Bread of heaven, bread of heaven

Have I mentioned chuckling at Michael Macintyre on tv when he went on stage at the Swansea Gran and sang those lines and lifted up his arms and the whole audience sang the rest? in harmony too. Still makes me smile! I have just taken a wonderful funeral service. So many are sad for so many different reasons but this one was amazing. It was for a Welsh retired teacher. Now in Essex in the 40's and 50's they sent coaches to South Wales which came back full of newly qualifed teachers. I kid you not. Some schools only had one English born teacher.
So the crematorium was filled with good Welsh voices. The lady who died was related to Clive Rowlands the rugby player who rather outshone me in the address - but in a good way! ALthough the death was a great shock the greatest emotions there - and we were all very emotional (Welsh, see) were love and laughter. What a tribute. And "bread of heaven" was amazing.

I just about managed a Welsh blessing with a bit of coaching from my Da. the hardest bit was yng ngwybodaeth
yng sounds like the "ung" of "rung" and the words run together to make ung-wee-bod-eye-th (soft th) which means "in the knowledge"
I won't even try and tell you how to say "hollalluog"which means Almighty...

It is Twisted Sketch day today and I am Guest Designer. I know! How cool is that!

Here is Anam's great sketch. The twist is use at least one Stamp - it can be any sort of Stamp in any way, shape or form.
and this is what I did.
The papers are October Afternoon Night Light. I hav just about finished scrapping our birthday now which is good as that stripy shirt kind of takes over the colour choices! I knew from the swirl shape on the sketch that I would have to get out my ENORMOUS Fancy Pants swirl. It meant I had to move the title though. I cut the top photo into two so you can see the details of lil C's face and the cake. I also used another Fancy Pants stamp to make the border and my beloved Tall Timbers stamps for the "cake". Oooh and I nearly forgot the Heidi Swapp crown - 4 stamps! that one had glitter pen over the top for extra bling. Some sassafrass chipboard and adornit letters and that is that.
It was blummin' hard to photograph though as the camera doesn't know what to focus on.
Here is a close up of the title
and even then it is hard to read "13 is not too old for cake"
neither is 44...

Hello my name is Elton

that is what Phil calls me whenever I get a lot of packages at once through the post. Its from the old Royal Mail ad with Elton John from a few years back. Incidentally did you see Top Gear on Sunday night? I may moan about the price of a stamp going up but 39p got a letter from the Scilly Isles to Orkney overnight faster than they could drive a letter there. It went on palnes and everything.
Incidentally 2, we are often out walking the dog on her bedtime visit at midnight (yes, I know) and a Royal Mail truck passes us about the same time every night. It kind of makes me feel that all is right in Britain...

Anyway. I had two parcels yesterday. Which was nice. And one was a prize. Which was even nicer! I won the card challenge on UKScrappers last month and the prize was a Crafty Templates card kit. I got down to using it straight away.
It first appeared on a layout.
This layout is for Twisted Sketch 5. I love these sketches. I think it is because they are simple enough for you to add your own details too but there is plenty to get you started too. I think I am quite a linear scrapper. (oooh hark at her!)
this is the sketch
and the twist was to use fabric of some sort.
The starting point for this was the dotty see through stuff on the left of the photo which is fabric paper that I have had for eons. I found it went well with Scenic Route Brighton papers. Then my eyes fell on the fabric rosette in my parcel. Score! I took the gingham ribbon off the bottom and stuck it in the corner with a cute cherry brad from the kit and added a flower centre. It helped solve the problem of lettering as I didn't have the letters for Happy Birthday in the blue stickers (another ancient bit of stuff used) but found some red doodlebug ones instead. The heart is from there too.
Obligatory close up of the lovely rosette. It is not supposed to look like a clock at 10 to 4 thanks PHil.
Next I wanted to make a thank you card to say thank you for the parcel. I need a thank you card for someone else so they will get it. It is a symbolic thanks to Leo at Crafty Templates
I used a 2Sketches4U sketch which I haven't done for aaaaages. And this card took aaaaaages too. It started off as the green card! But I prefer the white background as it is sharper
the fabric scallop, the cherry paper and green card are from the kit. The red card is American Crafts and the letters are Doodlebug. Having used my cherry brad on the layout - I remembered I had a cherry die cut in my October Afternoon stash

