I was abducted by aliens

Not really obviously - I have just been very very lazy when it came to posting on my blog.

I've done loads of classes since I last blogged - both with Dyan at Art from the Heart and with Lovin Ink at Samuel Taylors.

I also went to the Beadworkers Guild Retreat in May and took the masterclass with Heather Kingsley Heath.



I chose to do mine in turquoise/bronze [so still in my comfort zone - I should have been braver]



I don't think the colours show up very well in my photos - I'll try and take some in better light.



And then I took a two day class with Ann Monkford making little people - however I chose to make a Queen of the Dead figure which was twice as big.



I did start making a tail coat for a pixie as well but I haven't finished it.

I've spent the last week making toppers for jam jars [for a stall Angela has at Beeston Festival] and daisychain hair clips [for the craft part of the Beeston in Bloom stall]. I now need to make loads of cards and boxes and I have very little time left to do it in - oops maybe I should try to get abducted by aliens instead.

Sara x

I have been busy since my last post - I just haven't many photos to show for it.

Along with Linda and Judith from Beeston in Bloom we have been making xmas cards we hope to sell to raise funds towards next years plants. We have spent about 45 woman hours [although a few of those were spent eating] making cards but we haven't managed to get our productivity too high [partly because it takes a while to decide what to use as between us we have accumulated quite a lot of stash and partly because of the eating and talking!].

We have another session the week after next and then we have to try to sell them.

I also joined a beading group in Headingley, who meet once a month. They seem really friendly but again I wasn't too productive as I hadn't had my beads out for ages and I couldn't decide what to do.

Sara

Art Journalling

I went to the regular art journalling class on Saturday for a play. We had to think of words that described us at the moment, and then words we thought suited other journallers, then we were given a colour we had to use plus a tag and let loose to create.

I loved some tags Dyan had made so I shamelessly copied them as I'm currently loving the layered look. I also still have a thing about altered books so I made an apperture in my page. I had to use yellow but it seems to have been swamped by the lime and blue I put with it - oops.

There are also a couple of filler photos from previous pages as I didn't take enough of my new page to fill a collage.

Sara

Craft Artist

I got bored with the football [I usually like watching Brazil but they are supposed to win!] so I played with craft artist for a while.

I've been trying to replicate some images I saw in a magazine where the page was quite bare but there was a huge swathe of flowers decorating one corner of the main image.

I think it might have worked better with a plain background though.

This morning I went in to town on the bus [I don't go often as I'm not keen on waiting for buses but I refuse to pay the extortionate parking charges so I usually go to Morley where parking is free.

There was a little craft market on in the road above WH Smiths and, although I'd just gone in for book tokens and face cream, I managed to buy a felt pot holder, chunky charm bracelet, heart hanger, 3 coasters and a born in yorkshire bag at the stalls. Oops no - the bag was from Waterstones where I got the book tokens.

Well Mexico have won, despite a late Brazilian goal [they should have played Ronaldo like GB should have played Beckham], so I'm going to see what sports they might have on now. I think we managed another gold and a bronze in the canoeing this morning so fingers crossed for Tom Daley tonight.

Sara

Sara

Eventually

I got round to blogging the little crafting I've done whilst the olympics has been on. I do enjoy the olympics normally but I have never watched so much of it before. Well done Yorkshire - I'm hoping there will be a mix up [or possibly someone bribed] and the Yorkshire Flag will get raised and 'On Ilkley Moor Bar T' 'at' will get played by accident. I was exhilarated by the opening ceremony [apart from McCartney - please somebody retire him] and I know people have moaned about the Queen looking fed up but wouldn't you be, leaving the house with James Bond but arriving with Prince Phillip?

Anyway back to crafting. Apart from making a couple of cards I have only really been to art journalling at Art from the Heart last Saturday.

As you can see I've discovered the collage option on picassa so I don't have to import lots of individual photos or choose just one or two.

We played with dylusion inks, faux bleaching and T!m's new stamps - I knew I wanted the mini halloween set before I went but found I also needed some of the blueprint stamps after I had played with them [I ended up with 3 sets, the leaves, the halloween and the minis, oops].

I've also ordered the whole set of Dyans new release - very excited about that but unfortunately I'm not back in harrogate to collect them until the next art journalling class which is in September.

Sara

Catch up

I have been busy in the last two weeks, honest - but I haven't much to show for it really

I made a larger fabric panel [like the ones for the fabric book] and added it to the front of a bought canvas shopping bag. I like the effect but I wish I had used a bag with long handles as I would get more use out of it. Also the layered chains and charms at the top left keep getting tangled so, although I like the movement when they are not tangled, I might have to add a few catching stitches.

I also decorated a cardboard box for my daughters friend, Debbie, who has just had a baby girl. Harriet arrived over ten weeks early so she isn't home yet but I'm looking forward to a cuddle once she is - well done Debbie.

I also had a go at frantageing [don't think it's a real word so it probably doesn't matter how it's spelt] some chipboard baubles as demonstrated by Sue from The Stampman at the Leeds Grammar School Craft Show last sunday. It is a lovely show, maybe 30 stands [so I have a greater chance of remembering why I bought what I did and also what I've seen demonstrated] and quite a variety of craft good on offer. I did mean to go back to a couple of the stalls, for heavier items I didn't want to carry round for too long, but I ran out of time [which was good for my purse I suppose] as I was due at my mums for sunday lunch.

I was talking to Kay from Indigo-blu as well and she said the best way to do ute casting is to use the melt pot as it keeps the molten ute more fluid than using a pie tray and heat gun. I have a melt pot so I'll have to actually open the packaging and try it out [I've had it years but for some reason I've never got round to using it - may have something to do with not wanting to tackle cleaning it out!]. My moulding compound arrived from Germany [no customs charges hurray] so I'll have to mix some smaller amounts and get mould making. Maybe I can salvage a few that I already made by adding bases to them.

I also finally joined the create and craft club [I couldn't resist the docrafts fairy dvd - I was obbsessed with the images when they came out last year], so I bought the felting machine Jenny Rayment was demonstrating. I obviously wasn't watching properly because I broke 4 of the needles straight away as I was feeding my material between the foot and the needles and it all bunched up in the finger guard. I was getting very annoyed with the machine and muttering rude words until I realised the material was suppoised to go under the foot - I felt [no pun intended] so stupid!. I'll have to have another go when I have got some wool fabrics to try - it might be best to get the hang of it with the correct materials before I go off piste.

Sara x

Other bits

When I was taking photos of the casts for the last post I found some other bits that I took photos of, as I don't think I got round to putting them on here before.

Backgrounds made in Art Journalling at Art from the Heart:

Using Dinah Wakely stamps

and Dyans ghosted leaves or faux bleaching technique [I can't remember which sorry].

Some more pages in my altered book - that I'm still sporadically playing with.

It is more than half done - but the other book that I started when I repeated the weekend [because I was so enthralled the first time] has been totally neglected.

I did take more but they are portrait not landscape and although I used picassa to rotate them blogger seems to pull them in with the original orientation [I haven't worked out how to sort it yet so I un-uploaded them].

And finally I tried making a card using the frantage technique that is so popular at the moment.

I quite like it but it needs more shade to make it pop a bit better.

Sara x