Wonder no more...

Hello all... I won't keep you long here at Words and Pictures today, but I am sending you on your way elsewhere!

Lots of you were curious about how the background for my Think and Wonder tag was created... well, wonder no more.

All is revealed over at eclectic Paperie today, so if you hop on over you'll find out how it was done.

Thanks so much for your continued company on this crafty journey.  Your amazing support is a constant source of strength, and hopping around Craftyblogland provides endless inspiration - what a wonderful place it is!


Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.
Socrates

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
Albert Einstein

Simply Irresistible

Hello all, and a very warm welcome (though it's pretty chilly here, yet again)!


A new challenge starts today over at eclectic Paperie, and it's a really cool one!  Our host is Julie, who would like to see what we all get up to with Gel Medium.


It's such versatile stuff, and there's lots of different ways to get crafty with it - check out Julie's amazing technique here, along with all the challenge details and rules.


I decided to play one of my favourite games and create a resist for some inky loveliness.  Yes, I'm back with another tag!!


First of all, I gave the tag a coat of Picket Fence Distress Paint, so that the colour coming through the transparent resist would be paler than the straight manila of the tag.











Then I splodged some Golden Gel Medium (Soft Gloss) onto the craft mat, and used a sponge to apply it to my stamp... yup, you spotted it: the wonderful Unity hedgerow flowers, Delicate Flowers by Donna Downey.

After stamping, it was straight to the sink and plenty of nailbrush action to make sure I'd got all the medium off my precious stamp!








One of the lovely things about using the medium like this is that you get not only a glossy finish, but also a bit of dimension to your image.












I used Distress Stains and Inks to build up layers of colour onto the background.

The opaque Distress Paint underneath slightly alters how the colours "take", which I quite enjoy.









I used another Unity stamp, Christy Tomlinson's yummy SheArt Print Texture to add some, yes, texture to my inks.  Some stampings are done in Faded Jeans Distress Ink, some in Memento Teal Zeal, and some in Olive Archival.

I rolled it on and off pretty randomly...

The three sentiments are also Unity - Donna Downey again - and I stamped them in Olive Archival onto a sticky-back canvas ATC.










I cut round them and then used Faded Jeans to give the edges some definition







I love the texture of the canvas, and I also love that you can just peel off the back and stick it down - dead simple!








Well, it wouldn't be right not to top the thing off, and I went with one of my current favourite combinations: some dyed crinkle ribbon tied together with paper string.

I dyed the ribbons initially with Distress Stains, and then decided that they'd look better with a touch of the opaque shabby look that using Distress Paint gives them, so I added some Picket Fence DP to the mix.










So that's one pretty simple game to play with Gel Medium... I can't wait to see what creative games you all get up to with it!

There's a prize voucher for the eclectic Paperie store on offer, generously sponsored by the lovely Kim of eP - so get out your sticky thinking caps and show us what you've got!

For now, thank you so much for stopping by, and I'll see you soon - either here, or elsewhere in Craftyblogland!

Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind - even if your voice shakes.
Maggie Kuhn

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow".
Mary Anne Radmacher

It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.
Madeleine Albright


Click on the link to go straight to the product (I used Golden Gel Medium, which I think might be in stock quite soon - but either of the options here would also work):

Imagine that!

Hello everyone!  I'm delighted to be here (for the second time today... if you're looking for my Artistic Outpost bloghop contribution, it's here!) with my Design Team contribution for the challenge at the new look Our Creative Corner this month: Anything Goes.

You saw half the team in action at the beginning of the month, and now the rest of us are here to nudge you with a little more inspiration!

And this really was an Anything Goes kind of tag (sorry, I seem to be on a bit of a "tag jag" at the moment)...  It came about quite by accident, and without any planning of any kind, and it has a bit of anything and everything on it, so it seems appropriate for the challenge theme!

We had a couple of Dutch friends, Irmel and Bep, come to help out for a week with our dollshouse museum preparations, and they were also really interested in what I was getting up to craftily.

They particularly wanted to see the BigShot in action.  So I was showing them a bit of cutting and embossing one evening (after a hard day's graft in the museum), and explaining a bit about the inks and stamps, and I could see that Bep was itching to have a go.

So we did!



I grabbed a tag, and gave her one, asked what her favourite colours were (you'll see that they lined up nicely with some of my preferences), and off we went.

I really wanted to show her as much as I could of what's possible, and share my love of all things Tim Holtz...

