Mea Culpa

Once, when I was in Junior School (so could be 40 years ago) (faints at the thought of how decrepid she is) we were given a test paper to do. It involved all sorts of strange tasks like "underline everytime 'the' is used" or "cross out the third question from the top". The last task was "ignore everything else you have been asked to do on this test". i.e. Don't just leap to answer everything, read the whole paper first.
Have I remembered this?
Clearly not (it is my age) because I failed to read the Daring Cardmakers Challenge all the way through this week. Miri gave us a great dare "No Scissors Please" and I immediately got to work creating a card without using scissors.
Which is fine except that if I had read all of what we had to do I would have noticed the other part of the challenge "Decorate a card blank without using scissors or a paper cutter/guillotine."
so I went merrily on my way and used my paper trimmer anyway.
Sigh.
So while I am confessing
1: the background technique I saw on someone's blog this week and she linked to a youtube vid that someone else had done and I didn't save either name. (Basically you smoosh a bit of distress ink onto a craft mat and then add a tiny bit of embossing paste, mix it together et voila, coloured paste
2: I did use my scissors to trim round a backing piece of card for my butterfly then realised what I had done and thought "you eejit" and threw it away.
Apart from that....

 

I also smothered everythink in glitter using a Wink of Stella pen

subtle but nice.

In other news - I have been to the end of the UK and back

 Here I am at the very edge of Hermaness wildlife reserve which is the most northerly tip of Unst, the most northerly island of Shetland which is the most north that the UK gets

the next latitude up is the Arctic Circle.
(Just behind me in the first photo are lots of puffins and guillemots apparently but you could only see a few metres in front of your nose that day)
I have been on my epic journey from Torquay to Holy Island onto Shetland and back. I have been welcomed by good friends and chatted to strangers. I have travelled by train (really want to do the Tay Bridge by train again - that was awesome), ferry (12 hour crossing to Shetland plus 2 ferries to get to Unst!), taxi, plane and coach. I am still trying to get my head round it all and really rather wishing I could do it all over again. But I have more adventures on my Sabbatical to come!

 

Card a doodle doo!

This week on Daring Cardmakers the wonderful Leo asked us to get all doodly
Here is my card

 This card came about kind of backwards. I decided to paint in some tulips and just used paint, without outlining first. There were only going to be three to start with but then I got carried away. I had fun experimenting with my dye watercolour paints. I have the set here although mine don't look quite so childish in terms of packaging! I only used two colours for the tulips - and mostly just one really, simply varying the amount of water I added each time.I did use watercolour card to paint on.
Then I painted in some stems.
When they were dry I used a thin water brush pen to add the sentiment, using the black dye ink from the same set.
A wash of blue round the edge and I was done.
Only it didn't seem that doodly so I added the swirls and stripes and outlined with black pen after all!
A backing paper in green and a tiny strip of black white stripe paper and job done.
Well apart from the must use at the moment black gems to fill in some of the space!

Bon Voyage

Well I hope that by the time you read this I will be somewhere that is not home and hopefully where I shoud be at that stage in the proceedings.
I am taking some watercolour pencils and dye paint in a small palette with me but that is all the crafting stuff I will have available. I am supposed to be focussing on the outer journey of travelling to new places and the inner journey of travelling nearer to God. Lets hope it all works ok....
When days are like today I do question why I am going anywhere

(less than 5 minutes walk from our house)

Still it is all about learning and growing and being challenged.
Funnily enough I was on the Downs there reading a spiritual book and trying an exercise called "Palms down, palms up". You first pray silently, with palms down, asking God to take away pressures, anxieties etc. I shared my nervousness about my journey and into my head came the realisation that I had not downloaded the details for my overnight stay in Aberdeen. I quickly wrote a note on my palm up and said a big thank you. (Especially as I would have been looking for a Travelodge and not a Premier Inn...)

This being Friday it is a Daring Cardmakers day. The lovely Beckie gave us quite a challenge: Man oh man -

'Make a shaped card with a male theme ...

there must be a 2 and a 1 on it'

"Man oh man" I said. Having already made - and delivered my Father's Day card for this year I went for a male birthday card. I had a feeling that I still had an Echo Park Times and Seasons sticker sheet somewhere that would go with the Authentique paper pad I had already begun to cut up. Amazingly there was a sticker with a 2 and a 1 on it. So that went onto the card

I made a shaped card using nestability Label dies, simply folding and sticking the back panel to the front. I die cut the papers to match the shapes. The red panel is lifted up with foam dots, as is the cute moustache. "Celebrate" is from the Little B Block Out set that I bought at a craft show in Taunton last week. I cut it from cream and green card and then stuck the cream letters into the green panel which also had its corners rounded.

