Houses of Love tealight candleholders

Time for Handmade Monday linking fun! Pop over to Wendy's blog to see some lovely stuff from other crafters.
What have I created for the past few days?
This week has been pretty busy for me and I've got a lot to share :)

Well. first of all, my Houses of Love candlelight holders have finally been finished! Yipeeee! :) It took a while to paint them as glass with curved surfaces takes the longest to be painted all around. I had to do it in stages. Piped some outliner, stopped and waited till it all had dried up, then piped some more, waited again, then piped some again till all glass had been filled. Then filling up with colours - same thing done in stages. Glass painters will know what I mean ;)

Houses of Love are my favourite motif and I've painted them on clipframes and on a glassy cube before but this time it's a set of round tealight candleholders that features them! I used vitrail glass paints, silver relief outliner and martini glasses for this project. 

Deep inky blue night and some colourful vibrant houses pulsating with love! :)

Some painting details...

Secondly, there's been some progress with my wedding sampler with folky birds... this is what it looks like at the moment:

Thirdly, I have finally got myself round to making my first own home made elderflower cordial! I found "my" tree in my area. Hacked it down the other day :) plonked the whole stuff down in sugar and boiling water and here it is! Elderflower syrrup with a citrus twist. It hasn't been bottled yet, just "doing its time" in containers at the moment. Needs to stand like this for 5 consecutive days. Actually I've made 2 lots: one is elderflower + lemons, and the other is elderflower + lemon + orange. Elderflower has a wonderfully refreshing taste and is great in fizzy drinks :) Simply can't do summer without some sparkling elderflower pop! Try for yourselves!

Yesterday we had a great day out - we went to Kelsall Steam and Vintage Rally to see the whole lot of many stylish vintage cars and steam engines. Vintage buses, landrovers and campervans was what we liked best. I ended up bringing home another cup for my expanding mug collection :) Campervans! The iconic cars of the summer season in Britain! (I thought Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts Blog might like them! ;P )

Feeling blue :)

See? I've been feeling blue recently, Royal blue, of course... :) My chicks have turned into some upper class regal creatures :D True blue blood :) Was good fun to sew these as I love collecting blue-white-red crafty stash and playing with it :) Naturally, the inspiration for making the Royal Chicks came from the royal wedding of Wills and Kate.

Warm Glow - Dotted Tealight Candleholders

A pair of dotted tealight candleholders I have recently created for the fair :) This time my choice was: warm vitrail colours - red, orange and yellow embraced by the golden relief outliner. The colours are graded, from red, through orange to yellow then back to orange and red at the bottom again. Simple design but pretty effective. Notice how the sun shines through them! :) They give nice glow and shades with the tealight put inside :)

So what do you think?

And now topic change! :) I've been awarded a Blogger award!

Picto  (Jan) from Handcrafted by Picto, thank you very much! So pleased my blog has been noticed and awarded by my lovely visitor! :)
I guess, I'll keep up the award chain play and stitck to the rules:

1. Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award....  (tick!)

2. Share seven random things about yourself (tick! look below!)

3. Award seven recently discovered bloggers with this award and contact them to let them know they have won..... (tick! also look below)


7 random things about me:

1. I'm a real tea freak. I love drinking teas, buying them, having them, storing them, trying them!
2. I have phobia of caterpillars and spiders.
3. I love collecting language dictionaries.
4. I can't live without crafting. I'm addicted to everything homemade and handmade. For me it's an essential way of relaxing after work and regaining balance between my work life and after-hours private life
5. I could live without tv but not without the internet.
6. I love my milky coffee and a toast with jam on Saturday mornings.
7. I like the frost and chilly crispy air on sunny winter days.


