Easter Egg

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.

A blessing for a friend

This morning I heard that a dear friend recently had a terrifying ordeal just before leaving South Africa to fly home, having been tied up and robbed at gunpoint. Physically she was unhurt, but it will take a very long time for the mental scars to heal. I made this card quickly to let her know she will be in my thoughts and prayers, and stamped inside it this lovely Apache blessing:

May the sun bring you new energy. May the moon softly restore you by night. May the rain wash away your worries. May the breeze blow new strength into your being. May you walk gently towards the world and know the beauty all the days of your life.

What more could her friends ask for her?

The picture of The Lavender Fairy is another from an old diary; striped background paper by Flowersoft; words from 'Just a Note' set by JustRite Stampers. The purple layer was sprayed with Adirondack Colorwash and a Glimmer mist by Tattered Angels, but I made it so long ago I have no idea which colours I used.

Post Early for Christmas

That was a slogan the Post Office used for many years on all mail posted around the end of November onwards....and here's my first Christmas posting for the year! Back in January I added my name to a pact on a craft forum that 'we, the undersigned, hereby vow to start making our Christmas cards by the end of March'. I always intend to start early but this is the first time I've succeeded; it will be the first of many similar cards since I decided to use the Azadi snowman for all our dance friends. I brought out lots of bits and pieces left from last year's card marathon to use up and am pleased with the result - the purple card is almost the last scrap of a huge A2 size sheet, and it goes well with the vellum which was free with Making Cards magazine. I have enough to make another, identical, card, then it's on to blue snowflakes and mirri card. I coloured the background to the snowman with palest blue chalk which has a slight shimmer, just for contrast and to tone down the brightness. Shapes are from Nestabilities Labels #8

Forever young!

We were away last week, staying in a wonderful 16th century manor house* in Somerset for a week of English folk dancing. It's an annual event organised by Mary, whose card I showed a couple of entries back, for some 40 dancers who come from various clubs in the south of England. We have dance workshops in the morning, investigate the local village pubs for lunch then walk off the excesses in the Quantock Hills or along the coast before returning to the manor for the evening dance. I do quite a lot of calling including a workshop of my own choreographed dances, but unfortunately this year I arrived with a cold and lost my voice completely on the second day; not only could I not call but I really wasn't well enough to dance very much either. However the surroundings are beautiful, the food excellent and the company of friends beyond measure!

One of those friends has a birthday on Wednesday and I made this card for him today. He is another very special person with a great sense of humour as well as being a fine dancer and caller and occasional choreographer. Despite now being in his 80s he is, like Mary, forever young....dancing definitely is beneficial! The picture of the wine cellar is actually a rub on transfer, mounted on a thin layer of cork and layered on red-brown card; words are by JustRite Stampers and the shape is from Blossoms #1 by Spellbinders.The greeting inside continues the theme - it says 'Happy birthday: we're not getting old, we're just beginning to ripen!'

ETA: It's now Wednesday morning and I've just had a call from Terry. He's delighted with the card, and highly amused by the sentiment!

*You can read about Halsway Manor here: http://www.halswaymanor.co.uk/

A Rose in Iris Folding

It's been one of 'Those' days craftwise today, when nothing disastrous happened but neither did that which was expected; I suppose it is hardly surprising that I've just written a blog entry about it which has promptly vanished into a black hole in cyberspace! It will probably *wander back onto the page in its own good time when least expected, so don't be too surprised if you experience déjà vu at some point. (*Rather like the crazy picture I have in my mind of Terry Pratchett's gargoyles wandering around in the attic of the Unseen University whenever it rained, because even though they were ugly they weren't stoopid so didn't see the point of sitting on the down pipes getting wet.) Ahem! To return to sanity...


