My Life In A Dinghy...

...you would not know how hard it has been for me to keep my trap shut about this thing that I have been involved in!!!  I have been fit to burst both with excitement and honour too!  And why?  Well, the wonder woman Lisa Pace messaged me a few weeks ago and asked if I would like to take part in a feature she is running on her blog.  Basically, the remit is to make a dinghy... out of the insidey bit of a loo roll!  Instantly I was "yes! PLEASE!!"  And during the next few weeks Lisa is showing the dinghy's made by the jaw droppingly amazing artists who are involved in her feature. *tbh, I am SO glad I didn't know who else was taking part, I would have been so overwhelmed!*  To see Lisa's blog, CLICK HERE and my little dinghy will whizz you across the Pond to see her and them...

So.  Lisa emailed a template through and a few instructions.  And then said "it is your dinghy, make it how you want it to be"   Firstly, I did the whole template thing and my dinghy kept coming up too small.  Aha!  I sussed it out.  The loo rolls in the UK are smaller than the ones in the USA.  Ha! The ones we have are those new ones that have tiddly little middles... well, not to be beaten, I grabbed the inny bit of a kitchen roll and cut that down to size instead.

Then I set about the decorations.  Well, I say that... what I actually mean is I glued it all together and then realised... DOH!  How hard it was to be decorated it whilst it is assembled.  So, I went and grabbed another kitchen roll inny and set about making my dinghy... again ;o))  I gave it a coat of Mushroom paint inside and out and added on an extra bit so the back of the dinghy is a bit flatter than the front (ok, I shall show my knowledge of boating now... the stern is flatter than the bow!  *bet you never knew that I know boaty things right?*)   I then got some Melange Tissue Wrap and tore it up into bits and used Glue & Seal to stick it all down.  I wanted music score as I love music and life in my dinghy would not be right unless there is music.  Once this had dried, I popped a wash of Salty Ocean (well, it had to be didn't it?) Distress Paint onto the surface and once this was dried, I added smidges of Walnut Stain DI to age the vessel.

I decided that I needed a sail.  So I sat and thought, and thought, and thought... and then my eye happened to glance into the desk-tidy-of-doom which is full of junk... and I spied a kebab stick.  AHA!  Eureka and all that malarkey.  So, armed with Tim's scissors (not his actual ones cos I don't think he would appreciate me nicking his scissors lol) and some Cosmic Glue I cut the kebab stick to be a sail shape.  I glued the bits together and then painted them black (and yes, Cosmic Glue stuck it strong!)  I then needed something to anchor the mast to the dinghy so I stuck two little cotton reels together and painted those black too and then bunged the mast into the reels.... result!  So, the sail.  Now, you all know how rubbish I am with a needle and thread. But you all also know that I am a stubborn old bat and I wanted to do a proper sail, so I persevered... and after sussing out if I put a tulle cover on the mast I then had something to stitch the cotton sails to.  Hurrah! It worked!  I used Walnut Stain to age up my sail too... and then added little pompom trims to either side.  A few flowers and some netting to decorate and there you have it.  Actually, that is the bit I am most chuffed with!

Lisa asked us to describe what life is like in the dinghy.  My dinghy smells delicious as it is chock full of everlasting flowers!  There are resident butterflies to make the voyages in the dinghy peaceful and serene and there are piles of pearls so they catch the light and remind me of nature's beauty.  The pearls sit at the bottom of the dinghy and they provide footly massages which are rather gorgeous.  At the bow of the dinghy there lives a very magic tree.  A tree that is so sought after, there is only one living in the world... and there it is, on my dinghy.  Now this tree has a very special and powerful elixir that can only be extracted by squeezing the berries on the tree... and any old Tom, Dick or Hels can't just go and squeeze the the berries, oh no, it has to be done by a Unicorn - and it just so happens that one also lives in the dinghy with me.  The elixir from this tree has many properties, giving the receiver a health beyond all, free of pain.  One shellfull of Elixir and you feel like you will never lose your Mojo again, like the whole world is coloured by Distress Inks and also, although I have yet to encounter this, it also gives the imbiber the most vivid imagination known to man!  Do  you like my Unicorn? He is rather handsome isn't he? His name is Ubelazith, he is a rather shy old chap though and only reveals himself to those who really believe in Unicorns... so if you can't see him, don't be disappointed, you just need to concentrate a little harder ;o))    

And there you have it!  Something pretty from the inny from a loo roll!  Who'd have thought it eh?

Please do pop over to see Lisa's blog and check out the amazing creations from the other artists involved in this fabby feature!  Thanks for looking... TTFN!

Hels x