Bunting & Flags.

My Tag for this weeks theme of Bunting and Flags for Tag Tuesday  has been collaged from a page in the Picture Post dated 13th June 1953 in celebration of the Queens Coronation.

Yep. I do keep things a really long time and they will all get used eventually!!!!!!



Altered Keys.

I recently entered the altered keys swap over on Tee's blog The Altered Paper.

The idea was to alter 2 old keys (Minimum 2" long) and send out to two different  partners.

We had a box full of over 50 keys which we had found whilst clearing out FIL's house last year. We never did find which locks they fitted but I kept them as I thought they would get used up in my crafting.







 First thing to do was to make them shabby looking so I gave them a coat of black acrylic artists 'paint and then buffed them up with a spot of Inka Gold paste.

Lots of bling later and here they are finished.  One pink, one blue made from lots of old broken beads,earings and brooches.

I have already shown in a previous post the boxes that I made for each one to go in.



Just to make  it more fun I packaged them up identically and then randomly stuck the address lables on so even I don't know which of my partners has which one!!!!!

Hope they like them.

 



Entering into Handmade Harbour: Handmade Monday.







Bits and Bobs.

I saw a tutorial for making these cute little corner bookmarks over on Joan's Gardens back in March but did not have time to participate in the challenge.  I was looking for a little something extra to send in with a tag swap I have just  completed and remembered this tutorial.  I have made mine slightly larger at 2.5" x   2.5" What is good about these is that you can use your snippets up on them.  Ok so technically they are not all my snippets as some were  sent to me  but as possession is 9 tenths of the law they are mine now!!!

I had the little bird paper so added some old lace and used a birdcage and bird that the lovely Nicola of Sunshine Reflections had sent to me. The rest I have put together from my stash of bits and bobs.



Here the pink one is being shown on a page in a book so you can see how  effective they are.

As these have used snippets I'm entering them into  Pixies Crafty Workshop  and as I have scheduled this post this link might also end up in timbuktu!



Steam Punk Collage.

My tag for this weeks Tag Tuesday Theme are all found items collected up from my late FIL's home. We collected over 50 keys from around the house and never did find which locks they fitted but I kept them anyway for crafting. The other bits were found in odd drawers and put in with the keys. I used 2 of the larger keys (on a recent swap) and whilst looking through the tin of keys thought that some of the bits and bobs would make a good 'Found Objects ' Tag. They made me think of steam punk so I decided to go with that idea. I found this steam punk collage on a great site called Free Vintage Digi Stamps and painted over the background using a brown watercolour pencil. Matted onto thick card and punched out a tag from my XCut nesties. The edges were rubbed over with Inka Gold and a few dabs put on the front too. The bits and pieces were randomly glued in place , a string hanging attached and as they say "Bob's your Uncle" one tag finished!

Happy Birthday Twinnie!

Iv'e made this card for my friend Gerry whose Birthday it is today. We used to work together

and coincidentally found that were we both born on the same day so affectionately  call ourselves "The Twinnies" Not only that but our respective hubbies have the same christian name !!!   (Another silly billions to 1 chance.)

This digi stamp from A Day for Daisies called Bewildered 'C' looks just like her. Gerry's hair always preceedes her into any room she enters so when it was released back in April I  just had to buy it in readiness for today. I have coloured the digi using my watercolour pencils and cut round the image and adhered to a doily. The backing paper is  a free scrapbook paper called Fashion Lady Collage which I found on this great site Free Vintage Digital Stamps.

Did I mention that Gerry is a bit of a Fashion Diva!!

The flowers are made using die cuts that the lovely  Nicola of Sunshine Reflections sent  to me when I mentioned to her that I couldn't get my hands on the new T.H. die because it was sold out. I have kept the flowers fairly flat as the card  needed to put in the post. Centres are tiny pink beads from my stash as was the pre printed sentiment and cream 300gsm cardstock.



Fish & Chips Anyone!

These little jumpers and beanie hats are being knitted for the Fish and  Chip babies of Africa.

