Crafty As L

  You’ve probably worked out by now that when it comes to crafting, I like to have a bash at new things.  Before Christmas, I’d been reading about pyrography and watched a few YouTube videos and thought it looked like something I would enjoy doing.  I was lucky enough to receive a pyrography machine from Mr. L for Christmas, together with some sycamore plywood blanks to practice on and a book showing how to do various techniques and patterns. Off I went to play with my new toy with much enthusiasm. To start with, I tried some shading patterns and then writing letters.  I then had the idea to stamp some of my card stamps onto the wood and burn over them, since I can’t draw for toffee! This was a very effective plan and so then, having built up my confidence, I decided to try my hand at drawing trees freestyle and put a setting sun behind.  Oh yes, running before I can walk is one of my mottos! Anyhow, I decided a project was required rather tha...

  To be a demonstrator with Stampin’ Up!, you have to join another demonstrator’s team.  You can join any team you fancy within your worldwide geographical area but I joined a local demonstrator, Amanda Fowler of Inspiring Inkin’ as I’d enjoyed many of Amanda’s videos on YouTube and I like to support local businesses where I can. We have online training once a month via Facebook Live but there are a few in person training days where you get to meet other members of the team, get new ideas and try out new products, chat, eat cake and craft together, which makes a nice change as crafting, for me, tends to be a solitary occupation. A common, but optional, activity at this kind of event is Team Swaps.  This involves making a card front to swap with other demonstrators, thereby getting new ideas for a stamp set you own or seeing a new set that may have escaped your notice!  I decided to repeat my old favourite of the ombre sunset and Dandelion Wishes card...

This week, we have been celebrating Mr. L’s birthday.  It wasn’t a big one but still a birthday so warrants some celebrating!  Amongst his presents were two pairs of homemade house trousers.  I don’t know what other people call them but they’re the comfy trousers you put on to doss around in and they’re known as House Trousers in our house. He had asked for some for Christmas but I ran out of time so he got them for his birthday instead.  Now, I had never made trousers before so I was a bit concerned but, since the pattern was a simple pyjama style, they ended up being quite straight forward to construct.  His request for trousers was “the more outrageous the better!” and he loves the Minions so that’s what he got!  Here he is sporting the two designs…. For his card I used my newly acquired Winter Woods stamp.  The bare winter trees are great for Christmas cards but can also be handy for those tricky male cards.  This card is a va...

  You may have seen our jazzy music room wall behind our parents in the Christmas Carol Evening blog post. When it came to decorating our music room, so called because it houses all our musical instruments including Mr. L's kazoo (!), we decided on a red, white and blue theme. Now nothing is more red, white and blue themed than the Union Jack or Union Flag (I’m never sure what we’re supposed to call it) so that seemed a good starting point. I thought the whole flag would be too much so decided on just a quarter of what would have been a HUGE flag.  It’s quite tricky to draw the Union Jack and have it look right so Google came to my aid and I found out what the ratios should be. The cross of St. George is red and is one fifth the flag’s height.  The white border is one fifteenth of the height. The saltires of St. Andrew and St. Patrick are intertwined, with the St. Andrew cross being one fifth the flag’s height.  This is then divided into 6 and then two of the six b...