Rocking Your World Tuesday – week 19

It’s that (variable) time of the week again – time to count my blessings and put a few more ticks on the grateful list

I’m feeling a bit fed up today – nothing major, just a bit run down, big cold sore threatening to erupt any minute, super tired, you know how it is – and so it’s a really good moment to do a round up of what’s been rockin’ my world – to stop me feeling so down in the dumps

And last week had a lot going for it – for a start it kicked off with a three day weekend – can’t beat a free day off work!! :)

On the Saturday we had a nice lazy day, mainly spent at home, the boys played on the Xbox and I worked on my Steve Tyler CJ entry.  Very chilled.  We did have a little walk into town when we dropped Connor off at his dad’s for a bit – and I bought three fab new colours of spray paint at the market – got to say I’m liking this MTN 94 stuff even more than my usual Montana Gold.  

And I was super excited on Saturday evening when I got an email from the Art House Co-op Sketchbook Project tour to say that my travelling sketchbook had been checked out and viewed at the tour’s first stop in Chicago.  I hope you liked it, Angela B. :)

Crossing the Severn Bridge into Wales

Sunday was our day trip day – we try to have at least one big family day out every week, weather permitting.   The Sunday weather had been looking a bit sketchy in the forecasts around our usual haunts, so I tried a bit of sun chasing, and checked the forecasts for various different potential destinations, choosing the one with the biggest chance of sunshine.  And surprisingly the weather man chose Wales – usually renowned for its rain :)  So a trip to Cardiff it was….

The weather man was spot on and we had lovely weather all day.  First we went into central Cardiff to the city’s main museum and art gallery.  Very impressive buildings and lots of interesting things to see inside.  Also we got the chance to see a mother peregrine attend to her chick up on the clock tower (in the black Olympic ring in my photo…) – as the RSPB were helpfully stationed outside the museum with telescopes trained on the nest.

Next we walked what looked like a short distance on Google Maps, but turned out to be quite a trek, to find “Europe’s biggest sticker graffiti combo!!!!” – only to discover that someone had painted over the whole thing with dark green paint – boo.  Never mind, we still added our stickers to the mix.  Better three months late than never :)

Next we took a drive out to the Llandaff area of the city, looking for the Boiler House Graffiti Project gallery.

Which we found, but it was shut.  Pffft.  But never mind, the legal walls around the back of the gallery were all open and well worth a look.  I especially loved the “Silence in the Library” spaceman.

It was a short trip from here to St Fagans where they have a fantastic (and FREE apart from the car park fee) open air museum featuring original and reconstructed buildings from all periods of Welsh history, many of which have been transplanted here brick by brick.  The kids particularly enjoyed the olden days sweet shop (well, they would, wouldn’t they :) ) and having a wrestle in the cock fighting ring.  Connor also had a go at archery.  We were only here a couple of hours and I’m sure we barely scratched the surface of it.  Definitely a place worth re-visiting one day.

And finally, we popped up the road to the coast, and famous Barry Island. I’ve managed to get to the advanced age of 45 without ever visiting the home of Gavin and Stacey, but I couldn’t put it off any longer :)  The place is a bit tatty and a bit run down, to say the least, but it has a certain classic British seaside resort charm to it, and the kids had great fun on the rides.

And we even got ice creams from Marco’s Café, which I think features in the TV show.  (I have to sheepishly admit that I couldn’t get into the programme, only ever watched one episode and didn’t get it at all.  But I know everyone else thinks it’s really funny so it must just be me)

We got home at about 11pm, thoroughly tired but having had a brilliant day – and happy in the knowledge that we could have a nice long lie in the next day thanks to the Bank Holiday.

And we did exactly that – it was nearly midday by the time we struggled out of bed!  I cooked a big roast dinner – which I don’t often get the chance to do given that Connor is always at his dad’s one weekend day, and we tend to go out for day trips on the other day.  And then after we’d had our fill we walked around to the cinema to see the new Avengers movie.

