What a Crafty Day

Evening 

We have had a wonderful craft filled day today. 

It is my weekend looking after the youngest Grandchildren so that my daughter can go to work. 

We decided that we would see what the BBC were offering in their educational programs for young children. There were quite a few choices, so we learnt about different types of motorbikes and then moved on to crafty things with Mr Maker. In one of his programs he made a frame out of lollypop sticks and buttons so we decided that we would make one for Emma's best friend Farrah.

He covered the frame with buttons on the TV, but as we didn't have any to hand we went with using some of Mummy's dies instead.

Emma has been learning about the planets at school so we decided to use a cool die set designed by Lisa Horton to decorate our frames.

Emma drew a picture to go in her frame and Farrah's and is going to do one for Chloe tomorrow because we ran out of time today.

Like mine it is a crafty house, and the kids love to help out. Chloe die cut all her shapes after choosing her pieces of scrap card stock.

Jack isn't quite old enough yet, but he likes to join in with drawing and colouring.

Emma is very creative and drew Farrah a beautiful picture, which unfortunately Jack ruined/ He was trying to colour like his big sister, he just unfortunately picked her drawing to colour on!!

They did some home schooling with Mummy on Friday.

They had printed out some worksheets for Emma to do,

but both Jack

and Chloe were eager not to be left out. The little ones are so funny because they both sound out a letter as they are drawing just as they have heard Emma do.

We have a list of things to do while Mummy is at work tomorrow including making soup for lunch. I will have lots of helpers for that as they all love cooking.

Better get to bed now I'm sure it will be an early start to the day lol.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Anything but a Card at CCM

Well as I predicted, my toothache really has got the better of me.
The antibiotics took nearly a week to kick in and I have been popping painkillers like they were going out of fashion, all of which left me feeling sick all the time. How my daughter Becki put up with it for the entire 9 months of her pregnancy I will never know. I could barely manage a week!!
I think part of the problem is that I don't usually take any pills at all so my system is struggling to cope.
I started to feel a whole lot better at the end of last week after another emergency appointment to drain the infection, and my bank balance can look forward to a huge hit when I start treatment for a root canal filling.........oh joy!
On a much happier note Chloe is gorgeous, and Emma is being a very helpful 'Big Sister' despite co-incidentally hitting the terrible twos.
I have been working on Thank you cards for all the wonderful prezzies that the Girls have been given, but as I can't share them yet I though that instead I would show you the picture frames that I made for a recent class.

We have a new challenge starting today over at CCM where our host Angela is looking for Anything But a Card so these fitted the bill perfectly.

I recently held a class where we made picture frames using some old wood mounted stamps.

This frame uses a Magenta stamp which has been coloured in using Watercolour Pearlex.
The floral embellishment is from Stampin Up

This frame uses the same Magenta stamp

and some Hero Art floral stamps.

This frame uses a very old Penny Black frame stamp. It was actually made many years ago but will make a fabulous Christmas gift.

It is the perfect image for some decoupage, although now I would prefer to use silicon glue to attach the cut out images.
I hope that you will find the time to join in with our challenge which runs for the next two weeks, just remember that we are only looking for Anything but a card.
Have a great week.
Happy Crafting and Hugs
Kimx

It's a Recycled Gift

Afternoon All
Well I seriously hope that this rain stops before this evening.
It is the opening ceremony for the Paralympic Games in case you had forgotten. I hope that it is as awesome as the events organised for the Olympics.
It is such a shame that there doesn't seem to have been the same build up or coverage, even if in my humble opinion they have worked even harder than 'ablebodied' athletes to achieve their goals.
Anyway, I will get off my soapbox, and just wish Team GB the very best of luck.
The challenge this week over at Our Creative Corner is 'Recycle it with a POP of Green'

I decided that I would make an Engagement Gift for Vicky and Greg by recycling a couple of items........

The picture frame is another of the very cheap wooden ones that I bought, the oval frame that has been stamped and embossed onto the back of a piece of a cereal packet and the flowers are made from the foil dish that once held a meat pie!!!
I hope that the Guys at Our Creative Corner consider that to be a sufficiently good use of some recycled items.

I got the idea for the flowers from something that I saw on Buttons fabulous blog. Thanks Hun xx
The frame was covered with some die-cut Magnolia Swirls and Hearts (left overs from a DooHickey border) cut from card and stuck on using Pritt stick glue. After that Aluminium sticky backed tape from a car accessory shop was added. (See HERE for a previous blog post with more detailed instructions)
I used Alcohol inks - Oregano, Latte, Rust, Mushroom to colour the frame and flowers, and then Lettuce and Pesto for the leaves.
They were all cut using Nestie and Cheery Lynn dies.

The oval frame was cut from a piece of cereal box and then stamped and embossed using Versamark and Aged Ivory Frantage Embossing Enamel and sponged with Old Paper distress ink.

