Tim's 12 Tags of 2014 May

Ow! This was a difficult one - I did manage - in the end to cut into some of my lovely Wallflower papers, but the embellishments I used were mainly from one of my boxes of bits and pieces!
For those who want to see the look I was aiming for go here to Tim's blog.
I started well, loved the base tag I made but then, having looked through my small collection of idea-ology stuff, well it all became too much!

So soldiered on and finished up with this.

I don't have the shadow press words but I do have(Thanks to Sarah) a word die, so cut two of those and layered them. Don't have a large butterfly die but do have a small butterfly punch so decided to have several little butterflies…..

….coloured with alcohol inks.The marbly bead at the bottom was part of a bracelet.

I'm a little late again - will try to do better next month!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

WOYWW 260

This is it! Happy Anniversary WOYWW! Oh! You really must go and find out about this if you don't know already - click here to be taken to our leader - Julia at the Stamping Ground! Don't think - as I did that you need a special invitation - we all have one thing in common  - we all have desks - some tidy, some messy but all with something to look at!!! Thank You Julia for starting all this!
Okay, I'll start with my desk but I know that some of you will want crop photos so keep looking!

Here is the only thing I did at the crop (apart from chat and eat LLJ's superb lunch!!)
You will see at the top of my journal a flower about to be made using the instructions from lovely Fiona and underneath the journal my raffle prize!Right at the back of my desk is one of the spiky 
guys that Mary Ann made instead of atcs.

Now, what you really want to see and read about I'm sure. It really was great to meet so many talented crafters! 

Julia on her chair pointing out the envelopes to pop our atcs in for folk who couldn't be there

Morti capturing the moment

Smile! - Shaz, Sam, Lynda, Ali, Debbie and Kyla

Shaz (with hubby Doug) showing us her skills - Maggie on the left, Debbie on the right 

Fiona giving a mini workshop on how to make one of her fabulous fluffy flowers

Cindy sitting down and from the left Lisa,Helen and Jan with Fiona 

C-O-N-C-E-N-T-R-A-T-E!!!! 

Flowers in production

Zo and Kyla  using some of the embossing folder and dies, that's Christine in the background(and hubby Peter)

A last minute look through the box for Kyla

Time to say Goodbye to Ali and Lynda

You will find lots more photos on other blogs, Helen, Julia and Jan have already posted some of their photos of the day - which of course was fantastic! It was lovely to meet everyone although of course a lot of us already knew each other thanks to WOYWW!
I sat next to the amazing Shaz who was making the most fantastic cards! She could just about see over the huge pile of inks she brought lol!!

Here she is with Zo, whose amazing colouring just blew me away - I'm sure my mouth was wide open while I was watching her!

Highlights of the day 

Meeting, eating, seeing some fab crafting, chatting, playing!!!

I may be gone some time today - my son needs to go back to the hospital today so we are taking my grandson out - may just include a cinema visit!!!

I have some atcs to swap - if I have already said I will swap they will be in the post soon! 

Have a great day, I will show you some photos of some of the places we visited in the area over the weekend - hopefully tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting, Chris

WOYWW 259 - with clues

It's been an up and down kind of week! Fortunately more ups than downs! The biggest down being one of my sons having a minor op and then not being too good and another down being my blood sugar going way over the limit, both of these are being dealt with. The ups were  spending time with our grandson, having time to play, especially a play date with my lovely friend Sarah and being drawn for a prize(I'll show you when it arrives).

This is the week before…..WOYWW is 5 years old…you can find details here on Julia's Stamping Ground blog.
My desk has clues on it - if you are taking part in the atc swap. You can see my desk as it was yesterday evening before I tidied everything away. Not that you can see a great deal - if you look really hard you will see the little pile somewhere.

Apart from showing you I'm saying nothing, except that I'm really looking forward to the crop this weekend where I will be hopefully swapping with some of you! Does it sound silly to admit how excited I am! I am bringing my old 'bug(and hubby to man it hopefully) and as many dies as I can convince him is ok! I've also got a few stamps I'll be bringing too, and, rather obviously some scraps! Way Hey!! Three days to go!  

On my way to the cinema then sick son visiting, we may have our grandson for the night again - oh yes, we had to bring the blow up bed from the caravan so that he could stay here to be nearer to school - good job I had that sort out last week!! Still no room for a permanent pull out bed but not far too go! 

Thanks for visiting, Chris

Cutting it fine!

Oh Goodness! I nearly missed the deadline for this! I loved Julie Ann's Letter Q and gold challenge at The Dragons Dream TIO  but just didn't seem to find the time, then….I suddenly realise I have only a few hours to go!!!

I used my Gelli Plate with Adirondak inks - Stream and Wild Plum and two of my favourite stencils, but best of all my very favourite (quintessential in fact) Lynne Perella stamp from Paper Artsy's LPC009. Then I used a product that has been hidden away for a while - my mica powder - I had truly forgotten how fantastic the shine is! 
 So here we are, rushing…again! Hey! Ho!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Linking to The Dragons Dream TIO 166, the Letter Q and gold

Paper cutting!

This is a blog post title that I never thought I would ever write - me….and a sharp object!!!! 
However, after seeing the Paper Artsy blog and Keren Baker's fabulous frame with cut out Lynne Perrella stamps I just couldn't wait to give it a go! 
Okay, it's a really simple piece but I now want to do more. My travel journal from our last trip away(to Italy) was without a cover - it now has a cut out LP picture and I've used my new favourite die too!

 The background was made using parts of Paper Artsy LP stamps and a couple of stencils. The cut out itself was done using Faded Jeans on the top layer and Ripe Persimmon underneath.

