Articulated Tags and Wagging Tails

Gosh, where did the week go?

I had all good intentions of finishing up my next lot of tags and getting them uploaded to the blog earlier in the week. Tuesday night, all was going well and I got the other option of the caged bird tag finished and got all set up to take the photographs..... camera battery flat, so it had to go on charge overnight. Memo to self: buy a back-up battery. I use a Canon IXUS 800 IS, it's a brilliant camera but has one downfall - there's no battery meter. One minute it's fine, the next minute there's a flashing red camera icon on the screen and then it closes itself up and goes to sleep. Fortunately, a full charge lasts quite some time but a spare battery is a necessity.

Wednesday evening, I made a quick get away from work and hot tailed it from Barny to Darlington to catch the kennels on my way home. Diesel was out of food and I had to pick up his next 15K bag before they closed or he would be going without his tea and demanding mine! While I was there I just had to give my new best friend a cuddle, let me introduce you to 'Reno'......

Isn't he just totally adorable? I first got to know him when he was just eight weeks old and he's now nineteen weeks, very calm, very obedient and a real sweetie. His personality reminds me very much of Diesel's with not a nasty thought in his head. I make no apologies for the following:

"Just look at my big teeth, I've got some new ones you know, Pllleeease have a look"?

"Don't you think I'm a good boy? I can sit here being very composed, when really all I want to do is this"..........

Needless to say, I really wanted to take him home with me but Andy (his Dad who owns the kennels) wouldn't let me!

OK, drooling time over - until the next time!

When I eventually got home I managed to get another tag finished up and got the photographs done too. I've used the 'BIG' tags again from Graphicus, they're 21.5cm x 10.5cm (81/2" x 41/8"). If you want 'need' these tags don't hang around, as far as I know they are a one-off and we won't be getting them back in stock. Trust me, if you love creating art on tags - you definitely need these!

This is the alternative Caged Bird tag with a beaded trim around the base of the cage. The letters are Grungeboard Mini's again and I coloured them with a Copic Sketch marker then coated them with Glossy Accents. The flower is from my own stash (it's a Prima that I brought back from a trip to Las Vegas a few years back - see, I do use my stash.... eventually)!

The next one is a fully articulated tag that I made in the workshop last Friday. The top section is joined to the mid section by  a working hinge.

There's another of those fab Tim Holtz Bigz dies, this one has several elements to it. You get a solid heart, an open decorative heart, wings and a crown.... I've cut them from plain Grungeboard.

This is another one I started as a demo piece during Friday's workshop. It's another image transfer onto Claudine Hellmuth's Sticky Backed Canvas with handmade paper flowers. You can see that it's not quite finished..... there's nothing on the hanging banner for a start....

.... and those flowers look pretty plain to me - too plain! So I got to work and finished it off and here's how it looks now.........

I've added Stickles to the stamped flowers in the background in rust and orange, attached a brass hanger at the top and there's those Grungeboard Mini's again on the banner. I originally coloured  the letters and the laurel leaves with Distress Inks but I didn't feel that the colour was strong enough so I used the Copic's to beef them up.... I'm really liking Copic's on Grungeboard!

Finally, I worked on the flowers and glitzed them up with some glass glitter, a touch of yellow Stickles around the pearl flower centres and a decorative brass corner was added to the image transfer.

Well, that's all for now - the weekend is here again and I'm off to York in the morning so I must get to bed. Whatever you're planning for the weekend, have fun and of course.....

Happy Crafting!

Vacation Over

As some of you may know or may have found out when you tried to visit here, my blog was being intermittently 'hi-jacked' and it has taken quite some time to work out how it was being done. It has been a case of removing items one by one to see what the outcome would be.

I must admit, I was so fed up of it at one point that I really lost the will to blog. I set up a blog on Typepad but really didn't want to have to start from scratch again which is what I would have had to do, as transferring all my stuff without finding out what was causing the problem may have meant that the problem moved with me!

