Hen weekend

My weekend was spent in Nottingham with 9 other lovely ladies celebrating my friend Lydia's Hen. Lydia is the one all in black, sporting the wings.

The other photo shows us all sporting the t-shirts I mentioned in a previous post. Thankfully all of them fitted - sort of .

Oh and thanks for the pics Kaz! :)

Now the hen is over I can show you some of the goodies I bought from some lovely Folksy people, they were birthday gifts I had to give out over the weekend.

Firstly there are these lovely biscuit shaped soaps from 'Bits n Bobs', so unusual and so much fun.

Secondly there was this cute little tote bag and purse from Emily Pickle, I love the fabrics, I would buy tote bags and purses daily if I could afford to. These treats have all gone to their new home in Germany now, I hope Liz enjoys them :)

Finally a few of us hens stayed a second night. As you can imagine it wasn't quite as manic as the first night, and we were all feeling a little bit worse for wear. Having foreseen that we would be a little subdued, and not have any plans, I thought it would be nice to make everyone a polymer hen (hen - get it ???) keyring gifts, and give them a few chocolates :) So here is my little hen - well I didn't want to be left out!

Birds and the Beads...and Spiders?

I am currently spending this week getting very excited, as it is this weekend that my friend's hen party finally arrives! :) Other half is being left to do some much needed weeding, while I scoot off to eat, drink and rock! I am spending a lot of time making piles of things I need to remember to take with me - fairy wings anyone??

Other than planning girly escapades, I have also been thinking about starting up another shop, possibly on Folksy. I don't want to start anything until the Hen party is out of the way, but I would really like to get some of my beads out there. With that in mind I have purchased some lovely little organza gift bags from IslePac. I am super pleased with them, I thought they were very reasonable at 19p each, and they arrived the day after I ordered them, I don't think you could ask for much more than that.

I have also had my clay out again, playing with the big block of Premo Sculpey Frost I had hanging around. I had planned to make a cane I had thought up a little while ago, but it ended going in a slightly more organic direction, which I am very happy with, I just know if I had tried to make it, it would have become a very graphic pattern similar to my other beads, but the patterns on these are much looser and less structured.

I have named the beads Daisy, and as always there is a little bird to match.

I love the quality of the Frost clay, it develops little specks and superficial cracks just like frosted glass, which I found particularly effective when blended with some blues, as you can see in the beads below (Cathy). They still all need a good sanding and finishing but I am hoping that they will come up quite glassy.

Thought I would also share a picture of Geoff. It appears he is now sharing the spare room with me, making messy webs everywhere, he isn't particularly chatty but he doesn't interfere or get in the way either, so we are getting on fine. So for those of you not so fond of our 8 legged friends, don't scroll down :)

Busy! Busy! Busy!

I have been off performing various bridesmaid duties over the last week. I went with 'bride to be' to her first dress fitting, make up trial, and hair trial, was pretty worn out by the end of the weekend, but all went smoothly.

Sunday also saw me visiting the Bed Bar in Woking for an acoustic night, the wonderful Dave McPherson of InMe was playing, he is awesome! We also saw an acoustic set from a band called Midgar, they were also rather good :)

This morning I have been tying up various hen party bits and pieces. Everything is confirmed, and a tutu is now ordered. I also have baileys miniatures ordered for the wedding day, so all the girls have a little dutch courage.

T-shirts arrived for hen party last week, here is a pic!

I am super pleased with how they have turned out. They were screen printed for me by i dress myself and I heartily recommend them if you have artwork that needs to find it's way onto a t-shirt. Very friendly, helpful and reasonable :)

Still no luck on my paper chase :(

Hopefully, I will be getting my creative craft head on again soon, just in the middle of completing some freelance graphic design, pennies from which are going to fund my next craft shopping spree!

The Great Paper Chase!

Eight years ago, while I was at university I took a trip to Manchester. While in Manchester I popped into Paperchase and purchased about 10 sheets of A1 paper, all of different weights and textures. I safely returned the paper to Stoke-on-Trent on the train without any damage, and then placed it in an A1 plastic folder for safe keeping. I used one sheet of that paper for some self promotion work, and the rest of it stayed in that folder.

