A Grand Day Out with Mrs Bertimus

 

Way, way back at the start of April I heard a rumour (I think it was on Facebook) that a couple of last minute spaces had appeared on a day workshop with the lovely Mrs Bertimus, at Hope and Elvis.  I mentioned it to my sister, who said "why not?"  And so, one Saturday morning in April we headed up the Motorway to take part in a day of "Stitchery Pokery".

Mrs Bertimus welcomed us all with a teacup of gorgeousness, there's mine, up above.  Then she gave us a little introduction to herself, her art and what we were to do that day.  We heard about image transfers, and machine stitchery and general stitchery pokery stuff.

 

 

Then we were free.

Free to delve into the boxes and cases and baskets of goodness that Louise has around the edges of her fabulous studio.  

 

 

Free to mooch around Louise's personal studio space.  

 

Free to look at the work of previous tutors, Jessie Chorley, Julie Arkell ... 

 

...and Mr Finch.  To name but three.

 

We could look at and be inspired by Mrs Bertimus' own work.  

 And we could chat to and learn from the lovely lady herself. 

 

One of the themes of the day were Mrs Bertimus' Nanas.  Some lovely ladies of a previous era, all dressed up to the nines, probably for a grand dav out.  They made an appearance on our name badges and on lots of the pieces that we all made.  I think some snuck into my bag and came home with me.  Naughty Nanas!

 

These are the pieces I made on the day.  Using image transfers, on blocks, and hand stitching and machine embroidery fabric pieces.  So many new skills and techniques.  I love a good workshop!! 

 

There is a little bit of a corner shop set up at Hope and Elvis.  And this dusty, spider webby, complete with dead spider and a broken handle, little brown case had to come home with me.  Under my self-imposed thrifting rule - "I'll regret it if I don't buy it" rule, it was a must buy.  Helen and I also had to buy a few pieces of blanket to continue our stitchery pokery.  Mine is heading towards being a needle case, with the machine embroidered bird adorning the front. 

 

And there you can see the replacement handle that I made for my little case - and the case is just the right size to hold my fabric scraps for the stitchery pokery yet to come.

 

At the end of the day Mrs Bertimus had us all put our pieces on one big table so we could look at all of the pieces that had been made.  Helen and I put ours out together, her two are at the top, and my four below.

And there we have it, a grand day out with Mrs Bertimus.   If you get the chance to play at Hope and Elvis - take it.  And if Mrs Bertimus is there?  All the better. 

And a last word for Mrs B herself - If you find yourself wanting to go thrifting in Birmingham.  The kettle will be on, and the biscuits will be out!

A stroke of genius

Just found this languishing in the draft post area of my blog.  A card I made for my brother last September. 

The background was made using dylusions sprays and stamps, some Tim Holtz tape and stamp, and some found words from an old book. The book is one of the best 30 pences I´ve spent in years. The words pop up everywhere, on cards, on tags, in journals, everywhere.

The day I met Tim

 

Ready for the second installment of this year's crafty adventures?

At the end of the summer, my sister, Helen, and I were lucky enough to spend a morning with the very lovely Tim Holtz, (and a few dozen others!) making this tag book.   It really was a dream come true!  I mean, Tim Holtz! Showing us how to ink, and distress and assemble.  And he really is as nice and friendly and smiley as you've ever heard.  

As well as leaving with this gorgeous little book and a head full of ideas and inspiration, each delegate left with a stencil (from his new range), a distress stain and paint, a distress marker, a book of his fragment word stickers and a mini stamp set.  All of which we had used and shared around our table during the class.  Tim also gave us some extra "things that money can't buy" - as he described them.  Which were a Tim Holtz messenger bag, a signed copy of his second book and an apron - which we also got signed!

As I mentioned in my last post, we met up with Kaz Hall again, as she was also there, helping Tim with his class. And in another installment of Helen and I living in "a small world", we ended up sharing a table with a couple of ladies who we had previously met at our local crop.  One of whom will make an appearance when I tell you about another of our adventures! Till next time.......

Tag, you're it

 

Back  in the summer, I went with my sister on a day of workshops organised by a local stationery and craft shop.  Helen sold it to me as soon as she said that Kaz Hall of The Little Shabby Shed was going to be there, teaching with Dylusions.  

This is the tag that Kaz taught us, using Dylusions and Perfect Pearls for the background, and some of Dyan Reaveley's stamps.  

I'm not sure I entirely agree with the words.  I'm usually ready for an adventure.  Which is what Helen and I had when we met Kaz for the second time this summer.  But, that's another story, for another time!

Create. Just because.

 

Yesterday, I sat down to get inky and painty.  

But got stuck with what I was trying to do.  

So, just got a blank piece of card, picked a couple of distress inks I haven't been using lately, and went for it.  

Distress stains started the background, then some stamping and stencilling in similar colours.  More background added with stamping in black and white. Then topped off with Glinda from The Octopode Factory, coloured in with Neocolors.  

Now, what to do with this piece of whatever? Stick it onto a piece of corrugated card to "frame" it.  Just needed some words to finish it off.  I looked at a set of sticker words I have, and they jumped out.  

And now I have a piece to remind me to Create.  Just because.

What have you been creating lately? I'm coming to look...

