Excuse the pong

Our boiler has died. And with three young adults in the house (yes the boys are home!) I am very glad it is both the time of year when windows can be opened and that we don't need the heating on. At least the washing machine is still working... I'm off to see my parents for 24 hours tomorrow and am looking forward to a lovely warm shower. it is strange to think that our obsession with being clean is quite new - people were quite comfy in their own natural parfum in times past. Having said that there were at least 2 men in Asda yesterday who either don't have a working boiler or who are trying to live the Elizabethan way and it quite put me off my food shop.

I was late to the Daring Cardmaker party again this week, although I had made my card for the June Colour Combo in time I had forgotten the bit about photographing it. ooops. Can I use the excuse of my mind being on higher things? Probably not!

 Here is the delicious colour palette selected by Jo. And here is my take which looks slightly more blue in the photo than it is in real life

 The papers are a mix of Fancy Pants Down By the Shore and an Authentic Summer 6x6 pad. I used a new Cuttlebug Decorative Scallops embossing folder which is lovely both ways round and also various circle dies. I felt there was not enough raspberry colour at one point but it seemed too full on with the orange circle on top so I added a little vellum which seemed to do the trick. I also added a vellum sentiment band and embossed the Clearly Besotted sentiment with one layer of turquoise UTEE which seemed to do the trick. A few more of my faux  enamel dots to finish it off. The butterfly is a covered chipboard one from Pink Paislee

I made another card as a request recently and haven't shown it here. Actually I could almost have submitted it for the Daring challenge as the colours fit quite well

 

If I had thought of that before it would have saved me a job! This is a die heavy card - with Nestabilities Labels 1; a Cheery Lynn scroll; MFT sentiment; Cuttlebug script embossing folder and two different Martha Stewart butterfly punches. The papers were all sorts of old ones that I thought would tone - some Prima, some Pink Paislee and I think the background is October Afternoon. Some of the butterflies were raised on foam pads and all had little gems in the middle

I've been revealing some layouts on the Quirky Kits blog  recently. I'll put them here in a few days but if you can't wait go and have a look. The kits are well worth signing up for if you are a card maker or a scrapbooker as there are always lots of lovely little things to inspire you
Pepe le Pew signing off

First Florence layouts

I think that half the fun of travelling is scrapping it afterwards. OK maybe a slight exaggeration, (and as you may recall I am a nervous traveller)  but I do like to be able to write down my stories whilst playing with paper.

The first story to tell was a wee bit traumatic at the time and so needed a lot of words...

 Phil took the photo with his phone. I don't like looking out of the window on planes as I can see how far we would fall... (yes I am a fun traveller)

The papers are all from the Amy Tangerine Yes Please collection. The base page had the sun and clouds already there, as well as some of the pennants at the bottom. I outlined everything in black and managed to insert some extra pattern paper pieces to the bottom right had side cluster. This provided the inspiration for the other paper strip placements

I cut some clouds and a plane using some free cut files by Ashley Harris

 

Then it was just a case of adding journalling; a Dear Lizzy word stamp; some sequins; some liquid pearls and two little people (Phil and me obviously). Oh and a heart as it was a romantic getaway!

One of the great things about the Silhouette Cameo store is the free cut file you get on a Tuesday.  (Well it is there all week, it is just new on Tuesdays!) The file for the week we were away was just perfect

as were the colours of the Yes Please papers so I just kept using them. They created the basic framework for the whole page

but I didn't want to be too matchy matchy so incorporated some other things as well - like some chevron washi tape; MME enamel dots; some Lily Bee stickers and Studio Calico chipboard arrows; some Crate Paper die cuts and stickers and some of my Prima resin flowers that I hoard. Phil will never quite understand the romantic gesture that is my having used three on one layout (and not just taking them back off again when the photo was done!)

