Pastel Flower Doodling

I only had time for a quick craft today, we've had visitors for most of the day.  My inlaws have been here and they have taken my boys away for the Easter weekend. They are all going to go on the Severn Valley Railway tomorrow and my older son LOVES steam trains so is delighted to be going (again). 

These were just quick made-up sketches that I made with some oil pastels. They aren't quite finished, 'work in progress' I believe they are called.

This is the two of them together:

and this is the green one in more detail (sorry, I can't show you details of the blue one, the photo I took is out of focus, oops!)

My boys have been enjoying having their dad home for a few days (he's going back to China on Monday) and he has had fun doing things with them.  Today (before his parents came) he was entertaining us all with a humorous singing and dancing rendition of 'Singing in the Rain' (very appropriate) inside with a brolley - which was amusing us all until he accidently stepped on one of my son's pride and joys - a big Lego Star Wars model - oops! [You'll have to use your imaginations here, no photos, sorry!] 

Enjoy your Easter Weekend

qwiksave x

The end of the year

Woohoo Finally Finished!  Yes, the calendar I mean.  I've never done anything like this before so didn't know it would take this long, well I know now!   And yes, this last page has got lots and lots of shiny sequins on it too!:

One of the things that took so long was sticking each and every one of the sequins in place.  They may not look carefully placed but I assure you EVERY ONE was moved and shifted about at least a dozen times, looking for its perfect 'parking place!'  Not to mention the amount that kept trying to escape! I reckon I recovered half a box of sequins from the dining room floor and no doubt will keep finding many more in the weeks and months to come! 

This last page came about because I wanted to do a subtle representation of November (fireworks) and December rather than the obvious, even though both  are very visual events you could do a  lot with.  I also decided to tie it in with what I've done on the other pages.  November got an explosion of lots of colours and flower sequins representing firework bursts and December just got lots of red, green and gold. 

I like the end result (and think it looks better in the flesh than in the photos I've put on) but will be glad to be doing other stuff now, without sequins!

Glossy accents and Sunshine!

Was hoping to finish the calendar today, its not quite finished, but very nearly there.  I realised I hadn't shown you the title page, This I modified today by adding some Glossy Accents, a crafter's wonder product that changes a flat object into a 3d one. I used it on the numbers so it would match the embellished glossy flower stickers.  The numbers were made using the Grungeboard letter template onto the same papers I used inside and I handwrote the stitches again to match the inside pages:

I made the page for July and August today, again using my stash of sparkly gems.  I even discovered some mosquito gems that I didn't know I had.  I kept the theme to a bit of orange and lots of yellow/gold to reflect all the sun we're going to have this Summer! (lol)

Once I'd  completed putting all the gems on it again lacked something so I had the ingenious idea of adding some flight lines for the mosquitos.  I used the broken line technique I'd used for the letters and it worked so I then decided to change all the flowers into 'suns'.

I have added all the papers and calendar months to the last few pages so shouldn't take me too long to finish tomorrow, I might even have chance to do another craft!

Sequins, Sticky Dots & Bling!

I have been continuing on with the calendar I started yesterday.  I've done a March & April page and a May & June page today.

The March and April page I separated into two colours, grey and yellow.   I had a vague idea to put Easter embellishments on the April side and did for a while, but then hurredly took them off - they looked really naff!  After all, this calendar isn't intended for the kids, its for me (and maybe my husband!) so no rabbits allowed!

I kept to the same layout as the previous months with fake stitching and paper letters and for this one embellished it with lots of sparkly sequins.  I have to say how I appreciated the sticking power of my roll of sticky dots, all the sequins stuck on with no problems.  It really sparkles, hope you can see that in the photos:

The March side I kept to blue and silver sequins, which 'spilled over' into the gap between March and April

...and for April I kept to golds and orange sequins, very lush!

For May and June I went the flowery route.  I'm not a flowery prerson normally but I did want this calendar to at least reflect the seasons.

Initially I just had the felt and button flowers but there was something missing in the gaps.  So out came my massive box of sequins of every description that I impulse bought from QVC a while back.  It gave the page a lift & shine in a way that only bling can.

Loved the mixture of typefaces!

Think I know what tomorrow's task will be!