ArtyFartyAnnie

Hi everyone, I was so excited to be chosen for the Member Spotlight over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge this month and it spurred me on to a flurry of activity to use up what's left of my Feb kit before the next one is revealed tomorrow :o) There is a Four for February challenge going on on the Quirky Kit Subscribers' FB page as well, which I only just discovered and really wanted to catch up with, so here are TWO pages I made yesterday evening ... Challenge #2 was to use a ring or wreath in your design. This one was very quick and simple, I splattered watery Distress Oxide in Worn Lipstick to add some interest to the background (looks better IRL), then arranged fussy-cut flowers in a ring for my sweet little step-granddaughter Macy to peek out of, and finished with die-cut words for the title. Challenge #3 was to use hand-cut letters. I cut my title letters from patterned paper. I think you can see that I was trying to use up as much stash as possible on this p...

Hello Everyone, There were two sketches for the February mid-month challenge over at  Stuck?! Sketches . Here's the second one ... ... and here's my take on it, featuring my good friends Karen, Mel, Emma,Trina and Yours Truly, during a fabulous weekend in Wells-next-the-Sea last November ... I was inspired by Challenge #2 for February over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge , which was called "Weekend Time". One of my most favourite ways to spend a weekend is crafting with friends, and this was a particularly special weekend, as we stayed in Emma's beautiful cottage. This photo was taken whilst we were out on a walk, squeezed in between scrapping, eating and drinking :o) Everything I used came from my Feb Counterfeit Kit, which I called Happy Days , I just added the alphas for the title. Most of the products are from the Carousel Collection by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper - a totally gorgeous collection which I will never tire of playing with. Thanks fo...

Hello Everyone, This month's challenge over at GoGoGetaway is to be inspired by a theme ... and the theme is love which is of course perfect for February. I had already made a romantic page about my husband and me for St. Valentine's Day, so I thought about all the other kinds of love in my life - my family, my cat, my friends, and all kinds of things that make me happy. Eventually, I decided on this happy photo of my BFF Trina and me, taken on my 50th birthday ... The page was very easy to put together, because I used this brilliant sketch by Laura Whitaker over at Stuck?!Sketches - one of two for the Feb 15th challenge ... I used some more of my February Counterfeit Kit , which is full of pretty colours and embellishments, and I had lots of fun fussy-cutting flowers to frame the photo and adding stitched details to create a pretty girly page. This month there are two sketches for the mid-month challenge at Stuck?!, so I have another one to show you tomorrow ...

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Friends, The weeks are WHIZZING by aren't they?! It's another Wednesday, time to share What's On Your Workdesk - pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground to join in the fun :o) Here's mine, as it was on Tuesday afternoon, in the throes of making a mess in on of my art journals for a lesson on Wanderlust ... But there is one Thing of Beauty workroom ... GASP!! How gorgeous is that?! This beautiful set arrived in the post from the lovely Jan (LLJ) and I was SO surprised and delighted with it I got quite emosh ... probably something in my eye :o) Thanks Jan, they will be coming with me to carry crafty supplies for my birthday Weekend in Wells-next-the-Sea - but no messy stuff will be allowed near them!! Ok, I'll look forward to catching up with everyone over the next couple of days after work - hopefully my kind friend Zsuzsa from Inky Dinky Doodle will link me up in the morning - thanks Zsuzsa! Love Annie xxx

Hello everyone, The challange over at Daring Cardmakers this week is to make a card about whatever gets you through the morning. Now, truth be told, it's coffee for me, and lots of it, but I really wanted to use this little stamp featuring a stack of pretty teacups ... You can't see it in my rubbish photo, but I actually stamped and coloured three times, so that I could stack the cups inside each other. I hand cut the little tag, added a punched heart and finished with a bit of lace and the word from a cut-apart sheet - everything came from my February Counterfeit Kit which I called "Happy Hour". I really, really need to sort out my lack of photography skills :o) Thanks for visiting my blog today, hope to see you again soon! Love Annie xxx

Hello my bloggy friends, The first challenge for February over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge was "I LOVE PARIS". When I think of Paris, I think of romance, wonderful architecture, coffee shops, patisserie, the Metro, great art, amazing restaurants, theatre, haute couture and Glamour with a capital "G". I decided to make some Glamour-inspired cards for this challenge, using my February Counterfeit Kit of course ... This first one used a Stampin' Up! stamp set, which includes the artsy squiggle of colour on the lady's dress. The oval piece was die cut with a die from a set I bought from Ali Express. The perfect bow is thanks to the Bow Maker my clever son made for me with his 3D printer. These two are very different, made with a stamp set I bought at The Range, by Papermania I think, coloured with Distress Inks, given subtle sparkle with a clear Wink of Stella pen and finished with trims from my Counterfeit Kit. That "Smile" was one...

