Artful Times - Inchies

Oh My - there were some inspiring piece amongst the "Layered Acetate" challenge!  Thank you one and all.

Well today it is my turn again and you all know how I love doing "inchies" so that is my choice for this Challenge here on Artful Times.  I decided to use something different from my usual selection of inchie stamps and used this Tin Can Mail one depicting 'four pretty maids all in a row'.

As you can see, this could be a Less Is More Card as there is so little on it.  That's the way I wanted it though.

If any of you have this stamp you will notice that I have swapped the two ends about.  When I looked at the images I thought they represented the four seasons, the first being spring and the last (as in my picture) being winter.  So that is why they are arranged this way.  Don't you think they are the seasons now?

First of all I stamped the image on mountboard (you will probably remember I ALWAYS use mountboard for my inchies, just think it give a bit more substance to such a small piece.  You will also notice that they all finish at the neck whereas on the actual stamp you do see a bit of the gowns they are wearing - well, the neckline!  I had to do this to make the two ends measure 1" x 1".

First of all I tried colouring with watercolours but found that this particular mountboard (I was using the back - doh) rubbed up with the addition of water so I used my pencil crayons to get the colour.  Next they were double mounted and then placed on a plain white card.  Whether I will add a word at the bottom or not later remains to be seen.

Now, we have had some super entries in our challenges to date so I hope we get some in this challenge also.  Thanks so much for joining us with our challenges particularly our regulars, it is nice to see how you interpret our themes.

Over to Artful Times to see what Von, Sam and you come up with.

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Nothing much to show, after a wet Bank Holiday Weekend which I worked (show at Leigh - mad busy on Saturday, in fact hectic in the morning, Sunday morning busy, quietened down a bit in the afternoon) and a day recovering on Monday with a trip to the Trafford Centre to pick up my new Apple Macbook.

Tuesday - he spent downloading stuff from his old PC but mine would not have it.  Endless time spent talking to someone at Apple and still it kept falling over.  Back to my old one which has not been a good buy despite it being an expensive one.  Seems to read (judging by comments) that it is the Apple Mac that is the problem - it isn't - it is the Sony Vio.  Driving us mad.  Chas now copying all my documents, loading them on his old laptop and then transferring them to my Apple Mac.  He could not believe how slow my (laptop) machine was - I've been telling him for ages.

As for me, I have been busy getting a tutorial ready and that went wrong so here you can see how it got left on my desk last night.  I just gave up and went to bed.

If you look on my red mat to the right you can see the adorable bicycle die I bought with my earnings and the small MS score board in the centre.  Love these purchases and I also love this die storage box for my Memory Box and Cheery Lynn dies which I got a short while back.  I think I now need some more of the magnetic sheets - Tracey said it holds 20 of them (or was it 24?).

All my Memory Box and Cheery Lynn dies, Score Board and Art Bin are from Oyster Stamps where I do most of my buying these days.

Anyway, I guess I had better sign off as 'beddy byes' is calling, I am so tired.  You should head over to WOYWW now where Miss Julia has links to endless desks where all the lovely folks show you lots of goodies, share tips and showcase their creations.

I'll try to put something on another week - oh, there is the card at the back right hand side that I am doing a tute for - got to get it done by tonight as I promised some of the customers I'd have one up.

Don't forget there is some Followers Blog Candy coming up shortly - need another 20 followers and then BINGO!!

At Last

At long last I have got around to posting about my day out last Sunday in Lincoln.  Two of my friends, Mary and Liz both are members of Nolitex and they had an exhibition of their work in Easton Gardens.  If you have never been there it is well worth a trip down to Lincoln to see this beautiful place which is being so lovingly restored.  If you hurry you can see the Nolitex exhibition which is due to close on Bank Holiday Monday.  Just in case you can't then here are a few of the things you can see:

This is by Carly Gilliatt - a favourite of mine - Poppies

Mary's The White Wood - a combination of Mary's own photographs of eucalyptus trees and distant views of the buildings of Easton Walled Gardens in which both aspects are reduced to their simplest forms.  I took a couple of photographs of this large hanging but did like the one through the trees where the bough of the tree formed an arch above.

