A bunch of Christmases all at once.

Happy December the 1st!

Yes  …  it scared me too,  and I didn’t see why I should be feeling that feeling all alone, so decided to drag you in there too.  And now that I’ve sent your brain into a spin, let’s get on with enjoying the day shall we?

So, to start with  … smile, even if you don’t feel like it.  S.M.I.L.E. …  and remember that even if the day is grey and you don’t feel like anything like happy …. just the act of smiling can trick your brain into sending out the feel good hormones which can turn your day around.  So stand up … go and stand in front of a mirror and smile your biggest cheesy smile at yourself for 30 seconds. 

Look into your eyes while you’re stood there grinning like a Cheshire cat – and although your cheeks might ache a little,  keep the smile going until either:  you crack and begin to laugh at yourself.  OR …  30 seconds is up.  Then go off and do something to get your day kicking and alive.  (And if you feel miserable at all any time today – do the smile thing again.  30 seconds remember!).  Even if it only works for half an hour, that’s half an hour of feeling better that you would have missed if you hadn’t tried the smiling trick.

I’ve been trying to post these Christmas Cards since last week!  I haven’t been tardy or lazy, I’m fighting an infection which is causing me the most dreadful pain on the right hand side of my back and partly in my tummy;  and it’s also affecting the skin on my back, making it feel as if the skin is burnt – like it’s been ironed with a hot iron, and it feels like it’s been sandpapered and should be red raw.  Just awful.  I’m now on my third (different) lot of antibiotics,  and if these latest ones don’t start making a difference within 24 hours,  I have to call my GP, and I think they may admit me to hospital so that they can plug me into the ‘powerful drug army’,  filling me up intravenously with infection fighting soldiers who will (hopefully) beat the infection to a pulp.  (I have my fingers crossed that these new antibiotics which they’ve given me, begin to work, so that I don’t have to go in, as I don’t like hospitals). 

Right, enough talking about rubbish stuff  …  let’s get these cards shared with you …

I wanted to make a few quick and easy cards for various people.  I have to send some through the post so wanted cards which will fit into an envelope and not have them damaged or bits knocked off them, so they had to be of few ‘adornments’, and flat enough to go into a regular envelope.  AND … just to add a bit of a challenge to the task, I wanted to make them from bits and pieces I’ve had left-over from projects I’ve made for Christmas cards of long ago.  So I went through my Christmas Box and by the time I’d finished I had a pile on my desk all the things which were left overs from previous Christmases.  Cor!  Did I have a lot of left overs! 

I found some card stock and bits of adornments from about 7 years ago (I think – but this is just a guess).  All of the following cards are made from those left overs.

Frost and Ice Christmas Tree.

This first card …. is made on a background of a rich, dark blue card on which is printed a music score, with the addition of some script writing.  I embossed around the outer edges of the card background to make it look more icy and wintery cold, using the silver embossing powders by Tonic. (This icy cold doesn’t show up in the photo, but in reality it actually does look really wintery and like looking through a window which you’d scratched off the ice so that you could look through it).

I added a length of [plastic] balls on a ‘string’ around the tree (and glued it in place on the back) then added some red gems to represent baubles on the tree.

 

I then mounted the decorated die cut Christmas Tree onto a square of printed velum using foam tape.  The addition of the greeting  ‘Merry Christmas’ finished the card off.

This next card was shamefully easy, but in real life looks far lovelier than in the photograph.

The card background is actually white with a sort of shimmery silvery white patterning all over it.  If you hold it one way, then you see everything as white.  But if you hold it another way, you can clearly see the patterns on the cardstock.  It’s really beautiful, and so tactile too!

I added tiny red gems to the die cut wreath and a die-cut bow – mounted on foam dots, to give it depth, then fixed the decorated wreath to the cardstock using foam tape, and Voila!  Card 2 done and dusted.

Card 3 was made using the same cardstock as card 1 – the deep dark blue, with the musical score printed on it.  Two die cut snowflakes adorn this card.  One large, and one small,  along with a length of silvery balls, onto which I threaded a silver bead, and glued it in place on the length of silver balls using Tonic Glue.  Whilst that was drying I fixed the largest of the snowflakes in place …

…  and added three little red gems to the middle of it, to give the card a nod of a third colour.

Then added the second, smaller snowflake, which was die cut from holographic card, and twinkled like crazy.  I added a little clear gem to the middle of this snowflake, to give it an added dimension.

Finished the card off with the ‘Merry Christmas‘ greeting and this was then Card number 3 ticked off the list.

The fourth card …  I love this background!  All those fabulous little Christmas Trees, with the great big star on the top, complete with the baubles.  Love it!

Using a rule, I drew lines with a thicker nibbed embossing pen all around the card, and using Tonic Silver embossing powder, I embossed those lines.

