Memory Page Challenge

Over on Facebook we had a challenge this month for some memory scrap book pages.  I had a bit of fun sorting out a few old photos for this.


They are all fairly self explanatory.  I hope a couple give you a little giggle

 

A few Birthday cards

Really pleased with this card.  Experimented with the parchment kits over-layed on a red mix background.   I shall probably do this again.

This turned out quite well too.  I wanted to do something with a notebook image.  Created the post it note and added some writing on wavy lines.  Then got inspired to add a few images to the notebook  Pretty pleased with the outcome.  The border was lace from one of the patchment kits, which I recoloured purple.

I purchased the oriental water garden kit to create this oriental card.

and a few more made in January - all done in CAP

It's black and white!

My granddaughter wanted a black and white cake for her birthday ......

...... this was the drawing she sent to me!  Apparently I did OK!

To keep with the theme .....  I created this card in CAP for her!

Edwardian Lady (Clay)

I am really pleased this week, I actually made this figurine from Hearty Clay, which is an air drying clay.  

I watched a demo at Sugarcraft Club on Friday by Lou Wilson of The Cake Makery and came home inspired with lots of hints and tips. So having found my Wilton figure moulds that have been lurking in a box since the early eighties when my parents bought hem back from the states for me (and which have only been used about once when I first got them)  I set to.

As I didn't want legs, I made the base by carving up a cone mould  (Next time I might leave the bulb on the top and create a sort of crinoline effect for the lower half of the dress.  I created a hole in the cone with a kebab stick.  I then coloured some Hearty Clay with some flesh coloured sugarpaste colouring and used the moulds to make the torso and arms (shaping the arms in the position I wanted so that they dried in that position.

The starting place

As I wasn't sure what colour I wanted to make her dress, and not wanting to colour up too much clay until I knew how much I needed, I created her outfit in plain clay, so that I could paint it afterwards.

I then painted her face - and we were given a good tip for doing this (which really worked, and meant for first time I have managed to paint a reasonable face).   Paint the first eye on the side of the hand you are using to paint (i.e. right-handed paint right eye); then turn the figure around and paint the other eye (so that left eye is on right side for right-handed person if you get my drift).

Also do not use black for eyebrows and eyes - use brown.    We learned that you paint the whole of the eye white, then add a little blue dot slightly up and to the side on the white.  Then add a brown dot.  If you are really clever you could then add a little white high light with a cocktail stick to centre of the brown.  Eyelash lines and eyebrows are also brown.  

As the figure I saw demoed was made from sugarpaste, the hair was created using piped royal icing - well, I couldn't really pipe with clay, so I coloured a little bit of clay with brown food dust colouring, and rolled little sausaged to turn into ringlets.

After painting her I created a little bouquet and a flower for her hair.

Before painting clothes

She is by no means perfect - but for a first attempt - I am really pleased with her, and I have to say the Hearty Clay is gorgeous to work with.  

Hope you like her.

Thanks for dropping by.

Aquatints Card

This card was an experiment.  It was also for my daughter to go with her cake.  I have had Sheena Douglass's Aquatints for a while, and really hadn't played with them in earnest.  So this was a first attempt at using the Pebeo drawing gum (which is a water based masking fluid - and is MAGIC!)

I couldn't find my water colour card - so this was done on ordinary heavyweight white card.  I stamped the flower image and leaves (one of Sheena's sets) and painted on the drawing gum.

I then painted the background using blue mixed with silver and green mixed with gold from the aquatints.  I then rubbed off the masking liquid, and painted the flower and leaves.  on the flower I painted the edge and then dragged the colour into the petals, and blotted it for a bit of faux bleaching.  The leaves got painted with various depths of the green and a bit of the red I used for the flower.   Finally I sprinkled some drops of water over the card and blotted them for some more faux bleaching effect.

Mounted on a matching piece of pink card and a stick on greeting added.

Quite pleased with this for my first attempt, and my daughter got a "real" card for a change instead of one designed in CAP!  

Zentangle Owl Cake

What a bad blogger I have been - I have done a few bits and bobs, albeit I have been quite lax having been suffering from the dreaded cold virus doing the rounds.

