Sunday 14th October. Craft Shopping and Inspiration outside the box

Hiya

Well I am back from the model engineers exhibition. As per usual about 30 men for every woman there, well not actually for but you know what I mean.
Have loads and loads of great pics everything from model horse and carts,



to skeleton clocks.

I must admit this was my favorite skeleton clock the brass was polished to a mirror smoothness and it sparkled, and the mechanisms tick was so musical and delicate, Wow how much work it must have taken. As a crafter, I really admire all the models as I can appreciate how much effort and dedication must go into each one, and some of the detial is astounding


This motorbike model was almost completly made from wood. It was beautiful but what caught my eye was the attention to detail

The goggles were just the perfect finishing touch

I must admit that I love anything that is smaller than it should be, I just think they are great, its the big kid in me. I think my favorites are the Fairground steam engines,

this from memory was a 12th scale or similar model


and this is a road going version

I think I must love them because they remind me of my childhood. When I was 2 my nextdoor neighbours son David was 19, I told him I would marry him, he built me a dolls house which I adored. True love LOL He was mad about steam engines and used to drive a fairground engine at some of the local fairs, which my nan would take me to see. So the smell of coal and grease and steam reminds me of those days, and was probably a big part of why I fell for my OH, as he loves steam engines too. I was right following my hunch as he is every bit as great as David was.

Can't wait to scrapbook all my photos, I love the colours the red or green or black against the polished brass work.
Anyway whilst I was there I of course had my scrappers head on and am always looking for nifty bits to add to my craft stash. I was actually looking for something that i knew I could find there. A while ago I saw some letter and number punches on Paperwishes HOTPs webisodes. I knew that model engineers use something very similar , anyway I managed to find a set for 11.45 which was a lot cheaper especially without postage from USA so I was happy. I also bought a drill gauge. Its metal and has holes graded from 1mm to 13mm in half mm's Im going to use it as a template to get perfectly matching drawn circles every time . If I get chance I will do an example using it this week, however it was very expensive at £1.35. If you are interested I have found the same gauge on their site, but its not at show price its £1.95 Proops brothers They also have the letter and number stamps in 3 sizes here
If you want to see how to use them go HERE

I also fell in love with a font


So I will be trawling the net to find someone who has designed a font similar to this one.

Its very true , that crafters can find inspiration anywhere

Anyway I also have a free paper download for you today Its based on the night sky
Hope you can find a use for it


if you like it its available Free Paper Download

Well thats it from me for this morning, dont forget papercraft junkies challenge is uploaded tonight ready for tommorrow.
Also don#t forget to comment to have a chance of winning my blog candy Giveaway