Very Plain, Very Simple

Decided to make a quick ATC to submit to "Out of a Hat Creations" for their challenge this week.  They are such a lovely bunch of ladies and deserve more of us to enter the challenges they post each week.  Must confess I have missed a couple so off to remedy that now.  Love those colours they have chosen but as I have to make some other things I did not have a great deal of time.

When I was at the Aintree show I was intrigued to hear a demonstrator say that the Ink Applicator and sponge rectangles that fit on them were not the best way to apply Distress inks.  Now you all know how big a fan I am of those inks.  Just had to try out her idea of using the brushes (didn't buy any, had already bought some a few years ago and not used them).  Sorry, but I am not convinced!  I prefer the depth of colour I get with my foam applicators.  Plus the fact that I ended up with quite a few bristles on my ink pads which had to be picked off.

No, I will stick to what I am used to, won't condemn the "shaving brushes" (that's what they look like) just yet and will try them again a few times to see what I come up with.  Her thinking was that you don't use as much of the ink, took a lot of scrubbing on the ink pad to get enough to generate colour on my cardstock!

Perhaps some of you out there will disagree, it is only my opinion that is stated above.  Each to their own.  Now here is the simple atc (took me ages to find those stamps - never been used before, bought ages ago from Craftwork cards - and I love them and will get them out more).

Right, off to see what others have done for this challenge at Out of a Hat Creations.

We Have a Winner

Got OH to choose a number (from the bedroom where he is reading his iPad) for my blog candy and he chose number 17 which equated to May.  Congratulations MAY, (how appropriate that May should win on the 1st of that month.  My mum was called May too and her birthday was at the end of this month) you are the winner of my blog candy and as soon as you get in touch with your address I will send it off to you.  My email addie is in the sidebar.

Now what is May going to get? Well, she has a big sunhat which is all the way from Prima at CHA this year and there are some goodies that went inside it -

Twelve stamps plus some alphabet ones, an inkpad, pens and some stickers - I hope they will all be of use to you May.  Enjoy!

Thanks to all of you who entered, thanks so much for being my followers - watch out for the next give away.

Blog Candy

(Hopefully this will stay at the top of my blog until the 30th April.)  Sorry it has taken me so long to get this up on my blog - got side-tracked with the sorting out of my room after the purchase of my sewing machine.  Am so excited about the machine but still not had a go on it as yet.

Anyway - here goes - the Blog Candy is UP and OUT for you to join in.  I do like to treat my followers and so I am making this for followers only.  Not just the present ones, but any new ones who want to come along - but please don't just join in for the candy, its unfair to all those who support me/become friends through BlogLand and drop in from time to time to see what I am up to .

So what do you have to do?

1.  Be  follower
2.  Post a picture of my Blog Candy to your sidebar
3.  Let me know you are a follower by leaving a comment
4.  Check back on the finish date to see if you have been the lucky winner.

So what's in it - the crown of this hat contains some Um's and there are some flowers so you can decorate the hat when you wear it out in the sun.  There might be one or two other bits and bobs that won't go in the crown that get sent off too, as well as those peel off markers I am showing you.

Good Luck!

Aintree with Jo

Before I begin can I just say Welcome to my newest Followers.  I'll be along to visit you shortly.  Thanks for following me, it means a lot.

Well, I was not going to go to the Aintree Show but a conversation "wi' mi' mate Jo" the night previous and I set off in the pouring down (read torrential) rain on Thursday for Aintree and one of the 'ichf shows'.  It took far longer to make the journey as the rush hour traffic had obviously slowed down and so the rush hour went on until well past 10 am.

First stop was obviously to see the Oyster Stamp Family and it was lovely to see Tom and Liam there - two young guys who always make me feel warm and fuzzy because they are so lovely.  Then it was Tracey, busy demonstrating and sporting a new hair cut which really does suit her, and Graham, her lovely other half.  /a bit later I saw Barbara, whom I always enjoy working with so much, she was doing continual workshops in another part of the hall - well worth doing if you are going there today.  I gave Tracey my Design pieces (one on here yesterday and the other below) and then, because it was so busy dashed off to see what I could find.

