No Happy Dance today :(

Today I would like to ask you pray to whichever Gods or Goddesses you follow, sending love and strength to our dearest friend Glitterbabe aka Stef.

She is in a very hard place at this moment in time as her darling hubby is very ill in hospital.

All my Love to Stef and Clyde XXX

May the Great Mother Goddess rock you gently in her arms this day....and always

Fun in the sun :D

Didn't think I had anything to post this week(the 1st 2 weeks of school hols always chaos here), but then I remembered our impromptu trip to Bridlington on sunday :D

Instantly the men folk rushed to the beach, to select the appropriate offerings to submit to the gods of the sea(aka, chucking stones into the water!!! Why do all men do this???)

Meanwhile I noticed a large number of butchered crabs. Doesn't this look like an alien skull?? Am so going to use this for a journal page!!!

Then Chunky Monkey discovered that, if you stand still and stare down at the water rushing passed your feet you feel like your moving........until you get so dizzy.....you fall face first into the sea!!! HAHAHA! I didn't get a photo of that bit...was to busy widdling myself laughing hahaha...!

In the afternoon the sun came out .....and Chunky Monkey managed to coax Shorty down to the water(too cool to paddle:S). Isn't it a wonderful moment when you see your youngest get one over on your eldest??? :D

And finally a Family portrait...sun on sand :D
So all in all a wonderful family day out, just messing on the beach :D

So What's rocking your world this week ?

I am also Linking to Dezinaworlds Fun Fridays

Fun with colour!!!

While trying to access the self portrait class at Flutterbye, I spotted a section titled "Summer Witch party".....so that gave me a play theme for today :D

And in the continued spirit of "trying things out" I decided to embrace WAX CRAYONS. I have acquired wax crayons from party bags, Kiddies meal deals and goodness knows where else, yet we never use them. Since childhood I have had quite a snobby attitude towards these inifensive objects. The basic primary colours never seemed to be enough for my imagination, and so I shunned them.

So my project today was to use them to make a picture!!!

And here she is....my Summer Witch :D coloured only with wax crayons from a goodie bag!!!(line drawing blue biro, flesh tones 1 brown pencil crayon)

She is the 2nd page in my "try it out" book inspired by Amy of Flutterbye

I thought she looked lonely stuck in the middle of the white page, so I drew her some flowers :D

All colouring with 4 wax crayons(which can be seen in the background of some of the pics)

I normally work in quite a detailed manner(see the hands) which is why I could never cope with the chunkiness of crayons, but I really enjoyed the freedom of playing with them today :D

Challenges I would like to enter are;

Anything Goes Challenge# Pick of the Bunch

Fab n Funky#83 Clash of the Colours

Craft Your Days Away#25 Summertime

Linking to Summer Witch Party at Flutterbye :D XXX

1st page in my "try it out" book

Well today I got 5minutes to craft, so I decided to use the 1st page of my "try it out" book I made last week.

I love the big eyed girls that Amy makes, and I have been daring myself to do a self portrait. So I thought I'd combine the 2 and see what happened......

I sketched in pencil, then picked my fav lines out with an ink pen (please note this is a very..mmm...stylised self image as in much thinner haha!)

Then I got out my oil pastel crayons (that I've never used but were a great bargain so had to buy...) and tried adding colour

Amy has a free portrait class at Flutterbye called Inside Out, which I deliberately haven't watched yet

But will be doing tomorrow, so watch out for a more acurate picture coming soon :D XXX

This is Halloween!!

I love joining in with the "slightly creepy" challenges over at Burtonesque Dolls :D

This week they are challenging us to be inspired by the lyrics from any of the songs in "A Nightmare Before Christmas"

I have gone with a line from "This is Halloween" , "I am the shadow on the moon at night!"

and yes that is my shadow. the sun was so bright at Bridlington on sunday, that I got to take some very useful pics of shadows on the beach....cool huh!

I also found this fabby little di cutting thing from provo craft(cuttlebug dies), which I'd forgotten about in my stash, and used it to make the little embelli's .

The tree stamps are from Create a Scene by Creative Expressions.

