is awake.....

...... when really I should be fast asleep.  So I thought I'd make the most of my "awakeness" by posting some pics for what I've been up to over the past week or so, not so much of the talking though

So firstly - 2 knitted phone covers for the son (and his mate) of the friend that I knitted a phone cover that was similar to the one I knitted for myself (definite rambling going on here now)

And now for 2 wedding cards I made - both for the same person to choose between and she decided she wanted them both.

Th images on this on are taken from the My Craft Studio CDs - Alfie and Violet.  Violet has blonde hair, the bride to be dos not, so I printed out a NSR (no stamp required) image, coloured in the head, and stuck it on to the body.  did the same with Alfie.

The next one

This is using the Vintage Pearl card making kit from Hunky Dory - I don't tend to be a kit person, but I was sold on it purely for this card design.  It's a triple twisted circle easel card

And finally - the two members of the family who are doing what I should be

Don't they look comfy - and so they should be, they are both, as I type this, in very slightly different positions, but still sprawled over my bed

Night all
xxx

Crafter's Companion Humphrey Competition Candy

Crafter's Companion are about to launch "Humphrey" on Ideal World as the Pick of the Day on Tuesday 24th April.   Now when I first heard about Humphrey I thought about the red and white straw thingummy watsits that they used to advertise milk with.

No - not that Humphrey - this is a very cute elephant and further details can be found on their website via this link





In order to be eligible to enter I have to figure out how to post the pic they have on their blog (details in the righthand sidebar >>>>>>) to the link - I might be gone a while whilst I figure it out - if you can do it, then you too will be in a chance of winning goodies

Later folks xxx

Cupcakes

Here's my card for the Red/White/Blue with a circle challenge on MSE making cards thread.

I used the MyCraftStudio Violet CD and printed out 2 cupcakes and coloured them in with promarkers.  I tiled the cupcake and printed it out as background paper, then used my circle cutter to make it into a circle.  Used 4 blue buttons with red brads in the corners of the card.   The front cupcake is slightly elevated using silicon gel but you can't really tell in the photo.
I fancy making a coffee walnut cake now

xxx

Another busy Sunday

Fortunately I have next week off work, otherwise I would not be abl to have such a busy Sunday without suffering half the week.

I've been painting again, so whilst I'm sitting here watching Pirates of the Caribbean on the TV (can't beat a bit of Jack Sparrow) I thought I'd tell blogland all about it.

My pebeo paints arrived which meant I could have a proper go at Paint Fusion.

Pebeo paints are available from various stockists, but Sheena Douglass has put them together in sets of 5 which are sold as being suitable for paint fusion.  I have 3 of these sets now - neutrals, foliage, and simply sweet.    The paint I previously used was common old acrylic paints, in tubes, from The Works - this is much better for a beginner, but if you know what you are doing you'd get a decent result from whatever paint you used.

I, however, do not know what I'm doing so I'm very grateful I purchased the DVD telling me how to go about it all.

And this weekend I did 3 artistic creations with paint.

This is the first of the 3 - it went a bit wrong so I went a bit wild with the "Berries" stamp.   Ended up looking not too bad.

This one is the same leaves as above, but different colours - bit more successful on the leaves front

Finally - my favourite - the daisies.


Looking forward to tackling poppies, but have to do Sweet peas and the Rose set first - also got a butterfly, tulips, pansies and sunflower to be mastered over the next few weeks.

And, having been asked to do various knitting things for folks I've invested in an authentic knitting board along with a sock board.   If you've come here from MSE - I'm afraid I've let the side down - oops


Catch you later folks

xxx

Extreme crafting...

I mentioned in a recent post that I'd sent for an Extreme knitting kit.  It arrived yesterday, and I've finished it.  I suppose that's a good thing, and a bad thing.  The kit itself cost just under £40 - that included 8 balls of yarn, a feather cushion pad (41cm) and Extreme knitting needles (19mm x 500mm).  2 of the yarns were the same, and I used 7 yarns at once.   It is a concept devised by Rachel John and here's a video of her setting a world record (1000 yarns) 
Anyway, here is the knitting not long after I'd started it last night

The needles across the knitting are 3 3/4 mm. 

