Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog and thank you for visiting today, I hope you will stay a while. Slide shows are at the bottom of this page. Follow my blog with Bloglovin


Sunday 31 March 2013

Quirky sketch or not!

My visitors have all gone now and apart from demands to help hold bits of wood as Shaun makes a frame for the extra strong net we are getting to Kenny Proof the pond I was able to get on with these examples for today's Quirky Crafts Challenge.
The challenge is a sketch by Spyder Lyn using as many items from the bingo grid as you can, or just use the bingo grid with no sketch (amended, I got it slightly wrong before). 




Belinda Bunny is one of the images kindly provided to the DT by Robyn's Fetish, one of our two sponsors. I coloured her with Promrakers and a Flex marker, cut her out with Nestabilities and used a Hero Arts sentiment. For this card I followed the sketch, used die cutting, baker's twine, real sewing and heat embossing from Lyn's grid.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything goes.
I love Promarkers - Spring is in the air (Wednesdays)
Passion for Promarkers - Bingo - I used die cut, glitter (on paper and in embossing powder) and "free".
Simon Says challenge blog - Anything goes closes soon.

This image is called Mrs Turner and Hootch, and I didn't follow the sketch. The image is coloured with Promarkers and a Flexmarker (I only have one), then I die cut it, used ribbon, embossed the pink background with an embossing folder, added Hero Arts stamped tickets die cut with a Tim Holtz Sizzlet die and added metal staples with the Fastenator.

Saturday 30 March 2013

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - P for Papillion

 I thought I was going to miss the challenge this time, but here I am just in time! The Craft Barn set P as the letter this time, and I picked Papillion meaning Butterflies. I had the perfect set which is unbranded and in a tin, and contains stamps of butterflies like collection specimens. I added in a couple of other stamps too. That brown streak on the butterfly page doesn't look too good now, it is meant to be a dark stain but didn't really work!
Thursday I went to a wedding so spent the whole week panicking about, and sorting out my outfit. Then my son and daughter in law and baby grandson arrived for a couple of days, the day after the wedding of Erika and Hon Tao that we all attended. It was a really lovely wedding, gorgeous venue and food, and the bride was truly stunning in a beautiful dress. Ermm I forgot my camera, the last thing I took was the wedding card below then I forgot to take the camera with me duh! I took a few pics on the phone but they aren't too good.
Anyway we ended up doing a roast lunch today because the visitors won't be here tomorrow, and inviting my parents and mother in law over, so there were nine for lunch, 10 with little Kenny! That was more than at Christmas however the boys did most of the work so it was pretty stress free.
Well I better get on and enter the Alpha challenge before it is too late.

Thursday 28 March 2013

Double Happiness


Today we went to a wedding, it was a lovely day, the bride was beautiful, the venue was beautiful and the food was amazing. Even the band weren't bad.
I spent the last few days panicking about my outfit as usual, and then taking up hems on some silk trousers that were part of an outfit I already had (after spending an evening trying on clothes in M&S and buying some, I got Shaun to take photos of me in the skirt with different tops then my existing outfit and had to agree the existing one looked the nicest for a wedding, but the trousers were much too long).
Then I remembered the card, I hadn't made one! I was up until 1:30am this morning hemming the trousers and the lining, so I left the card until this morning before I got ready to go! I made a hexagonal shaped card with my Nestabilities dies in gold, added a red plain hexagon, then a teal frame (which looks blue here) and die cut a square then punched it with the Double Happiness punch using gold card. Finally I added two teal butterflies using a La La butterfly corner die that I won - I think it was from Oyster crafts. The glue is still went in the photo, I hope they stayed stuck on the card! I had to change the background in PSE, becuase the card didn't show up with pale gold on a white background!


Wednesday 27 March 2013

Baby boys

Well here it is, better late than never! This is my other example for the Quirky Crafts All About Boys challenge. I used a cutting file and image files from our sponsor The Cutting Cafe. I cut the pages in blue and red, then the letters in polkadot denim paper, added some shrink plastic images from All About Boys, and the sentiment. I added buttons, ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, and baby white ric rac. Finally I added some dummies from stash.


Inside is decorated too, I can add more to this page, but it cannot be wider than the Baby blocks or it will show though the A.
The Y page has a little more width to decorate, again I can add to this and decorate the A page a tiny bit.

