Two spoons and a fork

... that's what Tom said I should call my latest cutlery piece when I asked the family.  It needed a name as it's for an auction at church to raise money for something (I can't remember what though!!  Oops!)

I decided I rather liked that as a name and promptly labelled a piece of recycled pizza box and packaged them up.

This time the words say

Happy voices in nature

singing

to God, who makes all lovely things

I used the old hymn book (I picked it up at a bookshop so it has no sentimental value, I couldn't cut one up I'd owned)!  Hymn books are actually great for adjectives, and are fab for this kind of thing, even if you don't want a religious-type message.  I am definitely addicted to making these though, but I need more spoons - hurray, an excuse to go shopping :)

I've also been playing around with the idea I got when working with the mica tiles from USArtQuest.  I'm teaching a card making class at The Cubby Hole, Crewe tomorrow, and wanted a couple more cards that didn't feature sewing lol.  This time I used clear shrink plastic for the base before layering with text and imagery with clear, thick embossing powder.  I missed the natural brown shading of the mica, and being able to chip into the mica to add another layer to the collage, but I like the effect.  It's just different.

mica tile

clear shrink plastic

Before I go, I just wanted to say hello and thankyou to my new followers, and to all of you who leave comments and suggestions of other places to visit - I love this aspect of blogging as I then get to go and visit other blogs I may not otherwise have seen :)

I'm so 'chuffed' with myself...

...I drilled a hole in a spoon!!  Well, three spoons actually :)

I borrowed Tom's Dremel - it was cool (well hot actually, couldn't believe how hot the spoons got lol).  Tom's my fourteen year old son as of today.  Happy Birthday Tom!

My daughter Sophie finishes school tomorrow and her favourite English teacher is leaving to work in Australia.  Sophie wanted a special present for her, and I wanted a good reason to finally have a go at collaging on spoons.  I've see Kelly Perkins' work with spoons and loved it, and found this tutorial.

After drilling the holes (for which I should have used oil as a lubricant apparently!), I used alcohol inks to colour the spoons, then used glossy accents to add words and bits of collage.  The words, cut from a variety of old books, say

she went on her way

desiring an incredible adventure

with delicious excitement

The larger words are cut from a children's book, a tip I picked up somewhere!  Large print books are another good source.  

This is a quick card I made for the teacher, which includes some 7 gypsies rub-ons from The Stamp Attic.  And here's an arty something to make you smile - I had a meeting in this building in central Manchester on Monday...how cool are those stick men?  :)