Veggie, Glass and Crafting, phew what a day

Evening all, well we got an hour extra today as the clocks went back an hour, and a good thing too as I fitted in SO much yesterday I could have done with the extra hour 24 hours earlier!

Saturday morning saw us get our latest delivery from Riverford Organic, a veg and fruit box delivered each week, yum-such a range of food that we are having to think on our feet a bit and cook meals we wouldn't normally cook (but that is great as we are rediscovering some old and forgotten favourites). Its a great box isnt it?

Then, my parents call round and we all went for a day out near Cirencester. A lady opens her gardnes each year to host an outdoor sculpture exhibition. This year it was glass as the subject. It was a cold, wet day but there was some great pieces, including the glass balloons on her lawn and glass flower seed heads-so clever.

Afterwards, would you believe it, just 5 minutes drive up the road was The Stamp Bugs weekend open event! I had never been to their shop before (the owner was the previous Editor of the Stamper magazine) but it is crammed full of goodies and a make and take and had 10% off all stock and lots of stamps 50% off and some only £1!! Well, I think you can guess what happened next..........

Yep, overdraft came into play again!!!!! The lovely large veggie stamps were only £2 each and the smaller ones £1, so a bargain! I cant wait to have a play (though it has taken over an hour to mount all the unmounted stamps!). My mum bought me the Stamper book, its got some great ideas that I will be experimenting with over the next few weeks-what this space for the results!.

Hope you all had a great weekend and happy crafting

Li'l Pidge

Halloween Blog Hop

Well, tonight UK time of 7pm-10pm the Crafts Beautiful forum are doing a Halloween blog hop party! We are posting our spooky makes and then 'hop' around the blogs, so I thought I would be organised and get my makes on here in good time. Thanks 'freehartz' for organising. Her blog is http://btaylor.typepad.com/ if you fancy having a look at her amazing blog (I am totally loving her orange and vintage makes recently posted).

These are some skull and crossbone fairy cake cases we found recently on a trip to Totnes, my OH even made coconut macaroon's to fill them and get into the party 'spirit'

This is a hair accessory I have altered. The skull is made from fimo and has been sewn into the centre of the hair band, I must admit I have already worn this out a few times.



I love these handcut bats that I covered in black glitter before attaching to the card. The monkey is a lovely piccie I found online (sorry, but I cannot remember where from, but what a talented artist)

This card is made with some 'shakey' eyes that my dad gave me, I thought they looked pretty cool just attached to the black textured card.

and these are a few of my sticky notelets I have been making for charity and RAK's......looking foreward to seeing all the other makes.

Happy Halloween blog hop

Li'l Pidge

Clear blue skies, a wedding and a diamond

Well, what a weekend. Glorious weather, unbroken sunshine with only a gentle warm breeze, perfect for my brother-in-law's wedding. Scott married Lucy in the glorious city of Bath, surrounded by family and friends and they both looked amazing. It was a wonderful day, and this is the card I made for them. I took MANY photo's but I have decided not to post them on here yet until they have seen them ('tis only fair).

This did mean I had very little time this weekend for crafing, and when I have, it has been to make things for the CB Halloween blogparty on the 17th (I am hoping to be able to put a link on here later). But I did have time to carve a diamond stamp and make this retro inspired card with it

Anyway, since my OH is off at bandpractise tonight I am going to take advantage and do a bit of crafting...

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

Oooh 'shrooms, a skull and bit more besides

Look but don't touch! We found these 'shrooms whilst out walking last week. The 2nd one is fly agaric-definitely not an eater, not sure about the 1st one, so only took photo's and left them well alone, they look pretty though.

Well, back onto crafting. This is my latest ATC swap over on the CB Forum. The title was 'games'. These two were from Jintz (left) and Clara Cluck (right) and a RAK-thanks ladies they are wonderful and will be stuck up on my craftroom wall as inspiration.

This is my first altered MDF coaster. I applied a coat of white gesso, then a golden brown acrylic. I then stamped in stayzon black with a paperartsy fern stamp and used an antiqued Hot off the press flower plated, which I tore and distressed. I then coloured areas with Tim Holtz distressed pads in Mahogany and Tea dye, using a makeup sponge to blend.

I then tried my new decoart Wooden distress paint to try and crackle glaze-BIG MISTAKE. It reacted badly with the varnish and went all lumpy, instead of peeling it sort of went like a lumpy and spotty teenagers face, not nice so I have had to spend time stripping it back and sanding it down again. Oh well, its all a learning process, hopefully I can make it look like this again and NOT fiddle anymore!!

