Time for a bit of a catch up.

Hi Every one. I can't believe that it is more than a fortnight since I last posted on here, life has been extremely hectic, but quite exciting too.
When I last posted I was hoping that work would start on fencing the land we have recently bought.......here is the proof that it actually started on time !!! It took four men working really hard.... well hardish, nine days to complete and looks really good. The grass seed has germinated and a faint haze of green is now covering the whole field, we have also planted a few trees to replace ones which had to make way for the fencing. I can't believe that this "pipe dream" has become a reality.




These first two pictures were taken as they started work on the first morning, and the next three were taken this morning, now that all the work is finished.

I really feel fortunate to live in such a beautiful place.

Last week's challenge at Tuesday Taggers was to create something spooky, I decided to continue in a digital fashion following on from the previous week's little mouse and created labels for my Halloween Goody bags using Photoshop Elements and some Rhonna Farrer Halloween Style Digital Brushes, I printed them out onto plain white card stock and then coloured them using TH Distress Inks, I put some suitable sweet treats in the bags and the addition of some fibres to the pack tops for that finishing touch, hmmmmmm, just need a suitable container and ..... I wonder who will get to sample these?



Finally ....for now.... This week's challenge at Tuesday Taggers was to use "Bursts Of Colour" sounds straight forward enough I know, but it was a struggle deciding what to do, a firework theme may have been the obvious choice with Bonfire Night coming up but it didn't really appeal to me. I was thinking about fireworks however when I finally decided on using a "caught in crystal" technique as the colours really seem to burst when you drop pigment powders into the Klear polish on the acetate. When my acetate / pigment and Klear polish / tissue paper sandwich was dry some of the colours were not as vivid as I wanted, so I used my copic markers on the back of the tissue paper to add more colour in some areas, I then used black Stayzon to stamp the trees on to the front of the acetate. The Caught In Crystal Panel is mounted onto an 8" x 8" canvas which has had book pages stuck to it in places and been gessoed before painting with acrylic paints, a chinese proverb which says "One generation plants the trees. Another gets the shade" was adhered to the canvas before the "Crystal panel" was placed over the top and finished off with some ribbons.


I am pleased with the end result as it reminds me of the glorious sunsets we see from our windows at this time of year, as well as expressing what our little bit of Lincolnshire and the trees we are planting mean to me.

I'm off to Malham Tarn at the weekend for an annual Crafty get together with some wonderful crafty friends, I can't wait for Friday to come....but in the meantime I need to decide what to take and what to leave at home (other than my OH and DD....lol) I'll probably end up taking everything and the kitchen sink as usual.

Bye for now.

Bee xx

Still in an Autumnal Mood.

Hi everyone.
The weather here in Lincolnshire continues to be bright and sunny, although an autumnal chill has begun to creep in and as well as glorious sunsets we are now getting some lovely misty mornings. The tree colour is still good, although the leaves are falling fast. We have just managed to get the grass seed sown in 3 acres of land that we have bought adjoining our garden and hopefully the workmen are arriving today to start on the fencing, I am really looking forward to choosing and planting trees and hedgerow plants to give us more autumn colour in the future.

Over at Tuesady Taggers this week the design team are still in an autumnal mood too, our challenge this week is to use a digital stamp to create our projects. We have all used the same image (A cute little Harvest Mouse) by Teri at Delicious Doodles, for our projects.

My Harvest Mouse takes pride of place on the cover of a little Pink Pig Notebook.

First I downloaded the image, decided what size I wanted it to be and printed it out onto copypaper, I then coloured it in using Copic Markers and cut it out. I used perfect medium and two coats of clear embossing to make my mouse more durable. To create the background I applied tea dye and walnut stain distress inks directly to the edges of the green mulberry paper covered board and stamped random leaves using shabby shutters distress ink ink and the acorn stamp from stampin up using walnut stain distress ink.
I tied two pieces of ribbon around the cover and then added a mat made from card covered with frayed burlap and inked with glimmer mists. I placed my Mouse on top of the Burlap mat and added glass beads adhered with diamond glaze around his feet. The end result has a real tactile quality with lots of different textures.

Thanks Teri for giving us the image toplay with, I have really enjoyed this challenge.

Bee xx

Scrapbook Pages.

