I love you to the Moon and back!

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.  ~ 

 

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Flower Power in Faiyland ~ a hand painted Card . . .

Have you ever wondered where Fairies get their Fairy Dust from?  Well wonder no more dear reader, for I think I’ve found out.  But more about that in a moment  . . .

I need to share with you something which I discovered last month in Aldi.

The photo above shows a large, A3 size, pad of 40 sheets of Watercolour Paper, of 100gsm, which I found in Aldi last month. (July 2017).  When I spotted it and had a feel of the paper I have to admit that I wasn’t overly impressed in any great way.  I’m too used to my usual thicker, water-colour paper.  So I put the pad down and went to walk off. But … this sneaky little thought popped into my head: “hey, it’s just £2.49.  Give it a try.”  … So I bought it.

Because of a move around in my craft room (and the chaos which that sort of thing creates) I only got chance to have a play with it yesterday, and I’m rather glad I decided to buy it.  It’s not the sort of watercolour paper which you can flood with water, as its a finer paper and the water will eventually be soaked up and will then wrinkle your page, but if you know where you’re going, have a plan and don’t soak it, then you can get some decent results.  Added to that  . . .if you’re putting the resulting painting onto a card, then it doesn’t add any great weight to the card, which is perfect.

Using Kuretaki Gansai Tambi watercolours, and also their Starry watercolours, and with the help of a bit of acetate, I created the background you see above.  Because I used the Starry watercolours – in 2 colours of Gold, it was a little difficult to capture all of the patches of gold using my camera.  If it were a video, I could have moved it a teeny bit so that you’d have seen the light catch all the areas of the fabulous gold paints. (Anywhere which looks like wet paper, or like I’ve spilt tea on it is actually twinkling gold paint which the light didn’t catch)

After the background had dried (with the help of my dear friend – the trusty heat gun!),  I went to work on the flower.

Most parts of the flower were hand stamped, but some parts were drawn because I didn’t have a stamp which was either the right size or shape, using my friend – Stamp Perfect – a stamp positioning tool.  (A Christmas present last year, and I love it for moments like this) .

What you’re looking at in the photo above is my Stamp Perfect, with a stamp attached to it, ready to stamp on to the background.  The top half of the Fairy Flower had already been stamped, and I was adding the curled back sepals.  If you haven’t met a stamping positional tool before and want to know how it works I found a video on You Tube which will help way more than I can here, and be far more entertaining than me too:

 

The photograph above is the flower after I’d finished stamping, (and drawing parts of it) and after I’d watercolour painted it.

Finally … I embossed around the edge, using a little Tonic Embossing Powder, and then adhered the flower to a 6″x6″ white scored and folded card, added a ribbon and Voila!  One hand painted Flower Power Fairyland Card.

 

And that’s all there was to it!

Apart from explaining the Fairy Dust  …. 

Do you see at the top of the flower as it’s opening … with what looks like wiggly lines and dots?  Well  . . .  That’s the Fairy Dust,  escaping from the Fairy Flower Power Pod.  See?  THAT’S where Fairy Dust comes from.   I know this to be true because my Unicorn,  which lives in my back garden,  told me so.  🦄  🤣

Happy Wednesday!

Did you know . . .  that according to research by a tanning company, women look oldest at 3.30pm on Wednesdays?  Now I KNOW this to be an outrageous lie because I know that you girls and I look terrific at all times!

I will admit that when I stumble out of bed in the morning, my hair looks like five miniature kittens have been playing in it all night – but that’s easily calmed down with a comb.  And … I do seem to have bought a couple of  really spiteful mirrors which are obviously designed by cosmetic companies to try to trick us girls into thinking that we have a spot on our chin which is being kept company by a hair to the left of it.  But .. I decided quite a long time ago that I would no longer look in those mirrors,  and from that moment on I’ve looked practically perfect in every way! (so long as I don’t have my glasses on).

Oldest at 3.30pm on a Wednesday?  Don’t make me laugh.  I’m ONLY 27 years old – as we all know, for goodness sake!

Did you also know:   that a recent(ish) survey in the US reported that bosses are most receptive to requests on a Wednesday?  Now I can’t prove this, buy hey, what have you got to lose?   Obviously asking the boss when he plans to leave as you want his/her job, might not go down terribly well, but I guess you could give it a go, so long as she/he has  sense of humour!

[. . . thinks:-  . . .] . . . 

