About Time!

Oh dearie me! I really must try harder to write more often! It can't be that difficult, surely?!!! Anyway, lots to cover as usual so let's get on with it!

I'll start with my health! For the last week I've had a rather nasty virus which really has laid me up!The only positive  is that my daughter had it too and that meant I didn't have Joshua, who, incidentally, had given it to us in the first place!!!  Still, on the mend now and getting back to normal! Thank Goodness!!

After all the kitties going off to their new homes it felt a bit quiet here but 10 days ago I collected a new addition to our furry family. Her pedigree name is Laceylou Queen Cleopatra but I call her Kizzie! She's a real feisty little character which is good when faced with 7 others who have been very good with her, considering all her 'growling' ! It does sound rather pathetic but it does the trick! Here's some photos of her. She is a blue tortie mitted Ragdoll and once she's old enough she and Rudi should make some lovely babies!

Gorgeous isn't she?

Onto crafting - I have actually managed to get quite a bit done everything considered! The first is a little wall hanging for my 9 yr old granddaughter, Poppy. She absolutely loves anything to do with unicorns. She had seen a tiny hanging heart in a gift shop which said 'Iwish I was a unicorn'. It was expensive for what it was and not particularly pretty so I said her Id make her one. Here it is - she was very pleased with it! I used Hunkydory For the Love of Stamps and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens to colour in.

My next project was supposed to be another entry into the CB Colour Challenge 34 but I just didn't get round to blogging about it! I enjoyed playing with the Here be Dragons and Magical Landscapes sets.

Although a trifle late, I have made a wall hanging for my son's new baby (not so new as she was born in June!) and a frame with her initial created with buttons.

Once in button frame mode I decide to make Joshua one! I really enjoy doing these!

Sooo, as seems to be the case, my eldest daughter wanted to give a colleague a house warming gift and had seen a few things which she liked the idea of. She sends me pictures of bits and pieces and leaves it to me to create an original and bespoke item. Here it is!

I loved making this partly because I had taught Sally when she was 11 and now her husband works with my daughter! Sally apparently was so chuffed to have something made by her junior school teacher!!

So that brings me to my final item - the entry for the final Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge. I have to say I'm a bit upset its the last as I've only just found it! Ah well, such is life!!!

Here's the new colour swatch 

And here's my first effort - I may well do another!

I had just received the butterflies bundle as demonstrated on Hochanda so I decided to use one of the sets in its entirety! I first painted a canvas board with the pale lilac colour using a mix of Pebeo chalky acrylic dusky pink and a blue Brusho. I then used a butterfly stencil and Imagination Sparkle Mediums for the background. For the butterflies, I first spritzed an A4 piece of card with Imagination Multi Media Sprays using the colours in the swatch. I then stamped all the butterflies on the card with Versafine Black Onyx and fussy cut them out! I arranged them on the board and hot glued them on. The finishing touches were small dots of Nuvo drops and a final spray of Crafters Companion Iridescent Spray and Sparkle. Lastly, (an afterthought actually) I stamped an AlteNew sentiment which I thought was appropriate for both the butterflies and my daughter,  cut it up, distressed the edge with Dusty Concorde distress ink and added it to the piece. I think it balances the whole thing and gives is some meaning!  I'm going to give this to my youngest daughter as it matches her bedroom décor perfectly!! It's a simple piece but I hope you like it as much as I do!

Well, that's all for now  - I'm watching Prison Break and I'm finding it hard to follow the action and type at the same time!!! :)

Busy, busy, busy!

Hello at last! I can't believe how long it is since my last  post! I've had a busy few weeks that's for sure! My grandson, Joshua,  obviously takes up a lot of my time but at least he does have a sleep (generally) in the morning so I get between an hour and an hour and a half to catch up on various jobs etc. I tend not to go to my craft cabin because it's just not long enough to be able to get stuck into a project! He is a little darling though so I don't mind! Here he is with his lovely big sister, Isabelle. How can anyone resist that cute little face!

Soooo onto the kittens! We've had rather a torrid time over the last 3 weeks as they've all had a reaction to the vaccinations. I've been back and forth  to the vets with poorly kittens for more times than I care to remember. This is the first litter to have had these problems and it's not nice! I've since done a lot of reading and research regarding these vaccinations and I have learned a great deal. The main thing is that there is a different vaccine which is non-live, therefore not as likely to cause problems in small kittens. I've already asked the vet about having that for the next litter. I'm waiting for them to decide if they can order it in! Well, if they can't, they won't have my custom anymore! This weekend, they go to their forever homes, so it'll be very strange without them! It's always a bit sad seeing them go as they have become part of my cat family!

Right, now onto crafting! Despite being busy, I have managed to get a good deal of time holed up in my cabin! I've made a few cards and gifts for family and friends - here they are! I'm pretty pleased with them!

I've also played around with a couple of things just for pleasure!

