Sunday Stampers 75 + 76

I'm posting 2 weeks entires for SS as I only finished the one for week 75 last Saturday but didn't manage to upload the piccie. The theme for 75 was 'Messages and Bottles'. I had a sheet of transparent bottles but couldn't find them at first and then when I did it took a while to decide what to do. The bird is from the Tim H Urban Tapestry set and the floral stamp is from Tim's 'Fairytale Frenzy' set. The theme for this week's is Halloween - what else? :) I used some background paper with the spider's web and added colour with distress ink, I used the grungy kind of background stamp from the Urban Tapestry set and Anna Griffin stamps for the 'Boo'. The cat is watching those birds with interest LOL

WOYWW

Check out Julia's blog for more on this! On mine are several things I'm working on - a fabric bird (the brown thing) the feathers are for his head; a front cover for a journal; and my entry for this week's Sunday Stampers which this week has a Halloween theme :)

WOYWW?

Well What is On Your Workdesk this Wednesday? This is mine - I was making some more Christmas cards yesterday and had put most of the stuff away but fancied doing a bit of stramping. I'd intended doing some sewing today but haven't had time. Check out Julia's blog for more. The red thing with the black skull and crossbones is my grandson's Grungeboard bracelet which he painted, I attached the skull. It's now just waiting for a fastener ;)

x

Sunday Stampers 74

'Circles' is the theme this week for Hels regular Sunday Stampers challenge. I love this challenge 'cos you can do anything you want so long as it contains some stamping ;) This effort is my 3rd attempt and I'm still not too sure about it. Perhaps I should have given up and done something else but I did like the silver embossing on the blue background paper. Looking at it here I feel the flower needs 'something' just don't know what - perhaps glossy accents, or maybe I should have embossed the whole thing, I think it needs to be shiny or glittery :) I love the stamp I've used with silver embossing powder, it's 'Flourishing Ivy' by Innovative Stamp Creations; which I bought from Scrapz at a very reasonable price :) x

WOYWW

It's that time of week again over at WOYWW My new workdesk is now in it's new home :) There are still things to sort out but I've sorted the bulk of my stuff out. I've been sorting some ribbons out putting them onto some ribbon tags - template kindly provided by Dan though the green thing you can see on my desk is also going to hold ribbons once I've finished it and punched some holes in. The pile of cardborad is to make music flashcards for my grandkids. They do know what the notes are but it's to help them recognise them more quickly instead of remembering whether 'all cows eat grass' relates to the left hand or right hand notes LOL It's such a good job I mentioned that actually 'cos I've only just realised that when I do the flashcards it will be a good idea to put on either a treble clef or bass clef with each note :-/ (for those who don't know the treble clef denotes right hand notes and bass clef the left hand) I could just say to them whether I want the note for the left or right hand; but it hadn't occurred to me before! hehehe The circular thing is a CD and is what I'm working on for Hels challenge this week x

Wordbook templates - GSD and JPEG

I've made 2 wordbook templates for use with my Robo :

These are just to show you the files - I won't actually be using these, I'd cut a few out before 'perfecting' (not that I'm really claiming they are PERFECT lol) the files and didn't want to waste more card. I've outlined them with black marker so it shows up better.
If you'd like a copy of either file please email me at anneevo46@googlemail.com as I don't know how to put them on my blog for downloading :-/

Anne :)

I Wish

Linda set the challenge for October's aussiedares. The theme was 'I Wish'. I bought 4 canvasses for £4.99 from 'The Works' a few weeks ago and was inspired to use one for this. This is the first time I've joined in but hopefully it won't be the last. The canvasses are just slightly bigger than A4. I painted the background with Sunset Gold and Halo Blue gold Lumiere metallic acrylic paint by Jacquard. I used a crackle medium in places. I stamped the bird; from Tim's Urban Tapestry set; I also used the flowers from this set on 2 of the corners of the canvas. I added a few micro beads and some gold net. The words I printed off and transferred using a gel medium. Unfortunately as the surface wasn't very absorbent they haven't really melded onto the canvas, I didn't want to rub too hard after wetting the letters as I thought they may come off altogether, but I liked the look I was left with and just added some glitter and 3D gloss.

