Stamp, shrink, bead

 Getting back into a bit of crafting after feeling ill for a few weeks - today had a craft day with Bibi & Sam. We made shrink plastic and bead charms for a bracelet and pin. Used a mixture of Tim Holtz, Bo Bunny and Graphic 45 stamps.

Chotski pin - mine



Bracelet - mine



Pin - close-up

Bracelet - Bibi's

 Bibi, as usual spent so long chatting and entertaining us that she didn't even start making her pin!  Bibi - get it done and I want to see it blogged too! But her bracelet turned out lovely :)


Bracelet - Sam's


Sam finished both of her's - both look great, and Sam now has a blog and we've given her a quick tutorial so hopefully we'll see her posting soon!  Thanks Bibi for hosting today and for our lovely goodies.



Pin - Sam's



Steampunked!

 

Steampunked box



Had a lovely Easter Weekend, great weather in the UK during a Bank holiday for a change!

I had planned to paint my hallway but a trip to Hobbycraft and lunch with friends was much more appealing :)

Sunday was spent with friends Sam & Bibi - another crafting session at Sam's this time. 
Sam had bought us all some lovely goodies for Easter - nesting wooden boxes to be altered, beads and charms, a sketch book to alter, a canvas and inkjet transparencies to use for a transfer technique project. Bibi gave us a goodie bag with Hotel Chocolat Eggs, chocolate, cheese biscuits and a skooshie bottle - really handy when your paint dabbers dry up :)

Metal rose, embossed with steampunk texture fade



Cogs and gears - blinged!

  We steampunked our boxes, I actually started out with the top of the box painted in a mix of pink and blue - not my normal style but as you can see it didn't stay that way for long - I had to grunge it up with expresso paint and heirloom gold perfect pearl mist.  The sides are covered in kraft resist paper and tissue tape, and gears cut using the Tim Holtz cogs and gears die - I love my vagabond, makes cutting metal and grungeboard so easy.  Used dressform cut from Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante papers  and stamped Gibson Girl with gears to decorate the top, which I'd covered in metal foil.

Gears

My mobile phone chargers now live in this box, instead of falling on my head when I open the cupboard door!

Good Day Sunday - Easter basket's and Altered Books

 We'd been planning this crafty get-together for a while, a trip to Kervan - a Turkish restaurant in Edmonton then an altered book project based on a Prima class by Marion Smith.  I put together a little Easter gift for Sam, Bibi and Yasmin.  Sam's not a fan of chocolate (mad woman :), so I put together a selection of cheeses and biscuits.  Bibi and Yas had Lindt Rabbits, Lambs and mini creme eggs.  Each basket is decorated with glimmer misted flowers, felt rabbits and monogramed labels painted with fresco paint and crackle glaze.

L to R - Mine, Bibi's, Sam's

 We tore the original pages out of the books and cut various types of paper to size and some smaller random sized pages to add interest.  The pages are sewn into signatures (my sewing machine protested against sewing paper).  As you can see, we all came up with different styles for our front covers, I went for a SteamPunk theme.  We didn't have the prima book closures so I decided to make my own version using some chain, Tim Holtz jump rings and mini bulldog clips.  We then hung charms from the chain - looks great I think!

Bibi's

Sam's

Yvonne's(mine!)

DIY book closures/charm dangler

DIY book closures

ArtsyCrafts Configuration finally done!



Compartments of imagination





ArtsyCrafts Configuration

Had a crafty get-together with my friends Bibi and Sam on Sunday.  We had a great time playing with stamps, tissue paper and beeswax.  I've had beeswax for ages and did nothing with it, until I saw Hels Sheridan's beeswax collage project in Craft Stamper magazine.  I used some of Tim's new stamps and some sewing themed stamps that I just found again that I bought years ago.  I'm pleased how the project turned out.  I was still in creative mode when I got back home so decided to finish off my configuration box.  Turned out well I think?


Beeswax Collage



mini canvas



Tim Holtz @ ArtsyCrafts

Inchie book presented to Tim

Had a wonderful day on Friday 25th Feb at ArtsyCrafts in Milton Keynes. Of course it was even more fantastic than Lin and Leandra's workshops usually are because the wonderful Tim was here to teach a configurations box class.  First I was in class with Lin and Leandra(with their wonderful helpers too) after I had been to the shop :)  We made a lovely triptych using some new PaperArtsy products - new chalk paint and metal card.  As usual Leandra comes up with some fab words - this time "worm envy" and we heard about "red snot"



Work in progress - triptych



Finished project

ArtsyCrafts Project

After a much needed lunchbreak came the highlight of the day - Tim's class!  I love his work, his teaching style - really just everything!   I didn't finish my box - too many choices in the goodies we were given that I spent sooo much time putting things in and taking them out again - plan to finish off today and upload later but here's a couple of photo's of the goodies we were given and what I've done so far.



grungeboard typeblocks

 

Centre section

Mario always has to try on hats and he borrowed Siobhan's  - looks very fetching in red sequince!  Tim gave away raffle prizes - and I was lucky enough to win one, an alterations die.  My vagabond arrived at work on thursday but as I was going to MK couldn't take it home to play :(



Tim and some of the ArtsyCrafts team



too many starbucks Tim?


I had a fabulous time, thanks to everyone involved and to Tania for arranging the Inchie book presented to Tim.





 

CCC #32

CCC#32 Ink & Masking
Linda over at Studio L3 set this technique for the challenge this week. It's on page 59 of Tim Holtz's book.
I haven't been keeping up with the challenges but thought I'd give this one a go.  Enjoyed playing with this.

It's been a while - a look back

Haven't update my blog for a while, had an op in early january and just starting to feel like i'm getting back to my old self again!  Have been meaning to do something with my Tim Holtz cruise photos so have put together a slide show. Great memories, and so looking forward to another Tim class - this time in the UK at ArtsyCrafts in Milton Keynes.

Also a couple of configuration boxes I made for Christmas