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Wednesday 29 December 2010

Post Christmas sales

Well they don't wait till January now do they? Christmas day wasnt even over and the shops were announcing sales.

Well I resisted until yesterday and then gave in and went to Hobbycraft to see what goodies they had and if there were any bargains to be had.




And see what jumped into my basket? It was all alone on the shelf so I couldn't leave it there could I?

So today I have been playing with it. I really like it and think I might have to go back and get some more cards for it!



:-)



Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday 24 December 2010

Testing, testing, 1234...

Just a little test cos I finally got round to downloading blogpress so thought I'd test it.
The piccie is of some parcels I've wrapped using brown paper I stamped with snowflakes. I always fancied using stamped brown paper as giftwrap and did it this year.

Have a great Christmas everyone!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Merry Christmas!

Gosh its over 6 months since I last blogged - how bad of me!

I have no particular excuse, its just between work, crafting and home there isnt a lot of time left in the day, particularly as I still quite like to sleep sometimes :-)

Anyway, as Christmas looms, I hope you all have a good time, however you spend it.



:-)
ally


Wednesday 2 June 2010

Happy Birthday WOYWW

WOYWW is 1 today!

I had grand plans for a fabulous thing to decorate my office and commemorate the birthday, but sadly none of them got further than the darkest recesses of my mind (probably just as well for some of them). So instead, last night, I threw this little string of paper bunting together.



The papers are all made or rather sprayed by me, being off cuts of bigger bits I made with my glimmer mists. It doesnt show in the piccie, but they are lovely and pearly and sparkly. I have them hanging from the shelf unit over my desk.

So now I shall sit here with some loud music blaring, a glass of something cold and sparkly (lemonade) and browse some of the other birthday WOYWWs.

Happy WOYWW everyone, and thanks Mrs Dunnit for giving me an excuse to blog at least once a week.

:-)

Wednesday 26 May 2010

WOYWW - again

Wow this has been going for very nearly a year. Who'd a thought it.

This is the glimpse of my hovel this week. There are some new additions - 2 packs of glimmer mist sets - yep they now come in little 1oz bottles in themed sets. I like the smaller size, much easier to use store and you get more colours for your money. I got 2 packs with some birthday pennies and have been spraying everything in sight.


The card is another fun rugbyheadedman digi stamp from my friend Amanda. We had a request to do a teddy boy and and Amanda came up with the goods for that and also threw in an Elvs impersonator which I couldnt resist blinging up with some stick on gems.


On the other half of the desk, stands a bottle of champagne (well methode tradicionale for the wine snobs) which I have decorated with ribbons, flowers and a big tag for a colleagues birthday tomorrow.



We have new neighbours at home too, so I need to go off and make them a welcome to your new home card now, so I have an excuse to go round and say hello.

Till next week....

:-)

Wednesday 19 May 2010

WOYWW

Nothing particularly crafty on my desk today, its full of lovely cards and goodies, cos its my birthday.

I had a lovely load of cards, mostly edible pressies, which is somewhat worrying, and some money for crafty goodies. My brothers girl friend bought me a tin of krusty kreme donuts, and my best friend made cupcakes for me, most of which didnt survive the day but the box that one of them was in is very pretty.

On the other bit of the desk are some cards I made with one of the stamps I got at the flea sale at the weekend. I really love this stamp it looks gorgeous stamped in black on a fancy background. The backgrounds here were done with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and then sprayed with some glimmer mist. The darker spots are slate glimmer mist and the paler card has marshmallow glimmer mist which doesnt show in the photo.
The card just sneaking in on the left is also stamped onto a distressed ink background. Its a really old stamp that I was going to get rid of, but I think will have a new lease of life. It too looks good on the inked background and the lady on the stamp can be inked or coloured in copics and layered.

Hope you all had a good day too.
:-)


Sunday 16 May 2010

New Stash!

I was up early (for me) today. Sunday morning are my chance for a lie in but today, I was up and in Tidworth by 9.50 waiting eagerly outside Kraft Crazy for the Flea Sale to start.

By midday I was back home with a big bag of lovely new (to me) stamps to play with. I got a really nice selection and fab bargains too - which you can see here.

Since I also took along some of my old stamps and stuff to sell, it was a good opportunity for a clear out. I did take along a few things to sell, but I also found a few stamps I had forgotten about and have been inspired to play with again using techniques I have found since I last used them.

So a very good and creative weekend on the whole.

:-)

Wednesday 12 May 2010

WOYWW

What can I say, do you think I have too many? I had a tidy up at the weekend and found a few glue runners that I had forgotten about, though to be honest I do get through them very quickly so they will soon be used up.

