Serendipity Papercuts

Partial Embossing

2012-01-28T18:25:00.000Z

I came across this fab technique when I found a video from Stampin' Up! convention. The demonstrator (I'm really sorry I didnt get the name) had done a lovely Christmas tree using the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder.

Then the lovely Jo D asked me to do an inspiration station at her Stampin; Up! team training day so I thought I would have aplay at some things using the partial embossing technique - and I got a bit carried away.

So, as so many people have asked me how I did the balloon card, I have put that and another card I made since the training day together with the cute little milk carton together on a downloadable tutorial. The link is in my side bar.

I already have another couple planned, so if there's enough interest I'll certainly do more.

Have a crafty weekend!

An experiment - is now over sorry!

2012-01-26T11:53:00.003Z

Ok I'm going to try something new. In lieu of finding anywhere reasonably priced where I live to hold classes, I'm going to do them online!

So since I havent tried this before, I am putting up this little file first that you can download for free, just so I can see that it works ok. If it doesnt please let me know. The file is a beaded necklace class I did for UK Scrappers a few years ago. There are no piccies in it just plain text instructions, I just wanted something I could throw up quickly to test.

However this weekend I am hoping to finish the project I am currently working on a put up a proper class that you can buy and do in the comfort of your own home.

So watch this space!

Yay! Its time for a new Mini catalogue

2012-01-04T01:00:00.009Z

Well we all knew it was coming, but unless you were a Stampin' up! demo (or knew one to get a sneak peek) you probably havent seen what was in it. Well today you can. Click on the link in my side bar and it will take you to the online Spring Mini Catalogue.

So what did I get on preorder to play with beforehand? Not a lot, mostly cos I couldnt decide what I wanted, but I did get a few things.

First up, SU have brought in a range of jewellery making items called Simply Adorned. There are chains and some gems, charms and trinkets to hang from them. I don't wear much jewellery but I did get some of the charms so I can use those on cards. They come in packs of 4 keys or 3 crowns, and come with a jump ring and clasps should you want to put them onto one of the chains.

There is a new Product Suite called Spice Cake, which as per its name, is just yummy. In this range there is Designer Series Paper, fabric and Designer Buttons, which are huge, but would look fab in the middle of a rosette or embellishment for those of us who don't sew.

There are some lovely valentine/love/wedding items, and though I was tempted by the Marry Me set, I didnt succumb just yet since I dont know how far off the next family wedding is going to be (those who know me know my baby brother got engaged just before Christmas). I did get the Love Blossoms stampin' around roller which is so lovely and could be used to anything as its quite generic and pretty.

The card below was made using the wheel, Pool Party Ink,Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake and Mostly Mustard plain cardstock, and Spice Cake paper. If you buy a Love Blossoms Wheel from me during the Spring Mini period I will include full instructions on how to make this card.

As part of the free sets I got before Christmas (see my last post) I got Perfect Postage - which is so cute, Charming, which is just gorgeous and I am sure I will get a lot of use out, and of course the long awaited Create a Cupcake - just need to get the matching punch to go with it. The card below was made using the bunny from Perfect Postage and the background (which you can just make out was the cherry from Create a Cupcake stamped with Cherry Cobbler ink onto Cherry Cobbler cardstock.

I hope you enjoy looking through the new mini catalogue and hope my efforts are a little inspiration for you.

Dont forget if you don't already have a proper copy and would like one, or if you'd like a party, class or to place an order do contact me.

ally

Time Flies

2011-12-31T00:41:00.003Z

Oh my goodness where has the time gone? One minute we were celebrating the new catalogue, the next we are looking forward to a new mini catalogue, sale-a-bration and Christmas has come and gone!

I am loving all the goodies from Stampin' Up! In December I took delivery of a package of freebies I could not believe, for what was essentially very little effort on my part. The aim was to get some bookings firstly for October, and secondly for the new year. In return I got 3 sets of stamps and 2 packs of brads - how fab was that?

If you would like the opportunity to get free goodies from Stampin' Up! and become a demonstrator, please email me about joining my team. Likewise if you would like to have a class or party for your friends or a copy of our new Ideas book and Catalogue along with the spring mini catalogue let me know.

So have a Happy New Year and I'll be back in a couple of days with the new mini catalogue.

:-)

New Catalogue Blog Hop!

