Dream

Happy mail! I was the lucky recipient of a giveaway held by the lovely Kirstin and it arrived yesterday. It is so beautiful and came with it's own little easel.  Thank you Kirstin! I have it displayed with my collection of other lovely art from super talented artists. Go check out her blog to see just how super artistic she it.
 

 
Enjoy the weekend folks!

Creative Tuesdays - April showers

The latest challenge for Creative Tuesdays is April showers.  In the UK at the moment the weather is unseasonably warm considering that today is the officially the first day of spring. Although I hate to say it, but we could use some April showers next month.

My little friends below are trying to keep each other dry from the showers, with the exception of the show-off duck, typical.

Go check out other April showers from Tuesday onwards over on Mr T's blog.

Handmade accordion tag book

Card and paper has always been a love of mine and now I made a few handmade books, I seem to want to make more. 

The latest is an accordian tag book made with black and white double sided card, which I am so pleased with.  I thought that if I try and sell these I need to make them really special, so I made a gift bag to go with it using handmade paper with flowers pressed in it, (the paper is bought I must add) complete with a gift tag to match the book.

The size of this book is 5.5 x 4.25 inches and can easily expand when photos, tag cards or special items are added.

Creative Tuesdays - Thumbprints

The challenge this time on Creative Tuesdays is a little different, thumbprints.  Yes, using your digits to paint with and I ended using all five!  This was great fun and although we were supposed to create a monster or creature like blobs, I did end up with a caterpillar and some of his friends, but also with loads of flowers. (There are a couple of little friendly monsters lurking in the flowers.)  I think all the flowers are because it is a year since I joined this lovely friendly group and I was in a celebratory mood. 

When I first joined Mr T's group I did not think I would be able to manage each challenge, but have done so.  Thank you Mr T for co-ordinating this group and also for the words you come up with for us to interprete, and all the wonderful people who also take part each fortnight.

Check out Mr T's blog on Tuesday for other thumbprint characters.

Mr T, Ultravox's Dancing with Tears in my eyes started playing on the radio whilst writing this post. Sorry I had to get up and have a dance, mid post! I know you are a fan of Ultravox, my all time favourite is Vienna.

Handmade folded books

I have a lovely stash of gorgeous double sided card, some are embossed and some are glittery.  As it is such a shame to use only one side I thought I would make these folded books, so that both sides of the card are on show.  I found the instructions for the folding from Alisa Bolden's book Expressive Handmade Books.

Both these books are made from 6x6 inch card and the finished closed book is 2.25x4.25 inches. I made full covers for them so that are completely enclosed when tied. One is greens, golds and orange and the other is pinks, blues and purples.

I so enjoyed doing these that a friend of mine is having a candle party soon and has offered to show some that I am going to make specially, to see if  people are interested in buying.

Am not sure if the pictures show but there are little pockets that tags, messages or photos can be slipped into and the whole book can be embellished further.

Not a paint brush or pen line in sight, so this is a new thing for me. If Jennibellie is reading this then I am afraid that there is no threaded spine involved either, so technically I don't know if these are books. It is her cereal box journal that has set me along this path, so I suggest you check out her fabulous videos, I guarantee you will learn so much.

Happy weekend everyone!