More time :)

 Hello all, I hope you are well.
Sticking with the clocks for now, here is one I finished today in time for the Christmas craft fayre this evening (it did not sell though).
Again using a canvas board as a base, I applied green and blue acrylic paints and peacock and green metallic paints-the finished base effect was reminiscent of the impressionist school of painting, well, I think it is any way!
A stencil (Glitzcraft) of a fairy was placed in the bottom left and glitter frosting (colours used: Royal blue, Aqua Blue, lavender and dark green) used to put the image on the base.

 

Angelina fibres were glued liberally to the base on the right hand side and left to dry while I heated up some strips of friendly plastic and formed them into an open sided rectangular shape, I also heated up a piece and stamped a butterfly (Visible Image small butterfly stamp) into it.  Once the friendly plastic had cooled, I cut out the butterfly shape and then applied some metallic multi surface paint in peacock, royal purple and copper to both mouldings, the butterfly also got a generous helping of iridescent glitter!

                             

 A piece of green organza was then attached to cover the whole surface. The friendly plastic was stuck on top of this.  A piece of blue organza was then attached over the top of everything and blasted with the heat tool-the centre area of the blue organza was cut out to allow the movement of the clock hands and some cuts were made in it to allow the wings of the butterfly to appear to poke out.  The clock hands were scuffed with sandpaper and a little of the metallic paint dabbed on them.

Small wooden Roman numerals were painted in peacock to match and then placed around the clock face-while I did not want them to look entirely uniform, they are at least in vaguely the right positions to be able to tell the time!

 

 Thank you for reading, please leave a comment (it's always nice to know whether people like what I make, or if they don't!) and happy crafting :)
x

Challenges entered:

Visible Image- make it sparkle
Happy Campers- Glitter it
Imagination Crafts- Glitter and Sparkle
WhoopsiDaisy- Things with wings

Events I will be at:
Saturday 30th November- Rhuddlan Artisan Fair
Sunday 1st December- Botanical Garden Christmas Event
Saturday 14th December- Christmas Craft Weekend Fayre 
This event is in Rhyl Town Hall, there will be an ice rink outside in the town square, as well as Santa's grotto and all kinds of fun stuff.
Sunday 15th December - Christmas Craft Weekend Fayre

Time for a Clock ;)

Hello there everyone, I hope you are all well.

I am much better than I was when I last posted! Thank you for the kind, supportive comments you have made to me about that last post of mine-it's wonderful to know I am not alone.

This post has been a while in the making! I have been meaning to produce clocks for months now-so, without further ado, here it is:

I find metallic paint very difficult to portray in a photograph! It looks much more dramatic in reality than it does here!!
I used acrylic paints in: burnt umber, raw sienna, metallic copper, metallic copper gold.
Glitter frosting in Brown, sand, copper and gold  (with the clocks mask)
lutradur paper-like fabric, friendly plastic and some two tone (copper/black) organza-all of which were heated with a heat tool before having paint applied.
pocket watch stamp (visible image) was used with paint rather than ink
stars are crafters' clay (Martha Stewart I think) then painted to match.
Paper flowers were painted to match and then layered before being attached to corner of lutradur.

Various clock and watch charms in bronze colour are from my stash.

The clock hands were painted with the metallics to match the rest of the piece.

Whole thing was done using a 10x12 canvas board as a base.
All quite the experiment, but now I know what works, I shall make some more along similar lines :)
Was absolutely good fun to make-which is what art and crafting is all about, right?

Let me know what you think,
Happy crafting
x

Challenges entered:
Visible image- make it sparkle  (the metallic paint does sparkle and there are angelina fibres on here beneath the lutradur too-difficult to see from the photo I know)

Dear Pain...a daily survivor of the struggle against my own body and mind

I tweeted this at half six this morning:
Dear pain, while you may be my constant companion, I would like it if you let me have a chance to have a life. That is all.

I don't usually go around telling complete strangers that I am anything but awesome!  I just feel that, since I am certainly not the only one, it is time to say something about it.  I am in constant pain each and every moment-whether I move or keep still has no bearing on it. The everyday pain I am now used to and go about doing things just as others go about their day.  It is when the pain becomes so terrible that you can barely move and it feels as if your back and shoulders are on fire-that is when it stops me in my tracks and interferes with my life.  I don't look ill.  There is no cure for this and very little understanding from the world in general which makes the suffering something that is usually done in silence as nobody gets it and complaining just makes you unwanted.  For anyone who would like an idea of what it is like to live each day with an invisible illness-the spoon theory is an excellent analogy that attempts to make it a bit easier to understand.  While written by a woman with lupus, it is applicable to other conditions, particularly to fibromyalgia.
My increased pain exacerbates my depression. Depression lowers your pain threshold, thereby making my pain seem worse.  Vicious circle anyone?

Today it took me two hours and codeine to be able to get out of bed.  I am supposed to be on my stall on the market attempting to earn some money and make a living.  The pain took that away from me.  I will instead list items in my online store and would very much appreciate it if you could perhaps spam my website address all over the place :)
www.craftyshutterbug.co.uk

On the plus side, I have found my camera!  So I will be able to add pictures to my post from yesterday-and perhaps post again later if I manage to make anything new.

If you read just one thing today, please take the time to make it the spoon theory.  Thank you for stopping by.  Happy crafting ;) x

Busy, busy

So, today is my day to be blogging a new card or something I have crafted. While I have been really busy all this week making cards and items to stock my stall with, I don;t actually have a single thing I am going to be able to blog as it seems I have misplaced my camera (like the genius I am!).  I wanted to share with you all some of the candles I have been working on lately-particularly the gift set I have put together but without a picture, it is going to be very difficult to let you know what I have done!  I shall endeavour to describe it all, and then will add a photo when I discover the hiding place of my camera!

I just got finished covering a box in tasteful black paper so that I can display the candles within it, making it the perfect gift for someone as we move ever closer to the festive season.  I took a pillar candle 4.5' tall-purple and delightfully scented with blackberry and apple mmmm, and decorated it with a fairy woodland scene all silhouetted against the wonderful purple of the candle.  The wings on one of the fairies I then painted white and added some iridescent glitter for that extra touch of sparkle.
I then used a matching small votive candle, I wrote the words 'Happy Christmas' in silver on the outside of the glass and painted some snowflakes in white around the top of the candle-these I added the glitter to as well.  The wording can be replaced with any a customer would want-even a name can be written on the glass.

To finish off the presentation, I took a sheet of white tissue paper and stamped fairies and stars on it in versafine Imperial Purple ink-this matches so well with the candles and is exactly the right way to display these within the classy black box.  I could even provide a hand made personalised gift tag if required-leaving absolutely no work for you to do!

I have these events coming up and would love it if you could pop by and say hello, and have a look at my work for yourself:

Thursday 21st November- Rhyl Market, High Street 9-5
Saturday 23rd November- One Big CrafTEA Fair
Thursday 28th November- Rhyl Market, High Street 9-5
Thursday 28th November- Let's Get Crafty...Again Prestatyn High School
Saturday 30th November- Rhuddlan Artisan Fair
Sunday 1st December- Botanical Garden Christmas Event
Saturday 14th December- Christmas Craft Weekend Fayre 
This event is in Rhyl Town Hall, there will be an ice rink outside in the town square, as well as Santa's grotto and all kinds of fun stuff.
Sunday 15th December - Christmas Craft Weekend Fayre

Photos of the above described candle gift set:

The big candle:

the small candle:

the tissue paper:

The finished gift set:

Gift set is £10.