Leaves From My Notebook

Two stitched cards

2012-03-07T15:50:00.002Z

A friend on an online craft forum recently posted a request for help: she has been asked to do a demo plus 'make and take' in a London store using Gutermann threads and asked if anyone could make some sample cards for her. There was a free choice of designs and L supplied five spools of Sulky thread, I received two pinks, light brown, light green and a green/gold mix. These are the two cards I made, both using patterns by Form-A-Lines. It was the first time I had stitched with Sulky which is intended for machine embroidery but I shall certainly be using it again - it is very smooth and has a lovely sheen, so not as bright as the metallics I normally use but shinier than DMC embroidery threads.

Spades, hearts and diamonds

2012-02-07T22:06:00.012Z

These two cards were finished a few days ago but they both needed to be photographed rather than scanned and the weather has been a little chill, to put it mildly - I prefer to do it outside with natural lighting so waited until today when most of the snow has gone. Now I need to put the first card in the post to America and hope it arrives in time.

It isn't really anything to do with hearts, except that my niece's birthday is on Valentine's Day. Liz loves her garden so I had a bit of fun with this - yes, it's a side stepper just like the last card I made. I've said it before: I never claim to be imaginative and when I find something that works I'm likely to stick with it! The lady gardener is by Paper Nation, stamped and coloured with pencils then mounted on dark green using a Mega Deckle Rectangle Nestability die. The background stamp is by Hero Arts, the quotation and small images are by PSX. The little metal tulips I've had for years and cannot remember who made them, but they were just perfect to finish off the front.

I am entering this card in the Sir Stampalot challenge for February which, fortuitously, is entitled 'In the Garden'. Or more accurately, it was the challenge theme which gave me the idea for Liz's card! :)

In my last post I said I would be making a very special card for a very special lady....and here it is. I belong to the Women's Institute and our county federation has organised a competition for a card to be sent, on behalf of all Hampshire members, to congratulate Her Majesty the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee. I must say that left to myself I would not have made such a card as, although I am a monarchist and admire the Queen greatly, I just do not do things like that. However, I try to enter what competitions I can to show support for the organisers. There are over 7,000 WI members in Hampshire and maybe 100 will enter; I don't expect my card to be chosen (not everyone likes plain and simple but I'm no good at beautiful and elaborate) and if it isn't then I can change the insert and save the card for someone's diamond wedding instead!

The base card is bright white Bazzill card. The embossing folder is by Cuttlebug as are the die cut numbers; I matted the Nestie diamond and the top layer on the same silver mirri card as the numbers using the Perfect Layers Tool then raised the diamond on foam pads; there are tiny clear gems where the embossed lines intersect.

The wording inside was indicated by the Federation: I have printed it in the standard WI dark green on parchment and it is more legible than it appears here (also the tape doesn't show up as much IRL).

Where did January go?

2012-01-30T11:58:00.006Z

I can't believe it's almost February, I had such plans for the start of the new year that came to naught because a bad cold laid me low for a good two weeks. But I haven't been completely idle: I've made 50lb marmalade, have four knitted jumpers (sweaters) in various stages of progress for orphans in Zimbabwe (I enjoy knitting them but hate sewing up), stitched four card bookmarks for a giveaway through FaceBook (and bought another set of six patterns...) and started to spring clean the kitchen cupboards. But what happened to my plans for making birthday cards two months in advance (I should have six made right now) and eight (reduced from 14 - whatever was I thinking?!) Christmas cards per month? I'll leave you to answer that one :(

But fear not, I produced this card yesterday :) The friend for whom I made the seaside card in my last post will be celebrating her Golden Wedding next week and I've been brooding over possible designs all month; finally everything fell into place and I'm very pleased with the result. I used a lovely pale gold pearlescent card for the base, cut to a side stepper using a template by Get in Shape Templates. The rose stamp, embossed in gold, is by PSX and I mounted it on matt gold using once again the Perfect Layers tool. Oh, that's such a wonderful invention!! I used it also for the panels on the steps where a rose patterned paper is mounted on the matt gold, which I also used to cut the numbers from the Cuttlebug Hippie Chick font. The 'Congratulations' and strip of tiny roses are gold peel offs, and I used the same roses down each side of the inner panel.

I am entering this card in the Joanna Sheen monthly challenge for January, the theme being 'Celebrations'.

There's another couple of friends celebrating their Golden Wedding in August: that will be my fifth GW card in 18 months! But next up is a very special card for a very special lady....watch this space and I hope to have something soon :)

December birthdays old and new

2011-12-23T00:00:00.002Z

A very special friend will be 70 tomorrow and this is the card I've made for her: I always make a special point of making something as different from a Christmas card as I can, so this seaside theme fits the bill perfectly. I struggled with it but was finally happy - it was the inclusion of the bright yellow that tipped the balance even though it's among my least favourite colours. I love the quotation which is an old PSX stamp I managed to track down on eBay last year and it's cut with the beaded oval Nestability . The sketch of the woman is by Stampin' Up! cut with a small classic square Nestie and matted using my new, indispensible tool, the Perfect Layers ruler. Highly recommended, it's so simple to use and results in perfectly even mats without any measuring. And no, this isn't a sales advert: I have no axe to grind other than being one very happy crafter!

Well, there's a new birthday added to the calendar for December: Holly Louise was born on Wednesday 21st and this is the card for her proud parents. The teddies by PSX are my favourite go-to stamp for baby cards, coloured with chalks and mounted on pink which I promise you is not as lurid IRL as it appears here! And the piece at the bottom cut with a Nestie Fancy Tag die really did come from the same piece of card although it looks very different. The holly background is shaded green so I 'm not blaming the scanner for colour variation there, and although you can't see it the insert sheet has its edges decorated with a Fiskars holly border punch.

I should be back next week with the final card for this year - a friend's birthday is on New Year's Eve.

Winter friends

2011-12-07T14:51:00.005Z

A quick posting today of a card made for the new Joanna Sheen blog challenge which is called Christmas Wishes :) The verse is a custom made stamp, the snowman is by Inkadinkado coloured with dry pencils and cut with Classic Oval Nestabilities. The background paper is from a large batch of handmade Indian paper I bought several years ago - this particular design has made wonderful snowflakes!

I'm also entering this card in the final Bah! Humbug! challenge for Cute Christmas Critters because it gives me a way of saying thanks to Max and Ann for all their hard work and apologies for having disappeared off their radar for most of the year. Ladies, you won't have seen my previous post explaining that I've been ill for the past 6 months (or at least not well) but I am now recovered and rarin' to go with next year's Bah! Humbug! challenges :)

I'm still alive!

2011-12-05T20:57:00.008Z

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. For the past six months, since our holiday in Scotland, I've not felt well and although I kept trying to pick myself up and get on with things it didn't work. Finally I went to the doctor and after several comprehensive blood tests I can now state categorically that there is nothing the matter with me; possibly I have had a virus which has gone, and apart from monitoring my blood pressure for a couple of weeks I shall not need to visit the doctor again (I hope). I certainly feel very much better than I have done for months and have been trying to make up for lost time, especially in the Christmas card department!

The card shown here is not the only one I've made in the past month but all the others are just copies of some shown earlier. I thought that would save time, but choosing to make a dozen of a particularly complex design was, perhaps, not my brightest idea... This is one I've had in mind for years and in fact I made it with a stamped background many years ago. If anyone knows where I can buy Christmas tree paper like this I'll be forever in your debt - this is half of a small sheet given free with Making Cards magazine Christmas special, and I was stupidly reluctant to make a second card and use it up! The bauble shape is from Spellbinder's Heirloom Ornaments 2011 cut from holographic card, and the stamped sentiment is from JustRite Stampers Merry Little Christmas set. The large greeting is a silver peel off and since scanning it I've added a line of tiny silver peel off stars at the bottom of the background paper which improves the overall look considerably.

I intend to return to my blog with a header photo of all my handmade cards when I finally call a halt. 2012 will see me blogging much more often, showing off birthday cards made two months before they're needed, and at least 14 new Christmas cards each month. I shall sail serenely through the cardmaking year.....and if I manage that it will only be because, like a swan, I'm paddling like h*ll out of sight!

On the first day of Christmas...

2011-10-30T16:28:00.000Z

I'm a bit apprehensive about this card! I made it last week to give to a young friend who is supposed to be leaving for a holiday in Thailand tomorrow. She was very pleased with it, but in view of the terrible floods in that country I'm wondering if she will actually be able to go. She has made all her own arrangements so doesn't even have a travel agent to advise her, and although I know the trip has been over a year in the planning so she will be bitterly disappointed if she has to cancel, the important thing is her safety. My heart goes out to the Thai people trying to live in such conditions, too - I should think the last thing they need right now are tourists!

