Final post of the year

So what a year it has been ... And what a year there is to come!

The life book challenge at willowing.ning is about to start, the postcard challenge too. I've also signed up for a few other things which I will blog about in future posts, but for now I want to wish everyone who happens to visit my blog, a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012!

So Happy New Year one and all and My resolution is to finish things and word for the year is perseverance and so I hope to be here lots in the next 12 months updating you regularly on what I've been up to.

Such fun.

Happy crafting

C xxx

Final piece of art for princess

The princesses bedroom had room for another piece of art which I had started when we were decorating the room but not finished until today.

I bought the huge a2 sized canvas from a cheapie shop before Christmas for the bargain prince of £1.99 and set to on it with a mixture of pink and white acrylic, and pink spray ink. Used some masks for the stars and outlined them roughly in black pen.

then used book print pieces and sprayed them in mixture of lilac, pink and blue shimmer sprays and then left them to dry. Once dry I did an outline of a heart and then stuck the pieces of book print on randomly to cover the heart.

Importantly the princess loves it... And so do I... So simple but also beautiful and at the bargain price of £1.99 not to be sneezed at!

All prepared for the postcard challenge

At the end of the mammoth card making session I decided to finish prepping for Darcy's postcard challenge ... See the button up there on the right ... And so have now finished the book covers, finished the pages off, made and added a vellum envelope for the first postcard and pre- stamped the back of a few postcards ready for creating the postcards when Darcy gives us the country for our first one.

As for the storyline I'm still undecided about whether to go for time travellers or spies... Hubby and I have been discussing it as I can't decide myself just yet... Maybe the first country will answer it for me! Names are likely to be location based names I think ... Loving the name Florence at the moment, and maybe Boston for a man? Oh decisions decisions... Well at least I get a couple more days to think on it before the country is announced.

I encourage everyone to have a go at this... Please go and see Darcy's blog and have a go!

Pics below of my work so far....

Christmas card crafting ... Yes for 2012!

So today and yesterday have been full of crafting and I set to on starting next years christmas cards using up freebie papers from magazines and bits of last years cards I had in my stash... Hardly any stamping ... Just a lot of cut and stick work with some added glitter. Mad I know but there was some method in my madness.

I have been trying to get rid of the mass of magazines I have accumulated and so have been cutting out pictures and ideas I like for an ideas book I've been making and today I finished off the job and covered the book to boot... The result is 28 Xmas cards, 14 birthday cards to date and a lovely book ready for me to browse when I need the inspiration.

So pleased with the end result I wanted to share.

Small update for postcard challenge...

Today I have started on the inking and also punched holes into the pages, and used some recycled ribbon from Christmas crackers for binding for the moment although don't want to use this for the final as don't like the red with the greens and browns... I have also come up with a vague sense of character although going to think about it some more over the next day or two. I also created some more pages out of the atlas paper to add in throughout the book intermittently.
Not much crafting today as friends visiting both this morning and another set due now... So time to put on the kettle and dig out some more mince pies. Fingers crossed lots of crafting tomorrow as the princess and I make our thank you cards. Such fun!
Thanks for visiting.
C x

Postcard challenge 2012

My dear friend Darcy has set up a challenge I am determined to join in with.... Please go to her blog - see my link below - or use the button I will post on my blog to find out more...

But in short ... Every week she will post a country that we then have to write a postcard from a decorate it in line with that country. The postcards will then be a correspondence between two people and we make the story up as we go along. the postcards get stored in a book so that they remain in order and can be read in sequence.

First thing to do was to decide on how to make the book... I decided to make it all from scratch to my own design and so this is what I have done so far...

I covered two corrugated cardboard sheets 8x6 in atlas pages and then applied some gesso randomly across the cover to provide some texture. this is all I have done to these at the moment, but intend to add ink and stamps and a title too when they are dry.

Then I cut some pages for the book from a variety of coloured cards in muted tones mainly in earthy type colours. These are 7.5x5 in size. I will then score them 3/4 of an inch in to make the edge of the page where I will punch them, as I will with the cover. I've not quite done enough for the 52 weeks just yet as I imagine I will not always manage to do every week, plus as I intend to bind it at the end it won't matter if some have to be done later and added in.

Finally I am using standard 6x4 postcards and so have some ready cut watercolour ones and have also cut some from some acrylic paper too. I have got a postcard type stamp somewhere in my stash so will dig this out, but don't want to do too many in advance in case I want to do a different design on the backs of a few. But in essence, with the exception of finishing the book cover off, I will be ready for Darcy's first country being posted on 2nd January 2012. Please feel free to comment, and please do go over to Darcy's blog to see what's going on and see everyone else's work! It's going to be fab!

link to Darcy's challenge

Circle journal work... Catch up time

Ok so catch up time.... Firstly I lost this post once so may not have the patience to repeat it all.. Sorry if it seems a bit brief!

Circle Journal ... Well what a merry band we are! Firm friendships have been made in our sisterhood and I truly dont know what I would do without them now!

Since I last wrote I have had another two journals although can only blog about one as the other has to wait to be posted on to the next recipient!

Becca's is full of bright colours and sunshine and a little She Art girl. Inspired by her bright colours I chose to go all sunny bright yellow and orange for the main spread. And then added texture with the buttons to finish it off. I also wanted to make Becca a She Art girl as I felt she needed some positive vibrancy on her tag too! unfortunately the pics for this aren't around at the moment so will add them in later one via a link.

Now what else...

Secret Santa Sisterhood
Our circle group decided on secret Santa as well and I made a small recipe journal for my recipient, the wonderful Jayne, full of Christmas recipes which I love loads. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this but she has posted a couple on Facebook that I have nabbed to put on here.

Talking of Christmas i made three lovely She Art canvasses for my wonderful work friends who have really stuck together and with me over the past 18 months ... Literally through roller coasters. Fortunately they loved them so I am so proud to show them off here... I even got commissions from others at work wanting one making for them too... Obviously I cant sell them but more than happy for them to pay for the canvasses and I will create for them! Link to pics to be added ASAP.

My Christmas cards were so well received a friend bought some from me and my mum knitted me a beautiful scarf for Christmas in exchange for the cards I had given them... Such a lovely exchange. I also made some cards for one of the girls at work in exchange for a Christmas cake. Again such a great idea to share our individual skills.

The princess also had her bedroom decorated for Christmas and I included in her room my first she art piece and also the second one I made which I framed for her. A separate post will show the pics for this and I will insert a link in here later.

And that, dear reader I think is it... What will next year hold... Well you will have to wait for another post to find out... But safe to say there is a lot to do and I will be busy busy busy but so looking forward to the challenges.

Ta ya for now... Thanks for stopping by

C xxx

Ooooh. Just found out I can add multiple posts in one .... How exciting! Will still wait to see how this turns out before adding more!

Such fun!

IPad blogging

Ok first attempt at blogging on the iPad. Merry Christmas everyone!

And now for my second attempt from a different app.

I need to get my blogging back up to date as I am joining in with several challenges over the course of 2012 and so need to get things up to date. Plus going to try and do more blogging to keep myself a record of what's been going on. After all life is busy and need to get myself back into the swing of this!

So more sensible blogs will return as soon as I've got the hang of this iPad blogging app.