Olympic Opening Ceremony

Olympic opening ceremony, those amazing highlights...

Happy Crafting with Ginger Claire

I've had a fab weekend here in Durham, Durham... ;) and before you ask, no, I haven't seen much of the city! I've been sitting at Ginger's dining room table surrounded by stamps, paper & glue from dawn until well after dusk! This weekend we've been taking part in the Papertreyink Stamp-a-faire Camp Challenge which has been happening in crafting cyberspace. I love their products so much and have learnt a lot about stamping techniques and die cutting this weekend. Myself & the lovely Ginger have been stamping, inking, cutting die shapes, making flower embellishments, making handmade paper beads, little tags, learning how to layer stamps and last but not least, creating zany backgrounds using inks and you'll never guess, shaving foam!

Take a look at this amazing video. Ginger is a natural in front of the camera and I can't believe this is her first crafting video. Now she's on a roll, I don't think it will be her last! If you click through to YouTube, you'll find a few more we did on the same theme. May be easier and safer than searching for 'shaving foam' videos!!

Here's my very first card of the weekend! This isn't patterned paper. Every detail has been created by yours truly using the soon to be released (though we got the sneak preview sets) Natural Beauties stamp set and inks. Isn't it fab? You can find lots of tutorials for these techniques on http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/

I had loads of fun ma,ing this card. This orange flower was created using bits of ribbon, a candle and a lot of perseverance! By holding the tiny strips of ribbon over a lit candle, the ends melted and began to curl. My first attempt turned into a horrid, brown, singed mess because I used the wrong kind of ribbon. Ginger was pleased that I didn't set her kitchen on fire! But I wasn't going to give up so armed with a different ribbon, I cut strips and began to curl the ends, one at a time. The strips are sewn together in the centre and I've glued a chunky pink ribbon to the centre to cover the ends. Again, I completely stamped the background and decorated the centre of the flowers with pearl gems. I've die cut a lace border and die cut and stamped a greetings tag to finish.

Here's my embellishment challenge card. This was a fun ine to do because I love making embellishements. I began by staming the centre flower before I die cut all three the flower shapes, curled the petals, glued them together and added a button, tied with string, to the centre. The card was made by layering plain and patterned papers, using a die cut shape stamped with ink for the background to the flower. No card is really complete without a greeting so I die cut the banner shape, stamed the border and greeting then mounted up on a strip of green to finish.

 

This was one of my favourite projects of the entire weekend! The challenge was to create a set of cards, tags of whatever using Papertreyink products. That wouldn't be difficult because their stamps, dies, inks and card stock is just so lovely. I began by die cutting the tag shapes, folding I half and stamping the fronts with the all over patterns. I used the big crocodile punch to make two small holes across the fold then threaded with orange twine to create a hanging thread. I faintly stamped the bracket embellishment detail on the ftont, followed by a quirky greeting and another bracket to finish. I love the fact that they're small and just the thing to send to my lovely family and friends to let them know I'm thinking about them.

 

The jewellery beading class was as fun as it sounds! I die cut the paper strips, four sheets at a time. And sat watching CSI last night whilst I glued and rolled each strip, ne by one, around a large wooden kebab squewer. Today I finished them off by adding who coats of clear nail varnish and right at this moment, at half past midnight, Miss Ginger Claire is threading them onto a wire to make a bracelet!

I've decided that although these handmade beads look sweet, I'm not going into full time production, oh no!

This weekend has been my introduction to Ginger's Slimming World! We've eaten healthily, had few syns and enjoyed every morsel!

No crafting weekend is complete without a bottle of fizz but as we're both trying to lose weight, we had just the one bottle between us and made it last all weekend! Shock, horror, can you believe it...!

Here's my little tub of pretty stamped bunting. I die cut the triangles, stamped them with pretty coloured patterns and they're ready to be stuck onto a handmade card. Easy, pease and very pleasurable!

Believe it, or not, this is slimming food fit for two crafting princesses ;) we have dined on vegetable and prawn couscous, fresh fruit, a yummy but very healthy cooked breakfast, delicious fish pie, summer strawberry meringues and beef and mushroom stroganoff with delicious potato wedges! Can this be a diet, I hear you say? The secret is Ginger's measuring jug, her scales and Fry-light!

 

 

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Blogsy

Oh what a find! I've been struggling to update my blog from my iPad but today I found blogsy, phew, my saviour ;)

 

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Changes abound!

Sometimes it appears that there's no forward motion in my life. I need change and when the world is changing so fast around me, far from feeling comfortable with stability, I seek out ways to make small changes. No one really wants the big, life changing moments that can occur because many of these are beyond our control. When I'm feeling restless, a small change will suffice ;)
So this week has fed my desire for change in so many lovely ways. I've received communication from someone who upset me a little while ago. Whilst there's no acknowledgement of the pain they caused, the leap over the silent hurdle is certainly a big step in the right direction. If you read my previous 'shaken' post you'll know that I am good at waiting, I am a Lady after all!

"Good things do indeed come to those who wait".

This week I have had not one, but two men in my bedrooms! One man arrived to complete the work begun in January! My two bathrooms, including the scary hole in the wall, have now been brought back to their former glory with a dash and a lick of fresh paint. And here's where I feel a fanfare coming on.. !!! After months of deliberating and faffing, a few days of mess and living in a very crowded bedroom, I have new fitted wardrobes and I LOVE THEM!And best of all, I don't have to share, yeah!
Paul the Hammonds wardrobe fitter has done a brilliant job. See how my bare room became a room with a shell, then a room with doors and eventually after a lot of hard work, my new wardrobes appeared with everything within (bar a male escort!) a girl could ever want!

The doors are a creamy, dreamy colour with a deep gloss finish and best of all shhhh soft closing.. :))

I have my rails x 3, a shelf x 1, deep drawers x 2, the most beautiful glass fronted drawers x 4 and last but definitely not least, shoe racks that slide in and out x 4! I can now store 8 pairs of lovely shoes on just one shelf.

Mmm, new shoes!!

I have space for hanging, rails for scarves, a full length mirror and more space behind them than I ever had before! I'm delighted with my new furniture and can't wait to fill it!

My 2012 Mini Party Weekend!