Shimelle's Starting Point Challenge

I am a bit of a miniturist at heart so usually find 12 x 12 scrapbook pages a bit overwhelming; but I enjoyed doing this page. I based it on Shimelle's challenge and turned the sketch to fit the photos. All the papers are from Scrapagogo's January 2011 kit, except the gray behind the photo which is the only wedding type paper I used. I used prima flowers and stars from the kit - wedding theme was stars.

So far I have only made about ten 12 x 12 pages; but I have enough papers for at least 200 :-)

Anne x

Fun Swap (AKA what on earth am I going to do with this!)

The lovely Dot set a Yahoo group I belong to a challenge to create something from a scrap of peach leather and two small square envelopes. We did not know what the items would be until they arrived.

For mine I used the leather to cut out letters for the front of a little book. The book is from We Are Memory Keepers paper and I added some tiny beads to the spine.


I used the little envelopes to add in tags and used the last of the leather to create tabs for the tabs.

I had fun stamping in a few nice qotes and added some photo mounts so Janice can personalise it. The pages are all different sizes to give a fun look.

This is a little calendar that the lovely Helen made for me. Very clever use of the envelopes as the stand and the leather is the butterflies. I love it!

I am leaving my job on Friday and taking a year off to get my health back to what it was before I took the job, to have some fun, do some travelling and to do some jobs on the house. One of my tasks is to clear out my craft room and then I will be more likely to do more crafting. I need some pretty colours in what has become a rather gray life to get my sparkle back. Walking away from a well paid job is feeling a bit scarry at the moment, but I know that it is the right thing to do. I hear Gap Years are all the rage for people my age!

Love Anne x

ATC swap

This is my first swap for ages. The theme was handbags or shoes. Surprisingly I don't have any shoe stamps - I think I may need some :-)

I dug out my old favorites my radiant pearls and a tiny paint brush. I wish they still made them as I love their shimmer and transparency.

Here is the card I enclosed with the swap. This is coloured with pro markers.

More from Dina's workshop

Here are a few photos of my moon and star jounals

The cover of the star journal.

A face at the window.

This is my moon journal cover

Sorry about the quality of this page. I love the lady with the broom and also the wellies/ugg boots.

An altered Stampotique image.

Dina Wakley Workshop Weekend

I had a fab weekend at Art from the Heart in Harrogate at a Dina Wakley weekend workshop. Three days filled with lovely people and messy paint techniques - what more can a girl want??? No stamps in this, which is new for me.

Here are a few photos of my work in progress sun book.

Christmas Thank You Cards!

I have had a few days off work and have been making a few Christmas thank you cards - I received some lovely Christmas cards but didn't make any this year so will send these as soon as I have enough for everyone. I have yet to make thank you cards for the lovely birthday cards I received but I will get there eventually.

These cards are made using the winter scene it stamp set from Hobby Art. I started with one set and now I have several and two DVDs! They are great fun and very easy to watercolour if you use watercolour paper. The grass is a bit greener than it looks here.

I am very lucky to be spending the weekend at Dina Wakley stamp classes and I'm really looking forward to it.

Kind regards, Anne

With one stamp and one ink pad

I am so far behind one day I will catch myself up! Here are a few simple cards made with just one stamp and one ink pad. I joined the Clarity stamp club and this is the latest stamp. The dark ones make nice men's cards.

This was stamped in brown versafine and the mount is the castle stamped randomly. The background white paper is flocked. I was saving this as it was too nice to use - then the cat walked all over it - so I had to throw away the muddy paw prints bit! It should teach me not to hoard things but I can't help it.

This is the same layout in a moss distress ink. The castle makes a nice tessellating pattern for background paper. The mount is washed over with a wet brush to give it a different feel.

This soft pink brilliance ink card is more feminine. I held the pad flat and gently rubbed over the flocked paper for a different look. This also has random castles as background interest.