Then taking a square of velum, I embossed the edges of the card with a frosty looking Dtsilver Embossing Powder and then did the same thing on the edges of a die cut and embossed Christmas Tree.

Using foam tape, I mounted the tree onto the velum, and fixed the velum and tree to the cardstock.  I wanted a silver star for the top of the tree, but sadly couldn’t find one big enough,  in the end I chose this lovely blue pearly star, which looks slightly different in colour in the photos, but it’s nearer in colour to the blues in the card background.

And that was card 4 ticked off the list!  Now onto card 5 …

For this final card, I chose to make another snowflake card, but this time on a different background, and with a more complicated snowflake as the main attraction.

I’ve tried to capture the various layers of this snowflake but have failed miserably.  Because it’s cut from holographic paper and card, it twinkles madly, and I’ve tried taking photographs with the flash, without the flash, with the spotlights, without them, with and without a desk lamp and all sorts of combinations, I couldn’t find the right one to show you all the layers, so I’m afraid you’ll  just have to imagine them showing up – for they are there in that photo above!

And that, was a big tick against quick and simple card number 5.

Normal service of cards which need a box or a security guard, will be resumed as soon as possible – dependant upon how this darned infection behaves on these new drugs.  Hopefully I’ll be up and running at a more reasonable speed on Friday, when we have the regular ‘Things I’ve Learned This Week‘ post, where I share with you the stuff life has taught me during the last seven days.  (I already have a list made,  and I think you might enjoy this list …  and get a few laughs out of it at the same time).

In the meantime …  do me a great big favour and spread a little joy about your home and your neighbourhood.  Do something lovely which will make someone else smile.

How about using a piece of chalk and leaving little messages on the pavement (sidewalk) for other people to see, read, and smile about.  What would you say?  How about “Hello!” for starters?  Or: “You have a beautiful smile“,  or maybe  “Hello Beautiful!“.  Just say something you know would tickle you if you saw it chalked on the pavement.

Or .. maybe make someone’s birthday extra special …  don’t buy them flowers or chocolates, buy them something they may never have received before … balloons!  A bunch of  Helium balloons, chosen just for them, by you, and either deliver them yourself or have them delivered if you can’t get to them.  They’re a reminder of childhood, and seem to make everyone smile.  So give it a try.  (Even if it’s not their birthday … if you want to make them smile, then send them a bunch of helium balloons.  It will make their day!)

And . . .  for you;   I wish you a thoroughly tip-top Thursday!  May the day bring you smiles and at the end of your day, may you look back over the hours and realise that you’ve had a really O.K. kind of day, in a thoroughly good way.  May you have found something wonderful to smile about today.

Be careful out there … oh ….  and ….  be good to each other.

love and squidges ~

 

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Things I Learned this Week . . .

What have I learned this week?  Well I’ve learned quite a few things, and I share them with you here so that you will learn what a person of little brain does and then not do these things yourselves.  I’m actually considering asking the Government if perhaps they should sponsor me as a kind of warning to all humans.  I wonder if they’d buy the idea?

Anyhoo … down to business, . . .  shall we?

I’ve learned not to absently mindedly pick, pull and scrape at all that dried on glue gel which coated the pad of my thumb a few hours before and as it dried, numbed the feeling on my thumb.  I learned while engrossed in watching a film, that  what feels like there’s still glue there,  actually isn’t.   I didn’t realise at the time that what I was actually gently peeling off my thumb, was little strips of numbed SKIN,  off the pad of my thumb!  I’d share a photo of the damage  which ‘an idiot with no supervision’  can do to herself,  however,  I respect you too much, and there’s no way I’m putting you through the trauma!

I’ve learned that you need to use that pad of your left thumb ever such a lot, – more than you ever dreamed you do, (even if you’re right-handed like me)  and when it’s injured/damaged, you can’t use it because it hurts like billyo when you try to unscrew the top off a jar, or (even more hellish) the top off the lemonade bottle.  All those ridges on one of those tops are there for you to get ‘purchase’ on the lid.  However, with a damaged thumb, they are a form of SELF INFLICTED TORTURE!

 

I’ve learned that baking HOT weather plus pain, do not make great bosom buddies, and the knock on effect is that it makes one very short-tempered.  Thankfully saying sorry isn’t something I find difficult to do.  I’ve had a lot of practise.   🙂

And finally …

I’ve learned that we are all made of stardust.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  Human beings are all made of stardust.

No, I didn’t believe this either,  but it peaked my interest,  so I went in search of information which would help me to learn if this was true. So I went to NASA.

Guess what I learned   . . .   we actually really are made stardust!

I know that sounds like I’m at the start of a fairytale or some long-held myth, but I’m not. This incredible statement has facts to back it up.

Now I won’t bore you to tears with a long explanation but I do need to explain a little, so pin back your lug holes and pay attention.  (There will be a test at the end) …

Once upon a time,  when the Universe was nothing but a young baby, it was made of hydrogen and helium atoms. These two things are still responsible for over 98% of the Universe’s mass, but the heavier elements were created in stars.

