WOYWW 485

I’m sorry I didn’t make it to our weekly round-the-desks nosey fest last week – I fully intended to, but in the end was too busy with other things.

Great news this week – I’ve spent some time in the studio!

First of all, a general view, showing how much tidier it is, after I spent quite a long time tidying up, putting things away, and putting some things aside that I no longer want.

The white unit in the foreground is one of my pull-out units. This one belongs under the main desk, but it’s never in there because that’s where I generally sit. You can see another one under the fan. They are on casters and can pull out, giving me a place to sit and an extra work surface. When the builder was making my studio, I asked him to make me several of these, to go in the different zones where I can sit to work. I can only sit in one place at a time and it seemed a shame to waste the space, and they can be pulled out when required. If I want a large flat surface, I can pull them all out and put them together.

There’s still quite a lot of tidying and sorting to do, but at least I can move around in there now.

Here’s my desk, taken last night.

I’ve done two more backgrounds for the box for the album about Mum, 12 x 12’s from the ghastly paper stack I’ve had hanging around for years. These two identical ones were done with a combination of Distress Inks, Distress Oxides and Infusions. I don’t think I’ve got quite as much coverage as I did when altering smaller pieces for the album itself so I may add a bit more to these. I think I’ve probably done enough pieces to cover the outside of two boxes now. I am keen to get this project finished because I am full of ideas for things I want to be doing, and having gone off the boil with this one for a while, it’s a bit of a duty rather than a pleasure to get it done, but I am trying to be good and get it out of the way before I tackle anything else (such as getting down to some of my other UFOs!).

I’ve done a bit more on the scarf embellishments. I think I’ve crocheted enough flowers now, and have started on the leaves. No photos yet as I’ve only done one so far! Not much time this week to pursue this.

Cooking

Dried Apples

Last week, I sliced up a lot of our apples and tried drying them in the oven at 50 deg. C over a long period. I wasn’t sure how successful this would be. To start with, a huge amount of moisture came out of them and I could see it running down inside the oven door! I opened the door and mopped up quite a bit, and left it open a crack for about half an hour till it was cleared, then shut it again and kept it going. I turned the oven off overnight and gave it another boost the next day.

I had sprinkled ground cinnamon over them, and the kitchen smelt absolutely marvellous.

Here are the apples as I was turning them over.

Here they are in a box. Some of them got a bit over-done but it doesn’t seem to have affected them apart from looking very dark.

We’ve already made inroads into them. They don’t look particularly appetising – more like dried up old mushrooms! – but they are absolutely delicious – chewy, very sweet and flavoursome, and extremely more-ish!

Sourdough

Two more successful batches on successive weekends. Here is the last one, baked on Saturday night and cut on Sunday morning.

Look at that lovely open crumb! This is what we are after with traditional sourdough. Nice glossy holes.

It is so delicious. This loaf was made with half-and-half whole wheat and white flour. I’ve more or less given up on the rye flour now, apart from feeding Esmeralda (my starter) with it – she seems to like it! It tends to make the dough extremely wet and sticky, and difficult to handle. My dough-handling technique has improved a lot and I’m getting a good structure and a decent amount of oven spring now, and producing pretty consistent results week by week – no more flying saucers lately!

When you feed the starter you have to take some out or it becomes spent and stale and stops working, as the yeasts have eaten what they need. Some people throw this excess starter away but this seems an awful waste of excellent nutritious food to me. I discovered some recipes online, including a truly fabulous one for sourdough crackers, which I am now making on a regular basis. Here is last week’s batch.

They are quite quick and easy to make, and so crisp and delicious. These are made with rye flour because that’s what I feed Esmeralda with. They are a lot more satisfying than regular crackers, and are great with the kefir cheese that I make. There is no sugar in them, just flour, salt and water and a dash of baking soda, and coconut oil (a healthy saturated fat). I have found the secret for making successful sourdough crackers is to roll the dough out very thinly so they get really crisp. Yummy!

This week I also made a fresh batch of curries for the freezer, having run out a while back – Madras curry, chicken korma, and curried vegetables, all frozen in small portions so we can have our own “takeaway” selection when we want!

This week I must make more soup, and some roasted vegetable quiches if I have the time and energy.

Kitties

Lily and Ruby aren’t quite so keen on going out in the garden these days, since the weather went off. Ruby always gets very dirty feet! Hope you can see them in this photo! That front paw is supposed to be white…

They have really settled down now they are grown up, and now that it’s cooler, they love to spend time with us in the evenings, sitting with us. We have both been looking forward so much to this – up until fairly recently they were still such babies and our sitting room isn’t really kitten-proof. Now, they have the run of the place and can (mostly) be trusted!

When I am busy preparing meals etc., they settle down with my hubby, and like Beatrice and Phoebe before them, tend to sit one on each knee.

However, when I finally sit down, they prefer to come to me, because on the recliner with a nice soft blanket (not just for warmth for me but to protect myself a bit from their claws), they can get a lot more comfortable and can cuddle up together, and are less likely to fall off.

This picture was taken later that same evening. I hate having to tip them off when I need to get up! Ruby is usually nearer my feet, and if she lies on them, she is soooo heavy and my feet get very uncomfortable! (Note the wet patch just behind Lily’s left ear – well washed by Ruby!)

A couple of evenings ago my hubby was trying to get them in for supper and they were both making a terrific noise outside, rushing around and obviously very interested in something behind the pots in the patio. We went out to look, and there was a toad there! They will need to be a lot quieter and more restrained if they are ever going to make successful hunters – the racket they were making would have scared any prey off well in advance of the onslaught! Happily the toad lived to croak another day and the kitties eventually came in for a more civilised meal.

Health Update

I have now seen the support garments lady and she’s measured me up for new pants – I’ve gone down a size since the last prescription over 18 months ago because I’ve lost weight. My current ones have lost a lot of their stretch and supportiveness so they probably aren’t doing much good. You are supposed to have new ones every year but I didn’t arrange it at the beginning of the year because I knew I was due for surgery and you can’t wear them for several weeks afterwards, and also I didn’t know if I would change shape during that time, so a new prescription is long overdue. I am now awaiting the arrival of the first pair and if they are OK, they will make up two more for me to make the total of three that I am allowed in one year. They are extremely expensive (bespoke, specially designed for people with stomas) at around £80 a pair, but the cost of three pairs is nothing compared with the cost of a hernia repair operation. Thanks to our wonderful NHS, I get them on prescription, free of charge.

I am pretty convinced now that my hernia has returned. I still haven’t had my CT scan appointment and the support garments lady said she would ask the stoma nurse to chase this up for me. Everything takes soooo long…

Apart from that, I’ve been OK, although extremely tired during the week after the conference. Going back on my rivaroxaban (anti-coagulant) soon sorted out the thrombophlebitis in my leg and I’ve had no more pain, which is a relief.

Other Activities

Last week I resumed my little Bible study group again after a long break. I stopped it after my hubby broke his leg and Mum died, and then I was so ill earlier in the year, and after I had recovered, I had a lot of catching up to do, so we decided to leave it till the autumn to start again. It’s so nice to be getting together again and we have a new member, too, which is very encouraging. I need to spend quite a bit of time during the week preparing for these meetings, and designing the visual aids which I show by connecting the computer to the TV by cable.

After the recent conference, our local Torbay Friends of Israel group has now started having regular evening meetings at the same conference centre (which is only about 5 mins away from us by car) and we had our first meeting on Sunday. I was too tired to sing for them but will no doubt do so at future meetings. We have another Erev Shabbat (Sabbath Eve) meal coming up this Friday (the leader does one each month) and on Thursday I shall be making the challah for that (the two plaited loaves made from enriched, sweet dough – delicious!).  It’s very nice to be able to do something to contribute to the meal. Our leader is a full-time wheelchair user and he does the whole thing himself, cooking a lovely chicken casserole (other people provide the puddings) and lays up a beautiful table each time. Usually about a dozen of us attend and it’s a very special evening. I sometimes sing during those evenings too.

Yesterday afternoon I was back at the conference centre, spending the afternoon with a friend who is down from Bournemouth for a conference – we always try to get together when she’s down and has a free afternoon. We had such a great time! I only see her about twice a year so we make the most of it.

