August Bank Holiday

On holiday during a very brief interlude when the rain stopped I managed to take a few snaps..... just outside the caravan....it was a short interlude...!! Another day on a visit to an antiques place....note the rain....I snapped these wonderful penny farthing  bike racks....I thought I had snapped a fantastic seat as well .....but its not on the camera......I know where it was I just can"t spell it !! OK looked it up...Alfreton.... And lastly...did I mention it had been raining? a number of roads were flooded on the way back.....Weird isn't it how you think you have the subject in the viewfinder....only find later you have half a picture of the subject and half of the dashboard in front of you.........Went to a wonderful cheap price bookshop near Buxton...spent £27 on 7 books....fantastic !

Boozy Bird Table

The bird table had a thatched roof originally but the birds made use of the thatch for their nests ! Thanks to Tim the base has been repaired and thanks to a neighbour who contributed the larger cans, the roof has been tiled ! I cut them on the Cuttlebug machine using two sizes of a tag die and then embossing them. The birds are happily using it...

New grandson......Finlay.....7Ib 3oz about 2.30am....in an incubator for a few day to monitor breathing.....Looks gorgeous.....daughter and her husbands first and at the moment .....LAST....lol.....how many of us said that ? Well done both of you, he looks so beautiful..

Cheating at ATCs

A friend recently had an opening for his exhibition and wanted people to bring along an ATC to swop on the night.....or make one when there.  I had unearthed earlier in the week  the sheet of ripped glossy magazine strips, which had been glued down, rubbed with car polish stuff to take the colour out, randomly scraped over with paints.....and abandoned until I knew what to do with it. Using a "window" off an envelope I looked for interesting compositions within the page. Cut out some ATC size...to bulk out my offering on the night. Thinking I might enlarge some to see what the look like.........Hmm

£1 bargain

A local charity shop is the "end of the line" for donated goods. They have tried to sell them for a higher price in various locations and eventually end up in my local shop. Everything is 25p 50p or £1. Adult clothing is £1. This dress had padded power sleeves, with ruffled net to make the sleeve stand out, and was crusted with beads and sequins. One evening of watching television with a stitch ripper soon filled these used 8" soft drinks bottles. I didn't bother to unpick the sequins but I kept the shoulder pads to make wrist pin cushions and I also kept the red net. Bargain!!

Flying folded book Angels and witches and others

Basic instructions for folded books was in November 2011 post. The wings can be inserted like above, can fly too. 

Or using the book pages by folding up from the bottom and the other has them folded down from the 

The folded book angels I put up last November are still getting a lot of views so I put some more up. If you think about it.....ditch the wings and spray them black add a pointy hat, a cape and a broomstick........

I wondered if these would be of interest too. Back in 2000 I started to be involved with the angel parades in Hull which were around Christmastime. It was a means of uniting communities on a run down Housing Estate and was the brainchild of a lady called Mary. I was engaged to run angel workshops on a shoestring.....and these were the first angels we made. They would have been almost an A4 size due the size of card that the local Scrap Store had....but any rectangle and even a square works. (if you think about it a circle works too) We found the centre of the short side of the card and drew a line from there to the outside edge forming the wings. The first angel was originally created to use up the huge quantity of baguette bags Scrap Store had in and were not moving fast enough ! The top of the bag was slid over the top of bottom of the bag so that the inner bit was still a bag and the outer bit made a skirt. This was the prototype and the actual ones they made were stuffed with tinsel for a bit of bling which would sparkle under the street lights. The children dangled, flew, and danced the angels along on a piece of wool. Later we would put chopped up tinsel, gold and iridescent shapes in so the could shake them to keep the little ones amused. By rearranging the shapes you can make the angel fly! They got covered in glitter...tissue...printing blocks...paint...cloth...and a lovely one using old net curtain and foils.. The boys made robot angels!!!!!
Three areas of Hull still do the angel parade.
These simple shapes continued to be developed into a Nativity with wise men and shepherds...using old Christmas cards...... folded standing figures..... cloth tree ornaments....rag dolls.....embossed aluminium cola cans....each year the basic figure got reinvented with different materials to decorate it with.
we made costumes, streamers on poles, bottle angels, lit up angels, angel hats.....and loads more.

switch to black card for witches.....................

upcycle old magazine rack

Perfect for my garden..... sturdy old  magazine rack......I turned the strong plastic empty potting compost bag inside out so the print was on the inside......filled with soil and plants....... and the rain did the rest....