We Shall NEVER FORGET

My blog has been left alone so long- I am sorry but my life has just been one crazy mess and my blog has had to suffer the consequences but as it is September 11th here in Australia I feel I need to repost a POEM I posted last year- I wrote it as a  dedication to ALL those involved wherever they lived in the horrible events of that day in the United States of America. 

Please read the poem I wrote way back then as I felt such despair when I awoke on the morning of September 12th (Australia time) to hear the shocking news and watch the terrible footage  on the TV over and over. As a volunteer member of the emergency services myself as are others in my family my heart went out to all those who were involved in some way- those who were at the devastation  - their families- those who wished they could be there to help in some small way and all those innocent families that were involved in such an horrific event. 

We in Australia still keep you all in our thoughts continuously and we have learned to appreciate each and every beautiful day we have been given .

America Attacked

“America attacked” that’s what they said

ALL the papers when they were read

A plane, no two have hit a building in New York

Both full of innocent passengers and civilians at work

Not just any building it was discovered

But the World Trade Centre, the Twin Towers,

No goodbyes or I love you

So unexpected for all involved

Except the ones who planned this deed

Fire everywhere – the heat intense it’s melting steel all around

Even more news comes across

The Pentagon has been hit too - another plane

More people dead

Confusion is all around

Not only for Americans but for the world

WHY?

Who would do this terrible thing?

What is going to happen now?

Questions lots of them to be answered

Who will solve this puzzle?

Another plane has gone down

This time the passengers have reported to say goodbye

Or I love you knowing they were going to die

It’s crashed into a forest all on board dead

Reports keep coming back of despair

Of Death Destruction EVERYWHERE

People try to help, some in vain

No one believes or gives up hope

Police, Fire fighters, Paramedics too

All do their job and march straight in

Get people out their only thought

Help as many as you can

Then more Despair the buildings just crumble

Like a pack of cards

Get out, Get out

We can’t leave them there

We have to help it’s what we do

Regardless of what WE are going through

HOPE is what keeps us going

We pray and work and keep on trying

Just one more trip and one more life

But no it’s too late – we are gone – goodbye

The dust it settles, the people stare

Tears and words just don’t come

We can’t believe it, it can’t be true

It’s some bad movie – it’s just not real

But yes it’s true – we must go on.

We hope the world will stay at peace

No more attacks – no more devastation

We just need to get on, clean up the mess

Maybe someone is still alive

We must check, we hope, we pray

We’ll never forget this tragic day

World war 3 – is this start?

Somewhere down inside our hearts

We hope it’s not - we try to think

Another’s life - we must care

Find out who has done this thing

And punish him / her - and only them

Families, friends we must unite

Think of all those who died - they must help us too

Keep positive and hope the best

Don’t let them all have died in vain

Thousands of innocent lives gone .

Women, children, men all are parts of families

Genes may not relate us

But we are part of the human race

Think of the survivors - those who have lost

We may not want to but we must

Are they to die too- for Revenge

It can’t happen – not again

Remember Gallipoli

Remember France and London

DON’T let Evil win

Give GOOD a winning chance

Peace is what it has to be

But How?

A week has gone by – still no answers

No one else found alive – we can’t give up

People offering – insisting on helping

Clear the rubble – search, search

Dogs, Police, Fire-fighters hard at work

The heat still there- we must go on we cannot rest

Maybe the next piece of rubble may uncover a friend

A loved one – We all hope and pray

Masks must be worn there may be asbestos or worse

We can’t rest

On the other side of the world

We watch this on TV

Our brothers’, sisters’ in the emergency services

Have died or disappeared doing their jobs

We bow our heads and hold our hands

We hug and pray for their families

For them

And all the ones they were trying to save

It could be us we‘re volunteers

Just like some of those who died.

We see a problem we go to help

We know what it’s all about

Our families know it’s what we train to do

But things like this bring the reality home, a family all together

Disaster, Sadness Everywhere – we can’t believe it

We see it over and over again

That plane- those crumbling towers

People running – trying to escape

Those fire trucks, ambulances

Police cars, Buildings – all crumbled like toys

Cranes are lifting; trucks are carrying it all away

To be sifted through in hope to find the answers

None are coming – only more questions

News time comes and goes- more tragedy

Australia, the World is in mourning

Will the world ever be right again?

