Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh

Life seems to be flying me by at the moment and I wouldn't mind but its not much crafty fun either.  Oh well lots of lovely crafty things to look forward to this month - classes at LB Crafts, the Craft Barn Extravaganza and getting a place on Artsy Craft in October (fingers crossed on that one!)

Anyway talking of Artsy Craft in normal late style I thought I would share some picks of the event with you and tell you how brill it was.  Lots of lovely people and Lin & Leandra were alright too (well, went we weren't been frog marched around - I was starting to think we were at boot camp when the cuttlebugs were needed!!!)



The first project was called Secret Garden and this was great fun to make. 

We were asked not to show full photos or give full descriptions so here are a few pics to wet your appetite.  We decorated a canvas layering up as we went and used some of the new Hot Picks from Paper Artsy (1004 and 1005) for the background and texture paste to decorate a tree. 


This is a photo taken during the process but we ended up with various metal embellishments adorning the tree and surrounding area from the Flora and Fauna stamp sets by Paper Artsy.  I love all of the stamps, but particularly set 2 and 3 which have a really cute hedgehog and owl on them.

The main project was "Bird Song Sampler" which as the name suggests was a sampler using loads of different techniques over 9 squares.  Techniques included metal work using crafty notion sprays, embossing and die cuts, distress inks on various surfaces and my particular favourites texture pastes as bases for stamping into, painting over and generally making a mess before being pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

And of course to take advantage of the presence of Linda Elbourne we were shown how to make the lovely roses she makes.   I decided to emboss mine using a dotty folder.  It made it impossibly bulky to mold into a rose but I love the effect.  We used copper which looked a little too bright for my Shabby Blue colour scheme, so a quick squirt or two of blue spray and it fitted in beautifully.

The final project of the weekend was called Love Birds and involved us making a beautiful birdhouse out of sticky back plastic and a few toilet rolls.  OK, ok I lied, it was a picture frame which we adapted.  After sloshing a bit of paint here and there, stamping the love birds and embossing some metal we all had a really cute embellishment for the wall.

All in all it was a fab weekend and I met or caught up with some great people.  If you haven't been I suggest you pop over to LB Crafts or Paper Artsy and book for October, but not until I have my place secured thank you very much!

Thanks Lin & Leandra and not forgetting Jo Firth-Young (the Cuttlebug Guru), Linda Elbourne (Tim Holtz' stalker) and Karen Daniell (the Queen of shops - forget Mary whatsername!)

Debz

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