A few days away, lots of galleries and in print!

After the UK had wet weather predicted for our weeks summer holiday (bleeding typical) we decided to head for the capital and enjoy a few days in London seeing the galleries and museums (if your going to be indoors because of the weather you might as well get a bit of culture). So after a bit of research on Trip Advisor we booked a B&B and headed off. What a great find, the B&B was spotless, friendly staff and a great breakfast (so much so, we changed our original plans and stayed on longer than we first anticipated!). We saw the Chapman Brothers exhibition (they guys that depicted Hell that sadly was burnt when the Satchii colelction went up in smoke a few years ago) at the Tate, the new Telling tales at the V&A (the cross-over between art and craft) and saw Mick Jones' new band (him who used to be in the Clash) supporting Billy Bragg at a local pub. They were supporting his charity where Billy raises funds for instruments/musical tuition in prison (called JailGuitarDoors). What a great few days! (and I found a few bead shops along the way!).

So, returned and refreshed (apart from sick hubby, not swine flu I am pleased to say, but a rotten headcold) I pounced into the craft room with renewed vigor...This is a background I made, by applying distressed inks all over then spraying with a gold mica powder mixed with water, it gives a lovely sheen. I then used this as a basis to create this card:

I am loving these new inchie stamps by inkadoo, they are so cute. I even used them to make this necklace by stamping over a coloured background, layering it into a heavy metal pendant blank, using 3D Gel by Judikins to add a resin effect, with some glitter and mico beads. It takes about a week to make, layering it overtime and waiting for the resin to set (it gets harder over time, so its worth putting it to one side for a couple of days, before adding ther final layer).
Then I embarked on a massive card making session, using some of the fabulous holographic card I bought
Then a couple of golden wedding cards:



and some more general cards:
Then I decided to 'alter' a jigsaw piece, double embossing and attaching it to the front of a blue/white pearlescent card:
Then, just for change I decided to make a small felt stuffed heart brooch:


and a brooch made from a large button I bought in Liberty (wow, that shop has the most amazing haberdashery department, with all the lovely Amy Butler fabrics.

Then, finally I have had a chance to do a couple more scrap pages:

I bought Crafts Beautiful magazine agains this month, and there are some more great paper toppers (always great value for money), so I made this soccer card. I also noticed that my Secret Garden card I made a few weeks ago with the Peter Rabbit toppers was pulished in this months magazine, wow! I'm in print, so a big thank-you to the CB team for publishing my picture!

Off to craft, so happy crafting,

Li'l Pidge

Scrapping, swapping, shrinking and gigging

Its been a busy couple of weeks in the Li'l Pidge nest. First, I have made my first ever skirt (no photo though, I'll take one later and post it), and I have been busy on the scrap book pages. This is a double page spread of Rotorura and Wai-O-Tapu in New Zealand. I stitched zig-zags around the chocolate and blue border panels, mounted lots of fabric flowers with various jewelled brads, added an acetate pocket to hold the leaflets and used Rangers distressed inkpad in Broken China to colour some chip board shapes, added glue and 2 differently coloured glitters to represent the water gushing up.


This week also saw the Oct STC swap from the CB Forum. This months theme was Decoupage. A big thanks to Shelleyhope, Copse (for RAK ATC and organising the swap) and Paulrw (who, would you believe it actually received one of mine-spooky!). Mine are below, including a Halloween sticky notelet to say thanks to Copse for organising this months.

This is something new to me. Inspired by some of the blogs I have been reading I thought I would cut out some flowers and cult up the edges before sticking them onto the card. The large background is actually self adhesive wall border paper from the local DIY store, it matches my free flower stamp from a previous issue of the stamper magazine. I must admit I quite like the effect. I added a little yellow stickles (I love their glitter glues, they are so fine and easy to apply) in the middle of the flowers.

I also received this all the way from Canada, a lovely thankyou card from Freehartz for participating in her Halloween, bloghop. Your welcome, its was a great evening. I hope you enjoyed the actual day itself.