I've been busy playing with the latest Quirky Kits. 
I think this is my most favouritest one ever. Although I have a feeling I say that every time!
Here are the three layouts that are up on the blog so far - go and have a look there for the details

 I'm still deciding if I will take my Netbook - if not I will see you in just under 2 weeks :)

The sound of fingers drumming, teeth clenching, knees knocking....

for tomorrow we ride.....

Well, tomorrow I get on a train and begin my "pilgrimage". I'm only going as far as Lindisfarne tomorrow and it isn't that big a deal - get a train at Newton Abbot. Get off train in Berwick upon Tweed. Meet lovely friend who will drive me over to the Island. But even that raises my anxiety levels. And when I realised that Phil could not simply drop me off at the station in good time - well I went into complete panic mode (as that is what travelling does to me). It is ok. He will drop me at his church (which is 5 minutes walk from the station)  3 hours early and it will be fine.
I expect I will be at the station 40 minutes early anyway. Just in case.
I hate feeling like this which is why I put myself through it in a "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" kind of way. And having to put  my trust and faith in God. And myself. And know that it will be ok and if I just relax I will enjoy myself.

Plus I will be visiting some of the most beautiful places in the world with some of the loveliest people. And I am practicing mindfulness and everything....

But I still probably won't sleep tonight.

Instead let me share some of the scrapping I have done recently
Well maybe just a bit as I have discovered that I haven't blogged much of it at all!

Just in time this is the last layout for our holiday 2013 album.
I was insprired by Glitter Girl's video about filling up frames.
I bought the Fancy Pants "Collecting Moments" kit last year as well as lots of embellishments to match. I have to say that most of the colours in it are fab - blues, greens, orangey gold - all good, but there is a salmony pink that I really dislike. So haven't bought the whole caboodle I haven't used it much.
Hence, I think everything on this page is from that line! (Apart from the wooden arrows)
I trimmed lots of different strips to layer and also used a new frame die.
I have a feeling that I have used this title before but as there was a little card in the embellishmet set with "walk" written on it, I just had to use it again. The journalling is kind of hidden but you could lift up the flowers to read it if you really want to

In looking through the layouts to share I have discovered that for some reason I seem to equate my dog with yellow paint....

 

 This was one of those layouts where I just had fun splashing things about! 

The papers are a combination of Fancy Pants Wonderful Day and American Crafts Amy Tan Plus One.

The background was made using embossing paste, distress ink and stencils by Balzer Designs. 

Lots of black pen and layering and little details

 

And this one

 This uses some gorgeous Koh i Noor watercolour dyes. They are extremely vivid as you can tell. I added some stamping in white just to give extra dimension. The papers are Fancy Pants Nautical but there are a few other bits and bobs from stash as well - including a Love Elsie swirly thing

I tried the scripty writing again. Phil still hates it!

Unwinding?

 

says I, almost a week into my Sabbatical.

(One of the things I am doing is trying to express myself in an arty way when I am not really an artist, just giving it a bash and hoping to learn via mistakes. This is done with Inktense pencils) (And a brush pen. Phil hates it when I use a brush pen "looks like you held the pen with your foot" he says. I like the wobbly writing aesthetic myself).

For someone for whom this is oh so true

I have done a remarkable amount of washing and ironing and putting away and sorting this week. I have the chance to be still and am fidgeting about like anything.

But more on that later...
first it is Friday and that means Daring Cardmakers Day! And it is the first Friday of the month which means there is a colour challenge

I knew exactly what I wanted to do and also had the perfect 6x6 paper pad to go with it - Basic Grey Wisteria.
Except
1) I don't anymore. It was either all used up (I did like it) or went in the great purge of 2012 when we moved
AND
2) the colours that you see above are not the colours I saw on my screen or printed out. I saw a lot more brown and cream and a darker purple

So this is what I came up with after searching through every single piece of paper that I own - because I don't have much purple

Some purple and lilac cardstock; a brown paper from Costco, die cut into a feather shape, stamped with PTI ink dots, emboseed and then covered in glue and mica flakes; some Pink Paislee embossed card stock inked with Distress Ink and die cut; some cream cardstock embossed with a Maggie Holmes folder; some lace and a love die cut covered in mica flakes. (Dies are all Clearly Besotted)
Oh and some pearls
And some very old letter stickers. No-one can tell that the last letter is actually an "n" because of my two sets of these stickers I have used all 24 "h"'s but still have many vowels left so don't want to discard them, can they?
Good.

