ArtyFartyAnnie

For this week's Case File over at CSI I've scrapped a picture of my paternal Grandfather - a very handsome chap and a complete mystery to me. I can't believe we're on Case File #100!!! It's quite an unusual colour combination which I thought would be perfect for this wonderful vintage black and white photograph. Here is the Case File (click on the image to enlarge it so you can read the clues) CSI Mastermind Debbi Tehrani has come up with a very stylish and elegant Scene for us to investigate. From this image, she takes inspiration for design elements, techniques, journaling prompts and colour scheme. To solve the case, you have to create a scrapbook page following all of these clues: All 5 colours in the Scheme At least 2 pieces of Evidence At least 1 piece of Testimony Here is my solution (click on the image to enlarge it so you can check that I followed all the clues) I used a brilliant sketch by Emy Buxton for the Scrap365 Dec/Jan 2013 iss...

... Scrapbook Barn! I just got my first delivery from Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn and I am over the moon pleased with it - here's a picture ... O  M  G!!! I even love the gorgeous sparkly tissue it was wrapped in! This is the September Kit. I chose this one because I love the vibrant colours and chalkboard elements. Funky Farm kits are a bit different from other kits I've had because you don't have to sign up for one each month - you choose a kit you fancy whenever you like, then you can choose the basic"Bronze"  kit or you can go for the "Silver", "Gold", "Platinum" etc. to add more goodies and get more discount ... so it would have been rude not to go for the Platinum Plus, right?! Honestly, I have so many goodies in my workroom waiting to be played with - it's just a shame that the Elaaaaaaastic Day and the Time Machine I ordered haven't arrived yet! See you again soon :o)

Hi everyone, I love Tag Tuesday , but I've been a rubbish Tagger just lately, because there has just been so much else going on. However, I've given myself a stern talking to and have vowed that henceforth I shall pull my inky finger out and get on with it! So without further waffle, here is my tag for this week, on the theme of "Black and White" ... ... which started out as a collage of images stamped in black ink stamped onto white card, but this did not go well, so I decided to cover it up with loads of black and white pretties. I had a good rummage in my scraps drawer for oddments of ribbons and trims, which were adhered to the tag to create a background ... ... then I created a cluster of flowers and feathers using the amazing Golden Heavy Gel Medium (which I would hate to be without now that I have discovered it) and finished off with a butterfly sticker and some paper charms dangling from the bottom. There are some really brilliant takes on t...

Check out this amazing giveaway over at Keren Tamir's blog Keren is a very talented lady, as you probably already know because you will have seen her work all over the place!  Anyway, she's had a fabulous year - all her scrappy dreams have come true and it's so sweet of her to want to share her happiness with us all by offering not just one, not two, not even three ... but four prizes!!! This one is my favourite ... ... but I'd climb over hot coals for any of them. Is it really bad if you actually dribble whilst looking at scrapping goodies .... ??? Check it out - you have to be in it to win it as I always say! :o)xxx

Here's a page a made a couple of years ago, probably before I was blogging - I came across it today and thought it seemed kind of topical, as there has been so much talk this week about bracing ourselves for the worst winter since 1947 and three solid months of snow ... which is pretty unusual around these parts! This picture of my eldest son, Richard, was taken about 30 years ago, during the winter of 1984. At the time, we lived in Cornwall, where snow was such a rare phenomenon that Richard wasn't to see snow like this again for years! Now that I live in Norfolk, I'm used to much harder winters and snow is no big deal here. This is the scene from our front door one day last winter ... Brrrrrrr....... pretty though, isn't it?! Cheerio for now :o)xxx

Another inspiring challenge this month over at the 123 Challenge Blog. I love the whole idea of this challenge - each month, you're given a colour, a word and a technique and you have to include all three in a scrapbook page - simple but brilliant! Here's my page (you can click on the image to enlarge it if you like) ... You can see I've used the colour teal - combined with shades of orange, one of my favourite combinations - lots of stamping in the background and the word "Cool" is in my title and the journalling which is written all around the edge of the page. Here's a closer look ... I love this picture of my crazy old cat Archie (on the inside) and Gary the cat who lived next door. They were studiously ignoring each other, avoiding eye contact and trying to look cool. This was a Mexican stand-off situation which happened regularly, where neither of them could lose face by leaving, but neither was quite up to a fight either. Sometimes ...

... What Will You Be? Case File #99 over at CSI this week is an unusual combination of bright yet gentle colours which reminds me of late summer as it begins to transform into early autumn - picture green leaves just beginning to turn colour, set against a cool blue sky - aaaah, the changing seasons always have me waxing lyrical! Anyway ... here's the Case File (click on the image to enlarge it so you can read the Clues) Every week, CSI Mastermind Debbi Tehrani uncovers a new Scene for us to investigate. From this inspiration image, she takes five colours, ideas for design elements/techniques and prompts for journalling. CSI = Color, Stories, Inspiration. To solve the Case, you need to create a scrapbook page using all the clues: All five colours in the Scheme At least 2 pieces of Evidence At least one item of Testimony Here's how I did it ( you can click on the image to enlarge it and check that I followed all the clues) ... As soon as I saw the but...

This was a little project I put together back in the summer, playing with some of my FrogDog goodies. The whole mixed media/altered art thing is very new to me so I have a lot to learn, but the learning process is so much fun and there's loads of inspiration out there - a little wander through Blogland or a flick through YouTube will always get my mojo going. Here I was experimenting with different ways to give an aged look. I've started with a Maya Road bare chipboard box, covered it with scraps of paper (Stampin' Up!), then decorated it with vintage images cut from ephemera sheets. I've added plain chipboard numbers, then applied gesso, crackle medium, Distress Paints and Distress Inks to make them look worn and shabby. Inside the box are hidden a tiny matchbox and a little book made from Maya Road plain chipboard coasters. These have been decorated in the same way as the box. I plan to use this box to store snippets of memories and ephemera from w...

