Lost Marbles!

Good morning,

Well, I know I was moaning about it raining on Saturday and now we have a mini heatwave - the temperatures here yesterday were ridiculous and today is supposed to be even warmer. Somewhere nice and comfortable in between would be nice - my little fur babies didn't know what to do with themselves yesterday!

I made sure I was in my craft room early yesterday, as I use my conservatory and in this heat it is like a sauna by lunchtime! So, here's what I made for the new challenge over at Cardz 4 Guyz today, and Jane chose the theme of

'MAKE US SMILE'

I must admit I am a little addicted to my 'Crazy Birds' at the moment ...

I was looking for a quote on the internet and this one certainly makes me smile! It describes me perfectly!

I typed it out on my pc, printed it off, then added some funky scribbled lines around the outside of the wording to make boxes. Then I stamped my little 'Crazy Bird' as if he is sitting on top of the pile of words. I used my Promarkers to colour him and added a doodled border to match the wording. I just love the expression on his face - it says everything!

Hope you will join us and 'Make us Smile' with your own quirky creations this week.

Hugz, Jan xx

Using Books to craft ...

Hello there,

I'm back today with a brand new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this week was my turn to choose the theme, so here goes with ...

'BOOKS or BOOK PAPER'

Now, when I first saw crafters tearing up books to use in crafting I was horror-struck! Those of you that know me well will know that reading is one of my favourite pastimes (as well as crafting, of course) and I have far too many to count at home - everywhere you turn there is a bookcase, or a stack of books that don't fit in any of the bookcases! And they have to be real books too - I even turned down a Kindle e-reader as a gift in favour of my beloved books.

But, I had to keep up with the times, so paid a visit to one of our local charity shops and bought an old book for 50p - that way I could use it to craft and my money was doing some good, right?! And I have to admit, I love stamping on the book pages now - the stamps take on a whole different look. So all that said, here's what I came up with for my DT inspiration ...

I have used one of my new 'Bird Crazy' stamps from Tim Holtz (which are a reasonably new purchase and I have been dying to use them - they are so quirky!) I stamped him straight onto the book paper with black archival ink and then used distress inks in 'Shabby Shutters' and 'Mermaid Lagoon' to colour him and add some splodges of ink behind him. 

I have created layers using some kraft card and some co-ordinating colours of card, together with a piece of corrugated card to create the design. I also added some eyelets to the main image so I could thread a piece of twine through them for extra interest. 

The sentiment was printed on my pc and then chopped into pieces - it makes me giggle and I think it suits his expression perfectly. A couple of buttons to finish off and balance out the design.

Hope you can come and join us - I would love to hear your own thoughts on tearing up those books!

Hugz, Jan xx