TIME to get back on track!!

Hi there!

Well I am still alive.... Just about LOL. The last time I was here I told you that I was moving house and may not be around for a while, however, I didn’t intend my absence to be this long!

The move went well and was relatively easy actually and we are ridiculously happy living up here, I am so pleased to be home in my beloved North East although I still find it weird I can see my family and friends easily and leave them knowing it won’t be months or indeed years until I see them again. This is a digi page I made using Serif Craft artist professional and the Daisy Trail digi kit Welcome

Our lovely quirky house that I have been nesting in. Every box and bag is now unpacked and we are surrounded by all our nick knacks, works of art gathered from our travels and sparkly bits, all we are now waiting for are the new sofas promised 2 weeks ago but that’s a whole other story!!  

In amongst the move Hubs has spent a lot of time away working and I‘ve been a busy bee with create and craft tv shows and scrap365 magazine deadlines.

Now it’s all settling it’s quite strange to find I have some time to finally do some things that I want to do, getting to grips with my blog and finally re launching my website being some of the things on my list!

Today I’ve been reading one of the books that my mum and dad got me for my birthday recently and it’s one of those books that landed in my path at just the right time.

Pam Carriker, the author and the other talented artists that have contributed to the book seem to be speaking to me right now, does a book ever do that to you? I have recently found myself a little stifled creatively and know that it is down to me, I let life take over and chores and tasks overwhelm me sometimes and leave myself no time to ‘play’ I’ve lost the joy of my hobby a little along the way and that makes me sad but I am starting to feel the quiet knock of mojo and the itching of the fingers and intend to create time to ...... well create! I also enjoyed reading the section on cyber space and laughed out loud as I realised I am not alone in getting lost in the black hole at times and that it is ok to limit computer time and manage my visits to cyber space to connect, to share and to enjoy again.

So basically I need to manage my time, allow myself time to create like I used to without that slight guilt feeling I get and also not to pressure myself into constantly visiting cyber space (‘you don’t’ I hear you cry .... LOL ... what I mean is I worry when I don’t visit cyber space and feel pressure to do it and then start to really dislike it which is another thing that makes me sad) and I want to discover the joy of blogging again like I used to.

I will be looking to this lady for some inspiration

Frida Kahlo, one of my artistic heroines. This is a digi piece of home decor I created for my craft room using the daisy trail kit Gypsy Rose; the colours are perfect for that Mexican folk art feel.

And I will be looking here daily for inspiration

The fabulous North East coast that I have missed so much

And where I take the boys most days..... Needless to say they love it and have been brushing up on their swimming skills LOL

Well hopefully I haven’t waffled too much and hopefully I’ll be back soon to share some more thoughts and crafty projects so until soon, as ever, I hope you are well and happy and I’ll leave you with this thought ...

Created with Daisy trail digi kit thanks

Happy Crafting

Love

M x

One little post before I go!

Hi all
Well tomorrow is M day ...... moving day! As you can imagine I am buried under boxes and all those last minute 'what do I do with that' things and packing the studio ..... well don't get me started LOL But all being well, with a good wind behind us we'll be off tomorrow to start a brand new adventure! I hope the sun shines!!!

So I thought I'd post a few bits before I go, thanks for all the lovely messages, some of you have been asking to see some of the samples I've had on tv .... so here's a couple (a lot of my 'stuff' has been packed so only been able to photograph a couple of bits :))

These were created for the Serif Craft Artist Steam Punk 4 day deal on create and craft TV back at the end of March .....

A hope chest ......

I made the chest out of chipboard and then designed my own decorative papers to cover it.The blend mode in the programme is fab for mixing the backgrounds to make my own papers and the photo real embellishments look great gathered together and shadowed to give that realistic touch

I printed some of the imges off multiple times to create some 3D embellishments and mixed them with some of my own crafty embellishments.

Then I created some scenes on paper to cover the inside of my chest.

This one is a reverse canvas filled with a photo of my niece

And some embellishments layered to make them 3D, with some imagery printed onto acetate to hang within the frame to create more depth

So that's a taster of some of my hybrid projects.

Just before I packed my studio up I completed a commission for scrap365, here's a sneak

to appear in the Sepember issue, I took great joy in getting messy with fibre paste and ink.... well until my new studio is settled I guess it will be a while before I can get messy in my craft room :)

And finally ....

The boys took a last spin in the fields

They don't know it yet but not only will they have fields to play in soon but loads of cliff walks and miles and miles of beach too ..... did I tell you I was a little bit excited??!!!

Ok so I'll sign off for now I will be back as soon as possible and hopefully writing to you from the comfort of my brand new studio! Until then ,as ever, I hope you are well, thanks for stopping by, I'll *see you* soon and of course.....
Happy Crafting
Love
M x

Sketchy goings on!