So we started with clear embossing the sentiment - always magical as it changes under the heating
tool.




Then we did some ink blending - seeing the colours merge and grow in depth is another magical thing.  A bit of spritzing and flicking for added texture, and to show the water-reactive nature of the Distress Inks...

Then it was on to some stamping - and we had a look at the differences between stamping with different inks.

First, stamping with Distress - the floral flourish - still vulnerable to water if we were to add any, and also resisted by the sentiment so that you can wipe it away, leaving the stamped image "behind" the embossed one.







Then we stamped with Archival - the beautiful script from the Apothecary set - for a slightly sharper image, as well as one that will hold its own if you want to add any other moisture later on.











We also did some rolling of a stamp on and off for a partial random textural effect (the dots).








Next for the die-cutting... We did a bit of wrinkle-free distress technique using Distress Stains on another tag, and then used that to cut four butterflies (two for her and two for me) with the Movers and Shapers die.  

A little inking on the reverse, and then they got stapled down with the dinky staples from Tim's Tiny Attacher.

We used the Paper Distresser too, to get the delicious texture along the edges and then, using the almost only non-Tim ingredient of the session, we punched a doily edging along the bottom (it's a Martha Stewart punch, in case you need to know).

To give that a bit more punch - so to speak - I used a combination of Wow Vanilla White and Antique Linen Distress embossing powder along the doily... it just makes it pop really nicely, I think.

And the Distress Stains came out to dye some crinkle ribbon, and then I used paper ribbon to tie it together.  When you spread out the crinkled paper, you get a lovely diaphanous effect.














So there you go: a tag I had no intention of making, and I really love how it turned out...  And, in addition, I'm pretty sure I've created a brand new crafty addict. 

Bep went back off to the Netherlands with a list of crafty blogs to visit and another list of crafty suppliers to check out!  Sadly, I didn't get a picture of her tag... sorry.

The response over at Our Creative Corner has already been phenomenal, but it would be great to see you there, if you've not already come to play... but a maximum of three entries per person, please.  Check out the challenge details and rules here.  

And while you're there, do take a moment to check out what my amazing team-mates have been up to - you won't regret it, I promise!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll hope to see you very soon.






I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Albert Einstein

Everything you can imagine is real.
Pablo Picasso

Boys will be boys

Hello and welcome everyone, with an especially big welcome to the newest followers - it's wonderful to have your company on this crafty journey.

It's time for the monthly Artistic Outpost bloghop, and our theme is month is Masculine.  (I'm a busy bee again this morning, so if you're looking for my Our Creative Corner Design Team piece, it's here!)

I hope you'll have time to have a look at what my amazing team-mates have been up to.  Here's the full itinerary:

Gerrie Johnnic, Lisa Somerville,
Suzanne Czosek, Tracy Evans, 

Linda Coughlin, Alison Bomber,
Terry Horrall, Kate Yetter

For my contribution, I've used the delicious Huck Finn plate, and created a textured tag.

I started with an inky background (what else?!) - my current favoured blues and greens in Distress Stains swiped onto the craft mat and the tag swiped and smooshed into them.












Then there's a bit of spritzing and flicking for a watery feel.












I stamped the boys and the sentiment in Plum Archival Ink, and then clear embossed them, again to get a reflective, watery surface.









I cut a mask for the boys so that I could stamp the boat "reflection" around them.  I slightly cheated on the reflection.  If you look closely, you'll see I didn't actually reverse the image, as I should, but I think I got away with it!!

I'm certainly pleased with the angles, which I think make it look as though they're gazing longingly - or piratically - at the boat on the water.

I added an extra layer to frame the tag: my favourite corrugated card, which has had a sweep of Plum Archival Ink, and then a sprinkling of two embossing powders - some clear, and some of Ranger's Antiquities Verdigris powder.

And the topping is one of my favourite rustic combinations - raffia tied with twine... very simple, but it pleases me.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy hopping round the delicious makes from the rest of the Artistic Outpost team.  If you get lost, you'll find all the details here.

For now, happy hopping and happy crafting, and see you again soon.





Yes, I do heartily repent. I repent I had not done more mischief; and that we did not cut the throats of them that took us, and I am extremely sorry that you aren't hanged as well as we.
Anonymous Pirate, asked on the gallows if he repented.

