In Fairy Land ~ an ATC painted for World Watercolour Month

Once upon a Time, there was a Princess Fairy who lived in a tall tower in Fairy Land.  From the window she would wave her magic wand over all the people of the Land which would sprinkle them with magical wishes.

Aaaand … back here in the real world….

Maaaaany years ago –  at least 10 but probably around 15 to be honest, Daughter No.2 bought me a Birthday card which was just a total delight to me.  It was like all of a sudden my daughter ‘got’ me.  She saw a card so perfect for my birthday that going against everything that I’ve always taught my girls (buying cards is just such an expense – yes you have to purchase one, but don’t spend half a weeks wages on one!), she spent a little fortune on.

Now,  I keep greetings cards.  All types.  For Birthdays or just for ‘Hello I thought of you and am sending you this‘ types of card.  I’m very much into the whole physical memories of something, and will keep cards and little mementoes for ever!  I have a drawer in my craft room where I’ve kept cards from years gone by and every now and then I get them out just to make me feel wonderful.  Each one holds a special memory, and a ‘trick’ to get that memory from the back of my mind so that I can enjoy the moment all over again.  And there, in that drawer is a humongous card – very very tall but not very wide, – which I have cherished from the moment Daughter No.2 gave it to me.  Here it is . . .

It’s about (guessing here) 18″ – 22″ tall.  (I should have measured it and I didn’t think.  I’m not tip toeing over to the craft room now because it’s belting down with rain outside!).  You can now see why I’m showing you this card.  It has a picture of Fairy Land on the front and I just loved it from the moment I opened the envelope.  When I saw it in the drawer I instantly thought I’d have a go at turning it into a tiny ATC of 2.5inches wide by 3.5 inches tall.

(yes, that photo was taken in my craft room)

Some of you might remember me telling you that I taught my little girls, when they were knee-high to an ant, that if anyone should ask them how old their mommy was, they were to say ….  “My Mommy is ONLY 27″ …  and I have remained 27 since I was 27.  Each year Daughter No.2 remembers this and sends me a birthday celebrating my 27th Birthday.  Have a look inside this card .. . . .

…  ah… you’ll need that blown up a little to read it …..

Her name has been removed (to protect the innocent) ….  she writes:  “To Mom, have a great  (27th)  Birthday!  Have fun,  love and snuggles ______ x“.  I thought that since I was using the picture on the card as my inspiration for a little watercolour for World Watercolour Month, I might as well share the inside of the card so that you can see that I trained my girls sooooooo well!  LOL

Anyhoo … back to this little watercolour.  This one was a real struggle. It’s difficult to go into detail when you’re reducing something to a ridiculous size like this, so I had a real problem with the Princess Fairy.  I perhaps, in hindsight, should have left her out – as I did the shutters on the windows (not enough room to keep them in).

an ATC for  #WorldWatercolorMonth

I couldn’t make my mind up on the mount … green or blue?  You choose and tell me what you think …

an ATC for  #WorldWatercolorMonth

…  Green?  …  OR ….

an ATC for  #WorldWatercolorMonth

 

…  Blue?   Each one brings out something different.  The Blue one brings out the shooting star and seems to make the colours just a little more vivid.  Where-as the Green mount makes it look more subtle and … ‘fairyfied’.  OOoo… choices, choices!

And that’s all there was to it!

We have an almighty storm going on here as I type.  The thunder is so loud that it’s making the dog bark and me jump.  It’s pelting down with rain and I’m thinking that all my flowers are going to get a right old bashing!

I’m not entirely surprised that the weather has changed like this.  It’s been far too hot for it to continue without some sort of storm cooling things down. (although I don’t feel any cooling down happening at the moment.  I’m still boiling hot!)   I feel dreadfully sorry for the county next but one to where I live  …  Cornwall.  They’ve had some awful flash floods there today (Tuesday) and they’ve had to go out in helicopters and rescue folks who have been trapped in their houses by rising waters.  I watched it on the TV news at 6pm and it looked awful!

Well… that’s me done and dusted.  I’m now going to schedule this post to happen in the early hours of (UK time) the morning, and I’m then taking myself to bed and taking the wee little  chubby  doggy with me.

Whatever you’re doing today do it with a smile on your face and hope in your heart.   To prove to yourself exactly how blessed you are, imagine that you woke up this morning only with the things that you gave thanks for yesterday.  Puts things into order does that little thought.

Sending you love, and a bucket of squidges which should last you all day long … 

 

Save

Snail Mail ~ an ATC/ACEO – painted for World Watercolour Month

Happy Tuesday!  As you can see I’m attempting to continue with the World Watercolour Month Challenge, and todays offering is done with a big nod to the fun aspect of doing this challenge.

Can you work out why I’ve titled this little,  two and a half inches  by  three and a half inches,  ATC/ACEO  ‘Snail Mail‘?

Here …  take another look…

‘Snail Mail’.  An ATC / ACEO Painted for  #WorldWatercolorMonth

…  worked it out yet?  I’m sure you have but just in case there’s someone who’s still half asleep and not got their brain up and running yet …  That thing on the side of the snail … is a Postage Stamp.  It’s even got a teeny tiny painting of the Queens head on it, and she’s wearing a crown!

So … it’s a snail, which looks like it’s going to be posted somewhere because of the postage stamp …  so it’s  +Snail  +  Mail  =  Snail Mail!   😀

You’ll never guess what I did though.  Do you remember that I painted a Rooster (Rodney) a few days ago … but painted him just a little too big for the mounts I like to use around ATC’s/ACEO’s?   Well … I did it again …  take a look…

#WorldWatercolorMonth

See …  didn’t I tell you I’d do it again!   I’ve cut his BTM off!  How on earth is he going to leave that magical fairy trail behind him now?!  Did you know that a snail leaves that Shimmering Fairy Trail so that he can find his way home again?  It’s his personal SatNav.  Snails had SatNavs loooong before they were thought of for us!

Nooooo  don’t be so gullible  ….  that’s a pile of pooh.  I made that up so don’t go round repeating that as a ‘fact’ – because the whole world will believe it!  (Actually … that could be really funny.  The whole world believing that a snail has its own SatNav!  LOL  The more I think about that the funnier it gets! LOL …  I’m actually sat here typing this and giggling my head off!  Ahhh I do love funny!).

I get so ‘into’ what I’m doing when I’m painting, – especially so when I’ve only got a little bit of time to do something in, –  and all the plans and pencil guidelines all disappear into thin air and I go crazy with the paint!  tsk tsk.  Maybe it’s the paint fumes?  Those watercolours ….  they must give off paint fumes.  That’s what it is.  It’s not me being a dope.  I’m obviously high on watercolour paint fumes!

(and if you believe that,  you’ll believe that I can knit jelly! –   ‘Jello’ for our USA friends).

Anyhoo…  I painted a snail.   Watercolour paper + paint + brushes + water!    And that,  as they say,  is all there was to it!

Wishing you a Tip Top Tuesday!  May you have a truly happy day, and may you share your smile with others.  How about paying someone a compliment today?  It can be a ‘You always look so great!’.  Or …  ‘Your hair looks lovely.’  Or …  ‘I really like your car.  It suits you.  Great choice!’  Or …  anything.  Like someone’s shoes.  Tell someone how much you admire their dedication.  Tell someone they look brilliant in *that* colour!  Like someones perfume.

Anything …  You know what you feel comfortable with.  If you just aren’t into giving compliments, then make someone a surprise cup of coffee or tea.  Or buy the section you work on at work a pack of biscuits for afternoon tea.   Just make someone smile! 

From me …. to you …  I think you’re amazing.  You come and visit me nearly every time I post something and I adore seeing you.  So from me, to you,  a BIG…

… THANK YOU!

I really appreciate you coming and relish having you as a blogging friend.  Sending much love and squidges,  from me in my corner, to you in yours.  Have a truly blessed day.

The Fairy Wish Tree ~ a handmade card with a difference.

What would you wish for if you were stood under the boughs of a Fairy Tree?  Only one wish.  That’s the question I asked myself as I was in the middle of making this card.  I still haven’t actually come up with an answer that I’m happy with.

The Fairy Wish Tree. ~ the tiny white dots, aren’t white dots at all …. it’s very fine glitter.

I have to admit, that this card was one of those cards where I liked the idea of what I’d planned … then began to make it, and found that I fell out of love with it. So I put it on one side and began something else.  Then, a few days later I told myself that I’d ‘made it that far, so you might as well get on with it’ … so I picked up where I’d left off and continued with the plan.

Three times I fell out of love and three times I tried again, and again, and again … until I’d finished it.  And I’m SO glad that I did because now … I love it.

Where the front is more ‘quiet’ in colour, the inside is a riot and has colourful flowers, bird houses and dragonflies with multi coloured wings.

The little Fairy sat under the tree, is a very lightweight material – almost like a paper/wood mix.  I was making an order, on-line, and added her into my basket simply because I liked her.  I had no plans about what I’d do with her at the time.

