I'm easy

when it comes to cardmaking.
Obviously.
I wasn't sure I would be able to do a Daring card this week - and am still not sure I'll manage the Get Funky card in time for the deadline of - tomorrow - but I'll give it a go. So in order to make sure I had something for today I went for the basic option as this week the dare is

Easel Does it

This weeks challenge is to make an easel card. There's a big clue in the title, huh?

They are so very popular at the moment but I'm hoping at least some of you will be up for my extra "sting in the tail" to this Dare - I don't want it to be too easy, you know....what I'd really love is to see what type of shape (other than a square) you can come up with using the basic Easel card idea.

I had never made one before... and they are easy - once you know how. (Google is your friend on this one). So I might try a shaped one over the weekend. In my attempt to use up old papers I... used old papers. These are Piggy Tales Gretel. I do love the clean graphic patterns of these papers - even though I grunged them up! And I sensibly chose the papers and THEN coloured the image.
The stamp is a Sugar Nellie one. I don't often break out my image stamps. Is that because it took me at least 30 minutes to do this much colouring with Prismacolour pencils and I could have done more? I used the Copics trick of adding a grey outline and like that a lot. I added some white gel pen accents. Everything is smothered in PUmice Stone Distress Ink.
Also featuring - printed twill ribbon (from a kit which I haven't used so spent a while trying to tie it so the writing doesn't show!); a Papertrey ink border scallop die; Nesties 8 dies; White Opal liquid pearls; Prima pearl; antique pin.
And on the inside...
A Papertrey ink die and stamp; Imagine That stamp, paper flower.
And that is it.

Oh, and essay done. Just squeezed in under 6,000 words and with 9 Appendices.
Tired now.

Stop them throwing the kittens

this was my Dear Husband's response to my blog post on Facebook yesterday...

ahh - but the starfish story has a sequel./.

Considering this, the traveller continued his walk along the beach. After a while he arrived at a place where a river ran into the sea and he turned back inland, walking alongside the river. He was still pondering the words of the starfish woman when he noticed a group of people wading about in the ... See Moreriver trying to catch floating objects and throwing them safely onto the river bank. When he got closer he saw that the people were rescuing kitties which were struggling in the water and floating downstream towards the sea. Though many of the kitties were thrown to safety, many others were washed out to sea, never to be seen again.

The traveller thought about this and thought about what starfish-woman had told him. He knew that it made a difference to every kitty saved. He also knew that he could not stop the sea from washing up starfish, but he knew that there was a way to make a bigger difference to all the kitties being washed away in the river so he called out to the people who were fishing out kitties. "Why don't some of you go upstream and stop people tossing them into the river in the first place?".

The traveller had learned an important lesson from starfish woman. When you face impossible odds you do the best you can and helping just one or two creatures. But he also had the wisdom to know that sometimes you can make a bigger difference. And this is the moral of the starfish woman story: sometimes you have to do whatever you can, however little it seems; but sometimes you have the chance to make a bigger difference. You just need a little wisdom to see when you have a chance to make that bigger difference.

And this is what rescuing animals is about. Sometimes you have to do the best you can and treasure every life saved. But sometimes you get a chance to make a bigger difference and instead of making a difference to just one, you can make a difference to many.

so... why not go upstream and see what is stopping you writing the essay in the first place... UNPLUG YOUR INTERNET!!! ;-)

love you too hun...

I'm up to 4,700 words but that isn't really any good because I can only write up to 6,000 and I have more that 1,300 left to say. Fortunately the 9 (I kid you not!) appendices don't count. I'm going to keep writing and then slash away!

I did take a break late afternoon yesterday and I'm so glad I did because I was not only able to plug away at the essay all evening BUT I also managed to complete my Salt layout too. The theme is honour and respect focussing on Romans 13:6-7. I wasn't sure about the reading so looked for others that mentioned the words and found them in 1 Peter 2-17-18. Which put me in even more of a quandary. Because there are times when government does not deserve honour and respect and as a nonconformist I feel it is important to uphold my right to speak out when those in authority are wrong. As it says in our rather excitingly called "Statement of Nature, Faith and Order" We believe that

Christ gives his Church a government
distinct from the government of the state.
In things that affect obedience to God
the Church is not subordinate to the state,
but must serve the Lord Jesus Christ,
its only Ruler and Head.
Civil authorities are called
to serve God's will of justice and peace for all humankind,
and to respect the rights of conscience and belief.