2011-10-02T09:55:00.001+01:00

If you've come from Hayleys blog - welcome. If you haven't and you're wondering what's going on - well the new Stampin' Up! Ideas Book & Catalogue is finally here. A group of us Demomstrators are doing a blog hop today to show some of the yummies we have made with the items we got on pre-order.

I got the Fliratious fabric set, which has been one of my favourite things especially since I found a gorgeouspattern for a bag online, and another demo discovered if you stiffen the fabric with PVA and water you can use your dies and Big Shot on it!

One of the other items I got was the Pennant Punch and matching stamp set, both of which are so cute. The new papers are lovely and after I made a mini CD holder calendar I had enough left from a strip of paper to punch some pennants and make a little banner, thats currently stuck along the bottom of my PC monitor.

And finally a card I made from the Pennant Parade Stamp set, using the new In Colour Inks and

a ripped strip of Pool Party cardstock.

I hope you enjoyed this little look, if you want to see some more, hop on over to my lovely upline Lauras blog here.
:-)

Mini CD Holder Calendar Kit

2011-09-23T22:54:00.007+01:00

Ok I figured putting the piccies on my blog was the easiest way to show you the kit as if I emailed the piccies there would be too many and we'd all be waiting till next crop to see them!

So the kit is to make a calendar that fits in a CD holder, only this CD holder doesn't fit CDs as its a teeny mini one (yes you know me small is good). The holder measures approx 6 x 9cm. The kits includes:

1 strip of 6 double sided papers measuring 5.5cm x 12cm

1 mini CD case

12 pieces of 8x8cm plain card in assorted colours to coordinate with the above (not 12 different colours).

1 piece of ribbon 40cm long

1 Calendar

In addition I will provide the new In Colour ink pads, butterfly embosslits folder, Itty bitty punch set, itty bitty stamp set and the new pennant punch set for you to use.

You may want to bring any other little stamps, punches or embellishments you would like to use. If you want to use photos, I found that Boots do 9 mini photos on a photo and these fit on the calendar it you trim them a little. If you want to print photos on your own printer then then they need to be approx 4.5w x 3.5hcm which would give you a border round the edge but not really room to mount them.

There are three choices - all featuring new papers from the new Ideas Book and Catalogue which is out next Saturday. They are:

Flirtarious Specialty - this set includes a fancy doily cut piece of paper so as we cant really cut that into strips I will cut it into doilies and everyone will get one. I will include 2 pieces of plain vanilla card to use with the doily as the calendar pages.

This version is undecorated

This one is decorated with the itty bitty punches, stamps and the butterfly embosslit.

Just Add Cake

Cheerful Treat - This is a hostess item so not available unless you have qualify for the hostess reward.

After you cut the strips into your pages for the calendar there will be a short bit left over which you can either keep or use to make a strip of bunting using the lovely new pennant punch. A piece of ribbon, small pieces of plain card in the new In Colours, and some gems or pearls are included.

This is a strip made using Just Add Cake.

Its not really a class, since its so ridiculously simple to make I'm not going to stand and tell you all how to cut card! Instead I'm providing it as a kit so if you want to make it in your own time, add different embellishments or even use different papers you can.

If you would like a kit, they are £5 each or you can have just the CD case for £1.50. If you are interested please email me and let me know which paper type you want by next Wednesday (28th).

Please note: a couple of the papers have a border on them so all the pieces of those papers will vary slightly, as will the doily ones as some of the papers in that have large doilies printed on them. Also, these arent really suitable for posting unless you pack them really well.

Phew that was longer than I thought it would be!

See you all soon.

ally

WOYWW

2011-09-21T01:00:00.000+01:00

Here we are at Wednesday again.

So this weeks piccie of my desk shows it in a much more untidy state than normal (and its usually pretty bad) but this was taken late last night after a session to make the christening card you can see along with an envelope - cos the card is 12" long but only about 4" wide so that was the only option. The two little very pink boxes are made from the new range of Stampin' Up! fabric (yes I did say fabric) - arent they cute? Dont worry the other colours in the ranges in the new catalogue are much less - well - pink.

Have a fun Wednesday.
:-)

Stamp Focus - Confetti

2011-09-18T15:12:00.006+01:00

I thought I would do a little focus on some of the sets of stamps Stampin' Up! produce and show you some of the things I have done with them.

