ICSketches #6 and #7

Well I got my head together last night and had a fab crafting session... cor what a mess I made though!! Wanted to catch up on a few challenges but blimey you'd think someone had gone through my room with a bulldozer this morning (couldn't be bothered to tidy up when I finished... that can ALWAYS wait till another day...lol) I always seem to want to use something that is in a bag... in a box... in a cupboard or drawer somewhere and I make more mess looking for it by the time I've pulled everything out than I actually do when I'm making something. Bet I'm not the only one either eh... come on own up... you all do it right :D

So anyway this is my card for this weeks ICSketch #7 followed by last weeks Sketch#6 cos I didn't manage to show it when I should've so thought I'd share them both together in this post.

On this card I used BasicGrey papers and stamp. This is one of my all time favourite stamps...just love it!! I have a confession to make though... the lace.... I think it was meant to be used for lingerie... you know Knicker elastic... but what the heck... you wouldn't have known if I didn't tell ya right. Just can't keep my big mouth shut rofl.
My cute little girly image is from Lisa's altered art and while I was struggling wif me stash I came across this crown which I got from Karen at Scrapz and I neeeeeeded to use it... little bit big for her little head but she wears it well :D
Had to add me little bits of 'bling' and a bit of ribbon with a ribbon slider to finish it off.

This is my card for last weeks sketch ... bit of tearing going on with this one, edged with felt tip pen... which I also used to colour in my image, ribbon and flowers. Honestly the humble felt tip is just sooooooo under rated AND cheap as chips :D If you buy white ribbon, and flowers you can alter them to co-ordinate with all of your other bits and pieces as quick as you like.

The papers used are from Funkyfairys papercrafts 'in with the old' I just love these colours.

The image I used was a freebie from Funkyfairies blogtrain giveaway that I grabbed a little while ago. I was sooooo patient too cutting round all of the leaves and branches... really need to get me some better glasses or some fine point scissors though cos it took me ages.

ooooooh did you see that..... more 'bliiiiing' rofl. I seem to stick it on just about everything don't I. Finally a few layered blooms and Bob's yer Uncle.... all done :D

Need a cup of coffee now after all that.... drink about a hundred cups when I'm making my bits and pieces and I'm suffering withdrawal now.... bring on the caffeine!!

ooooooh yes and before I forget to tell ya.... I'm well excited cos I've been featured on Inspirational.... yeeehaaa.... I love Inspirational :D

hugs

Chris xx

Artygirlz challenge #67-anything but a card

ooooh I AM becoming a naughty blogger but life just seems to be getting in the way right now... I don't mean to be awol... but things just keep cropping up to keep me off the 'puter ;)

My Artygirlz challenge piece is a reversible concertina book...the first one I've ever made... seems to be a year of firsts and change for me so far but I am enjoying doing different things it's really fun and stops my crafting sessions from being boring and stale... well for me at least... maybe not always exciting for YOU to look at... but a lot of satisfaction for me doing something new. I know you know what I mean :D

The outer cover and hand cut flower embellishment is my fab velvet paper from Scrapz cos I just lurvve stroking it...it's so lush The outline paper was just some scraps I wanted to use up.

The inner pages were made with 7gypsies paper again from Scrapz allowing plain white pages on one side to decorate and the lovely flourishes pages to decorate on the other. I was hoping to do some of the pages to show you but didn't manage to get around to it so will have to show you at a later date. Now then the main reason I have been awol is because it was DG Birthday at the weekend and as Nanna's usually do I got roped in to helping with the planning and helping out with his Birthday fun. As he is a lover of all things nautical right now we paid a visit to HMS Trincomalee at the Hartlepool Maritime Experience. He has been before and absolutely loved it but not with friends... so he was well excited that he could take his pals and Lord it over them by showing them how knowledgeable he was... knowing where everything was and how it worked...lol

The boys were whooping with excitement the minute we got through the doors even though it wasn't the nicest day and it took DD and I all our time to rein them in a little bit... cor three boys together are a handful.... they were buzzing!!

