NCFE Level 1 Award in Creative Craft using

 Art and Design week 1.

This started with a leaflet through the door listing free classes at the local College (within walking distance) and for once they were on an evening so I could maybe attend.

There were two options that appealed Art and Crafts and Beginners sewing. Of course they were both on at the same time.

As the Arts and Crafts was only four weeks that sounded worth giving it a go.

So registered and students pass around my neck (with the usual delightful  ID photograph) I entered the class.

Eleven of us all together, ten women and one man, three cans of shaving foam and lots of bottles of colouring. (not counting the teacher)

Our first task to decorate card with a marble effect using shaving foam..I won't go into details there are lots of videos on You Tube you can watch. Indeed we watched a few at the start of the class.

So foam on plate, colour dotted on foam and swirled about, card popped on and let the magic begin?

Looks like an unsuccessful cooking experiment, this is the second and smaller of the two sizes of card being decorated.

 I chose three pearlescent colours and on doing the large piece of card first realised it was perhaps more subtle than I had intended. Even more so than in the picture as the sheen does not show up.

So I added a few drops of dark blue for the little piece.

Hmm still rather delicate.. then as there was still colour and foam I "dipped one side of the folded piece of card we had been given as well (oh rebel me)

Folded card, large piece and small piece.

Then we had  a drying break...in more ways than one...although much less drying time than those videos recommended but still it was enough.

No vending machines or other option for getting a drink...I was not thirsty till the thought of a drink was put into my mind ah well will know for next week.

Back in the class and it was time to stick the big card to the folded card (flat) and the little card to the big card with thick double sided tape.

Now this should have been the penultimate picture for the evening as the teacher had brought along a selection of small bows and stick on gems for embellishment. However as the bows went if I liked the colour  I did not like the shape and given just how subdued my marbling turned out the gems were to bold.

(Oh the dipped card will be the back so I can put a hand made by stamp on, in the back of my mind I recall having a stamp)

So the card is obviously not finished. Next week the teacher is bringing mottos of salutations to use on the card. One of the students offered to bring in peel offs and then we will have to add a verse to the inside.

So of course I am mentally Deborasing what I can do to the front of the card. What things I can take in for me to use (oh stash busting) I have all sorts of thoughts.  A dragon might look good in that subtle sky?  A firm one  is to have some coloured paper as an inner for the card. If I can decide what sort of card it is going to be then I can prepare a verse and have it in ready. 

This little accredited course is we were advised based on a portfolio expected to be a card and a gift (we get to try something I have not tried since I was about seven for that and I may be able to take stash from home for that also.

So things learned from this week:

Have the container for the foam as big as the biggest piece you intend to "dip" having it smaller is more difficult and messy.

Three cans of shaving foam is not enough for 11 people who just watched a You Tube demonstration.

You can use less shaving foam than they show you in a You Tube demonstration.

You need more kitchen roll than you think you do..a lot more.

Shaving foam makes me sneeze (it has to be the ordinary foam no moisturising bits and not gel).

This method drives my parsimonious side crazy (even when all of the things we were using were free to me as the course is free), I would need to be doing quite a few , starting subtle and adding colour as I went. And I can see me still colouring card once the foam had become one uniform shade whether I wanted any that colour or not. So this may be the first and last time I try this.  Unless the sisters at church want a try at some point and I can just imagine how many many plates of foam would be calling out to me to dip just one more bit of card and use up those supplies!.

I am not keen on starting something when I don't have the end product in mind. Now I am fine with changing as I got (you may have noticed) but making a card that is for a whatever occasion...makes those design decisions challenging for me. So I better have made a decision on that by next week. Also there was the suggestion that the card and the gift should be for the same intention.

Chatting with new people who all have some crafting interest or skill was fun. 

What you dislike about your piece is what someone else will like about it still applies one of the other ladies had much bolder marbling in similar shades (she did not use the shimmery stuff which finished of lighter) and I liked her bold one and she my subtle. Now had we spotted that sooner maybe we could have swapped little cards and had something interesting happen. Maybe that would not have been allowed now I think of it as we did sign a sheet to go with the accreditation that it would be all our own work!

Have they met crafters? Hmm I forgot that bit when I happily drew hearts for the two ladies I was sitting with who wanted that shape from their small bits of card and did not feel confident creating the shape to cut out. Shhh we wont tell anyone about that.

Between now and then I have a wedding record book to work on.

BFF SAL 9 Side by side

 my BFF and I managed to get together this week and we decided that our projects could also have a play date!

So my BFF got out her project so I could see just how big the piece of material was laid out, and I added mine to the table.

The contrast in sizes generated some chuckles

.

I was rather impressed with the progress on the many many edge designs that my BFF had achieved. Click here to see how those colours came to be.

We then had a little technical equipment investigation, Roni may have told you about that in her update and I am still mulling over if it is something I want to pursue.

This evening I continued on with the corner section.  On completing it I realised that it was a bit unique! One stitch out right at the start equals being unique.

So I will now need to unique the other three corners to match. Ah well stitches happen and it was too much to unpick over one as that is hard on the material as well as my eyes and my inner happy.

It will of course impact on my decisions going forward as to what I do after the corners are completed.

As you can see I have chosen a lighter shade in the same colour range for my corners.

Click on THE LINK to see how much more progress my BFF has made on her project.

I am a bit later posting than my BFF as I have just started an NCFE Level 1 Award in Creative Craft using Art and Design...that course title sounds longer than the 4 weeks (just 1 three hour session a week) course.  Expect a separate post or posts about that at a later date.

BFF SAL 9 I told her so!

 and now she can see it. Click Here to see just how far ahead she is currently

My BFF is sewing this faster than I am, the design clicks with her brain in ways it is not with me.

That is not to say I am not making progress I am.

And each time a section joins up or a swirl is completed it is satisfying.

We both anticipate the central section will be completed on out off sewing time allowances before next week. So there will be decisions to make on the borders, for both of us one of colour and for me also do I do the intended ones as strips bottom and top sampler style (as I have too small a piece of material to do the full set at the sides?

Time yet to make up my mind, although we have both noted that there appears to be a sparsity of choice in the square frames out there so perhaps  alterations to a rectangle might be worth it.

Inside the box

 should be as nice as the outside.

I bought a little box at the charity shop. I was not sure what I would do with it but I am irresistibly drawn to boxes and if they do not always stay with me well that is OK they are good for gifting.

So had this box for a little while and it had not as yet found a purpose. Then I was given a watch and a co-ordinating pendant and the box was just the place to keep them together.

Except, well the inside was not exactly jewellery friendly.

So

Out with the saved cardboard (in this case the slightly corrugated white stuff from the box my mothers perfume came in ) the fabric scraps and the double sided sticky tape.

First the shapes..and I note the box is not itself totally regular in its shape.

White satin and double sided  sticky tape.

I had a few more issued with the sides, you would think the rectangles would be easier than the hexagon.  Apparently not!

But I managed something I am happy with, that stays put and the lid still fits so that will do for now at least.

And the box has its place and purpose.

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2022

 Here we are at Easter and it is Hop time once more. If you have not arrived here having started at serendipitous stitching then click on the link to see what it is all about and make a start at collecting letters.

This year I am back to the rabbit theme and once more that is a Peter Rabbit. A cover kit it came with a card to display it in, but I did not like that and found something a little different. I am very pleased with how it came out.

This mount is a slightly un Christmas Christmas card I received in 2021, it somehow feels fitting to have something from Christmas in my Easter post. The placement of the bunny just called out for it to be used. The moon and grass are metallic, I think to can see the sheen a little better in the picture below.

So happy Easter to you all and here is the letter you popped over to see.

and yes if you are a regular hopper you have seen the blackwork hare before, he has a regular job now presenting the Easter Hop letter.

Click Here to link to elfin stitches and the next letter in the hop.

BFF SAL 9 and skein one completed

 Working in one shade and over one I thought I would stop and take a  picture of how far one skein had taken me in the pattern.

Then with the rest of the time allowed and this evenings stitching session  there has been some evening up as I continue to try and work symmetrically.

 Still having fun, mind there have been occasions when I have wondered if I can count to two!

Pop on over to my BFF's blog to see how things are looking in purple. CLICK HERE

BFF SAL 9..still having fun

 I am still on my first skein of thread, which is a bonus of working one over one.

I am finding doing a bit of one side then the mirror image in the other side is working for me.

The mirror image section stitching up just that bit quicker.

 That bit top right looks like the tail of my favourite thing don't you think.

Now pop on over to my BFF's blog for her purple delight CLICK HERE 

Most of this evenings conversation related to how much we were enjoying this stitch.

Ray Mears and the Sherriff of Nottingham

 (Alan Rickman's incarnation of course)

Might both have comment to my latest give it a go craft.

Why?

Well after many a Facebook post of  the damage that can be caused by rotary cutters I went on line shopping for safety gloves. And as a particular retailer then notes "this was bought with" there was a whittling set.  I have oft fancied trying my hand at that, so as if connected by destiny both fell into my basket.

The gloves went up into the loft, the space for completing on the quiet projects that might end up being for  people I live with (well my mother as going up into the loft is not an option for her)

Having first watched several videos on how to go about it.

Of course being me I wanted to have a decorative spoon, a hang on the wall spoon.

I did make a start with the whittling, got the basic shape , but no matter how I watched gentlemen with hands the size of shovels demonstrating the technique I could not get the bowl.

Pause..quite a long pause then ah what the heck out came the Boyes version of the tool known as a Dremel (branded version it was not) and at last the inner bowl. 

A bit more whittling to get the outer bowl more bowl and then shaping with the Dremel thingy.

I wanted an owl on the top, I had a pattern outlined and thought it looked OK, brought it downstairs and immediately realise it looked more like a devils face. 

Back I went and moved the beak up a bit  and worked on the eyes.

I had considered beads for the eyes but none I had sat right. So out came the pyrography tool to add a bit of definition to the owl.

Then sanding and polishing and (yes I used my nail file combo for that, it may never be the same again)

drill a hole in the top for hanging and it was done..a spoon, for my mother for mothers day. (Alright so it was originally intended for her birthday, Christmas, mothers day, Easter and around again again, did say it took me awhile, it is chilly in the loft in the winter and hot in the summer)

and as for the comments, well I think Mr Mears would be aghast both at hold long this took and its lack of utility, and the Sherriff, he at least would be happy it was suitably blunt!

Oh it is a bout 7 inches long, delicate it isn't. But it is a spoon!

Oh and those gloves, well they spent all their time in the loft to be on hand for the carving so I have not used them with the rotary cutter yet. Typical.

Conference stitching

and proof that stitching over one with different colours in a confetti style pattern is much slower than one colour in a geometric style.

Not a lot of show for several hours of stitching.

doing white and very pale grey does not help either I guess, but at least keeping up the momentum.