CANDY WINNER!

Morning all,

It's time to announce the winner of my latest candy, and I enlisted the help of Mr. Random.org for this one (my son being faaaaar too busy on his computer to come and help out this time, lol).

And Mr. Random chose:

Which is Tracey!  Drop me an email, and I'll get your goodies posted off to you.

I am already planning the next candy, so keep your eyes peeled!

Now, I must go get ready, as my darling son and I are off for some afternoon tea shortly (providing I can get him away from that computer!).

Have a fantastic day all!

Sammy-x

Candy!

Hi all,

As my blog has just turned 2 years old (on the 10th), and by way of apology for my frequent absences at the moment, I thought I would host a wee candy for you all.
 I put together a few colouring mediums, some TH goodies and grabbed a gift voucher for Art From The Heart (my current favourite shop, who deliver internationally at cost!) and put it all together ready to send to one of you!

The rules are simple: Be a follower (old or new), and drop your name with the little blue frog below. I would love a spot in your sidebar if you can manage it, and candy only blogs are NOT considered. Simples, no?
If you feel like it, clue me in in the comments on what your favourite colouring medium is. (Optional!) I have always loved my Promarkers, personally, but when it comes to making backgrounds, you can't beat distress inks!

The candy will run for a few weeks, as I have a busy spell coming up at the end of the month, so I'll draw afterwards.

Right then, that's enough waffle from me. Have a fantastic day!

Sammy-x

Anything but a birthday - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning everyone!

First of all, there's still a day or so left to enter my candy if you haven't done so yet. See the sticky post at the top of my blog.


So, I was away at Standon Calling festival last weekend, dressing up as a cowgirl, teaching folks to sing "I Shot the Sheriff" and entertaining lots of little deputies, cowboys and Indians with wild west related crafts. Luckily the weather was absolutely glorious, so no mud to contend with!
I did over-do it a bit, so have spent most of this week in bed, but all in all, I'd say it was a success :-)


Now then, on to this week's challenge over at Sweet Stampin'. The theme is a very easy Anything but a Birthday so there's no excuse not to join in.

I took the opportunity to have a play with one of the fab Tim Holtz burlap panels that I'd picked up a little while ago. LOVE them. Because they are wood underneath the burlap, there's no distortion that you might sometimes get when using a canvas.

Everything on this panel, besides the twine, is TH. Paper, tissue tape, ephemera, sentiment, metal bits and of course stamp, markers and inks. There's also some Distress paint on the sides of the panel to add some interest.

Soooooo much fun to make, and definitely one I'm keeping for myself!

Hope to see some of you enter the challenge this week, and I hope to come visit your lovely blogs soon too.

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

August challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Good morning all.

Is it really August already? Well, when you're reading this, I should be sitting in a tent in a field, more than likely lamenting the constant rain and trying not to sink too deeply into the mud!
I should be back in a few days, and be very much looking forward to sleeping in an actual bed again...

Anyways, for my August DT project at Rhedd's Creative Spirit, I did something a little different, and decided to make a whole collection of items with a few items from the G45 "Home Sweet Home" collection.

There's a recipe book, a couple of tags, a couple of magnets, a set of cards made with leftover scraps of paper, and a mini album.

I've still got lots left over, so there will probably be a recipe box happening in the near future too!

Some pictures of the mini album pages:

The front cover

First page with photo mats/journalling cards

The next page has a series of photo mats stacked on top of each other

The other side of the mats

More mats

Journalling cards on the flaps which open up to leave more space for photos.

A recipe card tucked into a pocket

More mats and journalling cards.

And the back.

I do love making these mini albums, and I adore this G45 collection. It's not often I work with primary colours (and green, lol), but it makes for such a striking combination.

Now I hope you'll come and join us this month. Remember Anything altered art goes!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Boys and their toys - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning Bloggers!

Are you ready for a new challenge? How about a masculine one? (I can hear some of you groan from over here!) But if you're anything like me, the Boys and their Toys theme at Sweet Stampin' is a welcome one.
I love making cards for boys, but don't seem to do many of them these days!

The image I used on this card is of course LOTV, and the paper is from Docrafts from the Wellington bear pack from three years ago. Wellington was who got me crafting in the first place, so I very much enjoyed digging the papers out from the back of the box! :-)

I hope you'll all find the time to play along!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Christmas in July - Sweet Stampin' DT

Morning all,

Well, I've been for my endoscopy, and have a stonking hiatus hernia getting in the way. So far medications aren't helping, and even plain water sets off the heartburn, so will have to see what the doctor suggests next. *le sigh*

In other news (whether it's better or not depends on whether you're ready to hear the dreaded "C" word yet!), there's a new challenge today over at Sweet Stampin'. The theme is Christmas in July, which may be a word non grata for some at the moment, but very welcome for me, as at least I've now made a start! So much for making Christmas cards all year round, like I promised myself...

But there was a very easy way to make this fun for myself, as I just so happened to have a voucher to spend on Amazon, which in turn translated into some shiny new Tim Holtz blueprint goodies.

I teamed the tree one up with last year's favourite Christmas paper, and this is what I came up with:

(apologies. I'm having some lighting issues at the moment...)

Now the eagle-eyed TH aficionados amongst you may spot the the sentiment doesn't belong with the set. It is in fact part of the snowman one, but I thought this one was more appropriate, as around here no-one I know uses "happy holidays". (I know my youngest's school tried making people use it one year, "so as not to alienate non-Christians", but no-one - including said non-Christians - took the blindest bit of notice, lol)

So there it is, my first Christmas card of the year. Fingers crossed I manage to get another couple done before December!

Your turn. You know you really should get started. And you'll get to play along with the cool kids to boot (that's us, in case you were wondering!).

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

July challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit DT

Morning all!

And here we are at the first of the month again! Time is just flying past. Of course it means that there's a new Anything altered art goes challenge starting over at Rhedd's Creative Spirit, and this month I have a set of drawers to show you.

I used some DCWV paper for this, which I just love...  The unit itself was painted with Frayed Burlap Distress paint before papering.

One side, with some Tattered Floral die-cut flowers and metal leaves.

The top. Another tattered floral flower and tattered leaves too.

The polaroid picture was part of the paper pad, and I embellished it with some goodies, including a filigree shape I cut in half.

The front has more filigree and some buttons pretending to be knobs :-)

I also used some alcohol ink on the sides of the drawers, which adds that little something when they are opened, I think...

I did have a "before" picture, which I took to show how drastic the transformation was. This came into the charity shop one day whilst I was working, and it was looking rather bedraggled and faded from being left out in strong sunlight. If I hadn't been there to intercept it, it would doubtless have ended up in the bin, so I'm glad I managed to grab it and give it a new lease of life.
But silly me, I can't find the before picture anywhere! I do have one taken after I'd gessoed the base unit, which was the most bedraggled of all, so it doesn't show the full effect...

Anyways, it's your turn. Come see what my fellow DT have made this month, and then why not play along?

Have a fantastic day!

Sammy-x