England on the Scrap Heap? & BlogCandy

A reminder that my Birthday BLOG CANDY will be posted later today... keep an eye on it!

Flags are everywhere supporting England in the World Football Cup.... yes everywhere. There is even a big one on the window in my DH's hospital ward! Can you spot this one?

As we queued to cross the busy Runcorn Bridge, on the way to Wales on Wednesday, we could see this car scrap mountain alongside the road. It was causing great amusement to all the drivers as we slowly crawled past to see a St George flag on the top.... not an excellent picture taken from our car window but there it is all it's glory!!! It was a brave soul who climbed the scrap heap to raise it there!!
late addition...I've just been told by my friend that one of our local radio presenters saw it and phoned the scrap company to ask who had got up there with the flag, thinking it was one of their employees. They don't know who did it and someone must have entered the premises after hours!!!

Yet another vibrant poppy popped out in the crack today and still more to come.

Netsukes and a Royal Birthday

Watch out for some blog candy here very soon, on offer for only a short time........ 2 ways of winning, so make a comment and you might be a winner. One prize for followers and one for anyone else interested who pops by.

Today I came across these Japanese Netsukes I made from Washi paper. Netsukes are decorative objects, usually carved but can be purses, which are hung from Obis, the belts on mens kimonos. Some time ago I took part in a swap where we had to make something from Washi Paper and this idea of a take on Netsukes, which I made, was published in a magazine. I had completely forgotten about them until I unearthed them today and I think I will play around and make some more soon, maybe with my own decorated papers instead of printed Washi papers.

Today I treated the day as a Royal Birthday and I opened all the lovely cards I have received early, so I could share it with DH, as tomorrow when it IS my real birthday he will be in hospital having his hip op in the Royal Hospital. So it's a not too Happy Birthday for me and hopefully a Very Happy Hip Hop for him. I'll put my cards on display tomorrow.... what a fabulous stash and how lucky I am to receive them all.

I had phone calls as if it was my real birthday and my friend Jayne came to visit with lovely flowers, yummy cakes and a bag of crafting treats, and brought along her little ray of sunshine, her 3 year old little son. We had a lovely day playing in the garden in the sun where he delighted in knocking the loose head off my broken Bhudda by kicking the soft ball at it. I'm sure Bhudda didn't mind the joy provided! We later visited Hobbycraft where I treated myself to 4 packs of Promarkers at HALF PRICE!!! Thanks to Jaqui on KCUK for telling us about this great bargain.

My Poppy "Weed" in the crack under my front window flowered, just one flower, today and has also dropped all the petals with the heat of the day. It is a stunning  colour with varied shades and I'm so pleased I took photos first thing this morning of it's short life. It is not as red IRL as it looks in the pics.... more cerise. I'm certainly going to catch the seeds to grow more next year. Plenty more buds to open!

Keep watching for my special blog candy alert!!

Jig Saw Deco

Today I sent off my last set of pages for my KCUK group Deco Swap to Hazel and her theme is Jig Saws. I really struggled with this one, even though I specially made two jig saw pieces in the friendly plastic workshop recently, but it finally came together and I hope she likes my finished result. I knew I had to finish it before DH goes into hospital for his hip replacement on Friday as, no doubt, I'll be really busy for a while with other things! Thanks BTW to everyone who has sent good wishes for DH.........Don't know if I'll manage much blogging for a while.

I also sent Hazel a signature tag to go with the pages

This poppy sprouted up in a crack between the house front wall and the path, and I just managed to rescue it as DH was about to demolish it as a weed when it was only a couple of inches high. It has sprouted like a triffid and bears so many buds that I'm waiting impatiently to see it in bloom and so are all my neighbours!!. Watch this space!

Sgraffito Playtime

Not one but two blog awards today... woo hoo! Thanks go to Neet and Cath for nominating me and I'll do the honours tomorrow! Should be fun!

Last night I escaped from World Cup Fever, to have a play, as the constant noise of the hooters was driving me bananas. I don't need an excuse but this was a great reason to get away from TV! 

Recently I had been thinking of so many painting techniques from childhood so I decided to try out some of them. My first idea is simple Sgraffito, a technique where the top layer of colour is removed to reveal a plain contrast colour from below. 

This technique is used in ceramics and painting, amongst other fields, and far can be more involved, but I stuck with the simple form we used to do in school ?$2%!!? years ago.

First I covered a piece of card very heavily by scribbling and rubbing a piece of white chalk over it for quite a while.

Then I rubbed and scribbled over the chalk with coloured wax crayons covering the whole white area.

I then stamped images onto the back of the coloured card.

I laid the coloured card face down onto a clean piece of white card with the stamped image on the top and secured these two cards to my work table with masking tape.

With an old ball point pen,(a small ball tool can also be used),  I drew over the images, pressing quite firmly.

Here's an example.....

When finished, the separate cards had the images transferred. A positive image and a negative image, both usable.

I then decided to stamp at random over the images, with the same stamps, before I made cards from the results.

Easy to see the positive and negative here

This one below looks as though I made it at school!! but it's good to share warts and all!

These swirls were also sprayed with glimmer Mists and will make good backgrounds.

Here I used black wax crayon over the coloured crayons for greater contrast but the colour still shows through.

Over all I think the technique will make good backgrounds if applied quite delicately but I don't think I'd use it again for focal images. It was all good fun and got me back into experimenting which I haven't done for a while.

Sam's Surprise gift

Today I received a lovely "Thank You" gift from one of my cyber friends Sam in return for a little favour I did for her. I enjoy following her blog and she is venturing really successfully into adding textile art to her paper art interests.

Thought I'd share the lovely hanging panel she kindly sent me. Thanks Sam. It is really appreciated and I'll try hard to live up to the quote!

Sea Shells and DH's Birthday Treat

This is the freebie stamp on this month's Craft Stamper. I don't usually like them or use them, but they have had some really good ones of late, so I decided that each month as they arrive, I should dive in and have a go with the stamp of the month.

I used lots of various bits of background scraps on which to stamp the

images and I laid them out somewhat, but not quite, influenced by the Andy Warhol style. I must admit that I'm pleased how all the mix of background colours meld so well. A great way to use up tiny scraps.

It was my DH's birthday last Friday and we decided to have a special day out in celebration as, pretty soon, once he's had his hip replacement operation, we won't be able to go anywhere for a while until he recovers. He chose a visit to Samlesbury Hall, a place on the way to Clitheroe in Lancashire, which we pass so often but had never before entered. It was always closed on the days we chose to stop. This time we were lucky and had a really interesting trip with such a sunny day to also enjoy the fabulous grounds and gardens. The hall dates from 1325 and had major refurbishment from 1968 to 79. We had an excellent meal in it's superb restaurant after touring the hall with it's minstrel gallery, stained glass windows, wonderful fireplaces and even a priest hole from the time of the Reformation. 

I was so surprised yesterday to see that Suze Weinberg had visited within a day or so of our visit and there is a photo of the hall on her blog!

The Main Hall

The Antique Shop

Even a fireplace and armchair in the toilet!

Friendly Plastic Workshop with Liz Welsh

We had the most wonderful day, yesterday, when Liz Welch came to Victoria Stampers to give us a friendly plastic workshop. It was such fun and we learned so much from Liz who is an excellent friendly tutor. Although we did so many techniques it was really relaxing with no pressure and plenty of time to play, and still natter a little as we always do. Liz was so giving of her knowledge and skills and so patient and lovely to everyone.

We oozed, squidged, rolled, cut out, moulded, used metallic leaf. We learned how to use up waste bits, make beads and patchwork etc., etc!!

There is a lot of room for improvement and I can identify my mistakes but I really enjoyed learning so many techniques and fully intend to continue working with FP in the future.