Hi all

Well as the title suggests there are sketchy goings on today over at the sketchbook365 blog wanna play? Then why not pop on over to the blog and see the sketch from the lovely Wendy McKee and also see what the other members of the Scrap365 DT have come up with ..... there's loads of inspiration to be had and the best bit? You can add your designs too and be in for the chance to win a prize!

Here's my take on the sketch .....

Lots of Happy doodling as I'm in a happy mood, as the title says We're on the move, come Wednesday we will be all packed up (I hope if the packing fairies answer there invitations LOL) and on our way up to the North East .... I'm going home to my neck of the woods after 25 years of being away and I am soooo excited!

In close up I have layers of scrap paper, distressed of course :) and some doodled borders punched with a crop a dile and a doodled rainbow coloured with pencils (I love my colouring pencils and feel they've been somewhat neglected recently!)

The arrow embellishments are doodled

and the signpost is cut out from a photo of the sign at the crossroads at the end of our village ..... I'm hoping the next sketch will work as the second half to this layout so I can add a destination page to create a complete double layout :)

Why not hop on over to the Sketchbook365 blog, be inspired and play along with us, we'd love to see what YOU come up with and rememeber it can be anything inspired by the sketch, paper, digital and hybrid ..... everything is welcome ..... see you there :)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're well and happy and I'll *see you* soon until then as ever
Happy Crafting
Love
M x

More catch up!

Hi there
I thought I'd better come back soon with the rest of the catch up that I started, all good intentions and all that:) So here we go .... here's the rest of the cruise pics

We went onto the Caribbean via several places including .....

Iles du Salut, an amazing tropical paradise where they filmed Papillion. Beautiful but weird thinking of all the terrible things that happened there .....

and the punch was lethal!

Mayreau ....

Well just breath taking a whole island just for our ship, they even took the ships bar over and we were served cocktails on our sun loungers!

and then into the Caribbean for a few days where amongst other things ....

We took a trip in a cable car through the top of the rainforest in St Lucia

Awesome!

And we swam with turtles .....

in Barbados

and then lastly the extra unexpeted suprise was the beautiful Azores ...

We fell in love with Ponta del Garda and my wonderful hubby bought me a gorgeous new dress and shoes .....

for valentines day and our last formal night on board ....

complete with a private table, a red rose and a new necklace ..... such a lucky girl! (memory created with craft arist)

Another piece of work to share with you for this post is my mini book....

in issue 2 of the Scrap365 magazine. It's all made with fabric and was lots of fun to create, there are steps in the magazine as well as photos of the other pages ;)

And finally ......

With all this rubbish weather we've been having ..... is it really May? This is where the boys can be found ..... cuddled up on my bed ..... think they have the right idea LOL

So that's it from me for now, I'm gonna be back Friday with the new sketch for the sketchbook365 blog ..... see you then!

I hope you're well and happy and as ever
Happy Crafting
Love
M x

BOO! It's been a long time!!!

Well as they say miracles do happen and todays miracle is that I'm actually here blogging! I know I've even shocked myself :)
So where have I been? What happened? Well I'm going to try and explain as quickly and shortly (is that correct English?) as possible!

I know I am so lucky to be able to do what I love as a living, to be able to craft all day is brilliant so please don't think I'm complaining but towards the end of last year I started to feel a little snowed under with so many projects on the go and deadlines to meet so I made some big decisions and started to step down from some of my responsibilities at the same time I needed to have a break from cyber space and well everything really!

Some of you may know that I went away with hubby on a 7 week cruise at the beginning of the year, working, but lucky me! I did intend to blog while away but with intermittent internet and basically switching off from everything my best laid plans got way laid and to be honest I think I feel all the better for the break. So please forgive me and I hope you will still follow my little corner of blogdom. I will not make any promises to be here on a set date or indeed at regular times but I wil try my best to share bits of my crafty life with you when I can.

So with all the apologising and explaining out of the way shall I share some pics? I guess the best place to start will be the beginning of the year and THAT cruise! I set sail for the Amazon on the 3rd of January loaded with crafty supplies galore! I taught a scrapbook class every sea day and we built a scrapbook album that covered every port of call - 22 pages in all! Hard work but I had the best time and met some great people who let me show them how to ink, ditress and generaly get messy :) As I don't want to bombard you with all my pics I'm gonna pic my faves to share with you!

Before we crossed the equator we went to Amsterdam, Lisbon, Funchal and Mindelo ....

The Equator crossng was soooo hot I can't even tell you! Amongst lots of places in the Amazon ...

