so.....

So, I've just had a few days off work.....did I do anything special?????????????YES!!!!!!!

I went and saw my HERO S!r T!m, the man of distress! and it was a total dream - the day went far too quickly for my liking! and his class even more so....

You know me, not a scrapper, but, this photo is definately going to be on my wall in one form or another.  He also signed my book (see post below but one!) so that will be one of my most treasured possessions.

Bless him, with so many signatures and pictures bet he's glad to be back in the good ol' US!

Anyway, the class was to make a large configurations box which had some totally gorgeous pieces - mine still needs some work as I don't like to rush into these things they need thinking about.

During the run up to the class the Artsycrafts ladies decided it would be great to give T!m a gift, so we all made an inchie (well, those that wanted too - the remainder made message sheets) and all the inchies were made into a book for him - which was presented at the end of the last class - apparently he was really touched.

This is my inchie - one of 7 that I made and to be honest none of them were good enough! but, no matter how hard I tried it just wasn't right!

The photo was taken in a rush on Wednesday just as I was leaving! 

I also wrote a little message on the back for him - well, you can't get alot onto an 1" square with my handwriting!! lol

At the end of a long, but, very special day, I met up with Laura and Sioux for a coffee - it was really great to meet them after knowing them for a while....

 Here we are in the lobby of the hotel.  Laura and Sioux wondering what was in store for them the next day and I knowing what a fantastic day they were going to have!!

Well, its back to earth again.  It was a fantastic experience one that I will treasure.  I know that Leandra and Lin, their families and supporters, aka cheryl, julie/sweetpea, Jo, Karen and the Marks,  put an awful lot of work into making sure that the day went really well and I can't Thank them enough for that - just hope that they will feel upto organising another one one day!!

TFL xx

altered matchbox

Here is a matchbox!!

The box has been covered with Tim Holtz papers and then stamped on with sepia ink, the top and bottom were also stamped with white acryllic paint and a ribbon wrapped around.  The stamped image is a domino stamp and was mounted onto brown cardstock.  The beads and pearls were threaded onto a headpin and attached to the main image...


then...... when opened:-

closer:-

Inside the box is again Tim's stamped papers.....the hand was moulded out of air dry clay and painted using a gold dauber, this was then scratched and wiped off to age it....a length of wire was threaded with beads and a small charm added this was then wrapped around the hand.  A stamped piece of paper was then made into a fragment charm.  Three beads and a little quote saying "unspoken words" were added.  I can assure you it does say "Unspoken word" the hand is covering up the "un" lol..................

TFL xx

A Little book

I recently bought a new set of stamps called Journal elements by Sam Poole - and boy are they gorgeous....I had the idea to make this:-

Every year I make a little book to place the details of all the challenges and swap I take part in...its a great thing to look back on every year as well as keeping me on track!! I stamped the covers out of cardboard and then covered with steampunk paper by Graphics 45 - I used other elements of the paperpack to make the fragment and backing section. The gorgeous heart cog is by Tando Creative and is part of the Heart Cogs mix - this pack comes in large and small elements and this is one of the small pieces - this was painted with gold acryllic and then coated with crackle glaze, once dry the cracks were hi-lighted by using black soot distress ink.   Bling, lace, pearls and charms were all added to give it a steampunky feel!! I made the bead hangings using lampwork beads and headpins.

 This is the back..
 

and this is one section inside
 

I used the same stamp and cut out inside the line to make the inner pages a little smaller.  Each page was then coloured using different mediums and then doodles were added around the edges before being bound together in the bind-it-all.

I am hoping to run a class making a book similar to this...just have to check dates etc with Diane first, if anyone is interested in coming along to the class please let me know.

TFL xx

ps I'm entering this for the Artistic stamper April "Layers" comp....do visit their dt blog and see the fantastic entries.