This is another of the Jewelled Goddess diecuts from Oyster Stamps and this time I decided to make it into one of those mannekins that have been so popular but this time with coloured sheets of paper rather than a magazine as usual.  I have Annette to thank for showing me how to do these and there is another one partly done but more of that another day.

I only had a look on one stand and when I turned around there was Jo talking to Wendy from Cardio.  I went over and made some comment about her not being on time for the "meet" if she didn't stop chatting and after saying "hi" to Wendy we made our way to see who else was going to turn up.  

When we got to the eating area we found Carol and her daughter Becky (see Jo's blog) so managed to grab two seats next to them.  Later we were joined by Ann and her daughter Wendy (below).  Ann was telling me she is being laced into an Elizabethan costume next weekend for a Fayre she is attending.  She was most distressed as she cannot show her purple hair off!  I didn't get a photograph but we did meet up with Jacqui and Carmel too.

Spent very little apart from the things from Oyster Stamps so will show you the textile photos that, I hope, are different to those Jo uploaded.

I love masks and I think this was  by someone from Merseyside Embroiderers' Guild

as was this flower from a Fascinator

and these tiny pictures

The Guild are having an Exhibition in the Concert Room, Liverpool Cathedral, St James' Mount.  On Saturday, 9th June at 3 pm Kathryn Thompson will be the speaker - "Dolls with Attitude".  Sounds good.

Don't think Jo had this one - it's Victorian Mourning Wear

More beautiful work

Bob in his wooden hat

Love this waistcoat on the Soluble Film Company's stand

Finally -  Paverpol (I want...)

This is the husband of Shirley who had a stand showing her Paverpol creations.  These can actually be put outside!  He was a very interesting man to talk to and I intended going back and then didn't make it.  Not to worry, I learned a lot from him and now would love to dabble in it.  Must find out more about the lady who does these.

Hope you have enjoyed my brief, but heavy on pictures, blog today.  The show was worth going to for the exhibits - and don't forget, there was Downton Abbey there too.

(some of the exhibits you were not allowed to photograph, one lady explained that they could not give permission to photo work by some of the ladies exhibiting as they had not had permission from those persons.  Others clearly had a sign on them so maybe they were destined for another show with merits being given - who knows?)

Time

Well, if you have come here from Artful Times you will have realised that I completely forgot about this piece and was working busily on another one.  Stressed?  Me?  No, just all my fingers in different pies at the one time.

We decided (Von, Sam and Moi) that we would take it in turns to decide on a theme.  Think I had it in my head that I had gone first so was happily not doing my "Time" piece when I got a nudge and promptly got it done.

It worked two ways actually as I had the Spellbinders Jewel Goddess die from Tracey at Oyster Stamps as a kind of challenge to see what I could make from it.  Not seen what the other DT Members of Oyster Stamps have done with it yet but it should be interesting.  I've actually had several pieces in the pipeline, ie inside my head, and some on the board in various stages of undress.  Time to share one of them with you.

I cut out the largest size on a piece of lightweight greyboard using my Grand Calibur, painted it with Toad Hall Fresco Paint and then cut out the smaller one and painted that with Honeydew and then Guacamole. The board did not need embossing as the pattern was well imprinted on account of the board being fairly thick.  Please do NOT try this at home, you will invalidate the warranty on your machine if you try to put something through which is too thick unless you have a very lightweight greyboard.  (I also tried cutting some of these shapes on mountboard but there was no way I would risk my machine with such a hard board as that - I ended up using cereal packets for my other pieces, [which are still not finished] and sticking two of them together - you might be better off doing that.  I have found that greyboard comes in different weights, just as cardstock does and I did have a very lightweight piece).  I then sanded lightly to take off some of the top colour on the smaller one.

Next I used the Spellbinders Sprightly Sprockets to make some of the elements to use on my figure.  These were made with core card and lightly sanded to continue with the distressed look.  A top hat (printed from the internet) ... and then what?

