I've Altered!

14:30 Karen 9 Comments



Well, pull up a chair and get yourself a cuppa as this may prove to be a long post!

First of all, yesterday, I made my first piece of altered art. The class was at LB Crafts and was a frame with little canvases attached with all sorts of bits and bobs on it. I love that one of my friends, no names mentioned to protect the innocent, when phoning up to book her place described it as ' A tray with nicnaks stuck on' . She fessed up to this during the drive up to Milton Keynes and I almost crashed the car from laughing so much.

The reason for our little sojourn into Bedfordshire was that Mel, who is in charge of the 'little crop' is leaving to live in New York and we decided to use the funds from the crop for a little outing. Sue arranged the class and it was a 'special' just for us.



Can you believe the state of my hands - and this was after washing them. I was really freaked by how messy I was getting and found it difficult not to go and wash every few minutes.

Well this is the finished project and I absolutely love it. I would certainly go back for another class.


We could choose to paint the frame whatever colour we wanted - I chose blue.


Then stamp on images from hundreds of stamps available and fortunately I was able to hold my breath and stamp some images, even if I managed to stamp some text upside-down! That was only the start of my mistakes.



I managed to get the gloopy glue onto the painted frame which then made a mark which I couldn't completely cover up and also I managed to drop some double sided tape onto the patterned paper we had put inside the frame and when I pulled it off it pulled off some of the paper (now covered with a strategically placed canvas)!


So here are all the girls with their frames.


Karen Alison Me Sue Liz
Christine & Mel

I also managed to do a little retail therapy at the craft shop and managed to double the number of Tim Holtz ink pads I own by buying 2 more. I also bought a few other bits and pieces so came home a very happy girl.

Also another 4 pages of my little summer project - still waiting for their photographs, this might be a little task for the EK crop on the 10th September.





Reasons to be cheerful:-

1. A fantastic day out learning new skills with a lovely bunch of ladies.

2. A morning of just hanging out with my best girl and a little 'window shopping' for uni stuff.

3. Looking forward to a little family outing tomorrow afternoon.



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Scrapbook Starting Point and Photo Scavenger Hunt

21:03 Karen 6 Comments
Have you seen this post over on Shimelle's blog?


Well I tried it and it is a really fun way to scrapbook. I didn't even have a photo in mind when I made my page. I even put the title strip on before I had fully decided which photo I was going to use.


So I made my starter page


and then made it my own style by adding lots of flowers and brads.



Also three more photos for Rinda's scavenger hunt.

A building made of glass.



A hand written sign selling something.


Rain - I could have taken this photo on any day this week and by standing in the puddle I realised I need new wellies - mine leak!

Reasons to be cheerful.

1. Going out with the girls tomorrow for a craft class in Milton Keynes.

2. Going to Zumba for the first time since I hurt my back at the beginning of the summer hols.

3. An Indian take away for tea.

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Making the most of it.

10:14 Karen 10 Comments

Not finding much time to blog as I am making the most of the time I have with my girl.

Ok a quick round up. First of all the main reason the kids came home on Wednesday (other than they missed us so much) was that Thursday was the day that they would find out if they had been given a place at their chosen university - the answer was YES for both of them. Also it was the day that the A Level results were published. They both did so well and we are very proud of them. Gracia got an A* for Biology (over 95%) an A for Chemistry, an A for Environmental Science (in which she did the two year course in 1 year) and a B for maths which when you take into account she totally flunked one of the papers, as she had a really bad headache the night before and hadn't fully recovered on the exam day, is exceptional. So to say I am one really proud mummy is an understatement.

I have done a little crafting in my craft room (did you notice how I got that in, I am so pleased the difference it has made, being able to pop in and do a little whenever I want). Cheri has been blogging about this free class over on Big Picture and I decided to join in.



I only bought 4 sheets of white Bazzill and all the other things I have used I had already. I love Cheri's art journal style and think her pages are amazing. I really want to be able to do pages like hers and am hoping that the class (class 5) I am going to on Saturday will rectify this.




So I have covered the first 4 words so far and will add photos later. I think I will change the photos, when I get round to choosing them, to black and white.


Such a lovely little project and I have really enjoyed making the pages without having to think about what photo to put on.



