I'm late I'm late for a very important date.....

I started this project ages awhile ago, and then life took over and I never managed to get it finished in time for its original purpose of entering it into the Craft Stamper Competition, but whilst attempting a tidy up in the craft room today I decided to finish it off so thought I would share it with you anyway. Hey whilst writing this I have realised the background is green, so I can enter it into Hels' Sunday Stamper Challenge, so all is not lost!

As you can see it is an altered book. I love to see books that are a bit worse for wear because they have been read, and re-read and well loved. I don't think this readers digest book had actually ever been read, but it now looks like it has!

I cut a hole in the pages to accommodate a 'house clock' and each chipboard tile has been coloured with distress inks, stamped and then triple embossed with clear UTEE. Its a busy book, with well thumbed pages, and I like to think as the title suggests it has been read 'Time and Time Again'

The cover is a bit rough and ready - I didn't want it to be perfect as it was supposed to be well handled and maybe even shoved in a bag everyday to be read on the train to work or as in my OH's case, shoved done the side of the loo - I never understand the attraction of reading on the toilet, think its a man thing!  - The cover is made from Grungepaper - grungepaper/board doesn't really care for heat embossing, but in this project that was perfect because it curled the edges somewhat - It does however like being stamped on - take a look at this gorgeous stamps I bought from The Artistic Stamper - great aren't they!! I didn't know quite what I would use them for when I bought them, but knew I had to have them .... hey presto they are just perfect for this project! They are quite detailed and I was really impressed how well they stamped onto GP.

Perhaps I better start on an entry for the CS now for 2011, then I may get it done in time!!

Oh just noticed my clock is a bit wonky in the photo - that will be because I havent fixed it in properly yet, it will be straight once i find my magnetic strip to keep it in place but easily removable for battery changes etc, so please pretend you didnt notice that LOL

All Present, Delivered and Correct....

Well maybe not correct, but pressie has been delivered to Katherine T.

Another altered box, which was just a plain pine jewellery box to begin with.

Katherine gave me some model magic so I wanted to have a play with that, and it ended up on her birthday present.

I rolled it very thinly, stamped into it and folded it, tweaked it, painted it.

This sits on a layer of painted and heated Tyvek.

I made a mould of a Gargoyle fridge magnet and used the model magic in that... its a very details and in parts undercut mould, and it came out much better than the ones I have tried to make with oven baked polymer clays.

Inside there is a removable tray. There is a working clock inside one of the compartments, the face of the clock is embossed metal, which i just doodled on. The bottom of the other compartments are filled with UTEE, coloured with Mica powders.

The lower tray has been lined with metal from Tomato Puree tubes... I love the colour of these and usually flatten them in my Wizard, but have left them creased here and covered them with clear UTEE and a few micro beads.

I have just noticed that some of these photos were taken whist the outside was matt black.. I have since sprayed it with a green mica spray.  The sides are metal, wire, beads, embossing powder and some fab felt like stuff that you can heat and it melts... oh I am so sad getting excited about such stuff!

Evidence that I have actually been busy.....

Here are a few bits and pieces that I have made as Christmas pressies for people, for obvious reasons I haven't been able to upload them before!

Firstly Box number 25 of the Advent Calendar, which couldn't be opened until the keys were obtained from an altered keyring which was in Box number 24 but I think there was some severe cheating going on, cos this seemed to have opened on Christmas eve......

Anyway, it's made of silver clay and silver wire and silver beads. I think it looks a bit better in real life, think I need a lesson in photography!

Wine Boxes seem to be the Christmas gift of the year if you look at Heidi's and Katherine's blogs, fortunately we don't share too many friends LOL. But here is the one I made for some very dear friends called Chris and Len, hence the CL at the top...... geddit?? cl ... wine??? Well I thought it was clever LOL

Then finally a couple of 'book' clocks, I found these neat 'book' boxes a while ago and decided to turn them into clocks. These are both much the same but taken at slightly different angles.

And finally, my favourite picture of Christmas 2008, my lovely, lovely non techno (bah humbug computer games, buy them a board game) Daddy, thoroughly enjoying playing on the kids new Wii.....

Been working hard....

Making these Clocks which are prototypes for the Your Creative Journey workshops..

Still deciding on the final design for the workshop and what can be completed in the allotted 2 1/2 hour slot.... but whatever it is I am really keen that people put their own slant on the design.

The house shaped one is using a technique that I found on the blog of Isabelle Norris and Isa kindly shared. Take a look at her blog for some awesome stuff and loads of tips!

Happy Birthday to my Mate...

For some strange reason, my best mates husband thought it would be a treat to surprise her by bringing her up to Norfolk for her birthday............ can't think it's a treat but people have strange ideas!
By the time I post this she should be on her way.... I'm only a little excited. Hopefully she will have forgiven us by now for lying to her all week!!

