Unbelievable!!!!

Well, for once I am totally lost for words............... which doesn't happen too often!! LOL

Just over a week ago I ordered a set of four La Blanche foam Christmas stamps from QVC. I already have some of these foam stamps and they give a lovely crisp image and are very reasonably priced. Anyway, they arrived on the doorstep yesterday afternoon and I quickly opened the packet to be faced with this:

Two stamps were perfectly okay; unopened etc. But the other two had been hacked around with a craft knife and stamped using, I think, Staz-on ink!!!! Now, correct me if I'm wrong but the only person who says she cuts round these foam stamps is Dawn Bibby herself........... I've never found the need myself but heyho!!


I immediately rang QVC asking why I had been sent secondhand goods and the guy at the other end of the phone said "I'm not sure I would call them secondhand"........ well when my OH had scraped me down from the ceiling I asked what else he would call cut and used stamps but secondhand. He then said he had never heard of this happening before and is sending me a free returns label............ I will be very interested to hear what they have to say!! Watch this space.

Thank You card

I've just finished making this quick thank you card which was made with images from the Joanna Sheen Eastern Treasures CD. This CD is one of the nicest I have seen with gorgeous images so it makes it quite hard to choose which to use. This one's for Betty who makes the refreshments for our art group and it's our last meeting tomorrow before breaking for the summer so we will get her a small gift to go with the card.

Thanks for looking.

Mixed media canvas/collage

Finally I have managed to finish off this large canvas that I started at a workshop a couple of weeks ago. I didn't like the finished image which was of the lady "clutching" a man to her - it just didn't work so I blocked him out totally and then just added her in full.

This started off as a blank 20" x 28" canvas (extremely daunting!!!) which was covered, using PVA adhesive, with various tissue paper, old music sheets, bus tickets etc etc. I then painted it over with gesso before starting my female portrait using acrylic paints. Over her hair and dress I have painted on an iridescent medium.

Thanks for looking.

Viva la Diva Memory Album

I went to a fantastic exhibition on Sunday down at Salwayash near Bridport. The exhibition was organised by Lynn Horniblow's students on her free machinery course. I was very eager to go down to look as I am joining Lynn's classes in September and, after seeing all the wonderful exhibits and meeting some very friendly people, I can't wait!!




I took loads of photos so I could sit and drool at home!!! LOL. Rather than just having them on the computer or lying around I decided to make a memory album and bring my Bind-it-All out of mothballs........... As it was an embroidery exhibition I decided that all the photos should be sewn onto the pages with various sheers/fibres which also gave me an excuse to use some of the different stitches on my sewing machine. For the front cover I used my embellisher to felt different fibres and sheers onto a backing. I also embroidered the words "Viva la Diva" on a piece of fabric which was then stitched to the main piece. The back is inked with chalk inkpads and then stamped with three ladies from 1st Class Stamps and they, in turn, were embellished with some gems. The final touch was adding some ribbons to the wires.





The album can now take pride of place in my bookcase and I know I won't have to go hunting for the photographs!!!

Mixed Media and Acrylic Inks

Following a mixed media workshop a couple of weeks ago I had a canvas which was half finished sitting in my room waiting for me to do something with it. I had just received a poster from the RSPB depicting a crane in flight and it caught my imagination as I thought this would look good on my half finished canvas.

The original canvas was made by tearing and crumpling tissue paper and adhering it to the canvas with watered down PVA. When this had dried the canvas is sprayed with water and then acrylic inks dripped onto it with gay abandon!!! This is what I had waiting for me. So today I thought it deserved finishing and this is what it came out like.

Thanks for looking.

I am delighted to introduce.............

I've finally finished Damson, my first attempt at bear making. My friends Anne and Jan came over today and Dee, who has been showing us how to make the bears, came to oversee the final embellishments which were adding the nose and mouth and sewing on the ears. Damson's nose has been hardened using watered down PVA and then polished with black shoe polish to give it a shine. I wanted to give her a smile rather than a normal bear mouth and I think it's turned out well. The final touch was to add a ribbon in her hair and to give her a necklace made out of knitted wire with beads. I am really pleased and she will definitely be sitting on the end of my bed tonight............ seeing as my DH is away for a couple of days on an Open University course Damson can keep me company. Thanks for stopping by.

