Batcidentally in love!

Yesterday was Not. My. Day. It was supposed to be my day off, but for reasons unbeknownst to me, I fell out of bed at 7 am. I mean, what the heck? So I went to lounge about on the couch with a coffee, read some blogs and make the most of it... and the phone rang. A dear colleague (luv ya, Barbara!) had an emergency and could not open the shop, so I duly went and did what a girl has to do. Sit in a badly airconditioned betting shop yawning her head off for 7 hours.

After crawling back home (man, I never felt so tired in my entire life!), I thought I'd just go back to where I left things and went about reading blogs, doing more yawning and pretty much being a waste of space when The Man suddenly stirred and shook his leg... onto which a fat spider had decided to climb.
Let's just say I spent some time on the middle floor, hyperventilating and shaking while the knight in shiny armour unarmoured himself in the quest to find the eight- legged freak. He thought it had made its way into his jeans, so he took them off, took his shirt off, examined the stuff properly and still couldn't find the foe.
Turns out the bugger sat under some furniture, but was eventually found out and politely asked to leave the house (with a gentle nudge towards the neighbour's door!)

With enough oxygen in my bloodstream to last me for a week without breathing, I thought I might as well do something useful (who said washing up? Are you kidding?) and get crafting. And that is where I batcidentally fell in love- have a look.

 The man decided that too many owls spoil the broth, so for my second shadow box (I have three of those ugly frame things going on!) I went with another favourite critter of mine: the Common Dozy Bat.
So again, some doodles first:

 Here they are, the prototypes.

After that, again transferring them to cardboard and some cutting- this time I went for an easier option and only cut the wings and bodies. Even lazier, they only got painted with my new brushes The Man got me the other day (together with a beautiful bag of beads, am I spoilt or what?) and his good old miniature paints.

 Heck yeah, he got me chocolate, too! :)

Bob helped me to prepare the frame, which I had spray painted while the bats dried. A piece of firewood ( I had to go into the basement to get it. Not happy.), some more potpourri and a bit of string, here we go:

The final result: (sorry about the lame pictures, it was pretty late and I had to use the flash)

Closer:

CLOSER:

Love them! Honest, the pictures don't do them much justice, if I may say so myself.

Yeah, and that's 2 out of three! The next one, I hope, will be nutty. Err. Any guesses? :)

Linkin' up:

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The mauve plastic flowers of doom

I am not the flowery type. Granted, there are pansies clinging to dear life outside the door and in my garden, but in general, I'm more of a cactus person. The Man will happily agree and nod his head wisely, probably murmuring something to the effect of "a cactus is easier to handle than her"...
Never mind, this is not about me but another doomed project I came up with while waiting for a certain Starbucks card project to dry.  Have a look at this:

Sweet and innocent, right?
It might be if you happen to have a little girl in your life or feel a bit like one yourself. No to both, I'm afraid, so what to do? Mauve plastic flower hair clips normally aren't part of my universe.

But this stuff is:

Twine and beads, the latter courtesy of The Envelope of Doom. Two birds, one stone, can't beadt it.

I cut two circles out of the black foamy mat thing, slightly larger than the flowers, and simply mod- podged the twine to it, a little bead in the middle of each one, and that was pretty much it. After the thingys were dry,one had a little beady accessoire attached and they got hot- glued to the flowers.

Bob luuurves them. I wonder if he'd let me embellish him! *evil laugh*

On second thought... naw, I like my face attached to my head, better give it a miss.

They look better in real life, you can't really see the black foam mat under them when worn.
I think I will send them to a very special friend in Germany who I haven't talked to for ages. My fault, for no reason whatsoever I kinda let the contact die down and I miss the lass a lot. She has the most gorgeous fiery red hair, which is what came to my mind when I made these. Luv ya, Martina!

Mich, it looks like you are re- uniting me with a friend, if she still likes me after disappearing for too long. There's your good deed for today!

Linkin' up here:

The puppy of doom

Okay, so I am impatient. Very impatient.

After finishing my earlier post, I pretty much had to get started immediately. And since the project is supposed to be a gift for somebody, I decided to make something for the delightful people that have invited us to come to their house tomorrow and watch the England- Slovenia match with them.

Meet Carol and Wullie.

They have the most adorable little puppy, a chap called Milo. I am in love.
Last time we went for a visit, I talked Carol into giving me a snapshot of Milo, so I could carry it around with me and drool over him whenever I needed some cuteness, but it wasn't meant to be. Thanks to Mich and her darn Envelope of Doom, I turned the snapshot into a Thank you for having us- gift... have a look at how I spent my afternoon, if you like.

 It started with a frame that somebody had given a makeover, but obviously didn't like it very much, so it ended up in the charity shop where I snatched it up for a mere 50 pence. Steal! (and I can keep the seashells for another project.

See how dang cute that puppy is?? Awww!
So off to work I went, taking it all apart with a little help from The Bob. See that ripped and torn plywood where I had to rip off the Hessian? I mod- podged a few layers of thin paper over it, and the splinters were sorted. (actually, I am too cheap for Mod Podge, I used watered down PVA glue) The frame itself had been painted in some sort of salmon colour, so it got a few minutes under the sander, and that was it. To get some colour back onto the plain wood, i stained it with dark brown furniture polish.

Next, I mod- podged PVA'd the scrapbooking paper to the front of the plywood and altered it a bit with the blue ribbon because I wasn't loving the embellishment it had on it. The snapshot of Milo got attached to cardboard, then glued to the plywood and surrounded with twine- messy business! But totally worth the sticky fingers.

Bit empty, isn't it? Good job I am a genius! (err...) When looking for the PVA, I came across a box of almost forgotten plywood letters, so the frame got the ultimate personalization... a MILO on it. Heck, it took me about a century to embellish that dang letter L! The twine wouldn't stick for nothing, and it took every bit of my (almost non- existent) patience to get it done. The M was a lot more fun, I just snapped one of the ladybirds off the rusty wire and bound it with a bit of twine. Love it!

It still seemed a bit too plain, though. So I used the rusty wire and a few faux pearls in (almost) the colours of the dog toy to make a little flower thingy. Why, I don't know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Well, and this is the final result. Sorry 'bout the reflection, I had to use flash since the sun has moved a little since I started the project- but PVA takes a while to dry, right? Even with a hair dryer aimed at it. I DID mention how impatient I am!

 That's it, my very first crafty post ever.  Nothing out of the ordinary, but I am really proud of myself :)
Thanks for bearing with me, and a big CHEERS! to Mich for getting me started.


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