Back to work.......

Good morning friends
I hope that this finds you well and that you have all had a blessed and restful Christmas. I have taken a break for the last couple of weeks to really focus on Christmas preparations and family time but now, as the year draws to a close, my craft room is relatively tidy and calling my name. I fear my blog is feeling neglected and lonely so it is time to re focus and join in again!

It's been an interesting period here; elder daughter had a bit of a nightmare train journey home due to the weather and got as far as Sevenoaks before a fallen tree finally stopped the train so off I went at 2 30 am Christmas eve to pick her up! Home for a tiny rest before having to get up again 5 30 to take younger daughter to work... then food shopping before going off to work in the midst of the early stages of the flooding....

 Leaving work Christmas Eve was fun!

Water running through the arcades from the high street. Fortunately, we live high enough to not have been really affected so we had a lovely peaceful Christmas day. My Christmas gifts were the cause of much hilarity; they were so quirky and diverse!

 I happened to mention in passing to my wife that this Skylander bath soap would look cool altered! The tool on the right is a corner chomper to round corners on thicker materials like chipboards etc. I love it!

Some mustache stamps, A quirky bottle of rhubarb and vanilla infused vodka, a couple of brilliant books and gloves with a bit of a steampunk feel too!

This tiny volume was a surprise; it's the complete works of Leonardo da Vinci and is brilliant.
Craftwise I didn't do too much, though I did make these for my daughters

 Then Susan and I made the sock "cupcakes" too and some chocolate spoons too.

Yummy!
Now, it's a day of crafting planned so I will leave you with all best wishes for a great day.

WOYWW #237.....

Good morning peeps.
Wow, only one week to go till Christmas Day! So much to do and not quite enough time possibly to get all that I want to do done. But hey, that's life.
I'm guessing for many of you, crafting takes a bit of a back seat over this period with family and festive fun a priority. It does for me, though planning never seems to stop, 2014 is already being worked on behind the scenes.......
However, today is share your desk day so here is mine...... There's a fair bit on the go but at the same time I think it is relatively tidy.

 On the left, the latest Making Cards magazine with a book that I need to get finished and bound soon.

 Next to that, some new dies, I didn't think I would really need this pocket watch so I didn't buy it immediately, now I finally succumbed, along with the inner circles, I am really glad and can see me using it loads.

 Propped up at the back, a larger journal which I was working on recently. It weighs a ton and the cover is so textured; fun to do though.

 Then, this is what I'm busy with at the moment; doing a cover for one of my journals. Still a long way to go but we'll get there. I have an image in my mind. I just need to get there layer by layer in reality.

 Lastly, propped up is another journal , a paper mache chest and my small forest journal.....
                           
My little world this week. If I don't manage to get round to you, I wish you and yours a blessed, festive and special Christmas and may 2014 be a truly brilliant year for you. Thank you for all your encouragement and company over the past year; I appreciate it all.
God Bless you, one and all.

Altered book for The Craft Barn

Good morning friends
I hope you are all well. Today over at The Craft Barn Blog I'm sharing one of my favourite projects. It's an altered book. I'd love it if you popped on over for a closer look.

All the details and instructions are HERE
There is also a downloadable PDF with pictures and instructions there too.

Here are some pictures for you.....

At the moment, this forms part of our festive display on the bookshelf it the entrance and I love it.

 Along with my domes, the tree in the left one is made from Tim's snowflake rosette dies.

 I love this, The colours suit the festive greenery from the garden and it is another reminder to me of the reason for this holiday.

Wishing you all a very good week. Don't get too stressed out about everything; take a moment or two to reflect on the blessings of the year past.

Hi there friends.
Well, the mince pies went down a treat, We worked our way through pretty much EVERY colour of the 48 Distress Inks between us and generally had a great time in today's back to basics techniques class at The Craft Barn today. Thought I'd take a moment to share a couple of pics of the group hard at work.

I would like to take this opportunity to point out the state of the table LOL. It was hilarious; after all we were only using Distress inks!
It was great to really explore the fantastic effects that can be achieved just using this one product and for me I felt that it was a great class to end what has been a roller coaster year in my crafting journey.

I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has blessed and encouraged me by joining in classes and demo days over the last 12 months. You make my creative journey special!
Thank you

Triangles at The Craft Barn.

Good morning folks.
Woke up at silly o clock again this morning; you know those times when you open your eyes and you are immediately WIDE AWAKE, no matter what time it is. From experience I know I may as well get up as I won't be going back to sleep.
Anyway, I suddenly realised that the post I had thought was to go out the other day didn't so here I am today telling you that over on The Craft Barn's Blog I have a post sharing a fun and simple card using triangles.
The post can be found HERE and don't forget that there's a downloadable PDF available too!

Here's a peek of what you can see over there and I would love you to pop on over and leave some love!

I'm all packed and ready too for a day of really exploring Distress Ink Pads with my Back to Basics class at The Craft Barn today too. We'll be covering loads of different techniques and really getting to see how versatile they are.
Mince pies are packed too... just need a dusting of icing sugar........

Hope you all have a wonderful day too and if you're coming to class, I'll see you later alligator.

Oh, d before I go; thought you may like to see this, a work in progress; the first stage in the journey to cover one of my journals......

Journal page round up.

Hi there.
Less words, more pictures today (Hurrah you say?!) I've been working in my journal over the last few days in between other things. I tend to work on stuff then switch to a journal while waiting fr things to dry or my mojo to kick in for the next step.....
Here are the pages I've finished.

See. told you more pictures today! Hope you all have a good afternoon. Gotta go, places to go things to see and all that......

WOYWW 236

Good morning, good morning!
Bright and early this morning. Today is work desk sharing day a la Julia - details and links HERE if you still don't know what it is!
My desk is my little one again this week. For two reasons; firstly because it's where I've been working and secondly, because it's too b****y cold to go down and take photos in my pjs!

 It might be small but there is a fair bit going on. Let's start at the back....

 A page finished in one of my journals. A painted background and lots of doodling. Just need to add the tags to the pockets. Done sitting in front of the tellybox.

 Can't wait for these to be dry enough to work with. I made a mould from a couple of ammonites I had as well as a mould from some words and made this little pile of goodies from lightweight clay.

 This little book from yesterday is still hanging around.....full details on the previous post if you want to know more about it.

Lastly, current page in progress. A bit of a random mish mash of stuff. Fun though.
My little  creative world today. I hope you enjoyed your visit.