Happy Monday, Happy Mail!

Happy, happy Monday!  A brand new day with no mistakes.  A new beginning of a new week.  A new opportunity filled with new opportunities!

Last week, on two separate days, I was the luckiest girl,  for I received some very happy mail.  The first was from a fellow WordPress Blogger, Beverly, (of  MoreInkPlease blog).  Beverly won the very first Giveaway on the Cobweborium Blog here, when the Random Number Generator picked her number to win the ‘ Just for you . . . if you’d like it.‘  <—(clickable link) which was a handmade Card, with a country theme and featured some chickens in their hen house, (and even had a feather donated by one of my own chickens!).

Beverly and I have got to know each other through blogging comments, on each others blogs, over the last couple of years, and a few weeks ago I got a message from her telling me that something had happened and that she’d write again when she could.  True to her word she wrote,  . . .  telling me that her husband had passed on.  I will admit that I read that message I don’t know how many times, trying to make sense of it.  Just a few weeks previously to this, on June 30th this year, Beverly had posted a picture of her and her husband on their wedding day,  and told everyone that they were, that day, celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

I truthfully thought that I’d read that wrong, or that I was getting mixed up and that she was talking about someone else – because, had someone asked me to guess how old Beverly was, I’d have said she was maybe somewhere between about 38/39  and 44/45.  So to hear she’d been married for 50 years was a real surprise.

When I learned of her husbands passing,  I felt the need to write to her.  Send a card.  Send an Email.  Something.  But Beverly and I were only on-line friends.  We’d never given each other our snail mail address’ – in fact, we’d never even exchanged email addresses!  Yet I loved her like she was as real to me as one of my neighbours.  She really is such an absolute darling.

I know, at the moment, she’s not able to post crafty things.  She’s still in that ‘waiting area’ ….  waiting for ….  what?  You see, that’s exactly it.  WHAT?  What next?  What now?  Where?  Why? Who?  How?  Why?  WHY?

That ‘why?’ is something that she probably won’t get an answer to.  And as for all the other questions (and there are more than I’ve written), they will, perhaps, be acknowledged eventually.  However, until the ‘numbness’ is over-come, moving forward is something which is difficult to do.

So anyway …  I was overjoyed when I realised that the Random Number Generator had picked  Beverly as the winner of the card.  Even though this was a more light-hearted ‘something’ it didn’t matter.  It was something that I knew would deliver a smile when it arrived.  But …  I didn’t want Beverly feel that she had to send something in return … so…  I was a little bit sneaky.  I didn’t put my full address on the back of the package I sent to her.  I simply put the name of our cottage, and the number, and the post code.  (a bit like the US zip code).

I guessed that this would be enough for the Customs department, but that Beverly would look at it, see that it wasn’t a ‘proper’ address, and so not feel she had to send anything.  PERFECT!

Then, last week,  a package arrived from her.  [tsk tsk Beverly!]  Beverly had trusted both the US postal system, and then the UK postal system  (I can hear people of the UK laughing up and down the land right now!),  and the address on the package that she’d sent to  me had been carefully read, de-coded and then the UK postal system had written the full address onto the package and my postman had brought it to the door with a grin.  Bless him.  I love my postman.

When I opened the parcel I couldn’t believe what was inside!  My eyes grew to the size of saucers.  I’d never received this type of Happy Mail before.  Beautiful die cuts, for me to use  – images, note cards, flowers, incredible sea related die cuts,  pretty butterflies, die cut words,  OH!  all manner of things which I can use in crafting … and tucked inside was a fabulous handmade card, made by Beverly herself.  It was an amazing easel card, which could be displayed as it was, or … with the addition of a battery operated t-light,  which she’d even packed into the parcel for me,  the card would suddenly burst into life and glow!  I’ve taken photographs …..

The beautiful card from Beverly, with all the Happy Mail items which she’d packed into the box which she’d sent to me.

Without the flash.

Close up, with the big over-head light on.

photograph taken without any lights, just the glow from the battery operated t-light.

This started my week off in such a wonderful way.  I felt like the luckiest girl alive.

Then … the following day I received another happy mail!

The second Happy Mail was from another wonderful lady who is a truly fabulous Jewellery artist:  Hannah – of  The Artisan Duck  <—click

Hannah is a multi talented, amazing Artist –  continually making jewellery,  changing, and developing new ideas,  and I can see how her style is really coming out,  for her makes are incredible.

However,  as if being a Jewellery Designer and Maker wasn’t enough;  her talents don’t stop there  … she also makes beautiful handmade cards, and is a most talented artist of the pen/pencil & ink (drawing) variety.