The weather was not as fabulous for the whole trip as on that first day but I will never forget the wonder of that first evening, sipping Bellinis on the hotel balcony and looking out at that view. Sigh

Learning the hard way

for many different reasons it has been quite a week. Which is partly why I am late to the Daring Cardmakers party (again). I decided last night that I deserved a glass of Prosecco (only small!) - my new chilled tipple of choice following our 25th wedding anniversary celebratory trip to Florence. If I haven't mentioned it much as yet, fear not, I will be boring you rigid over the next few weeks.

We've gone from

to

(we've swapped sides in the second photo though!)

Anyway, more on that later... back to the Prosecco. Unfortunately it was so nice I had a second glass. And discovered that I can't drink wine and craft. I can drink cider - or soft drinks obviously, but I had a horrendous time of it with this card and a layout that will appear on the Quirky Kits site as well. (I will be honest about the mistakes but possibly not why. And it isn't the layout that sings the praises of Prosecco. oh dear, I am sounding like I drink a lot now...)

So this card got completely mangled and I was VERY cross

 

See I had got to the very end of the process - the pinwheel was stuck down and everything and I had just put the sentiment banner in place when thought "what this sentiment lacks is a bit of black outlining". And it looked good. But it meant that everything else needed a black outline as well.

So first I tried outlining in situ. Uh-uh. Then I tried peeling everything off, with greater or lesser success. Then my hand skidded across a piece I didn't have enough paper to redo. Uh oh. Then with a new white panel, a few choice words and a sense of awe that the pinwheel had survived the mauling it needed to outline it... I found I had lost the x!?xz sentiment banner. It eventually turned up in a drawer (?)

SO: why this card? Well the challenge this week, set by the wonderful Kathy is to "Make it yourself".

Which I did and I am very excited about it. "But anyone can make a pinwheel (and almost destroy it and rebuild it again)" I hear you cry.

Ah-hah! 

Its not the pinwheel that is THE embellishment wot I am featuring.

Oh no - it is the enamel type dots made by me!

These are made using Beads in a Bottle. I found an old thick piece of acetate and made various sized blogs, trying to keep them fairly flat

when they were dry the next day they simply popped off the acetate sheet.

and were ready to use. I think they went pretty well with my new MME paper pad. The green is my fave as it is opaque.

After that I tried some Liquid Pearls. That is awesome (although I may have put my finger on one of them to check if they were dry) Here are some in use on that Quirky Kit layout (sneak peak ahoy)

How cool are they? I still love the real Enamel Dots but I have a feeling I will be trying out all my Liquid Pearls to make my own too. You can see the difference to using them "neat" as those little yellow dots are made with the same stuff.

So I don't blather on too much about the actual 25th wedding anniversary - which was low key really, after the drama of Florence! Here is the card I made for Phil.

I was so nervous about making a good card (why?) that I left it until the last minute and then had major strops! It is a wierd sized card as one strop involved cutting down an A5 card into some sort of square. I also had first cut out loads of different die cut hearts and had another strop when they just looked bad. I just had enough of the papers left to punch smaller, regular hearts. And let me tell you that if putting tiny foam pads on 25 tiny hearts doesn't prove love and devotion I don't know what does.

I used another MME pad; PTI number dies and some glamour dust. The sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp Set. Inside I put another one which says "the best is yet to come" - but I didn't photograph it before writing a soppy message so you can't see that!

Do have a look at all the wonderful DIY embellishments the DCM team have made and do visit again if I promise not to mix crafting and Prosecco every again. (yeah, right)

Be prepared

If it is good enough for the Scouts...
(although as a former chaplain to the Boys Brigade I don't say that too loud)
(I did go on Scout camp in Sweden when I was 14. They have have mixed gender Scouts since the 70's there. Mine was the only troupe not to have mixed tents. I was very glad about that at the time. I was quite something at the camp, not just because I was foreign but because I had exotic brown hair, not the usual boring blonde!)
(But I digress)

This week I needed to make a card for my mam as it is her birthday in a few days time. Which I did and will show you now, in a minute (as we Welsh like to say). But I had a great idea for my Dad's card - inspired by this weeks Daring Cardmaker challenge, where Zuzana has called us to Plant a Tree. So I have made his card and won't need it until Mid August. (Now I just need to make sure I don't lose it)

it is for Dad as he is always saying that everything is "tremendous".
I used an 8x8 october Afteroon pad - Midway. I traced some Maya Road chipboard tree shapes onto paper and cut them out - it makes the card flatter for posting. Then I stamped the sentiment using Imagine That; Banana Frog (letters) and Paper Smooches stamps and mounted the sentiment strips onto foam pads.
I did a close up of the stickles that I added to the stars on the paper and then spotted my mistake. Humph

 

I suppose I do have until August to stickle that star I missed!

And here is the card for my mum. It uses another Clearly Besotted stamp and die set

and some Fancy Pants papers. I cut a slit in the vase to slide the stem into. After adding gems to the flower middles I decided it needed more bling and went Stickles crazy...

(its not quite dry in the photo!)
Hope she likes it....

To take my mind off flying

The day our holiday was about to begin Carys woke with something strange going on with her eyes. it was all up in the air whether we would be but as I write (Monday night) we are off to the airport in a few hours.
Phew.

I have done my Daring Cardmakers card for this week
Gez has dared us to stencil it
And so I did.
Son number two is guess how old this week?

 And as it is his "golden" birthday (same age as the date) I took that as my inspiration.
I used an MME 6x6 paper pad. First I die cut the sun blaze from the middle of the yellow paper and then I stencilled gold texture paste through a bubbly style stencil (which leaves it looking a bit like snake skin to me).
I die cut PTI numbers from some yellow Doodlebug glitter card which I also covered with the texture paste to tone the colour down a little. A Fiskars punch, some American Crafts gold glitter tape; a Paper Smooches sentiment on a Spellbinders die cut and some Sharpie outlining action later and all I had to do was mount the lot on foam pads

and call it done! It is the first time we have had a family birthday and not all been together which will be strange. But Hywel has promised to play birthday fairy on behalf of us all - the benefit of having two boys at the same University I guess!

Nervous flyer

Next Tuesday I will be boarding a plane to fly to Pisa and then hopping on a train to Florence. (The house will be occupied by ferocious dogs and a ferocious Grandma whilst Phil and I are away before anyone gets any ideas)

Already I am in full panic mode. It is not so much the being on the plane - although I don't particularly enjoy it. It is the being in time and sorting everything out that has me a bundle of nerves. Ditto the train. So we are staying at Pisa airport longer and catching a through train rather than risking missing the connecting train at Pisa Central. I find this all VERY annoying. Its not much fun for anyone else either. The fact that we are spending days in Florence to celebrate our Silver Wedding Anniversary (actually nearer the end of the month) is a total credit to Phil for having the patience to deal with my many foibles all this time.
Thanks hun.

BTW just looked at the projected weather forecast - high 70's F most of the time but also predicting rain and a thunderstorm on Saturday...

I've tried to distract myself with work and play but nothing really works. Anyway here is the play for you to see
This weeks Daring Cardmaker challenge is to Ink It Up
mists, inks, whatever you like!
As some more new Clearly Besotted Stamps arrived through my door (yes I am clearly besotted!)
I couldn't wait to give this a try.
I have to admit that one went in the bin though
Here is what I put on the blog

Some lovely lilies (I think! Don't know much about flowers...) I bought some white watercolour paper with a prize draw from Simon Says Stamp that I won on the awesome Debby Hughes' blog. It is still not true white and I ended up using it on a cream cardbase. I white embossed the image - something Debby does a lot. Then I coloured it in with distress inks and a water brush. I decided to add a slight shadow around the edge. Lets just say I didn't always remember to make it as faint as I wanted. Needs some practice! The CB sentiment was inked using Wet Cement Hero Arts ink - a soft grey.
The backing papers are from the American Crafts Yes Please collection and one from Lucky Charm. The last thing I added was some lime green liquid pearls and a little bit of stickles action on the stamens

I inked up the same image on ordinary cardstock and embossed it with white again. This time I used the Distress Inks to sponge on a background

There are about 5 different yellows and oranges in there! I added a Paper Smooches sentiment (from my little SSS prize haul again), a strip of Yes Please paper; some Sharpie pen outlining and some silver gems.
I am not that keen on the white outline and black sentiment but I thought that white words would not be bright enough and a black flower outline too stark. What do you think?