While we ourselves
are servants in the world
as citizens of God's eternal kingdom.

PLUS the 1 Peter reading has been used to denigrate people through the centuries in a way that is unjustifiable. But leads to a further question - if slavery is wrong, despite its acceptance here, what else in the Bible could and should we disregard? And there are many and various answers to that. Which is where my layout took me really!
It was going to be all in black and white but because the photo looked awful in black and white (says Revd Vain) and the pink of the backing paper is really exactly the same, it kind of unfolded from there. The papers are all Crate Paper and I used Martha Stewart punches; Making Memories and Doodlebug stickers; Liquid Pearls; Prima gems and oodles of glimmer mist.
Doing the Bible took ages. That is the third print out and for some reason the real writing wouldn't print at all - I was going to cover it up anyway. But I also made a mistake in the translation I used which reads "servants" and not "slaves". Most translations have slaves.
and hree is a close up of my reflection which i wrote on the computer using the Susie's Hand font and cut with a Nesties 8 die.

Just remember the starfish

As I was moaning (what me moan? never!) to a friend at how hard I find it to settle down to WRITE my MA essay (1,800 words so far and counting - so that's 4,200 to go. Hmm), she - being wise as well as wonderful - reminded me of the story of the starfish from Benjamin Zander’s “Art of Possibility” that goes something like this...

A man is walks along a beach and looking down sees a girl doing some sort of strange dance. He gets closer to investigate. It transpires that the beach is covered in starfish, and what she is doing is bending down an throwing them into the sea, one at a time.

“What are you doing?” he says, “There are thousands, you can’t possibly make a difference”.

She looks at him with a starfish in her hand, and as she throws it she says, “I’ve made a difference to this one.”

So every word I do just chips off the old 6,000 I suppose. And it is better than a verbal presentation (which is why I will never do a PhD). Anyway I have just stopped momentarily in order to get my Sketchy Thursdays layout in before the deadline this week. It is a lovely simple sketch which I have turned into a double layout. Because the album my holiday pages goes into is ring bound my double layouts have to be ones that can still work with a big gap between them. Which suits me as they can just mirror rather that working all the way across which is much harder!

Of course it makes the photo tiny - but if you click you can get it larger. And here is a page at a time.

K and Co Urban Rhapsody and Hannah papers

Papermania Stickers and brads

Little sequins, mesh, paper flowers and buttons from stash

Rangers stickles in diamond and green

Olive and pearl glimmer mist. My olive one is leaking but it means I get nice cool splodges as well as spray.

The ribbon is from Sarah's Cards. All of it was white but I gave half the glimmer mist treatment.

The photos are from a quarry scuplture park on Portland. I'm not sure if it was really open or not and for a while we thought we would be stuck in there as there were no maps or signs and the path disappeared. The falling man one (top left, shaped like a foot) is by Anthony Gormley. Only took us about 45 minutes to find it.

Right, back to work - wheeeee, kersplosh! there goes another one

What do you call a Welsh hairdresser?

Dai Cut of course.
I would have done an English joke but they tend to be regional
eg my old favourite - Essex girl in an accident. Paramedic asks "where are you bleeding from?" and she replies"Romford"
so instead I will say

Happy St Georges Day!

be proud to be English today and British every day.

Die Cut is the theme of Daring Cardmakers this week.
Keryn has come up with a fab dare.

I've been lucky enough to get my hands on a 'Big Shot' die cut machine and I'm loving it. I want any excuse I can find to make cards, well anything really using die cuts. This week I want you to play with me. Dig out your dies and your die cut machine. Cut shapes of any size and theme you please and use at least one on your card for this week.

