Angel Swap info & VS Brayer Workshop

Thanks to all of you who will join in my Angel Swap. 

The swap invitation is now closed.

Very soon we will have a wonderful Heavenly Host of Angels taking flight around the world. 

Here are the participants......

Dolores(2),   Shaz Silver Wolf(2),   Donna,   AnnB(2),   Neil(2),  Morti(2), 
Vicki Okie Nurse(2),   Maria(2),  Lunch Lady Jan(2),   Chris pearshapedcrafter,   Famfa(2), Ali of Teddy Bob Crafts(1), Annie Wipso(2),and Jo Twiglet (2) 
are all definites.

Please email me so we can exchange snail mail addresses and (only if you want to swap two), please give me permission to pass on your details just to one other so your No2 angel can be posted by one of the other participants.

I hope I have not missed out anyone who has expressed an interest but do contact me if there are any queries.

We also have POSSIBLE sign ups by  Peggyappleseed, Caro,and L'il Pidge.

No pressure if you can't manage it but I'll be grateful if the "possibles" let me know as soon as they can if they will join in or not.

You only have to commit to making ONE.

If you make one angel you will receive one angel made by me. 

However, you do have the OPTION to make TWO. 
I will add (2) after the names who plan to do so.

If you want to make and swap two angels just send me one and I will draw names and tell you to whom you should send your No2.

It would be nice if you don't post them on your blog before they have been received so be sure to thank people as soon as they arrive.

Guidelines ....The angels should be small enough to use as a Christmas decoration and thus should be light for posting. They should have a facility, eg., a loop or cord by which they can be hung.
Please add a tiny tag with your name and also, for fun NAME the angels .... we might get a Gladys or a Henrietta amongst them!

The angels can be made from anything you wish, just use your imagination:

Card, Grungeboard, Embossed, Beads, Metal, Fabric, Lace, Plastic, Heavy Acetate, Feathers, Angelina(Angel Hair Fibres), Shrink Plastic, Stampboard, Wood, etc. etc!!! 

Try not to buy materials but delve deep into those hidden stashes of treasures.

Please try to finish and post your angels by the weekend of 7th December which gives you around 4 weeks to make them and around 3 weeks for them to arrive before Christmas.

I will start posting them day by day on my blog through December then the whole host will be posted together in all their glory before Christmas.

Finally and totally unconnected......
Here are the examples of my inefficient, incompetent, brayering which I produced at the Vicky Stampers workshop on Saturday and the resultant cards, which, nonetheless, I must admit I quite like. The imperfections suit the mood of the sky and the overall scene. I must practice a bit/lot/...an awful lot so I can do it really beautifully and at least partly as good as our excellent tutor Jacqui! 
It was still an excellent day of crafting and lots of fun with lovely people. 

WOYWW 179 / Angels from the Realms

Another week, another Wednesday and another WOYWW.... 
What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 
courtesy of the one and only, the inimitable, Julia of Stamping Ground.  

After a great weekend with Donna, who came across for a workshop with Vicky Stampers, I am continuing with my Host of Angels for my decoration swap. Here on my desk you can see them in varying stages of completion but none have yet had their faces or bling and sparkle added. Some are waiting to be squirted in the eye and other regions with Dylusions and Glimmer Mists.

There, spot in the middle, is the first edition of Donna's new Mail Art Stamp, one of her new range, designed for the Artistic Stamper, just waiting to be inked. Thanks to Donna for gifting it to me and I will put it to good creative use very soon.

Below, at the front there's a skinny angel and you can see that, just to be quirky and just because I've had it for eons and wanted to find a usefor it, I am using African tree bark for the bodies, moulded paper clay for the faces and Grungeboard for the wings. For some of the wings I used the left over areas after the swirls were removed from the Grungeboard sheets and one can be seen below..and a there's a set of wings (much too good to discard) amongst the spare faces above.

Celebration Prize

Here's the box of Bits & Bobs I offered last week for someone to win and thanks to all who entered...

 the winner is ................

Ta Dah!!!!!!!!

...

...

...

...

It's Caro  ... (A WOYWW and I think from Yorkshire)

Congratulation Caro... if you will email me your details (or if you put them in a comment I won't publish)

Your prize has grown somewhat as the little box became too small so you'll get this melange of tiny treasures to sort out and I'll also send a little hand made gift from me. Hope you enjoy sorting through it all however the little Homepride flour grader man has been returned to his rightful home. I didn't realise it belonged to my DD2 but she spotted him and claimed him!!

