WOW 1000 Visits to my blog!

I have had 1000 visitors to my blog, although it always counts me too when I am checking it or checking new posts!

I haven't done any crafting but I have been tidying my craft room/study! I will have some peace and quiet next week so hopefully will get this finished and make some cards.

In case I don't get to post tomorrow I will wish you all -

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Christmas Tree

Here is my little Christmas Tree. You can't tell because it was light but it has fibre optics and the built in little stars and star on the top light up and change colour. I really like it but my youngest son in residence would prefer a bigger tree, so we have ordered a half price navy blue tree with nearly 400 little lights that is 6'6" high from John Lewis!

I am already mourning the loss of the little tree (I bought the red cloth this year specially in the sales to go on the table under it), I would have liked to keep both and put one in the dining room but Bah Humbug Hubby won't hear of it! He has given it to my eldest son who now lives in a split level"house" with his girlfriend, but they have so much stuff to take back they can't fit it in when they leave tomorrow.

I suppose it will still be in the family (and he doesn't get the teddy angels), sigh!









Moving on here are the latest stamps from Ebay, these Hero Arts stamps were a bargain from the USA! Just right for Valentine's cards and spring cards!

I have more on the way, I seem to have a stamp obsession at the moment, which is a bit sad as I haven't used most of the ones I already have!

I have also listed a few things on Ebay, well I need to pay for the stamps! Looking round to see what else to part with now!

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas everyone! It is all over now, the Christmas dinner was cooked and eaten and compliments were received, gifts were given and received and I am exhausted!



Here are a few of the last Christmas cards I made, the holly leaves were cut with the Craft Robo from a template provided on UKS.

I cut a bigger version to use for present tags. The card edging was punched using a Kreaxions 5 way punch, the under flap was lined with ribbon and dotted with 3d red paint to show through the punched berries. The greeting is on acetate and is from a book called Cardmaker's Christmas - clear and frosted overlays by Hot off the Press which I bought from the USA.












These angel charm cards are made with toppers by Papermania (to the rescue of this last minute card maker again) and Papermania card blanks, and layered onto vellum, with a foil greeting on each from Lakeland.




















The glitter tree cards were made with a Papermania embellishment pack which had a couple of glitter tree tags and all the bits to make several more as well as the greeting strips and other bits and bobs. I used a red foil Lakeland greeting on the gold one as it went with the tree colours so well. The card blanks are also Papermania.























I am off to see Mamma Mia tomorrow, this is one of my presents and we have a box booked! I also have my donkey adopted again for the year, a weekend in Exeter to visit both him and the craft show, a pashmina, money, a CD, a DVD, a Chinese tea set, two ornaments, a bird feeding station and a squirrel feeder!

Well after several late nights at parties or up making last minute cards or wrapping presents I am shattered and off to bed now to get some much needed sleep!

Desperately making quick Christmas Cards

I found these lovely Papermania toppers in my Christmas stash, I think they were in either a goodie bag or a package of goodies I was sent.

I think I have overdone the glitter glue blobs on the second card, and somewhat ruined it and the other two!

I have more toppers and a Papermania embellishment kit that has cute little glitter trees to make up into tags which should be quick to do. I also have some Tesco kit cards left, and one more kit with most bits missing to complete.

I need enough cards for all the people at my parent's party tomorrow, and then the party we are going to Sunday, I then have the neighbours (9 houses) to do and any remaining people on the list. I print my list onto labels for the envelopes to save writing, and I just have to use all the labels and hope I didn't miss anyone!
I have written some bought cards too to help out as I needed at least 30 more and have only made about 10 so far.

I also need a present wrapped for my youngest neice, her older sister and brother will probably just get money but the little one likes card making and anything making, and I gave her the tote for her birthday.
So as I was in Bath after my office do I popped into Lakeland and bought some things but I know I picked up a pack of peel off stickers that was in the sale and a pack of other stickers in bright colours that I didn't have and hadn't paid for when I got home so I think the cashier missed it. I can't go back just for those, and I am not paying £5 delivery to get them here for Christmas even if they are on the website so I need to go out and get some locally but it won't be so many for the price!

I also have an ironing mountain I am about to tackle, there are so many things to do I keep starting on something else and not finishing anything! Panic time!
I am supposed to be printing off some photos also for presents, and I need to buy a frame!

Roll on the New Year, and I am getting a cold just in time for the parties!

Commissioned cards

My husband commissioned me to make two cards for his friend's daughters (only I don't think I am getting paid for them).
The brief was that one child liked pink, princesses, Barbie but not dolls, and the older child likes High School Rap (is that High School Musical I wonder?), mauve and purple.

I don't know if they will like what I made, I went with the colours really, pinked up a Lili of the Valley Christmas fairy, and the other one is very purple and sparkly!

I had a phone call from hubby just after he got to work, the one with Libby on should have been Livi - he got it wrong, so could I leave out a v and an i? I said I would have to colour them in but I left them for him and I don't know if he got them on straight! Also if anybody has these letter peel offs you will notice that the L is actually an H, but I thought it looked like a capital L until I realised the whole set was lower case! The proper L is in Alice but I hope they won't realise!