So first up - Confetti is one of my favourite stamp sets from Stampin' Up! I was so glad it wasn't on the retired list, it means I get to play with it for another year :) The set consists of 6 stamps each giving a little sprinkle of one of either leaves, hearts, flowers, dots, letters or sparkles (or snowflakes as I think they are). They make great backgrounds and could be used for a ton of other things.

The picture above is a LO I used the hearts on, I used a pink that was a bit to light in hindsight but I wanted a subtle background and so this is it!

The two cards are done using other stamps in the set - the tree trunk is drawn (but you could use Trendy Trees set, or add the leaves to any other tree branch set). The penguin is from Every Little Bit, and the iglu was a circle punch that I drew on and shaded with a copic pen.

If you would like to order Confetti you can do so from me - in wood for £16.95 or clear for £13.95 plus p&p.

Finally a sneak from the new catalogue which is available to order from 1st October - FABRIC! My best friend Kathy made this cute little bag for me using the pack I got on pre-order - isnt it gorgeous? The sides fold in and its teardrop shaped when its flat, but when you put all your bits in it opens up into a cube. This one fits about eight SU ink pads with room for a couple of stamp blocks and a few bits and pieces.

Dont forget you can order from the new catalogue from 1st October. If you would like to get a copy of the new catalogue from me they are £5.95 inc p&p BUT I will give you a £5 voucher off your first order of £35 or more - Email me for more details.

It's wednesday so it must be WOYWW

2011-09-14T10:18:00.001+01:00

This is a teensy bit of a cheat, it's a photo I took a while ago but my desk is pretty much the same - except the knitting is gone. The LO is out again as I am sorting out stuff for a crop on Saturday and I am still procrastinating over what to do with these photos. We had a fab Armed Forces Day parade last June and I got some great photos but over a year later I still can't decide what to do with them!
Any other suggestions?
:-)
ally
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Its a Blog Hop!

2011-09-10T09:45:00.003+01:00

Hi and welcome from Michelles blog if thats where you came from, or just welcome if you started here!

I havent taken part in a bloghop before, so I am going to be hopping around all my fellow hoppers today looking at the yummy things they came up with using items on the Stampin' Up! Retiring list. Whilst I'm sure we are all excited about the new catalogue there are still a lot of old favourites around, which I am sure we will all keep using.

I havent been a demo very long but I totally love the 'Because I care' set, so I am quite sad its being retired, but I will continue to use it for my own cards. One of my favourite colours is Rich Razzleberry and no dont panic thats not going but the gorgeous Striped Gosgrain Ribbon is. I have used all these in the set you can see which comprises of a couple of cards, a covered notebook and a little milk carton, using the Big Shot milk carton die.

The little calendar was made using scraps of Elegant Soiree which was one of my favourite papers.

Next up on the blog tour is Maggiemae, so please check out what lovely things she has created from the retired items.

Dont forget if you would like to buy anything from the list, please contact me ASAP as items are fast running out.

Thanks for hopping!

:-)

WOYWW

2011-08-31T21:39:00.003+01:00

Its a bit late but its still Wednesday so it counts.

So still on the workdesk from last week is the cute butterfly clock, joined now by some work in progress christmas cards, and in the foreground a calendary type thing that just may be related to the 2SL event Julia was referring to on her page.

Nothing much else thats really new, except its been so long since I posted (except last week) that its probably all new to most of you.

Have good week!
ally

Bank Hols Weekend

2011-08-29T18:46:00.009+01:00

Well its the end of a busy bank holiday weekend. I managed to persuade a friend to do a leaflet drop with me for my Stampin' Up! business and so this morning we went off on a tour of some of the front gardens of town. Despite my initial hesitations we ended up having a good time, with good company, admiring (or not) front gardens and being out in the sunshine.

We also ended up with a whole new appreciation for the work of our trusty posties. By the end of the first road we had scraped and bruised fingers and knuckles. I had been worried we might get our fingers nibbled by dogs lying in wait, but we were far more likely to loose them to the spring loaded letter boxes, and I'm not quite appreciating the free exfoliation from the brushes inside - or maybe I just need to get the other hand done so they are evenly red!

Second job today was to finish up some work on this years 2 Scrapladies "Year in a Day" class, which the above piccie is a sneak peek from. There are more piccies and information over on the 2SL blog - here.

