Ship – The Art of Cobwebs

It’s true. I do. I really do. Cross my heart, and pinky finger promise.

I wanted to make a card which was fun, but sweet. Not sickly sweet, and certainly not cute, but something which had a nod towards the inner child of a ‘bloke’. A man of years, but still a boy inside.

So I decided that the ‘Love you to the Moon and back’ sentiment sounded perfect … but instead of making the card a more serious ‘love you’, I made one which suggested a rocket …. going forth to the Moon, landing …. collecting moon and star-dust …. and then returning to Earth, spreading sparkly Moon dust as it flew through the atmosphere.

I began by hand painting the background on some watercolour paper, using a combination of purples, blues and white from my Kuretake watercolours. Once dry I embossed all around the edge with silver Tonic powder, which was meant to look like star-dust and moon dust.

I threw a few pinches of embossing powders over the painted background and then heated them slowly and gently so that they melted onto the watercolour background, and looked like twinkly stars in the sky.

Apart from the ‘happy birthday‘ sentiment (bottom right of the card), the stamps I used are from Altenew. But the happy birthday sentiment ….well that came from my ‘sentiment stamps draw’. I cannot remember who the maker was. I just knew that I wanted swirly writing, which might look like the trail of a rocket as it swooshed and swooped and looped the loop through the heavens, and that stamp fitted the bill perfectly.

The Moon is stamped using two stamps, and two different coloured inks, and then using an embossing pen I ‘coloured’ in some areas and then embossed it in Tonic Silver powder.

I used the embossing pen to add a Moon dust trail to the ‘happy birthday’ sentiment. The words themselves were stamped and firstly embossed in black, then stamped over again, but this time I stamped slightly ‘off’ from the first stamp so that just tiny bits of the black (meant to look like a sooty residue) peeped from behind the silver.

I have no idea if space ships leave a sooty trail behind them, but the idea was ticklish to me so I went with it. I loved the silver over the top of it because it kind of pushed the sentiment into the whole picture. Instead of it standing out and shouting, it was just there …. part of the whole moon dust/star shine thing.

And that, as I am want to say, … is all there was to it!

I trust you are well and that nothing is wonky in your world. Although … having said that I know that some of you are having a bit of a ‘wonky’ time at the moment. Please know that I think of you often, and each time I do, I push a prayer out of my heart and head, and send it heaven bound, asking for help to be given to you.

There are some of you who are missing family members, and I know how difficult that can be to deal with the trauma of losing someone. My thoughts are with you, and I send you my love.

One of our blogging friends suffered a stroke just a few weeks ago, while she was off on her holibobs with her husband. There was no warning, nothing odd going on, when suddenly… out of the blue… a stroke happened while she was sat there in the car. Thankfully she wasn’t driving the car at the time.

I know that there are some blogging friends who suffer with depression, for whatever reason(s), and having a family member who suffers with this, I know only too well how difficult life and times can be because of that.

And there are more … lots of people, who have worries of one sort of another. A difficult time. Some difficulty that they are experiencing. Please know that I’m thinking about you. About you all. I may not know you personally, but I know you by heart. By the words you type on your keypad. And because of that I’ve come to care.

You … reading right now. I care about you. I may not always comment on your blog(s), but it’s not because I don’t care. Sometimes I just run out of words. Sometimes I think how grand or brilliant you are. Sometimes I sit here on my side of the computer and smile, giggle, laugh. And sometimes I cry.

But then … there are those of you who are SO amazingly talented that I just sit here wondering how I can possibly tell you how brilliant you are without sounding like I want to stalk you; or those of you who I want to kiss all over the face, leaving visible lipstick marks, for making me laugh like a drain.

Y’know … you’re all uniquely, amazingly, incredibly wonderful. I’m SO so glad that I began blogging, for I’ve found a world of the most fascinating, beautiful people who I never knew existed. Crumbs …. how did I ever get along without you all? My life is so busy now, keeping up with you, sharing your days, getting to know you, your families, your ‘stuff’. I have no idea what on earth I did before blogging. I must have had hours wasted, doing nothing at all!

Blogging really is a magical thing.

So … thank you. Thank you for being the most amazing person. Thank you for keeping me reading, entertained, teaching me, and giving me something truly extraordinary. What would I do without you.? [shakes head while smiling to self]. I’d be terribly bored, that’s for sure!

I am so very blessed. Thank you. Each and every one of you.

Have an incredible day. Be good to yourself…. and to everyone else you meet.

