Dr Oooooh

I enjoyed our DR Who fest last night. Blink still has to be the most awesome episode ever and I'm seriously thinking of having "the angels have the phone box" printed on a t shirt to see how many Who nerds I know. I love Dr Who and not just because David Tennant has a certain goofish charm. The thing is though, I know it is wrong but the one that really gets me going is John Simm as the Master. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Oh sorry, just drifted off there. We watched the series finale episodes as well last night. Just great.
I bought nibbles for the family - I honestly only had a few crisps and skittles - doing cross stitch makes you less picky for fear of stainging the work. But you won't believe how much the gannets put away. For stick thin kids they can sure eat a lot. Stilll I was stick thin at their age (I was still wearing an age 4 tank top at 12) and then puberty struck... Ah well.

Here is one of the layouts I have done over the last few days.
The papers are all American Crafts and all them there flowers are hand cut out. I love those papers, that green is so fresh! the little heart is by Heidi Swapp and the stamp is CatsLife press. The 20 was cut on the craft robo and all the bling is from Hobbycraft.

Then I was a good girl and made TWO cards with the same papers

The round happy is a Banana Frog stamp. I kind of feel sad to have used up some of these fabby papers but it does make a little bit of room for more. Tomorrow I will show you 2 layouts using even older sheets than that!

Still feeling damp

after yesterdays wet walk. What better excuse to stay in and do crafty things? May also need to do a bit of wardrobe sorting in Carys' room. Then we paln a Dr Who extravaganza this evening. All our fave episodes. Well not all of them but a fair few. With snacks. And everything.

Here are a few shots from yesterday. We have a fab book of circular walks round Essex. Circular is the best sort of walk in my opinion. I do like geocaching (which we started to do about 3 years ago I'll have you know. I may wear crocs but I am not a slave to scrap fashion!) but you tend to go there, find the cache and then go back the same way. There was a short period where we overdid the circular and ended up back where we had been 10 minutes before but after some "full and frank discussion" we found our way. Lets just say me and Phil were both right...


Tanya made her debut as Dare chooser this week on DCM. Go Tanya go!

It's all in the Shape'
I'm a fan of shaped cards so thought this was a great one to do for my first dare. You can do any theme but your card has to be a shape of some sort.

I decided to crank up the old Craft Robo for this. Loading it onto the new computer was not straightforward but it worked! Of course all my carefully saved GSD patterns are upstairs on another computer so I went a looking on UKS and found this lovely cupcake card shape by Rockchick.
I then hand cut the layers from DCWV cardstock. I have a pack of lovely colours of cardstock which makes me laugh as it never seems to go with any patterned paper I own (and I have quite a lot!) but it does tone together well and each side is slightly differently coloured from the other. I also made a little candle from a scrap of Scenic Route Loveland, added two lots of stickles glue as frosting and more from the bag of sequins I opened. I'm trying to use the same elements on cards and layouts together so I use things up and don't just store them away.

Right, off for some creative fun!

Birthday break

I've been quieter than normal because we've been away for a few days, celebrating my mum's 70th birthday and our 20th wedding anniversary. Phil and I went to Patricks in Mumbles for our meal - 2 days early but it fitted in with our plans better! The food there is absolutely delish and as a meal out as a treat for us is more like Macdonalds then it was quite something (no plastic toy though...)
I wore my new Monsoon dress - this photo was taken by Carys so its a bit blurry but its the one I like best! For the actual anniversary I bought Phil a new lovespoon - we had one for our wedding but our old dog chewed it! And Phil bought me these
And for Mums birthday we went for a meal a bit further along in Mumbles - Castellamare. Mum had promised pizza - but it turned out the restaurant bit of the place didn't do pizza and you couldn't just order one from the bar area. The boys managed to cope though - phew! And even ate some salad... We were allowed to bring a cake along.
The boys also wore proper shirts for the evening - can't remember the last time they did that and Carys wore a lovely new dress from Sainsburys. (Invisible boy didn't want his photo taken. But he did look v. smart)
I haven't been back on the WiiFit yet but I'm dreading getting told off after all that rich food!

