Back to reality - can't believe it's over..

All ready to go!

It's been a few weeks now since I returned from the most wonderful holiday - Tim Holtz cruise to the Carribean.  It was an amazing experience, even better than last year - I think because it was my second cruise I knew what to expect and wasn't so nervous, and I was sharing with my roomie Carolyn from last years cruise too.  This time we were sailing from Port Canaveral, so the flight was a bit longer than last time.

We decided to spend the night at the Disney All Star Sports resort in Florida before the cruise, we had hoped we'd arrive in time to meet some of the others for dinner, but it took us so long to find the right place to get the Disney Magic Express, then get checked in that it was too late. We hit the diner then just crawled into bed - long day of travel.  Loved the towel mickey on the bed though!

Next morning we had a few hours to kill before taking the shuttle to Port Canaveral to board the ship.

First order of the day was breakfast, pancakes with warm strawberries and extremely crispy bacon, the pancakes were so good - must be healthy a wee bit - did have fruit with them :)

We then had a walk around the resort, the place is so big and beautifully laid out, there's a wonderful pool, a Disney store, diner, amusements - we didn't see all of it.

While walking around I saw a shadow darting across the ground, and found this wee fellow on a tree, who knew lizards could be cute?

I loved how the stairs to the upper apartments were made to look like lifeguard stations - and just loved the beautiful blue sky.

The shuttle came to pick us up, and we got to see some of the other resorts and beautiful scenery on the way to the port.

Near Port Canaveral

Disney ship at Port Canaveral

Boarding the ship went really smoothly, and just as we stepped on board I heard voices calling my name - it was Pat and Lorraine, who Carolyn and I had met on the cruise last year.  It was so great to see them and catch up.

Lorraine

Pat

This time our cabin was on deck six, just above the Promenade deck, which made it so handy for getting to the conference centre for class and Mario's marketplace.  Last time it took almost to the end of the cruise before we worked out the easiest way to get there!

Children's pool

Promenade

Later that evening we had our welcome reception, we were given our ScrapMap cruise tote - a mini rucksack, and then all madly swapped out our trades before Jim West introduced Tim and his team.
My trades seemed to be well received, and I gave one to Tim too - think he liked it.

My trades - dress form pencil holders

It was great to see fellow crafters I'd met on the New England cruise, and to put faces to the usernames on
cruise yahoo group.  There's so much to write about and photos to share that I'm not going to try and cram it all into one blog-post.  Stay tuned for the next installment :)

!3 Tags of Halloween - and a sneaky peek :)

!3 Tags of halloween

Back of tags

 I've spent most of the weekend immersed in distress ink, glimmer mists, rubber stamps, ribbon, tags, die cutting, embossing folders - great fun:)  Wanted to complete my tags for the All Things Tim Yahoo group 13 tags of Halloween swap.  This is my first swap on the group so hope they are well received.  I stayed up late on saturday night to work on them and to take part in an online chat with Jim, Tim and Mario about the cruise in 2 weeks time - but I got so caught up in playing that it was almost 2:00am before I signed in and everyone was saying goodbye!

I still haven't finished my cruise swaps but plan to do so this week, my case is already mostly packed.  Really looking forward to meeting up with some of the lovely ladies I met last year and making new friends and of course Tim's workshops, Mario's store and the studio at sea.(And the food, sightseeing, warmer weather, and not forgetting the towel animals)

Vampire blood vial!

 
This year I've decided to enter Craft Stamper Magazine's Stamper of the Year competition. I finished one entry today and I think it's turned out really well.  Don't want to give too much away but I've included a couple of sneak peeks below

Anniversary Printer Tray



50th Anniversary Printer Tray

 This is the project I've been working on for most of June.  A Tim Holtz printer tray for my Mum & Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary.  When I was visting them in Scotland in May I managed to scan some of my mum and dad's wedding album - told porkies and said my friends daughter was doing a project for school on weddings and comparing styles between now and the 60's :)


Mini canvas

I've used tissue tape on the edges, Bo Bunny TimePiece papers, grunge blocks, Prima leaves, an old pocket watch and made flowers from Claudine Helmuth canvas.  I also made a mini album using the TH clock die.
Mum & Dad were quite surprised  - didn't know I had got hold of old family photos, they really liked it.

L:Mum, R:Gran(Mary), Mum(Agnes), Dad(John)



The Happy Couple, 1st July 1961



Mum

Grungeblock initials

L:Yvonne(me!),R:Pauline(Big Sis)

Canvas flower

Wedding Jalopy



Mini Album



A crafty round-up



Steampunk telescoping card



June has just flown by, and July looks set to do the same.
I was inspired by Shelly Hickox and Technique Junkie's telescoping cards so had to have a go at making one for my niece's 18th Birthday.  I love how they look and the way they unfurl!


Upcycled Coffee Jar

I needed some pretty storage for my charms instead of them being strewn all over my dresser so I had the idea of adapting something I saw at LB Crafts stand at Ally Pally, Lin was wearing a necklace with one of tim's vials which had been painted and stamped.  I used Paperartsy Fresco paint - works great on glass, then stamped with script stamp from Tim Holtz Papillon set.

Stamped fabric

June's project with my friends Bibi and Sam involved sewing machines, fabric paints and stamping.  We made reversible tote bags and fabric covered journals.  The script stamp seems to be a favourite of mine at the moment and used it to stamp the fabric for the bag using dye-na-flow fabric paint.



Stamped Tote bag





detail - butterflies





Applique bird



reversible bag

I used one of my photos taken on a walk by the canal in Hackney to create a transfer to use on the cover of my journal, I then overstamped around the edges with fabric paints





The pages are made from watercolour paper interleaved with large manila tags



Fathers day card

I made an easel card  for my Dad's fathers day card using the TH weathered clock die

The strangest thing happed when I'd posted it off from London to my Dad in Scotland. Normally anything I send arrives the following day, but a couple of weeks went by and it still hadn't arrived.  Then i got a call from my Dad saying it had arrived and on the envelope was a sticker saying that there was insufficient airmail postage!  Airmail??? To Scotland from England  - wonder if they'd tried to send it via Nova Scotia :)