Autumn ~ a time when every leaf becomes a flower!

I mentioned in yesterdays post,  a card I made for Beverly of More Ink Please which I couldn’t post yesterday because I hadn’t re-sized the photos .. well I have now, and I’m here to share.

I previously made just one leaf like these some time ago after I saw one on Pinterest, and fell in love with it.  The leaf I made that time, I made using the Ranger Melting Pot, however these leaves I made using a regular heat gun, to see if I could make them in the same sort of way, as I know that not everyone has a Melt Pot, and this was the result:

I stamped leaves in various sizes then cut them out,  and using ink I coloured the leaves so that they had those wonderful autumnal colours.  I then shaped them and manipulated them gently so that they had ‘groves’ and bends where the should be.  Then smoothed an embossing pad over them and using extra thick embossing powders I heated the leaves using a regular heat gun.  I found that roughly three layers was enough to make the leaves have that deep, thick glow which suggested that they were made of porcelain or glass and precious.

Once cool I dragged a gold ink pen around the outside of the leaf, and finally I wrapped some gold wire around the leaves.

Then using a hot glue gun I attached them to a card which I’d prior to this, embossed the background in a tree bark look, and framed that background with a cut out,  –  but I’d embossed around the edges of that cut out in a random way using two colours of embossing powders and carefully melting them into each other.

I added a sentiment, and a bow and that was it.  Finished!  It was ready to be sent to Beverly.

And that was all there was to it!  😊

I’m still taking part in the InkTober challenge, but I ran out of time today to finish my drawing, so I’ll hopefully finish it tomorrow and post a blog post about it then.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee with me.  It’s so lovely of you to visit, and I just love seeing you.

Oh … and before you go  …  Let’s all wish Britt Ekland a Happy Birthday for today. She was born on this day, in 1942.  This fabulous fact about this lovely lady leaves me feeling wonderful and very young.    If she looks that good (I Googled to find an up to date photo of her) at her age today, then there is hope for me. (I was born a good maaany years after 1942!).  

I’m off now to put on a full face of cosmetics, find my favourite outfit out of the wardrobe and go somewhere where my glamour will be appreciated.  Somehow, Tesco’s just won’t cut it today.

As for you …  I wish you a truly blessed day.  Please do something to make someone else smile.  It doesn’t have to cost you anything.  You can simply say a bright ‘good morning’ to them, but just try to make someone smile today.  It costs nothing, and you’ll never run out of them.

Sending buckets of squidges through my computer screen, along the cables and bursting through your computer screen.  Wait for the moment they hit you … get ready …  …. NOW!  Feel that warm little wiggle inside?  You’ve just had a download of Cobs Squidges.  You should now be smiling a little smile.  Just a turn upwards of the corners of your mouth.  YES… THERE IT IS!  Aw my goodness, you look so fabulous when you smile like that.  Your eyes twinkle like little diamonds!

Have a lovely day my friend. 

 

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Somethings in life are always beautiful.

I had my Ranger Melt Pot out last week,  aka:  The Cauldron.,  and made a few pretties with it but … well, one thing turned to another and a little memory crept into my mind of a card I remembered seeing about four or five years ago.  Once the memory had taken shape inside my mind (in other words, I remembered enough to give it a good old bash) I thought I’d have try at making the beautiful leaf I remembered.

The leaf itself is a stamped leaf, but, after cutting it out, I turned it over and using bottles of re-inkers, I set about colouring the leaf up.  The first one I made didn’t give off the feeling I was trying for.  The colours were too deep and kind of flat.  So I scrapped that one, (my motto:  If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you ever tried!)…  and began again, this time using different colours.  I knew what I was after:  A leaf coloured for all the seasons.    And this was the result:-

I was quite pleased with how it turned out.  It went from a brighter summer green, into a deep, rich, dark green, which then changed into rust and orange, which in turn changed into that fabulous autumn yellow.

I took LOADS of photographs of the leaf … and couldn’t for the life of me, get it to show the ultra thick embossing which I’d toiled over until it was perfection.  I wanted to catch the shine on the leaf so that you could see that this was something really pretty.  It looked like the most beautiful leaf captured inside glass. [sigh]  Sadly, I failed.  Nothing I did would catch the shine of what looked like glass.  So you’ll have to imagine that it’s there.

The sentiment – is partly something I read a while back, but I changed it round a little, added a line and changed a few words, and so made it more what I wanted the card to say.

In case you can’t read it, it says:

Whispering winds which scatter leaves at the end of Summer;  A gentle stroll on an Autumn Day;  The chill in the air on a Winters morning;  The chirrup of bird song which Spring brings.  Somethings in life are always beautiful.

I really enjoyed putting this card together and love the leaf.  In fact I loved making it so much that I think I’m going to make it again, only next time a little different.  If it works, I’ll share it with you.  If it doesn’t …  you may never hear another word about it.  But ..  I might share it if it fails miserably – just so that you and I can have a laugh.  LOL.

On the day I made this card,  I made some other things too – only this time with my Cauldron (Ranger Melt Pot), and I’ll share those things with you next time.

Anyhoo  . . .  HAPPY MONDAY!

Just to get the week off to a grrrrrreat start, I give you a joke in the hope of making your heart smile….

I just watched a wildlife documentary about beavers.  —  Best dam programme I’ve seen in a long time!  😀

Pass the smile around.  Share the joke.  Let’s see if we can get the whole world smiling.  We could use a little amusement now and again.

Have a truly lovely Monday.  May today be a good one.  Sending you squidges from my corner to yours….

 

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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He’s [definitely] Making a List . . .

Around fourteen or fifteen years ago I made and painted a whole bundle of these boards for a Christmas Craft Fair which I’d been asked to do, and they went down a smash hit with parents and grandparents, who bought them for their little ones.

The idea is that the little ones would write their list of toys they hoped that Father Christmas would bring for them, then Mommy, Daddy, or a Grandparent or carer, would ‘peg’ the list to the board using those pegs which you can see in the photo – which are permanently attached to the board.  However … Father Christmas with the wording over his head, was a reminder to the little monkeys amongst them to be good because they had to remember that Santa Claus was   making a list – and checking it twice!  What better way to make sure that a little monkey changed his or her ways and became a little Angel – at least … until after Christmas!

I was reminded of these boards recently and thought that I really ought to make at least one more, for the littlest member of my family – in the hope that perhaps a little Angel might just be made from a rascally monkey!

So here it is . . .   oh, and by the way   . . .   he’s still making that list!  😀

Made from a rectangle of slim MDF (Medium Density Fibre-board) – as it’s known here in the UK (not sure what it might be called in the country where you are – perhaps Mr. Google would be your friend there!).  I got himself to bevel the edges (using a router) so that they curved away and then had him drill two small holes so that, once painted and sealed, I could feed some wire through them, in order to make the curly wired hanging wires.  Then it was on to the fun stuff ….

I hand painted the night sky and snow, then, once dry, painted the cutesy Father Christmas, or Santa.  I left the boards to dry for a couple of days (so that they were fully dry) and then gave the whole board a gentle, but good, spray over with an acrylic varnish which has the finest particles of glitter dust suspended in it.  Once this was dry the glittery particles twinkled merrily in the light – but it doesn’t give it that white sheen which other glitter varnishes can sometimes give.  Sadly the twinkles didn’t show up in the flash photo, so you’ll have to imagine them there!

I don’t draw when I’m going to paint something – I will scribble a few lines as a reminder of where I want to place something,  but I don’t actually ‘draw‘ anything.  For example – on these board paintings all I ‘drew’ was a freehand circle – which was where I roughly wanted F.C.’s face to be,  But other than that I didn’t draw anything.  I’m someone who prefers to just go straight in with paint and ‘see’ the idea I have inside my head come to life.

I didn’t use a pattern or anything like that,  I just painted the idea I had, so sadly can’t offer to share a pattern to paint something like this.  But painting a folksy fun type of Santa isn’t that difficult.  You don’t have to put in much detail, there are no wrinkles to his face or his clothes – so you don’t have to worry about that.  But – even if you think you’re not a painter – just have a go!  You’ll never know what you can do unless you have a go!