Beautiful Blog Candy!

Get a pretty package where even your name and address have been turned into art.


Find a lovely, inspiring card inside with beautiful words.




And a luxurious looking package as well.


Open it up and find a book (the original bow was far nicer but I had to look at it as soon as I opened it...)


Open the book and it expands!




Read the beautiful words and admire the lines and the colours and the textures.....

I can't do this fantastic book justice with my camera and scanner. Believe me, as good as it looks here, it is even more lovely in the flesh. The pages glint with metallic swirls. The covers have a lovely handmade paper sort of texture to them. And of course, there was no way I was going to bend it to make it easier to scan....

The words in full are....


for Rose

each day in itself brings with it an eternity

everything on earth is being continuously transformed because the earth is alive and it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we rarely recognise that it is working for us.

remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.

if what one finds is of pure matter it will never spoil and you can always come back. If what you found was only a moment of light like the explosion of a star you would find nothing on your return.

listen to your heart it knows all things because it came from the soul of the world and it will one day return there.

and the other side...

from the alchemist paulo coelho

the soul of the world is nourished by peoples happiness... to realise ones destiny is a persons only real obligation.

...an when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.

never stop dreaming follow the omens

intuition... a sudden immersion of the soul into yhe universal current of life where the histories of all people are connected and we are able to know everything because it is all written there

with love from Suzi XX

So Suzi, all I can say is wow! Thank you!

Sweet Nothings

What do you make a lovely young lady for an exchange? I thought long and hard and eventually decided to make a mobile... It had many incarnations that lived only in my head but eventually something emerged.

I made the letters to spell out her name using air dry clay cut with alphabet cookie cutters. I had to use the end of a paint brush to push them out which gave them an interesting texture. They are also all different thicknesses. I pierced each one with a needle to make a hole for threading them.

Once dry I painted them with PVA to seal them before covering them with black acrylic. Over the black I painted each letter with my lovely new goldens interference colours full of delicious glittery micaeous particles. I love the colour they came out!

I had ideas of threading them and wrapping them with wire and beads and having all sorts of bits dangling such as wool and ribbon and all sorts of glorious things. And I started this but it was just too much and it didn't work. I ended up rethreading the letters onto black cat's tail wire for added flexibility and fixing them in place with tube crimps and putting a lobster clasp at one end via a jump ring and wire guardian.

It may be a simpler look but I love this so much! Hope she does too!

Blog Candy: Aimeslee

I have finally sent of my first piece of blogcandy and when you finally get to read this it will have been received by the lovely Aimeslee!

I started silk painting this year with only instructions found online to help me. I have created three painted scarves. One for me, one for Mel and now a third....


I only had four colours of paint but I have now expanded my collection to seven!

The third and latest scarf was rather more complicated than my previous efforts. I had wanted to use some Islamic art and this was a good opportunity. This meant that the design was rather more ambitious than anything I had previously tried. In this style of silk painting you use thick goopy paint to draw lines that act as barriers for the liquid paints. In this design the gutta is black and there was an awful lot to apply! I copied the block and pinned the copies to the wall and stuck the scarf on top and then copied the pattern onto the scraf. Then I had to add paint inbetween all the lines.

The borders are a little different though as there is no gutta and the paints are more roughly applied so they merge and run into each other more. The very centre was painted in grey first before the navy was added over the top. The affect of the navy paint was achieved by sprinkling some alcohol on to carry the wet navy paint.

Although I love the scarf I am not sure if I would do one like it again. It was very time consuming and the precise design was difficult to do correctly. The scarf is full of mistakes. And I don't want to think about the time it took!

The scarf has had an interesting journey to it's destination that has been considerably lengthened by arrival at the wrong address. So it actually ended it up with not one but two postal journeys...

One other thing is that the process of making the scarf has left me with quite a few pieces of interesting paper where the thick black gutta has soaked through and the liquid silk paints have soaked into the paper. Every one is different and beautiful!

Cheating?

It has become obvious that I am not going to get five people to take part from my small set of followers, not that I blame them - some of them sell their artistic endeavours, some just don't have time, there would be as many reasons as there are people...

However, there are a whole bunch of other people who have already signed up to this, who are also struggling to find five people....

Is this cheating?

I have no idea but having decided I want to make five things for five people within a year, I don't care...

Blog Candy

I have signed up to Aimeslee's Blog Candy give away, so here it is... (I felt no need to change her wording *laugh* except for the country related bits)

Here's how it works:

The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something handmade by me! I will choose, but it will be made with you in mind. Could be any kind or size of card, bookmark, an altered object, but it will be something that can fit in an envelope or padded envelope for receipients in the UK, and in an envelope for those of you in foreign countries. Like I said, just a little sump-sump! :-))

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make, but I will try hard for that goal and I'll do my best work, too.

2. What I create will be made with you in mind so it will be unique.

3. It'll be done sometime this year (You old-timers know an entire year just might not be long enough, haha, but I am committing to it!).

4. I will not tell you what it's going to be. It will hopefully be a surprise.

5. The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must offer this blog candy on your blog! This is how we expand the love.

Re-post this on your blog, offer handmade creations to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog (then come here and post).

Add my name to the #1 slot on your card- I am your first participant. When you create your give away, you will become the first participant on the new list for the people who participate with you. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment here telling me they did (I will go to your blog to check that you have this posted) win a handmade gift by me.

Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

SO ...... who will be the first 5 folks????

1. Aimeslee

2. Mel

3. Ann

4. Suzi

5. Savannah