I’d been looking forward to the film, and expected to enjoy it, but I didn’t expect to enjoy it as MUCH as I did – it was awesome!! :) :) :)

And not only for the eye candy ;)

(I have a new Avenger crush, by the way, Thor was still super cute, but oh my, Hawkeye! He had me all a quiver….see what I did there? :D )

Such a fun film – now I totally understand why people have been going to see it two or three times on the trot.  I wouldn’t mind another watch myself.

If you are one of the two or three people left in the world who hasn’t seen it yet, I can heartily recommend that you get yourself to the cinema pronto – even if you don’t think you like super hero films – you’ll enjoy THIS super hero film, promise.

For the rest of the week I was back at work but there were a few more fun spots:

- I made a kite themed bit of mail art for Vicki via Collabor-ART, and a birthday card for my sister – making stuff is a great way to unwind in the evenings

- My theme and free Prismacolor marker arrived from the Art House co-op for the Mystery Project (just need to work out what to actually make now…)

- The Apprentice had a street art episode set in East London and Bristol, which was highly entertaining – blimey this year’s crop of the young business elite are a proper bunch of twonks!

- Our Download tickets came!!  Can't wait!  less than 4 weeks away now :)

- and we booked our accommodation for our trip to Berlin in July - cool little apartment in the artsy part of town on the former East Berlin side - looks ace doesn't it, so excited :)

And that’s about it for this week

As ever I’ll be linking this up at RYWF Central aka Virginia’s blog.  Feel free to join in if you would like to spend a little time thinking about the high spots of your week….it makes a refreshing change from thinking about the downsides of life.  I can definitely attest that having written all this down, I feel a lot less sorry for myself than I did when I started :)

See you again next time!

It kind of looks like I haven't been making stuff recently....

...when actually I have, I've just been too lazy to blog them....

So here goes, a little round up of things I've made over the past couple of weeks...

First of all, I made a necklace for my best friend for her birthday.

It was my first attempt at wirework with sterling silver, and my first attempt at wet felting too (the base of the pendant - the swirls were needle felted on top afterwards), so it was a bit nerve wracking, but it turned out ok in the end, and Alison loved it, so that's all that matters :)


It's actually quite satisfying to make something completely from first principles from just wire, wool roving and some beads.

I took the first couple of not very good pics, Alison took the much cooler one below.

The beads are Labradorite (which I bought in Granville Market, Vancouver, almost 2 years ago, with the express intention of making them into something for Alison, I've taken my sweet time) and Aventurine.


While we're on jewelery, I also made a chainmaille bracelet for a very cool young lady that I know, called Lauren:

This was super quick to make as her tiny slim little wrists are about the width of my thumbs:)

Very girly, not like the stuff I usually make.

And neither was the Disney CJ layout I made last weekend - all pinks and purples and glitter and bling.... I barely recognised it as one of mine :)

But the theme was "the castle", and you can't really do justice to Disney's castles without a bit of fairy dust....

Excuse the bad photo, I had my lens on manual focus I think not auto:


It's a real pity the pic doesn't show the sparkle overload going on here, from glitter paper behind, to opal dust around the photos, stardust pen used on the title, glimmer mist on the metal rimmed tags, and jewelled brads.

Like I said, it's SO not me :D

My interpretation of the brief was to compare the Disney castles (I didn't include a photo of the Tokyo one as it's essentially a direct copy of the one at WDW anyway)

And inside the Oscar stylee gold envelope is my verdict as to which one is best.

I'll give you a clue - it has the longest name and the most dangerous inhabitant....

And last, but absolutely nowhere near least, it was Valentine's Day last weekend but one, so here's my card for the J-dude:



th-th-th-th-that's all folks!

it's Jackanory time

I'm not going to do my usual apology for not having blogged in an age, cos, well, I haven't made anything TO blog....

But in the last month I've made two whole things! whoot! A card and a book for a circle journal. In fact I made 3, as I made another card also, but forgot to take a piccie of it.

And I have another book to make over the next couple of weeks too so hopefully I'll be blogging again very soon.

I REALLY hope that this means a return to me regularly creating 'stuff', partly because I love it and I've sorely missed it, but also because I feel really bad that there are things I am waaaay overdue to make for people that I just haven't been able to get around to yet. I promise, if I owe you something, you WILL get it eventually, and if I had forced myself to make it when my mojo was dead, it wouldn't have been any good anyway, better to wait until the creative juices are flowing. Don't you think? Doesn't stop me feeling really guilty though.

