Trick or Treat.

The boys are off out tonight trick or treating Iv'e told them not to knock on our neighbours door as she is pregnant and we don't want her going into premature labour at the sight of these two on her doorstep!!!!

Back on track.

I'm back on track with dress no7. for the African dress a child appeal. This one has been made using 5" charm squares that I received from my partner in a recent swap. She very kindly enclosed them as a little extra gift. Thankyou "Retromama".
I could have just added them to my (cannot possible use just look at stash) but decided to see if I could arrange enough of the squares to make a little dress possible. Well it took 38 in all and I still have some squares over to make 1/2 a dress or loads of little pockets.!


I found some pale pink shirt material in my stash given to me by my MIL yrs and yrs ago (I do keep things for a long long time) and used this for the binding and strap along with some old lace as trimming.


The only material I had over this time from the squares was where I cut the arm hole shapes out and this was used up on the little flower adornment. Button courtsey of Sherry. Pleased with how this has turned out.

Showcasing on:
1st Unique Gifts.
Made it myself Mondays.

July Days.

The July page this week for the Calendar challenge over at the Craft Barn is to use the colours
Lilac/Purple and dry Embossing.
I used Lilac card stock and cut a strip for the blanking days which I then put through a floral embossing folder. The letters were die cut from purple paper and then collectively put through the same embossing folder. The flower has been made using white tissue and chalking each layer alternantely purple and lilace . The leaves were stamped out with the veins coloured in using coloured pencil and then chalked over with green.



Would also like to enter into the following challenge.
One stitch at a time: Emboss it.

Altoids Alteration.

I have just taken part in a swap to alter an Altoids mints tin and to fill with Autumn fall coloured buttons.

Having found out that though Altoids is a British product it is exported mainly to America I went on line and found a shop selling them on Amazon. Managed to get one of the remaining two that they had in stock. Phew!!

The tin needed a base coat first so I coated the outside using "Jo Sonja's " velvet matte finish paint in Unbleached Titanium. I had already started to paint when I realised I should have taken a picture of the unaltered tin first. Remembered just in time!

Next up find the buttons to go inside. This is where I lost 2 days choosing and making my selection! I even made some shrink plastic ones . I love using this product as it is so versitile.

The swap said a minimum of 40 buttons but I managed to cram in a whopping 66. Hows that for value.

The inside of the tin lid and base I covered in cream satin material and a shrink plastic butterfly

(my theme for this year). I used cream lace to go round the tin lid and base of outside of tin. With

opening and shutting of the lid I found that the paint was begining to wear off around the rim of the tin so I combated that by using some' Inka Gold' metal gloss paint rubbing in well to a nice high sheen.

I really went to town on the lid as my partner said she was a girly girl. Using autumn colours I made some flowers and stamped leaves (using Forest Moss ink) from white cardstock. I coloured using distress ink in Wild Honey and Firebrick Red. Just inked my craft sheet with each colour, spritzed with water and then dropped each petal and leaf onto it and moved around to get the colour effect I wanted. Scrunched the petals up and allowed to dry then glued together. Some more shrink plastic butterflies, scrap of lace, ribbon and an acorn pinched from The Boys stash of nuts and the tin was complete.

I just about managed to shut the lid of the tin without resorting to sitting on it!!

Would like to enter into the following challenges.

Crafty Ribbons: Ribbon & Lace.

C.R.A.F.T. challenges: Autumn.

By the cute & Girly: Anything Goes.

Stamps R Us: Natures Gifts.

Knit one!

Last week I showed some knits that I made for the Child Christmas Appeal over on Annie 'The Felt Fairy's" blog. I had made one mistake which I found when I was sewing them up and invited my followers to spot it with a prezzie for the first correct answer.
Carol of "Carols Ditty Kingdom" came up with the error and in her comment said she didn't want a prize but if she was right would I make another woolly for the boxes for her. So I downloaded another pattern and here is the finished item. A girls Chunky wool bag.



This has now been sent off to Annie from Carol.

Show casing this on
1st Unique Gifts: Handmade Mondays
Made it Myself Mondays:

Lazy Days!

The calendar challenge over at the Craft Barn for month six is to use Turquoise and lace. This really stumped me as June to me conjures up warm lazy summer days and roses every where.
Then I thought of using butterflies and swirls . The strip of lace covering the blanking days started out as white but looked too stark so I coloured using a pro marker in Coral. The big butterflies are coloured in using Coral and Azure and adhered with sticky pads. The small butterflies were the same size but stamped out using shrink plastic. Some were coloured in before I used the heat gun and some after they had been shrunk. Glossy Accents finished them off. The days of the week and the tiny random butterflies were stamped using the Azure promarker as the ink. Pleased with the result as turquoise was a hard colour to find and match up with .



