Lots of changes....

happening in my life right now.... some good.... some not so good. I will be a bit hit and miss with my blogging and visiting for a while... one of the reasons being that I am having to rely on using my sis' computer right now. I will be around as much as I can but I hope you will bear with me until things have settled down.
Just a little atc today... the background was made digitally from some handpainted papers and the funky little girl image is from Lisa's altered art .

Thanks for popping by
hugs
Chris xx

d.d.d.d.d.d.d.DOODLING and d.d.d.d.d.d.d.DUST

Well two things I've learned this week are that having a new bathroom fitted... no matter how nice it looks... means lots of DUST (honestly how far does it spread... the only place it seems to have missed is me knicker drawer..lol) and it also means lots of stress...I HATE upheaval... moving things and feeling like this isn't really YOUR home you're living in..bah!! It also means lots of Decorating...uuuurgh more work and less crafting :( Still it'll be all worth it when it's finished I guess :)

To keep me sane while all the banging and rattling was going on I had to find something that was quite tidy to do... couldn't be done with more mess!! and I rediscovered DOODLING (happy sigh) OMG I'd forgotten how much fun it could be. Armed with a sketch pad and a pack of felt pens (did I tell you I LOVE Tesco cheapo felties...did I...did I.... did I.... well I do....lol) I just played and scribbled and coloured and ended up in seventh Heaven...ooooooh I love colour. I did lots and lots of pages and I have decided this will be my new lose myself addiction... it's great cos you can leave it and come back to it for a minute or an hour or two...total bliss!!
I decided to scan some of my doodling so I could play with it further and use it in some of my hybrid/digi creations and as the Something Completely Different challenge this week is tags(hearts) I cropped out parts of a couple of doodled pages and added digi images to them whoohooo... love the effect and I think they look totally cool. The Owl Cluster and Mary Mary images are freebies which can be found at Cens loft... the Owl Cluster is a free image on it's own but the Mary Mary image is from a free kit :D Pop over here and grab yourself some gorgeous goodies that you can use in your digi and hybrid creations... you won't be disappointed. June has some fab stuff to share and her storytelling is quite unique too... often leaving me howling with laughter ...what a lady :D Now another fabulous lady... June from ArtyRetreat is another star and shares lots of AWESOME images to use in your creating. Pop over to her blogs at ArtyRetreat to see her lovely work and to her Art freebies blog to see her wonderful vintage images which she shares every day... Brilliant!!

June has tagged me with the 6th challenge:-

Go tho the 6th folder in your Pictures folder.

Find 6th Picture and tell a story about it.

List 6 bloggers you'd like to participate (no obligation)

I've done this tag before but as I've had a recent reshuffle of my folders I'm lucky enough to be able to share something different.

I've so many photos and pictures on my ''puter that often I forget just what is actually there and I spent ages engrossed in looking at pics I'd forgotten about which is why I'm posting today instead of yesterday. Reminiscing was the name of the game :D

Anyway here is my 6th folder photo. I visited Preston Hall Museum over a year ago and had forgotten how many pics I had taken... lots from Butterfly world which is fabulous and apart from the obvious family pics I just had to take some shots of some of the beautiful colourful plants they have on show. I believe that this one is called Bleeding Hearts... but don't quote me on that... I'm definitely not that up on plant names... I just know I love the pretty ones.

Ok I'd like to see what these ladies have in their photo folders :-

Chriss

Gez

Karen

Pearl

Terrie

Dawn

I also wanted to share this photo with you... cos I found this on my scouring through my folders and I love how it turned out. It's a photo of my Angel lamp love...love... love my lamp. Not every ones cup of tea but as soon as I saw it about 8 yrs ago I just knew I had to have it. She looks so gorgeous lit up on a dark dreary night :D Well congrats if you made it to the end of this post...lol... feast or famine is the name of my game eh. Hope you are having some fabby crafting time and hope to pop by and visit as many of you as I can this week.

Until then...stay happy

hugs

Chris xx

Three R's Twinchie set

Well I don't know who called our learning the three R's probably someone who wrote as they spoke...lol but I made this set of inchies for two challenges combined and then forgot to post them duh!!. One was for the Something Completely different challenge where the theme was 'pink and green'... the other was for the Small world of Inchies and Twinchies where the theme was 'school'.
The background paper is a lovely one from a booklet by Joanna Sheen...I just love text backgrounds.

The images are all from Lisa's Altered Art

Sorry not sure who's the pen stamp is but the 'bling' well that's ALL MINE from me stash...lol

Have a fab day all

hugs

Chris xx

Metal effect necklaces and brooches with alcohol inks

The Simon says challenge this week says Craft with Tim Holtz... the man himself...so who can resist. Using one of Tim's products... my favourite...Alcohol inks... I decided to create some jewellery.
First of all a necklace using a disc created with Cuttlebugged metal which I coated with alcohol ink. I layered ten discs of card sticking them together to resemble chipboard before adhering the metal to it. The metal was put through the script cuttlebug folder once the right way and then turned 90 degrees and put through again for the effect on this metal. I also made a matching brooch using the same technique and adding a bottlecap image from Lisa's altered art to the centre before decorating with pearl half beads

As usual I got a wee bit carried away and couldn't stop at one... so I did another using different coloured Alcohol inks combining red and green (my favourite colours of the moment) allowing the gold metal underneath to show through. This metal was put through the script folder just once.