Children cannot understand- we’re saying sorry

But why? - We did nothing wrong

Explanations just can’t justify any reason

Hope is coming it has to be

We can’t live in fear and sadness

We will remember September 11^th 2001

FOREVER.

By Kathleen Smullen 2001

If you would like to read my entry for last year please use this link- or look up my entry for September 2010- there is only one- the one dedicated to September 11

http://glittergluetoo.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-tribute-and-feelings-for-9-11.html

 

Thanks for visiting and hopefully soon I will be able to start normal posts again- when I have got my world back into some order.

Thankyou     Catch you Later

Regards

Kathy S

Once In a While

Good morning- or afternoon wherever you may be - Today is going to be a beautiful Autumn day here in Victoria Australia- the sun hopefully will be shining (at the moment we have a blanket of thick fog)which is the promise of a beautiful day,the air is fresh but nice and there is no rain or wind- we have had weeks of cold miserable weather here lately it has felt more like Winter than Autumn. 

Todays card is one I mad when I saw the Just Rite challenge colours JustRite Friday Challenge 055- Color - I new I had to use this paper-it has all three colours in it and it is so beautiful-I cut out the white butterfly from another piece of paper and added some Kindy Glitz to its wings to give it a bit of sparkle. The sentiment could be used for so many occasions but would be perfect for a wedding or engagement I think. I have used a small piece of May Arts ribbon I received in a bundle of off cuts I won earlier this year- they are just the right length for cards with very no wastage-love that.            here is a closer view of the sentiment, butterfly and ribbon               

Card Info- Card base Cream cardstock; Papers-Grace Taylor, bits from stash; Stamp- JustRite Garden Fairy Wishes cling Stamp set; Ink- Staz on Timber Brown; Spellbinders Petite ovals and scalloped petite ovals; Ribbon May Arts and stash; Lace –stash;Punch-Fiskars sunburst border punch; Kindy Glitz-Crystalina; foam mounting tape; Double sided tape-X-press IT.

Hope you like it- comments greatly appreciated

Thanks for visiting, Catch you later

Regards

Kathy S

“Creating from the Heart” Giveaway

Have just been catching up on some of the blogs I follow and at “Creating from the Heart” Melissa has a great giveaway – there are a few conditions but they aren’t too hard to comply with so go check it out-http://keepsakesbymelissa.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-giveaway-time.html by clicking this link it will take you straight to the correct entry but while your there check out all her work it’s amazing- she is one talented girl. The prizes up for grabs are a Martha Stewart all around the page Punch and a $100. gift voucher for Michaels Arts and crafts- wow how generous is that.

Go on over now and check it out but thanks for visiting my blog and hopefully you’ll call again

Thanks

Regards

Kathy S

All For Love

Just for your information this challenge has been extended until the 15th of May due to Blogger problems – Thanks Julie- she has extended the link options as well as the comments.

I think this may be too late for the challenge now- I have been trying to upload this post for two days and have not had any luck with blogger GRHHHHH this morning I tried and yey it loaded so here it is anyway- I hope you enjoy.

Flourishes stamps are releasing their new stamp sets this week and have a few fun things to enter for the chance to win them- one was a sort of bingo  called Let’s get 3 in a Row!where you picked a line and made a card using the three objects in that line on your card. Well I had a hard time choosing which line to use and finally settled on the centre row going down- pink,flower and lace and now looking at the grid it could also fall into the bottom left to top right grid of die cut,flower and scallop I think the only things missing from this card that are on the grid are ribbon and buttons- I actually had them out to include but it just didn’t look right where i wanted to put them so I ended leaving them off. I didn’t have any proper flourishes in pearls so I made my own with the pearl strips they look a bit wonky but that just adds to the handmade look right, and the lace is actually stuff I bought years and years ago and have in my stash- I think I paid $1 for the lot and there is metres of it some in short lengths others in longer lengths- it was all tangled up (that was why it was so cheap I think) and I carefully untangled it and wound it on a card- I have used a heap and still have so much left

                         If you want to enter this competition you only have until this evening to do so as it finishes at 4.00pm on 13th-  follow the link above to find out the rules.

