One for sorrow

Sometimes it's time to take a break from all the CJs and swaps and challenges and make something to keep.

That's what this is.

It's to remind me that everything gets better eventually, no matter how bad it feels at the time.

I'm putting last year to rest. Good riddance 2007.

---

[Background canvas washed over with Ecoline inks and stamped all over with GPP corrugated cardboard stamp. Drybrushed around the border with black gesso. Three torn sections of loose canvas were also coated with black gesso, and once this had dried, white absorbent ground was applied with fingers to cover most of each canvas piece. The AG once dry, was coloured with water soluble crayons and more ecolines. On each piece a bird image was embossed in black, and pale blue pearlescent ink was sponged around a mask to frame the bird(s). Words were added using a Dymo labeller (and at the bottom of the canvas, handwritten with a brush pen)]

Friday Fivers - 9th May 2008

hlog's five is 4 again this week:

1.) Beach or mountains?
Ummmm – tough one. I love to swim in the sea, and walk by the coast, especially along a cliff top. But I can’t stand just sunbathing on the beach, lying there on a towel for hours, bores me rigid. And the sand gets everywhere. And mountains are beautiful. And they overlook my boys in Vancouver. Yup – seems I have made my mind up - mountains please.

2.) Which newspaper(s) do you read? (Either online or in print)
I only really read a real printed newspaper when I go to visit my Dad, I haven’t bought one in years. I’m not good with distressing news (murders, wars….) which, along with the indiscretions of celebrities, is all the papers seem to report anyway. So I tend to limit my news-gathering to what I hear on the radio on the drive into work. I do read lots of sports news, though (which can also be pretty distressing at times!) – I subscribe to Powerplay magazine which is the UK version of the Hockey News, and I regularly read the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers online.

3.) What do you plan to do during the hockey off season to keep yourself occupied?
Sulk. Sigh. I’ll survive it, I always have a to do list longer than my arm anyway, so keeping busy isn’t really a problem. But I do miss my hockey so badly already. I am utterly lost on Saturday evenings without a trip up to the Link to cheer on my Wildcats. And I haven’t really been able to get excited about the Stanley Cup playoffs since the Flames and Caps went out, because there’s nobody left in it that I have that much affinity to. I’m still watching, but I have this sinking feeling that the Flyers are actually in with a chance, and I tell you, if they win, I shall cry me a river :(

4.) Favorite form of procrastination?
Faffing about on the net, the devil’s own tool for ensuring that nobody actually gets anything done anymore.

And here's the original:

1. Who do you adore?
Strong word, that. Going to take the fifth.

2. Who adores you?
I'm not convinced anyone does. There are lots of people who love me though. And that'll do me.

3. What's in your pockets?
Right now, I'm wearing something pocket-free. I could do my bag instead...let's have a look (god knows what's in there).....wallet, car keys, tissues, pay slip, neurofen, a postcard that says "I wish I was in Canada, eh", a little Canucks keyring that I haven't put on my keys yet, a Flames zipper pull that fell off Connor's hoody, a lovely old book from 1914 that is due to be altered for an upcoming round robin, flyers for local amusement parks that I have zero recollection of picking up, 4 sharpies, a comb, and a tutorial on CSS (cascading style sheets, a web design thang) that I downloaded from the net and printed out. All vital stuff :)

4. Who can you talk with for hours?
Anyone, really, I'm a chatterbox - the other person always runs out of steam before I do :) I prefer to do my chatting online than on the phone, though. I can multi-task better that way. I really miss MSNing with my best friend for hours every day - we never ever ran out of things to say - she has been in hospital for months now, and can't easily be contacted. I see her for a couple of hours every other week, but that is nowhere near enough. We will have SO much to catch up on when she is home....

5. What sounds great today?
On my way to work this morning the one song that had me whipping the volume up was Propane Nightmares by Pendulum. Looking forward to seeing them at Bestival.

I won! I won! I won!

Ooh ooh oooooh!!!!

I am this months Top Hat pick at the GPP Crusades!!!

yay!!!!

