Pixie Wallow ~ Pixie Crafting with Little Cobs

At my Grandsons, Little Cobs, school they have a ‘project’ which involves a teddy bear called Barnaby.  Each child in the class gets to take Barnaby the Bear home with them for a few days, and Barnaby gets to spend time sharing the family outings, games, toys, meals, visits etc., and the children (with the help of parents, guardians, grandparents) write the story of what Barnaby has been doing while he’s been staying with them.

Little Cobs Daddy (Son in Law) told me about Barnaby, and suggested that perhaps Barnaby Bear would like to come with Little Cobs to visit Grammy and Grandad, and maybe Grammy could do some crafting with Little Cobs and take photographs, print them out and they could then be included in the story book of Barnaby’s time spent with Little Cobs and all the things he did.

And this is the [mostly pictorial] story of how Barnaby Bear came to visit Grammy and Grandad and joined in with some crafting with Little Cobs and his Grammy.

I’ve made little tiny things for years (and years and years – more than I care to own up to).  I love small detail.  And ... I used to make little houses, paint and attach them to various items and used to sell them for just enough money to cover the costs of actually making them.  Now about a month ago, Pinterest (that well known joyful time-waster) sent me an email with pictures of things it suggested I might like.  Among those photos were some little Fairy Houses which reminded me of the Fairy homes I used to make many years ago.  This gave me an idea for what I thought Little Cobs, and Barnaby Bear, might like to make, and the following photographs show you what happened, how it happened, who made it happen, and how it all turned out in the end.

Once upon a time, two and a half weeks ago, there was a boy, a bear, a mug and some clay….

I showed Little Cobs how to make a tiny Pixie House using clay.  My bright little chap got the idea first time and, using just two fingers, he made two perfect little houses, while Barnaby Bear watched and learned.

The little boy then made some Mushroom Caps, and held them up for Barnaby Bear to pass his expert eye over.  Barnaby, as it turned out, is an expert at all things Fairy and Pixie.  What a stroke of luck that was!

Progress  …  Two expertly created Pixie Houses, and two miraculous, magical, Mushroom Caps.

We put the newly made clay pieces to one side and filled the chosen mug and fixed moss in place, to give the feeling of being in Fairy/Pixie Land. (see the Mug Garden over to the left of the photo).  Next came PAINTING!  The little boy – aka Little Cobs, is pretty expert at using a paint brush now and I’m wondering if perhaps I could get him doing a bit of decorating around Cobweb Towers.  Free child labour – and at my favourite price. lol

As you can see, Barnaby Bear was definitely taking his job as Quality Control Bear, very seriously indeed!

It’s a really pretty plate – but not one we use for food.  It just sits around waiting for some passing crafter to blob paint onto it in order to give it a use.  

Once all the paint was dry, and after the artist had had an afternoon snack and a bit of a play, Little Cobs placed all his beautiful handmade pieces in the places he wanted them to be so that he could check for position.  Once perfect, he gave the go ahead for everything to be fixed in place.

A few small resin flowers were added, just for artisticness, (not a real word but it’s so ‘juicy’ that once I’d made it up I simply had to use it), a couple of teeny tiny pine cones and some general florestry bits – just to make it feel like home to any passing Fairy or Pixie who might be looking for a place for the summer.

Barnaby Bear suggested that the whole scene needed a name, so Little Cobs and I came up with Pixie Wallow, and Grammy built a name label on the computer and printed it out for Little Cobs to fix it to the outside of the cup, so that everyone knew what it was.

I’m reliably informed that Barnaby was very happy with Pixie Wallow, and it passed the Inspection Test with a gold star!

It’s ready for a close up, Mr. Demille …  (those who’ve watched Sunset Boulevard will get that one).

All the painting is Little Cobs own, apart from tiny bits where I showed him what he needed to do before I handed over the paint brush, and two spots on one of the Mushroom caps, just to show him how to get that magical ‘dot’ in the right place, in the right size.  He made the houses, the mushroom caps and was the ideas man for how the whole scene was to look.

Little Cobs, Barnaby Bear and myself had an absolutely great time making this.  Lots of laughs and lots of stories about who would eventually live in the Pixie Houses, and who would come and sit on the mushrooms and play in the garden.

Before I go may I share a surprise that I had a couple of days ago.  I got sent an Anniversary Achievement by WordPress . . .

…  four years!  FOUR YEARS I’ve been blogging, and yet if you’d have asked me I would have guessed about…  maybe 2 to 2 and a half years tops.  I can hardly believe it.  Four years,  and I’ve loved every single day of it, and that’s because I’ve shared it with you.

I’ve made so many lovely friends via my blog and have and am enjoying so many blogs which are owned by others.

So thank you, dear reader, for filling my last four years with joy and fun.  I’ve loved getting to know you and hope to continue doing so, and also hope to get to know all the new people who join The Cobweborium Emporium,  or that I find in blog land.

Thank you so much for coming today and sharing Pixie Wallow.  Have a truly blessed rest of your day.

 

 

 

 

A moment lasts all of a second . . .

. . .  but the memory lives on forever.

 

I made a card based around one I saw in a magazine a few weeks ago.  It was the sentiment they’d used on the card which struck me and I wrote it down in my note book, hoping to use it at some stage.  I went on-line to check that this sentiment didn’t belong to a crafting company – a stamp or something like that,  and it didn’t  – (yay!).

I printed the sentiment and cut it out using an oval die from a set bought  a while back from Tattered Lace.

The card is pretty much self-explanatory if you look at the selection of 4 photos in this post.

The papers I used are from a selection of left-over scrapbooking papers – the two different prints were originally from the same book of papers.  I layered them up on top of a soft rosey pink paper to pick out the lovely pink in the roses, then onto white card.

Made on a white 6×6″ card – the front of which I scored down the centre and folded it back on itself so to give that an extra dimension to the card. The oval sentiment is mounted onto the folded front of the card.

