Gas Street

We had a day out yesterday!! Took the tram to West Bromwich to visit The Public. The town's new £36,000,000 cafe. It is a super space, supposed to have exhibitions and things, a theatre, recording studio and public spaces. But they have run out of money - so all you get is the cafe. So we had a coffee and then caught the bus back. It is all excitement in the Scowcroft family.







The front is just a big black box with wavy pink windows.


But around the back there is this fantastic silver carbuncle thingy. Absolutely fabulous.

The ground floor, which was all we could visit had a pink light display and some of the brightest yellow toilets that I have ever visited.




Walking around to the doctor's surgery yesterday I passed the ICC and there were lots of graduates outside having their photos taken before their graduation ceremony.

Made me think of this card and I made from a decoupage sheet, matting it onto yellow and black card and adding yellow and black ribbon. I faux stitched the yellow panel behind the card and added 3 black buttons.

Gas Street

Is this the most filmed on bridge in the UK?

This time it is BBC West Midlands Today. They must have spent about 4 hours filming and will probably be on screen for less than 4 minutes.

Otherwise is has continued to be quiet around here (apart from the Tap and Spile that is). Not many boat movements and not many gongoozlers.

There is a snowdrop in one of the flower boxes on the lock island. The Canada geese must have missed it!







I have made another of the "step" Valentine Card - this one I have made especially for George and was ordered from his admirer.

It has been made in the same way and the previous one but I used different coloured heart combinations.











I printed out the message for the back and added another heart with a red feather.











This is a view from the front.

Gas Street

They have been filming by the lock again. This time it is ITV Central. It was freezing cold and we offered them hot coffee, which they accepted while they filmed from the front of Tom's boat.





And now 4 Valentine Cards to show off....

And they can all be bought here

This one has a chocolate heart fixed inside the flower.







And so does this one. The black panel behind was made using my new Cuttlebug, which we bought yesterday.











This one is simpler with just cardboard hearts.
I have also joined in the Crafty Muse Challenge for their Something Sweet Challenge with these cards.












But this is the piece de resistance (if that is the right spelling). A "step" card with three tiers. The large hearts were made using the Craft Robo and I have added feathers and ribbon.

Gas Street

David has been playing around with Photoshop and has come up with this picture of our Woodie.

Took the train to Small Heath today - great got the train with 5 mins to wait. Bought my goodies and went back to the station - train in 20 mins. 2 mins before it was due there was announcement stating the train had been cancelled!!! Next one 1/2 and hour later. So we went to look for a bus. Hadn't realized how lucky we are in the city centre. Finally found a bus stop with a bus going in the right direction and waited 40 mins for a bus (10 mins late), then another bus into town and yet another bus out to Broad Street. Good job David loves me.




Here is the last card for Caroline's wedding. I made a shaker box by printing the swirls onto card and cutting them out on the CraftRobo. I layered up the heart with acetate and then 3 layers of cardboard card to build it up. I stamped the heart onto pink paper with pink ink for the backing and then filled the "box" with confetti. The glue was being uncooperative and when I picked the boxes up all the confetti fell over the floor. More bad language. I had to seal the edges with PVA in the end. I stuck the heart onto the card at an angle and added 3 pink gems in the top left hand corner and a printed sentiment matted onto silver in the bottom left hand corner.

Then I printed out the rsvp replies, 4 to an A4 page and put the return address on the other side so that they could be sent as they were of put into an envelope.

I adhered a strip of the printed paper down the left side and stamped the heart in pink over it.

I also stuck a strip of the printed paper down the left side of the envelopes to tie it all in.

Gas Street

The washer/dryer machine is now fitted and working. Hooray!!! It is so quiet after the last one but has more flashing lights. Let's hope it lasts as long as the old one.

We travelled back from Lyons Boatyard with 10 extra bags of coal (special offer) meeting the dredgers on the way back. We had to wait awhile while they manoeuvred their boats and skips around and then they kindly moved to the side to let us through. Unfortunately the overhanging tree scratched our new(ish) paintwork as we slipped through.

We were back on the moorings by 3pm and don't think we will be going out anywhere soon. More ice is forecast.







Two more of Caroline's wedding invitation cards. I really love this one. The lace was wrapped around the silver panel before fixing it to the card. I stamped the heart onto shrink plastic and stuck it down with PVA (the sticky dot's wouldn't stick to the plastic!!!), along with the pink feather.

With this one I printed the pattern onto vellum (eventually - the printer and the ink bleeding almost defeated me). I tore the vellum and used vellum tape to stick the bottom to the card. I made a hole in each corner and added a brad (I found some lovely pink pearly ones in the HobbyCraft shop last week). I stamped and embossed the heart onto pink card and cut it out and slipped it into the pocket.

By this time David had complained about the bad language re the stamping and embossing of the sentiment so I printed these and pasted them onto silver card.

Near Shirley, Stratford on Avon Canal

The Great Escape has begun (but I fear it may only be a false start). We left the moorings around 11am travelling down the Worcester and Birmingham Canal encountering two boats and two contractor boats who were actually DREDGING!!!!!

At Kings Norton Junction we turned left into the Stratford on Avon Canal, through the guillotine lock (pictured last Summer) and on through the Draw Bridge before winding and mooring up by the winding hole. It was cold and showery and I was glad it was David who was out on the back.

As much as we love living in Gas Street Basin, it is great to be out in the countryside again. Though it's back to G2 for the Internet and not being able to spend all night on the big computer.

I finally finished Caroline's wedding invitations on Friday night. I am very pleased with the results, and fortunately, so is Caroline!

She chose 5 cards from my ideas book and then left me to it. I was allowed to make 5 different card styles and I tied them all in by using the same patterned paper and heart stamp.

I also made postcard sized reply cards which were also decorated with the paper and heart stamp.

This one has patterned backing paper from Pink Petticoat with a banner of vellum. The heart was stamped onto pink card with black ink and black sparkle embossing powder and I finished it off with three heart shaped, pink gems in the bottom right hand corner.














And with this one I wrapped the organdie ribbon around the patterned and silver matted panel before fixing it to the card and then added the bow, fixed with a sticky dot. The pink hart was stamped onto shrink plastic with Staz-on and coloured with markers. Finally I stamped the wording and embossed it in silver and edged the card with silver.

Gas Street

A slightly old picture (well 1 week anyway). They say you can tell your age by whether you can be bothered to pick up a 2p piece. We left this one firmly encased in the ice.

Yesterday we took the train to Stone for a day out. We got to the moorings by the Star pub and the sun came out. It was lovely. There were three boats on the moorings, plus the trip boat and one of those went up through the lock while we were there. I must be the only idiot who, when she sees a canal or a boat, wishes she was out there on a boat - and all the time I am living on a boat!






My second Valentine card this year. This one has a "concertina" panel which is tied up with red ribbon.