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?

Mum Le Taxi

If you are of a certain age that title will get you singing along to one of the most irritating songs ever (and I'm not biased against it because she is now Johnny Depp's partner, that would be stupid and childish. Obviously). If you don't get it, don't click. You have been warned.

Emrys has an AS level exam today. He needs to be there at 8:50. The bus he normally takes, may get there for that time. So its better that we drive him to make sure. And then pick him up as he is on study leave apart from exams. Which is a few round trips! We would share it out but Phil did the same yesterday and he is off being examined himself today - the last part of his bike test. He is obviously nervous as he was awake for hours (which kept me awake although he didn't make any noise. Weird). Later today I will take Carys to the dance group she has just joined. Although I worry about my kids spending too much time indoors, I don't know how we would cope if they were really sporty types!

In between I will be preparing for Sunday - this week the key phrase is "always be ready to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you" (1 Peter)
I suppose for me hope is a key part of faith. I think life is a lot harder without hope. One of my favourite lines in the prayers for a funeral is for the family when I say "may they grieve but not as those without hope". For me, hope is the promise I have from God that he will always be with me and love me no matter what. As it says in Romans 8
For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below - there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

And that is what keeps me going. Sometimes with a skip in my step, sometimes with gritted teeth, sometimes only just hanging on by my fingertips. But always with hope.
That first reading about being ready to explain the hope says that you must do this with "gentleness and respect.". I hope I have!

Well that has helped me to get the juices flowing so I can think about the service whilst I spend time fetching and carrying Number 2 son so now I can share my Daring Card for this week.
It is a special week on Daring Cardmakers as we have 4 new members of the team. Lots of people applied which was lovely and it was tough to choose who would become part of the team but these 4 had something special as I am sure you will agree. So to Fran, Keilly, Leo and Sharon - thanks for saying YES!

To celebrate there is a fabulous giveaway from my most generous, lovely and talented local craft shop owner - Emma of Imagine That. It is a lovely shop (both real and online) and the classes there are many and varied (even if some people's tend to over-run. That would be me). One of the best things about it is the shop designed clear stamps. I have clear stamps from other places that have started to show wear and tear but Emma's are still going strong. And you ahve a chance to try one of the sets out as there are three up for grabs this week. All you have to do is

1. Join in this weeks Dare
2. add links to Imagine That and The Daring Cardmakers
3. link to no more than 5 other challenges.

We had a fab challenge set this week by Zuzana - Passion for Fashion. All of the Design Team creations are too die for. Some of those shoes and bags and dresses I want for myself. Here is mine. Don't want to wear this one...well I might if my waist was that small!

I often doodle dresses so I did a couple until I had one I thought I could replicate in paper (ie it had to be pretty simple). I thought of making a fabric skirt but decided to stick with paper. I cut out all the pattern pieces, doing two for the skirt so that I could layer up the pleats. I added tiny punched circles underneath to make a 50's style petticoat. The dress is on foam pads to give some dimension.

Details: Cardstock: Papertrey Ink; Papers MME Stella and Rose; Stamp: Imagine That Write Big; Ink: Memento Black and Distress Ink Pumice Stone; Dies: Nestability; Card Candi

Its my mother's birthday today. Happy birthday mum! HOPEfully she will have her card as I actually sent it on Wednesday (early for me!) so I will show it here
The card is based on this week's Kortkissen sketch. I love simple clear sketches but don't often use them. (or any other sketch). I did doodle a few myself at a conference the other day (whilst concentrating I assure you) and have tried one out which I like. I'll save that for another day

Details Cardstock: Craft Creations; Dies: Sizzix Tattered Florals and Nestability circles and tag; Punches: Woodware circles and Martha Stewart leaf; Papers: MME Stella and Rose; Inks: Memento Black and Distress Ink Pumice Stone; Stamp: Waltzing Mouse; floss and brads from stash;

Actually during the time this has been written Emrys has been returned home (exam "OK") and ideas for the service thought about in the car duly noted. And we will definately sing this though not quite as ethereally - which is far less irritating than the song I started with in my opinion!

I like little things

Maybe it is because I am small.
Phil finds it a hoot. He knows I will always choose the biscuits and cakes that are little - not because they are less fattening but they are small. Tiny sandwiches - yum. Sushi - so cute. Mini tomatoes, babybels, baby corn, baby leeks - put teeny, tiny, baby or bite size in the name and I'll eat it. LOTS of it. Just make it small.

I think life is somethimes better in bite size too. Often I get overwhelmed by complexity and huge problems in the lives of people at church that I care about or 6 million things that I said yes too when only 2.5 million really needed to be done by me and then I want to run outside and go "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah". Often I just turn a bit snarky with the family (sorry family). But if I were to pick out the bite size pieces - Stop and pray. Do that little job. Phone someone. Say no. then maybe it would feel better. Small steps. Got to love them.