After months of investigating I finally identified the offending widget and removed it, so hopefully, everything should behave itself now and you should no longer find yourself being transferred to the 'I Meetz You' site! It's certainly had a lot of testing every day and at different times of the day and night so we'll see how things go (fingers are firmly crossed). While I was messing around I decided to have a change of scenery and freshen things up a bit so things look a little different too.

I have a huge amount to catch up on, all the time I've been away from blogging I've been cataloging events and taking photo's so I'll be dipping in and out of the last six months in an effort to catch up some.

I'm going to make a start with some photos from an event last Friday, it was my 'Articulated Tag' workshop at Graphicus. The ladies who attended were lovely and they turned out some fabulous tags of their own but, as usual the day just flew by and we didn't get the last one completed so I promised to put the sample tags on here so they could catch up in their own time. Here's Part One:-

I've used the large #10 tags from Graphicus. They are a fabulous size and great for showcasing larger stamps, Tim Holtz die cuts and beautiful embellishments. We found these tags at CHA when we went to the trade show in Los Angeles back in January and I can't tell you how excited I was at the thought of having these beauties to work on. I was like a cat on a hot tim tin roof waiting for them to arrive from the USA.

The focal point of this tag is the image transfer onto Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Backed Canvas which has been triple embossed to give a glass-like finish. It's been embellished with the Tim Holtz Bigz Die - Tattered Florals which I've cut from Grungeboard that was first covered with a page from a dictionary and inked with Distress Inks after it was die cut, together with a lovely antiqued Key Hole. The pearly rose on top of the bird cage was made with the Melt Pot and Pearl UTEE. I made a mold from Mold-n-Pour using a button to create the impression.... I was really pleased with the result I got and of course, I can make it in a variety of colours too!

This tag features the Tim Holts Bigz Die, it's called Caged Bird and I've cut it from plain Grungeboard. The tag also features Fragments, Grungeboard Mini's, Film Strip Ribbon and a Philosophy Tag.

I've been working on another version of this tag this evening, with a beaded trim on the base of the bird cage. It's drying at the moment as I've coated the letters with Glossy Accents, I'll get it photographed tomorrow and onto the blog tomorrow evening with some more articulated tags from the workshop for you to see.

For now..... Happy Crafting!

Forty Fantastic Women, Four Classroom Assistants, Three Tutors, Two Tons of Wet Wipes and a Partridge In a Pear Tree! [Edited to include a very important omition].

Okay, so the bit about the Partridge isn't quite true, but it could've been.

This time last week the Graphicus Paradise Weekend Retreat had kicked off. It had been an incredulous journey preparing for the event and none of us quite knew what to expect other than a whole heap of hard work both in the run up to the event and then throughout the weekend.

It all started way back in the summer (did we have one of those?) Glenda and I visited several possible venues between Barndard Castle and Darlington looking for somewhere that was pleasing on the eye with good natural light, comfortable and capable of accommodating forty very enthusiastic crafters both in a classroom environment and with overnight accommodation for those whose needed it. We eventually chose the Blackwell Grange Hotel on the outskirts of Darlington.

The Blackwell Grange Hotel
 

Several months of planning ensued which eventually culminated in weeks of intense planning and workshop development, product sourcing and ordering, kit making, packing lists, dozens of boxes and crates of equipment, stock and everything else that is required to occupy forty avid crafters for the best part of three days.

The Official Event Name Strap

Can you believe that we chose Friday the 13th of November to plunge headfirst into our very first  Retreat? No, I couldn't either! But I have to say, it went swimmingly and we didn't forget a thing, we ran out of wet wipes, but we didn't actually forget anything.  I think we should run a competition to guess how many wipes we went through from Friday to Sunday afternoon.... you'd be horrified to know the answer!

We had planned to advertise the event in a couple of craft magazines but as soon as the word got out  - it was full.

Ladies travelled from the highlands of Scotland, from the far south of England,  across the Solent from the Isle of White and every point east and west of the mainland and in between. And at 1600 hours on Friday it all kicked off and we were straight into the first session.

