Russian Doll Key Ring

Hello bloggers/crafters. I was in hobby craft yesterday and bought this adorable magazine Mollie Makes.  On the cover was a freebie to make a little Russian doll key ring, everything required was included all you needed was a needle and a wee bit of stuffing. And within the hour I had this new little friend isn't she adorable?

I adore the mice on the cover and they have templates inside of these too, loving the clothes for  them lol so watch this space I think these to will be on the things to do list he he. Love Dawn xx

Tag Tuesday 'Bird'

I love to make a tag and so I thought I would join in with Valerie over at Tag Tuesday

Here's a CU I hope you can join in too. Love Dawn xx

Pendant's To Wear?

Morning, I do hope you had a lovely week end The weather was really Spring like I actually got some washing out on the line ;0) all the birds are easily heard now too. All this brings me to my old muse, Paris again lol For the images I have gone to the Graphics Fairy She has so many wonderful images and always FREE I have a link in the side bar as well if you don't know her already (which I doubt).

I would like to use these in Brag Monday too. These were relatively easy to make and I do like them. My one son who is still at home said they were massive, far too big to be necklaces lol I don't think so. I am looking for a really long chain so I can pop them on. What do you think, to BIG? Love Dawn xx

Altered pocket watch

I have had these Pocket watches for some time and I finally decided to use the last two I had left. These Art Parts (I think they're called) are jolly good fun to play with ;0) There is an old necklace and bracelet taken apart to add interest and I am really pleased with the way the colours all turned out.

Here's a lovely close up ;0) Of course You know I have a love for TH but not just him. I have found some lovely bits n bobs around. Shame though,  the shop that I used to use (The Altered Element) is no more. Where do you find all these lovely things like fountain pen nibs and brass keys bottle tops etc Do let me know if you have a supplier of the unusual ;0)

I couldn't get 'The cat in the Hat out of my head after making the tag the other day, so I had to have a play lol and this is what I came up with ;0)

I am going to stick findings to these to make broaches, although I have a feeling my son Shawn (now at Uni in London) with have this one and pop a chain on it. He's just daft enough to wear it lol. I would like to join in with Simon Says Stamp & Show they want you to play with Ideology and of course stamp My top Pocket watch qualify's beautifully, you also have time to join in if you wish. The DT have given some wonderful inspiration. And not to forget Studio3 the lovely Linda who encourages us to have some wearble art this week please pop along to Tim and check out new ideas as well. Hope you have a wonderful day. Love Dawn xx

Tag for flight

Hello crafty land of blogs ;0) Life is some times all consuming and this my friends is what is happening to my self. So I am not around to post every day but I do get around to visiting some of my many favorite blogs (although not as many as I would like) So I will try to post something at least once a month to co inside with my Monthly Journal challenge hopefully more. I only took the one photo this time and the colour pallet kept reminding me of some thing but I couldn't think what until I finished. Can you think of what it is?   The Cat in the Hat And still as popular as ever. Love Dawn xx

Altered Coasters

Hi everyone. I hope you're well. The snow has gone here in NW of the UK and the temperature is lowering as we speak. So cold, so wrap up and stay warm. I have been playing with some old coasters, I really liked these when I bought them (years ago) however, I have been looking for some new one's and I thought why not have a go at altering them and if I don't like them what's to loose? I gessoed them all and then got one of my little observer books with plants in and cut a couple of coloured plants out that I liked, stamped all the gessoed back grounds with some script then glued the flowers to two of the coasters, edged the coasters with ink and then transferred the other images on to all the other coasters. I think I like the lady ones the best, but I keep changing my mind lol. Any way these are they after I had a play around.

And these are they before! I haven't done the dinner plate mat's as yet. Not thought much about how I am going to cover them but they are all gessoed up and ready to go. do you have any suggestions? Love Dawn xx

Bookmarks for special ladies.

Hello all. It's dark and wet here in the NW of the UK today. However I would like to say hi guys, not been here in a while, but I do have something to share this time. ;0) These took ages, but I have a new calling in the church I belong to. I won't go into details. However, it's up to me so see that all the women in the church get visited every month. So as I am new, I made every sister in a partnership to do what we call 'Visiting Teaching' one of these book marks as a gift and hopefully as a wee reminder to them as well. ;0)

The vintage women are all from various sources, I thought they would be a lovely reminder of the women in our care. You know I love vintage and shabby and I thought I would try to combine the two styles here. We call our visits 'Visiting Teaching' hence the single letters that spell this out. I ended up making about 34 as there are 17 partnerships that go to visit all the women of our church. I hope you like these. Love Dawn xx

I'm Not Dead!

