A Fishy Tale with PDCC No: 22

It is the PDC challenge No: 22 this week. Here are the challenge colours:




I decided to visit a piece of work I made some time ago, which never felt quite right. In the original make I just had some stamped fish. This felt very flat and 2D'ish, so the thought came to me to actually make fish so it was much more like viewing sardines in a can. 


I started off spraying cotton with glimmer mist in the colours from the challenge. hen stamping and sewing fish. Then adding more of the colours from the challenge  with paint. I also liked the link with "Can you see the Sea" and I had images of the sardines squealing this to each other. Bit macabre , but there you go!

Butter wouldn't melt!

Our dog went walkabout today. Harriet came home and did not notice the dog slip out. He wasn't noticed missing until about an hour later. What a horrid feeling.
We all went around the village searching and calling for him. Several people said they had seem him on the rec, and then by the post office. We talked to anyone we could see. He completely slipped by us. After about an hour I phoned the police and the dog warden. Then took to the streets again to search. Eventually a friend I had talked to earlier found him outside the village. He is really quite a good dog, quite well trained and she just called him and slipped a leash on him no trouble and brought him down. What a relief. The thoughts that go through your mind are just dreadful. I am glad to report a happy ending.

If he knew what he had done wrong he would be in the dog house. To him he just went for a mooch.

Reasons to Stamp in April with Gingersnaps

Bla, bla, bla day

National Kite Month

Here are my contributions for the month for Reasons to Stamp over on Gingersnaps. Fancy there being a Bla, bla, bla day and actually having a stamp that says Bla, bla etc. How perfect could that have been!  A Stampotique stamp available from The Stamp Attic if you are interested.

Then there was National Kite Month which has so many special meanings for me! In Bermuda it is traditional to fly Kites on Good Friday. Many a times I have done this. My Mother was brought up in Bermuda and when she retired she returned to live there. I have spent many summers on the beautiful Island and it was one of my teenage stomping grounds. My Mother died there a couple of years ago. I don't know how I feel about visiting now. One of the reasons was to visit her and it would seem like a big part of it was now missing for me.

Crowns; Trinchies with Something Completely Different

This is the last week of Trinchie with Something Completely Different this week. I have loved visiting all your Trinchies and hope you enjoyed them as much as I have. This month has seen the first ones I have ever made. Quite a lot of fun. I can't wait to see all your creations this week.

First Wedding Anniversary: Paper

A friend at work asked me to make a card for her daughters first Wedding Anniversary which she told me was paper. This is what I created. Now I do have a question for you all. I have these so called "Spinner blanks" and I am somewhat confused as to how they work or how they are meant to be tackled? After finishing the card I thought that probably they were meant to be turned by 90 degrees and sit more like a tent? Does anyone out there know? It worked fine like this, it just does not feel quite right. know what I mean?

Growth: Gingersnaps

Over on Gingersnaps there is a new challenge just been launched on the topic Growth. To me this summed it up. How quickly our children grow. Before long they are taller than yourself. I can also remember of having big brothers. One was over 6' 2" and a good 10 years older than me. I can remember dancing with him, standing on his feet. He is still taller than me but I don't think he would appreciate me dancing on his feet now!  But I think the little fellow's expression about sums up how I used to feel about My Big Bro!

Gingersnaps Birthday Celebration

I noticed a few people were uploading the postcard size art x 4 they were creating for the Gingersnaps Celebratory Birthday Bash Swap. Hels over on Ink on my Fingers has very kindly offered, as she is very kind,  to organize the swap on this side of the Atlantic. During my makes my Mo Jo decided to go walkabout and things did not seem to go to plan. But I got there in the end and it was such a relief that I posted them off post haste to Hels, especially as the deadline was looming. What do you think crossed my mind as I let go of the package as it feel into the post box.  Well that probably can't be printed. So what I had done was to post them off without first photographing them! How blonde!

I came home after buying some bags of chocolates and started a groveling, pleading letter  to Hels, with the bribery items inside, to ask her if she could do the honours and photograph the postcards for me. Hels has a great sense of humour and I think found it rather amusing. So thanks to Hels I have been able to post this on my blog.

This saying always tickles me and off course it is from the legendary Mae West. All you need to do for a true quote is to replace "she" for "I". I hope you find it amusing too!

Musical Instrument Trinchies with SCD

This weeks theme for Trinchies over on Something Completely Different is Musical Instruments. This is my contribution. It uses a stamp from Aspects of Design called Classical Instruments available from The Stampman. The stamps are adorned with  these wonderful flourishes.