This is the first in a set from Pinbroidery and I think it's a great design! Much quicker to stitch than I expected, but if I continue with all 12 I don't think I shall want to send them.....maybe I could use them as part of our holiday decorations instead :) Stitched using Kreinik Cord, which is a single ply metallic thread.

More parchment

2011-10-21T20:04:00.002+01:00

This Christmas card was made using a stencil designed by Alison Yeates, one of the tutors on last week's parchment course. I've always felt that the use of such stencils was sort of cheating but having discovered how versatile they are, with many design elements to use in different ways, I put my scruples aside and thought I'd try it. I love the result! And there's enough 'real' parching skills in the execution that my scruples have been banished entirely and I'm keen to try another design :)

Parchment craft

2011-10-18T17:31:00.001+01:00

I spent last week on a parchment craft course with Alison Yeates and Christine Coleman. I haven't done very much before although I started many years ago, and the given projects really stretched me because they were largely geared to colouring with different media, whereas my preference is for whitework. Besides, I don't have an artistic bone in my body and rate my skill as on a level with a backward two year old! We started 5 projects but had only 4½ days so most will be completed at home; these two were the smallest and I finished them today.

The pumpkin was coloured using polychromos pencils, which are excellent for blending. Quite a lot of what you see here was Christine's work - despite watching her demonstrations closely and thinking I was doing it just the same, she took an eraser to much of my efforts and with a deft touch showed me again what it ought to look like! :) I did enjoy perforating and cutting the border though: much more my style! The panel is mounted on copper mirri card which complements the orange pumpkin very well.

The second piece, apart from the border, isn't true parchment craft but it does make quite an attractive card: the motifs were cut from a paper serviette and stuck onto parchment. The pink colouring round the peacock was done with a polychromos pencil softened with a blending medium and the whole overlays a piece of shaded blue card.

I apologise for the crooked scans - I'm not sure if it's good or bad that they are tilted in opposite directions...

Now I plan to finish the largest project which shouldn't take me too long, so I hope to back blogging very soon.

Two cards

2011-09-18T13:29:00.002+01:00

By Thursday of last week I was in a state of mild panic: it had been our wedding anniversary the previous day and I hadn't made a card for DH; his birthday was on Friday and I was completely out of inspiration, and I still had to make a Golden Wedding card for Saturday! This is what I produced in a short space of time - not the greatest card I've ever made, but nor was it too bad

On Friday I was so bugged about the GW card that I wandered round the house doing everything except make a card - things were so desperate that I almost did the ironing!!! Needless to say, once I sat down things were much better and although I didn't set out to make an easel card this is how it evolved....and I was actually pleased with it when finished

I've had a rather rough time over the past 5 months (culminating last week with our son emigrating to Canada) and my mojo has been on a long vacation but I'm hoping to be back on an even keel now. There's a lull in upcoming birthdays so I plan to go back to making Christmas cards and entering the Bah! Humbug! challenges, and the others I still have listed in my sidebar.

Hey, I'm on a roll!

2011-09-07T14:40:00.000+01:00

Third card in a week, after so little in the past four months: I hope it isn't overkill! After all, I still have a lot of Christmas cards to make as well as more birthday and anniversary cards, but they will have to wait for a few days as we shall be having our last lot of visitors this weekend, arriving tomorrow.

This card is for a friend who is a keen gardener. Both the design and the words are from Joanna Sheen and the embossing is a Cuttlebug folder.

Ruby Wedding

2011-09-03T20:25:00.001+01:00

Friends are celebrating their Ruby Wedding tomorrow and this is the card I've made for them. Nothing original, it's a pattern I've used several times for ruby, sapphire(45) emerald (55) and diamond(60) anniversaries and it always makes an impact. The design is by a Dutch lady on the World of Crafters forum and is an advanced form of iris folding: it doesn't spiral inwards and finish with an iris like the basic designs I made last Christmas (and showed in detail here ), and it has exposed corners which can be tricky to get neat, but although it took quite a time to complete I'm pleased with the final result.

Wedgwood Style Birthday Card

2011-08-31T14:36:00.000+01:00

It's been a long time since I did any card making; I'm ashamed to say I've missed at least three birthdays in that time, however my excuse is that it's been a busy month with visitors and attending two folk dance festivals. Now the weather has decided that summer is over, autumn draws near and settling down in the craft room is a very good idea, so here's the first of my offerings using a stamp I bought when my sister was staying with me and needed to be taken to a big craft shop.....well, that's my story!

The image is by Hero Arts, stamped using Versamark with detail white embossing powder. I swear the plain blue squares had straight edges and right angled corners when I cut them - can't think how they got themselves so crooked! (and they really don't look as bad on the real thing.)

Golden weddings

2011-07-28T23:16:00.000+01:00

No, not ours - though we're working on it! Friends are celebrating 50 years of marriage tomorrow and this is the card I made for them.

The base card is a deep cream, cut to the shape of a book and covered with handmade Indian paper. The stamped roses are from my well loved PSX collection, embossed in gold then layered on matt gold, and the whole trimmed with gold peel offs.

Other friends are also celebrating their Golden Wedding next Monday; their card is in the post heading for Spain. I showed it when I made it some time back but thought it would be nice to include it again, since it uses exactly the same materials but has quite a different look. There's another to be made for next month and one for next February, plus a Ruby wedding in September, so maybe it's time to find a different theme.

Oh, and a footnote to the card with 40 candles shown in my last post - it was very well received, and greatly admired!

Back with a Big One

2011-07-10T22:43:00.001+01:00

The past month has been a mix of highs and lows, hence the absence of any creative efforts from me. I think I'm now over the low spots so without further ado let me show off my latest effort: an e-NOR-mous card for my daughter's forthcoming 40th birthday. I take no credit for originality - my crafty friend Joy made one like this a couple of years ago for her son-in-law, and not only did she encourage me to consider making one like it for Claire but she gave me a template and picures plus periodic nudges to get on with it!

The template was actually a card blank from Craftwork Cards in the shape of 4 candles. I merely opened it out so there were 8 candles, traced round it on a large A3 sheet, cut it out, stuck on bits of foil paper and repeated four more times, then joined them together to make a 5 panel accordian folded card. The two problems were the flimsy nature of the foil, which creases if you so much as look at it, and the sheer size....when extended the card is 70", or 1.75 metres. The inner part of the flame is made with an X-Cut leaf punch exactly the same shape; the decorative circles are all by JustRite Stampers cut with Nestabilities Classic Circles and mounted on purple pearlised card cut with scalloped Nesties. The figures are from the Cuttlebug Hippie Chick alphabet dies.

Here are some more pics to show detail from left to right, the dark patches are shadow/reflections of me as I stood on a chair to take the photos:

It has taken many hours of work over the past eight days to make the card, and not for the first time I'm glad Claire wasn't twins :)

Down the Rabbit Hole

2011-06-13T22:07:00.005+01:00

At last we are back to normal following our disastrous holiday: not only have we replaced the car but two large boxes of our possessions were delivered this afternoon and I feel complete once more! The things I have missed most were all my dance instruction cards - fortunately stored on the computer so I've been reprinting as required when I've been teaching over the past three weeks - and my beloved SLR digicamera. It was a wrench leaving it behind, but those two boxes weighed 36 kilogrammes, or 75 lb....very nearly the maximum allowed for two air passengers! I don't know the weight of the suitcases we brought home by train but it was more than enough to persuade me that I could manage without my camera for a short time.

And in anticipation of its arrival I made this birthday card yesterday for my niece.

She produces her work's annual pantomime each December and this year it is to be based on Alice in Wonderland (I have been asked to choreograph the Lobster Quadrille which will open Act 2 - a considerable challenge compared to my usual dancers). I've always loved the book with its classic illustrations by Sir John Tenniel and have quite a lot of rubber stamps so decided to make a card incorporating as many as possible. I first thought of doing a neverending card like this one but the largest stamps were a bit too big for use on an 8" square card, and increasing the overall size would have made it unwieldly. I went for a 3 panel card instead, using as the base two 7"x5" blanks stuck together.

All the stamps were from whole plate sheets bought from an American eBay seller called Red Eowyn about 5 years ago and are the best reproductions I've come across - I'd like to get some more in the same series but she doesn't seem to be selling at present (ETA: Not on eBay, but she has a website). Because they look just like the book illustrations they didn't need colouring after being stamped with Versafine Black Onyx but I then added the quotes using red Versafine. It was fun using words out of context - I was particularly pleased with the 'No room!' for the Dormouse being stuffed head first into the teapot :) The brads on the greetings page were newly purchased just a couple of weeks back.

The page with the greetings panel opens to reveal two more illustrations.

And the back has a back view of Alice as well as my logo. Now I just have to hope that D doesn't read my blog.