The adornments – the roses, the star, and the Angel bunny inside the card, are all from a selection of Tilda adornments, which I’ve had for ages.   I tied a bow of pink satin ribbon from my stash and . . . .  Voila!  That’s all there was too it!

Once I’d figured it out, and chosen the papers I wanted to use, – the actual making of the card was really quite quick.

Well …  It’s Wednesday again!   I’ve not liked Wednesdays very much since I was at school. 

On Wednesday (when I was at school)  we had:-  a whole morning of Cookery.  Loved Cookery!  Then after lunch we had Double Geography (which I didn’t like),  then a lesson of History – which I quite liked,  and finally, at the end of the day, was a Double PE  (physical education).  Having PE  at the end of the day  Was. A. Nightmare! 

Our [meany] PE teacher wouldn’t end the lesson until five minutes before the end of school bell rang.  This meant that we had to: Get stripped off;  take showers;  get dried;  get dressed;  and get out of the door and run the length of the playground and to the bus stop,  all within those five minutes,  or the chances were that we’d miss the bus and have to walk home.  She was a real pain and wouldn’t listen to us when we begged her to give us ten minutes instead of five, to wash, dress and get out to our bus.  Hence …  I hated Wednesday, and after a gazillion years of not being in school, I still have that ‘droopy mood’  feeling about the day.

What about you?  Do you have any day that you don’t like very much?  Or days you remember from school which you didn’t look forward to?  Do tell and share with me.

Aaanyhoo …..  Wishing you a truly lovely day.  May the weather be warm, may the wind be gentle, and may you get out of school in time to catch your bus!

Sending squidges from my corner to yours ~

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Just for you … if you’d like it.

I had a card making day  …. and made a card with a sort of cottage, country feel to it.  The card and papers used are all by Docrafts, who, by a remarkable coincidence, are based here in Dorset, where I live!  (No I haven’t been and raided the warehouse in the dead of night  … yet.  But only because I think I’d need several helpers to bring home all the stash I’d want! lol)

The blue flower and green crochet doily (under the flower) are Prima and the feather … is from Edna.

No Edna isn’t a new craft producer … at least, she’s not a big time producer of craft items…  she’s one of our chickens.

 Edna is a big old bird who lays mahoosive brown eggs of roughly 3″ tall – (too big to  fit into egg boxes – even the egg boxes from supermarkets which claim the enclosed eggs are ‘extra large’).  We only have two chickens now,  Edna, and Dorothy, and it’s a case of from the sublime to the ridiculous!

While Edna is the big, noisy old bird whose a rich, warm rusty colour,  Dorothy, on the other hand,  is a quiet, delicate looking, little thing, whose feathers are paler,  mottled, and fluffy, and she has feathered feet, so she looks like she’s wearing feathered slippers.  She’s a beautiful colour, and her eggs are darling and so little too – anything from half an inch to roughly an inch tall – and they’re a pretty blue colour.  They‘re very rich eggs, a little too rich for me.   She follows  dear Edna around as if Edna has her on a lead.  She also copies Edna…  When Edna does the BIG LOUD  “QUAAawwww, qwaw, qwaw, ack, ack, ack.” letting the world know that she’s about to lay an egg the size of a planet,  Dotty tries to copy her, but the noises she makes come out like a creaky little whisper:  “paw wah wah waah“.  You couldn’t get two more extreme birds.  But they do seem to love each other. Bless them.

When Edna goes into the hen house to lay her egg in one of the nest boxes,  Dorothy goes in with her and more often than not we can find them both snuggled together in a nest box,  keeping each other company while Edna lays her egg.  However … Mr. Cobs went looking for the two darlings a few days ago and found them in one nest box, but … Edna (big bird) was sat ON TOP of Dorothy!  Dotty must have gone into that particular nest box first, and Edna either went in to keep her company, or … she wanted to lay at the same time, and instead of choosing the nest box right next to Dotty, she clambered in and sat on top of her!  We were quite frankly suprised that Dotty wasn’t squished!

Edna, like all birds, loses feathers every now and again.  When she goes through a moult, she looks like a Mrs. Shabby Chic Clucker, than like a World Champion Sized Eggs Layer!  Any feathers she drops I squirrel away and use them when I know that something needs one of her feathery gifts.  This card needed a gift from Edna.  I did toy with putting one of her eggs on it but didn’t think the Post Office would approve of a scrambled egg letter ~ so you have the little spotted egg you see in the photo above.  (no, it’s not a real egg). lol.

A teeny tiny metal spoon,  so that you can eat your boiled egg with it.

 The title of this post is ‘Just for You, …  if you’d like it‘  and what I meant by that is that you could be the receiver of this card if you’d like to be.

I’ve never done a ‘give-away’ on my blog  (I’ve never been sure anyone would want anything to be honest, – and I’m still not now) …  but in the last few days I’ve seen a few blogs doing ‘give-aways’.  Not of cards, but rather knitted things like mug sleeves or sewn items like a make up bag etc, but it made me wonder if bloggers who made cards ever did a give-away for a handmade card.   I’d never seen any …  and this led me to think that maybe it might be something fun and something to make someone smile so my mind was made up.  I’d do a card ‘Give-Away!’

If you’re a follower of The Cobweborium Emporium blog, and would like to have your name ‘thrown into the hat’ and be in with a chance of receiving this card then please just leave a comment below with the word:  GIVEAWAY  – either at the start or the end of your comment.

To make sure that all is fair,  I’ll get the Random Number Generator to choose the number, and I’ll also do a screen shot of the R.N.G and post it so that you can all see which number was generated.

If you’re the ‘winner’, then you have a choice.  You can choose to have the card for yourself, in which case I’ll write the card to you, sign it and send it with love. Or …  you can choose to receive the card un-written, so that you can write it and send it to someone else.

But … If you don’t want to enter but still want to leave a comment or have a ‘coffee chat’ , then please do.  You really don’t have to get involved in a give-away.  It’s just a bit of September fun.  🙂  Any comment which doesn’t have the word ‘GIVEAWAY’ at the beginning or end of a comment won’t be entered and you must be a follower of the blog here to enter.

