Folksy Friday: Monsters

Well the sign up for my fantasy creature swap is now on. This is the second of my Folksy Friday posts on fantasy creatures. This week- monsters!! As always, click on the pics to visit these beauties in their shops.

 

 

 

Fluffy green monster by Tiny Oyster Designs; Monster hat by Fairytrade;

Heartbroken monster by Cherryloco Jewellery; Little monster phone charm by Little Miss Crafty's Curiosity Shop

Monster face clock by Julia Smith Ceramics; Boys blue monster tie by With Hugs and Kisses.

ps. Have you entered my giveaway yet? You have until Monday.

Edit: Our regular blog hop creator is on hol at the mo and we've ended up with two. Oooops!

"Making" frosted glass beads

Today I listed these earrings on folksy and I thought I'd share with you all how I "made" the frosted glass hearts.

I cannot make glass beads. I don't have the kit or a kiln for annealing. One day... maybe. These hearts started out as shiny glass beads. I decided to experiment after thinking about sea glass. I love the look of sea glass. Some people make fantastic jewellery from it. Well, the frosted look of sea glass is caused by the buffeting of sand in the sea.... so I thought I'd try popping some glass beads in my rock tumbler with some rock tumbling grit. (I also put some pebbles in there too but I prob wouldn't do this again as I did get some broken beads.) DO NOT use the same barrel as you use for polishing silver. You'll end up scratching your silver if you do. If you don't have polishing grit then you could probably use sand- it works in nature after all!!

I haven't got a before pic for the beads I'm afraid. I didn't think about it. It was a spur of the moment experiment. I do have some of the same beads that I didn't pop in though but not all. Basically I chucked in any glass beads I didn't really care about and one or two of ones I liked.

These smokey drops are interesting. I put 6 in the tumbler but took out 2 after about an hour. I left the remaining 4 in there for a couple more hours. Different looks with the same grit!! I have 3 different grits (46, 220 and 360) and the beads were all tumbled with the very rough 46 grit. I wonder what would happen if I moved up the git sizes? I would imagine the frosting would become more refined. More experimenting is required, methinks :o)

Fantasy creatures: craft swap sign up

Welcome to my first ever craft swap!! I've been wanting to host one for a while now so here goes...

I love fantasy!! Books, movies, artwork, clothing....all things fantasy really. My favourite fantasy creatures are dragons. For this swap you will make your partner some kind of fantasy creature. There's all sorts you could choose from: nymphs, faeries, trolls, sprites, gnomes, hydras, mermaids, unicorns, banshees, succubus, vampires, werewolves, gremlins, elementals, orcs, yetis, centaurs, griffins, phoenix, sasquatch, cthulhu, monsters,.......anything goes!

Who wants in? This will be open internationally so do let me know if you would prefer to post to the UK only. As a minimum you will be required to make your partner some form of fantasy creature creation and also send them a few crafty goodies. If you want to do more then feel free. The deadline for sign ups will be Friday 9nd July. I'll get your partners details out to you by Monday 12th and then you'll have until the end of August to post out your parcels. Nice long time to think and create- what with it being the summer hols.

If you want in then please email me (gkessel [at] mail [dot] com) the following information. (If you could pop 'fantasy swap' in the message subject bit it will make my life easier.)

Name:

Address:
Blog/shop/twitter address:
Likes/Dislikes (including allergies!):

I've already set up a flickr group for us all to use to share our creations and for inspiration. So far there's the blog button and dragons I've previously made in there. If you're after further inspiration, have a look at the Folksy Friday I did last week. I've also set up a discussion topic in the flickr group to share links to amazing inspiration if you happen to find any.

Sign up is now closed.

ps. Thanks to Vonnie for her wonderful blog post about how to organise a swap.

pps. Have you entered my giveaway yet?

Green swap received

Bit slow on this posting about this- sorry! I received my fantastic green swap goodies from Jen over at TheMadHouse last week. Look what I got!! Well worth the wait.

A couple of pre loved books- Cottage Gifts (great little book- cute and quaint!) and My Sister's Keeper (not read but looking forward to).

A tropical fabric wallet filled with yummy goodies:

Two broaches pinned onto old Happy Families cards. One's a sweet puffy pink, orange and white flower and the other is a gorgeous enamelled turquoise flower. Look at the back of the cards they were pinned on- such a good idea!

Also a matching fabric business card wallet and some old sew on gems.

And a china teacup candle. Looks great on my conservatory table and smells great. Can't quite place the scent but I like it!!

This swap has been great fun. Thanks Jen for being a fantastic swap partner and also thanks to  Emma and Rachel over at that little bit greener for organising it.

ps. Have you entered my giveaway get?

June Loons: days fourteen to twenty

There's been some fantastic stuff listed by the June Loons over the past few days. And one of the things I listed in the past few days sold too! Yay! No point me showing you that one now its no longer available.

Here are some bits I've listed in the last few days (not including today):

And a few of my favourites from other sellers...(click on the pics to find out more).

Blue chunky bead necklace by jcu designs; Yellow butterfly necklace by Whimsical Wren Jewellery;

Little frog- Sorry card by Crafty Mushroom; Mother of pearl chip and aventurine beads earrings by Blue Forest Jewellery;

Rose quartz and tourmaline earrings by JAustenJewelleryDesign; Pink and turquoise cherries crayon roll by Jentwinkle;

Labradorite heart pendant keyring by NofkantsCurios; Turquoise falling star necklace by Mildunkley Beads.

That's me caught up again. I will prob do something similar in a few days rather than post every day. I'm starting to flag. Still managing to list everyday but not doing so well on the promoting and blogging. Sorry folks!



PS: Have you entered my giveaway yet?

Folksy Friday: Fantasy creatures

I love craft swaps. I first came across them last year on the crafteroo forum where I participated in Sam's button jewellery swap. I'd like to host my own swap and thinking about making it fantasy creatures. Interested? I'll work out the details in a few days and post, but for the time being- here's some amazing fantasy creatures from Folksy. You might be able to guess what my favourite fantasy creature is!! As always, click on the pics to visit these beauties in their shops.

 

 

 

Leaf dragon necklace by Nanuk Jewellery; "Eye Of The Dragon" necklace by Steampunk Storm;

Mermaid handknitted in blues and turquoise by NiftyKnits; Sock unicorn by Socklings;

Little green dragon brooch by Little Dragon Jewellery; Podling by Feyth.

ps. Have you entered my giveaway yet?

June Loons: days ten to thirteen

Regular readers may have noticed I've taken a bit of a break from posting about the wonderful June Loons listings. I've still been listing an item a day though but blogging about it every day was taking too much time and getting in the way of other planned posts.

Here's the bits I've listed in the last 4 days (not including today):

And a few of my favourites from other sellers...(click on the pics to find out more).

Cute purse...aqua by Mushy...Makes; Red ceramic flower and chain maille earrings by Blue Forest Jewellery;

African blood jasper heart pendant keyring by NOfkantsCurios; Totally loaded goodies charm bracelet by The Jewellery Angel;

Anniversary card by Spotty N Stripy; 'Lime sorbet' bamboo handled handbag by moody cow designs;

 Fuschia butterfly veiled large fascinator by Imogen's Imagination; Special birthday/wedding album by Dottie Designs.

Phew! That's me caught up. I will prob do something similar in a few days rather than post every day.



PS: Have you entered my giveaway yet?