• “I wonder if anyone is still reading? 
• Maybe I should buzz off and stop sitting here like a target. 
• Oooo, what are they talking about on the TV? 
• Do I need to turn those curtains up?  Hmm, I don’t know… what if they shrink when they’re washed? 
• Aww, look at the dog, she’s so cute when she does that. 
• Uh Ooooo, here comes Alf Capone (used furniture dealer – but actually a cat), he looks bored, and that means he’s going to cause trouble by playing Cowboys and Indians throughout the house,  and trying to get Maisie or Belly, or both, involved in the game.
• Coffee…. do I want another coffee, I wonder?”  eeek!

I have to agree with that last  ‘Did you know?’  for I am, (easily distracted) and I do (talk to myself).

Aaanyhooo – that’s enough from me.  All that’s left for me to say is:  ….   Have a wonderful Wednesday.  Find the joy in each moment.  😀

 

Don’t let life ruffle your feathers! A Fairy Dress ATC

I got involved with the World Watercolour Challenge in July, but I, being me, took it a step further and challenged myself to paint only in ATC (Artist Trading Cards) size, which is just 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.  Now although I failed on some of the paintings, I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed myself.  It’s ages since I painted so picking up the brushes again was such a joy to me.

However …  in the comments, I got into various chats about ATC’s and tried to explain that if you fancied making an ATC, you didn’t have to paint in order to make them.  You could glue, stick, adhere, ~  paper, magazine cut-outs, tissue, die cuts,  anything basically. And attach all sorts of things.  You can make a picture, a statement, a quote, or even a whole story on your ATC.

To try to show you what I mean, I made a quick to make ATC  … it could be kept exactly as it is, and stored in a collectors folder.  Or you can give ATC’s away to friends, family etc.  Or you can swap them with other ATC makers.  Or … you could use them on a handmade card or in a scrapbook.

Don’t let life RUFFLE your feathers  ~ photograph taken with the flash on.

First I made the fairy dress, out of bluey green feathers, a sticker and black card, and using a plain white card, pre-cut to ATC size (2.5″x3.5″).

I firstly coloured the ATC card using two different blues – one was called Freshly Washed Jeans – the other …  I’m going to have to call Teal – it was ink left on a bit of sponge, which I’d saved in a sealed plastic bag (I’m such a thrifter!).  Then using an embossing ink and gold Tonic embossing powder, I embossed all around the edge of the card.

photograph taken using a bulb light desk lamp only.

I stamped the ‘message’ ~ “Don’t let life RUFFLE your feathers”, and stamped a feather over it.  Then added the three pearl gems in contrasting colours.

Aw…. nearly forgot …  before I began this ATC …  I back-stamped it using my favourite ATC stamp:

an ATC back-stamp.  Used on the rear of Artist Trading Cards, so that the piece of art work can be traced back to the artist who made the ATC.

I tend to stamp my ATC cards on the back before I begin my art work …  but I’ve been known to forget and if you do it’s easily solved.  You stamp your ATC stamp onto some plain white paper, fill in the details and cut it out to the exact size and simply glue it to the back of your ATC.

And that’s all there was to it!

Well, it’s Monday again.  A brand new week, fresh out of the box and gifted to us to do with as we will.  Do something good today.  Make your day a memorable one.  See if you can do something which will make another person smile.  It could be a work colleague, a friend, a relative or a complete stranger.  Whoever it is … make them smile.  Do whatever you can, with what you have available to you.  Just make someone smile today and make it a memorable day for you, and for them.

Sending a whole ton of squidges, all sent out in various directions around the globe, in the hope of one of them getting to you and making you smile too.  If you’re smiling right now … then one has already reached you.

Have a groovy day  …  a memorable, groovy day.

 

may I introduce Noel, ~ The ‘Merry Christmas’ Shaker Tree

Hello, and Happy Thursday!  I have another mainly white, with a dash of colour from the ribbon, and also from the sprinkles inside the shaker tree  –  card to share with you, direct from my craft desk.

Made on a 7″x7″ square white, scored card, and with a sheet of 7″x 7″ white card which the tree was cut from.

I love shaker cards – but the one thing I don’t love about them is how boring they can look when they’re stood up on the mantel shelf, and all the fabulous sprinkles fall to the bottom of the tree.  It leaves a card looking slightly sad and a bit miserable, because the receiver can only enjoy the card if they sit like a saddo, shaking the card.  (Which is fine if they’re a child, but a tad boring if in their 30’s and above).  So I devised a way of keeping some interest in the cut of part of a shaker card, and it’s really simple to do.  Just add a few ‘stops’ or streamers along the way, which the sprinkles get caught on, and will hold there, so that the shape you’ve cut out stays looking more interesting.

