Festive Freebies!!!!!

Oooh! The Bully Bus Manufactory is packed to the rafters with festive fabrics, ribbons, trimmings, sequins and tiny little jingle bells. It can mean only one thing; This year’s batch of Christmas decorations is FINALLY underway………….. and they’re more gorgeous than ever before!!!!!

We’re all been given away completely FREE!!!!!!

And the good news is that this set of six of the holiday season’s finest, once sewn up and each given a little ribbon loop for hanging, are going to be given away absolutely FREE to one very lucky person!!!!

So what do you have to do to be in with a chance of seeing them gracing your gorgeous tree come Christmas Day? Simple really! Just visit my website and add your name to the mailing list. That’s it; That is all!

I know, I know! I said a few years back that I’d given up on my website in favour of all things in the Blogosphere but so many people have asked me over the last few months if I’m online that I’ve finally caved in to the mounting pressure and opened the website back up – Albeit clearing everything out and starting again from scratch!

It’s far from finished. Since July I’ve made it my mission to add at least one new item each day – whether it’s to create a page, add a photo or set up a shop listing and slowly, but surely, things have begun to take shape until I’ve reached a point where I feel happy to share it with the whole wide world!!!!

So that’s where you come in 😉

Please feel free to share the link with family, friends etc : http://www.bigbluebullybus.co.uk/

On the home page there’s an option to join the mailing list – Anyone that adds their name to this from 16th October – 31st October 2013 will automatically be entered into a prize draw where one name will be picked out at random on November 1st to win the luvverly tree decs!!!

And what happens once the draw is over? That’s simple too – Your contact details stay with me; They won’t ever be shared with a third party. From time to time you’ll receive an email in your inbox in the form of a little newsletter highlighting new products, events and further freebies or discount offers. But definitely no spam; No inbox full of inane drivel from a slightly loopy lass in a camper van (I’ll save that for this blog, lol)  and no hard selling!!!! 😉

So? What are you waiting for?

Happy Wednesday Folks!!!!!!! And Good Luck!!!!!

3 months of toil…… But still a pleasure!

Well! I’m back!!!!!!

And thankfully with a clear head; Rested, focussed and busier than ever after a short break en Ecosse with Mr OH and the bullies of the bus – Even though Scotland was a tad damp at times to say the least it was still a well earned bit of time out after a hectic few months…… 😉

On the old Edinburgh road in our trusty T5. There is a mountain hiding away under that low lying cloud – Honest!

So, let’s have a recap and look back at what flattened my batteries for a while…..

Firstly, there was an invitation back in early March for me to take part in an event called ‘The Handmade Alternative’ in Bradford, West Yorkshire; The brainchild of Jane Wynn of Wildheart. It was her vision to bring together a whole host of independent designers, artists and craftspeople who cater for alternative tastes and showcase their work in a fabulous pop-up shop in Bradford city centre. An idea that proved to be incredibly popular and was much welcomed by a whole host of customers eager to sample the assorted wares on offer.

I took the opportunity to debut a collection of alternative baby wear I’d been working hard on – skulls, crossbones, zombie bunnies, kitties and Game of Thrones inspired goodies.

Even the tiniest of tots can look uber cool – Appliqued baby bodysuit featuring a sugar skull and crossbones design.

Faux tie baby bodysuit with hot pink skull detail.

Zombie Kitty!

Zombie Bunny – Go on! Give him a cuddle; I dare you!

Awwwwh! So cute 🙂

I loved making this custom design over and over again using ditsy florals, vintage Seventies prints and classic polka dots.

This applique design looks great when used on covered notebooks too 😉

The Handmade Alternative was due to run for the first two weeks in April and even before it opened for business I had already begun work on another project for an event taking place on May 4th in a shop called Kyro, at Morley Market, Leeds. Talk about there being no rest for the wicked!

Now there are probably those of you out there currently reading this blog post that will instantly recognise the significance of this date; Likewise, there’ll be a fair few that would see it as just another day…….

May 4th? It’s Star Wars Day!!!!! An event I need no prompting to take part in or promote 😉 So…………… lots of Amigurumi Star Wars characters courtesy of Lucy Ravenscar’s fabulous designs , a few ideas for more appliqued goodies …….. and a chance to come face to face with the Darkside!!!!!

Possibly the cutest Jedi master you’re ever likely to meet!

Luke & Leia – Designs courtesy of Lucy Ravenscar.

Wicket the Ewok – Design courtesy of Lucy Ravenscar.

Beware – Jawa!!!!!

Ben ‘Obi Wan’ Kenobi – Design courtesy of Lucy Ravenscar.

