One flew over....!!!

What...??  Noooo..!!! Cant be..???? How did that happen...???

Oops, seems its right, I havent blogged since Sunday. I am slapping my wrist extremely hard, Ben is tut, tutting at me, and the emails of complaint are piling up, lol.

Its this sleeping lark that is buggering things up, you know. 3 hrs sleep a night left plenty of time for blogging, twittering, Facebook, journaling etc...But now I am having at least 8 I am fast lagging behind.. Not sure what the solution is really..lmao....

But I have had an extremeley busy week as well. Heres some sneaks of a magazine article, way over due, surprise, surprise..!!!

Heres the Tues night tag.

Just look how the kids sleighs are coming on. How fab are they..???

Todays class is  bright Atc,s, and we are having a ball as usual.
These are made using images from http://www.lisasalteredart.com/ .

And these are made using my Downloads.

Heres the girlies...Sue, Janet and Sandra.

Karen and Liz.

The gorgeous Sandra brought me a gorgeous gift. It is a hanging decoration in a box and I just love it. She is such a sweetie and I love her loads, especially when she uses my Chtistmas Papers, lmao..

Sooooo excited because at long last the new printers trays have arrived in the studio. They are flying out
again, so dont leave it too late..

These are the Atc trays. 

and these are the Photo trays..Both are available HERE

Ok need to fly, finish the class, sam it all up, fly home get changed and motor on down to Nottingham to see Lily Allen. Our Tom bought us tickets for Christmas and they just happened to fall on my busiest week, always the same yeah..?? 

Enjoy xx

Ladies, you did good...!!!!

Thats it, Techniques 2 is over, and what a laugh we have had... They have been a fabby bunch and it was sad to see them go.As you can see I worked them really hard..!!!!!

Ha ha Steph was actually drying out here not taking it easy.....

We finished off the Ultra thick techniques and worked our way through the Melt Pot. This is faux soldering.

And one of my faves, Beeswax techniques.

Here they are hard at work. Sarah, Sharon, Steff and Pam.

Steph, Anneliese and Sue.

We finished the day by making canvas's . Heres some of the finished ones.

Cool arent they...???

And as promised , here is the winner of the download challenge. Unfortunately I can't remember whose it is, oops, sorry about that. Please let me know and send me your address so I can get your prize out to you..

Thats it from me tonight. If you havent done so already hop over to Tim's blog and check out his 12 days of Christmas. He has excelled himself sooooo much this year. I will be doing some tags when his have finished so look out for them.

Enjoy xx

This is the life...!!!!!

Busy, busy, busy... Sos I am a bit sporadic with my blogging but I keep running out of time whilst I am having a life. When hes away I can stay up all night painting, journaling, blogging. I can exist on 3/4 hrs sleep, I can work the clock round and pretend I am invincible...lmao. But at the moment I am living a life, just like the rest of you..!!!

Ben released my next set of downloads last night and Emmi has had trouble keeping up with them today, lol, you  certainly love them..!! Here they are in all their gorgeousness. You can order them HERE

Heres another entry for the last challenge.

Thats it now that challenge is over, I,ll tell you the winner tomorrow. New challenge as of today.  Using at least one of the new downloads, create me something, send me a pick and you are in with a chance of lovely goodies..

We have some new weekend dates for you. I cant keep up with demand for my weekends, lol. So you will need to be quick off the mark.

Here they are...

Fri/Sat/Sun 26/27/28th March 2010 - Fabby Dabby Weekend - 7.30-10pm, 9-6pm,9-4pm

An action packed weekend full of fabby classes, gorgeous food, luvvly,luvvly people and enough laughter to have you splitting your sides. The weekend will be packed with a mixture of mini-books, atcs, altered items and techniques galore. Perfect for gifts if you can bear to part with them, lol. All class materials, food, snacks and drink whilst at the studio are included in the price. A list of hotels will be sent to you on request. Warning - the last two January weekends sold out virtually straight away so I wouldn't leave it too late.  book HERE