The mothers are so poor that the babies are sent home wrapped in newspaper which is where the name has come from. Many of these babies are born with Aids. The jumpers are important because in Africa the nights are cold and this is the the only clothing they will have to wear.
I found the appeal for knitting these here on Dawns blog along with  very simple knitting instructions  for them. The only stipulation is that they are knitted in bright/dark colours as they will probably never be washed.
Well I have loads of oddments of wool in my stash so I made my 1st set which is in the picture above.  Took me rather longer than I expected as my  right wrist aches after about  1/2hr of knitting but I was determined to get one finished . This is now packed up ready to be sent off in the post to Dawn.  The next one will be for a boy in bright red/brown stripes.
Linking this up to :
Handmade Harbour: Handmade Monday #67.

In The Garden.

This is my entry for the Gardening theme this week over at Tag Tuesday. I have made it using a Tando mask called "Garden with Watering Can." The base is pale blue card matted onto a large size tag. I have used powdered chalks to colour in the mask and then a deeper blue to highlight around the flowers and can. Not showing too clearly but I think you can just about see the droplets of water spraying out from the nozzle which were made using  glossy accents. Garden string finishes it off as the hanging.



Also entering into the following challenges:

The Crazy challenge: Outside.

Papertake Weekly: In The garden.

Truly scrumptious: Anything Goes.

Alphabet challenge: G for Garden.

 

Silly billions to 1

This is an amazing true tale that I'm going to relate to you. Back in  January this year I made this vintage tag and posted it on my blog here. A fellow blogger made a comment  to say that she was shocked to see the clip on earring (top left of tag) as she had found an earring EXACTLY like it that summer at a garage sale and had torn off the clip hardware added a couple of jump rings and turned it into a necklace charm! Nothing special in that, except Tracy lives in Nevada and I'm in England UK and have never been to America !!!!!!!!

Now what transpires is even more spooky. So how did I happen to have my earring you ask?

Well mine was sent to me  by another fellow blogger Caleen when we did a Victorian Cuff Swap together and was included in a bag of extra goodies that she enclosed. Coincidence? Even more so when I tell you that Caleen and I did the cuff swap back in Sep 2010!!!!!!

Caleen lives in California the very next state to Nevada and Tracy on a  subsequent  (you can imagine that by now e-mails are flying back and forth) e-mail told me that she lives in a rural area that is actually CLOSER to the California border than to the nearest Nevada city.

Well I just had to find out if the earrings did match so I offered to send my tag off to Tracy so that she could make a bracelet up with my earring  to go with her necklace. I did this in  April and guess what? They do indeed match as the following pictures from Tracy show.

I'm so pleased that the earrings are back together again.

This has to be a silly billions to 1 chance don't you think that 3 fellow bloggers should have not only found the earring in the first place but blogged about them too.

As Tracy puts it, We do indeed live in a very small World. 

Roses all the Way.

I cracked on and made this card today. 'Peter the Painter' is busy painting the hallway,stairway, landing and as it has been raining heavily again (so no gardening) I have been marooned in the craft pod with instructions to mind  the wet paint by 'The Doc'. (Well thats my story anyway!)

These paper flowers were sample reject colour choices that I made for the wedding so I found some challenges which would enable me to use them up on a card.
The base card is 300gsm watercolour card with plain pink card stock matted on top. Doily attached and a page of music from an old Hymn book which was  coloured with chalks  and then cut with a nestie adhered to the centre. Butterfly was coloured with LuminArte paint and the leaves with Pearlescent chalks. The sentiment was generated in word and again cut out using a nestie.

 I think that covers all the critique needed to enter the following challenges:
Crafting for all Seasons: Handmade flowers.
Crafty Ribbons: Flowers.
DO You Stack Up: Use a flower.
2 Sisters Challenges: Make it Girlie..
Totally Gorjuss: Pink & Green.
Hooked on Craft: Flowers.
Make My Monday: Any flower with music.
Cupcake Crafts: Simply no design paper Birthdays.

Thanks a Bunch.

I recently completed a Queens ATC  swap and my partner Oliva very kindly enclosed some off cuts of design card and this  pretty stamped and coloured  wheelbarrow of flowers. Looking through them I thought how well these three designs went together and decided to make a card using them up. I managed to get 3 of the smallest XCut nestie die "Square Parenthis" out of each one and arranged them in a grid pattern  onto a square of pale green  card stock which I distressed around the edges with my handy T.H. gadget and a  distressed ink pad in Stormy Sky.  I then matted to a blank blue card base. The ribbon came from my stash and the buttons are a 1" cherry flower punch that I cut out in shrink plastic. I coloured using promarkers  to match the flowers in the wheelbarrow and punched holes before shrinking with my heat gun.  As I have used snippets of the card and shrink plastic am entering into Pixies Crafty snippets.

Also entering into the following challenges:
Craft Your Passion:  Torn or distressed Edges.
Fab 'N' Funky: Buttons & Bows.
Delightfull challenges: Distressing.
Hotshot Craft: Die Cuts.
Digi Doodle shop: Bingo.(straight line using  buttons/ribbon/flowers)

It's a Man's World.

Thankyou to everyone who left kind  messages on my post below.  They were all very  much appreciated.

I made a card for The Doc's Birthday. Not this one but very similar . I enjoyed making it so much that I made two and this  is the second one. I found a fantastic freebie site for images and downloaded the car pictures from here.

I wanted to make a card with a vintage car theme and this was just what I wanted. I used my XCut Nesting die "Square Parenthesis" to cut a window to look like a picture frame and  rubbed Inka Gold onto it  to  resemble an old gilt frame.

 The sentiment was from my "Say it with Flowers" CD by SharonDuncan / Joanna Sheen. Papers , card, ribbon and buttons were all from my  stash.

Entering into the following Challenges:
Great Impressions: Anything Goes.
Come & Get It challenges: Lets hear it for the Boys.
Crafty Creations: Frame It.
Divas By Design: One for the Boys.
Twisted Tuesdays: Birthday creations + ribbon.
Crafty Catz: Happy Birthday.
Totally Papercraft: No Pesky Girls Allowed.

Mum's the Word.

The Theme for the May Tag over on The Altered Paper is Flowers/Mothersday. Tags have now gone out so I am showing you the tag I made for my partner. I'm still in roses mode but have cut these on a smaller scale using the  Spellbinders 'Rose Creations'  S5-050 die.

I have used  white cartidge paper 140gsm weight  and coloured the petals using pearlescent chalks and ColorBox chalk ink pads on the edges. The rose leaves are from the same die and have been coloured with a green ColorBox chalk. The sentiment was computer generated in word and the edges of the paper torn and  again coloured with a matching ColorBox chalk. (Can you can tell I like working with both of these mediums.!) Ribbon is from my stash as is the cartridge paper. The tag itself is made from recyled calender pages adhered back to back and cut to the correct tag size.

Entering into the following challenges:

Use it Tuesdays: All about Mom (Used hoarded supplies as above.)

Crafty Catz : May Flowers.

By the Cute & Girly: Spring is in the Air.

And as I have used cartridge paper from my snippets folder  Pixies Crafty Snippets:

Wrapper.

Wrapper 05/05/1999 - 09/05/2012

Bit of a blue day here today but this is how we will always remember her. She got through no end of my straw hats!!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Any Old Box!

I have just completed a swap which needs the items to be sent off to 2 different homes in

America. I can't show you what I have made  yet  but I can let you see the boxes that I made to transport them in. I didn't have any suitable packaging  so decide to make my own. These have been made from odds of cardboard cut to size and then each piece covered in fabric and then sewn together into a box shape with a lid that closes with ribbon ties .

The tops of the boxes have  each been decorated with bits of ribbon ,broken jewellery and a shrink plastic heart button, coloured with promarkers to match the ribbon and material.

View of the sides showing the complimentary material used on the ends and the same on the base. The inside has been padded on the bottom.

As I have used up snippets of ribbon, jewellery and shrink plastic for the 'Wally  buttons' am entering this into Pixies Crafty Snippets

Also into 1st Unique Gifts: Handmade Monday.

And the following Challenges:

C.R.A.F.T. challenges: Use Buttons. (Made my own from shrink plastic).

The Poodles Parlour: Anything Goes.

Happy Birthday Wishes.

I needed to make a  card for a friends birthday which was yesterday. We were meeting up for coffee and a natter this morning so I took her card with me. I decided to have a go at following a sketch and hunted through my cd's to find some papers to put together.

