Wednesday Worktable - Wednesday 4th November - Midori Style and Bunting!

Hello Deskers!  This is an infrequent contribution to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), over at Julia's Stamping Ground. Each Wednesday, Julia invites fellow crafters and bloggers to show a photo or two of their worktables, and explain what they've been doing.

I don't seem to get much time for working in my studio.  It's just been mad, this last few months (actually, make that years!).  Anyway, "stuff" does happen... sometimes.  So, just to prove it, here are a couple of photos to show something I have just finished (but it's an ongoing project!) and also what I'm currently working on:

Just completed and to be added to my online shop as soon as... 

 

A Leather Notebook Cover, with matching Pen Case 

Inspired by the popular Midori notebooks with covers and a pencil-case I made for my son's birthday last year. The nice thing about them is that I can make any size or shape and in any colour of leather that I can get!  

So, those are just completed and ready for better photos and to be offered for sale.  

Currently this is what's on my desk: 

Experiments and planning for a Commission.  

A lady who runs a student housing agency, found this post on my blog, where I showed a little string of mini bunting.  She has asked me to make her two long strings of House Bunting, to hang in her office.  These houses are 6" tall, so they're considerably larger than the mini bunting I made before. We've just agreed on what she wants and I'm about to start making the "real" bunting.  They will each be six feet long when completed.  It's great fun!

Thank you for reading.  I hope you've enjoyed visiting today.  Feel free to browse my blog, but once you're finished, do go back to Julia's Stamping Ground, to see what everyone else is doing today.

Pass The Page Blog Hop, Bloggers' Weekend 2015

I was lucky enough to be invited to join a group of other bloggers and papercrafters for a weekend away, to meet up, chat, eat cake (of course!) and craft together.  

We went to the RAU at Cirencester and had a lovely big room to ourselves, for the whole weekend. Before we went, Julie of "JSquared" blog issued a challenge for a Pass The Page.  She sent someone a photo of a scrap page she had made, so that they could create their own page, using hers as inspiration.  That new page was then sent on to the next person in the chain, who did the same - and so on.  It's like a paper version of Chinese Whispers!  

I received a photo from Alison, of "Life in the Slow Lane" - I was number nine in a chain of eleven people.  Below you'll see the page I created, using Alison's lovely layout as inspiration.  

Photo by Keri-Anne Pink of Gingerlillytea Photography.  

The two little girls are my great nieces, on their summer holiday by the sea in Cornwall.  I loved the sunset colours, which inspired my choice of this orange ombre-style paper for the background. 

I passed my page on to Ruth. If you'd like to see what everyone made and follow the whole chain and its progress, go back to Julie's blog and follow the links all the way through! 

A Day Out!

This post is a bit late, but I wanted to write about a lovely day out that I had on July 2nd.

A few weeks ago, I received an invitation, as a blog writer, to attend the Press Event for the release of the new Autumn/Winter/Christmas items from Rex London (DotComGiftShop).

If you've been a follower of my blog for a while, you may remember this post about bunting, which Rex London (DotComGiftShop) sent me, with a request to review it on my blog.  I'd been a fan of their lovely retro-feel bits and bobs for some time (see also this post from 2009!) and responded to a call for submissions from blogs, when they were compiling a list of favourite blogs that they had found.  
 

Anyway... It seems that they kept my blog on their list of favourites, because I received an invitation to attend the Event and bring a friend.  The Press Event was in London, so I set off in the train and met Keri-Anne at Euston Station, where she had arrived on her train.  

We walked down to the gallery where Rex London (DotComGiftShop) were holding their event and were made very welcome.  

Drinks in little jars, sweets to nibble... very welcome after our walk from Euston. 

...

Then this is what we saw...

...a roomful of wonders and treasure!

There was So Much Lovely Stuff, that it would take several blog posts to show you all of it (of course, you can go to their website/shop and have a browse for yourself).  Here are some of my own favourites from the Day: 

There's a big wildlife theme going on - in various styles - and I loved these little storage suitcases, with wild birds painted on them. Who could resist? 

