a card for hope

it is so long since I started teaching card making,,,,about 12 years ago in fact. It was not a popular craft at that time and I think I was the only listing for workshops in Crafts Beautiful Magazine - at that time the most popular crafts magazine in the UK. I met so many fabulous girls and we had so much fun thinking up designs and creating our cards at a diverse range of locations from tiny church halls to the poshest hotels in town.  I even landed up showing how to make cards on Scottish Television and the BBC! 

Now of course card making and scrap booking are so popular and the range of products is immense.

It does take a lot longer but is, I think, a lot more enjoyable to design your own projects rather than simply sticking a topper on a piece of card. Some of the cards and scrap books that are being made now are beyond words and so beautiful. Also the internet allows us to share projects and source product from around the world. Tell me a crafter who doesn't love Pinterest?

....enough of my history and back to the present. I have been making a card for a very special friend who is about to go in to hospital. I don't want to post it online as it is obviously personal,  so have made a second, somewhat similar one

I printed off the background (from Karen at The Graphics Fairy) on to paper and attached it to the A5 card with double sided tape

Next I printed the beautiful ballerinas image (also from Karen's site) on to linen and gave it an aged effect by brushing coffee on and then spattering stronger coffee over it using an old toothbrush (my best tried and tested way) - just dip the brush in water and flick over with your thumb  (also works as snow if you use white paint).

I then added a little swag of twirled roses I had made with my hand dyed ribbon

and finally a little poem I wrote a couple of years ago - I hope  the words will do just that. Please feel free to use it

I have had a problem with my blog this week - I inadvertently asked Google to divert it to my website and it just didn't work out. Soooo I have had to start this new blog & paste and copy every posting. Hope this works and I make sure I press the right button in future

roses roses roses

 I love roses - I love the shapes, the fragrance and the colours. I love the poem by our bard, Rabbie Burns

O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That’s sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry:

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only Luve
And fare thee well, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.

I have been painting roses for about 12 years and have enjoyed teaching  others. For some reason my passion for painting has faded away and I hardly ever pick up a brush although, I must admit, I still have about 250 brushes! the main reason is that I don't have a studio any more and this means I can't "slaister" about with paint as I make too much mess in the house!

There are, however, many other crafts involving roses 

I recently dried some roses my daughter gave me

There are lots of ways to dry roses including including using sand, desiccant, silica gel, microwave (got to be careful) and freeze drying. The method I use is more simple and has a good success rate

1)  strip all leaves from the stems

2)  cut the stems so that they are all different lengths to allow warm air to reach each individual one

3)  wind an elastic band around around the stems about 1" from the ends (as the stems dry they will   

      shrink and so will the elastic band) 

4)   hang in a warm airing cupboard  for 1-2 weeks until they feel "papery" to touch

I added the dried roses to a concrete head I have in the hall (I bought it from a garden centre, painted it and added a vintage  effect in the crevices).

The hydrangeas are from my garden and were dried by standing in about 1" of water for a couple of weeks.  The ones pictured are about 2 years old but I really do like a vintage faded look.They should be picked in Autumn after they have flowered and, interestingly enough, hydrangea flowers are actually the tiny centres which look like stamens rather than what looks like coloured petals.

Dried hydrangeas and roses

Also  I have now discovered the beauty of ribbon embroidery, thanks mainly to the beautiful book simply called "Roses" by Di van Niekerk.  Her work is breathtaking and the photos in the book are such a delight to look at.  Di had very clear videos on Youtube and tutorials on her website.

and so...........yet another craft. This time the house will be filled with coloured ribbon in silk, taffeta, linen and more. I have some beautiful French ombre (shaded) silk ribbon and have waited a long time to find a use for it and now I have

Today I hand painted a batch of white ribbon ......

I;m going to use the top one to sew hydrangeas and the other for variegated leaves.

There is so much to learn in ribbon embroidery but that is what, I think, makes a craft worthwhile.

anyway........thank goodness for crafts - the weather here in Scotland is what we call dreich, in other words dull, grey and wet.  

.....breaking news

well that holiday certainly came to an abrupt end........

 When we left Calpe we drove up in to the Sierra Nevada mountains, with the intention of stopping for 1 night and then travelling on to Castro Verde in Portugal. The scenery en route really was stunning (a much over-used word now) but it was beautiful - the almond trees were in flower and the distant mountains still had a dusting of snow on the peaks.

We arrived on Friday, with the intention of getting a local bus in to Granada, but it was such a beautiful sunny day that we decided to relax and soak in the view.

Next morning we got up early and caught the bus to the centre of Granada, a city almost unrivalled for it's beauty and architecture.

  The entire city has been declared a national monument, and it is easy to see why.

We have visited twice before so  had already done a tour of the beautiful Alhambra (Arabic for "the red one").  With that in mind we walked up the hilly cobbles to the Mirador de san Nicolas to see the amazing view.

