Hair Comb, Napkin Ring and earrings!

Well I have been playing again this afternoon.  I made some matching earrings to go with the chain maille necklace:




chain maille earrings



and then I added a matching charm to the bracelet.  It comes off quite easily so I have the option of a plain or "jazzed up" version.



bracelet with optional charm


This is now the complete ensemble:

I then decided to try and make some napkin rings and some wine glass charms  (oops seem to have forgotten to take photo of the wine glass charms - will have to rectify that tomorrow!)



napkin ring



Some prepared bits for more napkin rings

and finally I tried my hand at a hair comb - think my eldest granddaughter will be wanting this!



Hair comb

 Thanks for popping by.

Mags

Chain Maille Necklace

Chaine Maille necklace

Well here it is the necklace to go with the bracelet.  Quite a bit easier to make than the bracelet.  I even made the stand so that I could photograph it.  (I was about to throw out a cardboard box, and had  a flash of inspiration, and remembered I had some black adhesive felt in my craft crocs stash!

For a first attempt at anything like this - I confess I am a bit chuffed and it will look lovely with my new black GOK dress!  The only thing I found was that it wasn't really long enough for my neck - so just added a few more links at the back.  Just need to create some earrings now to complete the ensemble - something simple with the pearls I think.  I also might add a sort of pearl charm to the bracelet.

Mags

ps and I can report that my ankle is much better this evening.  There was an almighty crack as I put my foot to the floor earlier, and suddenly I could walk on it.  We think I must have dislocated something, and have manged to "relocate" it!   Still a bit swollen, and stiff because of that, and looks like a bit of bruising coming out now, but I am so pleased to be able to stand on it.

Chain Maille Bracelet

Stretchy Chain Maille Bracelet

This is my first attempt at a chain maille bracelet.  It was a little more difficult than it looked when Sarah Millsop demonstrated it - or should I say a tad more fiddly.   Need her to do some more shows so I can recap on the hints she gave (or search the recordings and see if it is still on the Skybox!).  The white rings are made of rubber so the bracelet is "stretchy".

Some of you may know that I had a little "fall", or should I say trip over nothing yesterday, and have sprained/twisted my ankle and was feeling a bit sorry for myself, because I am in the middle of stripping wallpaper in the lounge, and this means everything is on hold for the moment; so I was pleased when my parcel arrived from Beader's Companion this morning with some bits to play with, including chain maille rings and an instruction book!   

I needed this little cheering up as it looked as though I was going to be unable to venture into town today for our annual Autumn Festival, and join my daughter and granddaughter for our "annual ride" on the gallopers.   I don't "DO" fairground rides as a rule, but I love the old fashioned steam carousel and its music - yes I am a big kid at heart, and could quite easily ride them all day!   (When my mum was alive it used to be 4 generations up on the gallopers - she was 92 the last time she came with us!)

Well, I did manage to get there as my husband drove me down at lunchtime, as my daughter rang to say the local council are going to stop the Festival (it has been going about 15+ years) and if I wanted a ride I had better get down to town.   Now you have to imagine the picture of this poor old girl on her crutches wanting to ride the gallopers!   Still with the family's help I managed to get on the ride, and then again with their help, and the help of the lad taking the money on the ride, I managed to get off again - which is always the most difficult!  We were chatting to the people running the Carousel, and they hadn't heard that this would probably be their last year.  It will be such a shame if it ceases - the town was heaving with families all enjoying themselves.

So having ventured out on the dodgy ankle, I have been good for the remainder of the day and rested said ankle and played with my goodies!



Wearing the Bracelet



I have now started a chain maille necklace - which I can report is much easier than the bracelet - so with a bit of luck will be able to post a piccie of that tomorrow, and as I am "confined to barracks" as they say, I may even get to play with some other bits. 

thanks for dropping by.

Mags

Gelatine Flowers

Did anybody see the Kirstie's Homemade Britain programme last night, where she got to make Gelatine Flowers? 

Well I have made these many times in the past as part of my sugarcrafting skills.   So having watched the programme, I found some I made quite a few years ago, which were lurking in my cutlery drawer in the sideboard and took a photograph of them this morning.

As you can see these have a Christmas theme as I made them for my Christmas table all those years ago.  They have lasted quite well as I think they were possibly made before 2004 as I am pretty sure my Mum was alive when I made them!  (I really can't remember, but they are at the very least 5 years old!)  I made the two colours one for the males and one for the females.



