Not exactly a Birthday card!

Don't know why but I do have trouble making cards these days, but I sat down on Tuesday to make a card for an interenet friend, and it turned out to be a little gift instead. She has just become a Grandma, and quite rightly, a very proud Grandma, and what Grandma, doesn't like to have a little brag from time to time?

So obviously if I couldn't make a card, I had to make her a Brag Book!

The cover is made from Grungepaper, so should stand up to a fair bit of handling and is painted with a multitude of different paints and inks and sprays, and then stamped with a flower stamp which came as a free gift on this months Craft Stamper mag.
The pages inside are blank, but I am sure she has a photo or two to put in there!

So that explains the mess on my craft desk yesterday and the reason for the diecut letters!

Not a Domino in sight (or Triomino!)

I am known for changing my mind, and I know only this morning I was planning to alter some Triomino pieces for an Altered Game Piece swap... but that was because

a) we weren't allowed to alter domino's - why? cos that's what Trish the Host said, and if you host a swap then you make the rules

b) because I couldn't find the Da Vinci games pieces that I really wanted to use.
but then, I found the Da Vinci bits I really wanted to use

Da Vinci Game pieces? Ever heard of them? Nope didn't think you had! A few years ago during the height of The Dan Brown 'Da Vinci Code' mania, I found a game of the same name in a bargain bucket and purchased it as a stocking filler for D.H.  Well we soon found out why it was it the bargain bucket, it's probably the most boring game in the whole wide gaming world and actually 'bargain' could be stretching a point, unless of course they fall into the hands of someone who rather likes altering things and sees them as (potentially) very cute little 'shrines'

As always I had - not a clue - what I was going to do with them when I managed to grab a bit of me time tonight, but I came across these three lovely - albeit bloomin miserable looking - ladies who fitted beautifully inside the pieces.

I randomly tore a page out of an old book I use for text pages and challenged my self to find some apt text to make a mini collage inside each one. Each one as had a few layers of UTEE which gives the glassy look

All three ladies are I am sure unrecognised Angels, even if they do look like three miserable old buggers, so they all have stamped and embossed wings.

Off to have a think about another challenge - take a look over at Gingersnap Creations - Metallics... yum!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments, I really do appreciate it xxx

All Present, Delivered and Correct....

Well maybe not correct, but pressie has been delivered to Katherine T.

Another altered box, which was just a plain pine jewellery box to begin with.

Katherine gave me some model magic so I wanted to have a play with that, and it ended up on her birthday present.

I rolled it very thinly, stamped into it and folded it, tweaked it, painted it.

This sits on a layer of painted and heated Tyvek.

I made a mould of a Gargoyle fridge magnet and used the model magic in that... its a very details and in parts undercut mould, and it came out much better than the ones I have tried to make with oven baked polymer clays.

Inside there is a removable tray. There is a working clock inside one of the compartments, the face of the clock is embossed metal, which i just doodled on. The bottom of the other compartments are filled with UTEE, coloured with Mica powders.

The lower tray has been lined with metal from Tomato Puree tubes... I love the colour of these and usually flatten them in my Wizard, but have left them creased here and covered them with clear UTEE and a few micro beads.

I have just noticed that some of these photos were taken whist the outside was matt black.. I have since sprayed it with a green mica spray.  The sides are metal, wire, beads, embossing powder and some fab felt like stuff that you can heat and it melts... oh I am so sad getting excited about such stuff!

Another Day.. Another Challenge...

I was invited to join in with the Tuesday Taggers by the talented Clarky J when it first started a few months ago and never quite got round to it, although I do pop by every week to see what they are up to. Well the challenge yesterday set by Avril really caught my eye and stirred my Mojo, so in-between doing a bit of housework, freezer filling and ironing, I kept popping into the craft room and had a play. I finally finished it late last night in semi darkness so I was quite pleased when I woke this morning to find I did quite like the colours!

