Catching Up

Well, here we are, officially in Autumn and I have to kick off the season by apologising for being a tad rubbish at posting over the summer. It was a crazy couple of months , both craft wise and work wise ( as you can imagine, the 6 weeks school holidays is my most busy period as a childminder). I am back with a vengeance though, and ready to get a grip of being organised with blogging more I promise.

I thought I'd start  back with a quick post about my weekend. I had the best time visiting Alexandra Palace in London with my youngest daughter Emma, and my crafty pals Erika and Debbie.  It was such a good fun day. We didn't do any make and takes, but had a great time shopping, chatting and watching demos. Emma was really in awe of all the amazing samples on display and it's definitely fired up her creative juices. She took great delight in buying her very first rubber stamp ( definitely a proud mummy moment!) and spending her own pennies on a mermaid light box kit, which she decorated eagerly the next day.  I think she did a fab job!

Talking of samples, it was so nice to see my own samples made for Luv Crafts up there on display on their stand. What a buzz!

It also meant I finally got to meet the lovely Jo from Luv Crafts in person, as well as having a long overdue catch up with my dear friend and fellow DT member Denyse. Obviously there was more shopping to be done on the stand too and I bought some awesome new stamps from Studio Light so I look forward to sharing my makes with them soon. 

At the end of the day we set off home weary, spent out but very happy. just to make you drool here's my total stash. 

I can't wait to get stuck into this lot properly! Unfortunately Sunday was spent finishing some more DT samples for the next Samantha K show on Hochanda so I didn't get much time, although I did manage to sneak some stamps into a project for it so here's a peek

I'm off now to break out the ink as those new stamps are calling rather loudly. 

Back soon ( honestly!)

Lynda

xx

Rising To The Crafty Challenge

So the last few weeks have been ludicrously busy in my little corner of the world and as a result the fact I forgot to post last Tuesday completely passed me by until Thursday. Oops! I am sure many of you with kids understand the end of summer term chaos, which I am using as my excuse, so do forgive me. I'd like to say life should get calmer now, but as a childminder by trade that sadly isn't the case but I promise to try to keep up with you all on here. It hopefully will provide me some sanity in a crazy 6 weeks! 

Amid the usual flurry of family life, I have also been very busy prepping samples for both Samantha K, and Luv Crafts as they have shows coming up on Hochanda this week. Here's a taste of the work I have done.  It's so much fun opening the boxes of goodies when they come, and putting my own spin on them. Sometimes it can be a real challenge to get the ideas flowing ( we all suffer the odd mojo slump right?) but not this time. I had a blast lost in my own creative little world for days.

I'll be popping more info on how I made some of my projects on my own blog over the coming weeks so feel free to take a look here and follow me if you are interested.

After such an intensive time making samples I don't mind admitting I was a bit lost briefly once they'd been packaged and sent, and couldn't decided what to do next as I had no purpose to craft. Do you ever get that way? When I do I find online challenges a great motivator. There's a big facebook event on a page called Junk Journals and Mindful Mixed Media Art at the moment with regular challenges and competitions running. The current one is to either make 5 artist trading coins, and use them in another project, or create 3 artist trading cards and create a way to store or display them. This gave me just the push I needed to get my stamps out and get playing purely for fun this weekend. Bliss!

For my Artist Trading Cards I used some uber cute unicorn stamps and made a triangular display box for them..  Anyone that knows me knows I am passionate about all things mythical, and love to bring this into my crafting so I couldn't resist using that as my theme for these competitions. 

I've never made Artist Trading Coins before, so that in itself was a fun challenge. I created a page in my art journal, focused around the magic of the forest using a variety of different media, stencils and my trusty Lavinia stamps. 

I'm not sure what my next crafty project will be yet, I am feeling the urge to go back to a bit of scrapbooking I think. Hopefully I will have something new to share with you next week. I promise to remember!

Have a great week and stay safe in all this sun we seem to be having. If it's too hot for you, just find a cool fan and craft by it ( just don't do what I did last week and use gilding flakes at the same time!).

Lynda

xx 

Making Time for Magic

Thanks to the lovely Karen for stepping into my spot last week. Life is incredibly busy right now and I didn't even have time to post let alone craft. What a sad state of affairs! 

Life is still crazy but I wanted to be sure to share a little magical project I have made with you all recently. This free standing unicorn is by Samantha K and is just stunning. I literally squealed with delight when I opened the box and first glanced it.  I have a real passion for all things mythical so it is right up my street. 

