Its a Christmas miracle!

Normally I don't make a card for the last Daring Friday before Christmas.
But as it happens I had just made a card that would fit the dare before I saw what the dare was. I am still late in terms of loading it onto the blog but there you go.
And it isn't necessarily the one I would have chosen as I do love doing this kind of card. But it fits and that is that.

The challenge set the Daring Cardmakers by Sharon this week is paper piecing.
We are all a little sad at the Daring Cardmakers Clubhouse as Rein is leaving us. She has been such a great contributor who always brings a different and fun dimension to her craft. We will miss you Rein!

Here is my v. simple card

Terrible photo but too much to do to rearrange life to take a better one! The flower stamp is Clearly Besotted, and the papers are Echo Park and MME. The greeting is Marian Emberson. I've been making cards to give as presents and sadly, most people need sympathy cards to send. I've been trying to make more clean and simple cards and here are two more - still in their wrappers as too little time etc (Suddenly realised 15 minutes before Women's Fellowship Carol service it was now or never to take the relevant photos)

More Clearly Besotted stamps plus a scoring detail and Memento Inks

Imagine That and Clearly Besotted stamps - lifted straight from a Clean and Simple Sketch. But I really like this one. I have two more sets of cards to make (won't be giving them until after Christmas which gives a bit more time) so I will make some more like this I reckon

I have a funeral to conduct this afternoon. It is never easy to say goodbye to someone but at this time of year it can be especially tough. If you are facing a loss this year - whether now or having to face Christmas without a loved one for the first time - you are in my prayers. I pray that you will feel God's comfort and peace.
And may the blessings of the Christ Child - the miracle of Christmas for us all to share - be with you

Hey, hey

we're the monkeys, people say we monkey around.

There have been a few monkeys around our house. The teenagers were asked to decorate the trees last night while we were out singing carols in a pub (its a hard life). I had been feeling a bit down because we used to have a mahoosive sitting room and so could have a ginormous Christmas tree (one of our regular splurges). But now we have a maybe slightly smaller than most sitting room and I was moaning that we couldn't haaaaaaaaave a real treeeeeee (not that I get over dramatic or anything). Then, at the same time, (yes, we have been married that long that we have synchronised ideas) Phil and I both thought that although we have a smaller sitting room we now have an extra downstairs room so maybe we could have two real trees. So we bought two smaller trees from our local nursery which was cheaper for two than one was in Upminster. Yay!

Anyway, there were still too many decorations so every knob and handle and vaguely hook shaped thing also has a decoration on it. Exhibits A, B and C

and perhaps the thing that made me laugh the most
Exhibit D

As it 'Tis The Season, my life has been pretty full on and finding time to make AND photograph AND blog a Daring Card has been in short supply. But finally all three are ticked off
Samm came up with a fab dare -   Monkeying Around


aaaand there is also a prize from the Ribbon Reel on offer (see the blog for details).

Here is my card

a linen effect card base from Craft Creations; Bazzill card stock; MME Lime Twist papers; Imagine That stamp; Cuttlebug dies.
Oh how I love the little monkey! He is cut from funky foam with cardstock layered on top for the branch.

initially I did his eyes with Ranger enamel accents as per his belly button but it all went horribly wrong and he looked like he was a masked monkey. Fortunately it peeled off and I was able to add two flat backed pearls instead!

And here are some more journal pages...

Now all filled in. Although it turns out that what I planned and wrote for Day 15 should actually have been saved for Day 19. There was more of the story of the birth of John the Baptist than I thought. Ah well. Shame as it is one of my fave pages (the wing is a Tim Holtz embossing folder, covered with gold ink and cut out)

I'm really enjoying it but now is crunch time as I don't really have capacity for the art side of it. Maybe less time reading blogs would help?

In all your busyness and last minute panics I do hope you find moments of peace and joy - and allow yourself a little time for just monkeying around!

