THE CLOCKS HAVE GONE BACK

It's so much more dreary at night now so here is another sneaky peek at the sketch books in progress.

and the 6th with a bit of colour

Well I've probably bored you all to bits these last few posts so I will show you them all in my next post. BTW, I'm not even at home so no going round to mine in the hopes of seeing them. My little house sitter won't let you in!!!

ARE YOU STILL WATCHING??

Here are a few more close up views

sourcing the embellishments is such fun

one more for good luck

FURTHER TO THE LAST BLOG POST

This could go on for some time!!!!

A little close up

CHRISTMAS UNCOVERED - 2ND INSTALLMENT

If you are following this reveal you may possibly be wondering whether one of the 6 books is going to head your way. I thought I would tempt you a little more with a few photos.

This is the front and back of one of the books

here are all 6. That's all for today......

I'VE NOT DONE THIS BEFORE

There's a first time for everything and I've decided this is it. I'm going to show you what I'm up to in my craft room and it involves Christmas presents for some of my crafty pals. You may guess if I am making one of these for you but although you will see how I progress with each one, you won't get the 'feel' of it until it arrives at yours through the post. By the way, I am only making 6!!!!!!! Here is a similar one in the raw so to speak.

Note books, but not any old note book, these are sketch books so you can draw, paint, write, in fact, do anything on the pages as they are watercolour paper pages. Next step was to do this

I then picked the lightest quality papers I had which all turned out to be Tim Holtz designs and stuck them to the covers

once that was done I went over each one with a good lashing of Glue & Seal before adding a bit of texture through stencils. I used Art Basics Soft Matte Gel, transparent. It's an amazing and extremely versatile product that I can see me going through at a pace of knots.

They are drying off nicely after help from my heat gun so I've put six bags of embellishments together as well as deciding on which colours of Silks to paint each one whilst waiting for them to dry completely

That's it for now. Call back another day if you want to see more.

25 LATER

My hat goes off to craft tutors who have to prep their classes.

I spent yesterday measuring sourcing cutting with scissors die cutting and bagging up 25 Xmas cards. The idea is to make them when we go away as time is quickly running past me,

The task would have been slightly easier if one, more complicated die, cut the paper  all the way through so I didn't have to spend time scissor cutting too.

Just need to get my inks and paints together plus all the craft tools I will need.

Hey ho!

CC3 CHALLENGE #13

Well 13 may be unlucky for some but I have had a ball completing this challenge. All the details can be found on Linda's blog or just click HERE. As in all the previous challenges, the lucky overall winner will receive a massive bundle of goodies supplied by Tim and Mario. Being an uneven numbered challenge, the generous Inspiration Emporium are giving away a $50 voucher which will buy someone another lovely lot of crafty goodies. So, you need to turn to page 35 of your Compendium to see all about 'Worn Covers'. My friend Sonia gave me a worn cover binder at Xmas full of plain pages but also lots more made from Timmy papers. I adore this binder and made it into a garden record for the perennial border I planted this year. The cover I just happened to have in my cupboard is going to be binder #2 and I will use it to record the flower progress of the border throughout next year. I therefore decided to make all four sides relate to each of the seasons. Let the fun begin....

I made a conscious decision to leave the spine untouched just to remind me of what the binder looked like because I wanted to go overboard with decorating it. I began with a touch of Distress stain to both outsides and a touch of paint to the insides.

My favourite season of all is Spring quickly followed by Summer so these were the 2 I made on the outsides.

I used as many dies as I could associate with each season cutting papers, Core 'dinations card and vellum. Each word is taken from Alpha Parts and coloured with Distress Paints and I've tried in incorporate rub ons on each side too. My least favourite months fall in Autumn and Winter so these two sides are literally on the inside of the binder.

Whilst I really don't care for Autumn at all, I do adore the colours it brings. I made my own card stock for the leaves using as many Autumn browns, oranges and my most favourite colour of Distress, Seedless Preserve. I'm really happy with the hessian background which, being natural, makes it all look very earthy indeed.