Hi Everyone, I haven't posted any scrapbook pages for a while, but thought you might like to see these. This double layout was made in response to this month's layout challenge over on the Running With Scissors Shop blog at http://tj-runningwithscissors.ning.com/ Helena had posted this single page sketch.

and I immediately thought of the photos of the Hot Air Balloon Trip that Kate, Jim and I had recently. Kate had always wanted a trip in a hot air ballooon, for that matter so had I....lol... and as both Kate and our good friend Jim celebrated special birthdays this year, it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed.

Kate's birthday was in early January, not a good time of year for outdoor adventures, Jim's was in early September a much better time of year, and our trip was planned for 17th September. We spent a lovely day in York, mooching around the shops and having a leisurely lunch before heading to the racecourse to take our balloon trip, an experience we would all willingly repeat, and a real Red Letter Day for all of us.

There were far too many photos that I wanted to use, as I wanted to give a feel of the whole experience, so a double lay out with large flaps for hidden photos and journaling was called for, the sketch with it's strong horizontal lines lent itself to being used this way. The large areas of white space in the sketch also felt appropriate as I wanted to capture that feeling of being at one with the sky.

The Hot air balloon embellishments were simply rubber stamped and coloured in, using a stamp from Clarity Stamps, stamp club that coincidentally arrived in the post a few days ago. The image was stamped once on white card and once onto white shrink plastic, which was then heated, this helped give a sense of perspective, and the calendar page was created in Word on my computer, cut out and then a Stamping Up Border Punch used to give the spiral bound look. All the journaling inside the card was printed out from the computer and then cut into strips before adhering, as were the two Haiku poems I created for the fronts of the layouts. I really like using the Haiku structure to add meaning to my pages in a way that is different from that straight forward journaling.

The words read "A Hot Air Balloon, As one with Wind and Nature, Drifting in Clear Skies" and "Once in a Lifetime, A Different Perspective, A Red Letter Day"

The large letters for the titles were cut using A Slice machine.

I am really pleased with how these pages have turned out, thanks to Helena and her inspiring layout sketch.

Bee xx

Altered Wooden Box

The challenge at Tuesday Taggers this week is to use Autumnal Colours in our projects. This is a real bonus for me as I just LOVE Autumn. The trees around where I live are the most fantastic colours at the moment and there are wonderful shiny conkers on the ground. We have had our first rain today for ages and now it smells of Autumn too.


Anyway back to the project.....
I had a little hinged wooden box in my craftroom just waiting to be altered....another crafty bargain from the range....

I wanted to use Autumn Colours but also get the sheen that you find on fresh conkers....lol

So out came the pearl powders, metallic dabbers, perfect medium, a maple leaf stamp, etc etc, a piece of ribbon, a few pieces of Tim Holtz Idea-ology and some words from a download from Lisa's Altered Art.


After painting all over the box with Black Acrylic paint and leting it dry, I then painted the lid with a variety of mica pigments in strong Autumnal colours in a random fashion. When this was dry I overstamped with clear perfect medium and the maple leaf stamp and coloured these with dry pearl pigments in copper and brass, I spritzed these lightly with water to set and then overstamped again using the same stamp and black stayzon to get a really layered look like a pile of fallen leaves.

I overpainted the black body of the box with a gold acrylic dabber and then distressed it when dry with a coarse sanding block, then rubbed aged mahogany distress ink over the top. I inked and distressed my words and adhered them with dilute PVA which I then used to seal the whole of the box.

An idea-ology Lock plate, brads, sprocket and spinner were attached to the front of the box and the woven ribbon used on the edge of the lid and bottom of the box.


This was quite an experimental piece as I was using a lot of my supplies in ways that they weren't designed for, for example the distress ink wouldn't dry and fix on top of the acrylic paint, but the PVA sealant prevented this being a problem, in fact there was a bonus in as much as the distress ink became more vibrant and moved around with the PVA in a way which improved the look of the box. I also tried a sandwich crackle technique on the body (I painted the crackle medium between the black and gold acrylic layers) which didn't work, thus necessitating the heavy handed distressing to get a similar effect. At the end of the day though I am really happy with what I achieved and had a great time creating it.

I hope you like it too.

