Next years workshop

Just a note to let you know that the very talented Anneliese Bates (www.anneliesebates.co.uk ) will be running an altered scrapbook workshop for us on 12th March next year. She is a certified Ranger Educator and has had work published in a number of magazines. She works at the Artist Trading Post. I have seen her demo and she is brilliant! It should cost around £20 to £25 , so maybe you could ask Santa for an extra pressy? Deposits need to be in by the January crop. Get excited!!

Christmas Crop

It's our Christmas crop this Saturday!!! I am so sorry I will miss it. We are at a good friends wedding in Peterborough, and just can't miss that. I hope to be sending along a little thought for each of you though. It's 10 till 3, as normal. Bring along a £5 scrapbooking gift if you want to take part in the gift exchange. Are you following Tim Holtz's 12 tags? Yesterdays was fabulous- see picture above. I can't believe that creativity! Good news though, you don't need the die to cut the flower if you haven't already got it. I cut a strip of paper with a wavy edge and it works fine. OK, not as good as Tim's, but that is because its me doing it!! Enjoy the crop xx

My Christmas Tags

This tag was painted with blue crackle paint, stamped with the word then stickled over the lines.

Gold heat embossed all over the tag with the holly stamp, distress inked and adhered printed flower, highlighted with stickles. Red holly berries were done with red stickles.

This one was gold heat embossed with holly stamp, distress inked edges, stamped holly on another card and cut out, then distress inked leaves.

I used flocked red patterned paper for the middle, gold crackle paint for the bottom, inked, stamped and distressed the lot! I glued a button on and used glossy accents to put a star on it.

This is my favourite. I stamped 'NOEL', distress inked whole tag, inked and adhered robin, inked grungeboard crown and added gems, punched holes and threaded fabric through for ribbon bow.

I distress inked tag, stamped on it, added star that was made by pressing angelina fibres onto a stamp with an iron, added lock which was made by pouring beeswax into a mould and painting.

Inspired by all things Holtz (LOVING his tags) I've conjured up a few of my own. These tags are so much fun to do! They don't take long, and are just doable little pieces of art. Have a go! I will be making some sweets for Christmas and attaching these tags with ribbon.

Christmas Tags

This is exciting! Tim Holtz is doing it again! He has created 12 amazing tags for Christmas and he is posting photos and instructions every day so you can do the same! His blog is always inspiring. Even if you don't have all the dies and stamps that he uses you can adapt the ideas to what you have. I will be following him avidly as ever, and I may even post some of my own creations. Tim's blog is www.timholtz.typepad.com

Altered Apron!

I've made a crafting apron! I loved playing with some fabric scraps I had, and an apron is a great blank canvas to have a go at. I chose some bits and bobs (a couple of stamps, pictures etc) and laid them on my printer/copier. I taped some fabric to a piece of card and fed it through on 'copy'. It printed really well. I am not sure it will be waterproof, but that's OK, I am not planning to wash it. I cut out each item, backed it with wadding and a backing fabric and stitched around the edges. My favourite bit is the little brown stamp. It looks so cute padded out :-) For the 'create' part, I used Tim Holtz masks on plain fabric and sprayed dyes over the top. When it was dry I sent it through the printer taped onto card, having put the word 'create' on a word document. My little brooch was from 7 Gypsies, I added the pearls, letter beads, and pin.

Don't forget the crop tomorrow. Fun with angelina fibres .

YaY! CrOp TiMe

It's our Cannock crop tomorrow. Love it when we get together. I always get so much inspiration and go home with renewed enthusiasm. Ellie is bringing the shop and doing a fab demo on the Tim Holtz dies using leather (hhmmnnnn. Interesting!) . Can't wait for that. At the last Friday night crop I did a demo on using polymer clay to make buttons. It's easy and enjoyable. Above is a picture of the ones I made.

Hobbycraft Inspiration

I had a brilliant day at the NEC Hobbycraft show. There was tons of inspiration. I LOVED the Artist Trading Post stand! I didn't realise they were so close - near Buxton. Anneliese Bates was the demonstrator, and she great. So many good ideas, so check out her blog. I bought a fantastic old printers tray for £10 from them, after seeing what Annaliese had done with hers. This picture was from her blog. I will post mine when it's done.