Pearls – The Art of Cobwebs

Altered Spoons – Cobwebs Spoonie Spoons

In my last post I told The Story of the Spoons, which, if you missed it, or would like a refresh of the story, you can find HERE. (it will open up in a new window for you).

I shared a glimpse, at the end of The Spoon Story, of my own personal spoons which related to me and my own story, and promised that I would share each of the spoons in the photograph with you in a separate blog post — and here I am, as promised, sharing my spoons.

In the photograph above, I’ve numbered each spoon so that you can check it against which spoon you’re reading about and looking at. There are 12 (twelve) spoons in total and each one is decorated differently than any other in the set, and each of them has a meaning to me. I’ll give a little explanation of each spoon as I share them. Shall we get on with it?

SPOON 1

The photo on the left shows spoon 1 and a spoon before I’ve given it a make-over. (The purple rule at the bottom is showing measurements in centimetres).

The close up photo on the right, is the best one out of about ten that I took. I think it’s the glitter which made this spoon difficult for the camera to know where to focus. All that twinkling.

The spoon was coloured using Alcohol Inks, then the bowl of the spoon was treated to three different colours of glitter, and I would like to believe it looks like a magical Fairy sky would look at Sunset, with twinkles of many colours. The crescent moon is a Tibetan Silver charm, of which:- the moon part I covered in very fine silver glitter dust. The bright yellow/gold, is a star. And the Fairy Wings were given a white glitter covering.

SPOON 2

Spoon 2. This second spoon talks of my love of Poppies.

My mother grew some spectacular Poppies in her garden, and after she passed, Mr.Cobs collected the dried out Poppy heads so that I could grow her Poppies in our garden. And then, after we sold our old cottage a few years ago, Mr.Cobs made sure that I had a plentiful supply of Poppy seeds from dried out Poppy heads to take 200 miles to our new cottage and we began to grow those Poppies all over again in our new garden, here in ‘Cobweb Cottage’.

The handle of the spoon is painted in the Poppies and the colours of them – red, black and yellow – using alcohol inks. The Poppy in the bowl of the spoon is decoupaged, using printed tissue paper and Modge Podge. The plant pot on the bowl of the spoon which the poppy is ‘growing’ out of, was made by me from clay and I ‘mossed’ it up a little to give it a bit of texture.

SPOON 3

Spoon 3: Spoon three is about being a Spoonie – as you might have guessed by the teeny tiny spoon on the handle. I talked about and explained what being a Spoonie was in my last post: The Story of the Spoons (link supplied in the first paragraph of this post). The colours of the spoon don’t quite show up as the true colours – but they represent pain, discomfort, golden days of fabulousness, and a touch of black because pain can be a real meanie. The teeny tiny spoon on the handle basically tells you what the tea-spoon is about. Again, the colour on the spoon are made using alcohol inks.

SPOON 4

Spoon 4 is Butterflies. I love butterflies. They have a love of life which shows itself in the way they get so excited when they’re flying. It’s as if, with every flap of their wings, they’re mind-blowing, excitedly saying, over and over, “I’m alive! I’m Alive! I’M ALIVE!”.

I think it was my very first visit to a Butterfly Farm many years ago, which sealed the deal for me regarding butterflies. I never knew there were SO many truly AMAZING species of butterflies in the world, and … I found out on that visit, that some butterflies love painted toe nails!! One butterfly kept me captive, sat on a bench, with my leg stretched out, while it investigated the pinky red nail polish which I had on my toes. I think it was at that moment that my heart was stolen by that butterfly and I have an allegiance to them for ever more.

Spoon 4 was created using Alcohol Inks, and I decoupaged the bowl of the spoon. The silver butterfly is a Tibetan silver charm, and I added those teeny tiny balls, in three colours. There’s a name for those teeny tiny balls, and right at this moment of typing I cannot remember what the dickens they’re called. (sigh – brain fog). If any of you can remember, do give my brain a prod in a comment, and I’ll add it here. (Big Thank You in advance!)

MICRO BEADS!!! They’re called Micro Beads! I would dearly love to tell you that my brain started working again, but I won’t tell fibs. It was the FANTABULOUS BEVERLY PARKISON from More Ink Please who has a fully working brain and instantly knew what these brilliant beads are called. Thank you Bev! ❤

SPOON 5

Spoon 5 . . awww, I love, love, love this spoon. It’s WAY prettier and filled with heaps more magic, than the photo’s show it to be. It’s what I think a Galaxy should look like. And … Magic. I reckon every magic spell should work only after you’ve waved your wand and a flash of magic happens in the colours and ‘amazingness’ of that spoon.

The colours are all made using alcohol inks, and I then added different types of glitters and teeny, tiny sequins to, and finished it off with some flat backed pearls on the handle.

SPOONs 6 and 7

Spoon 6 (above) – is one of a pair. There’s Mr.Bear (as seen on Spoon 6 above), and there is a Mrs.Bear which is . . . SPOON 7 (below)

These bear spoons talk about my affection for Teddy Bears. Not all of them, but there are some bears which ‘speak’ to me and it’s those bears which I fall in love with. I don’t collect bears though.