Advent calls

This is often the tough bit of Advent for us clerical shirt wearers.
We try to hold on to the "not yet" time of waiting for the Christ child to arrive
in between it being obvious that there are carol services and mince pies and cards to write aplenty.
And the rest of our work doesn't stop - because it isn't Christmas yet.
I don't know about in my new job but in my last pastorate, life actually eased up in terms of commitments for the last couple of days before Christmas Eve. (Won't work as such this year because SOMEONE made the 23rd a Sunday this year....)
but right now its always a bit hard going


It makes it even harder to carve out crafting time which for me is a spiritual necessity. All of us have something that we need to do to sustain us - it might be fishing or dancing or chatting to friends or yoga or painting - and these "hobbies" are things that often get pushed out of the way in order to add "more important" things to the diary. But I do think that we do this at our peril. That finding time for those things that nourish and feed us is important as otherwise we will run dry. The phrase I often use about being blessed to live as close to the sea as I now do is that it "restores my soul" - looking at the water brings me closer to God and calms me down when I am stressed. And crafting restores my soul too.

But I have only managed two things this week - an Advent Journal (see below if interested!) and a card for the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week.

Gez found this delicious colour combination for us

and here is my take on it

 Green and orange are spot on but the yellow isn't quite right and I didn't really have anything that rather lovely blue - although Kathy got the blue right using distress ink and I thought I had all the blue distress inks. Ah well!

There are some new goodies on display here. I was helping Phil with his "Soup and Scripture" Advent Bible Study on Tuesday morning (by attending and making Parsnip and Apple soup!). we didn't have any paper napkins so I bravely volunteered to go and buy some. And discovered that not only does Newton Abbot have a Hobbycraft and another large craft shop nearish the station, in the town centre, along with a wool shop and a sugarcrafts shop there is a local crafting shop called "The Craft Room". well it would be rude not to go in. "Veni, Vidi, Visa" (I Came, I Saw, I Shopped)as the saying goes.

I only bought two things - the MFT Fishtail Stax and a new A5 size embossing folder which has a blank middle portion. I covered the middle up with the yellow paper but it is v. nice. The papers are MME - most are Lime Twist but I'm not sure about the yellow and the woodgrainesque one - they are the scraps left over from the Quirky Kit I had last month! The design is sort of based on a CAS(E) this sketch

So to the Advent Journal. I had decided on a certain shape and printed out my bits accordingly and then opened a drawer and found an A5 sketch book so used that instead!
I had the idea that if I was going to do anything it would need to be simple and so graphic would work best. I downloaded some Carta Bella digital numbers and papers but seem to be doing my best to make it less graphic as I go on.

Here is the front. There was only a flimsy cover so I added a piece of A5 cardstock which I gessoed and inked and sprayed and added the title. This comes from a poem by Sally Coleman - a Methodist Minister and I have included the poem as the introduction
Then each page has part of the lectionary reading for the day and a bit of craftiness upon it. The idea is to focus more on the Word and my reflections on it than doing lots of crafty fun bits...

Sundays get extra big numbers! The title for each page is stamped using an American Crafts alphabet for consitency.

Here is today's page ready for some writing.
My aim is to do all the crafting on a Monday so that I have time for the writing every day. It is kind of happening... I am not very good at keeping this kind of thing up so lets see how I do!

God rest ye merry

And so it begins. This afternoon is the first carol service of the year.
To be fair, they really wanted it next week but the church will be filled with people being Messy, so it is this afternoon instead. Next Friday I will be Christingling away. I've caved in and bought some Christmas presents today too. I try not to start to early and then panic for a few weeks before I settle again. The thought of doing a December Daily journal your christmas type thing gives me the shivers. I love actual Christmas - and this year 23-25th December will be filled with worship and family celebrations. But the bit before - eeeeeeeeeeeek. Tidings of comfort and joy indeed.

Anyhoo before all of that, Rein, our Daring Cardmakers host this week invited us to join in with some Fun and Games.
I had several ideas going round in my head - most of them daft. But decided in the end to make a simple card game.

I dug out all my cute animal stamps (more than I expected). Stamped each twice and coloured them in with Distress Inks and a watercolour pen. Discovered the card I was using, whilst it stamps beautifully, does not like watercolour. Carried on regardless. I fought the urge to add a black line round each of the cards, but they just looked bare without. I made a pocket on the front of the card with MME Lime Twist papers. I added some paper ricrac and Papermania letter stickers and stuffed some of the cards into it. The others went into a similar pocket on the inside

and the stamping used a Banana Frog stamp set - the best for individual letters. I may have mentioned before that I have two of these sets as I lost the tiny "A" from my first one and so treated myself to a second in the closing down sale as I love it so much.
And here are all the cards

The animals are all either Starving Artists rubber stamps or a cute Hero Arts set that I bought for £1 in a charity shop. I think there are about 12 different animals so the bonus for parents is that it will never be a long game either!

