Diamond Wedding Anniversary Card

My hubby reminded me we were invited to a diamond wedding tea party today. When we were invited some time ago I wasn’t sure I’d be well enough to go, because it would be less than a week after a chemo treatment, but because I am doing so much better on the reduced dose, I felt just about able to go.

I had forgotten about it in the meantime, and suddenly realised I needed to make a card! This is one of the reasons for wanting to start my card factory – to avoid having to make cards at such short notice as this.

Even though I am feeling better than usual at this stage in a cycle, I am far from 100 percent, and this morning I was suffering badly from chemo brain and made soooo many mistakes, it was driving me nuts! I did succeed in making a card, but managed to leave out one bit which I found after I’d finished! Also, recently I bought some circle dies which I simply cannot find, and I thought I had a music embossing folder, which I didn’t, so I had to rethink the thing on the fly! It was rather a frustrating morning all round, but I got there in the end.

It was rather difficult to photograph because it is white and sparkly. The glitter and silver don’t show up as much as in real life.

This card is not my usual style, but I wanted to do something silvery and sparkly for a diamond wedding. The couple are retired musicians, so I decided to add something to give a musical theme. The wife later said, when she opened the card, “Oh! It’s a record!” I hadn’t thought of it like that, but it does look a bit like a CD!

I began by creating some mat layers, using silver mirror card and some white card which I inked around the edges with Hickory Smoke distress ink, using a home-made ink blending tool. I got this distress ink quite recently (one of the new ones for this year) and am surprised how much I am using it already – it’s a lovely soft grey, and a very useful colour.

Not being able to find my circle dies, I had to resort to my Martha Stewart circle cutter, a tool I really don’t much like. The die would have produced a nice embossed edge, which of course this does not.

I cut a 4-inch circle and stamped and heat-embossed it using the “Music Background” stamp from the Artistic Stamper, using Cosmic Shimmer glitter embossing powder, which came out slightly pink from one direction, and a shimmery green the other way – very pretty! I haven’t used this for ages and had forgotten how nice it was.

Here is the circle mount. Rather difficult to see but you can just see the pinkness of it!

I made a circle with “60” in it to go in the centre. I used stamps from the Stampin’ Up set “Memorable Moments” – a very useful set because it has separate words for the sentiments, and numbers, and “rd,” “nd” etc. so that you can mix and match, and a nice little scalloped oval shape to stamp them in as well. I chose the number 60 for the front of the card, stamped it on white card and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. I then went over it with a glue pen and added some Hunkydory Diamond Sparkles Angel Whispers fine glitter. I cut out the circle using a plain 2-inch circle punch.

I find the best way to make sure that glitter is well stuck down is to put a piece of paper over the top, and then run a brayer over it several times. I find very little loose glitter falls off that way.

Here is the completed “60” layered onto a slightly larger piece of silver mirror card punched out with a scalloped circle punch.

Turning back to the background again, I found some ice sparkly silver and organza ribbon in my stash and stuck this down vertically across the mat with double sided tape.

Using two sizes of butterfly stamps from the Stamping’ Up “Papillon Potpourri” set, I heat-embossed two of each, using the same glitter embossing powder as before, and silver embossing powder respectively, and then fussy-cut them out with fine scissors.

I added the Diamond Sparkles glitter with the glue pen as before, to the silver-embossed butterflies.

To stamp the inside of the card, I used stamps from the Stampin’ Up “Memorable Moments” set, using Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink in Watering Can, which tones very well with Hickory Smoke distress ink.

I stuck down the two glitter-embossed butterflies using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive in the centres so that the wings were loose, and attached the antennae using the glue pen.

The finished card, showing the glittered silver-embossed butterflies, attached in the same way.

We got to the party OK and it was great. I was so glad I went – the couple were surprised and delighted to see me as they didn’t think I’d be able to come. It was lovely seeing lots of other old friends too, and catching up. A very happy time. The card went down well, too!

I felt a lot better when we got home, and spent the evening relaxing on the recliner. We’d had plenty of gorgeous canapes at the party so we just had some stewed apple and cream later in the evening. I’m hoping to feel better again tomorrow, but I am not pushing it. I intend to rest and get over the busy day I had today.

