Bo Bunny Jigsaw

Having tried our hands on a 12 piece jigsaw quite a while ago, a number of ladies on Secret Swappers decided to do another jigsaw swap, this time using the large 9 piece Bo Bunny jigsaw which makes up into a 12 x 12 inch square.  This time, instead of each person making 12 identical pieces so that at the end we all had an identical jigsaw of the months of the year, we each had our own theme.  This meant that each of us had to make a piece on 9 different themes.

Unfortunately a couple of people were not able to complete the swap, so I have only decorated seven pieces, and will receive a couple of blank pieces back that I will have to match to my theme.  My finished pieces look like this:

Top Left: Sian's Purple Punk Princess

Top Middle: Yolanda's fairies

Centre Right: Helen's African wild animals

Centre piece:  My own trees & forest theme

Bottom Left: Frances' Heraldry - draw a shield design

Bottom Centre: Rebecca's Day of the Dead

Bottom Right: Karen's Weirdly wonderful

Mirror, Mirror ...

I have been after a mirror to go on the wall of what is now the guest room for some time.  Even when Gemma was still at home I was looking out for a mirror, preferably one with a little shelf incorporated in it as there isn't space for a dressing table.  I finally found the kind of mirror I wanted in a charity shop last week, for just £2.50!  The downside was that at the time it looked like this:

Not quite right for the green and purple room I have created, but I had a vision, and when Richard got home he had a chisel!  By the next day, the flowerpot elements had been removed, the mirror was masked off and four coats of pale green paint had been added:

At this point I started to panic about ruining it, so I just added a few highlights around the edges with darker green and gold paint, and added a painted wooden laser cut embellishment to the top, and here it is, ready to hang!

Guardian Angel Art Doll

This swap came up on UK Scrappers, and while I have never made an art doll before I have wanted to have a go for a while so I signed up and got the lovely Frances as my swappee.  It's always a bit nerve wracking to make something for another crafter, in case it doesn't work out, and this little lady gave me some sleepless nights.  Even my son looked at her and declared her odd!

She is made from a tiny wooden spoon, with a domino wrapped in a bit of book paper for the body and a moulded polymer clay face.  Her halo, which also allowed me to add the hanging cord, is a vintage mother of pearl button and her skirt is layers of fabric and lace.  I unearthed a lovely box to post her in, that I had saved because it was too nice to throw away, and I decorated it to make it a shrine for the angel to hang inside, although she can easily be removed and hung separately if required.

February 2014 Calendar

The background for these was again Dylusions, with a bit of stamping and paint.  I did snowdrops for February last year, so decided I would go for the red and pink and hearts this year!

january Calendar Journal

I actually managed to finish my pages in time for the start of the month, but didn't get around to taking photos until now!  Luckily the journaling I have been adding is hidden inside the little die-cut folders.


I used dylusions for the background, light ones for the base then darker colours sprayed over the top of some homemade masks that I got in a secret Santa from a team mate in the Secret Swappers over on UK Scrappers.   Once these had dried I used a large stencil and sprayed over the top again with white dylusions, before adding the mini folders.  I stamped faux stitching round the edges and added two little stamped and coloured houses at the bottom.