Vintage slide mounts.

When I was tidying my craft room I came across these little vintage themed altered slide mounts I made a while ago - I had a real fad for making these and have a big pile of them which I must use up - I think I'll make a pile of decorated notebooks, journals with them on the front.

I want to use the ones I've made to justify making some more as they are such fun to make and are the perfect way to use up all those pretty but tiny scraps of pretty paper and oddments of ribbon that seem too small to keep.

Each one is only about 2" square and turns out looking like a little minature artwork.

If you fancy making some yourself all you need is a few old glassless slidemounts, (you might have some lying around or you can pick up a box from any photographic shop) a few small scraps of dainty printed paper, oddments of narrow ribbon and lace plus a vintage button or charm or a small flower etc. and some narrow double sided tape.

Finally you'll need a few vintage images and print them out really small - my printer does a contact sheet of 35 images and they are the right size or you can buy sheets of collage images that are meant for domino art and they are also about the right size.

Just put double sided tape on the blank mount then place it face down on the back of your paper, then put dst on the back edges of the mount and add your image then fold the trimmed edges of the paper over to the back and stick them down too.

Then decorate the front with a tiny piece of ribbon, a few beads and a button with the shank removed or a flat button or charm and that it! I finish mine by sticking a square of card over the back to conceal the raw edges of paper and neaten it up.

If you make any do send me a link so I can see what you made.

C.C Designs Sugarplum Spring *CANDY* Kit….

Kellie Winnell » Blog Archive » C.C Designs Sugarplum Spring *CANDY* Kit….

Look at these gorgeous products - well you can win them on Kellies craft a holic blog, just click on the link to be taken there and find out how you can win this amazing blog candy - good luck.

Bring me sunshine

Just a few thoughts today - I'm off to art class this afternoon which I'm looking forward to, its great to get together with a group of like minded people and the tutors really great I always come away feeling I've really learnt something.

I've been busy Spring cleaning my craft room - not a small task but it had become so cluttered it was sapping my creative juices!

So its out with the old and in with the new and in with the new - heard I've won some blog candy so hope that will inspire me to get more creative when it arrives.

Please see my sidebar for links to some of the loveliest blog candy around in blogland right now, and watch this space as I'm going to offer some blog candy myself soon.



We went to our caravan to check it over at the weekend we haven't been able to get there due to the heavy snow up in the Pennines (see the picture above) but its almost gone now and there were hints of spring being on the horizon soon, I can't wait I'm SO not a winter person even though it looks amazing give me sunshine anytime.

Collage Obsessions Friday challenge

This year I promised myself a couple of things - to get back into creative mode and to blog more regularly. So I found a collage challenge on collage obsessions blog to take an image they provide and make some collage art with it.

Well, heres my fairly pathetic attempt. It's so long since I did any digital collage that when I opened my paint software I found I'd forgotten how to use it!! and spent a frustrated few hours cussing at the programme. I ended up using my fairly basic scrapbooking programme.

Apologies if its not very original or creative I will practise more and hope to get better as I enjoy playing iwth digital images/collage/scrapbooking etc.

Red necklace

I've been a lazy blogger and I really don't know why, the bad weather recently has had me stuck indoors a lot of the time and I could/should have been updating my blog but I've just been reading other peoples blogs, catching up on reading lots of books. I have been doing a bit of crafting and heres a necklace I made for Christmas.

I'm also trying to get myself motivated to get back into papercrafting as its a while since I've done any.

I've been entering a whole load of competitions trying to win myself a nice prize but so far nothings turned up - still you have to be in it to win it don't you? Fingers crossed!

How did Christmas come around so fast?

This year I had great intentions of making my own Christmas cards and somehow it still hasn't happened yet and Christmas is galloping closer every day.

However Ten Two Studios has come to the rescue with a great selection of free Christmas themed collage sheets so if you fancy having a go at making some vintage or collage themed Christmas cards pop by and download as many of these gorgeous free sheets as you like.

Art classes

Because I've been wittering and Twittering on about how much I'm enjoying my beginners art classes I thought I'd share a couple of the pictures I've created since I started classes about 2 months ago.

Please bear in mind that I'm in my 50's never really done much sketching or painting since I was at school and these are the very first things I've completed, however I'm enjoying it so much and thats the main thing isn't it? I only went along to keep a friend company and I'm so glad she persuaded me to go with her.

I thought I was going to like paiting with watercolours best but when I tried them I found it rather difficult to control the colour and when we tried acrylics I hated it as I hate getting my hands sticky or messy and they are very messy.

What I am loving is working with coloured pencils, and pastels.

The picture of the tiger is done in Cretacolour pastel pencils which I treated myself to on Sunday when I went to the arts and crafts show at the NEC Birmingham.

The landscape with boats I did in WHSmiths artist quality watercolour pencils and the fruit was the very first picture I did at my first lesson and its done in soft pastels.

