I am so excited, in a couple of weeks I'm going to a craft weekend organised by paperartsy and lbcrafts. There are a few places left on the second weekend - late March. Last year I learned loads of amazing techniques but my favorite thing was making this amazing frame. I'd never done any metal work before and to be honest I couldn't see the point. But now I am hooked. Here are a few close ups.
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The embossing was done with a combination of cuttlebug embossing plates and plastic stencils which I rubbed over with Teflon tools - you could use an embossing tool but it squeaks and may tear the metal. The metal was then roughed up with a brass brush and then coloured with black acrylic paint.

Late last year I went on a crab apple crafts weekend. It was great fun and all the people were so nice and friendly. Above is a collage I made of my cats Heidi (tabby) and Paws (black) . My photo is rubbish but you get the idea. It has a flower bottom left but it fell off and I have put it somewhere safe!!

I also made this cute little book to find in this altered tin. Also made lots of other nice things which I will share when I come across them. I'm going again in November - can't wait.

Here are a few of my favorite snowy images. We had about 5" of snow in the midlands, but in Huddersfield they had even more. I had fun taking pictures from a moving car as we drove over the penines. I would aim at a nice scene and by the time my camera worked I would have a picture of just a fence post. The picture above is my favorite.

This is the view from my house, with the postman's footprints in our garden looking towards the road. I had to drive to work down that non-existent road. I'm a real scardy cat so I didn't enjoy it one bit. My hubby however looks on it as a challenge and likes driving in snow!

These are ice patterns on the roof of my car. They are so pretty.

Yorkshire

Last weekend we went up to Yorkshire for my brother's birthday party and also had a quick visit round some of our relatives. It was lovely to see everyone and the party was fun.


As the midlands is a craft wilderness I booked a fab workshop at Art From the Heart with Kirsty Wiseman. Here is a page I made using papers from Kirsty's fab new CD. This is me and my lovely hubby Paul enjoying afternoon tea at the Dorchester for our last wedding anniversary. The photo quality is rubbish, but it doesn't look too bad in black and white. I've now made six 12" x 12" pages - I am a miniturist at heart and this was doubly difficult for me as it has blank space!

This wibbly wobbly flowers sits inside this lovely box. The stem is made from twisted overhead projector file. This was also made using Kirsty's lovely papers.

Kirsty's workshop was great fun and I'm so please she chose to spend her birthday with us. As always Dyan was fun too and they both put up with me sneeking off to shop with good grace - well until Dyan told me I'd spent £4563.52!!! When I picked myself off the floor I was pleased to hear that she'd pressed the wrong button!

Dyan now does mini ranger university weekends, first one starts 13th March, which I can't make so fingers crossed I can go to next one. I love learning new things but the laughs are even better.