12 tags of 2012 - april

Here is my tag for the April tag over on Tims Blog:

I actually made it a couple of weeks ago but wasnt keen on the colour scheme and was going to redo it using reds as it would go more with my British theme but the tag has grown on me since then and I don't want all red tags so I have kept it as is.

Stash used was Wild Honey, Crushed Olive, Brushed Corduroy, Broken China, Tea Dye distress inks. Tea Dye embossing powder.  Pinecone leaves from Sizzix die (have since bought the bird on a branch die for the crop but its still unused in the box!), bird and wing are the from Birdcage die.  For the background I used Couture Creations World Map embossing folder with the Numbers reflections stamp inked with Jet Black Archival Ink.  To keep with my British theme I used the Inkylicious Union Jack 2 part – Keep Calm and Carry On stamp and the Artemio - London Landscape stamp.  Metal crown is from one of T!ms metal sets.  To finish the tag I used a piece of muslin died with Broken China and Wild Honey distress stains, a vintage lace diecut inked with Mustard Seed and Vintage Photo and then the lovely little soldier you see standing in the bottom right hand corner is cut out from a ribbon.

Thanks for looking :)  Off to Tennis from Solihull

If anyone is interested there is some blog candy for any of my followers on this post here

Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge 2

Wanted to take part in this challenge earlier in the week but Mr Mojo took a little holiday! Oh No! all day Tuesday to myself to play too but nothing happened I just ended up shuffling around in my button tin trying to organise a piece of crazy quilting but nothing was sparking my imagination - in the end I put it all away and put the telly on instead!  Thankfully though he has come back to visit this morning (yes this tag was done this morning before my school run!) so I can enter the super challenge here at Studio L3.

                                                 

Tag background was done with Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo and Picket Fence distress stains and then the edges inked with Vintage Photo distress ink, the background stamps are from the Wild Meadow stamp set from Indigo Blu - inked with Vintage Photo.  For the metal frame I used Snow Cap Mixative, Butterscotch and Hazlenut alcohol inks, the Butterfly word is stamped on kraft cardstock with a Cavallini & Co stamp in Chocolate archival ink and then inked with Vintage Photo.  The butterfly is a mover and shaker of T!ms coloured in Barn Door with a script stamp stamped with Vintage photo ink and some bling to finish.  The Flowers are another T!m die coloured with Faded Jeans, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo stains - I was going to keep the colour scheme all yellow and browns but decided to add a bit of colour in at the minute to make it all pop!  The flower centres are old Basic Grey brads.  The large flower is T!ms Tattered Flower die coloured with mustard seed distress ink, edged with Vintage Photo and finished with a Making Memories glass bead.  Tag is finished with two brown ribbons, a Barn Door inked piece of muslin and a Making Memories pearl drop bead.

The faux patina technique on the metal frame is taken from T!ms new book Compendium of Curiosities 2 - page 58.  If you enter you will be in with a chance to win an Idea-ology messenger bag that has been autographed by T!m!!! whoo hoo.

Thanks for looking :) 

Just Tagging Along from Solihull



WOYWW 51

Morning everyone,

I have to confess I wasn't going to join in this week as my mojo was on fire the end of last week and the weekend - for the first time ever my children were happy to entertain themselves during the last couple of the days of the holidays so it left me time to get on with crafty things and I did loads of sewing! will blog more about that later - anyhow yesterday I got the house to myself and my mojo mysteriously disappeared! How annoying - instead I spent most of the day sat on the settee doing some hand embroidery whilst catching up with the all the crime dramas I had taped over the holidays - how lazy!  Still I am hoping for  better things today....

Here is my desk with everything just dumped on it so no specific project at the moment:

Yes the table runner is new, that was just one of last weeks creations and its embroidered on the back too!  Mannequin is new - a great find for £3.99 in B&M bargains can't wait to pimp her up!  That lovely tin from Paperchase holds all my buttons, that plastic bag is a little giveaway as I am two posts away from 300!  The material piece to the left is a new project I am working on I think its called crazy quilting - not sure - anyway that was the one that stumped me yesterday - I got all all my buttons and ribbons to funk it up and kind of lost interest - hopefully that wont last. 

Thanks for joining me again this week - if you too would like to join in the fun of sharing your desk with the world pop over to Julias.

Can I just also say a big hello to Scrapfanaatpeter - thanks for following me :)

Thanks for looking - Rained in from Solihull

I have a confession - it was me!

