Check it out.............

A little bit of digi blog candy going on at the very cool Octopode Factory blog HERE to celebrate the launch of the new Friday Challenge blog HERE :D

Hugs'ngentle snogs (coz I'm still not recovered!!)
J xx

Apologies...............

.............for my absence :-(

Firstly I went to see Take That on the 7th of June and just couldn't even think about crafting after that..............I was just still too excited LOL :D
I will share some pics with you at some point I promise!!!

Then secondly I went for an op on my throat earlier this week and it has wiped me out :-(
I have never felt pain like this and can't wait for it to go away again!!
I have had my tonsils removed, the sides at the back of my mouth trimmed and an dangley-bit-ectomy (the uvula I think its called!!!)

I have loads of projects in my head but don't have the patience or energy to even start them right now.

Hopefully things will start to settle down soon so that I can at least stay awake long enough to play :D

Hugs'n'air kisses this week - to delicate for snogs sorry!!!
Julie xx

Dolly Mixture

Moira's current Happy Daze facebook challenge is "Dollies" and here's my take on it :D

The base is a Russian doll money box I picked up in a local bargain store and have been planning on altering for some time - this is the smallest of a set of three.

The main image is a Scrolls Work stamp (which I love!!!) stamped and embossed on to tissue paper.
The doll was gessoed and then painted with acrylic paint then randomly stamped with two scroll type stamps from the Artistic Outpost Birds of a feather plate.

When everything was dry I glued on the stamped image with a glue stick then coated everything with multi matte medium.
I also glued on my embellies with this including the cute shrink plastic heart from a crafty individuals stamp :D
when everything was dry I gave it a quick spritz with cosmic shimmer mist.
Pop on over to the HAPPY DAZE facebook page for details on how you could win a £15 voucher for the shop :D

I am also going to add this to the Crafty Individuals blog challenge - Vintage with a heart.

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Moiras got a new pad.............

and its not an inkpad!!!!
Go and visit her gorjuss new blog HERE and see her stunning work, AND a change of some amazing blog candy!!!

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Drum roll please.....................

.............dededededededededededededee......LOL you get the idea huh????

I'm so happy :D
I entered my White rabbit house using the fabby Indigo Blu stamps I bought at PS in to the Altered Alice challenge and got an honourable mention :D

I have also spotted THESE fabulous hand made flowers with instructions over on the lets get Shabby blog so I'm sending my hubby out later for some crepe paper :D

If my attempts turn out well I will share them LOL :D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Live your life be free

Moiras current Happy Daze facebook challenge is called In flight andyou have until midnight on Sunday the 29th of May to upload your work to the facebook page or e-mail your pics here - info@happy-daze.net.
use at least one product which can be purchased from the Happy Daze shop and maximum of 3 entries per person. As usual one winner will be drawn at random to win a £15 Gift Voucher to spend in the shop

I used these fabby GLITZ STAMPS to create Nellie's daring escape from her life at the fairground :D
I also used TH distress stain, Cosmic shimmer mist, Black Archival ink, Versamark ink and clear embossing powder on a canvas board.

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Just testing

that this links to my twitter page :D

Happy Stampers at Port Sunlight

Well who would believe it was just over a week ago!!
I didn't get many pics of Moira's fabby stall as I knew she had already taken lots and lots and has them featured on the BLOG, but here are a few I can share with you from the day :D


Jo Capper Sandon hard at work demoing

Happy Daze DT 3d examples
I had a fab time looking round the show at the amazing stalls and fell in love instantly with the brand spanking new IndigoBlu stamps when Moira pointed them out to me :D I NEED them all LOL :D but didn't get any piccys sorry - it was too hot to hand around in that room!!!

We also all fell in love with these wire mesh ribbon flowers, bows and covered beads - what a fabby idea huh :D
The lovely lady at RIBBON BOX allowed me to take a quick pic of her too :D

- unlike some of the other stall holders who had a hissy fit when I tried to take photos of the examples on display - in case they were copied - er hello??? isn't that the point of examples and DT work??? I totally get them being upset if they are being entered in to comps but did find it quite funny that I was treated like paparazzi LOL :D

Crafty Individuals had some fabby examples on showAnd Paddy was busy demoing Pardo clay

All in all it was a great day, meeting lots of peeps I have known online for some time and also meeting lots of new people, and feeling like a child in a sweetie shop with all the stamps around me :D
And the scones were to die for - nom nom nom.............LOL :D

Hope you find something to inspire you here :D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Help Daisy and Tom Please!!!!