Catching up

2011-06-05T23:11:00.002+01:00

Soon after my last posting we went to the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, for our annual week's holiday doing English country dancing. We arrived on Friday and spent the first 3 days renewing friendships, visiting favourite places and dancing each evening. The weather was bad with very heavy rain; the roads on Mull - almost everywhere they are single track width with passing places - are notorious for the potholes and unfortunately on Monday afternoon we hit a huge one pretending to be just a shallow puddle. Long story short: the car was written off by the insurers as being uneconomic to repair, governed by the logistical problems of remoteness rather than the intrinsic value of the car, so having been loaned transport by the dear people with whom we stay so that we could still go dancing each evening, we travelled the 600 miles back home at the end of the week by public transport (bus, ferry, 4 trains, 2 taxis and the London Underground).

The two weeks since our return, punctuated by last weekend dancing at a folk festival while using our campervan as a base, have been spent trying to pick up the pieces involving insurance, replacement car and courier service to get the rest of our goods and chattels back home, having abandoned them in our friends' spare wardrobe. What a pity it wasn't the sort that leads to Narnia: we might have had everything done so much more quickly! This weekend has been very productive and suddenly everything seems to be falling into place - with luck I might even manage to make a card or two this coming week.......

Pansies made with punches

2011-05-06T21:53:00.000+01:00

I mentioned earlier this week that I'd been making pansies with a paper punch; these are the later versions which are rather better than my first efforts. It must be one of the easiest flowers to make - since the real flowers are very flat the card versions don't need much moulding to look quite realistic. I went to Google Images for help with the markings and found every colour version imaginable, but I kept to shades of yellow and purple because I know the recipient loves purple. The stamp is a very old favourite by PSX and the punch is Pansy Border by Martha Stewart.

The completed cake

2011-05-06T21:23:00.004+01:00

Here is the promised picture of the celebration cake with its cardcraft topper. I was very disappointed when I first applied it because it didn't sit flat and I couldn't understand why - I'd turned the cake upside down to give a good level surface for the marzipan to be rolled on, and then the fondant icing was also rolled over the top. So how did I manage to have a point in the middle, on which the topper wobbled like a pea on a drum? More importantly, what could I do about it? Double sided sticky tape didn't seem to be the right answer, and pins round the edge wouldn't be much better.....fortunately when I tried it again a little later all was well and I decided it was the card circle which was out of true because of the uneven thicknesses (three layers in the middle to one on the edge) so I put it inside a large heavy book overnight and I think all will be well.

And now for something completely different.......

2011-05-03T21:33:00.010+01:00

My husband and I are members of a folk dance group which meets monthly between September and May. It was founded in May 1930 and our friend Mary was persuaded by her cousin to become a member just a few months later, aged 17. She has continued with the club ever since and insists it is still the Aldershot Folk Dance Club even though it is many years since its meetings were held in Aldershot. This coming Saturday we are having a party to celebrate 80 years of dancing (no, I can't make the figures add up either: I think we just forgot to have it last year!) and I volunteered to make a special cake. Now, I'm not a fantastic cook but I do quite enjoy baking; I make good cakes but there's no way I can ice them to a reasonable standard, so after a brief panic about what I could do for decoration I came up with the idea of using my trusty Cuttlebug and papercraft techniques rather than sugarcraft. And here's the result!

It's a rich fruit cake (made to a wedding cake recipe) which has been quietly maturing for 3 months, fortified with brandy. It has a covering of marzipan (almond paste) and tomorrow I'll ice it so it has a few days to dry and harden, but I've spent much of the past two days playing with ideas for the top. I used the Cuttlebug Fancy Pants alphabet to spell out the club name and the 80 came from the Hippie Chick alphabet. The blue scalloped circle is cut with a Marianne die and overlaying that is the Spellbinder Eyelets pendant in matt silver. The whole is mounted on a 7" diameter silver circle - an inch smaller than the cake - and I'll place the circle loose on top then remove it for cutting. A serendipitous touch was the blue circle having 12 scallops when there are 12 letters in the name.

Originally I had cut the letters in silver but they won't be wasted - I'm going to make cupcakes for those who don't like fruit cake and will use the letters individually on top. I think my daughter has a special cupcake stand so I'll ask to borrow that (provided I don't have to make 100s of cakes to fill it!)

I'll take a photo of the cake when it's finished and add it to this entry but I wanted to show that I haven't been completely idle.....I've also been playing with more punched flowers (pansies this time) but haven't made a card for them yet.

Bah Humbug Challenge #16 (& #15)

2011-04-25T16:13:00.003+01:00

Despite the fact that we have been enjoying a heat wave over the Easter weekend - and indeed for the past two weeks - I'm delighted to have made two Christnmas cards today, the first since I finished my stint as guest designer for the Bah! Humbug! weekly challenges at the end of March. While trying to sort my craft room I almost lost the will to live, but now it is so much easier to find the things I need, particularly those that I don't know I need until I see them in front of me!

Nothing very original about my offering for this week's challenge which is 'Santa': the stamp is another from Clarity Stamps illustrating 'Twas the night before Christmas' and I made it the same way as a previous offering. There isn't much of Santa to be seen, but he will be putting in an appearance any moment now....and that ginger cat is going to be one very startled kitty!

Having missed several of the challenges while buried in my Black Hole I thought I'd catch up by working backwards. Last week's challenge #15 was for 'Stockings' (of the Christmas variety, we were ordered ;) ) so while that set was in front of me I stamped the first two and mounted them on this long green card. Very simple, but I think quite effective.

Sweet peas

2011-04-24T23:10:00.002+01:00

Here is the first card I have made completely from scratch since sorting out my ~~disaster area~~ craft room. It was such a joy to be able to select a box of green scraps, and a box of white scraps, and my Nesties, and a drawer full of Promarkers...each neatly labelled and each returned to its designated home when I had finished the card, instead of scrabbling through half a dozen drawers that looked like the aftermath of a tornado in a paper factory! How long this idyllic state of affairs will last is another matter.

Several years ago I made a few paper flowers from punches using books by Leonie Em of Australia. Recently a new book on the subject from America appeared in the UK courtesy of Joanna Sheen, and when I saw the sweet peas I just had to buy the appropriate punch and have a go at making them (they take me back to my childhood and a beloved uncle who grew them wherever he went, from Egypt to the Cotswolds). I was pleased with the results for a first attempt though I'm sure I could improve with practice, and the greenfly that landed as soon as I had finished seemed to give them the seal of approval :)

Image and sentiment by JustRite Stampers, coloured with Promarkers and the background chalked in pale pink to tone down the bright white card. Green background is a Spellbinder's Lacey Square . The book Paper Bouquet is by Susan Tierney Cockburn, published by Lark Books in 2008. And although you can't really see it, the dark grey background is a special photographic sheet bought with birthday money from my husband along with a pale dove grey one - I try hard to get a decent close up photo of any card I can't scan and hope that these will make life easier.

And tomorrow I intend to make a Christmas card or three to catch up on some of the April challenges from the Bah! Humbug! site.

ETA: I have just discovered this card qualifies for entry in the current JustRite Stampers challenge which is using handmade paper flowers with a JRS image.....how serendipitous is that!

Apple blossom time!

2011-04-17T22:34:00.003+01:00

The sun shone today, the little crabapple tree in the front garden is full of blossom and I decided it was the perfect opportunity for a change of header picture! It also gives me an excuse for a brief post to say I'll be back with some cards very soon - my craft room is almost sorted at last, and today I've been catching up on stamping all my new stamps in the catalogue so I can put them away properly instead of them being temporarily filed on the floor! 'New' is actually a misnomer, for some of those stamps have been sitting on the floor for well over a year but I have almost caught up now; since I need a birthday card for this coming Friday I must see what I can do tomorrow. Earlier in the month I visited two papercraft shows in three days and came home with new techniques as well as lots of goodies so I ought to try them out while I can still remember. Watch this space.....

An excuse for a post

2011-04-06T17:09:00.002+01:00

I don't know where the past two weeks have gone, but they certainly haven't been spent crafting! For one thing, I started to empty my craft room into the dining room next to it, with the bright idea of tidying it. We all know what happens to good intentions, don't we? Life got in the way with a vengeance and ten days later the dining table is still covered, my craft room is only marginally tidier than before (because there's less in it) and I have just had to make a Get well card in a hurry to take to the dance club tonight for members to sign, having heard that someone is in hospital. Where were all the cards I should have put by for just such an occasion? Not even made, it has to be said.

This was actually a small ready made card which I have cannibalised to make it larger - it would have been quicker to start from scratch because everything that could go wrong very nearly did; however, it is done. The die cut words are by Cuttlebug as is the background embossing; I can't remember if they came from the same combo set or two different ones. Stamped words by JustRite Stampers, cut with a Classic Circle Nestie and mounted on a Scalloped Circle. I now have to clear away even more Stuff from the dining table...and I'm off to visit two craft shows in the next three days...I have a feeling I shan't be coming home empty handed from either.

