An Altered Car!

When I got my car back on Saturday ... I was a tad horrified that it was so dirty! No wonder it had felt poorly ... It was definitely in need of a good clean and a makeover! So I set about rearranging the garage in a bid to find some decals I purchased yonks ago ... when I eventually found them ... I set about convincing John that he really needed to wash said car for me!
To be honest ... that was a lot harder than it sounds ... I had to do the whole ... by the time you have shown me how to use the jet washy thing ... it would be quicker to do it yourself chestnut! A bit late in the day for me to get the jet wash out and make a complete pigs ear of it ... so he had to step in ... and I was n't sure how successful my mission was until Sunday morning :0)
I obviously had n't told him about the decals ... John would wonder why ... in his view ... I was going to mess around with decals and a perfectly good car ... so I waited patiently for him to finish and while he was out walking the dog the makeover began! I am rather pleased with the results ... What say you? It is definitely the biggest "altered art" project I have undertaken :0)

Right ... onto more ... well usual stuff ... the screen is stained ... misted ... and colour washed within an inch of it's life and the adorned with fabulous Stampotique images! If you look really closely ... you can see how cute The Wendy Vecchi's flowers look on white shrink plastic with ickle bitty gems in the middle. The background is stamped using Lord Tim of Holtz's Itty Bitty grunge stamps ... you know Tim ... the man that can roller skate up Mount Everest while drawing all the white lines down the middle of every road with just a Inkssentials white gel pen and a jump ring!
I must go ... I have a date with some of Claudine's Sticky Backed Canvas and some more Colour washes and a whole handful of tags!
Laters!

Where is that Friday Feeling?

I have been a busy bee today ... working on my product list for The Paper and Co show in Buthiers in November!

I still can't quite believe that they have asked me to teach there ... sooooooo exciting!

So which of you lovely bloggy people are coming ... nice trip to Paris in November ... a weekend of paper crafting ... all the lovely sites ... romantic places ... it will be mine and John's 11th anniversary while I am there ... What a shame he is n't invited :0)

So ... the piccies today are sneaky peeks of one of the three two hour workshops that I will be doing ... Making Mini Memories ... as soon as I have had the nod from the organisers and sponsors ... well ... I will share the completed project with you!

All of these sneaky peeks include some Ranger product or ... some Lord Tim of Holtz product ...  you know Tim ... the man that can speak to beings from an entirely different solar system while roller skating across the Grand Canyon with just an adage ticket and an elegant flourish!

Anyways ... let's get back to the title of this post ... I am sadly lacking in the whole Friday Feeling department today ... so much so ... I keep thinking it is Thursday ... Is it just me? Or does it feel like Thursday today to you as well?

Have a lovely holiday weekend ... whatever you are doing!

Laters!

Inside the Suitcase!

It has been quite a day here in soggy Cambridge! I have had a great time making stuff with my craft buddy Hels and ... drum roll please ...

My next set of classes have gone on preview at LB Crafts ... that will be my third set ... does n't seem like five minutes when I was panicking that no one would book the first ones ... and here I am two seasons later ... and ... erm ... still panicking :0) You can see all the classes here including some truly breathtakingly fabulous classes by the wonderful Lin Brown. Booking will commence at 10am on Saturday 4th September ... all very exciting and a little bit scary!!!

I apologise to those of you that are sick to the back teeth of looking at my suitcase ... but several of the more curious among you wanted to know what was inside ... well it is indeed a mini book ... all bound using the fabulous Bind-it-all ... it fits nice and snugly in the case and is just begging to be filled with tickets and keepsakes and tales and piccies of a journey ... not sure which journey ... but a journey all the same. The suitcase was completely inspired by Lord Tim of Holtz ... you know Tim ... the man that can walk on hot coals for gazillions of miles at a time while preparing a ten course meal for the Royal Family with just a single Idea-ology keyhole and one brad!

The request for me to do something with one of the suitcases did in fact come from one of my wonderful workshoppees ... the lovely Hilary ... so Thank you Hilary ... I had a fab time making it!

That is me for today ... I am off to make ... erm ... more stuff ... will see you tomorrow no doubt ... Have a lovely evening all!

