Mess, Muddle and Fun

A Pocket Full of Love

2012-02-12T08:00:00.000Z

Today is the faith verse, Jesus is Love blog hop, based at Kari's Purplefuntastick Creations. (Kari has a great blog and organised this hop, but is unable to take part herself as she is currently without a computer.) Here is what Kari says in introduction:

Today we are sharing Jesus' Love for us to remind you all who loved us first in the world and gave his life for us to show how much. Thanks for coming and have fun enjoying our stories and creations as we do our own interpretation of his love for us. John 3:16 states that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son... Praise our Lord for loving us that he shed his blood for us to live a holy and blessed life...There is a prize for commenting on each blog with the prize to be announced; so don't forget to give bloggy love and be inspired and have fun along the way.

If you are following the hop you should have come from: Shawnee at Blessed on the Bright Side

My project is all about God's love for us, and how the scripture abounds in references to this. I have made a pocket full of love. The pocket is recycled from an old pair of jeans and mounted onto a small canvass (so it can easily be hung and to add dimension). The edges of the canvass were stained blue with distress stain. I decorated the pocket with lace, ribbon, and a button, all sew together with a heart cut from a piece of handmade felt. I then added the name, Jesus, stamped onto a piece of text covered material. This is as a reminder of the source of love.

The pocket is then filled with five tags, each one has been covered with text paper and inked and then a Scripture verse added, a different one on each tag. Two tags have background stamping, and are finished with brads and fibres; three have a felt ball and a piece of clear embossed (and slightly coloured) grunge-board shape.

My own testimony is that once, despite having known these scriptures off by heart since childhood, I truly believed I was unlovable. Then Jesus got hold of my life, opened my eyes and my heart and showed me what it really meant to say that God loved me. That transformed my whole life. I now live forgiven, accepted, loved and equipped.

Recently my thoughts have been turning to practical issues of authenticity. Of how easy it is to say we believe something, but never do anything about it. Of how we can say we love someone, but do nothing to help them or to build relationship with them. God's love for us is immensely practical and full of relationship. Not only did He send Jesus, but He continues to answer prayer, equip us for the work He has for us, bless us, help us draw near to Him. Our faith and love also needs to be practised, to be worked out, to be real rather than just intellectual thoughts. As a symbol of that I want to do a giveaway with this post. so here are the details.

I will send this project, a pocket full of love, to someone who comments and says they would like to be included in the draw, anywhere in the world. If you follow my blog, great, if you don't then it doesn't matter. If you normally chat away to me, great, if you normally read and remain silent, also great. If you are here just for the blog hop, or if you visit my blog for other link ups (like woyww) or if you just drop by...any of these are fine. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS COMMENT ON THIS POST AND SAY YOU'D LIKE TO BE INCLUDED IN THE DRAW. If you want to tell people or you want to follow me and don't already then of course you are welcome, but it is not required. I'll do the draw on Sunday 19th Feb, a week's time.

To continue with the blog hop, then carry on to Carol at Huff and Puff Scrapping

I'm off at a craft fair all day today, but will be back this evening to follow through the hop myself. Hope you all have a great day.

WOYWW - Auxiliary desk.

2012-02-08T09:54:00.001Z

My desk isn't that different to last week, so I thought today I'd add in a picture of what has become my auxiliary desk. These are my paper drawers, and used to be under my desk (so never had more than my stencil file on top). However I was finding that wasn't working as it was affecting how I sit at the desk and making me ache a bit too much. So I pulled them out to see if it made a difference - and yup, it did.

However I haven't actually found anywhere else sensible to put them yet, so at the moment they are set next to the dining table and that empty top is now getting used as an auxiliary desk, and jolly useful it is as well.

So, contents, well, there is still my stencil file and you can just see a deep pink corner of it. Then there is my messy tray which I use when spraying or doing something that I think needs to be on a tray (no idea how I decide that, it just ...is) On top of the tray are various bits of paper with lists and odd splats of paint, some poly pockets ready to put things in my 2012 folder, which I really must post about soon. Then there is my clipboard with the list of DT projects for Kari on it. On top of that is a starter set of friendly plastic, a gift from two wonderful friends which I am looking forward to trying out and playing with. Towards the back are some card blanks and poly covers for them, some journalling spots, a ball of wool yarn and my phone. Right at the front is a box of puffin postcards waiting for me to take some out for framing; my gorgeous silk sari yarn which I just love and is getting used in all sorts of things, and my spinning. I am trying to spin everyday and whilst that is not quite happening while I've been ill, it is coming on and I am enjoying learning to spin.

To be honest I don't know how I will manage without my auxiliary desk when I do find somewhere sensible for it, and I really need to because at the end of next week my mum is coming to help me decorate this room which really is meant to be a dining room and not my studio!

To see what everyone else in the world has on their desks (google have NOTHING on the spying capabilities of woyww'ers!) visit the Chief, J (not M!) at The Stamping Ground.

Photographing from my heart...

2012-02-04T15:56:00.000Z

There is a series of link ups on Kat Sloma's blog this year called The Photo Heart Connection, encouraging us to share images we have taken each month that connect with our heart and soul. When I reviewed the photographs I had taken in January I found several to consider:

This was one of the photos taken for my night time architecture project and there is a heart connection here simply because of the sheer enjoyment and inspiration I found in doing the project. Every time I went and took the photographs I was thinking of more things I wanted to try and I finished the project not only happy with the 12 photos I was including but energised and full of ideas of things I still wanted to try and my mind sparking with creative possibilities. Looking back at the photo after a month I can still feel that same energy from the car light trails and the colours and the ...well you all know the feeling I mean of wanting to do more.

But that didn't totally satisfy me as heart connection...

So I looked at this, a photograph taken looking out into the bay from Hest Bank foreshore. This is one of my favourite places to look at the bay and every time I am taken with the layers and stripes so visible in nature. This was taken on an overcast day, so the distant hills on the other side were not visible, but even so the different textures, rock, mud, sand, wood, water and sky can still make my heart swell and my hands itch to create. But there is a connection deeper than inspiration, standing here on the edge of the bay makes me feel alive.

But somehow that didn't quite make it for me either...

Ah, now this was a beautiful day, crisp, cold and clear. The reflections were all we could wish for, and with all the things that lift my heart. Colour, water, hills, and a fantastic blustery walk. I had several photographs that picked up these gorgeous reflections, and choosing between them was hard, I picked out this one in the end because while it may not be quite as well composed as the others, the colours were just right and when I looked at this one I felt something. Looking at it brought back the feeling of the cold wind on my cheeks, the smiles on our faces as we walked and chatted briskly. It also brings bittersweet feelings as my memory of that day is also of how my daughter had several bad absences during that walk and how she has not been really well since, with her epilepsy remaining badly controlled. A heart connection maybe, good and bad, but still not one that grabbed me and refused to let go.

Which led me to this last photo. It was one I took on my camera phone, with no room around me to change position or to frame the shot, no way to clear the background. Technically one that was never going to be a good photo. However this is the photo that still provokes happy tears. A smile on the face of someone who often doesn't smile. A happy moment in the midst of a difficult year captured. For those who don't know, as well as the epilepsy my daughter also has a variety of developmental issues, Autism, Dyspraxia, Learning difficulties. All these are hidden, people who don't know her can't see these by looking. For her birthday she has long wanted to go to the build a bear workshop and we took her the weekend before. The place was full of 3-8 year old girls, the staff were busy and yet none of the staff we dealt with (and you have to go to various different places as you build your bear) blinked an eye, they gave her the full works with no explanation of why she was twice the age of most of the girls there and they showed no impatience with her indecision or clumsiness. They really were fantastic and she had a brilliant time making her bear and was came away happy. I do know adults often go to these places, but there were none there for themselves that Saturday afternoon - but that didn't matter one bit. This is the photograph this month that I feel the deepest heart connection with. It isn't really to do with the photo, but to do with what it captures, a moment of pure happiness.

A Valentine's DT post.

2012-02-02T09:03:00.000Z

Our first assignment as Kari's Purplies was to make a Valentine project using products from a sponsor, FarFarHill. I've not come across this blog and shop before, but I love her vintage images and was spoilt for choice over what to use. There are loads of freebies as well as some to buy, so get over there and have a look, and thanks to FarFarHill for sponsoring this and allowing us to use these images and digi papers.

I downloaded several things to play with (and going back for the link have just found some wonderful new valentines stuff she has uploaded since I visited as well) but when I looked at these papers I saw hearts cut from them and grouped together, so went with that as an initial idea. Knowing me though I didn't end up with my initial ideas, I ended up with this:

I had decided to go hybrid and print out the digi images I wanted to use, so first of all I resized, making the papers each a little bigger than my heart die shape and other images resized in line with that. Then I printed them onto white card and was very pleased with how well they printed.
I mounted the 6 hearts onto black card and then the card onto another image that is actually a magazine cover with the mounted hearts in place of the picture. Then I looked at the die cut negatives and 'saw' the card - so I made that, using a spare negative to make a gift tag, finished with some fibres and ribbons. The card is very simple, three negatives mounted on black, added buttons and then put all onto a card blank.

I then went back to the original hearts to decide what to actually do with them! :D Looking down my eye was caught by the word 'Journal' in the magazine title and I decided to make them into a Journal. I used thick watercolour paper so that it can be an art journal. I then took the opportunity to add further images inside, and added ink and distress stain to many page to help get over 'blank page' fear.

One of the things I was really pleased with was how little waste there was. Not only was I able to use the die cut negatives, which is always a bonus, but by using a hybrid method and printing out the images I wanted, I had just the right amount.

To see the creations of the rest of the team, visit Kari at PurpleFuntastick Creations and prepare to swoon like a Victorian lady with vintage love.

WOYWW - Fair Prep once again

2012-02-01T22:07:00.001Z

I've booked 4 craft fairs so far this year, and the first of these is a week on Sunday, so I decided I had better got a move on with making some new 'little goodies' for it. This was taken in the middle of making some small balls and beads to assemble in various things and after re-felting some flowers I had cut out and then decided were not felted enough. They are all now drying nicely on a teatowel on top of my radiator.

In the background are bags with ear-rings, brooches, phone charms, bag charms and key-rings and bookmarks all waiting for me to make them up. I'm feeling all inspired with lots of things just now...ideas for felt, collage, cards, photography, all flowing in my mind. I need to get some of it down in a journal or something so it is there to refer to because I won't be able to do it all at once and I keep getting ideas and seeing things and wanting to try things and.....well it goes on! :D

Last night in our photography class we were playing with light and movement and I managed to get a photo of my friend with 2 heads! And yes, that was the intention! Also got interesting light trails.

Will be back later in the week I think, but if you want to see more workdesks and a glimpse into what people are working on then pop over to Julia at the Stamping Ground and have a gander.

Fabric ATC's.

2012-01-31T15:51:00.000Z

Each month I read the My Mojo Monthly over at La-De-Dah, Sarah's blog and each month I feel inspired and creative and full of ideas after reading it. I don't tend to get around to doing a specific post or project for it often though, and often I'd be hard to put to say exactly how each post has inspired a specific thing. What I read on various blogs and in books tends to all go into the melting pot of my mind and what comes out is a mish mash of everything.

This month's MMM was about ATC's and I love making these. I've signed up for a year long monthly swap where we make a card for each month. So far we have done December and January and these were mine:

I have done two for each month, one to swap and one to keep. The December challenge was to use masks and the Jan to use sparkle. (Yes, the edges are all sparkly).

As part of MMM Sarah suggested that we use something unusual for our ATC's. I loved the idea of the chunky ones she made, but although I found some spare wood, I never got around to cutting it to size. I did however make a first for me, a pair of fabric ATCs. I used Hessian for the background and ironed a single sided bondaweb type stuff onto the back to give them some rigidity and stop them from fraying. I sewed around the edge, added felt hearts and buttons (my own felt of course) and then finished off by sewing on a small piece of cream cotton onto which I had stamped a word.

I have lots of other ideas for ATCs now floating round my head as well, I wonder how many of them will ever make it into life!

If you pop over to Sarah's blog you will find some beautiful ATC's on there and in the links, and tons of inspiration.

Erm - a title yes!

2012-01-26T16:59:00.002Z

Things have been a bit quiet around here. I've missed two WOYWW and not posted in almost 10 days. I've not been well and in-between not being well and not being well I was away for the weekend (and glad to be well enough to be!). There are several projects I want to post about when I get around to it, but as I am still rather (no, TMI!) then they can wait.

I do want to post today though to point you all back to Kari's blog again (yup, that was my last post as well!) as she has chosen several of us who have been her guest designers to help out with a new project - one that will stretch our creativity and get us trying new things. Well you all know how much I like a challenge, esp when it involves trying out new things, so I am excited to be part of it and looking forward to our first project. And for a pretty pic to go with this post here is my introductory project, for more details pop over here and have a look.

A Sneak Peek

2012-01-17T08:30:00.001Z

I am guest designer over at my friend Kari's blog, PurpleFuntastick Creations today. This is a tiny sneak peek of my project over there.
Do go and visit Kari and see the whole project, I had great fun experimenting with it.

More Doodles

2012-01-16T16:25:00.002Z

I've done the second week of doodles unleashed over the weekend, and feel the same about it as I did last week. It isn't frame and put on the wall art, but to relax, for fun, to start creativity flowing, to use for a background then it is a great exercise. To be honest I am much more pleased with my results this week than last as well, although there is no way I could have drawn those flowers, they are the result of spraying silk ones and doodling in the gap. :D

So far I am loving this course and looking forward to watching the third video later on. It is giving me a boost start to the year and helping me get down and messy with the things I love. It is also feeding into all the thoughts I am having about what my passion is, what I love, what I want to do, where I want to go. One thing that is beginning to stand out to me is that my creative passion is not for felting or paper, but for the freedom of being creative, and this is something that we all share. Play is creative and as children we all play. We often let go of this when we become adults, but oh what an adventure there is when we discover it again.

The Reluctant Queen - book review

2012-01-14T12:19:00.001Z

The Reluctant Queen is the fictional retelling of a Biblicalfavourite, the story of Esther, a young Jewish exile who ends up as Queen ofPersia and through this saving the Jewish people from massacre. Since it is aretelling anyone familiar with the story will know the eventual outcome, andyet this does not spoil the story, but rather adds depth to it.

I was very pleased with the way the author drew out thedifferent characters, especially the King and Haman, giving credence andexplanation for their subsequent actions. The character of Haman especially iswell drawn, being sympathetic rather than an archetypal baddie. Esther herself isseen as a normal young girl, unhappy with her situation and trying to resistfalling in love. The love story is done with a light touch, and is an easyread. The character I had most problems with was the uncle, Mordecai, who seemsvery different when viewed through Esther and the communities eyes than when welook at his actions towards Esther and his deliberate provoking of Haman. Maybeif we had seen more from his own eyes rather than only from Esther and Haman’she would have been a more sympathetic character.

