Happy Halloween

I am so behind with everything and need to do some "C" cards desperately so I am afraid I have not been able to do anything for Halloween which is a shame as I love seeing what others have done.

On Friday I saw "my little sweetheart", with her mummy, a long term special friend of mine.  We just went down to Asda in the afternoon and as we were walking around we heard that there was a "party" going on in the restaurant.  Well, the little one did!  We were going to have a cuppa anyway but didn't realise just how long we were going to spend there.

The party involved some "face painting" and the girl who did it was really good.  We put "little 'uns" name down and after a wait of an hour this is what came out

Here she is in my kitchen with her black cat (thankfully not a real one), her spiders webs, bats and the little spider down her cheek.

The girl made a good job didn't she?

I say I have not done anything but that is not strictly true as I did make an ATC to go with Pat's "Pink" card so here it is as this is the appropriate day to show it

I just used my two favourite Distress Inks to cover the cardstock and then stamped this little image on the front.  Not much to it - but wait, it is double.  When you open it up this is what you see

My one and only Stampotique image which my friend Lorraine got for me just after Harrogate show.  I drew the witches hat and punched the three cats out of black paper.  Then I did the shaky writing with a black pen and that was it.  I did try to keep the face free from ink.

Happy Halloween everyone - spooky hugs to you all.

Just a Short One

But with a Pretty Card.

We don't normally have swaps at our stamping club but I thought that as October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month it would be nice for us to do one with the theme of "Pink".  Quite a few people joined in and I posted the list on the 17th so that 15 of us could get our cards out before the end of the month.

The person above me on the list was Carmel so she had to send to me and this is the delightful card I received from her:

The parameter of the swap was it had to be 'predominantly pink' and I think you will agree with me that Carmel certainly did justice to this swap.  Loved the background she created and the image is gorgeous isn't it.

Always late, I have just sent mine so won't show you what I did although at the side of Carmel's mine looks pretty yuk!  Once Pat has received it I will put it up along with my Halloween ATC I put in with it - the only one I have done - shame!

Congratulations - We Have a Winner

Congratulations to  .....

drum roll .....

Liz (Chubby Frog) who correctly guessed we were in Paphos in Cyprus!"  Spencer was outside the Castle on the harbour and, as he has gone back to his usual seat in the bedroom, I for one am glad I did not have to do more reveals.  The little so and so left that bit for me to do.  Liz - can you get in touch via email (my email button is at the right hand side on my blog) and let me have your address so I can send you some goodies.

So here are one or two more photos from the holiday - hope I am not boring you.

This was to be my next reveal after a full one of the Castle

Paphos Lighthouse

The bridge leading into the Castle - view it with your head tilted to your right shoulder - that would make a lovely shape for a polymer clay pendant.  I like getting inspiration from photos like this one.

This is the little church set in the village where we were staying which is in a courtyard surrounded by villas (apartments really).

The same courtyard as the church with the little golf cart they use to take you to your villa/apartment (and there's Tommy taking new guests through - and yes, he's English)

View of the Villas (now you know why I think of them as that rather than apartments) taken from the beach.  The green ones on the right are where we were (upper middle one in fact).  We used to sit on a sunbed under an umbrella just below our apartment - so much nicer on the grass than on the sand.

Whilst we were there we watched a wedding from our balcony:

This is Big Mamma and Willy from 'Big Mammas' where we enjoyed an impromptu cabaret and some good food (you need a big appetite to eat here).

I 'll leave it there with the recommendations of Kefalos Beach Tourist Village as accommodation and Big Mammas and the Metaxus as two of the good places to eat.  But then, anywhere is good in Paphos as I just love the place.

