CATCH UP

Well you will never guess after all the worry of growing 2 heads when hitting 40 guess what nothing happened LOL, we had a few lovely days away in Oxford its such a lovely place with the mix of new and old we visited a few museums  one being the Ashmolean museum here's a few pics aint that little piggie pot the cutest and i would love to have that mask. It's amazing how all this stuff has survived after  many hundreds   of years don't you think. I took loads of pics but i wont bore you with them  all.

 We also visited Bicester  shopping village its one of those designer outlet places where you get things cheaper talk about ££££££££ being spent. how the other half  live, mind you my lovely son bought me a hand bag from the Radley shop bless im soooooooooooo chuffed he went and qued up  to buy it for me not cool for a 14 yr old boy to be in a ladies handbag shop LOL im gonna treasure it for ever.

Been busy making a few bracelets for peeps so that's something, hoping to get back into arty crafty bloggie stuff soon  have a good weekend .everyone

This and That

well D day is nearly here i will be hitting the big 40 tomorrow, I have been dreading hitting 40 i dont know why they say life Begins at 40  Yeah right show me the proof LOL, i don't know if I'm expecting to grow another head over night or what just been dreading it, moving on from dwelling about growing extra body parts and fear and dread LOL

MY lovely Hubbie bought me a new soldering iron and also a gas  soldering iron plus some silver solder for my Birthday but i got those a few weeks ago, my sister and her hubby have brought me a new dremel with a drill press and flex shaft woohoo cant wait to get stuck into that.

The ebay auction went ok i sold 2 out of the 4  painting that i listed so that was Excellent thanks to everyone who commented and emailed about selling and giving me the push to have ago.

Been busy making some bracelet's and bits and bobs will post them soon if family don't keep pinching them LOL before i get to take a pic.

I know its only Thursday but have a good weekend  everyone ..

COPPER BRACELET

Made this the other day kinda pleased with how it turned out fits nicely on my wrist just need to practice on getting everything the same mind you that's the beauty of something that's hand made its not all the same like it would be if it was churned out on a machine so everything is unique.

I really love the look of copper and its very in at the moment  going to have a go and make it in silver to and maybe a matching necklace and earrings or do a combination of the copper and silver together that looks really cool.

I really have gone and done it now

Nope I'm not kidding you, I have, I really have gone and listed some of my paintings on ebay after yesterday i thought what the hell what is there to loose  can always give peeps there money back if there not happy with what they have bought cant I, so I went and done it, I'm panicking over it mind  and GUESS WHAT I have a BID on one of them YIKES  so keep ya fingers crossed for me .

This is my ebay profile if you want to pop on over and take a lookie i kept the listings simple for now here's the link to my ebay.

Thanks so much to everyone that has given me the push to do this and thanks for the emails of support to.

Yikes i did it well kind off

OK so i didn't do what i said i was gonna do, I downloaded Turbo Lister from ebay to list my items for sale and bottled out  fear hit me  big time what if it goes wrong what if they hate what they have bought i just couldn't do it.

 so in a moment of madness i opened an Etsy store i thought maybe no one would see me lol so could get used to the idea of listing things for sale so there you have it I'm on Etsy I hope I worked out the currency right i ?  will be listing more on there today, I'm going to give it the urm 3 months and see how it goes then try ebay  or should i just go to ebay Yikes im still in a pickle over all this.............................. Etsy, ebay, Artfire yikes yikes yikes

THANK YOU

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone how answered the previous post.

I think i will set up a shop on ebay as I'm familiar with ebay, have only bought from ETSY the once and seeing as that place is full of amazing stuff i would have a right fight on my hands to sell anything before i even got tarted LOL.

 Will see how things go i might just end up saying this is for sale if your interested , but saying that i now know some people might not like to buy personally and buying from ebay or where ever gives you that bit of privacy if you know what i mean. I'll let you know when i have the shop up and running Thanks again to you all

I NEED YOUR HELP WHAT DO YOU THINK HONESTLY

Ok this is why i need your help and anvice, I have been thinking about selling some of the things i make, well thats not entirley true my son and hubbie say i should as they know i enjoy my Art and Craft making and they say if i sell a few bits  the money will help keep me in supplies  which is true and i can keep doing what i love.

So here's the thing i want you to be honest about this im a big girl i cant handle it are the thing i  make worth selling im soooooooooooo not sure they are  WHAT DO YOU THINK BE HONEST, im not confident about it  also if i did where should i sell them ETSY OR ARTFIRE which is best? i know many of you have these shops so i would be grateful if you could tell me what you think of them.
I'm not going to be charging (that's if i do sell ) big prices just enough to cover the cost of supplies and time is this how i should work out prices or is there other things to think about.

I just don't know what to do please offer me some advice leave a comment or email me if you prefer  email addy is in the side bar.

As I'm writing this I'm thinking am i doing the right thing  asking for honest opinions LOL i think so that's the only way I'm gonna get this sorted one way or another ain't it fingers crossed

soldered pendent #2

This is my 2nd attempt at soldering a pendent i used a flat tip on the soldering iron which made it much easier as you can really load the solder on. I used some more of my own cut up Art work on the pendent which i glued on the the back with glossy accents and the pendent its self is a large glass pebble.

After i finished the soldering i used a metal file on the edges its brought it up to a nice  shine making it look more metal that solder if you know what i meen  , so all in all im pleased  with how this one turned out.

Been at it again Soldered Book Mark

This is a soldered book mark i made the glass pebble on top  is made the same way as i made the pendent  . The image is from Crafty Individuals i glued the image on the back with Rangers glossy accents, when dry i put copper foil tape round the egdes and on the back and soldered it, once the pebble was complete i soldered it on to a huge paper clip, and it works a treat.

 Im pleased with how it turned out now im going to have to find some more of those huge paper clips this clip was in a christmas gift i receieved a couple of years ago from an on line friend and i hung on to thinking it will come in handy and it sure did.

wire and bead necklace

This is my first attempt  at a necklace i used a crochet hook and basically did chains with a 26 gauge wire  adding the beads as i went along  (I threaded the beads on the wire before i started).

 when i started i had full intentions of making each loop even and pretty but as i did the first few loops i didn't like the nice neat look,  that's a total lie in fact i couldn't get the tension right  LOL but i do actually like the uneven look so just did small loops big loops and went from there.

I made 2 strands with 15 beads on each strand when they were done i simply twisted them together  and added a  clasp and that's it, i also made a bracelet to match  but i need to get a clasp for it, its the same as the bracelet  but shorter  still with 15 beads on each strand.

The beads look a bit squiffy in the pic i will have to straighten them up

Its not perfect by any means but looks ok on so that's a good start LOL.

CLAY PENDENT

I made this clay pendent using air dry clay, studio texture makers mat (spring morning)

red acrylic paint, studio antiquing medium, gold gilt cream.
I will varnish it at some point to make it harder but it should be ok as is.

Tag Tuesday Challenge # 54 Music

The theme for Tag Tuesday this week is Music.

12x12 MODERN FLOWER PAINTING

This is another flower painting (other painting here) except this one has been done on

a 12"x 12" boxed canvas, same mediums as befor acrylic paint, and charcoal.

SOLDERED PENDENT

This was my first attempt at soldering its a bit dodge but okish i need more practice them soldering irons are hot you know and very scary LOL.

I used a large oval glass pebble you know the kind that you can buy to put in vases, I glued my own art work to the back using glossy assents, wrapped copper tape around the edge and then added the solder, when done i added some felt to the back.



I kinda like the look of it except for the soldering i found it hard to get it smoothed out by the time I got half way round i ran out of solder so had to start from where i left off and that's where it goes wrong. so if any of you have any HINTS and TIPS about soldering i would be really greatful for your help.

I used the Black and Decker craft tool which has soldering tips knife etc, and the solder goes on the tip of the tool i have just bought a new soldering iron and this is so different the solder beads and you have to get it to drop off before you can smooth it, oh and this ones way hot burnt myself twice and i only used it for a couple of minutes to try it LOL.

Tag Tuesday challenge #53

This week's challenge for Tag Tuesday is doodling , I kept mine really simple I stamped the image of the couple the stamp is just the top half's of them, then did some simple doodling (zentangle style) keeping to the black and white colour

MODERN FLOWER PAINTING

This is a 16" x 16" deep edged canvas I used acrylic paint and charcoal. I used the paint to add some texture to the petals

Tag Tuesday challenge #52

This week on Louise's Tag Tuesday challenge the theme is to use the Numbers 5 & 2 as its the 52nd challenge making it 1 year old, congrats to Louise for Tag Tuesdays Birthday, I have only just recently started joining in with the challenges but look forward to doing them when i can.



so here's my Tag

Tag Tuesday challenge #50

The Tag Tuesday challenge this week is Ticket.

As soon as i read the word Ticket the Beatles song Ticket to ride (I think thats the title of it )popped into my head so here's my tag ... She's got a ticket to ride and she don't care LOL.

Stamps used are from The Artistic stmper (lady) and paper Artsy (back ground ticket)

stamped textural painting.... mixed media

Another experiment for this one i used a canvas, builders caulk and stamps and found objects as in bottle tops etc.


I covered the canvas in caulk sprayed the stamps with water its better to do this as they get stuck in the caulk other wise, (that's the first mistake i made LOL )

where was i oh yeah i pressed stamps in to the caulk, did this all over randomly when the caulk was dry i swooshed paint all over and wiped some back did this in layers dried the first and then added a couple more colours, it ended up quite dark with almost an old metal feel to it. might add a few coats of light paint to it or play some more with it I'm not sure.

Again a rubbish photo one day i will make some thing that i can photograph properly

some close ups

The Altered Element shop

I have just discovered this fantastic shop and thought i had better let you all in on my big discovery, Its called the Altered element, you can find it HERE it sells pretty much everything and also everything i didn't know existed and have now got to have. (I think its made my mojo open one eye and take a peep and think about returning that's how good it is)

I placed a small order yesterday i think i could easily spend hundreds in this shop nah probably thousands LOL there's just so much interesting stuff in there it caters for mixed media, altered art , creative textiles, stamping, collage,and loads of other stuff.

I bet I'm actually the last person on earth to know about this shop go on tell me you have known about it for ages go on say it lol.

I cant wait for my order to arrive there's a few things in there that i haven't played with before and I'm itching to see what they do and how they work.

Have a good weekend and pop over to that shop its good i promise ;-)

SEA GLASS Experiment

I was looking in my tin of collected sea glass and thought i must do something with it, any way i had a play and come up with this kinda reminds me of the Mediterranean and alfresco dining lol i can dream.

I used MDF board which is approx 18"x 11" some filler from a tube, sea glass and acrylic paint.

I cant seem to get a decent photo though the colours are much better in real life

some close up's

Tag Tuesday challenge # 48

The Tag Tuesday challenge this week is to recycle, repurpose or reuse something in your tag. You can create the tag from a recycled package as I did or simply make an embellishment for your tag from something that's repurposed.

For my tag this week i went for a vintage style, I used a paper bag for the background that i kept because it was begging to be used at some point for something (the images are printed on the paper bag), the Handel at the bottom is from an old jewellery box which i screwed in to the chip tag, the knob at the top of the tag is also from an old jewellery box.
The believe sign was in my stash so i twisted some wire through i and fixed it to the knob and just inked the edges of the tag
I hope this fits in with Louise's challenge

The Artistic Mother By shona Cole

Its here The Artistic Mother.....A practical Guide for fitting in creativity into your life by Shona Cole.

