Retirement card - Saturday 10th January 2015

Hello Friends!

I would first of all like to say "Wow" ...thank you for all your lovely comments about my Stampscapes card! I was really thrilled, so much so,  that one evening with my iPad on my lap I went through and gave all of you a thank you! The card took ages to make, but I was pleased with it and I have some more of their stamps, so as soon as I have the time I will be having another go!

I would also  like to welcome a new blog friend...Becca Cruger...I discovered Becca and her fab blog through Darnell, you really should check her out...http://damselofdistressedcards.blogspot.co.uk

I am up to 88 followers, hopefully some time this year I may reach 100 (I can hope!) and if so, there will be candy!!!

I hadn't meant to leave it so long between posts, but...well those of you who go out to work know what it's like the first week back, especially after a long break like Christmas when the office has been completely closed! We are still 'battling' with the new national volunteering website and the people who own it and have not designed(in many peoples' opinions) it with Volunteer Centres in mind at all! It's not just us, it's all of us (about 300 offices) and I won't even try to explain because unless you work in a Volunteer Centre it will mean nothing to you!

Te site all goes totally live on Monday, so I am in the office more next week as I have to make sure our office volunteers are okay using it..hey-ho!

Thus...not much crafting got done last week and I spent all of Friday making cards and crafts using  little calendars. We are going to be using them in our  first workshop of the year next week and I've been trying to decide which design to give my ladies to make...I  started out with using some stamps, the original intention and disliked them so much, they went in the bin...the one I like best uses just dies and embossing, with the merest hint of stamping and I'm thinking maybe they'd like a little change from stamping anyway?? I 

will be showing you the ones I've made over the course of next week, so by the end of the week you will be fed up with calendars! I'll also be sharing with you a very special one that was made for me by one of my dear blog friends..I received it last September and should have shown you before, it really is very special.

So, for today's card...I made this one a few months ago and it was for our lovely mobile library driver Sylvia, who retired. I did actually make her 'colleague' card as well, but forgot to photograph it. This was my own for her. Sylvia has a lovely sense of humour and I was going to try a cartoony one with the library bus on it, but for about 2 weeks before she left, when we had a little chat in the staff room, me filling my kettle and she her flask, we would do a count down to 'no more alarm clocks' for her, so I made this instead and I'm pleased to report she loved it (and the other one!)

Sylvia is a bit like me, not particularly 'girly' so I didn't want to make the card too fussy.  I used polka dot backing paper, slightly distressed at the edges, the Tim Holz Sizzix alarm clock die and flower & butterfly dies by Spellbinders. I didn't photograph the inside (no idea why!), but I followed through with the papers and the greeting read "No more alarm clock!"

I just liked the idea, as with the assemblage clocks (one of which I still have on my shelf to alter), of just reusing the redundant clock as a piece of art!

That's all for now, I am typing this with very cold hands...Tom seems to have the 'create something' bug (I should not have let him near Pinterest). Ever since we had the new kitchen we have wanted somewhere else to store our wellies and garden shoes (don't want to mess up the new floor, lol); I wear my wellies every day to see to the hens, so they can get muddy. He has wanted a boot shelf combined with a coat rack for the downstairs cloakroom, saw an idea on Pinterest and today we began making it (this is the problem, I have to help). As he made such a good design with the stamp rack, I could hardly not look enthusiastic and to be fair, it's looking good...my goodness I am going to have a mega Annie Sloan day when the weather gets warmer!

We only came in from the garage a short while ago and my hands haven't yet thawed out!  I am really tired too...fortunately it's the weekend so Tom does the cooking!

After we finish that tomorrow, we have to re-felt the roof on my craft barn. I've been saying all summer it needs doing and guess what?  Yes it came off with the gales last night...now that's one job I'm not looking forward too!

Thank you so much for stopping by, I really appreciate your visits and comments and please enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Just Good Friends -Sunday 17th March

Good Morning Friends,

I hope you have all been enjoying the weekend, despite the weather (we've had a lot of rain)! I finally got the chance for some crafting yesterday afternoon after we got home from Cirencester, so I set to creating the bag I had been promising myself to get started on for  a few weeks. It's a project in an issue of Craft Stamper magazine. I've done the hard part and am really pleased with it, I just have to finish the embellishing before posting it on here.

My card today is made from an LOTV stamp, which I coloured with Promarkers. I then die cut it using Spellbinders Classic Rectangles and matted and layered on coffee coloured card from stash. I used the same card, embossed with an M-Bossability for the bottom half of the card and finished off with a doily, ribbons, twine and a button.

