ArtyFartyAnnie

Hello Crafty Peeps, Yesterday our little craft group got together to join in with the Craftathon for Breast Cancer Care - we have £70 to donate to this very worthy cause and we had a lovely time ... We were making mini books and I love how they all turned out so differently, even though we were working from the same kit. Julie very kindly hosted our mini Craftathon and we completely took over her dining room for the day. Here's the table before we trashed it got started ... Julie had made us these sweet tissue holders as a memento of the day which was a lovely surprise ... It was extreme crafting to get the book done in a day, but we had lots of fun ... ... and we were sustained by delicious home made cake :o) Cake break #1 ... ... and Cake Break #2 ... We started on the easy pages and worked our way up to the more tricky ones. It was satisfying to see them start to stack up ... We tried out a few different tools and techniques to crea...

Hello my Crafty Friends, Next Saturday 15th September, some friends and I are getting together to join in with the Craftathon for Breast Cancer Care - check out the FB page to see what it's all about. It all came from an idea hatched by the lovely Di Oliver and has grown into a massive event, which hopefully will raise lots of money for this very worthwhile cause. To give us a fun project to work on as a group, I've put together some kits to create a mini book ... We'll each have 18 sheets of double-sided patterned paper including lots of different colours and designs, so there will be plenty of scope for each of us to put our own twist on the design. Here's my first prototype, after I'd added some scraps of ribbon to the binding ... And I used some of the leftovers to create photocorners, pen clips and paperclip flags ... If you would like to join us, you would be most welcome - I have put together a Word doc including all the instructions an...

Hello crafty peeps! This is the second in an occasional series I'm calling Freebie Friday, where I show you what I've made using the free gifts on the front of crafty magazines. Today I have a clever idea to show you - when you open the card, a shadow box pops up, but the whole thing folds flat for posting ... I followed a tutorial on You Tube by the lovely Jennifer McGuire - check out her channel for LOADS of inspiration - and I used the freebie stamp and die set from the front of Papercraft Essentials #160 . It's a really fun project and much easier to do than it looks - I enjoyed it so much I made three! Here's a ten-minute tutorial on my You Tube so you can see how it was made ... I hope you enjoy watching and have a go at this yourself - there are so many fun variations you could try :o) Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon! Love Annie xxx

Hello! I have some fun ideas for using up paper scraps to share with you today, with a video tutorial and a sneaky peek at a project I'll be making with some friends later in the year when we get together for a Craftathon for Breast Cancer Care in September. The kit I put together to make a mini album included 18 sheets of double-sided patterned paper and I ended up with one full sheet and quite a few small scraps left over. Here's the prototype mini book, with some DIY photo corners, pen clips and paperclip flags I made with some of the leftovers ... If you would like to see how I made them, check out my YouTube video ... I'll be doing a tutorial to make the mini book a bit later, along with some instructions and templates you could download if you would like to make the mini book. Maybe you would like to join us for the craftathon - check out the Facebook page to find out what it's all about. Thanks for visiting me today, see you again soon! Love A...

Hello everyone, I've recently started having the monthly Tonic Craft Kit (as a little reward to myself for walking to work it seemed like a great idea to spend the bus money I've saved on crafty goodies). The first one I had (back in April) was #08 - the Trinket Drawer Kit. There are just so many things you can do with this set. One idea I had was to make this sweet little Lavender Box ... I've made a 10 minute video tutorial showing how I made it if you'd like to see ... There are loads of other ideas on the Tonic Craft Kit website and I have a few more up my sleeve to show you another time ... That was April's kit, I've hardly touched May yet and June will be on its way next week  - better get my crafty skates on! :o) Thanks for dropping in to see me today, see you again soon! Love Annie xxx

Hey everyone, Like many of us, I love crafty magazines, but will only let myself buy one if there's a free gift on the cover which really appeals to me, as I reckon that even if I only make 3 or 4 cards with it, I've justified the cost of the magazine :o) However, I've accumulated a little pile of said magazines, which I haven't even opened yet, let alone tried out the free gifts. So, to motivate myself, I've decided to make a YouTube video every Friday, featuring one of these lovely magazines and showing how I get on with the free gift. On the top of the pile on my workdesk was the April 2018 issue of Crafts Beautiful, which included a gorgeous Pop-up Box Cards Kit, full of butterflies and flowers, very pretty and surprisingly quick to make. Here are the four cards I made in a couple of hours ... If you would like to see how I made them, click on the link below to see my YT video ... It's only about 15 minutes long, so grab a coffee and check ...