I had to write out some cards to post, I thought it was the last day for posting today but someone at work thought it was yesterday - well they will get there in the end!

I have used my entire stock of hand made cards apart from the three challenge ones that I wanted to go to special people. I need another 30 at least so I will have to either get making some quick cards or I will have to buy some!

It is even colder today I think! I went to the office Christmas lunch today, that was nice but there was not enough for me to feel full - then I have a difficult diet due to intolerances. I did a bit of shopping then came home and I popped into Lakeland and bought some crafty bits, some were for my neice for Christmas, but when I got home I didn't have the pack of peel off stickers or the other stickers I picked up! I wasn't charged but now I only have half of what I wanted and I am not going all the way back before Christmas, paying a couple of pounds parking on top and struggling through the Christmas crowds so I will have to get something else locally. I think the cashier must have missed them in the bottom of the basket sadly!

Brrrrr

It is so cold! I have cleaned out the bird feeders and refilled them, the rain made them jam up and I don't think the seed mix I bought is very good for wet weather as it has ground peanuts in it so is like a powder that quickly turns to paste! I often have to unjam it. The whole peanuts went all rotten too, so I had to scrape them out take the thing to bits and scrub it.

I hope it doesn't rain again soon after all that!

I have made a few more kit cards and I may post a photo of them but they are much the same as the blue one with an angel already posted (mine are better I think) but I haven't done the thread and beads down the sides yet.

I got my work list up to date ready - I print of card labels as I hate writing them out. I need to get my friends and family list up to date now.

I also need to make the two cards my husband commissioned, I have some backing paper for the pink one and my Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine came today with some free papers some of which are purple - perfect!

I also had a surprise Christmas present, it was from www.lovethoseshoes.com where I spend a lot of money on footwear. It arrived in a padded envelope and inside was something wrapped in Christmas paper. I wasn't expecting anything and not thinking that they would send a present so it must be an advertising gimmick and would contain a catalogue, I opened it! It is a book called Inspiring Women, how real women succeed in business! I wish I had kept it to go under the tree now (not that we have the decorations up yet due to my husband being a Bah Humbug sort of chap)!

Card kits continued

This is the next card kit which is more upmarket than the Tesco ones! You get one completed card which is the second from the right here, and you get 4 more card blanks, and enough gold card, material, frames, gems and thread to make the 4 remaining frames, and 4 greetings. You also get gold thread and beads for the trim but not enough thread to do it how they did it on the sample card.
This kit was missing two angel charms sadly, so I managed to find a different angel and a brass horn to take the place of the missing charms! You can't look a gift horse in the mouth!

I feel like using kits is cheating but then I don't have time to worry!

Two more kits I haven't started yet have a sample card that looks like this:



The angel card kit on the right does have all of the angels to make the other four cards, the one with the squares and gems has everything missing except the gems, but I can manage the squares!

As these were given to me in a big box of stuff to say thanks for being a moderator (but we don't need you now) on the Crafts Beautiful site, I am more than happy with all that I got!

Oh and I just found another 6 card blanks in the Tesco plain variety that I missed so I have a few more of them to make and don't have as much left over as I thought! Seemed a bit strange at the time.

My husband has given me a card order for two Christmas cards he is to give to a friend's daughters, I have been told one is into pink, princesses and Barbie but not dolls, and one is into High School Rap and mauve or purple. I don't do Disney type stuff, but I can do pink, and I have no idea what High School Rap might be ( must be my age)! Anyway these are Christmas cards, not birthday cards, and I have enough to do without going out of my way to make special orders!

Grumble over I will see what I can do, but it will probably just be Christmas cards one in pink and one purple themed!

Christmas card progress

I have made up all the plain kits so have about 30 cards made now, which is 30 more than I had last week! A couple of the patterned kits to go then I can start on the other kits I have round the place!

I went out for a walk but on the path lunchtime, it is getting a bit too muddy to do the walk on the grass! I saw two plump squirrels eating on the grass and got really close before one spotted me and ran up a tree, jumping across to a second tree! The other one didn't spot me at all and I stood watching it sitting upright eating, but when I moved it suddenly realised I was there and ran up a different tree!

I had to report my fall last week in the accident book today, even though there was nothing that caused it, only me! I still have the bruises though!

Christmas card kits

After Christmas last year I bought a pile of card kits from Tesco, which were reduced from nearly £3 to 50p I think.

They were supposed to be make your own charity cards, but only 20p goes to charity - I hope it still did despite the reduction!




This is what you got in the plainer of the two kits I bought: 6 small square card blanks, six white envelopes, six small squares of vellum and six of gold card, six bows, a length of blue ribbon, numerous sequins and beads, a length of narrow ivory ribbon (not mentioned in the instructions, neither are the seed beads mentioned), a template for cutting three shapes and an instruction sheet. No glue or sticky stuff, and it definately requires some knowledge of card making to know how to "fix to the centre of your card" and "fix to the centre of your white card".


