I had a few beer mats kickin' about, (thanks Stevie boy), and off cuts of acetate, so thought I'd make a little mini book. I started it days ago, but the weather's been nice, Hearing dogs have been to see Faye and Mr 'D', and I've generally been busy with other things, so I've not got that far with it. These little snippets are of the acetate pages, which will be used as a cover, and alternately with the beer mats.

I'm not going into too much detail yet as I'll probably repeat myself when the book's finished, I do seem to do that quite often lately, lol.

Actually the photo below is of a beer mat page, sorry......

And finally, for tonight any way, part of the acetate front cover.................

Paul's decided to rip down the aviary, and we are having a bonfire, barbeque tea and hoping to get settled for the final of 'Britains Got Talent'. Will the little girl manage to keep it together tonight? We'll have to wait and see........................

Sue x

Lovely Yellow (not) continued.....

I really got into these pages, maybe because I used lots of different mediums, which is what I do on my cards and mini books. This close up shows the curled up edges of the paper, a technique shown to me by Tracey at Running With Scissors. Normally I use the Tim Holtz paper ripper to distress the edges of my papers, but on the above I tore out a circle shape, wet it with a baby wipe then curled it over. I chalked the edges when it had dried.

I ended up doing two 'SISTER' pages, one of me and my sister Angela, shown here, and another of my two girls, Gina and Faye, on the next photo. I made the pages, 'the same but different' tp compliment each other as a two page spread.

I drew around a Bazzill shaped paper, added the dots with a white marker, then chalked just inside the shape to add a bit of interest, then simply added the flowers and pearls. The sentiment was stamed and rounded off with a corner rounder.

The same principal again, minus the chalking inside the shape. The centre of the flowers are a couple of serendirity pieces I made a few weeks ago.

Was that quick enough Polly lol, sorry everyone a private joke!! I have someone stalking my blog ha ha ha. Enjoy!

Sue x

Lovely Yellow, (not)

Do you have lots of Bazzill paper in colours you know you'll never use? So do I. In fact I would NEVER use bright yellow in a million years. So out came the Jo Sonja 'opal' acrylic and stubby brush and I gave it a quick once over.

After allowing the first coat to dry I wazzed it on more paint with a baby wipe

I was really pleased with the matt finish, and it used up some old paper too. The next step is the hardest, creating a layout. As many of you know I struggle with scrapbooking, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I began by stamping these lovely ornate corners by Kelly Panacci with Nick Bantock inks. The next post will have the finished pages on, won't be a minute.

Sue x

Sister book

This is the book I made for my sister's 50th birthday. It took a bit of work, but it was worth it. I know some of you will have seen this when it was on display in the shop, but for those of you who didn't, here goes....................................





I covered all the pages with Basic Grey papers, and dug out a few old photo's of us as we were growing up, and please, no laughing at the ridiculous hair - do's!

I remember these days so vividly. We loved our late Nanna dearly, she was so very special to us. I had so much I wanted to squeeze into this book, so I made the little circle tag book to fit more in.

The photo on the front of the fold out book in the left hand pocket is one of my all time favourites. We didn't have that much when we were kids, but what we did have was a loving family, which to me is far more important. We just looked so 'scruffy' in front of our little Christmas tree, lol.

This shows the fold out book opened, along with the drop down book from the right hand page.

This is a tri fold,

holding a few 'sister quotes' kindly given to me by Yvonne one of my crafting buddies, thanks Yvonne. The inside of the tri fold holds some personal journalling.

Another mini book, also used as a pocket to hold more journalling.

And this is it opened, there are more pages but tea is looming, so to finish

here's the back page with a stamp I often use on the back of my mini books, I love it. I't by Inkadinkadoo.

Thanks for looking,

Sue x

Art From The Heart, revisited..............

I'm still buzzing about our workshop with Dyan at her brilliant studio on Saturday. In fact, I've just spent a bit of time time faffin' about with the collages we made in the morning. Here they are all sitting neatly on a wooded plinth wich I painted with black acrylic paint. I just thought it was a bit of a different way to display the little works of art.
I loved using the melted beeswax, it was such an interesting technique to master, and it smelt 'lurvly'..............

Here's the cute tiny canvas I made in the afternoon. All pretty and pink would you believe? And these are my CLAUDINE HELMUTH paints which I just HAD to buy.

There are 15 colours in the range, but by mixing the coulours you have a possibility of over 50! They are translucent, vibrant, cover well and blend easily. They are great to work with. I have made a couple of pages to have a go at journalling, so I will blog my attempts as soon as I get a page done.

This is the rest of the new additions that I have to squeeze into my craft room, the long awaited grunge paper, four tiny canvasses and a pot of beeswax for my newly christened melt pot. That's all for now, be back soon!

Sue x

A dream of a day at Art From The Heart.

