I hope you are sitting down because...............

I was inspired by Inky Fingers to have a go at this.

I have made a Christmas card - sort of.

The stamp isn't a Christmas stamp, but I loved it as soon as I saw it.  As usual the photo is rubbish, so that you can not see that I have rubbed glittery stickles over it, which really transform it.

I have painted it around the butterfly wings, and brushed it on the bare branches and I think that it looks like frost in the first light of the morning.  I actually am happy with this card except for one little thing which you might spot or might not!

The Keeper stamp plate.

I was really inspired by this months' Craft Stamper magazine - lots of lovely projects in there - brilliant.

I actually have one of the stamps that was used in there too - which is a first! 

I bought it from Happy Daze  and two of their design team members are featured in the magazine this month.  Sadly I can't put any scanned photos on here as the magazine is not in the shops until 4th December (mine came early as I subscribe to it), but you can see some of the examples if you click the Happy Daze link above. 

One of those featured in the magazine is Paula a friend of mine - and I was inspired to have a go.

I decided to make myself an address book as ours is so old and is falling apart.

The trouble is people keep moving, and in the years I have had it some have moved 5 times - it is a real mess.

This book is really really thick and I used the largest size O wires to make it.  Lots and lots and lots of pages, and made this way so that I can just tear out any that get changed.   The covers are made out of mount board which I painted, inked then stamped, with images from the set of The Keeper stamps.  I was dreaming of a really hot steamy summers evening, with a few wispy white clouds just appearing over the horizon, and the sun. 

I have given it a couple of coats of varnish to keep it clean, so looks nice and shiny.

Sections of the inside pages are divided with tags, onto which I will put the letters of the alphabet for that section, once have all been entered. We have lots of surnames beginning with the same letter, and some letters of the alphabet haven't a single address, so this way I can divide it to suit our needs - which is not taken into account when you buy an address book - well it can't be can it!

At the back of the inside cover I have made a pocket which will hold 'business cards' which will be handy, and at the moment I am not sure whether to buy a journal stamp for the pages, or to just write them up by hand on the plain paper (Patrick has volunteered for that job!) 

I have a busy few days coming up, so probably won't be able to do any crafting until the weekend - but I hope to have time to visit your blogs to see what you are up too late in the evenings.

Have you see these before?

Firstly thanks for all the emails - I am feeling much better now thanks.  I slapped on the sunblock and went for an hours walk around the village. Bright sunshine, yet very very cold, but it was a real tonic to be out in the fresh air and getting some exercise.

Now swiftly changing the subject...................

Have you seen these before?

The window cleaner can this week and asked Patrick if I wanted some feathers for my arty crafty work.

I think he said that they were 'Hedgecock'  feathers - but as I rely on lipreading it is probably a totally different bird as I have never heard of a 'Hedgecock'.

Edited to day  -  thank you, thank you, thank you - for telling me its a Woodcock.  And thank you Paula for the Google link.  Now all I have to do is to work out how to paint with them!

What a beautiful little bird - I do so hope that it wasn't shot - but sadly I suspect that it might have been.  It's surely too tiny to eat.  

 I expected feathers akin to pheasant or partridge (as it is the shooting season around here with guns going off most days in the fields around).  Anyhow, I was greatly surprised when he opened his wallet (I know - and you're right - in these here parts it's rare you see a local open their wallet - and never to take anything out of it!) In fact this was a first for me!  He went on to say that artists use them for painting with.  They push them in a ???????? and then paint with the feather!

I think that they must be rather rare and he probably came across it on one of his shoots, but I would love to know more about it and the painting side of it.   They are so tiny as you can see by the small matchstick I photographed them against.  He definitely said 'paint' with them as opposed to using them as a quill in ink. 

Happy Thanksgiving

To all those 'over the pond'

"Errr what's up Doc?"

I am not up to doing any crafting at the moment, so thought I'd put a few photos up of what's been happening in my garden today-just so that you know that I am still here!

 When I looked out of my window to see what my chooks were up to I saw this!  Large as life, sunbathing, without a care in the world!  It's hard to spot isn't it!

A pesky wabbit!

We never used to get any rabbits in our garden - until we had a new neighbour behind us.  I am not suggesting for one minute that it has anything to do with her or her dog - it's just a coincidence.   It's been a good year for rabbits - and I think that they seek refuge in our garden to escape her terrier!  They are tunnelling under our defences.

Scrabble and Daisy choose this corner to sunbathe, and they are not at all bothered - just puzzled and bemused at all the fuss I am making chasing off the rabbit.

He wasn't really scared of me either - so just made a leisurely hop around the other side of the pond to show willing!  Then went further along the path at the back to sunbathe there!

The 'girls' did the same, and decided to have a snack and ate some grass seeds.

I took a walk around the back of the garden to see if the rabbit had gone.

It is always hard to spot as it camouflages itself so well with the gravel, and leaves, and soil, sneaky thing.

It usually dashes over to this corner behind my gazebo and out and under to the field beyond, but I couldn't spot it

No sign of it over there either

Nor around here - pesky thing - looks like rabbit stew is off the menu again this week.  At least the fence around my raised winter veggie bed has kept the little blighter from eating those!

At least there was a consolation prize - I picked the last of my tomatoes from the lean-to on the back of the garage.

Had my best crop ever this year.

Sunday Stamper - week 78

Sunday Stamper week 78 just managed to join in with Hel's Sunday Stamper challenge.  I have one and one only Christmas tree stamp so am a bit limited, but I so wanted to have a go.

This is it.

It looks a bit off centre - but it isn't - trust me - it just the card is not laying flat so right hand side of it sticking up - I was in a mad rush - can you tell!!!!

I have caught some sort of bug - really sore throat, bad headache, high temperature and haven't slept much all night.  So apart from making lunch for Patrick before he went off bowling, I have been a limp lettuce!

I so wanted to join in Hels challenge and make a Christmas card.

This is a bit of a close up - the ink is just about dried!

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, it looks a bit brighter

The card was run through an embossing folder of snowflakes, and I coloured it with chalk!

On thick white card I masked a circle and coloured it in shades of 'moon'.  It isn't quite this dark in real life - it's just that it has got dark here so I couldn't get a decent photo

I layered on with sponges blues, blacks, and hazelnut distress inks to create a dark night with mountains in the background and a wintry wild winter night

Then in 'Christmas Tree Green' (Stazon green, and the trunks are Espresso) I stamped trees at different heights, overlapping branches, to create a forest.   In daylight you can see the white snow on the boughs of the trees - and on Father Christmas's sledge and reins and hat etc.

I am now off back out into my dark garden, to tidy my things away in my craft shed, and lock up my chickens - I may be some time LOL

By jove I did it - I actually made a card!

 I was inspired by the scraplings posts on various blogs so thought I would have a go - and here is the result

Now you need a bit of imagination for this.

It is 1934 and you are in Paris!

This is what you would be wearing - honestly!

I used a piece of folded card 4"x8" and distressed around the edges with Espresso ink.

Stamped a background of hessian.

Layered on some paper scraps and coloured again with Espresso.

Stamped the image and coloured it, and used gold highlights on the rose brooch

(Which you can see if you click to enlarge.)

I rather like her cape, I think it looks like velvet now that it has been inked

 

Stamped the wording and mounted it.

Finished it off with a bow, having first distressed the borders with red then gold.

I thought this fitted the theme of 'Remembrance' it was remembering anything, fashion included for Tuesday Created by Hand