My Las Vegas Diary/Scrapbook

I can’t believe how time has flown, last year seemed to go in an absolute  flash, I didn’t seem to have a minute, there was The Rolling Stones concert, our trip to Las Vegas ….. and then came the Wedding of the Year, trips to London, Lucy’s graduation etc. etc.  ….. and then Christmas ….. agh!!!!

So over the next few months I am going to attempt to try a catch up, hoping that I will not overtaken by even more exciting events   …. because I have a enough pictures of all the gorgeous “objects of desire” that I am desperate to show you that I had to leave behind in Vegas, either because they were wayyyyyyyy too expensive or because they wouldn’t fit in my case, for a couple or three posts …….

…… I also want to share, starting today, my Las Vegas diary/come scrapbook which I diligently wrote and stuck into at the end of every day when we got back to our room, no matter how exhausted and overwhelmingly hot I was …..

I wanted to “create” something that was of the moment, nothing fancy, just a record of what we had done each day and our feelings, plus the odd bit of doodling and souvenirs that I had picked up as we went around.

I couldn’t rely on photos because those would have to wait till we got home ….. although I did leave a few small spaces for poignant events.

So …… here are the first few pages, with more to come in the coming months, to help fill a few otherwise empty posts.  I hope you will enjoy them and not get too bored!!!!

Two Adoption Cards For Two Very Special People

Towards the end of December my friend Sarah was able to call her little boy Jacob her own ….. it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. They both had to go to court, Jacob in his smart new suit, for the judge (???)  to sign all the forms and make it official …… woooo hooooo hooooo

I wanted to make a card for each of them,  I also wanted to keep it very simple, but that said it all.  I think I must have got it right, because as soon as Jacob opened his, he said to his mum “I know who this is, it’s me and you!”  I nearly cried!!

The puffy foam bear stickers came from Paperchase a couple of years back meant for Valentines Day ….. I have hung on to them since then ….. and for this occasion they were just perfect.

Playing and Learning With My Ranger Melting Pot.

I’ve had an evening of glorious Melt Potting ….. but I have sooooooo much to learn.  What I really should do is set aside an evening for watching some of the many Melting Pot/Utee videos on YouTube  and then play, but I am just too impatient!

So, the first thing I have learned is not to let your Utee overheat as it becomes discoloured … as you can see from my pan the colour started out as Lapis Sapphire …. but gradually as I “played” with it over and over again it became erm ….. swamp green, as you will no doubt see from the finished results!  I am currently researching how to stop it overheating!!  I have also since found out that you should keep the pan lid on and NOT to stir during melting process (to stop bubbles forming),  well,  I hold my hands up and admit, I stirred copiously, like Fanny Craddock possessed ….. but in my defence I am only learning!!

I tried to use the melted Utee with a couple of my moulds, but with very disappointing results. The Utee appears to be too think to pick up the fine detail in the shallower edges of the moulds that I have tried so far, so again, further research is needed.

So, my chosen method, while I am still playing, is using a metal cookie cutter.  As you can see I have added beads and glitter to the mix. I pour the Utee straight onto the non stick craft sheet, press the cutter into it and then wait for it to cool, which takes a matter of just 30 secs or so.

As I said earlier, this is the stage where the Utee became swamp green, as I melted and reused it over and over again, trying getting the look/shape right,  don’t let it put you off, it was ME!!!!

These are four hearts of the hearts that I was happy with, which eventually will be used as gift tags.  I put the hole in them by using the pointed nozzle on one of my old glue bottles, holding it in the Utee until it had set. I then put a jump ring through the hole, onto which I will eventually tie a suitable ribbon or cord.

Overall, after my third play I am a bit disappointed with the swampy colour I made, but, from this one “mix” I have finished up with nine heart tags that I am happy with. The beads however are “lost” in all the colour, they look quite pretty when held up to the light but that effect is lost under normal light . …. so my next experiment will be just adding beads to plain unadulterated Utee.  But it’s all about playing ….

…… nothing gets wasted as the Utee can be remelted and used again for other projects, as my little tin shows.

At the end of the evening my final play was mixing Blue Raspberry Cosmic Shimmer with a little bit of glitter to make these red hearts ….. with Valentines Day in mind …….. watch this space!

Guest Crafter–The Equally Lovely Denise

Over Christmas Lucy and I nipped over to the Equally Lovely Denise’s and the Ever Patient Ken’s for a festive meal, but I just could not help looking at and admiring all of Denise’s lovely Christmas creations ….. and asked if she wouldn’t mind being my guest crafter for today

Have you ever seen anything as lovely as these crocheted baubles? I was so jealous when I saw them, and decided there and then that I really MUST learn to crochet sometime this year.  They are just sooooo beautiful, in fact too beautiful!!!

