The 2nd day of Christmas...

As usual I started this weekly challenge a week late so THIS week we should have been on the 2nd day.... So now I have caught up as the next challenge starts on Sunday! Here are my Two Turtle Doves.

Same BG as before...I think I will stick with this one all through to give some continuity between the pieces; but the doves are ivory velvet. I stamped the wings with copper Brilliance ink ( not sure if it is meant to work on fabric but it seems to have done!)

The leaves and branches are from scraps of felt and fabric that I have about (!) and then I machine doodled the skinny branches! Just a few red glass beads which I think give it a little lift and done!

Now I look at the 2 side by side I am wondering whether I should have done some work into the sky or whether I like the space..... I have also started to think about whether I will actually do 7 swans and 12 Lords when the time comes or just show 1 or 2 of them.

I would also like to add a big thank you for all your good wishes! I am feeling heaps better now but get tired quite quickly! Just a shame it had to be in the holidays.

New Weekly Challenge

So now the tag challenge is all finished over at UK Stampers, there is a new weekly challenge. Well MOST people have finished their tags, I still have to catch up, but I will and planned to this week until swine flu hit! Well after 4 days of doing nothing I am very bored but not terribly energetic so I decided to craft in the hope that it will make me tired so I can sleep tonight.
So the new challenge is to fill the 12 weeks (yes that's all it is!!!) until Christmas! It is on a 10x10 size base. I decided to go with fabric for this challenge. So I haven't stamped on this first one...hope that will be ok!!

The base is a piece of plain blue cotton, mounted on very stiff interfacing. I then cut random green leaves and stitched them on just along the spine of the leaf. The partridge was cut from felt first and then I applied two different fabrics onto that. I stitched feathers on top of that. Those very clever country sorts will spot they are pheasant and not partridge feathers!!!

The pear is a lightly padded scrap of slub silk, again mounted on felt. Then I stitched the whole lot together and there you go; a Partridge in a Pear Tree!

Apologies!

Sorry to those of you who pop in regularly! I was planning to post lots of lovely new stuff on here, what with it being half term and me having a lot more free time. But I have been struck down by the dreaded swine flu. Now those of you who know me, know what a cynic I am, and as always, I thought swine flu was just a souped up idea to justify all the training medical staff have been given over the last few years in preparation for a pandemic. Well let me tell you that I am utterly ashamed of my cynicism now....Those of you that have ever had flu, well think back and multiply it by about 20. There were times yesterday when I really thought I was going to have to be taken off in an ambulance and I began to lose the power of rational thought. Now in the cold light of another day (and several doses of tamiflu later) I know that it was just the high temperature making me think strange things!
Today I feel a lot better but so, so weak. All I can manage is making the odd cuppa and then I need to lie down on the sofa. So all my creative plans have had to go on hold.....

So I have had my come-uppance! From now on I will be sympathetic to people with swine flu.....but only if it's REALLY swine flu!

Some more Scrapbooking...

Another entry for my 2009 Scrapbook. This one shows my son being invested as a Scout. A few weeks after he was invested he was presented with his Scouting International Friendship Partnership Award along with several other boys.

He and a friend arranged a "bagging" session at the local supermarket, raising over £300 for Kenya Street Scouts. This amount was then presented to a representative from their group so that the Kenyan Troop can buy goats to help support themselves. Definately a "Proud Mummy Moment" this one!

Gift Book

I am sure you will remember the book I made a few days ago for the dedication of a friend's baby son. The photos arrived really quickly so tonight I put them in the book! This was a particularly lovely stained glass window in the church...

I have included these just to give you an idea of how the book was laid out. Now obviously it is a bit difficult for me to post clear images because they are other people's children and I can only work out how to do an overall blur rather than a focused blur for faces! But I hope you can still see enough.

So I shall give it to them tomorrow..better late than never!

Scrapbooking

Well it's been a while! Just a quick DLO today. I am doing my pages for this year's album still and this was at the Villge Fete in June. Eliza was doing Maypole Dancing and I think I took about 50 photos but when it came to it these ones were the only ones that I really liked! A very plain LO but the colours are rather bright and unusual and taken from the girls' dresses!

Christmas Cards

Mmm yes well I am not quite sure if I should be proud that I have started making my Christmas cards or ashamed! My second doughter has her birthday just 2 weeks before Christmas so usually we don't really do anything to do with Christmas until after then. But today I had the urge to start making my cards!

Maybe it was because I have sneaked one or two suitable stamps into the basket when I have stocked up on essentials? Who knows! This year however I have decide NOT to beat myself up about doing loads of different designs. So today I did the first 3 designs and made seven of each!

I know they are all based on the same style but I have finally discovered that in order to make the quantity I need to send they need to be simple, quick and easy.
Now I just need to keep them somewhere safe until it's time to send them...

Accordian Spine Book

Today I have been busy making this accordian spine book. Way back in September we went to a Service of Dedication for a friend's son and I took lots of pics on the day. The intention was to make a book of the day to give them and it has taken me this long to get time to do it! The colour looks a bit odd but the pages are a baby blue with darker blue card forming the spine. I plan to use the patterened paper (in the background) to decorate the pages which are 6"x8".

Once I had worked out exactly how to do this (!!) it was a nice quick book to do so now I just have to wait for the photoes to arrive!

All Done!

So here it is! The finished, bound book! I managed to buy some 1 1/4" BIA wires today so I finished it off. I learnt another lesson on the way....don't put brads too close to the edge 'cos they don't fit in th BIA!

I am really pleased to finish the project. I did finish my Christmas Journal too so I am looking forward to doing that again this year. I bought the paper for it today....
Am I REALLY talking about Christmas already?
Thank you for all you encouragement along the way.

The last two days!

Ok so it took me a while to get the last few done but here they are! Day 29 was a very stressful, challenging and difficult day at work; both mentally, physically and emotionally. When I got in I had the overwhelming urge to make jam...from some more pears from school...despite being shattered and too busy to be jam-making really! But I did it and I found that the monotony of the peeling and waiting for the set really calmed me and seeing the jars all lined up lifted my spirits. What a simple being I must be!

Day 30 and what to do for my final page? Well I couldn't chose a photo so I decided to do a page without. I searched t'internet for a quote about learning and found this one...(from a bloke I never heard of and nor had Wikipedia!)...which summed up my month of learning!

So all that remains is to bind my new-found wisdom....and try to keep my blog up to date!

Days 27 and 28...

Hmmm bit late again! Sorry!! Had a really busy few days; school concert on Monday; Guides on Tuesday and tons of soap to wrap last night so this is the first chance I have had to scrap! Not sure I have stuck to the prompts for this one...tho' I think there has been one about "taking a chance". OH was on late lates lSaturday night and wasn't in til the wee small hours so I said I would walk the dogs...generally a blue job in this house! I decided to take my camera and was so pleased in the end as I got the fabby pics of the mist on the field where we go with them every morning.

On Monday I had to take Katy to school to perform in a concert. The school has been establishing a link with a schoool in Uganda. I have to say I went along out of a sense of duty really...but it was the most amazing concert I have been to for a long long time. The children were fantastic and so full of joy and energy that it was quite an emotional event. I am so glad that I went in the end!

Well I am off away on a Guides training weekend in the New Forest tomorrow...so no more til next week when I shall post my final 2 pages.