The very first generation of stars  didn’t have planets orbiting them, (except maybe gas giants made purely of hydrogen and helium, but without enough mass to ignite like stars do). What happened in those first stars and is still happening in stars today is a process where lighter elements fuse (or ‘change’) into heavier elements with the help of gravity pressuring them together (Imagine  kind of  modging two balls of clay or dough together so that they look as if there was only ever just one) and this process turns protons into neutrons.   This ‘thing’ process is called the  stellar nucleosynthesis.  (remember this word, you’ll need it again in a minute).

OY!!  Stop gazing out of the window you, at back of the class!  Pay attention please, you’re learning something here for free!  There are some people have paid a pound or possibly more (!)  to learn this stuff in posh colleges and fancy universities!

When stars start running out of hydrogen (which it needs in order to turn it into helium), at their core they start producing heavier elements from their helium supply.

Then,  after time,  they begin creating even heavier elements;  then heavier;  and heavier. This process finally ends when the chemical element IRON is created.  It’s at this point that the star has sadly run out of fuel.

Stars which aren’t as massive will deplete their fuel before their core becomes iron, but the point is that all elements up to and including iron, are created in stars in  nucleosynthesis.  (See… told you to remember that word.  There it is again!  Get ready … because it’s putting in another appearance in a minute).

Any of the elements which are heavier than iron are produced in a couple of moments after the very massive star with an iron core has collapsed under its own weight. This is what’s called  supernova  – and the creation of elements during this process is supernova nucleosynthesis. (Told you it would pop up again!)

Now … by mass, we are made of:-  65% oxygen, 18% carbon,  10% hydrogen  and 7% other elements. There are no helium atoms in the human body. This means that 90% of your body was made of elements that never even existed before the first generation of stars created them. So yes,  we are made of stardust.  (And what’s more …. some of the atoms inside our bodies were made in supernova explosions that happened billions of years ago).

You learn something new every day that you know me, don’t you?

I wonder what little gem you’ll remember from todays lessons.  <nods in agreement>  Yeah  … I reckon it will be the glue on the thumb thing too.

So … are you all singing the  Matthews Southern Comfort version of Stardust??  Or are you too young to know about this song?  Either way …. I’ve been and had a search and share it with you here:

Have a fabulous Friday, and may your weekend be wonderful,  and full of stardust. 🙂

Have a blessed rest of your day,  all.  ❤

 

 

The Cobweborium Recommendation of the Week: TONIC!

I was doing a little ‘housework’ on the blog here and realised that I haven’t done a ‘recommendation’ for simply ages.  So here I am putting that right with something I’ve just begun using (last week).

I ran out of my usual tacky glue (by Collall) – which didn’t bother me because I knew I had some more on my supplies shelf.  Except …  when I reached to get my other bottle, it wasn’t there.  I’d obviously already used it and forgotten.  tsk tsk.

An urgent dash to The Range (a store in the UK which sells practically everything, including crafty supplies) to get some more,  but when I got there, they had none.  Both Mr. Cobs and I searched the shelves but there was none to be found.  However Mr. Cobs found something else . . . Tonic Tacky Glue.  I looked at it, umming and ahing,  and in the end I decided I had nothing to lose, so bought a bottle to try it.

I’ve now been using it for a week and I can confidently, whole heartedly,  recommend it.  It’s an absolutely brilliant paper and card crafters glue.  It has a really great, very quick grab time, and you really don’t need much glue to form a great bond.

The bottle was ready to use – so none of that tricky guess-work about cutting the end off the nib;  and, when you come to use it,  the hole is tiny,  BUT  don’t be tempted to make a bigger hole until you’ve tested it for a few days,  and then you’ll see exactly how little glue you actually need to do the jobs you need it to do.  Just a scrape of glue is all you need.  Literally, a scrape.

I like this glue so much that I know I’ll be buying and using more of this, and I can see it even replacing double-sided tape for a lot of my card making, (when matting and layering).  It grabs and it sticks, really well.

I’ve so far tried it on felt, wool, wood, plastic, paper and card, and it’s coped really well with all these things.

Tonic Craft Tacky Glue.  If you want to try it out in small first, The Range sell the smallest bottle for just 99p.  I bought the next size up, (which I think was double the size) for £1.99 – which makes it £2.00 cheaper than my normal brand of tacky glue.  NB … The Range is where I bought it from – but other crafty outlets are available, and you can even buy this on the internet in various places.

 a note:  I’m not paid to make recommendations and I haven’t been given any products to act as payment, or to encourage me to recommend them.  I will only recommend a craft product which I’ve actually tried and use myself, and found to be a great success in my own craft projects.

