A Couple Of New Ventures …… National VELCRO® Month & Wholeport

Over the past few months I have received a few e-mails from various companies asking if I would be interested in reviewing/trying out some new products …. but to be honest I just didn’t have the heart or the mojo…… but then I got an e-mail from Zuzana Borovska from Fleishman-Hillard asking if I would like to be involved with National VELCRO® Month in November …… and I thought why not?

Yesterday I received  the most beautifully packaged VELCRO® kit containing all sorts of exciting VELCRO® packs to get all crafty and creative with. The aim of the campaign is to come up with new tips, ideas and ways  to useELCRO®   and then share  the ideas in a few blog posts along with other bloggers who are also involved.  It is hoped that between us we can come up with at least 101 ideas on how to use VELCRO® !  I have a couple …..but once I start playing I hope to come up with a few more …..and hopefully, with luck, I can add an extra couple of posts to FiddleFart too.

           
If anyone has any ideas they would like to suggest I would be very grateful and I will try to put them together and blog them too, with all credit paid to you of course.

You may also have noticed that I have a new link in my sidebar to a company called Wholeport.  Wholeport is a company based in China that has somehow found me in the ether and has offered to sponsor me in an effort to help get my mojo back. They will send me a range of products to try out, review and link back to.  I decided to say yes because a lot of their stuff was quiet different and I was curious!  If I receive products that I don’t think I will/can use I intend to pass them on to readers,  as it seems ages since I have had a giveaway. I await my first parcel to arrive as I just don’t know what to expect.  I have no experience of using this company but I have read a couple of reviews that have said that all orders are sent out very professionally and fast ….. just Google them for reviews or posts from other blogs if you want to check them out.

And finally a heads up to this gorgeous tiny Christmas baby socks from Primark …. these are size 0 – 2.5 (early days) and cost £1.50 for three pairs.  Last year you might remember that I filled Christmas baby socks (below),  not half as pretty as these,  filling them with sweets with sweets and they vanished as soon as I put them out.   You could also buy three sets (24) to make a gorgeous Advent washing line!

This years socks will be put across our fireplace on a piece of pretty string and attached with miniature pegs …. photos to follow in December.

I am not making much this year, but if I see interesting things in the shops I will certainly keep posting heads up!

Jewelled Bauble Christmas Card

These very large and sparkly cabochons were amongst my treasures from Marc, The picture doesn’t do their sparkliness and colour any justice at all, and though they look like glass they are actually plastic!

The oval ones screamed Christmas bauble to me and the above card was my first effort …. but I didn’t like the positioning of the baubles, the gold foiling on the Craftwork Card sentiment or the colour of the card ….

So I went back to the drawing board and came up with this. It measures 19.5cms x 8cms and is made using a lustre effect card. I have swopped the gold foil sentiment with a silver one, added a clear square flat backed gem to the top of each bauble and then drew the thread with a silver gel pen, a few silver stars finish off the whole effect. I was so chuffed when it was done and it took me no more than ten minutes to do.

http://www.craftworkcards.co.uk/products/2835/blocks-christmas-messages-gold-silver.html

There will be an extra post tomorrow ....... with a little bit of news .......

My Trip To London …..

Where do I start … it was just too WONDERFUL!

Marc is such an inspiration not only creatively but also as a person.  I was very, very spoilt, my suitcase was bulging when I left, and I was very pampered with lovely food, the most gorgeous bedroom and the company of three beautiful Bassett Hounds. ….. I can safely say that Lottie and I bonded!

Unfortunately, for Marc, he soon discovered I have a propensity for tea leafing things, not deliberately with the intention to steal …. I just sort of aquire things by picking them up … for example:- on the underground I discovered that I was wearing his partner Rick's  specs and in the morning after going out for a meal I found Marc’s VERY expensive pin in my rucksack!!!!  He also found that I also liked to make little piles of “stuff” all around the flat …. a bit like a establishing my territory! I must have been a nightmare guest!

We talked constantly …. about everything, but crafting was always lurking there in the background.

The first thing we “played” with was Marc’s A3 Foil It machine, he’d had it for quite a while but this was the first time he had used it …..

All I can say is OMG, OMG, OMG .......

I always thought foiling was soooooo complicated, but all you have to do is print whatever it is you want to foil, e.g a card verse, on a copier or laser jet printer and then pass it through the Foil It machine with a piece of special foil over it (just like a laminator) and then Bob’s your Aunt Fanny!!