The tree is a Tattered Lace die (I don’t own too many of that range of dies as I find them a little too fussy).  Cut out of white card and coloured by me.   Once I’d had the idea of putting her beneath a Fairy Wishing Tree, my next decision was that I wanted the card to have two ‘looks’.  One for day, and one for evening …. so I ‘built’ the card with a window, then put a little piece of shimmery stuff – I think it may be a plastic type of thing – which I bought years ago from Hobbycraft, in one of their sales.  I’ve used bits of it every now and again until I now only have a teeny piece of it left.  But it worked so well for the magical shimmery look I wanted to the opening  (see photograph above) and for hiding a battery operated T-light inside the card.

The T-light makes the glitter inside the card twinkle merrily too.

The card is a 6″ x 6″ plain white card,  which I die-cut to the size of the Fairy sat in the oval.

I’ve left the front without any sentiment so that I can be creative with the card and use it for any occasion what-so-ever.  Birthday, Anniversary, Thank you, Cheer you up,  Hello, ….  all sorts of things.  The design is such that it will ‘fit’ many occasion.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee moment with me.  I love to see you and chat with you.

I make a wish that your day goes well – or went well for those of you who live on the opposite side of the world,  and will go well for those of you who are just waking up and about to go out into the world.

What ever you’re going to do today, do it with joy.  Even if you’re not really enjoying it,  find the joy  –  and then the task will be much sweeter …  and will be over with a lot sooner than it would if you did it in a grump.

Go bravely into the world and smile.  For the World becomes so much easier to deal with if you’re in a smiley mood.  May your God go with you.

Save

Glitter and Twinkle

How do you photograph an item which has glitter on it?  (insert a red-faced, steam coming out of the ears emoticon here and you’ll get a picture of what I look like right now).

I’ve made something that I want to share with you, but, out of all the photographs I’ve taken, I cannot get a good photo because the glitter which I’ve used shows up in the photographs as dots and blobs and looks like the glitter fairy has flown over it several times, instead of twinkling merrily like very fine glitter dust does.

So … any tips for photographing something which twinkles and sparkles like mad when viewed with the eyes, but looks like a crazy mess on a photo?

A Fairy captured in a Fairy Jar

 

When you capture a Fairy, you capture a moment in time.  For you don’t actually capture the Fairy herself (or himself), what you’re actually catching is a fairy shadow.  You see … a Fairy moves far too quickly to be caught in a jar, for no sooner have you got her inside the jar, than she’s popped out before you’ve even managed to even think about putting the lid on!

And back in the room again … (smiling here) ….  Well I said that I’d like to make another Fairy in a Jar, and so I did.  Only this time I remembered (mostly) to take photographs of each step as I did it, so that means this post is a little photo heavy, so because of that I’ll try to keep the talking to a minimum and just give you the point by point things which will explain what you’re looking at or need to know if you’re going to make a Fairy Jar yourself.  Get ready… here we go….

I found a lovely new jar in Mr. Cobs shed which  I swiftly took ownership of before he noticed it was gone,  he kindly donated (cough) and I decided that this would make a fabulous fairy jar.  I assembled everything which I’d need and began.

In the beginning  …. the was a jar.  A nice, clean, unused jar waiting to be loved.

Add grass (of the card kind) using glue to stick it in place … only …  this is where I found I’d run into a problem.  I couldn’t get my hand into the jar.  This is a very important point:   MAKE SURE YOU CAN GET YOUR HAND INTO YOUR JAR BEFORE YOU BEGIN.

• If you’ve found a jar which is narrow necked and too long for you to reach the bottom using your fingers, or tweezers … then may I suggest that you buy some extra long tweezers before you begin.  You can find them in .. Pet stores (particularly ones which sell Lizards or food for Lizards).  Or you can find them on Ebay, or at some Kitchen/Cake making supply stores.

 

I didn’t have extra long tweezers at the time I was making this Fairy Jar,  so I did my best with what I had.  (And made an unholy mess too! – see inside the jar!)

Because this particular jar wasn’t straight sided down to the bottom it meant that there was a gap between the bottom of the ‘grass’ and the base of the jar (which would have let the light shine out and it would have looked odd) .. I remedied this by twisting a little bit of black tissue paper and glueing it in place.  Again … a mess happened, but I used glue which dries clear so I knew that it wouldn’t be seen once dried.

While the glue dried, I turned my attention to the lid ….

