Raphael – The Art of Cobwebs

Mrs. Craft of: craftandothercrazyplans totally made my day by nominating me for this ‘Blue Sky Tag’ award. Thank you Mrs.Craft. I’m truly honoured and totally cock-a-hoop at being bestowed such a lovely award. It sort of lets me know that I must be doing OK’ish’ for you to have thought of me. Bless your heart. I’m so very grateful to you. xxx

The task I have to complete in order to win the award is…

Answer a set of questions which have been set by Mrs.Craft.
Nominate 5 other blogs/people for the Blue Sky Tag award
Set 5 Questions for the people I’ve nominated to answer. (it was supposed to be six, but I felt Five questions were more do-able, any more could be a pain. So five is what I’ve kept it to).

And that’s it. Nothing more to do.

Soooo… I’ll jump straight in and answer the questions Mrs.Craft has set, and I hope to both make her proud of her choice, and also give you a little entertainment along the way. 🙂

What time of day are you most creative? In the afternoons, leading into early evening. Never in the mornings, unless something is pressingly urgent. ... for that read: I’ve forgotten someone’s birthday and can’t simply buy a card because I know there are expectations for me to have made one. A special one. A VERY special one. More special than anything ever seen before. And I know that if I don’t come up with the goods, then someone is going to feel really upset and even quietly cross, that I didn’t obviously care enough to go the extra mile. (Guilt plays a HUGE part in my life. I am a slave to Master/Mistress Guilt).
If you could try any new creative art, what would it be and why? Well, I’ve tried rather a lot of them. You see … I’ve been a crafter almost all of my life. I’ve done: Card Making; Pottery; Jewellery Making; Knitting; Sewing; Embroidery; Felting; Scrapbooking; Melt Potting; Painting – on canvas and paper; Painting – decorative painting for house things; Wreath making; Floristry; Tag Art; Stone painting; Decorative Painting on walls (I even painted a woodland scene on a reception wall at my daughters first school). ATC’s and ACEO’s. … Oh heck … there’s more but my brain is beginning to hurt now as I’m trying to rememberise all this stuff! lol … But – there is one craft which I’m currently trying to master, and that’s Crochet. I’m teaching myself and I have had a little bit of a success, but my efforts do not live up to my aspirations. So work continues. lol
Evidence that if something sits still long enough, I’ll paint it. This is now rather an old stool. We tried to work out how old, and we think it’s between 15 and 17 years old

I took FLASH ON and Flash OFF photo’s and none of them were particularly any good, but I’ll share them both with you so that you get an idea.

A happy little chicken keeps guard on one side of the stool.

A funky chicken keeps guard on the one side of the stool.

Getting close up and personal!

Two hanging hearts, hanging from a (painted) nail.

that’s all folks! 😀
Which famous artist/author/crafter would you like to meet? Oh My Goodness! Coo that’s a question and a half. There are TONS of crafters I would like to meet. Far too many of them to list just a few, and it would be awful to miss anyone out, so I won’t name any names as I love too many. (is it possible to love too many crafters? I think not). 😀 Authors … ahhh now then, I could begin in my childhood and continue through to my daughters childhoods and name tons. An elderly neighbour, Mrs. Cooke, from my young child years got me reading Catherine Cookson books from around the age of 7, and I ADORED them and her style of writing. She has such a wonderful way of ‘writing a picture’ and I could see everything inside my little head as if I were stood quietly in the corner watching things unfold. From that came a life long love of Catherine Cookson … and I cried when they announced that she’d passed on, back in 1998. I had at that point, every single book she’d written. As I bought the books, I read and kept every one. With my first weeks wages I earned, the first thing I did was go into town and buy a Catherine Cookson book. And I never stopped buying until she passed away. After that, books began to be produced, still in her name, and written in the same way and style, but they weren’t HER. So I simply couldn’t buy them. A few years ago I decided that I needed to pare down the books I owned (not just Cookson – I read a LOT), and I chose certain books which were my absolute, never to part with, favourites as my ‘keeps’, and gave all but a favourite few of my Cookson collection to the secretary at my daughters school. Her mother (the secretary’s mother) was living in an Elderly Peoples home, and the residents didn’t have a great selection of reading material at that point. They were trying to build a library for the residents, so I donated all my Cookson books to that library, and apparently they went down a smash hit with the ladies there. But I still own my favourites and still read them – even though I know them like the old friends they are. Now we come to Artist … awww again, I have a selection…. One would have to be Beryl Cook.
a painting by Beryl Cook – titled ‘A Full House’

If you don’t know who she is, Google her name and then view ‘Images’. She paints in quite a naive(ish) sort of way, but includes such a ton of fun into her fabulous cheeky pieces and they tickle the heck out of me. I think she and I would have got along fine and dandy. Also Stanley Spencer – another English artist, who had such great talent for detail. (Something I love). His paintings can keep you looking, and looking, and looking – until you don’t realise how much time has passed and you’ve been hypnotised to the spot and held captive.

a painting by Stanley Spencer – entitled Angels of the Apocalypse

Of course … there are the world known (paint) artists such as Raphael, (The Deliverance of Saint Peter is a fabulously pure work of heart)

a painting by Raphael ~ The Deliverance of Saint Peter.

Then there’s Michelangelo who I’d love to have met and watched working. I could add also Walter Crane – who’s paintings can make me gasp with delight. And Theodor Severin Kittelsen … such a huge talent and fabulously rich style. Aw heck.. I could go on. Please do Google any names you’re not familiar with and take a look at their art.
What has been your longest craft project? Me. I’m my longest craft project. I’m continually trying to make me a ‘better’ me. It’s a never-ending project.
What injuries have you sustained as a result of being creative? Oh Lord! My most continual one has to be the HOT GLUE GUN! People out there who have never used one …. I give you the biggest tip I can give to anyone … When you plug in your glue gun to heat up, in the time you’re waiting, go and half fill a bowl with cold water. This is so that when you get that hot glue on your fingers (and particularly your finger nails) you can instantly plunged the affected part into cold water and hold it there for a time. You will never know pain like hot glue until you learn about it and feel it for yourself. This tip is a SERIOUS ONE. No jokes.
What was your first ever creative project? Probably painting when I was little. Or … maybe pasta shapes stuck to card. Something like that I would guess. But my first serious one was making myself a nightdress out of one of my mothers old sheets. She was going to throw it out and I begged for it. She didn’t have a clue what I was going to make, but coooo – was she surprised when, some weeks later, I’d finished my project (which I’d been doing in secret) and put it on to show her. It was all hand sewn, and even had little flowers and leaves which I’d embroidered, at the neckline. I was so chuffed with how that turned out, and I wore it until I eventually grew out of it.

Now it’s time for the nomination of 5 Crafters ….

I would like to nominate the following 5 crafters. It was a tough job to get it down to 5 as I personally would want all the blogs I follow to be awarded solid gold stars, simply for allowing me to follow them and putting up with my ramblings when I comment on their blogs. Believe me … they need awards for that alone! 🙂

Congratulations all! You all have such fabulous style and I really enjoy and love your blogs.

All you now have to do is answer the 5 Questions below in a blog post on your blog. You have to link back to this post, so that any of your readers can follow the chain and read other blogs so they’re not missing out on even more crafty fun! After that you yourself get to nominate 5 blogs you follow and set questions for them!

Now I have to set 5 questions for these blog owners to answer, so listen up you folks, you have to answer these 5 questions:

When the crafting bug bit you what was the first thing you made which gave you a sense of joy when you looked at your creation?
Do you drive anyone in your family crazy with your crafting? And if so … why?
Do you buy anyone elses hand crafted items, and if so, what is that item likely to be?
I have no doubt that you craft for other people … but do you ever make anything for yourself? And if so … what things have you made for yourself?
Do you sell your items, and ... Where do you sell them? Perhaps you could give us all a link so that if we’d like to buy from you we can! (go on … advertise yourself!)

And that, as they say, is all there is to it. Once you’ve done this, you can then pick up the Blue Tag award from the top of this post, and take it to your own blog to use as the head of your post, and also put it in your awards over in your widget bar, if you do that.

Thank you so much for coming and having a bit of a read and a coffee with me. It means so much to me and I love seeing you. I normally try to post something crafty which I’ve made on a Monday, but I thought that I really should work on this nomination as I’ve had it for a whole week (or so) and really shouldn’t sit around crafting when I have something of importance to do. tsk tsk Cobs!

Have a wonderful Monday – whatever you’re doing, wherever you’re doing it, and whatever the weather is like. And remember … be good to each other.