Thursday, June 13, 2024

Music maker

 

Music Maker

The Sunday song and rhyme challenge for May 26th is based on a rhyme called Music Makers, from his book A Children’s Treasury of Milligan.

Spike Milligan (1918-2002) was well know for his crazy comedy and nonsense rhymes. Ironically he also suffered from severe depression.

For this rhyme I decided I would focus on one of the instruments mentioned and settled on guitar as I had a stitched card pattern that I could use, so went with the line my Brother plays guitar.

The pattern used is from Stitching cards, a beaded pattern, which I love making. The beads are tiny and get dropped all over, I’ll be finding them for weeks. The background paper is printed from my library of papers. The wording is drawn on the Cricut Joy Extra using LD Music font.

I do like to be beside the seaside

 The Tuesday Colour challenge for June is based on this image

The image reminded me of these beach huts at Scarborough in North Yorkshire

Straight away I knew I had some stitching thread with those colours combined. I have a stitched pattern I have used before and considered using, it has a palm tree and a deckchair and I thought I could do the deckchair in the stripes, but then I saw a beach hut pattern at Form-a-lines stitched in the colours, perfect for this challenge.

I stitched the image with Trimits Jester metallic embroidery thread, the mounted on pink card (my last sheet), with yellow and blue backing. I couldn’t decide whether to add wording, like life’s a beach or I do like to be beside the seaside, but decided to leave it blank as wording would be easy to add if required.

Looking forward to the next challenge, it’s an interesting one.

Where the Fairies are

 The Sunday song and rhyme challenge for June 9th is based on the rhyme Where are the Fairies,

Written in the early 20th century by Cicely Mary Barker, who was unable to attend school due to epilepsy. She wrote the rhymes and did the illustrations. Fairies were popular at this time, due to Queen Mary having a known interest in Fairy art.

I chose the final lines “Where there are flowers, There fairies are”. Using and image drown with my Cricut Joy Extra. Mounted on floral green backing paper and then mounted on square card.

This and other similar designs are available to buy from me.

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Winner Takes it All

 The song I have chosen for Sunday Song and Rhyme challenge for 12 to 25th May is Winner Takes It All by Abba. The song was released in 1980.

I don’t wanna talk
About things we’ve gone through
Though it’s hurting me
Now it’s history

I’ve played all my cards
And that’s what you’ve done too
Nothing more to say
No more ace to play

The winner takes it all
The loser’s standing small
Beside the victory
That’s her destiny

I was in your arms
Thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense
Building me a fence

Building me a home
Thinking I’d be strong there
But I was a fool
Playing by the rules

The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear

The winner takes it all (takes it all)
The loser has to fall (has to fall)
It’s simple and it’s plain (it’s so plain)
Why should I complain? (Why complain?)

But tell me, does she kiss
Like I used to kiss you?
Does it feel the same
When she calls your name?

Somewhere deep inside
You must know I miss you
But what can I say?
Rules must be obeyed

The judges will decide (will decide)
The likes of me abide (me abide)
Spectators of the show (of the show)
Always staying low (staying low)

The game is on again (on again)
A lover or a friend (or a friend)
A big thing or a small (big or small)
The winner takes it all (takes it all)

I don’t wanna talk
If it makes you feel sad
And I understand
You’ve come to shake my hand

I apologize
If it makes you feel bad
Seeing me so tense
No self-confidence
But you see

The winner takes it all
The winner takes it all

So the winner takes it all
And the loser has to fall
Throw the dice, cold as ice
Way down here, someone dear
Takes it all, has to fall
And it’s plain, why complain?

It is one of my favourite Abba songs, but also one of the saddest. It is thought that the song was based on the real-life breakup between ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog.

I have written about the song before in a blog about Chronic illness and relating the words to losing your health and lifestyle rather than a love one, see www.craftyjanes.co.uk/2017/07/26/winner-takes-it-all/.

It isn’t easy to represent a song in a card, but I chose to be inspired by the references to gambling and game play. In particular the lines “I’ve played all my cards,” “No more ace to play,” “The gods may throw a dice” and “The game is on again.”

I used an image of playing cards, dice and gambling chips from Cricut, drawn and cut on my Cricut Joy Extra, layered with gold card (gold winner) and backing paper designed by Dot Creative Clipart.

It will be interesting to see how other interpret this song, I had other ideas, but am pleased with how this one has turned out.

Just as I have finished the blog Winner Takes it All played on the radio!!

Tuesday, May 07, 2024

Seeing stripes

 The challenge for Outlawz May Tuesday Colour is black and white and one other colour and add stripes.

Well what says black and white with stripes more than a zebra? Maybe not very imaginative?

I created my card with the zebra pattern from Stitching Cards Wild Animal pack, I have had the patterns for a while and not used the zebra before. I love the cheeky image and it reminds me of donkey from the Shrek movie. It could easily be made without the stripes and be a donkey.

The background is Adorable Scorable creatures great and small, an unusual collection of animals and I have been waiting for an opportunity to use some of them. The yellow gives me the extra colour required for the challenge.

It has been a fun card to make and I haven't made a stitched card for a while.

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Bunny Hops


 The latest Sunday Song and Rhyme challenge is based on the poem All the world's alive again by Jennifer Gunner

It is a pretty spring poem and I chose to focus on two of the lines; A rabbit hops it gentle step and White blossoms are in bloom.

Using a Sweet Dixie rabbit die with white flowers mounted on green vellum and then on a printed background of white blossom designed by Old Market. The wording Hoppy Birthday was created with my Cricut Joy using a Cricut font called blossom. Finally finished with googly eyes and a pompom tail.


This challenge runs form 28th April until 11th May. Spring runs from 20th March to 20th June, though those of us in the UK have no seen much evidence of it yet!



Tuesday, April 02, 2024

Colour wheel

This month sees me on the design team in another Outlawz group challenge, Tuesday colour. The challenge changes monthly and always has a colour theme.  For April the theme is a colour wheel.


The item created must use either 2 cool colours from top of wheel and 1 warm from bottom, or vice versa.  I chose to use yellow, orange and green.  I used a 6 layer mandala die and alternated the colours and mounted on a backing paper using same colours.  The die is an Apple Blossom die 


I did actually create two cards, but this was my favourite to share for the challenge inspiration.

This is the other one, which reminds me of Leeds United colours and may appeal to fans.  I live in Leeds, but do not follow the team.  This is made with another Apple Blossom die