This morning, after relooking at the picture I posted yesterday of my dresden plate,  I decided to

so I sat and unpicked my slightly puckered dresden plate, reironed it all (and cleaned the iron in the process too!).  Whilst I was doing this I quickly reread through the instructions and realised that instead of sewing around the outside of the circle template I had in fact sewn inside it with a quarter of an inch seam - therefore my circle was too small!  So I redid another circle too (properly this time!), ironed it and I have now completed my dresden plate (again!):

looks much better now doesnt it.  This time I used some 505 to glue it to the backing material along with a pin in each plate.  Just need to get some matching fabric to bind it into a little quilt and turn it into a little table mat (I feel a quick trip out to Hobbycraft coming on!).  Now need to decide whether the plates are big enough for me to cut my Alice in Wonderland material into without losing too much of the design.

Such fun!

Thanks for looking - Sad it's the last day of the school holidays from Solihull

May crop class

Enjoyed myself yesterday putting together the class for our 20th May crop, I rarely scrapbook these days so its nice to have play with 12x12 papers again once in a while:

Have used some lovely My Minds Eye "Follow Your Heart" papers.  For those that come to the crop hope you have all seen that we are now moving permanently to Shelly Farm Community Centre in Monkspath - more details are here http://www.whathouseworkblog.blogspot.co.uk/.

Also how annoying is this:

and I followed a pattern and everything!  my sewing skills aren't perfect though and the background material is slightly puckered (the instructions said use one pin per dresden piece however I think I should have used two or three!) - luckily for me this is actually a test piece as I wanted to see how it easy it was to put together (very in fact! and also this only took me a couple of hours including all the cutting out) - but I wanted to try it out on scrap fabrics first so that I could size it all and see if I liked it enough before cutting out all my Alice In Wonderland fat quarters.  Think I will be doing another one though as they do look effective don't they.  I will repost the finished version of this when I have made a slightly bigger centre and edged it.  Will probably use it as a table mat when its completed.  If you want to have a go I got the pattern from here: Sew Mama Sew - I am sure yours will turn out just fine!

Also talking of disasters - spot the mistake on this one:

ho hum (and yes it is the same way up (or is that down?) all the way round - no putting it up against a wall and pretending its ok!!).
A big hello to Suzanne - thanks for following me, hope my disasters don't frighten you away!

Thanks for looking - Slightly askew from Solihull

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge week 1

Bernice sent me an email yesterday which I read first thing this morning asking if I was taking part in the new Compendium of Curiosities Challenges over at http://studiol3.blogspot.co.uk/.  I wasn't going to but when I read the challenge I had one of those moments of inspiration and creativity strike and I thought "ooooh I could make..." and so I have spent the last hour and half (yes I got up early today!) making this:

For the tag background I used Picket Fence, Barn Door, Faded Jeans and Vintage Photo stains and then I have inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.  The stamps are by Artemio (stamped in Crimson archival and Vintage Photo) and the telephone is custom die made from a mover and shaker (only bought it yesterday and its already been used! whoo hoo!) stamped in Black Archival and the letters are again from a new die bought yesterday which is the new Word Play die (again whooo hooo!!) - these are inked with Vintage Photo and then stamped over with T!ms reflection number stamp (thought that was cute using numbers and telephones) again in Black Archival, the alphabet stamps are a little boxed set that I have had for years.  Finished off with flower ribbon, Barn Door and Black Soot muslin ribbons and then the two cutest English ribbons I have of soldiers and, of course, Tea.  Thought I would go along with an English theme like I am with T!ms monthly tags.
In order to take part in the challenge you need to use the technique on Page 66 of T!ms new Compendium of Curiosities 2 book and then you will be put into a random draw to win a $25 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp  so go on have a go - it's lots of fun!

Thanks for looking - Having Fun from Solihull

WOYWW 150

Chaos!

start of a dresden plate quilt on the left hand side there so a bit of sewing going on, some new ribbons on the right from a fabulous little stall find in Wolverhampton market, I am testing out some new sizzix dies I have bought for the crop and preparing the next class layout so a bit of allsorts going on today! (well yesterday afternoon in the light but the desk still looks roughly the same this dark rainy morning!).