Stormtrooper Applique design worked in my own inimitable style – For an adult t-shirt option.

Darth Vader – On baby bodysuits through to adult t-shirts and hoodies!

The little green guy was definitely a popular choice with the customers.

All in all it was a great day at Morley Market – with over £400 raised for charity 😉 Everyone entered in to the spirit of the event with opportunities to have your photo taken with Darth Vader, assorted stormtroopers, Chewie etc, children’s fancy dress, tombola and loads of other activities. Traders got dressed up too and had a whale of a time; It was brilliant!!!!

Smile for the camera!

Chewie guards my little amigurumi figures – But still folks couldn’t keep their hands off of them! Need; Want; Must Have!

That time when the paperwork needs doing – Even the Darkside has to engage in the odd bit of admin from time to time 😉

The traders really entered in to the spirit of things…..

As did the customers………

Sherridan of Hellraiser Records succumbs to Vader’s mind tricks.

Darth interrogates a likely member of the Rebellion.

The next event has been planned – Super Heroes Day!!!!!

Phew! And finally……….. on the same date that I had really bad news (blogged about in an earlier post) I had started the day on a high after a meeting with a potential new stockist of some of my goodies that confirmed I had a little spot in a prime retail space in the heart of Leeds city centre.

So……….. the last few weeks has seen me working hard to create wonderful things worthy of a place in ‘The Handpicked Hall’, with a regular weekly slot for me to ply my wares and the opportunity to come and say ‘Hello’ in person :0)

Needless to say that a lot of my current designs have focussed on a strong VW theme and notions of summer festivals and glamping trips – lots still under wraps for the big unveil but here’s a few snippets to hopefully whet the appetite…..

Stylised bay window camper applique design – for adult tees and hoodies.

Essential home accents for the budding VW enthusiast.

Teeny weeny bug applique on a baby bodysuit.

T25 Hi-Top inspired adult ladies’ tee.

VW themed faux tie baby bodysuit.

Add a little Glastonbury glamour to your wardrobe with a dippy hippy flower corsage 😉

Crikey! No wonder I needed a bit of a break………

Now that this week’s blog post has been written and can be ticked off of my usual long list of stuff to do it’s time for me to go and make something lovely for the rest of the day……….. DEFINITELY no rest for the wicked 😉  Oh well, Happy crafting folks!

Harewood VW Festival 2012: Favourite Rides

There were some great rides at LVW Fest as usual, with a significant representation from the water cooled community. Lots of old favourites and a few new ones thrown in for good measure.

Here’s a few that caught my eye…….

Pristine paintwork on a gorgeous monochromatic splitty.

Grrrrrrr!

You can’t beat a classic Caddy! And I was drooling over this one 😉

Nice paintwork…

Naff content but I think most of the boy racers would vote it rear of the year (AGAIN!!!!!)

Another drool worthy option…….

This time it was Mr Other Half’s turn to get excited: He misses his souped up Caddy sooooooo much!

Lulabelle – Compact catering from a classic Splitty 🙂

This one makes me smile because it reminds me of many hours spent handling an angle grinder on my early bay 😉

Ratty Late Bay

Peekaboo!

The water cooled community was very much in evidence at this year’s show.

I love this!!!!

Scoobified Caddy; Yum!

All lined up and looking for new owners……..

Looks familiar! Billy the Bulli sporting the latest hi-tech waterproofing solution – chromework that caught the eye of many a passer by judging by the amount of people who stopped to take a photograph 😉

Fresh cut flowers as an aid to van flu…….

The doctor says I can craft again just as long as I take things easy – no sitting for hours on end crocheting little whimsies or working my way through miles of embroidery floss to stitch assorted treasures is allowed at the moment 😦 Ho Hum! And I’ve resolved to follow his advice and work for twenty minutes at a time, little and often as a result…… I now seem to have plenty of spare time on my hands!

Frothy spires of Astilbe against Hydrangeas – Everything in the garden is PINK!

So today I spent a few hours in the garden, initially with the intention of helping Mr Other Half with some essential maintenance of his ratty bus – Billy the Bulli. He’s a splitscreen bus that left the factory in Germany on the same day that Mr OH was born – October 11th, 1963; Spookily, he also entered the UK on October 11th a few years ago when we imported him over from Seattle – coincidences like this make us think that he was obviously fated to be in our lives from the day he was first created 😉

Billy the Bulli being lovingly tended by Mr Other Half – A constant labour of love!

Today was spent pulling out the engine in order to replace the flywheel seal and gland nut in the clutch before installing a new petrol tank and filter – essential jobs that needed to be addressed sooner rather than later as he’s been suffering from van flu for a good while now.

