New toy

This photo doesn't do her justice, I can't get the colour right. She is in fact a gorgeous deep pink, could say fushia pink or hot pink but looks much redder in this photo. I have altered it but still too red. I could put the daylight photo studio lights up and try again but there might be too much glare as she won't fit my mini photo studio. If you nip over to the Craftwell site you can see the true colour, if I get a better photo I will put it up.

This is the latest technology in home craft cutters called the eCraft by Craftwell. It is so much larger than the Robo I had to move my TV and other stuff round and get her nearer to the craft end of my bench, the Robo was in the far corner under the printer shelf as the lights upset the optical eye when I did use it.

I have an SD card so I can play but the actual software to enable it to be used from the PC either with the SD card or from your own designs is due out on 1st Sept. I was initially pleased that the machine was on the way earlier than I expected it, but disappointed that the software wasn't and I think had it been explained that the machines were being released ahead of the software to allow people to play I would have understood and am now eagerly anticipating the software, shame I have to work that day. Once you get your machine you have to go register it to get the software download and you need the serial number that is underneath so as this is a heavy machine it is best to make that the first thing you do and write it down before assembling the feed tray on the back.

As with all brand new devices there are bound to be teething problems at first, if you buy at the launch price (as I did) you expect this to some extent. I haven't got fully to grips with my machine and I am still trying to understand it but thanks to Tom on his Create and Cut blog and Nicki, on Nicki's Cardstock Creations blog, who have both put up tutorial videos and tips to help I am slowly getting there and might actually cut a shape without problems soon.

I don't find the manual easy to understand and I hope Craftwell will reissue a better one or an online one as soon as they manage to draw breath from getting all the machine orders out. This baby is in big demand being the one we have all been waiting for.  It cuts either a sheet or smaller piece of card stock at a time manually fed, can take a stack using the sheet feeder at the back or can feed in a roll and cut banners to any length with the rollers provided.

It has a neat little drawer at the back to hold spare blades and pens and a few SD cards. You can buy more designs or use the software or combine the two. In time you will be able to load up your designs to sell and buy others from the Craftwell site. Check out the catwalk fashion made using this machine!

The most revolutionary thing is that this machine does not use sticky mats, though if you read Tom and Nicki's blogs you will see that for thin paper you need to add a sheet of card underneath, doesn't need to be sticky.

The other thing that this machine does is hold a pen as well as a blade and draws as well as cuts without needing to change. You can buy additional colours to the black provided with the machine.

I know that Oyster Stamps (one of the two U.K. sellers so far whom I bought her from) do demo's of the machine but I live too far away to get to one of those.

eCraft by Craftwell are on Facebook too where there are lots of comments and links, they seem very helpful and suggested I ring if I have problems, but that is an international call so not doing that just yet.

I have so many questions like: what are tabs exactly, what are they for and why do I need to change the settings? Will it cope with U.K. size card in the sheet feeder? What pressure is needed for which card, how can I tell which I need?

Quirky Crafts Challenge 33 - recipe

The recipe for this challenge is use: shrink plastic, ribbon, at least two eyelets and two patterned papers.  I used double sided paper so two designs, and after getting through 3 sheets of shrink plastic finally ended up with a bloom I could use, stamped with a Wordsworth poem also stamped in the background corner, the bloom was inked on the back with Stazon pastel ink, words in Stazon black - I did try Memento ink but it ran after shrinking!

Found this great paper in the folder with the shrink plastic then had to find this stamp to go with it, they are perfect together. Paper is Junkitz Fanciful and Stamp is by Paperbag Studio, ribbon by Crafty Ribbons, eyelets from stash and brad by Papermania. Hop on over to Quirky Crafts blog and enter your creation now, it is a mixed media challenge so any project can be entered.

Some idiot hacked my blog

I have deleted the post and changed my password, I hope that keeps the B***s out.

Craft Robo for sale - any takers?

