The Play Date Cafe challenge...3 years on!

I know it's such a cliche, but really, where does the time go?  Three years ago I was never going back to teaching (!) and now here I am, happily teaching in a local special school and enjoying every minute of it!  Today I've been invited to be an Alumni guest over at The Play Date Cafe.

There are big celebrations going on over there, from Oct 18-22, with other design team members returning to join in the fun as special guests.  With daily prizes from a variety of sponsors, and additional giveaways for becoming a follower and displaying the brand new badges it really is a party!

The PDCC has always been a unique challenge for two reasons:

1) they encourage you as a player to 'interpret the colours' as YOU see them

2) they welcome pretty much ANY type of project, from cards to layouts, knitting, crochet and sewing, mixed media and even cupcakes!

I just love that you can join in whatever you're in the mood for making or have the appropriate colour resources for.

After an initial panic (!) I decided to see what I had materials wise in these three colours and eventually settled on some felt.  I considered making some toadstools but then realised that my favourite flowers of all time, hydrangeas, come in all these shades so I set too with a bit of stitchery...

Inspired by Julia Jowett's intricate needlework I used some ribbon for part of the petals then added tiny cross stitch, creating hints of decaying petals.  French knots and tiny beads decorate the centre and there's more on the blue tag.

I knew when I made the felted tag that I was partly chickening out from combining these colours in a painted project and it was kind of bugging me that I'd not really risen to the challenge!  So yesterday I set too and made a card, using lots of white space between the strong colours.

I'm particularly happy with this as I used my 'Faded Jeans' distress marker to colour directly onto a text stamp, meaning I could create texture to the centre of the flower and made a stem.  I've had my markers for a while but hadn't really used them.

I'd love for you to join me in congratulating The Play Date Cafe by playing along and sharing your support by saying hello when you pop over for a visit.  This challenge has a  very special place in my heart (sorry, corny but true) and it would mean a lot if you joined in.

did you know that today is 'Earth Day'?...and PDCC#26

It's printed on my calendar but I did have to look it up in Wikipedia to check what it was as I'd never heard of it before, although it was started 40 years ago.  Apparently it is "a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment".  In honour of Earth Day, Julie chose some earthy colours for this week's play date cafe challenge:

But get this!  I reckon that terracotta colour is the exact colour of 'rusty hinge', one of Tim Holtz' new distress inks.  So it would have been wrong of me not to play with my new distress colours for this challenge ;)

Not having any ink or paint in that pinky/peachy colour I decided to start with that colour card for my base.  It's been ages since I decorated an envelope so out came my Cricut and George cartridge and I cut a pale envelope.   Then it was time to get inky with the gorgeous Rusty Hinge and Tumbled Glass - they are both so yummy!!

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I used a little butterfly mask by Heidi Swapp as well as my faithful sequin waste to create some texture.  Along with a few splatters of water of course!

I do feel that this little envelope is begging for a tiny book to be tucked inside before finding a home in one of my journals.  I love how it's turned out, but it was a complete act of faith that if the colours worked so well in the challenge photo then they must also work on my piece..and they did!!  

We've got a very talented celebrity designer, Jen Tapler, over at The Play Date Cafe this week, and sponsorship from Mod Podge, so it's really worth heading over to the Cafe to see what all our designers have produced as inspiration for you, and to link your project to be in with a chance of winning this prize:

 

I love this image, all those little pots are so colourful!   Thanks Amy for this generous prize :)  ModPodgeRocks is Amy's blog which has lots of wonderful ideas for using mod podge, including making fabric bowls with your scraps of material!!

Happy Birthday Kristin and Congratulations!

...it's a BLoG!!

I have to say I am absolutely THRiLLeD to be on Kristen Powers' inaugural creative team :)  Kristen has launched a blog to accompany her etsy store  but it is more than just that; in Kristen's words it is

"about creativity and the love of paper and art

and the many different forms that those things take. 

That is why you will notice a huge diversity in our senior creative team. From a U.K. designer that teaches art journaling to an internationally known watercolorist to a card maker that creates strictly for the love of paper crafting to some blogger/crafters and crafter/bloggers and a few of us in between, we have a foundation for one of the most diverse creative teams in blog land!"

I can't believe how excited I've been over the last few weeks whilst working with her digital images (although  anyone who knows me well only has to look at the images Kristin draws to know I'd be in love with them ...how cute are those owls lol)  There are lots of lovely digi images out there but although I love colouring in, they really haven't called me.  Until I saw Kristen's!!!  I immediately wanted to sew them and have had ideas flowing over what to do (just sneak peeks here today though, but watch this space!!)   :)

 My sewing machine has been working overtime :)  I've been sewing on both paper and fabric..

...and there are works in progress, and finished pieces...