The foils come in all sorts of colours and finishes and I was unashamedly hooked …. already thinking about my son’s wedding invitations …And now I have a confession to make to Marc after he offered to lend this wondrous machine to me, I knew that if he did he would never get it back  ….. so as soon as I got home, before I had even unpacked, I was online buying the smaller A4 version, (because I thought I would be able to take it to work on the bus and use it on certificates and stuff!!!) I have so many ideas …… and Marc was well and truly the hero of the day re: my mojo!!

Marc also showered me with a huge box of wooden embellishments from a company Crafty-Emblies who he has been raving about for ages, they are stunning, and I think you will be seeing a lot of them in the coming months.  It’s really worth having a look at their website at the range of really unusual embellishments and boxes and you wont believe the prices!

I love the large mdf folder above so much.  Amongst all the goodies was a wooden train with twenty five carriages ….. Marc had an Advent train in mind when he ordered it  … I don’t think I have enough time to do it for this year but I can see it becoming a labour of love for next year.

  

Marc makes the most exquisite pins ….

….. and he showed me his mahoooosive collection of beads and showed me how to make the pins …. oh my life they are stunning!

This is a box Marc made covering it first with microbeads ….

…and then adding other beads and 3D paint liners.

My pictures just do not do it justice …. and the work involved ….. wow!And as for this cross!

I owe Marc so much, when I went to bed I made endless notes in the little book I took with me ….. I was so inspired and fired up with so many ideas, my mojo is back thanks to him! ….. Marc is the most incredible sharing and generous person I have ever met, he has so much talent but he is so quiet and modest about the incredible things he has done …… I am so lucky to be able to call him a friend and I cherish every text, e-mail, phone call and meeting we exchange. All being well I will see him again in January …. and hopefully I will be able to repay his kindness by one day having him and Rick stay with me.

Tomorrow my first make inspired by my visit …….

Foil It & Foils  http://www.patsymay.co.uk/

Wooden Embellishments   http://www.crafty-emblies.org/

Adding Another Day A Week To Fiddle Fart!

Wooo Hooooooo  …. Thanks to my WONDERFUL few days with the Fabuuuuulous Marc my mojo has gone into overdrive and as a result I think I can get Fiddle Fart up and running on THURSDAYS and FRIDAYS from now on .... until the New Year at least ........ !!!  So on Thursday  8th November  .... I will tell you about my "Marc and my Big Smoke Adventure!!!!

BM Bargain Bargains!

I know it’s not Thursday or Friday ….

But I thought I would give any callers to Fiddle Fart a festive heads up  ….. I was in B M Bargains today and they had copious amounts of Elizabeth Shaw Mint Crisps, in all verities for just £1.99,  which is a bargain as they are usually cost between £2.49 - £3.69 a box in the supermarkets at Christmas.   I find the milk chocolate ones hardest to get my mitts on so I was well chuffed.  There are 28 mints in each box, so plenty for making festive favours etc. I really stocked up because I want a few for Christmas but the majority of them are for the tables at my sons wedding next year.  I already know what I am going to do with them ….. but that’s for another day!!

B M Bargains also had boxes of Cadbury Chocolate Miniatures for £1.29 a box, these are always seem hard to find too  …. I had heard they were stopping making them, but am not sure if that’s true. Anyway I got five boxes, at the moment don’t have any plans for them, but when I do I’ll let you know.

My Decopatch Boudoir Chair

Remember the old chair I got for free from one of the shops in the village that was having a chuck out …..

Well, it's finally finished and I have to admit that it was the fiddleist project I have attempted so far mainly because of various nooks and crannies on the front legs.

I especially hated doing the round bits and all the bars which were narrow, there was no clear run of covering, if you know what I mean compared to the tables I have done before, everything was a fiddly faff .... but I got it all done in the end ….. only to be scuppered when I ran out of quick drying varnish … and it took me longer than I had hoped to just nip into town to get a new tin, so it’s been standing in limbo now for a couple of weeks.

However …. I was dead chuffed when I managed to find some very vibrant silky turquoise material from the market for a couple of quid (with enough leftover to cover a three piece suite!) and after borrowing a staple gun from work I think I have made a reasonably decent job of covering the seat …. but I am not showing you the underneath, because it was a case of why use just one staple when 340 will do!