Hope you all had a fab weekend.

ally

Time for WOYWW

2011-08-24T07:26:00.004+01:00

Its ages since I posted on WOYWW, in fact when I checked back it was over a year, so its way time I caught up with everyone!

So here is a bit of my desk. I got the shelves recently from Ikea and they are great. I can hide things under them and I have a little space on top for placing things for photos - hence the piece of white card.

On the desk is part of a project Mrs Dunnit and I are working on for 2 scrapladies and on the shelf is a little clock I decorated last night with some Stampin' Up! papers and butterfly embosslits (it cuts and embosses them all in one). You can't really see in the piccie but the clock is spotty on the front but the sides has the reverse of the paper which is a paler blue typeface print. There is also a ribbon tied round it. Here's a close up of it. I love it, might have to make some as Christmas pressies.

Happy Wednesday everyone.
:-)

On line stores

2011-08-22T20:51:00.003+01:00

I have no idea if they work, if people use them much, but in the spirit of nothing ventured nothing gained, I now have both an Etsy and a Folksy shop (the European rival). Links in the sidebar if you're interested.

And cos a post is boring with no pretties to look at, here is one of the cards I made for a friend at work, whose Neice turns one soon. The pink base is SU Pink Pirouette card, the little flower stamp is from the Itty Bitty Bits set, the rest are various papers, stickers, gems and ribbon I already owned. The card and lettering was cut on my Cricut using Base Camp.

:-)

ally

Mostly Marina Mist

2011-08-21T18:38:00.004+01:00

Its been a busy weekend. Yesterday was the regular Ludgershall crop, where we had a couple of new faces (hi Lunchlady Jan and Morti) and we lunched on pizza and lots of cake. Oh and we did a little scrapping too.

I dont get to scrap much at home, I tend to only at crops, but thats difficult too as I dont have all my stuff with me so I have to think of what I might want and take along all eventualities. So I was quite pleased with the outcome of this LO. The photos are of a day trip I took to Marseilles back in June, when I visited a friend in Aix (just half hour away from Marseille). Almost everything on the LO is a Stampin' Up! Marina Mist product. The background is the plain textured cardstock, the mounts are the patterned paper from the paper stack. Theres the pen I used to write in the top right corner, and the ink I used on the mounts. In fact the only thing thats not Marina Mist is the very thin mount round the photos in Nearly Navy.

Obviously I was having a blue day!

Hope you all had a good weekend.

:-)

ally

PS dont forget if you would like some Marina Mist, check out the link to the catalogue on the right and email me your order. If your order is over £75 you qualify for the yummy free gift above. If you'd like to join my stampers 6 - I have some places left. This will start in October with the launch of the new catalogue which you will get free if you sign up.

2011-08-13T21:25:00.006+01:00

Want a party, but don't have the room?

Don't know that many people who would be interested?

Too busy to have one?

Still want to take advantage of the great new benefits of being a hostess?

Why not join my Stampers 6 Club which will start in October with the launch of the new Catalogue?

So what is a Stampers 6?

Its basically a party without having to hold the party.

6 of you join the group and commit to spend at least £25 a month (plus a small contribution to the p&p) for 6 months. That is a total of £150 which is the minimum a party needs to order so that the hostess qualifies for the benefits.

Each month one of the members is the hostess and so gets the hostess benefits for that month.

From the 1st of October the hostess benefit system is changing so that the hostess will be paid in 'hostess pounds' that can be used to purchase either exclusive hostess items or other catalogue items, so that's even better value than at present.

As part of the club you will receive a free Stampin Up catalogue (worth £5.95) at the start, plus any further mini catalogues that might appear during the length of the club. You will of course benefit from any other offers Stampin' Up! may make.

In addition, as a reward for sticking with it :-) Everyone taking part in the full length of the club term will receive a small gift at the end.

If you would like to sign up, or get more information please email me - allyeff@virginmedia.com (cos I don't think the link is working)

:-)
ally

Pinch Punch First of the Month!

2011-08-01T18:51:00.004+01:00

Just a quickie to let you know that for this month (yes its August already) Stampin' Up! are giving away a free gift. With either an order of £75 or a workshop total of £250 you will get the following:

A beautiful, exclusively-designed cosmetic bag.
PLUS
Rich Razzleberry 1-1/4” (3.2 cm) Striped Gosgrain Ribbon.
PLUS
A 24-piece Clip Assortment.