I popped to Poundland to buy her a pressie, but found nothing suitable so she has got some more Nicks Tat to clutter up her home......... she is very good at quickly getting it all out of storage when I visit...... she reckons it's always on view, one of these days I'm going to give her a surprise visit and see if she can get it all out from under the stairs in the time it takes me to walk up the drive!!

Anyway......... here is the Tat...........

I found these lovely blank boxes just ripe for altering, some walnut ink/all my distress crackle paint (gawd i must luv her!!) and some copper later and here are the results. Copper is such fun to play with, but jolly hard work... the results are worth it now. Heating it and adding copper patina produces stunning colours.

a pendant... I made two one for Sparky and one for another dear friend, both very different and I left it to George to decide who got which one.... If they don't like them they will have to get together and swap them!

Card.......Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum.. dunno why I had to use this stamp LOL

gawd she is such high maintenance she insisted on a BRAK (Birthday Random ATC of Kindness)as well!! I bought some really cute mini clock bits from Tanda stamps who I can highly recommend , so just had to use one on her ATC

Well as they say, That's all Folks

Happy Birthday Sparky,

I hope you have a lovely weekend, we all treasure you and John

Thanks for sharing your Birthday with us

(not that you had much choice in the matter, but you could have done a runner!!)

xxxxxxxxxx

It's that time again!!

Well what a fab weekend it's been, the weather has been beautiful and we have been to the beach today searching for bits of driftwood and glass..... found one bit of wood but then lost it on the way to get ice-creams!
Spent yesterday organising my Craft room, it may not look any different to you, but to my trained eye it's highly organised LOL!!!
One highlight of the week was getting some 3mm mountboard off cuts from my neighbours son who is a picture framer.... except it is nearer 5mm and bloomin hard to cut, so one sore hand later produced this House Clock, I'm quite chuffed with it!
Apart from that I have been creating something else but can't share that with you, cos I have got to do the finishing touches and get it posted off to the recipient as it's her birthday later in the week!!

Excuse the typing........

Back from Ally Pally straight off to have a little OP on my wrist the next day, so no time to unpack my goodies, never mind playing with them. So typing this very slowly with my left hand.

Had such a good weekend at the craft show, meeting up with some lovely crafters and of course staying at the best B&B in Kent....
Naturally i had to take a pressie or two with me..... the Boss of the B&B seems for some reason to like my clocks, so I used up the rest of my metal on him, not sure he realises i wouldn't use it for just anyone! (just as well I could restock at AP!!)

He makes such a great breakfast!

Another bit of old Tat for my Bessie to add a bit more clutter......

would buy her flowers but she only moans about the ones I buy so it serves her right........

Fabbo friends at Ally Pally

(but don't tell the smug talented Duckface in the front I said so!)

Sssshhh Don't tell my Husband!

But here is his birthday present..... he gets cross because I give most of my stuff away and he loved the clock I made for Katherine for her birthday so I thought I had better make him one.as before this is made from a milkshake powder box, the only problem is that the kids don't drink it fast enough so the contents have been decanted into another jar!

I started with the box and gave it a wipe out with a damp cloth, still smelt a bit of strawberries but the paint soon solves this problem! Because it was a shiny coated surface I applied Gesso inside and out and once that was dry applied a dark red paint. Over this I painted some crackle glaze medium, once it was dry (takes an age and I am not patient and you can't use your heat gun to speed it up) I used a black matt acrylic, I have found that this technique does not work with metallic paint. I didn't apply it all over the box, just here and there... at this point it was too dark and not red enough for me, so I repeated the process over some of the black areas and then 'cracked' some burgundy paint. Once that was dry (yawn) I could really start to play... a bit more paint here and there which I did dry with my gun which makes it bubble up and distort. A bit of Metal magic sprinkled here and there..... The centre 'lock' was made from fimo, a friend lent me the mould (she who has everything aka duckface) so I had made some in advance, it was silver so I painted it red and gold. Then it was just a case of adding bits and pieces of old tat.... the box has a nice indented bottom which is great to fill with bits and pieces from my treasure chest (as the kids call it) and I made some clay letters, initials of the family. Glossy accent was poured over them. Embossed metal with wizard dies to make the padlock and key, and the script was embossed with a cuttlebug folder.... Face with wings... again a clay face with German scrap wings..... think that's about it.

Hope he likes it!

Made from a Milkshake Powder box. Gessoed (is there such a word?) and then painted with Acryic paints. Then randomly stamped with stazon, triple embossed with Debi Moores Metal Magic. Decorated with a UTEE 'Sun' which I made from a mould I took from a plastic sun keyring from a Christmas cracker. The tiles spell 'TIME' and are from an Art Mould alphabet. The metal around the bottom and top right corner is from a tomato puree tube, it is a lovely colour, I washed it in the dishwasher which tarnished it... a very happy accident!
I am a terrible hoarder, but it can come in useful. The Chain is a belt which came on a skirt I had. The 'oblong' on the side is from another belt I picked up from a school jumble sale.. keep your eyes open and view everything you see with altered art in mind....... thats my motto!