My Perfect weekend

Several weeks ago, when I was doing a shrink plastic workshop, I started a canvas and never finished it.. not unusual for me.. teaching and working on artwork never go hand in hand! I always make as I am teaching but always get waylaid, of course, and rightly so! This canvas has cut outs from a newspaper, some printable shrink plastic (made for those gorgeous new Archival inks from Ranger, and is totally covered in Distress stains!The little "shells" are shrink plastic beads which I coloured , and then wrapped around a knitting needle , which I first covered in embossing ink ( to make sure the beads came off the needle) and then carefully shrunk . It is very much a hit and miss affair, and you do need gloves or asbestos fingers to do it! Love how they came out, and they were perfect for shells!



As the grey clouds are appearing over the horizon what better way than to think sun, sea and sand!
Have a creative Friday!
Hugs

woyww...moving

It's amazing how Wednesdays turn up all on their own every week! I mean blink and they disappear just to reappear all over again the next week! Just like my desk..blink and you miss it! The space to work in, I mean! I have managed to keep it tidy for a couple of weeks now, and this week is no exception...lol In fact I took the liberty of moving my desk over to the crop room at Pickleberry Papercrafts last night, and emptying it there! Well, what else is a girl supposed to do? Invited for the evening, spend it with good friends, and be able to create too! So pack up my desk, add an altered book to work on...and empty it on Kate's tables!! Just a change of scenery, not much else changes..lol In case you thought your eyes were deceiving you, yes that is my set of drawers, as I thought I would show the girls it , in the flesh , so to speak :))



Last week was such fun on the anniversary of What's On your Workdesk Wednesday, and although I didn't get to many desks, blogger being such a pain to comment, I did pop onto most of them! Now I did remember this week to pick the winner of my little bottle giveaway



and Mr Random.org picked Paula Gale as the winner... Congratulations, and please email me for your random goodness, so I can send it :)))
Hoping to be able to comment this week, have a great woyww day!

Handle with care!

I was so excited when the new Archival inkpads arrived yesterday, I just had to have a quick play with them! Love, love the new colours, and I made this card with lots of distress inks, stamping the Inspiration jar with Vermilion, adding the tag from the Travel set with Coffee, and adding one of the sayings from one of  Mrs Vecchi's sets! The numbers are from Mr Holtz's "Stuff to say" ! Add a little raffia, and handle it with care!



Have a creative Day!

Presenting.....

our new Creative Team Guest designer.. Neil Walker! Every month on The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog we have a guest designer, and this month we have a man! Now I am far from prejudiced, but the world of stamping has very few men in it, (that makes me sad:(( ) and we are very honoured that Neil has joined us this month. His first project is stunning and completely different to anything I have seen for a long while, so please do pop over and have a look, and comment (we love comments! lol)

Don't forget we also have a new challenge too, where you can win £15.00 worth of stamps! This month's challenge is Monochrome plus One.

See you over there :))
Happy Creating!

woyww celebrating 104!

How does one celebrate 104 post or 2 years of having a nosy at the tidyness ( or in my case the messyness! ) of other people's desks? Why you create a little pressie to give to the next person on the list, of course! This is probably the shortest post in the history of my taking part in What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!
I mean I have made my pif ( and you thought I wouldn't.. go on say so...lol) and all I have to do now is thank the Queen of Desks, Mrs Julia Dunnit, add my asterisk to my name on the list, show you my (still tidy ) desk, and my pif! I made a little altered book for the recipient.. in which I filled a Tim Holtz watch piece with beads and the numbers 104,  and then added glossy accents ( what else!lol)... add a few stamps, and some distress stain... and cut it into the book cover. Cannot wait to see who will get this!

BTW I haven't forgotten last week's winner.. will do it on my next woyww
post.promise!
Edited! ok It's official I cannot read instructions! Apparently I shouldn't have shown my pif ... but too late now!! Trust me to be the odd one out!!! rofl
Have a wonderful What's on Your Workdesk Day!
Hugs

Sleep well tonight!

I cannot believe that it is the last day of May! Time is slipping by fast! It is also my time on The Creative Team blog too!, and this month we had Mabel Lucie Attwell beautifully created by all of the Team. If you would like to see all of my creation, pop over to the blog, and leave me a comment, and don't forget to check out out the Creative Team's absolutely gorgeous pieces!



Have a creative Tuesday!
 