Well, I must go and get dressed now as I am still in my jammies and have a lunch date with a couple of girlfriends later plus a trip to the dump - I will be on first name terms with the refuse workers soon, the amount of time I have spent there this last couple of weeks.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. Ladies that lunch.

2. Inspirational blog friends.

3. After a whole day working I now have a completely de-cluttered lounge and a car full of rubbish to dispose of.

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She's Home

22:36 Karen 8 Comments
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible - well as soon as I can stop kissing and hugging her! Apologies for the rubbish photo but it is difficult to take a photo in focus when you are jumping up and down with excitement!


The absolute bestest reason to be cheerful:-

They are back home safely in the arms of their parents.


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I love days like today.

18:52 Karen 13 Comments

Today has been one of those days, you know the ones - the ones that you enjoy so much that you come home with a big smile across your chops. I got up to a tidy house. Went into my new craft room (really it is the junk room that I have sorted out and made a little me space in) and stuck down the bits that I had laid out yesterday. Was amazed that they were still where I had left them and they had not been knocked off the dining room table or pushed out of the way to make room for something else like they usually are.


Ate a leisurely breakfast and pootled off to my friend Sue's house for a lovely day of crafting. I have to say I have never been in Sue's craft space before and I am in awe. She has a cabin in the garden and it would put most small shops to shame with all the stash she has - yes you can detect a very little bit of stash envy here. We ate lots of cake and sweets. Drank tea. Had a delicious lunch, chatted lots and crafted a little. From 11.00 to 5.00 I managed to put a title onto the layout I had finished this morning and some letter stickers, a piece of paper and a photo onto another - ratio of crafting to chatting 1:1000 I think.

During our chat I confessed to being dyslectic and she said that that explained the title on one of my recent pages

it should have said swim and in fact said siwm! The first thing I did when I got home was to swap the w and i around.


Thank you so much Sue xxx

Well here is the layout I finished


- you knew I would have that photo scrapped before you could say Jack Robinson didn't you?

Look - how appropriate a pebble with a train on!


Reasons to be cheerful:

1. My girl is home in 49 hours and 8 minutes xxxxx

2. Friends like Sue.

3. Having a little space to call my own.

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Round 2

19:34 Karen 6 Comments
A quick post with round 2 of Rinda's photo scavenger hunt

A castle - Colchester Castle.


My nations flag - on the town hall



A cemetery of historical significance or with an interesting story. William Gilberd is buried here. Dr William Gilberd, the "father of electricity" and medical advisor to Queen Elizabeth I.


and finally

A rooster - I forgot, until this morning, that I had a cushion on my sofa with a rooster on!


Reason to be cheerful:


Just look how healthy and happy my girl looks in this photo taken, in Austria, last week. She is home in 3 days and I can hardly wait!

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Pinsperational

07:52 Karen 13 Comments



When I first came across Pinterest , through Sian, it was something I could take or leave and didn't do much with it nor could I understand the buzz about it.

On Monday, I got it! It is my new website of choice and I love the variety and diversity of all the things on there. I came across this monogram by Jen Naulls


and totally fell in love with it. I followed her link to the American Crafts blog where Jen Jockisch had made the original one

and thought I would have a go sometime. (The American Crafts website has instructions).

Well that time came sooner than I thought! Yesterday evening, I felt the need to create something and was 'scrapped out' from the weekend so I decided that I would make it for my girlie as a welcome home present for when she gets back next week. A little something she can have in her room at uni and know that it was made by a mummy who loves and misses her very much.


During my clearing out of the spare room I had found an 8 x 8 box frame which I thought would be perfect. I didn't follow the tutorial exactly as I though it would be easier to use WordArt in MS Word to make the big G and then decided that, as her name is so beautiful, I would add the rest of her name in smaller letters and gave the whole page a purple boarder. I then printed this out onto white cardstock.


I used the colours of the letters to determine the colours of the buttons and brads. The last step was to paint Stickles onto the printed letters to give them a little depth as they looked very flat and boring compared to the G. I stuck it into the frame using foam pads because the back was quite bumpy with all the brads and also it is quite heavy for its size.

It didn't take as long as you would think and I am really pleased with the result.


Reasons to be cheerful:

1. Only 7 more days.

2. The spare bedroom is coming along nicely and by the end of the week should be in a fit state for the little plan I have for it!

3. The 5 bags of rubbish (mostly mine) from the spare room that I am taking to the dump tomorrow!

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