Ding Dong!

Oh Yeah! A bit of early planning from me today ... well ... I say early ... this book has been in the planning stage for about three years :0) So although it is early for Christmas 2010 .... technically it is very late for Christmas 2008 or maybe 2007!

I am finally being brave and using up all my scraps of the Cosmo Cricket 'Be Good' papers! I LOVE those papers ... a lot ... and each year I look for something I am going to like more and each year ... I still LOVE the 'Be Good' range the most! Why ... Oh Why don't they make them any more??? I know I am not the only one that loves them ...

It's like when you fall in love with a certain lipstick or blusher ... it becomes your all time favourite but when you go in and try and buy some ... they have stopped making it! You get that ... 'Well nobody wanted it anymore' response from the counter assistant ... and there is a little voice screaming inside you saying ... WELL ACTUALLY I BLOOMIN' WELL DID!

Anyways enough of my moaning ... I had great fun making this ... I used the 6X6" craft covers from Zutter ... my trusty Bind-It-All ... the aforementioned papers ... Darkroom Door Christmas Stamps ... Ranger Distress Inks as water colours ... some ribbon and a few jingley bells ... so it even sounds like Christmas :0) Ooops I nearly forgot the PaperArtsy Poinsettias and the triple embossing but not the Lord Tim of Holtz Grungepaper ... you know Tim ... the man that can wing walk without a harness or a plane while making chocolate eclairs with just an ornate frame and one brad!

Right-Ho then ... I am away to make stuff ... not sure what yet ... but I am sure I will think of summink! What you up to???

C'mon spill ...

It's Bean a While!

Can you see what I did there??? Huh??? Can you??? Clever use of the word Bean ... seeings as this is an altered Bean can!!! Yup ... I thought so!

This little guy is going to sit on my desk next to my WOYWW anniversary calendar! Just in case you were wondering ... I do know it is n't the 25th of July today ... that was the day I made it :0)

The whole can is covered with Lord Tim of Holtz's Grungepaper ... you know Tim ... the man that can turn Nylon into silk on a whim while creating diamonds out of gravel with just the teensiest amount of Black Enamel Accents and the lid from a pot of Aged Mahogany Distressed Stickles.

The Grungepaper is painted with Claudine Hellmuth's deliciously black 'Charcoal Black' acrylic paint and bound using the Bind-it-all and some waxed cotton and beads! The flowers and butterflies are stamps by THE Wendy Vecchi and coloured with Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint Distress inks. The flowers were attached using the Zutter popper wotsits which means that instead of twiddling my thumbs ... I can twiddle me flowers instead.

The back label jobby wotsit is Tim's Sizzix label die ... with the ends chopped off ... very carefully of course ... I did n't harm them in the making of this piece!!! And finally the centre bit of one of Tim's key holes... also humanely doctored!

I still have n't managed to get around all the WOYWW desks this week ... but I am going to have another go today ... there is just sooooooo many ... I am also going to dabble in a spot of card making ...

Laters!

Oh My Goth! Another Screen!

It had been a while since I used my Stampotique stamps so when I was designing my Zutter DT samples last month I decided to dust them off and get them out! In fact there was quite a bit of dusting going on because my Pro Markers got to see the light of day again too ... never before has such an expensive set of pens seen so little use! Oh and my Darkroom Door Rockstar stamp collection had it's first outing ... Note to self ... try and only buy what you are actually going to use regularly!

There were several items that required no introductions ... because I use them all the time ... my trusty Bind-it-all being one ... and if you squint and press your nose right up to the monitor you may just see my little Lord Tim of Holtz Skull and Cross bones all shrunk ... I say Skull and Cross  Bones ... I actually cut off the bones part and just  went with the skull! Well nine of them actually but they have proven a little tricky to photograph! You know Tim ... the man that can converse with the animals while holding welcome talks with beings from another planet with just a jump ring and a teeny tiny piece of rubber ... without an image :0)

I must away ... I did n't get around to any desks yesterday and plan to rectify the situation by visiting them all today ... oh and then stop by and say Hi to all my regular haunts ... it is all go in Blogland :0)

Have a good one whatever you are doing ...

Laters!

