Reunited

Sam was over the moon to see Dottie today and they wasted no time catching up on everything that had been going on while Dottie had been away. They are busy working their way through a huge Pizza and wait for it.....a bottle of wine.
Seems like they are celebrating Halloween in style.

Paris

Although these little cards have already gone off in the post to a dear friend I thought I would post them on my blog anyway.
They are my favourite theme........PARIS.
It is now 1 whole year since I was last there and I miss it terribly.....I have consoled myself with Paris themed rubber stamps......but its not working.
I will have to start saving , I have withdrawal symptoms really badly !A year is the longest I have gone without visiting Paris in the last 4 years, the shortest time between visits is only 1 1/2 months......

A Fantastic Find !

Im sure there are many of you out there who like me have ruined numerous tops , t- shirts etc with paints and Inks while you have been crafting.
After one such accident last week I decided I would like an oversized shirt , to use as an art shirt to prevent any future accidents.
Years ago I had a great collarless shirt which I loved and this gave me an idea .....i searched the net and found this amazing company with really well priced shirts. I ordered myself a Navy one and was very pleased I had found an art shirt that looked the part.
My surprise was the next day, not only did my shirt arrive the next morning , but when I opened it and saw the colour and quality of the material I was really very pleased. Its so comfortable also. Why dont you check out the shop here I dont think for one moment you will be dissapointed if you treat yourself to one of these shirts, to be honest mine hasnt been used as an art shirt as I love it that much it looks great with my jeans, and i was worried about getting paint on it, the quality was so good, but I will be ordering again , and then eventually I will use one as an art shirt. They would make a great gift for any guy in your life, Ive even had to hide mine as my daughter had it on with a belt and it looked great. Go on , treat yourself......visit Kaboo World and check out their shirts......

Art y pico Award

Faye has honored me with the following Blog award. Thank you so much.

This Arte y Pico award has a few rules:

1. You must pick 5 blogs deserving this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and for contributing to the blogging community.
2. Each awardee must have the name of the author and a link to their blog.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her the award.
4. Award winner and the one who has given the prize must show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so all will know the origin of this award: Arte y Pico.


The 5 I would like to nominate are,

1. Rosie and Lindas Awfully Big Art Adventure.

2. Ink stains with Roni

3. Zuzus petals

4. Eclectic Visions of an altered Journey

5. Nancy Torsen


All of these creative friends really inspire me on a regular basis, Thank you to all of you , Jaqi

Awfully Big Art Adventure Week 5

Well finished at last, although it took me well into the early hours of last night.
I now know I am not and engineer or architect.........
This roof gave me quite a few headaches to say the least, but not wanting to be beaten I carried on......
Starting with a hard box that came with a bumper pack of Teabags in it ( I tried a carton and it wasnt very sturdy after my alterations, I wanted something I could actually use )I painted it with Gesso (wonder if used as a body cream it would still cover up imperfections? anyway moving on....) then a coat of acrylic paint all over, added some lace, then sponged on a darker coulor, then added metalic paint sponged onto the lace only.

Side one, the front, My door embossed in black metalic embossing powder, and number 16 my favourite number, the key is above the door and to the left an umbrella and bag with a quote which reads " Visits from dear friends make life sweeter", also a little sign which says " House work stinks" hehehe.

Side 2 , A beautiful lady looking from the window, which was sponged with distress inks and rubbed lightly with metalic paint, and a wonderful women quote, and a big crow in the rafters.....

Side 3 , Similar to side 2 although 4 baby birds in the rafters here.

Side 4 , The garden, I love my tree, not sure if you can see but the tree has been covered with Flower soft so it stands right out from the box, some flowers , a butterfly and a dragonfly.

The roof, above the garden has the word "Imagine" on it, a sunflower with a ladybug and lastly a hot air balloon with a cherub inside. The roof at the front hosts my Initial "J" and a little heart, "Art doesnt have to be perfect " quote ( as this house is far from perfect) and theres a black crow sitting on the quote.

