Fanciful Twist Mad tea Party and Where bloggers create

If you are stopping by for the Where bloggers create blog party you can take a shortcut to my Creative space posting by clicking here and please do not forget to enter into my blog candy giveaway found on the sidebar or clicking here. I am still working my way through the list and am almost to the d's....I am loving all the wonderful spaces I see and seeing some great ideas. I would also like to thanks all those who have made their way round to visit my space and left such lovely comments. If I have not already gotten to your space I will shortly. Also just as a reminder we have another giveaway on our Sisters blog Scrapping Sisters Sea to Sea so if you have a minute please stop by and enter.

Click here for the Fanciful twist Mad Tea party posting.


Have a wonderful Day. Angela

Creating together.....

If you are stopping by for the Where bloggers create blog party you can take a shortcut to my Creative space posting by clicking here and please do not forget to enter into my blog candy giveaway found on the sidebar or clicking here. I am still working my way through the list and am almost to the d's....I am loving all the wonderful spaces I see and seeing some great ideas. I would also like to thanks all those who have made their way round to visit my space and left such lovely comments. If I have not already gotten to your space I will shortly. Also just as a reminder we have another giveaway on our Sisters blog Scrapping Sisters Sea to Sea so if you have a minute please stop by and enter.

Now onto our update....
Belle and I worked on this Mussie Tussie today for the June challenge over at Our Vintage affair. I really love working together with her and am very lucky to have such a lovely talented little girl to share my time with. To see more pics or read more please go to Belles page. We used the sweet little baby bird picture as our inspiration today. Enjoy and if you would like to leave Belle a little comment she would so love to read them(she is always looking forward to reading comments and kind thoughts) thanks for stopping bye and have a wonderful evening. Angela

A new day....

If you are hear for the Where bloggers create blog party you can take a shortcut to my Creative space posting by clicking here and please do not forget to enter into my blog candy giveaway found on the sidebar or clicking here. I am still working my way through the list and am almost to the d's....I am loving all the wonderful spaces I see and seeing some great ideas. I would also like to thanks all those who have made their way round to visit my space and left such lovely comments. If I have not already gotten to your space I will shortly.

So now to my post, First I want to apologise for my downing post yesterday and say thankyou to all those who posted comforting thoughts. It was very kind. Now onto a new day....Today is a new day filled with birds chiping, sunny skies and maybe some creating inbetween reading posts. So lets head upstairs to the studio and see what we can do...

Of course my trusty companion Sunny is always at my feet.

So I will take a few hours of creative time to work on some of my current projects before jumping back into the blog party(my daughter wants me to wait till she is home from school to continue). Tomorrow or Sunday I will post another "How to" posting for anyone interested. Until then I will leave you with this bit of inspiration that I viewed above my front door this morning.

There are 3 or more baby swallows in there and mama keeps flying back and forth to feed them. I tried to ge a shot of her feeding them but she keeps flying away when she sees me.

Wishing you all a wonderfully creative day. Angela

Today June 24

If you are hear for the Where bloggers create blog party you can hop to my post here and please do not forget to enter into my blog candy giveaway found on the sidebar or here.





WARNING......SAD POSTING


Ok now onto the 24th. Today June 24th is the 8 year anniversary of when I lost my dear Grandmother. My little girl was just 6 months old at the time and I am sad when I think she never got to really know her. I know she knows about her because I always talk about her and tell my daughter the things we did together but she will never hold her in her arms or kiss her forhead as I have done. She will never bake a cake with her or get to tell her she loves her. My gram and I were very close and losing her I not only lost a best friend but I lost a piece of myself too. I have so many wonderful memories of the things we did together. How Gram taught me to read and write and got me in trouble in school for teaching me to write my name in script. I had my sweet 16 at her house and was married from her house. 8 years ago today I said my last goodbye to her as she lay in the hospital after a horrible accident. Her whole life changed in just 1 night by taking a wrong turn out a doorway. She found herself unable to live life as she had. My gram was a very independent woman and watching her father suffer with Rhumetoid Arthritis she always said she would not be dependent on anyone. Eight years ago her wish was granted as we said our goodbyes and she was let go peacefully. I am thankful that we got to say goodbye as many people do not but until today I have not been able to let myself talk about it openly or even lose myself to a good cry. I had a beautiful little baby girl who needed me and I did not want to dampen her happiness in the world by being sad so I truged forward missing that piece of my life in silence.