Entering into the following challenge
Flutterby Wednesday: Open challenge. Must have a Fairy, Angel or Butterfly.

WOYWW 124.

This was the state of my desk at 3am this morning when I abandoned it!
I had intended to get started on altering my Altoids tin for the button swap but ended up playing with the buttons I had collected for it instead. The pile of pink charm squares are from the USA and were included in a swap I recently did. Planning on joining them altogther and making a sheet of fabric and then cutting a little patchwork dress out for the dress a child appeal. The dark christmas tree fabric is left over from cutting out 56 5" squares for a christmas material swap have entered into. Took absolutely ages and then I had to iron em all and get them all posted off by yesterday.
I will eventually receive 56 squares back of 28 different fabrics which I have plans on using for a project I have up my sleeve. Some friendly plastic strips I still havn't used yet and a knitting pattern that I downloaded to make another knitty for the christmas box child appeal. Carol was the first to spot my un deliberate mistake on Mr Elephants foot/paw and said as she didn't want a prezzie would I make something else to send off to include in the boxes.

A lot of people have commented on my sewing machine cover. I did not make this. Again it was a swap that I entered . My cover went off to America and this is the one I received. My partner knew me well to make it in pink!.

If you want to have a good old snoop on some more desks pop on over to Julia's blog. There will be lots to see. Happy snooping.

Nuts!

We start feeding the birds in the garden about now and get through an enormous amount of bird feed each year. Mr squirrel puts in a regular appearance too.
There seems to be an abundance of acorns this year which are all over the paths and getting crushed underfoot so I sent the boys out to collect as many whole nuts as they could find.

Er just a minute boys where are you off too you havn't finished the

the job yet!!!!!

On the go.

Have been taking some time out from making the little dresses for the African Appeal to do some knitting for a blogging friend ' The Felt Fairy '. Annie put out a call for someone to make her some knited items to go in the boxes that she does each year for 'Operation Christmas Child' and who was I to refuse. So a good rummage in my wool stash for the correct yarns and right size needles and this is what I have produced. I found the actual knitting was done in no time but the sewing up seemed to take ages and thats when I found the mistake Der!!! Can any eagle eyes out there spot it? Prezzie for the 1st one to work it out.

Entering into the following.

1st Unique Gifts: Handmade Mondays.

Divas By Design: Button Up.

Birds of a Feather.

Birds of a feather stick together!
The theme for the current May calendar challenge at The Craft Barn is Pink and Birds and to use a 'Crafty Individuals' stamp if possible.
I have their CI - 234 bird stamp which I randomly stamped onto a blank sheet of paper (I had already printed the month and year onto) using Memento 'London Fog'. The days of the week is another of their stamps (sorry don't know which one) that I stamped using a pink pigment ink pad and then wrote the days in on the apple part.. The large bird is by T.H. and has been crackle painted and then over stamped with the pink pad and adhered using sticky pads. Feathers are curtesy of the birds on the River Thames.

Also entering this week into the following challenges
Simon Says Stamps: Stamp and show things with wings.
Hooked on Craft: Anything but a card.
Fasionable Stamping: Anything but a card.
Crafty Individuals: Winged things.

April Showers.

So onto the April calendar page for The Craft Barn challenge which couldn't for me be anything other than 'April Showers'. The theme for this month was masks and yellow.
I used a Tando creative mask called 'Garden with Watering Can' as I thought I could work that quite well into the page. The mask was made up of several elements watering can, flowers & grass, clouds & sun and butterflies (which I didn't incorporate on this occasion). The mask was placed over the page and I coloured using promarkers being careful not to let the paper bleed.
Picture is not that brilliant but if you look closely you should just be able to see that the watering can is spraying drops of water i.e. Glossy accents down the page. (I love using this product). My take on april showers!
Blanking days are more masked clouds raining this time and the days of the week were masked onto a seperate sheet cut out , covered with Glossy accents and adhered with foam sticky pads.


Phew!! Coasting down hill now as I have caught up with the current theme for this week which is
Pink (my fav colour) and Birds so watch this space as they say.

March Hares.

