Some painting diversions

I've been painting today...fabric painting that is to say. It was time to get some Christmas themed tops made up for when I'm out and about demonstrating, especially at the shows and I thought you might like to see what I came up with. Although it's getting colder now (almost daily it seems) some of the venues I'm at get pretty warm, so I've painted a turquoise Tee.....

 He's a bit of a grumpy old elf I'm afraid! Not sure he agrees with the sentiment! Mind you, I'd probably be grumpy with those spindly legs! He is one of the characters on my "Santa's Helpers" stamp set, but I've enlarged him here of course. The words are from my "It's a time to give" set. I had great fun painting this - especially adding the snowy white on top of all the letters.

I've also done a sweat shirt, this time featuring one of the steampunk snowmen from my "Nicicles as Icicles" set. The colour looks a bit more like puce here, but it's actually more of a lilac shade.

I'm really impressed with the DecoArt So Soft fabric paints which really are permanent....my other tops have been through the washing machine loads of times now and they look as good as when I first painted them. No ironing needed either - just paint and allow to dry for 48 hours before wearing...oh...and don't forget to wash the garment before painting. The white really does cover well, even on darker fabric....I can really recommend them wholeheartedly.

Well, those are two of the tops that I'll be wearing when I'm at the Event City show next week, so you should be able to spot me if you're coming along!

As well as my new Christmas stamps I'm also going to be using a range of dies called Die-Versions. I had a delivery of some of them this afternoon and they really are lovely. The packs are really dinky, but they pack a punch. Look at this lovely "Winter Wonder" die.....

.....can you see the words cleverly set within the snowflake?

There are lots of font dies too, here are a couple......

....again, small packages (great because they don't take up lots of space) but each set has two dies and the letters and digits are a good size.

Well, it's been a gloomy, rainy and chilly day here....I've had to put the heating on a couple of times, but not for long, just enough to take the nip out of the air. Thomas has loved snuggling up on the bench under the window in my Doo Lally room so he can rest his chin and paws on the hot radiator! I decided to be lazy tonight and had a slam in the oven ready meal.....a big Yorkshire pudding filled with beef slices and gravy - perfect for a chilly evening - yum! I even cheated and used frozen peas and instant mash! I have to say that instant mash is tons better than it used to be. It was a nice easy dinner after a long, busy day and hardly any washing up either!

I've been packing my case up for my trip over to the Victoria Stampers group tomorrow where we'll be having lots of messy fun with stamps, inks, cardboard, grungeboard, glitter......lots of stuff! I'll try and remember to take a few photos of what we get up to.

Right, time to sign off now and get the kettle on so I can settle down for the Masterchef final. Heather and I both love watching this show (David loved it too) and we can't decide who's going to win this series. Of course, Strictly Come Dancing starts on Saturday - unfortunately I'll have to watch most of the episodes on my little laptop screen as I'm usually not back home from travelling about until late in the evening. Not too many people in this series that I am familiar with, though I do like Dave Myers and Mark Benton. There are one or two that I can't stand as well, but I won't say who they are!

Okay, coffee time now, so I'll sign off and wish everyone a great weekend. 

PS Don't forget to leave a comment on my post "Catch up Time & American Candy" further down the page - I'll be closing the candy on 17th September, so you still have a week or so to join in and be in with a chance to win.

PPS Well done to ? ? on winning Masterchef! (no spoilers here!) It was a close run thing but I absolutely agreed with John and Greg's decision.