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I put together another crochet flower pattern...
For the flower above I used a 2mm hook and 4ply PATONS cotton yarn.
From now on I'm hoping to share my patterns as PDF files (See word cloud on left margin).
There is a USA terms Pattern & a separate UK terms Pattern...
Download Maybelle Crochet Flower Pattern USA terms
Download Maybelle Crochet Flower Pattern UK terms
It would be nice to get some comments on what folks think of my patterns :}
Last week on our 'Staycation' we had a BBQ. Husb & Chef did the cooking...
Tiger-girl was chief butterer...
Smurf couldn't wait to melt some marshmallows.
The food was delicious.
Good times.
{ & lots of washing up for me ;}
Roman has been learning to drive. Once his exams are over he will be moving forward in applying for his test. His driving is now good enough for me to go out with him. This morning he drove to College (& I went with him for the first time). Husb had assured me that he was ready. Here we are...
First he had to reverse off the drive...
...then we were off...
.
This is new for me. I have the feeling of sand slipping away beneath my feet. {She said somewhat melodramatically!}
Last week it was my 21st anniversary of turning 21. That sounds ssooooo much better than the real (scary) number. On my birthday, before Roman went off to College, the family gave me their gifts and I opened a pile of cards. I had some fab cards, showing many of the things I love like tortoises, butterflies, gingerbread folk, cupcakes and even a canal boat...
Chef had been secretly making me a wooden box. Everytime I wasn't around he'd been sawing, hammering & staining this beatiful gift...
As if that wasn't enough, he'd added some craft supplies...
The other children were so excited for me to recieve this present. They kept telling me how hard he'd worked on it. It was the best.
My other pressies were lovely too. I had some pretty patterned paper from T-g aswell as a little 'Love you Mum' bead for my bracelet. Smurf had made me a lovely card with a tortoise drawn on & some little pink shells he'd searched for on the beach, then glued on like butterflies (see the tall blue card above) and some scrapbook brads too. Roman got me a box of Earl Grey Tea and a memory stick for the computer to help organise my photos. Husb took me away 2 nights to Derbyshire and drove me round several craft shops and bought me lots of scrummy stash. I had a white gold necklace with a heart off my folks & some craft charms & the promise of a crafty day out from my Sis & bro-in-law. Some generous spends off Husb's folks & my Gran too & my bro & sis-in-law sent flowers & chocs...
I really was very, very blessed by all the thoughtful gifts & money too.
Since we were on 'staycation' we had a day out at the 'Monkey Forest' in Stoke-On-Trent. It was brilliant to walk among the barbary macques and see them wander across the path right by us...
We liked seeing them living in such a natural environment...
...and interacting with one another...
These monkeys are very interesting because they are very caring towards their young.
Not just the mothers/females but the males too. While we were there a young male monkey was carrying around a 4 day old baby.. approaching other males and 'chattering' about the baby. This is quite unique to this type of monkey (we were told).
This old male monkey sat so close & Smurf was enthralled...
We all took lots of photos...
The highlight of the day was seeing a 1 day old baby.
So tiny. So special...
We had a really good day out & the weather was gorgeous.
We hardly wanted to leave the Monkey Forest, but eventually we went to have our picnic, followed by a look around the nearby garden centre & shops. Husb bought me a new teapot, cup & saucer and jug with cupcakes on. At home, that evening I had some Earl Grey tea out of my new teapot while chatting to all the folks who rang up to wish me a Happy Birthday...
Yep.. this Birthday was one to remember :)
Thanks x
A few days ago I gave a Sneak Peek at the project I'd made for It's a Creative World crafty daily blog. See the post itself here and read through all the other designers and their creative interpretations of the word CREATE. This is my fabric page for May's word 'CREATE' with some chat & photos about the process of how I made it...
'Texture' was my main aim so I began by gathering together stuff from around the house which could be layered onto my base of interfacing...
