Secret Garden     

What a fantastic weekend I had with my fellow JoLLiStaMpeRs in Rochdale, kindly hosted as usual by Joan. Most of the 'gang' were there plus a couple of new ladies which was lovely: Joan, her daughter Rachel, Lou (whose birthday was on Sunday), Sue, Lisa, Siobhan and her sister Roisin, Lisa W, Debbie and me.

Our weekend workshop was led by the one and only, truly inimitable and delightful Hels Sheridan. We started off with a Configurations Box each and various colours of acrylic paint with which to put on a base coat using Cut'n'Dry foam; most of us chose a light sandy colour and that took nearly all morning (those boxes have a lot of surface area!). This is my initial configuration which changed a lot along the way:

During the afternoon we made lots of textured pieces of card and coated them with the wondrous invention Treasure Gold from PaperArtsy. I have never used this wax before but am now completely addicted ...

On Sunday we started to put the whole thing together, and an atmosphere of festivity abounded since it was Lou's birthday. Hels had made her a wonderful gooey and delicious chocolate cake which we all tucked into with gay abandon!

It was while we were stamping our boxes and card pieces that the Secret Garden idea came to me: Hels had brought a PA Hot Pick stamp which I have had for a few years but which has been sadly neglected of late, so I decided to base the box around the sentiment. We were shown loads of Melt Pot techniques during the day, and the 'goodie bag' of embellishments which Hels provided was definitely on the generous side; I hardly used any of mine and have lots to dip into at a later date.

This is how my box looked when I brought it home:

I have since spent several hours on it and here is the finished result. The top left box opens to reveal the 'Secret Garden'.

Although nothing like what I had first envisaged, I like it! The Treasure Gold is fabulous stuff and gives a sheen to the whole project. Here are a few close-ups of some of the boxes:

I do hope you enjoy looking at it almost as much as I enjoyed making it, and huge thanks to Hels for another fabulous day.

Thanks for looking, Sarah x

I am a Grand Mamma!

Well, I haven't blogged for months. To be honest I don't think I can remember how to blog ... And part of the reason is that I now have a simply gorgeous Grandson, Archie. Here is a pic of the Old Wrinkly (me!) with the Little Smoothie.

I am hoping to start crafting again really soon - all I have done recently is Christmas cards and gifts for little Archie (a canvas which I made at a Hels workshop and also a winter mirror with TH die cuts). Typically I didn't take any photos, so hopefully my son will do the honours fairly soon!

Wishing you all a VERY Happy New Year, and hope to blog again in the near future.

Thanks for having a peek (yes, he really IS that gorgeous!).

Sarah x

Been to a Hels Sheridan Workshop!!     

I've had a fabulous day in Preston at a Hels Sheridan workshop - this is the 3rd one I've been to and as usual it was super. I haven't quite finished off what we made today, but thought I would show one of the projects we made before (the T'Pouch which Jazzy is showing great interest in at the top of my blog).

We made a pouch to hold a tag, all of which was done from scratch - above is the pouch I made with a big blousy flower using the Tattered Florals die and Kraft Resist stash pad.

And here is the tag next to the pouch (all using Ranger and Tim Holtz goodies, particularly Distress Stains which I hadn't used before).

Here is the back of the pouch, again using stamping and Distress Stains - I'm now addicted to them!!

And the tag in position within the pouch.

I had to add another photo of my Honey Monster Jazzy having a good old nose too ...

Thanks for coming to have a look, and watch out for the project we made today, which Hels called a Concertina Pouch.

Sarah x

Anniversary Cards    

It’s my Mum & Dad’s Wedding Anniversary in October, so it’s that time of year when I have to get my thinking cap on and make cards for them to give to each other - it seems to get harder every year as I think I’ve already used most of my ‘anniversary’ stamps over the past decade or so!

The first one is for Mum from Dad using CB embossing folders, a Memory Box die and Chocolate Baroque stamp. Mum doesn’t like cards that are too ‘fussy’ so I tried to make it as clean and simple as possible - mainly white on white but with a very pale green pearlised edge to the borders and chalk ink on the moths (yes, they’re moths, not butterflies ...) then just added a sprinkling of tiny gems.

Then for Mum to give to Dad I made this one using a Memory Box heart die (again very CAS) and, most unusually for me, there is not a stamped image in sight! I actually bought this die to make my son’s wedding invitations for next August so this is probably a prototype for the invites although he and his fiancée are going for gold and cream. And since I’ve bought the die I simply have to try it out, don’t I?

Thanks for popping in to take a look - I do appreciate it.

Until next time, Sarah x

A Couple of Embossed Resist Cards   

I really enjoyed making these. 'Negative' stamps embossed in clear EP on a patterned ground then coloured with DIs using a cotton bud. Such fun to make!

This is my favourite:

I hope you like them!

Sarah x

A Teeny Weeny Canvas   

Hels Sheridan is to blame for my addiction ... making roses out of the TH Tattered Florals and Mini Tattered Florals dies that is! (Although mine don't quite follow her recipe - I miss out the two petal layer and put a swirl in the centre instead.)

A little 10cm square canvas painted with a 'tester' pot, overstamped with a Creative Expressions background crackle stamp using chalk ink, and roses spritzed with silver Glimmer Mist spray. I used one of the fab Memory Box dies for the chocolate brown swirl (I adore those dies even though they are so fiddly), and the sentiment comes from Chocolate Baroque; I almost got it straight too! The roses were made from Tim Holtz's Lost & Found pad.

Here's a similar one that I made for Kathryn:

And another for Shirley:

Okay, I know, I really AM addicted to those roses ... I ought to think of something else to do with them now because three has to be enough!

I hope you like them, and thanks for taking a look at my 'infant' (barely crawling yet) blog.

Sarah x

Correspondence Holder

This is a project I made at a workshop by the very talented Paddy Cosgriff a while ago. The stamps are mainly PaperArtsy apart from the wording on the perspex which is from Chocolate Baroque, and the box and perspex panel were painted with Sticky Fingers glaze. The drawers have clay on the fronts (taught by Neet) which is the first time I'd tried clay and a bit daunting!! The interior panels are copper coloured metal embossed and tinted with Staz-on, and the dangly bits are made from fabric, wood, perspex and metal.

Inside the drawers are some little cards:

And the sides and back were stamped too:

Then the flowers were made out of different fabrics, embellished and sewn with seed beads, threads, a button and a cabouchon, then mounted on magnetic sheet (they are held in place by a tiny magnet on the back):

Unfortunately the polystyrene balls (also coloured using the glaze) on the wire ‘tree’ are looking a little worse for wear. My Honey Monster Jazzamatazz is to blame for this; for some reason he absolutely loves them! He's not really as vicious as he looks, honest ...

Thanks for dropping by.

Sarah x

A Little Bit of Frippery  

A few of us have formed a crafting group in Lancashire called JoLLiStaMpeRs - and this is the project I started at our meeting last weekend, finally finished!

I used Chocolate Baroque stamps (Ruby Tuesday and Butterfly Collage), and the main structure was made from cardboard inner tubes. Papers are Papermania and a sheet of lovely 12x12 that Joan kindly gave to me. I made the roses (a la Hels Sheridan) using the TH Mini Tattered Florals die. I think I literally threw everything but the kitchen sink at this one! You name it - bling, glitter, pearls, beads, H2Os, ribbon, lace, net, feathers ... Hope you like it, bye for now.

Sarah x

First Trip to Blog Land  

My friend Lou has persuaded me the time has come for me to set up a blog - so here goes! Please bear with me; I'm bound to get it wrong ...