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, 
a poet, a pawn and a king; 
I've been up and down and over and out, 
And I know one thing; 
Each time I find myself flat on my face, 
I pick myself up and get back in the race.
From That's Life (my favourite version is by Frank Sinatra)

Inspired by... Part III

Hello again... thank you for your indulgence this week!  I hope you enjoyed the hop out of kin of the dollshouse post - something a little different, for a change - and if you haven't yet, I would love it if you had time to check out my debut post as a full-time DT member at The Artistic Stamper.

So, I'm back with the third (and final, you'll be glad to hear) part of my attempt to accept that crafting has simply become as necessary to me as breathing.  I'm trying to understand how it's taken me over by looking at what it is that fires my blood about it all.  So we've come to the prime inspiration...

And the sharper-eyed amongst you will already have spotted that in Parts I and II this name has already cropped up...

No doubt about my chief inspiration - and it's why his recognition this week has really overwhelmed me - and so for my final instalment I'm sharing my take on Tim Holtz's incredible May tag.

As often seems to happen to me, I started out with one, and ended up with two (count yourselves lucky - sometimes it's three or more!)... so let me introduce you to the Dreamer of Dreams and the Collector of Memories.

It was Distress Inks, and Tim's incredible, funky, beautiful stamp ranges that started the whole shebang for me - and the delight I find in simply inking up a stamp and pressing it onto a piece of paper is hard to express.  

As for what happens when you pick up an ink blending tool and start moving water-reactive ink into the picture... what can I say?  It thrills me.  Every time.









In fact, I don't think I've written a blogpost yet where Tim isn't in the Labels, whether as direct and immediate inspiration for a technique or design, or as the designer and creator of the products which have taken over my life.  Thank you, Tim Holtz.  

Oops, that may have come out as sarcastic: I really, really mean it... thank you, Tim Holtz!

There are two tags partly because I was having so much fun with the technique, and partly because as I was making the Dreamer, the Collector started forming in my imagination as a contrast to her.










I don't need to tell you much about the making of these, since you can get it all straight from the horse's mouth right here, but I did have to make a couple of adjustments, including making my own "enamelled" tags, which I will fill you in on.

But I am sharing quite a few pictures because, again, Tim's tag really inspired me, I had the most wonderful time making these, and I love the results.

The rub-ons are really cool to use - lovely memories of playing with transfers as a kid - that magical moment when you peel the paper away and leave the image behind.

They resist the inking fabulously, so that you get really brilliant effects.

I don't have Mona Lisa, so I knew straight away I'd be using the almost as enigmatic woman from the Classics #5 set, and since that lives right next to the Apothecary set in my folder, the skull immediately demanded to be let in on the act too...















Deep ocean blues and greens reflect her unknowable depths, while the skull is in autumnal browns, with even a touch of the metallic Distress Stains in there.









No film strip ribbon, so I stamped the film strip stamp onto acetate and cut it out - love the look of crinkled old film this gives you.  

And I loved the serendipity of being able to fit one of the frames over the eye, looking right back at her!

My favourite bit of rub-on on the skull one is probably the clock... the reminder that time is passing and the end comes to us all... hovering there bisected by the skull.













I also love that I ended up with the poison label on this side, so I added to that with my stamping.

So, the enamelled tags, then... I don't have any (yet!) so I tried a couple of ways round to create my own.  

I thought it was going really well with the Ranger Enamel Accents, filling little metal cameos from my stash.  I'd got as far as the alcohol ink, and was pretty pleased - but disaster struck when I tried to rub on my rub-ons.  

I'd obviously not left it to dry for long enough: when I pressed down to rub... squidge!

Back to the drawing board...  

In the end, I handcut a couple of ovals, and then embossed them in white.  Lovely firm surface - phew!














I added some alcohol ink, and then my selected words and images from the rub-ons... She's clearly a Dreamer of Dreams, and he became the Collector of Memories, with another part of a clock face, and lots of file numbers for where he stores all the memories.









I edged them with black Archival ink to mimic the beautiful ones from the Idea-ology range.

Finally, to give them a bit more dimension, I added a coat of Glossy Accents and laid them aside carefully to set.

Each tag has its own Word Band, carefully selected... 

I did make some effort to dent the fasteners using an old pair of scissors... texture hammer here I come.

And, of course, the toppings, dyed crinkle ribbon tied with paper string which I've curled, just for fun!

Thank you, Tim, for another amazing piece of inspiration - I think this has been one of my favourite makes ever - and for being the root and source of such a joyous new life journey.

