Cat's Creations

Belated Happy Easter!

2007-04-10T22:39:00.000Z

Just to let you know that I haven't disappeared! The dissertation is due in 5 days and counting, but I'm getting there now and should be back to more regular posting next week. I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter break and I'm looking forward to catching up with all your blogs as soon as possible.

I heart buttons

2007-03-09T21:28:00.000Z

I love vintage buttons and since I aquired a nice little pile of them recently I thought I'd have a play around. These hair clips are all coming with me to a tiny little craft fair next saturday. It's a fundraiser for my sister's drama group and I've been told there will be a few stalls and lots of tea and cakes!
Sorry for yet another bad picture, I had to take it indoors with the flash and the buttons are all quite shiny!

I also wanted to share with you that Matt had his first assessment as a teaching assistant this week, and he was awarded "consistently excellent" in every category :) Isn't he clever?

Vintage Beauty Swap

2007-03-03T19:12:00.000Z

I received my beautiful parcel for the vintage beauty swap a few days ago, all the way from America from the lovely Kristin. Everything is gorgeous! It was all so beautifully wrapped (sorry- no pictures- camera wasn't co-operating the day I opened it!) and came with this lovely card.

The jewellery box is wonderful, the perfect place to keep all my little treasures, and it had these lovely gifts inside it as well! And the purse is really beautiful. The pictures don't really do it justice, it's covered in beads and sequins. The tiny bottle is an antiseptic talc with beautiful flowers on the label. Some of the words on it have rubbed off and what is left is so funny to read! It says "For infants and..........toilet. Invaluable...........chafing,.........irritations, sunburn etc...............antiseptic." I love it!

So thankyou very much Kristin! I hope you like your package when it arrives!

Thrifty finds

2007-02-27T22:01:00.000Z

I managed to find some time to go thrifting this weekend. Well, made time while Matt was staying and I didn't feel compelled to spend every minute in university! So I thought you might like to see what I found. Sorry for the bad light/flash.

I found these gorgeous cups in my favourite charity shop. It's on the corner of the main road into uni which makes it a bit dangerous as I have to walk past every day! The only remedy I've found is to make sure I only leave after 5 o'clock when I know it'll be shut! It's not a problem on the way in each morning as I'm usually late...

When I took them up to pay the woman said there should be two matching saucers but it turned out they'd been sold on their own earlier and she started saying rude things about the volunteers who work there. I assured her it was fine and I loved the cups anyway and she gave them to me half price because of the lack of saucers so it worked out fine!

The kids' sewing book as lovely, full of beautiful illustrations and photos. And since I'm a bit out of practice at sewing it's probably about my skill level!

Going home

2007-02-06T22:22:00.000Z

I got back today from a lovely long weekend at home. I was staying at my boyfriend's house but still got to spend some time at my parents' too which was nice. I've mentioned Matt a few times on this blog but never really told you who he is so I thought it's time I did that. On a lot of the blogs I enjoy reading people talk about their significant others with codes and nicknames or initials and I think it's great fun trying to guess what they mean or stand for. But when I tried to do that here it just felt silly. I got as far as "my boyfriend" and that was it. I don't mind you knowing his name's Matt, I love the name, and I'm sure he wont mind either. So from now on I'm just going to call him Matt and you'll know who I mean, and I wont get confused!

I had a lovely time at home. We cooked nice meals together, we went out, we walked the dog, we watched Black Books on DVD, and just chilled and had a nice relaxing time. And now I have to go back to my dissertation and I'm feeling stressed again already!

So here is a picture of the ATCs I made for a swap recently, to delay the thought of red squirrel population densities and habitat preference for just a bit longer ...

Puppy Love!

2007-01-27T23:00:00.000Z

I was very excited to get the post yesterday, as this little bundle of joy had arrived! It made a nice change from the usual bills and the ocassional textbook from amazon!

His name is Archie and he is a sock puppy made by the very talented Manda. If you haven't visited her blog you really should as it's fantastic and she makes some wonderful things which can be found in her shop. There may even be more sock puppies! In fact as I went over there for the link there are new ones! They're addictive. I liked Archie so much I had to buy him, but now I keep liking each one she makes which is dangerous as I can't buy them all!

Anyway, my boyfriend found out about my love of the things, (because I kept telling him and sending him pictures of the new ones I liked) and instead of thinking me very weird as most people might- probably you reading this! he secretly snuck over to treefall and bought me Henry Lewis! It was a lovely surprise this morning to find him waiting for me in the post along with a bar of my favourite chocolate :)

So now I am the proud owner of two lovely puppies. As you can see they have settled in nicely and are getting on very well.

