**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!

a truer word....

 or is it just me...?

ten minute tuesdays

well hello again, welcome and apologies. 

Apologies for not showing up last week.  Events of the week over took me and before I knew it I was elbow deep in small children for my daughters birthday party. I figured I might as well just wait until today to do a catch up post. 

If you are an Instagrammer you'll have seen what I have been getting ten minutes with, but I know not everyone is.  I have to admit to loving it. If you're interested you can find me here. 

I've started a new journal! 

everyone say whoooo... 

I usually work in a Moleskine, but as we sell the Dylusions journal I thought that I really should give one a go. It's a nice big journal, loads of pages, but I am finding that as I use such wet media I need to tape the pages (not a big fan of leakage) and leave things to dry properly before I try and carry on. 

Last time I shared the first page I had started.  Since I've popped lack to it adding layers, stencilling and a little sanding.  I promise that it's all been in ten minute bursts. It just needed more colour. 

I've used two stencils on this one, Tiny Circles and Dashed Lines.
Dashed line was used with a texture paste and then lightly sanded back when I'd finished adding all the layers of paint to it that I wanted.  So there you have it the first page in my new journal.

I have an almost finished double page. 

This one has been a real bob back to page, almost addictive as I've built it up. 

I'm just searching for a phrase to finish it off. I just want some simple stamping to complete it. 

The clouds and raindrops are from some utterly gorgeous tissue paper I picked up in Paperchase, the "flowers" are by my fair hand and coloured with Inktense pencils.

Right, that my round up of ten minutes for the last couple of weeks. Something tells me I may spend more than ten minutes finding that little saying to finish off this page. 

So, have you managed to squeeze ten minutes creative time in recently?  Do share! 

ten minute tuesdays

Welcome to another Tuesday, and what a glorious one it is as well!  

does anyone else feel like we went to bed and it was winter, then woke up to summer? 

hope you had a wonderful sunny bank holiday weekend where ever you are, or just a great weekend if you weren't blessed with either the sun or a bank holiday. 

It's been another funny old week here, with very little time for getting creative. Today's ten minutes is currently sitting drying.  I'm at a bit at a loss, mojo wondering, or wondered off is more like. 

Maybe something will come to me when I next come back to play.. 

...or maybe not! 

no pressure, just the first page in a new journal...LOL. 

How's your mojo this week?  

say hi, leave me a comment and let me come and have a nose around where your ten minutes has taken you. 

tatty bye for now... I'm going to go enjoy the sun for ten minute!

Magda has Candy!

In case you're not sure, Magda is one of our very talented design team members for the store,

 and she has candy on her new jewellery studio blog. 

Go take a peek! 

the whole box...