Happy Easter

 

Sweet little easter eggs made from polystyrene eggs from the pound shop, covered with book pages, inked and stamped and with words added from some Cosmo Cricket papers.

Snowy spring saturday

 

Spring is here - you can see it in that photo, can't you?  No?  Oh well, I'm sure it will turn up sometime soon. 

On a Saturday like this, what's a girl to do?  Get crafty.  It's also my sister's birthday - so I need a card.

I started with a pile of scraps and an idea.  The idea was inspired by the mostly fabric pieces I've seen around, where they're scraps of fabrics, and some machine embroidery.  You know the ones? Have a quick look at The Bloggings of Mrs Bertimus, then nip back here to see my take on this idea.

I made up a patched effect with my scraps of paper, tearing against a ruler, and adding a touch of inking around the edges for definition.  Then added the bird image, he's a Prima stamp - and so sweet - stamped onto a piece of Paper Artsy crackle paper.  Yes, I'm happy with that, turned out pretty much as I'd hoped.  So I made another smaller one using the same scraps.  I think I'll be doing more in this style, and maybe, one day, move onto the fabric version.  It's on my extensive list of crafts to try.

A card with a touch of glitz

 

A birthday card made with papers and embellishments from Glitz Cashmere Dame.  And a stamp I bought second hand - I think it's Magnolia, coloured in with my NeocolorII wax pastels.

 

And sent to my daughter, who's a long way from home at Uni. 

A quick card and a quick post

It was my neice's birthday last week. So, I whipped up a quick card for her.
And I also had a new phone, so I'm testing a quick post with it. Fingers crossed it works

Tag, you're it!

I know I'm a bit late to the Hallowe'en party, but I made these tags a couple of weeks ago (bit addicted to tags around here at the moment, if you want to know), and what's to be done with a pile of tags?

 Put a scrap of vintage text behind them...  Pop them on a piece of black card....

 And start filling up that 7Gypsies carousel thingy that's been sat on my shelf for ever!

Apalling pictures of them in the carousel, I know.  But doing my best with dark nights, shiny shiny pockets and getting used to a new/different camera.

thrifting dreams

It might have been her eighteenth birthday, but Luu still got a go-to card. Although, Mark did help with choosing what went on the card - with my ultimate design choice, of course.  And the good news, is she got an offer of a place from her favoured university, subject to her grades. But, they are really do-able, so she should be off in the autumn.

 And, talking of birthdays, and the money that came with it... We're going thrifting today. Which reminded me, I haven't shown this little project that I did over the Christmas break. I saw a few last year around the blogosphere, on my favourite Dottie Angel and on Decor8, to mention just two, and wanted to have a go myself.

With few thrifting opportunities, it took me until December to find a likely shade that I could pull apart, wind strips of fabric around, and hang a motley selection of items from.

Not the best photos, probably why it's taken me two months to show, but you get the idea... Anyway, I've seen a few more around lately - being used as actual shades... So, now I want one as a shade, for my dressing table, here's hoping the thrifting gods look favourably down on me today...

the card making plan

I've been making quite a few cards lately, for birthdays and such.  However, I usually forget to take any photos, or, more honestly, they're usually put together at the last moment and I literally don't have time to wait for some half-decent light...

But, last week I made one for Luu, a good luck card for a Uni interview.  So, I've managed to get a photo. 

I like making cards, and giving cards, but I don't really like that moment (or ten) when you sit down and think - yikes, what shall I do???  So, when I got this Octopode stamp last autumn, I came up with a sketch for my cards.  I put some cards, papers, ribbons and whatever else I came across that would work on this style of card into a kit bag, and hey presto!  No-stress card making. 

Oddly enough, since I started this method of card making, I've had no male birthdays.  But, I have a hot air balloon stamp that will work for the boys.  And, actually, I should probably get a male Octopode.  Yes, I think I will...

And, did the good luck card work?  Well, yes.  She's had an offer from that Uni, but has also now had another interview at her favourite University, and should hear from that one by the end of this week.  Fingers crossed...

A birdie told me

 
Ages ago, I made a papier mache boat. Do you remember?  And I wanted a bird to go in it.  But, you know how it is, I had in mind the perfect bird. And, I just couldn't find a pattern.

Every so often I'd look at the boat, and the bird that was looking after it.  And wonder, will I ever find the right birdie sailor? 

So, a couple of weeks ago, while wandering around the internet, something prompted me to go on a bird hunt.  And I found just what I had pictured in my mind. I bought the pattern from The Paper Shed, although this pattern doesn't seem to be available at the moment. But, there's an owl one! I may just have to go shopping there again!

The pattern arrived, and after about an hour or so, I had the sweetest little bird for my boat.

 

I think there may be a little flock of these on the horizon.

 

 

Busy, busy, busy

I know, it's been a while. What can I say? Things have been a-changing around here. The biggest, for me, is that I'm now working full time - which is really eating into my crafting time.  Added to that, my half-marathon training is eating up even more time.  And when the creating goes on the back burner, the blogging follows.  And as for scrapbooking? That now seems to have been relegated to the monthly crop at Bromsgrove.

But, you know what? If I take a moment and think about it, there's still a lot of creative craftiness going on around here.  So, that's what I'll try to bring to my pigeon hole.

Shall I promise to speak soon? I think it's better if I just say, hope to see you soon...

See you soon...