Just for the record...

This shows all 80 cards I made for Christmas 2010. I used the photo as my blog header pic for December but once the new year came I substituted another and lost this one. I thought it was worth keeping so am backdating a new post and hope it appears as the last post of the year.

Pink & black scrap card

I used up more scraps than I expected in making this card because I didn't like my first effort, so I salvaged the stamped panel and made a new base. Then I picked up a small black piece which just happened to be under my hand, decided it was exactly what the card needed and stamped the sentiment by Hobby Art in Versamark then heat embossed with detail white powder. The main panel was one of my experiments with Distress Inks back in July when DH was in France; I stamped the weeds and grasses using Versamark/white embossing powder and Memento tuxedo black. The stamps are by Darkroom Door and Elusive Images.

That pile of scraps is shrinking most satisfactorily......then I shall start on the bits in the stuffed drawers.....

More cards from scraps

I have two crafter friends whose birthdays are 23 December. I always try to make 'summery' cards for them because I know how easy it is for such birthdays to get lost in the midst of Christmas preparations and I want them to feel special. This one for Carol isn't really as plain as it appears: the cream pearlised paper is patterned all over with swirls of roses which have a fuzzy feel - not as soft as velvet paper but there's definitely texture there. The shiny dark purple also has a textured pattern, while the matte mauve provides a contrast. The words are by Clarity Stamps cut with a die from Labels #9, and the edge punch is 'Modern Garland'.

This is for Liz. The daisy paper came free in Making Cards magazine some years ago, the daisy stamp is from JustRite Stampers. I stamped the border in deep pink on green and cut it with a Nestie classic circle, then stamped the flower on white and cut it with a smaller die.. I stamped it again and cut the flower closely to shape so as to make a mask, superimposed it on the circle and was then able to colour the surround with pink chalk. The 'Celebrate' is by Stampin' Up. And the daisy strip was a serendipitous find in my bulging drawer of ribbons, trims and other embellishments - I didn't know it was there but it was exactly the right length to cross the card and tuck round each edge!

So several more scraps have been put to good use and the remains thrown away.

There are birthdays in December too!

And I have to make 6 birthday cards for the month, although one has already gone for a friend's birthday on the 2nd. This new one is for my brother-in-law who was a Christmas Day baby; he and my sister will be in the States visiting their daughter and her family so I had to make the card in good time - no good leaving it until the day before as I sometimes do! I was tidying my craft room after the Christmas card marathon and sorted out a pile of scraps. Three pieces landed together and I liked the effect so much I decided that would be the base for the card - the plain brown Bazzill, the gorgeous copper coloured paper (which is far more brown/gold IRL than the pink it appears to be here) with embossed ovals, and a piece I had coloured myself with Distress Inks in light yellows and oranges. The latter made the edge strip under the trellis and also the background for the sentiment. And all the little scraps which were created from the old ones have gone into the waste paper bin!!!

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we are off to the German Christmas markets.....if I don't post in the next couple of days, you may assume we have managed it this week.

Unfolding a mystery...

I didn't expect to be blogging this week but our trip to Germany was cancelled because of the snow - we got as far as sitting in the plane for 4 hours at London (Gatwick) Airport, then returned and slept (sic) on the floor in the terminal building before driving home, arriving back 24 hours after we'd left! The airport has been closed ever since, but the forecast is for temperatures to rise at the weekend and our trip has been provisionally rescheduled for next Tuesday-Friday.

I realised from comments received that iris folding is unknown to many crafters so have made use of my 'down time' by preparing detailed pictures to show just how it's done. My apologies for the poor colour balance: the first 3 were taken this morning in daylight and the others this afternoon when the light was on and I didn't think to turn it off and rely on flash.

The craft originated in Holland and the earliest folders there used the patterned insides of envelopes. I didn't think we had much variety in ours but having collected a boxful a few years ago I was agreeably surprised at what I found. However, in a rare fit of tidying my craft room the envelopes went for more traditional recycling and I now buy IF papers specially, sometimes sheets that I cut into strips 2cm (¾in) wide but more often pre-cut strips from specialist suppliers. I like to use papers with a sheen or sparkle, and plain or small patterned, but anything can be used according to the effect required. As long as the paper isn't too thick and will hold a crease, it will do.

The pattern shown is a photocopy from a Dutch book and the aperture card was sold specifically for this pattern, though it is possible to cut an aperture by hand using a copy of the pattern and a craft knife. The card goes face down over the pattern and is secured at one side with low tack tape - as you work on the back, this means you can flip the card over to see progress then flip it back to continue. The strips on the pattern are numbered (in this case) counterclockwise, spiralling from the outside towards the centre; the selected papers are arranged in chosen order and then the first strip cut or torn to the desired length, which goes from one side to the other of the aperture plus a little more to attach with a tiny piece of tape at each end. The folded edge is placed face down against the inner line of strip #1 on the pattern. How much to fold over is a personal choice - some instructions say fold in half but as long as the strip covers the desired area it isn't critical. Then the pattern is turned and strip #2 in the next colour is applied in the same way, then #3 likewise. The third photo (lower left, above) shows one round completed, to be followed by the fourth strip which will be the same colour as the first, and so on, always in numerical order and turning the pattern each time. (One of the chosen papers is coloured both sides, the others are white on the back). The lower right photo shows the tree after a couple more rounds had been added.


Photo #5 on the far left shows the work flipped to look at the front, when only a couple more rounds are needed. The picture on the right shows the finished piece before the centre patch is added, and finally (below) the completed work is seen from the front. The 'iris' in iris folding refers to the likeness of the folded strips and the centre patch to the shutter of a camera. It's important to work accurately and to keep checking the the appearance on the front, but if a mistake does occur it can be rectified by easing up one end of each overlapping strip, removing the errant colour and replacing it with the right one. The central iris is covered with a piece of contrasting paper at the end, then pieces of sticky tape applied over the back to squash the strips down and make firm folds.