I didn’t want a shiny gold lid,  but wanted something which looked old and almost creaky, so wanted to ‘rust up’ the jar lid. I used a tried and trusted method, using Rust-it, made by Pinflair which always gives great results.  One coat works well, but two coats really takes it to town!  (And each coat dries really quickly – so you’re not hanging about all day for it to dry.)

Two coats of Rust-It, and it looks like I found it in a good old-fashioned English, secret, walled garden. Perfect!

Although it was now lovely and old-looking, I wanted to give it a little something to make it more special….

Glitter Paste by Pinflair, in Aqua and Copper.  The paste looks thick when you open the lid but it’s a lot more ‘fluid’ when you start to use it.  It spreads very easily, so apply a little at a time as it goes a long way.

I missed taking a couple of photographs at this point as I got carried away with myself … so I’ll have to catch you up with words … 

By this time you should have chosen your fairy and are ready to add her to your Fairy Jar.  Simply choose the position you want her in and then using an instant fix glue (we call it Super Glue here in the UK.  It bonds in seconds and can be used on paper and glass amongst other things).  This will hold your Fairy in place.

Once you’re happy that she’s not going anywhere …   you’re ready to adhere some tissue paper to the outside of your jar.  You can simply use PVA glue for this, and just one sheet of tissue paper. (one sheet thick – if you need more tissue to go around your jar, obviously use more.  But only one sheet thickness).

Spread PVA over part of your jar,  (make it a full bottom to top section, but not covering the screw part where the lid fits, obviously) then lay the sticky part down on your sheet of tissue paper, lifting it up straight away, otherwise the glue will quickly make the tissue tacky and it will stick to your work surface. eeeek!

Do this all over your jar, in sections at a time, until you’ve covered the whole of the jar.  Allow it to dry.  (Give it about an hour).  Then you can begin decorating the outside.

Add some magic to the outside of your jar using glitters and anything else you feel will give you the result you want.  Here you can see that I’ve used a mixture of Pinflair Ice Diamond – which is really chunky type glitter – but it’s not twinkly like normal glitter.  It’s got a fabulous magical feel to it.  I also added just a tiny bit of Pinflair Snow Dust – just to give the outside a sort of crisp look.

For this jar I tied string around the neck,  however you can use ribbons, straw, or anything which gives you the look you’re after. (On the previous Fairy Jar I made, I used a hessian ribbon – which I loved. You can find that jar on the Cobweborium blog).

Then …  add your flowers … or anything else you’d like to have on your Fairy Jar.  You can personalise it in a gazillion ways.  Whatever takes it in the direction you want it to go!

There are many things you could add to your Fairy Jar.  Here, on this, (2nd) Fairy Jar, I’ve added a ‘Key to the Land of the Fae’, and a tiny vial of ‘Fairy Dust’, which has been corked and then sealed with pink wax.

The Key to the Land of the Fae, and a glass vial of Fairy Dust.

One side of the Fairy Jar ….

The other side of the Fairy Jar …  but … this jar has a secret ….  and it’s on the back …

Hidden within the jar isn’t just a Fairy, but it also hides a Fairy Wishing Tree!  On the outside of the back of the jar, I added some nature, some nurture and some love.

Time to add a little magic.  Shall we?

 

The inner light, although magical looking, is made by T.Lights.  BATTERY operated T. Lights.  Please, please don’t use real candles.  Paper, card and candles don’t mix well.  Only ever use battery operated T.Lights inside Fairy Jars.

The Fairy Wishing Tree, lit from within.

The side of the Fairy Jar …  but do you see what I see?  There is one light at the base ….  and another light half way up the jar.  How can that be?  Is it floating?  Is it … MAGIC?

If you’re making a Fairy Jar for yourself,  you’ll find that it’s best to use smaller fairies as the lights from your T.lights will only shine and flicker at the base of your jar.  However, I wanted to use a larger fairy,  so had to figure out a way to let a light shine further up the jar.  I could have bought some of those short lengths of craft lights – a little like Christmas Tree Fairy Lights – only made for crafters and operated by battery,  but I wanted that warm glow that you get from a candle so … I found a way of making that happen. ….

I made a little gizmo out of Florist’s Wire, which I loosely wrapped around the ‘flame’ of the lower candle and then supported another candle which kind of hovered about it.  I’ve taken more photos from other angles so that you could see how this wire frame works…

Make sure, if you make one of these, that you bend the end of the wire at the top so that you don’t put your hand inside the jar and get stabbed by it.  It would be jolly painful!  So bend it over and make a sort of handle so that you can easily lift it out of the jar to turn the candles on/off.

