When snowflakes turn out to be....

.... stars!!!! How can that be? While doing my grocery shopping online befor Christmas I noticed Asda had some snowflake decortions at a very reasonable price so I added them to my order. My order was delivered but the snowflakes had sold out so they substituted them with star decorations. When I saw them they were the most hideous dark glittery stars I have ever seen, so a quick soak in water and the glitter was removed revealing a grey plastic star, so out came the old torn book pages and the glue and I covered the stars. I then rubbed a red ink pad along the edges and the raised centers, now I had stars that were more to my liking.

This got me thinking about what else I could make as Christmas decorations as Christmas was looming ever nearer, but I didn't want to spend much so off I went out into the old sheds to see what I could find.........
I put these finds together with a poinsetta, one of my stars, a couple of candy canes and a wee spray of fake snow and voila.....a festive display to sit in the corner of my hall. With the freshly cut pine logs there is a lovely smell as you enter the croft asthey start to dry out ready for the fire.

This just left the fireplace to be decorated, I usually make a very traditional holly and ivy garland, but this year I wanted something just a little different. I still made a quite traditional display of some spruce and pine foliage and cones which I gathered while out walking the dogs after a storm. I wrapped a cyclimen in a pot in tissue paper to match the tea light lanterns I made a couple of days ago. I then used a deers antler to hang a couple of stars and sparkly decorations from.  To tie in with the old book page stars I used a 1" punch to cut lots of circles which I just stitched together on my sewing machine to make a paper chain to drape over the mirror.

To finish the fireplace off I filled a jar with more pine foliage, glued some cones to wire and arranged in the foliage. I then placed this in a basket and added a few logs and cones to hide the jarand another wee spray of fake snow. The only trouble is Shug, one of our dogs, has taken a liking to chewing the cones, so I am forever having to replace cones in the basket :-)

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and you are all looking forward to the New Year.

A quick n easy Christmas make...

.... that is recycling too :-)

I was wanting something different from just candles on my fireplace this year so I made myself some lanterns. I used 3 small jars (one was a small seafood sauce jar to give you an idea of the size) and some tissue paper that I had saved from the parcel my new dress arrived in. I cut squares, sat the jar in the middle, pulled up the edges and tied with raffia. I trimmed the edges and opened them up slightly so they didn't catch fire from the tea lights in the bottom of the jars. They look ok in the day........

.....but look so much better in the evening when they are lit

I will have to decorate the rest of the fireplace now........ I wonder what I will do?

I made some....

....Christmas decorations today as I thought I better start making this house look a little festive. I started by printing off my Christmas designs onto card, plain colour on one side and a christmas tree pattern on the other side, these are available at Ainjewelz shop on Etsy.


I then cut circles using various size punches, sewed them in a strip on my sewing machine. I left enough thread to make a loop at the top and enough thread at the bottom to thread on a couple of beads and tie in a knot. I've hung these at the end of my curtain rails where they spin in the rising heat or is it the draughts in the house :)

I also made some bunting from the same designs to hang along the front of my dresser. I punched small holes in the card triangles and threaded them onto string. As I had a few circle leftover from my other decorations I stuck these on to a couple of the triangle flags.
I'm quite pleased with how these have turned out and I have a few more ideas that I'm going to try out later, but I really must get the rest of my Christmas cards made and sent out.

I'm back to my normal....

......blog whenever I can fit it in. Three days blogging in a row last week was definetly a one off, I can't see that happening again :-)

I had ordered a couple of my mixed media creations to be printed on canvas a couple of weeks ago. They are now hanging on my walls in my art/craft/computer/dining room (multifunctional room). I used a different canvas print company than the one I've used previously. I liked their very reasonable prices, the chunky 3.8cm deep frame, good colour match, fast service and help with sending a large file. The only thing that I think that could of been better is the stretching of the canvas which I feel could of been a little tighter on the larger canvas (58cm x 58cm). I liked the option of having the sides of the canvas printed a colour, instead of the image being wrapped around the frame, I chose black which was perfect for this image.