I decided to get the die cutter out and found some dies to make similar shapes to the template, in fact I can get two from one square with the tree if not the stocking, as I end up with a shaped frame, see photo of the first 4 cards I made.








I then decided as I have 5 boxes of the kit featured below that I could make a box of the same shape, and this would be quicker so I set to work making baubles first, pictured below!














I want to use the kits to get them out of the way, then I have other kits to use that I bought or won last year, and a copy of the Christmas Lets Make Cards to use, before I get onto proper stamped cards! I will probably have to make "proper" cards in January ready for next year - I jokingly said I would last January but here I am with 24 days to the day, and less than that to get them all done and out to family and friends. Last year I was still making and delivering on Christmas Eve!

"Free" stamp arrived with goodies today!

I had a parcel left in my Parcel Safe, which is better than the bin where it might get thrown out! It was from www.stamps.co.uk
I "won" it after they emailed saying if you spotted a mistake on their website you could win a free double daisy Anita stamp, there was a catch - you had to place an order! Well I spotted a spelling mistake right away, funny that, and emailed and they responded saying they would add the stamp to my basket.

I did place an order, two Do Craft magazine binders for £5.98, three sets of the Papermania foam stamps down to £1 each (I have seen them since for 50p but on a website where there was a minimum order of £15), a pack of brooch pins to make brooches or badges, and some Debbie Moore stamps (seasons - spring and summer) that come in a large CD case with a CD that I haven't looked at yet for £9. So I spent £22 with postage to get my "free" stamp, which wasn't in my basket so I had to include a note to make sure I got it!

I am not sure I will put the Do Craft mags in the binders, I was going to get rid of some mags as I have 4 years worth of several different mags piling up on the floor but I thought they were such cheap binders that I could put any magazines in them so I will have to choose!

I have put some things on Ebay, I have an Ultimate Crafters Companion, and I found some Zipecut dies I have never taken out of the packet so thought I might as well sell them, or try to, and a quilling board. See Cazzy-sale for details.

My seller ID is cazzooblue if you are interested! I don't often get round to selling my stuff although I have a lot I should sell, but it was a 10p listing day so I managed to get a few things on! I buy much more than I sell!

Washing Machine blues

Sunday my Dyson washing machine told me the coin trap needed emptying, and it wouldn't spin the towels. I couldn't find the tool to deal with the coin trap, I looked high and low but nothing! I should have phoned Dyson, they work Sundays but I forgot that, so we had dripping towels draped over radiators.
When I did ring them they said they could order me a tool, which would cost £4 but I could do the same thing with the end of a teaspoon!

So we had a go, it was hard but we managed it in the end and it was never easy with the correct tool! They don't make the washing machines any longer sadly, but I hope it will keep going for many years!

In the coin trap there was at least £1 in silver change, some small stones and some fibres, it was a wonder it was working at all!

Now it is all cleaned out and back to normal, but if I had phoned Sunday and found out I could use the teaspoon I would have been able to spin the towels as usual!

18th Birthday card

I finally made this card for my nephew from a template on UK Scrappers. This is a great site for Craft Robo owners and a great source of help and templates if like me you haven't had time to develop your own, or master the new software!

I packed up the red tote I was previously trying to sell, with lots of card making stuff for my 8 year old niece for her birthday and she was so thrilled with it! She sat there hugging it, but could only just carry it!

Walk

I went out for my usual little lunchtime walk which is very pleasant and gets my mind off work for 10 minutes. I saw two squirrels running from tree to tree finally leaping from the trees my side of the fence to the ancient copse the other side. I also saw a coal tit.

Yesterday I saw three buzzards circling and swooping on the wind, before dispersing to much higher in different directions - the other birds were keeping a low profile!

It was cold but sunny and bright and really cheerful. It is already cold and icy tonight, and the sky looked snowy to me earlier!

Yesterday I had a pack of goodies I ordered arrive, rubber stamps, papers, and brads mainly! I don't need them but they were a bargain and some are for Christmas presents.

This card is made using a delightful Lili fairy and pretty backing paper which came in a Lili kit, with dome stickers, and paper flowers, and a Papermania butterfly. Anita Glitter glue has been added for sparkle. Greeting from a pack from Lakeland.

Snowperson card

One more for the latest challenge, but the glue and paint are still wet! I am not sure if the snowperson needs a hat but I decided against it in the end! I will load a photo with dry glue etc when I can. Photo now replaced with dry one!

I cut the circles out with the Robo, and the rectangles are the backing paper one on the front and a narrow one inside, the square is the dome sticker greeting also on the inside rectangle.

Glitter glue, and Tulip 3d paint decorate the snowperson, and the arms are pipecleaners.

Well I see it as one more Christmas card - and I really must get making as it is number 3 and there is a long way to go!

I have cut out a few more circles so I can make some similar cards now, with snowballs too!

PCJ Challenge card

The challenge this week was to make a card with two rectangles, one square and three circles. You would think that would be easy really!