But anyway, before I beat myself up too much, here's the card, for my good buddy Tracy for her 21st-again birthday last week:

She called it "special", I'm not sure if that was a compliment :) But I liked it, and surely that's all that matters lol

The background of the card was alcohol inked (2 shades of Tria purple along with Ranger's denim, black soot and silver mixative) - the railings at the bottom were stamped and black embossed and then highlighted with a silver pen - and the moon lady was stamped with Versafine then mounted on a circle of chipboard, edged with silver paint and covered with a few layers of clear UTEE. The purple stars are Papermania gems.

As for my circle journal book (front cover up top there ^), this is another one of those stamping CJs I love to do, and I signed up for this one on a bit of a whim and a hope that it might nudge me back into making things. I've enjoyed putting the book together so much, that maybe the plan might just work.

The way that these journals work is that you choose a stamp, and send the book with the stamp around a group of fellow participants (11 of us in this case, all from the UKStampers forum), and each person uses the stamp provided in their own style to make a page for your book.

The challenge with these is to choose a stamp that is fairly versatile so that all the ways to use it don't get used up by person 4, leaving the rest of the group scratching their heads.

So the stamp I've chosen is an open door....so it's almost Jackanory, it's just it's an arched door not an arched window....and I've asked each person taking part to show me what they think is behind the door. It could be anything, anyone or anywhere, so hopefully I've left no excuse for people to say they can't think of an idea :)

The stamp is actually part of a set, with the door closed and open, so I've used the closed version on the book cover, and also supplied both stamps with the journal so the others can also use the closed version in their design if they like.

To make the background for the cover....

which you can see clearer in this piccie of the back of the book, especially if you click on it to see it up close:

....I used Golden crackle paste, which is kind of like polyfilla, nice and thick textured, but it cracks as it dries to give a lovely worn building look.

It was painted with 2 shades of brown paint and a bit of antique gold glimmer mist to emphasise all the nooks and crannies, and then finished off along the bottom with little pebbles made from airdry clay and painted with acrylics, and plants punched out of green card.

The front cover was further decorated with the stamped and watercoloured door, chipboard letters that had been coloured with a dark brown sharpie and then topped with copper Stickles, and a little door handle.

Inside the book I made pockets inside each cover for the stamps, and an intro page at the front, and sign in pages and an address label at the back:







The door knobs on the little sign in doors are "gunmetal pearls" from Papermania - I found these buried in the bottom of one of my drawers and was chuffed to find they fitted perfectly, and the numbers were stamped onto small punched squares of black shrink plastic, and then shrunk with a heat gun.

And after all that of course I had to do my own entry....I had all sorts of ideas for this one, from a fully underwater scene with mermaids and allsorts, to a fantastical alien planetscape, because I love doing outer spacey stuff.

In the end, following input from my creative director/boyfriend, I kind of ended up doing a combination of the two - a kind of unearthly place where Haida orcas swim right up to the sea wall. My little tribute to the beautiful city of Vancouver and its spectacular views out into the Pacific.

here you go:



The gorgeous big orca on the left was stamped with a hand carved stamp made for me by the wonderful Michelle Ward, based on my backpiece tattoo. I use it all the time, I love it to bits.

The whale was stamped on white card in black ink and embossed, and then I coloured in the white bits with glue and a thin layer of pale green glitter. You can see it a bit on this close up.

The background and also the backing for the waves is watercolour paper painted with various shades of Lumiere paint, and in the case of the pink sky, overstamped with various celestial images in different inks.

The waves are made with torn vellum in different shades of blue, and the wall (other than that part of the wall immediately around the stamped door) was hand drawn and watercoloured.

Over on the right hand side is much of the same, with the addition of a hand painted sun and two more stamped Haida creatures. You can see some of the lovely shimmer in the Lumiere paints on this close up if you click on it for a closer peek.

So that's it - now I'll send the book out into the wide world, and it hope it survives on its journey and comes back to me in 11 months time filled with colour and texture and creativity.

