Brrr Autumn is here

Well here we are again - another Friday and another blog and now I know that I'm not talking to myself it makes it all a bit more real.   First is the family stuff - my youngest daughter has been moaning that I don't mention her very often so a big hello Wendy!!  On your right is our grandson David on a school riding lesson - because he goes to a special school he gets riding lessons as part of his curriculum - he loved it but unfortunately we don't have a back garden big enough for a horse!!  The big tree has been taken down from the back garden and it seems really bare now - i'm going to have to start looking at gardening mags to get ideas on what to plant in its place.  The back garden is still a mess though and it will be a while before things can get organised to how I think it should look.

I've done a few ATCs to post off for an October swop on one of the craft forums - hopefully Anne has got them by now so I can put photos on next week hopefully - the theme was flowers so nice summery ATC's that are in lovely warm colours.   But that's for next week so back to this week's crafty work.

  I found an old box at the car boot sale - now I know that all the experienced crafters will throw their hands in the air when I tell you what I did to it - and it is probably everything that I shouldn't do so be warned - this could be shock horror time!   The box had shells glued to the top of it so the first thing I did was hack off all the shells and sand it until it was smooth - then I got my distress ink out and rubbed it gently all over the top and sides.   Silicone glued lace and ribbon on the side and added a couple of die cut paper daisies and put a blob of  yellow stickles in the middle of them.

I then chose a nice background paper and silicone glued it into the middle of the lid, then built up the die cut decoupage and stuck it down where I thought it looked best.   I added stickles fine glitter glue over the aprons to give a bit of shine.  I had some flower pots that I didn't really know what to do with for a long time and thought I would add it onto the lid to make it look summery - I blobbed green stickles on the leaves and the fine clear glitter glue over the pots and flowers to make them look shiny.   This is the first time I have tried anything like this and I like the look of it - I think I will have to read some blogs and use utube to see how to alter boxes properly as this was a real stab in the dark and not knowing what I was doing type of thing!!  typical of me though!!

 The last couple of things I want to show you is a cross stitch key-ring - it may look small but it took me 5 hours to do over a couple of days - I really like the celtic knots but it does hurt the eyes with all the small counting - I think I prefer big cross stitches but I've got a few more key-rings to make as extra stocking filler pressies - this one is for my friend Ann-Marie - oops sorry Ann-Marie I know you like to keep all your pressies secret until Christmas Eve ha ha ha (wicked laugh)

The very last thing is a knitted flower brooch - arghhhh this is my first attempt at knitting and I used an Usbourn How To Knit Book - ha ha - I'm not going to tell you how many times I ripped it apart and googled instructions but....I did it and like it enough to use as a present for someone.  It is simply (for other people not me!) knitted as 5 leaf type shapes that are sewn together to make the flower shape - I added 2 buttons for the middle and a large brooch pin at the back. I kept trying to flatten the petals out until one of the ladies in my craft club said it looked more realistic as a flower with the bent in petals.
I've started another knotted flower now but using a different method - I will probably have it done by next week.................so until the next time (if i'm not tied up in wool)

                 

Quiet Craft day

Well here we are - another Friday so it's craft club again.   It's the Oct week holiday so 4 of our members were off too!  It gave us more room to spread ourselves out so more mess but....who cares when you're crafting ha ha.

The first thing I did (don't laugh) was to start on an Easter Card (yes.... Easter in October) - it's an idea I had for a good friend.  I started the iris folded cross in two colours and am pleased at how it has turned out - the next thing I'm going to do is make various wee paper flowers to kind of drape over it as though they are dangled from the left side as though they are going over the back to the right and then draped down the front to the bottom where it will look like a pool of Easter coloured flowers - well that's the plan anyway.

I've been messing about a bit with acetate this week and thought I would try something with my daughter's 18th birthday card - It is an 8" square card and the topper is a decoupaged rose on nice background paper and acetate wrapped around it to make a kind of dome around it and I wrote on it with a calligraphy pen - I will have to try and improve my 'fancy' writing!  I went mad with ribbons and gems but I was happy with the finished product - I had a bit of trouble with the sticky pads that lifted the topper from the main card but after hours of it lifting up and curling over I discovered that if I put silicone gel glue on and weighted it until it dried it was ok - so a lesson was learnt through trial and error. 