This was one of Chas's favourites - hanging discs by Liz - Moon Garden.  These reminded me of Dream Catchers and came in several different sizes.  You can see how they looked as you approached this grand old tree and below I have shown you a sample:

Moon Garden is Liz's interpretation of the garden at night - "snapshots glimpsed in moonlight moving as the viewer moves changing with the shadows cast by a full moon.  Sometimes in silhouette, sometimes in soft silvery light."

A close up of one of Mary's "sticks" - first inspired by Aboriginal grave posts.  Some of the posts showed the growth of flowers from seed to flower to decay whilst others depicted Aboriginal symbols.

As we walked up through the archway where it was lovely and cool (it was a very hot day on the Sunday) we came across this building with this rather lovely decorated door with it's garland of apples contrasting beautifully with the colour of the door by Joan Richardson.

Eventually we came across Liz's pocket watch

Made up of zillions of tiny faces (more of this on Liz's own blog). Totally fascinating to stand and look at in great detail - probably my favourite - a mixture of "Time" and claywork, two things I love (and faces too).

Even the fob was included and the chain was made, like the watch, from Cloud Clay (for sale from Liz).

The next exhibit was one I had been waiting to see - Liz's garden of flowers made from old gloves - yes, old gloves.

Do visit Liz's blog and see the Latin names for these flowers.

And here I am with the talented lady herself.

Just before the final exhibit Chinese Lanterns by Kate Pike:

There are many more exhibits by many talented artists and I do urge you to pay the Gardens a visit if you can over this weekend.  Mary's books were a particular favourite of mine, Janet Wain's "soldier soldier", Sally Malloy's "bedecked chair" and Judith Burnett with her "Seed Packets" to name just a few.

It was a lovely day out - made all the better with meeting up with my two friends who I haven't seen for months.

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Morning and a Big Welcome to you all and to my latest followers, Sally, Amy and Alison.  I only need another 21 followers to reach that magical number with a couple of zeros at the end and then I will be putting out a lovely bumper blog candy to say thank you for following.

This is my desk - as left on Tuesday - due to my not doing anything on it as I am away staying with my friend Wendy for a few days.  I am hoping some kind person will link me to Julia and her wonderful website WOYWW.

What is it?  It's where a load of us meet up every Wednesday and share what we have been doing, what is on our desks and build friendships.

Nothing much has been going on here since my little spurt with the Gnomes for Jo's grandee apart from a great day out on Sunday which I will blog about on my return.  Didn't have time to do it on Monday as I was busy trying to get some extra pages done for my fabric book started at the Artsy Crafty weekend.  Impetus gone I found it a real struggle to come up with these extra pages but maybe Wendy can provide some more inspiration for me as I arrive with them and a pile of buttons and charms.

Anyway, here is my desk as is and as will be when I get back

I think a lot of what was to do with my lethargy in finishing was the lack of all the fabrics that had been available on the ArtsyCrafty weekend.  I had been down to Abakahn to get something similar to the blue and the burgundy that I had been using but the texture was not the same so it didn't work.  Ah well, maybe with a mix up with the other pages it won't be noticeable. 

As soon as I get back I will no doubt upload the fabric book so watch out towards the weekend.  Incidentally I am due to work this coming weekend at the show in Leigh so if any of you are attending perhaps you will turn immediately right as you come through the door and say "hi" to the lovely lady demonstrating on the best stand ever.  (That's me! lol)

More Cards Received

I got another two cards recently and meant to blog them earlier but this lethargy of mine just got in the way and I was enjoying seeing them in the window along with the others.

Here is the one from Carol Q

Hope the dry embossing shows up on your screen as it is quite striking and looks perfect with those flowers at the base.  I would never have thought to use patterned paper like that but it works so well that I might just have to try it.  Of course, one needs the die (is it a die Carol?) for it to really work.

The second is another from Sam

Another of her delightful characters from Stampotique.  Love the way she has coloured this one in and enhanced the Kraft paper she has used.  The touches of orange in the dress are picked up in the flower in the top corner.

Apart from wanting more of these stamps myself I think I will have to hunt out my Kraft paper and get using it a bit more, it is a really nice weight (think it is 300 gsm) and works so well - bet it works with PP's.