Bee xx

Shaker ATC for Tuesday Taggers

Happy Tuesday everyone.

The challenge this week at Tuesday Taggers is Trees, the autumnal colours in the trees around where I live is absolutely stunning at the moment, especially when the sun is shining through them, but my tree here looks as if it would be right at home in Narnia....lol....where it is always winter but never Christmas!!!

I have made shaker ATCs like this before, but thought this was a good opportunity to revisit this very tactile little gem.

The tree image has been stamped in silver brilliance ink onto black glossy card and heat set, I have used glass seed beads for the filling and the textured window frame has been made by glueing tiny broken pieces of pasta ribbons onto the card with PVA and then painting with black acrylic paint. When the black paint was dry I dry brushed over it with some silver acrylic to get the frosty effect.

I can feel a series of these little shaker trees coming on.......all four seasons......watch this space!!

What a Fab Weekend !

Hi everyone,

The photo below shows me (on the far left) the wonderful Dyan and my good friends and fellow Tuesday Taggers DT members Emma and Janet at the end of a fabulous two day mini-ranger university techniques weekend masterminded by Dyan at Art From The Heart in Harrogate.

Two days of wonderful inky, painty, shimmery play....combined with good food, great company, plenty of laughter and crafty shopping !!! what more could a girl ask for?

In two days we completed 38 different technique tags, using acrylic dabbers, dye inks, pigment inks, distress inks, distress crackle paint, perfect pearls, Claudine Hellmuth studio paints.....etc etc.... we spritzed, embossed, blended, resisted, painted, coloured in, altered, distressed, grunged and babywiped to our hearts content, ending up with each of us creating a wonderful resource file full of information, tips and techniques which can be added to in the future.

Some of the techniques were already familiar to me, but Dyan managed to put a new twist on them, others were entirely new and have opened up new ways of using my crafty stash. So huge thanks to Dyan, and to Emma and Janet for such an enjoyable weeked.....and here's to next time !

Bye for now

Bee xx

My Altered Clock for Tuesday Taggers

Hi everyone,

I hope this post finds you all well, I've had a very frustrating few hours with my computer this evening, firstly trying to get into my e-mails and then get an internet connection for long enough to write this blogg !! I have tried to upload the photos four times only to have the signal disconnect at the last moment, however I have finally managed to get the photos where I want them and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get this blogg completed without too many more problems.

The challenge this week at Tuesday Taggers is to use Sepia Tones on our projects.......

I found this little Mantle Clock in The Range a few weeks ago, very cheap, and looking in need of altering, so I decided to use it for this weeks challenge.

The first thing I did was to rub it down a little with some very fine sand paper and then give it a rub over with some tea dye distress ink . I used a Stampin Up Stamp to add some random cogs and sprockets using Sepia Archival Ink, Istamped some words directly on to the clock case and also added others using tissue paper. I used a couple of buttons and some Idea-ology sprockets to add dimension and texture and then overpainted everything with rock candy distress paint.

When the Distress paint had thoroughly dries I worked some Walnut Stain distress ink into the crackles and finally used a Copic marker to add some colour to the glass clock face.

I am really pleased with the end result and hope you like it too. I shall look forward to see what everyone else does for this challenge.

Bye for now Bee xx

Hello everyone, a bit of a catch up!

This week has been super busy and the time has just flown, I can't believe that it is well over a week since I last posted anything on here, as well as having a lot going on at home, my computer has been playing up and it has been difficult to get or maintain broadband connections, making it almost impossible to blog.

My entry for Tuesday Taggers last week was actually a card!! the theme for the week was to use punches and or die cuts

The base card is acetate giving all the other layers the appearance of floating in mid air, I have used a Martha Strwart Border punch, punched a heart out of serendipity and then punched holes and put eyelets in before threading ribbon through and finishing off the heart with the LOVE brad, this has then been attached to a punched and stamped tag and placed on the front of the acetate, the serendipity background and brown matting layer with the punched border are inside the card, and there is a cream insert which has also been border punched. I love the layered look that I have achieved and also the fact that I made the serendipity papers out of scraps, I hate to throw anything away.

