Polymer Owl Keyring Make number 1 ....364 to go!

So I've started, first make down. This didn't take long about 20 mins or so and was really fun it's an owl keyring made out of Polymer Clay.

364 makes to go :) 

Quick Card

Here's another card I made using a digi stamp from Whimsie Doodles.

Another Quick Card

Just another quick post this evening, here is another card I made using a whimsie doodle digital stamp. I loved this stamp when I saw it, a nice cute image and a great sentiment. 

I made a simple card by mounting the stamp on some blue card stock and then covering a 6x6 card blank in some blue paper from the potobello road collection. 

Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary

A couple of weekends ago I went to visit my Nan who lives on the Somerset/Devon border in the middle of Exmoor, I love visiting her there it is such a beautiful part of the country so idyllic :) 

Whilst there we visited the Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary where they look after sick and abandoned donkeys, you can visit there website here, and if you ever in the area I would highly recommend it as a day out. 

I thought I would share with you a few piccys of the donkeys they are soooo cute. 

Decopatch Elephant

Today I headed off again to the bootsale, I wasn't on the hunt for anything in particular but had a brainwave when I spied some wooden elephants. I have been wanting to decopatch some small animals for a while but the cardboard shapes are so expensive its about £7 for the smallest ones. As soon as I spotted the wooden elephants I knew they would be perfect for decopatching. I bought three elephants for 50 pence each.

When I got them home I started to decopatch of them. I recently ordered about 20 different sheets of decopatch paper so I have lots of different patterns to choose from. I decided to do this elephant in the mosaic style paper as I thought it would give it an exotic feel.

I cut the paper into postage stamp sized pieces and then layered them on with the decopatch glue. Once this was dry I painted on some eyes and then varnished the whole thing.

Super happy with the result and will be on the look out for other wooden animals in future at bootsales. I am a decopatch addict it is such an easy craft and so much fun, if you haven't tried it I would advise giving it a go.

Polymer Clay

Just a quick post today this week has been super busy and stressful so haven't had as much time for crafting as I would like.

I did have a chance to give polymer clay modeling a go though. Its a technique I have been wanting to try for a while and I found a pack of 30 different clays in the range for £16, I snapped it up along with some clay tools.

I watched a few videos online and saw how easy it is to start making cute little models so decided to have a go at making a teddy bear and a dog. I was pretty happy with the result, for a first go I think it looks cute and fun. On my next model I am going to be careful about not mixing the colours of the clays together and try and be a bit more neat and uniform about the models.

I think everyone should give clay modeling a go its so fun and really creative. I cant wait to get working on my next models this weekend.

Mini Cross Stitch

I love cross stitch but so far I have found that I don't have the patience for the bigger pieces so stick to small patterns that are fairly easy to complete.

I have a friend who is completely crazy about birds, she loves them and anything to do with them so when I saw a cross stitch of a little chick with a worm in my local craft shop a few weeks ago I bought it straight away.

I managed to complete the whole cross stitch in about 4 hours which I don't think is too bad for a beginner. I haven't decided what I am going to do with the cross stitch yet I want to make it into either a cool pressie or card for my bird crazy friend. I will have to get my thinking cap on.

First Attempt at using Pro Markers

This morning I have been using my new pro markers with some digi stamps. I had researched pro markers on a number of blogs and thought they would be a great choice to colour in stamped images. I have seen some really amazing colouring online and wanted to try it out for myself.

Im going to be honest, its not as easy as many of the online video tutorials make it look, but its great fun experimenting to try and get the shading right. I have coloured in two of the same hamster images and even here I can see an improvement between my first and second attempt. Hopefully you can too.

My first attempt is the one on the right hand side and the second attempt is the one on the left. I prefer my second attempt I think that the shadows and shading look better on it. I tried to add a fur texture to my first attempt by layering a lighter sand coloured promarker over the honeycomb one. I am not totally happy with the effect which is why on the second image I just added shadows by using a combination of spice and honeycomb coloured markers.

Overall I am happy with how the image turned out for a first attempt but I can definitely improve, I want the image to be less streaky and marked. I currently only have 20 pro markers I have Rubber Stamp set one and two which are priced at £15 each. In order to improve I decided to order more colours so am waiting for a delivery of another 30 pens as well as a blender pen.

I really enjoyed using the pro markers and can see it becoming very addictive!