At the last Ally Pally, I dropped by (as always cos it is the highlight of the show) the LBcrafts stand and watched Lin playing with Metal, Ferro and Terra Paints. Generously she has repeated the technique on her blog, so hop over and take a look. So here is my version of her tag, and entry for the Tuesday Taggers Challenge which was simply a Bird on a Tag.
The Bird (any twitchers out there who can tell me what species it is, I am guessing its not an Owl!) was a die-cut which has been randomly covered with various colours of UTEE and embossing powders.
Not sure if it is a water bird but it is now because I had an odd urge to add a couple of Bull-rushes made from some odd flocky sheets I had (why I bought them I don't know but everything has a use eventually) and wire.  I stamped the words Take Flight into some gold Metal Magic... it hasn't worked terribly well, but it does look better in real life than it does on here

Now the next question is should I take part in the WOYDW - What's On Your Desk Wednesday which I came across via Jennie of The Artistic Stamper fame.... It's not good..... it is rather shameful.... be prepared for a dreadful sight...

... oh, I don't know if I can

....... I can't help it I have tried and I cannot work neatly

..... Deep Breath here goes

Told you it was bad.... full of stuff from my last few projects...

My MIL bought me a Fridge magnet for Christmas which says 'A Tidy House is the Sign of a Wasted Life'

Well rest assured that the rest of my house is clean and tidy (apart from No1 DD's room, but we wont go there, in fact no one dares to go there) but when it comes to my desk... well you can see for yourself!

I think I better go and have a tidy up, don't you?

While I am gone I dare you to join in WOYDW!!

Done it.... I hope it meets approval!

Well I took the plunge and once I got started it was alot of fun. I had no idea where I was going when I started (and I am not actually sure where I finished up!) but I decided to go with the colour scheme of purple and gold so that would go in my newly decorated bedroom.. which is surprisingly enough, purple and gold.....

The frame, which was already highly decorative and needed no addition of embellishments apart from colour, was decorated with Viva paints, Alcohol inks,  Rub 'n' Buff, Metallic Rub Ons, Gold Krylon pen - you name it and it is there! - Oh forgot to mention a few blasts with some pink/purple/gold mica sprays.

The centre piece has one of my favourite PaperArtsy stamps (well all PA stamps are favourites!) which although I love I never quite know what to do with it. But I think it sits quite nicely here stamped on some gold metal and glued on top of some model magic (see post below) which I rolled out, trimmed into a rather organic shape with some decorative scissors and stamped into using a PA squiggly ink tree and a leaf texture mat. The pierced holes around the stamped house are there because I was going to try and stitch it to the clay base, but I quickly realised that it wasn't going to work. It may be because I didn't leave the clay to dry enough, but I didn't want it to dry completely.. so whether you can sew into it is still up for experimentation!

I painted it with Viva Bronze precious metal paint and Viva Bio colour black/gold.. which I have to say I am not at all impressed with, it doesn't to my mind give the illusion of black and gold, but looks OK, just doesn't do what it say on the tin!

Gold Croco Crackle paint behind the lot and voila!

I am happy with it, and it looks lucsious on my bedroom wall, it has just got to pass inspection from Teacher!

Make it Scary Mum...

Well that is what Edward told me when I suggested making a canvas for his newly decorated bedroom, but we have placed it our of direct eye-shot as he falls asleep just in case of nightmares!  I was feeling a bit mojo'less this morning so went blog hopping and hopped over to Hels blog (ink on my fingers) - and as a result I have done my first ever blog challenge - Sunday Stamper - Halloween. I had made this piece of fabric paper (blogged below)  and it just cried out 'Gothic/ghosts/skull/Halloween.. or something! it just was never doing to be pretty. I like skeletons so I made another sheet of plain white fabric paper and cut a skull from it, coloured it a bit, machine stitched it onto the background after stamping some cobwebs using a previous unused embossing powder, called snowflake - white and glittery - I expect you are supposed to used it on Christmas cards! - anyway.... now what do I do with a piece of skull embellished FP?? ..... Put in on a canvas of course!!

.......and so we did. Edward and I are both very happy with the result. The canvas was sponged with some left over orange emulsion from his bedroom. 'Tims' cobweb masks in each corner and as Edward is going through a bit of a 'gargoyle' phase at the moment I used some new Gargoyle stamps mummy just had to buy, stamped onto cream coloured metal and 'puffed' out, filled from behind with lightweight polyfilla and then cut close to the edges, they look really effective I think. They are standing on two pillars of my new Ferro paints. Grungepaper bats and a few stamped skeletons.. Skeletons, bones and hands are Halloween bits and pieces from the £shop an odd bit of broken bamboo I found in the garden - beautifully weathered, and it all hangs from a chain found in the garage left over from a party..... (no not that sort of party!! - a 70's Birthday party where Matt and I dressed up as punks!)

