RIBBON STORAGE IDEA

Copyright Funky Junky

I saw this on Spunky Junky blog - and like all good ideas, the simplest is the best!This was definitely a 'Duh!' moment, as in 'Why didn't I think of that myself?'

Copyright Funky Junky

Grab yourself a couple of dowels (sticks from a garden centre? old [clean] chopsticks? unwanted knitting needles?) and go make your own.

NOW all we need is some way of stacking the containers elegantly so they look good in our crafting spaces, and also so they don't fall over....

PINK SATURDAY - MY FIRST RELIGIOUS MAKEOVER

I've not been able to participate in the Pink Saturday meme for a few weeks, due to an unco-operative and not-very-well computer - so I'm thrilled to be able to join in this week, and also to show you some new artwork.

 This week has been a wonderful experience - my first religous blog makeover: a set of three separate blogs, all interlinking, to act as a website. I was given totally free reign and based my theme on Mediaeval artwork - to my mind, the best examples of their kine. Each painting was not only a religious experience on the part of the artist, but also the embodiment of their own personal beliefs. And truly beautiful.

It's been a lot of work, putting in all the bells & whistles: post dividers, signatures, Older, Newer and Home buttons, numbered comments - all that stuff - but SO worth it.

I am quietly very pleased, and do hope you like it too!




Don’t forget to visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to see all the wonderful Easter time Pink Saturday posts!

MY LATEST BLOG MAKEOVERS - BIKER SITES!!!!

Welcome to SkullBay and SNR Art Corner! I was totally thrilled to be commissioned to do two blog makeovers - for BIKER sites! And even more thrilled that Steve, Mr Skull N Roses himself (below) is really pleased with them.

Copyright BJL and Mr Skull N Roses

SkullBay and SNR Art Corner are add-ons to Mr Skull N Roses' main site, Biker Jewelry Info.

SkullBay is going to operate a little like eBay - but for biker jewellery, heavy metal designs, Goth etc. It's going to be a very exciting site!

SNR Art Corner is going to be a site showing art - jewellery design, paintings, fantasy art, digital art etc - so you may want to submit some of your work for display. The original painting I used for the background (with his permission) is by Dmitri Mitsuk.




I've also done buttons and blinkies (I bet this is the first biker blinkie ever!) and generally had a wonderful time with it all.

Anyone looking for a blog makeover with a difference? Contact me (email button in sidebar) or go to my Esty shop  to check out the packages I offer. Want freebies or to do it yourself? Check out my Blogology site (link under the header).

ALTERED BOOK ARTICLE IN CRAFT STAMPER JULY 2011 - BRAG TIME

Pix copyright Craft Stamper Magazine, artwork copyright Susie Jefferson

Just a quick note for you all - I'm in July's edition of Craft Stamper Magazine - I was too late with my Altered Book submission, but am in the Web Extra section - and they've published the article as a downloadable pdf if anyone is interested!

Here are some of my own pix, so you can see the details better:

With the extended page (on the left) closed

Closeup detail, showing the lace at the edge

And now with the extended page open:

With the extended page (on the left) open

Closeup of the extended page and pockets with tags inserted

Closeup of the slide mount detail on the right-hand page

I got a mention inside the front cover, and they've done a lovely job with the photography in the article. Nice, huh?

I'm quite excited about it - it's a new idea that Katy Fox (Editor) is trying out - more eye candy in the magazine, instructions on the web.So more room for photos, and photos are bigger too!

Here's the link again for the downloadable pdf tutorial.

'NORMAL' SERVICE HAS BEEN RESUMED

I'm so happy!

Copyright-free image from Art Freebies

It's been a traumatic time - but my poorly computer is all better again!

You wouldn't believe what's been going on. Last post, I mentioned I took the computer into Currys to see if I could get any help. Well, I did!

Currys' new thing is to repair in-branch wherever possible, so I (for once) was in the right place at the right time. Their Go-To person (female) was very patient, listened to the whole sorry tale then phoned up their IT personnel - who advised I bring the machine in so they could verify the hard drive was the one they supplied. Which they did - and yes, my machine was already obsolete at that time so I had indeed been given a reconditioned, reformatted Windows 98 one.

See this? Only 29.3gb, plus an A Drive that doesn't actually exist

My helpful uber-geek person at the place in Brenford had hit the 'return to factory settings' button - whisking my hard drive back into the distant past (Windows 98 was the one before Windows ME, which is the one before Windows XP) hence the miniscule hard drive, and the resulting problem of the Windows XP reboot discs being rendered unable to be read by the machine.

Herewith 2nd call to the Currys IT personnel by the wonderfully helpful lady at Currys - who handed the phone over to me so I could explain more clearly. The IT person then instructed the helpful Go-To Girl in what to do, and voila, my machine is now in a GO situation again! Hurrah!

There's the little sucker - hiding on the right! So now I have Drives A, C, D, E and F... shouldn't there be a B somewhere, to complete the set?

By now, of course, you are slavering at the bit to find out what the magic solution was. How did it get fixed when I only had  a 29.3gb hard drive? Because the bloody thing had partitioned itself... in a secret partition which even the Go-To Girl didn't know existed! And there it was: 203 un-allocated gb just waiting to be told what to do! So G-T G named the partition, formatted it... and I am now the proud possessor of a C Drive, an F Drive, two drives for CDs and DVDs - and the mysterious floppy disc A Drive, for which I don't even have a drawer.... Isn't Technology wonderful?

Suffice to say, I'll be getting back to posting about the artwork soon.

TOTAL DISASTER HAS STRUCK

Are they kidding???? Who can cope with this amount of hard drive?

Firstly, thanks to all for your good wishes - both by comment and email. Very comforting and very much appreciated.

NOW...the state of play:

I got the computer back yesterday (the nice IT man at our local internet cafe had a go) and I am sorry to say that, although he got it working again, it is not the machine it was. NO complaints at all regarding his work - it turns out the 'new' hard drive I was sent two years ago (when the hard drive was destroyed by a trojan) isn't actually the hard drive I was told it was.

My Packard Bell machine originally had over 200 gb hard drive, 2 gb memory (which I have beefed up to 3gb although it's not showing) but the hard drive they sent me was reconditioned - and having rebooted using Packard Bell's own discs several times, which has stripped out the formatting, I have found:

• It's a Windows 98 (my computer is Windows XP Home) but I was told I was getting a new hard drive
• Suddenly an A drive has appeared for a floppy disc (there isn't a floppy disc drawer on the machine!)
• I have only 29mb hard drive, of which only 13mb is usuable!

Only the barest essentials - I had only just started to reload programmes.

I can hardly load anything, as you can see - you wouldn't believe what I had on there before... So what chance do I have working with my blog backgrounds etc? Huh?

Although my extended 5-year warranty (nearly £200) has run out, in the interest of public relations, the kind lady at Curries has asked me to bring the machine in for them to check it out.

I may swing it on the fact it was under guarantee when this hard drive was sent, so they may decide to do something for me - but I'm not holding my breath. I'm totally devastated, and who knows when I'll get the machine back - so you won't see any posts unless I do it from the internet cafe (which means no pix, sorry).

And if they won't do anything for me out of kindness, I wonder what anyone CAN do - and how much it's going to cost! I think it's going to have to be a case of save hard for a new one. Sob!