Scavenger Photo Hunt - January

Hello! I thought I would do something very different for me (blog-wise) and take part in a photo scavenger hunt. I found a lovely one at here at I live, I love, I craft, I am me... and I felt inspired by the prompt words, so here goes!

metallic

 

 

This rather lovely and serene metallic lady hangs around on the back wall of our house. I particularly like her worn nose!

 

plate

 

 

 

I took this photo at the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore. We visited last summer on a blazingly hot day. It's quite a no-nonsense kind of plate isn't it?

 

made

 

 

 

I made these soaps in January and they are happily curing away now. I was really pleased with how the tiger-stripe technique turned out and I love the contrast between the soda ash top and the inside of the soap. Some people steam off their soda ash, but I love it!

 

aged

 

 

 

 

Another photo from the archives of last year's summer. This is Ruthven Barracks, built in 1719 after the 1715 Jacobite rising. An amazing place that is well worth visiting!

 

modern

 

 

 

I love this photo! I took it outside a hotel in Abcoude, Amsterdam. I really like the juxtaposition of the old and the modern! It was a lucky snap, as the hoover was being used to clean rooms so it probably didn't hang around for long!

 

my own choice

 

 

 

 

Finally, my furry girl Tiger Lily roasting herself on the radiator and cuddling a fox cushion. The red hot temperatures that she can tolerate are amazing. She literally puts her face directly on the radiator. Such a heat leech!

 

I've really enjoyed thinking about this month's words in relation to my photos. I hope very much that you like them too!

 

April x

 

 

 

 





Egg Soap

 

 

A new direction for my blog! I will be writing about my cold process soap-making here. Mainly as a way of recording soapy stuff for myself, but hopefully people will find it interesting too! For the last six years my blog has been filled with card-making and papercraft, specifically as a demonstrator for Stampin' Up, but lots of design team stuff too. However, last year I started my own soap business and have made the decision to leave SU at the end of this month, as I feel it's time to move on to new things. I'll still be blogging about papercrafting too, but that will just be the random stuff that I make for fun. I did think about starting a new blog, but I actually quite like this one!

 

I have a range of safety-assessed soaps that I sell, but this soap was made for a Facebook group challenge where we were asked to make egg soaps. You could use the egg yolk, the white or the whole egg. If you didn't want to use an egg, you could make an egg-shaped soap! :-)

 

There is a long tradition of egg soaps. Generations of Swedish women used egg whites as facial masks for their astringent effect on the skin. The Swedish soap maker Victoria made their egg white soap, 'Lanolin-Agg-Tval' (sorry I can't put the correct accents there!) from the early 1900s. Their soap combined egg white with lanolin and rosewater. The Belgian version 'Eiwit Zeep' from Kala does not contain lanolin, but has chamomile flower oil added. There are currently a number of Korean soaps available that also contain egg white.

 

 

 

I was very keen to devise my own egg white soap! I decided to combine lard with olive pomace, castor, argan and coconut oils with shea butter. At a light trace, I added a mixture of rose water, red French clay and an egg white. You have to be careful with two things. First, I made sure that the lye water and oils had cooled sufficiently because you can scramble the egg (not nice!). Secondly, I carefully weighed the egg white so I could decrease the amount of water accordingly. An average large egg white is apparently 40g, but mine was weighing in at 35g!

 

 

 

I added Rose Geranium fragrance oil which caused quite a bit of acceleration, so it turned out as more of a 'plop & drop' than I would have liked. However, there was just enough time to create a cocoa powder pencil line and I was really delighted with the final result. Only a small 500g batch using my small loaf mould, as it's for personal use. It will be really interesting to see how it feels after curing!

 

Happy soaping! April x

 

 

 

 



Touch of Whimsy

Hello! I have had these cute bunny stamps for years and never used them! They are called 'Touch of Whimsy' from Penny Black. I paper-pieced the daisy and bunnies with snippets, so my card is off to Di, Dudley and Parsnip at Pixie's Snippets Playground.

I was inspired by this sketch over at Sunday Stamps

I really must get around to using all the stamps in this set. There is a great bunny with really long ears holding an umbrella that I've got my eye on! :-)

Happy crafting! April x



Happy Meow Year!

 

 

Happy New Year! As a cat addict, I couldn't resist the 'Nine Lives' stamp set in the new SU Spring catalogue. My colour scheme was inspired by this lovely combo over at Sunday Stamps. I love that cute bird!

 

 

I used SU's Grapefruit Grove, Balmy Blue, So Saffron and Basic Grey for my card. The cat certainly looks a lot happier than our two do when they find themselves near an empty food bowl!

 

Snippets were deployed, so I am sending my card to Di and Parsnip at Pixie's Snippets Playground and also saying a big congratulations to Di on an amazing 7th anniversary!

 

 Here's to a new year of crafting opportunities! April x

 

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Oh dear! My poor abandoned blog. I have been hopeless. The card above should have had a snowflake made with a lovely snippet of furry, flocked paper. Well it has...but I stuck it upside down!

 

I haven't really made any cards recently. I ended up making cold process soap instead and that led to me getting my safety assessments done and selling my soaps at fairs, online and in a lovely local shop. I did get a bit of label stamping done though!

 

 



 

 

 

My soaps have kept me seriously busy, but I do hope to get back to a bit of stamping just for fun! I have always been a serial crafter and I just have to follow where the latest obsession takes me. It's been great doing pottery this year followed by the all-encompassing world of soap. I do miss a bit of blog-hopping though, so will try to do more of that next year. That is my resolution!

 

I am dropping in at Pixie's Snippets Playground to send Christmas wishes to Di, Parsnip and of course, Dudley! Thank you for the lovely card, Di. I hope mine reached you! xx

 

Wishing you a lovely crafty Christmas and a very Happy New Year! April x

Pocket Cards

 

 

Hello! I haven't done a lot of card-making lately. I have been jewellery making and going to weekly pottery classes. So far I have made a bowl and a quail who looks like a potato. He started off life as a pigeon but progressively got fatter and looked more strange as I went on. I have other 'bird potatoes' on the go too. They are found on the shelf and people say,  'Oh it's just one of April's bird potatoes!' Hopefully I will soon have a finished one to show you here!!

 

My pocket card was inspired by the colour scheme over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

 

 



 

When I was on the Design Team of this lovely challenge blog, I must confess that combinations involving yellow and orange used to make me gulp a bit! However, now I feel strangely drawn to them as a festive combo, so here is the result! I have used Merry Patterns, a SU stamp set from last year with Daffodil Delight, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie and Real Red.

 

I found the card design here. It is a great way of using up snippets, so I made another one  -

two cards in one day!!

 

 



 

 

I have been AWOL from the Playground for far too long!! Sending Di and Parsnip a big hug at Pixie's Snippets Playground.

 

Happy crafting! April x

One Layer Card

Hello! I haven't blogged about a card in ages! I got some Distress Oxide ink pads for my birthday and they are fabulous for making great backgrounds. I know I am very late to the party with these inks, but I was pleased with my first attempt.

This is a one-layer card for the challenge over at Cards in Envy. Of course what do you do when you mess up stamping your sentiment on a one layer card? You use the inlaid die technique of course! I could have used a stamping platform, but there is something about one layer cards that makes you want to live dangerously I think!

My card was made using a combo of Distress Oxides - Bundled Sage, Tattered Rose, Squeezed Lemon, Evergreen Bough and Shaded Lilac. The stamps used were SU's Timeless Textures. Hope you like it!

Happy crafting, April x