This recommendation is based only upon my own use of this product.  However … if you yourself already use this Tonic Craft Tacky Glue, then please do share your own experiences by posting them in a comment, and letting everyone else reading hear your own experiences with it.  Hearing from others helps us crafters to form an opinion, and I’m all for crafters helping crafters where they can!

(You can post a comment by scrolling to the top of this post to find the title … then drag your mouse just to the right of the title and you’ll see a little grey speech bubble which will turn deep red when you hover your cursor over it.  Click it and you can then find all the comments and the comment box.)

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday ~

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Experimenting with Cobs and Astrid. AKA: Testing the Stickability of Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss.

Craft Product Recommendation
Of The Week!

Regular readers of my blog will remember that I have already blogged a Recommendation on Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss many moons ago.  However a fellow blogging buddy [the wonderful and immensely talented] Astrid,  wrote and asked me how well Anita’s Gloss stuck things.  I couldn’t answer this truthfully as I hadn’t tested the Gloss for ‘stickability’ so we’ve been testing it (via emails – as she lives at one end of the UK and I live at the other) – and I’m back here sharing the results with everyone – so that you all know too,  – and I’m  Recommending this product again as Craft Product of the Week,  simply because of the great results I got from this  ‘costs way less than that other particular brand of Glossy stuff which you can buy from the hobby retail outlets‘.

I’ve taken before and after photo’s … but … they aren’t brilliant in standard.  It’s dark and dingy weather here, and no matter what lights I had on or off, I couldn’t get a decent photo.  So … my apologies for the rubbish photos, but they’re the best out of a bad bunch of over 40.

The ‘before’ photo – so that you can see what types of things I chose to stick with the Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss:

Combination of items I experimented with to test out the ‘stickability’ of Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss

You can click on all of these photographs in order to make them load bigger – but remember to click ‘back’ in your browser so that you come back to this page to continue reading.

I scribbled on the scrap card so that I could show you what I stuck and where I stuck it.

• The Glass Beads selection of 7 types,  are (as you’re looking at the photo) bottom left and bottom centre.
• All the 8 various different metal charms are top left and then trailing down into the middle of the card.
• Top right are a mixture of flat back plastic (pink) pearl.  Flat back glass Dew Drop (in clear pink), and a little mix of plastic gem type stones.
• Bottom right is a  green plastic button

The metal charms:  Some are flat, but others are undulated or are more of a rounded back, and the Angel (in the top left corner) is hollow back – but I wanted something larger so that I could pour liquid all over it to see what happened – so this seemed like a great one for that test as it was all bumpy.

The Angel you can see close up in this ↑ photograph, and you can see how I totally smothered it – just so that I could see what happened.  The two ‘Made with Love’ little heart charms – I put a smaller dot of medium on the uppermost one, and a large blob of the medium to stick the lower positioned heart – just so that I could test one against the other for stickability.  The ‘doughnut’ or ‘polo mint’ embelli just had three tiny little dots of medium on it.

The glass beads:  I chose two different sets to squeeze a little (and it was only a little) of the gloss over them, to see how it behaved and so that I could compare it to the to the other glass beads which I simply lay on top of some of the 3D Gloss which I’d squeezed out a tiny bead, and spread it slightly, then popped the glass beads on top of it and with my finger, I gently pressed to make sure that the beads were in contact with the medium.  I then left them all over-night.

The following day, everything was stuck firmly.  I turned it upside down and gave it a  darn  good  shaking.  Nothing fell off.  I set it flat and holding on to the card, I pushed each of the items very firmly.  Nothing moved.  I took my index finger and flicked each one repeatedly with a good flick, over and over,  and I know that with some other glues this action would have been enough to send some of those things flying across the room – but nothing moved.

The Glass Dew Drop was a real surprise to me, as I’d not found anything (up till now) which would stick those little b*ggers securely – but this 3D Gloss had done the job.

But the real test was to try some really rough handling.  So since I hadn’t been able to move any of these things by the type of basic rough handling (which I would say they might possibly encounter on a postal journey) … now I wanted to really tug on them.  I wanted to force them to part company with the card:-

The smothered Angel … she really was very well stuck and I broke a fingernail getting her off – but she didn’t come off the card, the card came off the card with her.  She was still stuck to it.

The little metal heart which was stuck on more lightly than the other – also stuck fast.  The metal hand – again so well stuck that it pulled the card off rather than it was pulled off the card.  The metal charm I thought would be the easy one was the irregular shaped open heart with the arrow through it – but again – it pulled the card off with it.

The Dew Drop was probably the easiest – but that didn’t part with the card, it again took the card with it.

I couldn’t get the plastic gems off at all. (and didn’t want to risk another fingernail).

The glass beads … the only ones I got off  ‘easily’ (but not really) were the big charcoal coloured round ones – but again – they brought the card off with them.

If you click on the ‘after’ photo above it will open up much larger so that you can see the results for yourself.  (remember to click back in your browser again though so that you come back here).

