Finished my sketchbook!!!

I have really worked hard this week to get my sketchbook
finished for The Sketchbook Project. I am so glad that I made
this effort to get it finished before the end of the year. Above
is my front cover, just wanted something simple as a title
and to cover up some areas that had got over spray on them.

Here is one of my last few sets of pages, getting less creative
at this point because I really just wanted to finish it up. I
really did not want to send it back with any empty pages in it.
As it was I glued the pages together in sets of 2 as the paper
was just so incredibly thin. It still was hard to do inks and
paints on it so had to come up with alternatives.
On the 2 spreads where I did use some light sprays of ink the
pages really warped and buckled.

So this is my last page, kind of sums up the whole theme of
how I did my book. I did get a couple of suggestions for the
last few pages, one from my husband and one from my son. 

I am glad I was able to participate in this huge project, for
information about the traveling exhibit check here.

So now that is over what is in store for the new year ? I have 

signed up to take Ali Edwards class One Little Word. I am

about 90% sure of the word I will be focusing on. Also I

have signed up to follow Julie Fei-Fan Balzer do this.

So excited to say that she actually featured me on one of the

blogs for inspiration in her post today, that has really made

my day :)  If you scroll down to the M's you will see my blog

with one of my cards I did for the Compendium of Curiosities
challenge earlier this year.

Well I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, I am
all excited to have some creative projects ready for 2011.
What do you have planned to be creative this new year?

CCC Week 25...

I have taken a break from blogging and making art for the
last week or so due to having nice quiet family time. My
oldest son turned 18 just before Christmas so that was
where a lot of my attention was going, hard to believe
how quickly time goes by...
Now to getting back to art and creativity. I finally managed
to find some time to do this challenge, for all the details go
and visit Linda. This was a fun technique that I had not tried
before, however it is definitely easy to overdo the alcohol ink
part, I definitely did! My base colours were not red, that was
the alcohol ink. I do like how it turned out though, just not
quite the colours I started with. Hard to see on the photo but
I used the clear glitter Gelly Roll pen to go around the stars
and it looks lovely in person.
The other thing I have been doing this week is desperately
trying to finish off my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project.
It has to be in the mail by Jan 15th so time is running out.
I am getting close to finishing and have made a real effort
over the last week to finish it. I wish I had found out
about it sooner as I only really had a couple of months
to do it in but I am determined to finish it and send in a full sketchbook.

Shadow box fun...

I have been lucky enough to take 2 classes with
Mike & Lesley this month. The first class was up at Frenzy
Stamper at the beginning of the month. We got to make this
really cool shadow box using some fabulous old dictionary
papers. I loved embossing all the gear die cuts for the top
of the box, they have some fabulous embossing powders
to choose from. I did not finish mine during the class but
managed to get time this week to finish it at home, I actually
prefer doing it like this so I can take my time and get to
see if I have any things from my collection to add to it.

This second shadow box was at a class last weekend at a
different store, Paper Vineyard. My friend Michelle came in
from Oregon to visit me and we took the class together.
We had a lot of fun with this class and learned how to stamp
on things that are round, in this case it was the wooden
spools that are the feet on the box.

I again finished this off at home and changed mine up quite
a lot from the sample. I really enjoy taking classes with Mike
and Lesley as they provide all supplies and we always learn
some new techniques. Now if only I could stop from getting
super glue on my fingers it would be even better!!

Yesterday a teenager, today an adult...

Today a very special someone is turning 18!! Happy Birthday
Alex!! This is one of my favourite pictures of you taken on
vacation in Hawaii in the summer of 2005.

I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by this year,
and it won't be too long before he leaves for college. We are
trying to make the most of our family time together and we
have been documenting his senior year by taking a Picture A
Day, something I had done for all of 2008 and 2009 but
wanted a rest this year. However Alex likes looking back on
those albums so much he asked if I would keep doing it.
Eventually, back in August, we decided to do it but not as
a calendar year but a school year. I know that this will be
something we will look at over and over, remembering things
that made us happy and sad - just us living our daily lives.



