September giveaway reminder.........

Now the sun has decided to shine for a few days thought I would just remind you that my summery September giveaway closes tomorrow. Picture on the side bar, go HERE to join in.

Have just had my breakfast on the patio.
It is a truly beautiful morning, the kind of day that makes you glad just to be alive. 

Hope the sun is shining on you wherever you are.

Cindy x

WOYWW - mess or creative chaos?

Well I'm writing this at midnight Tuesday just before I go to bed - have no energy left to clear up but I have had a very productive day and honestly, it looks worse than it is. I will post just before I go to work and then catch up in the evening as part of my resolution to get more involved in well - EVERYTHING!! No challenges for me so far this week but I finished off a journal page today (see below) and managed to almost finish a canvas for myself that I have been working on for months. (However I will probably be fiddling with the exact position of the leaves and flowers for another day at least).


I have been getting very inky this week - the money I paid for that manicure yesterday was not really money well spent!! I also succombed (sp?) at the weekend and bought two distress stains as everyone keeps going on about them.  I coloured a couple of tags and yeah I can see how I might get hooked on these. There also might be some halloween craft going on if you look real close!!

On my other desk I had my melt pot out because I wanted to experiment with using shrink plastic in it - well, one little leaf worked perfectly, but then the heat seemed to go :o( so the trusty old heat gun had to come out for the rest. I will try again tomorrow but I think the thermostat might have gone. Here's a close up of my little leaves (they are tiny lol) and a bit dark because I only had some black shrink plastic. I coloured them with embossing powders (there's quite a lot of that on the floor because when I reached up to get a punch from the shelf it fell down and of course, all the lids were off the pots of embossing powder).  

I don't know what I'm going to use them for but I have a sweet little birdhouse to alter that they would fit perfectly. So, What's on Your Workdesk this Wednesday? If you don't already know what I'm talking about you need to hop on over to Julia's blog and join in - it's just a load of crafters showing off the mess the creative chaos in their work rooms and having a bit of fun at the same time, no pressure to go everywhere but why not visit someone new, you'll never know what you may find!!

Journal Page - L is for 'LYRICS'

Soooo pleased with myself for being self disciplined and finishing this page for my altered book at last. Some time ago, (don't go there) I signed up for the Alphabet Discovery Workshop started by the fabulous Trish B. The idea was to do your ABC pages in a random order which the group was following. It's a kind of get on with it yourself group, no one is chasing you and perhaps because of that I have been, ahem, more than a little remiss in getting my pages done. As far as I know there is one other person still trying to finish but we could all be taking long breaks between for all I know!!

To make life more difficult I decided I was going to do my pages in an altered book. This does bring certain challenges - especially as I have cut it and stuck it and made interesting cavities etc etc...... bit of a b***** when you are trying to stamp so I tend to stamp onto tissue and then collage it on. Works pretty well as the tissue goes translucent and if it does tear or crumple up you've got a nice bit of texture.

I am not really a poetry type of gal (I think studying those war poets at school put me off for life) but I do like a good song lyric which is a type of poetry I guess. So, the theme for my 'L'  page is just that although I've just noticed it doesn't say 'Lyrics' anywhere on the page. Hee hee who cares -  I know what's going on even if no one else does!! The inspiration for the main page is a from a song by Elbow who are my mostest mostest favouritest band at the moment and I listen to their CDs over and over when I'm in my craft room.

Before I knew what letter

I was doing with this page I had made a lot of 'pockets' for tags to one side. I have made six tags coloured up with inks, micas and stains and decorated with a bit of stamping. Lyrics from some other songs I like are on the back and although there is room for a bit more decoration I think I will leave it there for now - there are another 18 pages to go after all!! Because the altered book is a WIP I decided not to add fibres to the tags yet as goodness knows what kind of state I would get in but I will add some later - I hope it will look quite funky spilling out of the book.

