Palm House Artisan Market

I had a fantastic weekend at The Palm House, Sefton Park a couple of weeks ago.

What a wonderful place, and the sun was shining too. 

Here's a link to a video one of our visitors kindly made. Thanks Sam Matthews xx

My daughter came to help me out, as it was very busy, over 11,000 visitors on the Sunday.

 A close up of some decorated keys and a horseshoe. These were a couple of my new makes and its a good job I took photos immediately I put them out on my table as they sold straight away.

Thanks for looking

Hugs Sue x

Lets have a Catch-up

 

 

The sun is shining in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight..... Bet that's got you all singing, I know I am.

 

Good day to everyone, I hope you are all keeping well. Thought its about  time we had a good ole catch up. Go and get yourself a cuppa and lets chat. Be warned this is quite a long post, feel free to skim it or just look a the pics, I wont be offended.

There are a number of reasons that I've not posted for a while, the main being I've gone back to work, I mean a proper full time job, not just doing my craft fairs. I'm now a deputy manager/senior nursery nurse at a lovely little pre- school not far from home. It feels great to be working with children again and they're even younger this time, they really lift the spirits and make me feel young again. I can dance around and sing like a 'gud un' and they love it and when a little child comes over and grabs my hand saying "Come and play Sue"  well my heart just melts. Can you tell that I Love my job.

Earlier this year me and a co worker did a reverse bungee in aid of Christie's cancer charity. After losing my brother just over 12 months ago to this horrible disease, I try and fund raise as much as possible. We were thrilled to raise over £200 and had a brilliant experience in the process.

Ok ! here goes, its our turn next.

5,4,3,2,1, blast off

Aaaarrrrrgh!! Oh look you can see my house from here!



No one warned us that it spun round as well as catapulting us into space.
Oh dear bet I look a lovely shade of green.

Ready to come back down to terra firma.

Well apart from looking a bit windswept, we don't look too bad.
Infact can we go again? that was great fun. 

 

 

I am still doing regular craft fairs and that's probably another reason for not blogging, not through lack of time just that I hadn't really got anything new or different to show you.

Here's a couple of photos of my craft stall at various venues. 

 

Walton gardens in Warrington

 

 

Created in WA - Mothers Day craft fair held in Warrington's indoor market.

 

 

Other side of stall at Mothers Day fair

 

 

 Over the past couple of months I have started to play with different craft mediums and I'm adding new things to my craft stall

 

An old favourite of mine.
Large framed mirror hand painted with wild
 flowers and a butterfly using matt acrylic paint.



A new twist.
Large framed mirror hand painted with fantasy florals
using special irridescent paint and over laid with acetate flowers

 









 

Wall hangings and hanging heart baskets.
The heart baskets contain 4 scented tealights.
 People kept asking me for scented candles, but I don't like to paint on scented candles as the scented oil can affect the paint and after a while the design can look a mess.
 

The wall hangings are painted using an assortment of mediums, Distress inks, Luminarte range of twinkling H2O's, sprays, daubers, pourables and various acrylic paints, along with Sheena Douglass' range of stamps and various background techniques. 

Vases painted with a fab new paint called Fantasy Prisme and Fantasy Moon by Pebeo.
 

These coasters and panel are created using the Fantasy paints again, along with rubber stamps by Sheena.
These are great sellers as the effect created by the paint is wonderful and very unusual.

Lastly, ... I hear you sigh with relief, if you've stuck with me so far, Thank you, now give yourself a pat on the back, we're nearly at the end.

I'd like to show you a couple of custom orders, not my usual style, but fun to make.

A birthday card for a Doctor Who fan.

The verse inside
"Fezzes are red,
the Tardis is blue,
Bowties are cool,
Happy 18th Birthday
to you."
 

A Princess Castle nappy cake.
This was a present for my friend at work who has just had a baby girl, a few weeks earlier than planned,
 but beautiful and perfect and oh so cute.
Welcome to the world 'Matilda'.
 

 

There you have it, that's what I've been up to lately. A quick review of the last few months, ok,ok, a not so quick review.

Anyhoo whats new with you?.....

 

Handmade Monday 61

Good morning everyone, I hope you are all enjoying a nice Easter break and have not eaten too much chocolate (not sure how much is too much though). Although I've had a nice week with the children, we've not been able to go anywhere as my car went in for its MOT and unfortunately needed a few things repairing. This wouldn't have been too bad, but one of the parts it needs, apart from costing an arm and a leg, is also not stocked in this country and can take upto 2 weeks to get. So I am without a car for the foreseeable future. Luckily I was able to use my hubby's car for a craft fair on Saturday, but its only small so had to take the back seat out completely in order to fit all my stuff in.

My daughter came with me as it was a local fair and my friend who usually comes with me drove up in her own car.

I have been having a go at decoupage this week, I love trying out new techniques.

These are done with tissue napkins.

This one has a tissue top and then handpainted rose buds on the sides.

I also painted some wooden cupcake shapes and made them into fridge magnets

I'm out this afternoon visiting my mum and dad. They've got my sis in law, daughters and great niece coming round for a visit, so we can have a nice family get together.

I'll be checking out all the other participants to Handmade Monday later this evening.

Thanks for looking

Hugs Sue x

Non chocolate Easter treats..

I know what your all saying, non chocolate treats? where's the fun in them.

Believe it or not some people dont like chocolate ?????

I know I'm definately not one of them (as she pops another Thorntons continental in her mouth.)
Anyway, I've been asked to make some little gifts for the non-chocoholics among us.

Here's what I made....What do you think?

They are little peek a boo treat boxes.

I got the instructions from a Splitcoast Stampers Tutorial

But instead of filling with sweet treats, I filled with decorated tealight candles.

I had to adjust the sizing and scoring from the tutorial, to fit them in.

My card was cut to 4 1/2 inches x 12 inches and scored to a depth of 3/4 inch.

If anyone wants the exact measurements, etc, just let me know and I'll do a quick tutorial.

I used nice bright springy colours and decorated this one with a butterfly, cut with Spellbinder dies.

This is the peek a boo bit, under the top lid is an acetate covered scallop circle, so that you can see whats inside.

I decorated these tealights with butterflies to match.

These two are decorated with punched flowers atop layered Nesties

I used patterned card for these, so didnt decorate inside.

In one I decorated the tealights with flowers,

coloured with Promarkers and glitter pens.

And the second with cute little birdies.

I enjoyed making these, I hope they sell well tomorrow, then I can make more.

Thanks for looking

I'll catch up with you all soon and let you know how they went.

I am entering them into these challenges...

Daring Cardmakers - A box of tricks

Stampin for the Weekend - Anything goes

Crafty Catz - Spring is in the air

One stop craft  -Handmade flowers

Cute card Thursday - Anything goes

Hanna and Friends - Flowers

Creative Inspiration - Anything goes

Hugs Sue x

Handmade Monday 57

Good morning everyone, I would like to share what I've been upto over the last week and also thought I would join in with Handmade Monday #57.

Its been ages since I've caught up with all the very talented crafters who share their latest makes and weekly experiences over on Wendy's 1st Unique blog

I am also linking up with Bath Bomb Creations 'I made this' linking party

I've been busy over the last couple of weeks getting ready for Craft fairs and markets. As its nearly Mothers Day I've been making lots of cards and suitable gifts, as you may have noticed if you've looked at some of my earlier posts.

 The first pic shows a fushia painted card, and as usual I included backing papers printed off Sheenas cd and lots of fancy die cuts using Spellbinders Moroccan die sets 

In this close up of the fushia, you can see that I edged with gold embossing powder. 

I also painted a fushia key holder. I was a bit too keen to take the photo and only realised when I was writing this post, that I took the pic before I'd added the hooks and hanging wire, and I can't take another photo now as it sold straight away on Saturday at my local church craft fair. 

Here's a very rare photo of me at my table at the craft fair, usually I'm the one taking the pics, so although I have many of my stall, I'm not normally on any.

I had a lovely day and although it was very quiet in the morning, after dinner it picked up and I made plenty of sales, and even better, had a good catch up with many friends and collegues who I used to work with.

Thanks for looking!

I'll be back tomorrow with another card.

Hugs Sue x