The two rectangles and one square are cut from a herbal tea bag box, and the background is some recycled hand made paper. The circles are Indian mirror beads (Shisas?) and I found some turquoise peel offs to finish the card.

Graduation exploding box

This is the exploding box card I made for my son who graduated recently with his Masters degree from Oxford.

I cut the box out with my Robo and a template provided by ETUI22 on UK Scrappers forum.

Knitting, Stitching and Craft Exhibition Cardiff

I managed to get myself to the exhibition by train on Sunday. I haven't gone to Cardiff by train before, and the journey out was awful. The train before was cancelled so the one I was on was packed with people standing in the aisles, which I would have had to go but there were a couple of drop down seats. They were taken up by a couple of people's luggage but one of them moved a bag so the seat would drop and I sat on that. It was uncomfortable as I couldn't put my legs anywhere but in the aisle due to her bags and I kept getting bashed, I also got a very sore back which is still painful now. She got off a few stops before Cardiff and offered me her vacant seat which was so much more comfortable but the damage was done by then.

I found the Cardiff International Arena without too much trouble and after sitting eating my lunch that I took with me ( I forgot anything to eat it with so had to beg a plastic teaspoon, and it did leak a little into my bag, but never mind better than not being able to find anything I could eat) I walked round for a few hours. I didn't buy a lot, I had to remember not to get too much as I would have to lug it back but I took my M&S wheeled trolley which was perfect. I bought some plastic boxes and some devider trays for Really Useful boxes, and a couple of small pads of printed card and paper, some beads and clasps for knitted necklaces which were the most expensive thing I bought at £27 for four clasps and 4 beads, some Doodlebug papers, a DoCraft Goody bag (I have that one already but it has such nice things in, and actually some of them are different to the first one), some Lili fairy packs and a Christmas pack, and finally an A4 plastic box full of card from Payper Box which was only bought after I had been all round to make sure there wasn't anything else that was going to be heavy.

Coming back wasn't quite so bad, I got a seat and it was a much nicer train but I timed it wrong and had to wait a long time at the station. I think there were still people standing on this train but not so many. One girl was sitting on the filthy carpet in the corner sleeping against the wall!

There were some wonderful exhibitions of work, and one was a full size knitted gingerbread house raising money for Great Ormond Street hospital. I have some photos and will post them soon!

Electrical things arriving

The new dishwasher arrived today, my parents house sat - it should have come on Saturday but Dixons rang to say they couldn't deliver it then despite the website telling me it was booked! We could have it today or a week on Sunday! It isn't as classy as the Maytag, it is noisier and not so many programmes but hey if it washes dishes and doesn't keep breaking down it is superior! This one is a Kenwood. It has done it's first wash and what a strange smell - I hope the dishes don't smell like it, or taste like it - it probably says it should be run empty first time but Hubby was reading the instructions!

The other thing that arrived at my parents house while they were here house sitting was my freeview recorder.
When my parents got home there was a note from DHL saying they left it in the black bin, this was in the garden and it had been emptied that morning! My dad said it was lucky they use bags in the bin or it could have been nasty!
I have been lusting after this gadget for ages and saw it for a good price with an extra 10% off from Dixons too, had to buy it on the same day as the dishwasher to get the discount but it was £50 cheaper than I have seen it before. I didn't tell Hubby, I waited until he went to bed then I got it out, my cunning plan was to set it up and he would never notice as it is black and so is my little TV stand in my craft room so I would put it on the shelf and hide the box. My plan has been scuppered - the shelf is too shallow and it doesn't fit. So now I can either move the DVD player to the shelf and put the recorder on top with the TV stood on it (I want the TV on the wall but Hubby has been sulking since I bought a new TV and won't do it for me, and he might notice the new toy now). What shall I do with the huge DHL box I have flattened? He will notice it if I put it out, will he notice it stood in the corner, and will he notice the product box in among my mess? Will number one son notice it when he comes home tomorrow - hopefully he will keep quiet and not announce it to DH - he should be too busy sorting out stuff to move into his flat!
I put it underneath the TV stand, but that space is currently what the Craft Robo uses when cutting so I will have to rearrange things so the Robo is somewhere else with room (fat chance) or put the Robo on the floor every time I use it which could be a bit hazardous for me and it!

O.K. I have it set up and hooked up to the TV which is still working so that is a good sign. Everyone will be away this weekend so I can work it out and play, and the Robo is back in it's usual place which is hiding new gadget but I will still have to move Robo to use it as it needs space behind! Only problem was that the round hole Hubby cut in my bench to feed electrical plugs through to the surge protectors under the bench is not big enough for either the new plug or the TV plug and the new lead only just reached to the socket. I need the hole made bigger, but will have to move a lot of stuff before he can get to it unless I can have a go at making it bigger with a rasp or something! I want to hook it up to the PC too but I don't have a lead for that yet, or I don't think so.

