In the Hen House!

So my dilemma on a Saturday afternoon was do I do the housework or do I do my August Calendar Page, um difficult decision but after much deliberation (of about a micro second!) I chose to do my calendar page.

I couldn't decide what theme to do for August so rummaging through my stamps I found the JOFY hen house set and thought I'd give them an outing in August.  I stamped them onto paper and coloured them with pencil.  The background is a blend of orange and purple.

I am ahead of myself and have nearly finished September which I will add later.

July Calendar Challenge

I can't believe it is nearly the end of July and I haven't put this up yet.  I did get it finished whilst I was at the last Bristol Scrappers but with holidays and other things I've not got around to posting it yet.

As it was holiday season I thought I would get in the mood and do a holiday page with beach huts, bunting and beach babes.  Had to include my favourite saying "Gone to the Beach".

June Calendar Page

After my weekend with Kate Crane what else could Kate's calendar challenge be but a whimsical girl!  I colour blocked the background and used some new stencils I bought from the craft show last weekend then added my little girlee in the corner.

I also finished some scrapbook pages at Bristol Scrappers today, haven't done any for a while but I bought this paper a couple of weeks ago for just these photo's.

This was a stencil I also bought from the craft show, it's a prima poppy stencil really pleased with the finished effect.

A little bit of Whimsy with Kate Crane

A couple of weeks ago I spent another creative weekend with Kate Crane at the Stamp Attic learning how to draw whimsical faces, I've been wanting to learn to draw Kate's style of girls for ages so this was a great opportunity.

The first thing we did on the Saturday was make a tiny little journal in a matchbox, using Dina Wakley's mini face stamps and washi tape we ended up with a great little mini journal ready to fill with mini ideas and thoughts.

Next was working on a bigger scale in our art journals, creating painted and layered backgrounds to which we added downloaded images and journalling.

I always seem to have some mishap when I am at the Stamp Attic before it was the windscreen wipers on the car, this time it was trying to stay on my feet!  I admit I wasn't exactly wearing sensible footwear but they do make me taller!  I managed to get over the cobbles fine, with the help of my stick, but whilst I was walking back through the car park, loaded with with my bag, shopping bags, handbag and walking stick, I turned to try and get the car keys from the pocket in my bag and wallop, down I went in the car park, my glasses flew off in front of me and I landed on my bag.  Two guys came over to see if I was ok, one of them picked up my glasses and bag and carried it to the car for me, but as you know when you do something like that it's always 'oh I am fine!' and then say ouch when they are gone!  I was most upset about denting my pencil tin after I fell on it!!

Luckily I wasn't driving home, only to Didcot Railway Station to pick up Mark, we had booked a hotel for the night which turned out a good choice, the room was lovely and the good was brilliant.  Plus they had my favourite Brandy, of which I needed a few medicinals!!

After a yummy cooked breakfast I headed back to the Stamp Attic (wearing flat shoes) for the second day. Again we started off making a little mini album in the matchbox.  Then it was time for drawing, there were a few moans and groans and 'I can't draw' comments but after we followed Kate's exercises everyone ended up with some great whimsical girls.

Some photo's of the projects: -

Drawing and shading practice

A small banner made with the whimsical girls

Mini matchbox journals 

And Kate, I have been practicing!

I think she looks like an England Player!

Thanks Kate for another great weekend, looking forward to the next one.

May Calendar Page

Well I'm still keeping up with Kate Crane's Calendar Challenge.  May calendar page is finished and days written in so far!  I used pinks and greens for the colour scheme and my new Tim Holtz heart stencil for the background.  I picked out some of my favourite Polkadoodles house stamps to add to the corner.

Long time since I've quilted!

I haven't done any patchwork or quilting for quite some time, years in fact!  My best friend celebrated a special birthday this year, I usually do a life scrapbook album but not having access to any of her early life photo's I decided to make a memory quilt with pictures I already had.  I used the printable cotton which was amazing, just put it straight through the printer, cut round, peel off the back and it's ready to be sewn.  I printed photo's of her wedding, her babies when they were born, toddlers and the age they are now, plus photo's of things we have done, our holiday group photo in Florida and not forgetting her dog Jenny.

I didn't have too long to get the quilt done once I had decided to do it, so I stuck to 6 x 4 pieces to match the photograph sizes, and stitched them together in rows.

The stipple quilting was done on the sewing machine.  The binding took me just as long to hand sew it on as it did to make the quilt top!

She was really pleased with it when she opened it up on her Birthday.

Here it is...

Feel inspired to do some more now, or finish some off!!

March and April Calendar Pages

One of my favourite films is the Wizard of Oz, I had some Oz stamps for Christmas which I thought would be great for a calendar page.  I used the brick stencil for the 'yellow brick road' with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion along with Toto lining up ready to take on the Wicked Witch!

April's page was inspired by my visit to Dina Wakley at AFTH, using one of her masks for the background, and the technique we used of wiping away the paint from the stencil and one of her lady stamps, slightly altering her hair.