Especially for Lottie

My dear friend Lottie is tired of seeing a spider on my blog - and I don't blame her. :) I have been so busy lately that I have not had chance to do any swaps or blog challenges etc but I have done a few card orders for Christmas and Birthdays... so here are a few examples of what I have been up to...

Happy Halloween!

Here is my entry for One Powerful Hour this week - plus a spooky picture I took a few months ago at night.. Happy Halloween all.

12 days of Christmas

Yes, Christmas is coming - scary or what. I made this for a 12 days of Christmas Bauble swap being hosted by Linda on Zuzu's forum. This represents 9 ladies dancing and there are 9 gems for 9 ladies - 8 small ones and one large teardrop one.

My Craft Room

Welcome to my craft room. This was my small bedroom and junk room for the longest time. I have been planning to convert it for two years and now it is done. I always get so messy in my crafting so the intention was to have a craft room where I can hide away the mess.

The colour theme was lilac, white and silver with a touch of black. The A R T letters were plain wood which I bought from eBay and painted. the over the door rack was also from eBay and the silver buckets I got from a craft store.

The canvas and wood shelving was from Argos (again I can drop the canvas front to hide this if it gets messy). On the second shelf are all my unmounted stamps. I store them in video cases and the spines are labelled with images on the sides so I can easily find what I am looking for.

My BEAUTIFUL new craft desk! This was my big treat within my budget for this room. It is from Storage 4 Crafts and I love it. The rack on top is from Lakeland to give me extra space. To the left is my day light lamp and to the right is a picture holder to match the butterflies.

I love the drawers - it may help to keep me organised.

The right side of my desk has my 12 x 12 paper rack and the stacked black storage units have more ink pads, embossing powders and my heat gun.

The left hand side of my desk has another shelving unit on wheels full of "stuff"

This is the shelving above my craft desk. The two butterflies on the wall are from eBay - they are memo holders so will eventually hold more art and notes. The art doll sat on the bottom shelf watches to make sure I create good stuff - thanks to Joanne for making this for me. Her name is Abby (after NCIS Abby) :)

The dog also approves of the craft room - especially as she has her own Chaise Lounge that matches the rug and is under the desk. They like to snuggle next to the radiator :)

Just another view.

This was an old grubby brown wardrobe. I was going to get rid of it but my sister gave me the idea of keeping it and painting it. So I painted it with a soft lilac and added the flourishes. I painted the inside too!

So inside the "wardrobe is yet more storage boxes! I wasn't quite sure what to do with the rail then hit on the idea of buying some oversized jump rings and looped them on - so I can hang up some of my art and items received in swaps etc - this will look great when full of creative works.

This is my computer desk - the boxes to the left house all my completed cards - they are actually comic storage boxes from eBay. The clock I altered myself and the top shelf has my Tim Holtz products in pride of place.

The bottom section of my computer table was perfect for storing all my embelishments.

I chose this room because it is a suntrap and has a great view. I put a crystal in the window so when the sun shines the room is full of rainbows. The wooden drawers and boxes have all my wood mounted stamps in it and the blue Lock n Lock stack has all my painting supplies.

So there it is :)

It's Finished!

It’s Finished!

I am pleased to say my craft room is finally finished and ready to move into. My craft desk and new rug were delivered on Saturday but the decorator let me down for the 5th time! Luckily a friend of mine came to my rescue and Saturday and Sunday afternoon we finished the decorating - yay! Thanks Paul!!! Then on Monday he put up the shelving and we assembled the desk and it all looks stunning.

It is just a matter of moving all my craft stash in now – but that may take some time :)

So here is a sneak peak…

Tick Tock

Well, my craft room hit a snag today as the decorator couldn't make it to fix the problem areas for me, so for the weekend, all I have to show for it is an empty room and a half painted wardrobe and a painted radiator LOL

So I decided as I could do no more then I would make my altered clock. This was a plain wooden clock I picked up at the NEC back in March (with the sole intention of decorating it for my future craft room). I decided to decorate it to match the A R T letters I have also decorated. After much fumbling and swearing trying to figure out how to piece the clock parts together, I stuck a battery in and it worked - yay!

