"Lazy, Sunday Afternoon, I've Got No Mind To Worry..."

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Every time I have looked at my blog in the last week and a half I have been reminded of yet another memory from my oh so colourful childhood. The last card I posted was of a young lad in front of a wall with graffiti on it and it reminded me of the time I myself experimented with the urban art of self expressionism.
As I have previously said, my mother had me labelled as 'he who must not be trusted' after daring to slow fry a frozen sausage in front of a three bar heater. As I was never allowed to stay in the house unsupervised as both parents worked (and if I'm honest, even when mother was at home I wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms!) I spent a LOT of time either outdoors or when the weather demanded it, stuck in the only library Redcar had, which in time turned into my favourite place on earth. When you are not welcome in your own home, you look for places where you are welcome and the Library in Redcar became my safe haven. Whilst not exactly welcomed through the doors (the staff were like something from a Dickens novel), nobody ever told you to go home as long as you were reading something and I read everything in that Library, from Enid Blyton right through to Peter Benchley, my reading really matured in that Library and I showed my appreciation to it in a very special way!
When I wasn't inside the Library reading I was outside playing in 'my tree'. It grew right next to the front wall, the wall that faced the main road and the one wall that was on view to absolutely everyone passing, whether by foot or vehicle. My tree was so easy to climb and through the Summer and early Autumn it was covered in enough foliage for you to be quite anonymous should you decide to climb up to the higher limbs, something that the Library staff actively discouraged and something that all boys just had to try, like it was hard-wired into our DNA!
On one particularly chilly, early Winter afternoon, I turned up to tree only to find a full can of black spray paint on the grass. 'How exciting' my 13 year old brain screamed 'what's the harm in having a little play' I thought, after all it washes off with warm soapy water, doesn't it??
My gaming tag (i.e. the name I used whenever I played an arcade game) was Antz (I still have no idea why to this day!) and had I written that I would have walked away scot free but me being the idiot that I was at that age decided to write
ANDREW BRINSLEY!
Yes, I wrote my full name in three feet tall black letters for the entire world to see. Looking back I am surprised I stopped short of writing my home address too!!
Unluckily for me, it took the Library janitor about ten minute to work out just who this master criminal was! He just looked for my Library card and voila! he had my home address and my Mother's work address too. Needless to say, I was severely punished and a valuable lesson about identity was learnt!!

OMG! What must you think of me? It feels like ages since I last posted anything. I have been meaning to do it but I kept forgetting to take my photographs so had nothing to post! But that has all been remedied and here is a new card for you to peruse.

Stuck for something to colour I went for a surf and discovered the rather fantastic DeviantArt, there were loads of amazing images (and sooooo many for free!!!) and all they ask of you is that you credit them and put a link back to their art, so here it is, thank you so much Yampuff for your beautiful images and here's the link to your images (Honey & AnaBelle/UmberellaGirl).

As for the card, well I decided to try and keep it as clean and simple as possible because the image itself was quite large to start with and I really wanted my colouring to be the thing that really drew your attention, colouring these three girls took me a couple of days to make sure that they were the best I could do and for the first time ever I was actually proud of something I had done.

So there it is my lovely, hope you like it.
If you managed to read all that, well done! I will be back soon, have a great week and
take care,
Hugs 'n Stuff,
Andy
xxx

Entered Into: 2 Sister Challenge #158 - Square Cards
A Gem Of A Challenge #94 - Anything with a B (Bird and Birdhouse)
Colour Me Creative Challenge #75 - Anything Goes
Crazy 4 Challenges #200 - C4C200 - Animals
Drunken Stampers Challenge #138 - A Party Planner
Totally Gorjuss Challenge #198 - Bows
My Creative Moments - Wordplay Satuday Challenge - Childhood
Sketch Saturday Challenge #273 - Sketch
A Creative Need Challenge #10 - Lazy Days Of Summer
Card Crafter's Circle Challenge #89 - Bright Colours
Challenges and Candies Challenge #15 - Colours, Smells and Tastes of Summer
Digitally Sweet Challenge #50 - Summertime Colours
Inspire Me Friday's Challenge #117 - Anything Goes
Patti's Creations Design Challenge #74 - Anything Goes (Must ALWAYS Use An Image)
Polkadoodles Challenge week #34 - All Things Bright And Beautiful
QKR Stampede Challenge #53 - Anything Goes
Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #30 - A Summer Theme
Sister Act Card Challenge #21 - Anything Goes

"Hey Kid, Rock and Roll..."

