Ancient Oriental Wisdom

A birthday card for a friend who spent many years in Thailand, and is now a Reiki master.

It's also my entry for the latest Play Date Cafe.

Solstice wishes

So mark we now the longest night
With feasting, merriment, and candle light.
Blessings to you, and those you hold dear
At Solstice, and throughout the new year.

Inspired by.....

This post by Jo Capper Sandon,

Goldilocks the bear terrorist by Wendy of Cubby Hole fame

and a nod to this post by Sue Allan.


Originally it would have had the three different sized bees, but I didn't manage to get the medium/small stamp, so went for three big uns.

This is my entry for the Play Date Cafe, Black & white with a hint of yellow.

All images by Stampotique.

Meet Boris, and his sister... Boris

All spiders are called Boris - it keeps things simple and saves so much embarrassment when you can't remember their name next time you meet them.



Oh ok, it's really because they were immortalised in song by The Who.

Chilly

(although it's actually warmed up a bit now).

Yesterday was a playday at the Cubby Hole, and it was good to spend time with some of the wonderful people who craft there. I had intended to make some more Christmas & Midwinter cards but my mojo had done a runner and it didn't happen. Rather than go and buy some I've instead decided to donate the money to Help for Heroes.

Once that was decided it was time to play so the journals came out. This is a piece which was started yesterday, and finished today, and is my entry for the Play Date Cafe (the wording is purple but it's a bad photo).

It's also the latest page in my "Year in the Life of" journal, which began with a piece called..... "The Big Freeze". At the moment the weather has warmed up a bit, but apparently it's only temporary, so in a couple of weeks there may be a post called "The Big Freeze strikes back!", "Son of Big Freeze" or something equally as daft.

All done

The third and last recipe book.

I went for a simpler approach for this one, as I wanted something which looked old, maybe turn of the century, so it's just corner protectors and a name plate & key.

Insert your own cheesey title here

Well, I was going to add something cheesy/corny about bees but decided not to inflict anything that bad on you; you can do it yourself - after all, this is a DIY recipe book :)

This is the second of three books, the first one is here. The girl at work who will receive this has recently acquired an allotment and is hoping to start bee-keeping next year.

Large bee is Stampotique, grass & flowers are Artemio, small bees are unknown.

Christmas production has started in earnest

Today was a Christmas card workshop at the Cubby Hole, with Sarah Anderson.

After an hour spent gossiping, we eventually started at 11. Sarah provided some sample cards for inspiration, and then left us to get on with it. in our own styles, and just prompting and helping where needed. From then on we sprayed and inked and stamped (and ate cake), and I eventually left with eight cards and a decorated peg.

Production was suspended at one point as Carol received and opened a parcel of stamps from Stampotique, resulting in the sort of feeding frenzy normally seen on Discovery channel :)

Whilst I was making cards, and using red inks, it seemed sensible to make one for this week's Play Date Cafe, where the theme is Red & White. In the end I made three :)