About Me

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I'm a retired primary school teacher, who started paper crafting in 2008, when I had a fancy to make my own Christmas cards. Since then, I have tried all sorts of techniques and styles - and I kind of like them all. I have been lucky enough to be on blog teams and large design teams and to do a bit of freelance demonstrating - and I love the challenge of working with different products. My crafting style is very varied - from junk journaling and art journaling, bookbinding and journal making, to quilting and patchwork - and of course I still make cards. This variety keeps me interested - and my crafty stash growing!! I'm always seeking inspiration for new projects.

Monday, 10 December 2012

Challenge 81 - Inspired by a Song

Sorry for the delay in publishing this post - but better late than never. Over at Crafty Cardmakers this time, we have a challenge that is inspired by a song. It has to be said that even some members of the Design Team were challenged by this. The song is called 'Time in a Bottle' - and for full details of this, the challenge itself and the prizes on offer, please pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog. This challenge will run until 7th January - so plenty of time to get your thinking caps on - and be creative.



We are sponsored by our very own Kim who is offering the selection of goodies shown below. And also by Milk Coffee Digital Stamps.






I chose to focus on two lines from the song:
If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true

I love working with boxes, and used the larger of the three Papermania Bare Blanks Nesting Boxes for this project.


I have decoupaged boxes before - with a variety of materials - but this time decided to try out the Decopatch papers I had seen in The Range. Lots of them are animal prints as many of the blanks are of animals, but I found this gorgeously vibrant pink, orange and gold patterned paper and decided that was the one for this project.

In the past I have used watered down PVA glue but this time I used Decopatch Glossy Glue. The good thing about this medium is that it dries much quicker than PVA which allows you to work much more quickly as you are not having to wait for a side to dry before carrying on. I used the Decopatch paper on the outside of the box, and ordinary tissue paper on the inside. The advantage of the tissue paper is that, once it is wet, it will mould very easily into the corners of the box.

To decorate the top, I cut four small Romantic Rectangles from Bazzill cardstock using my Spellbinders dies. I then cut off the legs of some gold, pink and orange brads, and fixed them on with silicone glue. The finishing touch was the metal photo corners. All of these were from my stash. As I decant it all into plastic storage boxes, I have no idea where the brads or photo corners came from originally!!

The song continues:
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

I'm not really sure how I feel about that. I agree that many of mine were answered when I met my husband, but I think we all have wishes and dreams aside from the type that can be fulfilled by having another person in your life. And although we all go through tough times I like to hold on to the hope that, however low I feel at times, the wishes and dreams I still have, will one day come to something. Otherwise - what is the point? 

On that note, may I wish you all a very Merry Christmas both from myself and the Crafty Cardmakers team!! I look forward to seeing all your entries - pop over the Crafty Cardmakers blog for more inspiration. They are all fantastic projects - and go to show just how diverse a team we are!!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes

Cxxx