Play Date Cafe No: 21

This is this weeks entry for the PDCC No: 21 with colours medium pink, pale pink and pale yellow. This make is a little out of character for me but I like to have an open mind and adapt things as to the requirements. I enjoyed the change and am happy I have been able to make a pretty card rather than a quirky one this time. The colours are so pretty and I felt warranted this beautiful image of childhood.

Ginger, Copper and Rust with Gingersnaps

Meet Ginger

A Gingersnap challenge. This is a very quick post before work. I will come back later and edit it to tell you more about the products I used and the problems I encountered along the way. Despite these it was a very enjoyable make. Most the problems I encountered were with the frame which I had started for a different project. Once I conquered my skimping prep work on it things went swimmingly. If you want to know what products I used I will fill in details when I get home.

So now I can go into more details. The frame is a recycled item I had lying around waiting to be re used. I did use sandpaper on it but obviously did not do a thorough enough job as when I applied Viva Croco paint it had great tendencies to fall off in chunks. Never mind I thought. Another sand in the gaps and another coat should do the job. No, same problem but less so. Then I left it for several weeks and when I came back thought that I could just add some more of the paint to the remaining gaps. Gaps getting less all the time. Still not happy so abandoned again. Then Ginger, copper and rust Gingersnaps challenge came along. I wanted this frame and had an idea what to do with the image. So out came the Ferro Metal Effect Gold Iron paint and this was then applied on top of the Croco. Fingers crossed and this did the trick. Horray.  But it looked rather ironish rather than copperish. So I swooshed the surface with an embossing pad to catch the high points and sprinkled with copper embossing powder. I was happy with this.

Ginger started life as a Paper Artsy stamp from the Dolls Plate 1. She was stamped onto card, had her legs and arms chopped off. Given beaded legs and tiny tag arms(which are on the original stamp, but static) I re stamped these onto glimmered card and holed them and jump ringed them to the body. The button was swooshed with an embossing pad to catch the high points and sprinkled with copper embossing powder. A headdress created with foil leaves cut to size  and pretty little electrical things added and a face stuck on. Ginger was born.

I think with the Croco paint I should have used a base coat or primer first and it should have worked better. However this paint fits the theme better and I like the texture the Croco paint gave to the frame as a base coat.

Stampotique Challenge: Spring has Sprung

Well this is my make for Spring has Sprung. Bright sunny colours that remind me of spring. I started this make thinking the title and idea behind it was "Lucky Legs' Easter Bonnet" but as I was making it Kirsty MacColl's song "In these Shoes" was shouting out to me, which in he end won the day.

Alice with Ink on my Fingers

well I just managed to find time to take part and play. This is my contribution to Ink on My Fingers challenge this week. These stamps were a real bargain from The Stamp Attic who has/had? an offer on these Alice stamps. So I was so pleased I did have time to use them.

Play Date Cafe Challenge : 20

Over on the PDCC this week the colour challenge is lavender, aqua and white. Take a look at what their design team have created this week. The new design team has now been chosen and you can see who the luck ones are. This is my contribution for the week, which I am pleased with, and feels fresh and different. Why not have a play too and see what you come up with.

Men: Trinchies with Something Completely Different

This weeks subject is Men. I have chosen a black and white image this week as I felt in was most suitable for this stamp. I had to do very little to this Paper Artsy stamp, just crop it down to size. So why not see what you can come up with for this very versatile subject and also take a look at what else the design team have created over on SCD.

Springtime Yellow with the PDCC no: 19

What glorious sun we have been having. Just wonderful and the quality of light seems to have changed to spring light. The birds are singing, staking their territory, thinking about nesting. So hence my theme this week. Still cold enough to enjoy the sunshine from within much of the time, not all the time! So through my window I have been watching birds and this seemed the most appropriate subject for that warm yellow sunshine and busy birds. Yes over on the Play Date Cafe the colour theme this week is yellow. I must admit I rather like yellow.

OWOH lucky draw

Look what I received in the mail yesterday. A wonderful necklace that was made by Melinda Cornish. Isn't it superb and it was featured in the Quilting Arts Magazine. It is a wonderful treasure and I am very happy to have been lucky enough to win it. Melinda has some other great things on her blog so it is well worth a visit at http://melindasfabricfancies.blogspot.com/. Many thanks Melinda it will be thoroughly enjoyed.

Love & Romance with Something Completely Different

This month we are working on "trinchies" which are 3 inch square pieces of loveliness. I decided to use this stamp as I believe love and romance should be life long and not limited to just the young. I am sure long term love goes through different stages of life just as we do. I had happy thoughts for this couple, although they do not look as if they are in the honeymoon period of their love, of being long lived trusted friends of each other.

So why not take a look over on SCD and see how the other members of the design team have related to the subject. Come and join the fun and make a trinchie on this theme of Love and Romance.