Have fun, book!

it's that time of year again....

...to make thank you cards for Connor's teachers

I hope they liked 'em :)

Happy V-Day everyone

I hope everyone's having a good lurrrrrrve day :)

I've woken in a strop because the curse of Friday 13th cost my Canucks a win in Dallas, but hopefully it will get better as the day goes on, eh?

Here's my card for Ian.....I went for something a little non trad because I'm not really the slushy lovey dovey type, so wanted something a bit different from the usual hearts and flowers. Bah humbug :)

Alison came up with the line "my Valentine makes me smile" (ta bessie! good one) and this is what I came up with



Andy Warhol eat your heart out :D

Am actually quite pleased with this one as it is the first three part stencil I've ever cut, and I really like the look - especially the way everything doesn't quite line up properly so it leaves the odd white bit reminiscent of 1960s litho prints.

I will definitely be cutting more 3-parters.

Here's the original image from google that I based the stencil on:

Good luck to the Dancing Queens!

It's my turn again to host the newbie CJ over at UKScrappers, I always enjoy this opportunity to get ten innocent victims hooked on circle journals :)

I am a CJ pusher *insert evil cackle*

This time around the girls have voted to call themselves the Dancing Queens (they were on a bit of an Abba kick at the time...), and so I thought this silhouette of laydeees having a boogie 70s style would be just right for their "good luck, enjoy your first CJ" cards.

Nice easy cards, as I had to make 10 (not sure why I only photographed 9, I deffo made 10), and didn't have much time.... a bit of spin n splash (never get tired of that toy!), some gold card for matting, a couple of gems, a bit of ink stippled around the edge, 'good luck' stamped inside, bish bash bosh, job's a goodun :)

Have fun with the CJ queenies!

Forgot to take a decent photo ...

... this was just snapped with my phone

A needle felted tree (and somewhat wonky sun) for Alison's birthday card

I hope she likes it

This year's Christmas cards

I tried not to make too many cards this year, because making stuff should be fun, and churning out cards can turn into a chore. But I think I got the balance ok because these were all fun to make.

First batch were for Connor's teachers and grandad and aunty, and feature the pic I took of himself last month rocking out with the Guitar Hero geetar:

Nice and easy, just needed to add some patterned paper from a DCWV Christmas stack I have had forever, German Scrap wings, and "hark the herald angels sing" on funky, stripy dymo tape which is a lot more legible in real life, honest.


The second set of cards were for my hockey pals. This one was a bit more involved. The snowman was stamped first with waterproof ink on plain white card, and then coloured in with watercolour pencils. Once the colouring was dry I went over him completely with a Versamarker and then embossed with three layers of clear EP.

I then masked the snowman and a section to the bottom of the panel with a curved border, stamped and clear embossed the snowflake pattern to the top end of the card. And with the masks still in place I blended distress inks (broken china, faded jeans and dusty concord) in the sky to reveal the embossed snowflakes.

The scratchy lines on the "ice" were made with the edge of a credit card dipped in light blue dye ink. And the glittery stuff (soooo sparkly-bling bling!!) is "opal dust" from Jo Sonja.

The close up pic shows how the opal dust catches the light:

The remaining two cards were one offs:

I absolutely love making cards for Mandi and Lee because I get to do something a little non trad :)

The Stampotique goth girlie was stamped in black on white card and clear embossed. Then I masked her and stamped a script stamp to her right in pearlescent lavender ink and a harlequin pattern to her left in silver.

Once these were dry I blended distress inks over the top (dusty concord and black soot), and spritzed with a little glimmer mist (black cherry) for luck.

Her hat is decorated with purple stickles and white flock.

The dymo inscription reads "tis the season to be jolly!"

And last but most definitely not least is Ian's card.

He likes purple, so I gave him a purple sky. I hope it's not too girly with the sparkly stars on top of the trees!

The background is faux batik made with purple, blue and silver glimmer mists. It's lovely and shimmery in real life. The trees were stamped in purple stazon onto silver card and cut out and stuck onto the background.

The greeting is a rub on.

Th-th-th-that's all folks