Altered Book

I finally finished my first altered book which I made for Sara, a lovely lady who runs the Time for Crafting website and inspires so many people. It's OK for me to put the pictures up now as I sent the book to her a week or so ago so I won't be spoiling any surprises, lol.
I really enjoyed working on it and pretty much let the design of it flow along as I went. I can't wait to start work on the next one now. I plan to put drawers in it to put little keepsakes in so fingers crossed it will work for me. I just need to look out for a suitable book to alter. Hardbacks are good, preferably ones without glossy covers. I feel a trip to a second-hand bookshop coming on :)

Backgrounds

I was fiddling around the other day with trying to make a background - not for anything in particular, just for the fun of it. I used a gothic arch shape simply because it was to hand at the time and was really pleased with the outcome. Its made by stamping the images randomly over the surface in two different colours, then I rubbed it all over with a cotton wool ball dabbed onto a very light brown ink pad to give it an aged look and to take away the white of the card. Next I stamped the wording in dark brown and rubbed the ink pad round the edge of the arch. All in all I was very pleased with the effect. I didn't want to use the arch for anything but thought the effect would be great for a card so I did it again on a birthday card for my Dad which I will give to him tomorrow - his birthday was actually a couple of days ago but I forgot !!! Oooops !!!

Gothic Arch Challenge

This weeks challenge was 'Grunge'. Not something I'm used to doing so this made it a real challenge for me. I used some fine, corrugated card from the inside of a cracker packet for the background which I dabbed over with some Adirondak Paint Dabbers. It was too dark for my plan so I 'lightened' it up by covering it with a layer of tissue paper which did the trick! Next I used some of Tim Holtz' grungeboard shapes for the door hinges and the skull image which I painted with the dabbers again, highlighting them with some gold also. The wording was inspired by one of my son's books on Pirates which I thought went well with the image I chose, lol. All in all, I am quite pleased with my arch, the first I've done in a while now and can't wait for next Sunday for the next challenge now!

Beautiful Morning

It was such a beautiful morning with a wonderful frost clinging to all the trees and plant that I just had to rush out and take photo's. Here is one of the willow tree in our garden which looked just beautiful :)

Where shall I start?

Oh my! Where shall I start? I have so many projects I want to start on that I don't know where to start, lol. I've got some ATC's to start (and finish!), a load of projects I want to do from the Feb edition of Craft Stamper magazine, a very special something I am making for a friend who runs a craft website and forum and puts soooo much work into it I thought she needed a 'thank you' which needs finishing (nearly done) and I am trying to start a Circle Journal with some of the people from the Time for Crafting forum - not much to be doing then!!! I have also just signed up again with the lovely Gothic Arch people so will be making those again too.
So ..... instead of typing away on here I ought to be getting on with making something!
Watch this space!