Grungy Monday 09

I was absolutely delighted when Linda asked me to be a guest designer alongside Kaz at the Little Shabby Shed for her Grungy Monday Challenge! The criteria is to use one of Mr Holtz's techniques that he has shown over the past few years, and make it your own, or if you prefer follow it to the letter! This week it is

12 Tags 2007, Day 10:

I love this technique, simple, effective, and so shabby chic! Often when doing Linda's challenges, I like to think out of the box, and in this case I thought right in the box, and used a set of drawers found in a charity shop yonks ago, and we altered it , so I could add feet ( that is my DH did! lol)

 I used the technique Tim describes so well in his blog post, add his new Papillon stamps, a set of foundation feet and corners, all covered in Dabbers to shabby chic them! I think I went French on this project! lol The base colour is Denim, covered in Juniper, Cloudy Blue, Shell Pink, and Sherbet. I even covered one of the Curio knobs in dabber too ( ok well a little bit of it!)

If you haven't got the products, improvise, and make the technique your own!

The challenge is open to absolutely everyone, and if you join in, please add your creation to All Things Tim Yahoo Group too, where there is a special folder created by Gloria (list mom) for you to upload your creation!

Love, love this technique, and thank you Linda for the challenge, and for allowing me to be a guest designer. I am truly honoured, and humbled :)

To see Linda's Creation of the week, and Kaz's tooo, pop over to Grungy Monday, and get creating!

 Hugs

Soft and smooth...

like a baby's bottom.. that's how the advert goes! If my memory serves me right those are the words for an advert for baby wipes, or is it baby powder? Either way it doesn't matter, but yesterday I spent a very fine afternoon playing with baby wipes, in between small demos to customers at Pickleberry Papercrafts!
Sarah was there, and she showed me this wonderful technique she had done, using baby wipes. Now I know that if I use baby wipes to mop up, clean stamps, clean my hands ( you are joking of course! ) my hands are always inky!! lol, I just throw them away. Sarah keeps them , dries them out, glues them to clear packaging, (we used Tim Holtz packaging) and die cuts them! Absolutely gorgeous, especially when covered in multi-coloured inks! I especially liked the soft and smooth feel of the underside, or you could make it the top, as the wipes dry out , they become velvety, and smooth to touch, hence the title of the post!
Here is a little card I made using the technique...now off to colour up some wipes with inks and sprays!

Have a Creative Sunday!
 

Travelling light!

It has been a busy week, with lots going on...and now a lovely Bank Holiday long weekend, (as if you didn't know! lol)  I found time to make a little ATC which uses some of the new stamps from The Artistic Stamper. I distress inked the background with lots of yellows and reds, and a bit more, and stamped the workman's ticket over the map background, and sequin waste background, followed by a clock face, and an altered Bingo charm from Tim Holtz. Add 2 teeny weeny Penny Farthing Steampunk charms and you are travelling light! The words are from the new Travel Word stamp set.



If you wondered why I used the number 20? Well, our offer on the website this Spring Bank Holiday weekend is a 20% voucher to spend anytime you like, with any order this weekend over £10! If you don't receive our newsletter , then do sign up, (the link is at the top of this page) and get our exclusive offers for all our newsletter readers!
Have a great and creative weekend!
Hugs

WOYWW 103...and the 600th time!

How  do you start off the 600th post on your blog,and oh how on earth did I get to waffle so much over 600 posts???!! Well a good number of my posts, approximately  at least one a week  for the past year or more has gone on waffling about my desk space.. and showing you the same mess every week!!!! lol I mean, aren't you bored yet? Next week sees the PIF (pay it forward) 2 year anniversary of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday from the gorgeous Julia, and I could show you a sneak peek of my piece, but it true, time honoured fashion...I can't!!( that's cos I haven't made it yet!! lol) , but never fear I will, we have another long weekend coming up, and I almost always use some of that time to create, and this will be no exception!
So here is my desk, clean , tidy, a little differently arranged....but the same space as always ...and I thought because it is not the usual pile it up, push it back, leave a little one inch space to work in... I would give away to one random blogger who comments, a little something off my desk...3 little bottles of Ranger glossy Accents, Studio Multi medium matte, and crackle glaze in honour of my 600th post!, so you can start your own pile of bottles!

I have included a WIP too! A just for me Smash book, which will always be a work in progress.. I think!
Thank you for popping by my desk.....
edited.. If you are having problems commenting (after all there is blog candy..lol )blogger wouldn't let me in to comment anywhere this morning, using my google login, so I used my name and url instead and that worked!
Have a very Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!

I am shrinking!

It's true, the older I get the more I shrink.. even my son says I am getting smaller, and I ain't that tall! But in this case this weekend, I shrunk a whole lot more! Saturday saw one of my Shrink Plastic classes at Pickleberry Papercrafts. It was a small intimate class, with lots of silence while everyone concentrated, but such fun :)) I loved every minute, thank you Rosemary, Carol, and Beth for putting up with my madness!
Everyone made bracelets using a very random technique, and then we made canvases ( no pic 'cos I forgot to take any of the canvases , which were so creative!) but I did take a "show me your hands" picture!