WOYWW 125 (a bit late - but read on there's a tiny prize for someone)

Hi there, it is Spencer here as Neet is busy getting her washing done and dried - this weather is not what we have been used to this past week.  Here I am sunning myself the other day:

I love this Sylvester and Tweety Pie towel!  Now some of you may know that most times when the family go on holiday they take me along with them.  This time they took an iPad with the promise of letting me blog for WOYWW, which I did - twice!  First time I must have touched something because next time I looked all had disappeared, second time it looked fine until I came to publish it. Shock horror - it was all in html code or something with just a pile of pictures and my first paragraph at the end in normal type so that you could read it.  After all that reading I had done as well so that I could post on holiday. I decided not to publish.  Neet wouldn't let me type it out again on Thursday as she had something already up there so it is more of a What's On My Workdesk Friday than anything else. Anyway, here is what I would have put on Wednesday:

Neet at her desk

a bit tidier than usual

Now I want to play a little game with you all.  Some of Neet's friends at home know where we have been so I am asking them to keep shush about it and not tell anyone who is not in the know.  I'll upload some photographs from the holiday and the first person to guess the resort we were in (not just the country) will get a little prize.  If it hasn't been guessed I'll keep adding something until we have a winner.  Does that sound ok to you?

Where was I on Monday?

I'll just leave it at that for you today but I will show you some photographs of the holiday that don't give it away at all - but they are nice photos.

Sunset on our first night

and on our second an artist painted the sky for us and we thought it rather spectacular:

This is where we walked to get to the beach, just down the side of our apartment which was like a tiny villa in a village.

Can you see the gourds hanging?

OK I will leave it there and link my blog attempt - wonder if anyone will visit at this late date?  Just had a peek and we will be in the hundred and thirties plus - big change from the number one spot Neet got the other week.

Ta ta for now - love from Spencer x

Just a Pebble on the Beach

Hi Everyone - I am Back!  You didn't even know I was gone - go on say it!  Well, I have been having a much needed week away in the sun.  After all the staring at walls I did over the summer months it was good to get away.

What did I bring back - a pebble.  What did I do with it - put some Friendly Plastic on the top of it - and now it is a paper weight.

Does it look like a potatoe?

First of all I sprinkled a little embossing powder on the pebble, heated it and let it dry before I got to work with my left over bits of FP.  It was Angie who taught me to do this many many moons ago so thanks Angie - you helped me do a quick blog entry to fit in with the challenge of "Anything Goes".  

All you do is put one or two, or three or four, of your messed up bits of FP that you saved (you do save them - tut tut if you don't), on your pebble, heat them and then drag your needle tool through them to make weird and wonderful shapes.  Easy Peasy!

Right, will make this a quick post today as I have lots to do (like washing and ironing and cleaning and ... oh heck - sleeping!  All I want to do is get back to my crafting)

Hope to be visiting you soon to see what you have all come up with and sorry my trip away coincided with the Challenge which stopped me from commenting on anyone's entry.  Off now to have a peep at what you all did.  

Just a Couple of Cards

Trying to remember to upload cards after people have had a birthday and hope I am succeeding.  It was my sweetheart, Chloe's 4th Birthday (where has the time gone) on Thursday so here is the card I made for her and a couple of others for friends.

It is one of the HUGE cards I cut out on my Grand Calibur - thought that would appeal to a little girl.  Put a sheet of black card behind it to define the scalloped edge as it did not show up on my anniversary card the other week.  I used dies for the lettering, coloured the image with Twinkling H2o's - Chloe loves sparkle - coloured the cream flowers and put jewels in the centre.

Love the sentiment on this one

Could not resist using the Dolphin

I love these images (last two) from Joanna Sheene and will use them time after time I can see.  I so enjoy colouring them in.  These were done with watercolours.  Hope you enjoyed!

Two Birthdays Together

Well, it is Happy Birthday to my Niece, Lauren, and also to my friend, Sam.  So here are the birthday cards I made for them.

Laurens

The tag does a bit of a swivel and there is a secret message hidden underneath it.  Well, she is my favourite niece afterall.  Quite grown up now she has made a beautiful young woman but I still remember the little Lauren who used to come and make cakes with me.

Here is Sams:

Most of you will know Sam from her blog, her time on JFF or the fact that she is on Katy's Corner.  I chose Frida as my image for Sam and stamped her on Glossy card to get a better image with it being a PhotoArt stamp.  The background on the card was with a Kaiser Craft stamp called Grunge Background which was stamped four times to cover the whole of it.  Distress Ink Stains are a favourite medium of Sams and so I went across the background in diagonal stripes with as many as would fit.

Hope they both like my efforts, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADIES.