I wanted to make it colourful, and once I had put the pieces together and sprayed with a primer and them white acrylic paint, I set to work on painting the mane with glittery paints. I won't lie, it was a bit fiddly, but so worth persisting with don't you think? It's hard to tell from the photo but I also sprayed pink glitter spray all over it for some extra magical sparkle. It has yet to be named thougj- any suggestions?

Talking of magical sparkle, take a look at this wonderful pink horse that one of my 3yr old charges made. Luckily for her I had a spare piece of the unicorn, minus it's horn,  so let her loose on it and she created a magical beauty all of her own. I love to see kids being so creative. It took ages to dry as there was so much glitter glue on it! 

Before I go I'll just share another little project I managed to make at craft club last week. Finally I got to unwrap my new Lavinia stamps and have a play. The beauty of craft club is that it allows me to actually make the time to focus on inky play at least once a fortnight- a blissful 3 hours tranquility among like minded folk in hectic times. Perfect!

I've also been getting busy working on some , dare I say it... Christmas projects. Yes I know it's only June , and I am usually the last person to be breaking out the glitter and end us rushing my cards in December, but when you do design team work it seems Christmas definitely comes early.  I'll share some sneak peeks of what I have been making soon!

Have a great week

Lynda

x

Creativity is a Journey

Good morning! It's just a quick post from me today as I have a busy busy day ahead. It's half term here and while I am fortunate enough to have the week off, so no childminded children to entertain, my daughter has a friend coming to stay and we are off out later to go swimming, then have to get a yummy picnic prepped for a day at the zoo tomorrow. Should be fun!

This week I have been pondering my crafting journey a lot. I remember vividly around ten years ago, deciding that I wanted to try my hand at making a card for a little boy I looked after. I went to Hobbycraft, excited to be purchasing my very first card making supplies. I came out feeling totally overwhelmed by all the different products on display and pretty clueless as to what to do with them all. I didn't want to ask the assistant and appear stupid so browsed while attempting to look like I knew what I was doing, for ages.  I did manage to find a basic kit pack, so bought that in the end and took it home, praying it had everything in it that I needed. Fortunately it did, and a simple card with a little sparkly fish on it was made. Amazingly I have managed to find a picture of it lurking on my computer so here goes....

As traumatic as I found the whole craft shopping experience then, I am not a woman to be deterred and I decided I needed to learn more. Something about that little fishy card had really sparked my interest in paper craft. I started buying card making magazines, which were great for not only giving me tips and techniques, but also starting to build my stash as they came with free stamps and dies. I very quickly realised I needed a die cutter to use with these wondrous little pieces of metal, and dropped enough hints that my husband offered to buy me a Cuttlebug. Once that arrived I was well and truly hooked!

My first card using die cuts

Over time, and as part of my learning to master this new craft, I began to use social media as a research tool, joining card making groups on Facebook, and following crafters on Pinterest.  Like many crafters I was ( and still am)  my own worst critic, and would post my work on groups to ask for tips to improve etc. I was blown away by the support, and gradually started to believe in my abilities thanks to them. I also made some incredibly good friends along the way. 

I developed an interest in colouring and digital stamps, and through sharing my work online, I ended up being invited to apply for design teams. Well that just blew my mind! Little Miss Overwhelmed By A Craft Store was now considered good enough to apply for a DT!! Nervously I applied, and was staggered when I started getting accepted onto teams. It was so much fun. It also gave me confidence to keep pushing myself and learning more. So I started to attend some mixed media workshops and really never looked back. 

An early card with a digital stamp

So, skip forward to today, and now as you know if you have been following the blog, I am currently serving on Samantha K and Polly Allsorts , and Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Blog design teams,  and this week I have joined another and can announce I am very excited to be working with Luv Crafts and their fabulous products too. I can't quite  believe that these amazing organisations want l'il old me to produce art for them. What a total honour it is. 

Stalking the postman who was carrying my new DT pack

I guess what I am trying to say with this post is that wherever you are in your own creative journey, and whatever your ability now, never give up on it of it's something you enjoy. It can be overwhelming at times, especially when you see so much amazing art on social media, and vast products ranges in stores, but just have fun with what you do in your own way and who knows where it could lead you. I'm still pinching myself as to where it's taken me that's for sure. 

