Twilight Saga

I am reading Book 3 Eclipse of the Twilight saga at the moment. Twilight (book 1) was superb, New Moon (book 2) was too long and boring but Eclipse (book 3) is superb so far... Sandy has a chat blog called gossip chaos where we are talking about the Twilight books http://gossipchaos.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/gossip/

Isnt this photo gorgeous..(the actor reminds me of a young brooding Marlon Brando)

queen of 100 cakes arch atc (TGIF & gothic arches challenge)

I made a quick arch ATC to celebrate 100 challenges on TGIF challenge and the celebrations on Gothic Arches cake challenge. I have been ironing and sorting out the school clothes today so making this was a nice change from ironing which I hate..but at least my sons will look good on their first day back at school next Wednesday!

In the Sunshine doghouse (Wed Stamper "dogs")

My friends Linda and Pat came over today and we have had a great day playing with papers and stamps. I made a little house book and this is one of the pages called in the sunshine doghouse!! It features various stamps, papers and a no. 8 from a taxi leaflet put through the door this morning. Isnt it great when you have crafty time with your friends.. particuarly when you havent seen them for a while....

Flower Chef (Art pieces flower power ATC)

Have been sorting out my paper and discovered a load of DCWV flower paper. I have layered lots of this paper on this ATC for the flower power challenge over at Art Pieces. The flower hat reminded me of a chef's hat so she is dreaming of imaginative recipes that she can cook with flowers..I know nasturtiums are edible and the Chinese like them so have added a little Chinese circle stamp.

continuing with my scrappy quilt....

I managed to piece together some squares today which will soon become many 9 patch squares

which will then be joined to some more larger squares

this is quite a time consuming project so I am not rushing it but its quite nice to see it emerging from just scraps of fabric. This is my first quilt so I am using it to find out how to piece everything together..so it wont be an arty quilt in my usual sense..that comes later after I have learnt from this one!

New additions to our family!

Here are our new guinea pigs that we bought today..we havent thought of names for them yet but so far its Diego and Flash! They are very quiet as they are only babies..we bought a run for them as well as the hutch and the white one (Diego) seems to be the livelier of the two.

Dans ma Maison "crowns"

Treated myself to some more stamps and papers from my fav shop www.scrapz.co.uk and they arrived today..very fast delivery and good prices so check them out. I havent felt like doing any work today either as we have just bought 2 guinea pigs for the children..we have spent most of the day looking at their hutch as they are only babies so are hiding in the hay!! We havent thought of names for them yet or have had a chance to take photos..will share photos of them when they are not so shy.

Uk Stampers "m for mystical"

Managed to do a quick tag for UK Stampers today in between looking at guinea pigs with the kids. Various stamps layered on including a hand, church steeple, gothic writing and a mystical queen.

Think happy thoughts bird house ATC (Art Pieces challenge)

I love making little house ATCs and layering with papers and various stamped images as they are so quick to do and time is limited at the moment. I was thinking of that song..a little birdhouse in your soul when I was making it. I have made this little birdhouse ATC for a Norwegian challenge blog called Art Pieces..I have a couple of Norwegian followers so
Hei kunst venner takket for å besøke min blogg (or hello art friends thanks for visiting my blog)

Desire ATC (mixed media monday stars"

Made this quick little house ATC with various stamped images and papers. Like a lot of mums I am finding that my creative me time has been put on the back shelf as I take my kids on days out..we have just come back from the park where we saw some lovely baby goats and squirrels.

More inspiration!

I won the C&T June Design Challenge and got to pick a variety of books...I had trouble deciding as they sell so many interesting and different books. My selection of books arrived on Friday but I have been camping over the weekend so havent had a chance to look at them yet. I am hoping to dye some fabric in September when my sons go back to school and want to make a rhapsody quilt or wall hanging. Pop on over to the C&T blog and you might win something too! Click on the "I heart fiber art" bird badge to the right to take you to the C&T shop.

Iechyd da (Welsh for "good health")

Just returned from another excellent camping trip..this time at Fron Farm nr Mold, North Wales. It was lovely camp site with plenty of activities put on for the children from a woodland walk with a tractor ride up the hill, horseriding and a tractor sledge this morning. My sons and I really enjoyed the tractor sledge (they are the 3 hanging on at the back!) and it was all put on free by the friendly farmer who just asked for donations for the Air Ambulance.

Forget everything and remember..(wed stamper "paisley")

A variety of papers stamped with an anna griffin paisley stamp, butterfly collage from craft individuals and the words read "forget everything and remember.."