 

Last 2 tags...

So sad to be finished with the tags :(  It has been fun
checking out Tim's blog every morning and having that
burst of creativity. This is tag 11, again I had to make
substitutions but I think it came out pretty close to Tim's
example. For this tag he showed a really great way to
get more use out of your dies, using them to make your
own foam stamps. However as I do not have the
die he used to make the stamp I improvised by just using a
stamp I already had. I will definitely have a go at making my
own stamps though, it is a really great idea.

This is the last tag, #12, for this year's 12 Tags of Christmas.

Yet again I did not have the die that was used but was able
to use my Cricut machine to cut something similar out and
still did the technique that Tim showed. 

Now that I have all 12 tags done I am trying to decide how
to show them off. I have all of last year's tags clipped on a 

7 Gypsies ATC & photo display seen here. I still love the tags

from last year and do not want to take them down so need to

be creative. Just wondering what other people are doing...

Caught up, for now anyway...

This is going to be a quick post just to get all my tags up for
everyone to see. This one is tag 6 from Tim Holtz's blog of
the 12 Tags of Christmas. I did not have the embossing folder
or die he used so found a stamp for the trees and actually had
a grunge board deer! I think this one came out pretty good
for improvising.

This one is tag 7 and I love the technique that Tim showed
for inking up the embossing folder before running the tag
through it so it came out already inked. I like the idea of the
flower using canvas and grunge paper but my flowers never
come out great, I cannot get any curl in the petals - must be
my lack of body heat, lol!

Tag 8 is just gorgeous! I love the simplicity and classiness
of this tag. I did not have the gold Perfect Pearl mist but had
one called Sunflower so used that and I love how rich the
colour looks. I think this one is my favourite so far.

This is tag 9 and was a fun technique but took a lot of time,
we did double or even triple masking on this and it looks fabulous.

This is tag 10, which was really quick to do for me today. Tim
used a snowman die on his and again I did not have it, I
seem to be lacking anything snowman related as I had
this problem last year with one of the tags. So I had to repeat
my substitution that I used last year which is my favourite
stamp of all time, the umbrella man.
I used him in place of a snowman stamp last year and even
added a red scarf to him then too! Not sure if you can see
the texture of the snowflakes in the photo but we used left
over plastic packaging to create this. Another fabulous
techcnique from Tim, I love that he does these tags and
shows us new ways to use things that we never would
have thought of.

So much for a quick post! My friend Michelle is arriving this
evening for a quick weekend visit so I won't be doing the
last 2 tags until next week. Thanks for making it this far :)

Finally Five...

...Tag  #5 that is. Finally managed to finish this one off today,
now I only have 6,7 and 8 to start, lol!

The thing I love about the 12 Tags is that you are shown a
tag by Tim Holtz and then you are inspired to create with
what you have. Well I do have to say that sometimes you
may feel that you need one of the supplies he mentions, but
really it is fun to work with what you have.

I will admit that last year I did not have any of his Christmas
stamps so when I saw his Mini Holiday 2 set I knew I had to
get them in time for this years tags. I am doing my best to
not buy anything major for these but have gone out to get a
couple of little things. 

Now I am off to go and start the next one...

Tags 3 & 4...

I am trying to catch up with the 12 Tags of Christmas and
finally finished tags 3 & 4 seen above. It has been really
busy here the last few days and I haven't even started on
my December Daily project yet!!

The good and bad of these tags is that I found the tissue tape
flower on tag 3 a real pain to do, my tape just did not seem to
stick and kept coming off, had to re-do it and then glue it all
together. It looked so much fun and so easy to do, not sure if
I will attempt it again.

Now the Tim Holtz Facet that was part of the technique for
tag 4 was something I thought would not work for me but
amazingly it did!!
I love the effect of using alcohol ink to do a resist. If you
have no idea what on earth I am talking about then
go here and read all the details from Tim himself.

