ArtyFartyAnnie

These two very different pages were both inspired by the same layout - it was the one by Mahlin Wiggur which was featured on the front cover of the first issue of  Scrap365  - I loved it and will probably do several more versions of it in the future This first one shows my Mum when she was about 14 - I love it because she looks so happy and full of hope with all her life ahead of her. x You can see I've used one of those bargain PG Tips cards(see a previous post), some of the end of my Quirky Kit (new one due any minute!), lots of washi tape (which I am SO into now), and I've stamped musical score and flourishes which I've highlighted with Ruby Red Liquid Pearls. The photo (NOT the original) was coloured with Distress Inks using a Cut-n-Dry Nib And this next one shows my elder son, Richard, at about 10 months old - he was such a lovable little chap, he had just found his feet and was into everything - but especially fascinated by the washing machine! x I've stampe...

I love this picture of my niece Georgia really getting into an ice cream on a hot summer day in Cornwall. This page is my solution to Case File #29 over at  CSI Here is the Case File, with the Scheme, Evidence and Testimony all inspired by the Scene We had to use all 5 of the colours in the Scheme, then at least 2 pieces of Evidence ( I used stripes, rolled paper, labels, angles, stuff in a pocket) and at least one item from Testimony ( I told a summer story and put it in a semi-transparent glassine envelope). As usual, the CSI Coordinates were fab - I printed them off on glossy paper and will save the leftovers for future pages. The scan is a bit rubbish, so I've also taken some close-ups to show detail

This is my solution for CSI Case #28 We had 5 colours which had to be used - vanilla, butter pecan, choc chip, taupe and strawberry syrup. I used several of the pieces of evidence - circles, metal, robots, something upside down, eyelets.  We also had to pick up one piece of testimony - I decided to use a circle journalling spot. The "CSI Coordinates" were brilliant again - especially all the little robots - how cute?! Can't believe Tom is 29 this year, Rowan is a father of two gorgeous kids and I'm very proud of both of them. annie x

It's Week Six of the Summer of Colour challenge over at  Twinkle,Twinkle  and I can't believe it's nearly over - it's been so much fun and so inspiring to see the amazing pieces of art that everyone has come up with. This week's colour prompt was Watermelon Ice - gorgeous mouthwatering red with little chips of dark chocolate for the seeds And this is my effort Summer of Colour is all about "celebrating art in all its hues", so I decided to make a series of 6 ATCs, each one a reflection on what art means to me and why my arty-farty endeavours are such an important part of my life. Then I made a little fold-up book to put them all in - one side is a rainbow spelling out Summer of Colour and the other side was given 3 coats of gesso and then painted, inked and distressed to make a background that would set off all six ATCs with their very different colour combinations. It didn't really come out quite as I'd hoped, but I had SUCH a lot of fun pl...

This is my first attempt at one of the inspirational challenges over at  CSI  - just finished it in the nick of time and the scan is rubbish but I don't have time to do another one! Really enjoyed the challenge though - in order to solve Case 27, you had follow these instructions - use all 5 specified colours (chartreuse, sky blue, teal, yellow and dark chocolate) choose 2 items of "Evidence" (these are elements such as woodland animals, leaves) choose 1 item of "Testimony" (these are inspiration for your journalling, such as rhyming) They even provide free printable "CSI Co-ordinates" (images, words and journalling spots as well as several sheets of patterned paper). I decided to use mainly these freebies, adding just a sheet of white cardstock, the alphas and a few embellishments. Case 28 has already been revealed - can't wait to investigate!

... I just can't get enough of it! This is a special birthday card as it's for my husband's birthday - he has quite a collection of them now and I think it's really sweet that he keeps them all on the top shelf of his wardrobe. xxx This month's challenge at  S J Crafts  is to use a red/white/blue colour combo so I'm going over there next to see what everyone else has come up with ... there just aren't enough hours in the day!

I really want to have a go at solving my first case  on CSI - but can I make enough time between now and the deadline (11:59 EST on Sunday)? I've studied the colour codes, evidence and testimony,made notes and printed off the co-ordinates (can't believe you get all that gorgeousness for nothing!) Here's a peek - pop over to CSI and have a look for yourself (click on the wotsit on the right hand side of your screen)

Just ave a look at this  a mazing piece of art!  Wow!!! I don't know what else to say ....

