Yay!! Time for Glitter.

I have decided to own up. I have an addiction to glitter. I just love it. So when Christmas comes I can get out my glitter stash and use it without fear of ridicule.  Grungy Monday 28 this week is a fabulous challenge, with a super fantabulous prize, that uses some of my favorite things (raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. No not really.) and even better than those, metal, and embossing, and Alcohol Inks. We have been asked to take our inspiration from Tim's wonderful Altered Pumpkin which you can find here on his blog.
I did think about giving a butternut squash the treatment, but decided I would rather make some nice spiced roasted squash soup from that, so I've indulged my love for sparkly, shiny stuff and made a Christmas tag.

 I've cut a tag using from silver metal card by Paperartsy which I've embossed with a  snowflake design and then coloured with various shades of blue Alcohol Inks. I did try to make some pine cones with my new die, but need a bit more practice, so my pine cones are from a cheap deconstructed decoration I bought at Wilkinsons. I have added some Deco Ice glitter to them to make them look more sparkly.

The foliage is cut from the same die as the failed pinecones, and the tag is finished off with some shimmery, frosty looking chiffon and ribbon.

In The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia...

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
On the trail of the lonesome pine.....
I have been singing this all morning since seeing what Hels challenge over at the Sunday Stamper is this week. I think it's one of those songs that once you start thinking about it it just sticks in your head, well at least , it does in mine.  Oh no! Now I've got Ruby, Ruby, Ruby whizzing round in there as well. I'm blaming it on the fact I've just finished a week of night shifts.
Anyway enough waffle. Here's my tag.

I succumbed to temptation last week and bought the new seasonal DI's, they are truly gorgeous colours.
My tag is inked with Iced Spruce and I've then run the tag through my Big Shot with Tim's pine trees embossing folder. Then as carefully as I could I dabbed the raised bits with Evergreen Bough and Walnut Stain. Then the pine needles and cone are stamped using the same colours.
The fence is painted with Picket Fence crackle paint, and some snowy Flowersoft.  The rosette is made from tissue tape, and finished off with a couple of sparkly pins and one I made by cutting out a tiny 25 and gluing it into the memo pin with some Glossy Accents.
The tag is finished off with some ribbon and what is actually a Christmas cake decoration.
Now I've mentioned the Christmas word, I really should make a start on some cards, but actually  I just think I might watch the old Doris Day film that's on TV this afternoon, and then catch up with the first episode of the new series of The Mentalist. My conscience is clear as the garden is neat and tidy (ish), and I've been out for a longish walk this morning.

Dulce Et Decorum Est

My first thought when I saw this weeks challenge for Grungy Monday was that I couldn't do it. My wonderful husband David passed away just over a year ago, and that memory is just still too raw and personal.
Then I got to thinking about the other people in my life that have meant so much to me, and although he died when I was only 12, I still remember my Grandfather, James Hill, as such a kind and gentle man.
Although I didn't know until many years later, his strongly held pacifist beliefs were shaped by his experiences during the First World War. James lied about his age to join the army age 15, in 1915, and along with six of his friends was sent to France, where he fought in the Battle of the Somme. He was the only one of the group who ever returned to England, and the horrors of that time never left him.
I have made this card in his memory.

Anyone who has ever driven through, or visited northern France, cannot have failed to see the huge War Graves, and I would truly encourage you to stop and visit one if you ever have the opportunity, they are immensely moving, and a strangely peaceful place to just sit and contemplate.

The words are from the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, whose parents were informed of his death on Armistice Day, November 11th 1918. Roughly translated the Latin means ... It is sweet and meet to die for one's country. Sweet and decorous (From Horace, Odes, III.ii.13). Please, if you can, read the whole poem. In just 28 lines it describes the obscenity and horror of armed conflict.

I have made some poppies (using my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die), which are such a potent symbol of remembrance.  Please buy a poppy if you can for November the 11th, as young men and women are still loosing their lives in the service of our country.