Looky here!

Real eggs (you can tell by how dirty they are) courtesy of hen, hen, hen and chicken (or is it the other way round?). we are going to be able to give away eggs again which is lovely. well done ladies.

I have been a lot less productive recently thanks to my cold migrating into feeling really blah. I'm a lot better now but still very deaf and gungy. Phil and I have solos to sing on Friday and are both hoping madly that our voices will be clear by then.

I have managed to make a few cards and even some layouts but I will save those for another day. Here are some more small square cards - I really love them right now. I've been trying to use up my BG Origins papers and chipboard. I have made quite a few cards with them but have had to put them away now as I can't face the sight of them any more. Just need about 4 more cards and they are officially done with, which will feel good!
(based on a Waltzing Mouse sketch)
Ditto. Both used Imagine That stamps too.
This one has no sketch but uses Waltzing Mouse stamps

OK if you are called Erica or Terry you have to step away now as I made the next card for you. It was my turn to set the Dare for Daring Cardmakers this week. And my card is only just being added right now (blush). As they are getting married soon I thought it would be nice to feature cards with something old, new, yadda yadda on them. The team have done such a fabby job I reckon. Here is my take

Old: the initial cards - also Blue. I have had these knocking around since the Self Addressed kit days. I keep nearly throwing them out as they just take up space but then use them and think "no, they are still good". But I have lost the details of who made them. Also old - ribbon and heart shape ribbon holder
New: Prima Papers - which i chopped up a bit. The cherries are from the co-ordinating sticker set
Borrowed: Can't tell you yet! It is something small that is an added extra to something that will make you go "yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" if you are a scrap booker or card maker but won't make you quite so excited if you are not. Can you guess what it is? To find out more you need to get to Imagine That on 16th July or at the very least, subscribe to the blog for more details!
Flowers, leaves, pins and glass thing (to use its technical name) are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

I will do my best to comment on cards this week. The last few weeks life has rather got in the way and I fear it may be the same this week too. If you have participated in the dare - I thank you!

A card for me?

I've got a little bit of the lurgy. I do tend to the man flu I will admit so I have been falling on my fainting couch and catching up with location, location, location these last two days, intersperesed with things I must do! So if I still had this card I would send it to myself. Only someone else needed it much more than I do! (She fell down the stairs. She is mostly ok though). Huge work load and said sniffles mean that I haven't blogged about my Daring card for last Friday as yet. This is it!
Kathy set us the clever theme of cards that rock or wobble. Mine doesn't wobble as much as it could have done as I went for a lacy bottom and it is a little more sturdy. Still goes with a hefty push though!

I cut out the kites, clouds and bows from a MME Lime Twist pad, stuck them down and sewed in the kite tails. This was very fiddly. All the papers are Lime Twist, the dies are Spellbinders, stamps from Imagine That and a Sharpie pen was used quite a lot.
The other designers did an amazing job this week so do take a moment to look at their blogs

One of my many things to do on Saturday was to go to the Church fair which had a Kings and Queens theme. I decided at the last minute to get dressed up.I am QE2 circa 1950. The dress was in a drawer )I'm not sure why) it belonged to my grandmother who was oviously about the same size as me as it was a perfect floor lenght. She died when I was 8 and I always assumed she was the same height as my mum. Maybe not then (Mum is 5" taller than me). The fur was hers too. Being a vegetarian I am anti fur. But as this fur stole was created in the 1930's I think I can be allowed to appreciate its lightness but warmth and the way it makes my skin look brighter. (Must. now. put. it. away). I had a little coronet which is a sparkly necklace that stayed in my hair and the perfect finishing touch of beautiful long white gloves (aka Carys' old socks with the end cut off).

Hope you are in fine fettle!

That's what friends are for

After my moan fest on friday about my same-y cards, my lovely friend Sue suggested I looked at the Waltzing Mouse sketches. I have some of the fab WM stamps but hadn't found their sketches (I'm only almost a year behind!). They were just what I needed so I had some fun yesterday making cards as per my mum's requests. Every now and then I make them for her card box and its thanks, thinking of you and new baby ones that she seems to need the most!

