Bohemian Patchwork

Hi Everyone,

Can't believe that we're really over half way through the year already and this is Week 28 of Wanderlust 2017!! It's proving to be a great arty-farty adventure and I've been trying so many new things - it's been an amazing experience :o)

Last week, lovely Sandra Evertson showed us how she creates a beautiful Bohemian Patchwork wall hanging, using gorgeous vintage fabrics which she finds in thrift stores (charity shops here in the UK). She also demonstrated how to make a hand-painted and beaded pendant which can hang on the piece as a focal point or be taken off when you want to wear it.

Here's how mine turned out ...

Sandra's pieces were all hand-stitched onto her base, which looked beautiful, but I wanted to finish mine quickly today, so I used a glue gun to stick everything onto a piece of mount board from the stash I totted from a local framer.

Love Your Smile

Hi Everyone

This month the challenge over at GoGoGetaway is this mood board ...

... and here's my finished page (sorry, very dark photo as it was all stormy here when I took the picture, so the light was awful) ...

This is a school photo of my beautiful niece, Alice, taken a couple of years ago. I can see so much of her Dad, my brother Ivan, in this picture. 

As well as the colour scheme of mint, sugar-mouse pink, fuschia, gold and black, I picked up several elements to maybe use on my page - 

• Confetti/sprinkles
• Hanging/stacked pieces
• Balloons
• String/twine
• Hearts
• Circles
• Candy stripes, rolled paper
• Black/white photo
• Jewels, pearls
• Frames
• Handpainted words
• XOXO
• Mermaids, rainbows, unicorns, fairies

I had a play with a new stamp set I bought from China through Ali Express, using VersaColor inkpads in a pale pink and pale teal to create a watercolour effect background (which mostly got covered up in the end, but it was fun to do and pretty while it lasted) ...

The stuff I used was mostly from Quirky Kits new and old but I also threw in some bits and bobs from my stash. I love the Paper Fuel patterned paper with the stripes on one side and hand-drawn wordage on the other. I used the stripes to frame my page and fussy cut the word "smile" from the A side as my title. The KaiserCraft cut-apart sheet was a favourite as well. 

As always, I enjoyed making my own embellishments - stamping, fussy-cutting, stacking diecuts and making "paper springs" to add dimension to flat elements like the die-cut heart at the bottom of the page. 

Check out the GoGoGetaway challenge yourself - you can win 100 Hey Little Magpie points to spend on scrappy goodies, just by posting your creation on the FB page.

Thanks for stopping by today, see you again soon :)

Annie xxx

Amazon Art Journal

Hi Everyone,

Hope you're having a lovely weekend wherever you are in the world and managing to squeeze in some creative playtime :o)

You know when you get a tiny delivery from Amazon and it comes with shedloads of packaging? I hate that. Well, here's the story of how I turned this (this is really now it arrived) ...

... into this gorgeously colourful art journal ...

I was inspired by the wonderful Rae Missigman, who encouraged us to "Build something beautiful out of the ordinary" for week 26 of Wanderlust 2017. Rae started with large envelopes and plain paper, but I adapted the idea to use what I had available ...

A Close Eye

Hi everyone,

A couple of weeks ago on Wanderlust (or probably longer than that; time is FLYING this year), Kasia challenged us to work BIG - on a bigger surface that we would usually work on.

I didn't want to do a canvas, and I didn't have time for a messy session in my craft room this weekend, but I decided to challenge myself to work in a different scale from what I'm used to, and fill a whole page of my A4 art journal with something small ...

It was indeed a challenge, but a thoroughly enjoyable one. I used only coloured pencils, so it's not at all mixed media, but it was really good exercise for my observational skills. After nearly giving up on it a couple of times, I was eventually happy with the end result.

Makes quite a contrast to all the miniatures I've been making recently :o)

Thanks for visiting my blog today, see you again soon!

Annie xxx

Crazy Garden

Hi Everyone,

Week 23 of Wanderlust 2017 was a fabulous lesson with another one of my mixed media heroes, Vicky Papaioannou. I've spent many hours watching Vicky's inspiring tutorials on YouTube, so I was very excited to try this lesson. Here's my result ...

