Helloooo! I’m so sorry that I’ve been neglecting things around this neck of the woods in recent times however I have got a bit of time on my hands this week so I thought that I’d swing by and catch up on a few things.

Grab a cup of tea and I’ll begin the waffle …

Firstly, I’m pleased to say, that my absence from actually writing posts has not prevented me from attempting to make things. In fact there has still been plenty of ‘happenings’ and I’ve got a fair few works-in-progress on that go that I hope to crack on with this week and be able to photograph/record/edit/write about and post here soon.

To bring you up to date here is a quick rundown on the rumblings in the junglings.

ATC challenge 

This is still ongoing and I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made so far. Nearly at number #!!!

I’ve got the next batch of 50+ planned (on a to-do list) but I am a little behind on this so hope to catch up soon.

If you need to catch up on the 80+ that are already online, please feel free to visit the Artist Trading Card section of this blog.

Fabric Friday

I didn’t quite make the April deadline for bringing this back but I have a couple of interesting WIPs on the sidelines.

For those of you that follow me on Facebook you probably remember me deliberating over some choices of fabrics a while back. Well, I managed to make the choice and got around to cutting strips, but that was about it.

I am hoping to make this into a table runner for my coffee table using the quilt as you go method – so stay tuned – it WILL be turning up soon.

From that fabric debate I did also come up with a second selection.

With this one I am hoping to table a larger project and do a wall hanging quilt, but listen, at the rate I am going I should invite you back in 2018 !!! Lol. I must sew more!

YouTube Videos

This year I successfully started recording and posting videos to YouTube (link) and, as a result of various requests, am planning and working on props for a batch that will be recorded/edited/released soon.

In the near future I hope to be able to create at least one full length video per fortnight, on top of everything else, but we’ll see how that goes eh? Lol ;)

If you would like to see my channel/videos, or even subscribe to it, the you can find my Youtube Channel here.

Shopping Trips

Shopping for craft NEVER stops. I’ve had a few mini splurges this week (although I REALLY shouldn’t have) and have snaffled some lovely bargains.

From Create and Craft’s Monday Morning Madness show I managed to snaffle a Craftwork Cards kit and some Spellbinders dies at half price. It’s coming to something though when you have to order in a show that you are producing as they would either be sold out or the prices would not be the same – but DON’T TELL ANYONE as I should have been working – it’s our little secret, ok?!!!

To be fair, I should really just get paid in craft supplies as it mostly gets spent on that anyway, lol.

I did also grab some more canvases from The Works recently so that I can do more canvas creations – work has started but at the mo is on hold whilst I figure out what I am actually going to do with them.

Other ‘Stuff’

I’ve actually been taking advantage of the nice weather recently and have been out and about sketching!

The whole experience started with a coffee, obviously. I deliberately packed my pencils and sketch pad though so that I could have an excuse (like I need one) to sit outside a coffee shop for several hours.

Things started out well with lots of construction lines being lightly applied.

Then I moved onto shading with a variety of grades of pencil and a blender pencil.

With the shading I also used various black ink drawing pens to add the line work. I normally wouldn’t but I thought that it added something to the image.

 

I’m proud of it, but I am definitely rusty. I hope to do more while the weather remains good so stay tuned as I will obviously post them on here.

Craft Room Tidy/Clearout

Having over spent in the shopping trips (by a fair bit) I am hoping to have a craft room clear out this week and will be listing goodies over on my ebay account sometime soon in some flash (quick) sales. Do mark me as a fave seller in order to get notifications – you can find me here.

There’s nowt there at the time of publishing this post though, so don’t panic.

Whilst having a clear out I am also getting organised (finally). One of these little spurts gave rise to me printing out labels and a colour chart for my Tim Holtz distress inkpad collection. I did this as I am forever going to the shops and realising that I don’t have a clue which colours I have so end up not buying any for fear of duplicating. At least now I can see which ones I have and which ones I need to complete the collection.

Giveaways

Given the recent (and quite surprising) popularity of my canvas giveaway on Facebook last week I am happy to say that I will be doing more of these in the future. Can’t say what or when, but a little freebie goes a long way so make sure you get updates from this blog in order to be notified of what’s coming up.

Work

Obviously work at Create and Craft is keeping me super busy as usual as it goes from strength to strength.

Having produced more than 10,000 hours of shows, demonstrated on more than 200 and been involved in most of the exciting adventures for the channel in the last 12 years since it launched it can sometimes be hard to find favourites so it’s probably just easier to say that it’s fun that keeps the place fresh and a great place to work.

The shows often involve a certain amount of professionalism as you can see in this picture of Nigel May and Julie Hickey preparing for a recent show, talking about the products to be featured.

However after the serious bit there is then …

Stephanie Weightman with her eye-patches that had me in stitches.

Melanie Heaton pretending that she was being attacked by a Dalek.

Me being a little too excited about a UNICORN MADE OF CAAAAKE!!!

Yes, I said a UNICORN MADE OF CAAAAKE!

My Facebook photo being nabbed and turned into bunting – thank you to whoever made this – it was good to be seen on Birthday dressings :)

It’s all par for the course really.

So, as you can see there’s lots keeping me creative and lots in the pipeline – I just need more time and to MOVE MY BUTT!

Anyway, that’s enough waffle from me … so erm, hello?

Oh, I seem to have cleared the place out by talking too much. Lol!

Anyway, I really should get on but do tell me what you have been up too!

Hugs. 

J x