And here is whats on my desk tonight.

The cards are made using some digi stamps that a friend of mine has been designing and I will sell if and when I ever get a website sorted out. In the meantime they feature in a class I am teaching at Craft Krazy in Tidworth at the end of the month. The backing for them all is corrugated craft paper which is something new for me, but I really like it.

:-)




Thursday 29 April 2010

WOYWW - late again!



My computer hates me, its official. Pretty much every time there is a cyber crop on UKS, and every Wednesday the damn thing decides its not going to connect to the internet, or stay connected long enough to do anything.

Fortunately thanks to Mr Apple, I can surf on my Iphone, but its too fiddly to type blogs, I can't post piccies and Mr Odeon wont let me book cinema tickets (another sure sign the pc hates me).

Anyway its working tonight, so here a little late is my WOYWW. A couple of piccies and a valuable lesson learned.


First up - when you are using alcohol inks, make sure you:
a) put the lids on straight away and in the event you dont
b) have some rubbing alcohol or surgical spirits to clean your desk with when you spill it and
c) check up your arms for any blobs and dont wait till someone points it out at work next day!

Finally, here are some hat themed cards I made using a set of 4 quatro stamps and a background stamp from hero arts. You cant see very well but the ladies are embellished with tiny stick on gem and a paper rose.




:-)

Wednesday 21 April 2010

WOYWTW - not much!


A distinct lack of work on the table this week. Though as this is the area I have been reduced to working in, its just as well - I need to tidy BADLY!

So this evening, on the conveyor belt we have, a nice pair of stamps borrowed from the lovely Mrs Dunnit, when I had lunch with her today, and a long strip of card painted with various ratios of water:PVA glue.

Over here is a different view, one you dont normally see - the other end of the Scraphovel. Here stands, my Ikea Expedit, and another Ikea unit that hold my books, my tools, and all sorts of bits and bobs, along with a drawer each for my sisters kids to rummage in when they come over.


Work has been weird this week. I work on an airfield so we have had no flying going on (and still dont tho it seems everyone else is), but there have been long lunches and early finishes all of which have completely wiped out any time in lieu I had built up. Still at least I'm not stuck somewhere at the end of a holiday or on business, with no money left and an unexpected hotel bill to add on.

The dairy free diet is going ok. The rice dream is quite nice, if REALLY sweet on cereal, however I have failed a bit since I have had cheese twice and some chocolate. O well I'll try harder next week.

:-)

Sunday 18 April 2010

A yummy, smelly fab weekend



Yummy - cos I have Krispy Kreme Donuts and pretty cupcakes and I had Cannolli's for the first time in oh at least 5 years.
Smelly - cos I got some goodies from Lush and also from BPAL

For the uninitiated:

Lush - a fab shop selling gorgeous smelly bath stuff and some cosmetic type stuff too, they have a range of shops and also mail order.
BPAL - Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs - sell collections of perfumed oils.
Krispy Kreme Donuts - An American chain that sell the most lovely donuts - especially the chocolate cake one!
Cannollis - Pastry tubes filled with creamy filling or nutella-type-stuff. The tubes are fried and so crispy and melty and lovely - I cant really describe them, go do a google and see.

Thanks to the volcano and ban on flying I got off work early Friday and popped into the French market in town on the way home, were I found the cannollis - happy bunny!
Then yesterday I spent the day out with one of my best friends, which we hardly ever get to do. In Southampton we got too many nice cakes as along with the donut shop we found a very pretty cupcake stand, and stuff from Lush. Back at her house, she had some new perfumed oils from BPAL so we spent the evening sniffing those and then she kindly sent (scent:-D) me home with some.

So my desk is scattered with crumbs and my office smells lovely.

Note: Don't sniff bath bombs too hard, they are powdery and it hurts when it goes up your nose.
I wonder how diary free Krispy Kremes are!


:-)

Thursday 15 April 2010

WOYWW - in the right place at last!

Hooray it let me post pics this week!

This is my desk earlier this evening. Pretty much as I had it last week but theres a nice card in front of the clock instead of the pretty packet of ink pads. They have been long opened, added to and in fact I used one of the new colours I bought to make this card.

There's my pie phone (as its been nicknamed) being charged - goodness the battery life on them is rubbish but i still love it, and the usual pile of stamps, ink pads, glue runners and other tools on the left.

Here's a close up of the card above. Its based on a christmas card scraplady Julia made for the christmas card marathon last year, using a spray stamp - hopefully she can clarify its name cos I cant tell which is the name and which the maker from mine. It has some gems and dew drops stuck on it and its attached to the base card (Crate Paper) with a piece of ribbon. I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China.