The finished cushion

And now a close up of the stitches

Now having done this - I decided to knit a cover for my phone, along the same lines, but using 4 yarns - 3 of the ones in the cushion cover, and one of my own - on 5 1/2 mm needles

I also did some baking today - this was  inspired by my reading of a book "Shades of Grey" by Jasper Fforde.   There is a section in it which ends "And all in the time it takes to bake a tray of scones".  I happened to mention on my FB page that I fancied making scones and my pal offered me some home made jam to go on them.   So I had to bake  - haven't made scones for years, the result was pleasantly pleasing, but I don't get the jam until tomorrow.

And finally (for the pics anyways) I got a Sheena Douglass stamp set from friend "As Scene on Screen 1" so I had a bit of a play - used water colour pencils for the first time

Another practise piece which may well make it somewhere.     And after I'd done it I discovered she has some video tutorials of lots of intersting stuff on her blog/website

It could be another week till I post again, so stay safe out there in blogland and thanks for reading


Later folks
xx





Fusioneering

Being all inspired yesterday I decided to turn to the paint fusion techniques from Sheena Douglass.  Because I was watching her demonstrate on the TV at the same time, I thought I'd give it a go without having the instructional DVD on. 

So this is my first sample

I was very pleased with it.

Then I turned the DVD on, and followed the examples through in the order she demonstrated them.  They started at the easiest and of the 4, Lavender (which is what the picture above is a representation of) is the final one.

So I thought - "ok, let's do it in the right order"

So here's the next sample - which has 3 of the 4 on it, including my 2nd attempt at the lavender

I'me even more pleased with this - so much so that I'm going to take it into work and put it on the wall next to my desk.  It's not perfect, but I love it.

Then finally - this is the bouquet  that I made my original attempts with a few weeks ago and the pics are further down on this blog but they are included again for your convenience

I've had great fun, and I'm not a painter - yet

Later folks xxx

practice pieces

Well folks, my brayer arrived yesterday, as did my Mountain Meadow big and juicy ink pad, along with a couple of other goodies.     And today Barbara Gray was on Create and Craft so I got all inspired.  First of all I thought I'd try a bit of a scene, but I also wanted to use my new Tales of the Ocean, designed by Sylvie Ashton for Joanna Sheen.   Sylvie has the most fantastic blog, she is very talented and gives away amazing free digital stamps.

So I went all nautical, with limited success it has to be said.   After a few experimental runs with a brayer on some ordinary copier paper I thought it time to take it onto the silk art card.   that bit was ok.  But then it came to the stamping.  That wasn't too bad.   But the little bit of colouring with promarkers was not good at all.   It seems to go ok when she does it on the TV, but then she does it direct onto the card, not once it's been brayered - at least not that I noticed.  So perhaps that needs a bit more experimentation.

But now for the specimen



Then I thought I'd have a go with the technique when you stamp in clear ink (versamark) first, then print over it - resist technique I believe, but the stamp was too big for my acrylic blocks, so I thought "oh what the hell" and inked up with versamark then gently put it on the card and pressed.   Took it off then ran over the card with the inked up brayer.  It would have been lovely, if only I'd remembered to take some of the ink off first, so it took forever to dry.  And I didn't leave it long enough before I fiddled with it.   So I had another go.   Which was better in terms of the quantity of ink, but I think I pressed a little too firmly when stamping the image.

Then finally I ran the brayer over the stamp, and as it has a repeating pattern , if you line it up properly will look seamless.   You can see my seam, but if I make it into a card, I'm sure I can find a bit of ribbon somewhere.

I do have plans for at least one of these specimens that involves a mermaid, might not get it done today, but  when it's done, it shall be shared.

And here is the link to Sylvie's cards - just so you can see the full potential of her stamps

Oh and I've invested in an Extreme knitting cushion kit. 

Laters

xxx