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.

WOYWW

It's Wednesday again - time for us all to go mad taking pictures of our messes, sorry chaos - oops no, I mean workdesks/work in progress etc to show to the world of Julia followers.  If any of you live near Tidworth, Hants check out Julia's blog from last Sunday - reads  like a great workshop (and you get to meet Lunch Lady Jan by the sounds of it).  Regardless of this, if you are new to reading my blog then go to The Stamping Ground to see what I am on about.

Well, here is my desk - chaotic last few days getting ready for a three day workshop in Nottingham.  Meeting up with my lovely friend Irene (very talented with clay) at The Nelson & Railway in Kimberley which is where we always stay.  This year the venue has changed but we love staying there so we got ourselves booked in months ago so we were sure of a room.  Donna Kato is going to be there again and Alison Gallant, plus Natalia and Danny and some other tutors who I have never met before.

My two pasta machines are ready to be packed away, the silver one to go with me and the other back to the cupboard.  The red one is a cheapo that I bought for £12.50 but now I wish I hadn't.  You get what you pay for!  My silver one is a good one that my son and dil bought me one Christmas (thought they were going to be getting fresh pasta when they came round) but I cannot remember what the make was as I have had it years.  

Right, what is wrong with the red one?  Well the largest setting on the dial releases a gap between the rollers which is far smaller than the one on my good machine.  Not good when you are following instructions for a technique.  Just telling you this as a warning to all those out there who are not familiar with polymer clay because you will be making things far too thin if you are following instructions in a book.  If you are ok with the clay but have purchased one then you can use it for conditioning dark clay (which is what I will do) and maybe roll out to the correct thickness using something like playing cards tacked up to give you the required depth.

Well that is all for now, you can see the 40 inchies I have done for the swap - if I get time I will do some more as I have lots of black conditioned clay left.  For now I will carry on with the boring job of sorting clothes out - which has been going on for far too long - did not realise I had so many things - but must add it is due to my fluctuating size and my not wanting to throw anything out that I "know" (fingers crossed) I will one day get back into.

Where have you heard that before?  Oh, and before I forget, I will try to visit as many of you as possible but if I don't get to you with being away until late Monday I promise I will pay you an extra visit asap.

Thought I would Just Share - Last Wednesday

Was our Anniversary.  I am the one who remembers - never know how long but I do remember the date.  Well, sad to say this year I did remember, several times in fact, but never got around to making a card.  Got up early to do just that but got side tracked with WOYWW and so when I went back in the bedroom on my way to the bathroom I was greeted by a huge box of Thornton's chocolates, some Thornton's Biscuits and an Anniversary Card.

Oops!

So it was a quick exit into the stamping room, out with my Grand Calibur, and this is what I produced:

The first time producing this in my rush

So I made it right, shared my chocolates and biscuits, produced my card and cooked a special meal in the evening.

Memo to self:  "Must make a card well in advance for next year".

Just for Fun - and it Certainly Was this Week.

What a lot of lovely entries we had this past week with our Anything Goes Challenge.  I thought we may be much lower on numbers with the twist of not being able to make a card but no, those crafters can always find something to make.  Thanks for all the super entries which had me hastily playing catch up with my comments.

Have had a busy time this past couple of weeks which all started with my trip to Caernarfon Castle for Liz's Friendly Plastic weekend.  You'll have to scroll down a bit to find that blog entry if you want to see it.  Closely followed by my coming home from Wales, having to do a quick final prep for my workshop (26 people were booked on it) for the Saturday (previous posts - worth looking at) and then working at Leigh for Oyster Stamps on the Sunday doing my usual demonstrating Spellbinders machines and dies.

It was Saturday evening when I got home, tired but happy as the crafters had done such a wonderful job, that I realised I had not done my DT piece for this week over on Just for Fun.  Now we do have to have them in for Zoe to upload by Sunday evening and as she is so busy with her moving house I did not want to let her down with a late picture.  But what could I do?  What was the topic?  A new month - what had Von chosen?  A quick visit and I found it was - oh nightmare of nightmares - "Recycled" and it was "Books or Magazines" this week.  I must add it was only a nightmare because I had not even given this a thought up to now so was entirely clueless.

Then I remembered that Annette had posted a tutorial for me to make a paper doll from a newspaper or magazine.  Newspaper went out the window, the only one we had had gone to Vicky Stampers that day for painting over, besides which you got so dirty from handling them.  Magazine - oh heck, the ones I had were intended for my dil and I dare not upset her.  Then the TV magazine was there, waiting to go in the recycle bag - perfect!

So here it is - thank you so much Annette - you saved my bacon, gave me a lot of pleasure (plus gluey fingers, mat, tray, etc) and enabled me to have an untroubled night of sleep.

Trying to show you the pages better by lying it down

This used up a full TV magazine which has something like 90 pages in it and each page was cut in half.  Memo to self:  Need to buy more magazines - these are fun!

WOYWW plus more of Victoria New Town

I don't believe this - I typed all of this out and then deleted the whole thing.  Here we go - second time around.

My stamping room is in a bit of a mess.  Mainly due to the busy schedule I have just had - went on a Friendly Plastic weekend where I crafted in the King's Tower of Caernarfon Castle - see previous posts - with the ever so talented Liz Welch.  Read about the excitement we had too - if only the pilot had been Wills and he had waved!  I digress.

We had a couple of extra days and did not come home until very late Wednesday so my stuff just got "dumped" as I had to do my final prep and pack for my busy workshop on the Saturday.  I had searched everywhere we had been in Wales for a tiny sewing machine, table and lamp.  In the end I made my own table (see post 1st October) from a cotton reel, battery flickering light, some material (reason for the upside egg cup on the photo below) and beads.

When I got back from the workshop on Saturday I had to unpack again to get ready for a day of dem'ing at a show in Leigh on Sunday.  Remembered I had not done my DT piece which Zoe needed Sunday evening so Saturday night I set to and made that (see post tomorrow for pictures) on my knee in another room whilst resting my aching back and feet.

Anyway, here is my desk as I am about to start this blog entry:

Haven't a clue what half the stuff here is

The other side of my computer - complete with egg cup used for the table cloth and kitchen scissors.

Did I really cram all of this into one small bag?  Didn't use my Alcohol Inks or my glitter.

Oh yes, a couple of bead kits in there somewhere.

The floor behind me, too tired to take more piccies, is littered with stuff from Saturday and Sunday!  Mega clear up today.

Why am I showing you this, well it is mainly for all you WOYWW'ers who I hope will come round for a snoop - I'll be visiting you shortly but think the order of the morning is another hour in bed.

Just want to finish off Victoria Town (see previous posts for more exciting pictures) so here you are:

Mo's Birdy House 

(no blog so please click on picture for better view)

Donna's His and Hers

Lorraine's Alice House

Alison's Fun House

and finally

Paul's Shabby Chic

Do click on the links below the houses to see extra shots that I have not included - like Paul's fabby rooftop and Alison's sides of her house which I love.

Think I have uploaded all the houses in Victoria New Town but I know there are some builders still working on theirs so perhaps I will get some more pictures.  Think there are ten houses still going up before we get all twenty five of them (maybe 26 or maybe even more as some builders are doing two).

Perhaps we now need some little wooden trees and things planting - Enid are you listening?  Only kidding.