Last year, we had a wonderful day out in Thetford Forest in Norfolk, foraging for fungi amongst the fallen autumn leaves, under the expert guidance of Jonathan Revett . Here is a picture of Yours Truly, looking very proud of my Fungi Finds ! Foraging for wild food in the woods and hedgerows is something we did quite a bit of when I was a kid. When we moved from inner city London to live on a smallholding in a Devon village, one of the many things we learned to do was to gather all kinds of "free food" to supplement what we produced from the smallholding. We would be sent off to gather nettles, elderflowers, wild garlic, mushrooms, herbs, berries and nuts and Mum would turn these into wine, jams, pies, soups, pickles and herbal remedies. Some experiments didn't go so well - like the snails and the acorn coffee - but you have to try these things and my Mum was amazingly resourceful! I am so pleased that there seems to be a growing interest in reviving these lost s...

Case File 98 over at CSI this week is full of pretty colours and lots of fun ideas - perfect chance to scrap another snap of my gorgeous little Great-Niece Leila. Here's the Case File (click on the image to enlarge it) ... ... CSI Mastermind Debbi Tehrani finds a new Scene for us to investigate every week. From this, she creates an intriguing Case for us to solve, taking colours from the image as well as inspiration for design elements, techniques and journaling prompts. The idea is to create a scrapbook page using all these clues - All five colours from the Scheme At least two items from Evidence At least one item from Testimony Here is how I solved the case ... ... I've used a sketch by Yana Smakula for Scrap365 - I'm going to link this up with the Sketchbook365   November Sketch Challenge as well. So, did I use all the clues? You can click on the image to scrutinise it if you wish! Scheme: colours are all there Evidence: stripes; polka do...

I couldn't resist this fun challenge from Karen over at Lunagirl  - "Secrets and Hidden Things" - it was the perfect excuse to make another page in my altered book ... A gorgeous collage sheet from LunaGirl called Grandma's Attic was used to create this little piece of pointless whimsy hidden inside the book ... ... with a lot of good old-fashioned cutting and sticking and layering up with foam tape to create a 3D effect which you can't really see in this picture - let's try another angle ... ... and a close-up ... ... may be worth clicking on the picture to enlarge it ... but anyway, lots of fun - thanks for the inspiration Karen! I'm off to link this up at LunaGirl now and see what everyone else has come up with :o)xxx

...at  ScrapFriends ! Check this out - you have to be in it to win it! Includes: Amy Tangerine - Sketchbook - Daybook Stitched Chapter; Crate Paper - Peppermint - Buttons; Hello Dreams - Badge Buttons; Basic Grey - Serenade - Mixed Brads; Basic Grey - Lucille - Mixed Brads; Basic Grey - Serenade - Flags and Banners; Basic Grey - Lucille - Embroidered Tags; Heidi Swapp - Sugar Chic - Stix; Cosmo Cricket - Wood Charms - Snowflakes; Studio Calico - Chevron Mask; Teresa Collins - Memorabilia - Sequins; Teresa Collins - Santa's List - Sequins. WooHOO! I'm off to enter right now! :o)xxx

I thoroughly enjoyed the Frosty Festivities over at Jennifer Grace Creates at the weekend - hope you did too. At one point I was Extreme Blog Hopping - whilst hurtling through the night in torrential rain, because I just didn't want to miss anything! There were so many creative ideas  to check out, giveaways and challenges all over the place - Big Fun - thanks Jennifer! It was also very exciting to see that 45 lovely people from all over the world would like to win my Winter Sparkles kit ... ... and make their own version of this little tag book ... I couldn't wait to see who the winner would be. Plan A was to do Pooter Wizardry and use some kind of Random Number Generator spell, but after a long day at the grindstone I just couldn't get my tiny brain around it, so I decided to ditch the hocus pocus and opt for a low tech solution ... I wrote all 45 names on pieces of paper ... ... folded them up ...  put them in a suitable receptacle ... ...

It's Case File #97 over at CSI this week - yet again CSI mastermind Debbi Tehrani has found a perfect Scene for us to investigate. From this image, Debbi has taken the five colours for the Scheme and inspiration for design elements, techniques and journaling. As the second Case File of the month, it also includes a fab sketch from Emma Stafrace at Page Drafts. Here's the Case File (click on the image to enlarge it) The idea is to solve the Case by following all these clues to make a scrapbook page - All five colours in the Scheme At least two pieces of Evidence At least one item of Testimony The Sketch You can also download the CSI Coordinates - a set of printable words, images and patterned papers especially designed for each Case by the wonderful Michele Singh. Here's  how I solved the case - Look at this cute picture of my little cousin Josh (not so little now) - isn't he a sweetie?! The Sketch: ALWAYS love Em's sketches! The Scheme: A...

WooHOO! I'm very excited to be part of Jennifer's Frosty Festivities 2013 Blog Hop - it promises to be a weekend full of fun, inspiration and PRIZES!!! You probably arrived here via Jennifer Grace Creates - if not, you should pop back there right now and start from the beginning, because if you comment on all the blogs on the hop and then go back and let Jennifer know you've been all the way around, you'll be in with a chance to win this brilliant prize ... Simple Stories December Documented and Elle's Studio Noel items, worth over £28!  Jennifer challenged us to create a Christmas or Winter themed project and I know how much she loves a bit of sparkle, so here is my Winter Sparkles Tag Book ... ... and the chance to win this kit to make your own version! I raided my stash and pulled out two identical piles of stuff, one for me and one for the lucky winner, so this includes everything I used to make my book, plus a few extras which I didn't...