Apologies

MY CAMERA is!!



Sorry for this but I made my craft tonight, came to photograph it and my camera wouldn't work! :-O !!  

I can describe what I was doing though, just so you know that I did do some crafting today (honest!)

The craft that I did today was to recover a photograph album that I plan to put photos in of the artwork I have done on 'Creative Flourishes' since I started in January.  When I am out in the 'real world' (lol), friends and relatives (that aren't on computers, imagine that?!) often ask me 'what kind of art & craft I do' and I have difficulty describing it.  I have done so many different things, but invariably get stumped when put on the spot.  This is why I thought I'd make up a photo album so I can show them.  I have previously bought a photo album from a charity shop that has bright paint splashes all over the cover, its fun and arty looking but also much too bright and far too 1980's in style, so today I have altered it by gessoing  to tone it down and added up-to-date embellishments.   Hopefully, when my camera is fixed (?), I'll be able to show you.

Thanks for stopping by,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Wall Sculptures

Today's post is a photographic one. For our anniversary today my husband and I went on the train to Birmingham and we visited a new 'Arts & Media Quarter' called the 'Custard Factory'.

This photo is of a great linear art sculpture that I took with my Instax Mini 10 Instant Camera.  It was fun using a 'polaroid-type' camera with pictures that develop in front of you but the colours were a bit off:

This was all white!

Here we have a ginormous 'green man' sculpture (my husband is sitting underneath it):

This dragon really does look as though its climbing the wall:

and finally, I loved this green vertical garden:

 

It looks like a giant piece of embroidery.

Lovely day, but it was a shame about the weather.  The 'Custard Factory' itself didn't seem to have much going on for visitors.  I think its still in its early stages so has empty units waiting to be filled with creative bods. I'd love a unit to spread out and make a mess, surrounded by other creative types.

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave



Happy Anniversary Card

Why do I always leave my cardmaking until the very last minute possible?  This is what I have done with my husband's anniversary card, due when he wakes up tomorrow!  :-O

This card, which is a very simple design was made using a technique I learned from Gina G (link here) using stamped & embossed leaves and bleach.  In this case, I really shouldn't have left this craft until the last minute because after preparing it all, I found out that I hadn't got any full strength bleach.  I made an attempt using a weak solution (of bleach) but I wasn't very happy with the result so when the leaves were dry I coloured over them with a gold signo pen.

(These pictures replace the ones I originally showed when it was wet)

..and it worked! I really like the effect now!
* * *

 In my defence for doing this very last minute, I didn't know that my husband was going to be back this week from China, he only told me late on Saturday night.  I thought for this anniversary I was just going to be sending him an ecard.
 

Thanks for reading and for any comments you may leave,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

China Hearts

My husband (as old regular followers know) works in China for weeks at a time.  Tomorrow he is coming back for a week.  This time his work break coincides with our 14th wedding anniversary, which is on Tuesday.  Whilst browsing the web today I found this romantic idea and I made my own version:

It has a map of where we are on one heart and where he is living and working in China on the other.

The one on the web I saw was on notonthehighstreet.com and uses genuine old maps, I haven't got any of those so used Google.  I drew around a heart stencil on each of the maps and cut them out.  I then simply stuck them onto red card and framed them. 

* * * * *

I also made some bookmarks using the letter idea I showed you yesterday:

These were made by saving each of the individual letter photos from flickr (see yesterday's link), compiling & resizing each of the names in a word processing program, then cutting them out and laminating them.  To finish them off I used a hole punch and then tied on a piece of ribbon.

Hope you've enjoyed your weekend,
Thanks for reading and for any comments you may leave,
See you tomorrow,
qwiksave

Letter Photo Mosaic

Surprise! I've done an earlier post today.   I was a bit more organised today and got my craft done earlier than usual.

It's this:

(Click to enlarge)

A photographic letter collage.

The letters themselves weren't created by me, they were found on Flickr, created by Leo Reynolds, who generously lets you copy them (Some Rights Reserved). I copied and saved each letter and then put them together in this format using bighugelabs.  (This is a free mosaic maker but you need to register to use it).  You could also compile your message/name in Word or other word processing programs.

I found the information about creating this whilst bloghopping today.  The site I found it on was this one, Under the Table and Dreaming.