Overall the book was a good read, not difficult and relaxingto sink into over the holidays. It does not tally completely with the OldTestament story, but as a fictionalised account this does cover the mainpoints. There is no heavy theology or evangelisation in this book, faith issimply a background and one that Esther questions. The ending is in line withthe traditional story and with this being a love story, but there does seem tobe a very quick resolution to the issues between the King and Esther that is alittle unreal, but this is a story and stories have the happy ever after.

I received this book under the Thomas Nelson Book Sneezeprogramme. I was not required to give a good review.

Blogger Gripes

2012-01-11T22:06:00.001Z

I appear to have reached my limit for uploading photos to blogger/picassa web. That will teach me to optimise my photos before upload! I am looking to see what I can do about this but in the meantime can only illustrate my posts with pictures I've already uploaded like this one, The banner I used when I started this blog.

If anyone knows what I can do about this, all suggestions are welcome.

Edit: I have upgraded to google+ to see if I can take advantage of their free storage. Picassa web is saying:You are currently using 1002 MB (97.95%) of your 1024 MB However it looks as if Google+ might resize and do something with it...to trial that, possibly a new photo.

Hmm, well it did that didn't it!

Edit Again: However it now says: You are currently using 1011 MB (98.74%) of your 1024 MB So it hasn't changed anything.

Hmm... OK, what happens with a resized photo.

Ah, not this time it says: You are currently using 1011 MB (98.74%) of your 1024 MB So it looks as if resized photos won't count towards that limit at least.

WOYWW - Again?

2012-01-11T17:07:00.003Z

Tell me it isn't a week? How can it be Wednesday again? I couldn't believe it when I started reading blogs today to discover all the desk pictures, I am sure it is still on Friday, or Monday at the earliest!

Late taking my pics today, so not very good ones I am afraid, rather dark and blurry.

At the front of my desk are some felt hearts, buttons and bits of paper for some cards I am making this afternoon (ok, looking at the time, more likely this evening!) So far I've only worked out a few things I want to include, not where I am glueing anything.

At the back of my desk are a few Projects In Progress (PIPs). We won't discuss how many of those I have stashed away somewhere or other, but these are actively being worked on. There are the felt beads I was trailing making this morning. (Learning points: It will be easier to make them a regular size if I separate all the wool fibres first rather then try to remember roughly how much I had; It is easier to make a straightish hole on slightly bigger, damper beads than smaller drier ones).
Behind those is the background for an art journal page I had a sudden idea for this morning, and the paper I was spraying and wiping my stencils on, waste not want etc!. Right at the very back is what used to be my photography file and is now...well...I might get around to posting about that file later in the week or next Wednesday. I think it is going to be quite a regular on my desk!

To see the contents and fun on lots of other desks, visit the wonderful and hospitable Julia at The Stamping Ground.

10 on the 10th for 16.

2012-01-10T17:01:00.000Z

There was no question about what my post would be on today. Today is my daughter's 16th birthday, so how could my 10 on the 10th post be about anything else. Here, in no particular order are 10 things I love about her.

1. Her beautiful smile. It can be shyly given, but it warms my heart each and every time.
2. Her strong loyalty to those she lets close to her.
3. Her love of art.
4. Her continual willingness to keep on trying.
5. Her determination to do things her own way, which can drive me crazy at times but means she always tries and perseveres.
6. Her love of wrapping presents in many, many, many, many layers.
7. Her courage in the face of many illnesses, setbacks, difficulties and disappointments.
8. Her unwillingness to change to fit other's ideas or to 'fit in' - it is part of the ASD but also a wonderful part of her character, just being who she is.
9. Her imagination that shows in many different way, the current obsession being drawing elephants attached to hot air balloons.
10. Her love and compassion and generosity for other people, even when she doesn't quite understand, her heart is to help and love.

She is my daughter.
She is amazing.
We love her very much.

This is my 10 on the Tenth. To see other people's lists, visit Shimelle at Pretty Paper, True Stories.

Just doodling.

2012-01-08T23:16:00.001Z

I was a bit unsure about posting this picture of my recent doodling, and then thought 'why not, I'm happy and I loved doing it'.
I did this as the first week for Traci Bautista's Doodles Unleashed course at Strathmore.

It isn't great art. It isn't something to frame and put on the wall. But do you know what - It was fantastic fun!

There is spray and stencils, various layers of acrylic paint, some oil pastels, and various pens and pencils.

I cut some small watercolour paper up thinking I'd not 'waste' paper, but then looked at my stencils and paint brushes and thought - no. I want a full size sheet, so that is what I did. That is a large tea tray it is on to give an idea of size.

The big thing for me with this was the discovery of how relaxing it was and how much fun. I didn't do it all at once, but over several days, and I am seriously tempted to make something like this an ongoing project, keep a sheet ready to add to with whatever medium I have out for various things and to doodle on when I sit down and feel the need to shake my creativity awake.

This is quite restrained, I didn't end up making big moves and marks because I didn't want to hide things that were already there. I need to overcome that!

WOYWW - Jump Starting!

2012-01-04T16:25:00.002Z

Well shock horror, my desk is still sort of tidy!

So, what can you see...There is the usual, computer, books, jars of pens, scissors, tools, etc, baby wipes, coffee, biscuits and then the bit you are probably more interested in to the right of my computer...
At the back is my course file for photography, which is being brought up to date and a project worked on, all to hand in next week. On top of that is some print offs from various things I am doing this year and a couple of ATC blanks I have cut to work on. The messy bit is the 'Creative Jump Start' I was working on this morning - getting paint onto paper! I used a pile of index cards and some distress stain and spray mica paint along with a water mist, some acrylic paint, an old credit card and a roller. A great 5 min start to a morning's creating and some index cards with background ready to use in one of the journaling projects that is sat there. If you haven't already heard about the Creative Jump Start Summit this month, go and have a look. It is free and has lots of ideas about ways to jump start your creativity. I was about to clear those when I took this photo as I was ready to get even messier, starting on my Doodles Unleashed project - another free course and one that is already stretching me! I've not finished that yet as there are a lot of layers, but I may post it another day.

So, that is my desk, what is yours like today? Do come and play WOYWW at Julia's blog, The Stamping Ground.

Thankful for 2011, Pursuing 2012

2012-01-01T23:29:00.001Z

In the last couple of days I've posted reviews of craft and photos taken in 2011, so maybe now to round this off, I need to finish off with a post about the good things from 2011 and my hopes for 2012.

Last year my chosen word was THANKS and I said " I think this 'little' word will actually prove to be a bigger word than it seems as I try to cultivate a thankful spirit." I have had the word pinned above my desk all year in the form of the wall hanging I made and it has been a reminder each month to look for things to be thankful for. I hope it has changed me, it has certainly made me stop and think during the year, especially at times when things have seemed bleak as well as when things have gone better than hoped for.

2011 has seen some big things for me. On the crafting front, which is why I know most of you are here I've rather nervously taken some exciting steps. Joining in with the last One World One Heart event, along with 871 other bloggers back in February. I was so nervous about that as I felt I was a crafter, not an artist, and not really up to the standard of some of the work out there...but with some encouragement I took the plunge, and had an amazing time, visiting and being visited, and both finding new blogs to follow and finding new people who wanted to follow me. Following that I got involved in What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday and joined in other blog events that I came across in various places. These ranged from the Spring Joy swap arranged by Jamie at Lyrical Journey to Summer of Colour hosted by Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle, and the Lent and Advent Pauses hosted by the lovely Floss at Troc, Broc and Recup. I found a group of wonderful warm-hearted people on facebook who organise various faith based craft blog hops and I've enjoyed taking part in those and done some guest blog spots for those people who have been looking for guests, including my dear friend and constant encourager and provoker Jo when she wanted a guest for her new venture, Edge-walking. (I also had the joy of meeting up with Jo in the autumn and a day spent discovering so many shared passions.)

Away from the blog I attended two big craft based shows, one with my mum, hobbycrafts and stitching where we both loved looking at some beautiful mixed media work and some amazing textile art and both came away with ink dusters and various other purchases and the other was the now annual Woolfest jaunt with some fantastic friends who spent a long time 'encouraging' me to start thinking sales and business and sparking off pages and pages of ideas in my mind. After time thinking, praying, preparing, feeling sick with nerves. and generally anything but able, I opened an Etsy shop to sell my wares, felt art, cards and gifts to start with, but with plans to expand in the New Year and signed up to try doing a craft fair at the local adult college. Since I wanted business cards for all this I decided to have a facebook page for it, and this necessitated choosing a category, so given the limited options I choose artist, which was a huge step for me. The craft fair was ace and I am now actively looking for more. I didn't sell any of the larger pieces, but I did sell cards and gifts to people I didn't know and got some wonderful comments about the art work.

What else? I finished my NCFE level1 Photography and have started the level 2 and while more of a challenge and more work, I am loving having to work in all the different genre and the stretching it is giving me. I also got my first proper dslr camera a few weeks ago and am getting to grips with that. (Luckily I was already getting used to manual mode!) At church I have got involved with the toddler group. Initially that was to help with the storytelling time, where we were mainly telling stories ad lib or prepared by ourselves, then as the storytelling season passed and we moved onto just singing (numbers and ages made this the better option for the time) just helping as needed, on reception, doing messy play or just chatting. I didn't expect to be needed or as involved, but somehow it seems to be the place for me just now. (and I do love getting messy with the children, or greeting them with a smile when they are pushed in!) I also had the opportunity to get involved twice in the late night work serving tea, coffee and biscuits to the students waiting to get into the student union club (our church backs onto the front of the club!) and found that a complete blast. I had honestly expected it to be difficult and to dislike doing it, but not only was it such fun, but some many of these young people are open to talking and asking questions, and even the ones who aren't are happy to have a laugh with you. I loved it, and know that it is cos God is at work in me, because it is something I could never have done at one point.

I've also found myself surrounded by family. 18 months ago the nearest family was about an hours drive away. Last autumn my sister and her family moved here and then this summer my parents also retired here. It is great having them here, and I hope it has been a blessing for them as well as for us.

Of course 2011 hasn't all been roses. There have been some very difficult times, and I've had my anti-depressant meds increased, but in spite of all those things, God has shown me countless times that He is good and even though I've questioned that, screamed and shouted and asked 'why', God has reminded me that He is with me and just what that means. Even in the dark spots, there has been something to be thankful for.

So, 2012...here we go!
I've already said that I have ideas for other felted gifts, I also have some new techniques I want to try out with felt art and on the whole want to put aside more time for felting, for pleasure mainly, making because I want to and then selling because it is there and I love to share! Along with fibre, I also want to learn to spin. Although I have tried to deny this longing, it has been growing and there are some specific reasons for wanting to learn to spin that I may blog about separately when I start, which is likely to be the end of the month. (after a visit to a shop where I can buy a drop spindle!). I want to find more craft fairs to participate in and maybe exhibit some of my felt art. I want to take the Etsy shop further and expand the things I sell to not just felt, but more of the 'whole' me, because I can't restrict myself to one craft! I am thinking of photo postcards or greetings cards and maybe some other craft work to start with.

But life is more than art and craft. My word for the year will encompass that side of me, but it is for much more. It is a word that speaks to what I want to bring to my life this year. It isn't going to be as easy as the three words I have had before (Life, Enjoy and Thanks) but is more of a challenge to me. It is a word that speaks of chasing after the best for my life; of seeking God in everything; of doing my utmost for those things I value. It is a word that hold the possibility of movement, advancement, action, going forward, making things happen instead of just waiting and reacting. My word for 2012 is

PURSUE

Over the next week or two I will be making something to keep this word before me through the year. I will also be thinking more about what I am pursuing and how. This is a word that will challenge me to act, so I need to know what I am acting on. I already have some thoughts, but it is January 1st, so just now is time to reflect, give thanks and hope. I hope that in a years time I can share how I have run the race and pursued in all areas, faith, family, creativity and all the rest, but more than anything I know that in a year I will be able to say that God has continued in his faithfulness towards me, no matter what mistakes I have make along the way.

I hope you are blessed during 2012 and I hope you will continue to walk the journey with me, I greatly value your contributions. Do let me know what words you have chosen or what resolutions you are making or what hopes and dreams you have for 2012.

More of 2011 - Photos

2011-12-31T17:54:00.001Z

I was going to post this last night, but when I came to look at my Inspiration 2011 folder on the computer, which contains a copy of the favourite photographs I've taken this year I discovered that over the course of the year I have added 90 photos to the folder and that is way too many to blog, so I am having to be selective and that takes a little longer! Some of these I may have posted before, some were taken for the course, some not. Some where taken when I was out with a camera specifically to take photos and thinking about it, some where taken when I saw something and picked up the camera because I tend to have it with me when out and about for the day.

Oops, I come to upload and realise there are still too many...ok here we go...15 of my favourite photos from 2011. In no particular order...

That time of year again....

2011-12-30T22:17:00.000Z

End of the year so we all start looking back and forward. Earlier today I was going through my craft photos for 2011 and was really pleased with the variety of different things I've done during the year. I knew that I had tried my hand at new and different things and tried to push myself further, but hadn't really thought about how much I had done...this is just a sample of what I was working on each month.

January
My word for the year, and a felted card, the start of the years adventures in felt.

February
Some cards, which were a giveaway in OWOH and my first two canvases

March

The big thing this month was a present for my sister, and I also made this sunflower collage that I was really pleased with.

April
I made several cards in April, including this one for my mother-in-law and this celebratory canvass I made on Easter morning.

May My crafting in May saw a return to some more traditional scrapping with these two LO being my favourite of those I did that month. I also altered this thimble case for a faith blog hop and it still hangs on my wall.

June
This month saw much more felting, including these two pieces which are amongst my favourites from the year and are now framed, these cards and some more explorations and experiments in collage, this time with the help of a Caludine Helmuth class.

July
In July I made several cards, including this one, and did a few more art journal pages, some of which used the Summer of Colour as inspiration.

August
You would expect August to be a quiet month, but I managed to do more scrapbooking and felting!

September
Some of my crafting this month was inspired by my holiday in Snowdonia, with both the feltwork and the configuration box adorning my living room since then. This card was for a diamond wedding in the family.

October

I was much quieter in October for some reason, but still did some more feltwork, art journalling and made this card.

November
Last month was very much devoted to felt, with my first craft fair at the end of the month. These felted brooches and bookmarks were both for my stall, but the little ATC sized hanger was just for me and is hung as one of my Christmas decorations.

December
The big thing I did in December was the 12 Tim Holtz tags, which now hang across my dining room chimney breast and will until 12th night when they will be packed away for a year. I'm not really far enough removed from the month yet to be able to cut down what I liked to 2-4 photos, so here are lots of December creations...

I hope you've enjoyed this review and are feeling inspired to create...what did you create this year, or what do you hope to create next year?

WOYWW - not a lot

2011-12-28T21:21:00.004Z

Well for the first time in ages you can see that there is an actual desk here!

