Free Giveaway To Celebrate “Fiddle Farts” 1st Blogging Birthday

*** THIS GIVEAWAY WILL REMAIN AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE UNTIL THE CLOSING DATE, HOWEVER MY DAILY CRAFTING POSTS WILL STILL CONTINUE AS NORMAL DIRECTLY UNDER THIS ONE ***

Two blogs, two brilliant giveaways! To celebrate one year of Fiddle Fart  the fantastic people at CSN Stores will be giving one of my lucky readers a £40 gift voucher to use in one of their online stores! They’ve got everything from ceiling lights to bakeware and cookware and furniture

I’ve always wanted a cake stand like this, my rock buns would look so much better if I had something like this to put them on!!!

For a chance to win the £40 gift voucher just leave a comment on this post or for a couple of extra chances become a follower, or SPREAD the word about our giveaway on your blog and/or beyond……. for each option, please leave a separate comment on this post with a link to where you have posted about it.

And I also love this cup and saucer set !

The  winner will be drawn from my large salad bowl on Friday 3rd September when I get home from work and the winners name posted. Please leave your comments here by 5.00am (GMT)  Friday 3rd September …………GOOD LUCK!!

IF YOU CAN'T POST A COMMENT BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE A BLOGGER ACCOUNT ETC. JUST E-MAIL ME WITH YOUR COMMENT AND I'LL COPY AND PASTE IT INTO THE COMMENT BOX FOR YOU, SO THAT EVERYONE HAS A CHANCE TO ENTER.

And ....... if you would like a second chance of winning this giveaway - pop over to Mum's Monkey where he and Darrell have another £40 voucher from CSN to win ....

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

Car Boot Bargains – August Bank Holiday Monday

Oh my life, you will never know how much I love a good rummage, especially when I come back with treasures beyond my wildest dreams.  Can you believe that I made a list of things to look for and I came back with four of them! I am so excited I don’t know where to start ….

Ok ….. I will do them in reverse order of excitement, building up to a crescendo of absolute joy!!

Largish  glass dish -  I saw it, I liked it, I bought it ….. £1 !

Three wooden picture frames ….. 50p each, when I saw them I thought shabby chic, and as I type, this one is in the garden drying after its first coat of paint …. I will sand it down later to shabby it and if I am happy with the result, I will do the other two …. the centre of the flowers in each corner are begging for large clear flat backed gems, but for the sake of good taste I will resist! I am also wondering weather to replace the glass for a mirror.

I have an old fashioned taste in jewellery, I know this isn’t old but I love the colours and shapes, it’s a bit art nouveau – 50p – nabbed it!

The drawers were the first thing on my list – £2.50 was my limit  but 50p grabbed it!  I want it to alter, then give it as a present. I have done one already, but you will have to wait a little while to see it as I have scheduled it for later.

This brocade effect pillowcase may seem an odd thing to put on my list, but I saw it on the market about two weeks ago and have regretted not buying it ever since but hoped it would still be in the huge box where I first saw it. (The car boot joins the market on Bank Holidays).  It cost £1 and with some flat backed gems and a length of black/silver velvet ribbon, it’s going to make the most stunning Christmas present sack ever!

This canvas/cotton Topshop bag was another “look for” on my list and cost another £1.

I saw the bag below on Saturday in Accessorize, but it  was £28.00 – so I thought, if I could find a similar bag, I could embellish it myself with some of the bits I have on my shelves, save a huge amount of money and still be on trend! (I’ve been watching too much Gok me thinks!).

…….. And finally zee piece de resistance ….. I NEVER EVER thought in my wildest dreams I would find something like this ……

…. a Hidesign messenger/work bag (it looks nothing in the picture I know), but, when new, it would cost silly money -  £100 plus – I paid 50p!  It has three compartments, two with zips and has the most delicious leathery smell! The leather is so soft and I have set about polishing it with loving care.  I need to sew about 1.5 inches of one zip where it has come undone and the same in one of the corners, but otherwise it is perfect with a worn comfortableness, if you know what I mean. You can imagine how thrilled I am as I have been looking for something like this on e-bay for ages and although I have made lots of bids, bags I have fancied have sold way beyond my means …… Oh what a perfect day!