JFF - In the Sewing Box

Well, what is in my wardrobe stays in my wardrobe but what is in my sewing box can come out at any time.  It is such a pity that this challenge did not come up earlier when I was doing my little House on the first of the month isn't it - lots of things from my sewing box went in there.  I can't wait to see what you all come up with this week.

I had not a clue what to do and then the light switched on and I had a "ding" moment and remembered that people used to make "button fairies".  So out with the button box (don't tell anyone, it lives in my craft room), a bit of wire and we were halfway there.  At first I thought it might be too cute but Zoe assured me this was "arty" so I heaved a big sigh of relief and here it is - reminds me of something from "Alice":

Or should I say - here they are:

Yes, I got a bit carried away.  They are not really me but I did enjoy making them - had great fun rummaging through my button stash which now has got itself sorted into "shank buttons", "large buttons", "small buttons".  As you can see the two above have Friendly Plastic 'heads'.  They did not photograph very well as they both were made with a metallic strip.  The top one has a rubber stamped pair of wings with wire antennae and the baby one has a Spellbinders butterfly diecut for wings and antennae.

Thought I would do one a bit different so this one is stamped with a photostamp image and the wings are from a Marianne Die.  I left a bit of wire at the bottom on this one and gave it a twirl.

Perhaps now I will attempt the necklace with the buttons I bought at Aintree last year - now where on earth did I put them?

WOYWW 124 and Chaos Reigns

I spend so much time trying to find folks when wanting to leave a comment for someone who has been kind enough to leave one for me and life could be so much simpler.  Please, when posting it would be a great idea if you could put the number you are on the list that week.  Straight away we can come and find you (I say "we" because I am sure others feel the same) - we used to do it but it seems to have disappeared and new peeps are maybe not aware of it.  Just a thought and no way is it a criticism,, just a plea from little old me.

Now to the business - what on earth am I on about - why Julia Dunnit and her phenomenam which is What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday.  Pop over and see what I am on about - you will be hooked.   Now to my desk - this week!!!  As most of you know I have just got back from my three day Polymer Clay Workshop and have finally unloaded my bag.  This is my room:

Literally everything DUMPED!  No available workspace and no time to move stuff at the moment.

This is my poorly pasta machine just peeping in at the left hand side, my syrup tin (stripped of its upper and lower seams), a book I bought, my screen printed pendants, canes for the fruit tarts, crushed clay for Natalia's bracelets and other stuff.

Moving along - new clay (I am converting to Premo as I love working with it) and old clay.  The latter of which is perfectly ok but there are bags of Kato, bags of Premo, Sculpey and Fimo.  Now they all have to be sorted out.

A tube bead roller which Val and Craig gave to us all, skewers, tools, rolling pin, liquid clay, screens, cling film, instruction leaflets and a couple more new books and probably loads of other stuff I haven't mentioned.  On the tiles are (top - bracelet and brooch half finished from Natalia's class, black and white brooch from Christine's class and various screen printed pendants/ear-rings cut from left-overs from Alison's class).

Want to see more chaos?

Pop over to Julia's blog and join in the fun as we all rummage around to see what everyone is up to.  Happy WOYWW!

But first of all feast your eyes on the inchies I got from  the swap: (remember these are all clay ones) - I showed you mine last week.

The bottom two rows feature mainly caning and the one to the right of Alex's Steampunk one is also a cane.
Eva did a button rather than an inchie for all of us, Irene did a Sutton Slice with her face (3rd row down), Kim did Mica Shift (next to the end on second row) whilst the next one along is from Christine Dumont the tutor who did the brooch with us (mine is not finished yet - needs sanding etc) and check out Sue's which I love (first and second on second row down).  Don't know the names of the people for all of them (it is rather frenetic when we swap) but do know that the top left one is by Noella and the top right by Marta, both from Spain.  The face cane at the bottom is Diane's and the Celtic Knot is the cane perfected by Val and demonstrated to us so admirably.

Got to show you the brooch I bought from Marta (Marta is from Spain) as I just loved it and thought I might also put a jump ring on it and turn it into a pendant.  I bet some of my friends will expect me to do something like this - but I am not as clever as Marta - not yet!  Must say this photo does not do it justice as I had to take it in artificial light.

