Lady Catfern's lazy look at life

Colour Your Life

2012-02-23T13:12:00.002Z

After going to see The Vagina Monologues at my local theatre, I keep being sent 'what's on' guides for it. Buried in the last one was an advert for Colour Your Life. Its an arts programme partly funded by the NHS and its to aid well being through art.

So far I've been 3 times and have *loved* every minute. There is an artist in residence who will help if you want / need it. At the moment its Paul who does incredible art work. If you want him to he will guide you through a project or you can just get stuck in and do your own thing, which is what I've been doing.

They have loads of stash there - canvasses of all sizes, paint (acrylic and watercolour), pastels, brushes, pencils, mod roc, corrugated card and if there is anything you particularly want they will try, within reason, to get it for you.

So far I have completed 2 pieces. The first is called 'Windows to the Soul'. I initially covered the canvas (15.5" x 11.5" shallow edge) with mod roc (the stuff plaster casts are made of) and attached the masks with that. I then took it home and me and the masks had a falling out and they came un-stuck. So I covered the whole thing with paper taken from an altered book I started at a workshop ages ago. I painted the background with a weak wash of black Ecoline Ink.

Before I reattached the masks I printed 'art, beauty, passion and love' out from the PC and and traced round the words using Promarkers and stuck the words behind the eyes of the masks. I then stuck the masks back to the canvas using my new fave glue - Hard as Nails!!!

I painted the masks with a weak wash of ultramarine violet Ecoline and finished the whole thing off with individual letters stamped using a See-Ds tiled alphabet stamp. I wanted to convey the thought that despite all of the background noise I still have all of these things in my soul.

I'm really chuffed with it :-)

The second piece I've done is called 'My World is full of Colour'. I started with a 20cm square deep edge canvas and planned to colour the background with a nice smooth layer of DI's but as I clagged them on ready to blend, Lisa and Pauline who I sit with stopped me blending them. And I'm really pleased they did!

The colours are Spice Marmalade, Broken China, Mustard Seed and Dusty Concord.

I already had a picture to go on it, cut from a magazine and just need wording. I used the Artistic Affirmations stamps set from Chocolate Baroque. I stamped them using Tuxedo Black Memento Ink onto tissue paper.

I used Golden Matte Gel Medium to adhere them all to the canvas and here is the finished article.

I think the picture is advertising a body wash or moisturiser that contains no chemicals but I just *love* the picture!

Pain, Journaling and Art

2012-02-06T12:44:00.001Z

I've been meaning to post for ages but things have just gotten away from me.

First of all good news - I HAVE NO PAIN!!!!!!!

I've been a lot of pain over the last year or so. It gradually crept up on me and just didn't go away, no matter what pain killers I took. The only way I could get relief was to craft but my Muse disappeared. Think she was scared by the pain lol!!

I've been attending the Pain Clinic for a while and a couple of weeks ago the doc offered me a Lidocaine infusion. Its a local anaesthetic but doesn't numb when given by infusion. It just does something to trick the nerves into not giving me pain. There was no guarantee of it working but I *had* to try.

I had it on 25th January at my local hospital. I had to go in my wheelchair as I just couldn't walk for the pain. I went in with a pain score of 10 and came out with a score of zero and could walk again! I get a little pain at night but the rest of the time its fine and no more pain killers. Its a really weird feeling. The first night I couldn't sleep cos my legs just didn't feel like mine.

I've still got very tired legs and I'm having spasms again but my MS Nurse is gonna work it out with my Neurologist to change some medication.

So now that I've written loads I think I should show my completed journal page that I started on new Years Day.

I wrote the wording using a dipping pen and drawing ink. There were spots of ink all over cos I'm not so good with the pen so I decided to try and cover up the black marks by using Black Soot DI, which of course looked too dark and didn't dry. So baby wipe at the ready I wiped it off and what I was left with was a darkened version of the original page which I love!

I also promised ages ago to show you my art from the MS Trust Secret Art Show. There's another one starting in April. I'm in the middle of doing more pieces for them.

All of the artwork is on heavy water colour paper that the MS Trust send out to the artist. This one is drawing ink allowed to run over the paper with variegated metal leaf applied in some the shapes that the ink made.

This sold on the night of the first day of the show to the lady who organised the show. She e-mailed to tell me and hoped I'd not be upset. Out of all the artwork she saw, it was mine that spoke to her. I was *chuffed*!!!

This is very obvious to any crafters out there. I used Crushed Olive and Broken China DI's on the background with some water dripped on to remove some of the colour. The stamp is from Sir Tim of Holtz. Its a clear stamp and I got permission from Ranger and Sir Tim before using it. The wording is printed on the PC and cut up.

This one sold in the first 10 minutes of the show opening!!

This was the first piece I did and I not keen on it. Cos I'd spent time doing it I sent it in anyway. I'm not sure if it sold or not.

I used some red paint from Ikea meant for colouring the plain wooden items they sell. I painted another piece of paper and clagged this piece onto it and it came apart with this lovely pattern. I used a green paint dabber through small sequin waste and then used yellow paint on a skewer to make the lines.

I've already done one piece for the Spring show and I'm really pleased with it. Let you see that when its (hopefully) sold.

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-02T14:00:00.000Z

After my relapse I decided to take it easy for a few weeks to get myself pulled together. I finally feel ready to craft again and that was exactly what I was doing yesterday - huddled in my craft room with my new Slanket on, listening to an audio book and getting painty!!

I got 2 craft books for Christmas ( along with a lot of other stuff) from Jo - Surface Treatment Workshop: Explore 45 Mixed Media Techniques and Art at the Speed of Life. The Surface Treatments gave me the kick I needed to start creating again and I started to read the the second one on Christmas Day. For once I am taking notice of what the author is telling me to do to try to save precious time in our crafting habits. So yesterday I created most of a journal page and loads of backgrounds for a journal (or smash book) that I made last winter out of recycled packaging.

First of all I gesso'd the journal page as it had some Krylon ink coming through from the previous page and while my sponge brush was dirty I gesso'd all of the pages of the recycled journal.

You can great texture on the page by pressing the end of the sponge onto the page. The bubbles that come from the sponge stay raised when it dries too!

Next I dripped Golden paints Pthalo Blue (Green Shade) and Pthalo Green (Blue Shade) onto the pages and used a Speedball brayer to roll the colour around and blend it.

The names of these colours always make me smile. Why is the blue, green and the green, blue?? I'm sure there's some rational explanation but I don't really care so much cos I *love* these colours especially together!

I wanted a complete contrast to the image I'd chosen for the page. Its a picture of Dita von Teese from one of those glossy magazines a neighbour gives to my Mam and I rip up!

For anyone who doesn't know who she is, she's a Burlesque dancer and if I was fit and well, I'd love to try Burlesque.

The gold on the outside of the page is Golden paints Irridecent Gold (fine) and is sponged through small hole sequin waste.

The page isn't finished yet and I'm sure how its gonna end up, but I love it so far!

And here are some of the backgrounds I did. You can see that I used the same colours a couple of times meaning I only had to wash my tools once. Its common sense but Art at the Speed of Life has really brought it home to me. Bit dense you see ;-)

And I'm intending to keep my baby wipes and use them in art too. Here are my first 3!

So here's to a new Year that is Happy, Healthy and Crafty for all of us!!

Relapse number 2 :o(

2011-11-04T14:42:00.000Z

I've not been feeling myself for a few weeks and it all came to a head on Monday. I rang the doctors and got an appointment for 3 hours time for an unrelated matter but by the time I got to the surgery I had lost my balance, had visual disturbances and felt like my legs would colapse at any moment. And i'm still waiting for my whelchair - typical!

I rang my MS Nurse on the advice of my GP and low and behold I'm having another relpase. I've already had 1 this year - is that not enough????

So I've been backwards and forwards to the hospital for 3 days to have high dose steroids by intravenous drip and they've taken blood tests to see if I am building up antibodies to the Tysabri (my normal monthly infusion).

So firstly an apology to all my blog buddies. I just ain't been in any frame of mind, fatigue wise, to leave any comments for weeks. Rest assured though I have been by all of your blog posts but just not shown my presence.

Secondly I've decided I'm not making Christmas cards this year. I bought some a few weeks ago with the intention of making a few, but this relapse has really scared me and I'm just not gonna push myself. Hope you all understand.

So I'm off now for some food and put my feet up in front of the telly and catch up on stuff I've taped.

Journal Journeys Challenge #04

2011-10-19T16:01:00.002+01:00

This is my journal page for Journal Journeys Challenge # 04. Dawn gave us the prompt of Nature & Autumn. I chose to just do Autumn but I suppose the leaves constitute the 'nature' part of it ;)

I started on a blank page of my Moleskine Journal. I didn't gesso it before hand but now think I should have as the back of one of the pages is soooo covered in Glimmer Mist and krylon pen!

Anyhoo I decide to use some leaves out of my garden as 'masks- and spray Glimmer Mists through them. However I chose a piece of conifer which was far too dense (bit like me for choosing it!) and the mask just turned out like a big un-painted blob.

So to try and save it I just sprayed Glimmer Mist in every autumnal colour I had all over both pages. They were looking a complete mess, so I decided just to use the rest of leaves as 'stamps' and basically plonked them in to DI's and used my hand the press them onto the pages. The veins showed up brilliantly. So I tried stamping the back of leaf. It worked just as well and I loved the page as it had sooo much texture. Of course I forgot to take a photo (again!)

I used the Sir Tim of Holtz Tattered Leaves die to cut leaves from book pages, scrunched them up, opened them out and sprayed them with more Glimmer Mist. Once I dried them they started to look more like Autumn leaves. I stuck them randomly around the edges of the pages and wanted to write 'Autumn natures last and lovliest smile' in the centre. But....I spelled lovliest wrong. Typical. (note to self - *always* write any words you want to use out in rought first!) At first I used a black Sharpie to write, but it didn't show up very well and I'd already corrected my spelling mistake so there were 2 lovliest's. When I decided to use a gold Krylon Pen and realised I could've changed the spelling mistake without anyone knowing. So 2 lovliest it is!

I'm really happy with the pages and I'm gonna try and do the background again and take a photo this time ;)

MS Trust Secret Art Show

2011-10-01T14:18:00.002+01:00

The Winter MS Trust Secret Art Show is pretty special for me this year.

The exhibition has over 250 pieces and includes artwork from well-known artists such as Caroline Tate, Richard Long and Patrick Hughes and ME!!!! Yes I have 3 pieces of artwork in the show.

Each piece of artwork sold in the show is 12cm x 12cm (the size of a CD case) and costs £45. The artwork is in a wide range of styles and media, including oils, watercolours, abstract, landscape and still-life. The artwork is signed on the back, so people only find out who created it when they receive it in the post. The Secret Art Show gallery will be available for people to view from Friday 30 September. The show will then open for sales at 9am on Friday 7 October.

Please, please, please follow one of the links above and have a look at the work. Its all wonderful and, if you can afford it, please buy one.

See if you can spot mine. I know that all of my crafty friends out there will definitely be able to spot one of them ;)

Elements of Art Journaling final pages

2011-09-28T13:29:00.002+01:00

Well its been a long time coming but I've finally finished The Elements of Art Journaling course. Not that its been a chore, but I've just not felt like doing any crafting for a while. It happens every now and then and I say I can't be bothered but its more than that. It usually means I'm too tired to do anything. And that's how its been for most of this month.

Anyhoo, here are my final two pages. The first is the fire page. For this page Effy told us to art to music. This is not unusual for me, as anyone who knows me will attest to. Then she said to just enjoy ourselves and make a 'hot mess'. Now this is more difficult for me as I'm a perfectionist and messes just don't come easy. So I started with red Ecoline ink and blew it around the pages. Good basis for a messy page....or so I thought.

I then painted Stewart Gill paints in cerise on one page and orange on the other. This is when I realised my mistake. Ecolines are water based and they just ran and mixed with the paint. Ah well...lesson learned. Once I got the pages painted I closed the journal and squished the pages together and it gave a lovely texture. This is where I stopped and thought about the words associated with fire. One of them is anger.

I realised I am ANGRY!!!

