A Peacock made from Stamp Soup!

I saw the technique for making this card demonstrated about 3 weeks ago and the whole thing fascinated me so much that I tried to remember every little thing about how the demonstrator made her creation.  Now I know that I haven’t got it exactly the way she did it, but it’s close enough.

Made on an 8″x8″ scored and folded card, using Polkadoodles Stamp Soup stamps, called Regal Peacock.  But … that name really is just a suggestion, for you could make a million different creations with these stamps because the results will come from your imagination.  You and I could begin with the same stamps and yet we’d make something way different from each other.

Here ….  take a look at them:

. . . can you see the peacock stamp in there? . . .  No?  That’s probably because there isn’t one!   I used 7 different stamps to make the peacock.  You can pick them out … they’re the ones which are a little darker in colour.  I used a black Stazon Ink Pad (solvent ink) so that I could then colour the images using watercolours.

You don’t have to be ‘neat and tidy’ when painting the Peacock feathers,  just free-handed with the paint.  Then once dry, all the feathers (which were stamped onto spare card, then painted) have to be cut out and then ‘feathered’ at the edges by cutting into the images with light, small cuts.  Those peacock feathers are then adhered to the main peacock body which I’d previously stamped and coloured using the watercolour paints, directly onto the card.

Finally …. some parts of the peacock were embossed with gold and green embossing powders.

. . .  and that’s all there was to it!

Although simple to make … I had to spread it over three days so it kind of felt a little time-consuming.  All the waiting for paint to dry, and cutting out of all the feathers….  little things, but they all added up to time.  But it was a totally, thoroughly enjoyable make, I have to admit.  A lot of fun – and I can’t wait to make something else with those stamps now.

So anyway …  how the divil are you?  I feel as if we haven’t got together for a coffee and chat for weeks and weeks.

In my world … the chubby dog (aka the Belly on legs) had to go to the vet this week.  I noticed that she had some tiny patches of hair loss on her back so off to the vets we went and after some examination and a bit of testing, we were told she’s got a Bacterial Skin Infection. (That’s the dog not the vet who has the skin infection).  So we have a little bottle of stuff which we have to massage into her skin … wait 5 minutes, then thoroughly wash off.  And we were given some tablets, which she has to have twice a day.

Now she really doesn’t mind the tablets.  She’s called ‘My Little Fat Bitch‘ for a reason.  She can eat as if it’s going out of fashion, and she thinks those tablets are treats, so woofs them down!

And  . . .   she really loves the massage bit of the stuff in the bottle … but … the bit she’s not at all happy with, is the  ‘wash it all off’  bit.  She HATES the shower.  HATES it.  Did I say that strongly enough? I’m not sure I did so let me repeat myself:    SHE HATES THE SHOWER.

She’s told me time and time again;  . . .   “Belly is not designed for getting wet.  Don’t let Belly get wet.  That umbrella …. that’s for Belly. Hold it down here, over Belly – NOT over you!   Don’t let Belly Get Wet!!“ 

She SO hates getting wet that she would rather plait her legs,  (‘braids’ for folks in the USA),  than go out into the garden to have a tiddle if it’s raining outside.  This adorable, much loved pooch  even squints in the rain.  Yes, seriously. I kid ye not!

So the massage and shower isn’t the most enjoyable task … but then … I don’t have to do it.  Mr. Cobs Senior takes on that job, (bless him)  because I feel like Cruella de Vil  if I try to do it.

When it’s all over and done with … you have to see that rotund little dog absolutely barrel out of that bathroom!   She’s like a bullet out of a gun!   It’s among the funniest things to watch …  and boy can her little legs can move when she wants them to!

So anyhoo  . . .  what’s going on in your corner that you’d like to share with me while we drink the last few sips of coffee from our cups?

Won the Lottery?  Got a new job?  Sold your house?  Adopted a new pet?  Or … by any chance . . .   Does your dog have a bacterial skin infection?  Your cat?  YOU?  I can recommend a vet!   🙂

Wishing you a thoroughly enjoyable Thursday.   May the hours go as fast, or as slow, as you would like them to.  Just find the fun and enjoy it.

Be the reason someone smiles today.  Heaps of squidges from me in my corner, to you in yours.