The Morning Sun mixed media canvas print (58cm x 58cm)

The other canvas I had printed at A3 size (29.7cm x 42cms), this too looks good with the chunky 3.8cm deep frame, I opted to have the image on the sides of the frame mirrored and this works really well with this design.

The Red Butterfly mixed media canvas print (29.7cm x 42cms)
This definetly needs a better title :-)

I will definetly use Viva Print & Design Ltd again .

After creating a page in my Art Journal last week featuring my grandsons and their sisters, I found time at the end of the week to create another page featuring my grandaughter Ellie Louise, just a bit of fun which is now my festive desktop background on my computer.

I was getting worried about Bertie the buzzard, as I hadn't seen him for 5 days and he is getting to be a familiar sight on his post outside the croft, but he is back and looking well. The dogs running around the garden don't bother him, he know he's safe up there. I love watching him, he is so graceful when he flies, I threw him a sausage the other day but he just looked at me as if I was mad. Just wait till the snow arrives Bertie, I bet you'll be thankful for a sausage then :)

OMG! I've managed to blog 3 days in a row....

..... and this is so unlike me.
Yesterday I felt a little creative but just couldn't concentrate on anything, so I made a background in my art journal and because I was thinking about my grandkids I printed off their faces, stuck apples on their heads and just lost myself in doodles. This is just 5 of my grandkids, they are all brothers n sisters. I have another Grandaughter Ellie, who is going to get her own page in my art journal and I know just the face photo I'm going to use for her. I will post he doodle when it is completed.

The fungi on the log is still there, which I am very surprised about when there are 3 dogs running around outside and last night we had torrential rain and wild wild wind. They are slightly larger (I think!). I wonder how many more days they will survive? This is turning into fungi watch lol

Bertie the buzzard made his usual morning visit and then I spied him in the field across the lane, looks like he was eyeing up one of the local pheasants (not a great photo, I would love a better lens for my camera).

As it was quite a nice day I decided I would walk to the village shop with the dogs, taking the shortcut through the woods. This turned out to be not such a good idea, as I got to the end of the woods I met the local gamekeeper, there was going to be a pheasant shoot in the woods (poor pheasants) so I would have to walk the long way home. Oh well! I do need the exercise and it was a nice day for a walk and the dogs seemed to enjoy it. I also know now where there are some beautiful highland cows for me to photograph and I love highland cows. If I ever won the lottery
highland cows would be at the top of my to buy list :)

The last fungi from yesterday has.....

..... grown and changed its shape. This is how the fungi in yesterdays last photo now looks, it has started to open up and has gone lighter in colour.

It's been a while since I last took a photo of Charlie the chick, well he/she is nearly as big as his mum now and getting adult feathers. Charlie still follows mum around and sleeps beside her in a nestbox, we always know where Charlie is as he/she still goes about cheeping all the time.

While I was taking photos of Charlie one of the wellsummers hens was wanting her photo taken

Then the sun shone down on her and made the colours of her feathers shine like gold.

and look who was out front of the croft this morning, Bertie Buzzard. He is becoming a regular visitor now and we see him just about every day.

He seems to have chosen part of the lane and the fields either side as his territory. Quite often when I go out in the car he swoops down off the telegraph pole and flies in front of the car and then up onto another pole. I'd love to be able to get a photo of him flying, with his wings open he is so big.

Well not much crafting has been going on so far today but I'm feeling creative so hopefully I will create something today which I will show you the next time I blog :-)

Winter is most.....

..... definitely here! It's been cold frosty damp wet and windy, so far the snow has decided not to make an appearance just yet, but I'm sure it's on it's way. Something that is on it's way is Christmas, I can't believe how quick the days are passing and how disorganised I am this year. I haven't bought any presents yet or even wrote out my Christmas card list. I think I better get a move on and make a start.
I had been hoping to have the whole house decorated by Christmas, but I can't see that happening now. We have been putting off decorating as there was a chance we would be moving, but it looks like we are staying here for now so I need to get the paint and brushes out and get this place brightened and freshened up. Thanks to Gumtree, 2 men and a van I now have a very nice storage solution for a lot of my art and craft supplies, which won't look out of place when I need to use this room as a dining room.

