Trains and buses

I am so tired, I didn't get to bed early as I was preparing for today, then woke at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep and developed a headache. Then I must have gone off just in time for the alarm to go at 5:40.

I had to go to a meeting but it involved 6 trains and 2 buses and 3 1/2 hours each way! I am shattered so must go to bed, and will try and sort out the blog candy to post at the weekend and the latest tag!

Chocolate card - my favourite kind!

I made this card for a challenge on Crafts by Carolyn. It is a House Mouse stamped image, coloured with coloured pencils, and the sentiment stamp is coloured with Marvy Wet Look pens and embossed, flower from Lakeland, Papermania sticky backed ribbon.

Tagged again!

Thanks Debbee, will sort it out when I am not feeling so tired!

Blog Candy Winner - reveal day!

You may remember that to win blog candy I asked you to guess how many wood backed stamps I had in the 17 A4 Tuff boxes after I sorted them out. I have bought more stamps since that day but they have not been added to the boxes. These photos were taken at the time I published the blog candy guessing game.
I have counted the stamps in each box, see below. The total number of stamps is ......257
I had a long list of guesses on the blog and one sent by private message.

I had 25 guesses varying from 68 to 426, although 2 were discounted as there was a second guess but neither of those guesses won and the first ones wouldn't have been correct either! There is one clear winner who got the closest and it is Nicola with 253! Well done Nicola.

I will put a note on Nicola's blog and see what sort of stash she would like then I will post the photo of the final prize on here.

Also looking at these photos I think I am going to need more boxes to fit all the new stamps in!




Hearts and love 21














Animals 10 stamps













27 sentiments, borders and corners (acrylic one not counted as I said wooden backed only)



















Dolly Mamas + 1 = 5















Seasonal = 15 stamps














House Mouse and babies = 9 stamps















Oriental = 11 stamps

















Christmas 1 = 15 stamps












Birds, fish, insects = 11 stamps
















Flowers 1 = 23 stamps













Flowers 2 = 22 stamps

Garden = 23 stamps

Christmas 2 = 18 stamps = the foam ones don't count.

Vintage = 11 Stamps

Birthdays = 10 stamps

Frogs, fairies, and stuff = 15 stamps

Boxes, basket, shadow, map, torn, = 11 (there are 3 in the box)

More blog candy on site I found.

I was blog hopping when I found this Katharina's Creative Place and if you love Tilda style stamps you will love this giveaway.

Summer challenge card for Crafts by Carolyn

I was too late for the Crafts by Carolyn below, but this one is for a new challenge called Summer.

I stamped one of my new Hero Arts stamps onto Papermania paper, stamped one of a set of 4 Hero Arts butterflies onto yellow card, stamped onto the paper and layered them. I added blue shiny tape from Lakeland (I have to admit it was to cover a smudge of ink), and added blue glitter accents to match the tape.

It was an idea I came up with and was itching to try but not sure I am totally happy with it, what do you think?

Just 2 days to go to enter for a chance to win blog candy, I will have to count those stamps in the boxes to see who is closest and put together a prize!

Here is another stamped card, I stamped some of these images to send in for the stamp swap and it is from clear set by Stampendous Perfectly Clear. I stamped and embossed in pink on pink paper, inked the edges of the card and stamped a greeting with another Stampendous set.















I can see the dogs,
but they can't see me!



















I see the food monster!









Feed me, Feed me, NOW!

Feeling a bit better, new card and dog toy

I am feeling a bit better after my fall and have decided my boot isn't too bad and once polished it will probably not really show. It is possible that the very soft leather will go into a hole there sooner than it would have done. Thank you to all of you who have expressed concern or good wishes. I do have a painful knee but I have had problems with it before so banging it heavily doesn't really help!

Here is a stamped image using one of the new Hero Arts stamps on vellum (well actually tracing paper) coloured with brush markers, attached with eyelets to pearlescent pink card, mounted on a grey card and with matching funky fibres. I stamped Happy Birthday with some green embossing powder but it didn't stamp well.

