A Hearty Box

Hi All,

I hope you have been enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having. I have found it really frustrating, as I am unable to do any gardening yet.

I had the stitches out of my knee last Wednesday. I had felt it was really sore the night before and when the nurse removed the dressing, I had a badly infected knee. So I have ended up on more antibiotics.

Never mind, it could be worse.

This is a box I have made for my charity stall. I have 2 markets to do in April, so have to get down to working a bit more, instead of playing!

I had decorated it some time ago with the crackle effect, using Acrylic paint and PVA glue. I wasn't happy with the decoration I had put on the top, so I stripped it off and replaced it with the arrangement in the picture below.

I first tried to cut a piece of gold net type fabric with a Nestie. It didn't quite cut through but has left an outline, which can just be seen at the top.

The lace was from my huge stash of lace I have had for more years then I care to remember! I made the large flowers using a template from a magazine. The smaller flowers are from my dolls house stash and they were all touched with the Stickles Star dust.

The Ivy I painted with Acrylic paint, using Sheena's Fusion stamp set. The Butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch.
Both the flowers and the butterflies, had Victorian Velvet Distress ink added to the edges, for more colour and definition.

I hope you like my box. A bit less work than the Fairy Box!!
Thank you for stopping by and for your kind comments.
Hugs,
Carol S.xx

A Box Full Of Fairies

Morning all,

What a beautiful day. The sun is shining, it's very warm and I am stuck indoors! My husband is giving the lawns their first cut. I am going to go and prune the roses after lunch. I think my knee will allow that much.

Thank you for all you lovely messages re: my knee op. I am getting around ok and had a short drive in my car yesterday.

I must also thank Mary very much for the blog award. It gives you an amazing feeling when that happens. To think that your crafty efforts can inspire other people, is incredible. I am my biggest critic. I will think very carefully and choose my faves to pass the award on to.

Well this project has been in my head for months. I asked our handyman, Paul, if he could make me a box, 8" x 8" x 4" from bits of wood. He brought it last Friday, slightly different measurements than I had planned for but I just had to use smaller mushrooms!

It all started with this, my first watercolour painting I had done since I was about 15 years old! Not that long ago!Lol! It is supposed to be a Bluebell wood. You have to use your imagination:)

I painted the inside of the box with Acrylic paints and then stuck the painting on the back of the inside of the box. I know, maybe I should have put it on the back of the box! At least I have covered up most of it:-)

The 'tree' on the right is actually a stem of an old shrub, that my 90 year old neighbour dug out of my garden for me. When I saw it on the lawn, I thought 'trees'! I chopped it into 3 pieces, in case I wanted to do another box.

The log at the front, bottom right was a piece I cut off of the 'tree'. The mushrooms are made by my Brother-in-law on his lathe. The one behind the fairy on the left was painted by my Granddaughter.
All the 'plants' come from my Dolls House stash. Including the pieces of slate and moss I have used for the path. I built up the base with Pollyfilla first, just to get a bit of height.
Unfortunately, because of the light today, the fairies have not come out very well. The colours are actually much more intense than they appear. Especially the skintones, which look very pale in the photos.
This fairy is from Crafty Ideas by Kaz. She is perfect for the position I wanted her. I stamped the wings twice, just to give them a bit more definition. This fairy was painted with Dusty Concord Distress ink and the wings were overpainted with Stardust Stickles.
The fairy below is from Lili Of The Valley, again painted with Distress Inks, Faded Jeans on her dress and Milled Lavender on her wings. Their skin was painted with Antique Linen and Tattered Rose, not that you can see it!



It was a fun project to do and at least it is now out of my head!Lol!
I will put it on my Charity stall at the end of April. You never know, someone may give me a couple of pounds for it.
Would love to hear what you think of it!
Have a good weekend and thank you for taking the time to stop by.
Hugs,
Carol S.xx

The Wedding!

Hi All,

At last I can sit at my desk for more than 5 minutes. My knee is improving every day and I am no longer using the crutches.

As promised, I am posting Rachel and Andrew's wedding piccies. I took these so they are very informal.

The whole day was such fun, starting with getting ready for the day ahead. At times we were crying with laughter.

The first picture is of Rachel's hair, stage one! She couldn't believe that her mother and I needed a picture of this mess!:-) Stunning, don't you think?!!

This picture below, is obviously when I had finished doing her hair. I always loved doing long hair when I was a lot younger. I specialised in long hair styling and also cutting, when I had my Salon in London.

I find this picture below amazing. I am sure Rachel won't mind me telling you, that a year ago she was a size 24!! This is not a waist of a size 24. I thoroughly enjoyed lacing her into her dress, just to show off her little waist.
The fact that she couldn't breath, was a minor detail. Lol!

I also had to get up and under her dress to get the ends of the lacing fabric, then tie them up out of view. That was an adventure which her Mum captured on film!!

I think you will agree that her dress is beautiful. It was topped with a matching tiny bolero in Ivory. With the embroidery detail across the back.

The weather was absolutely amazing for March, not only sunny but also warm.

I thought I had done well getting this picture, just as the confetti was thrown. However, when I looked closely, there is a piece of confetti over both of Andrew's eyes. I did say they are informal pictures!

The car was a Riley convertable donated by a friend. Just gave a lovely finishing touch to a lovely day.

The picture below is of one of the tables. Her Mother was very happy with the overall effect that my contribution, place names, menus, favour boxes and table numbers, created along with the flowers, napkins, balloons and confetti.
The speeches were made before the food was served, which was a great idea. It meant that the people who had to speak, could get the nerve racking job done, so they could then enjoy their meal.