The iris need not be a triangle, but the number of its sides governs the number of colours used: a tree lends itself to 3, of course, but if you look back at the holly leaf (entry for 21 November) you will see a pentagon in the centre and thus 5 colours, and the bauble (15 November) has a rectangle and four colours.

So now you know I'm not really ever so clever - it's simple enough for a child to do, it's fun and it's addictive. And there are more advanced/difficult methods of working for the truly addicted, and you can design your own patterns.....now that's what I call being clever!

Final count

I think I have probably finished making Christmas cards for this year: there are 82, as seen in the picture above, many of the same design but different colours. We shall need another 40 but I have several from previous years which were bought at the charity cards shop and proved surplus to requirements so were tucked away (and rather surprisingly not forgotten until after I'd bought some more!) Although we shall be away only 4 days this coming week I'm beginning to panic about what needs to be done, even though I am never normally organised at thie stage.....after all, it isn't even December yet.

More of the Same

Not being one to waste a good idea (I don't have enough to be careless of them) I made another handful of cards using yesterday's design with different papers and colour schemes. The darker blue has random patches of purple hidden in its depths so I found purple mirri card for the circle and tag which goes quite well, especially being toned down by the silver ornament shape; I did make one with a purple ornament but decided it really was too much of a good thing and reversed the colours for the rest. The pale blue is yesterday's discard - I suddenly thought of the glitter papers I'd been using for iris folding and the dark blue goes quite well. I didn't bother to emboss those circles because when I tried to, the die cut through the soft paper completely! The ornament and tag are in silver mirri and on each card the sentiment is a silver peel off - I love using a self coloured background for these and being raised they stand out surprisingly well.The snowflakes were made using the large Martha Stewart punch, Glacial Snowflake.

Just dies!

As I hinted last time: now for something completely different! Actually I spent much of today finishing off 25 IF cards, with inserts cut, folded, stamped and stuck, and my personal stamp on the back of each. I do have a few more waiting to be made, but if they stay in the box this year they'll be available for next year.....

I saw something similar to my new design several weeks ago on the JustRite blog, made as a Christmas tree ornament using the largest Spellbinder bauble die and with a stamped centre. I decided to adapt it for the long, narrow blanks I bought recently (they measure 8" x 3") and found the second largest die was a perfect fit. First I covered a card with pale blue snowflake paper but couldn't find anything lying around which was just the right shade for the scalloped circle; I know I must have something but I wanted to do a mock up quickly rather than spend a lot of time agonising. So the snowflakes were laid aside, I foraged in a file of decorative papers (instead of hunting all through the bits covering the floor) and came up with this red, which I bought very recently. The dies were fitted to odd scraps of green and silver mirri and as I laid them in place to judge the effect I remembered seeing a little poinsettia which I'd made to show a friend. More scavenging on the floor (please don't tell me I'm the only one who does this?!) brought it to light and thus the card was born! Into Production Line Mode: I covered 5 more in the rest of the red paper, die cut 5 baubles, 5 circles and 5 Labels #4 all from scraps of mirri card left over from making up the IF cards, and then, with the smaller Marianne dies, the required bits of 5 poinsettias which I'll put together tomorrow and stick onto the cards. Add insert sheets (stamped) and there we are, another half dozen cards added to the box.

Next Tuesday we are going to Germany for three days to visit the Christmas markets in Cologne and Rudesheim. I've wanted to go for years so am looking forward to it very much, but when we come back there will be a lot happening and I may not have time to make any more cards. Never mind, I've done quite a large proportion of those we shall be sending so feel quite satisfied (and I've just realised I have 6 birthday cards needed for December plus our son's on 2 January). I'm going to try to photograph them all together, just for the fun of it.....maybe they will be my blog header picture for the festive season.....watch this space!

Tree and Holly Leaf

I'm still folding for Christmas - I found another pack of tree cards yeserday so have been making them up as a change from bells, then this evening I've gone back to baubles. So far I've made only one holly card because I messed up the first one by covering the front in holly patterned paper but didn't like the finished effect, however I was able to salvage the IF and mount it behind a new front which you can see here. I had to trim the white card because the leaf looked a bit lost, and the berries are punched from mirri card because the only red gems I have are too small, but from an overall shaky construction I'm pleased with the finished effect and will get cracking on making some more. By the way, the tree is mounted on gold with a gold star and peel off greeting (I cannot bring myself to make anything but green trees). You may be relieved to hear that this will probably be my last IF post because I've now shown samples of all the designs I have: plenty more of the same to make up but next time I hope to have something completely different to show off.

More IF, this time it's bells

I've been iris folding like mad since my last post, and as well as making some red baubles I have gold bells mounted on gold, and silver bells mounted on red. I added punched holly leaves and red gems to each bell and was so taken with the effect that I added gems and/or bows to the baubles previously put away and labelled 'finished and ready to send' (so I don't have a nasty shock in December when I discover I've forgotten to add an insert with stamped sentiment). It certainly improved the overall appearance; I did scan one of them and was going to replace the picture in my previous post with the later one, until I realised the gems don't show up very well, so you'll just have to use your imagination (colour matched gems, one in the middle of the hanger and one pendant at the bottom).

Eighteen IF cards down, 27 to go.....