I've been making small cards this week. This may be because I ordered some new cards for the Church card club (Romford URC 2-5 every first Saturday of the month, come and join us) and fluffed the order and bought the wrong size so swapped some of my cards so that there is a variety of sizes so now have some small cards to use (and breeeeeeathe. Sorry about the long sentence!) but actually I have remembered I quite like them.

Here are some of them All made with MME Fine and Dandy Collection and Craft Creation linen effect (small) cards. They are all 10x10 cm
My fave. The owl was on the paper and comes in yellow and blue so I also made a matching turquoise version. I have many owls left. I may make more.
Also used: Nestability Dies; Stamping Up punch; Sharpie pen; teeny button from stash

Also used: Nestability Dies; Imagine That All Boxed In stamps; Papertrey Ink Bitty Baby Blessings; Sharpie pen; Ranger Enamel Accents

Yup, slightly squiffy though less so in real life. I also hold a camera at a squiffy angle and sometimes it is hard to process that out completely!
Also used: Nestability Dies; personal Impressions Punchable Labels stamps; Martha Stewart and EK Success Punches; Sharpie pen.

Also used: Nestability Dies; Papertrey Ink Bitty Baby Blessings; Sharpie pen.

I am pleased though that my biggest thing - number 1 son is home for a long while. Though I am hoping he soon moves his suitcase from the hall. Just saying.

More birthday fun

Well the birthday antics are over now until half term when we celebrate with me ma. Monday ended with takeaway and movie . The film we watched was Children of Men which we all enjoyed a lot. Ambiguous ending though!
Here is Phil's card.
The sort I make a lot but I like it. So there!
Details: Cardstock: Craft Creations; Papers: MME Lime Twist pad (available from Imagine That); Dies: Nestabilities; Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug; Punch: Martha Stewart; Distress ink: Black Soot; Sentiment: from Imagine That All Boxed In stamp set; Black pen: Wilkinsons; White pen: Signo; Cord brad: Nikki Sivils; brads and thread from stash

Emrys was 17 on Thursday. That makes it 17 years since I saw Four Weddings in the cinema. I knew I was going to be induced on the 19th (so civilised!) so Phil and I went out the night before. But I laughed SO hard I thought I was going to set labour off. The birth itself had some traumatic moments (I remember the midwife coming in and calmly saying "sorry there aren't any doctors free right now" in that sort of voice where you knew she was swearing on the inside and then the consultant swooping in putting his white coat on as he did so, kind of like a superhero and eventually it was all ok) and then afterwards Phil got out his lunch and put the cricket on, which I have ALMOST forgiven him for!

Anyhoo back to the present, to celebrate we went to watch Thor. Which should probably be called "Phwoar". I'm not usually one for a beef cake but Christopher Helmsworth obviously worked hard on those muscles so it is only fair to admire the workmanship. Carys and I really prefered Tom Hiddlestone who played his brother Loki. All in all an enjoyable bit of hokum! Then we went to Pizza Hut for a meal - guess what? And had loads of laughs together.

Emrys is a big fan of the Qwantz Dinosaur comics by Ryan North where every cartoon has the same drawings but different text, so my card is an homage to that using my Cuttlebug Giraffe as I didn't have any dinos. And I was hampered by them only coming in one size!
Used the same papers as above! And the falling off tail has been stuck firmly back on.
Emrys was "amused". High praise

Which brings me to the Daring card this week. It had to be right down here as it is going to be Phil's anniversary card for next week so I didn't want it to be the picutre that appears on the Facebook version of the blog. So if you ahve read thus far Phil, look away now.
I bet when he recieves it he will say "huh?" "very nice" "it was for a dare wasn't it"

Samm gave us a really cool challenge - to be inspired by Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. So I kind of took it literally Thought I'd do a different angle. If you want the words wholly in focus you need to look on the Daring Cardmakers site.
Details: Cardstock: Craft Creations; Papers: MME Lime Twist pad (available from Imagine That); Dies: Nestabilities and Quickutz; Black pens: Sharpie and Wilkinsons; gems from stash; foam pads

The family gets reunited next week as Hywel's first year at Uni is over. Doesn't time fly!

its birthday time!

Honestly it feels like half the people in one of my churches have birthdays in May. And so do Phil, Emrys and my mum. And its our wedding anniversary month too. PHew! Which is a lot of cards to make. Fortunately I have the Daring Card prompts to help me out.

One of the most lovely ladies in the whole world is 80 this week. She doesn't have much family but a huge circle of friends who were organised into a surprise party for her on Sunday. About 60 people turned up and she was conpletely floored! I was tasked to make the card for Church friends to sign. In order to fit with this weeks theme of the Darlin' Bugs of May I decided to put a whole host of butterflies on the card.
It is an A5 sized card so there was plenty of room for names. I used my standby large number templates from Urban Lily, cut from white card, embossed and glittered. The papers are all either Pink Paislee Queen Bee (appropriate!) or Basic Grey Origins from the 6x6 pad. Some die cutting, punching and dotting with Rangers enamel accents and I was almost done. Added a sentiment from Waltzing Mouse and voila.
Gotta love Martha Stewart butterfly punches!

