Aches and pains

I seem to ache everywhere, back, knees...  think I need some WD 40.  

On Tuesday I decided it was time for a treat,  so a trip to the craft shop was in order.  I spotted these X cut dies in the form of a luggage tag, there are two luggage tags, a strap, two buckles and an ordinary tag.  All for £12!   Well I couldn't resist,  and I bought two new stamps from Crafty Individuals.   I cut the dies when I got home, luckily I had some suitable brown card, as you can see they look pretty realistic.

And this is it almost made up, I still had a bit of gluing to do but the light was fading and I wanted to take a pic.  I found the buckle a bit fiddly,  I cut two of them and stuck them back to back to strengthen it.  It will be perfect for journalling, and scrapbooking.  They cut like a dream as well, thanks to the calibur I could cut the lot in one go.     You can also stitch the two bits together, although I used some glue as well, couldn't find any suitable thread so made do with some very thin tan coloured raffia.  I used Bazill card stock.   I can see me making good use of this die. 

I had been tempted by the spellbinders on CnC but only wanted the celtic dies, which had already sold out by the time I logged on.   I would like some flourish dies, seen some at the Craft Barn...   should I?

This is one of the Crafty Individual stamps I got, both are sentiments,  and you can never have enough sentiments!  Love this one as it says so much, and I have been blessed with so many good friends.   I stamped this then used the Tag die to cut it out, of course more stamping and inking had to be done. 

While out shopping, and paying bills, the last of mum's bills.  I spotted a cheap frame in Home and Bargain, just £2, a bargain,  I knew what I wanted to do with it. Sadly I couldn't find the wooden spoons, which I'd needed - oh well, you win some and you lose some.   I also got a decent sized rug for mum's room,  which I had hoped would be useful in the living room but it was too small. 

This is the frame,  now distressed.  I cut the flowers,  but they're not stuck down.  Still got a lot to do to it, including deciding what goes in the frame.  I gave the frame a coat of gesso, then one coat of dark green, followed by PVA glue, then the light green on top,  then blasted it with the heat gun.  I then left it to settle overnight.   I'm going to put it in mum's room once I've decorated.    I got some paint today, and some carpet tiles, that grotty carpet is going!   Yesterday I was washing lampshades,  didn't think the one in mum's room would come clean,  it is cloth so I dunked the whole thing into some oxi powder, to my surprise it came out as good as new.   It must be something to do with Spring, I do love this time of year,  when the colour is coming back into the world, everything looks so fresh and new, so you are compelled to start cleaning.  I have nice clean windows,  very white net curtains and clean lampshades! 

Last photo, my Gelli Plate!  It arrived at last.  Can't wait to play with it.  This is going to be so much fun. 

I've been watching the CnC birthday bash,  I caught one show where this chap was making patterns, but with a gizmo, a very expensive gizmo.  I use a pair of compasses, a ruler and stamps,   and get the same result.  There is an Indigo Blu show on Sunday, so I'll tune in to that.  Well I hope to if Freeview has stopped messing around, I've had to retune 3 times, and do a manual retune as they've altered the channel settings.   One poor chap in the paper shop was completely confused saying he couldn't get any channels.   Well that's me for the night,  off to make a cup of tea and go to bed.  Who knows  I may NOT wake up at 2 a.m. tonight. 

Thanks for stopping by, have a good weekend.