60 is the new 40

Another friend celebrated her 60th birthday recently. She is my oldest friend and still as "daft" as she was at 16. Many an adventure we had! When she passed her driving test she took me for a "run" in her father's Zodiak. We did "the ton" on the Fraserburgh road. If my mother only knew.........and her's!!!!!

I took great pleasure in making this gift for her. My only disappointment was that I couldn't find the photograph of her throwing a snowball at me during a school trip to Norway in 1967. Although she would not agree, she shows the same enthusiasim now as she did when she took up her first post in Lochgelly in Fife, 39yrs ago. On an historical note, this is where the belt/strap was made that was used for corporal punishment in schools in Scotland. I shudder at the thought of it now but I had one in my desk when I first started teaching. (Never used it)

Baby tag book

This is the little tag book that I have just finished for a friend's wife so that she can show off the first pictures of her first grandchild. The baby's mum is an ex pupil of mine so it was lovely to share some of the excitement of the new baby albeit through photos of the event. I downloaded and printed the phots from a photo sharing site so they are not perfect but now that they are inserted and embellished it doesn't seem to be too obvious.

I used a Sizzix large tag die to cut pages from card and then co-ordinating backing papers. A variety of punches and dies were used to make embellishments. Most of the text was just printed using the computer. I did intend using a Sizzix alphabet but this would have taken me ages and the words would have been too big for the layouts.

Now............ back to cardmaking.

A new chapter begins

I have come to the end of a batch of larger projects that have occupied my time of late. It has been a busy few weeks and my powers of concentration have been somewhat challenged. Creativity is not something that can be switched on and often inspiration is just not there. It is, usually, only the knowledge that there is a finite time for completion that spurs me on.
This time is was my friend Joan's turn to retire and leave the teaching profession after many years of dedicated service . I only hope that there is a young, caring, enthusiastic person entering the profession somewhere that will fill the void that she has left.

This is basically 3 x 15cm square cards that have been arranged into a concertina card/scrapbook. Again, it was Joanna Sheen's Eastern Treasure CD Rom that I used for backing papers and embellishments. I cut tags using Sizzix dies for messages and relevant Confucius quotes and created pockets for these to be inserted into. Some photos are concealed within a flapped section.

Other resources used: Martha Stewart punches, oriental stamps, Memento Inkpad, Oriental coins.

No box but I will make one soon and give it to her.

Some more views

And finally, here we 4 muskateers are, celebrating Joan's retiral on her last day of teaching - 2 down - 2 to go.

Coming up for air

I finally completed the mini album that I was putting together for a friend's retiral. I find that working on a project like this is very different from one that has been commissioned for someone that I don't know well.

I first met Rod at college and when we worked together years later, we would often share common memories of events and fellow students......we still do to this day. He also makes me laugh like no one else can.

He is a very special man who has worked with special children for many years helping them to access the curriculum using technology and I wanted that to be the important theme throughout the album. As usual, it took much longer to finish than it should. I just can't do these quickly.

I used a zig zag album that I had purchased from Lakeland years ago rather that start from scratch thinking that it would speed the process up. (I wish!) Backing papers are mainly from my K& Co stack. ( Honestly, this just goes on and on forever--300 12 x 12 papers and so easy to find an appropriate choice for each page. It was a TSV on QVC and I'm repeating myself by saying that it was my best buy ever.)

One of the shots shows a flapped section where I have inserted 2 photos of statues at the Louvre. (Rod had travelled to Paris to pick up a Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award and they play an important role in his life's story.) I concealed them in this section because they are unclothed and might shock the reader!!

So.... I have one more retiral project to go so will be spending the next while looking for Chinese Proverbs. Confucius says..............

Birthday book

I have been occupied for the last couple of days completing an 18th birthday word book for a colleague's grandson. Not done one of these before and, as I don't have templates or a Cricut, I just printed the letters out using Word Art. These acted as my templates for the word book. Find instructions online at Scrapbook-Crazy. I love this site - and the internet for enabling me to research and create such variety in my crafting.

Thankfully, as it was my first attempt, he has a very short name! I used papers from a 8" x 8" pack that I got at a craft fair (Docrafts I think). They co-ordinate so I didn't have to search elswhere for appropriate colours and designs. I used embellishments and text that were mainly diecut using my Big Shot. The edges were finished with Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Brushed Corduroy. My Bind-it-All enabled me to create the "book".

I must say that I found it difficult to switch from my recent CAS mode to this. I kept thinking that it was too fussy. Strange - but I have another couple of special requests to undertake in the coming weeks so I will have to learn how to switch styles more adeptly.

On a completely different note, I attended a presentation today which mapped the probable future with regard to pupil access to technology which, in turn, will enable them to learn in a completely different way. I was energised by this. This is the way they learn outwith school at the moment. And I inwardly chuckled because I know that there is an equally large group that is transgenerational, learning new things all the time. That group is our band of crafters!!! I have decided that my next purchase will have to be an iPhone.

Retirement project revealed

I attended the retirement party of the recipient of this gift last night so I can now publish full photos. Messages from colleagues were written mainly on the tags that you can see. I did include a hidden section which was also used to record goodbyes. This is closed with a ribbon.
As I said in an earlier post, I used Joanna Sheen's Eastern Treasures CD Rom.
The lady has peonies in her garden just like the ones in the illustrations so I knew that it would be perfect for her. I appreciated the opportunity of making something that took a great deal of thought to complete. Reading that again it sounds strange but I like to see something like this build up. I have no master plan in my head when I start - only the papers, card, glue etc. The project evolves through time and I'm sure that I would not be as pleased with the final result if I had completed it in a couple of days.

Anyway, done now.......what next?





































































And in case anyone is interested, here is some info about materials used.
Eastern Treasures CD Rom
4x 15cm square cards stuck together to create zig zag book.
2 x 16 cm square card ( about 350 gsm) for covers
Ribbon #
Sizzix traditional tags
Martha Stewart punch
Mirror card
Eastern stamps ( variety)

This post is not appearing as I had wished. Sorry about the column of text.