Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree .....

How lovely are your suprises!

Hi folks
Well it's been a busy few days with life and putting together one of my DIY projects so you can create this ....

A Christmas tree surprise ..... what's the surprise?

it opens up to reveal a decorated Christmas tree complete with fairy lights and space to add your own special Christmas memories.

The project is available on line in my website shop at www.mjm-thearttart.com

But what is a DIY project I hear you cry. I created the idea of DIY projects a few years ago as a way of sharing a kind of workshop with you, I provide all the templates you need and full step by step instructions with oodles of photographs on the way and you use your own stash, that way you make the project in the colours and patterns you want without me inflicting my choices on you, after all we all have different tastes and what a dull world it would be if we didn't! And this DIY project goes a step further as I have added a new digi craft set of instructions for those of you that would like to create the project digitally with Serif Craft Artist 2 professional like this one

and again this set of instructions has a full step by step tutorial with lots of screen shots of me working on the programme.

Then you complete the project with the relevant steps from the paper craft instructions.

So fancy having a go and creating a very unique Christmas decoration full of memories that will take pride of place and return year after year? It would make a great Christmas present especially for a first Christmas for a baby or even a newly married couple, the beauty is you can make it however you want for whoever you want and as you have the templates you can make it again and again (and for those of you wondering if you can sell what you make then yes you can ;))

The project will be emailed to you in a zipped file so no postage, it will contain 3 PDF's a set of templates, a set of paper craft instructions (21 pages of instruction and full colour photo step by steps) and a set of digi craft instructions (42 pages of instruction and full colour screen shot photo step by steps) and it costs just £5.00. Whether you're a new crafter or a seasoned crafter you will love this project, it's easy and it's unique! Find it in my shop www.mjm-thearttart.com

Right folks I have to dash, hubs is home for a couple of days from panto and is waiting for a Sunday roast!!! I will be back soon, I hope you're well and happy.
as ever Happy Crafting
Love
MJM x

And the winner is ......

Hi folks

WOW! I have been blown away by all your lovely comments and messages on here and on face book, you have made me laugh and cry and given this crafter a lovely warm fuzzy feeling of crafty love so a HUGE thank you to all of you that took the time to comment! so I better announce a winner then hadn't I? It's Cazzy/Carol

CAZZY24 November 2013 11:17

Hello Michelle, I would love to win some of your inspiration on a CD. I have so many of your shows recorded on my Sky planner that I won`t let my husband delete, I have about 2% memory left lol! If I have one of your CD`s I might let my husband delete JUST ONE program ha ha ha x
Thanking You, So Much,
Carol x x

 

Please contact me Carol so I can get my disc on it's way to you and maybe you can clear some of that planner LOL

 

Sorry to all those that were unsuccessful this time

 

I'll be back soon to share some more life and craftiness, I have a story about a horse to share but that can wait til next time LOL

 

Off now to finish putting my Christmas tree project together and hopefully get it on line for the weekend.

 

I hope you're all well and happy, thanks for visiting and once again thanks for all your crafty support

until soon, as ever, Happy Crafting

Love

MJM x

A Little bit of Christmas Inspiration

Hi all

How are you? Well and happy I hope! Well so far so good on the blogging front from me LOL!

Just a quickie to pop in and drop this off ...

 

The December/January issue of Scrap365 is on sale today so why not grab a copy and indulge in some crafty Christmas and winter inspiration!

 

 

There's an article in there from little old me too ;) A little inspiration for last minute Christmas gifts or just a different way to capture your memories using box frames. I'll give you a couple of sneak peek pictures if you promise not to tell but you'll just have to get your mitts on the mag to see the full project ;)

 

 

 

Told you they would be sneak peeks ;)

 

Enjoy the magazine and I'll see you soon, until then as ever Happy Crafting

 

Love MJM x



 

 

 

Has it been so long???

Hi all

Sneaking in to remove the dust covers, open the curtains and let some air in to my little corner of blogdom!

I really cannot believe it has been so long! I had to giggle to myself when I read the last post and made a comment about it not being May like weather but more like November .... prophetic? Or am I just rubbish LOL

I guess I need to find some love for blogging again, I know I posted ages ago about this very subject. I used to love blogging and leaving little bits of my life here in cyber space but think I got a little jaded with it all, being on so many design teams at one point when blogging was not an option as I posted my regular DT projects every month. As life got busier in other ways I had to part company with a lot of those lovely companies and suddenly I was free to choose when I blogged. I intended to take a little time off but it's like going on a holiday, it takes me a little while to resume normal life and I guess my blog has suffered the most. Anyway no excuses and no apologies that's the way it is, however I am going to try and get back into the groove and hopefully will make it back here a little more often ..... but no promises right??!!