Polymer Clay Weekend

Well, this time it was in Alfreton, at the Genesis Centre, which was a much more modern venue than the football club where we usually attend but I did miss the football club to be honest.  This year we had some different tutors from those in the past but here is Natalia, who we all know from the last few years (and love) with her clown's hat on sorry, her mask on her head.  She was shredding some clay in a coffee grinder - that's Diane who has just snuck in the picture.

Here she is dem'ing the bracelets which we all made:  

My friend, Irene, is in this picture (it runs, Kerry, Carol, Kim and then Irene - and you might recognise Debbie the next person as she is on tv with Jewellery Maker) all watching carefully as Natalia decorates her bracelet. 

Danni - Natalia's husband gave us a demonstration of  - well - what can I say - bracelets?  These under the sea type structures are fantastic.  They look so fragile and yet Danni threw one down on the ground and it did not break.  How tough is polymer clay?  How talented is Danni?

Are they fantastic or what?

This is the work of Stephanie.  Now I am so annoyed I did not get a photograph of her as she is such a pretty young girl.  Her workshop was working in miniature and we had to make the minutest canes of fruit.  We could choose what we wanted to make and I chose oranges.  Then we got a bit of other people's canes and put them on a flan which we made.  Here are mine with a pound coin by the side so you can see how tiny they are - actually just less than a pound coin:

Oranges, bananas, kiwi fruit and strawberries

Should I make them into ear rings?

This is the magnificent table that Stephanie brought with her to show off her skills in making these miniatures ...

... and these are some of the ear-rings which she brought with her to sell (you can just see her tiny gingerbread houses on the right of the picture):

I admitted to Stephanie that I had not been looking forward to her class but that I had thoroughly enjoyed myself and would be making more of these goodies.  Can't wait as I have some bits of canes left - just need some pies and flans.  Thanks Stephanie for a most enjoyable workshop.

Think I will leave it there for today but I have lots more to show you so will be back.  Before I go I must show you my lovely friend Cathryn who always comes and looks after the shop where participants can bring their jewellery and sell it.  Here she is by the side of the stall she set up and manned over the three days (love you lots Cathryn):

Polymer Weekend

Well, got back a short while from three days of Polymer Clay(ing) in Nottingham!  This was my third year of going down there and once again, met up with my friend, Irene.  This time it was in a different location, Alfreton,  but we decided to stay at the Nelson & Railway in Kimberley as per usual.  This is the view from our bedroom window this morning, unfortunately despite having had wonderful weather all weekend we awoke this morning to a dismal day which has progressively gone worse:

I can just imagine waking up in the morning, looking down the lane where the pub is and seeing this covered in snow.  What a pretty picture it would make.

On the way home I wanted to stop at a couple of places but missed one - Chas and I had our wires crossed but I was not that bothered because the view would not have been as pretty as it was when we went down and it was bathed in golden autumnal sunlight.  Here is the knitted tree from New Mills in Derbyshire:

OK so not really a knitted tree but a tree kept warm with some knitted socks on it (squares really that were sewn around it) - and below a knitted bumble bee, or is it a butterfly?

Am sure this was once featured on Sarah's blog?

On arriving home, well as we were driving up the Lane, there was a little Blenheim Cavalier King Charles Spaniel running back and forth.  We stopped so as not to run over it and I was sure I had seen a white dog also but it disappeared.  I got out and it came to me but quickly ran off and was running back and forth up and down the Lane, down a nearby Avenue and back up - obviously lost and bewildered - it was only a young dog.  I managed eventually to entice it up our long drive and into the utility room.  Then I left it with Chas and went asking people fairly close to us if they knew of anyone who had a dog like that, asked a few people walking by were they looking for a dog etc but to no avail.

Came back in and rang the Vets who told me to take it down for it to be checked for a chip.  Chas thought I should ring the RSPCA in case someone had rung in and they lived nearby so I did and they told me to ring the Dog Warden.  To cut a long story short the Dog Warden came and picked it up.  It was such a lovely little thing, I would say only about a year or so old and a short while ago he rang me to say it had been returned home and indeed there had been a white dog with it but that one had gone home on its own accord.  Maybe this one would too but I was so worried it would get run over - hope I did the right thing.  Here it is in the dining room (incidentally it barked like crazy and ran round in circles when Chas closed the kitchen door yet never bothered that the utility outside door was closed).

