My little Ninja

This is Charlie in all his kit - gum shield an' all! He is hoping to go for his grading again soon, so must practise his side (heel first) kicks.

Nice casual pose Chas. xxx

Dad's gift....!

Here is the bag of goodies dad put together to help me with my resin craft..... Here we have some t-cut car colour restorer, brasso, glass fibre resin, some mini files, bottle tops, flat side (thingy) and something called chemico?!!???? well acutally I dont really know what its called... what it does or why anyone would ever have it - like many things I think he stores in his garage!!!!

Anything, from this century or perhaps the last 10 centuries, name it, and dad usually has it, or something like it, or something he can create in the garage to replicate it! Amazing really, stuff that money cant buy.... And altho I have still yet to find a use for these "handy" bits and pieces he has lent me and I am still smiling and totally grateful.

I think I have inherited that same creative gene, that can think up, recreate and build any item, with bits and pieces hoarded over the years - thanks dad!!!

The Badges....

This is the beginning of the final badge, after deciding on this final design I started the resin process. My initial idea was to make the Shaun The Sheep in "Shrinkles" using Sharpie pens, however the Sharpie pen ink seems to melt in the resin and the image becomes a blur. I then covered the newly shrunk Shaun pieces in pva.

These full Shaun pieces seemed to large and were too similar to each other, I wanted the badges to have different "personalities". I chopped up one of the shrunk Shaun pieces, but it just snapped. So then my idea was to make the Shaun pieces separate, head body and tail. That way I would be able to give them depth and also appear in the core of an apple, with depth but also their own personality!

So this is the first layer, each layer takes 48 hours (very impatient 48 hours!!) After drawing the Shaun pieces, colouring in, cutting out and then shrinking down. Finally covering in pva, drying and setting in the apple moulds.

See the top left, this cute individual badge is for my sister, the one with the ribbon. I thought his face was so cute. And the ribbon is a real ribbon set in the resin.

After 48 hours and the resin has dried, I am able to set the next piece in... the tails.

In this picture you can see where I am trying to give the Shaun's their personality. Heads and tails need placing. Tails are the next level. Just trying to get a feel for each badge.

Place the pva covered tails and leave to set for another 48 hours.

However, some of the tails floated slightly and some of the ink from the tails spread slightly (imperfections otherwise known as Jacqui-isms).... I still love them tho, and as we all know, all sheep are not perfect in form!

The best bit next.... Heads up!!! (ooh can you see the dismembered bodies in the background)!!

Just need to pop these beauties out, sand their edges, buff and attach the pins, jobs a good one... hoping you love them Sam, i love you. xxx

Mum's birthday and first BBQ of the year....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM

On April 22nd it was Mum's birthday, so I baked a cake. This one was an apple and carrot cake coated in cream cheese icing, hundreds and thousands and silver balls...... yum yum. Mum looks pleased with the result!

We had a lovely dinner and the day after, Dad took mum out for (romantic) meal.... Good times.

The 19th May was the event we had all been waiting for........ The first barbeque of 2009 - at last I hear you cry... the sun made a special appearance in grey UK, so I popped to the local shops and bought as many meat products as they could supply, invited the folks round and had a great time!

Baz and Clare, Mum and Dad, Stephen and of course Chas, were present. A funtime was had by all, many more this summer, we're hoping for.

So much to tell you, so little time....... first let me tell you about my newest partner, she is called Dremel. I was sat in my garden trying to sand pieces of resin and drill through so i could set them as jewellery.

After ruining about 5 different, and very special pieces (that had taken a very long time to create and set) I decided to blame my tools and opt for more accurate and precise tool. As you can see from the first picture I am a little clumsy.........

And so I called Stephen.... There was only 1 tool that would be good enough. Stephen went out to B&Q and got me the Dremel, the mother of all craft, the handi-tool of all tools (yey, thank you sweetie)!!!! It is awesome, precise, handy, delicate, lightweight.... does this sound like an advert? Well you get the idea. It is great, and much more handy than the previous clumsy heavy drill.

All I need now is....... well just about every single other accessory you can buy for it!!!

London, it was sooooo awesome. Obviously my birthday is going to make me very excited but to be shopping and drinking AND bead shopping is my idea of heaven, as you can see by my picture.

Lots of smiling, with a full shopping basket. And when i got home I saw a magazine that showed all the shops in London that sell beads (wish I had seen the mag previously).

I am going to put up some pics of my creations, using the bits and pieces bought in London and Yum Yums, at the weekend.

Longest day of work EVER, no proper craft time tonight :`-( Going for a bath then hope to fit in at least half hour of some felting action.

Sambo (my sister) has her birthday coming up, so it would be rude not to send a little handmade goody! So I'm off to scratch my head and see what i can come up with.

Ps, do not let me forget to tell you all about my recent birthday trip to London (THE best bead shops EVER!) Will attach pictures next time. Over and out....x