I have decided to sell my Craft Robo which I haven't used for a year. This is the CC200-20. It has a still useable blade, and a couple of sets of new blades, the software (Cutting Master, DXF Art Collection Source DVD and training DVD) that came with it and the additional Design Master software, print outs of instructions and UK Scrapper tutorials for both Cutting Master Robo Master software and Design Master Software and I hopefully still have the box, which I will need to go and look for.
 It has the original cutting mat, I just respray it with re positionable glue when it needs to be more sticky.
I am not sure of the going rate right now and would appreciate suggestions of what they are going for but I need to find out the postage rate unless collected.

This is a marvellous machine that will cut all your own designs, and loads of designs you can download free or can buy online too, but I am not making enough use of it, used it for butterflies for the wedding last year and not a lot else really.

Any ideas on price?
  

New home (bad blogger)

Oh I am a bad blogger, not blogged for ages! Well I did go away to Torquay for a few days, but have been back for a couple of weeks so no excuse really but I am struggling to find my mojo.

In Torquay we were on a bus when there was a bang and I watched a large seagull tumbling over and over coming to rest on his back with his feet in the air on the pavement (sidewalk). I assume he was trying to steal some food from someone on the top deck and didn't realise about glass. I wonder if this was the silly bird, probably not.
We went into Paignton to watch Inception (or Conception according to the hotel receptionist) which was awesome, and then we waited at the bus stop for our ride home, we had enquired where the stop was when we got off the bus at the cinema. We waited................and waited, tried ringing the number on the sign but no answer, in the end started walking. Got to the next stop and found the buses stopped 10 minutes ago in Paignton! We had seen an open top bus speeding by but he didn't stop at the bus stop, in fairness we didn't flag him down but he wasn't really looking at the stop anyway. We assumed that the open top bus was a special tourist bus now I think it was maybe the normal service in summer and we just missed it.
We were due back at the hotel for our evening meal, so I had to ring them to say we would be late and rebook a later table, and then we kept walking back to the main road to look for the other bus - every 10 minutes. We saw plenty of buses but all going the other way, finally a little bus turned up and it was going our way, yippee at last!
No sign of the seagull who fell, so he either got up or had been removed.

This card was for my Son and Daughter in Law who just bought their first own home, and it is white with a green roof and door. I used a set of Dario stamps for this and stamped onto black card with white Versamark as my first choice seemd to have dried up, and then added white embossing powder. I cut the house out and stamped another one on white card and coloured the roof and door before cutting them out and layering them. The tree, sun and blooms are were coloured with my Marvy wet look pens straight onto the stamp but not embossed. The butterflies are because it is was also the first wedding anniversary and the fence is a Sizzix die cut.

Happy Birthday Vanessa, and a Quirky Craft Challenge

I have been suffering from serious lack of Mojo lately, couldn't seem to motivate myself to make anything despite having all these pretty ribbons in front of me courtesy of Crafty Ribbons. I really tried, laid out the ribbons on different things but could not seem to get it going, sorry Ali. 

Then on Friday I started to make this card for Vanessa who's birthday is today (Happy Birthday dear Daughter in Law). V loves cows so I got out my herd of Penny Black cows, not the Christmas herd, and picked this cutie. V hasn't got her card yet but I hope she likes it.

Coloured with Promarkers,die cut with Nestabilties, balloon eyelets from stash, brad daisies from stash, Happy Birthday punch by Martha Steward using free papers from a magazine, really pretty flower ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, who I still owe two projects with the ribbons. The Memento ink pad seems a little dry so I went over some of the black with a black Promarker.

Quirky Crafts Challenge 31 is Ribbons, and I sneaked in this card as my DT one on to the blog. You have a week left to enter your creations, which don't have to be cards, and again this is a popular challenge as so many people use ribbons in their creations.