Hoping that I can get tags 5 & 6 done tomorrow and
then I will only be a day behind :)

12 Tags of Christmas Day 2...

Well here is my attempt at Day 2. I like this one much better
than my tag from yesterday. This tag went very quickly once
I had found the one supply you needed for this that I did not
have. I drove all over today and went to 5 stores to find this.
I needed the felt one not the foam one as the technique Tim
shared today was to make your own custom coloured stamp
pad, the foam does not work for this. All I can say is that
once I had the Cut n' dry felt it was all easy going.

If you want to see Tim's tag for today go here. There was a
great Wow factor for me after doing the custom colour ink
pad. It just opens up a whole world of possibilities. I used
5 different inks on the Cardinal that I stamped, not sure if
you can tell that but it came out just beautifully.

Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow's tag will bring!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas...

I was so excited that Tim Holtz was going to do the 12 tags
again this year. I played along last year for the first time and
had so much fun doing it, if you want to join in go here.
Today was Tag No.1, after fiddling around this evening trying
to finish it off - it got changed a couple of times! This is my
final effort, not really 100% happy with it but I am calling it done.

I knew it would be difficult this year as he has brought out so
many new products this year and I do not have many of
them. Although part of the fun of this is to improvise and
use it as a creative jump start. Still when you are struggling
to do the main pieces of it then it is not quite so much fun.

CCC Week 23...

Well here we are at week 23 of the challenge, please go and
visit Studio L3 for all the details. The challenges are now
going to be every 2 weeks during the holiday season, I
think that is a good idea with everyone being really busy
right now.

This week's challenge is Double Distress, don't forget you need
the book to play along. This is a technique I have not really
done much of and was worried about overdoing the inking
to the point you could not see the original colours I started
with. Still I did my best to not overdo it and here is my
finished piece. The Umbrella Man is my favourite stamp and
so I have been trying to not use him too much during this
challenge, I think I have been successful with that so far but
we still have 13 more challenges to go, lol!

I wish all my friends a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you
have fun spending time with your family.

Back to art journaling...

Last weekend I took a class with Kelly Kilmer at
the Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale, AZ. This is the book that
I made although I did not do the front cover there just made
the book completely from scratch and learned a fun new
binding too! If you ever get the chance to take a class with
Kelly I highly recommend it, she is so creative, very helpful
and is very hands on. This is the second class I have taken
with her and I loved the book I made in the first class too.
Now all I need to do is actually start working in them!

This book is different than the first one as we are not painting
the inside pages, we are using collage in it with papers,
images, washi tapes etc. This page above I actually started
in the class but added the doodling and journaling at home.
It is going to be interesting working in the 2 books and seeing

which I prefer.

This last page I did in yet another art journal that I am
working in. The background was already painted and I
just wanted to "do" something to be creative, you know
how that goes right? Well now I am getting back into
the art journaling groove I really want to keep it up.

CCC Week 22...

Well here it is the first day of this week's challenge over at
Linda's blog and I already completed it!
 
Again I did not have the required "tool" and had to make do
using Linda's suggestion. I am sure that it made a difference
as I can see it myself from the other photos posted. Oh well,
will have to go and buy it and try it again. I also had issues
stamping on top of the glossy card stock, I have noticed
before that stamps tend to stick to the surface and you do
not get a good imprint, had to stamp some parts of my bird
a couple of times. Anyway I love how colourful it looks and
now I have to wait a whole week for the next challenge,
what am I going to do until then??

CCC Week 21...

Here we are at week 21, hard to believe it is going by so fast.
Hop on over to Linda's blog to get all the information about
this week's technique.

This week's technique is one of the few from the book that I
have don before and is one that usually turns out great. Glad
to say that I had no problems this week, in fact was one of
the quickest ones I have done.

This week all of the stamps I used were Tim Holtz stamps. I
used the wrinkle free distress for the background using
Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage and Crushed Olive Distress Inks.
I really love it when something just comes together with
no problems, don't you?

