Subtle Jewelled Cards

These cards measure 6ins x 6ins and use smooth, white, pre-scored card blanks from a  Hobbycraft bulk pack. .

A funny sort of post this morning, I love these cards for me, but I also think they may be a little too subtle?  They are pretty, but is that enough and I am not to sure if the photos really do them justice either.

As soon as I saw this paper from this Snowy Daze paper pad from The Works (£2) I knew I wanted to simply add tiny silver stars in the centre of all the printed stars and then tiny nail art gems or small silver flat back domes to some of the strands of circles at regular intervals.

I covered the front of the cards with the paper ................

....... and then added the stars, silver flat back domes ........

...... and gems on to the design using a little pen thingy Marc gave me from China. You fill the metal end with a waxy sort of material and then it picks up the tiny stars and gems up as if there is no tomorrow, ......

.......... without this tool bejewelling the cards would have been impossible!

I think they work fine  as a gift cards, but for Christmas cards, I am not so sure ............

........ any suggestions on how and where to add a sentiment would be very gratefully received.......

........ thank you!

Halloween Shadow Box

 I have never tried anything like this before ....... but I think I like it!

Made using a Poundland shadow box type bathroom picture, found on the sale shelf for just 50p, well, it would have been rude not to buy at least four, as I had used them before in the past after realising their potential.

I also used papers from a pack of 20cm x 20cm Halloween origami papers (from Amazon) and a pack of Jolees Boutique 3D embellishments, 99p from eBay.

The orange spots on black design was originally my first choice for the background, but the black on  the embellishments got sort of lost in it  .........

...... so I swapped it for the black on orange design and then, on a whim, added a strip of the orange on black, which made it look sort of quirky.  I discovered, when I opened the pack of embellishments, that the figures were jointed, which was a brilliant bonus and meant I could really pose them in the frame.  I edged the shoes and parts of the bodies, arms and legs with a white gel pen just to help show them up a little more.

Adding the large purple stars didn't work that well, the proportions were wrong (?), so I swopped them for much smaller green and silver ones.

While the scene was drying, I took the plunge in colouring the frame, inside and out with a black and orange Sharpie pen.  It looked alright until I started to put it all together and found that a corner of the frame had come undone and with all my fiddle farting some of the colour was removed, however, I liked the effect, so proceeded to scrub it all very gently with a scourer!

I then started to get carried away with the Halloween spirit adding three spiders to the frame ......

........ swiftly followed by a scattering of burnt orange and silver stars and a few clusters of white spots using Ranger white Glossy Enamel ........

....... before finally going the whole hog by deciding to cover and then suitably muddy up the back.

Job's a gud un ....... I am so chuffed with how it all turned out!

August Bank Holiday Malvern Flea And Collectors Fair

Following just a few weeks after Lu's and my trip out to the Malvern Antiques and Collectors Fayre, we decided to give the August Bank Holiday Flea and Collectors Fair a go too and despite neither of us actually making any considered purchases, the £5 admission was well worth a wonderful day of ooooing and ahhhhing.

This mirror was soon on our radar, with Lu rocking a tasteful cocktail theme in her kitchen, but at £25 it would have been a a bit of an extravagance.

It was very much a day for mirrors, my passion, but I didn't even bother to look at the price of this beauty as it would have been undoubtedly well beyond my means.

As my own version of a barbola mirror is still at the flower painting stage I took these pictures as a reference as to how the original flowers were painted.  The materials used on these mirrors is so fragile, finding one undamaged is pretty difficult, but despite this ones battered state they were still asking £10 for it.

This hand painted glass panel and mirror, although with no age to them, got me wondering if I could do something similar, what sort of paint do you think they used?  I am thinking acrylic, but would that stand up to cleaning, any suggestions would be very gratefully received before I find myself a small charity shop mirror to have a little play with.

This mirror also caught my eye, it looks like it may have come off something bigger as the proportions don't look quite right at the bottom, but in the right setting it could look quite stunning.  If there were two I could see them either side of a bed, above a set of small, wooden bedside drawers?

And now for the kitsch.  I know there is a name for this sort of "ornament", possibly Vallauris (???), it's so bad it's good, just my sort of thing, but with nowhere to put it, it had to stay where it was!  I think it was about £12.

Lu and I also spotted this coffee table at the same time, in fact we are pretty predictable at what we both point out on stalls, in the right room this would be perfect, just not ours, at the moment. 

And finally the one that got away ....... this wonderfully kitsch nativity scene set in lucite (?), if it had been somewhere between the £2 and £3.50 mark it might have come home with me, but at £18 I don't think so! I am not sure if the lucite/resin had discoloured over time or it was meant to be that colour .....  but I doubt if I'll ever see its likes again!!

While we were going round we saw that they were recording an episode of Bargain Hunt. We saw the Red Team with their expert but the Blue Team eluded us.  We also didn't see what they were buying, but I'll be honest there was so many stalls to look at and take in, goodness only knows how, where or what they bought to sell at auction for a profit, they looked pretty cool, calm and collected where I think I would have been running around like a headless chicken.