Here is the card I made for the birthday girl.
Details: MME Stella and Rose pads (from Imagine That); Nestabilities and Sizzix dies; Fiskars and Martha Stewart border punches; Imagine That stamps; Papermania brads; Flowers from Hobby horse and Wild Orchid

I haven't photographed the card for Phil yet. Nothing groundbreaking - my usual style only I have bought even more new MME pads from Imagine That - Lime Twist and they are just up my street (again). So expect to see more. Phil chose a trip to the big smoke for his birthday - to see the Cult of Beauty at the VandA - lots of lovely pre-Raphaelitey and beyond paintings and etchings and clothes and furniture and photographs. I was blown away by seeing a photograph of Jane Morris - one of the pre-R models - taken in the 1850's.

I was also blown away by lunch. Not so much the food although it was delish
(note we shared the salad that is just on my plate and I really wanted that meringue - or one like it. Look at the size! but I know I couldn't have managed it)
but by the place we ate it -the Morris, Gamble and Poynter rooms. Probably the most artistic place to have your lunch ever. I think that photo has been taken in a way to fit the whole room in.

We were down the end from the photo on the site. With a good view of those lvoely chandeliers and the stained glass
and right where Phil could enjoy himself and call it art appreciation!
Takeaway and movie on DVD tonight.
Thursday night it will be cinema and eat out but probably in a pop art style McDonalds which is not quite the same

Time

As Dr Who said in the best episode ever "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff"
and that is how I feel today.

I had time to blog earlier but Blogger decided it was time for an upgrade and went offline. Still, got some work done.
Its my 5th blogaversary today. 5 years of recording (mostly once a week I'm sad to say) my craft and a little of my life and my faith.
Me then
Me now
Shorter hair (its been up and down), same glasses, more wrinkles (you just can't see them on this touched up photo ha, ha). About the same weight and stuff. A few more grey hairs (bring it on). Same job - though it is changing and growing. 4/5 of an MA done. Children gone from being on the cusp of teenager to on the cusp of adulthood.
Ooh enough introspection - makes me feel a bit funny!

Time is the name of the challenge at Salt this week.
And Time is also the name of the last Salt challenge as we have decided to call time on the blog for a whole host of reasons. (Time being one of them!). I shall miss the deadlines and the challenges but I am prayerfully considering how to continue scrapping my faith

Here's my layout. The photo is of Hywel aged about 1 in our garden in Hartlepool
Once more I used MME Stella and Rose papers as the colours were such a good match! I quoted some of Ecclesiastes round the edge of the circle and here is my short reflection on it
Other details: Cardstock: Bazzill kraft; Punch: Martha Stewart; Die:Nestability Label 1, large circle; embellishments: Clock from Costco kit, buttons from Nikki Sivils, pearls by Prima. Letters: Chipboard Maya Road, Cosmo Cricket stickers; Paint: white dabber; White pen: uniball signo

Over the next few days if I have some blogging time (hah!) I shall put together a little display of some of my favourite layouts from Salt.
Saltinies - thanks for the care, prayer and inspiration - I shall miss you and the blog so much!

Took a break

We had a wonderful (but too short) break at my Mother-in-Law's house for the second Bank Holiday weekend. It was too short because of school's not understanding that Minister's need a full week's holiday after Easter and the kids went back to school for three days (humph). Still we packed a lot in, We spent the weekend wedding watching (me and C - we made the effort too)walking, shopping, looking at New Forest ponies, taking arty shots (phil), marvelling at how close the Isle of Wight and the sea are to MiL's house (both these are taken from the beach) and relaxing. But life has gone back to mad since then!

So I have not had a chance to either blog or craft much. I've done two layouts which I will share anon but here is my Daring card for this week
It is the first Friday of May so it is a flower of the month - lily of the valley. I decided to simply be inspired by the colours and as I had to do a Diamond wedding card combined the two challenges. The colour isn't true - it was very dark this morning so I have had to overexpose a little, hence the close ups following. I wanted diamond patterns, green, white and sparkles and threw a few paper roses in too for effect

Details: Cardstock and white card: Craft Creations; Patterned paper: MME Stella and Rose; Border Punch: EK Success; Flowers: Wild Orchid Craft; Dies: Sizzix Lollipop and Nestabilities; Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug; Glitter: Glue Pen and Glamour Dust; White Dots: Rangers Enamel Accents

I added glitter to the edges of the embossed card with tape and Glamour Dust
The numbers are die cut patterned paper embossed and glittered
The flowers and the punched border also got the glitter treatment!

Phew. need another break now!