Pigsty

Oh dear. I cannot craft at all, in any shape or form (especially attempt to use a sewing machine), because my craft space looks like it's experienced an earthquake. I had no room before Christmas presents arrived, now it's filled. I am trying to put off the task of sorting out every box, so as to actually achieve decent, craft storage. Then I might no longer live in a pigsty :)

I write this post because I am intrigued: what do everybody else's craft spaces look like????

x x x

Get your skates on

The snow in Preston is slithering away, and today, all the pavements that were days ago filled with compact pretty snow have now turned to ice. The whole place is like glass. Very winter wonderland, but horrendously dangerous. Take care everybody who lives here.
I own a pair of ice skates, but they often live in a box in my wardrobe, but today got them out ;)
Ice skated in the street...well, with help (otherwise would have done some damage due to falling in the snowy bits).

A very crafty affair

The whole of December, as is for many crafters (although, alot of other crafters are more organised and have sorted by November), has been spent making Christmas cards. Since July, we have been making Christmas cards as samples in the shop, but by the end of November I decided I really must start with my own. T'was hard at first, all Christmassed out from doing shop samples, but then I was off. I've only just uploaded snaps of cards, gifts and the shop, and there are still more to upload. But thought I ought to add some piccies. After all, this is a craft blog! Hmm, New Year's resolution, do more regular blogging!I tried a bit of knitting on a card, my newly found skill :) Next stop a jumper! I love this stamp, so elegant - one of our main Christmas stamps in the shop this year. It looks good in so many colours, my favourite was Adirondack Cranberry (above).I used quite a bit of Blonde Moments Colour-Yourself Christmas paper, where these trees came from. I inked them with Mustard Seed and Peeled Paint Distress Ink Pads to get nice aged trees.

Starting to have a go at making my own backgrounds, and experiment with aging and distressing, plenty of ink and paint! Above, I used Cut'n'Dry foam and baby wipes to rub lots of different inks onto the card, the last being Fired Brick Distress ink. Then, I used the Hero Arts Giving Tree stamp over the top - not always re-inking the stamp, so that some of the trees fade into the background.

Did a few cards involving figure stamps - stamp the figure several times on different patterned paper, and cut out different parts, to get patterned dress, socks, etc.

Happy Christmas to you all

We'd just like to wish you all a lovely Christmas and a prosperous New Year. We're putting together a list of classes, which will be sent out at the weekend, and I'll put a list of them on here (down the side of the blog) and on our website. The website will also be having a revamp, as it's been put aside amidst all the preparations for our birthday in November and then Christmas!

Looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year. But before I leave you, just got to add a few piccies of the snow! Cannot remember a time, ever in my lifetime, when it's snowed this much in Preston, and actually STAYED for days! It's a miracle, and we might just have a white Christmas..hope you do too.

Open Day and Happy Birthday to us....

Just a quick note to say that tomorrow (Saturday 21st November) our little shop will have been open exactly one year. So, to celebrate, we are having an open day (to follow the great success of our first open evening, in September). There'll be free tea and cake, some demos and new products, including some new products from Prima Marketing Inc, a brand new to our little shop. Oh and there'll be 10% off all product purchases. A nice community gathering :) So feel free everybody to come see! I shall be back soon to do some proper blogging ;)
x x x

P.S We haven't sorted out our Class dates in cardmaking and altered art and craft gatherings for January-February yet - both of us and teachers are buried in Christmassyness still. But for anybody that would like a class list the moment we sort one out, just email your details or ring the shop and I can email a list, or pop one in the post no probs.
Shop number is 01772 739563
Email: craftyhearts.shop@btinternet.com

Merci beaucoup X

Prompt #21 Negative Space

A tad last minute, but here is my entry for Creative Type's current prompt, Number 21: Negative Space. Mine is entitled 'Time to Detox', and is within my little 7 and half inch square journal. How it got to be 7 and half and not 8 inches, I'm still not so sure. Anyways, the photos (one main one, one on a tag which you pull out from under the main one) are of me, falling asleep on arty, crafty work. At the moment my health isn't quite up to normal levels, I keep feeling drowsy and tired in the day. So this week I decided twas 'Time to Detox', and so am eating more rabbity (green veg and berries) and doing lots of stuff so I can actually get to sleep early. It's slowly working, and I've not fallen asleep at work, yay!

Normally the negative space is filled with writing on my layouts, then I get annoyed that my writing doesn't look pretty and match the pretty paper. So this time, I left the outside blank and hid the writing on the tag that pulls out :) Thanks for reading! Now, off to attempt to knit....

I think let's tinker with ink!

Wow what a busy day! The Graphic 45 Mini Journal class was today, and thank you to all the ladies who attended. Twas fab, and every one went out with inky fingers, so they must have done plenty of work! I didn't get to see everyone's work, but the ones I did see were all different, all lovely - all this creativeness is inspiring me to get out some ink and make something! But first, pizza and relaxxxx.