Treats

Over the last few weeks, I have received some beautiful gifts from friends, and also treated myself to a few lovely crafty bits and pieces found on Etsy. I'l try and show them all to you over the next few days, if I did it all in one post, you would surely go on strike, lol!

A few days ago, I received a totally unexpected parcel from my dear bloggy friend Sonya. She creates beautiful collages amongst other things, which you can see on here blog Counting My Blessings.

This is what I received completely out of the blue. The first thing I saw was this beautiful tag -


I do so love tags, and this one is a beauty.

And then I had the great pleasure of unwrapping this, one of Sonya's beautiful collages !!! -


The details and embellishments are fabulous, the background is a map of the UK, I mean, how much more perfect for me could that be?


Ah, and this delicate handmade flower, it is exquisite -


I am sending you a HUGE thank you hug, Sonya!

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Did I mention I treated myself to a few crafty bits and pieces from Etsy? I did, yep, wanna see? I'll show you 1 lot today, don't want to make this too long. I found these gorgeous handmade script buttons, absolutely spot on for crafting with. Tags, collages, sachets, all sorts, I think they are absolutely darling -


They came wrapped in this sweet piece of fabric stamped with script. Lovely presentation. And the seller is the sweetest as well. You can find her shop here - http://www.etsy.com/shop/abbyspaperiegarden.

Ooh, I think this post isn't all THAT long yet, lol, perhaps I'll quickly show you this week's tag tuesday tag, tehehe. Theme was WHITE, and here it is -


There, thats much better, now I feel like I have done a proper post.

Until tomorrow and the next instalment of treats, toodlepip xxx

Every Inchie Monday - SHADOW

This has got to be a first, lol, me posting my Every Monday Inchie on a MONDAY, woohoo! This week's theme is SHADOW. When I photograph all my bits and pieces, tags, etc, I often get a bit frustrated because where I have decent daylight, the sunshine sometimes interferes with my pics, throwing big shadows. So I had to giggle to myself when just this once I wanted those shadows badly. Fortunately it is a lovely sunny day today, so in principle it wasn't too difficult. In principle. HAH! Finding something to throw a decent and recognisable shadow was VERY difficult. I lost count of how many things I tried, lol. In the end, I held up a doily at just the right angle to get this lovely shadow on the table -

Hmm, annoying how the different backgrounds mess with the colour of the inchie, and that is after the printer has already changed it somewhat. This is the original picture I took -


If I get a chance, I'll post some tag pics a bit later, but don't hold your breath, lol, you know what happens to the best laid plans..............

Toodlepip xxx

This week's challenges

This week's inchie challenge was "CITY". I think I went a quite predictable way with a city scape, but perhaps combined with the sunset it is acceptable -


And an old, new challenge, or should that be new, old challenge? Errmm. Thanks to my bloggy friend Anni ( Fabric Art blog ) I found out about a new Tag Tuesday challenge. If you know my blog well, you know that I took part in a different Tag Tuesday challenge last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was so sad when that one finished, so you can imagine how pleased I was to find a new one, yay! We post on a separate blog - Tag Tuesday . If you hop over there, you will find the most amazing tags made by very talented people, I am thrilled to bits to be in such good company there. But of course I just have to show you my tags on here as well, lol, you didn't think you would escape that, did you now?

Last week's theme was "SNOW" and this is the tag I made for it -


Our cottage in France is in the middle of nowhere, and when it snows, the snow stays pristine and sparkly and beautifully untouched all around us until it melts away. I wanted to capture that wonderful sparkle of pristine snow on my tag.

I used a piece of vellum which had sparkly flowers on it, tiny white satin roses, white net from a piece of vintage lace, little gems and German glass glitter in white and silver to simulate snow below the flowers.

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This week's challenge is another wintery theme - " SNOW SPORTS AND GAMES ". I love vintage and antique illustrations, so I chose a pair of Victorian skaters for this one -


Toodlepip, xxx

A whole new year of INCHIES!!!

Just when I thought I was done with making inchies, along comes another year of inchie challenges! HURRAH! Of course, in the best Lalaland tradition, I am late posting the first one, sigh. This week's theme was GOLDEN, and here is my golden inchie -

I used a tiny piece of a golden paper doily, golden German glass glitter and a few little golden gems.

I have been making quite a few tags to go out with Etsy orders as well, but I keep forgetting to take pics of them. Ah well, you are probably sick of seeing tags anyway. I need some new challenges, weekly or monthly ones, I think, to get me crafting properly again. If you know of any that might be ok for me, I'd love to hear from you. I have been away for a whole month and haven't had a chance to read many blogs yet ( but I will ), so I probably missed a lot of info about new challenges.

Thats all for today, have a relaxing Sunday, toodlepip xxx

Last two inchies of the year

I haven't been around for a couple of weeks, and it will probably take me a week or two to catch up with all the blog posts. I hope you all had a good Christmas.

I took part in the 52-week long inchie challenge right from the start and really wanted to finish it. So here are my last two inchies of the year -

GREEN inchie -


YELLOW inchie -


Toodlepip xxx

Should I call this a hybrid?

This is what I meant to include in yesterday's post, but that one got quite long, so I saved this for today. I suppose this is a kind of hybrid really, not really a glue book, and not really a tag book either, but a bit of both. The pages are chipboard and larger than tags. Ah well, you can judge for yourselves, lol, and decide what you want to call it.

Here it is -


I liked the cover but thought it was lacking something, so I added a little key. Does that make it better?


The beautiful lady is embellished with a real feather in her elaborate hat and proper bling, of course -




And that whatever you want to call it book thingy is going with this tag



and these little bits to another friend. Hope it arrives before Christmas, but if not, then perhaps it will make it for New Year's Day -

I wish you a stressless day, toodlepip xxx

Inchies, tags and little presents

Dang, can I cram everything I have to update you on into one post? One can but try, lol, just hope its not going to be too trying ( sigh, sorry, couldn't help myself ) for you.

Now that we got that stupid bit out of the way, I'll start with two week's worth of inchies. Last week was RED and this week is BLUE -

Ahem, you can probably tell that I have only just finished making the BLUE inchie......... the darned glue hasn't even dried yet, lol!

Tags, oh my, I have been making so many tags, and way too often I forget to photograph them. Like yesterday, when I made a tag specifically to go with the three miniature books I sold on Etsy. I was so chuffed to have found good pics of Blaise Pascal and Victor Hugo, and made a tag with those to go with the books, wrapped it, posted it this morning and then realised I hadn't taken any pics. Poo. Did take pics of a couple of others though -

This fun tag went with a vintage French madeleine baking tray -


This one went with a "manly" gift a customer bought -




And now I am going to show you a much much more beautiful tag, a BIG Christmas Card tag! I received this in the mail from my bloggy friend Lynn, from Trash to Treasure Art, and it is absolutely delightful. Aaahh, the details! It is embossed, has the sweetest image of two gorgeous young girls and the embellishments are twinkly and sparkly and perfect -


and all lit up with a golden glow from a stray ray of sunshine this morning -

Gorgeous, isn't it? Thank you, Lynn!

I have more to show you, but this post is already rather long. I think I will leave the other stuff for another post. If I get time this evening, I'll post it tonight. Thats a rather big if though, lol, don't hold your breath!

For now its toodlepip, xxx