My New ARTHaven–Starting to Get Organised

I haven’t posted for a while about my new ARTHaven because we’ve been so busy with other things, and it was relegated to a dumping ground, and for some time I could hardly get in there. The office is up and running, but there is quite a bit of organising to do in there until I’m happy with it, but over the past few days I’ve had a blitz on the ARTHaven proper and things are starting to take shape.

First of all, last time the builders were here, work has progressed on the sink. Andy has put a plinth under the unit – at first we weren’t going to bother, but decided to do it in the end because the laminate flooring stops short and it looked a bit untidy.

The first stage of constructing the shelf for the microwave.

The shelf complete, with the microwave. Eventually I shall paint this shelf white, to make it look a bit tidier.

The tiling is now complete, and the microwave has been wired in, and everything is working fine.

You can see that I have also started organising all my paintbrushes. Whether they will live permanently on the sink is another matter! My whole ARTHaven is in a state of flux at present…

It’s great having a sink upstairs as it means I can easily wash up my morning tea stuff, without my poor hubby having to carry trays up and down the stairs for me all the time! Actually, there are so many helpful adaptations built into our new house that my hubby is having to do far less for me all round, which is great for both of us.

I have also moved Mum’s old pine table from the ARTHaven proper to the space which it exactly fits, in front of the balcony door. This table is quite lightweight, but strong, and is easily moved. I have put my vinyl tablecloth on it, and it will be useful when doing mixed media work, with the sink beside it, and just the other side of the wall through the doorway, all my mixed media stuff on the shelves. This is not a fixed position for the table, and I shall also use it in the main ARTHaven, where it fits nicely in front of the storage units. If I have a friend round to share some crafty/art time, it will be good to have another table to work at.

It was always my plan to be able to use this table beside the sink, which is one reason why I asked Andy not to put the cupboard doors back onto the sink unit.

You may remember a while back that I posted about getting an Indian textile doorway hanging (known as a toran) for the doorway into the ARTHaven proper from the office section. The other day I put this up, together with a curtain made from a double layer of voile, one of a pair that I made to go over the spare bed in our old house – I thought the colour was perfect with the hanging. (The Indian voile drapes I bought at the same time as the toran are for use elsewhere.)

It is installed on a flexible net curtain rod on the other side of the doorway, and can be drawn aside if necessary. I shall make a tie-back for it eventually, as it is fractionally too long and trails on the floor.

The other curtain from the pair, I think I may hang over the balcony door. The curtain there is not very nice, and the curtain pole much too heavy-looking. I have a fairly short brass one that might just do.

Last night I installed some shelves and other refinements in the space between the wall units above the main work area. This is how it looks now, although the contents of the shelves will no doubt change until I make a final decision about where everything will go.

Some detail: I have installed two of my four Ikea rails high up under the top shelf, allowing just enough space above and below to take my punches. Compared with other people, I own relatively few punches, and there is some more space to the left for additional ones. I also have some very large ones, and some small ones, that don’t hang on the rails, and these are in boxes at present.

This small pine shelf unit is my mum’s old spice rack, which she said I could have when we were packing up her old house. I love the way my complete set of Dylusions sprays fit on one shelf – but I think it is unlikely that they will remain there because I shall probably create a spray booth elsewhere in the room, but they do look good there! The objects on the shelf above are a collection of clear mounted stamps which don’t yet have a home – each one is individually boxed. On the bottom shelf are all the supplies I use regularly, such as Glossy Accents, alcohol blending solution etc. etc.

This pine shelf used to be in the upstairs loo in our old house, and had pine supports which I removed.

I replaced the pine supports with a pair of fancy metal brackets which I bought recently at B&Q.

A few weeks ago I bought some stainless steel rods which I was going to use with this system, but they proved much too flexible and were bending under the weight of the things hanging from them, so I have put in an old piece of wooden dowelling which I had.

I found the split rings and the small metal clips (which are supposed to be to clip name badges to the clothing of conference delegates) on Ebay – I bought 50 of each. I am using this system to hang all my rubber stamps mounted on Easy-Mount foam – as well as a few other odd bits and pieces, I have put the stamp(s) and their original backing sheets into individual zip-lock bags so that I know the name and manufacturer of each stamp for future reference. All I have to do is unclip the relevant stamp, extract it from its bag, use it and replace it. I got this idea from a picture I found on Pinterest – here and here. I thought this was such a cool idea that I had to incorporate it into my ARTHaven somewhere! Not only do you get a convenient hanging system, but a useful shelf, too.