 

Right, mission for the rest of the day - finish my canvas and then have a play with shrink plastic. Jennie at Artistic Stamper showed me a way to use it in the melt pot and I'm itching to try, will let you know how I get on!! And there is still a teensy bit of time to join in with her blogiversary give away (it ends today) and to get the new limited edition Autum Distress Inks - although why I am telling you that I don't know, as I'm still contemplating them myself....

More ATCs......

Had a nice week (well, apart from the toothache saga but hopefully that's all sorted now). Made these three ATCs for a swap where the Woman's face had to be the  main focus of the ATC.

But while I was at it I kind of got  into a bit of a splodgy, inky messy place.... initially I was just trying to use up some of the ATC sized card I have cut out from when I used to make an ATC a day (remember the 365 project? LOL, that seems ages ago). I was also trying to use up some of my STUFF, of which I have, ahem, rather a lot...... guilt setting in last week because I knoew I was going crafty shopping at Ally Pally. I only succeeded in using a few stickers so that wasn't entirely successful!!

I also got out my crackle paint which has nearly dried up in the bottle it has been so long since I used it (!) and I couldn't even get my golden gel medium open (needs an hour sitting in a bowl of hot water, usually works). Because I wanted to cover my collage, I remembered that I used to use watered down PVA glue as a sort of varnish. I think this is the technique you use for traditional decoupage (NOT the layered kind!!). You keep adding layers and layers of the pva mix and you can even sand in between and then re-cover. It eventually gives a very fine, hard varnish-like finish. So I got a bit carried away although I only did the sanding on one or two. Very therapeutic actually!!

I was really doing it to try and make the chandelier sticker in the background of the ATC blend in - it's vinyl and I just didn't like it. It looks better now but it's taken me all week - was it worth it?? Other things I have been doing this week include a canvas, which is nearly finished (I've been doing that for months never mind weeks), aaaaaaaand I have done another page in my ABC Journal - haven't touched that for over a year!!! Not even sure the group for that one is still alive. Still, doesn't really matter I suppose but at this rate I shall be retired before it's finished. And of course, I came back from ALly Pally with my mind buzzin' seeing all those talented peeps and the lovely works on display - and, er a few little things might have popped into my bag that I'm itching to play with. Just a few, honest!! (What's the definition of a few....?)

See ya soon, Cindy

Gothic Arch Book

Well here is a little project I made for my Art n Soul group on Flickr. I sat down to do it last week (at the last minute of course, we'd had about two months) thinking 'aaah, gothic arch, simples...'. Then I re-read the instructions and realised the theme was

Music!! Hadn't registered that at all so there followed a frantic hour of searching for music type papers and images. Couldn't think of anyway to tie it all together except with quotes so searched for some of those (sometimes google is great!) and then threw it all together.

Home again, on line again, crafting again

Though who knows how long any of it will last!! Just got back from a great break in Spain with the family - seriously, I did NOT want to come home! Here's why:-

Just heaven. Still, since I got back have managed to get my new pc up and running, so far so good, so expect to see me about a bit more. Feeling very disconnected with everything and very out of touch but I will get there. Have also finished a couple of crafty pieces. Here is another altered slide mailer I started for myself when making this month's giveaway.

This is using the replacement stamp set I chose from crafty individuals (see this post). I just love that bathing beauty!!

Inside I found a use for the huge pot of crushed seashells I have had forever and because that made it all a bit bulky I split the mailer in two and made a 'hinge/spine' from some paper I bought at paperchase about two years ago. I always feel better when I use up a bit of stash (especially when I know I'm going to go out shopping soon lol). Talking of using old stash the challenge at Try it On Tuesday this week is to use a stamp that you bought but have nerver, ahem, actually used. Not many of them in my stash!! (Everything is crossed as I say that). Anyhow I know that I bought this fairy silhouette stamp well over a year ago (Oh alright, it is a whole set of them, never been used) and I don't think I've ever used the sentiment either. At least it looks very clean!!

Finally a quick peek of the inside of this month's giveaway which I didn't upload because all my technology was being so unco-operative.

Join in here before 30th September.