Stencilled wall art

After 17 years of living with someone else’s wallpaper, carpet & even wardrobes (bought for £20 off the former owner of our PREVIOUS house, ‘just to tide us over for a few months’) we recently had our tired and tatty bedroom re-vamped. Fitted wardrobes, complete redecoration and all new fixtures and fittings. It was like being on 60 Minute Makeover. Or rather, 6 Week Makeover, which is how long we had to decamp into my son’s bedroom, with all our stuff.

They finished the weekend before the Covid lockdown started in the UK, so I haven’t yet been able to shop for finishing touches (I like to do that in person rather than online & I’m still not going out except for the weekly food shop). 

But I knew I wanted something on this wall, to break up the wash of dark teal. My decorator suggested I buy a painting & he would accent it with some of the dark teal paint. And doubtless charge me £200 for the privilege. Err, no thanks.

So I’m currently working up the confidence to paint a large abstract piece for that wall, but I’ve never done anything large before, & these things take time etc, so in the meantime I thought I’d stick with what I know, & work small. 

I watched a fab video on using stencils on a gelli plate to create multiple layers in a single pull, & thought it would be good for creating several 4x4 pieces. Naturally, I can’t for the life of me find it now. It might have been by Carolyn Dube, but I’m not sure - if anyone can connect me with it again, I’d be v grateful. I promise I’ll take better care of it next time.

I used Carolyn Dube’s alphabet stencil to randomly stencil letters on the gelli plate using Paperartsy Fresco Finish in Buff. I let it dry, then placed a Prima Moroccan themed stencil over it & stencilled through it onto the plate in teal, blue & copper - colours I thought would match the wall well.

When that layer was dry, I stamped some text using a permanent ink. Finally, I painted a layer of white paint over the whole plate & immediately pulled it up, using inexpensive mixed media paper. It brought all the layers up with it beautifully, and created a print with depth & interest.

For finishing touches, I collaged some tissue paper into the corners & stamped & embossed some textural stamps.

I mounted the paper on cheap 4x4 artist’s wood panels & painted the sides to match the wall.  (And, yes, I know I really should have ‘staged’ that bed a bit better. But, meh... 🙂)

We locked down before the blinds could be fitted. Nearly six months later, I still have raggedy paper at the windows. Crack den chic.

Snow Day!

The funnest day of the year!!!!.

Whilst all around me inexplicably lost the ability to get out of bed this morning, I battled on through the snow to get to work. It was dodgy at times, and I saw many cars abandoned or stuck or veering out of control on the ice. This being leafy Cheshire they were mostly 4x4s, Audis and even a Porsche. I had a nice smug feeling as I chugged past them in my plucky Fiat Punto, the little car that could.

I needn't have bothered, we got sent home from work at 11. The boss announced, "We are closing the office at 12, but if you need to leave before then, you may". The room was empty by the end of the sentence, save for a stack of papers wafting gently to the ground...

I have never had a snow day off. I got sent home once when the IRA bombed us in Manchester, but that didn't induce quite the same carnival atmosphere. We all ran out the door giggling and planning what were were going to do with the rest of the day, it was great!

ATCs

Jackie came to stay this weekend. We did a lot of scrapping, drinking and cackling, while the menfolk of the house hid in other rooms, looking nervous.

On Saturday we went to the Happy Stampers Festival at Port Sunlight. Man alive, it was busy! And hot! I must have had heat stroke or something, because I came THIS close to buying Magnolias (sorry if you're a Magnolia fan, but well....Moomins!!), but thankfully Jackie slapped me around a bit and I came out of my fug and bought a load of cool Stamp Camp stuff instead. (And some cheap Magnolia knock-offs by Kars, but I trust you'll have the good taste not to mention them.)

We bought way too much, and coming out, giddy on the heady combination of rubber and pheromones, giggled and snorted at the site of four nervous looking old ladies as they drove verrrrry sloooooowly and caaaaarefully round a roundabout. Smirk.

Then we got in our car and smartly drove round the same roundabout, the wrong way.

(I knew when we pulled onto it that it didn't feel quite right, but I couldn't figure out why. Hey ho. Instant Karma, I guess. )

Anyway some ATCs from a little fiddling session we had. The fairy stamps are by The Stamp Man, the text ones are Stamp Camp. Am determined to fill up my ATC spinner that two years ago I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE AND ABSOLUTELY WOULD USE, which currently houses about 6 ATCs.




Jackie made this last one. Good, innit? Go on her blog and bug her to start posting again. I miss her calm and reasoned take on life :)

Is it hot in here?

Happy National Scrapbooking Day one and all!!

Ladies, if your other half refuses to let you observe this most sacred day, tell them they are oppressing your cultural beliefs and can be sued under the Human Rights Act. Ha, that will show them!

I bought an iron today. Actually I bought an iron last Sunday but it was cheap and rubbish, so I bought a better one today. It's made me feel a bit wobbly inside.

Behold the Russell Hobbs Slipstream!! Or, as I like to think of it, The Beast.