 

...Ooh My Soul"

 

I recently joined The Outlawz Challenge group and made this card for their Alcohol Marker Challenge. Everything is coloured with my beautiful Copics, such great pens for colouring with, their nibs are just perfect for detail work or if you want to add strands of hair etc. I have been buying them steadily on and off for the last two years or so and I still don't have the full range of colours but with time and (small, regular) amounts of money I hope to get them all plus refills, but that will take a heck of a lot longer!

The background of the card is an old MIC one and the young fella is a Kenny K I have had for well over a year now, apart from the small brass rivets and Sizzix letters on top of a Marianne die, that's pretty much it for this creation, minimal for me I suppose!

There's not much else to tell you really, it has been a very quiet week at home. I have decided to go back to work though. I have been waiting for some therapy but it hasn't appeared yet and I am really getting sick of waiting for it, I just have to bite the bullet I suppose and see how things go when I get back there. I did have a panic attack last week when Jo and I went to Let's Create for their grand re-opening but it's the only one in weeks now so I hope those are behind me, if not then I have no idea how I will handle it!

So, hope you are well, the weather isn't too bad at the mo is it? Not high Summer but still not Autumnal so still sleeping with the thin duvet on.

Have a great rest of the week, see you on Sunday,

Hugs 'n Stuff

Andy

x

 Entered In To: Bearly Mine Challenges #99 - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments Challenge - Dies and Punches
Loves Rubber Stamps Challenge 65 - Hair Of A Different Colour
Oldie But A Goodie Challenge -  Boys/Males Cards
Try It On Tuesday Challenge - Let's "Create A Scene"
Artistic Inspirations Challenge #54 - Use Dies Cuts/Punches
Crafty Boots Challenge - Die Cuts
Kaboodle Doodle Challenge #184 - Music and/or the Arts
Marker Pop Bi-Weekly Challenge #28 - Anything Goes
Stamps + Fun = Creativity Challenge #164 - Anything Goes

"Movin' On Up, Movin' On Out, Nothing Can Stop Me..."

 

Second post in one day! What on earth is wrong with me?
As promised, here is my run down on my day out yesterday.

Jo and I went to a lovely little village called Tattershall to see our friends Jo Channon (of Create and Craft fame) and her hubby Mark, re-open their shop (Let's Create) after moving from Coningsby (literally twenty feet away!!!) into bigger premises.
They don't have a web presence just yet but I have put a link (here) to Jo's blog/challenge site, do yourself a favour and go and have a gander!
They had Sheena Douglas there all day, demo-ing Pebeo Fantasy-Fusion paints . They came in boxes of seven colours plus two small tubes of a paint that looked like lead lining with a mega-fine nozzle on it. Sheena was using it to paint over the lines of a stamped image on a glass vase, then filling in the areas with the paint leaving it looking a bit like church windows. I would have bought a set had the price not been (a 'reduced' special) of £35.00. Even with the five pounds off Jo was giving it still seemed a bit pricey.

 

Sheena was also there to demonstrate some of her stamps (available here) and after purchasing a beautiful set of snowflakes, which I saw put to really good use on a stunning card made by one of her design team members. Jo bought this gorgeous little set after watching Sheena demo it on a tag. She used some kind of gel medium brushed onto some sentiment stamps (I missed the name of it but it looked like a slimy white Acrylic paint!). Then she used Distress inks as a water-colour paint to make a light wash over the whole tag, which worked as a resist on the sentiments. After making sure the tag was completely dry (she used her little hairdryer looking heat tool. I have one and it is one of my favourite things ever!) she then darkened the top, bottom and sides with a co-ordinating Distress ink before painting the scene in and heat-setting the tag once more.                      
                            

The three Distress ink pads she used for the whole project were Chipped Sapphire, Forest Green and Shaded Lilac.