You have until Saturday midday to enter the challenge.

I have entered this in:
 the Crafty Ribbons Inspirations Challenge - anything goes with ribbon.


Sunday 24 March 2013

My brother's birthday card.

Now that he has the card, hand delivered by my parents today, I can show you what I made for my brother. He is a big ornathologist, even guarding some protected birds of prey when he was in the RAF. His present is also bird related, hence the card, I bought a piece of pottery with a bird in a tree to hang on his wall from the Made in Bradford on Avon shop, I wish I had taken a photo before I dashed it over to my parents, but it was all a bit of a rush, when I didn't need to take it for another day really. I hope he likes it better than my father likes his cat activity centres (about which he is still complaining).

The card features die cut shapes using a Sizzix Bigz die, I used the flower as a sun this time, and cut it in corrugated card, the bird is cut from a book page, a very old battered copy of Worzle Gummidge I picked up second hand to save it from the recycling bin. Brother is a Papermania stamp from a family set, and Happy Birthday is from a Hero Arts set. Polka dot ribbon from Fantastic Ribbons, and the spotty card was a piece of A5 I got from Payperbox pick and mix years ago.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:
Coffee, Chocolate and cards - Bring on Spring.

Anyway I will be back later with some more examples for the Quirky Challenge reminder post, I am having a battle with the ecraft which I so want to love, but it doesn't seem to want me to love it! I have had it since they came out and hardly used it becuase it always seems to fight me!

For those of you who follow my blog with Google Reader - this is about to disappear, however there is a replacement called Bloglovin, which seems to be even better. You can import all your blogs you are following from reader (do it before it goes) and it emails a daily activity update which I love because that way I don't miss anything and it is easy to scroll down through.


Saturday 23 March 2013

Ceramic Art Exhibition - Saturday 4th May 10.00 am - 5.00 pm

Ceramic Art Exhibition - Saturday 4th May 10.00 am - 5.00 pm



Made in Bradford on Avon contact details

MIB Hub / Shop:                              01225 282801
MIB Mobile:                                      07942 890149
Email:                                                   madeinbradfordonavon@gmail.com
Facebook:                                           Made in Bradford on Avon
Twitter:                                                Made in BOA
Contact name:                                  Wellie O'Driscoll / Jackie Allan

Sales imput:                            Jackie Funnell        jackiefunnell@hotmail.com
Volunteering:                                   madeinbradfordonavon@gmail.com
Music Email:                                      musicinbradfordonavon@gmail.com
Music:  Andrew Baseley:              andrewbazeley@yahoo.com
Music:  Jim Lynch:                            jmlnch4@googlemail.com
Artwork Hanging Group:              Liz Watts                     lizwatts3d@aol.com
Jewellery Display:                    Helen Guymer        helenguymer@hotmail.com
Membership and payments:      madeinbradfordonavon@gmail.com
What's On:                                         http://www.stayintheloop.org.uk/
BOAcan:                                               http://www.boacan.co.uk/
Postal address:                                 4 Lamb Yard, Bradford on Avon, BA15 1FG



Friday 22 March 2013

Happy Birthday for Tomorrow Dad (and my brother).


My Dad and my Brother share a birthday, I haven't made my Brother's card yet, here is the one I made for my Dad. I used a picture and caption from an old Calendar I bought last year. I had to keep it because Mum and Dad have an adopted Siamese called Katy, and for a present I bought Dad 3 scratching posts for the cat which were a bargain price - because I didn't know what to get and he said he had bought several scratching posts, the cat gets through them and it is better than her scratching the furniure! He was not impressed lol.

This is the first Easter card I have made this year, and the image is from Bugaboo. It was a Friday Freebie when I got it, now you can buy it. The paper is a freebie, the sentiment is a DoCrafts stamp, ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, eyelets from Eyelet Outlet, and a tiny teddy bear charm so I can enter in the Bugaboo bingo challenge (my three are Bugaboo image, green and charm).

I love Promarkers - Anything goes (Wednesday)

This is my latest idea for Promarker storage, an Artbin Double Deep Deluxe Satchel. I decided to sort the pens into colours, red, green, yellow and orange etc in anticipation of getting the new Marker trays to fit.

