The simplest card in the world? & Angels

An ultra quick post while I’m the car waiting to pick up some of the kids on the school. I know this is not the simplest card in the world- but it might be jolly close! Love it’s simplicity and the movement with the tiny sliver of cardstock that the thinner card goes, the more it takes on an almost fabric like quality.
I was recently challenged to think about the most expensive card in the world. Where would you start? It wouldn’t have to be full of the priciest materials but one where someone would pay top drawer for. What would it look like? Any ideas?!!
Hmmm.. Just seen that WordPress has decided to publish my picture before I even finished the post.
Ah well- technology definitely has a mind of its own sometimes!

Better go- an ‘angel’ dropped off a meal for me earlier. ( obviously not a real one). This is in addition to two angels in the past week. I’m very fortunate to know such lovely people.

I’ll see you when we’ve finished house hunting. A move is quite possibly an option!

Authentique Card & Clearing Out!

Afternoon! I’ve paused during a major clearout to post this card. I was fiddling around with some scraps and made one card. Unappy with that one, I changed the design completely and came up with this one. The circles are placed there because thats how far the punch could reach! I put the other tiny circles more rnadomly as the Crop-a-dile has a further reach. Then I simply put scraps behind, in front and used them as tabs until I found an arrangement I was happy with. Projects don’t always get planned- sometimes they just ‘happen’!

You can see some of  the details better here- I only used 3 punches and my Crop-a-dile and the tiniest pieces of mostly the lovely Uncommon range from Authentique with a little bit of SU! retired paper to complete it. I still have a surprising amount left of the Hambly Overlay and then this morning I found a whole lot more in black. So I doubt you’ve seen the last of it. You can get the same effect using a swirly type stamp and black or white Stazon onto some acetate. The pearls and gel pen just finish it off .

I have been tackling various rooms in my home. Today was the turn of the craft area. Not fun. The problem is- how do you dcide whether a scrap is worth keeping. I was judging by various sized punches- knowing I’d get plenty of shapes out of them. The issue then became one of the scrap bags were getting out of control. My ruthlessness increased and I chucked away a fair bit. I’m not there yet, but its feeling more spacious. It doesn’t half clear space in my head too! Over Christmas I wrote a list one night of jobs to do. I got to 51 and stopped. I’m pleased to report that I’ve taken 13 off the list ..but added another 3 !!

I love lists!

Have to go and pick up the kids. I asked my littliest whether he was good in nursery. He nodded. I agreed, as they have said that he is doing ok. I asked then, ‘why do you think nursery say you are good’? He thought and then replied ‘because I play beautifully’. I love it when he makes me smile. I can hear them saying that to the kids at nursery, can’t you?!

See you when I’ve taken down some aliens… no, I’m not going strange- its a new app game in our house and the kids are fighting me for it! …

Crafts Beautiful & Wahooooo!

Hey! Thought you might like a look at one of the projects in the February Issue of Crafts Beautiful out now. The rest of the baby  projects are in there along with a Glamorous gardening set using some gorgeous Authentique papers.  This little box is a variation on a 2,4,6,8 box and using some sponging with a freehand drawn cloud used as a template. The stamp set is a SU! one.

The Wahooooo! bit is that the Paper crafters Library have invited me and 3 other girls to be their first Design Team for a couple of months. I got the email inviting me yesterday on my Birthday- a pretty fab extra present! The site is a wealth of tutorials and inspiration and our job is to add a few more projects and tutorials that will hopefully inspire other crafters.

The other members of the team are..

Kristin Wilson

Michelle Weksler

Ezlie Perez

Go and check their lovely blogs out. I love that we’re all different with our own styles. Apart from being really excited and pretty honoured that Andrea, Sophia and the Paper Crafters Team have allowed me onto the team, I’ve been stunned by the amount of visitors, comments and messages from people. Crafters are really wonderful people!! My blog has nearly gone into meltdown! Thanks so much for visiting my blog and signing up to receive updates. I only hope that I can produce projects that inspire you!

