Apology's to all.....

My friends and followers for my distinct lack of anything this last few weeks, all I can say is I am sorry and I will try harder from now on. I think everything just stopped when my best friend died. I have never felt anything like it in my life, even when my dad died it didn't affect me as bad as this. And my oh and I have just had the busiest time of our lives this last few weeks, a few photos to follow. So I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone, friends, followers, design team mates and lurkers, I am back (I hope lol) and will start to get things back to normal again.

This is some of what I have been up to this last few weeks,
It all started on the 17th with a parade through town, I showed most of the photos on my blog on the Sunday so If you would like to see more just have a look back.

 Then on the Monday it was up to the Abbey for rehearsal for the choir.

 For the performance on the Tuesday.

 For some reason I cannot find the photos of the Shakespeare or the Jane Austin that were on the Wednesday and Thursday

We then had Bex Marshell and her band, plus support on in the ampitheatre on the Friday.

 Then on the Saturday we started the rock night. The first act was a local band called Funky Monkey, then came The Secret Police a great Police tribute band

We then had an interval during which we all did just what we Brits are famous for and queued for the beer.

The last act to come on were The Bohemians a Queen tribute band.

And they brought the house down. I threw a camera at one of the security guys and got him to take a few photos from the back of the stage just to try and capture the audiences enthusiasm, as you can see it was full and everyone was on there feet. We got home about 3 in the morning after cleaning up and making sure everyone was ok.

So for the last few days I have done nothing but sleep and catchup with everything that had been shelved, if you were expecting an email from me, I am on to them next.
Just hope mojo hasn't gone on his holidays....

Thanks for reading,
Cath

This week over on Make My Monday

We are still on the Steampunk theme, but this week the challenge is to make anything but not a card.

Now this is not the original box I made for this challenge, but somehow over the last week since I finished it I have managed to misplace it! This one I managed to get done on Sunday using Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante paper and a box I had bought for something else and never used. This box I covered with tissue that had been stamped with a cog stamp then stuck to the box with wet glue. Once dry I wiped gold paint over the edges, then added cogs and flowers that had been cut out from the Graphic 45 paper. I used a large image for the top and a row of smaller images around the sides.

Please go over to Make My Monday to have a look at what the rest of the team have been up to.

Thanks for reading,
Cath

Sorry this is late....

So sorry if you came earlier for this post, for some reason Mr Blogger decided to delete the post I had scheduled ready to post, so here goes my second attempt.

This week over on Make My Monday we are adding metal to our Steampunk. When I picked the theme of Steampunk a few months ago the rest of the ladies on the design team were all a bit apprehensive about this theme but they have all really got into the swing of this and are making some amazing pieces, just go over to Make My Monday to have a look.

My card this week is made with Design 45 paper and Tims metal flowers.

I loved the colours in this picture from their Steampunk range, I just added the ribbon through the flowers and kept it all in an Art Nouveau/Steampunk style. I am looking forward to seeing what others do with this theme as there has been some great designs on the Make My Monday blog.

Thanks for reading,
Cath

Silent Sunday.

Photos from this week.

Thanks for reading,
Cath

Mid-week Motivation

This weeks challenge was to use Monochrome when doing your Steam Punk piece. I know a lot of people have a problem with this and stick to Black and White, but I have found if I only have the colour I am going to use out on my desk and no other I don't get tempted to add anything else.

 For this card I have just used Walnut Stain distress ink, blending it over the edges to get a dark base card.

I then made a nice puddle of ink and water on my mat and dunked my card in to it to get a lighter, patchy background.

I then used the ink pad to ink up my stamp and stamp onto plain card. I have found if you use these inks to stamp on glossy card you can emboss them if you are quick even though they are dye inks.

I then stamped onto the background once it was dry and stuck this to the card I had edged, then added the topper I had smudged with a water brush to it with foam pads.

I hope this gives you some ideas when using just one colour.

Thanks for reading,
Cath

This weeks card for Make My Monday.

This week on Make My Monday we are going Monochrome, still with the Steam Punk theme but just using one colour.

 So for my card I used Walnut ink distress ink and stamps from 7 Gypsies, Personal Impressions and The Artistic Stamper. The background was made by spreading the ink on to a craft sheet, spraying with water and then dipping the card into it. Most of the stamping was done straight onto the card except for the man, hand and word. I stamped them onto cream card and added with foam pads to give a bit of dimension to the card. I love the differing colours you get from the same ink when you use it in different ways.

Do come over to Make My Monday and see what the Design team have done this week, there are some great ideas.

Thanks for reading,
Cath

Silent Sunday.

Photos taken in and around Salisbury, June 2011.

Thanks for looking,
Cath

This week on Make My Monday

This month's new theme over on Make My Monday is Steam Punk, with this weeks theme as ATC.

For mine I chose Around the World in 80 days as my theme. I have been working with 7 Gypsies a lot this past few weeks so I used a stamp from there Steam Punk collection along with a couple of rub ons.

Nip over to Make My Monday to join in and have a look at what the rest of the team has done.

Thanks for reading,
Cath

Art from the Heart's blog hop

Welcome to a very exciting blog hop in Celebration of 10 years of Art from the Heart!

Lots of exciting things happening at Art from the Heart next weekend where the big birthday bash is happening. Want to know more then do click here

So in Celebration we are having 5 birthday blog hops.

You should have reached my blog from here and you are on the 7 Gypsies hop

Here is my project

I used

7 Gypsies paper from the Lille collection, Crazy Love, Life is Good and Abundance.

Steam Punk clear stamps and Victoriana rubbings.

 The background is made from card painted with acrylic ink.
I stuck the papers to coasters, trimmed and then edged them with walnut ink before adding them to the background. The whole thing was then decorated with the stamps and rubbings. The sentiment is made from a very old die cut alphabet I got free with a magazine, that I inked in black.
 The Art from the Heart was made by drawing a heart shape in card covering it with scraps of paper and adding the ART letters through it on pieces of acetate.
If you look close you will see I included a party hat, balloon and game. 


Before you move on - you will need to collect a letter from me

 which is P

This is part of an anagram of a 7 Gypsies product

Once you get back to Dys blog please email your answer to Ben.

So after leaving me a comment you need to move on to

Julie

Have fun hopping!

Cathx