I'm liking the idea of making all kinds of words, and the letters are so creative.  It's the kind of thing you could do yourself, photographing letters in the environment.

It's quite time consuming to create the mosaic but also

..with gift making potential too! :-)

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Graphic Christmas Cards

I must confess to watching the very last episode of 'Big Brother' tonight so again didn't leave myself a great deal of crafting time but I managed to do some:

A couple of Christmas cards to add to my collection. 

I'm pleased I decided to do a few throughout the year, then I won't have that mad panic (the one I had last year!) having to do 30 handmade cards all on one night in order to beat the postal delivery times.  I've also decided to do 'simple' designs (as in flat) so I won't get caught out paying extra for that added thickness charge.

The picture above makes them look gold, but they are silver:

Simple lettering, straightforward mounting.

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Down Memory Lane

I would like to say that ALL the pictures you will see on my post today were created WAY before my time - but I can't, because most of them *ahem* weren't.  I was VERY, VERY, little at the time though, honest!

I haven't done a specific craft, but I have been scanning some wonderful, I think you could call them 'vintage' images from various magazines and knitting pattern catalogues I found in the attic.

To start with, we have this:

What strange poses they got models to get into in the 1960s!

Recognise the name? Those flowers look similar to the ones we use in our craftmaking today!

The pictures above came from these old magazines, dated 1968 and 1969.  I wonder how many of you  recognise this magazine? Is it still going?

These jumper designs made me laugh! They were originally from Canada and are from the 1950s.

Finally, this image is great, so colourful.  Think I'll be framing this one!

Thanks for looking and any comments you may leave,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Motivating Myself

Tonight I have done an inspiration page for myself - of myself!:

The reason its inspirational is because its a picture that was taken a few years ago when I was a bit healthier (and slimmer) than I am now.  I thought it would be useful as a reminder to myself that if I make more effort I could get to be more like how I used to be.  I'm not one for dieting (been there, done that MANY times!), I much prefer the 'live a healthy lifestyle for life' way, which at the moment isn't happening.  I am treating myself just a little too often and could do with making more healthier choices.

I liked this picture because it was taken in the Autumn and I'm even wearing autumny colours myself! (yes, even that waistcoat!! :-)  )   I've stuck the photo on appropriately coloured paper and gone wild with my rubber stamps. I'm thinking that I might add a touch of journalling on the right hand side.

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Leaves and Fudge

Here we have it - the finished Late Summer 'Winter' Tree:

Can you spot the little burdie? :-)

I thought I'd made quite a lot of leaves for my tree wallhanging yesterday.  I came to put them on the tree and there were nowhere near enough - so today out came the production line leaf make with one worker - me!  And I made another enormous page of green leaves.  This time I was much more efficient with the space, I wouldn't have got even one more (double) leaf on this page:

Here is an 'in progress' shot taken earlier today when my children were in school (yep, back today - now in Years 4 and 6!): 

This time I put each leaf on with painter's masking tape - the easily removeable type, this was a much cheaper option than the temporary sticky dots I used before. 

* * * * *

The other 'crafty' thing I did today was to make chocolate fudge with my elder son.  I have never made it before and was amazed how much sugar, butter and chocolate the recipe called for!

 

Am not sure whether we made it right, but all it tastes of is sugar!  Think I'll be sticking to healthier recipes in future.

Thanks for reading and for any comments you may leave,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Graphic Bookmarks and Autumn Leaves

When I was looking at the picture of the journal I covered yesterday with the wallpaper samples I decided that the design lended itself to making bookmarks.  The designs were even bookmark shapes, so that is what I have done tonight:

Just need to add some ribbons.

Long term followers of my blog may remember a Winter tree wallhanging we have in our sitting room and one of my projects this year was to add leaves to the tree, appropriate to the changing time of the seasons.  Well, the last time I updated it was in May when the blossom had just fallen off. 

My younger son reminded me the other day that I hadn't done Summer - with its abundance of green leaves so tonight (a little late!) I set about making some.  I printed (rubber stamped) lots of blank leaves - and a little birdie:

Then I stamped the leaf colour inside - green

...and because the leaves are starting to change colour again now I overstamped some of them with orange, yellow and brown:

I haven't cut all of them out (there's stacks!) but I've put some on the tree:

...and will be showing you the completed tree soon.

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave,
See you tomorrow,
qwiksave