My Creative Spirit (Blog Archive)

Helloooo, it's Sunday eve here in the UK and I'm home, feet up with a glass of vino watching the amazing Dolly in her heels at Glastonbury.  I've had a really fun day today  crafting as Roy took us through  Karen Clares amazing  Tarmac technique over at Pink Tulip.  It was lovely to sit the other side of the table, chit chat away and get messy.  I don't  get to so that very often but definitely need to do more.  Our day sort of went like this: Cover your base with embossed and die cut card pieces  Paint with your chosen colour scheme  Paint on and lift off the secret grunge  Add Treasure Gold or Silver which I used on mine and ta da!! you have one funky altered piece of art.  Mine's a little present for someone very special ♡ Hope she likes :-) Mr Clean & Miss Messy :-)  AKA Roy and Clare  Here's a few more pieces made today Sandra before and after …………….. Thanks R...

 It's been weeks in the planning but today Sheila (left) and her team opened the doors for the first, but I'm sure not the last Grand Crafting Weekend and the shop was heaving.  Mark, Visible Image ran two classes on how to make the stunning card below with the new Revolution stamp set and across the way we made Botanical Tea themed gift caddies using my new kits. Hazel Eaton was demoing how to make more stunning cards using the Visible Image stamps too.  and Hazel Eaton was demoing with Visible Image stamps  There's more crafty fun on tomorrow too.  Roy, Mr Candy Box Crafts will be teaching the Tarmac Technique, a Karen Clare (The Clock Lady) technique in his class from 0am - 3pm and Michelle Johnson will be sharing her hints and tips in store too.  There's one or two places left so, if you fancy coming along and joining in the fun send a Face Book message to Pink Tulip to book your place. I'm going to join the class too and learn this ...

Come Away with Me double picture frame Helllooooo and happy Friday afternoon to you.  It's been quite a week here in our little old household.  For the first time since last August we've been back in the work routine big time, up and out at 7, Oli off to work, me the taxi service and then home and ready to start myself by 8.  I've got through more to do's this week than I had planned which is great and today I've got that real Friday feeling.  Pooped :-) However the sound of the hover and Oli cleaning his room is music to my ears :-) He's definitely had a good week.  As I've been ticking things off my list I've been making some samples for the Create and Craft TV shows I'm guesting on in August and found some very old photos to use in my Come Away with Me picture frame.  Yes, that's a very young me sitting on the steps of the Taj Mahal, India just in front of the smallest arch you can see in the picture on the left. What a truly roma...

Hello there and a very happy Thursday to you.  I'd like to start off my post by sending a huge thank you to everyone who left comments on my intro post over on the G45 blog and Fb on Tuesday.  I was really touched as I read through all the comments, and to answer few shout outs we are looking at my going to the US next year to run a series of workshops.  I'll post more about when and where as plans develop.  How exciting, its something I've been wanting to do for ages. My little vase of flowers well not so little, it stands about 20" tall, went down a storm so I thought I'd share how to make the stemmed roses with you and have had a great morning making the video.  Heres a quick list of what you need  and the link to the video too.  Sizzix -- Susans Garden toolkit 658437 Sizzix - Flower, Rose 658411 Sizzix  - Flower,3D & Vine 658064 8" white lollipop sticks  Florist tape - moss green  Designer paper - I used 'Fabulou...

Morning all, hope you had a great weekend.  Monday's here again and I'm wondering where the weekend went.  I know I've been a bit quite on the blog over the past few days but I've been busy behind the scenes and can today I'm able to share what I've been up to with you, so apologies for the long post :-)    Andy (the Crafty Elf as he's lovingly known) and I were joined by 27 lovely ladies and our first gent for our second retreat of the year. What a fab time we all had crafting away.  The retreat was months in the planning but like any event you look forward to, it seemed to be over in a flash.  Thank you all for coming along and making it such a success and thank you to all the staff at the Holiday Inn for looking after us all over the two days. More about the weekend below. Over the past few weeks we've seen some amazing projects and creativity from this years amazingly talented Graphic 45 design team, and now it's Ambassador intro week, s...