Hey everyone, I've not had much crafting time lately - been busy doing other fun stuff - but I have been working on these little bookcase charms, using a free download from the talented Nik the Booksmith ... They still need to have some dangles added, but this is how they look so far. Nik's download includes all the tiny book spines and some gorgeous decorative elements to create the dangles. Click on the link below to see her tutorial on YT ... Mine don't look quite as gorgeous as Nik's, but they were so easy and fun to make. I got carried away and did a couple with little jars made of beads, instead of books. I think these would look great as charms on a handmade book or as wearable art ... Check out Nik's channel , she is such an inspiration - thanks Nik! :o) Thanks for visiting my blog today, see you again soon! Love Annie xxx

Hello Everyone, It's the 4th of the month, so it's time to reveal the "forgeries" I made for my April Counterfeit Kit , which I called " Spring is in the Air ". Click here to see a video about how I made these ... The inspiration kit from Button Farm had lots of die-cut elements such as tags, speech bubbles, banners and butterflies... I loved the fresh, fruity colour scheme and the hand-painted look of some of the papers and cut-aparts, with semi-translucent colours overlapping each other ... My kit included several Distress Oxide Inks, and I decided that this was the perfect time to use them. The colours I used were: Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Worn Lipstick, Abandoned Coral, and Seedless Preserves. I love how these inks layer over each other and react with water to create such beautiful effects.  I hope you like my "Forgeries" and enjoy watch my little video. What would you counterfeit from this kit? :o) T...

Hi everyone, Curious title right?! Bet it had you wondering what on earth I've been doing now! Never mind turning straw into gold - now you can turn toilet rolls into leather ... You Tube is full of amazingly creative people sharing their ideas and inspiration and I spend many happy hours watching them - usually on my iPad whilst I'm playing in my craft room. One of my faves is the lovely Einat Kessler . Some months ago I watched Einat create a gorgeous Steampunk-style mini book from toilet roll middles (plus a lot of ink and paper and doodads and whatnots). She showed how to treat the tubes with water and glycerine, scrumple them up, dry them and then use several shades of ink to create this leathery look. Wonderful!! Then she ran them through her Cuttlebug with an embossing folder. I'm not so sure about the look of the embossing and it nearly killed my Cuttlebug, so I might leave it natural next time, but here's how it turned out ...

Hi Everyone, Long time no see - my last post was almost a month ago, I've just been too busy doing stuff to have time to blog about it! But at least some of that other stuff was fun and creative, so brace yourselves for a little flurry of catch-up posts :o) No matter how busy life gets this year, I am determined to keep up with the fabulous Tim Holtz Tags of 2016. Click here to check out this wonderful series of tutorials - this year, we're revisiting previous tutorials and combining techniques to create something new. Here's Tim's tag for April ... This month, Tim showed us how to combine the faux mosaic technique with paint resist to make this beautiful bird on a woodgrain background. As always, I had some but not all of the supplies he used, so I had to get inventive with what I had available - but that's one of the things I love about this challenge. Here's my version ...

Hi Everyone, Just in the nick of time, here's my February journal page inspired by the amazing Tim Holtz Tags of 2016 - this year, Tim is revisiting tutorials from previous years and combining two techniques to create a new tag. Here's his gorgeous February tag, which combined monoprinting with stencils and heat embossing with texture paste ... This year, I'm making little pages instead of tags, so I can keep them all together in the gorgeous leather bound journal which my friend Trina gave me for Christmas. On the back of each page I will make notes about the techniques used to create it - so it should be a handy reference. Here's my version of Tim's February tag ... As luck would have it, I had recently treated myself to a pack of these wonderfully quirky vintage passport photos from Tim Holtz so this was the perfect opportunity to use one - although it was difficult to choose which one to use!

Hi Everyone, Not an awful lot going on crafty-wise around here just lately, but I did have fun making these little Christmas gifts for my creative lovelies at KHC just before Christmas ... I pinched the idea from this YT tutorial and just added a belly band and my own embellishments, then filled each box with a few fancy teabags. A great way to use up some of my stash of pretty ribbon and patterned papers to create an inexpensive but pretty present for my friends. I think these would make great wedding favours too. Here's a slightly clearer photo ...