I still have my very first Teddy Bear which was given to me not long after I was born, and is actually older than me – (so there IS something which is older than dirt then!). As a child I loved that bear so much and he went everywhere with me. Many years have passed since I arrived on this planet, and I still love him (‘Teddy’ – his name is simply ‘Teddy’) just as much now, and there are times that I will pick him up and give him a hug – just like I used to all those years ago.

I did have another bear, bought as a Christmas gift by Mr.Cobs, some years ago. However, one incredible little boy, Grandson: Little Cobs, fell in love with him and, following an urgent phone call one night from his mummy, I ended up driving like a speed demon, carrying a certain bear on board, to Daughter (No.2) and Son-in-laws house and taking that bear to a sobbing Little Cobs. He apparently couldn’t continue in life without it. Being 2 years old, as he was at the time, is so tough. 😉

Mr and Mrs. Bear spoons were both made using alcohol inks and decoupaged with bear patterned tissue paper, and finally, some of those tiny beads (which I still can’t remember the name of). amended to add: They’re called Micro Beads – thank you Beverly Parkison of More Ink Please, for your brain power!

SPOON 8

Spoon 8 . . . tells of my incredulous awe of Dragonflies. I LOVE them! They’re the most astonishing, magical little creatures, made by One who knows more than any artist will ever know.

Dragonfly’s are incredible insects and I am convinced that they’re magical beasts made for fairyland flight. (hey, Goblins and the like, who have no wings, have to get around somehow!)

Alcohol Inks were used to create the magical colours to spoon 8.

SPOON 9

Spoon 9 . . . kind of speaks for itself. It has a Cobweb (guess why) on the handle, and a tiny handmade (by me) Fairy House nestled in the bowl of the spoon.

I couldn’t get all the colours to shown up in the photo’s, but there’s blue, green, red, yellow, and peach – all of which were obtained using Alcohol Inks. The bowl of the spoon is decoupaged in tissue and the tiny Fairy Home is finally attached to the bowl.

SPOON 10

Spoon 10 . . . well there had to be a ‘loving spoon’ somewhere in the mix, because ‘love’ is what I’m all about! Again, this spoon has some really beautiful colours to the handle, and I love the way the Alcohol Inks blended together in the forming of the pattern down the handle.

The bowl of the spoon was decoupaged with tissue, and I added a wiggly line of three different colours of glitter all around the edge of the spoon. Finally, I fixed the pink gemstone heart, set in a rose gold colour metal bezel, to the centre of the bowl, added two gems to the handle and VOILA! Spoon 10 was complete.

SPOON 11

Spoon 11 … is another spoon which features a Dragonfly. But this one is flying ….and there’s a story behind it:

I once captured a dragonfly – well … I’m not really sure I ‘captured’ it or if it simply wanted me to share its beauty. . . .

It landed on the windowsill outside the dining room window, and I put my hand slowly and carefully next to it as you would if you wanted a bird to step onto your hand. The dragonfly did that very thing, and I then got Mr.Cobs to put some leaves into a large round glass vase thing. I offered up the big glass bowl/vase to the dragonfly and . . . he walked in!!! (The dragonfly walked in, not Mr.Cobs! eeek! lol).

I knew that Daughter No.2 would have loved to have seen it, but she was only (around) 8 years old at the time, and it was a school day . . . the school was only across the road. . . and I was known at the school as I did some voluntary teaching there with children who had learning difficulties, . . . so . . . I walked the glass vase/bowl over the road to the school, knocked on the classroom door and spoke to the teacher, showing her what I’d got. She was thrilled to bits, and asked if perhaps I would leave it with them for the afternoon. I did …. and then when I collected daughter No.2 at the end of the day I took the vase/bowl outside and we released the dragonfly together. He took off and we watched him until we could see him no more.

That Dragonfly put a memory in my heart so strong and so magical, that I simply had to dedicate a spoon to it.

And finally . . .

SPOON 12

Spoon 12. . . the final spoon in the set of twelve spoons, and is a celebration of my love of Pearls. I have long strings of pearls, short sets of pearls; medium lengths of Pearls. One strand, two strands, three strands and four strands.

I have my Grandmothers Pearls (which I got married in, despite everyone telling me that it was bad luck to wear pearls on your Wedding Day). I’ve got Pearl Earrings – drops, studs and clips, and pearls in different colours. I have rings with pearls in them – my oldest is a Pearl and Ruby ring bought for me for Mothers Day when our girls were little.

And I have a brand new set of Pearls, shorter than my smallest set, but they’re BIG pearls and the lustre is like they’ve been dusted in Fairy Dust. They were bought for me as an early Christmas Present, last month. I saw them, fell in loooooooove with them, and then discovered that they were (just for ten days) on sale at 50% off! BARGAIN OF THE YEAR! Mr.Cobs said ‘yes’ straight away when I mentioned them to him, and so the deal was done.

I only have one set of ‘pretend’ pearls – which I wear when I’m with Little Cobs. Not saying that he would break them – but I would cry a lot less about those being broken than I would about any of my other pearls being broken.

BIG TIP OF THE DAY .. for all you fellow necklace of any sort wearers: If ever you break your string of beads or pearls, and A) can’t get them re-strung for whatever reason; and B) don’t have the special beading string to re-string them with; then you can use the second best thing…. Dental Floss to re-string them yourself!

Yes, I kid ye not. Dental floss is really strong and thin enough to go through a bead/pearl and hold a whole length of beads/pearls.

And that’s it. Cobs Spoons because she’s a spoonie. (again, if you don’t know what that is, see the link at the top of this post and you’ll be able to read).

Of course … you don’t have to be a Spoonie to have a set of decorated spoons. You could have a set just to celebrate who you are. Or maybe tell a story which is a favourite of yours or someone elses: Maybe Christmas Bear Spoons?: Night Before Christmas Spoons?: Hungry Caterpillar Spoons?: Harry Potter Spoons: Wuthering Heights Spoons?: Apostle Spoons? – or any thing, any person, any story etc etc which means something to you.

You could make one, two, three or as many spoons as you would like, to keep or to give as a gift to someone else. For a child. A Wedding Couple. Anniversary. Birthday (maybe even give one each year). Easter. Christmas. Spoons in a theme – cats; dogs; birds; cars; fancy handbags; expensive shoes; etc. A spoon for a nurse, your doctor, your childs teachers. ANYONE. Obviously, if it’s a gift you’re going to want to present it nicely, simply wrapped in beautiful tissue and a ribbon. But it would make such a great gift and because you were making it for a particular person, for a particular reason, it would be personal, and how much more perfect could that be?!!

Do let me know if you feel inspired to make a spoon or two. You don’t have to spend tons of money. Just some Tissue Paper, some Modge Podge, maybe a little glitter or a small decoration (try looking for junk jewellery at your charity shop which you can break apart and use some of the elements from), and that could be all you need! Obviously you can get as decorative as you like. But these metal spoons are a really easy project to make. Even a total non-crafter could make these. Truthfully.

Thank you so much for coming and spending some time with me. It’s great to have your company.

Wishing you a blessed rest of your day, and a truly fabulous new week . . .

[Cobwebs: Cleverly Disguised as an Adult]

It was a book – and now it’s a card!

Firstly … sorry to still be posting Christmas cards, in the middle of January, but this was one which I couldn’t post before Christmas as it would have spoilt the surprise, so sharing it with you now.

Originally this was a children’s book called Dear Zoo.

It was one of those books which is ‘interactive’. It had opening doors on each page. So I began by cutting those doors out so that the pages lay closely together.

I set to work and first measured out how much of a section I wanted to cut out of the book in order to leave the right size ‘hole’ inside the card/book at the end. Once I’d cut through the pages, I then glued and used double-sided tape to ensure that the pages I wanted to stay shut actually stay that way.

Then … I went to town. Papers, card, ribbons, flowers, baubles, a sleigh, handmade hearts, berries, printed pictures from a CD Rom, cutting, pearls, snowflakes, die cutting … you name it, I think I probably either did it or thought about doing it.

Mr. Cobs Christmas 2017 2 — Inside, showing page 1, of the book/card.

I die cut the Christmas trees, then painted them roughly with a little paint then once dry I added some dimensional ‘snow’ and added a little twinkling glitter. While those dried I stamped the blue backing paper with clear embossing ink and added some softly twinkly embossing powder so that it gave the background a bit of twinkle. The snowflakes are all die cuts too.

Mr. Cobs Christmas 2017 3 — Inside of the book/card – page 2

I printed this page (above) three times, and cut out various parts of the page so that I could do a little decoupage and give the page some depth.

I added a little white glitter here and there, on these layers, just to catch the light and again, add some depth.

Mr. Cobs Christmas 2017 4 — The back of the card/book

The spine of the book (and spreading round to the front and back) … when you see it in real life, looks like leather. It’s not. It’s actually made from regular craft card and glycerine. (and an embossing folder – but you can use any embossing folder you like). I won’t bore you to death with a ‘how to’, because people have posted how to’s about doing it all over the web. But instead, I’ll give you a video of the fabulous lady who taught me how to make this faux leather: (her name is Sheena Douglass and she’s Scottish – so give yourself chance to adjust to her accent and you’ll be fine then). . .

And that’s all there was to it!

Have to admit that the most difficult bit was actually cutting through those individual pages. Coooo, those were thick and really tough work. But then … I’m a bit of a weakling so taking the top off a bottle can challenge me most days! tsk tsk. drat these muscleless arms!

Well .. it’s Tuesday (or Chewsday as my friend pronounces it), and I think we need a little Tuesday fun, so here are a few jokes to turn the corners of your mouth up . . .

Why don’t you ever see hippopotamus hiding in trees? Because they’re really good at it.
How does NASA organise their company parties? They planet.
My friend recently got crushed by a pile of books, but he’s only got his shelf to blame.
What did Jay-Z call his girlfriend before they got married? Feyoncé.
What do you call dangerous precipitation? A rain of terror.
What do you call a big pile of kittens? A meowntain.
…. and finally ….
Atheism is a non-prophet organisation.

Well even if only one of them made you smile, then I’ve done my job. 😀

Thank you so much for coming. I love seeing you here. Each blog post is, for me, like opening up my front door and waiting for you to arrive . . . and then you all come, one by one, and stop for a coffee with me. I just love it. (and I love it even more when you stay for a chat – so please feel free to chat away in comments. I can promise I’ll reply because, as everyone will tell you, I love to chat!) 😀

Have a truly blessed rest of your day!

Wishes of Joy, Love and Peace via a Christmas Card!

I received an email telling me that another of my cards, which I’d made and sent to the USA, had arrived! I cannot begin to tell you how filled with gratitude I am when I hear that something has arrived. I think maybe it’s more of a joy to me when I’ve actually made something and put all my love into making that item for a special person.

This card was made for my most favourite of Rabbits. Rabbit of Rabbit Patch Diaries. She’s a wonderful writer and has this magical way of picking me up and carrying me along with her as I read her posts. Aww, I love her to pieces.

I wanted to make her a card for Christmas and send it to her, so I asked if I could, and she said yes! I went to work and this is the card I made especially for my fabulous Rabbit blogging friend….

The hearts, reading Joy, Love and Peace, are hearts I made myself, from a very lightweight, white clay. Once they were dry (I always leave it for 24 hours), I coloured up the hearts using ‘Buff It’ (made by Pinflair). The ‘Joy’ heart was done in Gold Buff It. The middle (Love) heart was coloured using Red Buff It, and the ‘Peace’ heart was coloured using Pearl Buff It.

The Poinsettia flowers are handmade, with yellow glass beads at their centres, and they were kissed by the snow. (Or rather: stuff I used as pretend snow).

Behind the flowers and leaves is a little muslin, some loofah strands, green moss, and some twigs – which are from my garden. I was helped in the collection of said twigs, by Little Cobs. He wasn’t quite as selective with the size of the twigs as he was with the collection of “tiny pine cones”, which I told you about a couple of days ago. I was getting what could only be described as branches. Large branches. The type you’d make a fire with, but not the type you’d glue to a card. Bless him.

There are pine cones fixed to the card, and you can just about see them in the photographs. These pine cones were collected by Little Cobs, in his tin bucket, from the garden.

Finally … I added a string of creamy pearls in different sizes. Just to add a touch of ladylike glamour to the card. What can I say…. I’m a twin set and pearls sort of gal. And then I ended the card making session with ‘snow’. (The same ‘snow’ which kissed the poinsettia flowers earlier on).

And that’s all there was to it! 😀

The card was my way of saying ‘Thank You’ to Rabbit for all the enjoyment I get from reading her posts. So .. Thank You Rabbit.

The joy I receive from your blog posts is beyond measure. Each post is book ended with love, and, when I get to the end of each post, it leaves me both filled with peace, and not wanting it to end. Almost like a book that one is enjoying so much, that one doesn’t want the books final page to arrive.

Thank you Rabbit, for the wonderful reads, and ….oh, for so, so much more. May God Bless and keep you, my friend.

And … Thank You my lovely reader, so much for coming and sharing some time with me. It’s especially lovely to see you here I think because it’s Christmas. It’s always so lovely to see friends at any time, but to see them at Christmas time is like a gift. You and your time, are as a gift to me. So thank you, from my heart, for coming and spending some of your time with me.

Sending love, squidges and Christmas wishes ~

Live your Dreams ~ Mixed Media Tag Art

I don’t venture this far into Mixed Media normally but I needed to break away from the madness of Christmas Card Making (yes, it has begun). There’s nothing like getting almost all your crafty stash out on your desk in order to choose bits and bobs to team together so you can make a bit of Mixed Art, to stop you from becoming stir crazy when trying to produce many greetings cards which are all different, but on the same ‘theme’.

I began with a plain tag. The tag itself is quite a large-sized plain Kraft tag, from a book of Tags made by Craftwork Cards – which I bought quite some time ago, and am just coming to the end of the book.

To begin with I applied Gesso all over the tag, followed by; crackle medium; paint; some gauze; and once dry, I added a variety of doodads, trinkets, baubles, etc, in wood, metal, plastic and added a variety of sizes, shapes, and colours of pearls and glass beads.

I then used Brusho’s Crystal Powders (which I’ve talked about before on the blog here so won’t bore you to death banging on about how brilliant they are) to add colour and give the tag added depth.

The ‘Live Your Dreams’ message looks like a printed bit of paper in the photos, but in fact it’s actually an acrylic cabochon, which has a ‘diamond cut’ effect. I managed to take a close up with the flash on and I think you can see it a little better here….

…. all those white diamond lines are the ‘cuts’ of the cabochon.

I know the finished tag looks like it would be really thick and very weighty, .. but it’s actually not. Take a look …

I don’t often wander into Mixed Media Art, simply because I have no idea what to do with the art after it’s all finished! Although I love to play and make it … it doesn’t really ‘suit’ my wee cottage . . . so I have no idea what I’m going to do with whatever I’ve made, and … there are only so many bits of stuff that I can pass onto family before they begin to groan at the words: “I’ve made this thing … and I wondered . . .”.

So … I have another bit of artwork to add to the box labelled: ‘Pop it in here for Now’.

Anyhoo . . . HAPPY MONDAY! Thank you so much for coming for a visit. 🤗 Monday hugs to you. …. and … a joke: What do you call a tick that lives on the moon? A lunatic. Think about it … think some more … THERE Y’ GO! (I heard the penny drop from here!!)

I hope you have a truly great start to your week. May the rain (if you get any) be soft on your skin. May the sun warm up your world in such a way that it makes your mood bright. And may you find plenty of places to discover joy, love, kindness and gentle words.

Be nice to each other. It makes the world a far happier place to live in.

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Don’t let life ruffle your feathers! A Fairy Dress ATC

I got involved with the World Watercolour Challenge in July, but I, being me, took it a step further and challenged myself to paint only in ATC (Artist Trading Cards) size, which is just 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. Now although I failed on some of the paintings, I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed myself. It’s ages since I painted so picking up the brushes again was such a joy to me.

However … in the comments, I got into various chats about ATC’s and tried to explain that if you fancied making an ATC, you didn’t have to paint in order to make them. You could glue, stick, adhere, ~ paper, magazine cut-outs, tissue, die cuts, anything basically. And attach all sorts of things. You can make a picture, a statement, a quote, or even a whole story on your ATC.

To try to show you what I mean, I made a quick to make ATC … it could be kept exactly as it is, and stored in a collectors folder. Or you can give ATC’s away to friends, family etc. Or you can swap them with other ATC makers. Or … you could use them on a handmade card or in a scrapbook.

Ruffle Your Feathers Flash — Don’t let life RUFFLE your feathers ~ photograph taken with the flash on.

First I made the fairy dress, out of bluey green feathers, a sticker and black card, and using a plain white card, pre-cut to ATC size (2.5″x3.5″).

I firstly coloured the ATC card using two different blues – one was called Freshly Washed Jeans – the other … I’m going to have to call Teal – it was ink left on a bit of sponge, which I’d saved in a sealed plastic bag (I’m such a thrifter!). Then using an embossing ink and gold Tonic embossing powder, I embossed all around the edge of the card.

Ruffle Your Feathers Bulb Desk Lamp — photograph taken using a bulb light desk lamp only.

I stamped the ‘message’ ~ “Don’t let life RUFFLE your feathers”, and stamped a feather over it. Then added the three pearl gems in contrasting colours.

Aw…. nearly forgot … before I began this ATC … I back-stamped it using my favourite ATC stamp:

ATC Backstamp — an ATC back-stamp. Used on the rear of Artist Trading Cards, so that the piece of art work can be traced back to the artist who made the ATC.

I tend to stamp my ATC cards on the back before I begin my art work … but I’ve been known to forget and if you do it’s easily solved. You stamp your ATC stamp onto some plain white paper, fill in the details and cut it out to the exact size and simply glue it to the back of your ATC.

And that’s all there was to it!

Well, it’s Monday again. A brand new week, fresh out of the box and gifted to us to do with as we will. Do something good today. Make your day a memorable one. See if you can do something which will make another person smile. It could be a work colleague, a friend, a relative or a complete stranger. Whoever it is … make them smile. Do whatever you can, with what you have available to you. Just make someone smile today and make it a memorable day for you, and for them.

Sending a whole ton of squidges, all sent out in various directions around the globe, in the hope of one of them getting to you and making you smile too. If you’re smiling right now … then one has already reached you.

Have a groovy day … a memorable, groovy day.

The Friday Post: Education of the more entertaining type.

Arms folded, backs straight. Are you ready for your Friday educationamalisation?

Gynotikolobomassophile: Is a real word and it means: Someone who likes to nibble on a woman’s earlobe.

Netting is used for more than just catching fish.

There is a place in Peru where they have strung up netting to capture the mist as it rolls in from the sea, which in turn gives them water to use for their crops and plants.

Honest Injun! It’s the truth. They really do use nets to capture mist.

Read more about it here:- news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8297276.stm
God supplies you with what you need … you just have to sometimes make a bit of an effort in order to help yourself to get it.

All the planets in the solar system rotate anticlockwise, except Venus. It is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won’t have to pick the little “stringy things” off of it. That’s how the primates do it.

The waste produced by one chicken in its lifetime could power a 100W bulb for 5 hours

You know how sometimes, as you fall asleep, you will feel your legs jerk powerfully. This is usually accompanied by a dream about falling. Have you ever wondered why this happens?
Well….

This is called a Hypnic Jerk. When you go to sleep at night your brain paralyses your body to stop you acting out all your dreams. It would be dangerous to act out everything that happens in your dreams, especially if you were running or fighting, not just for whoever shares your bed, but also for yourself. It’s thought that this ‘sleep paralysis’ evolved when we slept in trees, as acting out your dreams whilst sleeping high up in the branches would be even more dangerous than doing so while tucked up in bed!

As this system kicks in, you can sometimes have these hypnic jerks, where all the muscles contract suddenly and violently. For some reason, these are often associated with dreams of falling.

According to Wikipedia, pareidolia is “a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (usually an image) being mistakenly perceived as recognizable.”

One common form of pareidolia is seeing faces in objects (like the flying spaghetti monster on a tortilla, or the face of a cookie monster on a pizza).

There actually, is an excellent book filled with pictures of faces on objects, called Faces. However.. I’ve found a Flickr gallery, belonging to someone called Jim Leftwich, who has been taking his own pictures of faces for a while. The photos are all whimsical and surprising! www.flickr.com/photos/jimwich/sets/796304/

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty (50) years of age or older.

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum.

The King of Hearts is the only king WITHOUT A MOUSTACHE

Most dust particles in your house are made from DEAD SKIN!

The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
So did the first ‘ Marlboro Man.’

Pearls melt in Vinegar

and finally …..

Thing that I learned this week …
….. if you get toothpaste on the tip of your nose; if you don’t get it off quickly enough, the tip of your nose goes numb.

I am contractually obliged to make you laugh, so here’s the best joke I could come up with at this moment in time…

This is silly, but funny!

A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her nameplate that her name is Patricia Whack.

“Miss Whack, I’d like to get a $30,000 loan to take a holiday.”

Patty looks at the frog in disbelief and asks his name. The frog says his name is Kermit Jagger, his dad is Mick Jagger, and that it’s okay, he knows the bank manager.

Patty explains that he will need to secure the loan with some collateral.

The frog says, “Sure. I have this,” and produces a tiny porcelain elephant, about an inch tall, bright pink and perfectly formed.

Very confused, Patty explains that she’ll have to consult with the bank manager and disappears into a back office.

She finds the manager and says, “There’s a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000, and he wants to use this as collateral.”

She holds up the tiny pink elephant. “I mean, what in the world is this?”

(you’re going to love this)

(it’s a real treat)

(a masterpiece)

(wait for it) . . .

The bank manager looks back at her and says…

“It’s a knickknack, Patty Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man’s a Rolling Stone.”

(You’re singing it, aren’t you? Yeah, I know you are…)…

Wishing you a truly fabulous Friday, and a wonderful Weekend. Be kind to each other …. and to yourself, and … don’t take life too seriously.

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Teachers help little ones to Bloom and Grow!

Daughter No.2 is Little Cobs’ (my Grandson) Mummy. She’s not been too well and I knew she was in a pickle to get out to buy thank you cards for teachers and helpers at the end of term time for Little Cobs. (Why she doesn’t just get all her cards from me -f.o.c. – is a mystery!). So I offered to make the cards. She needed three altogether and she left it up to me to design and make them. (she trusts me! Yup, she’s crazy, I know!)

So for his teacher, who he loves, worships and adores to the moon and back … I made this card….

… Made using Altenew Stamps (roses). I decided upon the wording first, – oh, and where it says ‘Little Cobs’ on the photo there … in real life it actually has his name there, in the same font as the one I used for the sentiment, just smaller in size. It says beneath his name, if you can’t quite read it: aged 6 – because he is! See … he and I are so close in age (’cause I’m 7 as you know) and this is why we get along so well and understand each other. 😀

Once the sentiment was printed, I stamped the images – 6 roses and some leaves, and then onto some spare card, I stamped two more roses, and fussy cut those out then added double-sided foam tape to the back to fix them to the card, in order to give it a little dimension.

To finish the front off, I added some Aurora Borealis sequins and a sprinkle of pearls in three different sizes.

The back of the card … well I resisted the urge to write: Made by Grammy Cobs …. and instead did the proper thing …

… if you can’t read it, try this one – I blew it up a little ….

And that … is all there was to it! To be truthful, it sounds harder than it really is. There are two more cards, but I need to re-size photo’s of those so it’s just ‘Show and Tell’ for this one today. 😀

There was sadly no painting going on over the weekend as I had a doozer of a headache and even the thought of painting was too much. I doubt I could have come up with an idea to make into a picture other than black, black and more black.

But normal service is resumed today. I began to paint earlier but then ended up having a mega chat via text messages with daughter. It would have been so much easier had I spoken to her on the phone – and darn quicker too.

These kids now, they have this monkey thing going on with their thumbs and can type out a chapter of a book quicker than I can find my smilies on my phone to add to a three word message! I’m just tooo s…..l….o…..w at texting. Typing on a proper key board I’m fine at. I’m a trained touch typist. (not bragging, just tellin’ ya) But longish nails combined with teeny tiny keys and then add a sprinking of idiot to the mix – all that, in charge of a cell phone, – well let’s just say it doesn’t make the perfect scenario!

So anyhoo… … I began to paint, but ended up having to pack things away and continue the hour-long texting session. However, … I’ll be back in my craft room tomorrow and hopefully finish the painting off and photos will follow.

For the girls reading: It’s a watercolour life study of a naked man – Mr.Cobs posed.
For the men … it’s a painting of a Kentucky Fried Chicken Family Bucket, with a bottle of Coke sat next to it.

… (and if you believe it’s either of those things then you’ll also believe I can knit jelly!)

In the meantime … Have a Happy Tuesday. Be kind. Be brave. Be beautiful. Be you. For you are truly amazing, just the way you are.

Thank you for coming. It means the world to me to see you.

Have a good day, where ever you are. And where ever you are, may your God go with you.

If Love is Blind, then why is Lingerie so Expensive?

Well, … I could leave that statement (title of the post) right where it is … because it’s a serious question.

But … it’s also the stamped sentiment on a card I made a couple of days ago, and I’m here to share it with you.

I love this stamp. It’s one of those fun little ‘sentiments’ which pops into my head now and again, ~ and I came across it last week while on a search for another stamp which had gone into hiding. Once I saw this one I knew I had to change my plans just so I could use it. So the search for the original stamp was abandoned, and I cracked on with the ‘change of plan’.

Everything I used on this card all came from stash.

As all crafters will tell you …

You might need three different coloured Tiny Buttons, but you have to buy a pack of about 30 … so you save the 27 for when you’ll need them next.
You might want some Dictionary Print type paper … so you buy a little pad of 25 sheets, and use two … so you save the remaining 23 for another time.
Lace .. you buy a yard (or metre) but only need five inches … the rest gets saved.
You perhaps require a miniature Frame, you buy a pack of 12, use the one you need and the rest .. .

. . . well.. you can see where this is going. I have half a packs of this, that, and the other – and some of the things I have here in my craft room are years old. Seriously. I’m really not making it up. The little metal thimble you see in the photo above (hanging from the trinkets pin) … is from my stash, and I’ve had a little box of those for about 8 or 9 years now.

And the inside … well that’s Just for You! . . .

It makes a fun card for any gal pal .. who has a birthday; down day; up day; just want to make you smile day; …. anything. It would even make Mom or Grandma laugh. (Or maybe that’s just my Grandma (Dads Mom) … cause she had such a rascal sense of humour and loved nothing more than us travelling the distance to see her and then taking her to the posh pub across the road from where she lived and buying her, her favourite drink, half a pint of *Stout! She would get quite giddy on it. (just one drink!) lol Bless her beautiful heart).

(*Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or roasted barley, hops, water and yeast.)

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee time with me! I SO enjoy your company.

We’ve all met such wonderful ‘friends’ via our computers and blogs, and we’ve learned a lot from each other too. Mainly, in my case, I’ve learned that there are some really great people out there who have a similar sense of humour to me, and aren’t shy about allowing their inner child out to play. Which is just INCREDIBLE! Such a laugh and so much fun. (Yes …you know who you are. I’m not going to name names, but you, sat there with your face going just a light shade of hot, you know I’m talking about you! LOL) 🙂

Have a spiffingly brilliant day today.

Do something lovely for someone else. The first person you walk past when you’re outside, or the first person who walks past your house … wish them wonderful things. Pray for them, if you pray, or, if you don’t, then just push a really lovely wish out of your head and out into the world. Lets all get this going. Let’s make the world feel like a better place. And who knows … the first person you see, might just be praying for you or wishing something wonderful for you. It happens!

Sending you happy Wednesday squidges, from me in my corner, to you in yours.

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Tea or Coffee, my Fabulous Friend?

Personally, I’m a coffee drinker. But I’m more than happy to make you tea… or – we could go out to that lovely little tea room, here in town, where everything feels like it belongs in the 1940’s and 1950’s? There’s even a good old-fashioned Globe of the World in the window which has paled with time, and harsh sunshine. They have cakes under domes, and table cloths, and it looks kind of kitsch and is painted all lemony.

Remember those carnival type ornaments which we were told were precious (when we were little), but they were actually made of a chalk like substance and if they got chipped, you could see the white chalky ‘stuff’ inside. They have some of those there too, decorating the walls or placed around the tea shop in strategic places. (I’m not sure if they really were worth something – a genuine ‘collectible’ type of thing, – or if they were just precious because of the memories attached to them).

Or, we could go round the corner to that much-loved cottage tea room, which has a courtyard garden. It’s very lovely in there and just a little bit ‘vintage swish’ too – and we can sit in the garden if the weather is good, or inside if it’s a little chilly!

the-tearoom — OK.. so I’ve got mine, . . . *what are you going to order for yourself?*

Anyhoo . . .

I made a card asking my fabulous friend if you’d like to share a coffee, or a tea, with me… while you peruse this latest offering from the Cobweb.

The paper in the background is just so lovely. Just the right blue, with little circles made from pearly white dots, and perfect for what I needed, but I don’t know who’s paper it actually is. It was still in it’s ‘book’ – but the front cover has disappeared – leaving me without even a note! tsk tsk. The cup and saucer are Tilda. Yes indeedly doodly! None of those cheap market stall cups and saucers for you! However, I fussy cut into parts of it in order to make it what I needed it to be, then covered the original ‘picture’ of a glittered star (in the saucer) with proper glitter, in two colours to give it a little more depth.

The doilies, flowers, cotton muslin (behind the flowers) and the hat pins all came from my stash. The Pearl Strand of small, medium and large pearls which trails around the card, is by Anna-Marie Designs.

The little fabric roses (shown above) – which run along the top and the bottom of the card, actually came from The Range. I’m hoping that The Range still has these in stock (I doubt it) because I absolutely love them. They’re so soft, so pretty and so light weight. They go into envelopes easily but then pop back up again upon opening, and they don’t add any weight to posting a card either.

And that, as all the very best Magicians say, is all there was to it!

Happy Wednesday all! Monday and Tuesday just flew past and I now find myself in the middle of the week with what feels like a gazillion things which I need to do, and not enough days left in this week in which to do them! Honestly, I swear to Dog that since we moved to the seaside, someone is taking whole chunks of hours, days and sometimes even getting very cheeky and stealing a whole week out of my time, for time, apparently, flies past like it’s on the wings of a jumbo jet! Aw, enough moaning Cobs!

So … what about you.. what are you up to today? Going anywhere? Doing anything? Supposed to be doing something but want to do something else instead? Go on, tell me all about it. It’s just you and me (and a few others), and I’m not going to tell anyone!

Wishing you a truly Wonderful Wednesday. May the sun shine, if the wind blows, may it blow softly, and may you end the day with a gentle smile and the knowledge that life, even if a bit tough sometimes, is still good.

Sending you my love, and a special Cobs squidge!

Delivering: A Bunch of Roses – via a vintage style card!

Although I know it’s a little early for Roses to be popping up in the garden (at least, it is here, in England) I simply couldn’t resist these papers any longer and had to get my hands on them.

The papers – beautifully named: “You Were Never Lovelier” – are acid and lignin free scrapbooking papers. All of them are of the ‘oooooOOooo’ and the ‘aaaaaaAAaahh’ type of paper!

I knew I wanted to make a cross-over type card, so set to work with my cardstock and guillotine. I LOVE cross-over cards – I think because it enables me to really ‘dress up’ a card. I also adore embellishments, and I particularly love making tags, so making a cross-over card gives me chance to almost have a party with embellishments strewn all over my desk!

Once the basic shape was built, I cut and added the papers and the beautiful vintage, crocheted lace.

The card itself has three large soft, pink, (fabric-type) roses, some paper roses, and some filler flowers. The little wooden bird-cage (available in almost all crafty outlets) I painted with Gesso and then tinted over the top of it. The string of pearls which winds itself along the card and around the flowers – are just ‘craft pearls’ on a string, and you can buy these for very little, again in lots of place, but I recently saw some in The Range (here in the UK) in a bag filled with a choice of either white or cream; LOTS of pearls and I’m almost sure that they were less than £2 (English pounds). To fix these pearls into place – I use Cosmic Shimmer glue – sparingly. You don’t need tons of glue. Just a bit here and there. (You can click to view the photographs in a larger size – but don’t forget to click ‘back’ so that you can come back to continue reading).

The crocheted cotton lace I used on the card is genuinely vintage lace. I bought it as part of a bag full of lace on Ebay about five years ago. The lady I bought it from was parting with some of her Grandmothers sewing stuff after Grandma had been called home. She told me that her Grandmother used to keep any lace from things which had worn out, got damaged etc, and due to be thrown away (or used as dusters/cleaning cloths etc.), and she would use the lace on other clothes or all sorts of things. But the Granddaughter wasn’t a sewing gal and had no room to keep things, so she put the bag filled with lace on eBay and I was lucky enough to win it. (I was thrilled down to my toes when it arrived and wrote a thank you email to the lady who I’d bought it off, telling her how wonderful the lace was and how honoured I was to be the new owner of Grandma’s lace.).

I made three inserts for this card, and all three can be ‘viewed’ on both sides. You can see one side of the tags in the photograph above, and the other side of the tags in the photo below:

The long, tall tag in the centre of the photo above is a bookmark. The little tag laying to the right hand side of the photo (on your right as you look at the photo) is a postcard on both sides of the card. And the final tag – the large one at the right of the centre – has an ’empty’ postcard on the one side – which is blank so that a message can be written from the sender of the card – and on the reverse side it has a beautiful poem by Helen Steiner Rice – which I ‘built’ on the computer using the fabulous image of the roses and the poem.

A Bunch of Roses 3a - Roses — close up of the large ‘fabric type’ roses

A Bunch of Roses 3b - Butterfly — Close up of the butterfly. I hand stamped onto some cardstock then glazed & once dry I added the tiny gems.

The tags fit neatly inside the fold over card, and the card itself has a stand on the back of it, (die cut on my Big Shot) – which stands the card in the same way children’s school photographs stand up. They have that fold out stand on the back, with a little curved piece which folds down and holds the stand firmly so that the card stands up apparently without any help! (I looks just like a magic trick when you see one of these cards standing up all by itself. All it’s missing is the flick of the wrist and swish of the wand! Oh … and ‘abracadabra‘! lol)

Obviously the card couldn’t go into a regular envelope, so I made it a box:

The sentiment on the little tag in the top right corner, was stamped – firstly with brown ink, then with black – which helped to give it a more vintage feel.

The card fits perfectly into the box . . .

This would be a lovely card for Mothers Day – or a Birthday, or a ‘hello’ card, a ‘cheer you up’ card, anniversary card, or an ‘I love you and wanted to show you’ type of card! It’s one of those cards which fits all the regular types of ‘card days’.

The big ribbon bow on the front of the card … isn’t tied into an ‘un-equal bow’, – it’s very much a balanced bow, but the angle of the card, combined with the angle I’ve taken the photographs at, has made it look like the bottom loop of the bow isn’t as generous as the top loop. It’s sadly a trick of the camera/eye. (and the nutcase holding the camera who’s rubbish at taking photographs! <sigh> tsk tsk). lol

But … if I may be serious for a moment:

I know the blog has been a bit quiet over the past couple of weeks. Apologies for that. Poor health is to blame, – but I’m hoping that my doctor will, this week, get the results of a gazillion tests and x-rays I had to have done, and that he will finally be able to tell me what the heck is causing this horrible ‘chest infection’ (or whatever it is) and will be able to ‘fix’ me once and for all!

Thank you so much for coming to share this card with me. I’m thrilled that you do. Honestly. But … what really brings me out in fun bumps (aka: goosebumps) are ‘comments’. It’s such a joy to put a name to a visitor, so please, don’t be shy. Do tap your fingers on your keyboard and say hello! :o)

Sending crafting love your way, and wishing you . . . . a truly blessed rest of your day!