Freebie papers make cards

So yesterday I got one of my mags through the post and today I sat in front of the fantastic Outnumbered tv prog and made up. These cute Milton cards to add to the Xmas pile using the freebie papers and some bits and pieces from the stash box.

Enjoy!

Some more festive spirit

Tonight is the last night of crafting for a few days for me as mum and dad are coming to stay for a few nights which means no selfish taking over downstairs to craft... and hopefully some earlier nights as I am shattered but as usual got carried away!

Stuck to Humphrey's corner decoupage toppers tonight to make life easy and here is the bundle for tonight. Some glitter and glossy accents applied since the photo but now all drying in safe places so no more photos.

Have also posted off the journal I've been working on with the sisterhood today so looking forward to posting some pics soon. My lovely friends in the sisterhood and I are all so excited about this project and the friendships we have been making. It is such a privilege to be a part of it.

In other news still unwell although well enough to be back at work so goodness knows what's wrong with my nose and head.... so frustrating! Another trip to the docs is in order. Boo! But having said my little whinge here I know this is minor compared to what some peeps have to go through so whinge over!

Take care all those who paid me a little virtual visit.

Happy crafting!

Stampin up cards...

So decided to use up the rest of the images I stamped with Helen last week to make up some more Christmas cards this morning...




Still got loads of card stock left so think there will be more contempo Christmas cards made in the old olive and cherry cobbler.

Thanks Helen for the inspiration and of course the stock!

Happy crafting!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

So I said to the dearest I was only going to make up 4 cards and only got 4 card blanks out of the cupboard... and this is what happens...



Yes I got a little carried away making up the cards from the decoupage toppers I had made during the poorly days. These Humphrey corner images are so cute and although I know not everyone's style I think a cutie card is always acceptable at Christmas. Used a mixture of different papers and embossing and inking techniques to compliment and then added both glitter and glossy accents to them aswell. So so cute. Obviously have another 46 toppers left to make up so there could be more mad evenings like this where I go a bit jingly mad! I'm a little amazed at how much Xmas stock I actually have... need to stop buying magazines and def no more kits from c and c no matter how tempted I am!

Anyways a very late night for me but as I spent the morning lazing in bed with a poorly princess I think I will cope.

Happy crafting all.

Christmas art

As part of Saturday class I attended with Helen she gave us the materials for one of the projects we didn't get round to finishing and so today I have got round to doing my version of it. It's a 6x6 inch square to be framed with stamped images and part images all layered up in blocks of 4 x 4 inchies. It's so cute now its finished off.
Thanks Helen for. Cute project!


All products are stamping up ones and the colour combo is cherry cobbler and old olive.

Anyways, I have had a poorly princess at home today so the only other crafting was to construct a new reward chart for the princess. Which of course has necessitated a trip to hobbycraft where I might have sneaked a new paper trimmer into the basket! Ooops!

Happy crafting all!

Technique university with Helen

So tonight was our monthly class with Helen that I struggled through with half a brain working.

I am really pleased with the card we made (pics to follow) and the page we made below.





I had requested the sketch so I could do one of my big picture class pieces so tomorrow will work on the journalling.

Love the technique of part stamping through a mask and using the cotton wool dauber to ink the circles. Also love the colours... baja blue is so lush.

That's all for tonight... meds and tonight class has tired me out so time for sleep.

Enjoy and happy crafting.

SheArt - my first girl!

Hello and welcome!!!

As I might be getting some more visitors (you circle group know who you are!) I thought I would bow to demand (Jayne!) and get my pics of my first SheArt girl up on here for you to see what I've done!

All in all it took about an hour this afternoon to do her and then some fiddling for the odd 10 minutes when she had dried to create her and I am soooooooo pleased with her it's unbelievable.  Even now, sat on the sofa under the blanket typing this she is across the room from me and I can't stop looking at her and thinking - wow I made her!!!  Eventually she will probably end up in my princess M's room when we decorate next year - I hope to make quite a few with positive girl thoughts - which hopefully will serve my princess well.  Also already thinking of some friends who might appreciate a little SheArt in their lives!

SO what the hell am I blogging on about you say...

The very talented Christy Tomlinson runs some online workshops and SheArt is one of them.  So far I have gone through the first week's videos and made one piece of art as a result!

So here she is ...

She is happy to be herself

So how did I make her ... well I started with the small canvas frame (cheap from the Works) which is about 6 by 4 in size.  Thought I ought to start small on such a venture!

I used some paint to cover it roughly in a pale turquoise - this was because I had paint left over from another project I had been doing and didn't want to waste it.  Anyway I did this about a week ago, well before I signed up to She Art but thought it was a good starting point.



I then added some book print, some polka dot tissue paper from the present wrapping up stuff and some coloured paper I had in my scraps stash, along with some gesso.  Oh and you can just about see a doily stencil underneath that I had done when messing around with the left over paint.

Then I went a bit mad and added loads of inks, paints and stamped images ... this was difficult as I really didn't know when to stop.

 Then it was time for the girl.  I freehand cut out her head and legs from book print following the shapes Christy uses, and then the same for her body, dress and little bloomers that actually turned into shorts on my girl as the dress was short as the canvas is only small!

 I layered them up and stuck them down - this is a little before the glue dried.  I must point out at this point that I am in no way using the materials that Christy recommends as I haven't left the house to get any!  So it's just what I had in the cupboard so the glue was a bit weird - must buy some Mod Podge to do it better!

