Testing testing

Well today saw me go for vestibular testing to find out what causes my vertigo attacks. I was not allowed to take meds from sunday night which made me very nervous and I was fine through Monday - then had 3 attacks Tuesday and woke up with one this morning! After being tipped back suddenly, following lights this way and that from different angles and marching on the spot with my eyes closed none of the tests set anything off. Typical! Have to go back to have another test done in a couple of weeks which involves water in the ears but my ears were too full of wax to do it today so olive oil and syringing before I go back!

Once out of the hospital I gobbled down my tablets as fast as I could so i could start to feel more confident again - not that they prevent them just make them less likely but that will do for me at the moment. Thankfully work have been marvellous and Ive had time off Tuesday and Wednesday - back on Friday.

So tomorrow sees a crafty day with chums Michelle, Elaine and Bee and I feel the need to try an art journal page so I may be rather messy tomorrow in a really good way :0)

Hope your day has been good x Janet

Tuesday Taggers Trees

Well today you get 2 instead of 1! I enjoyed this challenge so much i made 2 tags.
The first one Im not sure what the stamp is as I played with some supplies from the demo cupboard at the local shop! Ive watercoloured using distress inks and then used stampin up papers on the tag and butterfly. The Happy birthday stamp is by blonde moments and ribbon from stash.

This pink tag I began at the Geaordiland meet on 12th September - The lovely Sian was demonstrating ultra thick embossing so I made the tile whilst there. I decided to make it into a tag so have used blonde moments papers and sentiment then added some ribbon from stash.
There is a fab prize again this week from the Craft Barn of £15 to spend online or in their shop however you must include the craft barn link in your post or display the button on your sidebar to be included in the draw.
Hop on over to Tuesday taggers and see what my fab team mates have come up with!

have a great day x
Janet

What a fabulous time!

Here I am at Art from the Heart today - Bee on left the Dyan, Emma and finally me! Ive got inks all over my fingers, paint up my nails and a book full of lots of techniques what more could a crafty gal ask for?

The company has been brilliant, the teaching as always perfect and the hotel really lovely. Had such a good time Ive booked to do another weekend in February with Emma and Bee too - this time doing Art Journals.

My brain is sooo crammed with info im shattered so will scoot off to bed - just couldnt resist showing you the pic.

Huge thanks to Emma for putting up with me as a room mate (even though I snore)and being the chauffer - its hugely appreciated xx

Janet

I'm so excited

Tomorrow i get my birthday present - my long awaited ranger weekend at Art from the Heart. Not only do I get to be taught by my favourite crafty tutor about my favourite crafty products - I get time to spend with my super not seen enough buddies Bee and Emma . Both are fellow teamies from Tuesday Taggers but we met at Malham craft retreat doing what we love playing with craft stuff.

The lovely Bee I met almost 3 years ago and she is responsbile for starting my passion for atcs. I have swapped over 700 now and have 4 albums. Bee introduced me to alcohol inks, using acetate and stamps - so this meeting turned out to be an expensive one lol. I am in awe of the stuff Bee produces which is always to a really high standard. She is also a good teacher and has shown me a number of techniques over the times we have met - now its time for us to learn new things together from Dyan and I cant wait.

And Emma - well we met only last November but she has become so much part of my crafty life i cant believe its been so little time. Emma has a wicked sense of humour and is so quick with her quips I just love to spend time in her company. She always smiles, has a friendly word and is truely caring. Emma introduced me to Stampin up and so set off another collection (why do crafty chums always end up costing you money???). I think Dyan may be in for a shock when she hears us banter as Im usually the quiet one in the corner in her classes. Emmas card making style is so different to mine - I cant seem to get the classy clean looks that she does still we have 2 retreats coming up in Oct and Nov so maybe I will pick up more tips!

Anyway if you want to see my buddies in action and see why I think their crafting is out of this world then hop on over and visit.