I forgot to post my homework from the Wiltshire WOYWW Crop for Miss Julia, last week, so here at last before I get detention is the results from the pack I was given to make up into a card.

Here's the Christmas card kit I should have made on the day...... finished at last and probably the only one I will make too!

Finalyl here's one of the little Belles I visited recently in Brighton and you can see why I call them the Curly Girlies...ooh I do miss them but I'm going soon (at the end of Nov) to Germany to see my little Fraulein Curly Girly.... so excited!

In a day or two I will contact all those who said that they would like to swap an angel... mine are almost ready to wing their way to their new homes so if you put your name in... get fluttering those wings.

Peacocks at Lydiate Hall Farm

Here's one I almost forgot to post.

Recently, on one of our jaunts, we visited Lydiate Hall Farm which is in Lancashire about 30 minutes North of my house. There is a farm shop where we buy local produce and also a nice little cafe for a good lunch or home made cake and coffee. 

Best of all there is a big duck pond and a little country walk with so many peacocks, far more than I've ever seen in one place.

They performed beautifully and I was able to get really close up for my photos.

Such a small place but it is a little gem for a short visit not too far from home.

The ducks keep children and adults amused for free!

These two proud cockerels were real bossy boots.

Lazy sheep in such an idyllic setting

The cafe and pond

Nothing much there but it's a little hidden gem where we love to stop occasionally and I just thought it was worth sharing.

Better by far than MacDonalds!

WOYWW 178 & Swap an Angel?

My work desk is pretty clear this week as I'm only just getting back to crafting time due to all my recent wanderings around the country.  I will be attending a Vicky Stampers workshop on Saturday and we always have an ATC swap, which is in progress on my desk, but I can't show the finished result until after the swap. We have a secret vote and the winning ATC becomes the leader picture for the group site.

Why am I even showing my desk I hear you muttering?..... because I had an invitation from Julia of Stamping Ground. Mind you, she invites the whole wide world each week to join in this mega blog hop of spying on creative desks. 

Spy  OR show or spy AND show.. 

it's entirely up to you, but one thing is sure, it's FUN!

My hit counter has almost at the magic number 99,999, as I write this post, so I am offering a small gift to one of my followers.How wonderful that so many people from so many places have popped in and out of my blog in almost 3 years. 

I'll send an item I will make specially, plus this tiny box below which hold lots of little treasures tidied from my desk over the weeks. 

I'll add to it and fill it to capacity but you will get all the bits and bobs already in it that I can't be bothered to put away into their individual pots. They are all too interesting to just throw away and they have accumulated to quite a little stash!

I'll draw in a couple of days from anyone interested who makes a comment on this post...

 just mention that you'd like the BOX of BITS! 

This RED snowflake trimming below is from M&S 3 metres for £3. It will be a challenge to use it as I've never seen RED snowflakes! I think a piece will squeeze into the prize box above.

Last year I made lots of Angel Decorations... here are a few examples. I'm going to think up some different ideas this year so now I am wondering if anyone would like to do a one for one swap with me?

I'll set some easy guidelines if enough are interested and if  more than I can manage want to join in then I'll draw, say 10 names. 

Doesn't matter what they are made from but I'm thinking small angels for tree decorations.

To all our friends and visitors over in America....I hope these little angels will watch over anyone who is in the area of the hurricane and that they see you through safely with no damage to you or your homes. Stay safe and I hope it passes away really soon.

WOYWW 177

See all the fun of the desks via WOYWW and join in if you dare! Just go over to the blog of our inventor Queen Julia at Stamping Ground to discover all about this weekly wonder of craft desk exploitation.

I'm away from home staying near Lewes, near the South Coast of England, so we can easily pop over to Brighton to visit our family and see 2 of our curly girlies. 

My desk this week is a hotel bed so I have to be really careful that I don't splash paint and mess up the pristine white bedding!!. 

I made good progress on the 6 hour journey with my latest crochet blanket 

(No 5 since March) which is almost ready for one of the girlies. 

 I've also managed some scribbly free sketching of the Brighton Belles, the curly girlies, with a permanent fine liner pen as I haven't yet found my pencils in the few crafty items I've brought with me. I might add some water colour tomorrow. I'm so very tired after the drive so the results aren't wonderful but I did enjoy the freedom and fun of just scribbling knowing I could not erase any errors. A pencil would be so much easier for shading too.

I'll try to get around as many desks as possible this week but it mightn't be until the evening as I will be otherwise pleasantly occupied during the day with tiny little people! At least we have good free internet connection here which makes a welcome change.