*dances around the room with gay abandon* :)

I even get my very own Michelle Ward graphic, as she would say, HOW COOL IS THAT???

Seriously - I have enjoyed this month's crusade so much that it's been a prize in itself. I LOVED the stencil making and can't wait to cut more. The whole house has got into it - my eldest son has already made a couple of t-shirts and they came out great.

In fact the stencil burner has fast become the most fought over tool in the house :)

So to win the draw too is just fab - a wonderful cherry on top of an already delicious cake :)

Looking forward to Crusade #20....

Yes!!!! it worked!!! check out my t-shirt!!! :)

Oh wow this was so nervewracking!

I had to wait for the paint to dry completely before I could peel off the stencil - and I really had no idea if any paint might have bled under and ruined the design completely.

It felt like forever.

But when I took off that stencil and saw the PERFECT result, I whooped out loud :)

Ignore the shiny bits you can see around the design - that's residue from the temp glue I used to hold the stencil down tight on the shirt while I was painting through it. That will just rub off but I want to wait till the morning to make absolutely sure I won't smudge the paint.

Can't wait to wear it :)

(and yes, it's supposed to be off-centre!)


Inge asked for a tutorial.... but there isn't much to tell really. It was amazingly simple.

I lightly coated the back of the mylar stencil with zig glue and let it dry completely for a few hours.

Then I ironed the shirt (which was an interesting experience, I don't think I have used an iron in over a year - apart from the little craft iron I use for ironing distressed tags!! :)) - and laid it flat on the table with a big bit of cardboard inside, just in case the paint leeched through onto the back of the shirt.

Next it was just a case of sticking the stencil onto the front of the shirt, being extra careful with the little detail bits. And then I used a sponge brush with a dabbing motion to apply Lumiere fabric paint all over the design.

I waited an hour or so till the paint was dry, and then peeled off the stencil. And whooped :)

Tomorrow I'll need to iron it to heat set it, and then it will be washable and all finished.

This is the first of many t-shirts for me, that's for sure. I already have a couple more stencils cut, but they are for pressies, so I can't show them on here....

Oh, and on a completely different subject - here's Cons yesterday when we went caching in Chiseldon:

oh I am SO hooked!

You remember the stencil I cut a week or so ago for the Green Pepper Press "cut it out!" crusade?

Well I wanted to do some more, specifically for stencilling onto t-shirts with fabric paint or bleach, but didn't think I would have time during April - but then Michelle went and extended the deadline, didn't she :)

Perfect!

So I went and ordered a whole heap of plain t-shirts, and fabric paints a-plenty, and a stencil cutting tool, and got busy in Photoshop designing stencils.

And here is my first attempt with the hot cutter...

I am SO pleased with how this has turned out!!!!!!! (even if I did burn my hair.....must remember to tie it back next time)


This is the paper rough draft, I will bite the bullet (and my bottom lip) and try the stencil out on a t-shirt tomorrow - wish me luck!

This t-shirt will be so special because it will be TOTALLY unique, and TOTALLY made by me:

• I took the photo (in Calgary during the anthem before the Canucks/Flames game I went to in March)
  
• I converted the photo to something stencilworthy in Photoshop
  
• I painstakingly cut the stencil out by hand, and
  
• I used (or will do tomorrow) the stencil to create a one of a kind, unique piece of wearable art

And yes, I call it art, not everyone would, but I am prouder of this than almost anything I have ever made, and to me it's art. So ner :)

Here's the original photo:



I'll report back once the t-shirt's done....

Can't wait to make more stencils

Hooked, I tell ya :)

This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the 'Twilight Zone'

Yet another stamp CJ - yet more fun - I enjoyed this one with bells on.

The stamp this time was a little frame - about the size of a passport photo:

I had no clue what I was going to do with it - I have had the journal for a couple of weeks and kept taking it out and staring at it blankly, waiting for inspiration to strike.