So all in all, it’s been a very busy fortnight chez-Shosh.

Floral Mini-Album Pt 17 Tags and Tabs for Pages 5 and 6

Recently I made a new mini-album, about my mum who died in December. I was unable to publish anything about this until now because it is a present for her best friend, who sometimes visits my blog, and I wanted it to be a surprise for her. I wrote a series of blog posts as I did each stage of the project, so I didn’t forget what I did, and they will be published in sequence now the project is finished and has been given to our friend.

If you want to see the finished project, please click here.

I forgot to photograph the original papers for the tags for page 5, or to include the Infusions in this photo, but to begin with, I applied Violet Storms and Violetta infusions to the paper from the paper stack, and then added  Hickory Smoke Distress Ink all over, using a blending tool, to smooth out the texture a bit, and to darken it.

I distressed the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink (again, no photo, I’m afraid).

Moving on to the tag for page 6 (the reverse of the tag for page 5), this was another one which didn’t require much treatment because the original paper from the paper stack wasn’t too bad. I merely double-distressed the edges, using Peacock Feathers and Black Soot Distress Inks.

Here are the pieces, matted onto black cardstock.

I cut and inked the tabs for these tags as before. I cut them from a scrap from one of my Tim Holtz paper stacks (can’t remember which one, I’m afraid, as the papers have got muddled up). For the side showing on page 5, I used Dusty Concord and Vintage Photo Distress Inks, and for the side showing on page 6, Peacock Feathers Distress Ink, and I distressed all the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I then proceeded to stick the tabs onto the tags, without thinking what I was doing, and twice I stuck them in the wrong place! I was able to remove them by softening the glue on the double-sided tape with my heat gun, but when I attached them wrongly the second time, I added a bit of Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive to restore the stickiness somewhat, and this did NOT want to soften with the heat gun, and when I pulled them off, they also lifted some of the colour from the printed paper. Grrrr. What a mess! I tried to cover the exposed white card with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink but you can see in the next photo that it still shows like crazy… I was so cross with myself for being so stupid, and all I can do is to try and add some judiciously placed embellishments when the time comes, to cover up this boo-boo!!

Here at last are the two tags with their tabs in the correct place – one showing the side for page 5, and the other for page 6.

This photo shows the tags in place, the first showing page 5, and the second turned over to show page 6.

Here are the pages again, this time with the tags pulled out, to show how they co-ordinate with their respective pages.

Pages 4 and 5 aligned, to show the double-page spread, complete with tags.

Here are all the pages, from 1-6, stacked up, showing how the tabs line up on the page edges. Not only do they enable the tags to be pulled out, but they also help turn the pages, as well as adding a decorative element.

Floral Mini-Album Pt 13 More Work on Page 1

Recently I made a new mini-album, about my mum who died in December. I was unable to publish anything about this until now because it is a present for her best friend, who sometimes visits my blog, and I wanted it to be a surprise for her. I wrote a series of blog posts as I did each stage of the project, so I didn’t forget what I did, and they will be published in sequence now the project is finished and has been given to our friend.

If you want to see the finished project, please click here.

Returning to page 1, it definitely needed more work as it was rather boring – this is what it looked like:

I distressed around the edges first of all, using Barn Door, Dusty Concord and finally Black Soot Distress Inks, and then added some Infusions – Violet Storms and Violetta. I was really not happy with the result, which just looked a bit of a mess in my opinion!

Here is the page laid in place, to see what it looked like beside the inside of the front cover. Hmmm.

So I decided to add some Distress Oxides. I didn’t want to smoosh the page on my craft sheet as I would have very little control and I didn’t want to mess up the other side of the page either, so I decided on a new approach – did I invent this? Probably not – I expect others have done the same, but for now I shall call it Shoshi’s Directed Smooshing! What I did was rub the ink pad on the craft sheet as normal, and spritz it with water, and then pick up the ink on a small acrylic block and use this to smoosh onto the surface of the page. This actually worked pretty well.

