Time Flies

Well, after an extremely busy week, I'm here to report back on our mini Retreat near Bedford. I went with my fellow bloggers from http://craftstampingquartet.blogspot.com/ Elaine, Jo and Lesley. We hired two adjoining apartments on a farm near Bedford, and spent a few days together just chatting and crafting. The accomodation was excellent, as we had two large tables, which meant that we coukd split up and work on our circle journals, or leave one table cluttered with craft stuff, and eat on the other one! We also booked a day class at LB Crafts with Linda Elbourne, and had a fabulous time with her, and then browsed around the shop afterwards. We may have made one or two purchases as well! I have almost finished my project from the class, and will post a picture of that when I have, as it is gorgeous.

While we were on the Retreat, we taught each other a few bits and pieces, and tried to work on some projects as well as our journals. Some projects were finished, and some things have been saved for next time, too much chatting I think! I showed the girls how to attach beading to Stampboard with jump rings and headpins. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of their projects, but here is one of mine. I have used Tattered Rose, Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord DIs on the stampboard, and then used a Lavinia stamp with Imperial Purple Versafine Ink. I have then atached an assortment of toning beads, finishing off with a pretty toggle clasp at the back.

I managed to get two lots of circle journal pages finished, first Elaines, based on a Secret Garden theme, as she is a nature lover at heart. I used a gorgeous green paper from a K & Co pad as my base. I made a handmade flower with book pages, and stamped a door with a Crafty Individuals stamp, placing another CI image behind of ferns and flowers. I used  larger versions of the ferns and flowers to stamp around the edges of the pages from an Elusive Images set of stamps. I used the words Secret Garden from the new Paper Artsy Hot Picks Stamp set. I used various Tim Holtz ideology pieces to finish off my pages.Apologies about the background of my photo, we worked in a right mess while we were there!

For Jo's pages, I went for a Venetian theme; we both share a love of Venice, and Italy in general. I used some Darkroom Door stamps as the basis of my design, and wanted to include mosaics in my design. I painted some Terra onto the top half of one of my pages, and brushed wild honey over the top, to give a plaster effect to the page. Lesley very kindly donated the perfect colour mosaics for me. Again, I made some handmade flowers with Italian newspaper this time! I used one of Jo's own masks to make the background for the second page by inking through with Wild Honey DI. I made these pages with a migraine, and really struggled to pull them together, but page number two with the mask went better than page number one, and I think that it shows. I used the word for 'friend' in Italian, a little ticket, and a motivational Crafty Individuals stamp to finish everything off.
We had a lovely time together, and are already in agreement that we must go again. We think that we need a month next time to get everything done...I'll be back soon with more bits and pieces to show you, Judith xx

A card for my BIL

Well I'm another day closer to our mini Retreat, but I had to make a card for my Brother in law's birthday on Monday before I went away. He and my Husband run an Irrigation Company, and at this time of year, they are working their socks off, due to the weather. My poor Hubby will have to work over the weekend, but we're hoping to spend Sunday together, fingers crossed.

 Anyway, back to the card, I wanted to have an engineering theme on the card, so I used a TSS mould, and some silver metal, which I embossed, and then painted black. I rubbed the surplus paint off. I then cut out three cogs using the Tim Holtz Alteration Die from cardstock, which I sanded, and added two Ideology Game Spinners. I used a Craftwork Cards circle Sentiment for speed, as time is of the essence now! I have never used a TSS mould before, never been to a class, so for a first attempt, it went okay. Hopefully, he will like it anyway.

I'm also showing you a photo of Buzz my cat among the Bluebells in our garden a couple of weeks ago. We had lots this year, and most of them are past their best now. The Wisteria is out now, as well as Clematis and Lilac. I was a bit sad to see that the Chickens had trampled one of my lovely Alliums yesterday, they do a lot of good for the borders, but I'm not happy when they damage my delicate flowers.

I probably won't post again until we're back from our Retreat now, so enjoy the Bank holiday weekend everyone. Have a great half-term break if you are lucky enough not to work. I'll be back soon, Judith x

Looking forward to next week

Well, it's been a while again. Life will settle down soon, which will be nice for a change. I'm giving one of my jobs up, which I haven't been that happy doing. Also my Hubby and son who have both been dignosed with IBS seem to be settling down now. I just need to finish my current stint as an exam invigilator, and things will slow down a bit.
My blog friends, Elaine Jo, Lesley and I, are all going on a mini Retreat next week. We are hiring two cottages and spending a few days together just crafting and chatting. We don't see each other very often, as we live so far apart, so this will be a lovely treat for us. We have been planning our activities for weeks, and we only have until Tuesday now, and we will be meeting up. We are going to be making Circle Journals, and showing each other tips and tricks, and just having a really good crafting time. Me being the jewellery maker, I'm doing the beading class. Lesley is going to give us some tips for incorporating metal into our crafting and so on.