Colourful art girl card (Basic Grey challenge no 1)

Colourful Art Girl card made with basic grey sublime papers and basic grey flourish stamps.

flower girl (mixed media monday blue and green)

Another little art quilt I have made..the words on this read "the artist must possess the courageous soul..the brave soul. The soul that dares and defies"..I will sew it later on when I have my sewing machine out to start sewing up my scrap quilt

so many squares to cut!!!!

A friend gave me some Liberty print scraps so I wanted to have a go at making a quilt with them. I have found a pattern for a nine patch block scrap quilt by Alex Anderson. I was reading the pattern and thought 102 squares is not bad to cut out but it was 5 sets of 102 plus 4 sets of another 102 ...etc etc..Well at least I have got fairly good with a rotary cutter which I hadnt used before. I got a scrapmaster ruler and found that to be pretty good when cutting the little squares out as the 1/4 inch seam is already added to the template where you cut...so saves all the measuring. Hopefully I wil have time to start to sew some blocks together tomorrow night.

fantastic expectations amazing revelations (TGIF "pens and brushes")

Used some more lyrics from the Ian Brown FEAR song as often when we read the written word we have fantastic expectations and amazing revelations. Used a variety of pen stamps on some painted papers with a little paper artsy image.

Berni Lubell exhibition

Took my 6yr old to an excellent exhibition today at FACT in Liverpool. It was a great interactive exhibition with all these weird wooden contraptions that you had to climb inside of or pedal to make them work. My son also made a bird using the principles of movement he saw in the exhibition...if it comes near you make sure you go and see it as its great fun..taking my other sons to see it tomorrow!

Purple Muse (theme thursday purple)

Went to Stockley Farm with the kids today and had a great time looking at all the animals...except now my eldest wants a guinea pig and has even tidied his room in the hope of getting one..perhaps next year!! I did this quick fabric collage on my return..its going to be another square for my art quilt once it has got added stitching on it etc Can you spot the two small lilac buttons to the right..they are simon shirt buttons from the shirts I used to wear in the 1970s courtesy of my mum's button box..anyone else remember simon shirts???

Kickboxing club photo

Tonight we all had our photo taken at the kickboxing club I attend..great fun..one for the scrapbook I think! (I am second from the left on the front row..trying not to giggle!)

fear of flying (awfully big art adventure "bird")

I made a little bird book inspired by my favourite song F.E.A.R by Ian Brown. I love the lyrics of this song..free expression as revolution, for each a road, for everyman a religion, forget everything and remember, for everything a reason.... click on photo to see it better!

Here is the link to see the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3_BGPorMNM

Basic Grey challenge blog candy giveaway!

Basic grey challenges are starting up again on 8th August and they are offering prizes! I used to love using the basic grey mortifica range as it was very grungy. Here is the link and they are offering a huge amount of goodies to start the challenges off again..check out this link
http://basicgreychallenges.blogspot.com/

Mixed Media Monday "blue and brown"

Its my mums birthday tomorrow so thought I would make some cards..the rose one is for her as she loves roses. I have bought her a flower pressing card making kit and hope she will use the plentiful flowers that grow in my dads garden to make some lovely cards. I know that she used to press flowers as a child so hoping she will enjoy making some cards.

Green Pepper Press "knock yourself off"

This months challenge over at GPP is to "knock yourself off"..NO it doesnt mean kill yourself!! For the challenge you have to recreate older work with a new vision. I was wondering what to do for this for ages as I am always trying new things...then I thought of the cards I made when first starting to do craft. Here is a photo of the cards I used to make when I first started to craft about 5-6 yrs ago

I used to copy photographs in crafting magazines but add little touches for example beads on the handle of this bag or eyelets around the football card. Here is a photo of cards that I made today

I now use stamps and layers of paper a lot more to add depth. I have been influenced by magazines such as stampington inspirations and great work on the many blogs I have visited. I would love to know how your style has changed....

Scrap Saturday giveaway over at Art Girl

One of my favourite fabric blogs is Art Girl run by Leah who lives in Texas. She is having one of her Scrap Saturday giveaways. Leah makes some amazing quilts and she sent me some fabric scraps a while ago which started me off making little art quilt squares. Her blog is worth checking out and the giveaway is for Art Now for Autism..check out the links below for details

http://colorfulartgirl.blogspot.com/2009/08/scrap-saturday.html

http://artnowforautism.com/

Have fun life's a game (sunday postcard bingo)

Did a quick little fabric collage. A lot of women in the UK go to bingo for a night out..so here are three friends getting readyto go out to play a game of bingo on a Saturday night!!

Another great camping trip....

just come back after another great camping trip to Wem in Shropshire. We were camped by some alpacas and kune kune pigs..so many animals for my sons to look at including ducks and chickens. We had lots of games of crazy golf and a few swims in the freezing cold pool...my youngest won a little prize in the family disco..a great weekend away despite it raining