I finished off two layouts yesterday. The first one which looks simple took far longer than the other!
This is 8.5x11 size and the papers are all American Crafts apart from the piece of red bazzill. The stamps are from Technique Tuesday.

This layout is 12x12 and uses KI Memories papers. The letter stickers are from American Crafts and Poundland; stamps are Banana Frog, journal spot made using Nestabilities and I also used jumbo scallop scissors, a packet of sequins and oodles of Stickles glitter glue!

Today 3 of us - ooh and Lucky went for a wet walk in Epping Forest but I will share photos of that tomorrow along with my Daring Card for this week.

Have you got beady eyes?

Just a quick one as I am way behind today!
Daring Cardmakers challenge this week was set by my lovely friend Sue H.

We have our 'Beady' eyes on you!

For my dare this week I would like you to make a card that incorporates beads somewhere in the design…..it’s as easy as that!

It can be one bead, lots of beads, big beads, and small beads, whatever you like as long as there’s at least one on your card somewhere.

If you are beady eyed you will note lots of similarities between this card and yesterdays layout!
Why not have more of a good thing?! The Frances Meyer cardstock is of such a heavy nature that it makes for a fab card. Even with the weight of the chipboard and beads it is not buckling. The bead flower centre is made by smooshing lots of glossy accents on, adding beads and then covering it with micro beads. The beads got somwhat submerged so I added a few more beads on the top! I really love these colours together - I think they look really fresh.

Must go and do some work so have a lovely weekend and do see if you can make a card with beads on and link to DCM

Following on...

Well I am creaking a bit at the moment with all the Wii Fit stuff I am doing. Phil had one for his birthday and we are fighting for a go all the time! Actually I am Wii Unfit really. Until this morning when I cracked some of the other yoga poses the only thing I was top at on the whole Wii Fit games collection was... Deep Breathing. Yes I can breathe very well.
Actually I can breathe very well which helps with swimming and singing long phrases in one breath but it doesn't actually do much for morale when all you can beat your family on is breathing. Wii Fit is a whole load of fun though and has all of us wanting to exercise which can't be bad.

And this week I have been doing Spiritual exercise too - while reflecting on the Salt challenge for this fortnight. Kimberly W chose the subject this time.

Walking in Love.
There is so much that God has said to us in his Word about Love. God is Love. Faith works by love. The greatest commandment given to us by Jesus is to love...This week, consider your love walk ... and join us in creating art that glorifies him.

I had the idea of what to do almost straight away - it was the how and with what that took more time. I went to a wonderful website called Scripture Pics and found an image that I wanted to use. I use Scripture Pics images a lot in worship as I love the way that he makes free images that link to the reading of the week available online.

I wanted to talk about what it means to follow Jesus and that I chose to walk with him in love. Rather than quote the Bible I have used the lyrics from the last verse of - "The Summons"

The papers and flowers are all from a Frances Meyer kit available from Scrapitude. The black and white stripe paper is from there too. American Crafts thickers and some Hambly Screen prints were added. I painted the flower and some card with acrylic dabbers and then versamarked the flower and swooshed some Blonde Moments powders over to give a translucent effect which I am really loving at the moment. Then just a bit of doodling with the ol' white pen. I have a new white pen favourite - the Inkessentials one by Ranger available at Imagine That (along with the Hambly, the paints and powders!).

I am having a hair cut this afternoon. Porbably the same again although I am toying with going shorter. Maybe next time!

Chickens old and new

You may be bored of hearing about the demise of chickens chez Nevard.
A fox came into our garden sometime Saturday AFTERNOON and did away with two of the chickens - the newish Mrs Goggins and our oldest, largest and dearest Mrs Miggins. We do take lots of precautions to allow them to be free range - we have a fox watch which emits a horrible noise and foxes usually don't dare venture out during daylight hours. But it is breeding time and maybe they are taking a few more risks in order to feed their young. It paid off.
We ahve decided that as we do give a better quality of life we will continue to get battery chickens - besides which poor Miss Marple looks so lonely on her own - but will need to have them in the run a lot more.

