Felt Tee Decorations samples!

Well of course the above figures are sizzix dies, the old red ones I should add!  Samples I have produced for my Guides to have a go at making for their Christmas Fayre in early December. There will be more samples to follow soon!

Button Swap on uks - are you interested?

I've recently come across unusual buttons that aren't round for a change and have been thinking of doing a button swap on uks.......

Blue flowered and hearts - large & small are from Past Times in Ashton in Makerfield near Wigan. 
The fizzy buttons are American Crafters which I picked up for peanuts from the QVC outlet in Birchwood, Warrington about a year ago.  I have them in a variety of colours - these are the brights but they also came in shades of browns and pinks too.
The vintage style type buttons came from Sarahscards Ltd online shop and I bought these last November at the retreat to use on a layout!

Recycled Ribbon Tip!!

When ladies buy new t-shirts, cardies, jumpers, dresses and skirts, sometimes there is ribbon sewn into the shoulders of the garment.  If one isn't careful, sometimes you can have trailing bits of ribbon once dressed!  I bought a load of ribbed t-shirts for my summer hols to Benidorm in August and cut them off and hung them up on my ribbon rail convinced I would find a use for them eventually .... well I didnt have long to wait as I joined uks Gemma Steele's Christmas Felt Tree Decoration swap ... I chose angels and when I was looking for thin ribbon for hangers, my eyes fell upon the above .... !

white, white, navy, black and white again .... mmm some pieces were too long so I cut them in half ... now the angels are just waiting for a star decoration to be added.  TFL x

Blue Brads Fun Night

Leanie, deputy leader of the Blue Brads House set us a challenge to produce something in blue and first to upload to the forum would receive a little something.  Well it wasn't me as the first picture I uploaded was too big so had to go back and resize it and then I forgot what folder I had saved it in ... !

Anyway this is a sizzix die called "Bird with a Wing".  Its done in felt with a flower button for the eye, white glittery felt for the wing and Portabella Road Jubilee ribbon for her legs .... If you fancy some birds in cardstock or material, let me know and we can negotiate a price. 

CJ As you Like it - August 2012

"Proud to be British" by Pinkstar aka Sara

My page was based on "bird carers" - the bird on the left featured a swan that myself and friends had spotted whilst out narrowboating on the Bridgewater Canal in Runcorn, Cheshire.  We had stopped the boat to have some lunch.  We were surrounded by a family of swans, parents and their almost grown cygnet swans - they still had their grey feathers.  There were 5 cygnets but one was having difficulty eating.  We noticed that the cygnet put his beak in the canal, one leg came out of the water repeatedly and on closer inspection with a camera, we could then see he had fishing wire wrapped around his leg and there was a coloured fishing float in the water too .....

There was no way we were going to attempt to get the wire off the leg as the parents were aggressive towards us as we tried to separate it from the family.  One of the parents bit one of the girls on her bare arm without warning so we backed off.  She was slightly shocked as she had been leaning against the side of the boat watching others trying to separate the family.  I went to look in the boat cupboard to see if we had a phone number for the local RSPCA centre.  We found a phone number in one of our canal map books.  One of the girls rang the number and it was one of those answerphones where you have to listen to a series of questions and push x button for x service.  Eventually Boagie got through and explained exactly where we were ie which canal and tried to give a landmark - a passerby had noticed the cygnet too and was able to tell us exactly whereabouts we were and also tell us where the nest was. 

A few hours later we had another call from the RSPCA Inspector who told us he couldnt find the family but had found the nest and was going to have to go and get a bigger cage for the cygnet and take it back to the centre to have the hook and wire removed. 

Another call later from the same RSPCA Inspector who told us that he had managed to remove the cygnet without upsetting the parents, get it back to the centre, put the bird out, examine it and discovered that there were 3 fishing hooks altogether with one down its throat and get them ALL out without too much trouble.  He managed to bring it round and put it back on the nest and the parents accepted it back into the fold with no problems which we were all eternally grateful as if the cygnet had been away from the family too long, the parents would had seen it off.

The 2nd page is about the human dove-like cyclist soaring into the air at the beginning of the London Olympic 2012 and the reason behind using human doves and not real doves. The British really DO care about bird and animal cruelty.

"Amber" Home Alone

This is Amber who is a Blenheim Cavalier Spaniel with a posh pedigree name "Janessa April Showers" ... she was a rescue dog of sorts ... her owner is my middle son James or Jimmy as he's sometimes known as.  Amber is 9 years old, daft as a brush, thinks cats are dogs and don't mind being sniffed up the bum whereas my Tigger takes exception to that.  Loves to go on walks but hates the lead, fights with the lead whilst barking loudly and shaking her head until she's puffed out and starts running ahead on her extending lead nose to the ground sniffing all the exciting smells .......  !!!

I love this - it belongs to uks Leanie who organised the art journalling swap. 

"The Railway Children" by uks Weaselwise aka Suzie Hart

I received this little domino book in the post this afternoon.  I love the train on the domino piece.  I know Suzie had plenty of problems with it but at the time wasn't aware it was my theme - until the closing date began looming up very quickly and there were just a couple of us waiting for our books to reach us ..

Sizzix Fan

Domino Book swap hosted by Chrissie

Direct swap on ukscrappers from an idea seen by the host Xmasbaby aka Chrissie.
We all decided on a theme.  Chrissie jumbled us all up and then got - I think it was him indoors aka hubby - to pull out names and sent us a private posting telling us who we would be creating for.  I sent to uks scrapnanny aka Chris whose theme was "All Our Yesterdays". 

Prima lace edging stamp for a normal playing child's domino and Crafty Individuals Elements CI-239  for the inside and outside of the concertina card.  5 different distress inks, stampin cardstock and pleated satin ribbon to tie.  Tim Holtz alcohol inks and stazon for the domino itself.

CJ As you like it hosted by HL - July 2012

This is ukscrapper Hot Luca's CJ What are Words.  HL chose to use tickets with various one words on.  The idea is to give the definition of the word and then scrap a picture relating to the word. My chosen word was SOAR which reminded me of the lone human dove-like cyclist soaring into the air at the opening of the London 2012 Olympics.  I found a photo on the tinternet and copied it plus using a dove sizzix die cut to emphasise the dove.  This was July's CJ of As you like it.

CJ As You Like It (uks scrappers)

This is my CJ of my adorable, delightful, funny, protective ginger Queen Tigger - she came to us as a Tom cat from the Dairyman's Farm in Leigh Lancashire approx 13 years ago ... we found out that she was female when she suddenly produced 4 kittens!The vet says that to have a ginger female cat is highly unusual.