Bean Sidhe

Noooooooooooooo, don't be silly, not THAT sort of kissing - but stamping kissing.

Last night, at Craft Club, Zoë did the project.  She had organised (and when I say ORGANISED I mean just that, wow girl, you really got your act together) a demo of different stamping techniques.

Zoe's a Stampin' Up demostrator - you can see the FULL catalogue and  MINI catalogues by using these links and on Zoe's own site.

We learnt how to kiss AND how to kiss with a twist - see her tutorial here.  You can find the stamps and materials used in the Stampin' Up main and mini catalogues - any queries or orders, go to Zoe's site.

KISSING

For this card she used the

Flower Accent Stamp (see mini catalogue page 22

and

flourish background stamp, mini catalgue page 23.

Here's my version - yes, ok, it's NOT like the sample Zoë made - but never mind.

Meet Fergal  (Fergal the Pheasant that is) - make your own ink pad

 This technique demonstrated using re-inkers and felt to make your own stamp - hence, Fergal is multicoloured (as any self respecting pheasant would be). 

Stamps used - Autumn Days, page 45 of the Main Catalogue.

 - again, it's not as per her demo piece.

Heat N Stick

This product overcomes the problem of trying to stick glitter onto your card so that it STAYS on the card.  You cover you image using an embossing pad (e.g. Versamark) or, if you just want to glitter detail, using an embossing pen.

You apply the Heat & Stick Powder which you heat using your heat gun (similar to using embossing powder) - it goes tacky (don't overheat tho').

Sprinkle fine glitter over the area on which you've used the embossing pad or ink and heat for a short time, this fixes the glitter onto your card.

Stamps used - Silent Night - page 20 of main catalogue.

 ...no surprises, it's not as per Zoe's demo!

Double Stamping

I didn't do this project (what do you mean, I was talking too much)? 

The stamp used for this was - A Rose is a Rose - page 44 of the main catalogue.  You will see there are two versions of the elements, which facilitate the double stamping.

Something Sweet

This is a really novel project which has a slider when, pulled out, releases little sweets!  I didn't do one of these myself but you can see it on Page 8 and 9 of the mini catalogue.

See Zoe's blog here.

So, a hearty THANK YOU to Zoe.

Charity Stall

Yes, I'm still doing stuff for the charity stall.

Firstly, I've done some wee trinket boxes.  They are very small, about 1.5 inches across but I thought they'd be nice for jewellery and other bits and bobs.  I've coloured them using Lumiere Paints, which give a lovely sheen.

They are pre-made, compressed cardboard boxes, so I can't take credit for making the base box.

Here are the finished ones.

Decorated Candles

I need to 'dress' these up with some nice cello paper and ribbons but these are the base candles.  I've applied the images by stamping onto tissue paper and then melting it onto the candle.

The stamps are from Crafty Individuals.

Cookery       

Some of the family visited for the day - part of the meal was a birthday cake (coffee and walnut) for our brother in law.

......... and the pudding (very easy to make) Mille Fueille (strawberry) YUM

Sara organised an altered CD swap on her forum, Time for Crafting.  Thank you for hosting Sara.

I got Colleen's - lots of texture and loads of work has gone into this.  Thank you Collen.

You can see all the CD entries for the swap here - amazing how different they all are.

The monthly swap on Time for Crafting was a tag, theme birds.  I got Marion's - thank you Marion - lovely calm feel to this piece.

Here is my latest batch of knitting.

My red wines, raspberry and redcurrant, should have been ready to drink at Christmas according to the recipe.  However, on tasting, they were far too sweet and syrupy.   We left them for a further period and racked them off this week end, they are now much nicer - albeit still in the sweet category.

The elderflower didn't clear but tastes ok (I don't have a picture of that).

Because they are so sweet I think there may be a possibility of them developing some fizz (which would be nice) so, to be on the safe side, we've put them in champagne bottles.  We'll see how they develop.  I've got to get some foils to put over the tops now.

Craft Club

Jenny did the project last month (thanks Jenny).  We did this pop out/stepper card.

Tag

I got this lovely tag from  Louise it's gorgeous - lots of texture and the butterfly is made of feather and is very realistic.  Thanks Louise.

Birthday cards

Here are a couple of birthday cards I made for one of my nieces to give to her FIL.

