Stick a fork in me

'cos I'm done!

Its torture having a day off on a gorgeous day when you would really like to craft 'cos the conservatory gets so hot. SO I did the sensible thing and went to Imagine that and taught a Christmas card class! I was there on Saturday which was a special event day and picked up some more nesties and distress inks. Emma is ordering the new Nestabilities Labels which if it were not against the 10 commandments I would covet. I try and avoid coveting my neighbours ass or anything else. but it is hard...

I have almost finished a card but for now here is some I made earlier...

first my {very late} Salt entry - the next is due this Thursday!

PATIENCE

A continuous life lesson, that I am struggling to learn!

There is so much to learn; PATIENCE as a fruit of the Holy Spirit,

waiting PATIENTLY in the Lord

How the Lord is PATIENT with us!
How we should be PATIENT with others

It took a while to work out what I wanted to say but I was helped by a wonderful photo that Phil took and some free filters he found for me here These are just so fab!The cardstock is Bazzill kraft and the papers are 7 Gypsies. I didn't think the photo needed much more so I just added some Banana Frog swirls, American Crafts rubons and some journalling.

As a change from the pared down look of the layout I made some busy cards! These were A5 cards for two ladies at church, for everyone to sign. I am trying to use up some of my Basic Grey stash so there is room for all the lovely new stuff!

I had to phtotgraph them quickly in poor light so excuse the pics! This card used Lily Kate papers. The numbers are Urban Lily traced onto grungeboard, cut out and put through a cuttlebug folder. I was so pleased with the look that you can expect to see it again. The numbers were then painted with Cool Peri dabber then brushed over with a light blue ink pad. I bought some wonderful self adhesive pearls on Saturday and used them as flower centres

The second card is more of the same
but pinker! And uses Romani papers instead

A trip down memory lane

This weeks Daring Cardmakers dare was a goodie - Golden Oldies.

we thought it would be nice to have a look back, and dig out some of our 'old' papers and embellishments and make a card with our 'preloved' treasures. I think the tendency these days is to get on the 'latest must have' band wagon, sometimes, its nice to recognise what we already have- even if it isn't the 'latest' embellishment/paper.

I was very good and pulled out some of my oldest stuff.
And then I saw what the others had done and no fair! they all seem to have had way better taste than me early on in my cardmaking days! One of my first buys was from QVC - an Anna Griffin box. It was all a bit twee for me at the time but I thought it would be good for "old ladies" cards. But as the cards that came are the wrong size - neither American nor British I rather stopped using it at all. So I opened it up and very bravely made some cards.

Actually I found lots of things in there that I had forgotten! There are some really rather lovely stamps in the kit and I found an image of a butterfly stamped on vellum in the box too.

SO this uses some of the papers, a background stamp on cream card, and the butterfly. The ink round the sentiment looks a bit better in real life!

Then I stamped the image again using two distress inks - pine and lime I think. OH my! I have never tried this before but I love the effect!
Can't really see it much on the nestied sentiment but it looks better in real life
Card and papers from the Anna Griffin kit.
I had to make three sympathy cards for my mum - that is why they are all sympathy cards
But I decided to do something a bit less "classic" for my actual card
I went for shabby chic!
Lots if distressing and crinkling and rolling and layering. Bazzill buttons and ribbon from stash. With love stamped using £1 wooden alphas from the Range.
Its going to need a padded envelope (I know how it feels...)

House is v. quiet as kids are in Swansea and Hub is rescuing chickens! I'm about to phone the kids for the second time today as first I had to tell Carys she had Distinction in her Grade 1 Music Theory. You go girl!

Ho hum

I've been trying to get myself sat down to write this blog entry for ages. But it seems I'm REALLY out of the habit! Life is still a bit all over the place mind you. Said goodbye to Phil's sister on Friday morning and my parents arrived Sunday evening, ready to get the kids packed off with them tomorrow morning.
So there's been a fair bit of washing and packing to be done (mum did the ironing) and chatting all of which takes away crafting time which I really shouldn't begrudge but do end up getting itchy hands!