I haven't been feeling very creative over the last few days, but yesterday I made a small felt Christmas tree decoration. I think I will pop this in with the next wee letter I write to my grandsons.Hopefully this coming week will be more of a creative one, I have so many ideas that I want to get making. I did make a start on another Christmas decoration yesterday, which I am going to put up a small tutorial about. This has had to be put on hold for now as I was using my laminator and it's broke so got to get a new one. So tutorial will be up as soon as new laminator is settled into my craft room :)

I was out feeding the chickens this morning and noticed these fungi growing on the log pile that's waiting to be sawn up for the winter fires. They are just calling for a fairy to appear, so I might have to have a wee play in Photoshop later :)

Today is the Official Opening of...

...my Etsy shop. The virtual ribbon has been cut and Ainjewelz is now open for business. There is going to be a little bit of everything creative that I do in the shop and to start with there are some Christmas printable downloads and a few photographic greeting cards. As the weeks go by a variety of creations will be added to my shop. The printable downloads are linked to a Quick How To video, which is not my best bit of filming, the light was quite bad (enviromentally friendly light bulb). After quite a bit of editing a 45 minute film is now only 7 minutes, but I think the important bits are still there and I've speeded it up a wee bit :-)



In celebration of Ainjewelz opening I am giving away a FREE download for you to print off. Click on the image below to enlarge and then 'save image as' to save to your computer and print off on card add some glitter and ribbon and you have 3 festive gift tags :-)

Chance of a spur of the moment....

..... visit to Fife happened on Thursday evening. Did I want to go visit my family on Friday or not? A free lift there on Friday morning if I was in Aberdeen for 8am and a lift back on Monday. I haven't seen my kids and grandkids for a couple of months so I really didn't have to give this much thought. So on Friday morning I was off to Dunfermline to start my visit. I had a great weekend seeing family and friends, even found time to pop into Carnegie College for a quick visit with a couple of my ex-tutors. I loved catching up with all my grandkids, they all seem to be growing up so fast. On Saturday evening we went along to Dunfermline Glen to watch the firework display, which for once was on a dry mild evening and was quite spectacular. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was great to see everyone and quite tiring so I was glad to get home again on Monday evening.



All work on getting my Etsy shop up and running was put on hold while I've been away so now I have to get myself motivated and get back to work. I have so many ideas but so few hours in the day. Today has just seemed to fly by, went for a drive and posted some Ebay stuff, but mainly to try and get used to the car. Caught up with emails, read a few interesting blogs by local creative ladies that had been at the Vintage and Craft Fair in Aberdeen at the weekend, put my fireworks video on Youtube and turned my craft room upside down looking for my vanishing cutting mat, which has still not been found.......might need to go and buy a new one tomorrow :)

Yesterday was .....

.... the day I managed to tick another thing off my mental list of things I'd like to achieve (before I leave this world lol). Yes! at long last I got around to learning to drive and yesterday I passed my test. I never thought I would be driving around Aberdeen but there you go, I have achieved it and I'm so pleased with myself..... *going around doing silly little happy dances with a big cheesey grin on my face* .... Just to get insurance arranged on the car and me and the dogs will be out and about..... no stopping us now :-)
Not much art or craft been going on here but all my plans are slowly coming together now and my Etsy Shop will be opened soon.
Still trying to clear out some of my craft stash as there is so much I have not used in the last year and don't think I will use so these thing are getting listed on Ebay. If your looking for a crafty bargain pop over to http://bit.ly/qGV6Vj . I should really stay off Ebay as I keep seeing things I want to buy, I'm watching some fabric at the moment that would make lovely cushion covers :) not that theres anything wrong with the cushion covers I have, but this fabric is nice. Then theres the fabric that would make lovely curtains.....no more looking on Ebay for me just now, even though I need to make a start on a complete make over of this house as I would like some of it done before Christmas
My head is just bursting with ideas at the moment, but I just seem to have enough time to do everything, I really must try and get more organised. Right I'm away to write a list of everything I must do, this one will be on paper not just a mental one :)

Busy busy.....

