New Year, New Start

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm still interested in doing my blog, even though the last post was in March/May - ridiculous how I can't remember even though i looked at it a second ago. Unfortunately I am still without ba digital camera - yes my mom still hasn't got it fixed after it being broken in February. I'm thinking about possibly getting my own but I could only afford a really basic camera - has anyone got any suggestions. I'm not sure that the quality would be worth it. However it would make me independant of other people in that respect. Anyway for the moment i have a few backlog photos that I can show and some pics of what other people have taken of my stuff, which I should be getting up in the next few weeks.

As well as this blog, one of my New Year resolutions is to faithfully do the creative everyday challenge. The blog owner has challenged us all to do something creative everyday (pretty simple huh?) which could be anything from gardening, writing, scribbling, crochet, sewing, cooking and a whole range of other things. We can be inspired by the monthly theme, which is Body this month, or do whatever we want. I think this will make me do something, without it feeling like an onerous task. i am very much a procrasinator even about things I enjoy doing so i hope this will kick my but into gear. If your interested just go and sign up at her blog

Anyway enough of this chitchat and here are a few of my New Years resolutions:
1) Write on this blog at least three times a week
2)Do the Creative Everyday Challenge
3) Talk to someone new, or who I don't normally speak to, everyday.
4)Procrasinate less (stopping entirely would be impossible :D)
5) Appreciate my friends more
6)Keep my side of the street clean before complaining about others
7) SMILE
8)Play the trumpet more
9) Get rid of the things in my life which harm me as an individual
10)Learn to apply make up well :D

Some serious, some not so much but combined they should hopefully bring me to a happier life in 2010. Good Luck!

Everyones free ( to wear sunscreen)

I've been watching inspirational films recently and I wanted to share this with you. Many of you have probably heard this song before - it was made in 1999 so its been kicking round for rather a long time now. I first heard it on BBC radio 1, when it was time for the changing track whcih was/is on Jo Whiley's (?) show. She read aloud a story that someone had sent in and then played the track which these people said epitomised what had happened to them. I don't remember the story that was told but i remember hearing this song very clearly and it really spoke to me.

I love the way the advice is very simple - there is nothing that is hard to understand. I feel that if you took all the advise in that video you would be, if not very happy very content? That said the simplist advice is often the hardest to follow. Can we really forget hurtful comments from others? No - but we can look at them and see them for what they are. Comments that were designed to hurt you from people who have issues themselves and can find no other way to deal with them except be mean to other people. Once we recognize things like that, then we can move on from these comments. We can also see the compliments for their worth as well. Evene if we are told something that blatantly isn't true (or at least to us) we can again see the spirit in which they were given. The person who gave us these comments wanted us to feel good or to be cheered up - the fact that someone cares is more important that the actual compliment.

There is a lot of lovely advice in this vidoe. Its worth listening to and just giving yourself 5 minutes to re think your perspectivew in life. This is definitely a song you should have on your ipod or mp3 (hypocrite!) so you can listen to it when you're a bit down.

Sorry for the long post - I think that maybe i won't just have this blog as craft related - talk to you all soon.

Whats been going on with me....

Sorry guys at having been MIA. I've loads of work to show you but the families only digital camera has been broken and my mums in no hurry to get it fixed.

I've been experimenting with whimsy art, which I love, and I've discovered painting as a medium. I've got lots of work to do but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere. I'd really like to take some art classes but I'm not sure where exactly...I think I'll do a bit of research.

I've also made a few more cards and participated in the Spring Box Swap on nervousness.org I'll share the photos of what I made and what I received when I get my hands on a working camera.

As always I've done tons of blog hopping - as shown with my ever increasing list of bloggies on the right - and I try and comment when I can. Please go and have a look at some of the amazing blogs I've got up there.