Smokey and Smudge, the kittens, are growing fast and beginning to settle in really well, they are getting more confident and enjoying exploring their new home. They had their first visit to the vet on Wednesday for their injections and behaved really well, then met another one of the other members of our household, Zulu our elderly Labrador / Greyhound Cross who seems quite happy to have them join the family.

On Thursday Kate, our friend Jim and I had a wonderful day out in York, including shopping and a good lunch then culminating in a hotair balloon trip in the evening, this was great fun and something we would all love to do again. Both Kate and Jim had special birthdays this year and this balloon trip was one of their birthday presents.

I have taken lots of photos of the kittens and of our balloon trip and will add some to the blog in the next day or so when I have uploaded them from my camera.

Bye for now

Bee xx

Lotstodo Challenge.

Hi Folks, I haven't managed to make anything new for this weeks challege of using tissue paper, but the bookmark I made for the Tuesday Taggers Challenge this week includes stamping on Tissue paper..... and my "formerly White Shoes" created back in May haven't been entered in any challenge yet so here thery are for those of you who haven't seen them before.

For more pictures of these shoes see my blogg on 31st May.

Bee xx

Bookmark for Tuesday Taggers

Hi Everyone.

This weeks challenge over at Tuesday Taggers is to make a bookmark, with or without an accompanying card.

I have only just returned from holiday and only found time to complete a bookmark this week.
Basically I sandwiched a mixed medium collage between two pieces of acetate. There is a central core made from an old dictionary page coloured with distress inks which has been overlaid on both sides with stamped tissue paper, cut out images, cut out text, diecut letters etc. I have added additional colour using Copics Markers, mica pigments and PVA, distress embossing powders and finally added some hand stitching, ribbon and a Tim Holtz Idea-ology tag.


Unfortunately the photos are not very clear and don't show the detail very well.
Bee xx

Our New Arrivals....

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note tonight to introduce our two new arrivals...

Smokey

and Smudge

They are nine week old brothers who joined our family last Thursday.... and are proving a very entertaining distraction.


This is their first scrapbook page, made in class at Running With Scissors in Grimsby on Saturday, the colours were just perfect for this photo of the boys.

Bye for now,

Bee xx

Hello from the high seas.

Well Brittany Ferries actually. No pictures today I'm afraid as I am on my way home from a fabulous two weeks relaxing in the heart of Brittany. I am pleased to see that my scheduled blogs have appeared at the right times...... I would have felt such an idiot if I'd got that wrong, and huge thanks to those of you who have stopped by to look at my blogg or have left comments on my blogg, they really are appreciated.
I shall catch up with you all over the next few days, once I am home.

bye for now Bee xx

Tuesday Taggers "Gift in a Jar"

Hi Folks....fingers crossed again.....regarding the scheduler......when you read this I should be about halfway through my holiday in Brittany, by now I should be fully relaxed with my batteries recharged, .....I'll tell you more about it when I get back.

For this weeks challenge we were asked to make a gift in a bottle, although some of the other DT members have been playing with lotions and potions, I decided to make a gift aimed specifically at a crafty friend.

How often do you hear a crafter complain that their Mojo has gone AWOL....... Mojo Magic just might be the answer.


Jar Lid painted with Cosmic Shimmer pigments dissolved in PVA, Little envelopes and Jar lables etc created using Cosmic Shimmer and Tattered Angel spritz inks, embossing powder and stamped with Stayzon and Versamark, using Craft Individuals and PaperArtsy stamps. All available from our sponsor The Craft Barn.

Each envelope is attached to a piece of ribbon and contains a charm or embellishment and a word or theme to help kickstart creativity. Just pull out an envelope and see where it leads you.

In the best tradition of "Bottled Produce" my jar of Mojo Magic has been sealed using a wax seal.

Bye for now, see you all when I get back.

Bee xx

Tuesday Taggers Retro Week

Hi folks,

I really hope I've set up the scheduler properly, or I might be letting the cat out of the bag early, If I have....big apologies all round.

Just a really quick post today, the theme at Tuesday Taggers starting Tuesday 18th August is "Retro", for my project this week I have created a clipboard using the October Afternoon goodies from The Craft Emporium that I won on TT a few weeks ago.....BIG THANK YOU LYN....