December Daily...

 

I love following Ali Edwards blog and seeing all the great
projects that she comes up with. One that she has been
doing for the last few years is the December Daily, to see
how she is doing it this year go here.

I did it last year for the first time and really love looking back
on the 25 day run up to Christmas. I decided I would do it
again this year and the picture above is of my album that I
put together ready to start working in. It is actually a small
binder that measures 7"W x 9"H, I loved how Ali was doing
hers this year so based mine on that, my inside pages are
6"x8" so this binder is perfect for this. I had mentioned to
Melinda, the fabulous photographer, about this and she
decided to do it too.
In fact it was when I was picking up my photos from her
that she showed me a small little binder she had found
in her office that she was going to use for this. I loved
that idea and found something similar at an office supply store.

The picture below is my album from last year before I started

working in it. It is an 8"x8" size that is all random sizes and 

shapes inside. I used 2 pieces of acrylic for the front and back

covers and some binding rings to hold it all together. It is

definitely more eclectic and fun but I really liked the more

simple style for this year.

Is there anyone else that is going to do this project this year?
It was definitely a worthwhile album for me but you have to
keep on top of things. This is why preparing as much as
possible in advance is the best way to get it done. Take a look
at Ali's posts about this project and think about doing it too.

CCC Week 20...

So hard to believe that over on Linda's blog we are up to week
20, go visit her to find out all the details of this week's challenge.

This one actually was one of the quickest challenges for me,
as in I did not spend ages pondering over what to do. I did
not have one of the tools that was mentioned in the technique
so just made do with what I had on hand.

I decided I wanted to use metal tape for the wings but that
stuff is always so hard to photograph as it is so reflective,
didn't come out too bad though.

I also have decided that I need to get myself some more
quote/sayings kind of stamps, as every week I am going
through my limited supply trying to find something that
will work for the project. Any one have good

suggestions as to where I can find some good sayings?

Life...

Well I hope everyone enjoyed the Halloween weekend, we
had rather a strange visitor last night, apparently he is an
urban legend (although my husband and I have not heard
of him), Slender Man. Some kind of scary phenomenon that
teenage boys know about.

A while ago I posted some photos of various pots and vases
that my son had made in his high school ceramics class, here
are some of the latest ones he has brought home. He is now
going for "big" pots, not easy to see but these are quite a lot
bigger than the previous ones. We have amassed a rather
large collection of pots, in fact they are taking over our kitchen!
Need to come up with something creative to do with them all.

I feel that recently I have only had time to post my
challenges for the Compendium of Curiosities. Life has
been busy here, mostly we have been doing lots of
things to do with finding a college for our oldest, visiting
them, going to financial planning meetings, reading all
sorts of stuff. Then deciding and applying, and the hardest
part just waiting to hear back. I am happy to say that we
finally got a letter last Thursday that he had been accepted
to the school he wanted to go to, now it is all about paying out money!

We are happy that he won't be too far away but he will be far
enough that he will have a real college experience away from
his parents.

Thanks for sticking with me so far, just a brief update on life
here. One more thing is that I finally had some family
portraits taken, the first time in 14 years! I am so happy to
have had photos taken that reflect this time in our lives. I
was one of the lucky winners last May on Becky Higgins
Big Photography Giveaway. I won a session with
Melinda Kolker, she was wonderful to work with and took
some great pictures of us. She really captured the essence
of our family and the relationship between our 2 boys, I am
absolutely in love with the pictures she took. If you have a
minute or two please look at this slide show she put together for me.

CCC Week 19...

 

Here we are at week 19 of the Compendium Challenge, this
week's technique is called Extreme Masking, get all the
details over at Studio L3.

This was a good week as I had no issues, no mistakes to cover
up, no starting again from scratch, yay! I even went with
colours that I do not usually use, I am more a blue and
green person, but I love how this all turned out in the end.

I used a little Wild Honey, Barn Door and Rusty Hinge for
the distress inks.