I've always said I was frustrated or irritated but now I know that all this time I have been angry. I'm angry at my MS for what it has and is doing to me and there are other things I am angry about too but this isn't the time or place to go into them. So I wrote it all down and burned the paper. And as I watched the pieces of ash float away into the sky I started to feel calmer. So to symbolise this I charred the edges of pieces of book pages and arranged them into a 'fire' on the pages and drew tendrils of golden smoke coming the from the fire.

The last page is the Spirit Page. This was all about celebrating which virtues we possess now or would like to possess in the future. Again, being British, I struggled to admit what I possess. So my Mam got out the drinks coaster her and my Dad had bought me a few years ago and between us we decided my virtue is inner strength.

I did a search on line for the Goddess of Inner Strength and it kept coming back to Sekhmet, the Egyptian warrior Goddess but she was also the Goddess of healing. As I adore Egypt and everything to do with it she seemed to be an appropriate Goddess for me!

I drew a face using instructions I got from Art, Heart and Healing. Its definitely worth checking as its a FREE course!!! As I liked the face I'd drawn and didn't know if I'd be able to do another one I photocopied it and used the copy for the journal page.

I first dropped spots of Golden Pyrolle Red and Hansa Yellow Medium paint on the pages and smooshed them about with a Speedball brayer. Once they were dry I used the yellow paint on a clear stamp of bubble background and stamped it randomly around. I then added drops of Golden Titan Buff paint and smooshed that with the brayer. It ended up looking almost sandy.

I bought some papers a while ago which feature Egyptian images and used the black one with golden sarcophagi all over it, cut into strips, for her hair and a one with pyramids in neutral colours, with a little more Titan Buff over it, for her dress.

To bring both pages together I sponged Golden Iridescent gold paint over the whole thing.

I used a dipping pen to write the wording. Its the first time I've done this (as you can tell by the big glob of ink on Sekmet's name), and I'm really pleased with the results.

I got the Ankh that I used on her head from a Zuzu, a blog buddy of mine, and coloured it golden with the same gold paint. If you get a chance stop by her blog Zuzu's Petals Altered Art 'n' Stuff. Her work is amazing!!

So there you have it. The Elements of Art Journaling course. It has been a revelation for me to do this course as it has helped to open my eyes to who I am and to make some decisions I would ordinarily have shied away from.

For anyone who would like to do this course it will be available as a Self Study course on Wild Precious Studios. You have to join the Studio but it such a welcoming, nurturing and inspirational place to be part of.

Press for Design

2011-09-02T11:41:00.001+01:00

My wonderfully talented friend Carrie has taken a huge step and become a Self-Employed Business Woman. I have unashamedly copied this from Carrie's Blog as she has put it so more eloquently than I ever could. Pop over to her blog to read the whole post.

'...I have completed all the forms and am all signed up and am ready to trade! I have two different arms to my business, web and print design and my printmaking side. My web and print design service is specifically aimed at sole traders and small businesses, so if you know anyone in that category please do let them know about my Press for Design site As for printmaking I signed up as a Network Member at Allendale Forge Studios today, so my artwork will soon be available to buy there – do visit if you’re in the area, as it is a lovely studio with many different artists and a cafe attached too. My linocuts are for sale in my etsy store, and greetings cards and prints and canvases of my work are available for sale in my RedBubble store.'

Way to go Carrie!!! I wish you all the luck in the world - you deserve it <3

1000 Sheets Blog Candy

2011-08-21T17:03:00.001+01:00

I know two post in one day. I spoil you!!!

Anyhoo I spotted this on a blog I follow and thought I myself a chance of winning. there is some amazing blog candy on offer so hop over to A Thousand Sheets of Paper and you too could be in with a chance of winning.

Journal Journeys Challenge #2

2011-08-21T12:04:00.001+01:00

After taking codeine to help with my painful legs I went on-line and entered myself in the Journal Journeys Fairies Challenge. I only knew about it when Dawn e-mailed me. Thanks Dawn :)

For the challenge I decided to do a gel transfer of an image from a CD I've not used before called Victorian Angels and Fairies by Joanna Sheen. Its not in circulation now sadly but has some fab images on it. Dawn had used the gel transfer technique in her journal and it gave me the incentive to use it too. I'd not used one in my journal before and managed to tear my first attempt. For the second one I applied a bit thicker layer of gel and worked just fine. I'm sure there'll be videos on YouTube showing how to do it so I won't bore you here ;)

Because the gel was thick the image turned out a little murky and grungy but I like that. I then painted the back of the transfer with gesso to make the colours pop a little more. I didn't want to do a pretty, pretty fairy page. That's just not me.

I coloured the pages with charcoal grey and 2 colours of yellow Inktense Pencils and activated them with gesso - my fave technique at the moment! I chose these colours to tie in with the image.

Next I Googled Fairy Poems and found this sweet little poem. The image shows a lady steeping into a fairy ring and all of the fairies dancing and presumably (can't hear them lol!!!) singing. I copied the poem into MS Word, changed the font and made it larger. I then printed it out, coloured them with the same charcoal grey Inktense pencil as the background and activated it with gesso again. I then cu the words up and stuck them to the page and went over the font with a black extra fine Sharpie pen.

I stamped various fairies from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) onto white sticky labels and cut them out and placed them on the page. I have to thank Lesley W for showing me this technique. I'm not that good at planning what I am gonna do with pages so this is sooo much easier than masking for me and means I can do things like these fairies and colour them in afterwards. I used one of yellow Inktense pencils for their wings and used water to move the colour around.

So here you have it. My Fairies Journal Page for the challenge on Journal Journeys.

Please join in even if you've never journaled before. Its a great way to relieve stress can be done with just a few pencils / paints and an old exercise book. I'll be back for the next one Dawn!

Elements of Art Journaling continued

2011-08-04T14:16:00.001+01:00

Well I've done another 2 pages in the Elements of Art Journaling e-course I'm taking with Effy from Wild Precious Studios. I am absolutely loving the course and I'm learning so much too!

The first page is for Air Week. This week we had to practice free-writing around the idea of 'what I know for sure...'. Free-writing is where you just sit for a certain lenth of time, in this case 15 minutes, and write whatever comes into your head. Its a great technique if you're wrestling with solution to a problem as it can fall out of the free-writing. The element of air is all about communication and words. So of course me being me, I went down a different path from everyone else. I looked at the other associations with air and discovered that smell and the colour yellow are associated. As soon as I saw that the page came together easily.

Being a qualified aromatherapist, smell is very important to me and the first thing I thought of was lavender. I used the free-writing as the background for the page, painted gesso over it and Claudine Hellmuth Yellow Pastel paint over that. Once it was dry I rubbed Vaseline in parts over the page and painted Titan Buff over that. Unfortunately I left it too long to rub the paint off the Vaseline and had to scratch some of it off ;)

I painted the lavender using Sheena Douglass' Paint Fusion technique. For the other side of the page I left a portion in the middle unpainted and coloured it with a yellow Inktense Pencil and activated it with gesso to get a lovely pastel colour that I could write over. The writing is my attempt at a poem-ish!!

The next week was Water Week which Effy gave us 2 weeks to complete as it is about our emotions and 'sitting with' the way we feel. She suggested doing some writing about how we feel using water soluble pencils / crayons then painting a compassionate face over it and putting a loving sentiment on the page. As I am suffering from depression this was going to be a step too far for me as I felt that it may drag me into the abyss I have been trying to get out of.

So I did an alternative page. I did some 'sitting with it', but just to type out my problems. Water is about 'daring' and 'dreaming', so this is what I did on my page. I used lots of blue and green Inktense Pencils and activated them with gesso again to make the background. I used the same pencils over the words and used water this time to activate them, then put twinkling H2O's over them. I wanted the whole page to be irridescent. The bubbles are a tiny letter 'o' stamped in Golden Iridescent Gold paint.

The Sea Horse is from Chocolate Baroque (previously Elusive Images) and I used it because they are very elegant, move so freely and ride the waves when they hit underwater. These are all things I struggle with. If a 'wave' hits me it'll knock me for six and moving freely is completely out of the question!

I am really happy with my page. At some point I'll do the 'sitting with it' exercise, but not now.

Weddings of Clay

2011-07-21T15:49:00.000+01:00

My very talented friend Judith makes the most wonderfully detailed clay models for the tops of cakes or just as a special gift. They are absolutely beautiful and so personal.

Please have a look at her new website called Weddings of Clay and see how fantastic they are for yourself!

Elements of Art Journaling

2011-07-13T16:11:00.001+01:00

Sorry I've not been around for a while. Things have just gotten away from me.

I was lucky enough to sign up from the Elements of Art Journaling e-course run by Effy Wild of Wild Precious Studios when she ran a one day only 'pay what you can afford' day. There was no way my budget could stretch to the original price, but this was I managed to be able to afford it and I am so pleased I did!!

As the description says 'Join Effy on a six week journey through the elements of earth, air, fire, water and spirit! Learn new ways to imbue your pages with deeper meaner by developing your own symbolic language!'. I nowhere near that eloquent lol!!

We're half way through week 2 so I thought I would share what I've done so far.

The first week was orientation and preparing our journals for the full course. I used a large Moleskine Cahier. Effy has made videos for us to watch and PDF's to show us various techniques and how she builds up pages. I took her technique and tore up various scrapbook papers and stuck them onto the journal covers after I'd gesso'd them and coloured them with Inktense pencil.

I then stuck 3 pages of the journal together to make a much stronger page to use and gesso'd them. To make the binding on the journal even stronger, Effy suggested tying fibres or ribbon round. I made paper beads out of the same scrapbook paper to use on the ends of the fibres. Carrie has a great tutorial for making these beads here.

I then went on to make my first page which is the back of the front cover of the journal and the first proper page. This practically a copy of what Effy did. I am determined that this will be the only wholesale copy of Effy's page that I'll do. Its to show the relationship between me and the elements.

And now we're doing 'Earth Week'. Effy suggested that we focus on our relationship with the Earth and a way to do that is focusing on our bodies as that is what connects us to it. Effy kindly gave us a picture of her from the back to use if we were gonna 'art' along with her and copy the page. I didn't want to do that so I took the image, made a stencil out of it with thick acetate and scraped fibre paste through it. I used Carrie's beautiful stamp of the Tree Nymph on tissue paper on the 'body's' back and Rock Crystal Crackle Paint over it to show my broken body.

This was all over a background of tissue paper, covered by paint, using my fingers to move it around. I LOVE this page!!!

I've also treated myself to some new toe-posts. I just couldn't resist them, especially when they were in the sale!! They are soooo comfy to wear even though they don't look like they will be and so me!

And I've finally given in and I'm waiting for my appointment at Wheelchair Services to be measured for my own set of wheels. The pain in my legs is made soo much worse by walking so, although I can and will still be walking, I'll have a wheelchair for when I need it. Its been a tough decision but I've definitely made the right move and I'm content with it :)

Wonderful new bag!!

2011-06-15T15:28:00.003+01:00

I was out on Sunday with Jo and we called in to TK Max. We always love going in there as we never know what we're gonna find. Obviously the bags always call to us and it'd be rude not to have a mooch round them. Jo spotted an entire stand devoted to 'hippy' type bags. Just the kind of thing we both love. I normally can't get these kind of bags as I need cross body ones so I have at least one hand free when I'm walking (the other is on my stick).

Anyway Jo spotted a couple that were reduced and one of them was a cross body bag - YAAY!!! So I just HAD to buy it and here it is!! Isn't it gorgeous?!

Its handmade from selected original Rajasthan rugs and is lovely and bright. In fact the photo doesn't do it justice. For any of you who know me, you'll know that its me to a tee!!!

And the best bit - it was only a tenner. How's that for a bargain (spotted by Jo!)??

Angela's wall hanging and more blog candy

2011-06-10T12:28:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago one of the girls I met at the hospital while having treatment was the big 5-0!

I wanted to make her something to mark the occasion, but as it had to go through the post I wanted it to be durable. So I set about making a wall hanging for using 2 Crafty Individuals swirly frames. It was based on idea I saw in a Graphicus Guild (now Chocolate Baroque Guild) monthly news letter.

I coloured both of the frames with Chipped Sapphire and Stormy Skies DI's then triple embossed the whole of the front frame and just the swirl of the back frame with clear embossing powder.