The Road Map papers and embellishments were exactly right for my project, I loved the colours and graphic quality of the images. On the back of the clipboard I added a digital picture of an old 2CV which I created from a photo (My OH owns a really old 2CV which he loves...)

,

The clipboard is to take on our road trip holiday to Brittany......which is where I should be by the time you read this....if....the scheduler works.....lol.

I call it our Road Trip Holiday because we travel by Road and then overnight on Brittany Ferries, this year there are eight of us going in two cars. We have been going back to the same place for five years now and it feels like home away from home....only with the Road Trip inbetween, and then once we get there, there are certain special places we like to visit every year as well as exploring new ones.

Bye for now

Bee xx

Altered Tin for Tuesday Taggers.

Hi Everyone.

It is an absolutely beautiful morning here in Lincolnshire, blue sky and sunshine, I really hope it lasts. I always feel so much better when the weather is good. I've got a busy week ahead of me as I am off on holiday with the family next Monday to Brittany, it is a place we try to go to every year and just love, but there is so much to do before I go....lol....it is always the same, I try to get organised ahead of time but somehow I never quite manage it.

The Theme this week at Tuesday Taggers is "Birds and Bees" it was chosen by my good friend and Design Team mate Clarky J. Today is her birthday, so here is a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY for her

.

For this challenge I have altered a small tin that used to contain a pack of playing cards, I have covered the entire tin and lid with a Print Backingpaper and then added distress inks using cut and dry foam. The bird, Branch and sentiment stamps are from a set by Stampin Up, the branch has been stamed twice and decoupaged. The bee is also a stamped image which has been cut out, coloured and glazed with glossy accents and added as an embellishment. The stamped images and their background have all been coloured using distress inks, and I used some sequin waste as a mask to add the"Honeycomb" which was then accentuated with Distress Stickles. This was then matted onto brown card stock before matting onto the lid. A seven gypsies Wax seal and a piece of ribbon around the edge of the tin lid finished the project off.

I hope you like it.

Bee xx

Stampboard Necklace.

Hi Everyone,
The challenge this week over at "Lots To Do" is to use stampboard in your project.
Now this is a challenge which I knew I would really enjoy, I just love Stampboard, it is so versatile and forgiving.
For my entry this week I have made a necklace using 3 pieces of stampboard, a few glass beads, brass spacers, metal findings and some cord.

The 3 pieces of stampboard were arranged into a single square and stamped as if they were one piece using an Artylicious Peacock Feather Stamp and black stayzon ink, the images were then coloured in using a very fine brush and Tinkabella acrylic ink, finally they were edged with a copper Krylon pen and glazed with Utee. I have use metal jewellery findings (although perhaps no as they were intended to be used) and jumprings to attach them to the cord.

Although I have used stampboard to make brooches, pendants and bag charms in the past, I am particularly pleased with this necklace, and Sam will like it I think....her favourite colour is green.

Bee xx

Lots of Weather today.....and Crafting

There has certainly been lots of weather here today. This morning started out dull and drizzly, then that elusive phenonemon the Sun made a brief appearance, before the heavens opened....still a good excuse to get on with some crafting....as if I needed an excuse...lol. This weekend is the third annual gathering of the Docrafts ATCers at Loughborough - Luffy as it is affectionately known, superbly organised by Barjan and his stalwart helpers....so first I made a few ATCs to take to swap..... and then I made a double page scrapbook layout for Barjan's Challenge. I normally scrapbook in either 12" x 12" or 8" x 8" format, but this time the layout had to be rectangular. One of the other requirements was to use stamping on the layout, so I used a script stamp in the background and stamped my titles. The other requirement is that the scrapbook pages are ATC sized !!! yep that's right 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" ..... quite a challenge. I hope you like them......lol. Bee xx

Hi Everyone, What a miserable day it has been weatherwise, cold, dull and pouring with rain this morning, hot, humid and dull this afternoon. I really felt like I needed some colour in my life this morning so I headed out into my Craft Shed and created this..... It must have been the influence of the black rain clouds I could see out of the window....LOL, It is a 99p Mirror bought at IKEA which I have altered for a challenge on The Lots to Do Site. The theme being recycle. I have used torn corrugated cardboard and a ring pull as my main recycled materials, along with piece of ribbon and 4 brads. Everything was painted with black acrylic paint and then some silver acrylic dry brushed on the corrugations. A couple of pieces of sequin waste were used as masks and a silver wax rubbed through to add some more texture. A quote was then stamped with Black Stayzon onto tissue paper and adhered with PVA. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show this mirror frame off to best advantage, but my 14 year old daughter laid claim to it the minute she saw it.....praise indeed....lol. Bee xx

