ArtyFartyAnnie

I was so taken with the inspiration image for this week's Case File #91 over at CSI - it's really whimsical and quirky and right up my street :o) - you can click on the image to enlarge it. CSI Mastermind Debbi Tehrani comes up with a new Scene (inspiration image) for us to investigate every single week - I don't know how she does it! From this image she takes inspiration for colours, design elements and journaling. In order to solve the case, you need to make a scrapbook page using all these clues ... All 5 colours in the Scheme At least 2 items of Evidence At least 1 piece of Testimony Here's how I solved the Case this week (you can click on the image to enlarge it) ... The Scheme: all the colours are included, as well as neutrals and a couple of tiny splashes of brighter green and deeper yellow. The Evidence: wet medium; stripes; border punch; tearing; thought bubbles. The Testimony: My journaling is written inside thought bubbles and I used th...

This week at T ag Tuesday the theme was Egypt - such a HUGE scope that I couldn't decide which idea to go with, but in the end I chose to play with hieroglyphics ... After consulting with Professor Google, I had a go at some real hieroglyphs and developed a real respect for those scribes in Ancient Egypt! All I can say is thank goodness I didn't have to carve them in stone. Hopefully I haven't written "I'm a steaming cowpat" ... Vulture - mouth - loaf - two reeds  ... ARTY Horned viper - vulture - mouth - two reeds ... FARTY Vulture - water - two reeds ... ANNIE Loaf - vulture - pedestal ... TAG Then I added a few of my own - can you spot the tools of a tagger's trade? The eye was drawn freehand with PVA glue, then once it had dried to the tacky stage I covered it with gold leaf flakes. After brushing off the excess and giving the whole thing a good burnishing I was quite chuffed with the result. I finished the tag with a simple piece of ...

Here's a gorgeous picture of my little grand niece Leila - soooooo cute! The layout was inspired by a challenge from Liz Hocking at Soul Scrappers to create a page using packing materials - right up my alley!!! Here are some of the bits and bobs I used .... Front cover of a patterned paper pad, Starbucks coffee cup holder, various tags (including one made of grungeboard which came with a pack of grungeboard numbers), tissue paper, hanging display cards. The base was a sheet of bright pink cardstock, to which I added layers of gesso and tissue paper. From my stash - assorted inks,paints and multi medium matte, polka dot flower, vintage buttons, stamps, masks, Viva paper pens, butterfly punch, Dymo labeller. Thanks for coming, see you again soon ! :o)xxx

I'm such a berk - after scrabbling to finish my FrogDog September challenge just in time for the deadline, I went to upload it only to realise that the deadline was in fact yesterday doh! But never mind, I had a lovely time playing with neon colours in my art journal anyway ... The neon Smiley sticker has been lurking in my drawers for years, so it was great to finally put it to good use. Just realised looking at this picture that I forgot to use the gorgeously bright neon hole reinforcers which were also inmyt FrogDog kit .... I loved the neon pink ink and the contrast of neon colours against black and I really enjoyed using the Viva Paper Pens (I used the fine nib on the black one to do the writing and I think I will be using this a LOT). Thanks for popping in - see you again soon :o)xxx

WooHOOOO!!! If you've ever fancied being part of this really fun and friendly design team, now's your chance! Check out the details here   - there's still time, s why not give it a go? :o)

Case File #90 over at CSI is all cool, retro, nerdy - perfect for a picture of my son Tom and his mate Rowan doing what they did best 15 years ago - playing computer games with the curtains drawn to shut out the daylight :o) Here's that Case File (click on the image to enlarge it) Got to be quick today, but just briefly in case you haven't come across CSI before, the idea is to solve the case by creating a scrapbook page using all 5 colours in the scheme, at least two items from the evidence list and one from the testimony list. Here's how I did it (again you can click on the image to enlarge it) ... I used a brilliant sketch by Ali Parriss for Scrap365 - it was in the PDQ gallery and it really was PDQ - this page was done and dusted in well under an hour. So did I follow all the clues? The Scheme: all the colours are there The Evidence: stripes; tie something swhite space; two different alphabets; polka dots; something transparent; something that on...

Today I went off for a jolly with my scrappy mate Trina to the Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show at Alexandra Palace - we had a fab time and brought one or two little treats home with us .... Here's my haul ...   I had two things in mind - chicken wire and flowers! I found three kinds of chicken wire ... A 12x12 mask from TheCraftersWorkshop.com A die from cheerylynndesigns.com A stamp from inkylicious.co.uk And after scouring the whole place for reasonably priced flowers I found these ... ... from scarymarycards.com priced very reasonably from 90p - £1.50 a spray. Here's Trina's haul ... ... top RHS you can see a sheet of acetate butterflies just begging to be coloured with alcohol inks or sharpies and cut out to flutter across a scrapbook page ... After a couple of hours' serious shopping, we stopped for a break ... Trina ... also we had to eat the picnic to make space in the trolley for more shopping! ... please note t...

Hi there everyone, This week I've been dabbling with mixed media goodies from my FrogDog kits and using gorgeous images from Lunagirl . The current challenge at Lunagirl is "Belly Dancers" and Karen has put a selection of collage sheets which fit the theme on sale - I treated myself to two sheets of beautiful belly dancers AND one with all different kinds of wings. Well, they're very reasonable, especially at the sale prices, and the brilliant thing is that you can use them over and over again - so it would be rude not to, right?! Now, please bear in mind that I'm still very much a novice with this whole mixed media thing, so these didn't come out quite as I planned, but it's all part of the learning process so I'm going to share the (slightly disappointing) results anyway ..... can you tell that I'm stalling ...?! :o) I turned this horrible piece of rubbish which someone chucked in our garden bin ... ... into this whimsical piece of ...

