Chalkboards for Halloween (& dare I say it... Christmas)

Busy, busy, busy, at the moment I'm making lots of stock ready for The Pumpkin Patch Fair. This event is nice and local to me and lots of fun, I only attended one weekend last year, you can read about it HERE, but this year I'm attending every weekend in October, phew 8 fairs in one month!!......my hubby Pat and my son are going to help out and it is close enough to be able to pop home for short bursts, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good weather.

My chalkboards were very popular last year, both the Halloween and the Christmas ones.....

Pumpkin Chalkboard

Scull & Crossbones Chalkboard

Christmas Chalkboard

I will be putting these into my Folksy Shop  and my WowThankyou Shop  and as some of you may know, I have a few of my items in a local Bricks & Mortar Shop, mainly my Fairy Doors and Diary/Book Covers, I wrote a bit about it HERE as a guest blogger, well, things are doing well, quite a few items have sold (I had a nice cheque in the post) and I've happily taken more stock to the shop, I'm going to pop in with a couple of Chalkboards next week so wish me luck that they will be accepted to display.

I've also been busy making some zombie and monster type items for Halloween but they are not ready to show just yet so watch this space.

I mentioned being a 'guest blogger', it was great to do, so if you would like to be a guest blogger then pop over to Jill at Christmas Pie Crafts, I'm sure that she'd love to hear from you.

Once again it's Handmade Monday Time so this post is linked to Wendy's Handmade Harbour

Wishing you all a good week

Jan x

The bunny that wasn't really there

Do you see things that aren't really there? No I don't mean ghosties or spooks, I mean pictures in the cloud formations or faces in the flame of a fire. I do, I send my hubby crazy sometimes with comments like, 'can you see a dog in that shadow'? or 'oooh, look at that face in that wallpaper pattern'.

A few days ago I was gazing out of the kitchen window while waiting for the kettle to boil, I was thinking that I really need to get out and do some weeding when I spotted a bunny rabbit, or possibly a hare, it's disguised as a weed, it's about 18 inches tall to the tip of it's ears and I'd swear it appeared overnight.

Bunny Weed

Can you see it?, ok, take a step back from the screen, can you see it now?, if you still can't see what I can see, screw your eyes up and make the picture a bit fuzzy, surely you can see it now. Aren't they magnificent ears?

So using this image as inspiration I jotted down a few sketches....

Quick bunny sketches

Bunny disguised as a weed

I'll pop these with my other sketches of 'things that are not really there'. Yes I really do have a folder called 'Things that are not really there'
So next time you are out and about see if you can find something that isn't there, you may even find a bunny.

Happy hunting

Jan x

This post is linked to Handmade Harbour's linky party, pop over and check it out.

Jungle Name Plaques for Frankie & Bobby

Hello to my new and my regular readers of this little corner of the blogasphere, I've had a bit of time off from blogging and promoting during August but I've still been crafting, mainly fulfilling orders but I have also been sketching, painting, sewing, and experimenting, or as my husband says, 'playing' with fimo.

One of my recent orders was for a couple of Name Plaques for twin boys, these were such fun to do.

Jungle Theme Plaque

Jungle Name Plaque

Close up of Jungle Themed Name Plaques

Well, it's September already, I can hardly believe that the summer holidays are coming to an end and the children will be back at school, my grandson is starting nursery on Tuesday, he seems so small and young, he's still a baby, but, I was reminded that my own two children were his age when they first went to nursery. I remember bawling my eyes out when mine started nursery, but I must admit, it did give me a bit of free time to myself.

It's time for the for the Handmade  Monday linky party so I'm linking this post to the Handmade Harbour Blog, don't forget to pop over.

Take care

Jan x

Spots, Stripes, Stars & Mr Tumble

Hello all, I didn't take part in last weeks Handmade Monday, it was such a busy week, not only on the crafting front but me and Pat, (or should that be Pat and I), my husband had a few days out, we went to Cromer on the Norfolk Coast

Cromer Pier

we stopped for

and looked up some old friends

We also went to one of my favorite shopping locations and took a walk along the River Cam

The Mathematical Bridge over the River Cam

Punts on the river at Cambridge

An amazing sky on the way home

* * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

But now back to crafting. Anyone with young children will probably know, or at least heard of  Mr Tumble, I'd never heard of him until I was asked if I could do a Mr Tumble themed plaque, so I did some research (looked on google) and found that the character Mr Tumble was a children’s presenter on CBeebies who wore bright primary colours that was covered in spots, stripes and stars,

Mr Tumble from CBeebies

this is what I came up with...

A Door Plaque for Finley

Mr Tumble Style Plaque

Finley's mum was very pleased she said Finley would love the bright colours and it would be perfect for his bedroom. 

I'm linking this post to Wendy's Handmade Monday over at her blog so pop over and join me in looking at the great blogs over there. 

Wishing you all a great week

Jan x

Pink Roses & Blue Sky

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening all (depending on when you are reading this). It's a beautiful warm and sunny day here today, gosh, we haven't been able to say that too often lately have we?

Pink Roses & Blue Sky

This week I thought I'd show you a Plaque I made for a fellow bike enthusiast, I like the way the black and white boarder has turned out, it matches well with the chequered flag. 

Can you see that the 'S' in Doug's name has been done to look a bit like the Suzuki Logo? so I think you can easily guess what make (and colour) of motorcycle Doug has.

'Doug's Pad' Door Plaque

It's just a short post from me today, I'm off to do some gardening while the sun is shining, I'll be back later to have a look at all the great blogs that are taking part in Handmade Monday

Take care

Jan x

A wet week and a bit of Fimo

What a week we've had, first it rained, then it rained, then......yes you guessed right, it rained some more. Last week my husband and I set off for a few days camping!!! at a bike rally!!! on the bike!!! it was a bit...

wet and a little bit muddy!!!

A bit wet...

a bit muddy

It took us 4 hours to travel the 150 miles, partially due to the weather and partially due to the fact that we had to traverse the M25 for part of the journey.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom, in between the showers we had sunshine (not much, but it was there), lots of other enthusiasts braved the weather, some came as far afield as Belgium and Switzerland, as well as those from all around the UK and despite the wet stuff we all had a brilliant time.

A few friends at Lodsworth

We were in a beautiful part of Britain, Lodsworth in West Sussex, we popped into the village to the local community shop which was designed and built by Ben Law and some of his apprentices. You may remember Ben Law from Ben Law's Woodland House on T.V's Grand Designs.

Community Village Shop, Lodsworth

We arrived home dryish, we managed to avoid the worse of the showers, then it was the job of offloading the bike and unpacking our bags, I find that's always the worse thing about going away, don't you?  


After a good nights sleep and a lazy day I decided that I would play around with a bit of Fimo rather than get my paints out, modeling with polymer clay is something I can do sitting on a comfy sofa with a tray on my knee. 


Keeping up with my toadstool designs I done a few sketches......

Toadstool sketches

........... and made a few of these......

Toadstool Pendants

They're not finished yet, they still need to be baked. I've made quite a few and I will experiment with some of them by using a dark wash with acrylic paint to give an aged look. So watch this space.


I'm linking this post to a great Linky Party so don't forget to pop over to Wendy's Blog and check out who else is there.


Wishing you all a great and dry week

Jan x

Welcome Plaques & Toadstools

Hello to all my regular followers and welcome to my new followers. I hope you are all well?

One of my favourite Plaques, which happens to be one of the first Plaques I made as Handcrafted by Picto was a 'Welcome to our Home' Plaque.

'Welcome to our Home' Plaque

Recently I had an order for a similar plaque. As usual I sketched three designs for the client to choose from but as I liked them all and me being me I decided to paint all three and the two she didn't choose would be kept as stock for my fairs.

Toadstools & Daisies

Toadstool House with a Red Door

Toadstool House with a Blue Door

Toadstools crop up lots in my paintings, plaques and fairy doors, you might recognise these toadstools from the first picture.

Logo

I've used it as an avatar for The Crafts Forum and for  My Folksy Shop. I've also used it as part of the Cover Photo on my Facebook Page as well as on my business cards, notelets and even my PayPal invoices.

Do you have an image or design that you like to use over and over again or do you have a recognisable logo that you use in your work?

This post is linked to Handmade Harbours Linky Party, please pop over and say hello.

Jan x