Crafting with...

...Kraft.

I love the natural feel Kraft card gives to a project but boy does it come in a range of shades - anything from a light 'grubby' beige to the darker 'looks like wet sand' colour.

If you are a card maker, you will probably be aware that card blanks usually come from the darker end of the colour range. So if you want something paler, this means making your own. Not a problem, after all we are crafters and we make stuff. The sticking point comes over "time" - cutting & folding card blanks adds time to your projects, especially if you are making a batch of cards. Then there are the envelopes...

How many times have you merrily made a card from scratch only to find that it doesn't fit in a standard size envelope? Again, not a problem as we can make our own but once again we have the time factor.

Time is a big issue for many folk who enjoy crafting but 'life' limits the amount of time they have available in which to do it.

Then we come to the problem of colouring straight onto kraft card.

Pencils seem to work quite well irrespective of the darkness of the card and the Derwent Inktense pencils are rich enough to give a good depth of colour as I found here...

 

...and the Derwent Coloursoft pencils also gave a nice effect...



 ...especially when keeping to a limited selection of colours and only shading parts of the image.

But...

You knew there was going to be a 'but' didn't you. My preferred medium for colouring is alcohol pens and trying them on scraps of kraft card that I had really wasn't doing anything for me. The colour of the card was too dark for the pens to really be noticed. Then I tried Crafter's Companion Neenah card in the colour "Desert Storm". Wow, what a difference. The smoothness of the card is perfect for colouring with alcohol pens and the kraft colour is pale enough to allow the colours to show.

So I printed off some of the cute Grace Drayton images...

 ...and got stuck in...

 ...I did find that it was necessary to use stronger tones than I would normally reach for but it was so great being back in my comfort zone with my pens.
What about this little cutie...

 ...isn't she adorable. Now if you look at this image you may think that I have used something white on the bib area. In fact, I used a very pale aqua shade (BT1) and I think the blue has toned down the yellow tinge of the card making it look almost white.

All the images used have come from Nicecrane Designs and are from the following digi sets...

..."A Garden of Friends" which you can find here...

...and the Grace Drayton "Nursery Rhymes" that you can find here.

My printer is still playing silly wotsits so I'm having difficulty printing the latest images from Nicecrane - boy are there some super ones. Do hop over to the Nicecrane blog to catch up with what the rest of the DT have been playing with. There is some fabulous work over there............................

Blogger service...

...resumed.

Yep, the dashboard seems to be back in working order after the fun & games of disappearing blog snippets so I hope I have been able to catch up with everyone (sorry if I've missed any posts).

Now if I can get my printer sorted out I might be able to get some crafting done..............................

Oh Blogger...

...what are you playing at now!!!

I've been having error messages pop-up for a couple of weeks now because Blogger doesn't 'like' IE11 (Blogger doesn't support past IE10 - which is an improvement because a short while ago they only went up to IE9) but I had learnt to live with them...until yesterday...

My Dashboard is really up the creek.

Although I have my list of blogs that I follow showing nicely down the left-hand side, only one post is showing and even though there is the facility of a 'button' below the post snippet to view more - if you click on it nothing happens grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

You can refresh the dashboard but you only get a snippet of the latest post.

Now with the best will in the world, there is no way I can sit glued to the PC hitting refresh all day so that I don't miss anything. So I tried one of the browsers that Blogger does support - was there any difference? Was there heck!!!

I am set up on Bloglovin but I don't find it particularly user friendly (me being very limited in the techy department) and I also noticed that it doesn't show all the posts of the folk that I follow.

If anyone out there has solved this problem with the restricted posts for viewing on blogger dashboard and can give me a hint as what to do, I will be very grateful.

On a happier note (sort of)...

After the fun of the sky photos on Saturday, I had another 'miss' on Sunday.

Having taken Mum shopping, we were home and I was just unpacking the car when Mum shouted "Oh, look at that". Coming towards the bungalow from the Thames was the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - obviously heading towards Barleylands for day 2 of the Armed Forces show.

They flew over so low, you felt you could almost reach up and touch them. Guess what, I didn't have my camera...groan.

For anyone who doesn't know what the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is, here is a photo that I found on the Internet...

...the 'Flight' consists of a Lancaster Heavy Bomber, a Hurricane fighter and a Spitfire. They look amazing as they pass. According to available information, this is one of only two Lancasters that can fly - the other belongs to the Canadian air force. However, in August this year both will be on display here in the UK as the Canadian plane is flying over and is supposed to arrive on 8 August. What a piece of history.

Right, back to Blogger and see if I can suss out what is going on................................................

This weekend is...

...the South Essex Armed Forces show.

The event is being held at the Barleylands Showground (the fields next to the craft village car park)...

...and for once, Mother Nature was playing nice and Saturday was a glorious day - warm and sunny.

Perhaps a little too sunny...

I was sitting enjoying the sunshine in the courtyard just outside Pinnacle Crafts when the air display started (there had been a few jets go over earlier but this was the actual 'dog-fight'). The display started with a number of WW1 planes milling around the skies so I grabbed my camera...

...and missed them (nice shot of the sky though). I tried again but it was so difficult trying to focus the camera on the planes because of the angle of the sun...

...click...and you guessed it - another sky shot.
I tried again and despite the planes being close to where the aerial and the background changes from cloud to blue sky, by the time the shutter clicked...

...this is what I got - two little planes disappearing off the bottom left of the photo. I gave up and just enjoyed the spectacle. When the Spitfire started whizzing round the skies I didn't even bother to reach for the camera.

