Sunday (Night) Smile……..

Happy week everyone! 

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

The weather could hardly be any worse today, and this being Tewkesbury people get a little worried if it rains for any length of time. I decided to brave the coolness of the conservatory as I wanted to try out my new free papers from the magazines that I bought this week. The butterfly card is made using paper and a chipboard embellishment from the Spring Jubilee collection free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. This is suitably shabby chic to float my boat (whoops, unfortunate phrase when floods may be imminent!) The colours are strong and vibrant and this years popular themes of birds and butterflies are very much in evidence. I have added the doily, ribbon and roses. Along with the essential sparkly stick-on gems.

My other card for today shows off the exclusive Nitwit Collections freebies from this months Simply Homemade magazine. The backing paper, cut-out flower and buttons are all give aways, and I’ve added a doily, ribbon, flowers and a greeting from Craftwork Cards. I think they are both bright, sunny cards, if only the weather would follow suit! 

Flowers…..Just For You!

This is the card that I am entering for Mo’s Digital Challenge this week. I haven’t taken part for a couple of weeks but as I had this image all coloured in and ready to go I thought ‘why not?’. The star of the show is ‘Eileen’, one of clever Mo’s gorgeous images……. I confess, I love them all! As the theme this week is ‘Flowers’ this seemed a perfect choice. I feel really bad as I don’t know which company the background paper is from, I shared a pack with a friend and she has the front cover, but it’s really pretty whatever it is and I know my photo isn’t uber clear but it has tiny bees and butterflies and ladybirds on a background of little words, very ‘gardeny’. I punched out a lace trim with my Martha Stewart punch and added a piece of  blue sticky ribbon with little butterflies on across the middle. I popped a Lily of The Valley ‘It’s Your Day’ greeting in the centre of a flower shape, and surrounded it with mulberry flowers and a metal butterfly. This week I got some Martha Stewart  Dolly Lace Cherish Labels through the post so I put one of these at the top and added a Papermania ‘Just For You’ greeting too. The last little touch, drawn on stitches around three edges of the card to echo the stitches on Eileen’s apron. Very summery……. unlike the weather!

In The Raw!

Another idea that I took from Pinterest here. My friend Doreen has recently had a (biggish) birthday and I wanted to make her something a bit special. Now Doreen is my reflexoligist/ reiki healer friend, and she loves all things natural. So when I saw a necklace made from rustic raw crystals, I thought it would be perfect. I sourced a seller of the crystals on Etsy, and considering they came from the US of A, were a reasonable price and arrived in a week, not bad eh? They came on a knotted string and I decided that I would group two or three on each loop pin and attach them together in a row. I had some silver chain which I doubled up to give it a bit more weight and chunkiness, and used a bar and loop clasp as they are easy to do up and really safe when they are on. I thought that if she wants the necklace a little shorter she could always pop a knot in each side of the chain near the clasp. Fingers-crossed that she loves it

Who Said That?

Okay, here’s a moan. Now, I believe that a woman gets to a certain age and becomes invisible. I’m fine with not getting the appraising looks from the fellas anymore, no problem, had all that when I was young and now it’s the turn of others. But I really don’t like the ‘blending into the background’ thing that seems to happen, do you know what I mean? The hundred-yard stare that goes just past your head to something more sparkly behind you? The main culprits are shop assistants, I think. To them, you are just another slightly plump middle-aged woman, not at all interesting. Because I get rankled by this, I will often say something randomly silly just to get them to look at me, try it, it’s fun Okay, so you are then the slightly plump middle-aged MAD woman, but at least they have NOTICED you! The other thing is that (I’m not sure whether this is age-related or just people being rude, to be honest) that people just keep walking into me, why do I always have to be the one that has to move out of the way for everyone else. Surely sometimes it’s my turn to walk and for someone else to move? And even my car seems to be invisible, with other drivers looking seeming to look at me coming down the road towards them, but come out anyway. Or drive straight across my path to a parking space on the wrong side of the road. I mean, what’s all that about? Answers on a postcard to ‘Grumpy Old Woman……’