Also today my Glue Dots automatic glue gun arrived! I had one that went wrong, but I wasn't sure how long I had it for. I contacted the Glue Dots people and said I was disappointed that it had gone wrong after only two or three refills had been used and I had spare ones I couldn't use. They told me to send it in and they would look at it, but they had it months and I chased it up a couple of times. Eventually a different person called Emma sorted it out for me and sent me a new one with a pack of glue dots and some of the motifs and flock - nice touch!

There are two parcels at the Post Office which I will probably have to get Saturday, I am not getting up early enough to get across town and back then on to work in the mornings. I think one is something my son bought, or they could be both for him. He is away on holiday or he might have gone to get them!

Now my central locking is playing up on the car, not what I need at the moment! The alarm went off as normal this morning - strange. Still had the beeping in the night but I came to the conclusion it could be something else not the clock - so I have removed one suspect from the bedroom and will see (or hopefully not hear) what happens tonight!

I hope you like the new look for the slide show - I just worked out how to change it today!

Electrical things Suicide week

Why do electrical things all go wrong at the same time? First it was the dishwasher, we have had it about two and a half years, it had a two year warranty and we had the engineer out several times to try and fix the same problem it has now - he never did fix it completely! So we decided it wasn't worth spending money on it if it carries on doing the same thing so a new one is on the way tomorrow!

Then my brand new printer bought a couple of weeks ago jammed. I was printing photos to cut out on my Craft Robo to finish my son's graduation exploding box, he graduated a month ago but my old printer wasn't printing properly and I am using photos from the graduation. He will be home to collect some stuff to move into his new flat this weekend, and I wanted to print off some bigger photos and frame them for him too.
I contacted Epson and two days later they got back and told me to take it to an Express Centre, as listed on their website. I looked and there is a local one but I will have to carry it quite a way from the car to the shop, and back and it is heavy and I don't want to drop it! I am on my own this weekend too. I am to phone them first and make sure they have the same model in stock to be able to replace it. I sent an email back to Epson saying I am not impressed as this is not a budget printer, the last printer I had developed a problem and they sent an engineer out who replaced it and it was fine for years. If it was a cheap light printer it would be fine. I don't know if they will be any more help though. I also emailed PC World today as I bought it from them online but they are not listed as an Express Centre, if I could take it back to the one not far from work I could drive it there and not have to carry it far, in fact they would probably come and get it out the car for me. So I will have to wait and see if I get a favourable response from them or Epson!

The alarm clock decided to join in a couple of nights ago, it went off just before midnight, I accused Hubby, but he denied it. Then last night it went off twice around midnight and then didn't go off this morning. I thought it was my son this time as Hubby was to take him to the airport in the middle of the night, but when I checked the alarm times (there are two of them) are still set on what they were and not altered, so why did they go off and will it happen tonight?
Deep joy - another disturbed night if it does!

Haunted House

Another Halloween card, this time a Sizzix die cut house with Woolworth stickers, and the card front is cut so the house overlaps giving a more 3d look!

Happy Halloween

Here is my second ever Halloween card. Probably a bit late to sell these for charity for this year, maybe not!

I just have to get them to my friend in the London office and they may go!

Boo card

I had these brilliant Halloween eyelets in a mystery parcel, they were just crying out to be used!

So this is my first Halloween card ever. I took two versions, I am not sure which is the best but the one with the shine shows the detail better!

Before new drawers:













After new drawers:

This is my craft room before the new drawers arrived and after I had put them in place and started filling them.

You probably can't tell the difference but I am in mid re-organisation of the stuff! It doesn't feel like having all those extra drawers has made a lot of difference so far - in fact before looks tidier so far! Maybe I need to sell more stuff!

Snowman card

This jolly snowman card is for a challenge but I don't think it is good enough. I may enter it if I don't have time for another!

My first Christmas card this year

Here is my latest creation for a challenge on the Crafts By Carolyn forum. The challenge was a Christmas card using only black and white! I didn't think this would work but I am pleased with it. The girl is a UM stamp called Holly, I stamped holly corners, mounted Holly on black metallic card and cut holly leaves from the same, added a white feather, black bow, gem berries and a heart, and some black ric rac. I think this should go to someone special!

New challenge card and printer probs

This card is for a distressed and worn challenge and is my first attempt at distressed proper! I used a Hero Arts stamp with some travel paper that I can't recall the source of, ribbon and a chipboard buckle, and sepia ink pad wiped onto cream hammered card for an aged effect (hopefully).

I have left a gap at the bottom for a greeting when I decide who is getting this card, I think it will be for my son's girlfriend's birthday that is soon as they are going on two holidays afterwards!

I was thinking of trying to print a greeting on Safmat to rub on the chipboard, but I forgot the printer is out of ink, and I haven't bought more because I think it is faulty and as it costs about £68 to refill and extra if I try cleaning cartridges first I am going to buy a new one. The trouble is I can't decide which one to get out of about 5! I am tempted to go for an A3 printer but then I don't know what I would do with A3 size photos. Some of them print on thick media so that has tempting possibilities for crafting, one has a gold award but is not an A3 printer and doesn't print thick media. Epson has a good review but the print heads aren't changeable and that is what is wrong with my current one, after only a few years it is heading for landfill! HP and Canon do printers with replaceable print heads, and they have good reviews too.
The prices vary between £200 and £450, but I need one now.