The desk was completely tidy before Christmas, but has gained a few items in the past couple of days....the lens is the long one for my new camera (which I am still getting to grips with and still very excited about) and was put there when I came in last night after taking some photos. The scarf was a Christmas present from my mother-in-law and is a lovely colour. The hotel chocolat gingerbread puddles were also a Christmas present and are highly recommended for melt in mouth deliciousness. The glues and varnish are left from my latest project for Kari at PurpleFuntastick Creations. It is my second this week and is to help motivate me to get a little more organised. Do visit Kari and say hi, she is a lovely person. The water bottle was because I was thirsty and finished it off and haven't moved it to the recycling yet.

Oh and the make up pad, is what is I use with my inks and happens to have iced spruce distress ink on it as one of my Christmas presents was the Winter 2011 seasonal set of distress inks.

Tomorrow I am in-law visiting, but after that I will probably tidy the desk again while it is possible and start some planning for the New Year.

If you want to see some other workdesks, many of which seem to feature both tidiness and Christmas presents this week then visit the wonderful Julia at The Stamping Ground.

Fear Not

2011-12-26T21:06:00.000Z

Today is the first of two guest spots this week for Kari at Purplefuntastick Creations. I chose a verse from Luke ch2 and created a new tag which I then used as a Christmas card for my daughter. Do go over and check it out and have a look around Kari's blog, she has some great features and lots of talented guest designers as well.

12 Tags - Complete.

2011-12-23T22:41:00.001Z

I've made various of the Tim Holtz tags in previous years, but this is the first year I've made them all and I am sooooo pleased with how they look all together. In the morning I am going to thread them all up and string across the chimney breast in the dining room. I posted a few earlier in the month, here, here, and here. However I never got around to posting the rest, and only finished the final one this morning.

None of these photos are very good as I am still getting used to the new camera and haven't really got the hang of taking close up shots of my work yet.

This is the tag for Day One. It wasn't the first I made as Bernice had offered to get some of the pinecone diecuts for me, so I waited for those. I made the usual alterations to fit to the things I had, using a different embossing die, word and swirl/greenery. It is one of my favourite tags though.

This next is my least favourite of all the tags. Day 6 I wasn't sure about the technique anyway, and because I didn't have the foil tape I tried to make do with tin foil glued onto card. I had to change the embossing as I didn't have the same folders (although I do now!) and painting with acrylic paints didn't work well, maybe the paint/foil mix is different.

The Day 7 tag was another of my favourites, and I loved the look of the alcohol ink on greaseproof paper with heat and distress inks as well and have already used it for something else.

Day 8 was a move towards steampunk, and again I changed mine to fit the stamps etc that I had. This was one that I was really pleased with and love the idea of a cog wreath, as well as using non Christmas stamps to make a Christmassy tag.

Day 9 went back to the traditional, and I used the lamp post die instead of a candle die. I also used quite different colours on mine, which makes it look different, but it does use the technique for the background of stamping, embossing, inking and embossing...and again I've since used the same technique to make a couple of cards.

The day 10 tag was one I had to think about a good bit as I didn't have the facets and wasn't sure how to substitute them, until I remembered I had a couple of memory glass pieces. I couldn't make these into baubles, hanging, but I decided I could mount them with a picture behind. There was a good bit of substituting on this as I used music paper instead of a music stamp and printed twill ribbon instead of the believe' on a scroll. I may have changed things around a good bit for this one, but I am pleased with the result, and made a second one for my parents' Christmas card.

Tag number 11 was a steep learning curve for me. I've never used shrink plastic before, although I did have sheet. I've also not got a melt pot and so couldn't do the dipping in utee method of shrinking it, so I die cut, coloured with alcohol ink and then shrank with a heat gun. The bauble shapes came out ok, but the vine/leaves didn't flatten back down, maybe they were a little thin to start with. I don't actually mind as they add a nice dimensional touch. I must play a bit more with shrink plastic, I was surprised at just how much it does shrink and how hard it is.

The final tag was another of my favourites. I didn't have the fractured doll, and am not sure I like them anyway, esp as Christmas decorations, so I decided to go with a die cut birdhouse and a diecut bird...both cut from grungepaper (which is another of my new favourite things!) I don't have the tissue wrap, but after reading the directions and looking at what I did have, I decided that I could try to make the flower from some very thin brown paper...and it seemed to work. I could done with a smaller staple in the middle, which may have made them easier to open up, but I liked the ruffled, tattered look I got. I did use tissue on the background, after adding music paper, I stamped text onto a single layer of a tissue and used that as one of the layers.

I am really looking forward to hanging these up, and just looking at them all together feels very Christmassy.

I don't know if I will get around to blogging tomorrow or not. I do have a story I want to post for you all, if I finish writing it, but I am not going to stress over it and if I don't, it will keep till Monday or Tuesday. If I don't manage to post tomorrow, then I wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

A Childlike Christmas. Father Christmas.

2011-12-21T16:58:00.001Z

Father Christmas, aka Santa, Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, and many others. I don't think there is any other fictional character that quite sums up Christmas.
This little fellow appeared at my house recently. He has been hiding in the bedroom cupboard all year, but came out with his skates and lights to skate on the window (along with 3 other identical ones) above the Christmas tree.

In fact there are several others that can be spotted about my house...

This Santa hangs from the living room light, every now and again having to be straightened, or bounced!

This jolly wooden one stands on top of the television, (with Rudolph at the opposite end!)

This one ought to hang on a tree, but he is stood next to my grandma's sewing machine, where he is very much at home and in good company...

I know there are arguments for and against Father Christmas. Questions about story, fact, fiction, myth and legend. Worries about commercialisation and cokealization. Concerns over belief. I don't intend to get into that here, because this is about a Childlike Christmas and as a child, I believe.
I believe.
To me, Father Christmas is part of the magic of Christmas. A reminder that this special time is about giving gifts to celebrate the gift we were given. Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus, sums up the magic of Father Christmas. that "He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist" Is there an enchanted jolly man who flies his sleigh filled with presents around the world, delivering them to children everywhere on Christmas Eve? Well Norad thinks so and even tracks him each year.
Let's suspend our cynicism and allow a little magic into our lives. Let's be generous. Let's love. Let's believe.

I believe in Father Christmas. Do you?

Part of PomPom's a Childlike Christmas. Dash away to her blog in the twinkling of an eye to see how other people are celebrating.

A 4th Pause in Advent - Journeying

2011-12-18T21:49:00.001Z

Waiting.

Longing

Preparation

Journeying

Time is moving on.

Waiting turned into longing. There was preparation and nowas we approach Christmas, there is a journey. In some senses we are continually on ajourney, the whole of life is a pilgrimage, we travel in time at a rate of 60seconds every minute but as we get closer to Christmas there are otherjourneys. We travel to shop. We journey to visit relatives. We walk or drive tochurch. We send post to distant friends that take our greetings where we cannottravel. Christmas has always been about journeys. The forced journey of Maryand Joseph to Bethlehem; the excited journey of the shepherds in response to theangels’ announcement; the worshipful journey of the Magi, following a star tobring gifts to a king; journeys with one destination – Jesus.

As I make the last of my Christmas cards, wrap somepresents, plan a family meal and refuse to get stressed over any of it, (whichtakes some determination!) I am trying to remember that my journey thisChristmas is not about being ready for a family celebration, it is about comingto worship the reason for that celebration. My journey needs to be, like thatof the Shepherds and the Magi, a journey to Jesus.

To see how other people are pausing this advent, visit the lovely Floss at Troc, Broc and Recup to find the full list in her sidebar.

I intend to post a few more times this week, for Childlike Christmas on Wednesday, maybe some pics of tags and cards as well, but I also want to write. There is something about Christmas that always make me want to write this wonderful story, so watch out sometime this week and see if I do!

Peace

2011-12-17T08:30:00.000Z

Today my post is for a blog hop hosted by Tina at Crafty and Green, here is what she says in introduction:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!!!

Thanks for joining us for our Happy Birthday Jesus Blog Hop. Today, we are worshiping the King & celebrating the TRUE REASON FOR THE SEASON! This Hop is Hosted by Tina from Crafty and Green If you've hopped along from Enjoli's great project at Mississippi Hippy Crafts then you are in the right place!! If you are just joining me from your dashboard, or reading this via email, please be sure to start at the beginning with Tina (We wouldn't want you to miss a THING!!)

Thank you for Celebrating with us Today! In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, We have to remember the one we really celebrate and love and who is the TRUE REASON FOR THE SEASON! Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

BLOG CANDY:

There is TONS of Great Candy in this Hop. We have 7 Sponsors for this hop with FANTASTIC PRIZES!!!!

1. Jen's Digi Stamps - http://www.jensdigistamps.com/ (Gift Certificate)

2. Michelle's Scrapbooking & More- http://michellescrap.com/ (Gift Certificate)

3. Heather Flaherty w/ {ippity} - http://www.iheartippity.com/ (Gift Certificate)

4. Papercrafting World - www.papercraftingworld.com (Gift Certificate)

5. Scraptastical Kreations- http://scraptasticalkreations.com/ (Gift Certificate)

6. K Andrews Designs- http://www.kandrewdesigns.com/ (Stamp Set)

7. My Family Keepsakes- http://myfamilykeepsakes.com/ (12x12 print/page)

What You Have to Do To Be in the Running for these Fabulous Prizes:

1. The Ladies have all worked hard on their Projects, Please Comment on Every Stop Along the way on Both Days. (Separate Line up December 17th & 18th)

2. Please Become a Follower of CraftyAnd Green (http://craftyandgreen.blogspot.com)

My project is a card...well sort of. I wanted to make a ...thing, I had the idea for the background, the star, the word, and putting it all together on a card seemed like the most appropriate thing to do, that way I can use it as well.

I started off with a piece of greasproof paper which I coloured with alcohol inks, silver mixative and blending solution. (idea from Tim's tags, although he of course used glassine paper.) I dried this then crumpled and inked and dried. Then I inked the top of the creases vaguely with embossing ink and sprinkled on the last of a small pot of clear embossing powder.When heated this gave a shine to various random bits of background. The greaseproof was then glued onto card. The star is a wooden sun I had, untreated, with a silver embossed grungeboard star with silver.black fibre and tinsle wrapped around it. The image is from a card I received last year (yes, I re-cycle them in craft and as gift tags). The word was die cut and then swipped with grey distress ink, but only lightly and covered with ultra thick embossing crystals and heated.

We get all flustered at Christmas, which I think rather misses the point. Christmas is about peace...about the end of striving to try and reach God ourselves, and about God reaching out to us. Christmas is about the peace of knowing we are truly and deeply loved, forgiven, understood, and cared for. Christmas is about the peace of realising that whilst we don't have answers, our God is good. We may not understand, King of heaven, a poor baby in a back street stable but our God is bigger than we can grasp, he wouldn't be God if our minds could comprehend him entirely. I am trying to take time in the fluster and fuss to be at peace and to be thankful to the Prince of Peace for everything Christmas means to me.

I am the last person on the list for today, so hop back to Tina's to check you've seen all the blogs and to bookmark her page to return to tomorrow for more wonderful projects.

A Childlike Christmas - Tree.

2011-12-14T21:07:00.004Z

We put our tree up this weekend. A family affair, the children assembled it (hayfever and real trees do not mix!) I did the lights and then handed tinsel, beads and baubles to the children one at a time, so they both got some of every type, both got some of the favourites and both had some choice. Then my husband added the angel on the top and we all admired.

I can still remember some of the tree ornaments that came out every year when I was little. A shiny purple one with silvery glitter lines; a silver one that had a multicoloured indented circular part; and a star on the top. There was a degree of ending of childhood when the last of these disappeared.

Now we have baubles we bought the first year we were married, and some added most years since. The children have their own favourites, some Winnie the Pooh ones, a wooden penguin, some snowmen and one each with their name on. They look for these eagerly, remembering them from year to year.

Now the tree is up, the lights are switched on, and esp in the evening when the only other light is from the lamps, there is a soft, colourful, glow, that makes us feel safe, warm, secure, relaxed. The changing of the lights from a harsh central one, to low lamps does that a little, but adding in the colourful tones of the Christmas tree lights helps immensely. I love to sit in the living room when it is dark and read under a lamp, every now and again looking up and seeing the different baubles on the tree.

What do you hang on your tree?

To see other people's Childlike Christmas posts visit the lovely PomPom at her Ponderings.

A Pause in Advent 3 - Preparation.

2011-12-12T20:59:00.001Z

Waiting - Longing - Preparation.

Advent Calendars, Advent candles,

Writing lists and buying cards.

Singing Carols, School events,

Where’s the tree, the lights are tangled,

Tinsel, baubles, star.

Boxes of cards must be written,

Old addresses, new addresses,

Now run out of stamps

When’s last posting, yesterday?

Join the Post Office queue.

Silent night, holynight

All is calm, all isbright,

Round yon virginmother and child,

Holy infant so tenderand mild

Sleep in heavenlypeace.

Turkeyordering, menu planning;

Read the radio times.

Christmas crafts and Christmas baking,

Buy some sweets for carollers.

Hang the holly, spray some pinecones,

Shop for gifts forever.

Church events, Nativity scenes,

See the lights, Buy the crackers

Write a letter, wrap some presents,

Now, unexpected guests!

Silent Night, Holynight

Shepherds quake at thesight,

Glories stream fromHeaven afar

Heavenly hosts singAlleluia

Christ the Saviour isborn.

Christ the saviour isborn.

Tidy, clean, buy more food.

Put petrol in the car.

Parties, drinks, even eggnog,

Scout post to deliver.

Greet our friends, visit relatives,

Remember – photographs.

Family wish lists; Stocking fillers;

Batteries of every size.

Loo roll, bin bags, cream and nuts,

Lots of last minute panic.

Silent Night, holynight

Son of God, love’spure light,

Radiant beams from thyholy face

With the dawn ofredeeming grace,

Jesus, Lord, at thybirth.

Sorry my pause is a day late this week. To see how other people are pausing, visit Floss at Troc, Boc and Recup.

WOYWW - It WAS tidy once, promise!

2011-12-07T19:28:00.001Z

Well after saying how messy my desk was last week, I did tidy it.

Honest.

Shame I didn't take a photo to prove it, because now with having made several of Tim's Tags and another tag project for the faith song blog hop, (see 2 posts previous) it is a mess again!

Still, I have had a lot of fun creating this last few days, and here is one of the tags I haven't posted yet, the day 5 tag.

As usual I've changed things a bit. I cut my transparency from some old packaging, and inked with alcohol inks as per the step by step...but I didn't have a reversed stamp so used one that didn't matter which way it went, some poinsettas. I didn't have the archival ink, so tried experimenting with several different inks, but found I got the best results by stamping with blending solution. I'd never done that before, but loved the effect.

I didn't have the regal crest die, so cut some elegant swirls on the big shot and used them, along with small clusters of tiny pearl coloured beads. I tried the look of a white ribbon, but preferred the dark green and I added some jute string to the ribbon at the top to soften it a little.