These are 3 more cards I have made, the butterfly with mica powders brushed over an image from a roller stamp coated with a clear ink, matted on silver and purple with a small metal hanging butterfly brad.
The bodice is with black velvet and red flock, and the secret garden card has an altered domino on it! I bought a pack of travel domino's from a pound shop and on the back (so that the spots don't show) applied alcohol inks and stamped the dandelion image in stayzon and edged with a gold marker. I must admit I really like the effect, and so cheap an item to alter.

On a totally different theme, the Mexican day of the dead festival is approaching, so I decided to make a shrink plastic skull to hang from a necklace or bag charm.

And finally, with my brother-in-laws wedding around the corner I realised I had no earrings suitable for the day, so I made some from friendly plastic and some glass beads I reclaimed from a charity shop bracelet. Hurrah, the colour is almost an exact match to my dress-happy days...

Off now to do yet another hot salt mouth rinse as my tooth is STILL giving my pain, the destist did a 360 deg. scan yesterday as the x-ray didn't show anything up, I am hoping it will all be ok, I am sure time will tell, its just that after nearly 6 weeks of this I am getting tired of the aching and worry....thank goodness I have crafting (and red wine!).

Happy crafting

Li'l Pidge

Knit one, pearl one...

Oops, forgot to mention that at the Craft Fare I found a stand that was willing to teach people to knit for free. Well, I am one for a challenge, and after many years of both my mother and grandmother unsuccessfully trying to teach this left handed clumsy fool to knit I thought I would give it another go! After about 30 mins I had managed to cast on, knit, pearl and do some ribbing and cast off! They very kindly gave me the big ball of green wool and some stumpy learner needles that I was using, complete with some instructions on how to make a scarf from the ball of wool-so that is what I am doing, making a scarf, though it is looking more like a green dishcloth. I started with 40 stitches and have somehow ended up with 45! Well, I am learning, but when I am finished I will post a photo of my make (but no laughing-or at least, not where I can hear it!!).

This reminded me of my recent trip to the Bristol Organic Festival where we saw the worlds biggest knitting! Just look at the size of it!

Inspired by the craft fare I spent all day today in my tidy craft room, with my new sewing machine! Now, for those that know me well, this will come of a bit of a surprise. Actually, that's an understatement-I have been known as the "sewing machine killer"! I borrowed my mothers, broke it, then my mother-in-law's, broke that also! But, the £25 bargain in Tesco's proved too much for me....I thought this would be perfect for crafting, adding a bit of stitching to my cards and scrap layouts...instead I decided its first make will be an apron (a bit more complicated than a couple of inches up and down on a card!). As all crafters will know, any clothes you wear when crafting tend to get covered in glitter, glue, flocking and embossing powders-nude crafting is not an option, my craft room is at pavement level! So, I bought some black material with red skull and crossbones over it and "ran up" an apron. I am SO proud, my needlework is pants, but this actually looks OK, and the finish isn't too shabby either, what d'you reckon?

Now I have protection(!) I thought I'd better crack on, its my bother-in-laws wedding next week, and I have so much to do. I managed to alter my headpiece, adding some green sequins to match me dress and my satin bag looked a bit boring, so I painted an earring with green glass paint and used this to embellish the bag.

I also managed to make their wedding pressie wrapping and card, but I'll post that later.

Off to watch Harry Potter on TV with a large glass of white wine (just to ring the changes!).


ooh, shame on me, almost forgot, Happy Anniversary to my wonderful hubby (yesterday), we had a lovely day and a fantastic meal at La Barrique in Bristol. Thanks hun, I love you x (especially after you bought me all this craft stash!)

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

Just a quickie

Finally back home after a weeks holiday. We were hoping for a cheap last minute trip to somewhere warm and sunny, previously we managed Majorca for £150 each and the greek islands for £220 each-but thanks to the collapse of XL and the rubbish weather there was nothing for less than £400 each (unless you fancy a drinking binge in Palma!)!

So, we headed on down to my folks place in Devon, and we had a lovely week, cycling, swimming in the sea (see, how brave we are!) and, oh, I didnt realise, there was a Hobbycraft and Stictches fare being held just down the road! It was well organised, as there was a free bus back into the city for bored husbands to find a pub and watch the footie-apart from mine, who found himself a record fare!

We also had a trip into Totnes, which has one of my favourite craft shops, and my hubby bought me a load of stash for our wedding anniversary today, I'll post a photo later!

Well, I'd best get on over to the CB forum and find out what this months ATC swap is as I have yet to make them! I have SO much crafting catchup to do, and I have still yet to make my brother and sister-in law (to be) card-arrggg, why am I so easily distracted....oooh, a butterfly......where was ~I? Oh, yes, cracking on with things.....

Happy Crafting
Li'l Pidge