Clowning around the minute we got there AND posing for pics as often as possible...lol (the boys don't really have butterfly masks...heh heh... but in the interests of anonymity I thought I had better provide them for DG's pals)

They were all for climbing up on the ship and up to here to face the dizzy heights... thankfully though that isn't allowed so I didn't have to put a brave face on while my heart thudded in my chest at the thought of peering down at the decks below....phew!!

They contented themselves with walking the plank and perching precariously 2 feet from the soft play mat below :D

A sailors' lunch in the decks below didn't look toooooo appetizing... pleased I didn't have to eat THAT even salad leaves look more appealing!

There were plenty of photo opportunities on the inside and outside games to chase off the cobwebs and wear the boys out a little... even if me and his Mum almost froze to death despite the thickest of scarves and gloves... why is it kids NEVER seem to feel the cold?

We moved into the free museum afterwards and my little man became a monk for a short while...he sooooo loves to dress up

and then took a well earned rest at the old school desk.... heh heh... I remember desks like those :D Wonder if that's how he sits after a hard day at school normally.

Anyway a good time was had by all and afterwards they all had MacDonald's followed by a sleepover and I think this is one birthday he will certainly remember :D

I've got some more goodies to share this week so promise I won't be a stranger.

'Till next time :D

hugs

Chris xx

Big Art Adventure Challenge- Charms

Well my absence from blogging this week has had a lot to do with the fact that my body has been working the night shift. I've been awake all night and slept all day for most of the week because the little men working my brain are having a laugh at my expense...either that or they've been having parties and stopped working due to hangover induced coma's...lol

While being awake all night would be welcome... if I would have creative boosts and be as happy as the proverbial pig in muck.... it just doesn't happen that way... especially when you wake up and it's dark and you feel like you should be getting into bed and not out of it. A certain fog descends and somehow no amount of turning lights on helps to illuminate the hours ahead.

Sitting without noise for fear of waking everyone else ain't much fun either cos even if you fancy having a disco so you can prance around the room like a marionette on strings... you ain't gonna have one... unless you are ready to face the wrath of the neighbourhood the following day and I'm not THAT brave..lol

Anyway I think I've got it licked cos I am up and it's a little after 8....and DAYLIGHT whoooohooooo. After sleeping all day yesterday and grabbing a kip in the early hours I have hopefully got myself back on track... oh the little things that keep me happy :D

So onward we go and for this weeks Big Art Adventure Challenge we have Charms. This is completely new to me as I have never even thought of making a charm never mind put one together and I thought of giving it a miss as I didn't think it was my thing... but I'm so glad I didn't cos I have found me a new talent and another forthcoming addiction I think :D


So thanks to Linda and Rosie for encouraging me to think out of the box and also thanks to my good bud Chriss for sharing some fabby bits of old jewellery with me to help me in my creating when we spent some quality (chocolate free) crafting time together on Monday evening.

As usual once I got started they just kept coming so I have a little collection starting :D The images are all Artchix and the starting point for each one apart from the wings charm was chipboard shapes. I lurve chipboard it is soooo versatile :D
This one was covered with a piece of previously alcohol inked card which had been stamped with Crafty Individuals crackle stamp before adding the image and... ooooh look BLING...lol
Next piece was covered with a part image and a sentiment... the edges inked with black stazon and I gave her a bling ring and a crown sent to me by my buddy Karen (I got some cooool friends) lol You can also get the crown from Scrapz (see my fab places to visit).
My favourite piece of them all is this one thanks to this gorgeous butterfly and heart from a piece of Chriss' jewellery...oooooh I just love it. The chipboard was covered in coloured card again stamped with Crafty Individuals crackle stamp... the image was cut out and mounted onto a piece from an earring before attaching it to the chipboard with the other bits.

Finally my bottle cap charm has the addition of some ea ring pieces and wings hand cut from cardboard and then covered in some lush velvet paper that I purchased from Scrapz. It is soooo strokeable but unfortunately the texture doesn't show up well in the photo... you just have to take my word for it :D

Okay I hope I haven't interrupted YOUR sleep pattern by making you nod off with the length of this post...lol

I'm off to grab me a coffee and blog hop :D I'm having withdrawal symptoms now.

