Recycled owls

This morning a friend posted some pics of owls made from recycled stuff on my Facebook timeline, I had seen them before and been inspired to create some of my own at that time.So, as I have nothing new to show you I thought I'd re-blog a couple of them, it's been a while so I'm sure some of you won't have seen them before:)

 This one is on the front of a box covered with braille paper...wings are embossed and die cut metal and feathers from a shuttlecock, face is metal circles, washers, pearl buttons and a pen nib

 This one is made from a heart shaped tea strainer, washers, black crystals, a pen nib and a crown from something.....I don't remember what:)

Favourite rhyme

 This is one of my favourite rhymes......

did you know it refers to the plague, the Black Death of the 14thcentury?

 There are several slight variations on the wording, I like the one that says "ashes ashes" instead of "atishoo atishoo"

My local craft shop (run by my friend of over 25 years) has a customer exhibition every year, the theme this year is "masquerade"......this is my piece for the exhibition.....

I chose to use a plague doctor mask:)

How does your garden grow?

Well, some of mine grows in containers!!

 I like the interest different containers give to the garden, some give extra height, some give a small space to grow smaller plants, others let you grow things where there is no soil, whatever the reason I like containers, and the more unusual the better! 

Here are some of the ones I have in my garden.....lots of pictures now follow!

 old chimney pots

shallow terracotta pots for small plants

 

 oh, an ordinary round pot:)

 an old wooden barrel

 

pot made of slates and one covered with moss

 

 small mossy trough with hostas and glass balls

Grandmas old sink with bricks that look a bit like a skull:)

 

 and another one used as a pond

 galvanised dolly tub.....also Grandmas

 supermarket wine cooler wth tiny lily pads

 hanging heart

 conventional hanging basket with gnome

 blue and white enamel bowl

 pale blue enamel bucket

 tall yellow pots lurking in the undergrowth

 old metal tray

  rusting metal hanging pot

 newest container.....giant galvanised jug

 with small clematis and obelisk

 there is also a basket with sea washed bricks sitting on a railway sleeper pillar

 an old watering can

 an old French chimney pot amongst the black grass

and last but not least there is an owl and mushrooms!

 Hope you enjoyed the container tour of my garden!!

Watch this space

Now for something a bit different! I used to make lots of jewellery (I won't show you the drawers full of beads) but haven't done much in ages......then I saw an idea online somewhere and had one of those "I can make that" moments.

 Only thing was I had to collect some bits and pieces together so off I went to my local junk/collectibles place to look for some old watches......not as easy as I thought it might be but I did get a couple and 2 nice old watch keys. 

 Not really enough for what I had planned but then when I was telling my Mum about it she said she had a couple of old watches I could have, one was hers (above) and one my Grandmas (below)......perfect:)

 I didn't end up using the one that was Grandmas, will save it and do something else with it.

 Mums watch had a little St Christopher hanging from it so I had to use that too.

Used one of the keys as a dangle.....am thinking another couple keys would make fun earrings to go with the bracelet.

 This is what I ended up with.....a retro/vintage/recycled bracelet that I am very happy with!

And another one

 I really enjoyed making the Gelli print onto sticky plastic so decided to make another one!

 This time I took the print off the plate with strips of clear packing tape, this is the reverse of the strips......the yellow was not planned, my plate was dirty:)
 

 Instead of the book pages I used last time I backed these strips with tin foil to show silver through the spaces. They are a bit like your own design washi tape:)
Not sure what I'm going to do with these yet but am sure I will think of something.