SHOPPING HAUL
Yesterday we had a shopping trip to Newton Abbot. I don’t get out that much and a day like this is a real treat! My hubby took himself off to the museum after dropping me off, and I made a beeline for The Works for starters. I spent far longer in there than anticipated, because I asked a fellow-customer to lift something down for me, and we got chatting, and we had the most delightful time! She is a fellow artist and we are now in contact on social media and she expressed interest in joining ArtKula!
My haul
I said I wasn’t going to buy any more art materials. Ho hum.
Individual items
From The Works:
I simply couldn’t resist this glorious vintage floral paper pad. 24 sheets of 12 x 12, two of each design. Only £5! I have got a couple of other ones that I bought previously. These collage papers will be great for backgrounds or for cutting up. Excellent quality card as always.
I also said I was going to resist the temptation to buy any more washi tape now I’ve learnt how to design my own, but for a couple of quid, I found this irresistible too. It’s transparent and resembles a roll of film. This is actually very similar to one of the items in my recently-purchased digital kit from Margareth of Seven Plaza, “Vintage Photo” but I think it will be useful.
A couple of small storage boxes with removable partitions, and some more little baggies which are always so handy.
For £1, this is a really good value pack of small stick-on embellishments. They are very sparkly with some rainbow colours. I am always on the lookout for suitable items to use as flower centres. To date I have usually just used a blob of glitter glue but there are more exciting things, and that glitter glue (“Stickles”) takes an absolute age to dry.
From Austin’s department store:
Napkins!!
Recently I’ve found it very hard to find decorative napkins in the shops. You can get them online, of course, but many places where we used to be able to get them (National Trust shops, gift shops etc.), they don’t seem to be stocking them any longer. I went into Austin’s to buy a new paring knife and found a whole display of absolutely gorgeous napkins so I bought these. The colours are all right up my alley, as are the designs. I’m going to have some fun with these.
Charity shop:
I went into a few charity shops on my way to meeting my hubby for lunch in our favourite eatery (The Pizza Cafe) and held fast to my resolution not to get involved with buying more clothes to cut up. My ottoman on the landing is now so full of fabrics that the lid will hardly close… I always have a look at the jewellery, though, because it is always an absolute gold-mine when it comes to making charms. This time I wasn’t disappointed and bought these two necklaces.
In addition to a few really nice beads, this one has a whole lot of gorgeous decorative and plain rings that will be fabulous for filling with resin. I am going to have to snip off the really nice chain with snips because there are no jump rings, unfortunately. I shall probably be able to attach some to the chains if I need them for any project.
This necklace is pretty boring in comparison, but it has hundreds of tiny metal discs and washers of different colours, attached by minute jump rings. This evening I made a start at removing some of them but they are so small that I need much better light than in the sitting room. Some of the larger discs can be embellished with tiny images or flowers etc. and sealed with resin. The smaller ones can be coloured with alcohol inks or acrylic paint and domed with resin as well. Added to dangles with jump rings or a short length of chain, they make great embellishments.
The Range
On our way home, we visited our local Range. I visited the art department upstairs and looked again for a particular paper pad I have been after for a while but again it was not in stock. I hope it has not been discontinued. I shall keep looking. I had a good look around but didn’t end up buying anything this time. I did buy some new towels for the bathroom, though, as ours are now pretty ancient and thin and frayed and definitely in need of replacing.
When I got everything home and was taking labels off etc., I found that each towel had a folded card attached with those horrid little plastic taggy things with a T-shaped bit on the end. I cut each one out carefully, and ended up with these.
Ready made bases for hidden paperclips or page tabs!! Fabulous. Quite good quality card and not too thick. They will come up a treat with a bit of Shoshification.