So there you are - I may not have anything made myself but I can share the lovely work of my friends.

Artful Times Layers it Up ...

... this time with Acetate.  It's Sam's choice and I think I was in the mood for doing weird things the day that I made this card.  I had recently bought myself some Octopode stamps, had an idea what I wanted to do with my acetate layer and set off using a totally different stamp to this (in my head) but as soon as I got in the box I chose this one.

I started by using my Pan Pastels in a very light shade, then I stamped a PaperArtsy stamp in the corners with Versamark and went over with a darker shade of green.  Then I stamped the main image with my Black Archival Ink and also the words (don't know who they are by).

Then I prepared my bigger background - again PP's but in darker greens - some background stamps with Versamark again and then darker greens and some brown over the top.  A quick run through my Grand Calibur with a cogs and wheels embossing folder on the thick acetate and it was ready to be put together.

I assembled it with eyelets in each corner and then realised it also needed some down the side.  Two jump rings attached some chain to the card and the whole was mounted on to a base.  There's Steampunk Flo ready to go off to find her 'cap'.

Hope you get as much fun out of thinking what to do when you use 'Acetate as a Layer' for this challenge of Sams.  See you at Artful Times, and thanks for the super entries we have had for our other challenges to date, I was surprised to see so many Mona entries - and gorgeous they were too.  We love looking at what you do.

Cambridge

As I said yesterday, last week we were in Cambridge celebrating Chas's birthday and I have only just decided to blog a little about it. The reasoning behind this was that most of you will have seen whatever we saw in the city and as the weather was not that good we didn't really get a good set of photographs with our little point and shoot camera.

There was only one thing I wanted to see and that was the Corpus clock.  I stood and patiently took photographs but my camera and a glass fronted case do not work so you would be better to Google it if you don't know what I am on about.

The place Chas wanted to see was King's College Chapel and we spent simply ages in there.  Spectacular!

Anyway, to begin with we stayed just outside Cambridge (overnight parking is always a priority with me) at Leverton House.  An excellent B&B, very tastefully furnished and with a lovely full English breakfast perfectly cooked.  After we had dumped the car we caught the bus into Cambridge and walked down to the river.  No punting for me - not when I saw how difficult it was to get out of one on landing back!

Birthday Boy by the river

and now for something to eat??

Oh dear, we should have realised when we saw the Paramedics parked outside, something was amiss, one of the chefs had had a suspected stroke!  Not to be deterred (and because I was pooped) we waited 20 minutes for our food and were delighted with what we got.

Next day, birthday morning, we caught the bus, got tickets for the Hop on Hop off bus and went to the Fitzwilliam Museum to see the sculptures in the gardens.  These were amongst my favourites

There was an exhibition of Chinese burial culture going on inside (Search for Immortality - Tomb Treasures of Han China) but we were not allowed to take photographs.  It was most interesting to see what the Chinese Community had made available for us all to see.  Just as we were about to leave the heavens opened and so we made quick use of the gift shop and the cafe.

Once it abated we waited for the next Hop on Hop off bus and were so disappointed - the audio system was not working on the right hand side, the left was full and there was a 'ginormous' cobweb 

on the other side of the bus.  After a journey into the countryside (at break neck speed), a stop at a garden centre and the American Cemetery we made our way back to civilisation and walked down this street on our way to Kings.

What can one say about Kings?  It will certainly be viewed differently when we watch the 'Carols at Kings' this Christmas.

The magnificent ceiling

The screen with Henry's and Anne Boleyn's initials carved into it

 Elaborately carved choir stalls

The East Window

By the time we came out the day had changed and the sun was out, everything was nice and dry.  Chas took off and took some photographs outside.

Now it was time to think about having something to eat so a quick look in a bookshop and then it was off to the pub Chas had decided he wanted to eat at - they did not do food on a Tuesday!!  So it was back to the Baron of Beef where we had eaten the night before and two delicious steaks - quite the best he had tasted declared Chas.  A taxi back to the B&B (last bus is 6.50 p.m.!!!) and a flop on the bed with the tv on (had to catch up with the Olympics).

