Crazy few weeks

Yes, I have been very busy this last few weeks. My sister Tracy and husband Martin moved home again on 1st June 2011 (no photo of the new house yet)So Bank Holiday weekend saw me tearing back up to Newcastle to help pack up their stuff. We fitted in a bit of sightseeing as well, and emptied a few bottles of wine & champagne ;0)

I arrived in Newcastle train station at 9.45am on the Friday morning & first stop was Tynemouth. The weather kept fine & we did a walk around the castle.

I took lots of photos and this one sums the place up perfectly, it is the actual mouth of the Tyne. The sea was wild and as it crashed against the walls it boomed like an enormous canon roar! I never managed to capture it though, it looks so tranquil!!!!

After a cappuccino in a gorgeous little coffee shop, we headed further up the coast to Whitley Bay where the weather turned wet, and as the tide was in we were unable to walk to the very magnificent St Mary's Lighthouse. After this we headed further up North to Morpeth where my sister was living at that point.

Now for a bit of craft. Here is a birthday card made for my dear friend Joy, who had a birthday on Wednesday.

And finally (for now) the new Home card I made for my sister. I was fortunate enough to visit the shop RE in Corbridge while over that way (my sister used to live there, gorgeous place)

The shop sold Cavallini Rubber stamp sets & I treated myself to the Butterflies.

Sadly my batteries died in the camera and no more photos were taken after my first day. I was quite annoyed too as they were my hybrio ones & only a few weeks old. They must have been in the shop long before I bought them & flattened quickly.

The card was made by dragging some paint across the card, then overstamping with script, postal marks & the butterfly stamps. Simple but perfect.

Happy Birthday, Nic

Today is the birthday of one of my Scrap Shoppin' Girls team mate.

Have a fantastic day, Nic.

I just couldn't resist using this stamp that matches my Gorjuss Organiser. I stamped in black & then stamped the same image onto craft paper. I hand cut the paper dolls & book & glued them on.

The stamp is called "I Found my Family in a Book".

Crafty Individuals - May Challenge

This 2nd challenge on the Crafty Individuals blog is Free As A Bird.

Here is my entry which was made using CI209 and CI287. The background was made with Tumbled Glass & Broken China distress inks then once the images were stamped I dry brushed gesso over them to soften. The bird panels were cut down & mounted on top.

The card was given to Jo for her birthday.

Already A Week...

Since I was up in Newton - Underwood, Morpeth, near Newcastle visiting my sister, Tracy. We spend the Saturday shopping in Newcastle & Morpeth. Sunday, we went to the places in the photos below.

Alnmouth Beach

We found a sheltered corner from the wind as it was quite wild.

The we went over to Warkworth Castle.

After talking this photo we went into a chocolate shop & I had the most amazing French Patisserie, Almond Croissant & hot chocolate made from pure chocolate & hot milk.
Feeling full & a tad naughty, we went into a gorgeous shop called The Greenhouse. It sold so many things I wish it had been better light inside so I could have got a photo. Trouble was everything was touching & stacked on top of other things & you walked with arms tucked in barely daring to breathe. A lot of the items could quite easily have been made by an altered artist & I left with quite a few ideas, & of course not wanting to be rude I made a purchase!!

I bought a gorgeous square clock for my living room fireplace. It has a butterfly collage on each side & the top. I am trying to get a good photo of it but as we have had quite a lot of sunshine (& freezing cold wind) I am having trouble with the timing as Im getting shadows & the flash keeps coming on!!!

Latest Inspirational Tags

This first tag is the reverse of the Butterflies tag a few posts below.

I made the background using Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress Inks. I inked the very edges with Bundled Sage DI, then over sprayed the whole piece with Broken China re-inker mixed with Perfect Pearl, perfect pearls. The whole piece has a gorgeous shimmery quality that I doubt the camera really picked up. I then ran it through my texture embossing folder. Sometimes simple is really the best!!

The second tag is the reverse of the floral tag below.

This was made simply by applying Spun Sugar DI mainly to the centre of the tag & building darker layers of colour outwards towards the edges, using Worn Lipstick & Fired Brick. I then spritzed it with water & quickly mopped up the excess with kitchen towel to give the mottled look. I stamped the Heidi Swapp Heart in Fired Brick DI for impact & I particularly love how the open pattern shows through in paler pink.

I especially love this quote!!!

Well, I hope you have all begun your Easter Weekend on a good note. I am home today, but travel first thing tomorrow to Morpeth, outside Newcastle to stay with my big sister, Tracy.
I will look forward to a break, but its back to work Tuesday for 3 days and then a long weekend at home to do some creating.

