Crafting assistants

Where would I be without my trusted assistants?  They are always there to offer advice and supervise my work. They inspire me and amuse me with their daily routines and capers.  So who are they?

Meet my two boys

GanDalf

GanDalf arrived 1st as a 12 week old kitten during the summer. Not much crafting was done during the early days wit,h him as he was into everything and everything was a toy for his amusement. He is now 7 months old and is a Persian x Ragdoll. A big fluffy cuddle cat.

Even now everything is toy for him and his greatest game is to knock things off my table and then pick them up and run away with them.
I am forever finding beads, pens etc in strange places, its almost like a reverse fetch!

SamWise

About a month later SamWise adopted me at the local rescue centre, he is much more reserved but that's not surprising.  He was rescued as a nine month old kitten from a house with over 30 cats in it, so the poor wee might wasn't socialised as a kitten.  He would love to be a cuddle cat but is still a bit to anxious about it to settle on a lap properly, but he is improving every day

Cuddles

I don't really need to say that both my Boys are a little bit spoiled, but for two unrelated male cats they get on really well.

I cant believe how fast GanDalf has grown over the past 4 months from a small kitten that could sit on your shoulder to the large cat that needs a chair to himself

GanDalf at 4 months

GanDalf at 7 months

well that's all for just now as there is a fluffy cat trying to take control of the laptop as I am not paying him enough attention.

Product Reviews

I will be reviewing a variety of products across all the crafts I do, and in this first review I am going to review a range of paper crafting products - Sheena

The range is designed by the fabulous designer Sheena Douglass . I love her range of stamps and dies, which can be used for so much more than card making. A few examples are shown below

Her perfect partners range has stamps and dies that match exactly, so no white halo around the stamped images

Bottle Label 2

Bottle Label 1

The Bottle labels below were created by cutting Black card with suome of Sheena's Dies and then using Pebeo Gilding wax to give the metallic effect or Pebeo Dyna Acrylics for the fantastic Mica shift effects on the flowers and dragonflies.

Writing slope

The writing slope was created in a workshop run by Sheena and her paint fusion technique, which uses her specially designed stamps to put slant on the old Folk art methods (as found on canal barges).  As the stamps are modular you are free to create any design you wish.  The stamps come with a technique practice sheet to use to learn the specific brush strokes used in Folk Art.

Journal page

The Journal page used some of her stamps directly on the page or on paper which was then painted and then layered on to the page.

New Beginnings and a journey of unexpected wonders

Welcome to the new and redesigned

Ramblings of a Craft Gadget blog.

I am looking forward to a new beginning, a new Journey in 2016, this journey will take me through learning some new crafts and revisiting some old ones.

The Chinese philosopher Laozi said

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" 

well my single step on this journey is my Art Journal.  Some of which I will share here.

One of this weeks challenges in the Journal was the quote

 " When you look at life through eyes of Gratitude, at 

the world becomes a Magical and Amazing place."  my next step

 Jennifer Gayle

This is my take on it. What am I grateful for, well living for one thing (was a close run thing a couple of times last year), the ability to see and do, to bring pleasure to others through my art. 

Nature is my inspiration in all things, Especially Butterflies and dragonflies as they represent change is possible (they start as ugly caterpillar or nymph and change into something truly beautiful)

And a quote to finish this entry, the late great Terry Pratchett once said

"People are often so busy living that they never stop to wonder why"

Maybe that's my next step, learning to slow down enough to wonder.  There is certainly enough out there to wonder about.