Merci Lesley.

Since not much is happening here on the creative side !! ( my printer is out of ink and I am sticking with this excuse !! ) I thought I would show you something my friend Lesley made me to say thank you.

They are little note cards with a cute little Origami bird on the side . A little too pretty to use I think so I might have to keep them all for me and write myself some letters !!

Thank you Lesley, I loovve home made presents !!

Anne XXX

Creative Scrappers.

Quick post today of a Layout I have made for Creative Scrappers sketch 196. Here is the sketch:



And here is my take:

The story behind this page is how four grown up respectable ladies can turn into four giggly school girls after only two cocktails !! They were both one litre cocktails mind you !!

I have used a lot of stuff that I bought in France. Most of the paper is from Kesi'Art and the cute splash stamps are from a company called Ze[naty]tude. Go and check them out, they have lots of cool stuff at a very reasonable price.

Speak to you soon.
Anne

Weekend in Lille.

What a lovely weekend ! I have just come back from a three day weekend in Lille with three of my anonymous friends. We went there for a scrapbooking show called " Pour l'Amour du Scrap" but really, it was just an excuse for a weekend away !! We had such a great time, delicious food, plenty of cocktails, numerous shopping bags and a little scrapbooking !
The show didn't turn out to be that great. It was pretty small and there was no bargain to be made ! But.. we came across this amazingly talented lady called Tanya Watts who taught us how to use inks to make tags. Tanya is a "ranger educator ", one of these people who hang out with Tim Holtz and call him her buddy ! This woman was an inspiration. She has just recovered from Breast Cancer and has enough energy and enthousiasm to host a show and make it real fun. Our time with her was the highlight of our trip, ( well, the cocktails were pretty good too ! ) and we came out with two little handmade tags to cherish. ( Well, I have got three as Tanya gave me an extra one !! ) ( I know, me !! Not the others !! ) ( in fact it isn't even for me ! It is for a friend, but anyway, I am rambling !! ) ( talking about rambling.. no I won't say anything about Sue who likes to wake up at 6 and tell me everything I would ever want to know, and even the things I never knew I wanted to know !! and still have enough energy to talk through the day ! ) ( now, I have found my match, someone who talks more than me ! ) Anyway, I was talking about the tags so here they are..

First the one made by the Master Tanya Watts:

And then my creations.. taddaddaaa...

These were so much fun to make, I really need to buy some more ink now so I can make some more !!

But anyway, here are a few more pictures about our trip. You will recognise, Aunty Pauline ( not her real name ), Sue, the Newcastle lass, ( that's her real name !! ) and the Techy One ( not her real name but you might have guessed that !! )

 Breakfast Au pain Quotidien

Petit Plaisir

Garlic Snails for dinner !

Cocktail glass nearly empty !

Hard at work

There are hundreds more pictures to share so I can see a mini book coming !!

Thank you ladies for a wonderful weekend. I couldn't have chosen a nicer bunch of girls to go away with and Sue, even if you talk at 6 o'clock, it was a pleasure and a real laugh to share a room with you.

Take care

Anne

Quiet but busy !!

I haven't had a chance to write for a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy !!

Two weeks ago, I was lucky to attend a local crop with some friends and the lovely Lisa. We learnt how to make flowers and Lisa taught us through a page. I haven't quite finished that one yet so I can't show it to you but I also got a chance to start my 12 pictures for 12 hours project. Let me explain.. a couple of weeks ago, my anonymous friends and I decided to journal and record one day of our lives. We first thought we could make a page and it would be nice for the kids to look at it 50 years down the line. Well, a page wasn't going to be quite big enough so I decided to make a mini book. I felt courageous and spent a night misting and distressing, cutting and glueing, splatting gesso and paint all over the place, ( litteraly all over, yes, walls and floors were not spared unfortunately ! ) but I loved the result, my pages looked good and were ready for my journalling. So I spent most of the crop inking time, sticking pictures and masking tape. All I had to do left was write the journal and think of a cover and a way of binding all the pages. And add a bit of sewing.. of course.. !
So here it is...

I like the grunge look, very different from my last mini book which was clean and simple. But if I am honest, it was a little too messy for me ! My fingers are still red a week later !!

Now, back to sewing ! Are you bored of it yet? because I still can't get enough, and it is catching !!

Amelie is also at it now, making skirts for her doll !She is so creative I am not surprise she loves it too. The only problem is her attention span ! She has millions of good ideas but a little like me, she gets bored half way through her project, still, she did a good job ! And she didn't sew her fingers or break the machine !!

And talking about skirts, I know it is still winter but surely it is never too early to make summer skirts so here is one I made earlier !! Yes, another one for Amelie's collection !

And the little bird is an idea I have for Easter decorations...

But it might not be ready for this Easter !!.

I hope that you are enjoying half term. We are loving it. It is just so nice to stay at home and not rush around.

Speak to you soon.

Anne

Once upon a time...

There lived a knight in shiny armour...

and a lovely pretty ballerina...

One day they met...

And fell in love, ( Amelie's version ! )

And he killed her ( Harry's version !! )

Well, you see we have to keep ourselves busy when it is snowing outside !!


Have a lovely week.

Anne

Sooo cute...

Still having fun with my sewing machine !! And my blog isn't called Hobby D'un Jour ( Pass time of a day ) for no reason !! People who know me will confirm that I get bored really quickly and my interest changes from day to day. So at the moment I am mad about sewing. That involves surfing the interest until the early hours of the morning for free patterns, ( any recommendations welcome !! ), dreaming about sewing projects, spending money on sewing material, boring my friends and family with sewing miracles and spending time trying to understand my machine ( I do have a manual but that would be far too simple !! ). So anyway, here is my new achievement !! A pretty skirt for Amelie ! And trust me, this is an achievement. You are talking to the girl who CAN' T SEW, WON'T SEW !! but I am very proud of myself !! I did learn a few lessons on the way...

1. Always read the instructions carefully
2. Always read the instructions carefully
3. Always read the instructions carefully
4. Make sure you won't run out of thread.
5. Make sure you won't run out of bias tape.
6. Make sure you put a lot of time aside ( It might say "quick and Easy " on the box, but is it ever !! )
7. Make sure you have a child who loves everything that you make and is very easily pleased !! (I do !! )

And with this in mind, here is what I made !!

Impressed !! ( that is mainly for my mum and my sister who were starting to despair about my abilities to sew !! )

But enough about sewing and back to scrapbooking. Well, card making. Remember, a few weeks ago I received a lovely card from Cat, well, I feel I had to make her a special card too. She likes everything vintage and antique looking so I came out of my Clean and Simple style to make her a grungy looking card and here is the result..

She has received it and she likes it ( Or so she says !! ) ( mind you she is French so she would probably say if she didn't!! ).

So, off I am to school to teach. Enjoy the rest of the week. I am looking forward to the weekend. we have a crafty day on Saturday with the lovely and talented Lisa teaching us some new techniques. Why don't you come and join us if you are local.

Anne XXX