FP in the Castle

Well, the weekend is over plus a day out yesterday which was pretty nice weatherwise and very nice friendship wise.  More about that later, for now here are some photos from the Castle with apologies for the quality - lighting, smallness of room and my point and shoot digi.

Charlene and Kate busy at it whilst Gale ponders what to buy at the shop.

Nathalie and daughter Juliette working across from Wendy (I sat next to Wendy) with Liz in the background.

Rita, Wendy(2) and Gale

A Meal at Y Castell, Saturday evening with a closeup of my chicken dish below.

Kay and Jude (sorry had the wrong light exposure on)

Liz explaining some finer points to Kay

Below: Mother and Daughter bonding

Wendy T and daughter Gale

(below) Nathalie and daughter Juliette

Who could believe this stunning necklace (below) was made from Friendly plastic?  One of Liz's samples for us to aim to make.

And look at that stunning pendant and those beautiful tube beads on the dropper on another.

I hope the photographs above have inspired you to have a look at what you can do with Friendly Plastic.  I strongly urge you to go and visit Liz on her blog and follow the link to her website where you can buy the strips of FP and videos (Liz has made two excellent ones) and maybe keep an eye out for when she next has a class running.

Hope you enjoyed!  Am off to Portmerion so no time to chat any more.  Toodle Pip!

A Tree as The Main Feature

Well, that was Von's instruction to us for this Challenge.  I have quite a few tree images but chose this one, which I am hoping is an oak tree; it looks so with its shape, and the tiny acorn was attached to the stamp so I am assuming they came together.  No idea on the manufacturer as it is an unmounted one (sticky on one side rather than EZ Mount).

I stamped it with Archival Coffee and then used clear ep over it and did the same with the tiny acorn and the words.  I then got some card and did a bit of my usual Distress Inking over the top and used it to mount my pieces on.

A quick pinking down the side of a white card, a strip of chocolate underneath and voila - it was finished.

Now to head over to the Artful Times and await your creations. Thanks so much for entering our challenges, we love visiting you to see what you have been making and we always try to leave a comment for you.  If ever we miss you there is a good reason for it. See you there!

ps Welcome to our new Followers, we love having you join us.

Womans Weekly Show

Well, today I went to Event City in Manchester and despite there not being a lot of rubber stamping vendors there I still managed to come home stony broke.

If I am being honest I went mainly to look at textiles and buy some bits and bobs that I wanted so that is where a lot of my money went. These are my purchases and probably I should have saved this photograph for next week's WOYWW because I don't think my desk will change.

At the back you can see two packs of Rovings, some new Duster brushes (Ian swears by these and he gets some darned good results with his Distress Inks - that's one of his samples stood up at the back) two stencils to use with the brushes, some organza, felt, ruler, picture thing and two samples from Margaret Beale - and a glass cutting meal for the purpose of cutting on with my Fabric Master (had ages - years). Lutrador and Kunin felt, fat quarters, two Lost Coast stamps and some new stamps from Cardio - love that tree and how Wendy has done it.  The mouse traps - someone sent them to me and I didn't know what the parcel was when the postie handed it to me.

Here are some photos from the show - sorry this one of Lynda Bellingham is blurred - she was lovely and gave me a thumbs up when I had taken the photo.

Ian from Ali-Crafts

Margaret Beale had my attention for ages

I just loved this work on the Preston Threads stand - I took more photos than this but thought you might get bored with too many.

Just loved this Nuno Felting and the lady who had done it was so nice to talk to - look at her bottom piece with her free for embroidery.

The Costume Display that these shows are known for:

Death Defying Acts - Catherine Zeta Jones

The Golden Bowl - Uma Thurman

Ever After - Drew Barrymore

Minnie Driver - The Phantom of the Opera

This is the lady who did the Rovings - she made a bag up especially for my friend who was rather partial to one of my colours but I would not part with as I had something in mind for it.

But by 3 pm it was pretty empty

Anyone for a cuppa?

And to finish - here is Ian with nobody to dem for - by this time it was 4 pm.

So, if you want to go to a show that has plenty of room to walk about in, lots of seating areas and no hassle with crowds - take yourself off to the  show at Event City Friday or Saturday.  Jacket Potatoes are only £3.50!!!

Number 171 Already - WOYWW

Time flies as we all know and to think we are on number 171 with Ms Julia is unbelievable.  What did she think all that time ago when she first started this phenomenon?  Not that it would take off like this I don't think.  What am I on about?  Click the link above to go to her famous blog and see all the people who flock there each Wednesday to show off their desks - neat and tidy or crafty and a mess, sorry, downright crafty.

Before we proceed can I just say a big Welcome to my newest followers - Terry, Tertia, Jo and Sally and Amy.  Just a few more and I can reveal that prize for one lucky follower.  Remember it needs to get to a double zero and then the names all go in a hat and someone wins ????

Mine last night changed from my sewing desk to my FP desk.  What is FP?  Why it's Friendly Plastic!  Yes, I am off for a weekend of fun with the lovely lady, Liz Welch, who has become a good friend of mine.  You just got to love her.  This is the stuff the ever so talented Liz has asked us to take with us in the way of equipment.  I have it all together and it is going in that bag, (when I have done a final check) that my friend Irene made me for the last Polymer Weekend (which I have to miss this year because it clashes with Liz's weekend - hopefully not next time) and then into a rucksack ready for the Kings Tower at Caernarfon Castle.   Yes, that is where we are actually crafting - exciting or what? Plus there is the bonus of my friend Wendy going (we are the naughty girls but maybe not so this time as our other ally, Annie, is missing) and someone I have not seen in a long time, Nathalie (and her daughter) will be there so that will be lovely.  You should check out Wendy's work in textiles, link above, she is fantastic!