 By now there was a steady drizzle of rain which made the ancient cobbles wet and slippery. We made it safely to the bottom and decided to have morning coffee in a hotel whilst waiting for the bus back. It was then that I slipped on the cobbles with a bang! Bruised coccyx, sprained left wrist and broken right wrist. The rest of the day was spent in the local hospital  where I was x-rayed and had my right (dominant) arm put in a cast and advised to go home for further treatment.

The last night before catching the ferry we stayed at the aire at Gace in northern France.

 I love this little town which was  the birthplace of famous courtesan Marie Duplessis, a poor uneducated girl who became the most elegant and most courted woman in Paris. The novel "La Dame aux Camelias" by Alexander Dumas was based on her story and was later adapted for the stage.

 Unfortunately the museum in the chateau has always been closed when we have been there - I would love to see the actual dresses she wore to the opera

we had a 1,600 mile journey home which was most uncomfortable and very sore.

5 weeks later.....

I am  sitting here, unable to do any crafting, which is so frustrating. I am using my time planning more tatted jewellery, painting and building a supply of ribbons for my new obsession - French ribbon embroidery. I bought a beautiful book by Di Van Niekerk and can't wait to get started so watch this space.

I don't know what happened to my guardian angel on that trip (wrong choice of word), but I did paint a feather - a request from my friend Agnes

in 10 days I will have the cast removed and hope to be told the bone (radius) is healing well

Wire crochet jewellery

I have been playing with  silver coated wire and beads. As I said in my last post I haven't crocheted in years but I have taken to it like the proverbial duck to water. Silver wire is a new medium for me and it takes a certain amount of trial and error to achieve the desired effect.

I used size 28 gauge wire  and incorporated various sizes of beads.  I then added a piece of wire wrapped sea glass,  picked on a beach in Grand Cayman and then  added a  fresh water pearl.

There are patterns & videos  online. My first necklet was done by  crocheting  3 separate strands of chain and then twisting  them together. The result is, I hope, both tactile and pleasing to the eye.

For the next project I tried something different and crocheted 3 rows of double crochet - this allows  more input as to bead placement.

I am taking orders for these necklets, in the colours of your choice.  They are all made with silver plated wire and have sterling silver clasps. Please allow 2-3 weeks completion and delivery.

I am really enjoying crafting here in Calpe where there is beautiful sunshine every day. This place is so quiet that you can almost hear the silence - very conducive to creativity. We are parked very close to a lake which is a wildlife sanctuary. There are so many herbs and plants and, just to make it more perfect (can anything be more perfect - oxymoron?) there are lots of flamingoes.

Speaking of herbs and plants, and bearing in mind that we are travelling in a small motorhome, so far we have purchased an aloe vera plant, lavender, basil, geranium and rosemary we will soon look like a travelling garden centre! NOte to self - do not buy any more plants!

Wow! aloe vera is the miracle plant - it works like magic on sunburn (already proven a few days ago,  in fact a fellow camper said to me yesterday "thanks doctor" lol ) and has so many other medicinal uses.

What will tomorrow bring?...more sunshine we hope, more Spanish wine and who knows what else?

Thank you for talking the time to read my blog - I would love you to click "follow"

Hola - it's market day

Saturday is market day in Spain

I love markets - especially food markets. I love the smell of the fruit and veggies, the colours, the taste and the atmosphere with locals & tourists alike jostling to reach the fruits of their choice. We had been told there was an open air market in Calpe and set off this morning to find it - it was, by all accounts "just up at the top of the road".  So.......off we went with the nice rustic basket I bought last week for the princely sum of 4 euros

"do you speak English" we had to ask a few times. "poco English" were the replies - luckily the local people are very modest and their English was, in fact, good enough to point us in the right direction. We eventually found the market at the top of the town - approximately 2 miles away!

Spanish markets, like the ones in France  are a veritable feast for the eyes.

The first stall we stopped at sold beautiful plants at great prices. Bearing in mind that we are travelling in a motorhome we resisted the olive trees for sale and settled for a pink lavender plant.  It will join the aloe vera and rosemary plants we place at the door and will eventually be planted in our garden at home.

The selection of olives was amazing & they tasted wonderful. The stallholders offer a sample of everything and they tasted so different to any I have tasted before.

.............on to the fruit and vegetable stalls oooooooooh everything was so ripe and fresh. We couldn't resist buying avocados, fennel, cauliflower, dried figs and much more.

If you like crystalized fruit  this is the place to come, the selection includes strawberries, cranberries, apple, orange, pineapple, mango and even aloe vera.

There were nuts galore & we bought  pino, cashew and almonds

We were full up and happy after our day at the Spanish market and, after sampling so many  of these delights, we had no room left for lunch and settled for cafe con leche at a pavement cafe.

Roll on next Saturday - we will go back with big bags and empty stomachs lol