A Very Dear Friend

Got home early evening from our Roast Lamb Lunch (delicious) to find a message on the answerphone to say that a very dear friend of mine was quite poorly in hospital.

Now, Audrey and I go back a long time, way back to the 60's when I first became a Guide Guider again following a break when I had my son.  She was Brown Owl at the Pack in Waterfoot where I was based.  Much later on I took over a Guide Company in Crawshawbooth and when some of my Guides became too old to stay I opened a Ranger Guide Company as well.

We decided we wanted a flag to carry on Church Parades and other occasions so I set about designing one and it was with Audrey's skill that the two of us made the flag for the Unit.  I could not begin to guess at the hours we spent embroidering all the different elements that went into making the flag but I do remember I did the easier embroidery stitches whilst Audrey did the more complicated ones.  At that time I was at Uni in Manchester and travelling on the bus I would be sat there doing some of the embroidery on the various elements that were to make up the flag.

A couple of years ago Audrey was 80 and on one of my visits to her house she showed me some of her beading projects.  Only a couple of weeks later she gave me this which she had sat down and made for me.  It is a little purse made from seed beads, including the "chain".  I was overwhelmed.

Isn't that a work of art

and done by an 80 year old!

Well, today we are off to see her in hospital, whether she will know me or not I do not know until I get there. Her daughter explained, last night when I rang her, that sometimes her mother is asleep and misses seeing her visitors.

Nonetheless I have made her a little card so that if she is asleep, when she wakes she will know that I have been.

Just a simple little "thinking of you" card, coloured with Twinkling H2o's which I am sure  she will like.

I must find one of the newspaper photographs which shows Audrey and I holding the flag just before its dedication.  Maybe I will upload it and tell you about the non-dedication we had that week and the actual dedication which took place in Blackburn Cathedral.

A Card from a Friend

Alison sent me this RAK (random act of kindness) and as it has not been on her blog I thought I would upload it to mine as it is a lovely card.  Her blog is well worth a visit.

As you can see it is an Easel Card

Yesterday I directed you to Dot's blog so you could see the lovely RAK she sent to me - hope you enjoyed her blog there's some smashing stuff on there.

Oh Johnny

Made this card for my dil who is crazy about Johnny Depp (well who wouldn't be?).  As you can see I used pre-printed images in a collage for the main part of the card, one of my MS punches for the side decoration and a paper tissue rose.  The rose is like the one I made at the ArtsyCrafty weekend but this one has a shrink plastic clock as the centre but it does have two metal leaves on it.

It is actually on a pale blue shaded card but it does not show up in the photograph.  Couldn't scan it as I would have flattened the rose.

The reason it is a Thank You card is that they are treating us to a roast lamb lunch on Sunday and, although I expect Andy is making it, I thought I would make Sam a card.  Hope she likes it as she is not that into my handmade cards.  Boo Hoo!

I am off to Paddy's now as I have to start my sample for her crafting weekend when I am doing some claywork and as I have to make 40 beads to swap for a Polyclay weekend I am attending in June I doubt I will have much time for cardmaking.  Ah well, out comes the pasta machine.

ps I have a Thank You of my own to make - to Dot.  Thank you for the lovely card you sent to me.  If you want to see it you will have to visit her blog (23 May) - it is the top blue card with the shaving foam technique background and the birds on it.

Japanese Tea House (Origami Tag Book)

As promised here are the instructions for the Japanese Tea House (and especially for Gayle).

This was first taught to me by Lenna Young Andrews she in turn having been taught by Chris Peden.  I have Lenna's original class notes but she asked that I do not repeat them per se so these are my own notes.  I would ask that if you teach this you also make up your own notes and acknowledge the source.  (See other pictures 3rd April blog)

Now to begin:

Cover - 2 pieces mountboard 3 1/4" square and 2 pieces paper to cover (4 1/4" square).
Stick the board pieces in the centre of the paper, cut the corners and fold over sticking well down.  Set to one side.

Tags - make 14 small tags, stamping on both sides - attach approx 18" yarn by doubling thread and looping through to each one.  (You can have more tags but I think this is a nice number to work with.)  Set to one side.

Book - 7 pieces of thin cardstock 5 3/4" square
Stamp an overall design on one side only - this will be the roof.  (You could use fairly substantial scrapbook paper and use the design on it for your roof.)