The event covered a huge area so it wasn't easy to get pictures that reflected this.

The Army had quite a large presence...

 ...camouflaged tents, trucks...

 ...more trucks.
This photo shows how the event stretched off into the distance...

...certainly a great 'Family' day out with things to see and funfair rides.
Oh I did manage to get a better plane shot...

...this one was easier as it was sitting on the ground (still not the best angle for the sun - but hey-ho).

There seemed to be a lot of excited kiddies enjoying the event along with a lot of elderly folk who obvious enjoyed the memories that it evoked. Here's hoping that Mother Nature continues to play nice so that the 2nd day of the event goes off just as well.........................................................

Well...

...so far I've managed to miss all the footie.

Probably a good thing as another broken TV is not what I need on my replacement list at the moment (the main house TV decided to die a few weeks back and I'm making do with the portable as there are other things higher up the list).

Last weekend when Hilary & I met for breakfast there wasn't a hint of football fever in the café at Barleylands. When we popped in for lunch it was a whole different thing...

...a huge great Italian flag by the door and every member of staff had an Italian flag painted on their face. This cheerful chap even had his hair painted. We got the feeling that perhaps they were supporting Italy - not really surprising as the owners are Italian.

A bit more colour was added to the flags & bunting at work...

...as we had a Summer themed lunchtime party to celebrate exceeding our targets last year. Lots of flowery dresses & shirts made an appearance but I went with a flowery necklace & headband - as you do.
I did promise to show you the additional bunting that we hung...

 ...Brazil flags to recognise the fact that the footie is taking place in Brazil and...

 ...flags of all the nations taking part...

 ...all 32 of them. If you are wondering what that is hanging down from the ceiling either end of the bunting - it was clusters of England balloons but they seem to have deflated (a bit like the England performance according to the media).

I was asked what they are going to build on the demolition site across the road. We are given to believe it will be another of these...

 ...a 26 storey tower block. If you think that is rain on the window - think again. Although our windows were cleaned just about a month ago, that is all the muck & dirt that has come from the building site.
This shot will give more of an idea of how close these two building sites are to our building...

...it feels like we are slowly being penned in.
When Stratford was getting ready for the Olympics, there were many things that were done to make the area better - but this was not one of them...

...the pole in the centre of the photo is one of the new lamp-posts that were put up. A horrid grey metal pole with a circular down-lighter sticking out from the side. The previous lights were so much nicer - ornate black metal structures with large white glass globes set into them. Oh well, this is what we have now and I can use this photo to tick off number 17 on 'Rinda' Ontiveros' scavenger hunt - see the button over on the right-hand side which links through to her blog.

So it is Friday and the end of another working week. Fingers crossed the weather stays nice for the weekend. Have a good one folks.............................................................

A room...

...with not much of a view.

This is the view from my window at work...

...pretty dismal and not very inspiring. Would you believe just two years ago it looked like this...

 ...Stratford was getting ready for the Olympics and everywhere was being made ready for the event...

...lawns were nicely cut and flower beds planted to make pleasant areas throughout the town. All so very different to what can be seen at the moment...

 ...noise, dirt & rubble...

...and not a flower bed or tree to be seen.

As the outside world was looking so horrid, I put some decorations up in the office to cheer things up a bit...

 ...plenty of George crosses everywhere...

 ...not only in flag form but some inflatable hands too and a flower pot...

...sporting a few more flags.

Yesterday I added some Brazil bunting and a length of multi-flag bunting but I haven't had a chance to take more photos - will try and get some pics tomorrow.

It certainly makes things a bit more cheerful and my team love it. We are the only section that has gone all out to decorate for the World Cup (although there has been a rather large 3 lions flag appear on another section this week).

Folk from elsewhere in the office say how great it looks but nobody else has been bothered to do anything similar. How boring...

It didn't take long to do. It didn't cost much as we already had some of the stuff and most of what has been added has come from £ and 99p Stores. Best of all, it brightens the place up and has created a more cheerful mood amongst my team. Resulting in better motivation and (here comes the buzz words) increased staff engagement.

I'm wondering what I can do when this lot has to come down at the end of the World Cup...what can I decorate our section with...Christmas seems rather a long way off..................................................

Are you watching the World Cup...

...or are you avoiding it?

Despite decorating the office with loads of George Cross bunting & flags, I haven't had a chance to watch any of it. Not that I'm particularly interested in football but I do like to lend a bit of patriotic support to our sporting endeavours.

It is great to see the English flag flying all over the place...on homes, shops, pubs and cars...it brings back memories of the national pride & spirit that existed in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics.

Folk may remember that I work in East London right next to the QEII Park (previously called the Olympic Park) and I got to watch the construction of the various venues located in the park.

Last week there was an article in the Press that stated, if the England team were lucky enough to win the tournament and...

 ...were to bring home the trophy - the owners of the Orbit...

...would have it painted gold. They did say they were not quite sure how they would achieve this (the Orbit was constructed in sections that were already painted red) but they assured the English people that if the trophy comes home to England the Orbit will be turned gold.

I suppose, depending on how you look at the Orbit, you could say both items are similar in shape so we would have a huge representation of the trophy sitting in the QEII park.

I did intend to watch England's first game against Italy - I got myself ready and comfortably settled ready for kick-off...and promptly fell asleep. As we lost 1 - 2 it saved me getting frustrated as the 90 minutes ticked away.

So England didn't get off to the most brilliant of starts - I wonder what the current odds are on the Orbit turning gold...........................................................................