Twiggy Wreaths

More wreaths. My OH brought me a whole bunch of twigs... a bundle of them from Poundland. You will never guess how much they cost!

    With help from grandaughter Amber and a glue gun, twigs, raffia and silk flowers plus decorated wooden hearts we had a Blue Peter Session.

 

They were quite fiddly until I got the

hang of it but I'm inspired and hope to make some more.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge.

The first reader to guess correctly how much the twigs cost from Poundland will get a twiggy wreath of their choice... only joking! he he

2016 - 17 and counting

Craft stall at Tanfield

Gosh its almost a year since my last blog...so what have I been up to? Its hard to say so I really should recap on achievements me thinks. I will ignore any unsurmountable challenges. They just make me huffy anyway 😉

 

 

I've really got into colouring for grown ups, as have half the population. My first attempts were postcards by Johanna Basford. They just about wrecked my eyesight but overall they were very enjoyable and they have been distributed amongst family and friends.

                          

Inspired and supported by my local U3A group I did some line drawings and coloured them with mixed media. I so enjoy using a water brush with water colour pencils and pastels and I mixed these with coloured pencils too. Painting birds was rewarding and a subject I would like to come back to.

      

      

 Lots of candles were decorated with pressed flowers and boxes were deco-patched, cards of all types made and Christmas cards were recycled and in the middle of all this I was able to start a church group for creative women. There's lots I have to be thankful for in 2016. I really didn't think I had done so much. I'm hoping there will be much more in 2017.

Fridge Magnet Challenge

Well I landed myself in it. My mouth running away with itself. I only suggested a challenge with other crafty peeps and here I am in the thick of it ... and enjoying it too.

With the crafty peeps at Be Crafty @ the Arches in mind I have laid down the gauntlet and with new crafty peeps in mind I thought I might set out step by step instructions. They are not just for Be Crafties. Anyone can copy them and download if they want to. Just give me a like on my florafinity fb page and I'll be happy.

There are lots of ideas on the internet. Just search for fridge magnets and you will get zillions of pictures to inspire you. I was inspired by the vintage look which is so trendy right now. I tend to pick up bits and pieces of craft elements at places like The Works or The Range or Home Bargains at very reasonable prices and I add them to my craft stash. So the first thing I did for this project was to grab items to play with and bring my fridge magnet idea together.

I chose to make a framed quote and decorate it with vintage style embellishments. 

I used:

Mount board for the backing, though strong stiff card would do

A pretty little vintage style chipboard frame from my stash

Rub-on transfer for my chosen quote

Chipboard butterfly which I outlined and dotted with silver pen

Three (the magic number) of tiny paper roses.

Tacky glue

Self adhesive magnet sticker for the back.

Using the frame as a guide I measured out a rectangle of mount board to cut out 

  

and then dry assembled it all with embellishments on top so I could decide where best to position my quote. 

Rubbing on the transfer was so easy 

and I was then able to glue it all together.

Voila! I have a new magnet for my fridge and so easy peasy to make. 

Are you going to take up the challenge?... I hope so... have fun!

candle pebbles decorated with pressed flowers

My blogs are so scarce these days, I hope I have some readers left. 

Sitting here waiting for my alendronic acid tablet to go down. I have to wait sitting upright for half an hour. Hence I thought I would compose a short blog...good idea! 

I'm currently de-cluttering my craft room. I seem to spend half my life de-cluttering...I can't believe all the stuff I've squirrelled away over the years. I did manage to frame a lot of my pictures and they are now hanging in a gallery hoping to be sold. I should have taken a photo...maybe on my next visit. I get lots of ideas and inspiration flows when I am sorting through my stash but I'm being as disciplined as I can be and determined to concentrate on fewer crafts in the future instead of wishful thinking lots of various ones.

Well, its time up and I can move now, so I will just find a picture and get on with the rest of my day. Thanks for calling by.

Playing at the kitchen table

Yesterday was special because it was my Mother's birthday and although she is no longer with us I think she must have been in spirit because she would have loved yesterday's play time.  Two of the grandies and Aunty Teresa all turned their hand in making flower wreaths, though not all at the same time I'm glad to say. C treatment doesn't allow for too much fuss all at once. Non of it was planned. It just seemed to evolve and before we knew it we were sharing an old family custom of creating wreaths and chatting at the kitchen table. My Trotter forebears would have all been familiar with this custom, albeit, their wreaths were the earthy plant type. Four of the wreaths shown above are now hanging from the door handles on my landing at the top of the stairs. It brightens the place up a bit. Aunty T's wreath is now hanging on her kitchen wall.

What birthday would be complete without handmade cake? 