The ribbon alone would normally cost you £10.25 so you can see this is a real bargain, and you could use the fab cosmetic bag for keeping your smaller tools in.

If you would like one of these lovely sets, I can take orders by email (payable by paypal) or if you would like a workshop then please email me.

Right I'm off now to see what I can order for myself so I can get a set (not that I need anymore ribbon...)

Goodies

2011-07-27T06:57:00.001+01:00

I realised I never showed you the bunch of goodies that came in my Stampin' Up! Starter kit. So here is a piccie of them in their box (less the ton of brown paper it was stuffed with).

Here are the contents once I'd unpacked them.

Don't forget I will be placing an order over the weekend so if you would like to add to it and save on postage then please email it to me Saturday midday at the latest.
:-)
ally

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Stampin' Up! here I come!

2011-07-15T18:04:00.003+01:00

Well I am pleased to say I have joined Laura and become one of her downline in Stampin' Up!

I got my fab starter pack last weekend and it was like Christmas in my craft room. It was quite a big box but of course it was mostly packaging, but the suspense while I pulled all the crunched up brown paper out was worth it. Having thought there would be some things I would be less pleased with I can honestly say there isnt a thing I dont love and wont use. So check back and see what I do with my starter pack goodies.

In the meantime, I am organising a ribbon share. There are 4 options - the Gosgrain Stripe, the 0.25" Plain Gosgrain or the lovely Seam Binding Ribbon. You sign up for wichever you like (or all three for a discounted price) and receive a meter of each colour along with a colour project leaflet. Spaces are limited and I will be ordering at the end of July if enough spaces are filled.

If you are interested please email me and I will send more details.
:-)

CR84FN colour challenge

2011-07-03T18:52:00.008+01:00

I came across this colour challenge site - I've been lurking a while, and decided to join in this week.

There's quite a bit of white on my card cos I don't have much pink card in my stash - not sure if that's cos I've used it all or dont buy it much - probably both :-)

So here was the challenge over on http://cr84fncolorchallenge.blogspot.com/

and here's what I came up with:

I used papermania cupcake stamps, which are singular cucake stamps and I arranged them to look like a pile. Coloured them with my Copic pens and added some ribbon - very simple but very pink!

:-)

Grrr

2011-06-26T20:32:00.002+01:00

What do I have to do to stop the stupid big gaps between lines in my posts? Answers on a postcard (or by email) please!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

2011-06-26T20:02:00.008+01:00

And I must have been cos one minute I blog and its December and next its the end of June - where has the time gone?

So a quick update. The Slice went back to the shop cos as soon as I said how lovely it was it stopped being so lovely and refused to cut properly. I did some more Copic classes for Kraft Crazy in Tidworth, got a new camera whcih I am seriously in love with. Went the annual SF ball in Bournemouth, went on a fab holiday to Rome and a Supernatural tv show convention where I met the very lovely cast. Went on another shorter holiday to the South of France by train, came home and 2 Scrapladies Mid Summer Madness Card Marathon was upon us.

So I was busy but yes its been fun and I have a ton of photos to crop as the ladies at my two crops will vouch.

Next up is the 2 Scrapladies Calendar Class and more imminently I am going to be a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, which brings me to my photo. Since I have yet to get my starter kit, and I only have very few SU bits and bobs, I was quite pleased to be able to produce something using only SU products.

I made the card on the right for an ex boss. He has bees - hence the bee and honeycombe paper. It was the first time I have pleated ribbon on anything, and the seam binding ribbon made it so easy. I liked the card so much I made another almost the same to keep. Once I get more stamps I'll put a better one in the middle - or maybe not, I'll see - what do you think?

So for these cards I used:

Botanical Gazette paper (the bees are one side the honeycomb the other)

So Saffron cardstock

Certainly Celery Inkpad

Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding Ribbon

1 beige Spring Time Vintage Big Designer button

(all the above are from the Mini Catalogue)

Just For You Stamp from the Sale a Bration Punch Bunch set (I think no longer available)

For the card I am keeping, I used almost the same, obviously no stamp and the buttons are from the Designer Series in the Main Catalogue with a large Jewel stuck in the middle.

Definately going to be doing some more cards with ribbon on, I've fallen in love with it all over again.