I stamped Ophelia from Stampsmith onto watercolour paper put her inside the frames and glued the together. I needed some way of hanging the frame so, following the idea from the newsletter, I used some thick-ish wire. The only wire I had that was thick enough was copper so I had to use it as her birthday was in a couple of days.

I bent the wire round a paint brush and added some beads before adding it to the frame. To tie everything together I made some flowers using the smallest flower from the TH Tattered Florals die. I used tissue from a drinks coaster and Glimmer Misted it with Timeless Lilac and Cherub Pink and used the same technique as in the previous post to make the flowers. I used curls of copper wire as the centers.

Moira from Happy Daze has a new blog called The Altered Blog and she has a £30 gift voucher plus free p&p to giveaway.

Follow the link to her blog to enter.

Handmade book giveaway!

2011-06-08T11:30:00.000+01:00

I followed a link to a wonderful blog called Sparkle Blue Faery. I love her art journaling!

She currently giving away a gorgeous handmade book. Follow this linkto her blog and leave a comment and answer the question and you'll be in with a chance of winning.

Press for Creativity

2011-06-07T08:11:00.000+01:00

Carrie has a new blog called Press for Creativity, hence the title of the post!

She is taking part in 30 Days of Creativity. Its best to let the site explain what it is:

'30 Days of Creativity is a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in June'

If you needs any inspiration (or are just plain nosey like me lol!!!) go and have a look at her new blog. Its fab!!

Carrie's Frame

2011-05-29T15:15:00.001+01:00

It was Carrie's birthday earlier in May - the big 4-0!! I wanted to get or make her something special so in January I spotted this frame in a Charity shop window. The guy in the shop knows me now and when I asked to look at it he automatically showed me the back first!

The first thing I did when I got home, after taking this photo of course, was the take it to pieces and rip the leaves and glittered apple out of it and bin the them. I couldn't get the glass out as it had been glued to the front frame. Thank goodness the inside with the recesses came off cleanly!

I didn't need to prepare the surface apart from cleaning as the inside had been painted with some sort of matte paint. As far as I could see the frame had already been altered into the state I bought it in as the painiting was not factory done.

I painted the inside of the frame and recess with Viva Precious Metal Paint in Blackberry and then dry brushed the same make of paint in Mother of Pearl over it. both of thses paints are very high in mica content so shimmer beautifully. I painted the outside of the frame with Precious Metal in Silver to tie both parts together as the mother of pearl paint has a slightly silver tone to it. Of course I forgot to photograph them at this stage, but you'll be able to see what I mean on the finished frame.

Next I made some flowers using a tissue drinks coaster and some pages from a book. I cut both of them with a Nestie circle die. Especially for S and J at the hospital here are the photos :)

These are the cut circles which have been scrunched up and sort of flattened back out.

The same circles which I have sprayed with Glimmer Mists in Key Lime Pie and Lemon Zest.

And again once they have been dried with a heat tool and ready to shape into a flower around a bead. Lynn R-H taught me the technique at a workshop. You start with a bead and a little glue and mold the paper around the bead. Keep doing this with tissue, paper and glue until you have a flower of the size you want.

And this is a close up of the finished flower. I made the beads for both of the flowers during a workshop that Carrie, Jo and I attended and had a great time!

I chose bobbins to into the recess as Carries loves sewing. My Mam wrapped the thread round 2 of the bobbins and I painted the 3rd and put a vintage cigar bad round it with a picture of a german castle on it. Carrie also loves Germany.

This flower was made in the same way but sprayed with Jazz Blue and Fully Purple Glimmer Mists.

My Mam helped again by filling the miniature bottles with lavender grown in my garden and tied ribbon round the tops to finish them off. The ribbon is from the loops you get on clothes to keep them on the hanger. I cut them off and use them for projects!

Carrie love the outdoors and I thought the Lavender would be perfect here.

Placing the bobbins and bottles was difficult as I was shaking while doing it. Thank goodness the Glossy Accents has a little time before it dries lol!!!

For the middle, I made a torso from pearl UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Powder) using a mold Jo has. It has a front and back to the mold but I just used the front.

The 'pedestal' that the torso is to stand on is a piece of dense foam from the bottom of TH Embossing Folder packaging. I've been keeping it but didn't know why til now ;)

I painted the pedestal the same colour as the recess and stuck the whole angel together using silicone.

Then it was just a case of cleaning the glass up, bearing in mind I couldn't get it our of the frame. There was gold paint on it from the last time it had been painted and somehow I'd managed to get the Blackberry colour on the inside of glass right in the middle. So once I got that off and gave it a good dust, I could put it all together.

Here is the finished frame and it is totally personal to Carrie!

The Butterfly Effect

2011-05-27T12:34:00.000+01:00

I found this on the side bar of Elaine's blog and I think it is wonderful project to honour the 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust.

The Holocaust Museum in Houston is holding an exhibition of all of the butterflies received in Spring 2013. Each butterfly will represent a child who died. You can read all about it HERE.

If you feel strongly about this please join in. All of the people who died in the Holocaust cannot be forgotten. The dealine to join with the joint effort on the Two Dresses Studio blog is 31st December 2011.

I have an award!!!

2011-05-06T11:07:00.001+01:00

My friend Vron has graciously given The Versatile Blogger Award. Now under the rules I have to tell you 7 random things you didn't know about me and also pass the award on to 7 recently discoverd blogs.

So to work.

1 I have my belly button pierced
2 I have 3 tattoos
3 I love Neighbours (yes the Australian soap!!!!)
4 I'm not keen on making cards anymore and do it under protest!
5 I hardly ever wear proper shoes only boots, trainers and toe-posts
6 I listen to audio books as I can't concentrate on reading anymore
7 I am qualified in aromatherapy, reflexology, Indian head massage and sports massage but can't practice now due to having little energy and little or no feeling in my hands.

Now to the blogs I am going to nominate. I tend to stick to the same blogs, but being new-ish to this blogging lark I tend to think of all of the blogs as new. So here goes:

Kath - Artyfartykat
Judith - weddings of Clay
Lotus - Whymsicallotus
Louise - Zuzu's petals altered art and stuff
Roni - Ink Stains with Roni
Regina - Creative Kismet
Jean - Crafty Individuals

And there you have it. The difficulty was choosing just 7!

So this post isn't all writing here is a pic of a papier mache mask I bought and covered with Friendly Plastic. I just cut random pieces of plastic and melted it onto the mask with a heat tool. I used random pieces on the sides without melting them and put some gems on to 'bling' it up a bit!

I'm back with my ABC

2011-05-01T13:00:00.002+01:00

Well I'm back and feeling an awful lot better. I've even started crafting again due to my Muse coming back from the corner she was hiding in!

No photos today just a little bit of fun. I saw this on my friend Carrie's blog and thought it was a great idea. So here is my ABC...

Age: Apparently I will get to know the meaning of life, the universe and everything in October! (a little nod to Hitchhikers Guide there!)
Bed Size: Its a continental king from Ikea. Huge for one person, but not so big when I had a cat sleeping on it too!

Chore you hate: I don't do cleaning! My Mam helps me.

Dogs: Cats everyday of the week and twice on a Sunday, but I lost my two last year and can't bear to get any more so I just have a snuggle with Carrie's two girls when I'm at her house.

Essential start of your day: A cup of Twinings Earl Grey

Favourite Colour: Purple

Gold or silver: Silver in jewellery, but either in art

Height: 5’8″ and a bit

Instruments I play or have played: Flute and recorder but both very badly!

Job Title: Medically retired from work due to my MS

Kids: Not a hope in h***!!!

Live: Been in the same town in County Durham, UK all my life.

Mum’s Name: Brenda

Nickname: Never had one as a youngster, but got Jilly a lot at work.

Overnight hospital stays: Yes unfortunately. Was in for 2 weeks and then a further week a couple of weeks later before the MS was diagnosed.

Pet Peeve: When people try to kick my stick or crutches out from under me or just stare. I'm irritated just thinking about it!!

Quote from a movie: Ooh that's a toughie!! I love (and have used) so many quotes. 'Theres a glitch in the Matrix', 'The first rule of fight club...', 'E-v-i-i-i-l' and the list goes on...

Right or left handed: Right and my left is a little pathetic in most tasks I try with it, bless

Siblings: No, just me

Time you wake up: Somewhere between 8am and 10am, then again around 4pm after my afternoon nap
Underwear: Always and matching always makes me feel good

Vegetables you dislike: Celery..e-v-i-i-i-l stuff

What makes you run late: Only things beyond my control

X-rays you’ve had done: Little finger right hand, left knee (many times), left hip, left foot (can you spot the pattern here!), chest, back and plenty of MRI's

Yummy food you make: Panini's, soup. Thats about all now really, but I used to make pies and cakes and scones

Zoo animal: Giraffe, red pandas, elephants, any big cat

Now you know a little bit more about me. Anyone fancy joining in and completing your own version? Please post it on your blog and leave me a comment so I can swing by and learn about you.

Remember Me??

2011-04-05T12:28:00.000+01:00

Well I'm still not fully recovered from my relapse. Problem is that its so long (6 years) since I've had a proper relapse I can't remember how to help get myself better. Consequently I've done far, far too much when really I shoulda been resting and letting the steroids do their thing. So I'm totally shattered and I'm starting to walk like I've got MS again. OK I know what you're saying 'but you do have MS'. I know that but I don't need to walk like I do, do I?!?

Anyhoo, a while ago I left a comment on a blog I follow called Creative Kismet. If you get a chance, check out her blog. Regina had made some beautiful brooches and I won one!! It arrived last week and really cheered me up cos its the one I said I liked the best. I've got it pinned to my denim jacket and colours work so well together. Isn't it gorgeous?

Relapse

2011-03-13T15:29:00.000Z

Well I found out on friday why I've been feeling so awful. I'm having a relapse.

Its a small one so I should (hopefully) come out of it non the worse for wear. I have to go to the hospital tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday for high dose steroids by infusion. I'm just a day patient and will only be there for the infusion and then come home. I much prefer being at home when I feel yuk anyway!

I had another craft day with Jo on Friday, a good way to take your mind off the way you're feeling. I struggled a little but managed to finish the journal pages for Lou. And here they are

Roll on the sleepless nights and munchies caused by the steroids! But if they work, its a small price to pay!

Jackson Pollock style

2011-03-09T14:49:00.002Z

On Monday Jo and I had a craft day. Not really had one for ages due to her working and me not being too well. So Monday was a complete 'blow out' day where we blew away all of the cobwebs from our muses!

We both worked on 6" x 12" Stampbord blocks, but both did completely different things. I had decided the night before that I wanted to use some Claybord inks that I had gotten in a random stash box from Graphicus a couple of Christmas's ago.

I coloured the Stambord block with Pumice Stone DI and then dropped the Claybord inks on one at a time and blew them with an air duster (compressed air in a tin which is used for cleaning computers). I had tried early with a straw, but the effect was sooo much better with the air duster. I used a heat tool between each colour to stop it going muddy.

I then used one of Sir Tim's saying stamps on an ATC sized piece of Stampbord, already coloured with the DI, and scratched into it before colouring the lettering with Promarkers. I've always known that I wanted to use this stamp but just didn't know what on. I think its perfect here!

I then used an Elusive Images (EI) stamp from the Artistic Affirmations theme plate with part of the message being raised up on a domino sized piece of Stampbord, coloured with the same DI again. Again I scratched into it (I love doing that!!).

The base looked a bit bare in the middle but I didn't really want to detract too much from the background so I used a coaster sized piece of Stampbord, coloured with the DI and blew the inks around again. I scratched into it (of course!), edged it with black ink and stamped another EI stamp in the middle.

All that was left to do was sort the background as it looked a bit plain. I used a speckle stamp of Sir Tim, inked with London Fog Memento and stamped it all over the base. I decorated 3 Stampbord inchies with the inks and scratched a border round them so they'd stand out. And here is the finshed piece.

And look what I was given yesterday

My Mam and I were both given a rose to mark International Women's Daywhich was yesterday, by a Polish friend called Pawel. He used to be a neighbour of my parents and they always got on well with him.

