Will it happen this time???

Well another season of ballooning has just begun in Great Britain and I have everything crossed that my planned balloon trip happens this time. I've tried several times before to have my trip but the weather has always gotten in the way. Wrong type of wind or it has been raining. Oh the joys of living in the UK!

I have booked my trip for Saturday morning, so a telephone call to check that the flight is still on is to be made on Friday night and then it will (hopefully) be up up and away in my beautiful balloon hahaha.

I'll keep you posted and show you the photos if I have any. Sunj is taking the video camera and wants to get some film of me ascending to the clouds - while I will to taking photos of him and the kids getting smaller and smaller haha.

Recycled Super Hero

Here are two more journal pages I created yesterday. During the holiday I shopped in White Stuff as you do and was given my purchases in a comic book inspired carrier bag. I loved the image and the caption and decided I wanted to recycle it into a journal page. I thought she looked like a super hero and that is what started my mind cogs whirring.


Close up of the comicbook image which I stuck into my journal and then I used Distress Inks in Barn Door and Broken China applied with a baby wipe and doodled with Neocolor II wax pastels and a waterbrush to colour the background. Some on the finer doodling was done with a Pitt pen.
I wanted to write something on this page but didn't have enough space on the one page so decided to make it a double page spread! Again I used Distress Inks and a baby wipe to roughly make a Union Jack flag and the red central George Cross is made from the paper that went into making the carrier bag handles. The brown paper around the outside of the page is also the paper from the handles.
Thanks for stopping by. Please do leave a comment if you are able, I love to read them all.

On the large side

That is the Christmas card I made yesterday not me personally tee hee

My Mum mentioned about the Christmas card I gave her and my Dad last year as being rather small and" not worth the stamp"!!!! lol so I thought right ...... I will make a large one for this year. Still this is only A5 size but should be "worth the stamp!" :)

I have used Basic Grey papers which are very Christmasy I think and a beautiful reindeer from Tando. I haven't used any of their chipboard before but I must say it is very sturdy and very well cut, keeping it's shape when I applied the colour and decorations. I inked my Rudolf with Distress Ink in Vintage Walnut and have given him a Stickles nose and Glossy Accented eye.

I will be ticking off Hazel's Christmas Card Challenge Number 7 "Feature a Creature" for this card.

Thanks for stopping bye.

The White Stuff

That is what Hazel's challenge number 8 is all about this week and here is my card. I wanted to use this snowmen stamp which I coloured with lovely green Sakura pens on their hats and scarves so I decided to use lime green card instead of the white which I was originally going to use. Not very Christmasy but funky I thought.


I am a little behind with Hazel's challenges but hope to catch up during the week. Please visit Hazel's blog for some great Christmas prompts and wonderful work.

Steampunk

Wow Daring Cardmakers what have you started? The prompt for this week's challenge is ....

"steampunk"

Well I decided to join in and not being too sure what steampunk was or how I should go about it I "Googled it" oh boy, was I in for a shock!

Isn't this fabulous. I went onto Jake von Slatt's blog and found this all made by himself. I'd love for my pc to look like this. So being inspired I tried to make a birthday card for my daughter's boyfriend (I couldn't think who else would get this mix of Victoriana and technology hahaha)

I didn't have many metal objects so use a spinner, brad that I distressed, safety pins and watch cog. I did enjoy getting inky and think I might try to make another one of these, but not sure who will be the recipient of it! hahaha. I think this genre is a required taste. I think I might be a convert! lol

ooops

Been a bit absent updating my blog but now half term is here I should be able to blog frequently this week.


Today is my Mum's birthday and I thought some flowers on her card would be perfect. Coloured with waterbrush and Distress Inks.

Art Journal

Another page from my journal to share with you today this one I finished a couple of days ago but have only just got round to photographing and blogging about.

The prompt was Day 8 of Milliande Art Journal January The prompt was "Vertical Journalling Lines" never written like this before and I don't think I will do it again - haha - as I had to think too hard on what letters I had already written. :)

As you can tell from yesterday's post I am not doing these in numerical order, just the order I fancy doing them in.

Thanks for looking and do visit the Art Community website and Milliande's blog lots of great techniques and beautiful artwork.

Day 16

Yes here is my take on the Day 16 prompt of My Favourite Number over on Milliande Art Journal January 2011.I went a bit mad with the Pitt pen (thanks Kaz for introducing me to them at the Retreat last year x, they are really fab for this kind of thing!) I then wanted to add just one colour and chose pink first using two tones in a Zig pen and then using Worn Lipstick in the Distress Inks. I had a whole lot of fun doing this whilst "watch" tv with the family.

Can you spot my favourite number?

:)

Art Journal Page Today

I have been inspired very much this year by Milliande and have enjoyed watching her videos on prompts she has devised.

I am not up to date with the prompts and this isn't one of them either haha but I loved the way she uses different media on her pages. So watching her use ink and gesso together I did the same and created this page.The background was Distress Inked and then smugged with a wipe and then the image (from my trusty old copy of Elle Magazine - still going strong :) )stuck onto the page. I used Dylusions purple paint for the dots and wavy lines. The border is where the Distress Ink Stormy Skies and gesso came in mixing them together on an acrylic block and painting them on with a paint brush. Then some doodling with a Pitt pen. Stamping with ink and gesso then completed the page.

Thanks for stopping by and please let me know what you think of it - I can take criticism :)

A cluch of cards

Not sure that that is the right collective noun but it will have to do haha.

This evening I would like to show you some cards I have made for Hazel's Christmas All Year Round Challenge. I have made several cards for various challenges but haven't got round to blogging them until now.