This year saw us celebrating the next day, which is the Mexican Day of the dead festival. My OH had a gig with 4 acts, 3 of which were 1950's garage and a one was a one man band who played drums, guitar, harmonica and tamborine all whilst singing! It was a great night out, and to celebrate (I wore my new skirt!) I made a sugar skull inspired necklace from shrink plastic. Coloured it with sakura pens, pencils and markers and sealed the lot with diamond glaze. I added a few rings and beads then threaded it all on a cording.

I also had a go at making a ring. A black cat on an orange background. I must admit I am trying SO many new crafts at the moment (I am blaming the Crafts Beautiful forum as I keep seeing new things to try!). The house is starting to fill up, so I think I need to turn my attention to making Christmas presents instead. Speaking of which....best get a wriggle on...

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

Cards, bag for life, scrap pages and a bit of a pickle

Finally I have had a chance to do a bit of crafting, with all this wet weather I'm spending a lot of free time at home, mind you I would rather a little sunshine now and again!

The dark brown flower on this card is actually a white fabric flower from a Hawaiian fancy dress garland dyed to which ever colour I need at the time with felt tip pens-so much cheaper than "proper" crafting embellishments.

The cupcake card was for my niece's 10th Birthday and I have used the stamp with last months Stamper magazine and I have included a homemade phone charm as she got her first mobile phone from her parents, so she needs a bit of phone bling now!

In an effort to be a bit eco friendly I thought I would start crafting on my rapidly expanding "bag for life" collection. I used a couple of cloth dye ink pads (only 20p more than the usual pads I buy, so made sure I bought 2 in colours I dont have as inks) and used a mexian style skull with 2 "sailor Jerry" style swallows and glued on some black sequins (I really cannot sew, hence the fabric glue!). It's already turning heads at the local shops, though I dont think for the right reasons! Never mind, I just tell people I'm a trend setter (and just pray they never find out the truth!).

So, not only time to do a bit of crafting but also something in the mail that isnt just bills! The next 2 ATC's from the lovely ladies on the CB forum arrived. The rose is from Snaggles and the Bluebird 2 is from beckp87, thankyou ladies they're lovely.

What with all this crafting I am so pleased that I have joined Jill's Crop, it means that at long last I am getting round to scrapbooking my last holiday, I was so lucky to go back to Singapore and New Zealand but what with life generally getting in the way of crafting its been over a year since we went! So at Jill's crop I have managed to do about 5 pages so far! ~Hurrah! So I thought since I haven't blogged any scap pages I would show you them-hope you like them. I'll post a few more piccies of them over the next few days.

Well, one final piccie before I retire for the night, and that is my make for today-pickled nasturtium seeds! They have self seeded all over my garden and last year I pickled some and about 1o months later, they taste just like capers-fantastic in pasta and all it cost was the price of some white vinegar, so I decided that I would make some again this year, hopefully I will be able to make enough to add some to the homemade food hampers I am hoping to make for Christmas, try them, they are really nice, but they do take 10-12 months to pickled properly. All you need is for each pint of vinegar, 6 peppercorns and 1oz salt poured over them in sterlized jars-enjoy!

Any-hoo, Futurama has jus finished and my bed is calling (you can only ignore its call for so long).

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge

A wet and windy weekend and some flocking!

What an awful weekend - raining cats and dogs and blowing a gale, so that'll be perfect crafting weather then! Managed to make a couple more cards as I managed to sell a dozen last week - hurrah (thanks Mum!). I am loving turquoise and olive colour combo's at the moment.

I have also just started going to my first crop, held by Jill in Bath (thanks Jill, its a great get together) and was introduced by my friend Becks (who is a scrapping newbie, but has already produced her first great page). So watch this space for more postings (of scrap pages, or maybe the lovely homemade cakes that Becks brings!). It makes a nice change to catch up with these ladies in somewhere other than the pub (Jill ownes a pub!).

Anyway, a wet week is forecast and my OH has 3 gigs he is playing this week, so I reckon I can get some decent scrapping done. I tried flocking a butterfly for the first time, not too successful, I think I will need to practise a bit before posting the results!

Anyway, happy crafting,

Lil Pidge