In A Vase On Monday - Anniversary Roses

Late as it is, at the time of writing Monday's almost yesterday, I'm determined to participate in Cathy's meme In A Vase On Monday over at Rambling in The Garden. 

The photo was taken, as you can see, on one of the few sunny days we've had in the last couple of weeks and I have to admit that wasn't today. I actually put this arrangement together  to celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary on 20th July but this is the first opportunity I've had to share it here. It's a very simple combination of red roses, Faithful and Pride of England, hypericum Magical Red Flame and a couple of fronds of fennel. 

Rosa Pride of England, a classic hybrid tea that provides us with these huge stunning blood-red blooms right through the summer. The petals look like velvet. This rose was planted for my husband who is from Manchester in the North West of England - just a little reminder of home.

Rosa Faithful. This is a very floriferous floribunda rose - that's just one stem you can see in this photo. It also has a lovely fragrance.

Hypericum Magical Red Flame and Fennel.  The striking colour of the seed heads on this hypericum cheers up what could be a very dull corner. I preferred the green fennel to the bronze variety for this arrangement. 

The little brown and white vase is another charity shop find - picked up whilst we were holidaying in the Highlands of Scotland in June. I haunt charity shops wherever I am. It's a piece of studio pottery - the signature is difficult to read but it looks something like Genny Pottery. 

I hope you all will forgive me for sharing this arrangement even though it's from a couple of weeks ago. Though I should say it's still going strong - I've been replacing the blooms as they go over just to keep it as a reminder of a very lovely day. 

Rudolph Day Card - Christmas Corner

Evening Folks

This has got to be the quickest post in the history of this blog because time is running out to participate in July's Rudolph Day Challenge over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo!

I made this card very quickly using a bought base, a scrap of card that I'd already embossed, a recycled greeting and a few enamel dots

Here's a close up of the embossed detail.

Supplies used were:
- scalloped edge white card base - Make & Create, The Works
- snippet of red card - American Crafts Bazzill Basics, Tomato
- embossing folder - Nellie Snellen Christmas Corner
- greeting cut from a card received Christmas 2016, trimmed and corners rounded
- corner rounder punch - Woodware
- silver enamel dots - Simple Stories, The Story of Us
- inside the card is stamped with the Merry Christmas stamp from Penny Black Wonder Collection using a ColorBox Cranberry ink pad.

Here's a pic of the embossing folder to give a better idea of what the embossed design looks like - it's very pretty.

I hope my brother and his wife will like this card as much as I do come the time.

I'm also entering this card into Pixie's Snippets Playground  - anything as long it a snippet or three were used in the making.

Friday Smiles

Morning Everyone,

I'm joining in again with Annie and the Smilers over at A Stitch In Time to share just a couple of the pics that have put a smile on my face this week.

First up is this one of great-grandaughter Lacie looking very glum after being woken up early to go to the hospital to see the eye specialist. She is a real sleepyhead and can still be asleep well into the middle of the morning!

Next up is this photo of great-grandson Callum looking very grown up. He's had his hair cut and it does make him look less like a baby and more like the toddler he now is. He's also incredibly like his daddy at that age too.

And here's two youngsters you rarely see here. They are DH's great-great niece Freya and great-great nephew Josh who live in the south of England. They're showing us that they'd both received the little Scottish rag doll, with hair the same colour as Freya's, and bagpipe playing teddy we found on our travels. And yes, it does make us feel old to have great-greats but they are such a joy too.

Finally, a photo from the garden of a bee on our cotoneaster tree. The flowers may not look much but the bees find them irresistible and all I hear when I stand under the tree is the busy buzz as they gather the nectar. This tree is absolutely smothered in flowers this year which means there are going to be plenty berries for the birds this coming winter.

As you can see, even though in many ways this has been a difficult week or so I haven't had to look far for things that made me smile this week. I hope you've had as much to make you smile too.

Take care and have a wonderful weekend.

WOYWW 425

Afternoon Deskers and All

It's a miserable rainy day and I'm not revealing my desk today because there's nothing going on there - not a thing! It's been one of those weeks - events conspired against me so that I've had precious little time to breathe let alone craft. I could give you a breakdown of my chaotic week but I'll spare you - instead, I thought I'd just share a few completed projects.

First up is the card I made for the UKPC Challenge for July with the theme and method I described an earlier post - click this link to see it. The base of the topper started off like this:

It's a lovely effect.

Next I have two layouts to share.

I've used a real mix of papers and embellishments, all old. There's papers from Echo Park, Websters Pages, Simple Stories, My Mind's Eye and Carta Bella and the dates range from 2011 to 2014. You can tell from that why I'm not in the market for paper for the foreseeable future - too much fabulous stash to use up. When this layout was completed there was still a lot of scraps to play with so I made this next layout too.

