WHERE HAVE THE WEEKS GONE???

I have been all round the country and back across to the NE since last August. Not much time for my blog I'm afraid which is why I was making Xmas cards every month until then plus a few little presents for friends. My feet have just touched the ground following THE most wonderful weekend in the company of Hels' Warriors from the Frozen North. Hels taught her amazing melt pot techniques to 16/17 of us and we laughed a lot, learnt a lot and then played a lot - I might add though - we never 'played' with the melt pot, we were all very careful and listened to Hels intently. The learning bit was Saturday but Sunday saw us put all that into practice and make a decorated memory box using UTEE and wax. Here is my finished box.

and here is a little twist

Added lights. I have had so much fun making this box and even managed to include some of the things I made years ago at a Suze Weinberg workshop. So much has changed with the melt pot since then and the colours of UTEE now available just blow your mind. Thank you again to Hels for this workshop. I know we all had a ball. Roll on January and the next weekend. Also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN to you all. My Apothecary has taken pride of place in the front window alongside some rather scary skulls and a massive spider. Nightime will see it all come to life - or not!!!LOL

ONE DAY TO WAIT

 Only today to wait then tomorrow is FUN day with the girls on Hels Sheridans melt pot weekend. 

An awful lot of prep has gone on all done by Sue Tucker so a big thank you Sue for all your hard work.

One more sleep !!!!!!

WOYWW 23/10

I missed last week as one thing led to another, and never realised it was Wednesday until Thursday, if you get my drift. So dear Julia, I have no idea what your desk looked like or anyone else's for that matter. 

This week is similar because I am away again in the NE ready for a melt pot crafty weekend with Hels Sheridan. Roll on.

I do have a titchy bit of craft with me for those spare moments but can't get near the table because this is what it looks like

Hubby brought one of his guitars with him to keep him occupied this weekend .

Well it's pouring with rain but we are going to go out anyway.

Happy WOYWW everyone. 

CREATIVE CHEMISTRY 102

The class may have finished today but I still have a few samples to make. However, I now have a head full of another 30 techniques all thanks to our professor Tim Holtz. Thank you for the classes and all that information. I just hope I get to make some better projects now using all my amazing crafty stash. One of the last bits of information Tim gave us was how to utilize our tags, after all, if like me you participate in the 12 tags of Christmas now the 12 tags of the year and have completed both creative chemistry classes, you will have dozens of tags showing all kinds of techniques. I now plan to use one of Tim's tips but have already found a wonderful way to display my tags. Please take a moment to have a look at my blog background because thanks to my son-in-law who owns Quentin James Design, I have a tag display showing all the time.

A LITTLE WALL HANGING

I made this over the last few days in between my Creative Chemistry 102 lessons.

The inspiration came from Craft Stamper magazine and together with my own twist on the sample given I set to and created this 8"x8" canvas.

The flowers are made using the tattered florals die, the dark leaves are also die cut but the maple leaves are stamped and carefully cut out. 

I have used distress inks, gesso and distress stains to create colour and shading. After spending ages dismantling an old chain bracelet in order to use the chain as the hanging method, the bloomin' thing wouldn't go through the holes so I had to resort to ribbon.

I had fun so that's the main thing.

CREATIVE CHEMISTRY 102

Doing a little catch up this morning as Day 4 - yesterday - didn't happen for me.

My computer decided to perform 7 updates which took an hour, by which time I was doing other things and just never got round to the joys of lesson #4.

Tim is being so patient with some student questions but I did see a photo if a rather large mojito (sp?) the other day!!

I thought I would try one of the techniques to make the start of a Xmas card.

I'll put this to one side and complete it later.

Off to watch some more videos now and get ready for day 5.

ECLECTIC ELEMENTS

At last my Tim material has arrived.

It looks gorgeous

The plan is to make one curtain to replace the verticle blind in my little craft room. Thing is, I can't do patchwork but I know a girl who can. I wonder whether she will accept a commission request????

WOYWW #227

What a busy week I am having. It's Tim's Chemistry 102 you see and I am trying to keep up with the lessons and samples on a daily basis. Having said that, I still have a couple to do from Monday - waiting for the new distress paints as I really need Evergreen Bough - but I managed to complete everything from yesterday.

You can see my samples and masks in this shot. I ended up with less than a 6" x 6" workspace yesterday when ink pads, paints, paper towel, heat gun etc etc were needed. Having to have my computer on restricts my already tiny space tremendously. I doubt I shall get round to yours or yours Julia this week, but I shall try harder next woyww. After that I shall be away again for a week but more on that later. For those of you who wanted a look see at the dragon flies, this picture is for you. Bye.

TIM'S 12 TAGS OF 2013 - OCTOBER

The October tag just had to celebrate Halloween, a time of year I absolutely love because of the colours and fun. This tag has been a pleasure to create despite the glitter which seems to be everywhere, LOL. Another Tim masterpiece for my collection.

Isn't that Seedless Preserve distress paint to die for and just note the vibrancy of Ripe Persimmons paint too. Next Monday sees the start of Chemistry 102 which will keep me very busy for a couple of weeks and I am so excited that it's happening because the start of the cold months make me uneasy - I don't like being unable to keep my door open and hate the dismal daylight - this new venture will give me an excuse to craft away using new techniques. I hope to be able to make a tag or card etc using each days lessons and share those with you.

WOYWW #226

Good morning everyone from a rather damp NW of England. Yes, I'm back from my travels around the country. Julia, I can now link to your blog again and promise I will find out how to do that on my phone. We had a mixed holiday of finding gorgeous places to visit coupled with some that weren't so nice. At least we saw the South East coast but it's not somewhere we plan to go to again. Sorry to all those who live there but despite the fantastic countryside, your coast leaves an awful lot to be desired so we shall stick to the South West whenever we go down the country. I had the amazing experience in Nothe Park, Weymouth of feeding (well pretending to as we had no food!!!) pigeons and squirrels. The birds just flew onto my hand and the squirrels ran up to us looking inquisitively at us for nuts. Amazing. Anyway, to my little craft space. I took this last night:

Boxes of beads all over the place. I've been making dragonflies like they are going out of fashion and prepping to make more. Pop over to my FB page if you fancy a look. I've almost caught up after being away since the end of August but have to keep on top of everything as I'm away again in less than 3 weeks. Have to get my hubby well first as he has had some rather poorly days of late. Right I'm off again. See you next week. Happy woyww.