We went to the Equator line in Macapa .....

It rained, well it was rainy season in the rain foret region! But we got to kiss in both hemispheres!

We met fabulous locals ....

These kids in Almeirim were brilliant practising their English

We discovered a hidden gem of a full scale beach resort ...

The background of this digi layout created wih Craft artist is the actual beach we went to....

And Chris reckoned he'd swallowed an actual ant after swimming in the river!

We sailed to the meeting of the waters in Manaus.....

where the black and yellow rivers meet, an amazing experience!

I hugged a Sloth ....

in the most inspirational village of Boca de Valeria

and we went fishing for piranah....

in Santarem!

From the Amazon we sailed on to the Caribbean but I'll save those pics for next time :) It was truly an amazing experience!

As well as all my trip pics to share I have some work pics too but I'll also do them gradually :) so first up is this.....

My stuff it book which is my version of the popular smash book, oh I really enjoyed making this and will definitely make more AND use them for all my bits and bobs! If you want to see more pics and read how I did it you'll need to get issue 1 of Scrap365 magazine, which I am pleased to say is going from strength to strength and is so full of inspiration of all crafty kinds it's ridiculous

And Finally for those of you that used to stop by, as well as any new passers by, what about Stan and Ollie? Well they are doing just fine

Ollie is as cheeky as ever

and Stan is just my lovely hansome boy!

So that's it for now, time for me to stop whittering, you see once I start it's hard to shut me up LOL, It's good to be back and I do hope you'll stop by soon, I will be here ..... honest :)
Until then as ever.... I hope you're well and Happy Cafting
Love
M x

Happy Glitzy Christmas!

Hi all
Well it's that time again when I get to share some Glitzy goodness with you all from Glitz Designs and this month I've gone all festive :) 1st up is this layout ....


Santa Baby
A layout of our very cheeky grandaughter on Christmas day. I very rarely get a serious photo from her or her brother, but I love these photos they sum her up exactly. I wanted the layout to look like a present that was being unwrapped and the mix of elements from Beatiful Dreamer and Dance in sunshine with a little vintage blue thrown in for good measure gave me the fun festive look I wanted.
Here's what I used:
Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer paper; Floral, Polka, Stripe and Houndstooth
Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer embellishments; Giant Rhinestones and Epoxy words
Glitz Designs Dance in Sunshine paper; Polka, Floral, Damask, Stripe and Raindrop
Glitz Designs Dance in Sunshine embellishments; Glitzers, Epoxy words and Trim
Glitz Designs Vintage Blue; Glitzers
Glitz Designs teeny alphas; Mint Grunge
Glitz Designs frosting; red and black


I ripped around the edges of the paper to create a frame and pulled sections back to create the un wrapped present feel and then added Glitzers to some of the patterned paper to create presents for some of my embellishments.


The tree is made up of sevearl layers of different greens from the papers and the Giant Rhinestones make perfect shiny decorations.


And the reindeer and sleigh is an embellishment created with some paper piecing, placed hanging over the page so it looks like rudolph is flying overhead pulling his sleigh with some of the Dance in Sunshine trim:) I think this will make a fun piece of home decor for the festive season!

Next up is this layout...


First Snow
We had a hard winter last year and it was Olivers first winter, after the initial shock of landing in the snow he soon got the swing of it and loved it as much as his brother. The colours in the vintage blue collection were perfect for this layout and here's what I used;
Glitz Designs Vintage Blue paper; Stripe, Polka and Motif
Glitz Designs Vintage Blue embellishments; Titles stickers, Journalling Stickers, Epoxy words and Giant Rhinestones
Glitz Designs Teeny Alphas; Pearl


I kept this layout quite simple to focus on the picture and let the lovely colours of the paper do the work. After ripping strips across the layout, creating a curled photo mat and distressing liberally I added some splodges of acrylic paint with my fingers to create some snowy paw prints across my layout.


The fab stickers from titles and journalling added great accents to my page adding just enough detail and the Giant rhinestones give it an icy, blingy lift.


One little detail I love is the bottom corner that I ripped away to give a puppy chewed effect :)

And that's it for this post and also sadly for my time with the Glitz DT. I have had to do a lot of soul searching with my decision to step down from this amazing team but life has got busier and busier and unfortunately some things have got to give :(

I have been honoured and proud to be able to work along side such amazing designers over the last 2 and half years and of course it has been a complete pleasure to work with the gorgeous Glitz girls and their wonderful product. I may not be here every month but in my heart I will always be a Glitz girl and will continue to love all the gorgeous product they bring us.
Thanks to everyone for having me along for the ride and hopefully I will see you all in cyber space soon.
Much love
MJM x