Annie's Smiles

Once again I have something to smile about and so I am linking up to Annie's blog and showing you all a lovely gift I got yesterday.

Many years ago I went to CHA in Atlanta.  At that time I was in a Domino Group on the internet (decorating dominoes, not playing the game) and had got friendly with a lady who lived in Lawrenceville, Georgia.  I did hope to meet up with her but it was not to be.  The guys I were with on the trip were the ones with the transport and so I did not get to see Sally.  However, we have stayed in touch, mainly by email and yesterday the postman called with this beautiful cuff bracelet

It is made up of thousands (I imagine) of strands of copper wire wound around a former and then painted this gorgeous colour.  Sally has then made this head and wings which she has put on to decorate it - and I love it.  

We probably will never meet but I think Sally and I will remain friends for the rest of our lives - all through crafting and via the internet.  Thanks Sally!

Now I am off to see what Annie has to smile about and check up on others with a smile for the day. Hope you are all smiling and have a good day/weekend/week etc etc.

Artful Times Green Challenge

The challenge this time is to make something using the colour Green.  It must be predominantly GREEN so I am showing you a brooch made from a piece of Stampbord which is honestly, very green but must be catching the reflection from the purple velvet it is set on.  I think you can tell that most of it is green from the photograph.

For this I used Adirondack Inks on my Stampbord and finished it off with some of those dangly bead fringes.  It then has a coat of Ice Resin over the top to give it a shine and hopefully protect the surface.

Now if you pop along to Artful Times Blog you can see what Wendy and Sam have made.  This is Sam's last challenge as a Guest Designer so a big thank you from Artful Times and an even bigger one from me.

We really are getting down on numbers but we are going to carry on with the challenge for the time being and just hope that numbers go up.  I wonder if it is Facebook that is stopping the blog entries as I notice some others are affected as well.

Challenge 56 - Artful Times - Owls

This week we are asking you to include an owl somewhere on your project be it a card or something else.

I decided to use shrink plastic again and made a teeny weeny pair of ear rings.  You should be able to judge the size (if you are in the UK or familiar with the pound coin) from the photograph below.

I just got some cream shrink plastic and using Coffee Brilliance Ink I stamped my little owls.  Left them overnight to dry.  Then I cut them out carefully, put two holes in the top and shrunk them down.  A couple of jump rings, some ear ring fixings and voila!  All done and ready to wear.

Wondering what the other members of the Design Team have made?  Pop along to Artful Times and follow the links from their pictures to their blogs.  Enjoy - and have a lovely weekend.

WOYWW 220 and Putting Things Right

Last week I had to forgo commenting but I have left all the comments made in my 'inbox' and I will spend a day commenting on all the ones I have missed.  So sorry about that but I was up to my armpits and eyeballs in prep for the Oyster Retreat (see labels down side and more to come) and then only got back Monday evening and was so tired (hard bed at the second hotel = little sleep) that I just went to my own bed.  Yesterday was my Chloe day, my adorable little five year old who is so full of fun and love (friend's daughter) so this is my first opportunity to put things right.  Sorry about that.

Anyway, this is my desk - still as it is from dumping all the stuff from Tracey.  Did a bit of a 'pan' along one side of my room.  Not a bit of space so Chloe and I had to die cut on the dining room table yesterday.

As I teased you long enough with sneak peeks here are my samples from the weekend

Canvas gessoed, then Pan Pastels to colour and put through punchinella/negatives from dies cuts, Distress Inks on cardstock for die cuts, images stamped (with block underneath for stability). (Stamps by Tim Holtz, dies - Spellbinders and Memory Box, Flowers - Heartfelt Creations (all available from Oyster Stamps).  Bottom Right is an Ice Resin Flower.  Everyone made a small piece of resin paper.

Then ice resin - everyone made a tiny heart which was supposed to go on the canvas, some will, some will be worn.  Heart had scrapbook paper inside then a Bindi before the resin was poured in.  The pendant (ear ring really) was left clear, done on packing tape, with a piece of grass inside.

Steampunk heart - three layers (or might have been four) of ice resin poured in at stages over various watch part additions.

Scrap book paper in first, then guitar charm added and more ice resin, then treble clef and more ice resin until it domed.  Hopefully looks as if the treble clef is floating/suspended.  (what seems to be a mark along the left side must be the light catching - the whole pendant is crystal clear)

Hope that gives you an insight into what we did in my class.  There were four classes on at one time with 10 people in each.  In my first class they learnt a bit about ice resin and did the heart and then they learned how to use Distress Inks in a three colour way to die cut what they wanted on their canvas.  This was a one and a half hour class so a lot was achieved.

Next day they came back for a further one and a half hour class, gessoed the canvas, put on the base colour (PP's give such good and quick coverage), did some stencilling, stamped images and assembled. I would say 99% went home with a finished canvas so it was achievable and I am so proud of them and how well they all worked.  A pendant and a canvas in three hours!

Have uploaded some pictures from the Retreat with the ladies but will be uploading many more over the next couple of days so watch out for them.  In the meantime go along to Ms Julia's blog and see what the other WOYWW'ers are up to and where they have been.

Have a good week!

(More pictures of the ladies at the Retreat tomorrow)

Artful Times Challenge 25 - Alcohol Inks

As I have pointed out on the Artful Times Blog I seem to have had an obsession with 'techniques' these last two challenges.  First it was colour and now Alcohol Inks.  I am sure most of you will not need any introduction to those tiny bottles introduced by Tim Holtz

or to what you can use them on.  The above is a piece of Shrink Plastic which I coloured in with Alcohol Inks.  Here's a better view of her I just wanted to show you how tiny she is (above).