I did make some non religious Christmas cards with some of the sticker left overs from the Basic Grey kit that I bought. Want to see them?
Well I'm going to show you anyway

One of my favourites. I bought a new Nestabilities doily die that is beautiful but you have to learn how to eject the cardstock without breaking it. I call it "Sweary Circles" but I don't think that is the official name.

This one uses the rest of the doily die and two more of the stickers from the sheet. The snowflakes have a glitter paste added to them for extra sparkle.

You can see the paste better on these ornaments which were cut out of one of the BG papers.

And my favourite card which uses one great big sticker and that's it really

I used an embossing folder on the card base but added another layer with the sticker on it, cutting round some of the sticker for effect and added Rangers enamel accents as a feature. No glitter but it is still very pretty.

And do you like the paper I photographed these cards on? It is perfect for white based cards I think - it is from Crate Paper Random and I might have to buy two more just for photos,as I also want to use it in layouts!

Whether you are carolling or preparing to countdown to Christmas or anticipating Advent (now a journal of Advent reflections - maybe I could do that!) - have a great week until I blog again. I'm always hopeful that I will blog more than once a week and then life happens....

Waiting for the big freeze

Well actually for the big freezer and the big fridge.
Now we have a lockable back garage door we can have a chest freezer in the garage and a tall fridge in the kitchen. We are most excited (sign of middle age?). I am too cheap to spend £10 on a designated delivery time so the slot is 7am-7pm. Nothing yet.... It will be fabulous to be able to buy lots of frozen stuff again without worrying how we will fit it all in!

That does mean I have time to prepare my two services for Sunday and blog about Daring Cardmakers this week. I've had another full on week but did manage to make a total of 100 Christmas cards in the design from last week and will just make a few more different ones as I have stickers and papers left over.

It was my turn to choose the Dare this week so I also had to find time to squeeze in making another card. I went for "Twinkle, twinkle" asking for a star to feature on the card in some way. As I had made a card to send to one son last week I have made one for the other this week.

I can't get away from stars and circles and liquid pearls yet! I used Basic Grey papers and stickers - apart from the large star which is Echo Park. Also used an Imagine That stamp and a PTI word die. I love the way that the ink (Memento Bamboo Shoot I think) matches the paper - especially on the little green star. Yes little things... (The three gems next to "you" are from Sarahs Cards. You get oodles for £1 but have to add your own glue!)

The team have done me proud this week so do have a look at all their wonderful cards

It is the last Sunday before Advent this week. Which means that the lectionary - the set readings for the year - will move from Year B focussing on the Gospel of Mark, to year C - Luke's turn. It is sometimes the last "normal" Sunday before Christmas, depending on how long you can focus on truly Advent themes before getting stuck in to Christmas. I have my first carol service next Friday...
The other service I need to prepare is more informal as it celebrates 4 years since one of my churches moved home from a building no longer fit for purpose to one that was then not fit for anything. It had been the central Post Office for Brixham, and then a funeral directors, complete with chapels of rest, and then a shell that is becoming a multi purpose space. The members have come a long way with many struggles over the years so we are having a real celebration as well as looking forward to the future!

Its beginning to look a lot like

Halloween

Carys came home last night and said it was fancy dress for Children in Need at College today. After several changes of mind regarding what to wear, once her Dad's funeral cloak was discovered, it had to be "vampire". I was in charge of hair and makeup. She went in on the bus, eager to find out what everyone else was wearing. Most hadn't bothered. I didn't know when I booked her hair appointment yesterday about today - and didn't really think about the fact that I spent ages spraying and backcombing her hair (more post the photos) which the hairdresser then had to spend ages smoothing out. She had her hair straightened after the cut and it looks fab. And she doesn't look a bit like Jac Naylor on Holby. Oh no.

It is looking a bit like that other festival next month as I have to do my cards early this year in order to post out our new address. I've done 57 and hope to finish the lot off this weekend if I can. As ever, i choose a design and then make it in different colourways to stop getting totally bored. I was getting a bit of RSI with the liquid pearls mind.

 

The papers are mostly Basic Grey Aspen Frost, with a little bit of older Basic Grey. And then some pink Crate Paper selections (second card from the right) which are not Christmas themed at all but kind of look festive. I had to send out for more papers as the design took up a lot more than I expected. I did make one or two similar to this a couple of years ago but not as a mass produced card. The card stock is Card Creations smooth white. I've always used their linen effect as I like it but this is fab. Really heavy and - smooth!

