A bit of upcycling

I have used sooooooo much sellotape in the last few months, sending out items from the jewellery auctions I had been running for a an animal charity and of course posting orders from my Etsy shop, I ended up with a huge amount of empty sellotape rolls. Time for at least one more little tubby, lol! The others I made were very much Tim Holtz/steampunk inspired, this one is a bit more Spring-y, flowery, bird-y :-). With a teeny bit of bling, of course :-) -

Toodlepip xx

A little bit of crafting

I know I said I definitely would not be making any more domino books, but I just couldn't resist making a couple more. Just had to make a cat domino book for our charity auction, another dog domino book for another charity auction, and finally a new bird domino book for a friend.

This is the cat one -

And this is the birdie one -

Also made a tag for Tag Tuesday, the theme is blue and green -

Toodlepip xxx

French Lavender Hearts

I got my sewing machine out, woohoo! To make a quilt, really, but before I started on that, I wanted to make some lavender hearts to put into an auction one of the animal rescue charities I support, is holding on Facebook right now. 

I used antique French hand loomed linen, over a hundred years old, vintage lace motifs which my dear friend Alexandra had gifted me with, vintage sequins and beads from Paris, and backed the hearts with a lovely cotton fabric from a vintage French torchon ( tea towel ). Filled with toy stuffing for shape and lovely lavender for a beautiful scent -

You can check out the auction HERE if you are interested. The starting bid for the two lavender hearts is £9.00 plus postage.

Toodlepip xxx

Simply Neutrals Tuesday No. 11 and a GIVEAWAY reminder

Firstly, a quick reminder that I am having a GIVEAWAY! Ephemera, lace, fabric, embellishments, mixed media supplies, French vintage treasures, you let me know what you would like to win and I will try and put together a little package to make you happy. Enter the giveaway on this post HERE

I made a few more Christmas cards inbetween braving the world out there for a bit of Christmas shopping. It really is the only time of the year when I enjoy wombling through the shops these days. I stuck with the same theme and image as before ( see last post ), but each and every card is different. Did a bit of stamping, used pages from a very early 1700s Italian book, vintage Swarovski bling, antique French lace motifs, vintage French shelf edging, lots of sparkly bits of course, this is me after all, lol, and bits of this and that. This stone angel is one of my most favourite images -

A couple of cards with more silvery embellishments -

Here are all 6 completed cards, a few more to go yet -

I know I am ridiculously late for Wen's Simply Neutrals Tuesday party, it being Sunday today, lol, but I don't want to miss this gorgeous party altogether! So, better late than never, right? You can see all the other beautiful neutrals on Wen's blog HERE .

Stay safe and happy. Toodlepip xxx

A little collage

I haven't made anything apart from tags for such a long time. But I really wanted to mess around with fabric and lace, not just paper, so I decided to make a teeny little fabric collage. Ahem. Tag size  -

Wishing you all a great weekend, toodlepip xxx

Little creative thisses and thats

My craftavan has felt so cosy lately, I have been spending a little time in there creating. I'll show you this week's inchie and tag (the last alphabet tag, sob sob) later, first I'll show you my little lavender filled collage -                                       

And here it is fluttering in the wind, almost like a lavender filled prayer flag -

 It was very satisfying making this, although at the beginning it wasn't going as well as planned, and it took me a few days on and off. Still, I am happy with the way it turned out. Most of it is hand stitched, and I used lots of lovely little embellies. I do love my bling, lol.

This week's inchie theme was HOUR, and being the vintage loving girl that I am, it had to be HOURglass figure of course -

 And over at the Tag Tuesday blog it was time for the very last alphabet letter, Z. I chose the Zodiac for this tag.The two star signs at the top are mine (Pisces) and my husband's (Leo), and the zodiac at the bottom of the tag was cut from an old French Larousse dictionary. The gorgeous main image came from somewhere on the internet, must look up where I got it from, lol. Of course it all had to be embellished with lots of little gold and silver gems for stars -

Until tomorrow, toodlepip xxx

Inspired by Nature

Here in France, we live in the middle of nowhere, the deepest countryside, on a little hill top, overlooking the village we belong to in the valley below us. Surrounded by cows and all sorts of wildlife with the nearest neighbour at least a kilometer away. Yesterday, I was working in the garden, being watched by little birdies picking at little critters in the grass for their little kiddies in the nest. Lots of littles there, lol, but these birds are tiny! But size really doesn't matter, lol, they are also fearless and couragious and couldn't care less about me being just a couple of metres away from them. So I got my camera and took a few photos of this glorious little creature -

I must try and find out what this bird is called.

Anyhoo, birds must have been on my mind when I went into my craftavan for a bit of creating, because I made two cards, both with birds on! -

Card 1 -

Card No. 2 -

We do have an owl in the barn, although it is very shy and we have only seen it a few times. Seen the evidence on the floor often enough though, lol.

I would like to link this post to Debra's BE INSPIRED No.146 over at the COMMON GROUND blog.

Have a wonderful weekend and be inspired by beautiful Mother Nature as well.
Toodlepip xxx