Olympic Mens Road Race

The Mens Olympic Road Race was doing 9 loops of Box Hill down the road from us today (Hubby cycles there most weekends) so we popped along to see if we could catch a glimpse. Managed to park in a local farmer's field (at a smallish cost) and walked to the course. It was packed either side of the road. The sun was blazing down and we waited in anticipation. Finally they came by and WHOOSH - How Fast!!! My hubby managed to get this great shot of our lads who were really battleing against the odds at the front of the peloton. We managed to get home to see the end on the TV. So we have seen the Queen at the Derby, the Olympic Torch at Wray Common near Redhill and now the Mens Road Race. What a great year!

Internet Problem Update

We have been experiencing our internet line dropping every 10 minutes or so with no service at all last Wednesday. This was first noticed 6-7 weeks ago by our son, who plays on-line games, and occured noticeably when the phone rang! The lack of connection has got progressively worse ever since and we summised that there is some kind of "noise" interference as it is worse in the daytime hours.

After copious phone calls to our ISP (Internet Service Provider) Demon and also our phone line operator (BT). Plus numerous line profile changes and tweeks by Demon, BT have just sent us an e-mail saying they "think" they have fixed our problem.

Not holding breath just yet, but I hope they have sorted it as the Olympics start today.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me comments regarding this and I'll try to catch up with you all soon. BJ

WOYWW #164 - Internet Problems!

Just a quickie between outages on the INTERNET. Had no connection at all yesterday. Anyway, here's my desk last week sometime after I had received a wonderful cyber hug from Dawn I was totally bowled over by all the lovely things she sent me, not least the little handmade book and of course the tag of Sunshine which seems to have done the trick as it has been sunny ever since. Thank You Dawn.

Altered Book - Lesson 14 - ZIPS

Don't fret I haven't missed Lesson 13 of the Altered book Course, it has just been swapped round with lesson 14!  Couldn't wait to put a zip in my book, what fun! Thought a Christmas Stocking revealing the real reason for the season beneath would be just the ticket so I got to work.

I used 5 pages as instructed despite my dwindling number of pages overall, but I thought it was worth it. The patterned card I used I fear was a tad too thick as the opening is rather stiff and the layers keep coming apart (Pritt isn't strong enough I found so have been filling in with my Tacky glue.) Also the red card has split and I think the green will follow suit as the book is used. Perhaps I should not stick folded card across the whole spread and do the pages seperately in future. Again I live and learn on this wonderful Altered Book Course.

Just added some red mulberry paper over the stocking split, that seems to do the trick. BJ

Altered book - Lesson 12 - Folded Pages

Lesson 12 over at Elizabeth's Altered Book Course with a folded page (and a sneaky tag too). Even found some Autumnal magazine pictures for the pages, and labelled them with my new DYMO machine. Thought the Wellie picture quite appropriate for Autumn. I used my Brenda Pinnock paper collection and Tim Holtz tissue tape for the joins. I think the candles look like they are being blown out from turning the folded page - LOL.

WOYWW #163 - Sprayed!

Ah! back to the land of WOYWW and what do we find on my desk this week? First up I bought a Junior DYMO machine from WHSmiths, yes you can still buy the mechanical versions, refills are expensive enough so glad there are no batteries! Then (after the Timmy Tag this month) I bought an all singing, all dancing, anyway up, plumbing air thingy from B&Q. WOW it certainly does what is says on the can! I also cut off a piece of sequin waste to use as a stencil. I only have star ones as I hang my Christmas cards on them. Then the most surprising purchase, CRAFT STAMPER magazine. Those of you who know me will gasp at this as I am NOT a stamper at heart but it was the only magazine with a bit of background, Dylusion style, in it as I couldn't find any art journaling magazines.

Then to PROOVE I have actually tried out my spray booth, a couple of photos of my colourful experience.

And finally a few ATCs.

1) a play with my first sprayed ATC.

2) received from a SWAP

3) about to wing its way to the Philippines.



Summer of Colour #6 - Watermelon Ice

Last week of the Colour of Summer Event over at Twinkle, Twinkle. A HUGE thank you to Kristin for running this event, it has been amazing. The colour prompt for the last week was Watermelon Ice and this is my last butterfly ATC to complete the challenge. Must admit I was running out of differrent small butterfly dies to use so these are week 2's with the Swallowtails cut off - part of the Tim Holtz Movers & Shapers mini butterflies die set.

I then used all 6 ATCs for an AJ page. The butterfly trail leads to the butterfly I was given  by my friend Karen. 

And finally a scrapbook page a did a few years back when my husband took me to Wisley Gardens to see the Butterfly Exhibition. It is just that I happened to do it in Watermelon Ice colours and it was of butterflies that I thought I'd show you all. Pili-pala is Welsh for butterfly!