To give you a small incentive to join me this week I have a Stampin' Up!® little leaves Sizzlit die to give away. To qualify you must have a link in your blog post back here - http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/ and your card must be entered for no more than 3 challenges including this one.

I love using die cuts. I ought to use my Craft Robo more but
a: it needs attaching to the computer since the last hard drive crash (last summer. Blush)
b: It is in the study and I craft in the conservatory and that is MILES away.

so I am still expanding the die collection. Although not too much and I tend to use the same few faves over and over. I still love QK dies but they are a bit small... I have recently bought some Papertrey dies which I love - one in particular as you shall soon see!I used 5 different makes of die on this card.
1: Sizzix frame die
2: Cuttlebug Giraffe die (must use these animals more often they are soooo cute - maybe the answer is smaller cards?)
3: QK photo corner
4: Nestablility rounded oblong
5: Papertrey ink label and zigzag

Cardstock is PTI kraft cut to 5 1/2" square. Papers and sticker are October Afternoon Fly a Kite. Stamp is PTI. Lots of Brown Corduroy and faux stitching with brown pen and a little glossy accents on the giraffe and flower centre. Brad is Papermania and the Ink is Colorbox Chestnut Roan.

To my horror I have nearly run out of birthday cards and as I send about 150 a year that is serious. So I ahve been making up some quick and simples. And making good use of that PTI stamp and die combo.
Basic Grey papers and Chatterbox star
Nancy Kubo Prima notecards - I saw these ages ago on my DCM teamie Nat's blog and HAD to have them. Have used very few as they are a bit big for my cards (hmmm bigger cards I wonder?). But have jsut seen that you can buy them digitally now which may be the answer when I have used them up - see here
America Crafts cardstock; Prima bling; Paperchase sticker

Self Addressed card. Couldn't find a good way to use these. Now I have and I want more. Isn't that just the way. K and Co paper; other bits from stash (ie can't remember).

I'm doing Boys Brigade tonight (I am Chaplain you know) and led a session around this time of year last year as I did St George then. So this time we are focussing on what it means to be a Saint and why some people are called Saints - or is it the name for all followers of Christ? I have a longish list of Saints and Days so much hilarity will hopefully ensue as well as a bit of deep theological thinking. My Saints Day is September 1st - the day for St Lythan and also St Nivard which is an alternative spelling of my married surname.

Have a good weekend!

Do the funky chicken

I have just bought the dance game for the Wii. I love dancing me, but get zilch opportunity. I need to lose a tiny bit of weight (ok about half a stone) and need to keep fit. So far its great fun even if I do look a bit ridiculous. And my right hand aches from holding the wii-mote. Must find a way to attach it... My Uni mate Anna has just lost 1 1/2 stone and is a real inspiration. Lets see if I am still exercising in two weeks time shall we?

I am spending my time gearing up to writing my MA essay. Hate writing the essays. I think this one is almost half written before its begun but I kind of get stage fright at this stage where I go into a bit of a panic. But as it is based around a consultancy which I have done and written up I don't know what the problem is. Oh yes I do. Me.
Yes, two terms of learning to self reflect have not been wasted.

Other entertainment round here is the continuing saga of applying for student loans. After trying to upload 30 times H phoned and discovered there is a glitch in the system so we had to print out the 32 page document instead. Maybe it will be finished tomorrow.

IN crafty news - I have one new layout to show you and two others to share which I couldn't before.
1: just made this yesterday based on Sketchy Thursdays spring challenge blog hop - far too late to enter but I loved the sketch. I used Fly a Kite papers from October Afternoon as I thought the stickers that I splurged on to match would be perfect! And I even used one of the images from the story book side of the papers which I always struggle with - result! I did want to call the layout "picture postcard perfect" but didn't have enough "ps" in the Thickers. I didn't have a "t" either - can you tell? I love the grid paper and also the paper on the other side so I carved out a little spare from the back!
The green stripe paper is old MME (I think) and the pearls are Prima

