Now that I'm organised...

Now that I'm organised I can actually see what stash I have! So, a year and a half after returning from visiting my family in New Zealand and doing LOTS of beachcombing I have finally got round to making the driftwood frame that I always imagined I would make! The photo is of Cathedral Cove in the Coromandel, North Island and is where they filmed the Narnia film (in fact they only finished the day before this photo was taken, and you had to be careful not to trip over the cables!).

Now off to sit in my tidy room and listen to Radio 2 (its all rock and roll here!).
Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

I thought the weekend was time off work!

OMG! This weekend was SO busy. It all started with a trip to The Range and a quick scout around their clearance craft shelves! I managed to bag myself a 12x12 scrap tote for £1.99 and a couple of HOTP packs (I must admit that I am a bit of a fan of theirs) for £3.47 each! Then off to the storage department-I am determined to sort the craft room out once and for all. Armed with a couple of drawer units (only £20) we headed back home to assemble them.

Saturday started with clearing out the room-that didn't take very long (as they say, the worse was yet to come-oh, a truer word had never been spoken). I dumped everything on the bed to try and make sure I stayed focussed if I wanted to sleep that night! I had no ideaI had amassed quite as much crafting stuff-there was now no way I could hide this from my OH-shoes and handbags you can stash in the bottom of the wardbrobe-this however, was literally taking over the house!

Bless him, my OH carried with the chores freeing me up to crack on, it took until 9pm that night when I thought I should stop and have something to eat (he had gone out to his brothers stag night, so I was free to make a mess!), the bed was just about managable to drag the duvet out with the stuff on top of and dump in the craft room (a trick I learnt in my teens when my mother would dump all my junk on my bed in the hope (mum, it would never work!) I would clean, I would just drag the duvet on the floor and sleep under my bathrobe! Then it took the rest of Sunday to finish sorting it all out, but now, its lovely! I have a clean and ordered craft room, the trick is going to be to keep it like that!

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

Stray Cats, Edsels and a bit of crafting

What a busy week-Wednesday saw us getting the coach to London to see the Stray Cats play at Brixton Academy-what a show, great tunes and a fantastic stage presence-complete with Dave Edmunds getting up on stage for some songs and even Mick Jones (from The Clash)!

The weekend saw me go to my sister-in-law (to be-in a couple of weeks!) house for a Pampered Chef party, a bit like tupperware but cooking stuff-a good night out with the girls. Then, Saturday saw me at the Edsel Fury gig (out 2 nights in a row-I'm getting too old for this!) at The Junction in Bristol with Spooky (Japanese all girl punk band)-fantastic! They are a fab 50's garage band, if you get a chance to see them-I would recommend it (I must admit the bass player is my hubby though!)

This week saw me finally finishing off drying my shallots and pickling even more nasturtium seeds, not a very good crop as the weather has been appalling, the courgette plants only produced a couple usable fruits and the garlic STILL hasn't grown big enough to use! Boo-summer sucks!

On a brighter note (unlike the overcast skies) the postie brought me this months ATC's from the CB Forum, the theme was Garden/Seasons. The one on the left is from CindyBee and the one on the right from Cupcakedaft-aren't they lush.

Until I started on the CB Forum I had never made ATC's before-but now I am getting quite a collection, and they are a bit addictive! Whilst we were in London, my lovely hubby also bought me a little voodoo doll (well, it makes a change from Owls!) to hang from my bag-its a little devil with iridescent green wings and a poker!

I also had a chance to make another card that could be suitable for a bloke using my campervan stamp, some ric-rac and a couple of my ever faithful fabric flowers. Not been able to do much else as I havent had a good nights sleep (toothache is such a pain in the ****!)

I should be making a wedding card for my brother and sister in law (to be) but as I want it to be special I am spending a lot longer thinking and planning it-though I cant leave it too long-otherwise it'll be too late!

Anyway, off to eat some bread fresh out of the oven (well, breadmaker) and a glass of nature's painkiller (red wine of course!).

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

So, I got my bubbles out, made some cards and still got the ironing done!

