Out of Action

Hi, just a quick post to let you all know that I will be out of action for a while having spent the last 3 days in hospital.  I slipped on the ice on Monday morning and now have a shattered right ankle which is held in place with a couple of screws and a plaster cast.  I am non weight bearing for 6 weeks, so laid up on the sofa.  I then have to go back for the learn to walk process, physio etc.


We were supposed to be skiing in 8 weeks time, but that has had to be cancelled as I am unable to fly!!!


I wish you all a merry christmas and all the very best for the new year.


Have fun - Sam xxx

An iron and some wax

I decided to have a play today with some wax and my travel iron been as I've just bought a book called Encaustic Art: How to paint with wax by Michael Bossom.  This technique is called geometric abstract lines, drawing lines using the baseplate of the iron.

This one is monochrome where I was just practising the four basic techniques, but I like how it came out.

Then I got brave and decided to have a go at a bit of a landscape.

Then I decided to introduce a few more colours.

And then I did another one.

Bead and Fabric Bracelets

I've been having a play with making bracelets from fabric and using wire and beads to decorate them.  Here are my first attempts, a bit messy, but then I love the randomness of it.

Day 9, Tag #9

Hmmmm....tag 9, not overly impressed with this one either, but .... I loved Ted's attempt, so decided to go along those lines instead.  And OMG, how much bling.  For those that don't know, I don't do bling, but this tag was just crying out for it.  

12 Days of T!m Tags

Well I have to admit that this year I'm a tad disappointed with the 12 days tags.  I only got inspired on day 7, but don't have any of that stamp set.  Then day 8 came along and 'wow', that got my creative juices following.  So here is my effort and as you can see, I decided not to go along with the Christmas theme.  I really enjoyed making it though.  

Birthday Card

It's my OH's birthday today so I made him this card.  He has an orange sports car, so I thought my new T!m stamp was very fitting!!!!

Just Glue Some Gears On It

I just had to share this with you which Clare found earlier

Beaded Jewellery

Still on the jewellery theme I decided to have a play with some of my beads. Lottie has been making jewellery too, and she has been lucky enough to take some lessons.  She has created some wonderful pieces.

I basically just strung my lovely green beads in with different shades of wooden beads and I was quite pleased with how it came out.  I didn't do anything fancy with it, simply because I don't know how to!!

Steampunk Jewellery

I have just taken delivery of this lush magazine which landed on my doormat this morning.  It's fab and full of techniques and inspirational jewellery ideas.  It's from the massive and fantastic Stampington & Co range, so you have to order it in from the USA.

Anyway, back to the steampunk pieces.  These were inspired by my mate, Nicky, who sells the ones she makes as they are absolutely stunning.  She incorporates lots of different materials in her pendants. If you are interested, visit her blog and click on the email me logo down the right to ask her what she has as each pendant is unique.

I also came across someone else who had played around with the same idea, as she had  entered her make into a Simon Says challenge.  See it here.

So here is what I was playing around with using the TH ornate plates as the base for the pieces.

This one uses all TH pieces

This one is TH, except the cog which is 7Gypsys.

This one is a mix of all sorts.

TH and 7Gypsys pieces.

A mix of all sorts.

This one doesn't use the ornate plate for the base.  The clock pieces are TH and the cog 7Gypsys.  The face is made from clay and coloured with silver acrylic paint.

Felt & Fabrics

I made this using some of the things I bought from Harrogate this year and some that I bought last year.  I used all sorts of fibres and materials including silk rods, scrim, hessian, felt, mulberry bark, throwsters waste and silk cocoons, as well as buttons, sequins, hat pins, beads and mount board. 


I arranged my layout onto the hessian and machine sewed the pieces in place.  The sequins and buttons were hand sewn afterwards and the beads added to the pins.


I wanted to use some bright colours for a change, I think I managed it!!!!

A Few Twinches

The background for these were created with lots of mediums, eco-line inks, gesso and acrylic paint.  Top one is crackled with rock candy, middle left has dimensional pearls around the hair, bottom left has black enamel accents over the body of the bee and the butterfly has glossy accents over the wings.  They are all 2" squares aka a twinchie.

Knit & Stitch Show

I treat myself to a day off and a trip to Harrogate today.  I went to the knit and stitch show where I picked up these goodies above.  There were more paper craft stands there this year.  I have been after that TH car stamp in wood for absolutely ages so I was well impressed.

This is one of the creations on the Stef Francis stand using the silk rods.

So is this one.

These two were stunning in real life and again on the Stef Francis stand where I got most of my fabric stuff from.

A Few Tags

I made these tags in the same way I made the Atcs in the previous post.

But I decided not to punch a hole in the top and add any fibres.

A Few Atc's

I was playing around with my distress inks and stippling them onto the background using shaving foam brushes!!!  Stamped some images, added embellishments and words and on the top left and bottom middle used some dimensional pearls over the hat and around the sun.  Was just having a random play really!!!!

Wooden Shrine

I think I picked up this wooden shrine at the Yours Sincerely show at Lincoln.  I've had it primed for a while but couldn't decide what to do with it.  So yesterday I decided to give it a coat of green patina eco-friendly paint.  I smeared various greens and browns over the front when dry.  I sanded off 4 x 1" pieces of stampbord, edged them in green, stamped them in brown and added them to the outside wings.

Decorated the background using various stamps, splatters, and bottle tops in different paints and inks. Stamped a few of the images onto tissue paper and used watered down pva to glue them on.  The middle image is stamped onto a piece of card and coloured with distress inks.  The word is cut from a Sizzix die.

This is it stood up in the garden in the sun!!!