Anything but Peaceful......

.....was what was coming out of my workspace while making this card for the Unstampabelles Challenge #45 - Peace/Harmony! 

I was very calm and purposeful at the beginning, and it all seemed to be in harmony until after I made it and photographed it and started to fix the photo ready for posting. There had been only one small hiccup with the peace symbol (which I had drawn in gold pen and didn't like) in that it was drawn wrongly! So I had hand drawn it onto mirror card and fussycut out the symbol with the knife, and put a small circle of card under it to hid the error. It all looked fine. Until I took it outside to photograph. That's when I noticed IT and the noise began (swearing), as well as the humphing and banging things on the desk and such........

Is it laying an egg or what?

So I fixed it ("cause I am smart, yes?) and rephotographed it, and was starting to fix the photo ready for posting when.........I noticed IT (yes, the second IT!) and the scene, which had subsided into peace, was shattered again!

Yes, the peace symbol is sideways!

Yes, it is now fixed - I promise! I am looking at it now. 

BUT I am NOT photographing it again unless something else is wrong and I notice that!

I could not just move the symbol because as I explained earlier,  I had originally dawn it in gold pen (incorrectly) and had to redo it! So the only thing that could be moved was the bird!! Now, I have turned the circle so it is correctly sitting as it was meant to be but really this card is a comedy of error after error! Perhaps I should have simply started again?

It was meant to be a quick simple card - huh!

This is the Spellbinder's die cut into gold mirror card

The sprig of green is from the SU bird punch

All the other card is from SU

I am quitting while ahead today!

Please go the Unstampabelles and see the spectacular work of the DT and get inspired to have a go - as I write this on Sunday there are only 6 entries - good odds to win yourself the prize.

Remember - no stamps: but it does not have to be a card!

A Serene and Peaceful Place

A few years ago and group of my old school friends, their partners and some others went back to the area we all grew up in, and started exploring places we had all been to at different times, but not all together - if you get my drift. I grew up on a farm. Next to the coast. We went to a place called locally Hell Fire Bluff, but the maps call it Cape Bernier, which is on the coast. It's on a private road, with a key to unlock the gates to go in. Along the way we stopped for a picnic lunch at a little quiet beach with several streams running down to the water's edge. Here is a photo essay for you.....

the beach

the stream

stopping for lunch

the stream again

This place was so quiet, beautiful and peaceful, full of harmony - so I used one of the photo's to create a step card.

I love the saying by the Dali Lama, and my Kaiser paper has feather's on it!

The black bazzil card is 12 by 7 inches folded at 4, 8 and 10 inches to make the steps. Folds are mountain, valley, mountain. The photo is mounted on some scrap Vanilla card.

We take so many photo's that rarely see the light of day - we should use them more in our work.

This is for Unstampabelles, where the theme is peace and harmony, and the twist is flight.

I will enter this in the following challenges:

Peace and Harmony

Challenge #45 at Unstampabelles is all about 

Peace and Harmony

with a TWIST to incorporate flight in your work

The prize is this new die

I started out with a blank black card, and I diecut a rectangle from the front of it

I then took a piece of white card,and started to play with my TH Distress inks and sponges. I cut out a circle for the sun/moon/whatever and a cloud shape and used them to mask out the shape before beginning to sponge. It was a bit like painting with sponges! It was also FUN!

I then went to my Di-namics die of the branch and birds and leaves, and die cut out the various bits and pieces I wanted in various scrap card colours. I then glued the leaves and birds on. By this stage I was doing a bit of a happy dance as it was all looking as if it would work out OK! I placed a piece of card on the inside of my aperture and secured it down as a backing, and slipped the 'painted' background into the shape on the front. L then glued down the branch across the background.

I diecut from white card the sentiment and attached in top left hand corner. Got this little beauty from eBay, along with two other sayings in the same pack. It needed something so I quickly drew around the frame with a white gel pen to frame it more. I had also added some Wink of Stella white to the cloud and the sun, and in some lights they shimmer nicely but it is hard to get it to photograph. 

A peaceful dawn and the twittering of birds creating a harmony!

You should see what else the DT has created over on Unstampabelles!

Go and have a look-see and drool, and then start creating!