Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

As  I sit and schedule this post it is still Flaming June - a time when we should be basking in sunshine possibly thinking of taking a trip to be beside the sea? - yea right  its Wimbledon and Glastonbury so what do you know - yep you guessed it is pouring down (well it is where I live)  It is actually sun shining at Wimbledon at the moment but it was raining there too earlier .

I cannot believe that it is July on Monday (It is late afternoon on Friday as I write) and time for another Claritystamp challenge they certainly come around quickly we are  starting challenge five already it doesn't seem two minutes ago that I was so very excited to be asked to be  a part of the design team for it. I am  still  excited to be part of  such a talented group of people and what about all the fantastic entries we get - there are some really clever crafters out there. It is  a real struggle to pick out my favourite 5 each month so I am really pleased that we don't have to pick the winner and to be fair to one and all it is far better to have a the winner picked at random as that way both experienced crafters and newbies get an equal opportunity to win such a great prize.

Anyway so the theme this month is 

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

So here is my creation!

 I was inspired by the beach hut stamps and in my head this is a row of beach huts against the sea wall underneath the promenade with the town behind - well that's what was in my head ! - I know it is a very weird place inside my head.  Anyway as I planned it I thought it still lacked a bit of something so that's when I decided to use the 1st class vertical ATC stamp  (I removed the ink from the writing)
I have to admit that the scene took some working out - and quite a lot of masks had to be made !!
I don't know that the picture shows it too well but the railing along the top of my "sea wall" was made with the bottom bit of the hanging vine stamp - it was the round bits that reminded me of the round knobs that you get on such railings - I told you it was weird inside my head.   I also added the Church spire - just cos I could, and I used promarkers to colour.   Oh I do wish I was at the sunny sea side sat in that chair..........oh well a girl can dream.

deck chair
beach huts
single beach hut
1st class stamp stamp
hanging vine
street
street
church

sneaky peek

TO BRAYER AND INK OR SPONGE AND PANS?

I will be making a debut appearance as a  demonstrator  at the Craft Range in Burnley this Saturday. (There is a linky on the right).  Do you think I should dress up for the occasion? Fancy frock and high heels maybe?   Nah I do not think so ... I can't remember the last time my legs were on public display and high heels... not a chance.  

The cafe will be serving pie & peas at lunch time - so why not ring and place your order then come along on the day spend some time watching all the demos and have lunch as well

All the demonstrators will be doing a variety of crafting techniques  and I will using inks and pan pastels. so my question to you is - which do you prefer? I will be demonstrating similar  samples using both methods and here is a montage of sneaky peeks but can you tell which has been done by which medium?

Hoping to see you there!

Time

Morning all. #The weather outside is frightful but the fire is# out because its supposed to be FLAMING JUNE !!!!

Anyway it is looking like a day to stay in and craft.  I had a lovely crafty day with friends yesterday at the Clarity NW workshop with Maria Simms and we did some lovely projects and then we stayed  a little longer to do a card with Maria's young daughter Amber - starting you and taking after Mother, she is a great little crafter, we did a card using the medium Clarity fob watch and reminded me that I did this and haven't blogged it.

I started with a gelli print that I had in my stash so I added some distress ink and stamped the fob watches from Claritystamps.  I put some more in the background using the same distress in and then added some cogs which I got at the steampunk market I went to .  A young couple just starting up they have some fabby wood die cuts ..Cog'O'Two

Thanks for stopping by 

book or bag?

Sometime ago I went to a little craft fair and saw a book that had been made into a little handbag.  The outside of the bag was just the plain hard back cover of the book and I thought it was a shame that whilst the idea was good it was a shame that the outside had not been thought of so it set me thinking...

I bought a large old hardback copy of a microwave cookery book from a charity shop - just because it seemed a nice size.

/

I decided to go with a shabby theme and I removed all the pages and used image transfer to cover the front and back.  before sealing I added some distress inks around the edge to make it all  well worn!

It turned out well so off I went to my local craft shop Minerva crafts in my home town and bought some material to line it and a button for the fastening.

I had some lovely lace in my stash so I distress with vintage photo ink and stuck a strip across both sides.

To line the bag  I made some handles and a loop for the fastening and glued them into place before lining with the same material (I added a little padding underneath the material on the sides )

I cut some die cuts out of greyboard which I gessoed before distressing with inks...mmm water based so decided to seal them - this made the ink smear but it seemed to just add to the shabby effect.

I stamped a leafy swirl stamp and embossed in gold.

I added some flowers and buttons and stuff - done.

Thanks for stopping by please leave a comment I love to hear what you think.

Raphael

Hi there good morning how are you all doing out there in blog land? Some time ago I went to an Andy Skinner workshop where I did a chest with an image transfer on the lid.  Well off and on since then I have kept having a little play but have been unable to get the picture to transfer good enough to use, and yesterday  I finally cracked it.  YAY so here it is in all its glory - so pleased it worked .. the box was from the MDF man.

this is the lid - it is a picture called Raphael I downloaded from a copyright free image I think it is probably a grave statue as it looked like it was made of stone.  Not very clear with my rubbish photography skills but   the image transfer process has transformed the black ink to purples and greens in places.

I painted the outside of the box and crackled it then over stamped.

 The sides of the lid were also crackled with a fine crackle and distressed.

I lined the box with some lovely graphic 45 paper

I hope you like it I am chuffed to bits that I finally managed to do it.

Thanks for popping by - if you do please leave a comment I love to hear your thoughts 

With Sympathy

Morning Everyone  Aren't I being a very bad blogger lately - the truth is I don't feel like I have actually made any proper cards lately -  I am just so busy doing what I haven't got the foggiest but time just disappears at an alarming rate.

I have just had some great news from my youngest daughter - she works for William Hills and moved out to Gibraltar in January to work for them there. She was asked would she like to apply for a managers job and has been having interviews and giving a presentation - she has emailed this morning to say she has got the job and starts on 1st July - so proud of my baby girl  

I have had a fantastic week  on Sunday I went to the Doncaster show at the dome and had a great time - met up with crafty friends for a catch up and of course bought all sorts of goodies got some fabby new stencils from the Clarity stand and yet more stamps, a stencil and some multi medium stuff from paper artsy boxes from the mdf man an a couple of      a4 sheets of stamps from the stamp man - one sheet for everyday and one sheet of Xmas stuff bargain at a fiver each - well it would have been rude not to,

Here is a quick sympathy card . computer generated sentiment cut out a mask with a spell binder and inked through the stamp is from Kaisercraft.

Thanks for stopping by - hoping to get to some proper crafting in between taking hubby to the health centre - still got his legs in bandages - gong to be a long job.

Mr & Mrs

This month's challenge is Mr & Mrs

I was asked to make a wedding card so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and make one that also fitted the June Claritystamp challenge.

I was wondering what to do when and I was looking through my stamps when I came across this car.  I don't think I have used it for about 4 or 5 months and I thought oooo balloons behind a car.. now what claritystamps have I that would make balloons and I have several sizes of these joined hearts as I used them on my daughters wedding stationery and them pop up from time to time in various projects.

I cut a heart from the centre of a panel and then embossed a pattern with my hougie board and put some gold self adhesive dots here the lines crossed.  I added the lattice work behind and mounted onto gold mirri card.  I added the letters and then mounted it on more gold mirri and a 21 x 21 pearl card.

Labels

spellbinder lattice die and the heart set.

Vintage car

hearts

letter box set