ArtyFartyAnnie

Hi Everyone, It's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - time to pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground where we all get together to have nosey at each other's creative spaces. This week, instead of taking a picture in the morning when my workdesk is (relatively) tidy, I thought I would take a photo when I've just finished a project and before I've tidied up ready for the next one - so I took this on Sunday evening ... ... just after I had trashed my whole workroom just to make one scrapbook page! And it gets worse if you look to the RH side ...

Hi Everyone, One of the best things about the wonderful summer we're having this year is that we've been able to sit outside for an hour or two after work most days - catching the breeze, watching the wildlife, doing the crossword and enjoying a nice chilled glass of something before dinner ... Here you can see some of the wildlife demonstrating the art of enjoying an ice cold limoncello (although trying to confuse matters by wearing his favourite Guinness shirt). Somehow, routine tasks like prepping vegetables or mending seem less of a chore if you do them outside in the sunshine ... ... and our little garden table also makes a handy worktable for some al fresco crafting ... This is a really cool idea I found whilst foraging on YouTube - it stops that annoying tangling thing that happens to your iPod earphones the second you put them down anywhere, and I think it looks really fun too. It's so easy to do and cost me nothing at all, because I used some e...

Hi everyone, I love the new Start to Finish Challenge over at the SJ Crafts blog - the idea is to Start with Sarah's basic layout, then Finish by adding photos and embellishments in whichever way takes your fancy. This was Sarah's layout at the  Start (click here to see how it ended up) ... I decided to use mainly papers from the Crate Paper Boys Rule collection. Here's how I Started , following Sarah's layout fairly closely, but without actually measuring anything ... This was a really liberating way to get started quickly, sticking the papers down without thinking about it too much. Three happy hours followed, adding layers and embellishments until I decided my page was Finished ... I love this striking photo of my son, taken by his Dad during one of their camping trips. Richard was a curious, thoughtful little boy - he often had an unusual way of looking at things and making sense of the world and I think this picture shows that aspect...

Hi Everyone, The six weeks of  Summer of Color 4 was another colourful rollercoaster full of fun and inspiration and it just flew by - I had a great time trying out all the delicious combinations the lovely Kristin came up with for us this year. Each week we had two colours to conjure with, plus a "smudge, splash or pop" of an accent colour. It was a great opportunity to practice with different media and techniques in my art journal pages and I also enjoyed a new experiment - Snail Art! Here is the final line-up of my Gorgeous Girls after their mixed media makeovers ... From right to left we have ... Week One  was the delectable Doris de Vine, resplendent in Aqua and Yellow stripes, wearing her heart on her sleeve and a dash of Hot Pink lipstick. Week Two was cool Coral Fandango, sporting a fun Teal and Coral outfit with White spots to match her eyes. Week Three was the lovely Lottie Lush, looking slinky in spangled Lavender and Grey wit...

Hi everyone, We have many wildlife visitors to our garden and we love to watch them all - squirrels, bats, hedgehogs, foxes, frogs, toads, the occasional muntjac and all sorts of birds - but this is one we don't see so often ...  ... a little grass snake, who clearly did not wish to star in my wildlife documentary! ps we don't usually have piles of cushions all over the lawn - I was cleaning the sitting-room :o) Annie x

Hi Everyone, Yesterday was one of the hottest days in the hot, HOT summer we are having here in the UK this year - so why did I spend half of it slaving over a hot stove in our tiny kitchen??? Sounds crazy I know, but it's also been a good year for damsons and John picked loads of them from this tree which grows in the grounds around where we live - you can see the clusters of ripe fruit if you look closely. Now, there's something about a glut of fruit or vegetables which brings out the old-fashioned housewife in me ... ... so I dug out my trusty old cookery books for some recipes to preserve these delicious beauties so that we can enjoy them through the winter ...

Hi Everyone, It's been a bit quiet on the scrapping front just lately, but I did finish the page I started at a Papermaze workshop last week, under the expert guidance of the lovely Lou Collins  who showed us lots of clever techniques and ideas for creating interest and texture on the page without using any ready made embellishments at all - brilliant! :o) Here's my page all done and dusted ... ... showing a picture of my younger son Tom taken over twenty years ago in Cornwall - probably somewhere like Trebah Garden , where this amazing plant used to grow. We used to call it "Giant Rhubarb" or "Donkey Rhubarb" but its real name is Gunnera and as you can see, it has these maHOOOSive leaves. When you're in amongst it, it feels like you've fallen into a set from "Land of the Giants"! Of course, more is always more with me and less is hardly ever enough, so I just couldn't resist a bit of tweaking and titivating once I got my pa...