There was a whole range of lovely items with the wild bird designs all over.  Coasters, mugs (in lovely giftable boxes), storage tins, a tower of lovely lidded glass bowls, glasses and drinking bottles, even a flour or sugar dredger for your kitchen.  Oh, and not to forget the pretty case for my glasses... Tempted again! My favourite is the Blue Tit design - I really like blue-tits.  

Still on a wildlife theme - Rusty and Friends.  A second set of suitcases, this time with woodland creatures on them, along with a number of other goodies, including these brilliant breakfast sets in melamine.  I could cope with eating my porridge, toast and orange juice from these and I'm sure my little nieces would love them! 

Then there were some great retro-themed items: 

Kitchen timers!  

A row of adorable and gorgeous china cups, that look like old-fashioned enamelware (memories of camping, anyone?).  The red one is my favourite, though I remember my mum having a white enamel mug, with a blue-painted rim... and actually, I love all four colours.  Have been trying to think of a good excuse to buy these - perhaps an "accident" will occur with our existing mugs (all 20 or so!)?  Maybe I can find someone to gift them to next Christmas! 

Alarm Clocks! Old-style clocks, like the ones I used to have on my bedside table when I was a very little girl.  Updated now to have a battery-powered clock and a beeping alarm, instead of the old bell-alarm that I had in mine; still just as appealing and I love the colour range! 

Then there was the Japanese Design Porcelain... 

Look at these!  They draw inspiration from Japanese pottery designs, each one being different and special.  I would love to have All of them in my china cupboard.  They are just lovely... sigh... There's a Mediterranean Stoneware range too, which is also gorgeous! 

There were items to appeal to all tastes - it wasn't just "pretty things" and items for children: 

For the Bicycle Fan in your life... 

For the Dapper Gentleman... 

For the Gardener and Nature Lover....

Keri-Anne and I had a lovely time browsing the little Aladdin's Cave full of treasures. 

You can see that there were loads more things to look at - I just haven't room to tell you about all of it!  If you are interested, do go and browse their website shop - it's full of great items, for yourself or to give as gifts.  After all, there are only five months to Christmas! ;-)  

We were sent on our way with a little shopping-bag full of goodies - aren't these lovely? And look, blue-tits on a cover for my new tablet pc! 

Many thanks to Rex London (DotComGiftShop) for your invitation and hospitality.  I had a really fun time and a lovely day out.  

...

And then we had Pizza for lunch before heading back home (spot the Selfie in the mirror!).

The End. 

Summer Scavenger Hunt 2014 - My Photos

For the last few years, Rinda, of Gallo Organico, has hosted a Photo Scavenger Hunt.  I have tried to join in, but somehow Life has always taken over and my collection of photos has been pathetic.

This year I have had more success! Here are the photos I have managed to collect for the Challenge:

SCAVENGER HUNT LIST 2014

1. A sign welcoming people to your home town (or a nearby town)
* Oh dear... there's one just up the road - I just forgot to photograph it!  Not the best start... 

2. A garden gnome

We had a week away in Cornwall, at the start of July.  I couldn't resist these lovely Gnomes that I found outside a great little shop in St. Ives - one even has a surfboard!

3. Birds on a wire

Alright, I admit it is Bird (singular) on a Wire... but he was just so cute!  Besides, he was about the only wire-perching birdie in the whole of St. Ives! (I think they generally prefer safer perches, where they won't be hassled by sea-gulls)  

4. A group of tourists

This is a boat that takes tourists along the Cornish coast, to see the seals which feed in the water at a nearby rocky island.  We had just returned from our own trip and I couldn't resist taking a snap of those who so eagerly took our place - complete with the ubiquitous English Tourist collection of sandwiches, sandals and raincoats! 

5. A rack of post cards

I did photograph a "proper" rack of traditional seaside holiday postcards... But then we went to the Yellow Canary Cafe in St. Ives.  They had two of these fabulous postcard holders, filled with cards depicting the cafe - and made specially by the painter of that picture, to display her work to its best advantage.  I couldn't resist! 

