Pages

Monday 29 December 2008

My first go at a sketch!

Hi all :)

I know i said i wasn't going to blog for a while, but as Maddy is down here with me, she has awoken my craftyness, so i felt it only right to put something on my blog. A card.



Actualy, Maddy introduced me to a few new things last night whilst doing this card. Firstly, i have never done a sketch for a card. I tried a sketch from Sketch Saturday, i hold my hand up to getting a guidance from Maddy for this card, but in the end i learnt a lot and will now be able to give them a try on my own in future.

Secondly, i had my first proper play with Maddy's Copics. After an hour of stressing that i was not getting it right, the colour gradualy came with a bit of patience. This colouring is not brilliant, but it's a first effort and i'm chuffed with it.

Thirdly, i have never sewed on card before. I've tried, but my sewing machine kept playing up so i wasn't able to do it. However Maddy mended the machine, which in turn meant i could try out stitching on card for the first time. I am so chuffed with this because i have seen so many gorgeous cards out there, and real stitching can really set a card off.



So a big thank you to Maddy for all the guidance on this, and a big thank you to the ladies at Sketch Saturday for introducing me to my first shetch. :) It will be a huge help for people like myself who can sit in front of a card for ages and not be too sure what layout to do.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, and heres wishing you a great New Year. :)

Tuesday 16 December 2008

A prezzy for a lil mouse.

Just a quick blog post to show you what i made the other day.

I was feeling a little guilty for torturing, i mean "encouraging" Calvin Mouse into telling me where my stamp was. Knowing that Maddy was making a little house for him, i decided to make him a moving in present....some tables and a chair.



Simple, but very fiddly to make, these tables and chairs are made from balsa wood. The rungs on the chair are made from cocktail sticks. Finished off with a coat of white acrylic, they make a lovely addition to any no use house.

Here they are in action.....



I made two tables so that he can have one in his house, and the other is for when he is crafting with Maddy. :)

The full pics and story is on Maddy's blog here.

Wanna know a little secret? If any of you are in any doubt as to how much Maddy loves this mouse......last time i was up at Maddy's, we were tucked up in bed "having a cuddle". However for about half an hour, Maddy couldn't concentrate on anything else because she knew a certain little someone was tied up in the other room!!!

Unbelievable!

Calv.

Thursday 11 December 2008

Fruit i inked today!

Hilooooo my fruity friends!!! :)

Firstly may i offer my sincere apologies for the lack of fruit last week, i haven't been in hiding or anything, just a little rushed off my feet with things. I felt my crafty head had upped and left me again, but that may have had something to do with my craft room being so messy, i couldn't get to the table!

This week i struggled with what to ink in a major way. Although there are many other fruits out there, they are not all accessible to me. So i have to make do with what few fruits that there are in the local grocers.

So this week i had to make do with the only one in the shop that i have not featured yet......and i almost wish i hadn't lol......so please put your hands together for....the MANGO!!!
.

This was not nice to ink at all! Theres something about the mango's skin that makes the ink dry very quickly, which in turn makes it dull quickly too. Not a good thing when you want a colourful fruit!

There were however some nice patterns that emerged on it.....the photo doesn't really do it justice but some of the layers of colour were lovely to look at.....
.

I think my favourite part of this fruit was a pattern i found whilst photographing it. Interesting fact time......i have a bit of a fondness for the night sky and the gorgeous pictures that come from it. Some of the most beautiful pics are of the many "nebula" that are up there. These are clouds of dust, gas and other spacey bits, and they are the first step in the life cycle of a star.
.
Now one of my fave pics is of the "Horsehead Nubula" which can be found in the constellation Orion. Heres a piccy of it.....

.
Beautiful eh? You can see where it gets it's name from. So what has this got to do with my fruit you might ask? Well......look what i found in the patterns of the ink.....
.
.
Yes ok, maybe not something NASA would be proud of lol, but i like to think of it as my very own fruity horse head nebula! :)
.
Fruitinkability rating? I think a lowly 3 for the mango, mainly because it dried to quick and went very dull very quickly. The colours weren't vibrant enough on the skin. So a poor performance from what you would imagine would be a colourful fruit.
.
Now then, i have mentioned many times that at some point i would run out of fruit, and i'm just about at that point now. So instead of making my task of searching for fruit each week even harder, i'm going to move on to my new feature of "Veg i inked today!". Very original i know, but it had to be the natural progression after my fruity subjects.
.
Next week though, i am going to leave the fruit inking saga with a repeat of a rather special fruit from past episodes. Not sure which one yet, but i have one in mind. :)
.
Thanks for tuning in, i hope i have found you all well and in fine crafty spirits. Till next time..... :)

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Back with a tag.

Hi all :)

Sorry for being absent recently, have had a few things on. he the longer i was gone from here, the less crafty i felt. Not good.

So tonight i sat down and forced myself to do a real basic tag....



Nothing too fancy, background paper from the DCWV "Once Upon A Time" collection, some blending with Distress Inks, some ferns from my new Fern Family punch, and stamped willow branches.....not forgetting a fairy in the forest, courtesy of Maddy who gave me a set of lovely fairy stamps (Cheers Maddy xx). A bit of ribbon around the edge and that was enough for me to feel crafty again.