Iris Folding for Christmas

A couple of years ago my local craft shop held a one day sale in midsummer. Among other things I bought some packs of single layer cards with apertures for iris folded Christmas designs; these were ridiculously cheap and 'three for the price of two' so it would have been churlish to reject them. I recently discovered that I have the books which contain the patterns for these designs so yesterday I organised myself to make a few cards while watching television. The first shock was discovering that each pack contains five cards (nowhere did it say this on the packet) so I now have 10 completed cards with an IF bauble and 15 more lined up waiting. Then there are 5 trees, 5 holly leaves and 10 bells..... I'm very happy to make a handful of cards on a production line system; I wouldn't want to do even 30 of the same design at one time but increasing the total number of completed cards by tens in a short while is very satisfying.

Of course, I varied the colours. I have a lot of IF papers and like to use shiny and/or textured patterns of the same colour within one design - here, the bauble is in shades of blue echoed by the mirri card mat and the stamped greeting inside, while the iris, bauble hanger, greeting and tiny peel offs which edge the aperture are silver. I also used purples with silver, and greens and golds each with gold accents, but decided it was sufficient to show just one.

Must go - I have a few more IF designs calling to me.....

More Poinsettias

It looks as if there might be a couple of themes to my Christmas cards this year - you've already seen various snowmen, and now here is another type of poinsettia . I stitched the front some time ago but forgot about it until this morning; it took a while to find but eventually turned up safely in the first place I had looked in, though not before I had searched several other possibles as well! I really am quite well organised, but I swear my craft room is inhabited by aliens who move all my bits around when I'm not looking.

The pattern is from an online site Pinbroidery (there's a link in my Favourite Craft Sites sidebar) from which you can choose patterns, pay with PayPal and download complete with all necessary diagrams and instructions. The only thing you have to supply is the thread and beads: they don't seem to have found a way yet of supplying those via the internet! I have used shiny threads and red & gold beads; the mat once again is gold mirri card. It really is mounted straight but I had 5 or 6 attempts at scanning and this was the best I could do, because the bulk of the beads made the card slide around. Hmm, a spot of low tack tape would have solved that problem, but it will have to wait until DH is finished with his magazine editting.

Poinsettias for Christmas

It's certainly been a week of red flowers: I've been out several times selling poppies for Remembrance Day and made this Christmas card in between. The stamp is from Joanna Sheen and the flower from a die set by Marianne, the first I have tried. It isn't as deeply embossed as I would like so I'll remember to add another shim or two next time, but I'm pleased with the layout. I saw samples of the flower when visiting a fantastic new-to-me craft shop with friends last week but having bought it I discovered afterwards that it is also available in a smaller size which might look better on this size card. Ah, well, I'll just have to find an excuse for visiting my local craft shop and see if they have that one in stock, and meanwhile I'll make larger cards! I have bought sheets of red and green card specially for cutting the flowers (I have enough yellow for centres) so I will set up a production line and see if I can increase my total number of cards completed in a short space of time. Unfortunately although the stamp is excellent and gives a good crisp image it took me a long time to colour with Promarkers. I'm not very happy with the greens I used and may go back to the aquarelles I was getting to grips with before succumbing to the Promarkers eveyone was raving about....I do not delude myself that any tool will ever make me an artist!

Hummingbird

I've been busy making more Christmas cards but haven't posted them here because they are just variations on a previous theme. I can't attempt to make 120 completely different cards, so do about 10 or 12 'almost' the same before moving on to another batch. Today, though, I stopped to make a friend's birthday card for next week. I was determined to use one of JustRite's Backyard Birds because when it first came out J kept trying to insist that I really didn't need it - all for the good of my Credit Card I should add, because I was broke at the time but loved it so much that somehow I managed to find the necessary pennies! By using the hummingbird on her card I may be able to convince her 'See! I did need it!'

The bird's colouring may not be ornithologically perfect because we don't have hummingbirds in England but I did my best to copy the sample on the index sheet. Having cut out the centre with a small Nestie circle (which I raised on foam tape) I used Blossom #1 for the border and then a large plain circle for the blue layer. I chalked the backgrounds with pale blue for the bird and pale green for the border, and used the same green behind the morning glories on the long panel which was cut with the mega deckle Nestie. The trellis punch is used on pearlescent paper and the other background paper is from my stash.

Not a Snowman To Be Seen!

I promised to do something different, and snowmen don't come much more different than this!

The challenge on the JustRite blog this week is 'Colors of Autumn'. Despite being a JRS junkie I never manage to take part in the weekly challenge - most of my crafting is done at the weekend which in theory is perfect since the challenge is posted on Friday, but I need time to think about a possible design and by the time I've thought it's always too late :( But not this week! Being an autumn nut I was determined to take part and have been chewing over ideas. I thought of a rainbow done in red-orange-yellow-brown wth the basket of apples as the crock of gold at the bottom...unfortunately enthusiasm outran ability and it turned out rather differently but I'm still quite pleased with it. IRL it's quite a lot brighter than it appears in the scan, with a band of yellow that 'lifts' the background. I'm going to put it in a frame and hang it in my workroom - I'm slowly gathering various autumnal bits and having plain white walls gives me plenty of scope to play with touches of colour.

The background was sponged with Distress Inks in about ten shades. I used the largest size Trompe Script font by JR for the heading and stamped it in Memento Rich Cocoa ink. The apple basket is from Autumn Blessings - despite being an oval set it fits nicely with only a small trim into the large border from Backyard Birds.I coloured them with Promarkers and used a couple of pale chalks on the background to reduce the glaring white (with hindsight I could have used a slightly deeper shade). I mounted the circle on a layer of brown (both circles cut with Nesties) to define the edge and was going to mount the whole piece on the same brown until I discovered it looked much better on red. Oh, and the outline leaf is by PSX.

Now it's back to Christmas cards.....