I said at the beginning of this post that I didn't spend any money, but I didn't leave empty handed, because as we left the showground I spotted some acorns, more importantly acorn cups. They were only small, as it was only just the end of August and I don't think autumn had begun then (or had it?), but since I had used the last of my acorns from about three years ago I proceeded to fill my lunch bag. I could still do with a few more slightly larger ones, but this was a most excellent start to my new collection, now slowly drying out on the window sill.  Happy days!

7th - Wool Anniversary Card on an Easel

It was recently Tom and Laura's 7th wedding anniversary, which, when I looked it up, found that the traditional gift to give was "wool", so it was a no-brainer that sheep immediately sprang to mind as the theme for a card

Well, it was my intention to make a card, but then I re-found one of the mini blackboard easels that I got ages ago from The Works (99p and still available) and decided to use one instead.

The wooden sheep embellishments are from Trimits, found on eBay.

I coloured them with a white Posca pen, gave them grey ears and feet and then small, black, flat back domes for their eyes and noses, which gave them a completely different character.

For the background, which I stuck onto the easel, I used a heart and knitted design paper, edged with faux stitching using a black fine liner pen.

However, when I added the sheep my thoughtful choice of paper just disappeared into the background,  a lesson you would have thought I'd learned by now  ..........

...... and then even more so when I added the small nail art flowers ........ doh!

So perhaps, in the end, a plain, green grass background would have bought the sheep out more and looked more effective, rather than me getting all clever!

Still I liked the easel .......

......... an idea that I have used in the past, and as I have a few more left I think I might make one or two Christmas ones, perhaps for Bertie and Iris's festive bedrooms as a lasting memory of Christmas 2020, along with whatever else it might bring. 

Back To School Cards .

These two cards measure 6ins x 6ins and use smooth, white, pre-scored blanks from a bulk pack from Hobbycraft, bought in a sale quite a while ago now.

This morning finds me in an emotional frame of mind.  Today as Iris returns to school to start Year 2 just ten minutes away from the Reception/Year 1 site, Bertie will be embarking on the first day of his school career in Reception.  Where have those four years gone? It only seems like yesterday that he came into the world, bum first, proclaimed by Tom as the biggest baby he had ever seen, he was huge, but now I reckon he will be among the smallest in his class (like Iris) as he has had to have an extra small size in all his school uniform and PE kit.  What can I say? 

Naturally I made them each a card to mark the day.  No great shakes to either of them.  I simply took a pre-scored card and covered the front with a pastel coloured, number patterned paper.

I haven't used Jolees 3D embellishment stickers for years as they got a little expensive, but when I found a shop on e-bay selling them for £1.99 a pack I admit I invested in one or two or three packs as they are so classy and detailed for really special card, that you might want to frame later.

I mat and layered the embellishments on a coordinating spotty paper, and then a gold mirror card, before adding a little faux stitching round the edges using a black fine liner pen. I also mat and layered their names which were made up using small, coloured, adhesive alphabet stickers.  

I shall be thinking of Iris and Bertie throughout the day, it's going to be strange for them both, I just wish we didn't have this wretched, fun sponge, virus hanging over our heads to stifle the joy such a wonderful adventure should normally bring.

Marc and Rick’s Cottage Garden

Every time I stay with Marc and Rick at their Worcester cottage there is always something new to see …..

…… often new plants have been bought in or old plants have been moved to a sunnier or more sheltered spot and, more often that not, Rick has put large pieces, once part of his many (pre-covid) furniture shows………

…… but may have had a bit of a doink or two, but wouldn’t matter in the slightest in the garden ……..

….. or he’s added things that are now out of fashion …… but perfectly lovely in the garden, especially when they’ve gone a bit green or rusty and then it’s like they’ve always been there.

I like to have a wander ……..

…… never knowing what I will find to coo over round the next corner.

I mean how can you just love this little makeshift shelf at the side of the house, and the mirror? You know how I LOVE a mirror!

Believe me, this gave me a very serious bout of garden envy as soon as I saw it. It made me want to done a battered straw hat, find a trowel and potter for England!

I believe the plants Marc and Rick used in the pots, bricks and bowls are called hen and chicks (?), but I will stand corrected. How beautiful and simple. It made me hanker for my large garden in Wolverhampton and all the things I could have done to it to make it “cosier” and more “cottagey” ………

…… but there again, if I was still there, I would probably still working, having little time to garden, so you can’t have it all.

……. I just wish I could just have a little space under my two back windows to do something really simple, however it’s just not allowed.

After four years at The Towers I admit to getting a little restless, I really would like a tiny garden, that is all mine, with perhaps a little summer house or pretty shed and lots of solar lights. I would also like to be able to hang out my washing outside to dry and a  proper front door and porch to dress up according to the season …….

……… I just need to do the sums, get The Towers valued, see what’s out there in Evesham that I could afford (not a lot) and then “maybe” just “maybe” take the plunge.  I’ve done it once, it wasn’t all that daunting, I am just doing an awful lot of if and butting at the moment ………..

The urge is strong at the moment and it’s there for a reason ………

…… I know “someone” is pushing me and telling me it will be alright. 

I need to mark this date in next years calendar to see if I actually act on these feelings and if I have set anything in motion.

We shall see ………………………………