This second one is the day 3 tag. Again I had to change it up a bit due to not having all the things used in the original, and I still feel it is missing somehting. I think the addition of something at the bottom, maybe that picks up the red of the snowflakes on the top right...even just a merry Christmas or something. It is currently sat on the table waiting for inspiration to strike.

Oh, and following on from last week...The book Art Saves will be winging it's way to Fiona for her to read and pass on.

If you want to see lots of other busy desks, visit Julia at The Stamping Ground, you could even link yours up as well.

A Childlike Christmas - Storytelling

2011-12-07T17:30:00.001Z

I think most of you know that storytelling is something close to my heart, and stories have entranced me since childhood. I can remember devouring books, making wish lists that consisted solely of books and being told I must add at least one other thing, and even now stories I read when very young come back to me in odd flashes. One Christmas one I remember well was from a Twinkle Annual, (And who remembers Twinkle, the comic for little girls, with Little Nurse Nancy!) and was about how Father Christmas had a magic key so he could get into houses with no chimney...maybe I read it at the same time we got rid of the coal fire, I don't know. I remember when I was older getting Blue Peter Annuals and always making the first page I turned to the Booster and Bleep story that featured in several.

As a child I used to tell stories to my teddies after I was in bed, often stories that featured them, and it is no wonder really that one of our longest lasting Christmas traditions has been our Christmas books. The very first Christmas with children, when my daughter was 11 months old, I bought a copy of The Story of Christmas with illustrations by Jane Ray, it was traditional words and pictures with the most incredible richness to the illustrations and I read it to my daughter who had no understanding of why of course, that first Christmas eve. Ever since then we have read that story, and a few years later added the classic 'The night before Christmas' to our Christmas Eve bedtime story time. We also buy at least one new Christmas book each year to add to the collection. Now that they are teenagers we have everything from Spot and Barney, through the Grinch, The Smelly Sprout, and How Santa Really Works right up to Tolkein's The Father Christmas Letters, On Angel's Wings by Michael Morpurgo and some anthologies. We get them out at the beginning of advent and enjoy them for the season, reacquainting ourselves with old friends and finding new ones. There is a great joy to walk into the room and find my big strapping teenagers reading Christmas picture books and pretending not to!

What do you enjoy reading at Christmas, or do you like to sit by the fireside or bedside and tell stories?

To read more Childlike Christmas posts, pop over to PomPom's Ponderings.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

2011-12-06T21:36:00.001Z

Another Wednesday, and again I have a pile of things I want to post...Faith Songs blog hop, childlike Christmas, WOYWW and more tags...maybe I'll leave the tags for another day or include them in my WOYWW post...

This post however is for the Faith Songs Blog Hop, here is what the host, Kari from Purplefuntastic Creations has to say: Thanks for stopping by and today we are worshipping the King and the reason for the season! I am so excited I love to listen to music and Christmas songs well they get started in November after Thanksgiving...hehe....I know alot of you have your favorites you love each year at this special time...we have to remember the one we really celebrate and love and who is the true reason of the season! Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Today I will giving a prize, but my gift is for you to know HIM...so with that said please follow the rules and comment on my blog as well as on my guest designers and I will draw the winner of hop by random.org...and please give all the talented designer on my hop some love and Christmas wishes would be nice! Some have e-mail notifications you can sign up for to keep up with their happenings of their blog and we would love to have you as followers too but not required.

If you are following the hop, you will have arrived here from Dena's blog, if not and you want to start from the beginning then the full list is on Kari's blog
The grand prize for this hop is a set of lovely Christmas stamps and pear pins from Jillian Vance Designs.

The song I chose for this is my favourite Christmas Carol, Hark the Herald Angels sing....

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the Newborn King!"

I love Wesley's words, mixed with Mendelssohn's music. There is such rich poetic depth to the words. But it isn't just that which inspires me, it is the belief behind those words; the idea of God himself choosing, being pleased, to come and live with man. The thought of Jesus, adored in heaven, laying that aside and coming to earth for our benefit.

For me, that is what Christmas is about, this is why I celebrate, this is why I decorate my house, give gifts, send cards, party, sing...because God himself has given me reason to celebrate. I messed up a lot of things in my life, I thought I was unlovable, I thought I was unforgivable...but God saw things differently and because he loved me, because he loves you, Jesus was born. So that we can have that second birth, that clean slate, that reconciliation with God which Wesley spoke about. I discovered a God who not only loved me, but loved me so unconditionally that he was willing to give up the glories of heaven in order to reach out to me. I discovered that I was forgiven, loved, accepted, given purpose, equipped, given an adventurous new life, all because Christ was Born.

Hark! The herald angels sing,

"Glory to the Newborn King!"

My project is ...well...it started out as 5 tags, but changed into something where they are all fastened together to stand up. I like projects that have their own mind! The tags are covered with music and then distress stain, mica mist and water drops. The angels are one of my favourite stamps, and to reverse the image two of the tags have the image stamped on a transparency and glued on. The nativity is another stamp, embossed in silver and the star is a grungeboard star with denim and silver embossing. The final touch was the stickers for the words and some shiny thread.

To continue with the hop, visit Lynne at Her Craftiness and then onto everyone else, celebrating with some beautiful carols.

Another tag.

2011-12-05T22:15:00.001Z

I've finished 4 out of 5 tags so far...no 5 hasn't been photographed and no3 needs a little something and I haven't decided what so while I decide to leave as it is or add something, here is no4.
Tim's looked like this.

I have the snowman die that he uses, so decided to use that, and as I don't have any crackle paint, I crackled it the old fashioned way, with blue paint, crackle medium and white paint. I did that as prep, letting the different layers dry over the last day whilst I made the other tags. Common sense does occasionally raise its head. (Not only that, but while I had the big shot out I die cut several different snowmen, baubles, flourishes, words - just so I have some cut!)

For the actual tag, since I only have one distress stain, I used that and some mica mist, with a wet tag and did a couple of layers drying inbetween each one. For the stamping I didn't want to use the blue distress stain (Tim used a white) so I stamped with black stazon (love the smell!) I did try stamping a few snowflakes with distress stain on the opposite side, but it didn't come out very clear. I did do the water droplets and then instead of using an on the edge snowflake die, I cut some individual snowflakes from plastic packaging with the snowman die and tried to get a small smudge of acrylic white paint on them to help them stand out. Mine are glued on with glassy accents. (really, I think it will stick just about anything to anything.)

Tim added distress stain to the snowman and heated gunned it, and the stain went into the cracks, but when I tried it just made the white layer a bit blue, however it all helped it tone in so...hey! I loved using the netting, and luckily the piece I had was in a matching colour! I'd never thought of threading it through buttons with a wire twist, but now I know that neat trick you can bet I'll be using it...and it will be useful for a lot of my felt embellishing as well...be great to give a birdlike effect or in seascapes and so many other places. I used some black tinselly fibre on the snowman's hat and on the top of tag, to tie in with the black stamping and again, a tag I am really pleased with.

I'm not sure what I will do with all these tags...nor if I will make them all or not, I will so far is all I can say! If there are only a few I make then I will probably use them as Christmas cards, mounted onto the front on black or something similar...but looking at my finished ones together I kind of think if I do them all it would be nice to make them into a garland to hang across the wall. Only time will tell I guess. :)

A Timtag!

2011-12-05T13:02:00.001Z

Yeah, tis December and the annual Tim Holtz fest on his blog - 12 days of Christmas tags.

The fifth was posted this morning and I've been experimenting with different ways of getting a similar effect without the same ink or stamps so I don't have that ready to upload yet...however here is my take on day 2.

I didn't have the craft resist paper, so I used a music sheet to cover my tag. I did try to draw through a stencil with a candle to get a resist, but it didn't really work. I added a different colour of distress stain as I only have one colour!

With the holly since I hadn't used the craft resist, I didn't have a handy section of pattern there, so I stamped the image, added the colour with inks and brushes and then used the clear stamp to restamp the image over the top of the colour.

Instead of perfect pearls mist, I used a mica mist I have, and although I tried the splatter, I'm not sure I got it...still it added a nice sheen and some droplets to the tag.

Instead of the reindeer cut from sticky back canvass I used a bauble die cut and covered it with Hessian. I added the décor trim for it, which I heat embossed first, and whilst doing so decided to heat emboss a little red where the holly berries would be as well.

The trim at the bottom is a decorative chipboard edge, covered with a few coats of the same distress stain and tiny brads, and then the tie is ribbon with the same distress stain and some more hessian.

I am really pleased with how this has turned out, and having used the distress stain on a few of these (yes, I have another 2 finished and will upload them later) I am now considering a few more colours as I can see how useful they are.

If you want to see what the original looked like it can be seen here.

A Pause in Advent 2 - Longing

2011-12-04T22:52:00.001Z

This post is up very late in the day because I am still writing it. I knew I wanted to post on the subject of longing. However as I thought about it, I realised how often our longing for God, can be lost in the weeds of all the other things around us. This happens all year round, but in Advent, as we think about the longing for Christ's birth, the longing for His return, somehow it intensifies. At times I feel torn in two, I long for more of God....but I just want to watch this TV special or make this decoration or buy this present....

My prayer is 'Lord I want to know you more deeply, increase my thirst for you until I cannot resist.'

I've been trying all day to write this into a poem, to capture the longing I have to go "deeper in and higher up" as Lewis would put it, to portray the way I am so easily distracted and my prayer for the longing to intensify.

And I can't find the words.

Maybe because I am still distracted, the longing is not yet so intense I cannot resist. Maybe it is because before I can write this from the heart I need to act upon it more, live it more.

This is honest. I can't be anything else. The more I know of God, the more I see, the more I want. I mess up, get distracted, make mistakes...but I worship a God who knows me, loves me, forgives me and continues to call me.

May He continue to call me to Him.

This was my pause in advent this week, to read the advent journey of other people, visit Floss at Troc, Broc and Recup.

A Walk through town

2011-12-03T22:01:00.001Z

I went for a walk in the town centre this afternoon, and took my camera with me. When I arrived it was dry and the market was busy, people were stopping to look at things and there was a little bit of a buzz beginning. Then the skies darkened and the heavens opened and the whole atmosphere changed. Suddenly people were busy, head down and getting on with whatever they had come into town for. No one was looking around and certainly no one was stopping to smile and browse. In the time it took for me to walk around a corner everything changed.

Queueing for hot baked potatoes on a cold day.

He's making a list - something slightly sinister about Father Christmas watching the shoppers whilst making his naughty and nice list!

The shape of the bound trees next to the people, the way the Gola bag stands out...

Curtain of lights, with it just dark enough for them to stand out.

Back round the corner to the market, and now in the rain, people are hurring.

A wreath laid on the floor for sale, gets some welcome water, water and light adding sheen to the leaves and the stones.

Looking down another street. the rain isn't as hard now, but it has still broken the atmosphere, how long till the next downpour.

Not very long, there was another influx of rain in the minute it took me to take that photo and cross the street to this alleyway. Let's get on and get done and out of the rain. (I tried this in black and white, but it lost something and the heavily desaturated colour seemed much better.)

However, even in the rain there is beauty to be found. These three trees, with lights sparkling in the rain are the same trees in the photo above!

A Childlike Christmas - Excitement

2011-11-30T17:25:00.001Z

Ah, my third post today and teatime seemed like the right time of day, when the lights are low, the family are around and busy, and the air is full of enticing smells. I'm joining in with PomPom's A Childlike Christmas, do follow the link and have a look, there are some wonderfully reminiscent posts.

The first thing I think of when I think of a childlike Christmas is the sense of excitement that builds through the advent period. As a child I loved the tummy tingling, glitter spreading, sleep disturbing, carol singing, tinsel hanging, postman watching, gift making, card writing, excitement growing as the day came closer and closer. Each activity with its own fun, its own meaning and yet all adding to one larger sense of magical mystery.

Maybe that is why I love advent calenders. The way they build excitement, counting down the days until the celebration, and each one holding a magic of its own. When I was little I had the traditional cardboard calender with 24 little doors, each one opening to reveal a picture behind it, often but not always associated with the Christmas story so you ended up with Shepherds and Angles put alongside Snowmen and Christmas Baubles, all in one glorious mix. Many also often had a 25th window, or a larger one on 24th that showed a crib scene. When my children, now at the grand ages of 14 tomorrow and 16 in Jan were very little, I think 3 and 1, my mum made each of them these calenders with little pockets. Each year since I have filled the pockets up with little trifles to be opened each night at bedtime. Now they are older then finding small items they appreciate is harder and many end up being edible (and a single bag of chocolate coins goes a long way!) but when they were little crayons, plastic animals, craft items and the like often found their way in. I have several little items stored away to fill these tonight, ready to be hung up tomorrow. I love the simple childlike glee in the growing excitement.

Do you have an advent calender?

My desk doesn't get any better - WOYWW

2011-11-30T14:43:00.001Z

My workdesk doesn't improve....

Yes, after the craft fair on Saturday I was going to tidy and then rest and take care of some of my own projects.

Hmm...

Well I rested. Then I spent time shopping because the cupboards were bare, washing, taking photos and writing up my macro project, doing the project for the faith verse blog hop (posted in the previous post) and generally sorting out other urgent stuff and my poor desk is still in the same state it has been in for a while, with things piling up everywhere. I need to make a birthday card for my penguin fanatic, computer geeky, teenage son whose birthday is tomorrow so I must go and clear some space NOW!

As part of the space clearing, I received a copy of this book, Art Saves from Bernice last month and having spent the month reading and enjoying it and being inspired, it is time for me to pass it on to another blogger, so if you would like to read it (highly recommended) then pass it on then just say in the comments and let me know where you blog and I will do a random draw at the end of the week. (Friday night.). This is part of Pass the Book hosted at From High in the Sky

If you want to see lots of other desks from all over the world, and all of them tidier than mine, visit Julia, the wonderful workdesk collector at The Stamping Ground.

Immanuel

2011-11-30T09:54:00.001Z

I have a lot I want to post today, and will be posting, I think, 3 separate posts. It appears everything I am involved with thinks today is a good day! :D IT is a good day as well.

This first post is for the Faith Verse blog hop, hosted by Kari at Purplefuntastick Creations, here is what she says about it...

Hello Friends!

Welcome to my blog! Today we are here to give God the glory for what is the real reason of the season with our favorite verse for Christmas that means so much to us...please read and enjoy the creations these wonderful ladies did on their blog. Now lets get this party started!

If you came from April's blog at Curls and Grins then you are in the right place if you happened upon my blog then start at Kari's at PurpleFuntastick Creations...don't want you missing a thing!

We have a prize to give away so you must comment on every blog along the way...easy peasy! :)

Choosing my verse was difficult, there are so many wonderful scriptures that speak about who Jesus is and why he came, and about the whole reason for the Christmas celebration, but I thought about what it has meant for me throughout this last year, and the name of Jesus that we closely associate with Christmas, Immanuel, was at the forefront of my mind. I've written a lot this year for various blog hops about how much it means that I have the promise the God is with me wherever I am and this single name sums it up.

