WOYWW

 Another What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.  The excuse for us to bare our desks, good, bad or indifferent!

On my desk this week is my carving from the other week (haven't had time to do much crafting so its still sat there).  At the front is a card I have actually had time to make (shock horror!) and on the left are some recent purchases.

The card has an alcohol background and an octopode stamp of the crow and visible image text (I do love their text stamps).

 

 My new purchases were from last weekend.  We went to a local antique/flea market and I bought some old photos (I am a sucker for old 'miserable' photos)

and some old postcards (not written-I like to post vintage cards to friends, much funnier than modern ones)

 

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week....'Nude Judge Nails Blonde'.....well, not much I can comment on that!!!!!

Happy Crafting

Kyla

 

Vintage weekend

Hello peeps, I hope you are all well and had a fabulous weekend?

This weekend we went to a Vintage fair in Swindon.  Now, I grew up not too far from there and haven't been back since I was about 14....well it was not recognisable I can tell you!

The fair had some lovely vintage cars and motorbikes on display and a few stalls (I bought myself a black wool coat that I plan on needle felting some colour onto!).  

During the evening the gigs were inside the shopping arcade-what a brilliant idea for such a large space not in use during the evening.  I think it was the first gig I have ever been to where there was NO booze-I sat in a seat (which was great after being on my feet all day) in Boswells cafe having a cuppa and watching some fabulous acts!

We also found a pop up art gallery, which was brilliant and there was portrait drawing going on in there and also a wall full of artists journals that you could look through-a great idea.

With people walking around all done up from the 30's-50's there were some amazing sights...this won hands down though!

Yep, a chap walking round town with a proper metal helmet complete with chain mail!! No idea why, but why not I say!!!.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  I am just finishing off making a birthday present from my nan's 90th birthday in a few weeks....but obviously cannot post it on here until she has seen it!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Resin cufflinks

Hello peeps, just a quick update.  

I have been playing with two part resin again and decided to make some cufflinks.  

A lot of my work blouses use cufflinks but there are very few female ones on the market, and even fewer that don't feature pink!

I backed them with some vintage pages from a book and some watch parts (boy these are hard to take apart...I may have to give in and purchase some already deconstructed watch parts!!).

One of a kind...a bit like me!!!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend

kyla

 

Who'd have thought there would be so many skulls in Malta!

 I am back from my trip to Malta, the post is a little photo heavy so grab a coffee and pull up a chair! 

My parents met and lived in Malta about 45 years ago so after the death of my father I accompanied my mum on a return visit.

Now, I have never been before.  All I knew was that it was going to be hot and with very little greenery....2 things that as a nature lover don't rub particularly well with me.

How wrong could I be!  Yes it was hot, and yes there was very little foliage...however, the architecture was simply stunning and I would return for this alone. 

The capital city is Valletta.  They are doing a serious amount of building work (including the city gates...which one local said to us that for the gates looked like garage doors so it was good they were making them more intricate!).

The new buildings appear to be merging well into the old.  The guide books say that the buildings are old and tatty, however I like to think of them as timeworn and interesting.

 Many of the streets are narrow and steep with lots of steps and cobbles.

 There were plenty of opportunities for photos of texture.

 Though I did get a few odd looks when taking them!

This fellow decided to join us for lunch one day.

 

 Malta is a very Catholic country and there are many beautiful churches, however, St John's co Cathedral in Valletta is worth a visit.  The floor is made up of 400 marble tomb stones from the Knights of St. John and for a holy place there are a LOT of skulls and cross bones!

 The entrance stone is amazing and has the grim reaper on it with the saying "Trample on me today and I will trample on you tomorrow"....needless to say I walked around!

Whilst others took photos of the beautiful oil artworks etc......I turned my attention to the floor and small details on the larger pieces.

 Throughout the few days I was there I noticed more and more skulls 

I also have a love of insects.....and yet again I got strange looks as I hunted this beauty down and waited, and waited even longer, for the shot!!

