Christmas Delivery - Friday 17th October

Good Morning Friends,

Catching up, an accolade and new pens!

Well, I hope I have managed to catch up with you all this morning, even if I have just managed to comment on your latest posts. I was hoping to get back on track this week, but it's been a bit of an up and down week really...first there was news about a good friend's health which has been such a shock, that I can't stop thinking about her; I've been working odd days and had a library meeting last night, which was fine...ssshh...but it is literally the only meeting I go to that I enjoy! Probably because they are a nice bunch of people and there's no work pressure.

Tomorrow morning myself and a couple of my volunteers are taking part in an event in the library aimed at people who are soon to retire (though anyone can come), we will be extolling the benefits of volunteering.

Because my work days were messed about this week, I was actually home Tuesday and Wednesday and it was good to be home two days in a row. I got a few Christmas cards made, some Halloween bits and pieces and made a start on the birthday cards I need to make. I have some commissions from a regular customer who gave me her year's requests back in January and a lot of friends and family have their birthdays coming up in November...then yesterday one of my librarian friends asked if i could make a retirement card for the lady who drives the mobile...by next Thursday! I really have no time, but she is such a lovely lady, I just couldn't say no.

I have been working on a mega Halloween creation, remember my haunted house? Well this is a whole scene and is seriously Edgar Allen Poe. I'm having problems getting good photos, so am going to have another go after writing this post!

Speaking of my haunted house, I was thrilled to  receive a Top 3 in Eileen Hull's Artists on the Block Challenge: http://www.eileenhull.com/2014/10/spook-tacular-sizzix-projects.html

I thought of the joy I felt when I heard I got this placement (thank you Anne, I saw your comment first letting me know the news!) when I read Darnell's very inspiring post today, in which she talks about how we feel when we do or don't receive comments or accolades about our craft. I had put a lot of time into that house, so to get a bit of recognition for it did raise a big smile.  If you haven't read Darnell's post,  pop over and have a look, because I am sure it applies to us all....http://www.djkardkreations.com/2014/10/enjoy-journey-banishing-old-man.html


Now finally to today's post! I am a very lucky girl because recently one of  extended my US family sent me some pens. An illustrator friend had passed them to her,in case she knew anyone who could use them. She isn't a crafter so she had no use for them and sent them over. I received them at my busiest time, thought they looked very interesting, but resolved to leave them in the box until I had time to play..yeh right! Within a day I had them out (late at night, when I normally don't craft) and made this card, but I haven't had time to post it before.

I am a Promarker girl through and through, I have tried other pens but none have even tempted me to replace my beloved promarkers. My dad, when he drew a cartoons used them, a person I used to work with who did graphic art used them and I love them. I have a big collection and intend to keep it growing...but these pens are a totally new idea and I have to admit I love them!

They are called Chameleon pens and imagine by amazement the other week when I happened to tune in to Create and Craft whilst I had an hour to craft and saw them there...not only that but it seems you can only buy them there in this Country for several months...what a wide smile, I have them and they were a gift!

These are alcohol pens, just like the Promarkers and other makes, the difference in these is that you can create a great number of shades with just one pen by using a mixing chamber included in each pen. They will take a lot of practice to get used to the mixing. I thought I would find that part a bit tiresome, but I didn't and they have a good site with tutorials. They aren't meant to replace your usual alcohol pens and they worked perfectly in conjunction with my Promarkers, which would still be my first choice for something where not much blending and highlighting is needed, but you will be seeing a lot more of Chameleons on here!

All the green on the car was coloured with one pen, using the mixing chamber to lighten the colour...I was pretty pleased with it as the first time I'd used them. This was several weeks ago and I've not had much time to colour since, but I have used them a few times and I can see that they could become an addiction! :)

This is a Stampendous stamp, that I think I brought back from the USA last year. I created the snow using Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Jewels: Iced Snow, which give a lovely glistening raised effect as they are quite thick in texture. The backing paper is from a paper pad by Lily of the Valley that I bought last year.

Well I am  off to try and photograph the spooky scene whilst the sun is still shining making the light  a bit better! I realise I have still not show the photos from last week's workshop, so will endeavour to do so at the weekend.


