Sparkle, Sparkle

I was putting the decorations away as you do (did!) and nearby was one of those plastic lenses that you can use to see multiple images so I used it to snap this. Loving all those sparkly rainbow colours!

..And then I added an effect to this same picture using Picnik:

Wow!

It's been strange not being on here every day but I haven't been resting, oh, no.  I've been trying to learn to knit! I've got nothing to show you because knitting and me are poles apart despite using this children's knit book (75p charity shop) and youtube lessons, I still can't do it!  Grrr! (my language whilst practicing was a bit stronger than that!)  I am in need of some personal tuition from a kindly Shreddies granny I think.

The book itself has got some great illustrations:

..and these look wacky:

Such a shame I can't do it!

Finally, I had a bit of doodling fun whilst watching TV last night:

It almost looks like a journal page!

Thanks for looking and for any comments

qwiksave

Craft Stall Goodies & Xmas Doodle

I've been to the Christmas Lights Switch On in our town this afternoon and evening and they had a wonderful craft stall there with loads of lovely toppers for cards.  I don't normally buy other people's but these were really good and ever so reasonable in cost, how could I refuse?  The stallholder says she doesn't die cut her designs, she gets them printed/made up at a print shop. What a great idea, I'd like to do that. 

The design you see above has paper with 3d spots and stars on it (£1.99 for 10 sheets of different colours) and the angel set with the sentiment and additional stars was 99p.  It's so 3d, it would probably suit being framed, rather than being on a card. 

* * *

As for my craft tonight?  I had a quick go at doodling:

(Oops, not quite finished neckline)

Haven't done any doodling like this in a while...

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Do you doodle do?

As an artist come crafter I do find myself doodling at times.  I tend to like making up my own cartoon characters which is what I used to do from about the age of  5 onwards.  I've been looking at some old Beano and Whizzer & Chips annuals with my children recently and some of the images I remember so well that it took me right back to when I was their age.  Kind of spooky in a way.  I did love comics though when I was little and spent many a happy hour pouring over the characters' hilarious antics.

My sister remembers that I love to do cartoons so bought me this book for my birthday, 'The Telephone Doodle Book', and today I've been filling in some of the pages.  No telephone required.

In detail I had to:

  

...make faces out of photographed vegetables.

Design a cra-zy hair do:

(Some of the drawing is already completed for you, in this one I just added the hair)

(As you can see, I changed my mind on how I was going to do this, the spikes won!)

Next, I had to 'dress Mr Simpson'

Fetching pair of green shorts eh?

Here I added some stripes:

...and finally some more whacky hair:

There are loads of doodling books on the market, get yourself one and have a go!  They are a great way of freeing up your creativity!

Thanks for reading,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Pre-Journalling & Coloured Nightlight Jars

I've been extra creative today, not only have I got one project to show you today, but two!  For the first project, I had another go at doing a 'pre-journalling' page:

To make this (its 1 page), I used various thicknesses of white paint markers to make random spirals and then also did one in silver. Then I coloured over the top and in the area around them with coloured markers - just using ordinary thick felt tips, the water soluble type. I've never looked at journals properly so wasn't sure quite what or even how people write in them so I just started writing random things inside and around the spirals with a black Sharpie pen (I think in a proper journal, you're meant to write about your feelings!) On the black colouring pen part I used white, silver and gold gel pens.  I really enjoyed doing this exercise, and could definately see me doing this in a journal for real.

My second project today was some coloured glass candle jars. I saw them on this blog yesterday and fancied making some.

First of all I frosted the glass jars using an acrylic frosting medium on a soft sponge:

I then added food colourings to an outdoor Mod Podge:

I made several colours. Here I've popped a nightlight in and the room lights are on:

 

..and then the room lights were switched off:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I prefer the 'room lights are on' effect but I'm sure they'll all look great outside and when I take them camping with us later on in the year.  Thanks to the original blogger for the idea.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you tomorrow!

qwiksave

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