 Whilst my Mum was showing me her old stomping grounds I was able to coincide this with a visit to the St Paul's Catacombs.  Now, considering we were there in less than perfect circumstances some may feel a trip to the catacombs may not have been the most psychologically sounds.....but it was the most amazing place and covers more than 200 square meters!

 Back above ground and in search of interesting structure we came across these MASSIVE wooden doors! I know I am short but I felt like a gnome!

For those that don't know, Kyla is short for Michaela.  I have spent my entire life spelling it and repeating it when asked my name.....but in Malta I came across others with the same name...and even a boat!

 

 These are the fishing boats that used to also act as a water taxi when mum was last here. They are so beautifully painted.

 Whilst there were so many old shops and signs I thought I would take some more photos with the idea of making some Tim Holtz inspired backing papers but with MY images! Here a just a few I took:

 

 

 

As you can see, against all the odds I fell in love with Malta.  If you love architecture and the unusual then I recommend a trip.

Right I have the downside of returning from a holiday...a mountain of washing and ironing...and lets be honest I have plenty to distract me...but it really won't do itself so I suppose I'd best show willing and at least make a start at it!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Vintage Royal Navy inspired card

Evening all, for those of you in the USA, Happy Thanksgiving and for those of you in the UK (especially down here in the south west) I do hope the storm and flooding hasn't impacted you too severely.

On a brighter note, it was my dad's 70th birthday at the weekend. 
Dad was in the navy and travelled the world, used to collect stamps and more recently has taken up photography.

so I took all these elements and made them into a card for him. 

The swallows and anchors represent his navy career, the map background, his travels.  I used old stamps and a page from a vintage stamp catalogue which is valetta harbour in Malta (where both my parents were stationed).  I then added some TH mini film strip and attached it all with my new tiny attacher I bought at the NEC (I recommend this attacher, I have rheumatoid arthritis so my hands are not too great, but I have no issues using this....basically its great!).

As to the gift....what do you get a 70 yr old who needs nothing?  The answer was an MDF (from MDF Man) remote control holder (I swear remote controls breed!) which I covered in pages from a vintage stamp catalogue (the stamp catalogue is a great find, it cost about £2 and has hundreds of thin pages perfect for craft!) and distressed it a bit.

I think he liked them both...they are certainly unique!

Anyway, the rain is lashing outside so time to settle down to some steaming hot veggie chilli and some trashy TV!

Happy crafting

Kyla
 

Dying fabric with Distress Inks

 Evening all....we have just had the most awful storm!  It lashed it down for about 15 mins, complete with lightning.  The roads flooded almost instantly as the ground was already so wet!  Add to that the fact that Dr Who is filming their Christmas (oops...sorry the C word again!) episode in the centre of Bristol over the past couple of days and the fact that there was a security incident in the centre of the city today meant that it was GRIDLOCK!!!!

What fun.....so I have retreated to my craft haven (I can say haven as its still tidy!!) to chill (you have to admit crafting is SO very therapeutic....apart from when Mr Mojo decides to take a wander!).

I decided I didn't have a enough tags (gulp....please don't look behind me at the basket full of them!!) and made a tag out of pearlescent card, distressed it with DI and stamped the background with the same DI and inked through some sequin waste.

I added a leaf and some flowers with a tag and some vintage book pages (also stained with DI).

I then tried dying some satin ribbon with DI and water, and guess what...it worked!  I got lots of this ribbon, which was a neutral colour from the scrap store for next to nothing (I had a carrier bag full for a couple of quid, including leather scraps, boxes etc....so it really was a few pennies for several meters of this ribbon). 

When I dried it with the heat gun, I loved the fact that the satin shine was still there.  I think it complements the pearlescent card rather well (even if I do say so myself!!).  I attached it with some coloured mini staples I picked up in a discount shop (you know the ones, where things are 99p or £1) and mounted it on some TH Crowded Attic papers.

I love the fact that this uses almost free items (I need to go back to the scrap store to see if they have any more of this ribbon!!) to make something so dimensional with many layers-I had to buy nothing for this, it was all scraps I found hidden on my desk when I cleaned up last week! 

