Finally Finished!

A long time ago, like last October I was handed an envelope full of photos and asked to make a wedding album from it.
The brief was "something unusual"........
and then the fateful words...."there's no hurry"

A word of warning people, you should NEVER tell me there is no hurry, give me a deadline and 99% of the time I will make it , but I am brilliant at putting things off!

The people in the photo are Michael and Miriam, they married in 2005 so obviously they weren't in too much of a hurry to get an album & in my defence I had it made with the exception of the front cover in March, but you know what happened then........

So, they had loads of photos , I made 8 inner pages from black card (it is A4 sized) and bound it with the "stack the deck" system, but I had to modify it to make it strong enough.
Then I made a front and back cover from chipboard, covered it in modpodge and layed tissue paper over the top. This made a lovely crinkled effect. When it dried I sprayed it with Tim Holtz Colorwash in Eggplant, and then made a spray from Luminart Blushing Rose which gave it a lovely pink shimmer ( the colourwash looks a little dull by itself)

I cut the aperture before I sprayed the cover then added the photo - the inside is covered with black card so it all looks tidy. Then I made some paper flowers (which also got sprayed to match) and added some bling, music note paperclips (Miriam is a musician) and a book plate with their wedding date. I used Tim Holtz corners to finish it off and a hitch fastener and black crinkled seam binding as a closure.

I will deliver it today which means 8 years and 4 months after their wedding they will be to show people their wedding photos!!

F xx

Scrapzville class with Create With Kate.

 Hello!
Are you all enjoying the summer? it was absolutely gorgeous last week but today is raining, blowing a gale and i'm debating lighting the stove at 11.50 am!!!
Having said that, its a great day for a bit of crafting. I have lots of projects on the go.... typical of me I can't just work on one thing till its finished! and yesterday I was tempted to take out some knitting. This happens every summer - I have no idea why, its supposed to be a cosy winter kind of thing, but I always get an urge to knit in the summer!(I have yet to see if I can knit after "That Fateful day" it might be a bit tricky!)

Anyhoo, let me tell you what is coming up in the next while.......

First the Tuesday morning 12x12 Layout classes are great fun! such a lovely group of Ladies, there is always room for another one if you want to come along.

Then, on Saturday 29th June I will be at the South Court Hotel in Limerick. We will be making a "Birdcage" mini album - it will look something like this, but i'm having a hard time choosing the paperline (too many pretty ones you see!) so that will be a surprise on the day!

The best bit about the day will be Kates shop" CREATE WITH KATE"  - a treasure trove of crafting goodness!! we are there from 10-5pm and the cost is €30.
You can book a space by emailing Me or Kate.

Then i'm off to Ballinameela School in Waterford on 6th July for a mixed media class, thats a 10-4pm class and the cost is €30. This is a great venue, it has tonnes of space and all you need to bring is an apron and lunch!

There are two more events before the end of July - CHRISTMAS IN JULY which Kate is hosting in Athlone and  the ARDMORE PATTERN FESTIVAL in co. Waterford - I will get back to you with those details as soon as I have them!

Have a luffly weekend,

Byeeeee! x

A very crafty week!!

This week Killarney was graced with crafting royalty.... Karen, Betty and Kate all at the same time!!!

Kate was here for most of the week working hard but the other two "just popped down" (5hour drive!)

We had a great time playing with crafty stuff, chatting, eating delicious Thai food, chatting, I gave them a tour of the Copper Mines, and then we chatted some more!!

 Karen claims she doesn't do "outside" but here is proof that it happened!

 Mr. Toby got in on the fun too.....

 On Thursday night my tiny sitting room was transformed into an Alladins cave - this is only a small amunt of the stock that Kate carries at Create with Kate. People came, shopped, drank tea, ate cake and some even did the class!

It was good fun, i'd love to have all that stock on display all the time - we'd just need to build another extension! I did keep some lovely papers, dies and stamps so there will be a tiny shop at the new classes.

New classes? why yes, as from tomorrow I will be running a regular Tuesday morning class at home. We are going back to 12x12 layouts..... I've been tempted recently to get back to them, so now I will have company doing it! Tomorrows class is full but let me know if you'd like to come any other week - you will get a kit, tea, cake and good company for €10, its on from 11-1pm  (email me for directions)

                 Here is a sneek peek of tomorrows layout - yummy Prima Romance Novel!!

Thats all for now Craftyloos,

Have a good week! xxx

Another Purple House Day!!

I blogged about the first Purple House day here , and now its time for the next one! We hope to make this a bi-monthly occurance - if you have any questions give me a call or send an email.

I'm looking forward to it soooo much!! x

Craftschool was Fab!!!!

So, I dragged my behind out of bed at 5.30 on Saturday morning, packed the car (with just about everything from my craftroom) and had the luxury of Himself driving me to Co. Waterford. He decided to do a bit of exploring around Youghal and Dungarvan so it worked out very well.

There was such a nice bunch of people there, Create with Kate had an enormous shop, Karen Matthews and Betty Cominsky were there ready to alter the cutest little birdhouses, there was knitting, quilting, basket weaving,cake decorating (which was so amazing it was hard to believe it was icing!) Carol Grogan from Crafty Cutting was there, we had very cool Dylusion demos....... (I think my resolve is slipping and it could be a new addiction!! ) and there were lovely ladies who had made hundreds of cakes and kept the refreshments coming all day!!

I had two classes, the first was a mixed media painting. We painted onto wood rather than canvas because its what I prefer - it so much tougher and takes more abuse!! Here is Michelle Bermingham doing her thing, she ended up with a beautiful painting of a birdhouse. It was such a very relaxed class with no rush and we got loads done.

 We had a great big classroom and we spread out all over the place! this venue was so perfect,thank you  Ballinameela National School for letting us loose in there!!

 Later in the day while I was doing the mini album class two more people turned up but they wanted to paint. Since the day was so relaxed and we had so much room it really wasn't a problem, Donal used the same techniques as the others but chose darker colours. That turned into an outer space type scene with die cut metal planets.....

 (for some reason I cant rotate this photo, so turn your head to the left) He decided it wasn't complete without the Tardis - how cool is that?!

Mary used purples, greens and pinks for her background which was finished off with enameled butterflies. I always forget to take proper photos... I really wish I had taken more because they all did such lovely work! 

By the end of the classes Himself was back from his travels, we got some great books at the book sale, were sent home with loads of cakes (Midi's chocolate biscuit cake won't last long!!) and the new Tim Holtz alarm clock to play with. I was quite sorry that I wouldn't be there for the next day.

This event was organised by Midi Walsh, she is a great woman to get things done! It wasn't as well attended as it could have been, probably because it was a bank holiday with fine weather - but next year will be bigger, these things start small and I really hope this becomes an annual event. I am definately going to be there next March...... Midi is already planning it!!!!

Craftschool peeks!

Well, the May bank holiday weekend is sneeking up on us.... this time next week i'll be packing the car for a very early get away Saturday morning!

Here is a piccy of the album we'll be making - it uses lots of mixed media techniques, paper, texture, ink, melting stuff but in a mini album...... and not just any mini album, I had the die for these pages made especially for this class!!!!!

 So, if you want to come along let me know, there is also a mixed media canvas class but I don't have the photos of that up yet (that would just be spoiling you!! - joking!!!!)

Now I must leave my craft room and put on my "Mum" hat, cook dinner and take the boy to his tennis lesson. As its the first meeting of the year I suppose I should at least try to get the ink off my fingers?

Have a spiffy weekend!
xxx

Scrap n Yap

Here is the photo from last Sundays Scrap n Yap in Cork. Some people took kits so this is your sketch to work towards......... or just do your own thing! it's not the greatest photo, I took it thinking I had loads of time to take a better one later and then dropped my bloody phone down the bloody loo!!!!!!!!!!

GRRRRRRRRR..........

So, while that is laying in a bowl of rice in bits (oh please recover phone!!!!) I only have this photo to show you.

If you took a kit and have any questions please email me or phone me

I must say some sincere thank you's to people for Sunday:

To my daughter Molly who has no great love of crafting but now knows how to put kits together!

To Ann Healy for collecting me, driving there and back and the lovely chats all the way.

To Midi (who bends over backwards to make life easy for others) for organising it and all the ladies who came out to play!

I am a great one for leaving things to the last minute, but fortunately I had the most of the layout done before TFD (That Fateful Day!) so i'm glad that for once I was oprganised!