My printer is still not sorted out and I seriously think i might have to look at purchasing another :((( Expense I could do without, but I have been a week without the printer and it is hindering my creative process!!

More Inspirational Tags

This first one is the reverse of tag number one with the trees (post further down the blog). This is not really a quote it is a definition of the Law of Attraction.

The background is created using Shabby Shutters & Crushed Olive Distress Inks.

The stamp is Heidi Swapp, I first stamped in Crushed Olive then overstamped in Rangers Black Archival slightly to the side to give a shadowed appearance.

This second tag is the reverse of the second tag, with the TH cracked Embossing. This has been created using Spun Sugar & Milled Lavendar Distress Inks. The image is Elusive Designs & was stamped in Dusty Concorde then dusted with Inteference Violet Perfect Pearls.

I think this is the most important thing to remember. Life is now, not one of us can go back & change what has been, but tell me, do you really want to? After all, you are the person you are today because of what you have done, good or bad. I have screwed up in the past, done things I'm ashamed of, but I can tell you this for free, I'm very proud of who I am now, because I have worked damn hard to get from there to here.

Disaster has kind of struck, my printer is saying no I'm not certain if it is broken beyond repair or whether it can be sorted but right now it is the very last thing I need. I can see the need for a new one on the horizon but I love this one sooooo much, how rude!!!

Inspirational Tags, Part Two

Here are tags Three and Four. To prevent bulk I have decided to create 8 tags & then add quotes to the reverse of them all to make a total of 16 quotes.

Tag Three is made with Tumbled Glass & China Blue distress inks with a touch of Dusty Concorde.

I then overstamped with TH Splatter Butterfly.

I picked up ink on a cotton bud to colour them in.

Tag Four is made with Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar & Fired Brick distress inks.

The image is another TH from the Fairytale Frenzy set.

Inspirational Quotes, Tag Book

Here are the first two tags in my book. I've uploaded them the wrong way round the second one is actually going to be the first in the book!

The tags are chipboard covered in thin white card. Once they are all complete, they will be punched & attached together I'm thinking a ball chain rather than book ring for the closure.

Tag 2, is inked in 3 shades of distress inks; Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar & Worn lipstick.

I used the Cracked TH embossing folder. I think I inked the edges with Weathered Wood to give a bit of depth to the pinks.

Tag 1 is inked in 4 shades of distress inks; Broken China, Dusty Concorde, Tumbled Glass & a touch of weathered Wood. It is also gessoed to give a faded look to the trees in the background. My main tree CI209 is then stamped in Rangers Black Archival ink.

I will share some more in a few days time. I'm hoping to create at least 12 of these tags for all the really important quotes I have.

Crafty Indivduals No.1 Challenge

The very first Crafty Individuals Challenge is "Simply Square". Having been a huge fan of these stamps, & own half the shop I was thrilled to see a challenge go up :0)

I coveted these trees for ages but as my creativity took a serious nosedive in September, I decided to wait until I felt up to cracking open the inks again. I bought these a couple of weeks ago & thought they would be perfect for this challenge.

I created my square on gloss cardstock using 4 shades of my favourite Adirondack Dye inks; Stonewashed, Denim, Lettuce & Pesto. I blended these to create a third green shade & then stamped my trees in black Rangers Archival Ink.

A Touch of Red

I like to make tags for bookmarks. Especially thin tags such as this one below as they are perfect for reference books where you want to mark several places without the book getting bulked out. Whilst surfing some blogs late last night i came upon this challenge blog Less is More & the challenge was Touch of Red. So I thought my Gorjuss girl would fit the bill.

I was very lucky to be bought a fabulous Gorjuss Organiser by my work secret santa & I fell in love! I decided to purchase a few gorjuss girls to stamp inside it & this one called Foxy, really jumped out. This image is very similar to one in the book. My favourite in the book is Ruby, & I have a mug with her on, heading my way in the post, for my morning tea :0)

Back to the tag! It is created on white thin card which is 140gsm. This card while being thin, is still sturdy enough to stamp on & colour using distress inks. For this design I have simply stamped her in Black Rangers Archival ink & the touches of red are dark red wax crayon (I tidied up my craft stuff over the winter months & can not locate my pencil crayons!!)

In the winter months I just can not craft. The artificial light is poor & I fail to match shades of colour. I grew tired of throwing poor quality work away, wasting precious materials, so decided to put everything away until the lighter days got here. In the meantime, I have done a lot of reading & self discovery. But, I will be back soon. I am currently working on a mini tag book of inspirational quotes to keep me positive minded. I have not done too well with positive thoughts over the gloom of the snow & dark winter days.

