I wish we had light like that every day!
After I got my lovely new Melt Pot, the first thing I did was go onto Youtube to look for tutorials. I was delighted to find loads from Suze Weinberg herself! This necklace was inspired by a tutorial of hers, showing paper beads dipped in UTEE (different from the Leandra bead which uses lots of layers of UTEE), and another tutorial by Suze Weinberg with Julia Andrus, author of 'Paper Transformed', which showed a way of making faux sea-glass. I used the sea-glass technique to make the pendant, but used Stampbord instead of glass as the base- it still looks good to me! The beads were made using the Melt Pot, but I have in the past used Glossy Accents instead of UTEE, which worked as well but was more time consuming. I love these two techniques, and you will be seeing them again!
Another pressie, this was a recipe card and the dry ingredients for making Jambalaya- one of our favourite New Orleans' dishes (we had a week there in 2004). All of the herbs and spices were individually wrapped in cellophane and labelled, so all the recipient needs to do is put them in a mortar and grind them up!
Apologies for the rubbish photos, I took these on Tuesday, and I don't think it was bright enough for decent photos at any time of day, let alone 9am! I need a light box...!
I actually made all but two of my Christmas presents this year- it was time-consuming, but worth it, as the gifts were really appreciated. My family are used to handmade things- I used to make all my pressies from an early age (mostly felt comb-cases and embroidered hankies!)- but I have never made anything for Paul's family before, apart from cards, as I didn't know if they would like what I do! These are the scrapbooking projects, and I will show all of the arty things later!
Still up to the eyeballs in Christmas prep; I will be up to see Santa drive past in his sleigh! Just wanted to say Happy Christmas to everyone :D
Now I have used that title, I have David Bowie's 'Golden Years' playing in my head. This is for this week's UK Stamper's Sunday challenge, and I actually made it on Monday night! I want to make her a sister too, an ice angel...
I went to a Scrapaholix roadshow a couple of weeks ago, and was completely uninspired as to what to do. I haven't scrapped for ages, and couldn't get into the right mindset to organise myself. So I took along my altered board book and did another page.
He was two last Monday, and we have spent a week celebrating! Paul had a couple of days off so that we could have a family day, and we went to the park in the freezing cold (wrapped up so much that we could barely move!) and then went shopping. He got to go up and down the escalator, then go around Sainsbury's- both his favourite things! Then on Sunday we had a party for him, which involved dressing like cowboys, and playing in a teepee (which was in the dining room). I am just getting back to normal now, and have got some photos to show, but I wanted to share this photo first. Happy birthday, my lovely Dan!
At last, I can show you the pictures of my new CJ. Hurrah! I thought I would never have time to edit these pictures. Life is very busy at the moment, and I seem to be going from one thing to the other with barely a pause. Better to be busy than bored, though :D
... and here is the evidence! My new CJ at UK Stampers- it's there, hidden by the Distress Ink, Glimmer Mist and Paint Dabbers. And yes, I'm talking about the stuff on my hands. Good job my friends understand me!
My fingers are covered in arty paint as I type this, but I'm afraid I'm showing you another cute project here today. This is for my Niece's 6th birthday, and it started life as one of Ikea's 99pence mirrors, as seen in Craft Stamper a couple of issues ago. I used a stamp from the new Toodles and Binks range, which are only available from Stamp Galaxy. I love the stamps that are available so far- they have a quirky feel to them which I feel comfortable with, even though they are cute! I have been assured that there will be some boyish images available soon- I need to make Dan's birthday card for the 24th of Nov, Kay, if you read this!
... I'm in the middle of a couple of projects that require lots of drying time between stages!
I realise these photos all seem to be taken at a really odd angle, but since these ATCs were all painted with a mixture of Perfect Pearls, Cosmic Shimmer and Stickles, I wanted to show the effect. My newest stamps at the time the theme was set were a set by ISC, which you may have seen on many other blogs- that face stamp is so beautiful that lots of stampers have it and use it well! It was nice to play around with effects, and I deliberately kept these simple, using straightforward stamping for a change! Don't worry, though, I have signed up for another CJ at UK Stampers, so expect to see me get carried away at least once a month!
I'm afraid you're going to have to use your imagination with this one, but this is a gorgeous sparkly altered matchbox. It looks more speckley than sparkly in these photos, but this is Glimmer Mist over black gloss card with clear embossed CD pieces, so you can picture how lovely it is when you hold it in your hand and tilt it into the light. It is also my Art Raffle piece for this month, where the theme was 'Dark'. When I Googled dark, Googling being the main way I try to clarify my thoughts on a theme, it came up with images of dark matter, and being a bit of a science geek, I was really inspired! If you don't know what I'm on about, try it yourself! Select images, put in 'Dark', and prepare to admire :D
It was Vicky's birthday yesterday, but I actually gave her this on Tuesday. This is a mini-file box, 6 1/2" wide by 5" high, and it started life as mountboard, coloured cardstock, and an A3 sheet of watercolour paper! Craft TV Weekly had this as one of their webisodes, and I knew straight away that I wanted to make one for Vicky as a present. Naturally I wanted to get really inky, so I made the patterned paper with the watercolour/craftmat technique (clear embossing first to create the white pattern) and stamped it to within an inch of it's life. It is not a project to make in a hurry, but I am so pleased with the result that I may make myself one if I ever get the time!
So, the challenge is that I'd like to see YOU make a card like the one in the other post. A maximum of two stamps, one colour of ink, one colour of embossing powder (can be the same or a tonal one). No pre-printed background papers!It sounds so simple until you get going- just one colour of ink?! I usually use half a dozen! And then what do you do with the embossing powder? My solution was to use a Brilliance green ink, which dries on anything (with a little help from the heat gun), and to use the ep to do an intaglio effect. I like to think it looks a bit like fossilised leaves here.
Credit crunch?...........
It's all over the news and in the papers.
This weeks challenge is to create a little something using credit cards, well not you proper credit cards but gift cards, you can pick these up free from most places. Lets see what you can make with them!
Happy stamping
This is my first attempt at a shrink plastic art doll, so please be gentle with me! I think it's mostly OK, but I am not pleased with the face. I do like it from behind, though- do you like the grungeboard wings? It's such great stuff to work with. The tassel skirt was inspired by an art doll by Linda Baldock, although with hindsight I should have been more generous with the fibres. Oh well, you live and learn!
Wednesday Stamper
Think_Monday, think ATC
