Ruby and Emerald ATCs on a rainy day

Shortly after writing yesterday's blog post the electricity went off again and this time it stayed off. It's hardly the first time this has happened, as it's one of the side-effects of living in a very rural location and the winds were atrocious. Previously I used to be on my own when this happened because John was usually at work and I just settled down with a book by the stove, equipped with a candle and torch. I also treated myself to a lovely hot chocolate drink and really, I did quite enjoy these long dark evenings. But not so John! At first he wanted to start our generator, just to be able to put on the light and the television. A bit ridiculous, if you ask me, and so I offered to read to him instead. Sadly Eat, Pray, Love (by Elizabeth Gilbert) didn't really do it for him! So in the end we went to bed early, perhaps inspired by the last bit of the title!

Today the main feature of the weather is still the wind while rain was also added to the mix and going outside was a very unpleasant experience to which I didn't want to expose my camera so the blip for today (see at the top of this post) was taken inside my studio looking out, through the window. Even in the wet our courtyard still looks good! And this is the studio where it all happens (0r not, if I'm having creative blockages). The Ruby and Emerald cards, made for the Colour Groupies were produced in this studio and as they have now all arrived at their respective destinations (Caryl, Debby, Lenna and Tristan) here they are on this blog. I used very shine materials for the background to stay in tune with our jewel colours. They were snippered down onto Fast2Fuse and machine quilted. I then found fabric images from various sources and added them.

The final touch were the transparency texts (from Altered Pages) which were stitched down as shown. Then, as these cards are for February, the Valentine month, I also added a Ruby shiny heart to all the cards. The edges were satin stitched and beaded in what has become my signature style.
Above are some of the ones I send off and the one seen just above those is the one that's staying here, simply because I fell in love with the lady and her hat.