The Versatile Blogger Award and a Sincere Apology

I am so pleased that I have won the Versatile Blogger award, I never win anything so it's a great honour.
I am feeling a little embarrassed right now as Helen awarded this to me quite a while ago. I did draft my post but I had a flare and forgot all about it, though that's a poor excuse. I'm really sorry Helen as I was so pleased you thought of me. Thank you Martha when I received your award you reminded me of my draft post so I have added links to you both.

Of course there are conditions to the award so I have done my best to follow these.

 

1. Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share seven random things about yourself.

3. Award seven recently discovered bloggers with this award and contact them to let them know they have won.

So a big thanks goes to Helen at Raindrops and Roses and Martha at After Hours for my award.

Here are 7 random things that you may or may not know about me. 

1. I love my coffee and drink far too much but I can't stand tea so I'll stick to coffee.
2. I'm a hoarder I'm always collecting rubbish because it might come in useful one day. 
3. I do love to recycle/upcycle though and can usually think of how to turn something old into something new and pretty. 
4. I'm a loner and love nothing better than being on my own crafting. 
5. I have a terrible memory which has got a lot worse with the fibro, well I hope that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.
6. I have severe hearing loss though as I can talk ok many people don't realise I can't actually hear them until I tell them. 
7. I love working with papier mache it's such a versatile medium and I can lose myself for hours working on a sculpture. 

This was hard as I have found some really great blogs since I started blogging. Here are 7 of my favs. 

1.  Ali's Craft Studio This is a great blog Ali has a real way with words and can talk about anything even glorious mud. 
2. Beautiful Things by Claire I'm always amazed at how much Claire manages to make every week and all are really beautiful.
3. Goblin Dreams A great blog, I do love the steampunk jewellery it's fantastic. 
4. 1st Unique Gifts  Wendy does a fantastic blog and helped me a lot when I first started.
5. Ballderdash and Bunting Becky always makes great stuff and her cakes are too good to eat. 
6. Dorset Girl A great new blog with some gorgeous wooden letters and shapes. 
7. With U In Mind Kat's crafts are gorgeous and she has a talent for being able to make almost anything.

Handmade Monday 21 - Papier Mache Vases

The week has just flown by again, I've no idea where the time goes. I've been doing some papier mache last week and have almost got my big vases ready for painting.

The rule is a standard 30cm (12") so you can see they are quite big.I will be making some large papier mache flowers for these as well.

I have also been working on a fairy, dragon and a couple of bowls but haven't had time to put pics up yet. 

I haven't done much with the marquetry as it really requires steady hands and mine have had the shakes all week. 




Pop over to Wendy's Blog at 1st Unique Gifts to see what everyone else has been doing for Handmade Monday.

New Tutorials at Mia's

Well I have finally got round to putting up two new tutorials on our web site.

Papel Picado

Here you will find the Papel Picado tutorial. This is a traditional Mexican craft. They cut through up to 50 sheets of tissue paper at a time using a hammer and chisel. The results are gorgeous, delicate tissue paper cut outs.

Braided Rag Rug

I have also put up my Rag Rug tutorial. This is a great way of using up lots of old fabrics you may have from other projects.
I was really pleased at how well this came out, it looks gorgeous and is nice and soft.
It washes well too, I made a small rug so I could get it in my machine easily and it washed fine.
I hope you enjoy the tutorials and if you have a go then please let me know.
It would be lovely to see how you get on so take some pics too.


If you have any problems with any of the tutorials on my site please let me know. You can contact me through my site or here on my blog.

Handmade Monday - Papel Picado

I am late again, I've been busy updating my website this week so haven't had a lot of time for crafts. I have also been helping my daughter revise for her exam to get into college in September. She had the exam on Wednesday and was able to get the results straight away. She got 100% which is a distinction and she only needed a pass to get on the course.

Papel Picado

I have finished my papel picado experiment and I'm quite pleased with the results.Which you can see in the pic, I have made some bunting which is now decorating the craft room. 
This is quite hard work so I really admire the traditional Mexican crafters that do this all the time.
I will be putting the instructions up on my website within the next couple of days.


I'm off now to visit Wendy's Blog at 1st Unique Gifts to see what everyone else has posted forHandmade Monday.

Handmade Monday - New Designs

Sorry I haven't been around for a couple of weeks, I do have a few excuses though so I'll get them out of the way first.
I had a fibro flare which lasted a few days, not too bad but I was sofa ridden for a few days.
Then my computer decided that the place was too dusty and the fan packed up. My partner is a great with computers but he's not around for a couple of weeks. Typical isn't it, never around when they could actually be useful.
Anyway my son remembered his playstation fan packing up and how dusting it all out got it working again.
We got the side off the CPU and located the fan, which was in a sealed box with lots of slots in it. Armed with hairdryer and vacuum cleaner we completely dusted the inside.
Believe it or not it worked YAY!!!
I then had a really bad migraine that lasted nearly a week. I have tablets which are great and dampen the pain. I have to be careful though as loud noises, chocolate and bright lights, like my computer monitor can cause it to come back overriding the meds.
Any way as I've not been able to use the computer for a while I've been trying to come up with some new designs that I can use in different ways.

Papel Picado

I have made a design for my papel picado web page that I hope to write now I'm feeling better.
Papel picado is mexican for paper cutting.
I'm going to attempt to do this the traditional mexican way. I will use several layers of tissue paper stacked on top of each other. Then I will use a chisel to cut out the design.
The black areas will be cut away, the white areas will be the tissue paper.
Once finished I will attach them to some string to make some pretty but delicate bunting.
I will let you know how it goes.

Marquetry

I'm about to try my hand at some marquetry. I have managed to get some wood veneers quite cheaply from ebay. I haven't done anything like this for years but I do remember I found it quite relaxing and addictive. Here are 2 of the designs I have come up with so far.

Let me know what you think of my new designs, suggestions and ideas are always welcome. I'm off to Wendy's blog 1st Unique Gifts to look at all the other crafty Handmade Monday ideas. I hope you'll join me and if you are crafty you can join in too.