And today, Sorrel is wearing.......

.... a little holiday bandana.  Did I tell you I'm off on my jollies in a couple of days?  Telling everyone as I can't wait to get some sand between my toes.

Not sure if the hot weather will hold but Sorrel is well prepared for sun or rain.  Here she is wearing a cute little number I made for her holiday wardrobe.  If it is hot we can soak it in water to keep her cool and if it rains we can fasten it over her head to keep her 'hair' dry (I don't think!).

Picked up the fabric yesterday and made her two - not sure how long I can persuade  her to keep them on but we will have a go.

Here's the two, just a double triangle and a couple of bits of velcro.  Wish my holiday wardrobe was as uncomplicated, that's the problem with holidays in the UK - have to cater for all eventualities, sun, rain, wind, hail - I'll stick with the first please.

Saturday's stamping

Had a great play-day yesterday, all by my self for the afternoon so it was on with the radio and out with the inks, stamps and sewing machine.
Ended up with two very different cards.  The first a pure ink and stamps one with a favourite bee.

Card inked with Wild Honey and Mustard Seed distress inks, edged with a strip stamp out of the Poultry Party set by TJ Designs.  The bee is by Jo Capper-Sanden for Stampotique and there are two sizes of bee on the same stamp - very handy and a lovely image.  Used a water-brush to lift the colour from the wings.

The sewing machine was for the second card as the image from Indigo Blu was stamped on fabric and stitched.

I like this stamp set and this image particularly, she looks so relaxed (I used it on a couple of my WOYWW ATC swaps).  The strip of thimbles is from the same set and I added lace and a few buttons to an inked background paper.  I always think of this colour as 'knicker pink' as it makes me think of old ladies bloomers.

Probably my last post before I go on my holidays on Thursday so hope the drier, warmer weather holds.  Off to watch the final day of the Tour de France now - well done Wiggo!

Bit of 'me' time

Mr B had gone to his Mum's to do her shopping and taken Sorrel with him so I have been working playing with my sewing machine.
Made a little doll a few weeks ago for my Granddaughter and today I made a little bag for her to live in.

Used some bits of Japanese silk and cut out a letter K for Kitty and it only took me an hour to make it.  Still a bit bothered about the amount of hair this doll has but at least she is unique.

Here she is, hanging from my conservatory window.

Is it just me or does she look like she's having a balloon ride?

Wonder if this post will turn out on a white background as well, only one way to find out, just press the button and.............

........it's back to normal.  No idea what caused that yesterday.

WOYWW 163

This may be my last WOYWW post before my hols, depends on how organised I am next week.  We are off to sunny Somerset next Thursday with StepD and Grandchildren and the weather forecast this morning was for a shift in the Gulf Stream which may bring warmer, drier weather on Tuesday.  I hope they are right as the prospect of a rainy holiday with three children is not ideal.  Eee lass, in my day we were out in all weathers with a plastic mac and a pair of wellies.  My favourite game was 'How deep is that puddle' which involved standing in as deep a puddle as you could find and hoping it didn't wash over the top of your wellies - such fun, and didn't cost a penny.


Also fun is the weekly tour round desks organised by Julia of The Stamping Ground each Wednesday, and as today is Wednesday, here is my desk.

Working on journal pages for the monthly swap I'm in so on my desk are spray inks, Archival ink pad, pens, stamps, hard stencils and the finished pages.  The theme is 'things you like' so this month I picked 'literature.  I sprayed watercolour paper with walnut inks in blue and brown, added lots of water and sprayed through a stencil - not one of the new ones but a set I bought for work a long time ago.


Here's a closer look at the pages,

and at my hands when I had finished.

Anyone know how to get walnut ink off hands?
(Note to self 'Wear gloves when doing mucky jobs')


Forgot to say the cardboard box contains a little present to myself to take on my hols.  I was inspired by the 'dumfling' sisters (Twiglet and Wipso) to try my hand at felting so I bought a starter kit. May not show you my attempts at this craft - depends on how carp they are, but at least I will have fun.


Happy WOYWW  


Just seen that my text now has a white background, how did that happen?  Will try to fix it later.

Polymer clay

Busy yesterday making up the beads I made at last Saturday's club meeting into a necklace.  Not done this before but, being a bit of a hoarder (you would never have guessed I bet) I had all the little bits and pieces I needed to make it up, spacers, beading thread, fasteners etc.  Still, it was quite a challenge, especially as I kept dropping the tiny beads on the floor - to join the rest of my crafting detritus.
So now I have two pieces of jewellery, both very different.

The bracelet made with rolled out and punched flower shapes,

and the skinner-blend beads,

On a bit of a roll I got out the inks and made a card as well and another couple of cards for future birthdays which I forgot to photograph. First time in months I have made so many cards but I needed to get in advance as we are away at the end of the month..

WOYWW 162

In the summertime, when the weather is hot - not!  Oh well, maybe we will have an Indian summer - I live in hope.
Whatever the weather at least we can enjoy ourselves touring the world of craft along with hundreds of others courtesy of Julia over at Stamping Ground.