I would like to enter the following challenges;

HDH Macabre Mondays #99 Out Damn Spot

Burtonesque Dolls# Musical Interlude

Critter Sketch Challenge#75 Sketch

See Amy ! See Gina make a book!

Today at The Butterfly Effect, Amy was talking about making a book to "try out" new techniques. We all see stuff on videos and tutorials we'd like to try, but don't always want to make the entire project......

So today I have started my own Art Technique Notebook, using one of the butchered books from a past post. I have taken some pages from another book(gluing 2 together to strengthen them) and bound them to the cover with brown paper and a card spine.

Scarily, I found myself reading the pages as I was gluing them.....I was right....total pap!

I have now started prepping the pages by painting the writing over with white acrylic

The first line of the first page I used read "The knife was not enough"...and I think I've got that covered :D XXX

Childhood sweethearts!

Thought I'd share this scrapbook page I made at Craftden last week. We had a free run at which papers we wanted to use, so I snagged these lovely purple pieces from Bo Bunny :D

The photo is of my mother (aged 5) and her best friend Barry Bennett(aged 6) dressed up for the VE Day celebrations back in 1945 (Did you notice my new desktop easel??? Wanted one of these for ages!!!)

He is carrying a pair of my mum's white ankle socks, because he didn't have any white gloves(AAAW Bless!) And my Grandad painted him a moustache with soot from the fireplace :)

I used metallic brads and stickles to add sparkle to the flowers, to match the coloured flower centres on the paper.

I just bought some black Dazzles peel offs from Hot off the Press, which I feel adds a little drama to the piece.

I am linking this piece to The Butterfly Effect....a site where we can just show off what we've been up to this week :D (now I'm off to make one of those books Amy was talking about!)

Also entering the following challenges;

Corrosive Challenge#126 All About The Kids

Allsorts Challenge#113 Free and Easy July

2 Sisters Challenge#49 Anything Goes

Theme Thursday challenge# Romance

To our Norwegian neighbours

Sincerest wishes for strength and healing for you and your loved ones!

From a mother XXX

Rocking my week!

First, catching this scheduled post, and finishing it, before it uploaded haha!

Don't you just LUUUUURVE the last week of school??? No idea what day it is most of the time, and then Chunky Monkey wants "to make his own cards" for 3 teachers with 24 hours notice!!!

He did a fabulous job colouring the images, but I didn't get chance to take pics.

Monday started well, with Darcy choosing the word COMMUNITY....

Years ago we lived near a little village in derbyshire called Great Longstone, and the people there welcomed us from day one, treating us like family, and letting us be part of their wonderfully friendly community...... We will be forever grateful to them for all the love they still share with us :D
The photo is me and some of the other mums "absailing" to raise charity money :D

The next thing I really enjoyed this week was collecting little pressies to send to a friend in america. She sounded sad at the beginning of the week, and the thought of making her smile powered my week.(Yes, I am russhing and forgot to rotate the piiy :S)
I wrapped all the bits in girlie pink papers, which I am sure she will find a use for :D
Had a fantastic time going to the Craft Fair at Doncaster, where I bought these scrummy popperswhich are soooo much more interesting than the tacky plastic buttons that were already on my rainbow jacket :)

They say scrummy things like " forever friends" and" Funny face"

Those are the things Rocking my world this week...what's rocking yours??

A Real Animal!! 2nd post

Been dying to use this stamp for ages!! He is Jayne Netley Mayhews creation, and is available from Joanna Sheens online store :D

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges;

Stamptacular Sundays#120 Animal Antics

Sentimental Sundays #64 For the Men in Your Life

Fab N Funky#82 Animal Magic

I so totally forgot to do this last week!!!

AMY

Is having a giveaway !!

To coincide with the start of her new Flutterbye ning class Soul Slam Book.

She is giving us a chance to win a $25.00 gift voucher for SKY BLUE PINK online craft store.

I have been following Amy's blog for a while now, and find her honest approach to all things arty very refreshing, so why not pop over and show her some love, and enter her giveaway while your there? :D XXX

Yes I am still here!

Wow! No post since friday!!! And no actual crafting either, so today I have this project for you :D

At the weekend I went with my bestest friend to a craft fair. We met Nancy Watts and Nigel May from Create and Craft, and they really were as lovely in real life as they are on tv :D

My friend bought some of those little artist easel cards that are perfect for displaying small projects for photos, and she gave me one to play with......

