The Garden in Winter

 I'm still in a wintery frame of mind, helped along by the freezing conditions we are expecting later today!  I'm holding back on this sketchbook page for a while as I'm liking the simplicity of it at the moment - I'm good at over-egging the cake so I'm trying to stop myself flinging everything at it!

I made a birthday card for my brother-in-law recently - he loves working with wood and is very creative so I tried doing a wood inlay card using some wood effect papers that I've had in my stash for years, and a medallion die.  I was hoping for a Morroccan look to it, but he referred to it as lace so not quite the response I was hoping for.  Still, I had fun making it!!

I'm linking up with Julia this week over at WOYWW.
 

Making the Most of the Sunshine

 I have been meaning to get some Cyanotype printing done all summer to

replenish my stocks for collage and card making.  Yesterday it suddenly dawned on me as we head towards autumn that I ought to get on with it - the results are better when the sun is at it's highest and strongest, ideally the middle of a summer's day. 

My desk yesterday afternoon was the garden bench and the kitchen sink - I just remembered in time to take some photos!

Out in the sun 'cooking'!

  Foliage removed and ready to rinse

Just starting to turn blue in the bowl of water - the stripes are the shadows of the sun coming through the kitchen blinds!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Autumn Watercolours and WOYWW

 I've been trying out some water colour ideas for a special birthday card this week.

  I was rather hoping to have finished it by now,

but coming up with something I'm completely happy with is proving to be quite elusive - fingers crossed I have something finished by next week!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week

Animal Tag

Over at Tag Tuesday the theme is 'Animals' so I've put together 

an animal tag using a beautiful paper napkin that I've been saving for just such an occasion!

I added fussy cut leaves from an old book and I also found some rusty metal palm leaves and tied them on with sari silk.

Autumn Ferns and WOYWW

I love ferns - they have to my one of my favourite plants, and right now the New Forest is full of beautiful bracken that's turning that rich, deep, Autumn rust colour.

Currently sitting on my desk (still waiting to be cleared away!) are some Autumn themed card toppers I've made before we go rushing into Winter and Christmas - I usually add a sentiment at the last moment when I know who the card is for.

 

I think I'm going to add the die cut initial of the recipient to this one as the centre seems a little too plain.

Using up all the left over bits - I think the tag is too big for the scale of the foliage but I was too lazy to die cut a new one!

    

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

October Birthdays and WOYWW

Not much crafting done lately I'm afraid, but I'll show a couple of birthday cards I've made this month - they were propped up on my desk waiting to be photographed for ages as I discovered a scratch on the lens of my camera and had to wait for a new one to arrive.  I was so disappointed to find that my 'new' camera was too old be mended but I've picked up an identical second hand one so I don't have to learn how to use a different one -  I'm soooooo lazy when it comes to reading instruction manuals!  

 On to the cards - this one has vellum leaves and stamped Tissue wrap which I adhered to a Khadi paper base for my sister's card...

... and this card for my nephew's 17th birthday is based on Dungeons and Dragons - he's a bit of a fan of it at the moment.   I cut and stenciled the D&D logo onto an embossed 'shield' that I edged with copper tape.  I made a small matching box to hold birthday money and gift cards, which is always preferable to anything I might go and buy him!!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Silver Jewellery Making

 I've recently discovered the joys of working with silver clay!  Basically it's a clay made of silver particles plus a binder, so you work with it like clay and then when it's fired the binder burns off and you are left with pure silver. 

I've been on a couple of fantastic courses lately, the ammonite pendant was made with Hilary Bowen back in November and I was so thrilled with the whole experience that I was given some clay for Christmas and made the two leaf pendants at home - there is some room for improvement in them but I love wearing them and imperfections are all part of the 'hand-made' look!  Last Saturday I went on another fabulous course with the lovely and super-talented Fiona Ingram who helped me turn my own design into a one-off piece of jewellery with gorgeous shades of autumn colours on the berries - it was such a fun day.   

I'm relieved to say I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week as I've had such horrible and seemingly never-ending computer problems lately.  We had a major crash during a Windows 10 update then big problems while changing our Broadband supplier - soooooo frustrating and quite an eye opener discovering how much I rely on my computer and how much I missed it!

Leafy Tag and WOYWW

What a nice week it's been despite the grey clouds!

Brittany at Fiber Haus has run an article on my work for her newsletter, 

and I was so pleased with how it turned out - thank you Brittany.  

Here's a link to the article and for any one who loves yarn her website is well worth a look.

Here's a tag I made, it turned out more autumn-y than wintery, perhaps I should have added snow, but then it would have been too Christmassy!!

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday.  

Autumn Leaves Tags

 Tags are made - that's the autumn birthdays dealt with, now back to Christmas card making!

 You can see the shine and detail of the foil more clearly in these close-up pictures - it was quite difficult photograph.

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday this week.

Autumn and Halloween

Well here's a rare photo of my desk - I'm in the middle of making some autumn gift tags and as I'm making 3 there seems to be loads more mess on the table than usual.  I have been using foil and die-cut leaves - I feel they look promising but to be honest anything can happen!  They will either be finished by next week or the whole lot will be dumped in a box and never seen again!!

I've also just finished a birthday card...

...and a couple of Halloween cards.  They are all using the same three colours and the same Physalis/Chinese Lanterns die, but hopefully the birthday one (above) doesn't look too Halloweeny!

I'm finding this little church die very versatile and have used it in previous posts here and here for Christmas cards.

...and finally a Trick or Treat bag for my sister - I always try and have some more grown-up sweets for her when she brings my nephews round Trick or Treating !

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday, why not pop over and see what other people have on their desks today.

Autumn Birthday Cards

We have lots of birthdays in October so the Christmas card making has stopped and here are a couple of Autumn cards I've made.  

This card has an embossed panel on the front that I made using a nestie die with rubber embossing mats to replace one of the clear cutting pads (this will probably only make sense if you use a Bigshot!) - I think it's quite effective although the photo doesn't show it very well.

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday this week

October Birthday Card

I have managed to make a quick birthday card for my sister's October birthday, despite all the mayhem of looking after our sick guinea pig.  He became ill and had to have surgery and for the last week and a half we've been nursing him back to health.  I've been too worried to do much arty crafty stuff and I must say a huge 'SORRY' for not returning quite a few visits - I did my best but as soon as Archie was home from the vet's life became very hectic!

Here's the birthday card...

...and matching tag  - I got carried away stamping and nearly didn't leave any space for writing a message - I remembered just in time!

And here's my boy, taken back in the summer.  He seems well on the road to recovery now.

I'm linking up with Julia over at  What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday.

April's Forgotten Stash

My monthly quest to use or move along stash that I've forgotten about is still going strong and for April I've chosen three little leaf stamps by Impress.  I have many leaf stamps but they are all quite realistic and I use them a lot.  However, these are more stylised - when I first saw them they really appealed to me, but I'm afraid I just put them away and forgot about them! 

I decided to emboss them onto my very favourite fabric of the moment - this vivid green velvet!  For anyone interested in embossing velvet I have some instructions on an old blog post here.    

I must admit I'm rather taken with the stamps and am now thinking of other ways to use them, so perhaps they'll stay with me for a little while longer!  The samples will probably end up in my Spring sketch book, or I might make cards with them as they are just about small enough.

   

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday.