Mrs Moyles ...

... is 90.

Actually that is Chas's Aunty Kay who will be 90 on Monday.  As she lives in Ireland we won't be helping her celebrate her birthday but plans are in place, so I believe, for her to have a 'bit of a knees up' with the family who live over there.

This is the card I made for her:

I decided I wanted it pink and brown and wanted to put things in its makeup which meant something to her.  The background is a map showing Castlerea, in the county of Rhoscommon, where she was born and brought up as a child, edged in gold mirror card to match the number ninety.  The three playing cards are to represent the game of Bridge which she used to play, along with her husband Joe, and later with her daughter Catherine, to a very high level.  

At the bottom the dictionary shows the word "Bridge" and there are two other dictionary pieces one to show "Shamrock" to wish her well and one to show "Nurse" because that was what she did before retiring.  In fact she did some of her nursing in the town where we live - at the hospital where I was admitted to in April.  I think she might find it has changed somewhat if she could see it now.

The flowers have tiny gold leaves attached to them and the wires that I cut off the leaves have been formed into loops and placed underneath the flowers.  It is a bit difficult to see them in the scan but there are three sets of them in total.  I thought this was a good way to recycle and one which I will use again as it does look quite nice.

Hopefully now, this card, in its hand-made box, is winging its way across the sea to Ireland (guess who is singing that song now) and will be with Aunty Kay on Monday in time for her birthday.

Happy Birthday!

And before I forget - thank you for following me to my new followers - and to my old ones for remaining with me.  It means a lot.

It's a Bit of a Ribby Week

Well here we are again, another Thursday and another Challenge, this time from Zoe who says we are "The Material Girls".  Last week's challenge "Using Plastic/Acrylic" seemed to be a bit of a teaser for a lot of you and I thought Shrink Plastic would be the order of the day for most of you with Tim Holtz Fragments coming a close second but this was not the case.  If you have a look at the entries you will see they came up with some super ideas.

Let's see what you come up with this week using Corrugated Card. This is my entry for the DT:

I was a bit stuck with this in the first place but then remembered how we had torn CC at an ArtsyCrafty weekend and so began my plan of action.  I had some houses left over (Paperartsy) from a journalling class yonks ago so just cut them out and tucked them behind my corrugated "hills" to make my little picture.  Stuck it onto a piece of mountboard it was complete - perhaps I should have added a shiny moon top right?

I checked with Zoe that this was not "cute" as sometimes I do wander over (and I never did cute) but put that down to having a three year old as one of the loves of my life.  Guess my submission is what you might call recycling as I used all old stuff!

Looking forward to seeing some of your creations over on Just for Fun.  Dashing off now to have my hair cut as I need new glasses and something to wear for a wedding on Monday - can't do either until my hair is tidier.

WOYWW 110 and It's a Mess Again

Two weeks ago I had the tidiest workdesk ever, last week it was a bit messed up but this week - Calamity!  I've been looking for something and one thing led to another and before I knew this was it.

I refuse to take a closeup of my green mat (working area) as it is piled quite high with papers and all manner of things.  You can see my little handmade pots (http://hickydorums.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-set-of-pots.html) are hanging over the edge, although the area around my pasta machine (yes, it is for Polymer Clay) seems pretty tidy.

Oh Dear!  So many of you got it wrong last week - I have not been good and started my "C" cards.  Just two I did at the Club on that Saturday because I had that brass stencil.  I can assure you I am always last minute and tempted to buy for some people who don't appreciate handmade cards.

Been working on things for the Design Team so nothing to show you until they can be revealed so its "Toodle Pip" from me for today and a reminder for you to pop over to see Julia, and read all about her holiday, at The Stamping Ground and link in to some fab desks and work.

Vicky Stampers ...

... is really called "Victoria Stampers" because we used to meet upstairs in a pub called "The Victoria".  We changed venue recently because the stairs had got too much for a few of our members lugging their crop bags up them.  We now meet at Padgate Community Centre, Padgate, Warrington, on the first Saturday of the month and we have a workshop each time.  Last month it was Lorraine's turn to show us how to use embossing paste.

Lorraine brought along, gold, silver, black, white and a glittery white paste for us to try.  Most of us had our own brass stencils and some had those thin plastic ones so there was plenty to do.  Normally we share our things but I didn't borrow anyones stencil because I only used two or three of my own.

You saw the Three Wise Men I did a couple of days ago - well here are some of Lorraine's gorgeous samples:

Isn't that Peacock gorgeous?

And these are some by Helen (below)

and Shelia

My tree

One with Palette Pad and Foil Flakes

and Finally

Versamark & Perfect Pearls

Now I am going to get killed for this - but here is Lorraine doing a 'one to one' with Helen

And here is our oldest member who comes without fail every month - Joyce who will be 82 later this month.  Err ... no, the dogs are not members - but they are well-behaved and we were dog-sitting that day too.

As well as the workshop we had our "Dinner Lady" celebrating her upcoming birthday (this is the closest meeting we have to the actual date).  She is not really a "dinner lady" but she does organise the Lunches when we order from outside and she always brings the tea and coffee.