I’ve blown the tree part up in some photos – one with flash, one without, so that you can hopefully actually see the ‘streamers’ I built into this card.  This first photograph is with the flash on . . .

can you see how I’ve added some cut and shaped ‘streamers’ to the layer between the acetate and the back of the cut out – which I devised so that the sprinkles would get caught up in the shapes and wouldn’t all fall to the base of the tree, so keeping the shape (in this case a tree) more interesting to look at.

This next photo was taken with the flash off, so that it might show the ‘streamers’ better …

Can you see the ‘streamers’?

If you decide to have a go at this and do it yourself – don’t make your ‘streamers’ straight lines.  Give them some curves, so that you don’t end up with lines across your image – which could end up looking worse than nothing being there at all.  Oh … and don’t use glitter – because that can totally ruin a shaker card, as it’s a little divil and sticks to the acetate in such a way that it almost ‘fogs out’ anything else you may have in your shaker.

The greeting:  NOEL, was stamped using silver embossing ink,  teamed up with Tonic Embossing Crystals.  The stamp used was from a set of 6 greetings, made by Crafty Individuals.   I can recommend this company, both for their service and their products.  You can find this particular stamp set HERE  <— clickable link.  (I ordered these stamps and they were in my hands 3 days later.  I can’t say that you’ll get that ‘quickness’ right now, because we’re all living in the silly season right now, but I’ve found them, each time I’ve used them, to be very quick and efficient.)

To make the colours chosen for the sprinkles ‘pop’,  I added two lengths of Merry Christmas ribbon, in a lovely rich teal colour.  This ribbon was from the DoCrafts selection, and is a really fabulous weight of grosgrain.  Finally, I added a pearl star to the top of the tree, and voila …  Noel the Christmas Shaker Tree came to life.

I was aiming to get this card posted yesterday (Wednesday) …  but you know what they say about ‘plans’:-   If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.  He must be having a right old riot of a time up there in Heaven right now, as he reads down my list of ‘plans’.

Mr. Cobs and I went to see Little Cobs in his Christmas Concert with the other young members of his school year, at the Church near his home.  Ohhhhh…  I was wriggling in my seat and beside myself with joy.  I wanted to sprinkle rainbows from my eyes with happy and love.  Little Cobs was so over-joyed to see his Grammy and Grandad at the concert that he could be heard over and above any other noise, telling his teacher:  “That’s my Grammy!  It’s MY Grammy!  Look.  LOOK.  She’s there ”  <points finger>.  He’s such a darling, and it was such a privilege to be there.  (Not really well enough to go, but down right determined that I was going to be there, pain or no pain).

We came home,  and Mr. Cobs fed me lunch and then sent me straight to bed, where I spent the rest of the afternoon worn out from trying to escape the awful pain in my back.  He (my GP) has given me pain killers – and they do kind of work (they make the pain easier to live with) but they don’t last long enough, and even the smallest bit of doing ‘something’ causes whatever this is to flare up.  It’s become one step forward and two steps back.

OK.. moan and grizzle over with.  tsk tsk.

Well it’s Thursday ...  and I cannot believe how fast this week is flying past.  We have ten days until  YOU KNOW WHAT DAY!  But .. actually, I suppose I should say NINE days – because you can’t count the day itself – so  IT’S NINE DAYS TILL YOU KNOW WHAT DAY.  (and I still haven’t found a gift for Mr.C!  eek!)

Wishing you a truly lovely Thursday.  Make someone happy today.  Do something to make someones day a little brighter.  Buy them one of those big chocolate cookies?  Or maybe a magazine to read?  Perhaps a cupcake?  Something funny to put on their desk?  Some Christmas Socks? (men might find those a bit of a laugh).  Or just write down your most favourite joke, pop it into an envelope and deliver it to them with a wink.  That might get their heart racing, before they open it and fall about laughing.

Or maybe just tell someone how much you like them.  That’s bound to have a great affect upon someone.

Sending you love … oh … and do you know why I like YOU so much?  It’s because you have that special ‘spark’ about you which makes you fun to be around.  I really love seeing you here, and love knowing that you’re on the other side of my computer screen, having a bit of a smile with me.  So thank you for that.

Have a great day.  ~

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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 ~

 

A Sunny Hello!