Friday and Saturday night we worked until ten o'clock and these wonderful women kept going the whole time and were back in the classroom to start 'fresh as Daisy's' each morning at nine. They were totally awesome! If any of you are reading this I have to say a huge thank you to you all for your unwavering contributions.... you made the event a huge success!

Jean and Malcolm Setting Up their Workshop

Glenda and I taught most of the weekend and our guest tutor Jean Hardy from Crafty Individuals taught an amazing workshop on Sunday morning until lunch time. Jean was ably assisted by her business partner Malcolm and their products were such a huge success that Malcolm had to make a trip to bring more stock so that nobody was disappointed and missed out on the opportunity to shop.

There are four other people who worked tirelessly, morning to night, to ensure that everyone was happy......

Kath, Lesley and Annette

These fabulous ladies were totally incredible, not only did they look after all of our crafting guests so well but they were there every step of the way to help Glenda and I behind the scenes with whatever needed doing, before, during and after the Retreat. Kath, Lesley and Annette - YOU ARE STARS of the brightest magnitude!

There is one person missing from this photograph and that's David (Lesley's husband) who did a fabulous job of running backwards and forwards washing and refilling water pots all weekend, operating the Bind It All and saving our bacon by dashing to the nearest supermarket when the wet wipes started to run dangerously low. He wields a mean tin of chocolates too!

David and Adrian (Glenda's wonderful husband) lifted and shifted us in and out of the hotel and this was tactically a massive manoeuvre  as the hotel's trolley was out of action the whole weekend so everything had to be carried and ran some considerable distance. They also did a fabulous job as the Official Event Photographers recording all the action at the presentation when the Retreat came to an end on Sunday afternoon, you've never seen two photographers in charge of quite to many cameras. Well done Guys... you ROCK!

At Close of Play Sunday 15th November

Well, it's all over and I can't believe that it all came and went so quickly. Never mind, it's all to do again in April 2010 so we'd better get cracking, there's already a register of names that far exceeds the forty places available. April's Retreat is a repeat of this one but we have a brand new programme of events to develop for 2010's Autumn/Winter event. Yay!

I will leave you with some photos of the happenings of the weekend of the 13th - 15th November 2009:-

 

 

 

Just a snippet of photos but if you want to see more look HERE  and HERE

Happy Crafting to All! (And to the ladies who were there and are now back home.... get down and dirty) Yeh Baby!

Edit: What a total numpty I am and I feel awful. I was so excited reliving the events of last weekend that I totally forgot a very important thank you and that goes to everyone back at the office, the team that people rarely get to actually see in action and without whom none of what we do would be possible.

It was great to have some of our lovely ladies join us for dinner on the Friday evening, it would have been even nicer if we'd had time to do a bit more socialising before the late session got underway.

I can't tell you how hard they worked to help us pull it all together, Judith who took all the admin, hotel accommodation and communication on board and got it 100% right and Carrie who's PC skills and knowledge of our new Digital Printing Press was invaluable. The night before the event Carrie was there until the late hours printing and cutting masses of stuff in the guillotine to go into the kits. They were incredible. Val and Vickie did a superb job of cutting all the stamps out used at the Retreat..... that was one hell of a lot of cutting (and it was done at the very last minute as we nearly forgot all about the stamps, can you believe that)? Denise and Emma kept Graphicus and Elusive Images running while we were all immersed in the preparation, no mean feat I can tell you and everyone mucked in to get us all packed up and out of the door. A HUGE Thank You guys - you're the best!

I have one more tribute to pay but I'm going to leave that to a post of it's own.... to follow soon.

Happy Birthday Diesel

My blog post today is dedicated entirely to this young man...

Yes, today has been Diesel's 7th Birthday! I can't believe the years have passed so quickly but fortunately, it's true what they say about German Shepherds.... they never grow up. To prove it, here are some pics of Diesel doing precisely what Diesel does best - PLAYING! They are 'action' shots so please forgive the blurs.