Then a knight in shining armour came to my rescue - Sir Timothy Holtz of Rangerland - with a little post on his blog for National Scrapbooking Day in which he reprived his foamcore niche technique from his first DVD.

The frame would be perfect to surround a little niche, I figured.

So I got out my foam board and made an alien world, and a little niched window through which our intrepid explorer Theo can stare in wonder....

I honestly can't think of a more fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Well, other than watching Vancouver lifting the cup, or having a private Chilis gig in my back garden, or wandering around the Tate with my favourite person, so ok, there are lots of other things that would be more fun - but this was right up there, really :)

How-to:

The sky was first. I stamped various stars and planets, some with Brilliance ink, and some with Ranger acrylic dabbers, onto smooth mid-blue cardstock. Once the paint was dry I oversprayed with distress reinker / perfect pearls mixtures in dark blue, purple and red. The stamped images resist and show through the spray, but the background takes on a lovely dark shimmery finish which looks suitably outer-spacey to me.

I also sprayed some self adhesive cork with the red spray and a touch of orange, and left it to dry for later.

Next, the landscape:

I cut it from foamcore, and fingerpainted it with various shades of Ranger acrylic paint - Butterscotch, Terracotta, Copper and Gold. I also added patches of Distress crackle paint in yellow, orange and red (I can't remember their proper names - something to do with mustard, marmalade and the red was Fired Brick).

I overstamped in places with pearlescent beige ink using a GPP corrugated cardboard stamp for texture, and that was the foreground done.

Additional mountains for the background were cut from the cork we prepared earlier (Blue Peter eat your heart out :))

The alien guy - one of my favourite Third Coast stamps - was embossed with dark brown EP and then painted lightly with bronze acrylic.

Over on the right hand page, I cut out the niche for Theo, and backed it with a silver vortex stamped on black card.

I stamped, watercoloured and cut out Theo himself and then covered him with a light layer of microglaze so that his colours wouldn't run under the Glossy Accents later.

I filled the bottom half of the niche with glossy accents and added some tiny blue, green and purple microbeads. Once it had partially set, I popped Theo in and then added more GA over the top of him - so he seems to be behind a window.

The frame was stamped and embossed in copper onto dark blue cardstock and placed in front of the niche.



The page title:
Finally. After years of searching. Theo found it. The window to another world.
was added with a Dymo labeller - and that was it all done.

I like this one so much I want to keep it. That's the only downer about CJs.

I hope Theo's final recipient likes it as much as I do :)

I just finished my favourite journal entry ever ever

but I can't blog it because I am waiting for some Glossy Accents to dry.....which apparently doesn't hurry in proportion to the intensity of my stare...

grrrrrrr

so, while the shiny stuff dries in its OWN SWEET TIME

a sneaky peeky:

Thanks Jo for the company while I splidged paint around with my fingers and generally made a mess

I had a really nice day today, we should have 2-person mini crops more often :)

Friday Fiver x 2, May 2nd 2008

I’ve decided to play along with the hlog (Hockey’s Ladies of Greatness) Friday Five each week as well as the traditional one – purely because there is usually a hockey question or two in there – and I need some way to get my hockey fix over the summer….

So from now on you’ll get to find out 10 exciting (or more likely, spectacularly uninteresting) things about me every Friday, not just 5. Lucky youuuuuu :)

Well, this week, it’s 9 – because this week’s Friday Five at hlog has 4 questions….. but you get the general idea….

Friday Fiver:

1. Describe where you grew up

I lived in the same house from birth until I left home at the age of 18, and my Dad still lives there now. It’s a 3-bed semi in an East London suburb called Buckhurst Hill - a quiet little place that’s technically still in Essex rather than Greater London, just, but its position on the Central tube line makes it very much London overspill. It’s a pleasant place with lots of greenery – we were a stone’s throw from Epping Forest, which was always nice for early morning walks - but nice and accessible for the big city for gigs and stuff. With hindsight it was a great place to grow up, but of course at the time, especially in my teens, I thought it was dullsville :)