Hello.  Happy Wednesday all!  Did you see the BIG MOON a couple of nights ago?  We couldn’t see even the glimmer of it where we are.  The sky was SO cloudy that it hid that  moon totally!  Monday’s moon event was billed as the biggest and best moon in a series of three ‘Supermoons’ this year.  The first was on October 16, the second was Monday,  and the third is due on December 14.  Afer that there isn’t going to be another till 2034.

↑  An aeroplane flies past the London Eye on Sunday.   Credit: TOBY MELVILLE

The Moon rising beyond the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, Great Britain. Credit- Peter MacDiarmid

↑  A jet flies in front of the moon on its approach to Heathrow airport in west London    Credit: ADRIAN DENNIS

Anyhoooo . . .   enough mooning around, let’s get crafty…

About ten days ago (or so,  – I’ve totally lost track of time) I made a card to send to a fabulous fellow blogger in a wee parcel I was sending to her, so couldn’t post about it here on the blog, until I knew for sure that she’d received it otherwise it would have spoilt the surprise!  But I know it’s safely arrived and so can now share the card.

It was one of those lovely, enjoyable to make, quick to pull together cards that seemed to almost make itself.  I knew I wanted to send a warm smile and visual hug – and as I was sat there trying to summon up what a smile and a hug would look like on a card –  suddenly the Sunflowers I’d seen at the supermarket when I walked through the door a couple of days previously popped into my mind.  They’d me smile instantly when I walked into the store and I even commented on them to Mr.Cobs.  They kind of welcomed me in and made me feel all warm and snuggly  … so what better ‘thing’ could I put on a warm, sunny Hello card from me, but Sunflowers!

Closer up of the Sunflowers

For the centres of the sunflowers I used a lovely warm shade of brown, and on some of the petals I added Tonic Studios Nuvo crystal drops in two colours – a pretty lemon and a slightly more warm orange colour. I also added some pale green to the leaves, but to give the leaves a little ‘movement’ I sprinkled a little green Wow glitter so that it added shade and highlights in the right places as the card was moved.

Photo taken with no flash & just light from the window

I added two lots of three pearls – bottom left and top right, then some seeds in random places;  along with some ‘leaves’ flying around the card, as if whipped up by a passing breeze,  and finally the little envelope for which I made a folded tag for the envelope, on which I wrote a story about the meaning of the Sunflower.  Then,  once the sentiment of ‘hello’ was added, the card was finished and ready to go!

And that, as they say, is all there is!

Wishing you a truly wonderful Wednesday.  Play safely.  Be nice to each other, and … if you can … pray for the next person you see. (or push a wish out of your head/heart, into the world.  Hoping for something good for that person).

Have a blessed day my friends ~

 

 

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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I’d swim oceans for you.

I dedicate this tag to my wonderful husband – because  I’d swim oceans for him.

As some of you know (from my last blog post) I had a divil of a job photographing this tag.  (Many thanks go to Kim Styles for her helpful suggestions!).  I’ve chosen a selection of photos from the two and a half million that I took, and hope that they give you even a little ‘feel’ of this tag, which has an under the sea theme to it.  (how strange is it Kim that you and I both chose an under the sea theme for our latest projects?!)

There are various bits and pieces on this tag …

• the fishing net – I made myself out of white string, because I didn’t have any proper net.
• Two metal charms  – the smaller of the two star fish (caught in the fishing net), and the little silver sea-horse.
• The two-tone shell,  purple and silver,  is actually a real shell which I coloured up using Sharpies.
• Sequins – in four colours
• A tiny plastic shell
• The pearl (in the clam shell – bottom left of the tag) – is from a broken necklace.
• The Ammonite, the Anchor, Conch Shell, large silvery Star Fish and the Clam Shell – are all made from die cuts.

I’ve taken photographs using different lighting, or without lighting at all, in order to try to give you a hint of what this tag looks like when seen with the naked eye.

The ammonite (close up in the above photo) was stamped with embossing ink, then embossed with silver powder from Tonic and finally coloured using Spectrum Aqua Artist’s Markers.  It looks gold in this photograph above – but that’s because (I think) it’s picking up those peach, warm yellow and soft brown colours I used to colour up the ammonite.

The greeny brown looking smudges in the background are actually gold.  I coloured up the tag with the teal you see, then sprayed a little misting spray in gold, to just add a kind of  warm twinkle to the look of the ‘sea’.

The Clam Shell was cut from a die (top photo, above),  backed with some card and then manipulated into the shape I wanted it to be.  I used a variety of different coloured embossing powders then, sprinkled into different places,  to give it that wonderful, ‘mother of pearl’ look to the inside of the shell.

