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.

 

 

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Wanna play Chicken and Fox? A vintage style card which teaches you how to play!

Yes .. it really does!  More about that in a minute.

I wanted to make a vintage style card which was more simple in design, and going through my folder of images I came across this beautiful, old fashioned styled, children at play, and instantly knew this was ‘the’ one!   I chose a 6×6″ white cardstock onto which I layered some Damask type printed card in a pale pinky beige colour.  I tore around the edges of the ‘Damask’ card and then curled and distressed it with a little Cocoa ink and a colour duster.  I then added two small paper doilies and distressed them just a little using what was remaining of the Cocoa ink on the colour duster,  just to take the doilies from stark white, to something softer in colour.

I then chose a piece of plaid cardstock on which to mount the image of the children playing a game of Chicken and Fox – but before adhering the image I added a length of crocheted cotton lace in a pale pink, about two-thirds of the way down the plaid card.  Using foam tape, I then fixed the image to the plaid card, and then again using foam tape, I fixed everything to the damask style card.  Everything was now in place and all I had to do was add a little ‘fun stuff’.

I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to pop onto this card…  CHICKENS!   Little Cobs (5-year-old Grandson) has a bucket of little animals – horses, cows, ducks, chickens, etc – in his bedroom (here in our cottage), and I thought that he had so many of these that he really wouldn’t miss a chicken and a chick, so went rifling through his animals and found the very things.  One lovely reddy brown chicken, and one fabulously funny, little yellow chick.  I fixed them to the card, down towards the bottom.

I added some ‘bulrushes’ to the left hand side of the image (which I’ve had in my stash for such a long time that I can’t even remember buying them!), and some sage green flowers – made out of handmade paper.  I used teeny buttons for the centres of the flowers in a very pale green.  Then picking up the red in the image I added tiny wee red buttons on the plaid card, and then finished everything off with a vintage green bow to the middle of the opening edge of the card.

And that, as the say, is all there is to it.

BUT … I promised you a little more detail of the Fox and Chicken game….  The rhyme which accompanies the game appears on the front of the card …

COME MASTER FOX AND TRY YOUR BEST, MY PRETTY CHICKS, TO CATCH.  I DO NOT MEAN TO LET THEM GO, FOR I SHALL BE YOUR MATCH.

I’d never heard of this game, but apparently it really is a game which was played by children around the 1930’s onwards.  The image actually came with the details of how to play …

…  which I fixed to the back of the card, so that whoever this card ended up with could play the game themselves, with their own children or Grandchildren!

I have to admit that I really love this fun,quirky little card.  It has so much good, old fashioned fun and lots of warmth and love,   and you could send this to an adult or to a child.

Well now …  changing the subject… 

Can you believe that it’s Thursday already?  This week seems to have started a couple of hours ago and it’s racing towards the end of it already!  How does that happen?  What happens to ‘Time’ as you get older?  It goes so fast!   What say you?

Wishing you a peace filled Thursday, without any gremlins getting into it and making mischief!

Sending squidges from me in my corner,  to you in yours.  Have a blessed day my friends ~

A new blue bonnet for Christmas! (on a vintage style handmade Christmas Card)

I still have the Christmas Crafting Box out next to me on the floor where I’m sitting at my desk…  and since I was still in the ‘Christmas’ frame of mind from the last card I made, I began this card (above) on Friday afternoon, . . . but then Little Cobs (Grandson) came on Saturday, and, just like any fabulous grandchild does, he shares with me all the germs he’s caught during the week at school (he’s 5), and this week he shared the germs which gave him an ear infection – however they changed somewhere in the passing and gave me a temperature and made me feel like a wilted weed!  I woke up at 3am gasping for breath and absolutely drenched.  I have no idea what my temperature was but I’m pretty sure someone could have fried an egg on me had they tried!

Thankfully things are getting back to normal again, but I really think we should build a sheep dip at the front door so that we can dip him in antiseptic before he crosses the threshold in an attempt to remove all the germs he’s bringing with him!

Anyhoo  … I’m supposed to be talking about this card so I’ll get on with it.

Made on a 7″x7″ white card, using some Red Corrugated card as a layer to bring the Christmas colour into the card.

I bought a pack of decorative papers last year, with Christmas images on them and hadn’t used them.  There were 2 of each design in the pack.  And it was this little girl, in her new blue bonnet which was so sweet that I chose her to theme this card around.  I used both sheets of this design, layering one sheet onto the Christmas Red corrugated card, and then cutting into the second sheet in order to pick out some details and over-lay them using foam tabs, so giving depth to the card.

The large snowflakes are wooden ones, which I painted white, and while the paint was dry I gently sprinkled a little fine glitter over them so that they would have that more ‘frosty’ look.  The Red/pink four petal flowers around the left side of the card, I actually picked up in a charity shop about a year ago.  It looked as if someone was clearing some of their stash from their craft room and I found these flowers.  Didn’t know what I was going to do with them, but at 75p for a large cellophane bag full of them, I decided to buy them because I knew I’d use them at some point.  And … look!   I am!

I added the blue ‘crystal’ centres to the flowers, in a nod to the colour of the bonnet which the little girl is wearing.  I wanted a ‘conversation’ to be going on between the colours.

The little wooden frame is one from a selection by Docrafts, and the sequins are from my stash.  To finish the card off,  I added the little silver metal Christmas Stocking Charm (right top corner) with a Christmas Red Ribbon tied to it and … that, as they say, is all there was to it.

If I’ve missed anything or you want to know about something, please just ask away in a comment.  I promise I’ll reply.

Well Halloween came and went, and I was rather happy when the day had drawn to a close, because we had out busiest Halloween night, EVER, and I only had three bags of sweets left, and had begun to panic.

I went through my whole supply of cellophane C5 size bags and had none left!  I’d begun by making  about 12 cellophane bags, each filled with either a sucking lolly or a (drumstick) chewy lolly,  plus a pack of parma violets; a Roses chocolate;  a humbug; a chocolate eclair;  2 chocolate Ghost;  2 chocolate eyeballs;  and two chocolate coins.  We thought, judging on previous years, that those 12 bags filled with assorted sweets would very likely be enough.  Oh how wrong were we!

After just ten minutes I had to throw more bags together as fast as I could,  but before I’d managed to finish the doorbell wrang again and I had to leave Mr. Cobs to seal the bags up, while I kept the little ones and their mummies and daddies talking at the door (admiring their costumes and having a conversation about how wonderful the Princess’s were, and how scary the ghosts and ghouls were), while Mr.Cobs quickly sealed the bags and scrambled out to the door to bring me more supplies.  And that happened again, and again.

Sometimes there was just one little darling with a daddy or mummy, and sometimes there were five.  On one visit, there were five little ones, three girls and two boys, and as I was talking to the little ghostly bride she was doing a familiar jiggle.  I bent over and whispered in a stage whisper (so that mummy could hear what I was saying) …  “Oh Beautiful Ghostly Bride … do you by any chance need a wee?”.  “No,  no I don’t.”   ….  “You don’t?  Are you sure poppet?”  …  “Yes I’m sure…..  Uhm . . .   Actually …. I do!“   The jiggle had got ever-so more jiggly.  Mummy stepped forward and said … “Oh dear,  I think she does, yes”. So … not only did I have ghosts and ghouls at the front door on Halloween …. I even had a spook in my bathroom!  And I noticed that the jiggle had gone by the time she collected her bag of sweets from me on the way out of the front door.  lol.  Bless her heart.

They were all so, so lovely and so very sweet.  I couldn’t pick a favourite out of them all if I tried to.  I just wanted to scoop them all up and squidge them  …  which I think was because I was missing Little Cobs – who was still suffering with his virus so sadly couldn’t go out Trick or Treating.  Ah well … there’s always next year.

Aww anyhoo …  HAPPY WEDNESDAY all!  May your day bring with it some smiles, and a sense of peace with it.  May any mail you receive from the postman/lady be of the happy type, and may you find a parking space, sat waiting just for you, if you happen to go out in your car today.

Be good to yourself,  and each other.

Sending you a squidge ~

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Say Happy Birthday with a Cath Kidston style coat (or 4) and a touch of Gingham!

Do I need to say any more?  Aw … ok, I will.

I’m still on my challenge to use ‘gifts’ which have come free with magazines. I’ve got a drawer full of stamps and loads of free decorative papers for use in card making or scrapbooking, so this weekend I decided that it was time for another ‘make it from magazine gifts’ challenge.

I looked through the stamps and came across a set which had come with a magazine about 18 months to 2 years ago.  (I know, I know.  I should have used them by now).  I can’t understand why I hadn’t unpacked and played with them when I got them to be honest, because they’re just so lovely.  I even remember the magazine had featured some photos inside the mag to show a sample of cards you could make.  One in particular stood out to me.  It had coats on the front stamped on flowery paper, and I liked it.  So I thought I’d make something like it because I have someone in my family who’s birthday is coming up soon and she likes Cath Kidston and cottage style, so my decision was made for me.

The coat actually wasn’t a stamp in itself,  it’s a clear stamp of a little girl wearing a coat,  so I masked off her head and legs, then inked up the coat in a Memento ink pad in brown and stamped out four coats on some creamy white paper which had roses printed all over it, and four coats on some blue paper which was also printed with roses.  Both of these sets of papers were again free but this time with two different magazines.

I had to ‘fussy cut’ the coats out, which was fine at first, but by coat five I began to wonder if this was such a great idea!   (Although you can only see 4 of the coats in the photos, there are actually 8 – they’re layered, using foam pads, to give a little depth to the card).  I chose some vintage style blue paper with creamy white polka dots for the background (which I distressed a little by using a colour duster brush and some ink from the same ink pad I’d used to stamp the coats out.)

After that it was just a case of assembling it all.  I found I had to place the coats at a slightly jaunty angle (and make them ‘hold hands’), because otherwise there wouldn’t be quite enough room for them to sit comfortably (with a little space between them).  I did consider starting again and making the card longer,  but I really quite liked the angle look so kept it.

While sat wondering what sentiment it should be   …  my eyes rested upon the friendly looking  ‘Happy Birthday‘ ribbon and it called out to me to use it,  so I chose the ribbon in place of a sentiment as it added a certain country cottage feel to it.  Finally, I added some gingham buttons to finish the whole thing off.

And that’s all there was to it!  But…  looking at this last photo↑  …  who on earth would tromp through the fields to get the sheep in for the night,  wearing a Cath Kidston style coat?  I mean to say …  look at the Quality!  The fit!  The colours!  These coats would cost an absolute arm and a leg if they were for sale in a Cath Kidston shop!

(The papers  aren’t  Cath Kidston .. but they remind me of her fabulous country-style.)

So that’s me done and dusted so let’s talk about you!   .. how did your weekend go?  Did you make anything?  Did you go anywhere spiffingly wonderful?  Buy anything?  Eat something naughty?  What made you happy this weekend?  Or … what made you sad?  Tell us …  we might just be able to make you smile again, or at the very least, we can all send you love and chat with you about whatever it is.  We’re all friends here.  I’ll put the kettle on, you slip off your shoes, sit down, put your feet up and get comfy.  Tea or coffee?  Sugar?  Milk?

Have a fabulous start to your week all.  Make Monday Memorable.

Sending squidges to your corner from mine,  

 

Wishing the Teacher lots of Christmas Cheer …

Another vintage style Christmas card – this time made for my Grandsons Teacher at Nursery School.  She’s a fabulous lady who I love dearly, and has such a lovely way with the little folk in her care.  I wanted to thank her for just being the lovely person that she is and for the incredible job she does.

I had an idea of what sort of card I wanted to make, but couldn’t find the right image to base the card around … until I found this one on the Graphics Fairy ~

This image had the right vintage feel about it, and it was a little boy in the picture building a snowman – and since my Grandson is obsessed with Olaf (the snowman in the film ‘Frozen’) at the moment, I felt this was the perfect image.  I re-sized it, matted and layered it onto some lovely linen finish, plain coloured card stock, in a soft beige and a lovely vintage red, then glittered around the edge to make the image sparkle and draw attention to the image and make it stand out from the card.

I have some little wooden ‘adornments’,  and from the assortment I chose a birdcage to gild with gilding flakes – so that I could have it ready to attach when I needed it.

The base on which I ‘built’ this card was a 6 x 6 Kraft card with a high gsm – so that it would be weighty enough to take the adornments which I wanted to attach to the card.

The papers I used to cover the card are all part of a pack of Christmas papers which I obtained free with a magazine a while ago.  They’re really lovely papers – but the red coloured, 12 days of Christmas, paper I chose for the front was a little too red, so I knocked the colour back by using some Gesso, just applied roughly across the paper once it was adhered to the front.

I’d found some lovely vintage style lace for sale in a local charity shop a while back – and knew that it would be perfect for this card, so added a length to both the top and bottom front of card.

Before I added the vintage picture, I put a little cheesecloth behind the picture, to give it a soft outline, then added the picture and then draped some rayon seam binding around the front in the curvy way I wanted it to lay – but before I finally attached it I threaded a pendant charm onto it, and placed it on the card in the centre of the leading edge.  I then fixed the pendant and ribbon into place.

I added some Christmas white paper roses  and leaves, and the gilded birdcage, . . . then came the twinkling part!  I chose four glitters and roughly mixed them  – a gold, a copper, a silver and a little mix of some teeny tiny glitter gems.  They’re not exactly glitter – but they aren’t gems either.  I’m not sure how to explain them, and I can’t remember where I bought them from as I remember I had to decant them as the original packet split, so I don’t have anything left which I can check up on the name of this glitter sadly.  They make a difference to the glitter mix, as it makes it look more ‘opulent’.  Fabulous result, which I just love!  In places, I also added some teeny tiny gilding flakes – which gave a different depth to the whole project.  (You can see some of those tiny pieces of gilding flakes in the photo above which shows a close up of the gilded birdcage.)

And finally . . .

I pinned a Tim Holtz ‘Keepsake’ pin down in the corner of the card, simply because it kind of fitted the whole feeling which I was trying to ‘build’ into the card itself.

I did make a matching box to this card – but again, because I was in such a hurry to get caught up with myself (after being poorly for weeks on end), I totally forgot to take a picture of the box before I gave the card to the teacher last week.

The inside of the card was lined with pale biscuity coloured paper, and I used ribbons inside, in a lovely shade of pink, and the vintage wine coloured ribbon you see on the front – just to add that final touch which made the inside as pretty as the outside.

Well … I’m still trying to catch up and I’m hoping to craft up a storm in my craft room today – so I’ll hopefully see you later.

Have a truly wonderful Monday, – whatever you’re doing.

Love ~