Anyway you came to see the desk

This shows the abandoned sewing (cover for his new Macbook), my new box (butterfly at back - Monday's posting) and my pile of stuff ready to go into the bag.

The bits the other photograph missed out, scissors, FP, notebook, skewers, lace.  The other stuff is not for weekend but can you see the green box?  That is some silk plaster which someone told me to get for stamping on and using in my craft projects.  £2.99 from a famous High Street pharmacy.  The roll behind on the white reel was from a pound shop!  Ok so there is not as much on but it is white as opposed to surgical pink!

Right, nice and quick this time, pop over to Julia's now and see what others have to say.  Go on, you know you want to.

Out of a Hat Want Us to Recycle

or do they?  Have I misunderstood?  It says use recycled packaging and I have simply used a box and recycled it.  Ooer!  Well, here it is:

This is my morning Muesli

Having searched for the perfect Muesli I have come down in favour of this one.  I just adore the pineapple chunks inside and take them all out when I put the cereal into its special box (Tupperware) and put them into a bag which then goes in the box.  Each morning when I put my cereal out my first treat is one of the pineapple chunks.  Yum yum!

I love the cut out butterfly on the front so I chopped the box down a bit and painted it all over with Gesso to give it some tooth.  Then began the painting of it with my Ranger Dabbers.  First of all a pale pink all over (why?  I am not a pink person at all.  Too tall for pink, you have to be small and delicate in my eyes.)  Then it was Blue and then Purple to create the sky with three shades of green painted on below for the grass.

I thought I had a die for tiny flowers which I was going to use along the bottom edge but guess I dreamt it - memo to self:  "Get one next time you are working."

So it had to be a frantic hunt for a suitable stamp, small and upright - thought these lollipop flowers fit the bill.  Then one of my favourite dies was used to cover the join of the grass and the sky cut from a tag type label from my new jumper - my only claim to recycled packaging.

Hope the girls from Out of a Hat Creations accept this as I doubt I have time to start over.

WOYWW 170

Here I am - Later than I have ever been.  Playing on my new MacBook and struggling with the touch pad, where to find things etc etc. Missing my usual bookmarks and familiarity of the old laptop but it really was a bit of a mess with no letters on the keys (good job I can touch type) and it was so slow.....

This is going to have to be short and sweet this morning - got to be at the eye hospital jut after 9 am - have been having "visions" in the form of pieces of string, chicken wire, venetian blinds etc first thing in a morning.  Friends in the know thought it was my medication but the doctors (GP's) thought otherwise.  Now having an emergency meet up at the hossie.  Wouldn't care but I was there yesterday having my first Pacemaker test and a pre-op and tomorrow I go in for a Cardio Version.  Yep, that will be Bolton Royal for three days on the trot.

Yesterday the cardiologist who is doing the Cardio Version tomorrow said it was the heart tablets but that I might as well go along and get my eyes tested.  Anyway, that is nothing to do with WOYWW and I sound like I am after the sympathy vote but really just telling you all about this as a matter of course because I am so late.

My desk - well it has been neglected of late.  Weeks of inactivity or very little (like emergency birthday cards - ie done at the last minute) activity and not even tidied up or messed up.   Saturday saw me attending Vicky Stampers where I hoped to re-find my mojo with a workshop by friend Jo but it didn't come back to me.  You can see my unfinished cards on my desk - well my desk just has my bag unloaded stuff on it.

Because I am such a failure at producing anything at the moment I suggest you go along to Ms Julias desk, see what delights she has to show you and then follow some of the links for a dose of inspiration, a nosey around and a general good way of doing a bit of blog hopping.

Hopefully see you next week with something a bit more interesting on my desk than this week.  Surely Mr Mojo has to come back when I am having three days of enforced rest!

Artful Times - Inchies

Oh My - there were some inspiring piece amongst the "Layered Acetate" challenge!  Thank you one and all.

Well today it is my turn again and you all know how I love doing "inchies" so that is my choice for this Challenge here on Artful Times.  I decided to use something different from my usual selection of inchie stamps and used this Tin Can Mail one depicting 'four pretty maids all in a row'.

As you can see, this could be a Less Is More Card as there is so little on it.  That's the way I wanted it though.

If any of you have this stamp you will notice that I have swapped the two ends about.  When I looked at the images I thought they represented the four seasons, the first being spring and the last (as in my picture) being winter.  So that is why they are arranged this way.  Don't you think they are the seasons now?

First of all I stamped the image on mountboard (you will probably remember I ALWAYS use mountboard for my inchies, just think it give a bit more substance to such a small piece.  You will also notice that they all finish at the neck whereas on the actual stamp you do see a bit of the gowns they are wearing - well, the neckline!  I had to do this to make the two ends measure 1" x 1".

First of all I tried colouring with watercolours but found that this particular mountboard (I was using the back - doh) rubbed up with the addition of water so I used my pencil crayons to get the colour.  Next they were double mounted and then placed on a plain white card.  Whether I will add a word at the bottom or not later remains to be seen.

Now, we have had some super entries in our challenges to date so I hope we get some in this challenge also.  Thanks so much for joining us with our challenges particularly our regulars, it is nice to see how you interpret our themes.

Over to Artful Times to see what Von, Sam and you come up with.