Hello, Crafters.

I hope you’ve had a really super weekend. Yesterday, I told you that when hubby and returned home on Saturday morning after our visit to the opticians, we found some happy mail for me that the postman had posted through the letterbox. Since we first went into lockdown, hubby always opens the mail and holds open the envelope for me to remove the contents so I don’t have to touch the outside of the envelope.

Once all the letters are open, he disposes of all the wrappers and then washes his hands thoroughly. My happy mail was in a small package and not knowing what was inside, hubby opened it very cautiously. He offered the open package to me and I reached inside and pulled out two white 6″ x 6″ unsealed envelopes.

We were still just inside the now closed front door, so I sat on the stairs to open the envelopes. When I saw what my happy mail was, I just had to share it with you! I opened the first envelope and pulled out a white and red gatefold card that had a red Chinese style tassel holding it closed.

I opened it and could see some folded white tissue paper with something coloured inside. It looked as if there were three of them. I opened the first one and was amazed to see the most delicate, beautifully painted paper cut ever! I didn’t know at this time that it was called a paper cut. I had a look at the other two and they were equally as stunning as the first one.

I opened the second envelope and pulled out a beautiful hand made thank you card which had been made with some Boho Blossom Designer Series Paper (DSP). I opened the card and saw it was from one of my lovely customers called Jenny Creer. As well as writing a personal message to me inside the card, she also wrote a short letter explaining about my happy mail.

Jenny explained that when she was a teacher at a sixth form college she met a delightful Chinese student who she has kept in touch with over the years. He has visited Jenny on many occasions and he always brings beautiful presents connected to Chinese art. She now has a treasure trove including lots of amazing paper cuts. In her letter, Jenny said she thought I’d appreciate these paper cuts because of my Asian connection – hubby is Malaysian. He was very fascinated looking at these works of art.

The bookmark you can see between the two Boho Blossoms panels on the thank you card has a blue paper cut vase under a layer of acetate. Look how well it goes with the Boho Blossoms! The workmanship on these paper cuts is absolutely amazing and I needed to know more about this art. I Googled Chinese paper cuts and found out quite a lot, including that there are two methods, one using scissors and one using knives. So much similarity with fussy cutting!

If you’d like to know more, below my signature there is a link to a short <3-minute video guide about paper-cutting and below that is a video about China’s Master Paper Cutter. Many thanks for my happy mail, Jenny. It’s amazing.

Finally, I thought I’d show you my amended card that I shared on Saturday morning which featured an owl tag on a Christmas card. I’d used a strip of Cherry Cobbler DSP but the ribbon was Real Red. I said I’d adhere a piece of Real Red DSP over the top of it and I found the Real Red and Whisper White stripe design in the Heartwarming Hugs DSP.

I didn’t try lifting the tag to put the new one on but after cutting a strip that was a tad over 5/8″ wide I put the end in as far as it would go under the tag and cut it to that length. Then I did the other end. Nobody would ever know……apart from you and me! 😀 It certainly looks so much better.

Yesterday afternoon we had a visit from Vicki and granddaughter Molly. We spent our afternoon, socially distancing, sitting in the garden chatting. Molly recent received her exam results and did exceedingly well. When she went to register at the college – she wants to be a sports trainer – the tutor who was interviewing her said her qualifications were high enough for her to do the sports science course. Needless to say, we are all super excited for her and so pleased all her hard work has paid off!

That’s it from me today. I look forward to being back with you tomorrow and in the meantime please take care and stay safe. Happy crafting.

JanB. xx