Every Day is a Delight!

I had another good day in Olney yesterday ... it was the second of my Finding Delight Tag book workshops.

Another great group of ladies ... some familiar faces and a few new ones too ... and so much diversity and talent ... I loved every second ... as usual.

I also got a few minutes to play ... even better huh??? So here are my demo tags ...

Basically the book is made up of two pieces of A6 chipboard filled with postcard tags that are decorated with Distress inks ... Glimmer mists ... stamps ... Grunge paper ... Maya Road frames ... and anything else you can lay your hands on really then bound with the Bind-it-all!

The sun is shining here and I am busy trying to straighten out my Craft room before starting on my "to do" list ... a "to do" list that is getting way out of control! Anybody else got a "to do" list that is the length of the M25??? I am just deciding whether to start at the top ... or just get a pin and work my way through it ... randomly :0)

Have a great Sunday afternoon everyone!

Laters!

Special Delivery!

While I was at Ranger U the Zutter Zisters held a Bouncing Baby Blog Hop in celebration of the newest arrival to the Zisterhood ... DT Zister Sophie Sim gave birth to Sage on 31st May ... to celebrate we all made a Baby project for the Zutter gallery in July and then posted them to Sophie and her family.

After spending time in Lin Brown's workshop ... I was inspired by her work with the Zutter 13X13" Corrugated card and decided to make a word book with mine ... I do hope they like it!

The card and roses were painted with Kaiser colour paint ... in Pretty Pink and Soft Beige and then I embossed with Gold Detail embossing powder using the delicious Paper Artsy flourish ... that I just have to add to everything at the moment!

We have grey clouds hovering over us at the moment ... I am very excited ... the temperature is dropping slowly and I am hoping this is the start of a long winter :0) You know me ... I like to think Big ... not just a few days of rain for me ... oh no! ... an entire winter :0)

I have added some gems to the pins which means that this also qualifies for this week's Sunday Stamper Challenge which is Rhinestone Cowboy!

I hope you have all had a relaxing weekend and Happy 4th of July to all our friends from across the pond!

Laters!

Packing Your Bags!

Please someone ... make it rain ... or snow ... or just turn frosty overnight! This weather is no longer funny ... I need me some wintry weather! A controversial thing to say ... I know ... but ... Is anyone actually enjoying this spell of Summer that we are having???

I know what you are thinking ... I bet she'd moan if she was cold ... but I would n't ... truly I would n't ... never again ... ever ever!

OK ... so that is today's whining over and done with ... just thought I would pop in and show you what I made for the Kreative Kaboodles blog today ... actually it was yesterday ... now ... here ... but erm ... today ... erm ... there :0) ... a quick and easy keepsake in another one of those very cute Zutter suitcases ... and if you missed the last one ... well it looked like this!

I am off in search of a cool breeze ... I may be some time!

WOYWW!

Morning all! Yup ... This is a very early post ... I shall be up bright and early this morning as I will be setting off for a Christmas Screen Workshop at L.B Crafts in Olney. Don't worry ... I have Crackers and Christmas music ... if my ladies don't feel Christmassy by the time they arrive ... they sure will by the time they leave :0)

It is Wednesday ... so here is my Workdesk for all you WOYWWers ... if you have n't a clue what I am talking about ... well you need to pop over and see Julia ... she explains everything so well! Talking of our Julia ... I see she got a mention in Craft Stamper for the fabulousness that is WOYWW ... way to go Julia!

And if you are a WOYWWer ... and you happen across this post ... pretty please will you link me up???

Nothing ongoing on my desk as I am working on secret squirrel stuff ... but you can still see the last card I made ... I popped it in the easel that Julia and Mr Julia made for me ... I am going to keep a card in it at all times ... that way ... I will always have a card when I realise at the last minute it's someone's birthday :0)

I have swung today too ... just to show you that I have replaced my tatty old shelf unit with a cutting station. Sounds posh huh? It is basically a pasting table ... a luxury one mind! ... which I have loaded up with lots of cutting equipment ... plus ... I could fit lots more drawer units under it ... so it made total sense ... to me anyways! :0)

Finally ... I have made a holder to store my new and very yummy Claudine Hellmuth brushes! A very simple construction ... similar to the one I made for the Masterclass in June's Craft Stamper using my Bind-it-all ... but this time ... more red and more butterflies!

