Devon County Show 2017

On Thursday 18th May, we went to the Devon County Show at Westpoint, Exeter. I have finally had the opportunity to go through all the photos I took and get them edited and saved. I won’t show them all here because there are too many, but it will still be a picture-rich post!

There was a huge display of poppies, a tribute to the 11,000 Devon men and women who lost their lives in the First World War. They were made of any material as long as it was not paper, and most of them were knitted or crocheted, and there were some made of lace and felt.

This wreath was made from recycled Coca-cola tins!

I learnt something new – that purple poppies are a memorial to all the animals that were killed in the course of war. Purple poppies featured in this display, too.

A prize-winning display at the show was put on by Lifton Farm Shop, in the theme of Shaun the Sheep. All the sheep’s bodies were made of cauliflowers! The display was so imaginative and fun, and everyone loved it.

The house was covered with potatoes (with ones with pink skins around the windows) and the garden path was made of onions.

There were some fun sheep – here is one sunbathing in a deckchair. Note the sun cream and cocktail close at hand.

Here’s the farmer. I like the sign at the bottom!

Sheep shearing.

Here are some ladies, knitting and having their hair done.

Mutton dressed as lamb.

There was the usual fantastic display of floral arrangements, on different themes, one of which was “pas de deux,” a ballet theme.

I loved this “triptych” of calla lilies. It won a prize.

A large display of pitcher plants and other carnivorous plants. I have always found these very exotic and fascinating.

We found a textile art student from Bicton College, making felt, and she allowed me to photograph her project book. Here are a couple of pages.

There was quite a large display of lace making.

In the spinners’ booth there was a good display.

My hubby learning how to hand-spin (not!).

The Bonsire man was there again, and I always promise to post photos of his work on my blog! He makes the most exquisite miniature bonsai trees from wire.

The usual very high standard of work in the blacksmithing booth.

This intriguing piece had different leaves around the base – ivy, oak, hazel.

It always amazes me that such fluid, organic shapes can be formed from a material so hard and unyielding.

While wandering around, we came across this eatery with very pretty Indian parasols. I’d love to have bought one but they were too expensive!

The Queen Bee herself, at the entrance to the beekeeping tent.

Some natural honeycomb. This is what the bees will make without a frame in the hive.

I bought some beeswax polish and some very special heather honey.

Here is a prize-winning hand-painted plate.

Judging the eggs! Not sure what makes one egg better than another!

There was even a display of posh jellies being judged.

A fascinating spherical sculpture made entirely of horseshoes.

The usual displays of small animals.

This year we didn’t get to see many of the farm animals, but we did visit the angora goats. Look at that billie’s magnificent horns, and the kids were really cute.

The Corrymore goats always carry off prizes. I always want to visit that tent, because I can stock up on new Corrymore socks, made from their fleece. They are quite simply the best socks I’ve ever had – I have a whole drawer-full and never wear anything else! They come in lots of colours (and different styles too) and they are very hard wearing (I’ve had my original ones for years and years), and wash very well, and they are cool in summer and warm in winter.

As we were leaving, we were held up by what seemed to be an interminable parade of tractors of all vintages. They varied a lot in size and complexity. One thing they all had in common was that they smelt! The smell of exhaust became very unpleasant after a while, and I was glad of a lull in the cavalcade so that we could cross over and return to the car. You can see from this photo that it had started to rain by this point. The rest of the day was fine and sunny, but we did get a bit wet towards the end, and my buggy battery started giving out so my poor hubby had to keep pushing me as we limped our way back to the car!

I did some great shopping, and we had a very good salad lunch, but some aspects were disappointing because we didn’t manage to see many animals, and both the carriage driving and the show jumping were just finishing when we arrived on the scene, which was a bit of a shame. It’s the only time one ever gets to see this sort of thing, and the horses and riders are always so beautifully turned out, and it’s lovely to see anything done really well.

My hubby said he probably wouldn’t bother to go to the show if I didn’t love it so much (although he always enjoys it while we are there) – he is very good to me, taking me to nice places and giving me treats! He gets the buggy and the wheelchair in and out of the car and pushes me when necessary. I would be well and truly stuck at home if it wasn’t for him! The following day was his birthday, and I think he had a nice birthday treat at the show.

We finished the day with my hubby’s brothers and their wives, having a well-earned slap-up Chinese takeaway. Delicious! Altogether, a great day out, as always. The County Show is something I always try not to miss!

Triple-Embossed Get Well Card

The second of two posts for today.

Feeling much better today, I was able to spend some time in the studio (two sessions!) and I made a get well card for our neighbour who had a serious accident some weeks ago.

I am making up a little basket of goodies for her, to cheer her up as she goes through a long recovery period. So far I have completed the little purple box which will contain a lavender sachet.

I had several sheets of boring printed paper in my stash which I gave the Dylusions spray ink treatment and I am using these for this project.

I have recently been re-exploring die cutting, something I have done very little of since I first started, and decided to make a double-embossed card front, using an embossing folder and an oval scalloped die to make a plain panel on which I could stamp the sentiment. This is a very effective technique and fun to do.