I fitted the middle divider and some of the shelves temporarily until I can find some more marker trays.

This is what it looked like closed and standing on its end. See the large gap left for the first marker tray?

Still got some left not sorted at this point in time.

The marker pen tray arrived today, yippee! It took a while to work out how to fit the legs to it, then it was easy to fit. 

Here it is open, you can see the pens stay put apart from those in there loose of course! Now I just need to find somewhere to buy 3 more trays to fit. I was going to buy the new Artbin Marker satchel at first, and one appeared for sale in the UK recently (in fact that is where i got the marker tray from), then I watched a couple of videos on it and realised that the Super Satchel double deep took the trays and held twice as many pens. Also the marker satchel only came with one tray and shelves and you had to buy the second marker tray. To buy two marker satchels and two extra trays cost more than buying this big boy and 4 trays!
I really think I need the bigger option especially because I just won more Promarkers from a Passion for Promarkers sponsored by Letraset! Thanks guys. I have started to seperate the duplicate and triplicate pens out of this box for now, I have used them I am sure, and somewhere else I have some unused duplicates or triplicates so will have to keep the used ones seperately from them! I also need to get some sticky dot labels to label the Promarkers, the Trias have built in labels of course. Do you think all the pens will fit? I hope so! This solution is portable too, and will keep the pens nice and clean when not in use.






Sunday 17 March 2013

All about boys at Quirky Crafts


Doris set us the challenge All About Boys, with ric rac, buttons and a sentiment or phrase. The Cutting Cafe are sponsoring this challenge and providing all three prizes. For my first card I used images from the All About Boys set provided by our sponsor. The sets have an amazing array of images and sentiments, they are great value for money and every Monday there is a Cyber Sale when several sets are bundled together at a really low price!

I have entered this card in the following challenges:
Crafty Ribbons Challenge Blog - One for the boys closes 27th March


This really sweet pram and sentiment are from the All About Babies set from The Cutting Cafe. Again there are lot of images and sentiments in this set, I am sure I will be using the pram a few more times though.

I have entered this card in the ABC challenge - J for just as you like it (or anything goes)

If you hop on over to Quirky Crafts you can see some really wonderful examples from the rest of the team, including examples using cutting files from The Cutting Cafe. We will be showing you even more examples in the reminder post in one week's time - I have already started on mine.


Wednesday 13 March 2013

WOYWW



Well it is Wenesday and some folk at Stamping Ground like to see what is on your workdesk on WOYWW! I don't do this every week, this week you can actually see the stamping mat and some clear space....


.......or you could until my 75% off sale goodies arrived from The Glitter Pot!




Alpha Challenge - M (MA-ME)


I thought this looked quite good until I tried to photograph it! The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge is on M, but not any M, it had to be MA to ME. I picked Machine. I used a variety of stamps, Joanna Sheen train and train on viaduct, Papermania Urban typewriter, Sewing machine, watch and cogs from free set with magazine, Paperartsy flower (hope nobody notices it is upside down).


Sunday 10 March 2013

Quirky Midway reminder - make a mess!


 This background was created by stamping all over a white A4 piece of card with a Fiskars continuous stamping wheel that I got in a sale, then spraying with Glimmer Mist in two colours - Sapphire and Bronze. I used Bugaboo images Ladybug Stack and A Little Birdie Told Me. The messy background is mounted on gold cardstock then onto a pink card. The polka dot chiffon ribbon was from Crafty Ribbons who are also sponsoring the challenge.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:
Catch the Bug - Green Thumb ends next Friday.
Incy Wincy Designs - things that begin with F (flowers and feathered friend. and funny) (Mondays)

Same background card and it is amazing how it varies from the piece above. Again Ribbon from Crafty Ribbons.
Here is my very messy hand!  I tried to spray the Glimmer Mist and it was bunged up, so I got the "pokey tool" and poked it to unbung it, and while I was pondering on why it was still blocked it suddenly came to life and sprayed all over me! Good job I was wearing an old dark blue fleece so it won't show on that!



If you hop on over to Quirky Crafts Challenges you can see some more great examples using images from two of our sponsors, Bugaboo and Squigglefly, and of course you can join in the fun because the challenge doesn't close until Saturday 16th March at 12:00.