Cool! Well it Was!

I was quite happy when I woke up this morning ... there was a chill in the air and I actually needed sleeves! I thought my calls for Winter had been answered. Then without warning ... I started to melt ... the temperature went up and Lo and Behold ... the Sun put in an appearance ... Doh! Still ... apparently ... it is n't all about me :0) ... and I see lots of you are enjoying the warmer climate ... so from this moment on ... I shall try and embrace this heat wave and stop ... erm ... whining! And there's another question ... at what point does it become a heat wave??? Is it after a certain amount of days ... or does it have to reach a certain temperature for a certain length of time??? And ... what is the difference between a normal Summer ... if there is such a thing in the UK ... and a heat wave???

All in all I have had a nice crafty day ... I made this little chipboard piece for the Bubbly Scrumptious blog ... all the details are here. I have kitted up for my class at LB Crafts tomorrow ... which I always enjoy ... and I have thought about another project.

Does anyone else do that??? Spend ages thinking about creating and not actually creating??? Or is it just me??? Thing is after I have finished thinking about creating and actually started creating ... quite often the project changes completely ... so why do I waste so much time with the ... erm ... thinking in the first place??? I know this and yet I still do it!

No accounting for some people now is there?

Have a lovely evening everyone ...

Laters!

Blimey Blimey!

This has got to win a record for the longest to publish blog post ever ever ever!

I was soooo organised last night I made my tutorial for the Bubbly Scrumptious blog ... just about to upload and the flippin camera battery died. So instead of doing the sensible thing and typing the post without piccies ... I abandoned my post ... emailed the lovely Caroline ... told her I was teaching today ... explained the whole camera predicament and agreed to post by 7 pm'ish tonight! Simples!

I gets home tonight ... camera all charged ... piccies all uploaded and then two hours later ... I finally publish! Why the delay ... well for 60 minutes the tinternet decided to go AWOL ... I had a visitor ... the dog decided to bark like mad at a hot air balloon ... and trust me ... she has a big mouth so I had to calm her down before the entire street complained ... Stressed??? Who Me??? Never!!!

This is another Ranger U technique ... the very lovely Claudine Hellmuth showed us this one and if you want to see my version of it ... please click here!

I am off in search of a very cold and thirst quenching beverage ... Anyone care to join me????

Manic Monday!

Just a quickie one from me today ... I have been nattering on the phone for most of the day and am only on the third thing on my to do list which has soooooo many things still to do on it!

Anyways I liked my desk calendar WOYWWAC wotsit colours so much I decided to use the same combination on my Bubbly Scrumptious blog post today too. I am totally in love with the Zutter Rivets ... just snap through the middle of all your little Grungepaper flowers and you can still twizzle the flowers round ... and you all know I am a sucker for dimension and movement :0)

I used A Lord Tim of Holtz frame too ... purely so I could say ... you know Tim ... the man that can make, fly and land a hot air balloon in a 15 minute tea break while entertaining the old folk in the local home with just one adage ticket from the entire book and a single book D ring!

Eleven more sleeps too ... How cool ... this time in two weeks I shall be on my way home ... good job Tim can slow time down or my time in Distress Ink Paradise would just fly by!

See you tomorrow ... when we will start the final countdown ...

32 More Sleeps!

Sorry peeps ... I promise I have n't been at lunch all that time ... but Mr Blogger was seriously getting on my nerves towards the end of last week. He just would n't let me play ... in the end I stopped trying and went away and made ... erm ... stuff!

As for today ... well this is my second blog post already :0) I have already blogged over on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog and the purple creation in the piccies is what I made! I have shrunk a Paperartsy birdcage and die cut some flowers with Tim's teeny tiny flower from his Tattered Floral die. You know Tim ... the man that can build a scale model of the hidden city in Machu Picchu in his lunch hour while following the Inca trail with just an Idea-ology Washer and an Idea-ology Jump ring. Tim the man that I am going to see in just 32 more sleeps. *Swoon* I know at least one of you out there does n't know yet that I am going to Ranger U ... otherwise known as Distress Ink heaven in precisely 32 sleeps.

Luckily my passport was delivered on Saturday ... so now I am all set to go :0)

Okey Dokey ... that 's me ... see you next time!

39 Sleeps!

Did you think I had stopped counting? Huh? Did you? And if you don't know what I am counting down to ... Where have you been???

Oh yes people ... only 39 more sleeps and I am off to Distress ink heaven where Lord Tim of Holtz will be waiting to teach me everything he knows :0) You know Tim ... the man who would need no coalition to form a government as 100% of the UK population would have voted for him without a manifesto ... just a pot each of white and black enamel accents! Talking of which ... I picked mine up Saturday ... Yum Yum!