Gluing with watered down PVA came next, building the base up in layers. The interfacing base was like a greedy sponge soaking up the glue so I used lots of watery glue ...
I added lots of layering to the base page and ended up with this...
Once finally dry I coated the base page with gesso...
The dry page looked like this...
Time to add colour which I did with spray (Glimmer mist & Cosmic Shimmer)...
The colours are very vibrant when wet but dull down when dry :(
Anyway, while the page dried, I turned my attention to the title word 'CREATE'. I have been drilling dominoes (like you do!) ...
I was inspired by this guest post by Lorraine . Find out more about her on her blog Lorraine's Place .
I coloured my teeny dominoes with Tim Holtz alcohol inks...
I used some rub-ons with the letters c-r-e-a-t-e ...
I strung the dominoes onto copper wire with beads...
...and sewed it to the page...
I also sewed a line of beads on copper wire, down the left side of the page. Here's what the page looked like...
Finally I searched online for a suitable quote & came up with...
"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual."
By Arthur Koestler (novelist).
I printed the quote with my computer onto printable canvas. I cut this into a tag shape, sprayed with mist & inked the edges. I used eyelets to attatch the tag to the page with chain....
The base page was attatched to the fabric book with staples coloured with brown alcohol ink (look closely at the top photo to see). I'm planning on printing out some photos of me & the family doing creative activities and slipping those photos into the 'pocket' which is the base page itself. This messy, inky page was so enjoyable to do. There is no real 'right' or 'wrong' with this sort of project ... very free-ing!!
We just had a "staycation". OK... I'll admit that it is an American term I read on somebody's blog but the word "staycation" just fits so perfectly. It means we had a 'stay-home-vacation' or simply put... Husb took the week off work and we had a holiday without actually going away. We went on day trips and had buckets of family time & didn't do school (except Roman did go to College) & had take-away food & a BBQ and picnics and we had a BLAST!!!! Oh & I had a Birthday too. It was the 21st anniversary of me turning 21 (work it out). So, being a scrapbooker I took a pile of pics and will have to do the 'staycation' post in installments. On the first day of our staycation we took the twins to Drayton Manor Theme Park. Smurf was away visiting Grandparents but it was nice to have twin time.
I aimed the camera over my shoulder to capture this shot of the twins on The Flying Dutchman...
Waiting patiently for thrills...
It wasn't that busy so we often got to sit at the front of the rides...
I didn't fancy the water ride so stationed myself to take some pics of the action... I was amazed to capture their raft on the downward slope not once but twice...
The zoo was my fave. We timed ourselves to see the animals at feeding time & when there was an info chat about the animals. Loved it. Penguins...
Tigers (with appologies for glass reflection)...
We went on nearly all the thrill seeking rides but no pics. and ended the day on the Carousel...
A Great day out :)
I've got a post on It's a Creative World today, sharing a download to make these scrapbook embellishments...
Here's a closer look...
To make your own you need...
2.5" scallop punch,
2" circle punch,
variety of cardstock & patterned paper,
brown chalk ink (if you like inked edges)
A selection to decorate the middle like buttons, brads, flowers, felt, stamps etc (whatever is your fave really!)
Oh... and you need this wordart download...Download Circular Word Art for 2 inch punch
This is what the circular wordart looks like printed out onto different cardstock...
Get punching!!! You need to punch the wordart circles with the 2" punch and the same number of cardstock scallop circles with the 2.5" scallop punch.
Ink the edges of the wordart circles (I used brown chalk ink)...
In the background of the photo above you can see where I had started to layer the embellishments. This is the fun part! I enjoyed stamping in the middle of some of the embellies...
... and stamping out a small image onto old bookpaper and punching it out with a 1" punch (to layer up the embellishment)...
While I had all my inky suff out I stamped onto a big yellow brad & a silk flower with a text stamp and some saddle brown STAZON.
I love having a pile of embellies to reach for when the scrapping bug bites!