Direct to card stamping is scary

but I am trying to overcome my nerves. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - but you can usually find a way to cover it up I find. Here is a card where I was semi brave - helped by the confidence I have in Clearly Besotted stamps (NB I don't get paid to praise them, I just think the stamps are fab!)

The gingham square was stamped directly to the cardstock using Hero Arts navy blue ink. I had to order it from Simon Says Stamp as I couldn't find a UK stockist. It is fabulous.
The butterfly was stamped using two stamps by CB - an outline in the blue and a fill in using a Memento ink pad. The leaf was another Memento one.
I used the complementary dies to cut them out. This can be scary too but I took a tip from Michelle Short with regard to the butterfly - I reccomend her tutorial here. Actually I die cut the leaf shape first as it was pretty easy to line up.

Then I added a Papertrey Ink sentiment and two kinds of Liquid pearls as accents. I think it took longer to write this all out and find the links than it did to make the card. I do love all the white space!

Another die cut card

I need some cards to sell at the Babbacombe Festival on the Church stall and so have made a variation of this card in 4 ways already. (Yes, I now live in a place with its own festival - how quintessentially British is that?)

It was supposed to be a fold over card but I managed to islolate part of it on the Silhouette and just cut the front piece as I felt that gave me more options (so proud of myself!)

The card base is some Letter size card stock I have had around for ages. I think it might be Personal Impressions? The colours actually blend together a lot better than they look - the navy blue and argyle pattern are both Basic Grey. The stars are Memory Box dies (ironically I can never remmeber the name of that company!) and I also used a Fiskars border punch. The "thank you" is raised on foam tape - but only thin tape so it will still squeeze through the UK posting regs on a normal stamp.

Top of the Pops

cue the music

can't find the "proper" version of this.
Incidentally
1: I was a big fan of TOTP from a very early age. As soon as my piano lesson finished it was Top of the Pops time and little Lythan (rather rudely now I think about it) would jump off the piano stool and run to the other side of the (long) sitting room to watch the show. I would have been about 6. (I would also listen to FAB 208 on my radio in bed to get to sleep. Now it is 5 Live). Sorry Miss Pickles

2: Miss Pickles was actually on TOTP singing with a group called Congregation. Remember them? (Rather excitingly she was also the daughter of the man who wrote the books that taught me to play the piano. "Flying Start" by Sidney Pickles)

3: There was a time when that Led Zepplin track was seen as old hat and was replaced as the theme tune. Not long after I got married and was a student again, someone was playing Whole Lotta Love across the Mansfield quad and I remarked to an undergraduate "Ah remember when that was the theme for Top of the Pops?" "Was it?" he said incredulously. I felt very old. Although I was only 5 years older than him, tops.

All that really has nothing to do with the story I want to tell this month. I just wanted to link it to the fact this is another story about my Pop (grandfather) who was Top of the Pops.
So it is Storytelling Sunday - which I missed last month so I am making up for it this month because I have already written a blog post today but don't want to miss it again.

Ahem: update. Guess who forgot to link it? So lets call it Storytelling (almost as it is really Tuesday) Sunday
The lovely Sian invites us this year to "Pick your precious" to share a story about something very special.
Here is mine

What is precious is both the picture itself - because my Pop painted it - and the scene.
When he died I was 14 and his two children divided up his paintings between them. They are not great art but they are a lovely reminder of him. I at some point asked Mum if I could have this one. It kind of got lost in our last two houses but was found when we moved and has finally been hung up on the wall. Yes, I should get it reframed but don't really want to be without "his" frame either.