:-)

Post Christmas sales

2010-12-29T16:52:00.001Z

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

Testing, testing, 1234...

2010-12-24T16:52:00.001Z

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

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-22T22:07:00.003Z

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

Happy Birthday WOYWW

2010-06-02T19:41:00.005+01:00

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.

:-)

WOYWW - again

2010-05-26T19:30:00.004+01:00

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....

:-)

WOYWW

2010-05-19T20:19:00.004+01:00

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.

:-)

New Stash!

2010-05-16T15:48:00.004+01:00

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.

:-)

WOYWW

2010-05-12T20:34:00.003+01:00

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.

:-)

WOYWW - late again!

2010-04-29T20:37:00.003+01:00

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.

:-)

WOYWTW - not much!

2010-04-21T19:21:00.003+01:00

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.

:-)

A yummy, smelly fab weekend

2010-04-18T13:32:00.005+01:00

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!

:-)

WOYWW - in the right place at last!

2010-04-15T10:41:00.000+01:00

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!

WOYWW - a day late

2010-04-08T20:57:00.002+01:00

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!
:-)

Crafty Easter!

2010-04-05T20:15:00.003+01:00

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.

:-)

WOYWW

2010-03-31T20:37:00.005+01:00

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!

WOYWW+1

2010-03-25T20:25:00.005Z

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.

:-)

2010-03-20T16:36:00.004Z

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.

:-)

Its supposed to be WOYWW!

2010-03-17T18:55:00.003Z

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!

Its spring!

2010-03-09T20:21:00.005Z

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.

:-)

WWOYWW

2010-02-10T13:33:00.005Z

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.

:-)

Dear diary

2010-01-23T15:38:00.004Z

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 again!

2010-01-20T19:12:00.006Z

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.

:-)

I forgot it was Wednesday!

2010-01-13T20:54:00.004Z

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!

:-)

12 Daves of Christmas

2010-01-07T15:32:00.002Z

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!

:-)

Happy New Year

2010-01-06T11:06:00.003Z

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.

:-)

What a load of Bo&&*cks!

2009-12-18T18:38:00.002Z

Well the manic-ness that was Scraplady is over - but only until next year I hasten to add, work is finished (gotta love the military for having long hols) and I am now on my Christmas leave yippee!

Of course this just means now I have time to get together stuff for the Craft Obsessions crop tomorrow, make a card for my brother to give his girlfriend and all the last minuteness that this time of year inspires so that we have the perfect if disfunctional family Christmas.

This week I have been honoured to be immortalised over on Julia Dunnits blog and so as requested, here are a glimpse of my bo&&*cks, a little rearranged to avoid offending the sensitive.

Sadly since this photo was taken, the B has dropped off and gotten lost. so I now only have ollocks, which isnt really quite the same!

If I don't come back before next weekend, have a great Christmas everyone and a scrappy New Year.
:-)

WOYWW - Just a ribbon or two!

2009-11-11T19:28:00.005Z

Last weekend I went to the NEC and had a fab time, this weeks WOYWW shows the tanlge of ribbons I bought while I was there. I went hoping to get some Christmassy coloured ribbons since a couple of the cards I've conjured up for the 2SL card Marathon need them, but I seemed to find a lot of others jumping into my bag.

If you squint really hard, the out of focus (hey its meant to be, its called depth of field) in the foreground is one of the cards for the marathon. Its coppery and lovely and I might have to make a few for myself.

:-)

WOYWW

2009-11-04T10:54:00.007Z

Well it was on the table while I took these photos honest! Now its perched on the little shelf over my desk, probably plotting when it will jump off and crown me :-)

All fired up from our Magnetic Year in a Day class over on 2SL I was a little down that I wouldnt get to use said calendar till next year, so I came up with this advent version I can use in December.

The green trees are brads (hiding the magnets) everything else was cut on my trusty Cricut (which after last week I am amazed is still working) the papers are My Minds Eye.

O and the little bag on the side holds the other number trees.

:-)

Cute little house

2009-10-30T18:20:00.002Z

Isnt this cute?

A couple of weeks ago I got the new Cricut Cartridge Winter Woodland, which has a few yummy christmassy things on. Well I got otherwise distracted by a calendar class I am doing tomorrow, and so only got to play with it yesterday evening.

