A Thank You

After having such a wonderful night on Thursday at the St George's Society Red and White Ball, I thought it would be nice gesture to send the Society a thank you from Billy and myself.

I found my layout inspiration at the Fab Friday spot over at Cuttlebug Challenges. As with any inspiration everyone's interpretation is slightly different, mine turned out slightly elongated. My colour scheme colour could only be based on the Union Jack, red white and blue and my image a Beefeater. We were greeted by two Beefeaters at the door to the Ballroom.

I settled down to get the card and out came my trusty 'Bug'. The sentiment is from the 'With Gratitude' die. I used the Nestabilities Large and Small labels for the matting for the sentiment. The matting for the image was done by just cutting out rectangles and rounding off the corners with a corner punch. For the red background, used mulberry paper which I embossed with the D'vine Swirl folder. And voila the end result -

Red & White Ball

A day late but Happy St George's Day to all my English friends.

Out here in Bahrain it was celebrated by the St George's Society with a Red and White Ball. Billy and I were there, seated at the top table, representing the Awali Callies.

Billy and me in front of the Union Jack

The Top Table with Beefeaters

The evening kicked off with a champagne and canapes reception. We then sat down to Cream of Broccoli Soup, followed by Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. Dessert was a Chocolate Mousse. Also on the table was a selection of cheese and crackers. It was all rounded off with coffee or tea with petit fours.

We then danced into the early hours to music by Krazy Kevin, who was suitable dressed in a red and white suit.

A Birthday Party

Sunday evening saw Billy and I off out to a birthday party. Not just any ordinary birthday but Queen Elizabeth II's at the British Embassy here in Bahrain. Not a casual affair but not stiff upper lip one either. We all turned up in our 'Sunday Best'.

The Official Invitation

I didn't take my camera with me as I didn't think I would be allowed it into the Embassy grounds. However I do know one of the guys who covers events in Bahrain for one of the glossy monthly magazines was there and who has kindly passed on the photo taken of me and Sarah, the British Ambassador's wife. You will see Billy just 'teeting' over Sarah's shoulder.

Me and Sarah

For those with a sweet tooth!!!

Bev, at All The Things I Love, has some fabulous candy on offer to mark her blogoversary and passing the 200,000 hit mark. If you would like to be in with a chance of winning pop over and have a look, leave a comment and put a link on your own blog, if you have one.

Better hurry though, as it is only available until the 23rd.

Blog Candy - Limited Edition

Dorothy over at Never Enough Rubber Stamps has some exclusive candy on offer. I have never seen such a large inkpad. I hope you will drop and have a look.

April's Cards Finished

Had two cards to do to get up to date for April. The first one, I decided to tackle was for my brother-in-law. Had an idea of doing a triangular card for him, but my mojo had decided to go walkabout and although I got a card done I wasn't happy with it. Then my memory kicked in. I had done a card last year for a spare and thought it would be suitable, so when I looked it out I decided to use it instead, particularly he loves music and playing the piano.

Luckily my mojo seemed to come back when I started on an anniversary card for our good friends in Saudi, Annie and Mike. Scroll through some of my downloads came across a sheet that had downloaded from Fred-She-Said - Dancing Daisy. As there are two dancing daisy images on the sheet, I decoupaged one of the flower heads and used Inkssentials Glossy Accents to highlight the petals. Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Rectangles were used to for the bottom two layers of the mats and the Classic Rectangle for the top layer.

Being a thrifty cardmaker, I decided I wouldn't throw out the triangular card I had originally wanted to do for my brother-in-law, I finished it off with a couple of peel-offs and use it for a birthday card that I need for May. So it now means that all the cards I need for now till the end of May are done.

Got Round To Cardmaking

Having spent the last two days, re-organising the area where I do my cardmaking and scrapbooking, spent the morning getting a couple of cards done. It is almost done, just waiting for the carpenters/joiners to come to put up two extra shelves.

The first one is an order for business cards, for a gal pal of mine here who does Reflexology. She provided the image and I just incorporated it into a business card. Thought I would give it to her in a post, which I made up following the instructions on the Scor-pal website. I used a sheet of cardstock from the Bo Bunny's Back to Back range - Sweetie Pie Squeeze [page 55].

The second card of the day is a my dental assistant gal pal who has just moved house in Awali. The papers are from Printable Heaven. To wind her up a wee bit, I thought I would do the card using her least favourite colour, Pink. I am sure she will accept the card in the spirit that it is given. My reply, when she says something is pink, is always 'it is not pink but that is it a light shade of red'. Just have to wrap up her house warming pressies.

Patio Devastation

Thunder and lightening came to Awali last night. The thunder so loud it woke me up and the lightening was so bright that even with the curtains drawn the inside of the house was lit up. Woke up to this mini scene of devastation.

The bbq moved out of the corner.

Speak about being rootbound!!!

Almost 40 Egg Boxes Later!!!

As it is coming up for the Easter break from school, thought I would do a wee gift for the kids in nursery, all 28 of them plus the rest of the nursery teaching staff, and give them out on Thursday when we finish.

Adapted the design slightly from this year's April edition of Crafts Beautiful.

Using plain bright yellow card for the box I trimmed it with cardstock from the Bo-Bunny's Back to Backs range. The striped trim, for the boys, is Ella Stripe and the checked, for the girls, is the back of Ella Dot. Popping in a Cadbury's Creme Egg before adding a small name tag and tying up the box with bright green string.

On Easter Saturday we have been invited to a bbq, so did an extra 6 to give to the kids at the bbq.

Hopefully the start of cardmaking again

Card making has been quite thin on the ground just recently, particularly as Sarah was out visiting us for a fortnight, so I didn't want to disappear too often into the crafting 'black hole'.

While she was here I had to finish off an order for menus for the BTB's Sportman's Charity Dinner. Before I flew home for to surprise Dad on his birthday I got the tickets finished. Billy and I went along to the dinner and were seated with the after dinner speaker, Bob 'The Cat' Bevan, who had everyone in stitches with his speech, especially when he took the mickey out of Billy and Ally - the BTB's President. The night raised over BD5000 in aid of The Bahrain Children's Cancer Trust' to help establish a hospice.

Today, spent the morning, trying to tidy up the crafting 'black hole', but gave it up and got on with a card for Dorothy over at Never Enough Rubber Stamps, who is running a Spread a Smile Campaign.