Making time

Hello and welcome (back) to Words and Pictures.  A bit of insomniac creativity for you today - and I'm really going to try to keep it short and sweet...

I mentioned before that I'm getting ready for my brother's wedding: my main task is to create a wedding venue out of a scout hut - it's quite an undertaking (including various bits of craftiness, which I'll let you see after it's all over), and I have to admit it's giving me some sleepless nights at the moment - will I have everything ready in time, and will it work?!  So at 4am this morning, rather than lie there fretting about it, I got up to take my mind off it all in the best way I know how at the moment... I did some crafting!

I'm getting closer to my first Guest Design spot (it's for Top Tip Tuesday), and that's also been causing me some concern. Let's just say it's a challenge that's not exactly in my comfort zone... so the first thing I did at 4am was work through some potential ideas that had been swarming in my brain.  You'll get to see the results very soon.

Then I came up with this - I guess it's pretty clear where my brain was at!

It's on a tag handcut in chipboard to the dimensions of the large tag on the Tim Holtz die (which I haven't got), so it's good and sturdy.

I'd had the stripes nagging at me since unpacking when, by chance, a bunch of scraps and offcut papers ended up lying next to each other while I was putting things away.  I glanced at them and thought that actually they should be allowed to stay together.

There's a ruler from TH Crowded Attic, some DCWV Tattered Time, some TH tissue tape which I'd backed onto tissue paper, a touch of the Simple Stories Documented collection, and some bits and pieces from the 7 Gypsies Conservatory collection... talk about mix and match!

Once I'd worked out the order and stuck them in place, they all got a coat of Picket Fence Distress Stain for that lovely muted look, and a bit of Walnut Stain distressing at the edges.




The Weathered Clock is die cut on fairly sturdy chipboard too, for strength, but also to get a bit more dimensionality to it.

It's covered with the 7 Gypsies paper, and the edges are done with Walnut Stain.  I had to use a cotton bud to apply the ink, rather than the blending tool, for the narrow gaps between Roman numerals.

The hands of the clock are secured with an Idea-ology long fastener, and they're set to the time I woke up!!

The words are stamped, edged, and mounted on some padded tape to lift them away from the surface of the stripes.



There's some more TH tissue tape, this time from the Nostalgic set (backed on to tissue paper and tinted with Walnut Stain), forming the ribbon at the top of the tag, and I also added some simple, natural twine.

I really enjoy the gentle neutrals playing off each other... I think I needed something calming given the time of day and lack of sleep - lime green and neon orange wouldn't have been comfortable to work with!



Okay, it's back to the wedding prep; no rest for the wicked - though I do hope there'll be a bit more rest tonight.  Much as I love crafting, I'm quite fond of sleeping too...

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope that you find time to do all the things you love - and remember, if you're having trouble fitting everything in, you can always make time by getting up at 4am!






I'm entering this in the following:
The Time challenge at Vienna Impressions Inspirations
The Shabby Tea Room who are offering a lovely photo prompt, which you can see here on the right, and an invitation to use Soft Neutrals
I'm just in time, I hope, for the Crazy Amigos challenge Dies and Punches
Sugar Creek Hollow are playing Something Old, Something New (from your craft stash, that is), and given that I made this project to escape for a while from wedding preparations, it seems appropriate to join in!  The 7 Gypsies Conservatory collection was the first set of papers I bought for my stash, early this year when this whole thing began for me.  And the 'ribbon' is made from one of the latest additions, a part-roll of one of the Nostalgic set of Tim Holtz tissue tapes, part of a lot I won on ebay while away, and have just enjoyed unpacking and playing with for the first time.

So little time and so little to do.
Oscar Levant
Yeah... if only, Oscar!!



Just a little something I wanted to share - if you've never come across Calvin Nicholls Paper Sculptures, do go and have a look.  I sat looking at them in awe, jaw hanging.  Here's a little taster... unbelievable papercrafting!

The Puppeteer

Hello again!  Thank you all so much for your kind wishes for a good journey home to the UK - the Butterfly has landed!  And, first things first, the craft boxes are unpacked, and this afternoon I seized a bit of crafting time (needed to calm the jitters), so I'm here with a little something to show you.  I could have called this one, "And now for something completely different..."!