6. An urban street scene

I suppose this could also qualify for Item #17 - that is quite some lamp post!  But I like this view of a street in our nearby town, so here you are - a shopping street in Bedford, UK. 

7. A rural landscape

James and I had a lovely walk, out to the edge of our village and across the fields.  He showed me some places I had never explored before.  We live in an area where countryside is frequently interrupted by people-stuff. Like the railway, which runs South to London and beyond, as far as Brighton on the South coast or - as you see here - North to Leicester and on to Nottingham, Derby, Durham, Newcastle... all the way to Edinburgh in Scotland.  But the lovely viaduct, carrying the railway bridge across the River Great Ouse, just seems to add to the atmosphere of our rural landscape.  We can hear the trains on rainy days and they give a feeling of being near to Life, but sufficiently peaceful and remote, to feel that we "live in the countryside".
I like our village and the country round about. 

8. A tattoo on a person
* Another "fail".  I had a couple of chances, if I'd been brave enough to ask...  

9. A bakery

A real Cornish Bakery, claiming to be "The Oldest Cornish Pasty Maker in the World".  I'm not certain whether that applies to the Bakery itself, or to the Baker! Either way, the pasties were very good. 

10. A photo bomb (someone found lurking in the background of photo; the lurker may have intended to disrupt the picture or may be doing it unintentionally, but the background lurker is a surprise to the photographer) 
* It's a matter of chance - and the chance never occurred! 

11. A horn

The pace of life "Doown yer i' Coarnwaall" is somewhat slower and more leisurely than at home in Bedfordshire.   The horn was attached to a small street barrow, owned by a local artist.  The stall was filled with postcards displaying his lovely illustrations of the surrounding town and countryside, which he offered for sale.  However, he didn't feel the need to hang around his stall, looking hopeful and guarding his goods.  He would wander off and buy a coffee, or a pasty, trusting his potential customers to notify him with a loud "Parp" on this horn, should they need his attention! 

12. A mascot
*We went to Norfolk for a holiday - and arrived on the last day of the Carnival, when they had a parade. Unfortunately, we were held up in traffic and when we arrived at Wells, the traffic was all stopped - to wait for the parade to go through.  So, we didn't arrive until after the parade was over - and missed both the parade and all the exciting people in it.  So, no Mascot...  and I didn't see anything that would qualify anywhere else this summer! 

13. A sunrise

The North Atlantic Ocean, in south west Cornwall, England.  Next stop, Newfoundland! 

I got up Early on July 9th, to take this rather magical shot - the photo history says this was taken at 4:09am. So worth the effort - but I did go back to sleep for a couple more hours! 

14. A parade
15. A juggler
* As mentioned before, we missed the Wells Carnival Parade by just a few minutes - our arrival coincided with the traffic being stopped for the parade to pass through the town.  We were stuck on the main road and missed it!

16. A sign in a language other than English

Well, we were "abroad" for our week away in July - we went all the way to Cornwall!  So, we were well placed to find a sign "in foreign"; so I thought... In fact, Cornish is still a near-dead language and although many are now trying to revive it, it's not used in the wide and regular way of Welsh in Wales.  There, we would have found many, many signs, notices, road signs etc, all in Welsh and English (if we were lucky!).  

I had to hunt quite hard to find anything in Cornish.  This little house sign simply translates as "Morvah's House".  I don't know if the owner is called Morvah; I did a little research and found there is a village near St. Ives, called Morvah, which is named after a local early-Christian saint.   

17. A lamp post

I found plenty of lovely lamp posts while I was on holiday.  However, in the end I have settled on this quirky little example.  It's in the garden behind our village pub.  I know it's a bit wonky, but I like it so much.  Its Edwardian appearance does rather remind me of Narnia.... 

18. A water fall

I live in Bedfordshire. It's pretty flat.  What we call "a hill", people from elsewhere in Britain would call "a small rise", or worse, "a mere pimple"!  