Apparently yesterday is observed in Poland and he just wanted to mark it with us. You can read about it here.

How sweet.

Pedicure

2011-03-06T12:58:00.000Z

I try to have a pedicure once every 2 months to try to keep my feet in good order and also cos I can't paint my own nails now. My Mam paints them for me in between, but I really look forward to having the treatment. Plus the fact I'm having to have canulas in my feet again for my treatment and a girl needs to make sure her tootsies look good for that LOL!!

I had my latest treatment last Thursday. My Mam found the number of a mobile manicure / pedicurist on the back of a local carers magazine. She also does nail art and spray tans and will come to you, which is Just Perfect which incidentally is the name of her business! Julie has only been in business less than a year, but she is simply wonderful! She makes sure that the treatments suit me and is totally understanding of my needs.

Please stop by her website and if you live in an area she covers, please book an appointment. You won't be disappointed!!

I like to have unusual and bright colours on my toe nails and this time I asked her if she would do a french style polish but with 2 colours rather than normal naturals and white and look at the results!! She even did a little nail art for me too!

I'm almost looking forward to going to the hospital on Thursday so I can show my feet off!!!

Great News!! (and a dreaded question)

2011-02-24T14:57:00.001Z

I was at the hospital on Tuesday for my yearly check up with my Neurologist. I had to have an MRI in January to check that I wasn't suffering any nasty effects from being on Tysabri monthly infusions for 2 years.

The great news is that my MRI hasn't changed since the one I had in 2009 which means that the infusions have helped to stop the MS progressing!!! How cool is that?!

But...

I'm still having the most awful pain in my legs. My MS Nurse, Carmel, thought it might be down to the new pills I was taking so I need to slowly wean myself off them. Unfortunately it means I'm having violently painful spasms again. Once I'm off the pills altogether I have to start on the ones I was originally on. Confused??? I think I know what I'm doing!!

When I talked to my Neurologist about the pain he asked the dreaded question 'Does it feel like a relapse?'. To anyone with MS, this is a shudder inducing question. A relapse is when your MS symptoms flare up and is treated with high dose steroids on 3 consecutive days. And if its serious enough it can leave you with more disability than you had before.

The good news is that if this is a relapse, its a small one. Just gotta wait and see how I feel once I've swapped the pills over.

Wish me luck!!

Hospital and journal pages

2011-02-13T16:24:00.003Z

I had my treatment last Thursday and saw my nurse. My treatment wasn’t as smooth as it usually is due to no veins being suitable in my arms and the stupid doc who came down to put the cannula in my foot, wanted me to have a permanent central line put in. For a once a month treatment. I ask you!!

My nurse (Carmel) thinks that the pain in my legs and the tiredness is all down to my new pills, so I’m off tweaking the dosage. I seem to spend my entire life doing this kind of thing LOL!!!

My friend Lou, who I met through Graphicus, is a teacher and has asked us on to help her show the kids what a talented bunch we are on the Guild. She's asked us each to do at least one 8" x 8" journal page with the theme TIME. Here are my first two:

This 'page' is made from the back of a breakfast cereal packet from Aldi. The girl was already on the pack, so I sanded the whole surface and gessoed it and used 3 colours of Lumiere paint for the background. She looked quiet dreamy so I pasted a picture of a pool and an advert for orange juice into the top corner and stamped 'O's' to make it look like she was thinking about the pool. I sponged through sequin waste and used a baby wipe with white acrylic to bring the page together.

I wanted to make the girl stand out a little more, so I drew round her with a black PITT pen, but made a mess of her mouth, so I stuck a pair of lips from a different picture on to her face and coloured the lips with a Promarker in poppy. A happy accident but it works!!

The second 'page' is made from corrugated packing cardboard. I gessoed the surface and while it was damp I tore some of the top off it reveal the ribs. I used Claudine Hellmuth paint in a Dash of Red and a Dab of Yellow, and a tongue depressor to spread it. It really accentuated the texture of the cardboard. I've had the image from a magazine for ages.

Jo bought me a quote book a couple of Christmas's ago and she found this one which fit the picture perfectly. I hand wrote it onto a piece of backing paper I got free ages ago, but I can't remember where from so I can't credit them, but thanks anyway.

I was amazed that my writing was so good yesterday. Couldn't do it today as I'm absolutely exhausted after mine and Jo's crafting session yesterday.

Legs and cool boots!!

2011-02-07T12:57:00.000Z

My spasms have stopped (YAAY!!!) but I have really painful legs at the moment (UGH!!!). They feel like lead and walking is really hard work for me. I can get relief from pain killers but they knock me out so I'm trying to get by without them. Its a different pain from the neuropathic pain that I'm using my TENS machine for. This is like toothache from my hips to my toes on both legs!

I decided last night I had to journal about it after cutting some more bits from magazines. So I cut out loads of pairs of legs and used Golden matte gel medium to stick them down. Then I used a stencil and sharpies to write the word 'LEGS' and just spilled the rest of it. It really helped to take my mind off the pain!!

Jo was here for a cuppa one day last week and we had a look at the Clarks shoe shop website sale. She was looking for boots with higher heels than I can manage but I spotted these little beauties and, of course, I had to buy them! Would have been rude not too!! They're the original desert boot design with retro animal print suede. The suede has a texture like real animal skin and is just FAB-U-LOUS!!!

I can't wear my Dr Martens boots anymore as they are too heavy for my poor legs to cope with, but these little babies will do just fine instead of the Docs!!!

Yumminess and journaling

2011-02-03T14:20:00.001Z

I ordered some yarn from Flamboyance Yarns last week as Carrie has offered to knit me a scarf. I needed to get some 4ply or sock yarn for the scarf. When Carrie tweeted that Flamboyance had 20% off all yarn for one day only I rang her and we chose the yarn.

The one in the right of the picture is for my scarf and the one on the left is fibre for spinning. Carrie has a spinning wheel and I'm gonna try and do it myself and is I can't manage, Carrie will do it for me. This is gonna be fun!!!

Aren't the colours just yummy!!

As I've not been feeling too well I've ordered loads of crafty books and have a little bit of mojo reappear!! My spasms have all but stopped now, but I'm still so tired so I've done a little bit of journaling to cheer myself up. I still can't sit at my craft table for too long so I've pretty much done these pages in fits and starts. But that's the beauty of journaling - you don't need to do it all in one go!

This first page is my first attempt at layers. I originally wrote a letter to Martha (my gorgeous cat who died in May last year) and it made me so sad each time I saw it that I wanted to cover it up. So I started with a couple of layers of gesso, followed by some watered down yellow and ultramarine Golden paint. Once that way dry, I used torn book pages and used gel medium to stick them down. Then I used white acrylic paint to make marks over the pages with bottle caps, credit card edges, the lid from a large Malteser tube and a texture stamps that I found in the kiddies section of an craft store. I'm really pleased with the result.

The next page is something that just popped into my head one day when I was walking (carefully) downstairs. I'm really pleased at the way it turned out. I used music paper behind Darth Vader as I can't look at that picture and not here his music from Star Wars!!!

Free digital downloads!!!

2011-01-30T17:02:00.000Z

My very talented friend Carrie has some wonderful FREE digital downloads on her blog. She's played about in photoshop with photos her and her hubby took and they are stunning!

Please go and have a look at her blog!

Pay it forward

2011-01-28T16:18:00.000Z

A couple of my crafty / blog buddies (Judith and Lesley) have this on their blogs. I've signed up on both of them so I'm hoping I'll be one of the lucky ones.

The rules are simple - to send something handmade by you to five people before the end of 2011. So we all have plenty of time LOL!!! If you decide to enter you must 'pay it forward' and post this offer and promise to give something handmade by you to the first five people to comment on your own blog post.

I solemnly promise to send something handmade by my fair hand (not sure what yet!) to the first five people who leave a comment on this post. I really hope I get 5 comments. I'll look a right billy-no-mates if I don't!!!

The dress

2011-01-24T15:02:00.001Z

I've been to Hexham today for a little look out as I'm not too well. I'm coming off some pills that take away neuropathic pain (which has been all but obliterated by my wonderful TENS machine), but the pills also help to stop spasms. As I've come off them I've started to have violent and painful spasms which seem to make my entire body seize up. They're completely draining me of energy so not feeling too good at the moment. The doc has given me some new pills which will help but I am in the process of building up the dosage so I have to just wait until the spasms subside.

Yesterday Jo popped round for a cuppa and I had a spasm as I tried to get up off the couch. I found the only thing that helps is if someone can push me back onto the chair and it'll break the spasm. We had a really good laugh when Jo poked me in the shoulder and I landed back on the couch. Its certainly a different way to spend the morning!!!

Anyway back to Hexham. I was waiting for the lift in one of the shops when I spotted this dress. Now its definitely NOT the kind of dress I would wear, but the trim on it is gorgeous.

There is this gorgeous beading around the neck which seems to be all one piece.

The shoulder pieces had 3 layers of lace, one vintage, one broderie anglaise and the third is made from the same lace as the main body of the dress.

The main body of the dress is made from a black lace fabric with a cream panel down the front and some broderie anglaise trim around the sides.

Once I take this to bits I'll be able to use it on so many projects (I hope!!), and all this for a fiver!!!

A New Years Resolution

2011-01-12T12:34:00.000Z

Heres to a Happy, Healthy New Year for all of us!!

I don't have much confidence in my art work. Whenever I used to go to workshops at Graphicus (which has sadly had to close) I used to look at everyones elses work and compare mine to theirs. Not in a jealous way. Just in the way that when you're in a restaurant and someone gets a meal you'd look at it and think 'I wish I'd ordered that!'.

My good friend Lou keps telling me that I'm talented, so I decided this year to start as I mean to go on. I don't usually make resolutions as I never keep them but this year I have and I've put it in my journal to remind me.

I'm sure that this is one resolution I will keep!!

June's canvas

2010-12-24T15:44:00.000Z

I met my wonderful friend June when she was having her first infusion of Tysabri, a drug to help modify the symptoms of MS. She had only recently been diagnosed and when she was moved to a different day for infusion we swapped e-mail addresses.

We've talked through all of our feelings towards MS and I sent her a photo of my MS canvas. She said she wished she could express her feelings like that, but instead she sent me something about how she felt trapped like a bird in a gilded cage and not able to enjoy her life.

As soon as I saw this I had an idea of what I wanted to do for her, but I wasn't sure she'd appreciate it as our feelings are so personal. I rang and told her about it before I sent it in case she'd be upset. She was thrilled that I had made something for her.

I used a 5" x 7" canvas board for the base and coloured it using Broken China and Crushed Olive DI's. Then I cut the TH bird and bird cage out of grungebord and coloured the bird cage with Crushed Olive DI and embossed it with Vintage Photo Distress EP. I wanted to make the cage appear to be rusty.

I covered the bird with double sided adhesive sheet and gilded it with gold gilding flakes. I wanted to gild the bird to show that once it was free it became golden and left the rusty cage behind it.

I used the Sissix 3-D Flower die to cut some Artylicious paper to make roses for the canvas. Even though I'd cut both sizes I found that the smaller ones fit best. I used a long handled quilling tool to actually make the roses. I had to wait for a time when my hands would let me turn the tool to make the flowers. With a little persuasion and some Glossy Accents they worked!

And this is the finished canvas. I really enjoyed making it and June loving it has made it all the more special!

Who needs Rock Candy Crackle Paint....

2010-12-05T18:28:00.001Z

...when Mother Nature does it so much beter herself? I took these today on the wall outside my back door.

On Wednesday night the snow came off my roof again. The gutter remained in place, if a little bent but my poor Sky dish got mangled. As you can see I have no satelite signal being received, which is something both of my TV's are taking great pleasure in reminding me each time I switch them on!!! Sky are apparently coming out on Tuesday to fix it. Watch this space...

I also had a 'small' mound of snow outside my front door. Yes, that is my car hiding in the pile of snow! Theres no chance of me getting into my car at this point. The only thing that'll help is if the temperature rises to around 30 degrees which is impossible given that its winter in Britain.

My Mam very kindly dug a little path into the snow so I had an escape route if I needed it. At least thats what she wanted. She'd been worried about me not being able to clamber over the snow. I was more concerned about post not getting to me LOL!!!

