T on Tuesday

If I quietly pop my head round the door and whisper 'I'm back'.... you think people would forgive me for the complete lack of updating this blog?    I hope so! LOL
So I thought I would join Elizabeth for T on Tuesday and find out what has been happening the last few months whilst I have enjoyed my Mum's visit, my son's visit, my niece and her partner's visit.... yes, I have been pretty busy and not done any crafting at all!
I had a lovely time though, and really enjoyed the company and am now finding the house a wee bit quiet so need to get my brain and mojo in gear to start making things again.

So I went upstairs and twirled the assortment of teas and coffees and have gone for a frothy coffee...

and returned downstairs to my scraproom where I am playing with a large metal saw blade I found while out walking... and I had to pick it up and bring it home, didn't I? LOL

This was the saw blade before I started on it... 

and I have to use this Tim Holtz stamp on it somewhere.... perfect for it, don't you agree?

So that is me, this Tuesday, playing nicely in the scrap room and will be wandering abut visiting people when they wake up to their Tuesday too! :)

Cards....

Now I have managed to clear up after the fairy castle... isn't amazing just how far glitter can travel?  I thought I would continue with my self-imposed challenge of using all my TH dies... and it seemed like a good idea to make cards.

I wanted a card to go with the blogoversary giveaway... so used good ole Graphic 45 Communique papers and the lovely vintage telephone die.  I had some awesome black cardboard packaging from some David Yurman perfume which was glossy and shiny and looks like the old plastic stuff that phones were made from.

and I had enough of it to make a typewriter version

then I thought I would get clever (always a bad idea) and do one with a dictionary page as a background, it definitely needs something else... just not sure what!

and I was on the slippery slope downhill from there... but I did use the hanging sign die!  I don't have the rosette die so I had to make my own version. 

and I stamped the backs with this... I love this stamp, it just makes me smile because people are never sure if I will or not.... ;)

T on Tuesday

I am joining Elizabeth for T on Tuesday with frothy coffee in my Keep Calm and Keep Crafting mug!  Oh and yes, that is one very large Bisto gravy tub that I am planning to have a play with.

I did alter this Pringles chips tub earlier... it is a small one as I have learned that I if I open a Pringles chips I tend not to know when to stop! I now only buy the little ones... and I stop that much sooner! ;)

This is what it turned into... I used Graphic 4 Secret Garden papers and it turned out a very pretty little cotton reel.

This is the top of it... and the flower was made using my tattered florals Tim Holtz die... see, I am still trying to use all my dies!!

This is the other side of the reel showing the dangly hanging from the lid.  The little chipboard bits on the dangly are the offcuts from the bird cage die I cut a few days ago... and if you look closely at the lid...

the little chipboard petals? They are the offcuts from the top half of the bird cage die... LOL... waste not, want not... 

I gave the cotton reel to my doctor when I went to see her yesterday as a thank you, she has been so sweet removing my mole thing and then having to go through the allergic reaction to the non allergic tapes and half the stitches one day and the other half a couple of days later because she couldn't re-tape the wound and then it got infected... poor woman probably wonders what she got herself into agreeing to treat me! LOL

If you would like a chance to win a cotton reel, go to my Blogoversary post!

The Little Twinchies Book

I was reading Neet's Artful Times challenge for this week and decided to give it a go because though I have done inchies in the past, I have never made twinchies!  So what is a girl to do? She makes a little itty bitty twinchies book!

Techhnically, the cover doesn't count, because they are just over the 2 inch mark... and I decorated the spine  with a chippy pocket watch and little glass bottle instead of the front cover because with the hidden hinge binding it gives a broad spine to work with.

but all the pages are 2 inches square... so 12 twinchies in all!

and this is one of my favourite themes and songs: Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce

and yes, the lyrics are all there... in size 5 font! ;)

If I could save time in a bottle

the first thing that I'd like to do

is to save every day

til eternity passes away

just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever

if words could make wishes come true

I'd save every day like a treasure and then

again, I would spend them with you

but there never seems to be enough time

to do the things you want to do

once you find them

I've looked around enough to know

that your the one I want to go

through time with

if I had a box just for wishes

and dreams that had never come true

the box would be empty

except for the memory

of how they were answered by you

but there never seems to be enough time

to do the things you want to do

once you find them

I've looked around enough to know

that your the one I want to go

through time with

The pages are little pockets which hold tags...

cardstock tags with transparencies coloured with alcohol inks

which swivel back to reveal journaling space beneath

the transparencies were embossed with Tim Holtz pocket watches folder before I alcohol inked them.

and just to keep them tidy, I added smaller tags on the backs with patterned papers.

Used lots of time emphemera and stamps and the papers are Fancy Pants It's the little things 6 x 6 pad which were perfect for this teeny size book.

I had a great time playing with this challenge!

WOYWW 16 March 2011

The weeks just keep flying by and finally I have snow melting and positive numbers on the temperature gauge!!
I have been playing with some pretty serviettes I bought so you can see what I am in the middle of on my desk this week.

I have a button box which is a plastic one and I was looking at one of the boxes in my collection of them stuffed in a cupboard and thought I would make something a bit more pretty to keep them in.  I remember as a child spending ages with my Grandmother's button tin, sorting them into colours and then sizes and having a lovely time.  She was a very special person, she even 'turned' my Grandfather's shirt collars when they started to wear thin on the inside... I can't quite imagine anyone doing that in this age of throw it away and buy new.  My Mum had a button tin also, I am not sure if she had my Grandmother's, or one of her own, but I can picture the tin now, round and gold coloured with roses on the front. At least now I will have a pretty button box to rummage around in, even if it isn't anything to do with sewing new buttons on a shirt!!

I used satin material to line the inside and used another serviette to decorate the inside lid.

Inked and heat embossed the letters to spell buttons down the side of the lid.

While I had the modge podge and serviettes out on the desk I decided to have a play with a small canvas and used my new Tim Holtz hanging sign die and then turned it over and decorated the back adding the Tim Holtz bird cage to the inside.

So if you get bored with the front.... you can just turn it around! LOL

Don't forget to pop over to Julia's for the ever growing list of like minded souls who bare their desks every Wednesday.