Andy made the unit to sit on top of the work surface, and I am using this for my carousels, with small drawers and other bits and pieces underneath. On the left is the new Stickles carousel I bought a few months ago, and in the centre is my fabric caddy with all my regular-use tools, on its dual function revolving base – a Martha Stewart circle cutter! On the right is a new craft spinner I  bought recently, with my Inkylicious Ink Dusters and a couple of Tim Holtz blending tools. I have also got a couple of Dad’s old pipe racks for small pliers and tweezers.

My friend Lucy came to visit me the other day, and she told me she has designed a marvellous carousel to hold the complete set of Distress Inks. She says she will be doing a detailed blog post about it soon, with the pattern, and I am keen to make this – I have seen something similar online and know that this will be exactly what I need to make my Distress Inks a lot easier to use than my previous system – several piles of ink pads, with the one you want at the bottom (of course…) or latterly, in a Really Useful Box, also not desperately easy to access the one you want. The carousel is designed to be made from A3 sheets of foam board, assembled with hot glue, and I have the materials all ready to construct it.

General news – today I am having a bad day with my M.E., which is hardly surprising given how much I have been overdoing things lately. My only surprise is how well I have been till now – and how much I’ve managed to do! I am sure I shall be OK again in a day or two. I have had a good rest today and not done much but have a lovely shower in my beautiful new bathroom, wash my hair, and take some photos!

We took Mum and got ourselves registered at the local doctors’ surgery yesterday, and today I had a call from one of the GPs, asking me to arrange an appointment for some blood samples to be taken, and to have an ECG. This is as a result of my problem with my legs swelling up – this doctor also said she didn’t necessarily expect to see a positive result, but it was good to have an initial “MOT” to give a base-line as I start with a new surgery, and she said that my colitis is likely to be causing continual blood loss even if I am not aware of it, possibly leading to anaemia which may be a cause of the swollen ankles. I shall be going next Thursday afternoon. So far I am very impressed indeed with the efficiency of the new surgery and think I shall get on well there – not that I am one for popping in all the time with every minor ailment, but it’s good to know that they are aware of my problems and will be keeping a watching brief. I have also found out how to start the repeat prescription procedure for my colitis medication, so that I can collect it from the pharmacy which is only a couple of hundred yards away. The surgery is only at the bottom of the hill, and both will be easy for me to reach independently once I get my mobility scooter.

It is great living in an area with so many amenities so close at hand! Previously we had to drive 5 miles to access anything, although the village shop was very good, and had a post office too. We now have two small supermarkets, post office, a baker, a florist, a pharmacy, the surgery, the vet, two local churches, and – as my hubby discovered yesterday – the mobile library comes every other Wednesday, only a few yards from home! There are also several quite excellent takeaways (2 fish and chips, Chinese and Indian) for those days when I am not well enough to cook, or when we feel like a treat! We love the area, and the neighbours are very friendly. I think we are going to be very happy here.

WOYWW 168

I’m doing this a bit later than usual (in the small hours of Wednesday morning) because there’s been a bit of a crisis with my parents – my dad is poorly with an infection and has become quite confused, and my mum phoned this evening because they had a flood due to a leaking pipe. We had to go over, and found my dad in quite a state, and my mum trying to clear up the mess, so we phoned the all-night duty doctor, and had to wait for him to arrive, and then sort out what needed to be done. My hubby will have to pick up a few things in the morning and arrange an appointment with my dad’s regular GP, but at least our worst fears weren’t realised, and he didn’t end up in hospital. They are both very elderly and quite vulnerable now, and their house still hasn’t sold – the whole situation is fairly precarious and we may have to drop everything at any time and rush over and sort out whatever crisis arises.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand – my work space! “What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday” – the world’s greatest nosey fest! Click on the WOYWW link in my right-hand sidebar to visit our lovely hostess Julia’s blog for further info.

I’ve had another busy week doing lots of sorting and chucking out and generally downsizing – see my previous post for details. This is how it looked on Tuesday afternoon, viewed from the door.

I’m very thrilled with the extra space it’s created. There’s still quite a lot more to do – scanning documents and photos, and further weeding out of the boxes on the big shelving unit beyond the book case. I’ve now got my gift-wrapping papers in the top drawer of the filing cabinet, which has got rid of another box, and the middle drawer is filling up with old cassette tapes that need wiping off before sending to the recycling centre. The bottom drawer is broken – you can see the new runners I got from Amazon, on the floor in front, waiting to be fitted. Here’s an annotated photo so you can find your way around!

Now for the desk itself. I’ve had a fun time a couple of days ago, working on a project that I can’t share with you just yet because I don’t want to spoil someone’s surprise, but watch this space for details, hopefully in a few days.

Here’s the annotated version!

I will be doing further blog posts on all the activities on my desk this week. The water droplets stamp is from Ryn – see my recent post about her here. The gorgeous stamps I ordered from her came on Saturday and I’m super-thrilled with them. The experimental piece, stamping on Angelina fibres, was done with her fish stamp, fusing the fibres with an iron over the stamp – full details will follow in due course.

The flowers for Judy are now nearly complete but I’ve got a couple more techniques I want to try before I send them off. In the first photo you can see the poly-wallet on the floor beside Sheba, full of the most gorgeous vibrant fabric flowers Judy sent me for the swap we are doing – I’ll show you these in due course, I promise! Once I’ve finished the flowers for her, I’ll photograph hers and mine properly so that I can share them with you.

I’ve got a few more flower and butterfly pieces cut from watercolour card that I want to colour with my Dylusions ink sprays, and I’ve got a few more flower pieces inked and ready to make up.

Hope you enjoy my annotated photos this week!

Sorry I didn’t manage to visit many of your blogs last week – with my clearing, I’ve been very busy, and pretty tired afterwards! Not sure how well I’ll do this week either, as there’s a fair bit on, and we’re not sure what will happen with my parents. Have a happy WOYWW everyone, and a great week ahead. Hopefully we’ll all get the opportunity to be creative.

Altered Boxes Part 1

For the upcoming church exhibition and sale in our village, I have decided to put in some altered boxes as well as my mirrors and flower paintings in the small Ikea frames (these are now finished but I haven’t photographed them yet). At the recent craft show I bought a number of boxes for altering, which I have primed with water-based white decorating primer. I’m making a start on some of the small boxes:

because they should be relatively quick to do. For the first one, I have taken some rather bright pink scrapbooking paper and painted a section of it with the new Tim Holtz Picket Fence Distress Stain that I bought at the craft show, to soften the colour slightly, and to give it a weathered, chalky look.

I cut a narrow strip to go around the box, and tried the lid, which wouldn’t fit over the box plus the paper, so I put the lid on the box and drew round the box, to show me the upper limit to which I could cover the box.

The strip for the box was cut about 1 1/4 inches deep, so that I could fold the excess underneath the bottom of the box. I cut another strip for the lid, this time 1 inch deep.

The colour of the paper wasn’t quite right for the roses I’ve got (left over from another project) so I lightly inked it with Scattered Straw Distress Ink, using an ink duster. This had an unexpected result – the Picket Fence Distress Stain acted as a slight resist, emphasising the streaky appearance, which is actually quite pleasing.

Then I stamped the two strips with a swirl stamp (from the Stamp Barn – I got this at the craft show) using Versamark, and heat embossed them with gold embossing powder.

To finish them off, I distressed the edges with some Victorian Velvet Distress Ink, using an ink duster.

The inside of the box and lid I painted with a couple of coats of black gesso, continuing down the outside of the box to the line I drew,  marking the position of the lid.

After this I dry-brushed a little gold acrylic paint over the black, using a small flat brush, and making small random brush strokes. The effect I wanted to achieve was the inside of Chinese lacquer boxes.

Here’s a detailed shot of the inside of the lid.

By snipping the excess paper diagonally, close to the base of the box and the top of the lid, I was able to fold the resulting tabs over and stick them down. They were anchored down firmly by the discs on the top and bottom of the box.

I used my Martha Stewart Circle Cutter to cut two circles from the pink scrapbook paper for the top and bottom of the box, and a circle from gold mirror card to mat and layer for the lid. Finally, I hot glued two pink roses and a couple of leaves onto the lid to embellish the box. Here is the final result.

I’ve done this one in an evening. Hopefully I’ll get plenty more done in the next week or so. I’ve got lots of ideas for different styles.