Victorian – The Art of Cobwebs

Victorian Christmas ~ a handmade card.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I’d been making some cards which were being sent to the USA, and I was a bit worried that none of them would get there before Christmas. Well … I had an email a couple of days ago telling me that the one card had arrived at its destination! So I’m thrilled to pieces to finally be able to share one of them.

This particular card was made especially for Beverly of More Ink Please. Beverly is a fellow crafter. She makes the most incredible cards – some of them are amazingly intricate and so, so pretty. She is also a very talented hand-made book maker. But … she has but one fault. She never finds time to blog about them! She will chat with me about some things that she’s making, but even though I push her to take a photo and pop it onto her blog …. she’s a proper rascal and never does! tsk tsk.

I decided back at the beginning of November what sort of card I wanted to make for Beverly. I wanted to make a card with a very Victorian feel, with lots of layers.

The Poinsettia flowers are all handmade and although I cut the centre (black) stamens from cardstock, I gave the flowers their yellow centres by adding some tiny glass beads.

The tiny pine cones you see on the card (covered in [fake] snow) are actually from my garden. I put Little Cobs to work during the summer, and asked him to collect me some fallen pine cones, but, I told him, “I want the teeny, weeny, baby ones, because Grammy wants to craft with them and put them on cards”, and, Bless his little heart, he took his bucket and went around my garden, picking up pine cones and either putting them in his bucket or, after doing a spot check, declaring them “Too Big!” and discarding them.

He then helped me to put all the baby Pine Cones inside a plastic bag, and zipped it up for me, so that I could force out any insects and part company with them.

I’ve put him on the payroll, and he now gets paid weekly, in cash.

Well look …. a week before Christmas and I’m only just posting a Christmas Card. Sorry about that … making them all is taking time and by the time I’ve finished making one, I’m onto the next ‘making’ and … well, time just runs away from me. It’s that things fault. Time. It’s times fault. Awww, let’s not get into Time and it’s horrors. grrrr.

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me while I chatted away. I love seeing you. Especially on a Monday morning before Christmas. 😀

Have a blessed rest of your day my fabulous friend ~

They Carry Secrets in their Wings

Hello, good morning and …. Happy Monday! Hope your weekend was good, and a handful of smiles was found among the hours.

I made this card (above) about two and a half weeks ago, but I couldn’t blog about it until it had been received by the recipient – a fellow blogger, who I wanted to send a surprise smile to through the post. Now it’s safely in her hands, I can share it here.

Made on a 6×6″ scored and folded card, I firstly fixed the blue background you see in the photo. After that I distressed and inked up some pretty script card, and added some vintage blue baby bobble trim across the top third (ish).

I then turned my attention to making the flower …. Start with a circle of card, onto which glue some stamens or small flowers, and, if you have it, a little dried gypsophila, just to give it a bit of movement and depth. Then add a piece of frayed muslin or loose weaved fabric. Finally add your flower to top the whole lot off. You can’t see it in the photo but I gave the flower a very light touch of clear glue, just in a few places, then added some chunky clear/ice glitter (not really glitter but I’ll have to call it that) which gave the flower just a bit of dusty looking interest.

I then added the whole of this built up flower to the top of a bright blue, crocheted doiley.

The sentiment on the card was one I stamped, but it began life as one long sentiment, and too long for the little piece of script card I wanted it to go on. So I stamped each word separately, cut the words out, and then placed them onto the cardstock and glued in place. The sentiment is held by a Tim Holtz memo pin, which I poked into the blue doily, but it’s held in place with a little glue.

I fussy cut the birds and butterfly out, but wanted them to have an ‘old’ look, so very loosely coloured them using some water colours, and by holding a water brush to add the colour – but holding the brush at the very end, so that I didn’t apply much pressure, and also couldn’t make them look too ‘painted’. I needed them to look old, so that ‘not quite coloured’ look did the job.

Secrets in their Wings Final — taken with the flash on, but it’s kind of whited it out a little.

And basically …. that was all there was to it! 🙂

I’m sorry about the blurry photos. They are the best of around 12 pictures which were all rubbish. [sigh] … I’ll blame it on my staff. Yes! It was the Butlers fault! lol.

If there’s anything I’ve missed or that you want more information on, please just ask away in a comment, and I promise to answer.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee with me. I love seeing you … but you know that so I won’t go on. 😀

I wish you a fun Monday. May the birds sing, the sun shine, and … till we meet again, may your God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Have a truly blessed day!