So, it was lucky that we were on holiday in a land of cliffs and caves.  We found this little, trickly fall at the beach in Carbis Bay, where we were staying.  It was a good height - about twenty feet - and made a great splashing as it fell onto the seaweedy rock below.  In winter-time, I should imagine this would be something more like a torrent, as local winter rains swell the ground-water by several hundred percent.  So, this is a photo of a "resting" waterfall - waiting to be replenished by the seasons! 

19. A public garden

A Cornish Cliff-top Garden, St. Ives, Cornwall.  

Such exotic planting could never survive our chilly, damp and miserable winters.  In Cornwall, the climate is generally far more temperate, so that they can grow plants that would otherwise be found only in the Mediterranean and further south.  Palm trees jostle with succulent desert-loving plants and exotic flowers.  A lovely place to sit and watch the boats go by. 

20. A bus (not a car, truck, lorry, camper or RV) with a picture painted on its sides.
*No luck here.  Some of the large buses in town have painted pictures, but our local ones are smaller and they don't! 
21. A photograph of you with something representing the season (recognizing that the season will be Winter for our friends in the southern hemisphere). Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.
* I don't believe that I don't have this photo! I have looked and looked, but it just didn't happen!

If you find something on the list too difficult, you may substitute one of the following items for anything on the list, except for Item #21:
Alternative A: A kite, hot air balloon or blimp
Alternative B: A bird house

So, I got most of them... It was fun - in fact the whole family joined in this year and it was a joint effort!

One Photo and Twenty Words - August 2014

There's no substitute for a comfy bed, when it's pouring down and howling a gale. Bored, bored, bored... Poor Tom! 

* * *

This is part of Abi's Meme 'One Photo and Twenty Words':
"Find one photo and choose up to twenty words to tell its story. Jot it down and link back here."

Why not join in too and leave a link in the post at Abi's Blog?

* * *

I'm sorry if you're not fond of cats - this slot on my blog does seem to have turned into "Tom's Corner"!

One Photo and Twenty Words - May 2014

Does he feel guilty? I think not.  The mummy starling wasn't impressed though, when he tried to eat her baby!

* * *
This is part of Abi's Meme 'One Photo and Twenty Words':
"Find one photo and choose up to twenty words to tell its story. Jot it down and link back here."

Why not join in too and leave a link in the post at Abi's Blog?

* * *

You may notice a bit of a pattern to my "One Photo & Twenty Words" posts... The Furry One features yet again!  This time though, he's in disgrace...

Wednesday Worktable - 5th March 2014 : My New Plan!

I haven't contributed to JuliaDunnit's WOYWW for ages.  It's been quite crazy here over the last few months and I really haven't joined in with much at all, on any blogs (even my own).   But I wanted to join in this time - because I have a Work Desk Story for you!

* * *

Last Friday I went to the local auction house and left a Bid on an item.  The auction was on Saturday morning and I was on the phone early in the afternoon, to see if my bid had been successful.  It had indeed... my invoice would arrive by e-mail on Saturday afternoon and I could collect my item on Monday or Tuesday.

On Monday afternoon, Mister Lizziemade and I went to the auction house and brought home my new...

Plan Chest!!

Woo-hoo!  I have wanted a plan chest for ever!  Especially since I have been book-binding, as I have loads of huge sheets of paper and storage has been an issue. 

My Studio was originally supposed to be The Spare Bedroom as well - there was going to be a sofa-bed along one wall; so, there wasn't really any room for a huge chest of drawers. 

However, we now have an extra room downstairs, as last year we doubled the size of the old dining room, to make a large living room, where we have plenty of space to sit and relax, as well as room for the dining table and other furniture.  The original "sitting room" is now a "snug", separated from the rest of the house by a hallway - which makes it perfect to double as a guest room.  So I no longer need to worry about trying to accommodate people - only equipment and paper!! 