The last thing I've made is the entry for the Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge:

I decided to use the Spring Fairy (March) stamp set as I had just received it! I set about creating a background piece of card which had all four colours in it. I sponged on 4 colours of Pebeo Deco Crème acrylic paint randomly but decide to mute them by dry brushing white gesso over it. Then I stamped the March fairy on another piece of white card using Versafine smokey grey. I masked the image and used Gansai Tambi watercolours to create a pale landscape background. I used mica watercolours to paint the fairy as I wanted her to shimmer against the matt background. Next, I stamped two castle images and clouds from the CB magical landscapes set and painted them in GT. I used Lesley's technique to combine the two images but as I had stamped in grey I had to use a pencil for the additional lines. At the bottom of the picture I stamped some CB foliage silhouettes in Versfine Onyx black. (I wish I had done them in the grey as I think they are a little heavy but hey-ho, hindsight is a wonderful thing!) I mounted the card onto black after first edging it in a fine gold pen. I decided to offset it on the background mat as I wanted to use the lovely swirl in the March Fairy stamp set. I stamped this down the side in Versafine Sepia and used a Dreamees bronze glitter embossing powder to make it sparkle. The tag (white card sponged with one of the acrylic colours) is from a Spellbinders Celtic die set and stamped with the word Spring from the same stamp set as the fairy. Next, I used a Tattered lace floral die set to cut flower shapes from coloured parchment. I layered the die cuts and shaped them to form dimensional flowers which I arranged round the bottom of the card and on the tag. To finish them off I added centres of Ranger Stickles in gold. I like the way they add an ethereal and spring like element to the whole piece. Finally I mounted it onto some teal mirror card. All in all I'm very pleased with the result, I enjoyed creating it so I hope you like it too!
Phew..... I think that's about it for now! I'm off to watch EastEnders!!

On Target!

I'm feeling very pleased with myself as I've actually managed to write this blog without leaving ages between the last one!

I've had a lovely weekend spending time with my wonderful children and grandchildren. On Sunday my daughter had laid on afternoon tea in the shape of a Mad Hatters Tea Party! The food was delicious - tasty sandwiches (no crusts just like the Ritz!) and homemade scones and coffee and Walnut cake. What more could I ask for?!!

So onto crafting! Today I completed a piece in my Art Journal to enter into the Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge 33. Here's the colour palette we have to work with:

Colour Pallette

And here is my interpretation:

I started by painting the page with Starlight Lilac Mist paint, leaving the centre almost free of colour to create a vignette effect. I then used Memento Inks to stamp around the edges with some of the worker stamps from the CB Song Bird Crocus set. I finished the background by distressing the edges with DI Walnut Stain. I created the topper by cutting an oval from white card and stamping the bird (from the same set as above) with Versafine Spanish Moss . I painted the image with watercolours from my Gansai Tambi collection.  I then decided that there needed to be something more beneath the topper as it looked a bit empty so I stamped the crocus image randomly round the oval's footprint and painted them with Pebeo Deco Crème Matt Iris. It looked too flat so I used Spectrum Noir sparkle pens to add shading and highlights in white pen. Before adding the topper I attached a length of ribbon for added texture, embellished with pearls made using a glue gun and green glitter. I used Aged Mahogany DI around the edge of the topper in order to give it depth and then glued it down. The final touch was the bow in matching ribbon. Hope you like it!

Finally, the kittens are now coming up to 9 weeks old this week and will be visiting the vet for their first of two vaccinations. They don't like it but it's a necessity!

Well that's it for this post! Have a good week everyone!

Finally got to write!

I can't believe I've left it this long again! I'm not very good at this blogging lark! However, here I am with an update!
I'm very proud to say that my entry into the February / March Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge as seen in my third blog was chosen to be in the top 3, hence the new logo on my blog which links to the CB Challenge blog. Not bad for a first attempt! Well chuffed!!!

As far as craft goes, I've been pottering in the cabin and creating a couple of things. The first is a mini printers tray, painted with Starlight paints and finished with Pebeo gold gilding wax. For the mat I used Anna Marie Bliss green paper.  The tray has a fairy theme and the embellishments include some Clarity Wee Folk fairy stamps together with a selection of images and sentiments  from the Hunkydory For the Love of Stamps set. I used a Versafine black tuxedo ink pad and then a clear sparkle heat embossing powder. I filled the mini glass bottle with glitter and added it to the front flower  design.  Inside I glued in some gilded metal charms.

The next project was a canvas. I'd seen this demonstrated on Hochanda by Ruth Sadler. I cut a heart out of the centre of the canvas and glued a sheet of Anna Marie Bliss Green Script paper behind the aperture. I then used a glue gun with a sparkly silver glue and drizzled around the edge several times. I masked the centre heart and then spritzed Brusho powders to create a background. I then embossed a wooden  word 'love' and three wooden hearts with Silver Tinsel embossing powder and glued then on. I drizzled the same glue around the edged of the small hearts. I am really pleased with the result!

To end this blog, I've obviously been taking care of the kittens, now 8 weeks old and they continue to become more and more gorgeous! I have registered them with TICA and am awaiting the paperwork.