I did do a card for the last Daring Cardmakers full dare but never got around to putting it on the blog - see above for explanation. And now there is a mid week dare featuring one of our two new fabby design team members - Jozza! So feast your eyes on the lush cards there and then come back and go "ho hum" over mine for last Friday!OK this involves
1 white card
1 Urban Lily spotty paper
1 glittery black ribbon
1 American crafts sticker
Millions of tiny glittery sparkles on the sticky side of the sticker
Ooodles of strong glue to stick the sticker as the sticky bit is now covered in glitter
A few choice words when this is realised...
1 Maya Road chipboard journalling spot
1 White dabber
3 mucky fingers as the paint wouldn't come out
1 Maya Road stamp
3 teeny Hobbycraft gems
1 knackered and stressed crafter

I also made a card for the parents wedding anniversary
which was on Monday. They liked the mini book I made them. We went out to TGI Fridays which was fun. Really crowded too and we went early (the parents like to eat at 5! I prefer 7-7:30 so 6 was a good compromise)
The main stamped image belongs to Sue H. We both think it is the best stamp ever! I coloured it with my prisma pencils and tried the blue outline thing for the first time (this may have been because I went slightly over the edge but I'm not saying). I like the effect though. It was double mounted and inked. The stripy paper is from an old Self Addressed kit - one of the best ones. I think the paper might be one of the recent chatterbox lines - much ore sturdy than before and fab colours.
The card is A5 size which I find tricky and the top half was looking really bare so I used a Squggly Ink stamp with versamark and Art from the heart powders. The strip of paper was also stamped and clear embossed. The final touch was a ubiquitous nestability oval sentiment. (yup that is my big word of the day folks)

I did finish this blog post last night and then blogger crashed which didn't help my lack of blogging status. Sulk. Parents have now left with children in the car. This is the annual time of clearing rooms and stuff as we can all clutter for Britain. But I will try and keep time for blogging too!

How a-peel-ing!

It is unfortunate really that my turn to provide the challenge for the Dares came so soon after my own little musings here...

your eyes do not deceive you, that is an actual peel off in the corner. They are "in" again you know I'm just seeing if I can bring peeloffs back with that statement. Who knows? Maybe the revolution begins

I decided to kick start the revolution by forcing it on the world via the Daring Cardmakers this week when I launched the dare

Make a card with Peel Offs

So simple. And yet for many (like me!) so fiendish. I have been helped out no end by the rather lush coloured peel offs that the lovely Glynis bought me as a present. So they appear on this card.
I used one of my Hero Arts birds (again) coloured with Prismacolour pencils.

The card itself is actually white - but the colours went wonky on photographing it. The papers are a snip of Scenic Route Liberty and a slip of Basic Grey Boxer. Everything else is peel off heaven.

My ma in law is staying longer than I expected - which is great - except that I won't be able to do any crafting for the next week :( So I'll have plenty of time to see how you do with the peel off cards if you dare!

I'm cold, tired and its raining

but life is still pretty good, praise God!

My class went ok at Imagine That. I love classes where you show people what to do and they just take off on their own. Doodling just allows you to do that!
I also made a mini book for my parents on Monday. I was finally able to break out my dreamkuts machine. It does not come with any instructions. Hmmm. Once I found some it was great. Although it says you can cut paper 8x12 and my maths bran is too small to work that one out. Must ask the children! So this book is 6x6. Here are a few pages. It tells the tale of finally getting a great relaxed and loving shot of my parents!

All the papers and almost all of the other bits and bobs are Crate Paper
I love the transparency page


Its their wedding anniversary at the end of the month so I'll give it to them then.

I had also ordered some Prismacolour pencils as an enormous treat. All I want to do now is stamp and colour. I love the effect on this 99p stamp! I'm hoping it will go with my little pad of BG Archaic paper

but that will have to wait until I have a room to play in again! It IS nice to have Phil's mum and sister here though!

Baby its warm outside

But not if you live in New Zealand at this time of year! Which prompted Keryn's challenge to us at Daring Cardmakers this week!

Brrr freezing!
In New Zealand at the moment it's winter and cold and dark. No snow here as temperatures don't get that low but still low enough that that's all anyone thinks about and anyone talks about. So this dare should be easy for those in the colder climes of the Southern Hemisphere but in the North it may be a little trickier. Use images, use colour, use embellishments that make you feel cold and remind you of winter.

