I lose my iPhone, bank card, way home and possibly marbles. And join a Beer Mat Swap.

Zuzu and I tried to jazz up my blog, but we couldn't get the links to work. So it's still just plain boring!

We had a good day together at my house on Wednesday, but I got in something of a tizz, lost my bank card, which I found again 5 minutes after reporting it lost to my bank, took the wrong turning on the road to my house (too busy talking to drive accurately) mislaid my iPhone, and generally had a dippy  brainless kind of day.   But it was fun all the same.

Zuzu organises challenges on her blog, and this month she has an altered beer mat swap going on, so I joined in for the first time.  I handed in my 5 efforts today, and can't wait to see what comes to me.

Here are mine, which are themed on the poetry of Masefield and Wordsworth, the writings of HG Wells, the Romance of Paris and the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

The first one is based on two poems by John Masefield 'Sea Fever' and 'Cargoes'

This one is based on Wordsworth's 'Upon Westminster Bridge'.  I learned this poem off by heart at the age of 10, for a school concert, and it has stuck with me ever since (47years!).  I do like the imagery in that poem. I also attached a daffodil to this mat, for obvious reasons.

This one is Wells' 'The Time Machine' and 'The Invisible Man'. I used some plastic molding film to make the invisible man, a bit hard to see in the photo.

Romantic Paris.  No particular reason for this other than I like these embossing folders!  In fact Paris is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare for my son's partner Jill who is on a two week educational placement there at the moment.  A group of students from Edinburgh College went over to Paris last Saturday, and all but Jill and one other girl came home after just a couple of days, due to the hassle they were getting from pickpockets and attempted muggings.  Jill is determined to stick it out though, and the college have moved them to another hotel in a better area.  I hope all goes well for her.

Alfred Hitchcock films 'North by North a West' and 'The Birds'.  There's also a bit of 'Torn Curtain' in the dangly, but that might be a bit too subtle for most.

So, that's my swap.  These mats are quite addictive though.  I did another couple just for me.

A Graphic 45 ABC Primer Album

Today, Zuzu is helping me make my blog more interesting.  Here is a  video I posted on YouTube a couple of years ago.  Must get around to making another sometime soon....

May Day May Tag

It's the holiday weekend, and of course it is raining.  We were intendingto go to Dobbies for bedding plants and stuff for the hanging baskets, but the rain gave me an excuse to stay indoors and play about in my craft room.  I recently ordered some new dies and embossing folders from the fantastic Sizzix sale, which arrived on Friday, so I was dead keen to get in there and start messing with them.  Spent a while unwrapping and examining them all, as you do, and it was only when I started to do my May tag that I realised that one of the items I ordered is missing, so I will have to ring Sizzix and get that sorted.  I ordered the movers and shapers old jalopy and arrow, but it was not there and it would have been great on this tag - I was going to use the jalopy in place of the butterfly that Tim put on his, but never mind.

Tim's tag did not have a theme, but he made it with the advice to crafters to stop hoarding all our ideology charms and stuff, and actually get it out and use them in our projects.  LOL, that's me. Got a drawer full.

 Tim's May tag showcased ideology bits and pieces, so I had lots of those to choose from.  Anyway, I'd decided to make mine on a travel theme, old jalopy or no, so here it is:

I did not have the Shadowpress embossing folders that Tim used, but found that one of the Texture Fades embossing folders from a set called 'Travel Signs' ( one of the folders I had just received) had some partly debossed words in it, so I used the word TRAVEL from the embossing folder.  Using his ink technique, where you ink the actual folder before inserting the. paper and putting it through the embossing machine was a bit scary, but it worked a treat and the leftover ink did come off the plastic with a bit of buffing with a baby wipe, so that was alright.  The little train is made of wood and is from a set I got in Hobbycraft.  I inked it with felt pens and embossed it with several coats of embossing powder, including a dip into silver embossing powder at the end, to metallise the wheels.

The white bird in the frame at the top is cut for another texture fade embossing folder (called Patchwork) which i embossed on white card and Then gave 3 layers of clear embossing powder to turn it into a 'charm'.  The chipboard frame it is in was one I had In a drawer, out of the packet so no idea who makes it it was originally cream with blue glitter, but I gave it several coats of silver embossing and then pressed a paisley patterned rubber stamp into it before it cooled down.

All the other items are Tim Holtz, including the background papers which are a mixture of his Retro Grunge and Seasonal stashes.  

The only thing I would change would be to use thicker chipboard behing each item.  Mine is quite thin and it looks too much like I've just stuck bits of paper behind each piece. Tsk.

My other project today was another altered metal biscuit tin.  I got this one from a charity shop a couple of weeks ago, and after I took the sticky labels off I stuck some embossed metal tape on it, added a Tim Holtz drawer pull and a dymo label.  I then swiped it with DecoArts Traditions raw umber acrylic paint, rubbed some of that off before it was totally dry, then dabbed it with Ranger alcohol inks in Rust, Espresso, Bottle and Pool..  This is another box for husband who after having walked the dog, cooked the dinner, brought me sustenance and coffee throughout the day today, is now vacuuming the floors to make me feel guilty for having closeted myself away in my craft room.  Not working though, I'm still here, and I'm not moving.

I've been doing a lot with this metal tape recently.  Gone a little metal mental tbh.  Here are some more charity shop finds that I have 'improved'.  Or so I like to think!  

Cheery.