Charity Shop Shopping Post

The craft I did tonight didn't work (technically) so I wasn't going to put on a post today at all but changed my mind and have made this into a 'Recent Shopping' post instead.  I haven't had one for a while so I think I'm due.

So, what did I get then?

First up we have these:

and these:

Aren't they lovely? Frosted letter glasses. I love calligraphy and lettering so they are right up my street. Not sure whether to use them to put my crafty pens & pencils in them, (but knowing what a clumsy whotsit I am, maybe not!)  I might just leave them on display, well away from where I can reach...

Still on the glasses theme, I got some Christmas Baubles!:

They are clear glass ones for me to do crafty things with - last year I remember looking everywhere for this type and couldn't find any, so I was pleased to find these in a local charity shop.  There are lots of crafty things you can do with these, apparently...

Next up, another charity shop find, a 12x12 frame, very useful for displaying scrapbooking pages...

..and yet another charity shop find, a travel log book, just 99p!:

I've already started to loosely put my Germany souvenirs in it:

and finally, a long reach stapler for the bargain price of £3:

Great price, considering they are normally around £20! 

Thanks for stopping by,

See you tomorrow for a regular crafting post,

qwiksave

Puzzle Block, Bootcamp Day 5 and Shopping

..but not necessarily in that order!  In fact, I'll start with Creativity Bootcamp Day 5. The Random word theme today was 'Grow'.

I have chosen this compostition I made today of my older son Ryan:

He was a 'Millenium Baby', born in January 2000 (the 11th) and the 'Daily Mail' had a scheme, where they planted a tree in fields all over Britain with the names of babies born in January 2000.  This page (which I would have combined better if I knew how to use Photoshop) shows the little tree we planted when he was 5 months old.  We remember the day well, there was a howling gale, wind, rain and lots of parents with babies in this field planting trees!  As you can see, he is now 10 years old.  We have visited the tree, but not recently, must go again soon.

There was another part of the challenge where we were asked to listen to some music from our teenage years.  I've done this while washing up today and loved singing along to The Carpenters and Elton John, David Cassidy and The Osmonds. 

****

Shopping?

Quite a bit today:

We have a Provocraft Circle Knitter (wow!), a 'How to Knit' kiddy book (for me!), a 'Made with Paper' book, Some JML FixIt which bonds metal, wood, glass, concrete! (should be good for crafting...),

a puzzle block which I am using for my craft tonight (details to follow) and some lovely lace to use in my scrapbooking.

The craft I made tonight (the personalised puzzle blocks) involved lots of complicated and precise measuring.

Here is a picture of it in progress:

 

and I finished it off in daylight the next day:

As you can see, I have covered all the sides of the cubes with family pics that we can mix and match to make silly combinations.  The blocks weren't all the same size which made the measuring tricky.  I will be using some inkjet spray varnish to protect all the pictures.

Another little tip I used:

Remember those old children's blocks I bought a while back?

 I covered one with sandpaper to use as a sanding block.

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Bag Shopping

Today, there will be no craft!  I have been crafting a little today but I have also been shopping.  I haven't been for a while because my boys have been off on their school holidays and believe me, my boys and shops don't mix!

I actually have 3 bags to show you, which in total came to less than £10!  One of them in particular is really different, as you shall see....

The first one was from Barnados and it was a handmade tote:

I was attracted to it because of the distressed look and the swirls...

..and the fact it was new and just 99p!

The second one, isn't normally my kind of thing.  I am definately not a pink girly type and I don't tend to go for patterns (As I write this, I am dressed from head to toe in black, as usual!) but I have been faithfully reading the wonderful print&pattern blog and that may well have had some influence....:

 

It also has 2 pockets! I heart pockets!

Close up of the, ahem, pattern.

This was again new, from Oxfam costing the princely sum of £4.99!

This last one, which is actually the size of a small suitcase seems to be entirely handmade!:

As you can see, its transparent so I will have to be careful what I put in it, but its really different.

That was the one side...

..and this is the other.  Its got amazing handmade details on it:

All this is stitching and handpainted dots.  It has loose sequins trapped in the transparent material that move around with the bag:

Must have taken ages to make! I wonder what the story was behind it?

The only thing I wasn't completely impressed with were the handles:

They were just ribbon! Not very strong, but I could easily change them, or only put light things in the bag.

This bag came from the RSPCA charity shop and was just £2.50.

Now I've got lots more bags to take with me next time I go! :-) 

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

x

Shopping!

Thought that would get this blog noticed! We crafters do like our shopping! :-)

I haven't done a shopping post in a while so here is a result of today's little expedition.  It wasn't as fruitful as my previous haul (lol), but that is the nature of charity shop shopping, you can't always guarantee you'll get what you want. 

I got a strange mix of things today:

First of all, I got this rather nice Treat tin (Front & back views). Its a Nigella Lawson one apparently, for a pound. 

Then I got these dressmaking kits for 25p each.  I'm not actually going to make them, I'm just going to use the dressmaker's paper as a background on a candlewax canvas picture (a tip from Claudine Hellmuth  book, bought previously)

I also got these tattered old bricks for £1.25.  Thinking I might alter and put pictures on the blocks.  Some of them have got some writing on them already so I don't feel too guilty...

This was the book of the 'best of her magazines.'  I don't get her magazine (its about £4 I think) but this thick book was only £1.50 so I thought I'd give it a look.

These were bought on a whim, for the kids - they are hand puppets with BIG mouths! £2

...and these were some lovely photo corners and holographic stickers from Paperchase. The stickers were great at only £1 each....

and finally, something I didn't buy:

This was an enormous horses head and mirrored body sculpture spotted in Lee Longlands window, costing hundreds/thousands!

I have done a craft today but its 'not ready for my audience yet' (ark at me!), I'll show it tomorrow - if it works!....

Plate Stand and Bargain!

I carried on working with that piece I started yesterday (see previous post) and now its very different from how it looked yesterday.  I threw everything at it (in true Tim Holtz style) including some stamped flourishes and even covered the whole thing in UTEE for good measure.  I had fun...but the end result was a bit dark so I haven't even got  a photo of it to show you.  I'm sure they'll be many more in the months ahead anyway....

What a lovely Spring like day it was today:

Almost felt like skipping through these, but it was still a bit chilly despite the sunshine!

This project is one I have been discussing on the Christmas Craft thread on MSE - it is a cake stand made simply from a plate and a candlestick!

I found the idea on the Oh So Crafty blog so thank you to Tricia for this. 

Here is my finished cake stand:

All I did was use Araldite glue to join the glass candlestick to the Porcelain Plate.

This was the plate (Royal Doulton, £1.50 from a charity shop):

..and this picture shows the glass candlestick (£3.50 charity shop) a bit more clearly:

...and this is it upside down showing where I joined the candlestick to the middle of the plate.

I used the writing on the bottom of the plate as a guide to find  where the centre was.

I was going to make some cupcakes to display on my plate but found I hadn't got enough flour so will do that another day now...but all in all a very easy and satisfying project to make.

Finally today, I thought you'd like to see one of my purchases that I got today (the other was a dish washing brush, not very exciting!) because if you have got a 'Works' shop nearby you might be able to get one of these for yourself. 

It's this:

105 (this pack is 5 layers deep) Embroidery threads for just £1.99!

They look so colourful in their packaging I hardly want to open the pack! 

qwiksave x

Olde Worlde Photography Post

Well, sorry, but I didn't end up creating anything with my Tim bits and pieces last night, burning the midnight oil every night has finally caught up with me.  I did do a craft yesterday though, redoing that santa card that wasn't 'quite right'. 

I hope I've still got readers after my little outburst yesterday, I won't be doing distressing all the time, promise! :-)  In fact, I will DEFINATELY have to keep doing my shopping posts, that was my most popular post to date!

Today I went shopping (hurray!) but didn't do or get loads (boo!).  I spent quite a lot of the time taking photos because where I went is a very photogenic place - Warwick.  Even though I love to do hands on crafts, I must admit I still love my photography.  I also love the messing about with them after, although I always keep the originals, just in case.

Here we are then, LOTS of photos from today:

(apologies for the copyright notices, wish I didn't have to do it)

There are some lovely old timber framed buildings in the Main Street of Warwick

No photo trickery here, these pics are of a building for sale (front & back views), fancy buying it?

The arches are used by pedestrians to walk through.

More interesting buildings...

..a cafe..and is that the castle in the background?

T

This place (above) is where I had my wedding reception 14 years ago!

...and what a lovely shine and interesting detail on this door knocker, door and letter box.

A bit of window shopping now, these bears were in an antique shop window..

...and this bag was in an arty crafty window.

But no photos of Warwick would be complete without...

...a picture of the Castle!

My purchases? Just these:

The book was £1 from a charity shop and the Scrapbooking Handbook (looks great!) reduced to half price, @WHSmiths.  Oh and the beeswax is for a distressing technique :-)  £1.10 from a hardware shop.

Hope you've enjoyed the sunshine today - after school my boys wanted me to get out the hose pipe sprinkler and water pistols! lol.

Shoes, Rain and Pancakes!

I haven't had a photography post for a while so today will make up for it!  I took my boys into town in glorious sunshine today - one of them insisted on only wearing his tshirt! :-O

First photo to show you were some creative shoes found in a charity shop that I photographed. They were like shoes covered in scrapbooking paper:

I have used a bit of 'artistic licence' on my photos again today, yes, Picnik!: 

Next up, we went to an italian cafe for lunch and I had this strawberry pancake with icecream (yum!):

and my younger son had a chocolate spread and banana one.  This is what they gave him:

On the way home, it poured with rain...

This lady, walking her dog was dressed from head to toe in red:

The sun was also shining, so it made great lighting effects - and a rainbow!:

We followed the rainbow home and were hoping that the pot of gold would be waiting at our house when we arrived back but no such luck!

(I did have some great post though, my Tim Holtz book & crafting goodies have arrived from QVC!)