So why did I want this picture? It is the view from his bedroom window on Baglan Road,  Port Talbot. South Wales. He had a big bay window and every night when I stayed there I would look out onto the most beautiful scene in the world to my young eyes. On one side was the BP oil refinery. On the other the Margam Steel works. Just below the first set of house rooftops went the M4 motorway. At night everything was lit up and sparkling. Some people might have seen heavy industry and light pollution. To me, it was like fairy land!

there is a joke (perhaps by Max Boyce?) where two people are arguing whether the thing they can see in the sky is the sun or the moon and they decide to ask the next person they see to have the deciding vote. He says "Dunno, I'm from Port Talbot myself"
which says it all really...

I've got a Silhouette and I know how to use it

Well I don't really.
So far I have learned how to buy images, resize them, cut and paste and move them about a bit. I know there is so much  more I can do.
But I spent a happy morning on Monday printing out loads of bits for cards and gradually putting them together. They suit my favourite graphic style for cards I think.
Having enjoyed Julie Kirk's Push-Up-Bra-Approach-to-Blogging (you have to say it without stopping otherwise I sound like a perve) which suggests a little and often method to blogging I am trying it out.
aka
a few short and sweet card based blog posts on their way

These two cards were made by resizing cards meant for Project Life.
(Which I will not be doing as my life is both too busy and too repetitive and also fairly confidential and definately boring)

 

I backed the holes with various MME 6x6 patterned papers, outlined everything with  black sharpie pen; used one of my favourite Imagine That sentiment stamps; die cut a Dienamics tag and added some stick on gems in the way that everyone else has started doing and I think looks lovely so am blatantly copying. If you think you were the first to start the trend do let me know and I will name you :) Where did the star come from you ask?

 

It popped out of here! 

(Yes they were a set of stars and stripes Project Life cards used in a totally different way)

Same scenario as before really except that there was no outlining and the frame was popped up using foam pads. Different Dienamics die, same stamp.

Oh yes, just because I have a Silhouette, doesn't mean I am out of love with my Cuttlebug. To my surprise it is still going a year on since I noticed the crack in it. Every now and then when I turn the handle it makes like a clown car and all the parts start falling off. But I bang them back together and they all do their job again!

Its still good

Yes another week has gone by and the weather is still lovely in Torquay. Maybe it doesn't rain all the time after all :)
And  I can't beleive that we have got to May already, that means we have lived here nearly 10 months now. It is a lovely place to be and I do feel smug as I drive past holiday makers and think "I get to stay here all the time!" although sadly, don't always have the time to enjoy it, what with not being on holiday...

Anyway the beginning of the merry, merry month means another colour challenge on Daring Cardmakers and Nat chose a beaut this time

 

all the weddingy type things were inspirational so I came up with this

 

The white card with the people on it was cut on the Silhouette - it is really a Project Life card I think. The papers are all from the Dear Lizzy 6x6 Lucky Charm pad. I added gold Glamour Dust to two of the papers. The tiny sentiment is from an Imagine That set  - not one that you would expect as it fits those little tickets you can get (and so is called Just the Ticket) A combination of stick on gems and pearls finished it off. Oh along with, a tiny heart punch; a Cuttlebut embossing folder (the only one big enough for this size of cardstock. I must either get more large ones or use more american sized cards); and a button from stash

The great news for DCM is that Svenja is staying on the team full time. That is fabulous for us!

 

It is a record

Long term readers of my blog (are there any or have I bored you all away?) will be aware that ever since we moved to Torquay it has basically rained without stopping.
But the last 2 weeks there has been more sunshine than rain. Huzzah!
I love my drive from home to Brixham which I do at least 3 times a week (it is 6 this week!) It is 10 miles but I go all along the coast and love spotting all the different glimpses of sea on the way and on the way back. It is even nicer in the sunshine. If you have to have a 10 mile commute to part of your work then there can't be many better ones.

