Gas Sttreet Moorings, Birmingham

We were sitting in the boat today and David suddenly caught a glimpse of a grey head going past the window.

The heron had walked down the whole length of the mooring and had obviously seen something it fancied in the water as it stood at the end for ages.

There is also a young white swan around at the moment and today it was chasing all the geese, with luck it will frighten them all away; 'cause what with the goose s***, pigeon s*** and seagull s*** around at the moment we could do with some respite.






I just adore poinsettias - even though I read today they harbour lots of bad bugs - so here are a few Christmas cars I have made.

For this one I used some woven and corrugated brown card behind a large red flower.












For this one I began with a large white card blank and covered the front in some red backing paper which I embossed with the Cuttlebug and matted onto green card. I added a a green band across the front and decorated it with gold peel-off borders and one corner. The leaves were punched from green paper and I made the name with gold peel-offs and matted it onto gold card.






With this green card I wrapped some silver edged red organza ribbon around the card and then wrapped silver string around that. Then I added the flower.















Again, I used a green card blank and added a strip of patterned paper, edging it with gold peel-offs.

The flower was stuck with a glue-Dot and I added three small gold dots to the bottom right hand corner.









For this card I used a tall white card blank and die-cut a label out of some thick patterned gold card before adding the poinsettia.

Then I added a strip of green sequin ribbon and sparkly red ric-rac across the bottom before adding the sentiment which was matted onto more of the gold card.













Using a square white card I made a strip of patterned paper to which I added a strip of gold peel-off as well.

Then the white poinsettia was added.











I matted a piece of gold card onto some stripy paper, wrapping some gold organza ribbon around it before sticking it onto a long white card. Then I added some more ribbon, and the flowers. I made the sentiment with gold peel-offs onto gold card and matted them onto stripy paper.

I edged this black and white patterned paper with black ink and stuck it onto a white card blank. I then wrapped some gold edged, red organza ribbon around the bottom. I cut a Nestability Label from gold and white card and added that over the ribbon. The leaves were punched from green paper and the poinsettia flower added with a gold brad. Finally, the sparkly red star was added.







This last card is an easel shaped card. I made a strip cut from red patterned paper, matted onto silver holographic paper and a green scalloped border on the top.

The large poinsettia was added and three red gem stars on the bottom right hand corner.








This is the inside. I made a large panel from the red patterned paper, matting it as before and then edging it with green scallop edged card.

I added a piece of white card for any salutation and a peel-off sentiment and finally a brad to the centre above the sentiment to make the card stand up.




This is a picture of the card with box that I made to go with it.

I made a green box and added a silver peel-off strip around the edge. I covered the top with silver miri card and then more green card before adding a couple of silver peel-off poinsettias in two of the corners.