I started with Wilted Violet, but it was all too pink-purple and I thought it needed a bit more orange, so I added Spiced Marmalade, which looked OK until I dried it with the heat gun, when it promptly started to turn green!! Too much else already on the page and it was obviously reacting with it. So I tried adding some Fossilised Amber and that did help a bit. The final one I tried was Fired Brick which didn’t really show up at all. This was the result. Hmmmm again.

You can see that during this session, I also made the tags to go in these pages, cut from remnants of the same paper used to line the inside of the front cover, to try to tie the two pages in together. With the tag in place on the page, it doesn’t look too bad.

Here is the page, again laid alongside the front cover. I think this will have to do – I’m not over-thrilled with the result.

With all the water treatment and repeated drying with the heat gun, the whole page got a bit buckled, so it had the heavy books treatment overnight in the hope that it would flatten it out OK.

I think it will be OK once I get lots of embellishments on it, which will distract one’s eye a bit!

Note added later: With time, this page really grew on me until in the end, I am very pleased with it. Sometimes it’s best not to jump to conclusions but to sit with it for a while and then decide.

WOYWW 478

Yayyy! This week I made ART! Here is what is on my desk today – the results of my labours on Monday.

For the first time in about six weeks I managed to make something in the studio. After finishing the two copies of the Floral Mini-Album about Mum, I wanted to make boxes for them, but only managed to finish the albums before going into hospital in March to have my hernia operation. Mum’s friend, the recipient of one of the albums, told us that at present, she is keeping her album safe in a biscuit tin! We are meeting up with her on Thursday but unfortunately I haven’t had time to finish her box.

On the left of the photo is the mock-up I made of the first box some weeks ago, from mount board and masking tape.

On Monday I got out what was left of the awful paper stack I used to make the album, that I was able to improve so much with lots of ink etc., and selected a few sheets to be used to cover the box. I am so glad I didn’t throw that paper away because it’s amazing the transformation you can bring about with some Distress Inks, Distress Oxides and Infusions, after which it becomes really quite useful!

This is the only one that I photographed with the original unaltered sheet because I had several sheets of this.

Here are the others.

All these 12 x 12 sheets are pretty wrinkled as a result of being so wet – when using Infusions particularly, they need a lot of spritzing with water. However, once they are ironed, they should be much better, and failing that I can leave them under a pile of heavy books for a while.

I haven’t got enough of any one colour to make the two boxes identical, but it doesn’t matter.

I need to get some metal corners and some feet, and possibly some sort of a clasp for the lid, and I need to decide exactly how I am going to embellish them, but they will be something like the front cover of the albums, probably.

I have now resumed uploading the blog posts about the construction of the mini-album after a bit of a break. I am keen to get this completed now, but I’ve been so busy with other things lately that it’s got a bit neglected. You can scroll down to see the latest ones if you are interested.

Also in my studio this week is more chaos, because someone we know who collects and sells old sheet music has recently had a clear-out and has offloaded a box of his rejects onto me as I said I might be able to use some music paper in art. I had no idea there’d be so much.

At the bottom of the box were 6 large volumes of Scottish songs from the 1800s – beautiful books, far too nice to throw away, but I may be able to alter them and use them for art journaling etc., keeping some of the pages unaltered as there are plates of beautiful Scottish scenery and people in Highland dress etc., and the dedication page is to “Her Majesty Queen Victoria.”

I have also got all that wonderful craft stuff a friend gave me a few weeks ago, still not sorted and put away properly. I’ve got far too much stuff in the room and I’m getting a bit swamped at the moment! I need to have a serious blitz and get tidied up a bit.

Following on from a couple of times recently when a book and a memory were restored to me, in amongst all that music was a book of elementary piano pieces for children on a sea theme called “Sea Idylls” which I used to play when I was a child! I just had to keep that. I loved those pieces, and so nice to have a copy again, even if I haven’t got a piano to play them on, and even if I could remember how to play the piano!! (I shall have to get my musical friend to give me lessons…) There seem to be quite a few lovely things from my past, coming back into my life again at the moment.