I already know where it is going to go in the new craft room and it will look perfect!

I also picked up a few other little bits and pieces to finish off the decor. All I need to do now is get it decorated!

My Lovely New Craft Desk

Wow - it seems like an age since I mentioned my intentions for a new craft room and now it looks like the plan is finally coming together! I have all the paint ready to decorate it myself and the room should be decluttered by this weekend to allow the decorator to come in to fix a problem wall and the ceiling. Then all I need to do is paint it and start moving my stash in! Yay!

So I couldn't wait any longer and I have ordered my new craft desk from Storage 4 Crafts. Just spoke to them on the phone and they were so helpful and friendly - great for storage ideas so I reccomend you pop by their website. It is being delivered on 4th Ocrober so I am very excited :)

Pretty in Pink

Wow! I cannot believe how long it has been since I blogged anything! Life has been a bit crazy, so now I am at home with a yucky cold, off work sick so decided to finally get out my gear and make something. I have made this for a swap I am participating in and it perfectly fits the Pretty in Pink theme for Gothic Arches!

It is also perfect for the One Powerful Hour theme of Alcohol Inks :)

Masks

The theme this week for One Powerful Hour is Masks. I made this a couple of years ago for a masked ball - it was made from a plain white mask. I still have it :)

Blog Giveaway

Hi everyone

Why not go and check out Karine Ardaults blog. Not only is she giving away a mysterious bag of goodies, but her photographic work is very inspiring and breathtaking. She also has some exiting ventures coming up so I wish her luck with that!

Christmas in July

The theme this week for One Powerful Hour is Christmas in July. Scary thing is I must have set a reminder in my outlook calendar to start making Christmas cards as of today! I did it last year as I was so behind with my cards last year - then forgot about the reminder so it shocked me when it popped up :)

Anyway here is my entry for this week - Merry Christmas!

Tags

The theme this week for Theme Thursday is tags. I made this a while ago, but it is one of my favourite pieces and sits in front of my craft desk as inspiration.

Fairies

The theme this week on Weekend Taggers is Fairies. I made this a whil ago but it goes well with the theme... I also have fairies at the bottom of my garden - well ceramic ones anyway :)

Craft Room Project

I have been intending to work on a project to convert my small bedroom into a craft room for quite some time now. My crafting has taken over what should be a dining room - so having friends over for dinner tends to prove a challenge. So now I am working on it and my goal is to have it done in the next couple of months and definitely before Christmas! So this weekend, i sketched my ideas of what I want it to look like (working to a tight budget), and to start me off I decorated these wooden letters that I got off ebay. They were simply painted with white acrylic paint and the flourishes stamped in black. They will be going above the door in my new craft room.

I will start posting pictures soon of how I progress - but right now I need to declutter the room of all junk first so I can start decorating :)

Black - White - Grey

I made two of these tonight - one for my best friend and one for her mum. My best friend's dad sadly passed away and I didn't want to do a sympathy card. Her dad was so full of life that I wanted to make something that reflected that instead. And it fits well with this weeks theme on Created by Hand.

People with Wings

Well as mentioned in a previous post, I recently did a mixed media art class. And this is my second finished canvas - which fits perfectly with Theme Thursday this week as the theme is people with wings. I cannot wait to make some more canvasses :)

One Powerful Hour

There is a new challenge site in town and it is called One Powerful Hour. It is posted every Thursday and the aim is to make something under an hour and even tidy up after yourself a little (that is the tough part). It is an open theme this week and I have been so busy this past week that I am submitting some work that I made a while ago but definitely was completed under an hour. It is using an acetate technique with alcohol inks which is inspired by Zuzu

So stop on by and join in the fun!

Try Something New.... OK!

I think it's great that the theme this week on Mixed Media Monday is Try Something New because I did just that! I have just completed a 5 week mixed media art class run by an extremely talented lady - Paulette Insall. This Monday was the last class and this is one of my completed pieces.