8 years later, after moving back to Coventry, after moving to London, after moving to Woking, I dug out those sheets of paper, all were still in mint condition, and recently I have started using them. One piece in particular, I have fallen in love with. I began using it to create my little bear illustrations. I now only have about a third of a sheet left.

The problem is - I can't find any more of that paper! The lovely Alan (mailorder) at Paperchase has been on the search for me, but they no longer stock it, and no one can even remember it, so now I have come to a bit of a dead end. So I am asking you, and anyone you know out there,

DO YOU RECOGNISE THIS PAPER???

Obviously it is pretty hard to translate textured paper successfully onto screen, but I have tried to do what I can to make it stand out. It is a similar weight and feel to water colour paper, it feels quite thick but soft, but the pattern and texture isn't random like on water colour paper, or hammered paper, it has a structure. It looks like it has lots of little dents almost like a waffle.

If anyone knows where I can get paper like this, please let me know, or if you think you know someone who might know, please pass my plea onto them, or point me in the right direction. Any help would really be appreciated.

Thank you!

Birds and the Beads

All I seem to be doing at the minute is buying, or planning to buy. I have birthdays coming up over the next month, and have had a lovely time over a Folksy choosing special gifts. I can't wait to share some of the goodies that I have bought from some of the lovely sellers, but that will have to come in a later post, as I would hate to spoil any of the surprises I have planned by putting up images.

Using Folksy has proven to be incredibly easy, I was quite interested to see how it all works, as I am debating whether to set up shop on there myself. So far I am getting a good feeling, 'I' want to buy from there, so it can't be a bad place to start.

Other than shopping lists, I have been making more beads and more birds, keeping myself busy, until I can afford to buy a few more supplies. I have also had a little bit of freelance Graphics work which I have really enjoyed, I love having a variety of things to do.

Firstly here are my Penny beads, they came about over the easter period, inspired by speckled hens and speckled eggs (particularly the ridiculous amounts of mini eggs I consumed), they also feature my first pillow beads. I am really pleased with them, they take a little longer to shape, but I do find it quite relaxing.

Next we have my Leah beads, a lovely range of golds, pearls, golds and creams. There is a fair amount of translucent clay in there too, which I love to use, as it gives the impression of depth to some of the patterns. It also feels much softer and smoother than the others clays, this can be a bit of a problem as patterns can begin to blend and blur too easily if you handle it too much (that is why there are no pillow beads), but it is wonderful to touch. I was also purposefully trying to experiment with a more neutral palette, as I am normally drawn to my bright colours.

I used the same clay cane to create this little fellow, alas, he doesn't have a name at present. He is similar to the circle birds that I created previously, but smaller, and therefore, made entirely of polymer.

Finally, these are my Lulu beads, which I adore because they are so bold and make a statement. To me, they screamed 60s, so Lulu was the only name I thought appropriate.

True to current form, there is a bird (penguin specifically) to match :)

Neglected!!

My poor blog seems to have been somewhat neglected over the last few weeks. I have been a little bit busy, but not with all the creative things I should have been doing, but now it is back to business.

Firstly I want to thank Rainbowfizz and Nat from Nat's Nest for nominating me for a sunshine award. I am very flattered that you both thought me a mention.

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  These are the rules of accepting this award -
  
  
  Sunshine Award Rules
  
  The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world.
  To accept the award:
  
  Place this award on your blog or in a post
  
  Pass the award on to 12 bloggers
  
  Link the nominees within the post
  
  Let the nominiees know they have received the award by commenting on their blog
  
  Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.
  
  I guess we all know what it is like to write a blog sometimes, and feel like no one ever reads it, so the awards are a lovely way to show each other appreciation and spread the word :)
  
  
  So here are my nominees:
  
  
  Adventures of the Squeegee
  Bonbi Forest
  Clair Wolfe Jewellery
  Dinky Daisy
  Hamilton Jewellery
  It belongs to Turtle
  Little Scruffs Miniature Bears
  Mad About Bags
  Maya Made
  Pips
  That Crafty Fish
  Exploring the Art of Polymer Clay
  
  
  Thank you again for my award guys, and thank you Nat for helping me when I was confused!
  