Hi everyone, It's time to reveal the second challenge for February over at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration . What a beautiful Scene we have to investigate for this one ... Pop over to the CSI blog for a full list of clues to follow and lots of inspiration from the other CSI Detectives. Here's how I solved the case ... The soft pinks and greens in the Scheme reminded me of our wedding colours, so I was inspired to make a romantic page to celebrate our 7th St. Valentine's Day. I've also used several items from the Evidence list - hearts, floral print, solid white background and thread instead of string, which I used to add some stitched details to the page.  Why not have a go at solving this Case yourself - there are loads of brilliant prizes to be won. Check out the CSI blog or find us on Facebook Thanks for dropping in today, hope to see you again soon :o)  Love Annie xxx

Hi everyone, This week's challenge from the  Daring Cardmakers is to create a card featuring a home, house or building ... hmmmm .... lots of ideas, so little time!! This is what I came up with, just in the nick of time to link up ... I used some Distress Oxides to create the background and colour the shutters and the cat, lots of stamping, colouring and fussy cutting, and some patterned papers from my Counterfeit Kit for inside the window. There are so many other ideas for this theme, I just don't have enough time to play this week! Pop over to Daring Cardmakers to share your own take on the challenge and find lots of inspiration. Thanks for visiting me today, hope to see you again soon :o) Love Annie xxx

Hey Everyone, Today I have a new scrapbook page to show you, which was inspired by the first February sketch over at Stuck?! Sketches . Here it is ... Gorgeous isn't it? Definitely one I will use again and again. Here's my take on it ... I used my Feb Counterfeit Kit , which I called " Happy Hour ", which was perfect for creating a fun page to suit these silly photo-booth photos. There are already two more sketches over at Stuck?! - check them out and have a go yourself, there are some lovely prizes up for grabs :o) Thanks for popping in today, hope to see you again soon!  Love Annie xxx

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Friends, It's time for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - well, it will be by the time this posts itself tomorrow when I'll be a work. I'll pop over to Julia's blog Stamping Ground later to catch up, say hello and see what everyone else has on their workdesks this week. Here's mine ... You can see that I've been doing more tidying - just look at all that space!! The messy cubbyhole top centre is actually organised chaos, I know what's there and can easily get to all of it, which means I may actually get around to using some of it :o) To the right is a new light which I've bought from Amazon as part of my plan to take better photos of my projects for posting. You can adjust the brightness and the colour temperature and it can also run on a battery so you don't have the annoying dangly wire. On the actual desktop is a pile of stamped images waiting to be coloured in, and next to that my February Counterf...

Hi everyone, My Counterfeit Kit for February is called " Happy Hour ", and as always, one of my favourite parts of putting it together was creating "forgeries" of some of the goodies in the inspiration kit. Pop over to the CKC blog , where you can check out the original kit, look at all the clever ideas and projects from the design team, link up your own version and see what everyone else comes up with. The inspiration kit this month is the beautiful "Weekend in Paris" by Noel Mignon. There were a few items in there which I thought were begging to be forged ... The bows were really easy, especially as my son made me a bowmaker on his 3D printer, clever boy. The little frame was made from resin poured into a silicone mould. The butterflies were clear acetate stickers printed in b/w, which I coloured with alcohol ink and Sharpie pens. Same for the other acetate shapes. The scripty words took AGES but were really quite easy to make - I just die ...

Hello bloggy friends, The inspiration kit over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge this month is the gorgeous " Weekend in Paris" by Noel Mignon . My version is called "Happy Hour", here's a peek ... The original kit was very pretty and romantic and I pulled lots of elements from it to create my own version. I started with some plain cardstocks in those gorgeous sweetie-shop colours ...

Hello everyone, This week's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers is to pick at least three elements from this gorgeous inspiration image ... For my card, I pulled the red/black/pink colour combo, the flamingo, and the balloons ... I really enjoyed using this layered stamp set from Hero Arts to create the flamingo, and will definitely be making more flamingo-themed cards. There are some brilliant sentiments in the set, but this time I wanted my flamingo to be holding a balloon, and I thought it would be fun to use this string word stamp instead. To make the balloon, I die cut a heart from scrap white card, coloured it with one of the inks I'd used to stamp the image and finished it with a touch of sparkle from my clear Wink of Stella pen. There are some gorgeous examples made by the DT to inspire you - pop over to Daring Cardmakers to check them out and you can also link up to share your own creations. Thanks for visiting my blog today, see you again soon :...

Hi Everyone, The challenge over at Daring Cardmakers last week was called "Masked Magic" - the idea being to use masking techniques to create a card. Lots of different possibilities, and I couldn't wait to have a go myself. Due to technical challenges and lack of time, I couldn't get a pic of my card to post it in time for the challenge, but I thought I'd share it anyway ... I had a lovely time playing with this gorgeous stamp and die set from "Stampin' Up!" and I think this card will fit all kinds of occasions - I could always add an appropriate sentiment to the inside. So that's it, short and sweet :o) Check out this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge - I've had a peek already and it's an Elemental Inspiration which has a definite whiff of Valentine's Day about it ... Thanks for dropping in today, see you again soon. Love Annie xxx

Hello Bloggy Friends, It's the 1st of the month, so time to reveal another Case File over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. Here's the scrummy Case File which Debbi has put together to inspire us this time ... Pop over to the CSI blog to check out the full case file, with a list of clues to follow, and see all the other DT pages for slots of ideas and inspiration. I love how this gorgeous, colourful, summery image makes me think of happy holidays whilst we're deep in the middle of the chilly winter months here in the UK. I decided to scrap a picture of Yours Truly about 25 years ago, slightly the worse for wear (you may be able to tell!) after a night out during a Greek Island holiday ... I tried to capture the general feel of the inspiration image, used all those beautiful summery colours and several items from the Evidence list - solid white background, mixed media, flowers, hearts, leaves, a bird, and something fringy (a home-made tassel). Why not...