I am going to enter it in a challenge for a no ink pad card on Crafts By Carolyn forum, I hope I will be forgiven for the Happy Birthday digression!

Today I went to Sainsburys to take back some clothes, and buy some food. I spotted a dog toy that I bought for Alfie. It is a chatter ball and it chats away in a number of different duck voices, deep then babyish, and it says a lot of things and blows raspberries, and barks. It says, you got me now, and come on puppy or something like that.

It has been driving Alfie mad, he wants to kill it but it is hard plastic, so he has taken to barking at it for ages - I was upstairs and I thought we had a burglar with all the noise he was making! He will run after it if you kick it round the room, but he was taking his frustration out on his bed and chewing that!

Some more stamps arrived, but don't worry I am not adding them to the ones for the blog candy competition - that wouldn't be fair!

I will keep them out until afterwards but I have a feeling I need more Tuff boxes........

Oh what a day!

I planned to go to work at 8:45 to miss the worse traffic, and before that go to Lidls the other side of town for something, get chocolate in Asda or Tesco, and pop in the doctors to make an appointment.
However - my hubby dusted the alarm clock yesterday, and accidently set the early alarm. I didn't notice as I had a pair of knickers over the clock so it didn't keep me awake so up I got, got ready, couldn't understand why himself wasn't moving!

Finally realised I was up half an hour early so I didn't know what to do, thought maybe the traffic is less at this time so se off for work but popped into the garage to get the chocolate, got to have it!

Someone came in the out way and pinched the space I was aiming at so I parked where I thought the car wouldn't be in the way, got out and tripped over a manhole cover flat on my face! So I ended up in tears, buying chocolate and telling the cashier who got someone to get me a chair and fill out a form while they got me water and wet tissues for my knee.

Bet they had a good laugh at the video later on!

Now I realise my boots are damaged, and they were nearly new and my best boots. I am going to be covered in bruises, and my knee is grazed.

Yes I did get to Lidls this evening and got what I wanted, but I wished I had stuck to the plan in the morning!

More cards and free craft magazine

Blog candy comp closing on 20th April.

Here are the last two stamp swap card challenge cards for the PJC forum.

Lilies.

This stamped image from Jay was a big challenge (thanks Jay)! Why does a woman have lilies growing out of her head, is she a bulb I asked myself often!

I painted the lilies with liquid pearls, but added a touch of pink with a brush marker, she had to have greenish hair I felt!
I found a background UM stamp I had a vague recollection of, that seemed perfect, and I had a set of Lakeland flower stamps and one was Lilies.

I mounted the panel onto old gold, then mounted the stamped image with foam pads.

I decided the hammered cream card looked a bit bare, so decided to add some Rubbadabbadoo words, this took several attempts to get right as stamping on hammered card is not easy.

Finally I added the heart embellishment from Deanne - it had to go with this image really!



Baby Boy.

This was a stamped bear holding a heart from Debbee, thanks Debbee.

I coloured him with water colour pencils then went over with water but I am not totally happy with the result. I then glazed him with Debbie Moore Enamel Magic, mounted him on this window card, backed the window with alphabet paper and put a charm in each, added sticky back ric rac, a rub on sentiment and some tiny buttons, and there you are!

Have you all read the free e mag from PJC, it is really good and you don't get much free these days, certainly not craft magazines!
Click on the banner to go download the free mag!

One down two to go!

Here is my first stamp swap challenge card on the PCJ forum. I have this stamp in my collection but haven't used it yet!

This is a Dolly Mama stamped image that I got from Dee, thanks Dee! I coloured her with brush markers and a gold gel pen for the buckle, and added some tiny gem earrings.

I went round the edge of the card with pink ink, and mounted it on a stamped polka dot paper panel. The stamps are from a clear set by Heidi Grace. I finished it off with two black eyelets.

The first attempt at making this card, specifically the eyelet setting resulted in my Cropadile Big Bite breaking, the top cube is still jammed onto the ruined card through the eyelet! It is going back, not sure if I will take a replacement or refund at this stage!