If I ever actually set about writing the children’s book which I’ve had buzzing around my head and heart for a couple of years or so now, I’ve already told Hannah that I would love her to do the illustrations for the book, as I adore her artwork.

Hannah recently did a craft fair but because of a  ‘mix up’  . . .

(for that  ‘mix up’  read: someone put an ill equipped nincompoop in charge of the craft fair two weeks before the due date and he completely ruined the craft fair in various different ways – for ALL the crafters and artists who were there,  –   apart from,  strangely enough,   those artists who were his personal friends  . . . . enough said,  as I zip my mouth) 

. . .  although she sold some of her beautifully hand crafted items, she only sold a fraction of what she could have sold, so she’s told me that she’s going to fill up her Etsy Shop with items for sale.  (So if you’re interested in taking a peep, go to her blog, and find the link to her Etsy Shop – she’s currently filling it with goodies, so you might have to wait for the link to appear).

Hannah made some blog posts showing everyone what she was making, and it was in one blog post where I saw some really lovely earrings.  I wrote her a comment, and asked her if she made Brooches in the same design.  (I’m a bit of a scarf and shawl wearer, and use brooches to keep them pinned to me so that they don’t fly off in the wind.).  Hannah said that she hadn’t thought of making a matching brooch, but she’d make one for me if I’d like her to.

WOULD I LIKE HER TO MAKE ME A BROOCH???    I darn well nearly passed out with excitement!   I wrote to her and said a polite yes please, (all the time panting like a dog whose owner has bought her a new tennis ball!)  and asked her to let me know how much, and how she would like me to pay her for it (paypal, bank transfer etc).

Last week …. the brooch arrived!!  I could barely contain myself. It’s SO pretty.  SO beautiful.  And … I felt like such a peacock when I wore it for the first time a few days ago.

I’ve tried to take photographs – but you all know that photography really isn’t my forte, so these photo’s don’t show the true beauty of this magnificent brooch . . .

The brooch was carefully crafted in Polymer and then treated to an Abalone Leaf Metal finish, which then, as the piece is heated, cracks and shows the background colour of the Polymer.

A  close-up, to show the cracks.

It looks, in these photo’s that the brooch would be rough to the touch.  It’s not.  It’s very smooth and very tactile.  You don’t ‘feel’ the cracks.  But you do see the amazing colours – which again, I’ve tried to capture but failed.  Imagine a rain puddle on a black asphalt road,  then gentle float some motor oil onto the puddle, and see the colours which suddenly appear, like magic!  That’s what this brooch looks like.

The brooch shown from a little further away…. so that you can get an idea of what you’d see if I was wearing it on my scarf and you were stood in front of me.

Hannah also made the card you see in the photographs.  See … I told you she’s multi-talented!

The brooch, in real life, is far more beautiful than these photo’s show it to be.  The colours change as the light hits it in a different way or from a slightly different angle.  So as you turn or walk, the various colours show up and catch people’s eye.  It looks really rather expensive.

BIG THANK YOU  to Beverly for her box of happy mail – which is already now sitting in my craft room and I have plans to use something out of the box later this afternoon.

BIG THANK YOU to Hannah for the making of my beautiful brooch.  I’m thrilled to pieces with it Hannah, and it works so well with my scarves – be they light, floaty scarves or woollen ones.  This brooch is perfection.  Thank you.

And now I’ve talked the hind legs off a donkey … I shall turn to something which will give you a smile …

How to Shock a Time Traveller:

• If someone from the 1950s suddenly appeared,  what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain about life today?

• One answer: . . . .  “I possess a device in my pocket that is capable of accessing the entirety of information known to man. I use it to look 
at pictures of cats and get into arguments with strangers.”

Have a truly blessed rest of your day all.

Sending squidges from my corner to yours ~

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A great big Thank You – from a big friendly giant!

Morning/afternoon/evening –  all you lovely readers!  (And those who don’t feel that lovely but really are very lovely indeed!)

I’m here and I’m still crafting … but I’ve had to back track on a project. [insert sad face here].  My much-loved Grandson began his new ‘big school’ this week, and the teacher had given all these little ones (on their visit to the new school a couple of months ago), a little bucket, which she asked them to fill with ‘stuff’ related to things that happened during the summer weeks before they started school.