I coloured the "canvas" with assorted Tim Holtz distress inks(I like to mix em up a bit), then stamped and embossed the gothic doorway(by Crafty Individuals CI 249) with Debbi Moore's Dark Brown powder. I also embossed and around the edges with Personal Impressions Verdi Gris powder.
Next I added more Tim Holtz Distress inks to age it up a bit.......

I bought these fabulous brass and gunmetal poppers/tacks/brad things at the fair....

some of which I have added to my piece, along with this superb image of "man in hat" from La Blanche, again aged using TH inks :D

Challenges I would like to enter are;

Try It On Tuesdays# Steampunk

Alota Rubber Stamps#63 Circles

The Stamp Man challenge# Use something by Tim Holtz

Allsorts Challenge#112 Free and Easy July

Simon Says Stamp and Show some Embossing

Tuesday Throwdown#58 Something Metallic

What Rocked my world This Week?

LOADS OF STUFF!!! :D

Firstly, hubby finished his present job, so he has been home most of the week(hence fewer blog posts!). I'd mentioned that this was the first house we'd lived in that had no scented roses in the garden.....so he took me to one of my fav garden centres(Bamford in Derbyshire) and bought me 5 new rose bushes.. all different and all beautifully scented :D

Then on tuesday, my day lillies started to open...They are actually bright orange, don't know what happened with the pic? The flowers are about 6 inches across :)
Then there has been the joy of working on Darcy's page prompt this week, which was the word PLEDGE. I had to rummage through my memory box to find this(totally private and confidential) note I wrote to hubby when we first met(1982)
Don't know if you can read it.....but it is a truly heartfelt pledge I made to him on the day I realised he was the one!!
I couldn't really use it for my journal page, so it is back in the treasure box(see I can do soppy ;p)
I redecorated the bathroom on tuesday as well....well actually I was spray painting more colours onto my jacket....and the bath needed cleaning anyway.
And to round off a wonderful week...Chunky Monkey was presented with a certificate from school for outstanding achievement in MUSIC !! None of us play instruments so this was quite a surprise. He did ask for a keyboard a couple of months ago, and from a start point of zero, he has reached a year level of 3b, which I am told is very good!!

Well Done sweetheart, you are making me one proud mum!!!

So, What's rocking your world this week ??

:D XXX

second post :D

I really don't know whats happening to the colours in my photo's lately....looks much richer in real life.

It's Tag Week at Try It n Tuesday, and the theme is Birds and Bees!

I have used 4 stamp sets for this tag:

Joanna Sheen Lace doily diamond, and Jayne Netley Mayhew Budgerigar set(includes forget-me-not).

Clear Stamps, Prima Go Green, Lace border.

cArt-Us clear stamps Bee.

I highlighted the forget-me-nots with sakura glaze pens.

I would like to enter this tag for the following challenges;

Try It On Tuesday#Tag Week, Birds and Bees

Stamp and Fun=Creativity#55 Lace

Theme Thursdays# Tags

MAWTT#107 Favourite Things (bees and birds, and flowers)

Oldie But Goodie#23 Lace (doily and border stamps both over 6 monthe old)

Stampalot July Challenge# Anything goes(max 6 combined challenges) 2nd entry

Just a quickie :D

Just a quick post to share something I found amusing ......

Burtonesque dolls are asking us to put a Harry Potter character into a Tim Burton movie.

I thought it would be quite fun to see Professor Snape(prob got that name wrong...but you know who I mean...) cope with the Joker in Batman!

Enjoy :D XXX

Oh! And do you remember me sketching a necklace/pendant earlier this years? Well I've won a prize with it from HDH Macabre Mondays!!! Yay Me!!!

Meet the Husband!!!

This piece is purely for this weeks HDH Macabre Mondays Challenge#97 Loathsome Lotharios

I have again used the "trace from your own photo" method to create my main image, this time using a photo of hubby at a halloween do :D Cute huh!

Printed out on cheap copy paper, and coloured with markers. The dp is from Crafters Companions Fairyopolis cd.

