It's Summertime and you know what that means...

...They are words from a kids programme my son watches, The Regular Show, from a song that gets into your mind and never leaves lol.
Just the mere mention of summertime sets off those songs that gets into your head all day or just crops up in a hum when you least expect it, triggering all sorts of memories for me.
While I was making the following pieces I was 'You Tube'-ing all sorts of summer songs from Dancing Queen to Californication and Stevie Nicks singing Sara (I hadn't listened to that song for over 20 years and it was like going back in time!!) Then got sucked into Dr Hook's Sylvia's Mother for somereason which led to Terry Jack's Seasons in the Sun and by then there was no hope for me as I spiralled in to Starry Starry Night....

I know!! I should have stopped when things were jolly lol

You see what I have to go through to get the feel of a theme!! lol

anyway...I digress - on with the crafty stuff...

Crafty Individuals are running the theme Time for Summer seeing as it's now officially British Summertime and so I made this box from four of the Crafty Individials tags, two fairy plates and a selection of flowers.

This is the softer more thoughtful 'chiffon colouring' view. Does that make sense? In real life this has a very subtle gentle feel to it but still remains summery I hope.



a closer snoop...using mainstamp image CI137)



then twirling it round to the other side we can see the more typical summer colours (in RL they are reds and bright orange not muted rusts)...



and a closer look at this side (main stamp is CI132)..



Summertime has taken a twist today here in the UK. We have sunshine but it's frosty white out on the grass and apparently Scotland are expecting snow!

To finish my post I'll leave you with just ONE song that to me says summer.

Whats your summer song??
Depends on your age I guess as to the era.
My summer ones tend to stem from the 70's/80's usually rock ones.
But I think given just one choice this has to be the all time knee patting, beer-garden table tapping song of all time...one of those (as the phrase is nowadays) 'guilty pleasure' songs...



So there we are... that summer feeling for me. Half a lager and lime/tequila and orange, beer garden, summer evenings, back in the day lol

Why not hunt out your all time favourite summer time tracks and get 'in the zone' lol and hopefully you will get your crafty items out at the same time and join in with the challenge. I look forward to seeing all the summery work.

xx Jo

All Wrapped Up

(You might light to grab a cuppa, this is quite a long post with lots of pics and a You Tube link :0) )

I was delighted to be contacted by Jean over at Crafty Individuals recently to ask whether I'd like to come up with an idea for the Crafty Individuals Challenge theme for December.

December, I always find, turns up, all is still pretty calm, loads of time for planning and organising with dreams of making cards and all sorts. Before you know it Santa's been , the lounge is strewn with wrapping paper and the turkey is in the oven!

So I thought that a good theme might be All Wrapped Up, so at least we'd have at least one Christmassy crafy item sorted.

This can be anything connected with giving over Christmas, either tags, your own stamped wrapping paper, decorated boxes, bags, little gifts wrapped with ribbon...anything along those lines.



On Tuesday I held one of my workshops and we all made little squash books with this as the example. We used the new 7 Dots papers which I'm loving and loaaaaaaaaads of Crafty Individuals stamps. (I'll link you to any that appear on blogs...Siobhan, that's your nudge)..(edit... link is at the end)

Above shows the front....

and here's the back...



Untied, the book springs open to reveal lots of stamped images.










Claire, one of my lovely workshop ladies, came up with the fab idea of hanging these tiny books from the Christmas tree and having them as little tree presents which would make brilliant keepsakes for family members if you included a few photos inside.
(yep...I have the tree decorated already!!...Even the ringtone on the phone is festive haha! Christmas came and went last year because of Mum's funeral last December, so this year I'm all set. Mum used to be in her element at this time of year and she'd have been disappointed if I'd decided to not bother.)

Looks right at home there on the branches don't you think? Great idea Claire!





If you would like to make something along these lines please take a look at this link to a very clear explanation by Lytlescrapper on You Tube on how to fold the paper. The size of my book is based on three 4" squares (10cm) but you can adjust accordingly to whatever size takes your fancy. Once you have the general idea you just tweak it to your needs.