Crafting time has been a bit thin on the ground this week. I did take card making stuff down to the Place - Youthwork that is part run by my church. I do only take things that I am happy to be used (or think I am!) but this does get tested when almost a whole packet of stick on pearls goes on one card. I have to remind myself that
1) I do only take things that I am happy to be used
2) the packet was only £1
3) its not like I only have one packet. I'm not telling you how many
4) the card looked fabulous.
 which also tells me that sometimes we have to be generous. Both me with my pearls but in a deeper way also in using what we have. What has more value - the beautiful card that used a lot of pearls, or a drawer full of packets of stick on gems. We need to use the gifts that we have given
and of course there is the bonus that suggests I still don't really get the "enough" idea
5) I can buy more stick on pearls!

I did have time to join in with the Daring Cardmakers though. It was a fun recipe challenge - Ingredients

An Aperture of some kind

Something beginning with the letter P

A Die-cut or Punchie

The colour Blue

 

And here is my slightly contraversial entry

.

 

Do you call that colour blue? Or is it too green to be turquoise? I'm calling it blue anyway
I used the Silhouette to cut out the Lori Whitlock bicycle and road shapes. I trimmed out the centre of the white embossed card and added vellum behind as an aperture.

I die cut the paper ricrac using a PTI die. The embossing folder is by Spellbinders. I added Pearls and an Imagine That sentiment to a Spellbinders die cut pennant.
And that is almost that.
Except that the first bike I cut out had a bit of a spoke disaster. So I trimmed them all out and made this as well

 

using the same MME 6x6 pad.

Lets see if I can keep on doing more with what I have this week :)

Do you see what I see?

Life is gradually getting back to normal after Easter week hols, a week back at work and then Spring School where Ministers go away and learn and reflect and worship (and make friends and have fun) together. We went all the way to Brunel Manor. Which is basically 5 minutes drive away from our house. So whilst Ministers from further away (i.e. Swindon) had fun exploring it didn't seem quite like that for us. But Phil and I did venture down to a local cove so I could cross it off my list and in the lovely turquoise blue sea we saw this

Do you see it?
How about a close up

Its as good as it got but it was definately a seal. Oooh I was so excited. Apparently there is a seal who swims around the coves. This is two along from "ours" so maybe I will see him again!

here is my late Daring Card for this week - Sharon chose the theme of Child's Play. I had all sorts of ideas but in the end went for simples!

A mix of new and old on here. Old is the Papertrey Ink stamp set. New are the papers, the ink pad and the gunmetal sequins. I used a Clearly Besotted dotty square stamp which I stamped on grey card from my new Fancy Pants Park Bench 6x6 pad. I overstamped it with the elephant and cut it out, sticking it on a white panel where the elephant was already inked (meaning I could cut off the tricky tail!). I layerered up Nestabilities die cut boxes and strips of paper, in the style of an old CASE this Sketch pattern. The scallop at the side was done using small scallop scissors. Some black sharpie outlining, a sentiment on a fish tail banner (are all my sentiments on fishtail banners now? I hadn't noticed!) and the job is done. Finally
There is a fabulous set of cards on the blog this week so do have a look.

I'm off with Phil to pick up his new bike in a while. He is very excited. I am less so I must admit... But he promises it will be full leathers at all times and no windy side roads from now on.

Enough

Its been quite a week.
It feels like years since I came back from holiday - rather than 5 days! But that is what the job is like really. Last night I was in two minds as to whether to go out to another meeting that I didn't have to go to, but felt the Call of Duty (not the machine gunning type - the love and responsibility type. Every nw and then I wish it was the former)
And I am so glad I did. It was a meeting called by Brixham for Global Action as a Question Time based on the IF campaign 
which talks about how there is enough food for everyone

                   IF we make the right investments as we deliver AID

                   IF we stop people being forced off their LAND

                   IF we stop companies dodging TAXES

                   IF we insist on TRANSPARENCY from governments and companies alike

it was a really interesting and informative evening and I am so glad I went.

and then I came home and played with my latest piece of consumerism.

yes, I am very spoiled and now have a Silhouette Cameo. Oh my word it is fabby. I still have a long way to go getting to grips with it but I can download files and I can cut them out and that makes me happy. The background of this card was cut using a free file from Birds Cards, which is an awesome site that has free cutting files and digital stamps as well.