This give-away is open to anyone who is a follower of The Cobweborium Emporium blog – no matter where you live.  It’s not just for UK folks.  I’ll close the ‘give-away’ entries on Wednesday 21st September 2016, at 6pm UK time.  Only followers who have commented by that date and time, with the word ‘GIVEAWAY’ somewhere in their comment,  will be included.

NB:  Please  DON’T  put your real name or address in the comments box.  I need to look after your privacy and security.

Well it’s Sunday and I’m not normally a poster on Sundays, so this is something which feels kind of odd to me.  A nice odd though.  It feels kind of warm and fuzzy.  Friendly.  Fabulous.  Like I should be doing something normal, and instead I’ve been given time off to go and have a coffee with friends somewhere lovely. 

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me. I love seeing you here and love chatting with you in comments too.  I’m so very blessed to know you all.

Have a wonderful day, whatever you’re doing.

 

 

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Things I’ve learned this week …

Welcome to Cobs weekly confessional about the things I’ve learned this week.. I’m going to dive straight in . . .

I’ve learned (for the millionth time) that I just am not good in hot weather.  I get terse and grumpy.

Hello God, … it’s me again.  I’m here asking for the same thing.  Could you please turn down the heat?  You know that hot weather just makes me grumpy and miserable, so please could you turn down the heat – even just a few degrees would be welcomed.  Thank you ~ Cobs. x

This week I’ve learned that there are some projects that just don’t photograph well, and because of that I can’t blog about them until I learn how to go about getting a decent photo.  [big – s.i.g.h]

I’ve been playing with some mediums which are new to me,  learning and testing them out to see how they perform and what works with them (and what doesn’t).  These products are:  Buff it, by Pinflair;  and Brusho.

Brusho = little pots of amazing Water Colour Ink Crystals (little pots of powders to you and I) which can be used in loads of different ways.

You can sprinkle a very SMALL amount onto some watercolour paper and spraying it with a fine mist spray of water.

watercolour Brusho crystals sprinkled then sprayed

You can either then just leave it to do its own thing, or you can move it around by the use of a paintbrush or even picking it up and tipping the paper to make the colours run the way you want them to.

Wet water-colour paper, sprinkled with brusho’s then dragged across the card.  The sentiment actually says: Live Every Moment. Laugh Every Day.  Love Beyond Words.  (but I stamped it in the wrong place and you can’t read the final line.  But since these are only ‘playing’ it really didn’t matter.)

You can paint with the Brusho – and the colours are wonderful!  Again, you only need to use the tiniest amount. If you add a little to some water, in a spray bottle, you can then use it as a colour spray and add a spray of droplets to your project.

Now onto my second new crafting product..

Buff It is like the most incredible wax that you’ve ever seen  BUT … it’s NOT WAX!  I would guess that a greater majority of readers have a pot or two of wax which we use in our crafting.  But … the problem with these waxes is that they smell to high heff!  Coo do they stink.  It’s Paraffin.   However  Buff it doesn’t smell at all.  You could (if you were crazy) pour a whole tub of Buff it onto your project and still not have to fling the doors open in order to get fresh air so that you don’t collapse.  Again, this is another product which you only need a tiny amount of.

You can use it ‘as is’ … or you can add a little water to it.  A LITTLE water.  It dries quickly – so remember to take out what you need, then close the lid!  Work a little quickly with it, but if it dries out too quickly you can use a fine mister spray and add just a tiny bit of water, and it’s ready to go again!

Brusho and Buff it used together.  That’s the most incredible Gold colour not sunflower yellow as it looks in this photo.  I so wish I could have got a better photo.  Mr. Cobs saw this at this stage in the making and (in his words):  Wow, it looks like the Cosmos!  And I have to agree that when you see it with the naked eye, it actually does!

 

But … some of the projects I tried with these two wonderful craft magicals, just don’t show the real beauty which you can achieve with the products.  You can ‘see the things’ … but the camera just doesn’t pick up the magic.

Moving on …  Question for you:  When is a Sapphire not a Sapphire?  ……. [I’ll let you think about that one for a moment] ……

….. [still thinking?  —  Ready to give in?  …  ok, read on] . . .

I’ve learnt that . . . Sapphires and Rubies  . . .   are  . . .   the  same  Gem!

I know!  Surprised me, I’m telling you! 

Collectively Sapphires and Rubies are known as Corundum.  Their only difference is their colour!

Also … Sapphires don’t just come in blue.  Natural Sapphires can be found in pink,  white,  yellow,  green,  orange,  brown,  cognac,  black and purple!  (Did you know that you could get Sapphires in all these colours? It was a real eye opener to me.)  BUT …  Not only that …

Very rarely but . . . Sapphires can change colour.  Colour Change Sapphires will typically  be blue to violet in daylight, but will look purple to red indoors.

And a RARE PHENOMENON found in Sapphires is asterism.  This is where a gemstone exhibits special optical phenomena.  A six (or very rarely a twelve) pointed star will appear on the surface of the gem, that will move as the stone moves in the light.

And finally … 

I’ve learned this week …. that you don’t have to be using paper to get a paper cut, and neither do you need to be in your craft room!

Out shopping I wanted to feel the softness of a bathroom ‘rug’ (a mat for when you clamber out of the shower) – so with finger and thumb I kind of ‘pinched’ the mat so that I could get a feel for it.  But …  (be honest, you knew there was a ‘but’ didn’t you) …  in ‘pinching’ the bathroom mat, I lifted my other fingers out-of-the-way.  Now that seems like a safe enough thing to do doesn’t it?  [shakes head]  nope.  It most certainly isn’t!

The bathroom mat had a large piece of folded card over the top of it,  where a hanger was for hanging the mat up for display purposes.  In feeling the rug/mat,  I caught my middle finger (left hand) on the really thick card, and instantly felt the pain.  I looked down at my finger to see a gash with blood gently pumping out of it.