I needed 4 different ones and wanted a yellow theme. The spotty and  the brown leaf are from the Polkadoodle's 'Pretty Sweet' Mini cd  and the top 2  are from Say it with Flowers ' Special Moments' cd by Sharon Duncan and Joanna Sheen. The flower depicted is the Marsh Marigold.  The sentiment came from the same collection. I added extra embelishments of lace, string and green/brown netting. As these bits were all snippets (I will explain fully on a further post) am entering into Pixies  Crafty Snippets.

On reflection the flowers would have shown up better if I had cut out and mounted on sticky pads but hind sight is a wonderful  thing. Anyways  my  friend still loved it and says she can't make cards for love or money but she is a dab hand with a paint brush. You should just see the gorgeous stag picture that she is painting right now!! Makes my efforts look like a 5 yr olds.

Also entering into the following challenges:

Sketch  Saturday:  4 layers,+ circle+sentiment+ 3 attachments.

Stamp, Scrap, Doodle: Birthday.

Polka Doodles: Shabby chic/vintage.

Love to Create: Flowers & Buttons.

Penny's Paper-crafty: Happy Birthday.

Miss April. Last Roundup.

Here is my final review of the makes that have been loaded onto the Monthly flickr group.

Full details can be found here on The Felt Fairy.

Kandipandi showed us a delightful Cottage sewing case. very cute and very pink!! Miss Daisy entered next to show some beautiful crocheted folowers.

Silvia Sherr was next in for her third visist of the month to show us some pretty crochet cushions. Very vintage feel to  both of these designs.

Ali B. very kindly gave me permission to load her make onto the flickr group for her as she doesn't have her own account. Ali had made a sweet little knitted jumper and beanie hat for a very worth while cause, The Fish and Chip babies appeal. You can find the details here. If you have a spare evening and some odds and ends of double knitting wool please do take part. I will be knitting some of these myself.

Silvia Sherr popped back in for her fourth visit and showed some birds in printed linen fabric made up into cushions and small pictures in embroidery hoops. They look really beautiful, so life like.

Twinkle Star also showed us a cushion done from a cream linen bag with brown ric rac, lace and a vintage button. Very Chic! 

Busy Little Chicken came along next with a  bright and cheery shopping bag. I said I wanted to go shopping with her!!!

Paper Amanda has made a clutch bag from plumb linen and added a pretty button as the closeure.

Silvia was back in for the fifth time with homemade Lavender tea cake and another of her birdie linen prints. I so want the recipe for that cake.

Time to Craft showed some dry felted treasures. A cute flower card and a puffin. Her new house sign that she has hand painted with dragon flies, an (appliqued I think) Tshirt and a row of cute chicks plus a robin with his red breast on full show.

Lavender and Pearls has been busy knitting and crocheting fabulous dolls house size rugs.

They really do look the part in minature.

Busy Little Chicken stopped by for her second visit to show us a notebook cover for a shopping list she had made with the left overs from her shopping bag. No excuse now to forget anything from the shops!!

Dinki Dots showed us an owl lavender bag which was part of her giveaway on her blog for reaching 100 followers.

Rosa -Munda  entered as her make for the  month a delightful vintage looking apron which was made for a swap.

Gone Stitchin has made a lovely knitted tea cosy in a diamond pattern and also  knitted  the cute pink flowers and leaves on the top.

The Snail Garden came back for a third entry to show us the makes she had made for a jubilee themed swap. Key fob in cross stitch, red,white and blue lavender bag( with lavender inside grown on her allotment), crown bracelet, bunting and a jubilee knitted tea cosy. Someone is in for a lucky swap indeed. Also made was a heart  doily and the cutest little knitted mouse standing next to a teacup and saucer that she matched with perfectly.

Ange  of Quirky playful things showed us a  pretty crochet circles and squares blanket that she had made.

Scrappy Jackie just got in  in time to show us a fabulous cross stiched fishing boat picture. The detailing on it is amazing.

And lastly for her sixth fly by Silvia Sherr with some dish cloths made from fabric scraps and old towels and the  best till last Rhubarb Chutney.

Thanks girls for all your makes throughout April and showing them off this month with me.

I have enjoyed show casing them .

All this leaves me to say is Over and Out!!!!

Hugs for the last time Miss April.xxxxxx