Throughly enjoyed myself this afternoon!

This and Tat and a bit of the Other

Just a little something for ... well I guess some of you may recognise them (and the photo - I still think it is a lovely picture) It started out as one of those brown card blanks.. sure they have a proper name but I can't think what it is.
My favourite paints of the moment - Claudine Hellmuth Acrylics and after seeing a demo at Ally pally by Lin of LBcrafts, stamping into Viva Ferro paints, some stamping into Viva Ferro paints!
 Haven't had my shrink plastic or Friendly plastic out for a while, so added a bit of that, Some Tim ideology hardware (i must love these Guy's cos I don't use such precious stuff very often, I just like to look at it and save it for another day - I mean what would happen if the world ran out of Tim's sprockets and spinners??)

I was also very good and mounted all my new stamps on EZMount, so I had a play with some new stamps from Paperartsy. (arrggghhhh Just seen they have brought out yet more which I don't think were at AP - Lovely lovely but I must NOT spend anymore!!)

Added some gilding flakes I got from another favourite stall at AP Crafty Notions and a splodge or two of Tim's new Rock candy (thank you Jennie for remembering I was after it and bringing it to AP), oh forgot the spray of cosmic shimmers....
and there it is, another bit of tat for them - or in her words 'where on earth am i going to hang that?'

oh and just in case you thought you had got away with it... yep I have been making more fabric paper

Poor in pocket...

but rich in friends..... had just the best weekend with Mr and Mrs Bessie, some of you may have read about the Bessie's but don't know who they are... well I just had to share this lovely picture of them

that's them, bless their old hearts!

Ally Pally was as good as usual, met up with some friends and spent far too much, esp at LBcrafts and The Artistic Stamper.... yummy paints and yummy stamps and yummy goodies that one just had to have! Can't wait to have a play with them............ and my friend Debs gave me the most awesome thing to alter that she picked up from a car boot sale for me, so I have no excuse to get out my new paints!

Now AP is over, I can post a few things that I made and gave to some special people at AP... two very late birthday presents!

A pressie for Dee62 who had a 'significant' birthday last month

An altered Tuna Tin... grungeboard. For a smaller friend who we tease that she must live under a toadstool, who's birthday was in July!

No prizes for guessing who this is for, not a Birthday pressie, just a pressie for her new purple bedroom!

I was very chuffed with the 'Best Mate' bit, do you recognise it? I managed to take a mould of a 'Love Heart' sweet (which I have to admit I loved as a child and still love them, they are my guilty pleasure!) - anyway I took a mould and then made a polymer clay embellishment from it. Obviously you can't make and sell them, but great fun for personal projects.

Oh well back to real life again now... off to pack tomorrows lunches, check school uniforms, polish shoes etc etc

Four Flat Feet

I may have just mentioned that I am staying at Mrs Bessie's ready to go to Ally Pally tomorrow, well we spent a lovely morning shopping in Canterbury and she happened to spy some boring white plimsolls.. much the same as my boring white plimsolls - as were. Hers aren't boring anymore because we have been playing together this afternoon with glimmer mists (now all down my green tee shirt) and fabric paints (the gold of which is now down my navy tee shirt) copper tape and grungeboard... cool aren't they! I like hers better but she won't let me wear them! Just as well really cos my name isn't Sparkles and they are two sizes too big for my delicate little pinkies!

It's Ally Pally time and ......

these boots were made for walking....

or should that be, these boring old white plimsolls were made for altering??

Just a bit of fun, I doubt they will survive too many wearings, but after recent events in our lives it's time for a bit of fun and not taking things too seriously!

Off to stay with my lovely mates Mr and Mrs S... that's always a treat in itself! So it's woodcarving and then a drive down to Kent tomorrowand a girlie day out on Friday and Ally Pally on Saturday, leaving family to fend for themselves, doubt they will even notice I have gone!

Now...... where did I leave my shopping list????

Still trying to get out a Creative Rut

And having a play with different colours. I have been caught up using mainly autumnal colours, so I am trying to get out of my comfort zone and have a little experiment with some colours.

