Simon Says... and Just Because!!!

Hi... mum is very confused again and very unsteady so Dr, is coming this pm... Miranda is in for her bone graft - finally, yey!!! - so it's all happening this week. Boys due for a sleepover too tonight, so that will keep me on my mettle then, eh??? LOL!!!
Anyway, as I said before, it's an ill wind etc. and my mind is running on with ideas if I can just find  time for them... alongside all the washing, toileting, etc etc... tee hee... so I escape to my craftyoom and do stuff!! and I have made an entry for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, which is London, Paris or New York, this week. I thought how nice to have a spring break in Paris, and decided to make this...

 I could not resist my usual collage style - pile them on and stack them high!! - so I chose a variety of stamps including Crafty Individuals, TH, Invoke Arts and Rubber Stamp Concepts (main image)... they are all layered and I used distress inks and archival, with clear embossing powder for some images...

 Here is the whole piece, roughly 6"x6" in a frame. That is some 7Gypsies tissue tape round the edges. It is all postage stamps. I imagined a really blue sky and pink blossoms, hoping for a light and airy, if rather vintage, feel...

 I needed an embellishment, as the piece is quite flat as it is. So I thought of a rosette. All three cities are in countries with red, white and blue as national colours, hence the paper chosen. I finished off with a gem in the centre and three coloured hat pins... aww, cute!!

 Lots of lovely gentle texture from the embossing. Wonder if SSSS will mind I featured ALL THREE cities!! ?? Still, the main bit is Paris, which is a wonderful city... went oodles of years ago, probably two zillion light years, when I was 12!!! LOVED it...

And finally, the bottom left corner has a sort of baroque curly thing - curtesy of Vinaj - as a finishing touch, and I set the piece on a sheet from the Tattered Time pad from DCWV - well when don't I use that pad these days??? tee hee...

So that's it... I am quite happy with it and shall pop and enter it now. Such a happy piece has brought out the sunshine - as they promised us today - so the light is filling my dear 'ole craftyoom as I write. Thanks for coming to take a peek and leaving a comment. They mean so much when I am feeling frustrated over mum's sad condition..
Love and Light
Frankie
xx

WOYWW #142 - Lots and Lots!!!

Oh my but this carer lark ain't  'arf  'ard!!! Mum was on the floor and very very sick on Sunday morning - not how I wanted to start the day... anyway, suffice to say she was at death's door all day and could not even move her own feet to walk... bit better yesterday and back to old self (boo) today...

But it's an ill wind and all that, so with a REALLY quiet day or two, yours truly has been busy... oh yesh!! So I am very pleased to see you here hot foot from (or to) the blog of Julia, who runs this whole showing-your-desk lark!! Your lovely comments keep me sane - well, relatively!! tee hee...

Without more ado, get a cuppa and take a longer ride, cos I have a lot of photos to show you and I hope you enjoy... I will endeavour not to chat TOO much!!!

 Firstly I wanna show you my TIO challenge entry for this coming fortnight... it's a book title chosen by Wanda, called "Bird Song", set in WW1... Here the background tag is made and I am starting on the birdie... you all know I LOVE working with this die!!

 The birdie is getting embossed here - oooo my fave thing in crafting, mostly!!

 He is about done now, and even has an ickle black beady eye!!! Awww... Chirpy chirpy...

 Here's the full monty, "money shot"... the whole desk, still reasonably tidy from last week, with only out what I am using... the biggest box in front, here, is of my embossing powders!! wot a lot I got???

WW1... I wanted a vintage feel for this one, so it is almost monchrome - can you have "almost monochrome"?? Is that like being almost pregnant??!! Anyway, it's all my brown drawer pf distress inks, plus a tiny bit of spun sugar to warm the tones, and then verdigis on the cage and green on my ickle birdie...

 I stamped into the hot powder with a ginkgo leaf stamp, for his feathers and gave him a real metal wing, coloured with rub 'n buff gold and bronze - used it round the tag and on the metal parts too...

 I love the way the doily turned out, and the curled metal on the 'dirty' . faded ribbon embellishment, is meant to remind us of barbed wire...

 The piece is full of texture and light and shade, mainly from the under-stamping of the other birdies and nests in various colours of  DIs... also, the cage is free to move and catch the light...

I am really happy with the way it turned out, and my dream is over with the rest of my teams' tags on TIO... why don't YOU join in this time?? BTW, the under stamps are from two sets by Stamp in the Hand...

And what other goodies can I show you?? Well, I have been VERY busy with my jewellery again, and here it all is below. I have recently splashed out and tried Jewellery Maker for their gems!!!! WOW!! If you are like me and mad for the stuff, then they have the most WONDERFUL gemstones. Reasonable prices for real v glass/plastic/resin!!! So eyes down to see what I got made...

 This first piece was made as a sort of commission for one of mum's regular carers... she comes twice a day and is a real help to me too... so I gave it to her instead of selling it!!! Lovely jasper, imperial jasper and amythist. She was delighted!!!

 This piece is for me, until I decide not!!! tee hee... I was inspied by those large grey lanterns so I used them again... this time on a beading wire instead of doing my own wire work...

 This piece is what inspired the carer to ask me to make for her... it is mainly Vintaj and some beads from my stash... now there IS a LOT of wire work in this one, but I really LOVED doing it... there are ickle diamonds of abalone shell in it and the matching earrings... lovely on the neckline...

 And lastly, this is a work in progress... I have used lots of Vintaj again, and had a go at rivetting - using that hammer and block, given to me by the very fragrant Freddie... those of you who visit often will remember me raving over a small, but HEAVY cylinder of steel... well the rivets went in great using it - look...

 They are holding in the butterfly and the flower centre... ooo it was REALLY satisfying and I won't tell you what I was thinkig as I hammered!!!!! - too naughty!!!

And lastly, here are the two sides... there are some green gems in this but they did not phot well...I have yet to add chain. I think I will use assymetric chain too, fat at one side and rather more dainty on the other... we'll see...

Well, thanks for sticking it out this far - if you did!! - I made it round a LOT more blogs last week, so I hope to see even MORE of your desks this time... oh, and BTW, Miranda has a date for that bone graft - it will be THIS Thursday, so I shall be caring for my two grandsons again, here, and her when she is out, especially she if can't weight-bear for a while - it's awful hard to carry food and cups of tea whilst hopping with a zimmer!!! - ooo I should'nt laugh but really I think I am getting a little hysterical at the thought of yet more caring to do!!! It will be the early morning school run that will be the killer!!!

Sorry - off now, honest!!
Love and Light
Frankie
xx
I want to enter this piece in a couple of other challenges:-
GingerSnap Creations - use only two colours
                                     - #139 use a faux technique