Christmas Rose and Holly




Poinsettia & Holly

They are extremely simple to make - and were made exactly as shown in the tv programme, so if you missed the programme - catch up with it on 4 on Demand.

Mine were actually made with cotton covered wire from my cake decorating stash - probably about 30 or 33 gauge by the looks of it.   The Holly leaves were made by forming the wire around a holly cutter, and the christmas rose wire was wrapped around a small tube of food colour.  The poinsettia shapes were more freeform.  I prepared the shapes before dipping, but when they were dry I was able to give them some "life" with some gentle shaping before taping them together.  The centres were just flower stamens from my sugarcraft stock, and the poinsettia ones were touched with a little red colouring.

Hope this has inspired some of you to try making the flowers - it's great fun and very easy.    (There used to be a product many years ago that my daughter made flowers with called Fantasy Film - but I think using gelatine is even easier - and as you can see as they have been stored in a dry place (albeit amongst the "best" cutlery) they are still in one piece!

Mags

Brown Ensemble



I took time off from stripping wallpaper last night and this morning to make this ensemble to go with a new jumper I had bought recently.   I needed something in brown, and  I had  bought some bags of mixed beads in various colours at Sandown a couple of weeks ago.  I used my my white and brown bags.

Inspired by Sarah Millsop's demos on C&C yesterday - this is what I made:



the complete ensemble

I started off with the necklace, and used these pretty beads as the foundation of my design.  As you will see from the picture above, I also used Sarah's idea of making part of the chain with just eyepins.


close up of beads in the necklace



I also made a pair of earrings.   Now I don't have pierced ears so I rarely  get to wear dangly earrings, but I bought these earring findings at Sandown.   They are the most comfortable earrings I have ever worn.  Although you adjust them initially with the screw; they are in fact on a sprung hinge - fab! 



close up of earring



and finally I made a charm bracelet to match.  Ok so the base of the bracelet was a premade stretchy one, but a girl has to cheat sometimes!  However, I did create all the charms on it.  I even got a bit adventurous and managed some fancy wirework on one of them, having mastered the twirl on the end as demonstrated by Sarah.



The twirl

 



one of the charms with fancy wire work


and finally another of Sarah's ideas to attach a bead using an eyepin and wrapping it around the bead to make a "bail".



 bead with eye pin bail

 As you can see I have had great fun.

Mags

Chain Maille Flower

Chain Maille Flower

I saw these little flowers on the Purple Moon Beads stand at Sandown last week, and fell in love with them.  I bought some bits to make them, but couldn't quite get it right, and I had forgotten to take a photo.   

I emailed them and asked if they had a photo they could send me or if they could put one up on the website.   Geoff told me that they actually did some kits, (I hadn't seen those or would have bought them at Sandown - duh!) and that they would be at Farnham in November.  I couldn't wait until Nov, so asked if I could buy a kit by mail.   Geoff turned up trumps and put the kits on the website!  I ordered them late Wed evening and they arrived this morning - brilliant service!

So voila, having done a bit of painting in the kitchen this morning, after lunch I sat and made this - didn't take that long, and was very easy with the instructions!  My kit will make three of these, but I also have a packet of red petals that I bought at Sandown.   They do loads of colours. If anybody wants to make them go to Purple Moon Beads website, and click on Tools and Accessories and then Kits.

Thanks for dropping by.

Mags

Birthday Card for a Special Friend

Cream side spring card

I made this card today for the birthday of a special friend.  Once again I have used the side spring design - think I am hooked on this fold at the moment, but I really wanted something a bit special.  The fold is a little complicated at first sight - but with the hougie board it becomes quite simple.

Cardstock is cream pearlescent papermania card, and because of the way the fold works, the square is the plainer reverse of the card.  Once again I have made the card bigger than the original tutorial.

The backing paper to the topper and the sentiment etc.  are from my special craftwork cards paper stash!  (which is normally just stash for stroking - lol!)  The rose topper is one I painted myself on gold mirri card.  I finished the card with my last butterfly from my stash, to compliment the rose, and some peel-off edging.

Hope you are liking this fold as much as I am.  If anyone would like the measurements I used for the larger card just ask.

Thanks for popping by

Mags

Thank You Card



Thankyou side spring card



As you can see another side spring card.   This time done with the original measurements from the tutorial.  This is just a simple Thank You card for the cousins that hosted the lunch after the recent funeral we attended.

