My Creative Spirit (Blog Archive)

Evening everyone,  last week seemed to fly by in a whirl and before I knew it I was on my way up the M1 to host a Graphic 45 weekend of crafting with Julie and her lovely ladies at AFE Creations, Skelton, North Yorks.  We had a fan dabby dozzy time,  two days of non stop creativity, chin wagging and fabulously tasty food.  Ladies thank you so much for making the weekend such a huge success and Julie, huge thanks for your fabulous hospitality again.  Oh and a special mention to Lynne who came along and joined the gorup for the first time.  It was lovely to meet you :-)  Here's a few pics taken over our two days;  smiles all round at the end of day 1 ........ I'll be back up at  AFE Creations for another Graphic 45 weekend of crafting in August 2017 - look forward to seeing you all again then ladies.  Today I jumped in the car again and headed down to Cheltenham to spend some time with Harry on his 19th Birthday. ...

Afternoon my crafty lovelies, what a fabulous weekend we had at the Holiday Inn, Kenilworth.  Ladies thank you so much for joining me. Your projects looked fabulous.  Enjoy using them :-) Prepping for any event takes such a huge amount of time which seems to run away with itself and I couldn't have run the event without the help from my dear friends Jane Cameron, Karen Richards,   Cathy Knight and Sarah Sunshine.  Thank you so much ladies. Cathy Knight and Sarah Sunshine on die cutting in the corner :-)   I didn't get to share all the project choices so here they are along with some fun pics and a montage from the weekend. Day 1 project line up The Lantern                       Box of Crackers                             The Advent Box  Lyns Altered Lantern Weekend Project Line Up  and a s...

morning, morning, morning........... I hope you had a lovely weekend.  It's been all go here, I'm on my fifth pad of St Nicholas paper and have just finished the fifth of our fabulously festive Christmas projects!!!! for this weekend.  There's four sleeps to go and one project to finish.....................!!!!!  I'll share that one with you before Friday.  The project today is this years' Event Organiser.  If you haven't seen it before it's my Event Organiser Kit , designed last year to hold all sorts of things you might want to keep, plan or store for or from an event, like a baby shower, wedding, celebration etc..... oh and Christmas of course.  The box measured  8 1/2" high 10" wide and  7" deep has a lift up lid, two drawers a file folder and planner in it, and can be decorated in one 12 x 12 pad of paper.   It took me nearly two hours to work out where to start yesterday, morning,  there were papers every where and I...

Evening everyone, my post today is dedicated to Armistice Day and the memory of the brave men and women who served our country and sadly didn't return.  My 'Peace' plaque was created using PaperArtsy stamps and paints in creams yellows and toffee. The background has five layers of stamping and paint wash on it to create the hazy effect. My poppy was stamped out three times on tissue paper, painted on the reverse and then curled and layered over the stalk. The centre was stamped separately, cut out, layered over the petals and then I used paper glue and flowersoft to create the texture. The poem and soldiers were stamped on tissue paper, painted on the reverse and then stuck in place so they appear in the foreground. When I'd finished I thought the plaque had a strangely ethereal feel to it.  Here's the full poem    by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae I'm beavering away here on the larger projects for next week - they're looking good and ve...

  Morning my crafty friends, today I'm sharing the second of the three projects we'll be making next Friday.  I love our Christmas Lantern kit , and always start to feel really festive when I decorate it. This years version has been altered in papers from the St Nicholas collection (we have a choice of six projects at next weeks retreat all altered in these papers).  I've gone for the stripes again, they fit perfectly up the stand and decided on a black and red lantern with a hint of yellow inside so the flowers, mounted on black card pop out at you :-) I added a tea light (battery operated in the centre too.  Looks lovely in the evening twinkling away. The overall height of the lantern is 21", is assembled in sections and can be taken apart to be stored away until next year.  Lantern Kits are available from website if you'd like to make one yourself. Click here .   Its scrapbook day today so I"m off to grab a coffee and put my thinking cap on. ...

Evening every one.  Today I'm sharing the first of the choice of three projects we'll be making on day one of my Graphic 45 Crafters Retreat next week.  Our Advent Calendar with a difference allows you to add your own presents attached to the number tiles into the box in true advent calendar style. You could theme your presents for someone who loves cooking, or gardening  or............. the possibilities are endless.  Pick the tile and follow the ribbon to see what's on the end.  Maybe just twelve presents for someone special, how about a table box for the big day itself with presents inside for everyone and names on the tiles.  So many possibilities and we've got just one day to make it in next week:-)  No pressure ladies lol! I've altered my sample in a selection of papers from the St Nicholas collection by Graphic 45 for a truly vintage feel ... love it.   The basic box is available from our website - click here to view  .  Her...

omg...... in all the excitement of Harry coming home at the weekend I completely forgot to schedule the November Giveaway post to go live on Friday, so huge apologies if you called by.  Harry has gawn home (had to laugh when he said that) and we're all back to what seems to be normal until next month.  I can't believe how much he'd changed and grown too.  Both bambinos tower over me these days; Fireworks were exploding all around on Saturday - it was a freezing eve but no rain.  Hope you had a great time if you went off to an event or held one yourself.  I've had a real crafty day prepping one of the projects for my retreat next weekend.  Let the countdown begin.   11 sleeps to go ladies .................  until 30 of us meet up at the Holiday Inn Kenilworth for a right old crafty escape.  I'll be sharing one of our Friday projects over the next couple of days...... it just needs a couple of tweeks.  So on to our giveaway...

Top of the morning to you from a very grey and wet Warwickshire.  I arrived home just before 1am on Thursday morning after two great shows on Hochanda with Hannah and Alex. Huge thanks to everyone involved in the shows for your help and support.   If you got to watch the shows you might recognise the box above. (Large This N' That box).  I decided to alter it in a different way by adding a recess to the lid and then made a feature in the 1/4" deep centre section by adding lettering and a few of the cute little outfits from left over paper used on the sides.  It's quite easy to alter a chipboard kit with a craft knife or paper trimmer and adding a recess keeps the top of the box flat too - easier to store and use.  After finishing the lid I covered all the pieces of the box with paper, piecing in the border sections to the base papers to give a flat seamless finish to them. Then I assembled it from the inside using construction strips to join the pieces...

Happy 1st of the month everyone, can you believe it's only 55 days 'til Christmas!  I thought I'd share another sample from tomorrows shows with you.  I went for an industrial look on this stamp/card storage unit. Once I'd covered it in embossed white card I used shades of green and rusty paints, gold and bronze treasure gold to get a verdigris look and then added some of Andy Skinners industrial elements from Tando to the front section to finish off the overall look.  this unit is great to hold A5 journals or albums too. I made the two in the unit from scratch and both have painted fabric covers. I'm all prepped and ready to head down to the Hochanda Studios in Peterborough tomorrow. So excited to be on with Hannah and Alex and have some gorgeous demos to share with you. Hope you can grab a coffee and join me for an hour or two at 6pm & 9pm:-) Here's how to watch live SKY  663  (24/7)     FREEVIEW  85  (24/7)  ...