Bubbly Duck Handmade Jewellery

Last week I was on holiday in the lovely Yorkshire Dales with my parents (and the dog!) in a cottage and I took with me a fair amount of crafty supplies including art journaling and bible journaling supplies. And before you ask, no I didn't lock myself in a cottage and just craft! We went walking a fair bit, took some time out at a nearby lake. As most of the days I had time either first thing in the morning or while tea was cooking to do some art journaling. I took my distress oxide inks to have a play and experiment with plus some stamps that I knew could give a look of texture. The weather was so amazing and such a blessing I decided to try out a bright distress oxide-based page to see how it turned out. Overall, I'm not that happy with it, but I enjoyed the process and learned a few things along the way. My art journal is really a scrapbook that I bought at an artisan market in Sydney, Australia a few years ago and I never scrapped in it! Because of that, it h

I love stamping and by extension, ink pads. I particularly love the Distress Inks and Distress Oxide Inks by Tim Holtz and decided a couple of weeks ago to create a bit of an art journal page using two of my Oxide Ink colours, a chipboard word and some splattering. I'd cut down a piece of A3 multi-media paper into 4 (essentially four A5-ish sized) pieces and my plan was to make splatters and reveal a word un-splattered on the paper, but it didn't quite happen like that. First things first. I smushed some ink onto a piece of plastic packaging. I diluted the ink with water and used a cheap-y brush I've had for ages that flicks watercolour etc quite nicely onto a page. I used Iced Spruce and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide Inks SPLATTERS!!! First layer second layer I continued to build up layers of splatters until I was satisfied with the result. Then I removed the chipboard word. This is not an ink blot test - or is it? W

I'd convinced myself I'd done a couple of posts since December, but as I look at my blogging history it seems that I haven't! How on earth has that happened? Sorry folks, I actually don't know what happened! I took photo's, I'd set out my text but it looks like I never actually posted anything! So I will post a couple of photo heavy posts about my recent crafty creations in addition to this brief post in the coming week and I will hopefully be better at timing!

Well I realised that the post I thought I had written and published is still sitting on my desktop. The final fair of September was, for me, an unmitigated disaster. It was a vintage and vintage style fair which is generally well attended. The building we were in is a multi-use building housing a cafe, museum, small theatre, drama studio and a tiny cinema.  I found myself in a large drama studio on the first floor with several vintage jewellery and accessory sellers, numerous clothing sellers and a couple of vinyl traders. Set up was awkward and to some extend ill thought out; because it was a drama studio, it was largely soundproof which affected everyone's card payment devices because they rely on good data signal (no reliable wi-fi either).  Signs on the ground floor were few and far between - and having duplicate traders on the ground floor didn't really help either!  Over the day there was, by my count about 30 people come in and look around. Few bought from

I originally set out to write this post about my experience of booking onto craft fairs when on a small, tight budget. However, at the time of writing this post, I have completed two craft fairs, both very different and with differing results, so the scope of this post has widened and hopefully you can pick up a few tips for future reference. September is turning out to be a particularly busy month for me. Somehow I managed to book myself onto three craft fairs across three weekends on the run. I’ve managed to get myself confused, unconfused and confused again.  Two fairs I’ve had my eye on for ages and couldn’t get on an earlier fair either because it was fully booked or I was simply booked for something else. Signing up to email lists has been both a great help and a bit annoying. It has helped me stay ahead of the curve and book onto fairs early but for the weekends I am already booked up or simply skint I’m annoyed I can’t book on. So what happens when that does happen?

Sorry for my delay in this post, I'd had a plan for it but then Life got in the way and I found myself distracted and a month has gone by. So here it is. It's not so much as a "how to" but more my experience of trying to make creative designs on paper for my jewellery when I left Art as a subject behind when I completed my GSCE's and took a more science-based path (that's for another time though). When I started bead weaving and bead embroidery, I used printed patterns by other people, and I still do, but there is nothing like making something from your own design. But where to start... For me, I usually look at what beads I have and simply make it up as I go along as inspiration takes me, but that can give varying results and not always good! Beads!! Shapes, Sizes, Colour! A vague pattern in my head did not come out anything like how it should! I write poetry every now and then and I've got into the habit of keeping a notebook in almos