I needed to make a card for a friend's birthday next week so thought I would complete the paper pricking started last Monday, by adding a teabag folded medallion in place of the intended, but too big, JustRite flower stamp. I found some TB paper with mauve daisies which would do nicely; unfortunately most folds are made from 8 squares and I had only 5, so Plan B was called for (a different, and smaller, motif). Made it, tried it, didn't like it and threw it in the bin. Once again the pricked card went back in the 'pending' file and I started a new one from scratch, this time with a pattern for iris folding. Found some pretty card in pale cream with embossed roses so cut the aperture and selected various cream/yellow/gold papers.....didn't like them against the base card colour so put the yellows away and chose some pale pinks instead. The rose went together quite well, but I cut the stem and leaves 3 times before I was happy. I mounted it on mid green and finished off the card with a peel off trim and greeting in gold, then removed it and replaced it in silver. That base card really wasn't as cream as I thought, but more of an off white. Finally I was happy.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Not what I expected!

This is a birthday card for a dear friend who will be 97 later this month. Mary is a wonderful person who lives alone and does most things herself; she has help with the garden maintenance but delights in her greenhouse and grows new varieties of fuchsias and tomatoes each year. Unfortunately she is having a bit of trouble with her balance and can't dance much at the moment, but she still goes to the folk dance club every week and takes a keen interest in what goes on - woe betide any upstart caller or dancer who goes wrong in one of the dances she learnt for exams back in the 1930s! Her memory is amazing. Later this year we are celebrating her 80 years' continuous involvement with folk dancing, as dancer, teacher, musician (she played the accordian until she broke her wrist when she was 80) and mentor to many.

I planned to make her a parchment card for her birthday, using a pretty pattern of daisies and butterfly by Pauline Loweth. However, I may run out of time for doing that so decided to make another, simpler, card first and have it ready 'just in case'. Yesterday I started it by pricking the front using an ornaré stencil with a pattern of ivy leaves surrounding a blank circle, into which I intended to stamp a flower by JustRite Stampers. Then I found the flowers were too big, so the pricked front has been put aside for another day and I'll probably add a teabag folded medallion instead. This gatefold card is the next, and final version - not what I expected to make but it's good to be surprised! I don't really 'do' fairies in general, but I have always loved the Flower Fairies by Cecily Mary Barker. This illustration was one of many in a diary of 2008 and I carefully saved the pictures when I threw away the rest. The geranium in the oval is from a new JR set, coloured with dry watercolour pencils and the background lightly chalked to tone with the picture opposite. The border was stamped a second time, cut with Nesties and applied flat.


Here's the inside, decorated with Martha Stewart's trellis punch, and I used a parchment panel for the greeting edged with two more strips cut from the trellis. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out....and yes, I will go back and finish the ornaré card, and the parchnment craft one!

Parchment craft bonnet

The past two weeks have been very busy, including a couple of days away on business, so there's been little time for crafting, never mind blogging! I went to a workshop at The Craft Barn, Surrey, with a group from the Circle of Crafters which was fun: we experimented with Cuttlebug embossing folders using Versamark ink inside a folder then rubbing Pearl-Ex or Cosmic Shimmer powder over the card. Another technique new to me was embossing waxed paper, ironing it onto a piece of card then rubbing ink over the card for a batik effect. I still haven't played with these at home but this week looks a little less hectic so I plan to do some serious crafting.

Friday and Saturday I spent at a big craft show just a couple of miles down the road at Farnborough. I met lots of friends, both local and the 'usual suspects' from CoC (there are about a dozen of us in the south of England able to meet every 6 weeks or so) and as usual spent far too much money, this time concentrating on parchment craft tools and patterns since I've vowed to make this my main project this year. When I arrived home on Friday afternoon I was greeted with the news that our neighbours' new baby had arrived a couple of days previously so I was all set to make a special card with one of my new patterns! It had been an impulse buy because I rarely have to make cards for babies or older children but couldn't resist this book by Pauline Loweth, one of the great English parch craft teachers.

So here's my latest effort after two days' work. It contains several new-to-me techniques and I'm satisfied with the result overall, if not the details. Considering it's my first piece in over a year I'm pleased with it, and hope that if I work at it more frequently I might not have to re-learn everything each time!