The speeches were very funny, with interruptions from both Rachel and Andrew, which added to the fun effect of the day. The room was buzzing the whole time. To top it all, the food was amazingly good. Not like some wedding food I have experienced.

There was a Disco in the evening, which was very entertaining. The star of the show was the Bride's 17 year old brother, David. He is so funny and should become a cabaret entertainer, except he can't sing very well!
It was a long but fun filled day, that I am sure everyone enjoyed.
The happy couple are now in Egypt, enjoying the sun.

Thank you for all your get well messages. They are all appreciated very much.
I am working on a long project at the moment. It has started with me painting a watercolour woodland scene! Something that I haven't done since I was in my teens!

I may get a card or two done inbetween which I can post.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,

Carol S.xx

Another LOTV Freebie

Hi All,

Just a quick posting as it is nearly 12.30am and I have to be up at 06.45am. I am going to Hospital tomorrow at 07.30, for my knee operation. Just day surgery, so should be home early afternoon. The worse thing is that I will be unable to drive for a couple of weeks! Ugh!

This is another of my LOTV freebies, coloured with my Copic pens.

The papers were also free with a magazine but can't remember which one.

The flowers I made with a template that was in the Making Cards magazine. I enlarged them on my photo copier and cut them out of some paper I didn't really like. I inked the edges with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. The template was similar to the shape of the Nesties flower die. Ok it was a bit fiddly to draw around but it works quite well and you can make them any size you like.

I just added a touch of Stickles on the edge of the flowers to finish them off. I then used the Cosmic shimmer Pearl glue to make the beads around the Sizzix Flower Die, I used to cut out the image.

Well I must rush off to bed now.

Oh, the wedding! It was the best wedding I have been to for ages. I will tell you more on my next posting.

Thanks for stopping by,

Hugs,

Carol S.xx

Lili Of The Valley Freebie.

Hi All,

First I must welcome my new followers and thank them for their truly lovely comments.

Well it's Rachel and Andrew's wedding at 3pm tomorrow. The weather forecast is looking fine for them. The grounds of the country house where the wedding is are lovely, with a very big lake in the centre and surrounded by woodland and grass. Ideal for the piccies.

This little card, I made with a magazine free gift of LOTV images. She is so cute, so deserved a pretty setting.

The backing paper is just white paper, put into the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder that I had inked with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, before running it through the Bug. Then I used a Martha Stewart punch on one edge.

The flower paper was from my stash and matted onto a piece of white card, edged with a Copic Pen BV13. I used the same colour on her shoes, the large flower and also to colour the white ribbon. The next layer was more stash paper cut with the Nestie Fleur De Lis Die.

I was unable to use my Distress Inks to colour the image, as the paper was not heavy enough. I had to use Copic and Promarker Pens. I actually quite enjoyed using them for a change. Which was just as well, as there are a lot of them to colour!Lol!

I used a white Pentouch Pen to put the white dots on her dress. I then added some Star Dust Stickles on them, also on her necklace and her ribbon.
The Fern leaves are cut with the Little Claire die and the flowers are from my bits box. We all have one, don't we?

I hope you like this little card as much as I enjoyed making it.
I wish you all a good, enjoyable weekend. I know I will enjoy mine, once all the hair do's are done!
Please stop by again and thank you so much for your lovely words.
Hugs,Carol S.xx

A Touch of Teal

Hi All,

Hope you all had a good weekend. It rained all day on Sunday, here in West Sussex. A very dark miserable day. Never mind, Spring is on the way.

This is a card I have made, to give to my friends' Daughter, who is getting married next Saturday. I made all the Stationery for the wedding, which I posted a few back.

I am doing the Brides hair for the wedding and also her Grandmothers' hair. I then have to help her Mum, to lace her into her dress!! Fortunately she is going from her Grandmothers' house, which is the same road as me. Oh, and I am a trained hairdresser. I had a Salon in Streatham, London, many moons ago!

I then have to fly home, change my clothes, grab my husband and get to the Country House where the wedding is taking place! Hopefully before the bride!Lol! No pressure.

The centre piece of this card is another of the new Sizzix Framelits Dies. I printed the names and sentiment on the computer, onto white paper and used the largest of the internal Dies to cut it out. I left it in the Die and used Broken China Distress Ink to soften the edges with Dry Foam. The main frame Die was cut out using white card. The background is a Crafts-Too embossing folder, which I coated the negative side with Broken China Distress Ink. I had cut a piece of white card to the size I wanted and put it into the inked folder and ran it through the my Joy machine. As the piece of card was bigger than the folder, I repeated the process on the rest of the card. Making sure that I placed the top plate away from the edge of the folder so I didn't get a line.

The butterfly is an old stamp which I really love. It doesn't have an outline, so you can cut it to any shape. I made a mix of white embossing powder and Crystal Ultra Fine Glitter. I stamped the butterfly onto a piece of Vellum with Versamark clear ink and then used my mix. You can't see the sparkle in the picture due to the bad light today. It looks like holographic powder.
The body is Stickles of course!

I just hope the weather next Saturday is better than this weekend.
I hope you like my card. It is very different for me to do what I call paper crafting, rather than painting my toppers. Somehow it feels like cheating. Or is that just me!Lol!!
I enjoy looking where my blog visitors come from. I would love to have a comment from another country.

Thanks for stopping by,

Hugs,

Carol S.xx