She finished the whole thing off using some of the snowflakes (from the set I bought) down the sides of the tag, again using the slimy gel medium and while she had a tiny blob of the gel on her mat she painted the top of the door and the ground white to give it that snowy look.

I thought the whole thing looked stunning when it was finished and it really got me excited to start making some Xmas cards this week. I know it is way too early to even think about but I do love making Christmas cards and at least people might even receive one this year if I pull my finger out and actually make a start now rather than two weeks before the big day!!

 

We were only at the shop for a few hours (we had to leave because my back was in so much pain I could barely stand) but we both had a really lovely time. She had cake and snacks, the atmosphere was really happy and even though I had a panic attack when we arrived, I settled down into a relaxed mood. Jo and Mark both looked really happy which is all you can ask for really.

 In case you don't know what Sheena looks like (and if so, then where on Earth have you been

hiding??), here is a little pic I took and if you look close you can see the cake she was having, after telling us she had started dieting the day before!! She is a really funny lady with a self-deprecating sense of humour and she comes across as really warm and friendly when you meet her.

 

So that was our BIG DAY OUT. It might not sound exciting to you but for people who rarely leave the house these days it was lovely.

Before I leave you again though I must recommend a few movies - The Wolverine is superb, loads of amazing action scenes and a great sneak peak at X-Men//Days of Future Past (out next Summer). The Conjuring is genuinely scary. I love horror movies and this one really got under my skin even though it plays every horror cliché known to man, it just does them so well the film is a modern classic in-waiting. Finally 'Only God Forgives' is another brilliant pairing of Nicholas Winding-Refn and Ryan Gosling in a mixture of comedy and tense thrills all stirred up in a big bag of Oedipal stew (honourable mention to Kristin Scott-Thomas).

 

So I will say ta-ra for now and I will be back again soon with some new cards  for you. Have a great week, hope the weather holds for you!

Take Care,

Hugs 'n Stuff,

Andy

xx

"Da Da, Da Da, Da Da Da...."

You know the rest, sing along!

Just a quick reminder for you that the Kenny K Krafty Krew blog challenge still has a whole week to go, Steampunk is this fortnight's feat of daring do and there are just so many great ways you can interpret this particular challenge, so just go wild and show us what you've got. There have already been some very interesting entries, it really makes me miss being a part of this great team.

 

I have knocked up a quick Birthday for a man card - you know, the one's that are just sooooo hard to do!! That still makes my blood boil, using the fact that we are men to hide your own lack of imagination. The biggest perpetrators of this lie are Create and Craft, but not the company as a whole, just the presenters. It is such a ready-made excuse to flog some load of old tut that we don't really need in the first place. If you are asked to make a male card for a total stranger then I grant you, it could present you with a bit of a challenge but if you know the man in question then it should be no more difficult that making a ladies card (of course this is just my opinion, like it or not I do think this is a valid argument).

This particular card is using one of the Mimic's Creations CD's characters (have you guessed who he is yet??), a few (free) Ben & Jerry's playing cards, Candi, Papermania's Portobello Road paper. ribbon and a very small Spellbinder to make the bullet holes. Overall I am quite happy with the finished project and I really like the image, I just wish the CD had included all the Bond's, now that would have been Cool Brittania!

Hope you like it. I will return later tomorrow with tales of a Saturday spent in the company of one of the UK's finest Crafters but not now, I am tired and ready to call it a day/night.

Take Care,

Hugs 'n Stuff

Andy

xx

Entered Into: 2 Sisters Challenge #155 - Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Anything Goes
One Stop Craft Challenge #237 - Keep It Simple
Card and Scrap Challenge #59 - Anything Goes
Just For Fun Challenge - Anything Goes
Oozak Challenge #19 - Anything Goes (Funny)
Our Creative Corner Challenge - Words Words Words
The Crafter's Café Challenge #22 - Anything Goes
Cards Galore Challenge - Bingo (Birthday, Die Cuts, Ribbon)
Delicious Doodles Challenge #47 - Anything Goes
Digitally 'Sweet' Challenge #47 - Anything Goes