Sun...Sea....Sand!!

Hi everyone,

Hope you had a good weekend.

We went to the beach on Friday afternoon and I even went for a paddle!

It was lovely and not too hot, as it was around 4pm. 

I made this hanger, for the Craft Fayre stall that I am doing, on 

next Tuesday at The Cliff Hotel, Gorleston.

I do like making things like this, as it makes a change

from cards and clocks!!

The shells are real shells. 

The Sea Gulls are stamps and I cut them out.

The bucket and spade and bunting, I made from clay.

The seahorse is a die and cut from card

I had made with Distress Oxide inks.

The boat and beach hut were stamps.

Thanks for visiting and thank you for leaving

me your lovely messages. 

They are all read and treasured. 

Big hugs,

Carol

xxxx

By The Seaside

I wanted to make some different things for my Craft Faye stall.

So I thought I'd have a go using a box frame.

I did my shabby chic techie on it, as it was dark brown.

Whoops!!

Just noticed, because of the glass, you can see on the left 

of the pictures, the outline of my hand and head!!

I used water colour card for the background and painted 

the scene with Distress Inks.

I used some white acrylic paint for the spray.

Sticks and moss from my stash and shells from Spain.

The anchor was a free die from a magazine, as was the rope stamp.

I made one of these a couple of weeks ago.

I took it to my monthly Craft Fayre at The Cliff Hotel

and sold it!!

I hadn't even taken a picture of it!

So I thought I would make another one.

I only bought 2 frames, so this will be my last one for now.

Really enjoyed making it for a change.

Thanks for stopping by and the sun has come today.

Yippee!! Beautiful clear blue sky and no wind....weather wind!!

Would love a message from you, so I know you have been.

Then I will have a link to your blog too.

Big hugs,

Carol

xxxx

Winter or Summer?

Firstly I must welcome my new follower Doreen and thank you for

taking the time to join me. 

I hope you will let me know when you visit my little blog and I

could not find your blog. So would love you to leave me a link.

A couple of weeks ago at a local Craft Fayre, a lady bought

everything 'Poppy' related that I had on my stall! 

A clock, 2 candles and a notebook!

So I thought I should make more, different poppy things.

These were my first items and they are MDF plaques.

The left one I painted onto water colour paper and then stuck it to

the plaque. On the one on the right,

I created a crackle effect direct onto the plaque

and then painted the poppies with Acrylic paints.

I did another Craft Fayre on Tuesday and sold the one on the left!!

So guess what I am doing at the moment?..........Ermmmmm!

Now this is where the Winter or Summer comes into my post!

Below is a photo I took last week in my garden.

Not very exciting you might think!!

The flowers in the front is a Hellebore,

'So what'!  I hear you say! 

It is a Winter flowering plant.......Not a Summer flowering plant.

It usually shows it's face in February/March, which is when it did flower. 

I thought I was seeing things, when I saw the bud first. 

The flowers in the photo are now fully open and yet more buds are now there too!!

I would love to know if anyone else have this in their garden.

Thanks for popping by and would love you to leave me a message

so I know you have been.

Hugs,

Carol

xxxx

A New Winter Wonderland Challenge

Hi to all my blogging friends.

 

Welcome to this weeks' Winter Wonderland Challenge.

Firstly, congrats to last weeks winner.

 

This week, it's the turn of the Snowflakes DT, at

Winter Wonderland.

 

The theme is:

 

EMBOSSING, WET OR DRY

 

CHRISTMAS CARDS/PROJECTS ONLY PLEASE.

 

I chose to do dry, using a Spellbinders 3D M-Bossabilities Folder,

Rustic Wreath.

 

I used a piece of silver Mirror Card to emboss.

I then roughly painted black acrylic paint,

 over the main part of the image, the wreath.

 

I let it dry for a few minutes and then rubbed a piece of kitchen paper,

over the painted area. That left the paint, just in the debossed areas.

 

 

The sentiment die, was a free gift on a magazine last year.

 

Sorry about the pictures, as you can see my arms in the card!!

 

I used Cosmic Shimmer coloured glue for the berries.

 

For this weeks challenge,

our Sponsor is

 

 

The prize they are giving you, is a very generous £10 voucher. 

 

Their shop is about a 25 minute drive from my house!!

 

You can pop over to their shop HERE and you can see an amazing

selection of crafting goodies.

 

If you want some inspiration, my talented Snowflake teamies,

have posetd some amazing, beautiful cards for you.

So hop over there to view.

 

Looking forward to admiring and commenting on your

beautiful creations. Good Luck!!

 

Hugs,

 

Carolxx

 

 

 

A Change From Christmas!

Hi Everyone,

 

First of all I would like to welcome my new followers. Thank you so much for joining me, I am always thrilled to get another follower. I would love to get to 50 followers! Lol!

 

This is just a quick post, as I have to get up early in the morning and I have promised myself an early night. Well before 12.30 for a change.

 

Hope you all had a good weekend. My husband had taken a few days holiday from work and we took our Grand-daughter out for a day. We went to an animal park, a bit like a zoo but with other entertainment there too. We were absolutely shattered by the end of the day, but we all really enjoyed it.

 

This card is an order for a friend of mine, to give to a friend who is going to be 60. I don't like to put ages on the front of cards really. I prefer to put them on the insert.

 

The poppy image is an Indigo Blu stamp. I painted it with acrylic paints for a change. I do like the texture you get with acrylics.

 

I decided to make it a CAS card which I think suits this stamp. (My name isn't on the card!Hee hee)

 

 

Well it's now 10 minutes after mid-night so I am off to bed. I am not very good at early nights, as I usually will not be able to get to sleep. So I might as well have stayed up to 1.30, my usual time!