Have a great day

hugs

Chris xx

Papergirls Altered jigsaw challenge

It's my turn to set the challenge over on The Papergirls blog so this month the theme is an altered jigsaw with added 'Bling' If you don't have a jigsaw piece you can alter there is a template available here that you can use which has four different sizes to suit your own individual taste.
Below is my jigsaw piece example which includes a Christmas image from Cens' crafty bits as the focal point. After printing I added white glitter to Santa's hat and beard using pva glue to add a 3d effect.
I stamped mini circles with a snowflake stamp (unknown) to make little paper baubles with added ribbon....

a little bit of bling and prima flowers adds a girly touch... and I stamped onto the background paper (free from Cen's loft Christmas freebies) using an Artistic Stamper flourish stamp and Red Brick distress ink from Scrapz before edging the whole jigsaw piece with gold Kryon pen.

A ribbon bow and hanger with more bling completed my little project....

and now I have another Christmas decoration to add to my ever growing collection :D

Thanks for looking and I hope that you will pop over to the Papergirls blog and join in with the challenge. You will find the other details including the closing date over there :D

Happy crafting

Hugs

Chris xx

Well HELLOOOOO again....

I bet you thought I was never coming back...lol Well just as I thought I was on the mend last week I began to have horrible dizzy spells (and no it's nowt to do wiv me bein' blonde...lol) After a visit to the GP it seems that a lot of people are picking up this virus and the dizziness is part and parcel of the illness. So it's taken me another week to pull myself together enough to feel like blogging or indeed crafting again. Thanks for all of the well wishes and I will be round to catch up with everyone as soon as I can... as well as catching up with the heaps of awards I have received that I haven't got round to passing on ( I have saved them all honest) and thanks to everyone who thought of me :D
Now then... on to the fun bit... I finally got to play with my alcohol inks, my white pen and my new stamps from Scrapz.... whoooooohooooo I am in luv!!!! OMG I totally totally adore them (why didn't I buy some before... what a lot of time I have wasted)
I have admired this Mona Lisa stamp on lots of bloggers creations and decided I just had to have it and because she is my new baby I gave her wings and a crown so she could feel all glam in her new surroundings. The Lost coast design stamps are fabulous and these trees made a fab background with the alcohol inks. The best bit is that I didn't lose the pads off my fingertips like I did with my sharpie pens...rofl (see my altered tin post lower down) and the inks were sooooo quick to use. Only trouble is... I need more... and some distress inks and................... oh I could go on and on... just as well I haven't written my Christmas list yet eh :D

Moving on...WHO CAN REMEMBER..... doing scraper boards at school where you used wax crayons on card covered with a layer of black and using something sharp to scrape your design onto your sheet. I used to love them as a kid and I know that you can buy loads of clever scraper boards now with pictures for you already to scrape yourself... well while visiting my favourite cheapo shops a while ago I saw these... in a pack for kids. So I bought some for DG not realizing how cool they are :D DG had a ball scraping his design into his aeroplane... which at one moment was a "poor plane" but ended up a "cool plane" when he had finished and then he gave one to ME...... whoohoooo

Big girls like to play too... so I got a helicopter and scraped off my own design so that I can use it on a layout of when DG and I shared a helicopter ride... I think they are well pretty and the colours as beautiful as the alcohol inks.

Okay to say thank you for being my blog buddies and for sticking around over the weeks I have been missing I have decided to do a couple of RAK's and if I can find more of these scraper shapes I will pop some of them in the goody bags along with some surprises. All you have to do to receive one is to leave a comment on this post and I will pick some names at random at the weekend to receive some goodies to play with :D You up for it ?...lol

Have a fab evening everyone and I will be back tomorrow with more catch up stuff.

hugs

Chris xx

Altered Atc holder

Not really a great deal of hands on crafting going on for me over the last couple of days but I'm hoping to rectify that tomorrow... so I decided to show you this clearAtc holder that I got from Scrapz a while ago that I just had to alter :)

The gorgeous stamp is from Crafty individuals and it is so right up my street right now because I just seem to be soooo into fairy stuff lately.

I had stamped the image onto thin card before cutting it out and and using my stamping inks to watercolour it. I had to have a touch of glitter too so added it around the outside of the image and dabbed some randomly on the flowers.

Thanks for looking and sorry I have neglected your blogs over the last couple of days... but I'm on my way round to catch up with you all now.