Heres Bee
and heres Emma

2 more for the sepia theme

I enjoyed playing with this colour ways so much I did a series of 3 cards all using the same inks and stamps as below but how different do they look! The one below I think Ive over done the mustard seed with but hey thats part of the fun playing about lol.


Hope all well in your part of the world xx

The Stampman and Sepia

Here's my sepia card - the picture makes it look more yellowy than it actually is. Ive used distress inks old paper, frayed burlap and vintage photo with some mustard seed to finish off. The lady stamp is by crafty Individuals and comes as a set of 4. i have used the distress inks to watercolour her. The piece behind her is using the same colours of distress inks and also a swirl mini mask from Tim Holtz. The background stamp on the large part of the card is a background stamp from stampers anoymous Tim holtz range too. the lace I have coloured using teh inks and then finished it off with gold ribbon. I've also used some brown sparkly paper by Kanban in between to mat the layers up.
I enjoyed playing with this colour palatte although my fingers looked like I was a seriously heavy smoker when i had finished!

Thanks for your comments about my Sons going off to Uni. Sunday was a really hard day. Although I wasn't going to go to Uxbridge I did go in the end if only to delay saying goodbye for a few more hours. I had a drop vertigo attack in the middle of the Uni campus so felt mightily embarrassed but am thankfully un hurt. James is busy making new friends and although said he would text me and tell me when to ring him tonight in the end he is going out with friends he has made. Hard though that is for me it is what should be - Hes off on a new journey in his life and I am very proud.

One gone one more to go

So No 1 son has left to go back to Uni in Bangor North Wales with an over night stop with a pal in Liverpool. Tom is on the left. This is his final year. No 2 son James is on the right and leaves tomorrow morning. We spent yesterday getting up to date with washing and mending and a little bit of chatting. James as you know is starting a degree at Brunel University studying music. Tom is studying Psychology. Its going to be a very quiet house without them especially James as he practices on average 6 hours a day of electric, acoustic guitar and piano.

So I dont brood today I am going to my local craft shop for a crop. Ive no scrapbooking projects at the moment so will be concentrating on getting some cards made - OH has asked me to make 2 get well ones and I have still 70 placecards to make for a colleagues wedding and a guest book. So plenty to keep me busy. Im going with my bessie Pal Elaine, her daughter is also going off to Uni so she will have no kids at home at all - hope we dont sob on each others shoulders all day!

Isn't it strange that we get so emotional about them doing the very thing we have been helping them achieve all their lives - independance. We have spent the last 20 years encouraging them, teaching them, guiding them to be strong, independant and happy adults and now we have done that job we feel sad that they are off to do the next stage of their learning. Wish I could feel happy about it or rather hold the happy thought longer than the feeling of emptiness. Maybe that will come with time.

So from a thoughtful Janet hope your weekend is packed with fun and laughter or if you are having the same sort of weekend as me that you can hold on to the happiness of a job well done as your Child goes off to Uni.
Take care
Janet

Tuesday Taggers

Happy Tuesday Everyone! Today is my eldest sons 22nd birthday and for the first time he has chosen to go stay with his friends to celebrate it :0( To be fair its his best friend from school who now lives and works in Manchester and Tom is cramming a visit before he goes back to uni. I am a little disappointed its true but on the other hand am glad he knows i love him anyway and just want him to be a happy fella. So the celebration has been postponed till Thursday when friends and family are coming to say farewell to them both and do the birthday cake thing for Tom. Its going to be another busy week!

On to Tuesday Taggers - A nice easy theme this week Diecuts and punches. You dont need to use both but I have!


Paper is by Laura ashley, Sentiment by katys corner, ribbon from stash, punch doily lace edge by Martha Stewart, and the lovely diecut flower my new purchase from Little Claire's - isnt it fabulous? A nice easy tag this week which I think will find its way to a special blogging buddy xx

Have a fabulous day xx

wow what a busy weekend!