It's My Birthday Today!!

and I got some gorgeous cards & gifts from my scrapping/alterd art friends. Thank you, all.

Here are the latest cards that I have made for various friends.

Val - My SSG Teamie!!

Background made using Adirondack Dye Inks on Gloss card. Stamp - Cherry Pie

Galina

Adirondack inks again - stamp Paperbag Studios (Scanned image rather rubbish!)

Chris
Adirondack inks again - you can tell I adore using these baby's can't you!!!!! Stamp - Tim Holtz

I hope to share some more art with you soon.

Dad's Birthday - Yesterday!!

but my internet would not play so I didn't get to upload this card I made for him!! He loved it though, so I'm pleased.

I stamped the greeting ( Stampin' Up) & bird (Stampers Anonymous) onto some of my home made coffee stained card then ran it through my Big Shot using my Textured Fades Woodgrain folder. Simple but very effective!

Two pieces of Art

These are two pieces I made after treating myself to some new stamps. I love the black & white version with the gesso background but then felt it needed colour. So instead of messing this up I made a second one.

The colour version includes perfect pearls on the red section but unfortunately I had a slight accident & spilt water on it!!! So it has kind of lost the desired effect!

Still they are just test pieces really.

I made them & adhered them to piece of chipboard for strength. The plan is to turn them into wall hangings. Or they may just sit for a month on the shelf, knowing me!!!

Late Card

This is the card I made for Rachel (SSG) I took a picture & it isn't too good but it came out far better than I expected it to! I based it on a design by Rachel Jackson in the February issue of Craft Stamper. I loved the white space of the design.

As it uses only small pieces of art it is simple & quick to produce. I used a texture fade by Tim Holtz to create a small square of Woodgrain & the stamp is Innovative Stamp Creations. All the other bits were from my stash. I love Rachel's work.

Another Birthday Card

I apologise first for my terrible lack of blogging. I had great plans to do more but before I knew it January had come & gone!!!! I did make some art last week but not had a chance to take a decent photo of it.

This is a card made for a friend of mine, Pauline (SSG) who had a birthday at the end of Jan. I did make another for someone else, Rach (SSG) but just could not get a decent picture.

The background is made using Adirondack Dye inks which were on my craft mat & I just swooshed them onto glossy paper. I then stamped my all time favourite image. I never tire of this one!!

Cards

Here are a few designs I made for birthdays at the beginning of this year.

Trees - Martin my brother in law - birthday 1st January

Faces - Carol - Chrysalis forum birthday


Alice Cooper/spin n splash - Penny - Chrysalis forum birthday

The trees & faces are Paperbag Studio stamps. The Alice Cooper heart was cut from a postcard.

Merry Christmas

I wish all my blog friends A Very Merry Christmas.

Thank you all for reading my ramblings and viewing my artwork over the past year.

Thank you for sharing all of yours with me.

I look forward to getting back to crafting in the New Year and Hopefully be a better blogger too!

Love Paula x

Snow Week

Snow has gripped the nation for the second time this year!!! I had hoped it wouldn't snow until 2011 after the pain of January, but as you all know by now, the more you want something to "not" happen the more likely it will! Our office was closed yesterday & will remain closed today.

However, I have not managed to get in since Monday due to cancelled trains & bus companies not being prepared to travel to Scunthorpe to take us into Grimsby.

I took this photo about half an hour ago, it is my landlord furiously digging a space in the snow so he can park the company van! (I live above his printing workshop & had a ring side seat lol)

Hope you are all dry, warm & enjoying the day. Sometimes you just have to give in & make the best of a bad situation!!

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Today is my friend (& colleague) Katie's birthday. Here is just a sweet 'n' simple card I made for her. Tomorrow I am having a day off work to go with her to Meadowhall shopping. I'm hoping to find a new suit jacket!

I have been missing from blog land of late as I have been taking a break from crafting. I have been extremely tired and was not very well so in the evenings & at weekends I have been resting & snuggling under a fleece blanket to read or watch movies.

I have successfully tracked down, bought & installed 1GB of new memory into my home PC so it is now running at 1.5GB & seems so fast now it doesn't seem 5 years ago that I got it. With well over three quarters of its hard drive still empty I figure I have a fair few years more life from it :0)

Happy Anniversary....

to my sister Tracy & brother in Law Martin.

Having seen the Jennifer McGuire Holiday Thinking Inking on 2peas & seeing the lovely examples of the block background technique on Godelieve's blog I decided to have a go. Unfortunately it went wrong afterwards & to rescue the card from ending its life in the bin, I had to cut the coloured piece with all my stamping & mount it to the front of another card!
Happy Anniversary to you both.

More Cards to Sell

Since I took a batch of 25 cards into work to sell, I have sold 9 of them. I decided to create a few more to replace the sold ones at it is easier to do it regularly rather than wait until they are all gone. I did make 3 but due to poor light never got a photo of number 3. Better luck at the weekend!

A Chrysalis Forum Birthday

We had a forum birthday a few weeks ago, but couldn't do the birthday game straight away. (We try to guess who made each card) The game is finally over today, so I can blog the card I made for the birthday girl, Carrie.

My card was made using some textured leather look cream cardstock folded. I then covered it with a piece of gorgeous soft brown handmade paper which encased rose petals. The next layer was just some torn mulberry paper in a softer brown. My image (Loast Coast) was stamped onto my homemade coffee stained paper in Archival Sepia ink. I added metallic eyelets to 3 corners. The strip of ribbon is some Anitas new Christmas range of sticky ribbon, which I actually attached some gold beads using silicone glue, nut not clear in the photo. The white paper flower was gently overstamped with a Stampers Anonymous image & then coloured using Antique Linen Distress ink. The flower centre is a broken ear ring someone gave to me.

I loved browns & creams & really wanted to create something in these colours. My only wish is that I had stamped my focal image in Smokey Grey Versafine to tone the colour down a bit & added some specks of melted gold embossing powder. Or even better, if I owned some Distress Embossing powder in Antique Linen I could have mixed the two together!

Almost Complete

I have been out and about visiting friends this weekend. I haven't had much time to create but I do have another project on my table that is almost finished. This minibook "The Best of Me" was started November 2008, using an add on called "Lost Valley", which formed part of a Studio Calico kit "Fountain Square". Again, I am ashamed to admit it was left unloved & unfinished on the shelf.

It is a collection of my favourite photos taken of me by two professional photograhers. It is almost done, just waiting for good light for photos. Hope to share the rest later in the week.

Capturing Time Final Pages

Here are the final 4 pages!

Page 49 Try

I love to try my hand at new things so I picked a photo of my most recent acrylic canvas.

Page 50 Home

I love to get home every day, but nothing beats a Friday nights, curtains drawn, candles lit.

Page 51 Drama
I adore Mystery drama such as Inspector Morse, and I love a good costume drama. The very newest of them being Downton Abbey.

Page 52 Remember

I made the final page based on remembering why I began this project. The background behind the acrylic Heidi Swapp clock is made with Adirondack inks Caramel, Butterscotch & Raisin. The picture is of a card I made a forum friend, Jo, back in April. I thought it quite fitting as I love the image & imagine that at any moment the butterfly will float off on shimmering wings.

Well it feels fantastic to have completed this minibook.All 52 pages look amazing together!

Capturing Time Project Part 1

Blogger would not let me upload all 6 pictures at once!! So I will upload in several parts.

Here is the finished Capturing Time project that I began in 2008. See the post below for links to the very first pages done.

Page 47 Time for Winter

The photo was taken by me using my mobile phone when we had thick snow at the begining of this year. It is our largest local church.

Page 48 Time to IndulgeI believe everyone should have a small indulgence and mine is a full body massage every 6 weeks at Hayley's beauty spa. The picture doesn't show the room clearly.

Happy Birthday, Ange!

One of my scrap friends (SSG teamie) had a birthday today and here is the card I sent her.

The main card was overstamped with french script. I then coloured a square with distress inks, Victoria Velvet, Shabby Shutters & Brushed Corduroy. Images are Innovative Stamp Creations. Butterfly was stamped in newspaper coloured with peeled paint.

I am going to be all technical now & schedule a blog post for tomorrow as I have finally completed a minibook I begun in 2008 Capturing Time. I embarked on what set out to be a 52 week project but life got in the way and after page 46, Ronda didn't do anymore prompts. I often look at it sat on my shelf beside the sofa & at the weekend I decided to finish it. I came up with 6 final pages & tomorrow I will share the photos.

The Finished Piece!

Remember this piece that I showed you a few posts down, well I have finally completed it!!

I selected a bird stamp by Crafty Individuals & used a freebie image I got from my blog friend, Rein.

I think the image is just perfect & I am so happy it is finished after being sat for a year unloved.

Acrylic Collage Canvas - Family

I made a collage on canvas around two years ago for a forum swap, but it was using distress inks.

This is my very first acrylic paint collage. My chosen design, family, was based on my main image, it is my Father & Grandfather. I also wanted to use earthy colours as my Grandfather was a farmer. I read books by Ann Baldwin & Claudine Hellmuth on glazing paints for backgrounds & decided this was for me. My support being a canvas board 5x7".

