14 Days of Goodness

Time is precious isn't it?

We are always told to use our time wisely and we did exactly that.

If you have been watching the drama The Loch you would have seen where We spent our first 7 days.

Fort Augustus is bang in the middle of Loch Ness.

It has an amazing Loch system and I could watch the boats getting through each of the gates all day.

Chris was like a pig in muck watching and I had to drag him away or we would have been there for the whole of our break.

We wern't blessed with the weather but we were certainly blessed with the scenery.

We had lodgings in a very remote part so peace and quiet was ours when we needed it, we had the most gorgeous Log Cabin which took 2 years to build.

It had everything we needed and attention to detail was amazing.

This was to be a cycling holiday and we took both of our bikes but unfortunately I collapsed with my back 2 days before we went so my bike never turned a wheel, I took lots of meds with me and Chris looked after me and we managed to get out each day with lots of rest between.

We only went out for dinner 1 day as the kitchen was so well equipped that we didn't need to go out.

We started every day with a full english breakfast which set us up for the day.

Above was our meal we had out at the local Pub.

We both enjoy cooking oh! And eating haha!

You can see just how beautiful it is.

It was lovely to have each others company, doing just what we wanted, when we wanted. Bliss!

We returned home for our 2nd week and had outings.

We also managed to fit in decorating the bathroom.

Back to the grind now, chris is back to work this morning and the heavens have opened to mark the occasion.

Making a Fairy Garden

I've seen so many people making a Fairy Garden that I wanted to get in on the action.

Have you got one? 

So where to start, I know you can buy all of the accessories but i think it would be fun to make your own too.

I decided to make a little fairy house using Powertex and air dry clay. The toadstools were fun to make and the clay worked well and painted with mica powders to get the vibrant red.

This started as a mint sauce glass jar and after a couple of weeks indoors it will be able to go in the garden as it will be weatherproof, always a good thing in the UK. The lid is still removable so I would fill it with sand before placing it in the garden just to give it some weight.

I added aluminium foil under the material to give shapes of doorways and window and a little extra padding to the lid.

 

I used the ivory Powertex to dot the toadstools.

Adding the plaster door as the fairy has to have a door to get into her home.

I finished with a dusting of Mica Powder to highlight.

So now I need to figure what to make next.

Could It Be Magic

I think we all need a bit of magic in our lives at the moment don't we?

I knew what I wanted to make but was unsure how I would get there.

It started with a bit of wire to make the spectacles, i think Harry Potter would be proud of my handy work haha!

I then had to think of making a want, not something that iI had ever thought I would need to make but a piece of dowelling helped me on my way.

So then making the wizards hat using a paper cone and tin foil to create the shape before soaking the material with the black Powertex fabric hardener.

Making the face in the hat was fun.

Finishing with mica powder to show off the folds and accent the accessories.

 

Colour to Relax

I forgot, yes I forgot how relaxing it is to colour, I got some new watercolour brush pens, Kuretake Clean Colour and just had to try them out.

I can tell you these brush markers are amazing, they flow like a dream and the brush on them is so soft and tapers to the smallest of points making them perfect for detail work.

I used the Clean Color Markers neat, i added no water at all but I could have.

Of course I used Mo Mannings images from Mo's Digital Pencil as I love her work.

They haven't made it to a card yet but I'm sure they will soon.

Exploring Stone Art

I thought I would give the Powertex Stone Art a workout, it intrigued me, I like to see how things work, not really knowing what I wanted to make, I just knew that I wanted to try it, my local electrical store Calvert's allowed me to be a skip rat and search there polystyrene bin to get something chunky that I could work with.

This is the reverse of the finished piece so that you can see how it began, however the finished pictures below shows just how good this stuff is.

It all starts with the Powertex Ivory, so once you have the polystyrene and have cut and sculptured it to the shape you want, you then apply a generous covering of the Ivory Powertex liquid, whilst it is still wet you pat the Stone Art on top of it.

The magic then happens and you then start to add colour.

At this point it was wet as I had sprayed colour over it making sure the darker colour ran into the nooks and cranny's.

I awoke this morning and was thrilled with the dried piece.

How wonderful would this be for Chris's train layout?

I have a feeling I will need to show Chris how to do this, otherwise I will be a very busy girl making them for him.

Another in the sun.

It looks so real doesn't it?

 

Hilda and Stan

I wanted to create something to signify the Working Class from Powertex fabric hardener, something a little tongue in cheek, actually I named this pair Elsie and Harry and then a friend asked if they were Hilda and Stan Ogden haha!

I loved making these charactures i knew what I wanted in my mind but putting that into practice can be challenging.

They started life as wooden spoons, I then made up some stone art clay and modelled their faces.

Making a jacket and trouser was the challenging part of this, the buttons on the jacket were made with the Powertex as it was drying on my rubber gloves I picked off a piece and rolled it into a ball and stuck it onto the dampened material.

Look she has her hair rollers in, roller made from the Stone Art clay and her hair is string wrapped around the roller, I think she may be going to the bingo as she has her lipstick and blusher on.

 

Did you notice he has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth? tut tut!

Just stepping out. A night on the town.

 

The Secret Book

Some craft products open your mind to possibilities, I don't think that this was originally produced for the crafting world but heavens I'm pleased it got to us. Powertex makes my brain hurt, yes thats right, my brain is bursting with ideas and possibilities of what I can make next and how it will make, so my brain hurts in a good way.

I wasn't sure is this book idea would work but it did as you can see.

I love how the folds of the material work. I used a hard backed book as I also wanted it to be able to stand up.

I called it a secret book for a couple of reasons, one of which is that it started life as a Mason book, Masons are said to be a secret society or is that a society with secrets. The second reason is in the next image.

A secret compartment cut into the book. The Powertex also works as not just a fabric hardner a paint but also an amazing glue too.

I used mica powder to add colour to folds and add the gold leaf effect at the edges of the book pages.

Who lives in a house like this?

Ideas tend to just pop into my head when I start playing with Powertex. I love creating and getting messy and testing to see if things will work.

I think this did but I will let you be the judge of if its good or not.

Working with piment powders to create colour.

 

Creating a moodlight with battery fairylights.

Pebbles from the garden come in handy too.

A bit of lace here and there and stockenette, Pwertex likes the natural materials.

Pretty methinks, give it 3 weeks and It could be mood lighting for garden partys, BBQ etc.