Now, what happened on the weekend?  Well, think you will have to wait until tomorrow for that episode as I must get the suitcases unpacked and some washing in.

What a Lovely Surprise

Last Saturday I was just walking past the door (the one with the letterbox) when I spied an envelope on the floor.  Chas was out at a lecture or I am sure the post would have been collected before 2 pm! Imagine my surprise, on opening it, when it contained this beautiful envelope:

Much too nice to use - definitely something to keep.  It was a puzzle as to who had sent it to me but when I opened it I found it was from Helen Roots, a member of an international Yahoo group I am on. Panic set in as I could not remember my entering this swap and then I read the letter inside.

Helen had joined the swap and sent one off to her designated partner but was asked to send one to someone else - a random act of kindness.  Helen chose me - isn't that lovely of her?

She has made the envelope herself from good strong quality paper, half is embossed and coloured with Distress Inks (?), the other half stamped in various colours and with a delightfully coloured scarecrow decoupaged on top.

A very welcome surprise and such lovely autumnal colours guaranteed to brighten anyone on a dull day in the north of England.  Thank you Helen!

Recycling - from the Kitchen

Well, last weeks recycling on JFF gave me lots of ideas as I checked through the entries.  I just need to find the time now to do them.  Have decided to write ideas down on a piece of paper and pin it up in my room - then when I get my Mr Mojo buzzing off for a break I can whistle him back with a look at my list.  Now to Von's brill challenge for this week.  I'm loving her theme.

At first I thought I might do a bottle with either Alcohol Inks or Clay but as I have done both of these things before I decided to upload my "fairy in a bottle" but then decided that was cheating so went back to the drawing board.  I once got little "wickies" when I did some salt dough stuff (must add it was a while afterwards) so that went through the window and then the local Council came to my rescue.  The day I was doing all of this thinking, and hurting my head in the process, they delivered these boxes.  Hideous boxes - for me to have on display in my kitchen!!!  Oh no no no!

Would you want that in your kitchen?

Now, keep this quiet, they delivered two to us.  We are only a couple but our bungalow has two doors at the front so I guess they, like so many callers, thought it was two bungalows.  Well, that gave me chance to play. The first one I tried car paint on - it does peel off but it is such a nice colour.  It is sat in the bathroom at the moment with foot salts in (don't ask).

The second one I gessoed, then put two coats of white emulsion paint on (had used this on plastic tubs before and they have endured a few years in the garden with plants in them) but it did not give good coverage.  Out with some Acrylic Paint - bright yellow - should make the kitchen look a bit sunny - oh my goodness it looked awful.  Next Acrylic Paint on top of that - the EcoFriendly stuff  from Julia Andress.  Still a bit streaky and what an awful colour.  What next?

Cover it with images!  What theme?  (See, such a lot of thinking.) In the kitchen we have some framed postcards I once brought back from a trip to France - one is breads and the other cheeses - so Paris came to mind as I do have a small collection of stamps suitable.  Chas loves Paris anyway, so whilst he was doing breakfast (can do boiled eggs much better than I can) I got in with it.

I began by using paper from the printer to stamp and emboss on - first stamping my image in black and then putting clear ep on top, heating it and then colouring.  For my colouring I decided that it would take too long to colour individual images besides which I love my Distress Inks so I coloured with them.  Don't ask me what any of the combinations are - I have not got a clue - it was just a mad production line.

I began on the front and decided to make it into a collage, overlapping images in places and boy oh boy I did enjoy myself.  Ran out of images to use with a Paris theme so did have to use the same on on both sides of the box.  Doesn't matter as it won't show where it stands.

Looking at these photographs you would never believe that the base colour of the bin is now green -

The top

So there it is - now drying having had a coat of watered down PVA to give a bit of protection to the images but it looks so much better in my kitchen - and Chas Loves It!

Now what can you recyle from your kitchen (or your friend's, relatives - or anyones) - love to see it on the Challenge Blog.