Vicky had loads of tips and techniques to share, and I enjoyed trying them all out. My page turned out very differently from hers, but it makes me happy because it reminds me of the colourful jumble of summer flowers in our garden at the moment.

First, we gessoed the page, then we did some stencilling with modelling paste, allowing it to dry before adding diluted acrylic paints with a sponge to create a quick base layer. Then we used a brayer to add more layers of colour from the same palette - Vicky shared some really useful advice on colour theory when choosing colours for backgrounds and focal points. Further interest was added with some stamping, then a contrasting paint around the edges to frame the page.

Once this was done, we stamped the images for our focal points onto separate paper - this was a great tip, as it means you can move the images around until you're happy with the arrangement, before sticking them down and adding colour and details with paint and pens. The doodly flower stamps I used were free on a magazine; the daisies, hearts and butterfies were from my own Georgie stamp set which I haven't used in ages!

This was great fun and I learned a lot whilst making it. Can't wait to see what next week holds - we have metalwork with Jamie and Kasia's lesson is called "Ignite" - intriguing :o)

Thanks for popping in today, hope you're having a great week wherever you are.

See you again soon!

Annie xxx

Monkey Business

Hi Everyone,

What a beautiful Flaming June we're having here in the UK - it's like Abroad!!! :o)

Just finished my page for the GoGoGetaway June Challenge. Here's the challenge -

And here's my finished page, including ELEVEN of the twelve elements (if you count thread as twine) showing a fun picture of me with my niece Alice and grand niece Leila on a day out in Cornwall last summer. We were messing about, doing three monkies ...

I was feeling inspired by the amazing Missy Whidden's You Tube process vids while I made this - she likes to start with a colourful painty/inky background, often using the "packaging technique" which I really enjoyed trying out here. She also does a lot of layering of patterned papers and vellum, fussy-cut pieces, ephemera and embellishments, she often adds stitching and tangles of thread and finishes with splatters of ink. I really haven't done justice to her at all here, but I find her uniquie style so inspiring and love to watch her work.

So, back to those ELEVEN ELEMENTS - 

I started with plain white cardstock, gessoed the central area and used the packaging technique to add splashes of colourful ink.The chevrons were made with tissue transfer and stitched around with matching thread. I used lots of scraps of patterned papers from my last Quirky Kit to layer up under the photo, and you can see a wooden frame peeking out between the layers.The leaves and sunshine were fussy cut and I've added some punched butterflies and diecuts. Tangles of black thread are tucked in here and there to add some contrast, as well as a couple of arrow-shaped paperclips. Added some gorgeous chipboard pieces with gold accents and the little wood veneer bird which I've painted with pearlescent paint. My journalling is handwritten around the edges, and the word Monkey in my title is also my own handwriting, which I've drawn in black pen and cut out. 

So, I'm off to sit in the garden with a nice cold ice cold G & T now - hope you are having a lovely weekend wherever you are in the world. 

Thanks for visiting me today, see you again soon :o)

Annie xxx

Painting Backwards

Hi everyone,

One of the many new techniques I tried out at the Ministry of Mixology event in Coventry back in March was reverse painting on clear acrylic. I bought a pack of the acrylic pieces so I could have another go at home.

Here's my first go - not perfect, but it's a start which I can build on ...

It's a bit tricky to get your head around the idea that you're working from the back, so the first layer you paint or stamp will be the foreground and then you add layers, working towards the background. So when you turn the piece over, the bit you painted first is in the foreground - if that makes any kind of sense at all?!

In this example, I starting by stamping the houses in blue Stazon Ink, then filled them in with white acrylic paint, leaving spaces for the windows and doors. Next came a layer of gold acrylic paint to colour the windows. Then I stamped the text in black Stazon Ink, followed by acrylic paint in royal blue, ivory and buttery yellow which I sponged on to create the background.

I enjoyed the challenge of thinking in reverse and will definitely try this again - practise makes perfect :o)

Thanks for checking out my blog today, see you again soon!

Annie xxx

Patchwork Playtime

Hi everyone,

We had a lovely week away in Derbyshire and Notts - lots of sunshine, interesting places to see and delicious food to eat - perfect!

