I'm Still Here!

Yes, I'm finally back, posting again - nearly two weeks since I last posted (shame on me!), but I've been suffering with the same "lurgy" that struck down David and Lindsay (and numerous other folks too).  So I'm afraid I've been doing very little craft-wise, but I am at last feeling more normal again so hope to get caught up on some crafty projects over the next week or so. 

I've been receiving some absolutely gorgeous ATCs in the post this week for the "Things that Go Bump" swap - I really don't want to part with any of them! - so if you want to participate and receive some of these spooky cards, there's still plenty of time - the deadline isn't till the end of October.

Rather belatedly, here are photos of all the wonderful and varied pages in my Grunge Chunky Book - I intended posting these sooner, but what with a combination of being unwell and the new Blogger uploading system which played up last time I tried to use it, this is the first opportunity I've had to show them off to you all. 

Grunge Chunky Book - Front Cover

The Timekeeper - Susan Jenneys (Artyjen)

Heart & Soul - June Benton

Heavy Metal - Sheila King

It's Only Words - Hilda Moffett

Ghost in the Machine - Ali Brandist

With a Little Flourish - My Page

I Dreamed a Dream - Lindsay Mason

Vintage Journeys - Sandra Zengler

Take Flight - Joanne Parkin

As you can see, everyone created some beautiful grunged up pages - thanks to each of you for making these books so gorgeous!  Now Sheila is running another chunky book swap (sorry, folks, it's already fully-booked!) with a deadline next March, but this time there are 12 of us in the swap and we've each chosen a theme for our own books (mine is "Heavenly Bodies" - interpret how you will, angels, planets, stars, sun and moon, glamorous ladies ......!!!) - there are some really interesting themes this time including "steampunk" (which I love but have never been confident enough to have a go at before - so time to jump in and play)!  Anyhow, I'm sure we'll all end up with a marvellous book each and lucky Sheila gets to see everyone's pages too (the biggest perk of hosting)!

Well, enough from me for now ...... I'll be back posting again soon (and I haven't forgotten that I promised you another challenge with a Christmassy theme, so watch this space)!

What the Court Decided ......

I can't believe how quickly the days are flying by and now we are very definitely into autumn, just this past week I've noticed all the yellow-brown leaves swirling around on the ground as they drop from the trees.  Actually, this is one of my favourite times of year ... there's a particular fresh feel to the air, especially early in the morning, and the light takes on a certain golden glow in the early evening (when it's not raining that is!).

So ..... we had a letter this morning to let us know what happened to the teenager who attacked Graham (he was in court on Monday) and as we suspected, as Graham says, he just got away with a "slap on the wrist".  Basically he received (1) a Rehabilitation Order with a supervision requirement for 12 months (this means he has to visit probation several times while they decide how best to rehabilitate him); (2) a Curfew Order from 9pm to 8am for 28 days (hmm, fat lot of use that is - four weeks! AND don't forget, he committed the offence at 4.30pm in the afternoon!); (3) an Activity Requirement for 28 days (this is some kind of community work that probation decides he has to do); and (4) £30 Compensation for Graham (which this youth is supposed to pay, contributing a bit at a time, and Graham won't receive it till it's all paid - so you can bet that'll be a long time coming!). 

It's all a bit of a joke really, isn't it?  And of course, just to add insult to injury, he can appeal if he thinks the sentence is too severe but the victim can't appeal if he thinks it isn't severe enough!  But that's the law for you - and the police are just as frustrated too, they put all the effort in bringing these "yobs" to court and then it all gets watered down by the "do-gooders".  It's really not much punishment at all, but we mustn't criminilise the little darlings, must we? ..... (that was the cry at Social Services when I worked in one of their children's homes).  So, anyhow, that's an end to it now and Graham just wants to put the whole thing behind him and bring closure to it.

I'll be at Oswaldtwistle on Saturday for Lindsay's Matchbox Shrine workshop at Topaz Crafts/DB Studio and will be bringing some of the grunge books with me for those of you who'll be there as well .... the rest are being posted out on Friday. 

Grunge Book Update

Just to let all those taking part in the grunge book swap know that I've now received everyone's pages - and what a wonderful lot of pages they are too!  What a job I'm going to have sorting them all out into books (81 of them - pages, that is)!  I've been working on the covers this week and I'll be setting aside a few hours over the next few days to put all the books together - I really can't wait to see what they all look like.  Some I'll be delivering by hand when I come over to Oswaldtwistle next weekend (18th Sept) for Lindsay's latest workshop at the Dawn Bibby Studio/Topaz Crafts and the others I hope to post out after the weekend (so keep a watch out for your postmen delivering some goodies next week) ..... :o)

I also just found out that some of my emails weren't being delivered, for whatever reason, so if you've sent me an email and not had a response - that's the reason why and NOT that I was ignoring anyone!  Suze, I know you left a comment to say you received the seaside atcs - yes, I did get your email and replied, but that's one that apparently just vapourised into cyberspace - grrr!!!

For anyone who's been wondering, the teenager who attacked Graham appeared at the youth court last week but his case has been adjourned until next Monday (13th Sept) at the magistrates' court, pending more reports from Social Services, etc - I hope this doesn't mean there are some "do-gooders" there trying to come up with justification for what he did (deprived childhood, etc, etc) - as my son says, lots of people have a bad start in life one way or another, but they don't all use it as an excuse for a life of violence or crime.

