Seemed a good idea at the time

Well, it certainly did seem a good idea at the time....went to Sandra's birthday party on Friday night and made a fantastic handbag.  Picked the girls up on Saturday and when they saw the bag decided they wanted to make one.  We started practicing on a piece of watercolour paper, everything fine to start with, then disaster struck.....started spraying the inks and even though I thought I'd covered wherever possible with newspaper, the ink went on my Amtico floor and let me tell you, it doesn't come off! (We're not going to tell Granddad).

Here's what they made

Charlotte

Lucie

I think they've done fantastically well, we made the finished sheets into a book and they are going to do some stamping and colouring and put them in the book later in the week.

As mentioned, had a fantastic time on Friday night with lots of food, wine, laughter and good company.  Thanks Sandra, I'll post some photos later in the week,  but in the meantime here's my handbag (which has still to be finished)

Hope you've all having a great weekend.

Dina Worksop

Had a fantastic, but tiring weekend at Art from the Heart being taught by the fabulous Dina Wakley.  Pop over to her blog and have a peep at her stunning work. Dy and her helpers provided lots of good food and drink to keep us all going.  We worked at a furious pace but everyone had a terrific time.  Here's some of my work, some finished, some still to be worked on...

a first attempt when I was out of my comfort zone

very dark colours but managed to leave a little bit of white space

still to do some more work on this one

and finally to the piece of work which I found the most difficult and daunting....a portrait of my granddaughter Lucie, not sure she'll appreciate it, lol.

I met some wonderful, friendly, creative girls and although I found three days very tiring, wouldn't have missed it for the world.

July at last....

Well here, at last, are my completed July pages for the 365 Art Journal Challenge organised by Kate

I still managed to complete the days when I was on holiday and have prepared my August page, well almost, still some doodling to do.  Everyone has done some amazing pages, there are some incredible creative people out there and if you go to Flickr, you will be able to see them all.

Sunday Stampers Challenge 111 Blue

The challenge this week over on Hel's SSC is to use the colour blue.

The photo is not the best because the flash caught the top and you can't make out the text stamps I used, which were PaperArtsy ones.  The tag, birdcage and bird are all Tim's alteration dies.  I coated the birdcage with weathered wood crackle paint and went over with walnut stain.  Tag was coloured with various DI's then brushed on some perfect pearls.

Well I'm busy cleaning, washing, ironing, packing etc. ready for my jollies.  We're off tomorrow for 3 weeks, looking forward to it and am going to take some paints, stains, DIs etc. to try to do some journaling.

Wedding Anniversary

It's my best friends wedding anniversary this week, 44 years, where does the time go, and I've been a bit stumped over what sort of card to make.  Anyway decided on the tried and tested route, acrylic paints, spray inks, DI's, Wendy Vecchi stamps, bit of ribbon and machine stitching.  Good job she doesn't read my blog, she'd kill me for telling how long they've been married.

We're off to see them in Hampton later on in the week, so much food and drinking will be consumed and of course, chattering and laughter.

Alice in Wonderland

Had a great day playing at AFTH and ended up using the new Graphic 45 papers to create this   journal page, which was done with some inspiration from Dy.  She's posted the one she's done, along with a tutorial which you can see here....

I did this in one of the Circle Journals I'm doing, but can't remember who it belongs to!

Here's another page from my enormous Moleskine journal

Better late than Never!!

Just managed to photo my June page for the 365 Art Journal organised by the talented Kate.  Just got to work out how to upload it to Flickr.

I've now prepared and started the July page

Those eagle eyed of your out there may notice that I've actually drawn some of Dy's famous vine leaves.  It's only taken me 12 months to get the hang of it, after loads of time practicing.  On the July page I've used the new Altered Original Inks  from AFTH, which are fabulous to work with.