I WANT THIS STAMP AND I WANT IT NOW!

What’s happened to me? Most of you know that I only dabble at stamping. I hardly ever visit stamping websites and Lisa will also tell you I definitely don’t do cutesy doe eyed children, BUT when I saw this stamp used here http://debscards.blogspot.com/2010/08/stamp-something-challenge-back-to.html  - I felt an overwhelming need!

It’s from http://www.liliofthevalley.co.uk/acatalog/Stamp_-_Back_to_School_Girl.html and they do a boy version too, aghhhhh.  I am wondering if I can make it to bedtime today without ordering them!

I love it and was thinking it would make a lovely good luck card for my cookery girls when they do their GCSE’s next year.

Bingo Ticket Flower Tag

Woooo hoooo, I’ve never taken part in a challenge before …. but Lisa http://craftfairy.blogspot.com/ is having a “Scalloped Circle” challenge and thought I’d have a go!

In honour of Lisa’s love of Bingo I’ve die cut bingo tickets on my Sizzix Big Shot, using a set of scalloped circle Nestablities  to make lots of  layers for my flower. I’ve  dabbed the layers with a blue ink pad and then sprinkled it with micro hologram glitter.

The tag is cut from an A4 sheet of a ribbed kraft card.

Birthday Candles Card

When I started to blog this card and looked at the photos with fresh eyes it looked too plain and unexciting… a bit of a nothing effort really!

So I went back to the drawing board and added a few stars which have given the whole effect a lift and much more of a party feel.

The candle stickers are from Paper Cellar, I’ve had them for years and thought it was about time I put them to use.

What’s in My Shopping Basket …..

Look at these sweets from Asda for 82p a bag …   they are just too brilliant!  They would be a lovely present in a jar for anyone who plays Scrabble or Dominoes!

As I am sitting here typing this up …. I am thinking about making a Compendium of Games using one of these plastic organiser boxes …… I’m sure I could find a few more sweets with a games theme like jelly snakes …. for snakes and ladders, leave it with me,  I will show you the finished results in a week or twos time!

Also from Asda were these Hello Kitty stickers (£1 a pack), not sure what I am going to do with them yet, I will leave them on my desk until I have an “Ulrika” moment.

These are the new Accessorize stickers in the shops at the moment (£1.75 per pack).  The penguin ones are going to be brilliant for Christmas cards and the birds and owls are so on trend and cute, it won’t be hard to make a few cards with them.

I also spy that Poundworld have some of their Halloween stuff in ….. the only things that caught my eye are packets of large foam ghost and pumpkin shapes …. but I am thinking what I would do with them before getting my money out.  The pumpkin shapes would look good on either side of a one of my Quickutz Silhouette gift bag/boxes ….. hmmmm

Butterfly Card

The butterflies on this card started out as a pair of earrings in a Matalan sale reduced from £6.00 to £1.80.   I think I got 32 butterflies from one pair.

I have used a pale blue gingham, but on reflection the card looks a bit pale and pasty.

I’ve punched the butterflies out using the Martha Stewart Butterfly Trio Punch and then added a pale blue flat backed gem to each one.

An Autumn Birthday Card for A Walker.

I've this A4 sheet of autumnal coloured leaves for ages, but when I was asked to make a card for a lady who was born in October and loved walking, it was spot on.

The boots are made using a Sizzix die .  I don’t own the die myself, but it is on my wish list because walking is a theme I am often asked for and the die is so cute and adaptable.

Flower Collage

This is a bit fancy for me!

It started when I saw a flower made with the stamped image of a watch face as the centre….. that got me thinking, as I have a box of watch faces on my shelf (it’s a long story, but I once went to an antiques fair and a gentleman had a few watch faces in a dish on his table, when I asked how much they were he said “A fiver, but you’ve got to take the whole lot”  …….. the whole lot turned out to be two big washing up bowls full of old watch bits ….. it was a fantastic find.  I used most of the bits at school for collage, but kept the faces).

