MIAM

MIAM

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Hearts For Art's Sake

It's a bitesized post from me,  I've had a blogging break as there hasn't really been anything particularly noteworthy to report and there still isn't really! I've been cracking on with crafts for the village sale in December and here are the pics.




 
 These seem to be very popular at the moment,  I see them everywhere I go adorning all manner of objects and for silly money sometimes.  They are easily made, I can cut the felt quickly in my die cutting machine and finish stitching them within the hour. I can also make use of oddments of ribbon and my large button stash.
I'm hoping they will make me money for St. Catherines Hospice and in the meantime I'm linking them to Lakota's Wooooooo Wednesday.






 The weather hasn't inspired me to take many snaps lately but here are a couple I took for October-Photo-a-Day.



Weather



 
People



I'm hoping something monumentally spectacular is going to happen soon so I've more to tell you next time!
Ta ra  x

Friday 19 October 2012

Teen Spirit

Here's a slightly tongue in cheek card for my niece Emily who'll be thirteen next week.  Much to her parents annoyance she prefaces nearly every sentence with the word 'like',.... it's SO like, American!  She has been going on about this birthday for like... a year and is very excited about being a teenager.  

I followed CAS(E) This Sketch's current sketch




 and came up with this. 



I used XCut dies, Woodware star punch, faux bling, corner chomper and a cuttlebug embossing folder, the sentiment was computer generated.  All papers came from my stash and I tried to match them to the colours of Em's newly decorated bedroom, "It's like, SO cool!"   I'm sure I didn't have as much enthusiasm for life when I was her age!

The weather's been grim today so I stayed at home to avoid the rain, but earlier this week out walking, I managed to capture some colour.




Have a good weekend all.
xx  

Saturday 13 October 2012

Climb On The Back And We'll Go For A Ride In The Sky

Another card for LIM and this week the theme is 'Wings'.   My first thought was to use an angel image but when I looked at her, she looked rather....well, like she'd had a heavy night on the tiles and not at all ethereal.  Not the required look for a CAS card at all !  So I settled on these doves from the same Hero Arts set.  Correction, I should say 'dove' as there is only one stamp therefore I had to stamp it on acetate initially and then apply the acetate face down onto the cardstock to reverse the image in order to get a pair. Not an easy procedure as you can see....



I heat embossed all the stamped images, shaded the doves with grey watercolour pencils and then cut around them and mounted them on dimensional tape. I made a banner and added some bakers twine and a couple of faux pearls. The sentiment is also Hero Arts.
Here is the finished article.




The days are getting chillier and until this morning I had resisted turning on the central heating.  My garden is looking rather tired now but I took these snaps of a few late blooms this week before the frost gets to them.



Hope you all have great weekends, I've got two night shifts to look forward to.  C'est la vie. 

ttfn xxx 

Edit: Doh! I've just realised that the LIM challenge is one layer, what an idiot!  Will have to delete my entry, oh well at least I've made another xmas card.  

Wednesday 10 October 2012

By The Light Of The Silvery Moon

Here's my latest make for LIM's current challenge - Silver.  I used part of a Memory Box die with some discarded silver mirri packaging from my hair straighteners and then tore some card to create a 'mountain' backdrop. To complete the scene I added some Stickles glitter glue to the mountain tops and a hole punched moon. The panel then was mounted on the card with dimensional tape.



Of course, being mirri card it was an absolute bugger to photograph!




I'm also linking this to

Lakota's Ta Dah Tuesday
Alphabet Challenge Blog - Recycling 




I heard this again the other day, a beautiful song and an incredible voice.

 

Thursday 4 October 2012

Are You Sitting Comfortably......?

...then I'll begin.

I've never really been big into sculpture but NM had been going on about this place he'd been to a while ago, the Cass Sculpture Foundation and was keen to take me there.  I did explain that I wasn't a culture vulture, (more of a philistine in fact) and that I thought that some of the modern sculpture I'd seen was self indulgent rubbish bought by people with more money than sense.  But do you know, when I got there I rather enjoyed it. 


 


Some of it was weird,


 (I thought this piece was rather Dali-esque) 


.......and some of it was futuristic,






 Nanu Nanu!






Some of it gave me the creeps,

 (These sculptures reminded me of those monsters that walked out of the sea in Dr Who.)





and some of it, I thought was ghastly!





Here are my best bits....












Oval, Peg and Penis...a snip at £2200 each!


The al fresco facilities were a delight!



I Miss You (or as renamed by me, the Marmite Jar) £65000 



 


These were my favourite, I love the ever changing colours and reflections.


I longed to drape myself over the sculptures (a la Helga) for you, but alas frolicking was not permitted. 

Viewing sculptures was a totally new experience for me and a thought provoking one at that, one that I didn't expect to particularly enjoy but am pleased to report that I did.  On our return we even found art in the car park!

 

TFL.
xx

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Bhaji's, Bargains, a Bag and a Birthday Card

I've got a few days off this week and have I been busy!  My few days leave began by going over to NM's where he'd laid on the most fantastic indian meal entirely cooked by himself (he is a dab hand in the kitchen being an ex publican)  The onion bhaji's were the best I've ever tasted, so blown away was I by them, they had to be photographed for posterity.




On Sunday the weather was kind to us so we ventured out to a local car boot
where I managed to score a few bargains.


Purple tights 50p, Brand new stamp set £1 and brand new jigsaw (bought for a puzzle-mad neighbour) £1.



After the car boot we shot over to Lingfield, home of the racecourse and a craft shop that I needed to visit.  Lingfield has a pretty little duckpond and this lock-up used to house the local crims.  The Cage was built in 1773 and it's last occupant was a poacher in 1882, I wonder how long he got ?



This magnicent old oak with hollow trunk provided a photo opportunity and so did the ducks who were a friendly bunch and not camera shy in the least.  After we'd been to the pub for lunch we returned and rewarded them with half of NM's burger bun.





Yesterday a vile day weather wise, was brightened by a spot of chazzing with my friend Tracy who is also partial to a rummage and a bargain or three.
We both scored a couple of finds in Horley's many chazza's and when we'd exhausted them we adjourned to Wetherspoons for the most bargainous lunch ever and two pints of cider. 

Brand new tea-towel 75p  

I've many happy memories of Barbados as I was there every other week during my flying days and had to buy it as it even shows the crew hotel - Sam Lord's Castle!  I also bought a jumper by East but it's currently on the line.

Time now for the crafty bit, recently I've been making more items to sell at my craft stall in December.  I discovered these small paper carrier bags in my stash and have been transforming them into pretty gift bags by heat embossing snowflakes with sparkly EP and adding a tag.  I'm going to link these to Lakota's Ta Dah Tuesday and the current Creative Inspirations challenge where I've used the white,snowflakes and ribbon inspiration.







I've also knocked up a card for my bro who celebrates his birthday on Friday.




I've finally accepted that summer is over and today have packed all my summer togs away and dug out the woolies. :(

What have you been doing lately, do tell!

xxx