At the beginning of the week I had made my very first carrot cake. The recipe was given to me by my niece Cheryle from an Asda magazine and it proved to be an enormous success. The recipe was for a double layer cake but I made just a single layer as I didn't want any to get wasted but I wish I had made two layers now, because it was so delicious. Even my husband who claims not to like carrot cake came back for seconds. Being gluten free and also lactose free meant it was suitable for all the family and I will certainly be making it again.

Home baked gluten free cakes and pastries are far better than anything I've eaten that is shop bought. It has taken a while to get the hang of gluten free baking but I'm getting there and well worth the effort. 

I'm looking forward to my next gluten free challenge.

Phew! that's a lot of greetings cards

I've been working hard this last two weeks putting together bundles of cards for fundraising. I'm so glad to be able to do it and if it helps Charlie Bear, the Church Roof and Cancer Connections in their good works then I will be a happy bunny.

I'm using up lots of craft stash that has been in storage for too long and also of course my laptop and printer that I couldn't do without. The cards are mostly prints of my own pressed flower artwork with some embellishments added. To add a bit of interest I've also included faded images on the card inserts.

It was fun making the mini cards. At only 4 x 4 inches they were fiddly and surprisingly time consuming but I think worth it. The tiny floral images are my own and they are layered on top of background paper cut to size  and a bit of glitter, gel pen and peel offs added to finish them off. They also have a decorative insert and a short message.

I owe my life to good surgeons, cancer specialists, my faith and the support I got from many wonderful people. The least I can do is give a little bit back and if I can encourage others to do the same then its all worth while.

Summer in Chains

I haven't done much in the way of creativity this last week but I did find a fossil lurking in my witches cauldron. The cauldron has had no attention for years but due to a kitchen re-vamp the cauldron was unearthed and you won't believe what I found inside. Last year's summer covered in cobwebs and tied down in chains. Before it got a clean up I thought I would take a photo 'cos I thought it looked quite arty and then I did a bit of digi manipulation and came up with the above image. I like it!


I've had a busy weekend...well busy for me! Still recovering and still on treatment but it was good to have visitors and I'm so thankful for young Marton our friend from Hungary who assembled some additional new kitchen units for us. John and I have a larder cupboard each now to house our hobby stuff. In my case its largely baking equipment and in John's case its his home brew stuff. I have my art and craft stuff in the spare bedroom and John has all his other stuff in the garage, garden, shed, greenhouses and loft. What a hoarder he is!

I still love playing with my mini cupcake maker and made some minis for breakfast. The butter cream is actually made with olive spread, not butter, so its nice and healthy and tastes nicer too. Each one an individual luscious mouthful and so quick and easy to make...smile!

Think I will make a card with my summer in chains image and show it next week... Bye for now.

Re-cycling Christmas cards

Two blogs in one day. My goodness, things are looking up! It goes to prove how creative I've been over the last week. Something that I have sadly lacked for too long. Its good to have my mojo back.

Christmas might be the last thing on people's minds right now but I couldn't help playing with last year's Christmas cards and re-cycling them. I have some mount board scraps that I squirrelled away several years back just in case they came in handy one day and I guess that day, or week or month has arrived. Time certainly slips away when you're having fun.

An ever breeding collection of cut outs from used Christmas cards, glitter glue, ribbon, peel offs, flowers and embellishments and my trusted glue gun and more took over the dining table like some rampant alien species until I was left with a six inch space to work on, so then I removed myself to the kitchen breakfast bar for more space. Crafter readers will know what I'm talking about at this stage and I'm sure there will be a smile and giggle or two.

My idea was to decorate mount board making them into plaques supported on plastic stands...the type that small plates are displayed on. My first effort took me absolutely ages but as I progressed each one got easier to make. The only trouble is I have run out of plastic stands and I can't remember where I bought them many moons ago. So now, my dining table is clear again, at least until I find more stands.





Maybe I will be able to raise a bit of money for worthy causes, next Christmas.

This one is my favourite.

sometimes less is more

I love the multi layered cards that some people make and the swirls and embellishments that seem to go on forever. One day I will try my hand at such masterpieces but for now I'm just glad I was able to motivate myself into creating some pressed flower designs and transformed them into 'any occasion' cards or note-lets.

An American friend of mine sent me some lovely pressed flowers when I was ill and I was thrilled to eventually get to use them over the last few days and create something special. Amongst the assortment Barbara sent me were Roses, Hydrangeas and Love in a Mist. I made very simple designs with them adding a few pieces of my own pressed items too. They scanned well and I played with the images adding text and created some 5 x 5 inch cards with them. They are very simple cards with no message inside but sometimes I think just one word coupled with a pretty image is enough and can speak volumes.

