week.

Julie chose a stunning bordeaux red, mustard and beige.  I have to say, my new camera phone hasn't really done the colours justice in this photo - sorry!

I crocheted a flower earlier in the week using a mustard coloured cotton, and I knew I had some fleece in a deep burgundy red, so I started layering.

This old cotton reel caught my eye, a perfect match for the beige, so I wrapped some new thread around it, then hunted for a flower stem and leaves.  I have just acquired a large box of clock parts so I was thrilled when I was able to put some unusual pieces together to build a stem and leaves.  

A bit of electrical tape, and some strong wire and the pieces made a perfect stem!

There's lots of inspiration over at the Play Date Cafe today, not only from our regular designers, 

 Julie Ranae

Suzanne Czosek
Savannah O'Gwynn
Lisa Somerville
Ruby 2 Shoes

but also our new private blend designer Andrea Ewen, and our guest designer Sankari Wegman.  Sankari makes truly stunning cards, and gift bags and boxes.  I love her layering, and her fabulous use of colour.

USArtQuest DT project #6 - hopping around the design team's blogs

For today's design team project we've made it easier for you to hop around the whole team and see all the USArtQuest projects together.  After starting at the USArtQuest blog itself, you should have come to me from the talented and generous [did you see she had a giveaway?]

Lori

We were all supplied with a wonderful MicaColor watercolour palette, again something I've seen many times but never actually owned.  I've always meant to make my own up, but never got round to it [sound familiar?]

With just a small amount of water you can make a really rich, creamy metallic paint

or with more water, you can produce a more 'watercolour' effect.  The colours in the palettes co-ordinate beautifully so I chose the blue, gold and brown to make a shimmery ATC.

I laid down three patches of blue paint, followed by gold, 

then brown.

When using a paintbrush and paints I always want to blend my colours together nicely, and yet I love the effect of  strong contrast, so I've got over this by putting my colour down onto a piece of foil (as I can never find my teflon mat lol; another alternative is a plastic box lid)...

...then taking a print off this by laying my card on top.

Hey presto, a marbled like effect which I'm more than happy with :)

I often wipe my paintbrush onto a piece of paper before washing it clean, which then means I have lovely sweeps of colour to stamp over then cut out.

MicaColour is thick and creamy enough to stamp with, just use a little water to get enough paint onto your brush, then apply this to your stamp

I made up some more pieces of card with the MicaColour paint and stamped an apt saying onto a co-ordinating piece to create my ATC

I'll pick a name using random generator next Monday [6th September] and send this ATC to the lucky person, along with a few USArtQuest bits to play with yourself.

Now it's time for the last stage of the hop, and a visit to 

Terri

whilst I sit here thinking - pearly roses , now they'd be nice to make with these paints :)