I need to give a big THANK YOU to Lionel the carpet fitter who came through the snow on Thursday in a 4x4 to fit my new craft room carpet. He even dug a path out for me in my back garden. Now that what I call customer service!!!

Hope you're all keeping warm and safe. Looks like its set to continue a while yet so no doubt there'll be some more photo opportunities!

Artic Roll anyone??

2010-11-30T13:24:00.002Z

All of the snow came off my roof last night, taking the brackets for my guttering with it. So now I have water dripping down my house as the gutter has been bent by the snow. I think if I end up with a whole load of snow on the roof again, the gutter will come down with it. Mind I got away easy last winter. My guttering remained in place and only my Sky dish was affected.

The snow makes wonderful shapes out of everything.

Who put the marshmallow cake on top of the bird bath in the garden. It just looks like you can go out and cut a slice. Mind I think it'd all collapse if I tried!!

And an artic roll down my car this morning. The snow is so deep at my car door cos of the snow coming off the roof last night.

I'm getting hungry now. Time for soup methinks!!

Snow

2010-11-25T15:46:00.000Z

Well we had a litttle bit of snow last night, as well as a little bit more today. The sky is still very full so I think there'll be some more tonight. This is my garden this morning.

I was watching the birds have a good old feed at my new hanging bird feeder this morning and, low and behold, they've emptied it! So off I went out with my wellies on (no coat of course - we're hard up here don't ya know!) and lifted the feeder down with no snow hitting me and filled it. Went to put it back up and the caught the clematis on the wall above it and a load of snow fell off hitting me on the head and all down my front and back!! I was so pleased it was still light and fluffy stuff so no harm done. If anyone could've seen me they would have thought I was mad. I'm standing covered in snow, by myself, giggling LOL!!!

Then I trudged off, gingerly, to take some close ups of the plants I put my girls ashes under.

This is the Yukka plant I got for Tara's ashes. Those spikes on the end of the leaves are what she used to chew on and will spike anyone who gets to close now!

And this is the conifer I got for Martha's ashes. Is it just me, or is that a smiley face in the snow?!

And finally can anyone guess what made these marks?

No prizes, but in the emortal words of Sir Adrian of W, smug points up for grabs!!

(Oh joy, it's just started snowing again here.)

Journaling weeknd

2010-11-12T16:02:00.000Z

I spent an amazing weekend last weekend with 8 incredible women.

I attended the Journaling Weekend at Graphicus in Barnard Castle with Jo, Lou, June, Janet, Lillian and Sue as well as Glenda and Lynn. It was actually 2 workshops, but we all attended both so it seemed like a weekend workshop.

Glenda lead us during the Saturday and we began making a loose-leaf watercolour journal and colouring it with Golden paints. During this time we each talked about why we wanted to journal. This lead to very intimate and revealing circumstances for each us.

For the covers for the journal we scrunched copier paper, spritzed it with water and painted it with metallic paint. The paper ended up extremely wet and had to dry til the afternoon. We then stuck the paper to grey board using book binding techniques. The board will eventually be stuck back to back with bookbinding fabric between to make the spine of the journal.

The pages for the inside of the journal were made from hot pressed heavy watercolour paper and coloured with Golden acrylic paints and lots of water! We used stencils and spritzed the stencilled image with water to make it 'bleed', like the flower in this picture.

On Sunday Lynn lead us through writing in different styles in our journals. We made another watercolour journal, but this time we folded the pages and stitched together in a very simple style. We all used this as our practice journal.

Lynn had us draw circles free hand and then draw horizontal lines to make a circle. We then had to write on these lines and draw circles round the writing in pen, then make some of the words stand out. I found this exercise quite difficult as I hate my writing. I used to be able to do calligraphy, but MS but paid to that.

She then asked us the write in a circles so that the letters filled the whole circle.

Then we started to write in spirals. Once I'd finished this one, in Lou's words, I found my writing. I am so chuffed that this worked out so well. I just want to write in spirals all the time LOL!!!

Next we looked at alphabets and how we could change them for different page layouts. I chose the draw capital letters with hearts on the end of each line (the top alphabet) and dots on the each line (the bottom alphabet). Now I am more confident on what I can do I am going to practice other forms of alphabet.

When we'd finished this we started on drawing letter and decorating it. I chose to do zentangle-ish patterns. As I've only just started to do zentagles I couldn't remember most of the patterns so I just doodled.

The whole weekend was an amazing experience. We all became so close. We laughed, we cried and we encouraged each other. I doubt I will ever experience another weekend like it.

Thank you to all you lovely ladies.

Another spooky Halloween make

2010-11-01T10:06:00.000Z

This time Carrie kindly sent me a photo.

This one was made in exactly the same way as the one I made for Janet, but using canvas board as a base. I used the same colours as they are very Halloween and the stamps were from EI again.

I couldn't resist buying a 'coffin full of bugs' at a local bargain store and glued a large plastic spider onto the canvas too!

This is my second attempt at the Halloween swap for Carrie. The first one went missing in the post, so I hand delivered this one as she wanted to post them on her blog on Halloween itself.

My windows are still ongoing. They encountered problems on Friday as one of the frames that had been sent was the wrong size and consequently the glass was too. Karl managed to get the right size frame made on Friday so that's in but the sealed unit of glass won't be here til today or tomorrow. The front door is being put on at the moment and at least I've discovered why it was so cold at the bottom of my stairs. When the old door had been put on, the guy had left a huge void round the frame of the door that he covered with plastic trim. It was soooo dodgy!!!

Oh and my cold has come out properly now and I feel really rough!!

Windows

2010-10-29T15:00:00.001+01:00

Been to the Pain Clinic and at least there is light at the end of the tunnel. The doc I saw was lovely and took time to listen to what I was feeling and asked loads of questions about my life in general. I thought I was on the max dose of my pain killers, but it was just the maximum a GP can prescribe. The doc at the Pain Clinic can prescribe up to the manufacturers max. So I'm slowly upping the pills. Although I've had some side effects, they eventually dissappeared and the pain is slowly getting better.

At the moment I am sitting in the back bedroom with loads of warm clothes on as new windows are being put into the front of my house. Its freezing and I feel like I'm getting a cold. Woke up this morning with a really tickly throat and sitting in a cold house isn't helping!!

I've been making some Halloween art which all started with Carrie's blog and a Halloween swap. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of all of them. I really must get into the way of taking more photos. Luckily Janet (my lovely friend from Scotland) sent me a photo of hers by e-mail. Thanks Janet!!

This was made using a Gessoboard by Ampersand. I used watercolour crayons, spritzed with water to make the background. I then overstamped with a spiders web and stamped onto orange card and embossed with black EP the house, cat and 'Spookylicious'. All of the stamps are by Elusive Images available at Graphicus.

I'll be back soon with some more of my arty / crafty makes, but for now I'll leave you with the answer to the number of petals. It was 72. I can't believe how close Janet was!!

Yellow Cactus Dahlia Canvas

2010-10-03T13:18:00.015+01:00

Sorry I've been so quiet. I'm having quite a hard time at the moment due to nueropathic pain caused by my MS. I've got an appointment on 20th October at the Pain Clinic to see if they can help.

Anyhoo enough of my woes.

Last week a family friend, Keith, who has an allotment near my parents left a plant pot full of dahlias in their back yard. He gives us some every year after the Leek Shows, after I told him a few years ago how much I love them. You can see from the photo how wonderful they are!

A couple of years ago, Keith was doing some work in my house and I had some Stambord blocks that I had not long finished on the hearth. He was fascinated by them and the rest of my artwork. I offered to make something for him and he asked if it could be based on a yellow cactus dahlia he grown some years previously. He gave me a tattered photo taken before digital cameras with the dahlia in the distance. This is a close up of the yellow cactus dahlia he gave me this year (complete with greenfly!).

I first drew out what I was thinking and added some ideas for materials. It still shocks me at how good the drawing turned out, as I couldn't really see the dahlia in the photo, so I drew this image from memory.

I knew I wanted the flower to be 3D, so working out how to do it became a real challenge.

I decided it would be best shown on a canvas, so I coloured a 12x12 deep edge canvas with various yellow and green paint. It was so long ago I can't remember what colours or even paint I used, but I know I used a scrunched-up piece of copier paper to add green to the mix. I didn't want the colour of the canvas to be the main focal point.

Next I hand drew some simple petal shapes onto acetate and cut the centre portion out so that I could just draw round the inside of the template to make each petal. These are for the larger petals and I did a similar one for the smaller petals too.

I sat one night in front of the TV drawing petals onto various patterned yellow scrapbook paper. Then the marathon cutting out started which took a while as I found it so tiring. I knew it was going to take a lot of petals but I didn't realised just how many!

Once I cut the petals I went onto the internet to find a close up of the flower to see how the centre looked. Its very tight with lots of smaller petals opening from it. After a few days of thinking I came up with the idea of using a polystyrene ping-pong sized ball and painted it yellow. I used yellow tissue paper to make the petals for the very centre as it gave the illusion of them just having opened. While I was on the internet I got a definition of dahlia, copied into Word, changed the font and printed it onto vellum to use on the project.

I wanted each petal to have texture so I put most of them through the Cuttlebug, using various folders with some embossed and some debossed. I then folded the base of the petals behind and secured with tape. This meant that they looked more like the real thing. Once I'd finshed all of the petals I started to build the flower. I built it off the canvas in case it didn't turn out the way I had envisaged. I used a 2" square of card as the base and stuck the petals to it using silicone glue. This photo is of the first two layers of petals. This was when I realised I needed some more so another marathon tracing, cutting and taping session ensued LOL!!!

I built the centre layers of the flower separately too in case of error as the base layers were working so well. I used a plastic cup to keep the centre upright as the ball just kept trying to roll away!! I first attached the tissue paper but just stuck to the underside of the ball, so the tops of the petals were free to move.

As I began the lower layers of the centre I used double sided paper as the undersides could be seen and curled the paper to give the petals more 'life'. This photo is of the completed flower.

I used TSS metal in silver to cover the sides of the canvas. I just doodled free-hand on the metal with a couple of the TSS tools. I needed to colour the metal to make it tone in, but don't own any Alcohol Inks (OK I can hear the gasps of horror!!). I used brown acrylic paint applied with my finger (very carefully, so no cuts!) and then rubbed it back with a piece of kitchen towel. I stuck it on using TSS Humungo tape and made sure the edges and corners were safe.

I tore the vellum into a long shape and spritzed it with some kind of gold mist that I think I've chucked out now!! I then placed that and the completed flower to get the composition right.

The canvas needed something else. A while ago I had bought some vintage glitter rub-ons from QVC. One of them was of a girl holding a flower which looked suspiciously like a dahlia. I painted a smaller canvas the same colour as the base and applied the rub-on to the canvas. It didn't really stick too well at first, but I used my finger direct onto the image and it eventually stuck, but I distressed it as it looked too pristine. I put metal round the miniature canvas too and put a self adhesive clear dome over the flower.

I stuck everything down once I was happy with compostion using silicone or Glossy Accents. In hindsight I don't think I shoulda used Glossy Accents on the vellum as it showed through a little, but maybe it added to the crumpled / distressed look. I used another dome to highlight the word 'dahlia'.

To finish off I stamped an Elusive Image stamp onto Stampbord which I had coloured yellow and higlighted the stamp using a scraping tool.

This sentiment is perfect for Keith's sense of humour!!

I put a few dots of liquid pearls round the corners and a couple of yellow jewels and the canvas was ready for delivery to Keith once it dried. he was delighted with it. You can make your own mind up....

And by the way...can you guess how many petals it took? No prize, just for fun!!

Been to the charity shops again....

2010-08-31T11:55:00.000+01:00

It all started cos I needed a vase for some beady twiggy wirey things I bought in a sale last week at local garden centre. I've got them stuck in this vase at the moment but I do use it for fresh flowers, so needed something else. Charity shops were my first port of call.

I started at the YMCA charity shop in the town centre. They don't go in so much for displaying items and most of the stuff is on the floor. Thats where I spotted these 2 frames. They were £2 for the pair and once I had them in my hands I knew they HAD to be mine.

