A Summer Mixture

We've been away for a week, but more about that later. Unfortunately I've come back with a nasty virus, and am not feeling up to much at all, but I decided to have a go at making a couple of stamps this afternoon. I've taken some photos of the stages to make the daisy stamp, and it's just so simple, that even feeling the way I do, I managed to get up the strength to spend half an hour making this.

All you need is a sheet of that play foam that kiddies use to cut out fun shapes, a pen, scissors, (small nail ones are perfect for this), an empty cotton reel and some double sided tape. Ooh, and some acrylic paint for stamping with. Just draw around the cotton reel, and draw your chosen motif within that circle. It's so easy to cut out, and you can also make little indentations on the surface with a pointy thing, I just used the nail scissors to make some dots for the daisy centre. Stick your motif onto the cotton reel with some double sided, I suppose you could use glue, but I was too impatient to wait for it to dry! Dab on a small amount of paint, being careful not to get any in between your motif, and hey presto, stamp away to your hearts content! I would use this technique for gift labels, cards or for stamping onto fabric prior to embellishing with stitch.

Before we went away, I made a couple of paper cloth pieces, which I sketched into with free machine stitch, before painting. I have stretched them over a canvases, and given them a coat of sealing acrylic wax. I also added some glitter glue in places, but I'm now wondering if they are all a bit too glitzy!

The single butterfly below is a miniature, only approx 6 x 8 cm.

As I was saying, we've been away to West, and then South Wales for the last week. We were going specifically for my nieces wedding at Stackpole, near Pembroke, which was a lovely affair, and thank goodness the weather stayed fine for the day. Afterwards, we decided to stay on for a few more days in The Gower, another beautiful part of Wales. Sadly, the weather turned, and we spent a few days battling extremely high winds! The little sketch that I made above of Caswell Bay was deserted on the day we visited. I was brave enough to walk just to this point where I took a photo, but ended up being sand blasted, so made a hasty retreat back to the car, where my husband had sensibly stayed put.

This second sketch of Weobley Castle, (more of a manor House really), held my interest for an hour or so, and although still windy, at least there wasn't the sand in my face and hair.

I love the narrow lanes and high hedges in Pembrokeshire, always full of colour at this time of year. The foxgloves were just beginning to flower, but these gorgeous Oxe Eye daisies were everywhere too.

Our last day, and the sun was shining, and that awful wind had dropped. We went to Rhossili Bay, and had a good walk across the dunes to the beach. This beach is very wide, with The Worms Head at the southern end. After our walk, we had a cuppa in the cafe, and then I made this little sketch of the camp site below us. Nobody around much, they were all on the beach enjoying the sudden good weather.

Well, that's about it for this post, I just hope I'm feeling better by the time I do my next.

Thanks for reading!