Apparently the gold coating is a good sign – To be fair I don’t know why though 😉

Happily, he’s now sorted again for the present time and we even had a few moments spare to adjust the handbrake on Vince, my flower covered T25  – ANOTHER job on an endless list of things to do …….

Anywhoo, van flu sorted I turned my attentions to the garden which looks glorious after the incredible drenching it’s sustained over the last few months! Everything is in bloom, the bees are buzzing happily amongst the myriad flowers and there’s an awful lot of pink outside Bully Bus HQ! It looks lovely – so I decided to cut a few blooms to take inside the house too….

Fresh cut flowers from the garden – A cheery sight 🙂

Aren’t they gorgeous? Mother Nature sure does a great job of providing us with plenty of inspiration – I intend to use this colour pallette in some of my future makes to remind me of a productive day spent in the great outdoors…… albeit a few hours in a flower filled garden in one of the many leafy suburbs of Leeds!

And the results of my little and often bouts of crafting for today? Snatched moments here and there spent crocheting a cute mascot for Billy’s dashboard – from a great little ninja pattern courtesy of Christen Haden.

Amigurumi Ninja – Pattern available in ‘Creepy Cute Crochet’ ISBN: 978-1-59474-232-3

In truth, my wrist hurts like hell again – so maybe the road to recovery isn’t quite within my sights just yet…….. 😦 Never mind – a few more days spent relaxing in the garden and enjoying the sunshine might be just the ticket………. We shall see!

Come out and play!

The VW show season has officially started with Campermart last weekend! Bit early in the year for me to be bothering, and to be fair I don’t know of a single soul that actually went, but I’m sure it was very lovely for those who did attend 🙂 Fingers crossed that it wasn’t a case of more traders than customers at any rate!

Today I received flyers for my absolute fave show – Volkspower at Redcar. If you haven’t been before – WHY NOT ?????? You can’t possibly imagine what you’re missing. Time to get your diaries out and pencil in the date, set up a little savings tin for petrol money, the bar and some fish and chips and start polishing your dancing shoes for the cracking entertainment on offer – I defy anyone to tell me that there’s better at ANY other show in the UK!

Paul and Mandy, the organisers, work so incredibly hard to bring us an outstanding weekend – And it’s northern and fairly local(ish) which is also an added bonus. Even if it was at the other end of the country I would make the effort to attend though; I’ve been there since day 1 and will forever sing it’s praises 🙂

Volkspower – Be There or Be Fed Up You Missed It!

Ooooooh! And did I mention that it’s by the sea and quite a good surf spot too? Just a five minute walk to the beach with your wetsuit or a quick drive along the coast road to the local Saltburn scene. How cool is that?

I’m off to start shining my dancing shoes NOW! It’s time to come out and PLAY!

 

Adventures in……… Origami.

It’s the third week of my challenge and this time it’s all about origami.

Skull & Crossbones by Quentin Origami

Deriving from the words ‘ori’, meaning ‘folding’, and ‘kami’ meaning ‘paper’, origami originated at some time during the seventeenth century in Japan. It’s the art of transforming a flat sheet of paper into a three dimensional art form by the use of various folding and sculpting techniques – no glueing or cutting is involved; That would be ‘kirigami’. Then, of course, there’s ‘kokigami’ which I suppose is best described as ‘packaging’ – but more of that later… 😉

Paper Cranes – A Symbol of Peace

In truth, I’m no stranger to the gentle art of paper folding – In the past I’ve folded many a crane in the name of Peace and taught countless classes of Primary school children how to turn a paper square into something amazing. But you don’t really need me to show you how to do this in person as there’s oodles of fantastic websites, books, video tutorials etc out there that’ll take you through everything step-by-step.

This site’s great – video tutorials, lots to make and you can even print your own paper!

http://en.origami-club.com/

Anyway… I chose to have a go at some VW themed origami for this week’s challenge (of course!!!!!) , based on the classic Charles Esseltine VW Beetle design:

Origami VW Beetle Design by Charles Esseltine

Really, it’s not for beginners at all, so if you want to try this one out I’d definitely have a go at getting the more basic stuff under your belt first – There’s a rather lengthy tutorial on YouTube that you can have a go at following if you desperately feel you need to have a go – it’s in two parts so you’ll have to make sure you view both bits):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu4mXNNXzWA

The fruits of my labour – a bit rusty as I haven’t indulged in a few years…

Pink VW Beetle by Big Blue Bully Bus

A tad tricky when an over enthusiastic bull terrier wants to help! 🙂

And Kokigami… I said I’d get back to it didn’t I?