The Same, Only Different

Just a quick post today because there isn't much to say about this card. I've spent odd moments this week playing around with different papers and colours, thinking about making multiple cards of one design, and I came up with this combination yesterday (remember, it's silver mirri card, not black). The background paper has been in my stash for years, being part of a large pack of 'handmade' which was on bulk offer somewhere. I haven't found a use for any of it until now when I decided that the sparkly flowers looked sufficiently like snowflakes to be used with appropriate designs. I love the Nesties Fancy Tag at the bottom - one of those 'dies to die for' that I simply had to buy when I first saw it and haven't used until today!

I'll try to do something completely different for my next post :)

Another Christmas card at last!

At this rate of progress I'll be able to send this year's cards in about five years' time! Here is number 6 (of around 120 needed.....)

I love this stamp (and regular readers, if there are any, know how much I love snowmen) which is from JustRite Stampers' Old Fashioned Christmas. The pretty blue background paper was free inside the new Making Cards special Christmas magazine and I wish I could buy lots more; sadly there was only half a sheet of the blue, but I'm sure I have other, similar papers I can use for more cards of similar design. The base card is dark blue and the mat for the background and the bottom panel, also the backing for the scalloped circle, is silver mirri card but unfortunately it has, as usual, scanned rather dark, however if you click on the picture and squint at the enlarged version you may be able to see that it's not all dark and gloomy! I used Promarkers to colour the head and the punch is Double Loops. All circles were cut with Nestabilities Classic Circles and the Eyelet Circles

This isn't really my design. I tried to provide a link to my inspiration but couldn't get it to work, so you'll have to go to the Stampers Dream blog (link is in my sidebar) and look at the entry for September 24. Not having the same punch or stamp (but both are on their way to me lol) and choosing a different colour scheme has changed the appearance quite a lot. I love Michelle's card - maybe my next one will be red and green.......

Woohoo - I've just realised I can enter the Bah! Humbug! challenge this week! The theme is 'Cuties' and in my book they don't come much cuter than this!

Yesterday's other card

My mojo may have returned after being AWOL but it didn't like being worked too hard! Sarah's card with the butterflies wasn't very elaborate and didn't take too long to make, so I thought I would continue the good work and make a card for a friend's birthday next Wednesday. Oh dear! It seems I'm unable to concentrate if I have time in hand....I was fairly satisfied with the final result, although it might have looked better with a symmetrical design, but I sweated gallons before I reached that point.

First I picked up the pad of autumn papers I bought recently. Anyone who reads this blog semi-regularly will know I'm an autumn nut and I tried hard to come up with a good idea, but it just wasn't right for this particular friend who is a dainty pink and blue person rather than a striking yellow and orange one. So the papers went back in the drawer. I suddenly thought of the willow pattern china stamps by Joanna Sheen which I've had for a couple of years and used only a few times on ATCs. There was my blue! And including the big plate gave me an excuse for using my new Eyelet Nesties as well - the largest was a perfect fit. So far so good.

Then it was downhill all the way, or do I mean uphill? Nothing was quite right. I tried a MS border punch with similar eyelets but got the spacing wrong the first time and couldn't make the second attempt fit anywhere. I then stamped more of the china as the background using Versamark ink, looked at the square mid blue card thus produced, added the strip of ribbon and felt it was all wrong, so I cut the front off and tried it as an easel card, sticking that same front onto dark blue. No, it needed a light edge - and besides, the end of the ribbon on the back showed - so I unstuck it (being thankful I'd only used a glue stick and not my tape gun), cut a white mat and remounted it all. Oh, and at some point I was trimming slivers off edges because I realised that the finished card was going to be a hair's breadth too big for the available envelope, which it was anyway so went into a much bigger one folded over. No, I didn't attempt to make one the right size...

Still with me? We now have an easel card with blank inside and no support for the front edge. I think it took another half an hour minimum before I fixed the final piece, with the jugs, like the plate, stamped in Brilliance Mediterranean Blue. It only took three attempts to add a small insert sheet with a punched border at the bottom (those MS punches really do not like single sheets of thin paper and it's high time I remembered) and the best happening of the day was not smudging the stamped greeting.

Now all I have to do is remember to post the thing in good time.

Made a card today!

My first card in three weeks - I think my mojo has been two timing but it was forced home today and I actually produced a couple of cards; the pics of one, however, are waiting to be uploaded from the camera so that will have to be a separate post.

This card is for an online friend in Scotland whose birthday is tomorrow so I have little hope it will arrive in time, but since she lives alone and is having a very bad time with her health maybe she will enjoy stretching her birthday a bit (and she certainly won't be expecting a card from me). I've had the verse for years but never used it, likewise the butterfly paper, and I felt quite virtuous for using up several scraps. Mind you, I seemed to have more scraps when I'd finished than when I started but isn't that always the way?

There isn't a lot to say about it: the stamp is by Clarity, the punch is Arched Lattice by Martha Stewart. Happy birthday Sarah...

One Out of Two: Must Try Harder!

It was our wedding anniversary yesterday and I'm ashamed to say that I didn't make my husband a card. I was full of good intentions on Saturday evening, having spent the day at a craft shop's demo day, but by Sunday morning all inspiration had flown and it didn't return on Monday. However DH totally forgot our anniversary, so honours were even.

It's his birthday tomorrow and I've just made this card kneeling on the floor of my workroom in the most ridiculous cramped conditions! The trouble is that I usually work on the dining table, but the dining room gives direct access to the garden and DH has been trimming the hedge and cutting the lawn so he's been in and out like a fiddler's elbow. My craft room is too small (OK, too untidy) for a table so rather than risk him seeing his card before The Day I worked behind a closed door. That didn't stop him coming into the living room via another door when I was using the scanner there, but then occasionally our house resembles a French farce with characters entering and leaving rooms with multiple doors and unintentionally pursuing each other while the cats look on in amazement. Their only concern is who will stop long enough in one place to feed them.

