Friday 30 December 2011

Crafter...oo Magazine Issue 2




out now!


go get it!


click on link below



some great projects and features in this issue


i have to say my favourite is the

vintage spool ipod headphone tidy

i need one!




Well done to Kerry and all the contributors :)


Sunday 18 December 2011

Bauble Dioramas

you will need a two part clear plastic bauble

gather up your supplies

i have used a two part bauble

self adhesive paper lace

and gold paint marker

Anita's tacky glue

lots of glitter

and

you will need some small cute items to go in your bauble

first paint the inside of one half of a bauble with pva glue

then cover with glitter!

shake of the excess and return to pot

try not to spill it everywhere like me :)

leave to dry
shake of excess glitter


next do the outside
again leave to dry


now you can try out some of your cute little decorations


i loved the little fawn but thought it would look better

in a snowy glittery scene


i had taken this irridescent fluff out of a glass bauble i'd used as a mini terrarium

and the baby russian doll was an orphan

she looked just right on her snow!

i glued in the "snow"
left it to dry



then added the tiny doll

i wedged her in with the rubber till the glue had dried
whilst i waited, i coloured some white paper lace gold with the paint pen


once dry i added the gold paper lace to the bauble


cute eh?


lastly i added a black ribbon bow to the top

***


here's my first diorama
we have had some very wild weather lately

so i've been finding lots of twigs and lichen blown down whilst out on my walks with Max

having made mini bauble terrariums with some of the lichen

the rest had dried out, so i have used some of the twigs on wreaths{photo's soon}

and had this little bit left that fitted perfectly in the bauble

i used very fine white glitter on the inside of this bauble

and a courser irridescent white glitter on the outside

very frosty!

i love these tiny birds but i'm running out :(


***

i've had great fun making these baubles

and i'm now keeping my eyes peeled for tiny things to go inside them

i found some fantastic little people and animals in the model train shop

and cute bottle brush trees in the cake decorating section at the cook shop.


i think i'll use that little fawn next :)

Saturday 17 December 2011

A new face & a new friend



Last friday, feeling rather nervous

me, Idris and the Man jumped in the van and travelled 9 miles to get Idris a spray matt treatment and to meet an internet friend for the first time at her house

Robin {ex owner of My Little Customs} had very kindly offered to spray my dolls face for me as i'm too scared to sand the gloss off or customise her in anyway to be honest!

I'm still slightly in shock that i bought myself a Blythe doll and even though she was a very fair price from another internetty friends i'm just terrified of undoing her head and breaking her or cutting her beautiful hair and it looking like my daughters did when she was three and i decided to trim her fringe!!!!

Anyway it turns out there was no reason to be nervous

Robin is lovely and just like she is online but better!

We stayed for a cup of tea, met her gorgeous dog and got used as a climbing wall by her teeny weeny crazy kitten!

We talked and talked and i got to see someone else's dolls in REAL LIFE i now need a blythe with mohair hair!

We left Idris with Robin whilst we went into town to shop as she needed more coats of spray and when i collected her later she was dressed in this sweet little dress (which i'd seen similar to online and been lusting after) and sweet cardigan {not shown}

how lucky am i ?!

Idris looks so much better with her matt face and lip gloss
i'm hoping to get some lovely photo's of her now the dreaded shine has gone
thanks again to the lovely Robin x

oh

when i got home my daughter {17} gave me a lecture about meeting strangers from the internet in their homes
"For gods sake she could've been anyone Mum - she could've been a paedophile!"
well yeah but i'm 41 and i didn't go alone
but thanks for caring daughter dear!!!


Monday 12 December 2011

Pootling about . . . . . . .


last week i was mostly pootling about



buying things on ebay



like these grumpy little gnomes


they have holes in their heads maybe this is why they're so grumpy?

perhaps destined to become pincushions

making toadstools from vintage darning mushrooms


tu-tu's for teeny dollies





and knickers for dolls!



oh and facepainting at a school fair for four hours straight


my back is still suffering :(


but we raised loads of money :)


what have you all been up to?

Wednesday 30 November 2011

A Kitschy Christmas






the big kitschy wreath



and the small kitschy wreath



I have loved making these and i'm desperate to display them

but
I WILL WAIT

keep Christmas in December people!