Photo taken from ‘underneath’  showing how the wire is bent under the upper T.Light,  to support it.  Then shaped around the outside of the T.Light and over the top, and around the ‘flame’ to anchor it.

Photo taken from over the top of both of the candles.  You can see that the candles pretty much line up, and also how the wire extends over the top of the candle and wraps gently around the flame to just keep the wire in place.

This wire support isn’t made of stiff wire, but it’s ‘bendable’ wire,  so take a little care when using it.  But if you knock it out of shape when you’re turning the T.Lights off and on, then you can easily just fiddle with it to make it stand up again.  Once you get used to the way it needs to be bent, you’ll get the hang of it.

I loved making this Fairy Jar and particularly loved the little roses I chose.  They were exactly the shade I was thinking of in my mind, and as if by magic … there they were!

Well that’s me done and dusted.

Hope you’ve had a good weekend, and that your week ahead turns out to be a happy one without too many problems or struggles, and that any problems you come across aren’t anything which you can’t handle.

Thank you SO much for coming and sharing some time with me.  I so enjoy your company.  Please feel welcome to leave a few words via a comment, and I promise to reply.  I love your comments as it gets us all chatting to each other, and other people reading get a feel for what you’re like and will want to come and visit your blog too.  It makes blogging world go around so well!

If there’s anything which I’ve forgotten to mention and you’d like to ask about, please ask away.  I’m more than happy to help if I can.

Well all that’s left for me to say is … Have a  truly Blessed rest of your day!

Sending crafty hugs  . . .

 

 

 

 

Playing with Polyfilla!

I know that you can get very good texture pastes for crafting, but they come at a price.  I’ve never before bothered about crafting with these texture pastes as it just didn’t feel like my cup of tea (so to speak), but recently I’ve had the urge to have a go.  And so I did.  Only .. not with crafters texture paste.  A few days ago Mr. Cobs had to visit B&Q (other DIY outlets are available), and I asked him if he would get me some Polyfilla.  After looking at me with a very suspicious head to the side and squinting his eyes look, I explained that I wanted to use it in crafting, on some cardstock, using some stencils, so I needed “the fine, ready mixed stuff please”.

Bless his heart, he didn’t just bring me back the required tube of Polyfilla, but also a special scrapery type tool to help me get a smooth ‘pass’ with the creamy Polyfilla.

I chose a stencil – a metal Jellyfish stencil by Dreamweaver – for my first ‘have a go’.

I have to admit that I did question as to whether I was being a bit over-ambitious, but I pushed that thought to the back of my mind and ploughed on with hope ever-present in my brave heart.

It was a little bit fiddly when I dragged the Polyfilla over the stencil as there were a few parts which just hadn’t ‘taken up’ the gungy stuff, so I got down and dirty and scooped some excess ‘filla off the scraper then promptly blobbed it back onto the scraper again in just the right place and dragged it carefully over the spots that had ‘missed’ first time round, and VOILA … the gaps were filled.

Jellyfish

I wish that I hadn’t been quite so excited when I removed the stencil, for I would have taken a photograph of the piece at that point.  Sadly my excitement dragged me on and I got busy with my mica powders.  I used three different colours of Mica.

I’m kind of glad that I worked so quickly because the Polyfilla was REALLY quick to dry.  It says on the tube that it will dry in around 60 minutes.  But … this is a really thin coat which I applied to the card,  and add to that: the card is porous,  so it takes up the moisture in the ‘filla very quickly and so it dries faster.

The image was only just damp by the time I’d got the tops off my Micas and began to sprinkle and drop colours where I wanted them to be.  I left this project alone then for half an hour – just to make sure, then took it outside and huffed and puffed the Mica off the card and onto the garden. (It now looks like a fairy has flown by out there. lol)   I stood there in the garden with eyes as wide as saucers saying (quietly and gently) a long drawn out “Oooooooooooohhhhh!“.

Back to the craft room  … I had an idea and wished that I’d have thought of it before I began: …

I’ve recently invested in some Lindy’s Stamp Gang products and wanted to spray the background with one of the Starburst sprays (in a blue colour called Azure Sea Asters).  These are the most magical, incredible shimmery sprays, and each of them has a two toned colour to it.  (I’ve only had these products for a short time but I’m so impressed with them.  I also have some of their embossing powders and the colours are amazing!)

I’ve tried to capture the colours by changing camera angles but haven’t managed terribly well.  This is another shot of the Jellyfish, with the flash on.