But we also love to come home to our little cottage in Norfolk and of course I couldn't wait to get into my craft room and play :o) Yesterday I caught up with week 19 of Wanderlust 2017 - this was a class with the wonderful Kate Crane.

Here's my finished AJ page ...

Kate showed us how to create a patchwork of squares and rectangles, gradually building up layers and treating each little square as a separate area, but bringing them all together to form a cohesive composition. She encouraged us to just have fun, play and experiment - and this format did make it really easy to do just that.

I decided to add the black "suture lines" to mine for a bit more definition against all the bright colours. This was such an enjoyable and easy process, I think I may try another one in a really grungy style next ....

Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon :o)

Annie xxx

Courage to Continue

Hello everyone,

It's a fabulous sunshiny May Bank Holiday Weekend here in my part of the world. Yesterday we had a family BBQ and the garden was full of squealing grandchildren playing in the paddling pool - and guess who couldn't resist getting in with them?! :o)

Tomorrow, we're off for a few days in Notts and Derbyshire, staying in a couple of places along the way and visiting lots of National Trust sites. I'm all packed and ready, so I have this afternoon to play in my room - planning to finish my latest miniature room box and start on a new AJ page.

Here's my latest page, from a class with the amazing Dyan Reaveley for Week 17 of Wanderlust...

Dyan was inspired by this wonderful quote from Winston Churchill; "Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts."

This is a great motivational quote for life in general, but it can also be related to our arty-farty endeavours. Whilst showing us how to use inks and acrylic paints to create the background for this piece, Dyan encouraged us to keep going and never be afraid to experiment. Success is something to build on, we shouldn't stop because we're afraid of spoiling what we've already done. Failure is something to learn from, then cover up with another layer and move on.

Speaking of which - I've just spotted my mis-quote, so I will need to go back in and rectify that, and although I love the vivid colours, I really thnk the whole thing needs some more black, and maybe some drippage ... hmmm ...

I hope you're having fun wherever you are today and thanks for taking the time to check out my blog - see you again soon :o)

Annie xxx

Go Explore

Hi everyone,

This month's challenge over at Go Go Getaway was this fab sketch ...

I love working with sketches, and this one inspired me to finally get around to scrapping a photo of my youngest son, Tom, which was taken 33 YEARS AGO can you believe it?!

Here's my finished page - bit of a dreary photo as it's gone all overcast here today ...

I used papers, die cuts and embellies from my latest Quirky Kit and mixed with bits from my scrap stash. 

Wasn't he cute?! <3

Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon :o)

Annie xxx

Colourful Discovery

Hi everyone,

Every two months my gorgeous Quirky Kit arrives in the post, all wrapped in colourful tissue paper, which of course I stash away to use for collage or wrapping. Last month, there was a sprinkle of die cut magenta tissue flowers - very pretty, but I wasn't sure what I would do with them.

After seeing people on YouTube creating beautiful effects with the new Reactive Tissue from the Vicki Boutin mixed media range, I just wondered if it might be worth experimenting, and it totally was - look what happened ...

First I scattered the tissue flowers over a page in my art journal, then spritzed with water, and left for a few minutes before peeling off the paper to find beautiful rich pigment left behind. Then I had a rummage and found the previous month's tissue which was a lovely deep teal colour, tore that into strips and repeated the process ...

This will make the beginnings of a brilliant background for an art journal page - I love how the translucent colours overlap each other ...

Digging Tunnels!

Hi everyone,

I really DIG these tunnel books :o) Here's my first one all finished now ...

 The papers I've used are leftovers from the Bird Song collection by Graphic 45 - I've been hoarding them for YEARS now, so it's great to finally put them to good use.

The method I used is demonstrated by theZim on You Tube - check out this video to see how he makes one of his amazing tunnel books with postcards. The sides are accordion-folded, then little flaps are cut to securely hold each frame inside the tunnel. Then the sides are covered with strips cut from a coordinating piece of card of paper.

I added a handle at the top because I wanted this one to be reminiscent of a lantern ...

Light at the End of the Tunnel!