But, it’s now finished and I LOVE it and it is now sharing my boudoir with the bejewelled mirror I finished a few weeks ago. I am hoping to treat myself to a new look bedroom in the New Year, I plan the main colours to be cream and turquoise and then accessorised with a whole miss match of the jewel like colours taken from the chair …. and I have my next project in sight ….

…. an old dressing table mirror that was given to me by my Grandmother and that I have used every morning to bung on my slap for years ….. but I am still a little unsure of exactly what to do with it, I don’t think it would look right Decopatched,  at the moment it is sprayed gold but it is very dull ….. I am wondering if I could inject some vibrancy into it by gold leafing it and then adding a bit of stamping ….????   Any suggestions are most welcome on a postcard addressed to "FiddleFart – Mirror"!!!!!

Happy Halloween –Trick or Treat

This is all I have made this Halloween (sorry) and I only made 12!  The small plastic pumpkins came from Poundworld for a pack of 6, which I featured a few weeks ago.

All I have done is fill them with about eight Celebration chocolates, bought from Tesco when the large tins were only £4 each (I have another two put under the bed for Christmas …. if they last that long!)

…. and the tags were made using a punch and some Halloween stickers from Accessorize left over from last year.

I’m sorry that I haven’t bought you more ideas this year, BUT if you scroll down the page and look on the right hand side you will come to LABELS and if you click on Halloween you will find 34 ideas from the last couple of years which I hope will give you a little inspiration.  A lot of the stuff I used is still available in Poundshops etc. and I think some branches of Accessorize have packs of small Halloween stickers.

So, will I be trick or treating this year? ….. Well, it’s half term …. and I have procured train tickets to London for just £7.50 each way …….. Once in London, I will be found curled up on the lovely Marc’s settee, watching hour after hour of Create and Craft, sharing an ample sufficiency of Maltesers and breaking my usual tea totalness by enjoying several vodka and cokes ….. (plus I can expect scrambled quails egg on toast for breakfast, so he tells me) and you can rest assured he will stoop at nothing in an effort to get my mojo back!!!! I am soooooooo excited ….. I am counting the hours!!

Jewelled Mirror

I don’t often make things for myself, but this is ALL for me ….. and my Lady Boudoir!!!

Do remember the jewelled mirror I saw in Accessorize in Exeter in April this year? Well I never forgot it and Marc and I often talked about the idea and other ideas he had used to make similar mirrors using all sorts of things, other than jewellery.

The whole thing took me about five nights to complete over a couple of weeks using an old mirror which measures approx. 23ins x 23ins, that I’ve had for at least twenty five years and has been on almost every wall in the house!

To cover it I’ve used up all my old unwanted jewellery, flat backed gems, charms, beads etc. anything that glittered was bunged on, plus a few new bits from Primark and Claire’s that I needed to fill in the last few gaps … so I guess it’s cost me £20 to complete, plus a tube of E6000 glue, as recommended by Marc.

I have to admit I had a love hate relationship with the mirror all the way through until the very last evening, which is why I kept on leaving it and then going back to it ……

It wasn’t pretty enough, the bits didn’t look right together, it looked messy  …..and then I got irritated by having really gluey fingers!

But the last lot of frippery that I bought especially, including six Primark stretch bracelets and three daisy chain necklaces from Claire’s sale …..….. especially the  metal daisies, that are the only “jewels” that I have scattered all round the mirror that seemed to bring everything together.It was on the final night of gluing and sticking that I could see that it was going to be even more beautiful than I had imagined and then I got obsessed by filling in the tiniest space with small pearl beads or tiny gem …..  less was definitely not more as far as I was concerned!  And now, I have my fairy mirror …….. even if I don’t exactly see a fairy looking back at me ….. I shall always feel like a fairy when I look at it!!!!!

Tom and Laura’s Engagement Card

This is the engagement card I made for my son Tom and the Lovely Laura, it’s a good job that they are just as monkey mad as me!

I’ve taken a photo from my other blog and just embellished it with micro fine glitter, which has to be one of my “Top 10 Can’t Do Without”  products and various heart shaped stickers from my vast collection.

I handwrote the sentiments and also added a little gold pen to parts of  the champagne bottle.  Done and liberally micro glitter dusted!