On the cart are a few 3d buildings. You make up the outer in one colour, the liner in another and slot it inside. Well with it being halloween I thought I would just make the outer and line it with tissue paper and put a tea light in.

Well, its very tiny - only about 3" at the longest bit, and so no one is going to see it if I sit it on the windowsill. So, I think a very big piece of card, and the 12x24" mat is called for and I'll try another version for Christmas.

So watch this space....

O and for those of you who are coming to the class, dont worry the car is all packed up!

:-)

WOYWW

2009-10-28T14:29:00.004Z

Blimey, I had no idea it was that long since I last blogged, but sure enough its a month! Well I have only one excuse I was really busy doing stuff for 2scrapladies. However I am off work this week and so have a little more time - ah who am I kidding, I am up to my ears in kits and the cricut is red hot, but while it cuts the latest set, I can blog a little.

So as you can see in the photo there is no sign of the desk, but I seem to recall that once apon a time there was one in my office. Aparently there is a nice laminate floor underneath too, but that is currently covered in tiny snippets of paper, green and yellow velvet paper fuzz and glitter from the glitter card. Anyone stopping in here for more than a few minutes also soon becomes dusted in fuzz and glitter.

Still, by the end of the weekend it'll all be over and I'll have to come up with a new excuse for having a small tornado go off in the office!

:-)

WOYWW - again!

2009-09-30T21:10:00.003+01:00

Goodness this week has gone quickly. My desk as you can see is still a mess only this time you may detect a distinctly christmassy feel to it.

The foot is pretty much totally better, thanks to some pretty major antibiotics, some medicinal cake from my friend and a few days off work. Last of the antib's taken tonight and hopefully thats it gone.

Taught my first proper paid class on Saturday, at the notsolocaltomecraftshop - thanks everyone who came, hope you all enjoyed it. I am looking forward to doing some more if I can conjure up stuff I think people will like.

:-)

WOYWW

2009-09-23T12:23:00.002+01:00

Lots of stuff on my desk at the moment, this is just a smidgeon of it. I have piles for the copic class I am teaching on Saturday. There's cut out and coloured in digi stamps (hopefully for a future class) and scraps, and a load of Cricut carts I need to put away. Basically I need to have a tidy up.

But I think I will sit here, with my foot up (still waiting for RUB to come out with a padded lid) and a cold drink and surf the net for a bit.

Update on the boring entry re: my foot. It was lots worse so I saw the doc today, who was surprisingly lovely. She thinks I have an infection so I have horsepill antibiotics and have to stay off it for the rest of the week - oh what a shame!

:-)

Ow!

2009-09-20T14:46:00.005+01:00

Woke up yesterday morning and my ankle hurt. Didn't think much more of it till half way round the shops when it became painful, which grew as the day went on. I put it down to sitting at the 'puter too late Friday night cos I know I sit with my feet all scrunched up like you're not 'sposed to.

Which brings us to today. I am slathered in ibuprofen gel, the really useful box under the desk is a footstool (a new marketing line for them - cushioned tops - big seller!) and the ankle is worse. Walking at work tomorrow could be interesting!

So I am consoling myself with colouring in samples for my copic class next week and have the following piece of paper in front of me to do a LO for 2SL. I have a bar of choccy to hand, and a glass of juice. So luckily I have no need to try and go anywhere for an hour or two.

:-)

Woohoo!

2009-09-18T18:50:00.001+01:00

I hit the 1000 mark (if you ignore the 11000 that was mysteriously added)!
:-)

Scrapping in the dark ages!

2009-09-15T19:20:00.007+01:00

I made a LO this weekend, for the notsosecret project I have going on over here, and have used some skeleton leaves!

So what you say?

Well I never used them before. They have been around forever, I've seen a million of them in the shops and gave them a good ignoring cos I just hated the stupid things. Well a friend gave me a couple in a birthday gift swap and they sat on my desk making me feel guilty until this weekend. Not only do they look fab and lovely on the LO, but I am forced to think they may not be as bad as I first thought.

Gosh at this rate I might use eyelets next, now that would be just plain scarey!

If you want to see the offending items, go check out the link above.
:-)

Confused and Trying something new!

2009-09-13T14:56:00.015+01:00

The two aren't related other than I am blogging about them both!

