Its a good day....

Today has been one of those good days, and as I type this, its still only 12.15pm - first of all I lost 1.5lbs this week at Weight Watchers (that's always good!) then my Sister-in-Law calls to say she's got a new job (SIL and Brother were living in Leeds until about 10 weeks a go,so obviously she had to leave her old job then) and finally, the new Summer 2011 edition of Stampington & Co. magazine called 'Take Ten' landed on my door mat, and I'm so fortunate to have 7 cards published - a bit chuffed to say the least!

Art Journey Challenge #10

"It's June and time to start the 10th Art Journey Challenge. Thanks again to all the participants of the Birthday challenge! This month it’s my turn (Hillie) to chose a theme and I have chosen: BOOKMARKS. You've got 4 weeks to show us your BOOKMARK creation. The deadline is on the 28th of June. Then one participant will be randomly selected for a 10 euro’s gift certificate to shop at Art Journey. To win this gift certificate you are required to use MAINLY ART JOURNEY STAMPS. Put your new creation on your blog or Flickr (with a link to the challenge post on this blog) and leave a direct link to your blogpost in the 'Add your Link'. Please don’t include links to work that has been posted prior to the first day of the challenge. HAVE FUN !"

I've created two bookmarks using off cuts from cutting down card blanks, so I suppose they could be described as 'Scraplings' - Ive used the following Art Journey stamps:

1)On both bookmarks, the masked inked edges/backgrounds Ive used the leaf stamp from the 'Tree' set.

2)The button stamp and the main image on both bookmarks is from the 'Hélène' set.

A Mixed Bag...

Friday wasn't a great day crafting wise - and to be honest,I'm unsure what to make or think of the above 2 creations - even though I made them lol.

With the 2nd one, Ive masked the edges and inked and stamped the centre of the card,I then stamped the main image on to another panel....and added a button and a scrap of lace.

I just want to thank everyone who has taken the time to visit and comment....appreciate it greatly - hopefully,blogger will behave itself soon and I can get round to every one's blog and comment - at the moment,I can comment on one blog but then not another...odd,ay!

Ive started...and by golly I'll finish it!

So, this is how it began -

I took a tall card,placed a butterfly mask on the front and then spritzed over with some blue Glimmer Mist - once dry, it looked ruddy awful.....Basically, I had an ugly masked butterfly that I needed to cover, by chance I had bought some Gorjuss girls decoupaged sheets (designed by Scottish artist Suzanne Woolcott),which I had bought about 2 years a go but only unearthed them again a few weeks back - this Gorjuss girl covered the butterfly nicely.....then,I just went with the flow and came up with this - think the safety pins might have been sub-consciously inspired by Vivienne Westwood's punk clothing from the 1970's....but its fairly cliched anyhow!

I hope the designer of this Gorjuss Girl, Suzanne Woolcott wont be too displeased that Ive pencilled in a nose and a mouth......fingers crossed.

Edited bit...

Anyone else having troubles with Blogger (again)? I can login and post but I cant leave anyone comments - so, apologies and hopefully the problem will soon be rectified.

extra bit....

I cant login in with Firefox at all, as the sign in box has disappeared completely - and on IE I can comment on a couple of blogs but not all - whats that all about lol

I'm glad to have Blogger - I mean its free but its just ever so slightly frustrating (then again, I never did have much patience at the best of times!)

A Warning to New Visitors

Short Version

To those who have followed the link from Blogs of Note - then I hate to disappoint you that this blog is basically a 'Show and Tell' - I show my cards and that's basically it - no witty posts, no big debates and certainly no inspiring life altering ones either.....its just a plain 'ole blog.

Longer Version

Basically, I popped onto my blog this morning and saw I had quite a few extra comments to my last post - had a little look,and a couple of people mentioned following from Blogs of Note - to be quite honest, I never heard of the blog - so I had a look and felt quite chuffed about it, I was even sad enough to Tweet and Facebook this (yes, I know lol).
Off I go on my merry way and as I was walking out to town, I started thinking about it and realised that having my blog picked at random for this, wasn't that good after all - I now feel that I have all these people visiting here expecting 'something' (who knows what really) but they've actually stumble across a very mundane pedestrian blog, a house brick has more personality then this place.........there's nothing much to read and sometimes there's a nice image of something I've made but that's it really.....Sorry!

Respecting Others (wordy post)

Ive written before about being worried that I might seemingly be seen to be copying or being inspired by something that's been published.........but what do you do when the shoe is on the other foot?

We are all inspired, all the time, by everything we come across in life either sub consciously (which we obviously cant do anything about) and consciously.....

At the moment,I'm finding it totally frustrating that there is a lot of crafters/artists out there who don't attribute the work they have created to the relevant person (this post isn't all about me but about all crafters/artists out there), in other words, if you know you were totally inspired by another artist, then say that in your blog post and link where possible - I really do feel this is the 'right' thing,its being respectful to that crafter/artist or whoever.

I love to think that I might have 'inspired' someone but I don't want them copying me, I want them to use it as a starting point in creating their 'own' style. I know I'm no one special, I'm just a very small fish in a very big pond but Ive still worked hard to find 'my' style, 7 years to be exact.

Please respect all crafter/artists out there in blog land and in life in general - be authentic and create work that is unique to YOU!


P.s. Totally scared about posting this.....please try to be 'nice' if you decide to comment.

Overload

Ive always wanted this Stempelglede stamp but was slightly put off that everyone seems to have it. But I finally gave in and bought it a few weeks ago and have been using it 'a lot' but cant show you what Ive been creating - thought I'd show you this card, that has been embellished to 'within an inch' of its life lol slight overkill,ay.