A (well earned?) Rest!

There have been a lot of peops who have sent me messages over the last few weeks wondering why I haven't been about as much recently and asking if all was OK... all is fine here at Chez Viv's, but it's real nice to know that

1. People miss you

and

2. People care enough to ask

Am just posting to tell those of you who follow my blog that I am off for a holiday so will look forward to catching up on all your creations and musings on my return and of course making a mess in my craft room during the winter nights and getting back to taking part in the challenges!

In the meantime, here's a pic of what I am intending on doing for the next 10 days!

See you all soon. x

A First in Fabric

As well as messing with metal during Maureen's visit, she also cast a watchful eye over me whilst I transferred some images onto fabric. What is a relatively easy process was difficult for me because the ink in my HP printer is obviously not designed to allow you to take a printed image and transfer it onto cloth! I managed it eventually - but had to use some of the pics Maureen had printed off at home.

With that mission accomplished I was then taken to task about my lack of use of the new sewing machine that was a present about 5 years ago! After a couple of hours deciphering the instruction leaflet and a trial run,I promised Maureen faithfully that I would use it (and also use the beautiful sewing case she had made for me - complete with already threaded needles!!LOL).

I had been completely overwhelmed by the beautiful fabric collages Maureen had done and we spent rather a long time trawling through other people's blogs looking at their work too! I was instructed to just 'treat fabric like paper' when making collages, which was sound advice from my learned mentor!!

After Maureen went home I was determined to give a fabric collage a try..... unfortunately a large card order coupled with my bad neck giving me lots of aggravation in the last week meant it was a slow process.

BUT ............... here is the result! OK it's not perfect and I am not completely satisfied ...... but it's a start!

Metal Experimentation!

Maureen has been visiting! I have had a great few days culminating in a slap up meal last night and lots of laughs at the dinner table!

My purse however is somewhat lighter due to the craft stash that I was FORCED to buy when we paid a visit to a craft shop in Lancashire - I will not advertise it here but for those card makers amongst you, if I told you the 'ladies room' was decorated in pink complete with black chandelier and gem encrusted toilet brush you might be able to guess where we were!

Anyway back to the visit. I have never tried to do anything with metal before but the bold Maureen (who I think has tried EVERYTHING - lol) arrives for the designated 'crafting day' complete with metal tools and metal sheets in varying lovely shades, after me mentioning in passing that I quite faniced having a go but didn't know where to start. (She arrived with tons of other stuff too but more of that later).

So with the men packed off to the bowling green we proceeded to make a mess in the craft room (which I had tidied up especially!).

This wall hanging was inspired by a book called 'Images on Metal' and is the result of my endeavours - image stamped onto aluminium sheet and then edged with a 'dot' tool, the blue background paper is from my stash with a few more stamped flourishes added and stuck onto mountboard. OH had found 3 rolls of plasterer's joint tape during a shed clear out and I painted some of it with silver metallic paint, pegged it out to dry then used it down the left side adding a blue skeleton leaf, some seed beads, a couple of mosaic tiles and a silver filigree piece and metal word.

I really like this and am determined to do some more experimenting with metal, particularly as I was the fortunate winner of a recent give away in Craft Stamper magazine - 7 Paper Artsy Geometric Stamp Plates especially for using on metal - which arrived as a great surprise 2 days before Maureen did!!

I will post more details of Maureens visit over the next few days..... am off for a lie down to recover!! LOL

Mixed Media Monday has the theme of Metal this week so I have entered this into the challenge!

Canvas

I had this small canvas that measured just under 3ins square and have been wondering what to do with it!

Yesterday I covered it with some script paper and some music score paper which was torn from a napkin sent to me by Maureen. I stuck it on the canvas then used Mod Podge over it and left it to dry.

This morning (cos it was raining!! - a good crafters excuse to sit and make messy I find!!), I stamped the Eiffel Tower and the 'Paris' word and distressed the word using Antique Linen Distress Ink, then glued them onto the background.

The image of the lady is from a collage sheet I bought some time ago and I cut it out to fit inside the black iron look frame which I placed a paper filigree cut out behind.

I then used a clear glaze over the tower and the lady picture which has given them a nice muted glossy finish and highlights them quite well - although this hasn't shown up very well in the photo!

The metal corner, lace, ribbon, pearl drops and pearl button were added to finish.

England and the Orient!

Well what a mad week this has been - I feel like I've met myself coming back on several occasions!

This week has seen the culmination of almost 6 months preparation for a visit by no less than the England President! She brought a representative team of 24 players from Bowls England (which included yours truly!!) and we played against my home County at my Club. Pre match buffet, game, then a four course meal (prepared and cooked by my amazing other half) - this was a wonderful day despite the rain trying to unsuccesfully dampen our spirits. Visits by England Presidents are very rare, particularly in a County as small in (Club) numbers as we are. There are a few pictures of the day on my Flickr account. I have played on several occasions this season for Diane's Bowls England representative team and we've had great days - the one though at my home Club was very special!

So..... after all the excitement (and the washing up!) I struggled to do very much yesterday as I was still recovering! Today though my copy of Craft Stamper arrived complete with free stamp so I made an 'all occasion' Oriental card. I coloured the image with watercolours and stamped some chinese writing onto the ribbon. The flower is one I bought last year at the NEC!