Children do not listen, my 29 year old son didn't! He was looking to book a holiday and needed to print the confirmation. I said if you print anything change it to black and white! He printed first then asked if I could change it to black and white as it wouldn't print the second page - by then he had used the last drop of cyan and once any colour has emptied Epson's stop printing even if you set it to black! That is another thing I don't like about them! Put another colour in says DS, I don't have any I said! Flippin Heck, I told him to do it for a reason, now we can't print anything until I get a new printer - better make that decision I suppose!

Do you like my slide show?

I saw one on another blog, and I thought I would give it a go. When it first posted it was just another post but when I put it on the side it is slightly squashed up! I love the layout and colours I have now so I am reluctant to change to a different one to get it in.

What do you think, is it annoying or do you like it? Should I try a different layout?
I could move it lower down the side, that would be easy then it wouldn't be right in your face.

Great giveaway

I just heard of a great blog candy giveaway, just hot foot it over to rattytatty's blog, and leave a comment to be eligible for the draw!

Stamp reorganisation

I managed to sort out some of my mounted stamps today. They were already mostly in Tuff boxes, but I have now rearranged them on the shelf so they all fit, labelled them with the Dymo and photographed the contents so I can find them easily.

Just have all the non wood mounted ones to do now!

If you want to see the pictures of the stamps look on the Crafts Beautiful blog - link is at the right hand side!

this is probably the last card for the red, white and black challenge on Paper Craft Junkies forum, and I used shrink plastic and traced the pattern from the DCWV paper using Sakura Glaze pen before shrinking, edged it with red Marvy brush marker, threaded fibres through corner holes and mounted it on black then red card with black eyelets. The fibres went through the eyelets.

This was mounted on to the bottom corner of the card so the pattern on the paper can be seen, and the plastic has the image in negative. Finally the sentiment was stamped with Stampendous Window box stamps with black pigment ink and black glass effect Heat it Up embossing powder. The final embellishements were more of the fibre down the fold of the card and a Queen and Co black heart gem in the bottom left corner which is a bit hard to see!

This is another red, white and black card for the challenge. It is the first time I have made an acetate card, although I have used acetate with peel offs as an embellishment or window previously. I used Stazon black with Stampendous acrylic window box stamps (not to be recommended as you shouldn't use alcohol or you could damage the stamps), coloured in the red with permanent peel off pens and added some gem flowers and a butterfly. I put a white hammered card blank in the middle and punched a hole through both to thread the ribbon through and tie in a bow. The ribbon was from Joanna Sheen and is a sheer red ribbon with silver glitter hearts on it.

Red black and white challenge

I made this card for the next Papercraft Junkies challenge to make a card using only red white and black. This is similar to a card I did before. I hope to make some different cards to enter in the challenge soon.

I am on holiday this week but so is my Hubby! We thought about going away for a few days but he now has a cold, so it looks unlikely at the moment! I would like to be left to my own devices to make lots of cards but I doubt I will get away with that!


I also added a bit of glitter to the card I made yesterday which I thought enhanced it a bit.

Too late but here it is anyway!

Well I just made this card for the latest challenge on Paper Craft Junkies, it was use a letter or letters. I stayed up making it, designed and cut with the Robo and decorated with letters and daisies. I uploaded it and then saw the winner had already been selected! The challenges start on Monday morning at 8 am, or so it says, and last a week. Which I make tomorrow at 7:59 am! The next challenge is already loaded.

My day today

I was at a conference in a hotel where I stayed the night. The conference was good and finished at 4 so as I was near to Lakeland shop and a health shop I needed to visit I did that before driving home.

Bought a few things in Lakeland, some crafty some for the house and kitchen!

I bought a mini dougnut silicone "pan", for making pendants with my melt pot and UTEE I hope, I was looking for one for ages and tried to get one from the USA, but when I walked into the shop there it was! £9.99 so not cheap but I thought I would get it. Also bought a teeny tag set with tags, card squares to layer, and foil printed letters, with fibres and ribbons. I also bought a box of blooms, I have tons of them but these were spotty ones!
Got three boxes of glue dots, by two get third free. I also bought a pad of Dovecraft designer Christmas paper - I really should make some Christmas cards as I have tons of stash for them! Finally for crafting I bought some mini icecream spoons which I figured would come in for glitters and powders!

The rest was boring household stuff! I spent over £50 so it would have been better to do it online as I would have got free postage and a free gift!

I won a card making challenge whoo hooo

I won a card making challenge on Paper Craft Junkies forum this week, the theme was something old and something new. I submitted a few cards for this challenge, including this triplets card that won!
I am so thrilled, I have won competitions before but not for my cards! This was was a card I made for a lady who had triplets and was posting on the Crafts Beautiful forum, she told us she was pregnant and kept us posted on that, then was really surprised to be told it was twin girls, but then was called back urgently to be told there was a third heartbeat and she had three little girls as well as one she has already!