I tried some mixed media, gesso and ink sprays, on the white base and consequently the card has warped a little. Even backing it with the dark green card didn't help entirely. It will flatten out once it is in an album. Needless to say, it only used a fraction of the scraps but inspiration ran out so they are now packed away in the scrap box where they will stay until either inspiration hits me or they are gifted to a worthy cause.

Finally a fun photo from Monday.

It was a glorious day and this is my daughter and I having lunch in the sun. We don't get a lot of opportunities like this so we made the most of it. I've just noticed that rusty shovel!

That's it for this week. Not much and I hope you're not too disappointed there's no desk shot. Hopefully things will be much more like normal next week and the desk will once again feature for Julia's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday over at the Stamping Ground.

In the meantime, I wish you all a wonderful WOYWW and a great week ahead.

WOYWW 424 - and winner of book giveaway

Morning Deskers and All,

Wednesday again! What black hole swallowed up the last seven days ... my life is flying by in a series of Wednesdays at the moment. It's going to be a very quick post today because, as you will see, there's nothing much going on at my desk.

Here it is in all it's messy glory. There's been no progress on the planned layout - the supplies are still there but that's about it. I have been experimenting with alcohol inks so there's a pile of bits on the left and a card on the right resulting from that - see the previous post for more on the card. The plant label is for Snow-in-Summer - the plant went in the garden on Monday so, of course, the label was tossed on my desk and forgotten. The rest is the usual pots and dishes I keep around me. The little rose printed dish is to put wet wipes in - they can make such a mess if not kept out of the way ... ask me how I know!

This is a close up of one of my most recent acquisitions found in a charity shop. It's perfect for keeping embellishments in while making a layout - that will be the layout I'm not making at the moment.

The book giveaway

Four people expressed an interest in reading the book so we made the draw in this time honoured tradition:

DH did the deed and drew Helen.

Please email me Helen, on ellie.worthington@sky.com, giving me your snail mail details and I will get the book off to you as soon as possible.

That's me done today. I'm off to visit my sister now so I won't be able to leave comments until later when I get back.

Have a happy WOYWW.

Butterfly Birthday Card - Experimenting with alcohol markers

Good Morning ...

... and a very happy Tuesday to you all too.

I have a very quick share today.

Prompted by this month's swap challenge for UKPC I've been experimenting with all sorts of alcohol inks, including Promarkers. This card is intended for my younger sister's birthday later this month. She doesn't read my blog so it's okay to share it here.

Here's how I made it:

- first I selected a bunch of colours that I thought would look good together. I chose a rainbow of colours. From left to right - Indigo Blue, Cobalt Blue, Duck Egg, Ruby, Cardinal Red, Poppy, Dusky rose, Ginger, Soft Peach, Buttercup, Pear Green, Olive green, Leaf Green, Lime Zest, Baby Pink, Lilac, Bluebell, Plum.

- I then took a Ranger Gloss Paper 7 x 10 card base - I'd forgotten I had these tucked away in my stash until the recent big sort out.

- with the top and bottom masked off I simply drew lines of colour, using the stubby end of the pens and working from each edge into the centre. The next step was to add some Adirondack Alcohol Blending Solution which had the effect of smudging the hard lines between each colour. This would work better with Adirondack alcohol inks but it didn't do too badly with the Promarkers. I also dabbed on some Gold Adirondack Mixatives which is not showing up too well on the photo but looks lovely in real life.

- to tidy up the edges of the panel I drew a line top and bottom with a Krylon 18kt gold leafing pen and then outlined that with a black Pigma Micron 08 pen.

- to decorate the card I cut out a decorated circle from a snippet of gold card using an inexpensive die from The Works and it cut perfectly.

- I then used the butterfly die and cut it out of this piece of card that was another alcohol ink experiment.

It was made on a scrap of smooth white card using Adirondack Alcohol inks in Sail Boat Blue, Red Pepper, Currant, Sunshine Yellow and Juniper with splats and dabs of the gold mixative. It looks very bright and messy here but once it was cut the butterfly looked a lot more toned down.

- almost finally, the greeting from Stampin' Up's So Happy For You set was stamped in Stazon Jet Black and then I added three tiny hearts - saved from the butterfly waste - just because they were too pretty to toss.

- to finish the inside, and because there was a little bit of bleed through from the markers, I added a plain white insert.

I did trim the bottom edge it with a sliver cut from the paper used to mask the card when colouring - it mirrored the front of the card perfectly.

Well, that doesn't look such a quick share but it's mostly photos and it really didn't take too long to make either.

Because I've used a couple of, admittedly tiny, snippets I'm submitting this to Pixie's Snippets Playground. 

