ten minute tuesday with a WOYWW twist..

hello, welcome. Sorry about being missing recently.

Where to start… “ahhhh” seems like a good place right now.

Having the kids at home is having a bigger knock on effect this year than last.

Last year, they played quietly. This year they have to be constantly reminded of what indoor voices sound like.

Last year they got on. This year they argue, scream and shout at each other over the smallest things.

Last year I could work happily with them in the background. This year it’s proving to be very stressful.

How many weeks until the schools are open again? We really should have summer camps like they do in the States. I know I’m a slight workaholic. You have to be when you work for yourself. I know I add self induced pressure to the mix. I know I am overdue a nice long break. Right now a Pimms will do!  Oh well, The Better Half finishes up on Friday for the rest of the summer and the full on family fun starts in earnest. Warnings have gone on the shop, just need to add holiday dates as well. (you can still order, but I won’t be popping back to pack them).

Right – creatively I’m been working on secret squirrel projects. Stuff I’d love to share, but can’t.

This is my desk pad. It’s been used for a wee bit of brainstorming. The rest of my desk is full of ink pads and stamps, invoices, pre-orders and stock lists.  I’m not sharing that as it looks like a fax machine has puked up on it. I kid you not, paper mountain, avalanche danger to all who enter. I have three weeks left before we head off on our jollies and I’m wondering how I’ll get it all done. I will though, because I have to. The Better Half will be here to ease the pain and allow me to get on with what needs to be got on with.

Just going to leave you with this picture, taken on my phone before the clouds wondered on. I love the crisp white edge to the clouds… a silver lining perhaps. A good omen.

brand new 7 Dots Studio!

Good morning everyone!

Not a lot of creativity going on, mainly because I’ve been paper stroking….

The first of the new releases we shall be stocking has arrived this morning. 

For your pleasure we have the two new collections from 7 Dots Studio.

  

Both collections have 6 double sided 12x12 papers, 6x6 paper pads, collection kits, die-cut elements and alpha sticker sheets.

Click on the images to be whisked away to shopping pleasure!

Happy Creating

Vicki

questions, questions

this may sound a little odd, but I went blog hopping around my own blog. Could that be considered a hop. No, probably not. A trip down the old posts then.

While I was there, back in 2009 (I didn’t even realise I’d be blogging that long!) I found a post “questions, questions”. It made me wonder if anything had really changed. One way to find out. Answer them again. It’s funny as I was taking a break from trawling through oodles of photo’s.  What’s on my to-do list – yep, trawling through oodles of photo’s.  Maybe life doesn’t change much after all.

The idea is you answer each one with just ONE word. No qualifying your answers… you can do that silently in your head if you wish, but go with your first response.

1. Where is your cell/mobile phone? Desk
2. Your hair? needing
3. Your mother? better
4. Your father? absent
5. Your favourite food? Homemade
6. Your dream last night? busy
7. Your favourite drink? Water
8. Your dream/goal? Less chaos
9. What room are you in? Study
10. Your hobby? Creating
11. Your fear? Loneliness
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? surrounded
13.Where were you last night? Home
14. Something that you aren’t? skinny
15. Muffins? No
16. Wish list item? beach
17. Where did you grow up? Midlands
18. Last thing you did? finances
19. What are you wearing? glasses
20. Your TV? kids
21. Your pet? fluffy
22. Friends? Few
23. Your life? good
24. Your mood? exhausted
25. Missing someone? Yes
26. Vehicle? Car
27. Something you’re not wearing? tutu
28. Your favourite store? Lakeland
29. Your favourite colour? teal
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? tuesday
32. Your best friend? Chris
33. One place that you go to over and over? School
34. One person who emails you regularly? chris
35. Favourite place to eat? Piccolinos

If you answer them and share them on your blog, let me know, the nosey side of me would like to, well, take a nose!

ten minute tuesdays…

hello, and a very late welcome.

Isn’t it sooo good to have the sun out, for more than an hour. Not that I’m much of a sun worshipper….

that’s me… legs out, hiding in the shade of the tree’s on the school playing field waiting for my youngest to be released to me.

It’s a prep week this week. My little boy is growing up and I have a birthday cake to create! He doesn’t know it yet, but so far I’ve purchased a bigger tin to bake it in and this little lot..

All the colours of the rainbow! This time next week I’m sure I’ll be in baking hell.  Next on the list is a cake tin and base big enough to store it.

I’m also working on this weekends flash sale as part of our store’s birthday celebrations. 2 years old. Amazing. If you’re a scrapper, you’re gonna love the next one, but you’ll have to wait until Friday to find out what it is!