The other card is made using a photo of the Arc de Triomphe that I took a few years back. I posterised it and made it black and white and probably tweaked the brightness in photoshop. Then I printed it on cream card and smudged some chalk inks on it. I triple mounted it on some lemon, orange and lime card. The background was made using a french text stamp which I randomly inked so some parts are darker and more solidly stamped than others. Then I smudged just a little ink over that too, and finally stuck the mounted image on and inked round the edge.

I love both these cards, and think I might be turning out lots more like them.

On a non crafty note, think of me this week (and for as long as I can last) as I start on a nearly dairy free diet. I say nearly cos I just can't not eat butter on bread, but since I only have it about once a week I recon that might be ok, and I cant decide if eggs count or not. Its the daily yoghourts, milk on cereal etc I'll miss. So tomorrow morning I shall start the day with a bowl of cereal and terribly sweet but quite palatable rice milk. Of course in the meantime I just have to finish this big bar of chocolate cos it would be a waste to throw it away.

O dont worry its purely a mild intolerance thing that I am trying this out on. No weight will be lost in the taking of this diet, and nothing terrible will happen if I cant put up with it.

Have a fun and crafty week!



PS Obviously the thought of this diet or the overdose of chocolate made me post this on the 2SL blog instead! Sorry!

Thursday 8 April 2010

WOYWW - a day late

So this is my desk tonight, cos yesterday I was just too tired to post when I got in from work, and did what I had to do and then had an early night.

The story behind this was that some of the girls I scrap with and I meet monthly for dinner and a gift exchange. This month we decided to have fish and chips at one of our houses for a change. Well the fish and chips were good, the company even better, and some of us didnt leave until 1230, get home before 1.15 and in bed and unconscious shortly after. The alarm clock yesterday morning came waaay too early - and so the early night.

So this is my desktop tonight. I've taken the piccie further round to the left so you see the mess that is the pile of ink pads, glue runners, pens and stuff that normally lives just to hand. You can also see my clockhouse project, and in the forefront my gift from Tuesday night - 2 Tim Holtz distress ink pads in lovely purples - yum!

O and I gaveup trying to download the piccie, I'll try again tomorrow but it wont co-operate just now!
:-)

Monday 5 April 2010

Crafty Easter!

Hope you are all having a nice Easter break.

I had a good weekend, lots of eating out, going to the cinema and I still squeezed in a goodly amount of crafting too - and yes I even did a little housework, so I dont need to feel too bad.:-)

I stocked up on half a dozen new copic pens, finally got the warm greys that I have been after a while. I also played with another version of the 2 scrapladies project which you can see on that blog. I really like this version, I think it will be the one I keep as the previous vintage one will probably go to my sister.


:-)

Wednesday 31 March 2010

WOYWW

Here we go again, doesnt Wednesday come round quickly?

When I started this blog I was madly in love with my Cricut and envisaged showing some lovely thing I had cut on it each week. Well, that didnt last long. I still love my cutter, but life gets in the way and I dont always have time to use it. However, this week I have been cutting like made so I am pleased to have not one but 2 things to show you.

This is my desk tonight. The two trains are for a class I am doing for Kraft Crazy on 24th April. The trains are cut on my Cricut with a LOT of fiddling in Design Studio, the animals are some cute KanBan stamps and you can colour them how you like, but I used my Copics of course.

The thing behind them is another version of the Scrapladies Clock House project, which I will be finishing this weekend and showing on the 2SL blog - promise :-)

This is a pair of Easter cards a colleague asked me to make him. They are the eggs and wording from the Designer Calendar cartridge which I altered a lot in DS again, to make them solid and weld them to the original fancy cut egg to make the card. The coloured card is coredinations, and the inside liner is mirror card.



Have a great Easter, dont eat too many Easter eggs!

Thursday 25 March 2010

WOYWW+1


Ok I'm a day late, I took the photo last night, quite late and then had I.T issues - the photo wouldnt load so I gave up!

Anyway this was my desk yesterday, the card on it was made with a digistamp from Aifactory - only don't as I did, order and want to use it immediately, as the files can take 2-3 hours to become available for download. Anyway, I needed a whale this one was cute and the only one I could find.

Its coloured in with my copic markers, the papers are Bazzill and Fancy Pants Arctic Chill. The wording was from the Lyrical Letters Cricut Cartridge, welded together on Design Studio and cut from white card which I coloured to match the rest with my Copics. Oh and theres a googly eye and some stickles on too.