Kitties

More fun and games with Lily and Ruby. They’ve both gone off the trolley completely now, and I’ve managed to persuade Ruby that sleeping right outside the bedroom door isn’t a good idea or she risks getting trodden on. At the weekend they discovered the kitty hammock in the sitting room, and once they are in from the garden, this is where they make a bee-line. They snuggle up together so happily in there. There’s a bit more room than on the trolley, and it’s a lot more comfortable (being designed with kitties in mind). They won’t know what’s hit them when winter comes and the heating is on!

See this post for full details and lots of pictures!

Meantime:

As usual, Ruby has something of herself draped over her sister.

Sunday morning:

Love those tails!!

They have NOT enjoyed the sudden change in the weather and I’ve told them that life isn’t all sunshine and butterflies but into each life, a little rain must fall! They are still dashing out when they get the chance but they don’t like the rain.

Lily watching blood and gore, violence and death on TV before the 9 o’clock watershed.

Food

Last weekend I made my best sourdough bread yet. Details in the same post from the other day. Slightly reduced hydration which made the dough a bit easier to handle, but not much!

The texture is still a bit dense but if I increase the hydration again just a bit, I should get some nice glossy holes. This time I did a lot more proper stretching and folding, and this gave the dough more structure and it didn’t collapse when I turned it out onto the baking sheet. The two small loaves rose very well. I shall attempt some more this weekend.

Esmeralda (my sourdough starter) went completely bananas after I’d made the bread and fed her up again. Despite putting her back in the fridge to sleep it off for the week, I found her erupting all over the place when we got back from church on Sunday morning. It looks positively geological, doesn’t it.

She got reduced again and I cleaned out her jar, and since then she’s behaved very well. What I took out has been made into some more crackers (not too successful as I rolled them out too thick, but I’ll do better next time).

On Friday we are going to our friend’s for another Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath) meal, for which I’ve offered to make the challah again. This delicious pair of plaited loaves is traditional and always goes down a treat. It’s enriched with egg and is quite sweet, and very soft and scrumptious, perfect served with a sprinkling of salt in the traditional way. We are out for lunch with Mum’s friend on Thursday so I’ve got to fit this in somehow. However, it’s not nearly so critical as sourdough when it comes to proving times so I can safely go out and leave it.

Shopping

Last Thursday my hubby took me shopping in Totnes, which used to be our nearest shopping town, and full of ethnic and hippie shops which I love – all my favourite sort of clothes! I bought a few more things and told my hubby that I’d better not go back for a while or I won’t have any money left!! We only did the top bit of the town. It’s extremely inaccessible for wheelchairs or buggies because the street is very narrow, with tiny narrow pavements, and the hill is extremely steep, and all the shops have steps and narrow doorways, but it is soooo gorgeous!

In one shop we found a lot of fabulous stuff from Bali, and I simply couldn’t resist buying this trio of little carved and painted wooden cats.

We went into a whole food shop run by an Indian lady and I got chatting with her about kefir because I wondered if she’d like to take my excess kefir grains off my hands. She was very interested and said that several customers had asked if she sold kefir starter kits. I said she could have the grains and I didn’t want anything for them, and arranged that my friend (who came over yesterday) would probably be willing to drop them in for me as she lives just round the corner from there, and she is going to do that for me. While we were in there, another old friend that I don’t see much of these days, came in – so well met! She invited us back to tea at her house after we’d all finished our shopping, and we sat on her patio under the big umbrella, enjoying the sunshine and catching up. It was so nice!

So it’s been another busy week. In between I’ve tried to rest. Yesterday I was fighting off a major headache all day, which was probably brought on by a combination of doing too much, and a change in the weather.

At least I got back in the studio a bit this week.

Floral Mini-Album Pt 10 Page 8 Flower Pop-Up

It’s been weeks since I was doing this regular resume of how I constructed the Floral Mini-Album – first of all it was illness and recovery, and since then I’ve just been too busy with other things, and trying to catch up with everything. So today I decided to resume it.

Recently I made a new mini-album, about my mum who died in December. I was unable to publish anything about this until now because it is a present for her best friend, who sometimes visits my blog, and I wanted it to be a surprise for her. I wrote a series of blog posts as I did each stage of the project, so I didn’t forget what I did, and they will be published in sequence now the project is finished and has been given to our friend.

If you want to see the finished project, please click here.

The second pop-up in this mini-album.