Feeling confident about using acetate I tried something a bit different - so I popped some peel off angels onto it and coloured them using promarkers.  I cut them out and after putting background paper onto gold mirror card and going round edges with more peel-offs I cut small thin strips of acetate and attached them to the back (of the front) of the card and attached the little angels to dangle and dance about in the breeze - I like the movement in this card and will probably make more for friends children to make it a bit different from the usual Santa and presents kind of card I give them.  I'm slowly getting used to using acetate now and am getting more ideas on how to use it in different ways - so look out for some more acetate cards in the future.

Woo Hoo - I have actually finished the border of my wedding sampler - it has taken me ages and ages (sorry Colin and Sheila) and it will probably end up as a Christmas or anniversary present - for those who are interested it is the Wedding ABC sampler that has 26 little boxes for wedding type words/pictures with banner boxes for longer pictures and a big box in the centre for a cross stitch bride and groom (did I mention it would be Christmas 2013 or 2nd anniversary present ha ha).   I will post a picture every week to update you on my progress and keep me on track so I'd better get cross stitching tomorrow for next weeks picture!

The cross stitch is being held up by my wee assistant also known as my grandson David - he gets paid in juice and bacon rolls in the cafe!  He was helping me before going into Boys Club and decided to sit and do some crafting himself - he made a lovely wee Santa with strange pointy teeth because he was a 'nasty' Santa - hmmm I think he's taking being a boy too seriously as he really seems to like stories about 'bad' boys/pets/machines etc etc.  He is 7 and goes to Prospect Bank Special School and was really really really bored having to wait a whole 25 minutes for the club to start - thank goodness it was only 25 minutes - how many times in 25 minutes can a boy ask how long now?  The answer is too many ha ha!!!!
I hope that everyone who reads this has a good week..........until the next time

A horrible day

What a horrible day it has been here in Edinburgh - I think we have had all seasons and all types of weather in a 24 hour period!  I've not been feeling too good so I've been at home and the furthest I have got in tidying up is thinking about it.............full of good intentions but today the old body is refusing to do anything at all so it's been lots of rest and painkillers for me!

We are getting the big tree cut down in the back garden at the end of the week because it's roots are starting to affect my next door neighbour and it won't be too long before the buildings start to lift so the men are coming with their big machinery to chop it to bits - my poor old cat Koko is buried in the back garden so I will have to make sure that his wee plot isn't dug up too - thank goodness he's buried away from the big tree!  He is waiting at Rainbow Bridge for us now.   

Not been able to do any crafting today - it's taken me all my time to lift a pill to my mouth so crafting is out of the question just now - hopefully it will be better by tomorrow so..................until the next time

Crafty Club Friday

Well here we are again - another Friday another Craft Club day and I really enjoyed it today - we welcomed another new member (hello Marcelle) and chatted and laughed our way through the session!

This is taken at the beginning before everybody had arrived and as you can see I am a really messy crafter ha ha - everybody else had beautiful neat organised piles where mine is just exploded all over the place.   The only thing missing is my coffee cup - I really need my mocca to start the day off right!   Lots of different things going on today - we had calligraphy, cross-stitch,felt sewing and jewellery making as well as my papercrafting so lots of things to look at and admire.

Thought I would work on some Christmas Cards today so here is my efforts - 2  easel cards (would you believe that I've never made them before so it's a first for me).  A decoupage winter scene with pinflair gel instead of sticky pads and a matted and layered one.

 I thought I would have a go at making a paper rose - so here is my practise one made from normal photocopy paper with the edges just lightly dabbed with distress ink - I'm quite pleased at how it turned out and I will be making more of them to put on my die cut type of cards - I have been naughty and got myself some more embossing folders and no doubt you will see them creeping in more and more over the coming months.   Well that is enough from me just now - so happy crafting everyone......... until the next time

Busy day

What a busy day it has been - in fact what a busy week it has been!  I've not really managed to do much crafting but I have done atc's to send off to a forum member for a swop and it was one of my favourite themes - flowers.  I'm not going to post them here until I post them off and she gets them because I know she reads my blogs on the blog hops that we do - ha ha yes it's YOU - you know who you are!!
I've taken a real liking to making wee fairies for the tree or for hanging on things - I did try some with faces but I think I prefer them without - it makes them look a bit more mysterious and fairy like - I went a bit overboard with the glitter spray and the smell can still knock you on your back! ha ha

 here are a few of the smelly offending fairies and I hope leaving them out will let the 'glue' smell go away and I can pack them away to give as extra wee pressies before Christmas.  I thought it would be a good idea to give my special friends and girls in the craft club an early present of 12 different tree decorations - I've made enough fairies now so I think on Friday Craft Club I will make a start on the felt ones.