Bye for now,
Hannah

Vintage Text ATC swap

Hi all,

I've recently been particpating in a Vintage Text ATC Swap on http://www.nervousness.org/ The host sent all of us a sheet from an old medical book and we were to come up with ATC using these words. Here are my offerings which I'm really pleased about:

I really like this ATC - if you can't read the writing it says 'seized with a sudden sense of anxiety and faintness centered in the heart':D. First I drew the heart with the net like lines in. Then I ahem, traced the picture onto the ATC and coloured it in black (you can find the origional image on The Vintage Moth - link on my blog roll - who puts up images which are in public domain for people to use). I then coloured in the love heart pink and placed the backing text around the rest of the ATC. I edged the cut out words with the pink pen I'd used for the love heart and stuck them on. To finsh off I used some clear 3D gloss to give the loveheart a raised effect.

The second is a bit of a strange one. I didn't really like it but now I do - my opinion is constantly changing.

I had origionally done the background for a ciompletely different ATC background. I wrote on the back of it in a red pen and then used atea bag to give an aged effect- however the pen wasn't dry so the background became reddy-brown instead. However I prefer that so...? I basically drew on the slightly native american looking guy and added the swirls. I finished by adding on the words :D

Last but not least is my fun card:
One of the lovely smirk stamps which I used on some red paper. I painted a black background and then used a gold gel pen to do the stripes. Some Anitas ribbon in the background and hey presto!!!

Could you tell I was rushing to finish this post at the end....I can smell my bacon sarnie cooking away mmm!!! Can anyone guess what medical condition I had on m piece of paper. The clue is probably in the first ATC? Do you like....?

A couple of old cards...

I've actually been working on several cards which I'm really pleased with. However I'd have to go and photograph them and them uploads them etc. etc. and to be honest I'm to darn lazy to do that. So here are a few of my older cards which are lurking on my computer hard drive.

This first one is one I did absolutely ages ago. Its really simple but I think it is quite effective. Its always hard to leave blank space isn't it? I always feel the need to add something more and then sometimes you can just ruin the effect. On the downside I added a bit of glitter to the mulberry paper (isn't mulberry paper brilliant?), which doesn't quite work. Anyway this was made using flower stickers, some mulberry paper and a blank card. If you wanted to know.

This next card isn't one I'm very proud of. I was just saying above that I thought it was hard to leave blank space. But wheras the blank space works on that card, I think I needed a little bit more to this card...ah well...this cards already been used so I can't really change it. Also sorry about the really blurry picture.

On the upside, this sweet dog was made using a decoupage kit. They're really fun and easy to use and the finished effect is really nice :D

Thats all from me today - hopefully I'll have pictures of the cards I made ready sometime soon.

Some ATC...

Here are a few ATC that I made using collage materials provided by an online buddy at http://www.nervousness.org/ I made them on the snowday/craft day but I haven't had much of a chance to blog.

Its not really like me to do much collage but I really enjoyed doing these. Theyre were really fun and easy to make and I think the effect is good. Nothing really stunning but interesting enough. What do you think?

Colour Create Challenge

Is anyone doing the new colour create challenge? You can find it on http://colourcreatechallenge.blogspot.com/ A knew colour scheme will be anounced each sunday and the challenge can be combined with any other challenges you're doing. They will also give an extra ellement which can be included on yur project if you want. Every weel they will also feature a randomly picked guest designer.

This weeks challenge is to use the colours green, pink and brown and the optional element was butterflies. This is the card I made for this challenge:

I stamped the image of the hedgehog on white paper and drew a circle around it. I then drew a slightly larger green circle and an even larger pink circle. I then cut the flower like ridges in the pink card. I then stick all of those elements together to make the card topper.

I was origionally going to just stick this onto the green card but I felt that there was something missing. Therfore I used a pink gel pen to draw a range of 'dotty' circles about the card. To finish off I stuck down the topper (duh) and added the happy birthday.

I'm actually quite pleased with this card. Unfortunately though the white bit got a bit scuffed with some ink from my hand so I can't really use this card. However I like the design so I'll use it again I think.

What do you guys think?