House Move Card and New Envelope Board

Last weekend, my aunt moved into a residential home near my cousin in Somerset, so I made her a “welcome to your new home” card. While Mum was away, my sister took her to see my aunt once she had settled in, and she said the place was very nice, and was on the high street in a country market town. When Mum saw the card I’d made, she said it looked very much like the real thing, which I was pleased about, not having seen it!

I sketched the outline of the houses onto a piece of scrap office printing paper and then went round the outline with a black zig permanent pen. After drawing in the details (roof tiles, chimneys, windows etc.), I accentuated the edges with a thicker Zig pen to create some shadows.

Using Distress Inks as watercolours (smooshing the ink pad on my craft sheet and then picking up the ink on a wet brush), I painted most of the houses with Tea Dye, and used Black Soot for the shadows and for the roof tiles, to create a monochrome effect. I picked out one of the houses in colour (Spiced Marmalade for the roof, and Barn Door for the house itself) to make it pop.

I matted and layered this drawing onto a piece of scrap gold card that was part of a face cream box. To create the background on the base card, I applied circular shapes with an Inkylicious Ink Duster in Tea Dye and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks, and after assembling the card, I wrote the sentiment by hand.

On the inside, I used the same Distress Inks to add a bit of interest to the white card, and again hand-wrote the text.

WeR Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board

I recently saw this online and was impressed by its ease of use, and the fact that you can use it to create other objects besides envelopes – boxes, gift pouches, etc. I have never had any success with envelope boards in the past and this looked so easy, I decided to give it a try.

I was certainly not disappointed! The board comes with a chart printed on it (inches) and with a separate sheet with metric numbers. It comes with its own bone folder which slots into the semi-circular recess on the right hand side. You can see that there is a scoring line running diagonally from the top on the right, and a central button, from which projects a small pointer. To the left of the button is a ruler, in inches and centimetres.

What you do is to choose the size on the chart which is nearest to your card size, and it tells you how big to cut the paper. It is very clever because the measurements it gives you for cutting and scoring make allowances for the need for there to be a bit of “play” so that the card is not too tight a fit in the envelope.

You line the paper up with edge of the board at the top. The chart also tells you the measurement to line the paper up to, against the ruler. Once you have done this, you press the blue button, which punches out a notch. Without moving the paper, you score down the diagonal groove. You then remove the paper, and turn it counter-clockwise through 90 degrees. There is no longer any need to measure, because all you have to do is line up the scored line to the pointer, and then punch and score again. You repeat this for the other two sides.

The final step is to insert each corner in turn into the back of the button, and punch. This rounds the corners.

Here is how my envelope came out.

You can see that I have lightly inked it in the manner as before, and in the same colours, but keeping it very light.

I turned it over and inked one of the flaps, which will be the opening of the envelope, again using the same colours.

I extended the inking down into the centre of the envelope – this inking would then become the “lining” of the envelope.

Here is the envelope made up.

I folded the envelope along all of the score lines, and ran my ATG gun along the edges of the flap opposite to the opening, and stuck them down, thus holding the envelope secure. If you wanted to, you could run a little envelope glue along the edges of the top flap, but I didn’t bother – I just slipped the flap into the back of the envelope.

Here is the card with its matching envelope.

If you make a long thin envelope, the bottom flap will project upwards in a point. You can always cut this off if you don’t like it. You can also change which flaps go on front and which behind, when making it up, so that you can have a long thin envelope opening at one end, if you so desire.

I suddenly find that I am able to make cards of any size or shape! Before the board, I tended to restrict myself to either A5 or A6 (finished size) cards, because these were the sizes for which I had envelopes. Today I really pushed the boat out, and made a square card! This is such a totally cool tool and it’s so easy to use, to get a good result every time. I can see this becoming a very useful tool indeed, and I’d recommend it to anyone to add to their equipment arsenal.