My chosen verse is Matthew1:21 which says "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel— which means, God with us."

I have made a small decorative hanging, the main part is ATC size (2.5"x3.5"). It has a back of green mountboard, on which I have mounted a piece of handmade felt, sewn around with blanket stitch and with buttons added. The buttons are meant to be reminiscent of buildings, with a starry sky. The word Immanuel is then hanging beneath, also on green mountboard.

I celebrate how Christmas means that I can know the presence of God. God took the initiative and reached out to us through Jesus, inviting us into relationship with Him. Because of that baby, that manger, that cross, I know that my God is with me.

I think I am the last person on the hop, so why not head back to Kari's blog and check you have visited everyone.

A Pause In Advent One - Waiting

2011-11-27T18:43:00.001Z

I am joining in with Floss and her friends at Troc, Boc and Recup for A Pause in Advent. A time each Sunday to stop and reflect on the season of advent. Each of us will have our own unique reflections, from prayerful to celebratory, from pondering to descriptions of traditions. Do visit Floss and the other participants to see how each of us are pausing.
For this first Sunday I wanted poetry, and being me couldn't go for simple, for an acrostic or a haiku, oh no, I had to combine the two (or very nearly, I was defeated in the last line!) This was the reason this post is up so late in the day.

Watchful Awareness
Increasing Thirst Inspires
Nearing (to) God

Adult College Craft Fair

2011-11-26T22:15:00.001Z

Just a quick post. I've not posted much this last week or two because I've been busy getting ready for the craft fair at the adult college. It was the first time I've done anything like that and I was very nervous and felt very under-prepared.

I was really pleased to arrive to set up and find the table I'd been allocated was by the door to one of the rooms, it made me very easy to find and meant everyone coming into that room walked past me. The craft fair was spread over two floors and several rooms, but this was one of the bigger rooms. The stall behind me (empty in the photo) was taken by an artist with some beautiful large oils that she had then used for prints and notebooks and various other things, and diagonally opposite me was someone who works in glass making jewellery, coasters, home decor etc. There was another painter in the room, a mixed media artist, two sewing stalls, both very different and another felter, who does very different things to me, so a really good mix in that room. It was good to meet other artists and crafts people and to talk to them as well.

I sold a a good number of cards, bookmarks, broaches and hairbands, all the little gifty things as well as some of the tags. The bowl of googly eyed robins went down very well, and attracted attention as well and I sold out of them at 99p each. I even got some commissions for broaches and hair bands in specific colours and shapes.

I didn't sell any of the art pieces, although I got some wonderful comments on them all, with lots of people wanting to touch them, ask how they were made, how difficult they were etc, and it was the art pieces that got the best comments from the other artists and crafters there was well, which was very encouraging. Maybe one day I will even sell one! :D

All in all it was a good day, lots of friends took the time to come and see me, and yet strangers were also buying from me and saying lovely things as well. I've learned a lot, next time I will price all the little items with notes by them instead of on one list for instance, but now I've done one, there will be a next time if I can find the opportunities!

And maybe in this next week the blog will get back to usual and be updated with lots of the other crafty ideas that are floating in my head.

10 recent things I am thankful for...

2011-11-10T19:10:00.001Z

Ten on the Tenth this month, and in keeping with my one little word for the year, I am listing ten things I am thankful for. Since this last month or so has been rather tough, I am also making them all things I have been thankful for in recent weeks.

1. God reminding me that HE is with me, and what that really means.

2. Meeting Jo in real life for the first time and for her wonderful encouragement both before and since then.

3. Coming home from the firework display with a good photo and several passable ones.

4. Being surrounded by friends who genuinely care for me and show it in many different ways, especially Sarah and Chris, Sian, Myette, Lynn, and Dawn.

5. My mum and dad. Having them live nearby now is wonderful in so many ways.

6.The autumnal treat of treacle toffee. Such comfort food.

7. Pardshaw. For those of you who know it, that is all needs be said. For those who don't...another place; space to be; age, calm and beauty; open people.

8. The encouragement of 'likes' on Etsy from people who are not close friends (and therefore biased!)

9. A freshly decorated living room that looks far better than any other room in the house, along with a mother chomping at the bit for me to let her loose on the dining room.

10. Free kindle books and a free kindle app for my phone. I have read so much relaxing trash recently and it has been good!

Visit Shimelle at Pretty Paper, True Stories to see lists from lots of different people, not just about thanks, but about all kinds of things (including one of someone's top ten Strictly moments)

WOYWW? Well not space...

2011-11-09T17:14:00.000Z

What is on my workdesk this Wednesday? Well not space that is for sure! I am now working hard to get ready for the craft show, and making cards and broaches and other things and squashing things onto my desk as I can! The funky flower broaches are all different and half finished, and I've been making cards today. I'm making cards all different as well since I work best that way, I don't like doing assembly line cards and even if I use the same or similar elements, I tend to make them different. You may just be able to see my Studio G mini alphabet stamp set as well as two stazon ink pads. Those stamps are coming in really useful for card making. I can add whatever words I want; pause, smile, for you, love you, live life...whatever seems to fit!

The sewing machine was perched at one side, in front of the keyboard so that some cards could be stitched and then so that I could finish some stitching on the flowers. Since taking the photo above a little earlier today I have also taken this one...
Somehow I managed to break two needles, both by hitting the darning plate - on my sewing machine you cover the dogs rather than retract them - I don't know how that happened. However I was rather impressed that both times the needle stayed threaded!

To see other busy desks, and even a few tidy ones visit the Queen of Workdesks, Julia, at The Stamping Ground and find the link to workdesks around the world, you could even add in your own.

A book review... 66 Love Letters by Larry Crabb

2011-11-03T22:53:00.000Z

Not something I do very often but...I received a copy of this book to read and review under theThomas Nelson Book Sneeze review scheme. It has taken me a while to review aswhile I liked the concept for the book, I found it too much to read in a coupleof sittings. The general idea is of a conversation between God, as author andthe reader, with the reader asking questions and God showing how the differentbooks of the Bible fit together as a coherent whole.

It is not difficult to read on one level, the book isaccessible and written in an easy to read style. The chapters on each book ofthe Bible are not too long and each chapter can be read in a single setting.However I found that I wanted to read the relevant scripture alongside and thatdoes take a lot longer! (I won’t say I read it all, but I was certainlyskimming through each book, if only to check what I was reading.)

I had both positive and negative feelings about the book. Onone hand I liked how it tied the whole Bible together, bringing out a coherentpresentation of the character of God, an overall story-arc and consistentthemes occurring throughout scripture. I feel that all these are important.However I also felt that many issues were dealt with only on the surface, orthat complex issues and detailed stories were summarized too briefly. Thathowever is bound to happen in a book that wishes to be generally accessible andof a reasonable length. My main concern with the book however was in itsformat, with replies given as if God were speaking, putting words in the mouthof God, with God explaining the Bible. At times this left me feeling ratheruncomfortable, and at other times it seemed as if God either had to explainHimself or was being analysed – neither of which seem to fit a scripturalinterpretation. Would I recommend it? With a caveat that it is only oneperson’s interpretation or thoughts and no more, yes I would. It will sit wellalongside other books that look at the Bible in more detail, both devotionaland study guides. This book is neither, but provides an additional approachthat may be helpful.

Please note that whilst I received a free copy of the book, I was firstly able to choose the book I received and secondly under no obligation to give a good review, with complete freedom to say whatever I wanted.

Whom Shall I Fear

2011-10-28T18:42:00.002+01:00

Welcome to another blessed Faith Blog Hop. This month we are focusing on the theme of Fear and we pray you find hope in the midst of any fear you may be experiencing. Join us as we showcase the talent the Lord has given us through projects that reflect what we know about God. The hop begins over at My Paper Tree House so if you just happened to find this blog, make sure to go on over there first. If you came from Vicki's blog, you are in the right place! Know that we are praying for you!

Nana encouraged us this month to think about fear, about the wrong fear of man, and about how the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. I love how with this, like much else in life, a negative such as fear can be a positive when applied in the right way, as an awe of God. When it came to my project I thought about a lot of things, but couldn't settle on anything that really spoke to me. My mind kept going back to this story I wrote a few months ago called The Fearful Woman, based on the story of the woman in the gospels with an issue of blood. This is a story that comes back to me time and time again as I see how fearful she was to approach Jesus, but how recognising that he was gentle, and not only healed her, but gave her a blessing of peace. So, this story is my submitted project for this month.

The Fearful Woman

Can I?

Dare I?

Am I good enough, illenough, whatever it is enough?

Will he do it for me aswell?

Oh how much I want to. Iwant to reach out, to call his name, say “Please, see me, help me,heal me.” But how can I?

I'm afraid. I've been illfor so long and no one knows why, no one can help. I've triedeverything. People turn away now when they see me coming. WorriedI'll complain, worried I'll make them ill, worried they won't knowwhat to say to me. Worried I'll defile them. Blood does that.

Maybe they are right.Maybe I would defile them. If I have been ill this long maybe it isbecause I have done something wrong and then made the sin worse bynot even realising it. If I call out to Jesus then maybe I willdefile him, stop him from helping me, or anyone else.

Or maybe he will knowwhat sin caused my illness and speak it out in front of the crowd andshame me. Can I bear more shame?

The lepers haven'tdefiled him. The demon possessed haven't stopped him healing.

Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.

I know he is here. I canhear the crowds shouting.

I want to shout to him. Iknow he can help me. Even whispering his name makes me feel stronger.I'm trembling because I know I need to be in that crowd, reaching outto him.

But what if...

Do I dare?

Maybe I don't need tostop him. Maybe all I need to do is reach out, touch his cloak. I'veheard his words have healed some, touching even the edge of hisclothing might be enough. It won't trouble him, in this crowd hewon't notice me and I will be well.

I can't ask for more. Ilong to look at his face, to speak with him, but I am too scared.Just reaching out in the crowd and touching his clothes will heal meand there I must be satisfied.

But if only …

Jesus.

******

A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constantbleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and overthe years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she hadgotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard aboutJesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched hisrobe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, Iwill be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she couldfeel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

*******

He is stopping. He knows.What have I done? His followers are laughing, saying everyone hastouched him, but he is looking for me. He knows.

I can't stop crying. I'mfalling to my knees. It is too late to worry about what people maythink, about what he might say. I've done it.

“My Lord...Jesus...Ijust needed...just your cloak...”

I dare not look up.

And then I can't help butdo so because he is lifting me to my feet and tilting my face to lookat me.

Through my tears I seehis eyes seek out mine, and a gentle smile cross his face.

“My daughter, yourfaith has healed you. Go in peace. Be free from your suffering.”

Peace. Freedom.

He knew.

He cared.

He stopped for me.

I am well. I can laugh. Iam not afraid.

Because of Jesus. This iswhat he has done for me.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the story. For your next stop you have to hop on over to Zeni's blog.

Love in Christ,

Carolyn

Seaweed Experimental Felt

2011-10-27T09:30:00.000+01:00

I made a piece of felt yesterday. That will come as no surprise to most of you as I've been doing a lot of it in recent months. I am very pleased with how it has turned out though and quite excited about both what I can do with it, and what I can do with the technique.

Those of you who read here regularly may remember my attempts at felted weaving as part of Summer of Colour brown week. I wasn't at all happy with my results, but was still intrigued by 'holey' felt, so when I read in several books about using felt like this as a basis for a scarf I decided to have another go. I looked at various different techniques, and in the end decided to use bubble wrap and a rolling pin, instead of my normal bamboo blind. After laying out the general network, I added some silk in various colours and thicknesses, along with some mixed fibre (merino, bamboo and soybean). Then the usual rubbing, rolling, rinsing, throwing, along with making sure the holes stayed where I wanted them and finally dried overnight on the radiator.

When I came to design this piece I was thinking of seaweed. Hence the choice of colours and the texture of the additional fibres. I love the way the felt edges and ends add to the floating effect. I am not sure how/if I will mount or hang this, I'd quite like to include some of my beach-combing findings with it in some way. I photographed it on a canvass that was waiting for another piece, and is slightly too small for this. I am quite excited at the thought of all the possibilities though, and loving the idea of mixing it with real findings.

The idea behind experimenting with this again is because this is one of the many techniques recommended for scarves and I am eager to make some scarves. Having got this to work so I am pleased with it I have learned a few things to remember for when I translate it into a scarf. For seaweed I didn't want all the rows to be equal, nature isn't like that, but for a scarf they will need to be much more equal. The various scarves like this I saw had either all the ends turned in during rubbing, or every other one turned in. I think this would be good as well as there was a tendency for the ends to catch each other. For this piece that wasn't a problem, but again won't work as well on a scarf. I kept the felting on this soft, partly for the floaty effect, but also to see how it would go making a soft piece to be wearable (this isn't big enough, it was just an experiment). Whilst this could be worn, I think I would like it a little more felted to be sure it will stand up to harder wear, and it is soft enough to take a good bit more felting if I wanted to and still be soft...so overall a very valuable experiment.

Painting

2011-10-26T20:25:00.002+01:00

Welcome to my workdesk this week. It is a bit different, it isn't my usual desk, it is the table containing all the paint I am getting ready to use. The paint has been sat here for a couple of months, but I didn't get around to doing it until my mum and sister asked when exactly they were coming to help! There are advantages to having family live close by. Today has been all about preparation, tidying, clearing, moving things and taking pictures off walls and nice things off shelves...my living room looks rather bare. Son and I have also done some sanding. Tomorrow will see the start of work on the rest of the sanding, the ceiling and the woodwork, hopefully done in a day, and the day after will be for the walls. By this time next week I hope to be able to tell you I have a freshly painted living room.

The nightmare will be painting the dining room, which not only contains my work space, but the ironing pile, the coats and shoes, the stairs, the kitchen door, the kids school stuff...you get the drift. Clearing that ready for painting is going to be...hard! (They both need doing and the living room and dining room are through rooms.)

Another thing from today, that has already been on several people's desks, and on three tables within my house today is this book. It arrived here in this morning's post, from Bernice of Newly Creative and is part of the Pass The Book Project. This is a great idea where each person reads the book, signs the inside cover and then passes it on via their blog to a randomly drawn person. You can read more about it at From High In The Sky.

I'll be telling you more about the book in a week or so when I have read it, so watch out for your opportunity to read it as well. A quick flick through tells me there is a lot of inspiration inside, just waiting to be explored.

To see lots of other Wednesday workdesks visit Julia at The Stamping Ground

Paint on my desk

2011-10-19T12:27:00.003+01:00

After my last few projects have been for sale, for guest designer spots, for birthdays, for blog hops I decided this morning that I wanted to do something just for fun and no other reason. I shoved everything on my desk to one side, looked through my photos and found one of my son being rather silly (along with the rest of the family) whilst on holiday in the summer and decided to make a scrapbook page.