The new releases are so great – a wedding one and a fishing themed one so far and I think the other for this release is Labels and borders

Details of my card are - card stock –white cut down to 5 1/2’’ square (finished size) ; papers Grace Taylor- not sure of the name of the collection; Stamp- Flourishes  Hearts and Flowers set;Ink -Versa mark watermark , Staz-on Jet Black; Colours- Lyra Aquacolor water colour crayons, deluxe chalks-I’ve had these for years; Rhinestones- Kaiser, Pearls- Basics strips – Kaisercraft, Flower brad-heidi grace love blossoms; Dies- Spellbinders Blossom Nestabilities set, Lattice Borderabilities petite, fancy Tags- one of my U3A ladies has this die set and cut me several of each of them- thanks Doreen; Other- Lace- from my stash, X-press IT double sided adhesive, foam mounting tape.

Thanks for visiting, Catch you Later

Regards

Kathy S

Happy Birthday Monkey style

 

I made this card early last week for the  Whimsie Wednesday Challenge 77 - Fun Flock -http://whimsiedoodles.blogspot.com/2011/04/whimsie-wednesday-challenge-77-fun.html as soon as I saw the challenge I knew what I wanted to do, but I think it is closed now but I’ll post it anyway it is such a fun image to use flock with that I actually had a hard time stopping. I was going to flock the red heart but thought I’d emboss it instead so the sock monkey would stand out a bit more.

I won this delightful stamp and some very cute others last year on one of the blog hops and shame on me I haven’t actually made any of them into cards until now but I seem to have got the bug and you will be seeing a few other little Whimsy critters appear on some of my projects in the future.

Here is a picture of my card and a close up of this cute little sock monkey  

I stamped him on some scrap white cardstock and the coloured him with my brush markers- blending with a paintbrush then I coloured in all the other bits and used a red sakura pen for the cherry to give it a bit of shine but it’s a bit hard to see in the pictures. Then I painted the background with a very light wash of grey,purple and blue luminarte paints to take the starkness from the white. Then I covered the monkey with white glue and poured on my flock- It stuck ok but i wanted him a bit furrier so I painted some more white glue over him and repeated the process- much furrier. When the monkey was dry I decided to emboss his balloon and used glitter embossing powder but again I wanted a thicker cover so I actually used a clear embossing powder over the glitter powder and embossed again- I repeated this process a couple of times to give the balloon better dimension. Then I assembled the card as you see it with the other balloons cut from scraps from my stash and attached them with foam tape.- I thought I’d use some velvet Christmas ribbon to acentuate  the flocking a bit more and made a bow to attach on top. Hope you like my card

Card Info:- Cardstock Red finished size approx. 5 1/2 “ square; Papers- bits and pieces from stash;Stamps- Whimsie Doodles; Ink- Archival Ink-jet black; Colours-Whispers Brush markers, Luminarte water paints, Sakura Aqualip Red pen; Other- Embossing powder- Alisonellisdesigns- firecracker Red, Zing clear; Flock-brown; Ribbon-Santa’s Christmas Wonderland; Doublesided tape-X Press-It;  Helmar Super Tacky Glue; Foam mounting Tape.

 Thanks For  Visiting,   Catch You later

Regards

Kathy S

Forever Friends

 

This card has been so sweet to make as I love my Beatrix Potter stamps and don’t use them anywhere near as much as they deserve but I think I’m losing my mojo because I just can’t get things to look the way I want them too. I wanted a card that looked vintage but not completely so I added some splotches on various parts of the card and dyed the lace with Distress Ink -vintage photo but on looking at it I think I should have ‘aged’ the ribbon as well. I had this card made a while ago but wasn’t completely sure it was finished and then today I thought I’d get out some of my ribbon flowers that were in my stash and added those then I thought –if you have flowers you need butterflies so after trying several I settled for a die cut larger one-I bought this die and several others about four years ago when Big W decided to reduce them, they were the first dies that I had and haven’t used them enough and then attached the brass charm on top- thought it still looked wrong so grabbed my Martha Stewart punch and did a couple of those- it added just that bit more but I feel it doesn’t really jell together- please let me know what you think.