So what have I done this week apart from nesting? Well I have started thinking about pilgrimage - I read a murder mystery which included the Pilgrim's Prayer from those travelling to Santiago de Compostela which I thought I ought to have in the beginning of my watercolour journal

(that is supposed to be the Pilgrim's shell - a sign that you are a pilgrim).

Then in my diary journal I have prepared some pages and written reflections of my day

I suspect I will end up adding black pen to all of them as I prefer that. Might be something to do on the long ferry ride I have coming up

And I have also begun reading a book on mindfulness and trying out the exercises in my other journal

Why have one journal when you can have three on the go - that is what I say.



And then there is the layout hinted at earlier

 Here is one of those lovely subconscious things. I had decided that I wanted to use Basic Grey lollipop shoppe papers with this photo because they are fun and colourful and I still had a lot left despite them being just about the first set of scrapbooking papers I ever bought. And it took until I was sticking everything down to realise just what a perfect match the colours are. Wierd eh?


The backround paper is Heidi Swapp resist which I gave a wash of pink distress ink to and added lots of splodges of black ink and distressed everything to the hilt, adding some Kaisercraft stamps in as well.
I die cut some leaves using some Clearly Besotted dies and glitter paper. Some of the leaves were colour green using a Chalk mist.
Random different letters/words for the title (including some Tim Holtz word fetti stuff) and some October Afternoon stickers, some gems and enamel hearts and I was done.
And so is this epic post!

Almost there

I just have one duty left before I am on my 3 month sabbatical. Yippeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
Of course I love my job....
but it is also wonderful to be able to step back for a while.
I don't know whether I will set up a new blog or use this one for reflections as well as crafty stuff. Probably the latter (lazy, moi?) as I like having everything in one place (and starting new blogs is scary).

On a solely crafty note here are some new cards to share.
This week at Daring Cardmakers, the mightily talented and lovely Zuzana has asked us to wish upon a star

 

I cut a piece of white cardstock to be just a shade smaller than my cardbase and attached some Spellbinder and Dienamic star dies to the back with Washi tape. That meant I could place them and die cut them all at once. I then chose some papers from Fancy Pants Nautical (except for the green star paper which is Crate Paper Party Day) and stuck them down to the cardbase. I then dry embossed the star cut piece and used a black pen to outline it - I was so not going to do this but just had to! The top piece was given the foam pad treatment to give some dimension. The sentiment is from the Imagine That Wish upon a Star set. The star gems are all from a large pack that I bought in a sale in Wilkinsons - 50p!

I met my parents at Dyrham Park, a National Trust property near Bath this week, to celebrate my mother's birthday. I managed to get lost on the (long) walk between the car park and house - a story which will be scrapped in the near future. This is her card

 

I am still trying out ideas from the watercolour class. For this card I inked up some flower and leaf stamps with Distress Ink and then washed colour over them. The idea is to go over the edges but it is hard to keep going when it feels like more of a hot mess. I was quite pleased in the end - although I did go over the flowers with a black pen and added white dots. It is quite shiny and sparkly in real life, thanks to some Wink of Stella glittery pen action

I also handed over a Father's Day card as I won't be seeing Dad before that special day and wanted to make sure he opened his present before he goes away - which is also before Father's Day.

 

This card nearly had me tearing my hair out as it kept going wrong! I used a lovely sunshine Simon Says Stamp die that was part of my prize from Lucy Abrams.  Most of the papers are from Fancy Pants Nautical again but also include a few Authentique Seasons Summer as well. The little chipboard piece I have had in a box of man shapes for a long time - but not as long as I have had those little Adornit letter stickers. "You" is a Papertrey Ink die.

The glitter was added to (almost) cover up a green ink mark that went from my fingers to the completed piece. Dad wouldn't have liked the words I was saying at that point. The enamel dots are a similar cover up. Sigh. If only I could be clean and tidy.

