Stamping glee...

How do you fancy a bit of stamping and colouring in? yeah see I knew it, you are a secret colourer- inner just like me.

Do you like big girl pens, ones that are just for you to use.....no sharing with those pesky kids... have a look at PROMARKERS, they are super wonderous.

Then get yourself over to my gorge friend Kirsty's blog and see the fabby new stamps she has designed.

You can buy them as a digital download look here, see how cute...

You can also order them as really real in your hands polymer stamps get yours here...
have an evening of colouring, and this is what you will end up with.




then you get all the fun of making projects with them. They are perfect for cards,tags,mini books etc...and the digi ones can be printed out whatever size you want...bonus eh!


This is Petit Bug, isn't she super cute in her lil beret?





and this is the 6x6 card that i made with her. I used promarkers to colour some satin fabric for the background, and see those lil flowers...they were plain white punched flowers coloured with promarkers and folded and layered as per a video tutorial on Kirsty's blog.





This is Lila Bug, she has wings which if you want to are easy to snip off, but I decided to keep them. Again she is coloured using promarkers.





and this is the 6x6 card i made. So many people are making journal pages at the moment, so I thought i would make a card in the style of a journal page. the rainbow is tissue paper coloured with promarkers and applied to a background of watercolours and stamping. Then I cut out some stars, coloured them with the promarkers and added stickles.




I will have some more Bug projects to show you soon.

52 pages 2011

Page 13. Fooled

Definition=to jest; pretend; make believe:

What is your favourite joke? Have you ever taken part in an elaborate prank? Did it backfire or did everybody laugh? How do those big ole belly laughs make you feel?

52 pages 2001

Page 12 Deception...

first of all i glued my page to this piece of paper kitchen towel, it has previously been used to mop up ink and then left to dry. i wasn't sure i could use it for anything as it has a pretty definite ,dimpled, circle pattern going on in the actual paper....

anyway it is 2ply, so I pulled apart the 2 sheets, and used the side with most ink.

Before gluing, I sprayed the paper towel with some black webbing spray.




once it was dry i cut it out, and I was pleased that the dimple pattern wasn't really noticeable to the eye, but along with the webbing spray gave nice texture to the touch.




I used up some old stickers for my text, and then covered the whole thing with a good coat of matte medium...feels like plastic now. I also inked the edge with midnight blue stazon. I love the blue, I think even more than the black.




here is a close up of the texture on the front...





I wrote my journalling on the back, directly onto the page. then, as this is about deception i covered my journalling with torn strips of the paper towel.

A lie begets a lie etc, so the layering is apt. Also a deception is usually covered up with a 'tissue' (geddit) of lies, just enough to cover the deception, but fragile enough that the whole thing could come apart at any time...





Once completely covered, I stamped out the word and added more matte medium.

close up of texture on the back...

a little cake for the weekend...

So, you remember last year I rose to the challenge of making 52 cakes...and succeeded I might add. Some of the recipes are on here...click the recipes button ^^^ up there.

Well my beautiful friend Nicole took up the baton, and this year she is making 52 cakes. Go visit her fantastic blog, her recipes are there, as is a whole heap of other really cool stuff.

When you follow that link you will see she made a Coconut and Lime Layer cake, I thought it looked LUSH, and wondered how it would transfer to cupcake size.

I altered the recipe somewhat...go see her blog for her recipe for the large layer cake.

Here is what I used...

8 oz SR flour
1teaspoon baking powder
5 oz coconut
5 oz icing sugar
2 eggs
3 limes
5 fl oz oil
3 tablespoons single cream
1teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

Mix the flour,baking powder,icing sugar,coconut zest of 3 limes in bowl

In a jug measure out the oil,eggs,vanilla and the juice of just TWO of the limes, beat this together

then add to the dry ingredients.

add the single cream till you have a dropping consistency


Pop into cases and bake at Gas mark 5 for 12-15 mins or until firm but springy to touch.



While they are baking, take a sheet of parchment paper and lay it over a baking tray.

In a glass bowl over a pan containing a little boiling water, melt around 3 oz of dark chocolate

Drizzle the chocolate into squares shapes, making sure the lines intersect. do the same number of squares as you have made cakes...

they do not need to be accurate or neat, quite the opposite in fact.

pop the tray into the fridge.



Frosting..

3 oz butter
6 oz icing sugar
6oz cream cheese
juice of 1 remaining lime
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

cream the butter and sugar, add the lime vanilla and cream cheese and mix well. Pop into the fridge for 15 mins....

while that is chilling, take a good couple of handfuls of coconut and spread them on a baking tray, pop in the oven on a medium heat for 5-10 mins, until just starting to go golden


While you are frosting, take the chocolate from the fridge and put in the freezer, just for 10 mins, it will peel off the paper better if you do this.

spread the cream cheese onto each cupcake, and throw on the toasted coconut.




Now get your tray of chocolate, the easiest way to remove it from the paper is to bend the paper underneath and peel away

PEEL THE PAPER FROM UNDER THE CHOC, DONT TRY TO PEEL THE CHOC OFF THE PAPER...

pop a square onto each cupcake, and voila you are done.




Now with a large layer cake...go see Nicoles, you have a layer of frosting in the middle, you dont have that with these cupcakes so they are quite dense...not dry, just dense, so you WILL need a cuppa tea with them...

but hey you were gonna make a cuppa anyway, right?

Salt Dough Dolly ...part two

ok, so here is the dressing up bit.....she wasn't any more cooperative for this section than she had been before.

first some undies, as her zombie nekkidness was making me feel weird.

Wrap around a bit of black felt, sew in place and add straps.

Knicks....she started off with a huuuuuge pair of Bridget Jone's knickers, but I felt sorry for her so i cut them down. Even zombies need pulling pants right?




Next I took the net bag left over from some oranges and stitched it around her legs, THIS WAS NOT EASY, damn netty,holey things were slip sliding all over town.



Ripped shirt, well first I made a non ripped shirt, put her in it and then went mad on it, slashy,slashy,rippy,rippy.

I basically laid her on the fabric and drew round her and stitched it up the sides, then inserted some sleeves.



again with the slashy,rippy.




oh how we larrrfed putting this shirt on...Not... dead arms do not want to be poked into teeny sleeves.

Circle of black velvet, with some red net stitched to the underside...then all ripped and paint daubed on it.. Gathering stitch around the waist holds it onto her.

Boots, well you would expect these to be easy...no, what? you mean you think these might have been tricky. YOU ARE FLIPPIN RIGHT! 3 bits of leather and lots of swearing, accompanied by some plastic cut from a water bottle and coloured with a silver pen...which then promptly came off all over my hands.

these are superglued onto her feet, they ain't never coming off.

Remember all the stabby holes i put in her head? well I filled each one with glue and stuffed in some wool tops. Clearly this will help stop her brains falling out. I added some punched out leaves. she looks like she has been dragged thru a hedge backwards...she probably has.

so here she is all finished, and looking pretty damn gorgeous! yes?

close ups...

and the Scary Mary shot! haha you wouldn't want to wake up to that now would you? oh maybe some of you already have lol

Salt Dough Dolly... part one...

or cow bag zombie girl as I like to affectionately call her...though at several points it was not affectionate at all, no,no it wasn't!

So whose fault is this?? well you might well ask, and even if you didn't I am going to tell you...hangs neon sign in shape of pointing finger...

Donna

oh yes, she might look sweet and innocent, but she is a terrible influence...and not just when under the influence. Firstly she got Amy involved, they were both probably under the influence at the time...and now me!

So this started weeeeeeeks ago, and if you have been to Donnas blog, ( if you haven't then why not?) She, Ms. Doone has made a gazillion uber cute salt dough dollies, good enough to eat....eewh well no actually they wouldn't taste good, but def good enough to sell!

I have , in that time managed to make one...ONE... gruesome cow bag of a doll, which nobody in their right mind would want. But in case you do, well you can't have her.

I started with this...


Recipe.
1 cup of plain flour
1/2 cup of salt
1/2 cup of water
1 teaspoon oil

I only used about half, I could have made another doll....as it is I threw the rest in the bin...WILL NOT be doing this again in a hurry....but never say never...ok i just said it twice, but you get my meaning!

knead and roll, the dough that is. Do it for a lot of time.

meanwhile, or afterwards lol get some bendy but strong wire. make some hooks and loops, and get a wooden skewer.