Much love from me in my corner to you in yours. ~

HAPPY Friday! Don’t you just love Fridays? They have such a happy sound about them. Say it… FRIDAY! When I say it, it sounds like it’s a bottle of fizzy bubbles, which will make a BIG POP sound when it’s opened.

Y’know … I think Friday ought to be re-named – FunDay.

[stands on footstool and takes up her trusty sword in one hand, and puts the other on her hip] … “Let it be known by all those who hear my voice, that from this moment on, Friday will no longer be called Friday, but instead it will be called FunDay. It is now proclaimed, and will be written into history, that on this day, of 9th of March in the year 2017, FunDay began!“.

There. It’s done. Spread the word … from now on, the day after Thursday, but before Saturday is, from this day, to be called —> FUNDAY!

So anyhoo … you and I know why you’re here – it’s to find out all the things I’ve learned this week. So shall we crack on and I’ll educationamalise you in the same way I’ve been educationamalised? Got your coffee? Let’s go then! ….. (this first one I apologise to the boys who probably will roll their eyes … but, I’m a girl. What can I say? [smiles and shrugs])…

I learned this week …. That I absolutely ADORE the new cosmetic brushes which the cosmetic world introduced us to, ‘fairly’ recently(ish). I’ve been seeing these new style cosmetic brushes – thicker, more lush and way more soft, than I’m used to using for a time now, but they seemed like a bit of a ‘new box of tricks’ which I really didn’t need, so I didn’t fall into the trap of buying. Besides … some of them are quite a price too! However, I went into a store near where I live about two weeks ago and they had a special offer section of items which they had left overs of, and, since new stock was about to come in, they’d reduced the old stock items. Amongst everything there was one cosmetic brush. All boxed up and looking like a cloud made out of the softest ‘hair’ known to man. (It’s not ‘real’ hair or fur … but can’t remember what the box said it was). I looked at it, picked it up, put it down, then .. picked it up again. They’d reduced the thing to £2 – an absolute bargain. I uhmed and ahhed, and told myself I was being daft. I didn’t need a brush to apply foundation. (I use cosmetic sponges for goodness sake!). So I did no more … I put it in my basket and bought it. (sigh … a girl can’t resist a great bargain!).

I got home and put it on my dressing table. Every now and again I would pick it up and stroke it over my hand just to feel the softness. It took me ten days before I used it. Oh My Goodness! WHAT A SURPRISE I GOT!! Girls … if you use foundation cream when you put on your cosmetics and don’t currently own one of these brushes, you HAVE to buy yourself a brush to apply your foundation cream. There are no stripes, no streaks, and … it doesn’t dry out half way during application – so no dragging of your skin! The brush gives the perfect look to your ‘finish’. Instead of a flat, solid-looking colour, you get an ‘airbrushed’ finish. Everything is smoother, no signs of over-applying in any area, and no finish lines around your jaw or down your neck.

Not ‘my’ brush, but a piccie of one as near to it as I could find on the interwebby. My brush has a pink handle and the brushy part is slightly fuller.

The brush I bought (I should have taken a photo of it. tsk tsk. sorry!) is a short brush with a short handle, and a huge cloud of soft fluffy fur. You apply a (roughly) penny sized blob of foundation to the back of your hand, and then you softly swirl your brush around and around picking up the foundation on all of the bristles, then using the same swirling motion, apply the foundation cream to your face – taking it over your eyes, around and over your nose and all over your face, up to your hairline and down your neck. Then, take a mirror over to the window and have a really good look at your face. You’ll be surprised at how airbrushed you look. But … you don’t look like you have foundation cream on. You just look a more perfect version of yourself.

I’m so thrilled with this new brush – so much so that I thought I’d tell you about it, just incase you might fancy a try of one of these new brushes too!

Ok… now I’ve bored the boys to pieces and they’re all snoring … (sorry boys) …

I’ve also learned this week … That Samsung (yes, the makers of that unfortunately exploding Galaxy note 7, which people burned their fingers with last year) do things other than phones, computers and TV’s. Would you believe … Samsung is currently making … the Worlds BIGGEST Container Ship … which will have a quarter of a mile carrying space. A QUARTER OF A MILE LONG! That’s four football fields long! It will carry 20,150 shipping containers, – so unloading that little lot isn’t going to be a rushed process!

The Container Ship is going to cost $609 million dollars – (just in case you’re interested in buying one) – and it will be ready, they say, to move loads of freight sometime this year, 2017. However … the huge vessel will be staying in the Pacific, because, at 193 feet wide, it’s too big to fit through the Panama Canal.

Poor thing. It’s not yet even had it’s christening and it’s already suffering exclusion because of its size!

