G is for Graphic 45

One of my favourite manufacturers at the moment is Graphic 45, here are a few of the projects I have done  with  G45 papers...
Altered IKEA mirror using 'Once Upon A Springtime'

Preserving Passion LO using 'Domestic Goddess'

Buckingham Palace book using a range of different G45 papers including 'Le Romantique'

ATDML planner using 'Once Upon A Springtime'

Recipe box using 'Domestic Goddess'

Gothic Arch using 'Steampunk Debutante'

mini cake box using 'Halloween in Wonderland'

Musical model circus using 'Le Cirque'

Rosslyn Chapel exploding tag book using 'Renaissance Faire'

Bilberry Pie LO using 'Domestic Goddess'

Our Favourite Christmas Ornament using Christmas papers

Advent calendar using Christmas papers

Christmas Card

 

Thirsty Thursdays over at ATDML

The start of term has been pretty hectic and I can't believe that we're almost at the October break already. I don't feel I've been pulling my weight over at the ATDML blog so I wanted to make an effort to get involved with the 'Thirsty Thursdays' feature that Ann has started. So last week Ann  posted 'F' and I thought I'd better get caught up...

A is for apples and for my Authentique class coming soon at ATDML...

B is for the Beach and also for Basic Grey (in this case, Max and Whiskers)

C is for cats and, of course, Claudia...

D is for Domestic Goddess...

E is for embellishments...

F is for 'Fearless' and 'flowers' - I love them on my LOs and cards...

Which brings us up to date with G

For me G has to be for Graphic 45, but you'll have to wait until my next post - a G45 special.

An artful weekend...

In August  I spent another fantastic day with Rachel Clark at her studio, we had a great model (Lesley) and as usual the atmosphere was calm and relaxed and very conducive to productive drawing.
As before we started with some 5 minute and 1 minute drawings which I found difficult to begin with but Rachel is so patient and such a good teacher and helped me through the tough times! We worked alot on visualising the body as boxes and using the charcoal stick to align features horizontally and vertically to enable us to get the body in proportion. Here are a few of my early attempts...

After break we did two half hour drawings, using the same techniques but just refining our pictures a little - the first was ok but I was happier with my second half hour picture.

Finally, after lunch we spent the whole afternoon drawing one particular pose trying to get better at all the things we had been taught. I'm reasonably happy with this though I didn't get the face quite right. I'm glad I managed to get some of the pattern in the fabric she was sitting on
Here's my final piece...

On Sunday I decided I should try and practise my skills and I headed to the British Museum to find a statue to draw, I found 'Hermes' and it was quite entertaining to sit and draw while tourists milled around me. The closer I was to finishing the more interest they took in my picture and one or two actually photographed it!!LOL - Sadly I haven't photographed it yet - if I get a chance to photograph it this weekend then I'll blog it.

After the British Museum I decided I had done enough drawing for one day and so I headed over to Buckingham Palace and did the tour around, which, at the time included the Wedding Dress, shoes, cake etc. It was lovely to see the dress close up and to find out about how they stitched cutouts from 6 different pieces of lace onto it. Buckingham Palace state rooms were beautiful and I loved all of the works of art (some very historic important pictures and sculptures).
Following the weekend I used an old book and lots of Graphic 45 papers to make a whole altered book to remember my visit to Buckingham Palace, it featured in the ATDML September Design Team Gallery...

Here are some of the inside pages...

Preserving Passion!

So far this summer holiday I have been focussed on two things: 1 - managing the workmen who are busy replacing our bathroom and 2 - making jams, jellies and marmalades...

Mum and I have had great success in the past, selling marmalade, Jam and lemon curd at the fayres at school, so this year we wanted to get a head start on everything by making our preserves (which, obviously, keep for ages) now. Mum is in charge of strawberry jam, pineapple jam, apple jelly, mint jelly and will also make some of the orange marmalade.

 I spent a very pleasant couple of hours at Blacketyside farm in Fife, picking blackcurrants, redcurrants, raspberries and strawberries, and that, together with some fruit from our garden, sugar from costco, veg from the market and jam jars from the jam jar shop and I was all set to get preserving...

I made onion marmalade, orange marmalade, chilli jam, raspberry jam, blackcurrant jelly and  redcurrant jelly and I'm still planning to make lemon curd nearer to the Christmas fair.
I printed the labels onto sticky labels with my printer then punched them out using Stampin' Up! punches.

So the jam is made - and the bathroom is almost finished..!! I'm now on my way to London for another all day life drawing class with Rachel Clark. Can't wait. I thought I'd try to get into practice by doing a bit of drawing on the way in the train. To go with all of my other drawings of musicians in my music room I decided to do a drawing of the lovely Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17 (well, he's usually lovely but he looks rather sinister in the picture of him I found on the internet to use to copy).
So here's the internet picture...

And here's my version...(now that I see them side by side I can see all the flaws - I will do some more work on it tomorrow night!)

Thanks for looking :-)

Still Cybertripping!

Today I've been working away on some of the fabulous cybercrop classes and here are three to show you...

This one is Ann's Sassafrass Paper frenzy class - I didn't have the exact papers but I tried to use some Sassafrass in there (the border & some of the stickers). Since it was such a crazy colour scheme I decided to go with the mad subject of my obsession with playing plants vs zombies on my i-pad!!

This is my take on Karen Moss's easy peasy mini book, which is ready to put in the pictures we have taken of the birds in our garden birdbox...

Finally this is my Take on Karen Moss's very floral LO, it is of cat number 6 who came into our lives at Easter when her previous owners asked our vet friend to euthanise her as they were moving house(!?!) ...anyway she is ours now - another diabetic moggie to add to the fold...

I'm almost finished Mel's 7 Gypsies travel book and have also made a start on Ann's triple frame - hopefully I'll be able to post again later with more pictures.
Thanks for looking!

Happy Father's Day...

...to my dad!
And here's his card which is also my entry to the TAG IT challenge on the ATDML cybercrop...



 
I'll be up later with a present, Dad..!

On a cybertrip down memory lane...

Having fun this weekend cybercropping over at 'A trip down memory lane' blog.
Here is my LO for the first class, Mel's interactive LO. I decided to just buy one kit for this cybercrop and use my own supplies for the other classes so I did this class using some Cosmo Cricket papers I've had for ages, but they worked well with my theme.
Here is the front of the LO...

And here is the inside, with the middle opened out...

Thanks for looking - I'm off to have a go at a challenge now...back later!