2. Do you wear any jewellery?

Tons! Well, not like Mr T, but yes, I like jewellery and am rarely seen without at least a couple of rings, a couple of bracelets and a necklace or two. My favourite pick-me-up treat is to buy something beautiful and handcrafted from somewhere like Etsy – like the moon collage pendant I purchased from Ingrid Dijkers last month as a birthday pressie to myself. All my jewellery has meaning to me, I don’t just pick something because it looks pretty, which may well be why a lot of it doesn’t really look as if it matches :) I wear silver, copper, gold, glass, precious stones, plastic, wood, all together – and I could tell you at great length what each piece signifies, if you had a spare couple of hours to listen :D

3. What do you have too much of?

Scrapbooking supplies! I actively scrapbooked for less than a year back in 2005, but during that time I bought SO much stuff. I have managed to re-purpose a lot of it for the sort of papercrafts I do still enjoy, like visual journalling etc, and I have given LOADS of stuff away. But I still have a fair bit, either stuff that I think I might be able to use one day (but I bet I never will), or papers/embellishments that are SO old fashioned or naff that I am too embarrassed to even give them away :S

4. Who is a fool?

According to my 5 year old, everyone. He has just started calling everyone a “FOO” in true B A Baracus style whenever they annoy him. It’s actually very rude of him, and I should tell him off, but it’s kind of cute, so he’s getting away with it for the moment.

5. What's your nickname?

I have had a few over the years, but the main two are Topsy, which lasted from childhood to Uni days (I was a geeky kid into dinosaurs, Sarah => Tri-Sarah-Tops => Topsy), and Flo, which I picked up about 7 years ago, when I needed a screen name to grant me a little anonymity on the eBay powerseller forums, so that I wouldn’t get any hassle from my ex. My ebay ID at the time was “thebradleybunch” (my partner’s surname was Bradley – lots of kids between us – pun on the Brady bunch), and so a pal christened me Florence after Florence Henderson, the actress who played the Brady mom in the original series. Florence got shortened to Flo over time.


Hlog Friday Five:

1. How many pages was the longest paper that you ever had to write?

Probably not many – I was lucky enough to do my degree in Maths, a subject in which we are encouraged to find the concise and elegant solution, not waffle on for 1000s of words and waste a ton of paper :D I did do an ‘A’ level in Politics & Economics though…plenty of rain forests slaughtered for that one.

2. Who is your favourite French-Canadian NHL player?

I’ll go for Alex Burrows – he has been whipping it up a storm on the shutdown line this past season with Kes. It has been great to see him really come into his own this year. The kid’s got a great sense of humour too.

3. What is (are) your preferred pizza topping (s)?

Goats cheese and red pepper ….. or just a grand pile-up of veggies (but hold the mushrooms and olives)

4. How much water do you drink a day on average?

If I am at work, tons – maybe 15-20 glasses. Purely cos I get bored sat at my desk all day and so I break it up regularly with trips to the water cooler. Plus it seems to be a very dry environment. At home, or out and about, I drink less because I’m usually rushing around busy, and eating/drinking properly is often way too far down my list of priorities.

Everybody's happy nowadays..... :)

Well I am anyway

Remember these guys?

Back in the mid 80s, I had a data entry temp job to get me through my first summer at Uni. It was, hands down, the most boring, monotonous, tedious job I have ever had. The only thing that kept me sane was a borrowed walkman, and a cassette of these fine men.

Went to see them last night, had a good bop about, got a pint of VERY COLD lager spilled down my back, 'twas fun :) I can still remember all the words, it would seem, from those long, long hours spent listening to that cassette while typing up telecommunication engineers' timesheets.

And actually, despite my blog post title, Everybody's Happy Nowadays is the only hit they didn't play... we decided it's because that one's a bit high pitched for Pete Shelley now his balls have dropped :)

But we got the full force of Autonomy, What Do I Get, Ever Fallen In Love, Promises, Love You More, Harmony In My Head, Oh Shit, Noise Annoys, Why She's a Girl from the Chainstore, and lots lots more (the beauty of a band whose songs are all 2 minutes long, is that they fit a lot in to a set) - yeah!