Do an Origami Flower Fold on each one, open out and stamp on the triangular pieces for the inside.
(Origami Flower Fold:  Fold square in half with roof side to the table, open out and fold again in half, open out and fold corner to corner ONCE  with the roof side inside.  See pictures below)

Fold in half

turn and fold again

 

Flip cardstock over and fold diagonally

Stamp on the two flat sides (inside) and the two triangular pieces which you can see I am holding.

Like this

The photograph below shows the placement of the stamps when opened out.

Poke a hole through the top where all folds meet and put yarn/tags through - two per hole.  Put one tag either side of the triangular piece.

Attach all seven pieces together on the flat side.

Attach covers to the back and front remembering to add ribbon for closure and hanging loop before sticking down.

NB there are different ways you can finish this:

Gently pull each tag out of the pocket page so it hangs just below the pages then make an overhand knot with your yarn right above the top of the pages.
OR
Attach a bead to the top end of each double set of fibres.

I hope you can follow these instructions - not easy to do without physically showing you and I chickened out of doing a video because I don't know how to upload one.

Artsy Crafty Weekend (Part 3)

The final chapter.  This is my Sampler for which I must have requested "lime green" as my colour:

The rose is made from metal, the square next to it with the bird is metal also, as is the dragonfly and the top right and bottom centre squares are also metal.  

The other squares are a mix of stamped canvas and Terra (Viva) paints the latter showing three different techniques with the Terra paint.

Here are some of the examples we saw on display:

This is one done by one of the other participants - I just love this colour combo

Not sure now whether these were samples or whether they were done by participants but just love these colours.

Aren't they beautiful?

As well as a great weekend of lovely projects thought up by Lin and Leandra there were also some new friendships made and I just have to include the girls from Spain on my blog.  Only one could speak English so we had a ball trying to make one another understand what we were saying.  All of this was done with lots of laughter and giggles.

It was good to meet up with one or two people from the last weekend I attended in Warrington and to meet a friend, Gaynor, from way way back in my stamping days.  I also met, for the very first time, Wendy from one of my Yahoo groups and Nathalie from a forum I am on, so that was extra nice.  

but to finish off I have to show you 

Freema chilling out

not exactly behind the bike shed

but in the car park of the hotel

Artsy Crafty Weekend (Part 2)

Well, as I said yesterday, here is the third project we did on the weekend.

This is a little bird house with love birds sitting in the centre.  This was coloured with Kaiser paints and then a piece of metal cut with a big die was embossed and I added some paint to it to vary the colour.  The roof piece was also embossed metal.  The heart and the little birds are carstock.

Again there were samples in different colours - wish I had done that blue - or the lime green as I just loved Carol's finished piece.

Here's a picture of Kay working diligently

Freema on the prowl

and my dear friend Anne sucking her lollipop

Tomorrow I will show you the main project which was a sampler.  That's all for now folks!

Artsy Crafty Weekend (Part 1)

Went on another FAB weekend with Lin and Leandra - this time all the way to Newport Pagnall.

Again three projects which I will unveil over the next three days.  This one was not featuring as much metalwork as the last one and this time we got to play with the fabulous Viva Paints.

When we went in at 8.30 am we had to sit anywhere.  Because we were at the back of the queue (talking Anne, Carol, Freema, Kay and myself - the northeners) most seats had been taken up so I had to sit on the pink table.

We were working on a large tag and this is what I produced:

The tag itself was coloured using Distress Inks and then sprayed with Crafty Notions spray in white (love those sprays) and overstamped with some of Leandra's new stamps.    Then we made the tissue flower for the top.

The tree was then cut from some greyboard and we used Ferro though a stencil, spraying again with Crafty Notions sprays.

Lastly we worked in metal to produce all the little birds, bird houses and leaves.  I added some little bees and a moth.  Love how my owl turned out - I did a 'brush' technique on him.

There were some beautiful examples on display around the room and here are one or two photographs I took showing other colourways.

Think the one above is my fave

but then I do like these two

It is surprising what a difference colour and placement of the various elements makes.

More tomorrow when I will show you the third project - saving the big one until last.

ps just added another blog candy giveaway for Enchanted Revelries - had a great time visiting Tristran's blog via Lenna's - well worth the trip.