7 blogs with 7 talented versatile crafters I'd like to nominate:


1. The Joy of Creating - Kathryn - for being the most fertile and versatile crafter I've ever known!
2 Carroll Crafty Creations - Robin - for supa cute owls!
3. Adaliza - Adaliza - for interesting blog and lovely sewing projects
4. Carolee Crafts - for so many lovely and different hand made creations
5. Audrey Eclectic -  Heather, for lovely and stylish old vintage paintings and great shots on her blog
6. Puppy Fly Boutique - my fellow glass painter
7. Maria's Blog - Maria, for so many lovely creations she can show off

Tonight I'm linking Handmade Tuesday at Ladybug Blessings blog and Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just a Housewife. Have a wander around the blogs and enjoy browsing through so many wonderful creations!

Summer Fair

Yesterday I took part in a fair in Wrexham. For the last week I had been preparing myself for it and it was the only thing that really occupied my mind. Was getting really excited to go! I devoted all my after-work afternoons to finishing up the projects and prepared a list of painted glass and beanbag chicks that I wanted to sell. Sadly, yesterday's fair turned out to be a big disappointment to me due to some unlucky circumstances. First of all, we (me and other "crafters") were put in the furthest corner of the event area (yes! yes! the location of your stall DOES MATTER, it's one of those things you learn and experience in your life as a craft seller) and as a result not many people were bothered to come up and see our stalls. We were simply very much out of the way, put behind the school instead of the front of it. The only good thing about our location was that we were right under the school canopy in case it rained. Only people going to the school toilets at the back of the building were passing us by! Instead the carboot sale took place at the most strategic place. Secondly, people didn't show much interest in buying hand made stuff as these were mostly mothers with buggies and little kids. Also, I had an impression that people weren't prepared to spend more than a couple of quids on a bacon butty, cup of coffee and some car boot junk. In fact there were only 4 crafty stalls - me with my painted glass, a pyrography crafter with his wooden products, a lady with her jewellery (which was ready made anyway) and a lady selling gadgets for the Air Ambulance Charity. Standing a few hours in the windy weather made me almost freeze so my bf was helping with some hot freshly brewed tea. And the last straw that made me leave the site quicker than I planned was a bunch of school boys who decided to play football right in front of my table with the displayed glass!!! Their ball kept rolling right under my table! (Surprise! surprise! For some reason I'm very "lucky" with finding myself and my table with painted glass in the proximity of men playing football, which was the case last time I was selling my crafts). Fed up, cold and disappointed we left the site and me were off to Pizza Hut for some food, warmth and consolation :)

It was the 3rd fair I took part in but profitwise the worst one. But, hey, that's life! Chin up and I'm moving on now :) especially with another fair in W. on the horizon. In 2 weeks time! Just trying to arrange it at the moment :)

Good or bad, I'll show you my craft stall :) This is what it looked like:

And this is what I'm currently working at - a wedding sampler card with folky birds for my cousin in Holland:

the sampler card is going to look like this:

I just decided to swap the blue canvas for the light pink one!

And now! Time for Handmade Monday. Tonight I'm linking up the 1st Unique Gifts blog for this crafty link-up. See what other crafters have been up to!

Father's Day Cards

I had quite a lot of time during my half term break so I made these: Father's Day cards :) One for my dad and two for my bf's dad and grandad. Again, I used my beloved circular badge stamps from Lilli of the Valley and some brown craft paper, which I have been so much into recently :) The cards are in natural subdued colours, typically male shades.

For my dad I made a mosaic card and embellished the tiles with a 3D relief paste. I chose rich dark brown card as the base and a vintage stamp as the focus of attention.

For my bf's dad and grandad I chose a stripey background to give it a bit vintage and a bit of a folky look. Vintage images were stamped with the Walnut Stain TH ink.

I made an extra  Father's Day card but this time in a shabby chic style, fully scrapbooked and messy on purpose :) a rugged composition of corrugated brown craft paper, macrame string, tea stained gauze, ceramic and plastic buttons, cotton tape, staples and brown wrapping paper stamped with a texture background stamp. A card for a dad who likes unconventional way of receiving wishes ;P

Welcome my new followers! Lovely to see you here! Thanks everybody for dropping by and leaving a word or two behind :) It's pleasure to come back to my blog and find so many lovely comments left under the posts. Thanks!  