The flower, made using a scalloped circle Nestabilities die set, had been stuck to the tele on my desk for months as I didn’t know what to do with it, until today …… I have used a spacer and pearl brad to hold everything together.

The wooden heart with music on was meant to be stuck on a peg, for another project, but it sort of went with what I was doing ant the music paper was from some old score books that I rescued from a skip!

This was all made while I was trying to tidy upstairs ….. sometimes I get an idea in my head and just have to go with it.

Born To Shop

I haven’t bought a craft magazine for ages as part of my New Year’s economy drive not to buy them,  but when I saw this stamp set on the front of DoCrafts Creativity! I just couldn’t resist it, and you know, I don’t do much stamping, so I must have been really tempted!

I’ve kept the card really really simple, with the minimum of colouring. I stamped the “shoppers” backpack on the same paper as the background, cut it out and stuck it over the stamped image and then added a handwritten sentiment and  flat backed gems on her shoes and earrings.

But the best bit has got to be the bag ….. the shop I bought the magazine from was having a bit of a sale and packets of Dress It Up buttons were just 59p ….. I bought a few never thinking I would use any with this stamp, but as you can see it’s perfect!

I’m dead chuffed!

Simple Birthday Cake Card

 
These paper cake embellishments are from MIC and cost £1.79 for 4

I twiddled and fiddled but in the end decided to keep things very simple and unfussy, all I have added to the cake are the flat backed gems.

HobbyCraft Foam Leaf Wreath

When I went to HobbyCraft with Lisa on Thursday I made an impulse buy, something I wouldn’t usually look at, but sort of inspired me, a packet of self adhesive foam leaves for £1.99.  I took them, and put them back, I took them and put them back until I finally put them in my basket, Lisa looked at me as if I had gone mad.

But I’m glad I did because I made this autumn wreath.  I used an old bracelet as the base and tied a thin black gingham on to it before I stuck on the leaves.

I found out, by trial and error, that I should leave the paper on the adhesive side of the green leaves for the first layer, and glue them directly onto the ring/bracelet .........

....... but  remove it when adding the yellow and red leaves.

I thought it was “lacking” something when I had finished the layering and so went through all my boxes looking for some wooden ladybirds, I was thrilled when they looked right and as I saw them in my minds eye.

Then, naturally I needed to add a few clear flat backed gems to look like dew!

The finishing touch is a  larger ladybird glued at the top of the ribbon.

I was thinking the wreath might look nice attached to a Harvest Festival Basket.

Shopping Flash! Shopping Flash!

Yesterday Lisa http://craftfairy.blogspot.com/ and I went on a little shopping trip. Our main quarry was Hobbycraft.  I needed basics like cello bags and glittery numbers for my Tesco Advent House (posts on its progress coming soon) and …… I don’t know how it happened, but I was left with just my bus fare home when we went into Home Bargains ….. so Lisa had to lend me 50p to buy these …..

That’s 25p each and with Halloween coming they are brilliant, remove the foam and add other little Halloween treats.  I’ve got one for Monkey and one for Darrell.  Lisa, I’ll pay you back next time I see you!

Birthday Card with a Swiss Theme

I don’t know why, but I kept putting off making this card, the brief was to include Switzerland, walking boots, and a map for a lady’s 70th birthday.

In the end, I decided on a newspaper card, as it was the easiest way to fit everything in.  I’ve made a very simple decoupage layer using the picture of the mountains, although it doesn’t show up to well in the photos.

The boots are Quickutz die cuts, bought from e-bay, but this is a die I would very much like, but not got round to looking for yet.  The boot prints are Stickopotamus boot and shoe prints bought from US via e-bay. I am desperate to find some more packs , as I seem to make a lot of cards that use boot prints – they are ideal for Christmas Santa boot prints.

 

The flower is made using various punches and the compass is part of a pack of 3D stickers from Poundland.