I began by making the mat for page 8. Again, the paper for the base was pretty boring, so I added smooshed Dusty Concord Distress Ink, and then some Infusions (Violet Storms and Violetta). This darkened the paper and made it a lot richer and more interesting. I finished it by distressing the edges, first with Dusty Concord, and then with Black Soot Distress Inks. The way I do this double distressing is to take the lighter colour first, and using an ink blender, in the traditional way, working flat on the table from the outside inwards. After this, I pick up the piece of card and using an ink blender with the darker shade, swipe downwards across the edges, so that only the very edge is caught. I expect other people do this too so I can’t really claim it as my invention, but for now I’ll call it Shoshi’s Double Distressing Technique!

Here is the paper, matted onto the flap of page 8.

Then I turned to the pop-up which will be underneath this flap. I followed several Youtube videos on this pop-up, each with a slight variation – if you search “Flower Pop-Up” on Youtube, you will come up with plenty of tutorials. I adapted the measurements to suit my project, and for the mat I cut a piece 6 in x 3 in, so that when it is folded in half, it produces a 3-inch square.

Here are the papers for the pop-up mat. These are for both copies of the album.

The original is on the right, and this isn’t the sort of paper I thought I’d ever use, which is why it’s been in my stash for so many years! With the addition of several layers of Distress Inks and Distress Oxides, it is totally transformed and much better. I like the way that the stripes are still visible but the text has virtually disappeared.

What I did was first of all to smoosh it with a mixture of Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. As I’ve mentioned before, this paper stack is a bit weird – the paper seems to have a slightly waxy finish to it which resists the ink, but you do end up with some quite nice splotchy results.

After drying it with my heat gun, I smooshed it again, this time with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide, and dried it. The second smooshing seems to work better than the first.

The next step was to go over the whole thing with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, using an ink blender tool, working inwards from the outer edge, until it was lightly covered, muting everything down.

I spritzed what was left on the craft sheet with water, and smooshed it again to mop up any waste, and finally, after drying yet again, I distressed the edges with an ink blender, using Black Soot Distress Ink.

Now it was time to start making the flowers for the pop-up. I had one sheet of this in the stack:

I do like the gradation of colour and the distressed look of this particular paper. I thought there would be just enough to make sufficient flowers for both albums, and this proved to be correct, but on a couple of the pieces there was a bit of text at the edge, but most of this was cut off eventually.

I cut fourteen squares, each measuring 3 in x 3 in, seven for each pop-up. Because I was concerned (unnecessarily, as it turned out) that the white backs of the squares would show, I inked them up with Dusty Concord Distress Ink, using the ink blender, not worrying too much about evenness – I quite liked the slightly marbled look.

I spritzed the craft sheet with water, though, and smooshed them through it to smooth it out a bit.

I decided to play with some Distress Oxides, and first added Spiced Marmalade, but this made it look too different from the front, so I added some Worn Lipstick. I fell in love with the result – so much so that I abandoned the idea of using the front at all, and decided to use this instead! As the backs weren’t going to show anyway, I could have saved that particular paper, which was about the best sheet in the entire stack!

Beginning to cut the flower shapes from the squares. The small white shape on the right in the next photo is a mock-up, which I used to trace around to get the shape. You fold the square into four, and then again at 45 degrees, and cut a curve at the top, so that when you open it up, you end up with eight petals.

Now for some fun. I painted the edges, and the divisions between the petals, with Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls, using my Perfect Pearls palette which makes them so much easier to apply.

I drew the centres and veins with two shades of Sharpie pens.

Then I cut out one petal from each flower. I kept these for later use.

Overlapping the two petals either side of the gap, I glued them together, making the flower into a concave shape with six petals.

I then folded them all in half, with the fronts on the inside.

I followed the instructions on the Youtube videos as to how to glue these together – too complicated to write out, and much easier to watch (see Youtube). You end up with a stack of flowers, but they are glued in such a way as to expand into a bouquet when attached to the flaps of the pop-up.

