Froggity Blog hop!!

Hi all, thanks for Hopping by on the Banana Frog blog hop! If you happened here by chance never fear you can catch up with the hop here and it will be worth it! All the froglets are soooo talented!!

So without further ado here is my hop offering for this months hop and the theme is Spring



Over the Garden Gate

I took some pictures of the garden as it at last started to blossom following this recent winter and love this picture over the garden gate. I like looking through things and being intrigued by what's behind doors and gates. For this project I have re visited one of my favourite techniques 'poor mans crackle' and I have used one of my favourite Banana Frog stamp sets Round in Circles. It's so useful for lots of things.



I cut some cardboard from an old box (always looking to 'up cycle' LOL) and cut it into a garden gate shape, ripping out a rectangle for the photo frame.



Now to get messy :) I smeared the shape with a layer of PVA glue, using fingers keeps it a smooth application.



Then while the PVA is slightly tacky I painted over the top of it with white acrylic paint. The paint needs to be thinned ever so slightly so it goes on easier and don't over paint or the glue will lift. Painting in one direction gives a uniform crackle but changing brush direction gives more texture.



If you're patient you can let it dry naturally, if you're like me however you can speed up the process with a heat gun, but don't overheat or hold the gun too close as the paint will blister. It's so exciting to see it crackle!! Leave the piece aside and get stamping your embellies!



There are loads of lovely flower stamps available from Banana Frog, take a peek in the shop but I decided to make flowers with the circles from the round in circles stamp set. I like the simple look of them and you can create all different sizes by layering the circles within each other. I used distress inks in bright spring colours and mixed two colours on the stamps before stamping the image to create shading.



Going back to my gate I stamped around the frame with some stamps from the Swirls stamp set using green ink to create abstract grass and stalks. I cut some gate hinges from card and added them and I then mounted the 6x4photo onto some white card and attached it behind the frame.



Finally I added my flowers on foam pads for extra dimension.



And that's it a piece of Spring home decor that sits on my shelf and makes me smile especially when the weather outside turns a bit dull!

You can see some other projects I did using the poor mans crackle technique on the BF blog here



Diamonds and pearls

and here



How does your garden grow

Thanks for hopping by my blog and I hope you feel inspired by this post and all the froglet posts along the way, talking of which your next stop is with the lovely Kirsty Wiseman here and don't forget to leave a comment wherever you go, who knows there may be froggy treats to be had :) AND don't forget it's Happy 4th Birthday at froggie HQ tomorrow, with a few surprises so don't forget to go and check out the party tomorrow and hop back on over here as I have something to contribute to the party!!

I hope you are all well and happy and until tomorrow Happy Crafting
Love
M x

Who let the dogs out?

Ok sorry for that, I was trying to think of a witty title as looking back on this post it is quite 'doggy' so we'll move swiftly on shall we? ... good :)

As I said in my last post I would share some of my Yorkshire photos after I had gone through them, well that would make it a very long post indeed so I have picked just a few that have special memories for me so I don't bore you .... you'll just have to visit Yorkshire to see it for yourself ;)

This is on the top of Danby Beacon, the views are breath taking, though very difficult to capture on camera ... well for a novice like me anyway!



I love it up here, I have memories of painting sheep with Gran (well not painting the actual sheep, painting them on canvas LOL) when I was little and it's where I learnt to drive with my Dad in Mum's little mini ... oh so long ago!!!

This is the bridge at Lealholm



Another pretty little village that has hardly changed over the years and through that bridge is the river bank where I used to go fishing with my Dad, and the stepping stones are just round the corner

And this is the beach at Redcar, you may spot 2 little woofs rock pooling





.... they got oh so soggy!!! But we had sooooo much fun :)

Ok tourist pics over with, moving on to some work now ...

When I was here last I was very remiss not to direct you here to see a most lovely review that was written about me and my stand at Olympia Stitch and Craft show on Craft Critique. I met the lovely Fabrizio at the show with his friends and we had such a lovely chat, thanks Fab for your lovely words :)

Today my work has been lurking over at the Purple Cows pasture



Yep a very ickle Stan :)

Don't forget when you pop over there you can download the free PDF instructions for any of the projects the most talented Cow Girls have produced!! Go on fill your boots, well your document file LOL

And the other day I was lurking over at the Banana Frog Lilly pad with my project of the day



More pics and instructions can be found here and the last part of the Sketch challenge went live....



This was my offering, yep Stan again, pictures over the past year, the lovely all about arrows stamp set and yummy Glitz Detour papers.

