Something at last !!!

At last I have felt like crafting again :)

Inspiration came to me when I found this old jigsaw of my son's, that and seeing other peoples clever ideas with jigsaw pieces too. As I needed to do an oriental piece for a challenge on the TFC forum I decided to have a go. Quite pleased with the results too :) I have made it so it will hang on a wall as I thought it would look good hanging up in my craftroom :)

Still not made anthing!!!

Well, still not made anything but thats because I seem to have lost my inspiration and everything I have tried has ended up in the bin LOL. Crafters block I suppose you could call it! On a positive note I have now started my OU course which I am loving :) it's really interesting and I got such a sense of achievement when I made my first webpage! Nine more weeks of it to go so who knows what I shall be able to produce by the end of it!

I did some some lovely pictures of the blossom in the garden as it looked so pretty in the morning sunshine the other day.

What .... no crafting!!!

I haven't made anything crafty for ages, mainly for two reasons, I've been doing my DH's paperwok and end of year books which is soooooo boring and I have also been playing this game which will remain nameless but at least one person knows what it is (don't you Celine?) LOL. This weekend I'm hoping to make a whole load of stuff and catch up with atc's and gothic arches which I haven't done for at least a week. I've also got this idea for something which I want to try but I'm not saying anything in case it goes completely wrong!!!

Linda (a lovely lady in New Zealand) posted me some "inchies" so I am going to have a play with them too so hopefully on Monday morning I will have something to show for my weekends work :)

Anyway, first things first! Tidy the craftroom so I can actually start making something LOL

Some stuff!

Here are some of the things I have been making this week (in between playing WoW!). I've been playing with my Bind it All which is soooo useful, making some notebooks and also made a couple of cards too. Not much else to report but have an idea for making boxes which I plan to try at the weekend.

Modified Card!

Having just realised it's my sisters birthday in just a couple of days I was wondering what sort of card to make for her! However, inspiration struck me and I just 'modified' a card I made for the 'Spring' challenge we did a while back on TFC. It's the sort of design she will really like and I just changed the wording so it became a birthday card. Cheating a bit I know but it is an impressive card because of its size - its A4!!! Going to cost me a fortune to post to her!

This month I will also needs cards for my cousin, my brother, my son and an anniversary card for my DH - looks like it's going to be a busy month cardwise LOL

Cute and funny!

I saw this on a facebook page and it made me smile and believe me, I needed something to do that today!

Gothic Arch Challenge

Its Gothic Arch time again and this weeks theme 'Asian' was set by Linda M. Now I really love the oriental style and thought that this challenge would be a doddle but no, I just couldn't get the look I wanted at all! I tried two or three different designs before finally settling on this one. Although you can't see it very clearly the background was stamped with a large cherry blossom stamp using versamark ink and then heat embossing with clear embossing powder, then I dabbed a couple of shades of blue ink over it and when dry, buffed the image so the image stood out glossy white against the blue shades. The beautiful girl is an image I found on the internet one night and the wording I did on the computer. I finished it off with a small panel which shows the same design as the background stamp I used. At first I felt it might be a bit sparse but the more I look at it the more I like it as it is, it shows the beauty of the geisha as she sits in contemplation! Hope you like it people :)

Fab Friday ATC Challenge

This time Leonie has set the challenge theme as 'A small thing of greatness'. Her ATC on this theme is absolutely wonderful and started me thinking about people who really make a difference! With this in mind I thought about all the people who have inspired me and who have actually 'made a difference' and I came up with Sir David Attenborough who is a truly remarkable man in my opinion. I wanted some words which summed him up and were along the lines of the theme so I hunted through some books until I came up with a quote by the polish-born american writer and humorist, Leo Rostin.

The purpose of life is to matter - to count,

to stand for something, to have it make

some difference that we lived at all.

I feel that these words really fit the man and the theme. I have kept with the sepia/vintage colouring as I am really enjoying using these colours at the moment. I printed the verse using an old-style typewriter font onto plain paper, tore round the edges and inked them with brown ink. Although it is difficult to see, there is a strip of torn paper down the right hand of the atc which has an acetate overlay of a watch. I found a photo of Sir David by googling him and again, I tore around the edge and inked it with brown. After I stuck everything down I went all around the atc with the same brown to give it an aged look.

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Sketch

This week's challenge was using a layout sketch provided by Katharina. This is the first 'sketch' card I have done and I quite enjoyed working within the confines of a brief. I decided to carry on using the same type of colours as I used for the arch I made in the previous post and the rubber stamp I used is from the Stampin Up, Lovely as a Tree set, I purchased from Sara at Time for Crafting. The button was just one from my bits box. Hope you like it!

Gothic Arch Challenge

This weeks theme was 'Heritage'. I used a piece of background paper from a Vintage Memories book, rubbed the edges with a nail file and then inked them, I also repeat stamped a leaf stamp all over in a medium brown. The photograph is one of my great-grandparents taken in the late 60's I think! which I have ripped and then inked around the edges to give a feeling of age. The wording was done on the computer and again, ripped and inked to age it. The big H is a wooden one which I just inked over with a couple of different shades of brown. I enjoyed this theme and it was nice to have an opportunity to look through some old photo's (for which I must make some scrapbook pages) which haven't seen the light of day for a while!