This (in the above photo) shows the original die cut next to the end result – so that you can see how it’s been shaped to look like a ‘real’ clam.

The photo above shows the two different colours of card I used to actually make the base of the shell, along with the finished shell.  The pearl I fixed in place using Glue Gel.

I’ve included this – ↑ – out of focus photo in the hope that you might get a rough idea of what this looks like in ‘real life’.  If you squint at the picture and wait a second until your focus corrects itself through your squinted eyes, you might get a different ‘look’ and show you what I was aiming for.  (if you right-click on the photo, then chose ‘open in new tab’ – you should get a slightly bigger picture to make things easier for you).

You know when you’re stood on a beach and the waves come in and lap round your feet … then just as the water slips back again, there is that magical moment when the wet sand twinkles magically in the sunlight?   Well I was after getting that magical twinkle … and at the same time I wanted things to look like they were floating beneath the sea, being pulled gently by that fishing net.  When you’re holding the tag in your hand you get this sort of fuzziness around the net and because it’s all higgeldy piggeldy, it kinda looks like it’s floating beneath the sea.

The ‘Recipe’:

• Stamps and Dies used on this tag are all by Couture Creations, from their Sea Breeze collection.
• Various colours of Tonic Embossing Powders
• Twinkle Embossing Powder by Personal Impressions, in Turquoise Sparkle
• Colouring Pens used are Spectrum Aqua Artist’s Markers.
• Card stock used for die cuts was all from off-cuts.
• All the rest of the ‘stuff’, is all from stash.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing this tag with me.  I cannot explain how much it means to have you here.  If you’d like to leave a comment, about this tag or anything else: asking a question, to introduce yourself, or even just to say hello – I’d be thrilled to pieces to hear from you.  Comments are such a genuine pleasure to me as I look on them as your way of leaving a footprint behind so that I know who you are, can say hello to you, and it’s just such a lovely way to get us all talking to each other.  So please feel very welcome to say hello.

Well, that’s me done and dusted for another day.  All that’s left for me to say is …  Have a wonderful Monday.  May it be the beginning of a lovely week for you.  Be safe out there and … if you’re old enough to remember Sgt Stan Jablonski:  “Let’s do it to them before they do it to us!”.  (I know Sgt Jablonski meant something else,  but by that I mean … let’s be nice to other people before they get the chance to be nice to us.  Somehow,  I’ve found,  it makes me feel like I’m walking on air when I’ve made someone else smile.  Try it.  It’s a wonderful feeling).

Have a truly great week all. 

Now we are 5. A Super-Hero Mini Album!

It was my much adored Grandsons 5th Birthday a few weeks ago.  We weren’t able to go to his special Birthday party on the day of his Birthday so we (Grandad and I) decided we would surprise him with ‘Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘ at our home the day after his Birthday.  (Why have I never had two Birthday party’s?  I obviously just wasn’t cute enough).

The ‘spine’ of the mini album, and the Spiderman tag (made using two Tim Holtz charms (thick, plastic, shaped pieces, much like you find Keyrings made from. I chose 2 rounds from an assortment).

We took tons of party photographs and I decided that I would make a Mini Scrapbook album to put all the photographs in.

I made him an album just before he started big school, all about the things he did with Grammy and Grandad in the summer before his first day at school.  He absolutely LOVES the album.  He loves to look through the photographs, pull out the tags and gets me to read them to him, and basically enjoy all the moments or occasions, which are pictured in the album, all over again.  So it was a no brainer that I would have to make him another mini to house all the photos of his ‘5th Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘.

The ‘plan’ was that I wanted to make the mini album as if he’d actually been sat there with me as I made it, choosing everything that went inside himself.  So this meant that I had to think like a 5-year-old boy.  Those of you who are followers or have read my blog posts before, know that I’d have no trouble thinking like a 5 year old.  (I admit it.  I never really grew up).

The following photographs are of the pages and tags, photo books, magnetic bits, openings, fun stuff … etc…  and, I have to warn you, this post is VERY photograph heavy.  Because of this I’ll keep the talking to a minimum so that you’re not here all day reading my yammering on!

The name of the Birthday Boy is all jumbled up on the front there …. he really wasn’t christened with a gobbledygook name.

Pages one and two

Tags from pages one and two

pages 3 and 4

Magnetic ‘book’ on page 3, …  a hidden tag from page 4, …  and a photograph ‘frame’ with a sliding out photo mat and room for notes on the back of it.