2: I am this months guest designer on Sarahs Cards blog which is an ENORMOUS honour. We used a sketch by Rachel Ward which I loved. I used the papers that I bought with the voucher that was my prize for the Feb challenge.
ie Crate Paper. I used some Glimmer Mists and losts of ink as well as faux stitching round the outside. "Lucky" was done using the spray and remove stickers technique. And I have now used one whole rose from the Dear Lizzy rose ribbon! (Heart and tiny zigzag paper are Pink Paislee scraps)

3: A layout that is really by me - this weeks Docrafts layout of the week.
I say that because if you click on the link it says on the site at the moment that Helen Miles made it. But that is Carys in the hat!
love the sunny papers and embellishments in the Papermania capsule collection. You can see the details on Docrafts funky new website.

Off to see Sense and Sensibility at the local theatre tonight. Hope its good

Good Day Sunshine

Carys and I have had a lovely 24 hour in Barnes with my Uni friend Anna. Its only 1 1/2 hours to the other end of London but this took 5 months to schedhule . Anna is Carys' godmother and takes her role seriously (hurray!) which means spoiling and quizzing and sharing faith in lots of different ways.It was gorgeous today as we walked in Richmond Park and saw lots of these (photo by Carys). Good times.

In order to take some time away I didn't have a chance to blog about my Daring card yesterday. Kathy gave us a challenge that needed some thought.

Getting in a Flap

I'd like to see cards with flaps this week. Little flaps that you lift up or open out to see a secret "something" hidden behind or bigger flaps that form part of the actual card. Maybe even little birdies with wings that really "flap" As long as it's a flap that lifts up from your card it will count

In the end I had a lightbulb moment that sort of worked I think. I used the teeny tiny versions of these Starvin Artists monster stamps and carved 3 flaps in the front of my card.
I added more squares of BG paper and some Papermania letter stickers
The little fellas were coloured with glitter copics and cut out (I'm too nervous to stamp directly!)
and here is the message inside
I've almost run out of birthday cards so need to make some up quick. I don't think this would work for most of my church folk though!

And God is good

Some of my friends are worrying about how they will get to Corrymeela on Saturday as they are due to fly there and ash is currently covering the sky. But I have had two really great answers to prayer today and felt the working of the Holy Spirit at a meeting last night (and lets face it positive meetings are always a miracle...) which just lights my heart and helps me rejoice in all my blessings today. Days like this are worth treasuring ready to remember on the sucky days. And if your day is currently sucky then, I am sorry.

Its Salt day today. And it means I have to reveal another way that God has been good. Ruth chose the challenge "What is home?" and has written some great reflections on it. I chose a fairly simple outlook with a photo of my house.
Now there are a few things to say about my house.
1: It doesn't have a red splodge on it. that is something I noticed that must have transferred from finger to photo at some point and have decided to live with it rather than try and take the layout apart and put another photo in its place
2: I say it is my house - well it is where I live but it doesn't belong to me. I love it when cold callers ask if I live in a house with a mortgate or rent and my answer is neither as it is a tied house. It goes with the job. It is lovely though and something we could never afford. 2 big reception rooms, a conservatory, a large kitchen dining room with walk in larder and a downstairs cloakroom. Upstairs 3 double bedrooms and one tiny one (sorry Carys), bath and loo. I would turn the little bedroom into an ensuite and make the bathroom bigger and add an attic bedroom if it was mine and I had the money! But I don't...
Next move we might live somewhere substantially smaller so I thank God for the priviledge of living here now.

Which gives my title a double meaning. Faith literally makes this house our home as if we weren't people of faith we wouldn't live here. And it is also what binds us together as a family. We are not always good at expressing that faith openly - I will confess that I struggle with saying grace at meals and I am not the only one in the family. But I truly beleive that it is faith in Christ that grounds us and holds us together.