2200 watts of throbbing power. Grrrrrr!! Look at it: proud, defiant. I don't dare put my delicate rosey-wosey ironing water in it, I think it would spit it straight out. It dominates the ironing board with its weight, its girth...

Am rather scared by it. And also slightly aroused. Hopefully this will encourage me to iron more.

Choice footwear!

How about these for scrappers' socks? £1 from Tesco. Bargain!

I made this, ahem, "charming", folksy Christmas felt star. Just to be clear, the legs and stitching absolutely are meant to be a bit wonky and bent out of shape. I think you'll find it's part of the piece's naive charm, actually!.

If I was Elsie you'd be lapping this up.
.

Anyway, I thought I would make a few of these, and then it is just a short leap to pretending to dh that I also made the wreath below, and that I have not been out blowing the heating budget on Christmas frivolities.

.

No, to be honest I don't think he'll buy it either.

Look at this! Just bought it at Lakeland. It was £12.99 and it feels pretty well made, although check for dried glue and stray stuffing if you are buying one, because there were a few slightly dodgy ones on the shelf.

These wreaths will either :

a) fly off the shelves and I will be at the forefront of this season's hottest home decor trend!!!!! Yesssss!;
or
b) hang around like a fart in a spacesuit until marked down to £3 with still three weeks to go to the Big Day.

Hmm, judging by the success with which I've previously spotted hot new trends, I'm betting b). But I saw it and I liked it so I bought it. I try to buy only one new decoration each year, so I don't feel too bad.

Anyway, I'm making the rest of my Christmas decorations this year, so there! I got the Cosmo Cricket Christmas chipboard shapes and matching die cuts in a sale earlier in the year and I'm going to stick them together. Add a bit of glitter, add a bit of paint, punch a ruddy big hole through them and bish! bash! bosh!, instant heirlooms.

Here I am! Totally rocking the knitted woollen hat look! I bought it today. It has a skull on. God, I'm so edgy! And me 40 and all! I'm even wearing it INDOORS, in the manner of Howard Donald, or similar cutting edge style icon. And it's not even as though the heating is off or anything. (I didn't get where I am today without knowing that there's NOTHING like adopting up-to-the-minute youth trends for shaving years off you in the eyes of others!)

I've never felt so alive, I tell you!!!!!

I'm back - but only briefly. Things got dodgy with my back and I ended up in hospital for 10 days having emergency surgery and being dead brave and grown up and everything! I'm home now and have a hugely impressive 6 inch scar right down to the top of my bum, so I can't really go flashing it to impress people. Well maybe not, we'll see.

I can't sit down for 6 weeks plus I'm on some pretty groovy painkillers that make the world a warmer, fuzzier place, so I won't be posting for a while, but rest assured I will reveal the full grisly tale in tedious detail in due course. I made my husband take pictures of me straight out of surgery, for future scrapping purposes (what a gal!) so try to contain your excitement about those!

I have won awards! Oh yes. For crafting blog excellence. Thank you Kate and Becky for your recent displays of excellent taste!

I'm passing these on to Germgirl at That Ruddy Blog, because she is a crafting goddess and she does make me laugh.

I have not been blogging much lately cos I have not been doing much making stuff lately and I have not been doing much making stuff lately cos I have done my back in. Big time. There is much talk of "compressed disc jelly" by my osteopath. I can't decide whether that makes me go Eww! or Mmm...

Anyway, my osteo (who just happens to be a twenty-something, 6,2 lean, bronzed goddess - where are all the overweight, sweaty, bad-breathed health workers when you need to be scrutinised in your greying underwear? She's very nice but the air of pity when she surveys my sagging carcass is almost unbearable) told me I need to take up pilates to firm up my *cough* "relaxed" muscle tone. So never one to miss out on a purchasing opportunity I have invested in this little beauty - a pilates performer machine!!!!!!!!

Here I am just doing a few preliminary warm ups. I bet I will be able to do that balancing on just my finger and toe nails after a few goes on it.

I have done four sessions on it so far. The DVD and manual make a big thing about it being a serene and dancerly form of exercise. I have to be honest and say that there was a certain amount of heaving, grunting and thrashing going on when I was doing it, which I didn't see represented in the video, but I think generally we're all singing from the same hymn sheet. Anyway, I bet I will be scrawnier than Madonna by Christmas and cracking the festive nut assortment with just my bare buttocks.

I have been busy doing DIY! I thought getting married would mean that I didn't have to get involved in that kind of nonsense again - I mean, you don't keep a dog and bark yourself. But d/h is even worse at it than me, so it's probably no bad thing that I'm doing it while he sits with his feet up watching the football.

I'll just read that last bit back again and let it fully sink in...

I found a website that trilled "Almost any room can be painted in a day!" and believed it and took a day off work to do it and nearly three weeks later I'm about half way through...

To be fair to me, it's taking so long to finish because I am very lazy. I keep having to sit down to watch telly. Plus, I am going over Burnt Orange with Ivory Lace, and it became patently obvious after the first coat that the Burnt Orange wasn't going down without a fight. It's had three coats so far - it could probably do with another one but it's not going to get it. I still have the glossing to do, but that can be done in dribs and drabs over the next few days (which roughly translates as "will not get done until we try to sell the house").