The day after mum's birthday is our wedding anniversary - 26 years. Here is the card I made for Phil

The French wooden die cut was bought several years ago from a Scrapbook shop in a village somewhere near Calais. The other papers, stickers and washi tape are all from various Crate Paper sets.
I bought him a bird made of recycled metal from the National Trust shop. When he remembered it was our anniversary...... (!) ("I thought it was tomorrow") he presented me with a lovely gift. And even took it out of the box for me so I didn't have to touch the scary polystyrene

Just remove some of the hair from the bloke, make her hair shorter, darker, add glasses and a slightly more dumpy frame and it is just like us! I love Willow Tree and this is a fab addition to the ones we have.

I may be small but I'm not delicate

as I reminded myself this week.
The amazing Leo gave us quite a challenge on Daring Cardmakers this week - to make cards featuring Origami.
Now origami was originally done by small and delicate Japanese people using small and delicate paper.
I am small - but definately not delicate. Imagine Miranda having been washed on a too high setting - that is me.
I did give it my best shot. I started noting the instructions for a flower but after fold 25 I gave myself a talking too and Googled "origami for children and cack handed adults". Actually it only said "for children" but Google knew what I meant really.

I found a simple fish and then looked for papers. Deep in my file of papers I kept because I loved them so much and now don't really love them at all, I found some "Love, Elsie" and actually - these are still quite cool. I went off them a bit because the paper is thin - which was perfect for folding.

 And even with thin paper and easy origami it didn't all go swimmingly....

So ignore the less than crisp edges and the inky finger splodge and the fact that it really says "Best birthday Fishes" and then I decided that birthday was too much but had already stuck it down and knew that if I attempted to remove it the paper would go with it. But it is cheery!
(Oh and I possibly dry embossed the wrong side of the cardstock but lets pretend I meant it like that)

Here are some more cards I have made recently and not got round to blogging.
This one uses the Avery Elle Laurel stamps and dies. I have loved everyone else's cards using these and then struggled myself until I did this card which is mostly a copy from the Avery Elle blog.

I think the secret for me was using Memento Luxe ink pads which are nice and vivid

 

this card also features a Crate Paper embossing folder and some Cosmo Cricket paper. White gel pen dots help as well.

I have also been playing with more inset dies. I made 6 similar cards as I had that many rainbow pieces cut out:) (Dies are Paper Smooches)

and finally for now

 

Pink Paislee stamps and paper, Clearly Besotted and Lawn Fawn (I think) dies.

I have some layouts to share (this is the trouble with mssing blogging for so long) but will be back soon. Tomorrow I am going to be singing with a choir at Evensong at Exeter Cathedral - I am joining for the first time and am nervously excited. If you are in Exeter at 4pm then come for a listen. Sunday is my last preaching engagement (well apart from a wedding) until the beginning of September as my three month Sabbatical begins on 1st June. 

PS Blogger appears to be playing up and I can no longer see the pictures. I hope you can - if not I shall restore them asap

 

Water load of fun

I have recently enjoyed the Online Card Class Watercolour for Card Makers. It came at a time when I couldn't do much crafting due to lots of work plus 7 stitches in my crafting arm. However I did manage to produce some cards and I love all the things that I have learned - and have loads left to try as well.

Firstly some watercolour backgrounds

 (Dienamics die and Clearly Besotted stamp)

 (Studio Calico chevron stencil, Clearly Besotted stamp, some seqins and a pearl mist which you can't really see on the photo)

 (More Clearly Besotted stamps and MME enamel dots)

(Dienamics die, Clearly Besotted and Kaisercraft stamps)

(unknown stamp set; Maggie Holmes Crate Paper; Martha Stewart punches; Clearly Besotted Die and stamp)

then some watercolouring stamped images - my card is a total copy of the one in the class (not as good obvs) as I have the same stamp set - yes - by Clearly Besotted! (sentiment is by Avery Elle)

and one using an embossed background. I coloured it with Inktense pencils. Sentiment is Avery Elle

and finally faux hand painting using Gelatos. I adore how this came out (this was a first stamping that was actually better than the second in my opinion) Flower stamp is from Waltzing Mouse, sentiment is Simon Says Stamp. The background is versamark/white embossing powder through a Tim Holtz stencil

I have some more part made cards to finish and want to try other techniques that I have learnt as well. You can still do the class even though it has finished live and I highly recommend it