Love all the different bracelets, even though everyone used the same technique!
Here is my take on a shrinky bracelet using Tim's Alterations, and one stamps (the open sequin waste background) and printable shrink plastic, which is so versatile as you can use any ink on it at all even distress inks!



Have a very creative day!

Have you seen....

...our Creative Team blog lately? Over on The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog,
we have a Mabel Lucie Attwell month going on! All of the girls have been busy creating wonderful artwork using the nostalgic Mabel Lucie Attwell images.... I often hear how these stamps give stampers that " oh it takes me back to my childhood...."
If you haven't seen any of the gorgeous artwork that the Team has done, pop over and say hi, we love comments :)) and followers :))) Don't forget to scroll down to the older posts too!
Here is a little taster for you....

I am off to teach a class in shrinking plastic today, so should get a move on or I will be late!
Have a sunny creative day!

Saving Daisy --the world's biggest raffle!

It isn't often that I read something and think ooh if that happened to me, what would I do? A facebook friend has a huge dilemma, and a very expensive one, and a friend of mine, Kirsty Wiseman has decided to help her by holding a raffle, and by a raffle I mean the biggest raffle that probably has been held in the world of crafting raffles!!! A ticket is £2 and oh what you could win, is amazing, and you can help Janey Pye and Daisy !



 All you have to do is pop over here to Kirsty's blog, get the details, and a whole load of goodies could be yours!
I am off to get my ticket...
Check it out!

woyww 102... a challenge indeed

eeek! only 2 weeks till I have to have a pif ready for the What's On Your Workdesk , hosted by the delectable Julia .. a challenge indeed for me, seeing as the state of my desk looks like I have come in, dumped everything on it, and walked away! You'd be right!!! lol... this week, been to a crop, worked (often do that!) been to France for a brief interlude ( such fun with some of the best people I know!!!) working all day today, and working on new stamp designs on Thursday! So when will I fit in the several pieces of artwork that must be done, including the PIF? I will find time, but first I think I have to tidy up my desk....lol





I hope to get round to some of your wonderfully creative desks this week (I can do it with my eyes shut, and a great deal of coffee!lol) , but if I don't please don't be disappointed , it won't be from lack of trying.
Have a very creatively woyww day!

A Happy time had by al!

Twice a year, we hot foot it up to the North, past Watford, to Happy Stampers North West Stamping Festival at Port Sunlight. It is probably time for me to stop driving so far in 2 days, as I am absolutely exhausted and these days it takes me so much longer to recover, but I love seeing everyone up there, and I would miss out on my pickles from Annie P!!! Thank you Annie.. yummy as always!!In defence, though we do have a great time, and I love everyone I meet :)) Hi to all the UKStampers who popped by to say hello :))  I demoed as always, my meltpot, no surprise there then? lol. I used the new Glassine papers to make roses, and covered them in clear UTEE, stunning! Here are a few of the samples that I gave away, and yes I managed to photograph them... always do that: make, give away, have no record of what I made!!



I have a very busy day catching up on Friday's work, and sorting out stock, and uploading new products to the website ( please be patient..there are a lot!) ...we have a delivery due in today of new Sizzix Alterations, and some more steampunk charms too!, oh and Wendy Vecchi Art Parts too!
Off now to return the truck... love being a white Van Man!! rofl
Have a creative day!

WOYWW 101.. a cropped edition!

Welcome to my cropping edition of What's On Your Workdesk! Last night I spent a very pleasant evening in the company of some gorgeous girls at Pickleberry Papercrafts! So, this week for the 101th edition of Julia's show us your desk, here is mine from last night! Gorgeous and tidy and not a bottle in sight!lol I took this just before I started anything! Did I finish anything? nah! but I had fun :))



If you have never taken part in this glorious phenonomen, then hop, skip and jump  to Julia's Queen of desks and show us yours!
Have a woyww of a day!

Melting,shrinking art weekend

What a fab weekend I have just had! I am totally and utterly exhausted , and today was hard going just to get through it, but always, always worth it! I taught a shrink art class on Saturday, with 4 wonderfully talented ladies, and on Sunday I indulged in meltpot, and lots of techniques with even more talented ladies and a young man as well! Thank you to Nina at It's Crafting Time for a great weekend, and to all who took part, I hope you enjoyed it :))
Here are a few snapshots of the workshops, see how inky the hands are!! lol

Love the tablecloth too! lol
Hugs