I have only had time to have a flick through it did only arrive yesterday , but its full of eye candy and there also a 12 week project section. which I'm so looking forward to doing my mojo has been lacking big time its not that i don't want to create but there just don't seem to be anything there if you know what i mean the intentions there but the ideas ain't so I'm hoping this book will give my creative mojo a big kick up the bum.

Tag Tuesday challenge

The challenge this week for Tag Tuesday is to use a quote or word that you find inspiring,

so I chose this quote which i think is just lovely. (LOVE..... can not be seen or heard rather it must be felt......)

papers used are from K&co and the quote stamp is from personal impressions

Buddha painting (mixed media in progress)

Did this Buddha painting a few days ago. I used Bird grit for the texture and acrylic paint, its not quite finished yet I'm trying to get hold of some resin which i want to pore over the top to hopeful give it a glass like finish i'd like it to be about 1/2 in think, but we'll see i will probably muck about with it some more and it will end up completely different.

Altered dominos

I'm taking part in a domino swap on Aunty's forum and i have altered 3 dominos kinda gone for the distressed grunge look, I used my stampin up stamps that i bought from Julie alcohol inks and gold gilt cream

I look Journal page

I have know idea what i was doing with this page i just added an old page from a book stamped on it, doodled, slapped paint, water colour crayons and ink on there. I really wanted to use the image on the top right so just went with it.

Another paverpol figure Zuzu the Africian Lady

This is Zuzu the Africian lady made form paverpol shes made the same as the others, (wire armature, cloth and fibres) , i dipped fibres in the paverpol to make her basket, and painted her nice and bright.

wheres the birdie

A while ago i took one of Marie's from evbstudioHome mini shop clay classes for Birds, Marie does a new mini shop on the first Saturday of the month, classes are only $10 and are really fun.


Here's one of the little birds i made they look really sweet sitting in a plant pot or on a shelf.

Another Paverpol Garden Statue Meet Steffen

Following the previous post on paverpol Here here's another figure i have made this time a boy called steffen. He's about 20" tall

I think he looks quite dashing standing in the lavender plant LOL again i painted him for a bronzed look .

Paverpol Garden statues meet Emmie

Last year i made some statues made with paverpol ( A textile hardener ) these can be put in the Garden as the paverpol makes them frost & weather proof.



You start by making a wire armature (I used Garden wire) cover that with tin foil to bulk it up then wrap masking or florist tape around it.Then you cut fabric in to strips (i used an old black cotton T-shirt) dip the strips in the paverpol and wrap the strips of cloth around the armature to make the body, then you basically drape and layer the material on top to make the clothes.



They look great amongst the plants in the garden




This is Emmie i went for a bronze look by adding bronze and gold paint to her

A little bit of Folk Art I think ?

I bought this little foot stool a while ago in a charity shop for £1.50 it was just plain wood so i thought i would funk it up a little bit. I'm saying folk art but i don't know what to call it
kinda pink Huh? LOL

Crafting with Julie

Today i went to Julies and we made cards, we haven't crafted together for such a long time like years.


It made such a lovely change I cant believe I made wait for it 3 cards, I have to be honest I haven't made a card in ages and they arnt my fave things to do as I just get in a big flap when i do them LOL.
But i enjoyed having some one to craft with, made a lovely change, plus i used all Julie's stash and didn't have to clean up the mess after. THANKS JULIE FOR A LOVELY DAY.


Here are the cards i made.

Look What i won ..Cleopatra Palace Hotel

Take a look at this gorgeous collaged tile i won from serena's blog give away at the beginning of January. I love it so much Thanks Serena :-)

If you have some time pop over to serenas blog and take a look at her fabulous work






I haven't posted since before Christmas as i have been so busy decorating the hall and lounge and just the usual real life stuff getting in the way.

Don't you just hate it when life gets in the way of crafting i so want to get back in to it again but don't you find when you take a break from it your mojo leaves home and you just cant get going again.

Anyways i hope to be back to blogging and crafting soon and if any of you see a stray mojo on your travels please send it to me ;-)