Birthday Pressie

Thought you may like to see my birthday pressie from Glenda and the gang. She is gorgeous even without her finery.



And lastly a close up of her sequined party dress.

I plan to do some jewellery bits and put her on show at our next Graphicus Open Days, our Big Birthday Bash on Friday 16th & Saturday 17th April.

Hope to see you there.

Bertie's Book

I am terrible for taking photographs, printing them and leaving them in a pile always meaning to do something with them, so I thought why not make a book using some of the photographs I have of Bertie or as a friend of ours calls him 'The Black Shadow'.

The front and back of Bertie's book was created using Tattered Angels Chip Tiles Nature which were coloured using a Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Inkpad and given a light spritz of Pearl Glimmer Mist and left to dry overnight. The B is from the Tattered Angels Framed Fonts - Regal coloured with a darker inkpad. These really are a lovely addition to your craft stash. The strap is part of the Zutter Perfect Closure range, the leather strap on these can be coloured using an inkpad and as I discovered the metal clasp takes Alcohol Ink very well.

Inside front cover, well I had to put a Newsflash in there for the day he was born.

I used the Cuttlebug and decorated all the pages using the embossing folders then coloured them using a Versamarker Pen and chalks. I can't remember him being so little, doesn't time fly.



And just slightly larger! posing on the garden bench, I had to be quick to get this one he does not sit still for very long.




On holiday in the Lakes on the banks of Ullswater, taking in the sun.



And lastly his first birthday. How the hat stayed on I will never know but he was concentrating so hard on the muffin that I don't think he noticed it. The muffin did not last very long after that and the hat lasted only marginally longer. It ended up in shreds.


These are just a few of the pages, it could have been the longest post in history if I had put them all in but the nice thing about it you could if you wish take the metal binding strip out add more pages and photographs and re-bind it.

With the additions of a few captions to mark the occasions it will be finished, well for the time being at least.

I enjoyed making this book and intend to make another to use as a journal.

Christmas Holiday

We have just had the strangest Christmas. It was a very nice Christmas but most defiantly strange. We have just spent 11 days in Tenerife where the holiday season is very laid back and not as high priority as here which makes it a less stressful period but not at all what I am used to.

We flew out on 18th December, the drive to Newcastle was awful, it was the first morning of the snow, the roads were not very good at all and we were pleased to arrive. Our flight was on time and we arrived in Tenerife at 2.30 pm grabbed a taxi and were safely installed by 3 pm. Not bad going.

The hotel Costa Adeje Gran was fabulous and we would recommend it to anyone who may be thinking of going to Tenerife. The service was fantastic and nothing was too much trouble for the staff.

This was the view on Christmas morning just as the sun was rising, it did beat looking out at the snow. I was very surprised at the lack of festivities but I believe they do celebrate New Year rather than Christmas.

Our Christmas lunch consisted of a cheeseburger and a pint of lager after strolling along the beach, highly strange. The hotel staff made our evening meal special and each guest was given champagne, the wine flowed throughout the meal. The only change to the hotels regime was Christmas Eve when they moved the time of the evening meal to enable staff to get home to have their traditional meal with their families.

View of one of the three pools from our balcony. The standard of cleanliness was very impressive.

Bananas grew in abundance all around the hotel grounds.

Steve thoroughly enjoyed himself, he is not into the commercial side of Christmas at all so this holiday suited him down to the ground. I was very surprised that shops just didn't close for the day and all the restaurants and pubs just carried on as normal.

No houses were decorated and no Christmas trees were in any of the windows. A few of the shops did have a few decorations in the window and a Christmas tree in the corner.

It was strange to see some of the hotel staff sporting Santa hats while they walked around the pool.

Of course as usual on our flight over someone at the front of the plane sneezed and the germs bounce off the walls and home in on me so by the Sunday I was coughing and sneezing and feeling low, so low a visit to the pharmacy was required. On the way home everyone seemed to be sneezing and coughing, I think everyone must have caught a cold.

The reception area in the hotel was huge and the decorations were lovely. This photograph was taken through the mirrored ceiling as you can see from the next photograph.

Poinsettia's featured all over the reception area, at the front of this small waterfall a lovely nativity scene was displayed.

We had a very rude awaking when we landed back in Newcastle, the sleet had us soaked by the time we reached the car and you began to wish you had stayed where you were. I can't get over how many people came back wearing sunshine attire, shorts and t-shirts, they must have froze when they got outside.