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A new blue bonnet for Christmas! (on a vintage style handmade Christmas Card)

I still have the Christmas Crafting Box out next to me on the floor where I’m sitting at my desk… and since I was still in the ‘Christmas’ frame of mind from the last card I made, I began this card (above) on Friday afternoon, . . . but then Little Cobs (Grandson) came on Saturday, and, just like any fabulous grandchild does, he shares with me all the germs he’s caught during the week at school (he’s 5), and this week he shared the germs which gave him an ear infection – however they changed somewhere in the passing and gave me a temperature and made me feel like a wilted weed! I woke up at 3am gasping for breath and absolutely drenched. I have no idea what my temperature was but I’m pretty sure someone could have fried an egg on me had they tried!

Thankfully things are getting back to normal again, but I really think we should build a sheep dip at the front door so that we can dip him in antiseptic before he crosses the threshold in an attempt to remove all the germs he’s bringing with him!

Anyhoo … I’m supposed to be talking about this card so I’ll get on with it.

Made on a 7″x7″ white card, using some Red Corrugated card as a layer to bring the Christmas colour into the card.

I bought a pack of decorative papers last year, with Christmas images on them and hadn’t used them. There were 2 of each design in the pack. And it was this little girl, in her new blue bonnet which was so sweet that I chose her to theme this card around. I used both sheets of this design, layering one sheet onto the Christmas Red corrugated card, and then cutting into the second sheet in order to pick out some details and over-lay them using foam tabs, so giving depth to the card.

The large snowflakes are wooden ones, which I painted white, and while the paint was dry I gently sprinkled a little fine glitter over them so that they would have that more ‘frosty’ look. The Red/pink four petal flowers around the left side of the card, I actually picked up in a charity shop about a year ago. It looked as if someone was clearing some of their stash from their craft room and I found these flowers. Didn’t know what I was going to do with them, but at 75p for a large cellophane bag full of them, I decided to buy them because I knew I’d use them at some point. And … look! I am!

I added the blue ‘crystal’ centres to the flowers, in a nod to the colour of the bonnet which the little girl is wearing. I wanted a ‘conversation’ to be going on between the colours.

The little wooden frame is one from a selection by Docrafts, and the sequins are from my stash. To finish the card off, I added the little silver metal Christmas Stocking Charm (right top corner) with a Christmas Red Ribbon tied to it and … that, as they say, is all there was to it.

If I’ve missed anything or you want to know about something, please just ask away in a comment. I promise I’ll reply.

Well Halloween came and went, and I was rather happy when the day had drawn to a close, because we had out busiest Halloween night, EVER, and I only had three bags of sweets left, and had begun to panic.

I went through my whole supply of cellophane C5 size bags and had none left! I’d begun by making about 12 cellophane bags, each filled with either a sucking lolly or a (drumstick) chewy lolly, plus a pack of parma violets; a Roses chocolate; a humbug; a chocolate eclair; 2 chocolate Ghost; 2 chocolate eyeballs; and two chocolate coins. We thought, judging on previous years, that those 12 bags filled with assorted sweets would very likely be enough. Oh how wrong were we!

After just ten minutes I had to throw more bags together as fast as I could, but before I’d managed to finish the doorbell wrang again and I had to leave Mr. Cobs to seal the bags up, while I kept the little ones and their mummies and daddies talking at the door (admiring their costumes and having a conversation about how wonderful the Princess’s were, and how scary the ghosts and ghouls were), while Mr.Cobs quickly sealed the bags and scrambled out to the door to bring me more supplies. And that happened again, and again.

Sometimes there was just one little darling with a daddy or mummy, and sometimes there were five. On one visit, there were five little ones, three girls and two boys, and as I was talking to the little ghostly bride she was doing a familiar jiggle. I bent over and whispered in a stage whisper (so that mummy could hear what I was saying) … “Oh Beautiful Ghostly Bride … do you by any chance need a wee?”. “No, no I don’t.” …. “You don’t? Are you sure poppet?” … “Yes I’m sure….. Uhm . . . Actually …. I do!“ The jiggle had got ever-so more jiggly. Mummy stepped forward and said … “Oh dear, I think she does, yes”. So … not only did I have ghosts and ghouls at the front door on Halloween …. I even had a spook in my bathroom! And I noticed that the jiggle had gone by the time she collected her bag of sweets from me on the way out of the front door. lol. Bless her heart.

They were all so, so lovely and so very sweet. I couldn’t pick a favourite out of them all if I tried to. I just wanted to scoop them all up and squidge them … which I think was because I was missing Little Cobs – who was still suffering with his virus so sadly couldn’t go out Trick or Treating. Ah well … there’s always next year.

Aww anyhoo … HAPPY WEDNESDAY all! May your day bring with it some smiles, and a sense of peace with it. May any mail you receive from the postman/lady be of the happy type, and may you find a parking space, sat waiting just for you, if you happen to go out in your car today.