Next morning we left Cambridge, calling at Ely on the way home.  Had a wonderful time in the Cathedral, the best Guide possible (Alan) and a delightful sandwich at the Coffee Speed on the High Street.  I won't go into details about the cathedral as we have another visit planned in a few months time.  More about that later.

At the moment I am not built for city breaks so to be honest it was not much of a trip for me but Chas got to see something he had always wanted to see - and on his birthday - that and a lovely steak is all a man can ask for.

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OK, so now the cat is out of the bag so to speak.  We were not at home last week. It was Chas's birthday so we were in Cambridge.

Mojo still not fully returned to the fold but I did manage to colour a couple more of those Mike Powell images although to be honest I have seen what Buttons did with one and these pale into insignificance BIG STYLE!  Well worth checking out what she did - but not until you have seen mine so they don't be as big a disappointment.

Both coloured in with watercolour crayons

Such quirky pictures!

It was a good job I had these images just waiting to be coloured in as Chas painted the opening for the loft ladder (new) which is in my stamping room and I am having real problems with my breathing.  Can't go in there despite window being opened, an onion sitting there (phew what a pong) and now a fan on.   I don't seem any better for having had the pacemaker fitted, just hope the next procedure clinches it.  So for all you WOYWW'ers this is my desk today - the dining room table.

You've heard of "duelling pianos" in some bars - well ours are duelling lap tops as you can see - and my cuppa has been drunk so I need to get another one made.  See the pad underneath my box?  Eighteen sheets of 230 gsm watercolour paper in a pad (almost A4 size) for £1.99 from The Works.  Need to get my Pan Pastels out.

That's it for now folks so I will leave you with these images but please do not forget to visit Buttons and Julia to see more desks.  Ta Ta for now!

Happy Birthday to a Special Little Girl

Last week I made a special birthday card for a lovely little girl whose Nanna is a special friend of mine.  I know some of you will know the story behind Nanna Jo's grandee who lives 'over the water' and the trauma she has had in her little life.  Well today she is a lovely, happy, smiling, intelligent little girl and you would not believe she has suffered with anything when you look at her.  Thank you God - and thank you the doctors and staff at the hospital that she had to attend so much.

Thankfully she is bi-lingual and I did not have to write in anything but English on her birthday card and this is what I made for her (don't you just hate it when the ribbon on tags makes you have that extra bit on your scan)

As you can see the theme around it was Gnomes!  I covered a piece of red cardstock with bright stripey paper in greens and pinks and oranges and added a turquoise and a lime paper as contrast.  On the right is a pocket which contains some tags for her to pull out.  Each one has a different brightly coloured ribbon on and a Gnome doing a different activity in the garden.

The first two - the foreman and the digger (all images were coloured with my Neocolours)

I scanned these in the wrong order didn't I?  Doh!  The final ones (from the right) - the sower, the waterer and the tidier upper.

Inside on the insert I wrote some questions for her and her mummy to answer - well for her to answer but for mummy to read out to her. Here are one or two of them:

What colour is the tunic of the Gnome who is digging?

How many watering cans are there?

What is the colour of the tunic of the Gnome with the watering can?                                                      

How many seeds have fallen out of the bag?                                         

How many Gnomes have green Wellington boots on?

What is the colour of the tunic of the Gnome who is not working?

What colour of an apron is the Gnome wearing who is sweeping up?

I hope she will use this card as a learning tool to help her with numbers and colours.  The idea was purely my own, I have not seen it anywhere so please, if you copy it would you give me some acknowledgement?

Happy Birthday Little One - I hope you have many many more birthdays as happy as today.

And Still the Birthdays Come

Today it is Von's birthday and so to help her celebrate I made her a birthday card.  As Von has bought some Pan Pastels and is struggling a bit with using them I have made her card using PP's.

The tag is a Manilla one and the background is done in a mixture of Spray Inks and PP's.  For the background  card I used a semi-shiny cardstock (just to try a different one) and stamped a large background stamp in Versamark first of all tearing a large hole in a sheet of scrap paper and stamping through it so the edges became irregular (didn't fancy a rigid rectangle).  Then I went over it in Yellow first and then Orange PP's and finally finished it off with a quick spray of Fixatif (yes, it is spelled that way on the can).

I just thought this would be another two surfaces that Von could see work quite well with the Pastels.

Happy Birthday Von!

WOYWW 166

Right, this is scheduled but it is a true picture of my desk this Wednesday morning.  Had so much to do before we went away for a couple of days (we are in Cambridge, or more precisely, on our way home now) that the desk just had the door closed on it.  Who wants to go rummaging in there?

Mr Mojo had to come back, even in 'forced form' as there were cards to do that I could not miss.  Must admit that I was tempted to dig out an old one from the past for Chas as I am sure he would not remember.  Trivia like that does not remain in his memory, ask him who starred in what, who sang what and what year or something intellectual and he will come up with the answer straight away.

Anyway, all you WOYWW'ers out there - this is one of my quickest post ever and if you want to see the cards I made you will have to check the 7th, 11th and 13th of this month.  Wonder if I get a gold star for my short post from Ms Julia.

It's Someones Birthday

And that someone is a special guy who has been running the household over the past three weeks whilst I have been incapacitated.  I could get used to being looked after like this but guess it is not fair so I've decided to accept that "all good things come to an end" but Thank You Chas, you are a star!

Today is his special day, his birthday.  So Mr Mojo had to return in some shape or form.  What do you buy a man who has everything he wants, has only maths (yes maths), football and messing about on his computer as hobbies/interests?  So hard when our Andy rings up and says "Mum what can I get him for his birthday?" I don't even know myself.  So today his gift from me is coming in the shape of a day out.  Starting with breakfast, going onto lunch, then aperitifs and a meal in the evening as well as sightseeing.  Taxis all the way so he does not have to do any driving - indulgence for one day.  I'll probably blog about it some time soon.

In the meantime here is the card I made for him:

Just black and white - embossed in black on a white card - the squares are mounted on black mountboard to give them a bit more definition and are by Crafty Individuals.  The larger image is, again, embossed in black and is a Stampers Anonymous mounted stamp that I wanted for ages and have hardly used until now.

Right, things to do, places to go and money to spend.  There's a full English on order!

Toodle Ooo!

More Lovelies Received

Mr Mojo is being forced back to here because of birthdays that are coming up but I will finish off with some more good wishes I received - these are all scheduled posts to give me chance to maybe make something myself.

Here are two tags that Sam sent to me - I got an envelope of goodies from Sam didn't I?

Sam knows I love Paris and I think she pulled out the stops with this one.  I love those two additional pieces she mounted - think I might NEED them myself.

Just check out the wobbly clock face at the top - I just love this charm!  Such a shame the chain holding the three cogs/wheels kept moving on the scanner bed but I think you get the picture.  Obviously a favourite theme of mine and what a lot of thought went into this one.

More Cards from Friends

Still not firing on all pistons so today I am going to show you some more beauties that I have received from my friends who make them themselves.

A lovely card from Ann B

The central image is on padded material and is stitched around the lady and then over stitched all around (ever so neatly) the arch shape.

Doone's delight in lavender - love that heart

Wendy K sent this delight with the bird on and a lovely delicate sprig of flowers down the side.

Think that is enough for you today, don't want to overload you with delight.

In the Absence of My Crafting

I have decided to whet your appetites with some delightful cards received over the past two weeks from friends in the crafting world.

A lovely card in Cath's wonderful style

Beautifully executed as always

Hazel gave me a smile with this one

Lovely colouring as always

Mary in America reduced me to tears

Mary loves, as I do, the technique from Hero Arts where you stamp and emboss in white and then go over the whole image with inks.  Now my friend Mary got in touch with the boys, Robert and Matthew (her  sister's grandsons) and invited them over to make me a card.  Dad, David, took them over but Mary was busy with a customer so the three males took themselves off into the stamp room to make the cards.  Mary was surprised to find that Dad had made one too - here they are and each one has a lovely personal message inside

Dad, David

Robert

and the little one, Matt

As you can imagine, there were some tears that night when Chas brought the package with the American cards into the hospital.

Isn't it lovely that you make so many friends over the internet, friends who you might never meet in some cases, but friends nevertheless.  Each and every card I have received has brought me joy and meant so much to me - thank you!  and there's more to come another day.