I decided not to add a sentiment, leaving it for any occasion.

Sorry for the short post today.. we are out for the day, hoping to see some little lambs and chicks at Cotswold Farm Park, despite the rain!

Happy Sunday all,
love Carole X

Pots of Flowers! -Saturday 23rd February

Hello Friends,

I hope this chilly Saturday finds you bright and breezy! I don't think I've got to that point just yet this morning!! Yesterday I'd planned some fairly quick makes for a forthcoming craft fair, then I used a new stamp I've got from Crafty Individuals and ended up spending a lot of time on two little cards (was really pleased with them though and will reveal one day next week), plus with Linelle Harlow being on C&C whilst I was working, I was prompted to get my stencil out...oh dear.

Finally I got the promarkers out as well, to work on the card for our next workshop!  At about 10pm, after my fix of Mastermind and NCIS, Tom was watching a TV programme I don't like and not being tired, I was back in the craft room for another few hours. We finally got to bed at gone midnight and then were awoken at 1.30am by the doorbell! We live in a quiet neighbourhood, nothing ever happens, so as you can imagine it was a bit startling and scary..we sleep at the back of the house, so we tiptoed to a front bedroom (why tiptoe I ask myself??) and peered out - down below we could see torches in the front garden and the bell kept ringing. I watch way too much CSI type shows, I can't even begin to explain what was going on in my creative little mind :)

Anyway, having thrown on trousers and sweats, we went downstairs and opened the door to be confronted by..no not the police... but two men from the electricity company (we did ask for ID). Apparently a house in the next street had been without electricity for hours and they wanted to tap into our power source to give them power through the night! I was biting my lip...at 1.30am, you get us up? What about nearer neighbours? Do you know what the reply was? "You are the only ones who answered the door" (apart from one lady who slammed the door in their face). I was angry! Tom wanted to see for himself, so off he went to the next street..yes they were without power, had been trying to get it sorted all day, but had gone to bed when they were awoken themselves a few hours before! So there wasn't any desperate need to lay a cable across gardens and plug into our power source before morning,these people just wanted to get back to bed too -  so Tom politely told the guys, sorry no!

And that my friends is why, despite having to get up at dawn for the hens, which usually wakes me up, I am writing a rambling post, barely to do with craft...but if you didn't give up two paragraphs ago, here are the cards I made as a basis for our ladies on craft night....

The card we chose this time was based on a project from a recent DoCrafts magazine and is a flower pot with the opening at the top for a matching tag and a stand on the back. I did have an idea to make it a hanging basket by tying ribbon each side, but didn't get time to make it. I also think it would make a nice basket filled with Easter eggs (card, not real!) and you can easily put a gift card inside. When thinking about the egg idea, I was wondering if any of the 'die' companies like Spellbinders, Sissix, Marianne etc do actually make Easter egg dies? They seem to make them for every other Holiday, but I've never seen any Easter eggs..please let me inform me if you know otherwise!

The papers used are from DoCrafts Capsule collection and the flowers all Spellbinders die cuts..just something bright and cheerful to look forward to the Spring! The groups were all given paper selections and the choice of dies to 'do their own thing' and all came up with lovely cards.

Before I go, can I say a big thanks to those of you who commented on my post on Fantastic Ribbons blog, very grateful to you.

Since I mentioned the Cosmic Shimmer problem, so many people have said to me they've had the same! I was told that the lids from the old bottles fit the new ones, but I tried that and couldn't get it to screw on..but I will persevere! However what I did do, was cut across the opening a bit further down and now it seems to flow much more freely. But thanks for your advice.

I'm hoping to get some crafting in today between shopping and other chores..hope you do too, thanks for visiting!

Love,

Carole X

Cock-a-doodle-do! - Sunday 13th January

Good Morning Friends!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and haven't been affected by snow (unless you want to be of course! Not me!). 

Did anyone watch C&C from CHA in Anaheim last night? I was sat there beginning to feel excited about our holiday later this year, as Anaheim is one of the places we will be visiting. It's the home of the original Disneyland, but we usually try and catch an ice hockey game as I support their team, The Anaheim Ducks..anyway, I digress! I just watched the Spellbinders shows (couldn't afford anything though!). I really like the way that in the US they make small cards. I love small cards, but especially with my commissions, I feel the pressure to make large cards...well it's not even pressure, they all want large cards and yet smaller cards are so much more personal and can be equally as beautiful, as proved by the members of the Spellbinders DT who demo'd last night, their cards were exquisite.

