Well, as I may have mentioned before I have started making all my own cards now and this is a thank you card I made last night:







The photos aren't particularly brilliant as the lighting here in the office leads much to be desired but at least they give you an idea of what is was like. I used some flowery paper I had in (probably either Laura Ashley, Papermania or Dovecraft), a butterfly that I had on my hard drive but I don't know who created it originally (all I did was print it on glossy photo paper and cut it out!), some skeleton leaves and flowers made using a punch. The "Just to say" is a small stamp from a set of gardening stamps my mum gave me!

I was really pleased with the overall effect ;). I'm gradually finding out the type of things I prefer doing and developing a style for cards (and digital kits) but I never seem to have enough time to do anything much really! So it was lovely yesterday to have some time to squeeze a bit of card making in!

Of course, having tidied up my craft desk last week, it now needs tidying up all over again! I find it impossible to make anything without leaving loads of bits of paper, ink smudges and all sorts everywhere. I am still finding glitter on my desk from two weeks ago and I know I cleared all that away!

I'm in the process of making a December desktop (I'm actually early for once!) so hope to be back later today or tomorrow with it. Trouble is, I have to finish a set of accounts first! O, the joys of being self employed!







Well, I had a wonderful time yesterday! As some of you may already know, Delirious, the band, is splitting up and are currently on their final tour. I went with a friend last night to see them play at the O2 Academy in Birmingham and had an amazing time!
We managed to get to Birmingham in plenty of time, but then had trouble actually finding the O2 Academy as it had moved across town to new premises. It is now in the old Dome nightclub, and since the only time I have ever been there was when my husband and I were courting (over 25 years ago!), I couldn't remember exactly where it was! Well, we found it in the end and stood at the back of a very long queue but soon found ourselves in the building.

The Cutting Edge Band came on first, dressed in wigs, baseball caps and old zipped jackets, and there were lots of comments about being on tour with those great guys, Delirious. then later, when Delirious came on, there were similar comments about how good it was to be with the Cutting Edge Band again! All very ironic considering the Cutting Edge Band is the former name of Delirious, hence the wigs and so on!

The music was wonderful, and the crowd fantastic. I have been to see Queen, Coldplay and the Fray, but this was even better because not only did you have a brilliant band, you had the presence of God there too! Awesome!





Apologies for the quality of the video. We were actually not too far from the stage, but my camera did a reverse zoom lens thingie on me and made everything look smaller than it really was.......

If you haven't been to see Delirious, then you should really try and get tickets, although most of them seem to have sold out. Delirious is one of the biggest Christian bands and definitely worth seeing as you may never have another chance to see them live.

OK, I am off to prepare our church notices and hopefully, I will be able to get some photoshopping in today as I have plans to make a 2010 planner and three advent calendars, as well as a thank you card for a beautiful scarf I was given earlier this week. the very same scarf that is around my neck as it is absolutely freezing here in my office being 55 F or 13C...I think I need to get my fingerless gloves on whilst I'm waiting for the office to heat up!

Oh, and if you fancy making a 2010 planner, take a look at:








The Amy Hutchinson planner can be found here (on sale at the moment with 20% off (so grab it quick!) although the price reduction doesn't show up until you put it into your shopping cart) and the free planner and pages from Brenda Arnall is here. I spent ages trying to find planners to download on the internet and these were the best of the ones I found. DIYplanner.com also has free downloadable pages too.

Ok, I am definitely going now and if I have time after everything else has been done, I will try to get back with a freebie sometime over the weekend.

Happy scrapping!


Well, yet again it seems to have been an age since I blogged but I have been busy (honest!). We had our church conference last weekend and it was amazing! Plus our middle son was back from St Andrews for a few days and it was lovely to have him home, even though he reverted into his typical teenage ways as soon as he walked through the door! Oh, the joys of having a teenage boy in the house..... ;)

Apart form that, I have really been doing nothing but working and this week has involved several late nights trying to get accounts finished, or at least finished in enough of a state to be able to go and discuss them with clients. I did, however, manage to squeeze in some time to do some photoshopping, although I must admit, this time was straddled over a two week period. And this is what I came up with:



These are overlays you can use to make your own papers (CU ok!) and were created using photos taken:

  • in the Peak district (the two left hand overlays);
  • the canal where I park my car before church on Sundays (top right hand overlay); and
  • a view of Ironbridge Gorge (bottom right overlay).
You can download them here.Feel free to use them as you will, just don't claim them as your own. I'd love to see what you come up with using these as well!

Happy scrapping :).

O land, O land, O land, hear the word of the Lord (taken from Jeremiah 22:29)




2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (NIV).

A member of our church was out shopping earlier this week and kept having the phrase "the devil is in the detail" running through her head whilst she was at the checkout at the supermarket. She felt very strongly that she should go sit and read a newspaper, so went and had a cup of coffee and took the only newspaper that was in the rack, The Independent.