The thing that really switched me on to crafting was the grungy steampunk I found in Tim Holtz's work and products, but most of my projects have mutated via shabby chic into something slightly different (I got distracted by all the pretty papers around!)... So I wanted to try something a bit more purely steampunk, like the stuff I'd played with early on before I discovered all this blogging business!  

This is, in fact, an altered piece.  It started with a bookmark which had been lying on my staircase forever.  I found her slightly disturbing to start with, I have to say - that very intense stare and those slightly strangely clasped hands... besides, there's nothing spookier than a spooky child!

I also wanted a suitable project with which to use metallics, so that I could finally join in with the Studio L3 challenge.  A hugely talented bunch of crafters, hosted by the fabulous Linda Ledbetter, have been working their way through the techniques in Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities II.  

I ordered the book several months ago, and have at last got home to unpack the parcel, so I get to join in with the Perfect Pearls Mist technique on page 54 - better late than never, I say!  You can see the results of the technique here on the right... but I'm not allowed to reveal its secrets!

I'm using it to create a frame for my steampunk puppeteer.

The little steampunk flying cyclist came from some digital wallpaper I downloaded for free months ago, and I'm ashamed to say I can't any longer remember where from.  (If anyone recognises it, do please let me know, so that I can add the credit.)

He's had a coat of UTEE, partly to strengthen him, as the fussy cutting has some very delicate parts.  The added bonus is that you get some dimensionality and that spectacular glossiness!

She's dangling him on a piece of black cord, part of an Ikea jumbo present-wrapping set bought years ago for peanuts in the Christmas sale.  I started with a loop of it, but decided it looked more as though it was between her fingers with a little snip taken out.



The puppeteer herself is sporting a false eye created from a wheel from that same steampunk wallpaper, also glossy with UTEE.  Her skin is Tattered Rose, applied with a blending tool.

Her dress is also coloured very roughly using a blending tool (I didn't want to get into 'colouring-in' too perfectly), with shades of Broken China, Tumbled Glass and Dried Marigold Distress Inks.

There's a touch of Picket Fence Distress Marker on the lace of her collar and cuffs, and on her necklace.  The pearls have also got a lovely dimensional coat of Glossy Accents too, to pick them out.

I used the fine end of the Barn Door Distress Marker for her lips and nails, and Peeled Paint to give her a touch of eyeshadow.


I like a sentiment to be a little ambiguous sometimes - so that you're not quite sure what's being said - you have to stop and think.  This one could, I suppose, be either quite reassuring or quite threatening... look in her eye(s) and see what it says to you!

I inked some plain cardstock with Dried Marigold and stamped the words in Archival Black with my little alphabet set.  The extra little stamped industrial and clock bits are from a freebie stamp included with one of my PaperArtsy orders (thank you, PaperArtsy!).  

I cut jagged corners around the words, edged it with Black Soot, and gave it a little spritz of Perfect Pearls Mist in Pewter.  And there's another wheel from the digital wallpaper, UTEE'd and added to the sentiment.


The gears in the bottom right corner are cut from the DCWV Tattered Time matstack, so have their own built-in gloss.  And I've added one of the TH Idea-ology gears to the centre of one of the paper gears.  I think it all looks great against that metallic Perfect Pearls Mist frame - such a fantastic technique.




I added a couple of bits of black coil to the piece - it's just that stuff you twist round to seal a plastic bag or whatever... again saved from some packaging at some point.  Hoarding does have its uses!  I think you can see it better in the picture on the left.

I backed the altered bookmark onto some more plain card, coloured with Dried Marigold so that it would make it stand out against the embossed frame (it's  the TH Distressed Frame embossing folder twice and joined together so that it would be long enough for her).  

Finally, I added a couple more gears round the puppeteer to finish it off. Had to use up the last of my silver ones so that it would all tone in - oops, now I need some more...!

I'm so glad to be reunited with the remainder of my stash (I couldn't take all of it to the Czech Republic), and also very excited to unpack the parcels which had been arriving in my absence (can't pass up an ebay bargain - even if I know I'm not going to get my hands on it immediately!).  

Lots of lovely things to play around with... though I've also got a lot to do getting things ready for my brother's wedding.  You'll get to see how that turns out after the 12th August, because there's quite a lot of crafting of one sort or another involved, but I have to keep it all secret until then!

I should just quickly say a big welcome to the new followers - great to have you with us!  And thank you all so much for spending some time here at Words and Pictures today.  I look forward to seeing you again soon, either here or somewhere else in Craftland!  