Diesel is a real play boy, he's into all the extreme sports you'd expect of a super cool guy.... here he is taking a dip!

.....and still trying to play ball! We take him to the hydro therapy pool on a regular basis. GSD's are prone to problems with hip dysplasia and although he has an excellent hip score, we don't want to take any chances. Swimming is a great way to keep him fit and as long as he has a toy to retrieve he's quite happy, although if you take your eye off him for just one minute he turns around and swims with the current instead of against it... this dog's not daft by any means.

You should see him now, he's flat out on his blanket fast asleep. This little man's had a busy day.

Happy Birthday Diesel!

Busy, Busy, Busy..........

No, I haven't been on an extended holiday, nor have I ventured to the Moon... or Mars! I have simply been incredibly busy. Mainly with planning workshops, prepping workshops, planning and prepping for the fantastic up-coming Graphicus Retreat, Christmas (although that's not had much of a look in so far), working of course and what seems like a million other things. I'm afraid something has had to go and one of the things that has been totally neglected among others, is my poor old Blog.

I have been doing arty things but so few of them can be shared at the moment as they are either for Workshops, the Retreat or Magazine features. I'm still having fun though and one of the best things I've done for a long time took place over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

Glenda and Lesley taught a Photoshop Weekend at a fabulous Training Centre in Middlesbrough. I have been wanting to learn more about Photoshop for such a long time, I dabble but end up totally frustrated when I can't make it do what I want it to do. So, it seemed like the ideal opportunity to finally get to grips with it. Oh Boy, what a fantastic two days. Most of the ladies attending had travelled for hours, some from the opposite end of the country... they were all fab and threw themselves into it with gusto! It was quite intense and I went home totally brain boggled at the end of each day with so many new things bouncing around in my head. Sorry, although it was all about photo's I didn't get to take any during the workshop, much too busy.

I really didn't think I'd managed to retain very much at all but I took lots of notes - all I have to do was decipher them. Not quite sure what language I was writing in but the Egyptians would have been proud of me. I switched my lap top on late last night meaning to write up a magazine article as the deadline for submission was today and found the mouse hovering over a certain photo manipulation icon on the desk top. Well, that was it - I just had to click on it didn't I? I amazed myself at how much I had managed to retain and had a really great time playing er, practicing. I WAS practicing really Glenda! I do hope that everyone else on the course got as much out of it as I did and if you've ever wanted to get past the fear factor and start working with Photoshop, look out for any future workshop Glenda might run.... I can highly recommend it!

Ok, onto some painty 'arty' stuff. I've been doing quite a bit of painting of late. Most of which has been for Workshops, but one in particular featuring GrungePaper was just so much fun that I'm going to share some, ok... lots of photo's. Now don't go assessing my photoshop abilities will you? I've just grabbed these straight from my photo organiser 'untouched'. The stamps used are Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 and Elusive Images.....




Time is of the essence again and I don't have enough of it to write up all the details of the products used and what I've done with them so I'm afraid I'm going to tease you a little now. Those of you who are members of the Graphicus Guild will be able to read more about this project and other canvases in this months Guild Newsletter. If you're not a member but would like to know more ring Judith at Graphicus or go here to join the Guild and get in on the action each month.




I spent months trying different ways of making GrungePaper Roses but wasn't totally happy with the results I was getting, some were a bit 'flat' and not what I wanted at all. I would like to say a big thank you to Kat who was kind and generous in sharing information which most certainly helped me to perfect the technique. Kat has a lovely blog so do take a look if you have a moment.



I have seen some of the finished canvases produced by the ladies who attended. They continued working on them after the workshop until they had them just as they wanted them and they look absolutely spectacular..... their canvases were much bigger than mine too!

Well, I'm out of that four letter word (time.... ) again! I have some more art work to share but it will have to keep until later. There's another workshop to start prepping for Thursday and I'll try to find time to take some pictures to show you of all the wonderful pieces the ladies create on the Mail Art workshop.

For now.... Happy Crafting!