The wool and pattern both come from Planet Penny:-
http://planetpenny.co.uk/2013/11/07/crochet-christmas-baubles/

http://planetpenny.co.uk/2013/11/12/crochet-christmas-baubles-part-two/

And then sitting on the mantelpiece were the Advent Drawers Denise had made for Ken.  Denise has become quite an expert on her Silhouette Portrait, again putting me to shame.  The drawers were made using downloaded files from Silhouette and then Denise used the print and cut  feature on her machine for all the patterns,  another process I have yet to master, after goodness knows how many years, perhaps 2014 will be that year!

And finally, a bit of Decopatch …… gorgeous! 

It’s so brilliant to have another person in the family to bounce off ideas with and who is as daft and as enthusiastic about new stuff as me ….. I also have a spooky feeling that The Equally Lovely Denise is going to become a very  regular guest crafter during 2014 and beyond!

Charity Shop Shopping And Things For My Boudoir Bathroom …….

I hope you don’t get sick of my Boudoir Bathroom plans and posts …. however, I am quite excited, as you may have guessed by it all, as this is the room that has needed most doing to it and for which I have been most confident in my ideas, it really is a blank canvas, ……………...

So …..  when I nipped to the charity shop up the road I was looking for glass receptacles for my Boudoir Bathroom shelves, so that Lucy and I can bathe dans candle light ….. and I found this pair of heavy glass candle sticks for £2.95, which fitted my candles perfectly and an old green glass vase that a tealight will just fit into for £2 (in the picture I’ve just rammed in a random tealight to see if it will fit, however, when I “dress” it for “real”, I will have some beads/floristry pebbles in the bottom with a tealight resting on top).  If the candlesticks/vase don’t suit the bathroom when the shelves are up, they will easily fit into my eclectic collection of glass tealight/candle holders in the dining room, so I can mix and match.

And then, I found this mirror skulking round the back of the shop …. for just £6.  It measure 59cms x 49cm and is really heavy and solid.  I had been eyeing up a couple of mirrors in a discount shop in town, but for the same price this is far better quality. It is a perfect base for the bejewelled mirror I have planned for the side of the wash basin, I may just have to paint the sides white to blend with the tiles, but the patterned frame is just perfect to show through any tiny gaps between jewels, in fact I might give it a light coat of translucent glitter before I start embellishing it.

Then later, Lucy and I did some mooching in town and found these over the top knobs in Home Bargains …… can you believe all four were just £3.99.  Believe me, I paid £8 each for the ones in my bedroom!!! I was so thrilled, these are going on the towel cupboard doors. I know my ideas are not to everyone's taste ….. me who used to be just magnolia and no frills …. but it seems that somewhere along the line my inner girlie monster has been unleashed ….. but for all the fuss and fluster I am still aiming for the less is more effect, just with the less being very sparkly!!  I am now on the lookout for a crystal light pull to match.

And then on to a little on-line shopping, I thought I had found my main mirror on Amazon…. needed mainly to add extra light and reflection in the room …..

….. however when it arrived, it was parcelled up and a returns label printed off within five minutes of my opening it …… it was split and the quality appalling ….. so it’s back to the drawing board on this idea!! 

However, I think I have been more successful in finding just the right papers for my patchwork bath panels and picture frame inserts, in the form of this My Mind’s Eye, Stella & Rose 12" x 12" pad (also from Amazon). I was intending to use papers I already, but rather than be too random, I wanted the colours to tie in together and as this is my very favourite paper collection of all time (in fact  I have forgotten how many of the smaller pads I have bought over the years), to find a pad of 180 page 12 x 12 pad is brilliant, with plenty leftover to craft with afterwards I hope.

And finally, nothing to do with my bathroom this time  ….. a glass cake stand, something I have wanted for ages, reduced from £7.99 to £3.99 from Homebase ….. now I can serve my slabs of bread and butter pudding in a most elegant fashion, a la Hyacinth Bucket at my many intimate soirees!!!

Christmas Cards for 2014 – Christmas Bird Design.

Each of these white or red card hand cut card blanks measure 5ins x 5ins and use either a linen effect or plain textured cardstock.

This year I have decided to take a leaf out of Cheryl W’s book after she left this comment a week or so ago ……

“I have vowed to start making my 2014 cards and tags in January - I'm thinking 4 or 5 of each per month would be such a help come next December. I wonder if I can stick to such an audacious resolution!”

This year I ran out of time and never got round to using the gift tags and Christmas papers from Wilkinson’s Christmas 2013 range, in fact I was so behind that I even resorted to sending quite a few “ready made” cards, something that I haven't done in years!

So rather than wait another nine/ten months before I use them, I, like Cheryl, am starting Christmas in January and will continue making and posting throughout the year, instead of a mad rush from October to Christmas.

The centre pieces for each card were made by taking the front off the red foil bird design gift tags (above), and then mat and layered onto silver mirror card and papers from the 6” x 6” Christmas paper packI’ve then added red and clear flat back gems on the scalloped edges of the Spellbinder die cut square, and to the branch in the birds mouth, adding a touch of faux stitching around some of the edges using a black or white gel pen.

