FUTURE IS LOOKING BRIGHTER

  

                  Well hello everybody, not sure how many months since I last posted an update but long overdue. I would love to say I have been very busy but that would not be true. My husband and I have stuck strictly to lockdown rules as he is classed as extremely vulnerable. We have had our first jabs now so hopefully in a few months, I will be able to hug those gorgeous grandchildren of mine. I have hardly been near our latest granddaughter have had to be happy with talking to her in her buggy when son has popped round. She does recognize me so thankful for that, a lot of making up to do though. 

                How are you all doing, have you been getting on with some craft projects. A lot of people have been trying out some new crafts, I have mostly stuck to my favourites. We are about to move all my craft stash up into our smallest bedroom out of our conservatory. That will free up that space for entertaining safely through the summer, fingers crossed, then I can just shut the door on any mess I might make upstairs. First time I will have had a proper craft room, quite excited.

           So I am still very keen on doing my parchment work, cataracts are making it a little more difficult but I can still cope. I have also been doing a lot of stamping, quite enjoying getting inky. Lots of videos have been posted on FB and I have loved trying some of the ideas.  A few were very successful others not so good. 

          A couple of Parchment cards that I have made recently. Used the new ribbon grids designed by Josie Davidson, Queen of gridwork. If you wish to give any of these grids a try they can be found on the  Claritystamp website. 

Finished card, I sent this one to a lovely friend that I have made through our love of stamping.

                                          

                                         

This one I made for my daughter's Birthday, I followed instructions by Linda Williams for the embossing on the Snowdrops, not too sure I have done them justice.  

                                      

                                                                    A couple of close-ups.

                    I have quite a few more projects to share with you but will save those for another day. 

                                              Thank-you for popping in and please stay safe. xx

STILL HERE, STILL CRAFTING

           Oh my goodness I have really neglected this little blog of mine. I do hope you are all ok and getting through this difficult time. I know some of you will have worked all the way through and full credit to all you key workers and those of you in the NHS.  
         
          I am retired but it still came as a bit of a shock to not be able to leave our house. The first couple of weeks were spent blitzing the house , amazing what you find in the back of those cupboards. Not too many spiders I am pleased to say. Then I settled down to some craft projects.

           Of course it is the summer so it has been lovely to spend the nice days in the garden, although I do leave the maintenance to my husband. He has been building some large planters and done a lot of work out there. He is certainly not keen on household jobs. 

          I have tried to make sure that I have sent a card to anyone I know who has had a Birthday during this time. My niece turned 50 so I needed to make a special one for her. 

   
               This was made using one of the Alphabet floral plates from Claritystamp. Beautiful plates and it is lovely to personalize a card. 

        I have also made a very special card for a wonderful friend.  It has been received now so can share that with you as well. 

                                         

                                This is a traditional design by Linda Williams. I have had the pattern for a very long time but love it. I do not do very much tracing these days as I use a lot of Groovi plate designs. I used some of the Clarity papers for the backing and the die cut corner. 

  

                                               

                    Just a little closer view of the tag. The writing was done with a mapping pen and white ink. I actually enjoyed doing that , once I had practised a little. 

                     Hope you like these and I must try to come back with a few more projects.

In the mean time take care everyone and enjoy the summer days safely. 

                                               Bye for now. xx

FIRST WORKSHOP of 2020

 

                   Hello, hope your weekend is going well. I am staying in the warm this afternoon as although it has been a bright sunny day, which makes a wonderful change, it is very cold. I have had to catch up on a few household jobs but I have settled down with some of my crafts now. Also watching Clarity on Hochanda and adding to my wish list, it keeps growing.

                  I went along to my first workshop of the year on Thursday. It was run by Hazel Edwards and was out at Rosliston Forestry Centre in a lovely little craft shop called Kraftiz. What  a wonderful friendly place this is, Julie the owner kept us very well supplied with drinks during the day and also some very tempting cakes. I could not resist even though I should have done so really.

                 It was great to meet up with everyone again and settle down to some Groovi together. Hazel had a couple of great projects for us to do, she has not been doing Groovi for very long but is proving to be a very good teacher and very happy to share her skills. I do enjoy her workshops.

                                           
                                            So onto the cards that we completed.
 

                           This one was to get us all warmed up according to Hazel. She had kindly cut the aperture for us and the heart shaped piece of parchment as well.We used the Garden Heart Groovi plate to fill in with. Some colouring on the back of the work and blending as well with Dorso oil helped to make the colours ping out.

                                             
                                             A little close up of the design.

  
           We used some of  Barbara's stickers to add the sentiment.  Now I had not bought any of these but they have now gone on my wish list. There are some very useful little sentiments especially in the Christmas selection. This is the joy of workshops you get to try things that you are not sure about.

                      Our second project had a little more work in it and is very pretty.  We used Tina's Floral Corners 2 for the flower spray and the Netting Plate for the background. 

 
                     How pretty is this design.

         We had to picot cut an extra flower to finish the design and add some paper swirls. Hazel loves to bring in other elements of paper crafting to her parchment work. A very neat idea.
                                                                

           

               So if you live in the Midlands and can get along to one of Hazel's workshops I think you will enjoy yourself.

                    I intend now to finish off some of my outstanding projects before I get even more. I need to try to get ahead on some of the Birthday cards for this year.


                                        Thank-you for dropping in and stay safe. xxx

LET'S CELEBRATE

           Hello and a belated Happy New Year. Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas celebrations. Seems a long while ago now and we put so much effort into making it a success and It is all over so quickly. We had  a lovely time in our family and started the New Year with a new addition to the family. Our son and his lovely wife had a little girl last week. Of course she is gorgeous and I am looking forward to spending lots of nanny time with her. That brings my total of  grandchildren to six. Great fun when we are altogether. Now we have a great range of ages amongst our grandkids as our daughters are quite a bit older than our boys. Our eldest grandson will be 25 this week. Unbelievable.

            So of course with a Birthday approaching I needed a card suitable for a young man. The wonderful Clarity Fresh cut Dies came to the rescue. I received a great little one in my club envelope, these are a little smaller than the ones sold on the website but just as wonderful.  I used  the Nested Squares to make a frame. I also cut the words again in white and just offset them a little, really makes the words pop.

             I used the Mountain Ash  aperture die to cut the leaves. I like snipping into the dies and using small pieces. A little bit of twine finished it all off.

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                                       Hope you like this rather quickly made card. 
           
                      I can hear the wind blowing very hard outside apparently we have a storm coming in this evening so off to find something warm for my tea I think.


                         Thanks for popping in. Back soon. xx