They have 2 panels of glass with the picture 'suspended' between them. I've not seen anything like this before.

One of them is missing its hanger but that is easily rectified. It looks like the glass has been glued onto the back using a hot glue gun and it easy to peel off and the picture looks like its stuck to the glass at the back, but that won't matter once its on the wall.

I have no idea what I'm gonna do with them but something about them inspired me enough to buy them.

While I was in the shop I spotted a walking stick for £5. As I use a stick all of the time (unless I'm on crutches), I decided to measure it against my own stick. Its slightly taller than mine, but my Dad will be able to saw an inch off the bottom for me. I just loved the grain / pattern of the wood on the shaft and its has the kind of handle I like.

The wooden hands came from The Childrens Society shop. They were £1.99 for the pair. I have a thing about hands. They fascinate me and I love drawings and ornaments of them. I'm not sure yet if I'll leave these as is, or alter them in some way.

All in all not a bad haul for £9!!! And I saw loads of other things I may have to go and have another look at.

Another workshop (don't do many at all, really LOL!!!!)

2010-08-29T11:45:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago Jo and I did a workshop at Graphicus in Barnard Castle run by the wonderfully talented Lynn called 'Creative Frames'.

The workshop was based around 2 frames with recesses in the middle, a piece of grey board, some dictionary paper, Grungepaper, some die cuts from Sir Tim of Holtz range and LOTS of paints and stamps!!!

Of course, as is typical of me, I never even thought about taking my camera, but Lou came to the rescue and took a couple of photos for me during the day. Thanks Lou!!

First we chose some paint and a Distress Crackle Paint to put over the top. I chose a Lumiere called Halo Pink Gold and Broken China in the crackle. I painted the Lumiere all over the frame and recess and allowed to dry before applying the crackle using the brush in the pot. It depends on how thickly you apply the paint as to what size crackles you get. Thinly is small crackles, thickly in large ones.

Lynn had cut us a heart out of Grungebord and embossed it with swirls. We all stuck these onto a piece of grey board, cut to the same size as the frames, with Golden Gel Medium and stuck dictionary paper over it again using the same medium. Once it was dry we coloured them with Distress Inks. I chose Spiced Marmalade for the outside and Broken China for the heart.

Lynn had die cut 3 Grungepaper flowers for each for us to make roses from. I coloured mine with the same Lumiere paint and used Broken China DI just on the edges of the petals. Once dry I stamped a Wendy Vecchi newspaper column stamp over it to add interest, before beginning to make the rose. If you're interested in doing this, there are tutorials on YouTube.

Lynn had also given us a couple of swirls from Grungebord and the birdcage cut from a Tim Holtz die. I again coloured these with the same Lumiere paint. For the bird I used Viva Precious Metal paint in a blue, browny colour for the branch and finally gave it a golden beak. I can't remember the exact colours I used.

I stamped a couple of phrases from Wendy Vecchi stamps in the recess of both frames and across the heart too and punched out some leaves using an EK Success Rock Fern paper punch, before the workshop ended. It was over all too soon. I was exhausted again, but it had been so worth it!!

A few days later I got to grips with finishing the frames. I cut another couple of swirls from Grungepaper and painted them with the same colour Lumiere. I'm really lucky to have some of Jo's crafting stash at my house at the moment as she is having a loft conversion and has had to move out of her house for a while, so I had the paint! I made another flower from Grungepaper using a Nestability Peony die. I again coloured it with the same Lumiere and DI I had used on the rose.

Lynn had given us some wire to hang the frames from. I'm not particularly good at bending wire so I twisted it and used 2 swirls with leaves on the hide it.

Between us, Jo and I had managed to put the holes in the centre grey board using a Crop-a-dile Big Bite. I lined it up while Jo pressed the lever for the punch. I just don't have the strength now. Before we left the workshop, Lynn had given each of us a key cut from grey board using another Tim Holtz die. I had always planned on putting it onto the grey board with the heart on, but it just didn't look right, so I cut another Grungepaper swirl, painted it and 'dangled' the heart from it, although it is fixed in place with Glossy Accents.

I used the rose I'd made in the workshop (with Lynn's help) on the third frame with 2 swirls and more leaves.

I stuck the wing to the bird before sticking branch the bird is sitting on to the bird cage. I tried to shape the cage a little first, but couldn't get the branch to balance on the cage, so I ended up sticking it on the back. Not as pretty, but at least its stuck LOL!!!

I used some beads from one of Gran's necklaces to embellish the bottom of the cage. My Gran had 2 of these necklaces that she used to wear regularly - one clear, one red. She was wonderful crafter and could turn her hand to anything, so I think she'd be pleased that I'm using her beads for craft projects.

All of the frames and bird cage are linked together using Tim Holtz jump rings which are invaluable. I now have it hanging on the wall in my living room. It was quite difficult to find a place to hang it as it is so long, but it fits there really nicely. And so to the complete piece...

I'm really pleased with it and its a lovely reminder of a great day spent with friends, new and old - Lynn, Jo, Lesley, Margaret, Bea, Joan, Rachel and not forgetting Lou who took the wonderful 'in progress' pics on the day.

Art and Counselling (part 2) - MS Canvas

2010-08-08T11:00:00.000+01:00

The second canvas I did for counselling was around my feeling towards my MS. I feel like its a monster that is always behind me waiting for me to relax and it'll 'bite'.

I bought a black 12 x 12 canvas and dry brushed various Ferro metallic paints on to it. My Mam had torn a piece of cardboard from a box in a wonderful shape. I painted that with more Ferro paint in blue.

I had many ideas for the canvas, but none were working, so I left it for a while as I wanted to get it just right. I tore some pages from some MS magazines that I subscribe to and eventually came up with the idea of a hungry sea monster biting at a girl dangling above it. I used a citrus Paint Dabber to colour the monster and a Tippex pen to colour the teeth and put the spots on.

Next I took a picture of a model out of a magazine and glued it to a piece of card for strength before cutting it out. I coloured her in grey with a wax crayon (the only thing to hand and I couldn't be bothered to stand up!) and gave her red shoes. If I could, I'd wear red HIGH heels. The shoe falling off represents the way that each time MS bites (in the form of a relapse) it takes a little of you away. At the moment its just my red high heels!

I wanted it to seem like a fifties cartoon strip so I gave the monster and heroine speech bubbles cut from MS magazines. I also did a little 'commentary' to bring it all together, again from MS magazines.

The whole canvas depicts totally how I feel about the MS. I dangled the heroine string which I hammered into the top of the canvas with a decorative staple. I say hammered because the speciality stapler it came from wouldn't work like a normal stapler when you can use just the top to staple, so I hammered it in instead!

Here is the front of the canvas.

The back of the canvas is also 'decorated'. I used pictures cut from MS magazines again to show some of the symptoms I suffer from. The left one shows how I can never know what is round the corner for me. The middle is depression. The right is fatigue. Even looking at that photo gives me the wobbles. I know I'd never manage those stairs!

I then wrote 'MS' in orange (the colour of the MS Society) and crossed it out in green, the colour of the MS Resource Centre (MSRC) who I support and sell cards at Christmas in aid of. They have been a great help to me since I was diagnosed.

So there you have it, my MS Canvas and it was very, very cathartic to do.

Art and Counselling (part 1)

2010-08-06T15:06:00.000+01:00

As I've already mentioned I'm seeing a counsellor at the moment to help with depression and also the wider aspects of my MS.

She'd been really interested in the crafting / artwork I do and she's asked me to take pieces along to the sessions. During one session while I was feeling particularly irritated at life in general, but couldn't put my finger on what it was, she suggested I do a journal page around the feelings I had. I went one better and did a canvas.

This is my 'Irritation Canvas'. I really enjoyed making it and it really helped me get my frustrations and irritation out!

I started with a 30cm x 40cm canvas and painted it with and Ikea wax paint which is meant to be used on wood. Then I scraped some it off with a spatula.

I used a Paint Dabber in citrus through some sequin waste (which took a lot of frustration out when I started hammering the dabber down on the canvas LOL!!!!). Next I ripped a piece out of a magazine (the black piece to the left) which sort of felt like what was happening in my head and stuck it on with Golden gel medium. I then went through my many pieces cut from magazines to find some words and I also found the cartoon image of the man tied up with string (bottom right).

The lines were created by accident. I wanted to put some yellow on the canvas, but the paint dabber wouldn't dab, no matter how hard I hit it so I stirred it with a bamboo skewer. In true crafting style I couldn't just waste the paint on the skewer so I dragged across the canvas and did the same with a Cranberry dabber and a skewer.

The canvas sits in my living room and is helping me to relax whenever I feel irritated!

A tale of two mirrors, well OK 4!!!!

2010-07-30T13:11:00.000+01:00

I've been to a few workshops since my last post and have suffered the same, if not more, exhaustion. Two were back to back, the week before treatment so you can imagine how tired I've been!

Anyhoo, onto mirrors. Every crafter worth their salt has discovered the humble Ikea mirror. Sold for around a pound, they can be altered in any number of ways and are a great substrate to use for just about any technique. They come in plain, black and red (at the moment) and I have had at least one in each colour.

I've been to two workshops that used mirrors as their basis and we learned loads of techniques around decorating the mirror.

The first one was a while ago and was a 'Ranger Techniques Mirror' and dealt with the crafting goodies produced by Ranger for Sir Tim of Holtz, Suze Weinberg and Claudine Hellmuth.

First we painted the mirror using Claudine Hellmuth paint. I chose blue, while everyone else seemed to choose light colours. Then Lynn showed us how to pour UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) into molds, and onto stamps with a memory frame on top to create a framed piece of textured UTEE. As I wobble, Lynn poured mine for me and as you can see the results are fantastic! Once solidified, I dusted Perfect Pearls over the top to accent the texture.

Then we all chose an image from a pile of pages Lynn had printed out from various free image sites. I chose a lovely lady and used Sticky Back Canvas to transfer the image using the technique Lynn had used during the Open Day (see previous post). I left some of the 'lint' from the back of the paper on the image as I liked the way it looked!

Then Lynn showed us how to stamp on Sticky Back Canvas using Golden Gel Medium as a resist and painting over it with a wash to bring out the resisted image. Unfortunately I just couldn't get my stamping to resist. I did everything right and tried 3 times (even with Lynn watching me) and I still couldn't do it. Absolutely no explanation. I will try it again. So Lynn had to give me one she had done.

I finished it off using fragments over stamped images, some alcohol inked and some sprockets and gears.

Next to the sprockets and gears is a UTEE flower made from a mold (made with mold 'n' pour) from an ornate button.

And finally the finished mirror. Excuse the view of my spice rack in the mirror. Its really difficult to get good light without things reflecting in the mirror!

The next mirror is done with wax. This was in a workshop done last week called 'Waxing the Melt Pot Way'.

We started by choosing images from a pile Lynn had provided for us again as well as magazines. Then we placed them onto the mirror to get the presentation right, then heated the wax up in our melt pots. You have to heat the wood (or any solid substrate you're using) first so that the wax will adhere properly. This must be done in between each wax layer too. The paper has to be completely covered in wax by placing it in the melt pot and using tweezers to take it out and apply it to the mirror. You have to burnish the paper between every paper layer to ensure good adhesion.

Once we done this and had all of our paper waxed to the mirror, we started to apply wax to the parts of the mirror with no paper on, with a natural bristled brush. Then we started to build up the wax on the corners on the mirror and add texture using stamps (they must be heated first) and and onion net, but anything can be used.

We used Perfect Pearls and Bedazzles to highlight the texture on the mirror, and here is the finished article. I haven't had the inclination to clean the mirror yet, so it still has dribbles of wax on it. Also the pink feet you can see are from a Piglet beanie I have sitting on the top of my wardrobes!

And the fourth mirror I have to show you is one loosely based on one I saw in Craft Stamper magazine a while ago. It uses Ten Seconds Studio (TSS) metal with alcohol inks to colour it. I've made another 2 in plain silver as gifts since making this one.

Tara

2010-07-15T15:48:00.002+01:00

I had to say goodbye to my fur-baby Tara on Tuesday.