I often say my daughter was my little miracle helping me through the tough times and pushing me forward. Moving to England I have finally had the time to sit and think long and hard about things. All the time I toughened up not letting the hurt show, or being able to cry....Even when losing my mom a few years later I had to be tough until now. Today I will be selfish and let myself cry and be sad. Just for today while I am here in this house alone I will do that. I was always afraid that when I did get to sit and cry I would not be able to stop.....today I cried ....for the first time in a great while. I cried until there were no more tears and my eyes were blurred but I did stop. Today is both a sad day but it is also a joyful day for I am going through photos and remembering all the good times there were. Yes I miss my gram very very much as well as mom and the others and I will cry and be sad today but tomorrow will bring a new day, a new set of memories and a new smile from my little girl. I will never let my grandmother, mom and others be forgotten. Their memories will live on in us their children, grand children and great grand children. I know my grandmother is watching over me today and will be ok that I am sad because she knows I will be ok and never forget June 24. thank you for listening, I have not been able to talk about this for a long 8 years. I will leave you with some pictures I have found.
The above picture is Gram and Belle on the floor . Inset above is Gram, Pop ad myself at my wedding and a picture of gram and pop at their wedding.

This a picture of my beautiful grandmother Edelweiss Lauxman MacKay on her wedding day.
Thank you to anyone who stops by and I am sorry this is a selfish posting. I will be back to myself tomorrow I promise. Have a good day and blessings to all.

Come on in.....

If you are popping in for the "Where bloggers Create party you can view my creative space post here and don't forget to enter for my blog candy on the side bar.


I am still working my way through the list ( Up to C's now)and will eventually get to see all the blogs....But I had to take a little bread to bake this....Pecan Bananna chocolate cake just in case anyone stopped by this afternoon....


So why don't you grab a cuppa and a slice

and head out to join me on the patio viewing some more creative spaces. It is way too nice out to sit inside and those of you that know England weather know we do not get too many of these beautiful days in a row.

I have found some really great blogs during my visits and will leave you with another one of my favourites....Blue Heron Cottage. There are also many more beautiful blogs to be viewed over at Karens Blog the start place for the Where bloggers Create blog party. Hope I see you there. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by! Angela

Where bloggers create blog party still going....

Well it is a Sunny monday here in England and I am still blog hopping for the Where bloggers create blog party which began on Saturday June 19. Karen has put together this fantastic party and there are hundreds of people participating and posting about their creative spaces. I am sorry to say though that I am only into the b's though. I am taking a bit of time to read through the blogs and postings so it take a bit and I am a little short of time until wednesday.... I have to tell you there are some really amazing creative people out there. If you get some time you should definately check it out over at Karens blog My Desert cottage. If you would like to read the post about my creative space here it is.
I also create a little collage of snippits from my pictures shown below at the end of this post.

I just had to take a break from reading the blogs and post about this wonderful little blog Bella Vista which is part of the blog party. Barb is having this wonderful giveaway ... It is a lovely little teacup and book. Now I love teacups and actually have a little collection that I covet so this is up my alley. so I had to partake in this one and it is so beautiful. I hope you get to visit Barb for her teatime giveaway at Bella Vista.

Ok, Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.... or at least reading and checking out more create spaces at the Where Bloggers Create Blog Party! and with that I say goodnight and will leave you with a snippet collage of my own creative space which you can find out more about here and a heartfelt thank you to all the wondeful people who have left me comments on my post.I am slowly making my way around. Have a wonderful evening and happy blogging. Angela

Where Bloggers Create.....

Well this is my first time partaking in Where Bloggers Create "blog party" where there are hundreds of fantastic creative spaces being shown. If you get a chance pop on over it is well worth the trip. Well this being my first blog party I hope I do this right. I guess first thing we are supposed to do is tell a bit about ourselves so here goes. I am a stay at home mom recently relocated to the English Countryside. I have a wonderful husband who works allot. Recently I began volunteering at the village school 2 or more days a week working with the infants group(4-7 yr olds) and I absolutely love it. I also have a wonderful daughter whom I love sharing my creative time with. We love working on miniatures, cards, ATC's, Sewing, Beading and of course scrapbooking . I am very detail oriented and since moving to England have become very organized(I guess having a bit of extra time helps). I love painting, inking and anything messy and often get dirty looks from my DH when my hands are stained from working on a project. I have only been blogging for just about a year now since moving to England and recently helped my daughter start her blog and she is loving it as much as I do. OK, I think that is enough about me now onto my creative space. ......When we first moved into the house my DH gave us the small office in the downstairs which we quickly outgrew and decided to take over his larger upstairs office. It is more appropriate for me and my daughter and gave us more room to be creative although that is getting a bit tight now too.
Above is a view of my desk from the entry door. My daughter and I sit face to face with our tables so this would be her view.

