Jack Sparrow alphabet: a different kind

I realise I have a bit of a fascination for alphabets, so let's have a bit of a splurge on some of the other ones I have done for today and tomorrow.
This was an earlier Jack Sparrow one I did (I love old looking books, mini books, books in general...).

                   For the front cover there's aged looking paper, beads of the sort Jack wears in his hair and a red wax seal with gold wax rubbed over it.

The inside papers are similarly aged and curls and scrolls added to whatever letters seem happy to take them.

Each page had a silver embossed seal with the relevant letter of the alphabet stamped, cut out and added, a set bought for me by a friend years ago and so curly and illegible I'd never known what to do with them, but this was perfect. The pictures this time look a little more colourful but were in fact printed black and white then details were tinted in chalks.

Why is the rum gone?

Sorry! Jack Sparrow again ("Can't resist, mate").
I love the song "Why is the rum gone" on Youtube and so I made a Jack Sparrow alphabet on rum bottles.

I had already had the idea of the alphabet but the printer was running out of ink and started printing the pictures mainly in green. They looked like they were being seen through a green rum bottle so I cut out bottle shaped pages, put eyelets at the top and fastened them with a chain with charms. Very Jack!

The lettering is not a particular style, just twiddly and if you see little patterns in the middle of a sentence, it usually means I messed up a letter and did that to cover it up!

There's only really room for a couple of pages here...so if you want more, you'll have to let me know in the comments and I'll oblige.

And as for the song..check it out at

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JImcvtJzIK8

Dandelion Season

Hasn't it been a fabulous dandelion season this year? They have been in bloom everywhere and our rabbit OJ has been in 7th heaven whenever handfuls of the tasty morsels are brought his way.

I know they're weeds and pop up wherever you don't want them, but since having the rabbit (just over a year now) I kind of see them as a renewable crop, and the seed heads are truly beautiful.

So go on, treat yourself to a dandelion head: not to eat but to blow and count the hours like you did when you were a kid (or last week if you're like me) or at least give a seed head a well aimed kick, hear the pop of the stalk breaking and watch the seeds scatter in the air.

The picture is one the special crop from our garden!

Coconut Sloth!

I don't know whether you saw the Gangland Carrot and Master Broccolli of the Brassica Dojo (21st Feb ) but I resolved that if I ever found a similar vegetable which deserved worldwide fame, my blog would be at their service.

Not technically a vegetable but organic growing matter, won by my son from the local village fair, I am proud to present...

The Coconut Sloth!

He's looking rather sad in a 'surprised to be let down' kind of way = (

Let's try a far-away thoughtful look instead...

Shine Sprites

Remember Super Mario Amigurumi (5th March), where I showed you the figures I had to make 'cos my son requested them and they couldn't be found?

If asked, he would say his favourite colour is 'rainbow', that way he doesn't have to leave any out. Well, that was certainly true when it came to making Shine Sprites (from Super Mario).

 They were made in felt with a central star-shaped part and then a circle sewn on back and front simultaneously.

The blue ones with the red and pink eyes are 'shadow shine sprites' he tells me. When you have already completed a level and gained the sprite, if you go back and play it again then you get a shadow of the sprite you have already gained.

Party Time

Spent last night at a lovely party to celebrate my friend's significant birthday. She said 'No presents!' on the invite but most of us still do it anyway. So here is her birthday Socklet, not only celebrating but giving the game away...or shouting proudly to the world, depending on how you view it!

Personally I think it's an achievement to be proud of.

                               
                               HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Dr Who Shoes... or...Missing You Already

...or more to the point: Missing WHO Already.

Another series of Dr Who gone and finished and, although it had its ups and downs, and we had our thrills and complaints, it always leaves Saturday night with a gaping hole. So fill it by making DR WHO SHOES!!!

Beginning....

Middle...

...and end product

Tardis shoes in a blu-print style  = )

It's tricky to find a pen that draws on dark canvas shoes so hooray for Blott! They've started stocking one that does.

If you want to see other Whovian posts I've done, check these out
      http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/tardisor-just-mad-woman-with-box.html
and http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/melody-malone-amelia-williams-et-al.html
and http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/dr-who-50-daleks-and-cakes.html

Up to no good...?

..or guarding something? It's hard to tell. With a lantern in one hand and a chirpy smile on his face... what do you reckon?

Does your perception change with the time of day?

Maybe just too cute for evil...?

Scooter Socklets

The little scooters were so cute and just the right size for Socklets. I just HAD to buy them and then find the right Socklets to suit them.

These two had just the right balance of keenness and nonchalance.

