Snow, snow, thick thick snow

We've had a lot of snow here - it may not seem a lot compared with other countries or even other parts of the UK but it's a lot for us.  It started last Thursday night, continued all day Friday and part of Saturday.  We ended up with about 6".  It did stop for a few days but we had a bit yesterday and it's snowing now.  I hope it doesn't carry on as I go line dancing Wednesday evenings but if it snows too heavily I won't be going in case I can't get out of the car park :-/

The picture on the left was taken Friday evening, the one on the right taken Saturday morning (don't take notice of the snow on the chair as it has a cushion on so looks more).

I made this vase from a liquid detergent bottle :-D  I roughed the surface up then glued on crumpled tissue paper and a bit of scrim using Mod Podge gloss (I just found the gloss first, but matte would work as well).  This was then coloured with paint and rubbed over with Metallic Rub-Ons.  The little squares are done using gel medium through a stencil, I added a little bit of metallic paint to some of the squares.  I added more Mod Podge over the whole surface to seal it.  The vase measures 7.5"x5".

I'm trying to clear some items waiting for repair/completion.  This cardi had a large ladder next to the seam on the sleeve, there was no way to just sew it up as the ladder was quite wide but I didn't want to throw the cardi out.  I bought some lace to cover it but had to over-stitch the ladder by putting a piece of thin wool (from another cardigan I bought from a charity shop to felt) underneath and stitching over, then added the lace.  I've added some lace to the other sleeve to tie it in. Sorry the pic's a bit blurred.

I also completed a skirt I started a few years ago for one of my granddaughters but it got stuck in a box and forgotten about - out of sight out of mind describes me very well haha.  It only needed the top turning over and some elastic putting in.  Of course it won't fit my either of my youngest granddaughters now so I've passed it on to another family member.

A pair of collared doves that have been visiting my garden for a couple of years at least.  This was taken through the kitchen window.  I do have a couple of hanging bird feeders but rigged this up so I can watch the birds from the kitchen.  It's a plant pot with an ice-cream tub, with holes in the bottom, wedged in.

More fun at Southport and Birthday Stuff

I went to see my son and his girls last week, my other 2 grandkids came with me.  The girls live in Formby, he lives in Southport.  There are a couple of pics of the kids in a park in Formby and DS with his new bike.  He got the bike through Merseyrail, who he works for through a scheme called 'Wheels to Work'.  He only pays £5 a week and less than half the price of the bike which means he could get a really good bike at an affordable price.  We then went into Southport and onto the carousel with the girls love, then the amusement arcade and through the hall of mirrors.  We also hired a little boat for a ride round the lake, all the kids had a turn of being skipper ;-)

Some time ago I showed concertina box files that some friends and I made.  When we did the journalling class with Kate a couple of weeks ago she had something similar but the outer cover was like a book cover.  Some of the 'Ladies Who Lunch' were there and wanted to have a go at making one.  So as I'd done the other one I sorted out how to make the one with the book cover.  When the LWL met up for our monthly playday we did this project.   I forgot I actually had my camera with me or I would've taken pics of what everybody did.  Basically we used a hardback book and took the innards out and made the concertina folder bit.  We didn't have time to decorate the book cover, but I'd already done mine as I thought it would take too long on the day and if I didn't finish it that day it may have ended up being another UFO!  The technique I've used for my book cover I found on Youtub and is one of CapricornArtist73's techniques.  We also made some 'bobbins' mine still have to be embellished.
Pat made me an absolutely beautiful book for my birthday, which was in July and Tracey made me a gorgeous little chipboard 'hangy'.

I bought a new 'toy' from Lidl which I simply love.  It's a Brother Lable Maker, £14.99  This one can do 3 different font sizes and has 4 frames plus an underline facility.  I resisted one of these for a long time as I could do any printing on the PC but it's so handy for card greetings when the PC's not on and DD always wants any cards, she asks me to make, personalised.   I've used it for the 'days' on my 365 pages for August.  Mine has 2 different fonts but for some reason the one Pat bought is slightly different and only has one font and one of the frames is different.
Spent a lovely day in Manchester on Saturday with Suzanne, who is one of my oldest friends.  I treated myself to a vanilla slice in Kendals and bought a lovely long-sleeved black top and a black sleeveless cardi - not a colour I usually go for.

More stuff

I bought a cheapo mirror with frame from Ikea at the weekend for my little sis's birthday.  They're just soooo cheap, but excellent to alter/adorn/embellish.  I took this picture in the early hours of the morning when I couldn't sleep - as you can see, no flash used; best to turn of the flash when photographing indoors.  And no pic of my mug (face) in the mirror hehe.  I made the butterflies from a lemonade bottle (with paper butterfly underneath), stamped and slightly coloured with alcohol ink and edged with silverleaf pen.  The flower is made from organza, the shape created by melting over a low flame - you can use a tealight for this.  I got the technique from YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U918ZjtBNr4&feature=related This is going to be my entry into Hels' Sunday Stampers challenge, which I haven't taken part in for many weeks.