Hi everyone,

This week I've been tinkering with Tunnel Books. There are some beautiful examples to be found on the internet and I was particularly inspired by TheZim on YT - check out this video where Zim explains what a tunnel book is and shows some really cool ones he's made. I love how he chooses to work with found objects like flyers and postcards.

How cool is that?! So, I had a rummage about in my workroom to see what I have that might work for tunnel books - because of course I will get totally obsessed and want to make loads of these! I found some old children's books and some National Trust postcards which I think will work really well. I also dug out some old partially-used but still beautiful G45 papers I've had stashed away for ages. Those papers are just begging to be cut up and they're nice and sturdy.

For my first go, I decided to see what I could do with some pieces from the Bird Song collection, which features fabulous flowers and birds, lovely ladies and lanterns and gorgeous background patterns, all inspired by Japanese artwork. I had a brilliant time cutting and sticking and I'm chuffed to bits with the result so far ...

It was really hard to get a good picture of, and I still need to finish the framework, but you get gist :o) Instead of a sold background for the back panel, I framed a piece of vellum for this one, so that when it is stood on a window ledge the light will shine through. That's the plan anyway, we'll see how it goes - maybe I could even put a couple of LEDs in there .... hmmmm ....

Thanks for stopping by today, see you again soon :o)

Annie xxx

Letting it Happen

Hello Blogmates,

I'm still picking at titbits from the delectable picnic hamper which is Wanderlust 2017. This week I decided to nibble at Week 10 and have a taste of Intuitive Painting with the talented Alena Hennessy.

Alena showed us how to create a fantastical background with acrylic inks and paints, then we cut shapes from painted and doodled paper and applied these to the background. My shapes were circles, which reminded me of planets ...

I added some doodles, drippage and spatters to accentuate my "planets", then used a white paint pen to write in some words from that old Frank Sinatra song which I love ... it's been in my head ever since ...

Hold Fast to Dreams

Hello Everyone,

I've been a bit slack on the blogging front just lately - I have been doing stuff, just haven't made time to blog about it! I sometimes wonder what motivates me to blog. It's a strange thing, because I'm very shy about showing my stuff to people IRL - so why don't I mind putting it up here for all the world to see?! Weird isn't it?

Originally, I started blogging as a way of linking up to enter scrapping challenges, but I hardly ever do that now. I do love the idea of sharing ideas and inspiration with bloggy friends - the internet is truly a wonderful thing isn't it? Also, my blog is a record of my arty-farty journey just for myself, so I think I would want to keep it going even if nobody else ever looked at it :o)

Anyway, enough waffle. In the spirit of recording my progress through Arty-Farty Land, here's one of my latest efforts ...

I'm continuing to dip in and out of Wanderlust 2017. For week 14, the wonderful Jessica Sporn showed us how to make meaningful art with shapes and symbols. She encouraged us to think about something important to us and then we gradually built up layers of collaged papers and paint, incorporating symbols which represented our subject. I love how Jessica describes each layer as "having a conversation with" the previous layer.

WOYWW 413 - Miniature Madness

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Peeps,

I've missed a couple of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesdays due to too much other stuff going on, so looking forward to catching up this week - if you would like to join in with the fun or find out what it's all about, just pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and check it out.

Here's my workdesk today - I've been making miniatures again, at the dining room table instead of in my craft room ...

I can't get enough of these cute little kits from China - this is the tiniest one I've made so far. Here's a closer look, with the lights on ...

The detail is just amazing and I find the whole process of assembling the little bits and bobs totally absorbing. Bit of a problem sometimes with understanding the instructions and I do struggle with my eyesight, but a good light helps and now I've found the perfect glue which makes things a lot easier.

I'll be looking forward to catching up with fellow Deskers over the next couple of days - see you at Julia's!! :o)

Annie xxx

I'll schedule this to post tomorrow and link up when I get home from work ...

Random Landscape

HI everyone,

I've been having a lovely arty-farty catch-up this Bank Holiday weekend. Here's my page inspired by a lesson with the wonderful Clair Bremner for Week 7 of Wanderlust 2017 ...

Clair uses acrylic paints to create the most beautiful, tranquil, fantastical landscapes. I was fascinated to watch her work - her skill with paintbrushes was so impressive. She made it look so easy to paint different shapes of leaves with round brushes; she used huge household brushes to apply paint, adding lots of water and allowing it to run down the page over the previous layers; then she used really small brushes to add tiny repeating patterns over the top.