Right ... down to business ... I have my tickets and my hotel reservation and I have paid to attend Ranger U ... but I don't have a passport ... well technically I do ... but it is out of date. So ... anyways ... last week ... I put my Julia Roberts looky likey make up on and went to the local supermarket ... sat in the little photo booth and tried about a kerzillion times to get a decent photo but ended up with 4 passport sized pictures of an axe murderer. Anyways ... it took about 920 million hours to get that far so they would have to do ... popped into the Building Society where I used to work and got my old mate Roy to sign them and the forms ... Blah Blah and so on!

I then drive to the next village and walk into the little Post Office. Now UK Post Offices are not best known for their friendly service but this one was quite the exception. I was greeted by a lovely man and lady ... the lovely man checked the forms ... told me he had a camera and in future he would be happy to take the photo ... told me my eyes were a standard width apart ... and that should be some small compensation for the fact that I did n't look like Julia Roberts in the pictures ... yes he actually said that ... out loud!!! Which also begs the question ... What do you do if your eyes are not a standard width apart??? I mean you can't move your eyes closer together just for the passport office now can you??? Anyways he then asked me when I would be travelling ... when I told him "42 more sleeps" he and his lovely lady assistant fell about laughing ... when they composed themselves he assured me that my new passport should be with me in plenty of time ... Phew! They were lovely but they had no idea what Ranger U is!!!

Okey Dokey ... the chip hangy thing in the pictures is what I blogged on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog earlier today and a list of the ingredients and the how to's etc can all be found here.

I also have news of a fab new scrapping and mini book site which is run by the uber talented Isa Norris ... I thought I may give it a go ... Why don't you join me??? You can find it here.

And that my friends as they say ... is that!

Have a wonderful evening and wrap up warm ... apparently it is going to be a very cold night! Oh and if you are the owner of non standard width eyes perhaps you could tell me how you get around that problem when applying for your passport :0)

Gossip and Chips!

I like Mondays ... because I don't need to do any sensible chatter on here ... Mondays is the day I blog for Bubbly Scrumptious ... so if you want any ingredients details or instructions ... you can find them all here.

So without sensible chatter ... I can stick to pure unadulterated gossip ... but you can't tell anyone I told you!!!

Yesterday I was at LB Crafts Head Quarters ... making the projects that Lin and Leandra have designed for the imminent ArtsyCrafts weekends. The projects are always kept under wraps until the weekends and it is all secret squirrel stuff and uber exciting :0) I had the pleasure of the company of the Wonderful Lin and the Lovely Karen ... :0) So  ... Do you want to hear all about the projects??? ... well ... I can't tell you ... so don't even ask :0) A tease??? Who me???

I can tell you that there is a humungus B Line Bargain Bonanza planned for the 30th of May ... The wonderful Lin, the lovely Karen, myself and I think quite possibly the marvellous Mark will all be there ... huuuuuuuuge reductions in B Line stamps apparently and free demos all day ... so check your diaries!

Righty Ho ... I am off to bed soon ... it is now only 52 more sleeps to Ranger U ... Did I mention I was going and that Lord Tim of Holtz will be there ... you know Tim ... the man that rescues ickle fluffy kittens from 200 ft trees while balancing on a high wire and creating Grungepaper magic with just the lid off a bottle of Glossy Accents and one piece of Mica from a small jar of Perfect Pearls.

Have a good one!

A Record Breaking Short Post!

I was going to tell you about my class on Saturday ... my lovely ladies and their lovely final projects ... and Dan's visit ... and my not very productive crafting sessions ... and the day we had in Kent yesterday for Tina's birthday ... the yummy lunch etc., ... and the tale I had about the pokey tool and the broken tooth ... but look at the time! I still have 101 things to do today and I have no idea where the time went. So you will just have to amuse yourselves piecing together the above to work out what I am actually on about.

Because I have n't got time to tell you about all those things then I thought I would go for the shortest blog post ever and perhaps break a world record or something. Then I realised that not telling you stuff was taking just about as long as telling you stuff!

This chip hangy flowery thingy wotsit is my project for the Bubbly Scrumptious blog this week ... so I have listed all the how to's etc., here.

I can't believe I have n't blogged since Thursday ... and I have missed out on all your posts too ... I promise to catch up this week at some point ... but by the looks of things ... well it aint gonna be today!

Glimmer and a Giggle!

Let's start with the Glimmer. This is my pin badge glimmery chip thing that I made for my contribution to the Bubbly Scrumptious blog this week ... all details for making this and the stuff I used etc., are listed here.

