The Zombies are coming....

As a crafter I like to try lots of different crafts but one that seems to evade me is sewing.  It's quite ironic that my mum is a dressmaker by trade but I can't seem to get my head around sewing.  Don't get me wrong, I can sew on a button.....er.....then my talents come to an end.  Quite often I have a project in mind, like when I was looking at lacy hairbands in the shops recently and thought 'I'm sure I could do that for half the price'.  Well it turns out that I couldn't.  I think half the problem is that I need patterns or an instruction book or something.  Unfortunately I am a little impatient and not one for reading instructions and would rather jump in with both feet and look at the diagrams to guide me.....then I wonder why it didn't work out.

But when I saw a book called 'Felt Zombies' recently and then looked inside to see easy to follow diagrams, I thought I would give it a go.  The neatness of the sewing is not going to win any prizes but the end zombie looks pretty good.

So a Ta-da moment.................

I think the uneven stitching adds to the general shabbiness of it all and for all you fellow impatient crafters, it only took one evening.

Btw if you need some inspiration to get you crafting, nip on over to The Chicken Soup Blog for this weeks picture.

 

Sugar and Spice

Sugar and Spice and all things nice, that's what little girls are made of......apparently not always.  This photo of my Nan, Mum and Me was taken in the early 70's.  I'm the little one btw.  I was 'creating' all day as my Mum put it.  I really didn't want to wear that dress, well it was baby pink and had lots of scratchy netting.  So how to make your feelings known when you are 5.....stick your finger in your eye when photo's are taken.  Love my Nan's and Mum's outfits.....but those hats are so 70's.

As my Mum and I had so many memories recalled by this photo there was a lot of journalling for this page.  Something that has been missing on my LO's recently.  Although I do write on the back or have other LO's with the same memories journalled on already.  Very pink this one, to remind me of the pink bridesmaid dress.  I made some ribbon roses as my bonnet had rose type tulle on it.

If you want to make the roses yourself start with a disc of card stock, cover in double sided tape and peel off the paper.  Textured ribbon or strips of cloth work better than silky ribbon.  Start from the middle and twist the ribbon as you turn the disc and stick down onto the tape.  Keep going until you have got on as much as you can and you cannot see any card disc.  Then either swipe ink over the rose or add glue and glitter.

I still have a hang up about using plain card stock.  My brain knows that I should but I just don't like that plain, unpatterned space.  Clashing patterns are more my thing.  Sounds wrong but it works for me.

Time for a change.

So have you noticed the re-vamped blog?  The snowy back ground kept reminding me of how cold and dark it still is, so it had to go.  Talking of re-vamps, I've tried to tame my tresses and had it chopped off.  The pic of me over on the right is after the hairdresser has finished, no doubt by the morning it will be back to it's frizzy, wavy look again. 

Anyway enough of this idle chatter, here's another heritage layout, this time of my Nan.  I think it was taken on the same holiday as the previous ones of my Mum and Dad.  Sadly she is no longer with us but I have happy memories of staying with her in the summer holidays and helping her prepare the Ploughman's Lunches in the pub kitchen that she worked.  She had a tin of old fashioned metal curlers that gave your hair ringlets that i would insist she would do every time I stayed (my hair wasn't so curly then).  She was only in her 40's when she was widowed so didn't have very much spare cash so on a Friday i had a choice, walk home from the high street rather than take the bus or have a Sainsburys chocolate desert.  The desert always won.  I was lucky to have such a generous, understanding, determined Nan like her who although was house bound with Emphysema later in her life, managed to stay around long enough to enjoy being a Great Grandmother that Robert adored.  I miss her so much. 

Again I used My Minds Eye papers and this time I used a mask with glimmer mist to add turquoise and pink rays.  I wanted to have a title like Remember her but as I said in the last post, not enough e's. 

Love

As it's Valentines Day, I thought I would post a 'Love' inspired layout.  The photo's are of my Mum and Dad on holiday in Cornwall.  I love the fashions of the day, drainpipe jeans and winklepicker shoes for my Dad and a pretty blue shift dress with a peter pan collar for my Mum.  Even my Mum's hairstyle is typical of the era which would of been mid to late 60's.

I used some beautiful My Minds Eye papers that are already embellished with glitter, I really didn't know what I could do with them as I don't like to just stick a photo on, I like adding my own creative bits and bobs.  But a little heart printed ribbon, ruffled fabric and a laced punch paper strip came to the rescue. 

 The fabric I was given in a matchbox swop and it  matched well with the green of the paper.  I stuck double sided tape on the back and folded into the desired ruffle, leaving the frayed edges. The butterflies gave a little extra dimention to the page along with the foam alphas.

I'm rapidly running out of e's at the moment which is very annoying as every title I think of have at least one e in it.



Obsessions

The new recipe for the Chicken Soup Blog has now been uploaded, so if you need a little kick start to inspire a project then head on over to here

I was inspired to make this cute little wall hanging using Nestabilities dies and corrugated card.  After covering the frames in gesso I inked the corrugated card, stamped the grid pattern and butterfly, then brushed over some perfect pearls.

I love how corrugated card gives a shabbiness to a project....and it's free!  The perfect pearls is a new obsession of mine, now up there with the corrugated card, staples and butterflies.

What is your stash obsession? Leave a comment as I would love to know.

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Purest Green

OK, so those of you who have watched Blackadder will recognise Percy's line 'Purest Green'.  Those of you that haven't....well, you will never know.

Just a quickie post today (I know makes a change doesn't it?).  Here is a little card I made using a beautiful combination of purest green and purple card stock.  The stamp is from Lili of the Valley.  Coloured in using Promarker pens.

Calendar Girls

Remember that Gil Elvgren calender I was wittering on about in my last post.  Remember I hadn't found a project to use the gorgeous retro girly images with.  Well, good news.....I have now!  Even better news, I was asked to join the the design team for The Chicken Soup Blog which has just posted a recipe for week 27.  The American retro theme fitted beautifully with my calendar girls and inspired me to create a set of twelve ATC's....one for each month of the year.

The background was created by swishing a Big and Juicy pad over my craft mat and then spritzing with water.  I then dabbed the ATC size card over the top of the ink until all the card was covered.  After they had dried I stuck on the cut out girls with Claudine Hellmuth Studio Matte Medium and then glazed the whole ATC with the same Medium.  A few gems, stickles and flowers were added to give a little more interest. 

Need some more inspiration to create a project?  Then pop over to the blog here and have a nosey at this weeks inspirational image.