Saturday was Vicky Stampers, our monthly stamping club, and we made polymer clay jewellery.  Neet (Hickydorums) and Lynne were our tutors, Neet showing us how to make skinner blends and rope beads in the first session.  Then Lynne's turn, again polymer clay but this time rolled out, coloured with alcohol inks and stamped on before punching out shapes.  As usual I didn't finish on Saturday coming home with my little flowers ready to go on the bracelet and only half my beads baked.

That's why there is a packet of roasting bags on my table as I finished my beads and backed them in a foil tray inside the bag and they turned out great - thanks Neet for the suggestion.  Top of the picture is the lovely gift bag Jozarty brought for me as an 'extended birthday' present and on the right my little dolly, now with hair but still minus a face - overdid it with the hair and she ended up with dreadlocks.

A closer look at the jewellery - finished bracelet,

and beads ready to be made up into a necklace.

Hope you enjoyed the snoop - I'm off to have a look at what everyone else is up to.  Happy WOYWW!

Cushions and sandbags!

Well, no sandbags yet but if it carries on raining I wouldn't like to rule them out.  Just look at the state of my garden this afternoon.

I have a moat all around my lawn and was almost washed away going on to the lawn to clean up after Sorrel this morning - she wasn't very happy either.  Sorry about the clothes drier but I wasn't going back out there to make a prettier picture.

This is the other side (sneaked the photo through the living room window - I'm not daft).  Water always worse on this side.  Looks a disaster but the plants don't seem to bother and grow great guns, or is it that all the delicate plants have succumbed and I'm left with the hardy thugs?

Took advantage of the fact we can't go out by doing some sewing - we could go out but I would have to drag Sorrel for her walk as she hates, HATES the rain. I got some linen from Abakhan at Bolton yesterday as I wasn't keen on the cotton I got - too lightweight - cut out my leaves last night and away my treadle pedal went (I know they don't have treadles anymore but it is such a nice word).

Here it is, on a chair in front of a rain-streaked conservatory window - looks pretty cool to me, if I say so myself, and I have enough linen left to do around ten or 15 more - think I got carried away in the shop which sells fabric by weight and less than £11 for a kilo (yes, a kilo) of linen seemed a great bargain.

Wimbledon on TV this afternoon, not much of a tennis fan but it seems to be the only way I can see a bit of the sun this summer so I'll get out the sunglasses and suntan potion and just pretend, then get ready for Mr B coming home from work on his scooter drenched to the skin and dripping all over my kitchen floor

Have a good weekend everyone, whatever the weather.

WOYWW 161

One of these Wednesdays I will show you a photo of my desk bathed in sunshine, but not today unfortunately.  No sunshine but lots of sunny colours.

Mess at the top is a pile of fabric, most of it the antique kimono silk I have been saving for the right project.  Think I may have found it - going to make a cushion cover using an idea I found on the web which uses scraps of material to form the leaves and trunk of a tree.  Bought some fabric for the cover although I have found it very hard to cut it straight and worry that like my card layers it will get trimmed and trimmed until it is a 1inch square.
At the front are the deco pages that I finished and blogged earlier this week.  Should have been on their way yesterday but I needed to make a card to go with them and after entertaining family on Sunday I was well and truly knac....tired on Monday.
An empty Orchid food spray bottle is my water spritzer, didn't cost much, produces beautiful flowers and is a brilliant spritzer - beat that Mr Holtz, two paper cutters as I like the guillotine best but it isn't big enough so I use the Cricut for larger pieces of card, and for scoring - no wonder I never have enough room.

Busy week this week, hairdressers and highlights for me, groomers and claw-cutting for Sorrel - best not get those two mixed up, then I have to ring the washing machine repair man as mine's gone on strike, big Sis to the rescue again.

Enough rabbiting on from me, I'm off to visit Julia to join in this weeks desk hop, I may be some time.

Oops, almost forgot about the little doll nestling amidst the fabric, waiting for me to give her some hair and a face.

Flutter by, butterfly (don't look Hazel)and a win.

Yippee! I won a challenge.  Don't have time to enter as many as I would like but I had a go at the Artful Times Challenge last month as the theme was 'men', and I won!!!!!

Here is the link to the site if you would like to have a look at the deco pages that won.  The prize is a £10 voucher to spend at Oyster Stamps so I'm going to have a good browse round tomorrow to see what I can spend my pennies on - just like looking in a sweetshop window.  Can't promise I won't buy anything else as Oyster Stamps have very good prices (the best I could find for TH distress inks the other week).

Had a craft day yesterday and managed to finish two pages for a deco swap I'm in.  The theme was butterflies and although I have quite a few (well a lot if I'm honest) butterfly stamps it took me a while to get started.  Here are the finished pages.........


Moved down the page a bit.......



To stop Hazel peeping.....

TH distress inks (summer), tissue tape, and a variety of stamps.  The big one is one vellum, coloured on the back with Le Plume markers and raised on sticky squares.

A different approach on this page as I used the Puccini's Muse stamp and added a wooden butterfly (colour altered with DIs) to the stamped vellum strip on the left.
That's my last set of deco pages done so next on the 'to do' list is to try and catch up with Elizabeth's altered book course.