I am stacking up some posts now, basically having a blogging day ;) There will be catch up bits, up to date bits and hopefully lots of crafty bits :)

But to end this post the first thing I am going to drop off is this link to the Scrap365 blog

.... there is a blog hop and you still have time to join in for the chance to win the new American Crafts Autumn Crisp collection. There is loads of lovely inspiration on the blogs of some of my fellow DT members on the mag so go on why not indulge and be inspired and remember to read the rules, post along the way and you could win all those goodies! Why am I not in the blog hop? Too busy this month but I will be playing along with the next one ;)

Right my crafty lovelies and anyone who has stumbled along here by chance I will get this posted and keep writing some more posts and who knows maybe it will be worth popping back really soon!

Until then, as ever, Happy Crafting!
Love
MJM x

Purple coloured winners!!

Hi all

Thanks for all the lovely comments you have left over my Purple Ronnie inspirational disc giveaway, they have made me smile, laugh and feel quite humbled! I'd love to have all of you as winners (that's why the cup on telly is so much easier!) but I have randomly picked 3 winners from here and also from the post on FB for those of you that had trouble commenting here.
Margaret Hourigan, Karen Seal and Yvonne Peel can you please PM me on FB with your addy's.

Thanks again to everyone for playing along. I'll be back soon for a little life catch up. In the meantime I am working away in my ever growing design studio (I've now spread into hubs room!!) being inspired by some great artists and trying to stay warm in this horrible weather ... May? no me thinks more like November!!!

So until soon, as ever, I hope you are well and happy, stay safe and warm and
Happy Crafting
Love
MJM x

Schlurple the Purple!

Hi all ....

.... and flippin eck tucker where did that last month go? I won't stop to fill you in on life in general (I'll try and come back and do that!) as I am here to share some of the Purpleness of Purple Ronnie and to offer a giveaway inspiration disc ... or 3 ;)

Last week I did a few shows on Ideal World and Create & Craft tv for Serif featuring, of course, the fabulous software and introducing you crafters to the world of Purple Ronnie. When I started working with the kits for samples it would have been easy to do cards as we know them from back in the day, Ronnie on a black background with a poem so I wanted to try and think outside of the box to show you what else could be made with a little creative thinking..... here's a section of some of the things I came up with .....

hmm hmm (coughs with slight embarrassment).... oops as you may notice the cup cake cases are empty .... yumsville ;D

One of my favourite things, my rescue remedy bag with a dark t-shirt transfer onto a hot water bottle cover and a cover on a hip flask.

The wedding kit is so much fun in this collection and a little bit different from the norm.

This is a selection of some of the hybrid cards that I created .... I know me and cards!!!

And this is a selection of digi cards of course, super quick and easy to create with the kits.

Now I mentioned a giveaway .... as some of you know I normally give away an inspiration disc of some of my projects on each show, however as we went all high tech with the craft community event, which was great fun, we didn't have a cup of chance or whatever you like to name the receptacle ;) So I have decided as I have the 3 discs that I would have given away I will do it here instead. The discs as I said are a little bit of inspiration from me to you and have 10 of my projects on from the show including some of the hybrid cards with construction instruction, they open up in craft artist so you can pull them apart, add your own bits and with them as you please.

Fancy one? well all you have to do is leave me a comment here, doesn't have to be anything long winded if you don't want .... just say hi ;) then go to my face book page (badge over there somewhere with a link >>>>>) and write 'done' in the comments under the post about the giveaway .... schimples :) I will announce 3 winners picked at random on Friday 24th May .....

....Good luck and see you soon, until then as ever
Happy Crafting
Love
MJM x

HI .... SORRY FOR SHOUTING BUT WANT TO CATCH YOUR ATTENTION LOL! I HEAR SOME OF YOU ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY COMMENTING, TRY OPENID AND ALSO PERSEVERE WITH VALIDATION IT TAKES ME 2 OR 3 TIMES SOMETIMES!! IF ALL ELSE FAILS JUST COMMENT ON THE POST ABOUT THE GIVEAWAY ON MY FB PAGE AND LET ME KNOW YOU TRIED AND YOU WILL STILL GO INTO THE DRAW :) THANKS FOR VISITING! M X

Some Serif to share

Hi all

Just thought I would pop in and share a little Serif with you from the shows I did on Create and Craft TV last weekend. It was so good to be back after an absence and I had so much fun! It really is a great TV family and we do laugh!