I will catch up with you all this evening!

Bye for now!

Starting From Scratch!

I could never be described as a Scrapper! The size of your run of the mill Lay out terrifies me ... all that white space ... I mean ... Where do you start?

Well today I did! Start I mean! I took a Black Zutter Cover all ... an 8 X 8 bamboo jobby and I embossed ... dabbered and embellished! I then finished it off by adding Zutter page protectors and bound the innards with my Bind-It-All!

For those of you that are not sick of me going on about Ranger U yet ... well this was another one of the 73 techniques. Basically you stamp your image onto black cardstock ... I used the black coverall as the base and then you emboss with clear embossing powder. Next you paint over the entire surface with assorted dabbers and blend with Cut n' Dry foam. Next you mist a cloth with water and wipe over the embossed bits to reveal a  shabby chic look! Cool huh? Lord Tim of Holtz taught me that ... you know Tim ... the man that can remain cool all day even in sweltering temperatures while putting out fires with his bare hands with just an Idea-ology Ornate frame and an Adage Ticket.

Note I did n't mention the football ... that is just too raw ... even for me!

So there you have it ... my very own scrapbook ... all ready loaded with my Ranger U countdown tags ... oh yeah and my security pass ... you know the one ... it says VIP and access all areas :0) So now you have seen two of the 73 Ranger U techniques ... you will tell me when you have had enough ... Right????

I have the crafting bug really bad at the moment ... so I am off to make a little something else ... who knows ... it may even be a Lay out!

Laters!

El Scorchio!

They reckon it was the hottest day of the year so far ... and I reckon they may be right!

I spent most of the day sat out on Hels' new and rather lovely decking rather than making the projects she had organised for us ... but it was too nice to go inside!

I made this little book a while back with summer colours in mind ... so today seems like a perfect day to blog it! I was thinking Mediterranean sun rather than the UK ... but the sky was so blue today and yesterday ... we could have been somewhere in the Med! Anyways ... the book was such fun to make ... it became a class!

To make the book I cut a sheet of grey board in half and coloured it with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink. I then decorated it with Maya Road chip, Idea-ology corners and lots of yummy Grunge paper from Lord Tim of Holtz. You know Tim ... the man that can catch a Fly with a pair of chopsticks in his sleep while creating a scale model of the leaning tower of Pisa with just a demo sized bottle of Sepia accents and a "Hope" Adage ticket!

The flowers, frame and journalling ticket are coloured with Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade and Antique Linen ... The pages inside are also coloured with a selection of the same inks and some Glimmer mist!

Of course it is bound with my fabulous Bind-it-all and I have used the 3/4" antique brass wires that are my new favourites!

OK ... I am going to stop typing now because I am beginning to melt ... Have a fab weekend everyone!

My Day Nearly Started with a BANG!

Don't panic ... it was nothing to do with my shiny new and very pink Distrezz-it-all from Zutter ... but more about that later ... first things first ... and I am not entirely sure you are going to believe me ... I feel a bit like the boy who cried wolf after yesterday's ... erm ... dalliance with a whirlwind! ... but this tale is in fact very very very true!

Alarm went off at 7am as usual ... John got up first ... which is unusual on a Thursday but also very lucky as I have no sense of smell whatsoever!!! Anyways John get's up ... goes downstairs ... goes to put the light on and luckily realises ... just in the nick of time ... that he can smell gas!!! So he walks in the kitchen ... without putting the light on ... obviously ... or I would n't be here to tell the tale ... nor would some of the street ... not that they are here ... but you know what I mean ... and he can hear a hissing sound. One of the rings on the hob was on full pelt and had been since 1am this morning when my rather drunk foreign language student fell in the house slaughtered drunk ... attempted to get himself a drink and must have fallen against the cooker and switched it on trying to get up! So once John realised what had happened ... he charged around the house ... verbalising the ways he was going to kill the poor language student ... with rather rude words thrown in at regular intervals ... opened all the doors and windows to clear the air. I managed to calm him down by lunch time and luckily I also managed to keep the aforesaid language student out of his path for a good few hours too ... so we are all safe ... and all is well that ends well!

