First Blooms!!

We have got the first little diddy flowers coming up in our garden. I am so chuffed, I love seeing the first blooms.

Here's some pics:
















Aren't they cute!

I'm so looking forward to spring with the new shoots growing and leaves sprouting on the trees. We have some beautiful trees on the green across the road from us and they look gorgeous covered in leaves......they look so bare at the moment.






I'm getting very keen to get a new camera too, I'm not supposed to be getting one until this time next year but I'm getting very impatient. Someone I know is very kindly going to lend me his
camera while he's away on holiday. He has one of the Canon EOS range cameras, not sure which one (he couldn't remember either) and it will be great to have a bit of a play before I decide on what to buy. I'm really torn between the Canon EOS 400D and the Nikon D80 but I'll keep researching. Probably by the time I get round to buy one there will be a whole load more to look at LOL!

Anyway, my bit of creativity for today is some ATC's I've done for a swap on UKS. It is signs of the Zodiac and I was chuffed when my sign, Virgo, wasn't taken.

Art Journal Week 4 (and things)!!

When I first read Emily's prompt for Week 4 "a symbol you love" I just gulped. I had absolutely NO idea what to do.

I resorted to searching the internet to find symbols to give me some inspiration and on 1 of the sites I came across it listed "Unicorns".

Now I love horses, I used to work with them years ago and as a child my dream was to own a horse. I could never understand why mum and dad hadn't bought me one for Christmas. Ha ha, now a little older and a lot wiser (ooh, no, I think that should be the other way round) I have obviously come to realise that it was far beyond their financial reaches and never in a million years would they buy me a horse.

Anyway, I digress slightly.....my passion for horses meant I had a passion for all things "horsey" and Unicorns come into that category, hence, why I picked a Unicorn for this weeks challenge.

Unicorns symbolize innocence and purity of heart. Although I certainly don't claim innocence I would like to think that my heart is in the right place and hopefully that is how it will remain. The unicorn also helps to bring peace, gentleness, courage, inner wisdom and healing.............all great things in my book.

This one is, again, hand drawn and painted and I am so enjoying painting again. I used to love painting animals, dogs and horses in particular and I starting to realise just how much I have missed it. Sorry that the photo isn't marvellous, I often have to photograph stuff after dark and it just doesn't work so well under artificial light.


















I must just also show you some fabby 3D paints that my super, duper mum bought me. She got me the Crystal ones for Christmas and then we popped into the local art shop in town and they had a HUGE display of these things in all sorts of finishes so mum bought me 4 metallic ones too. They are fabbidoo!!!



















Take care all.

What a walk yesterday....phewy

We went out for a fabulous walk yesterday across the South Downs. The weather was glorious and really quite warmish to be honest.

We came across the remains of a 2nd World War tank so I took some pics:

















There was some incredible scenery to be had, I took over 50 photos in just under 3 hours.........eeek, thank goodness for digital LOL!

I won't bore you with them all but here's a couple.


























The very talented Di W has also put up her C page on Alphabet Funk so do pop over and take a peek.

Here is my C page for the journal:


















The little flap on the right holds the pages together with a magnetic dot and when lifted the page opens to this:














There is a tag behind the top left photo to reveal another photo and some journalling:


The little carol books come out of the pockets and open up to show 8 song sheets with different carols in each.











Anyway, I'm meant to be doing lots of crafting today and I seem to be spending more time on the computer LOL!

Catch you all later.

Week 3 Art Journal Card

Caught up now so I'm chuffed. For this card I decided to use pretty much just paint, I haven't done much painting for a few years now and since I've started crafting my passion for painting is returning.

It's weird though because I feel out of practise if you see what I mean, so I guess I should do more LOL! Tony bought me a couple of fabby dinky deep canvases for Christmas (I think they are only about 6" square) and I really fancy having a go at those soon, I wish I had more hours in a day LOL!



















The theme in week 3 is "I am" so I have decided on "I am learning to Relax". I've always been a worrier but as time goes by things become easier in life, the reverse reads "As time passes I am worrying less and starting to enjoy my life" and I have to admit that the old saying "life begins at 40" is pretty much true in my case. I have much less to worry about now and life is grand.....it just goes too damn quick!