This is a view from my table to the back of the room and sewing area we have created.

and here we have all our inks, paints, glitter glues, pearls and such on the green cabinet. the storage underneath holds my daughters extra supplies. the white storage in the corner is scrap papers organized by colour. (my ocd kicking in)
Above is a view of our shelves. All the papers are organized by colour and theme, the brackets are all labeled too(My daughter went crazy with the label maker)The ribbons in the middle and end are on shower hooks and again organized by colour.

and some of the stuff organized on the shelves. Lots of embellies, stickers and papers here.

Now to the sewing area.......

Here is a view of the sewing area and our stamp bins in the front of the desk.
Here are a bit of the things I used the most stashed on the sill behind my chair in the above photo. Below shows the other side of the sill containing my beloved prima flowers all sorted into baggies by colour and style. Did I tell you I love primas.......

Below shows are a few photos showing the view from our creative space as well as some creations we have done hanging up as inspiration...
Being on the second floor we overlook the rooftops of neighboring houses in the village and out to the farmlands behind.
The little Bambi picture hanging on the wall is an airbrush I did in school. My grandmother hung it proudly in her bedroom until she passed and it came back to me.
and of course if all else fails there are always the magazines and sketch books.

Below shows our diecut area along with one of our miniature creations in progress, a miniature scrapbook store we are currently working on.

As far as some of my creations....Here are a few recent ones:

Here is a layout I did with my darling.

These are some ATCs I did for a swap.

And this was the present I made my father. The door opens and it has fold outs of photographs of my daughter and father through the years. The quote reads " if nothing ever changed...there would be no butterflies" My daughter loves going to the butterfly museum with my father.

I am also posting a blog candy during the "Where Bloggers Create" event. All you have to do to enter is leave me a little comment with a link to your blog so I can visit. If you become a follower you will get and extra 2 entries into my candy....what would a party be without candy right...You can view my candy and the requirements at the side bar. Well I hope you have enjoyed your visit and thank you for stopping by.........
I will leave you with this photo of a beautiful Rose in our garden this morning as inspiration. Have a wonderful weekend. Angela

How to.... create an envelope mini book.

Ok, after working(volunteering)at school this week I have finally had a bit of time to sit down and create the Mini tutorial on makeing the envelope purse album project I did a bit back. Here goes...

You can do this using any size and style envelope and make it longer. I just did this one with 3 envelopes. the other one I did previous had more.

1. Place tape on envelope cover and adhere to bottom back of next envelope. Do this as many times as desired. I put 3 envelopes together here.

2. Once your envelopes are together add your papers. Cut the inside papers about 1/4 inch (or just slightly shorter) than the envelope width wise and about 1/2 or so top to bottom so your tags or added pocket items will show a bit. Glue these on 2 sides and bottom and add to envelope.

3. For the top or envelope cover trace and cut 2 pieces of card. Adhere one to the inside top. If you wish to add laceor trim to the top this is where it is done. place trim around the top of the cover. Then place top cut out card piece partly over trim and top. Be sure to put a brad through before adhereing.

4. On back your 2nd to last envelope will become the cover for the pocketbook. Cut a piece of card the exact size of this envelope. lay in place and close lid, measure where brad for closure shoud go and place where needed then adhere. You may place a piece of string or twine around the top brad an create a loop. this will loop over the bottom brad to create a closure.

5. Decorate album as desired. Add tags or other items in the pockets of the envelopes.

I hope this is a detailed enough tutorial. If you have any problems or questions please do not hesitate to contact me. I will be working on a few more tutorials over the next few weeks so be sure to check back soon. Have a wonderful Friday. Angela

My Blog Candy

I have this fun pack of goodies available until June 30, 2010. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment for me. If you leave me your blog address you will automatically get another entry and if you become a follower you will get 2 more entries. In the blog candy you will find some fun papers in 12X 12 from Fancy pants designs, 8 1/2 X 11 plain papers for cards or such, Buttons, flowers, Fancy pants diecuts, stickers, lace and ribbons, beads and charms, ink and stamps, clear diecut and overlay, Chipboard shapes, diecut cards, A basic grey precision file set and some misc diecut shapes for summer. I randomly draw a winner July 1. I will also send a small goodie package to mine and my daughters favourite blog so be sure to post me your blog address. Good luck all. Angela

Craft Den Anything Goes challenge #2

Well I guess I should read all the directions on a challenge before hopping into it. I created this first card for the Anything Goes challenge from the Craft Den only to realise when posting it that I did not read all the directions. the challenge was Pearls and lace which I did but I missed the part with the colours Pink and Cream. Silly me..... thats what I get for not paying attention. this card was for a teacher at school any way and I think she is more of a red than pink so it worked out. So after I realised my oops Icreated a second card with the correct colours.

The Roses are really easy to make. You just take lace and stitch it around in a circle pulling in another loop each time for the bottom layer. then the second and third layers you stitch in and out through the middle of the lace and pull tight then pull the smallers layer tight and up through the middle. Reverse the flower and stitch the 2 layers togeher. Then you can add a bit of colour using ink or watered down acrylic paint. For this second card I added pink to it.
For the paper on the challenge card I used Best creation. For the paper on the oops card I used GCD studios paper I got from the Craft Den it is flocked and really nice The lace is from there as well. The pearls are from Kaiser Kraft and the leaves are prima and the stamp sentiment is inkadinkado. Ribbons are from my stash. Hope you enjoy both. thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day. Angela

ATC swap for ATC Swappers and old cards....

Well no time to play today just an hour to work on my ATC's for this months swap over at ATC Swappers. The theme is "Animal Antics" so these are what I made. I went more for the jungle theme. I just love doing the burnt edge technique with the paper. I printed some encyclopedia facts out and tore and inked them. the background of the ATCs are combination of Stormy sky, forest moss and Old paper distress inks. the stamp used is from Tim holtz. The animals are torn from a pattered paper by Karen Foster and inked. I then added Fiber trim a brad charm and gold letter. The letter is actually still the old red CB letters with Foil on top then distressed and inked.

Look what I found.....my first set of ATC cards I ever did years back. I never did them until I took a class with Suze Weinberg from Ranger. we did alot of playing with different mediums. I was very much into Scrapbooking at the time so I was trying to incorporate my photos into the cards.

Tomorrow I will work on the tutorial for the envelope/purse book. Have a good weekend and thank you for the great comments. I love reading them. Angela

Lets Get Shabby Challenge # 12

This months challenge at Lets get Shabby was to use Chipboard, Paint and Lace. I decided to really challenge myself and use just these materials on the layout and I have to say I had so much fun with this one. I got my hands full of paint and played all day long painting, gluing, sewing and this is what I came up with and it is made entirely from Paint, Chipboard and lace....
I also tried to challenge myself to use photos I was having a hard time coming up with ideas for. I loved this photo but kept putting the pile aside and could never fit it into my layouts.

The flowers are all made from lace and some are painted to match the colour of the page. the letters were misc chipboard letters I had and they were red so I painted them white and pink with a brown wash. I quite like how they turned out. I now know what to do with all my old letters. the chipboard swirls above are chipboard cutout from "Creative Covers" I just painted and distressed them. the leaves on the flowers are all cut out from lace and painted with a watered down green paint.

Here is my workspace in the beginning of the project showing just how messy it got. Love my Ranger mat it makes for an easy cleanup. I use multiple of them then I can work on various painting projects at once leaving each aside to dry without having to move everything.

For this project I started off cutting an 11 3/4 X 11 3/4 piece of chipboard from the back of a paper pad. Then Painted it using a mixture of modern red and Blank Canvas Studio paints by Claudine Hellmuth. I then let that dry and made a wash of Espresso dabber paint and water and stamped the background. once that dried I did a white wash over it with a little white paint. Next I placed the lace on the background paper while the white was still damp and went over it with Blond Moments clear Paint base to hold the ribbon in place and let it all dry again. Once dry I added another wash of pink and white mixed from before.

while that was drying I made all the lace flowers and cut the leaves from some lace trim. to make the flowers I just stitched an in and out stitch along a piece of lace and gathered it. For the smaller flowers and roses each petal is cinched and stitched to the center as you spin the flower. I painted the leaves and some flowers with washes made from the same paint as the background and Green miniature paint. I really had so much fun making these and I absolutely love how the background of the layout came out.

Tomorrow I will have to find some time to play with my paints and lace again and see what else I can do. I hope you enjoy my creation and if you are kind enough to leave a comment please pop you blog in so that I may check it out and return the favour. thanks for peeping and have a wonderful night. Angela