I’ve found that if you tilt your computer screen back and forth slightly, you may be able to see some of the colours in a darker or lighter shade.

The products I used for creating the Jellyfish are shown below:

Filled with creative excitement I had to make something else with the Polyfilla  ….

Fairy Seedhead Homes

This time I planned it a little more carefully and used my Lindy’s Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays on my cardstock first.  They don’t take long at all to dry and are delicate colours when dried.

Using a Sweet Poppy stencil, I got to work on my second ‘go’ with Polyfilla.  This one was a little more tricky.  There are some tight corners and slight space/gaps in the stencil which meant that the ‘filla had a job fitting through adequately to actually stick to the page.  I did my best at filling the holes and gaps, but when I removed the stencil some of the Polyfilla came away with it.  The spaces were so tight.

Undeterred I continued with my Mica Powders.

Once the Polyfilla was dry I used a grey and a dark brown very fine liner pens and carefully ‘drew’ in the shadows of this stencilled picture so that I could ‘add’ the details which were missing.  Once this was done you didn’t notice that the filla wasn’t actually there.

The products used for this project are pictured below (minus the Mica Powders, which I forgot to include)

Products used for the Fairy Seedhead Home project (minus the Mica Powders which I forgot to photograph!)

I’m not sure at the moment what I’m going to use these two projects for, maybe a card, maybe part of a scrapbook page…  but when I’ve made what-ever it is, I’ll be sure to share it/them with you.

Oh … I forgot to say …  I finished them both off with a little bit of Rub ‘n Buff in Gold.  Just to bring a little zing to them and highlight them a little, and also to add a little bit of a ‘puff of magic’ to the tops of the seed heads.

Well that’s me done and dusted.  If there’s anything I’ve forgotten to say or anything you need to know more about please just ask.  I really don’t mind sharing information about anything crafty I’ve done.

I’ll leave you with the Jellyfish so that you can think of cool sea waters, lapping around you as you stand up to your shoulders in the most incredible blue sea water, with the heat of the sun playing around your shoulders.  You turn to see a waiter standing on the water’s edge with a long cool drink on a tray, and you hear the tinkling of the ice on the glass.  Oh, I forgot to say that you’re a beautiful size 6 or 8 (British size) and as you walk out of the sea, you’re dressed in that same bikini which Ursula Andress wore in the James Bond movie Dr. No – only you look even better because …. well .. because you do!

And now you’re in that wonderful state of relaxation and fantasy, I shall leave you with these words….

Have a wonderful and truly blessed rest of your day my friends.  Sending love and creative hugs from me here in my corner of the world to you there in yours. 

 

Beautiful Words make a wonderful gift.

I am very rarely given anything handmade by someone else, which is such a huge sadness to me because I love handmade things.  So imagine my heart soaring surprise when my fantastic delivery lady brought me this incredible work of heart.

Made from Scrabble letter tiles, to spell out the words – but not just any words.  They’re words which she associates with us.  It must have taken an age to plan it out,  and work out how to make the right words work with each other.  It’s such a truly wonderful work of art and I’m thrilled to have it – so much so that I’m in awe of it.

The ‘cobweb’ is made from sparkly, twinkly black wool and is so beautifully done!  She even went to the great trouble of making the fabulous backing paper herself!  I love it, and love my delivery lady too.  She’s the most incredible lady and I’m so very lucky to have her.  She’s always so happy, so cheerful, so quick to smile, so caring,  and … I love her to pieces just for being the person she is.

I should have actually shared this some weeks ago when I first received it, but between one thing and another I didn’t manage to get it to the blog here.  But better late than never, as they say.  This phenomenal gift lives in my craft room and hangs on the wall above my printer where I see it every time I enter and leave the room.  It makes me feel all warm and loved up when I see it  – as it’s kind of a visible validation that someone cares enough about me to take the time and trouble to make something so very special, just for me .  It’s an instant warmth to the heart and smile to the face.

Well, I hope everything in your world is groovy (cooo … there’s a word from several years ago!).  Do let me know you’ve visited simply by chatting in a comment.  I’ll always reply.  You don’t have to chat about my word art gift if you don’t want to.  Tell me what you’ve been up to or even where you’re going on holiday if you like.  Anything!  Chatting in blog-land is such a fabulous thing to do as it gets us all talking to each other, and that, in this day and age of technology and 140 miserable Twitter characters,  can only be a good thing!

In the meantime … have a truly blessed day and …  thank you so much for coming and spending a few minutes with me.  ❤