Then there's Winter... I used the last of my Picket Fence crackle paint on this side. Once it had dried and cracked I covered it with Tumbled Glass Distress Stain. Those crackles are to die for, so pleased with them. I expect my perennial border to be quite bare during the winter months but life will be cheered by the return of Mr & Mrs Blackie. Whether the same pair of Blackbirds returns is unknown, but we get some every year and feeding throughout the cold, dark months is quite a task but one my hubby and I get great pleasure from. So, to finish off I decided to use hessian ribbon to tie my binder rings to the spine keeping the natural look. I added embellishments including a little glass bottle with some black pepper seeds in to anticipate the growing season beginning again next spring.

Thank you Linda for such a fun project for this challenge. I really have enjoyed the last couple of days and to think I have something I can use for ever is an added bonus.

12 TAGS 0F 2014 - OCTOBER

This month, plus December, is my most favourite because I just love Halloween. I wish we made more of it in the UK like they do in America. What fun everyone has and the kiddies must adore it as much as Christmas day. I couldn't wait to have a go at Tim's tag for this month but had to spend a few days thinking how to achieve the required result not having the stencil, the distress sprays, the stamps or the letters plus a few other things. However, I have made my tag and it's fine.

I used the shatter stencil, Tim's tiny spider from his mini Haloween stamp set, the pumpkin from the mini blueprint set, my Distress stains, silver tinsel coloured with Black Soot alcohol ink and some letters cut from papers stash.

I decided to stand my tag against my Halloween Apothecary that I made a couple of years ago. Appropriate because quite a lot of the little items in it are made with Ranger products.

Another fun day, thanks again Tim.

COMPENDIUM OF CURIOSITIES 3 - #12

I can't believe that its challenge #12 already. All the details for this technique can be found HERE. If you flick your Compendium pages to no 41 you will see how to achieve the technique shown by the Curiosity Crew who have come up with the most amazing samples. The winner this time will again receive a prize bundle from Tim and Mario and there is a $25 voucher being given by the Funkie Junkie Boutique. Having been away for 3 weeks and then having a really busy time last week, I have only just found the chance to play again. I try to make scrap book pages at certain times of the year in rememberance of our Toby who we lost an unbelievable 6 years ago in December. I printed a black and white photo of him and followed the instructions on page 41 of my book to distress tint it. Now I have done this before but for some reason my tinting just wouldn't dry. In the end I had to wipe off the stamping so I hope my entry is still ok.

I am pleased with the page but the tinting I did doesn't show very well but it is there honestly. I think I will have another go at this technique because I have a photo of me as a May queen when I was 7 which would suit a bit of tinting very well.

A WILD NIGHT

It certainly blew a gale here over night and the rain lashed down. I can hear torrential rain gurgling down the drain pipes into the rain barrels which no doubt will be overflowing again. It always wakes me but it was a loud crash that woke me this morning so I guess one of my whirly gigs or parasols has blown over from it's storage space. When I go out to tie back my Verbena I'll investigate.

As you can see the Vebena are so big they get top heavy with the rain and lean over. As the flowers are still attracting bees and butterflies I really want to preserve them as long as possible.

Following on from the workshop with Hels last week, I made a couple of Christmas cards based on the gorgeous shadow box we made. Here is one I made yesterday. 

It's 8"x8" which is perfect for the die cuts I used.

For the girls travelling home from Finns classes today, have a safe journey especially over the tops and let's see some photos when you all get the chance.

CHRISTMAS HAS ARRIVED!!

Yesterday I had a wonderful time at a workshop with Hels. We had a good catch up too which was special and lots of laughs during the day. All the ladies who attended were also new to me and they were all so lovely.

We got a bit inky but that's what it's all about.

This is what I made

It's a massive MDF shadow box. My Christmas decs just got a special addition this year.

I'm off to see Hels demo today and also another lady who teaches patchwork. Hope I get some photos.