 

Thanks for stopping by and I will try to post again in a few days.

 

Hugs,

Carol S.xx

A Golden Dabber Christmas!

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your lovely comments on my Buddha Nut post. I am glad that there are other nut lovers out there and I am not alone.Lol!!

This card I made using a Tando mask, that I bought at The Craft Barn in Lingfield. I ran it through my Joy machine on a piece of red paper, about 120gsm. They do not emboss so well on card. For the gold effect I used an Adirondack Acrylic Dabber, which I bought at Ally Pally. The gold is a very crisp bright gold.

On the edge of the leaves, I just flicked the Dabber from the tip of the leaf to get a soft edge, rather then a solid line.

I did have to take the lid off the Dabber and, using a very fine paint brush, I touched up some of the edges, to make them sharper. Added a few gems and card done! A very quick card but looks like hours have been spent on it!

Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your lovely comments. I treasure every one.
Luv,
Carol S. xx

A Heart Full Of Daisies

Hi Everyone,

I have now got my craft room pretty well organised. The trouble is, I now have more space to spread out even more things!Lol!! As I look over to my craft area from my computer area, I can see very little space without anything on!!

This is a little box that I had half made many months ago. It has been moved around my room so many times that all the pieces were not together. I managed to find them all and get them in one bag, when my room was being done. I then told myself I just had to do something with it, other than find a new home to store it!

The lid top and the base were all cut with the largest scalloped heart Nestie. The internal heart shapes were cut with the large plain heart. The sides were just long strips of card, scored 1cm from one edge, then folded on the score line. Triangle pieces were cut out of the 1cm section to the score line, every 1" to allow it to be bent around the curves.

As you can see I used the Fusion method of painting the Daisies on the top of the box. It was first painted with Ivory Emulsion paint and edged with Faded Jeans Distress Ink.

The Dragonfly is stamped and embossed with white onto Vellum. Oh! Of course a touch of Stickles on the flower centres.

It would make a nice little trinket or gift box.

Hope you like my box and thank you for stopping by. I love all you special comments and they are much appreciated.
Nighty night,

Hugs,

Carol S.xx

Miniature Fusion

Hi everyone,

Well boy did it rain today!! And as for the wind, I was a bit nervous looking at the big Oak tree at the bottom of my garden. It was and still is really swaying!! I did wonder how the Squirrels are, as we have two nests in the tree. Do they get sea sick I wonder!!Lol!

These are two items I have made for my stall on Friday. Anyone who has bought the Daisy Fusion stamps from Sheena Douglas, like me, did you wonder what to do with the small daisy stamps?!

Well this little round wooden box is only 3" across and 4" high. I painted the lid with Ivory coloured Emulsion paint. I then stamped around the edge of the lid, using the small Wreath stamp from Sheenas' Christmas stamps. I then over stamped with the small Daisy stamps. I used a small round headed brush to apply the paint to the flowers. I also used a wash of Burnt Umber Acrylic paint on the twigs of the wreath. For the leaves I used a very small flat brush.

For the sides of the base, I first painted a base coat of Gold Acrylic paint. I dried it with my heat gun for speed. I then applied a coat of PVA glue and before it dried, I painted it over with Ivory Emulsion. I used my heat gun to crackle the top coat.
The square box I did the same as the round box but also did the crackle paint effect on the lid. However, I did not use the Wreath stamp.

The little heart on the lid is also wood, which I painted with the gold Acrylic paint. I also used the same Gold paint on the inside of the box.
I hope it is not too windy on Friday, as I have to get all my craft goodies into the hall where the market is.
I am also supposed to be having worktops with shelves under, put in my craft room on Friday or Saturday. I can't wait, so I can finally get my room just as I really want it. Tidy!! Well tidyish! It is the Virgo in me!

Thanks for stopping by.
Luv,
Carol S. xx

Sort of Fusion!!

Hi everyone,

I can't believe I am saying this - is it ever going to rain?!! I sowed an area in my garden with wild flower seeds. Even though I watered every couple of days, nothing has appeared yet after nearly 4 weeks.

I noticed yesterday that Blogger have now installed the posting they removed. Now it is on twice as I had reinstalled it. Grrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my first attempt of painting without stamps or even drawing an outline, for many, many years. Straight in without a safety net!! Just acrylic paint on my brush. I used the 'Fusion wiggles' with the brush and a bit of 'make it up as you go along technique'. Twenty minutes later, finished project.

With normal painting with Distress inks or even water colours paints, it would take hours to get the shading in each petal. You certainly would not get the texture, as the white areas are quite raised. I have put it in a frame and it will go up for sale on my charity stall. I did think of keeping it as it is my first one.

Let me know what you think of it and should I keep it!LOL!

Thanks for stopping by.

Luv,

Carol S.xx

A Bit More 'Fusion'!!

Hi Everyone,

Well as I said, I have 'Fusioned' my old garden table. It started off as a badly water marked, dark brown, very yukky, teak table.

Now we have a very usable, pretty table. I have bought some outside clear varnish today, so I hope it will not alter too much, the light finish or the detail in the flowers.

I think it was well worth the effort of all the painting and sitting in the garage for 4 days! I will now have to make some matching coasters. Can't have people putting their glasses on my Daisies!!Lol!Have you noticed, not a dot of Distress Ink or Stickles to be seen!!!

Even my husband is pleased that he didn't take the table to the tip!
I am now looking around to see what else I can find to Fusion! My husband won't sit still long enough!!

Adding at later date.... Photos of this table were shown 2 days running, on Create and Craft TV.

Thank you for stopping by and please come back soon.

Luv,

Carol S.xx