Wishing you all a very merry christmas !

I know, I know, it's ages since I last blogged, But I have a very good reason honest :). I've been working on another craft stamper project (in the magazine in March) & I've been very busy making christmas gifts ..none of which i can put on here until after christmas incase it's seen & the suprise is spoilt ! So many apologies that I haven't been around lately But I will be back with vengeance in January !
Craft Stamper have also asked me to join their design team, I shall be helping out with a new feature they will be running next year. (sooo excited !)
Hope you all have a wonderful christmas & a very crafty new year :) x

We're back from the NEC !

& here are some pictures to show you :

This is us getting ready at the start of the day




This is myself, Sharon (from Artist Trading Post) & Katy Fox editor of Craft Stamper Magazine




We had four fun filled days, met lot's of people, workshopee's, UKS'ers & new & old customers alike ... had great fun demo'ing until everything ran out lol:D
Just got to decide whether we'll do it again in March !

The Metal Art Workshop has just had a couple of Cancellations at the last minute so there are a couple of spare places going ! Find the workshop page here :
http://www.artisttradingpost.com/metal-art-for-beginners-workshop---17th-november-2009-1893-p.asp

Still waiting to sort my computer out, once it is fixed or a new one is purchased I will get back to blogging more regularly ! (promise) x

Metal Art & Workshop

Well I shall try this post again .. I first wrote it & added all the pictures on friday last week, it took ages with my daft computer playing up & then as I went to post it Blogger decided it wasn't playing & lost the lot ! ... I didn't have the time (or the inclination to be honest) to do it again then so here I am today to try & repost it all ... let's hope my computers playing today !

I had been busy last week playing with metal art & this is the little house that I altered :



And then we had a fabulous group of girls at my workshop last Thursday(Distress Ink Workshop) I taught them all 17 ways to use their distress inks & they all did a fab job of keeping up with it all :D

There are a few random photo's of this below:

Distress inks workshop

Got some lovely prep work to do for the distress inks workshop tomorrow. 17 different ways to use them, should be lot's of fun and definately a messy fingers job lol :) Got some old & some new faces coming along .. Can't wait to see them all :D
(still on a new computer hunt .. Sighhh)
will do my best to get some workshop pictures up for you on Friday x

An apology for not being around much recently .. I have been busy working on all sorts of things but unfortunately my computer is going SO SLOOOOOOW that it's driving me up the wall !!! ..(it will be chucked out of my studio window very soon !!) .. I am in the process of hunting down a new computer so I can get back on line properly ... I do have a laptop but that doesn't have ny cameras, photoshop etc on it so I shall just have to hang on until I get a new puter .. so take care, back soon x

All Change !

Well it's that time of year again ! ... time for a change ..first the blog & now my hair (I know it's not scrapping but hey it's def' a work of art by my hairstylist lol )
I've gone from dark brown to light blonde & I love it .. haven't been this blonde for a loooong time, even my husband didn't recognise me, but now jokes that it's like having a new model after 20 years together :D
Not sure how long it's staying but at the moment I absolutely love it :)
Here's a piccy of before

Followed by the NOW :

More ATC's

Well I did what I set out to do yesterday & completed some more ATC's for trading at the Artisan show on Sunday ! Can't wait for that :)
Just a reminder that we have a Distress Ink techniques workshop coming up .. & I believe there are a couple of spaces left at the moment, You will learn over 17 different ways to use your distress inks ! should be a lot of fun :)
Novemeber see's a new Metal Art for beginners workshop & December has the great 12 tags of christmas workshop, all the dates are on the website :http://www.artisttradingpost.com/workshops-69-c.asp
If you copy & paste, that will take you straight there !
Now for some pictures, there are the ATC's , a couple of Christmas cards & a piece of jewellery I've made using Utee to make the beads & shrink plastic charms ready for a workshop later on in the calender !
thanks for looking :)