Two more to make and there are the cards I made from the spares to post, will wait until the recipients have had a chance to use them first!

Now I saw a sight today on the rail station, I was on the train for a change due to sick car! There were three young girls wearing short shorts, and sleeveless tops with little sandals! I had my coat and scarf on, jumper and boots, and trousers!

Rattytatty has blog candy up for grabs

Go and take a look, RattyTatty has some gorgeous DoveCraft Laura Ashley goodies for grabs, and you can earn tickets in the draw in various ways! (I made a mistake before, said it was Basic Grey, sorry about that).

Don't forget to have a go at my blog candy guessing game if you haven't already tried - see the post on blog candy.

I seem to have won two more awards, thanks very much to DillyDaydream - the angel, and Silvercustard the "You're a Star" flowers! If any of my blog friends would like an award please consider yourself awarded and add the image to your blog, you are all wonderful!

A quiet day today, as I am not feeling well - had an upset tummy earlier. Yesterday I had loads of post, two parcels of goodies, craft magazines and the stamped images from the PCJ stamp swap I joined. I see that Deekatz who organised it has already made her cards from the stamps she kept.

I spent yesterday evening colouring my three images in with mixed results (well with watercolour crayons, brush markers, and liquid pearls really), I am not good at colouring! I hope to make them into cards and post them on the forum soon! The problem with this is you can't restamp the image if you mess it up, apart from one of the as I have the same stamp! That one ironically turned out fine.

What was in the parcels I hear you say! Well one was from Artymiss and I had forgotten about it and what I ordered so it was a lovely surprise. I got a pack of packs of K&Co 6"x6" papers which are lovely, some twinkle writers, some pots of ink and some Christmas tree charms! Not one stamp!
The other parcel was from Readicut, I placed an order after someone tipped everyone off on a forum that Readicut were offering a pack of papers free that is normally £14.99, you only have to pay postage. No other purchase necessary as there usually is with Readicut offers. Of course I bought a few other things, a stamp lucky dip, a budget stamp set lucky dip (might do for my neice) and a paint lucky dip.

Once I had placed my order and paid I noticed there were two items I hadn't selected added to my order, I emailed Readicut but they weren't able to stop them in time so I have to send them back and the postage will be refunded as well as the items (I hope this will not be as painful as last time).

The pot luck stamp was quite cute, the paint was a pot of dimensional paint in green, but the budget stamp set was a foam cube with snowflakes on each side - I can't see it costing the £1.99 I paid let alone the £3.99 to £12 that Readicut claim it could be worth! So I am sending that back in disgust!

Tagged again

This is the 4th time I have been tagged, thanks very much to Kerry Angelwings, but I have decided to pass as I only just got tagged and tagged others very recently!

I can't go through it again right now, sorry Kerry! (Also Kerry was one of the people I tagged which turned out to be jointly with Mel, Kerry didn't notice but tagged me back!)

Keep those guesses coming, check the photos first! 20 days to go until I pick a winner, and I have a lot of goodies, you could get eyelets, toppers, papers, ink pads, stamps, ribbons - a selection of goodies to play with!

I have been back at work today, despite suffering from a "non specific virus". I wasn't feeling too bad but I am seizing up all over now! Suffered for the past week and a half - just my luck as I have been on leave!

I have had antibiotics from a hospital doctor, had my teeth xrayed then got the non specific verdict from another doctor - great holiday (NOT)!

Had a reasonable journey to work this morning, despite the 12 week roadworks closing one of the main routes and forcing loads of traffic onto the road I take daily, but coming back was hell! Once the jam cleared I got stuck behind a 40 mph driver, who had so many political and footy slogans on his back window I doubt he could see the queue behind him!

I am not looking forward to my journey in tomorrow as I have to get to a different office, and go through the worst of the traffic!

Lots of guesses to win blog candy!

Here is Alfie enjoying one of his favourite treats - a raw carrot!

How many stamps - keep the guesses coming folks!

Now if you make two guesses realising you made a mistake first time, I will only take the last one as being your entry even if the previous guess were more correct!

I should have said one entry per person, one person made a mistake (Louly) and guessed again, and contacted me to say that. I will allow that to happen only once per person and only if they are consecutive comments.

Any more than two guesses and you are out!

Mel sweetie, I don't have a shop! It is just my craft room. Not as spectacular as some I have seen but better than others! Maybe I should open it up as a shop, I am pretty well stocked up!

No I haven't used them all, hardly any of them! But now they are more organised I will.

I have changed the look of the slide show again, the photographers are not hiding the card now! I may have to run another poll as I only got 4 votes on photographers or not!

Weird world and blog candy!

Slide show Poll.

There are 15 hours to go on the poll (NOW CLOSED, 2 VOTES TO KEEP 2 TO CHANGE) on the photographers effect on the slide show. Now to be fair and due to only one previous vote and apparent lack of interest I removed the photographers a while ago, substituted them for butterflies, got fed up with that, tried a few things and ended up with hearts!

Two people by then had voted for a different effect to photographers. Now with hours to go and no photographers to be seen somebody voted that they like the photographers!

I wonder if I should put them back until it ends!


Stamps.

On the stamp organisation front - I realised I put the stamps in rubber side down, which is wrong for storage, and I know I could have turned the Tuff boxes over but then the labels (and the lid) would be the wrong way up!

So today I renamed all the photos I took of each box, some boxes were labelled already but now have slightly different contents and half of them didn't have labels so I got the Dymo out and made labels. I have just realised there is a place on the handle for a label, I hadn't noticed before so had stuck them on the box next to the handles and they were always falling off or getting knocked off!

Blog Candy.

I have decided to give some blog candy to the crafter who guesses correctly (or closest to the correct number), how many wood mounted stamps do I have in the Tuff boxes.

I don't know the answer yet, I have to count them.

Here are some clues:
1. There are 17 Tuff boxes
2. The tuff boxes are A4 size
3. The stamps are different sizes
4. There are some gaps in a few of the boxes
5. There are some small foam stamps and one acrylic backed stamp which won't count.

Rules:

The winner must be a crafter that has a craft blog, or is a member of a craft forum who has been posting photos of their work and can provide details that can be verified - link to blog or forum and your forum name!

The prize is likely to be a new stamp or stamps, and/or other bits! I haven't totally decided yet.

If more than one crafter guesses the right or same closest amount there will be a draw unless there are only two - then I might manage two prizes!

I will eliminate anyone who has more than two guesses (or two guesses with a big gap between them), and if there are two guesses close together because the first was wrong you must let me know, I will then only take the second guess regardless of which is correct.

(Please note that as I moderate all comments they won't appear right away, however if it is obvious that someone has posted the exactly the same comment with the same guess more than once I will let you off!.)


The closing date is 20th April.

Right he has gone!

Sooty chilling in my craft room!


So I have laid out all the Tuff boxes I currently have with wood mounted stamps in them, and there are more in the box at the end.

My previous logic was to try and keep things together but to fit in as many stamps as possible so there are some unlikely combinations in some boxes!

I have to sort them out into collections, photograph each one and get them back in here before I have to go out at 15:00 hours!

Then I will have a catalogue of all the mounted stamps!

Watch out for exciting news coming soon!




Alfie supervising the stamp sorting!

New Stash

Here is just some of my new stash, some second hand and some new stamps, and some pens and flowers!

I am not generally keen on little children with no mouths but I seem to have acquired one, she is a rag doll though, and rather cute!

Now last night I started organising my clear stamp sets, and found that a small "birthday" was missing.
Last seen next to "happy" on an acrylic block!

So I started searching through the pile of stuff the block was sitting on, no luck. Gave my rotary trimmer a good clean even under it, but nothing. Started lining up punches that needed to go away in a line on the trimmer and ..... I felt something on one of them..... yes it was "birthday"!