I used: Kraft cardstock (I think that might have been my last one. Must. Buy. More)
Glimmer Mists - scarlet and caramel apple
Grungeboard lock - inked, misted and distress inked.
Cross - had about 6 years in my stash.
Papers - K and co
NEW bird PUNCH!!! from Stampin' Up - isn't it fab...
raffia mat stuff from art shop in Cambridge
gems from a local card making shop in Ockendon
letters: Cosmo Cricket wood; Jenni Bowlin red; Making Memories brown

Off I go to count my blessings....
If only appreciating the house would help me keep it clean and tidy

Its bigger than I expected

When my Ma-in-law said she could see the Isle of Wight from her house I thought she meant from an upstairs window with binoculars. I was wrong.
OK this is from the upstairs window as the spectacular sunset could be seen better but you don't need binoculars. That big piece of land stretching in front is the I-o-W herself. And that is Brenda's garden just in front. After 18 conifers were taken out!. We didn't take a photo of the front of the house but here it is from the back
Its the pointy roof one, third from the right. And yes, although she is 5 minutes from the sea, she still has fields to look at. We can't wait to go and stay again. I love being by the sea (but will need earmuffs as there is quite a wind too). It did help that the weather last week was gorgeous.
(Carys and two of Grandma's dogs. She "accidentally" got her feet wet. Nearly 14 too - where is her common sense? With mine somewhere I expect...)We drove back late Sunday (toll free - yay!) to avoid the traffic so I haven't had so much crafty time. I need to get my essay plans straight as the MA work is due in soon. I went to Cambridge yesterday to find out more about my dissertation and what I need to do and the timetable is all a bit sobering. BUT I did make a few cards using leftover scraps of paper so I have officially finished with my Crate Paper Prudence. I have a few of the die cuts left but not many. If you click on the photo you can see the close up and the astute may notice I now have some Papertrey Ink stamps and dies too.

I also thought I ought to do a DCM card. I may be late to the ball but there you are
The theme set by the wonderful Sue is "If the shoe fits". Sue is having a tough time just lately. So unfair.
Which makes my card a tad trival really. But I tried to make it specially sparkly in her honour.
The shoe itself is hand painted on silk. I did this about 4 years ago and have kept oddments in an envelope to use. I really ought to do some more as they look very vibrant. Of course the issue then was finding paper to match. The purple is from Papermania hand made paper range and the turquoise is WRMK Tiffany. I put swirls on the middle layer with Glamour Dust which looked very pretty - until I plonked the Nestie square over it. Two diamente gems and a PTI sentiment finished it off.

I've got a few days nose to the grindstone and then a 24 hours with Carys and my Uni friend to look forward to. And then it is full steam ahead essay for a while. But I'll be blogging before that as it is Salt challenge day tomorrow. See you then

Busy Doing Nothing

Well, cleaning, washing, tidying (done by all members of the family and even so don't look in the study or several bedrooms) eating choc (note to self - buy more mini eggs next year), playing games together, watching tv and oh yes crafting! By two members of the family. Carys is making clothes for Barbie dolls. She prefers the seams on the outside look of Sonia Rykiel and hand sews everything (I didn't know you had a machine Mummy).
I've been scrapbooking. I am so slow though. Its taken me 3 days to do four simple layouts. But never mind it is the creativity that counts not the speed. I'm still quietly hopeful of finishing the 2009 holiday album before the 2010 holiday!
It is interesting the change of perspective. In past hols I have hogged the camera and photos tend to be of people. Phil is now deeply into photography and prefers nature so this album will look quite different to the last few. I never intend them to be records of what we exactly got up to on holiday anyway. Just a chance to retain memories.

The first layout uses this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch.
This statue is just so beautiful and imposing.
I used:
Papers: Pink Paislee; Fancy Pants
Embellishments: Chatterbox and Papermania; felt ribbon Paper and String; paper frill Doodlebug
Letters: Papermania
Inks: Distress inks Blue Jeans and Olive
Border punch: Apron by Fiskars

Here's a close up of the words to explain the statue.