She was 17 and on Monday started to hide in the back bedroom under a pile of pillows, not eating or drinking, just sleeping. I honestly thought I'd wake up to find her gone on Tuesday morning, but she woke me up instead with a huge mournful 'm-e-e-w'. I booked an appointment at the kitty doc, but the earliest I could get was late afternoon. I spent the whole day knowing that I wouldn't be bringing her home with me. I was a wreck.

I know that it was the right decision and Tara had told me herself. I lost my younger fur-baby, Martha, almost 2 months ago, and I seemed to take that harder. I suppose its because poor Martha was poorly for a while before I had to let her go and it was a shock. Losing Tara wasn't so much.

I've been out today and bought a planter and a Yukka plant to put her ashes in when I get her back. I did the same with Martha. So my two girls will still be close to me by my garden bench.

My Mam and I started to deep clean the house yesterday. I've moved some things round in my living room, just so the place feels all new, to try and stave off the emptiness. I've found myself putting music on all the time cos its just too quiet!

Mind I think they're haunting me. Yesterday I'd washed my hands to make lunch and got a huge lump of cat hair down my throat. No idea where it came from, but I had to gargle to get rid of it!! And all because my Mam had said something about getting something for the house that I couldn't have had with the girls. Very weird!!

I'm strangely OK.

Thank you to all who sent my lovely messages on the Graphicus Guild Group, and for the e-mails too. And a big thanks to Jo and Carrie who had to listen to me 'snotting' down the phone on Tuesday, before and after.

Here are a few photos of my girls in their favourite places! Tara was the silver grey Tabby and Martha was the 'Heinz 57'. You can see on the first photo the indoor Yukka I had was all chewed on the ends of leaves by our Tarz. That's why I've bought a Yukka today for her ashes.

And finally, the one and only photo I have of them together. They didn't get on and Martha bullied Tara something rotten. Tara's eyes are almost closed because she was so laid back she nearly fell off the windows sill a few times. Martha's eyes always seemed to do the 'laser' thing. Mind she was a little minx!

Another workshop and another bout of sheer exhaustion!!

2010-07-07T18:09:00.002+01:00

Saturday saw Jo and I attending another workshop, this time run by Lynn Robinson-Hunter and called 'Canvas Creations'. All we knew was that it was on canvas (suppose the name gave it away LOL!) and that we were gonna be working in a neutral palette, a first for both me and Jo. We're the ones that are practically guaranteed to have the brightest colours of any workshop which are usually purple and green for Jo and orange for me!!

I drove on Saturday as I felt fine. We met the other two participants, Joan and Karen. Joan's daughter Rachel was ill and lying down in the car outside. Bless her she finally made it into the workshop for about the last hour or so, but she got so much done!!

There were 8" x 8" deep frame canvasses waiting for us on the table with some dictionary paper and a Tim Holtz Ornate Plate. Lynn then began to tell us of the colours we could use which she had totally restricted to the neutral palette and that we had to try and build texture on the frame.

I began by using one of the Tattered Angels Masks on the top left hand corner of the canvas and pushed Golden Fibre Paste through it with my finger - YUK!!!! I hate having anything gooey on my fingers. Lynn had gone in search of palette knives, but I just thought 'be brave' and off I went in with my finger. I was still picking bits out of my nails on Sunday even though I'd washed my hands thoroughly!!!

I then used scrunched up dress making pattern tissue paper crumpled into watered done PVA glue and arranged it in the top right corner of the canvas.

While we waited it for these to dry Lynn showed us how to make flowers from fabric by twisting round. I had quite a bit of difficulty with this as I couldn't manage to hold the flower as well as twist the fabric at the same time, so Lynn made mine for me. That's how its so perfect!!

By this time the fibre paste and tissue paper had dried. For anyone who knows Graphicus you'll know how hot it was in there!! Lynn asked us all to hand draw a flower (EEEEK!!) onto the canvas and begin sticking paper on as well. I stuck pieces of torn music as well as a gorgeous piece of hand made paper Lynn gave us onto the canvas with Golden Matte Gel Medium, being careful to leave my 'flower' undisturbed.

Once we'd done that we had our lunch and browsed the shop and bought some 'necessary' bits and pieces with the 10% off for attending the workshop, but who needs an excuse?!

Then we started to paint. This was difficult for me because although all the colours went together I had a problem choosing which to use! I started with a Ranger crackle paint which dried almost immediately. Then I moved onto Ranger Paint Dabbers in various shades and a Ferro paint in Old Brass. I paint my 'flower' in using paint from a Paint Dabber in copper squeezed on my mat and watered down slightly then drew round it with a black Sharpie pen.

Once I'd finished painting, I used melted wax to dribble down the canvas at strategic points. In other words, I slapped it on and it went where it wanted!!

This photo shows the wax over the fibre paste and you can see the texture peeking through. I had (for some unknown reason) decided to trace round the curls in the texture with black. Putting the wax over it toned it down - thank goodness!!

Once all of this was dry / cooled I applied gold leaf in certain areas just to highlight. Lynn had to stop me before I went gold leaf mad!!

Earlier we had each done a canvas transfer using Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back Canvas from images Lynn provided. I chose the Mona Lisa. The idea was to put the ornate plate over the part of the image we wanted and place it on the canvas. I chose her face (obviously!) and Lynn triple embossed the image with the frame in place for me. You can see the texture of the dress pattern on this photo too.

Once we had the canvas the way we wanted them, Lynn showed us how to cut scallops from the dictionary paper. One quarter of a piece of dictionary paper was enough to fill one side of the canvas and the depth was right once we'd cut the scallops. We adhered them using Golden Gel Medium again and once dry we drew round them with a black Sharpie pen like we had with the flower. Then Lynn gave each of us 2 ornate head nails to bang into the sides of the canvas and a piece of wire to hang it with. I had to get Lynn to do this for me as there was no chance of me bending the wire properly, and me with a hammer ..... NO!!!

Once all of this was done, Lynn gave us each a selection of ribbons to tie to the wire. I had decided to add another embellishment to the canvas when I got home and was 'with it' again. I'd told Lynn it would be one of the Tim Holtz Word Keys. On Tuesday when I felt OK, I tried one of the keys and it just didn't work. So I made wax seals with silver sealing wax spelling out the word ART and touched them with gold rubbing wax. That was what I needed to finish it off and it is now sitting waiting to be hung.

And here is the finished canvas. I love it even though I was completely exhausted after doing it and have only just recovered now!

Workshop and sheer exhaustion!!

2010-07-06T12:01:00.000+01:00

Jo Na I attended a brilliant workshop at Graphicus in Barnard Castle, run by the wonderful Lesley Wharton and was called 'Fabulous Finds and Curios'. It was all about using items you have in your home or office to make fabulous crafty things out of.

First of all we started to make flowers out of tissue drinks coasters. We crumpled them up to release each individual layer and spritzed them with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. I think I used some sort of lime and a yellow. We also had to cut around the inner circle of the coaster and do exactly the same thing with scrunching and spritzing to make the smaller flower. We then punched out 2 scalloped circles and 2 smaller plain circles from dictionary pages. These were also spritzed in the same colours. We dried all of the pieces with a heat tool before scrunching the dictionary pages to match the coasters.

Once put together with the help of a small circle of cardboard behind the flower, we added buttons for centres (or a scrabble piece, an idea I unashamedly nicked from Jo!) and 'floofed' them to make them stand up. Once we'd done this we made a gift bag from a plain white A4 envelope and attached the flowers to it, adding stems from paper printed onto self adhesive labels. Any decoration can be added when the bag is flat. As with all crafting, you're only limited by your imagination!!

Then we each picked 3 (empty) loo roll holders out of a bag which Lesley had the staff at Graphicus collecting for weeks. We flattened them and Lesley put them under house bricks to make sure they were completely flat. Once they were, we covered them with paper, put holes in them for book rings to hold them together and voila a mini tag book! We used a cheap elastic hair band to hold the book closed and it looks FAB!!!

Our final task for the day was after lunch and was an absolute killer for me. Lesley had to help me as I was s-o-o-o e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d. It was all about making another mini tag book from a DL envelope. Luckily Lesley gave us full instructions and did all of the folding and cutting for me. I just had the job of gluing down which I had to get Jo to help me with, but the result is stunning!!

Luckily Carrie had very kindly given us a lift through to the workshop, so I didn't have to drive. I was so exhausted when I got in I had something to eat then went to bed and slept from about 8pm. I had treatment the next day at the hospital and I came home straight afterwards rather than shop in Newcastle.

Although the workshops kill me, fatigue-wise, I won't stop going to them. At least when I feel dreadful for a few days afterwards I know that I've achieved something that I am proud of.

A big thanks to Lesley for a FAB workshop as well as to all the girls who attended. I think its safe to say we all had a great time!!!

We'll always have Paris

2010-06-25T13:18:00.004+01:00

Not too long ago I passed the YMCA charity shop in my local town and they had a frame in the window for £2. It was one of those awful ones (apologies to anyone who has one and loves it) that people used to have in their bathrooms. It had a wooden frame behind the glass that was used as shelves to have tiny bales of towels and toilet rolls on. It was a bit like a miniature version of a bathroom.

When I asked to see it, the guy in the shop showed it to me like a fine bottle of wine. You shoulda seen his face when I told him I wasn't bothered about the front, but turned it over to look at the back to see if I could take it to bits. Once we got home, my Mam and I wasted no time in ripping into it. My Mam had to get a screwdriver to the glue under the little ornaments to prise them loose. Far to dangerous in my hands!!

I'm gutted I didn't take a photo of it in its pre-enhanced state!

I didn't bother sanding the frame or gessoing it as it had been painted with a matte paint. I used a Stewart Gill Byzantia paint in a blue (the name has come off the lid so no help with the name) and painted 2 coats. I then used a Stewart Gill Alchemy (same thing with the lid) over the top and accidentally rubbed a little of the paint off while trying the move the frame. It must've been serendipity as the result was a little of the pinky-peach colour that the frame was originally showed through. I quickly rubbed some more off before the paint dried!

I painted the wooden frame insert with silver Stewart Gill paint as I wanted it to show off what was in the compartments not fight against them.

I had a bought a miniature Eiffel Tower for 50p in the infamous ex-catalogue shop where I got the mannequins. I decided the turn the wooden frame so the 'shelves' were vertical and placed the little tower in one of the compartments. I then borrowed Jo's Paris Postcard stamp plate by Elusive Images part of Graphicus and stamped the cathedral onto acetate before putting variegated metal leaf behind it. I bent it to fit into the other compartment.

For the background which is attached to the board at the back of the wooden insert frame, I used a piece of paper that came in a Graphicus Guild paper pack. I creased the paper slightly before sanding it and using a Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. I spritzed some water onto it too before attaching it to the board.

The glass at the front of the overall frame had to be thoroughly cleaned before I stamped a couple of swirls by Creative Expressions on in Timber Brown Stazon just to take the 'starkness' of the glass away.

Once I had assembled the frame I had to tape the back board to the wooden frame insert and use silicone glue to glue the insert to the larger frame. It took an awful lot doing, strength not being my 'strong' point (LOL!!!) and then I had to leave this overnight to dry.

I wanted something on the front of the frame, but not words, so I used a technique I learned from Lynn at Graphicus. I took 3 Prima white flowers in complimentary sizes and sprayed them Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Tattered Leather. I dried each of them thoroughly with a heat tool before patting them with a Versamark ink pad. I sprinkled platinum UTEE over the flowers and used a heat tool to set the UTEE. The result is a flower that looks like metal.

And this is the completed frame. Sorry the photo's not great but glass tends to reflect!!

It looks really gorgeous with light shining on it (even if I do say so myself LOL!!!)

Tara's poorly paw

2010-06-22T13:48:00.001+01:00

And how bad do I feel that I didn't notice sooner???

Tara has claws that seem to grow at the speed of light and cutting them is an absolute nightmare. She is skinny and therefore VERY squirmy. To cut her claws I need my Dad to hold her under her arms put her back paws on top of the cooker (don't worry the cooker has a cover!). Then I have to try and cut them with her growling and hissing and squirming and biting. Last time was particularly bad and although I thought I'd seen a long claw, I thought I'd gotten them all trimmed, but no. There was a l-o-n-g claw and last night I finally got a look at her paw while she was asleep and it had curled round into the pad of her paw.

