Its Blog Hop Time

Welcome to my blog, i hope you enjoy taking part in the Crafty Boots Challenges as much as i do!

The theme at Crafty Boots Challenges this fortnight is ‘Anything Goes’.  You can join in the challenge as normal but there are 12 extra chances for you to win a prize by joining the first ever Crafty Boots blog hop!

If you are joining in the hop you should have got here from Emma M’s blog.  If you haven’t blog hopped before it is really simple, just start at the Crafty Boots Challenge blog and hop through the design team blogs in the order set out on that page.  Each of the design team members has a word or two for you to collect which will reveal a message at the end.  Once you have collected that message email it to bloghop@craftyboots.co.uk to be entered into the draw to win the prize of three digis of your choice from Hope Jacare Doodles.  You must also become a follower of all the design team’s blogs (and Claire’s) to be eligible to win the prizes

Here is my card using my choice of digi images from the Hope Jacare Doodles website. Of course it had to feature some element of pink in there, although my initial idea was for monochrome!

Don’t forget that myself and each of the design team members has a prize of candy up for grabs, this will include a sample pack of the fantastic new Crafty Boots Deluxe card along with a few other goodies.  Be sure to leave a comment on each of our blogs and follow us to be in with a chance of winning our candy!

My word for the secret message is:

CRAFTY

Your next stop isFaye’s blog.

The deadline for both the Anything Goes challenge, and the blog hop (and candy) is Sunday 11^th December at 12 Noon (UK time).

Who's a naughty blogger then?

That would be me then!

I just have no idea where time goes, over the past few months my life has changed in many ways, some for the better and sadly some for the worse! These changes have really had an effect on my ability to create much at all!

Being part of the Crafty Boots design team has meant that at least when the whip is cracked by Stephanie Emma then i get my backside into gear and make something!! Obviously this is what i need so the more people who hassle me the better!!!

So what have i made then?

This was a small decopatch trinket box and my first use of my new spell binder dies! Strangely enough there is no pink on show, the box and the following frame were my DT entries for the 'Autumn' challenge

The next card was my entry for young at heart, i just love this little girl and she is one of the stamps from lily of the valley. I think my God daughter Isla will be getting this for her birthday at the end of the month as it suits her temperament well i think!

So thats it for the time being anyway, need to get the ok from the DT boss for anything else to go on here! lol

I will to my best in future to be a better blogger, i need to give myself time and permission to let myself be creative even when it feels like its at the bottom of a very long 'to do' list.

Take care all and watch out for the next Crafty Boots Challenge on Monday!!

The dark side

Hi Everyone,

Again another weekend so therefore no crafting! Yesterday (Monday) i seemed to spend the whole day glued to the TV catching up on the awful events in London.

Anyway i have been working on an altered book over the past few weeks to give my 'dark side' an outing! lol. There is still a lot of work to do on it but thought you might like to see a work in progress? For those of you who liked the cards i apologise in advance.....

This double paged spread was achieved with some paper folding to create the pockets. I used distress ink to colour the pages, rubbing it through a stencil for the circles. Of course the stamps are Tim Holtz ones, i think the umbrella man lends himself to so much.

This is a 4 page spread that was coloured using the paint dabbers, the borders i doodled and coloured with water colour pencils. The image on the fist page is cut from a card someone special sent me whilst i was in hospital and the theme of love and caring runs through all four pages.

Hope you like them and will keep you up to date on the progress of the book!

Thanks for looking

Exciting News

As some of you may already know i have been invited to be part of the design team at Crafty Boots, i feel incredably honoured and more than a little scared at this news, but Stephanie-Emma has ensured me that i dont always have to make a card! So there may be the odd opportunity for my dark side to make an appearance ;).

For those of you out there who are thinking that their work isn't good enough then listen to others, we are all very good at putting ourselves (and our work) down and comparing themselves with others, i am very guilty of this one, it can sometimes be hard to look at your own work and see how good it is or where there is need for improvement. Crafting should be primarily for most of us a fun way of relaxing and getting away from it all for a while, i always though i would never make things that other people would like and really does it matter? If you aren't happy then ask someone who's work you respect to help you and be prepared to listen and take the constructive advice you should hopefully get.

I have been very lucky in having lots of time off recently and it has honestly helped the standard of my work but i also ask the experts, they should be flattered you are asking them!!

Anyway lecture over, over the next coming weeks i will be asking for lots of help from various people so be warned! lol.

On a roll!

Hiya, well i have a lot to thank (or curse) Nina for, this card making thing seems to have taken hold!! Completed 3 more yesterday, am being slightly limited by my lack of stash in this area (usually stick to messy paint and ink), so the colours seem quite similar. Well i suppose it means i will just have to buy more stash! lol.

The first card is a very similar style to the first one with another Gorjuss stamp, coloured with pro markers, my minds eye papers and flowers from polkadoodles. Think this is my favourite paper yet.

The next card was made using a Lily of the Valley stamp.

And finally anothe Lily of the Valley stamp, a polkadoodles sentiment and craftwork cards flowers and candy. Hope you like them x

Bullying and Harrassment

Hello Everyone

Sorry for the delay in posting, i don't seem to get much chance to craft over the weekend, my OH always wants to 'do' something!!

Some of my twitter friends will know that i have been under a lot of pressure lately from @NinaAndWillow to make a card. In her words "what type of crafter doesn't make cards?" Well eventually i gave in to the constant bullying (sorry encouragement) and attempted a card!

I used the Gorjuss stamps and flowers from @NikkyHall1 at Polkadoodles, the lovely papers are My Minds Eye and of course the image is coloured with pro-markers, all finished off with a few card candy from @craftworkcards.

This is very different to the type of thing i normall do but i love it! Perhaps i have a dark and a light side?

Finally for now another canvas, this one is much smaller and features my Goddaughter Isla, i applied tissue paper to the canvas with gel medium then painted over it in various shades of green, ithen used blond moments flower stamps on patterned paper and the fairy body itself is made from grunge paper painted with ink. The picture of her head is a bit big but i still think its cute!

The next picture is a printers tray from 7gypsies, again i used dylusions pains and inks on water colour paper to make the backgrounds, the dylusions stamps coloured in with the inks for the images, there are alos some Tim Holtz goodies on there too, this is one of my favourite pieces and hangs proudly in my craft room,

Well i promised you some photos of my creations and here they are. These are just a few of the things i have made over the past few months, note the lack of cards please!

The first is a 24" canvas i made, it actually started life as a black background with a flower on it that i picked up cheap in a sale. The canvas was covered with gesso then i used dylusions paint and inks and a crafters worskshop template to create the design. I think the colours are lovely (well it is pink!) and i seem to be strangely drawn to orange at the moment. I used a book page for the heart and some sticky back canvas to print the sentiment out on.

Day 1

Well first day of my blog, cant believe i couldn't even work out how to post on it! Told you all it would be rubbish!

Will take some photos of my 'works of art' etc tomorrow and attempt to upload them for you to have a look at