I began by selecting my background images & stamping these onto tissue. These were then "glued" to the canvas using Matte Golden Regular Gel Medium. I then tore two strips of patterned paper in designs I thought worked well with the colours I had in mind. I then began my glazing thinning the acrylic paint slightly with water just to get the right consistency. I used an overall colour of Cadmium Yellow Deep, as my first layer. I didn't want to cover the background completely as I felt the stamps were important to the piece. My Grandfather always wore a waistcoat & in the pocket he always had a pocket watch. The receipt type stamp is probably similar to the receipts my Grandfather received for buying goods for the farm.

Once I was happy with my layers of paint, I "glued" on my two pieces of text, both of which are open to interpretation. I thought "Life is a stage" quite apt because everyone has several stages in their lives. The single word "Life" supports the main image showing them both living their Life at that moment the camera captured them. Finally I added my main image & then cut my Father seperate from a second image & added him over the top of the original which gives a very nice 3D look ( which you probably can't pick up in the picture) but it represents him as the main part of this piece. Finally I took the Burnt Umber & applied in areas using my fingers to edge the piece & add shadow & depth around the base & side of the image.

Stamps; Prima/ Stampers Anonymous/ Artistic Stamper

Papers; 7Gypsies

Paint; Cadmium Yellow Deep/ Yellow Ochre/Burnt Sienna/ Red Ochre/Burnt Umber
Image; my own photo printed onto ordinary copy paper.

I am happy with how this first attempt turned out and am burning with ideas for a second!

A Card & some Work in Progress

First up I have a very quick card for a friend who's birthday is on Tuesday. She doesn't have access to a computer so I know she won't be reading this. I simply stuck down the spotted paper & stamped text over the top before adding ribbon, flower (which is a two part felt one & doesn't show up!) plus a greeting, stamped on a scrap piece of kraft card.

This next piece is something I begun a year ago & then put it away as it wasn't "speaking to me". There are 3 pics of its progess. I am nearly done with it. Just need a final focal image & it can be mounted. I begun with masking tape, stamped images & skeleton leaves.

Next I added a coat of pva glue watered down. I then added alcohol inks in stream & meadow. Once dried it was then painted in places with my fingers using Rangers paint dabbers in shell pink & white. I also added silver embossing around all the edges.

Finally I glued on some real pressed flowers. All it needs is a couple of bits to finish it. Im thinking a focal image of a bird as this is very much a nature themed piece.

You know how it is though. You start a piece & you love it so much the last thing you wish to do is ruin it. I know I will eventually get this done & by blogging today, it might just spur me on to complete it sooner rather than later!!

I had a few days off work, am not well so decided a bit of rest wouldn't hurt. My blood pressure is a tad high & I keep feeling really nauseaous & dizzy. So, I had a follow up appointment booked to see the nurse on Friday, & decided Thursday as well would make a nice long weekend. I have spent my time re doing craft things I have begun & admitting defeat with other pieces & throwing them away. I got the urge to begin again almost straight away & it is going very well. Hope to show you the finished article next weekend, perhaps along with the one above!!
Craft really is the best medicine.

A bit more creativity!

I've had a wonderful day of completing things. First up is my late tag for Karin, on the Chrysalis forum. I hosted this tag swap, early in the year & I think we all have one left to make before the challenge is over. It has been fun & we have done it at a steady pace that fits in with everyones life style & busy crafting timetable.

Karin's theme is sea/nature. I used a free CS stamp & a plate from the Stampers Guild.

The small ticket is from a Paperartsy plate. Rub ons spell the word "sea" on it. The background is high gloss card coloured with blue alcohol inks. I added white embossing around the edges & on the small aquamarine pearls to give a look of sea foam. The same design is on the reverse.

Next up are two more cards made using Joanne's idea from this month's Craft Stamper. Again I have adapted the designs & colours. I also use an embossing border for the inside edge of the cards. On this first one, I scored a border around the front panel. This one Im going to try & sell. It's only one altered art type & only the teeniest handmade background, no one will ever notice!!!

This next one, is for Trudie, my sister's friend, who had an asthma attack last week & was taken into hospital. I didn't stamp the image too darkly as I felt it would spoil the soft coloured background.

The colours I used for these two;

Birthday Card:- Antique Linen, Milled Lavender, Broken China & a tiny bit of Dusty Concorde on the edges.

Get Well Card:- Antique Linen, Tattered Rose & Worn Lipstick.

Other Items.
Stamps:-Papermania- Henbury Lane & Gel-A-Tins - Big & Wild Things.
Greetings Stamps- Stampin' Up.
Embossing Borders- Cuttlebug-With Love Set.