Wahooooo.... Prizes and Swaps!!!

With all that has been happening around here just lately....
I have been a

 LAZY blogger !!

I hope you all had a great Christmas Holiday time with friends and families...

 .....me getting a Merry 'Kissmass' from my Barney!!

 "What? No Turkey left!!"

Hope you all had been good girls (and boys!)

...and Santa brought you lots of arty, crafty goodies ;)

(I got a few nice bits to play with :) !!)

-oOo-

Well, not much craftiness going on in the Smifferoo Household over the Holiday Season, I did make a start on a Shabby Festive Configuration box, but didn't get very far with it!!

It's still sitting on my craft desk as I type!...and will most probably remain with my other un-finished (work in progresses!!) until next Christmas now!! LOL

-oOo-
I'm feeling a little sluggish in the crafting department, so am on the look out for some new creative challenges and Swaps for Inspiration in 2012.
Any good ones you know about?...Please tell ;)

.....
GOOD NEWS
It felt like Christmas morn all over gain today!

 I  received  some amazing artwork pressies in the mail to share with you all now....
All the way from the other side of the world in Australia....
A couple of weeks ago
I WON
some Gorgeous Gifties
from two lovely ladies...
Jen (Jenxo) and Jenny (A Simpler Life)
over at
Pink Possum

WOW!!

I entered into their
tricky guessing game
(..and boy, it was a TRICKY one!!)
...you had to guess what Jen was making from this here pic
..and I was so ever pleased and excited to win, has they are both amazing inspirational artists!!
-oOo-
Some close ups of the gorgeous gifts...

Paper Luminarie
This pic doesn't show the true beauty of this piece!
I admired these Luminaries on Jen's Blogs, Here ...(where you can see some of them beautifully lit up).
-oOo-
.a gorgeous  Shabby (Just my style!!)
'Scrappy doily Brooch'
'Swoon'!! (also created by Clever Jen).

and the fab card in the background is also handmade by Jen!!

-oOo-

and last but definately not least....

a fabulous tin altered (in her fantastic style)

by Jenny.....

WOW!!
So having these little beauties in my hot little hands today, I was not surprised to hear that you both had a fab selling day at market girlies!
-oOo-
..and meet
Prudence

she was also created by the talented Jenny of a Simpler Life.

I Love how Jenny paints her girlies eyes and sweet little blushing cheeks!....

-oOo-

I've been seeing a lot of wooden block artwork (Chunky atc's) in Blogland.

..and I marvelled at this little wonder on Jenny's Blog,

.... and feel ever so lucky and pleased when she agreed to do a swap with me for her first wooden block art piece!!

....and I'm so honoured to be the new owner of her first ever one :)

She looks great in my craft-room, fits in beautifully with my shabby style and colour scheme!
Thanks Jenny!

(If you adore this lovely style of artwork as much as I do, Jenny has a etsy shop here...where she has a few of 'Prudences' friends up for sale! Go over and take a peek...you won't be dissapointed :)
-oOo-
...Well, I've finally got my hand on some wooden blocks now...
just got to make some time to create my first chunky atc for Jenny...
So watch this space ;)
-oOo-
Thanks you both again Jen and Jenny...
for the awesome gifts
and a stunning swap!!
I adore everything!!
It's such a pleasure to have both your artwork in my home.

-oOo-

Now that just leaves me to wish all my Blogging friends
A Happy and Healthy
New Year!!
Heres to a creative 2012!!

Thanks for peeking
and for all your lovely comments!
Jan x

...a 'Shabby' Christmas

....for challenge #30 this month at

 Let’s get Shabby

It’s a

A List Challenge

 At least 4 of the items on the provided list  must be noticable on your Christmas project.(OR any other big annual Family/Religious Celebration project)

(to see the full list and challenge criteria hop over to Let's Get Shabby )

Here is my DT example....

I decided to alter a 7gypsies tray

from this...

to this...

I've been saving lots of little unique and rare trinkets for ages now, most of which I have received from lovely arty crafty friends in swaps/gifts etc...

Now these little treasures have been waiting patiently for the 'right' craft project...I don't know about you, but I sometimes find it hard to part with some craft supplies!!
...but what better to put some of them together in an altered tray so that I can put them on display.
I've also added lots of...
shabby lace, vintage buttons, old music paper,vintage  images and cheesecloth to my project.
The items from The list that I have used are...

some angels...

a wreath....

 bells...

 a dove...

snowflakes..

 and a clock...

I had so much fun altering this
-oOo-
.....So  go checkout let’s Get Shabby for

Challenge #30

....and some fabby shabby inspiration!

for the full details/criteria on this challenge

Click here

There is also a fab prize from this months sponsor
 Carol at Tattered Inspirations (etsy)

Can't wait to see what you do with this challenge Thanks for stopping by! 

Jan x

Simply the best......

...and no, I'm not doing Tina Turner renditions here! LOL

...but it was definately better than all the rest!!!

On Friday I spent an AWESOME day in Milton Keynes

at the Artsycrafts workshop with

Lin (LB Crafts), Leandra (Paperartsy)

 and the Craft King himself...Tim Holtz

(still pinching myself here! LOL)

-oOo-

My first class of the day was with Tim.

Where our project was a configurations box.

We altered the box, and after a break, we came back to find a calico goodie bag crammed with so many neat treasures to fill our boxes.

(view finder slides, bottles, measure tape, ideaology charms, buttons, a  frozen charlotte doll (which just happened to be my fave thing), vintage car, cotton reels, bottle cap, bingo numbers, tickets, a metal birdcage, flowers, tokens, pen nibs, label, string ...)

  So then we all had fun filling our configuration boxes with such cool trinkets!

-oOo-

I didn't manage to complete my box in class, too busy dithering where to put it all!

But I have extended the fun this weekend and finished my box...

(adding some goodies from my own stash also :) )

Here is the end result...



Bottle, charms, frozen charlotte doll
The  little letters that look like 'printers blocks' we actually made in the class from grungeboard letters and grunge tiles.





cool little bottle cap and loving the bird cage!





Adored the vintage rule, which just happened to have my age on it! -Wow, did I really admit to that! LOL)
the little cherub is from my blog-buddy Margaret



Fabby view finder slides, cool vintage car and cotton reels!

  Tim is an amazing teacher, friendly, great sense of humour and so approachable.

.... It was a fantastic experience one that I will treasure.

-oOo-

After Lunch we went on to our second class with Lin and Leandra

 using some new PaperArtsy products, papers, chalk paint and metal card. 

and here is my offering from their wonderful class...

This is the first time that I've been on a work shop like this one.

So was very excited and slightly nervous,( not knowing anyone etc...)

..but needn't of worried,

... because I met some lovely crafty peeps in the bar hotel the night before

and of course in both of the classes

*Waves* to you all, and I will be round checking out your blogs/web-sites v. soon! ;)

It was a totally amazing crafting experience.

A Huge Thank you, to Lin and Leandra for organising this awesome event....to all the peeps behind the scenes for their hard work (esp. prepping all the kits!!) .. and of course to Tim, Mario and Ranger,  you all  made the day soooo special.

...and now can't wait to do it all again!

Thanks for Looking!

Jan x