Polly!

Meet Polly, or rather my gift to my latest great niece.  More on Polly and how she came together in a minute.  A much better day,  popped up to see my brother,  he was okay,  it was nice sitting in his conservatory, out of the chilly wind!  He kindly agreed to mend a head board,  SiL said they'd thrown theirs away, she was in one of her 'I'm right' moods, just went along with it.  She did admit that her arthritis was bad, and that she isn't taking any painkillers, so I wondef if the pain gets her down and so causes her mood swings?

Then if was off to hairdressers,  who knew my mum,  that made things easier,  it was nice to be pampered.  We swapped notes on single living, where to get the best bargains!   I'm just about getting portion size right,  but it can be hard to motivate yourself to cook for one.   Got some strawberries today, they said British, so hope they are sweet.  

Back to Polly.  I needed a frame,  and found one in Tesco, only £3, so I got two.  It's quite a deep frame, more like a box frame.   I already knew what was I was going to do, at least on the inside, but did wonder about decopatching the frame, I may do so on the other frame, but decided to leave this plain.

I chose the butterfly embossing folder, and the lacey frame.  The pattern does repeat on the embossing folder,  been watching CnC to get some tips on how to do it.   The frame I thought was soft enough to frame the owl.  I used Papermania Gingham, and a matching plain pink from their capsule collection, 12x12 papers.

These are the set of Owl stamps, I think they are really cute, and they also decoupage so easily.   The lady owl is the one with the flowers on her tummy.   I stamped her on the gingham, then restamped onto the plain, so I could cut out her tummy, and did the same with the wings.  I used black detail embossing powder.   I've also picked up the tip of inking round the edges of cut outs,  it does finish them off.  It does help if you've got a lot of ink pads or promarkers.

And here she is!   I used the Slice to make the lettering, the letters are from the basics card, no idea if that is still available for the Slice, I got my machine a few years ago when it was purely for papercraft.    The owl and the lettering fitted perfectly on the frame,  and because the frame is quite deep I was able to make her stand out. 

And of course the end result is at the top.  They can hang it up or stand it on a shelf,  I just hope they like it.

I heard today that my other niece is due to have her baby on 17th July,  well that is when she's booked in for a caesarean, she needed one for her first child.  Her mum thinks it will be before that, so we'll see. 

Not sure what to do this weekend,  the weather is set to improve, or at least get warmer.  It's not quite as bad as last year, or at least not as wet.  I really need to get the last of mum's stuff to the charity shop.  I do need some new blades for my papercutter, that means a trip to Southport as the local craft shop doesn't stock them, and I couldn't find them in Hobbycraft.

Just have to see what tomorrow brings.  Enjoy your weekend.