Finished the cheese now altered the box!

Here are a few photos of a cheese box I altered.  

Firstly I painted the box with children's copper coloured acrylic paint 

Then using a stencil, I dabbed all over with blue metallic paint

Then I repeated the process for the lid

Job done!

Tucked inside is a surprise - best not mention what it is as it's a birthday present.

It's a cracker

I hardly have time to sit down at the moment - like most mums and grannies - lots of baking and wrapping of presents, etc.

I did make some time a week ago to create this

It smells wonderful when you walk into the little room.  The combination of eucalyptus, pine, and rosemary is so refreshing.  It looks much redder and Christmassey in daylight.

I also bought a real Christmas tree as always from a farm - and braved driving down a narrow country lane, covered in snow, with only one track of tyre marks - that was last week.

I spent a couple of afternoons decorating it.  It takes so long, as every bauble and bit of tinsel brings  back memories of Christmas past.

Are you the same when you decorate your tree or home?

Have a good Christmas one and all, and may 2011 bring good health and happiness.

Fabric postcard - with vintage c1920's material

Recently I made a fabric postcard for a swap, my very first, and now that it has arrived at it's destination I can post it on here.

I made it from a sample of vintage French material circa 1920's

which found it's way years ago to a shop in Norway, and was bought by Ati

I couldn't bear to part with the original label - rusty staples and all - so this is a photo copy which I made on old paper - it's hard to tell that it is not the original

It looks like silk brocade with gold embroidery, and I have made it 'shabby chic' style, sewing it on to the back of a scrap of vintage hessian, which I had stamped with vintage script

Then I built up the layers.

Another piece of the vintage blue and gold material

More torn hessian stamped to match the base layer

Then I did an image transfer of this gorgeous girl which really suited the period of the material.

I dyed the scrap of lace to tone in with the colours in the image, and added the tiny circle of from a piece of vintage crocheted doilly.

(I have kept enough of the sample to make myself a similar postcard or wall hanging, or maybe I will make a journal of little works of art using the samples in 2011, the material is just so beautiful)

I received my first ever fabric postcard swap back - from Jean - the start of a lovely collection I hope.

I can see how addictive these little works of fabric art can be!

Upcycling 'rubbish'

Have you got any of these lying around?   Well don't throw them out will you.

Take out the pattern

Add some stitching.

Slap on some gesso - as much or as little as you like.

Then you can cut it and sew it up as it is or.....

I decided to cover mine

Added some scraps of webbing

Added some handles

Hey presto - a bag.

It's surprisingly strong!

This one holds an A5 journal set with coloured pencils,

and sets of brushes.

If you would like to have a go at making some lovely bags out of paper - visit Roben-Marie's blog here - for lots of inspiration and a free mini workshop with all the instructions here

Mine is rubbish in comparison with her samples - but after visiting her blog late at night on Saturday, I just had to go into my craft room right away and have a go at one!

So in essence this was just a practice piece to see if I could make one - my head is now buzzing with lots of ideas on adapting the process to make all sorts of packages.

Another week - another 'cake'

I made a square arrangement for a friend.

Another cake design

I hadn't seen this friend for over 20 years

She thinks it is about 23 years

 

What a joyous weekend we had - and we won't lose touch again

I was able to use lots of foliage from my garden, and moss just a couple of days before the snow wrecked most things

I chose flowers that should last a long time

I love Christmas - it's such a great time to flower arrange

I am working on a Christmas cracker

 

I'll finish it over the weekend - it's very Christmassy

Zero calories, fat free birthday cake.

My daughter in law Haruko, is 40 years old today.  I didn't have 40 candles so improvised with the cake.

I glued two blocks of floral foam together, then cut out a circle.

There are lots of layers.  Dozens of laurel leaves 

Each picked to be of a uniform size.  Secured underneath and then each one pinned to overlap the previous one.

It takes a long time, and a lot of patience - but it stops you eating!

You only need tips of shrubs from the garden and moss to fill the gaps.

And in true Alice in Wonderland fashion with the flowers

Off with their heads!  The flowers last so much longer this way

I think  it looks good enough to eat - and smells divine!

The chunky candle should last at least a week of night time lighting.

I think I will make a few Christmas cakes like this!

(Oh - before I forget - I have baked a really BIG calorific wicked chocolate cake too!)

It's in the post - work in progress, and Mary Mary

The wall hanging is finished and in the post.

The next experiment

I spent some time over the last few nights just experimenting with layers.

Trust me this looks better in real life, the colours aren't so harsh, and it has a feel of the Tudor rich velvet costumes and wall hangings - muted, but rich

I thought you might like to see how the layers are built up.

It started off as a piece of cream material, which I painted with suede acrylic.

Cream was stencilled on next.

Then pearlescent white.

Metallic green.

Brayered white all over.

Stencilled gold.

I now have one more layer of acrylic white to brayer on then I'll build up the layers of material.

This is Mary - she somehow managed to get on the wrong blog.

She's a very very rare little Lemon Millefleur Sablepoot.

She decided to sit right outside the conservatory window on a wall - to dry off her dirty 'boots'.

I think that she is as pretty as a picture - so I'll let her stay here!

I spent a lovely couple of hours at a flower arranging workshop this afternoon. 

It was too dark to take a decent photo of the finished work - so I'll post that on here tomorrow.