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?.....

 

Flower Fairies and fusion painting

Hi all, here's a couple of candles I made recently.

 I found a sheet of Flower fairy rub ons in my stash and thought I would use them on candles.

I looked each image up on the internet to see which flower fairy they were, this first one is a red clover fairy. So I used a painting technique to paint some red clover around her and a little bumble bee friend. Lastly I added glitter to the fairy's wings to give them a nice twinkle. Here's a couple of pics going around the candle.

  

 

 



 

The second one is a sweet pea fairy image, so using Sheena's Fusion technique, I painted sweet pea flowers and foliage around the candle, and not forgetting the glitter to the wings.  Here's a few pics around this candle.

 

I'm linking up with  this weeks Handmade Monday #83 . Its been a while since I joined in, but I have good intentions that I'm going to be a better blogger from now on.  

I'll be back later to catch up with the other lovely crafters and find out what they've been up to.

Thanks for looking.

Hugs Sue x



Butterfly wallhangings

Good morning everyone, I'm scheduling this so fingers crossed its posted correctly.

All being well, I should be setting up my stall at Warrington's farmers and craft market as you are reading this, hopefully in nice sunny weather, as we are outside in the town centre.

Thought I would share a couple of wall hangings with you today.

I have made quite a few of this style with the butterfly and wild flowers in shades of pink, on oval shaped mountboard, as they seem very popular and always sell well.

 



 

I was asked to paint one on circular shape mountboard and also one in shades of blue.

As usual I painted a dark shade of paint, then a crackle effect or a sponged effect with the lighter top coat, as the background.

 Next I use Sheena's Paint Fusion range of stamps to set out the design, then paint the flowers and butterflies in acrylic paints. Once dry I soften the background with a little Distress ink.

On the back, although its not really seen, I apply a patterned paper in a matching colour, usually one from Sheena's Cd rom. 

Then edge each mountboard shape with 'Wow' embossing powders, as well as over stamping the butterfly with a hologram embossing powder to give a lovely bit of sparkle. 

I finish them by using a cropodile to punch holes and thread them together with ribbon, with matching bows and decorative gems or pearl embellishments.

 

 

I really like the shades of blue, think I may try some other colours too.

 Sorry the photo's are a bit dark, but I was struggling to take the pic's last night.

 

Thanks for looking

Hugs Sue x 



Painted rose card

Good morning all, I'd like to share a card with you today.

 Its painted in the Paint Fusion style but the rose heads have been done free hand. I used papers from Sheenas cd.

I embossed the edges with gold and used some paper rosebuds, flowers and ribbon to embellish.

Challenges I would like to enter

Delicious Doodles - #17- Loads of layers

Crafts and Me  - We are going 3d

Cute card Thursday - Spring flowers

Simon says stamp - April showers bring spring flowers

Just a very quick post today as I've got some orders to get ready.

Hugs Sue x

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

Another card...

Good morning to all my bloggy friends,

Here's my card for today

For this one I painted some wild roses and a lilac butterfly and layered up with lilac card and green pattern paper. I used corners cut with Spellbinders moroccan dies and foliage behind the sentiment.

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Allsorts - Say it with Flowers

Crafty catz -For Mum

Lexi's Creation -Mothers Day

Top tip Tuesday - Mothers Day

Papertake Weekly - One for Mum

I know all my cards have been very similar lately, lots of paint fusion and spellbinder dies, but I promise to show you something different tomorrow.

Thanks for looking

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

A quick card post...

Good morning, a very quick post from me today.

Here's a Paint Fusion fushia card, again painted on black card with white ink and Brilliance pink smudged around the edges, I'm loving this look at the moment, very misty.

The card looks better in real life, but I took the pic late last night so the photo is dull.

I used a backing paper from Sheena's cd and a rolled flower, this has got black glitter in the centre and also around the edge of the backing paper, although it doesn't show up very well.

Hope you like it and thanks for taking the time to look.

Right I'm back to packing up the car ready for the weekend. I'm not sure I'll get chance to do much blogging, so I'll say catch up soon!

Hugs Sue x