Hazel puts a new challenge on her blog every Saturday and I hope to keep up with most of the challenges and by next Christmas I should have a box full of cards instead of the mad dash in November to get them made.

So for Challenge Number 4 "Let's See Some Bling"

a close up of the gems "bling"

For Challenge Number 3 "Let's See Some Trees"


For Challenge Number 2 "Use a Freebie or Recycle" The recycled element is the tree and snowflake which were cut from wrapping paper.

Do pop over to Hazel's blog and join in the challenges.

First Daring Card Makers Challenge for 2011

Well I have played along with the first challenge of the year at Daring Card Makers Blog. The challenge this week was to make a card featuring January's flower either a snowdrop or carnation.

I went for the carnation as I couldn't find anything snowdrop like in my craft stuff. I tore out a page in an old book I found on clearing out my bookcase and as it was all tatty I thought I could recycle it and use it for this challenge. psst! I can see more pages being used in the months to come hahaha.

Do visit Daring Card Makers blog for lots of inspiration and a weekly challenge.

Art Journalling for 2011

I signed up for a new art journalling inspiration course with the very talented Milliande go check out her blog for what it is all about.

On Saturday night I printed off a mandala that Milliande put on her blog and then got my black pen and went doodle mad on it. I didn't know this type of doodling had a fancy name ...... Zendoodling! Don't you know, tee hee.

Anyway here is my finished mandala

I am very pleased with it if I do say so myself. Now the trick with this is to now cut it up!!!!! eeek do I have the guts to do that? Well I might take a photocopy of it first ...... watch this space. This is only the second day's challenge and I am already behind but I think I will pop in and out of this challenge as some days I just don't have the time more's the pity.

Please go over to Milliande's blog and find out all about Milliande's Art Community for Women.

Bargain & something Gorjuss!!!

Last weekend I finally got round to visiting our new Dunelm Mills shop - everyone raves about it and thought I needed to find out what it was all about.

Well it is fantastic for home furnishings but (in my opinion) not so hot on the craft section but that just might be our branch. Anyway whilst waiting at the till to pay ended up spending far too much on bedding oopps!, you know where they usually put the sweets to tempt children to buy them, haha I saw this beauty for £1.99 ...... yes can you believe how cheap that is?

So on informing my friends I went back another day and bought another 5 for them!

This weekend I have been busy with some challenges.

First one is for Totally Gorjuss challenge. Now I must admit I thought this challenge was only open for entries using the Gorjuss range of stamps but it isn't haha the challenge for this one was to follow a sketch so I think I managed to do that....... I have entered my card below using the gorgeous Basic Grey papers that I have been lovingly keeping and not using so I took a deep breathe and cut them - eek!

I'll blog the rest another day. Thanks for calling by. x

Sad News

Readers to my blog might remember that my parents rescued a dog last February, "my furry brother" Bob well sadly today my parents had to decide to put him to sleep as the vet discovered he was not a very well little chap and was in alot of discomfort. Understandable my parents are upset but as I explained to them Bob's last months with them were the best he has ever had.

He was a funny little character and here he is having his photo taken on Christmas Day with Funky, although Bob doesn't seem interested .....

But after a drink and a chat they got on better

Inky Background update ......

...... hello there friends.

As promised I have uploaded these photos to show you the finished inky background pages from my journal. I had such fun doing this and it jogged my memory to all the wonderful (and not so wonderful) things that have happened in 2010.

I have also included single page photos so you can get a closer look. Some of the items have been on my desk or noticeboard for quite awhile and I decided that putting them into this collage will protect them for posterity and more importantly I they won't get lost haha.


Thanks for taking a look.

November and December in January ???

That is my 365 Challenge Calendar finally finish ...... no too bad as it is only the 3rd January today :)

I have thoroughly enjoyed keeping up with this and thanks Kate for the wonderful inspiration for this and for everyone who has taken part and for their ideas that I have sometimes sneaked into my calendar tee hee. As you can see (if you are as nosy as me and enlarge the pages) the end of this year has not been too healthy for me and the family :( We are all crossing fingers for a healthier 2011.

I will not be doing this challenge again in 2011 but do visit Kate's Blog "The Kathryn Wheel" and have a go yourself.

Inky Background

This is the reason my fingers were so inky yesterday and still are a little today if I'm honest haha I had fun making this background using Distress Ink Pads and a babywipe together with a homemade square template.



I plan to collage "stuff" from 2010 on these two pages that I have lying around on my desk. Hopefully I'll start this evening and show you the finished pages soon.

haaaaaaaaapeeeeee new yearrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Happy New Year to all you lovely readers of my blog.

Thank you for coming over and reading my ramblings and leaving a comment I really love to read them all and even visit yours in return.

Well I have started as I mean to carry on in 2011 getting inky hahaha, this is a photo I took a couple of minutes ago. Sorry about the big MOON face lol.


Thanks for dropping by and tomorrow I hope to update with the evidence of what the inky fingers were a result of.

Right Chinese takeaway has arrived so bye.

Last Work Desk Wednesday for 2010

So I thought I would join in and it also might encourage me to tidy it and actually do something crafty.

As you can see the last time I sat at the table to do anything was to wrap Christmas presents, hence the gift wrapping and packaging.


Do visit Julia's blog and have a look at her wonderful work and musings - so funny and maybe join in yourself and show your workdesk/space.

Oh what a night!!

As a christmas present treat for my husband and me, my daughter booked us a nights' stay in a local hotel with champagne and a jacuzzi bath ;)

Very lovely and very, very enjoyable.