It’s the last week of term here next week so there won’t be a ten minute tuesday post from me. With birthdays, end of term Church services, parties, school disco’s and whatnot I won’t have time to do anything other than curse while decorating this cake.  I’ll try and remember to take photo’s if the cake works out and share that with you next time.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Vicki

words that speak to me…

…and I am no exception!

**NEWS FLASH**

 It's our birthday, and we're celebrating! 

All Darkroom Door Unmounted Stamps 

are reduced for this weekend only!

summertime photography scavenger hunt : Item No. 8 “a sign”

…that the little devils are close by….

My son told me to go and see it. Insisted I see it. I am so so glad he did. I laughed my socks off when I saw it. How perfectly apt.  I do have one problem with it though.  I have an overwhelming urge to paint the red triangle back in at the bottom to neaten it up!

Don’t forget to drop by Rinda's blog for all the details if you want to join in with the scavenger hunt.

ten minute tuesday

hello there! 

Summer seems to be coming in fast and the school holidays are a mere three weeks away for us. 

I dread them. 

Not because I don't love my kids, or spending time with them, but. Yeah, but.  I get nothing done while they are home so much. Working for myself becomes very hard and as for time to create, well, yeah, you can almost kiss that one away. 

On the plus side I'm lucky enough to have dearest darling hubby at home with me for the bulk of the school holidays. As a result, this year we have planned oooooodles of days out to keep the kids amused and get them nicely knackered.

 Its a plan.

 That means most of my ten minutes have been spent dreaming up and booking up some great days out. 

It had better work! I couldn't cope with a summer full of grizzles. 

I did manage some more traditional creative time this week, with my art journal. 

Confession....

• I spent about twenty minutes drawing on this... in one go. 
• I've been backwards and forward to laying down the colour for at least an hour at a time. 

So , not strictly ten minutes. More a gathering of ten minute sessions.

You can probably tell I used a page that had gesso on it. Why? It was the next page in my journal and I didn't give it a second thought. I've done the drawings using Pigma Micron pens (here in the shop) and Derwent watercolour pencil (I don't sell them as I you can get them cheaper elsewhere than I can get them!)

I've had a new set of Derwent Coloursoft pencils arrive today so I'm off for a play with them now.

Happy Creating and don't forget to link up if you've joined me this week. Links run until midnight next Monday. 

words that speak to me....

This quote needs to make it into my art journal. 

Sometimes it's hard to accept that I can't do it all, even though deep down I know that.

ten minute tuesday...

Blimey, tuesday again. Already! 

I swear I never agreed to that. 

Sort and sweet this week as not a lot has really gone on here since last week. 

I've been having a short play in my art doodle love book, and completely ignoring the prompts! 

At the moment I want to develop my 'flowers' or should that be my abstract flowers, and art doodle love was close at hand. Calling to me. Maybe it's been feeling a bit abandoned. (yes I know I'm talking about it like its a living creature, but that's ok). 

I'm at the point of sketching them out with a pigma micron pen (love these babies) and my intention this week to take evenings off work and colour them in.  I might go over the outlines with a pen other than black first. Not sure yet. See what happens when I sit down to do it. 

  I had already started to doodle on this page, but it was pant so I doodled over it. As you do!

Well I've shown you mine, you gonna show me yours? 

Being brave and testing/adding out a linky....
Its an experiment as I've never used one before and there are plans afoot!
 I thoroughly expect to be a billy no mates on this, but consider the bullet bitten and a red face later. Hey ho! 

ten minute tuesday....

hello, hello and welcome once again to ten minute tuesday, and a very sunny tuesday it is too! 

Hurrah! 

Do we dare that summer may finally have arrived.  I'm refusing to check the weather forecast for the rest of the week, especially as we had hail followed by glorious sunshine at the weekend. I don't know if I should get my tingers out or not. 

tingers.... toes that think they are fingers. That's what hang off the end of my feet.  I've kept them hidden away from public view for years, but I care not anymore.  Better to display the tingers than have hot feet.  Must be an age thing. Like everything else. 

Right, this week has been super quick and easy. Project Life prep. I still have to order my photos, but I am starting to create some simple 'month' cards. I've used the Studio Calico Clear Months set for this.

Now, I like happy accidents, but these are grid cards, and if I had to get the months lined up. I used some of the Glitz Design washi tape to line up the card with some scrap lined paper. The washi was then just folded over the top as part of the overall design of the card when I'd finished stamping.