I was showing The Good life double CD collection of Digi kits and stamps over the Create and Craft birthday weekend, at the moment the kits are only available through Create and Craft and you need Serif Craft Artist 2 Professional to power them .... so here we are some of the samples as seen on TV all created from the 6 The Good life kits...

Chocolate Heaven - Food and Drink kit

 I have used the torn edges in the graphic style section on the material for the background (style tab on left side > edges > paper > torn and increase line as you wish) I have also cut up some of the embellishments so the garden of cakes can be split up and images used individually to fill in gaps (select embellie > pick up scissor tool > cut a little way into the lank area of selection > click select > click on then off embellie and when you go back onto it you'll find the elements have been separated NB this doesn't work on all embellishments)

 

Clock - Words of Wisdom kit (mainly)

 



This is an image that I printed onto printable canvas and then stuck to the front of a bought canvas that held a clock mechanism (the canvas came from B&M) I've used the shape tool to create the circles (hold the shift key down as you draw the circle out to create a perfect circle) I then re coloured from within the digi kit colour palette. I applied one of the Digi brushes from the kit around the circle (select the circle > go to brushes tab on left > drop down and select digi kit > click butterfly brush > go to line tab top left > increase line as desired)

 

Daisies plaque - words of wisdom kit

 

 

This is a 12 x 9 wall plaque - a bit of home décor which these kits really lend themselves to.

 

 

 

Baby - Happy Families kit

 

This shaped layout is created by punching out some material from the kit (Punch tab top left > shapes from drop down > select shield and drag onto material > resize as required and punch) I then created the matt in the sae way but punching from a square created with the shape tool and re coloured from the digi kit palette. I added line round both to add definition (select shape > bring frame image top of colour box to front and select colour > line tab next to colour box and increase line) I used an intelligent photo frame and added he photo I then dropped this behind the light blue matt (with photo selected go to arrange bottom left > send back one) while it was still selected I then picked up the eraser tool on the top tool bar and erased away any photo and frame showing (it will only ease the item selected) Once happy I bought it back to the front. I then added the 'hill with flowers' embellie and repeated the eraser process so it sits within the shape. I added the tree from the kit and flowers from a search in the digi browser. (I separated the 3 daisy type flowers as I separated the embellies in chocolate heaven above and then erased he stalks with the eraser tool to add to the bottom of the plant pot. I also selected the photo at the end and went to the [photo lab to add an effect to it (photo lab > effects > style > comic book)

 

 

I see no ships - By the Sea kit

 

 

The photo on this A4 layout was put through the cut out studio and then a scene built around it from the kit.

 

Lilly on the Farm - Friends forever

 

 

Another photo put through the cut out studio and placed in a scene created from the kit.

 

 

 

T-Shirt - Words of wisdom (mainly)

 

 

I created a t-shirt from this image by printing onto t-shirt transfer material and ironing in place (top tip when cutting an image from t -shirt transfer material cut as close to the image as you can to keep the image tidy)

 

 

 

Front and Back of a bag - words of wisdom kit

 

 

I printed these two images onto printable canvas and used pinflair glue to attach them to the front and back of a hessian shopping bag. The background is created from the shape tool and coloured from the digi kit palette. The front image is and embellishment and the two pigs backs are as well but minus the bird so I copy and pasted the front image so it was the right size and then used the eraser tool to erase the pigs just leaving the bird shape. I then used the shape tool and drew an oval to fill in the front of the bird (the circle tool without holding the shift key so you can create an oval) and then coloured it from the colour palette so it exactly matched the colour of the bird, I then grouped it and the bird embellie and put it between the backward pigs sending it back one on the arrange tab so the edges are hidden by the pigs. The heart was also created with the shape tool and the faux stitching is from the digi brushes (draw a square with shape tool > take away any colour fill or line > brushes on the left > global > embroidery > select running stitch with eyelets > Line tab top left > increase line as you wish)

 

 

 

Dirty faces - Friends forever kit

 

 

The one not seen on TV as Dill brain forgot to print it!! Pretty straight forward using an intelligent frame and the quote has been put through a sticker style to make it pop off the page. (select text > styles left side > sticker from drop down > select the effect that suits)

 

 

 

Dreaming - Words of wisdom

 

 

I love all the dreamy imagery in this kit with flying sheep etc. Quite straight forward 12 x 12 with the photo held in an intelligent digi frame.