I'm entering this in the following:
That Craft Place who are having a Steampunk challenge this fortnight
Challenge 16 in the Studio L3 Compendium of Curiosities II challenge
Simon Says Stamp and Show still want to know "What do you say?"
And I'd also like to join in the Bloggers' Challenge Blog Hop for the first time  - hosted by Lisa Somerville over at her wonderful blog Splendiferous Creations... For this one, we have to Alter It, and you can while away some wonderful hours travelling round to the crafty blogs below to see what everyone's produced - and/or join in yourself!  

First, though, it's time for the quotes...

We are only puppets, our strings being pulled by unknown forces.
Georg Buchner

Master of puppets, I'm pulling your strings, twisting your mind, and smashing your dreams.
Metallica (look, it's even metallic here...!!)

Time flies...

Hello and welcome - to visitors and followers old and new!  I have a sense at the moment of time flying away from me... the summer break I carved for myself out of a chaotic and difficult year is drawing rapidly to an end.  I'll be leaving the Czech Republic at the end of this week, and every second now is precious before the return to the turmoil.  I'm trying very hard to stay in the present moment and enjoy it, rather than worry about all the things hurtling towards me.  

So the project I'm sharing with you today is something of a reminder for myself.

There's something so beautiful about clock faces, especially vintage style and Roman numeral ones, and yet when you search for quotations about time, so many of them are about its inexorable ticking away of our lives.  One of my favourite lines from Richard II (possibly my favourite Shakespeare play) is the bitter, melancholy realisation he has towards the end:  I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

And then, on the other hand, there are the quotes which are about savouring, or living in the moment, and that rather more positive thought is the one I chose to match my lovely vintage clock faces with.

The piece is structured on an 8x8 sheet from Prima's Printery collection - a lovely combination of clocks and script - two of my favourite things, and there are even some keys thrown in for good measure!

I backed it onto some kraft cardstock for more stability, and then painted some gesso onto it in various places.  I kept it to quite a thin coat, so that the images beneath would still show through slightly.

One reason behind the gesso was that I needed to create a space to stamp the sentiment I wanted to use (using a little alphabet set I got for £1 in The Range).  It's stamped in Walnut Stain, though - as I've learned - when you stamp onto gesso it fades to a fabulous weathered look. And I love that you can still see the handwriting from the Printery paper beneath it.


One of the main features of my "canvas" is the large clock face cut in wax paper using Tim Holtz's Weathered Clock die.  The paper is crinkled and distressed with some Black Soot DI to dull down the colour a bit to tone in.



The dark demi-clock face beneath it is cut from the DCWV Tattered Time matstack - it has a slightly glossier finish, though I've distressed round the edge with the TH Paper Distresser (as I've also done with the Kraft backing, the Prima paper and pretty much anything else I could get my hands on!).

At the centre, the hands are held in place (besides the glue!) with a gorgeous brad from BoBunny - it comes in both their Weekend Market and their Et Cetera brad sets (and for all I know, in some others as well).

The brad got a little dab with some gesso too, wiped off, to just leave a little bit of a distress look to the clock face.

In the top right, over another gesso'd area, I blended Walnut Stain using my homemade clock mask (TH mask sheets cut using the same Weathered Clock die) to create a shadow clock.  This area also got a spritz of Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist to give it a vintage lustre.

The Grungeboard letters are from the Minis set, given a coat of sandy acrylic and distressed with Walnut Stain at the extremities.

I sewed some stitches of beige thread through the Idea-ology buttons but they are then (shh!) glued down.

There's a visual hint of another proverb in this corner if you're willing to 'read' it: a stitch in time...

The clock numerals paper arching over the top corners of the piece is again from the DCWV Tattered Time stack.

Down in the bottom left, I had some fun placing a trio of clocks, one Idea-ology, one within the paper, and one from, I think, The Bead Shop.  I juggled them for a while looking for the best positioning, but it wasn't until I brought my other framing element into play that I was happy with the result.

I'd thought right from the start that I wanted to use some strands from the disintegrating doormats here in the Czech house.  They are lovely woven mats, but now in a very distressed state themselves - and every once in a while a whole plait comes free, and I grab it for crafting purposes!

I did darken it slightly for this project with some Walnut Stain Distress Stain.







I had thought I wanted to do a full frame on all four sides, but that's now for a future project.