I made the card for the latest Daring Cardmaker challenge which was set by the marvellous Miri - April Showers. I used a Basic Grey Paper Cottage 6x6 pad as the backing for the card and to make the umbrella which is a MFT die, as are the clouds. The clouds were dry embossed and covered with Hard Candy Distress Stickles and the umbrella with Glossy Accents. Buttercup Liquid pearls were added around a Waltzing Mouse sentiment

I've not had the time that the new Quirky Kits deserve at the moment (sob) but have put one layout on the blog and have another two primed and ready

Don't be suprised to see the Silhouette feature in the future.

But t Ihave been really challenged by the idea of enough.
I have enough. I have more than enough. Can I stop my conspicuous consumerism, especially on craft goods and learn to be satisfied with all that I have?
Lets see if I can (says the person with a few parcels on their way). Lets just see

Blow me down

The Good News: No rain in Torquay for DAYS now
The Bad News: It is so, so, so windy and cold (albeit bright and sunny) that I still don't want to go out. But go out I must as I stayed in yesterday and too much indoors is bad for you apparently.
(I don't believe in horoscopes. It is useful sharing a birthday with Carys as our horoscopes are always the same and never right for either of us. I don't beleive in horoscopes as I said. However my star sign is Cancer the crab and I am a bit crabby and I do like staying in my shell and not going out)

Wednesday we went to see the Host at the local cinema which has just become a Vue one. hurrah! First time we went, before it Vue'd I rattled off the ages of those assembled and the girls just looked me up and down and went "that'll be 5 adults then". Vue have variable prices for teens and we managed to find one Orange phone so got one two for one deal (apparently there is another Orange phone on my Workdesk. There could be an elephant on my workdesk right now and you wouldn't find that either). My elation at the fab deal was deflated when I realised I was a bit thirsty and so decided to buy one of those sherbet frozen drinks (they last longer and I make the whole family share one) The chappie brought it back and said (triumphantly) (at least in my imagination) "that will be £4.60 please" It tasted good, but not that good. And I got brain freeze.

Although that might have been the film. I enjoyed the Stephenie Meyer book and the film brought it to life pretty well. But the dialogue and the acting. Oh my word. It felt like they were putting on a school play. Still the sarcastic replay from number 2 son on the way home made it all a 5 star event. Last night was home movie night and we watched War Horse. We were all a bit underwhelmed by that as well - but did enjoy spotting all the British actors. And guessing who would die next...

In a few mins we are going on todays outing to a local country park and craft village called Cockington. Which number 2 son finds amusing and slightly unbelievable. Everyone is not looking forward to a brisk walk around the park and craft village. I have to keep quiet about craft villages otherwise I don't get to look round them. its a hard life.

In amongst all of this jolly family stuff I have had quite a bit of craft time this week which is a thing of great joy to me. As I said in my last post there is much I can't share yet but here are a few items I can.
First, the Daring Card for this week. And it is the wonderful Gez who has chosen the colour challenge for this month

I knew I had the right colours for this. Or thought I did until I came to make the card

Actually looking at it now that chevron print is pretty spot on! Everything on the card is from the new Fancy Pants Tredsetter collection - apart from the resin rose which is Prima. The flower may be coming off prior to posting as it stops the card being an ordinary stamps worth. But I will replace it with some stickles I think.

