Monday, 20 August 2012

Tweet Tweet - Crafty Boots

It's time for a new Crafty Boots challenge and Amy has set this one - and it is for anything bird-related.

I decided to use my 'caged bird' die from Tim Holtz's range.


Started with Dylusions - melted chocolate, bibrant turquoise and fresh lime. Painted the cage with French Roast and Old Gold Fresco paints, and the bird I used walnut stain distress ink and spiced marmalade stain.
Used a Paperartsy 'mini' script stamp in walnut stain randomly round the edge of the tag, then added some Dylusion solid leaf stamping.






You have two weeks to join in - hope to see some great tweeting!!

Wednesday, 15 August 2012

WOYWW 167

Welcome back to What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday. The lovely Queen Julia's brainchild which sees us all hopping round snooping - there is no other word for it -  at workspaces.

Now that the Olympics have finished (boo, I'm missing it!) I am hoping to get some crafting done again, but haven't got there yet!

I spent a lovely day on Sunday at the Stamperama show in Stevenage, meeting up with some lovely crafty bloggy tweety friends! I had a very restrained spend
See! I can do small stash purchase!
I met my friend Kirsten in London and we then travelled to London's Kings Cross station where the refurbishment work that was causing such chaos last time I was there, has finished - look at this fab ceiling structure!

We both had to take photos like a couple of tourists (just as well the Olympics are on, people with cameras everywhere!!)

 Leandra of Paperartsy fame was demo'ing a fabulous image transfer method so when I got home I jumped onto her website to get some... so when I have time, I'll try it out.
I'll leave you with a birthday card for my nephew on Friday (hope he doesn't see this before then!) he's 16 and just done his GCSE's so his future is ahead of him, so I thought this appropriate.

See you next week - hope to visit as many of you as I can!

It would have been my Dad's birthday today, so he is in my thoughts.

Wednesday, 8 August 2012

TIO - Nightmare

Welcome to another Tag It On  challenge from Dragons-Dream - Your challenge, should you accept it is to use the recipe of a blue moon, a chill wind and a murder of crows.  It may not surprise you to learn that this is Blackdragon's choice! Sadly, she has suffered some family bereavement and is taking a breatk.
Don't forget you must make a tag, and use at least one 'real' stamp! Good luck....

My tag features Crafty Individuals CI 319 with the bird (I am calling it a crow!) stamped another twice and cut out.
I did wonder how to demonstrate the 'chill wind' ingredient - but tried to use my scribbly pencil strokes round the edge of the stamped image to illustrate that!

WOYWW? Gold Medal City

I know it's not nice to boast but - wow, Team GB are doing so well at the 2012 London Olympics - I have been enjoying it so much.... not done a lot other than watch Olympic events on TV and listening to the radio commentaries all day at work....

So, once again my "workdesk" for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday looks a little bare.... my sadly neglected journal and the marathon route map, and a little souvenir booklet with a load of London Olympic trivia that was being handed out on Sunday.



So here are a few pics of a very wet Women's Marathon on Sunday - I went to spectate in the pouring rain and the full story is here  (some of you have seen it already, thanks!)


I will try and get round more of your desks this week, after all the Olympics finish on Sunday so I should have some more time!! They have totally taken over my life - I will miss it but kind of looking forward to having some time for other things!

Come back later for another Tag it On challenge!

Monday, 6 August 2012

Go plaid for Wendy

The yahoo group Everything Wendy Vecchi has a 'plaid' challenge this time round - and I wanted to make sure I made this one, as the Olympics schedule has kept me glued to the TV and our successes coming thick and fast - go Team GB!

Anyhow, Lori wanted us to make something with plaid, not from any of Wendy's books this time.

I used the large background stamp for this, and peacock feathers and shaded lilac distress inks, though there is more of the former than the latter!  I went for a tag for speed (had to get back to the sport!)

I stamped 4 of the larger flowers from Accents for Art in peacock feathers ink, and coloured it with shaded lilac and squeezed lemonade.  The centres of the flowers have rock candy distress stickles on - probably should have waited for it to dry before photographing it...

Added rick rack and a Wendy sentiment.




I had a great - if wet - day out yesterday in London, spectating in the pouring rain for the Olympic Marathon. To read about it and see the - very wet! - photos - check my other blog here 

Crafty Boots - Postcards

Welcome to another fabulous challenge set by the Crafty Boots DT - I just about tore myself away from the Olympics to make this!  My lovely team-mate Gabrielle chose this theme - and I turned to my Stampscapes.


If I could find my instructions on how to position two pictures side by side I would have....

I used the squeezed lemonade, tumbled glass and salty ocean distress inks to colour the post card and archival ink for the stamping.

Do stop over to the challenge site to see what the others have dreamt up this time. Hope to see your fabulous entries too.

Wednesday, 1 August 2012

WOYWW 165

Hello all, and Happy Olympics! Really enjoying the Olympics - a few more medals would be nice, if I'm being greedy but.... the opening ceremony was fabulous (it probably helped if you knew a lot of British history but that was my favourite subject at school! but I thought it was inventive, very funny (I even laughed at Mr Bean and I don't normally) and so much to see. ) The venues look fantastic, and I am so proud to see the Olympics in my own country!  One of my neighbours is a 'Games Maker' volunteer - and she's based at Wimbledon for the tennis (it's quite near us) - I can't wait to catch up with her and find out how she's enjoying it. Whilst I am enjoying everything in the first week, I am really looking forward to the athletics that start on Friday.

So as you can imagine, I have been watching quite a lot of all sorts of sports I've never seen before, flicking between 24 channels showing everything imaginable!!  Accordingly, my patch on the floor is totally not creative at the moment .......I haven't so much as inked a stamp since last Thursday...***
The TV guide with pull out section.... day by day planning! So, you may not be surprised to hear that I may not visit many desks this week.... hope you all have a lovely creative time (I must get some DT pieces done at some stage, wonder if I could dispense with sleep for a couple of days....) so happy desk hopping, check out the link at Julia's pad here.  See you next week - may have some art to share!

***actually, that isn't quite true - I stamped a 'happy anniversary' to go on this card for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding anniversary which is today!
I forgot to re-photograph the card after I fixed the greeting to the front (and one inside too) - it's stamped with the cover-a-card trees stamp I got at Newbury, and the background is pan pastels. Hope they received it in time...