HS:MS us

You and me!

Here's us:

HS:MS S.O.S.

This was taken a few years ago - from the London Eye - didn't come out badly considering it was taken through the glass of the window and the light was fading fast:

HS:MS SPS 4

I've discovered that I never open my eyes wide enough on a photo. For this I decided to look sideways and downwards at the camera. This will have to do for tomorrow, especially as the battery is almost flat:



Decided I'd also try it in black and white:

World cardmaking day 6 October

I just found this link on someone's blog and thought I'd pass it on in case you hadn't come across it: World Cardmaking Day

WHAT

World Card Making Day is a holiday especially for card makers around the world to:
Celebrate the creativity of handmade cards and the personal connection that they create between friends and family
Kick off (and get a head start on) the holiday card-making season

WHEN

The first Saturday of each October, kicking off the holiday card-making season, the most popular time for creating and sharing handmade greetings.

WHO

The card-making community worldwide, including hobbyists, beginning card makers, manufacturers of card-making products, retail sellers of products, educators, and press are invited to come together to celebrate this holiday and creative passion.

WHY

It is a day to connect with fellow card makers both near and far, to applaud the creativity that powers the craft, and to provide an opportunity for card makers to connect and find resources that will empower, inspire, and encourage them in their card making.

HOW

Use this site to find unique ways to celebrate this holiday, including:
Creating your own handmade cards from the dozens of sponsored ideas in the Inspiration Avenue section
Sharing your unique designs with the world in the Creation Corner gallery
Finding and visiting an Official World Card Making Day Retailer
Discovering many fun activities in the Celebrate section

Crafty friends

Saturday is the day when I take my tablet for osteoporosis and have to keep upright for at least half an hour before eating or drinking - the cuppa at the end of this is very welcoming. John made the mistake this morning of bringing me a cup of tea in bed only to be reminded that I couldn't have it 'cause it's Saturday.

If the weather's fine, I often spend the time walking around the garden. This morning is lovely and sunny, although cool in the shade. I use that time to pray for people and this morning I felt led to pray for 'crafty' friends (not cunning ones, you understand!). I know quite a few people who are struggling with various problems or ills, either their own or others close to them. I've made some lovely crafty friends - some in real life, some cyber ones who I've met up with and others who I've never met but who are now among my friends because we have this cyber crafty link.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to look at my blog and to leave comments - much appreciated - and I love visiting others and seeing the results of so much talent.

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Andrea

Andrea said that if it wasn't my thing, then ignore it. Hey ho, it might not usually be something I'd particularly go for, but a bit of 'frivol' is OK!! So here goes:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Timmy (haven't got a car - so I don't think I'd get anywhere as a rock star with that name!)

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Chocolate hazelnut

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) HHAR (doesn't really have a ring to it, does it?}

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Purple Dog

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Mary Harwich

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Harha (sounds laughable!)

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put "The") The Lilac Merlot (I drink a lot of water, but I don't think The Lilac Water would conjure up the thoughts of a superhero!)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) James George

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Poison Humbug (sounds more like a gangster than a stripper, not that I'd want to be either!)

I now tag:

Joanne

Melissa

Paula

Cheryl

Jackie

CBC August swap cards

I received these cards for the swap a couple of days ago (apologise that they got buried under a pile and I should have shown them earlier).

The first one is from Sally (Designer Bunny):

The second one was by Nigel (Freebird):

And the third one was by Melissa:

All terrific cards (although I'm amazed that there is not a hint of pink on Mel's card!! lol!)

Another Bumbleberry CJ DLO

This time this is for Jacqui's CJ, entitled 'Who I am' - telling something about ourselves and including a photo:

An instrument for picking up small objects. Find tweezers in your space today.

I seem to have quite a selection! So here they are all lined up (looks as if they're ready to be used in a surgical procedure!):

Bumbleberry CJ DLO

Here is my DLO for Caroline's CJ. The theme is 'Girly'. Caroline said: 'Here I would like you to celebrate all that makes you a girl, a woman, a female, the mighty SHE!'

Well, although I'm now officially a senior cit, I still like girly things, so this is what I produced:

HS:MS curious

Eager to know or learn. Find 'curious' in your space today.

I make no apology that it's Josey again. She loves carrier bags, especially if there are toys inside. If I come home with a carrier bag she always wants to know whether there's anything in it for her.

This is a carrier containing toys. It's kept in a cupboard and as soon as we go to get it she gets excited.

Salt challenge: God's Promises

Today is Salt challenge launch day. Gillian set the challenge this time and here is what she said:

Just want to say thank you to all who have been joining in on the challenges so far, we loved seeing what you created for the Water challenge.

Gillian here and it's my turn to set the challenge this week and I've chosen

God's Promises.

So many times we are guilty of breaking promises,

or have been on the other end of a broken promise,

but what a wonderful blessing to know

that when God makes a promise it's steadfast.

We'd love to see what Promise from God you choose to use as your basis for your challenge

so leave us a comment when you are finished your piece,

so that we and others may see your work.