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Wild Thing ~ an ATC for World Watercolour Month

I never, ever, ever, EVER paint cats.  Big ones  or small ones … never.  They have such lush fur and they wear it so well, that I find it really difficult to capture – even with just a pencil drawing cannot do them justice.  Therefore it’s easier to just not paint or draw them at all.

So what went wrong here then?  I don’t know.  I have no idea what form of madness came over me which made me think I could paint a leopard.

‘Wild Thing’ ~ an ATC sized painting for ~ #WorldWatercolorMonth

A pamphlet came courtesy of the postman today (Monday – as I’m typing this).  It was a crafting/painting/sewing/you name it, it covered or mentioned it.  Inside was a terrific picture of a Leopard and I sat admiring him.  Then this little stray thought came wheedling its way into my brain, and . . . the dreadful, dirty, deed was done.

I went to my craft room to paint an ATC for the World Watercolour Month Challenge and I decided I would have a bash at painting the Leopard.  What.  An.  Idiot!

I can’t paint cats of any sort.  They’re too wonderful for me to try to paint.  But I gave it a go and although the finished result isn’t a total disaster, no self-respecting Leopard would want to own up to being the Leopard which Cobs put together like some really bad painting by numbers jovial delight.

I told Mr.Cobs that I couldn’t put it on the blog as it wasn’t good enough.  He disagreed and told me to post it.  So … I’m posting it … but it’s his idea it’s here,  so we’ll blame him.

‘Wild Thing’ ~ an ATC sized painting for ~ #WorldWatercolorMonth

And that’s all there is to today’s show and tell!

Happy Tuesday!

You got past Monday then?  Good-o!  Well that means there’s only 4 days left, now that sounds MUCH better than the original 5.  Not only that, but the original 5 had that most awful of days in it … Monday.  The four days you have here doesn’t have any day beginning with the three letters:  Mon.  No ‘Mon’ at all.  None of the remaining days even have even just one of those letters in their own first three!

Check it out:   Tue.  Wed.  Thu.  Fri.  See?  No M.  No O.  and finally …. No N.  Isn’t this now the greatest week on earth, ever??!!

Wishing you a terrific Tuesday, filled with a little laughter, some lovely smiles and … a smattering of love.

Have a thoroughly groovy one, my friends ~

Melting Pot Pendants, and a Give-away!

I am the proud owner of …  a Ranger Melt Pot.  Ohh I love this toy so very much, but I hadn’t played with it for ages, until last week, when the urge suddenly hit me and I got all the equipment out and played around until I decided what to make.  You saw the card I made with the pretty leaf of all seasons on it, which I posted about on Monday of this week, and I promised to post about the other things I’d been busy as a bee making, and here I am, sharing as promised.

The photograph at the head of this post doesn’t show all the pendants I made, so I’ve taken a selection of photos, some grouped, and some single ones, so that you can get an idea of colours and sizes, and also how you can hang these pendants.

I really love the Ranger Melt Pot, however, I found out on Monday (From Beverly of More Ink Please blog) that Ranger no longer make the Melt Pot.  Something to do with the amount of quantity they require their customers to order – and it’s made the tool too expensive for lots of stores to carry.  So rather than relax the rules,  (and lower the price a little) Ranger, it appears, decided that they would no longer make it.  So I’m sorry if I get your creative juices flowing for a Melt Pot, when they’re no longer available.  However … you might be able to still buy one if you have a search around.

Right … now the bad news is over, let’s have a bit of fun shall we?  I realised the other day that we haven’t done a GIVE-AWAY in ages!  So how about we make this post a Give-away, and the winner can choose whichever pendant they would like to have, and I’ll package and post it out to who-ever wins.

All you have to do is ... in the comment section of this post, if you wish to be entered for the Give-Away, just say the word GIVE-AWAY at either the start or the end of your comment.  (Putting it at the start or end of the comment makes it easy for me to find when I’m searching and adding up how many people would like to be entered – so that I can enter that number into the Random Number Selector so that it can choose the winner).   You can, if you want, simply say just ‘GIVE-AWAY’.

I’ll leave the Give-away open until Sunday at 6pm UK time (if you need to work out what time that is where you live,  Mr.Google is very obliging – lol).

