Fancy a challenge...?

9 new downloads are now available to purchase online.  Yes  I know thats an unusual number, but you know what I,m like by now, lol.

D29 is a "can't get hold of enough numbers to play with" solution. all black and hand doodled in white, perfect for every occasion.

D30 is the matching alphabet, with extra vowels

D31 hand drawn and doodled christmas words

D32 more hand drawn and doodled christmas words

D33 really into birds agaiin at the moment and heres some christmas beauties.

D34 these look like they are singing carols....well they do to me, lol

D35 hand drawn and doodled alphabet, thats a doddle to cut out. Looks fab printed in black and white.

D36 alternative christmas sayings, perfect for my type of tags

D37  and a few more

Dont forget once you have downloaded them you can alter the size shape or colour to suit your artistic interpretations.

So......are you ready for a challenge...?? As we all know T!m's twelve tags of Christmas start tomorrow, yayy, can,t wait to see what he comes up with this year. I was wondering what I could do. Tim suggested I do a journal page a day, but that could end up as a full time job, lol. So after racking my brains, I have come up with the perfect thing

Every year I always make the Advent Calendars with the drawers, you know the ones, out of matchboxes. Every year they get whipped by one or more of the kids, lol. Well this year I have made a double decker of one. I made a small one from normal matchboxes and a large one from the jumbo matchboxes, a bit like a dormer bungalow, lol. 24 drawers in each.

The top set of drawers are all numbered 1 - 24 for the advent and each one contains a charm.

The bottom set of drawers all contain a variation of downloads - a Christmas quote, a Christmas word and a bird, all placed in randomly.  The idea being I take a random large drawer and the appropriate numbered small drawer, see what I get, and make a Christmas tag with it, that fits in the large drawer.  Oh and I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on them. That way I end up with 24 tags at the end. Its a sort of backward advent -giving rather than receiving.!!

 This is the first set I have to play with. Got an idea straight away, lol.



Sooooooo do you fancy playing along? If you haven't got an advent set of drawers take 4 boxes or bags

and fill them as follows:-

1 - 24 tokens or charms

2 - 24 funny Christmas sayings

3 - 24 pictures of the Christmas birds

4 - 24 Christmas words

everyday, without cheating, pull one out from each bag and make a tag with your findings. You can use anything else you fancy, paint, ink, papers, stamps, whatever floats your boat. But you MUST use 3 of the 4 items for your tag to qualify. Oooooh strict aren,t I.? Dont forget, no cheating, and no longer than 15 mins per tag. I,m sure you can all spare 15 mins, can't you??? 

Let me know everytime you make one, hopefully every day, lol, and I will put a link to your blog on mine. Lets get some real blog hopping going on in December, and spread some Christmas cheer. I have designed the challenge to be a bit of inexpensive fun, we may all be skint, but we can still have a laugh.

So expect to see my first one tomorrow and daily, after that.

Now you need to pop over to Kates BLOG where shes made a fabulous art doll with my downloads.

Right methinks I need to go to bed and dream of all the delights that T!m will be astounding us with. Just had a tweet from Mario to say he T!m is going to start creating his first creation in an hour. The countdown has begun.......

Enjoy xx

Take the time to breathe..!!!

These were the spectacuar views from my studio last night. I know a lot of people hate the snow, but I love it. It is so magical and so peaceful. If forces us to go about our lives differently. If we venture out in it, it is an uphill battle to get anywhere, so I prefer to get well stocked up with provisions, batten down the hatches and work through it. The world is not going to stop turning because we can't get to the shops, the kids can't get to school, people can't get to my classes ( ok maybe I might have to retract that one lol). But seriously, I am losing money hand over fist as the snow affects my business, but instead of worrying, I am taking the chance of the free time to get ahead, with samples, preview, kits and just damn well enjoying the time spent on my own. Look out the window, marvel at the prettiness, be thankful for the beauty in nature and take the time to BREATHE.!!

If you don't like something - change it...
If you can't change it - change your attitude..!


Dylusions paints - orange, red
Dylusions spray inks - Amber, Post Box Red
Dylusions stamps - Right up Your Street, Love struck Lucy, Doolally Doris
Dyans Downloads - hands D24, body D25, face D26,
hat - 7gypsies paper, Paddington Collection
All other images - altered from magazines

Dylusions paints - red
Dylusions spray inks - Granite
All other images - magazines

 

I always loved this song as a child


Well, I don't care if it rains or freezes,
Long as I have my plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Through all trials and tribulations,
We will travel every nation,
With my plastic Jesus I'll go far.

CHORUS
Plastic Jesus, plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Through my trials and tribulations,
And my travels thru the nations,
With my plastic Jesus I'll go far.

So I,m snuggled up warm, got my plastic Jesus, and I am taking the time to watch the world go by

Enjoy xx

Didn't we have a lovely time...

Well the snow is upon us with avengence..It is all rather beautiful, even though it scuppered my plans to go to the seaside. Never mind, what better to spend the day tucked up indoors doing creative things. I have devoured the Sunday papers, eaten the biggest Sunday breakfast I have seen in a long time, lost tons of auctions, at the last minute, on Ebay, listed tons of my mahoosive shoe collection on there, listened to Soul Classic radio all day long, played journaled, painted, beeswaxed, and generally had a whale of a time. Here's hoping we get snowed in again tomorrow, lol.

