Mondays, cats with fiddles and lost sheep!

Here's some entries into CJs I've just finished. First of all is the You're Having A Laugh CJ and the entry this month was "The Truth About Mondays". Gill will be keeping the finished article on her desk at work and it's full of funnies about Mondays. So here's my addition:

The background is a mix of neocolors, inktense blocks and Dylusions stamps

Next is a fab CJ that's now coming to an end called Storybook. This month the CJ was all about Nursery Rhymes. I chose Hey Diddle Diddle and Little Bo Peep for my entries:

I painted the background and made all the characters using my silhouette portrait. I added Dylusions grass and flowers coloured in with Pro-markers and created the writing and background in Craft Artist 2

I found these lovely backgrounds at the Port Sunlight Happy Stampers show and thought they fit this theme well. The characters are all octopodes coloured with pro-markers. I used a craft knife to cut parts of the background so I could put the sheep behind the imagery

As I cross one lot off my to do list, another lot presents itself. The work of a crafter is never done.... thankfully :o) Keep Crafting. Sian xxx

Two Sides

I've just completed a somewhat impulsive entry into Helen's CJ for the Mojobusters 3 group on UKScrappers. It is an Anything Goes art journal and in that spirit, I got out some sprays I wanted to use then went through my stamps and just started creating and 3 - 4 hours later viola!

Here is what turned out to be quite a personal page:

The two Lavinia stamps either side of the page reminded me that there are two sides to me:

"I have two sides - one that is shy that hides beneath the flowers in the shade and is happy there. 

I am careful and gentle and quiet."

"The other side of me rolls down hills and is first on the swings at the park.

I am carefree and impulsive and free"

"Not everyone know this because I don't let many people see"

The last line comes from my very guarded and distrustful nature and is why I added the eyes and beware/skull stamp to show this. I stamped them both on tissue paper and used Mod Podge to attach them. They are both Paperartsy stamps. the foliage and flowers are JOFY.

I hope Helen likes it. I'm already planning my next entry... so much to do! I must...

Keep Crafting! Sian xxx

Dancing and Lighthouses

I've decided to stop hosting the Card Swap on UKS. I've done it for a year and now I feel it's time I passed it over to someone else whilst I get myself sorted and focus on other craft projects I have.

For my last one as soon as I thought of May I thought - Maypoles - so the theme is dancing - as it's a celebration. You could also if you wished use ribbon, as on maypoles, and a rainbow of colours on your card.

I've just been to Happy Stampers show at Port Sunlight and came back with (among other things) some Lavinia stamps and their gorgeous scenescapes. I've also got a lovely sentiment from Darkroom Door that fit the bill. So here are my cards:

I've enjoyed hosting this lovely swap and have received lots of gorgeous cards from lots of lovely people so thank you for having me and I wish the best of luck to whoever takes over :)

Keep Crafting. Sian xxx

EDIT: I looked at the title of this post and realised that I meant to add a piccy of a CJ entry I did for a CJ called 1967. We had to find a news story from 1967, nothing sordid, and create an entry. I was happy find that there was an astronomy related event so here it is:

A Lighthouse in the Sky

The writing says:

The Discovery of the Pulsar!

As a wannabe astronomer I was thrilled to find that 1967 was the year Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered what is known as a pulsar! A what, I hear you ask? 

Well sadly all stars have an expiry date and when huge stars (much bigger than our sun) are on their last legs they undergo a supernova explosion. This means that the star blows up and all of it’s outer layers fly off, leaving behind a beautiful supernova.  (Google for pretty pictures )

What’s left of the star is the core which collapses under gravity so much so that its protons and electrons are pushed together and combine to form neutrons. This gives this type of star it’s name - the Neutron Star.

What has this got to do with Pulsars? Well a pulsar is a neutron star that rotates. And some of these little things rotate so fast it can blow your mind - how does 641 times per SECOND sound to you?! 

Not only do they rotate but they emit powerful beams of light from their magnetic poles (like Earth’s north and south poles) and so when they spin round the light from either pole can be seen intermittently as you would see a lighthouse at sea - but much faster! And that’s how they were discovered by Ms Burnell when she picked up on the constant on and off blinking signal on her radio telescope. She was educated enough to realise it wasn’t aliens sending out morse code as I probably would have thought! :o)

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I've already received the next book in this CJ and it's called numbers... I'm off to have a look :)

Keep Crafting! Sian xxx

Rock Gods

A fabulous swap on UKS run by the lovely and talented Rebecca, we all chose a rock god/band then we were given a swap partner and we had to create a fan pack for them as if they'd joined a fan club. You had to make at least two items and you could buy the rest.

I was given HIM and I was quite pleased. I'm not a fan myself but I'm a fan of Kat Von D and she's a fan so I knew a little about them already and their famous heartagram symbol.

So for the fan pack I included:

Welcome Letter

Handmade minibook

Design printed on t-shirt transfer paper

"Signed" photos

Heartagram badge

Heartagram belt buckle

Heartagram necklace

HIM bag

and here they are:

Here is the Welcome Letter:

The "Signed" photos obviously aren't real. They are internet images that I printed onto photo paper, one of Ville Vallo now and one of him much younger:

This lovely pink and silver belt buckle was courtesy of ebay. It's pretty heavy!

What is a fan pack without a badge?!

This necklace was laser cut to my specifications:

I loved this feminine but cool bag:

This is size A5 and can be transferred to a t-shirt or material using an everyday iron. Simples!

And here's the mini book which took me the longest. I created it on Craft Artist using a purple heartagram design made half transparent as the background for all the pages which are held together with a piece of black card scored every half inch then folded concertina style. The pages are attached to the folds. A technique my lovely mum taught me! (thanks mum!)

The front:

Page 1 is about Ville the lead singer as it without him there would be no HIM...

Page two show a piccy of the band in a gorgeous frame from Craft Artist which I used throughout. It explains how they became HIM, instead of His Infernal Majesty:

Page 4 shows the band's line up present and past:

Page 4 is an old picture of the band showing their sense of humour:

Page 6 is their discography or list of albums to date:

And a darker picture of Ville, looking rather like Johnny Depp I think:

Page 7 talks about the heartagram, the well-known symbol created by Ville on his 20th birthday. Kat Von D has tattoos of it and has used it in her tattoo guns:

Page 8 a large picture of the symbol:

Pages 9 - 12 are all abotu Ville's tattoos as he has a lot and is well known for them:

Finally is a picture with a quote about music...

A picture of the band:

And the back is another fan pic:

So now all that's left is to post it and hope that Jane like it :)

Keep Crafting! Sian xxx

Chunky... and not of the Kit Kat variety!

The Chunky ATC swap has been going for some time on UKScrappers and I've never fancied it.... until I received a mysterious package through the post with a message challenging me to have a go! It turned out that the sender was the lovely Chrissie, host of the Chunky swaps, and so I joined the 7th swap entitled, Seventh Heaven. The theme I got was Vintage Nature/Shabby Chic. I was unsure at first but then remembered my swap partner, Chris, likes Graphic 45.

I'm pleased with it for my first attempt, and I really enjoyed doing it so hope to take part in more from now on! Here's my first chunky that isn't covered in chocolate!

Chris seems happy with it so now I get to sit back and wait for mine :) Keep Crafting. Sian xxx