I'm obviously not going to be joining in the Bah Humbug Challenge this week, but on Friday I need to make a card for an 80th birthday which is on Sunday. Ho hum, there's never a dull moment!

Bah! Humbug! Challenge #12

2011-03-25T08:00:00.138Z

An easy topic from the Bosses of Humbug Hall this week: Christmas Trees! First up is one using a template from WS Designs to make a fold back, gatefold card. It's cut from an A3 sheet cut in half lengthways (enough for two cards), the background panels are covered with a free paper from Making Cards and the two halves of the tree are covered in a contrasting paper. I made the pot by overlapping two pieces of red card, cutting up through one and down through the other at the mid points and interlocking them to keep the card closed. I added a strip of foam tape behind each half of the tree to raise it from the background.

Logically the next one should have been the first card, because before you can decorate your tree you have to go into the forest and cut it down, don't you! Well, that's what these snowmen have done....you can tell it's a Christmas tree because they already have a star on top, and I'm pretty sure they don't intend to cut it up for logs (snowmen don't like sitting in front of a fire).

I started by punching the scallop edge and little trees with the Tonic Border Punch System and as usual I was glad I practised on scrap paper first and got all my mistakes out of the way. I stamped the snowmen then masked them while stamping the trees. A strip of velvet paper on the lower edge, silver peel offs and a few touches of Promarkers completed a simple card which was fun to do. I will add a few touches of glitter later but couldn't wait for it to dry before scanning to send to Humbug Hall, so here it's in its naked state.

My final card is a free standing tree, made from three 6 inch squares of card.The second picture shows two faces, the third is the structure opened out flat to show how the squares are attached to each other. The fold lines are edged with narrow gold peel offs and these become the vertical edges when the tree is stood up. The last photo shows the outer panels folded under to fit into an envelope.The setiment is stamped on the inside. It's held together in its 3D shape solely by the loose outer corner being tucked into a slit cut in the opposite end panel. I have no idea where the design originated: a friend sent me a birthday card in this style three years ago and it's one I have made a few times. It's surprisingly quick and easy yet looks quite impressive.

This is my final week as Guest Designer for the Bah Humbug challenge and I thank Ann and Max very much for the opportunity. I've had great fun making my samples and now look forward to seeing what the new designers come up with. I hope they enjoy their time in the Hot Seat and wish them well.

Card for a gardener

2011-03-21T20:57:00.000Z

I made this today for a friend who is a keen gardener.....I think it will amuse him, even though there probably isn't a weed to be seen in his vegetable plot! I took the verse from a cross stitch book by Jo Verso, printed it from the computer and cut it with a Classic Rectangle Nestability, then mounted it on brown card cut with the Scallopped Nestie. The stamps are from several different companies. Inside, opposite the sentiment, I stamped 'May all your weeds be wild flowers'.

I'm back to my campaign for using up scraps - the cream and light brown both came from my scrap box.

Thank you Kathy!

2011-03-21T18:56:00.010Z

Kathy and her dog Lucky have very kindly given me a 'Versatile Blogger' award, which I accept with gratitude. She is one of the great encouragers in Blogworld and I would like to think that I can pass on the award to others with the same grace as Kathy.

Now, one of the conditions of accepting the award is to tell you 7 things about myself. No indication as to what sort of things so here is a random selection....

1. I have an older sister who is my best friend and truly my 'Other Half' (no reflection on DH)
2. I sang with an amateur operatic society for 12 years: only back row of the chorus stuff, but I loved it
3. I published an anthology of quotations about lacemaking which sold 1000 copies worldwide
4. I have written 70 English folk dances and published them in 3 books
5. I met my DH when I started work in the public library aged 16 and we've been married for 42 years. He was my first and only boyfriend
6. I love doing 'Extreme' (very difficult) Sudoku problems
7. In 2000 I travelled from England to California for a long weekend at a stitching festival to meet my favourite cross stitch designer, Teresa Wentzler. We 'clicked' and she became a very dear friend

Whew! That was hard. Now to pass the award to 8 other bloggers whose work inspires me by their creativity. Ladies, please grab the Versatile Blogger logo and display it on your own blog.

Liz
Monica
Elizabeth

Jackie
Rebekka
Shaz
Ann
Max

Bah! Humbug! Challenge #11

2011-03-18T08:00:00.005Z

Gold....Silver....Copper....sounds like the Olympic medals gone wrong! But this week's Challenge theme of metallics certainly has plenty of scope, and if you think of those car colours available as an optional extra in metallic finish (at vast extra expense, of course) you can see we're not restricted to the precious metals. On the highest step of my rostrum is this Christmas star stitched in gold metallic thread, edged with a thin gold border and mounted on dark blue velvet paper. Stitching pattern from Form-A-Lines, the sentiment is by JustRite Stampers cut with Nestability dies and has a scalloped border of the same gold.

Silver and white says snowflakes to me (yes, I have very selective hearing...). The big one is a stamp by Personal Impressions embossed with silver EP and mounted on matt silver. Two embossed panels have snowflakes by Crafts Too and Papermania, and the card is 6 inches square.

The partridge in a pear tree is made with a Dreamweaver stencil and matt black paste on copper coloured card, then mounted on green velvet paper. I even had a sheet of copper coloured greetings to embellish it!

The three kings stamp by Hobby Art is embossed in gold and painted with Twinkling H2Os - those non-precious car colours - which have a pearlescent finish rather than 'twinkling' in the way that Glimmer Mists or Cosmic Shimmers do. I cut the shape with Nesties Label #8, framed it with a patterned gold card and mounted it on green mirri card.

I didn't even use the buttons, charms, wire, eyelets and brads all with metallic finish that I'd unearthed before I started!

Spring is sprung

2011-03-13T13:14:00.008Z

Another quick birthday card which cheered a very dismal day here. The lovely daffodil stamp is from a recent JustRite Stampers set, coloured with Promarkers and cut with a Nestabilities Classic Oval then mounted on the Beaded Oval. Background is embossed with Swiss Dots and the sentiment is cut with Fancy Labels. Green background paper is from my stash.

I have just discovered the monthly challenges on the Sir Stampalot blog . Since the theme for this month is 'Spring is in the Air' this fits the bill nicely, so here's my first entry.

A birthday card at last

2011-03-11T23:40:00.014Z

For the past two weeks I have been so busy making Christmas cards for the Bah! Humbug! challenges (including 4 cards for next Friday as I shall be away from Monday to Friday lunchtime) that I've not thought about the birthday cards needed for this month. What with preparing cards at least a week before the themes are announced, and sending the scans to the Bosses at Humbug Hall, and writing the relevant blog entries at the same time so I remember what I've done, and remembering to save them in draft form...well, I hardly know which way is up nor what the date is! And on top of all that I had a hefty programme of country dances to prepare for the workshops I shall be teaching next week when we make our annual pilgrimage to Halsway Manor in Somerset. Not, I hasten to add, that I'm complaining! It's my first experience of being a Guest Designer for anything and I'm relishing every single moment (maybe going a wee bit OTT with the number of projects I'm producing), and I love teaching dances and staying at the Manor so Life is good even though it's busy.

Mary, the organiser of the dance week, will be celebrating her 98th birthday the following week and today I made this card for her. The basket is made with iris folding in a pale green card which was then mounted onto pearlescent mauve. The flowers were punched and double mounted in various shades of pink and mauve, and a gold sentiment completed the job. Now, I only have to do two more cards over the weekend....

Bah! Humbug! Challenge #10

2011-03-11T08:52:00.002Z

The theme for this week's Challenge is 'Apertures' which seems a perfect occasion to use a pair of stamps I bought at a big craft show in Toronto, Canada, about four years ago and, I'm ashamed to say, have inked only once to stamp them in my catalogue. The resulting card was much quicker and easier to make than I feared. The snowy village scene was stamped straight onto a white card blank and coloured with dry watercolour pencils. The windows were stamped on a piece of green card the same size, cut out and a sheet of acetate stuck on the back. One of the bottom corners was a bit ragged so I applied a little Polar White Flowersoft on the acetate to be snow on the window sills - I don't know how I would have disguised ragged corners at the top but I was lucky! I then cut a strip of card 4cm wide and scored 3 vertical lines, accordian folded them and cut the strip in half. I stuck a piece to each side of the front, attached them to the snow scene and there you are: a view through the windows! A silver peel off border and greeting completed the front....and I wondered why it had taken me so long to use those stamps. Although they are by a Canadian company and may not be readily available in the UK it would be easy enough to cut similar windows freehand to go with any scenic background. The folded strips between the front panel and the scene mean that the card will squash flat to go in an envelope, but when extracted the windows stand proud like the proscenium arch on a stage.

