My Finnabair weekend Canvas

Good Morning All and welcome.

Today I'm going to show you the canvas I created at the Finnabair weekend at Snazzy's in Swindon.  As I said in my last post this was the project I found hardest to do and I'm still not totally happy with it but I think that's mainly to do with the pink colour I used in the bottom left corner ........... it's still  too pink, lol!  I'm not sure what possessed me really as that particular shade of pink is about my least favourite colour but there you go, sometimes it's good to try something out of your usual sphere.

The photo I used is of my beautiful daughter Jenna, and I just love the cheeky look in her eyes!  Again, in fairness to Anna I'm not giving any 'how to' instructions, just a few photos.

This next one shows the amount of dimension in those embellishments.

Hope you like!

See you again soon.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Doing Finnabair stylee ........... moi? .............can't be!

Hi Everyone and thanks for dropping by today.

This time last week I was coming to the end of my first day of workshops with a fabulous young lady, Anna Dabrowska (a.k.a Finnabair), hosted by Snazzy's in Swindon.

Here's Anna at the start of our weekend.

Oooh, what a fantastic weekend it was!  Firstly, as I mentioned in my previous post I got to spend some precious time with a special friend, Elaine, who I hadn't seen for over a year and I also got to meet my Snazzy's DT buddies Astrid and Nicky/Minxy for the first time as well as our lovely DT co-ordinator Gillian, who I've met at shows a few times before.  It was so nice to spend time with them in a social atmosphere after the classes too.  I also met, face to face, several lovely ladies I 'speak' to regularly in the crafty blogging world plus some new ones too.  How easily the lovely ripples of friendship spread in this creative craft filled world especially with the help of the internet enabling us all to keep in touch.

Today I'm going to show you my first effort, Anna style!  I honestly never thought I'd be able to achieve something anywhere near resembling Anna's gorgeous work and obviously, it's nowhere near her standard (she has a fabulous talent on her side, lol) but for a first attempt I am amazed.  It's all down to Anna's skills as a teacher as well as an artist though and in fairness to her I am not going to give any details on how it was done.  The best thing is to go to one of her workshops and I enjoyed them so much last weekend I'm doing another one at the end of November here, aren't I lucky ;D.

Anyway, now on to photos of my first project which is a 12 x 12 layout, created around a photo of my son and his lovely partner.

This was about a third of the way through.

And this is the finished layout.

A few close ups to finish off.

Later in the week I'll show you my second project which I have to say I found the hardest to do so was very pleased to end up with something I'm not ashamed to show on here, lol!

Until next time

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

PaperArtsy #3up Birthday Challenge

Hi lovely visitors,

I'm a few days late posting my challenge piece for the #3up sters PaperArtsy Birthday Challenge because I was away last weekend at two wonderful days of learning and getting very inky and messy with the fabulous
Finnabair (Ania Diabrowka). The workshops were hosted by Snazzy's and I got to spend time with my lovely friend Elaine as well as some twitter friends old and new and my design team colleague.  I'm still catching my breath so haven't had time to photograph my projects but will blog them as soon as I can.  In the meantime I'm going to show  you my PA challenge piece.

August saw the 10th birthday of the fab company known as PaperArtsy and there has been lots of lovely treats and fantastic design inspiration over on their blog all throughout August rounded off this week with some fantastic creations from a group of intrepid crafters who love the PA stamps and other products and who set themselves up by volunteering for Leandra's #3up sters, lol!

I forgot to take a proper photo of what arrived in the envelope Leandra sent me to work with so this is what I had left when I'd finished, ;D.

I have to confess these are not my style of stamps at all and really had me scratching my head but after much deliberation this is what I came up with......

I altered a wooden icon frame, creating a little scene to place in the aperture part.  I won't give details on how I did it as they are here on  the PaperArtsy blog if you wish to see more details.  It's  well worth popping over to see what the  others taking part created.  There are some fab designs spread over the whole PaperArtsy range of stamps and you need to go right back to last Saturday's post to see the first ones who kicked off the challenge using stamps from Ink and the Dog range.

and a final close up .......

That's  all for now folks.  Till next time .......

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Inspiration from Carol Quance for PaperArtsy challenge

Hello and welcome,

Over on the PaperArtsy blog the lovely and very talented Carol Quance has been giving us lots of inspiration this week with some fabulous projects but as I had rather a lot on my plate this past week I had decided I really didn't have time to join in the challenge.  However, it kept niggling at me and on the spur of the moment late yesterday evening I decided to have a go at something taking Carol's first gorgeous project of the week as my inspiration.  I don't have one of the pencil cases Carol used (must rectify that very soon) so I dug a little box out of my stash to alter. 

Please bear in mind that I did all the work on this box by artificial light including taking the photographs and I have a distinct feeling that when I see it in daylight later in the morning (it's currently 01.30) I am not going to be happy with the paint job, lol!  When I was editing the photos just now, the paint looks patchy to me but I'll reserve judgement till daytime.  I hope I still like it though because the crackle is gorgeous!  No 'how to' in this post as I've more or less followed Carol's method HERE.