I haven't been making a lot of art recently and I miss it. I've arranged a couple of ATC swaps to get me back into it when I have a bit of spare time. Nothing too heavy though as I should really be concentrating on uni as this is my final semester of my final year...

Better get back to that dissertation!

The painted sky

2007-01-23T21:49:00.000Z

I thought I'd share a couple of pics of what the view outside my window looked like today.

We had snow, hail, rain and sunshine within the space of 15 minutes.

I think it looks quite pretty...

Second charm set

2007-01-20T23:02:00.000Z

As promised here is the second set of charms I made. These are for Amber Dawn's swap.

They are made from a large glass bead with flowers on and a smaller pink bead on silver wire with tiny glass beads hanging from a jump ring from the bottom. To begin with I intended to make little glass collage charms for this swap but the second hand soldering iron I bought didn't work. As I was running out of time I thought I should stick to something I was more familliar with. Here they are all bagged up and ready to go.

Long time no blogging!

2007-01-17T19:01:00.000Z

I was going to write that I can't believe how long it is since I last posted, but that would be a lie really. I know how long it's been but I've found it really hard to get started again after Christmas. To begin with it was because I was back at my parents' house with no broadband which made posting difficult. Then my camera broke and I didn't like to post with no pictures. Then it just...never happened. I've been finding excuses not to write, but with it being the new year and all (even if I'm late) I'm going to make an effort to post more regularly now I'm back at uni. My camera is still playing up but I manage to get the odd picture before its packs up.

So here are the charms I made for one of the charm swaps I'm taking part in. These have been posted off to Dawn Sellers for the Oh So Charming exchange and I have sent a different set to Amber Dawn for her exchange. I'll post a pic of those when I get them off my boyfriend's camera.

I hope everyone out there in blog-land is having a great 2007 so far, I'm going to make much more effort to comment on the blogs I read this year and post here as often as I can. So very belatedly... Happy New Year!

2007-01-18T21:15:00.000Z

A little boutique in Norwich has stocked a few of my jewellery sets on a trial basis. It's the first time I've had anything in a shop and very exciting! The sets each have a memory wire bracelet with glass beads and semi-precious stones (a better picture can be seen here) and a pair of matching earrings and they have red, blue and green sets for sale.

For anyone in the area who has the time to pop in (or wants to hint to their partner about Valentine's day :) ) the shop is the Jade Tree on Elm Hill, a beautiful old cobbled street. They also sell lots of beautiful artwork as well as cards and gifts.

I'm hoping to have a small stall selling my jewellery in the village of Corfe on St Patrick's day. My sister's drama group are having a fundraising event and have asked me if I'd like to have a stall there. It's not 100% definite yet, but as soon as it is confirmed I'll let you know. I'd love to meet any fellow bloggers from the area.

New charity shop find

2006-11-21T19:30:00.000Z

On the way home from uni today I stopped in one of my favourite charity shops, there were only a few minutes left before it closed but I just wanted to look for some little stocking fillers for my family. Anyway, this interesting little fella caught my eye...

I was intrigued... I initially thought it looked like it would make a nice little altered journal which is why I first picked it up. I started flicking through the pages and found wonderful things like this:

And this:

I like all the pages far too much to do anything to them! The poems are all by Spike Milligan with illustrations by W. Heath Robinson. I haven't decided whether to give it to my dad for Christmas or to keep it for myself...

Goodie bag

2006-12-04T23:07:00.000Z

I received a wonderful bag of goodies in the post recently from Christina at www.skybluepink.com (great site, check it out!). It was like Christmas coming early as I opened all the little craft supplies. Some of the delights will be used on charms I am making for two charm swaps I'm taking part in, I'll post about them another time. Other bits and pieces will find their way into my jewellery and collages. I'd like to try making some art dolls as well. I just can't wait for the holidays to start now so I can play with my new supplies!

A girl's best friend

2006-12-02T20:36:00.000Z

I went to see this exhibition today in Norwich castle. I've been meaning to go for ages but finally got around to it this afternoon. I have a bit of an obsession with shoes (who doesn't?) so the chance to see examples from all over the world, throughout history, and by the best designers and artists was too good to pass up! If anyone is in Norwich before the middle of january I strongly recommend this exhibition!
They wouldn't let me take pictures in there so these are postcards that I bought. As you go through the rooms the displays told the story of the history of shoes, beginning with why people wear shoes in the first place. Then there were sections on what shoes can say about the person wearing them, branding, style, the associations with sex, and fantastical shoes. There were also interesting exhibits on chinese foot binding and designers who put comfort before style in their shoes.

My favourite part was actually in the children's room at the back! It was about stories and fairy tales and featured shoes inspired by them. As part of my art A-level I did a project about the significance of shoes in fairy tales so I found this really interesting. I looked at stories from "Red shoes" by Hans Christian Anderson to Puss in Boots to Cinderella. I was fascinated by how they could represent good or evil, and freedom or restriction and suffering. My final piece was a pair of tissue aper shoes, one of which stood for all the good aspects of the stories, and the other all the bad. It was a really fun project. They're still at my parents' house so I'll try and remember to take a picture of them to post on here when I go home for Christmas.

ACEO UK Swap 'til you drop card

2006-06-22T22:25:00.000Z

This is the card I made for lisa for the ACEO UK swap. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, but should maybe have inked around the edges of the photos to age them a bit more.

Which tarot card are you?

2006-11-30T12:51:00.000Z

You are The Lovers

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse.

The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.

Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that's actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Bracelets

2006-12-01T19:01:00.000Z

This is a picture of the first bracelet I sold, at a craft fair in my village. The woman who bought it has just phoned me for a commission! She wants me to make two more, in different colours, for Christmas presents! My first commission :) I'll post pics on here when they're done.

I needed the pick-me-up because I broke our only casserole dish today. And because it was pyrex it didn't just break into a few pieces, it completely smashed into hundreds of miniscule salt-sized grains that went everywhere. So I had to get into all the little corners to try and clear it up while various housemates looked on, either tutting or laughing. I think I got it all but I'm not going into the kitchen in bare feet for a while!

New earrings

2006-11-28T18:07:00.000Z

These are some new earrings I've made, sorry about the awful quality of the photos. I'll try to get some better ones next time the sun comes out, ha! I sold a few pairs at a local craft fair recently, but apart from that just the odd one or two to friends and family. I'm thinking about starting an esty shop but that won't be until after my final exams I should think.

I'm starting to get really excited about Christmas now. I just finished my last piece of coursework for this term so now it's just my dissertation to worry about! Hopefully I'll have a bit of time to get some Christmas shopping in over the next couple of weeks.

2006-06-11T16:36:00.000Z

I haven't posted anything on here for ages as I've been really busy with exams. This is one of a few cards I made a while ago but haven't done anything with. I'm trying to make a few for various swaps at the moment so I don't have anything on ebay right now. I will try to post the new ones I make on here as I go form now on, but no promises!

I'm taking part in the ACEO UK Swap 'Til You Drop again this month, the theme is "summer holiday". I'll post a scan of my card up here after I've sent it to Lisa, and a copy of the one she sends me!

ACEO UK Collaboration: Monday's Child

2006-03-21T00:03:00.000Z

This is a card I made for a collaboration with 6 other eBay artists (Jane, Sal, Naj, Jan, Deb & Nikki). We each made a card to represent one day of the poem Monday's Child.

This is my card for "Monday's child is fair of face"

I really enjoyed the opportunity to make cards as part of a collaborative set, and hope to do more in the future!

2006-03-06T15:44:00.000Z

Here's the link to my "Bedtime Prayers" card on ebay... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ACEO-UK-Theme-Week-MOTHER-CHILD-mixed-media-collage-ATC_W0QQitemZ7396282570QQcategoryZ121468QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Please take a look!

2006-03-04T22:12:00.000Z

This is my latest card. I made it for the ACEO theme week on ebay on the theme Mother and Child. It's called "Bedtime Prayers" and I finally got around to using the fibers that were a present from Chrysti, along with some of my Mum's old vintage lace! Seemed appropriate for the theme. I'll put it up for sale tomorrow and then put the link on here.

2006-03-03T18:09:00.000Z

I have recently started making ATCs. This one is very theatrical, I just loved the image and had to use it. The prices come from an old theatre programme and the ticket is from my tiny old local cinema.

My first Blog post :)

2006-03-03T17:50:00.000Z

I've decided to start a blog as a place to show some of my art and so I can see how my work progresses. It is also a place I can celebrate the little triumphs (and moan about the annoyances) of life. I will hopefully also share links to some of the other talented artists I have met via online groups and with my friends both in and out of the art world. Hoping to get some pictures up here soon, I hope my work will give people as much enjoyment as I get from creating!

*Cat's Creations*