I have entered this card in the RosieDees challenge: Summer Birthdays

Beer Monster Card

It is my Son's birthday tomorrow and I made this card using English Paper Company paper, chipboard letters, a free digi download of the beer monster from Pollycraft which I love, so thanks for the great freebie Pollycraft. Monster is coloured with Promarkers, and finally I used a foiled birthday sentiment that I won from a magazine for my card that was featured ages ago and some frog eyelets. I hope he likes it, happy birthday Son!

Quirky Crafts Challenge 30 - Summer

Sorry I'm a bit late posting this, Quirky Crafts challenge number 30 began last Sunday, and I think it will be another popular one. The last one Girly Girl attracted a huge number of great entries and the winner has now been announced.
This card is stamped with a Dolly Mama stamp "Domestically Challenged" and I have to say I found it challenging to colour in with my Promarkers but got there in the end. Papers are a mixture of DCWV and some free papers from Crafts Beautiful magazine I think. Ribbons and brad are Making Memories, free rub ons from a magazine. Blooms are by Prima. Die cut shapes using Nestabilities large labels dies.

So get on over and enter your summer creations, doesn't have to be a card, any creation will be accepted.

Sea view

This card is made using a Whimsical Ink, Queen Kat Art stamp by Maigan Lyn. Please excuse the cutting out, I decided to cut out the inside of the mermaid's tail after she was sitting firmly on the frame and it looks a bit messy. Frame is Sizzix, background (in frame and behind it using Cordinations Whitewash paper) is Cuttlebug embossing, real shells bought locally, ferns is a Martha Stewart punch. Unfortunately the red background turned out to be a mistake, and the gold embossed card looks red at the bottom as it picked up the colour.
Mermaid's pearl necklace and headband is made using Liquid Pearls in pink. Glass fish was from a set bought at a show, make unknown.
Acrylic greeting was from Graphicus and the ribbon from the Philippines I think (don't you just love Ebay?). I made this to go with a jigsaw of one of Maigan's mermaid prints for my Mum's birthday, unfortunately I didn't realise she doesn't like jigsaws!

I am entering this for:
 Daring Cardmakers challenge Pearls
 RosieDees challenge which is fairy tales
Stamping for the weekend - Summer/Travel challenge

Not sure it is good enough for any of them but will do it anyway.

Choo choo train

I have been neglecting my blog a bit, and having the phone line accidentally disconnected during some DIY didn't help! This the card I made for my Hubby's birthday a couple of weeks ago, it was made at about 11:30 the night before, well that is when I finally started it despite having bought the perfect Sharon Duncan stamp set especially months ago!

I found a 7 Gypsies tag and some Word Play letters that finished this off quickly and perfectly. Given more time my colouring of the Sharon Duncan stamps would have been a bit better I think.

I also stamped the inside with the station stamp and the sentiment about a journey and will try and get a photo of that loaded.

Quirky Crafts Challenge 29 - Girlie Girl

Challenge 29 on Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog is set by the lovely Fe and is Girlie Girl (or Girly Girl but the spell-checker doesn't like that). My card is made using a Penny Black Stamp called Hot but Cool, a Stamps Happen stamp called Ice Cream Cones and a sentiment from a Hero Arts set which I think is called Cup Cakes but seemed perfect for this card. Not sure of the paper, brads are Cardology and the images are coloured with ProMarkers. I used some Kraft card for matting and the shapes are cut with Nestabilities.

I can tell this is going to be a really popular challenge and we already have quite a few entries, so get your entry in to win some surprise goodies.

I had some nice goodies turn up this week, a Boutique card kit and some blooms for an article in Card Making and Papercrafts on wedding stationery where they showed me in my hat and a photo of the butterfly wishes tree which the magazine liked very much. I hope to have a go at making some soon when I work it out!

Quirky Crafts Challenge 28 - Chocolate and Cream

The challenge on Quirky Crafts this fortnight is a yummy colour combination, Chocolate and Cream. I have used a set of stamps I bought probably a year or two ago and haven't used until now, with some chocolate scented embossing powder also bought at the same time. The whole room smelt of chocolate, and I normally avoid perfumed products as they make me sneeze but I had to try this stuff.

