Bitesized Bits Of Inspired Bliss

Greetings From China

2009-05-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

Arrived safe and sound in Changsha. It's actually Thursday here now but the blog seems to still work on British time.

I had a good but tiring journey and I certainly stood out from the local crowd on the internal flight from Shanghai!

The hotel is very grand and David seems quite at home with all the staff running around after him. He seems to be quite a VIP after being here so long. I even had special flowers (see above) for my arrival. I told him not to get too used to being waited on hand and foot!

The view from our room is more 'real China' with the fishermen working on the river below and a background scenery of high rise and new development. All behind the highly landscaped hotel grounds. Chalk and cheese!

Last night we took a post-dinner stroll by the river to listen to the frog chorus. It was amazing... there must have been hundreds of them out there, singing away!

There are fireworks going off outside at the moment (and it's broad daylight at 10.30 in the morning!) David says they go off all day and everyday.

Well, today we are chilling/re-adjusting and sorting out a few things for our onward trip, then tomorrow morning we're catching an early flight to Chengdu for the first real stage of our trip and the Pandas!

Changsha signing out...
Ness and David x

It's been a long time...

2009-04-28T04:14:00.000-07:00

... but thought I should resurrect my blogging due to my impending trip to China. I am planning to keep an online diary of my adventures, so if you are interested - keep watching!

Life is busy, pre-China, with a couple of retreats including the ScrapaJack retreat in Bromsgrove in May. Here are some sneak peeks of the a few of the classes I am teaching:

I have also been very busy making jewellery.

Here is some of my latest offerings which are for sale on http://www.brightshineythings.co.uk/

Another peek!

2008-09-30T05:57:00.001-07:00

Here is another sneaky peek for the Solent Scrappers.

And another peek!

2008-09-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

Another Peak for Solent Scrappers

2008-09-25T01:47:00.000-07:00

As promised, the second of the sneaky peaks for the Scrap Mad Day at Solent Scrappers in October.

Another tomorrow!

Scrap May Day At Solent Scrappers

2008-09-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the first sneaky peak for the Scrap Mad Day at Solent Scrappers.

Another one tomorrow!

Time Flies...

2008-08-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that its nearly the end of August already. Don't you wish you could slow it all down a bit?

Summer 2008 is almost over and all we seem to have had is rain! Thank goodness for the wonderful Great Britain Olympics team, who have bought some sunshine into a dull and dreary month for the rest of us. Just four years until it all comes to London. Let the countdown begin!

This has inspired me to make this calendar project for a class I'm teaching next week. Here's the finished article.

The doodling frenzy continues...

2008-08-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

Not quite sure why, but I'm definitely suffering with doodle-mania at the moment. And I'm feeling pretty pleased with the results.

I've managed lots of new first time doodlings like this cute owl and robin and have been combining them with paper piecing. It just proves you don't need stamps (even if you still want them!) and the best thing is, all you need is paper scraps, pens, some good little scissors, glue and a bit of imagination. So it's cheap too!

Feeling Young At 41!

2008-08-13T04:52:00.000-07:00

Having lost over 2 1/2 stone this last year, I celebrated in May with a surfing weekend with my girlfriends, Anne and Lynne in North Devon. One of my major inspirations for loosing weight was to get back into my wetsuit, which I hadn't worn in a good few years. I managed it and we had such a fabulous time boogie boarding on woolacombe beach in the sun, feeling so young and free (although it did catch up with me the next day, when I ached from head to toe!)

I had to capture all this on a layout and the hidden journaling says: "ok... so more like 41 but we felt like 25 riding the saves in the sun!"

Painted Glamour

2008-08-13T04:46:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely afternoon last week doing a mica demo for Simply Craft in Cardiff.

Throughout the demo I used mica in powder, flake and tile form and using it as watercolour stamping medium went down particularly well with my appreciative audience.

By mixing the powders with water and Gum Arabic, you get a wonderful paint that can be stamped, splodged, spritzed and brushed to create wonderful effects, like these cards on the left. The mica adds such a wonderful gleam.

We also had a bit of a laugh as I sprayed webbing paint around!

Round Robin Results

2008-08-01T03:26:00.000-07:00

In our Altered Art session this week, we tried Collaborative Indie Art - as suggested as a workshop session by Leandra from Paper Artsy.

Everyone in the group picked an item and started to decorate the base. We then passed that item around to each member of the group to add the next layer of decoration to it. Each person finished with their original item to take home.

