Tag 4 in the 10 Tag countdown

So here we are again ... tag no.4, can't believe how fast it's coming around, dread to think how fast the 3 days are going to go, never mind I intend to make the absolute most of it :D
Todays tag has been stamped with timmy swirls but in snowcap paint dabber, dried & then was inked with Distress inks in Mustard seed, Rusty hinge, Peeled paint, chipped sapphire, fired brick and dusty concord ..
Then I wiped of the excess ink from over the painted areas , Stamped a few more timmy stamps ;) & then stuck on some vintage buttons & a thingymajig with a number 4 in it.


Then of course there is the workshop form saturday, it was a private group booking & we had the lovely Katy Fox (craft stamper editor) with her lovely team mates, Liz, MJ & Ally. Suzanne unfortunately was Poorly & couldn't make it .. sending lot's of hugs hunny .. hope your better soon xxx

Tag 5 in the 10 Tag Countdown

Sorry, this is a really quick blog,,, the tag has been made in about 5 minutes flat .. we've been out all day & so I wanted to get it done on the right day so have whizzed up to my studio & whipped this little concoction up .. photo's probably aren't brill either .. but nonetheless here it is !

I used Broken china, Spiced Marmalade & crushed olive distress inks, with Broken china & spiced marmalade distress re-inkers, tims sizzix die cut flower on lost & found paper, & a No.5 from tims salvage stickers.

I'm sure Linda's brill tag will be here already :
HERE

Tag 6 of the 10 TAG COUNTDOWN

Hello again ;o)
I had a lovely group of ladies at my workshop today though you'll have to wait for photo's as I took my camera & forgot to put a card in it (Duh !) ,, so Jamie has kindly taken some pics & will send them over to me soon & when they're here I will share them with you, I then went on a family shopping for food expedition with 3 children (not always advisable) came home & went to bed for 2 hours .. what a lovely sleep ! .. so all refreshed & ready to go again
I started off todays tag with a technique that TIM HOLTZ .. yes that Tim Holtz the one who can repair the worlds economy with a dab of glossy accents & some tissue ribbon :o) (that's just for Linda that description lol ) once asked me how I did it !!!
Well as I share this with all my lovely distress ink workshopee's I'll share it with you too today as today is NO .6 in the countdown charts.
I used Glossy card .. think the sort you use for your alcohol inks or encaustic art & your 1/2 way there ... then you need distress inks, I used Chipped Sapphire, Crushed Olive & Rusty Hinge, along with spiced marmalade re-inker and Broken China re-inker.
Apply to your craft sheet, spritz with water until it has beaded & then twist your tag on the top of it. Turn over & heat to dry, this is how you get the colours to run around the card & won't happen the same if you just let it dry naturally.
I added the No.6 sticker, the Ranger word and the U all from Tim's Salvage stickers, I then applied the sun rays Tim stamp from the Psychedelic grunge set with Plum Archival Ink (from RANGER of course)

Next I've got a grungeboard Star from swirls & elements set and covered it with Dabber in Pearl. This has allowed me to then use alcohol inks to colour it once dry. I used Clover, watermelon & stream to start off with then a second application with sunset orange and Caramel. I adhered this to the tag using Glossy Accents.


See Linda's Tag HERE

Tag 7 on the 10 Tag countdown

So here I am yet again with another tag, never have I blogged so regularly lol :D
Linda's creation if it is not already done will no doubt soon be Here
Today for mine I again used some of Tim's lost & found paper as a background, I inked a grungebaord swirl with fired brick distress ink, I cut the no.7 out of the lost & found pad, added some film strip ribbon & adhered. The fabric at the bottom of the tag says " the adventure never stops" this is off a clothing label I had previously hoarded !
I tied some twine around the tag tying a bow at the front, I made a clear UTEE tile by placing an image into the bottom of a silicon ice cube tray & pouring some clear UTEE on the top of it, wait until cool & pop out. This I adhered alongside an old metal letter that I've had for some while .. I used the U specifically for Ranger U.
So here it is :

Number 8 on the 10 Tag Countdown

Well I think I may just have beaten Linda, Unless she's sat typing like a mad woman at her computer as we speak ! I have my third Tag, Number 8 in the countdown here to share with you.
Visit Linda's blog Here
I cut the tag shape from Tim's Lost & Found paper pad. I used Picket fence distress crackle Paint to cover the sign hanger (sorry can't think of the proper name for it lol :D ) Once it was dry I enhanced the crackles with a little walnut stain & a little chipped sapphire distress inks.
I attached a Key to the sign with some of Tim's jump rings. The bird house is from a free collage sheet resource on Flickr called absolutely free collage sheets. I drew the number 8 in gelly roll black.
I placed Gaffer tape from 7 gypsies along the bottom of the tag & made a shrink plastic embellishment using a Tim stamp and also cut out the red star circle & glossy accented it to give more dimension.
I used a standard household washer at the top of the tag around the hole & I think that's about it !
Hope you like :o) x

JUST 9 MORE SLEEPS TAG !

Well better late than never, just got back in from teaching a workshop, we've been doing the ABC book of me, a kind of beginners guide to Art Journalling, Everyone had very inky fingers by the end of it, including me as the ladies were busy creating some backgrounds I snuck in the creating of my latest tag with whatever there was to hand !
So here it is :


I coloured the background with distress inks the following colours : Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive & Mustard Seed. I stamped Tims Circles stamp in Fired Brick,and the pen nibs in sepia archival, then using the crafters workshop swirl mask went over the top with a bit more peeled paint.
I added some torn pages from a book, inking the lower layer peeled paint & the top layer mustard seed.
I added a House from Dyan Reaveleys Download sheets see here
I used black soot to colour the grunge board element, fired brick for the letter A & added the clock & spinner from Tim's Ideaology range. I finished off using Gellyroll pens, Black on the no.9 on the house door & White around the edges and the A.
You can find Linda's creation here : Here
Then here are a few pictures from todays workshop too ...

The big TEN TAG COUNTDOWN begins !

Well unsurprisingly Linda has not only beaten me to it but has also made a far better job of it .. note to self * must try harder ! lol :D
So here is my very sorry for itself offering :D
I colour-washed the background, then I made my own glimmer mist using perfect pearl in blue patina & some Stream colourwash & water and spritzed through a Crafters workshop stencil. Next I Used Walnut stain distress ink over the T.Holtz Swirl Mask , used Artchix numbers for my '10' fronted by idea-ology film strip ribbon and made a metal rose. I added lime green stickles over the mask pattern edges & added a couple of cogs from the idea-ology range to finish.
Please feel free to play along with me & Linda if you feel like it .. the more the merrier ! You can see Linda's Fabby Tag HERE"



Got to get on now, have lot's of backgrounds to prep for the workshop tomorrow, images to print (Ally I have rememebered that you don't like faces & will make sure you have alternatives lol :D x
Might have to get on with my tag no.9 as well seeing as I'm workshopping all day tomorrow ! ... eek I need more hours in the day x (don't we all ?)

What a BAD BAD blogger I am !

Well I finally made it back on to here ... how is it that you think it's just a couple of weeks since you last blogged & it turns out to be nearly a month ago .. all I can say is sorry life just took over as per usual !
Anyway enough of that ... much more exciting things afoot having just got back from a seriously sunny Isle of Wight camping holiday ... first of all there is a small matter of an up coming workshop on wednesday when a fabby group of ladies & myself are going to be making an ABC book of me, this is like a start to Art Journaling, perfect for people who like the idea but don't know what to write .. we're going to get them all started with this great project .. there are I believe just a couple of places left on this ..so if you fancy a go pop over to : www.artisttradingpost.com & book yourself in !
Then on Saturday I'm running a privately booked workshop for another group of ladies ... we're going to be making OOOps no I can't tell you that as it is a surprise ! Needless to say that hopefully they'll all have a great time making the 'something' :D
& then, then a week on Thursday I shall be jetting out with my new friend Linda Elbourne of a www.acraftingjourney.com to RANGER U !!! to be taught by the man himself Tim Holtz, and Claudine Hellmuth and Suze Weinberg for 3, yes 3 whole days.
Can you imagine 3 whole days of Ranger magic ? .. I seriously CANNOT wait !!!
Having spoken to Linda this morning we are going to be doing a 10 Tag countdown so perhaps you'd like to join us on this bit of pre-ranger fun, if you do send us a picture & we'll post it here on the blog ..
Look out for mine tomorrow ! .. honestly this blogging business none for ages then a whole 11 posts all together ! lol :D x

Embellishment Workshop

So we had another great day in the workshop with yet another fabby bunch of ladies. We created all sorts of embellishments that we placed onto a broad framed mirror. I forgot my camera so we have Bernice to thank for providing us with the images ... the only downside of which is that I appear on them ! lol :D Thanks Bernice for the speedy sending of said photo's.
& also just a hello & a hug to Ally who couldn't make it to the workshop as she was not feeling at all well .. hope your feeling better soon hun x So without further ado, here are the girls in action :D

Happy 10th Birthday Craft Stamper Magazine !

Yes, Craft Stamper has really been around for 10 years already .. & here's to many more ! The design team have all been making cards for the Craft Stampers Blog to wish them a very happy birthday .. here is my offering :

Visit Craft Stamper at www.craftstamper.com
Oh yes & have I mentioned .. We're Going to Ranger U, We're going to Ranger U, Eeiiatio we're going to Ranger Uuuuuuu ....
Flights are booked, hotel is booked & I've paid my fee to Ranger .. so all the important stuff is now done ... Just lots of lovely lists to do :o)
Also want to tell you that I've just sent lot's of new workshop info across to Jamie at www.artisttradingpost.com so watch that space ! ... there are just over a dozen new workshops (inc' a few repeats) going live very sooon !

RANGER U here 'we' come !

I can't believe it .. I found out last night (after my acceptance email spent a week lost in cyber space) that I have been accepted on to the ranger U course in June !!!
How exciting is that ! I blogged it very briefly last night & my iPod chose to bury it down below the last post ... weird .. never mind here it is in all it's glory ... We're going to Ranger U !!! .. you may have noticed the 'WE' that's not a royal we, nope it's referring to the lovely & incredibly talented Linda Elbourne who is also going :o) ... Excited emails have been going back & forth this morning !
See Lindas brilliant & very entertaining blog here : acraftingjourney.blogspot.com/
So .. it means I can make lot's of lists ... lists of lists oh the joy of it all :D ... can you tell I'm excited ? .. OK I'll stop now but be warned you will be reminded about it regularly :o) xx

A big catch up !

Sorry I've not been around, I have to steel myself to use the computer as it is not working properly & is SO Slooowwwww ! ..driving me insane , the sooner I get a new one the better !
But on with the post ! .. Had a fantastic day yesterday on our distress ink techniques workshop ..we've managed to eek the numbers from 17 techniques to 20 & then we managed to pull another one out of the bag whilst we were worksing so we're now up to 21 (plus there's a couple of others I didn't put in ... so if you didn't know your inks could be sooo very versatile you need to come to one of our workshops lol :D
Here are the guys & girls in action :


Left to right : Meryll, Annette, Anne & Sian


And here we have (Right to left) Kim, Julie, Gill & Sheila




Here they all are again ...

And on this one see if you can spot the interloper !!! lol :D


Yep you guessed it, Sharon had the afternoon off & as Merryl had to go early Sharon snuck in to play :D

A couple of days previous I'd finally got around to tidying my desk ... & I thought I'd share this mini miracle with you :o)



& of course there is my art journal I haven't been sharing with you recently ... so here's an update :





hmmm got a feeling some of the images are on their sides .. apologies for that
Keep an eye on the website www.artisttradingpost.com for a whole range of new & exciting workshops coming up !
take care x

The biggest wooohoooo ever !!!

I'm off to Ranger U in June !!!!!!!!!
Wooohoooooooo :) xxx

Alcohol Ink Techniques workshop

Well another workshop has come & gone, this time it was the Alcohol Ink techniques workshop ... We had plenty of laughs & fun, here they are in action :





And last but not least .. Bernice & Ally (these are pretty much residential workshopees ... if there were bunks or hammocks they would just stay :D lol )

Tomorrow I shall post some more Art Journal pages that I've done recently, There will be more workshops added to the website www.artisttradingpost.com this week too .. so keep your eyes peeled !
take care x

Handmade Embellishment Workshop

Handmade Embellishment Workshop coming soon .. well actually it's on Tuesday 11th May 10am - 3pm to be precise lol :o)
I have been playing around & have a sneak peek for you of some of the embellishments we're going to be making
We're going to be using UTEE in several different ways, triple embossing & stamping, Metal art (just a little bit) Grunge paper, Microscope slides, Shrink Plastic, Fragments, Alcohol Inks, Distress Inks, a bit of collaging and a bit of stamping ... apply all embellishments to a mirror frame & there you have it :o)



Now I'm off to tidy up my work desk, after doing the embellishments & getting ready for the alcohol techniques workshop for the weekend I'm in a bit of a mess .. you never know I might even post a before & after picture tomorrow lol :D
take care x

Creative Scrapbooking workshop

I was asked to do a private workshop for a group of ladies who were staying nearby for a weekend retreat .. they asked me to do a shortened version of the Creative scrapbooking workshop that I run. We did 3 layouts in 3 hours & they all made lovely pages to take home.
Bernice was my link to the group as she is a regular attendee of my workshops :D .. Thanks Bernice :) you bought along a lovely group of ladies & here they are in action :

This is Karolyn & Carolyn


Here we have Bernice, Sue & Sue
they made it as easy as possible for me to remember their names !


(caught Sue with her purchases here lol :D )

Hope you ladies had a fab rest of the weekend, having been let in on the secret already I'm sure you did !!!

Here are a couple of tags I did the other night when playing around with some more new downloads from Artchix Studio :



Have fun x