Big Eden Adventure

Hello Bloggy Friends,

There's a new challenge every month on the GoGoGetaway Facebook page - with a chance to win the monthly prize and an entry in the big draw for a place at one of next year's events. This month we had a colour challenge, set by the lovely Nancy Sinclair from the GoGo design team ...

 Gorgeous colour combo, here's my take on it, with some green thrown in to the mix as well, The photo shows my niece Alice and great-niece Leila at the Eden Project in Cornwall last summer ...

My design was inspired by lovely Elsie who I've been watching on YouTube recently. Elsie has such a unique style - lots of white space; light, fresh colours; hand-drawn, hand-cut, paper-pieced elements and ALWAYS some hand-stitching - the stitched clouds are one of her trademarks. They took me ages to do, but I love the look of them.

The bunting, arrow, signpost and sunshine were also hand-drawn and cut from patterned papers, then I did a lot of doodling with my Micron 02 black pen. most of the papers and some of the embellies came from my latest Quirky Kits, but I also mixed in some older stuff - part of my stash-busting policy! :o)

Thanks for having a look at my bog today, see you again soon. Hope you're having a happy and creative day wherever you are.

Annie xxx

Boxing Clever

Hey everyone,

There will be a little flurry of posts today as I've been catching up over this lovely long Bank Holiday weekend. I'm actually glad the weather isn't great, because it's actually perfect for arty-farting! :o)

I've been finishing off my projects from the recent Ministry of Mixology weekend. Here's the very clever little box-disguised-as-a-book which we made in the wonderful France Papillon's class ...

It was brilliant fun playing with all the beautiful Decoart paints and media to create this aged crackled effect. France showed us how to use paints and glazing medium to age some diary paper and cambric, we hand-cut stencils from watercolour paper, then we built up layers with crackle and modelling pastes. The heart was painted with fluid acrylic and finished with a tiny word sticker. 

But the really clever part was in the design of the box, which was designed to hold three ink pads. When you untie it and pull on the top string, the contents pop out automatically, so cool!! I found it is a perfect fit for my ATC swaps ...

The chipboard pieces for this project all came in a kit from Tando Creative - it was only £2.50, so I bought another one to have a play with :o) 

Thanks for popping in to see me today, see you again very soon!

Annie xxx

Catching My Tail

Hi everyone,

Long time no blog! It's a lovely long Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, so guess what I've been doing!? Yup - arty-farting for three days straight :o)

I've finally finished some of my projects from the recent MInistry of Mixology event in Coventry. Here's the ARt Box I made in the class with the brilliant Kate Crane ...

This will be a fun way to store some of my mixed media experiments. Here's a closer look at the tags I made in Kate's class ...

We had so much fun using brayers, stencils and stamps to build up colourful layers for the background, then adding our painted chipboard pieces and doodling with paint pens to add detail.

The pieces for the box, tags and decorative shapes all came in one kit from Tando Creative. 

In the evening, there were lots of "make-and-takes" - one of these also featured tags ...

The beautiful spiral design here is the Fossil stencil by Andy Skinner. Modelling paste was applied through the stencil, then layers of colour and pattern were added with more stencils. Finally, we were supposed to swipe over with black paint to reveal the fossil pattern ... well, I was a little heavy-handed and more-or-less obliterated my gorgeous background layers. The teacher felt sorry for me and gave me hers to bring home. Embarrassing! So, this week I painted over my mistake and had another go, and I'm really happy with them now :o)

Thanks for checking out my doings today, see you again very soon! :o)

Annie xxx

WOYWW #410 - Playing Away!!

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Friends,

I've been Otherwise Occupied for a couple of weeks, so I've missed WOYWW and blimey we're on #410!!! Not sure if my friend Zsuzsa from InkyDinkyDoodle will be about to link up for me, but if not I'll do it later, no worries. If you would like to show the world What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and join in, everyone's welcome.