Outing to Plymouth Barbican

Yesterday after a friend suggested she take Mum off our hands so we could have a nice day out together, my hubby and I went to Plymouth for a lovely outing to the Barbican, the oldest part of the city, down by the sea. It is a place full of atmosphere, with cobbled streets and tiny narrow winding alleyways, and a rich maritime history. Along the main streets there are plenty of gift shops and art galleries and eating places. There is a small covered arcade of shops called “The House that Jack Built” and it was in here that I discovered a shop entirely devoted to buttons! Here is a decorative tile set into the floor which took my fancy.

Buttons, buttons, buttons!

and more buttons!

We found a shop that specialised in chocolate sculptures and exotic cakes, and I couldn’t resist this glorious wedding cake with a sea theme.

Here’s one of the chocolate sculptures.

It was a bit difficult to photograph things in this shop window because of the reflections.

Here is a view of the main shopping street.

Some art glass in one of the galleries. The artist is called Richard Glass, appropriately.

This is New Street, which has to be one of the oldest streets in Plymouth – not easy to get a good photo, and apologies for the wheelie bins!!

This is the site of the old Fish Market, which now houses shops and restaurants. I remember coming down here many years ago, very early in the morning, and witnessing the fishing boats coming in, and managing to get some scraps for the cats! I also picked up a scallop shell which had been thrown aside, and which I still have.

The Dolphin Hotel, with its well-known facade.

Another street view, overlooking the harbour.

This has to be one of the oldest buildings in the city. I love the stone work, and the filled-in arches which show how the building has been changed in the past. The roof is obviously more modern, but the chimneys are old, and boast quite a lot of plant life growing out of them!

One of several snickets, known as “opes” with a view of an old warehouse in the distance. You can make out the crane with the pulley, which was used to lift things in and out through the large doors at the top.

Another ope with the Custom House in the distance.

Interesting street sign.

More art glass.

Our afternoon culminated in a tour of the Plymouth gin factory.

This has a very long and distinguished history dating back to the 1400s. It is a small concern but is still producing Plymouth gin in its distinctive bottles, in both “normal” and the stronger “navy” strength. We saw the single still that produces the gin, and in the tasting room, examined all the “botanicals” which go into the gin to give it its unique flavour – not just juniper berries, but lemon and orange peel, cardamom, angelica and other spices! We had a taste, and were then treated to a gin and tonic before we left via the shop, where I bought a bottle of their gorgeous sloe gin – quite the best commercially produced I’ve ever tasted. A lot of people make their own around here from the sloes which grow abundantly on Dartmoor (which the Plymouth Gin factory also uses) and this always tastes a lot nicer than the normal commercial stuff. It was a very interesting tour.

Years ago we had a French lady staying with us, who went on a tour of the factory, and on her return, when we asked how she’d enjoyed it, she replied, “It was bizarre…” and described how she couldn’t understand what was going on at all, with the large copper vessels and pipes and so on – she’d understood she was going on a tour of the Plymouth Jeans Factory and was mystified by the complete absence of even a shred of denim!

The weather was horrible yesterday and it poured with rain on the way over and on the way back, but we managed to escape getting wet, and were able to sit on a bench overlooking the harbour with all the boats, to eat our sandwiches. You can see from the photos how overcast it was, but we didn’t let the weather spoil our enjoyment. We used to live in Plymouth and have always loved the Barbican, and it was fun to return and be tourists for a day!

Our New House–Topping Out

Last night we had our “topping out” party as a thank you to the wonderful team of builders that we had. Unfortunately not everyone involved was able to attend, but the core members were there with their families. I was so pleased that we were able to do this, as I really didn’t want the adventure simply to fizzle out as they went off to do other jobs.

Officially, a topping out involves putting a leafy bough on the apex of the roof to celebrate the final piece of the roof being completed. The origins of this practice are obscure, but it goes back to Europe’s pagan past. These days it’s as much an excuse for a boozy knees-up as anything else!!! We didn’t do this when our roof was completed, nor when the roof was finally on the garage, and I really wanted to mark the end of our building project. Our “leafy bough” is the little wooden tree that Paul made – he originally made it for Andy and for the duration of the project, it lived on our kitchen windowsill – if you look back at some of the earlier photos you can see it there. The other day I was in the garden and found it by the garden steps, in a sorry state, having been left out in the rain. I brought it in and scrubbed it to clean it off but there is some discolouration which I can’t remove. I put it out on the hall table for Andy to take, and he has given it to me! I am delighted to have it and shall treasure it as a memento of our adventure.

