It was a Spookylicious Christmas!

Well, you would have had to have been there for the title of this post to make any sense at all and if you were there, then you'll know exactly what I'm referring to.

Friday the 13th - yes Black Friday was the first of our Open Days at Graphicus and the day we chose to launch the most fantastic collection of Elusive Images Halloween stamp sheets. I am totally biased I'm afraid and totally hooked on these stamps and have lots of projects planned for them which I'll share as we get nearer to All Hallows Eve. As soon as I got my sticky mitts on the new stamps I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them....... a Spooklylicious Gothic Arch book for starters!

Front Cover (Copper Leaf on Acetate)

The back cover

I used a very delicate lace border stamp from another EI stamp sheet (Damask Squares) and embossed it with a twinkling black embossing powder to make a wrought iron fence in front of the haunted house.

Mischievous Cats..... love them!

Not all of the stamps I used are new, last years Halloween stamps are in there too together with others from EI.The whole book opens in one long string but I didn't have anywhere I could lay it out and get a photograph of it. I tried putting it on the carpet but Diesel thought it was for him and tried to lay down on it. I think he wanted to squish those cats!

I definitely knew it was Friday the 13th. Just before leaving for work I lost my glasses, couldn't find them anywhere and I need them for driving. I eventually found them hanging off the ironing board where I left them the night before and went to load up the car with all my demo gear. The weather was horrid, lashing rain, dark clouds, blustery wind (very typical of the 31st of October actually). I opened my drivers door to put a crate in the back and the wind took the door back into a concrete capped pillar on the drive resulting in a very nice (arghhhhh) dint.

It was a fun day though with lots of new faces at the event and lots of friendly familiar ones too, despite the atrocious weather!

Saturday was officially the launch of the Christmas stamps and they are so beautiful. There's such a lot you can do with them when you study each element and think outside the box. I'll be posting pics of the Christmas samples I made, but it will have to wait a while as I left them all at work and didn't photograph them... so I'll save them for later.

We had the brilliant Jean Hardy with us on Saturday, she does such fabulous work and I only wish I could have snook away to watch her demos. That's the only problem with demonstrating, you miss out on what everyone else is doing. Fortunately, Glenda was set up right next to me so I kept poking my nose in to see what she was doing. She had some fab demos and her samples were so festive. It made me want to get going on my own Christmas cards there and then. She also had some printed page samples of her free Artylicious downloads which are available on her blog. If you love beautiful papers go take a look... this one is my absolute favorite and I'm going to go snag it for myself. Glenda had printed it onto 12 x 12 pearlescent card and all I can say is WOW!

It was a brilliant two days and lovely to see so many people join us, many of whom had driven for several hours to be there not to mention the train journeys too. I am so looking forward to the next ones.... get your planners out now and make a note - 'be at Graphicus on Friday the 15th and Saturday 16th October, 2010'. We have Joanna Sheen joining us on the Saturday but more about that nearer the time.

The weather may have been gruesome on Friday but it did improve over the weekend and today I was out in the garden doing a bit of tidying (more like pottering) and had to run in to get my camera. The Buddleia bush was alive with Butterflies, most of them were Cabbage White's but there was one which was so rich in colour and it was huge compared to the others. By the time I got the camera and got back outside Diesel had disturbed them all, he was trying to chase the Bumble Bees, but the one I wanted to photograph was still fluttering around and it eventually settled on the guttering. I think it was waiting for Diesel to disappear so it could get back to work but it gave me a great opportunity to get some pictures, just wish I'd had a long lens camera.

Well, that's all from me at the moment. Before I go however, I would like to say a big thank you for all your kind thoughts and lovely comments on my previous two posts about Geoff. I really appreciate your comments on all my posts but these were extra special to Stuart and I. Geoff's funeral was beautiful. He had asked that no one wore black, he didn't want flowers and he wanted it to be a happy event. We did our best but it was hard to be happy. It was a wonderful turn out, so many friends and so many beautiful words. Thank you for yours!

Goodbye Dear Friend

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
May the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,  

the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand.

Irish Blessing

Geoff quietly passed away yesterday morning at 05.35 am. Stuart has lost his very dear friend and his 'model railway' partner in crime. This gentle, sweet man will be deeply and sadly missed.

Shopping, Birthdays and Books

Life is incredibly busy at the moment, both at home and on the work front.

At home we have friends who need friends at the moment. My husband has two exceptionally good friends who mean everything to him, one he owes his life too, the other is fighting for his life being in the final stage of lung cancer. It's hard to see such a lovely man loosing his battle, it's also hard to believe that only five months ago he was fit and healthy.

And don't they say 'it never rains but it pours'? On Monday we were told that my husbands oldest sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer and Parkinson's Disease and she's in hospital at the moment. We don't know any more at this time as they are now doing more tests so we're keeping fingers and toes crossed that Joyce will have a good outcome.

At work we're really busy with a mountain of things going on and events in the planning and preparation stage. I taught a Bind It All workshop today and have another on Saturday which I'm really looking forward to... it's a canvas journal containing both canvas pages and watercolour paper. We're going to get lovely and painty and very creative - I'll try really hard to get some pictures of every ones creations that I can share with you all.

Glenda's brand new CD ROM 'Essence of Nature' arrived in the building today and they were  promptly re-packed and despatched to everyone who had placed advanced orders. This one's a beauty with gorgeous colours, inspirational designs and some lovely arty elements designed by Lesley. The class today got to work with some papers from the CD and the colour combinations they put together were fantastic.Thank you for a lovely day ladies, the art work you brought for me to see was totally stunning! Thank you for sharing.

Since my last post I have acquired a few new things as a result of a visit to York and  another trip out to the Metro Centre. I'm sure those of you who have visited Graphicus on our Open Days will have realised that I have quite a penchant for wire mannequins. Well, my collection has grown by four..... I have two that are designed to hang from the top of a door, a free standing one and a little beauty that Jill found for me to alter.

Here's one of the door hanging variety, I bought two (different designs) because one will be perfect for displaying some of my larger, articulated tag art and the other one will hang inside my studio for me to hang up my pinny's.

This one has a centre hook at the waist and several more hooks around the hem line. It looks a bit grey in this photo but it's ivory really.

I'm really pleased with this one.... it was another TK Maxx find..... love that shop! I also got a fab cream wire book stand that is perfect for displaying art canvases.

Another brill find that I must share with you is this....

I found this at my local Pound Store and yes.... it was £1.00. Brilliant for degunking my scissors and that little scraper is now in my tool kit as it is ideal for spreading texture paste and other such mediums.

My visit to the Metro Centre yielded this.... an amazing 'glittered' lap top skin. I actually bought two, the other is black and silver and features roses, a skull combined with a butterfly and sumptuous scroll work. So ME! I couldn't decide which one to put on first. It's getting a bit much when my lap top has a fashion wardrobe better than mine.

It was my Sister In Law Susan's 60th birthday a couple of weeks ago and she loves butterflies, so guess what her card featured?

These butterflies have been stamped onto acetate with StazOn and gilded with Abalone Metal Leaf.

I used a Tim Holtz Sizzix Die for the mount which is covered with Artylicious paper then stamped and embossed the beautiful corners with a glittering white embossing powder (all stamps by Elusive Images). I also made a matching box to house the card and she loved it (thank goodness).

And finally for this evening, I'll leave you with a little taster of a Piano Hinge Skewer Book that I taught on a recent workshop at Graphicus.

It's now getting seriously late and I'm always ready for some sleep after teaching for the day so I'll show you some more pictures of this and another one I've made, next time. For now......

Have fun, Happy Crafting .......create Beauty!

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!