It houses my tea lights now, saves them all being loose in the kitchen drawer.
Thats the tour of number 16 all done. Thank you for looking. xx

In Memory Of My Dad

Today marks the 4th anniversary of the death of my Wonderful Dad. His name was Eddie and he was my best friend.
He battled with Cancer but never complained. He is a huge miss in my life everyday.
I wanted to make something I could carry around with me in my handbag that linked me to him.
In the past I have made Scrapbook pages to mark special days i.e. Fathers day etc, but due to the size its not practical to carry them with my as they would only get damaged.
While Blog hopping i found this on Roni's blog.
I knew straight away that it was perfect for what i needed.
I gathered all of the bits and pieces together and promised myself it would be made in time for today.
I achieved what I set out to do. I love my little Domino Accordian book and its something I can carry around with me, even in my pocket if I want to.
I would like to say Thank You to my cousin Tom who very kindly drilled the holes for me ( I couldnt be let loose with a drill !)
I have pictures of a watering can, as he loved his garden, a car, as he drove all of his life, a gold embossed clock to remind me that time goes too quickly, a small photo of my dad , his name, a stamp, as we used to have a post office, and some quotes.
I will make more of these in the future they are lovely to make, Thank you to Roni for the inspiration.
Thank you for reading my post xx

To Sew or not To Sew

This is my entry for The Awfully Big Art Adventure challenge this week. The challenge was to make an arch with fabric. This takes me right out of my comfort zone TOTALLY.......I do not sew very well at all, my blanket stitch around the outside leaves alot to be desired, LOL , and the french knots that are holding the pink heart in place would make my Auntie Amalia ( who spent hours showing me these stitches when I was a child) turn in her grave........they look more like untidy running stitches......
I thought it best to file it in the bin and just pretend I hadnt done one hehehe, naughty I know but I feel its maybe better described as an example of how not to do it hehehe. Feel free to laugh at this example ......I am, LOL the best of it is its all stitched apart from the little quote which is glued on, quite appropriatly it says "unspoken words". I feel it is just the finishing touch it needed........In Geordie land we would say " Say Nowt" LOL

By accident

This little atc happened by accident, I used a blank card to test out stamping some paint rings, which I wanted to use on a background page in a scrapbook, the card was left to one side to dry, a couple of days later i came across this image of this couple in an art magazine, which matches perfectly the stamped acrylic rings, BINGO ......one atc. It was just meant to be LOL........

Websters pages

Oh my.....Check this out for a fantastic giveaway. Have a look here and leave your details, you wont be dissapointed its a brilliant package of goodies and you could be in with a chance to win, dont miss it hurry and have a look ........

Paperartsy

Inspired by a little card which came in with an order recieved from Paperartsy I made this little atc.
Messing about with Tim Holtz distress inks that I got from Scrapz i had a great time making the colourful backgrounds. I then doodled the way they had and re inked with additional colours using a cotton bud ( a must in my tools these days) to get into the tiny areas.

Papergirls Challenge

This was my entry for the Papergirls Challenge over here
I enjoyed the challenge of altering the envelope, dont think the postman would be very pleased to get this in his postbag though......
Thanks for visiting and reading my blog.

Soul Journal pages 3,4,5 & 6

I have struggled for a couple of weeks not sure about the pictures for pages 3 & 4.
The pictures that were suggested held no meaning for me, and I wanted my Soul Journal to be full of meaning.
I struggled with the decision but finally decided to use magazine cuttings but different from the ones that had been suggested.
Above my images I have wrote prompts for myself,
* To remember the past
* To remember excitement
* To remember love
* To remember to hope
* To remember to walk
* To remember to hear
* To remember to drink water
* To remember to love
and lastly
* To remember to Dream.

I am happy with my cuttings and now these pages have meaning for me.

Pages 5 & 6 started out a pretty blue and have ended up very dark with touches of metallic gold paint. Although dark they are still very me and again have some meaning, I wrote my text beneath the layers of tape and then the pages have had about 5 coats of paint, my text is well hidden........

Ive had a good time with these pages , although I havent followed the instructions to the letter, Im pleased with what I have done. Thank you for visiting my blog.

Theme Thursday, Purple 4x4

This is my entry for the Theme Thursday, Purple 4x4.
I have used a Paris theme, using a Notre Dam stamp and one of the Eiffel Tower and a gold embossed Paris postmark.
Both Purple and Paris are my favourite.
Thank you for looking.

Tin Can Alley Challenge

This is my entry in the Tin Can Alley Challenge.
I decided to go for an under the sea theme, as I had lots of mermaid stamps etc that I hadnt used very much. I like mermaids , have done since i was a little girl so it seemed appropriate to put them on here so I can look at them while I work.
Oddly enough Ive been thinking that I needed something to keep my paint brushes in now that im painting more, so its a perfect solution all round. Thanks to Rosie and Linda from the Awfully Big Art Adventure for the inspiration.

I Love my new Stamps

I really love my new stamps which I got from Karen at Scrapz they have made me think outside the box, which has been a refreshing change. They are unusual to say the least but I have enjoyed playing with them so much. Although I find the Zettiology stamps very different from most others that I have been working with I find that they really get me thinking, and the more I work with them the more I love them.
It was Linda Vincent who first introduced me to them , so Cheers Linda, I love working with them.

Tags

On Monday evening a good friend of mine came for a scrapbooking lesson.
She has finally given in to listening to me non stop talking about crafting and has finally decided to start her own Scrapbook.
We went shopping and she bought herself an album and a selection of papers etc and came along Monday night for me to help her get started.
As she was working away I decided to just mess about with some inks and stamps, I came up with these tags, I love the colours , they came out very well and considering half the time I wasn't even concentrating on what I was doing but on what Gill was doing Im surprised they came out ok.
Gill managd to get 2 pages completed and she was over the moon with what she had achieved. I was impressed shes a natural and maybe she might even start blogging .

Art Doll for Awfully Big Art Adventure

Not sure if she looks better on a black or a white background.
This is my Art Doll for the Awfully Big Art Adventure Friday Challenge.
The quote on her tummy says " Forget buns of steel, I would rather have buns of cinnamon".
I made her in my favourite colour purple, I bought this beautiful spotty purple paper from Scrapbook Village. Its a Bo-Bunny paper and I bought some matching ribbon too. I bought a few sheets as I know I will use this for a few projects. It comes in a range of colours all very lovely. The arms and legs are from a Zettiology stamp which I bought from Karen at Scrapz
Theres a range of sizes on the set and they are well worth it.

Snowman Poop

Well more church sale stuff and this should be the last. Its packets of Snowman Poop, the verse reads,

I here that you've been naughty,
so listen heres the scoop,
Im running short of coal this year,
So heres some Snowman Poop.......

The packs contain a sachet of Hot Chocolate and a little bag of white marshmallows, yummy.

Breast Cancer Awareness

As this month is Breast Cancer Awareness month Cookie Sunshine has very generously offered to give away one of her fantastic drawings.
Check out Cookies site here for the details of what you need to do to qualify to be entered into the draw.
Good Luck to all who enter and Thank you to Cookie for her wonderful offer.

Ive been Tagged

I've been tagged by Linda Vincent,


So here are 5 random facts about me...
1. I once went to a party at Richard Bransons House on Oxford.
2. I can't eat celary, it gives me headaches.
3. I once made a lemsip for Scotty Moore when he had a cold (Elvis Presleys Guitarist).
4. My aim is to see my children & grandchildren grow up happy.
5. I once organised a conference for 4,685 police officers which lasted over 9 days. And everything ran smoothly.


Now I want to find out some things about you......

Nancy Torsen
Denise Mayson
Jessie
Karen from Scrapz
Chris Rowe

The Beatles

A little while ago I did a Beatles atc and while I was looking for the image I found these ones and didnt use them.
They have sat in a little box on my table for weeks.
I thought it would be different to do a set of atcs, but attach them together like a little book.
I bought some new distress inks and got this checked paper for only 10p, It matched in well with the colours of the inks. Im pleased with my little book and at last there are 6 less items in the box on my craft table waiting to be used.

Goody Bags for Halloween

Managed to use up lots of tiny bits of card from my scraps box making these Goody Bags for Halloween.
Most of the images are from a Cuttlebug Halloween cutter that i bought when i was doing my Disney album.
Im hoping that as the church sale is next weekend these might just sell in time for halloween. Usually the sale is a bit nearer Christmas but this year its earlier. I enjoyed making them I love the little ghost hes just so cute.

Church Autumn Sale of Work

Its that time of year again when the church is having its sale of work and we are trying to think of different things to make that we havent sold before.
I had a go at making these magnetic bookmarks to use up some of my ever growing mountain of scrap card. They seem to have turned out quite well. I was pleased with them although obtaining the magnetic strip was difficult until my friend came to the rescue. Now lets hope they sell !