Dies, Rudolph Day's and Canine Fashionista

Before I go on to my Allsorts post which thankfully I scheduled some weeks back, I just need to add a few words in the form of an apology and a thank you.

An apology for the faux pas which seem to be a regular occurrence when I try to write a comment on blogs lately. The mind knows what I want to say but with one arm pretty useless too often comments get posted before I get to do corrections. So if you have had a dodgy comment or two from me I hope this goes some way to explain. And the thank you to all of you who still offer kind comments and words of encouragement even though my visits are spasmodic.

Now back to Allsorts where Wendy would like us to showcase our dies using 'more than two'. Our sponsor is Sizzix.

No secret that I like to buck the trend a little...........or perhaps it's just I like to find new ways of using things. Anyhow, this is a canvas I did for Tattered Lace a while back using one of the new (at that time) stencils. I covered the canvas with gesso and then painted with a wine coloured acrylic paint, dried with a heat gun and then added a thin coat of crackle glaze, I've tried so many and always revert back to the Parer Artsy one for both the finished crackles it gives and it's ease of use. Next a layer of a very pale pink acrylic paint and watch the cracks appear like magic.

Once dry I used DI's and a mask made with acetate and a TL harlequin die to add some background interest, then dimensional paste and the TL Keep Calm mask. While it was drying I cut out the flowers and leaves using TL Trio dies and embossing folders along with TL swirls and the Friends word, all of which I painted with the same acrylic paints. Lastly lots of gilding wax and a strip of lace. Six dies in total so I think I have met Wendy's brief OK. |And hopefully by the skin of my teeth I will beat the Playground gates closing, at least being so late I won't be able to create too much havoc.

As always there is so much inspiration from my teamies over at the challenge blog, please do pop over and take a peek.

And I also have one for Mo's current Rudolph Day's challenge, I missed last month as I was away.

Again it's not a new make and one I created back in May for Tattered Lace's Christmas shows on C&C using the 2016 Snow Globe along with the little rows of houses and Santa dies which are also new for this Christmas, some TL Ivy and Poinsettias.

Lastly I thought I would share a few photos of our family friends taken this week................

What all the best dressed labs are wearing this season, or in Holly's case those who have a stitched shoulder due to an injury (still no idea how she did it). A buster collar was not necessary as she can't reach it with her month, but we quickly found out her back leg could, so an old tee shirt seems to be working fine.

Do you remember those tiny ten day old ducks Jemima and Puddleduck back in June here, eleven weeks on and this is what they look like now and they are still far from fully grown.......note the new duck house behind which is located next to the pond............... they quickly grew out of their first house so a new one was necessary but guess what, they spent two nights in there and decided they preferred the big chicken house.

And this is Speckledy, a seven month of Bantam who we rescued from Wood Green Animal Shelter a couple of weeks ago. He has a nice new house as well which he shares in a separate run with two of the hens until he is confident enough to meet the other girls.............but for a bantam he is really rather restrained when it comes to the ladies !!

And finally, a photo I took last evening, our local golf club a couple of fields away always hosts the National hot air balloon competition and for a week we see all the competitors overhead taking part in the daily races. This year there were 20 competitors but I wasn't able to get them all in one shot and it's pretty distant as I only have a bog standard Canon so wasn't able to zoom in, but it's a pretty spectacular sight.

Happy Bank Holiday weekend all.