Knitting

I was asked to knit a bolero for a friend's granddaughter.  It looked like a very simple pattern but the yarn was textured and I had a bit of a problem seeing well enough to cound the rows and stitches to begin with.  To get my head round the pattern, I knitted one in a plain yarn first (the white one).

Altered Art

On Sara's Time for Crafting forum we did a tag swap (theme birds) and an altered CD swap.  Here's what I made.  You can see all the CD's here.

Here's the CD I sent for the swap.  Pasta frame coloured with acrylic paint and gesso and brushed over with Lumiere paints.  CD colourd with Alcohol inks and the words printed on Letraset.

Here's my spare one.

Well, maybe you'd be right in thinking winter's still here if you use the weather as a guide but Mothers' Day is nearly upon us as is Easter so I've had a flurry of card making.

Mothers' Day Card I used a free download sheet from Monica's site for this.

Daughter's birthday card - she likes Salsa dancing.  The colour hasn't photographed too well - it's nicer in real life.

St Patrick's Day

Cards for my family.  The printed background sheets are some left over from scrapbooking my Ireland holiday.  I bought them from here (wealth warning!  Loads of great stuff).  The images were from here.

 Easter Cards - variation on a theme

Another free download from Monica's site.

I think I like the one with the Cuttlebug embossed pieces on the best.  I wish I'd embossed the others now.

 Altered Art - Bottle Cap Swap

I entered the Bottle Cap Swap on Sara's Time for Crafting site.  I wasn't really sure what I was doing and when I got my returns, I realised the ones I'd done were fairly basic but that's one of the good things about swaps, you do learn and see other people's work in the hand which is quire inspiring.

Here are the ones I made.

Backs - I made one into a book mark and one into a brooch.

Fronts - I glazed mine with Glossy Accents.

Here are the ones I received in return - aren't they lovely? You can see all the entries here.  Thank you to Sara for hosting and to Christa, Tigerlilly, Maggie, Sara, Lottie and Fudgebabe - beautiful stuff.

Art Group

Rita did the project this week - thank you Rita.  We had to paint a glass which proved quite difficult but then everything at art group is difficult for me.  I haven't mastered the art of using the paints properly yet and for this we had to do a very light wash of paint and mine were quite strong, despite the fact that I'd tried to follow Rita's advice.  I had a tumbler and a glass - it's amazing how many different shades and colours are in glass when you really look at it.

This doesn't look right at all - the I haven't got the ends of the tumbler as they should be.

A BIT better maybe?

My paint's far too strong here.

The actual glass looks a bit wonky here.

Golden Wedding Anniversary Card

I used Nestabilities to cut out the ovals (thanks for the loan Dorothy).  The vellum on which the verse is printed has been punched around the edge using a Martha Stewart punch (thanks Barbara).  Isn't it good to have crafty friends?:wink:

Altered Art

I took the topic at our local art group last week.  As I'm not able to do any actual 'art' I spoke about scrap books and memory books.  I took along several examples, one of which was this book in a tin which I'd made as a RAK for a cyber buddy.  I coloured the original silver tin using alcohol inks.  You can see the whole thing here.

Stampin' Up Craft Day

Today, Barbara took me to the Stampin' Up craft day (thank you Barbara).  The event was organised and run by Zoë and Emma (sorry Emma, I don't have a link to your blog as I type).

It was a lovely venue, plenty of room.  The display boards showed a wealth of inspiration for us all.  I was particularly impressed by the folder holding real samples of the papers and ribbons - so nice to see the actual item rather than just a picture.

We were given tea or coffee with home made (still warm would you believe!) biscuits.  The materials we worked with were from the Petal Party kit - plenty of supplies with which to make the day's three projects too!

We spent the morning session getting to know one another (a lovely group of ladies I have to say) and making our easel box.  I tried very hard to be careful and cut it out properly and was quite pleased to find it wasn't too wobbly at the end of the morning.

This is the result of the morning's work (I don't think they are all here but this is most of them).  Mine's front row, third from the left.

After lunch (which was delicious!) we made a mini-book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I finished this off at home as I'd added extra pages and although we'd been given ample card, paper, stickers etc, I was trying hard to preserve my last sheet of coloured card (how mean is that?) and I did the remaining pages using bits and bobs from my stash at home.

Afternoon brought more tea or coffee and the remaining biscuits (yes, there were some left over from the morning believe it or not) we made a little carry box/bag thingy which holds a selection of mini cards.  It would make a lovely gift but I'm not giving mine away - sorry about that folks!  This is one side of it - the other is with the group of three projects below.

And these are the cards I made to go inside.  Quite plain but effective, well I think so.

So, here are all my three projects together and you can see the mini book in full here.

To put the final polish on the day, I came home with a lovely wee stamp set which was part of the day and some gorgeous ribbon, which I won in the raffle. All who attended went home with a lovely gift and/or prize.

So, I've had a great day - many thanks to all concerned.

I made a new Web Site

I've made a new web site (not a blog) for my knitting.  You can see it here.  I don't really understand the abbreviations related to web site building so I've struggled with this a bit - I'm sure I could customise it a lot more if I knew more but with my limited knowledge, I've not found it very user friendly.

Cards

I've posted the last of my birthday cards so here they are.

Here's a baby card I made.

Knitting

After seeing the multi-coloured jacket I'd knitted, Sam commented that a green combo would look good (we both love green).  I made this.  Not sure if it's not a bit too wide but I did ask a couple of people and they said they didn't think so.  It is very warm!

RAK

Sam sent me this.  It looks even better in real life.  You can see how she made it here on her blog.  THANK YOU Sam!

A gift from Karen

Karen made this especially for me as a 'thank you' gift.  Isn't it lovely?  It's even got its own organza bag.  I love it, especially the beads that sort of morph into turquoise which are interspersed with the different shades of green.

My elder grandson went to live in Japan for a year.  He left in November.  Before he left, we had an early Christmas celebration, which incorporated his birthday as that's in December as well.

I made some little favour boxes for place settings.  I thought the table and tree looked gorgeous  -  not decorated by me needless to say.  This is at my daughter's home.

I'm rather pleased with this photo of the birthday cake - the 'candles' were rather spectacular!

Knitting

I've had the urge to do some knitting after all the card making.  A little aran blanket  -  not a colour I normally knit but the yarn seemed to be in my knitting box for some reason.

The little aran cardi is so cute.

Altered Art

I've had this wine box for a couple of years, always intending to alter it.  I've finally done it.  It's a gift for a cyberbud.

The lid's done with distress inks and cracklle paint and has paper collaged onto it.

I embossed the metal using a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The lady is printed onto printable fabric from craftycomputerpaper.com.  I added tiny seed beads for her buttons and stuck lace around the neck and cuffs to make is more 3D.

Hope You've all had a Good Christmas

Thank you to those who visit and comment on my blog.  It's lovely to get feedback.  I hope you all have a good 2010 - just where do the years go?  It certainly doesn't seem ten years since the millenium does it?

Gifts - sent and received

I love wrapping gifts and making them pretty.  It's often 'nice paper, shame about the gift'.  Here are a few ready to distribute - mostly stocking fillers.  The shiny paper hasn't photographed too well.

Here are the gifts I received - who's a lucky girl then?

Terr a cotta casserole dish - can't wait to use it.  Hot water bottle in a fluffy cover with matching bed socks (they know me TOO well LOL!)  Three jumpers (now I can throw away those covered in ink, glue and fruit juice dye - just have to remember to wear my pinny more often - mind you, I always manage to miss the pinny and land on the jumper and/or jeans - altered clothing - I guess I could market it eh?)   Pestle and mortar - which will save the noise I make smashing things with the end of the rolling pin and the stuff flying all over the kitchen.  Two scarves - lovely and warm, I'll need those if this weather keeps up.  Victorian Farm DVD - I just LOVE that programme.  A smart purse (need some £ to keep in it tho') and a lovely scented candle - seems a shame to burn it but it smells GORGEOUS!  CD Spirit of Africa - lovely to listen to while I craft.  A nice book - I can read that while snuggled up on the sofa.  Some underwear, strappy t shirt/vest type things and and underskirt, much needed.  Two lovely hand crafted frames which are so intricate in the hand.  Some very posh chocolates - not that I eat chocolates normally of course you understand.  A lovely green (yes green) bracelet.  A gorgeous turquoise glass bead necklace and some special aloe vera toothpaste - makes a nice change from the Tesco brand - a bit posh this!

Thank you everyone - I just love my gifts and feel very, very lucky.