We have another Banana Frog blog hop on the 30th, don't miss out, there may be prizes aswell as amazing inspiration from my fellow froglets AND there is a Birhday party at Froggy HQ on the 1st of May ... and you guessed it more prizes and exciting new releases ... put the dates in your diary ... see you there :)

Do you remember in the last post I mentioned a lovely thankyou card I had from my blog giveaway winner? well she has given me permission to share it with you



It just makes me smile ... thanks mustavcoffee :)

And finally!!! .....

Look who came home yesterday



Oliver Pickles! He is so ickle and cute and feisty and Stan is not over convinced at all, I think mainly because he is so tiny!!

This was the first time they met ..



Little and Large LOL I can't believe Stan looked like that just over a year ago!

And this was today when they actually played a bit ...



Hugging or biting each others ears off?????

So that's it my lovely bloggy friends, the end of my dog orientated post ... Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are all well and happy and until the 30th when I'll be here for the Frog hop Happy Crafting

Love
M x

Glitzy news, a volcano and Yorkshire

Hi all!

Well what a week! 1st off I have to share the news from Glitz!! I am absolutey thrilled to have been invited to stay with the Glitz DT following a fabulous 6 months on an amazing Glitzy journey and now we have been joined by some amazing talent and the DT has grown, go and meet my team mates here. So I'm happy to say more Glitzy goodness on the way!! Here's a Glitzy card I made my Dad for his birthday on Tuesday



I have been in Yorkshire for the past week with Stan looking after his sister Ruby while my Mum and Dad went away for a few days. We had so much fun on the moors, in the woods and at the seaside and needless to say I will bore you with the photos in my next post when I have gone through them all ... there are a few LOL!! Here's one of the terrible twosome though looking like butter wouldn't melt :)



It was so nice being 'home' as in the place where I grew up and it was fabulous to meet up with my bessies ... oh how I miss them! The pub is 'quiet' as for some reason within 20 minutes of us arriving we managed to clear the place .... oops!!!



When I got back I had the most beautiful thankyou card from Mustavcoffee my blog giveaway winner .... thankyou so much lovely and I will share a picture of it in my next post (if that's ok with you mustavcoffee!!)

Hubby was stranded in Egypt thanks to the Volcanic ash cloud but was eventually rescued by Disney .... I've always loved Mickey :) He had to travel from Sharm el Sheik to Cairo, then onto Jordan to Madrid to Seville then Cadiz where he finally joined the Disney Magic cruise ship! He has to work but heh nice work if you can get it heh!!!! Unfortunately another casualty of the volcanic ash cloud is the Scrapping angels retreat as the lovely Anna Bowkis has been on a family holiday to Florida and has been stranded ironically in Disney .. never liked that mouse LOL!!! The retreat will be re scheduled though and on a more personal note I hope Anna finally has a safe journey home with her family!!!

Well that's it for now just wanted to drop in to say Hi and share the Glitzy news! I'll be back soon with more Yorkshire pics and stuff. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're all well and happy and until soon Happpy Crafting!!

Love
M x

who stole them????

... come on own up the last 10 days of my life where did they go?? It seems them upstairs are having a big joke with me at the moment and I can quite honestly say hand on heart I don't know where the last 10 days went!!!

I know I had a fab time teaching at Bee Crafty, the Fairy castle class went really well although I don't know if the girls will ever forgive me for all the cutting out LOL but we had a lot of laughs and a yummy buffet lunch, thanks Sam, oh and I now have an addiction to cheese straws LOL Next month is my reverse canvas class won't you join us??

I know I had a mad day of Housework (sorry to swear!) and cutting the grass on Sunday, well the sun was shining and it makes you feel like daft activities like that doesn't it? days when you can throw open the windows and shout 'hello spring'.

I know hubby came home on Monday for what we thought was 36 hours that ended up being 12! And I made a yummy dinner although the chilled out evening of wine and films went awry with the opening of the chinese laundry and evil paperwork to be done while he was around!

And I know I have been creating like a creating thing, although some of it I can't share at the moment! I also know I am in Yorkshire Dog sitting Stan's sister for mum and dad who are having a weekend in Belgium and Stan is in his element and I do know that hubby is stuck in Egypt! Grounded along with thousands of others ... wonder when I will see him again???

I also know that you need to go and check out It's a creative world. The new post is up for this months entry for the simple things project that I am a guest for. This months word is Honesty and I love seeing how all the girls interpret it and their creativity in doing so!
Last month was TIME and I ran out of that very thing to get my post up so I sneaked it in this month :)



and this is my HONESTY offering



More pictures and descriptions can be seen over at IACW

and I can't resist giving you a sneak peek of something I have been working on



I had a scrappy time with some gorgeous Glitz papers and will share full pics when I can!

Right I'm off to walk the woofs in the woods, I love being 'home' where I grew up although it does feel rather odd and strange to re live things iykwim!!! I have decided to give up looking for those missing days and hopefully will be back before too many more are stolen!

Thanks for stopping by and until soon Happy Crafting

Love
M x

A class, a workshop and a sneak peek!

Hi all!

I know miracles do happen and here I am again already!!! I thought I'd drop by to continue my catch up photos and share with you some things coming!!

1st up are you around the Evesham area on Saturday??? I know of a lovely craft shop you could visit where they will give you tea and cakes and even a buffet lunch .... plus you get to spend the day with me :) erm excuse me keep reading .... thankyou!! Yep I am teaching a full day workshop at Bee Crafty and I happen to know we have a couple of spaces left, why not treat yourself to a day out? ... oh the class, yes right, got carried away thinking about the home made cakes yum! ... I will be workshopping my fairy castle ...



A pop up delight





It'll be lots of fun so see you there?

2nd here is a sneak peek of the two classes I will be teaching at the Scrapping Angels retreat 24th-25th April alongside the lovelies: Anna Bowkis, Tracie Hudson and Sandie Vincent


A shabby chic piece of home decor full of Glitzy goodness and scrappy techniques



and a layout that proves distressing doesn't have to be dirty and grungy it can be pretty too :)

I'm really looking forward to the weekend and meeting up with old friends and making new ones!

3rd remember I said I was teaching two places at once the other weekend while I was at Olympia I had a 2 page class kit for the Crafty Stash crop. I've had some lovely messages from the ladies that went to the crop and thankyou all for letting me know you enjoyed my designs :)





Smile





All Roads lead to you

Both layouts were created from the gorgeous Glitz Detour range.

And finally .... Stan seems to have developed a complex after his recent road trip. People kept laughing at his lack of nose so he tried one on for size ...



The inside of a gaffa tape roll



'What do you think of the side view mum'



'you see you're still laughing at me!'
Oh he does amuse us and soon there will be double trouble eek!

Oh I just remembered before I go Hubby's pantomime has just been officially announced (remember that bizarre double 'show biz' life I lead LOL) and finally I can let the cat out of the bag ... he will be in Bristol again at the Hippodrome but the kicker is this year he will be starring alongside Barbara Windsor ... how exciting!!!

OK I'll leave you in peace now, thanks for stopping by and I'll *see you* soon until then Happy Crafting

Love
M x

PS Mustavcoffee (wish I knew your real name LOL) I'm glad you were excited to be picked as the winner, please email me mjm@jackson-mogford.freeserve.co.uk so I can get your giveaway goodies off to you :) M x

winner, castle and cards

Hi Cyber buddies
I hope you're well and happy and not too soggy from this 'lovely' spring weather!!

Did you all enjoy the Banana Frog blog hop? I loved all the other froglets inspirations and am proud to work alongside such a talented bunch of girls! Thankyou for all your lovely comments and welcome to all my lovely new followers :) With that said and without further ado I am here to announce the winner of my 'I've got a brand new blog' giveaway ... drum roll please! ..... it's Mustavcoffee Please can you email me (addy on my profile) your address and your box of goodies will be winging it's way to you :)

It's been a busy week again, as I said in a previous post we were away at the weekend for 2 funerals and a 21st birthday. All very emotional and lots of travelling and Stan's first road trip!!! He was a perfect doggy though and I was so very proud of him. I will get the pictures ready to show you of his trip to the stream with his 2 new best friends Maisy and Martha ... HILARIOUS!!!

Moving on, I've been on catch up with myself and been a crafting fool ... just for a change and also trying to catch up on sleep and put the house straight after the recent mayhem! A lovely email really lifted my spirits though the other day and I must share. It came from a happy customer who has purchased some of my DIY projects recently and she sent me these fabulous pictures of her finished Princess fairy castle. I love her interpretation and it really made me smile.







Becky thanks for sharing and also for directing me to Hubby's website Craftaholicsupplies .... too many goodies to tempt me :)

Looking back over my posts I realise, not only do I use too many exclamation marks!!! but I am very good at telling you I've done this and that and promising to share pics .... then never doing it! So I am on catch up with some past projects :) For this post I will share some of my cards that I made for Creative Expressions and the lovely Sheena Douglass to take on Create and Craft. They are made with the new spellbinders borderbilities and of course lots of distress ink, cosmic shimmer paints and Sheenas fab stamps.....
These are my favourites ....













This one is done with spellbinders XL scalloped rectangles



Now I feel like I don't keep lying to you LOL!!!
I guess I better stop waffling now but before I go I have a quick

And Finally...



Stan on his first river trip, you can just see Martha making good her escape and that's Maisy smiling at the camera!



Stan was soooo exhausted after his road trip LOL



and look who it is ... Oliver Pickles .... more on him soon but shhhhh Stan doesn't know yet LOL

As always thanks for stopping by and I'll *see you* soon so until then Happy Crafting

Love
M x