  
  So what else have I been up to? Well there hasn't been too much making going on, as I spent half of last week back home at my parents. I wasn't able to see my mum on Mother's day so I went up early. It was really nice to see my folks again, and I was able to see my brother and sister and both their families too :) I was finally able to give my brother's family their christmas presents, as the snow over christmas had stopped us from seeing them. We got our gift of wines and chocolates - some of the chocolate may already be gone :).
  
  
  My niece had asked to see my old Sylvanians, and it was great fun sorting through all my old toys and school work from the attic. I was pleasantly surprised that all my Sylvanians were all still in one piece, I used to be so careful with them, it is amazing to think that they are 20 years old, and that now my niece plays with some of the same characters.
  
  
  I took a visit to my old first school too, to see my niece get praised for her great work in assembly. I was a very proud aunty! It was so weird walking into the old hall, and remembering how big and intimidating it used to seem!
  
  
  Also my mum gave me a tool kit, it used to belong to my nan, and now with all the crafts and making that I am doing, my mum thought it might be useful for me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I love it, it is heavy, and all the tools are heavy and solid. I also love my grandad's old tobacco tins (back from the day when they didn't know smoking was bad for you), they have so much character, oh, and the old tape measure that smells of dressmaking.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I am back home now, and trying to figure out what to start on next. I am still trying to potter along using up all the resources I already have, so I don't have to spend any money. I used the last of my photo corners yesterday making cards. I have been creating with lots of cut out bits of paper and paint, these cards are prints from the original collages.
  
  
  
  I am now out of photo corners and envelopes, and I could also do with some new paper to print on, so it looks like next week I will go back to using up my polymer clay, or drawing??

  
  

Staying Motivated

Now I did promise myself that I would post on here at least once a week, that way it would ensure that I was getting some work done :) Well that didn't quite go to plan, I am blaming it on the grey drizzle outside goading me into wrapping up in a snug blanket. However it hasn't all been about blanket snuggling, I have also had some solid bead sanding and glossing to do. It isn't my favourite part of the bead making process, one day I will buy myself a tumbler to help me out, until then I will continue to sand each bead by hand - twice. I have managed to get about a hundred finished over three days, and I have managed to pace myself well, so that I don't have pains in my wrist, or stiff fingers (I even managed not to file my nails down for a change).

The result of my endeavors is a small jar filled with shiny lentil beads. I love the colours, I knew I was going to use orange and black, as a request from my brother (he isn't personally into beads himself, but was thinking about a present), and I had decided to throw in some pearl, silver and red, just to break it up a bit, add a bit of interest, and try to bridge the gap between the original two colours. I have to be honest, they wouldn't have been my first choice of colour combinations, but now I am looking at them finished, all shiny and smooth, I can't stop looking at them. I'm not sure what they remind me of, maybe something Egyptian with those strong orange/reds and heavy blacks.

I also finished off some of my orange and black flower beads. I think these are quite effective, the bright orange is definitely eye catching. I do like the fact they are very strong and graphic, but they are so bold, they also scare me a little bit. I am so fond of my complicated, busy patterns, and these are completely the opposite.

Beads aside, I have also been trying to think of ways to use various art pieces and collages I have created as cards. I have now created a small collection. I have seven designs in total, these are just a few of them, please excuse the shiny cello bags reflecting back, it took so long to get the cards in the bags, I'm scared of taking them out again in case they get dirty :) I did finally buy a score board too, it was a plastic one from a seller on ebay. I think it is possibly the smartest purchase I have ever made. Such a simple tool, but has made my life so much easier. I would love to make some more cards, but I will need to get a bit more creative with my ideas, I am slowly running out of materials, but I have promised myself that I won't spend anymore money before I begin selling. It is a good thing really, it will teach me to not only be more creative, but to budget and be more efficient with my materials. Sometimes it is too easy to get excited about a new tool, or something pretty on the internet, you buy it, and then it gathers dust for a year or two before you actually use it.