Saturday 1 October 2011

*OUT NOW* Crafter...oo magazine

I'm so excited to tell you all about this fantastic new magazine

it is the brain child of Kerry aka pennydog
and she has worked so hard on this
It has seventeen craft projects by regular members of crafter...oo our friendly craft forum, business advice and more all for the very reasonable price of £1.50 an absolute bargain!

click the link below to try before you buy

http://www.crafteroo.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,8765.0.html

I have a tutorial for this vintage map pendant in the magazine

and i have decided to give the pendant away
to a subscriber to the magazine

a winner will be drawn at random



click the link below to buy it now

Friday 30 September 2011

Doctor Who Finale

The Wedding of River Song

Oh my goodness this last episode had better be good!
I'm so excited about watching it tomorrow :D
I really love River Song i think she is my favourite character and
Matt Smith is my favourite Doctor - i never thought i would say that!
Like so many others i just couldn't imagine anyone being as good as David Tennant
but i love the way Matt Smith plays him.

here's the prequel to tomorrow's episode

Monday 19 September 2011

a word out of place

my newest map pendant
i told you i was addicted!

oops!
i got that a bit wrong!
good job this wasn't a soldered pendant . . .

amazing what you can do with magic tape
totally removes your error
without any damage

all fixed


i've been singing Amazing Grace to myself all day :)


http://www.etsy.com/listing/82103596/i-once-was-lost-vintage-map-pendant




Sunday 18 September 2011

YOU are my world



i'm a bit obsessed with making these pendants right now!
i'm finding it very relaxing
and the style is very me but a few years back
i was obsessed with the rub-down letters when i worked in the craft shop,
i bought sheet upon sheet of them so it's good to be using them again!

front-side

flip-side
{i love seeing the back of the stitching}

i still didn't decide what to hang them on
but they look really nice on a length of lace

this one is available in my Etsy shop right now

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81847745/you-are-my-world-vintage-map-pendant?ref=pr_shop

i will definately be making more
because i love them!

Tuesday 6 September 2011

map pendant


wow i actually made something today

i started it ages ago
and it just kinda sat there on my desk
so today i pulled it together with a few stitches

i'm not sure it's finished
so it'll probably hang around a bit longer
but it's a start eh?


i like it
but
i think it "needs" something
what do you think?

Sunday 28 August 2011

dusty old things


We had a dusty old things day yesterday

we took the kids to a very dusty collection of war time memorabillia


now this is a really a cautionary tale

all this amazing stuff and there really is an unbelievable ammount of it
is one man's collection gotten big time out of control

my daughter had been {much to her disgust} as a school trip when she was younger and to her suprise had absolutely loved it and has been nagging us to go again for years - the boy is very into weapons and fascinated by the World Wars so we thought it would be a good trip out

he loved it and was realy interested in it all and as my daughter has recently
learnt about the wars in history she could tell him lots about what he was seeing

here they are trying out an air raid shelter!
they have a huge ammount of tanks and interesting vehicles
and in the past you were allowed to climb up onto them
but unfortunately and obviously much to the owners annoyance
health and safety now forbids this :(

It was unbelievably dusty there and could've done with a damn good spruce up
with a giant feather duster and an industrial spray can of Mr.Sheen,
i'm definately not a fussy clean freak but it pushed even my boundries.

*******

On our way home from our annual Dawlish holiday last week we stopped off
at this fantastic antique/junk shop
i saw this amazingly steampunktastic
blow torch

how extremely cool is this?

i especially liked this dial/gauge thing

and this little twisty handle thing!

but i didn't buy it!

I kept thinking about it
annoyed with myself for being sensible and not buying it
so we went again on our way home from the war collection

and

i didn't buy it again!!!


There were so many cool and dusty and rusty old things there that i ended up
buying nothing again!!!
Me and my daughter did spend a couple quid on some bits of old jewellery
but nothing really special.


this was cool, i guess it was a predecessor to a photo copy machine?

my son loved all the old cameras
there was a big box full of them
and a massive old victorian one

collections of old bottles
all dusty and bedecked with cobwebs

rows of old clocks

but by far the most interesting thing to us
and old wooden tray


containing a poor little bird skeleton

all in all a very interesting day
full of dusty old things!!!