I found this kind of hard because, I have realised, having trawled through about 500 pieces of paper... I don't do these sorts of shades. But Basic Grey came to the rescue with the handful of Dasher sheets I have left!
A rather lovely silvery blue dotty paper was stuck down and bradded after a swish of silver ink was given to its sides. I cut a large snowflake from one sheet (well 2/3rds of a snowflake anyway) inked it with silver and stuck down with foam pads - oh after I had stuck the ribbon down of course. little gems were liberally sprinkled over the flake and no, your eyes do not deceive you, that is an actual peel off in the corner.
They are "in" again you know
I'm just seeing if I can bring peeloffs back with that statement. Who knows? Maybe the revolution begins

I have a busy working weekend, hope for some crafting fun as well as teaching on Monday and then have to turn my craft space back into a conservatory/bedroom. Sulk!
Have a good weekend whether its warm or cold where you are!

Freedom

OK so why is it that I so often choose to use my freedom to procrastinate, laze and generally not to do good?
Can you tell I am frustrated with myself this morning? I think St Paul felt the same way when he wrote

I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do,
but instead I do what I hate

So a quick post and then I MUST get on with service prep for this Sunday or I will have to miss Dr Who on Saturday and that just can't happen. And he can't regenerate either. It would just not be fair!

Anyway I blog today as it is Salt day and Casey posed a challenge with a question.

What does freedom in Christ mean for you?

I chose to use a verse from Colossians that talks about how freedom in Christ means we are free to follow in his way, rooted in his love and that we can thank him for it. It can feel like a burden sometimes, especially on those days when I find it hard to get going! But it is wonderful to know I am free from all the bad stuff I have done in the past and free to make the choice to do good.

As ever the layout is truly straight in real life!
I used the plain side of Crate Paper Cowboy Roper paper as a base for the layout. The photo is again from Scripture Pics. The circles were all made using Banana Frog stamps and Distress inks. I really like the ones where the circle in the middle hasn't totally stamped for extra distress. I'll have to try this again! Crate Paper "Chaps" was also distressed within an inch of its life and laid down behind the photo. The inked (there is a theme here!) photo had big brown letter stickers from an old SA kit and Crate Paper letter stickers added. Two Kaiser wooden scrolls were, yes, inked and adhered. I printed the text on a spare piece of Roper paper and added a few more dots to fill in the gaps.

It is card club at church on Saturday so I have prepared an "elegant" card with Dovecraft papers and ribbons and am in the middle of making a similar boys card as well to have as samples. Usually everyone goes very nice and then does their own thing. But I'm doing the so I don't need to pack up my whole craft room!

The pink paper with a sheen matched perfectly. It only came in an A3 sheet though so I had to stroll around with it under my arm all yesterday. The sticky ribbon border has glitter on it that you can't really see - v. pretty. If it wasn't for a craft club where glitter glue doesn't really work (no time to dry!) I would probably add a little stickles action as well.
MUST go!

Another year older.

Sigh.
At least I'm still in my early 40's! And I suppose my oldest child is nearly 16 so it is all to be expected. And there are people my age who are grandmothers. So I ought to try and embrace it. I'd much rather be who I am now than when I was in my teens and twenties. I'd just prefer that the numbers were different. Still, its not earth shattering so I'd better just suck it up!!!

Anyway little C and I had a lovely birthday. We shared breakfast in bed - there are photos but trust me - you do not want to to see them!!!! We had some lovely presents. One of us had some wool, a share in a cow in a local farm, 2 DS games (Game had a bogof the day they were ordered!), a tamagochi and some Playmobil (it was on the list - next year it is more likely to be make up and clothes). The other had a Dreamkutz, some candle holders, Empire magazine, crafty goodies and a book of her Salt dares.
Can you guess which is which? Mmmm v. hard I expect.

After the service in the morning there was just time for quick lunch before Carys' friends arrived and had fun mostly in the garden for a few hours. We have a fantastically big garden (I hate gardening so it is wasted on me). I think I take for granted the space that we have really, but other children love to swing on the tree swing and bounce on the trampoline. My plan for the day was to NOT have to supervise the event. And my dream came true - I got to craft instead. I had had plans for the day but they were changed for something more exciting and nerve racking that I will tell you about another time... (Sorry - I hate when people do this, but I have to!)

Sunday was also spent recovering from my wedding on Saturday. The bride was TWO HOURS LATE. Which I will never let happen ever again (there will be a deadline apart from extraordinary circumstances). Absolutely ruined my day - and that of everyone else in the church that was involved.

I can't show you much of my own crafting except for Carys' card
White square card. The papers, little heart in the corner and the clay "C" are from an old Self Addressed kit. I added white dots to the red Bazzill. The stickers are American Crafts and Adorn It.
Here are some of the hand crafted cards we received... more to come next post!

Aren't they amazing?