Artist Date

Hi Bloggers

How are things?  I sit at my computer on this rainy Sunday and wonder if the rain will ever stop.  I live in the region which is part of the drought area.  And I look outside: everything is lush and green and very, very wet.  My lawn has become a meadow and my lawnmower cowers in the garage terrified of the grass it knows it will have to cut, should the rain ever stop! 

But ... I am excited and hopeful ... my bluebells have come up stronger than ever and are on the verge of flowering (mine are always late bloomers!).   All they need is a bit of sunshine.  Surely the rain must stop soon and then the sun will come out and there will be a brilliant splash of blue in my garden.

Anyway, I ramble ...

The purpose of the post today was to talk about Artist Dates - I have updated the Tips and Techniques page with an Artist Date as my tip this week.  And I am also going to challenge myself to undertake one too - every week.  I will devote a separate page to my weekly Artist Dates with what I did, where I went etc and of course a photo. 

Keep an eye out bloggers for updates on the Artist Date page.  If you want to know more about Artist Dates and indeed developing your creative side, read Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting.

Flower Mini Book

Hi there! 

This is my first mini book! 

I love notebooks and would happily collect multitudes of them.  I have always been attracted to making mini-books using stamps and papers but have never actually got round to making one. 
Recently I have set myself the task of learning one new craft project a week to improve my crafting skills and broaden my crafting horizons.  The grunge / distressed look with all it's 'random-ness' has always appealed to me but remained outside my comfort zone. 

Well, it all came together very nicely for this mini-book (bloggers I hope you agree!?).  I sat down at 6.30pm and started and by 8.30pm I was more or less finished. 

The cover is made from 2 pieces of cream card that has been coloured with distress inks and embellished with pen ink, white acrylic paint and gold metallic ink.  The pages are made from DL envelopes sealed and cut in half and the inserts are pieces of cream card.  I made holes for the string to go through with my Crop-a-dile.

If anyone is interested in how to make one, please leave a comment and I will post a description of the process I took.  There are quite a few steps and some readers may lose the will after step 10!  Alternatively you can find the instructions that I followed in the June 2011 edition of Craft Stamper magazine (one of my favourite reads) on pages 8 - 11.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

Vintage Tea Party

Hi there!

This is just a quick note to let you know how much was raised at the Vintage Tea Party at the John Peel Centre in Stowmarket on 30th March:

An amazing £2490!

Well done to Emily Pike and all her helpers!

Until next time

Happy Crafting!

Boys to Men!

 
Hi bloggers

I have taken a short course to help me find inspiring designs for boys and men's cards.  Why are they such a trickly genre to make interesting and individual cards for.  I suppose it doesn't help that you can't embellish your card with bows and gems and lace and flowers and stuff! 

The course I am taking is online with My Creative Classroom http://www.mycreativeclassroom.com/.  They have all different courses and if you want help learning new techniques or just some inspiration it is definitely worth a 'google'. 

So I have been sent some sketches, which are line drawings of card layouts that show how to lay out your card to get a good balance.  I have kept my interpretation of the sketches quite simple. 

Another confession here ... as much as I want to try new techniques ... there's this little gremlin in my head that keeps putting off getting started (the same gremlin that is probably quite convinced I will make a total hash of it all!). 

But I have had a good few hours making some boy's cards using the sketches and lesson inspiration that they supply you with.  I even re-discovered some papers that haven't been used in years.  And I have learned a very important lesson too, which is: don't listen to that stupid gremlin in your head - just get stuck in!

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

Down the Rabbit Hole!

Hi Bloggers,

I definitely went down the rabbit hole with these cards and they were such fun.  I have a CD rom from My Craft Studio with oodles of Alice in Wonderland images on and I just had to let loose and make these. 

I have to confess these are not a recent make, I made them about three weeks ago in preparation of the Vintage Tea Party on Friday 30th March - I thought the theme was quite apt as they do have a vintage look about them.

Just to update you all ... the Vintage Tea Party when pretty well.  I didn't have many sales but I did have lots of interest.  So it's a start and I feel encouraged that people wanted to have a look instead of a quick glance and just walking away. 

I do have to work on my 'sales patter' though.  Nothing heavy, but I must try to engage people in conversation - my shyness is not helping me in this area.  I also met a friend there who also had a stall and we set up next to each other so I had someone to chat with.  The venue was packed - it was definitely a popular event.  At the time of writing I don't know how much was raised for Cancer Research but I will try to find out and let you know.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting x