Are We Mad ?

Well, I have a long (ish) weekend off from work.  I managed to book Monday off at short notice and originally we were going to go to Devon.  Of course not having any children we forgot it was half term!!  Several hours of frustrating calls later - we could find no where to stay (well not that we wanted to stay in, nor places that would take our dogs).

So we have decided to go local - yep we are trotting just a few miles up the road, doing a nice walk around Abberley ruins then spending the night at the Manor Inn, where apparently the food is good and we can take our dogs!  Below is a picture of the Mannor Inn (looks nice eh!)

The only trouble is  -  well have you looked outside?  It is pouring down, we are going to get soaked!!! Oh well never mind.

Wish us luck.

xx

My very first BLOG AWARD Woooohooo

I am so excited,  I have today received my very first BLOG AWARD from my wonderful friend Debbie.

I have never been given an award like this before, so thank you.  As some of you know I used to be a regular blogger BUT when I had a bit of a bad run last year and the year before so I stopped blogging for a while.   Thanks to Debbie and her lovely daughter Grace I am now back in the swing of it and even doing a bit of crafting too!  Now apparently the way this is supposed to work is that I now pass on this award to 5 other people, I would have passed it right back to Debbie but as she gave it to m I am not sure that I can so here goes:

I would like to pass this award onto:

Dancing Angel - Grace as she is a super blogger, excellent crafter and an inspiration as she is only 12!

Karen Lines - from KSL Creative, she is such an inspiration, forever cheerful and never short of an idea for crafting (come on Karen when are we ever going to get together for a bit of crafting!)

Sheena Douglas - My old (well not literally of coure) Particraft buddy, wow Sheena look at all the wonderful things you have done!

Sue- Who is now heading up Paricraft, she is fun, fabulous and is doing a much better job than I ever could have done in a million years, of course she is also super talented!

Last but not least I would like to award my good friend Paul Church, who whilst his website is not technically a blog, he does post on it to tell everyone what he is up to and where he will be, I honestly do not know where he finds the time - or energy, must be all of thoe jaffa cakes!!!

Thanks Debbie for being such a good friend to me and making me feel so loved!!

xx

Cup Cake Tag

I found the bits to make this cup cake tag whilst clearing out my old craft room (which is now a dining room and soon to be the spare bedroom again)!  I forgot just how much I love mini tags and little projects like this one.  In fact this tag cheers me up as the weather has been so awful today!  It is made with Printworks stamps but if you can't get them anymore there are stacks of other little stamps that are similar.  It is great as you can use up all sorts of little bits of left over ribbons etc.   Everything I used to make it came from stampeezee. 

I will hopefully have another project uploaded for you at the weekend and perhaps even some blog candy too!

A good pampering!

I am not normally one to go for all those faddy face powders and creams, what you see is what you get with me!  However yesterday on my way back from a course in Birmingham I was early so I decided to have a little wander around Redditch Town Centre.

I needed a few bits n bobs and was feeling a little down in the dumps so I took a trip into the body shop.  The lady in there was so lovely and helpful and not pushy at all.  She showed me loads of lovely things and I bought a little tester kit of seaweed face products. 

Well let me tell you they are fantatic, I used them last night and again this morning and then again tonight and the difference in the look and feel of my tired old (well 36 years old) skin is dramatic.  What is more they are all fair trade products and produced in an eco friendly way.

If you feel like treating yourself I can certainly vouch for them! 

xxx

Crazy Day

Do you ever get one of those days where you just wish you could start again?  Yep, well I certainly had one of those today!

I am not usually one to get down about things but today I really wanted to bury my head under the duvet and stay out of the way.  In fact it felt very much like Friday the 13th!

Oh well, on a more positive not, how about this for a bit of a relax, inky fingers and some satisfying crafting!

I love this card, I have made it for my dad for his birthday (whoops!  hope he does not read this, his birthday is not until December!!!)

I have used a mixture of masking, brayering and sponging to get the background and then a selection of Stamps from Particraft, all the ink (mostly addirondak) and the little brads and punched embellishments, card stock etc is from Stampeezee

Ahh I feel better already!  xxx

Project - Make Your Own Jewellery Stand

Hi All,

Well I realise that my posting here is somewhat sporadic but I am awake super early so thought I would post a little project for you.  I absolutely loved making this, I originally did it for a TV show on Ideal World but with Christmas fast approaching I thought now would be a good time to share it with you.

It is made from an old jewellery stand that had seen better days.  With today's economy why not dig some old items of household stuff and revamp them!  This will take you an afternoon to make but it is well worth it!

For this project you will need:

Old Jewellery Stand, Basic Craft Kit, Air Dry or some other clay, Gold Paint (if your clay is not gold), WS Designs Templates, Bodice and Fan Panel, Fantasy Film or shiny paper, Fancy paper of your choice for the skirts, ribbon roses, cream pearl card, red high tack tape, dries clear glue, Brilliance pearlescent beige ink pad, a favour net, cream ribbon and an afternoon.