The mask is an old one of Heidi Swapp's and the added
butterfly is one from Jenni Bowlin. Most of the stamps
are from Tim Holtz, I have no idea where I got the little
saying from that I used at the top, just found it floating
around in my drawer of small acrylic stamps.

I need to get more storage for my cling mount and acrylic
stamps, but some of them like the one above are really
small so they ended up in a small drawer. What does
everyone else do with their smaller stamps that don't

really belong to any set, just odds and ends?

A couple more pages...

Well I seemed to have had a bit of inspiration for my
Sketchbook Project theme last week so thought I would
share a couple of pages. This page above I tried doing
lettering with some brush pens and coloured the
background with Prismacolor Pencils. I love the vision
stamp that I found in one of the dollar bins at Michaels
and have been waiting to find a page that I could use it on.

With this page I just got an idea and tried to find something
that would work for it. I remembered that I had bought some
paper that was kind of high tech looking and managed to find it.
The bottom half is the paper and then I used a really cute
deco tape and did some stamping at the top. 

I seemed to be on a roll for a while with ideas for my pages
but now I feel a little stuck again. I know that I am going to
incorporate a clock of some kind on each spread but now I
need to come up with some new inspiration, I am still open to suggestions...

CCC Week 18...

Well we are officially halfway through the Compendium of
Curiosities challenge. If you have just found my blog and
do not know what I am talking about please go to visit
Linda and you can see what it is all about and hopefully
can join in the fun.

Now I am sure some of you are looking at my entry for this
week and saying "that doesn't look right", I can assure you
I followed the steps on page 37 exactly. I tried it first with
white but my stamp (and I really wanted to use this stamp),
just did not show up and I ended up rubbing away the top
layer of the card stock!
So I started again and used black instead, still followed all
the steps but it does not have the exact same effect as it
would have with white. Sometimes you just get an idea of
the things you want to use and you have to make it work.
The stamps are all by Unity Stamp Co. and the little piece of
map in the corner is the fabulous new deco tape that I found
at Etsy. These tapes are becoming my new addiction, I have
quite a few now and I am trying to use them whenever I can
because they are just so cool :) 

I was trying to find a deco tape that was of the London
Underground and found the Manhattan subway instead, so if
there is anyone out there that has seen a London
Underground tape please let me know. I would love to
have one, in case you don't know England is my home country.

CCC Week 17...

Here is my entry for week 17 of the challenge, for all the
details please go and visit the lovely Linda.

I almost did not do this week's challenge as I have been away
with my family to "The Happiest Place on Earth" and just got
home last night. Also I never seem to do well with charms
and thought maybe I would just wait for the new challenge
on Monday.

In the end I decided that I have kept up so far so really
should do it. I won't go into all the details but had a few
errors along the way and spent most of my time trying
to fix them. I even decided to start from scratch but had
an issue with not lining up the paper on my die correctly
so it did not cut out the whole note card, aarghh!
This was when I decided I had to fix the mess I had
made on the first one, so this is it!
Now I am looking forward to seeing the next challenge on Monday.

The Sketchbook Project...

A    A couple of months ago I found out about The Sketchbook
      Project, the idea really intrigued me but I wasn't really sure
      about it - I am not a sketcher and I can only draw lines and
th   they aren't usually straight! Anyway on my All Things Tim
Y    Yahoo group a couple of people were talking about it and
I     I got caught up in the excitement of it all so I went ahead
      and signed up.
I     I was so excited to do it and be part of a project like this but
o    once I received my sketchbook it was a different story. I felt
p    panic! a total brain freeze on how I was going to illustrate
m   my theme. Anyway after asking around for help, and some
p    people did help me, I just decided the best thing to do was
st   start it and see what direction it took me in. Above is the first
2    2 page spread in the book, although I did it after the pages
b    below.