 I saw an article in the most recent Somerset Studio, where the artist loved pink and green. It looked nice, I thought I would have a play. Mmmmmmmm....... been messing about with this for a few days now, experimenting with different shades of both the pink and the green. The Artist (I'll get up out of my comfy armchair in a mo and go and get the mag and tell you who she is..) did say it is very dependant on particular shades of both the pink and green, and I have to agree. I don't think this is quite what I was after, sometimes I like the whole thing, other times I don't... just not sure. Is it the colour? Is it the whole thing? I suspect it may grow on me, but then again maybe it won't.

 Can you tell I am rather undecided??

Still I have had fun doing it.

 Still rather Kelly Rae Roberts influenced but I hope I have put my own slant on it. The face is on a mini canvas so stands out from the rest and the little girl stamp is on Stampboard.

The whole thing is supposed to tell a story, and it does to me, so I guess I have got quite alot out of making it

Found her - Lisa Kaus - wow check her blog!!

Update from when I wrote this last night! -

 Looking back at the mag i have totally overdone the pink and green, but having said that, looking at this in the daylight I am getting rather attached to it. It's interesting having a play with colours you don't usually use or don't think you like, give it a go!

Not Sure If I Have Succeeded!!

Georgina - "Mum, can you alter this bag for me ready for school on Monday"
Mum       - "Yes I'd love too, can I do what I want?"

Georgina - "Yes - whatever as long as..... "

1. It's not too pretty

2. It's not too grungy

3. Don't go mad

4. Leave the word Danger

5. No embellishments added cos they will fall off

6. I want skeletons but not gruesome

7. Oh and I have been looking at your new Somerset Stamper Mag (YOU WHAT?? THAT'S MINE AND SACRED!!!) and I like the colours on this project, and can you do stitching like this project

8. Stitching mustn't be neat (no worries there- mum is not a seamstress)

9. Think that's it.... you can do what you like

10. Oh can it have my favourite word on it? ....... NO MUM NOT 'WHATEVER' ... that isn't my favourite word

10. No mum you do not need to find out how to spell 'uhhh???'

11. Thanks Mum

Why Because??? Because she loves me I expect.... who am I kidding!! -

JUST BECAUSE!

Well I now await the return from guide camp of my fiercest critic.. will she or won't she???

.

.

.

.

***UPDATE ***

It was met with cries of -

'Wow that is so cool, I am going to look the bizz on Monday'

So I guess it passed inspection!

Twice In One Day!!

Well the plan for today was to do a bit of washing... went to laundry basket to find it had magically been filled overnight I was sure it was empty yesterday! - SHOCK........... Kids had tidied their Bedrooms. HORROR..... This resulted in a load more washing!

Plan 2; Do the Ironing. Well that hasn't happened.

Plan 3; Attempt some altered bottletop charms for a challenge I am taking part in. Well I tried, honest I did, I flattened, I removed plastic bits, I made holes, I ran out of inspiration.

OK onto Plan 4; Prepare food for tonight's dinner... forgot to take meat out of freezer last night... that's OK , Lentil Roast prepared instead, that will keep meat hating DD happy.

Plan 5; Continue with the Altered Abacus I started at the beginning of the year.... yeah sommat has gone OK cos it went to plan (well almost) and is now finished. Not bad, I planned on it taking most of the year as I wanted to do it bit by bit as and when I had time and inspiration to do another bit. It's June tomorrow and it's finished and I am happy with it so all is well in Nicks world.

It doesn't really take much to make me happy... take a look at these two beauties! Playing around with a pasta machine, some clay and some leaves. Heidi uses alot of leaves with her silver work and silver clay, so I thought I'd have a play with my polymer clay. Just ran the leaves through the pasta machine along with the clay and then highlighted the clay with some mica pigments. As they are so thin they will go into my altered book as they are only the thickness of a stiff card. One uses a rose leaf from a rose OH brought in from the garden for me, and the other is a lily leaf and some gypsophilia that came in a bouquet recently sent to me from Mrs Bessie.... cool eh??? they look groovy and are a bit of personal memorabilia, well I'm happy LOL!!

Altered Book Course Week 8

Can't believe we are Week 8 already! Not sure how many weeks we have left but I am seriously running out of pages to alter! Really enjoying this course as I am really just playing. The whole Project is just for me, it's not a pressie, it's not for a workshop, it's not going for sale, it's not even going to be seen by anyone else (well apart from the odd blog follower!) so it's just for me to play with, experiment and generally just experiment and mess about! How liberating is that!