Next layout is based on Got Sketch 99
Cardstock: Core'dinations stamped and embossed with clear powder and Banana Frog stamps
Papers and embellishments K and Co
apart from Prima pearls and Cosmo Cricket tiny letters and a Martha Stewart butterfly punched from Cosmo paper. And some gems from a local card shop.
Alos used EK Success border punch and Nesties
The beach is just utterly amazing. No photos or pages can do it justice when the sun is shining.

This one is from a Scrapbook Mag sketch
Allsorts on here!
Cardstock: Coredinations
Papers: Scenic Route; October Afternoon; Bella Boulevard; Teresa Collins
Embellishments: Bazzil, Chatterbox
Letters: Cosmo Cricket

finally - a layout based on a double page sketch I found but did not note (sorry) and made single instead
Cardstock: Kraft painted with Blue and Turquise irridescent paints
October Afternoon papers and letters; Martha Stewart punch; ribbon from stash; K and Co embellishments; Prima pearls, Bazzill template used for sewing. Ribbon from stash ruched by moi.
I have discovered that gold gel pen + painted surface = v. neat handwriting

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

its what gets said over and over again on Easter Sunday (congregational response in bold) and we never get tired of celebrating it. We were a rather small but perfectly formed congregation at my Harold Hill church this morning as we put flowers on the cross. We do this as a symbol of new life (prettier but not as tasty as the choccy eggs we had as part of the service) I was still feeling smug about having got up and walked up a hill to worship with the Salvation Army at 7:30 am. (Almost as good as being there so early to celebrate is being able to show off about it later. Not very Christian really I suppose...) Actually I nearly missed it having set the alarm on my moblie but failing to check if I had moved the phone clock forward (no) I woke at 6:55 anyway.

Then home to a lovely lunch, a spot of vegging, a little scrapping and a family game of Perudo. I finished off two layouts that have been percolating for a while...
This is for the Sarahs Cards challenge blog where the theme for March is to use up old stash. This is the same stuff that I had out for Friday's card you may notice, but given quite a different look. It is mostly WRMK Whiteout with a tiny bit of green pattern paper from another Self Addressed kit and half a Pink Paislee die cut. The chipboard is all WRMK, the circles and sun having the letters peeled off and paper added. The white flowers and speech marks are American Crafts thickers. The stripy paper has glitter added to make it look pretty:) The layout is called "Iy E" because that is what Carys would say when in the bath with her brothers and they would cry out "Dry me"

The second layout is for the Fiskars sketch challenge
Emrys at about 8 weeks old in Canada. When Hywel was born I refused to leave Hartlepool for 3 months in case something happened to him. Emrys went to Canada at 6 weeks old. (Carys "helped" my parents move house at 2 weeks old).
All the papers apart from the big circle are from Basic Grey's June Bug collection. The circle is brand new October Afternoon (excellent service from the Craft Emporium - thanks). I used two Fiskars border punches, Banana Frog stamp (covered in white glitter), Craftwork card candy, Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey letters and Papermania sticky gems. Oooh and some Glimmer Mist too.

Enjoy your Easter celebrations!

A Good Day

and a good week.
Wednesday we had a time of prayer and reflection at one of the churches - there was a prayer maze and Phil and I sang various songs and hymns for 50 minutes. I played the piano too. It went well apart from the comedy moment when we realised some of the music was upside down... interestingly that was the song that moved people the most.

Last night three congregations came together at my other church for Maundy Thursday worship. In the afternoon I took part with others in a rather noisy version at a local residential home where we lead worship once a month. The evening was quieter... we have soup and cheese and fruit first - I made parsnip and apple which I haven't done for ages. So far no-one has had food poisoning. And then we shared in communion together. It is just the best time, thinking about how Jesus broke bread and shared wine and said "this is my body and my blood" for the first time and those around didn't really understand the significance until they saw Jesus on the cross

Then this morning Churches Together in Romford spent an hour and a half walking between churches on the way of the cross. The Salvation Army band and a cross led us through the market. I had the "spot" in the market place to help us reflect on Jesus' death. A bit scary! It was made harder because the amplification wasn't working and I had to shout. It is always such a moving thing to do and a fitting way to celebrate Good Friday.