I have been looking out for a plan chest online, but with little success, as I didn't want to spend the £400 or more that was necessary to buy what I saw that was suitable.  Even on EBay, a decent second-hand plan chest is selling for £300+ and almost always, these items are "Collection Only" - ie. I would have to arrange collection and delivery myself, at extra cost - or else they are being sold by dealers who arrange delivery, but at a premium. 

I decided to try the local auction and phoned on Wednesday, to ask if they had any plan chests for the coming Saturday.  I was in luck - there were two... Hence the visit on Friday and my subsequent purchase! 

As you may notice from the photo above, the chest is now filled and labelled.  I have decent storage at last!  No more hauling huge, heavy paper-storage bags from a pile and dragging them around the floor, just so I can get at a single sheet that's stored right at the bottom of the heap. I can keep them in seperate drawers and lay the bag on the top of the chest to find what I need - Yay! 

I've been having a Tidy Up in the Studio, so this new Plan Chest is the next stage in my reorganisation and clear-out.  I hope that I will soon have an organised room, where I can really get on with some work, without having to shift piles of stuff from place to place, just to make room to work.  It's still Work in Progress (my crafting desk is still pretty untidy, but you should've seen it at the start of yesterday, before I attacked the massive pile of stuff!), but I am Getting There!

And What Was on my (lovely new) Workdesk today?

Lizzie's New Workdesk!



You can see that I got it all set up pretty quickly.  The table to the right is one of those folding "banquet" tables that they have in church halls and community centres.  It has been my Bookbinding Table for a year or so, propped up on wooden blocks, to raise it to standing height.  Now I have the Plan Chest, so I can work on the top of that, with the folding table as a place to set out my tools and equipment, lay out pieces of work that are waiting for my attention etc.  Just what I need! 

And this morning, on the plan-chest-workdesk was a pocket journal, in soft, spring-green leather.  I was about to stitch in the six sets of white pages, with some lovely pale mauve linen thread...

The chest is a great height to sit when stitching, as well as to stand at when preparing book covers, or cutting paper. I'm very happy with it!

This is the result of the morning's labours:

Green Leather Journal, with decorative longstitch binding in mauve linen thread. 

I'm a Happy Lizzie!
 

Swap Treasure

Recently there was a lovely idea posted at Sian's blog.  She suggested we should hold a bloggers' Swap of Very Small Things. 

 

We e-mailed our details to Sian and she made up a Swap List.  The idea was that you would send a Swap package to the person below you on the list.  So I was sending my package of Very Small Things to Jean (whose parcel was posted today!); and I have received a package from the lovely Jane. 

 

What? Oh, yes, the parcel... what Very Small Things did it contain?

 

Well, this was inside the very nicely decorated bubble envelope... See the friendly message?

And the litle package was so pretty... and exciting...

...and when I opened it, all this gorgeousness spilled out!  Look at the fab little bits & pieces - buttons, sparkly things, butterflies & flowers, tiny folders and die-cuts, little pieces of paper, tags, twine, ribbon, even a cute crochet flower. 

 

I feel lucky and very spoiled.  Thank you so much Jane, I'm delighted! 

 

Jane has also blogged about her package today - she received some lovely little things too and seems to be equally happy. 

 

What a great idea this was - thanks to Sian for organising this!  

Just a Little Bit Famous...

I got a Blog Feature!  I am very lucky to have a feature post on the Supporting Artists blog. 

Happy Lizzie :-)

 

I'm a member of the Supporting Artists Team on Etsy.  It's an invitation-only team and they choose a limited number of sellers, from shops selling a wide variety of things.  I was flattered to be invited to join and also very pleased to be asked to submit an article about my shop & workspace for the blog. 

 

In fact, I had forgotten all about it.  The post had to be submitted a couple of months ago, along with some photos, but I have been so busy since, that it had completely slipped my mind.  So it was a lovely surprise to see the link to my post, on the Supporting Artists Facebook page this morning! 

 

I am very lucky.  It's a great team, who are very active - I haven't been particularly active myself recently, but now I really want to put a bit more work in on the team's behalf - after all, it's the least I can do really!