Baking

I did some baking on the dough mode in my bread maker.  This does all the hard work and leaves a lovely soft, pliable dough to shape and prove.  I made my Mum a couple of small wholemeal loves.  These taste lovely and I like the wee slices if makes.

I tried to do the same with the olive and sun dried tomato loaf.  No problem with the mixing.  However, half way through the baking process, we had a power cut!  Discussed with husband who suggested we try to finish it off on the big gas ring in the shed which we use to pasteurise the apple juice.  So, taking a very loose leaf from Ray Mear's campside cooking technique, we lit the gas ring, put the stockpot on top of two fire bricks and put the bread in there with the lid on.  It did 'sorta' cook and I gave it to my daughter as planned but whether it was edible I've yet to learn.  It looked ok tho'.

Card

This is the girl's verstion of the knitted baby card - well, the card's not knitted but the embellishments are.

Hamper

I am lucky enough to have regular meets with some of my former work mates and we do lunch and have a natter.  One of them is quite poorly so we decided to do a hamper for her.  It acutally turned into two hampers, one with the stuff for the freezer.  Here they are - I enjoyed wrapping these.

Altered Art - Domino Pendants

I made these pendants using images stamped with Stazon onto alcohol ink backgrounds.  Some of the images are on sticky printable fabric from craftycomputerpaper.com.  I coloured using Marvy le Plume pens.  I sealed the with crystal glaze.  The stamps were sent to me by my cousin in America because the seller won't ship to UK.

Sam sent me this.  I've not managed to capture it properly.  It is beautifully constructed with a 'tiled' floor, three regal panels and my Queen (a spoon) sitting on her throne.  I am SO chuffed with it and it has to be seen in the hand to be fully appreciated.  Thank you Sam!

Her throne had to have a week cushion (a bit of cut'n'dry).

I haven't caught the detail of her face very well here.  Love the dress!  All done in layers.  She's got great hair too.

Shaped Cards

Sara's Time for Crafting subscription area has some exceptional tutorials and ideas (as well as those available for free!).  This card is delightful and like magic, it balances on the letter Y and the J and O jump up in the air.  I'm SO chuffed with it.  The templates are there to cut out either by hand or using your Robo if you have one.

Here's Sara's (obviously much better than mine).

Here's mine!

The dots and stripes papers are downloads from Sara's site.  The snowflakes are downloaded from here.

On From a lines forum, Mama posted this link.

From this site, I used the central stepper template to make this card.  I had a bit of trouble at first because, referring to the diagram, it looks as if the back panel is larter than it is when the card is cut but then I realised it had been heightened by the added topper.

I made a little pocket to put my tag into because it has the verse and greeting and needs to be lifted out.

Well, no, not the bills but I got this today.

Sara who runs the Time for Crafting forum organised a mystery swap.

Firstly, we were sent a large jigsaw piece which had to be done to a SEA theme (in, on or beside the sea).

Then we got a piece of board which had to be done in the same theme.

After that, we were asked to make a tag for which the template was provided for the theme of friendship.

Sara put all these together so that all the participants got back a different piece from different people.  She's made a beautiful spiral bound notebook with the pieces - thank you Sara.

The work's gorgeous and the scan really doesn't show it up properly.

You can see all the pieces here.

Here's what I got.

Jigsaw piece by Colleen - I love how she's made the sun in the sky and the texture's gorgeous.

The background is by Eileen Scott.  Again, gorgeous texture and it's really pearly and glittery with fronds as if it's under the sea.

The friendshop tag's got a lovely soft feel to it and the background is all pearly too.  It's been made by Fudgebabge.

Here are the pieces I made.  The background is paper piecing (each colour is cut out of a different piece of paper).

I couldn't make my mind up about the tags - so I sent two.

Apples, apples and more apples!

The first run of apple juice completed over the last couple of days.

Washed apples ready for chopping.

Chopped (just to make sure there are no 'creatures' inside!)

Minced in the machine.

Pour onto the 'cheese' (the cloth).

Flatten ready for wrapping.

Wrap first layer.

Add the next rack (the wooden slatted platform through which the juice runs).

Adding the former (the frame) to make the next layer - this helps keep its shape until wrapped in the cheese (the cloth).

Adding next cheese (cloth).

and so on until.............all the layers are on and then add the block ready to press!

This is what's left after all the juice has been pressed out (pity we haven't got a pig to fatten).

After the juice has been extracted, it's bottled and pasteurised and this is what you get.