I am linking to the Paper Artsy blog.

Thanks for looking, Chris

WOYWW 258 Mid sort out!

I'm just getting some things ready to make a card for a friend so that's what you see on my work desk today. It's not always the way I work and I suspect it won't be long to I'm back to my usual 'go with the flow' style of crafting! These happen to be things I am either putting away or 'found' while I was having a tidy! 

Hubby has agreed to me having another tall cupboard - but I must have a sort out first! Now here's the thing - I show my work desk regularly but you don't see what's behind me - are you ready for this? Just decided to turn around from the computer and take this!!

You can just see my swivel chair that turns my back onto this! Now, in my defence, this is mid sort out - there are empty boxes and bags, magazines to sort out, a mirror that is going to have to go!
What I want to do is get everything(ok, most things) off the floor so that we can put a fold out bed in there too. I promised my granddaughter ages ago that we would be getting a bed in there and she's been asking lately when she can come and sleep in the craft room(I think she may envisage doing some crafting when she wakes up!!)So, I've got to get a shufty on!
I read recently that you should only buy extra storage after you've thrown stuff away so that's what I'm doing! Some stuff is destined for the tip, some for the charity shop and some I will bring with me to give away at the WOYWW crop - only 10 days to go!!

Ooops! That reminds me - if you want to see loads more crafty spaces then follow this link to Julia's Stamping Ground blog!

I hope to visit a few desks this week, not one film appealed to us this week! 
Thanks for looking, Chris

I did it!

Way back in February my lovely friend Lindsay was demo-ing at a craft show in Manchester. I was quite taken with the accordion card die but didn't think I'd be able to use it - Lyndsay showed me how easy it was, but it has taken me until now to have a go! I took a deep breath and got on with a card for my eldest son's birthday.
Now, I'm not the world's cleanest crafter but decided that a strong glue was necessary so I used the Cosmic Shimmmer glue - I've a feeling that I may have been better with strong tape as I did end up getting quite sticky at times and had to keep washing my hands!!
I wanted something to reflect my son's interests and talents and judging by his appreciative comments I think I managed it.

His job involves refurbishing flats and houses so that had to be there. He loves visiting castles, his garden, cars and driving - I think I covered those ok too.

His birthday is on there too and a clock (he is often late getting to places - caught that from me!!!)
Most of the papers were from Tim's 'Collage' and 'Lost and Found' papers, some are from sets of Kraftyhands papers I bought at a craft show. I also used some stickers from I covered a Tando key with tissue tape and added a hint of bronze acrylic paint.
The photos were rushed a bit as  - guess what - I was getting close to handing it over!
I did have a few issues with holding the joins together - perhaps three layers of paper was just too much but I got there in the end!

I would like to enter this in the Tando Creative Challenge this month - Incorporate a key

Thanks for looking, Chris

Fashionista - me?

Those who know me will also know that I'm very much a shirt and jeans kinda gal, but when I saw a challenge that would also allow me to use up some of my scraps I decided that a veer into the world of fashion might be fun! 
On Thursday my lovely friends Sarah and Nichola came along for a play date. Sarah had brought some beautiful crocheting to do but Nichola was up for a challenge! My first thought was to use up some of my scraps leftover from other projects. My scraps are getting a bit out of hand now, I promise to photograph them when we get home. At the moment we are trying to get the caravan garden in some sort of order! 
I got two of the huge tags from Paper Artsy and one of my scrap folders and we set to! Now this is where I should show photos but guess what - we were having such fun and chatting away that the camera stayed in it's case!
Nichola was happy with her tag though! I wasn't that happy, so decided to bring it away with me(I have more scraps here of course!)
This is what I came up with!

 I made a skirt for the dress form using the bottom part of some paper I used to cut some leaves, not quite big enough for a full dress! The little cotton holders came from a card that had held buttons. I stamped the dress form onto a page I had torn out of a Sunday supplement (because it had a web site I wanted)when I realised it was on the back of  fashion page!
My new stencils got an airing too!
Here is a photo from the side

The button and the little linen tag were in my bit box here at the caravan.
I would like to enter the following challenges

 Frilly and Funkie Challenge blog where the inspiration came from, with their challenge this time - On the Runway
and also 
Our Creative Corner where the theme is Love Those Leftovers (another excuse to use up my scraps he!he!)

Thanks for looking, Chris

Broken Heart!

I've missed taking part in some challenges of late, we were away of course! That said, even when we were home we were busy with grandchildren, appointments, parties and cinema trips so could only get in my crafty space on a few occasions!
I love the Dragon's Dream Tag It On challenges and until now haven't had time to play along!
The challenge this time for challenge TIO 165 is B and a Flower set by Elizabeth(her son Tom's idea, and I loved the inspiration from the design team!)
So here is my tag

The beautiful girl has a broken heart because her beau has b......d off(that's buzzed of course!)so of course she's feeling blue!
I used some packaging for my tag and as I tore it there were some interesting bits still clinging so they were left on. Everything was covered with a watered down gesso. I then inked through a couple of stencils(yes, I did use the new one!) The heart was one left over from the wedding invitations(there's a tale to tell but not this time!)- broken by scissors! The lady is a Lynne Perrella one that had been stamped onto a scrap and then not used and the layers of the flower were also from one of my scrap folders.
The words were on a small scrap leftover from die cutting and just jumped out at me as I was going to reject it(originally from hubby's King Arthur book)The fibres and net are from a box of random bits and pieces that sits at the back of my desk! The buttons(Ooh! another b!)are from my button mug!

As I've used a lot of things left over from other projects I would also like to enter the Challenge at Our Creative Corner - Love Those Leftovers.

Thanks for looking, Chris