Key Tag / Photo Frame

Hi Everyone,

This is the Key Tag cum Photo frame I made for my first DT spot with Tuesday Taggers. The theme this week is Flowers, and there are some fantastic bits of inspiration produced by my DT team mates, check out the origami flowers Teri has made, they are fab, and Katy's Flower Pot. at http://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.com/

The tag is made almost entirely from grunge paper elements that I have cut on my new Cricut Expression, using the accent essentials cartridge that came with it. Frame and back, leaves and flower shapes.

After colouring the flowers I spritzed them lightly with water and added some shape to them before assembling them. They hold their shape really well when they dry.

I have used distress inks in Broken China, Dusty Concord, Peeled Paint and Frayed Burlap to colour all elements prior to assembly, and then coated the grunge paper surfaces with Diamond glaze to protect the whole piece.

A piece of acetate has been sandwiched between the frame and the backplate to cover the photo window, and protect the photo.

2 brads and 2 bead spacers were used to make up the flowers and help secure them in place.

Some twine for the stitching along two sides,both decorative and practical to help hold the frame together.

A Bee Button and an eyelet.

A Key ring and a magnetic closure to allow the photo to be changed.

There you have it!

I am really pleased with the end result. I love the way that distress inks react on grunge paper and the intensity of colour that can be achieved.

Bee xx

Hi Everyone.

Sorry I've been a bit quiet on here the last few days, I have been busy crafting,and using the cricut, but as the projects I've been working on are for future Tuesday Taggers Challenges, so I can't show you what I've been up to yet...... and that feels quite strange..... but I am sure I will get used to it, besides it is unusual for everything I make to be geared around TT challenges. The reason that I am getting a bit ahead of myself at the moment is because I am off on holiday in a few weeks to Brittany, and want to have made my pieces for the challenges that are on whilst I am away, before I go.

There is one exception though, that I can share with you.......
This 12" x 12" Canvas which I have made for this weeks Tuesday Taggers "Recycled Wall Hanging" Challenge.



The canvas background has been painted with Claudine Hellmuth Studio Colours and a baby wipe, one of my favourite get messy techniques...lol...learnt from Dylan at Art From The Heart.

The main piece consists of some open weave hessian mounted onto grey chipboard and sprayed with glimmer mist "Suede" through a lovely swirly glimmer mask, although this doesn't show up very well in the photo..

The corugated cardboard was coloured first with distress inks and then with Distress Crackle Paint in Weathered Wood and Aged Mahogany.

The Crafty Individuals swirly mini frame was also coloured with distress inks before being given a liberal coat of Weathered Wood Distress Crackle Paint.

The photo, in the frame, is one of my own, but was taken on a dull day so I have used distress inks in Tattered Rose and Broken China to give a sunset feel to the picture.

The words on the corrugated cardboard and Frame have been stamped onto tissue paper and then applied with PVA glue.

The individual words mounted on the hessian were from my computer and then coloured and mounted on card.

I have finished the piece off with some jewellery twine and glass beads, a couple of tags and a bit of Idea-ology metal (pin and sentiment tag).

I hope you like it.
Bee xx

Some Exciting News !!

Hi Everyone,
I have some exciting news that I have been wanting to share with you all since yesterday. Those fab ladies over at Tuesday Taggers have invited me to join their Design Team!... YAY !!
I am so excited that I am almost lost for words, it means sooooo much to me, and I am really looking forward to the challenge.

For those of you who haven't come across Tuesday Taggers (TT) yet, it is a very friendly weekly challenge blogg site, aimed at ALL crafters, whatever their interests ie: ATC's, Tags, Inchies, Cards, Altered Art etc.
As well as the weekly challenges, there are regular tutorials, introducing different techniques etc, and sometimes there are goodies up for grabs. Participants in the challenges may also get the chance to feature as a TT guest designer.