Anyway, the card is made in two shades of Bazzill card, with leaf paper by Nancy Watts from Making Cards magazine. The bird is by Stampin Up stamped in Versafine sepia and cut with a Nestie and the background sponged with Vintage Photo distress ink. The brown leaf was a button but I chopped the shank off so it lay flat. And the punch is my latest Martha Stewart acquisition, Iron Gate.

Summer? What summer?

Yes, summer is definitely on its way out and I'm marking the progress through the year with yet another change of photograph in the heading: this was taken at the Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley a couple of years ago. It was a gorgeous day in October when the autumn colours were at their best against a vivid blue sky, but I don't want to anticipate autumn too soon so I'll keep the red and gold maples for another day.

If I take May as the start of summer the season ended as it began, because once again the month was notable for visitors and dancing! I exaggerate a little, since only my sister came to visit and she stayed for less than 4 days, but we filled that precious time together with laughter and visiting old haunts from our childhood because she now lives in Somerset and I live just a few miles away from where we grew up. The month finished with a terrific long weekend spent folk dancing near Warwick, which is always a highlight of our year though tinged with sadness that it's the last of the festivals and a very long time to the next one in May 2011. I filled the rest of the month annotating my new book of dances and am now waiting for the proof reading to be completed......unfortunately I can't help tweaking and 'improving' the text each time I look at it so the marked copy I receive back from DD will bear little relation to what I have on the DTP!


Apart from the Get well card of my last post I made no cards at all during August. I need to get back into the habit, though, as it is a friend's birthday on Friday, our wedding anniversary next week (42 years) and DH's birthday 2 days later and I haven't given a thought to any cards yet. The easel card shown here was made at the weekend for friends Mark & Faye celebratng their Silver Wedding tomorrow; the base card is palest mauve pearlescent and the centre panel, mounted on the same mauve and matted on plain silver, is white and silver paper that looks like lace - a strip of the same paper backs the raised panel inside. Since I haven't shown it before I'm also showing the card I made for Mark's parents when they had their Golden Wedding 5 years ago.

Oriental Get Well Soon

Just a quick card today. An online friend is having a bad time in hospital and I made this to send her a get well note. I don't usually do 'cut 'n' stick' designs but I've had these Oriental washi papers for years and decided it was time I opened the packet, then couldn't think how I was going to use them! There are 20 uniquely patterned 4" squares plus some co-ordinating plain colours; the card turned out better than I first thought so I may be using this layout again to use up some more of the papers. But I trust it won't be for the same friend - she is forced to spend a lot of time in bed because of ill health so I'm really hoping the doctors at last have her sorted and that she will be home very soon.

Wheee - I've had a face lift!

Well, not me, only my blog! Someone on SplitCoastStampers has just started blogging after asking for help and I had a look at what she has produced so far. It was gorgeous! As a result I've been exploring for myself what is available on Blogger and have had great fun playing with new colours and backgrounds - I'd no idea so much was possible. However, once I found the maple leaves everything else was forgotten so I hope you're all impressed and like the new wallpaper :)

Jack of All Trades and Master of None!

I've neglected my blog for the past ten days because I've been busy putting together a new book of folk dances. I've published two previously, the last one being 5 years ago, but the big difference this time is that I'm using a desktop publisher myself instead of leaving it entirely to DH. Of course, it's a very steep learning curve and I'm very grateful for his help; he has edited the motor club monthly newsletter/magazine for over 12 years now so has it at his fingertips but unfortunately he isn't good at understanding why I have problems! Still, the dance instructions are all imported to the page layout, I now have to add the extra information like recommended recordings and the reason for the titles (I always find that fascinating in other people's books so have included it in all of mine) then it will examined by my daughter who's a trained proof reader and finally emailed to the printer. It's a very different process from my first book which was published in 1998 - I remember crawling over the floor trying to work out which pages had to be printed side by side and what went on the reverse so that when the sheets were folded and collated they appeared in the right order!

The other excitement in the past week is news of the story I wrote for the WI competition mentioned on my blog for 27 June. Entries are first judged at County level and the top 3 from each go forward to the national finals: last Tuesday I had a phone call to say I had been picked as one of the Hampshire winners. I was utterly amazed because it is almost the first thing I have written since I left school. I mentioned in that blog entry that I've previously done a course at the WI college on story telling and I had to write a couple of brief stories for that; since then I've composed another to tell as an entertainment 'spot' during a folk dance, but I really don't think of myself as a writer. Or I didn't.....I think I'm now sufficiently encouraged to see what else I can produce. I don't claim any greatness for this story, by the way - it was limited to 500 words, and although there are 7200 WI members in Hampshire there were only 39 entries. It will be judged against 150 others nationally so I'm not expecting any further success, but I shall be reading it from the stage at the County meeting in October which will be a great thrill.


Finally, to some cards! It's been a long time since I used some of the older techniques I've enjoyed in the past, other than iris folding which I've done a few times in the past year. This week I found my ornaré templates and paper stitching materials. I made a stitched and beaded Christmas card front which has yet to be mounted so I'll show that when complete, but for now here is one for a friend who was among my first lacemaking students over 30 years ago and will be 93 this month. I enjoy paper pricking and as it is similar to making a pattern for bobbin lacemaking it seems very appropriate for Eva. The rose is a single layer but I used foam pads behind the big flower to give an illusion of 3D.

The bottle shaped card is made from a template by WS Designs and the stamps are also by WSD. I chalked the grapes and used gold paper for the neck; our friend lives in Spain amid vineyards and olive groves so it seems another ideal choice.

Frances's card - improved!