It was great fun seeing how the different personalities interpreted the original ideas and it was challanging trying to decide how to take each piece on at each stage, as it had been started by someone else. However, we were all thrilled with the results which I felt all captured the spirit of the original people who started the project, although they hadn't seen it since the first layer of paint went on!

You can see close-ups of all the projects in the Customer Gallery at www.inspiredbliss.co.uk

Doodle Alley!

2008-07-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't doodled much lately, but today reawkened my doodling soul with a session for layout for a class next week. It was great fun. And isn't doodling calming? Love it! Here's the results...

What It's All About To Me

2008-07-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

When looking in magazines, I often feel that scrapbooking has lost its way a little and that it seems to be more about the fancy layout than the photos on the layout and story behind them. I also think that many people are very stuck on scrapbooking the present, while there is so much joy to be found in the past, when scrapbooking.

The Family Century Club I have been running this year, has really redressed the balance of this for me, as its really made each of us think more about each decade we have lived and what was going on in our lives and the lives of our family.

The last couple of months, has moved into unknown territory for me. I was born in 1967, so personally don't have any memories of the 1950s or the 1940s (or many of the 1960s) but this has meant, asking family members for information on old photos and, the best thing is, suddenly I'm finding out the real stories behind the photos! I have uncovered almost forgotten memories of personal achivements, tragedy and humour and am using these as the basis for my story telling. It's has been a wonderful journey and I hope to discover more as we go further back in time.

Here is the layout we did for 1940s. I have based the theme of the layout around the war as although it finished half way through the 1940s, its effects went on for most of the decade. I have included stories of my parents lives as children in the war. My father lived in Balham, South London and gives humorous and detailed accounts of the bombings, that could only be seen through a child's eyes. My mother was evacuated at the age of 5 - taken from her mother to the other end of the country - and I include her adjustment to her new life and adventures in a strange new world.

Dancing Round The Handbag!

2008-06-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

After making our art dolls in workshop this week, we were lining them up for a photo, when Anne put her handbag down in the middle of them, so they could have a dance! They looked so funny!

The dolls were great fun to do and everyone turned out great but I had to share one particular one made by the talented Gaye Guerin. Here she is:

Flower Power!

2008-06-21T13:07:00.001-07:00

With it raining outside today, I decided to bring the garden indoors and create these adorable little bead flowers.

They have been made specifically for a bead jewellery class that I'm teaching next week, but I also think they would look gorgeous on a scrapbooking layout.

Mini Me!

2008-06-19T06:19:00.000-07:00

Call it mid-summer mad-ness, but I've just created this mini version of me from a wooden artist model for a class I am teaching next week.

'She' involved sewing, stamping and papercrafting.

I really enjoyed creating "Mini-Ness" and am now planning to make a few friends for her now, so she doesn't get too lonely!

Another Advance Sneak Peek

2008-06-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a second sneeky peak of the Scrap Mad day, I am teaching on 28th June in Caerphilly.

Full details will be sent to all attendees in the next couple of days, so that you can get sorting your photos out!

Sling On Summer!

2008-06-16T03:25:00.000-07:00

Arn't the colours in these necklaces gorgeous... I see blue sky, turquoise sea and golden sand!

I've been working frantically on making some jewellery for a summer house party next week and have produced a whole collection of these easy to wear necklaces.

I call them 'Summer Slings' because you just sling them on - no fiddly catches to worry about! They are quite long, so perfect for dressing up a tee or over a scoop neck.

The best thing is that I get to use some of my stunning larger beads for them including some of the Murano Glass beads I brought back from Venice last year.

Wearing My Art On My Sleeve

2008-06-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

I have just finished this collage project and have really enjoyed doing it.

I bought the wooden artist's hand in a bargain sale last week for next to nothing and was desparate to turn the hard wooden item into something softer and more cosey. I hope I've managed to achieve that.

My theme for the piece was 'Wearing My 'Art On My Sleeve', so I decided to bring in handsewing, fabric, some tape measure printed twill etc.

By keeping the colours muted with soft creams and worn colours, I think it achieves the vintage style I wanted to create.

It was too tempting not too put something in the open hand so I choose a bird, which I think adds a bit a interest to balance the collage on the arm and sleeve.

Belated Spring Clean

2008-06-15T03:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a belated spring clean of my craft room. I'm still trying to off load stock from my former shop and had the chance of a table at a craft table top sale in Cardiff (thanks Erica!).

When I got back, rather than just put all the stuff I hadn't sold back in the room, I decided to have a good old sort out! I love spring cleaning... it does have a sort of cleansing effect and now I want to do every cupboard in the house!