Phil cheered us up by showing off his new chicken though... (just for Hazel!)
And there is a run on Saturday so the Eglu will be full and happy again.

Emrys turned 14 yesterday. He wanted to have pizza and a DVD - which is what we do every other Monday anyway! We watched the Bourne Conspiracy - we like a thriller in our house. Carys was shocked by the rude language... "carp" was said a few times. I'm not sure how she will react to ever seeing a 15 film. Bless.

i did a wee bit of crafting - actually turned out 4 layouts. I ahve been card heavy recently so it has been nice to do my Salt layout and another 3 for the Wemyss Bay holiday album. I finally did the title layout...
I was just going to sleep when I realised I had make a mistake. I was able to change it first thing this morning.
American Crafts Thickers and the paper is all Scenic Route Metropolis apart from the large circle which is Memory Makers.

This layout (removed for publication)
uses Scenic Route Metropolis again - a feature of this album (ooh get her) and is acutally quite similar to the first layout I did for it but I don't care. The arrows are all Grungeboard painted with Dabbers. Thickers have some £1 Hobbycraft gems on them.
And finally for now
MM Noteworthy papers, chipboard flowers from an old Self Addressed kit painted with Dabbers and Opal Dust, buttons and ribbon from stash and bling coould be Queen and Co or Fancy Pants bought from Imagine That (visit the spiffy new blog) anyway. Letter stickers are American Crafts - but not Thickers!

2 years older

for only about 6 weeks in a year, Phil is 2 years older than me. It starts today (har har). It also coincides with when we got married so it looks like I married a MUCH older man. I still can't beleive I was only 22 when we wed...

He did like his card. It woke Emrys up who found it quite hard to open his eyes and sing "Happy Birthday" at 7:30 this morning (and its his turn on Monday). The shapes are technique tuesday, everything else apart from the letters, is Scenic Route. The paints are Dabbers - I often use a brush or my fingers instead but I so LOVE thse dabber colours!

Phil has a Wii Fit which I am hoping he will share - as well as a chicken hat (you have to see it, an excellent Poundland find) and some books about Holland ready for the summer. Took me ages to find them as they were under "n" for Netherlands...

Yesterday we went to the Christian Resources Exhibition. It is a bit like a craft show only with more Bibles and slightly politer people. Not that Christians are necessarily polite. But they usually try their best when they know that everyone else knows they are Christians. There was less craft stuff too - though there was some. But I spent my money on getting Shane Lynch's autobiography, signed by the man himself. Only at a Christian show could he walk around barely recognised rather than being mobbed by loyal Boyzone fans even after all these years. I only knew he was a member of Boyzone - Phil failed to recognse him at all. His is a very interesting story of finding faith in some very dark times. And Louis Walsh.

And before I get to my Daring Card this week (the real point of the blog post). A small plea. You know when people come round to your house collecting for charity, or shake tins at you in the street? Even if you only give 5p, it means so much when you do. I have been Christian Aid collecting this week after a few years break and I had forgotten how demoralising it can be. I know we are disturbing you at home - but it doesn't take long to pop a few pence in an envelope and it does make a difference. to the collector as well as to the charity!

Onto Daring Card Makers
the challenge is set by Mel
I've based my dare on the book by Graeme Base called 'Animalia' (just because that book happened to be sitting near my desk when I realised it was my turn for the dare this week).

Another of my Animal stamps from Starving Artist - still love these stamps so much! They all have names - this is Dabble! I added the scarf and the sentiment is hand written. The papers are from an K and Co Mira mat pad. the image was coloured with the Works cheapy twinkling paints.

We are going out for a slap up lunch today - so I need to get on with my work (its the joys of a variable work week)

And I nearly forgot - how could I?
Its Hywel's last day at school today - apart from the exams anyway. He is going on to sixth form college, but this is another step of growing up I don't feel ready for. He took in chocolates and a thank you card for the library staff which I think tells you something about what kind of lad he is... (nerdy but lovely!)

Doesn't time fly...

When you have to work over the weekend.