I made a box for my gift and wrapped it with tissue paper before I gave it to Vicky, as the flowers are a little delicate.
I added plenty of silicone to the underside of the flowers to help give them a bit of stability.
I would like to enter this into the following challenges
Allsorts Challenge - It's a Gift
Our Creative Corner - Recycle it with a POP of Green
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Floral Creations / Handmade flowers
Robyns Fetish - Anything but a Card
I'm going to try and get some crafting in now.
I've set the TV to tape the Opening Ceremony as I'm bound to fall asleep. Not, I hope from boredom, just plain tiredness lol.
Happy Crafting and have a great evening.
hugs Kimx

Alter It for The Stampman Challenge

Hi Everyone,
It's Friday again, and time for a new challenge over at The Stampman.
This time we are looking for you to ALTER something making it different from it's original appearance.
You can alter a plain box, picture frame, book, bottle, tin, notebook cover, or any other item that inspires you to change it!!

I wasn't sure what to do for this one and then I remembered a box of plain wooden Picture frames that I bought, and a roll of Aluminium tape that my Sin-in-Law had got me at a car accessory shop.
And this is the result.

I meant to take pictures of the blank frame but I forgot, sorry.

Anyway, I cut some leaves and swirls using my Memory Box Swirly Tree and Cheery Lynn Olive Branches dies and stuck them to the frame using a Pritt Stick.

Next I covered the whole thing with the Aluminium Tape which is a bit like Sticky Backed Plastic on a roll about 2 inches wide.
I rubbed firmly all over the frame with a piece of foam to make sure that the full texture of the pattern shows.

Next comes the fun, and messy part, colouring the frame with a combination of Alcohol Inks - Denim, Meadow, Stonewash and Pearl.

I love how it turned out.
I had intended putting a picture of the family inside but couldn't get anything to print out so I decided to go with something a little more my style.

I love this Resist technique which I have used quite a bit lately and describe in more detail HERE.

This particular panel was created using Woodware Clear Magic JGS273 Wheat, FRS212 Alphabet Background and Distress Inkpads - Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Broken China and Faded Jeans.

The ghosted image in the background has been created by spritzing the stamp with water before stamping it onto the panel.

I also spritzed the entire panel with a little Glimmer Mist.

I felt that it need something to finish it off so I added text from a Hobby Art clear set Friends Sentiments.
I would like to enter this into the challenge at Frilly and Funky - How can you Resist.
Don't forget to check out what the rest of the team have come up with, there are some fabulous Altered items over at The Stampman.
As always there is a £10 gift voucher up for grabs, so get you thinking caps on and Get Altering.
Happy Crafting.
hugs Kimx

Woodware Challenge week 8 - Anything but a card

Evening Everyone,
Well that's the end of my couple of days away from work, back to the grind tomorrow.
I have been beavering away with various projects today including getting Saskia's birthday card ready for Sunday. One down, only Ciaran's to do now, but that will have to wait for a couple of days as I am teaching on Wednesday and then again on Saturday so I had better get some class prep done. In fact I have so enjoyed my break that I completely forgot to remind you about Jenny being on the box three times today, sorry. I will try and share some of my samples from her shows over the next couple of days.

The challenge this week over at Woodware is Anything but a Card. I made these picture frames quite some time ago, but they fit the theme perfectly I think.

The main part of the frame has been made using an old Magenta stamp 26.003.R Decorative Frame which I must admit I couldn't find on the Woodware web site. The flower on this one is from Stampin Up.

Both frames have been painted using US Artquest Micacolor Palettes. I love to paint with these, although unfortunately the photos don't do justice to the lustre that they bring to the image.

The flowers on the second frame are made by Hero Arts. Sorry Dorothy, but at least I made the effort to enter lol.
Oh dear another late night. That's always the trouble with having a little bit of a lie in, you don't feel tired till late. I just hope it doesn't catch up on me too soon.
Thanks for stopping by, and do please leave a comment, I so love to read them all. And of course don't forget to enter the challenge.
Nite, nite.
Love Kimx

Picture This

Evening Everyone
Another lovely day of teaching at Lavender Lane. I always have a wonderful time with my Saturday 'Groupies', lovely ladies who always manage to inspire me with their interpretation of my class.
A couple of the ladies even brought in some work to show me - cards that they had finished at home after a previous class. It is always so nice to see that they have gone home filled with inspiration to try out the techniques that they have learnt with me.

Today we spent the morning making a picture frame. The class was actually inspired by the large frame that I made for the April edition of Craft Stamper (see blog post here).
I made this smaller version with left over pieces from creating the original.

The ladies made their frames from a choice of Bazzil and background papers from the shop. They also added handmade flowers - the table fairly groaned under the weight of flower punches lol.

The little people in the picture are my youngest Grandchildren, I can assure you that they don't always look this cute and angelic!!
We also managed to get the dates for the next class schedule worked out, so all in all a very productive day.
Don't forget that Jenny from Hobby Art will be on Create and Craft tomorrow. (11am - 12midday and then 3pm - 4pm). I'm not sure exactly what she will be doing but I do know that is bound to be as informative as always. I also expect that a couple of my cards might manage to find there way in there.
Have a good weekend.
Love and hugs
Kimx