Saturday, 7 February 2009

VALENTINES AND EASTER STUFF

Let's Make Cards 20 Kit:
Here are some of my makes, beginning with some ATCs, the Wedding card I entered for the LMC20 Challenge, and some simple Easter (with aperture cards) and St. Valentine's cards, and one for St. Patrick!
Wotalotigot!







CHRISTMAS CANDLE

Bit late but maybe not too.
I made this Chritmas candle with the silvery whorly card from LMC 9
stuck onto parchment.
It is set on a red glass plate, which you can't see, take my word for both,
and enhanced (good word, eh?) with artificial poinsettia.
The tea-light inside is a plastic one with a battery (thought I was stupid, right?)
And the whole thing looks damn good.
So much so that they pictured it in LGC 10!

Purr,purr.

The rest of the curlicue card did not go to waste either,
as I used it on the Gothic Arch Card (see down.)

SCRAPBOOKING

I've never Scrapbooked before - but I have read a book - so when Hellybelly issued a Black and White page challenge on CB Forum I thought I'd have a go.
So - one lone crafter in search of a focus - I thought back to the days when all was simple and everything was in black and white, when we were young and the Sixties had just discovered everything, and I met OH. Lucklily I had not destroyed all my piccies of that era, and found some suitable, when we had just got engaged, everything was rosy, and we didn't have one iota of an idea of what was ahead of us.
I couldn't think how to fill up a 12x12 layout, till it flashed into my mind that a 6x6 diagonally would split it up nicely, thank you, and give handy wee pockets for posting the piccies.
I stuck the pics onto the backs of square envelopes to keep journaling thoughts in.
So far most of my thoughts have been beyond words.

And lo and behold! I won!
Global adulation, prize from Hellybelly,
and the layout pictured on the front of the LMC 21 newsletter.
Yeah! Pizza's Rule!
So this Christmas my No.3 Son John and his Girlfriend Forever, Liana,
decided to take one tentative step forward and formalise their relationship by getting engaged.
So they did.
Lightning did not strike nor did the roof fall in,
so they are quietly encouraged that it may have been a good move
in possibly the right direction.
And since I now knew how to do it, I Scrapbooked the event!
In colour because we are not in the 60's now.
(The 60's discovered colour.)
LMC20 Kissy paper cut square and set diagonally as above,
hearts at the corners, and made these the pockets.
I used Christmas cards to back the pics, so that the page looks like this:
Then like this:

Embellished with tiny envelopes and chipboard tags.
Viva el Pizza!
Liana looks lovely, as always, but I am sorry about John.
He is an actor and the part he's playing need him to look like this.
He doesn't always.
Good teeth, hasn't he?
I accidentally went and left my prizewinning page at the boys' flat in Edinburgh.
They have promised not to sit on it.

GOTHIC ARCH

This is my first ever Gothic Arch card.
The challenge on the CB forum was set by Freehartz (Beverley -http://bstampingbeehive.blogspot.com/) in Canada. And I won a prize! It is a two-card pack devised by Beverley - cards, envelopes , backing paper and with two stamped images - which I was informed by those-in-the -know are not available in the UK yet, and were pronounced "yummy." (although the word "yummy" does look entirely different...)

I made up the cards that night.
I love this sort of thing because it schools me for one moment in an alternative way of thinking - either minimalism or sufficiency - which I am not good at.
For example, my Gothic Arch looks like a pizza -just look at it!- although I did have a merry time- as do many of my things which tend to be embellished to within an inch of their lives, unless I exercise moderation to an heroic degree.
Beverley's card kit was particularly special.
So- there you are. Dead proud.
I DID round the corners,though. Couldn't help myself.
The punch just jumped into my hands and MADE me do it.
Thanks Beverley!
The other entries can be seen at

Monday, 26 January 2009

APOLOGY

To all who have visited my blog and left Kind Words and Hugs- THANK YOU -but I am just NOT good at this.
When I make return visits to other blogs I don't know what to do... and after having had a good gawk , I am humbled, and quietly sneak away in shame.
I am sorry.
I may learn before I die. I may die before I learn.
It could go either way.
The Good God only knows.
Jane, Carolyn and Kate (and anyone else who visits my blog) : what can I say but the following (which I owe to my extensive, catholic and dedicated reading of trashy detective fiction) :

Truly, Madly, Deeply.....
(the never-ending apology - Failures for the use of)

I have failed you!
A thousand million pardons!

May the vultures peck out my eyes!
May the desert jackal devour my flesh
And the sun bleach my bones to dust!

May a desert lion maul me!
May a herd of camels graze in my underpants!
May ten scorpions crawl into all of my cavities
And repeatedly sting me!

May diseases wrack my body
May I break out in boils
And defy science with my illnesses
May I suffer elternal flatulence
That can only be measured on the Richter Scale!


from “Gumshoe”

CARDMAKING AND PAPERCRAFT- DEC 08










Here are three Christmas Cards I made with Freebie (yay!) papers from Cardmaking and Papercraft.
I can NOT get these things posted right.
Match the outsides with the insides.
It's by way of an intitiative test.
You can do it!
Hint: the left side of the outside is twice size of the the right side of the outside and the inside is behind the left side of the outside, inside.






















ADVENT CALENDAR

Here is my Advent Calendar entered for Draytonlady's challenge on the CB Forum.

I made it from pokey-hats (cones, cornets) like the ones my mum used to make out of newspaper to divvy out the chips or Dolly Mixtures to us kids.

I filled them with sweets left over from the Guisers at Hallowe'en.
It is hung on the wall purely for clarity of photographic effect - and the pertinent fact that this was only in the beginning of November - but I moved it to the garlanded mantelpiece and filled it with more traditional chocolates at the beginning of December.



And I went and won the challenge ! - and this is the prize from Draytonlady - lots of Crafting Goodies !