Today I'm joining with my crafts this Show and Tell linking party! Join me up guys! :)

Ribbit! Ribbit!

A vase with frogs. Commission from a colleague. Meant to be a Christmas gift for her mum, who loves frogs and collects frog figurines. The frogs were to be cartoon characters and they were my colleague's choice :) I painted them all fresh and grassy green :) Hope the vase will be well received :) Pretty cheerful frogs, huh?

And some details of the painting:

Oh! And today I'm linking at Friday Link Party at Creation Corner Check this out guys!

Chicken Army

This week is the week leading to a summer fair in Wrexham I'm going to participate in. For the past few days I've been sewing nothing else but these: Cheeky Chickens - funky beanbag poultry, embroidered by hand and machine, with all sorts of buttons, felt, beads and crochet flowers. I thought some chicks in bold sunny colours could bring some positive vibes into people's kitchens. I have a kinda feeling they may be a popular buy at the fair :)

I wanted to take my chicks outside to photograph them in the grass with some nature in the background but the weather sucks really bad today so we had a bit of a photo session on the window sill with the rain droplets on the glass :) Maybe later on, during the week I'll manage to get a sunny photo of my poultry :)

and some chicken features:

Handmade Monday coming soon! Check Wendy's Blog for this linking fun! :)

Dots again

And back to dots again :) This time 3 big cards - two for birthdays and a retirement card for the boss.

A paper doily is the main element of the background here. I thought it would introduce a nice texture to the card. I also used Lilly of the Valley circular badge stamps and Core'dinations Chocolate Box Papers. The dotted paper has been machine sewn.

And the three cards together:

In case someone wondered what this huge shadow of a buttefly is doing here in the picture - no, don't worry, I don't have any giant butterflies around my place :) it's just a shadow of a big acetate butterfly suncatcher I've got on my window that comes out when the sun shines straight through my windows.

So glad it's Friday evening now :) Time to  relax by doing some crafts - something I always wait for the whole week to do and enjoy.  A very busy and crafty weekend lies ahead of me. I'm planning to sew some more Cheeky Chickens to sell on the oncoming summer fair! :) Wish me luck! :)

Card for Mother's Day

This is the card I've made for my mum for Mother's Day in Pl. The design has been stitched on evenweave and comes from the Cross Stitch Card Shop (issue 76, January/February). The extra elements in this project are the French knots, seed beads and a gold DMC metallic thread :) The words have been stitched in 2 strands, one cross over one fabric strand which, I think, gives it a very precise and lovely finish. The thread colours have been of my own choice.

My mum loves roses and is a very keen rose keeper so this design has been carefully selected by myself :) I hope she likes this one :)

Oh, and it's Handmade Monday time :) and thanks to Wendy's Blog - CLICK - you can join in this linking fun to submit and show off your weekend crafts. Do follow up this lovely blog action :) Well worth it!

Ice cream parlour (1) Retro cards

I've recently been in a "dotty" mood so I've made a few cards using a dotted paper in sweet chocolate-cum-strawberry colours :) The style of these cards reminds me of a retro 60's ice cream parlour somewhere deep in America :) The cards are machine-sewn and with hand-torn embellishments. So here are the first three.

and some details below... For this card I used Lemonade Tea set stamps and Chocolate Box Core'dinations Papers (turquoise-brown card) as well as Martha Stewart's Doily punch. The dotted paper comes from a freebie set from one of the card making mags. Sadly, I don't remember which isue it was exactly.

And another card... and another tea stamp from the Lemonade Stamps collection :) (tea is my favourite theme, by the way, if you don't know it yet :P ) I also used a paper doily here, which, I think, nicely adds to the overall retro theme.

And the last one... turquoise combined with browns and whites - the latest craze in the craft world :) Simple and retro. My favourite, I think :)

Again, Core'dination papers, HeroArts alphabet stamps and an individal, single Flower Stamp from Kars, small scalloped dies from Spellbinders.

This is not the end :) The dots will be back! :P