Notes from Ijevan

I love these papers.  And I love that a bit of paper-piecing action shows them off so well.  These muted tones are my ideal colour scheme and one I must remember to come back to in the future.

I decided on Friday that I wanted to do a pieced background and I made myself a template for the slices out of a sheet of Bazzill Basics cardstock that I knew I wouldn't use otherwise.  I cut up that sheet of Bazzill numbered each slice and cut round them on the patterned paper.  I then assembled the page on a cardstock background, but I've kept the bits of the template.   Numbering them has meant that I can re-assemble them really easily and if I want to do this again (which I do!) I've now got a template ready to go.

This was a great way to feature some gorgeous papers and to use up some stash.  I'm going to make more of an effort in future to use what I have rather than sticking to the newest items in my ever-growing collection.  Paper-piecing is also a lovely technique as, once the template was made, the cutting and sticking was low on brain space and so I caught up on some Downton Abbey while I crafted.

I was also pleased to find that this page didn't need a lot else - the pieced background did all the work!  So I added my journalling and all good to go.  It reads:

In Ijevan, the water options in the shower seemed to be either 'cold' or 'no water'.  And we were introduced to some milipede-esque  creatures with an unnatural number of legs.  They could run decidedly quickly and made no distinction between running on beds, floors, windows, curtains, walls, and worryingly, ceilings.  I performed a spectacular squishing of one insect, but a second nippier specimen and lurked, waiting to scare us at night.  By day we hung out at the theatre waiting for our non-existent trainees to show up, and eating Snickers.  The locals kept offering us fruit so clearly we looked malnourished.  But it was all good fun even if there wasn't much to see and do.

Wishing you all a snuggly, crafty, soup-based Autumn evening.  And a home-made quilt to hide under while you watch the bake-off again.

That last one may be just me :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. More about this page will be coming up on the next podcast which I am going to *fingers crossed* release this weekend,

P.P.S. Saying that I'm going to release it does indeed make me feel like a Hollywood director.