Kind regards, Anne

A few more journal pages

I have been working on a few more journal pages in my little moleskin. I love Dy's new Dylusion border stamps. Not sure the gifts work but I stuck them on before the girl! The Octopode tree is cute and the wording says 'What would you like in your stocking?'.
I think the next one is far too true...
The right hand page had blue/green ink that had seeped through and looked awful. This page has a bit of mica and is now one of my favorites. Oh those were the days when I did dressmaking in a size 10 for me! The dress form stencil was free on a magazine. Stampotique stamps.

Finally two sayings from Tim Holtz and great Dylusions border and leaf stamps.

Where did the weekend go. I had most of last week off work but I'm still playing catch up. Have a lovely week.

Anne x

Where have I been?

I wish I could tell you that I have been somewhere lovely, but the truth is I've probably been working or playing FarmVille far too much!

This is the first card I've made in ages and it's called 'spot the stamping' as I made it for a stamping list and only manged to stamp the sentiment. This is my first play with the Time Holtz birdcage die and I chopped off the top to make it fit.

I have done quite a lot of messying around in my journals and I just love it. I often go back and add a few squiggles or colour in with my favorite red glaze pen. This is my favorite page this year. The 'lady' is from Octopode and the sentiments are from Dylusions. Dyan had the idea on her blog to use one word, one sentiment and an image. I did a few at Christmas (see below) and really enjoyed it so I've done a few more pages of sayings.

I made up a page on the pc of sentiments I like and the image is from Viva Las Vagas Stamps.

More Octopode, AFTH letters and computer generated words. Background is Dylusions sprays over random torn strips of paper - yum.

These are some pages I made around Christmas time. I like this one but the dark patch is a bit too heavy. Backgrounds are mainly Ranger daubers.

This is a bit darker in real life - sorry my photography skills are so lacking. Trees are from AFTH.

These pages make me smile.

I hope you have a lovely week.

Anne x

More Karin This page is in my small moleskin sketchbook. I just think the stamp looks like she has a forced smile most of us have to adopt sometimes. I suspect today will be one of those days :-)

May 2010

Edited: It was Kate who started the monthly challenges. Her fab blog is here.
At last I've finished my May journal page and am quite pleased with how it's turned out, especially the hand drawn vine. I did find it highlighted just how dull my life can be, so as Dyan suggested I made up some entries! I'm not sure who originated this idea as I've seen it on loads of blogs.

It's June and amazingly I don't seem to have hay fever, so for the first time in years I have cut flowers in the house. They are gorgeous. The cream flower isn't part of the bunch.

Thanks and Stampotique

Thanks for all the lovely comments. I am rubbish at leaving comments so will try to leave more. I love looking at your art and am always amazed at the variety of ideas and the amount of talent that is all shared - for free. Thanks everyone.

I bought my first Stampotique stamp this week (ok I confess I bought 5 and have another 5 on back order - Yikes! good job I work full time!)


This is Karin and she stamps like a dream, even the very first image was perfect.

The backgrounds are the stencilled sprays I've used before and the hearts are hand drawn.
I have had an really busy week at work and have more early mornings and late nights to come. It's nice to craft to take my mind elsewhere, but I spend far too much time on FarmVille type games. I'm just a computer nerd at heart!

Have a lovely week. x

Scream

I always think yellow is a happy colour but this photo fits perfectly. Sometimes I think it would be good to have a sound proofed room where you can let off a bit of steam and have a good scream. The page was made at Dyan's workshop and the challenge was to cut images from magazines on my chosen colour. Yellow was not the best choice as if you look carefully a lot of the blocks are dresses so are long and thin. The background is a set of 7 Gypsies stamps all stamped at once. I may write on this, but for now I like how it looks.

Pieced Border

This is my first pieced border page made at Dyan's journal two weekend. It's coloured with watercolour pencils.

Work in progress

Here are two journal pages prepped and ready for writing on. I need to stock up on black pens tomorrow.

Finished at last

I started this page in August 2009 and only finished it today! I kept adding a little bit more each time I felt brave. Really pleased to have finished it. The stampotique images were destined for my little booklet but they just look right in here. I must get some of these stamps, especially the heads one which is so versatile and which I love giving red eyes. The backgrounds use masks.

This is a tag I started around the same time. Can you tell I cleaned my desk today! Yellow, orange and red are a great combo and can't fail to make me smile.