And of course, Orgasm Addict, part of which I filmed very badly on my phone:



I was in a total strop for most of the day yesterday (cold sore, broken nail, messy house, bleh), but was grinning like a loon by the time the 'cocks were half way through their first song. Live music (and good company) is medicine for the soul.

Wow!!! Look what my postie brought me!!!

Out of the blue, a beautiful gift from Sharon, who some of you might know as Magpie over at UKS.

We were having a good old heart to heart last week about some of the stuff I went through last year, and she has made me this little work of art to remind me I can always bend her ear if I need someone to talk to.

Such a fantastic gesture, and such a beautiful medium to pass on the message.


I shall treasure it, thank you Sharon!

Just look at the amazing detail, this must have taken hours to make!!:











Even the back is immaculate:


it really made my day :)

Love hurts part deux

It's stampy CJ time again.

This journal in the UKStampers circle is "lurve" themed, and came with a swirly heart stamp.

The owner of the CJ requested that we stay on theme, and also work in reds/pinks.

The other entries in the book so far are all very positive, and very much pushing love as a good thing, so I thought in the interests of editorial balance I should redress the balance a little, and remind everyone what a shitter it is when it all goes wrong :)

Cynical, moi??? :D

And it gave me another excuse to use my beloved Cherry Pie stamp of the crying lady.

A little quiz - can any of you identify the quote? I've paraphrased it slightly so you probably won't be able to google it. First person to get it right and leave the answer in a comment gets a prize :)

a quick how-to:

The background is Daler Rowney pearlescent acrylic inks in lilac, pink and pearl white, applied with a sponge over dampened watercolour paper.

Onto the background I stamped some Tim Holtz flourishes in satin red Versafine, and a script stamp in cloud white Versamark.

I chose to use the swirly heart stamp that came with the CJ as a mat for my heartbroken lady to sit on, so that was stamped next using black cherry Stazon, and lightly overpainted with interference red acrylic paint to bring it out from the background a little.

The lady was stamped over the top of the heart with midnight blue Stazon, and then completely overpainted with pearl acrylic, and then once that was dry, with a thin layer of milled lavender crackle paint. Once the crackle paint had totally dried and crackled, I re-stamped the lady over the top using a stamp positioner (I need more practice with that thing - I didn't get her dead on, but it's not too bad). This was my first time trying Dan99's painted mask technique and I was fairly pleased with how it turned out. Maybe a less detailed stamp would look better without the little cracks to distract from it, and crackle paint should be left to bold lined or solid stamps, but you live and learn :)

For the right hand page I made the hand/heart from super cheap airdry clay from my local bargain shop (39p a pack!!! and you get LOADS in a pack too). I cut the hand and heart out with cookie cutters.

The hand was painted with bronze acrylics, then drybrushed with rose pink acrylic before glazing with a couple of layers of clear UTEE. The heart was painted bronze, and then overpainted with a thick layer of fired brick crackle paint. The thick application of paint generates large cracks, which reveal the metallic layer below.

To finish off, the quote was stamped using Making Memories magnetic letter stamps onto strips of burgundy cardstock using pearlescent pink ink.

</end how-to>

As for me - I am happy to report that I couldn't be feeling less like my Cherry Pie lady right now. I took today and yesterday off work and spent some quality time with Ian, and it was wonderful, he is wonderful, and I am happy as can be <3

'citing stuff - baby Kesler could be here any day!

From yesterday's Vancouver Sun:

Kesler confirmed he won't be playing for Team USA in the upcoming world championships due to his wife's advanced pregnancy. In fact, the Keslers thought the baby, a girl, was on its way Wednesday night and rushed off to hospital in what turned out to be a false alarm.

"We all got excited," said the 23-year-old Kesler. "The baby is due the first week of May but it looks like we're going to have it even earlier. I definitely made the right decision not going to the world championships because I would have been devastated if I missed the birth.

