It even snowed in Torquay

for 10 minutes on Thursday.
I hope if you have been affected by the weather that it is back to normal now. I know the children were disappointed round here but it does make life difficult for people who are not so steady on their pins when there is a lot of ice and snow. I know that if it is snowing here then it must be bad for everyone else...

I have had a wee bit of time for crafting this week. Photographing it successfully has been another matter...
Here is this weeks Daring Cardmakers effort. Zuzana gave us the fab challenge of using envelopes in some way and as I knew I had this little lovely left over from an old Quirky Kit (and knew where it was!) that was the basis of my card

I had also rediscovered some old MME papers and had earmarked them to use on some cards so out they came. They are not all from the same collection but still go together.  I used a Clearly Besotted die and lots of different papers. I put some adhesive into the envelope to stop all the thanks falling out :) Lawn Fawn Milo stamps finished off the sentiment.

I also made two layouts (well three really). As often happens the first one took aaaaaaaaaaages and the second one no time at all.
Here is the one that took the time which is apt really considering the subject

Sorry for the gangster lean but I am doing my best to be level and it looks it in the viewfinder :(
I have used an old Fancy Pants collection here - Collecting Moments. You only get one of each cardstock in the pack but I like the idea of using different backgrounds with the same papers so went with that idea. I gave the papers a bit of black pen treatment both to give them all a bit more oomph and to unite them a bit more. I chose some of the embellishments from the matching pack to add in and they didn't escape my black pen either.

I've been trying to find in my blog when I last used these sequins. I think they came from a very, very old Crafty Templates card kit. They have been saved up as they are a fabulous matte silver on one side and sparkly on another. A layout about somewhere amazing deserves special embellishments so I used them all on the layout, making sure some were shiny way up and some vice versa.

The black chipboard sticker is from a newer Quirky Kit and the Celtic Knots were bought from a wood turning company at a Craft show (aka the details are upstairs and I am too lazy/cold to source them for now). They were backed with more paper from the same collection.

I decided that most of the writing would go on one side - and I knew I had a lot to say. As I was writing the Bible passage came to me and I like the balance of some writing on the other page

The second layout was inspired by a sneaky peak at the next Quirky Kit. I spotted some black/white stripy paper that looked kind of hand painted and decided to go for that myself

I put masking tape down before using navy water colour. Apart from the gold/white heart paper the papers and stickers all come from a Basic Grey Christmas collection - Evergreen. All the embellishments are from Quirky Kits. I have a little box that I put all the leftovers into and then try and use them.

Oh how I love the chipboard clouds. And the Prima tin flower that looks like the sun.

I'll be back again soon :)