ArtyFartyAnnie

Hi everyone, It's the last hour of the last day of February, but I finally got around to making this month's tag for the Tim Holtz Tags of 2015 challenge. As always, Tim's tutorial inspired me to try some different techniques and use some of those goodies and products I have stashed away in my craft room. Here's my version ... Tim showed us how to create a collage of paper ephemera, then distress and add shading to create more depth and interest to the background before finishing with some metal trinketry. It was such a fun technique, I will definitely be trying it again. Some quick close-ups before I go link up over at Tim's blog - finally tried my little dinky desktop sewing machine to add some stitching and it worked great. I decided to tie it with some jute ribbon, but I really must get hold of some of that gorgeous crinkle ribbon Tim's always using ...

Hi everyone, You know that thing where you're on a crowded train and you pretend to be absolutely fascinated by an advert or a public information poster or your shoelaces or anything at all, rather than risk making eye contact with a stranger?? Well, maybe it's just me .... but that's what I was doing a couple of weeks ago when Inspiration Struck. I've spent a lot of time travelling on the London Underground just recently, studying the Tube Map ... There is actually a really interesting story behind this map which is now so familiar to anyone who uses the public transport system in London. This is how a map of the London Underground used to look back in 1908 ... In 1931, Harry Beck drew up the first version of the Tube Map we know and love today. It's really a schematic diagram rather than a geographical map and of course it is very much easier to follow ... You can read all about Charles Henry Beck here. Apparently he did all the initial desig...

Hi everyone, It's so good to have the internet back and be able to join in with WOYWW again - I've missed my weekly show-n-snoop!! Nip over to Julia's Stamping Ground to see what I'm on about! Here's my workdesk as it looked first thing this morning ... There are some signs of creative activity and in fact there are several things going on - the basket of goodies on the far left contains embellishments for pocket pages in progress, just to the right of that is the light box which is still out because I need to emboss hearts on 40 thank you cards - the last part of a friend's wedding stationery PHEW!! In the middle of the desk you can see the beginnings of a scrapbook page, but plonked down right on top of it is the STAR OF THE SHOW - my beautiful bag from fellow desker Lunch Lady Jan . Here's a closer look at those gorgeous details ...

Hi Everyone, At last I have the internet back and I can share with you the special project I made for St.Valentine's Day. I know my husband treasures all the handmade cards and keepsakes I make for him and every year I try to come up with something a bit different. This time I wanted to have a go at book folding, as I've seen some beautiful projects on YouTube. There are lots of patterns available - I used one from Foldilocks  which only cost me a couple of quid. It was really straight forward to do, just takes time and careful measuring. Here's how it turned out ... I really enjoyed decorating the front cover ... I started with an old hardback book (this was in fact the hardest part of the whole project, choosing which of my beloved books to sacrifice) ...

Hi everyone, Long time no see but it's lovely to be back! Regular readers will have noticed very little activity about these parts for a few weeks. There are two main reasons for this a) I have had a lot of personal stuff to deal with - I won't bore you with the details, but I know you will agree that sometimes family and health issues must come first. b) we have recently changed internet service provider and this turned into a Right Palaver, so that for a time we had no access to the internet at all and I felt like I'd lost an internal organ or something! The Good News is that we now have super speedy broadband, The Bad News is that ArtyFarty has thrown a wobbly and developed some Technical Issues whilst I've been away - these will be sorted quite soon, but in the meantime there will be some problems with links and such. Please bear with me - normal service will be resumed shortly! Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon :o) Annie xxx

Hi Everyone, Here's a super-speedy idea for a last-minute card for St Valentine's Day - I've used the little hearts from my Georgie Stamp Set , but you could use any small stamped images you like to do this ... The idea was adapted from a tutorial on Jennifer McGuire's You Tube channel - Jennifer's videos are brilliant, full of creative ideas and tips on stamping techniques. I reckon you could easily make this card in under half an hour. Here's how ...

Hi Everyone, With only an hour to go, I've left it very late to post my tag for this week's theme over at Tag Tuesday , which was "Feathers" but I figured better late than never ... It is just a quick ink sketch (I used Micron pens 01 and 005) and then I used my ancient watercolour paintbox to add some colour.

Hi everyone, Back in December when I launched my Georgie Stamp Set  I invited readers to enter a draw to win a free set and the first name pulled out of the virtual hat was Zsuzsa from Inky Dinky Doodle . Zsuzsa worked her mixed media magic on Georgie and shared it in this blog post back in December. I was bowled over by this beautiful canvas and couldn't wait to show it off on my blog, but I was away from home at the time, so I shared it on FB and planned to do a blog post all about it when I got home - and I've only just realised I never got around to it (well there has been an awful lot going on just lately one way or another and my brain has been somewhat addled). So without further ado, please may I introduce Her Royal Gorgeousness, Princess Georgie ... ... isn't she absolutely lovely? I'm a huge admirer of Zsuzsa's work and it was such a thrill to see what she did with my stamp - check out Zsuzsa's post to read about how she created this c...