Spot Lord Tim of Holtz's Idea-ology stash ... you know Tim ... the man that can speak 572 languages at the same time whilst climbing up Mount Everest in just a T-shirt with a single corner and a solitary foundation.

I have a bloggy shout out to make at this point too ... the very kind Annette sent me some stash and challenged me to use it ... so I hope she checks in and recognises a couple of the items on here ... Thank you Annette ... oooh and while I am Thanking her you should check out her blog too ... she makes yummy stuff ... really yummy.

Well that was the glimmer ... now for the giggle :0) This is a bit mean but it is also truly funny ... DD rang me up with it last night after she had successfully tried it on her boyfriend ... I told her how mean she was after I had finished laughing and then as soon as John walked in from a long hard night shift when I knew he would be perfect for catching out ... I tried it on him too.

"Morning" I says ... "Morning" he says ... little bit of chatter etc., and then I says "You never guessed what I found out yesterday!" "No!" he says. So I says "If you shake your head while you say Gullible it sounds like Oranges!" He says "Oh!" I thinks it is n't going to work and then I says "Try it!" and he did ... at 8am this morning and I am still laughing now ... go on ... try it ... I know it's mean but it is a lot funny too!

Have a great evening!

A Butterfly Ball!

Now I know it is not actually a ball ... I did read somewhere that a group of butterflies is known as a Kaleidoscope of Butterflies. I say I read it somewhere ... I may well have dreamt it up ... I do that on occasion ... well quite often actually ... anyways ... I can't spell Kaleidoscope so ... Butterfly Ball it is!

We have a sunny and windy day here in Cambridge ... I don't think I shall venture out ... just stay in and craft ... coool! I am expecting a couple of visitors later ... the Crafting recluse in me is saying ... just ignore the door bell ... of course I won't ... that would be rude ... and if they read my blog ... well they are unlikely to come now anyway :0) That was a joke ... of course they don't read my blog!

Okey Dokey ... if you would like to see how I made the Butterfly ... erm ... Ball then all details can be found on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog here.

That is me for now then ... I am way to eat eggs ... yummy chocolate ones ... if anyone knows the correct term for a group of Butterflies ... you know what to do! Would n't it be nice if it was a flutter!

Chip ... Anyone???

If you were n't seeing red before you read this post ... then you will be now! This piece can only be described as red ... in fact very red! It is Barn Door distress ink and if anyone thought Distress inks were a bit dull before ... well Barn Door is anything but dull.

I made this piece earlier today for the Bubbly Scrumptious blog ... you can check all the how tos and where to buys here.

I am not quite sure what is going on with all the red and all the lace ... it's not like its nearly valentines day or anything ... I just felt that way inclined!

Check out Timmy's new memo pins ... they are now on my top ten favourite list ... well for today anyway ... you all know how fickle I am! You know Tim ... the man that can build a life size model of the Sphinx with just a memo pin and some sepia accents while lying on a lilo in the middle of the red sea.

Shall I tell you the excitement that I have lined up for the rest of my day ... are you sure you will be able to cope with the revelation ... are you sure you can bare the suspense ... for the rest of today I will be ... erm ... ironing! There ... I said it ... I swore on the World Wide Web ... I shall be back later though and I hate ironing so I shall be in need of some cheering up ... if you don't want to leave a comment ... well tell us a joke or something ... a girl needs something to look forward to :0)

A Timmy Fix!

Well ... the days of old and getting up close to Lord Tim of Holtz are gone ... However ... I am still stroking his tag on a daily basis ... just in case it turns into a lamp type vessel and magically transports him ... or me ... in the meantime ... I have to make do with a daily dose of Timmy You tube or DVD's or indeed his fabulous books. You know Tim ... the man that can stop the earth turning for as long as he likes with just a drop of glossy accents and a Victorian Velvet re-inker!

Anyways ... there I was on the Bubbly Funk site and I came across his fragment tutorial. Now I may have seen it before but I can't actually remember it ... to cut a very long story short ... I watched ... I listened ... I learned and then I made :0)

You can check out all the paper details etc., I used for this ickle boys note book over on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog today ... I will see you later ... I am off for a spot of tag stroking or maybe even another tutorial :0)

Bad Thoughts!

Does having bad thoughts make you a bad person?

