A New Challenge!

There is a new and very exciting challenge in blog land! Can you tell that I am a tad excited. Mind you it has taken me 24 hours to actually make the card. I started it several times and in the end just decided to enjoy myself ... which I did and this is the result.
The blog is called the Stampotique Designers Challenge and the maiden theme is Lurve. You don't have to use Stampotique stamps ... but they are sooooo darn cool ... why would n't you?
If you are wondering why it looks like two separate cards ... well basically ... I can't take a decent photo of the whole card so I have had to scan it and the red has gone all orangey on me ... you need to squint at it really and then pretend it is the same red as the part card in the small picture ... and if you just read all that and understood it ... I would be totally impressed :0) And actually you can ignore all that now because I did n't like the scanned image so I had another go with the camera!
My excuse is that it is way past me bedtime and then it will only be 9 more sleeps :0)

Bits and Pieces!

Well ... I did n't get chance to play with my new Timmy stamps as hoped ... but I did have a wonderful time at the second of my screen workshops on Saturday at LB Crafts. So a big Thank you to Alex, Helena, the two Sues, Mel, Geraldine and Pauline ... I hope you girls enjoyed it as much as I did. Bearing in mind I was an hour from home ... it was a complete surprise to find out that I actually went to school with Mel!

The piece of chip in the top picture is my artwork For the Bubbly Scrumptious blog today ... details of all products and destructions can be found here. And if you like this ... have a good dig through the rest of the posts on the blog ... there is some truly amazing inspiration from the other very talented design team members.

This last picture is of a mini book cover that I made for the front page of UK Scrappers as part of the Happy Daze design team. There is a downloadable PDF with instructions available here.

I did warn you in the title that this was all bits and pieces ... righty ho ... I need to get to the post office and get my kits ready for tomorrow's class and then ... fingers crossed ... I will get my new Timmy stamps out and have a play ... mind you I have ironing to do too ... maybe ... erm ... that will just have to wait :0)

Oh yeah ... and finally ... I just neeeeeeeeed to tell you my most exciting news ... in 13 more sleeps I am going to see Tim ... the man that can turn water into A Tequila sunrise with just one flat backed gem and a piece of ball chain ... in the flesh ... oh yes ... I am soooooooo excited :0)

I Did it!!!

I did you know! Christmas shopping got put off longer and longer yesterday ... then I realised my local department store was open until 10pm. So at precisely 6.30pm I dragged John into the one shop and ... wait for it ... drum roll please ... I bought almost all of my Christmas presents ... 28 of them ... all in 2 hours ... it was like the shop was open just for us ... no queuing ... nuffink! Cool huh? Yes I am feeling very smug ... apart from the difficulty I am having sitting down ... but to know more about that you have to read this post by Mrs D.

Now you think I am smugger than smug ... I will admit that the 15 carrier bags we attained are still just inside the dining room with all of their contents where I dumped them last night when we got in :0) I say I dumped them ... it was in fact John the pack horse that did all the carrying while I did the choosing part ... he came in very handy I must say! And I bought Christmas cards **Shock ... Horror**

Hopefully those of you that don't like clowns will be suitably distracted by now and won't have noticed that this post is indeed surrounded by them! This is the latest circle journal I have joined ... tis a stamping one so you send your journal and a stamp and hopefully it will be returned in 11 months time with lots of gorgeousness added to the pages.

I used the Zutter canvas covers which were a real joy to work on ... and one of the Zutter closure thingy wotsits and I have bound my journal with my trusty Bind-it-all. The stamps are Artistic Outpost and the harlequin background is indeed one of Tim's ... the man that can rescue ickle fluffy kittens from 100 feet pine trees with just a christmas tag and an Idea-ology key chain.

I am rather chuffed with the ticket office sign in at the back.

Blimey it's late ... night all!

There Ought to be Clowns!

It has been a while ... but when Moira sent me some canvases to play with ... well I got stuck straight in! And play I did! The canvases came with an ickle mini easel which is totally cute!

This canvas is 10cmX10cm and I covered it with Claudine Hellmuth's matte multi-medium before painting and stamping... and then again to seal it. The stamps I have used are Artistic Outpost "Send in the Clowns" and they are my new favourite! 