Cookies and Milk

A little boys card today. I bought a ‘boy’ pack of die cut designs from Lillie of the Valley a little while ago now and have hardly used any of them. They were sat there on the top of the cupboard, languishing, collecting dust, saying “use me”. Here is the result. I used a square card but cut off half of the front. The backing papers are from a K&Co pad from yonks ago, in blues and greens. I cut round the little pals on the die cut picture and stuck them half on, half off the card front with sticky foam pads. I stuck on some sparkly green strips at the borders (even masculine cards need a little, tiny bit of bling!), some Craftwork Cards Card Candi spots in toning colours down the edge, a silver greeting, and a Lilli of the Valley ‘It’s your Day’ stamp, coloured with blue and green chalks. The finishing touch (after-thought!) is a bit of bakers string near the fold- well why not! Hope you like it! 

In Black And White

Hello there. This is my crafty offering for today. Now, this isn’t at all my usual style, in that it’s quite elegant and formal I think. My usual style is colours, and eclectic and busy.  Would you agree? I bought three sheets of this patterned acetate from the Hobbycraft Show at the NEC last year and I have hardly used it. It is by Kanban, and I really liked it at the time. Probably there were some amazingly brilliant, funky samples of cards made using it on show and I was inspired and my purse was out and, well you know. Only to get it home and think ‘mmmmmm…..?’. It happens, well, it does to me! So the other day I saw it and thought ‘today, I am using that!’, in a very determined kind of thought-voice. So, it went like this: A5 card blank with the acetate stuck to the left side only (so that it can be opened to get the see-through effect). A piece of black felt scalloped patterned ribbon stuck just below the middle of the card, with a Craftwork Card ‘Thinking of You’ greeting circle surrounded on one side with mulberry flowers. A small doily in the top right corner, with two punched butterflies attached at their middles to give 3D wings, and three sticky pearls on each. Got it? Clear as mud? Good! I quite like it, I prefer my ‘throw-it-all-on-artistically’ style, but it’s okay. Problem is, you see, that I sat down at the cupboard about an hour ago and discovered that my card-making ‘get-up-and-go’ had ‘got-up-and-gone’. So there you have it, something a bit different. What do you think? 

Well On The Way…….

……….. to completion. Remember the VERY pink baby blanket? Here it is almost finished. I really got into making the little flowers last night while watching ‘The Apprentice’, multi-tasking at its best! I’m not even sure where I am putting them on the blanket yet, really, but hey, it will evolve as these things do. I really like this granny circle/square pattern and enjoy hooking it, could almost make them in my sleep now. The pattern is in Molly Makes, issue 2. The flower is from my new book- ‘100 flowers to Knit and Crochet, and is sooooo easy. I got carried away with making them and by the time Lord Sugar said “you’re fired” I’d made fifteen of them! 

Live, Laugh, Cross-stitch

I took some time out from being a domestic goddess this morning to work on this project for a little while. I bought this as a very cheap kit on Ebay a few months ago. The thread that it came with is aqua, which is lovely, but I just couldn’t face the thought of using one colour for all the months that it is going to take me to finish it. So I am using this variegated Anchor thread instead and it is LUSH. Also, I know that you are supposed to begin a cross stitch pattern in the centre of the design, but you know, I just didn’t want to! ‘How very rebellious of you’, I bet you are thinking. Well hell, I’m 50, who’s going to stop me eh?! Ahem, anyway……… fiddly business, cross stitch, and I have fads where I love it and then go right off it for ages. I still have my ‘Raspberry Lemonade’ stitching project on the go, I WILL get going on it again soon, really. There are just too many lovely things to make and just nowhere near enough time to indulge my crafty passions.  

Here Come The Girls!

Today my two cousins and I finally managed to meet up after, oh I don’t know how many years, too many! Gayner, on the right is the daughter of my Dads brother, my Uncle Ronald, who is sadly no longer with us. Lerverne, on the left, is the daughter of my Dads sister, my Auntie Christine. We had a fab afternoon, catching up, reliving childhood memories, and just laughing. It was just wonderful. They are fabulous, gorgeous, strong ladies. It runs in the family!

Also, I am proud to announce that this blog has been invited to join Mumsnet! Yay! Check out the logo added down to the right, see? Just got to keep up the good work now and make it REALLY good…… so no pressure there! Back with craftiness tomorrow.