My desk hasn't seen much action over the last couple of weeks, because I've been off on creative jollies, playing with new friends and messing up different workdesks for a change :o)

Last weekend, I was getting creative in Coventry at the Ministry of Mixology event ...

Here we are in Kate Crane's class on Sunday, which ended up getting very messy indeed but was such a lot of fun. We also had a class with France Papillon on Saturday, which I thoroughly enjoyed - what a great opportunity, to learn from two of my artyfarty heroes!!

Messy Playtime and Nice Crackage

Hi Everyone,

I've just returned from the Ministry of Mixology event at Coventry over the weekend and what a marvellous time I had. A lovely group of ladies "adopted" me when we all arrived on Friday evening, and I enjoyed the weekend so much more for being in their company. Thank you Denyse, Sue, Andree and Caroline, looking forward to meeting you all again next time! Here we all are in class on the Sunday morning ...

Two of my mixed-media heroes, France Papillon and Kate Crane, were teaching the main classes, plus there were make-and-takes, and lots of temptation in the form of the Tando Creative shop and a constant supply of food ... and as the great Oscar Wilde once said, "I can resist anything but temptation." :o)

Strike a Pose!

Hi Everyone,

I have another class layout from Go Go Getaway to show you. This one's a double spread from a class called "Blocked Out" with the talented Niki, one of the Go Go Girls.

Niki showed us how to create beautiful and unique embellishments by using paint and glitter to decorate laser-cut wood shapes. It was so satisfying, I will definitely be trying it again.

Here's my finished double-page spread ...

The wood pieces look so much better IRL. We used tape to mask off part of each shape, then applied the gorgeous Starlights paints. After allowing them to dry, we added a line of very fine glitter to some of them. I could have sat and done that all day - I also glittered my hair, my jeans, the floor around me and my friend Trina sitting next to me :o)

The photos were matted on little stacks of pp, and then we did some "futty-cussing" to add fun details and finally those gorgeous Thickers to create the title.

Oh and those gorgeous lovelies in the photos?? My niece Bex and her Mum, my sister Sarah - I think this playful page reflects the fun they always have together.

Thanks for visiting me today, see you again soon.

Annie xxx

Visiting Eden

Hello Everyone,

Today I've been tinkering with some of the pages I made at Go Go Getaway last weekend - I'm not the fastest scrapper in the world and I always find I need to finish things off at home.

The first one I have to show you was from a class called Colour, Colour with lovely Giselle from the Go Go team, who showed us how to use Gelatos, metallic pencils and fine black ink pens to create interesting backgrounds for our pages.

We worked with a palette of greens, golds and soft blues and used a Micron pen to doodle Zentangle-style patterns. Then we chopped the finished piece into 2" squares and mixed these with patterned papers to form a grid design ...

These pictures show my little great-nephew and great-niece at the Eden Project in Cornwall last summer. I love how the colours and shapes we used in this class echo the lush foliage, blue sky and the sections of the huge glass dome above them.

As a final touch, we did a lot of "futty-cussing" from patterned papers to embellish the page however we liked. Of course, I got a bit carried away, but you have to make it your own don't you? :o)

Thanks for stopping by today, see you again soon!

Annie xxx

Inking It Up

Hello Everyone,

The very first class Trina and I did at Go Go Getaway last weekend was with the fabulous Lorraine, who showed us how to use Indian Ink in a waterbrush to create a beautiful hand-lettered title for our page. We were provided with the lettering already traced out onto thebackground paper, so it was easy to fill it in and I really enjoyed the process.

Here's my finished page, showing a photo of my sweet step-granddaughter, Macy ...

We also did lots of fussy-cutting (now forever "futty-cussing" in my mind!) from the papers in the kit to embellish the page and then bravely splatted ink about, before finish with enamel dots, the flair and a little pineapple charm - I hung mine from the "O".

The little hearts were supposed to be stitched down the centre, but I ran out of time - I will go back and finish that as it looked really cute. And the letters look a bit patchy now, so I will maybe touch those up a bit and then write some journaling around the edge of the page.

This weekend coming I am off on ANOTHER jolly !!! This time it's Ministry of Mixology in Coventry to spend the weekend learning from three of my mixed media heroes - Kate Crane, France Papillon and Andy Skinner. I expect I'll have lots to tell you about it next week :o)

Thanks for checking out my blog today, see you again soon!

Annie xxx

Scrapping After Hours

Hi everyone,

As well as the four classes we'd chosen to do over the Go Go Getaway weekend, there was a wonderful bonus class on the Saturday evening, with the lovely Jo Boland. We were given some beautiful papers, along with co-ordinating puffy stickers and ephemera pack to play with - plenty to make the two pages and have some leftovers.

Jo's pages were gorgeous, but of course we all put our own spin on things, as you do. Here are my finished pages. This first one shows my great-nephew, Logan, during a contemplative moment ...

And the next one shows my niece, Alice, and my great-niece, Leila, playing with their home-made sock-puppets ...

I still need to do my journalling on all the pages I made at Go Go - I find I can't journal in a hurry, I need to sit down quietly at home and think about what I want to say, so I will come back to that later.

Thanks for popping by today, see you again very soon :o)

Annie xxx

Rising to the Challenge!

Hi Everyone,

Well,I haven't made time for any scrapping since we got back from Go Go Getaway last weekend, but I wanted to show you my last two challenge pages - the ones I completed between classes over the course of the weekend. These were both colour scheme challenges.

First one shows a lovely photo of my sister Mandy with her little newborn granddaughter Leila ...

Home, Home, Home Again!

Hi everyone,

We just had the most amazing and inspiring time at GoGo Getaway at Theobolds Park in beautiful Hertfordshire. The whole weekend was filled with fun, friendship and food! We got to play with pretty things all day and learn new techniques and different ways to use our stash - and there was the Hey Little Magpie shop, just in case we neeeeeeeded more lovely stuff!! :D

Trina and I had been looking forward to this for so long, and it lived up to all our expectations. Here we are waiting for kick-off ...

I'll show some of the class layouts in a separate post, but here's the very last page I made, showing a group photo which was taken outside in the sunshine on Sunday morning. The Go Go Girls printed off a copy for each of us and provided a kit with everything we needed to make a beautiful page to remember the weekend by ...

My Fave!

HI everyone,

Quickly, quickly, just got time to post my last pre-retreat challenge page before my scrappy mate Trina arrives and we're off to Herts for GoGo Getaway woooHOOOOOO!!!

I was inspired by this fabulous mood board for March by Terri-Ann Morris ...

The photo is of my MIL, DH and me on our wedding day in August 2011 (yes, still scrapping the photos!) ...

The colour scheme came from the mood board, but I added a sprinkle of gold for good measure. For the challenge I also included a bird, frames, roses and butterflies. Again, this was a mix of new stuff from Quirky Kits and some quite old stash. I love those acetate butterflies which come on a sheet to cut out. Got them from Every Crafts A Pound (link on my side bar) - guess how much they were?!

Right, I need to double-check my list - we're off in twenty minutes :D

Thanks for checking out my blog today, see you again soon!

Annie xxx

So Sweet

Hi Everyone,

Three sleeps to go until my scrappy mate Trina and I head off for Go Go Getaway on Friday. Regular bloggy friends will know I've been warming up with lots of pre-retreat challenges and I've really enjoyed getting back into scrapping again.

Here's my latest effort, inspired by Nancy's beautiful mood board this time and showing a sweet picture of my niece Bex taken about fifteen years ago when we went out for lunch one day ...

From the mood board, I pulled the delicious colour scheme of raspberry, sugar mouse pink, black, white and a dash of gold. Also sweethearts, sprinkles, iced doughnuts, circles, watercolour and drippage.

There are a few DIY elements on my page - the bunting, the striped arrow, the cork heart sticker and the picture wheel and my fave is the iced doughnut, which was made using circle punches and decorated with Liquid Pearl "sprinkles". I did a bit of doodling and created some fun embellishments by fussy-cutting images from patterned paper and popping them up with foam dots.

I have one page left to finish off before we Go-Go and then I'll take the last two kits with me to do between classes - or bring home with me probably! :o)

Thanks for popping in today, have a fabulously creative week wherever you are and whatever you're up to.