WOYWW

This is what's on my workdesk this Wednesday

- see WOYWW, well what is on it is one coat of varnish, though as I'm writing it has had a 2nd coat :) As I said before because of the supporting legs on my wall-mounted shelving I couldn't push the my old computer desk back up to the radiator. The intention was to get some wood/MDF/Contiboard or such but I couldn't get a piece deep enough plus it would have entailed getting DD's partner to cut slots in to fit round those supporting legs and the I needed some new shelves for underneath. So to make life easier (for me and DD's OH, as they are in the throes of sorting out their living room) I bought a new worksurface which looks suspiciously like a table! But at least it will fit between those legs and while it's not as wide as the computer desk it is deeper. I've also bought; and put together; a metal file cabinet from Ikea (which was very easy to assemble) to go next to the table and on which I can sit my TV and another set of drawers to go under the table. I've sorted out more of my craft stuff and brought down 2 sets of plastic drawers which now live in the understairs cupboard in the kitchen - I just need to find somewhere for the coats, scarves and 3 pairs of boots that have been ousted. As the walk-in wardrobe in my bedroom now houses my fabric stash and the wardrobe in the spare room, which I use, is full, I need to put up a small hanging rail in the walk-in wardrobe!

WOYWW

I found out about WOYWW or What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday at Linda's where there's a link to here. I've decided to put two piccies on today as strictly speaking thold computer desk is my workdesk but I'm waiting to get some contiboard to make a larger worksurface only 'cos the desk can't be pushed back to the wall (well radiatior) due to supporting legs on the shelves - I didn't want to trust the weight of craft stuff just to the wall screws :-/ So I'm using my kitchen table for crafting, sewing, eating, sorting through paperwork etc. Much of the stuff on the workdesk was on the table but I moved it to make way to sort through some paperwork. Theoretically I'm still sorting my craft stuff out, but I've been doing that for about 18 months. I do promise myself though that when I get my new worksurface and some shelves for the desk I will sort it out and use it to work at!! So I've got 2 messy worksurfaces LOL

Ooh - GSD file to download - bodice

Hi, I've made a bodice template for use with the craft Robo ;) Unfortunately I don't know how to put the GSD file on my blog for download but if you'd like a free copy please email me anneevo46@googlemail.com and I'll send it with an email. If anybody would like a copy of the jpeg let me know too. This is it :)

Sunday Stampers - Books or Pages

We have a choice this week, as the title says 'Books' or 'Pages', inspired by the Beatles 'Paperback Writer'. I think Hels may be a bit of a fan of the 'Fab Four' LOL..... I KNOW she is! I've also made a tag coloured with Distress Inks. The picture and the torn page are from a little book I got for using in artwork - did I really say ARTWORK?! Not that I'm an artist but still :) I stamped part of the background with my Dogstooth stamp from http://www.theartisticstamper.com/ The pen is an image I downloaded and covered with 3D gloss and then stamped one of my new Tim stamps from the Urban Tapestry set. Thanks for looking :)

Sunday Stamper 70 - Tickets

The theme this week for SS is Tickets. I didn't have any stamps that were apt so used my ticket from the GNPE show at Harrogate at the weekend. I've used the back of the ticket and coloured it with Red Pepper and Lettuce Adirondak inks. I've used Anita's 3D Gloss on the car and steering wheel. I typed out some song lyrics containing the words 'car' or 'drive' and included the words 'She's got a ticket to ride' from the Beatles 'Ticket To ride', but it's mostly obscured now. I was part way through my project when I realised I hadn't included any stamping so used one of my newly acquired Tim H stamps from the 'Urban Tapestry' set. And used one of his masks for the steering wheel in the lefthand corner :)

A Few Recent Cards

These are a few of the cards I've made recently. They are all quite simple; I love the bubble stickers used on the boys cards - you get 2 sheets for £1 from either Poundland or The Works. I've left the greetings off 'cos if DD wants a card she usually likes the name on and the age.
The text on the floral card I typed on the computer but took the idea for the card from Tracey