Mags

Side Spring Card

Well it is unusual for me to be at the forefront of trying out new shaped cards, but I had an email from Splitcoast Stampers this morning, and this afternoon I had to make a card for my daughter's wedding anniversary, so having watched the video tutorial on a Side Spring Card I set about making one for the topper I had put together.



straight on view



I didn't use the dimensions given in the tutorial, as the topper I made this morning would have been too large - so having worked out the principle I cut down and A4 sheet of card to 11.5 in x 8 "  to make a larger card.  (which still fitted quite easily into a C5 envelope).

This wasn't the first card I made, as the first one seemed so thick and the creases were very bulky to ended up making this card with 160 gsm card, which worked a lot better, and was firm enough to stand quite firmly.

The original decoupage was some that came from a magazine pull-out freebie, and was a Crafter's Companion decoupage.  I used one of the other sheets of  matching "paper ribbon" for the bottom of the card, and added peel-offs and jewels from my stash.  OK my large circular topper covers up most of the diamond "spring", but hopefully you can get the gist of this new fold. 



View showing the "spring" effect.



It certainly is a different type of fold and quite effective, and I might use it again in the original sizing for some of my Christmas cards.

Hope you like the new fold, and my interpretation.

Mags

Black & White & Heart

Black & White + glass heart

I made this quickly on Wednesday as we had a family funeral to go to on Thursday, and I wasn't quite sure which outfit I was going to wear and I needed a necklace for one of them.  (As it turned out didn't wear the outfit this was made for!).   The picture I took when I made it  really doesn't do it justice as the glass heart is absolutely gorgeous and really catches the light in real life.

I have just tried taking a couple more photos, and I think they show the heart more realistically.   I bought this heart at the Sandown craft show a few weeks back, and absolutely fell in love with it.  It is really heavy.



a slightly better photo

Close up of the glass heart



I am going to the beading show at Sandown tomorrow - so may well wear it to that!

As I mentioned we went to a family funeral yesterday, in Southend -  a place I haven't been to since I was 10! (I have a photo taken at the end of the pier under the famous Bell with my Mum and Dad, just after my Dad came out of hospital that year, which is how I can date it!).  Well I wasn't sure what to expect when after the funeral and spending a pleasant afternoon sitting in the garden catching up with distant rellies, whilst enjoying a fantatic buffet lunch, before heading home we drove along the seafront.  Heck it is like other parts of the Essex coast I have visited - I call it the "Land that Time forgot".  I suppose living near the South Coast and Brighton and Littlehampton, I was expecting something a bit like them, which always seem to be busy, even out of season, particularly as Southend is virtually the nearest resort to the East of London.  I doubt that much has changed really since I was a kid.  If we had been earlier with our "promenade" we might have made the effort to take the train down the pier for "old times sake".  OK it was just after 5pm, and it was "Out of Season", but it was deserted, and not even dark enough for the "Lights" to be on which might have made a difference, and it didn't help that most of the promenade was edged by a concrete wall that prohibited you from seeing a lot from the car!   Here are a couple of photos I took:

Southend Pier looking toward Kent



Southend Pier from the other side.



Mags

Route 66

Route 66

Made this card for my nephew, and it was slightly out of my comfort zone.   My mind was blank as to what to put on his card, but I remembered I had the Making Cards for Men Magazine so turned to that for inspiration.   I saw this pump with Route 66 on it, and remembered that last year he did a road trip in the US, and I think he also travelled Route 66.  I know he is going again soon - so the decision was made for me.

Pearlescent cardstock from my stash, and then all the elements were from the magazine sheets.  The backing paper and the two toppers were matted on pearlescent papermania card, with the left-hand topper double matted.  A peel-off was then added to the strip along the bottom.

As I said this design was a bit out of my comfort zone, as I tend to keep my designs much simpler, and I dread men's cards! but I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

A Pink Experiment



Pink necklace with crocheted ribbon and silver wire



Well,  inspired by Sarah Millsop's demo with swarovski crystals last week on C&C, I thought I would try and create something similar with the stash I had using cheaper beads.   I didn't have any yarn, but had loads of ribbon.

The wire is threaded with the beads, and then crocheted adding the beads as you go.   The ribbon was also crocheted together with some more wire.   Unfortunately I don't think I made enough links in between the beads, so the finished strands were a little short.  However, I had some chain in my stash, so improvised with that to get the required length.

The only thing that Sarah didn't show us on the programme was how to join/finish off the six strands each side and attach them to the clasp (or in my case - the chain).   So I sort of improvised from what I had managed to see of the finished necklace on the show.  It's not perfect by any means, but looks quite effective on, and one has to start somewhere, and as my Dad would have said "A blind man would be pleased to see it!!  :-)

Mags

Sailing



Sailing!



Male cards are always difficult,  but I had a bit of inspiration with this one for my great nephew.  I know he does a lot of sailing, and when we were at a family christening recently I took a photo looking across from Portchester Castle to Portsmouth.  My g-nephews had earlier that morning been sailing across the inlet, and were saying how weird it was to be sailing within sight of where they would be later that day so .....

I converted one of my photos taken that day to all blue and used it as the background paper, which I matted onto blue card..  I copied the image and added the wording, and then cropped it so that I could raise it up on the original image, and match it to the skyline, but didn't create a mat for it.   I wasn't sure what sort of yacht/dinghy he normally sails so I had to take pot luck with the main image, which was also matted onto blue cardstock, and mounted it on foam tape.  Fortunately there were no markings on the yacht in the picture, so was able to just add the peel-offs to it.

When I recoloured the picture - I took the yacht image into MCS and colour matched the backing paper to part of the blue sky.  The words were colour matched to the sea in the image.

I wonder if he will realise the significance of the background paper - I may have to tell him!  (with a bit of luck - he may just recognised the Spinnaker Tower on the skyline!).

thanks for popping by.

Mags

Chocolate and Cream

Chocolate and Cream

I was struggling with what to do for a card today for another crafter.  I originally intended doing a painted topper, and actually got as far as painting it - but then I couldn't decide on a backing paper, layout etc - yes a crafting block!   Searching my stash I came across a Craftwork Cards goody bag that I had bought at Farnborough and had hardly used - so painted topper was discarded and I played with some of the elements in the Goody bag.

I do love these colours  - bit like scrumptious chocolates, and I confess one of my favourite colour combinations   I just kept it simple - not exactly LIM (as there are four layers under the flower), but sort of going that way.

Thanks for looking

Mags

October Sunshine

Had a lovely day today.   It was our 41st Wedding Anniversary, and we decided to mosey out and enjoy the sunshine.  It's not often that we do this these days as OH can't walk far; and let's face it this summer has been virtually non-existent.  Any sunny days we have had I have grabbed in the garden playing with my Paint Fusion bit and bobs.



Isn't this setting fab!



We started the afternoon by lunching at one of our family's favourite little tea rooms.  Fabulous little place, with a lovely garden with a stream meandering through it.  Chickens, ducks and geese etc for visiting children to feed, plants for sale, free range eggs for sale, a little craft shop and fabulous food.  Home-made cakes to die for!  I had a really nice Brie & Bacon melt Salad, and OH had an all day breakfast, - the works plus toast and marmalade!  (this is normally a firm favourite in the family).  It was quite busy for a Monday in October!  Obviously everybody was making the most of the sunshine.



Fisherman on Goring Beach



We then mosied down toward Worthing and along the coast road, stopping for a while at Goring:

 

Littlehampton River

And then we finally ended up at Littlehampton, and I had a little stroll along the Riverside and had my first icecream of the year!



Stroll in the sunshine!



Had to include this picture of a young swan who was taking a walk, alongside the river. This is him/her on

its way back, having gone to the pier and back!

Hope everybody else had a good day.

Mags

Thought I'd share ...

this creation from my five year old granddaughter.   You may recall that I mentioned that last weekend I introduced her to Paint Fusion, and painting with acrylic paint.

Well this was her first attempt at a rose and a some other flowers.   I think for a first attempt for a five year old this is excellent (but then of course I am biased!)



First attempt under my guidance





 Flower Compostion

She then went on to paint some more completely on her own, double loading the brush etc,  I didn't even realise she had done this, as I was chatting to her mum!   -  Can see we have another prospective fusioneer in the pipeline.

Mags

Is it really 1st October!

No crafting for me today.   Spent the morning polishing and photographing family medals for eldest granddaughter's school project and then this afternoon/evening joined the rest of the family at my daughter's for a family bbq finishing off in the evening in the spa with my three granddaughters!   

We seem to have consumed rather a lot of Pimms and sparkling Liebfraumilch - but what the heck - had to celebrate such a lovely day,  (and it is my Wedding anniversary on Monday, so that was my excuse). 



In the spa with my three granddaughters



Hope you are all enjoying this glorious weather.

Mags