It is 'pink' day at my grandson's school on Friday and since he will absolutely refuse to wear anything pink (because he's a boy he tells us loudly) my daughter sat and made a pink pig brooch for him to wear using some of my felt and glitter gems - it has a proper brooch back on it and it's something that he will wear without too much argument!

The building is part of the community centre that I volunteer in - there is only 2 paid staff and that is the manager (full time) and an assistant (15hrs a week) so it is up to all the local volunteers to run it - I do the office/front desk and some admin work and the other volunteers do everything else including running the busy cafe - all funds going back to the Centre for groups and clubs we run.
The weather is getting colder now - it's frosty in the early morning and it won't be too long before people are scraping their cars so it really is time to put the heating on now - goodbye summer hello autumn!  I love the trees at this time of year - the colours are beautiful and I'm thinking about taking some nice photos to use as backgrounds or toppers for cards - not done this before but quite fancy it - possibly do it over a year starting now to make a nice calendar to give next Christmas........oh no the crafter in me has taken over and I'm planning for next year before this one is over!!!  Time goes too fast as it is...........anyway........... until the next time

What a waste!!

This is Edinburgh's answer to what people want to look at when they look out their windows - it doesn't matter that budgets are being slashed, voluntary projects are having to close and people are losing their jobs right left and center   Yes - what we want is........sticky up stones placed in between plants and shells (yes shells and not even local shells - shells transported to a coastal city with it's own shells on the beaches!) shoveled around them and can you guess how much this is costing the tax payer of Edinburgh .......£35,000 (thirty five thousand pound!) What a waste!!
Anyway onto more pleasant matters - can you guess - yes my favourite hobby - crafting!

Christmas card and 2 birthday cards
matting and layering

Well here we have my usual messy chaotic table in my craft club and from that mess I was able to make the cards that you see in the photos - and you will no doubt notice that I have discovered how to make them smaller so I'm not taking up all the room on the page!

matted and layered fairy and 2 decoupage birthday - I like the middle one best 

fast quick cards and I even stamped on one

my favourite 3 cards of the day!

I had really good fun making these cards - lots of chat and tea and laughing with my crafting pals so a good time was had by all - I even attempted a card flower - it was stamped and kind of folded into shape with the tips of the flowers rolled over - I used distress ink and shaded it in using my new ink blender and I think I'll take it to craft club next week to have a good go at it.   The photos were taken in the office that I volunteer in because the light was better there and the table was such a mess when I finished in the club it took me ages to get it cleared up - ah well I suppose it's not crafting if there is no mess - well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!  Until the next time  x

A rainy day

Ha ha - since this is such a horrible rainy day here in Edinburgh I thought I would cheer everybody up with a picture of my lovely grandson after baking at school - as you can see he is as enthusiastic about baking as he is with everything else and I think he worked under a cloud of flour.  His teacher took this picture but it is so typically him - messy, cheeky, enthusiastic and just plain cute!

 I've rediscovered my passion for ATCs' and am in the middle of sorting out the tool box I use to keep all the ATC stash in so that I can get to work on them - as if there is not enough crafty things to do in the lead up to Christmas.  I've put a couple of my old ATCs' on to let you see what I do - the first picture is of daffodils because they are really my favourite flower - really bright happy flowers that make me smile every time I see them - the top left one is stamped and coloured with promarkers and mounted twice onto backing paper and stuck down on daffodil backing paper that I downloaded.  Top right is iris folded daffodil using bright origami paper - when I finished the iris folding I covered it with another apperture daffodil card and sprayed it with silver glitter spray (love glitter) then just mounted and put some gems on it.  Bottom one is daffodil topper mounted onto card with green metallic thread
threaded around it then mounted onto card with paper ribbon and brads.

 

The next few are 2 x love theme - one simple and basic with topper mounted onto different layers and paper ribbon with heart brads - the other one is peel off on white card and simple colours dabbed into the flowers and leaves.  Mounted on heart spotty paper (and sprayed with rose perfume).

The bottom 2 are Chinese New Year and really just toppers mounted onto backing card and mirri-board.  I drew (ha ha yes I drew) a hare on black pearlised paper and cut it out and the writing on the sentiments are just written with felt pens.

I'm just back from the community council meeting for our area and it was interesting - think I might have rubbed a couple of people up the wrong way though - ah well such is life and I don't think i'll loose any sleep over it.   

Until the next time....................................