And now for something completely different...

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

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

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

CPS Challenge 174

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

Broke, but Happy

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


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

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

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

More Stencil Paste

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


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

Stories and Stencil Paste

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

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

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


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

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

Golden Wedding Anniversary card

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

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

Message in a Bottle

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

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