Do pop over to the PaperArtsy blog if you get chance.  August has seen the 10th birthday of this fabulous company and there have been blog posts every day throughout the month from some wonderful designers together with a weekly challenge and random draw giveaways.  I was a lucky winner of some fab newly released stamps last week ;D!

Right, I'm off to link my little box to the challenge and then it's off to bed.  I'm going to be busy in the morning getting ready for my lovely daughter to come visit for a few days with Izzy and Charlie so I won't get much chance for blog hopping and none at all for crafting I should think.  Never mind, it will still be there when they go home and time with them is precious 'cos they are growing up far too fast.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend, including the extra day off for us here in England, and I hope the week ahead is a good one for you all.

Until next time

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

It's a Happy Birthday to one of my VIPs!

Hello and Good Morning to everyone.  It's always lovely to 'see' you, lol!

Today someone who has become very dear to our family has a birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY (V)YVONNE and I hope you're having a wonderful day being thoroughly spoiled.  Yvonne is my DS Jamie's lovely partner and 'Vyvonne' is how his little girl, Alexa used to say her name when they first met and even though she can say it properly now it's sort of stuck, lol!

Here they are on a day at Chester Zoo that we had together a couple of months ago.

Anyway, I had a mad dash (for me, lol) yesterday because instead of making her birthday card as I was supposed to on Monday evening, I decided to make her a pendant as I still had my Melt Pot out from doing the ATCs in my previous post.  Then, I must have been dreaming about making the card during the night because when I woke up yesterday morning I had the idea that I'd got to make a card, a gift bag and a couple of tags.  I don't know what came over me but I wish it happened more often, ;D!

This was the result of my dreaming and I just managed to get them finished and photographed before Jamie came to collect them.

The card, gift bag and tags are all quite clean and simple, a style I seem to have dropped into recently so I won't go into the how to details.  If there is anything you want to ask about them leave me a comment and I'll respond but here are more detailed photos.

The giftbag with a peek of the scarf which was one of her pressies

The card.  The stamps are from Indigo Blu except for the main butterfly which is from a PaperArtsy set.

And this is the impromptu pendant.

Having watched Hels' fab Melt Pot shows on craft telly a few months ago I was determined to get my much neglected pot out before too long so I bought the heart bezel (plus a few more, ahem) and the Spellbinder dies to go with them (from Country View Crafts - fab service and good prices too) and then ................ they sat there and ................. they sat there.  I'm so glad France Papillon got me going with her inspirational beeswax covered ATCs over on the PaperArtsy blog last week otherwise they'd probably still be sitting there.  Anyway, I was really pleased with the result and as I'm scheduling this post as of yesterday evening, I can't wait to find out if Yvonne likes it too.

I forgot to mention poor Yvonne had an operation on her foot last week so is more or less chair bound for another week, then crutches for a further 4-6 so I hope her birthday cheers her up a bit ........ the poor lass is bored silly!

I hope all my visitors here in the UK have something lovely planned for the Bank Holiday weekend we have coming up.  We have a visit from 3 more of my VIPs to look forward to ....... DD Jenna and grandchildren, Izzy and Charlie so looking forward to some special cuddles.

Till next time

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Aaargh, am I gonna make it???

Hi Everyone,

Good Morning on this beautiful sunny Sunday.  By necessity this is going to be the shortest of blog post for me, the habitual waffler.  I've was inspired by France Papillon HERE on the PaperArtsy blog last week and for the first time in at least 3 years I got out my Melt Pot and beeswax.

I won't give you any details of what I did because I more or less followed France's tutorial I think except for the encaustic wax stuff which I don't have, so I did more layers of beeswax.  These are the results and whilst not perfect I am quite chuffed with them ;D.

 

Waddya think?  If you click on the pic you should be able to see my mistakes, lol!

Off to add my link to the fab PaperArtsy challenge.  Load of brilliant entries this week and I am just so pleased with myself that I managed to do one this time (only my second entry 'cos I'm too slow to catch a cold).

Byeeee!

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Eeeek! It's Snazzy's time again!

Helloooo lovely visitors and welcome on this lovely Monday morning............. well actually as I'm scheduling this post I don't yet know if it's going to be lovely or not but let's think positive for now, lol!

Yes, it's time for me to post on Snazzy's DT blog again and the Eeeeek! is because it ain't 'alf coming round quick every month!  Some bright spark keeps posting on my Twittter timeline every Saturday telling me exactly how many weeks, days, minutes, etc., it is to Christmas!!!! Did you know it's only 19 WEEKS TILL CHRISTMAS, lol!  Are you panicking yet?

Anyway, this month over on Snazzy's DT blog we have had some beautiful papers to play with and here is a little snippet of my offering which you can whizz over to see in it's entirety by clicking HERE.

I hope you have time to pop over and leave me a little comment and then leave a comment on Gillian's first post of the month if  you'd like to win these papers plus a set of Hero Arts border stamps and a stencil.

Have a good week everyone and until next time

Hugs
Lesley  Xx