You don't need to feel sorry for me though! One of the things I did for "work" was to go with a group of folk from our churches to a Christian comedy night which was part of the London Pentecost festival. They are planning another festival next year and I hope to get to more stuff. The theme of the weekend was "the church has left the building". And so the comedy night was in... the Soho Revue Bar. NOw I like to think of myself as a fairly sophisticated person - even though I am a Christian and often those things don't seem to go together :) But I felt like a country hick wandering through Soho. It was very cool to sit in the bar that hosts Madame JoJo's nights (see I know what they are and that she is really a man and everything) sipping a cocktail (it was my treat and I was told to make it last as we can never afford another one) and laughing at some incredibly funny comedians who proved that you don't have to be rude to tell a joke.

Now I do like a bit of a rude joke at times but it is nice to go out and not feel so embarrassed (apart from getting to and from the venue). The comics were Jo Enright (who makes me look tall) Paul Kerenza, Andy Kind (the compere) and Milton Jones (who I was looking forward to seeing but just seemed terribly pleased with himself. Still funny though). It was a brilliant wheeze and there were about 200 people there which considering the club is about as big as my front room was no mean feat!

Sunday was a blur of worship and meetings but I did sit in the garden for a while. I was supposed to go in the paddling pool but hey, I'm a wimp! Yesterday Sue H came round for a crafty play which we haven't done for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages. Mostly because I spend a lot of my Monday's at Imagine That. We had fun making cards and cooing over new goodies. While sweltering in the heat of the conservatory.

I made a thankyou card that Hywel commissioned for the Christian club leaders at school.(the colours are a bit off as it is actually a white card base!)
then a card for Phil's birthday - until I remembered I have done him one like this before (cos I love this simple way of using up scraps)I started the replacement card (which you can see on Friday) and also made an anniversary card for the end of the month which just happens to fit with the Daring Cardmakers little extra dare for today...

This time we've chosen the 3rd Anniversary, so you have the choice of

Paper or Clocks

Sue brought round her rather lovely clock images - she used them on her card roo but the end result is quite different.
I used a cream square card and some Self Addressed kit papers (can't remember the name of the company just now). The red paper was put through a paisley cuttlebug folder. A grungeboard heart was trimmed down and painted with a gold dabber. I stamped a diamond background stamp with versamark and swooshed art from the heart powder over it and then did the same with Sue's clock images using gold instead. Then added a final clock in black. I cut out the image using nestabilities dies.

As I was doing this I started humming the Louis Armstrong song "we have all the time in the world" and thought this might make a good sentiment rather than happy anniversary. the words were stamped with one of the £1 alphabet sets. then everything was kryloned. I thought the band of cream ribbon looked quite bare so added some thin gold ribbon threaded round a little pearl ribbon holder.
I wonder if Phil will twig it was for a dare? Well as we rarely send each other anniversary cards I think so!

Recycling

I am good at this. So good that I throw away all my paper and card every week. Which meant that I struggled at first with the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week. I do keep some birthday cards but only the extra special hand made ones that I am not going to tear bits off!

Recycle

This week we have a team dare for you ....and we have been looking at Recycling once again. BUT there is a tiny twist! (you'd expect no less eh?) We want you to have a look at old shop bought greetings cards, wrapping paper or gift bags which you have received in the past and recycle any elements to make a card of your own.

And even now I had to cheat as I used wrapping paper I have bought but not used yet. Forgive me please!
Here is the paper I had - some ultra cheapy Wilkinsons paper
and this is what I did with it. It was also helping to use up an old Self Addressed kit so that is ethical crafting too!
It could have done with even more doodling but I couldn't spend any more time on it sadly. I'm going to having a good cardmaking session on Monday though and I may jsut see if I can use up more of this kit.

No I really was a fat baby

to those nice comments that said surely not! Sadly, it is True. I was a little puddin'.
Now I am not much taller (5'2) and a size 10-12 (though it is creeping up!) so people find it hard to believe. Actually I was fat at uni too. But that is another story and not to do with my mum giving me too much milk.
I was about 25 and looking through photos of Big Baby and pondering how I could have got so fat on breastfeeding. "But you were bottle fed" said my mum. That explains it then.