If you would like to see why I am baring my chaotic mess to the world then pop over to Julias and join in all the fun of her weekly desk blog hop.
A big hi to Kaz - thanks for following me :)

Thanks for looking - hoping to get a bit tidier today from Solihull

I've done a challenge

First time in absolutely ages - quite possibly a year in fact!  I realised yesterday that I still hadn't opened the new dies and stamps that I bought at the NEC last month so I got out my craft table in the lounge, whilst the rest of the family were watching Moonraker I thought I would do some papercrafting.  I got out all my bits and pieces and then sat there completely flummoxed (happens far too often at the moment!) and my mind went blank so I went online and looked through some of the challenges on my challenge page and went for a sketch from Sketch Saturday:

Here is my take on their sketch.  I used a book page, Sizzix doily die (my new purchase!), sizzix circle, T!ms butterfly kraft cardstock which I coloured with Vintage Photo distress stain, ribbons, T!ms butterfly mover and shaker die, script stamp, Indigo Blu grass and dandelion leaves stamps (another new purchase), the sentiment is by Whimsy Stamps from their Birthday Letter Seals collection.  The inks I used on this card are Crushed Olive, Ripe Persimmon, Vintage Photo and Tea Dye.
I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday for the sketch

Moving Along With the Times  - Shabby Chic/Vintage

Scrapbook Sisters - Anything Goes

and then as I sat there the film still hadn't finished and my mojo had started flowing slightly I actually did two more cards albeit the same but in different colour schemes:

here I used Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo and Crushed Olive inkpads.

and for this one I used Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Vintage Photo and Crushed Olive ink pads.

So I am happy today that I have a little stockpile of cards for those birthdays that creep up on me when I have no mojo!

Thanks for looking - Happy Crafter from Solihull

And yet another sewing accomplishment

This bag has been on my to do pile for a while now:

it's rather sweet isn't it!  It's a bolster bag that is fully lined:

I got it from my Quarterly Crafting club which is Daisy Chain Designs - I don't think I would have particularly chosen it as a kit normally but am still rather pleased with it.  I am going to keep my distress ink foams in it which I know is a bit extravagent but let's face it I really don't need another bag!  I started it yesterday afternoon and then spent two hours last night turning out that handle! and then have just finished off the rest this morning.

Learn't a really good tip making it on how to sew circles - could have done knowing about that on Tuesday when I made three of these:

See it's been a busy sewing week for me!  Five projects completed oodles more to go.....

Thanks for looking - Happy Sewer from Solihull

Meet Peggy Sue!

isn't she lovely:

she is my new peg bag - complete with zip and she is fully lined! Well that was my Wednesday - what did you do on yours?

A big hello to May - thanks for following me :)

Thanks for looking - All pegged out from Solihull

WOYWW 148

Sorry I have been awol for so long - my Nans death has had a big effect on me and I really havent been that chatty for the past few weeks - still I am feeling a lot better now and ready to start getting creative.

My desk is a bit staged as these are my two projects I hope to work on later today (am helping out at school this morning) - the house picture I bought as a kit when I went to Hobbycrafts at the NEC and the material to the left is a new technique I am trying (despite the fact that I kept telling myself I didnt need a new hobby I just caved in, again at the NEC), the house picture just needs sewing around in lots of different coloured threads and will be done, I have watercoloured the calico and the rest is straight from the pattern.  The left piece is some needlepunch felt and material that I have appliqued hearts on and then washed so it has shrunk and ruffled up just need to embellish it now.  Other than that my desk is relatively bare although I did take part in T!ms online class which, along with my crop commitments, got me back into doing some papercrafting but other than that I have just been doing some sewing and moping in front of the telly!

Can I just say a big thank you to Chris, Vanessa Scrap and Rita for following me.

Looking forward to getting around to some desks later and I have just looked out of my dining room window and notice it is slightly snowing here! whoo hoo.  If you would like to join in the fun desk hop too then pop over to Julias.
Thanks for looking - Cant Wait for the Holidays from Solihull

My crafting skills

obviously come from my Dads side of the family although my Nan was well known for her sewing and knitting skills too!

A while ago my Dad asked me if I would post some pictures on my blog so his friends could see his diarama so here they are:

isn't it fabulous!

another overall view shot

love the tyre tracks on this one

love the broken down roof on this one

and here is another!

I think my Dad should set up his own blog to show off his creations - do you??

Thanks for looking - Missing T!ms Creative Chemistry already from Solihull