If I confess everything ... Can I still go to crafting heaven? They are both tricky questions and to be on the safe side ... I am going to make a confession ... about my bad thoughts :0)

When Lord Tim of Holtz ... the man that can enter every Olympic Sport in the Winter Olympics and win a gold medal in each of the aforementioned sports ... including the ice hockey and still get cheered by the Canadians ... with only a solitary brad ... was on a certain shopping channel last week ... I confess that for several long seconds ... at the point when Lord Tim gave a certain necklace that he had crafted with his own fair hands ... to a certain female craft presenter ... well I did actually want to jump through the TV screen and prize it off the said presenter's neck with a pair of rather sharp deckle edged scissors. Does that make me a bad person ... or did some of you out there feel that way too?

Luckily I am over the worst now ... so I made my own :0) Actually I got bored before it got to pendant length ... so it is actually a bracelet ... but a girl has gotta start somewhere! If you would like to see how I did it ... all details are on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog ... just click here!

Have a good week :0)

Bits and Pieces!

Well ... I did n't get chance to play with my new Timmy stamps as hoped ... but I did have a wonderful time at the second of my screen workshops on Saturday at LB Crafts. So a big Thank you to Alex, Helena, the two Sues, Mel, Geraldine and Pauline ... I hope you girls enjoyed it as much as I did. Bearing in mind I was an hour from home ... it was a complete surprise to find out that I actually went to school with Mel!

The piece of chip in the top picture is my artwork For the Bubbly Scrumptious blog today ... details of all products and destructions can be found here. And if you like this ... have a good dig through the rest of the posts on the blog ... there is some truly amazing inspiration from the other very talented design team members.

This last picture is of a mini book cover that I made for the front page of UK Scrappers as part of the Happy Daze design team. There is a downloadable PDF with instructions available here.

I did warn you in the title that this was all bits and pieces ... righty ho ... I need to get to the post office and get my kits ready for tomorrow's class and then ... fingers crossed ... I will get my new Timmy stamps out and have a play ... mind you I have ironing to do too ... maybe ... erm ... that will just have to wait :0)

Oh yeah ... and finally ... I just neeeeeeeeed to tell you my most exciting news ... in 13 more sleeps I am going to see Tim ... the man that can turn water into A Tequila sunrise with just one flat backed gem and a piece of ball chain ... in the flesh ... oh yes ... I am soooooooo excited :0)

Another Day and Some More Chip!

Morning everyone ... just popped in to say Hi and Thank you all for the lovely messages of yesterday ... I am still doing a happy dance and am even more chuffed that some of you kind folk did some dancing with me :0) And that you liked the tin :0) The people up my road were not nearly as excited and the dog food delivery man just looked at me like I was bonkers when I thrust the magazine under his nose while I was signing for the food this morning ... I mean ... me ... Bonkers ... really!

I have just posted this project on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog ... so if you want to know about the products ... all the details are here!

I have a full afternoon and evening of crafting ahead of me ... well if I tidy up a teensy bit first ... because I don't actually have any work space available at the moment!

Righty ho then ... I shall leave you in peace to enjoy my note ... Can you guess which Tim I mean? Can you Huh? Can you? Oh yes ... that will be the Mr Tim that can jump on clouds with his bare feet and a selection of Idea-ology charms!

Have a good Monday ... I will see you tomorrow!

One World One Heart Giveaway! **NOW CLOSED**

This is exciting stuff ... you guys have all gotta join in ... it is gonna be soooooo much fun. Lisa will explain all here. But basically you make some art ... blog it .... give everyone that leaves a comment the chance to win what you make. Easy peasy! And if you have n't got time to join in ... that is n't a problem either ... just check out the blog links here and leave a comment! Told you it was easy :0)
So this is the piece I have made with the theme of magic carpet ... the Maya Road chip is kinda carpet shaped and the colour and pattern are just like the carpet of a family I used to babysit for ... when I was ... erm ... about 14! Blimey that is going back a bit!
So you can either join in ... by making your own art and visiting here ... and following the simple instructions ... or just leave a comment on this post ... a winner will be drawn on the 15.02.09 and the comment chosen at random will receive this hangy piece.
Do you know ... the minute I typed that I realised that no one may want it ... leave a comment anyway ... you will be helping my self esteem and I will bung in a pack of sweeties too!
I am happy to mail it anywhere in the world ... Have a great week ... and Good Luck :0)

Where did Monday Morning go?

Seriously guys ... I think someone nicked it!

I had my breakfast at 7.20am ... made a couple of phone calls ... sent a couple of emails ... wrote a blog post ... and it is now 2.20pm ... so who do you think nicked it?

No surprises from me today ... I have blogged some more chip for the Bubbly Scrumptious blog ... Grey chip ... which I lurve and of course Wendy Vecchi stamps ... which I also lurve :0) If you fancy giving this a go ... click here and you can see a step by step of how I made it!