You begin by cutting two sheets of chipboard (I like using those card envelopes you get sent by Amazon) – it mustn’t be corrugated – to the size of the card you are going to emboss. You use a die to cut a window in them – if you run both pieces through, the die will cut the top one and leave an impression on the bottom one, which is the guide for placing the die to cut it. The window on each piece is then exactly lined up, and you can stick the two layers together. Hang onto the “positive” pieces because they are used later to help with the embossing. I used a Spellbinders Nestabilities scalloped oval die.

You then put your card in the embossing folder, and put the chipboard with the window in it on top, and run it through your die cutting machine (with the appropriate plates). The chipboard piece acts as a sort of mask – it presses down on the embossing folder and the card comes out embossed, except where the window was.

You can leave it like that if you want, but it looks much better with a bit more definition, so you run it through again, this time without the embossing folder, with the die with the cutting side away from the card, and using the tan embossing mat, and with the “positive” shape lined up on top to help give a good embossed impression.

There are lots of Youtube videos and tutorials giving details for individual machines so you can find out the sandwich you need for your own particular machine. I used my Cuttlebug.

That’s the “double embossing” bit completed. I then did the “triple embossing” – the third embossing is heat embossing. I rubbed my Versamark pad over the raised embossed surface of the card and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder to give a shiny, more defined surface, and also to act as a resist for further inking.

I used Dusty Concord distress ink with an Inkylicious Ink Duster, all over the embossed surface. I held the “positive” shape cut from the chipboard over the plain window to stop any ink getting there. Once this was done, I went around the edge with Chipped Sapphire distress ink, using a home-made blending pad.

Then it was time to stamp the sentiment. I chose “Get Well” from the “Perfectly Penned” stamp set by Stampin’ Up, using my stamp guiding tool to place it exactly in the centre of the plain, unembossed oval. I used Chipped Sapphire distress ink to do this.

Next came the matting and layering. The purple shiny paper is something I’ve had in my stash for ages, and it was a bit dog-eared – I think it may have come from a box of chocolates or something – it’s not great quality but a nice shiny metallic purple which I chose to go with this project. I matted and layered the card front using this, and some gold mirror card, each with a 1/16 in overlap.

I inked the card base with a combination of Seedless Preserves and Picked Raspberry distress inks, using the Inkylicious Ink Duster, and finished it off with a narrow inking with Dusty Concord distress ink, using the home-made blending tool for a bit more definition, before sticking the card front down onto it..

Now for the embellishments. I punched out a butterfly using part of the paper-glued-to-card that I’d used for the box, and some of the shiny purple paper – I put these two together and punched, because the paper would have been too thin to punch properly. I chose my Stampin’ Up butterfly punch for this.

I stuck the shiny purple butterfly down onto the card and then took the other butterfly, and inked the back with Chipped Sapphire distress ink using the ink blender, and then wrapped some gold coloured wire around the centre, twisting the ends together to anchor them, and cutting them to the correct length for the antennae, and then bending the ends into small circles with my round nosed pliers. I used the stamp from the Tim Holtz “Bitty Grunge” background stamp set that I used for the box, to heat emboss some texture in gold. I bent up the wings, and attached the butterfly over the shiny purple one, using hot glue. Once the card was finished, a put a little Pinflair gel glue under the wings to stop them getting flattened.

I chose two small hibiscus flowers from my stash that I’d made ages ago, and attached them to the card, on the opposite side of the oval from the butterfly, again using hot glue.

Here is the completed card.

Here is a detail shot of the embellishments.

On the inside of the card I inked the edges with Seedless Preserves distress ink and an Inkylicious Ink Duster, stamped the sentiment again, this time with Seedless Preserves distress ink, and added a bit of extra text with a dark blue Marvy le Plume marker pen.

I cut an envelope to fit this 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in square card, using my Envelope Punch Board. I used a piece of 80 gsm A3 printer paper which is unfortunately not very good quality. I inked the corner which would become the envelope flap, using a mixture of Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire distress inks, and then used two butterfly stamps from the Stampin’ Up set “Butterfly Potpourri” which I stamped with Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire distress inks.

Here is the envelope assembled, showing the lining with the stamped butterflies.

I then turned it over and realised my mistake in using such grotty paper! The stamping had come through to the other side! It didn’t actually look too bad and I thought I’d just leave it. Here’s the flap closed. I inked it with Seedless Preserves and Dusty Concord distress inks as before.

The stamping showed through on the front as well, but I thought it looked quite cool, so I continued with the inking, and added some Chipped Sapphire distress ink with the ink blender to finish off the edges.

Next time I shall remember I need to make a separate lining for the envelope if this isn’t going to happen again! I have to use this paper for envelopes because it’s the only paper I’ve got that’s big enough, unless I raid my 12 x 12 in stash, and this paper is rather thick.

Watch this space for more purple goodies to cheer up our poor neighbour! Here’s what I’ve done so far.