"Now I will get to spend three or four months with our baby girl before training camp. That will be good."

Good luck Andrea! :)

Plus a vid from locker clean out day

(stuff like this will end up being stored over at www.Ryan-Kesler.com rather than on here....but I don't have the video library set up there yet, and I don't want to lose the link :))

Friday Fiver - April 25th

1. When did you last get lost?

Oh, I get lost ALL THE TIME!!! A recent classic was walking over to my local pub. It is 5 minutes away, tops, it took me 45 minutes because I literally forgot where it was and walked around in circles for ages :D In my defence, I don’t ever go there. But I do drive past it twice a day and it is right by my house!!!

The last time was earlier this week when I tried to go and buy rubber stamps and ink pads at a local craft store and ended up deep in farm country with NO idea where I was. When I finally found the shop, and told the lady behind the till about how relieved I was to find her, she said “I bet you could hear the theme tune from Deliverance in your ears” lol

2. Have you ever been flying?

Yup – in planes and helicopters. I draw the line at hang gliding. I have no fear of flying as long as I am inside something and not just dangling free :)

3. Who do you always listen to?

The same music over and over, as my media player library is in dire need of an update. It is especially loaded down with Muse, Pearl Jam, John Frusciante, Chilis, Roy Harper, Placebo, and Nick Drake.

4. When does the day feel long?

When I’m at work, and not very busy. Like today. Yawn. Is it hometime yet???????

5. Friday fill-in:
Are we _____ ? allowed to go home yet????????????

More jewellery - I'm on a roll :) - for Belinda

...and once again, Craftster was the inspiration. I just LOVE that place!!! I've been looking at all the wonderful stencilled t shirts in the image repro section today - oh me oh my (I'm Pinky Pinkerton)- but that's for another day....

So - yes - Craftster - a member called nom_de_plume posted this fabulous cityscape bracelet the other day (she herself had been influenced by the website iloveblocks.com):

And I thought, I gotta do me one of them!

At the same time, I was thinking, what can I make for Belinda - the lovely lady who got us our amazing (and free!) tickets to the Canucks vs Oilers game last month?

Anam put 2 and 2 together and suggested a bracelet for Belinda based on the Edmonton skyline, and we were go go go!!!

Here's a quick how-to:

First I found a suitable photo of Edmonton on the net :


Then I worked out what size I needed it to be in order to create 6 blocks each around 2cm square. As the shrink plastic I was using shrinks by a factor of around 3, I needed to print the panorama out 36cm wide. This is wider than an A4 sheet on landscape setting, so I cut the photo into 2 pieces each 18cm wide.

I printed them out, and cut them into 6 6cm wide sections - and I numbered them to make sure I didn't get them out of order. And then I cut 6 6cm-square pieces of frosted shrink plastic:


The corners of each piece of shrink were rounded, with a corner rounder, it does what it says on the can :) And I cut a template from a post it note, to ensure that I punched the holes for the jumprings in the exact same place on each piece.

The next step was to trace the skyline onto the shrink plastic pieces, I used an ultra fine black sharpie pen:



Then I used Brilliance ink in blue and copper (the Oilers' colours) to colour in each image. I used a cut and dry nib for each colour close to the outline, and a cosmetic sponge for the rest:

Once shrunk, the pieces darken up to a nice dark blue, and rich copper finish:


To add a little more shimmer, I sprayed with a suspension of copper Perfect Pearls (self fixing mica powder) - you can see the flash picking up the mica in a couple of the photos coming up.

Then it was just a case of joining all the pieces together with antique copper jump rings:



and adding a length of chain to each end piece, and a copper toggle clasp (see photo at the top of this post - please do click on that one to see it full size, by the way, it looks naff smallified)

Here is the finished bracelet as modelled by my oldest son (I never realised his hands were so veiny!!)




Chuffed with how this has turned out, I will be making me a Vancouver one next! (and we have a prettier skyline than Edmonton :P)

Edited to add, matching gift box:

Faux resin necklace - inspired by Craftster

I have had a lot of fun experimenting tonight :)

Nothing turned out quite as planned, but never mind.

