Catch-up

What with holidays and generally just being busy crafting things, I’ve had no time to update my blog or I forgot to bring my camera up into the loft (where my PC is) to upload any new photos.

I went to Hobbycrafts at Glasgow SECC at the end of October and bought quite alot of new stuff which has been keeping me busy.

I bought a couple of mdf plaques and some wood embellishments to make door name plaques for nephew and neice. The plaque is painted using brilliance metallic ink pads and while the ink is wet around the edge I used the plaque as a stamp on the background paper so I could cut out the correct size for the background (that find was a happy accident as I dropped the plaque onto the paper by mistake). They were easy to make and I think will make a lovely gift.

Name Plaques

 We stayed in lovely log cabin (www.gadgirthestate.co.uk) while we were in Scotland (Ayr). There are 4 lodges in a walled garden and was really comfortable. We stayed in Holly Lodge which is one of the two larger lodges.

Hubby thinking about lighting the log burner!

I always travel with my craft equipment and choose to only take my scrapbooking items so I could do some honeymoon pages – I managed to do about 4, heres one of them.

honeymoon scrapbook page

Hubby, mam and I visited London in October to go to Harrods for a spot of Christmas shopping and generally just have a look around (note the word look and not buy!) The decorations were lovely.

One of Harrods Christmas displays

 This was one of the many displays which caught my eye – a swarovski encrusted lamborghini for £1500!

Swarovski encrusted sports car

 Another new make, is bodacious bangles. You buy wood blank bracelets and paint them to your hearts desire!  Here are my first attempts which I hope to sell at some jewellery party in Nov/Dec.

Bodacious bangles (ignore my untidy desk in the background!)

A couple of pictures of our pumpkin carvings.

hubby's pumpkin

My pumpkin

We went to the Gosforth Park Race Course on Saturday for a charity event. Nemesis from Britains got talent performed as well as Same Difference (the brother and sister act from X Factor). They werent particularly good. The fireworks were good, but once you’ve seen Disneyworld fireworks nothing seems to compare!

Halloween fireworks

Well that covers whats been happening in my world so I must go now and get busy crafting!

Take Care

Lisa x

First art journal page

I have eventually completed my first art journal page. I made the mistake of mixing my acrylic and oil paints in a box and thought they were all acrylic . I’m no artist so couldnt tell the difference when I was painting with them – and I used some oil paints which have taken ages to dry! I wanted to use equipment I already have at hand so I havent bought any special paint. The background was firstly painted using brillance ink pads for a metallic effect. The pointy frame at the top of page was a plain piece of paper which I stamped with a text stamp and framed it further with faux stitching.  I drew the edge frame and bubbles with a sharpie marker and coloured them with acrylic / oil paint! All of the writing and outlining is done using sharpie marker and OHP marker pens. For the shading on the bubbles I used a black water colour pencil and blended it in to the background. 

My first art journal page

I’m pleased with my first page and hope to keep up the journal with various happenings. The book I have used for the basis of the journal was just a cheap watercolour pad from ‘The Works’ bookshop.  I liked it because it had the spiral top so the pages stay closed and flat when your working on them.

This week, I have ordered some wooden bodacious bangles and the associated paints to decorate them and cant wait until they come. I hope to have them early next week so I can play. I’m really enjoying trying a variety of new crafts lately including sewing, art and even baking.

Back to good old card making, I made this card earlier in the week for my friends little girl who was one year old on the 6th October.

The background paper is from crafters companion  summer stories CD. The girl picture is a rubber stamped image from Jolly Nation. The alphabets is from Crafters companion volume one CD.

1st birthday card

Take care

Lisa

x

Playing with Felt

Just a little post today. I bought a pack of felt a while ago and have finally managed to think about what to make with it. Here’s what I came up with for the festive season.

Padded christmas tree decoration

 

Christmas tree hanging on the fireplace

They took a while to make but were very therapeutic even if my finger is now sore from using the sewing needle!

Lisa

x

All kinds of stuff!

A productive day was spent yesterday making some Christmas cards using a lovely foiled kit from Kanban. Its the first time I have used their products and Iwas really impressed with the quality. The die-cut images are very detailed and printed on high quality card. The foiled card is that shiny you can see me taking the picture on some of the photos! I bought the kit from QVC before it was in general release. The cards are available to purchase in my ebay shop http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Handmade-By-LJM. An example of one of the cards is below.

Luxury Foiled Christmas Card

Earlier in the week I searched the web for Digi-stamps which are images artists have drawn and then allow you to download the images for a small cost. The advantage of these as opposed to rubber stamps are you can resize the images however I sometimes like to heat emboss my images to make colouring easier, which you cant do with downloads. So I’m not a convert from stamping – its still a favourite technique.

I came across this blog http://sketchingstamperdigi-stamps.blogspot.com/. The artist, Chris, has some lovely unusual images which I chose and have made the following cards.

This card was coloured using copic markers. I’m still a beginner with them however I’m getting more used to them and the shading they can do so well.

For my crafty friend Sandra

 As a mini cooper S owner, I love this image. The tyre background was downloaded from the web.

Mini car card

I love old fashioned prams so had to have this image.

A gorgeous pram

The image is hand stitched on to felt. the lace background paper is from Joanna Sheen.

Hubby and I visited my mam over the weekend and I always take something with me as I cant sit and do nothing. This is what I came up with.

Christmas themed minibook and co-ordinating box

The box and book are both made through paper folding. I have made quite a few of these and found the pattern on ‘The Scrapbook Lounge’.

Simple paper folded minibook

This book is made using 8×8 christmas themed paper. You fold the paper into quarters then unfold the paper so it is flat and the plain side is facing up. Fold the bottom left corner into the middle and do the same with the bottom right corner. Then fold the triangle upto the top edge to form the pockets. Make as many pages as you require, then stick the individual pages together. For the cover and back I cut two pieces of card slightly larger than the folded book, stick a half metre length of ribbon to one side of the book before adding the cover, this will then tie around the book to keep it closed.

Wedding album 1

The above picture is of my first album for our wedding. I have about 400 pictures so have decided to cut down the pictures into themes and make individual albums. This one details all of the presents we bought for our wedding party. The album base was made using K&Co Hannah Scrap to go pad. I have used this pad for many albums and still have plenty of paper available in it. The paper is more like card stock weight.

Flowers for Charlotte

I made the above arrangement for our daughters grave as we are finding wet oasis arrangements stay fresher than cut flowers. It also allows me to make something for her, which I get a great deal of satisfaction and comfort from.

Goodbye Daisy

Today we say goodbye to Daisy as we are collecting our new Mitsubishi Outlander later today once hubby comes in from work. Hubby is sad to say goodbye as he has had her for ten years and she was once written off and he got her back to road worthy condition, so he’s very attached to her. By the way, she’s called Daisy as she’s an old girl and Daisy sounded like a good old fashioned name for her.

Well I didnt realise I had been making so much lately, however after this rather long post I can see I have been busy having fun with myself in the loft!  Well, best go and get ready for hubby coming in so we can leave to get the new car – photos will follow!

Take Care

Lisa

x

Christmas Planner

Using an idea from a recent magazine project I have made a Christmas Planner. It is 7″x5″ in size made with Die Cuts With a View textured card and the Christmas paper used throughout is by papercraft4you. The ribbons around the book rings have been in my stash for sometime now. They are the decorations from some old crackers – which I knew would come in useful at sometime. the inside pages are all hand coloured.

The pages are:

• Card list
• Food Shopping list
• December monthly planner
• Pocket with blank recipe tags.
• Gift idea list
• Pocket for receipts
• Gifts to make list
• Gifts to buy list
• Internet orders list. To keep track of online sites, order references etc.
• Two envelope pockets to store such things as vouchers, coupens etc.

 I have added the book to my ebay shop (item number 350257108899) to see if it sells but I wont be disappointed if it doesnt as it took about 4 hours to make so I’ll use it myself!

Take Care

Lisa

x

Requests

I had every intention of doing the ironing this morning. However, I came up into my craft loft and saw an email from a customer requesting personalised money wallets so of course I had to made them instead of iron! These wallets are ideal for money or vouchers. They are £1.20 each (exc postage).

Personalised money wallets

This evening I had a  message from my friend, Paul requesting a ‘Pig’ themed card for his friend. All of the images were found on the web.

Pig card

Take Care

Lisa

x

Bits and pieces!

 

Some pictures from recent cycle outings and other activities. Its amazing after living in the same area all of my life how many new places we have found by getting on our bikes and using the many cycle tracks in our local area. We have found nature reserves, model plane airstrips, and even a large spoon monument – see pic below (not sure what the purpose of this is, but I intend to find out!)

 

The large silver spoon monument

A leisurely Sunday bike ride and you come across a large spoon!

Monty Magpie

Mmmm cupcakes!

A bumpy ride especially when trying to take a photo and peddle!

The tail end of the Red Arrows at the Great North Run

The crafting world seems to be all cupcakes at the minute, so I thought instead of making paper cup cakes I would make real ones and they turned out lovely, even if I say so myself! Hubby had to visit my mam to get the piping bag and colouring for the icing but otherwise they were made with cupboard basics.

I had my first visit to a home Newcastle match on Saturday since we were relegated. It nevers fails to amaze me how many Newcastle supporters really do bleed black and white. There was over 40,000 at the match. We won 3-1 but could of played better considering Plymouth Arygll are bottom of the league.

On the craft front I’m going to start an art journal soon, I have been tempted recently as I am a regular reader of Dyan Reaveley’s blog (http://www.dyan-reaveley.blogspot.com/) . She’s a fab artist and really opens up and tells it like it is on her blog. After a lot of personal trauma lately I think an art journal could help in the healing process, especially after reading the following book, ‘Art Journals and Creative Healing: Restoring the Spirit Through Self-Expression – Sharon Soneff’ (its available on amazon). I am just over halfway through the book and after reading it, it has made me realise that art does have good healing powers. I shouldnt be surprised as I know how crafting helps to relax and unwind. So I’m going to choose a good sketch book and stock up on my acrylic paints etc and get cracking on the journal.

Take care

Lisa

x

Silver tiara

At a customers request the below silver tiara has been made. The pearlised beads are attached to co-ordinating silver wire and hand wound on to the tiara base. The tiara base has a patterned outer edge.

 

The box which the tiara is photographed on is the handmade acid-free presentation box which comes with the tiara. There is acid-free tissue paper inside the box to help preserve the tiara for many years. The box is also wrapped in satin ribbon.

The cost of the tiara is £27 (inc postage).

Peaceful day

I’ve had a day in the house today after a few busy days. After the housework was done, so I didnt feel guilty I took myself into my craft loft with no real plans as what to make and I ended up using the Ollyfant stamps from Kars which I purchased a while ago. I coloured the image using watercolour pencils. The backgrounds papers are from forever friends paper pads. The flower embellishment is from the paper mill. The heart ribbon is from my local craft shop.

I had lunch yesterday with my friend Zoe who I made the ‘memories’ album which I displayed in the last post. Both her and new new husband loved the album and it is in the kitchen so she can view it regularly – its always nice to see that people appreciate the time and effort which goes into a handmade gift.

Well my hubs is in from work so I’ll sign off now.

Take care

Lisa

x

Lovely weekend

My husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary yesterday so spent the day/evening at Linden Hall Hotel, where we held our wedding reception. The room, dinner and breakfast were complimentary as we’d had a few issues during the planning of the wedding with the venue, however all of that was forgotten and we had a great time. During the past few months we have had a lot of deal with for a newly married couple so the stay was a welcome break. We had a lovely meal in the Dobson Restaurant and a relaxing morning in the jacuzzi and pool. I was surprised with a lovely diamond and ruby ring (pic below) for our anniversary whilst we visited Morpeth on our away to Linden Hall. The ruby stones are particularly special for the both of us and its an eternity ring which means alot.

After lunch at the in-laws, I had a drive to our local beach (Blyth) with my mam and nephew. The council have spent a lot of money renovating the sea front and have installed lovely beach huts which I believe are leased (pics below).

Earlier in the week I completed a couple of memory albums for a couple of my friends who had recently been married.

Click on the individual pics for larger images.

We have also bought a new car as hubbies car qualifies for the new scrappage allowance and since his car is starting to make some very strange noises we thought we would take the plunge and get a brand new one.  Mitsubishi Outlander, is what we eventually chose after about three full days visiting various dealers. We should have it in about three weeks. Its a good sized 4×4, has seven seats, massive boot space so it will last us a long time.

I missed the Great North Papercraft Extravaganza yesterday, which is held every March and September and I normally visit with my friend Sandra. Instead hubby and I are going to Glasgow hobbycrafts in October – I cant wait! I told Sandra yesterday and she’s very jealous, no doubt if its any good, Sandra and I will go again next year as I dont think hubby will make it a regular event! The visit this year is being combined with a short break to South Ayrshire.

Well I’m off to complete some samples for Christmas cards! Us crafters have got to start early.

Take care

Lisa

x