I even lined up my stamps on one of the Tim Holtz grid blocks.  Peeling off the month I wanted to highlight, I stamped them in black archival ink (it was close to hand and I have the large pad)

and the missing month was stamped using Adirondack Dye Ink Pad in Citrus

a couple of extra little stamped flourishes and I'm done.  Quick, simple, clean month cards.

Right I'm off to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts, or just make the most of the fact the kids are playing out! Yay, peace and quiet...for a while.

Thanks for stopping by and do please let me know if you join me for short creative bursts. 

taking joy in the details...

a little bit of loveliness in a corner of the garden

ten minute tuesdays

hello and welcome to ten minute tuesdays.  Nice to see you again! 

ten minute tuesdays seem to be the only posts I'm managing at the moment, but for now all decorating has stopped. At least I hope so. Problem is once you start it makes you realise how family worn your house is looking. 

This week my 6 year old daughter asked if she could do a page in my art journal with some of my 'special pencils'.  How could I resist? Well, clearly I couldn't.   I let her draw her picture then showed her how to use my 'special pencils' (inktense) and off she went.  

this page started as an owl holding a heart shaped balloon.

when I came back it was raining and someone was trying to stop the owl from blowing away! 

Too cute! 

then she wanted to so another page.... full of hearts...

I love that these pages now pop up in my art journal. I'm sure there will be more at some point... 

Thanks for joining me today.  Do share what you've been up to! 

ten minute tuesdays...

hello there and welcome to this weeks ten minute tuesday. 

I'm feeling a little bit more focused creatively this week and am finding inspiration in anythimg from pinterest to bed linen. So many creative thoughts running round my head, shame I've been up to my eyeballs in decorating.... again.  I'm really begining to think that 2013 will become known as "The Year We Decorated" 

Part of my creative yearning this week has also come from two books I'm currently 'flick-reading', which in my case means opening at a random page, looking at it, making oooh and ahhh sounds, then working backwards to the front of the book.  No idea why I do this, but this is what I do with 'creative' books, and magazines come to think of it. 

Anyway I witter on... 

The books that are helping my head spin with more ideas....

Brave Intuitive Painting  by Flora Bowley (I love this woman's work). This is my eye candy book if I'm honest, for now. I love to just flick and make more ooooh sounds than normal. 

The second book, which yes, I am reading backwards. No idea, I simply can't explain it, so yes ou may remain with that puzzled look upon your face at the very idea of it. The book is... Acrylic Solutions by Chris Cozen & Julie Prichard.  I will confess to not having heard of, or looked up these ladies, but I will be. Soon. 

If you're interested in mixed media, treat yourself to the latter. It's a cracking little book and has remained by the bed for secret escape from the kids moments during half term. 

Now then, while I have been pondering and decorating I've been popping backwards and forwards to my journal, so here are my short bursts, culminating in a finished page.  The whole thing took me a couple of hours. I hated it at first.  Such is life! 

This one started with image transfers...  a great one for ten minutes! 

 and then paint layers... ooh so frustrating. It was all feeling a bit 'meh' at this point. 

I went pinning for relief from the frustration and it worked. 

more simple flowers... well I'm calling them flowers. Collaged with really old 7Gypsies papers. The basic shapes were drawn with black fluid acrylic.  I didn't want to change my mind! 

Once the gel medium was thoroughly dry I went round the 'flowers' with charcoal and smudged it out, then added some rub on words, a little stamping and doodling and Ta dah!!!!  Finished with a happy face on me (for a change). This page makes my heart sing. Right now I am loving what I'm doing.  Next month I may look and wonder what the feck I was thinking.  Enjoy the moment! 

please do share your creative ten minutes, be it preparation, inspiration or perspiration. 

Until next time I bid you happy creating! 

ten minute tuesday...erm on wednesday.

Good afternoon! 

A little late, but here I am. Sadly I have nothing much to report creatively this week. My time when I've been at my desk has been sorting and cleaning brushes. I am so bad at looking after my stuff.  Brushes sit forever in jars of water. I've been lucky in that so far I haven't totally wrecked them, which is probably why it's a habit I find hard to kick. 

I guess this week has been more about prep. I've purchased some credits (on offer) at Photobox and my next job to start wading through a gazillion photo's to get some ordered. Then maybe I can do more Project Life pages, or even scrap our holiday from two years ago. 

Let be honest, even ten minutes needs some sort of prep before you get results.  Hopefully, even though I'm suffering from halftermitis this week I'll have something to show for all my prep next week. 

Until then... Happy Creating!