Metal Madness

A while ago my blogging buddy Patty posted about altering some cutlery here. I decided to put in a bit of practice for our next QB5 junk swap and had a go! I wasn't entirely successful but nevertheless it was great fun! The first problem I encountered was with the hammer, I used one with a small head which effectively dented the spoon rather than flattening it, and once the dents were in they were quite difficult to remove.

I managed to hammer several letters upside down and I'd planned to write 'Respect the artist and her heart' and glue on some metal rusted hearts but ended up with 'Respect the artist and her soul' as by the time I'd hammered my way around the spoon I only had space left for a four letter word!

I wired a crown to the handle as I thought my gal needed a bit of fancy headgear and it covers up the letter 'T' which is both in the wrong place and upside down! As a hidden bonus it now makes a wonderful sound against the spoon! ah...the joy of mistakes!

Living the dream

Every now and then I have a bit of an AliceandCamilla moment, and last night was one such time. I took myself off to bed, intending to stitch a little loveliness by lamplight in the calm of the evening, ah the romance of it all, or not, as the case may be... The first time I got out of bed was to get a piece of fabric having decided why settle for a bird on a nest when a heart would be something a bit different, my second reccie was for the button tin because of course I needed a choice of more than the couple I'd taken with me, and the third was to gather some thread as the colours I'd chosen for the bird were no longer right for the heart. By the time I got back into bed the fourth time, I realised I'd lost the needle having absentmindedly looped it through the duvet on my previous trip out...

and the moral of the story? well two actually, if you want to try living the dream then at least put your slippers on (got very cold feet) or alternatively (prefer this one) just be who you are and be happy! Enjoy your Thursday!

Oz post

I recently did an ATC swap with Jen in Australia, we agreed to exchange a Swiss Miss for hint of Oz! I love Jen's first card, a fab collage of her homeland!

This little guy was a complete surprise when he jumped out of the envelope! superb image and the colours are wonderfully rich.

We also filled our evelopes with assorted papers and cards from our own country

Jen included this lovely piece of flocked card from an Australian company called Kaiser, superb!

Thanks so much for swapping with me Jen, I love all my goodies!

Bothersome box

Last weekend was the annual 'Bring and Hol' day where you dump all your old stuff for free and pick up anything that takes your fancy. I've been on the look out for a 'Setzkasten' for a while, they're very popular here to hang and keep ornaments in. My luck was in (or so I thought) as I brought this one home.

I painted it, and painted it and painted it again and then I painted it and oh, did I mention? I painted it and painted it again! honestly the wood was such poor quality that I may as well have been painting the bathroom sponge! just a tad absorbent, even after assorted painterly products! Now I know why the guy at the Bring and Hol was telling his friend NOT to take the box! and here was me thinking you just have to know what to do with these things, nothing that a bit of TLC won't fix...

I gave up trying to paint the back of it and settled for covering it with sheet music which took on a nice tint when the wood came in contact with the Gel Medium! saved myself the expense of walnut ink, ha! the paper also covered up the splinters!

Anyway, now it's up on the wall I'm delighted! I was going to scrap the individual squares but I've decided to leave them plain and let the ATC's and matchboxes do the talking, just the perfect place for my tiny treasures!

Pearls for Patty

As I think I've mentioned before hand stitching isn't a strong point of mine and as luck would have it the latest QB5 Round Robin is a stitchery! hmmm... oh dear... well never mind...

and if you happen to be thinking it doesn't look that bad then let me just say you haven't seen the masterpieces the rest of the group have created! they were born to stitch, all of them, and stitch they have! oh dear... (again) well never mind...(again)

Dress Up September, Part 2!

As I said earlier I've had a few problems this month with posting, and I've just realised that even though Dress Up - September (below) published yesterday it doesn't actually appear on any blog lists. I was wondering why it was all so quiet! Anyway, please accept my apologies for the blip, I can't explain why as I don't know myself but please go ahead and add you links as usual then sit back and enjoy the fashion show!

Dress Up - September

Welcome to Dress Up in September!

This month I had so many ideas although very few of them actually saw any action!

Since making my Asian journal in Carole's online class, I've been on the look out for variations on this theme and I eventually decided on a dress with a hint of the Far East.

I like the gentler colours and of course I went with my favourite blue/greens. I don't tend to use a lot of pink in my work but I love this combination.

I started by attaching a backing paper and added paint, netting and scraps. I couldn't resist a little beady eye for each fish!

I glued on a tree cut from a paper serviette then added some gathered ribbon flowers with a bead centre.

I was recently asked about the wardrobes and if we're going to feature them at any stage, so... my challenge is this, try to have your wardrobe or box completed in time to post a picture with your November dress (you have two months!) if we leave it any longer than that then they'll never get done! well, mine certainly won't! Once again a super special thank you to all of you still playing along, nine dresses and counting!! superb!