Anyway this week was ZIPS!

My pages have been painted, glimmered, scrawled on, stamped on, decopatched, doodled on and generally abused!
One problem though is that after finishing and unzipping.. one of the zips has decided it's a bit dodgy, so it must be zipped and unzipped with lots of TLC!

Well that's it for now, but one last thing before I go, do you know I really think that this Arty/crafty malarkey is really a live-saver... how many of us may crack up completely if we didn't have our playtime to lose ourselves in?..... which brings me to a small confession, I was going out for lunch today with a friend and was really looking forward to some time out and a girlie natter, unfortunately she had to cancel at the last minute..... (sad face) ...... so instead of eating I went to the cake shop... (nope not the cream variety- the decorating variety) and bought myself a mould instead

well perhaps two

or was it three ??

No I am sure it was only one!

Meet Tilly.... My Paverpol Gal!

Well that's what I have called her, but it's not up to me cos by the time you read this she will be living in Kent with my Best Mate, Sparky. If you ever visit Kent (which is a brave thing to do in itself!) then you can spot her house quite easily cos it's full to bursting with my old tat!





It's her birthday today - Happy Birthday Matey - and Tilly is her pressie, I know she really yearns for an M&S voucher, a bunch of flowers and a Birthday cake, but she will never get the last two from me ever ever ever again (long story........ but how ungrateful some people can be is unbelievable .....!!!!) so that just leaves the M&S voucher for next time.


Anyway back to the plot, Tilly is made from a bit of wire, silver foil, my old tee shirt and some lovely stuff called Paverpol, which is a fabric hardener... so messy.... so much fun! Then a bit of paint and this and that. Edward found the log at Blickling Woods - Blickling Hall was once the home of Anne Boleyn and it is said she still comes to 'visit' her old house and grounds.. perhaps it was her who left this evenly cut log in the middle of the forest!?? - and the Ivy leaves are made from polymer clay.

You probably can't see the twiddly bit's.. tendrils I think they are called.... I must give credit to Matthew for them or else he will sulk, but (and don't tell him I have said this) but they do add a nice finishing touch.

Whether she has survived the ride to Kent in the back of the posties van remains to be seen!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPARKY, hope you have a lovely day and thank you for being just who you are xxxx

Now off to find another old t-shirt to cut up as Edward, my little scavenger has found another lovely bit of wood which is begging for another paverpol person to sit on it... he has a keen eye my son for what other people see as 'junk'... in fact he announce the other day (he is 7 years old) that when he grows up he wants to work in a scrapyard so that he can get big bits of metal to weld together to make sculptures..... That's my Boy!!!!

Or should I get on and finish the abacus I started a while a go....

To be honest I am just twiddling my fingers until the next lesson of the AB course is published!!

Yummy Grungepaper

Well I've had my first play with this lovely stuff, which is just like Grungeboard, but alot thinner, more the stiffness of thin card rather than paper but has loads of possibilities. It can be treated just the same as GB but can also be folded. punched and stitched (wondering at this point whether it can be printed on.. mmm must give that a try!) ... by punched I mean you can punch shapes out of it with your paper punches, not physically punched, though if you have had a bad day I'm it wouldn't mind a bit of battering!!

Anyway here is my first quick project, an Ipod case. It will be interesting to see how it stands up to rolling around in my handbag and alot of handling!

It has been painted, glimmermisted, stamped, put through my wizard with a cuttlebug embossing folder, and I have glued and added eyelets to the 'seam'. I did intend on sewing along the edges and tried to use a sewing machine that I borrowed from a friend, but found the bit for winding the cotton onto the bobbin was broken. she has informed me this morning that you need to use a toothpick and bit of blutack...... anyway I couldn't wait for her expert technical knowledge so used eyelets instead!

It's not a great finished project but at least I have had a play and got something to protect the new Ipod that is causing me more headaches that any crafty project.. Any Ipod experts out there??

I will have to experiment a bit more with the GP, but on first impressions it's alot of fun and has endless possibilities!

Took delivery yesterday of some love alterable stuff that we will using at Your Creative Journey later this month and will also later be selling on our website, so bookmark the site and keep popping back! There are still a few places available at our workshops if you are quick!