It wasn't right here... it needed to be just down in this corner, and once it was there, it was quite clear where the Bead Shop clock (now also with some gesso distressing) wanted to be.

I love that there's part of the fabric of this house (from which I haven't the slightest desire to depart, but events and work in the UK demand it) built in to this project!

You'll probably have spotted the final TH element - one of the Idea-ology Word Sticks... TIME, obviously.  I painted some white acrylic on and wiped the majority away, leaving the letters highlighted in the centre.

And then this vertical element is placed where the paper at the base of it all has a vertical divide between the script to the right and the images to the left.

Finally I cut some strips of mesh ribbon to provide an extra 'frame', and backed the whole thing with some more Kraft to make sure they stayed put!



So, there you have it... I'm working hard to find the space in every moment, and certainly when I'm crafting, I find that it is possible to enter 'the zone' of being really present and conscious.  Of course, I can spend hours at my craft table, but every one of the minutes feels like time well spent.

Thank you so much for sharing some of your precious time with me here at Words and Pictures today.  Your support and your feedback are a real pleasure, as are all the things I discover whenever I come and pay a return visit somewhere in Craftland!

I'm entering this in the following:
Out of a Hat Creations challenge this week, where the theme is Time
A second entry for the Allsorts challenge, Distressing
I'm joining the Sunday Stamper over at Hels Sheridan's Ink on my Fingers for More than Words
It's All About Vintage who are having an Anything Goes challenge this month

Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.
William Faulkner

But what minutes!  Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.
Benjamin Disraeli

You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.

J.M.Barrie

Why do birds sing?

Because music is an unstoppable life force - they can't help themselves!  Hello again, and welcome (back) to Words and Pictures.  I've been playing with my brand new Artistic Outpost stamps, just arrived in CZ from the good old US of A, and I'm in love!  With the stamps, that is (in case that wasn't clear)...

I bought several sets because, let's face it, if you're going to pay the postage, you might as well get your money's worth.  And, besides, I couldn't decide between them all.  I'll be going back for more as soon as the next pay check comes in.  

I was just playing around with them to see what arose, and I found myself (you'll never guess) working my way towards the browns and blues.  I guess I start from where I'm comfortable and then, as I find out more about the stamps, I'll begin to explore more adventurously!  But here's where they've taken me so far...

Those who've been attending closely may remember that I've already altered one of these nasty plastic white frames for an earlier project. A quick before and after:

The Artistic Outpost stamps come as unmounted red rubber sheets.  I've mentioned these kinds of stamps before, and this time I kept a little photo diary of the process, so I'll post that some time soon for those who've no idea what all that's about.  

Again, those who are old hands at this are free to ignore that day's nonsense!  

The sets I chose will make absolute sense to anyone who's been following my journey so far.  They centre around music, the search for serenity, rural images of solitude and peace, and lots of words, quotes and phrases.  


This project uses stamps from the sets Whimsical Melange, Serenity and Old Grist Mill, and really grew very organically out of my explorations with the stamps, trying them out in different colours and inks on different surfaces.  I pretty quickly realised things were gathering towards something three-dimensional.  So I grabbed another frame...

The external walls are covered with a paper from DCWV's Tattered Time Mat Stack, and it's edged with the lovely rich Walnut Stain Distress Ink. 


For quite a long time I was playing with the notion that the same paper would be on the front edge of the frame, but - as you'll see - things change of their own accord when you're crafting!





The internal walls, floor and 'ceiling' are covered using a sheet taken from an old music book.  I've covered it with a wash of Picket Fence Distress Ink which gives a lovely muted, whitewash effect, and added the little criss-cross checkered stamp from Whimsical Melange for additional texture.


Let's get a proper look at that Songbird stamp and quote, instead of all these oblique angles!  It's simply glorious.





It was always destined to be love at first sight with this stamp.  It's incredibly beautiful.  It's stamped here onto a lovely text-based patterned paper from K&Co's Best Of selection.  

I've used my much-loved combination of Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks blended on the stamp. 

And just look at these twirling vines, birds and butterfly - so pretty... and the sentiment obviously strikes a strong and beautiful chord with me.


For the background, I wanted to have a go at combining some of the techniques I'd been learning (Tim Holtz tutorials here, and his Compendium of Curiosities book - so great; as well as loads of great crafting tutorials on youtube) and playing with one by one.