Then it was hair time.  Christy calls the design I ended up with a messy bun. I hadn't intended to do this and was going for a flicky out short hair do but slipped with the brush and so had to go down the messy bun route - having said that I'm pleased with this.  I am not in anyway trained at painting and so apart from messing around with the princess to paint this is all so new to me!  But I blended the brown with some copper ink (not sure if I was meant to do this to my cheap acrylics but hey in for a penny!!!) and then added some white to make different shades of browns to give it 'texture'.

 


I then had to add more stamps, paint, rub ons, ink and texture to the painting to blend the girl in.  This included some shading on the dress and defining her with a pen.
Finally I had to add a SheArt phrase - but by this time I was so impatient to get her finished (I was so pleased with her I had to share her immediately on fb!) that I decided against setting up the printer, getting the laptop out and printing out the ones Christy has supplied for me to use, that I hand wrote the phrase.

I think that as it's my first one and to keep her 'natural' I don't have a problem with this, it's not easy to read it from afar but i'm happy enough with this.

So there you go - my first SheArt - I suspect that there will be many more to come - some of which will be placed here for your viewing pleasure!

In other news - the head is finally clearing and hopefully will be back at work on Wednesday.  I say hopefully - but of course that will mean a reduction in crafty fun - but at least I'll be back with the lovely girls in the team and will feel well again!

That's all for now!

Happy Crafting all & thanks for visiting!

Poorly days

So I am feeling rough at the moment with nasty sinusitis but that doesn't mean I haven't been crafting over the past few days.  I have been fairly restricted to short sessions or things I can do from my bed but have managed some bits and pieces.

Mainly I have caught up with my 30 days of lists journal which I am publishing on Flickr in the group I had done ok with some of the lists but didn't get round to adding colour so added lots of colours to the journal yesterday.  It's a bit backwards though as the journalling was done first so the ink has run a little bit.  But still proud of myself for getting through it.

I have also done some Christmas decoupage (whilst in bed!) ready to be mounted onto some cards - suspect some embossing to be done for the backgrounds so def not a bed type task.  I used the lovely Humphreys Corner Xmas kit from C&C pick of the week to do this and pleased with the quality of them.  Will post some pics of completed cards once I get round to finishing them.

I've also been busy blog hopping around and also signed up to some Big Picture Classes to get my journalling on the scrap pages up to scratch.  To date I've done one layout digitally using the information from the Album of Awesome workshop.  Still finding it hard to do the journalling but hoping that the classes will get me to invest more of myself into my layouts and add more detail in the journalling.
Here is the layout I did from our hols in early August when we went up to the Great Orme and the journalling is about all that is awesome about princess M at that point.

And finally I must be ill as I've now signed up to the SheArt workshop which my friend Jackie has done and another fb crafty friend (Jayne) has just started too ... really should have finished the other projects I have in hand at the moment first but the She Art projects are just soooooo beautiful!

Fingers crossed the meds from the docs today will be working well enough for me to go on my crafty day tomorrow at Helen's.  Looking forward to the stamping and chat with friends so hope that stamina is better than today!

Anyways - nice to catch up on here.

Happy crafting all!

Clarity classroom update from Sunday....

So just a quick post to show you my efforts from clarity Barbara Grey in the classroom show that I caught up with on Monday night ... I did 2 pieces... one of which has become a card for hubby for our anniversary today and the other has yet to be used.
Summer:

Using the brayered and the split tree stamp.

Autumn:
Again the brayered and the split tree stamp to create a different effect.



Proud of these. Probably my best brayer work so far.

Anyway head has been bad all day so going to go to sleep now.
Night all and happy crafting.

Jingle bells... well maybe not quite

... but Christmas cards underway!

Had a mammoth craft session tonight including following Barbara grey on create and craft doing her in the classroom show... burger more of that another night. Instead here are some of the Christmas cards I made using the polkadoodles magazine kit. It's fantastic.










Used the mag to follow the ideas for the stamping cards. There is loads more to make using the die cuts and stickers though but was in a stamping mood.

Also played with one Humphrey corner freebie stamp for this one..




Tired but happy with my crafting night I'm off to bed now. Night all. Happy crafting!

Afternoon off work

So how did I spend my afternoon off.... getting messy!




Yes I played art journals and made a big mess of my hands.... goodness knows what people will think.when they see them. I cant show the page I did yet as its sneak peeks only at the moment for the person who is receiving it next but will post in a few weeks time.

But what I can post are days 2 and 3 of 30 days of lists which are sort of finished.... imagine I will do more at the end but done for now.

Day two was what makes me happiest and day three was people I love most so decided to do a double spread page to link them.




Used book print for the hearts and coloured with promarker and inks and then wrote the lists around the hearts.... cute but also a bit messy as the black pen didn't cope so well with the texture... ah well ... still learning.

Anyways... off now to pick up princess from her first day in year one.

Happy crafting all.

C xxx

New obsession ... art journals

So it is official... I an completely obsessed with art journals... not quite finished mimm with kirsty wiseman yet, but now posted on my circle journal and received my first one in return.... so scary but incredibly exciting to be joining in with this amazing project. Will post pics as I go along but there will be a time lag so my circle friends get to see things first.

My final project of the moment is a project called 30 days of lists, and this I can post a couple of pics for ... my cover and day one. Day two (todays) is not quite finished but will be finished with day three.

I think what I am enjoying most with these is the freedom to get messy, to push my boundaries and pretend that I can be an artist.... for the moment I am just playing and having fun and I am loving it.

Tomorrow is a major card making session in the morning so pics of these coming soon.

Take care and enjoy!