Hi just thought I would let you know I am still alive and kicking. There are things I have had to drop because of a few issues with family illness Uni etc unfortunately my art is what has suffered. However, I have been doing a little art and I will get to posting it very soon. I have missed you lots. I'm sure the feeling is mutual, I have been leaving the odd comment but as life for me gets busier, like you I do have to prioritize and with me family always comes first (as it should) I am sure you agree. look forward to sharing my new pieces with you and seeing all your beautiful work as well. I have found a fab giveaway on one of my friends blogs it's her first so I do hope you will stop by and see Darlene. (the link is on the left).

Love Dawn xx

Canvass Angel

It's time again for the party that is  Paint Party Friday (PPF) I love this challenge, as long as there's paint you can enter. And it and the people that join in are so inspirational and just make you want to pick up those brushes and get excited about paint ;0) And here is my piece, a canvass 9 x 12 this was so much fun to create.

This painting glows and is so ethereal, I really got on the canvas what I wanted the painting to express, and this is a wonderful new concept for me when it comes to canvass lol If you can't actually join in I really suggest yhou have a look at the entrants there is some amazing work out there. Love Dawn xx

The start of Christmas

Hi, do you have family far away that you don't often get to see? Well I do, as I am sure many of you do to. I was thinking about this and came up with this tag. I thought it would be nice to add to a gift, there are some Christmas colours in there but it doesn't much look like a Christmas tag so to speak. I just loved this image and wanted to use it so much lol. I have cut an extra band of her hat and added it to give a little lift. I love the short hand, the green is two colours of colour wash I love spraying these about they make fab backgrounds.

The paper used for the text is actually old magazine crushed up and then gessoed, to mute the colours, so it's not just plain paper and there are shades of green etc to blend with the tag.

I was messing around with some distress inks just swiping them on some tags and thought I would make a few quick tags for gifts as well. But they also fit in to a challenge Less Is More as they are thinking about stars this week. The star was a great free stamp form a magazine I have on subscription. Thank you for stopping by as always I love to see & hear from you. Oh can I just mention that I have a new challenge for the month of November over on Journal Journey's I do a challenge on the 1st of each month but there are also lots of other journaling goodies to share I hope you can stop by Love Dawn xx

Tags shabby chic style

Morning every one, I hope your week is going well. I am currently in a tag mood so I thought I would make some tags today. As you can see there are two tags and I have used the same image. Look how different the tags are even though I have used similar colour pallets and similar items. I love the shabby chic look and although it's Autumn I have used Tim's distress inks so the pinks are rather subdued. I really love making the backgrounds,  I inked them all over then splashed with water and dried to achieve the effect. I also used Tim's technique with the Perfect Pearls on one tag by stamping swirls adding the PP and then drying. As I covered most of the swirls I also used the Technique with the stamp at the bottom You can get more information about this challenge on Linda's Blog So I am entering the tag on the right for the challenge.

Here you can see better in the close ups of the tags. The image (lady) looks rather sad, I think her Fiance was unable to make it to the church on time, why? I will let you decide ;0) Thank you again for stopping by. If you're in to journaling at all why not stop by my other blog Journal Journey's I run a challenge each month you still have time to get your entry in, I hope to see you there. Love Dawn xx 

Grungy Monday #24

Hello again. I thought I would make a tag for the challenge this week. This week with Linda & Tim we're going to use some ink, Perfect Pearls & water to perform a really useful technique! Click on Tim's name to be take to a video to show how this can be achieved. This week there is a prize signed by the lovely Tim himself, so even more reason to join in.

Here is a close up of my tag. As you can see I have used the mica powder twice, I wanted to give this tag a really nice Autumn feeling with the colours I have used. I also love texture in my work the perfect pearls gives me this as well as the music paper and the lace. Thank you to those who vist & comment it's lovely to know some one is stopping by.  Can I also remind you that you have until Monday to get your journal pages in over at my other blog Journal Journey's Love Dawn xx

Grungy Monday #23

I am not really a card maker, so I near ducked out of this weeks challenge over at Linda's at grunge Monday #23 We have been asked this week to make a tim card in 10 min. Mmm this was a challenge but one I took on and I am happy to say I enjoyed it lol. Having just made some new storage for my Alcohol inks Previous Post that gave me a starting place so I gathered all my bit's 'n' bob's together and looked at the clock.

I thought I would make a Christmas card as it's nearly November! Picked some cool colours for the Winter feel, and got some Timmy stamps out and some permanent ink as well as some glossy card. It was really simple to make and it only took 7min, so I was really pleased but it is really a very simple card.