I have been admiring all the gorgeous resin jewellery over at Craftster, and decided it might be fun to try and do something similar using UTEE and my melt pot - which I haven't used in forever.

It turned out to be a bit of a comedy of errors...but I still like the finished article, and will happily wear it.

I took step by step photos just in case it turned out so well that the denizens of Craftster would be crying out for a "tute" - I think perhaps I was a little over confident there lol

But here they are anyway.

First up I made a couple of little shrink plastic embellishments to encapsulate in my "faux resin".

The tree is a Magenta rubber stamp, stamped onto clear shrink plastic with black Stazon ink. The bird was drawn freehand onto black shrink plastic and carefully cut out.

I shrunk them both with a heat gun.

Next, I melted a load of clear UTEE in my melt pot, and added a fair bit of flex so that the finished piece would not be prone to crack or scratch.

FIRST MISTAKE - I stirred the flex in, which caused a zillion bubbles. Apparently I should have exhibited more patience and left it longer to mix in by itself.

I poured a thin layer of the UTEE/Flex mixture into a round cookie cutter which I had "greased up" with a bit of embossing ink to ensure it would release easily later.

I also put a similarly "greased" drinking straw into the mixture so that my finished pendant would have a stringing hole.

SECOND MISTAKE - I didn't realise how thick my finished pendant would be, so I didn't grease high enough up the cookie cutter, which made it a bugger to get off later. Also the drinking straw was a bit big, I might look for something smaller to use as a hole maker next time.

Next step was to add some colour.

I waited until the first layer of UTEE was cool and solid, and lifted the cookie cutter off (easily, as it was still on the "greased" portion :) ). Then I used alcohol inks to colour the top of the UTEE.

I used butterscotch, terracotta and red pepper inks graduated from lightest colour at the bottom to darkest at the top, but the difference in the colours doesn't show up all that well on the finished piece. Ah well, there's nothing wrong with subtle :)

Next I replaced the cookie cutter, and put in the tree embellishment, and then poured a second layer of UTEE in. When this was solid I added the bird and poured on a third and final layer of UTEE.

This makes the piece nice and 3D, as the bird sits a couple of mm in front of the tree.

Here is the finished article:



A full view of the completed necklace with gorgeous copper clasp I bought from Ebay:



And what it looks like on:



It also looks pretty funky held up to the light as you can see at the top of this post.

All in all, despite the wrestling match I had with it to get it out of the cookie cutter, the equally exhausting battle trying to remove the drinking straw from the stringing hole, and the fact it is too thick, too dark and FULL of bubbles, I think I like it :D

And that's 1 piece of jewellery down, 14 to go, yay. I can now go and update my progress bar :)

Challenging myself.....

I was pootling about with my blog today - and I added these cool javascript progress bars to my side bar.

As I calculated the percentage complete for the two circle journals I'm involved in, I realised that in a few short months they will both be finished, and I will really miss them...

I don't get involved in lots of swaps nowadays, after getting a little bored with ATCs, and taking on a big fat book swap that really got too much for me last year, but I do love my CJs, which I have been doing non stop now for nearly 4 years.

Instead of signing up for two more to kick in as soon as these two run out, however, which is what I would usually do...I've decided to fill my very limited art/craft time with stuff just for me instead.

I know I need some structure, though, and targets to hit and/or deadlines to meet, or things just won't get done.... so this is what I have come up with:

• 15 pieces of jewellery in 2008
  
• a page in my (yet to be started) art journal weekly
  
• take part in every remaining GPP Street Team crusade between now and the end of the year
  
• sign up to one low pressure swap/collaboration (ie no more than one to be running concurrently) because otherwise I wouldn't get to see other people's work close up, which I would miss very much
  

So - that's the plan, to be reviewed at the end of the year....what do you think? I know it doesn't look like much, but I don't have much free time, and I am a slooooooow worker :)

Off to set up the progress bars now for my new challenges.... exciting stuff...