I sanded over the top of both pieces to remove the ink from the top layer which turned silver. Playtime and happy accidents once again...lol
Have a great day all

hugs

Chris xx

Stash revival - don't you just love it...

when you find something in your stash that you forgot about and give it an airing and have loads of fun getting messy.... oooooh what a fab feeling. I so often get caught up with using new (must have) stuff that I forget what I have tucked away from former purchases.
I came across some textured paint that I bought about 5 years ago for 50p...yes 50p... in an art shop sale. It got hidden away in a draw never to see daylight again...lol Well 'till now that is and am I glad I found it...it's fab. I love texture... it's so much nicer when something is touchy feely as well as being pretty to look at. So I did myself a favour and created a plaque for my room to remind me of what I love to do.
I used the texture paint before I added my own colours over the top. The original was white with sparkly bits in it (bling it on...sigh) I painted a canvas first of all giving it a second coat of brown acrylic paint. These Maya Road chipboard letters were coated with the texture paint before using Tim Holtz distress inks to add colour.

The chipboard crown from Riff Raff designs just has two layers of the white textured paint and some bling added cos I love princessy things (the little girl in me is still here). For the background paper I used BasicGrey cupcake attached to a scalloped chipboard base which I cut in half for the top and bottom of my plaque. I added glitter and flock to portions of the design for more touchy feeliness :)

This lovely bit of bling is from some stick on pieces that DG bought for me at Christmas in his little parcel of loveliness. He knows his Nanna so well ...bless :) Believe it or not they were meant for decorating your hands!! I'm not quite THAT with it...rofl but they did come in useful.
One of my other loves is making things 3d and sticky pads are never far from me in my stash bag (the crown got the treatment) I added a little more colour to the canvas with distress ink rubbed in which brought out the sparkle from the textured paint and 'Bob's yer Uncle' and 'Voila' etc.. etc ..etc. I now have no excuse for not knowing what to do when I'm in the crafting mood.... I can see my reminder every day....

Create ... A R T :)
See you soon and thanks for visiting

hugs

Chris xx

Art Creations Friday - challenge 28

When I saw this fabulous background to use for Art Creations Friday (challenge 28) I thought it was fantastic... so I just had to join in. My new found love of green is popping up again :)
The new Zeti-style images from Lisa's Altered art are really cool and this little girl was just waiting to jump on board... but hey how cheeky is that little bird telling her... her bum looks big in her cute outfit..lol
Just a quickie today as I am off for a visit to the dreaded dentist.... tooth hurty for a few days despite just having a filling so not feeling very happy. Hope to get round to bloghopping really soon... until then thanks for all your lovely comments and hope the sun is shining where you are :)
hugs
Chris xx

Jewellery and twinchies

Well lick my legs and put my tongue out to the weatherman.... the sun is splitting the sky for the fifth day on the trot. Who needs to go on holiday... not me... I can turn my skin a beautiful shade of RED on my own doorstep...lolDo I envy anyone who turns a creamy caramel shade under those sunny rays... you betcha!! Being an English rose (with the whitest skin on the planet) has to suffice for me unless I hit the bottle of Dove self tanning cream... the only way I'm ever gonna change to a colour worthy of showing me arms and me legs is when I lash on that cream from the bottle (much the same as me hair colour!!).

So instead of sitting out and hoping for a miracle I will stay indoors and look lovingly at the way the world seems to light up with this gorgeous weather and content myself with making something new cos today is all mine... nowhere I have to be... nothing I have to do.... so I'm gonna play, play, play. whoohoooo

Just before I disappear though I'll share with you a few of my latest makes.... the jewellery bug is still in full swing and I have a new found love of GREEN... a colour I have never really been partial too but one which seems to be drawing me in of late. Especially in this gawgus shade which I had to add to my bracelet....

and a pair of dangly earings to wear it with :)I also have another new found love thanks to my blogging buddy Gez :) Having fat chunky fingers I've never been a lover of inchies but when I saw Gez' twinchies I just had to have a bash at them and for the record I LOVE them... so I will be doing lots more.

I've been playing and using my 'puter to do some images from my family photos ready to turn into stamps for meself for my mixed media doings and these two are two of my favourites. The one above is from a photo of my nanna as a young lady.... and this one is from a photo of my gorgeous daughter. ooooh I love that girly to bits :)

Both images were printed out on to acetate and then added to card before layering onto alcohol ink backgrounds before adding my usual bit of bling.

Hope you are all having a fab day

See you soon

hugs

Chris xx