Hi everyone, This week I have found another new place to play the 123 Challenge Blog . It's a really fun and simple concept - you are given a colour, a word and a technique and all you have to do is include all three of these criteria in a scrapbook page. Here is this week's - And without further ado, here is my page - Another cute little picture of one of my great-nieces, Kerrilouise, from about 6 years ago. She looks just like her Nanny looked at the same age, very sweet, so perfect for this theme :o) It was lots of fun splashing and stamping around to create a mixed media background on the plain white cardstock. I tried out some of the pens and inks from my latest FrogDog parcel, as well as gesso, crackle paste and some spray/inky stuff I mixed up myself and can't remember what I put in it! Couple of close-ups - Butterflies fussy cut from a Grace Taylor patterned paper pad Flowers from 13Arts, Crafty Cow and local Pound Shop I like to doodle ar...

The colours in Case File #89 over at CSI this week are bright but soft shades of peachy orange, buttery yellow, seafoam, celery and teal - a beautiful combination which I probably wouldn't have thought of, but really enjoyed working with. I also experimented with some of the goodies in my August Mixed Media Kit from FrogDog , got very messy, learned some stuff, covered up some booboos, carried on regardless and had a great time! Firstly, here's the Case File (click on the image to enlarge it) ... CSI Mastermind Debbi Tehrani has found another interesting Scene for us to look into this week. From this image, Debbi takes the colours , as well as inspiration for design elements and journaling prompts .  CSI = Color, Stories, Inspiration. In order to solve the case , you need to create a scrapbook page including all five colours in the scheme , at least two items from the evidence list and at least one from the testimony list. Every week, there is also a new s...

It's hard to believe that we were away for less than a week (two days in Bruges, three in Amsterdam) because we squeezed so much into the time that it just kind of streeeeeeeeetched .... so much to see and do - and eat and drink! Here is a tasteful little gift I treated myself to, some lovely squishily-soft cuddly clogs ... ... and the reason why one of them is empty in this picture ... ... oh dear! What a berk - on the last evening I managed to twist my ankle, which is now swelling nicely and developing a beautiful blue blush. Contrary to what you may be thinking, this was not due to any kind of drunken antics, but to a combination of cobbled streets, high heels and the fact that I was already walking in a slightly peculiar fashion due to my dodgy back - I'm now shuffling about like Quasimodo's slightly younger and less attractive sister ... tsk Still, it was well worth it - we had such a wonderful few days and I have LOADS of photos and stuff to Smash and Sc...

Not much arty farty action going on his week, because we're away on holiday with our good friends Trina and Chris. I've managed to take some pics with my iPad, tinker with them on my shiny new Snapspeed app and now I will attempt a continental blog post with the free blogger app which hopefully will make it all easy-easy. So, here is our beautiful room in Guesthouse Abiente in Bruges ...   Close up of that lovely welcome basket ... And the view from our window ... John unpacking (luckily we're both as OCD as each other and everything is unpacked and put in its place within thirty minutes of checking in) Here's the sitting room we shared with Chris and Trina ... We felt at home straightaway and fell in love with this beautiful city and its friendly people. We're now in  Amsterdam for three more days - SO much to see, and a huge pile of stuff to cram into my Smash book when I get home :o) See you back in Blighty! Xxx

... there was a tiny little boy called Tom . Many years ago, when he was only two months old, I took these pictures of him. I love them, because they really show his sweet nature. It's hard to believe that Tom will be 30 years old this October, but when I look at him now, I still see that cute little face ... Case File #88 over at CSI this week has a real retro feel to it, so I thought it would be perfect to scrap these photos. Here's the Case File (click on the image to enlarge it) Debbi Tehrani , CSI Mastermind, has found another intriguing Scene for us to investigate this week - from this inspiration image Debbi draws the colours, ideas for design elements and prompts for journaling. CSI = Color, Stories, Inspiration! In order to solve the Case, you need to create a scrapbook page using the following clues ... Use all five colours in the Scheme Use at least two items of Evidence Use at least one piece of Testimony There is also a new set of CSI Coordin...

Hi everyone, This brilliant idea came from Jules at  Paperhaus (they're celebrating the new Fall issue AND their first anniversary this week with lots of blog hops and giveaways - if you haven't already been you should check it out). Jules' tutorial is really clear - these can be made in minutes using scraps and leftovers. Easy but FABulous! Here's "one I made earlier" using some of my FrogDog goodies and a few bits and bobs from my stash ... The marbled background was made with alcohol inks and Ranger glossy cardstock and the butterfly was a Stampin'Up! stamp which I cut out and enhanced with Stickles. Here's the back, which shows the alcohol ink effect a bit better ... Such a pretty effect, I could play with it for hours - but this is meant to be a quick project! Let's open it up and have a peek inside ... The cardstock and patterned paper were from my offcuts drawer. The images and lettering were cut from an ArtChix ep...

wooHOO!!! Postie Nick just brought me my second ever Frog Dog parcel and it's stuffed full of FABulous :o) Who would believe so many goodies could fit into these two unassuming-looking bags?! I've been wanting to experiment more with mixed media for ages, so I decided to treat myself to a monthly Mixed Media Kit from Frog Dog and so far I'm thrilled to bits with them - Tina pulls together a fantastic collection of products and goodies to play with and the FrogDog Blog provides plenty of inspiration to get your mojo going. Here's my main August Mixed Media Kit ... There's an ephemera sheet, some vintage pages and cards, lots of  lovely patterned and inked wooden nautical shapes, beautiful buttons, gorgeous metal butterflies, quirky wooden windows, pretty rose trim, damask stencil, eco ATC shapes, 3D glitter paste, Inka Gold. Check out the FrogDog Shop for full details. Then I decided tha,t since you don't pay extra postage if you add...