The 2 page spread above is actually the first set of pages I did,
they were really a learning experience. The pages of the
sketchbook are incredibly thin, I had to glue the pages
together in sets of 2 to make them a little more substantial.
Although it wasn't enough for the use of Adirondack Color
wash spray which I used on the clock page. It wrinkled and
buckled so now I know to not use anything like that, it was
only a very light spray but the paper is just too thin for it.

In case you haven't realised the theme of my sketchbook is

"In 5 minutes..", it really had me puzzled as to how to tackle
it and even now I am not all that sure what I will do next.
I am still open to suggestions.....

CCC Week 16...

  

Over at Studio L3 this week we are up to Week 16 of the
Compendium of Curiosities challenge. This week's technique
is a lot of fun as it really seems to come out different than
planned. I used the Distress Ink colours of Crushed Olive,
Chipped Sapphire and Brushed Corduroy for my background.

I also got to use the new Rosette die, which if you haven't
tried it yet, is just so much fun to do. I used a Wendy Vecchi
stamp for the middle of the rosette, just love that eye!
I added a strip of some really cool clear deco tape and
stamped some random circles, attached my saying with

my favourite tool - the tiny attacher :) - if you do not own
this you need to, it is the best stapler ever!

Now back to that Rosette Die from Sizzix. I have seen quite a
few people using it and even though I barely use flowers on
anything I could see the possibilities of this die. It is hard to
find and there is nowhere local to me that has it, I found it
on e-bay, it shipped pretty quickly and arrived on my
doorstep this Saturday. I was so excited to try it out and once
I opened it I realised that you need to have an extended
platform and cutting plates to run it through the Big Kick,
argghh! so disappointed.
I tried to do it just using the regular ones and moving it along
after cutting half of it, well it really did not work that well.
After quite a few attempts at it I knew I would have to get
the extended plates, the next day I was able to find them

at my local Jo-Anns. Well it worked so much better and now
I can make rosettes in one run through the machine and no fudging them!!

Bird revamp...

So some of you may remember a few months ago that I was

doing a project that gave me lots of grief. No real reason for
it, it just was not going how I had envisioned it. I left it for a
while and finally went back and finished it, that was in May.
I still really wasn't happy with it but I left it alone as I just
did not want to deal with it any more.

This week I had an idea to change the "bird" to a completely
different theme. I got the shadowbox on my desk and
completely dismantled it, totally destroyed the whole thing
apart from the box and the bird. I used an embossing folder
with the spider web and used some coredinations black magic
card stock. After running it through my Sizzix I sanded off
the top layer to reveal the orange colour underneath. I
applied some gesso to my bird and re-painted it. I re-covered
the inside of the box and added a cute little dimensional spider
to the middle of the spider web.

Trying to keep in a similar colour scheme I used some alcohol
inks to re-colour the metal corners on the outside of the box.
I kept this much simpler and added a couple of mirrors on
the inside which makes this very hard to photograph.

Having a glass panel on the front is bad enough but adding
the mirrors to the inside made it almost impossible so I know
these pictures aren't the best but hopefully you can see
enough of it to see the difference.

I am much happier with this version and hopefully can say
that it is done and I will not be re-doing it again!!

CCC Week 15...

Here we are at week 15 already! time flies when you are having fun :)
Go to Linda's blog to get details of this weeks challenge and
while youhaare there look at all of the great entries that have
already been posted for this week.
I enjoyed the technique but found that I could not stamp on
top of the alcohol inks very well, perhaps I was using the
wrong inks for that?

Anyway I used grunge board as the base, followed by the
technique (it's a secret, if you want to know go and buy
the book). I used some of Tim Holtz tissue tape along the
bottom and then used something new, a Tattered Angels
Foil chip. This has a foil resist on it which when you spray
a mist over it resists the colour, kind of a cool effect.

It is really fun trying all these techniques every week, some I
have done before but I have found more of them that are
new things for me. Thanks to everyone for all the kind
comments along the way and also for the great suggestions
I had on how to display my pieces of art.

Art Happenings...

