Dustology...

Not managing to do much crafting at present as we're in the middle of a building site. This is how my dining room looked a few days ago. The builders have done even more since I took this pic, the chimney breast has been removed and all the steelwork is in and welded. We have filled 4 skips already with all the rubble!
The two rooms are being knocked into one, a small extension has been built, and the bay window and interior walls removed. Eventually I'm having a swanky new kitchen, crafting/study area and living space. But at the mo, there's just a heck of a lot of dirt and dust about. No point cleaning up yet though.

It's uncovered a few problems we weren't aware of (which always happens doesn't it?) and its lucky that we found them now, otherwise we would have had some very major problems in the future.

This was my crafting space so most of the crafting paraphernalia has had to be packed away. :(

But I managed to make this card before it all started. The stamp set is designed by Francoise Read and made by Woodware. I've met the lovely Francoise a couple of times and she is a Copic fan, too.
Paper is Basic Grey, from the Two Scoops line. I like the punched border with the pearls, it makes me think of lacy cafe curtains.

My Magnolia Stamp Club stamps finally arrived, but I'm not sure when I'll have the opportunity to use Robin Hood and Maid Marion, still less the Tilda that looks like Snow White!!! Really dont know how I feel about them, LOL.

TTFN!

by the light of the silvery owl..

A very quick post to show the PMC owl pendant I made - apologies for the poor pic. This sits very nicely in the hollow of my throat and I luv him! I used my fave Hero Arts owl stamp in the silver clay, and finished by burnishing the owl to get him shiny and left the background in brushed silver. I'm typing this with very cold hands. Honestly, it's warmer outside than it is in our house at prsesent because of the building work going on. Still no pain, no gain.

TTFN!

long time, no see

I'm sorry its been so long since I posted, but I needed a break, I was putting too much pressure on myself and something (which obviously was blogging) had to give.

I've been super busy and got published again in Creative Cardmaking (Summer Special) last month with this card.

So I'm back in the virtual world. We returned from our holiday in Florida (fab) and then I found my camera has broken (not fab). So any photos I post from here on will probably be poor quality because I'm taking the photos with my iPhone. Which, for all that I love it, hasn't got good picture-taking abilities.

I dabbled in a bit of jewellery making with the PMC silver clay, and I'm quite proud of what I've made. The 'piece de resistance' was this bracelet.

I made moulds from 'love heart' sweets and then pressed discs of silver clay into the moulds. I now wish I'd made them double sided though, but I would have used up a lot of my stock of (expensive) silver clay. I then ate all the rest of the sweeties. LOL.

I used a cutter to make the mini hearts and added swarovskis to finish it and add the essential sparkle. This is not a cheap option for making your own jewellery though!

I was lucky enough to attend a class with Sheena Douglass, who is every bit as entertaining IRL as she is on the telly. We made one of her fab grungeboard cuff bracelets and dabbled with distress inks. Excellent day out!

Yesterday I went to 'Flame Off' with my friend Lisa. Our friend Julie ought to have come too, but she is stuck in Tenerife at present. This was a complete change for me, it was all about making lampwork beads. Even got to have a go at making a glass bead in the flame, but then forgot to collect it once it had cooled down. Duh! If you want to know more, search for 'lampworking' on YouTube. Fascinating to watch people who know what they are doing with it, but I'm resisting the urge to buy the starter kit. I'll just stick to buying the beads I think!

I've got my eye on a set of these beads for my charm necklace/bracelet. Swoon! Just can't decide which colourway - I like them all... Bought a lovely necklace at the show and some matching beads to make earrings, I'll show you that in another post. I bought quite a few charms to add to cards, too.

I'll just leave you with this to finish off. My eldest turned 14 back in February, tricky to come up with a suitable design for a teen boy, but he seemed to like it!

Future posting may be somewhat random, as we're in the middle of building a extension and all my crafting stuff has had to be organised/put away for now. But I'll be back soon, TTFN!

a hint of spring

The snow around here is melted (hurray!!) and apart from the wind being very cold, the weather is really quite bearable. Hope that the meltdown is well under way wherever you are, too.

So I think we all need to look forward to the promise of spring. Here's a card to help us along!

I've used 'Daisy' by Sugar Nellie, Stampin' Up papers, and some (gorgeous) Prima flowers. I finally made myself use these flowers instead of hoarding them! The centres are so pretty, it was a shame to layer and hide them, so I just used some little pearly flowers in the centre. I could have stitched the strings of pearls down, but being a bit lazy, opted for glue dots to stick the ends down, under the flowers.