Colours are a bit brighter than normal ... not sure what's occurring ... I said that like Nessa ... well sort of ... if you don't watch Gavin and Stacey ... well you will have no clue what I am on about ... no change there then :0) I seem to be drawn to warmer colours at the moment ... Do you think it is something to do with the weather? ... or more optimism because we are at the beginning of a new decade? ... who knows ... and if you don't ... well it is no good looking at me ... I can't even remember the question :0)

Have a good one people ... I am off in search of coffee :0)

Making Art Studio 490 style!

I was lucky enough to get Wendy Vecchi's book for Christmas ... a personally addressed signed copy no less ... yes I am bragging ... but the credit for the signing goes to my wonderful mate Andrea ... who I just love to bits!

The content of the book is pure magic.  Wendy has written the book very much in the style that she types her blog ... crammed full of inspiration ... ideas ... cool tricks and fabulous advice! I do LOVE that lady!

This piece is inspired by an Anniversary card that she has demo'd ... very clearly ... in the book! It is my contribution to the Bubbly Scrumptious blog this week.

I have added a Timmy frame ... you know Tim ... the man that can create supernatural artistic objects with just an edge distresser and a solitary brad ... and filled it with crackle accents ... again ... this time on purpose :0)

I hope you are all having a good Monday whatever you are doing ... stay safe and warm.

Just time for a quickie!

Where does the time go? There I was with a free day and only a few bits to do ... before you know it ... lunch has been and gone and I am rushing around again trying to catch up!

It has been nice though ... I did a spot of impromptu babysitting for my nephew's little lad ... we were playing very nicely when he got tired and decided to exercise his lungs ... all sorted with a quick nap though :0)

Right ... back to the job in hand ... a quickie blog post ...

I have made a card using paper from the Home Front range ... and a Maya Road Chip house ... then I spruced up a bottle of wine with a Maya chip key chain  ... lots of Wendy Vecchi stamps and some distress inks.

We have new neighbours moving in sometime later this week ... the other side had to wait about 6 months before I got around to welcoming them ... so this time I thought I would be more organised.

I will admit to being in a slight quandary though ... Do I swap the ball chain for something else??? People that don't craft just don't get ball chain and it's value to us crafters ... do they??? ... Maybe I will use another piece of thin ribbon ... who said I was tight??? I prefer to think of myself as erm ... economical :0)

Right ... back to the "to do" list ... wish me luck :0)

Losing the Plot!

I know many of you think I lost the plot sometime ago ... but today ... I really think I might be!

I have been merrily getting organised ... making my January birthday cards early and playing quite happily in the knowledge that is was ... erm ... Sunday and I did n't need to post for Bubbly Funk until tomorrow ... being ... erm ... Monday!

I had such a smug look on my face when at about 3.30pm I started drafting my post for the blog ... usually it is a mad panic and it is around 10 pm on a Sunday night ... so you can imagine said look when I thought I would draft early and maybe snuggle down to watch Christmas telly all night. I really cannot stress enough ... how smug ... smug ... smug I was feeling ... in fact I was positively oozing smugness!!!

Well ... I was about to save the page when I looked at the day ... I was n't early ... I was erm ... about 7 hours late ... Doh!

I am now hoping to regain the plot ... sooner ... rather than later ... but for now ...

Have a good Sunday ... erm ... Monday evening people :0) I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas ... and don't forget to tell me what Santa bringed you :0)

The Ugly Card Does Christmas and other Stuff!

Yes ... there is such a thing! The ugly card is gradually making it's way around the world. It started off here and has been to several different countries and has made public appearances on several different blogs before reaching Cambridge in the UK. The idea is that you take pictures when it reaches you ... blog about it ... and then ask for volunteers to take it next ... they then do the same thing and who knows ... maybe in a hundred years time or so ... it will be famous!

I have attached some piccies of the ugly card doing Christmas ... we had our annual crafty Christmas dinner yesterday ... I say we ... I mean the usual suspects ... lots of laughter ... eating ... drinking ... chatting ... cracker pulling ... presents ... and erm ... presents! A fab time was had by all!

I am always so full of Mojo ... and erm ... chocolate after spending the day with such creative people that I went straight up to my craft room last night and started making some little tree decorations ... Yes ... I finally got the tree up ... I rather like them ... they are really simple and quick to make ... which suits most of us at this time of year me thinks! If you want to know how I made them ... you can read all about it on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog!

All that remains for me to say is if you would like to help the ugly card along it's journey ...  please just put "Ugly card" in the comments and I will pick a winner ... I choose this term loosely ... it aint pretty ... then you can blog and post and so on ... don't worry full instructions come with the card. Thank you to Cath for choosing me :0)

Have a great week people!