I've posted my May project on our other blog today here so take a look for the full details if you are interested. It wasn't an easy one this month, although it was meant to be!

Hopefully, we'll be back at the end of next week full of ideas, and lots of pictures. Judith x

Butterfly Birthday Card

Okay, I don't post for ages, then I post twice in one day! Here is the other card that I promised you that I couldn't post earlier. I've used an Artylicious background paper and Bazzil cardstock in a lovely grey. I used a Tim Holtz swirl which I placed underneath a fabric flower that I made from an old chiffon scarf in shades of beige and grey, in the centre of which I sewed a coin pearl. I tucked a Tim Holtz ticket underneath, after shading the edge with weathered wood DI. In the centre of my card, I placed an oval of watercolour paper, coloured with DIs and stamped with Elusive Images stamps in shades of greys and browns, over which I have placed a gorgeous butterfly cut from Glimmer Misted paper. The Butterfly is a Tim Holtz Die. I have made it look like it is flying towards the flower. I also made a boxelope to match.

***Post Removed for Publication Purposes***

Craft Stamping Quartet April Project

 

Hi all, just a quick post to let you know that I've posted my project for April on our other blog here I based my idea on Helen Chilton's article in the April edition of Craft Stamper magazine. All of the details as to how I made my project are on the other blog, so I won't go over them again. I had great fun making my jewellery holder, especially as I make and sell my own jewellery, and will probably use this at Craft Fairs. I have not over embellished it as I love the gorgeous Tim Holtz box feet, and the lovely Lavinia stamps, and did  not  want to detract from those. Judith x                                                                        

Glenda's Giveaway

Just a quick post to let you know that Glenda is giving away some fabulous new stamps on her blog here This is one of the sets. They are lovely stamps, and the other sets are all equally

as gorgeous.

Judith x

Circle Journal

Where does the time go? It's a whole week since I was at Ally Pally for the weekend, meeting my three blog sisters Elaine, Jo and Lesley with whom I run Craft Stamping Quartet  We stayed overnight, and made a weekend of it, and spent some precious time together. We hardly ever see each other, which is why we set our joint blog up in the first place, to feel as though we were crafting together, by completing projects together. We are planning a mini Retreat in June during the half term holidays, and have been busy planning projects that we want to make together while we are there. One of the items we intend to make is a circle journal, but we are going to end up with one each! This means that we each have to complete one page in each others journal, so that everyone has a completed journal at the end of the trip as a memento of our time together. Our covers, and a double page inside are to be completed in advance to give the others a guide as to what kind of person we are. What we are drawn to in terms of colour and style, stamps and papers, to give each other a starting point.

I have finished my covers, and will be starting my inner pages next. My front cover is very different to my back cover, as I have two very different sides to what I like. On the one hand, I love deep jewel colours, teal and aubergine, I love metal embellishments, Tim Holtz ideology, grungepaper, Paper Artsy stamps, etc. On the other hand, I love  the shabby chic, distressed look, handmade flowers, cream lace. I like creams, pinks, browns, printed book pages, script that has been torn and aged with Distress Ink.  Think Webster's pages and you aren't far off the mark. I like butterflies and dragonflies. So I have two completely opposing sides, so my friends should have lots of scope there!

I made a little motivational tag for one of my friends, using some of the things that I bought from Ally Pally. I used some of the new Paper Soft Colour, this is gorgeous, and so easy to work with. I blended the blue and green together on a chipboard tag. I then cut a dragonfly out with my new paper artsy die from some silver metal. I coloured it with Inka Gold in blue and green, lovely! I stamped some inspirational words over the tag courtesy of Wendy V and hung a Tim Holtz ticket from the bottom corner with some jump rings. This was also edged with the Paper Soft.I had fun making my bits and pieces. I should have been at a Donna Downey weekend of classes which were unfortunately cancelled. She is stuck in Germany due to the volcanic dust cloud. You can't control Mother Nature. Thanks for looking, Judith x

Just a reminder

Just to remind my followers that I've posted my Art Doll on our sister blog Craft Stamping Quartet today. Please pop over and have a look if you are interested. There is a detailed explanation of how I made her on the blog. Don't forget to leave me a comment over there if you take a look! Thanks, Judith x

My Dad and other matters

I am a bad blogger at the best of times, and I appreciate my loyal followers who put up with that, and still take the time to comment on my cards and other bits and pieces. I am posting today, because I don't know when I shall get the chance to post again. I have to go and stay at my Mum and Dad's house which is an Internet-free zone, aaaaargh! Seriously though, some of you know that my Dad is unwell, he has had two bleeds into the brain, and last week, he had a serious fall, banging his head. He was rushed into hospital, and had some blood clots removed from his brain. The fall itself brought the bleeds to the Doctors' attention, or they may have gone unnoticed for goodness knows how long. Dad then unfortunately got the dreaded bug that goes around hospital, and had to go into a side ward, as the ward was closed down. Eight other people got it too. He is making a good recovery now, and I am waiting for his impending discharge from hospital, before going back up to help out for a few days. I was actually staying at their house when he went into hospital, but was out for the day at the Harrogate Show. I live four hours drive away from them, and it is very hard knowing when to be there for them.
I am posting a couple of pictures today of Tent Cards . I made these with my class last week, having seen samples throughout Blogland, and thought that they looked fairly simple. I have not gone overboard with the embellishments, as I wanted to make them as samples for the class to follow. I have used a LOTV stamp in one and an Elusive Images Butterfly in the other.

I am also posting a few sneaky peeks of my Art Doll project which I will be posting in it's entirety tomorrow on our sister blog Craft Stamping Quartet It's an Art Doll with a twist, a bit quirky, but aren't they all? Elaine and Lesley have already posted theirs, they are gorgeous, and Jo will be following me on Thursday, (shh, that's April Fool's Day!) I will also be announcing the project that I have chosen for us to tackle in April.

She is a tall lady,  she stands about 32 cms high on her cotton reel! But as you have read in previous posts, my cotton reels are larger than life anyway. I needed a large cotton reel because of a certain element of the construction, and I can say no more at this point! You will have to wait until tomorrow. Bye for now, Judith x

Mother's Day

Well, I hope all of you Mums out there had a lovely Mother's Day, and everyone else had a lovely weekend. I thought I'd show you my two 'babies', firstly about eighteen years ago, (Megan, if you're reading my blog, look away, now!) and then a more recent, much loved photo that I have near a favourite seat of mine. I had a very lovely card from Megan that made me a bit teary, because the sentiment was so thoughtful, and a hand written letter from Ryan. Both told me how they felt about me as a Mum, and I was quite taken aback, and very moved that they wanted to let me know.
I must have done something right over the years! I am very proud of them both, and don't show them to you, but this once, I'm making an exception.

I've been playing with a newish stamp today, it's the Hero Arts Dandelion Frame Cling stamp. It's a lovely stamp, and I'm sure that I will make lots of cards with this stamp. I have stamped it a few times using different coloured inks onto patterned paper for potential cards, I also plan to stamp it onto acetate as an overlay.

 On my finished card however, I have stamped it onto a piece of card that I have sprayed with Glimmer Mists. I have mounted this onto a piece of pearlescent card, punched out some little butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch, and added an Elusive Images fairy, whose wings I have coloured with Inktense pencils. I have matted the whole thing onto a piece of patterned Artylicious paper from The 'Echoes of Italy' pack which I have stamped with a thistle stamp. This again was matted onto the pearlescent card. I have used a little bit of Stickles on the butterflies and the fairy's wings. The detail on this stamp is fantastic, if you click on one of my pictures, it will enlarge it for you, so that you can have a better look. I have really tried to get my photos in focus for you! Thanks for looking, Judith x

I love wood

Today is a good day, I got home from work in the rain, to find a post box full of post, containing my ticket for the GNPE Show at Harrogate next weekend. Next, there was a carrier bag on my door handle from my woodturning friend Tony. I am so happy! On Tuesday evening, I was discussing the possibility of him making me a large replica of a wooden cotton reel for a project on our sister blog Craft Stamping Quartet because a normal cotton reel would be too small for the project that I have in mind, and three days later, he has made me three beautiful, gorgeous, lovely, marvellous, to die for,  large cotton reels. Wow!

See what I mean? He is such a gentleman, when I went on the Graphicus Retreat, in November, I asked him if he had any ephemera that I could use, and he gave me approx 30 half wood turned mushrooms which I shared out among everybody and we used them on our mini canvases.Most of us used them to look like trees in the end, but they look just great. I love the tactile nature of wood, especially after he has polished it . We live in a house with oak floors, and oak beams. We have oak doors with latches on them, so we have a woody theme going on there too. Our garden is full of fruit trees, (and chickens!), and when I look out of my craft room window, I can see trees. The rain has stopped now, and the sun is shining, see, I told you it was a good day! Judith x