Boom, bangabang...

There is a thunderstorm going on outside, not very spectacular.   It was a VERY loud thunderclap that woke me up on Wednesday morning.  I damn nearly shot out of bed.  It is a bit cooler here, so more bearable. 

I've not been doing much crafting, just far too hot to be stuck by a craft desk, especially one that is right in the sun.  But yesterday I felt inspired,  that was after a trip to a craft shop, mainly to buy some material which I hoped I could use to cover the door on the bedside cupboard.  Didn't get any material, but did get some lovely decoupage paper,  well think decopatch, the thin tissue like stuff.  To my delight the shop also had some Clarity stamps!   I was chuffed, they only had the sentiments, but that suited me just fine as I rather like Barbara's choice of verses.  It was very hard to choose just one, which is all I could afford :-(  But I settled for this one.

I used it as the central piece for one of the large wooden hearts.   I forgot to take a pic of the reverse side,  which has the decoupage paper on it. The front has been decorated with a piece of white embossed card,  some die cuts, all from the Tattered Lace range,  and the sentiment, which was stamped onto a piece of card.  It is hard to make out on this pic, but on the one above you can see the fancy corner, which I did with my new corner punch. It is very dinky.   I embossed the die cuts with cosmic shimmer, and used an embossing tool to round the leaves. It came out much better than I thought it would. 

Before settling on the plain white embossing, I played around. On this one I used cosmic shimmer over the dry embossing.   It gave it a very rich look and did match the decoupage paper I was using. 

Then I had a go at inking the folder,  and was very happy with this result, well except for one bit that sort of got missed out!   I guess I could ink round the edges so all is not lost.  

It was a nice afternoon,  just messing and creating.  My cutting got better!    I also enjoyed watching Hels demonstrating the melt pot,  she makes such beautiful things. I popped over to her blog and may have a go at the latest challenge,  I've been thinking about doing something to do with 'time' which is the theme.   Everyone else seems to be focusing on Christmas,  oh please, it is July, and far too hot to start thinking of Robins and snow. My Christmas stash will stay firmly stored until at least September. 

And finally - a card! I don't often make these nowadays, so it was actually quite nice.  It is for a friend's birthday,  was a bit stuck for ideas, then the Owl stamp kind of fell out of the box, and the yellow paper was at the top of the pile.   So it all made for a nice, bright, sunny card.  I even managed to find my inserts! 

It's been another up and down week,  with Thursday definitely a downer.   That's when I have my counselling session, and this weeks was painful.  I didn't have a good day, but the next day I did feel a little better.  The counsellor gave me instructions 'not to dwell' on things.  It is a bad habit of mine, and one I am trying to break.  Yesterday my plan was to get out,  I have to make a plan for every day and stick to it, well try to!  So off I went to a different craft shop,  then did a spot of much needed food shopping.  I'd been cheered up by seeing my neighbour,  he had a major stroke 8 weeks ago and it didn't look good,  so it was great to see him back home and making progress.  I hoped for a quiet afternoon, sadly our new neighbour had other ideas,  his family descended and went into our communal garden area,  and started drinking.  Well sun and drink don't go together,  they got louder and louder,   one of them did keep telling the others to keep the noise down.  Finally they went inside,  and of course the long session of drinking ended up predictably, with an argument, and nearly a fight.  Charming.  People can be so selfish, they didn't seem to care about anyone else.  He seems a nice enough chap,  usually quiet,  so yesterday was a bit of a surprise.  I should say it was the younger ones who were making the noise and started the arguments. 

Tomorrow I'm off to do some Zen tangling at the craft shop,  Liz, the manager, is holding a class and I got an invite.  Should be a nice way to spend a morning. I've already had a practice, I haven't got any of the pens, but I have got a couple of very fine pens which Liz said would do fine.  My counsellor was bemused when I told her that I was doing Zen tangling,  I told her it was constructive doodling with Zen!

I hope you are all coping with this heat,  the sun is lovely,  having a proper summer is fantastic, just wish it was a tad cooler.   Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely week.