Kraft

I have missed entering into Challenges and do enjoy the Gingersnap Creations ones so went on to see what was coming up.  Saw that there was one for a colour and I just happened to have some Alcohol Ink backgrounds that would fit in with this particular colour lying around.  I like how the stamping has missed in parts, - think it adds to the overall design.

Set to and used three of them and then one of my favourite OnyxXpressions stamps as the main image.  This is to be a birthday card for someone - hope they like it.

Now to sign up, last minute, on Gingersnap Creations.  Too warm (hurrah, nice weather at last) to do any more indoors, garden calling for a bit of weeding and sorting, so it is the outdoors for us today.

Hopefully back Blogging

Sorry to my faithful followers for not being around much of late.  As you probably gathered we were going through a "not so nice time" with a much loved auntie who had a brain tumour.  Sadly she died two weeks ago but she is at peace now and we have to take comfort in knowing that.

Today, Friday, I decided I wanted to do something and so created a canvas with a couple of watch faces from old ones that no longer work.  Such a shame that they didn't have "parts" in them as I love cogs and things.  I am delaying this blog because I want to enter it into Sam's challenge over on Lots to Do and it does not start until tomorrow.

I coloured the canvas with Distress Inks - Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge (can't stop using that one), Tea Dye and a touch of Barn Door.  Also used Butterscotch Adirondack for stamping some of the swirls and the clock parts on, and Terracotta for the words.

Now Jennie, the Artistic Stamper, had kindly sent me a piece of "stuff" like the one Suze had used on her piece at CHA, so that I could do some Melt Art in that gorgeous honeycomb effect.  Thanks Jennie - I have at last used it.  You can see the two pieces in the top right hand corner.  Just love the effect.

Then I stamped into some utee with a "Time" wordy stamp and used some of the little drops that you get on your mat when you have finished pouring to embellish the cogs, along with some crystals.

The word "time" down the left hand side is Grungeboard with Terracotta Dabber on it and the flourish underneath the words (Paperartsy) is also a piece of Grungeboard dipped in the melt pot.

Now it is finished, not a clue where I will put it, but I did enjoy making it and hope it helps my mojo return fully.

Watch out:  pictures will be coming up over the weekend from the Artsy Crafty weekend with Leandra and Lin.

Ann B's Birthday Card & OOPS! Sorry

I know Ann reads my blog so I have scheduled this card for the latest date I will be away so that she should have received it by the time this blog is posted.

I was late with this card and as Ann's surname begins with "B" I decided to use some Elusive Image stamps and make "B ... is for blossom" the stop on the easel card.  On the back it carries on saying "... Birthdays, B(her surname) and Belated".

I used Bundled Sage, Wild Honey and Forest Moss to colour my Distress Ink background.  Then stamped the images in Black Archival Ink and coloured the dots on the blossoms with Twinkling H2o's.

Just hope she likes it.

OOPS!  SORRY FOLKS.  Was rushing.  Here it is:

Yet Another

This is my next birthday card, uploaded Monday for posting today whilst I am not around.  

This one features a fold down the side and some of those tiny butterflies from my new die.  I used some Elusive Images stamps to finish it off.  As this is a scan you cannot see the fold.

This view shows the card as it stand open - the grasses go along the bottom of the inside.

It is just a normal card size with a valley fold 1 1/4" from the fold and a mountain fold 1 3/4" from the fold.  As you can see from the closed card there is a scalloped piece underneath the ribbon and if you look closely at the picture above you will see there is a scalloped piece on the inside edge as well.

This was a card taught to me by Gayle in America (Gayle, if you are reading I will get those instructions done as soon as possible for the project you want).

Another Birthday Card

Just a simple one using Tumbled Glass, Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar Distress inks again for the background.  Spun Sugar for the flourishes on the main (pink) card.  All stamps are by Paperartsy (new Hot Pick) and Victorian Velvet and Tumbled Glass used to stamp with then Archival Black over the top.  I jsut love that grass and bird stamps.

Happy Birthday Ann!

Working Through Anger

In 2007 someone, who shall remain nameless, decided I had snubbed him and has held a grudge against me since then.  Things came to a head a few weeks ago and today I decided "my anger" (at his latest tirade) was no good being bottled up so I finished off a background page I had done a while ago in my journal.

I bought this stamp at Aintree a couple of weeks ago, just because it "tickled" me and finally I have used it.  Think it says a lot.  Then I went through my many word stamps - my friends always think I have a lot of 'wordy' stamps but the ones I have used today rarely come out - well, where would you use them?