I made a tag from mountboard, coloured it with various "brown" dies from my Distress Inks, a little stamping on the tag, piece of bandage coloured with my Distress Inks through the hole at the top and Voila! There was my "Time Lady" - apparently there was one way back in the Doctor Who series - do you remember her?

So there you see my 14" high tag my piece for the Design Team on Artful Times.  I do hope if you just came here to begin with you go and check out what Sam and Von have done for this challenge - and I hope you join in.  Doesn't have to be anything in particular, apart from sticking with the Time theme, Von has done a card and Sam a postcard.

See you another day with yet another of my Jewel Goddess pieces. xx

WOYWW 151 and Last Call for Candy

Oops, this page has changed - what is Blogger doing?  Hope it uploads ok as I am off to bed, having had a late night and wanting an early morning for WOYWW.  (Crikey Mikey, had a problem with the link just then!!!)

Don't forget my blog candy - quite a few unmounted stamps there for whoever - it's just above this post and ends next Monday - or click the big hat opposite.

Thanks to those who put their number down last week, makes life so much easier.

Still cannot share my Jewel Goddess things from last week with you but they will probably be up by next time WOYWW'ers come to visit.  Spent far too long playing with these and not all that smitten with the end results.

So here is my desk, as you can see I have been playing with my new toy - the sewing machine.  Love it!  I managed to thread the needle about three or four times with the automatic threader, wound a bobbin (which I want to call a spool) three times and went through a full reel of thread.  I decided to go through the stitches that it performs and as some of them were a kind of satin stitch they used a lot of thread up.  In that process I had to change the foot - but the book called it a "presser", three times.  There are only two stitches I didn't do and that was because they needed yet another "presser" and I had had enough.  Might do them later along with the buttonholes and the eyelet.  Here are the ones I did (in the silk paper book I made with Annie):

I have to have my room reasonably tidy for Friday with stuff well away that will react to sawdust!  On Friday our local builder is coming to make me some shelving to stand in front of the door leading to our en suite bathroom (why would I want another bedroom having access to MY bathroom?  Maybe the previous owners had that room (my craft room) as a dressing room.).  It is going to be free standing and I doubt it will get painted to match in with the rest of the room for a while as I will be eager, too eager, to do anything but rearrange my room a bit.

Gosh, this was going to be so short, and yes, I like the new format, it lets me type on and on and I can still see the top line.  Ooh, try the bits at the side - there's all sorts of things.  What is this going to look like?

Right, off you go, visit the other WOYWW'ers who are spurred on by the Queen of desks, Ms Julia, and join the biggest blog hop I have ever been on.  Toodle Pip!

What a Nice Round Number - WOYWW 150

Welcome to my new followers - lovely to see you on board.  Don't forget the blog candy above this post - only two weeks to go.

Anyone know if there is a top hat die out there anywhere - about one inch to one and a half tall?

Right, short post this time - thanks to all those lovely people who remembered to put their numbers on with their names last week - made it such a better job to comment.  Hope it happens again this week.

Well I was almost caught out this week as I had forgotten that Ms Julia, Queen of Desks, had changed her timings.  There was I prepared to do my Cinderella act and blog at midnight in order to get my posting up before the clock struck again when I remembered.  Oops, mistake, the Queen had decided to have a change around and go back to the early morning posting for this week.  Luckily I woke up at 4 am with those danged old hips aching and managed to sit upright and ... well ... here I am with all the other WOYWW'ers posting.

Here's my desk, in all its glory

As you can see I have been busy with my Calibur and the Jewel Goddess Die that Tracey gave me to create something with (with a wicked laugh I might add).  Taken me until now to get things going, ideas buzzing in my head but that was about all.  Need to have them finished for the Aintree Show next week so I can take them to her and see what she thinks.  Hope I have not given too much away with my shot of my desk.

Toodle pip - don't forget to visit the others at the link above and remember my blog candy and your number please..