This is the first run of these particular cards and although they are perfectly OK as they are I have to admit (I am my own worst critic), that they could have printed better. The next run will be using a superior card and hopefully one that my printer likes! I'm sorry the close up images shown here are a bit out of focus but that's because my hands aren't too steady. I should have a little tripod somewhere, errrmmmmm, where's that gone!

I said they were something special and so they are! I recently joined an organisation called  Cancer Connections, whose headquarters are in a bungalow in a neighbouring town and I was delighted to find two boxes in the lounge - one for men and one for women. The boxes are for giving and taking out little surprise gifts for members. Just something to cheer up their day. I thought how much I would like to give something in support of this wonderful charity and decided to donate some special cards. Nothing elaborate or fancy, just something small and simple that might be appreciated. I hope they will be well received.

Its been ages and ages since I wrote a blog post. That's probably down to me getting the diagnosis everyone dreads. My grandson was diagnosed with cancer shortly before I was but he had his operation not long afterwards and so far he is recovering well. I am on treatment to shrink my tumour and it may be early 2013 before I get my operation. Its a long and depressing wait. I hate it, I hate it with a passion. Its a parasitic squatter and has no right to make its home in me. Can't wait to get it evicted. That rant over, lets get down to craft and creativity.

I was lucky to get two orders last week. They came out of the blue and an offer of stand space to fill with my cards in a local party shop. I had some note cards in my stash so I bundled three at a time and wrapped them in raffia ribbon with a little tag. I had some singles left over too and they all went onto my new stand. I'm delighted to say the least and I'm planning on making lots more cards to fill up the stand.

The two orders I got were for a new pet grooming business being launched and a pearl wedding invitation. I felt a bit rusty but gave it a go and came up with these.

I used a scalloped card blank and added freebie backing paper edged with line peel offs, A doggy image I've had for so long I can't remember where I got it from and added line peel offs to the inside border. I think that worked quite effectively ! The sentiments are Anita's die cut messages and tags from The Range and I finished off with some peel off scrolls. I included an insert with an apt message but can't remember what it was now...oh dear!

This one was for a pearl wedding anniversary. I knew nothing about the couple other than their names. I just hope they like the card. 
I made an A5 blank card out of Stardream from Joanna Sheen and trimmed the front by about 5 cms so that the pattern on the inside of the card could be seen and to make it just a little bit different.

The image is a photo I took in my own garden and cropped to show a perfect rose. I personalised it digitally and gave it an embossed frame. I think this works well as there is no need for matting....saving on card there! The ribbon effect which is down the centre of the card is freebie backing paper which I tore to make a strip. The tear showed its white core edge but I didn't like it so coloured the edges with pastel and I think it works better. I finished the front off with pearl hearts and a sentiment.



This is the inside of the card. I printed off a much lighter and magnified version of the rose image and typed in a verse from i-magination. Trimmed it to fit the same width as the card front and added a strip of the same backing paper as on the front of the card and a border of gold hearts on an ivory background. I then finished off with a big thirty peel off.

 

I left them at the shop for my customer to pick up so haven't had feedback directly but I'm told my customer was pleased. I'm going to get my tea now as all this blogging has made me hungry :)

Mixed media collage

I just couldn't let another day go by without doing something creative so I shut my eyes to household chores that I had no will to do anyway and focused instead on my box of pressed flowers and leaves. 
Hiding myself away in my craft room and listening to classic fm made the perfect environment  for artistic play. 


I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do. I have sheets of handmade papers collected over the years (I had a passion for papers at one time) and so I unrolled them all and marvelled again at their diversity then selected some sloshy handmade lokta paper in greens and browns and some white mulberry paper to layer on top.


I spray glued the layers down onto a 10 x 8" matting board to create a background and then opened up my box of pressed botanical treasure. Layer upon layer of pressed flowers and leaves collected over the years and stored in a cardboard box with silicon packets to keep them dry. Normally I would take great pain to select specific flowers and leaves, going through every layer in the box before being content with my palette. This time I broke with tradition and chose from just the first few layers, otherwise it would have taken me all day. All the plant material is from my own garden except the yellow petals which were kindly sent to me from Italy by fellow pressed flower artist Sylvia Barsotti.


Arranging the flowers and leaves onto the collage was quite easy but gluing them down was a bit tricky at times. Finally it was finished and I am happy with it, especially the sky effect produced by white mulberry paper on sloshy lokta. 


After scanning the original I searched for a suitable verse to layer on top of the scanned image and decided on the Serenity prayer. The image is now printed off and waiting to be framed and the original will go into storage. I decided to print off more images at 5 x 7" for card making. These images have no verse but can have a verse or a greeting added as an embellishment like the one shown here.

The scan could be better but its a good indication of how an image can be used in different ways. I will probably play around with it digitally, creating different effects over the coming days. It will be fun!


Hope you like :)