Sleepy Mice

I wanted to make something for a friends birthday and when in conversation, she mentioned mice. So I decided to have a go following Sarafina's sleepy mice tutorial which I followed apart from the eyes as I wanted open not closed eyes, but I'm really pleased with how these came out. I used the NZ carded batts from The Felt Box which felted up really well. 

Sat up on the needle felted cushion.

I filled a shallow plastic dish with shredded tissue paper and placed the mice inside. I like the patterned fabric that I'd put them on, so I decided to cover the plastic dish with the fabric.

Once covered, I filled the dish with the shredded paper and added the mice.

I wrapped them with celephane and finished them off with a ribbon. Fingers crossed she likes it.

Birthday Thanks

I had a few things to open this morning, these are my cards.

These are presents from Chris which she gave me at Port Sunny.

And she also gave me these from Linda too.

Fabulous cards from Alison, Neet, Chris Slater, Helen, Emma, Tracey, Chris Cresswell and Lesley. Thank you, they are fabulous and all so different.

And these are what was inside Chris's packages, the piggy money bank has skulls on it, looks pretty cool - thanks Chris, much appreciated.

And this is what was inside the packages from Linda R, love the pens and the yarns and fibres will be great to powertex, thanks Lin 

Two Seth stencils and a peg from Lin Shields which she got and gave to me at Port Sunny - thanks Lin, can't wait to use them stencils.

And this set of fab Seth stamps are from Lesley, again, can't wait to get stuck in and have a play - thanks Lesley, very kind and much appreciated.

The die and fab set of stamps and circle die, again designed by Seth, are from Emma. We were looking for them at Port Sunny, but unfortunately Leandra's order hadn't arrived, but we managed to find them elsewhere - thanks Em, can't wait.

This was also from Chris and Linda, Chris got it whilst at Port Sunny as she saw me buying the innies, this is the outies stencil, again designed by Seth - thanks Chris and Linda.

And finally I treated myself with some of the money I knew I'd be getting. Mum and sister obviously don't know what to buy in craft land, so I always end up getting something for myself.

So no need to ask what I'll be doing later after I've been out for lunch. As you can see, I've got lots of new Seth goodies to play with and as they all interlink with each other I really can't wait to have a play.

Thanks to everyone for the lovely cards and presents I've received and all the birthday messages on FB and twitter. They are very much appreciated and I have some lovely friends out there xxx

***Edited***

More lovely cards from Becky, Lin S, Hazel A and Linda Jones arrived this afternoon - thanks ladies, they are fabulous x

***Edited 22/10/16***

Another fabulous couple of cards arrived today from Linda R and Hazel H - thank you, love them both x The day of the dead car air freshener is from Lin too - thanks xx

More Birthday Gifts

When I arrived home I'd got a birthday card from Hazel H and Julie Ann and the bottom on is from Lin, she brought it with her.

And more presents, these are from Lin. This book is fabulous, and she got the charms at the Art Store in Glasgow on the Friday and we went back on Saturday as I'd missed out and she got me the sepia outliner pens and the graphite pencil which I've been after for a while - thanks Lin.

And Helen had brought the chipboard pieces with her and at the show bought me the bronze powertex and the ceramic face to use with it - thanks Helen.

And this is what I bought with my birthday money, beads, bead caps, charms and waxed thread.

Rice paper, pallet knives, mini bottles, fibres and powertex ceramic skulls and gates.

Wooden mini cotton reels, mini cogs, leaves and a mini box, metal buttons, sticky tape on a dispenser, ribbon on a roll, a fab wooden face stamp and a piece of leather off cut.

And finally got smitten with the powertex and the 3d flex which there is a story too, to find out what it was, pop over to Helens blog.

I also have the industrial set of Andy Skinner chipboard on order and I need to go to our local haberdashery shop to pick up some 'stuff' to use with the powertex and then I'll of spent up!!

Thank You

Just in case you didn't know, today is my birthday. Here are all the lovely gifts and cards I have to open.

Fraz was obviously going to help me out with this.

And then the next one.

And he's still going for it.

This is the mess he made!!

And these are all the lovely gifts I received from Lin R, Chris and Emma - thanks guys, they are fabulous.

And this is the bag all my goodies from Lin and Chris came in on Sunday when I met them at Donny Dome. It's going to Glasgow with me at the weekend as I'm hoping to fill it.

These are the handmade gifts I received from Emma and Chris.

This book from Chris is just stunning, there is so much texture on it and this photo just doesn't do it justice and of course the weather isn't helping, it's dark and peeing it down. Thanks Chris, I love it.

And my cards are from Lesley, Kirsten, Alison, Chris S and Hazel.

And Emma, Neet, Helen and Lin R.