The rub-on greeting is by Making Memories. I've used nesties to make the mats for the image and Martha Stewart punches (Doily Lace and foliage)A little close-up of my colouring. I love these softer lilacs with the cool gray of her jeans. She is such a cutie. As a bit of an experiment, I added some V95 into my skin shading, and I quite like the effect. I got this tip from Mariannes fab blog, scroll down to the faerie, double-click on the image and you can see what an interesting look it gives.

Hoping you're safe, snug and warm, TTFN!

thing thong

I thought I'd branch out a bit from the carding and scrapping and have a play with some beads.

Quite a few years ago, when I was big on stitching, I made these very cute santa earrings using a kit from 'Spellbound' and these have a yearly outing. I'd love to visit this shop - their stall at the NEC is always beautiful - and packed! I made some lovely xmas tree decs with another kit from them.

I don't really think of myself as a jewellery maker - I've been generally underwhelmed with my efforts. My pal Julie and I once tried precious metal clay - totally disastrous! I made a little silver ring, even melted glass beads into the silver, and as soon as I put it on, it broke in half. Hmm... that kit was relegated into the cupboard, where it sits to this day.

However, when I saw the idea for a 'book thong' (bookmark to me and you) on ebay and on etsy, I thought 'that looks OK, I could manage that'.

So here we are, with three little gifts, plus one for me! I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

Vampy blood red beads in a Sookie Stackhouse book, of course!

They were easy to make, I'm very sure I don't need to explain how to make them, LOL! But if you have a go, do use a decent length of cording (about 50cm) - I made the mistake of sizing against a paperback and not a hardback book. If it's a problem, I could always take off a few beads from the bottom end though.

I found the bird spacer bead on ebay, the butterfly spacer and flower bead cap were from the 'Hobby House' and everything else was from 'Windmill Craft Centre' . I just need to make some little boxes for them - in red, I think!

I'm working the next 2 nights, please keep your fingers crossed for me that it's less manic than it has been!

Have a lovely weekend,

TTFN!

just one more..

Seeing as it's still sub-zero outdoors, I thought this snowman card was apt - I think this is the last of the xmas cards, honest! It's another 'Whiff of Joy' stamp.And both the images should be 'clickable' - I uploaded each image separately, and I think thats sorted out the enlarge-ability. You can see all my little mistakes though!

I'm pleased with the shading on Herb's top hat - a pretty good result IMHO with the cool greys and a touch of black to get the depth. Before the festivities I bought some neutral greys but I've not had a play with them yet.

I love snowmen and snowflake stamps, but IRL, I'm ready for the snow to go now, it's turning into ice on the pavements and I don't like that one bit! And today, when I walked the dogs, one of them made it quite clear he felt the same, too. He turned tail and set off for home about halfway.

My emu boots are pretty much ruined with watermarks, but they have been fab - I have had the warmest feet, even when I take the dogs out.

The high school is still shut, which has delighted my sons no end to have their holiday extended. Though the primary school nearby has opened and the playing field is full of enormous snowballs that the kids have been rolling, it looks very funny!

So here's hoping that no more snow falls now.

Stay warm and TTFN!

happy new 2010

Happy NY everyone! Didya'll have a good time? We were very busy at work and there were quite a few newborns that night. Barely even got chance to wish each other happy NY, ah well!

My DH raised an interesting question - if we've had the eighties, nineties and noughties - what will this decade be called? DS2 thinks it'll be known as the tenties, LOL.

Hope you don't mind, but I've still got a couple of xmas cards to share - sorry!

I had a play with some acetate and white-Staz-On. The front of this card is acetate, and the snowflake background stamp is by Hero - LOVE this stamp. I really wanted it last year but put off buying it. But I still loved it this year so treated myself. Sometimes you just have to, dontcha? 'wink'. Like I don't treat myself all the time, hee!

And here's a few more I made, while the Staz-On was out. Oh, this is handy to know - if you make a mess of stamping on the acetate, you can clean off the Staz-on ink using alcohol hand rub, Ranger blending solution or surgical spirits.

This is the xmas card I sent to DH. I photographed it before I added a cute metal eyelet 'happy christmas' (by making memories). Love Tilda and Edwin, just so cute.

I've just been admiring this gorgeous card using the same image, here. Elaine has teamed it up with a great background - unfortunately though, it's sold out, I really hope she gets more in!

I'm not making any resolutions for the new year - well not officially, anyway. That way there's less guilt when I (inevitably) break them. But all the usual ideas are there - eat less, swear less, be more assertive, clean more - ha (that one is really a non-starter - the dining table is still covered in craft stuff as we speak...)

I'll leave you with two thoughts on resolutions for the new year. TTFN!

Aisha Elderwyn
Every new year people make resolutions to change aspects of themselves they believe are negative. A majority of people revert back to how they were before and feel like failures. This year I challenge you to a new resolution. I challenge you to just be yourself.

Sydney Smith
Resolve to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment.