ArtyFartyAnnie

... and her fabulous Ruby Slippers! Here's my tag for Tag Tuesday - we're on the letter D this week, so I decided to play with some more Graphic 45 paper (just a little bit as I have plans for the rest of my Wizard of Oz collection papers). Here she is I stamped my tag with a newsprint background first, then added the slippers advert, the chipboard alpha and the little Dorothy cutout. I used Distress Inks to tint the edges of the tag and colour the cutout and the alpha, then used some Ruby Red Stickles on the slippers and finally added a gingham ribbon to match Dorothy's pinafore. You might be able to see a bit better in this picture ... Whole thing only took twenty minutes or so - tags are such a fun way to just have a little playtime... Check out all the other ideas for the letter D over at Tag Tuesday  - they're brilliant! Cheerio for now :o)

In 2012, the amazing Tim Holtz designed a fabulous tag for each month and posted a brilliant tutorial to go with it. I had so much fun following along so I'm really chuffed that he's going to do it again this year! I learn something new every time I have a go at one of these, even though I usually have to improvise quite a bit as I don't have all the TH stuff I'd like to have - yet! Here's my version of the January tag - check out the link above to see Tim's proper one! Here are a couple of close ups If you follow the links at the bottom of Tim's tutorial  you can see all the other tags which have been inspired by it - SO many really fantastic little works of art. TFL :o)

I've made myself a promise to follow the Simple Recipes challenge over at UKScrappers this year. Each month, the challenge will be set by Leo from Crafty Templates (where I get my fab Quirky Kits from) - we will be given three colours, certain elements to include in the design and a sketch to follow if we want to (and I usually do). The idea is to go "shopping" in your own stash and actually use it! There is a PDF to download which gives you all the details plus sample kits and pages for inspiration. Anyway, here's my page for the January challenge How cute does Rich look here?! My eldest, here about two years old, enjoying his first ever snow - this much snow in Cornwall was a Very Big Deal! The colours were Steely Grey, Waxed Lemon and Deep Navy - they haven't come out too well in this photo but I promise they're there! We were also to include the following elements - Song title or lyrics Paint Tag Here are some close ups - He really do...

Here's a little card I made for a work colleague who's retiring soon. She loves pigs - all kinds of pigs - so I thought I'd use this one from the gorgeous Graphic 45 'Olde Curiosity Shoppe' collection. I love doing this diamond fold design - it's so easy and it only uses a 4" x 12" strip of card, which you then cover with pp of your choice. If you want to have a go at one, just type "diamond fold card tutorial" into the You Tube search box - there are loads of tutorials on there. I also made a matching envelope, created a little piggy stamp from pieces cut from the Graphic 45 pp and stamped a postmark (two from a Kanban set I think). I've used Distress Inks on the envelope and all the cut pieces "Mowed Lawn", "Peacock Feathers" and "Black Soot". This picture shows the structure of the diamond fold card. The grid paper is from another G45 collection "ABC Primer" - it's really hand...

Well, after a lot of unexpected drama one way and another this week, I only just got Case File #54 finished in time to post on CSI - I really wanted to have a go at this one as I love the colours and also the sketch from Emma Stafrace . Here's the Case File (you can click on it to enlarge the image) As you can see, the Scene is the image which has inspired the Case File this week. In order to solve the case, you must use all the colours in the Scheme, at least 2 pieces of Evidence and 1 piece of Testimony. Also there will now be a sketch from Emma Stafrace on the second week of each month. To see more of Emma's fab sketches, have a look at her sketch blog Page Drafts . Each week you will find a new set of CSI Coordinates to help you solve the case - these are free printable papers and decorative elements designed by the amazing Michele Singh So, this is my solution to this week's Case File My stepgrandson Bailey was SO excited about his first day at school. ...

This week at Tag Tuesday is all about the letter B - which I thought was an excellent excuse to Bring out this Beautiful Beetles  stamp again! Aren't Bugs   Brilliant ?! I am happy to say that another one of those hideous coasters has a new purpose in life as the base of this tag. This is what I did to it: I stamped the image twice - then I cut the first one to fit the coaster, glued it down and sanded the edge.  I carefully cut the beetle bodies out of the second image and stuck them over the first one with repositionable glue. This meant that they would work as little masks which could be removed later.  Then I used Distress Inks in "Shaded Lilac", "Scattered Straw" and "Mowed Lawn" to colour the background, finishing with "Black Soot" around the edge.  I really enjoyed removing the masks to reveal the plain stamped image underneath.  Each bug was then coloured in with Wispa pens and I added Glossy Accents to the bodies for dept...

At this time of year I usually leave for work just as it's getting light and don't get home until it's dark again, but today I have the afternoon off. I came out of the Hospital about an hour ago to find that the whole world looked like a giant Snow Globe - it was so beautiful!!! The snow was all new and soft and powdery and made that lovely squeaky sound as I walked through it. My coat and scarf collected the snow as I went so by the time I got home I looked like a short squat Abominable Snowman!  How lucky we are to have a warm safe place to come home to ... I just had to grab the camera and take a picture from our doorway ... Ok, so tomorrow it may have turned into a mucky, treacherous ice rink, but today - it's just beautiful. It's stopped for now, the sun has come out, the sky is blue and everything is quiet ... ... and I'm inside in the warm looking out :o)

Hey everyone! Tut tut, it's been nearly a fortnight since I last posted - I've been working on a project which just HAD to be finished by today, so everything else has been on hold but IT'S DONE NOW! Phew - can't tell you about it just yet but it's very exciting ... watch this space! Anyway, back to the Apple (and I'm not talking about my iPod) - this year at Tag Tuesday Carolyn has challenged us to work through the alphabet, taking a new letter each week and letting it inspire us to create a tag. So I went with the first word that popped into my head for the letter "A" - APPLE! Here's my creation Tags are a great way to try out techniques, use up scraps, have a play with stuff that's been lurking in your workroom all unloved since the Middle Ages They're only small, so not too daunting and you can just have fun with it :o) Go on - you know you want to! This one only took about half an hour -  here's what I did - The ...

I have lots of ideas which I have promised myself I will try and turn into reality this STARTING NOW!! :o) #1 Organise my workroom - I am lucky enough to have the little spare room of our tiny cottage all to myself and it is stuffed to the gills with STASH. (that's my window, above the door there) These days, thanks to the inspiration of online challenges, I do make the most of all the stuff I've accumulated over the years, and it's sort of organised chaos in there but I can find most things quite quickly BUT I would love to get some proper shelving in there, display it all nicely, maybe even leave enough floor space for a camp bed which my sons can use when they come to stay ... well, that might be a tad ambitious but I like to aim high! #2 keep up with all the online and magazine challenges and continue to learn and be inspired by them (click on the tab at the top to see my challenges page) #3 Do something with my tags - I've had a great time making tag...