Apart from this one which I will have to give to someone
This uses the very first sketch WMSC1
Details: Cardstock: Craft creations; Papers: MME Stella and Rose; Stamps: Claudine Hellmuth and Imagine That; Inks: Memento Dewdrops and Black; Nestability dies and Sharpie pen

WMSC7
Details: Cardstock: Craft creations; Papers: MME Stella and Rose; Stamps: PTI; Dies: Spellbinder; Sharpie pen; brads from stash.

And this is why I needed all the Stella and Rose pads - so many gorgous colours. I love all the lemons! There is one paper that is still MME but not from this collection. Can you spot it? (Are you that sad?)

WMSC9
Details: Cardstock: Craft creations; Papers: MME Stella and Rose; Stamps: MME and Imagine That; Dies: Spellbinder; Sharpie pen; Anita's ribbon.

Have you noticed my new favourite card shape? It is an A4 size cut longways so it is a different kind of A6 card that still fits a C6 envelope too.

With the leftovers from that card I made a more centred one
Details: Cardstock: Craft creations; Papers: MME Stella and Rose; Stamps: Imagine That; Dies: Spellbinder; Sharpie pen; brad from stash

And then I thought I ought to try out one of Kathy's sketches. That is the first place I should have looked really as she does some great (and not so samey sketches). I would have put this first only its for my dad and he has a Facebook account and didn't want it to be the first photo
Details: PTI cardstock; MME Lime Twist papers (finally some different ones!); Dies: Spellbinders; Stamps: Banana Frog; Stickers: Making Memories: Brown sharpie pen.

Baker's Twine - is pretend! I have ltos of colours but not brown anymore but I saw a tutorial on Mary Anne's blog and decided to have a go with my not quite so juicy Sharpie. I did the stripes diagonally which helps I think.

And finally ... Carys had a proper hair cut on Friday. She has not had one for years but (although I am not quite convinced as yet as it is a dream come true) we are finally nit free! (I will say no more on that subject except gah! I hate the little b*****s and I truly believe they prefer some heads to others). C has had to have occasional trims which meant the back was not at all straight. At least the curls meant you couldn't quite tell! But my lovely, lovely hairdresser Julie did an amazing job on Friday and it swooshes now!

Same old, same old

I think having the new people on the Daring Cardmakers team has meant everyone has upped their game - there are some wonderful cards this week, even though for some of us the Dare was a little challenging. (The count down to Christmas doesn't start until after my birthday I'll have you know which is just 4 days from being exactly 6 months from Christmas which is about as perfect a date as a birthday can be in my opinion, especially as I get to share it with my lovely daughter)
BUT
my cards now feel very samey, very blah and I need some extra inspiration.
For someone whose life is asymmetrical and unbalanced my cards seem to be very much the opposite.
Sulk.
So if you know of any great card sketches that feature off centred designs then do let me know. I need the extra input.

Which rather links to the other main event in my life this week. This Sunday it is Pentecost - when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the people of God. For those crafters amongst you the best way to describe the Holy Spirit is as the "mojo" of faith. (For non crafty people this is not the same as Austin Powers mojo, at least as far as I am aware). The Spirit enlivens, challenges, teaches, pushes our boundaries and enables us to fulfil our potential - when we are prepared to listen.

I need that boost right now. I need to be reminded that in faith I can do incredible things and to be awake to what God is doing through others as well. I need the Spirit's help with decisions I need to make, attitudes I have and energy levels that flag.
And if it doesn't seem too trivial, a bit of new crafting inspiration wouldn't go amiss either!
(Lets hope I can put some of this across on Sunday morning.)

Back to my Daring Card for the week. A card featuring Father Christmas
Here it is in all its centred with a background of patterned paper (yawn) glory.

Details: Cardstock: Craft Creations; Papers: Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather; Dies: Nestabilities and Quikutz (stockings as boots); Stickers: Cosmo Cricket; Pen: Sharpie; other: black thread and pink star from stash

Have a great Pentecost weekend!