Now I must dash as my quick post became rather long after all!

Have a great week.

Lynda

x

Visiting Create It and Catching Up With Friends

Well, it’s Tuesday again so here I am with my weekly update, and what a busy week it has been for me- well the last few days anyway. 

At the start of the week I was eagerly awaiting my latest design team pack from Samantha K. Frustratingly I was out when it arrived, so I was delayed for 24 hours in getting my sticky mitts on it, but boy was it worth the wait! Much of it was to create samples with for Sam’s  June  show on Hochanda, so I can’t show you yet, but suffice to say that knowing that I had Saturday free , I warned my family I would mostly be ignoring them for the day while I set to work.  That’s exactly what I did, from around 7am, while binge watching The Gilmore Girls on Netflix ( with a short break to watch the Royal wedding). Every so often my husband Chris would tiptoe in with a coffee for me and toss me the odd cookie to keep me going- what a star! When I finally stopped we did enjoy some time in the garden with a bottle of bubbly so he didn't feel totally abandoned. Oooh and I also discovered I have won a prize via a Facebook competition from Luv Crafts so that really brightened my week. I'll share my prize next week as it hasn't yet arrived. 

I was very chuffed to have got pretty much all my samples made in a day, even though it was intensive, because that meant that I was able to hand deliver them on Sunday at the Hochanda Create It Event at Detling Showground in Kent, where Samantha was holding a stall and doing a live show.

I picked my good friend and fellow crafter Erika up from Basingstoke at 8.15am and we made the drive to Maidstone to meet up with my sister Laura. It’s such a familiar route to me as I grew up there and both Laura and my mum live a few minutes from the showground. I always like driving back ‘home’.

Sisters- can you tell?!

The day promised to be full of fun, crafty chat and laughter, and of course shopping, and it didn’t disappoint.  Our first stop was to visit the Samantha K stand, and hand over my work, and say hello to the team.  The ladies doing the make and take looked like they were having a ball. My friend and team mate Denyse did a great job organising it and the projects I saw were stunning.  I have to say too, that the DT samples on display were all so eye catching. They were commented on by so many visitors while I was there, and I believe all weekend, and it gave me a real buzz seeing my work up there being admired and talked about.  Like many crafters I often doubt my own abilities as there is so much talent out there that I am in awe of, so it was such a huge compliment.

The make and take ladies getting busy

With my bag relieved of samples, that meant I had plenty of room for the important bit- shopping!  I bought some amazing goodies as you can see and I can’t wait to get the time to play with them.

New toys!!

All of the stands were fabulous and inspiring, but I have to say I was blown away with Sandra Rushton's stand with her colouring art books. They were incredible and really appealed to both  Laura and I,and we had to indulge in some. I have never seen samples like the ones on display on her walls. Dragons, steampunk , gothic and floral- all so beautiful and to my personal taste. I’m not convinced I can produce anything like them but I do know I will have fun trying in my books and that’s what really counts.

The most gorgeous colouring books I now own

Sandra's stunning art

We only did one make and take, and that was trying our hand at block printing on fabric on the Colouricious stand. I’d never done this before and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so therapeutic and simple to do yet so effective. The array of hand carved Indian printing blocks they had for sale were exquisite. We commented on how they could even sit on a mantle as stand alone pieces of art. In fact Erika bought an elephant to do just that. They really were beautiful.

My block printing

Erika loved it too!

I had another very important mission, and that was to meet  up with my fellow crafty bloggers Angela and Karen on the Polly Allsorts stand.  As with Sam’s stand, the make and take participants were all focusing hard and having a great time when I was there. Their projects were so pretty and magical. It was great to finally meet Angela too, having only chatted online since I became a member of her design team.  I have known Karen personally for several years so it was lovely to catch up with her properly too of course.

The whimsical world of Polly Allsorts

After a full day at the event, we made a quick pit stop at my mums house for cuppa and a slice of delicious home made carrot cake. That alone was worth driving 100 miles for, not to mention busting the diet! Yummy and the perfect end to a perfect couple of days. 

I hope you had a good weekend too, whatever you were up to.

See you next week

Lynda

x

When Life Gets In The Way- Shop!

Wow, I can’t quite believe it’s been a week already since my last post.  I’d like to say the week has flown by because I have been so busy crafting, but sadly that’s not the case. Boohoo!  Instead my week has been taken up with family stuff and work and other than a teeny half hour of snatched time with some cross stitch I haven’t managed anything creative. Shocking I know. And yes, I do have withdrawal symptoms!

