Tuesday 11 October 2011

Only TEN weeks!!!

Well, ten & a bit…till Christmas that is!!  I hate to be the bearer of such news but I started my Christmas shopping today….just a few stocking fillers, but Christmas shopping nonetheless!!!

It seems strange that it’s already ten days into October & I’ve not been on here sharing scrappiness with you! It’s been a strange two weeks…I’ve been logging on erratically, scrapping sporadically…but you know that feeling when real life just needs to take priority?…well that’s been me!!

I had a few days of overtime to work, which always throws my whole routine into chaos & the house even more so!! My shoulder is soooo painful, even though the Cortisone injection helped for a couple of weeks, the pain is back with a vengeance & I see my GP again tomorrow!

1 psychoSo, what about scrapping?!! Firstly, the movie poster challenge over at ‘From Screen 2 Scrap’ this month is ‘Psycho’ & for some reason I really struggled with this one. The added criteria was to incorporate a ‘spooky’ house, a split-in-half one word title & a silhouetted figure.

My problem was to dig out photo’s that came even close to tying in with being ‘spooky’…I eventually plumped for some night time photo’s of the boys, taken last year while they were playing with Sparklers & I was playing with the settings on my Canon!!

 

Here is my layout for this challenge…

2 Sparklers 
It’s one of those where I can see things I could have done better, but without pulling it all apart, can’t change! So I’ll live with it!!!

If you feel inspired by this movie poster & challenge, do jump in & play along! Just link your entry to the post over at ‘From Screen 2 Scrap’ by midnight on 29th October!

I’m also taking part in the ‘SENSE-ational’ contest over at ‘Soul Scrappers’, which started in September & is running over five months. The first challenge was the ‘Smell of Summer’ & I chose the smell of line dried washing…one of my all time favourite smells!  Added to the fact that I had photo’s taken of my full washing line that I’ve been intending to scrap for literally years!! There was added criteria, to earn extra points, Sewing, ribbon, string, 2 or more photo’s & a journaling tag! All of which I managed to include…

5 Weeks Wash 

I’ve also had my first commissioned work since my last post!! A keepsake Birthday card for a friend-of-a friends, Mum-In-Laws 80th Birthday! I was supplied with a photo (of not very good quality!) & a list of things the MIL was ‘into’…namely the sea, playing bridge & roses. This is what I came up with…

CardI edited the photo in Picassa to greatly improve the quality, which took ages, but was well worth it!! (of course I have blurred the dear lady’s face here for obvious reasons!) I used a sunset over the sea image, printed onto acetate as the background & made a frame for the photo from chipboard, painted & misted. I built up the card using rik-rak ribbon & Bazzill ‘Just the edge’ CS strips, lace, pearls, paper roses, leaves, seashells & seahorse, & of course, the four suits from a deck of cards, which I think covered everything! Those shells were a horrid yellow plastic to start, but a touch of paint & ink did the trick!! Finally I added the number 80! I printed the required words on an inner vellum sheet & made a box, lined with tissue & tied up with sheer cream ribbon. 

My ‘commissioner’ was thrilled with the finished result & was very generous with her payment!!  I guess, as crafters, we all assume that everyone is creative & can often be over critical of our own work, when there are lots of people who simply can’t create what we do!  I really enjoyed working on this project & as well as being financially rewarding, I’m also happy to know that it will be a valued keepsake!

27 Sept 2011 001 I’ll leave you with an image I captured the day after my last post. We had had a terrific storm & while the sky was still slate grey, the sun broke through & we had the most perfect rainbow I’ve ever seen

It had an echo too  & you can just make out a second, less well defined rainbow, to the left of the picture.

I’m not an overly religious person, but a rainbow always takes me back to childhood Sunday School classes. The story of Noah & the flood…


Noah looked up. The storm clouds were drifting away, the bright sun was shining against Noah's back. And against the dark grey sky, God made a brilliant rainbow appear. God said to Noah,

“You see, I have set my rainbow in the sky. This will be the sign of the covenant I have made with you and all creatures, never again to destroy the earth by a flood. It will always remind us of the promise between you and me.”

So, the next time you see a rainbow, think of Noah and the flood. Remember that God loves you, and that no matter how bad the storm, there will always come a bright new day.

Thanks for dropping by & come back soon! :)

9 comments:

Leonie said...

Hi Sandi, great layouts here. love the diecut stars in the first and that washing line banner in the second is so cute. Hope your shoulder pain eases, sounds nasty :(
take care.

Anonymous said...

Love the spooky house and tree. that card brief seemed really hard to me,I would have struggled.
Sorry to hear about your shoulder worsening.Does heat soothe it.I have found my Argos heat pad,invaluable for the night.I have used it EVERY night for over a year. It turns it's self off.

debs14 said...

Having had calcification of the muscle in my shoulder last year I have to say you have my every sympathy. No one can imagine how excrutiating a pain in your shoulder can be and how it interferes with so many things you do. I do hope yours improves soon. I ended up having some sonic radar treatment at the chiropractors which did the trick in the end. Take care x

debs14 said...

Not sonic radar - sonic LASER! Doh!

Sian said...

Wow, your washing line looks all colour coordinated!!

The weeks? It's probably a good thing you told me, I could do with getting started on gathering up a few things. We have lots of family birthdays in Set and Oct which means Christmas shopping gets shunted along a bit.

I'm sorry to hear about the shoulder. It sounds bad :(

humel said...

I seem to recall that Blogger wouldn't let me comment last time, but I've been able to comment elsewhere so hoping this will work out too...

First up, I think you did a grand job with the spooky layout; the card is gorgeous; I adore your colour-coordinated washing line, and - finally I think! - so sorry to hear about your shoulder, hope you can get that sorted soon xx

And no, that wasn't finally! Love the rainbow, and the message with it xx

furrypig said...

fab pages, fab post xxx

scrappyjacky said...

I think I'd have found that first challenge impossible....you've come up with a great layout.
So sorry the shoulder is still bad...hoping for a rapid improvement for you.

Beverly said...

Doing those challenges would overwhelm me and you do them so well. I love the bright green on white for the laundry layout. The card is beautiful! I always think anyone can do what I do then when I encourage someone that swears that have no artistic fiber in their being...I find out they are right lol Good luck at the dr's tmw!!!!