Fat books completed!!!

Covers
26 pages and covers – top view
View of binding
Front of completed book

My Yahoo group (Katy’s Corner UK) recently did a ‘Chunky Fat book’ swap, which was supposed to be completed in April, initially, then the deadline was extended to May……. guess who didn’t do her pages until last week and then had to do the covers, the binding and the punching, too? I think I have an excuse this time, though, rather than just work.

There’s some absolutely fab artwork in them and each one is a real treasure, so it was a pleasure to do, eventually, but LOONG! I hope all the swappers are pleased with the finished results. It took most of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday to share out the pages, punch them all, make the covers and then bind them. I sponged all the covers on Sunday, while sitting in the sun, stamped them, then carried on with the punching and binding, which was finally finished at 2.30 yesterday afternoon (Monday). I love those Brilliance ink colours when they’re sponged – they glide on so easily and smoothly and look stunning with their pearlescent finish. I prefer to use reinkers so that I get more colour saturation. I actually stamped, cut out and glittered the acetate Butterfly girl in April or May, so they’ve been waiting a long time for their new homes and I bet half of them have fallen off before they arrive.

Today’s Photos

This baby toad was barely an inch long!

Tatty robin – don’t they look great in moulting season?

Young baby robin, with the feed tray all to itself.

Yay, I stamped!!!!

Been doing the Fat (Chunky) book swap I should have done at the end of May – shame on me – but doesn’t life get in the way of things, at times? Anyway, I finally stamped and enjoyed it.
Now to think of something for the covers….. only 27 to do, then punching and binding!! Whose idea was this???

Klimt exhibition

Lynne and I took a rare day out on Monday. We took the train to Liverpool and went to see the Klimt exhibition – wow! It’s fab and I’d recommend it to anyone 🙂 Such attention to detail and so much variation. I’m sure that most of you will recognise Nuda Veritas – much, MUCH more striking in real life, when you see the gold work, etc.

Stampers are the best…..

It’s taken me a long time to get round to it but last month I was really taken by surprise by a lovely group of stampers. I’d been chatting to one of them and had shared how I was feeling when Mum and Dad left for New Zealand. To my surprise, a few weeks later an envelope popped through my door containing a load of fat book pages, complete with O rings and covers (left blank for me to decorate) to cheer me up!! I’ve just had a good look at it for the first time, really, with Stamp Camp and lots of other things which have been going on and I’ve put it together. Duh! Should have scanned or photographed it first 😦 It’s really lovely and has a variety of artwork in it, but the best thing of all is that it was sent with so much kindness and thoughfulness. I’ll do my best to get some piccies in the next week or so and upload it. Thank you, ladies. It really did (and does) mean a lot to me! You can see the girls’ work here, at Lots to do Challenge Blog.

Nature ATCs

Just stamped some ATCs – phew! Thought I was never going to be able to do that again, even if they are very simple 🙂

Used Adirondack pigment inks (Lemonade and Watermelon) and Versafine, with stamped Krylon Gold pen over the top (on right). The darker one is embossed.

Tomorrow’s workshop

Well, it doesn’t just seem like ages since I stamped, it IS ages, but tomorrow we have our first workshop for two months – excluding Stamp Camp, that is, when we did quite a few 🙂 It’s an all day workshop, too, with one group going with Lynne and one with me – repeating what we did the last time, which is why I still haven’t stamped – aagghh!! It’s already on the website from a while ago, I think, but I’ll post a couple of pics here now.

Robin and thrush

Just one more for tonight – the resident robin, who’s become very friendly of late, followed by my favourite song thrush, who I was thrilled to be able to photograph.

Why do they call me Scruff? Or Scrubaduff? Or Scruffbag?????

We may well call him Scruff, but isn’t he gorgeous? And look at that leg……… Trouble is, I think he’s trained us, rather than the other way round. If we go out and call his name, he arrives in a few seconds and looks down at us from the extension roof, bad leg hanging over.

Playing……….

This is my favourite baby blackbird and she (I think it’s a ‘she’ cos her tail’s not darker than her body as some of them are) has NO fear! I worry for her for that reason, but I do enjoy it when she comes to visit. We were feeding the birds meal worms, saving them for our old friend, Scruff, but one day she found them and ever since then has come back to the back door, coming into the house or into the garage when the door’s open. She’s so entertaining. I’ll post my favourite piccies of Scruff in a moment.

I’ve been playing, but not with stamps – shame on me! I bought a new camera just for Stamp Camp and am a little more than obsessed with playing with it to find out what it can do. I’m seriously impressed so far for a point and click cheapo camera, I have to admit. So here are a few of my recent efforts.