Powertex Workshop

I've had very little time for crafting recently what with the building work and planning our trip to Kolin. We've bought our new suitcases and booked our flights for 29th March - eeek! There is so much to do before then I'm beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. Partway through making the cards I need to before we go - well actually sorting out ones that are in the box that will be suitable - and getting them written. A couple of special ones need to be made though. I did start some painting but my back's been giving me grief so not much done on that front. Blimey - choosing colours is difficult enough. OH says he's happy with whatever I choose so how come he didn't like the red I chose for one wall in the bedroom? Magnolia here we come!

I did take some time out yesterday to go to a Powertex workshop in Eastleigh yesterday and I really enjoyed it. I made two hearts. This is the first:

Not sure why the left side ended up so flat

On the second one I can't make up my mind about the LOVE so haven't stuck it down yet

On the plus side, I've found somewhere in Prague that does Powertex classes. I've sent them an email to ask if it would be possible for me to join in with my extremely limited Czech (being able to ask for 2 beers hardly counts) so I'll wait and see what they say

Z is for Zero and/or Zucchini

Last month was so busy with our trip to Kolin to try out the flat we'll be renting for 6 months next year and then getting home and the plastering work started on our house that I hardly had any time in my craft room. The plasterers were back on 3rd January and now they're finished so we're just waiting for all the plaster to dry before starting the mamouth painting task - once we've chosen the colours. 3 days of cleaning and there's still seems to be plaster dust everywhere!

With all this going on I totally forgot it was one of my card class ladies Birthday this week so I needed a quick card. I found these printed card blanks last week. It was from a pack of 50 and they're years old but they do give a good start. The dimensional butterflies are by Papermania and I've added some sparkle with a Wink of Stella brush. This fits in well with the Butterfly challenge which is Z is for Zero and/or Zucchini. And as the sentiment is stamped and matted on snippets, I'm taking it to the Playground

New Gnome

We've had a very quiet Christmas at home - just the 2 of us, but it was lovely. This morning after a cooked breakfast we went for a walk around the local footpaths and then home for lunch. I had a frantic message from a friend asking if I could do a quick card for her friend who is moving this week. Apparently she likes gnomes and she's got her some for her new garden. I don't have anything "Gnomey" in my stash so I've used Craft Artist to make this card

Luckily enough it fits in with the theme at the Butterfly Challenge which is All kinds of fairies, elves, gnomes and pixies

Paula Pascaul Workshop

I had a fabulous weekend away at The Gentleman Crafters workshops in Godalming. If you get a chance to go on one, you're sure to have a fabulous time - you can check the itinerary here

On the Sunday we  had a class with Paula Pascaul and made three projects. This is the card we made:

We used lots of Tonic products and it was good to try the mouse and pastes

I really like this layout and this is what we'll be doing in my class on Wednesday so I've made another one just using inks.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:
Butterfly Challenge - Not Square and/or Navy
Pixie's Snippets Playground - snippets of blue and silver mirror card for the butterfly and swirl

Butterfly Quote & Quicksilver

The latest theme at The Butterfly Challenge is Quotes and/or Quick Silver. For this card I've used a technique that my friends Pam & Cally introduced me to a little while ago and I know that they got it from a class they did with Clair Matthews. It's great for masculine cards but I thought I'd try a more girly approach and this theme suited it perfectly

The basics are silver tape and plasterboard tape, both of which can be found in DIY stores (or hubby's toolbox) but I got mine in In-Excess:

The other things you need are die cuts and alcohol inks. You basically stick the die cuts to a sheet of card adding pieces of the plasterboard tape for texture and then cover with the silver tape, go over the whold thing with an embossing tool to make sure the tecture comes through before colouring with alcohol inks. For this one I then used the blending solution to remove the colour from the butterflies and flower (the butterflies and flowers are cut from snippets so I'm taking this to Pixie's Playground too. And the new challenge st PaperArtsy is Alcohol Inks and Pens so I'm entering this there too

For masculine cards I usually use die cut cogs and screws / hinges cut from cereal boxes:

This one just has some odd chipboard shapes that I would never have used because the colours were awful

