some pieces to cheer friends up

a couple of my friends needed some serious cheering up so for one I made this angel bag charm, using a bamboo domino and some beads and charms I had to hand. Hopefully the angel will watch over her.

and for another I made a bookmark and a mobile phone charm.

The Jewellery saga continues

A 99pence bargain on eBay got me 10 charm bracelets recently. I expected them to be real rubbish and was amazed to find each bracelet sported a total of 17 charms and beads of which 3 on each were fabulous merano glass charms. I couldn't have bought one of the large glass charms in the UK for what all 10 bracelets cost me. I promptly spent an evening dismantling the bracelets and using findings I already had started to make some jewellery. Here are the first few pieces and I only used the pieces from 2 of the bracelets to make them so I have lots more to play with. My present box is looking a tad healthier.

Fiddling with beads

I have so many beads just sitting in a drawer and as I can no longer make the fine bead jewellery I used to make I need to find another use for them. So I bought lots of different findings and here is the first thing - a set of wine glass charms with a golfing theme. More things will follow in due course.

A spare pressie

I like to keep some little presents by me so that if we get an unexpected invite I always have something to take. The box was empty so I have started on some new bits. The first is this set of notelets in their own storage folder.

An Altered Book

I've had a little board book sitting on my desk for weeks, just waiting to be 'altered' so I thought I'd do it in the theme of the moment.

Little miss yoghurt chops

Twilight

In case you don't know what I am talking about, it's the series of books by Stephanie Meyer, the first of which has just been released as a film. Perhaps if I tell you I have read 2 of the 4 books and am half way through the 3rd in under a week and went to see the film last week you might get the idea that they are totally addictive. They are beautifully written and although I want to read them all I am going to be sorry to have finished them. The only negative side effect is the housework hasn't been touched and husband is starving - well I can't leave Bella and Edward in mid chapter now can I.

Some serious crafting at last.

I have had a couple of proper crafty sessions and made my entries for the January challenges I am running on the Paper Dolls.

For the White and one colour swaps I made 2 tags, using my latest toy - my cuttlebug - and a few other bits and pieces.

For the Love Tag Swaps I decided to carry on using my new toy and made these 3 tags.

Finally my entry for the Big Challenge, which is to make a wall plaque featuring your favourite quote. My favourite has always been the Serenity Prayer so that had to be the centre piece for my plaque. I decided to have a messy play with my inks and stamps - I am still so new to this side of crafting and haven't a lot of confidence. I started playing with some cream card and Distress Inks in Shabby Shutter, Peeled Paint, Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Weathered Wood and Faded Jeans. It took a while to get something I was reasonably happy with but still wasn't sure if it was all going to come together at the end. Added a couple of spritzes of Gold Tattered Angels Glimmer mist and a little Blonde Moments Sugar Pink Pigment, then decided enough was enough before I got too carried away. I stamped various flourishes onto the background using Versamark pad and emossed them using Bronze, Gold and Silver embossing powders - that got a bit tricky trying to mix the colours without actually running into each other. I then added the quote and nearly 100 crystals in pale green, lavender and pale blue. A lavender ribbon hanger and a quick run round the edge with my silver marker and it was done. It looks a lot better in real life, my photography still sucks.

Finally I had to make two pages for the Alphabet Technique Fat Book - it's K & L this month. So I decided on K for knitting and L for Light Box Embossing.