My Creative Spirit Retreat Project - the Album Cover  Phew, what a week we're having and it's only Thursday.  With my retreat this weekend rapidly approaching, I've cut out 30 sets of chipboard pieces, packed 30 kits, made two albums, written two sets of instructions, photographed every step, made two slide shows, e mailed links out to everyone and just have instructions to check over and print off and then we're done and ready to rumble.  Am looking forward to seeing everyone coming along  to the hotel on Saturday for a weekend of crafting Graphic 45 style.  We've got a decorate your badge competition, raffles and demos over the two days, oh and our altered projects and albums in Good Ol Sport and Botanical Tea to make too.  After a year that's taken us beyond the edge and back again Oli has got himself a new job today.  I'm over the moon.  He had the best two hr informal interview, came home, got the good news this afternoon and starts M...

Happy Monday morning to you, hope you enjoyed your weekend.  I was down with Nina and her ladies yesterday at Its Crafting Times for a By the Sea style workshop.  It was lovely to see everyone again and new ladies too.  Thanks for a great day all.  I took loads of photo s during the day to share this morning but for some strange reason the phone has blank Jpeg files on it!!!  Not sure what happened there but will see if Nina has some and post them later.    I picked up the whole collection of Heritage Titanic papers too.  I'd seen them a couple of years ago at Ally Pally,  didn't buy them and have spent the last couple of years searching for them on the net.   I was at Nina s a few weeks ago and came across them completely by accident while browsing through a black album full of the complete Heritage paper and ephemera collections designed by Sally Elve Butler .  They're absolutely gorgeous.  Now I have mor...

Altered Miniature Piano - A Candy Box Crafts Product  I hope you're having a good week.  It's flying here, I've been designing and making a new project for Graphic 45, cut into a few more sheets of An Eerie Tale papers and writing the instructions for the two projects we're making at my retreat next weekend.  We're one day away from the last GCSE exam,  which Harry tells me have all gone well and his last day at school.  I think I'll be having to find him some little jobs next week.  Oli's been working on the web site too which is giving me more time to cut up paper an stick it together lol!  I thought I'd share this new product with you from Candy Box Crafts.  Its the cutest little piano to decorate and fill with whatever you fancy.  Roy, Mr Candy Box himself decorated this one in papers from the Bird Song collection by Graphic 45 and I made the flower arrangement to sit under the lid using the Sizzix Susan's Garden Rose Die (65841...

Have you been enjoying the sunshine today after all the storms we had  over the weekend.   Loved the craft show in Doncaster yesterday.  Caught up with lots of crafters and Hazel who won the tickets, Paula & Gary from WhichCraftUK, Jo on the Clarity stand doing some fab demos and Mark on the PaperArtsy stand, and did a bit of shopping too.   I've got just a little addicted to the Sizzix Susans Garden flower dies and my collection of two sets grew over the weekend to quite a few more !!  oops, not sure how that happened :-)  I've been trying out the Catalaya orchid set today.  Out came the pan pastels, copic markers, G45 card stock in the yellow which goes perfectly with the new Eerie Tale papers  and my tool kit.  these were my first attempts.  How relaxing, making flowers in the sunshine.  I need about 15 for a project I've started along with a whole load of other flowers so no resting on my laurels its off to make mor...

An Eerie Tale Armoire our retreat project at Daisy s in October I hope you've enjoyed your Saturday and didn't get washed away in the storms that have swept over us here in the UK.   We've had a real crafty day at Daisy's making my Art Deco handbag from Couture papers.  Pics below. I got itchy fingers last night, got out the scissors and cut into the beautiful An Eerie Tale papers that arrived on Thursday.  A couple of weeks ago Jeff and I designed the Armoire above as the project for the retreat at Daisy's in October.  It holds an album, has hangers for tags and has two drawers for nick nacs or pictures.  Cut by Roy at Candy Box Crafts it will be available to order after the retreat.  We're going for a non Halloween theme, something you can do really easily with this collection, its so versatile.  Here's a couple of close ups of the detail.     And here we all are crafting away, and almost oblivious to the torrential rain o...