Now  come on!  Who would have thought that you could get a right ol’ paper cut from thick and chunky piece of card??  I could not believe it.

Mr. Cobs didn’t, in my opinion, take this injury at all seriously.  Do you know what he did when I showed him my life threatening injury?   He peered at my bloodied finger, pursed his lips, looked at me, made a ‘huhm’ sound, turned to walk off and as he did so he said:  “Well you won’t be doing that again, will you!”

I stopped in my tracks,  mouth agape, eyes as wide as saucers, … I called after him:  “You do know that you can be replaced, don’t you?” …  he ignored me totally, and  from the shaking of his shoulders  I could tell he was laughing at me.  The cheek of the man!

The thing is …  he knows I won’t ‘replace’ him because,  quite frankly,  I couldn’t bear to go through all that training again.  The man couldn’t boil an egg until I whipped him into shape.  He can now cook a complete Christmas dinner with very little input from me.  He’s amazing.  But look .. if you see him, please don’t tell him I said this because he’ll only get high with delight and strut around like a rooster in a hen-house!

Well that’s me done and dusted and now it’s over to you.  What have you learned this week?   Do share …  not because I’m nosey … but because … no…  actually … it’s because I’m nosey.  So do share what you’ve learned this week via a comment in the box below ….  and none of us will judge you.  We might laugh at you … or we might cry with you.  But we’ll certainly make you feel welcome.

Ohhhhh… I think The Lord may have heard my request because the rumbling of thunder can be heard.  Maybe he’s going to cool it down by watering his garden.  Oh my goodness  … BIG thunder and crashing lightning!   Ooo.. the lights have all dimmed, the TV has lost its signal ….  awww,  and the dog has come to sit on my feet as apparently I’m her best hope if something bad happens.  I’m going to get this post saved and posted before I lose the computer too!  eeek!

Wishing you a very happy Friday, and a wonderful weekend.  May your troubles be few and your happiness be high.

Oh ..  and …  be nice to each other.  Sending you squidges ~

 

Hand painting Christmas …

Bless me bloggers for I have sinned ...  I didn’t show you the Christmas Cards I created and sent to my neighbours last Christmas.  [hangs head in shame]. But I’m here and able to post them now.  (Wouldn’t post them earlier in the year because it felt almost obscene to post about Christmas too soon.)

Made with a little help from a kit bought for me as a gift, from:  Folk It,  which contained all the colours of paints which I needed, (and I only already owned the one colour (white)), so I was happy to have the kit just to get everything there in one place.  If you haven’t painted before, or even if you have and need a little encouragement for whatever reason, I would thoroughly recommend their kits to you.  They don’t just come with the paints and a couple of brushes, (and a dotting tool), but they come with everything you need to make at least one project, or in the case of the cards – you would normally get around 4 or 5 really good quality cards & envelopes, a little booklet which helps you, plus it comes with a CD Rom that you simply put into your computer (in that little draw which you use to hold your coffee cup  – just joking.  I don’t do that.  At least .. not for a few months now. lol), and you watch as the delightful lady on-screen as she not only tells you what to do, but demonstrates IN REAL TIME as she teaches you – so you can watch, pause, paint, and then move on (but I’d recommend watching the CD Rom all the way through first … don’t run before you can walk, eh?)

Aw anyway .. you want to look at the piccies … so without further ado ….

Angels, stars and snowflakes.  With the addition of an ‘angel feather’

All of the cards you see here, have that central panel with the painting on it – which is a piece of mount board, already cut to size for you.  But, you only get a certain amount in the kits which will help you to make the projects in the kit itself, however, you can purchase more of these cut to size mount boards from them directly (pack of 25 for £5.00).  I recommend their ready cut mount boards because I know how difficult mount board can be to cut.  (oh boy do I know!).  So if you can buy it ready cut then it removes the struggle.

Another Angel card, this time with an embossed background.

Mistletoe …  PUCKER UP PETAL and brace yourself, I’m coming for a smacker!   … Good grief!! Cor  …  you can run faster than I thought you could just by looking at you!

Ok … you might have got away that time … but . .  here I come again  ….  [flicks the light switch and everything goes black]  ..  you’re not getting away that quick this time kiddo!

A snowflake … on a chalky blue background.  The painted snowflake was sprinkled with very fine glitter before the paint dried, so that snowflake twinkles merrily when the light catches it.

Another snowflake … only slightly different from the last.  I think I must have had a glass of wine too many when I took this photograph because it’s drunk and leaning!  LOL

Now I did a snowflake on black... but I should have taken more care as I slightly wandered off the straight and narrow, but I kept it anyway and was so glad that I did because at the last moment I realised I’d forgotten a card for the Postman!  So I quickly mounted the black backed snowflake onto a card and ran it past Mr. Cobs who said … “It’s fine!  Stop worrying!”  … so I tucked an ‘internationtionally accepted gift card‘  (i.e. [in this case] money) into the card and sealed it just in time before the postman arrived…..

Can you see where I wandered off the path of good and true?  Look down in the bottom left corner as you’re looking at the card right now.  It doesn’t end in the corner.  [sigh] … But, in crafting,  just as in life …  It’s the mistakes we make which teach us the things we need to learn.  …  Because this was for the Postman, I stamped a postal franking image on the envelope. lol.

To mix it up a bit, I turned the mount boards so that I was painting on the diamond rather than the square and this time it was a wreath.  Once the painting was dry I added a little satin bow in a deep vintage colour red.  (The berries are paint … not stickles).

And we end where we began … on a wreath, this time a thicker, fuller wreath, mounted on a square of mirror card in deep blue, which I punch around the edges of with a little hand punch.

Better late than never  …  those were the Christmas cards I posted to my neighbours last Christmas.  What am I going to make for them this Christmas?  Well,  right now I haven’t got the foggiest notion, but as soon as I’ve decide and have made some, I’ll share them with you!.

Happy Monday all.  The start of an all new, shiny, fresh out of the box, week.  Enjoy it.  Make a memory happen today.  One that your mind reminds you to remember.  Remember *that* moment.  A moment in time is just a moment in time … unless you remember it.  And then, it becomes a very special moment.  A magical moment.  A memory.

So … when you go to bed at the end of today ... just as you lay down to go to sleep … inside your head, remember something which happened during the day which either made you smile, laugh, or even something which was just an enjoyable moment in time.  A few seconds even.  Then remember what it was that made that moment a memory for you.  What special thing was it?   Fix that memory to the wall of your brain.  Put it up there on a memory post it note and pin it there with a pin, to make sure that it doesn’t fall down.  Now look around at all the other post it notes inside your head.  All your memories or moments.  Coooo … there are a lot.  Have a look at them as you drift off into sleep.

Sending big squidges from my corner to yours where you’re sitting right now.

Have a blessed day, my friend

Sunday Toast …

I need say nothing more for it’s already said.

Be good to each other,

love  ~  Cobs. x

 

Things I’ve Learned this Week

Well, looky here!  It’s Friday again, and we all know what Friday means ….  it means that you come to school to learn all the valuable life gems that I’ve learned this week (whether I wanted to or not) so that you don’t have to!  (It’s my personal kindness to society.  I learn all this stuff and just tell you about it so that you’re warned!). lol

So … what have I learned this week?

I’ve learned:  That I shouldn’t eat Magnum Ice Creams  . .  because …

. . . .  the Gods of Ice Cream and Chocolate all get together and have an absolutely bally hilarious time laughing at me as tiny bits of the chocolate covering drop off the ice cream lolly, straight onto my top;  my decolletage;   or, if they manage to actually get past my chest, straight onto my lap.  And … sometimes all three!  I end up looking like I can’t feed myself and need a carer to assist!

I’ve learned:  That a silhouette isn’t just the title of an image of a person, or dog, tree, building etc.,  that you can only see in a solid colour – normally black, grey or brown (but I’ve seen them in other colours).

In actual fact Silhouette is the name of a French Minister of Finance, way back in the 1700’s.

Etienne de Silhouette (French Minister of Finance) put up taxes massively for the French upper classes,  during the seven years war.  Because of these high taxes,  paintings (a favourite of the upper classes)  were way too costly (and there were no cameras around during that time – surprising as that might sound),  so they came up with a very cost-effective way to have ‘pictures’ of their loved ones,  family, friends and pets.  They had picture cut outs of them instead of paying a ludicrous amount for a painting.

Having a talented artist cut out your daughter/son, dog, mother etc, out of paper,  was an exceptionally cheap way of getting around the taxes put on paintings.

So because of this ‘high tax’ time in France, anything that could be made cheaply was always linked to Etienne de Silhouette, however the little paper cut outs have retained the name Silhouette to this day and it’s known all around the world.

The final thing I’ve learned this week  . . .  is that when I see something (craft related) which I instantly fall in love with,  but I tell myself that the set is too expensive;  –  and  besides which:  what if I don’t use them enough to get my monies worth out of them?;  –  and … well,  surely I have enough things in my amazing craft room that I really shouldn’t be buying anymore ?. . . .

I’ve learnt that I should bally well ignore myself and my guilt conscience and purchase the very things I so desperately want when they’re available – and before they’ve sold out. The promised new supply of said things (I was notified by the craft store) would be here in … July. No ..  August.   No ..September …  and then when the date in September rolls around and you call the company up, with your bank card clutched in your grubby little fist … the company say that “the suppliers are really messing around and only half of the stock has turned up from over-seas!” …  AND THE MOST WANTED THINGS OUT  OF ALL THE THINGS I WAS GOING TO BUY,  ISN’T EVEN BEING MADE AT THE MOMENT BY COUTURE CREATIONS (in Australia) YES, STAND UP AND OWN THE SHAME THAT COMPANY!

And the craft store where I was going to buy them from has said that they’re actually not really very sure if the company  (Couture Creations) will even put them through for making them again as they were originally out (in Aus) in the very early part of this year so to Cout.Crea., they’re kind of ‘old stock’ and they may be moving on to a new range now. (These products [dies, papers, embossing folders, chipboard decorations etc]  only came to the UK around the early part of June, and then at that time they were only available from Create & Craft.)

I nearly cried when I got off the phone today. It made me cross and miserable,  I think simply because I was getting so excited as the day drew nearer for me to be able to buy them.  I’m now faced with either doing without;   buying them from an eBay seller in Australia (at a higher price and then add the postal charges for posting to the UK);  or … buying a set of these from Create and Craft at a higher price than I could have paid if I’d just have bought a whole bloomin’ lot at the beginning when they were on a Special Offer price.  [sigh]

Ahh [sigh] we live and learn, we live and learn.   Time for more chocolate I think.

Well …  I don’t know about you, but I’ve had trouble with my days all week.  I thought Tuesday was Monday – all day I kept saying that it was Monday. I’d gone back a day!

But then …  I thought Wednesday was Thursday – so I went forward a day.

And yesterday I thought Thursday was today, Friday,  and I began to panic that I hadn’t got various things done and had run out of time!

Something is wrong with the wiring in my brain.  It’s shorting somewhere.  Either that … or I’m a dope.  Hmmmm … [thinks for a moment  . . . .]   Yes, I agree with you.  I’m definitely a dope.  Hang on, hang on a cotton pickin’ minute  …  what’s all this talk about a BRAIN?  I’m getting rather ahead of myself here, aren’t I?!   I don’t have ‘a brain’.   I have …  A BRAIN CELL.  That, dear reader, is a very different thing altogether!

Ahhh, life could be so much more simple if I just listened to my brain cell.  But I insist on confusing it and making it feel like I expect more from it.  Poor New Ron.

Aw look …  Have a wonderful weekend my friends.  If trouble comes a calling, don’t answer the door. Decide to have a great day, each morning you wake up.  It’s as simple as that.  Two choices.  Decide or have:  A)  a good day.  – or – B)  a bad day.  I know which one I’m going to choose. …  well, New Ron does.  lol

Sending my grandest of squidges to you.  Be nice to each other.

 

 

 

Love is like a butterfly, as soft and gentle as a sigh . . .

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Before I get to talking about card making ….  I’m sorry about the invite above saying: ‘Follow my blog with Bloglovin’ … I had to insert a bit of computer code into a new post order to ‘claim my blog‘. I’m not really sure why I need to claim my blog, but I noticed some other bloggers have done this so, in order to find out what it’s all about, I registered with Bloglovin. Will see what’s so exciting about it.  You can ignore it … you don’t have to click to follow me on there – unless you want to, of course.

There are cards for every sort of occasion and every type of person, (or personality) and I sat for 20 minutes trying to decide on what sort of card I was going to make for a relatives 89th Birthday.  I’ve made her cards  (Birthday, Christmas etc) for a few years, but I felt that she needed something different this year.  Not so fussy, but still with something going on.  Hmm… something with butterflies I think.

I knew I had a little kit which made up two jars of either butterflies or sweeties so I went in search of them among the box of Hunkydory stuffs.  I’d forgotten how pretty they were and the moment I saw them I knew that I’d make her one of these.

In ‘kit’ form this is what you get:

The pink jar is the sweet jar, and the blue, as you saw at the head of this post, is the butterfly jar.  But … there’s nothing to say that you can’t mix them up and swap butterflies for sweets.

Now … I have a bit of a problem in making ‘kit cards’.  I ALWAYS feel like I’ve cheated and let the whole crafting community down.  I don’t know why I feel like that, I just do.  But, I know that there very much is a place for kits and also know my relative will love this card.  It’s very ‘her’.

You begin by popping out the ‘front’ central part of the jar, and then cutting some clear acetate  to match the shape of the ‘hole’ in the front of the jar, you then fix that to the inside of the card front.

showing the rear of the card and the acetate fitted and fixed to the front of the jar.

It’s when you get to this point in the making that you need to stop and think about how you’re going to write the card out when it’s made.  Yup… you need to do that now before you fix any of the butterflies into the jar, because once fixed in place, you’ll have a difficult time trying to write on the back of the card.

The reason the card has that 3D effect is because of the roundedness of the front.  And that happens because the front is cut slightly bigger than the back. So once you’ve fixed the butterflies into the inside of the jar you then fix that card (jar) front in place.  If you scroll up to the photo of the unmade kits, you’ll notice that on the one edge of the card front, there’s a little flap.  That little flap allows you to adhere the front to the back … but because the card front is too big it ’rounds out’ and so gives the jar it’s shape.  (The use of craft clamps comes into use for this part).

This is the finished card as far as the kit is concerned, however you can then add your own touches to it to make it yours.

I added some deep pink with white dots ribbon ‘ties’ which I made (look like bows but not bows), and a silver metal, dangly charm fixed onto a large white paperclip,   which had a little more of the ribbon looped onto the top of it,  which I attached it to the back of the card so that the charm was dangling down next to the hand-written message.

I totally forgot to take a photo of the extra touches until it was packaged and sealed inside its postal box so you’ll just have to imagine the end result.  [sigh…  I’d be terribly dangerous if I had a brain]

And, as they say, that was it!  VOILA!  It’s an easy to put together card, the majority of the time is taken up with trimming off the little ‘tabs’ from where the die cuts were still attached to the cardstock.  Other than that it’s a simple card to make.  But looks so pretty when made.

As I was putting this card together I kept singing the theme song to a lovely, gentle sitcom, called Butterflies,  which was made and shown on the BBC, here in the UK,  between 1978 to 1983, and if I find it showing now, I’ll actually sit and watch it, just to be reminded of a more gentle time.  The theme tune is the Dolly Parton song Butterflies, but for this programme it was recorded by a singer called Clare Torry, and I think this may have been because Ms Torry had a little softer and more gentle tone to her voice.

It’s only 38 seconds long, so I share it with you here:

If I’ve got an earworm I think I should share it with everyone so that you can have it too.  I was taught that it’s nice to share.  [grins]

Have a beautiful Wednesday, whatever you’re doing.  Thank you for coming and having a coffee with me, I love having your company.

Sending my love,  from here in my corner to you in yours.

 

 

Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya! No not the song, it’s a Cup Mat Make-over!

To be true to the art work,  real Babushka’s are spelt just as I’ve just typed it: BABUSHKA,  and not as in the Kate Bush song ‘Babooshka’.  Or to give them their usual name that we mostly all know them as:  Russian Dolls.

I had a set of Russian Dolls when I was about 8 or 9 years old.  It had 8 nesting dolls altogether – each of them getting smaller and smaller, and I loved it.  However, at some point in my life it went missing and I’ve thought about it off and on as the years passed.  Then something really weird but totally wonderful happened last year.

Our neighbours went away on holiday, and when they go away we look after their cat for them.  They’d gone to Russia.  When they came back they called round with the gift of a set of genuine Russian nesting Dolls.  I was absolutely beside myself with joy. My neighbours didn’t know about my lost dolls.  I was in a state of total joy for days on end.

The set is so lovely and every now and again I take them apart and set them up as their individual dolls, just so I can look at them and enjoy them.  Then I very carefully pack them all back into each other and pop them back where they ‘live’ on top of my grandmother clock – out-of-the-way of cats, dogs  and Little Cobs!

Anyhooo...  regular readers will remember that I did a make-over on a rather tired cup-mat last week, painting a Goose on it.  Today is the turn of a Babushka, a Russian Doll, to grace a cup mat in the craft room.

The ‘half way mark’ of the make-over of the cup mat.

Just like last weeks cup mat,  this mat was rubbed down,  painted with a coat of white Gesso, then two coats of black acrylic paint.  I don’t normally draw a detailed drawing when I’m going to paint, I generally just go straight in with the paint.  But I had to get the proportions of the big round body and smaller round head right, so I used a pencil to draw gently on top of the black acrylic and ‘place’ everything where I needed it to be.  Once I’d painted her, and took the above photo, I decided that the colours weren’t quite as I wanted them to be, so I re-mixed some paints and painted her scarf and apron a slightly warmer colour.

If you compare the two pictures you can just about tell the difference in her scarf and apron.

So … you might be wondering why I haven’t shown you a photo of my Russian nesting dolls, the gift from my neighbours.  Well I wouldn’t because these are different from the Russian lady dolls . . . . . .

They’re cats!   Five beautiful, fabulous cats – and the biggest has just come back from a fishing trip where he caught a rather pretty fish.  I’m certain that he caught it as a pet for them all.  [I totally refuse to believe anything else].  The Dog in the photo, (on the left as you’re looking at it), is a sculpture, and he really does actually have two ears … it’s just that the one you can’t see is on the other side of his head and I didn’t notice when I took the photo that it wasn’t showing.  I only realised that he looked like he had an ear missing when I was re-sizing the photo to post here, and by that time …. well … it was a case of ‘Oh sod it.  I can’t be bothered to set it all up again’.  LOL.

Soooo  … Happy Monday!  Got anything planned this week?  Birthdays?  Anniversary?   Holiday anywhere?  Visiting somewhere which you’re looking forward to?  Someone coming to visit you?  Or … going back to the theme of re-cycling or doing a make-over .. have you or are you planning to do a make-over on something?  If you’ve done one and posted on your blog about it, then put a link to it, here in the comments below, so that we can all come and visit your blog!  (Who knows, you may pick up one or two followers in the process!)

Have a truly lovely day today.  I know that traditionally Monday can be Misery Monday because it’s the first day back at the daily grind … but look … it’s a Monday.  A brand new day.  What if this was going to be the very last Monday ever?  Wouldn’t you make sure that you had a darn good, memorable last Monday?  Go and have THAT darn good day!  (Then come back and tell me about it!).

Sending big squidges, from my corner to yours

Things I’ve learned this week

Aaand  it’s Friday again.  Can you believe how quickly Fridays seem to arrive?  Or is that just me being old and weird? 

Well we’re here to find out what I’ve learned this week  and I’ve learned a lot…

I’ve learned that although I’m scared stupid of spiders, I’m not scared of Dragonflies.  In fact, I’m SO not scared of them that I tried to collect up and save the life of a Dragonfly who’d popping into my craft room, through the open window.  I was trying to be so very careful with him and not hurt his little wings or anything – but I was being too careful and so couldn’t catch him.  In the end I called on Mr.Cobs to come and help, as I was concerned that he could end up not being able to get out and then I’d find his little body,  lifeless, on the windowsill …  and then I’d feel a huge sense of guilt,  for ever and ever, that I hadn’t tried harder.

Mr.Cobs thankfully managed to guide him to the open window where he neatly popped out and flew away.  (The dragonfly flew away, not Mr.Cobs.  I think Mr. Cobs would have great difficulty getting off the ground).

I learned that the ampersand (in the picture above and here: &) has a most fascinating history.  It first came to light over 2,000 years ago!  Now that alone was enough to turn my eyes into the size of saucers.  I mean to say … look at that funky shape (above) …  that isn’t something which you perhaps would have expected to be around over 2,000 years ago.  But there’s more: …  It started out as the Latin word: et – which meant  ‘and’.  But because of the way Latin was written (all curls and flicks) the ‘e‘ and the ‘t‘  sometimes looked as if they were as one letter, which was the beginning of the ampersand  ‘&’.

BUT … the actual name ‘ampersand‘ didn’t exist until around the 1830’s, when ‘&’ was (would you believe it ..) … the 27th letter of the alphabet!  WHO KNEW?!    The ‘&’ mark ended the alphabet like this:  ‘X  ..  Y  ..  Z  ..   and per se and‘  (and=&)  –  and since ‘and per se’ meant: ‘and by itself’  …  this final phrase ‘and per se’ was lazily mumbled and stumbled over by English school children when they were reciting the alphabet,  it was, through use of the mumbled English,  eventually re-born as  ‘ampersand’. 

(If you say the original  ‘and per se and’  out loud a few times until your mouth gets used to saying it, you can eventually ‘hear’ how you could slur it, as a bored child would do when being made to recite the alphabet for the fourth time, and make it sound like ‘ampersand’)

I’ve also learned this week that a picture very much like this little picture (below) hit just the right spot in me and spoke to me like it was the Lord talking gently over my shoulder, into my ear:

My incredible, amazing,  the funshine of my life,  Grandson,  Little Cobs, has developed an all-encompassing love of his teddy bear over the summer (school) holidays, and that teddy bear travels everywhere with him.  From morning till night, that little bear is carted around like it’s tied to him.  His mummy (our daughter) sent a text message to her father (Mr. Cobs)  asking if he could make a bed for ‘Round‘ (the name of Little Cobs teddy bear.  I know!  Round!  I have no idea why either, but that’s the name Little C. gave the bear and we know better than to question it).   I said I’d design it, and Mr. Cobs could make it.  But until it’s made we sorted out a lightweight (so easy to pick up and carry for a small boy), plastic (but that flexible plastic which you can bend – so that it won’t break) box,  which I donated from my craft room, as a bed for ‘Round’,  and when Little Cobs came to visit for the day on Wednesday this week, I told Little C that I would make a pillow and bed throw (duvet) for Round so that she (oh yes, ‘Round’ is a girl, I think I forgot to say that) .. so that Round would have a comfy pillow to rest her head and a lovely bed throw to cover herself up with so that she was snuggly in her bed.

Mr. Cobs lifted my sewing machine from its sewing bag and set it down on the table for me, . . .  and as I sat cutting some material to make the throw …  I became aware of a performance over to my right, coming from the living room.  I stopped what I was doing to see Little Cobs fighting his way through the living room with one of the chairs from his drawing table.  …. huff, puff, huff  ….  He was rather firmly informing Grandad that  NO, he didn’t need any help, he could do it himself!  So Mr. Cobs opened the door wider so that Little C could manly bring in his own chair to sit and keep me company as I sat sewing bed ‘stuff’ for Round. (Keep in mind that this little boy has cerebral palsy which affects his walking and co-ordination, and his articulation of words to some degree, and you’ll understand why seeing him struggling purposefully with this chair made my heart sing).   It was right then, as I looked at the little man now sat to my right, that I realised I couldn’t have a more perfect moment than those few seconds.  Here was this tiny scrap, sat on a chair a quarter of the size of mine, keeping me company and watching me sew and make things for his beloved bear,   as he sat hugging said bear and waited for the magic to happen.  In that moment I knew that I LOVED what I am able to do.  I love that I can craft.  That I can paint, stamp and colour things with him. I love that I have a pile of stuff in my craft room which is just for him.  I love that there is a huge jar filled with all manner of wonderful craft goodies, which he’s seen and knows is sat waiting until this Saturday when he and I are going to have a crafting day, just Grammy and Little Cobs.

And I loved and gave thanks, in that very moment, that I knew enough about sewing dolly and teddy things from when our girls were young,  to quickly make a quilted bed throw and soft, squishy pillow for  Round the Bear, who has a fluffy  heart on her bottom, and holds my grandsons heart in her paw.

Hello God, it’s me again.  Please don’t let him lose Round,  for he will be inconsolable if he ever does. Thank you.

When I had finally finished sewing, and cut off all the loose threads, I gave the new bedding to Little Cobs and helped him put them in Rounds temporary bed, with Round tucked up snuggly, like a bear should be.  He gazed at the bed throw and touched it gently.  Feeling how soft and squishy it was and then he looked at me in a way which I hadn’t seen him look at me before.  I saw that his little brain was trying to work out something that he hadn’t noticed before – that being that his Grammy obviously had a magic wand and was a witch who could magic up wondrous things he’d never dreamed of.  I’m dreading him coming on Saturday and asking me to make him a full size Racing Car.  There’s only so far that my magic can stretch to.  I’m great with ‘swish and flick’  for small things   … but anything big requires Harry Potter himself!  lol

And finally …

I’ve learned that I care more deeply about the blogging friends I’ve made here than I realised.

I received a message from a blogging friend who I ‘met’ when I first began blogging (2 years ago).  I clicked to follow her, she clicked to follow me, and so it went on.  We would read each others blog posts and comment, like you do.  Then … she posted a blog post on June the 30th this year in celebration of being married to her husband for 50 years!  I can tell you that this surprised the heck out of me – and told myself that I’d obviously read it incorrectly because I ‘knew’ she couldn’t be anywhere near 50 years old!  She was too vibrant, too ‘with it’, too …. aw – just TOO.   No way could she have been married for 50 years!  However, when I checked with her, she told me that yes indeed, she and her wonderful husband had been married for 50 years!  (You could have knocked me down with a feather!  I was SO surprised).

Then, last week, I heard from Beverly after a  period of ‘quiet’  (I’d noticed a lack of posts on her blog for about a month, but guessed that they may be away on a summer holiday or off seeing relatives).

Last week Beverly commented on a post on the blog here and told me that she had something to tell me and she would tell me later.  True to her word, she came back and told me that she has lost her husband a few short weeks after their 5oth Wedding Anniversary.  He’d had a fatal heart attack.  When I read the message I felt like someone had placed a hand around my throat and was holding it in a tight grip.  I couldn’t swallow, couldn’t breathe properly and neither could I make this news register with my brain. This surely couldn’t be correct.  It COULDN’T be.  They’d only just celebrated their anniversary.

I read that message three times,  and on the third reading I had to read it out loud so that I could be sure that I was understanding what I was reading.  And then … I didn’t understand why.  Why was this man taken?  What exactly was the ‘plan’ here?  How could it be that there were really bad people left alive and roaming the planet, killing people, blowing them up, and causing so much heartache, anguish and pain, and yet, here was this man,  a wonderful husband to Beverly and father to their children, taken – without warning.  Why?   I don’t understand the plan.

Hello God, it’s me again.  I don’t understand.  Forgive me.  I know you have a plan and that it’s probably a great plan, but sometimes I have to admit that I wonder why some things happen, when there are, to me, more obvious things that could have happened which surely would make the world a better place.  Aw, I know I probably don’t know what I’m talking about … but you know how I like to run these things past you when I can’t figure them out for myself.  Thank you for listening.  ~ me. x

I’ve always known that I develop a feeling of ‘caring’ for people I get to know via my blog here.  The ‘comments’ facility is such a wonderful thing.  I get to know people because of it, and more often than not, we get to have a bit of a giggle together.

And … if one of you doesn’t post for a while then you’ll no doubt find me putting a comment on your blog saying hello and trying to make sure that everything in your world is groovy.

This heartbreaking loss which Beverly is coping with,  has shown me exactly how much I care for all of my blogging friends.   Don’t get me wrong – I knew I cared …  I care enough to go up and down my list of blogs that I follow, every month,  in order to look for names of people who I haven’t heard from for a few weeks and will pop to their blog and leave a message saying hello.  But I didn’t realise how much I cared.  I do now.

I’ve learned a lot this week.

And now … it’s your turn my friend(s).  Tell me, in the ‘comments’ facility,  what you’ve learned this week.  Let’s turn this into a mutual learning experience.

Don’t think you have to use the comments to ‘comment on a post’ – any post.  You can use the comments simply because you have something you wanted to say.  You can chat away to your hearts desire.  If you have a problem and need to off-load it, then you’re very welcome to do so.  It can be a craft thing, a worldly thing, a ‘which dress to wear’ thing …. a heart thing …  any  thing.  If you want to talk about ‘it’  then go for it.  I think the ‘Comments’ should be re-named.  Not sure what to …  maybe you have a suggestion?

Sending you my love and good wishes for a wonderful weekend my friends.  Be safe out there.  Oh … and make memories.  Days are made for you to make memories.

Thanks for coming and sharing a coffee with me.  I love seeing you here.  Have a truly blessed rest of your day,