 I am entering this into the Simon Says Stamp and show challenge which this week is 'No Rules'.  I have not tried using just one colour before or dying with the DI, it was a 'what the hell' moment and I gave it a go.....and I think i will give it a go again!

You can find all the details for the challenge here, there are some lovely design team pieces which are totally inspiring.

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge x

 

I'm back

I cannot believe its been almost a month since my last post...so much has happened: first we went on holiday to Porta Pollenca (Majorca), clear blue sky and sea....wonderful.  Then I was away with work and working, working, working......all work and no play makes me a very tired and cranky wife!!

So, I decided enough was enough and crack on with the crafting (what with the coven outing to the NEC craft show coming up I thought I'd best experiment with the goodies I bought last time in case I love them and need to buy some more!!) and try different things for me.

So, first up is an altered canvas.  I printed a photo I took of Exeter cathedral onto calico that I ironed onto freezer paper!  Now, I am LOVING this stuff.  Its from the states and is made to wrap food for the freezer, but you can iron fabric onto it and it become slightly adhesive and 'grabs' the fabric, then you simply feed it through the printer as though it was paper!!  Hey presto, printed fabric.  All that money I have spent on special fabrics and even thinking of buying digital grounding to 'key' fabric and all I ever needed was some freezer paper (if you have any other uses for this please let me know....I am a convert)!

Then I distressed it with some DI, I outlined some parts with a black micron pen and darkened some areas with oil pastels (these are new to me, thanks to Coven Jill for passing on some of her pre loved ones) then I used multi medium to glue it to the canvas.

I cut out the door (a horrible modern door with no entry signs on it,so not in keeping with the rest of the building) and used some old text and a picture of a knights visor, stamping over with DI.

 I then used some metal contact paper (metal sticky backed paper about 2" deep from the hardware store, I think its used for joining pipes) which I embossed by hand with a Ten Second Studio mould and coloured it with my new Snow Cap alcohol ink mixed with some other colours (see, I am trying to use SO much of my stash!) finishing it with a dyed style stone. 

Next (thanks to hubby for allowing me a WHOLE weekend to play...I am happy and VERY inky) I decided to get out the pelmet vilene I carted back from the NEC in March but still haven't used and made a postcard with it.  I dyed some plain fabric, sprinkling it with salt to remove some of the dye then stitched it to the vilene to make it nice and sturdy to do some free machine embroidery. I added sheer fabrics, stitching and burning back with the heat gun, added some foils, dyed scrim, wool and silk fibres. 

 I then made a wee fish by sandwiching some mini sequins between angelina fibres and ironing them to make fabric, then I encased it in dissolvable fabric, stitching the fish design then washing it to dissolve the fabric leaving the shimmering fish.

I made some wire spirals and added sequins to represent seaweed.  Finishing it off with a nice piece of clean calico for the back and stitching all around in metallic threads.

So, a couple of new things from me, a bit experimental (I think I will try the canvas again as I enjoyed making that) I just need to practise a bit more and think of ways of incorporating the techniques into cards and tags also (one question...when you have made all this stuff what do you do with it?  Its starting to fill up my craft room....and I need to space for more new stash!!).

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge x

LTD Challenge - vintage

This weeks LTD Challenge is vintage.

I know for many it may victoriana etc. but for me, its definately 1940's and 50's-I love the glamour (not that I have the time to look like that) and beautiful clothes-so I decided to make my vintage a 1950 pin-up complete with a shrinkie dink one!

Enjoy have a blog hop around all the others too.

Happy Crafting

Well, this is a photo from the back window of my wee garden looking all clean and tidy whilst covered in snow. It stayed like this for nearly 2 weeks but is now back to a muddy mess, though they have given out snow for tommorow, so who knows, maybe I will get to go out and play in it for a bit longer!I have made lots, but havent yet taken photos (or gave then away and forget to take a photo!!). This is a distressed vintage card I made for my mum's birthday with paperartsy stamps and some distressed inks and crackle paint, I also had a go at sewing on the card also, hope you like it.I was really pleased with how this turned out and think I will try combining lace, paint and all manner of bits and pieces again.

Happy vrafting
Li'l pidge x