And it all got too exciting for Fraz so he's retreated to the settee for a kip.

A huge thank you to everyone who has sent birthday wishes via twitter, FB, sent cards and pressies - thank you xxxx

I also received money from my family so I am looking forward to spending it at the craft show in Glasgow at the weekend where I am meeting up with Emma, Lin S and Helen.

Donny Dome Show

Look who I caught up with today after a do or die situation to get there!! It's a long story but I went by train which was actually a bus, Linda & Chris very kindly called in at the train station to pick me up and Lesley very kindly brought me home again. So from L-R we have Jo, Hazel, Lesley, Linda, Chris and Jules.

And Leandra demo-ing on the PA stand and Hugo getting some tips.

Had a lovely day guys and was great to catch up. Thanks to Hazel and Lesley for my cards and to Lin and Chris for the lovely goodie bag. 

Oh and just in case you were wondering, I didn't buy anything as I am going up to Glasgow at the weekend for the SECC show.

Birthday Thanks and a Lovely Surprise

Just so you know, this post is very picture heavy, very!! Firstly I had help unwrapping my presents and opening my cards this morning.

And then he really got stuck in!!

First batch of cards from my lovely friends Hazel, Lesley, Lin, Hazel H and Emma.

And the next batch are from some more lovely friends, Helen, Chrissie, Burn, Debs, Chris and Lin.

And the next fabulous batch are from my lovely friends, Kirsten, Alison, Chris and Linda.

And finally this lovely lot arrived today, Neet sent me the green Stampotique card, and Jo the one underneath with the LP image and the lovely Julie Ann made me a gorgeous charm gift and look at the tissue she wrapped it in (right) and the fabulous envie.

And this is a gorgeous hanging from Linda which she gave to me on Sunday at the Donny show, it's fabulous, front and back.

This is a close up of the fabulous charm from Julie Ann, look at those shrink plastic pieces, gorgeous.

And on Sunday at the show, the lovely Lin and Chris presented me with this fab envie top right and inside was this PA voucher, they asked me to spend it at the show, so I got the set of EV stamps left, thank you so much for this lovely present.

I also treated myself to this set of stamps by Ryn Designs with some birthday money.

And then these two plates were from my fabulous mate, Emma. They are a Choc Baroque steampunk set which I had my eyes on at Port Sunny.

And the lovely Lin and Helen also sent me email vouchers which arrived in my in-box this morning, but I've not had time to look for anything today as I had another fabulous surprise.

Emma came over to see me, so I grabbed a quickie pickie once Fraz had calmed down after saying his hellos, and she was finally able to sit and have a drink.

But my intention for today was just to craft and nothing else, primarily playing with the brushos. Emma was up for this as well and here are a couple of things she made. The red reminded us of poppies.

And we did quite well for not making too much mess, well to start with anyway!!!

Then Emma moved on to play with lots of other things, Pan Pastels, Silks, Primary Elements whilst I managed to throw the contents of a box all over the place!!!

This is brushos on a small canvas using a pipette and the TH distress marker spritzer. I dried each colour before adding the next.

And then after cutting out all the 3 plates of stamps above and Emma stamping each one to make sure I'd cut enough rubber off, I added a couple of images to the canvas.

Then I tried a stencil technique that I saw Tracey from Oyster stamps demo at the show on Sunday.

This is the stencil which Emma brought with her, but left at my house!!  It's another Ryn one.

I just loved how this one came out, it's just one colour of blue brusho and then spritzed.

And a tag with a pipette and the TH spritzer tool to blow it around. Then stamped a couple of the Choc Baroque steampunk images and coloured them in with brushos and a water brush.

This is another technique observed on Sunday by Tracey. You may recognise the background image as one of the EV stamps, yes I used brushos to stamp with, then stamped the LP image in black and bleached it out to remove all the colour from it. You wouldn't believe what a difference the bleach made!!

And for my last tag I simply stamped one of the Ryn sets of raindrops, very effective indeed.

This is Emmas bleached out brusho one using one of the new Choc B steampunk set.

And brushos using the TH spritzer tool to get some air to move the brusho about with Lavinia stamps.

And she was testing out more of the Choc B Steampunk images.

The red poppies again.

This tag background was done with silks and primary elements. Looks really good IRL.

And the brushos through the stencil.

I have no idea why, but it won't let me turn this and show it the right way up!!!

Again I have no idea why it's turned around, but nothing I can do. This is Emmas pan pastel make.

And if you've managed to stay with me this long, thank you and well done and a huge thank you to all who have sent birthday wishes via Twitter, FaceBook, by email and by post. I've had a truly lovely day made special by all of you.

***Edited***

This is what I bought with my vouchers from Lin and Helen and a bit of birthday money.