Make body parts, if you are not sure what body parts look like, because maybe you haven't had a shower in a long time, then look on the internet. I hear you can see all kinds of body parts on there!



Refine your body parts, ie make them look less like sausages, and poke in the wires. Poke holes in the neck for joining with a skewer.




see this is how it will join, but you do not want it to join yet. so dissasemble till after painting.





I think Donna cooked her doll. I didn't, I left it to air dry. This took about a week...I AM NOT KIDDING, I would go the cooking route if I were you.

I kept poking her and she was squidgie, and looked like she might rupture in the middle at any time., and she had this damp looking thing going on, like I said, FOR A WEEK.

So she laid on my desk, being in the way of everything....and ok her body parts aren't strictly accurate, she is a zombie afterall. She has great boobage...or at least she did.



oh before drying, i poked lots of holes in her head....no, not just cos i felt like it, and not because she wasn't drying quick enough. The holes are for her hair.

Apparently she should also have had a hole for hanging her up....which is an awfully good idea, but zombie cow bag is too heavy , and if I hung her by her head it would come off.

Dry, at last. First coat of paint , a kind of pinky skin colour...all zombies start out as humans. At this point cow bag strikes again, not once but twice. Firstly the paint kept coming off, just like rolling away grrrr. So disgusted, I got out the matte medium to give her a coat to seal her first.

in the process her bloody tongue fell off/out!!!!!

See, right there in the middle! I know she's a zombie, but seriously this was taking the piss.

So she got 2 coats of matte medium, i wasn't taking chances. then she got a coat of pink paint.



Add more paint, blood type colours.

Add blues,browns,greens and greys, and then detail with black. it's gonna get messy, zombies are messy.

See how her boobage is no longer great, this is cos she was drying on her front for a while...and they got squished. I know the feeling.

Once I was finished with paint, i gave her two coats of acrylic glaze. At this point I superglued the wires into the relevent holes. But didn't glue on the head yet.

close up of some gorey bits.

I glued the tongue back in...


So there she is....come back tomorrow to see her dressed and finished.

52 Pages 2011

Page 12. Deception

Definition=something that deceives or is intended to deceive; fraud; artifice

Did you ever lie to protect someone? Did a lie ever hurt someone? If you could put it right how would you do that?

Giraffes

I love giraffes, I do,really I do. A few people have asked recently, about my giraffe affection/addiction, so I thought I would show you.

Incidentally this is the new bed in the craft room. Donna if you get over to stay, you will not have to sleep on the floor. I will even move the giraffes for you.

I builded this bed, when I was poorly,sick and full of lurgy, and it was heavy.



Here are the giraffes, all given to me by friends. a couple of years ago a friend threw a surprise party for me, and everyone turned up with a giraffe lol



This is Trafford, he guards the bedroom.



I really don't have room for anymore large/toy types... so please don't send me all your left over giraffes.

But, I do plan on making some kind of mini book full of giraffes, so flat giraffe/paper type stuff is still allowed in the house.

I have a pattern, and a jigsaw.



These are cards that friends have made and sent, these will go in the mini book.

Donna made this for me, see the teeny,tiny giraffe hidden on her face...

A friend gave me some giraffe fabric, so i made a bag..

another friend gave me a giraffe button, so it got sewn onto the bag...

This is the giraffe paper that I will use in the mini book...again a birthday present.

People who shall not be named, stole these giraffe items from The Giraffe Cafe for me.

More birthday gifts over the years..

a notebook and eraser,

a pack or animal bands, they contained giraffes, and also flamingoes...the person who gave them to me loves flamingoes, so I gave those bands back to her lol

a wooden giraffe shape

a black sparkly giraffe pin that I usually wear on my hoodie

and finally a tiny metal giraffe, right there in the middle. It means such a lot to me, for very personal reasons. It lives in my purse, with the coins, and as such all its colour has rubbed off.

this lil guy lives in the car..

and these twins live in my boots...when my feet aren't in there obv. The twins are filled with some charcoal-ie type stuff which is supposed to keep your shoes fresh...apparently.

so, I think that is all, at least that is all I could think of right now lol

If you ever want to send a giraffe, squish it flat, so it will go in my mini book when I make it.