Love and Hugs
Carole X

Happy Fall Y'all - Friday 10th October 2014

Good afternoon Friends,

Well I don't seem to have been around blogland much lately, but hopefully all getting back to normal now...except of course for the rush to make Christmas cards!

Our workshop at the library on Tuesday went well...my first day back at work and because I work in the library, I thought it was pointless to come home, so I worked through...10 hours plus the 2 hours crafting, but it was ok...I got a lot done and I broke through the 'tired and why am I doing this?' barrier by about 5pm!

It was a small group of totally new people, but they  really enjoyed making the Dasher card...one lady on my table hadn't crafted in a while and was so thrilled with her card that she couldn't wait to show it to her family. I didn't inflict my camera on them though, save that for the regulars who know me!

Last night we did a Christmas card at our regular group, I did take my camera and will show the photos over the weekend.

This afternoon I have been home and as it was so beautiful in the sunshine, I went out to  my little craft barn to keep the hens company and work on a Halloween model that I seem to have been making forever and can't wait to show, but it's not quite finished yet...the truth being I keep thinking of more bits to add to it.

Today's card is a simple little seasonal card:

  I used a piece of kraft card to make the blank: the stamp, part of Inkydoodles Spring/Easter set (but which suits autumn equally well) is quite large, so I had to custom make a blank to fit the design. I used a piece of buttermilk card for the background which I embossed with a leaf M-Bossability and then inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink. I coloured the scarecrow with Promarkers and inked the background with Salty Ocean distress ink. The pumpkins are Spellbinders dies, die cut on to white card and inked through with Spiced Marigold ink. The sun stamp is from the same set.

If I had more time I would have stitched around the edge, but this time it had to be faux stitching  and I finished off with hessian, buttons and string.

Inside is a Prim Tag that I downloaded from the internet and inked with Vintage Photo. 

Talking about Prim craft, for almost the last 15 years I have gotten a lot of my Prim, folk and altered art supplies from an online craft Company called Calico Crafts, in fact they are probably the first craft company I ever ordered online from, so I have watched them grow over the years... great for papers, paints and all the mdf parts and little details such as rusty bells and hearts...Prim, Country, Steampunk..the lot.

 Last week I logged on to order a few little bits from them and was so shocked and dismayed to read a message in place of their website...their warehouse had burned down a few days before and they had lost their entire stock. I can't tell you how I feel for them having been a customer so long.

They are keeping optimistic that some time they will start again, but it is such a massive clear up job. Such a shame.

Well friends, I want to end on a more uplifting note....close to us we have a Country/Equestrian shop...we go there fairly often because they also sell poultry supplies and it's a good excuse for me to drool over all the riding equipment and bemoan the fact that my body stopped me from getting in the saddle some years ago. I think Tom just waits for me to say (I always do!)  "if we had had all these body protectors in my youth, I might still be riding now!" :)...anyways, a few weeks ago they had a sale and we bought our 'girls' a present..and oddly enough, they seem to love it...as long as they are being bribed with grapes that is...here is our Chicken Gym!

Take care all!

Love and Hugs
Carole X

Dasher in the forest - Monday 6th October 2014

Good afternoon friends,

Well I just did a quick round of your blogs, sorry for the quick comments but I still seem to be trying to catch up with myself!

Tom and I spent from Friday until yesterday lunch time painting in the kitchen..finally it looks like a kitchen and we can use it properly. We are still waiting for the glass splash back to be made and then the wall tiles will be placed and we'll be finished...another month I think.

I go back to work tomorrow and Tom went today - I don't think we have ever had such a non-holiday and felt so tired at the end of 2 weeks off! The first week was  enjoyable as we could at least go out, but last week was just working on house stuff...we painted the craft barn and the chicken coop. My back is very tender, but I'm due a sports massage on wednesday and am so looking forward to it.

For the last two weeks I have barely entered the craft room, but we have 2 workshops this week - a bit of a mistake after 2 weeks holiday, so I had to prep for them. The first one tomorrow night is a special 'one off' at the library, so as I work there and I can see myself being mega busy tomorrow, I probably won't come home in between!

The card the group is going to be making is based on one I made as part of Sam Poole's DT, I  only showed it on the last post I did before Sam went on maternity leave and that posted consisted of several projects, I've also changed it a little for the class.

It's a tent fold card using Dasher Deer and little trees stamps, please excuse me for not going into detail, but again this has to be a quick post, I'm still catching up with myself!


Hoping to slowly get back to normal blogging and commenting this week, meanwhile,
Love and Hugs
Carole X

A Festival of Hares...and a Rabbit! - Wednesday 1st October 2014

HI Friends!

Rabbits and Hares, they're all so adorable!

Please excuse the 'wordy' and photo heavy update post...

A week ago was my last post...it seems soooo long! How are you all ? It's also now October, what has happened to this year? Where has it gone? I love the colours and festivals of the autumn/fall, I just wish this season lasted a bit longer and winter would hold back.

This is the second week of our two week holiday and partly because of being in 'holiday' mode and mostly because the house has been in disarray through the kitchen fit, I have not felt like crafting at all, I haven't even wanted to get on the computer. The 'craftiest' thing I've done in nearly 2 weeks is look at Pinterest on the iPad....and as I pin, say to myself 'great idea, gotta make it'... I have managed to hop on to Mac (a not very original name for my iMac) every few days to catch up with you all though...I hate blog stuff on the iPad.

In truth, all I want to be doing at the moment is make Halloween cards, decorate my wooden and mdf pieces that are waiting for me in the craft barn..but I have craft commitments which have to come first! I have made a particularly Edgar Allen Poe-sih Halloween 'scene', which I am excited to share with you all soon though.

On the subject of Pinterest, following my Prim Folk art post recently, some of you said you'd never heard of it and asked what it is...well it's a form of American Folk art, based on very primitive art and ideas. If you look on Pinterest under 'Prim crafts' you will see lots of examples. I also have  a Board dedicated to Prim art and crafts on my account: Carole Zorzo

The two kitchen fitters, Martin and Justin, were wonderful and I can't believe how tidy they were: they finished Friday lunch time except for one thing...there is always one thing isn't there? We had ordered a glass splashback for behind the hob, in aubergine and I was so looking forward to seeing it up! Thursday evening as they were leaving, I asked about it and guess what? They knew nothing about it. They made a call to Magnet and to cut a long story short, basically the designer hadn't ordered it...it has to be made to measure, so we have another week to wait. But that's ok, otherwise we love our new kitchen!

Within an hour of them leaving, Magnet sent in two ladies to give it a thorough clean, that was  a nice touch.

As I write this, the floor tiles are being laid and the kitchen is again bare of everything and unusable. We still have the walls to do and some painting and then it will be finished. I've added a few photos at the end of this post showing what the kitchen was like for four days between the guys finishing and tiler Dave, starting... take no notice of the walls! We couldn't make up our mind what we wanted, they will be tiled, we've decided.

We have had some proper holiday time in between house stuff and on Monday we popped up to Cirencester. I've been following their Hare Festival all summer - they had lots of hares placed around the town, some designed by local celebs such as Laurence Llewellyn Bowen and Emma Samms - now they have all been removed and are about to be auctioned for charity, The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.  Until tomorrow they are all on a pre-auction display in one of the hotels and what a sight they are...photos at bottom of post.

So it's appropriate that today's card features a hare (well it's a rabbit but we can pretend). I made this card a few weeks ago using Sam Poole's bunny from the Woodland Creatures stamp sets

 Please excuse me for not going into details of everything else I used, there are already too many words in this post,but please ask if you would like to know!


First the hares in all their glory...

There were three rows of these hares...the one in front is Bare Hare

Some of the mini hares...the one in front is Vinny the Gangst-Hare

Woolly Jumper & Blue

Flame, the Phoenix Wayfarer

Hicarus

This is Hareoh the Pharaoh and was my favourite

Harelequin

Harry, King of the Hill

some more little 'ins: Bob and Neville

Buck the Trend and Material Girl

Hare

Hopportunity Hare

Pebley Hare

Patchwork,  Via Albatine & Bellaire

 There were so many more, all of them gorgeous!