When buying peel offs you may have seen big white sheets of geometric shapes and wondered what they are for. This card was made by punching three square apertures and sticking matching peel off frames with clear centres on the front (I use waxed paper such as the carrier sheet from labels inside the card to protect the back surface). Inside I sprinkled ultrafine holographic glitter on the sticky surface of the centres; on the outside I added small peel off motifs and coloured with appropriate pens. I stuck the edges of the insert sheet all round on the lefthand side so the glitter wouldn't rub off.

It's many years since I used this wreath stamp by PSX and having made the card I remembered why! Nothing wrong with the stamp, it's all that cutting..... I stamped it on white card with Versamark, embossed with silver EP, coloured it with Promarkers and cut it out (memo to Self: new decoupage snips are needed urgently!) The card was covered with green paper embossed with the Cuttlebug folder 'Holly Ribbons', the aperture cut with a Nestabilities Classic Circle die and the wreath stuck down overlapping the edge. The sentiment was stamped on the inside - I traced lightly the inner edge of the wreath to position it properly - and the only minor problem is that the back of the leaves show on the inside of the aperture and, because the Promarkers bleed through, it looks a bit untidy. If I make another I shall cut the wreath out double and then stick the clean copy on the back after colouring and before assembly.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge #9

2011-03-04T08:26:00.000Z

Embossing: a technique to make a design stand out from the surface

I'm very excited to be making my Challenge cards this week as a member of the Design Team (thank you, Ann and Max). I tried to think of something a bit different without being too way out and hope that, if necessary, you will find my work gives you ideas for your own cards.

Having been a stamper for about 20 years my first thought when I read 'Embossing' involved powders and a heat gun! I made two complimentary panels using a very old, traditional wood mounted stamp by PSX, and a fairly new, clear unmounted one by Dimension Fourth, each stamped with Versamark and embossed with silver EP. They were too big for my original card idea so I made a Z fold card which embraces both and an insert, yet still fits into a standard C6 envelope. The sentiment is by Funstamps and was stamped in Brilliance ink; snowflake border punch by Fiskars.

Next is a 'crossover technique' card (aka, what do you mean by embossing?); the ornament is another PSX stamp embossed with Red Razzle Dazzle EP, cut out and mounted on a panel made with a Cuttlebug embossing folder from the 'Holiday' set.

Third card design goes way, way back. I once bought some ready made blanks printed with a grid of different size boxes into which you could stamp various images: very useful for incorporating those little stamps which often seem too small to have any use. I used to copy the idea and painstakingly draw out my own grids with ruler, pen and a few curses, but now the job is made so much easier with a score board! It's best to choose the images and plan your grid to fit them on paper first. Oh, and I had to cheat: thin embossed lines do not show up when scanned, so for illustration purposes only I went over them with ruler and pencil!

The red and gold card looks impressive (I hope) but was the quickest of the four to make, using a Dreamweaver stencil and gold embossing paste. It really couldn't be easier: tape stencil over card, apply paste, remove stencil and leave card to dry! For the background I used self adhesive red velvet paper on top of thin card, and stuck the finished panel to an A6 card - I did try layering it onto a 7" x 5" but decided the simple approach was the best. If you would like to try this technique I can recommend a DVD by Carol Cockbain of The Craft Barn, or watch a demonstration by (another) Carol from The Craft Station if you catch her at a show (please note, I have no affiliation with either shop).

Now, what am I going to do for next week's Challenge???

Bah Humbug Challenge #8

2011-02-27T13:47:00.006Z

The theme for this week's Christmas challenge is 'flying things'. I was planning to use one of the 'Winter Birds' stamps by Impression Obsession but I went to a big craft show on Friday (and Saturday....and this morning! Well, it's only ten minutes down the road) and saw a sample card which I have sort of copied - certainly took it as my inspiration. The stamp is one of a set of 'Twas the night before Christmas' by Clarity Stamps; it's a favourite poem of mine and I have a beautifully illustrated copy, but I think Barbara Gray, owner and designer of Clarity, has done a fabulous job. The card on her stand at the show had the image mounted and layered on the Nesties Label #1 and then mounted on a larger card with a ribbon accent; I decided to leave it small and have mounted a small square red card behind. It was stamped in black Versafine and coloured with dry watercolour pencils. The red mount is velvet paper which I was pleasantly surprised to find is self adhesive.

Slipped disk? #7

2011-02-22T15:47:00.008Z

The subject for this week's Bah! Humbug! challenge is to use a CD as part of the design. I persuaded DH it was time he weeded out all the computer disks he didn't actually need any more, having grandiose ideas of what I might make with them, only to face my usual problem of what I was actually going to do once they were in my hands! I've said many times that I don't do well with lots of shine or sparkle so my first idea was to cover up as much of the surface as possible while still proving that it really was a CD and not a piece of card masquerading as such; in fact that led to this centrepiece idea quite quickly.

I cut a piece of silver mirri card using a big die by Marianne Designs of a scalloped circle and stuck the disk on top. I used the smaller die from the larger set of poinsettias, also by Marianne, to make six flowers; curled the petals over my finger to give a bit of depth and stuck them round a nightlight (I should have taken more care with the spacing but was in a hurry to finish and take a photo outside in daylight). Cutting and then embossing the total of 18 layers took a fair time but it was hardly rocket science.

I have a circular wooden box which last Christmas contained genuine Turkish Delight (but not for long). I'm thinking of painting the lid with acrylic paint to cover the writing and putting this piece on top, minus the tealight and substituting....something else...maybe a teabag medallion? in the centre to make a gift box. I haven't got time this week to play with it, but I'll keep the idea in mind.

I was delighted yesterday to find I've been selected as a Guest Designer for Bah! Humbug! during the month of March. I have the topics (no, I'm not open to bribery); I have scribbled lists of ideas and am itching to get started.....but I have a task which simply must take priority. I'm off to re-program my brain.

A tricky card problem.....

2011-02-20T14:54:00.007Z

I needed to make a card in a hurry but spent a long time debating what to put as the message. It's for a lady in her 90s who has been declared unfit to live alone any longer and has been transferred from hospital (following a fall) to a residential nursing home. It's a fantastic place and her family are so relieved that she is now going to be well looked after, but I think she thinks she will be going 'home' quite soon.....I didn't want to cause an upset by referring to her new home so finally used that excellent 'one size fits all' phrase, Thinking of you. Now all I have to do is come up with a tactful message inside!

The background and the plain pink papers were freebies from Making Cards magazine, the words and wide border are by JustRite Stampers cut with a classic circle Nestability. The large mount is the Lotus Pendant, also by Spellbinders, and the flower in the top left corner is the small poinsettia by Marianne Dies without any embossing.

And the pink/silver ric-rac braid was in my prize package from the Bah! Humbug! ladies which arrived yesterday - I knew I wouldn't be able to wait for the next Christmas card marathon!!

It's All About Love

2011-02-16T10:58:00.004Z

That's the theme for Rainbow Lady's challenge for this week....perhaps she expected lots of Valentine cards but since my poor DH didn't get one this year (come to think of it, neither did I!) I'm offering something different. We have four couples among our friends who are celebrating their Golden Wedding in the next 12 months so this was a good opportunity to start the special cards. First came the choice of a cream card base rather than white. Then I went through my folders and pulled out all the suitable cream & gold background papers, deciding to use another of the handmade Indian sheets which I have in abundance. The hybrid rose is a PSX stamop I've had for years and used many times, even painting it with watercolours on one occasion (and for me that was a huge adventure). This time I embossed it with Versamark ink and gold detail powder but was very disappointed with the result: no raised lines at all, and no shine.....if asked I think a viewer would decide it was a gold picture because it couldn't be anything else, but it certainly wasn't what I wanted. So I did it again using my very old ordinary gold EP and got the right effect this time. The matte gold card was a couple of bits from my scraps box, the gold peel offs added the finishing touch and that was it: an hour's work, one GW card down and an entry for Cynthia's challenge :)

Teatime for Bah Humbug!! #6

2011-02-13T21:36:00.004Z

I'm still recovering from the shock: TWO cards made today for TWO different challenges with TWO blog posts.....and furthermore, one isn't due until next Thursday and the other has another two weeks to closing!

The theme for this week's Bah! Humbug! Challenge is doileys. Now, last week's Buttons and Bows made me humph just a bit because I don't use either very much, but this new one was even worse - not only have I never used doileys, but I don't like them and have never bought any! Hang on a minute though....didn't I come across a packet buried in my stash drawer when I was looking for the buttons last week?! Goodness only knows where they came from - they must have been a freebie, since not only are they doileys but they are very, very bright gold doileys and really not my style!! Never mind, I can get rid of a couple on a card and with luck I can 'lose' the rest and forget them.

