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.