My daughter (his mummy) doesn’t get out as much as she’d like to, due to a medical problem which can keep her not exactly house bound, but it doesn’t allow her the sort of freedom to come and go as much as you and I have and so I guessed that filling the bucket might be somewhat of a problem.  So because of this I came up with the idea of making a little book/album and fill it with photo’s and mementoes of things that my Grandson did with us, his Grammy and Grandad, in the summer before big school. (Grammy and Grandad memories added to Mummy and Daddy memories would make up a selection of great memories for my Grandson to share at school).   And making & recording memories is what’s been keeping me busy for the last few weeks.  I’ve had tons of little things to do with this much-loved Grand-baby of mine (yes, I know he’s not ‘mine’, I have to share him with Mr. Cobs, and his Mummy and Daddy, and his other Grandparents, and his aunty and cousins ….and… and … on and on!,  but when he’s with me he’s all mine).

It was a fabulous little book and I was so pleased with the way it was coming together.  I’d planned that all the memories and photographs were going to be on large tags, which slotted into pockets which I’d built inside the book.  I showed the book to my little grandson a couple of weeks ago and he loved it.  It didn’t have the pictures in it at the time, I’d kept those to one side, but just wanted to show him the book – and I had the devil of a job getting the book back off him!  He wanted to keep it and take it home.  lol.  Oh! I’ve just thought! …  I perhaps should have told you that this darling, adorable little boy, who is just four and a half years old and the most incredible little chap who’s so easy to love,  was born with Cerebral Palsy.  It has affected his walking to some extent, and also left him a little behind educationally.  His understanding is about 18 to 24 months behind children of the same age as he is.

• I’m aware of how careful we should all be of our little ones, so instead of giving you his name, we’ll just call him little H here on the ‘net.
  

I’d almost finished the tag book, apart from a couple of photo’s and fixing a couple of feathers and an Oak leaf in place, when it turned out that his mommy decided that she didn’t want to use this book after all. [insert miserable face here].

I was at a loss about what to do with the tag book – it wasn’t at all big enough to use as a mini album, and I couldn’t make it bigger as the book itself was ‘made’ in full.  So after a couple of days of looking at it and trying to come up with ideas,  I decided that rather than lose the beautiful memories we’d made during the summer, I thought the best thing I could do was to de-construct it, and then build a proper mini album, and use what I had,  in a way which would make it feel like it had only ever been like it was in its new ‘form’.  So this is what’s keeping me busy and stopping me from keeping my blog up to date!  (Sorry about that.  Life!).

But … I thought I’d take this opportunity to share something I put together for this little chap (well, for his mum and daddy to be precise) – which was a Thank You card to all his nursery school teachers.

I had a Big Friendly Giant decoupage card – ‘un-constructed’ – in my stash for ages and never made it up.  And, well,  … I had a couple of days where I’d totally lost my mojo,  so I thought I’d get the mojo juices running by making up the découpage card.  Crafting something was better than just sitting there looking at my desk.

All the things needed to make up one card,  came inside this  ↑  handy wallet/envelope, from the makers of DoCrafts.

And this  ↑   is what it looks like when you unpack the contents of the wallet/envelope

It was easy as melting chocolate with a heat gun, to put together.  Just layer it all up.  So I did … and loved it when it was made, and just as I was popping the last element in place, the phone rang … it was my daughter on the phone.  We chatted for a while then I said that I’d made this card …..  and she said she needed a card to thank everyone at the Nursery School.  She’d got cards for the teachers who had the most to do with little H, but she wanted one bigger card for a general Thank You, to everyone.

I looked at the BFG card and had an idea.  I could turn this card into a thank you card easy peasy.  So I did.

If you click on this photograph  ↑  it will open up into a much bigger picture so that you can see it and all its layers.  But … it’s not quite finished, so remember to click back to see the finished article.

I cut some flag bunting using a die, in four colours of gingham card:  Biscuit;  Baby Blue, Teal Blue and Pink, and mixed up the colours so that the bunting was a combination of all four colours.   I die cut some alphabet letters to spell out the words ‘Thank You’, which I then mounted onto the flags and finally added some buttons, blue ribbon (to be the ‘book mark’) and a little card rosette with a button at the centre, for the top of the front.

And that, as they say, was all there was to it.  But I loved the way it turned out.  Just shows you that you can change a découpage card ‘kit’ to make it fit the occasion you want it to fit.

So … that’s me talked out, now it’s over to you.  What have you been up to?  Done anything nice that you want to share?  Been somewhere lovely?  Or just want to have a general chat?  I’m in favour of anything you want to say.  Say it in a comment below and I promise to answer.

In the mean time …  Have a truly blessed day.

Sending love ~