All in all – I was stunned and amazed at what a great job it did of this ‘stickability’ test, and because of that I’m repeating my Craft Product Recommendation so that you can see for yourself the results of this test which Astrid and I decided needed to be done!

Link to my previous recommendation about this product:  https://thecobweboriumemporium.wordpress.com/2014/04/12/anitas-3d-clear-gloss-my-recommendation-of-the-week/

Link to the wonderfully talented  Astrid’s Artistic Efforts  blog (you’ll fall in love with her too!):- http://astridsartisticefforts.blogspot.co.uk/

Thank you so much for sharing a little of your time with me, here today.  I really appreciate your company, and if you’d like to leave a comment, please do – even if it’s only to say hello!  I so love to hear from folks who come for a read.

Have a truly fabulous Tuesday.  Do something today which makes you happy!

With all my love ~

 

A Frosty Nights Seasons Greetings

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling:  “How could it be so?”
“It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!”
“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,”   he thought,  “doesn’t come from a store.”
“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”

Where I live,  my neighbours and I are surrounded by huge pine trees.  80 feet (plus) tall.  Now I have to admit that I love them, they give my garden some wonderful cool shade in the summer months, and offer protection in the winter.  However there’s a downside to these fabulous trees – because in the autumn and winter months they shed pine needles like crazy and bury all our gardens under a deep carpet of them,  – and they also shed pine cones.

(Which my dog loves!  She sits in the garden, staring up at the trees, waiting for the pine cones to drop, …  and the minute they do, she chases round the garden to collect them and promptly brings them into the house as a present for me.).

I wanted to make Christmas cards for some of my neighbours which had some sort of personal ‘thing’ about them,  so I chose my stamps to include a pine cone  and also a silhouette of a large black cat …  as a representation of one of my cats – who all my neighbours know.

I’m owned by three felines.  One is a very old lady who’s almost 19 years old and the ‘boss’ (and how!) of the trio, and the two others are loveable rascals of two years old who love nothing better than to play Cowboys and Indians at breakneck speed through my cottage!.  One of these youngsters is a beautiful, huge,  luxurious,  black velvet coated beastie, called Alfie.  He’s way too heavy for me to pick up – but not overweight;  long, tall, sleek, powerfully built, adept at walking along the edge of a high fence with such elegance, which makes his muscles ripple like that of a panther.  However, he’s a big softy, who loves a chinny tickle, and who has the teeniest meow you’ve ever heard!

To make this card;  I began by masking off a circle on the card, which was to be the moon, and also masked off where I wanted to put in a snow drift so that it added depth to the card.  I blended three ink pad colours;  two blue Memento Archival Ink pads, and a tiny touch from a black Ranger Archival ink pad.  The photographs haven’t captured the true colours of this card.  The blues are a little darker than they show here, making the whole scene very much like the sky at midnight, on Christmas Eve.

Once the sky and snow drifts were in place I then went straight into stamping:    I Stamped the Pine trees on the snow drift, and then the crescent wreath shape, using the second generation stamping method which I’ve talked previously about in the Christmas cards which I posted about over the past few days.

a section of the card, in close up, to show the second generation stamping method. (click on photograph and it will open up, in a much larger size, but remember to click ‘back’ on your browser window so that you come back to this post to continue reading).

I wanted to add a tiny bit of colour , so stamped some small red flowers to represent Christmas Poinsettia flowers, and stamped the pine cones in a dry brown colour.

Next came the Seasons Greetings sentiment – which I wanted to be in gilding flakes, so I stamped the words using  Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter Glue,  and then used Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Flakes to gild the stamped words.

Following this I added some glitter to the snow drift and the wreath, using a fine nibbed glue pen and Wow glitters;  and then used a Graph It white marker pen to add snow ‘dots’ falling against the dark sky,  and also added  ‘snow’ onto some of the branches of the wreath, where snow would have settled naturally.

And that’s all there is to it! 

I had fun with this card – and I have to admit that I really love the finished article.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing a few minutes of your day with me.  I’ve loved have your company.

Have a truly fabulous, blessed,  rest of your day.

Come and see . . . the Christmas Trees!

Day two of a selection of Christmas cards, made using Card-io Stamps – but on this card I’ve added a stamp made by another company:  Clarity Stamps.

I wanted to make another wreath stamp, but one totally different from the one I made yesterday.  I began by stamping one of the bunnies from a set of Clarity Stamps  – (re-mountable Bunnies and Grass,  clear stamp set – should you wish to buy some, I’ll put a link to the Clarity site at the bottom of this post).

I used a mask to cover the bunny so that I could stamp the wreath using a little ‘branch’ type stamp from one of the sets in my Card-io stamps, and using the same method I used yesterday – second generation stamping, in order to give the wreath a little depth and dimension.

