Anji's Birthday - & Lots to Do , Black & White

This sketch was drawn by my daughter Hannah , a gift for my friend Anji for her birthday.










This is a mini book that I have just made for my friend Anji.
It goes with the card that I entered for this weeks Lots to Do challenge, Black and White.

Anji adores Michael Jackson and this book holds images of Michael dressed as Charlie Chaplin.

I would like to say Thank you to Carol, who came to the rescue with the stamped image of Charlie Chaplin that I was having trouble getting a hold of.

Its a shame I cant load all of the pages , for some reason blogger is rotating them and I cant figure out how to keep them the correct way up.....I havent had this problem before .....

The drawing at the very top was done by my daughter who is trying to perfect her drawing skills as she would like to be a tattooist specialising in portraits.

Thank you for stopping by.

Lots to do Black and White

Apologies that this entry for Lots to Do - Black and White has been just that of a quick card.
Im working all weekend and my daughters dog came to live with us, which has made the weekend very hectic to say the least, but I still needed to make this card for a dear friend so decided to do it in black and white.

My Friend Anji adores Micheal Jackson and since the music and lyrics of Charlie Chaplins smile are appropriate, this decided the theme of her card.


Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Lots to do Vintage

This weeks theme at "Lots to do" is vintage.

Anyone who has visited here before will know Im a huge Vintage fan and am very lucky to have hundreds of vintage family images dating back to the 1800's as my Great Grandfather did photography as a hobby, and developed alot of his own work.
My grandfather then followed in his footsteps , so the library of material i have to work with is huge. I am very lucky.

Here are 3 layouts , a double layout showing my Grandfather , he was an undertaker . The horse drawn carriage pictures were found on a set of glass negatives in mint condition in his garage.
The other layout is of my Grandparents , this is one of my favourite layouts. This picture doesnt do justice to the delicate pink that I used on here.

Hope you like them , 12 x 12 are always awkward to photograph .....my grandad and great grandad should be here to show me how !!

Thanks for stopping by my blog .

A Compendium of Curiosities

OMG......It finally arrived......and it was so worth waiting for.

If you get the chance to buy Tim Holtz's new book "A Compendium of Curiosities" you wont be dissapointed.

It is an absolute treasure, you will never lack inspiration again.

I cant wait to start playing , only one problem.......I need to buy more stuff, inks , embossing powders , hardware etc. Ranger certainly knew what they were doing bringing out this book, I bet product sales soar now......

It appears to be very easy to follow and has some amazing step by step instructions for some of his magnificent projects which has made him so popular.

Personally I cant wait to get crafting !!! Now that can only be a good thing surely ?

Thanks for stopping by.

My Early Birthday Present to Myself

As you all know I am a huge Elvis fan.

This year I bought myself some tickets to see an Elvis concert at the Newcastle Arena as an early birthday treat.
Of course Im sure you are all aware he died on my 17th Birthday in 1976. I was never lucky enough to see him LIVE but I believe this was the next best thing. Im sure he would never have imagined that after nearly 34 years of being dead, he would still be wowing audiences while touring.

This was his original band, and backing singers who all played live on stage.
The footage of Elvis was from various concerts that he had played with these artists and all of the music and noise was taken from the footage apart from his voice.

This enabled the band to perform for him whilst he sang along to the music they played. He even introduced the band members one at a time to the audience.

It was very moving and so well done , I can only say if that after this concert I cant imagine what it would have been like to be lucky enough to actually experience one of his original performances.
The audience were in awe of the lighting , live music and the presence in the auditorium.

My daughter and I had a brilliant evening which I will always remember, and if this show comes near to where you live, go see it, you wont be dissapointed, it was amazing.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Lots to do - Tags

This is my entry for this weeks Lots to do (which you can find here), this time it's Tags.

As I couldnt make my mind up between either of these styles I thought it would be much simpler to make both.

I started with the blank plain heart shape.




Used some distress inks to colour it.



Next I stamped this cute clown, and coloured him with watercolour pencils.



I took some grungeboard wings and the word "me" and painted them with a gold ranger dabber, adding some gold dust to the wings.





Next I attached all the bits and bobs and voila...one finished.



For my second one I cut 3 sizes of the Nestabilities labels.
I love these Ive used them for so many different things.




Next I cut and embossed a butterfly.




Again using a selection of inks I coloured both the tags and the butterfly.



After taping the tags together I used some black soot distress ink and inked the words Kindred Spirit and added a peacock feather to the mix.



After fastening down the feather, words and butterfly I added some ribbon.





So thats it all done, 2 tags.

Ive had fun making them although Im up to the eyes in ink !!

Thanks for stopping by my blog, I really appriciate it.

Lots to do challenge - White

These are my entries for this weeks Lots to do challenge which this week is white.

One of the most amazing things I have ever watched in live theatre is "Phantom of the Opera" I think I fell in love with the Phantom , the man, his voice, and all of the passion within the character.
The dvd and also cd is often on in my house and the character I adore most of all is the one played by Gerard Butler. So this first atc I edged white card with black soot Distress ink so that i could get a slightly smudged finish.

I then rubber stamped with the black soot onto handmade paper which i frayed at the edges to try and achieve the worn look. Added the words, "imagine" "dream " and "desire" all of which remind me of the Phantom. I edged the wording with black soot and added the image of the mask.




My second atc was rubber stamped again with black soot but this time directly onto white bazzil which has a slight linen finish to it. It gave a sharper image , I added the words "memories" "unique" and "charm" and then added an image of Elvis.....I say no more.



My last piece is a Scrapbook page which is from the Memory book I made for my daughter when her dad died. It is an all white page with black and white images , the only colour on the page was some tiny little pink feet, and a couple of embellishments. The chrome "Daddy" I thought gave a nice finishing touch.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Lots to Do Challenge - Travel

Here is my entry for the Lots to Do challenge which this week is Travel.

You can find their blog here.

The atc's I have done this evening, and the Scrapbook page is one I did before Christmas.

The Atc's show a Ship, a Train and A Motorbike ( this ones my favourite hehehe).

The Scrapbook page shows my Great Grandfather in the car and his friend standing next to the car. Its a photograph from my vintage collection which I am slowly working my way through creating a series of family albums.

Thanks again for visiting my blog.

A few more from before Christmas

Just a couple more Scrapbook pages from before Christmas.

Please be Kind

I hope that I dont offend anyone by placing this on my blog.

That is not my intention, although I would appriciate it if you
please ask before you use any Vintage Images from my blog as they are my family members.

Thank you in advance for understanding my request, and Thank you for visiting my blog.

Zettiology Legs for Artist Trading Club

After many months of being engrossed in Scrapbooking , I decided my New Years Resolution was to get back to blogging and back to making atc's and joining in challenges etc.

Over at The Artists Trading Club Chriss has a guest Designer Hermine from the Netherlands. Hermine creates some amazing pieces and I am very lucky to have some of her work in my collection. Pop over to Hermines Blog Here and have a look for yourself.
This month at The Artist Trading Club the theme is Zettiology.

I made the above atc's with a set of Teesha Moore's Zettiology arms and legs stamp set. You can find Teesha's blog here her journals are fantastic, and her use of colour amazing.

I feel a little rusty with these atc's but im sure i will get back into the swing of things very soon, as we all know how addictive they can be.

I used inks to colour the blank atc , stamped the Zettiology legs onto velum so that I could move them around till I was happy with my design ( stuck in Scrapbooking mode you see LOL) then added the German Scrap and the barbed wire stamp and quotes etc.

Im pleased with them considering it must be about 6 months since I made any and at first I felt as though I was never going to be able to place them in a way I would be happy with.

Thanks alot for stopping by my blog, and I look forward to joining in more challenges etc as the weeks go by .