See, from this:




to this:

There are a lot more surfaces to paint than you can actually see there, before you start looking at me a bit funny. There's a wall to the right, and then at the end on the left it goes into this massive alcove and that took ruddy ages. And them grecian columns, height of architectural good taste as they undoubtedly are, they're all done in artex, which is an absolute bugger to cover.

Cogsmo birthday card for my brother in law - the alphabet stamps I used to spell out Happy Birthday cost 99p! 99p!!!! They are mini wood-mounted Studio G ones and they come in several fonts. I thought they might be a bit crappy, but they're fine and the wood mount has a long ('scuse my French) "shaft", so they're not too fiddly.

They're part of a splurge I had at Crab Apple Crafts, the nearest decent papercrafts shop to where I live. I went with a friend. We had a nice ladies' day together and practically cleaned them out. We are going back to hoover up anything we missed in three weeks and to do a mini book class. It is one of those word mini books, which is cut in the shape of the letters. I must confess I've never really thought of doing one, and wouldn't know where to start, but the sample on display in the shop was gorgeous so we booked for it.

I do like Crab Apple. The owners get a lot of rather grumpy coverage in the smack blog, but whenever I've seen them they've never been anything less than nice and helpful, even when I've only been in and spent, like, 99p.

OK, I've never actually been in and spent just 99p, that was a bad example. But I'm sure that were I to go in and spend 99p they would be just as pleasant. They have actually talked me out of making two expensive purchases from them in the past, a cricut and a melt pot, saying that they were very expensive for what they did (I didn't listen to them for long, mind, and bought them elsewhere. Turns out they were right. Grrr...).

In other news, here is Hevva Bear on her "cactivity" centre made by the boys. The sign reads "Cat Center. Hether only". Bless. Well what modern puss wouldn't want her own Tardis and plastic samurai sword, eh? We let her out for the first time yesterday and she came back OK, so she has been out for most of the day today. She exchanged some rather choice words with a couple of the neighbourhood cats, one of which later climbed in to our house via an open window. A huge tabby - like a small pony really, you could easily throw a saddle on her and mosey off down the garden. And so mild! She declined to leave when asked, so I had to pick her up and she just flopped in my arms and gazed up at me. The sort of cat you could dress up in a christening gown and mop cap and wheel around in a pram. If they hadn't made laws to stop people doing that, obviously.

Some pics of my Bee Boy, he has to go dressed as a bug to school tomorrow (we still have another week in school here).


I spent the evening cheerfully swearing at the sewing machine last night. There was a glorious five minutes or so, where I finally figured out how to make it work, and the place sounded like Baldwin's Casuals on bonus day. Then, mid-seam, a spring, a rivet and a bobbin pinged out and shot across the room. It was like one of those clown cars exploding at the circus. Anyway, it refused to budge again after that so I had to finish the costume off by hand.

A little rough round the edges, but even so I think you'll agree I've got a general bee vibe going on here! It would look better if he'd agree to wear the black tights I bought, but sadly it seems that there are some things a six year old boy simply won't do, even for his mother.

I bought the fun fur material from John Lewis. It's lovely but it's shedding fibres like mad, even though I hemmed each strip before stitching them to his top. There are a number of asthmatic kids in his class. I suspect that after tomorrow there may well be a few more.

I am particularly pleased with those wings. The photo doesn't do them justice, but they do look quite bee-y in real life.

Anyway must dash, have to make 30 scrummy little insect buns for him to take with him.

Sewing and bun making! Am Domestic Goddess after all. I knew it!!

This winter we planted a vegetable garden. I say "we", it was Mr Glitterati who did the backbreaking stuff, while I did the really important "capturing it for posterity" bit.

We planted potatoes, onions, broad beans and cauliflowers. The cauliflowers got eaten by something pretty early on (not too sad about that cos I hate cauliflower - was also thinking of flicking a few black fly onto the broad beans for the same reason) but everything else soldiered on bravely. Mr G took to going out to the patch in all weathers to tend it and prod it and generally fuss around it like men do. And then yesterday, he dug up some potatoes.

That's just one plant! We have another 20 or so still in the patch! They smelt extraordinary, sort of sweetish. I've never smelt potatoes like that before, presumably cos I've never cooked with anything that fresh before. They were 20 minutes from being in the ground to going in the pan. Granted, a lot of the nutritional advantage of having such fresh food was lost because of my habit of boiling the bejesus out of everything (a habit picked up from my mum. All green veg was served up a sort of khaki colour when I was growing up) but even so they tasted great and the kids gobbled them up.

I love my garden, it was one of the main reasons we bought this house. It is long and narrow and surrounded by oak trees, which are a bugger in the autumn, with the leaves dropping everywhere, but in full bloom they look majestic.

We have a lovely gnarled old apple tree which will start to drop apples in about three weeks. They are too tart to eat raw, but great for apple crumbles and pies and um, errr... (Truth be told we give most of them away, but I am determined to do lots of scrummy projects with this year's crop).