I blended three colours from my Versa Color ink pads, to get the sunset effect, and then using two shades of blue – one chosen from my Whisper Archival ink pads and the other from my Memento ink pads, I did the rest of the ‘sky’.

I then stamped the Pine trees and birds, stamped the bare oak tree, and then drew in the short length of fencing using a very fine tipped black pen.  Finally I added the tiny stamped image of the family – father, mother and the two children, heading off across the snow-covered meadow to go and choose their Christmas Tree.

Then it was time to add ‘snow’.  Using some Pinflair glitter glue and some Pinflair Ice Diamond, and some of their Snow Dust – I added crystal like snow to parts of the wreath, and to the snow scene within the wreath.  I also added some around the fluffy tailed bottom of the little rabbit who’s peering through the wreath and watching the family walking away.  (No doubt so that he can perhaps find a way into the garden and snaffle any winter vegetables which might be there for the taking!)

I had a terrible time trying to photograph this snow – it just didn’t want to show up on the photo’s.  So I tried taking a photo which was just a tiny bit out of focus to see if that would work and … it did!  So although this photo isn’t the best in the world – you do actually get to see the ‘snow’ and where I applied it …

. . . .  and a little closer up so that you can see both the second generation stamping and the snow a tiny bit better:-

I had such fun making this card.  It was quick,  easy,  very little planning,  and no fiddling about with die cuts, embellishments or fussing.

• Link for Clarity Stamps, the page which details the bunnies set which I used one of for this card:  http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Clear-Stamps/Easter-and-Bunnies/11471-/Remountable-Bunnies-amp-Grass-Clear-Stamp-Set—As-Seen-On-TV

As promised yesterday, I am working on a post which will tell you more about Card-io stamps, and that will be appearing on my blog this week, so please look out for it.

Thank you so much for coming to visit today.

Have a truly wonderful Wednesday!  love ~

What a Dream Scrapbook Page!

I have a ‘bought for the purpose’ scrapbook which, although it has a (sort of) ‘padded’ binder (cover) – in the centre of the cover it has a little cut out section where you’re supposed to slide a photograph into the ‘hole’ (from a little slit on the inside cover) so that it shows you what the scrapbook is about.  Problem was that even though I loved the cover of the scrapbook, I felt that the ‘photograph’ section on the front was, well, a little too twee.  A bit (kind of) predictable.  I didn’t want a photograph on the front, I wanted something better than just a photo.

So I cut out that bit on the inside cover, and so got a ‘hole’ right through the front cover.  (Think of a serving hatch into the dining room from the kitchen).  I then cut up a scrapbook page saver, (one of those plastic page holders which you put your ‘made’ pages into to protect them) and carefully glued a square of that soft, pliable plastic to the front of the cover and then hid the glue with some pretty pleated ribbon.

Then … I made something which I was far happier with which would show through that window.  I made  … Page One of my scrapbook.

Page One of my Scrapbook

Such a simple idea.  I kept the page white, but draped bakers twine across the page and attached it to little gold brads, which were to be the ‘drawing pins’ (thumb tacks) which held the bakers twine in place.  Once I was happy with where the bakers twine was place on the page, I then glued it in place with some Anita’s crafting glue.  (It’s white when you put it on, but dries clear).

I then cut out some little white ‘flags’ – from some thin cotton sheeting – basically the same weight as light weight shirt cotton,  –  which I then glued to the bakers twine and made Bunting!

I glued a little white doily  to the centre of the page and while that was drying I made a little dream ‘diorama’ out of an old tin which I’d got when I purchased some ink powder.  I’d saved the tin, not knowing what for, but knowing that it would come in useful one day.  (I am SUCH a ‘crafter’).  😀

A couple of years ago I’d seen a picture of a little tin which was a tree ornament.  It looked so pretty that it had stuck in my memory.  When I decided what I wanted to use to fill that central space on page one – but something which would also ‘begin’ my scrapbook and give a taste of what was to come   – the word ‘dream’ came to mind and so did the ornament.  And that’s where the basic idea began.

The cover of the album is basically a mix of greens with a contrast of pink and white polka dot all put together in a  (kind of) patchwork, – and with butterflies flying in various places on top of it all.

So the tin had to be complimentary to the cover, and since butterflies were going to be putting in an appearance further into the scrapbook then it was natural that they should be on the first page too!  So I began with a scrap of pink polka dot paper, which I hand cut into a round to fit into the base of the tin.  I then used some white glue, and glued some flower soft, in a mix of pink, green and white, into the bottom quarter of the tin.  I wrote ‘dream’ on some paper and distressed it a little, then cut it into a banner and back it with some green card.

Thankfully I have a selection of butterfly stamps, some of them are really teeny tiny – so they worked perfectly with the tin and it’s lid.  Just the right size in fact.  The one inside the tin I stamped in an emerald green colour, but then coloured it in with a lovely fresh spring green.

But the butterflies which are outside of the tin, flying free (so to speak) I stamped using a grey memento ink (I think I used ‘silver’ actually) – and didn’t colour those, because I wanted them to look delicate, and pale to match the white of the whole page.  I added some glue ‘squiggles’ and sprinkled some ultra fine glitter onto it – to sort of represent the flight path of the butterflies as they flew.

Pale silvery butterflies.

 

I glued down the lid using a little hot glue, and covering two of the pale butterflies, so that they looked liked they’d flown under the lid.

But I did have one slight worry.  If the album, at some point in the future, had something heavy put on top of it, then I worried that the metal rim of the open tin might just puncture the plastic cover I’d put on the front of the album.  If it didn’t puncture it – it might mark it permanently and it would then spoil the look.  So I had to come up with an idea to solve that problem – just in case it ever did happen!  (That’s me.  I have to have a plan for everything  in case something bad happens.  If it does, then I have a plan.  If it doesn’t then that’s great – but at least I had a plan! lol).

I got out the trusty hot glue gun again, and sorted through my white buttons to find some which had a vintage feel about them.  I knew I needed to be careful about choosing the right ones – because the wrong buttons could spoil the whole thing.

Buttons found – I squidged a generous (but not a huge glob!) amount of glue onto the back of a button and carefully placed it on the rim on the tin, holding it there for a few seconds while the glue began to set.  Then I did the next one.  Then the next.  Then … and so on until I’d glue four buttons, in descending sizes, on one side, and one further button on the opposite side of the rim of the tin.  I left them over-night to see if they would do what I wanted them to do.

The following day I put my hand flat palm down, on top of the rim to see if, when I pressed, they stayed in place.  They did.  I then knew that these buttons would spread the weight of anything pressing down on the top of the album and so wouldn’t damage the plastic on the cover.  Yay!  I love it when a plan comes together!

I wrapped some rayon seam binding around the outside of the tin, in a fabulous warm olive-green colour, and then finally added a little rich, royal purple polka-dot bow to one side.  The finishing touch.   I loved the scrapbook already – and I’d only just began!

Page One  was ‘finished’.  I stood back and looked at it.  It was perfect.  It looked vintage.  It had a friendly feel about it.  It spoke of a promise which I knew was to follow in the pages, so far unmade, but I knew the plans I had for those pages. 

Yes, this was going to be a scrapbook I loved.  I could feel it.

 I know that Scrapbooking is a fairly new type of photograph/memory saving way of doing things to the UK.  Here in the UK we’re more used to photograph albums which we buy and pop our photographs into.  But in the last few years Scrapbooking has taken off and it’s becoming more popular.

So .. do you scrapbook?  And if you do … do you blog about your pages?  If so, please leave me a comment and put a link to your scrapbooking page or to your blog in general, because I’d love to come and see your scrapbooks, and I’ve no doubt that others who visit this page would love to visit your blog too!

Have a truly lovely rest of your day!

 

Life is a Journey .. not a Destination. ~ A vintage style handmade card

 

Life is a Journey, not a Destination.

This post is dedicated to Stacey, a fellow blogger on WordPress, who came up with a brilliant idea of promoting other crafting blogs in posts.  Stacey very kindly mentioned my blog (with a link) and other crafters blogs that I hadn’t seen before  – which was enough to tell me that I too should take up her idea and promote crafters blogs on my own blog here. 

So, since Stacey came up with the idea, I am firstly promoting her blog (link below) and dedicating this post  – and this card  –  to Stacey. 

Stacey’s blog can be found here:  http://staceyscorner.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/share-sunday/  ~ go and take a look and maybe even click to follow her.

To Stacey,   a dedicated blog post and card,  for an amazing idea!  ~ from Cobs.

. . . join me on a journey through this card . . .

 

Every few days/weeks  … now and again … I’ll make what I call a ‘labour intensive’ card.  One of those cards which takes more time than the regular cards you’ve so far seen me post here.  This card – ‘Life is a Journey, not a Destination’, is one of those cards.

It’s not that these types of cards are difficult, they just take a little more thinking and working out so that you end up with the ‘feel’ that you started out knowing you wanted.  This particular card was inspired by a piece of wall art which I have hung in my bedroom, facing my bed.  It’s an iron framed rectangle with a piece of calico strung in the centre and printed on the calico are the words Life is a Journey, not a Destination, and that’s what gave me the theme for the card.

I wanted the card to have a vintage style, with a slightly ‘steampunkery’ feel to it – but at the same time I knew I wanted it to carry a message,  and wanted the message to be read as either literal or spiritual, depending on who the card ended up with, and the circumstances they were in within their life, at that time.  And ... I think I’ve managed it.