The result is I now have lots of empty stackable paper trays. If anyone out there is interested in buying some from me (see piccie), please e-mail me for info.

Scrap Mad Peak

2008-06-09T04:50:00.001-07:00

Here is the first sneaky peak of one of the layouts for a Scrap Mad Day I am organising at the end of June. For full information on the Scrap Mad Day, please visit http://www.inspiredbliss.co.uk/.

Remember The Good Times

2008-06-09T04:39:00.000-07:00

What I love about scrapbook-ing, is that as you create a layout, all the memories of the moment in the photo come flooding back to you and then you can record them to capture the moment forever.

The photo on this layout was taken in May during a 'pitstop picnic' while sightseeing in Barcelona. It was such a lovely day. We went up to Fort Montjuic by cable car, walked around the hill and the fort on top and then found a lovely little courtyard to have our picnic lunch, with only the birds and a view of the sea, to keep us company. Sometimes the simpliest moments are the best memories!

Strawberry Inspiration!

2008-06-06T02:39:00.000-07:00

I've been making some cards for a class I'm teaching at Simply Craft in Cardiff next week. With mid-summer and Wimbledon in a couple of weeks, the colours are inspired by strawberries and cream! They look so zingy.

Old Fashion Romance

2008-06-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

I've just finished this layout for a class I am teaching for Chepstow Pink Scrappers in July.

I adore this photo of my Mum and Dad when they were courting in the early 1950s. They look so happy and in love.

Hollywood Glamour

2008-05-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

Today I designed a layout for our next Family Century session.

A combination of scrapbooking and family history, each month is a new decade, and this month we get to the 1950s.

As I wasn't around then, my vision of it is mostly through film. I love old black and white 'movies', especially the big romances like 'Strangers On A Train' and the big musicals like 'Singing In the Rain'.

This seems appropriate, as the 50s were the decade when my parents courted, married and started their family, so there was lots of glamour, romance and drama in their lives. So my layout is inspired by the golden age of Hollywood and particularly a Hollywood inspired dress that my mum is wearing in one of the pictures. Here is a sneak peak.

The Fish Story

2008-05-20T04:21:00.000-07:00

Today I have been finishing off a class project for my Altered Art group. This month we are altering a wooden flower trug into a sea/beach inspired assemblage. The group will start their project by picking a proverb and then some words of their choice that the proverb inspires in them. Then they will build up the assemblage using a variety of materials and techniques to create a creation that goes with their inspiration.

I picked the quote "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat forever". It's a Chinese poverb and I think it totally sums up my feelings behind teaching and inspiring others to create. I hope that those I have taught and inspired feel that I have opened their eyes to a new world that will enrich them for many years. I based it around the sea/beach, because I think it is one of the most inspiring environments. What a journey a piece of drift wood or a battered shell must have had before it lands on the shore. Just like our own creative journey.

New Beginnings

2008-05-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

Today, I thought I'd start a new blog as a way of keeping new and old friends up to date with my busy creative life. I hope you enjoy the read and get a little inspired along the way.

My birthday month of May has been a busy month with lots of work and a little less time to play, but here are a few things I have been up to.

The first weekend in May was the weekend I took a small but fabulous group of ladies to West Wales for our first scrapbooking retreat. It wasn't exactly the first for many of us, but it was the first I had organised. We stayed literally in the middle of nowhere in a converted barn - it really was a retreat away from it all!

It was a fabulous weekend with lots of laughter, creativity and relaxation. The girls managed to complete loads of projects (they put me to shame!) Hopefully it's the start of many more, as they are all asking for repeat in the autumn. Watch this space for further details!

I had barely had enough time to get my washing done, when I was off again for my second retreat of the month.

This time I was teaching at the first Scrapajack/Homegrown Retreat in Stratford Upon Avon. I taught 7 classes over three days in the baking heat (why is it always lovely when you are indoors for three days?) We turned bird feeders into fairy houses, leatherette sheets into potato bead bags, made jewellery, assemblage, scrapbook layouts and mini books. Although it was hard work, I thoroughly enjoyed myself meeting and teaching lots of new faces. The response to the classes was fantastic and I have been asked back to do another selection of classes to the next retreat in October.

Since returning, I have been busy catching up with my own local classes back home. Last week was jewellery, scrapbooking and cards. This week is scrapbooking, altered art and cardmaking.

I have done a layout with a lovely photo of Anne from the West Wales retreat. We held a photo session so that we could get plenty of photos of each other to remember the weekend and I have used this photo for a scrapbook class layout for this week.