Thanks to everyone for all the lovely comments over the past 6 weeks. BJ

WOYWW #162 - Distress

Bit late this morning, did a few photos yesterday but didn't quite have time for my post. Happy WOYWW to all.

I made the little bee ATC using all those inks so thought you'd like to see my Cut'n'Dry storage and my Distress Ink shelf.

Also on my desk are 3 jars awaiting appropriate decoration for our family's weekly chocolate allocation as I eat FAR too much!

The butterfly ATC is my week 5 Colour of Summer entry and the tag is Timmy's July tag.

Oh and the diecuts show what you can get out of an Amazon A1 size envelope. The card is "Kraft" colour and very sturdy. There had to be a good reason for saving all my husband's CD envelopes!

Altered Book - Lesson 11 - Pockets

Ahh - Pockets! Just realised why I have been lagging these past few weeks on the Altered Book Course, think it has been the thought of making my own backgrounds. I have absolutely LOADS of patterned papers, as I am essentially a scrapbooker, so I opted for those this lesson and got it done in a jiffy. I haven't done anything more on the ATC tags than you can see here. So any suggestions welcome. Can you guess this is the September part of my seasons book!

Summer of Colour #5 - Wild 'N' Reckless Sherbet

Penultimate week of this fantastic Summer of Colour event. Had a good play with this butterfly ATC. I embossed some card with a TH folder, inked with distress, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers and Shaded Lilac. Added some ribbon scraps, some of my new baby button brads, a few flower gems and a bow of coloured string. I heat embossed some detail onto my Quickutz butterfly diecut and backed it all on co-ordinating card. Just love the vibrant colours of this week's ice cream flavour.

TH #7 - July Tag

OK it only just a week since Tim published his July tag but it has felt like an eternity trying to find the time to have a go. I made quite a few attempts at doing the alcohol ink splats and just had to settle for one as I think I'd have been there all day otherwise. I don't think the air thingy I have is strong enough - any suggestions of which one to get? I used my Tower Bridge stamp and together with the colours it reminded me of the Jubilee Pageant down the Thames, so I just had to add "60" as my number. I made my word banner with metal tape on card and my typewriter again and I added a couple of Tim's mini screw brads in the top corners. The ribbon is one I received with a WOYWW ATC swap a few weeks back. Sorry I can't remember from who now, but it went really well with this theme - Thanks.

WOYWW #161 - Pizza Box & Stash

WOYWW and not much crafting here as I don't seem to have found the time. I did go to The Craft Barn Extravaganza last Saturday, where I met Karen of Tando Crafts and bought some goodies, shown on my desk. I succumbed to my first set of Dylusions Spray Inks (#1), my first Perfect Pearls Mists, and my first Cosmic Shimmer set. Plus the metal working tools in the foreground from Ten Seconds, and various other bits and bobs.

Other items on my desk are "pending" creating! Distress inks and card scraps for the next Summer of Colour ATC. Red,White and Blue alcohol inks for the July Timmy Tag. Cards for July birthdays are stacked in the box and taken from my stash of cards which I have at last just got down to ONE shoebox from TWO.

Oh and the Pizza Box! One of the demonstrators at the weekend suggested using a Pizza Box for spraying safety! I taped card to the sides which I can fold in and therefore close up the Pizza box to store more easily. Not had time to try it out yet as you can see, and I have badminton today too!

Summer of Colour #4 - Strawberry Lemonade Punch

Gosh near disaster with this one!! Just bought a Perfect Pearls Mist and decided to have a go on my latest Summer of Colour Butterfly ATC not realising the patterned paper wasn't that pourous!!! Manged to sort of wipe it off in places, else it would have looked like the butterflies were out in the rain!

The Ice Cream flavour this week was Strawberry Lemonade Punch so I got to use my Spring distress ink "Squeezed Lemonade" (how fitting) and my Summer ink "Picked Raspberries" (close).

Think I need to be a tad more careful with the Mist in future!

Altered Book - Lesson 10 - Places

Another magazine page to finish up my Summer section of my Seasons Altered Book, following Elizabeth's Altered Book Course. Gessoed the pages as before and inked with the other two Summer Distress inks "Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean". Stamped a boarder round the edge again and dotted 3 acetate butterflies with seed bead bodies around.

Only thing I found was that the gesso on this spread undemined the right hand side of the previous PINK page!! making it decidedly whiter, and the boarder stamping less defined. I restamped the boarder (thank goodness for clear stamps!) I had written the flower names and had to re-write the right hand ones too.

Oh well you live and learn which is why I am on a course!!