Had a great day yesterday at Pat's, along with another friend, Margaret.  We made storage boxes, with concertina sides.  Mine and Pat's weren't complete, but I finished mine this morning.  The top part of the box was too plain so I added a bit of stamping, added the ribbon with some beads and a leaf and made the flower (without the aid of a die) by folding strips of paper back and forth.  The ribbon should've been addedbefore putting the covering paper/card over the bookboard/mountboard/thick card, but due to my jst looking at the picture and not reading the instructions properly at that stage, we put the ribbon in the wrong place, so had to cut it off.  Bt it's fine attached to the back of the box once complete.

What I've been up to

I've hardly blogged in the last couple of months, just don't seem to have time - it's not the blogging itself as such, it's just that once you enter Blogland and start visiting you get caught up with so many interesting blogs and get sidetracked following links.
I have painted the spare bedroom and am going to move my craft stuff back upstairs from the kitchen, that will probably take a year to complete haha.  I've also painted the bathroom. So I've not been idle.  I hate painting ceilings and hate the cutting in!  But on to more interesting stuff, I've made canvas postcards (the grain of the canvas seems to have affected the clarity of the picture here) and a mug rug at the doll group in recent months; decorated a torso with the 'Ladies Who Lunch' we've have also made a hanging thing but I have yet to attach the means by which it will hang; made myself a car seatbelt thing too (just so you know, the white strip is one side of Velcro for fastening).  I dont know if it's just short people who suffer with the seatbelt chafing the side of the neck.  The mug rug is rectangular rather that square to allow you to put your biccies on too - due to the name 'mug rug' I'm assuming these originated in America.  The chicken hangy thing was a project in Craft Stamper by Helen (sorry can't remember her surname)



Altered Artist Mannequin

I've had this mannequin for ages.  I bought it with the intention of 'altering' it.  I did paint it a few weeks ago and had an idea what I wanted to do and made the skirt, but have had various ideas for the body since. After seeing one this week on WOYWW (sorry can't remember where) it inspired me to finish mine.  I decoupaged book pages onto it using Mod Podge Gloss but then hit on the idea of wrapping her with linen thread, which I started yesterday evening but decided to go back to the paper.  I had to draw the eyes and mouth on a separate piece of paper then cut them out to stick on as the surface was too slippery to draw on.  Initially I was going to make her black boots and then shoes - perhaps out of felt - but decided to paint some shoes on :-)

Sunday Stampers - Key

Hels hosts the Sunday Stampers challenge each week.  You can make anything you like so long as it has some stamping and includes the theme.  As you can see this week's theme is Key.  I decided it was time for my Anna Griffin box; which is being used as a scraps box; to have a makeover.  Of course there's a before and after shot.  I've only done the lid so far but will eventually do something with the base.  I painted it with white acrylic paint and mica powders, I also used the paint to stamp the circles, and used stencil relief paste coloured with mica powder for the diamond pattern.  The heart started off as red metal coloured with alcohol inks (the alcohol inks lifted the original colour off which was fine) and embossed partly with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and partly with a plastic rubbing block.  The flower is a fabric one I hand cut and coloured with paint to co-ordinate.  I made the little wire chain using my finger - did you ever do that with knitting yarn?  The key (to my heart) is grungeboard :-)Only noticed after posting that the bottom row of diamond shapes is wonky - heyho :-)

Ten Seconds Studio

I bought 2 sheets of the Ten Seconds Studio metal about 2 or 3 years ago :O lol but have only just got round to using it. I didn't get any tools at the time as I do have a little electric tooly thing which I thought I'd use. I did however get DD to buy me one set of tools last Christmas. I bought 4 little photo tins from QVC a while ago and decided to decorate one for a friend - I won't tell you how long ago her birthday was haha. I did consider using paper but decided on alcohol inks and while it was quite nice I kept veering between using it and not using it but doing something else. Anyway after watching a vid on Youtube about using foil - just bog standard cooking foil - it prompted me to use the Ten Seconds metal sheet. I used some textured wallpaper on top of the photo tin and put the metal sheet on top. I've used a flower from one piece of wallpaper and the squares from another. I used Wild Plum alcohol ink on the flower and Stream on the leaves and the squares. I coloured the rest of the tin with Pitch Black but didn't like it so took it off but left a little bit round the edges of the other bits. I started to use the little decorative wheel tool to embellish the flat bits but as it was on a hard surface it didn't work very well so I just used an embossing tool to draw little circles. ;)

Altered Barbie

At the cloth doll group I go to http://www.yorkdollybirds.co.uk/home.htm we often have challenges which we can take part in or not as we wish. A few months ago it was to do an 'Altered Barbie' well it's taken a while but at last I've finished mine. She's a 'Scary Fairy' lol. I could have asked my granddaughter for one but somebody had bought some cheap dolls for £1 each. I had to chop her arms off - sorry - as I wanted her to have her arms akimbo for attitude. Managed to cadge a pair of boots off my granddaughter though, which I painted black. Her wings are made from vilene pelmet lining covered in silver foil wrapping paper which I heated with a heat gun and rubbed over with black Stazon.
x

Altered Art - PG Tips box

Have altered a PG Tips box for a challenge on http://craftsbycarolyn.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=47265Hmm I don't know how to upload it onto the forum - have put it in my photobucket but can't get it from there :-/ I've been able to do that with other people's images but don't seem to have the html code to do it with this. No doubt it's very simple, like me lol