On Wednesday Clearly Besotted launched some new stamps. Thanks to some excellent customer service I was actually stamping with them yesterday. When I saw the new feathers I thought "ooooh they would be great for Sympathy cards. Must buy." so I did and they are

That is only the second time I have stamped that image (first was a go on some scrap) and its just perfect. My stamping isn't always great so it is fab to have such reliable stamps to use. The sentiment is from another CB set and I am very pleased that I managed to stamp each word seperately as they are joined as one strip. A swoosh round the outside of the card with the Hero Arts blue ink I stamped with, plus three navy liquid pearl dots and it was done.

And finally a super quick layout

This one was just for me (ie not from a kit) which I needed to do as I have bought rather a lot of papers just for me as well recently. The papers and most of the die cuts here are from Dear Lizzie Lucky Charm. I also added some October Afternoon letters and Prima glittery stickers. I wanted to use the die cut panel but felt it got lost on the dark background so added vellum behind it. I also decided to experiment with a bit of handmade paper which I embossed and then sprayed with pink glimmer mist to match the pink cast on the fur throws (which were cream in real life but as the photo is a scan of an old slide the colours were not great). I think the photo is from 1968 (must check with my dad and write the date on somewhere)

I enjoyed layering up all the pieces - and adding some MME enamel dots around the place

My

Here is the journalling - still not that easy to read thanks to a white pen that wouldn't flow smoothly

The latest Quirky Kit arrived today for me to play with - mmmmmm - I'm going to have fun on my last few days of holiday I reckon!

Going for Gold

I do apologise if you now have a cheesy 80's theme tune stuck in your head. If not, click on this if you dare. And how was it fair to have a European quiz - only in English. It wasn't that we wanted to be superior now was it?

I'm quite excited because I am on holiday and I can see a hint of gold in the sky. Yes for two days in a row there has been sunshine in Torquay. I understand that it does happen here on a regular basis, just not since we moved down last July. We are holidaying at home with a little something on every day and a lot of snoozing/reading even some housework on occasion. Good times. Monday Phil and I went to Coleton Fishacre, a local National Trust property. There are LOADS round here so we had membership as a Christmas present. It is an Arts and Crafts house styled in the 1930's which meant I was in heaven. We will go again. Yesterday as it was sunny we went underground to Kents Cavern. That is in walking distance of the house. We were going to go by car until I spotted you have to pay £2 to park. So we walked the 15 minutes or so in the sunshine. I had already saved about £6 by booking online first so was bound to enjoy it. Parents loved it, teenagers less so. There is something amazing about being in a place that was there thousands of years ago. And that was excavated by one keen man with a spade and a candle.

The real reason for the title of the post is that gold has become a big feature of the crafting world at the moment. And do I slavishly follow trends? Why of course I do. So here is the goldiest card you have ever seen...

Maybe a slight exaggeration you say? well, the background is a duck egg blue MME paper with gold embossing paste over the top. The photo doesn't do it justice as it is so shimmery and gorgeous. I will be doing this again a LOT. The papers were all outlined with a gold leaf pen. I added some American Crafts gold glitter ribbon, I added gold glamour dust to the dry embossed circle, I outlined the numbers with a different gold pen; combined two inks for a gold feel sentiment and then added some golden dots with Stickles. Then smudged them (fortunately without smearing them) and redid them again. I can't believe the person this card is headed for is 80 so thought she might as well flaunt it with this card.

I also made this card just for fun. I had coloured the stamped image in before Christmas and stuck it into the PBandJ 6x6 paper pad by Basic Grey for whenever I felt like turning it into a card. Which was Monday as it turned out

I am loving hand cut random strips of paper at the moment. It is so freeing not even trying to be straight.

And finally for now a card for a friend who is... well you work it out

 It is one of those cards that looks simple but took age and I am still not totally happy with it. Oh well. The papers are Lucky Charm and the dies are MFT; Quickutz and Spellbinders

I have been scrapping as well but can't show those layouts just yet as they will be revealed first, at some point on the Imagine That blog. I "imagine" I will tell you when that is...