I made this because it has been in my head constantly lately. My youngest watched the video about the Cottingley Fairies the other day, it's her fave. She now wants us to go into the forest and find our very own "beck" (like a stream) where fairies live. :)

Thank you once again for all of you who have visited recently, and a big thank you to those who have commented. It's nice to come back to such nice and funny comments when you're up to your ears in it! :)

Saturday 6 December 2008

I'm not going to be popular in Heaven.

Hi everyone :)

I'm having a bit of a breather after returning from Maddy's last week, yep she tired me out getting me to make cups of tea all the time.....(cue sympathy). :)

So I'm spending a few days relaxing with the kids, and trying my hardest to get into the Christmas spirit. So today we thought we do the decorations and the Christmas tree. Out comes the old faithful tree from the loft, and went up no problems.

Now for as long as i can remember, my Christmas tree has been adorned with something different on it's top each year. Not a star, not an angel......oh no.....as a perk to having little girls in the house, I've had a Barbie or a Bratz doll taped to the top of my tree every year! No kidding, without fail i end up with a doll on my treetop. I swear to God that last year Barbies eyes were watering!

So this year i decided we'd have an angel. So this afternoon i was all set to stick it on the tree, when i accidentally stepped on it's face!!! Flippin typical!





Great! Instead of an angelic looking beauty on the tree, i now have what can only be described as the Elephant Man in drag......with a dodgy wing!

The rest of the decorations went up fine, i went a bit stupid with a can of spray snow though, so now my house looks like the aftermath of an explosion in Lapland!

So i hope your Christmas planning is going better than mine. I hope i find you all well and smiley. I will be back on track with my blog after the weekend, i just needed a few days with my girls and to get some sort of order back in the crafty mess that is my house!

Thank you to everyone who has visited me even when I've been away. Much appreciated it is, and i'll repay the kindness with a tour around blogland later on. Thank you too to the people who have given me awards, i will sort them out asap.

See ya soon. :)

Friday 5 December 2008

Right then! Times up!!!

So then Calvin Mouse! I went easy on you earlier due to Maddy waking up, and i gave you a day to get my stamp back....so why do i find myself sat here without a certain Sugar Nellie stamp?
Not good my furry little friend.....not good at all!

I mean we are mates and all that Calvin Mouse, but a stamp is a stamp and I'm sure any crafter would feel the same. In fact I've seen crafters do terrible things over missing stash, you should see Maddy when her fave ribbon is missing!!! I'm still having therapy from when i accidentally used her new 12 x 12's for wiping up glue!

So I'm sorry Calvin but.....


The alcohol ink it is then!!!

Sorry Calvin Mouse but you brought this on yourself. Assisting a known stamp thief is a crafty crime beyond belief, and one that must be dealt with swiftly, and colourfully

So then, we've started with the Stream blue ink....do you want to divulge any info yet? Or do i have to go for the.....CRANBERRY!!!
.


OK, we're playing hard guy are we? Right then......oh hang on....postman is at the door.....
Ah.....um......well......um........well......thing is.......it's a funny story actually.......you see......in fact you really wouldn't believe it......the postmen has just brought me a parcel.

On the front of the envelope is some writing which says, "Sorry about the delay, got lost at the sorting office".
.
.
I've just opened it....and you'll never believe this.....um.....how do i say this....ummm....this was inside.....
.
.
It would appear that Maddy sent it a while back and it got lost in our wonderful postal system!
.
I am so sorry Calvin Mouse! I should have known you wouldn't have helped out in such a terrible crime when you have such an honest and lovable name as you do. I feel really bad,i really do.
.
Tell you what, so there are no hard feelings, I'll do this for you. Firstly I'll give Maddy my brand new bottle of blending solution to get you cleaned up. Secondly, it's really bad weather up here and i need to get back to collect my girls from school tomorrow. If i stay, the snow will not let me travel, so as a gesture of friendship, from one man to another......you can have my Grease night ticket so you can go with Maddy!!!
Oh yes my groovy little rodent friend.....yourself......and the leather jacket and medallion WILL GO TO THE BALL!!!
.
Sound good? Aha i can see that smile under that ink there.....so off you go, and let me know how you get on OK. I'll keep an eye on Maddy's blog for the update.
.
Sorry again Calvin Mouse, i will go forth into my craft room and ink myself as punishment!

Thursday 4 December 2008

Maddy's asleep so.........

RIGHT THEN YOU FURRY LITTLE RUNT!!!

You might try and look cute on Maddy's blog, but she's asleep now so you have nowhere to hide your furry little butt!



It's no good pouting your lip like that either, the "RSPCA advert" look won't wash with me mister!



We are going to be here until i find out where you and Maddy have put my Sugar Nellie stamp! I know it's in the craft room somewhere, and as you spend most of your time here......i guess you are the next best person to ask!

So whats it going to be? The tweezers or maybe a pokey tool somewhere eh? Oh yes my furry little friend, no-one pinches my stamp and gets away with it!

The balls in your court now Calvin Mouse!!! It's my Sugar Nellie stamp back in my craft bag by tomorrow night....or i'll be back for a chat without cheese and biscuits!



Oh nice one! You've woken Maddy now, ok ok stop you're squeaking.....i'll let you go for now.....but i'll be watching ya!

*Note: Don't worry bloggers, no mouse was harmed during this interrogation......he still has a day to come with the goods! :)