A few months ago, John brought home some manky-looking old potatoes which he had found in his Mum's larder - he thought maybe we could see if they would grow. Well, they didn't look very promising - little knobby brown creatures with long shoots already feeling their way out of the plastic bag they were hiding in - but I didn't have the heart to throw them away. So I left them languishing in the shed for a few more weeks and some time in April I finally put some in the veg patch - just dug some holes, threw them in and covered them with earth. They've been watered along with everything else, but that's it, so we didn't have any great expectations, but they've grown into sturdy leafy plants despite our neglect. A few days ago, we decided to dig one up, just to see if there was anything down there .... and LOOK what we found, just from one plant! Amazing! and delicious .... we'll definitely do that again next year, maybe in a slightly more organised...

Trina and I had such a Fab time at the Hobbycraft Show and meeting Crafty Bob was one of the highlights of the day... I think Crafty Bob could tell that I was a bit star struck and that's why I got the extra BIG HUG! This page was inspired by the Simple Recipe for July at  UKScrappers . This month, Leo from  Quirky Kits  challenged us to use 3 colours - Rusty Red, Happy Yellow and Cloudy Grey. We were also to use Washi Tape, Sequins and something from our kitchen cupboards! I loved working with this colour combo and I've managed to include all the other elements. Here's a bottle cap (squished in my Cuttlebug and finished with a stamped paper scrap) which almost counts as a kitchen item. You can also the edge of a free printable bingo card from  Scrap365  and the Amy Tangerine alphas which I inked for contrast against the yellow. Here you can see the golden star sequins (which fit right in to my story), some of the washi tape and a couple more kitchen i...

Hey guess WHAT!? I got a FABulous parcel from Jennifer at Jennifer's Jumbles  this morning - last weekend she held an Organisation Celebration. It was lots of fun and very informative AND there lots of giveaways to enter. One of the posts was a tutorial on how to make a pen pot from a vintage book and I entered for a chance to win the chipboard and vintage book to make a pen pot of my own. Anyway, I received the package today and Jennifer had put loads of extra stuff in - LOOK at this! So much gorgeousness - the little book is so cute and there are loads of picture pages inside too, look at all the pretty papers and embellishments too and I can't wait to have a go with the Paintable paper... It was so beautifully packed up as well, in pale blue tissue with a lovely little tag (both of which will be recycled of course!) I'm thrilled to bits - thanks very much Jennifer !

Week 5 of the Summer of Color Challenge already - "celebrating art in all its hues" with a new colour inspiration from Kristin every week,  each based on a different weird and wonderful flavour of iccream - have a look for yourself at all the amazing pieces of art over at  Twinkle, twinkle This week's inspiring combo was Wild 'n' Reckless Sherbet! Wow!!! And here is my interpretation - I've been doing ATCs (my first foray into the world of tiny artwork) - don't have much time this week, so bit of a rush job, but LOVED playing with these colours! I really MUST try to improve on my photography....anyway, the background for these was done by squirting pearlescent glues onto white card, then squidging together with another piece of card, peeling them apart and leaving to dry before adding the other bits and bobs. These glues make a lovely pearly sheen, which is a pretty effect in real life, but maybe doesn't photograph very well. Still, you get t...

Last weekend I joined the bloghop at  Jennifer's Jumbles  Organisation Celebration. It was my first ever bloghop - I had lots of fun and it really got me thinking about how I could better organise things to make life better/easier and create more time for the nicer bits! One of the many ideas I decided to try is to have a massive cooking session on Saturdays and freeze meals for the rest of the week, so I don't have to spend an hour every evening cooking dinner from scratch. I went and bought some cheap plastic food tubs, dug out some sticky labels from the back of a drawer and worked out a week's worth of meals, including packed lunches and snacks. The shopping has been ordered online, so no trawling around the supermarket, and best of all, my husband has offered to do the rest of the housework whilst I am doing the big cooking session - BONUS! :) All of this should save loads of  time, which I will now be able to spend relaxing with aforementioned husband or doing...