Have a great night

hugs

Chris xx

Gothic Arch challenge-favourite movie

Audrey Hepburn has always been one of my favourite actresses so it stands to reason that she would have to be featured on my Gothic Arch for this weeks challenge which is 'Favourite movie'...I chose The Nun's Story as my theme. I can't count how many times I have seen this film, my first time as a child and it continues to be one of my all time favourites along with Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady. I started out thinking of doing my Arch in a totally different way... but as I have a tendency to do... I ended up going in a totally different direction and ended up with an 3d image that took over the space on my arch, but as Audrey wears a Crucifix in the film I wanted to add it somewhere so I chose to add it behind my image.
I had so much fun playing with paper for this Arch... using white printer paper (yes I did say printer paper..lol) for most of my creation. Audrey's' image came from Scrapz and the bling strips from Habico. I just have to have my bling in there somewhere.

It took me quite a while to mold the paper to make my 3d image but I think it was worth it in the end :)

I don't suppose I could do it as well again and couldn't even begin to explain how I did it... but sometimes you can even surprise yourself when you start to experiment :) It's what I call... another happy accident...lol

Thanks for popping by

hugs

Chris xx

Mixed Media Monday challenge...What you love to do.

First of all my apologies because this is going to be a loooooooong post but what I love to do.... is play.... altering anything I can get my hands on right now and I enjoyed altering this 'Bird Feeder' so much that as usual I just couldn't stop adding things. The Mixed Media Monday challenge gave me the perfect excuse to play to my hearts content and as I haven't done any scrapping for a while maybe this is the next best thing :)
Tearing doodling and painting took a big part in my 4 hours of altering, curling edges and rolling paper was fun and the black and silver scroll paper from Anita's 6x6 Christmas paper pad just had me drooling and I just had to make a little birdie...

a bit of doodling and hand cutting flourish shapes took me ages but I felt it was worth it...

hand made flower shapes and bits of bling from Habico gave me my touch of 'pretty' :)

This is the finished front view... I have scrapped this photo of DD and DG before but my altered bird feeder is going to take pride of place now so I can look at it all the time. I didn't have any black flowers so changed the colour of one of my Papermania white fabric flowers with a black ink pad.... fab that you can do this because you can then have any colour flower you like to fit with your creation.

A bit more cutting and paper curling completed this flower and the squirls for the first side...

and then I tore some paper circles and added some bling...

to add as embellishments for the other side :)

More gorgeous paper and a white Papermania fabric flower for the roof of the reverse side of the bird feeder with some hand cut lettering for the sentiment behind my photograph...

some chipboard letters from Scrapz, more lush paper and doodling and extra bling and I was one happy bunny...lol Absolutely worn out I was by the time I had finished but once I start creating something sometimes I just can't seem to pull the reins in and stop.

I have to admit though that all of the time and patience I put into altering this item gave me a total buzz and I am really happy with the outcome. Sorry I forgot to take a before photo... but once I started to paint the naked wood I was lost and it just slipped my mind. Thanks for sharing with me and for getting to the end :)

Have a great day

hugs

Chris xx

Back in Blogland

Hi all... have you missed me... have ya...have ya...lol Well I think I've been missing from blogland for long enough, and since I couldn't get my other blog back I decided to return with a brand spanking new... all sparkling...clean as a whistle...new one :) Mind you it's taken me a while to set it up... I forgot how long it can take when starting at the very beginning again and I still have lots of stuff I want to add but all in good time eh. So for now my mojo is back with cherries on the top (said in a whisper with tongue in cheek..lol) don't want to scare it away again!! My first crafty offering began as an altered arch but I couldn't seem to stop once I started it so I just kept adding more and more until it turned into a 'hangy thing' lol.

Loving my big bling...from my fave £1 shop...ooooer..bargain!

Flowers, papers, scroll stickers and chipboard tag are Papermania,

The gorgeous black and white image is from Scrapz

I adore these bling strips from Habisco... which can be used for all sorts of crafts and are just delish...you just know I need bling...any kind is good but this bling is just sooooo gorgeous and delicate.

The sentiment strip is another purchase from Scrapz and the ribbon is from my stash.

Thanks for looking... see ya soon :)

hugs

Chris x