Boy have I been busy. I took Friday off work and after doing my chores (deep cleaning bathroom, washing, ironing the usual!) I managed to get a couple hours crafting in-hurrah! This is my first attempt at making my own backing paper. Remember when you were a rug rat? Well, I decided to get out my food colouring (I have NO idea why i have blue food colouring in my pantry!) add some washing-up liquid, grabbed a straw and started blowing bubbles! I'm pretty pleased with the result. I then cut out a photocopy of a fairy and created a tranfer image by painting the back of the image with a cotton bud soaked in cellulose thinner (make sure you do this outside, cos boy, does this stuff stink!) and hey presto-a transfered image! How cool is that? This is a new technique to me, so I am going to enjoy experimenting-though we need a dry day to let me have a really good run at it-I hope you like the effect also. I also managed to make a few more of the stick up notes that I am hoping to make for charity. I thought they would make good R.A.K's-so look out ladies on the CB forum-one could be winging its way to you! I am really enjoying making these as they are a little bigger than an ATC so I have a bit more space to try out new techniques (as you can see I made a couple of blue bubble notes as well!)I also managed to get a few cards made, mainly male ones (why, oh why are men so difficult to make for) using the tartan and pocket papers with Making Cards magazine that I get on subscription-a great mag, you get 1o free quality papers (not magazine paper, but proper papercrafting quality paper) and it includes 2 vellums (and no, I don't work for them-mind you, if they have a job going....)!

I also had a go at making some Autumn inspired cards-and messed up my measuring, so ended up with 2 small thin cards (I had to make the envelopes myself-not easy as I cannot draw a straight line and my measurements aren't up to much-but I quite like them, and think they would even make cute bookmarks-so I may have another crack at making some more!

I also finished my ATC for this months swap on the CB forum-I have only included a sneaky peak just in case the ladies stop by (hello ladies!). I am looking forward to seeing this months swap-so may great ideas and it is lovely to see other people's work.

Anyway, it sounds like to rain has finally stopped (we have had bad flooding this weekend in the West) and King Kong is on the TV (love the film, we saw it in New Zealand actually at the cinema they had the premier at the week before-how cool is that!) so am going to settle down with a nice glass of red (nah, lets face it, probably 3) and watch Jack Black tear up and Skull Island camera in hand whilst a bloody great ape follows him!

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

At last a sunny Saturday

Hurrah, last Saturday was sunny-I couldn't believe my eyes-so just to make sure we headed down to the beach. It was true, the sun was out! So, picnic, papers and sun lotion were dragged down to the seafront and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon, dipping our toes in the water (brrr still cold though) and watching holiday makers run into the sea to cool off and then scream and run out again (usually accompanied by the unmistakable sound of "aargg, cold, so cold......").

Thought I would take a shot of my crocs (I love my jibbitz in them), I also took lots of photo's with my new lovely lomo-but still go about 10 shots left before I can freak out the local film developer (if case you didnt know my lomo action sampler takes 4 smaller shots within one photo-so you get 4 pictures on one sheet all with slightly differing timings!!). It's a bit hit and miss but that's the fun of Lomo. I can hardly wait until I can get them developed.

I thought I would have a go at altering a blank slide holder (this is it in its naked state!). I tried using Gesso (not something I have ever used before-all this altering of stuff is new to me) then Tim Holtz distressed pads (so loving these) and then alcohol inks. I built the layers up and sanded them back a bit, adding paperartsy stamps with stayz on ink and then an alcohol ink stained key hole surround that I got in a clear out of bits and bobs from my dad a few months back. I then used glossy accents on a long thin stamped image and built up the layers until it had the look and feel of glass, edging it with a gold pen-and voila! No idea what I am going to do with it, I need to start thinking about making things for friends as I am starting to fill up the house! Not sure what they will think of them, but I must admit I like it when someone makes somthing especially for you, so I am hoping they do too!

I hope you like them, they are my first attemps. But as Kate Bush said "please be kind to my mistakes".

Happy crafting

Lil Pidge