Looks like they're planning a world trip by scooter!

Nine Pirate Lords: at last the final three!

These are the last 3 Pirate Lords in the set and having had a tricky job in the previous 2 pages getting the pictures to go where want them...I'm sorry but I can't face trying to put all nine in place on the same page. It would drive me batty.

Barbossa is on the left and although it looks like his object to add to the dish is a stone with a hole in, it is actually Ragetti's false eye that Ragetti keeps losing and frantically having to recover throughout the films.

Wait a minute...have thought of a secret plan which might work...YES! Here are all the 9 Pirate Lords in their nearly rightul places! YAY!

      

    

 

Nine Pirate Lords: the next three

Here are the middle row of pirates from the court of the pirate king.

  

Mistress Ching is the only female Pirate Lord until Elizabeth Swann joins (to replace Sao Feng) and gets elected Pirate King!

Each pirate has an ocean designated to them that is their territory for pillaging, except Jack, the Sparrow, who covers them all and is a free spirit with allegiance to no one person or place.

Jack's token is one of the charms from his hair.

Nine Pirate Lords: the first three

I went through both a Pirates of the Caribbean phase and a fascination with silhouettes, so this combines the best of both obsessions.

In the third film they talk of the nine Pirate Lords who have to be gathered together to vote for a king. Each has to bring a secret article of their authority and add it to a bowl to perform a rite. These ATCs are the first 3 I did.

It took at lot of searching through the film to get the right angle to be able to do a silhouette which captured enough of the character to show who they were.

I took photos from the television and worked from those. As there were nine it seemed right, design-wise, to organise them in three rows of three. So...three more tomorrow and again the next day, then I'll put all nine up together so you can see the effect.

ATCs part 2

This is craft  I come back to on odd occasions or when I dig up old craft stuff I've had for ages and not used and steel myself to use it or throw it!

ATC's are a small safe way of experimenting...and, if it turns out well, you feel great...and if it turns out meh, you can chuck it away and not feel you've wasted too much of anything.

This is an incident a few years ago when my daughter came face to face with a hedgehog snuffling around in our garden. As you can see from the hands, I find it much easier to draw hedgehogs and piles of leaves than people, so by putting her at the edge of the picture I didn't have to struggle to draw the rest of the body!!

Future ATC- related blogs will inevitably feature scenes and characters from Pirates of the Caribbean as that was my muse for quite a while.

ATCs

ATCs are little pieces of artwork made about the size of a playing card. They can be kept, given away or swapped.

The letters stand for Artist's Trading Cards and they can be made in pretty much any media available: pen and ink, felt pen, pencil, charcoal, paint, fabric, you name it. The style and techniques are just as individual...so there is no right or wrong...

...it's just whether you can bear to part with them when they're done!

I swapped this one with a child who wanted it and had their one in return...then had to redraw it cos I really wanted to keep it, but having told them they were swap-able, I had to put my card where my mouth was!

Lazy Days

This is a greetings card.

I bought the ready-made 'dog-snoozing-in-kennel' sticker in a pack from a pound shop (you KNOW how I love pound shops!!!). It just seemed to want to be part of a lazy card scene.

The tree trunks and hills are cut free-hand, the bumpy strip at the front is a paper border, free from a scrapbooking magazine and the trees are punched from paper using a bumpy circular punch. The tiny ladybird is a little embellishment from goodness knows where and I drew the dizzy flying dots on afterwards.

Mollie Makes Seals..and so do I

Another cute make from the magazine (see a few posts ago) were these little seals.

They went down very well at the charity fund raising craft fair and as a 'sew-it yourself' present, pre-cut and posted to a small boy I know with a burgeoning interest in sewing.

Two Idiots and a Wheelie Bin

Does exactly what it says on the tin...or title.

These two are loveable twits who intend to set of and explore the world (and other things) by wheelie bin.

Keep an eye open for their future idiotic exploits = )

Last of the Summer...Frogs!

Like Last of the Summer Wine: 3 old geezers sitting on a wall talking about life and getting up to some stupid nonsense...but with frogs.

Have you ever found a fabric that jumps out at you and says "You must make a ...(whatever it is) out of this?"

Well this was a skirt in a charity shop but was fake leather, sludge green with textured brown spots on. WHY MAKE IT INTO A SKIRT??? It's obviously calling out to be frog (...or even a dragon but there wasn't that much of it).

So thank you to whoever decided it was a hideously weird thing to wear (unless you were going to Comicon dressed in the skin of something you'd slain that week) and donated it to one of my favourite fabric haunts.