Now for my new toy. This little book has 18 pages in it ... how long do you think it took me to distrezz 'em all???? ... oh about two minutes ... I LOVE the Distrezz-it-all ... LOTS!

The cover is a cover-all ... also from Zutter. I used Lord Tim of Holtz's Lost and Found paper to decorate as well as his corners and his typewriter key. You know Tim ... the man that can perform three life saving operations all at the same time while handcrafting a scale model of the City of Paris in the top of a cocktail stick using just his Non stick scissors and a curio knob.

Wanna know what's in the book??? Huh??? Do ya??? Well it is a colour guide to all 36 Distress Ink colours and every single page has a distressed edge ... all done at the same time! The Distressed edge that is ... not the colouring.

Have a lovely evening people ... only 22 more sleeps ... Ta ra!

Happy 10th Birthday Craft Stamper

I don't know if you know ... but Craft Stamper celebrates ten years in print with the June 2010 issue ... which goes on sale in the shops tomorrow.

The Design Team were all asked if they would like to design a card for the celebrations ... so I thought I would share mine with you now and if you click here ... you will be magically transported to a gallery where all the other cards are on display ... no need to get up or nothing :0)

The June 2010 issue is a bumper celebratory issue with eight extra pages of projects to enjoy and a  special birthday competition with £1200 worth of prizes up for grabs. There is a fab retrospective feature looking back on ten years of the magazine and the web site has been given a new look with a new interactive gallery so you can upload your work ... How cool??? So what are you waiting for ... Go see!

Now if you squint at the cover ... second box down on the left ... I made that ... I did :0) It is part of my very first Masterclass article ... a whole four pages showing lots of tips and tricks and stuff to help you use your Bind-It-All! Am I excited??? You bet I am :0)

That's me for today ... I have the whole Pingate saga to tell you about ... but it is getting late and that will just have to wait until tomorrow ... See yas!

The Post With No Name!

Okay ... so that promise did n't last long ... you know the one ... I made on Monday ... that I will blog every day at the same time!

I am keeping up with my promise to give some more close ups of my upcycled beer mats though ... for those of you that missed them the first time around ... click on picture for a closer view ... and for those of you that did n't ... well I have included a little wish book and case ... this is my second version of the same thing ... I say the same thing ... I was never really happy with the finish on the first one and I used book rings ... which I was never really happy with either.

The hardware on the cover of the book is lifted from Lord Tim of Holtz ... you know Tim ... the man that is going to make sure that there is no sign of any volcanic ash clouds when I set off for Ranger U in June ... Can you imagine??? ... NO! ... Let's not even go there! Did I mention I was going to Ranger U ... you know Distress ink heaven in ... erm ... 43 more sleeps :0)

Talking of sleep ... I did n't get much last night ... I had a really fun evening of craft in Olney with the Wonderful Lin and the Lovely Karen ... we had medium fish and chips ... when I say medium ... you probably think that was irrelevant and unnecessary ... but the medium fish was 20 metres long and there was enough chips to feed the whole of Olney in one portion ... I cannot imagine what the large Fish and chips would have looked like. Anyways the lack of sleep came about because I was driving along and then someone had closed the road. I mean just closed it ... now when you have a complete lack of any sense of direction like me and Valerie your Sat Nav just does n't recognise road closures ... well let us just say that I got in about 12.45am and I came home via John O Groats!!!

Righty ho ... back to the case. This is one of my May submissions for the Zutter design team ... I used the Bind it all ... some ATCs and a few bits of chip to make the book along with some Idea-ology ... but just look at the cute little case ... that is a Zutter product too ... I just adore it.

Finally back to the job in hand ... it's Wednesday ... and that means it is once again time for WOYWW ... not much to see I am afraid ... just the same old same old ... I must see if I can get a picture mid creative flow next week ... you know jazz the whole thing up a bit. If you need explanation of the acronym WOYWW ... just click here and you will be magically transported to our leader ... who will divulge all!

I am off for a day of crafting and desk hopping ... bit like any other day really ... Have a good one people!

