It's done!!

... Well, hello all! It's been quite a while since I added anything to my blog. This is a long post, but keep going to the end - there's something special!!

As you may know from previous posts, we moved back to Wales in October last year after very nearly 7 years in Northville, Michigan. It's wonderful to be here, but I do miss my stateside friends. And I really, really miss my local US craft shops - I was very lucky to have two wonderful shops within easy reach of our home in Northville - Scrappy Chic, Livonia and Stampeddlar, Northville. If you're in Michigan, both are worth a visit.

Now that I'm back home, I'm finding that my local shops are probably going to be online shops - Seven Hills Crafts, Art from the Heart (yes, I do know there is a real shop and I'll get there soon), Bumbleberry Crafts, and I'm sure I'll find lots more soon.

We've been extremely busy since getting home - lots of renovation work being done on our bathrooms - will share photos once the work is completed. And I've been busy sorting out my craftroom. I'm very lucky to have an enormous room with great light. Here are some photos of my new space:

The tall cabinet is Storeage4crafts. It holds 54 Really Useful A4 4L boxes, and it's not far off full - mostly with stamps that I purchased while in the States. The tall tower unit is home to most of my Stampin' Up! and Uniko sets. On the far wall, you can see where I keep all my Dyan, Dina and Tim stamps, along with my embossing folders and various punches too.

My desk fits nicely in the corner with a daylight lamp on the desk to provide extra light at night. On my desk, I have several storage units holding Gina K and Memento ink pads. On the small unit - you can see my Distress and Distress Oxide storage units.

This shows yet more storage - various items, ribbons, paints, cutting/embossing station, Stampin' Up! inkpads, etc etc.

The Ikea Kallax units, also came back from the States, are for storing various journals, papers, inks, photos, etc - all work in progress. On top of the units are perspex contains where I store dies - MFT, Concord & 9th, Waltzingmouse Stamps, Altenew, CAS-ual Friday, and lots of free ones too.

The last photo shows two Raskog carts (both came back from Michigan). They are full of paints, sprays, inks, glitter paste, watercolor pads, and all manner of coloring paraphernalia.

I am really happy how my room has come together.  and I can't wait to ink up some stamps!! I think I'm going to join in a couple of challenges in the next week or two. I'll have to get a move on, as my ankle surgery is now likely to be the end of this month and I won't be able to get upstairs to use this fab place for a couple of weeks!!!

One of the best results of the move home is that I've been able to go through my stash. I've catalogued new items, remove old stash, and discovered that in my haste to get some new stash before leaving Michigan, I did end up with some duplicates!! Hey ho!

That's all for now, hopefully my next post will be for a challenge! Thanks for stopping by.

Back to Back Retreat ATCs ....

PHOTO HEAVY!!

.... Hi! As this post goes live, Kat and I should be landing at Heathrow airport in London. We've left Jonathan to fend for himself and we're going to visit family and friends for a couple of weeks. So I thought it would be a good idea to schedule a few posts for while I'm away.

I'm starting off with a quick review of the Back 2 Back 2018 Retreat organised by Michelle McCosh of Everything Scrapbook and Stamps. B2B ran from 13th - 15th April, in Delray Beach, Florida - seems so long ago now. We had classes from Dyan Reaveley and Dina Wakley - both wonderfully talented and inspiring teachers. It was my third time attending B2B and it is always a pleasure to mix with a group of crazy and wildly artistic women, some of whom were returning like me, and many new faces too. Our classes were so much fun - we made books - but those I'm saving for later, when I've finished them!!

One of the traditions (of a sort) is an ATC swap. In past years, I've not got my act together to make any ATCs, but this year I was determined to make up for it. I started my preparations in plenty of time to get them all made - about 60 in all.  I made the backgrounds using Dyan's inking techniques and put the cards away to decorate at leisure.

Unfortunately, time got away from me and I realised about a week before I was due to leave that I still hadn't decorated the ATCs!! So instead of a nice relaxed time, it was a crazy time. I used a mixture of Dyan and Dina's stamps, words and techniques to make the ATCs. Here they are:

Inks: Dylusions - Postbox Red, Laidback Lilac, Pure Sunshine, Bubblegum Pink, Squeezed Orange, Polished Jade, Vanilla Custard, Mushy Peas, Fresh Lime, Periwinkle Blue, London Blue, After Midnight, Vibrant Turquoise, Calypso Teal, Tangerine Dream, Melted Chocolate; Various Archival inks
Stamps: A mixture of Dyan and Dina sets
ATC: Ready-made Strathmore Bristol Smooth ATC card blanks

I ended up making a total of 80 ATCs so I was able to swap with everyone and still have some left to give to people who'd swapped with me in previous years.  I still have a few left - ready-made cards for my art journals.

Here's a photo of the whole group from this year taken in the Zen Garden:

Michelle is organising Back 2 Back 2019 Retreat - Delray Beach, from 29th to 31st March 2019. Once again, Dyan and Dina will be teaching us new and exclusive classes. This is one of my "me time" breaks and I'm already signed up! That's all for now.

Summer craft classes ....

... Morning! Kat and I have been lucky enough to attend a couple of really great craft weekends this summer. I should give you advance warning that this is a photo heavy post! Both weekends have been hosted by Chris and her fabulous team at Scrappy Chic in Livonia.

The first crafty weekend was in July when Finnabair (Anna) returned to Scrappy Chic.  Anna did a weekend last year, but I didn't go. Which was silly of me! However, I booked to attend all Anna's classes this year!

First up on Saturday 23rd July was a Mixed Media Canvas session. We had to bring a black and white photo - I took a photo of Kat - for the focal image. We spent the morning in mixed media heaven! I got thoroughly inky and messy and produced a wonderful canvas which I have on display in my craft room.

I had a great time creating this canvas - it's not something I'd normally do, but I'm absolutely delighted how it turned out.

The next session was to alter a clock frame. Again, this is not the kind of thing I normally do, but it was brilliant. We antiqued an old clock frame and decorated it with all sorts of embellishments. Then we got to use some wonderful mica paints to give it a beautiful glow. I decided to go with a black and lime green look:

This photo is a close up of the inside of the clock frame - you can see all the elements here.

Kat wasn't with me for the first two classes (she was recovering from Warped Tour!). However, Kat joined me on Sunday 24th July for the full day class where we worked on altering an old book. This was so much fun. We put gesso on the book cover so that all the crackle glaze and paints would adhere properly. This is my book:

You can see in the photo all the lovely crackle texture and the way we made the book look old and almost rusty.  On the inside we cut a hole in which we placed some ephemera:

We used tea to give the aged look. The inside really does look like it's rusted. It was a fabulous class.

I took a photo of all my projects together - they are all on display in the house:

Here's a photo of Kat's book and the inside:

Last week, Dina Wakley came to Scrappy Chic - her first (and hopefully not last) visit. I was lucky enough to attend the Back to Back Retreat with Dina and Dyan in Florida earlier this year, and when I showed Kat what we'd made, she wanted to meet Dina.

The first day was Friday 19th August and it was a long day for us all. We started off by creating a small board journal. We used the same technique I'd done in Florida, so this was lots of fun. I picked my favourite colours and made a lovely little book. It's not big, only about 5" x 3":

The next two sessions were about composition and colour - and we made some pages in our journals showing off what we'd learnt.

Saturday 20th August was a full day class where we made a bound book, putting into practise all we learnt the day before. Everyone had such fun and produced wonderful books. Here are a series of photos showing the pages in my book:

I haven't quite finished my book - the green textured page will have a tag on it and the last page will have a bit of colour on the image of the woman.

Finally, here's a photo of Kat with all her projects - you can see the size of the mini Board Book and the Bound Book here:

Kat with the book she made at the Finnabair class and the two books from Dina's classes.

Some pages from both Kat's book.

I am so pleased that Kat enjoys journalling and mixed media as much as I do. We are both booked to attend Dyan Reaveley's classes in October! So much to look forward too! That's all for now.

Crafting Weekend ....

.... Hello!  I've been meaning to write this review of my weekend in Florida since I got back last Monday, but it's been crazy busy in our house.  However, I've got an hour before the next guy comes to give me a quote for house removals, so I thought do it now!!! These are a couple of photos of my Dyan style folio and Dina style art book:

This photo shows the front and back covers of the book we made in Dina's class.  First time I've attended a class with Dina and had the chance to use her wonderful paints.  It was fantastic!  I still have work to do as I have some blank pages to fill!

This is the outside cover of my folio.  I had such fun using Dyan's paints - they dry so quickly. Usually I end up making things in shades of green, so it was such fun playing with blues and the wonderful new Cherry Pie paint!  Still lots of work to do on this folio - more late.

I was fortunate to be part of the group who attended the Back to Back No Rules Retreat from 19th - 21st February in Florida.  The retreat was organised by the amazing Michelle McCosh, owner of Everything Scrapbook & Stamps, a wonderful store located in Lake Worth, Florida.  Michelle's shop is a treasure trove of goodies and well worth a visit if you're in the area.

The No Rules Back to Back Retreat featured the brilliantly talented Dina Wakley and Dyan Reaveley.  Many of the people attending the retreat were here for the second year, with just a few of us being newbies!  Howver, I have had several classes with Dyan, so was able to keep up.  All the sessions were fast, furious fun - I had a blast!  Here are a few photos from the weekend - if you want to see all my photo, you'll find them on Facebook here.

The retreat take place at the Duncan Conference Centre in Delray Beach, Florida.  It's a lovely place with super staff.  It's calm, quiet (when we're not there) and we were all made to feel so welcome. The food was fantastic.

After class on Friday 19th, some of us headed to Michelle's shop, Everything Scrapbook & Stamps, in Lake Worth. Thanks to Shari for driving us over.  The shop is full of wonderful goodies as well as the most gorgeous displays, here are just a few photos of the displays:

Thanks to Dyan, Dina and Michelle, to all the staff at the Duncan Centre and also to all the wonderful ladies I met - it was a fantastic weekend.  Can't wait to do it again next year!