Finished at last!! Mixed media mini book.

At last the book is finished-hooray!

Two days with no commitments meant I could at last just do what I wanted!

The weather has been fabulous so I was torn between sunbathing or crafting, so I applied the fake tan and planted myself in the craft room! - safer anyway.

It's made out of many different materials such as chipboard, envelopes and tags. I've used different techniques on the pages to distress, and used distress inks and gesso to colour and stain pages. I've used stamps on alot of the pages too to add interesting backgrounds.




This page shows a tag, coloured with Ranger distress inks and sprayed with water. When it was dry I stamped over it.

It's got me all fired up now to create mini books again and I already have a few more in mind......

'A simple man!'

"Men" is the theme for this week from Inchy by Inch. With hubby away and (as far as I know) unable to read my blog posts, I could have been very wicked with this one, but I thought I'd play safe with a 'simple' caption. I couldn't fit everything I would have liked to on an inch squared anyway and I didn't have the time to make multiple inchies.

I think my man looks smooth and dapper but that's all, you certainly wouldn't see him lighting the bbq and as for changing the wheel on the car, forget it! I think there's a bit of Homer Simpson in all men but that's why we love them isn't it?

http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/

Bathing beauties save my sanity!

Oh it's so good to get back to some good old escapism in the form of crafting - you wouldn't believe!! Well, these bathing beauties are for the http://gothicarches.ning.com/ challenge this week and it's great to be back at my crafting table and producing something vaguely artistic! Even my good friend Lena came over this week to get me inspired but I just couldn't get it together!

Let me explain. Last weekend was one of the busiest weekends of the calender for us with the jazz festival on saturday evening (fantastic music) and the big bike ride sunday! We live on one of the busiest roads in Luxembourg where accidents are common place (I've been involved in one myself) and once a year it's closed to traffic totally and only open for cyclists from 8am to 6pm. Of course we make the most of it and have open house here for friends and an open bbq. We have a friend who comes over from Paris especially for this weekend of the year and a fantastic time was had by all.

Monday, hubby left for Africa on a three week work trip which should have been - woohoo happy days!! Do what I want when I want and eat what I want and scrap all day long, but with three daughters with different agenda's and a routine to keep up, there was nooooo time for crafting!! It's amazing how much taxi-ing we do do!

Since then, I hadn't heard anything from him which is to say the least unusal and with my mind working on overdrive various suggestions come foreward such as, head hunted by savages, taken hostage or trampled by wild animals, I'm happy to say that today finally, I had a message to say that all was good apart from a stomach complaint and he was in the middle of no-where with hardly any reso on the phone and a dodgy internet connection!!

So now I'm feeling better and able to get back in the zone so to speak, except now I have a new obsticle to contend with .......

text inchy

Last day of Primary school today for my baby - sad.
I can just imagine she'll wake up tomorrow morning and say "I'm bored!". That's what usually happens! No doubt my basement workshop will be full of girlies all cutting and sticking their little hearts out so I'd better spend today hiding my precious papers before it ends up like lace.

This little inchy is for this weeks Inchy by Inch challenge and the theme is 'text'. The stamp is by Inkadinkado and I covered the surface with diamond glaze before pushing in the heart button. I love dimension on inchies, it just makes them more interesting.
http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/

My English Rose

It's still raining here which is entirely predictable just as the school holidays are about to start!! It does mean that the garden will be blooming again and looking more like my little English oasis. It had started to look rather depressed and dry in the heat. Despite the fact that the English have an on going love affair with roses, they're not my favourite flowers and I only possess two bushes in the garden. They seem too much like hard work to me and don't offer the bright cheeryness of daisy like flower heads or the showyness of lily's (my favourites).

The challenge for Gothic Arches this week is Roses and I've tried to put my interpretation on things with an arch dedicated to the English Rose.

http://gothicarches.ning.com/

Colour and lots of it!

This is my journal entry created for the Wednesday Stampers challenge this week who are asking for colour and lots of it! I needed to provide a contrast to the grey and wet weather we're having at the moment. Goodness only knows the garden needs it!

My favourite subject - colour- and a wonderful excuse to let loose but I had to stop myself from going too far with it or else it would end up looking like an explosion in a paint factory!

The stamp is by Magenta and is one of the first stamps I ever bought. It's been very under-used in the past, I think, because it's so big and it's never actually been used to it's full potential. Here I've layered it up and coloured it in using watercolour pencils.
http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/

Greek column inchy.

This is my inchy for this weeks entry for Inchy by Inch. The theme is buildings. This stamp is actually part of one which came in a set from Primo Sculpey clay but I've used is so much for stamping generally as it's so intricate and beautiful. My inchy is based on the stunning architecture of ancient Greece which just blew me away when I first saw it. I couldn't think of a more fitting building to use (except for my house which I couldn't possibly do justice on an inch squared).

The little gem which looks like a little eye shining out, is actually from a nail decorating kit. A good tip for anyone looking for mini gems for inchies. These little kits are fairly inexpensive and are perfectly proportioned for working with something so small.

http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/

Personal pride.

Wow what a high I'm on right now!! Fuelled by nothing but adrenalin and pride - why?- because yesterday I achieved what I'd been training for and ran the 10km of the City Jogging in Luxembourg. It was extreemly hard work in the heat and at times in the full sun and I have to say I did walk some of the last 2km up hill, but I did it! Amazingly today I'm so full of energy and my legs don't ache at all!

A huge thanks to my mentors Lena and Peter (pictured) for motivating me and at times pushing me to go out and run because I'd never have done it without their help. Thanks guys your the best. So next is the semi-marathon I think and training starts next week!!! No excuses!

My gothic arch this week (ATC sized) had to show my personal pride and I created an arch with a door to symbolize the doorway to success, opportunity, inspiration, goals, achievement and focus. I don't care if anyone thinks it's a bit corny, I'm just so happy and it's the way I feel today!

Check out more little pieces of personal pride at http://gothicarches.ning.com/

Goodbye Primary!

It's been too long since I last made a mini album and for some time now I've been thinking about making an album using corrugated card as I love the texture you can create on top of it - plus it's free!!

The subject of this mini book is my youngest daughter who leaves primary school this summer and starts Lycée or secondary school in september. This is normally a big event for anyone, but this is particularly poignant for me as she's my last one and it marks the end of an era. Even though she's all grown up now and would hate me to say it, she's still my baby and I can't get my head around her starting "big school". This book will be a celebration of this important year and full of memories of friends and days spent just goofing around!

The Wednesday Stampers challenge this week is to create something/anything using the colours of your country's flag. I've chosen to create this first page in red white and blue because of course we are a family of Brits living here in Luxembourg. As it happens those same colours form the Luxembourgish flag too just done in a different way of course. I do often wonder what nationality my youngest considers herself as out of the three girls, she is the one born here. They've all been through the local school system and do feel more Luxembourgish than English most of the time but for the one actually born here that feeling must be stronger.

Anyway, as I finish pages I'll show you and good luck to all those newbie students out there, what an adventure!

http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/