who is the queen of crafts?

that would be me.

i just made the christmas card star and it's beautiful. it almost made me cry a few times as the base shape doesn't take into consideration that all the points are going to be ever so slightly bigger than the template because of folding and card thickness. so getting your points to lay flat on the base is impossible, but creative gluing can achieve the perfect star!

here are my tips if you want to attempt the crafting glory...

you don't need 20 cards as the instructions say, you need around 10 as you can get 2 points out of every card front.

glue the base shape onto the back cover of a card and score the fold lines with scissors! scoring is your friend. make this first so it's good and dry when it comes to gluing on the points.

trace around the point template on the back of each card front with a pencil and scrape on the fold lines with a ruler and scissors. this way you score the card and it makes for a perfect fold. remember, scoring is your friend.

hold each point in place to ensure it's really stuck before trying to glue the next one.

good luck and happy crafting!

maybe i'll try the 3D snowflake next.

on this day...

it's friday the 13th and i just noticed something interesting.

Some historians propose that the origin of the "Black Friday" was the simultaneous arrest of hundreds of Knights Templars on 13 October 1307 (Friday), to be later tortured into admitting heresy.

so today is the original friday the 13th.


Marble effigies of medieval knights in the Temple Church.

on this day...

who's a little homesick for their london ghetto? i think it's me.

The Blitz was the sustained bombing of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 16 May 1941. It was carried out by the Luftwaffe, and hit many towns and cities across the UK, but the main attack was concentrated on London.

major bombing happened in my old east london hood of bethnal green. and that is why you see lovely old brick buildings from 100 years ago beside newer, nasty, raty, eye-sore, ASBO causing council flats...exactly like the one in the background of the picture.

one this day...

london's burning, london's burning
fetch the engine, fetch the engine
fire, fire! fire, fire!
pour the water, pour the water

1666 - Great Fire of London: A large fire began in London and burned for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings, including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only 16 people are known to have died.

this was taken from here.

carrots of many colours

how lovely is this photo? i completely stole it from wiki. sorry....

breaking news

the first documented polar-grizzly bear was discovered recently in canada. it had...

thick, creamy white fur, typical of polar bears, as well as long claws; humped back; a shallow face; and brown patches around its eyes, nose, back, and one foot, which are all traits of grizzly bears.

unfortunately an american hunter shot and killed it. his mother must be so proud.

for the things that perk your interest

do you all know about wikipedia yet? it's a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

i enjoy perusing the daily articles, features, news and pictures on the main page. but it can also be a handy research tool.





did you want to know something about the dutch painter vermeer?

or maybe you want a little history about the place you live.

or maybe you need to know everything you can about soap bubbles.

wikipedia can be the place to look for all the things that make you go 'hmmmmmmm?'.