Although I showed the card I made for Frances yesterday I wasn't at all happy with it...it was one of those days when nothing gelled, nothing went quite right, and I ended up at the end of my patience thinking 'It will have to do!' I mentioned this on SplitCoastStampers and received some lovely feedback from Ruth, who made a constructive suggestion which I thought about then came up with a slightly different take. This is the result, and I'm a hundred times happier than I was just 24 hours ago! So thank you very much, Ruth - and I'll be in touch :)

Another card for Frances

At the beginning of June I showed a card for a friend who celebrated her 90th birthday a couple of weeks back. Sadly I'm now showing a 'get well soon' card for her: Frances broke her leg a few days ago and has had to choose between being in traction for ten weeks or having surgery to pin the bone. Typically she has decided on an operation which should mean a shorter period of inaction. The hospital staff were taken aback when they asked if she normally preferred to walk with a frame or a stick and she replied indignantly 'Neither! I belong to a rambling group, and only have a slight problem with hills sometimes!' Bless her, she has an artificial hip and osteoarthritis but doesn't let anything hinder her...especially when a visit to a craft shop is in her sights!

The card is very simple, just a small JustRite greeting with wide border mounted on silver and blue mirror card layers cut with Blossom #1 by Spellbinders. The background paper has been in my stash for years and knowing that Frances loves blue and butterflies I couldn't have found anything more appropriate.

Birthday Cakes

This is the card I made at the weekend but couldn't scan. It's the first stepper I've tried, using a template by 'Get in Shape' (isn't that a great name?!). I couldn't make sense of the instructions at first so did a dummy run with a piece of scrap paper and it worked perfectly, so making the real card was child's play. The cake stand image is by Impression Obsession, sentiment by Stampendous and the individual cakes are from Hero Arts, coloured with Promarkers. The main image and sentiment are cut and layered with Nesties. I used Dewdrops as cherries; next time I'll use Tippex to get rid of the line behind them as they are so very transparent. The card is for my DD - I've told her not to look at my blog until after her birthday on Friday :)

Christopher and Christmas

An online stitching friend gave birth to Christopher John last Thursday. I made this little card for the family today, using once again my favourite teddy bear stamp by PSX which I chalked, cut out and popped on foam tape. The letters are silver peel offs; I assembled the name on a piece of waxed paper and then transferred it to the card with low tack tape. I even managed to get it more-or-less central and almost straight! It's very simple and was quick to make but I'm quietly pleased with it; since there are no babies in our family and I really don't do 'cute' I don't have a lot of suitable stamps for such occasions, but teddies are always good :).


The snowman card is for the Bah! Humbug! challenge which this week is to make a Christmas card for a special friend. It's the first time I've managed to do the challenge, despite all my good intentions to make my Christmas cards regularly throughout the year - I started off making 4 in March and today's effort brings my total to.....five! Oh dear. I found the tag card while looking for something else this morning and thought it would make an interesting layout. All the stamps are by JustRite Stampers from various Christmas sets, cut with Nesties and coloured with Promarkers. I've seen previews of the new Christmas sets coming out in the next couple of months and think I'll have to hide my credit card in a tub of water in the freezer........

And now for something completely different...

I'm home alone this weekend, DH having gone to France for five days with friends from the motor club to watch the 24 hour classic car race at Le Mans. It isn't the 'BIG' 24 hours contested by professionals which takes place each June: this one is held biennially for cars over 30 years old driven by amateurs. DH is lovingly restoring a 1953 baby MG saloon which he bought to be his retirement project; so far it's taken 15 years to strip, restore and rebuild, but at last it's looking like a car again with 4 wheels, doors, a roof...even the headlights are installed and working! But don't ask when it will be on the road - it won't be this year, that's for sure. And no, he doesn't intend to race it :)

Anyway, with the house to myself (apart from two large ginger cats) I've spent the day playing. First up was a birthday card which I can't show because it won't scan and DH has borrowed my camera, so that will have to wait for a few days. I started the second one by making 4 background sheets using Distress Inks in various colour combinations, applying them with Cut 'n' dry foam. The selected one is a mixture of Faded Jeans, Dusty Concord and Milled Lavender. The plants were stamped in Versamark and embossed with white detail embossing powder and the verse was stamped in blue Versafine. I first saw these words in a magazine project about 18 months ago and have wanted them ever since, but it's part of a set (together with the bottom two plants, and others) by Darkroom Door and I always felt I couldn't afford it. Yesterday I caved in and ordered it on line when I found it reduced and with free postage, and justified its purchase by thinking that the ferry to France plus 4 nights in a hotel will be costing DH considerably more! It was a shock to receive the set this morning just 20 hours after I placed the order but I'm really delighted to have it and foresee that it will get plenty of use. Over the past year I've collected quite a lot of stamps with weeds/wild grasses - quirky, maybe, but I do like to be different! Oh, and the stamp in the top corner is from a wild flower set by Elusive Images.

When it came to turning the panel into a card I spent a long time trying to find a suitable background. It looked good on the dark blue as seen in the top left corner, but that is literally the only piece I had - plenty of other blues, but they just didn't look right. The purple in the bottom right corner looked good, but it wasn't big enough for the whole card front and all I have left is a piece about 3 inches square! Finally I decided on the checkerboard effect....very unusual for me and I'm not sure what DH will think about it, but at least it's a finished card.

CPS Challenge 174

It's ages since I've looked at any of the challenge sites listed in my side bar: it's almost as much as I can do to make a card when required for birthdays etc. However, today I spent some time tidying up minor details on my blog and clicked on the link to CPS almost at random. As soon as I saw the sketch for this week I picured this card; although I have made it specially it's a design I've used several times in the past. The origami inkwell is very easy to make using tissue paper and instructions in the HOTP booklet #2176 Tea bag folding and More; the letter is embossed with the (old) Cuttlebug folder Script (there's a newer, less chunky one now); the sentiment is by Inca and of course the ovals were cut with Nesties.The gorgeous shimmery, copper coloured background paper came from a supplier at one of the craft shows I frequent but I have no idea of its origin. Oh, and the feather probably came from a pigeon!

