Hello again. I’m back, lol

Hello again.  It’s been a long time since I have updated my blog.  Not that I haven’t been doing plenty.  I started another Creative Writing course with the Open University last October, this one saw me taking a different route with my writing.  I really enjoyed doing some film script writing, which I may share a piece of later in the year once it has been cleared off the Open University site.  I am waiting – rather impatiently for my course result which is due any day.  I will then have just one more course to complete to get my BA Honours Degree. 

Green With Envy.  A Drag Racer.

A beautiful topless E-Type Jaguar, she was British racing green with a Jaguar 3.8 litre straight six engine, and a full roll cage in black. Low to the ground and sleek, she ran on unleaded petrol and nitrous oxide. This volatile combination meant she could run the quarter mile in just over nine seconds. Running those times would have meant adding a parachute to the back to slow her at the finish. Not wanting to spoil her looks, she joined a slower race class, running as close to 10.90 seconds as possible. Any quicker meant breaking out and losing the race.
Purring like the cat she was named after, a low, steady, throaty growl, she would spring from the start line. With a burst of speed she covered the ground running down her prey before flying over the finish line victorious.
Drag racers can’t run in the rain, slick tyres are used on them. This means that the rubber is smooth, the rear tyres are huge, fourteen inches across, and need heat to get grip. The heat is achieved by a burnout, the most wonderful sight. While the car is stationary, the rear tyres are spun up in a patch of water. As the heat from the spinning tyres evaporates the water, smoke begins to billow out, white clouds form to obscure the car.
The smell of burning rubber stays in the air, catching your nostrils. Standing close and breathing it in, you get a head rush, breath in too much and you go dizzy. Stay around the start line too long and addiction follows, craving the smell of burnt rubber, spiced with the tang of fuel. It’s an aroma that stays in your head long after it’s washed out of your clothes. Some days you will stop in your tracks like a wolf catching the smell of food. A familiar, longed for hint on the breeze transports you back to the trackside.
As the cloud of smoke fills the air, suddenly the driver will take his foot off the brake and the car jumps forward. Getting grip on the now dry tarmac, the tyres are hot and sticky, at the point of melting.    

Copywrite:  Lorraine J Horne.
 
Latest hobby.
While I wait I have been keeping busy with a new hobby.  Making cards. 
Here are just a few of the ones I have made recently, including a few for Christmas. 
This one is all hand done.  Each petal hand cut, and coloured with Derwent Water colour pencils, with black permanent marker pen lines drawn by hand.  I can’t take credit for the design however as it was inspired by a picture I saw on the internet.  It reminded me of Zentangle, which became my starting point.  All of the card stock I used came from my local craft shop just up the road in Ingodmells, Lincolnshire – Cutting Edge Crafts – www.cuttingedgecrafts.co.uk.

Freebie birdcage stamp from a magazine embossed in antique gold embossing powder printed onto watercolour paper.  Mounted onto teal card then brown card, again from my local craft shop.  Finished with embellishments of ribbon and brads with a sentiment from the same free stamp set matt and layered onto teal card.  This is one of my favourites so far.
 
This one looks far better in ‘the flesh’ than it does in the picture.  The reindeer is from a Christmas Stamps set from Hobbycraft – http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk.  It is actually a line stamp, but I wanted a silhouette so filled the stamped image in with black marker pen, used smaller tree stamps from the set and again filled them.  This was printed onto a winter background scene created using Derwent watercolour crayons and glitter glue.  Matt and layered onto a copper mirror card which was then stamped over with more trees to continue the background scene to the edge of the card.  The ribbon of mirror card was punched out with a Hobbycraft edge punch from their Wedding range.  Cardstock is from Hobbycraft and the local market.

My latest Christmas cards have been made using the cracker shape.  I actually made the template myself, but again not my own design.  It is a design I saw on Create and Craft TV, so probably not the same size as the one sold there.