The pictures have come up in reverse order to how I wanted them as the most recent picture is at the top and the oldest at the bottom but I can't work out how to change the order - maybe my next class should be a basics of computing?

I'm not completely happy with my work yet but its a fair start, and I can see TONS of room for improvement but I'm fairly happy that I've managed to produce something that actually looks something like what I intended it to, thanks for looking.

New bookmarks and bracelets for Christmas

Beaded bookmark, lots of colours available just £4 including post and packing
" Mythrelle" multi coil wrap memory wire bracelet in purples, lilacs and black £12

"Naiads wish" multo coil memory wire wrap bracelet in turquoise, aqua, silver and pearl. £12

Been busy making stuff for Christmas, bookmarks and bracelets which you can buy from my Folksy store.

Just click HERE to pop in my on-line Folksy shop if you'd like to purchase a bracelet or bookmark as a Christmas gift.

Guinevere bracelet

I've just finished making this pretty multi coil memory wire bracelet in lovely frosty sparkling neutral shades of pewter grey, white, pearl, crystal and silver.

To fit any size wrist I'm selling it for £12.

Gonna be busy making stuff for friends for Christmas soon so if YOU'D like a unique Beadyjan piece making as a unique gift please let me know soon.

Catching up

Ok I've been really naughty not keeping up with my blogging!

Two excuses, I was having huge problems opening blogs because of some conflict with IE which seems to be rectified now, fingers crossed!

I've also been spending quite a lot of time at our caravan, where its gorgeous and peaceful but theres not even any mobile phone coverage let alone internet access, so I have't seemed able to get caught up properly with blogging and emailing.

OK heres a few photos - This is the farmland where the caravan site is

This is the view of Kirkcarrion above the site late one sunny August evening

Heres our favourite tearooms in Middleton in Teesdale

And me sitting outside reading (bad photo of me but I've never been what you'd call photogenic)

It was my birthday back in July and I recieved a Sony E-reader from my other half as I'm a very keen reader. I LOVE it, its easier to hold than most books, and I can carry literally hundreds of books with me in my hanbag wherever I go, there are also some great free ebooks to download legally.

heres a huge list of free romance books and stories to download

http://www.roadtoromance.ca/freestories.htm

And a variety of different kinds of books here

http://newfreebooks.com/

If you don't have a Sony reader you can read ebooks on your PC, laptop or PDA. I wish I'd known about them when I worked in the call centre. I could have sat at my work pc with an ebook open and read it between calls! Theres even loads online so you can read them anywhere you have internet access. Not that I'm encouraging anyone to sit reading when they should be working - Oh ok I AM encouraging you to do that - why not!

I've had a few nice days out with friends, my mate Sue and I have jumped on a bus and been to the coast and a couple of nice country villages and enjoyed a stroll and afternoon tea.

I had a lovely meet up with 2 book loving friends, we all went to Annes house in Wetherby for lunchj then had a lovely look around the shops in Wetherby - its a lovely place for a couple of hours mooching with some great charity shops crammed with bargains, a few lovely upmarket gift and craft shops and a recently opened fabulous discount bookshop.

I've recently discovered Spotify where you can listen to some great quality music how about listening to some Goldfrapp

http://open.spotify.com/track/2WjcUtchLH4Uxc8hxFiFxu

or if you prefer heavy rock you could give Chickenfoot a listen

http://open.spotify.com/track/1AWXKlAvgXcwzisycW0Lge

I'm still going to my creative writing group every other Monday and enjoying it a lot - though I don't think I'll ever be happy enough with anything I've written to attempt getting it published!

Finally, a question for anyone who reads my blog - What do you or would you enjoy reading about, seeing pictures of, or having links to most of all on my future blog posts?

Please let me know by adding a comment.

Thanks for popping by, hope to see you again soon.

Coriandr / Beadyjan / Nebula earrings

Coriandr / Beadyjan / Nebula earrings

I've just listed some new earrings to my Coriandr shop.

The Nebula Earrings are a little more elaborate than my usual simple earrings and take a little more time to create.

They are made by taking a facetted crystal bead and brickstitching around it with toning and contrasting beads, then adding a pretty dangling fringe.

They are suspended from 100% surgical steel ear wires as are all my handmade earrings as these are really the ONLY wires I can wear in my own sensitive ears apart from gold and whats good enough for me is good enough for my customers.

At a recession busting price of just £5.00 a pair they are available in a wide choice of different colours just email your preference and I'll make a pair just for you.

Oh and as someone so nicely asked me the other day if I will ship items abroad - yes I'll send them to USA, Canada, Australia and anywhere in the EU - in fact if you'd like to buy any item I've made I'll be happy to quote you shipping costs to your country, wherever you live as long as you pay by Paypal, just contact me by email Beadyjan@yahoo.co.uk