Who can possibly resist these little bundles of fluffy cuteness! From the top right we have:

Scallyrags Ocean Star (Seal Tabby colourpoint), Scallyrags Arctic Moon (Cream mitted tabby colourpoint), Scallyrags Savannah Sky (Seal colourpoint) and Scallyrags Desert Sun (Red Tabby colourpoint).   

My next project is a piece to enter into the new Chocloate Baroque Colour Challenge. Once finished Ill be posting it!

A little bit of not a lot!

Bang goes my promise to myself to write something at least every 3 or 4 days! I think its been at least three weeks since the last post! However, better late than never and I do have the feeble excuse that I've been very busy during the day and knackered in the evening!
So what have I been up to you might ask? Well, lots of babysitting which tends to cramp my crafty exploits which are a few grabbed hours when the house is quiet! I have also been tending to the lovely kittens which haven't been so lovely with the diarrhea they've had! Good job some anti biotics have sorted that  unpleasantness!
We've also had  visiting female cats to keep Rudi busy - some more successfully than others! He's experienced some very angry exchanges but he does need to 'man up' if he's to become a successful stud boy! Bless him!
Now to the craft side of my life - I have experimented with Tim Holtz alcohol inks and created a fairy scene using Lavinia Stamps which I am quite pleased with as a first attempt.
 I have made a beautiful birthday number plaque using an Anna Marie set and papers for my daughter's mother in law , a diamond top birthday card for my youngest daughter and a twist and pop Mothers Day card for my 92 yr old mum! I also had a go at papercutting hence the Crazy Cat Lady pic (Paper Panda design)! I'm currently in the process of making a printers tray booklet just for the hell of it! 
My newest craft purchase is a silk screen printing device. I've unpacked it, bought some material to use -  now I've just got to have a go! If only I could find the time!

Comp and Kits!

Hey there! Later than planned for my next post but not to worry! At least I've completed a project to enter in the Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge this month and here it is!

I used Brushos to make the background, stamped it with leaves from the Autumn Poppy set using Versmark and embossed them with Debbie Moore's Copper Metal Magic embossing powder. I then spread Nuvo Embellishment mousse(Cosmic Brown) through a brick stencil. and added die cut hexagons ( Tattered Lace panel die) which I also used the mousse on. Next, I die cut some sprigs(Spellbinders) from green card and used the same mousse to gild them. The butterfly is from the Chocolate Baroque Just Butterflies set. It was stamped with Versamark and embossed with the same embossing powder as above. I coloured it with Tim Holtz Distress inks (Forest Green, Crushed Olive and Peacock Feathers). The sentiment from CB Artistic Affirmations was done in the same manner!

Finally, I already had some Craftwork Cards flowers which I had made up a while ago. They weren't the right colours but I inked them with the distress inks then gilded them with the embossing mousse. As an afterthought I also added some previously cut ivy (Tattered Lace Charisma Ivy) which I also gilded! This was a colour palette which I probably would never had used as I am a pinky purple sort of girl but I have to say I am pleasantly surprised with the result!

On another subject, my kittens are now three weeks old and desperate to explore the world. It will only be a matter of days until they climb out and then the world will be their oyster! Their Mum Roxy is so good and laid back with them but the revelation is Daddy Rudi who loves them to bits and likes to groom them and watch over them! He's such a good boy!

 Four 3 week old kitties

 Mummy Roxy

Daddy Rudi

So tonight I'm going to get some time in my crafty cabin while lovely hubby watches his favourite team Man United on the tellybox! Hopefully I'll have something to show for my next  post!

Art, kittens and a funeral!

Ah well! I didn't mean to leave it this long before posting another blog but hey ho better late than never!
Since my last post I've finished the card I was working on and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with it and I hope Johnny loves it! I won't post it on here as it's his Valentine card so probably better to keep it secret for now! I have also finished two pages in my art journal - a watercolor scene featuring a kingfisher and a piece with two 'tiles' I created using mountboard, a stamp, coloured pencils then triple embossed with ultra thick embossing powder and watercolour background which was covered in glitter . I'm pleased with both but as usual I find myself looking critically at them and feeling that there could be improvements! I guess that's the lot of any artist!

I've been pretty busy also with nannie duties! I managed to take both the youngest grandchildren to visit my mum (their great grandmother). She loves to see the growing family but her dementia means she can't quite understand that I'm not their mother! It's pointless trying to explain - I'll just take it as a compliment in that I obviously don't look my age!!

I have also visited two of the last litter of kittens in their new home this week. It was lovely to see how they've grown and are so comfortable and happy. Its always hard to say goodbye to them as they become part of my family for 14 weeks but it's all worthwhile when everything works out well and they are making someone else very happy!

Today John, my daughter Zoe and I attended the funeral of a friend. He was such a lovely, kind and gentle man - so sad that he was taken from this world too early. He lived his life to the utmost and encouraged his children and others to do as much as possible, to get as much out of life as possible and to never stop looking for new challenges. I shall endeavor to follow his ideals. It was an emotional day but also one of great warmth and happiness as we all remembered and celebrated his life. Rest in peace Percy Piper.

On that note I feel its time to close this blog. It wont be as long between this and the next, I promise!