I also wanted you to see that the metallic AI really does show up wonderfully, the light is always too dark to take photos even in the day now, but that's the weather for you lol. I hope you like the card, do pop along and see all the other makes, I will be. Love Dawn xx

Storage for alcohol inks ;0)

Hello, I hope to find you well (if not dry) the wet weather here is so bad, so if you don't really have to go out stay in and craft as well as keeping nice & warm ;0) This is a lovely size box and I have been looking for some more storage so I spent the evening last night playing with foil, alcohol inks and paper amongst other things and this is what I turned this little box into.

Some sticky foil and some alcohol inks made the bottom part of the box, then I put some of my Alcohol Inks (AI) all over the side. I really love playing with AI on all sorts of materials like glossy card stock, card board, frames and it's super fun to use on metal of all types. I keep my earth tones and metallic's in this one.  This will make for much easier use when I want to play. All I need to do now is just take this or the other box out of the cupboard. Love it.

And for this part of the box I used scraps of paper. I cut it narrow so the black box would be the boarder and then added a few images here and there (not all are shown) But I love the finished box. I have my lights and brights in this one, I have to say I love the Watermelon colour I think I use this the most, do you have a fave AI colour? let me know. And if you like this post as well as any other of my posts you can now click the +1 at the bottom of each post. Love Dawn xx

Still Struggling

Thank you so much for your encouragement yesterday, It really helped get me back on track. I decided to do  a couple of challenges to have some focus. This card is for Less Is More (LIM) Who would like a one layer card with hearts, I find one layer cards very difficult but through having a good look at the amazing people who played along I thought I would have a go and I am quite pleased with the result (for once lol).

This tag is for two challenges, Less Is More and Gingersnap Creations they are doing a colour challenge of blue, purple & turquoise, I love these colours I kept with the heart & one layer theme to fit in with LIM.

And I thought, hey while your on a role and the ink is out why not do another Tag, I do love this heart stamp lots so I had to use it. I didn't quite like the white back ground so I used another new stamp form Hero Arts (this is going to get so much use) Gave it a very like grey ink colour and then it stayed in the background and I have to say I really like this one so I feel the passion and mojo returning, we're not quite there but it's on its way. A big thank you again to the lovely ladies who commented yesterday thank you. And thank you to all of you who visit day after day. Love Dawn xx

My First Christmas cards

Hi me again, how is your day going? it's still wet here in the NW of the UK So plenty of reason to be crafting. I am however finding it hard at the moment. I just keep making things hoping desperately that something will come to mind. It's not just the mojo, it's my passion for crafting it's self that seems to have left me. I am so sad about my feeling towards crafting at this moment. I hope it lifts soon. So I thought I would try some new stamps, I have bought some of Tim's new Christmas ones they are fab. I really like them but I just can't think how to use them (mind is so not working here). My theory is when lack of mojo hits, is just to make anything and keep going until you start getting some where.

As you can see, both are very similar, I think they will pass to give someone (just) but I can't help but thinking I am still way out from where I would like to be. There is something missing from both the cards, maybe a sentiment of the angel one, but what about the top one? What can I add to make them better cards? any suggestions? Maybe it's because I haven't made any cards for ages but I think I'm kidding my self by saying that.

These were my first attempts and these will not be going anywhere but the bin! (although I may cut the hearts out for journal pages). These are just total disasters, I was trying to create one layer cards, but these just don't look right to me at all. So I think this has been a brave thing for me to do, show my worst makes of the day! lol Although they won't be a complete waste of time, as I will salvage something from these two mistakes (card and hearts) So how is your crafting day going? Love Dawn xx

Tag Swap

Hello again, You may think these tags look familiar, well they are ha ha. I made these for a swap called Autumnal fruits on Heather's blog. I just wanted to remind you what I sent ;0) and if you want any more details about them just click Here. But what I would really like to do is to show you what I received in return ;0)

The Lovely Sonia made this, isn't it lovely? I love all the doodling round the edge and this young girls expression is wonderful. Unfortunately there was no blog details so I can't send you over there. Sonia if you stop by leave me a link to your blog I would love to see what other things you have been making and I can also add your link here so others can pop by to.

Isn't this lovely? Love the texture for the flowers they are a sticker of some sort (peel off maybe?) what ever they work. The lovely Joanne made this I am always stopping by her blog not only is she a fab crafter but we both adore our cats lol.

And this is from the lovely Sue. Again a beautiful tag, love this bird so tweet! again, Sue if you do stop by please let me have your blog so I can put a link in and pop round to see you.

This was a love Swap thank you again to Heather and all those who joined in Love Dawn xx