Wedding dresses

Apparently there was a wedding today.........had you heard?? :)
Not being one to sit in front of the TV all day to watch it a friend and I had planned a day out......initially we were going to a local church (now saved for another day) but then my friend heard about an exhibition of wedding dresses....COMPLETE coincidence or what...... at a small local museum.......ENGLESEA BROOK CHAPEL MUSEUM........so as we are both interested in embroidery (we did City & Guilds together several years ago) we changed plans and went there instead.

 Not everyone is lucky enough to have a designer wedding dress........just after the Second Worlld War material was in short supply and so this is a dress made from a parachute! The brown stitching is the original stitching on the parachute............how clever to make a little jacket and hat to match.

 Beautiful seed pearl embroidery...................

 ...........lovely lace..............

 ......and very non-traditional colours........they don't show up too well but this was a lovely blue with black embroidery.......................

 ......I really liked this pomegranite design......the centre piece was free standing, you could put your finger behind it

 ......and finally...........every gentleman needs somewhere to put his top hat while in chrurch!!! A special rack underneath the pew!

Stampotique challenge time!

It's STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS challenge time again.
Unlike the last challenge.....to use old book pages.....which I found really easy to do, this time really was a challenge! This time you are challenged to work to a sketch............I know these are really popular but I find them really HARD! I think it's to do with being told what to do, having to stick to a brief, neither of which I am very good at!! 

This is the sketch........

 ......and this is what I ended up with......

 I used an old book cover......a streak of paint for the background block, the book spine for the bar across and the bird as the main image.........I decided to go for the optional sentiment!

 

 I liked the fact the book cover had some numbers written on it so I deliberately left them in place!

So, head over to the challenge site and join in the fun.......remember......its Stampotiue stamps only this time!

Black plastic hell

Unfortunately not all holiday memories are good ones.............this is probably not what you are expecting to read just days after I get home from a trip....it certainy isn't what I expected to be writing but it's the truth.
In Jordan I was amazed and horrified by the amount of rubbish lying along the roadsides....cans, plastic bottles, wrappers etc etc but by way the worst was the plastic bags, in particular black bags that had become attached to fences and then shredded by the wind leavings shreds of plastic blowing in the breeze.

 So, this is my homage to fences festooned with shredded black plastic......if ever there was an advert for banning plastic bags it was this........

On a brighter note this KRAK DES CHEVALLIERS, a Crusader castle in Syria......absolutely beautiful....and no plastic in sight!

Did you miss me??

LOL I'm back from my trip and what an adventure it turned out to be!
You have probably seen on the news over the last few weeks the problems that have been occurring in Syria......well they affected my trip.........after arriving in Syria on Saturday April 9th we were enjoying the beautiful sights until on Tuesday April 12th the Foreign Office changed their travel advice for Syria saying that all but essential travel should be avoided.......that meant that our travel insurance became invalid and so the company we were travelling with said we had to leave Syria. We had to travel back to Damascus and were flown out to Jordan early the next day.
I have to say it was a great shame as Syria was beautiful and interesting and I shall go back when I can. 
Of course Jordan was also interesting but it was a lot more "touristy" than Syria and I found that a bit off-putting and a little surprising. 
THE sight in Jordan is PETRA.......THE ROSE CITY and it was the main reason for the trip..........

 To get to the city you have to walk through what is called THE SIQ.......a narrow rock corridor that is about a mile long.........at the end you get the first view........

 ......a little better view........

 ........and more............

......until finally you emerge in front of THE TREASURY..............it was gob-smacking I have to say.
I will share more pics over the next few days while I get back into the swing of making stuff.


Finally, thank you for the lovely comments left on the last few pieces which I had scheduled to appear while I was away, it was nice to read them when I got back today.

Headhunting mermaids???

 This is my "official" piece of inspiration for the current STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS challenge......I say official because I made two pieces for this challenge cos I liked it so much........my other piece appeared a few days ago when the challenge actually started.