Tuesday Taggers is fortunate to have received Sponsorship from the following companies, The Craft Barn, The Craft Emporium and The Stamp Man.

There is a link button to Tuesday Taggers in the side bar of this blogg if you want to come see what the fun is about and hopefully join in with our weekly challenges.

Bee xx

Quick Catch Up

Hi everyone.

This is just a quick catch up tonight, no piccys I'm afraid, mainly because I haven't made anything apart from my Tag for Tuesday Taggers so far this week, I have however been having a crafty play with my new Cricut Expression Machine which arrived on Tuesday and it was up and running inside 5 mins...lol.. so far I have finished off one scrap page that has been waiting for a title for about 18months, cut some leaf motifs that may form part of an altered mirror frame and generally had a good time just finding out what it can do.

This evening Kate and I went to see Harry Potter 6, which like the book is much darker than the previous films, I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but the special effects are as good if not better than ever, I thought it was worth going to see and just wonder how long we will have to wait for HP7. I will of course have to reread HP6 now to see what they left out of the film.

The other thing I have done today is to start to twitter, but its a bit quiet and lonely twittering to myself ( ok so there is nothing new in me talking to myself, I do it all the time, I just think I am actually trying to converse with my OH and DD....LOL) so if any one cares to join me on twitter I would love the company.

Bye for now

Bee xx

Another Tag for Tuesday Taggers.

Hi everyone. I've just finished making a tag!!.. although it could be masquerading as a bookmark.. for this week's challenge over at Tuesday Taggers. The theme this week is Swirls and Curls.

I even managed to use a few techniques that I didn't use on my Key Tag.


The tag is double layered, the bottom layer is a matt coated card stock and the top layer is acetate. I have used a versamark resist technique and brayer to stamp the coated card with the "Swirly Bird" stamp from Dimension Fourth, I also made a mask of the bird and then overstamped some swirly corners.

The Swirly Bird was also Stamped onto the acetate using stayzon, and a few of the design elements highlighted by using a clear glue and fine glitter on the reverse side.

Top Tip..... do not cut your acetate to match your backing card until you have positioned the image on the acetate directly over the image on the base card, secure in place with low tack tape and then trim.

The heart lace strip has been punched out of cream card using a Martha Stewart Edging punch, and adhered to the card layer, some buttons and a few of the small hearts from the punched design have been glued on top of the acetate to add dimension.

The two layers are held together by an eyelet which has then had some fibres tied through it (including some curly ones). Job done. I hope you like it.

I'll be back later.

Bee xx

A Tag for Tuesday Taggers.

Sunday's are the days when I get the most uninterupted time to play in my craftroom. Apart from cooking Sunday Dinner, which I can do on automatic pilot now, the rest of the day generally is mine!! Today I was sitting with this little lot in front of me, thinking about this week's Tuesday Taggers Challenge of "Texture". I have already entered a Handbag charm made with inchies, so I don't know if I can enter anything else, but I thought it was time I actually made a tag......

So I used the textured Grunge board and distress inks to make a Key Tag !
I started by cutting out a shape from the grunge board, threading a key ring onto it and colouring it using distress inks with cut and dry foam.



Then I added a metal sentiment tag, an inchie, some grunge paper flowers,and ribbons.



A few more buttons, a curtain ring, some stamping with Stayzon Ink, tissue paper, a skeleton leaf, and yet more ribbon.....

Then I folded the tag in half using very strong adhesive between the two faces.

Then diamond glaze and crackle glaze to stop the ink moving if the tag got wet. ......and to hold the embellishments securely.

Finally I punched some holes on two diagonally opposite corners using my cropodile and used yet more ribbon to sew through one set of holes, and used eyelets in the opposite corner, this was done partly to ensure that the tag does not split open and partly just because .......they were sitting on my desk....lol.

Finished at last.....Pheeew !!!




Have we had a challenge yet to see how many techniques etc we can get into one project ?



All that's left to do is to see if I can enter it into this weeks challenge..... and decide who might end up owning this little treasure.

Bye for now

Bee xx

My Goodies from The Craft Emporium Arrived.

Hi Everyone.

I just thought I would post a piccy of the lovely papers and embellishments from October Afternoon's Road Map Collection, that I recieved from The Craft Emporium yesterday.
this was the prize that I won in the Tuesday Taggers random draw on Tuesday for last week's challenge.