Right … enough of me blathering on.  Let’s get cracking with these pendants.  I made them all with the help of my trusty Melt Pot, and I haven’t given them names here, but just kind of labelled them so that you can tell me (if you’re the winner) which pendant you’d like!  (Oh .. and I should say that this is open to all followers – you don’t have to only live in the UK.  I’m happy to post these over-seas).

They’re all different shapes and sizes, and I’ve tried to put them next to each other so that you can gauge the difference in sizes. However, I have remembered to include a rule so that you can actually see the size.

slightly closer up so that you can see the deepness of the blue and some of the patterns which happen as the liquid is poured.

This heart has SO much depth to it.  I added some mica gold dust to the pot and it is this which I managed to catch as if ‘floating’ on the top.  The golden swirls which you see below the surface in this shot, come from some Pearl crystals which I very gently ‘dragged’ through the liquid.

A different shot of this same large heart, so that you can get a view of how the light can change the look of the colours.

This has the colours of Emerald, Gold, Russian diopside and … a whole load of other greens which are winding through the focal ‘gem’

Against a dark background so that you can see how they look against darker colours of clothes.

Now onto the little pendants.  They may be smaller, but they pack their own punch!

The ‘Little Golden Green Triangle’ – at the bottom right of this photo (above), has what looks like gold dust sprinkles over the top of it.  Sadly the photographs just don’t show it properly, but it’s really quite beautiful to the naked eye.

I forgot to include this little green oval (above) in the photo of all the little pendants, so here it is alone.  It looks like it has golden strands threading through it.  It hasn’t.  But it really does have a lot of depth to it.

The little ovals, have two hoops – one at the top and one at the bottom.  You can use these either as a bracelet – or as a pendant, as I’ve made.  The top hoop is for hanging the pendant.  The bottom hoop can have things hung from it, such as a bead, or a little bunch of beads;  a tassel;  a pearl; or, as I’ve done here as an idea – you can hang something else from it.  On the photo above,  I placed an Angel with her own hanging hoop in line with the hoop on the pendant, so that you can see how it might look to have something there.

You don’t even have to have a chain to hang your pendant on.  How about some baby ribbon, as in the photo above?  Soft on the neck too!  The choice is yours.  I’ll supply the chain, or the ribbon (in your choice of colour), so that when you receive your pendant, it’s ready to wear straight away!

The Little Golden Green Triangle.

A slightly lighter blue Little Triangle.

Please note that all the measurements on the rule are in CM (and MM) as that’s what we work in here in the UK (much to my disdain. I grew up with inches and I still can only visualise in inches – but then, I’m practically older than dirt so it figures.  😀 ) … but again, if you ask Google it will give you the conversion.

 

Some of the pendants (particularly the blues) look, in the photographs, as if they have an oily finish, or like they’re wet with something.  It’s just a trick of the light.  The way the flash has hit the surface and bounced back.  None of the pendants are oily, wet, greasy or have anything on them.  It’s just the lighting hitting them in the ‘wrong’ way.  (And I’m a rubbish photographer!).

We’ll end where we began, with a small selection.  But remember that not all the pendants are shown in this photo.  But if you look down the post, you’ll see photo’s of ones which aren’t included in the photo above.

Remember … don’t forget to include the words  ‘GIVE-AWAY’  either at the start or end of your comment so that I know to include you.

If you’re reading this on the main front page of my blog and can’t see where to post a comment, then please scroll all the way up to the title of this post, and next to it, just over a little way to the right of the words, you’ll see a pale grey flag.  Click on that flag and the post will re-load on its own page, where you’ll find the comments section at the bottom of the page, below where the post ends.  😀   Late date/time for entering is this Sunday -19th March 2017, at 6pm UK time.

Thank you so much for coming to share a coffee with me.  Want a fill up of that cup?  Biscuits?

Have a truly blessed rest of your day, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing.  Be good to each other.

 

 

Thank you for the Bluebells!

In the cottage where Mr. Cobs and I used to live we had a HUGEmongous back garden.  A tiny postage stamp sized front garden, but the back garden was fabulous.

We lived in that cottage for around 30 years, and I always said that I’d never leave it.  However, what’s that saying about the best laid  ‘schemes of mice and men’  often going awry?  My plan for never leaving the cottage totally changed when our youngest daughter got married and moved to the end of the planet.  (Well no, not quite, it was only to the end of the country – but it felt like another planet altogether).  She missed us, and the dogs, and the cats ….  and … oh, everything!  This missing us was making her dreadfully miserable, even though we travelled to see her and she to see us.  Eventually we made the big decision that we’d sell up and move to live near her and our new son-in-law.