Kirsty Wiseman is organising a massive raffle. She says 'This is a raffle so huge, that by the time I have collated all the prizes, you need never buy a single craft item ever again, well....barely! Tell your friends, tell your family, raid the kids money box.......please, please find it in your hearts (and paypal accounts) to help raise money for Daisy Dog.

The story.....A facebook friend of mine, Janey Pye (cool name, right?), wrote about an incident relating to her Jack Russell dog, Daisy, on the 17th May 2011 but today, 18th May 2011 she received the devastating news that she either find £1600 for vet bills or have her dog destroyed. I mean, you just can't comprehend anything like that, can you? In the cold light of day, being given that kind of alternative is gut wrenching. The fact that Janey has no pet insurance is of no consequence to me or indeed many of my friends, the positive in me see's to it that I and whoever else who is attached to Janey must do all they can to help her. I know its not something we all can afford but some of us go through our daily lives praying nothing happens to our pet to warrant such a huge expense.




So to help Daisy (and Janey, and Tom - Daisy's big brother... who suffers with aspergers and would simply not exist without his beloved pet, Daisy) I wanted to rally around every craft person and store I knew to donate prizes for a very grand raffle. Janey never asked me to do this and when I raised the question on my facebook page this afternoon towards my friends, many of them their offered support immediately. Nobody questioned it and so the aquarian in me set sail. Their support gave me the push, so I am grateful to them muchly.


The Prizes....So far we have the following pledges (with a potential 65 shops, manufacturers, crafters pledging more)

A Craft Robo - anonymous donation
£35 stampin up voucher from Rachel Booth
A handmade bag from Darcy Wilkinson
A private commissioned drawing of your pet/child 12x14 worth $50 by Jay Korbijn
A MME 12x12 pack, stamps, and embellishments from Dies to Die for
A selection of stamps from Personal Impressions
A £25 voucher from Hobby Craft
A donation from Studio Calico
£50 worth of product from Clever Cuts
A selection of craft supplies from Brenda Pinnick
A selection of stamps from THE Donna Downey - I know, right?
£40 worth of stash from Mei Flowers
£36 worth of stamping product from Artistic Stamper
£50 word of Crafting CD's from me
A handmade cushion from Jaki Morrison worth £20
100ml bottle of DKNY perfume from anonymous donator
£30 worth of product from Marion Emberson of Sugar and Spice Crafts
£106 worth of product from Tonic Studios
A photoshoot for the south of the country from Paula Pascual (worth £100)
A photoshoot for the north of the country from Kirsty Wiseman (worth £100)
A ton of digi product from Vicki Parker (worth £40)
A generous prize from Letraset (prob Promarkers and Aquamarkers.... im working on them!)
A specially commissioned Canvas by Dyan Reaveley at Art from the Heart worth £75
Ive twisted someones arm for a donation from QVC
Im working on Create and Craft
5 x digi stamps from Just Inklined

There will be MORE AND MORE prizes added.....this was what I could only obtain in an hour on 17th May 2011

Go to Kirsty's website and buy a ticket now. Only £2 xx

How Curious????

How amazing are my new Indigo Blu stamps :D I got them at their launch at Port Sunlight last week and fell in lurve!! Only problem is I want the whole range of stamps LOL :D

Ok so how to :D

I started by covering my cute little house in a piece of text from my Alice book .

I stamped over the whole thing with my crackle stamp in coffee archival ink and left to dry.

Next I stamped the ruler along the edge in black ink, masked the edges and coloured with wild honey distress stain - two swooshes and it was done :D

I coloured the rest of it with barn door distress ink pad and added a clock and an ink blot stamp in black archival ink.

I stamped the white rabbit on to a separate piece of paper and coloured with promarkers and stuck it to my house with Claudine's matte medium.

I masked the rabbit off and sprayed the watch with gold cosmic shimmer mist but found this dulled the stamped image too much. I decided to stamp the watch section again on to acetate and when dry cut out and glued over the original stamped image with a little glossy accents.