Broke, but Happy

Yesterday I went with my DD and three friends to a big stamping and papercraft show about an hour's drive from home. I've been to every show except two since it started 14 years ago and always enjoy it; this was the biggest and the busiest I can remember. One stall in particular had some terrific bargains and I blew my budget in the first half hour, but I have no regrets and enjoyed watching demos for much of the remaining time. I didn't buy anything entirely new (do the words Nesties and Martha Stewart punches and stencil paste have a familiar ring?); in fact one of my purchases was an early Cuttlebug embossing folder which I've happily ignored for years but saw on someone's blog recently and realised I needed it immediately! I ought to keep my new toys out to play with and then show the results here before I put them away.......not being very tidy that shouldn't be too difficult, however today I just stroked them then pulled out some old favourites to create an anniversary card for friends.


After my efforts with stencil paste last Sunday normal service is resumed, using an image from JustRite Stampers; Nesties; a Cuttlebug embossed background and a Martha Stewart punch. Not for the first time (and undoubtedly not the last) the finished card is quite different from the one I set out to make - plans have to be changed when you realise that the 'scrap' of card you have cheerfully cut up for a punched border was the piece that 5 minutes ago you had carefully measured,cut and trimmed to make the background. OK, so there's always Plan B...

It isn't obvious from the scan but the fold is at the top of the card. The centre motif from JRS's Breath of Spring set is stuck only at the top and holds the bottom flap in place - I used Promarkers to colour the flowers and tinted the background with light brown chalk. The pink background is embossed with Swiss Dots (another delayed purchase which rapidly proved its worth) layered on matt silver and the MS punch is Double Loops. Just an aside here: I realised that the MS punches I was most tempted to buy yesterday were so very similar in style to this one that I had to force myself to buy something quite different!

I almost forgot to say that yesterday afternoon concluded with a group meeting of members from one of my internet craft forums. I've 'borrowed' the screen name of one lady to use as the title for this post - I couldn't have put it any better myself.

More Stencil Paste

Here are the two other panels I made on Sunday. The ginger jar was made exactly like the wisteria vase; I was a bit dismayed when I saw how bright the blue ink was when sponged round the edges, but then I found the exact same shade in my stash of card stock and it made a very nice easel card! I found a blue chalk which toned in well to fill the gaps on the porcelain: it didn't look anything like the colour while in the box, but they merge well.The birthday greeting I had used for the wisteria was stamped in the same ink and the panel raised on the bottom inside edge to provide the support, then a single sheet with a punched edge added above it for the message. I haven't bothered to photograph it (as opposed to scanning) because A. it would be a week before I found the photo on the computer again (see my previous post on 8 June) and B. you can see my earlier easel cards at the post on 25 April.


The new home card didn't set out to be one, but having decided that I needed to mount the gold tree on something and then remembered that I need a new home card sooner rather than later - my friend moves 200 miles away next Monday - I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. It's perhaps 'unusual' for the topic, but the kanji translate as Blessing, Prosperity and Happiness and I think that's a very fitting sentiment for a single lady moving away from family and friends to a place that has been her dream for several years. L has had a very difficult time recently, with divorce and cancer and the death of both parents, and I wish her every happiness in her new life.

Stories and Stencil Paste

It's been two weeks since my previous post: no cardmaking in that time, but a little creativity in other areas. Last weekend we attended another dance festival, this time in the city of Lichfield which has one of my favourite cathedrals. We had a most enjoyable time and I was so fired up that I wrote a dance the day after we returned - searching for a title I realised that it was the Longest Day, so no prizes for guessing what I named my dance! Unfortunately I also returned with a bout of bronchitis which I'd been incubating the week before, but a dose of antibiotics has finally done the trick and I'm feeling much better. That's also due to having an unbroken sleep last night for the first time in at least ten days because of the cough.

My other creative effort recently has been to write a story for a WI competition. Generally speaking I don't write, although I'm interested in telling stories as a folk art and took a course at the WI college some 18 months ago which was truly inspirational. It also revealed a hidden talent for sounding utterly convincing when telling stories in the first person - both such tales that I told were assumed to be factual even by the tutor although there wasn't a word of truth in either! Thinking about it, that could be bit worrying: I've always reckoned myself to be so bad at telling porkies (pork pies = lies in rhyming slang for those who don't understand English ;) ) that I gave it up at a very young age!

This afternoon I have been amusing myself with some cardmaking. We have 3 family birthdays in July plus several friends' both that month and in August so I need to get on with them. I don't think any of the family are regular readers of my blog so I'm happy to show off the results, but won't specify who they are for... however, I can say that this first one is for a crafting friend.


It's a new (for me) technique using Dreamweaver stencils and embossing paste. I've done the basics for several years but recently saw a demo using two stencils on the same design, dry embossing the outline first then adding an overlay, applying the paste and colouring it when dry. I edged the vase with sage Distress Ink, coloured the wisteria with chalks (I thnk I was a bit heavy handed for this first attempt) then coloured the gaps on the vase with more sage applied very lighly using a cotton bud. It's just enough to make it stand out from the glossy white background and makes it look rather like white marble. I was going to turn it into an easel card but after trying various colour combinations and layouts I decided simple was best. And I have to confess that I'm rather pleased with the result!

I did a couple more stencil paste pieces at the same time (if I'm playing messy I like to make a thorough job of it :)) so when I've turned them into cards I'll show them off here.