I couldn't find any card or paper that looked right, so I took a piece that I didn't mind painting over and added blue, green and white paint. I didn't appear to have any white acrylic, so I made do with kids ready mix and had fun sploshing it all around while listening to Pete Seeger and Buddy Holly on Spotify. (One after the other, not a duet - that would sound odd!) Now I am posting my workdesk whilst I wait for the paint to dry enough to continue.

The board I am working on top of there is one my dad found for me. I discovered that with all the water involved in felting, the top of my desk was beginning to bubble, and whilst I love a desk covered in paint and ink stains and sanded bits, wet bubbles that peel to the mdf underneath are not as workable on...so my dad looked in his workshop and found me this which is covered in a plastic layer so I can get it wet. Whilst I don't do too messy things on top as I want to keep it clean for feltmaking, for small things like this where the excess over the page edges can be easily washed away there is no need to move it, and it fits nicely on the working side of my desk. My dad is great!

To see lots of other creative desks today, visit Julia at The Stamping Ground.

Stepping through the door...

2011-10-17T14:51:00.002+01:00

I did it. I still feel incredibly nervous about the whole idea, but I did it. I have stood inside the doorway, tentatively looking through at the wide world for so long, wondering if I dare explore more than the view from the safety of the threshold. My heart and vision has been out there, but my feet remained inside. Well today I venture outside the safe zone. Today I listed on Etsy and launched my shop, Carolyn Jane. Not only that, but I am also now waiting to find out if I have stall at the Adult College craft fair, I handed my form in a while ago, the deadline has now passed and I should hear at the end of this week or the beginning of next!

There have been people encouraging me to do this for a while, especially Dawn and Nicola. They gave me the push to think that maybe this was something I could do, and then Jo, beautiful and longsuffering Jo, has put up with all my questions, worries and vacillations over the past month or so as I have been working on this. All three of them deserve a medal.

I don't intend to blog about 'look, I am selling this' most of what is there has already been on the blog in one form or another, (although not everything!) and this blog is for me to bore you all with the fun I have making things and taking photographs and experimenting creatively, it isn't about selling...but for today, I am excited and scared in equal measures and want to tell you all that the shop is there, and to thank you for all the encouraging comments over the past year or so on my work, which have also helped me do this.

So feel free to visit, or not and if you like what you see feel free to tell people and link to your hearts content!

Birthday Card

2011-10-17T10:45:00.001+01:00

Just a little note to encourage you all to pop over to Scrappin Sista where Christel is celebrating her birthday in style by having a different guest designer every day for the whole month!

I am the designer for today and if you would like to see more of this particular birthday card designed using one of Christel's favourite colours, then do pop over to her blog and say Hi.

Beachcombing

2011-10-15T16:58:00.001+01:00

I took a stroll on the beach today with my daughter. There was a reason, sort of, to find a piece of driftwood to hang my moonlight on the sea felt from...but really that was just an excuse to go and mooch together on the beach and see what we found. Neither of us had cameras, we wanted our hands free and to just enjoy the moment, and we came back rich in treasure.

Whilst my daughter collected driftwood and pieces of broken and sea washed pottery, I collected a whole host of little (and not so little) things. I had a pocket full of sea glass, cockle, muscle and other shells and pebbles. I just love the variety of colour and texture, the lines and shapes that can be seen in these, both natural and unnatural. Sea glass always fascinates me, and I love the lines found on the shells as well as the varied texture of the pebbles.

I couldn't quite resist putting some blue wool tops behind these when I took the photographs at home!

And for home decor on a budget...

This pile of pebbles now resides on the shelf next to the shadow box from this post. I wanted to collect a couple of flat pebbles to photograph my soap pebbles on, but as I picked up a couple and looked at them in my hands, I could see how a whole pile would work, so collected 5 to stack on my shelf!

A little light weekend reading

2011-10-07T21:12:00.001+01:00

Friday, where does the time go to? I am sure that yesterday was a Monday in January.

I'd like to recommend some weekend web browsing for you. The first place I recommending is Serendipturas. This is the gallery page of my friend Nicola, who has been an encouragement and inspiration to me for many years. To say she knits is an understatement. She creates knitted pieces of art with a fantastic eye for colour and design. She is selling some of her work via the gallery, and it is well worth a look. This is the person who set out to knit Scotland - and managed it.

The second place I'd like to recommend is the blog of a newer friend, Kari called PurpleFuntastick Creations. Kari is based in the states and has great fun doing lots of blog hops,(which is how I met her) has lots of guest posters and her blog is constantly full of new inspiration. One series of guest posts she hosts is called the Faith Verse series, and I guest posted there this week with this project. If you'd like to know about the verse I choose and why I choose it, then pop over, have a look and say Hi to Kari.

Hope you all have a great weekend, I am off to Ilkley Moor to meet up with a pile of friends and do silly things.

The middle of this morning...

2011-10-05T13:42:00.003+01:00

I took my workdesk photos in the middle of this morning, in the middle of two projects and with a desk covered in stuff.

Last week I said I had soap ready to make felted soap pebbles, well, they have been sitting on my desk ready for me to finish making all week and this morning I finally filled a box with very hot water and got on with it. The box is in the background and they are sat on a towel which not only soaks up water, but also helps me roll and rub them (and gives me something to wipe my hands on when the door goes!) I really did take this photo mid project as the pebble in the foreground is still covered in bubbles. Several people have asked me what they are and I think the easiest way to explain is to say that they are soap and facecloth in one. A bar of soap (Sainsbury's baby soap in this case) covered with alpaca wool tops which is then felted onto the soap. They lather up nicely and are soft but firm to rub on your hands or anywhere else.

The middle of my desk had the wool tops I was trying to keep away from the water and my photography notes, which I was in the middle of printing out. Nothing like multitasking! They are now dumped on the floor next to the desk so that I can get to the keyboard!

Photography this year is going to be challenging, but I am really excited about it - even though we have been told that this year the tutor wants us to shoot as much as possible in manual. That was one of my aims for this year anyway but I am much more at ease with shutter and aperture priority. Still I was a good girl and used manual for these desk shots. They came out a bit better than I expected, but I took more than usual in order to try and expose it reasonably.

The glossy accents on my desk isn't there for a reason, it just got shifted as I moved things around and never moved back. The same applies to the roll of paper tape! Tidy - well...erm...no, that is not an adjective people usually associate with me.

To see lots of other workdesks, some tidy, some not so, then visit Julia at The Stamping Ground and have some fun.

A working desk

2011-09-28T10:25:00.001+01:00

Ah, wednesday, a good prompt to get posting again as I've been so busy this last few weeks I've posted very little and have missed doing so.

My workdesk is once more dominated by felting. There is the seascape I am currently working on, along with two plates of beads which I am selecting from, and three needle threaders. Yes three. I broke two in two days last week, so when I got another decided I had better make sure I had several! There is also a pile of soaps waiting to be turned into felt soap pebbles. There is also an older piece of felt and a mount, waiting to be put together.

The CD on the felt is not part of it, like my phone it is just resting there. The CD contains all the documents for the next level of the NCFE photography course which started last night. It sounds like it will be a creatively challenging and stretching year as we experiment with lots of different genres of photography, and I am really looking forward to it. Expect to see a lot more as I experiment.

I thought I would add two close ups of the felt in progress as well, simply because I took them and they show it off much better than the long view of my desk. I am really pleased with this piece and it will be hard to part with, but I have made it with selling it in mind, so must take the deep breath and lots of photos.

To see lots of other desks and meet a wide variety of wonderful people, visit Julia at The Stamping Ground for the link up.

Remembering the seaside

2011-09-18T20:51:00.004+01:00

Over a week ago now I posted some pictures of my seaside configuration box in progress. I did finish it either that day or the one after and it has been sat on the shelf in my living room ever since, but somehow I didn't get around to taking photographs and sharing them - or rather I took the photos and they sat on my camera rather than being used. So here it is - my Snowdonian Seaside Shadow Box.

I used old dictionary pages, ripped into bits to cover the outside box, the insides and edges of each small box. The back of each box has a also has a picture relevant to the theme, shells, fish, ships compasses, etc. These are glued down with a matte pva. I then inked them with distress inks. Some boxes I turned back to front to provide a flat surface to mount on as a contrast to the boxes.

I played around with where things were to go, trying to allow the depth of the box to give me room to play with different combinations rather than allow it to swallow up all the items to the back of the boxes. Everything is glued securely in place with glossy accents!

I used a mixture of shells and stones and a piece of driftwood that I had collected whilst on holiday. It would have been great to include some sand as well, but I didn't bring any usable sand back with me (not wanting to start scraping tiny bits from sandals etc!) I know I could have nipped to the local beach, and for looks that would have been fine, but it wouldn't have been real, so I didn't.

I didn't use the cover and frame that were part of the box, partly because I wanted to glue things onto the edges, but also because this is quite a small configuration box and the frame took a edge of each inside box, somehow leaving them looking lopsided. I did play around with using other shells for feet, but couldn't find ones that would balance and decided to let it stand on its own.

I am working on a big project at the moment, those of you who are facebook friends may have heard me mention it once or twice! However I hope to have some other little things to post here while that is ongoing. I still have loads of photos I want to share as well, so much to blog, so little time!

10 on the 10th.

2011-09-10T20:48:00.001+01:00

So many options of things I could have for my 10 today. I could do ten things I am thankful for, as that is what I am theming my LSNED minibook on this year...but since so far I have mainly pencil notes because I haven't sorted pics for most of them, I thought I'd leave that one.

One thing I have been thinking is that there are loads of pics from our holiday in Snowdonia that I haven't posted yet and I've been intending on posting some more all week...so today, here are ten photographs from that fortnight. All these are close ups or focus on a single thing or detail and I know that is how I often like to take photos. Details seem to attract me. All these are unedited, straight from camera.

10 details of Snowdonia.

1. Carving of a dragon in Beddgelert.

2. Growing by the river near Beddgelert.

3. Laburnum walk at Bodnant gardens

4. Flower in Bodnant gardens

5. Tree, also at Bodnant.

6. Machinery at the National Slate Museum, Llanberis.

7. Vertical incline, Llanberis.

8. Seagull, at Beaumaris.

9. Sunlight through my hat, Red Wharfe Bay.

10. Graffiti, one of many graffiti slate wall tops at Dolbadarn castle.

As usual, to other lists of 10 things, visit Shimelle at Pretty Paper, True Stories.

I am here, walking on the edge.

2011-09-09T16:07:00.000+01:00

My friend, Jo, has started a new website, Edge-walking, and I am very privileged not only to have watched it take shape, but to be her first guest for a regular feature, called 'I Am Here'. Jo has set up the site to bring together people who dwell 'on the edge', who wander the fringes, gypsy spirits, transitional travellers, and other wide-eyed wanderers. I'd really encourage people to go and have a look as Edge walking is going to be a safe haven, a set apart space for set apart people. The article I have written is about my own journey along the edges and how I view life there. It was rather scary being the first, but taking that scariness and running with it, exploring anyway is part of living.

Another friend also has a new venture as Bernice of Newly Creative and Wholly Creative has set up an Etsy shop, selling handmade journals. I've seen her work in the flesh so to speak, and she does make some lovely things, so pop on over and have a look.

All this is just more encouragement to push ahead with my own schemes and begin to move from ideas to practical actions.

Just having fun.

2011-09-08T18:13:00.000+01:00

Last night I wanted something to fit inbetween several felting projects that was crafty, a single project and something just for fun...so I decided to play with some collage images. I took the Green Paper September challenges images and played around with them and in the course of the evening came up with this...

On the occasion of her engagement...

I wanted the feel of an old cabinet photograph, embellished. The text is not particularly meant to be read, but to help give the feeling of age. The canvass page was inked, but not to the edges as I wanted the ink to fade away, and I vignetted the images in the centre of the page. Not 100% sure, but still playing around with collage just for fun.

I thought I was too late to enter this for the September challenge, but when I went to see what other people had done with the same images, I discovered it was still open. If you want to see some far better interpretations, go and have a look at Green Paper.

Space

2011-09-07T14:03:00.002+01:00

The 'working' side of my desk feels quite spacious and tidy this week. There are two current projects, the one that can be seen as really 'in progress' is my configurations box with the shells and stones from the summer holiday to go in it. I've decided to have two of the boxes turned over, and not to use the frame at all as if takes away the edge and with it being a small set I thought it seemed a little 'not quite right' somehow. I am sure the frame will come in handy for something though. I am hoping to finish this off today, and when I do there is a good chance of it being posted here sometime this week!

The other project, underneath the stazon pad, is all the bits and pieces for my 2011 LSNED. I decided to use an old idea from Shimelle's 'I have something to confess' free class of many years ago, and am using 6x4 pages, with 6x4 photographs and keeping everything simple. However, due to not having all the right images for each day, most of it is still in pencil note form! I am trying to make each day something I am thankful for, as Thanks is my word for the year and September seemed a good time to bring that back to the forefront.

Thanks for popping by, it is good to have visitors. If you want to see lots more desks in progress or to play along yourself, visit Julia at The Stamping Ground.

Sheep's Wool and Slate

2011-09-05T13:40:00.001+01:00

A large piece of felt, made to fit this frame. Inspired by Snowdonia, the stark, natural beauty, the contrasting texture of slate and sheep and the many images of wool caught on fences and wire. The slate and the natural sheep's wool incorporated into this were collected in Snowdonia this summer.

I am so pleased I managed to incorporate the slate, even if I did have to give in and add a touch of glue for me to be sure it would remain in place over time when hung. I initially wet felted with the slate in place and some strands of wool over it, before removing the slate to finish the felting. This meant that I had some felted strands that were not fully attached and I could slip the slate underneath them when the piece was dry. I then needle felted it more securely and added some more wool strands and some silk for texture. The sheep's wool wasalso not wet felted, as I wanted it to have that caught, but moving with the wind feel, so I needle felted it on once the main piece was dry, adding a small amount of the black over the top.

Overall I am pleased with this. I am not happy with the photographs, and think learning to take studio style shots of my work needs to be high on my agenda for the coming months. There are one or two problems with the frame, as I used one I had, making the felt to fit, and the back does not sit well. Before it is hung I need to have another look at securing it. I also wonder if it would look better with the same green and cream mount, but then in a darker frame. (My general preference is for dark frames) Thinking of the design, the starkness of all but the bottom left, the plainness, frightens me and it took a lot of self control not to use much more variegated colour and to embellish a lot more. I don't do simple, but this idea has been in my head for several weeks and this was how it was.

A card made this morning.

2011-09-03T13:14:00.001+01:00

It is my husband's grandparents diamond wedding anniversary on Monday, and he asked me to make a card for them. I wasn't sure what to include, and couldn't find any images I was happy with, but playing around with doilies the other day gave me the start of an idea and I sprayed one with white mica mist last night to give it a sheen and then cut and used it for the start of this card.

I layered up patterned paper, music, the doily and ribbon and then experimented with adding various things. I tried tags and images, but eventually decided that flowers were going to work best and kept everything to the simple creams and yellows. The sentiment at the top seemed to fit, and is a Tim Holtz ticket. I finished off by tying several fibres around the fold of the card and added a little heard 'made with love' charm.