But, Samsung aren’t stopping there … they’ve got a ‘transparent’ truck with TV screens on all sides too.

I can’t help but wonder how many accidents it will cause because people will be watching the TV screen of what’s happening ahead of the truck, and not notice that the truck itself has put its brakes on. Eeeek!

I also learned, via a visit to the doctor’s surgery where I picked up a bit of reading matter, a few things about Mother’s Day ….

I know that countries around the world celebrate their Mother’s Day on different days to ourd, so I might be talking ‘out of season’ for you in your corner of the world, but … Mother’s Day here in the UK, will be celebrated on the 26th of March (this month). It always happens on the fourth Sunday of Lent, and originally it had religious traditions attached to it.

I learned, courtesy of that brochure I picked up at the doctors, that back in the sixteenth century, it was a celebration of the ‘mother church’ and people would return to the church in which they were baptised, or where they attended as a child. Thus families would be reunited. This was known as going ‘a mothering’ or Mothering Sunday. It was commonplace for the Lent fast, which prohibited sweet, rich foods and meat, to be lifted a little and for a Simnel cake to be shared.

Years later, youngsters working as servants were given an annual day off to visit their mothers and would take gifts. This was called ‘Mother’s Day’.

The first official Mother’s Day was organised by Ann Jarvis in 1908, in West Virginia, as a memorial to her mum. By the 1920’s however, Ann had become disillusioned by the commercialism of the day and especially the common use of printed greet cards. Celebrating the day became less popular. It wasn’t until the second World War when soldiers wanted to acknowledge their distant mothers, that the day grew in popularity once more.

So … if you’re in the UK, you have no excuse for forgetting Mother’s Day this year – it’s on the 26th of March!

And finally, in your educationamalisation ….

I learned this week about a fabulous sounding App called Duolingo. It’s an excellent language app which teaches you languages using mini-games, and they recently added the ability to learn with a friend. Très bien!

So I checked it out! It’s a lovely website, very bright and exceptionally friendly looking. You aren’t made to sit there for hours while you get frustrated because you can’t keep up with the lesson.

You can choose from many languages – Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, oh – and English! (I think there may be more languages, but those are the main ones I remembered). And you can choose how much time each day you feel you can commit to learning – starting from just 5 minutes! 34 hours of Duolingo are equivalent to a half-year (semester) of university-level education. And … it’s totally FREE!

LINK for Duolingo is HERE—> https://www.duolingo.com/ – it will open in another window for you.

OK… enough learning. You’re here for the jokes so let’s get our chuckle muscles ready …. On your marks. Get set. GO!….

How do you turn a duck into a soul singer? — Put it in the oven until it’s Bill Withers

My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli. — A strong currant pulled him in.

What’s pink and fluffy? — Pink fluff.

What’s blue and fluffy? — Pink fluff holding it’s breath.

I used to have a problem where I couldn’t stop naming classic American sitcoms, but I’m over it now. Ahh, Happy Days.

I was walking the dogs when all of a sudden they vanished into thin air. Not sure where they went, but I’ve got some leads.

Bought a litre of Tipp-Ex yesterday. Huge mistake.

What did the buffalo say to his son as he left for college? Bison.

Why didn’t the melons run off to get married? Because they cantaloupe.

My friend asked me if I could please stop singing ‘Wonderwall’. I said maybe.

I’ve started a business building yachts in my attic. Sails are going through the roof.

AND finally . . .

Did you know that owls can’t breed in the rain? It’s too wet to woo.

I hope you’ve got a grin out of one or more of those. I love funnies. I think I may have the best worked out chuckle muscle ever! The rest of my body is totally rubbish, but my chuckle muscle … ah… that’s one to be proud of. 😀

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me. I’ve so enjoyed your company and really appreciate you coming.

My apologies to regular readers for being quiet this week. I had to take my elderly cat on her final trip to the vet. She was 22 years old and the most wonderful squeaky voiced little thing. I loved her dearly. It was a terrible few days and I spent them feeling miserable, shedding a few tears and missing her. The oddest thing is that I keep ‘hearing’ her. I was in the craft room and swear I heard her just outside the door. I heard her in the house too. Mr. Cobs said it was one of our other cats, (we have two other cats) but it really did sound like her.

I had a play in my craft room mid week, and made a few things – but none of them were finished or at a point where I could photograph them, so I’ll share them with you next week. Oh … and I realised today that we haven’t had a Give-Away for aaages. So perhaps next week we could do one of those again! (In case anyone is interested!)

May you have a truly lovely weekend. May peace reside over your home, love find its way to your heart and a smile be ever ready to show itself upon your face.