I am going to enter this in the ABC challenge which is U for use your unused stash! I think it qualifies (well anyone that knows me knows that I have a great deal of unused stash so I could carry on creating tons for this challenge).

The stamps are Gelatines (these are little sets of stamps that come in the cutest little storage tins), stamped with Versamark brown ink and chocolate scented embossing powder, die cut the chocolates and box with Spellbinders Nestabilities, edge and lace punched with Martha Stewart punches, the sentiment, also from the Gelatines set, reads Man cannot live by chocolate alone - but woman can! Also the word bliss in the centre. I think I could get a cream die cut greeting in the bottom right corner too as this could be for a thank you, birthday or other occasion.

Shaun the Sheep card

I was asked to make a special card for a little boy who adores Shaun the Sheep, or Timmy as he seems to be called now. I happened to have a Lets Make Cards that was all about Shaun the Sheep, perfect! George also loves tractors!

Quirky Crafts Challenge 27 - Going Postal

I chose the challenge over on the Quirky Crafts blog this week, and I hope you like it. It is called Going Postal, and you can make any craft project you like as long as it relates to post. You can win some mystery fun things, so go on have a go.
You could incorporate postage stamps, letters, post boxes, mini envelopes, post cards, franking, let your imagination run riot.
Here is my card which is also following the Sugar Bowl challenge sketch this week which I have turned around, and I used a Sugar Nellie stamp which I love, DCWV Pocket full of Posies papers and some Cordinations paper. Punched edges are done using a Martha Stewart punch.
The stamp and frank stamps are from a set by Inkadinkado that I have just spent hours looking for.

Still time to enter - hurry

There is still time to enter your craft project in the challenge - Trains, Planes and Automobiles over on Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog   to win some great digital images. New challenge going up later today so be quick and get your entries in now!

AWOL again and confessions of a stamp addict

Unfortunately migraine robbed me of another day yesterday. I did get rid of it and started on the stamp cataloguing and sorting which I am continuing today. I would love to get them all sorted and put away tidy, so I know where they are and what I have. The way I am doing this is if I have a sheet or picture with the stamp or stamps I stick that to a piece of card to be laminated, first scanning it and printing onto thin card. The scanned card goes in my folder so I know what I have, the other is laminated to hold the stamps in another folder. I think I have 4 folders now, these are unmounted or UM rubber stamps mainly. I have had to mount most of them on EZ cling mount or similar first, I find EZ is the best to use. I have tried some glue that you paint on and it is supposed to remain clingy over and over, and at some point when it stops you reapply it. It is a messy business and I found the stamps quickly lost the cling factor, wouldn't cling to the laminate for long and stamps were jumping off all over the place! So back to EZ for most of those.

I am trying to keep collections together, if I have a few from a particular seller, or manufacturer I group them. If I haven't got a printed sheet I need to stamp them and copy or stamp twice and I just got through stamping an exciting find which was a set of stamps from www.timetostamp.com, and there was no clue as to what they were apart from a photo of the stamp sheet, and the seller thought it was corsets and stuff but it was so cheap, about £3 I think and it is vintage adverts for corsets, typewriters, pens, cutlery all sorts. I haven't scanned it yet because not only do I have room on the end for a few more stamps that don't belong to anywhere else, but I have one stamp that I am not certain of, it could be part of the set or not. I mounted and cut them apart a long time ago and they were all in with a heap of other stamps, some I can identify to other sets, but this one I don't know. Seems to be a lady and there is a word or some words on it. So I thought I will go to the web site and see, and the web site above takes me to I Brake for Stamps (a site I have bought from them too in the past, very nice stamps) but only a couple of the stamps from my set are visible here so I am no wiser. (Edited to say: I just clicked on the corset stamp and it brought up a sheet of stamps which i the sheet I have, so now I can see my random stamp doesn't belong to it.)