Hello Everyone, It's a lovely bright autumnal day here, I hope you're having a great day wherever you are :o) It's also Wednesday again, so it's time to share my workdesk with the world by linking up over at Julia's Stamping Ground  where I can have a good old snout around other people's creative spaces over a nice cup of coffee. Here's mine this morning ... It looks like not a lot is going on there .... that's because there's not a lot going on! This is how I left it on Friday evening after I'd finished making the "Gatefold Shutter Card" I mentioned last WOYWW and I haven't had chance to get back in there since then. I did at least crack the gatefold shutter thingy though and it was great fun to make. Here are a couple of pics ...

Hi Everyone, I had so much fun making these Japanese-style paper dolls with my friends - it's really easy, and it's a great way to use up all those scraps of gorgeous paper ... This photo is a great example of what my BHS calls the "cheerleader effect" ie where an individual item looks ok by itself, but even better in a group! I think a whole bunch of these would be a great inexpensive addition to a Christmas craft stall or fundraiser - which gives me a great excuse to make more! If you fancy having a go at some of these, check out my video tutorial ... The Japanese word for paper dolls like these is Ningyogami. Each one is wearing a Kimoni with a contrasting collar and a layered Obi or sash which is finished with a cord or narrow ribbon tied around the middle, so you can use up all those tiny scraps of ribbons and trims as well! Have a go - it's really easy and very addictive! Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon :o) Annie xxx

Hi Everyone, Some friends of mine are getting married in September and I was really chuffed when they asked me to make their wedding invitations. Between us, we came up with this fun and pretty design ... ... which opens up like this to reveal the invitation and all the necessary details ...

Hi everyone, The June issue of Craft Stamper featured an article by Lisbeth Fidder, showing how to use household bleach to add accents to stamped images on a Distress Ink background. There was also a free stamp designed by Riikka Kovasin on the front cover of the magazine. I decided to use the bleach technique AND the free stamp to create my ATCs for the WOYWW 6th Anniversary ATC swap ... I used the colours in the May Colour Challenge over at Rubber Dance , so I'm going to link up over there as well, as there is a chance to win a FAB prize! Here's how I made my ATCs ...

Hi Everyone, It's been a fun-filled weekend over at Jennifer Grace Creates , where the Focus Your Craft & Soul free blog event has been full of ideas and inspiration. One of the challenges which  took my fancy was to use Shrink Plastic to create an embellishment. This was the card I made using some tiny sweeties made of Shrink Plastic ... The stamp set I used came free on a magazine - bonus!!

Hi Everyone, Today I'm very excited to be joining in with a Blog Hop as part of the Focus Your Craft & Soul free blog event which kicked off at 4pm today over at Jennifer Grace Creates Jennifer's blog events are always fun, so I'm looking forward to a weekend full of ideas, inspiration and great giveaways. Just look at this one - a WRK Insta Album Kit - which Jennifer is giving away to one lucky person ... The giveaway closes on Sunday 24th May at 10pm BST and is open internationally - all you have to do to enter is to comment on each of the blogs in the Focus Your Craft & Soul hop. I'm the last blog in the hop - if you've worked your way through the list and arrived here via Claire's blog , all you need to do now is head back to Jennifer Grace Creates to complete the hop or find the complete list if you've got lost along the way! But don't go yet! I have a project to show you, my first ever scrapping process video, a mini pho...

Hi Everyone, Still working my way through UFOs from the Scrapstars retreat and I have another finished project to show you - a handbag mini with a surprise inside :o) I bought this kit from the sale box, because the mix of Websters Pages papers, pretty ribbons and gorgeous metal trinkets caught my Magpie Eye. Someone told me it was from a previous retreat workshop with the talented Emma Trout , where she made a beautiful handbag mini album. I didn't have any instructions, but some of the Scrapstars girls sent me photos of their finished projects, which were so inspiring that I decided to give it a go. I was thrilled to bits with the result and made this little film, as the photos don't really show it properly ... Here are some close-ups and a look at the surprise inside ...

Hi everyone, Today I thought I would have a go at this month's challenge over at Lessology - Ribbon Fantasy ! The idea is to make a crafty project featuring ribbons and using at least one recycled item. I pinched another idea from the talented Helen Allen - check out this video , where she shows you how to create a card using tiny scraps of ribbon. Here's my version ... This was so easy and fun to do, and very satisfying to use up some of those really tiny scraps of ribbon that you just can't bring yourself to throw away. My recycled items are some of the ribbons - you know those ones which are stitched inside the shoulders of garments and are supposed to help keep them on hangers, but really they're just a pain and they keep popping out and you end up cutting them off? Friends and relations save them for me - I often find some left on my desk at work and I have quite a collection now. They have all kinds of uses, but this one was the best so far! A couple of...