Finally, the kitchen so far..the colour is a sort of sage-grey, in some lights it looks more grey, some more sage :)

The stools are up cycled! We were going to get new, but these belonged to Tom's grandparents have have always been with us, so I knew he'd rather keep them. I painted them with chalk paint (my fave Annie Sloan) and waxed them, then covered the seats with a fabric that has an aubergine pattern.

I think the pull out larder was the best choice we made, so much more storage!

Phew! Well thanks for sticking to the end...!

Love and Hugs
Carole X

The Witch is In! - Wednesday 24th September 2014

Good Evening Friends,

ATB Witches' House

Hoping you are all well and still enjoying some sunshine! The kitchen fit is going well at the moment, we've been out during the days and come home to find lots of work completed by the two installers and they have left everything so tidy! So far so good...today we visited Highgrove Gardens again (the home of Prince Charles)...we've done a tour earlier in the year and this is the autumn one and it was again lovely. I'm just sorry that no photos are allowed as there is so much to photograph there! It's a lovely place to visit and only about 20 minutes away from where we live.

Today, I would like to share a witches' house I made from Artist Trading Blocks, using the Eileen Hull scoreboard die from Sissix, this is fun make, that I made to enter in this months Art with Heart challenge with the theme of 'Fall' and I chose Halloween.

First of all I die cut two large blocks and one medium size (there are three sizes on the die) in black heavy card and then I embossed the card using an M-Bossability folder. 

 I adhered one large block to the other and added the smaller block to the side. I then cut the roof from black glitter card. I have another Sissix die that makes a little cottage (it was a Christmas present last year and you will see it in some future Christmas makes), but it was ideal for the little windows and door, which I cut in glitter and then backed with orange card.

I drew and cut out the turret, chimney and the witches shoes and legs myself and used stamps for the bats and cat, which I have listed at the end of the post. The pumpkin buttons were in my stash as was the mdf tree, which I coloured with Promarkers. For the door handle I used a little Halloween brad, also from my stash and I made the broomstick from litre bits of twig and card.

Stamps used: Bats - Hampton Art Halloween stamps (bought in Michaels last year)
                      Owl on turret - Chocolate Baroque
                       Cat - Chocolate Baroque 
                      Spooky Toadstools - Chocolate Baroque
                       mdf tree - Calico Crafts
                      Sentiment - Graphic 45


I would like to enter this project in the September challenge 'Fall back' over at Art with Heart

http://www.eileenhull.com/2014/09/art-with-heart-challenge-september-fall-back.html

It's a bit odd being home on holiday and coming back to the house every afternoon/evening then popping out to a local pub restaurant for something to eat because we can't cook and really aren't keen on take outs...we are both  really looking forward to getting into our new kitchen and cooking! So I haven'y had much time for craft or visiting your blogs...please bear with me, I will catch up with you all! I just grabbed a few minutes to get this blog finished tonight.

I'm having a crafty treat tomorrow because we missed Ally Pally, we are popping down to Exeter and the craft show there - never been before and it's not that far!

Bye for now,

Love and Hugs

Carole X

CAS card - Monday 22nd September 2014

Morning Friends!

I think I misled some of you yesterday! We are on holiday from work, but we're not 'away'...we're just doing 'day things', like walks at the arboretum, Highgrove gardens again, Bath..places we enjoy and then come home in the evening to check all is progressing well with the kitchen...no we haven't gone off and left them to it!

From yesterday's post, which was a true labour love, to a CAS card I  made for my friend's daughters birthday recently...

This is simply a kraft card, layered with white card and decorated with bunting and buttons and a stamped sentiment!

I've also been promising some garden photos I took recently...the rose is my pride and joy, a Gertrude Jeykell, the perfume is amazing!

 Our grape vine had produced so much fruit again this year, I have some more photos by am still to upload them.

 We had lots of gorgeous sunflowers, this is about the last one standing!

Have a good day all and thanks for dropping by!