So, using the lovely leaf stamp from the AO Old Grist Mill set (just wait til you see the Mill itself!), I stamped randomly over a piece of A4 kraft paper using acrylic paint.  

I kept them well-spaced because I knew there'd be other versions to come.

I then blended various ink colours over the top (you can probably list them yourselves by now) with a blending tool.  

The acrylic paint provides a resist effect, so that with a spritz of water on some paper towel, you can wipe the ink away to reveal the leaf beneath.

I tried some water-stamping - Versamark or embossing ink onto the stamp, then a spritz of water, then stamp it onto the inks - and if you look closely you'll see a couple of very ghostly images, but either my ink colours weren't dark enough or they'd soaked into the paper too much for this to work terribly well.  I've had much more success on a smoother surfaced cardstock.  

Then there are some clear-embossed leaves, and some simply stamped in Chipped Sapphire.  The whole thing then got a few spritzes of Perfect Pearls Mist in Pearl to give it the shimmery gleam.  I'm deliriously happy with the result - hence all the pictures you're getting to look at!!


This one, going across from left to right, has the paint leaf, embossed leaf, and stamped leaf in close-up.

In the end, as well as using this as the background, I decided it deserved a foreground position too, and so now it adorns the front edges of the whole piece.  

The little house-shaped stamp is another early favourite - so adorable, with another couple of favourite motifs: the ruler and the butterfly.  


It's printed, like the main quote, on the K&Co paper.  In keeping with the musical theme of the sentiment, I've added my lovely Memory Box treble clef die, this time cut in scrunched wax paper, giving it a lovely textural quality.


The whole thing's backed on to chipboard to give it some body.  I found I wanted a little extra something, so gave it the wax paper 'fringe' down the inside edge.








I added a little Weathered Wood to the bunting using a TH Distress Marker, and then got up to my old tricks with the Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire and then a Versamark/UTEE re-stamping of the leaf. 

I'm still in love with the enamel effect this gives.  Don't expect it to disappear as a combination any time soon!

The Harmony stamp from the AO Serenity set is stamped in Walnut Stain on to another piece of the music sheet, then clear-embossed.  I attached it to a bit of 'tattered faux-leather' I had hanging around.  I learned this technique from a great tutorial from J Ann B Designs.  

It's brilliantly messy fun to do, and you go around looking like a terminal smoker with horridly stained fingertips, but I do like the end result.

And the little twig heart was from one of my 'silly' bargains on ebay: a bag of 25 hearts in several sizes for 1 penny (with free p+p!)... now that's my kind of shopping!  I made the tiny scroll out of the K&Co paper, and ripped and distressed the edges with the help of a bit Walnut Stain.  The scroll is tied with a little strip of wax paper.  

You can get another look at the stamped music paper here too.

Mulberry paper roses add the final touch to the piece.

Well, so far I'm deeply enamoured of these stamps - they're everything I hoped they'd be when I held my breath and crossed my fingers that they would reach me here in the Czech Republic!  

I'm entering this in Artistic Outpost's July challenge which is 'Anything Goes' (as long as you use AO stamps, of course!).  And given you can enter as many times as you like, I'm guessing that - as I continue playing - there may be more to come!


I'm also entering it for Frilly and Funkie's challenge to Show Some Texture (I'm taking them at their word that the added twist of using material is optional, unless faux leather counts!), and the current challenge, Make It Sentimental at Moving Along With The Times, where they'd like the sentiment to take centre stage.


Thanks so much for spending some time here at Words and Pictures.  It's always great to hear your comments, and if you'd like to join up, it would be lovely to have you on board.  Enjoy the rest of your day, whatever it may bring, and see you again soon.


Use those talents you have. You will make it. You will give joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best.
Bernard Meltzer

Song in Your Heart

Hello, and welcome!  I've had several projects on the go at once for the last few days.  A couple of them stalled because I was waiting for some gesso which I'm planning to experiment with on them.  A friend had promised to bring a little pot over from his supply, as I'm not sure where you'd get it in the little villages round here, but kept forgetting to put it in his bike basket.  I've got it now and, given what I've seen on some of the amazing crafty blogs around, I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do.



In the meantime, the two other things I was playing with somehow amalgamated themselves into one on my craft table.  As with many of the other lucky accidents which happen as you're crafting, the serendipity of this one has come together into an end result which I think is probably nicer than either of the other two things I had planned!

With this card, I think I'm starting to feel my way towards finding out what 'my' style is.  I'm pretty new to this stuff, and there's been so much to see and learn and explore (ongoing - as I suspect it always will be!), and I'm trying out lots of different things, but I'm discovering the elements which keep bubbling to the surface as I play.

For this project, I've come back to the words and music which have been at the centre of my 'other' life, so perhaps that's part of why this project feels so right to me.  

Having the words, the sentiment, at the centre, guiding what was happening, made complete sense to me.  And it's a quote I've always loved, since singing and music are really important to me, as are - of course - my friends, old and new.  


Kraft paper is never far away when I'm playing... there's something so pleasurably earthy about it.  And I like throwing that into the mix when things get too flowery or girly!  





Once I'd painstakingly stamped the quote, letter by letter, I was planning to cut it out as a plain old rectangle, but as I looked at it on the page, it started whispering 'heart shape' to me.  


I doodle hearts all the time, not because I'm a hopeless romantic (although looking at this card, you'd be forgiven for thinking so!), but because it's a pleasurable shape to swoop round, so for once, faced with some freehand drawing, I wasn't completely fazed.

The treble clef is another of my constant doodles when my pencil is wandering.  I had to learn to do it for Music Theory when I was a schoolgirl, and there's a real precision required when you're doing it on the stave.  


I used to take great pains and pride in getting all my swirly bits on the right line.  But it's also really pleasing to draw, as well as to look at.  This Memory Box Die is going to get plenty of use, I can see.  It's so delicate and fragile, and beautifully formed.


The vintage look has been at the centre of all the crafting I've been doing, whether grungy or, as here, shabby chic.  And layering seems to recur again and again in the pieces I like best (whether mine or other people's).  

I adore papers!!  There are so many amazing ones out there I could spend a fortune.  Most of these are K&Company from their large 'Best Of' selection, while the music notation is from DCWV's Tattered Time Mat Stack.  Again I'm often drawn to the papers with music and with script or text on.


I'm also discovering that dimensionality really excites me, so the ripping and tearing not only fulfils the aged, vintage look, but gives that texture and life to the paper.  





I could have edged all these with my adored Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink, but for once I wanted the white edging to ping out, creating the border between these pinky-brown papers.   











And yes, I know that it's pink and brown rather than my out-and-out favourite blue and brown, but sometimes a girl's just gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

I also enjoyed finding out recently how simple it was to curl a paper-ribbon, and I love how this animates the piece, giving that 'fluttering in the wind' look.  

I made sure that the ribbon at the front had the words visible... such a pretty font.  And with the ribbons, I did indulge myself with a bit of inking - Frayed Burlap though, not VP.

And here's another Memory Box Die, the Madera Corner.  If there's been a surprise to me in all this, it's how drawn I am to the delicate and fragile elements and embellishments, and to the florals (although they do have to be vintage, cottage florals not huge great tropical things - so far, anyway).  


I guess I'll just have to accept that there is, after all, a girly-girl in the personality mix too!

And who doesn't like to receive a bouquet from time to time?  I made the little conical wrap, and tucked in some of the lovely Mulberry paper roses I got from Malaysia (via eBay, of course).


So, these are some of the things which are starting to be part of 'my' style, but I'm so new at this that I'm not going to pin myself down yet, or maybe ever.  The last project that really got me going was the complete opposite, and the other thing I do know about myself is that I love contradictions!


I'm entering this one in the following:

La-De-Dah's My Mojo Monthly summer challenge to discover 'Your Style'
The Daring Cardmakers' challenge Papermania, where they'd like us to use 6 or more patterned papers on a card
The Little Red Wagon challenge Sentimental You, where they'd like us to have the sentiment at the centre of things
The Craftroom Challenge, whose theme is Friendship
Take a Word's new challenge - the word this week is Music
The Cupcake Craftroom's July challenge, which is Layers

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at this shabby chic style card.  I've also been playing with my photo editing a bit today.  It has a 'Vintage' option, which seemed appropriate.  I'd like to share it with you because I think it's rather nice.


Thanks so much for taking the time to drop in.  It's always fantastic to hear your feedback, and if you'd like to see more, do join our merry band of followers!  For now, have a great day, and I hope to see you again soon.


You don't make friends, you recognise them.
Isabel Paterson