This weeks Daring card came as light relief. Gez asked us to make a card "Just because". And here is mine

The papers are all Echo Park Times and Seasons. The resin flower is actually more burgundy than it looks and matches the paper on rather than the paper underneath the card although you wouldn't think so would you? I also used some October Afternoon letter stickers and a smidge of washi tape. There were 6 pearls in a row at one point but I have no idea where the last one got too. Still asymmetry is an art form. 

I might send the card to one of my sons at Uni (taking off the flower because a) he wouldn't appreciate it b) it would make the post expensive and c) I can then use it on another project and I am sparing with my resin flowers!) but will have to make one equally schmaltzy for the other son.

The Daring Cardmakers blog is looking absolutely spiffing - you can tell everyone is ready for a break from preparing for the old C-word. Or from panicking because they haven't really started. Cards aside, that will be me then. Part of the annual struggle not to let it take over my life and work

Since I came back from holiday life has been as full on as ever and there are only two Sundays left in the Church year. Which means it is nearly Advent - a rather strange time for Christians in that we mix readings all about when Christ will come again and signs and wonders, in with beginning to hold carol services as there isn't time to fit everything in otherwise and we tend to go along with the world and do most of our Christmas celebrating during Advent and not during the season of Christmas which is the 12 days afterwards (you know when my true love gave to me some really unsuitable presents). What we should do is start Advent early so we can have our full four weeks and still have time for all the Christmas jobbings. So why do I only ever remember this fab idea when it is just too late to do it?

Sheesh

Once more I am dusting off the cobwebs of my blog. Sorry trusty (few) readers but sometimes life (and holidays) gets in the way.

So what have I been doing?

I've been to Swansea to visit my family (and St Fagans - best museum ever according to me, but not necessarily the English part of the family. But as you only pay for parking @£3.50 it is a bargain so there) and see my lovely friends (hi Sam and Sue) and go to Sosban with the family to celebrate my MA

with a champagne/raspberry coulis cocktail. Even with 5 of us there it was a lot cheaper than the Graduation would have been and more fun. Expect scrapping of this grainy phone photo when I have recovered from Christmas stuff.

I've been adding pages to the Quirky Kits inspiration blog and even making a few cards. Two were given to special people this week. One, which fits with the Daring Card challenge this week, may need a little explanation.
Jo asked us to use a camera, photo or frame on our cards and as a friend needed congratulating on a new job I went for this

Its not a promotion as such so I decided to write "something to crow about?" on the inside (nothing to do with how fiddly all those letter stickers or stamps would have been...) I used a mixture of Echo Park and MME papers. Phil took this fab photo at St Fagans. I did make the mistake of printing it 6x4 so it had to be quite a large card! The stickers are also Echo Park For the Record, for the record (ha!)

Another friend reached a milestone birthday so received this

I decided to go for subtle!
All papers from a MME 6x6 pad and the chipboard letters are American Crafts. As I was handing it over in person I went mad with the foam pad layers. Bliss!

Now, cover me as I am going in with my very first Christmas cards of the year. And I need quite a lot very soon....

Its a twister, its a twister!

It is blowing a gale outside. We have a very pretty windchime (plays proper notes) and it is going off like anything right now. It doesn't feel like Kansas any more...

Just as well I get to stay in for most of the rest of today then. Apart from the search for a Boots Opticians later on. Long story that involves several texts to Carys. "Get on the bus" "No don't get on the bus" "Yes do". None of which she has responded to yet...

I'm going to warm myself up by the power of candle light, thanks to Kathy's dare for this weeks Daring Cardmakers challenge - Let there be light. It ends our 6th year of dares. Pretty good going eh?

It is another simplish card. It still takes just as long somehow! And I am still using that Echo Park Victoria Gardens pad. I've also used my Cheery Lynn intricate doily die with a new metal shim called a Cuttlehug which made cutting it a breeze (it wasn't before). The middle of the doily falls out and I was going to stick it back in but I liked the way it created an off centre frame for the little Quickutz candle so left it empty.  The sentiment is a Clearly Besotted stamp - they ink up beautifully. Also used a Dienamics Fishtail die and a Cuttlebug embossing folder

Somehow I have managed to carve out a little scrapping time - I think this is mostly due to the way I have spread out the wonderful Quirky Kit I have been given to play with. You can see more about what I have been up to here but here are the pages...