She was stamped with Stazon on transparent Shrink Plastic.  Hint:  if doing this colour from the back to stop your ink moving.

Love using AI's on boxes - love the colour on these - the flower is on White Shrink Plastic and the butterfly on Transluscent.  I used Pool, Clover and Aqua for these boxes.

Thought I would show you one way of using up small pieces.  Alcohol Inks for colour and stamping with black and gold (Brilliance is another good ink to use) and you can make jewellery as below.  The necklaces are designed to be worn together to give two strands.

This is a very loaded bracelet and a pair of ear-rings for which you might need asbestos fingers.

Sorry the photos are dark, we seem to have had such poor light that I couldn't get them any better.

Well, considering I was intending colouring a large box that held a gift for my birthday I think you could say I got carried away with my Shrink Plastic.  What will you make?  Pop over to Artful Times and join in the challenge and see what Von has for you - exciting stuff I can tell you.

Busy and Away

Well, life has been busy busy busy since I last posted.  I have been getting ready for a week away with some girl-friends in Worcester. Am travelling down part way by train and then a friend is meeting me and taking me to our final destination ...  for a week of crafting! Watch this space. I might be able to blog and then I might not, depending on how they wear me out LOL.

I worked all weekend at a lovely show in Leigh.  It has been such a successful show that Tracey and Graham decided to make it a two day event this time and both days were busy.  Had a great time, lots of banter and good laughs and I sold lots of Grand Caliburs.  Yippee!

Nothing to show you from Leigh as I gave most of my cards away, Tracey made a joke of it at the end that everyone buying a Calibur would get a "signed card from Neet".  The Calibur was smoking! I had lots to do. No cards but I do have something to show you.

I made this pendant and wore it on Sunday - a combination of Vintaj and Graphic 45 (courtesy of Oyster Stamps and Ali-Craft.

Hopefully more jewellery to come next time I am working again, which is only in a couple of weeks.  Yeah, roll on!

On Saturday it was DIL's birthday and I was really stuck what to get her so I made her an easel card with drawers and put money in each of the four little drawers and then bought her a tiny gift to open. That way she can either put the money towards something else or just go and get something she really wants.

Here it is

As taught by the lovely Alison

Right, will leave it there as I must get on and schedule this post for Monday morning when I, hopefully, will be on the train heading for Nottingham.  Be good whilst I am away.  Perhaps I can check in during the week.

Material Girls Say "Metal" and Mine Is a Quickie

This week the Challenge over on Just for Fun is "Metal" and as I have been so busy this past couple of weeks I was kind of dreading having to get one of the many things I have to cover and getting my metal tools out (not that I don't "love" working with metal).  I kept staring around my craft room and putting it off and then when I was doing something else suddenly the 'lightbulb' went on and this is what I ended up with - using lots of my Timmy things.

I used one of those large round bezels with a loop at the top that I had not used and so I decided to put a watch face inside it and add some other bits of Ideology.  Then I wondered why I was using the front and not the back so it got stuck on the back with a cog and a clock hand.  Glued a keyhole on, dangled two whatsits (can't remember what they are called) from each loop and a key on the end - which is really the loop at the top.  Cannot decide what to put in the two "whatsit's names" yet but they don't look bad as they are for the time being.

Because the back is indented (remember I did mine back to front) it takes a pin back quite easily and there is no sticky out bit.  I am now hoping to get an attachment so I can also wear it as a pendant.  have some in gold but not in silver - trust my luck!

Anyway, hope you like my DT piece for JFF and look forward to seeing what you all come up with - do check out the great things the others on the Design Team have done, you will get inspired.

In the meantime Tuesday Throwdown are challenging you to use metal so am sending this over there too.

Size Matters

This is the first time I have ever had to come up with a theme for a month for the Just for Fun Challenge.  I think I was probably influenced by the fact that I had come back from the Tim Holtz workshop with the ArtsyCrafty team (Leandra and Lin) and we had all made "inchies" to give to Tim in a book as a little gift which we could all contribute to.

Well, that's my excuse anyway!

Sorry I am having you working in miniature but it is not as formidable as it first seems.  I made my inchies out of mountboard, coloured them with Distress Inks and then stamped partial images on them.  You don't have to stamp whole images on so don't be rushing out to buy small stamps.

Here are mine:

Stamps - Invoke

I stamped them just like I stamp my dominoes, taking the mountboard to the stamp rather than the stamp to the mountboard - that way you have more control over what part of the whole image you are going to use.  You can't see it in the scan but I selected parts from each image and highlighted the part with Glossy Accents.  It is mainly the words that I used for highlighting but the other two images also have it on them.

A couple of links to help you get started are: MCJULIO'sBlog and  spottedcanary plus the ones on the JFF blog:

art by christi    Or this one to give you some ideas on how you can use them in cards
all in an inch (scroll down to April 23rd)

I know if you Google "inchies art form" you will find lots more (including embroidered ones)  but in the meantime here is a bracelet I did using Stampbord.  If you have some hanging around why not try one of these inch sized pieces.

They are such good fun and the Stampbord punches like a dream with your Crop-a-dile.  I did have another bracelet which I would have liked to have shown you, done many moons ago, but can I find it, can I heck!  Here is the pendant that went with it anyway - the bracelet had smaller side view heads on in the polymer clay.  Otherwise it was the same Stampbord base.

Not an inchie but an accompaniment to one

(just to give you ideas)

Hope I am not driving you all mad with my miniature works of art and certainly hope we get some entries - now I will be having sleepless nights!  Promise next week's challenge will not be so small.