Not sure if this will really qualify for the Lots to Do challenge this week, which is "collage" but then if I call it a "collage of words" maybe it will.  For a collage I would rather use lots of different things, bandage, torn book pages, postage stamps, buttons etc. and make it quite a textural piece but although I have something in mind I have not the time to produce as we are off to Ormskirk again until after the funeral..

Also made some birthday cards and one of those was using masking as a technique so that could possibly be classed as a collage as it uses different stamps.

Did make a few cards today to catch up on birthdays that are coming up but as I don't want the recipients to see them before they receive them I'll do a "post option" and upload them day by day.  Anyway, here is my journal page:

Not a clue where I got the word stamps from but the Alphabet is a Fourth Dimension one which I have wanted for ages, the main image was bought in a bargain box at Aintree for £6 instead of £12.95 (yes, it is a mounted stamp) and it is an Inkadinkadoo one.  The background stamps were featured way back when I first began journalling and are designed by Penny Bearcroft for The Stamp Bug.

Here is the birthday card which might also qualify for the Lots to Do challenge using Non Sequitur stamps from the "Roaring Twenties" plate.  I used Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks for the background (and Spun Sugar for the perfume bottle, shoes and telephone on the main cardstock, and the flourishes (Paperartsy - I love this flourish) on the Distress background).  All other stamping is using Archival Sepia Ink.

Don't think the recipient goes on my blog - well at least I hope she doesn't.

Auntie

Do you remember on the 24th March I posted some photographs of Auntie, taken at her 80th Birthday?  Well, I have been missing from blogland because Auntie had to go in a nursing home but her stay was not to be long.  It all happened over Easter weekend when she went to live in Silver Birch Lodge in Ormskirk.

We got a call on the 2nd May to say she was very ill so we moved over there to be with her as much as we could.  Sadly she died on Saturday, 8th May.

There is a lot to do so I will still be missing for days at a time but this morning I finally got some crafting done - made two cards to say thank you - first to the nursing home where she got such excellent care and attention,

and the second one to Jill, the Macmillan Nurse, who realised Auntie needed 24 hour specialist care.

Now to try to catch up on making some birthday cards for friends, but first we have to visit a 96 year old friend who has been in a nursing home for several years.  We have had to neglect her these past few weeks so now is the time to make amends and see her once again.

In its Present State

Here is my little house book as mentioned in yesterday's blog.  Did, and still do, intend to put some more bits on it, as and when I get time, but for the moment this is as it stands.  I did take my Distress Inks - new colours - over to aunties with me and three boxes of Paperartsy stamps plus my gel pens so that is all I managed to do - colour in some of the images.

Must look through my ephemera and other things to see what I can put on to make it more three dimensional.  Am thinking feathers, metal bits etc.  In fact I have a metal Archie somewhere at home which I will hopefully be putting on the page that features him.

Had to scan in two halves so you have an overlap of one of the images

The cat is out of context as he is the cover for the side that features the birds.  Just could not resist using him on the outside cover and I thought it rather cute that he is saying "you know you love me" to that little grumpy looking bird.

These are on the other side of the book, featuring the bird images from my collection.

That's it for now, hope you like what I did with my project from Paul at Victoria Stampers.

Vicky Stampers

Last Saturday at the club my good friend Paul was taking the class and we made a little box in the shape of a house.  This was to house a concertina type book in the shape of a house also.  Paul had worked really hard, not just making a sample but in producing templates for us to use prior to the workshop so that we could just get on with cutting, assembling and decorating.

As they would say up north "Ee lad, tha' did a reet good job"

Anyway, here is my house, completed at the club but still minus a chimney.

As you can see I am still into my Distress Inks and I used Tumbled Glass, Wild Honey and Forest Moss on the main part but did sneak a bit of my favourite, Rusty Hinge, in as well.  The corners, door and window are coloured with Barn Door.

This is a sneak peek at the book inside.  I chose not to tie it together with ribbons or any other kind of fastening as I like it opened out in the box as it is.

As you can no doubt see it is made up entirely from Paperartsy stamps but I have decided to use the "post option" and upload them tomorrow for you to see.

I am going to be away from my computer for a few days due to illness within the family and not wishing my blog to remain neglected too long (we have just slipped home for an hour or so) I chose the "post option" as mentioned above.