Everything you need for this project can be purchased from my favourite craft shop Stampeezee

Step 1


Tidy up your jewellery stand with paint if needed, form a rough piece of padding for the middle with air dry clay, paint the clay if necessary and leave to dry.  If you have not got clay pad out with some firm sponge.  This will help give your finished stand some form and make your skirts puff out.







Step 2

Take an old loo roll centre and paint it gold, wrap it around you rough central piece tightly using double sided tape.  This helps give a solid point to stick to later

Step 3

Draw around the WS Designs Fan Panel Template onto your chosen fancy paper and onto some fantasy film to match your colour scheme.  You will need approx 15 to 20 panels in all, more if you want to make your finished skirt quite full.  To get the most out of your paper or film top and tail the panels, you dont need to draw the top circular piece on the fan.  Also when drawing on your film, use a permanent pen.  On some of your paper layers cut out the heart too so that the fantasy film will show through

Step 4

Draw around the WS Designs Bodice Template onto your chosen pearl card stock, you will need to do this twice as the stand has a back and a front.  Remember to follow the instructions on the template and to score and fold the top of each boddice.  If you have not used a textured card to start with then you can run the pearly card through an embossing machine like a cuttle bug or a sizzix.

Step 5

To add some interest to this gently run a pearlescent beige ink pad across just the raised parts of the bodice

Step 6

Place your finished bodice pieces onto the jewellery stand so that you an mark out where the bottom of the bodice comes to, actually you are looking to mark the three points of the bodice seen above so that you know where to start attaching your skirts

Step 7

Run high tack tape where your mark is and any where else you feel appropriate so that we can attach the favour net.  The favour net helps fluff out your skirts and adds interest at the bottom of the finished stand

Step 8

Attach your skirts in layers so that you can see the fantasy film through the heart shape.  You only need to attach the top of the skirts as you want the bottoms to stay loose.  You can attach either with some dries clear glue (not too much though) or I prefer to use red high tack tape

Step 9

Your highest layer should come above your earlier mark and you need to tape it all quite flat using a big strip of normal clear tape, you really want it to look like a waist and the tighter you tape it the better your under layers will puff out

Step 10

This next bit is really only cosmetic and you dont have to do it, I just thought it would be nice to see some of the lovely gold from the film through the bodices so I scrunched up a wadge of left overs and stuck them around the top of the skirts in a wad to create a sort of padded area.  The peg was there to hold it in place until the dries clear glue had dried

Step 11

Hold both of your bodices together and punch two or three small holes in each side, thread one side loosely with cream thin ribbon

Step 12

Attach the bodice to the stand by lacing up the other side of the bodice, finish off each side with a nice bow or leave the long ribbons

Step 13

Add some ribbon roses or paper roses in a complimentary colour, you can use silicone or dries clear, which ever you like

Step 14

Plump up your skirts, add a few gems if you want to and stand back and admire your handy work!

Can You Help?

This last week has really been a revelation to me!  I have been investigating the possibility of some help at work with equipment etc to help me see better and do my job.

I honestly did not think I would need it but these last few months I have been coming home with real head aches and my eyes have been so sore, the final straw was realising that I needed another change of glasses, someone at work kindly pointed me in the direction of access to work, so I phoned them.

They sent this fantastic chap out called Patrick Adams, who is blind himself, what an inspiration, It makes my tiny little problem pale into insignificance, anyway he suggested all sorts of stuff that might be of benefit to me.  Today the first company came out to demonstrate some of the equipment available and boy how fantastic, I can not believe how much easier things will be for me without me having to struggle to see properly.  Especially reading documents and when I have to go to training events.  It makes sense having this stuff as it will take a massive strain of my eyes and perhaps will help them stop getting any worse! (well we can live in hope)

I also can't believe that these products and services are not well known!  It is a crying shame that people could be helped and given tools to make their lives easier, and that there is money there to help people who need this sort of equipment, but no one suggests it!

For the last 18 monthsI have been backwards and forwards to the hospital, to the opticians and to low vision clinics and not once has anyone suggested any of this stuff, which would have been available.  Of course I knew about access to work, but it was not emphasised just how much they could help out with equipment, only really with travel. 

Apparently if we lived in France, the minute you are diagnosed with conditions that affect your sight and glasses are not always that effective, you are introduced this sort of equipment at the start.  After talking to the equipment company today, it is common place here that no one really suggests equipment and companies supplying that equipment that could help you.  He said that it is a massive problem and all they want to do is make peoples lives better.  He said that there is this huge pot of money which is under utilised!

I can not stand to think of others struggling on, especially those with much worse problems than mine, I am on a mission now to try and get knowledge of these products and services out there so others can benefit from them too.

If anyone can suggest a way to help me do this I am open to suggestions!

Lizzie

xxxxxxx