 

 

I've added explanations where I can as a lot of you have been asking questions about some of my projects .... I hope they make sense :) Thanks for stopping by and letting me share some of my samples. I hope you're well and happy and as ever .... until soon ....

 

 

Happy Crafting

Love

MJM x









 



 



 

 



High in the Sky!

Hi all..... How are you? I guess it took a little longer than I intended to come back here but there’s nothing new in that and let’s face it at least I have come back!

So today I’d like to (finally) share pictures of my trip to the Olympic Park at the end of March to see my models in the exhibition at the top of the orbit high in the sky! The regeneration project is being run by a company called No ordinary park / Park in Progress and they are now doing trips for the public to get a glimpse of what’s coming to the park over the next couple of years.... it’s all exciting stuff! For those that don’t know I was commissioned to make some models for an exhibition that shows visitors what they can expect to see after the regeneration.

So my visit started at Pudding Mill Lane station, almost in the park itself and it was my first glimpse of that stadium in the flesh....

 

.... And the red twisty tower is a most amazing sculpture that is the orbit, do you remember seeing it on TV and wondering what it was? (Unless of course you were lucky enough to actually go to the events then you will know that)

Before we set off we were all issued with high vis jackets and hard hats as it is a building site with all the redevelopment...

..... Hmmmm sooooo attractive.... NOT!

After a bus ride through the park we arrived at the Orbit.....

Standing at the bottom of it you realise how huge it is and what a fantastic feat of sculptural engineering it is.
At the top you have a full 360 degree view of London around the viewing platform, shame the weather was a bit rubbish and inside there are the funkiest mirrors ever....

You feel like you’re standing in the mirror and also standing on certain marked points and looking in the mirrors it turns the world upside down!

And so to my models, 1 of them is in a bird box in the amazing tower of bird boxes representing the North side of the park....

.... It’s a wildlife scene to show the natural development of the rivers and the planting intended to introduce wildlife into the park. Here are some close ups I took before it went to the park.

 

The other 3 are in a structure of boxes that represent the South side of the park.

A Cabaret club to show that local bands and artists will have a place in the entertainment venues intended for the park.

The model is 20cm x 20cm x 20cm and is made from chipboard, cardstock, dowelling, fimo and plumbers fittings!

A Carousel to represent the fairground rides coming to the park.

Again this is 20cm x 20cm x 20cm and is made from chipboard, dowelling and patterned paper.

 
And finally, a theatre proscenium arch to represent the theatre space coming to the park

20cm x 20cm x 20cm and made from mount board, patterned papers and rub ons and I made the theatre masks from fimo!

I’m looking forward to going back to the park over time to see all the developments and I’m thrilled skinny that there is a bit of me there high in the sky!

Thanks for stopping by, the next post will be soon.... honest! I hope you’re well and happy and as ever

Happy Crafting

Love
MJM x

ps. apologies for the different fonts, I tried to be clever and copy and paste from a document and blogger evidently didn't like it! After an hour of trying to make it uniform I surrender!!! M x

A New Look .... A New beginning

Well here I am, I knew it had been a while since my last visit but boy I was shocked when I saw the date of my last post ..... time sure does fly!!

I have been a busy bee in my absence with TV blockbusters for Serif, Christmas, Hubs Panto and a huge amount of prep for teaching on the 6 week Amazon and Caribbean cruise we did at the beginning of the year .... pics will follow in another post!

When we came back I had a very exciting commission for the Olympic park exhibition and built some of my models for them .... again pics will follow of my visit to the exhibition to see them last week!

And so to the reason for this post .... today I am finally re-launching my website .... never I hear you cry! It is true and you can visit it here .... enjoy and let me know what you think.

I'm going to get off now and finish all my re decorating in cyber space but like I said New Look .... New Beginning and I will be blogging again soon :)

I hope you're all well and happy and keeping warm ... roll on the sunshine eh!
Until soon, as ever, Happy Crafting
Love
MJM x