So thanks Pam, Cally and especially Clair for this great technique

Dublin and Hamburg

I had the most wonderful weekend last week starting with a visit to Dublin on Friday to meet up with family. There were 21 of us plus our honorary cousin Pol O Duibhir. We first met Pol when he gave a talk about my grandfather in Dublin in November 2014 when there were seven family members there. My father was always very reticent to talk about his family although we knew he had a happy childhood until his father passed away suddenly when he was 15. He joined the merchant navy very soon afterwards. Last weekend we returned for an updated talk and we found out so much more about our family. We will always be grateful to Pol for taking such an interest and we look forward to the book he is planning on writing

This is my grandfather, Gordon Brewster, at his desk working for the Irish Independent Newspaper  Group as political cartoonist. The National Library of Ireland holds 479 of his original cartoons and when we visited in 2014 we were lucky enough to be able to view some of them

This is one of the cartoons which actually shows his house as it was at the time:

And this is The Grove as it was in 2014:

The main difference is that the large garden to the right of the house has been sold and new houses built on the grounds. Last Friday Pol arranged for my brother, two cousins and myself to go to the house for tea and apple pie. We were made so welcome by the new owner of the house and her mother and they were so interested in the history of the house. Pol arranged a framed copy of the above cartoon to present to the new family

This is a lovely picture of my grandfather, aunt and father Christmas shopping in Dublin.

We had a lovely family meal on Friday night and Saturday we all went into town for the talk

Sunday was my surprise trip and Derrick and I left everyone at the hotel and made our way to the airport for a flight to Hamburg. We arrived early evening and made our way into town through the Hamburger Winter Dom , the largest funfair in Germany - and it was massive.

Monday (my Birthday) we managed a little craft shopping before going to see the fantastic Caro Emerald in concert.

Our hotel room overlooked a lovely park with some fabulous coloured trees and a beautiful Japanese garden and I had intended taking a picture before we left on Tuesday but when we got up and opened the curtains, everything was white - the snow had arrived! Luckily our plane had quite a long run round in Hamburg so our flight was only 30 minutes late

Such a fantastic weekend - this one will seem very tame in comparison

Hoops and Harebells At The Butterfly Challenge

This fortnight's theme at the Butterfly Challenge is Hoops and Harebells. I always intend to get my card for this challenge done early but it's always well into the second week before I get one done. I've gone for the purplish end of the harebell colour range and this sketch form CAS Colours & Sketches

I made my own backing paper using the smallest swirl die in the Stampin Up Swirly Scribbles set and cut it from funky foam to use as a stamp. My harebell colour comes from Shaded Lilac distress ink:

I had to take a picture at an angle to show the glitter on the butterfly but the stamping is a lot lighter in real life

Th butterflies are cut using Stampin Ups Butterfly Wings Embosslits folder using scraps of lilac card so I'm also taking this to the Pixie's Snippets Playground

Checkered and/or Cyan is the theme at the Butterfly Challenge this time. I've made a twisted pocket card with two tags which I've left blank until I know what I'll use it for but you could easily put a gift card inside instead of the second tag. The butterfly tops and tags are made from off cuts from making card blanks so I'm also taking this to Pixie's Snippets Playground

White on White and or Wire

White on White and/or Wire is the current theme at the Butterfly Challenge. I've made a very simple card using up snippets of white card from making card blanks. The border on the left is cut with the Treading Water Fiskars punch and added some wire threaded with beads. I also added a bead to the butterfly body with wire

I'm also entering this into the Playground - hopefully Miss Di and Mrs A have a fabulous morning at the craft show and a safe journey back

Lavender For The Butterfly Challenge

While continuing the clear out I found an original Kanban concept card kit and decided to make some of the cards up for the charity shop I work in. There's no real crafting in these which is probably why they've sat in the cupboard for so long but at least they've been used now and there's quite a bit leftover for the girls in my craft class to play with. It was only when I was looking at them I realised this one fitted the Butterfly Challenge theme of Lavender and/or Letters so I'm entering it there

And here are some of the rest

The others are just waiting for some Stickles to dry

At least that's one pack gone - just 100 or so to go!