I know there are probably several bloggers out there that don't like clowns ... perhaps you could tell me why in your comments ... I have never really got that one ... I get Marmite and Tilda ... but clowns are just there to make us laugh ... are n't they????

The harlequin border around the sides is a Crafty Individuals stamp and the text stamped on top of that is from the "Send in the clowns" sheet too. You get loads for your money on that sheet I can tell you!

You will all be totally relieved to know that I am still showing no signs of man flu ... well I say that ... I sneezed earlier when a bit of dust went up my nose ... perhaps I have got man flu and should lay down in a darkened room :0)

If you want to read some more of my inane drivel ... I can't believe I spelt that right first time ... truly I did ... without spell checking and everything ... I will now be appearing on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog ... starting today ... every Monday ... as part of the Bubbly funk design team ... it would be totally cool if you popped in and said Hi.

Happy Monday people ... see you tomorrow ... or later if you have blogged :0)

The Date - Part 2!

For those of you who visited me yesterday ... I thought it only right to update you on my date with the dishy Doctor.

It did n't go well ... it lasted for about two minutes before he palmed me off on one of his un-dishy Doctor mates ... who insisted I lay down ... a bit too early in the proceedings for my liking ... and with a local anaesthetic and a scalpel ... he severed all ties ... apparently he does n't want to see me again! I'm not a complete moron ... a polite ... let's just be friends would have been sufficient!

Anyways I had to stagger from the hospital with a rather large eye patch and copious amounts of surgical tape stuck on my hair and in my face ... with my glasses over the top ... from the hospital to ring OH to come and get me ... Do you know what he said ... "I am just mashing the potatoes ... I will leave in about five minutes". I can't tell you what I said because I clicked that button on blogger that says ... No adult content!

Luckily after a night of no crafting my eye is healing nicely and I am pretty much back to normal today ... well normal for me anyway :0)

So this is my Spiced Marmalade Beer mat ... for the eagle eyed among you ... I shall apologise for the still wet glossy accents ... not much to say really ... you know all about the trinkets by now and the Wendy Vecchi stamps ... apart from the pumpkin which is indeed a flower turned upside down ... well kind of anyway ... another genius idea from the crafting goddess herself.

That's kind of it really - Have a good evening! And if you want to get any silly eye jokes out of your system ... just pop them in the comments :0)

Boo!

Did I make you jump? Huh? Did I?

This will be my one and only Halloween card for this year... I don't tend to make Halloween cards, but this year I have a little Japanese friend who is very excited by the whole pumpkin carving ... trick or treating experience so I have made this for her.

It is also my entry for this week's challenge over on the Allsort's blog where the theme is indeed Halloween :0)

The very cute stamp is by Whipper Snapper and the background stamps are from who knows where ... they are on grey rubber ... the sort you buy at shows without packaging and they have the price scribbled on the stamp ... I really have no clue who made them!

Colouring as  usual is with distress inks and Pro Markers ... the cat, lamp post and bat are all from the holiday grunge board set.

The sun is shining here and I have a date with a very good looking Doctor this afternoon ... he is going to look into my eyes ... sadly only for medical purposes ... S'pose you can't have everything!

Enjoy your week!

Mercredi!

Bonjour enfants ... Qu'est que C'est?

Ha! You did n't know I could speak french ... now did ya? Well ... erm ... I can't :0) I am just trying out distraction techniques to prevent you looking at the picture of my desk! Pretty bad huh?

Moving swiftly on ...

 

This beer mat is made using peeled paint distress ink ... Wendy Vecchi stamps ... a Copper Krylon pen and some Idea-ology trinkets :0)

I keep getting asked about prepping the beer mats and What sort of beer mats they are? and What I do with them after I have up-cycled them? ... so ... I have taken a few pictures of me covering the beer mats and will hopefully pop back later and upload them.  

So much to do and so little time :0)

Don't forget to share what is on your work desk and link back here ... C'mon ... it can't be any worse than mine ... Can it?

Righty-ho then everyone ... I am off to get busy ... once I have cleared up some of this mess ... maybe ... I'll just grab a coffee first and ... erm ... read the paper ... and ...