I added the tiny type letters and glossy accented them and left to dry overnight so I wasn't tempted to stick my fingers in to check if it was dry LOL :D

I added walnut stain distress stickles randomly to add a little subtle sparkle around the edges carefull applied with my splodgey finger :D

Alice was stamped onto white shrink plastic with coffee archival ink and coloured lightly with pencils - the colour intensifies so much when it shrinks so if you are too heavy handed it looks awful.

I left a tab at the top of Alice when I cut her out and punched a hole so that she could dangle in the bottle.

Once shrunk with my heatgun I added little eye hooks to the cork of the Tim Holtz bottle and attached Alice with a jump ring .

I threw in a teeny key then put the cork in and wrapped the neck of the bottle with bakers twine and added a hand written tag.

To attach it to the house I drilled a little hole and threaded a piece of wire through then wrapped this around the eyelet in the cork.

I also made little holes at the top of the house to add more wire to hang the piece up.

I am going to enter this in to the Altered Alice challenge this month fotr the theme of time :D

Hope you like it :D

Hugs'n'snogs,

Julie xx

Yeryyy welcome back blogland :D

I missed you :D

Well I have a BIG weekend for two reasons this weekend :D

Tomorrow I will be meeting Moira and the girls at the Happy Stampers North west show at Port Sunlight - so excited to meet lots of peeps in real life that I have known via the world wide web for so long :D .............
then I am gooing to see my lovely friends in Ormskirk who have just recently had another baby so snuggles for me too ...........
then I will be trecking home back to Cumbria to try and get some sleep before I head off to Carlisle to the Radio 1 Big Weekend with my niece ..............yeyyyyyyyyy :D

I am so lucky to have got tickets as I don't know many peeps who have!!! and mylovelyniece gets to go because hubby didn't want to go :-S he must be mad LOL
then back to work on Monday LOL

If you are visiting the stamp show in Port Sunlight please come and say hello to us at stand 26:D
Hugs'n'snogs everyone,

Julie xx

Happy stampers ammendment

Hi everyone,
I have just had a e-mail from Moira to say there is a slight change of plan................... we are now on stand 26 :D

See you there :D

Julie xx

Are you a Happy Stamper....

..........in the North West???
I am :D and I will be there supporting Moira and the other Happy Daze team members next Saturday at Port Sunlight :D

I have been trying to do samples this weekend but Ollie has had a few other plans - TUT!
I WILL get them finished and on their way if it kills me LOL

If you have a ticket make sure your bring plenty of cash, because it is cash only and visit Moira and the rest of us at stand 32b where Jo Capper-Sandon and Joanne Wardle will be demoing :D

Hop on over to the Happy Daze blog for a sneaky peek of some of the work you will be able to see - in real life!!!!

Am I excited???? hell yeah LOL
and to top it all I have tickets for Radio 1's big weekend in Carlisle on Sunday :D I'm gonna be a tired peep next week LOL :D

hugs'n'snogs,
Julie

P.S. have you visited the Happy Daze facebook page this week??? the current challenge is black and white, and you still have another week to enter :D anybody fancy puppy sitting so I can get on with everything???? LOL xxxx

Compact and beautiful

Heres another pair of compacts to share with you and I have to say I think these are my faves :D
How pretty and vintage are they :D
I used Prima and Graphic 45 papers to alter these compacts.

Want to know how to??? I have blogged these over on Bubbly Scrumptious so head on over HERE for the deets :D
While your there don't forget to take a look at the other design teams gorgeous work :D

heres a closer look for you :D



Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Mirror, mirror in my hand........

I found some cool little compact mirrors this week so have been very busy altering them - in between walking the dogs and watching the Royal Wedding :D

Comgratulation to William and kate on their beautiful wedding and WOW at that dress!!!
I Love, Love, Loved it :DOk,back to the mirrors :D

I will have more to share with you soon hopefully as I am planning on selling these when I get round to booking my craft fair :D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Mad hatter shrine

Well this started life as a plain wooden shrine frame which I coloured with Tim Holtz broken china distress stain - ooooohhh these babies are so cool :D the colour is so intense and it works lovely on raw wood like this :D

Now you might be thinking the dabber top is a little bit big to fit around the detailed areas?well your right! so all I did was squeeze some of the stain on to my non-stick craft mat and painted it on with a paint brush :D

When it was completely dry I glued on the pieces of my Alice book I wanted to use with Claudines matte mediumand inked lighlty with the stain.