The final step was to make some leaves, and I forgot to photograph this. What I did was to take scraps of green card and fold them in half lengthwise, and cut out a curved shape, so that when it opened, it was a leaf with a crease (vein) down the centre. I glued these randomly onto the backs of the petals, and then stuck the whole pop-up inside the pop-up mat, first sticking down the bottom half of the bouquet to the lower part of the mat, making sure the fold went well into the fold in the mat, and folded down the upper part of the mat and pressed it down well. I then opened up the top part of the mat, applied more glue to the exposed back of the pop-up, and folded the mat down again and pressed it well. I didn’t open it until I was sure the glue was dry. They were now ready to attach inside the flap of page 8.

I chose some more of the paper from the stack which would go well for matting inside the page flap.

I didn’t go to a lot of trouble altering it, but just distressed the edges, first with Dusty Concord Distress Ink and then with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, using the Double Distressing method.

Then I mounted the two mat pieces under the flap of page 8.

I attached the completed pop-up on its mat, using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, using the same method I used for attaching the pop-up to its mat. Again, I did not open it until I was sure the glue was completely dry.

Once it was dry, I was pleased that the page and its flap were substantial enough to hold the pop-up firmly, and it operates really well. I had to prop the flap open because it won’t stay open on its own and I didn’t have a spare hand when taking the photo!

There was a bit of a gap above the pop-up, and in front of it. Also, when you closed the flap of the page, a little of the yellow striped paper was visible, which I didn’t like, so I decided to make a pocket from black cardstock, extending the full width of the page. Once this was done, I created four identical strips (two for each album) from the striped paper I used for the pop-up mat, and altered it to co-ordinate with the page, this time using more of the purple and less of the brown, to echo the colour of the flowers and also the outside of the page flap.

Here are the pieces I cut for this.

This is really horrible paper. However, I am so glad that I never got round to disposing of this paper stack which has been hanging around for years – until recently I wouldn’t have had enough imagination or experience to improve it, but now, I am so pleased with the end result that I can forgive it for being so awful to start with!!

I knew that the stripes would still be visible when it was done, and this was something I fully intended to happen, because they would echo the stripes in the pop-up mat paper nicely. I cut the strips so that the stripes would run vertically, and I had a job centring them exactly, because the design had not been printed exactly in the middle of the paper, and the first stripe (yellow) was 1/16 in wider than the rest of the stripes, which were 1 in wide. This may not seem much, but it really showed, so once I realised, I trimmed off this small amount, and then I was able to use my Tim Holtz centring ruler to get the stripes exactly where I wanted them on each strip.

Now it was time to alter them. I began by smooshing them several times with Dusty Concord Distress Ink. As I mentioned before, the surface of this paper feels slightly waxy and seems to resist the ink, so it needed several attempts to get enough coverage, drying each time with my heat gun before doing it again. I then applied Dusty Concord Distress Ink all over the pieces using my ink blender, spritzed the craft sheet with water to use up any residue of ink, and smooshed them again.

Already the paper was looking a bit better.

The next step was to smoosh again with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide. Again, I dried it and repeated the exercise until all the ink on the craft sheet was used up and I was satisfied with the result.

An improvement again. They just needed darkening a little, so this time I smooshed them with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Once they were dry, I ironed them to get rid of the wrinkles, and distressed the edges with Walnut Stain and Black Soot Distress Inks, again using the Double Distressing method. This was the final result.

This was definitely the look I wanted. All the naff letters and numbers had disappeared, but the stripes were still visible. All that was required was to attach them to the pocket and the top of the page flap, and the flower pop-up was complete.

The finishing touch was to take some of the petals that had been removed from the flowers in order to construct the pop-up, and to attach them randomly with a little Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, so that they appeared to have fallen from the bouquet.

Altogether a very pleasing result and I think the papers and the colours go together well. I am so, so glad I didn’t get rid of that awful paper!!!

Now all I have to do to complete the basic work on the albums is to cover the inside of the back cover, and create a pocket for a CD of some of Mum’s favourite music, and then apply papers to the front, back and spine of the cover, ready for embellishing. There is also the automatic waterfall mini to go inside the front cover, and I’m not very happy about page 1 which really needs some more interest before I embellish it. In addition, I need to make large pull-out tags to slide into each page edge, so there’s still quite a lot to do.