I’ve been busy trying to clear away all the Christmas decorations, and start to reorganise myself. I’m not doing a particularly successful job when after putting everything away- actually labelling the boxes properly this year, shoving them into the loft on a stepladder that I oh-so-nearly-fell-off, screwing the door hatch back on (yes, I know!!), that I went downstairs and discovered the stable complete with knitted nativity figures still on the piano. It’s so big, I wonder how I missed it. The question now is how long will it take before I become too fed up, embarrassed, or oblivious to the fact it’s still there!! Ah well, I guess I’ve left the most important deccies out!

I have to sign off quickly- I’m in the  middle of a really challenging assignment. I like being stretched but my brain is resisting it. Kinda wished I’d got a few more brain cells for my Birthday!!

See you when I can tear myself away from the Bleak House DVD’s I got for Christmas xx

 

Congrats Card & Being Unworthy!

Here’s a slightly ‘out there’ Congratulations card! I am loving the Authentique papers and combined two collections; ‘Blissful’ and ‘Uncommon’. Not feeling entirely blissful today but hope I can put myself in the uncommon category! (wink!).

I’ve just layered lots, done some sponging in grey (unusual colour to sponge in, but I think it works as that’s a colour in the papers) and done my usual cutting out little parts and punching copious holes in things!! The image of the wistful woman didnt have the stamp perforated edge- just a printed ‘perforation’. I soon saw that it was properly punched out using my diddy hole punch- its not surprising that its spring has gone with the amount that I use it. I may have to purchase a new one or I’ll end up with RSI (imagine trying to explain that one to the doc?!). It was really easy to match up colourwise with the Stampin’Up! cardstock I’ve got, and ended up being a really easy card-just came together. Wish it was like that all of the time!

You can see the details better in this pic. I’ve been really industrious (and you thought I was gonna say busy!!) getting ready for my 12 Crafting Days of Christmas. I’ve a whole bunch of projects- most completed- some still going. BUT it starts on the 7th November! MONDAY!

If you check in every week day, there’ll be a new project- getting you ready for Christmas- which I’m afraid you can’t avoid now; particularly if you intend on creating things yourself. I’ve got some projects that are up-cycled, some that are embellished, some utterly new and others..well you’ll just have to wait and see. As I’m not including weekends that means there’ll be two and half weeks of Christmasness. An early warning- for anyone that subscribes to my blog during this period (and I’ll count from now onwards), I’ll be doing a special prize draw. Would love to tell you what it is, but I can’t – I haven’t a clue what it is going to be yet!! There is also going to be a competition -but you’ll need to check in every day as I might be scrooge-like and remove the clues after each day!!

Please come and visit and cheer me on- its the crafters equivalent of a half-marathon- and I aint fit– in any definition of the word!

The past couple of days have found Will being his usual amusing self. The burglary had dampened his spirits somewhat (all of ours a little to be fair), but he seems to have bounced back with relish (and not the sort that Steve got on his trousers last night from sidling a little too close to the dining table!). I was taking him to nursery and I was doing something that he wasn’t happy about, in fact, he was getting somewhat irritated;

‘Mummy, you’re not worth it’ he said in complete exasperation. ‘I suspect you’re probably right’, I replied. He looked rather confused, not expecting me to agree with him. Don’t you love how you can put them off their train of thought. Too much TV watching? Is it a comment on him not wanting to bother with me? How do 3 year olds sound so intelligent when they dont really understand exactly what they’re saying?

Slightly more surreally, he has reverted to wearing his pyjamas at every given occasion. I have reneged a couple of times and agreed to the pyjama top outside, but definately not the bottoms. He was bounding around the playground with a plastic tub containing his favourite toy ‘Yoshi’. ‘Mummy, he’s eaten too much, his stomach is too full and its broken his heart and broken his life!’. One of the mums nearby looked pretty bemused. Honestly, I was too. Sometimes you cannot fathom a 3 year olds’ mind. Its better leaving well alone sometimes.  I can relate to the distress of an overfull stomach. Whether it has broken my heart or not? I think its probably going  one step too far, but I guess its a timely warning to avoid overeating. You just never know!!! 

I guess I should go and collect my kids. Not sure school would be impressed with me if I was late on account of updating my blog. Hope to see you on Monday!! xx

Tiny Thanks & Harvest Pumpkins

Inspired by Ros Crawford (& not for the first time) combined by the fact I’ve been going a little pumpkin-crazy I decided to do something in response to the Harvest Festival challenge over at City Crafters Their theme is anything to do with Harvest or Fall and I spied a little tiny metal bucket kicking around by itself. I’ve used harvest colours and the idea of being thankful for harvest rather than images of produce per se. It is really diddy- and I’ll show you a pic in a moment to give you scale. This is to remind me to give thanks. After a particularly difficult week with something I’ll share about next week, its tempting to look inward and moan. But why do that when we have so much to be thankful for at a time when millions have so little. In this bucket are little tiny cardstock  soldiers each containing something that I’m thankful to God for. You can never be too thankful, so when I’m tempted to be ungrateful, I’ll dip into my gratitude bucket and remind myself  to give thanks both for the harvest bounty and the oodles of other things I’m priveleged to have.

See how little it really is. And yes, thats a real 50 pence piece! I’ve covered the handle with crochet thread, the papers are from Authentique. The ribbon  is Stampin’Up’s pumpkin pie (very appropriate!) and the lace is some lovely stuff I’ve had in forever and as I couldnt bear to use it, I chopped it in half and just pleated it on the back of the cardtsock circle that I’d coated in dst.

Here you can see the little title sticks. I made something very similar but on a much grander scale a few years ago using Kilner Jars and ribboned pieces. On these were verses, quotes and encouraging thoughts for two of my loveliest friends.

Onto the pumpkins. Sometimes I wonder whether my brain is wired slightly different to everyone elses and have moments where I wonder quite which planet I’m on! I had an email  last week that eventually led me to finding this recipe for Pumpkin Latte .I thought it would make a nice change to do something different that wasn’t food. I didn’t read the recipe with my brain in gear and so the thought of buying pumpkins to roast and puree them just to create a latte didnt seem to phase me!

Here’s the lovely roasted puree- isn’t that colour just splendiferous?! Have to admit, the coffee was amazing- even though I had to create the pumpkin spice mix from scratch too. Had I been in the US and could have bought canned puree and pumpkin spice, I could’ve finished the beverage in about 15 minutes as opposed to 1 and half hours it actually took me. Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m nuts!

Here’s the coffee. Needed to work on the slight pumpkin dreg bits at the bottom but it was deelicious. Shame I’ve just got too much time on my hands (wink!) I then had a load of puree left over- so as not to put it to waste I created these-

These Pumpkin Cupcakes (and no, they don’t really taste of pumpkin- think carrot cake) were cobbled together by  just lobbing half a cup of pumpkin puree into a normal cake mix with some vanilla extract and pumpkin spice – but how to decorate them? Martha Stewart came to my rescue and I borrowed her Brown Sugar Frosting which is utterly awesome. I saw she had a recipe for caramelised walnuts. Well, this rung my creative bell as I’d been watching a bit of Australian Masterchef (love it!) and knew I’d never made  a decent toffee. What’s a girl to do? Going to the grave having never created caramelised walnuts?!! Problem solved- but only just. Narrowly escaped burning the sugar and had to then kinda dump the whole sticky nutty mix onto a silcone sheet as I’d forgotten that the pan I was using didn’t have a handle on (long story) and it was crazily hot. After a bit of bashing with a rolling pin swiftly followed by the realisation that if I let it cool a tad, I could separate the walnut pieces by cracking the toffee lumps, I had these cute little toffee enrobed walnuts. Thanks very much Masterchef.. my pile of still dirty washing thanks you (not) but the creative part of my pysche actually completely adores you.

 Beware eggs and milk, I need to tick off a decent custard from my cookery bucket list!

See you when I’ve cleared up the mess -(oh and that was just from the latte!!) xx