The card has been painted in a mixture of normal and metallic acrylics and, Nat, I have used Safmat for the lettering, bearing in mind it has been burnished onto a roughly painted surface, it looks pretty good I think.

Anyway, moving on a little. I was having a scout round the internet the other day and came across this link at Creating Keepsakes about Digital Circle Journals. Now I really fancy having a go at this, I have only ever done one digi page and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't think digi's can ever replace the stroke factor of paper journals but it just sounds like quite a fun thing to do.

If any of you have done one of these or fancy having a go please leave a comment or let me know. I'd love to have a bit of feedback on them :-)

We've had SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this is the first snow we have seen in this neck of the woods for....well.....years and it was FAB! I love snow, when I haven't got to drive in it, I even like going out for a walk in it too.

We'd hoped to have a walk this afternoon and take some pics but the snow had all but disappeared by mid afternoon. They have forecast more but I think it will probably only be a light dusting.

Anyway here's a couple of pics, the first one was taken just as it was getting light and I had the camera on night setting.














The second was taken much later when the sun was starting to shine.


















I've taken a few close ups in the garden too and they seemed to have come out okay too so I'm a happy bunny!

Got some fabby stuff from Letraset today, it's called Safmat and you print whatever you want on it, cut loosely round it and burnish it down on to your artwork. I never manage to find rub ons that I like and this is the perfect solution for me all thanks to Kaz from Bubbly Funk for recommending it to me.

I've used it on my 3rd Art Journal card but I haven't taken pics yet, I'll either do that later or tomorrow.

Right, must get some yum yum's!

Art Journal Card - week 2

Catching up bit by bit now. This is week 2's card for the Emily Falconbridge Art Journal Challenge entitled "What is powerful to you?"

Well for me it is Laughter, I think everyone should laugh at least once every day if they can, it is such a tonic and very addictive!


















It is meant to resemble Laughter being carried in a jeans pocket but when I showed it to Tony he didn't quite see it..........oh well, he either hasn't got an artistic eye or I am just pants at portraying a pair of jeans LOL!

Everything else is just normal day to day stuff so I won't bore you with it, I'm just enjoying being a little less stressed than I was and have enough momentum to spend my evenings crafting again.

I signed up for a couple of ATC swaps today, one on UKS - Carolines "Signs of the Zodiac" swap, I've managed to bag Virgo in one of the groups so I'm pleased with that.

The other ATC swap is on Bubbly Funk, the normal monthly one, for February it is "Feathers and Red".........EEK, have to have a bit of think about that one.

Catch up laterz peeps!

Ooooh, a bit of creativity

I seem to be forever tinkering with stash but it takes ages to finish anything. The bits and bobs box I did a couple of weeks ago but I couldn't put a pic up until it had been on the Alphabet Funk blog so here is the lil guy:































He's sitting on my desk right now and he is actually staying intact and quite sturdy and of course I just lurve staring at a bit of B.G all day.

I was doing a bit of blog hopping yesterday and came across Emily Falconbridge's blog and the playing card weekly challenge. As it's just a tiny piece to do each week I'm going to seriously have a go at it and I have done my first card today (a little behind but I'll get there).

The card has been painted in metal acrylic and it really has a fab sheen to it which doesn't show so well in the pic but never mind.


















I'm proud because I gave up smoking 2 years ago and I'm still off the weed (and not missing it either)!

Glad the weekend has arrived!!

WOW! What a week.............I have been so intensely busy work wise it was getting just too much by yesterday. I just don't do really busy anymore LOL!

We popped out for a quick bevvie down our local club last night, we needed to wind down (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it)!! We met up with a couple of friends and we all ended up back at our place and ordered a chinese. Now being in the throws of a points counting diet, chinese doesn't fair well. Of course, as most of you may know, having a beer or two rather dims the responsible, healthy eating person that I am trying to be and is replaced by this "I need to have a good time" party animal (well as much of a party animal that a 42 year old can be) LOL!

Anyway, we had crispy duck with pancakes, barbeque spare ribs, beef fried noodles, prawn crackers, crispy pork, (shall I go on......) - nope I'm feeling guilty now. It was fabidoodle and I savoured every tiny morsel that I could manage. Well, me being me, I had to get the camera out and one of our friends took a really fabby pic of Tony and I so I thought I would share. I've cropped out the glasses of alcohol in the foreground hee hee!

















This morning I did have a little bit of clearing up to do but so what, spur of the moment get togethers are the best in my opinion and we had a great time last night. I got myself ready and picked mum up to do some shopping. It was really enjoyable and I love spending time with mum, she's 85 but she's amazing and she loves shopping, especially in our local town. She bought me some fabby 3d relief paint pens too(I'll post a piccie tomorrow) and I can't wait to play with them. We went home for a spot of very healthy lunch and then I took her home.

We were definately back to our healthy ways today and we went for a 2 hour walk this afternoon and watched the sun set. It was a bit chilly but lovely, I really enjoy our nice relaxing walks. I feel so much more relaxed now after such a hectic week at work and I'm looking forward to spending the day crafting tomorrow as Tony is off to footy. Here's a piccie of the sunset.














Right, I'm pooped.........sorry I haven't been blog hopping just lately, I've been all computered out by the end of the day, promise I'll pop round tomorrow.

Take care all.

Tagged!!

Thanks Caroline for the tag, here goes:

Who am I?

Describe your personality in a paragraph or two.

Errrrmmmmm, well, I'm very sensitive and I wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm easily upset and over emotional. I hate upsetting people and can't bear the thought that someone dislikes me. If someone upsets me I'm wary of them for ages afterwards but I do eventually forgive and I do forget......I guess I think someone always deserves a second chance. But, if they upset me more than once then I suppose it would take me longer to forgive.

I am also the most jumpy and nervous person you could ever meet, Tony only has to walk into the kitchen and speak to me, if I've got my back turned to him, it frightens the absolute pants off me. We do laugh about it but I just can't stop being so jumpy..........oh well!

Well thats me, now all I have to do is think of a couple of peeps to tag......mmmmmmmmm......I think for this one I'm going to go for Nat and Beth

B page done

Well I've finished the 'B' page of my Christmas journal and it's uploaded to the Alphabet Funk blog - do pop over and take a peek, Caroline's 'B' page is on there and it looks fabaroo.

Here's mine, it a 3 tiered layered type of page with 7 tags, I enjoyed doing it but it used 3 sheets of B.G. - EEEEEEEEEK!!!

We went out for a lovely walk this morning round Southwater Country Park, we used to live in Southwater and it was a fab place to walk.


















I wish we had more days like this during the winter, it wouldn't make it feel so long!

Oooh, had to edit as I've been tagged...........thanks Gems :-)

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fourth sentence.
3. Post the text of the following three sentences on your blog.
4. Name of the author, and book.
5. Tag three people of you own.

Okay, I'm in the office so unless you need to know about the new Age Discrimination Act that came in last year of VAT Notes No 3 for 2006 (which I guessed you probably weren't interested in) I grabbed the nearest art related book there was.

It stems back to my Graphic Design days (blimmin eck, sparking some memories now!!) there are only 3 sentences in total on page 123 so I'll opt for sentence numbers 4 and 5.

The depth scale, shown here to actual size, is measuring the depth of type. By offering the scale to the base of the X-height of the small letters of the first line and matching up the second line on the scale with the top of the X-height on the next line, it is possible to determine the space the type occupies. this example is a 10pt space, but the type has been set in 9pt with a 1pt leading.

The type rule drawn here is used to measure the column widths. Once a column width is decided, the point size of the type will be determined by the number of words required on each line.


Now, amazingly, I actually remember this and I still own one of the depth scales (somewhere)!!!!!!

The author is Alan Swann and the book it "How to design grids". Not a book I've pondered over much in the last 20 years but hey! LOL!!

I'll have a think about who to tag and let you know.

Right, edited again now cos I think I'm going to tag Caroline and Rosie....thanks gals!!

That Close!!!!!!!!!

Well, what a hectic week and a bit of a close call on Thursday. Tony and I went out for a walk round the village, part of our lose weight campaign!! We were crossing a road coming home and an incredibly stupid woman decided to cut the corner of the junction off while she was gayly chatting away to her friend in the car and started heading straight for me. She missed Tony by inches and I had to jump out of the way otherwise I would have been wrapped round her bonnet. A little nerve wracking to say the least. I won't repeat what I shouted at her but she took no notice, probably still engrossed in her conversation totally unawares I expect.

