In praise of Stafford Service Station!

  I know, service stations are usually regarded as the worse place to be, overpriced and overcrowded.  However I think Stafford is a bit special.  When our daughter was at university in Lancaster, Stafford was a regular stop on the long trek up the M5 and M6 from Somerset.  The north bound side is, it has to be said, superior to the south bound side.  To show you why I think so highly of Stafford here is are some pictures of it.

It's been a while

I have taken a break from the mammoth Christmas Card making operation to make a ‘just because’ card for my daughter who is working away from home at the moment.  I thought as I have nothing else up my sleeve, I would share it with you.

I have always fought shy of CD crafting, there is something in me which still sees it as cheating.  Apart from which I like playing with ribbon and lace etc.  So I have combined both in this card.  The images and background papers are from the ‘Jewel Britannia’ CD by My Craft Studio.  The dark plum, almost brown card is Hunkydory Adorable Scoreable and I have attached some pale pink lace behind the topper.  

It is just a quick fairly simple card for a fairy loving daughter.

A smashing time!

Smash Book and Goodies

I recently came across ‘Smash Books’ on a crafty website.  Curious to know what a ‘Smash Book’ is I did a bit of research and was hooked by the concept.  Basically it is a place to keep all those bits and pieces that usually get thrown into a draw and forgotten about.  You have probably got a drawer or box like it yourself, full of ticket stubs, newspaper cutting which caught your eye, all the things, in fact, that we collect meaning to do something with. 

First Smash Book, First Page

When a local craft shop started stocking the books and a good selection of crafty bits for it, it was too tempting to let slip so I went off and got one, plus a few of the other crafting goodies to go with it.  The result is I now have a book to act as a cross between a scrapbook and a diary, somewhere to put all the jottings and saved memorabilia that I tend to collect.  I thought I would share the first page with you; the first page is always the hardest!  Basically I used it to record when, where and how I got my first ‘Smash Book’.

Where is the crafting?

With a title like ‘Veiws from the Craft Room you are probably wondering where the crafting comes in.  Well, at the moment every available spare moment is being taken up making the 200+ Christmas cards we need!  There is a lot of die cutting, stamping, embossing, distressing and gluing going on but not much to show you.  So I have decided to show you a card I made last year which is one of my favourites. 

The flowers are made using the MEDIUM FLOWER HEAD 0701072Aand the LARGE FLOWER HEAD 701071Astamps from Dimension Stamps.

I stamped the two flower head stamps onto velum which I had coloured by blending pink ink onto it.  I then decorated the flowers by stamping a swirl pattern on in pink and highlighting with crystal glitter.  I then made up the flowers, two large and one medium.

Another view of the top and inside panel.

Roy from Dimension Stamps has made a video which will show you how to make the flowers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W3OsWLJ5Zg

The box and tag for the card.

I used some vintage card from my stash to make and easel card base and cut the mats from contrasting card using my CraftRobo.  I inked the edges in pink then attached to my card.  I then arranged the flowers on the card and used a leaf stamp to put in the green leaves.  I then added some gems to look like dew drops and used peel offs for the greetings.

I have been meaning to make another one but to date this is the only one I have done.

A bit of summer in autumn

St John the Evangelist

Over the weekend our church held a flower festival to coincide with Harvest.  As always our talented group of flower arrangers did us proud.  The theme this time was ‘When the saints go marching in’.  Each arrangement highlighted a particular saint, some well known others not so well known.  I thought I would share some of the beautiful arrangements with you especially as at the moment the weather is not at all summery!  My photographs do not really do justice to the wonderful colours and array of different flowers but I hope it will give you some idea.  Hope you enjoy them.

St George

St Mary Magdalene

St Nicholas

Upcycling – not an Olympic sport!

Trawling the net for something, I forget for what at the moment, I came across the term ‘upcycling’.  Unlike recycling, upcycling involves turning unwanted items into useful ones.  Having read a bit more about it I discovered that I have been an upcycler for years without realising that it had a proper name!  I must have started at an early age and my first memory of a successful upcycle was making a tennis dress for school from an old pillow case.  (I was small for my age!)

Of course working in the primary sector we make lots of things out of old cardboard packaging and plastic pots though I don’t think it qualifies as upcycling as to date I have not seen any of the children arrive at school in a new cereal packet car!

I thought I would share a couple of my recent attempts at upcycling with you.  The first is a skittles game I made for school.  The skittles are made from actimel bottles and ping pong balls, much to the annoyance of Finnegan who thought the balls were for him to play with!  They are decorated with scrap bits of paper from my paper stash.  The bag to keep them in used to be a pair of my daughters old jeans.  There is no ball in the picture because it is at school.

The second example is from an aluminium can which I coloured with alcohol inks then cut out gears using Spellbinders dies and my Grand Calibur machine.  I then used them on an ATC.  Another first for me as it is the first time I have tried out Steam Punk.

When I have managed to get some more drink cans I am going to try cutting baubles out of them as I think they would make good decorations for Christmas.

Is there anyone else out there into upcycling?  I would love to know what people have been doing with unwanted bits and pieces.