Now this piece should make you think "eeoooow! I wouldn't want to meet him on a dark night!"..................but I sooooo would!! MWAHAhahahahah ;)

Captain Zac!!!

Today I want to share a mini album I have made for my youngest son. The pics are from his 5th birthday, when we had an awesome Pirate theme party :D

From left to right Cookie the ships cook/Me(read panto dame!!), the Tobster(now 6'2!!),Awesome Annie(now a qualified beautician!!!), Captain Nell/my sister(notice the Hook thumb!!), and in front Captain Zac(or chunky monkey as you will know him)

We had great fun......12 5 year olds, playing treasure hunt(courtesty of Captain Nell)...

and Shark Attack, which some people know as Icebergs. Sheets of newspaper represent islands. You "swim" round while music plays, then jump onto island when it stops. Last one on gets eaten by sharks...mwahaha :D You keep tearing bits off the island til only 1 person fits....the winner!!!
But my absolute favourite game(and very probably banned everywhere) is Pass the Bomb!!

It was like pass the parcel, but "piratised". I got some black balloons with skull and crossbones on, added a little flour as I pumped them up(don't blow into them as your breathe has moisture and makes the flour sticky).

Now imagine 12 5 year olds sitting in a circle....the music starts and they pass the balloon around.....music stops... the person holding the balloon has to hold it over their head while everyone else counts down from 5...4...3...2......1........will the bomb go off or not?????

I had a pin in my had, and every so often ......BANG!!!

The flour makes a big smoke cloud...and the kids have hysterics mwahahahahaha.....

Now people may think this sounds cruel, but I ran out of "bombs" before the kids got bored with this one!!
This pic is just a close up of the faux stitching around the front cover :D

The pirate images are from Simply Betty's Funky Pirate collection, and the crossbones image backing paper I made using an O and an X alphabet stamp :D

Challenges I am entering this project for are;

Simply Betty's Scrappy Challenge# Mini album(using SB images)

Sentimental Sundays#63 Inky Fingers

Simon Says Stamp and Show some Stitching

Deja Vu???

Now I may have posted about this jacket before........but I was reminded about it's existence by Amy's post at The Butterfly Effect, discussing UN finished art projects.....

I had a whole load of "in process" photo's, starting with the plain cream jacket I bought in a sale

but they got bored and seem to have hidden themselves somewhere in my millions of photos on file........
I still have to add colours, as these dried too pale. I wear a lot of black..., but wanted something a bit different jacket wise. Hubby had to go find 3 darker colours, and came back with black chestnut brown and deep purple spray on fabric paint(thanks for the memory jog Natasha!)

I am thinking of stencilling over it, as well as the splodgy look.....we'll just have to wait and see how it evolves :D XXX

Reasons to be cheerful part..........?

What's rocking my world this friday????

I had real fun making this front page for my art journal#2, after finding my home decor sponge stamps earlier this week :D. I stamped the bee onto paterned paper and then zen doodled it, great fun on a grey rainy day!( I luuuuurve buzzy bees :D)

This is the layout form last nights scrapbook class at Craftden, the pic is "Chunky Monkey" laughing his self silly, I think his dad was pulling faces, but I can still hear him laughing whenever I look at this pic :D
And this is my journal page for this week. Darcy gave us the word ILLUMINATE= to give knowledge to...

I always associate that word with studious monks, lovingly decorating manuscript (my perfect lifestyle choice, art and rare books....mmmmmmm...)

And finding a new challenge starting up this week for Journal pages!!! Check out Dawns Journal Journeys challenge and find some extra inspiration :D

Thank you to my Butterfly Bush, for flowering beautifully, even though the weather has been so strange, and the weather for providing some of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen :D

I'd also like to take this oppurtunity to say thank you to June Mac at Dezinaworld, who 1st inspired me to have a go at collage work, and is such a generous loving person :D

Challenges I am entering are;

Journal Journeys challenge#01 Pink and Orange (illuminate page)

Theme Thursday# Wings (buzzy bee page)

Flutterby Wednesday#161 open theme(don't know if bees count)

Take a word#36 Stars and Stripes(scrap layout)

Linking to;

Dezinaworld Fun Fridays

Rocking Your World Friday