I'd like to enter these in the following:
As my May tag(s) in Tim Holtz's 12 tags of 2013
A third and final piece of working out what I'm Inspired by... at Simon Says Stamp and Show

To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause...
From Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
Dreams and death (and the other prime inspiration in my life, W.S.)... sorry, I just had to!!

Inspired by... Part II

Hello and welcome all.  And now, for something completely different.  Cups of coffee at the ready, please - or perhaps take it in stages... it's a biggy - well, it's nine weeks' work!

And Simon Says Stamp and Show have really timed this one well.  Their Inspired By challenge has already helped me in the midst of a little wobble (more about that in Inspired by... Part I, in case you missed it), as have all your warm and supportive messages - thank you so much.

But it also coincides perfectly with me fulfilling my promise to fill you in on some of what I've been doing here in the Czech Republic for the last nine weeks.  I said I'd try to do it before I leave CZ... well we're off this afternoon, so I've just made it!

I've been deploying my crafting skills, not to mention inks, stamps and paints - and even some craft design papers - in a slightly different direction... and it's all been inspired by one person: my mother.

There, I've said it - if the ick factor's too high, then move on now!!  Some of you may know her as Cestina, and I know some have visited her blog, and you're following her side of the story and you've seen the projects she's been busy with ... but now I'd like to share some of what I've been doing.





Dollshouses are really her hobby, but I have always joined in - for instance making most of the meat and much of the fish for Peacocke's... a rather upmarket butcher's and fishmonger's shop - all done years ago.









Slices of bacon... not the easiest thing to make out of Fimo.  Making the kidneys made me feel slightly ill.  And because I don't like fatty meat, I made all the joints ridiculously lean, and had to correct afterwards with paint.

I like to think I'd do it better these days.











The ice on the fish slab is broken car windscreen glass - because it's safety glass, it smashes into little cubes, perfect ice cubes.  We scrabbled on the car park floor at Cockfosters Underground station at nearly midnight (having just got off the tube) for these, to the consternation of several passersby...

Spot the mussels and prawns!







Now, all this may not precisely count as papercrafting (it may not even qualify for the SSSaS challenge, but that's not important - it's just a chance to share the fun), but it's certainly closely related - particularly the way I do it now, with my new found skills and crafty products!




We've been preparing Cestina's dollshouse - or dollhouse, as I know the Americans amongst you prefer - collection (the sum of more than 40 years collecting - hoarding, some might say) to open as a small museum here in the Czech town where she lives for half of each year (not far from where her mother was born and brought up, but had to leave in 1941, emigrating to England).





Many of the houses had been in storage in our slightly tumble-down garage for more than a decade, so there was some serious cleaning and restoring to be done.

In addition, many of them had never really had the intended care and attention lavished on them.






Now, at last, they have a home worthy of them; we have space to work; and plans and ideas which have been on the shelf for decades can finally be put into practice.

I'm going to fill you in on how just a few of those plans have turned out.

Details of stuff I'm not talking about can probably be found over at Cestina's Dollshouses.  If it's not there yet, it soon will be!


I've got lots of before-and-after pictures... it's probably the element of transformation which is most exciting to me in the work.  Bear in mind that this is a working collection, rather than a finished, polished museum... there will always be more to be done, and things to be added.  Almost everything I'm sharing today is work in progress.

In fact, I'm not sure a dollshouse is ever "finished"... there's always more to do; some little extra texture to add, just as in a real house.  But some of these are more "finished" than others!!



So, for instance, in the last nine weeks, I've turned this... a homemade house, made out of a tea chest, decorated in the most extraordinary 1970s wallpaper scraps, and given to my mother by a kindergarten group who didn't have the space for it...









...into this... a nineteenth century Colonial bungalow.  We're still arguing about whether it's in Africa or India, but that's okay: all the final detailing - maps, photographs, papers etc is still to be done.

The gentleman's residence is essentially very simply furnished but, like our German friends in the diplomatic service, he does travel to his postings with some home comforts, as you'll see.

Obviously paint played a big part in the transformation, and some straw matting with a coat or two of woodstain makes a wonderful roof.  The straw was rescued and hoarded from a puppet theatre my mother made for me when I was about 5 - so nearly forty years ago. 

But I'm also very proud of my first attempt at a handmade floor (wait till you see what I did once I'd had some practice!).

The verandah floor is made from cardboard, stamped with the Kaisercraft woodgrain stamp, and doused in some wood dye.

I cut the card into strips and mosaic'd them together.  The same "planks" are in the hallway, while cork tiles do service as "exotic flooring" in the main rooms.