Here's my tag for the July  Tags of 2012  inspired by the amazing Tim Holtz. This month Tim came up with yet another gorgeous tag full of ideas and clever techniques - I don't know how he keeps coming up with new ideas all the time! I had to improvise quite a bit ... Tim created brilliant "splats" by dripping alcohol inks onto glossy cardstock and then blasting with a can of air and then he stamped onto this with archival ink. Not having any glossy cardstock or canned air, I improvised by dropping my alcohol inks onto acetate and then I blasting it with a used-up asthma inhaler! (no drugs left in it, but still has "puff"). The image was stamped onto white card with the acetate as an overlay. Then I added lots of other bits and pieces, including one of the many union jack beer bottle tops which my husband has gallantly collected for me! It's well worth a visit to the Tim Holtz blog to see how it should be done :)

I've been really REALLY enjoying the Summer of Color challenge over at  Twinkle, twinkle  - each week, Kristin gives us a new colour prompt based on a flavour of icecream and the idea is to make a piece of art inspired by those colours. It can be anything, but I decided to have a go at ATCs. There are some amazing pieces of work to see - pop over and have a look (or even join in - it's all calorie free!) This was Week One - Rainbow Sherbet   Week Two - Mint Choc Chip Week Three - Baseball Nut Week Four - Strawberry Lemonade Punch And how about THIS for an icecream flavour?! - Wild 'n' Reckless Sherbet!!! I've been working on a little booklet to put all six ATCs in at the end - I'm aiming for a sort of rainbow effect ...

Hi everyone - Happy WOYWW! If you don't know what it's all about have a look at Julia's blog  Stamping Ground  (or click on the WOYWW blinkie on the right) - where we all get to have a nosey at each other's workdesks and stuff. Here's mine as of this morning This has been a very busy desk over the last few days and this is definitely the tidiest part of the room - which seems to be shrinking (which is weird, because that's happened to my summer clothes again too!) I tried to take pictures of the chaos all around this little space, but they came out all blurry - I will try again next week as I suspect nothing much will have changed in terms of stuff and mess. What you can see on my cutting mat is the beginnings of a little book I'm making to put my Summer of Colour creations in at the end of the six weeks. I've really enjoyed playing with Kristin's colour combinations and you should see THIS week's! Have a look over on  Twinkle,twinkle  or c...

I'm really enjoying the Summer of Color challenge over at  Twinkle Twinkle  - each week, Kristin gives us a colour inspiration based on an icecream flavour and this week it was Strawberry Lemonade Punch Yummy strawberry pink with zingy lemon yellow. The challenge is to produce any piece of art inspired by these colours. Here's my interpretation My plan is to do an ATC every week and then at the end of the 6 weeks they will all go into a mini book. I've already started work on the book - bit of a rainbow theme going on. Here are a couple of close ups (I'm trying really hard to improve on my photography skills) A piece of ratafia wrapper was adhered to one card, then I swirled crackle effect modelling paste by Pebeo on to both cards and added tiny chips of yellow card. Glossy Accents were added to the yellow chips, then everything was left to dry overnight . Next morning, I used stencil brushes to add Worn Lipstick Distress Ink over the whole thing and Wal...

We had a lovely time in Suffolk, but I always love to come home and the first thing I did was to check on the garden - there was very little rain whilst we were away, but I needn't have worried as everything was fine and our green babies had survived very well without us. I picked a lovely big bowlful of strawberries which we had for tea No, that isn't a disaster, but this is We accept that we lose about half our crop to the birds, squirrels, slugs, mice and other tiny visitors who share our garden, but to see them just rotting like that was heartbreaking. I can only think that it might be because of the glass frames we put over them in a sort of lean-to arrangement, to try to keep the birds off a bit, so we've taken them off now and we'll see what happens... The good ones are VERY good though! May even have a go at some jam :)

We've just come home from a lovely peaceful (and sunshiney!) few days in beautiful Constable Country Here's me in Suffolk ... ... and John in Essex! No, we weren't on separate holidays - but we stayed in Cavendish, which is very close to the border between the two counties, so we were able to have a little stroll from Suffolk to Essex and back before dinner on our first evening. There were so many roses everywhere we went - I've never seen so many and the air was full of their fragrance. Look at this delicious colour combination we passed on the walk to Essex We saw so many beautiful chocolate box buildings - here's another one we walked past that evening There were also LOTS of interesting opportunites for retail therapy - here's my haul The wooden display case was only £3 in a fantastic four storey antique/memorabilia store at Clare, where I also found the Victorian style paper scraps for £1, the length of previously loved net £1 and MY FAVOU...