And finally, if anyone wants to join the "Glitter" ATC swap, there's still loads of time to play - just drop me an email to let me know and I'll sign you up!

My Little Helper ..... and another Grunge page done!

I recently joined a round robin swap run by Ali Brandist, to create an altered book.  It's the first real book that I've actually had a go at altering ..... we each had to choose an old book, not too big, and it had to be stitch-bound rather than glued.  The first task was to pull out a lot of the pages (leaving about 30 double pages or so), to give enough room for adding embellishments later on.  We then had instructions for completing the first two pages in our own book, along with giving it a title/theme.  After a bit of pondering, mine is going to be "Flights of Imagination", which I hope will give everyone plenty of scope for creating their own style and ideas in my book.

Anyway, to begin with, I had to cover up some parts of the text with torn post-it notes, collage over the rest of the pages with scraps of different textured papers, then gesso over that.  I then painted over the top of the gesso, once it had dried, using some lush coloured Paint Dabbers - Pink Sherbet, Raspberry, Wild Plum, Citrus and Pool - followed by a wash of Twinkling H2O's - I absolutely adore the finished effect and as you can see, my little helper was on hand to help with the painting!

I blended some of the acrylic paints together using a baby wipe and as you can see it ended up very colourful indeed - once dried, it can be turned into a background for an ATC or card (I'm all for recycling where I can and not wasting anything that might come in useful - one day)!

The next step was to add a couple of torn strips of paper, with inked edges, one on each page, then choose two or three stamps and stamp them randomly all over.  (I chose a dragonfly, the word "imagine" and a swirly stamp).

Finally, I added an image to each page, plus a quote, all relating to the title I chose for my book (this quote is apparently one of Jane Austen's but it just seemed to fit perfectly for the theme of my book).  A few embellishments .... and my pages are complete, just waiting to be posted out to the next person in the swap next week.  We will receive more instructions from Ali after that about altering the pages in the next book we receive.

I definitely had a lot of fun making these pages - I wasn't worried about everything being perfect; I wanted everything to look a little messy and imperfect - a good lesson for me as I have a tendency to be 'picky' and want everything 'a particular way' ... so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Then today, I got on a roll and made another Grunge page for my chunky book swap - this one is "It's Only Words" - I spritzed Mustard Seed, Broken China and Denim distress inks onto my craft sheet, then rubbed the mountboard page into the ink, front and back, then heatset it.  I stamped a Tim Holtz alphabet stamp all over, using Versamark, then embossed with an aqua embossing powder.  I also coloured some Stampbord with acrylic inks, then stamped over with the PaperArtsy 'writing hand' stamp and edged with Krylon gold pen.  I glued this over an image of a man, which I had peeled from a rather torn and tatty carte de vue that I had.  I glued a strip of text from an old book to some paper, painted it lightly with acrylic paints, gessoed, stamped, tore off bits, added more stamps, and stuck it along one side of the page.  I rubbed in some Frayed Burlap distress ink around the edges, along with a border of gold Krylon ink.  Other embellishments included pen nibs, a German scrap nib, a Rangers Muse Token and tag.  (I may add a little something more yet before it's finally finished, not sure yet).  But I'm happy to have more or less completed another page.

Now I was going to have another go with the Meltpot, but when I looked in my box of embossing powders I realised that I only had a very small amount of Clear UTEE left, not enough to have a proper go with (honest ..... it's not an excuse so I don't have to use the Meltpot! ... LOL!).  However, I am going to the craft show at Aintree Liverpool on Saturday, so I shall keep an eye out in case there's any on sale there - if not, I'll have to check out the local craft shops next week.  (I really do want to finish my mirror frame)!

A Little Bit of "Grunge" ..... and more Vintage Gentlemen

First of all, I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter break, whatever you've all been up to - mine has been fairly quiet and I was able to spend some time creating a few cards and another page for my "grunge" chunky book (so now I have two pages completed).  Here they are .....

"Vintage Journeys"

"Heavy Metal"

Here are a few more vintage gentlemen images for you to make use of - if you fancy joining the April Fools ATC swap (details in the sidebar), remember that you can use any of these images on your cards if you wish.  There's still plenty of time to take part in this swap - the closing date is not until 30th April. 

Here is a card I made for the April Fools swap, using one of these vintage images .......

Thank you to everyone who joined in the Butterflies and Dragonflies swap - I received some wonderful cards and I'm happy to say these have all been swapped out now and flew out to you all today.  I'll wait a few days, so as not to spoil the surprise element, and then post pics of all the cards that were created for this swap.

Mia has been causing havoc again! ..... she zaps around so fast, she can hardly keep up with herself.  One of her favourite things to do is to launch herself at top speed into the kitchen (it's a long narrow one), jump onto the wastebin and then onto the windowsill, still at lightning speed.  So last night, I was there in the kitchen, making a brew, when she tore past at what seemed like 100mph and the next thing I knew there was a tremendous crash and the sound of something(s) clattering down onto the stone floor - Mia had been unable to put her "brakes" on and had collided with a jar of marbles I have sitting on the windowsill - the jar amazingly was not broken but there was a shower of marbles spilling out all over the floor in every direction - of course, by now Mia had flown out the room and was hiding upstairs ("nothing to do with me, mum"!) - what a handful Mia is, the mischief she gets up to .... we just wonder what to expect next!