Sat 10th & Sun 11th April - Mini Ranger U Technique Weekend - 9-5pm - Part1

Now I know you are all jealous when you hear what goes on at The Ranger University in New Jersey. It is a fabulous action packed 3 days of techniques galore. Downfall = you have to be invited to attend and its a blooming long way to go. As Ranger's Senior Educator in Europe, I have decided to bring you a taste of it here. Two full days for you to choose from or treat yourself and opt for both. Techniques will include paint effects, Ultra thick embossing,beeswax, B/M pearl pigments, distress techniques, Claudine Hellmuth studio line , alcohol inks and many more.
You will leave at the end of each day with a tag book filled with know how and inspiration after using some of the best quality products in the business.. I am known for specialising and teaching techniques and masterclasses. They may look difficult but they are as easy as pie, you just need showing. So come on what are you waiting for???
Lunch and snacks provided   book HERE


Fri/Sat/Sun 30th April 1/2nd May - Beginners Art Journal Weekend - 7.30-10pm, 9-5pm,9-4pm

How do you fancy a whole weekend of satisfying and healing your own soul..?? It is aimed at newbies to the addiction but is suitable for anyone to come. We will start on the Fri evening by making our journals from scratch, eating pizza and drinking wine. Saturday we will be exploring paint techniques, colour and emotion,, doodling, collage, writing techniques, crying ( oh yesssss if its not me its you lot...!!! ) , eating, eating, eating, reflecting, sucking blue lollipops and generally having a fabuloso, indulgent, enjoyable time. Sunday we will be swirling it all together, with step by steps and challenges to get your creative juices flowing. All this for just £120 - hows that for a bargain. The only food not provided is on Sat evening, cos I will have gone home and passed out..!!!  Book HERE

Fri/Sat/Sun 21/22/23rd May  Intermediate Art Journals 7.30-10pm, 9 - 5pm, 9-4pm

This is the weekend for all of you who are hooked on art journaling. It is suitable for those of you who have attended the beginners weekend or any of my journaling classes. We will be going into it more in depth, learning lots of new techniques and generally having a ball....



For all my regular journalers I have slipped in an extra class, Sun 13th Dec  10 - 3 pm. We will be combining it with a riotous Christmas party of carol singing and stuffing ourselves with mince pies. We will also be starting on the round robin, so get yourselves booked on..

Today was the first day of Ranger 2. Due to illnesss we were down to 6 people, so they were flying through it, which is great because I can teach them more in the time. They are a great bunch and I am in my element, cause I just love teaching techniques. To me they are the best workshops you will attend. Today we were doing colourwash and ultra thick embossing.

Here are the girlies...Stephanie, Anneliese and Sue.

Sarah, Sharon and Steff.

Right I have salmon pasta, garlic bread and salad all waiting for me. Yup the little babe has come up trumps with his cooking again. You never know, I might just keep this one.. Lmao.

Enjoy xx

A load of of old blogocks....

By heck, its hard work this relationship lark, fitting it in around my work, my journaling, my twittering, my boxing and my blogging...lmao....I love it but its just taking some getting used to..!!! For example, when I got in late from work last night and I had eaten the food he had cooked me and drunk the wine he had got me, and soaked in the bath he ran me, I was then expected to give him my attention and watch football with him..!!! I mean how unfair was that..???? Anyway I did it, I watched the football and didn' touch my laptop or journal once...Well it was the least I could do yeah...??? lmao..

I wanted to talk to you today about the pens I have been raving about as we have finally got them in stock and they are flying out the door, oops, lol. I have always dissed gel pens as useless, scratchy and not worth the money, and I have had to really and truly eat my words..!!! I am totally head over heels with these pens and cannot praise them enough. My only fault with them would be not enough colours. See I can always find something to moan about, lol.

I have tried pen after pen after pen, but most of them struggle to write on my painted backgrounds in my journals and artwork. Some pens start off ok then suddenly stop never to write again, others skip ( only write here and there) and others are scratchy as anything, or never dry , just smudge everywhere. There are lots of permanent pens on the market and its just a matter of finding the ones for you and these are deffo the ones for me...

So the pens I am raving about are from Sakura. My faves are Souffle, Glaze and Gelly roll. So I,ll go through them and tell you why I love them.

First the basic Gelly Rolls..and Stardust.

These pens are fantastic, they just keep on and on with a beautifully smooth line. They are a mix of ink and water based pigment. I am using the black and white on everything. The Stardust pens have a really high glitter effect. Now you all know I am opposed to glitter, lol, ooh I am itching at the thought, but these are really cool. Yes I know, first gel pens, then glitter effect, whatever next..PPPPP******fs?? NO don't even go there, lmao

Souffle pens.

These pens are opaque with a matt finish and write on just about everything. They are slightly dimensional. My absolute fave is the white which writes clear and then turns white on  dark , reminds me of being a kid and doing magic writing...

Glaze pens.

These pens are slightly transparent and they give a glossy effect. They are just out of this world, and write beautifully, everyone who has tried these has had to go buy them,lol. I love the way they write but if you write really slow you can get a really dimensional embossed effect. The clear is fab for going over any outine and making it look as though it is embossed. And of course I am hooked on the white and black. I have yet to find anything that they wont write on. Oh and forgot to mention that when I say white, I mean WHITE...

These are all available HERE , some in singles and some in sets, I think you definitely need these on your Christmas list, but be warne they are sooooooooooooo addictive. I have given up collecting high black, strappy bondage shoes and started on these pens instead, lol.

I also love drawing pens and have various makes in my collection, my favourite being the Faber Castell Pitt artist pens. These I use when I am doing my Blonde Moment stamp designs and nearly all my outlining in my journaling. You can get these HERE.

And none of my atcs, canvas's or journal pages are complete without oil pastels.  Many of you are frightened of these, I think it's the word oil..!!! But they are so simple to use and really make a big difference to your work, by making things pop. You don't need anything to blend them with, I just use my finger. I choose a colour, outline the image with it and in a circular motion blend it in. They are a fab investment as they seem to last forever. The set I have at work is used by everyone and looks hardly used at all.. At the moment I am loving the Cray-Pas Expressionist set of pastels. I, of course, have got the massive set, but we have 3 other sets in stock HERE.

So there you go thats what I use to create the magic, lol. I am a big believer in using what you have until you are sure that you enjoy it, but then you really need the right tools for the job. And you all know, much to Ben's disgust, I can't promote anything that I don't love.

Ok, want to show you these advent calendars that Chrissie made for her family. She got that hooked that she had to make them all one each. I bet they took some filling..!!!!

Heres another entry for my journal contest. Love it...

You have only got till tomorrow night to enter this, so c'mon you lot get your finger out. Stop being all mouth and no trousers, as me Dad used to say.  Tomorrow we will be releasing three more of my downloads, and I just know they are gonna fly. Everyone who has seen them so far lurves them so be warned. New downloads, new challenges....Yayy.

Gonna leave you with a journal page.

Enjoy xx

Tim's treats and Gill's sweets....

Well you can tell that Tims 12 days of Christmas has started because the website is heading for meltdown, lmao. !!  For the very few of you who dont know about this worldwide phenonoma get your self over HERE and prepare to drool.. See what I mean, hes a genius isnt he.?? Just lurve the Rock Candy Distress Icicles...

Talking of tags, here's two more for my download challenge.

Still time for you all to enter so keep them coming in...

The lovely Ann was in class today and brought along some Atc's, made by Ann and two friends, Marie and Diane, for the "Be A Voice" exhibition.

How cool are they, ??? Keep sending them in...

Ha ha  as many of you pointed out the other night I talked about the cake from the weekend that Gill bought me and forgot to put any pictures..!!!! So here we go.....

Shortish post again tonight, as I,m shattered. Was in the gym at 7am throwing punches..!!! Yup J's teaching me to box...How wise is that do you think..?? Then had a really full day teaching three workshops..!!!! And I am going to do it all again tomorow, lol. So see you then.

Enjoy xx