ooh, a few new makes and a win

I can't believe it, I am gushing. The Happy New Year card I submitted to the Crafts Beautiful forum challenge won, along with Maggie (another great entry, as were they all!). Its my first challenge and has spurred me onto look for some more challenges to enter, and to top it all Draytonlady (who ran the challenge) says there is a goody bag as a prize-double bonus!

Well, I have been busy over the past week or so, the cold weather helps as the craft room is easily the warmest in the house, and the dulcid tones of Radcliff and Machonie on Radio 2 of an evening helps me craft along nicely. So, the first of my new makes:

These are my submission for the January CB Forum ATC swap. The theme is fantasy and the middle is one of my sticky notlets as a RAK (Random act of kindness) for Cambiel who is organising it (as is feeling under the weather at the moment, get well soon).

The next one is my triumph, its my scarf! Its taken ages and finally finished just in time for the cold snap to break! But I don't care even if its hot and sunny, I will wear it, because I made it all myself. Knitting, sewing and all those sort of things do not come naturally to me (I prefer a hammer or glue gun!) but against all the odds I have made a purple striped scarf, and all for £2.49 - a bargain (its a good job I don't charge for labour). I managed to buy some wool in the charity shop, grey and black so I am now on the look out for my next project, if you have any ideas, feel free to let me know (so long as they are easy!).

Since wool and needles are not my best of friends I went back to the heat gun and make myself another shrink plastic necklace. This time I used a design from an old tattoo book, colouring it with sakura pens and markers, adding a couple of jump rings at each side and using a double thickness of cording with a lobster clasp at the end:

Having said that me and sewing don't make happy bedfellows (well, I'm sure it was summit like that!) I have finally finished my first handbag. The felt bag is bought as a blank and I traced flower chipboard shapes onto purple felt and cut these out. These I glued onto the bag and added leaves and stitched glitter buttons as the flower centres (stictched to hold it all together at bit more secure in case the glue came away). I was going to use a large popper to secure the bag (living in a city I do like a bit of additional security rather than an open invitation to every scally) but after a trip to the local fabric shop and a chat to the very helpful staff I found out that there is actually a handbag closure for sale. Its magnetic and cost 99p (I am now seeing why handbags do cost a bit, the raw materials alone do add up, but then I have a unique piece). To cover the fixture I used a punch to stamp out a couple of pieces of felt and added a decorative button to add detail. I am really please with the result and am now waiting for my OH to take me out so it can have its first official outing (hubby-if you are reading this, a nice meal out would be a good outing for a bag of this standing!).
One final note, as we are both into 1940-50's style and the whole rockabilly alternative scene (hence my earlier blogs about carving tikki stamps from erasers and hibiscus style flowers in some of my makes and items like the mexican sugar skull necklaces and skull hair flowers to anem a few) we have just managed to locate Sailor Jerry rum, a spiced golden rum-wow, a sweet deliciousness that warms the cockles of ones heart! Yum.

Enjoy x

Li'l Pidge

Happy New Year all in blogland

Happy New Year!
Well, we had a lovely new year spending some time with my brother and his partner (the photo is them on the beach at midnight with sparklers-its hand held in the pitch black which is why its blurred, but how clever are they using the sparkler to make a heart. I would have posted a photo of my OH but he drew porn with his sparkler-typical!) in Whitstable, Kent. A few days down by the sea with fresh air in my lungs (though getting fed up with bronchitis by now-its starting to wear very thin indeed).

Came back to sad news that my OH Grandfather had passed away that morning, just over a year from when he also lost his grandmother. He was such a lovely man and always made us laugh, we'll miss you granddad, rest in peace.

On a lighter note, I have been catching up with my crafting.

These are two of my recent ATC swap on the CB forum. These are from Jintz and Ultramum-thanks ladies, we do love a bit of pink.

These are mine that I sent:

I am getting quite a collection of ATC's now and love getting some post that isnt just junk mail or bills! So, as my new years resolutions I thought I would try to enter some of the forum challenges rather than just lurking and reading the blogs!

So, in the spirit of things I have entered my first one. On the CB forum the set a challenge to design & send a new years card to the CB Magazine, and here it is:



So I am going to be on the look out for a few more challenges-find the time to look and then to make the stuff is the hard part, so if anyone knows of a site that lists craft challenges-please let me know!

I also got a handmade card from my OH for Christmas-bless him, how lovely was that. He sat in the craft room and said he was going to make me a card. Then those words all crafters dread to hear......"can I use ANY of the stash in here?".........what should I do? Nuture the creative thread he was displaying and the loving effort he was going to? Or, be honest and explain that some of the stash is SO pretty that I didnt really want him potentially hacking away at it? Well, of course, I did the only thing I could and resonded "use whatever you want me dear..." then pray to every god and goddess you could name that he couldnt use that lovely glittered vellum you'd been saving or those swarkoski gems!! 2 hours later he emerged-triumphant, though bemused at how long it takes to make a handmade card (what did he think I did up there all this time!). His card to me included my favourite of the moment-owls. What a lovely card, and even more so because he made it for me.
This is the card I made for him. The cat is from a stamp I carved myself, embossed and adorned with a flocked hat with big chunky glitter. I also added a glittered stamped image and used a heart shaped brad that I embossed then dipped in red glitter for that bit of seasonal bling!

Having been SO lack at updating this blog, there is a fair bit of catching up to do. I made my first 18th card for my cousin in New Zealand, her birthday was New Years eve.
I am hoping she liked it-I've not done one before so had to pick the brains of the girls at our weekly crop (thanks Jill for lending me the cuttlebug to cut out the pieces, to Becks for the great silver paper and to Tracy for the ribbon and idea!).

I also made some earings, a handbag charm and the box for my OH's aunts birthday just before christmas:
Well, that's probably about as much excitment as you can take for now, so I'll do another installment in a few days (during these sub zero days the craft room is the smallest in the house and the warmest! So, I have yet another excuse for spending time in here!!).
I hope you are all well (and if not, then I really feel for you, if I cough anymore I am going to SCREAM, apart from the fact that would hurt my poor old chesty, so I think I will just clench my fists in a spurned evil nemisis kind of way!).

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge