St Patrick's Day

Good Morning everyone across the world....Greetings from the green fields of Northern Ireland where Patrick tended his sheep and taught us how God would like us to live. The sun is shining here for this special day in our calendar.

I'm hoping to be able to post a little image by Waltzingmouse Stamps for this day....you can go visit Claire's site to download it for yourself. www.waltzingmousestamps.co.uk

However you spend today I wish you all a happy day.

Sorry for the lack of posts but life is exceptionally busy. I have just spent the day writing in liquid gold (sort of stuff framers use to smarten up old picture frames etc) on very large and awkward to work with wooden boards. Beautiful boards of course but not as easy to write on as paper. For a start one has to use a flat brush. The writing is almost the easy part as the the drafting takes a lot of time. You have to do a complete draft on paper and then cut those all up to 'paste' them unto the boards for an idea of how the text might look. Then when you are completely happy (am I ever happy at that stage, not really!) you can start to write straight off on the boards. Scary stuff sometimes. All done now and I want to leave them until Monday when I will erase the white watercolour pencil markings. Although the gold dries very quickly I want it to harden hence the wait to tidy up.
Also waiting is a set of Order of Service inserts to be printed and inserted into their outer covers. I am just waiting for confirmation that all is correct with the text before I print the inserts.
Then a job of writing guests names on wedding invitations - quite a large wedding too. This job is comparitively easy but long. Hours and hours.
There are other orders to be completed, one being a Ruby Wedding Card.
Sorry I've no photos for you!
We had snow this morning...wet snow...and it has rained the most of the day and there is now only snow left on the grass. It will be all gone in the morning probably.
Take care everyone.....earthquakes, tsunami....etc.

Awards Aplenty!!!

I want to thank Velda and Pauline for their recent awards...ladies.....I am going to tell you 8 things about me you may not know but never having particpated in 'chain' letters I am opting out of that part of the award...I apologise if this annoys you.
I am hopeless on the computer so linking this and that is a trouble to me....however here are 8 things you may not even WANT to know!!!

I was born into a very humble home and I have 2 sisters and 1 brother and I am the baby of the family.

I would love to have learned to play the piano and indeed would still like to learn music but time is of the essence.

I studied secretarial stuff when I should have been doing art. But in the late 50's and 60's art was not something you earned a living doing!

I played netball and loved all sports and as the college I attended was part of an old gaol with a very high ceiling they had a trapeze and I was the only one who would get on it....I used to swing by my knees from it....health and safety would never allow it now without a net to catch you if you fell.

I love to travel - gaps in my travel life are visits to Japan, India, China, Russia.

I really like to surprise people by sending a card or doing something for them when they least expect it...that gives me so much satisfaction.

I like to cook and eat...suffice to say I've always had a battle with my weight!

I'm an oldie - there are compensations though...free bus and train travel within Ireland which I intend to make use of in the months and years ahead dv.

Think that's 8...what a job to think of those!

Renewed apologies for not linking stuff - I have tried but no luck.

Spring has definitely sprung!

Hello everyone...today is so mild and Springlike...it's great to see. My brief for a card for a man was music and flowers so my thoughts went to Roses in Bloom by Waltzingmouse....tried these roses and no matter what I did with the music and the flowers together didn't suit a man......didn't want to go down the pastel delicate road as that might have been worse so these watercoloured roses (by no means perfect mind you - I see lots of mistakes in the petals...but sure no flower is absolutely perfect? hey, who am I trying to kid here! LOL!) were used for this general card to use myself. Of course the rose stamps are Waltzingmouse as is the sentiment from 'Frame it' The tag is Spellbinders from way back when - it's sort of useless in a way as the centre comes out of it too....I ran the edge of the inner piece around a Staz-on Red (Blazing Red?) ink pad and set it back in again, secured the back and then stamped on the sentiment. So where to go now with the 'proper card'? Hmmmmm
The music I paired down....stamped this Hero Arts flower meadow in antique white by Ranger (takes an awful long time to emboss!) and cut higgledy piggeldy around the top of the flowers and grasses......wrote the greeting in Dr Martin's bleedproof white ink (great density of white. Cut out the numbers in the Cuttlebug and hopefully this fits the bill for a man rather than the roses. Now what do you folks make of all of this....critique please....honesty please......what else could I have done? All comments and suggestions welcomed.

And there's more!

Well, I didn't think I'd be posting so soon again but went to make another card and you know what happens when you get a new die....for a while you will use and use it! This card uses two of the dies cut outs adhered to the card just as they are and the second layer is pop-dotted to give dimension. Then I used part of a corsage which has been in the drawer for a long time...so no hand made flowers for those ribbon challenged! I am simply going to write the ladies name on the card straight off as I feel there is quite enough going on here. One of the photos shows the die in close up.
Now, back to work!
(You may be wondering just why so much production is going on today...simple answer - DH is away at a Ploughing Match - all day - and then the group are going out for a meal afterwards so complete peace and quiet hereabouts!!)

Marianne's Creatibles Dies

Hello and Good Morning everyone especially the folks from the Gingerwood Board where we are having a thread on these dies.
This photo is too light but I just wanted to show how I used this particular 'leaf branch' on this card. I have had to cover up the personal details on the front as this card is only being collected today and I don't like to post something which has not as yet been given to the recipient.
I like how the leaf branch is making a lovely 'swirl' at the top and the bottom of the card...I've also trimmed a couple of them to fill in as well. I have not adhered all of the leaves down...I like to see them kind of natural looking which brings more life to the arrangement...they are fiddly to work with mind you but I do like the look...think you've got the idea that I really like this!!! The flowers are made with cream jacquard ribbon (Offray) and an organza pink centre. It is presented in a cream box with two gold sprays of leaves and in a tissue lined gift bag with more sprays on the bag.
Until next time take care!

Spring has sprung over here!

Hello everyone....Spring has arrived here - a wonderful mild day and it's lovely to be out and about. Here is a little card I made last night. The images are from PTI and the flower image was given to me by my stamping friend in Coleraine....the gingham ribbon is from my stash...it's always in fashion with me but gingham is very much high fashion stampingwise at the moment.
I've been cleaning my cling stamps and reviving their 'cling' with alcohol - lovely to get them tidied up...with little stamps being found in the wrong case etc....how does that happen LOL!!
I'm off to search for buttons on line....for a cardigan which has gold showy ones and I'd like to have black classy ones which are not to be found in our shop in town!
Take care until I pop into your mailbox again!