Yesterday was spent in County Durham at a little village called Snods Edge. Mum and I were picked up at 7-30am by another docrafter Mandy an we set off on an adventure. We were going to the Geordieland ATC meet! Had an amazing day with the most fantastic company. We did challenges, swapped atcs, chatted, more swapping, more chatting, some eating, make and takes more swapping and more eating before setting off back home about 4-30pm.

I ran one of the make and takes which was "distressing" this was the Christmas atc they made using distress inks and distressed embossing powder. The ink coloures are old paper, frayed burlap and spiced marmalade for the edges inking and for the Santa tattered rose, fired brick, faded jeans and peeled paint used as a watercolour.The Santa is a paperartsy stamp set just the right size for an atc!


Cazro who organised the meet made me this most gorgeous tag - I feel so privileged that she went to the trouble to consider not just the colours I would like but also the texture - isn't it brilliant!


This is the fabulous gift I received from a hugely talented and all round gorgeous lady called Bobs!





The list is endless of who to thank for it so i will just give a massive THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for a really lovely day xx

Then today I was up early to do a breakfast workshop at The great Northern Papercraft Extravaganza. I had told myself I wouldn't do it this time as I knew I would be shattered however when I found out Dyan was doing paints I could not resist - well to be honest it was a no brainer cos when I clicked the link from her blog to book a places (as soon as reading it!) I had done it before I had given it any thought.

I do love Dyans classes - Im not ashamed to say she is the reason I love messy stuff more than anything else - I play because of her and got all my inking and messy knowledge from her - not to mention some fabby scrapbooking LO when she ran her scrapbooking club. EDIT * I also met the fabulous Emma my fellow DT member from Tuesday Taggers*( soz Emma )
Well today we made a textured tag - not quite finished so not here to show you but I did buy some paints so you will be seeing more of it! And some of the fabby new papers too! check out the Website at Art from the Heart
Then after the class I met Chantelle AKA Angelwhispers - who recognised me from the blog - bless i felt so famous for all of 2 seconds :0) Fabby to meet you Chantelle and I hope we can meet again at the next one in a planned way. Hope it lived up to your excitement xx and let us see what goodies you succumbed to xx

After that I only had an hour before going back out to my Hubby - he was my chauffeur today - its a pain not being able to drive! I promised him I would be no longer then he was cross with me that i woke him up from having a nap! MEN! Still back to the show - I had a wander around my favourite stands - no time to do the lot in an hour! So I visited Ian and Jill at The Stampman and OMG I checked out Debbies cards - they were absolutely gorgeous - I feel this set is a must but I was on a mission today so didnt succumb too much - only a set of woodware stamps, 2 Tim Holtz masks and a gorgeous pink suitcase! Watch out for Jills work over on Tuesday Taggers the week after next - she has a gorgeous project up her sleeve - Thanks Jill xx

Then onto Craftwork cards - just a couple of card bits from there - on to the magazine deal and got 5 for a fiver Fab! Then I hit Dys stall. Again I was focused - just some paper - the new ones - one of the Christmas stamp sets from a few years ago and the claudine helmuth paints we had been using today. I was restrained and bought 3 colours but to be honest Im going back in 2 weeks for the Ranger weekend so am likely to get more LOL.

From there I went to dimension fourth - lovely stamps but nothing shouted at me today - onto Little Claire's stamps where I bought 2 promarkers and a new build your flower die - fabulous that's going to get used tomorrow! Then on to Once Upon a Stamp but they didn't have the nestie set I wanted so nothing there but I did buy a stamp from the new Lily of the Valley range and 4 more promarkers. So that was it - no time to watch demos and be swayed to buy things I didnt want ( well ok strictly speaking the Lily of the valley stamp and flower die were not on my list) so I think I have been restrained - not a bad lot of stash in an hour!

Back home so tired I fell asleep and had a 2 hour kip - whoops and now i have an appointment with the ironing board LOL. Both my sons are heading off to Uni next weekend so lots to do. You will remember the traumas of James' auditions from earlier this year well he heads off the Brunel Uni in Uxbridge, London next Sunday and Tom returns to Bangor for his final year - what a quiet house we will have!