Today is Salt day and Kim S came up with a great challenge. Forgiveness -Matthew 11:28
The idea for this challenge came from a hymn we sang in church a few months ago. The focus of the hymn is on man's natural state of sinfulness and how, through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, we can be set free from the bondage of sin and be "set faultless before the throne."


Many people would state that they don't need forgiveness and yet, when we compare our every day acts against that of Christ, a sinless man, we are able to see our utter hopelessness of ever being worthy or "good" enough to receive the gift of everlasting life. Praise God, He sent a Savior who can forgive even the worse sinner and create in us a clean heart. "Mine the life won, and thine the life laid down...."

I was limited by only having a handful of photos on my hard drive (most of which are people dressed as British and German soldiers) so I was delighted to discover this stock one.

The papers are all We R Memory Keepers, the rub ons are Pink Martini and the layout is based on a sketch by Kim Sonksen on Scraptitude for NSD. It is about as direct a use of a sketch as you can possibly get - with the addition of the cross!

Have Alpha tonight so must fly!

Loooong weekend

mostly working though :( I did the card club at Church on Saturday. I am going to have to issue strict instructions and possibly fines from now on. I did try saying that I had brought a brand new ink pad and that you don't need to smother the stamp in ink. But ended up with stamps looking like they were black and not red rubber based. And glue sticks dry out if you don't put the lid back on straight away!!!!!!

OK I feel better now. The samples idea seemed to work and there are loads of people there now which is all good. we are charging enough that I can buy staples and not use my stuff all the time anymore. The basis is still all the papers that I bought and will never use at home (oh the shame) but it makes me feel better to know it is used!

Yesterday we went to the Royal Gunpowder Mills in Waltham Abbey where they had a VE day reconstruction event. Why do people want to dress up as soldiers from WW2? Especially as German soldiers from the time, knowing what they did? I do hate the anti German stuff we Brits can come up with but choosing to identify yourself with a fascist regime that annihilated people just becasue of who they were puzzles me. Except you do get to die horribly in battle which I would enjoy!

I now have to go and watch Holby with hubby so I shall leave you with my late contributions to the National Scrapbooking Day fun at Scraptitude...

Oh so slightly squiffy

I had one glass of wine last night - not a big one - to celebrate a successful Alpha course evening. It is obviously a wine that I need to water down... I do ahve a low tolerance for wine but good grief - you would have thought I had had a bottle or two. So needed a bit of a lie in this morning. Feeling very wussy now!
We are running a small Alpha course at Church but it is very exciting to see people making connections and exploring faith. I don't really know how Alpha works - especially as it involves a long talk in the middle. But it does! However my wind down with Heroes next week will just involve a cup of tea...

It was my turn to choose a dare for Daring Cardmakers this week. Which rather caught me on the hop. So eventually I came up with a dare that proved to be tougher for me than I expected!

AD-dicted
I want you to browse the tv and magazines for advertisments and use them as inspiration. It might be the format, the colours, the products, the slogan - whatever floats your boat. Remember you can do this anytime, any place, anywhere as long as you link it to the blog in the usual way!

When it came to doing the dare I realised I don't always watch tv ads anymore and although I used to be known as "Mrs Magazine" don't have many of those around either. SO I had to browse the Sunday supplement from last week! This is the ad that I chose
There were actually all sorts of things I could have gone with: As a colour combination - including my favourite at the moment orange!; all those fabby fonts; "Why should women get all the best birthdays" but I went for the rather more simple
which for some reason (not wine) I photographed on a cushion. It would have been easier to mount a white card onto a green one but instead I cut out a frame from MME paper and used some other double sided ones as blocks. This would be a great card to use up scraps and ends up quite manly I think!
I also used some Making Memories Heidi rubons. I discovered that some of them had stuck together :( so I won't be saving them for best any more! Adornit mini letters - I see MM are bringing theirs back again - hurray! American Crafts Thicker number and some white pen.

It is Scrapbooking Day tomorrow. I will be mostly working though - boo hoo - although that does include card making club at church. I hope you have the chance to do something creative!

And I am happy as my new computer has arrived. NOw I just need to get the info from the old one loaded onto the new one - though it is quite nice having empty files for now!