WOYWW 176 /Crop Aftermath

I haven't even turned the key in the lock of the door to my work desk as I only returned home from Wiltshire last night after a night with Donna in Derby. 

I spent what little time I've had posting photos of our fabulous trip to the

 Wonderful Weekend With WOYWWers in Wiltshire and thanking all involved.

I'm only just winding down......

I've just decided that I had better unpack my bags, but I started thinking about the mini challenge (below) that Julia included in our goody bags and also admired my fabulous pincushion which was in the bag courtesy of the nimble fingers of LLJ.  

Did I really take all this gear all the way from Liverpool to Wiltshire via Derby and back? There was a weekend case of clothes etc., too!!

Well I will KNOW I did when I finally get round to putting it all away but it can wait a while whilst I relish my lovely weekend of (to quote Zoe) fun, friendship and food. Oh, the food... the cakes.....the fun... the crafting...

Lots of photos of Saturday in my previous post (and also in the blogs of most of the WOYWWers who were there) but if you missed it, make sure you are there next time. If my lovely, special friend Dolores can get there from Slovenia then most people should manage it.

Hope, Carol, that you are better and it was such a shame you were poorly sick so couldn't manage it!

Thanks to the brainchild of Queen Julia at Stamping Ground so many people have made so many online friends and now a happy band of us met those friends for real. If you too would like to share in the fun pop over for a visit.

WOYWWWWC (that's Wonderful Wiltshire Crop)

WOYWWers in Wiltshire met up for the first ever gathering of the group which, all thanks to Queen Julia, has introduced so many crafters to so much friendship and fun.

LtoR standing.. .Jo(me Jozart) LLJ, Morti, Janet(Fairy Thoughts), Mary-Anne, Kyla(Li'l Pidge), Dolores(Cardarian), Di (Pixie), Pam, Donna (Doone), Sam (Hettliecraft), Helen, Julia.

Seated- Kate, Cindy, Lisa, Zoe

Queen Julia looking terribly efficient

Princess LLJ

Mary Anne and Janet

Helen, Di and Sam

Pam and her flock of flutterbies

Kyla and Donna

Kirsty, Kate & Cindy

 Lisa & Zoe

Morti by the freebies and sales tables

After all those yummy cakes we were spoiled rotten with delish hot food

So well looked after.....

Dolores, who travelled the furthest, all the way from Slovenia!

So many thatched buildings around this beautiful part of England and thanks go to Morti for such wonderful hospitality in hosting Donna and me in her home in this pretty  village. It's the first time I've slept under a thatched roof! 

No pics of Morti's for security heh, heh! as there would be a queue of people wanting to stay there!

Note the squirrel on the rooftop. 

We loved sharing time with these huge furry babes

and I was thrilled to be able to handle this gorgeous Californian Corn Snake.... loved the experience!

Thanks to Donna for driving me there, to Morti and her lovely family, to everyone for all the fun and to Julia and LLJ for organising the day for us, to the guys G3 and G for  guiding and welcoming us but just THANK YOU, THANK YOU,  THANK YOU for a magic memory!
Dolores taught a lovely saying to Donna and I when we stayed with her......phonetically, as I can't spell it in Slovenian, it is "coochy, moochy, 
peay va yoo chi" and it  translates as "go home singing"  .... (as we all do when we've had a great time) AND WE DID JUST THAT! 

Rolf Harris Exhibition

Recently I visited the wonderful Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool to see an exhibition of art by Rolf Harris. I can remember the large scale fast sploshings with a decorating brush that he did on TV when I was quite young and it was always fascinating to see the finished result. Rolf used to ask... "Can you tell what it is yet?" as the huge free style painting progressed.

I was really impressed at the exhibition to examine close up the quality of his work, far removed from his free work performed on TV. The detail of his wild life pictures was superb.

Photography was not allowed but I snapped away until I was made aware of this fact and luckily managed to capture some of my favourites.

Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King

I was able to have a pic taken...... with his cardboard cut out !!!.

His famous portrait of Her Majesty fascinated my little fraulein grandee..... just look at those gorgeous curls.....No! not the Queen's!

I felt as though I should step in and start painting in this reconstruction of his studio.

His palette was a work of art!

It was one of the best exhibitions I have visited in a while with his music, excellent videos and support material. A joy for all ages.

Shame you missed it! My fault as I was too busy to post it whilst my family visited and I've just found it unpublished in my files. I wish you could see the rest but if it comes within reach be sure to GO!!!.