 

If you want to see a photo of my messy studio and read all kinds of waffle about Lizzie Made, then why not go and see?  And while you are there, you might like to look around - it's a really good blog, with lots of very interesting posts, on a variety of topics.  There's also a directory of sellers, listed by the type of items they make/sell - and some of the other sellers' stuff is wonderful.  Well worth a visit! 

Two Days Time...

See you there!

Frosty Festivities Blog Hop - Another Make to Share!

Hello! Welcome to my post, which is part of our "Frosty Festivities" Blog Hop.  Our theme is "Winter" and my contribution is below.

You should have landed here from Lisa-Jane's blog.  If you didn't come from there and you want to follow the whole Hop, then it started at Jennifer's blog (and it ends there too!). 

There is also a complete list of every blog, in order, just at the bottom of my post.

* * *

Remember, if you follow the entire Hop and leave a comment after each person's post, go back to Jennifer's blog to let her know.

If you do, you'll be entered in the draw for a great prize of items from these two collections: Basic Grey Aspen Frost and Carta Bella Winter Fun items, worth over £25.
All entries must be received by Monday the 19th of November at 10.59pm GMT.

 * * *

Paper Drops Christmas Decorations

My previous post was instructions for making a string of little paper hearts:

 

 Of course, these could be made as Christmas Decorations too!

Pretty, eh? 

Do you see the little shapes in the middle of those banners?  Sort-of tear-drop or leaf shapes? 

I thought you might like to make some of these too.  They're simple and enjoyable to make and they look very effective, either hung individually,  or in a long string.

 

To Make the Decorations

 

You need a few paper strips.  Mine were about 8" long and 1" wide.

    

Fold each strip in half, as shown.  

Choose two strips that you think look nice together. 

Decide which will be the Inside strip and which will go on the Outside.

 Cut about 1/2" from Both ends of the Inside strip

so it will be 1" shorter than the other

Mark about 1/4" from the folded edge of each strip and make a hanging hole

(I used a tiny hole-punch, but you can use a big needle, an awl etc). 

 

On the Inside Strip, apply about 1/4" deep strip of glue to one end...

...and on one side in the centre.

Fold the strip and press the glued parts together.

 

Now apply glue to the Outside Strip, at Both ends and both parts of the middle, as shown.

Carefully fold the Outside Strip round the Inside Strip, with the cut ends together. 

Press the glued cut ends of the Outside strip onto the same (ie. cut) ends of the Inside strip, as shown.

Now, press the folds together...  

...then press the glued parts at the top as shown.

Gently push the ends in, to curve the strips and open them out... 

...so you get a nice curvy shape like this.

(try not to be too forceful when you push, or they end up wonky!)

 You can put a hanging loop on each shape, using a piece of thick thread, or fine ribbon.

These ornaments look pretty hung on their own.  They can be hung from the Christmas tree too.

Or you can make a long string, like this. 

Space the ornaments evenly - mine are about 4" apart.

I used a medium-weight linen thread to string them together.  

Lay the ornaments out as you go, to get the right spacing.  

Use a dot of glue over each hole, to secure the string in the right place

and prevent the ornaments sliding around.

 

Then hang them up somewhere where you can admire your work!

 

 

* * *

I hope you enjoyed my post and fancy having a go at your own ornaments.  Why not combine them with some of the heart-shapes, for an interesting decorative banner?

 

* * *

Your next stop on the Blog Hop is Louise: www.scrapbook-me.blogspot.co.uk, so remember to "hop" over there - after you've left me a quick comment, of course - so you'll be entered in the prize draw!

This is the entire Blog Hop List, just in case you need it:

Jennifer

Abi

Daphne

Jacky

Jemma

Jenny

Jo B

Jo S

Julie

Kirsty

Lisa-Jane

Lizzie (you are here!)

Louise

Mel

Rinda

Sarah

Sian

Jennifer (don't forget to leave a comment, to let her know when you've been all the way round and left a comment on every blog!)