I added stamped Alice images with black archival ink randomly all over the frame, then highlighted the edges with viva decor inka gold.

Now for a bit of alchemy - my metal charms were all silver so I brushed on more inka gold to change the colour, which I also did with my resin keyhole :D

The Mad hatter image was coloured with promarkers and distress ink pads.

I added a key on a screw in eyelet then added some distress stickles.

All the embellies were stuck on the matte medium - its amazing as a glue as nothing budges!! Ihad my reservations when Ifirst tried it as its so light it doesn't feel like it will do anything but its just so strong!!

The embellies I added to my i-pod cover are still rock solid and it gets plenty of abuse in my bag LOL :D

Are you all ready for the royal wedding??

I'm really looking forward to seeing the event and most of all can't wait to see the dress :D

Hugs'n'regal snogs,

Julie xx

its crystal clear.........

......how much I enjoy making jewellery with a difference :D
A while ago I bought a chandelier from that well known auction site with the intention of taking it apart to use the crystals - I finally got a round-to-it :D and I finally found the round-to-it to blog the results so far LOL :D now I just need one to photograph the rest and share them with you :D

watch this space for more jewellery soon :D
hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Made of wood............a bangle :D

Well there isn't long left to enter the Happy Daze facebook challenge which is currently "made with wood"

I used one of THESE fabby bangles as my wooden base :D

I coloured it first of all with inka gold in Platinum.
I stamped my butterflies on to fibre paper with archival ink, ripped the edges away to the size needed to cover the bangle leaving frayed edges, then stuck on to the bangle with a glue stick.
When dry I coloured it with promarkers and then brushed on more of the inka gold.
When dry and buffed I glued on the lace and buttons with Claudine Hellmuths matte medium andcoated the rest of the bangle - this is amazing as it just doesn't budge when dry and selals the stamped images.
When totally dry I highlighted areas again with the inka gold.


I am also going to add this to the Simon says stamp and show challenge this week which is to show some buttons .............. buttons??? did someone say buttons :D
no challenge for me this week really LOL :D

hugs'n'snogs,

Julie xx

Happy Easter!!!!

Happy Easter to you all :D
I had such a giggle trying to find a cute vintage image on google to share with you :D
You should try it - I seriously don't know what they were thinking!!!!

Have you visited the Happy Daze blog this weekend???
Well hop on over HERE for an Eggs-tra special easter treat from Moira , calorie free and all you have to do is comment on Gillians beautiful Timmyesque box (which I have serious craft envy over LOL) for a chance to win a £25 voucher from the shop!!!!

Also have you entered the current Facebook challenge???
Ok, neither have I yet but I have had issues with my laptop - my cable had lots of teeny tiny bite marks along it and for some reason stopped working.................. I wonder who that might have been???? LOL

Anywhoooo - don't forget to visit the Happy Daze facebook page and check out the details for another chance to win a £15 voucher.

The current theme is - Made with wood

Now Moira has got an amazing selection of wooden alterable items for sale in the SHOP and while you are there check out all the fabby NEW ITEMS that have arrived - I wouldn't hand around too long though, because those beauties will fly out I'm sure :D

Have a good weekend everyone :D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Whats for tea...........Fried Marbles???

LOL perhaps not unless you want a trip to the dentist :D

I saw mentioned on the net somewhere last week fried marbles - I had to investigate because it just sounded so flippin odd!!



So how about turning these humble glass marbles in to these lovely crackled beauties??
Now they don't look fab on these pics but they really catch the light with the sun on them :D

I followed the instructions HERE after I fell in love with the beautiful sun catcher :D

The marbles I used where cheap really bashed ones I found on ebay when I just had to have a go :D

I think I will be buying more soon and fancy trying glass pebbles next :D

Hugs'n'sparkly snogs,
Julie xx

P.S> thanks Carol for reminding me it was LINDAS BLOG where I spotted the marbles :D