First of all – it really does EXIST!!!!! It’s not a spoof. It would probably be wisest to do a Google search on this – or look it up in the Urban Dictionary. I can’t fully explain it without blushing!

Basically (and this is the story I would tell my Mother), many moons ago (the early nineties to be precise), I bought a lovely little book about this particular art form that had the most amazing pre-printed templates and easy to follow instructions, advice on taking accurate measurements and even scripts for role play etc. I believe that even now it’s long since gone out of print, that it’s still available to buy from the likes of Amazon; A tome I’d heartily recommend for your craft reference shelf if nothing else…..

All I can say is…….  if you found any of my links at all useful, and you’ve had a little go at a few folds etc……… and you’ve got access to a little bit of PVA glue, some scissors and a tape measure…… you’ll possibly LOVE this little book and it’s amazing projects; I’ll say no more 😉

The Kokigami Horse – Stuff of Nightmares?

Well maybe a little bit……

The best online reference I can find to the art itself and the particular book in question is here (it’s in Spanish but there’s an optional button to translate – hilarious in itself):

http://www.blogodisea.com/2011/que-es-el-kokigami/preguntas-respuestas/

Have fun! Speak to you next week about something much more sedate, Debby xxx 🙂

Adventures in decoupage…….

OK. It’s week one of my take on the ’52 crafts in 52 weeks’ project and I’ve chosen to start with something I’m fairly familiar with; albeit a bit rusty at the moment.

This month’s theme is of course ‘Paper’, so I’m setting the ball rolling with a spot of decoupage. For those of you who may never have heard of this before, it’s basically centred around the creative art of cutting out, assembling, pasting and (sometimes) varnishing paper to make decorative objects. With it, you can give furniture a new boost of life, create fabulous greetings cards, 3D pictures etc and generally make all sorts of wonderful stuff for your home .

Fantastic results can be obtained fairly easily and it’s also a great activity to carry out with children when the weather’s vile outside and they’re climbing the walls inside 😉

Here’s a few examples of it in it’s simplest form, but you can make it as complex as you wish.

Bangles courtesy of Becky Decoupage 

Mickey Mouse Side Table by Bombus

In the past, when I’ve had a go at decoupage, I’ve tended to use it to make 3D pictures and greetings cards. This involves using multiple repeat images to build up layers which are then stuck one on top of the other. In each layer, you focus on different elements of the image and cut them out to build up the final piece – Silicone glue, or foam sticky pads also help to give depth to the image and this really helps to make it ‘pop out’ from the page once everything is stuck in place.

Sound difficult? Opt for a technique such as pyramage and it’s simplicity itself!

Here I’ve cut a series of graded rectangular pieces from repeat images of a gorgeous flower powered bug and used sticky pads to hold everything in place and give a raised pyramid effect.

Flower Power Beetle by Big Blue Bully Bus

And here, I’ve used graded squares which gently twist round to create a slightly different effect.

Twisted Pyramage VW Beetle by Big Blue Bully Bus

Here’s an example of a more traditional piece of decoupage that I’ve just created – you can buy ready printed, pre-cut sheets if you want but I prefer to make my own. Only thing is I still need to find time to cut the pieces out and stick it all together!

Email me at bigbluebullybus@yahoo.co.uk and I’ll mail the full PDF to you if you’d like to have a go at making it too 😉

VW Bug PDF by The Big Blue Bully Bus

Phew! Blog post and first craft nearly over – just another 51 to go!!!!

Finally, here’s a little list of things that I’ve copied from Wikipedia that you might find useful if you want to have a go at decoupage for yourself:

• Something to decoupage onto. Examples include: furniture, photograph albums, plates, ceramics, shelving, frames, mirrors.
• Pictures to decoupage with. These can come from myriad sources: newspapers, magazines, catalogues, books, printed clip art, wrapping paper, greeting cards, fabric, tissue paper, lace.
• Cutting utensil. Scissors, craft knife (X-Acto) or razor blades can be used.
• Glue. Standard white glue works best if it is diluted with a little water. Specialty glues can be found in most crafting stores.
• Smoother. Popsicle sticks work well. A brayer is a specialized tool like a miniature rolling pin designed to help remove wrinkles, remove excess glue and smooth pictures.
• Glue spreader. Many things around the house can be use for this: cotton swabs, paint brushes, sponges.
• Rags, sponges, tissue paper to help wipe up glue and other clean up.
• Sealer. Glue or other decoupage medium can be used as a sealer. Alternatively, polyurethane, spray acrylic or other lacquers are usually used.

Why not have a go yourself? It’s fairly inexpensive and great fun!