Well I am back on board with the blog so let's see how long my inspiration lasts.

This weekend I am at the Kenilworth Craft Fair.  You will find Mum and I at the St Francis of Assisi Church Hall, Warwick Road, Kenilworth from 11:00 to 4:00. A warm welcome awaits you, as always.

More about the items I will be displaying later ... when I get a chance to photograph some of the dogs and rabbit brooches that I have created.

Decoupage on the go.....

After a show at Brackley recently I was given an order to make a card for a little girl who is three in a few weeks. I sent some ideas through to her mum and we came up with a basic idea. From there the work began.

First you have a basic decoupage sheet (below). The second image - the little dog holding a bouquet of flowers was the design chosen. Very cute for a little girl and such pretty designs from the manufacturer.

You have to cut the paper to seperate the two designs from each other. At times some of the decoupage pictures can be scattered all over the place. I tend to seperate the designs and then put the individual pictures in their group, then into a plastic bag to keep it all safe.

At this point dont breath too hard on the mat - paper pieces flying everywhere. This picture (above) shows each piece individually cut up and placed ready for them to be glued together with silicone glue. I start with the biggest piece on the matt, then the smaller piece on top with each layer built up in turn to create the whole piece.

The basic picture once cut out - yes... even the grass.


I use a tube of silicone with a wood tooth pick to control the size of the dot of glue I use. This way you can have various disctances between each layer.

Beware as some silicone glues come through the decoupage paper creating a greasy dot on the front of the picture - most unamusing if you have spent hours cutting and gluing only for it to be ruined by spots!!!! If the paper is thin I tend to use very thin foam squares.

The final piece ready for its card.

At this point I started with the basic card and chose the backgrounds for the picture, the papers to use on the card and the bits and pieces that are added to the card with care to enhance the design. I just do all this by eye and it takes ages to get everything just right.

This picture was glued on three seperate pink coloured card/paper. Its on a stiff card at the back to ensure that the design is strong enough to sit on the base card. I had punched out some decoartive flowers and glued them together to ornament the corners.

The final design came out beautifully. I used a base card of white with embossed thick paper on the front and base. Then built different layers of card, ribbon and the label on the front. This all folds flat to enable it to fit in an envelope. Success... it took about three hours from start to finish. The lady who ordered it loved it. Phew!

Mum has even ordered another one of the same for a 86 year old lady... must have done something right.... :-)

Well here we go. This is the start of the blog. Craft crazy starts here. Cant wait. More blogs to come.

The cat above is my one of the most recent items I created. Designed from scratch as a prototype - more are to come for the various shows Mum and I have.