Golden Wedding Anniversary card

I've made this style of card many times, because it's so versatile and always makes an impact. Sorry the colour of the scan is poor, it's much too pink for the real thing which is cream and gold! I started with a sheet of ivory pearlescent card, folded and trimmed to 7"x5". I then mixed measurements and marked 2cm (just under 1") from the folded edge for the line between front cover and spine, and the same below the top to trim the front and reveal the 'pages' which are rows of narrow peel offs stuck on the inside. The corners were trimmed to a slight curve instead of straight, the first time I've tried it but it's definitely an improvement (see my blog entry for 14 February for a comparison). The gold panel uses Martha Stewart's Punch Around the Page 'Double Loop' set, and the 3D flowers are from a decoupage sheet by Mireille. I only used 3 layers which I think is quite enough, although the sheet provides seven. I added a single sided insert sheet because it has to be quite small to avoid the cutaway sections, and somehow a tiny folded insert looks wrong IMHO. I used the same border punch along the bottom, and a gold peel off anniversary greeting to tie it all together. I hope our friends like it.

Goodness me - nothing from JRS, no Nesties and no Cuttlebug! No doubt they will all re-appear when I start on my next batch of birthday cards.

Message in a Bottle

This was a fun project! Frustrating at times, trying to press on unsupported acetate without creasing it, but the result was definitely worth the effort. The bottle template is by Crafters' Delight and the acetate I used is OHP film - firm enough to hold its shape, but flexible when curved and not too fragile. There are 4 pieces to the bottle (neck, shoulder, body & base) plus a green card back. The background bubble paper is from my stash, the cork is a real one and the tropical fish are cut from a sheet of vellum I bought years ago and have wondered why ever since! I must have known it would come in useful one day. I should, perhaps, explain that the dark blue is merely background, the card itself is the lighter blue bit. I have enormous problems with photos of cards rather than scans: I still haven't learnt how to download from my camera and so have to rely on DH. Unfortunately as far as my photos are concerned they jump from the camera into a black hole and it takes hours (and harsh words between us) plus a large slice of luck to locate them. DH's photos? No problem - he downloads, files, edits and labels them, and retrieves them with a snap of his fingers. I have been going round in circles trying to decide where this one might be hiding, and what it might be called. There was no way I could crop and/or resize when it finally appeared - I was just so relieved that I grabbed it then let it go. I shall never find it again!

Next card due is for the golden wedding in a week's time, so watch this space...

Two cards today

The first is for an online crafting friend who will, according to her birth certificate, be 90 next month, although none of her friends believes it! She's a lovely lady who looks at least 15 years younger and is a real live wire; whenever our craft group organises a get together in the south of England F decides it's time to make the journey by coach from her home in Yorkshire to visit her daughter in Kent so she can join us in exploring the local craft shops.

I know her favourite colour is blue and she loves flowers and butterflies so some of the paper I bought in New Zealand last year cried out to be used for her card. I love the verse I've put on the front (especially the last line, which I think we could all aspire to) but because the Nestie label covers most of the blue paper I used it for the insert as well. It's a reversible design so the upper half of the insert is loose to show the white-on-blue version. The scanner has made the blues look completely different, but I assure you they are the same - the picture of the card front is nearer to the true shade.

The other card is one of my trademark Clean and Simple designs, or is it really Plain and Boring?! For something that looks so very easy it took an inordinate amount of time to produce: I started with the punched edge, discarded my original colour scheme, tried pictures, stamped images, quotations, Nestie shapes, embellishments of all types....and ended up with the absolute minimum! But my DH, whose artistic eye is much better than mine, said firmly that I should leave well alone and he thought it was most elegant (yes, his very words ;) ) so here it is. The recipient is a friend of my sister's and together they make and sell cards for several charities in their village; DSis's style is akin to mine and she leaves G to do the more ornate stuff, so I hope G doesn't find this too lacking in decoration. I'm sure I don't need to enumerate all the bits and pieces I actually used, they're the same as in most of my recent cards LOL.

What happened to last month?!

I find it hard to believe I haven't blogged for a month! May was certainly busy, with visitors, a dance week on the Isle of Mull, decorating our bedroom, and a long weekend dancing at Chippenham Folk Festival. Hmmm, that probably answers the query in the title! But I have been creative, after a fashion: I composed two dances during and immediately after our trip to Mull, one to celebrate our friend Mary's 80 years of folk dancing which I expect to call at her celebratory dance in September. The other I shall dedicate to friends in the local dance club whose surname is England; it's called 'Green and Pleasant Land' (a quotation from Blake's Jerusalem which we sing at our Women's Institute meetings) and each of the four sections in the dance is named for a 'green and pleasant' part of this country. I tried it out last Wednesday and temporarily changed the title and just numbered the figures so it will come as a surprise for T & L when I announce it at a residential course I'm helping to lead at Halsway Manor, also in September. Having been asked particularly to run a workshop of my own 'new' (ie hitherto unpublished) dances I'm planning to launch my third book that weekend, so I have a lot of editing to do over the summer.



Back to cardmaking today, however. I heard on the grapevine that a fellow member of the WI has been seriously injured in a road accident, so I made this card for her using the embossing folder from the Cuttlebug 'With gratitude' set, the Martha Stewart 'Arched lattice' punch, words and border from JustRite Stampers 'Just a note' set cut with a Nestie circle, and my new Lotus pendant, also from Spellbinders. The gold dots are waste from a peel off border - it took a while to apply them using the tip of a scalpel, but I think they really lift the card and it was worth the effort. I still need to make two birthday cards and one for a golden wedding for June, plus cards for a 90th birthday and 3 family birthdays in July, so there will surely be more blogging this month than last!