Parcel

Another parcel from the USA! I had to collect it as they didn't leave it in my parcel safe, which was annoying as it fitted with room to spare! The other item to sign for couldn't be found, the woman in the collection office said she would ask the Postman when he got back and get him to bring it round for me! I hope she does as it is difficult to get there during the week and I may have to wait until next Saturday!

I got some nice goodies, the main item was a Tim Holtz alcohol inks tin tote, which has room for 28 bottles, so my 6 look a bit lost. It has room for the applicator and spare pads too, but I don't think I will get the metallic and mixer bottles in too. I also ordered some papers, chipboard glittery red letters, a Heidi Swap mask, some brads, Heidi Swap blooms and chipboard flowers. Disappointingly the chipboard flowers that go with the papers I ordered were missing from the parcel and two of the four sheets of Junkitz papers were not the ones in the photograph, and I would not have ordered them. Also some of the brads are Clementine in colour which I didn't appreciate, as the photo showed green, white and black ones and though I can see there is an orange dot in the description and perhaps I should have realised that Clementine meant the colour not the range!

I also had some more Rubbadubbadoo stamps arrive, I bought mostly the reduced ones, some Baby ones, Christmas, and some words, and a couple of full price background stamps.

Thanks and good Knight!

I made this card to say thanks to someone who was working for me but has transferred to the other part of the team, so hasn't technically left - only my side of the room!

So he didn't get a leaving or good luck card and I thought I should do something to say thanks for all his hard work.

It is stamped with Rubbadubbadoo stamps, stamped with Brilliance copper ink and embossed with Heat it Up copper powder. The knight is matted onto copper paper, using foam pads, and the card is edged with Krylon copper pen which I hope will dry lighter to match!

Theatre blues

A few years ago I worked in an office with a woman who had a small theatre group and asked me to join them. The group consisted of 4 women including me from the office and the mother of one of them.

Once a month we all went straight from work and met up with the others for a meal in a restaurant in Bath, then on to the Theatre Royal to watch a play. We had all voted for the plays we fancied seeing, and the top scoring play was the one we saw.
Then I got promotion to a job that meant I had to work in London for 5 months, then in Bath but travelling to London twice a week. This made it difficult to hook up with the group, in addition one of the group was seriously ill and had to have major surgery and "Mother" also got ill with cancer I heard.

I was reading the local paper and the reviews of what is on at the Theatre Royal this week and realised how much I miss going, despite the really uncomfortable seating arrangements which was for people born in a time when they were all short! I used to fidget a lot I seem to remember, and tried to be in the end seat for aisle room. If the theatre was not full we could move around as two of us were taller than the others!

I must try and get my Hubby interested in going to see a play!

New stamp

I saw a card using this stamp and thought at first that it was the result of bad stamping. Then I saw the stamp and realised that it was part of the design!

So then I decided I had to have one and have a go. This attempt isn't the best, I think there is some extra bad stamping here, I have some more images that were better and I will make them into cards soon.

I used Brilliance Twilight three colour inkpad and embossed the image, the stamp is an Anita's one, the bloom, brad, gems and sticky braid are all Papermania as is the backing paper.

I wanted to post it as I have had a bad week, not been well with one thing and another so I haven't made much.

I hope to do a lot more with this stamp, the possibilities are many I feel!

Postie has been!

This year has flown by and it is September already!

I got my Craft Stamper magazine, October issue today! I love this magazine so much I even bought binders to keep it in. It always has such rich sumptious projects in it mixed with simpler ones. Sadly I don't seem to get round to doing the various projects but I live in hope, and every issue has a free rubber stamp which is royalty free. Computer magazines are even earlier, I seemed to have October at the beginning of August!

I managed to enter the August issue competition and giveaways last week, I used to do loads of competitions in all magazines and on products, and I have won a few prizes over the years. I am probably a bit of a saddo, as I have kept my winning letters in a folder going back years. I have won clothes, towels, Microsoft Office Professional (it was the runner up prize, a computer being first prize would have been useful as I didn't have one at the time), toys, tickets to craft shows, a steamer, books, all sorts! The one thing my boys were fairly disgusted that I had even entered for was a box of herbal laxatives, they never got used (well funny thing was I found the box somewhere years later in a box of the boys toys and there were some missing). I won a years supply of tights from the local paper once for creating a caption to a cartoon, a set of Wilkinson Sword scissors that are still in use, and something else that escapes my memory right now! I think the local paper must have blacklisted me after that as I didn't win again!
I have won a few crafting prizes over the last few years, I would love to win one for making a card but they have been draws or logo competitions so far. I need to enter cards in comps to win them, I have entered a few but not enough!

I have an entry in the DoCrafts crafter of the year comp at the moment. I want to enter the card maker of the year in one of the other magazines, there are so many categories I could enter I would have to make more cards than usual but you have to send them in so I wouldn't be increasing my standby stock or stock for sale for charity!