Close up of page 4 so that you can read everything.  One of the ‘presents’ we bought for his Birthday was a Spiderman costume – hence the speech bubble which says:  “Like the Suit? It comes with the job”.   I’ll pop a photograph of Mr. Birthday Boy wearing his Spiderman Costume into that sliding out photo frame so it will make sense.

The long shiny black bit to the far right of the photographs is where the Birthday Boys name is.  I die cut all the letter of his name – twice.  Once in blue and once in red (Super Hero colours)  and fixed them in place so that his name read ‘down’ that black bit.  But for the purposes of sharing this mini album on the internet, I blacked out his name.  (I’m a protective Grammy)

pages  5  and  6

Tags from the pocket on page 5

Tags & photo mats from the pocket on page 6.

the other side of the tags from page 6.  All the tags and photo-mats in the album are all doubled sided.

pages 7 and 8 of the  ‘Now We are 5’  mini album.

tags and photo-mats from page 7

I love to emboss the edges of some of the tags with this ‘deckled’ twinkly style of embossing.  It kind of adds a dimension to them.

close up of page 8.  That ‘POW’ is a magnetic fold out book for photos

page 8 with the magnetic book opened.

A hidden tag.

The poem written on this tag (above) holds such a special meaning to me.  My  Grandson has Cerebral Palsy.  It affects different children in different ways, and for my Grandson it affects his speech to some degree, educationally to a degree, and his walking.  He can walk, but he falls over a lot and has trouble walking very far.  He suffers dreadful pain in his legs – and has to have injections into his calf muscles to try to help with this and also to relax the muscles in his legs so that walking is made a little easier.   He has some other problems too, because of this condition.  This is the reason why this poem means so much to me, and why it catches me in my throat whenever I read it.

the back of the poem tag

pages 9 and 10

That big spiders web you can see on page 10, is one I drew on, using an embossing pen.  I then embossed it with Tonic Silver embossing powders (because their silver is the best I’ve ever found), and try as I might I couldn’t seem to get a photo to show up how much that spiders web shines!

tags and photo mats from the pockets on page 9

page 10 has a magnetic fold out booklet, for photos and journaling.

page 10 – the booklet folded out fully.

pages  11  and  12.

the tags and photo-mats from the pocket on page 11,  –  and … the finger you see pointing to the Happy Birthday – is to point out that it’s magnetic and will hold a tag or note under it.

page 12.  The ‘Heroes’ is embossed all around it in Tonic Silver embossing powders.  This is a book which folds out to hold photos and bits of journaling.

it folds out like this … and it’s double sided, so there are photo mats on the back too!

.. and when you look under it, there’s a little message for the young man himself.

If you’ve got this far and are still with me …. keep going  .. the end is in sight!

pages  13  and  14

Page 13 holds a poem which says it all  ….

I love this poem.  There’s a space right next to it waiting for a photo of my little rascal.

page 14 which has a deep, deep pocket for special things ...

… his official SUPERHERO certificate;  a postcard waiting for something special to be put on it.   A very colourful tag/photo mat;   some spare balloons from his Birthday Party;   and there’s other stuff to go into this pocket.

And finally ....  the back….

I found a fabulous picture on the net, used by someone else for their child’s birthday party, and I thought it might make a fun picture for my Grandson … only I removed Superman’s features and replaced it with my Grandsons face. (blurred out here because I’m a protective Grammy).  It works so well and tickles the heck out of me when I look at it.

… the bit down the side reads:  you will always be my favourite Super Hero

There actually is a little bit more which I wanted to share with you, not of this album but of something else I made for his ‘Birthday Party’, but I think you’ve suffered enough for one day so I’ll post a little blog post about it another day.

Thank you SO much for coming and taking a look at my Mini Scrapbook Album.  I had so much fun making it – although it did take me rather too many days to actually get it finished.  I’m such a slow worker! tsk tsk.   I know that my little rascal is going to love it.  I just have to get all the photos into it now.

If there’s anything you want to know – glues, papers, bits, pieces etc,  please just ask away in a comment.  I’m more than happy to share information.

Before I sign off,  may I just take this opportunity to say a very warm hello to a couple of new followers.  Welcome, it’s lovely to have you on-board,  please make yourself at home here, and feel free to ask questions, make comments or just grab a coffee and settle down for a bit of a read.

Thank you everyone, for visiting me.  I love you coming.  I really do.  It’s like having a stream of friends popping round for coffee and a chat.  Fabulous.  Absolutely, totally Fabulous with a capital F.

Have a wonderful day out there,  and what ever you’re planning to do today, remember to stop, smile, and make a memory.

Have a blessed day all,

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