Barbara, Lisa, Marion, Sam and myself, had an absolutely fantastic day with Dyan at Art From The Heart, Harrogate.
I met Dyan about 8 years ago now, and have always found her inspiring. It's always brilliant to spend time in one of her workshops, you can almost guarantee you will get messed up with paints, glues and other mediums. Next week is her preview weekend where you can see her new workshop samples 'in the flesh'. We had a little peek today, and there are loads to choose from.
Just look at the busy bees (lol Barbara) creating their beeswax collages. It was such an interesting technique, which gave me the chance to drag my melt pot out and christen it, bearing in mind I've had it well over 5 years!

Marion and Lisa were engrossed,

and by the time we got onto the canvas, were on a roll....................................

Sam, her friend Chris, who's from near Manchester I think, and met us there, and Barbara, all having such fun!

And here we all are with Dyan, for our final mugshots..................

Hopefully I'll get my finished pieces on the blog tomorrow....................

Sue x

Nine and a half weeks to go.

No Faye's baby hasn't arrived yet, but with Ash being away it's been the ideal time to get organised. I just love to see a line of washing blowing in the wind, but to see all these teeny weeny items was just lovely..........................
And here's 'the bump' with just over nine weeks to go......................................So come on everyon, let me know, is it a boy or a girl?

Just a quick show of what I taught in class today.

It's not easy to show on the photo really, but we made acetate cards. We made our own heart templates then cut them out on white card. We used direct to paper technique to add colour, then overstamped, added a greeting in black, then embellished.

On this sample we glued ripped text on the heart before adding the colour. The photo below might give a better idea of the how it looks suspended on the acetate card.

Simply addedribbon, button and liquid pearls to embellish......................

Sue x

'Angels' tissue box cover

Here's the finished tissue box cover......................................
I really enjoyed the challenge, it seems a while since I got so engrossed in a project.
Not my usual colour scheme, but it's neutral so will go almost anywhere in our house.

These are the individual sides so you can see the detail easier.

Stamping, chalking, cuttlebug embossing folders and dabbers......................

Corrugated card, stamping on tissue, old text and music, liquid pearls.........................

Colouring with chalks, cuttlebug die, german scraps, gems..............................

Self adhesive pearls, ric rac, lace, Crafty Individual images and scrapbook paper.....................

Sue x

Tissue Holder.

I added this once, but can't find it now! If it's on twice, sorry!

This tissue box holder was found in Sainsbury's for just 49p. It's a bit battered, shiny dark wood but ripe for altering. I started the process today with a good sand down and a coat of gesso, followed by white acrylic. I then sponged cream acrylic, followed by grey around the edges.

The text stamp is by Crafty Individuals, one of my favourites. I'll keep you up to date with the progress.

Sue x

Quick and Easy cards.

I have completed another page of my Mum, simple, with a bit of distressing and the addition of a stamped saying.

Three very simple cards now.

Papers, flowers, ribbons from Running With Scissors.

Finally, the card below is what I taught in class yesterday. The inspiration for this card came from Sharri Carroll, an amazing designer, and I might add a lovely person who I have had the pleasure of meeting in the past. She kindly donated a signed copy of her 'Layers' book for our 'Pink Rose Appeal ' auction. The ladies on the class all chose different papers, which gave a great variety of looks to their cards. I wish I had taken photo's.

When you pull the tag at the top, the slider bar raises the decorative tile for displaying the card. The funny thing was, Tracey also taught the card in her class this week, Scary!!!!

I'll end now as 'Question Time' is getting a bit heated, I can't concentrate, lol.

Sue x

ATC's

Been on with the ATC's again. I LOVE making little works of art. 2 1/2 " x 3 1/2", just the right size for using up all the little bits and bobs we get left with and put into practice all the techniques we want to try. The three here are for the monthly swap organised by my good friend Sam for UK Stampers, (I think). Iwas lucky enough to be able to choose this month's theme 'Vintage'. I am really looking forward to getting my swaps back.



This one was distress ink background, stamped word and scroll corner, painted slide mount, with wax rub accent, my fave Crafty Individuals image, and a flower and gem.

Above, ripped text and acrylic background, overstamped with Crafty Individuals crackle image. Tissue paper word, painted slide mount, stamped with a border, and gems added.

Finally, Distress ink background, Inkadinkado rubber stamp on tissue, glued onto ATC then chalked, re stamped just the sentiment, (gorgeous) and raised with foam pads, then adde flowers and liquid pearls.

Another completed page. I made a right mess of the origional in class but couldn't give up on it. I managed to get one page out of the two by covering the strips which went wrong with the centre of the other page. I went a bit mad with the flowers, but I really do need to use some up.

I finished it off by adding a large Prima butterfly, a little pressie from my friend Marion.

My lessons with Tracey at Running With Scissors are certainly helping me get more into scrapbooking. No class this week though, but the demo day with Sharon will be worth a look. She never fails to amaze me!!!!!!

Sue x