Summer Solstice

Happy Summer, are you making the most of these lovely long days we have at this time of year?  Or perhaps you are from the southern hemisphere and will be looking forward to lengthening days.   Which ever we are at one of the years notable turning points an occasion I always like to mark.

Today was the first day of the Lincolnshire Show it is a great day out.  This year one of the many interesting things to see was this little chap.

He is so small at first Jill and I thought he was an ornament, it was a pleasure to just stroke his chest.   He is a year old and his flying training is being undertaken indoors, being so small he would be easily lost to his owners/trainers and he would be a tempting morsel to a sparrow hawk.

I've also been busy with new jewellery to be added to the site when the shop sale is over, here is a little preview of some Mexican Black Opals.

Of course there has been a craft project in the works as well and I'm ready to share it with you now.

For this little vanity case I thought I'd use cooking foil and do a little basic embossing.   Flowers leaves and swirls were die cut and stuck to the bare top.  Foil cut to cover the top and sides with enough to tuck inside the lid.   The foil is secured with discreetly placed double sided tape.   The shapes below the foil were then carefully rubbed and their outlines marked out.   When the embossing was completed the rest of the case was painted with chalk paint, crackle medium and then another cost of contrasting chalk paint with has cracked delightfully.

Time for Alcohol inks in shades of green, orange and yellow.  Tissue tape stuck round the edge and texture pastes spread over some areas.   Butterflies, 5 of them, were stamped coloured and fussy cut and glued on.   I wasn't sure if this had worked as intended, but coming in today from my lovely day the finished case looked fantastic.  So I got out a camera and decided to share it with you now.

Love to share my makes with different challenges and this is no exception.  The challenges that were in my mind are:

Eclectic Ellapu - A long standing monthly challenge with the ever popular Anything Goes theme.

Double D - OK this is the first week of the fortnight challenge so not in my mind when doing the project but with a theme of Butterflies how could I not enter it!

Love to Create - A monthly challenge whose regular theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.  My favourite sort of challenge as they encourage you to experiment and explore while expressing yourself.

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge -  Yea another monthly challenge I cannot always manage a theme but this one "Wrap it up" married my desire to use cooking foil to wrap this case.  Sadly this is also their last challenge.

Time to start winding this day down now, got a couple of hours work in the morning and then We'll see how the creative spirit moves me.

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