Anyway today I am sharing the cake I made for my daughter's birthday today.  (It gets quite difficult chosing a design after making her a cake for 40 years!).  She loves owls, zentangling, maths and turquoise.

I took the outline owl from Peerless Designs Tangletastic cd, and imported it into CAP to resize it to size I wanted to fit the cake.  I then printed it off, and "tangled" it.  As she is Maths teacher, I "tangled" the front feathers with maths symbols.  I coloured the owl and branch etc with promarkers, and then scanned the image again, taking it back into CAP to remove the white parts of the image, and put a turquoise circle behind it (her favourite colour), and then added the wording, using the emboss facility in CAP to make it look like piped icing!  (Very pleased with that result - a definite cheat!).

I emailed the owl to Simply Topps, who happen to be local to us, and then picked up the finished image which was printed on to a sugarpaste topper the next day.  Absolutely excellent service from them.  (They will also help you design your own topper if you don't have the facility of CAP like me).

I made a sponge, and covered it with sugarpaste, added a ribbon and the topper - simple, quick and effective.

Purple Rabbit

My youngest granddaughter is apparently very keen on a programme on tv called Kat and Mim-Mim, and she wanted a Mim-Mim. (Unfortunately the merchandise for this new show is not due on sale until Mid 2015!)

No those that know me know that I don't DO knitting.  I can knit, but am not that good, apart from the fact that things don't grow quickly enough for me!

Anyway I promised to try and knit the purple rabbit requested   I found a pattern on Ravelry for a rabbit, and used that as the idea.   Now Mim Mim (not sure if she is a she or a he) wears flying goggles, as I gather she is a rabbit that can fly from the odd pictures I have seen.

As I didn't want the two-year old to keep whipping off (and losing the goggles) I crochet them, and then sewed them to the head.

Well he/she is not brilliant, and I realise I should have put a bit more stuffing in her head, but hey ho - too late now.   Hopefully my granddaughter will think she is ok  and you never know in many years hence she will become a family heirloom and be known as the funny bunny that great, great, great Nanny knitted back in 2014!    rofl!

Christmas Cakes

Everything seems to have overtaken me this year, so the Christmas Cakes had to be simple.

My youngest granddaughters want Father Christmas and Elves on their cake, so I have duly obliged - one Elf is dressed as Holly Elf and the other as Ivy Elf.

My daughter (big kid at heart) wanted Olaf on her cake!

By the time I had done the modelling on those two cakes, I was feeling a tad tired on Sunday, so I just ended up with a little spray.  I had intended to make more, but really couldn't face it and wanted to get the cakes done.  So I have a very simple spray of Christmas rose, Holly. Ivy and a plant that I forget the name of.

They are all rich fruit cakes, and the red one was Royal iced and the two blue ones had a sugarpaste coating.  All the flowers and figures are sugar.

A Bit Of Bling

Gosh is it really nearly a month since I posted on the blog?   How bad am I.  Where has the time gone, I have been busy - honest.

Anyway, here are a couple of items of jewellery that I created today.

I had a request for a necklace for a Christmas present, so I came up with this design.  I couldn't decide whether to use pearls or crystals - so I used both, with silver snowflake beads!  It does look fab in real life, and I am really pleased with it.  Hope the recipient likes it.

This is another Christmas present, and I kept this simple, and did a variation of one that I had made for myself, which I am always getting compliments on when I wear it.  This has faceted hematite beads on it, with the lovely silver oblongs..   The simple design means you can wear it every day - or for a special occasion.

Both necklaces have magnetic clasps.   I am making everything with magnetic clasps now.  So easy to take on and off, and no having to ask my husband to do up/undo a necklace for me!  There are some really pretty clasps available now too.

Crystal and Mesh Nexcklace

I was tidying up the craft room, and came across the remains of a bag of purchases I made recently at the Big Bead Show, that I hadn't got around to doing anything with.  Needless to say tidying up came to a little halt, whilst I had a play!

It was a very simple kit, and didn't take long to make (even with me dropping a load of the crystals on the floor!)

Thanks for popping by.