So having sorted out most of the clear stamps and decided I need another clear stamp wallet, and put the punches away apart from the set of three that won't fit I am now attempting to organise my wood mounted stamps into themes in the Tuff boxes.

I want to lay them all out on the lounge floor but DH is home for lunch so I will have to wait or manage in here, but there is not a lot of floor visible in here!

To Do List

1. Re sort wood backed stamps into themed tuff boxes
2. Sort out remaining magazine mountain and recycle, donate, tear out interesting articles
3.Make some cards
4. Tidy work space so I can make some cards
5. Mend son's torn jeans
6. Scrapbook layout for Sunday all day scrap competition? Need inspiration!
7. Sort out photos on PC into albums or folders so I can find them!
8. Make birthday cards for April and May
9. Make Chicken Curry
10. Sort out washing
11. Sort out half finished curtains and other sewing projects
12. Sort out clothes I don't wear and put in charity bags or recycle
13. Sort out craft stuff I don't want and put on Ebay or blog candy?
14. Tag 6 people (again)
15. Watch all programmes I recorded and delete them
16. Do some geneology
17. Read geneology mags I got on subs for Christmas - have 3 to read now!
18. Enter craft competitions in magazines (before it is too late).
19. Put receipts on spreadsheet and shred them, think I have around 2 years worth to catch up!
20. Try encuastic art kit
21. Try Imagepac stamp making kit
22. Use Melt Pot properly
23. Try and remember what else needs doing!

Tagged again!

Thanks to Mel, of Mel's creative corner!

This is the third time I have been tagged recently, quite an honour I guess!

I need to find 6 bloggers to pass this onto again that I haven't already tagged, but last time not many actually took on this challenge!

I also need to tell you 6 things about me (I hope I don't repeat what I said last time).

1. I love rock music
2. I have two grown sons
3. I also love turquoise (as I see Mel does)
4. I have only been abroad once nearly three years ago to Prague
5. I used to have two tortoises, then a third one turned up but I gave them to a good home when I was pregnant. Wish I had kept them.
6. I used to dream of having a pony and threw in my A levels to work in a stables to "train" for nothing. That all went horribly wrong!

Here are the rules:


1.put a link to the person who tagged you
2 . mention the rules to each person you tag
3. mention 6 things about you
4. tag 6 other people and provide links to their blogs
5. leave comments on these peoples blogs to tell them they have been tagged

I will tag the following:

1 Kerry Angelwings who despite having a back op keeps on crafting.
2. Jules DevonBunny who is another busy lady and lovely with it.
3. Peanutnut, who is Snoopy mad and makes lovely things.
4. Colleen, the NZcrafter who does amazing quilling.
5. Silvercustard, who is an emerging star.
6. FeFe who is another amazing mum and crafter.

I hope you haven't got fed up with being tagged ladies!

Happy Easter

I hope you had a lovely Easter. I did but I have been in pain with toothache, or rather jaw ache unfortunately so I have to try and see a dentist again tomorrow! Only saw one a week or so ago for a check up!

The cards went down well. I have made a few other cards but I am using the spare stamped images for the swap so I can't show you yet!

I am watching an old Create and Craft with Dawn Bibby that I recorded, I need to delete some and to my horror I had recorded over 170 programmes or films that I hadn't yet watched!

The technology is wonderful, instead of staying up too late watching the good films and programmes that seem to be on so late I could record them and go to bed! Great idea but then you have to make time to watch them and delete them!

I have had the family round, my son for the weekend, and my parents and MIL today for dinner. Luckily the boys did most of the work, I didn't feel up to it!

So I have added some photos, thought I should take some for scrapping if I ever get into it! There are daffodils in a vase, I bought them in Tesco. Daffs in the garden, and the Easter Egg stash, not all mine, mine is the organic Green and Blacks one, with some small bars on top (I ate the rest) and there was another small box of Green and Black eggs that got missed from the photo.

The Green and Blacks egg boxes are rather nice and I have already cut them up with the intention of adding them to cards!