sea breezes

Flower Frame

Unfortunately I was unable to finish my flowers last week, we are moving house and I had to spend most of the week waiting for deliveries for building materials and furniture so I couldn't get to my studio at all. I have tried to make up for it by combining last week's flowers with this week's frame. It's not a huge project as I have spent most of this week up at the new house trying to get everything ready to move in.

I coloured everything with dye ink and then stamped a script design with the same colour over the top. The flowers were cut a little further then moulded around the end of a pencil while the wet adhesive I used was left to dry. Once dry I covered them in glossy accents and added a few beads to the centres. The frame was put together with foam tape for some dimension and I added the flowers and some trim to decorate it. I will eventually hang it on a wall in our new home.

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Remembrance Sunday

In honour of all members of the British Armed Forces, past and present. Thank you.

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, 
England mourns for her dead across the sea. 
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, 
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal 
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres, 
There is music in the midst of desolation 
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young, 
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. 
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted; 
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. 
At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; 
They sit no more at familiar tables of home; 
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time; 
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound, 
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, 
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known 
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, 
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain; 
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, 
To the end, to the end, they remain.

 

Pop up Gift Money Box

Week two of the Sizzix blog hop is Karen Burniston's Pop Up Twist Cube. Karen is one of my favourite designers so I was very excited to try out her new invention. I had planned to make a moving house card with the cube as a packing box but saw on Karen's blog that she had already thought of that one so it was back to the drawing board!

I had an idea that a pop up Christmas present would be fun and then realised how much better it would be if I made a pop up money box. It would be great to put a cash gift inside rather than the usual envelope but even better, once popped up, the cube could be used to keep any other Christmas money gifts safely inside until it's time to go shopping after the holiday.

This is the front of my card:

and the inside with the box still folded (put the money inside then fold the box back down):

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there was an old woman who lived in a shoe...

The beginning of the Sizzix blog hop is finally here, hopefully my post here in the UK will upload at the same time as my friends in the USA if I have managed to work out Eastern time compared with GMT correctly!

Our first project is to use Eileen Hull's 3D Scoreboard house for the Sizzix Pro, we were all sent the house ready cut in white matboard cut using the Big Shot Pro, I would love one of these 13" machines. I thought for a while on how I would decorate it, but couldn't really decide what to do until I was collecting laundry from my 13 year old daughter's room. I spied one of her baby shoes on her shelf, they were her first 'proper' shoes and I remember the day I took her to buy them (our car conked out on the motorway coming home and we were stranded) As soon as I saw it I realised it would fit into the house and I could use it to make a keepsake inspired by the poem "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe". I cut half of one of the walls from the house and placed it over the shoe, I thought it looked great! I was tempted to decorate the shoe but Georgina asked me not to damage it at all as she wanted to keep it so I made a fence from the Sizzix 'On The Fence' edge die and decorated that with grass and flowers. I love the way it turned out and I'm keeping an eye out for some little dolls to use for children!

 

 

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the perfect spot

We live in a lovely house on the outskirts of a medieval village, overlooking orchards with a view down to the sea. It's a lovely view and we have a decent size garden on three sides. We have always dreamed of living in the middle of nowhere (or, in my case, on a beach) but the middle of nowhere is hard to find in the highly populated south east. Until last week. In one week everything has changed for us, we were given the chance of a new life and we grabbed it with all hands. We are moving, not to the middle of nowhere but as close as we'll get. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, huge living room and about three acres of land to do as we please. It's not too far away so no school change, still close to the studio and more importantly the beach.

This is our back garden

This is the front, it will be landscaped, hopefully in the spring, with lawns and a barbecue area. We have been really lucky and have keys already so we can go in to decorate and get everything ready for the official moving date. Steve had tractor lessons yesterday and cut the grass in the paddock, he had a huge grin on his face the whole time, that never happened with the Flymo!

It's going to be a busy couple of months, thank goodness I don't have a craft room to pack up and move, with everything down at the studio I will have my safe haven amid the chaos. Steve is not so lucky, he has his office in our garden, he needs a new office ready to move into before he can dismantle everything for the move. We looked at wood buildings and portacabins but they are so expensive to buy and would need insulating, electrics and decorating to make them comfortable. I suggested a static caravan, bedrooms could easily be turned into storage for filing cabinets, they have calor gas heating already built in and the electrics just hook up. We went to look at some yesterday and found a lovely 12' x 32' Willerby, perfect for an office and enough space to keep a living area. It's coming at the weekend so we have to decide where to site it.