Mustn't grumble

But it is slightly irritating that at midnight you get an email saying there is free postage on a website that you placed an order on a few hours before. That's a whole 2.50 I could have saved.

Let's be positive instead. This week I have had lots of interesting conversations with people that could lead to positive developments in different ways. It is good to make connections with people that take you off into new directions. I read a book by Richard Wiseman about luck and he said that generally speaking it is more about having a wide network of people around you. The more connections you make, the luckier you seem to be. I don't think that can be applied to everything but it does make a lot of sense really.

So I will be happy.
It is good to count your blessings and try to find joy in life, even when there are stresses and strains. I am so blessed to live where I do now. In these last three months things have really not been all plain sailing but I never fail to be awestruck by the view from Babbacombe Downs just a few minutes from home. At night when it is clear the constellations over the sea just make me sing praise to God in my heart. And I have a fairly long commute to my other church, but I drive along the coast which looks amazing in every kind of weather (apart from mist when you can't see it at all!)

And I have a family at home who never fail to make me laugh and gently poke fun at me when I need it.
And a craft space with a sea view that is compact AND tidy. I love it.

Be happy - is the theme of Daring Cardmakers today. I knew what I wanted to do - use my Papertrey Ink die. So I did! And I didn't let the fact that sometimes I am annoyed that the phrase set does not include "birthday" get me down.

I used papers from the Echo Park Victoria Gardens 6x6 pad. The card would have been a lot quicker if I hadn't decided to outline each of the words but it did make them stand out a lot better. "Birthday" is from an Imagine That set

I am also happy - nay, ecstatic - that Leo has asked me to Guest Design for Quirky Kits again. My first post is here, which features my design process (ooh sounds posh) and the first of my layouts.

Mum and Dad on their Golden Wedding day (aw!). When I first saw the kit I thought that orange day of the week paper would be hard to use but I think it is the first paper I used up completely!

Now if I can crack on with service creation (it is Psalm 91 this week so we will look at being frightened and having the security of God's love. But its all age so I need to think of participative ideas. Hmmm) then I will also have time to clean the house
what am I saying
then I will have time to craft - which makes me happy!
Hope you find time today to count your blessings and do something that makes you happy too!

Just like buses...

Another post so soon?

Well I thought I would share the card that I made for the 90 year old and the wedding that I officiated at yesterday. Which went off lovely in the end despite me not confirming with the organist that we needed the bridal march so he didn't bring his copy. (He managed to find a one line version and put in all the harmony and pedals as he is a star). And the bride being half an hour late (apparently it was due to the vintage car). Just as well there was only the one wedding. And the sun actually shone which I am beginning to think is rare for South Devon.

This was quite simple but brave for me as I stamped directly onto the circle of woodgrain paper with two Scenic Route stamps. I added glitter around the circle and on the little punched hearts. The colours of the wedding were burgundy so I went for dark red/pink (don't have a lot of burgundy papers)  I've got another wedding in 2 weeks so I might make another one like this.
Cardstock: PTI; Papers: MMI; Martha Stewart punch; Nestabilities dies; WMS stamp; stick on gems.

Because I was handing this over I could go mad with big flowers and foam pads. Although it was a struggle to fit it in the envelope!
Cardstock: Craft Creations; Paper: Echo Park; Dies: Nestabilities and PTI and Dienamics; Stamps: Imagine That; lace and flowers from stash (I had to wipe the dust off the flowers!).

Last night was the tedious job of bagging up cards. I have about 60 birthday cards but had only two sympathy cards and 1 new home so made a few of those this afternoon ready for the church fair. I will offer a selection for sale I think! I have tidied up my desk ready for tomorrow's excitement. (I am so much tidier now I have a little craft space in the bedroom. I like to put everything away and it only takes 5 minutes!) (This only refers to my craft desk not my work desk. That is still pretty untidy) (You can't have everything).
Anyway the excitement is that I am guest designer for Quirky Kits again. How fabulous is that!
Here is the main kit I get to play with and this is the lite kit. I can't wait to spread it all out and decide what stories I am going to tell with all the goodies. The new hat? Reflecting on life here? Halloweens of old? My time as a semi Goth? The time I recorded backing vocals so was really with the (one man) band? we'll have to wait and see!
But I expect the new hat will have to feature!