This is my March Calendar page for the challenge over at The Craft Barn. This month you must use the colour green somewhere on your page and flowers which can be stamps, dies, drawings, doodling images,embellishments etc so quite a choice. March to me makes Hares spring to mind so having looked through my stamps I found this cute rabbit which for the purposes of my page has now turned into a Hare.!!
I stamped him hopping randomly (as Hares do) around the page using distressed ink 'Forest Moss' and to make the buttons for the days of the week which are adhered with sticky pads so they stand out.
The flowers were made using the three smallest sizes of a scallop nestie from plain cardstock, colouring with watercolour pencils, spritzing with water and scrunching up. Once dry they were layered up and drizzled with Glossy Accents. Leaves were made from a leaf stamp again coloured with the pencils and sprizted so they curled slightly as they dried. Blanking days are little flower brads.


Off to make the next month now which can't be anything else but 'April Showers'!!

Spooky!!

The boys have been delving in my odds and ends craft stash and seem to have commandered one or two things. I did ask what they wanted them for but they just said "It's Spooky" so best to leave it at that I think for the present. They did ask though if they have the same insides as me? Off to find the answer unless of course you know?

WOYWW no 122

Very late today . So what can you see. Well there is the start of the March calendar page. Theme is green and flowers so okay with that after the embossing crystals fiasco. See previous posts for Jan and Feb. The next up cyclyed dress is all unpicked and ready to be altered and you can just see in the background a pretty nightie that I picked up for a song in the local charity shop. It has lovely buttons and lace on it and should make 3 more little dresses from it as it is full length.
Playing around with making flowers at the moment and a little rabbit stamp that I found in my stash. He may just have to grow into a Hare though for the March page.!!!!!


If youv'e got a spare mo why not pop on over to Julia's blog for a good old rummage around others people's desks. It's very telling and also very addictive.

True Love!

As February next year has 29 days (being leap year) my Calendar page couldn't really have anything else but a heart theme especially as the challenge at the Craft Barn is for Red and Embossing.
I used Distress ink in Fired Brick red to over stamp the days using a heart stamp and to blank out days not required. February 14th has a red heart for Valentines Day.
I really had fun or not for the embossing part. Following the instructions on the Cosmic Shimmer Embossing Crystals jar I used the ink pad to cover an area with ink then sprinkled on a thick layer of crystals. Instructions then said melt the crystals with a heat gun until molten. Well you have to catch the darn things first cos as soon as you switch the heat gun on your in a sand storm!!! Got there in the end by placing in a deep tin and covering with a piece of paper then wipipng off at the last minute before the crystals set. Once melted you can then push a stamp into the molten surface and leave to cool. Phew!! 3hours later and a near empty jar of crystals I managed to get a an embossed heart which I cut out and then rubbed over with Inka Gold. Picture is not very clear but it really does shine. The days are hearts cut from card and again rubbed over with Inka Gold and attached with foam pads to give some dimension.


Off to make the March page now as still running to catch up.

January Already!!

Over at The Craft Barn They are running a 12 week calendar challenge where you create a different month each week.

Week 1 was to create January using the colour Blue and crackle.

The whole calendar does not have to be blue, but you must include at least a bit of blue and some crackle ( paste,paint,glaze,stamp, image with crackle whatever....) on your calendar entry - whether it is the first page or a complete calender.

This seemed a pretty good challenge for me to tackle as I usually have copious pieces of paper/post it notes stuck all over my desk with challenge and swap deadlines written down. Have it all in one place I thought stuck behind my lap top. Easy Peasy. So from next year on I will be organised!!!

Decided to go with a large sheet with room to write notes on each day.

January , blue and crackle imediately sprung into my mind as Winter, snowflakes and icicles.

I played around with various layouts just stamping large and small snowflakes over a sheet of plain paper but decided that was too heavy and would be hard to read any writing on.

Finally came up with the above result.

Month and date are computer generated and printed onto plain white paper which I then ruled up to make the seperate days and dates. I then randomly stamped plain spaces and stenciled spaces using Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire distress ink. I attached white lace across the top of the page which I thought looked a lot like icicles hanging down.

The die is Snowflake from Sizzix which stamps out in two sizes. Some I cut out using plain blue paper and the rest from card. These were painted over with distress crackle paint which because I only had it in Brushed Corduroy I painted over using white acrylic matte finish. Again some of these I overtamped using the distress inks. I then covered the days and blanking snowflakes with glossy accents and attached with sticky pads to give dimmension.

Off to make February now as I'm running to catch up.