Anyway, we gave her a Jacob's Join buffet (all bring something) which had been carefully co-ordinated by me(???)  and which got totally out of hand as the day approached in that we had enough to feed the 5,000 at the end.  Just look at the table:

And the cake which I had carefully chosen (from Morrisons) for its closeness to a stamped image

and here is the Birthday Girl herself

with her daughter who had made the decorations for the wall

As none of us smoke who were there that day we had no means of lighting candles and had never thought about it.  So Jayne and Lynne set off to find some - won't tell you where the lighter came from or how it came about that they got it - wasn't illegal though!

Below is the Birthday Girl cutting her cake

That's it for now!

Just one thing - here is the lineup of those of us who came dressed in the t-shirts we did the month before with Lynne.  Hopefully next month we can get some of the others to wear them - they are all going mad on this t-shirt printing.

On 1st October we are having an "open Morning" with Make & Takes, Displays of Work and Tea/Coffee/Biscuits (no charge)

The rest of the day will be spent making Butterflies for the Holocaust Appeal which is something I have wanted to support since reading about it on Suze's blog.  If you live in the vicinity please pop along and see us  and if you want to join us we still have one or two places (we have to restrict numbers to the size of the room to be comfortable when crafting), due to members moving from the area.   
My email address is in the right hand column (very top) and if you do come along you can be sure of a warm welcome as we are a friendly bunch.

JFF - Plastic for a Change

WOW, what a lot of entries we had this last week.  I was worn out posting comments.  Did stop and wonder whether to post on all of them as some people had entered two and three times and so many had done cute which we are not really about.  But thanks anyway, it was nice to see so many.

Well, over on Just For Fun the theme this month is "Using Materials" and this week it is "use Plastic/Acrylic".  Perfect as I had seen my friend Caz make something from the bottom of a six pint milk carton and I wanted to do one too.  I do not like milk from a plastic bottle but Chas drinks it so he had the onerous task of drinking six pints (not all at once I might add) just so I could make a little basket.

Do you like it?

I found it really easy to cut the milk bottle down and then, when cleaned up, I covered it with Alcohol Inks, punched a couple of holes in each side and added large eyelets.  Next I put a bit of ribbon around the top and bottom, added some for handles to each side and decorated with my metal flowers.

Now I have something to put my Distress Inks in - that's why the bottle is next to the container on the photograph.  Why not make yourself one?  And thanks Caz for a great idea, I can let mine come out of hiding now that this blog has been published.

I suggest you pop over to Just for Fun to see what the others have made - some great ideas on there and no doubt loads to come from all those talented people out there who take up the Challenge each week.

WOYWW 109

Well, the tidy desk did not last for long.  I wonder if it really is worth tidying a room or not as one small crafting session soon has it returned to total and utter chaos.  Are you like that?  Or do you put stuff away as you have used it?  Do you finish one project before moving to another?  Dare I ask - do you ever use a duster in your room?  Or is that a swear word in craft land?

Some of you may wonder who I am asking - well, it is the 100 plus crafters who join in every Wednesday with Julia's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday over at The Stamping Ground.  Ok so I have linked it twice - that's 'cos it's good and you shouldn't miss it.  You should read the blog between Wednesday's too, Julie has a terrific sense of humour and is brilliant at writing (but don't tell her or we'll never shut her up once she gets going).

Well, here is my room as it stood last night (it's "stupid o'clock" right now) and it is likely to remain like this all day and just get the door closed on it as I have to do a bit of housework as I am having a visitor tomorrow.

The little pink bag is what Jayne gave me and I use it all the time - it goes in my trolley when I am out crafting and stays on my table when I am at home.  You can just see a "C" card which I made on Saturday at my lovely friend Lorraine's workshop.  More about that another time.  Behind the white card are two projects, yes two, that are needing finishing off and as you can see they both involve Paperartsy's new paint.  Love it!  Steampunk Birdie (done 18 months ago at CHA) is still there with his tail missing and awaiting repainting and the one I started from Tim Holtz still stands there with only something on his head.  One of these days ...

Anyway, here are a couple of my Christmas cards done at Vicky Stampers last Saturday with Lorraine.  I'll upload more samples and pictures of the birthday party we had another day.

This one was done with a brass stencil and a Glittery White Paste.  Didn't notice until today that I must have used the stencil the other way round when I did this next one.

This one is with Gold Paste

A good start to my "C" cards in July and if I get hold of some of the paste I think there will be a fair few more done as I am liking this.

Right, think I need another little snooze as my eyes are closing so I'll sign off.  If you do pop over to The Stamping Ground (see, another plug) go visit Sasa's (second name down) new monthly mojo blog - you'll come back full of inspiration.

Can You Resist?

Over on Just for Fun I have done some resist stamping for the technique this time.  If you go over to Just for Fun you can see how to do some resist techniques but the pictures are fairly small so I decided to upload them in full on here.

The black one is the Joseph's Coat technique and the other is the one where I used paper over the top and coloured in strips.  You will have to click on the picture above to see the different shades.

The one on the left is using white embossing powder and the one on the right is the plain Versamark with no embossing powder on at all.  IRL it looks much stronger in colour.

This last one shows up best of all - this is where I used the white crayon on parts of the poppy petals and the poppy heads.  The words were resist stamped just like the last one above.

Sorry I did not have time to play about with the colour on these but I have an important meeting shortly and am in a ruksh.