The reason for speed today is that as it is such a glorious day we are off out to Culzean Country Park. We're taking a picnic and  we intend finding a lovely spot to just sit and enjoy.

I wish you all a very lovely day.

In A Vase On Monday - A Lovely Bunch of Roses

Afternoon Everyone,

I'd have been here earlier but the sun is shining and the garden was just too tempting. I've been weeding, cutting back some overgrown shrubs, and planting out a pot of snow-in-summer, Cerastium tomentosum in a sunny spot where I'm hoping it will thrive and spread. However, the heat has finally driven me indoors to participate in Cathy's In A Vase On Monday with this gorgeous bunch of roses.

The recent wet weather hasn't been at all kind to the roses lately. Much too much rain. After a lot of deadheading and a couple of dry days they seem to be perking up again. This bowl is jam packed full with roses in ice cream colours. There's Elina, Patricia Kent, Happy Retirement and Burgundy Ice but there's also a couple of unnamed roses tucked in there too.

Elina

Patricia Kent

Happy Retirement

Burgundy Ice

These are the two unnamed roses.

The first one of these two has the strongest perfume of them all.

They look perfect in this cut glass bowl. I've put them on the coffee table so the perfume can fill the sitting room.

That's my vase today. I'm just hoping that this wonderful weather keeps up so I can catch up on all the overdue chores in the garden.

I wish you all a wonderful week ahead.

Friday Smiles

Morning Smilers,

I have everything to smile about here today - the sun is shining and that always makes us feel a lot happier. Joining in with Annie's Friday Smiles, over at A Stitch In Time, I have a few photos to share; although you'll be pleased, perhaps, that this post isn't as photo heavy as last week's.

This photo of Arihanna, our great-niece, was taken on a trip to Edinburgh on Monday. Actually, we were on the way back and she's eating a chocolate muffin. The way she got it all over her face just made me laugh.

This is the latest addition to my daughter Juli's family and he's adorable. He's just a few weeks old in this photo - he's a Jack Russell cross. Now named Pepsi (after Juli's favourite cold drink) the breeder called him Mr Red to distinguish him from the rest of the litter, hence the red collar.

Almost done but here's another shot taken in Dundee. Desperate Dan, a very popular character from the 'Beano' comic. He's 'the world's strongest man' but my DH couldn't resist trying to prove otherwise. No contest!

Finally, my favourite rose is in bloom again. Unfortunately, I've forgotten it's name but it always reminds me of the Robert Burns song, 'My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose'. Just perfect!

I could go on but I think that's enough for one day. I hope you've all had a week full of things that made you smile and I wish you a wonderful week to come too.

WOYWW 423 - and book giveaway

Afternoon Everyone,

It's another wonderful day here. Casa Worthington is basking in sunshine and the roses are recovering after the many, too many, days of persistent precipitation we've endured recently. Just the kind of weather you'd think to potter around the garden. However, the sun has brought out what I think are a swarm of flying ants and I've taken refuge in my craft room to share what's on my desk with Julia and all over at the Stamping Ground.

There's not been a lot of activity over the week. I did finish the layout that was on last's Wednesday's desk but the leftovers are still lying there waiting for me to do something with them. I do want to use them up rather than put them away in the scraps drawer so I've pulled out a page of sketches (saved from a 2013 issue of Scrap 365 magazine). It's a plan.

That's a new stamp set from Shimelle Laine. I thought the words and phrases were quirky and different enough to merit a place in my collection.

Also on my desk is this book from Carole Matthews - my holiday reading. The story is based on the life of cardmaker Christine Emberson. You may know of her from her association with Spellbinders and her appearances on craft shows on TV. It's a light but fun read, not least because of the many references to cardmaking. Now that I've read it I've decided to make it a giveaway. Just let me know in a comment if you are interested. If there are many of you, I will do a draw and I'll let you know the result next Wednesday.

Not exactly a desk but it is what I am working on in the garden this week. This is my mini nursery by the kitchen door and those plants are waiting for me to find time to plant them out.

And finally. The herb patch is doing so well that I have a bit of a glut so when I spotted the instructions on how to make flavoured oils in a garden centre recently I thought I'd give it a try. The tall one (an empty Worcestershire Sauce bottle) has rosemary in it and the jam jar has a mix of thyme, marjoram and rosemary. Haven't tasted them yet but looking forward to some on salads later.

That's my various 'desks' for this week. I'm looking forward to seeing what is on your desk and I will comment on as many as time allows. I did look at everyone's desks over the last week on my husband's tablet but I found it takes forever to type up a comment on it, unlike bashing away on the keyboard I'm using now, so I gave up. Sorry about that. Knuckles duly rapped.

Take care and have a great week.