How to make a lampshade x

So last weekend I went to my local fabric shop Millie Moon for a class on making your own lampshades. It was by far one of the best classes I've done because it was fun and relatively simple to make.

So Harriet took us step by step through the making of our lampshade which required alot of sticking and a small amount of cutting out. We were able to choose our own fabric from the whole shop and I chose one called ''Get a clue Nancy Drew'' by Moda  because I loved the TV show as a child and the fabric design was vintage Nancy Drew books.

We were each given two lampshade rings one for the top and one for the bottom................

So the next part was to choose which part of our fabric we wanted to show on our shade and then to cut a piece of special sticky backed white lampshade plastic to strengthen our fabric on the back. We then had to stick special doublesided sticky tape onto the fabric, I kept saying ''It's just like scrapbooking!''.........

This is the fabric all ready for unpeeling the tape backing.....................

once unpeeled it was a simple case of sticking the bottom and top edges of fabric back on itself to form a neat edge.............................

and this is the right side of the fabric all stuck down.....................

Next 2 of us worked in unison to roll the two lampshade wires onto the fabric top and bottom and then to stick the bottom pieces of fabric over the rings for a lovely neat finish.

And here are all our finished lampshades (mine is top right)..............

And here we all are with our completed lampshades and our brilliant teacher Harriet who is next to me with the long hair and fawn outfit.........................

Collage your home with Gaynor....................

This morning, I bunked off church, I know bad girl, and headed down to one of our two rather fabulous fabric and findings shops, this one being the wonderful Millie Moon. They have a huge range of fabric both here in Wells and in their home store of Frome and put on a variety of classes in sewing, ceramic button making, coffee and sewing days and today I did the ''Collage your home'' class. This was taught by Gaynor, ably assisted by her lovely husband who provided tea and coffee and Dr Who banter.....................well crafting without Dr Who wouldn't be crafting now would it.
So onto the class. Gaynor makes beautiful collages pictures using fabric, papers and trimmings, with applique and embroidery and machine stitching to give them that extra pazzazz.

 

This is the picture we were all shown as a showcase for the class, and Gaynor talked us through her process.
So me and 2 other lovely crafters Kate and Nicki set to with our paper and pencils to design a collaged picture of our own. The first thing was to draw the size of the aperture in the picture mount so we knew how much room we had to play with and then fill that space with our design. I decided to do mine horizontally rather than landscape and initially my house was based on my grandparent's Victorian vicarage as it had so many happy memories. However sometimes things can be too complex so I went back to a more basic house design.

The next thing to do was to chose three pieces of background material for the sky, mid-ground and grass. Gaynor had choices of material and paper so I went for a velvet sky material, with music paper for my mid-ground and a lemon patterned paper with white floral detail for the grass. This was all stitch or glued onto a piece of watercolour paper.

The next part was choosing materials for the house itslef. I chose a simple brown paper for the house shape, old newspaper for the roof and a patterned paper for the chimneys. The door was from ''Macbeth'' and the windows old railway tickets. Next it was the details. I found an owl which I had to have as my ''thing'' and I cut out some dragonflies and some flowers. There were also polka dot buttons and I used a green fabric to cut out some grass. Once this was all assembled I embroidered on some detailing using satin stitch and chain stitch, including some birds in the sky. I added French knot flowers and the flowers and buttons and dragonflies. I also added some fine ricrac to the roof and some pink pompoms which covered up a mistake I made in the sewing, and here is the final results.

I'm really please with how my picture has turned out.
Here is Kate's picture which has some beautiful detailing...................

  

 This is Nicki's house. She brought a lovely tag with her to use as a focus from a Paddington Bear which makes up the main body of her house. What a lovely way to use memorabilia.

If you get the chance to do a class give it a go, you never know what skills you'll learn or what amazing projects you'll come away with. Oh MM also have a lush blog so check it out here.

Miss Smith in da house.............

So I am currently way behind in my homework for the class being run by Miss Smith of Curiouser and Curiouser . If you read her wonderful blog, or even if you don't, you will need to be aware that she is a true school maam of the Maths teaching kind. Now I was terrified of my Maths teacher, not only because I constantly made glaringly obvious mathematical errors in my homework but also because I barely scraped a C in my Maths O' level. In order to be a nurse, I had to be fairly maths proficient and certainly working out medications for tiny baby's does test your maths ALOT. And you're not allowed to use calculators either. Anyway, if you haven't read her blog, it is a treat of crafting goodness and brilliant teaching anecdotes. She will be published I am sure one day on those alone.

So Miss Smith's class is called ''Just One Sketch'' and is running from 15th January for 6 weeks. We get private blog access and posts twice a week during that time. The cost is an amazing £5.00 donation to The Girl Guides Association which as an old girl is a truly worthy cause. So to avoid detention, I am posting my first homework assignment today.


