What I did with an old car manual...

I had been looking for a book that was the correst size for what I had planned, but alas none were to be found. So an old car manual came to the rescue and was cut down to size (used a band saw for this ). But what was I needing it for I hear you ask? Well......

 .....it now looks like this after being covered in paper, lined with felt, some elastic (an old bra strap lol) to keep it shut, my tablet now has a nice cover to keep it clean and safe. The tablet is held in place with a little velcro.

You can find lots of tutorials on the internet for making covers for iPads, Tablets and e-readers

I'm not a .....

....... good blogger, I always start with good intentions of a weekly blog update but life just takes over and my blogging falls by the wayside.

By far my best seller at the moment is my Jubilee Union Jack Bunting, both versions are selling well as ready-made bunting and my printable sheets so you can create your own bunting. My ready made bunting now has smart packaging and I have also made  slight improvement with the text. As you can see in the image below there seems to be quite a space between the R & P in Party, so this has now been closed slightly and looks so much better. I also had an order for 5 ready-made buntings from one customer which could lead to something very exciting (for me anyway) but more about that when it happens.

 I also now have some mini bunting available in my shop

 and some little cupcake flags. Both of these can be purchased ready-made or on a download and print craft sheet so you can create your own.

A few years ago I used to join in with many monthly ATC swaps, I used to enjoy these but never seem to have the time at the moment to create ATC's but hopefull I will get back into doing these again. I have created a dowload & print ATC/ACEO Background sheet for my shop though and I think I will be adding a few more of these.

As you can see my Jubilee Union Jack designs are featuring in everything I have been creating, with the Queens Jubilee adn the Olympic Games this year these are turning out to be very popular. I do design and create other items which can be found in my shop and I have loads of works in progress that will added to my shop in the future.

I have also had some good news, I have been offered a place at college to finish studying HNC/HND Design and Digital Media, which I am very excited about. Just have to wait now to see if I get help with the funding and then it'll be another wee house move for me and back near my family.

I am selling off lots of crafty and non craft items on Ebay so pop over you might just grab yourself a bargain and help fill my college fund pot :)

So bye for now until I get that urge to blog again lol



My view today..

...from my front of the croft, I can see for miles and miles. Put 3 photos together to try and get as much in as possible. It was so quiet here this morning only the sound of birds, the odd moo from a cow and my hens clucking and the cockerals doing their thing. Did I say it was quite? :)
I've had The Draymin playing full blast and I can sing and dance in the garden like a loony and no one can hear or see me, well they might hear me over at the farm lol (thats my exercise done for the day) but now I'm feeling a little homesick. Oh well! not long till I can get back doon to Fife. :)

Right I better get on with some of this work that needs done today and Ive got a wee parcel to post, so a walk to the village with the dogs is on the cards, or will I just drive?  :)

Wow! this has been

..... quite an exciting week.
Sales from my shop have been picking up this week and its so exciting knowing people are buying something that I've designed.or made. I have been sending orders to UK, France, Australia and USA.... I'm international :)
I've added a new range to my shop of Clothes Peg Magnetic Note Holders (fridge magnets). My favourite ones are the Old Ordnance Survey Map design. These come in sets of 6 and will arrive to the customer in a cellophane wrapper, so are ideal to give as a gift. More designs will be getting added to my shop soon.

I have been working on a few ideas I've had and the other day was asked if I made bunting for babies, something that is in the pipeline and will also be coming soon.
I have also taken the plunge and added a few prints of my mixed media creations to my shop, not sold any yet but keeping my fingers crossed :)

Once again I have decided that my craft stash is taking over the house so I have made the heart renching decision to part with anything that has not been used or need in the last year. So when time allows I am slowly listing items on Ebay , most of what I am listing is brand new.......so get on over to  Ebay and grab yourself a crafting bargain.

The weather here for the last few days has been really sunny and hot, not normal for March in Scotland, but we're not complaining. We've had an evening fishing, where I caught nothing and my partner caught a wee trout, which was returned safely into the loch. We're even thinking of having a BBQ and this could happen tonight.

The farm across the lane from me has a new horse in one of their fields so off I went with my camera to get a few photos, the one below is my favourite, and what a lovely friendly horse this is.

Got lots to get through today, so off to be busy busy busy and creative

I really never realised.....

....... just how long it has been since my last post.So much has happened in that time, far far too much for me to waffle on about here to catch up. So we will just start from this week.
I go through phases of blogging every day to blogging once every couple of months. I am however, going to try and blog at least once a week from now on. How hard can that be? I could do it one evening at the weekend while having a wee glass of wine.

My shop on Etsy has been gradually getting stocked with my creations. I have so many ideas going around in my head, it's hard to find time to create them all. I have created a digital download range called Vintage Jubilee, which so far includes bunting, a craft paper pack, sheet of tags, an embelishment collage sheet and bookmarks. All of these are available to buy from my shop now and I will be adding a few other items to this range of the coming week.

I ham pleased to say that to date I have had 3 sales from my shop, with some others favouriting certain items and a few favouriting my shop. This is all quite exciting and I look forward to many more sales.

Mothers Day crept up on me quite fast, which meant making my Mothers Day cards was a last minute thing. For a while now I've been wanting to use stitching on some cards and found this to be the ideal opportunity. So I raided my ribbon and button boxes, and an old summer skirt and top are now in my scrap box to be used in such projects.

These cards were very much appreciated by the mothers that received them and I will be making more card using fabric and stitching to add to my shop.

Well thats all for now..... a little blog is better than no blog!

Got to go and get creative....

I wonder how long it will be till I blog again?  Friday? Saturday? Sunday? :)

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 :)