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....................................

Another crafty Friday

Well as you can see I had my usual chaos around me and lucky I got in early (well I run it so I have to be early) so I could spread myself around ha ha.  I had lots of wee things that I wanted to do today so after being made a lovely cup of herbal tea from the cafe (thanks to John and Paul who run it) I started.  By starting what I mean is putting my stuff out, chatting to our other members, looking at their goodies, setting out the club goodies (for anyone to use) and ordering my lunch - then down to business!   First of all I made a few Christmas cards - I find it easier to make the cards first thing so we can all chat and look at what everyone else is doing.  Although I made 5 these are my favorite two - the first one is a simple pyramage one and I used some clear sparkle glitter on it and I like the colours on it.   The second one uses 2 toppers - one big one stuck down with double sided pads and one small one dangling from a wee bow using black thick thread - I don't know who i'll give this one to - think i'll give it to youngest daughter so I can have it here!

After the cards (and another tea) I decided to make some Christmas ornaments - the 1st one was an easy one made from paper - 7 shapes cut out and folded in 1/2 from top to bottom and then glued the 1/2's together to make the decoration.  I used garden twine for the hanging loop because I quite like the scruffy sort of look it has.   Here it is.......

Then I thought I would have a shot at trying a wee fairy - I wanted it to be really simple and easy to make (so I can do this with the children in the girls club).  I threaded my twine through a bead leaving enough to hang it from and tied a knot at the top.  I left the twine long enough to make wee legs and tied knots at the bottom of it and then used another piece of twine to make the arms with knots at the end.  I cut out 2 dresses from sticky backed felt and sandwiched everything between them.  For the wings I used parchment paper but instead of embossing I just settled with pricking - although I think when I make more of them I will use stickles or glitter gel pens for extra sparkle - after all what is a fairy without sparkle.  Not a very good picture but in all honesty not a very good fairy but ok for a first attempt.   here she is

Then onto my hat pins - well beady pins I call them.  I got some long pins (blunt) and glued a variety of beads onto them.  I like a bit of colour but I especially like pearls or cheap pearl look alikes ha ha - anyway finished them off and here they are all ready to be added to my posher cards for special people.

I had a large heart shaped bead and found a pin to go through it and attached it to a chain that I use for my bag charms - I think it makes a pretty nice keyring - hope you think so too!

And my final finishing off project today was my kusudama ball - to make it I had to make 60 origami type petals - they made 12 five petal flowers when glued together.   The ball was made in 2 halves with 6 flowers in each.  To make it nice and secure it had to be wet glue that held it all together and while it was drying I secured each petal and flower with paper clips so nothing moved!  When it was time to stick the 2 halves together I slipped the wool to hang it from (could be ribbon or twine) and left enough room to add some nice beads to dangle from the bottom!  It's easy to do but time consuming and fiddly - I had everything attached except the beads so that was my job and after it was finished the manager of the Centre liked it so much I gave it to him to hang in the front office - that's where I do my volunteer work so I can look at it every day.  Hope you like this as much as I do - it's the type of thing that I'm going to give my special friends at Christmas for good luck and good health.

Anyway - I think that is enough for today - you will be cross eyed with all the reading as this seems to be a long post.   I'm glad I've got everything in it though.........
until the next time.............

A busy day

What a busy couple of days it's been - yesterday was a flurry of cardmaking at my craft club in the Millennium Centre because it was the Table Sale in a local Church.  Emma was selling her bracelets,ear-rings and necklaces and I wanted to do some cards for her table for added interest.  It wasn't fantastically busy but she sold a few bits and pieces.   David had a good time and managed to buy lots of dogs for his vast collection of stuffed dogs - poor Emma was loaded down with them all. I will post some pics of crafty things as soon as I can get back on the computer and download them.  Woo-hoo - happy dance (well happy arm swing) - I was actually here when my felt delivery arrived so I don't have to re-arrange delivery and can start on my.................(I'll whisper it).............Christmas decorations - yes it's that time of year already.   It's not a secret that I'm making most of my presents this year and it's not because I'm tight......ha ha well it might have a tiny bit to do with it - it's just easier and combines two of mt favourite things - you guessed it......the 2 C's .......Christmas and Crafting!  Now for some serious planning and looking through books - ha ha altogether a good day.  Until the next time..........

First Post

Oh - how scary is this - my first post on my first blog so I'll keep it short to see if everything works the way it should.   It's really strange to be typing not knowing if anyone will ever read this.......but if you are 'hello'!   I'm going to use this a kind of diary with pictures of what i'm doing both in my life and my crafting - it won't always be perfect but will be honest!!  I thought I would start by showing you a photo of my sour faced old dog Dylan - he is a big part of our family alongside our ancient cat.  As you can see from his face he is not impressed with being down at the beach for his morning walk - all he wants to do is lounge about on his cushions and he really does US a big favour by coming out with us - and he lets us know it too!!  Anyway i'm going to attempt to put a photo on now so fingers crossed.....here goes.   Ha ha now I know the photo gets put on the top - i'll remember that the next time.  Until the next time ......