....so very busy! I feel like I haven't stopped over the last couple of weeks, I am really trying to get everything tidy and organised. Don't think I'm trying hard enough though as I'm still working in organised clutter. Since moving here there have been quite afew of my craft supplies that I have not used and don't think I'm going to so I have been listing a lot of these on Ebay and there are still plenty more to be listed. If your interested in bagging a bargain pop over to http://bit.ly/qGV6Vj .

I've also decided to open a shop on Etsy and try to sell some of my creations. I tried to think up a new name for my shop but everything I came up with that I liked, there was already a design company called that, so for now I will still be going under the name of Ainjewelz. I have been busy designing some digital download printables, which I have had so much fun with and once I have sorted out my T&C's these will be uploaded to my Etsy shop along with some other creations of mine. My head is full of so many ideas at the moment so hopefully I will manage my time better so I can get creating.

I am trying to always have my sketchbook with me and I'm forever jotting down notes, quick sketches and doodling. It seems to be paying off as my faces are getting a little better and I'm trying to be looser with my pencil strokes. Anyway the sketch below was done yesterday morning when I woke up while still in my bed, just a quick couple of minutes sketch and I am quite pleased with it. So different from my usual faces :-)

Well that is all for now, better get a bit of housework done and dinner cooked 'cause I've just rememered I've registered for a webinar this evening on drawing.

I have been.....

.... making a few changes in my blog layout and now realise I could do with a new banner heading. So this will be added to the long list of things I need to do. I have so many ideas going around in my head and so many creative projects that I've started, I need to try and concentrate on one thing at a time and get it finished. there just never seems to be enough hours in the day for me to get round to doing everything though.

I have managed to finish off a mixed media canvas called 'She thought about Archie'.

I hope to be blogging again very soon but I'm off now to create a new title bannerfor my blog :-)

Creativity has certainly....

...been flowing over the last couple of days. I managed to complete a few Art Journal pages, below we have Choices, Don't let your Fears..., Oodles of Doodles and Summer Drinks with the Girls.I'm feeling creative today so once all the boring housework etc is done I'm hoping to get down to some painting.

So many ideas in my head and just not enough time to get round to doing them all.......

This summer....

...... weather is about the worst I can remember! I know I live in Scotland but does it have to rain quite so much, just a couple of weeks with some sun would be great and cheer everyone up. This morning when I looked out my front door the Hill of Fare was peeking above the clouds that were trapped in the valley. So out came the camera and while eating my breakfast I had a wee play in Photoshop. The first image is the original photo but cropped to remove a electricity pylon and then the electicity cables that went across it were removed using the clone tool......Electric pylons and cables are the only things that spoil my view from my front door! Oh and the rain!!! I can't see any of the other hills that are in the distance today.
I then played about with colour in Photoshop
and then I gave the image a vintage look using an action which was a free download from here

The rain is just not letting up today and my view is slowly dissapearing in the mist, I can no longer see the Hill of Fare, just the field on the other side of the fence. I also now have the wood burning stove lit as the house feels cold and damp.........is this really summer?
Craft room is warming up now so its time to get creative, what will I get up to today?

Rain rain go away...

.... come again another day!

Today is another one of those rainy Scottish summer days that we are getting so many of, it would be nice to maybe have a couple of days of sun and we live in hope these will appear soon. Between showers I went for a wander around the garden with the dogs and my camera and captured a few of the rain drops.

I came across this.....

collage making program while I was looking for something else this morning. You can download the free version from Shape Collage and it does stuff like this :-)
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day so we went for a wee trip up to Portsoy, another place I have not been for years. We popped in to see an old friend of Frankies in his amazing antique shop full of chandeliers, grandfather clocks and large pieces of old furniture, all far too big for our higgildy piggildy hobit house. I could of stayed in there for hours rummaging about the place. We sat at the habour watching a mother duck and her 7 chicks swimmimg about, which I thought was a strange thing to see in a harbour, but they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. Below is a collage of a few snaps I took while at Portsoy