Yawn

Today I have been brought up short in a prayer time. Probably because that is the only time I am quiet enough to really hear God speak. I had gone to prayers in a very grumpy mood. VERY grumpy. Our greyhound sometimes gets anxious in the night and wants to sleep somewhere different from where she sleeps. (The solution will NEVER be in our room though). Last night was an anxious night for some reason so she whined. She has a very loud and persistant whine. She whined basically from 3-5 during which time I did not get much sleep - even though Radio 5 were playing the Vice presidential election debate from the US. I was still cross about the lack of sleep this morning. I was shouty with her, narky with Phil (Carys was glad to escape). I stomped to church.
I sat down for prayers.
And then I thought about all the people who have broken sleep every night. Those who are carers who need to help people to the toilet in the middle of the night. Or who have to find a partner with dementia who is wandering. Or who have to turn a loved one regularly. Or those with babies who are desperate, desperate, for sleep.
So I confessed my sin of taking my petty gripes out on others (even the cause) and prayed for those who have broken nights,e very night.

I'm still tired though.
And there was no way I was ready to take a photo of my DCM card before prayers so I am late again!
I'm going to put another card photo up first as one of my friends is spider phobic and I suspect even a fun foam one might be too much. So the first photo will be a more mundane card being made for the church fair next week.

This card uses a MME pad of papers (finished it up too!); PTI card stock; EK Success large border punch; Nestabilities and MFT dies; Imagine That stamps; Vintage photo ink. I love the way there happened to be a sun shape in the top right corner of the paper!

OK now to the main event - the Spiders! Leo chose the dare Incy Wincy Spider.
I was hoping to combine this dare with a 90th birthday card I need to make. I'm not sure this is quite the thing though so will make another tonight (If I can keep my eyes open after Messy Church)

I don't do Halloween cards so needed to think what else I could do, so came up with a terrible pun. It is not really a pun to be honest!
I made the spider from fun foam using Nestie dies; the eyes are Cropodile punched with stick gems in the middle. I die cut a circle from the black square card and a larger one from the MME  orange paper.  The Bakers Twine is sandwiched between the paper and the cardstock. A little metal corner tag (to bring some red in) plus stamps by Imagine That and Banana Frog frame the pun spelled out in American Crafts thickers.
And here is the inside...

Now who can I send it to?

There is a wedding at church tomorrow. PLEASE let there be sunshine after all the rain. There can't be any rain left in the clouds over South Devon, surely? I do love a wedding though - and as Minister I get the best view of the love and the nerves and the tears and the laughter. Its fab!
Let's hope I am awake enough to enjoy it!

Thank you very much

Thank you for staying with my despite the cryptic moan in on my last post.
Thanks to Roy who stepped in at the last minute to take a service for me as I was really not well enough last week (I do hate that happening)
Thanks to Alan who organised an extra special church trip to the zoo yesterday.
And thanks be to God that I was well enough to enjoy it.
Bad enough missing the Exeter Stitches show when I had bought a ticket and everything, but to have missed meeting the baby giraffe (she was a surprise birth apparently!) that would have been terrible.

Both Roy and Alan are getting one of these

as I made two of them! They are for this weeks DCM colour challenge - a lovely Autumn colour scheme chosen by the wonderful Sharon
I think there are 4 different manufacturers of paper featuered - October Afternoon; Studio Calico; MME and Heidi Swapp. Not bad for a small card eh?
It also features a new Cheery Lynn die that I won - so another thank you this time to Tracy from Dies to Die for.
The notched sentiment strip is also from there - one of my compensation for missing Stitches parcels (I was very sorry not to go!)
The other dies are Nestabilities; the stamp is Purple Onion and the gems are from Sarahs Cards.

I didn't get round to blogging last weeks dare - Chevrons. (I love chevrons). Fortunately I had made my card in advance of falling ill. To be honest I had made it thinking that the chevron dare came before the "thanks" one the week before!

 

I used Echo Park papers with a smidgeon of MME; some Imagine That stamps and white emobssing powder; an old button and paper flower and some white, yellow and teal liquid pearls. I may have gone liquid pearl crazy!

I've shared some zoo photos on Facebook but had to repeat and add a few more here. The gorilla was on his way to jumping out and scaring teenagers. We watched him do it twice. Hilarious!

You can see what a lovely day it was yesterday in South Devon. Back to constant rain today. I'm off to Messy Church now. Which is VERY loud and VERY  hectic and VERY messy and VERY  fun and full of the love of God