We're in the Money !

Last week M&S invited us to a Christmas evening at the local store in Carmarthen. As part of the visit we got to pick 5 items from their penny bazaar in which everything was a penny to commemorate their 125 year anniversary.

One of the items I choose was a little tin money box - a great base to alter ! So I have gone for a "country" look with fabric, a little sign I bought at a show ages ago, a couple of twiggy hearts & a tiny rusty Angel. I'm quite pleased with the effect & it is now on my bedside table collecting money for my next Artsy Crafty weekend !!

I'm also well on my way getting ready for this year's Journal Your Christmas class with Shimelle Laine. She has recommended getting all the pages cut & ready so when things get hectic in December as they inevitably do, you are well placed to get a page done quickly !

More next time !

Tag Team !

I have had a happy crafty weekend - I found a cute little Maya Road tags set and had fun reacquainting myself with embossing which I hadn't done for ages. I rarely work with blues but I wanted a wintery effect without being Christmas-y - and blue and silver seemed to fit the bill. It was a re-learning exercise to find out that the stamps you use shouldn't have too much detail as this doesn't come out well with the embossing powder. So a bit of silver paint had to be slapped on to cover up a mess-up but it all added to the effect !

I spent today happily working with metal & ink to get some more examples ready for my metal work demo on Wednesday - this time to create something suitable for scrapbooking.

And to get some illustrated notes written up with some metal work basics.

Happily they are now all ready to be checked over tomorrow & printed !

On my metal !

I'm not really sure what to show the girls at our Scrapbooking Club when I demo metal working - so I decided to root out the Christmas Canvasses I started back in Sept 2008 on the first Artsy Crafty course. The day was very hectic & I didn't get time to finish it before I left for the long trek back to Wales. All the elements had sat in my project box for over a year - so I added in some new images from the Nut & Meg stamps & finally got it finished !!

I really should do more metal work as I do find it very rewarding & relaxing !!

Everyday Doings !

What would be everyday to me might be something unusual to someone elsewhere in the world ? Today was spent battling with a 25 metre long travelling oven trying to cook burgers in a safe & delicious way ! And being presented new smoked seasoning ingredients. All in a days work but not what everyone does I suppose !! DH & I had an enjoyable night out seeing Alistair McGowen last night - what courage it must take to walk out on a stage & just tell amusing stories & give his great vocal impressions to entertain people for 2 hours ! You really satnd or fall by your own skills with no-where to hide (he did it very well !) - that must be a lesson for life. I'm hoping to get some metal-work crafty bits done over the weekend as samples for a demo to my little scrapbooking club in Gorseinon in a couple of weeks - lets hope housework etc can be kept at bay long enough to get nicely covered in glimmer mist & alcohol ink !!

Surrounded by crafty talent !!

Hi I just felt I had to share this accidently great fun photo ! Last month I went on my third brilliant ArtsyCrafty weekend - run by Leandra of Paperartsy & Linda of LB Crafts. They always bring some of the brilliant artwork crafts they have done & display them for us to be inspired.
I take photos & print them off to keep in my "crafter's block" folder - when I get stuck for an idea or a colour combo I flick throught them & am always inspired !!
I took this photo of a lovely mirror frame the girls had brought to show us & managed to catch myself squarely in the mirror - just where I love to be - surrounded by arty crafts !!

Why do I want to have a Blog then ?

Shimelle asked us to consider why we have joined the course & why we are wanting to have a blog in the first place ?

It took me a while to think it over but I have come up with a few thoughts ... !

I think one key reason is that I get a great deal of pleasure out of preserving my memories - both the process of doing this and later. I like to take out my memories like treasures from a box & re-examine them & I find this reminising a positive thing for me.

I enjoyed keeping a daily diary when I did the Learn Something New Everyday course in September & although I doubt I shall blog everyday I thought a blog might be a good way to keep a diary,

Having no technical nouse whatsoever I thought the course would be a great way to learn HOW to do this with the great notes from Shimelle & the support of all the other people on the course too !!

On choosing to include my Crafting as a key part of my blog - well I love dabbling in all sorts of crafts and having moved on from quilting & embroidery I am now a keen scrapbooker and am dabbling in altering things & stamping. But although I love all the paint & ink & creating something from nothing I do struggle once it is done with - well what to do with it now !! I have been encouraged to find all these other girls out there who are happily crafting away too !! I am hoping that my blog will be a place to get comfortable in my crafty skin !!

Scrapping Our Hallowe'en

At last after a hectic October, we had a quite weekend with nothing planned - so the opportunity for a serious scrapping session was too good to miss. So my scrap-tally for the weekend was 6 double page spreads with our photos from our break in Mallorca in September and 2 12x12's of our hallowe'en party.
Last month I had spotted a Maya Road Pumpkin shaped chip-board mini book when I made a detour via The Stamp Attic (great shop in Wantage) and thought it would be ideal for a mini book of the party. So having managed to turn my fingers bright orange with Spiced Marmalade distress ink plus some covered pages and a bevy of stickers (bargin from Poundland !) I am really pleased with how it turned out !
What a luxury to have time to dedicate to scrapping without real life getting in the way !!