Getting ready for the party – I bought a lot of savouries – crisps and dips, and canapés and other hot finger food. I wanted to keep it fairly simple so I could spare my energy for making the puddings! In this first photo, the table is new – it folds into a half-circle table that we put up against the radiator – there isn’t much room in the kitchen for a table but it’s nice to have somewhere to sit, and it extends to a reasonable size.

Many years ago, I painted my grandmother’s old Singer sewing machine table white, and got a smoked glass top for it. It is now in the hall of our new house, and is proving very useful for putting things ready to go upstairs, or in to Mum’s annexe. The dish on the right is on a lazy Susan base and is lovely for parties. My hubby’s sister gave it to us shortly after we were married and I’ve used it such a lot.

I laid out the puddings on the table in Mum’s annexe. Sticky toffee pavlova, chocolate mousse, trifle and fruit salad.

The sticky toffee pavlova.

This my absolute favourite pudding of all time! The meringue is made with golden caster sugar so it is slightly brown-coloured rather than pure white. You make a toffee sauce with soft brown sugar, butter and syrup and fold it into whipped cream for the filling, reserving a little to drizzle on the top. Yum yum. Now, what do I do with all those egg yolks?

The trifle.

I only put a dash of sherry in this time because there were children at the party, but I usually put in enough to notice! Trifle sponges soaked with a tin of raspberries and half a raspberry jelly made up at half strength (I hate trifles with solid jelly in them. For my US readers – jelly = jello.). Sliced banana on top, then custard, then whipped cream, and decorated with toasted flaked almonds. Yum yum again! You can see the chocolate mousse and fruit salad behind. The latter consisted of oranges, apple, banana, melon, grapes, fresh pineapple and passion fruit – this last makes it taste gorgeous and exotic! The juice came from the fruit itself, with some mixed tropical fruit juice that I bought.

The party in full swing. Tim (electrician), Andy, Chris’s wife and daughter, Paul with his youngest, my hubby, Paul’s wife.

Chris, Tim, Andy and Chris’s daughter.

Wonderwoman – until we moved she was my home help. Unfortunately we live a bit too far for her to travel to us. She is Andy’s partner. This whole project would never have come about without her because we would never have met Andy, had she not introduced us!

Paul with his wife and youngest of three children – she is utterly adorable! They have another girl and a boy – all three children were great, and so well behaved – they are a lovely family.

We had a great evening and it was nice for them to see each other’s handiwork finished – Tim told me that he rarely sees the finished job because he’s usually in at first fix, laying cables. None of them had seen the place at night, or with all our stuff in and looking so organised and tidy! My hubby told me this evening that the house had never looked nicer! It makes all the difference having the pictures up, rugs on the floor and some ornaments out. It feels really nice and homey now.

The other day I took some final pictures of the bathroom, with ornaments on the counter. I still have to do some painting in there to finish off (the arch, touching up here and there) and this will get done eventually. Meantime, I am working on filling the damaged areas of the architrave around the doorway from the bedroom, and once I’m satisfied with it, I shall paint the door frame. Here’s how the bathroom looks now.

These pictures were all taken in daylight, which gives a better result colour-wise – it’s been very hard photographing the bathroom as it’s such a subtle colour and I usually have to manipulate the photos to try and get as close as possible to how it actually is – in these photos I haven’t done this and most of them are more or less OK.

I love my big round mirror and what is reflected in it from different angles.

I unpacked some more boxes the other day and found all my shells. I decided to add an accent colour in the bathroom, which is blue – I have quite a few pieces of dark blue glass which I think look good against the natural background of the tiles.

I put all my smaller shells in this big glass jar.

Blue glass, pottery, shells and pebbles.

My new artificial bamboo plant in the corner, with more pebbles and my big shells.

I am loving how the bathroom looks now, and love even more how fabulous it is to use, and how utterly self-indulgent I feel when I am in there! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

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.