Today I received my confirmation packet for Artfest 2011, I
was lucky to get into my first choice of classes, yay!!

I had heard about Artfest quite a long time ago but always
thought that it was too high a level for me. Well after
meeting lots of art friends through online classes, blogs,
Yahoo groups and the Tim Holtz cruise to Mexico, I realised
that this was something that I could and should do. This
year I attended for the first time with my cabin mate from
the cruise, we have become good friends and art event buddies!
So I am encouraging anyone out there who is interested but
maybe nervous about it, you can do it, go and look at the
website to see the diverse classes that are available.For some reason I am more excited about next year's event
but I am sure that is because now I know what to expect.
I am even pushing myself to learn something new this time.

Another art happening that I decided to join in is
The Sketchbook Project 2011. When I heard about this
project it sounded like a great thing to be involved with and
got really excited about it, so signed up to do it. I was
looking forward to the day my sketchbook arrived, and it
did, about 3 weeks ago. Now that I have it I am at a total
loss as how to start. I have been scouring the internet
looking for some help, I have connected with a couple of
ladies through one of my Yahoo groups who also have not
started theirs yet. The theme of my book is "In 5 Minutes..".

My problem is I don't know how to interpret the theme and
fill a sketchbook about it. I have a couple of ideas but am
not sure if I am going in the right direction, so if anyone

has any insight, suggestions etc on how to approach it

I would love to hear them, pretty please :)

CCC Week 14...

This week the challenge over at Linda's blog involved using
Tim Holtz masks. This is one of my favourite techniques
which I have used a lot in the past.
I decided to incorporate one of Heidi Swapp's masks
into this challenge. I wasn't really sure I liked how it looked,
and my original idea kind of went by the wayside. Anyway in
the end I decided that I was not going to re-do it. When I first
started the challenges I decided to use the same die cut shape
throughout, sometimes this can be limiting with it's small
size. I love the shape of this and am now wondering what I
will do with them when the challenge is over.

What is everyone else going to do with theirs ? I know most
people are doing tags, some cards, some book covers, and
some just do a different thing each week. I was originally
thinking I would just punch a hole in the corner of them all
and put them on a binding ring, not sure now what I
will do and am open to suggestions ???

Steampunk fun...

So what exactly is Steampunk? well according to
Mike Putman who's class I took yesterday this is
the definition :

a form of art that is Victorian, kind of Jules Verne science
fiction that incorporates the steam power of the time,
goggles, hot air balloons, gears, etc. Mike even said it
sometimes can be tied in with the punk era too.

Anyway this is what I made in class, well technically I made
all the parts in class and assembled it this afternoon at home.
This was yet another fun class given by Mike and Lesley
at Paper Vineyard, my nearest scrapbook store. We used
the new Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante line, these papers
are fabulous if you like this style of art. I love the finished 

piece but my husband just doesn't get it, lol!

So the other thing that happened yesterday at the store is

that I finally got to meet someone who I have met in the

virtual world, aka blogging! We met whilst taking an online

class all about blogging and have kind of followed each other

and left comments back and forth on our blogs. We really 

do not live that far apart but have never got to meet yet.

Well we did yesterday, as Deb and her daughter came over
to the store, so I could pass on a book to her that I did not
need, from reading her blog I knew she was the
perfect person to give it to. The fun thing was that she had
made a little treat for me too, thank you Deb!

Week 13 of the Compendium challenge...

I am a little later than usual doing this weeks challenge, I
have to confess that when I saw what it was I did not want
to do it. The technique this week is all about grunge paper
flowers, shh! cannot say any more. Anyway I am not
someone who uses flowers and having seen all the lovely
flowers that people have made throughout all of these
challenges I felt intimidated to say the least. Anyway I
decided to "just do it" and this is the result.