When I have completed the UMs I have a heap of single clear stamps I want to sort in the same way and mount probably on laminate sheets also. (Perhaps I shouldn't mention I have just purchased some UM Unity Stamps on Ebay, but at least they come ready mounted).

Oh and I nearly forgot I bought some bundles of Penny Black clings and Hero Art Slap-sticks (at very good prices on Ebay I must add, couldn't not buy at those prices), all ready mounted on printed cling mount but they need putting away and cataloguing so I could still be doing this for days!

I realise I haven't yet shown you the before and after photos of my craft room also, but it has got very untidy again in order to try and tidy it. I will try and find some photos I can show you. I also took a video but it is too long and I couldn't work out the software to edit it which was a trial version now expired. I haven't decided which photo software to go for yet, but I will get the matching video software when I do. I might just have to show you still photos.

I am alone apart from the dogs at least for the morning but I do have things to do so on that note I better get on with them! I only put the PC on to scan the stamp sheets you understand, but then I was tempted to peek at Facebook, then Farmville, then Countrylife, and do a little on those!

New card challenge over on Quirky Crafts Forum

We have a card challenges section on the Quirky Crafts forum now, just for fun though you never know what might happen. Challenge 1 is to make a card using the last crafty thing you bought and I have just bought some Nellie Snellen dies, which I wanted to try and I love them.
So here is my card:

Once again I used the cute puppy stamp free with Craft Stamper magazine, coloured with Promarkers, framed with a Nellie Snellen die cut frame, papers are In My Minds Eye which were free with Papercraft Inspirations, ribbon from Crafty Ribbon, Die cut ribbon slider using Cuttlebug die and circle with Nestabilties circle die, stamped in blue, and finally a gem added over the stamped flower. Typing this with splint on my hand so excuse any errors.

I have entered this in:
the I love Promarkers challenge which is animals,
Stamping for the weekend, ribbons and bows
 

Country Life on Facebook

Why have I got dragged into yet another game that is addictive, and just as I get into it all my buddies have moved to the next game I ask myself?
Well as if Farmville was not enough with its outdated graphics and constant crashes and bugs, I have taken on Country Life.
This is what I have learnt in the few days I have been playing:
Like Farmville you start with a small square of land, unlike Farmville you get a cow right away, you also get some plots with clover growing (from memory). The cow is a 3d animated cow and wouldn't look out of place in Shrek movies. The cow in in a pen with a feeding trough in front of it, and when the clover flowers you harvest the clover then click on the cow to feed it. Crops are in small squares a bit like Farmville, you click to plant the seed, you don't have to plough it first,  you click to harvest the crop and there is a move tool that can be used to move plots around. You use another tool to dig more plots, there is a sell tool.
Unlike Farmville the cow chews the food.
Like Farmville the crop can be sold but (not like Farmville) not for as much as the milk the cow produces; for every square of clover the cow eats it produces a bottle of milk, handy that, you don't have to milk it.
Things work in 3s here, you can feed 3 lots of clover to the cow max, it produces 3 bottles of milk at any one time max, if you don't harvest the milk it won't produce more.
If you buy a beehive the bees will pollinate the clover which turns yellow, and produce a jar of honey, you get extra coins for honey and the cow will then eat the pollinated clover and still produce the same milk which can be sold.
If you are really lucky someone will gift you a cheese wiz; then you can harvest the milk and click on the cheese wiz to fill it with three bottles of milk at the most, and it will whirr away and produce three cheeses at the most which you can harvest then sell (haven't worked out if there is another more lucrative stage like sandwich production).
You can move up the levels quickly and you can grow a greater variety of crops and buy more animals and give better gifts the higher you go and if you get enough neighbours you can expand, just like Farmville.
There are other gadgets, like a tomato sauce maker, a weaver for the sheep's wool, jam maker and all of these make the crops you produce more valuable to sell.
If you buy another animal it will be fussy about what it eats, chickens eat corn, three lots and lay three lots of eggs, though I never saw that chicken sit on the nest the eggs appeared there as if by magic. Sheep eat only wheat. Both crops take a whole lot longer than clover to ripen, and the sheep looks at you as if to say "where is mine then?".
You can also buy trees that fruit in the same way as Farmville trees do and sell the fruit, maybe you can make it into something else when you get the right gadget.
You can buy buildings, you have to get people to give you the materials then unless you have ranch cash or money to burn in spending actual money to get what you need. I am building a greenhouse where the crops will be ready quicker if I get it done, so more functional than Farmville here.
One tip on the beehives is once the clover (which is all they are interested in) has all flowered they go to sleep, and when you harvest the first square they wake and come and pollinate, but if  you leave just one jar of honey unharvested you can harvest that as soon as the clover is ready again and you won't lose out on that one first jar of honey, unless like me you are click happy and accidentally harvest the unpollinated clover next to the pollinated clover, or worse, sell your clover by mistake so your cows can't make more milk........
Well maybe the attraction is to see how far I can get or if I can score higher than my friends, it has taken over my life. so with that I better see how both Farmville and Country Life are doing in case I am missing out.