However, all is not totally lost. Yes I have been busy working, but as that helps pay for my craft shopping habit I guess that’s ok.  And I have managed a little retail therapy this week which has scratched my crafty itch a bit.  I treated myself to the latest set of magical fairy stamps from Donna Ratcliff for Crafters Companion, and some of the brand new release stamps and stencils from Visible Image. All I need now is time to play with them.  Fortunately it’s our local fortnightly craft club on Thursday so that gives me the perfect excuse.  Hopefully I will be able to show you some makes with them soon, but until then just look at them- aren’t they awesome?

Yummy stamps and stencils by Visible Image

Fairies are my favourite thing!

 I’ll be scratching that crafty itch again on Sunday as I am off to Kent for Hochanda’s Create It event. I can’t wait as not only will I be sharing the day oohing and ahhing over all the lush goodies available (and no doubt filling my shopping bag) with my sister Laura, who I rarely see, and my good friend Erika, but I will also be catching up with fellow Crafty Bloggers Karen Clare and Angela Maree Dearlove, and seeing some of my recent design team work for Polly Allsorts and Samantha K on display there. What a fabulous day it promises to be.  

Whimsical Flora Cottage Sample for Polly Allsorts 

 

Steampunk Butterfly Sample for Samantha K

Card Sample for Polly Allsorts

Wishing on A Star Plaque for Samantha K 

I’ll let you know how I get on next week. If you are going too than have a great time and look out for me. I’ll be the one with the empty purse,  overflowing bag and a slightly manic grin on my face.

Bye for now

Lynda

x

Playing , Poppies and a Big Hello from Lynda

Hello there! I am so thrilled to have been invited to be a part of the Craft Show Crafty Bloggers team and am delighted to be sharing my first post with you all.

If you’ve read my little biography on here you will know that I craft as a hobby rather than professionally as a business. I love my quiet moments spent at my craft table, which resides in the corner of my work playroom.  It is by far my favourite room in our usually hectic  home- a place of fun for the children that  I childmind by day, and for me a little haven of crafty heaven where I too can lose myself and ‘play’ during the evenings and weekends, splashing paint about on mixed media work, making cards, scrapbooking or doing whatever else takes my fancy.  I’m very much looking forward to sharing the products of my play sessions and some general crafty chat with you in the coming weeks and hope you enjoy it too.  I have no doubt I will also be sharing some of my young buddies creative exploits as well as they also love my little corner and raiding all my stash and it makes me so happy to see the next generation of crafters in the making .

My little crafty corner

With that in mind,  I thought I would kick start my time as a Crafty Blogger  by telling you about a great crafting session I had with some local kids last week. I was invited to share my creative know how with my daughters scout troop and teach them how to make poppies from recycled bottles to contribute towards the upcoming WW1 Centenary commemorations.  Kids and craft- my two favourite things so I couldn’t refuse now could I?

I was working with around 16 energetic youngsters and they worked so hard and made some amazing poppies. I never expected so many to emerge in the hour or so we had but they were on a serious mission! It was so lovely to see them working together ,enjoying being creative and contributing to such an important occasion.

 The technique was simple if you fancy having a go too.  Simply cut the base off of clear bottles and form a rough  flower shape.  Colour with permanent markers ( sharpies are best. I didn’t have many to hand though and so we used my promarkers, which did the job a treat but took longer to dry- and I cannot lie, yes, I was very nervous handing over my precious, expensive,  colouring pens to a group of exuberant kids. They were however  very respectful of them and every pen survived to colour another day thankfully. Phew!  ) . Then comes the fun part and the bit the scouts loved the best- melting the petals! Hold the flower over a tea light and gently melt around the edges to soften the plastic and shape the petals.  I advise opening a window, especially if doing them in the quantity that we did as it can get a little potent smelling. 

It was a brilliant evening and we had so much fun.  I think they would look just as good in an array of colours for a Spring/Summer display too. I think that may well be a future project for the children I care for . It would really brighten up our playroom if we hang them in the windows as sun catchers don’t you think?

And just before I go, I will share a little inky poppy project of my own that I made recently using Distress Oxides and stamps.  I hope you like it.

Have a great week. 

Bye for now.

Lynda 

x