To get you inspired the Design Team have come up with some beautiful pieces.

Please take a look at Salt

If you read about my problems with Vista and my craft robo yesterday, you'll understand that my contribution went a bit haywire.

Fortunately I did get my robo up and running (thanks for the sympathy, folks), but I couldn't get it to recognise the registration marks on the printed image for the centre of this LO, so in the end I cut it without and it went 'off line'. I nearly abandoned it to the bin, but then thought that sometimes people do funky things for effect and that I'd leave it as it is! (The simple solution, of course, to all this would have been to cut it out by hand, but I didn't want to be defeated).

So here is my contribution, based on what Jesus said in John 15:5: 'I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.'

HS:MS kiss

AKA: Pucker up, swap spit, snog, tonsil tickling (tee hee).A show of affection by means of mouth to mouth contact. Go on, give us a kiss!

My response to this today needs either a lot of imagination or poetic licence! I'll leave it for you to decide whether Josey is actually kissing one of her favourite toys or nearly biting its head off!

Windows vista ...

Having bought a new laptop to replace my dead one, it, of course came Vista-ready. I love certain aspects of Vista, but it has been a bit of a pain getting new drivers for my printer etc. 'What has this to do with craft?' I hear you ask!

Well, a couple of weeks ago I (thought I) installed my craft robo successfully and actually used it to do a DLO for a CJ. Last night I tried to use it for the project I need to complete for this week's Salt challenge which will be launched tomorrow morning ... and the robo controller wouldn't work.

So I've now taken off what was installed and going through the whole process again - downloading the software from Graphtec. I hope to be able to return later and say that my robo is working. Meanwhile, I'm having to turn to plan Z for my Salt project.

HS:MS print

To produce in large quantities by mechanical process. Find 'print' in your space today.

It's surprising how much printed material piles up! Our magazine rack seems to be always full to overflowing, even though I empty out regularly into the black recycling box. So here are my pictures for today:

The boring bits of cardmaking

So what have I achieved today? I've stamped inserts, put them in the cards and bagged and labelled. So this is all I've got to show: two boxes of individual Christmas cards, 100 in all. I suppose I've achieved something, but it's boring rather than creative, but necessary (and it's an awful photo).

HS:MS cake

A soft, sweet food. Find 'cake' in your space today.

I thought I'd really have to cheat today! I'm trying to lose weight, so cake supply is very limited! I made this card recently, so thought that a photo of it would have to do:

Then I remembered this:

Christmas cards

I haven't done any other crafting, so I thought I'd show a few of the cards I did yesterday (even though they were quick put-togethers from the AG kit). The acrylic greetings stamps that came with it are lovely and will be used again and again for other Christmas cards:

HS:MS SOS 3

Show Off Sunday !!!Show us the best of your shots :)

Not by an means best photos, but these cheer me to look back on flowers that I received a couple of months ago:

Christmas cards

Nothing to show, but today I've made lots of Christmas cards, despite not feeling good. Those of you who know me know that I have vertrabae fractures as a result of severe osteoporosis and am finding life difficult, not that life has ever been easy because of a life-long upper back deformity causing pain and restriction, but, hey, God's grace enables me to do what I can and I've so grateful for that.

For the past two or three years I've sold cards to raise money for TEAR Fund and am planning to do so again in three weeks' time - anyone local reading this, please note that's Saturday 29 September from 10 - 12 in the morning and 2 - 4 in the afternoon.

Over the past few weeks I've made a fair number of packs of Christmas cards to sell cheaply, but I always do some better ones to sell individually at a higher cost - people tend to buy them for the 'specials' and perhaps have a relative put on (not the actual relative, you undertand!!).

So, bearing in mind that I have to be careful the amount of time I spend crafting because of my back, I bought the recent Anna Griffin TSV from QVC, thinking that at least I could make some quality cards quite quickly. There is an amazing amount of cardstock and paper included and I've managed to make cards other than those suggested by the kit - in fact I don't like doing them 'as per the leaflet' but prefer to use them to do my own thing.

In an ideal world I would prefer to make everything from scratch myself, particularly now that I have a craft robo, but unfortunately poor health means that it isn't an ideal situation and I still want to be able to have a supply of cards to raise money.

Now that I know that I've got quite a reasonable amount of stock, I can spend any other crafting time now doing my own thing, which is what I most enjoy.

Of course, all the cards I've made need inserts put it (these are all ready) and will need bagging and labelling - boring, but necessary - something I can do 'in between'.

Thank you, everyone, for your visits to my blog and for your comments, particularly the encouraging ones when I was feeling that perhaps I'd give up the crafting.

HS:MS SPS 3

Show us your self portraits guys!

Thought I'd show my new glasses (wear contact lenses, but trying to give them a rest when I can, so tend to wear glasses at home). Mind you, I've taken them off now, because they pinch the sides of my head and my nose - I'm obviously going to have to go back to have them adjusted - and they cost an arm and a leg!