One of our group commented that she didn't know she could have so much fun with a piece of copper pipe ( her rolling pin) FP and some water! 

I look forward to the next one, for sure!

Tag Bags and Sunhats

I played around and crafted yesterday to take my mind off missing my family so much. I decided to go back to something I made last year and had never fully developed. The idea of these little cloth bags is that they should be gift bags and cards all in one unit but then I was thinking recently that the card could be a book. I have also made them with the tags coming from the sides and with lots of tags along the bottom but I have given them away and don't have any photos.

This is my latest version with a torn edged book and ribbons. I've also machine embroidered the leaves, trapping voile under the stitches, and I sewed beads onto the centres of the swirls.

Below are some of my original ideas from last year. The centre one I made for a challenge, (the theme was School Days) and it represents a dinner money bag. It has a key, as many children those days were "Latch Key Kids" and had the key on a string to let themselves into an empty house after school, whilst their parents were working.

I made three sun hats last week for my grandees and I'm on my 4th ....now we  just need the sun! I love to knit and crochet in waste time... ie., watching TV or travelling as a passenger in the car, as then there is something to show for the time. I just make things up as I go along so they are unique items that cannot be bought in shops. I'm always thrilled that my family really appreciates the items I make. My DD2 chose the colours for the baby's striped hat and I think it's a lovely combination.

 

No... it's not snow! I just had to photograph the bottom end of our garden as all the flowers were dropping from the 7 neighbouring Chestnut trees, which overhang from the adjoining school field, and it looks so beautiful. Each year I forget this sight and then it happens. 


Click on this picture for an enlarged version which really shows the masses of tiny flowers and you may spot one of my fairies in the bushes on the right and my Buddha in the middle of the path.

Silver Clay/ Yorkshire Weekend Catch up

I'm feeling sad today as I miss my DD2 and gorgeous little grandee who have been staying with us but went back to Germany yesterday. It was wonderful to have them here and spend precious time together. The little one is growing so beautiful and bright .... it was such fun.
Catch up time now with my crafting and blogging to brighten me up and take my mind off missing them so much.
The weekend before they arrived we spent in Yorkshire where I took the Silver Clay course, which I had won at the Aintree Show. We stayed for 4 days and had a great time..... great hotel, food and lots of interesting places.
The course was so good and Tracey is an excellent teacher and with only 7 in the class we had plenty of attention from her. We made 3 pieces of jewellery, covering silver clay, paste and liquid,  learning enough basic techniques and skills to continue at home. However I will certainly take an advance course as soon as I can as I enjoyed it soooo much.
The flower shaped piece used stamping to create texture onto the clay and the tiny flower was cut out and inserted into the larger one.
The leaf pendant was made from a real leaf using the silver paste.
The heart was made by syringing a more "liquidy' paste.

Craftworx Studio is on a farm in an idyllic country setting and there were quite a few other artists' studios on site. 

The village pond with lots of ducks

We visited an old working windmill at nearby Skidby and bought flour made that day to make bread at home.

The local restaurant had a wonderful cake of the windmill

The beautiful Beverley Minster was only 10 minutes away.

The weather was wonderfully warm and sunny so we drove to the coast to visit Bridlington. There was an Art Fest on so we visited some exhibitions and also the old town which has the longest Georgian Street in England. There was an amazing craft shop, "Ultima", selling local art, which was once an apothecary and it still had all the old shelves, apothecary jars and chests of drawers with porcelain labels on them. The lovely owner showed us old photographs and told us about it's history.

In Bridlington the seagulls nested on almost every rooftop near the harbour. Amazing but such a mess.

We drove home (straight across East to West from one coast of England to the other) without using motorways, which was so much nicer, and we passed through interesting little towns and villages we wouldn't have seen. Amazingly it didn't take more then a  half hour longer!
Can't wait to go back.