The Introverted Crafter

First of all, here is where I am currently on the BAB stitch. I realise it's a bit crumpled but unfortunately I can't put it in my hoop, nor can I afford to buy a new one, so I've been freehanding. I've also found a new pattern I really want to do, which, rather than buy more threads, I'm going to try altering the colours of. Long way off though. Tim Holtz has always done amazing tags and I decided, as I was rather late learning about his tags, I'd try my hand at an old one of his.   As you can see I've altered it slightly, substituting what he used with what I have in my stash.   The reindeer was almost the same, but with a different embossing folder and less leaves and bells around the neck. There is gold spattered but I don't have mixative or one of those fancy brushes so I used an old toothbrush and distress paint. I also used black remnant rubs rather than white.     I couldn't use the beaded trim as a) I don't...

It's been ages since I've made a tag, or entered a challenge, so today I thought I'd do both. I'm entering the That's Crafty Halloween challenge and here is what I've done. I started off by cutting out some pediment cards, then gluing onto a piece of white card. I painted that black, embossed it with clear embossing powder, painted it red then wiped some away. Unfortunately you couldn't really see the crackle stamp so I did another one with black distress embossing powder. I then splattered it with silver paint. The cat and bat were painted black and stickled, the other bat (top left) with weathered wood. The skull was painted black, then glued and painted with white to get a crackle, then distress inked. The crown was painted silver and stickled with old paper stickles. I found an old diary and ripped out a few entries (night, terror and hallow) inked the edges and glued them onto the tag, putting a remnant rub skull on top, then adding remnant rub phras...

Back to the crafting! First of all, I stitched another wedding sampler. It's the same pattern, but I just want to illustrate how different a pattern looks when you simply change the colour. I've also started work on the Beauty and the Beast stitch again. Here is where I am currently.   Not a lot of progress but it's a big project, probably the biggest I've taken on so far.     Now on for the multi medium! I dug out some Feel Unique boxes for this. For those who don't know, Feel Unique did a subscription beauty box for a while, and before I was craft mad I had a few of these. The Feel Unique ones were black, with a drawer you pulled out. Perfect for a craft project and another example of never throwing things away that you can alter! I started by gluing them together (three in total) and covering the sides with card. You may remember the next bit from earlier. I glued a bunch of random things onto the card, painted it in black gesso, then dry brush...

Two posts today, second will be craft related as normal but for my first I wanted to do something a little different. Ben Sawyer was kind enough to interview me about my debut novel on his blog and we had such a fascinating talk I couldn't help but want to reciprocate! His novel, the Familiar  is available through the link. If you want an atmospheric read that chills your spine then get this book! So, without further ado, here is the interview! Welcome Ben, I'm going to get straight into the questions. 1. If you could write in any other genre, which would it be and why?   1 – I have a few stories on the go, one a Sci-Fi, one a very dark comedy and the other, once again, Horror. It’s a really difficult question. I enjoy writing horror and comedy, they seem to go hand in hand. I have a story in my head about a political family in a fictional country which I’ve kicked about for years but find the idea of writing it down really intimidating! I suppose p...

It's been a while since I've spoken about both my spending and my depression. Sometimes they are interlinked - everyone appreciates the value of retail therapy when they've had a particularly trying day. Unfortunately, when I am in a low period, I will tend to spend on junk which afterwards inevitably makes me feel guilty for wasting money, and so the circle continues. One thing that I find fights both things in different ways, is making lists. To steal a cliché, getting over depression is akin to climbing a mountain. Looking up at it, it seems an impossible task. Breaking it down into manageable chunks, one step at a time, you may reach the peak before you even realise how far you've climbed. Manageable chunks has been my success, after all, I wrote Lonely As A Cloud five hundred words at a time. So, when it comes to spending I write down everything I spend. Everything. Then I can look over it and figure out where I am going wrong. I also ...

I wasn't planning on posting anything today but I tried my hand at making some jewellery, so thought I would show what I've done. First, I made a pair of earrings. I found some fly charms, some leaves, some gold beads and some findings. All  were nearly the same colour and I wanted something to stand out so I got some nail polish (another of the things I hoarded at some point or other in my life) and painted the wings of each fly. I then strung some beads onto a couple of eyepins and attached the leaves to there, and attached both the flies and leaves to another jump ring to put on the earrings.   I also wanted to make a necklace. I've got a bicycle charm and I wanted to make a necklace out of it, to go with the Lindy Bop dress I bought a couple of weeks ago. I haven't got any chain apart from silver which wouldn't work, so I dug through my stash and found some chain fragments in the right colour, and some eyepins, pearls of two different colours, and so...

I saw something somebody had done for Halloween the other day and it inspired me to do a piece of my own. The things I took from that were the use of a mirror, some crackle glaze, and a burlap panel. Now, I don't have any crackle glaze left or a burlap panel, so I improvised. I started by attaching a burlap square I got from Poundland to a cardboard base.   Easy enough! I added some paper panels to the burlap one, after distressing them and inking the edges. I then cut out an ornate frame from chipboard. The outer card was the bit I wanted to crackle, so I did a bit of research. I painted it black, then when that was dry added a thick layer of PVA glue. When that had gone tacky I painted red paint over the top, and left it to dry, before inking the edges with black soot distress ink.   Here's a close up version to show you the cracks. Doesn't it look cool! Would look great with brown paint over the top to give the illusion of bark.   I grabbed...

I've just realised I haven't posted about my spends for a couple of weeks so I am going to get that out of the way first. Before my September wages came in I posted the prizes (£5.02) and bought some food (£14.44) all which meant I had no money for savings. Since then I have transferred £350 to my ISA, spent £10 on food, bought four copies of LAAC (two of which have been reimbursed, two which still need to be- the £16 I used for a meal out for mum and I.) bought a dress from New Look for me and a top for mum (22.99) bought some icecream and snacks (9.10 - amazingly enough one tub of Ben and Jerry was 5.24, two were a fiver!) paid the rent, the Sky and the phone bill (25.78) bought a Lindy Bop dress from ebay for £11.80 and bought another copy of LAAC (for a reason I will divulge later) and a copy of Flowers for Algernon for 14.73. So a lot of spending! Anyway, the title is about the latest stitch I have begun - which I will put aside at a later date to do the second wedding s...

Sometimes I wonder if it is worth carrying on with this blog, as I have no idea whether anybody actually reads it. In a way I feel like giving up, but in another way I don't want to. Even if I end up being the only person who reads this it is a testament to how far I have come through depression and anxiety, and a testimony of my bad times, as well as my good. It also keeps me writing, and that has been an absolute boon to me in the past eighteen months. Right, today's post is about weddings. No, I'm not getting married (can safely say that will never happen) but there are weddings and anniversaries on the horizon. Wedding wise, I can understand the penchant for soon to be married couples requesting money/vouchers etc, especially as most of them now have lived together and amassed the kettles, dinner services and glasses that were the traditional presents in days gone by. Personally I would like to donate to a charity close to their hearts if they had all that they needed...