All stamps used to make my squash book are by Crafty Individuals.
Please take a look at the challenge- you have all month to join in and doing so will be in with an opportunity of winning goodies from Crafty Individuals.

I am really looking forward to seeing what you come up with and choosing five favourites to be shown on the Crafty Individuals challenge blog.

edit....Siobhan's squash book from my workshop can be seen here. Please check it out, its gorgeous.

Just Dreaming and Hanging About

Crafty Individuals have their new challenge theme for September up and running!

This is what it says...

'...the theme for the month has been chosen by Lucy Edmondson, and is 'Hanging About'. To give you some idea of how to tackle this I will put the idea in Lucy's own words - ‘this would give people scope to do a wall hanging, canvas, frame, lantern, bird cage, bird house, jewellery, dangly things on cards, pennants – all sorts. Or they could interpret it as friends hanging about together.’

So I made this hanging using a selection of Crafty Individual stamps. The main image is one of the fabulous new designs, which, wait for it wait for it....currently, aswell as being able to buy it in the 'normal' way as usual from Crafty Individuals for £6.44, if you spend over £28(excluding postage) you get this new Crow collage stamp FREE!!!!

Yes!! FREE!!

And talking of bargains, the little skeleton hand charm dangling from the hanging is a snip at 20p from HAPPY DAZE




Hope you like this.... coloured with Distress and Jenni Bowlin ink pads...and pencil crayons. Splashes of water here and there. Black StazOn for the black stamping. Lots of matt and layering. I have run out of eyelets, so I would have liked those on here to finish the piece off nicely but nevermind ay.

A great challenge theme...I hope you can find a moment this month to join in. Worthwhile...theres a prize! Check out the Crafty Individuals blog challenge post for details.

Sea, Sand and a Friend

Crafty Individuals have a new challenge theme today.

Here is my contribution towards it. I used a slidemailer case (no glass) and a whole collaboration of Crafty Individuals stamps.




If you haven't seen the challenges over there before, why not have a go this time? You have a month in which to come up with something and in doing so are in with a chance to be a lucky winner of goodies on offer from Jean and Malcolm.

All the details can be found here

Ctafty Individuals also have some new stamp images released this week. I LOVE the elephants !

Free as a Bird

May's challenge over on Crafty Individuals is set by Is Norris, one of my old partners in crime way back when lol (ok it was only five or so years ago I guess when we managed to pull together an article for an overseas publication by email having never met but it was fun, albeit a little hectic!).
Is has come up with the theme Free as a Bird. I made this card for the challenge. Looks like a tag doesn't it , but with a bit of smoke and mirror trickery (and a spare bit of card!), but I put a back on it so it will stand upright. I used the main NEW image of CI-309 and one of my favourite Crafty Individuals Craft Elements plates CI-287 .

I initially started off with CI-309...



...then added odd birds and built on until I felt the balance was right. The main stamp has music notes and a song but I substituted these song words with one of the sayings from the CI-287 plate. Finished off with some fine liner pen stitchy lines.

Its a simple make, lifes hectic, whats new lol.

There are prizes to be had over on Jean's 'Crafty Individuals' blog for lucky participants. Please take a look over there for all the details and ideas from the 'team'.

There is light on the horizon.... its back to 'normal' day tomorrow!! All back to school...yeah! I won't be exactly as free as a bird, but I'll have a bit of time to get round Tescos lol

Have a great May Day holiday if you are in the UK.
Not long to go now until the Port Sunlight show, where Crafty Individuals will have a stand and I'll finally get to say 'Hi' to Jean and Malcolm after all these years (I have some Crafty Individuals stamps so old they are wooden backed) as I'm working there too for another company.

Crafty Individuals NEW Challenge! (2nd post of the day)

Simply Square (click for the link) is the theme for the first ever Crafty Individuals Challenge on their new blog.

My idea is shown above using CI-248(apologies for pinky hue, very poor light ).

There are prizes available!! FIVE OF THEM!!!Go and check it all out along with more ideas!! :0))