So why not head over to Kristin's new blog and wish her a very Happy Birthday, and check out  the others on the senior creative team here [did you know blogger now has a page feature?  check out the pages at the top of Kirsten's blog!] or via their individual blogs :)

Amy Anderson

Carol Carter

Barb Kirkwood

Julie Ranae

Tammy Tutterow

Happy Easter!

pdcc time again? where did the week go?

I'm sure the weeks go faster in February!  Not that I mind the Play Date Challenges coming round, and especially not this week.  Julie's introduced the idea of a 'colour splash'... black and white with a splash of colour.  And this week's colour is one of my favourites - teal :)  I love the contrast of black and white against a colour (or vice versa) so this is right up my street. 

Julie did the challenge graphic all by herself this week..didn't she do a great job for her first time using Photoshop!  That program just seems like gobbeldygook to me, so I'm really proud of her.

I found this black and white fabric whilst at a Quilt Exhibition at the weekend and after seeing some owls similar to this one decided I had to design my own! 

He's a little tiny owl, but full of character.

And he seems to be happy in the trees in my garden ;)

to be sung tunefully!...

"Didn't we have a lovely time, the day we went to Skipton!!!"

Kate Crane and I discovered that Skipton was halfway between where we both live, and since it just happens to have a great stamp shop as well, we met there!  If you've not seen Kate's work yet, head over to her blog as you're missing a real treat. 

It's even more amazing in real life.  The colours are stunning, but it always gets me that it's so hard to judge size on the internet.  Her leather journal is A6 in size, much tinier than I'd imagined.  A treasure to hold :)  Jill and Ian are very warm and welcoming and we had a fab time chatting, sharing art and ideas, and shopping...of course!!!

Then yesterday I received a parcel in the post from my great friend Julie.

After savouring the moment, I opened it to discover all these wonderful goodies.  How fab are these?!!!

Julie had told me she'd found a book that was just 'so me' she had to order it straight away.  And I'm so glad she did, look!!!

Fairies, fibre art and all bound in a book, how fab is this!!  It's very me!  So a VERY BIG THANKYOU Julie! I love it!  Watch out for some fairy artwork here tomorrow, I've been in 'fairyland' today, busy creating :)

a dream come true! ;)

It's a good job I consider Paddy a good friend!!!  Look at that mug she gave me today ;)  The really worrying thing is it's true :)

I was on Sue Roddis' 'Trees and Angels' workshop and had a fabulous time.  I won't say too much as I know some people who read my blog are booked on the workshop on Weds.  You're in for a great day.  The techniques are very relaxing, just what I needed today; and Sue's samples are stunning as always so you'll really be inspired .  And I realised a long held dream!!!

Since taking a journal with me to Julie's Art Stamp Cafe eight years ago, I have wanted to work on a journal page whilst taking a workshop.  Normally I make notes and splatter paint etc in my ideas journal but today I took my play journal and painted a few pages with the colours I used on my trees and angel.  YAY!  And it only took eight years, how embarrassing!!

Not a great photo I'm afraid, and it's not finished, but here is the most complete of one of my trees.  It is possible to finish pieces in the workshop, as long as you don't work as slowly as me and keep stopping to talk :)  Thanks for a great workshop Sue, and I'll definitely be playing more with these tomorrow :)

off on a trip

I've been working on the next play date cafe colour challenge today so I can't show you I'm afraid.  Except to say it's my choice of colours this week so I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone does with them :)

I thought I'd show you a page from my ideas journal.  I've kept these for a number of years now and use them to make notes on workshops, try out new products, stamps or ideas, and keep a record of artists I admire.  When Julie gave us her colours, I needed to get my journal out to play with the supplies I had in those colours as they're not ones I use very often. I also wanted to use my new character constructions stamps in the piece so I stamped them up to get a feel for the images.  Playing like this before settling down to an idea really helps me get the ideas flowing. Although sometimes they just 'happen', like RSS week 8, that one I just sat down and made!  How do you get your ideas flowing?  Do you keep an ideas journal, or do you just get stuck in?

I'm off to Oxford in the morning with my three children.  We're going to see the first Steampunk Art exhibition [my husband declined the offer, it's not very 'him'!], I can't wait!!!  Squeezing in a trip to Wendy's Stamp Attic of course whilst we're down there :)

wow! what a stash!!

My very good friend Julie is celebrating 100 followers on her blog by giving away this stash! My holiday stash looks tiny next to this - isn't it amazing. Julie works really hard on her blog, sharing card designs, fabulous blogs that she finds, and of course her designs for AI. She'd love to hear from you so please bob over and say hi, and you never know, you may win! Just click here and follow her instructions. Good luck :)

congratulations Julie!

Julie, one of my best friends, is an INKgirl. She made it on the design team, her first but I'm sure not her last. Well done Julie!

gift tag swap

My very talented friend Julie is hosting a gift tag swap which sounds fun so if you'd like to join in, sign up on her blog here.
You make three tags, send them to Julie in the US, and she'll send you three tags back, including one by her. This sounded a very do-able swap so I'm signed up :)