I have never used the colour grey in my cards before, but I just love the subtly of it, and from now on I can see an awful lot of grey creeping into my other cards, it goes with almost every colour, and for Christmas is just that little bit more unusual.

These also have to be my “most favourite” Christmas papers I have used to date, there is not one design that I didn’t like.  It was a master stroke of Wilkinson’s to produce a paper pack that matched it’s gift wrap range and I shall be checking regularly to see if they do the same throughout the coming year.

http://www.wilko.com/stationery/paper+card/icat/paperandcard?sort=name&parentCategoryRef=paperandcard&order=descend&q=*&perpage=12&pdxtbrandn=Dovecraft

http://www.wilko.com/seaside-stationery/wilko-beach-hut-bunting-multi-coloured-x-3m/invt/0333396

http://www.wilko.com/seaside-stationery/wilko-seaside-sticky-note-pack-set/invt/0333395

Christmas Bauble

Sorry, the glue was still wet when I took this photo!

I found these (Snofint) bauble coasters in the Ikea sale, they were reduced from 85p for a pack of 10, down to 49p, well I just had to have them! 

They have a design on each side so I can think of lots of ways in which to use them, in a garland, as tree decorations or as a gift tags.

All I have done is punch a hole for a thread or a ribbon and outlined the edges and stripes this small dashes using a fine liner pen.

Next I drew patterns on them using my fine tip glue applicator which contains PVA and then sprinkled the patterns with different ultra fine glitters a section at a time.

I expect you’ll be seeing more of these baubles throughout the year as I get more adventurous and think of new ways to use and decorate them.

I’m not the only one to see the potential in these little beauties as the links below show

http://www.ikeahackers.net/2013/12/snofint-coasters-as-christmas-ornaments.html

http://gucki.it/2013/11/20/super-easy-christmas-garland/

Experimenting …… Making Wax/Faux Wax Seals

I was having a rootle about in my craft room cupboards and found a Wax Seal Gun and a heart seal that the Duke bought me, goodness knows how many Christmas’s ago. I felt so guilty, I had asked for some proper sealing wax and a seal which he bought, plus the gun and wax sticks to go with it, but after a couple of disappointing results with the “real” wax and seal, it was all put away for a rainy day, the gun unopened and unused.  As I laid it all on my desk I said aloud …. “Oh Andy I am so sorry”.  If I could have that Christmas back again, Christmas dinner would have been late and everything would have had a seal stuck on it, to show him how grateful I was.

But I have had it out now, and am feeling pretty chuffed.  The wax sticks which I had in various colours didn’t go very far, perhaps making a maximum of four seals per stick, but the results were very pleasing.  Now, Marc will now be saying they need some gilding …. so I will be taking some down to London on my next visit for us to play with.

Then I got to wondering how the seal would work with Utee and my Ranger Melting Pot …. as I thought that if it worked, it would be an excellent way to use up all the scraps of Utee I had kept.

And as it happened all these scraps when melted together made a glittery, rich plum red which was perfect for seals!

Again, I was very happy with the results…….

….. I was even brave enough to “actually” seal a birthday card envelope for my Niece!

So now …..  my next job is to do something with all these seals …. I am thinking …… Kraft card tags and on parcels wrapped in Kraft tag paper………???

Three More Christmas Presents From Marc

This is how my boudoir bed looked on Christmas morning ….. with my presents from Marc (and Rick) laid out on it …….

I can’t believe how beautifully everything goes together.  Each parcel was beautifully wrapped in Kraft paper with lots of typical Marc-esque flounces and fluster, and tags with cryptic messages written on. The first thing you will notice are the two Big Love paperweights which will have pride of place on my desk when I get back to work …. made, I do believe, with the Poundland photo paperweights I took down on my last visit in October.

Marc says he made the gold background using Lancashire Rose Mega Flakes from Indigoblu http://www.indigoblu.com/flakes-glue-c12/flakes-c19/indigoblu-megaflake-lancashire-rose-p449.

There was also this beautiful box “commissioned” by Marc’s partner Rick to make for me …

It’s absolutely stunning, and now has pride of place on the top of my drawers in my bedroom.

Marc has covered it with millions of seed beads, sequins, micro beads and silver embellishments using a mixture of all the pva/water based glues known to man!  If anyone can out fiddlefart me, it’s Marc, and his patience? Marc is the most patient and diligent man I know when it comes to crafting!

And last but by no means least, this embellished notebook and pen, oh my life I just love them …… they are sooooooooooo Marc, and soooooooooo me!! The pen caused Marc the greatest fiddlefart, in fact he said that it was a “right bugger” as he had to hold it with a wire in order to cover it a tiny bit at a time so that the beads didn’t glob together and make the covering too thick    and then he had to allow it all to dry, before adding the next bit etc.  They are  beautiful and will have a special pocket in my handbag so they are with me all the time.

So Christmas Day was full of discovering wonderful, wonderful treasures made with an awful lot of love ….. I am such a lucky girl!!!