:-)

Saturday 20 March 2010



A couple of months ago I bought 2 tins of Tim Holtz Filmstrip ribbon. I got them, cos I thought it seemed a cool idea, and well the tins were just the cutest thing. So I had one to use and one to keep. For a while it seemed that it was going to be 2 to keep but then one crop, in a need to put a ton of photos on one very plain LO I opened it! Of course I am going to go blind from cutting and sticking all those incy wincy photos, but I have to say I love it.

So it has become one of my favourite things to use at the moment and in an effort to spread the love my version (well one of them) on the latest 2Scrapladies project will include some.

Even better, was that I was lucky enough to go to the trade show at the NEC last month with Tracy who runs Kraft Crazy and while she did her business dealings I just hung out round all the demos, where I just happened to run into the stall where Tim was demoing and just happened to get a tag made with my favourite film strip.

Except now I want the stamp that goes with it!

So here is a piccie of the tag that Tim made (except I have had the audacity to change it, he had the dangly charm on the side and I moved it to the bottom), and my grey on grey LO.
The grey card is Coredinations Nostalgia, I cut as starry mask on my cricut and put that on, sprayed it with marshmallow Glimmer Mist, then stuck on a few gems and lettering cut from more Nostalgia grey. The photos in the filmstrip are all from the event.
:-)

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Its supposed to be WOYWW!



Ok I thought I would try a blog entry brought to you entirely from my new Iphone.

Turns out the automated spell checker thinks WOYWW is something totally different but equally meaningless (to the uninitiated cos we all know what WOYSS means) - SOUZA was one of the options?!

Even my little but chubby fingers make some interesting typos on the keyboard with the predictive text making some interesting and randome suggestions - hence any weird typose.

It doenst let me insert piccies that are on my Iphone - unless you know different, in whcih case please tell me.

It doesnt tell me I am posting on the wrong blog either whcih is a pain when you type all this out, pot it only to find its on the 2 scrapladies one. So I've had to go and delete it from that, cos I can copy and paste it either.

So I am now on my PC re-doing all my well I'd like to say hard work but its not, and putting in the photo, whcih thanks to my new baby's camera is a wider angle of the same old mess.

Blogging aside, I am loving it though.


:-)

This weeks disclaimer: I have a bad cold, my brain is not working and re-reading this neither are my fingers aparently. Cant even blame the iphone keyboard for it. O did I tell you I have a new Iphone!

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Its spring!



Or it seemed to be this weekend. The sun was shining, (ok it was flipping cold), I had a long weekend from work and spring surely seems to be nearly here.

So, I managed to catch up on the dutiful daughterly housework, the car maintenance (ok the car wasnt going anywhere if I didnt get the tyre sorted) and apart from some minor ickyness I crafted my fingers off.

I havent felt like crafting this much in ages, so it must be the first signs of spring!

So by the end of my weekend my haul was:

2 cards (rather gorgeous gatefold things)
1 double LO for my scrapbook, using lots of glimmer mist and the teeniest photos you ever saw.
1 notebook using the very yummy making memories 'love struck' flocked graph paper. I am so in love with this paper.
2 large things painted numerous times
1 of said painted things decorated and themed - see 2SL blog for more details later this week.

Now this may not seem a lot but it is for me!

Hope you all had a fab weekend too.


:-)


Wednesday 10 February 2010

WWOYWW

No I didnt mistype the header, this is a what WAS on your desk wednesday post.

As I promised I would, this is the hat that my friend B made me for part of the costume ball we are going to on Saturday night, and which I decorated, going ever so slightly mad with a set of battery lights, my entire stock of stick on crystals and a tube of stickles, its all packed up ready to go tomorrow now though - hence the was. Incidentally B is a trained miliner and lives in the south of England should anyone need a fab hat.






Then this is the rest of my desk, which isnt normally shown much on wednesdays. Its right in front of the window which is nice. Theres my daylight lamp, my inks, and a tub that I stick cards in that I've made and at the moment pretty much anything else that I need t keep. Then in the corner to the left is my tool bag with all my pens and scissors and glue pens and stuff in ready to grab for crops. Above that you can see one of the little shelves I have for my cricut cartriges.



Its all really untidy at the moment but I've been busy getting ready for the ball.



:-)












Saturday 23 January 2010

Dear diary



I had to buy a new diary today. I dont usually bother, but I know my lack of such an item bothers the other Scraplady, and I did double book myself one Saturday when I'd rather not - so diary keeping it is.

So I ventured into the den of temptation that is Paperchase, sure that as we are half way through January they would have reduced their diaries like the other shops. No chance. I did get a cute owl one but it was the full price. Not content with charging me a whacking £4 for this little cutie, by the time I got to the till, I found a few little valentine themed things in my hands.

The paper I spotted right away - gorgeous bright pearly pink with to die for flock velvet hearts on - yum. Then the stickers, I just love all their stickers so I had to add those to my collection. Finally as I was leaving I saw the cute little felt bag and that jumped into my arms as well. At the moment it has the copic pens in that don't fit my storage box. There was another bag too, slightly bigger, with a little bird and hearts on which I was very tempted by but a little sense prevailed and it got left behind.

I have some ideas for cards, and maybe a notebook or two with the paper, so watch this space for more luvved up stuff.


:-)

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Wednesday again!

No snow piccies this week. We did have snow again today, but it didnt settle thank goodness.
This week I have actually managed to do some scrapping for me. It seems ages since I did, though I'm sure it isnt really. Anyway I was at the Craft Obsessions crop on Saturday and did the first LO which was from a sketch which was handed out at the crop and formed a little competition (which I didnt win). The photo is my sister and her two youngest, the paper is Bo Bunny I think.

The 2nd LO was one I wanted to do for a while. Its a record of things I'm currently interested in and what I hope will happen this year, all cunningly hidden so you cant read them (cos some are a little personal). To read them you pull either end of the slidy thing so they appear in the window.


The little piccies down the LHS kind of illustrate some of the things, and the other bits are K&CO stickers and alphabet, and some flowers I've had for ages. The paper is Bo Bunny Flutter Butter stuck on some Bazzill.

But this is my desk tonight. The LOs are on it still, while I decide if I want to add anything else (or more likely cos I havent an album to put them in just now), and there's a little blue and white baby card there for a chap at work who became a Daddy again at the weekend.

The big black plate-like thing on top of the printer, is a hat my friend made me. Every February three of us girls go to a costume ball, and every year she spends ages making all our outfits and as milinery is her thing, she always works a hat into it. This years is black cinamay and silk and I have it early as I have to decorate it. I'll show you more when I've done it.
:-)






:-)

Wednesday 13 January 2010

I forgot it was Wednesday!

It must be the snow and the disturbed working days/hours we've had since we went back last week, but I dont know what day of the week it is and I only just realised its Wednesday! How mad is that?!

So this is my desk this evening. The usual mess of copic pens. Some new goodies from Kraft Krazy in Tidworth - yummy little Papermania buttons and some Kanban stamps which I am playing with for a class.

Also, here is this weeks snow piccie. It looks very pretty at work as you can see, I should have taken another today cos it looks even prettier now as more fell last night, this one was taken on Monday (I think) after last weeks snowy deluge. Getting to work has never been so exciting!
:-)

Thursday 7 January 2010

12 Daves of Christmas




I just wanted to show you this card, cos I like it so much, before Christmas is too far behind us, and I'll have forgotten about it by the end of the year! Forgive the rubbish photo it was taken on my mobile.

It started off last Christmas, I saw something someone had done with 12 pictures of famous Dave's and the title the 12 Daves of Christmas. Well my brother is called David and I thought it would make a fun card. It may have been a card originally I can't remember. So I hunted on the internet and found 12 tiny piccies of famous Daves that he would have heard of and made a card with them all on.

A year later, and he asked me to make one for his girlfriend with 12 pix of him instead. Remembering how tiny and fiddly the one I made him was, I made it 12x12. The numbers were cut on my cricut, from red card and then highlighted with stickles. The title is inside the card also cut with the cricut, and I drew mistletoe on the front using green and crystal stickles.

Now I need to come up with a new version of the 12 Daves of Christmas for this year!


:-)

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Happy New Year




I know it was a few days ago now, but its the first opportunity I've had to update my blog.

Thanks to a snowdy day here, I am working from home. I tried really hard to get to work, in fact I made it all the way there, but the roads on camp were so bad, and the snow was getting worse, and no one else had made it in, so I came home again. The roads going home were much worse and just treacherous in places so I am glad I didnt leave it it any later as it hasn't stopped snowing since.

It seems quite decadent to be sitting cosily on the settee, updating files with a tin of biccies by my side and the tv on in the background (which is what I was doing before I came upstairs to the pc).

2 piccies to day, to celebrate my first blog of the NY. One above is a WOYWW - and as well as the usual mess you can see some lovely flowers I got from Wild Orchid Crafts, my diary from last year with this years crops, classes etc written in and some brand new not on the internet yet digistamps-to-be that I am playing with.
The one below is the view from the office window, looking across the shed roof to the back garden.


I hope wherever you are that you are warm and cosy and hiding from the snow if you have it.


:-)