I have never won anything really big like a car or washing machine.

Lately I have so little energy I find that by the time I get round to thinking about entering a comp the closing date has gone. So i was pleased that I managed the Craft Stamper comp, especially as it is something I have been lusting after - Krafty Lady Art Moulds for individual letters of the alphabet all different! I saw something made with them and fell in love, then found out the price!

I love parcels and nice surprises

I had a mystery parcel of crafting stash arrive from the USA today, the only thing I knew for sure was it had a Making Memories Grommet Tool Kit in it!
The rest was the mystery! I got so many nice things, the tool set above, some black ric rac, some black felt border that is made up of blooms, which I think you could seperate or use in the wide strip it comes in, a box of red glittered chipboard letters and the box is pretty too, a set of six little pots of snaps, a pack of bright felt flowers with gems, two packs of stand outs (stickers) some clear clips, a pack of softly spoken embellishments, citrus buttons, citrus mini clipboards, a pack of swirly brads, a pack of Rob and Bob frames with magnifying lenses, some MM cheeky flat clips, two word charms, some I Kan Dee eyelet brads, some alphabet Bradletz, and an mini organiser box with fibres in it. This is the second mystery box I have bought, the previous one had the Cropadile and lots of stuff in it. I could have done without the fibres as I got a large organiser full in the first box, and I feel this is a bit of a trick to make it look more than it is. The seller has added a box of fibres to her items for sale now to show it at the value she said it is worth! I don't mind too much as I love the rest of the stuff and I will use the fibres and maybe the tons I have already one day! She says she is pregnant and clearing all her stock to make room for the baby but she seems to have an unlimited supply of stuff to keep putting the mystery boxes back on for sale!

I am not sure the second box is as good as the first, I seemed to get more in that one!

The rubber stamp and card stock wasn't in the box, I cleared a space to photograph the stash!

Huge Spider!

I just had to rescue my Hubby from a huge spider, or rescue the spider from him! I told him it probably has lived in the bedroom all year at least and it will come back, he is only worrying because he could see it!

So spidey has gone for a little fresh air!

Tens machine

I am sitting here with my new Tens machine doing it's stuff on my back, I bought it for only £15 in Lloyds chemist on Saturday but only plucked up the courage to try it just now as the pain in my back was getting bad. When it has finished on my lower back I may shift it to my neck, I might not need to take the painkillers if it works! Update: I read the instructions while it was working, and you can't use it again for two hours and have to be careful where you put the pads, so I haven't done the upper back yet - neck is out of the question!

At the moment it is doing a 15 minute programme where it varies what it is doing, and I am enjoying the way it feels at the moment! Must make a note to buy them for my parents for Christmas - Dad anyway for his back, he hasn't got any pacemakers or implants so it should be fine.

I'm looking for a button...

. .. not any old button, a spare one for my favourite blouse that actually looks nice on me. It is covered in the same fabric as the blouse. I have looked through all the button bags in my sewing (Stanley organiser - birthday pressy from DH) box drawers and compartments, also in my underwear drawers which is another favourite place to put such things but nothing so far! They have got to be somewhere in my craft room!

I will just have to wear it with one missing until it turns up I suppose, or put a plain brown one on and hope it doesn't show (who am I kidding, the buttons are a feature with loops).

Got all hot and bothered looking again, well it has been sitting on the back of a chair in here waiting for it's button to turn up for a couple of weeks now! It has company, the trousers with the hems that came down are there too, I stitched one leg up but the colour was wrong and I made a hash of it, so unpicked it now I can't lift the sewing machine up to finish the job - will have to get DH to lift it up and put it back after - he will be such a martyr when he does that I am sure!

Oooo I like this new look.

You may wonder why it took so long from starting this blog to posting again (then again you may not!), the reason was that I was posting on my Crafts Beautiful blog, where I was privileged to be a moderator on the forum for a few months covering mainly the evening and weekend time when the staff weren't around to spot trouble or help people. I enjoyed that very much despite it being unpaid, apart from a free magazine subscription, but now the staff have reorganised and got more involved with the forum, and decided to take the work back in house.

Anyone need a moderator?

So having gained valuable blogging experience on the CB forum I have now resumed this blog and am having fun formatting it to the way I want it!

Flutterby

As I walked in the sunshine on the grass at lunchtime a brown leaf plummeted to the ground from the trees above, but to my surprise rather than landing on the grass it opened it's wings and flew in spiral! I stood very still hoping it would alight and open it wings, revealing the pattern but the butterfly had other ideas!

Summer Weather Card Challenge

I have just completed a card for the Summer Weather card challenge on Papercraft Junkies Forum.

The wooden boat embellishment is from Madabout Cards, it is mounted onto shimmery plastic trimmed in a wavy pattern, mounted on gold glitter card to represent the beach, and onto Papermania paper.

Rub on words and sticker are Papermania, and there are fish eyelets and funky fibre to finish the card.