Today's card is made using another of my Christmas presents..my lovely friend Amy gave me the Heartfelt Creations stamp set I used on Thursday's blog, as well as this gorgeous Cockerel Dreamweaver stencil.

Whilst I had my Dreamweaver box of pastes and powders out last week to work on the Valentine's cards, I took the opportunity to play with my new stencil. I have seen this image used in quite different ways in Dreamweaver galleries, including one very beautiful black and white zentangle design, but I was feeling in a very colourful mood when I did this. On the farm where our ladies (for my new blog friends we have 4 pet hens) come from, there is a little bantam cockerel. He may be small in size but he is huge in colour as he struts about the farm with his little troop of 'wives' following!

I was thinking of him whilst adding various shades of glitter to this image..what fun!

As some of you are new to my little snippet of blogland and others of you like to have occasional updates about our 'girls', I thought I would take this opportunity to let you know what's been going on in their little world...

For my new followers...we have kept hens for 5 years and lost our oldest girl aged 5 last year, so all of these are relatively young....

Cara is 2 years old and the head of the group now and believe me, she has a hard task keep this little group in order! She is a Black Rock who hates being photographed!

Bella is our 10 month old Bluebelle, she's our adventurer..climbs everything and loves to explore

Lacy is so sweet! She is 8 months old and a Speckly..who also loves to climb!

Bella and Lacey are best friends, they are inseparable! Here they are sunning themselves on Boxing Day

And here is our 7 month old Buff Orpington, Penny...she is huge and loves to be cuddled...which is great because I love to cuddle her!

She even got dressed up for Christmas..

...and though it has taken her a while, she finally laid her first egg on Boxing Day!

So that's an update on our little ladies! Thanks for stopping by,

Carole X

Anniversary Card - Saturday 12th January

Good Morning Blog Friends,

Today's card is one that I made when trying to think of Valentine's ideas for our next workshop. We are  probably going to to give our group the choice of sentiment, so for this one I've used anniversary. This is a vintage style card using a Kanban rose stamp and Happy Anniversary Dreamweaver Stencil. I also used paper from a pad by Tilda and some some dusky pink  textured card.

I stamped the image in red and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I then distressed all around the edge with worn lipstick and turned up the corner after matting and layering  on the textured base card. 

For the stencil I scraped with Dreamweaver perlescent embossing paste and after removing the stencil, I sprinkled with red glitter and then left to dry before matting and layer on matching card to create the stopper.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I really do appreciate it!

Carole X

Wheat Field - Thursday 27th September

Morning Blog Friends,

Tonight is our latest workshop, only two weeks since the last one and I've been on holiday, so preparation time was limited. I was also panicking because yesterday, my day off, I was supposed to be going to a work meeting, which was only going to leave me  a few hours to get my head around probably the most 'complex' card we have made so far...complex more in the way of a lot being involved, that more difficult.

However, at the last moment on Tuesday I heard that I wouldn't be going, I can't tell you how relieved I was, having to do work things on a day I devote to crafting and my commissions, especially straight after a holiday, is not good!

This is  my demo card for the card we will be making tonight and is based on a card we made (though never finished) and the Woodware workshops a few weeks ago, using a Woodware stamp (Wheat). Don't look too closely, because I hate measuring, much prefering 'by eye', but this card really needs measuring and I had such a short time to make it, so the panels may be a bit wonky!

Now  to explain how it's made!

Materials:

Card blank

Blue card

linen finish card

Stamp

embossing ink and clear embossing powder

chalk inks

kitchen towel or paper dusting cloth, heat tool and iron

mdf square

ribbon, bakers twine, gems

First of all (and I'm sorry it doesn't show in photo well), I took an A4 sheet of the linen card and stamped the barley image three times across the top half (overlapping) and twice along the bottom edge and then I also stamped the sentiment - all with embossing ink.

Next I covered all the inked images with clear embossing powder and set with a heat tool. Next I rubbed blue inks over the whole area in circular motions. When I was happy that I had covered everything, I rubbed hard across the card and the embossed images with a paper dusting cloth, this gets rid of the excess and raises the image revealing the resist. Finally, I iron the card between two sheets of copy paper to set. 

The remainder of the card is simply cutting to size and matting and layering, it's a nice textured card and nice and messy to make, which suits me, though my style is more grungey and steampunky really, I am sure the class is going to love making it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole X