Altered Book

I had the best time earlier this week when I was introduced to Altered Books at The Artistic Stamper. Of course I knew about Altered Books and I've dabbled with one on my own at home but I've wanted to do a proper class or workshop for years. I'm so lucky because the shop is only about a mile up the road on the same road that I live on now!

4 hours of crafting, playing, altering, laughing and planning the next get-together went by in a flash. Jennie showed us 3 techniques and my head was absolutely buzzing with ideas when I got home (only slightly wet after walking back in the rain!), so much so that I also dreamt about playing with my book all night!
As it's a Bank Holiday weekend here in England I spent all day yesterday finishing Wednesday's 3 pages and playing a little bit more. I tried some Tim Holtz techniques from his "Compendium of Curiosities" books, some more successfully than others as the paper in an older book can be a little bit unpredictable so results can vary!

Anyway, here's what I've done so far - I'm quite pleased with most of it and the first one is my favourite so far:

(This is the first time I've blogged from my I pad so I hope it works!!)

That's all for today as we're off to see our best friends for the afternoon, enjoy the rest of the weekend wherever you are!

Big hugs!

Travelling and Scrapping...

Last week I decided -more or less on the spur of the moment- to visit our youngest son in Oxford. He is coming to the end of his studies (in fact he had his last exam yesterday) and as my OH would be passing through there I would be able to get a lift back home.

I travelled from our home in Kent to Victoria Station in London and then on a bus called The Oxford Tube all the way to Oxford. My OH is a confirmed car driver but I'm quite happy to travel the way I did - as far as I'm concerned there's always something to see and if there isn't there's always something to read!

I spent a lovely afternoon walking round Oxford with my son, as well as fitting in some lunch and coffee. Oxford is such a beautiful place and I can't get enough of all the gorgeous buildings - sadly my son wasn't keen to be in any of my photos!

My OH met up with us in the evening, we all went for dinner and then on to the theater to watch "Pygmalion", which may make us all sound very cultured and posh (which is really not the case!), but No 2 son has been wanting to go to the theater in Oxford for ages, and "Pygmalion" happened to be on - and was very enjoyable and funny.

This week I have managed to squeeze in some scrapping too, I'm definitely getting back to my crafty self and my craft room is also coming along nicely (note to self: take some pictures!).
I went through a phase of experimenting with brighter colours and even some pastels but have come to the conclusion that these are not my thing and that I should stick with what I like, i.e. kraft, slightly darker, distressed, grungy, vintage or retro kind of layouts like the ones in the pictures below. I'm back!!

Scrapbooking again

Having lived here for 5 months now, I finally picked up the courage to book my first class at the local craft shop, The Artistic Stamper, which is run by Jennie, who is the most welcoming person imaginable.

I say "finally picked up the courage" as I am a very introvert person and I find it very difficult to go anywhere on my own! However, everyone at Jennie's shop is extremely friendly and welcoming and I had a great time and lots of laughs, as well as coffee and cakes. Oh, and I made a scrapbook layout too! I booked my next class there and then and also joined the Club, which sounds like great fun.

The class was run by Jane Dean, whose blog and work I have admired for many years so this was the perfect opportunity to make a fresh start. Jane showed us some great tips and tricks and the finished layouts looked great.

Here's mine - as the layout was travel-themed I used a couple of pictures I took in 2011 when we visited Antony Gormley's "Another Place" sculptures on Crosby Beach near Liverpool.

I managed to spill coffee over the page when I added the finishing touches at home because I got glue in my mouth (yes, I know!), reached for a quick gulp of coffee to take away the taste and spilled it on the bottom right corner. Thankfully I managed to clean it up! I also glued the letter E to my top! Needless to say I thought it was safer to put the craft stuff away after that..