So took her to the kitty doc today and he trimmed all her claws and gave her and antibiotic injection and sprayed a local anesthetic on her paw and sorted that out too. Gotta take her back on Thursday for another antibiotic injection. She won't tolerate me giving her anything at home!

Now I've got her home and she has just mewed since she got in. It actually sounds like she's saying 'ow'. Mind I bet it hurt bless her.

Klimt inspired necklace

2010-06-18T17:33:00.001+01:00

A couple of years ago Graphicus released 4 DL plates of baubles for Christmas. I loved them all, but was really torn by the Rennie Mackintosh inspired one and the Klimt inspired ones. Jo bought them all so I just used hers. As soon as I saw the Klimt ones I knew I wanted to make a necklace with them.

I first stamped each bauble onto sanded clear shrink plastic using black Stazon, then punched a hole in the top of each one using a Crop-a-dile before shrinking them with a heat tool.Once they were shrunk I stuck them to a sheet of double sided adhesive and cut them out. I re-opened the hole by putting the tip of a pokey tool through it (be very careful here as I managed to poke myself in the finger LOL!!!).

Once that was done I took the backing off and put variegate metal leaf (don't know what colourway it was) on the back and sealed it with a varnish before putting jump rings through each hole and putting it onto a cord.

Sorry the photo's not too good. The flash bounced off the metal leaf (note to self - take photos of objects with metal leaf in daylight!!)

Mannequins

2010-06-14T13:31:00.000+01:00

I've developed a passion for wire mannequins. I do believe I have Lynn (from Graphicus) to blame for this. In the shop she displays her art work on various wire mannequins and now I can't get enough of them.

So imagine my glee when I spotted this little beauty in an ex-catalogue shop in my local home town. I had to buy 3 of them; one each for me, Jo (my best mate) and of course Lynn. The skirt has a little door in the back so it opens like a bird cage. Apparently they're meant to be jewellery organisers, but not for us!!

Graphicus Open Days

2010-06-13T17:00:00.006+01:00

I had a VERY tiring but VERY inspiring day yesterday at Graphicus in Barnard Castle. Graphicus is a wonderful craft shop which is very simply Crafting Heaven. As it was an Open Day there were lots of demonstrations going on and I sort hopped between them all.

Firstly there was Glenda Waterworth who owns Graphicus showing off their new Mermaid stamp plates and she was doing some absolutely AMAZING colouring with the Copic Ciao markers.

Here are some of the wonderful samples Glenda made yesterday.

This is Lynn Robinson-Hunter. She usually does loads of Ranger techniques on tags using distress inks. However yesterday she was amazing people with an image transfer technique using Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back canvas.

Lynn places the sticky back canvas on to the front of the image. Yes you read right. It covers the image completely. Then you burnish it and spritz the paper and rub it off the back of the canvas. It is quite relaxing doing this or watching someone else doing it!

She was also doing a lot with beeswax. This technique is wonderful!!! If you'd like to know more about this technique there is a workshop running at Graphicus on Thursday 22nd July. Details are available on the Graphicus website. Just go to the tab on the left marked 'Book a workshop'. These are pictures of the book boards that she made yesterday and Friday. Something along these lines will be made at the workshop. Please come along!

Lesley Wharton was also there doing demonstrations using Clarity Stamps and techniques as well as the new CD (which is gorgeous!!). She was also using the new Mermaid stamps.

Judith Walton was demonstrating the Ranger Melt Pot using Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) to make jewellery. She was using molds made with Mold 'n' Pour and filling them with UTEE and that is how the key was made in the picture.

It was a brilliant day, but I am paying for it now as I am exhausted. I've been in bed all day and my legs are really hurting even though Graphicus kindly gave me a chair at each demo. A big thanks to David for providing the food (and my extras for my tea!) and Carrie for giving me a lift there and back!

Fake Tan

2010-06-10T13:07:00.002+01:00

Now I just know you're all cringing thinking of being invaded by tall oompahlumpaha-like beings who are just as orange, but no I am dead careful about how much I use. I like to look 'healthy' rather than my favourite colour of the rainbow (orange for the uninitiated).

I used to use Olay's Everyday Sun (or whatever its called) but its become increasingly hard to find and you had to buy separate body and face versions mounting the cost up. So this year I thought I'd look for a new one. Walked into Superdrug to find their new range (at least I think its new) of self tanners for £7, plus they were buy one get one free. Well who could resist?! Certainly not me. And it does your face and body! Also they had an application mitt for £3 which it said would help you put it on smoothly with no streaks, so I was sold!

I first used it on Saturday night and much to my amazement the mitt worked, and the tanner has a 'guide' colour' in it that gives you a tan straight away so you can see were you've missed, and because I used the mitt there was no need to wash my hands straight away as my palms weren't covered. Genius!

I washed off the excess after 4 hours as the instructions said and I have a lovely golden tan. I'm so pleased I was cautious and got the light / medium option. It worked like a dream.

And now I look healthy!!

Raindrops on roses......

2010-06-09T15:44:00.001+01:00

Well not exactly on roses. I've been out in my garden in between rain showers and have taken some photos of the leaves with rain on them. I just love the way some leaves and plants retain the rain water in wonderful droplets.

I suppose I should show you some whiskers on kittens to finish the theme off!

This Martha who was 16 when I had to let her go a couple of weeks ago. She'd had a great life as an indoor kitty.

And this is Tara who is 17 and still going strong. Although her and Martha didn't get on at all, she still looks for her and has even picked up some of her traits. Very, very weird!!

Its started to bucket down here again. Oh the joy of the British summertime!!!!

The big 'D'

2010-06-07T19:14:00.004+01:00

As many of you know I have MS and with that can come depression (the big D). I have been suffering from depression for a few years but it came back with a vengence last year. Its been under control, but at the moment it seems to have reared its ugly head again. I am seeing a wonderful counsellor who has really helped me put things into perspective.

One thing that has really helped is art journaling. Lynn (from Graphicus in Barnard Castle) showed me all about it last year and told me how much it has helped other people with depression. So I set about giving it a try.

This is one of the first pages I did. I started off writing everything down about how I was feeling. I then gessoed over that. It took a few coats of gesso to obliterate the words. I didn't want them to be completely obliterated as I still wanted to see some peeking through. I then used black chalk to scribble over the top randomly and used a tissue to rub it in a little. The 'what lies beneath' wording and maze were both from magazines. Most of the stamps are Tim Holtz, stamped in versamark then embossed in black. I wrote words over the top to express how I was feeling.

I found doing this page VERY cathartic and although the big D is back, its nowhere near as bad and this page shows me how far I've come. I feel that because I wrote out my feelings and covered all the bad stuff up, I can move on without that weighing me down.

Art journaling can be done in any kind of book or just on paper. Its only for you to see so it doesn't matter what it looks like. I've only posted this on here in case someone who may need a little help uses the idea.

Creative Road Canvas

2010-06-04T11:33:00.003+01:00

I decided I wanted a large canvas to go on the chimney breast wall above my bed. I got a 27" x 19" canvas to paint. I knew I wanted to put smaller canvases onto it and decorate them.

I began by putting shades of orange, red and yellow Lumin Arte Radiant Rain onto the canvas in 3 curved stripes. This didn't work, so I pained over the whole thing with the same orange as I had used originally. Unfortunately it didn't cover the red very well, so I used a Stewart Gill colourise in orange and roughly smooshed that over the top. Then I sprayed Sticky Fingers Fireworks Orange over random portions of the canvas.

Happy with the overall effect, I realised that the colour was almost the same as my bedroom walls and it would just sink into them rather than stand out! So I hand painted (eek!!!) a frame around the edge of the canvas in a blue Stewart Gill Byzantia paint. The colour labels have come off the lids of most of my Stewart Gill paints so I don't know their names!!

I got my smaller canvases and placed them onto the larger one to get the placement and sizing right before I painted them - 2 in green Byazantia, 3 in blue Byzantia and 1 in a lighter shade of orange (can't remember what!).

This smaller canvas (left) was the orange one and I made some basic Grungebord flower. I drew a flower to use as a template onto paper before cutting it out and drawing round on the Grungebord. I painted them in shades of purple before assembling and using an aqua coloured bedazzles for the centres. The stems are Grungebord too.

This canvas on the right was done by stamping Paperartsy stamps onto Ten Seconds Studio (TSS) metal in Periwinkle and Appletini using black Stazon. I then put an Humungo adhesive sheet onto the back of the metal and put it onto cardboard. The sheet provides a kind of 'cushion' for you to using an embossing tool to go around the stamped lines. You have to do this before it is cut out as some of the lines are the outside of the image. I cut it our and used Glossy Accents to stick it to the canvas and had some pieces over the edge to add interest to the overall effect.

This canvas (left) was painted green and I applied a small glittered rub-on of an angel to it with some effort. The rub-on did not want to stick to the canvas, but I managed with a little perseverance. It looked too pristine so I distressed using a Tim Holtz Craft Scratcher to scratch pieces of it off. Then I put a acetate frame from Tattered Angels around the small canvas to finish it off.

All of the other green and blue painted canvases were decorated with TSS metal using the same technique as above using the same colour metals to tie it all together.

So if you're still with me after reading that l-o-n-g post, here is your reward - the finished canvas which has pride of place on my wall!

Hope you've enjoyed this little look at my art.

Treatment Day!!!

2010-06-03T16:04:00.004+01:00

Been for treatment today and met up with the lovely Justine and equally lovely Angela (gotta say that cos they follow this blog LOL!!!). I always look forward to treatment days as I generally feel better after them.

The Royal Victory Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle where we have treatment once a month for MS is being modernised and all the wards are being moved around. So we had a nice little jaunt to a different part of the hospital and we have to ring up before we leave home next time to see where we'll be treated.

The treatment takes about a couple of hours but can be less if they can get the cannula in first try, which is a miracle for me if they can. Then we're hooked up to pumps which run an infusion of an MS drug direct into our veins. Once that bag has finished they hang another bag, this time of saline, and that clears all of the MS drug left in the tube connected to the pump, into us. Then we're released into an unsuspecting world. I always walk a little better after my infusion and gives me a lot more energy, but it generally only last for 3 weeks and the week before my next infusion I call my 'down' week.

Although it gives me more energy I still don't feel as 'normal' as I should. I still have problems with walking (I walk with a stick sometimes crutches), still have fatigue which hits like a ton of bricks and can fell you for days, still can't feel parts of my body, just the usual MSy things!

Having said all of that its not so bad. You just have to think as positively as you can and take each day as it comes. I always say I have MS. MS doesn't have me!!

New specs

2010-06-02T11:07:00.010+01:00

Apologies for the previous rant!!

I recently had to go to the opticians as my eyes were causing me problems with close vision. They suggested varifocals which I duly ordered and started to wear. All was fine til I went out shopping in Hexham. Slightly unfamiliar territory sent my senses into overdrive when i was faced with some stairs. You see with the MS I'm never 100% sure where my feet are and tend to have to look down to make sure I know where I'm stepping. Consequently going downstairs caused a BIG problem. When I was looking down to see where my feet were, I was looking through the reading part of the specs meaning everything was blurred. Very dangerous for someone in my position, so I've had to resort to distance specs and a pair for reading and craft work.

But...I was so in love with the frames I had chosen I HAD to get them made into just distance specs and used a pair of frames I already had to use as reading glasses.

So these are my new specs. For those of you who know me, they're totally me, don't ya think?!

Another try at this blogging lark.

2010-06-01T16:43:00.001+01:00

Well here I am on Blogger. Couldn't get comfy on Wordpress, or rather Wordpress wasn't comfy with me!! I was having major bother just trying to open the blog never mind editing or posting anything.

I will attempt to migrate stuff across. Failing all else I'll just retype everything.

To make matters worse I thought it was my PC that was causing the bother so I restored it factory settings. Now I'm having problems with my e-mail as the disc they send out with O2 broadband isn't compatible with Windows 7. Oh joy! There is a way I can set it up manually, but the thought is just sending me loopy. Think I'd best wait for the new disc coming. I can get my e-mails thru O2's homepage so I'll do that til the disc arrives.

Anyhoo thats me for now. Need a lie down after all this PC stuff....