The canvas is a combination of acyrlic paint, rubber stamping and collage images - and so many techniques I wouldn't even know where to start telling you. I have learnt so much so as you can see this is perfect for this week's theme. Click on the image for more detail.

I have a couple more canvasses I am working on so I have no doubt they will appear another day... This has been an extremely fun and educational class and I highly reccomend it to everyone!

His Nibs

The theme this week for Mixed Media Monday is pens and pencils - so I decided on a little play on words.

TGIF - Techniques

The theme for TGIF this week is techniques - namely in rubber stamping. I made this a while ago but it was using a technique I love. I love to stamp images onto acetate with stazon ink and then decorate the background - for this piece I stamped a rose background and embossed in white, then colour tinted with chalk ink pads. And because it is the resist technique, it is also perfect for this weeks' Saturday Workout.

Flourishes and Wings

The theme this week for Gothic Arches is Flourishes. So here is my contribution. The bird is a new stamp that just arrived yesterday, so was great to use something new. This is also perfect for the wings theme by Arty Girlz and Created by Hand

Mixed Media Monday - Paint

I love Audrey Hepburn and that has been reflected lately in a few of my craft pieces. I have given everything I have made with her away so today after doing a spot of gardening I decided to make something for me. This clipboard started life as a boring brown wooden clipboard and now it is a masterpiece that will be on display in my new craft room (when I get round to sorting it out!)

I used adirondak acrylic paint, grungeboard with crackle paint, some swirly stamps and fabric flowers, not to mention the lovely Audrey. And so this is perfect for the theme this week on Mixed Media Monday which is Paint.

Click on the image for more detail.

Crazy Amigo - Birds

I'm Back! I'm crafting! It's great... OK well I made this before I went on my travels with work but only now am I getting round to posting it on my blog and it fits perfectly this week for the Crazy Amigo challenge

This is the front and back of an address tag I made for a forum group swap - so we all have everyone's addresses in a fun and artistic format. Thanks to a great lady, who magically airburushed my address out, here is the finished result.

The stamps, I am sure you recognise as being Tim Holtz stamps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Deb xx

Arte Y Pico

I am very pleased and honoured to be given this award by two great ladies - Caz and Mel. Thank you so much ladies.

The rules are as follows:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte Y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.5. To show these conditions.http://arteypico.blogspot.com

I am sure many people have been nominated by now - so I am just going to pick 5 that inspire me:-

Gabrielle, Jacqueline, Galina, Nicole and Louise

Handmade Backgrounds

Well, I cannot believe how long it has been since I posted on my blog! So unlike me... but I was in the UK for 2 days after my Copenhagen trip and then was off to Chicago again on business and got home Saturday! Sounds glam but hotels and taxi rides is pretty much it - but I met some great people from my company and it was an excellent course so most definitely worth the trip!

So this week the theme for Arty Girlz is handmade backgrounds. I made this card as a spin off from my canvas I made for my best friend Julie - same concept - using vaseline and acrylic paint.... I finished them off just last night (honestly I didn't know the theme). It is in my favourite colour - I really should move away from purples :)

Many thanks for stopping by x

Arty Girlz Black and White

Once again another great challenge from Arty Girlz - this week the theme is black and white and I love doing black and white - so here is my contribution for this week.

I made this piece a few weeks back but I only just got back from a business conference in Copenhagen today so I am cheating and submitting this as my entry :) And here is proof of me hard at work...

TGIF - Faces

The theme for Thank God It's Friday this week is faces - I made this a while ago but it is perfect for the theme. The image is stamped onto acetate then gold leafed.

Walk Like an Egyptian

So the theme this week for Arty Girlz is triangles, and here is my contribution. I made it a couple of weeks ago for a challenge and it seemed the perfect opportunity to display it. I have been fascinated by Ancient Egypt since I was a little girl - did school projects about it and even wrote a novel about it (which I submitted as part of my GCSE English many moons ago). I went to the Tutankhamun exhibition last week and the British Museum so it has brought back all those wonderful thoughts.

The stamps are by non-sequitur.

I have taken a few shots due to its 3D nature - enjoy!