Annie xxx

Pig Tales

Hi Everyone,

Still getting ready for Go Go Getaway (only five sleeps to go!) - today I managed to find photos for all the classes I'll be doing AND a few spares. Also made a list of everything else I need to take with me, promised myself not to try and take my entire craft room this time.

I made another challenge page as well. This one was inspired by Lorraine's mood board ...

The photo shows my two boys over thirty years ago, when they were around three and four years old, also my old friends Beverley, Carol and Christine. Carol had invited us to visit her farm for the day and they loved it - except for the pigs, which smelled so bad that Richard cried and refused to breathe until I took him outside again!!

Again, I've used a mix of new bits from my latest Quirky Kit, as well as older stuff from my stash - some of it really quie ancient - but not as old as this photo :o)

This fab sketch from Laura Whitaker was a great starting point, although of course I added a few tweaks ...

The mood board gave me this gently colourful colour palette, which I thought worked really well with the old photo. It also inspired me to use layers, wood, feathers, flowers, something suspended, triangles and twine.

I've done one more page today and I have three kits left - maybe I'll do one more before we go and take the last two kits with me to do between classes. SO excited now, can you tell?!? :o)

Thanks for checking out my blog today, see you again soon.

Annie xxx

Little Star

Hi everyone,

WELL!! I have scrapped more in the past ten days than I have in the past ten months and I'm loving it!! This is another warm-up challenge for GoGoGetaway (which is less than a week away now wooohooooooo!!!!). It was a sketch challenge and again I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share the sketch or not, so I'd better not just in case. But I CAN share my page ...

So, we had a sketchby Sarah to follow, but we had free reign on everything else. I decided to take my inspiration from this lovely pic of my DH with little grandson Finley when he was brand new, just over two years ago now.

I wanted to page to be warm and cuddly, but with a masculine feel, so I used wood, fabric and a little touch of metal, and lots of stars to echo the title. The wood patterned paper framing the page is from a recent Quirky Kit, but other than that I used some really old supplies, and I made good use of some of my dies ...

• The word STAR and two of the larger stars are die-cut from an ancient roll of sticky-backed felt.
• The paint splats were die-cut from some elderly yellow vellum.
• The movie wheel is one of my favourite dies, this time with yellow vellum window

WOYWW #406 - scrapping scrapping scrapping!!

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Friends,

I'm scheduling this to post itself tomorrow whilst I'm at work - hopefully the lovely Zsuzsa from Inky Dinky Doodle will link me up over at Julia's Stamping Ground and I'll pop over later to catch up with everyone. All welcome - why not join in, show us What's On Your Workdesk this Wednesday and have a good old snoop around some fascinating creative spaces all over the world.

Here's my, not-so-fascinating workdesk as it was this afternoon ...

... I've been in a bit of a scrapping frenzy this last week or so, having a go at multiple challenges in the run-up to Go Go Getaway in a couple of weeks woooHOOO!! Been looking forward to it for SO long, but realised that I've been so obsessed with mixed media and miniatures recently that my scrapping muscles needed a serious work-out. So all other arty-farty pursuits have been shoved to one side in favour of scrapping over the last couple of weeks. Above you can see my latest effort in the throes of being thrown together.

Ironically, you can also see my habitual black coffee just six inches away from my melatonin gellies - which I take at night because I have trouble sleeping .... :o)

Thanks for popping in to see me today, I'll catch up with all my visitors over the next couple of days - it may take me until the weekend but I will get there eventually and see what everyone's been up to!

See you at Julia's :o)

Annie xx

Giggles to GoGo!!

Hey everyone,

Here's ANOTHER one of my warm-up pages for GoGo Getaway in a couple of weeks. This time the challenge was to be inspired by these five elements devised by Terri -

• Multiple photos
• Patterned papers
• Flair
• Luggage Tag
• Enamel dots

Sorry about the rubbish photo, the light is really dreary here in my part of the UK today and the picture's come out really dull. I found a fabulous sketch by Susan Stringfellow for this one -

It really helps to have a sketch to kick me off in the right direction - usually I go off-piste quite a bit, but this time I followed it fairly closely and it all came together really easily. 

Part of the challenge was to use at least three patterned papers - this was HUGE fun!! I used TEN in the end, can you believe it??!!?