A new look Blog

I've tried a couple of different looks on my blog over the past few days, but I think i've finally settled on this one (for now at least lol)
If you want a new look to your blog there is a link on the top left hand corner that you can click on.
Busy getting some more ATC backgrounds painted & inked at the moment for the Artisan show on Sunday, as I have a crop tonight & was thinking I would be able to finish them off there.
I will upload some photo's when I've got them finished.
I'm also busy working on some christmas cards for a workshop at the end of this month.
Catch up soon
x

ATC time again

Yep, I decided that it was time I made some more ATC's .. this time I am making them in readiness of the artisan show in warwickshire that is hosting a special Artist Trading Card swap area ! (are any of you going there ? .. October 3rd & 4th)
Here are a few of my offerings so far.

Wow ! ... what can I say here we are already at the end of the summer holidays ..just a few more days to go !
& what exciting news I recieved this morning, I have had my first article published in the Craft Stamper Magazine www.craftstamper.com
Going to get a proper look at it later ..can't wait to see it in print !!! woohooo !
I can give you a little sneak peek at it, But if you want to see more you've got to go buy the magazine (www.artisttradingpost.com) stock them lol :D
or you will be able to see it at the Artisan show in Warwickshire in October.

Metal Flower Mini Class

Hello :) well as promised yesterday I have a metal flower mini class to share with you.
I was inspired by some flowers that Leandra of Paper Artsy had done but I didn't have the different products & tools that she had so I kind of made my own version & this is how I did it :

1. I used punches to cut out the flower shapes, 2 different sizes. (you could use punches of butterflies or similar !)
I punched out flowers in both thin sheet metal (from 10 second studios, available at artist trading post of course lol )& also out of card.



2. Next I glued the metal flowers to the cardboard ones, this meant that I could curl the petals without them being too flexible so that I could use them on a project without them flattening out again or getting crushed.



3.Once they were dry I used my cuttlebug & embossing folders to give them a more textured look.



4. I then alcohol inked them, layered up some of them, curled the petals & added brads ... voila metal flowers ready for your altered art projects, cards or layouts.

I said I'd catch up with everything eventually ... & well what a lot I have to blog !
I will add the metal flowers class on tomorrow, today I'll make do with lot's of pics for you :o)

I've made Giraffe masks for the school play 'Noah' & here they are :




Then there are my pages I did for the chunky fat book swap that I hosted over on UKS :







Then there are the beautiful pages that everyone did for me !
BIG thank you to Hopberni, Magpie, Smelly, Scrapnanny, Shabba, Paddy, JoChapman (& my Mum for making me an extra page X)
My theme was 'Words'


& then there's a canvas that I painted for my niece for her christening :



So I'll be back tomorrow with a class on how to make these :

What a lovely surprise !

I got a message telling me to check out a friends blog as she had something for me ! ... well this is it :

The lovely Angie has given this award to me .. Thank you Angie .. I love it :D
You can find Angies Blog here : http://www.shozzysplace.blogspot.com/

I'm not sure who to pass this award on to .. the rules state " By accepting this award you agree to display this award proudly on your site and include a post link back to the giver.
Share this award with a few other people or as many as you would like."

there are so many worthy blogs out there, so for now I'll award it to a couple of my favourites.

http://www.alteredgeisha.blogspot.com/
there are the most fantastic Lo's on this blog well worth a visit !!!

http://myartisticlife.typepad.com/
& this one because it is just brimming with inspiration & ideas ..love it & am so glad you share it with us :)

I know there's Lot's more I could give it to, but it could turn into a rendition of the Oscars lol :) so perhaps I won't !

I shall be posting on here again tomorrow hopefully, It is the school play tonight & I hope to get some photo's of my Giraffe masks, face painting & flying birds that I've been busy with , I also have completed my Chunky fat book pages so I will photograph them too & get them on here, I've made some lovely metal flowers which I shall post up as a class too ...
Then over the weekend I will hopefully be packing up everyones fat books to return home again :)

keep well x