We’d said many, many years ago (when we were young and full of pie in the sky ideas) that maybe, possibly, perhaps,  one day we might like to live by the sea, but we’d long forgotten that, and besides which, we’d grown older and less inclined to ‘up-sticks’.  But anyway,  … our cottage was sold, and we bought a new place near our daughter and son-in-law and moved lock, stock and … all our animals. 

The long distance move was quite an ‘experience’ – but I’ll save that amusing, hair-raising tale for another day.

We’ve made friends with our new neighbours – all of them are just the most lovely folks, and we’re really settling in here in our new home and it’s feeling more like ‘us’.

I happened to admire some bluebells in one of my neighbours gardens, telling her how I missed the bluebells in my old garden.  So she did no more than …  gave me some of hers!  I was beside myself with thanks to her.  Mr. Cobs planted them in the rear garden and … the dog thought they were a new place to pee and killed the darn things.

My neighbour gave us some more some weeks ago.  This time we planted bundles of them in the garden to the front of our new cottage, and just a few in the rear garden (and are keeping a close eye on the dog!).

The bluebells looked a little limp and very sad.  All the leaves were just lying around on the ground like wilted things and I honestly thought we were going to lose them all.  But suddenly … a spike appeared.  Then another.  And another  and …. they looked like they were going to flower!  AND …  joy of joys …  … THEY DID!  They all began to flower.

I decided that I’d make a ‘Thank You’ card for my neighbour, and would take some photographs of the little bluebells for her, to include in the card.

So this, dear reader, is the story of how this card came to be, and how I went about making it.

Hand painted by Cobs.

I wanted the card to be very personal.  Something where the ‘elements’ were a little more personal so that my neighbour would see that this really was a thank you from my heart.  I began by painting a little bundle of bluebells – in a very light-hearted, kind of country style / folksy art way.  (Country / folk art style painting is so much more friendly and less ‘formal’, don’t you think?).

Then I tried something I’ve never done before ….  making felt flowers.

I made some bluebells from felt, wire and florist tape, then set this on one side for later.

I’d chosen to make a 6″x6″ white card as a base, and mat and layer onto the front of the card with something fresh and pretty as a background.

I stitched around the card I’d chosen for matting and layering on the card stock, in zig zag stitching.

Fashionistas always say you shouldn’t mix spots and stripes.  I say … ‘do whatever feels good’.  So I matched spotty card with gingham! (see above photo – the gingham is down in the left corner).

I stitched around the watercolour card in straight stitch, on the sewing machine.

I cut a slightly larger than the card size piece of green Organza ….

Green Organza, into which I hand sewed a running stitch and then pulled on the ends of he thread to gather the Organza up a little to make it look a bit scrunched and folded, behind the card.

Showing you the white base card, with the gingham mounted on top.

Before I layered the spotty card onto the gingham, I distressed the edges and then using a duster brush, to give the card a more vintage feel, using some warm brown ink from a StazOn ink pad.

See the ‘gathered’/folded organza?
I added a rough cut piece of muslin behind the painted bluebells, and added some deep blue paper ribbon, which I wrapped around the watercolour card twice and added the bow.
I then added some cotton lace to the bottom of the card.

Then it was time for me to build the idea I’d had when I first thought of making this very special thank you card.

I knew I wanted it to have a vintage feel, to almost feel like it came from the 40’s or 50’s.  I chose all my flowers, and knew that I had some wooden plant markers in my craft room somewhere … finding them was going to be the tricky part.  Would you believe it!  I found them in the very first place I looked!  (That NEVER happens normally!)

My very most favourite part of card making … adding the ‘decorations’.

I added the little nest with the three bird eggs, by using my hot glue gun.  It’s a very light weight decoration, so doesn’t make the card heavy.  The flowers are all from my stash and bought from various places.

The little dragonfly is a metal, Tibetan Silver embellishment. The white fuzzy ‘flowers’ you see are a type of Gypsophila, which I’ve only recently discvered and absolutely love them. They make things so pretty, and give so much more depth to a floral ‘arrangement’ on a card.

