Good Morning

I've had  enquiries from a few friends who were a little concerned at not seeing any blog posts recently and it is very nice to know that I'm missed.  I'm fine and have been keeping busy with lots of things including of course trying to keep up with the weeds and long grass in the garden - sadly a losing battle at the moment but I will catch up eventually I'm sure and anyway it can't just keep on growing, can it??  I've been doing quite a bit of beadwork recently which is very time consuming and I can share with you a picture of a  Christmas bauble which I decorated.  Not without some frustrations I must say because of course this type of work isn't easy to hold firmly in the hand while working and there is huge potential for the long thread to catch around any (or all) of the 'dangles' while working and believe me, it does!!

I will try to post on the blog but it won't be daily for the moment - part of my time management strategy which doesn't seem to be working as well as I'd hoped.

Back Again!

I must stop apologising for going missing and just try to catch up with the blog more frequently although I am doing my best to spend less time at the computer and more doing 'things'.

Last Sunday a friend and I visited a bead fair and amongst other things I bought a very pretty Czech glass button and yes, only the one although there were so many beautiful ones just saying 'buy me'!! I was also tempted to buy a book and as luck would have it there was a project in it where the author (Sabine Lippert) had added a bezel to a 27mm Rivoli.  I measured my button which was roughly that size so decided to have a go at using her instructions with a slight variation to bezel the button and this is the result.  All I need to do now is to make something from which to suspend this 'jewel' - did I just say 'all'?  Of course I could just pop it onto a chain which is a quick solution but will design a suitable necklace in due course.

There is gold detail on the centre of the button and the lighter colour size 15 (tiny!) beads are also gold finish which doesn't show up too well in the photograph - always difficult to take pictures of bling.

Ultra Thick Embossing

This is a card made as a demonstration sample last month when I was using embossing powders and inks.  The background was a piece of white card sponged using Distress inks and with some over-stamping.  The puzzle piece was from a charity shop buy (child's large piece puzzle) - a piece had some gesso applied to cover up the bright coloured picture; this was then coloured with DI and stamped with a leafy design before being triple embossed using clear UTEE.  I hope the person who receives this doesn't think the words are badly stamped - the actual stamp has this grungy effect!!

I hope the weather is good where you are because here it is grey and wet which makes me really pleased that I forced myself to mow the lawns yesterday - almost a hay making job as the grass had grown so long.

Background - Distress inks
Stamps - freebies given with a magazine

Make my Monday Challenge

I've actually managed to make a card for the Make My Monday challenge this week where they are asking for something using kraft card - one of my favourites.  I stamped a rose image and embossed in white then coloured using pencils.  This was then die cut and put onto some layers using up scraps and a piece of backing paper from my stash so I guess it also fits with the Pixie Snippets challenge too so one for two challenges which has to be good.

Image - stamp from Chocolate Baroque Harlequin Rose set
Die cut layers - Sue Wilson Greek Islands collection - Rhodes
Border - Martha Steward punch
Sentiment - computer generated punched using Stampin' Up punches

A Card

It seems ages since I actually made a card but here is one I did yesterday using dies, stamping and colouring.  The large lattice layer was cut using a border die and the flowers were stamped and coloured using alcohol pens.  I must really get back into the swing otherwise I'll never get to use up all my stash!!

Lattice die - Britannia dies
Large yellow die - Stampin Up
White layer - Sue Wilson die
Stamp - Flower from Bloom with Hope set Stampin' Up.
Corners - Whimsy dies

Back Again!

Well I said it wouldn't take long didn't I?  Here is the second version of the necklace which I do actually prefer - not sure why I didn't think of this idea in the first place!!  Luckily I had just one little 'Y' connector in my findings box otherwise I might have had to make one from wire which would have taken longer.

Beading

Yet again I seem to have been missing from my blog but I can assure you I've not been idle, merely trying to use my time a little differently by doing more practical things rather than spending time at the computer.  I have a little beadwork experiment to show you today in the form of a necklace which incorporates some 'spiral staircase' or 'spiral rope'  bead weaving using seed beads and pearls together with a beaded bead using the same and just a couple of elements using beads on eye-pins.  I'm not altogether sure this is how I want it to look and might try a different way using the same components but with the beaded bead suspended vertically - a simple enough job to change it around and/or change it back again if I don't like the look - of course that is the beauty of making jewellery from components which can be switched around.  If I like the alternative arrangement I might post another picture.