Quirky Crafts Challenge 25 - sketch

The challenge this week over at Quirky Crafts is to follow Lyn's sketch. The challenge is sponsored by Nikki and she has lots of cupcake designs and some other designs, some of which you will see on the Quirky Crafts Blog this week. I have used a digital download called Starry cupcake for my card. I coloured it with Promarkers, and decoupaged the cake, added Stickles to the stars, the paper is by DCWV, the cup cake ribbon is from Crafty Ribbon, can't remember who's brads they were, scalloped border is done using a Martha Stewart doily punch. Sentiment is from an MSE clear set, and the mini cupcake is from a Hero Arts clear set. Die cut shapes are cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities dies. Sorry is it a bit dark, I used my new mini photo studio again but the first time I used it I managed to break a lamp bulb while trying to put it away, and I haven't managed to replace it yet but finally I think I have found the right ones and they are on the way, so this photo was taken with only one of the two lamps working, (which is how I feel personally right now - 50% functional).

This is the sketch to follow: 

Sneek peek

Nearly time for Challenge 25 over on Quirky Crafts blog and what a lot of entries we have for the challenge closing today! Here is a sneeky peek of my Design Team card for this week, intrigued? Pop over to the Quirky Crafts challenge blog around 6pm to see more.

I haven't been very active in the past few weeks, first I had a virus that lasted for weeks, then the computer seemed to have a virus which took a couple of weeks to sort out, and then I was ill again. I have been having problems with my eyes being very tired and blurry vision even had my eyes tested and got yet more glasses, but this week had an excruciating pain in the back of my eye and started seeing double. I took a couple of days off work because I was worried about it happening when I drove, not to mention the pain dragging me down. I went to the surgery saw a doc who did blood tests, after saying my eyes looked fine. The tests came back clear, but I was still in pain and couldn't see properly and eventually convinced the receptionist that I did need to see someone before next Wednesday. The doc I saw thought it could be a sinus infection at the back of the eye so started me on strong antibiotics for a week, and anti inflammatory tablets. So far they seem to be working and things have improved though I am feeling very tired. I also have high blood pressure, which if not down by next week will have to be treated, so I have been trying to eat foods that lower it, and cutting down salt or cutting it out in an effort to bring it down. I don't eat processed food often, organic pasta sauce cheese, and organic chocolate are my weaknesses. I am hoping that a lot of it was to do with the stress of being scared silly about my eyes and the pain and it will be lower now I am not so worried about those.


So when you see my card in all its glory forgive me if I have gone over lines etc, as I could see two of every line when I attempted to make the card.