Having all my teabag folding papers over the table inspired me to cover most of one doiley with a large TBF medallion. I punched the 2"/5cm squares from pearlescent paper and used a fold by a South American lady named Carla Prediger. The corner decoration of quarter doileys was somewhat forced on me when I spilt some glue and dropped the card in it (that was just typical of the whole project!) but in the end I was more satisfied with it than I had anticipated. Now, I wonder how I can use the rest of the packet..........

Teabag Folding

2011-02-13T14:53:00.008Z

It must be at least two years since I last did some teabag folding, although for a considerable time it was my greatest papercraft interst and I compiled a vast file of all the different folds I came across. The Circle of Crafters forum has monthly challenges for teabag folding, iris folding and general cardmaking; yesterday I noticed that the given fold for this month's challenge was one I had done long ago and decided to have a go, using it as an excuse for making yet another Christmas card! The fold is very easy but because it ends up as a 7 sided motif (made from 7 individual squares) it is very tricky to make it look symmetrical, and this one was made even worse by wanting to put a greeting in the middle! I achieved it eventually and it doesn't look too badly out of kilter if you squint at it in a poor light ;)

Let me clear up a misunderstanding for those not familiar with the technique: you do not do anything with soggy teabags. Like so many papercrafts this came from the Netherlands, where teabags are packaged individually in decorative paper bags within boxes. A Dutch lady skilled in origami remembered one morning at breakfast that she had forgotten to make her sister a birthday card for that day. She started folding the teabag packet, then another, and thus developed the method - it's described as modular origami in some books, because true origami is made from a single piece of paper whereas this uses 4, 5, 7 or 8 identically folded pieces. The border on the card shows 3 of the tiles before cutting and folding.

The tile is by Helen Jane's Designs, MS punch is Iron Gate and the circle cut with a Nestabilities Classic Circle.

Bah! Humbug! time #5

2011-02-10T11:44:00.007Z

And I'm only just in time this week, but only just is good enough! The theme is Buttons and Bows, a tricky one for me since I rarely use either, but I remembered I had kept a red knotted ribbon which came on a special jar of chutney given to us at Christmas, and while rummaging in my embellishments I found these winter buttons by Dovecraft. Snowmen stamps I have in abundance (this is by FunStamps) and the words are from a custom made stamp.

ETA: What a good thing I checked back after posting the link on the Bah! Humbug! board.....I was in such a hurry I forgot to include the picture!!

A quick birthday card

2011-02-09T18:16:00.005Z

Not, perhaps, quick to make overall, but I had stitched the fuchsias during my stitching marathon when I was unwell and just mounted the front today to send to my niece in America. I used DMC embroidery threads for the design from Form-A-Lines, and I added Mill Hill seed beads to the stamens in place of single stitches. Liz loves her garden so I hope she will enjoy the card.

I've been awarded...

2011-02-08T22:49:00.013Z

...a Liebster blog award! Thank you so much Dori, You really made my day with this! Dori does some great work and I always enjoy her creations so go have a look if you don't already know her! You'll find her blog at http://stampinghmom.blogspot.com

The rules of the Liebster Award are simple:
1.) THANK the person who bestowed it on you, with a link to their blog
2.) ACCEPT the award by posting it on your blog
3.) SHARE the bloggin' love with 3-5 fellow bloggers.

I'd like to share the award with the following people who not only do terrific work but are always so generous with their kind comments. Unfortunately, my technical skills being abysmal, I can't get the links to their several blogs to work but please do go and have a look:

Elizabeth http://elizabethscraftroom.blogspot.com/

Kathy http://luckystamper.blogspot.com/

Shaz http://silverwolfcards-shaz.blogspot.com/

Hannah http://delightfullydistressing.blogspot.com/

One thing is certain: I shall never win an award for computer competence!

ETA: I knew I shouldn't do technical things late at night! It's now Wednesday: I remembered this morning that a friend had a similar problem with getting hyperlinks into her blog post and was advised to use 'Compose' mode. Lo and behold, it has worked for me :)

Parchment craft

2011-02-08T17:52:00.004Z

It's a full year since I made a parchment craft card, despite saying at the time that I intended to concentrate on that technique and practise a lot. Well, I have applied to go on a week's course in October with two of the country's top teachers and really must practise beforehand, so here's my first effort for 2011 which is a card for a dear friend who will be celebrating a special birthday at the weekend. The design is by Pauline Loweth and I really enjoyed it but I had forgotten just how long the cutwork takes: I needed several breaks so I didn't get careless and spoil the whole thing - you can't just undo it like knitting! I'm very pleased with the final results although I can see bits that a teacher would help me to improve, and the design was carefully chosen to avoid the things I'm not confident with, like shading (I think I managed the petals fairly well for a first attempt) and colouring. I did try a coloured flower on a spare piece but much prefer the plain whitework so didn't do it on the actual card.

A golden oldie in silver: Bah! Humbug! #4

2011-02-02T13:48:00.005Z

The challenge at Bah! Humbug! this week is to use something that hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while but used to be a favourite - what they are calling 'An oldie that's a goldie'. I used this stamp by PSX several years ago for many of my Christmas cards because it gave beautiful results without too much work and I could produce quantities fairly quickly. All it needed was heat embossing in gold or silver; sometimes I coloured the flowers lightly but more often left them plain. I'm now thinking of trying it in white or copper EP on dark card, rather like the thistle from my Burns Night card, but for this challenge I just mounted it on a panel of red mirri with a length of silver ribbon. The dies were the two largest from the mega deckle long rectangles. And the green border is purely background - I found that a plain white card on the white blog page left more than a little to the imagination!

And I still love the stamp and wonder why I haven't used it for the past few years.

IF Rocking Horse

2011-01-28T14:31:00.006Z

I made this card for our neighbours' younger daughter who will be a year old in February. My word, doesn't time fly when you're having fun! It doesn't seem like 12 months since I made a birth congratulations card for her parents using parchment craft....come to think of it, that was the last parching I did! This little rocking horse is done with iris folding; the pattern is a free download from Circle of Crafters and I'm quite pleased with it. The dark pink on the horse's back matches the rocker far better IRL than it appears in the scan, and the iris is a piece of pink/silver holographic paper.

Highland fling!

2011-01-23T13:54:00.006Z

When I saw the new challenge on Rainbow Lady's blog this week I just knew I had to enter - entitled 'Highland Fling' it covers all things Scottish in honour of Burns Night next Tuesday, 25 January. And I have a lot of Scottish stamps.....

My father came from a tiny hamlet called Invergloy, almost midway between Inverness and Fort William, in the Great Glen. Sadly he left my mother just before I was born; he visited us briefly on my first birthday but that was the only time he and I met. I didn't go to Scotland until I was 21, but ever since then I have felt at home as soon as we cross the border. After my father's death we met his two brothers who still lived not far from Invergloy and it was quite uncanny seeing the family resemblence between them, my sister and me, because we all have dark brown eyes and (unfortunately!) a rather large nose! This latter I call the Curse of the MacDonalds......I am so relieved that although my children have brown eyes they escaped The Nose.

Sorry, this wasn't meant to turn into my life story but it does perhaps explain why I have all these stamps. We have been invited to friends for supper on Tuesday to 'share a haggis' with them and I had already thought it would be fun to make them a special card (they always enjoy receiving their handmade Christmas card) so here it is. I love the Selkirk Grace, which although not written by Burns is traditionally used at every Supper, and printed it from the computer because I don't have it on a stamp. The thistle was stamped in Versamark and embossed with white detail powder.

The inside bears a Gaelic sentiment which I bought so long ago I've forgotten what it says! I think it's something like 'Blessings of the festival' so is quite appropriate; it definitely isn't Happy Birthday' nor 'Merry Christmas' so that's OK. And I do love the celtic bird so tried to find a way of incorporating it, and our friends are cat lovers so will appreciate the (modern) celtic-style cat.

Finally, for the first time ever I was able to use this celtic initial F on the back in place of my usual logo stamp. Maybe we'll sign the card from 'Rabbie and Fionnaghal' in place of the rather prosaic Robin and Fiona.....

Thistle by Elusive Images, sentiment unknown, bird by Scottish Borders Rubber Stamps (now defunct), cat by Clarity Stamps, initial by The Stamp Pad (Dublin).

Neither Christmas nor stitching!

2011-01-22T14:21:00.005Z

One of my best friends is going to New Zealand for a month in early February. I helped her to plan her visit, having been there twice myself, and made this card for her today. It took me ages to find a suitable image (it's not a topic I do very often) and ended up buying the stamp specially because it was so good - of course it would have been a lot cheaper to go and buy a card from Hallmark or Clinton's but it wouldn't have been the same!! I used Promarkers to colour the image and chalked the background after cutting it with Nesties Label 8. The striped paper came from a pad of Christmas papers I bought last year and haven't used - it's actually more red than brown, whereas the chalked background to the sentiment is less red than it appears (I tried to match it to the suitcase). Sentiment is trimmed using Nesties Mega deckle rectangles. I had to trim the top and bottom edges of the card because the paper wasn't quite straight, and although I almost always have crooked panels on every card I produce, it was so much worse with stripes!