I think I like it, not quite modern, not quite vintage but Darren seemed to be pleased with it, more to the point I hope Granny and Grandpa like it. We are hoping this afternoon to arrange some flowers for them as well. Maybe I should see if I can specify cream flowers so they match!

Doily Tags

2011-09-02T19:11:00.003+01:00

Just a little something I've done in the few spare moments this week. Inspired by Bonita Rose at A life Unrehearsed and her current posts on Paper Doily Play I made these tags. I used a plain coloured tag, with a bit of old book page. I coloured a doily with distress stain, ink and mica mist, and when dry I cut it up, discovering in the process that I actually had two doilies fastened together, and the bottom one had some of the colour, but not as much. I used both doilies, overlapping them to show the difference. I then finished off with a Graphic45 tag held on with brads. I have loads of these tags and don't use them as much as I'd like although I don't know why. By chance, one of those I selected just happened to be an advert for doily stamps!

What will I use them for - gift tags I think, and I'll try to find a gift to attach them to soon.

If it is Wednesday...

2011-08-31T15:54:00.003+01:00

...then it must be workdesk day!

A double sided desk again, for a busy week.

The crafting side has a large piece of white felt laid out. This is all ready to cut up and make into Christmas decorations and cards. Whilst this will be cut up, I am also testing making a bigger piece of felt to normal, just to see how it goes and how much more work is needed. I didn't want plain white, so I have added some swirls of blue and grey and will be needlefelting and sewing other bits onto the finished objects, which I will hopefully be selling at some point in the future. Not quite as interesting to look at during this stage as some of my other pieces.

On the other side of my desk, the stationary, cups of coffee, books and business side are the two shopping lists my children made up for me when I asked what they needed to be ready for school. My son has used tiny writing and little asterisks at the side, my daughter has illustrated with drawings. Both are centred mainly on stationary (Much joy, I love stationary shops) but unfortunately both also include shoes and whilst daughter needs trainers, son also needs rugby boots, and although he hasn't included it, probably a gum shield. The also both need blazers, although I can't get daughter's till school re-opens, so she will have to wear last years to start with.

It is shaping into a busy week. Yesterday was spent with my daughter and my mum tidying my daughter's room...and yes, it took all day! Today has been the asda shop and then shopping for paint for the living and dining room, lots of lovely creamy browns/neutrals. I was a little shocked at how much all the paint cost, but there was enough in the budget and if we have any unopened we can return it...so hopefully in a few weeks I will have lovely calm finished rooms! Tomorrow will be school shopping and another appt, and on Friday my dad is coming to help with a few jobs that need his diy skills and I need to have cleared some stuff by then. In addition son has decided to rearrange his room and get rid of a pile of old toys, so I can forsee a tip run in my near future. Oh and I wrote a long list of craft projects I want finished by the end of this week and have also downloaded a big pile of free kindle books from amazon....

To see lots of other desks and catch a glimpse of what other folk are up to, visit Julia at The Stamping Ground. You could even link up your own.

Faith Verse Blog Hop

2011-08-28T16:30:00.000+01:00

Welcome to another faith related blog hop. This second one is to launch a new series that Kari Sanchez is hosting on her blog, every Monday beginning on September 12th. I am a part of the DT that will be guesting on Kari's blog for the Faith Verse Hop, and the new Faith series. I am excited to be a part of this group, to share my favourite verses and story for God. Thanks for stopping by and if you are arriving here from Vicki's blog then you are in the right place. There is a grand prize with Kristal Andrews Faith Stamps and other scrappy prizes to the winner, all you need to do is follow through the hop, commenting as you go. It isn't necessary to follow us all, but we do all welcome anyone who wants to.

My verse for this hop is Romans ch8 v1.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
This is a verse that most of us are very familiar with, and we recite it by heart almost without thinking about it and yet it is one of the most life changing verses I know. This verse means that because of Jesus, I can stand before God spotless, free from guilt, free from stain, free from accusation and free from everything that would bind me down and come between me and God. Because of Jesus, nothing I can do, nothing I have done, nothing I will do, is not forgiven and wiped clean. There is no accusation that can be thrown at me because through Jesus all my sin has been blotted out. Jesus himself is interceding for me, so who could bring a charge against me. (the rest of the chapter goes on to say this in much more detail.)

Why has this verse changed my life? Well, I find it very easy to be negative about myself, to accuse, talk down, condemn myself, and for a long time it was very difficult to realise that God had not only forgiven me, but had wiped away all record of sin, had chosen on purpose not to remember. When God says I am not condemned, then who am I to condemn myself? Learning and believing that God chose to do this for me, lifted my head and helped me to look the world in the eye and say 'I am loved, I am chosen, I am forgiven, I am FREE.' Not only that, but because it wasn't through anything I did, but solely through grace, through Jesus, then it is something I can never loose. No matter how much I mess up, when I come back to God, he always restores me. It also means that I don't need to worry about what other people think (although I often do!). If they condemn me, it will have no eternal significance, because God does not condemn me. If I then apply this to others it means I should also remember not to condemn another Christian because they do things differently to me, prioritise different things, live differently, or simply because we do not get on. None of those things give me the right to condemn anyone when God says they are forgiven. In fact I would go as far as to say these words mean there should be no condemnation for anyone from me, whether Christian or not.

My project for this verse may seem a little odd. I spent some time thinking about how I wanted to represent the verse and although I had meant to do a scrapbook page, when I sat down to create, what happened was a collage. Well, these things happen! The map shows the Yorkshire dales, fell walking country, and a clothing tag with a hiker and backpack. A heavy burden on an arduous path, just as our guilt it. A measuring tape because we try to measure up. But then at the top, a blaze of glory with the bright flower as we realise we are forgiven.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have enjoyed being here and are inspired. Do follow on and visit the rest of the hop, the next stop is Lynne at Her Craftiness.

Loved By God Blog Hop

2011-08-27T09:48:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Loved by God Faith Blog Hop! We are so blessed to have you be a part of it. If you arrived from Susan’s blog you are in the right place. If you just happened to have landed here, go on over to My Paper Treehouse so that you can catch the beginning of the hop. This month we want to share with you what it has meant for us to have been “Loved by God”. Every Brave and Precious woman participating in this hop has a beautiful story of how God has shown His love to them in a very personal way. We invite you to hop around and discover the AMAZING ways the Lord chooses to love us, even when we do not deserve it.

We are doing things a bit different this month. We actually want to have you be a participant with us. If you feel inspired, create a project that reflects what the Lord has shown you about his love, make a card, a scrapbook page, write a poem or a story, or simply post on your blog about the Love of God. Any kind of project. Then go over to My Paper Treehouse to link up your post. We would love to see how the Lord works through you.

For this month alone, since there is no greater gift we can offer you than the love the Lord has awaiting you, there will be no Grand Prizes. Still you can be blessed by the beautiful RAKS some of the participants have available.

Know that we are praying for you and sure hope to see your creations! Your next stop is Lynne's blog and there is a link at the end of this post.

In preparation for this hop many of us have been reading Psalm 139 This wonderful psalm talks about many aspects of God's love. It tells of how well God knows us, how he knows what we will say before we begin to speak. It talks of how God created us and design us, even before we were conceived and how he already planned and purposed all our days before a single one of them began. It talks of how God is continually thinking of us, how even when we sleep, he is still with us. Above all it speaks of how nothing separates us from God; how he is with us in the heights and the depths, how we can run to the ends of the earth and find he is there before us, waiting; how we cannot be lost in the darkness because it is as day to him. It speaks of us being hemmed in and safe in God's presence no matter where we are. This resonated with me after last month's hop where I spoke about the promise of God to be with us all the time.

My project this month is a piece of felt. Those of you who are here regularly will know that felting has become very much my 'thing' over the course of this year and as I read the Psalm over and let it sink in, I had this piece in mind. It is a small piece of felt, the aperture in the frame is 4" square, so my overall initial layout of fibres before felting was about 6" square. I wanted a circle within the square, with many concentric(ish) circles of varying colours and widths. The idea is representative of both the depths, the far side of the sea, where I still find God holding me; and also of being safe and encircled, enfolded, hemmed in, by God's love. Even in the dangerous places of the depths, there I have found that God loves me, that nothing can separate me, and you, from the love of God. With him all around us, we are safe, even in the eye of the storm.

To follow the hop from here visit Lynne at Her Craftiness and don't forget the opportunity to join in and link your own post about God's love at My Paper Treehouse.

Two sides of the Night

2011-08-25T17:54:00.000+01:00

Inspired by Kat Solma's Exploring with a Camera series, the current topic of which is night, and by my parents talking about how frequently they have watched the sunset over the bay since they moved, I went out last night and took two very different sets of photographs of the night. One was taken from Jubilee Tower, look west over Morecambe Bay, and the other was taken from a bridge over the M6, looking north.

I was pleased with how the sunset pics turned out, it was a good evening for them as there was some cloud to add texture, lovely colours with oranges, greys and peaches and not too late, sunset was at 20:21. I wish there had been slightly more traffic on the motorway, but it did give me plenty of opportunity. I'd like to do them again when it is much darker, as it was just after sunset when I took them. I used shutter priority for all of the photographs, which I am not as comfortable with as aperture priority, but using the previews and altering the shutter speed for different photos, I was able to get what I wanted.

2011-08-19T08:51:00.002+01:00

Scrapbook pages that is, not blog pages. I've finished another two based on Shimelle's challenges from the weekend.

This first one was for the 'Go Retro' challenge, where the challenge was to use photographs not taken this year. I went way back and these photographs were taken around 1970 and are of both sets of my grandparents, at different weddings, but I loved how they worked side by side. I'd quite like to add who they are, but I can't see where to do it, so may content myself with adding that info on the back of the lo.

This second one was for the 'Chop up your paper' challenge, where the challenge was to have all the embellishment made and cut from one sheet of patterned paper. I chose a collage style paper and then used it in strips, blocks, with shapes from it cut out and with individual words cut out. The strip across the middle is folded and just secured at the ends to give a little dimension and I added a little stamping to enhance the background.

Workdesk Wednesday

2011-08-17T09:55:00.002+01:00

It is Wednesday and I haven't posted a picture of my desk in a few weeks due to holidays and stuff going on, or not going on and somehow it hasn't happened. However today I have taken a photograph nice and early (well, ish) in the day ready to post.

So, what can be seen...my coffee and breakfast (a muller corner - not good but I don't like breakfast no matter how much I have to do it.)
My new phone cover that just arrived yesterday so was bound to be in here somewheree, purple flowers and swirls, lovely.
A half finished scrapbook lo, which will hopefully be finished soon if I can think of a title for it.
My shells and stones from the beach sat on top of the configuration box; slate and sheep's wool that I have other plans for; a pile of various ongoing sketchbooks and projects and in the far distance the shelves and drawers that will one day be tidied up and straightened and used properly. (And I haven't really been saying this for six months honest!)

To see lots of other desks, follow the link to Julia at The Stamping Ground where you will find over a hundred desks for your procrastinating pleasure!

Beach Findings

2011-08-14T21:07:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd share a few more holiday photographs with you. These are of beach findings, one in situ on the beach and the rest taken on the verandah of the lodge early one evening. I have been looking at all these shells and stones (and more than these) on my desk all week, just loving the textures and colours and somehow I think they may find there way into the configuration box sat here, or into display in some way.

Scrapbooking

2011-08-14T15:46:00.001+01:00

I've not done much scrapbooking recently, not the usual 12x12 embellished pages and when I realised there was a weekend crop running on Shimelle's blog I decided to take a break from the other things I have been doing and get back to some 12x12 pages. I've done 3 of the challenges so far, with another one sat here waiting to be worked on. Since the deadline is end of the week I think I may do several more of these challenges as well because I have really enjoyed them.

So, how about some piccies?

This was the first challenge I did, and being honest I think it shows that I haven't done any scrapping like this in a while, it is my least favourite of the ones I have done and somehow I just didn't get it to work. The challenge was to use some printed elements supplied, working as a hybrid paper/digi scrapper. I liked the elements and the colours (some of the circles) but somehow lost my way a bit, esp with the title.

The next challenge was to use stickers from more than one collection - I love stickers and often mix them, so that was no trouble for me. I used holiday photographs and something I don't do often, a whole sheet of patterned paper for the background.

The stickers are Bo Bunny (The arrow, the strip across the bottomm the two corners and the 'wild'); Three Bugs in a Rug (the various 'word' stickers) BG (the &) and American Crafts (Wet). I was much ahppier with this layout, and love the way the stickers work so well together (well maybe apart from & wet).

The third challenge I did yesterday was this one:

We were given a starting point for a layout, the large square, wide strip, narrow strip and the rectangle and told to take it from there. I added the dark brown behind the photo, the photo, title and floral embellishments. I wanted to keep the page reasonably simple and give the idea that this holiday was a time we could simple 'stop'. The picture is of the sheep barn at the bottom of the drive as you entered the site, seen from further along the drive.

A colourful summer round up.

2011-08-11T18:23:00.003+01:00

I can't believe Summer of Colour is already over. It has been a fantastic event, so open to all and any art forms and so encouraging. There were almost 100 people taking part and making all kinds of different things inspired by the colour each week.

I have amazed myself by making a piece of felt for each colour colour prompt ( or felted tree ornaments in the case of red) and doing a colour inspiration page to make an altered magazine of colour inspiration and getting them all finished and completed. This was obviously the right project at the right time for me.

To show and tell for the round up, first I have a montage of all the felt pieces.

There are 9 of these because in one week the felt was a diptych. (Upper middle and right). It has been a wonderful push to me to follow my heart and dreams and spend more time making felt and it has been a great time to explore it much more deeply.

My colour inspiration book/magazine has just been finished. I did all eight colours, with the orange one here

being completed yesterday! I found I had an extra page left in the magazine, so decided to finish it off with a rainbow page.

The whole set of inspiration pages look like this:

As other ideas about colour strike me, or as I come across anything I can also add it in on any page, either by writing in the gaps or by adding tags.

I have loved this project and am very grateful to Kristin for setting it up and for her encouragement all the way through the project, and the sense of community, especially on the facebook group has been wonderful. If you want to see what other participants have made over the last 8-10 weeks do visit her blog at Twinkle Twinkle.

10 Photographs of 8 castles.

2011-08-10T14:26:00.003+01:00

It is the tenth of the month and time for 10 on the tenth, a wonderful varied link up hosted by Shimelle each month. Since I am still looking at my holiday photographs I decided to share a few more of those today and post ten photographs of castles. We actually visited 9 castles while were in Snowdonia, but at one of them (Criccieth) I took only close ups of the children and the final view I posted in this post. However I do have lots of castle photos, so finding ten was not a problem!