 

I just found this blog called    “Let’s get Shabby”  earlier this month and they had a cool challenge http://letsgetshabby.blogspot.com/2011/03/challenge-22.html to create a Beatrix Potter item in the style of her books- while this probably isn’t in line with her books it does use one of her images so maybe I’m allowed with that.     The blog is  based in Sydney so it’s sort of local to me so I thought I would enter.

Card info:- Card stock- Viza Blue impress woodgrain texture cut to finished size 5 1/2”x 5”; Papers- Grace Taylor and various scraps from my stash; Stamp- Beatrix Potter and sentiment i’ve had for a while and can’t remember where it came from;Other:- Punch-Fiskars Victorian circle punch, Fiskars lace border punch, corner punch from a set from Big W, Martha Stewart Butterflies; Die- Butterfly from Accu-cut; Ink- Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Versamark watermark;Embossing Powder Zing gold;Whispers Brushmarkers; Liquid Pearls Bisque; Flowers and Brass butterfly from stash, Helmar –tacky glue, X Press It double sided tape and Foam mounting tape.

Thanks for visiting, Catch you later.

Regards

Kathy S

Love and Happiness

 

I have been playing around with some of the challenges from various blogs  over the past few weeks but just haven’t been able to find the time to photo and write them up in time for the challenges so they are in my stash until something comes up that they may happen to fit in with.  I bought a sample pack of artist papers in A2 size a while back and decided I wanted to try out various colouring mediums on them these are coloured with watercolour based mediums and at a later date I will try others out on them.

 

But when I saw this weeks challenge at Just Rite JustRite Friday Challenge 053- Technique, Sponsored by Spellbinders! I just knew I had to participate- I only received my “Stitched with love” stamp set in an order last week and was just itching to get it inky and then wow it’s as though the Just Rite team knew I would want to use it.   I also got my “Lacey circle” dies in the same order so what more of a reason to make a card did I need.

I think it’s the only Just Rite stamp I own that I could incorporate into a flower and initially it was going to be a Christmas card-hence the colours but then I decided it would look better with this sentiment so it could be used for anytime. I stamped the patchwork flower six times- two on each different type of paper and embossed them -then coloured each with the markers and Luminatre paints- they have a bit of a shimmer IRL  but not overpowering.  Once the paint was dry I cut each out and cut in between each petal then curled one of each colour around my finger to give dimension- looking through my stash I found 2 brads the right colours with dots but didn’t have a black one so  took a plain yellow one and coloured it with a black permanent marker and added dots with a white out pen.  I placed them on a piece of silver cardstock scrap I had and then put the rest together- I tried other ribbons on the card but none of them looked just right so I settled for the black- This isn’t one of my most favourite cards but I like the way it has turned out – I hope you enjoy it too. There are some closer pics of the three flowers and the greeting- I am sorry about the quality – I think I will have to get some photography lessons and the silver didn’t help as it kept flaring and creating a blur or maybe it was just the photographer.

 

Card info- Card –Red cardstock (A5); Papers-Heidi Grace day dreamer dots with pocket,Various artist papers from a sample pack of booklets,stash scraps; Stamps-Just rite Stitched with love set, Wedding stamp ensemble;Ink Versamark watermark; Other- Whispers silver embossing powder,Spellbinders-Standard circles,Classic scalloped circles, Lacey Circles; Fiskars 2” squeese punch;Ribbon-Vintage nylon Satin; Colours- Whispers Brush markers, Luminarte paints-Sage,Jasper Red,Irish Mist;Double sided tape-Xpress It, Foam mounting tape.

Thanks for Visiting, Catch you Later

Regards

Kathy S