Tall Trees Acetate Domed Card

It felt like Christmas this morning because my eagerly anticipated order of 5 (yes I said 5.........) stamp sheets arrived from Graphicus by courier. Then another two Joanna Sheen stamp sheets arrived so I have spent all morning mounting the sheets on EZ Mount, cutting out the individual stamps, laminating the illustrated sheets etc etc - boy are my hands sore!!!! LOL But not sore enough to stop me having a go at a card that was shown in the Graphicus Guild Newsletter using acetate domed over an image. It looked really effective so here's my attempt.



I have used an alcohol inked background on glossy cardstock and stamped the main image several times across the card using Staz-On in Timber Brown and Olive Green. I then stamped a separate image of the trees on a spare piece of the inked background. I then took a piece of acetate and swiped it with an antistatic bag and stamped the same image in the Timber Brown ink. The acetate is then scored down the side and attached to the back of the single image with DST (red liner tape)so you get the domed effect. This was then matted onto bronze mirri card, placed on the background image of the trees and then onto the main A5 top-folded card to which I had adhered some Graphicus paper. An organza ribbon across the top and a greeting and block from the Damask Blocks and Loving Sentiments stamp plates, again from Graphicus.



I was quite pleased with the way this has turned out and will be using this design again.

Another Word Book

Our friend, Alan, who lives in the village is 65 soon and we have been invited to a garden party (fingers crossed for the weather!!!) so I wanted to make a word book for him and used my Funky Daze CD.


Alan's interests are wine, cycling and gardening so I tried to theme the word book for these hobbies. I downloaded an image of a red wine bottle which had a blank label. I took the image into Photoshop and typed "Chateau Rankin 2009" and "made in Sparkford" on the label. I then printed it out on inkjet shrink plastic. It looks pretty good and I was pleased with it. I also stamped an image of a bicycle from the Flower Soft range onto shrink plastic and luckily I had some charms of various garden implements which I also used.


I hope he likes it.

Word Book

I've just managed to finish off this word book to celebrate our friend Doris' 80th birthday next week. Doris used to be a near neighbour but moved down to Hove a couple of years ago. Can't believe she's 80 next week - really scary!!!

I've made a matching box for it and am going to post it off tomorrow. Then I need to make another word book for another friend, Alan, who has his 65th birthday coming up soon - I don't know; we're surrounded by all these old people............ LOL!!!

I have also sold all my leather notebooks so need to get making some more and today also sold a knitted wire necklace and treasure box so know what I'll be doing for the next few weeks.

Thanks for stopping by.

Phew...........!!

Just finished my animal card for club night on Wednesday, so that's me done on the preparation front. I have used an image from Joanna Sheen's brilliant new CD-rom "Eastern Treasures" - it has got some of the loveliest images I have seen for a long time. This tiger looks like he is literally going to leap off the card. All the images have been hand painted by the artist Chang Ko-Chi.

Right - better go and have a look to see what's for dinner - definitely NOT a BBQ!!!!! LOL

Second medallion sample card

Hurray!!!! I've just managed to finish off my second sample for club night on Wednesday. Again I have used a medallion stamp from Creative Stamping. This time I stuck to monotones of black and white; so black embossing powder on white card and white embossing powder on the black card. Again I raided my stash of Graphicus papers and found a matching black and white sheet. The sentiment is one I got from C&C and I used a ticket punch from Stampin Up for all the corners. Gems were then added as a final embellishment. Now - off to start on my animal card!!! LOL

Medallion Card

Hi everyone - well it seems such a long time since I posted but things have been really hectic over the last couple of weeks - first our two day art exhibition, then the following weekend I had a stall at a school fete and then yesterday we had our annual BBQ to raise funds for the local Neighbourhood Watch and catered for nearly 100 people............... don't think we'll be having another BBQ for quite a while!!! LOL.

I have managed to finish one medallion card sample for club night on Wednesday and will try to get another one done this afternoon but thought I would post this one first. For the main image I have used a Creative Stamping image and, for a change, have stamped onto patterned card (from my stash of Graphicus Guild goodies). There are actually 7 layers and I must admit it was quite difficult to cut out because of the pattern on the card. When I stamped it I embossed in copper. The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set as are the scalloped and oval punches. I then used DecoArt Paper Effects in copper as embellishments at the edge of the card.