My other parcel was a Gotta Craft kit. Now these always launch of an evening and I am usually out and by the time I remember they are sold out. But I got lucky this time! It is a Kraft based kit. Which, seeing as I love scrapping on Kraft, I had to have. (thinks back to those days 18 months ago when she went into artbase asking for Kraft bazzill and the man looked at her like she was mad and offered a paper bag...)
This took no time at all
I used a technique tuesday circle template to cut into the burgundy bazzill and a range of circle punches for the patterned paper. Lots of inking and white pen. The chipboard numbers are Sassafrass and the letters and numbers Jenni Bowlin. These came from the Studio Calico kit I won (I'm on a lucky streak!). Those Jenni Bowlin stickers are well worth having as there are sooooo many. As you can tell if you look back through my layouts. They are well used but still loads left.

I have actually done some other crafting as well but can't show you that yet. I've had a weekend where I have had time to play. Sadly that is over and it will be a while now so I ahve made the most of it!

Ooooh my life already

Where does the time go?
How many times have I said that on my blog?
I HATE it when I only update once a week.
But time is not always my friend and I am supposed to be working full time
(that is a joke, church people. I am working full time honest)

Since I last updated I have
been to camp
it was sunnyit was rainy
I slept (a little) in the little blue tent. I didn't have to make a night time walk. Result!
I played rounders (and that counts as work to me. I have no hand eye co-ordination. Sadly at one point my team had one brilliant player still in and two others including me which meant a lot of humiliation at the crease, or whatever it is called in rounders, and a LOT of running.)
I made a button bracelet - sadly it was for 5 year old Adam and not 44 year old Lythan so can't show you mine...
It was sunny again
I got to play a celtic harp - haven't played one since I was 8. People took photos. I haven't seen them yet but I could feel the double chin growing as they did so.

made cards for an Imagine That class
which is a big thing as Emma, Emma and Judy make the most bestest and beautiful cards ever and I don't rate mine as much! I didn't photograph them but you can see them on the class details here. What I do like is that I came up with the design of the card on the right all by myself. OK it is not unique but when it is shut the slider part is completely hidden. All using the fab WRMK nonsense range

had meetings and meetings and wrote minutes of meetings and prayed some
that is basically what a Minister does. And prepares worship. And puts that off by writing a blog post.

Did my Salt layout of the week
OK fortnight but the Harry Hill tune popped into my head as I wrote that. Never heard it? Click here
The Salt challenge was a great one by Mona about Prayer

In the last few weeks I have been studying Hagar and Sarah. Genesis 16:11 struck a cord in my heart - "God has heard your cry of distress." I was also touched by Psalm 56:8 (The Message).

"You've kept track of every toss and turn through the sleepless nights. Each tear you've entered into your ledger, each ache has been written into your book."

These verses touched my heart because every affliction, every thought, every worry are heard and remembered by the Father. He loves and cares about every single thing that happens in our lives every day, no matter how big or small. There have been times when I think that my problems are too big or small to share with God, but my 11 year old autistic child showed me that you can pray about anything.

I knew that I wanted a photo of one of my children crying. (!) I don't know whether I am sad or pleased that it was hard to track one down. Maybe I did spend more time comforting them than documenting their distress. Maybe they just didn't cry very much! I remembered a photo from when we went to Carnac in 1995. Emrys had been crawling around and it was time to go home. For some reason he had loved crawling among big stones and was not happy at being back in the buggy. Oh I remember those heartfelt sobs. It turned out to be a great photo to reflect the words in the Bible

When I dropped off the cards at Imagine That on Monday I accidentally bought the new pack of Basic Grey June Bug papers. Which is what I have used for this layout
Everything including the grungy background paper is June Bug. I just added a chatterbox bird, three flowers and gems from elsewhere. Here is my journalling close up (pen started to run out grrrr)
And finally
its Daring day!
Rein made us work this week with her rather lovely theme

Russian

as our Russian girl Irina is here staying with us again my dare is put a matryoshka or another typical Russian element like dress, architecture, or... ..... on your card.

I partly bought the Junebug papers as I thought they had a russian vibe to them. I was wondering what to do wih this dare and remembered that google is my friend. I found a template on the Papercraft Inspirations site. When I printed it out it was A4 size! So I just used it as a guide to hand cut my own card one using a folded A6 card.
Again all the papers are June Bug apart from her face which is Urban Prairie. The eyes are blue stickers and the leaves were cut with a QK die.

Right time to get some work done - it is our choir concert tonight so I must get worship preparation done and dusted by then!

Buttons anyone?

I've just spent a happy half hour in a garage full of buttons!
They are from the house of an old man who used to run a haberdashery. Sadly I can't keep them all but some will live with me and some will come with me to camp in order to make button bracelets and necklaces.
Drool.

I still haven't managed to photograph any birthday cards this week - all been rather manic work wise but I hope to have time next Monday. Such is my life from time to time. I have had a few runs of meetings on Tues/Wed/Thurs evenings and when that happens I get quite overwhelmed. I actually don't have one next Tuesday - woot! I'll probably waste it though...
This is the card that I made Carys for her birthday. I entered it into the Papercrafts Idol comp. I didn't get through but my Daring Card Teamie Jo Kill did. She is also top 5 in the 4Sketches4U comp - final is this week. She is an outstanding card maker and deserves international recognition so GO GO JO!!!!!
My card was made using WRMK Tiffany range and I inked and glittered a chipboard scroll. The ribbon is Doodlebug and I used two colours of liquid pearls. The label was cut using a craft robo.

Last weeks Daring card is this one...
for the postpals dare. Another of those labels! The round chipboard is Scenic Route; Making Memories and Doodlebug letters; a Bazzill edger and a Martha Stewart punch were used. Everythign else is October Afternoon. I added extra glitter to the cherries with Copic glitter pens found here - thanks Enfys who enabled via her blog.

And this weeks Daring card
I love this theme!

Blue and Green...Should Never Be Seen
– they must be the predominant colours, and as the old saying goes...they should never be seen together!! But we all know how they can work beautifully together – so show us what you can do!!

I love blue and green together and think they should always be that way. It is such a restful combination!
I made this card for Em to take to the library today as a thank you for his work experience. He looked at it and said "but that is horrible" with real anguish in his voice. Maybe his colour blindness made the colours funny for him...
What has he done? Has he enjoyed it? have no idea as he will not tell us anything about it. I did find out that the long haired guy is not in charge of computers. He just has very long hair.

onto the card...
It is A5 size - gasp!
I printed out the central section on cream card stock. The bit sticking off the side is supposed to be a library tab which I added a random Dewey decimal number to.
Yes more October Afternoon. And yes, a different border punch. I have suddenly realised that I have bought 7 since last September. It has to stop here! (but they are so luverly....). Two were birthday presents (chosen by me as I have the best craft taste). Some of the elusive Martha Stewart punches are available at Imagine That but are flying off the shelves (well hanging unit really). the apple was cut out of one of the papers and glittered using glue pen and loose glitter. On reflection the pens would have been better...

Right back to playing with buttons and getting ready for a "fun" Church camp...

best card ever

Its been a long hot lovely day.
a bit frustrating in parts.
mostly due to the fact that my hard drive died again last week and I have to reload everything.
Which is why I haven't blogged my card yet from Friday
the nice part is that it is mine and Carys' birthday.
I had loads of lovely handmade, heartfelt cards this morning which I will show and tell. Thanks to all those who sent them to me
But for now I just want to show you my special card from Phil that had me laughing until I cried...

And I will drive 100 miles...

as the Proclaimers didn't sing
Actually it was more like 140 yesterday and today. Why?
to stay in a travelodge in Derby.
Why?
Cos I meet up twice a year with two colleagues to talk over work issues. Two of us live reasonably close to each other but the other is in Cumbria so Derby is kind of in the middle. We have met at the same place three times now. There is a pub next to the travelodge so we meet work, eat and then relax at the pub. In the morning we stroll down the hill to the excellent Sainsbury's cafe for breakfast and more work before coming home again. And as we do it over 24 hours you can still fit in work on the morning of day 1 and the evening of day 2. Result!