Meet the new girls

What do you do when your ex battery chooks start eating their eggs?
Its not an easy one to asnwer. we tried all the preventative measures (I say we, I mean Phil) but what with that and laying soft shellers it was getting desperate. In the last few months we have had about 5 eggs. Total.
You can't really eay ex batts and we are non meat eaters anyway.
So....
the three musketeers have gone to live with a vegan. They can live a happy retirement and she doesn't want eggs. How cool is that.
And we have 4 new girls.
They are called
chicken
chicken
chicken
and hen.
Not because they are not worthy of having names. They are.
I fancied Mary, Mungo And and Midge but I am just showing my age. (here are Mary, Mungo and Midge. This is my favourite ever episode. Seriously. When the mouse gets in the.... well I won't spoil it. Plus John Ryan who wrote and illustrated it gave me my Scripture prize at School when I was 6 so I'm practically related).

However, although we can tell them apart while they are all scrawny like, when they are feathered they will all look the same. So no names it is. But hopefully - lots of eggs!

I taught a class at Imagine That on Monday. 5 lovely ladies doing my rather layered cards. Thanks to most of the die cuts being predone and all of them sharing so beautifully, one of them finished ON TIME and the others just after. Its a record! While there I obviously had to buy something - rude not to! I bought some new nesties and a set of stamps by Claudine Hellmuth. There is one lot that are spongy and one that is acrylic so that you can stamp with paint or ink with one and then outline with the other.
Like this

(Crate Paper papers; Martha Stewart punch; Nestabilities dies and Imagine That sentiment)

this (forgot to overstamp and so drew round the bird)

this (managed to salvage an idea that rather went wrong. Also used Personal Impressions stamps; EK Success punch; Stella and Rose papers)
and my favourite using paint
Off to bible Study now. See you Friday!

Country Swap

This week we swapped England for the Land of My Fathers (and Mother). Because we are taking an extra weekend away when Phil's sis gets married in July we had to come back and work this weekend. (Sob, sob). It coincided with an anniversary weekend at our new church so its just as well as we would probably had to have come back anyway.

But the weather in Swansea was mostly good. I took some MA work to do as I have missed a few study days recently and so while I read, Phil went to Skomer Island to watch puffins. I love this photo! we will be near there in the summer so if they are still about I may have to join him. I did go out to the local Botanic Gardens to take arty flower photos though. And we went on the obligatory trip to Verdis in Mumbles for ice-cream or toasted teacake.
(Mumbles lifeboat house taken by Phil)
Carys managed a sleepover with my Goddaughter and her BWF (Best Welsh Friend) while I caught up with her Mum and we also visited Phil's brother who lives in the same village. Not bad for 5 days all in really.

We also enjoyed Welsh culture by watching the Urdd(Youth) Eisteddfod coverage (with English subtitles) and everyone laughed at me for being scared of Choral Recitation. I can't find any Youtube clips to prove how creepy it is but I find groups of people all saying the same words as if one voice and pulling meaningful faces very freaky. Love my culture. Just not that.

We came home on Friday which is when I made my Daring Card. Managed to photograph it yesterday and then write about it today! The theme is the flowers of the month which this time are roses or honeysuckle. I went the easy route.
My other sis in law is 40 this week so hope she likes her birthday flowers! The card is yet again using my Stella and Rose pads from MME via Imagine That. Plus nestability and sizzix dies, an Imainge That stamp, lots of different paper and fabric roses, a paper doily, hand stitching and enamel accents.
Close up (slightly over exposed but I like it) of the flowers

Here are two more cards using up the other MME papers that I have (almost done) I had an idea for using two nestability dies to make shapes within the card. Not unique but I was pleased with myself!
This one is a 5x5 card
and this a 4x4

I found for the bigger one the pattern inside had to be the same as the outside but it didn't matter for the smaller one. Maybe the patterns I used? Anyway the inside stars are attached with foam pads. I expect I'll make a lot more of these. My mum has asked for some Get well and with love kind of cards so I shall make a few tomorrow and then it is back to the working grindstone with avengeance!

Today we celebrated Ascension Sunday and talked about how, although Jesus left his friends he promised he would be with them always, even in times of change. And featured the story of Who Moved My Cheese which is worth a look at (not religious. Not really cheesy although cheese does feature.) Its funny how we can often long for change as long as it doesn't mean we have to do anything differently?