Well, I managed to get lots of work done this week and I've had plenty of crafting time in the evenings (I just can't be doing with tv at all)!! I've now completed my B page of the Christmas Journal (pics will go on the Alphabet Funk blog tomorrow after Carolines fabby slide show).

I have even managed to get something else made for the new blog but I can't post a piccie of it yet, you'll just have to wait a while hee hee!

Anyway, the pic below is of a tag book that is a gift for someone, it was meant for Christmas but it's going in a box I've made with some other things and I haven't managed to finish them all yet.
















Still on our diet and I'm feeling better, my jeans are slowly but surely beginning to loosen so I'm pleased with that. I'm off to make a very nourishing and healthy fish pie for tea tonight.....yum yum. And I think I might have enough points for a Saturday night tipple or two later!

Too much work to do YUK!

Now ordinarily I don't complain toooo much about work. I love working from home and having no boss looking over my shoulder but I have got work coming out of my ears at the mo and it's dull!

I have so many crafting projects that I want to get on with and they just have to take second place! PAH!!!!!!!! Oh well, I'm sure I'll get through it LOL!

I've finished for the day now.........yes, yes I know it's still only 3.20 but I started really, really early this morning so I've done a good few hours.

Oooooh, AND.........I made another card, blimmin' eck!! There's a pic below, it's a footy card for a GIRL! but yes, she is footy mad bless her. I haven't got to make another card til later on in the month now so that's good, it's just not something I enjoy too much.



















Anywayz, I'm off, going to try and be a little creative today.........I get withdrawal symptoms you know if I don't get glue on my fingers at some point during the day.............weird, I know!!!!!!

Gone to the dogs!

Yep, we went again today! Nothing particularly exciting about it but it's good fun and a great way to spend a Sunday lunchtime.

Haven't had a bad weekend all in all. The weather has been pretty damn dreadful for both days although we did see a little bit of the blue stuff up there today.

I have a birthday card to make tonight, thats two within a month..........what am I like........I don't make cards!!!!!!!!! Here's a pic of the one I made the other week:













My Crafting "To Do" list is growing ever longer, I'd made great progress in getting it down to a minimum before Christmas but, as always, loads of ideas going around in my head again and there are just so many things I want to do!!

Well that's it from me for tonight, back to this card eh!!!

50p each.....................EEK!!!!

Couldn't decide which picture was best so I put both on LOL!

I bought these little beauties for 50p each today. They were massively reduced in a local garden centre and they are all skinny little tykes so they'll be ideal for LO's or they might even pop up somewhere in a Christmas Journal LOL!



















But that was the good bit about my visit...............the bad bit is that they used to have a Craft Central in the garden centre which was ideal for me to pick up bits and pieces, I'm getting really short of DST at the mo....you know the sort of thing. But they've closed it down, they're moving it to another garden centre in a place I never visit.

Boooo Hooooo!

Now I'll have to trudge into town and I don't even know where to get it from there!! I guess there is a plus side, that's the third disappointing thing that has happened in a row recently so that's it now, no more disappointments for me HAAA HAAA!

Oooooh, and while I'm on, I've now know what the Alphabet Funk Blog is planning for you all on Sunday.............It's FABAROO but I'm not telling though, you'll have to look for yourselves.....hee hee hee!!

Take care and be good one and all.

Chrimmy prezzies

Well now it's after Christmas I can show you one or two of the one's I made.

The first is a mini book I made for a fabby friend of mine - you know who you are.....wink wink.

I really enjoyed making it as I had never done anything like it before.





































Most of the pages have a little flap or tag inserted somewhere with a Christmassy poem on. I really love the free printable images too, I'm sure I'll be using some of those again.

Right lunch break over, time to go back to work!!

Keep smiling peeps :-)

Seemed to go well!

Well the launch of the new blog seemed to go down well so I'm pretty pleased about that. Thanks for all your comments over there, it was lovely to read them yesterday.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the work of the other designers, it is going to be so inspirational. I'm already planning my next pages and hope to keep up with the journal for the next letters of the alphabet. And of course, there are lots of other exciting things planned in between so do keep checking back there.



It's back to work for me today and it's dull, I really enjoyed my time off work and doing lots of crafting. Saying that, I've been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster for another reason so getting back to work will hopefully take my mind off it.

Have a great day all.