It did mean I wasn't around for the Salt launch this week but I had actually got my layout done. Which may well be the last one in my first Salt scrapbook. It is an American Crafts lever arch one but I think it is getting to the point where it won't close!
the Salt challenge this week follows on in a pattern from the two before

The Fruits of the Spirit

Hi everyone! It's my (Melita's) turn to host the challenge this week! This challenge will also be along the lines of our last two challenges. Continuing along the same vein as Lythan and Kim, our focus this week is on the work on the Holy Spirit in us and how it is manifested in the community of believers, namely, through the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives which are so clearly laid out in Galatians 5:22-23. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

I love this verse at times and at others, I honestly have to say that I do get disheartened by it because I don't think I will ever possess any of these qualities in the way that God intends. Of course, I know that this is the evil one's way of getting me to forget about trying to apply any of them to my life. It is overwhelming to think about them all at once, but when I look at them separately, I know that God is working in my life and helping me to find measures of each to share with those around me. So that is my challenge to you. Look at each of these and share how God is working in that area in your life.

I had decided that I wanted to focus on USING the fruits of the spirit early on so after selecting an apple coloured top I got Phil to photograph me eating an apple which I then photographed close up and then ate. Yum. There is no Bible reading (gasp!) as I just couldn't fit it all on the page. I might write it out for the back of the layout. I know the passage well but not everyone who reads the scrapbook when I am gone may do!
The papers are straight in real life, it is the crop that is squiffy now I notice honest! I have used my new best friend, October Afternoon papers again - the Cherry Hill ones. The layout is a simple version of this weeks Pencil Lines sketch which was good for layering. The apple and label are OA; the butterfly is KandCO
The buttons are from my stash which I have now put in colour coded bags; lettering is adornit and American Crafts. And for those that need a close up

Right off to do a short worship service with the Brownies and Rainbows and then part 2 of a bereavement course; followed by a relax and catch up with Phil while we watch Big Bang Theory. So fab!

In a celebrating mood!

Lots of good news to share today!
1: Lil C is coming home in an hour or so. She had a great weekend away - we know because she phoned with updates every three hours! Looking forward to snuggling up and watching Casualty together.
2: I had my MA essay mark - the pass is 40 and a distinction is 70. I got 64 which I am over the moon about as I didn't do well last year and was really despondent.
3: I found out today that my church has won a Multicultural story award from the United Reformed Church. Back in May I posted the Bind it all book that I made as part of our contribution! We will receive the award in December at an event in Birmingham
4: I didn't get on to the Twisted Sketches design team (sob) but have been asked to be a GD in the future (yay!)
5: I have finally finished cards to show off the new Funky Hand I do work book
What I like is that the patterns are neutral and can work for a cream/white or any colour wedding with a bit of tweaking. I had a commission without any colour so ended up with a bit of a cream/white/bronze feel. Jenni and Alan are getting married in Italy - hence the initials
I stuck the J onto a different letter's paper in order to get the right colour combo and glittered the outline."Wedding day" is also from the download and takes glitter beautifully. The card is a little shorter than it started out being due to a few Bind it all accidents!!!!
I used my new Martha Stewart punch; some Distressed Stickles; a lot of distress ink and a few ribbons from my stash
Here is the inside
and a card made from the leftovers which happily fits the UKS June card challenge
I layered the border with thin foam pads and also raised the teeny alpha letters. The velvet ricrac is from Imagine That and the crochet flower was a pressie ages ago. Jenni's brother Graham, who commissioned the card and is my church secretary is a dab hand at crochet and he is going to make me some more! I added a button and some bakers twine.

I have also made a layout to go with this weeks twisted sketch. The twist is to use at least one die cutThese are photos of the place we stayed in over May half term. Isn't it pretty!
Sadly the sky was only this blue for the last 2 days...
the papers are all October Afternoon apart from the Bazzill layer and the brown paper which is Costco. This was going to be the base layer until I stuck the next part down too far to the right. I quite like it now... the brackets and the journalling spot are die cuts. They are from the Cherry Hill set but match the County Fair papers too. Clever!
Here is a close up of the journalling
Off to work on my Salt layout this week - which may well feature OA papers too and also start preparing my next Doodling class for Imagine That. Oh and pick up Carys and do a Youth Praise service at church. Not sure how much will get done...