1. Rhuddlan Castle - we stopped here for a picnic lunch on the day we went down, thus setting the tone for the holiday.

2. The gatehouse of Beaumaris Castle on Anglesy.

3. Inside Beaumaris Castle.

4. Conwy Castle, as seen from the town walls.

5. Conwy Castle from beneath.

6. A detail inside Caernarfon Castle

7. Harlech Castle

8. Dolwyddelan Castle. A remote hilltop fortress with amazing views.

9. Dolbadarn Castle, at Llanberis with my nephew eager to see his 9th castle of the holiday.

10. Dolbadarn Castle in the foreground, with Dinorwig Slate Quarry in the background.

To see more lists of ten things, and a huge variety of them visit Shimelle's blog.

Three photographs to start with.

2011-08-08T16:50:00.002+01:00

I took hundreds of photographs during our holiday - some of them I am very pleased with, some of them are utter and total failures. However I am happy that at no point did I switch back to auto, but continued to use aperture and shutter priority and even remembered to change the ISO setting on a couple of occasions.

I really want to share some of these photographs on here, but there are too many to put all in one post, so I will split them into different themes/techniques and post a few at a time over the next week or two. Since the current 'Exploring with a Camera' theme is 'frame within a frame' I decided that would set the theme for the first set of photographs from Wales, three views from three different castles, all framed with part of the castle. The first one, above is taken from a tiny castle that is really just a single tower above the village of Llanberis at the foot of Snowdon and shows the lake stretching into the distance through one of the arrow slot windows. The second, below, was taken at Conwy Castle and shows the boats on the mouth of the river Conwy with the hills behind, framed again by one of the arrow slot windows.

I like both those images, but it was another way of framing a shot with a castle that provided me with one of my favourite images of the holiday. This final photograph was taken at Criccieth Castle and uses the broken down and ruined walls to frame firstly the plant in the foreground, the sweep of the bay in the middle and the distant mountains in the background. It is rare for me to be even semi content with a landscape photograph of my own, and yet this one comes close to satisfying me, if only because of the twin feelings of both peace and wildness it evokes for me.

Rusty Felt - Summer of Colour Orange

2011-08-08T13:05:00.001+01:00

Well almost! My orange inspiration for Summer of Colour was rust. I take a lot of rust photographs, this is one of the more recent ones and I love the varying colours and textures which appear in rust as it weathers and ages. I am often attracted to colour and texture and find the combination in rust hard to resist. When I saw the final colour for summer of colour was orange, rust was the first thing that came to mind and as soon as I came home from holiday I started laying out a piece of felt to capture the mix of colour and texture in rust. I used browns, oranges and russets mainly along with some greeny brown silk waste and some hand dyed (NOT by me) shetland wool with lots of texture.

Oddly, when I had laid it all out, going with how the materials seemed to fit, how the mood took me, how I like the look and feel, I was unsure that rust was really what came to mind and found it much more reminiscent of another love, bark patterns, which again can with all the varying growths on them have a good deal of orange. I decided that as I was happy with the colours and patterns forming I would make it up anyway and applied the hot soaping water and started rolling! Several hundred rolls later and after some 'machine aided' drying time I had a piece of felt that I was happy with and I embellished it with freehand machine stitching and some buttons.

Then I decided that it was reminiscent of rust after all....so here is my rusty felt.

Having been away I haven't had time to do my orange inspiration page, but I will do and post it later in the week, along with my 'show and tell' round up of the whole project.

Welcome

2011-08-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

A short scheduled post today - and the last I can pre-schedule. While we have been away my parents have moved house (unless something has delayed!) and this is the card I made for them and left with my sister before we went. Since they should have moved last week I think I am safe to schedule this for now.

I used a simple grid pattern, with squares punched from papers in my mum's colour of green, mounted on black to show them off and then green again. To this I added, as you can see, a greeting, lace and buttons.

I am so glad to have my parents finally moving closer to us, and hope all has gone smoothly for them.

A Postcard from Lancaster

2011-08-02T09:30:00.023+01:00

I recently took part in a postcard swap where we had to make our own postcards, including something from the place where we live. I depicted Lancaster, using inks to give the idea of hills, and then stamps for the rows of Georgian and Victorian buildings and a small picture of the Ashton Memorial that sits above the city.

One the back I used a rub on for the 'Post Card' and then added various miniature postcard backs and a large stamp from a parcel I received recently. I inked all the edges on both sides in order to try and add to the old feel I wanted to create.

It is my intention this summer to try and send a lot more Postcards, although I think many of them will be shop bought ones as they are more likely to reach their destination through the post. Hopefully by the time you read this, some of you may indeed have received one!

This post was in part inspired by Going Postal at Notes on Paper

Standing on the Promise

2011-07-29T08:00:00.093+01:00

Welcome to the God's Promises Faith Blog Hop. If you arrived here from Her Craftiness, Lynne, you are in the right place. If you just arrived at my blog, you should go to Paper Tree House Studio in order to start at the beginning. Every month a group of brave women get together to showcase the Glory of God. This month we want to showcase His faithfulness during trying times, so kick back, relax and let the Lord touch your heart with His Truth!

Did you know that there are 1260 promises in the Bible? I did not count them myself, but am blown away by the fact that each and every promise the Lord gives, He is faithful to fulfill. It is pretty easy to believe this when times are easy and abundance surrounds our lives, but is that the same when trouble hits?

In this hop you will read the stories of women like you that have faced trouble and probably even lacked the faith to believe in the miracle the Lord performed at the very end! Our prayer is that you would open your heart to the Truth found in these promises and that you would even share with us what God has done in your life. Your victory may become our hope... :)

During the hop you will find many chances to win prizes! All you have to do to be considered for one of those prizes is leave a comment and become a follower of the blogs you will hop through. For the Grand Prizes , make sure to leave a comment, become a follower, and "LIKE" Paper Tree House on Facebook. This will allow you to find out about future hops we will be having.

When I heard the title of this months hop, I knew what I would be writing about - the promise that God in his grace, brings me back to time and time again, the promise he made me that gives me a secure footing every time my world seems about to collapse.

"Be sure of this, that I am with you always."

This is a promise in scripture, in Matthew 28:20. It was one I first learned as a memory verse in Sunday School, many, many years ago and back then it had no real meaning for me beyond 'oh, that's nice'. Now it means so much more. I don't suppose my life is any harder than many, and I know for a fact it is a lot easier than many. I have a wonderful husband, loving, caring and supportive parents, a sister who loves to tease me, and loves me and have a good circle of friends.

Despite that, even in the midst of all that, there are times when I feel lonely and alone. Real life does not match up to our childhood dreams. Being an adult is not about eating what you want, going to bed when you want and having everything your own way. The perfect family life does not exist. Life throws us unexpected curve balls - my husband having a nervous breakdown, twice; a business failure; a son with Asperger's syndrome; a daughter who has moderate learning difficulties, dyspraxia, autism and epilepsy; my own depression; all these were not in my plan and all cause stress, anxiety, worry, the ground to feel as if it will slip from beneath my feet.

Only it doesn't slip because the ground under my feet is solid. My feet are not placed on the slippery sands of circumstance, but on the Rock of a never changing God. There have been times when I have wanted to shout (and indeed have done) 'But that doesn't change anything, I still have to deal with this doctor/school/bank/illness' but then I find it does make a difference.

God, my shield, is with me.

God, my hiding place, is with me.

God, my deliverer, is with me.

God, my advocate, is with me.

God, my provider, is with me.

God, my strength, is with me.

God, my help, is with me.

God, my healer, is with me.

God, my support, is with me.

God, my shepherd, is with me.

God, my high tower, is with me.

God, my redeemer, is with me.

God, my ROCK, is with me.

When I shout and rage; when I cry and weep; when I look at my children and see them struggle and my heart breaks; when I am too tired to deal with another phone call; when my mind won't form the words to pray; when the black clouds descend; I am not in it alone. I do not have to be all I need myself because My God Is With Me.

I made an art journal page as I wanted to make something that was just for me, to go into my journal as I was thinking about these things.

A scheduled post as I am currently on holiday.

If you want to continue the hop, then follow onto Scrappy Zeni

Inspiration

2011-07-27T09:00:00.041+01:00

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed that I have begun the reorganisation of my links page. I've started by adding in a new section, for Fibre and Textile artists. It is something that I have been getting more and more interested in and have begun to spend time looking at the different artists; seeing how they work; the different types of work; how they make it uniquely their own; how they take their inspiration and express it in their art and thinking about how I can learn and take my own work up a notch or several. Not to to do the same, but to learn how to make much more of my own ideas.

On my 'Read This' page there is a whole list of fibre and textile artists, and reasons why I like their work, but for today I want to highlight just a couple whose work immediately makes me want to grab my fibres and water and feel the wool in my hands taking form.
Karen Rao makes some wonderful abstract images based on seascapes. These grab me because I am becoming more and more attracted to the abstract, or semi abstract. The form and colours of a single wave in her work can stand out and make you feel as if it is about to crash over you.
Andrea Graham has both very textured and detailed landscape panels, where tree roots and pebbles are 3D, making you want to touch and stroke, but also some amazing 3D vessles and sculptural forms based around living organisms.

Respect for their copyright has restricted me from showing images here, but I do encourage you to go and have a look at their work. Even if you are not into feltmaking or other fibre and texture art yourself, these are worth looking at.

A scheduled post, hopefully I am enjoying a holiday in Wales with my family!

Lavender's blue dilly dilly....

2011-07-25T09:00:00.039+01:00

Only Lavender is purple not blue. I love the smell of lavender and the colour and the way it looks and ...I love Lavender! For purple week I wanted to make a piece of lavender inspired felt. I went for an abstract design that for me is reminiscent of Lavender, and indeed even looking at the felt and thinking about it, the fragrance comes to mind.

I have added a little sparkle with some shimmery fibres, which don't catch the light well enough to show in the photo. I am trying to decide if I want to leave it like this, or get tiny purple beads/buttons to sew on...which would make it much less abstract. I will be leaving it over the holidays and will decide when I come home...looking afresh after two weeks I should know which I prefer.

I also have my purple inspiration page to share with you. If you want to see other purple creative ideas then visit Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle for Summer of Colour.

An Old Fashioned Holiday

2011-07-23T10:00:00.010+01:00

As you may have gathered if you have read some of my previous posts or are friends with me on facebook or anywhere else I AM OFF ON HOLIDAY today and even better WE ARE NOT CAMPING!

This is exciting.

Since all three children who will be with us (my two and nephew) are on the autistic spectrum, we want to keep things calm and relaxed as far as possible and so we are having an old fashioned family summer holiday. There will be paddling, lazy beach days, ruined castles, ambling through forests, eating ice-cream and playing games.

In keeping with this I have made myself an old-fashioned scrapbook to take with me. It is a proper children's sugar-paper paged book, covered in scraps of brown paper and with a handwritten title on a luggage label, stamps, postmarks, old adverts and maps, all topped off with a layer of protective pva varnish! Inside I will use mainly ephemera from the holiday, leaflets, postcards and tickets etc. I am taking a few inks and stamps, pens, and envelopes and index cards to add to this, along with more luggage labels. This is much more like the scrapbooks I used to make as a child and I fancied taking my scrapbooking right back to its roots. It will be interesting to see how it comes out, maybe when I come home I will share some of it.

I am adding this to Going Postal, run by Julie at Notes on Paper

A Grand Day Out Grommit

2011-07-21T14:37:00.004+01:00

We had a grand day out yesterday, here are some of the highlights...

...Bubbly (non-alcoholic) on the beach to celebrate

Formby beach with a high horizon

and low horizon, taken from the same place.

Razor shell with wonderful symmetrical lines

A Thistle, because it was there.

The roof of one of the Victorian arcades off Lord St in Southport.

Inside the arcade.

Rufford Old Hall.

The Teatime Sea at Blackpool

The Big One. We didn't go into the pleasure beach, and if we had I'm not sure I would ride this anyway - but it is wonderful to photograph.

Blackpool Tower, caught in the sculpture.

A big, shiny, rotating ball.

Reflections in the big, shiny, rotating ball. I love how they look pixelated as each tile picks up part of the reflection and is also moving.

A different self-portrait

Early-ish for once - My desk today.

2011-07-20T08:12:00.003+01:00

Lots of bits on my desk today as I try to get things finished before going on holiday. There are to-do lists, my half finished holiday scrapbook, a barely started art journal page, a pile of books with various on-going projects in them, and all kinds of odd bits and pieces. I'll be setting some of these to post while I am away if they get finished in time but do you know what....

...I am not going to be working on any of them until at least this evening because today is special.

20 years ago I got married to the most wonderful man, and we have learned to love each other more through thick and thin, good and bad, and today we are going off together for the day to celebrate! We haven't decided where, probably a city given the weather, but we are having a day just for us.

To see more desks visit the Duchess of Desks, Julia, at The Stamping Ground.

I'm dreaming of a red Christmas...

2011-07-19T17:17:00.002+01:00

It is red week on Summer of Colour this week and one of the things that came to mind while I was making my red inspiration page was Christmas.

I decided to make some red needle felted baubles, like last week as an experiment. They turned out better than I expected for a first attempt, but I think I need to try some bigger ones and some different shapes, as well as some wet felted ones.

I hung them on the conifer outdoors to photograph, trying to see what they would look like. The round ones are about ping-pong ball size and the long one about 3" long. The long one was a difficult shape to make, so I am quite interested to see how I will go on making star shaped ones!

To see lots more creative red projects visit Kristen at Twinkle Twinkle.

To see if I manage to do something purple for next week and schedule a post, pop back here on Monday!

Mojo Monthly - Grids and Scraps.

2011-07-19T00:05:00.003+01:00

One of the blogs I love to read on a regular basis is La-De-Dah, if it is new to you then go and check it out. Sarah posts a whole host of creative goodness and has recently started a new feature, My Mojo Monthly which is chock full of inspiration, thoughts, pictures of scrummy craft and art and interviews with artists, this month Kelly Kilmer. There is also a link up for people to share how they are inspired by the feature, or to discuss the ideas in it. It is well worth you checking out.

One of the ideas mentioned was working with a grid. This is something I often do with cards, and if you flick back through my blog you may find some examples like these yellow felt cards or this 'quilt like' card. It is such a versatile compositional tool that when searching for inspiration for cards I often find myself reaching for it.

Today I combined it with another idea mentioned in My Mojo Monthly, that of using scraps on cards. I didn't use paper scraps though, but offcuts of my handmade felt I had saved. A while back I had cut some swirls on my bigshot and discovered that the tiny off cuts from around the swirl were also a fascinating shape, so I hung onto them. When I decided this afternoon to make a birthday card they were just the thing.

Sarah asked us when we posted to say something about our creativity...hmm...not sure where to start with that one, or rather not sure how I could stop if I really did get started! I like to combine textures, I love to include paper with text, I like to use scraps and left overs and real things (not just 'craft embellishments', although I do use plenty of those!) I take inspiration from objects, the natural world, words and text, story, colour and texture and faith. I love to play and experiment and think that has been a key to discovering my own creativity and is probably so for many others...the freedom to play.

Go visit Sarah if you haven't before. Go play with your scraps. Go have fun and ENJOY YOURSELF!