ATCs

Two more ATCs made from the distress ink backgrounds I was playing around with last week. Papers all cut to size for my class on Saturday, just a few more bits and pieces to clear up and I can go back to work tomorrow!

Odds & Ends

On Thursday I go back to work after a couple of weeks leave but as usual I don't feel either as though I've achieved very much, nor that I've had a rest! I've sorted out drawers and the rest of my craft stuff, I've done quite a few chores, I've crossed lots of items off a to-do list but there still seems a lot left on the list including several biggies that I never got to.

Anyway on Saturday I am taking another class at Kraft Crazy in Tidworth. This one is on distress inks so I have been busy making samples ready and tomorrow I've got to sort out all the papers etc. that I need. I've also prepared the sample for the binder that we're going to decorate in my August class so it's a relief to have that done ready.

My sister in law came and stayed for a couple of days last week and we spent quite a bit of time playing especially with distress inks and with a pack of grungeboard that she kindly brought me. Some of the pieces got turned into a few cards and ATCs so I have something to show after all.

This card is for my brother's birthday at the end of the month but he certainly won't be looking here! And I was especially pleased with this second card.

However, I do wonder when I will ever get back to working with fabric and stitches.....

Drawers again

Susan asked in a comment where I got my drawers from. They come from Storage 4 Crafts and the service was excellent. They are called Double Stacker kits and they come in various combinations of drawers. They are well made and though I hate flat packed furniture I actually managed to put these together myself with very little difficulty. I can highly recommend both the drawers and the website.

Posh Drawers!

Aren't my new drawers fabulous! My craft room doubles as the dining end of my living room, so when craft stuff threatens to take over my whole living space looks messy. I bought one of these units last September and quickly figured that I could fit 3 of them in where I currently had a low blanket box. It took a while to save for 2 more units but I finally got them last week and have spent most of the past week arranging and rearranging. Everything had a knock on effect so if I moved some stuff into a drawer I ended up having to sort out the cupboard that that stuff had come from. I now have fewer bits of storage all over the place but I doubt that will last long. I just have 2 drawers still empty (and they're the shallow 1 inch ones) and I've bought yet more stuff this week. I'm beginning to think this craft obsession is a life threatening affliction!

And I've been so busy sorting and tidying on top of all the usual work, house, garden chores that I haven't had time to do any actual creating. Fabric and stitching haven't had a look in for what feels like months. The Take it Further challenge has been abandoned I'm ashamed to say and I've only done the odd bit of stamping. I did make this which was quite fun and it's being displayed on top of the posh drawers for the moment:

Alcohol Inks class

Last Saturday I took 2 workshops on alcohol inks with my sister in law, one in the morning and one in the afternoon so it was quite a day. Both sessions went well and the shop sold plenty of inks so there was one pleased owner! The ladies attending all seemed to enjoy it, they were all new to the inks and were pleasantly suprised at how easy they are to use and how the results are almost foolproof. We spent half the class playing around with the inks on different surfaces and getting a feel for them then they made a black and white card using a square of glass coloured with the inks to highlight an area of a stamped image and make a focal point. Finally they coloured and decorated a mint tin like this one at the top of this post. I used an image I donwloaded from Cora of Paper Flowers. She very generously provides vintage images to download every Sat and I have used this set of ladies before, they are so stylish.

I have been asked to do another class and I'm going to be working on distress inks next so I'm going to start playing around with those. Before I move on though here is a card I made for my niece's anniversary using alcholol inks stencilled over a heart-shaped cheap earring (I always knew this was its real purpose in life!). I then masked it off so I could stamp flowers in the shape. Also an empty mixed spice jar that I coloured with the inks and then decorated with paper, punches and ribbon. At the rate at which I eat bread and butter pudding it shouldn't be too long before I have a whole row of empty spice jars to decorate!

I love stationery and always have to have the right notebook, pen etc. before I can start anything new. So when I wanted to keep a notebook for my classes I first had to do a bit of decorating! This was a plain white frosted A5 ringbinder from the high street but now it looks much more fun!

Alcholol Inks

Next Saturday I have been asked to take two classes on alcohol inks at a local craft shop. My sister-in-law takes regular classes there and was asked to do one on alcohol inks but as they're not really her thing she suggested me. In fact we'll take the class together so it should be fun. The main focus will be trying the inks on various surfaces rather than producing finished products, however we are going to do a card and alter a mint tin. We made the samples for those and attached them to a board which is on display in the shop before I had a chance to take pictures. However I have done some other samples since as ideas for what people can do with the bits and pieces they take home. Here are some cards:

And a couple of ATCs:

And a couple of brooches made from pieces of coloured CDs:

Mother's Day Countdown

Once again Lisa Vollrath is offering free images on her website in a countdown from 1st to 11th May for Mother's Day. All she asks is that you post a link before you download. The countdown is here.