It was as if God was directing her thoughts and her eyes as after reading one or two articles, she was told to "keep going, keep going". She carried on reading and then on page 9 of the newspaper came across an article on the Copenhagen global climate summit which will take place 7-18 December 2009. The article was headed "Bureaucrats clash on shape of climate deal" but what really caught her eye was the by line:

"The devil is in the detail ahead of next month's summit, as representatives of 192 countries struggle to reconcile their often conflicting priorities. Michael McCarthy reports"

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Genesis 2:15 (NIV) The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it


From the time the earth was created, it has been man's responsibility to work the earth and take care of it. There has been a great deal of concern in recent years about carbon emissions and the effect these are having on the atmosphere. The fourth report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was published in early 2007 and this said that there is no longer any doubt that the earth is warming, and that there is a 90% chance this is caused by man. If this continues, then according to the report, the global average temperature could rise by as much as 4C (or even in the extreme case, 6C) by 2100, which would, in effect, make human life on Earth impossible.

In 1997, an internationally binding treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, was signed by 184 countries and subsequently ratified by them all. This treaty commits the rich industrialised nations to quantified cuts in their carbon emissions by a given date, and it is legally binding in international terms. The USA also signed the Protocol but has not ratified it, since President George W Bush withdrew the USA from Kyoto in 2001 as his administration considered it gave an unfair advantage to China.

Kyoto did not go far enough, however, as the cuts are insufficient to reduce the anticipated global warming and unless the agreement is renewed, it will run out by 31 December 2012. At a subsequent UN climate conference held in Bali in December 2007, it was agreed to negotiate a renewal of the Kyoto Protocol to give a "second commitment period" for member states to undertake emissions cuts, from 2013. It also agreed to work towards a wholly new climate treaty, which would:

○ involve the US;

○ oblige China, India and the other developing countries to cut their own emissions;

○ compensate the developing countries for doing this; and

○ set a very ambitious level of new medium-term targets for the rich countries, in an attempt to hold the warming to below the danger threshold of C above the pre-industrial level.

The EU, including Britain, want to have a new treaty based on the Bali action plan which would be legally binding and with a compliance mechanism and international rules for carbon accounting. The USA, however, wants nothing to do with Kyoto or its architecture. It has put forward a wholly new model for a climate deal in which countries would set out what they are going to do without being bound by international compliance regimes, or international carbon accounting. The developing countries, collectively known as the G77+China, are insistent that the Kyoto Protocol be renewed, and its rich country member states sign up for new emissions cuts from 2013 onwards . Three potentially opposing viewpoints. Any deal on carbon emissions and funding for developing countries to enable them to cope with the changing climate needs to be both strong and fair. Bureaucratic detail should be the last thing that prevents an agreement to save the planet from climate change.

For more details, see:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/bureaucrats-clash-on-shape-of-climate-deal-1817259.html

And

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/britain-rules-out-climate-treaty-at-summit-1815728.html

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God made the world for us, chose us before He even created the world and all that is in it so that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:

Ephesians 1:4

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (NIV).

Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love (The Message).

His deep desire for a people to love came first. Then a world for them to live in was created. And with the world He gave us all that we needed: the night to rest, the day to wander, water to drink, seed bearing plants, fruit bearing trees, the sun, the moon and the stars, fish, birds, and animals. What an awesome testimony of His love for us.

We are called as Christians to care for others, to care for the world that God created, and yet here we are on the path to heating up the world so it is inhabitable for mankind. This is something that we as a church, as a body of believers, should pray about. We desperately need to turn to God, to seek His will, and ask for Him to move in this situation. We are destroying the very land that He gave us through our behaviour, our lack of regard for the environment, our disregard for others and our continued determination to make sure our own countries are not penalised in some way. We have raped and pillaged God's planet for long enough. This should not about the bottom line. We are all at fault here. We cannot point the finger at our governments, at the industrialised nations, at world powers, at our neighbours. We are all to blame.

There is very little time between now and the start of the summit on 7 December, so please, please pray about the summit, however you may be led. The devil is in the detail here, and he is at work creating havoc, causing the nations to disagree, creating disharmony and strife. There is a spirit of mischief at work, designed to sidetrack the summit and take the earth off course.

We need to pray that God will be at work in the leaders, politicians and civil servants taking part in the summit, that there will be a real spirit of harmony, a genuine desire to reach a compromise and reconciliation and not a spirit of territorialism, of protectionism as countries seek to do as little as possible so as to protect their foreign trade and their own industries and economies. We have a corporate need to humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways. Then He will hear from heaven, forgive our sin and heal our land.

But one church cannot do this on its own, it needs all churches, not just the church here in the UK, but the worldwide church. We have a God given mandate to look after the earth and all that is in it, so please, forward this email to your friends, family, brothers and sisters in Christ to mobilise the global church to prayer. We need to seek God’s will here and ask for his Spirit to be at work before, during and after the summit. This prayer request needs to hit as many inboxes as possible in as many countries as possible in the next 24 days (at the time of writing) so that the church is actively seeking God’s will on this matter and praying for all involved. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16). Like the widow in Luke 18 who kept going to the judge for justice, we need to seek God’s face. Now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. Luke 18:7-8 (NASB)







I am really excited as I have recently taken part in a charity collaboration kit and it has now been released! It's in aid of Chris Turnbull and full details can be found here.

Please do go along to Bellascraps and have a look at the kit. There are, 15 designers, 43 papers,. 75 elements and 1 alpha all for an amazing price of $4.99! there are actually no detailed previews, but my part of the kit is as follows:






Please excuse my spelling on the preview - I had the wrong name for the kit and didn't realise until after it was released!

Finally, I haven't yet had chance to write that tutorial on masks, but it is on my to do list (along with six million other things!) and I will get around to it, I promise :).

Happy scrapping.