This is what will become the bedroom.  Mmm... lovely wallpaper - and imagine how large those flowers would be full size!









I'm also very happy with my mosquito net - fashioned from some old net curtain, and the wire from the top of a champagne bottle (okay, it was Bohemia Sekt - the Czech equivalent of Cava or Prosecco), painted with enamel paint.

From the decanter and two goblets, it seems that our man - a bachelor, who left England having suffered a broken engagement - is not above entertaining company in the bedroom.





This is one of the most inspiring things about my mother's approach to the hobby...

She's never had lots of money to spend on it (many houses were picked up for peanuts at auctions, or more recently ebay, or - as with this one - handed over for free), so she has become adept at taking ordinary household objects or leftover bits and pieces and turning them into part of her miniature world.

It does mean that there are now two of us hoarding the most unlikely odds and sods, ready to use them in our respective hobbies!

So the cork tiles are odd ones that have been lying around for ages.  The tiles around the fireplace are cut from some bookmarks and leaflets from an exhibition.

The tiny cushions are made from material samples and swatches (made by my aunt, Mette Breminer - as was the bedding in the bedroom, out of an old linen tablecloth and some hankies).

"One must, of course, always travel with the family silver."





In the kitchen (note the mottled walls - tried not to breathe while I wiped away whatever it was! - and the dessicated spider hanging over the door)...

... we now have a table mat as the straw floor, a balsa wood counter, but no cooking range yet, I'm afraid.  Until I'm back again - I hope early next year - they'll have to make do with the little burner.

"One simply can't get the staff these days."

A sneaky little view of the hallway here too...

And the study is where the business of the day takes place.... a desk for meetings, one for private correspondence, and one for the new-fangled typing machine.  I whittled the pencils from some straw matting strands.

"I'm awaiting delivery of the trunk containing my school photographs - Harrow, don't you know - and my other paraphernalia.  Until then, I'm afraid the place looks rather sparse."







I also had a great time completely making over our Cape Cod house.  From the outside this weatherboarded beauty looked the part, though I have repainted the roof, shutters and front door.

Goodbye green... hello Weathered Wood Distress Paint (the shutters - not the whole roof!).  I've still got work to do on repairing the weatherboarding itself.  And you'll notice there are no actual windows yet in the new version.

The old ones were made by sticking wood to acetate, but the acetate has now gone completely yellow.  Making new ones is going to have to wait for another time... my focus was on the interior.






It's not always easy to get at the insides though!











This house was certainly bearing the scars of having stood in a garage for more than ten years.  I gave it a complete re-papering and re-flooring makeover.

And pre-garaging, the inside had been filled with various bits and pieces of furniture which really didn't fit the bill to my mind.

I'll admit to being heavily influenced by Hollywood versions of Cape Cod houses (for instance, the glorious one in Something's Gotta Give - oh, dream house!).

I've still got lots of work to do on gathering the tiny things that add real life and texture to a house, but I'm pleased with where I've got to so far.

The floor downstairs is the pine base on which the house is built, whitewashed with white woodstain, and then the boards were painstakingly drawn on by hand.

The pale grey wallpaper in the living room - which seemed somehow very USA to me - is wrapping paper from the cheapy shop!  The beautiful irises in the bedroom are printed off the internet.  Most of the rest come from the hoard.





I also ripped out one whole wall and created a new one with an arch through instead - open-plan living, American style - using, yup, plain old recycled cardboard off the back of a sketchbook!







Now, to the furniture.  I've been putting all that distressing training to excellent use.  I took the mass-produced plastic furniture (how come they always make the "wood" so orange?) and applied my painty techniques, including crackle and dry brushing and so on, to create a houseful of shabby chic wood furniture... light and bright and airy.  Lots of little pictures: do click for a closer view - if you're still awake, that is...


The dining room furniture had the full crackle treatment.

First a coat of dark brown acrylic... then crackle glaze, some white acrylic, and watch the magic!

Or just a coat of paint and some dry-brushing for the highlights.

And even the pieces that are made of actual wood can just be a bit much... time to get painty.

I've always wanted a desk like this (in real life, I mean) - but the shabby chic version please, for me.

Basically, this dollshouse lark is about creating houses I will never get to live in in real life, isn't it?!

And, um, yes... that would be me in the tiny photograph, aged about three, I think!









More beautiful bed linen sewn by my aunt, Mette, with the tiniest stitches you've ever seen - and made of a handkerchief... very fine material, you see, so it works brilliantly in this scale.

Vintage Photo distress ink - of course - to shabby up the lacy rug in the bedroom...











Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain also worked brilliantly to create a bit more life in the brick paper used in the external transformation of this rather lurid house...













... into this highly typical piece of North London architecture.

It's going to be a pair of bedsits inside, and fairly rundown, so I didn't want it looking too pristine.  

The inking brings a touch of weathering to the bricks that is really helpful in starting to paint the picture of a property where the landlord doesn't exactly get right on the job when you call him.  A long way to go on this one, but I'm pleased with the outside.

Time for my pièce de résistance... the handmade floors in our large Edwardian house.  It's actually an American kit house, made by the Walmer company, later taken over by Greenleaf.  (Regulars will spot my Tick Tock altered clock now happily on the wall.)

First of all, let me show you the floors in all their completed glory!!








I love this house and all the things in it... we put it together, decorated it and added all the wonderful little touches throughout my teens.  

Even though it didn't ever end up in the garage, twenty years had taken their toll, and a full scale redecoration was needed.








If you're a WOYWWer, you already know that I used some 7 Gypsies paper in this house for the living room wallpaper.

And the fireplace was plain wood, so I got out the paints to "convert" it into marble!

And I also created the wood panelling you see in the music/school room out of - yes, it's here again - plain old cardboard!

I'm not going to show you inside the whole house, it's too huge... you'll just have to wait for Cestina to get round to this one!   It's the floors I'm really proud of.











Many of the papers we already had in the hoarded stash, some are craft papers, or downloaded from the Internet and printed out. 

But when it came to floors, I was very dissatisfied with most of what we had available.

I wanted something worthy of this house I love, but short of spending a great deal of money on the beautiful floors which do exist, but cost a fortune, there was only one option... handmaking the floors myself.

So it was kraft card to the rescue - some sheets of the PaperMania 12x12 Basics Kraft Card which, in a stroke of genius, has grids and lines on one side of some sheets.  

This was the breakthrough which would enable me to cut thousands of individual parquet tiles with some precision.






First though, it was back into action with the Kaisercraft woodgrain stamp and the Coffee Archival ink.  Then cutting into strips, and finally into the tiny tiles (about 1.5 x 0.5cm each).

Once they were all stuck down (oh, how quick to type; oh, how slow to do!), I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to bring them to life, and then a coat of matte varnish both to seal and to finish the look.  Safe to say, I'm thrilled with the results.







And I'm possibly even happier with the boards upstairs in the main bedroom and nursery.








Simpler and quicker to lay than the tiles, obviously; and this time inked with Walnut Stain before the varnishing for a deeper, darker look.

Worth the effort, I think!






It's already a marathon post, and I haven't even touched on the makeover of the tiny 1/24th scale house (interesting trying to wallpaper when you can barely get your hands inside)... 

...or the paper-embossing I've been doing ready to do some pargeting on our Essex pub-to-be... 

...or the bay window I built out of balsa wood for the Georgian house Cestina was working on, and where a troupe of performing mice have just moved in... 





...or how I used texture paste to plaster a new chimney for our medieval thatched cottage (yup, genuine straw, and it's just been rethatched by our Dutch friends who came for a week to help out)... 

...or the stamps I used to create the signage for our French patisserie Chez l'Artiste (upstairs is an artist's gallery with a rather scantily clad model sitting for her portrait).

I'm leaving all those delights to Cestina over at Cestina's Dollshouses... 

And I'm sure she'll also let you know how it goes when we open to the public for the first time on Saturday morning (before I head back across Europe to the UK).





I just wanted to try to give you a taster of some of what I've been up to, and share some of the challenges and the fun inspired by this amazing project of my mother's... an extraordinary woman who is an inspiration to me in this work, in her adventures into a new (even though familial) language and culture, as well as in more ways than I can possibly say.

I'd like to enter this into Simon Says Stamp and Show's challenge Inspired by...  yes, my mother (though a rather more conventional option will be along tomorrow if I get finished).

Two Tim Holtz stamp sentiments to end with:

It's the little things that make life big.

And one which is unbelievably appropriate for Cestina.  You wouldn't believe how often I heard the phrase, "I've never seen that before in my life", as we were unpacking and sorting 40 years' worth of collected miniatures, so this is perfect:

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is always making exciting new discoveries.

Any hint from those quotes as to who might be in the frame for Inspired by... Part III?  See you soon!