Love and Hugs
Carole X

Prim Folkart Crow - Sunday 21st September 2014

Good Morning Friends,

Well tomorrow is the day that the kitchen installation begins, we'll make sure the installers arrive ok and then be off, just for the day to enjoy our holiday!

My post this week goes back to the Prim Folkart creations that I mentioned I was working on in my Creative Blog hop post last week. There are two pieces, but they go together, so I wanted to show them  as one.

I know that Primitive Folkart is a bit of a' like it or loathe it type of craft'...and this piece is something very different to what I usually post here!

I first fell for it as a teenager,I really love its honesty and naivety,  but it's not so popular here in the UK, so I don't do too much of it,( or at least I don't post it on here) but for me, Autumn and Christmas are seasons where this type of art form really comes into its own and I wanted to show you what I have created this time.

The Tryptych

First of all the Tryptych, which I painted freehand. I sketched and painted the elongated pumpkin, star and crow. Crows are synonymous with folk art, they are viewed as a spirit animal/guide, with links to luck,  magic, change and also being a trickster...so pretty powerful!

I started with a plain wooden triptych, which I painted in a brown colour chalk paint and then white. I used Annie Sloan paint, because I love it! I then sanded the edges to give it a distressed finish. I drew the star, crow and pumpkin, which I painted with acrylics. When It had dried, I sanded over the pumpkin again. Then I gave the whole piece a coat of Mod Podge gloss to seal.

The sunflowers

I made the sunflowers like this: I used some calico and cut three circles, one of them smaller for the centre. I snipped around the edge of the two larger circles to make the petals, which I painted with yellow acrylic. 

I sewed around the edge of the smaller circle and pulled the thread to draw it in, then stuffed it with some toy stuffing before securing it and adhering it to the rest of the sunflower. Then I painted the centre with Burnt Ember acrylic, leaving some patches for a more rustic look.

Coffee Stain

Before starting the sunflowers I had made a little cup of very strong instant coffee - I used this to paint over the entire sunflower to give it an aged stain. I also painted the leaves on the sunflower with coffee stain.

To finish the sunflowers I added some rusty wire for the stems and made little labels, on which I wrote the words 'Fall' and 'blessings'. I painted these with the coffee too and inked the edges with vintage photo distress ink.

  Now for the crow....

I made the crow from a pattern I've had for quite a while and used in projects before. It's by a Prim designer called Sagebrush and Sassafras  and  is made from calico and once I had sewn it up, I painted it with black acrylic. The wings are pockets, which the flowers are tucked inside.

When the paint was dry, I gave the crow a coat of coffee stain and then brushed the wings and around the eye with  cinnamon. This gives the piece a 'dusty finish...and it smells good!

The flowers are also made from calico and painted with orange acrylic. I also sewed rusty bells to them and the fixed them to the stick to tuck in the pocket. I tied checked ribbon around the crows neck to finish.

I made the sunflower in the same way as the little flowers in the triptych   but a  much larger version and I wrapped a stick with calico, which I painted with ember  paint to make the stem.

The pot is actually mdf - I painted it with acrylic paint, sanded it  and sealed it with Mod Podge, I used outdoor, just in case I ever wanted to use it for an outdoor decoration. I filled the pot with an oasis and twiggy bits before adding the crow and the sunflower. I had a  little sunflower left over from the triptych, so I also added that.

Finally, I made a label and sewed around the edges,. I gave it a coat of coffee stain before inking over the tag and roughing up the edges  to complete the ageing process I  then tied it to the stem with ribbon and added a strip of burlap for decoration.

 Flowers above are attached to a stick and inserted into the wing pocket

  Well I hope you find my delve into Prim Folkart, even if it's not to your taste...it took quite a while to finish but I was happy with the end result,  By the way these pictures were taken in amongst our grapevines, which are looking great at the moment....I'll post some photos later in the week.


I would like to enter this mixed media piece into two challenges:

The brand new challenge at The Mirror Crack'd - theme 'Anything Goes'

and  the September  e-play challenge at Eclectic Paperie - Fall 


Thank you so much for stopping by, I will be back in a day or so with a fun Halloween piece I have made using Artist Trading Blocks


Love and Hugs
Carole X