Our first task was to look at our recent scrapbooking layouts to see the key design features we use and what we actually like about the pages. I have actually chosen some recent and couple of older layouts as I wanted some variety to assess, so here are my six made into a collage, most of which you will have seen before...........

In my layouts I tend to use scraplifting from time to time and also my own designs so these are a real mix. Having them laid out like this really helps to highlight some of the key facets of my scrapbooking design and style:

• I like to have an array of big titles using a mixture of different typography and styles,
• I love bling, whether that be using pearls or glittery stickers, I have to have them somewhere,
• I seem to have begun using more paint and misting recently to highlight parts of my layouts, primarily due to a class I took and also the influence of other scrapbookers especially Heidi Swapp and Shimelle Laine,
• I primarily use one picture although I have on some occasions used more than one, especially when doing a page about a bigger event like S and G's wedding.
• I like to make some of my own elements such as the flowers and I like using fabrics and ribbon,
• Sometimes I journal alot but on other occasions I write little or nothing at all,
• I normally use 12 x 12 paper and cardstock as my size of choice,
• I usually use layers of patterned paper to highlight my photos,
• Most of my pages have some kind of distressing and inking on them be that the photo itself, or the patterned papers.

So using these elements, Miss Smith has now challenged us to draw our own sketch, which will form the basis of our class work and the layouts we make. So I'm to find some scrap paper and give it a go. If you fancy joining in Miss Smith is not currently giving out detentions for late attendance.

And here is my sketch:

 

I have used the design thing from Word 2007 which was quite simple to use. I have kept it simple so I can add things to the page I would like to. The orange shape will be the photo.

By the by, if you are interested in coming along to our second Blog friends weekend away, then hop on over to Lizzie Made for further details of when we are thinking of and where.

Tasty Thursday..................

................just cos I feel like.
So today I got the latest edition of ''Mollie Makes'', surely you've not been in Antartica and heard us all going on about it. This month you get more free felt to make felt rings, crochet tutorials for flowers and some felt dogs to make, cool............

My latest taste frenzy is these...............Japanese Seaweed covered peanuts, nomnom.

I found this fabulous site called Creative E-courses which gives you up-to-date info on all kinds of online classes which are either free or paid for. There are mixed media and scrapbooking classes. Definately worth a hop over just to see what's around.

Today over on Ali Edwards site Janet Hopkins has a hybrid tutorial with free downloads and pdf instructions. Janet has some beautiful printables here  and a beautiful blog here.

This is one of Janet's printables.................

In even more exciting news, Shimelle launched her newest class yesterday afternoon which costs a meagre £10.00 so I hope you've all signed up. It will be a journal which you make with 20 pdf instruction.prompts, videos, the open class and if I know Shimelle ongoing updates and class access. It starts on the 18th July.

Explore starts Monday, 18th July 2011 and runs for four weeks with prompts Monday through Friday. These prompts take you through an adventure from your perspective. Everything is written in a way that you can participate from home – this is not a travel album. Instead there are prompts on using your camera, your pen and your crafting supplies to look at your surroundings and your memories in a new way. There’s a new adventure in every prompt.

So have a good Thursday hope you find something to play with.

Will you be camping with us?

Last year I took part in a 2 week exploration of crafts of a variety of kinds with the wonderful Maegan. This Spring she is again embarking on Creativity Boot Camp. Will you be camping in a tent, caravan, camper van or alternative more upmarket accomodation? Whatever you choose you'll be more than welcome to join in, all you need is the imagination and abit of time. It was definately fun last year and you can find more faqs and info here. You can also download last years ebook for free if u want to know what to expect.

So today I have spent much of the afternoon reading in the sun, Sian said this morning that she was doing nothing in the sun including no reading. I would get bored so I sat outside the flats with my selection of reading materials which included a copy of ''Cloth, Paper, Scissors'', some scrapbooking books and my latest read ''The Crimson Petal and the White''. It's currently being dramatised by the BBC but I am recording it until I've read the novel. I like reading some books for themselves first. I often find that I get more from the novel itself than from the dramatisation as there are, due to financial and plot constraints, certain parts of the book that will be removed.
I read alot so am quite up-to-date with the traumas of seeing your favourite book trashed by TV and film adaptations. I have to moan when they change important parts of a book. One of my all time favourite books has been ''Interview with the Vampire'' an amazing book by Anne Rice.

When the book was filmed by Neil Jordan, there was an outcry because one of the key roles was taken by Tom Cruise, who in his defence actually did an incredible job of portraying a not very pleasant character. Brad Pitt played the other main lead. The fact that they completely change the end was sacrilege in my book, however it was not as dreadful as what another director and screenwriter did to one of the follow ups in the series ''The Queen of the Damned''. Now that made my blood boil. Some fimlmakers however really do understand their craft and the importance of the initial novel, Emma Thompson's screenplay for ''Sense and Sensibility'' really stands out as a work of sheer love.