This card could be for someone who’s:-  moving house;  going on a cruise or going abroad;  it could be a simple regular birthday card (for either a man or a woman);  it could be for someone who’s starting a new job;  or perhaps for a person who needs some encouragement;  maybe some tests soon?;  or … it could be given to someone who is going through some sort of personal challenge or challenging time, and this card would be a gentle, loving way of saying that they’re going to get through this time and move on to a better place or time.

I’ll give you a list of everything I used to make this card at the end of the post, because I don’t want anyone to look at the list and think that they couldn’t make a card like this.  I might have different stash to you, and I might have different cardstock; dies; ink pads; glues etc etc … but I’m pretty sure you will have things in your stash that you could use to pull a card like this or similar together.  Just because the list of stuff I’ve used might look long – please don’t be put off.  If you want to make something like this, go and look at your stash.  You’d be surprised what you can use in order to make your own style of card.

For now .. I’ll just give you different photos of the card so that you can see things closer up….

Up up and away!  . . .

A  (working)  compass  to help you keep you going in the right direction . . .

 

 

Time passes quickly, –  so some gentle encouragement to enjoy the beauty of every moment.

 

 

As followers and readers of my blog know  …  I LOVE to put surprises inside all the cards I make.  I feel that the inside of a card is just so wasted and such a let down when you open a birthday/Christmas or any other time card, and find a big white space with a little bit of writing. 

I like cards to be beautiful inside and out and surprise the receiver when they open their card! . . . 

 

Oooo…  I wonder what the magnifying glass is for?!   ;D 

OOhh .. another surprise!   ..  now we have a lucky wish star and a ticket which gives me ‘entitlement’ to one wish!    But .. what the devil is that magnifying glass for???

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .   It’s so you can read the page from the dictionary/thesaurus!  Ok .. one mystery solved,  . . .   but  … what’s that pink ticket by the end of the handle?

 

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .  mystery number two solved!  (Just call me Sherlock.  lol)

Oh, and by the way  … the postcard inside . . .  is for you to write your message on, for the person you’re sending the card to!  See?  It all makes sense!

And that  . . . (photo above)  . . .   is the just finished card, stood on a glass cutting mat, on my desk …  and that’s all my  mess  important, essential, fabulous, well organised   {cough}  equipment and tools behind the card.  (I’ll clean it up properly at some point, so that I can take a photograph of my craft room and share it.)

 

The Recipe for this card:  I used:

• Sheena Douglass – Little Bit Sketchy – Magnifying glass stamp.
• Papermania Acetate (for the ‘window’ of the magnifying glass)
• Papermania Black Embossing Powder
• Stazon ‘Saddle Brown’ ink pad
•      ”       ‘Jet Black’ ink pad
• Memento Dye Ink Pad in ‘Desert Sand’
•      ”               ”            ”     in ‘Rich Cocoa”
• Xcut Build-a-Scene Dies – Vintage Hot Air Balloon
• Heartfelt Creations 12×12 pad – which I used some of the images from.
• Spellbinders ‘Once upon a Time’ Die
• Tattered Lace ‘Postcards’ Die set
• Heartfelt Creations ‘Time Sentiments’ stamp
•         ”               ”          ‘Journey Sentiments’ stamp
• Pinflair Gentle Blends – in Denim colour
•       ”            ”            ”      –  in Dark Khaki colour
• Graph It Glitter Ink Pen
• Compass – was in a pack of 4 I bought a while ago, from the children’s section of either Asda or Tesco.
• Dictionary page was cut from an old Dictionary/Thesaurus which was no longer used.
• Cardstock used:
• Warm Chocolate Brown 300gsm
• Plain Black 270gsm
• Orange – was scrap from my scrap draw
• White – 270gsm
• Kraft Card – 300gsm
• Extras:
• 2 x short lengths of silver-grey Rayon Seam Binding.
• Grey and white Bakers Twine
• 3 x fuzzy, funky fibre, Eyelash Knitting Yarn/Wool –  1 x length of warm brown.  1 x  length of jet black.  1 x length of a blues and purples mix.
• One tiny metal vintage looking Postcard embellishment.

And that’s all there is to it!  😀

Aw, please don’t be daunted by the apparently long list of ingredients for this recipe.   I’ve named almost everything I used here just to be helpful to anyone who wants to know where I got a particular thing, or the make of the papers or dies etc,  (named everything apart from glue .. but if you need to know:  I used Collall All Purpose, Anita’s Tacky Glue, hot glue, and Double Sided Tape) – but I bet you use tons of stuff when you craft a card and you don’t even notice what you’re using anymore.  It’s just all  … ‘stuff’ … which is treasured and loved,  and there because you use it!

Thank you so much for coming to read.  I hope you like the card!  Oh … and don’t forget to visit Stacey’s blog!

Please have a look around my blog here and check out the different categories.  There’s a list of them all in the column over to the right, – you’ll find the list of categories towards the top of that column.

Have a truly beautiful rest of your day!  ~