I saw this today (found it via the Preachers Wife blog) and thought it was a great reflection too.

Being Friday it is also Daring Cardmakers day. Its also a good day for the team as Nat has agreed to stay on full time. I just love her graphic funky style and I'm thrilled she will keep sharing her mad skills with us. And I am also over the moon that Cinnamon Sally is our Guest Designer for April. She is amazingly talented as you will see.
Its the first Friday of the month and so it is birthstone day. Lucky April birthday peeps get diamonds!

I was wondering what on earth to do when I was inspired to look at some old paper kits I have. I belonged to the rather wonderful Self Addressed kit club and still have some papers and bits left over. I found this WRMK white out papers - one of which had a check/diamon pattern on it. And it all followed from there
Diamond Cuttlebug embossing folder; Martha Stewart (half diamond?) punch; and some Prima diamente gems.
Also used: Nesties 8 label; Cuttlebug butterfly; WRMK chipboard flower (did have a letter on it that I peeled off); blue distress inks; Card Creations white linen cardstock (my most favouretest ever).

Tomorrow is always a strange day - a day of mourning the death of Jesus - a day of waiting and preparation- looking forward to the resurrection and the celebration of Easter Day.
However you spend your weekend - may it be full of love and hope

Nearly forgot if you want to spend your weekend crafting - there is a sale at Funky Hand

No Potato Parcel

Sob.
Every April Fool's Day, for about 13 years, the same joke was played upon me.
And I fell for it every time - can you imagine?
The door bell would ring and someone would bring me a parcel and I would get very excited and wonder what it could be and open it to find...
potatoes.
Oh how we laughed.
This year - it being the first day of the school hols, my teenagers are still in bed.
I didn't get my boiled egg which turned out to be an empty shell either.

On the bright side I am feeling so much better which is wonderful! There are two different sorts of services to celebrate Maundy Thursday today, a walk of Witness for Good Friday and an early morning service (I just attend that one mind), breakfast and communion on Easter Sunday. I love it all!

And I have two challenges to share today. Being the first of the month it is time for a Get Funky Challenge. Kathy came up with a great one

April Showers

I still had some scraps of my all time favourite new download Retro Fun on my desk and so got to work with my handy cloud shaped Nestie Labels 6. I have used these dies as trees and clouds - don't think I have ever used them as Labels! Lots of inking and faux stitching. I added the raindrops with Diamond Stickles and the sentiment is hand written. So come on, join in with us and you could win a prize!

Here's how to be in with a chance of winning this month's £20.00 voucher to spend at Funky Hand::

1. Add your April Showers project to your blog,

2. Don't forget to say which Funky Hand product(s) you've used,

3. Come back before midnight April 30th (UK time) and leave a message with a link so that we can see what you've made.

It is also Salt challenge day today. Pauline came up with this one

Gethsemane

As He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus made a plea to God to deliver him from his suffering. He knows God has the power to do all things and asks God to use that power to save Him from the trials that are coming. He is agitated because He knows that while as a human He has a choice, He is being called to obedience.
Jesus doesn’t avoid life. In the scripture readings, Jesus is facing life head on and is paying the price for it. The Jesus we find in the garden of Gethsemane isn’t a Jesus we hear much about. This Jesus is distressed, agitated and deeply grieved. This is a very human Jesus in a very uncomfortable position.
A struggling Jesus, a human Jesus, a Jesus that teaches us to face life head on and not to avoid being uncomfortable.

It is a wonderful theme for the time of year and I knew what I wanted to do.

Its another photo-less layout. I wanted to focus on the fact that Jesus was prepared to take on what was dangerous and difficult in love for us and that we ought to be prepared to take up our cross, to take our cup and follow him even if that is very hard.
The layout is made from Basic Grey Urban Couture papers, letters and match books. I put alpha stickers down, glimmer misted them and then lifted them off. The cup was hand drawn and paper pieced. I also used a Martha Steart punch and Banana Frog stamps.
Here is the journaling close up