Talking of beeswax, we have the Christmas beeswax class on Tuesday, where we will be playing with paint, inks, downloads and of course, beeswax. If you fancy joining us you can book HERE.

Oooh did you spot some of the new, top secret, if I told you I'd have to kill you, downloads..???

I have just won THE most fantastic, ever, ever, EVER, pair of Red or Dead shoes I have ever seen on Ebay. They are big chunky wedges just how I love them, with a height of 6 1/2 inches. Yeehah..!!! Can't wait for them to get here.

I am celebrating with a bottle of Desperado, which leads me neatly into my next topic.

These were shown at London fashion week, but I can't remember who by, ooops. But frikkin love em...

Ha ha thats definitely how the Wild West should have been won..!!!

So, onto pages in the ledger journal.

Dylusions paints - red, black
Dylusions spray ink, Post Box red
Dyan's downloads - hands D24,
white pen Ranger Inkessentials
All other images - altered from magazines

Love this one soooo much, my little toadstool girl, watch out for her appearing a lot more.

Dylusions paints - Pink, Orange, yellow
Dylusions spray inks - Hot Pink
Dylusions stamps - Doolally Doris, Bits and Bats, Around the Edge
Dyans downloads - eyes D 
All other images - altered from magazines

I'll leave you with this gorgeous image

Enjoy xx

Never judge a book by its cover....

What do you think of that little lot.? Not exactly inspiring are they.? But believe it or not, that is where most of my creating is appearing at the moment. They are the 3 journals thatspeak to me and call my name. Appearances can be deceptive, can't they.? I never decorate the covers of my journals until I have almost completed them. I prefer them to appear anonymous until the very last minute

Heres some sneaks of the insides.

This is my baby journal, made from my Dad,s coveted Algebra book. My Dylusions stamps are launching in America in January, and this journal is going to be one of my show samples.

And this is my large ledger, which goes every where with me, even though it is now starting to weigh a ton. Not sure if they will allow me to take it on as hand luggage, but I would be mortified if it went missing, so there is no way I am putting it in the hold.

From the photos it is extremely difficult to gauge the sizes of the journals. They probably look similar sizes. Heres the ledger journal, with a ruler at the side of it. Its about a foot tall.

And heres the two journals together, big difference yeah.? But I do enjoy flitting between the two.

Of course, they aren,t the only two journals on the go at the moment, they are just two of twenty eight. Yup, you heard me correctly, I currently have twenty eight journals in various stages of completion, lmao. Well you know me, I have to have everything.!!

I,ve had a few comments this week about my choice of pages on the blog, and people seem to think that they were all prepared at the same time, and I was obviously having a bad week, lol. They were, in actual fact all journaled at different times. The Babes pages were all done 5 - 6 mths ago and the others at various intervals to present date. When I pick the pages to blog, I tend to group them by mood, and go back through all my journals. I have hundreds of pages, as yet unpublished, to choose from, and this weeks choices just seemed to be really appropriate.!

Heres a mixed bag from the Ledger.

Dylusions paint - yellow, orange green
Dylusions spray inks - vanilla custard
Umbrella stamp - Dylusions, Ruby Rainbow
image - magazine

Dylusions paint - yellow, pink
Dylusions spray inks - Hot pink, velvet
Dyans downloads - face D  , Hat (roof) D  , legs D 
Rub ons and canvas tags 7gypsies
all other images - magazines

Dylusions paint - black, red
Dylusions spray inks - Post Box Red
Dyans downloads - hat D  , hands D  ,
white pen - Ranger Inkessentials
all other images - magazines

And I need to post this little beauty...


Oh yes Mr T himself has gone into the world of epic film making, lol. How cool is that video.?? Its like sitting down to a Hollywood block buster. Cecil B DeMille eat your heart out..!!

And so , what you have all been waiting 12 long months for - starts again on Tues. Oh yes, it's the 12 tags of Christmas. Yayy.!!! Loads of you think that I have insider knowledge of what T!m will be doing and what products he will be using. well you would be wrong there.!! And even if I was privvy to such info, I am that dizzy I would have forgotten anyway, lo. But to be perfectly honest with you, even T!m doesn't know what he will be using. Contrary to popular belief, they are not all prepared and made up before hand, he  gets inspired, makes it up as he goes along, each day, with The gorgeous Mario stud muffin photographing all the stages, including the bloopers, along the way. The result is as much of a surprise to T!m as it is to the rest of us, and that is part of all the fun. I hope you are going to play along with us all. I am sure Our Ben will putting daily specials on of the products used, but don't worry yourselves, the idea is not to copy T!m's tags, by the book, but to improvise and use whatever you have to hand.
And speaking of the man himself, we finally managed to co-ordinate ourselves long enough to have a good old chinwag about alsorts of things. But the main one to interest you all is, wait for it......

Yes we are finally finalising the workshops in February. You should all receive the important info and registration opening within the next 7 - 10 days. Fingers crossed it will be sooner. If you haven't signed up for the news letter yet you need to get all over it like a rash, or you could miss out.

The project is , of course, fabbydooduishous, but if I told you , I would have to kill you, so best not. Lmao.

Enjoy xx