Baby, it's a Winner1

A bit behind here but earlier in the month at the craft club I go to the competition was to make a baby card using the bleaching technique. This is my take on it, and, surprisingly, considering the other entries, my card won! I got a £5 voucher to spend in Finishing Touches craft shop in Totnes - it took me all of 5 minutes to do that!

In case anyone is wondering, the baby feet are made of polymer clay.

Washi Paper Swap Card

Another card made for a swap on the Oriental Stamp Art Yahoo Group - this time we were challenged to use some of our precious washi paper. Apparently it's not just for looking at and stroking, you CAN use it! I did a simple design which I highlighted with the use of gold thread, toning beads and a flower from the washi cut out and placed under a gel 'stone'. I enjoyed doing this one and will definitely dig into my washi stash again before too long :)

Mini Oriental Wall Hanging

This is what I made my 2 partners in the Oriental Stamp Art Group's MOSAS29 swap for March. We keep the same groups (of 3 people) for 3 months and each send a handmade oriental style card or gift to the others in our group.  The base is stampbord dabbed with a mixture of different blue alcohol inks with a touch of silver mixative and stamped with a text stamp (Legend of Mulan by Stamp Magick) then embossed several times. The top square is also a piece of stamped stambord coloured with watercolour pens. I added silver lined glass beads along the bottom using a strong glue, and a hanger on the back.

Wedding Card

I made this card for a work colleague, duck egg blue being her favourite colour.  The stamp is from Lili of the Valley who have the most gorgeous cute stamps (and it's unusual for me to say that as I don't usually do cute!).

Oooooh, another technique to try....

I've just read about gelatine printing - googled it, watched UTube videos etc and now I HAVE to try it. Watch this space - I will be reporting on my efforts in due course! 

I'm still waiting for my new pasta machine (aka fimo machine) to arrive - it's in the postal system somewhere, then I can decide which machine is best for pasta and which is best for fimo ..... then i can make more dragons!

Glimmer Mist Backgrounds

Over last weekend I played with my glimmer mist sprays (again!). I did the reverse stenciltechnique shown by Dyan from Art from the Heart which I had great fun with. At first I was concerned because I was getting through the sprays like crazy (and they're not cheap!), and especially didn't like blotting off with kitchen paper. But, once I saw the results I was hooked.

I made a card for Annie's birthday which maybe one day I will be able to show a photo of, but at the moment it turns itself round sideways as soon as I try and upload it - a pity cos I really like this card! I also made a card for the dragonfly swap over on Oriental Stamp Art, but then I re-read the instructions (note I said RE-read - yes, I had read them before, just forgot what they said! That's the difference between male & female - men don't read instructions, women forget them, LOL!). I should have made a regular A6 card, not square :( so then I had to make another one ....

I much  prefer the square one myself. Never mind - I now have a spare card!

Pesky Squirrel

So, the squirrels kept eating the bird food so Geoff had the good idea of utilising an old cat basket. We did debate whether a squirrel could get through the holes but thought possibly not. WRONG!

Needless to say the cage has now been relegated back to it's place in the garage and the birds are still fighting the squirrels for their food - until Geoff's next bright idea!