Also the 2 versions of Persuasion I have seen on the TV were superb. As you can see it features that star of stage and screen The Cobb at Lyme Regis which is one reason alone to watch. If need anything further there's always the very dishy Rupert Penry Jones!
Do you have any novel to TV/film translations which have traumatised you?

Welcome home, welcome, come on in and close the door,

.........................you've been gone too long, come on in, your home once more,................

Yes too long have I strayed from blogland in hiding and despair, quite literally. I had lost my blog mojo and wondered if it would ever return, but thankfully here it is back with a vengeance and ready to do posting from now on in. So have u missed me? Loaded question I know but hey worth the asking just so you can laugh and say Nah been too busy, or Have you really been away I hadnt really noticed.
Well anyway here I am and I thought I'd do a resumee of what the last month has held, well maybe not the whole month but some of it.

• I have completed my LSNED minibook and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I didnt really take any photos to go into it but concentrated on the pages and the journalling. Some days I wrote loads and others not so much. It was lovely to see everyone elses LOs though and there are some beautieis around on the blogosphere.

• I have signed up for the new Shimelle class, True Stories. It is a completely NEW class and lasts for 3 weeks. There will be more of a concentration on journalling and it only costs £10.00 or $15.00 if ur in the US/Oz etc. I love Shimelle's classes as you know and to do a brand spanking new one is a bonus. I went on the forum last night to put up my welcome page and it's like a Shimelle stalkers society reunion with so many of us having done her classes before, defo a positive vibe about this class.

• I had triple or quadruple excited about Scrap-a-mia 2011. Remember I went off for a weekend in May to Hampshire for scrapbooking with a variety of fab teachers including Kirsty Wiseman, Cleo Jarvis and someone called Shimelle Laine? Well the girls from Creative Moments have done it again and are organising not only the weekend in Hampshire again but ALSO a weekend in London in April with the fabulous Donna Downey, I love her classes and blog she's fab. Anyway on their facebook page they are running a daily clues to guess the teachers and so far we have Dina Wakely, bestill my beating heart.

• I am working hard on my Cathy Zielske class for Me the abridged version but way behind cos I spent loads of time doing Shimelle's class. I am doing alot of the writing and will do the scrapbooking at a later date.

• I am starting a free class on the 18th October which is very personal to me. It's called Art, healing and health. As many of you know I dont have the best mental health and recently my physical health has been taking a battering as well. Suffice to say I have felt well and truly dejected and depressed in recent weeks and saw this class and thought it may aid in improving my positive thinking. The course involves Art journalling, making an empathy monster and much more. It's being run by Tam an artist based in Brighton and I am really excited about doing something outside my comfort zone.

• If you havent signed up there will be a bloghop over in Oz next Sunday led by the miraculous Amy who whilst being a mum to 2 gorgeous children and wife to the Engineer is literally living in a housing bombsite while their home is completely gutted. If you havent seen waht this can involve pop over. Any male readers there ar epower tools invovled too!!!!!

• Finally for this post me and a fellow blogger have a special party to invite you all to, it will be happening on the 8th November and we will be open to anyone who has a blog a blog to join us. We are putting the finishing touches to the invites and party food at present and their will be some forfeits involved but they are nice ones. So do come back and see what will be happening.

Finally, finally, thank you to everyone who has become a follower over the last few weeks despite there being nothing going one, it was lovely to see some brand new faces when I read my blog again. So will be back soon to tell you more about our party.

The dreaded lurgy and news..............

Over the last few days I have succumbed to the hideous cold virus. I dosed myself up with vitamins for months before starting work and then on Thursday it hit with avengance. Viruses always go for the jugular or my case the larynx so I sound like a dalek. I had a terrible headache and a temperature. I dragged myself into work on Friday and managed until lunchtime by which time I was flaking out. Over the weekend I flet worse but by today I thought I could go to my Child Protection study day. I managed until after lunch and then had to go home again so tomorrow I'm staying in bed!!!!! The study day was really good despite me coughing and sneezing over my colleagues. Did you know that approxiamately 20% of suspected paedophiles in Britain are women and that despite popular belief some sexual predators are young people themselves? It was a very thought provoking and disturbing day at times. To anyone with children on the Internet just make sure they are aware of the dangers and you protect your comoputers as much as possible. It was scarey some of the ways perpetrators groom children on the net.
In news  Elle's studio are holding a journalling course in August which is free. As someone who is often unsure on how or what on occasion to journal, I think this will be a g8 course to follow.

Shimelle's course on taking better photographs is going well, although my stinking cold has limited the pictures I have taken today and over the weekend. Also I only have a point and shoot digi camera not a DSLR so have limited choices on the things I can alter. However I will give it my best shot.................ooh cool pun.

On a lighter note, well if you're not watching your weight, I found this site today, yummy cakes and beautiful designs by a lady called Peggy Porschen. 

Check out the other cakes on her website, they are truly amazing.

New class

The wonderful Shimelle has announced something dead exciting.................she's got the new class ready and should be posting and starting registration tomorrow. See u there.