As well as thanking the girls at TT I must say a big thankyou to Lyn at The Craft Emporium, the parcel was well wrapped and arrived so quickly.

I am looking forward to using these papers, probably in connection with our Summer Holiday to Brittany in a few weeks as we always travel to Brittany by car. This year we have 2 cars going down to Portsmouth from Lincolnshire to get the overnight ferry to St Malo, so I reckon that counts as a road trip....lol.

I must confess that I probably wouldn't have bought this collection of papers for myself but having looked at them, I can really see the possibilities.

See you all later,
Bee xx

Happy Thursday

Hi Everyone, Had a busy day on Tuesday seeing my NVQ candidates and spent most of yesterday psyching myself up to get the write ups done, it was quite a difficult job as there were plenty of distractions, firstly there were two men out in my garden all day erecting a new fence, secondly I was still on a high about my win over on Tuesday Taggers, finally it is always hard to get going when I have two lengthy reports to write up and I want to do justice the the excellent work I have observed. However I finally got one completed yesterday and finished the other one this morning before I put my "posh suit" on to go to my daughter's prize giving at school this lunchtime. So this afternoon with all my jobs done ( and changed back into play clothes) I decided I deserved a bit of playtime in my crafty shed. This weeks challenge at Tuesday Taggers is "Texture", having done my altered box last week I decided to use inchies this week, but as is usually the case, my project ended up being quite different to what I anticipated. 2 inchies, a couple of charms, a few beads, distress inks, embossing powder, grunge paper, tissue paper and a stamp, a brad, gold leaf and some jewelery findings = one textured hand bag charm. One inchie had opposing corners cut off to form a lozenge shape, then both inchies were inked with a mixture of broken china, mustard seed and spiced marmalade distress ink on both sides, one side of each was triple embossed and small glass beads embedded in the utee on one and gold leaf on the other, a small flower was punched out of grunge paper and coloured with the same inks, a metalic spacer was used in the centre of the flower and the whole lot held together with a turquoise brad. An image was stamped onto tissue paper and adhered to the unglazed side of the square inchie with diamond glaze, which was also used to adhere the grunge paper flower. Diamond glaze was used to adhere a small piece of a skeleton leaf to the unglazed side of the lozenge shape and also to adhere the metal flower charm. The bag charm was made up with textured heart shaped beads on header pins between the two "inchie" elements and a "made with love" charm suspended from the bottom. The heat embossing changed the colour of the inks on that surface of the inchies making the ink dark and aged looking, whilst the diamond glazed sides look more vibrant.

Enjoy.

Bee xx

Yipeee!!!

I can't believe my luck, I won the October Afternoon goodies on the Tuesday Taggers blogg this week.
The prize was donated by the Craft Emporium and consists of products from the Road Map Collection.

I am suprised and delighted as I never usually win anything in raffles or draws etc. and I am looking forward to my goodies arriving.

The Tuesday Taggers Challenges are great fun to join in with, and there are some great themes, this week it is "Texture" so plenty of scope to play around with.

I should also like to thank the people who have commented on my Venezia Canvas and my altered box, your comments are most appreciated.

Bee xx

Finally Caught Up I Think !!

Third Blogg posting of the day it must be a record for me.....Altered Box completed, ready to submit to Tuesday Taggers....before the midnight deadline. I don't have work in progress photos for this I'm afraid, but it was one of those boxes that expensive but horrible christmas toiletries come in. It was originally a bright emerald green so I painted it over with a couple of coats of white gesso some while back and then left it until my mojo told me it was time to get on with it. Well my creative juices were shaken and stirred at the weekend, courtesy of Clarky J, Midnight Crafter, Emma etc etc....and the resulting box is inspired by something they were playing with. I decided to ink over the gesso with brushed corduroy distress ink, which made the box look like a wooden box....that was just waiting to be altered ...lol...and then created the piece of artwork for the lid using corrugated card, distress inks, shimmer spray, a dreamweaver stencil and texture paste, a lovely sentiment about friends, some hand coloured paper and a couple of Idea-ology metal pieces. Job done !!! I hope it passes muster. Bee xx