Main image by Penny Black, sentiment by Mostly Animals

More cardifying today

2011-01-20T17:00:00.004Z

I stitched these 3 last weekend and mounted them this morning. The first two are matted on silver mirri and the third is on gold...now...the first attempt almost saw it on dirty white because I stuck the mirri face down by mistake :(. DH can't believe I could do such a thing but I have to admit it isn't the first time, and probably not the last, either. The tree took the longest time to stitch but I think it was well worth the effort; oddly enough the sleigh, which looks very straightforward, gave me the most grief. All patterns by Pinbroidery.

Bookmark still looking for a home!

2011-01-20T16:51:00.004Z

I still have a bookmark waiting to be claimed from my blog giveaway of last week. I waited a couple of days longer than I said but finally decided on another draw and the name that came out of the box was

Elizabeth

So if you would like to send me your full name and address to me via email - fionabirchall AT ntlworld DOT com - I will put one in the post to you, Elizabeth! Mind you, it might be quicker to hand deliver it as you are only about 50 miles away. BTW, check out the previous posts for pictures: A & E from the later post are already winging their way to Texas but there are still 6 for you to choose from.

Willow Pattern card

2011-01-17T15:34:00.009Z

On one of the stitching forums I frequent, someone invented a new word which was so graphic that we all adopted it. Many of us stitch ornaments for the Christmas tree, but once stitched they are still just bits of fabric until they are mounted over card, or backed and stuffed like little pillows, with cording round the edge and a means of hanging them. We needed to differentiate between 'I have finished this ornament' meaning, 'I have finished the decorative stitching on the fabric', and 'I have finished this ornament and it's ready for the tree'. Someone identified the final finishing off process as ornamentifying and it is such a useful word! I am now proposing a derivative for the cardmakers' vocabulary: cardifying. It would be used after you have gathered together disparate embellishments, images, background papers and cardstock for a card and later finally assemble them as a complete, ready-to-send item. I realise it doesn't have quite the same impact as ornamentifying because there's usually a much shorter time scale involved (I've known ornaments be ornamentified years after they were stitched) but to prove my point, here is an example of a card which was stitched last week and cardified this morning!

This is the front, covered in paper from a book of oriental designs published by Search Press. The tie is soft round cord from my stash, looped round and fastened with a lark's head and then knotted, with two brass charms added to the tails. It slips off the card to reveal...

...the inside with a stitched panel and the greeting by Funstamps using Versafine ink in Majestic blue . The righthand panel then opens to reveal.....

...the second and third panels of the Willow Pattern Story. These were so much fun to stitch, using DMC embroidery thread in shade 798. The card is for a friend celebrating a Very Special Birthday soon (but I can't say any more) and I think I'll be doing more like it just for the fun! All patterns from Form-A-Lines, which is the third site in a trio with Pinbroidery and Stitching Cards (yes, there is a reason for the separate sites but it's a long story).

Bookmark giveaway - winners

2011-01-15T00:07:00.000Z

I put the names of all those who left a comment into a box and asked my DH to pick 3. The winners are.......

Dixie

Kathy Braun and Lucky (sorry, you'll have to share! LOL)

Anne Marie

Please send me your full name and postal address by email to fionabirchall AT ntlworld DOT com (taking out all spaces and using conventional symbols for the capitalised words of course) with 'Blog giveaway' in the subject heading. Let me know which bookmark you would like, from the 5 shown on 11 Jan (identify them as A-E from left to right) and the 3 on 8 Jan (F, G and H). If I haven't heard by Tuesday midnight GMT I'll draw again.

I haven't been idle over the past couple of days but the card fronts I've stitched haven't been finished into Christmas cards yet, and now I've started my sister's birthday card ready for July! I really should be making a Bon Voyage card for a friend who is off to New Zealand soon, plus several birthday cards for February, but while I'm still suffering with this cold I'm taking the line of least resistance - stitching doesn't require any decision making and since I'm feeling pretty mindless right now any decision made would certainly be the wrong one! My time will come.....

Bah! Humbug! #1

2011-01-12T14:05:00.006Z

The title of this post doesn't reflect my own feelings towards Christmas: it's merely to indicate that I've managed to complete a card for this week's challenge as set by the eponymous site! The given theme was Holly, or alternatively, Fairies, but I don't do fairies so holly it is. Yet another of the patterns from Stitching Cards and I like the finished result much more than I expected from the pattern; it was very quick to stitch, too, and not too taxing for my cold-befuddled brain.

It's a pity the scan doesn't show the colours properly. All the threads have a glitter filament - the lettering and candle are red, the candlestick is copper, and the flame and aura are gold, as are the long straight stitches in the border. Still, the good thing is that the holly takes centre stage ;)

More stitched bookmarks

2011-01-11T23:24:00.005Z

I have a heavy cold so am staying indoors and stitching. I've made these bookmarks over the past couple of days from the Stitching Cards website but have now stopped production and gone back to making a stitched card for the Bah! Humbug! site's first Christmas challenge of the year. As usual I've left myself short of time because I forgot to check it out last Friday, but I hope to finish by Thursday lunchtime as it will have to be on show here by then.

Meanwhile, if you would like to win one of my bookmarks, read the post immediately below this one and leave me a comment there. You can see more like these in the post dated Saturday 8 January.

Belated birthday

2011-01-10T16:38:00.004Z

No, not a card I've made for a birthday I forgot! Last Thursday was my blogging first birthday; I didn't post on that day so didn't bother to mention it. But I thought about it and had a quiet celebratory feeling within me. I'm pleased that I managed to set up the blog in the first place, and have learned how to tweak it over the past year - things like changing the header photo and positioning photos within the text are huge achievements for me :) I've also been thrilled at the lovely comments received and have a warm feeling towards every one of those wonderful people who takes the trouble to do so, especially the regulars. OK, I know no one is likely to make a nasty comment and bloggers work on a 'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' ethos, but I could so easily have been posting into a dark uninhabited world! My family and close friends are not regular readers here so it is the larger crafting cyberworld that has opened its doors to me, and I am both gratified and humble. I don't do brilliant work that makes everyone gasp in amazement; my artistic ability is almost non existent; I've never been asked to join anyone's design team.....I just do my own thing, and in the future my creations are likely to be very similar to those in the past, so thank you to those who are content with seeing what I do.

I'm going to have a blog Giveaway as a thank you. I'm still stitching floral bookmarks (see the post immediately under this) with great enjoyment and will send one each to three people chosen at random from those who leave a comment to this post. I'll leave it open until midnight GMT on Friday 14th, which is about midday Saturday in NZ and 4pm Friday in California (the rest of you will have to work it out for yourselves!) Check back here to see if your name has been drawn and if it has you'll need to send me your postal address. I can't promise to send a specific design/colour combination because I haven't stitched all the possibles yet, but pick a single colour from red-blue-yellow-orange-pink-purple and I'll do my best for you.

More stitched cards, but not for Christmas!

2011-01-08T23:33:00.006Z

I am still working on Christmas designs but gave myself a break today by stitching 3 bookmarks. The designs came from Stitching Cards, sister site to Pinbroidery (same designer owns both), and were fun and very quick to make - about three hours each. I used DMC embroidery threads with 4 shades each of the blues and purples. They are made on a double sized piece of card which is folded in half and stuck to hide the back of the work and I think it would be nice to send them as cards and suggest the recipient sticks them together for a keepsake. However these particular bookmarks have been made as token prizes for a challenge I shall be setting in May. Each year we go to the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, for a week's holiday with a group of folk dancers. Last year for the first time I gave everyone a list of 'Things To Do' during the week, which ranged from climbing the highest mountain on the island to eating haggis, and from seeing a puffin to buying the local paper! There were far more things listed than could possibly be done in a week but the winner managed about 40 and was ceremoniously presented with the promised 'small prize' on the final evening: a miniature bottle of whisky no more than an inch tall! This year I plan to repeat the challenge and shall be making half a dozen bookmarks over the next few months for awards.

More Christmas cards!

2011-01-04T12:11:00.005Z

The enthusiasm still burns brightly so here are 3 cards I mounted last evening. The stitched designs are from Pinbroidery (link in my sidebar); the IF pattern came from a seller on eBay about 3 years ago. And the pieces of white, red and green backing card all came from my pile of scraps!