I actually started with a different background paper and the
flower did not show up very well. I made the mistake of using
ink colours that were similar to the paper, lol! After I made
the flower I realised I had to find some other paper and
although I liked this paper it was very busy, adding the flower
on top of it made it worse. I added some of Tim Holtz's
tissue tape over the paper (sacrilege I know!) but it helped
a little. I am not sure why my flowers won't stay curled but
believe me I spent a long time curling the petals, so again if
anyone can tell me the best way to do it I would love to know. 

Hey Lori are you out there ??? you make lots of flowers so
share the secrets with me please :)

What I have been up to recently...

First of all I have terrible lighting in my house so have to

always change the colour and lighting in Picasa to get my
pictures to look almost the way they should be, lol! Also
this is the first time I tried the collage function as I did
not want to load photo after photo, obviously I need more
practice at it as it has cut off parts of one of my pictures.

Yesterday I spent the day with my friend Lisa taking a basic
then an advanced Zentangle class at
The Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale, AZ. We had an hour break
for lunch and had a really delicious lunch at a place
recommended to us by Debbie the owner of Frenzy Stamper,
just cannot remember the name of it, sorry!
So the picture that got cut off is of some of the Zentangles
we learned yesterday. If you want to know more about this
art form then go here.

The other pictures are of the projects we made at Creative
Escape last weekend. These are the ones that I have now
finished, I still have 3 more to go, hoping to get some more
done tomorrow. As always if you have any questions about
these projects or anything else just ask.

CCC Week 12...

Well, hard to believe but we are one third of the way through
these challenges.

If you have not made it over to Linda's blog yet, what are you
waiting for? Everyone is having so much fun trying out new
techniques and sharing what they did, please come on over
and try it yourself.

My problem is not the technique but deciding the whole
theme of my card before I even start. That takes me so
long to do and then the technique is the quickest part. This
week's technique I had not tried before and again using
Distress Embossing powder is a challenge for me.

I only have 2 colours and, in fact the only reason I have 2 is
that I had to get a different colour for the previous technique
we did. I am still unsure on when the stuff is heated enough
or not so if anyone is an expert with these powders send me
some tips please.

Anyway I do like how it turned out and will be waiting
eagerly for next Monday to come around so I can do the next challenge.

Look who I met this weekend...

Yes none other than the Cricut from Provo Craft!! I have no
idea who was in this outfit but they were very hot, I could
feel the heat just standing next to them.  Provo Craft were
one of the sponsors for Creative Escape this weekend and
were making everyone happy with the Cricut mascot
showing up in all sorts of places.

This is the lovely gift that was left for each participant in their
rooms on Friday night. Not sure if you can see but we all
received a Pound of Paper from Bazzill Basics Paper, a
custom set of Creative Escape Glimmer Mist colours,
a gorgeous bracelet that was made in this year's CE colours
of Turquoise, Black and Silver, a Quilting Arts magazine and
a Fairytale Brownie - if you have never tasted one of these
they are heavenly :)

Here I am with Claudine Hellmuth at the meet the teacher
trunk show.
This event happens on Thursday and you get to meet all of
the teachers and see some of their work on display.

I had a wonderful time there this year, it was better than last
year but I have really enjoyed all 4 of the ones that I have
attended. We had some projects that were a little ambitious
but we have a fabulous book that has photos and instructions
for all of the projects so that we can finish them off at home.
We got to make a gorgeous necklace with
Margie Romney-Aslett, and had a photography lesson with
Maggie Holmes.
We also made a really cute album with Teresa Collins, and
got to try out the Cinch machine from We R Memory Keepers.
There were also great projects with Pam Black, Trisha
Ladouceur, Jessica Sprague and of course Heidi Swapp. The
event ended Saturday night with a delicious dinner that
started with dessert first - a tradition of Creative Escape.
There were tons and tons of raffle prizes given away, a live
auction to win some of the fabulous mirrors that were
created by teachers past and present and then a talk by
the key note speaker, Jaimee Rose.

It was a weekend of making new friends, meeting up with old
friends and sharing the passion of creating and saving our
memories in ways that are meaningful to us.
Looking forward to being there again next year...