We picked Bertie up from the kennels the day after and got a rapturous welcome and he was soon back to his naughty self once he was home. I think he changes into a different dog once he arrives at the kennels as they always praise his behaviour. I did miss him though and couldn't wait to see him.

It has not stopped snowing since we came back and my feet are constantly cold but that's the climate we have been blessed with so I will have to keep putting on an extra pair of socks and make the best of it.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Wedding Day

As promised in my last post a preview of the Guest Book that Lesley and I made for my daughter Rachel's Wedding. It turned out beautiful and it was all I hoped it would be. A lot of the guests commented on it as they wrote their messages. There are a few pages left so I am popping in some of the photographs that were taken during the day.

The weather the week before the wedding was atrocious, rain, wind and more rain. We eagerly watched the weather forecast and although they said fine you always wonder if they have got it right. Thankfully they did. The day dawned cold but the sun shone.

Myself and my cousin Maggie rushed about delivering the balloons and decorations to the venue, rushed back to get ready and then rushed to get Rachel and the two bridesmaids ready.

The bridesmaids are David's (Rachel's husbands) two children. The dresses were a mixture of red and russet and when they caught the sun they appeared to change colour.

I was the only one to wear a hat, the others all wore a fascinator but it really added to the outfit and I was pleased that I wore it. Bertie didn't much like the hat he backed away from it and barked, think it was the feather bobbing about. I threatened to wear it sitting in the house if he didn't behave himself!

A proud moment and this photograph made the whole day even more special.

David panicked as Rachel was late, as is the brides prerogative, he thought Rachel had changed her mind, she was standing outside with her Dad having a few tears. She eventually walked down the aisle with tears in her eyes. The youngest bridesmaid took one look at her and burst out crying, she sobbed quietly throughout the whole ceremony but we were on hand to pass the tissues, and use one or two of them myself. When asked 'why', she said it was because she was so happy.

The bouquets and the corsages were stunning.

And this is the motley crew relaxing after the stress of the day.

From right to left Steve's sister Karen and her partner Alan, Steve and myself, my cousin Maggie and her husband Mike.

To Maggie and Mike, thank you for putting up with Steve and I for the weekend.

The Happy Couple

My youngest daughter is getting married in 2 weeks, 7th November and I wanted to make something special for them to keep and be reminded of their special day.

Photographs will be taken in plenty and put into albums that eventually will go into drawers and cupboards and only come out on occasions. My thought was something that they would see every day and serve as a constant reminder. So I set about making a Bride & Groom using Paverpol, the idea is once varnished they will sit in the garden and be seen every day.

The Bride



The Bride was a joy to make and only took two hours. Her dress is made from a cotton pillow slip and I mixed Mother of Pearl Paverpol colouring into the Paverpol and it has given it a lovely shimmering effect. I applied lace around the bodice and down the back of the dress. The flowers were bought and I left them grouped together, wrapping some dipped ribbon around the stems to hide the wire.

The hair is made with Paverpol cotton and once dried I dry brushed it to darken the colour.

I made a little tiara out of a few seed beads and wire and stuck it into the hair before it dried.

The Groom

Was a little harder to make. It took me a while to decide just how to go about it and finally I ended up cutting all of the garments out of t-shirt material before I could get started. It was a little like dressmaking without the need for needle and cotton.

I made the top hat with clay and tried coating it with the Paverpol but it just slid off, so I had to take it all off and paint it with black acrylic. I am still not too happy with it and may try to make one out of felt and cover it with the Paverpol.

I chopped a flower from the Brides bouquet and stuck it to his lapel. He does have a grey waistcoat under his jacket but when I laid his jacket onto it the colour seemed to seep up so I covered it with the lapel and just left the bottom of the waistcoat sticking out between the sides of his jacket.

My future son-in-law actually has a very close to the head hair cut but here he has a really good head of hair, mainly to hide the seams on the back of his head. I adopted a little artistic licence when designing them and stressed to my daughter that they were not supposed to be 'look a likes'.

Here we have the Happy Couple linking arms and posing together. Ready to take their place on the table along with the cake.



I am also making their Guest Book with a little help from Lesley, once we get it finished I will let you have a sneak preview.

I have a plea to anyone out there. If you have any old white t-shirts that are over 60% cotton and you are thinking of throwing out, could I have them please. I am running out of the old ones of mine fast.

Paverpol, Pottery & Speedball

Another couple of Paverpol models.

The first is a little Tea-Light girl. She wears a little blue dress, blue leggings and has a pink rose in her hair. She carries a Tea-Light held in a basket and sits on a round mirror. Her name is Clara.

The second is Christabel, she sits calm and poised on her plinth. I gave her a dusting of green acrylic paint and then dry brushed her very lightly with gold. It does give her a bronze look.

I was pleased with the way the dress draped both at the front, over her legs and at the back. She needs another coat of varnish and then she can take her place in the garden. (Far away from Bertie, otherwise she will be minus her wooden plinth).




I always find it a problem knowing what I want to achieve when I go to our pottery classes. Sometimes I think my ideas are too complicated and doom myself to failure before I start.

My last project was taken from an item in a ceramics book, it was far more complicated than mine turned out, as the main body of the piece was made from turned clay. As I am no good at throwing pots (only dropping them), I adapted the procedure to produce my Tea Light Castle.

Once it was made and fired I gave it a coat of watered down PVA glue, just to give a good base for the acrylic paint. It was a bit time consuming painting it as it had some fiddly bits to the roof but on the whole I was quite pleased with it and it does look quite nice sitting on the table in the garden with the light coming out of the turrets and the doorway. It did have a nice gargoyle on the top but I am afraid he dropped off in the kiln, may have to get my Fimo out and make another.

I have been watching Barbara Gray on the Create and Craft channel recently as well as our own Lesley demonstrating the Clarity Stamps http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodsearch.asp?search=clarity+stamps&submit.x=15&submit.y=12 and they have inspired me to have a go. So I bought a Speedball Brayer and using some encaustic card that I already had I locked myself in the kitchen away from the kleptomaniac Bertie. Apart from getting a few lines here and there that I could have done without the result was quite pleasing. The photographs are not very good, they look at though they have a bend in them. I need to take more, the one I was most proud of did not take properly, I will have another go. I am now pestering Lesley to give me a couple of lessons with the brayer.

Graphicus Open Days

We had a fantastic time at the Graphicus Open Day's, 3rd & 4th July. Our theme for the day was American Independence Day which is celebrated every year on the 4th July. We all sought out our cowboy hats. Denise was a real sport, she dressed for the occasion. Apologies to Vicky who looked just as good but couldn't catch her on camera.

We had David lassoed to the kitchen sink (he doesn't mind, really and I have to say he does a splendid job every time) but when we got to the end of the day he let his hair down!

Lots of demonstrations took place throughout the two days and every one had a 'whale' of a time. I thought you may like to see some of the photographs I took of some of the finished items. There were so many great items that I have popped the links in so you can browse as you read.

We had our resident expert Annette using the Cricut Expression, Create and the Slice machine. A cool scrapbook page. http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodsearch.asp?search=cricut

Lynn got to play with all the Tim Holtz, Heidi Swapp's Mega Masks, Distress Inks to name but a few. Some fabulous tags and art work were created. Go to Lynn's blog to see more of her awe inspiring creations. http://inkyartitude.blogspot.com/

Glenda showcased some of the new A5 stamps and coloured them using the Copic Markers. http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodsearch.asp?search=copic see them all here. The colours are fantastic and they really do look like prints rather than coloured with markers.

This is from the Seashell Collage A5 unmounted themeplate. http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodpage.asp?ProdID=2962

This is Seaside Ted. http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodpage.asp?ProdID=2963 He really is so cute.

I played with the Melt Pot again, http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodpage.asp?ProdID=2636 I can't get enough of this and you can produce some really good effects with it. This necklace is made by melting black UTEE with a little white. Take your bead on a headpin and just swirl it around. You can dip it as many times as you like depending on what size you want your finished bead. Then thread onto your chosen material and use any of your other beads to compliment your UTEE creations. http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodpage.asp?ProdID=1430

The Caterpillar earrings were made using Dew Drops, they come in such a variety of colours that you make them to match any possible colour outfit you may have. http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodpage.asp?ProdID=2759

Lesley demonstrated Clarity Stamps http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodsearch.asp?search=clarity+stamps There are some lovely designs and as Lesley demonstrated they flew off the shelf. But never fear another order will be with us over the next few days.

This is the Sketched Lady. She looks really elegant, cool and sophisticated. A nice stamp.


I plagued Lesley for a demo using the Speedball Brayer and an elastic band. I must have a go at this myself. http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodpage.asp?ProdID=2910 it looked fantastic.