The wooden plant sticks are blank – but you can change that really simply by either writing on them yourself (if you have a steady hand) or … choose a font on your computer, print the word(s) out that you wish to have on your plant stick and simply glue the word onto it!

Close up of the tiny boots.

The two Wellington boots are metal, Tibetan Silver, and actually do stand up all by themselves!  I hung them on some silver chain – leftover from my days of jewellery making, and added the Rayon Seam Binding bow, in a deep blue colour.

I’d made the card so that it was a pocket card (with an easel stand to the back so that it stood up all by itself), and made two tags for inside the pocket.  One was to be a bookmark, and the other was for photographs and the dedication (the ‘to’, ‘from’ etc).

Showing one side of the Tags

You can click on any/all of these photographs and they’ll open up to a much bigger photo which you can see a little more easily if you wish.

One side of the bookmark

The bookmark is double-sided.  On this side (shown above) I’ve used two stamps from the ‘Floral Sentiments’ Vintage Collection which I stamped in black, and also another stamp called ‘Parchment Script’ made by Image Tree, which I embossed using Gold embossing powder.  I also stamped two tiny butterflies from a collection by Cavallini, which I embossed using Copper Kettle embossing powder.

The other side of the tags

On the reverse side of the larger tag I stamp some card with a Postcard stamp (by Urban), which is where I wrote the ‘to ….. from ….’ –  and on the reverse side of the bookmark; I computer made the little picture of the bunch of bluebells teamed with part of a poem written by Anne Bronte′.

If you click on this photograph it will open up into a much bigger view, and you’ll be able to read the poem.

Click on the photo ↑  to make it bigger – but don’t forget to click ‘back’ to come back again!

The photographs mounted onto the larger tag

I took a handful of photographs of the bluebells blooming in my garden, chose the best three, then resized them on my computer to make them smaller, and kind of cuter, and added them to the one side of the larger tag.  Oh … I forgot to say  . . .   I stamped that word  ‘Photographs’ – using a Tim Holtz stamp.

Close up of the photographs.
click on the photo to make it bigger – but remember to click ‘back’ to continue reading

Obviously, a card with a bird’s nest on the front isn’t going to fit into an envelope!  I had to make a deep box …..

I didn’t want to make the box in the same colours,  but I did want the box and card to ‘speak’ to each other and have things in common  . . .  so I used dotty card – only this time in deep purple, and stamped all around the outside of the box with bird themed stamps.  Bird Nests.  Bird Houses, Dove Cotes.  Birds on nests in branches ….  etc.  And just for a bit of fun, I added the little resin birds nest to the lid of the box.  I added the little topper of a Garden Shed and made the bunting from scraps of different colours of dotty card, hand stamped with the letters from the alphabet to spell out ‘THANK YOU’.

Do you remember those felt bluebells I made, right at the start?  Well … there they are.  On that box lid.

A close up of the felt bluebells.

The colours of the bluebells aren’t actually quite as shocking as in the photographs of them.  The flash obviously surprised them and make them a little more flamboyant than they really are.  lol.

When I took the card over to my neighbour, she was absolutely thrilled with it, but as surprised as surprised could be that I’d made the card myself.  She exclaimed …. “You made this??”   …  then a few moments later  …  “And you actually made this??”  ….  then  ….  “I can’t believe you made this.  It’s wonderful!” …  … which I didn’t take offence at, I just giggled my head off.  (Although I do wonder what I look like I make in my craft room  People probably think I make a mess more than I make anything else!  LOL …  Hmm,  actually, looking at my craft room – they’d be right! eek!)

Well that’s it.  That’s the story of this card, and how it came to be.  OH!  I nearly forgot to tell you …  my neighbour said:  “You couldn’t have brought this on a better day…  it’s my Birthday tomorrow!”.  Awww, I was filled with fun bubbles when she said this.  She would have an extra card on the shelf!

Thank you SO much for coming to visit.  I love seeing and chatting with you all via comments.  It makes blog land such a wonderful place to be in.  I’ve made some really fabulous friends and blogging buddies, and I never guessed that I would when I first began this blog, just over a year ago.  So thank you for making this dotty old card makers days even more brilliant!

Sending love, and wishing you all …. a truly blessed rest of your day!