In fact the challenge wasn't that much of a challenge for me as it's something I do all the time..........USE OLD BOOK PAGES!

 I have made these folded book page thingies before but I really like them so I made another!!
I also LOVE these mermaid images and the weird skull heads.......so mermaids with spiky teeth might well be headhunters right??!! These are displaying their trophies tucked into the book pages!!

Use old book pages

is the challenge on STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS challenge today. I have to say it wasn't  much of a challenge for me as I use old book pages all the time.......that said I had great fun making this piece!

 This is not my "official" piece of inspiration, that will apear in a few days time here and on the STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS blog......the DT is of a size that all the pieces are not shown at once......so I made this piece to announce the challenge.

 It's hard to see but I hope you can tell that the strips of torn book pages along the bottom of the page are 3d and stand out from the page. The OCTOPETS are hiding between the strips.

 

Mermaids are a bit like fairies for me......I wish they were real!!!

These pages got a bit busy....even by my standards.....but I like the way they turned out...hope you do too.

Blue and yellow

can very easily become green if you are not very careful!
This months challenge on ALTERED ALICE is to use Alice's colours......that is blue and yellow........but if you work in a messy fashion like me then they can easily become green so take care!!

 This month we are very kindly sponsored by ARTISTIC OUTPOST....they are offering a $14 gift voucher for the lucky winner. Each DT member was given the
WONDERLAND COLLAGE stamp set to use.

 I decorated a ready-made accordion book......I would normally have made the complete book myself but am short of time this month!

I'm going to be AWOL

for the next couple of weeks.
Tomorrow I am driving down to Suffolk to my friends home and then on Saturday three of us are flying off on an adventure to SYRIA and JORDAN.......it has been planned for over 12 months and I am very excited to finally be heading off!
I will leave you with these pics.........

 of some ALICE mugs I found in Shrewsbury yesterday!! They had chocolate eggs in them but I put some daffs in to brighten my window!

 This one even has a key as a handle!!!
They are from the tea place WHITTARDS if you feel the need to get some :)

So TTFN .....I do have a couple of things scheduled to appear to keep up with my DT commitments and I'll be back in person after April 24th.

In 1915 in Walberswick

in Suffolk CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH painted FRILLARIA MELEAGRIS.
I can't paint.........well certainly not like CRM ........so I took a photo of my Fritillaria and used it on a journal page! This is in my big A4 journal which is nearly full.....I need to get another one!

 When I decided to make this page I remembered I had a Mackintosh style stamp alphabet somewhere.....so I rumaged around and found it in a drawer! It is from MA VINCI'S RELIQUARY.....a heavenly place if you like alphabet stamps :)

 I continue my quest to write more on my pages and I wrote around the flower.

 Don't look too closely......I spelled FRITILLARIA wrong!!! Oh well!

 

Since I got back less than a week ago this little beauty has started to open its buds.....it is a DOG TOOTH VIOLET.

ALICE and the DODO

It's ALTERED ALICE challenge time again!! This time the challenge is to use Alices colours of yellow and blue.
This month we are very generously sponsored by ARTISTIC OUTPOST stamps and they are offering a $14 gift voucher to the selected winner.  Each DT member has been given THE WONDERLAND COLLAGE set to use........my "official" piece of inspiration will appear next weekend both here and on the ALTERED ALICE site but I made this spread in my tiny journal just for fun this week to announce the start of the challenge.

 As well as some fab images the stamp set also has some nice quotes.....I particularly like this one......useful for more than just Alice pieces of course!!

At last........

I finally got my hands on the latest DANIEL TORRENTE stamps from STAMPOTIQUE!! They popped through my letterbox yesterday (thanks Carol) and as I needed a card for today I decided to use them straight away!

 I can't remember the last time I made a card......I didn't even make any Christmas cards last year so this was something of a novelty.......the background was made for something else but fitted this perfectly!.....

 ....and look, it's got an insert and everything!!!.........

Ohhhhh I do love these evil little bods......if you do too they are available here in UK from THE STAMP ATTIC