Sunday Stampers 68 - Life

I've made 2 entries for this one. I started with a card but wasn't too sure about it so thought I'd make a tag. I'm posting both anyway ;-) For both I've used a dots stencil I made on the Craft Robo. I made this after seeing Heidi Swapp demoing hers here (towards the end of the video) but it was sold out wherever I looked. I then had the bright idea of making my own using the Robo. Since then I have downloaded Dan's file 'cos I knew his circles would be evenly spaced, unlike mine which I lined up 'by eye' LOL. Anyway less of the rambling! For the tag I lightly inked the background using Bokoen China distress ink then coloured the spots using Dust Concord. I used Tim's Ransom alpha mask for the word 'Life' and coloured over again using Broken China (it doesn't show up too well; a little better in 'real life'; 'cos I didn't want to do the blue too dark) The Raven and Flowers are courtesy of Dan - thank you Dan - I cut out the Raven and the tree on the Robo using black card which I then sprayed with a shimmer spray. I coloured the flower with a mixture of Broken China and Dusty Concord and stamped with my dots stamp from The Artistic Stamper. What's that thing dangling from the flower? Yes it is what it looks like LOL I thought the tag needed something else on that side but didn't want to cover the 'life' and found this when hunting through my embellies!

Some more pics of the wedding

I've uploaded some of my pics into Flickr to create a slideshow. I've only included a few 'cos most are of the grandkids. There are also a few from the following day showing DS' kids donkey riding ;-)

Few piccies from DS' wedding

My son and his fiancee got married in Llandudno a couple of weeks ago and we had a lovely day. They were already living together and had 2 little girls who were bridesmaids and looked gorgeous. The weather stayed fine. I dont have any pics myself of the actual ceremony 'cos we were a little late getting to Llandudno so were in a rush to get changed etc. I've copied these from Facebook so don't know what the quality will be like. Well so far they look ok ;-) There's on of the happy couple with their 2 little 'angels' (well they were on the day LOL, one of the bride with my 4 grandkids and a group one of not quite the whole family!

Oh well now I've published it and checked I see the photos are a bit small and you can't view a larger pic. I will upload more when I get copies myself. Though I can upload some from the reception.

x

Venice piccies now added

I've added pictures of Venice to my slideshow now. Unfortunately there was restoration taking place at the Bridge of Sighs so not a good piccy of that. There were some lovely dinky little bars and shops round St Marks Square - such as the 'Florian' which is included. I've had to do 2 separate slideshows, as when I view them in Flickr they're not all on 1 page and even though I tried to include both pages in Blogger setup by separating the pages with a comma IYKWIM, it didn't work. Any ideas anyone? Also is there a way to view the pics in the slideshow at a larger size does anyone know?
Hope you enjoy them ;)

Lake Garda Trip

In an earlier post I mentioned my trip to Lake Garda and said I would post piccies when I'd sorted them. I will post more another time but for now these were taken in Verona. the 'Graffiti' wall is in the passageway leading to Juliet's balcony. Personally I feel it's a shame to deface the walls like this. If people feel the need to leave their mark I wish they'd find a way to do it in an aesthetically pleasing way.
Have managed to set them up in a slideshow ;) but am wondering how I go about sorting out one slideshow for another in the future :-/ oh well I'll worry about that when the time comes lOl

2 ribbons 1 Button

I made a Christmas card for my effort for a little challenge set by the craft group I go to once a month. In case it's not clear there is a black ribbon over the red spotty one :) I love the glitter paper (I say paper but it is quite thick) I've used for the stocking, it really is very glittery - I got mine from QVC but they are from http://www.craftime.com/search-results.html?searchtext=glitter+sheets

Altered book cover for Sunday Stampers challenge

I have a book that's ostensibly for jotting down ideas. I say that 'cos I've only used it a few times - must be a while since I've had an idea LOL. I do get them occasionally! Anyways I decided to jazz the cover up a bit for my offering for the SS challenge over at Hels place There's some fab stuff on her blog so do pay a visit ;) As usual my attempt didn't go without hitch. I started on the front cover and as it had warped I left it under some weighty books. While it was there I decided I wasn't really happy with it so had another go, but I forgot the front cover was still under the books and ended up altering the back cover - heyho. It doesn't really matter though does it! Anyway here is front cover before altering and the back cover after :) My photos are often wonky because of the angle I hold the camera - this is 'cos I'm holding the camera so I don't get my or the camera's shadow on the piccy but if I put the item in a different place the colour isn't so true. That's my excuse anyway! Back to the cover - I cut the butterflies and 'Dream' on my Robo, and the flourish is a Grungeboard element. I've coloured them with Jacquard Lumiere paint. I've used Jennie's dotty background stamp and a text stamp on the background. I've also used a combination of Moon Glow and Crafty Notions shimmer sprays - there may even be a hint of my own concoction a la Tim Holtz ;) - over the background. :)