Lots To Do!

Right now ... that is the story of my life ... Lots to Do!

Mostly nice things though ... but still lots of them! It is also the name of a challenge blog ... the Lots To Do Challenge Blog :0) ... and this week the theme is Vintage. So I have made a screen with a vintage theme ... I have used the new and very yummy Graphic 45 papers for the background. Aged the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink and then decorated them to within an inch of their lives with Crafty Individuals miniatures ... Adage tickets ... memo pins ... Dew drops ... ribbon and Grunge Paper!

I also used my trusty Bind-it-all and this is in fact one of my April DT submissions ... because I rather like it!

I bet you are impressed ... I have mentioned Grunge Paper and Memo pins and Adage tickets all without mentioning ... erm ... you know who ...

Well that is because ... I used Lord Tim of Holtz's Mini Classic and Shabby French stamps ... you know Tim ... the man that can understand what a woman wants even before she knows herself with just a doodad and a solitary ball from a piece of ball chain!

I also used Dark Room Door Full Bloom Vol. 2 ... Don't you just love those tiny Frangipani flowers ... yes that it is definitely what they are called ... I found out last time I used them :0) I say ... I found out ... I think you lot may have done ... so Thanks for that!

Right it is late and I still have stuff To Do! If you came here looking for the Zutter Zisters Spring Blog Hop ... then you just need to click here and you will be magically transported to the correct time and place to leave a comment.

I say correct time and place ... the place is correct but if it is after Monday 29th March 2010 and 7pm EST ... then you are too late ... sorry!

Have a good Sunday everyone!

Come Hop with the Zisters!

Spring is in the air! And the Zutter design team are on the hop! Read on ... there is a prize and everything!

You are cordially invited to join along in the Zutter Zisters Blog Hop... it begins *drum roll* today ... Friday, March 26th at 7:00 pm EST ... and carries on until 7:00 pm, March 29th. 

Now for the small print... visit all the Zister's blogs... make sure you leave a comment on each blog 'cause one lucky lucky person will win one set of Hang it Alls and a Rivet Setter ... and each Zister is gonna give one set away ... How cool is that!! You can find all the other Zisters and their beautiful work here:-

Kamilla; Fleur; Sophie; Pam; Lynne; Sarah; Shelley and Nan

And if you lose your way ... just head for the Bind-it-all blog as all the details will be there too. Now all this talk of hopping made me think of rabbits ... so I made a CD book based on my favourite quotes from Alice in Wonderland!

The idea was that the CDs would look like table cloths ... you know as in picnic ... and the quotes would look like they were on pools of water ... and the characters would be nice and bright looking so they looked like they had stepped out of the pages of the book ... I did n't quite achieve this ... but it was a nice idea all the same :0)

The characters are all Oxford Impressions classic Alice and of course there are a few Wendy Vecchi stamps in there ... oh and Tim's flourish ... you know Tim the man that could reduce the UK's national debt while completing the Times crossword puzzle with just a blob of Worn Lipstick Distress stickles and a blending tool and still be home in time for dinner.

I used 1 1/4" antique brass O wires to bind the book and the characters are all stamped onto glossy card stock and coloured with Marvy Le Plumes ... I know ... had 'em ages and not used 'em ... saw a Rachel Greig demo and now I want more!!!

Ok ... if you have got this far ... well done ... I do go on a bit :0) But then you knew that ... right?

Remember the hop officially begins at 7.00pm EST on Friday 26th March 2010 ... so you can leave a comment here now ... but the US of A Zister's posts won't be up until a bit later! So go on ... leave a comment ... anything you like ... The prizes will all be awarded at 7.00pm EST on Monday 29th March 2010.

You don't need a blog to take part ... just leave some way that we can contact you!

Have a good weekend and Good Luck X

EDIT: I have had lots of requests asking about cutting the edge off the CD. I aim to please so without further ado ...

Score the CD using a craft knife and a ruler approximately 4 or 5 times. Heat the score line with your heat gun ... it does n't want to be hot hot ... just warmish to the touch. Then cut along the scoreline with your Timmy Tonic Studio scissors ... Simples :0)

********CANDY NOW

CLOSED*******