Christmas Past and Future

2011-01-03T00:00:00.006Z

Because my daughter came to stay over Christmas, and then again on New Year's Eve, the spare bedroom had to be cleared and much of the 'stuff' found a temporary home in my craft room. This meant no possibility of cardmaking until the 'stuff' was replaced once more in the spare room, so Julian's birthday card had to be made in early December and I've been waiting impatiently for a return to creativity ever since. Some of the time I was able to use productively by developing a new storage system for my Nesties and various stencils: they're now all standing up in a box separated by labelled card dividers, which looks just like a library card catalogue such as I used when I started work in the local library in 1963 - I felt quite nostalgic! I also now have my JustRite Stampers in a wonderful collection of boxes given to me for Christmas by one of my best friends.

Finally I sorted out all my patterns and threads for stitched cards, and made a start on my Christmas cards for 2011. We receive around 120 cards and have them displayed on the two doors in the living room so looking at them over the holiday period is when I'm most inspired. It's several years since I did any stitched designs (apart from one poinsettia design last year) and I've decided to prick out as many patterns as possible while I'm in the mood, then I can stitch whenever I feel like it throughout the year. Yesterday I actually completed one card, shown here, even down to the insert sheet and my stamp on the back, and I also have another two fronts stitched but not mounted. Don't worry, this level of enthusiasm can't possibly continue!

Some boys never grow up!

2011-01-02T00:01:00.003Z

My son is an adrenalin freak - he once sent us a postcard from New Zealand which said 'I can think of nothing I want to do more than spend my life jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane at 13,000 feet with another fellah strapped to my back!' He had just done his first tandem parachute jump and went on to do two more. Forget bungee jumping - unless he can go and do the highest in the world, in South Africa, he's done all that he wants and they're all too tame. Having already tried skate boarding as a youngster, and then wake boarding (the same thing but on water and without wheels: that one gave him concussion and a permanently scarred head) of course he naturally gravitated in NZ to hurtling down mountains like dragons' teeth on a snow board. It's his birthday today (he's spending it snowboarding in Poland) and this stamp cried out to me for his card as soon as I saw it. Happy 37th birthday Julian!

Just for the record...

2010-12-25T10:49:00.003Z

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

2010-12-18T12:58:00.006Z

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

2010-12-17T21:49:00.005Z

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!

2010-12-06T23:58:00.006Z

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...

2010-12-02T16:40:00.024Z

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

2010-11-28T14:05:00.002Z

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

2010-11-26T22:13:00.007Z

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!

2010-11-25T22:52:00.014Z

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

2010-11-21T21:39:00.007Z

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

2010-11-17T22:33:00.004Z

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

2010-11-15T18:37:00.004Z

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

2010-11-10T13:47:00.008Z

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

2010-11-06T10:16:00.005Z

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

2010-10-27T18:41:00.006+01:00

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!

2010-10-17T18:46:00.008+01:00

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

2010-10-16T15:49:00.007+01:00

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!

2010-10-10T17:01:00.010+01:00

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

2010-10-08T12:20:00.008+01:00

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!

2010-10-07T22:48:00.003+01:00

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!

2010-09-15T16:39:00.006+01:00

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?

2010-09-06T14:59:00.011+01:00

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

2010-08-07T18:24:00.006+01:00

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!

2010-08-04T18:09:00.004+01:00

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!

2010-08-03T20:05:00.016+01:00

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!

2010-07-25T19:08:00.003+01:00

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

2010-07-24T14:39:00.006+01:00

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

2010-07-14T23:00:00.007+01:00

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

2010-07-10T20:54:00.007+01:00

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...

2010-07-09T20:49:00.013+01:00

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

2010-07-05T21:50:00.007+01:00

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

2010-07-04T23:00:00.013+01:00

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

2010-06-29T16:52:00.009+01:00

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

2010-06-27T17:29:00.005+01:00

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

2010-06-14T17:10:00.009+01:00

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

2010-06-08T23:02:00.010+01:00

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

2010-06-06T12:03:00.010+01:00

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?!

2010-06-04T16:44:00.007+01:00

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!

I shall be absent for a while

2010-05-03T10:02:00.002+01:00

We have visitors at the moment who leave on Thursday. That is the same day that we go to Scotland for 10 days, so I shan't be crafting for at least a couple of weeks. I hope you'll check in again before the end of the month!

Easel cards

2010-04-25T19:14:00.013+01:00

I attended a workshop on making easel cards last Friday while visiting a craft show in Somerset. The tutor was Nancy Watts, who designs the papers for Making Cards magazine; I've met her before and she is a delightful, bubbly lady. We produced a square Art Deco style card and today I adapted my newfound knowledge to make two birthday cards.

The pink one has an A4 sheet cut in half vertically for the base/support, so as the top is a little narrower it will fit a standard C6 envelope.The stamps are all by Judikins and the background is (I have just noticed) a 13th century poem called Beneath a Plum Tree, a translation of which is given on the edge of the wooden block. Now that's what I call service! The geisha lady is cut out and mounted on foam pads. The kanji inside the card read 'Congratulations' and 'Long life'. The plum blossom is mounted on an extra layer of card, making it just thick enough to support the card front when it is lodged behind. All stamping (on both cards) was done using Memento ink 'Rich cocoa'.

The second card is 'almost' square - I think I trimmed the same edge twice instead of adjoining sides, so I added the quote and punched daisies and hoped no one would guess :) The picture is from my favourite Stampin' Up! set, and 'Celebrate', which this time I mounted on foam tape, is from another. The birthday greeting is by Hobby Art, and the border punch by Woodware.

Spring has finally sprung!

2010-04-19T23:46:00.008+01:00

It's been a long winter and spring was slow in making an appearance, but it's here at last and I thought it was time to change the autumn leaves for some greenery. Nothing special, but I found it an attractive mix of shades and shapes.

Today's card is my entry for the JustRite Stampers weekly challenge 'Double Vision'. The given requirements were to use at least two differently shaped Nestabilities and two JRS sets. Unfortunately the colours don't show very well in the scan: the base card is lavender with a panel on the back of deep purple overlaid with vellum patterned in silver, held in place by square purple brads. The bottom is folded up and a piece of deeper lavender card edged with a Martha Stewart punch 'Arched lattice' layered on top, then wrapped with narrow white ribbon edged with silver. The Nesties Label #4 is cut from purple vellum onto which is mounted one of the JR 'Beautiful Blossoms' coloured with Promarkers. I stamped it in black Memento ink, then stamped it again in Adirondack bottle green ink and cut it out with two of the Nesties Classic Oval shapes to give a green frame. The 'Friends are flowers' quote is from the JR 'Joyful Hearts' set, also cut with one of the Classic Ovals.

The label shape is adhered only at the top so it can be placed over the lower flap and tucked under the small oval, which is similarly attached only on the left side, to keep the card closed.

Not waving but drowning

2010-04-11T14:31:00.008+01:00

I went to a big craft show in London yesterday and bought this template by Anna Marie Designs. Our neighbour's daughter (Florence's big sister) will be 3 next month and I hope she will like the card as much as I enjoyed making it. Not only was it fun and quick to do, it also used up several scraps of card! I feel I'm drowning in paper and card at present; I spent an evening last week sorting and storing all the full size sheets, but it's the smaller bits which are the problem - you know, the ones that are too small to make a card but too big to throw away. All papercrafters have them! I do try to look through them before cutting into a new sheet, but they too need properly sorting and storing where I can more easily do it than at present. Most of them are in two small drawers so tightly packed that it takes more effort and time to find something useable than I want to expend, to say nothing of the recently created scraps which don't have a home because the drawers are too full. Well, I've recently acquired some more empty drawers (by transferring all my inkpads to a wonderful, custom built shelf rack) so this is my opportunity. And let's be honest, if I don't do it right now those empty drawers are likely to accumulate other odds and ends in them and my scraps still won't have a proper home!

I'm back!

2010-04-11T10:11:00.004+01:00

Just a quick message to say I haven't deserted my blog; we had a major computer crash last week and it's amazing I'm back so soon! Fingers crossed that we can maintain our internet connection since it's still not entirely reliable. I hope to have something to show here very soon, I've been ill as well and not done any crafting since making the egg card (what a waste of all that spare time not spent on the computer.....)

Easter Egg

2010-03-28T18:21:00.004+01:00

I don't usually make Easter cards but I found the template (origin unknown) for this one while sorting through some papers in my craft room last week. Being a prototype it isn't perfect, but my daughter is also a crafter and will, I hope, overlook its imperfections when she receives it! The simple mechanism is a strip of card folded in four; I added another strip as a brace to stop the card falling over when stood up, having omitted the ribbon I should have applied before sticking on the daffodil picture (from JustRite Stampers' Breath of Spring set), not realising that it was functional as well as decorative.

Daffodils on the egg are an um acrylic stamp, greeting is by PSX.