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

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