So a hugely busy but fabulous weekend full of the stuff i like to do - meeting friends, learning and crafting! Hope your weekend has been as successful

Tuesday Taggers bookmark week

The brief this week was to make a bookmark and the option of a matching card. Meghan's Friend Lucy is 14 today and is a huge lover of books so this seemed perfect. She is also a lover of Chocolate in a huge way so the Yummy parcel contains a cadburys caramel bar.
the Yummy stamp is from stampin up card and ribbon from stash and the cutsie quirky little girl a stamp I bought from the Craft Emporium coloured with promarkers. The scalloped edges are done with the scalloped edge border punch from stampin up and the letters are a papermania alphabet stamp set. the flower on the bookmark was a freebie stamp last year from The craft stamper magazine of which I am a huge fan!

Well Im out all day today invigilating the 11+ exams at the local Grammer school with a huge team of other invigilaters. Its an interesting process although not what I wanted for my own children but there will be more than 200 boys and 200 girls at another venue sitting the practice test tomorrow all from out of the catchment area so its a popular choice for many in this area.

From my point of view its an extra bonus which helps pay for the craft retreat In November at Malham - That way i never feel guilty for spending the money as Iwork extra for it!

hope its not too blustery where ever you are today :0)
Janet

Where to buy that stamp

The stamp is from a range called a Christmas Carol newly released by papermania. If you go to www.docrafts.co.uk there is a picture of it with a video explaining the range on the home page at the top. It should be available from any of your local docrafts stockists now and costs just £6-99 - The stamp is wood mounted and is approx 6x4 inches big. Sorry I can offer specific stockists as i bought mine from Embsay Mills and having checked their website click on crafts it is not on there as yet.

Good luck with the search!
Janet

Thata stamp again!

Have embossed it this time and then used pearl powders as a paint to colour the baubles. I wasnt sure if this was too detailed to emboss properly but it has worked fine. Its also on brown card which i love and combined with the cream and gold I think it has a classy look. Have made 6 like this so with what ive already done this summer i have managed about 30 cards - only need another 30 and I will be done!

Is it possible to fall in love with a stamp?

Because I think I have.
Now I dont need any Christmas stamps at all - Ive just sold a load on ebay to make room in my craft room (rofl) but when I saw this in the new docrafts Creativity magazine I was just smitten. Now I have it its much bigger than I thought - the image just fits onto an A6 card. My first thought was that would look fantastic embossed. However it was my pearl pigment powders that got the first try with it.

Ive used Gold, copper and a red colour from the blonde moments pearl pigments range and just dusted them over the image stamped with perfect medium - spritzed with water then matted and layered on to gold card and straight onto a cream base. Its such a simple design but I really love it and it will be easy to post as its not a bulky card - so I made 7 last night and am going to try brown card instead of black to do some more.
What do you think??
Update - I bought the stamp from Embsay Crafts in Embsay, Skipton. I bought the pearl pigments from www.afth.co.uk they are beautiful powders which can be used dry like this, in water sprayed from a mini mister or mixed like a paint giving a similar look to H2os - really versatile I love them especially at Christmas. Ive had them 2 years and used them quite a bit but the tub still looks full!
Janet xx

Tuesday Taggers Buttons and Bows

I had some fab news this last week - My God daughter Victoria is expecting her first baby and also knows its a boy! New life is always exciting isn't it. She is unfortunately on her own so the news has been a shock to her Parents but everyone is excited now and I wanted to let her know we think the news is brilliant.

The papers are by K&Co. The image by Stampington coloured with promarkers. Buttons and ribbon from stash and sentiment from Pink Petticoat - its a retired set called tiny tags.

It fits in perfectly to our theme at Tuesday Taggers this week which is buttons and bows. We have a brilliant prize on offer too from Lyn at The Craft Emporium hop on over to Tuesday Taggers

Look forward to visiting your creations.

Janet