Since I discovered (thanks to Mrs Dunnit) that I could see how many people looked at my blog rather than commenting on it I have kept a record of how many look each week. Its a bit sad I know, but a little gratifying that some people do appear to look at my blog. Wednesday being WOYWW and so a regular day to post, I also check my number and make a little record. Last Wed I was looking forward to hiting my first thousand soon, today I have aquired 11000 hits! Now I'd like to think that 11000 people have looked in the past few days but I seriously doubt it, so do I have a weird stalker who has just been viewing my blog continuously this week or is there an error or??? Answers on a postcard please.

And now the new. In an effort to find new and exciting ways to tempt the ladies who are signing up for 2SL I tried a technique which is new to me. Stitching. I like it, and given my vaguely obsessive nature with new techniques and things (cast your minds or viewers back to the alliums) I just might be doing bit more in the future.

:-)

Sparkly WOYWW

2009-09-02T19:10:00.003+01:00

I am a sucker for many of the latest trends in scrapbooking. Sadly many of them are little used or not as often as would make their cost worthwhile . The Xyron printer thingy for example sits in its squashed frog coloured bag, unused and pretty much unloved, its cost a faint memory on my melted credit card.

However, this weeks new must-have (for me anyway) is a mere fraction of the price of the above and I think will feature heavily in my Christmas cards, and in the project for 2 scrapladies if I can (but don't hold me to it).

It is a limited edition glimmer mist, and while its predecessors didnt do anything for me, this one is just gorgeous. Its called marshmallow (no its not white and puffy) and is the sparkly loveliness I wanted the other colours in the series to be.

The piccie above was done on a scrap of black card. I made a mask cut to resemble mountains and sprayed the glimmer mist on. It did go a little splodgy but hey it was my first go. I then took off the mask and hey presto! Then I cut the moon from the sparkliest bit of the mask and stuck it on. In future I think I will spray in a box of something though, the rest of the desk was a little sparkly afterwards.

:-)

My bad!

2009-08-30T10:25:00.005+01:00

My bad!
I hate that phrase and it seems at least at work to be the in way of saying I made a mistake, my fault etc. Now I am no stickler for perfect English but this is just ridiculous! However, I seem to be having a weekend of it, ms brain has left the stage folks.

It culminated Friday night, when having dragged a dear friend from his family and tv to help me get a 6 ft dvd rack into the house and upstairs, I sent him on his way and remembered it had been his birthday earlier in the week. I am horrified with myself. I have NEVER forgotten one of my friends birthdays, let alone one I consider more family than friend.

So Phil, I'm sorry, and here's your card.

The only tiniest excuse I may have is that I have been just the tiniest bit excited/distracted/busy/ getting ready to post over here http://2scrapladies.blogspot.com/ .

Have a great bank hol weekend.

PS. For those who like the details. The white half of the card is actually the white bazzill with laminated white birds on (the scan doesnt show them). The birdcage is american crafts and the birdie itself is cut from the Home Decor Cricut cart using black velvet card over a shadow of some scrap fo green I had. The orange is ribbon over the join in the card.

WOYWW - not strictly true

2009-08-26T17:01:00.003+01:00

Its been on my worktable all week, but the photo was taken round Mrs Dunnits, so its not strictly OMW!

I love this paper its all pink and lovely and if you add some glitter card and stickles its sparkly too - how girly can you get? Although its a Christmassy paper the project isnt. Thats all I have to say about that right now, but more will be revealed - I promise.

WOYWW - a mess!

2009-08-19T19:01:00.002+01:00

My desk is a mess this week so you only get to see a bit of it! I've been asked to do a class using Copic markers, at the notsolocaltomecraftshop, and I have been working on some samples.

There result is there are bits of card and stamps everywhere. I know it will come as a bit of a shock to those who know me, but some of the stamps have not been cleaned yet .

:-)

Woohoo!

2009-08-16T20:52:00.005+01:00

I've been out a lot of the weekend, and spent the rest working on some projects I cant show you, hence the lack of a more creative post! I came home to find an email from the lovely Angie directing me to her blog, where I find she has given me an award. My first ever blog award!

How sweet. Thanks so much hun.

In return I have to pass it on, and so I give it to the following:

Juliadunnit - Love her stuff, and her blogs always make me laugh or think and she's my scrappy mate.
Tracy Gough - cos her work is just fab!
Carmen - I love her work too.

:-)

WOYWW? Just bits n bobs.

2009-08-12T19:34:00.002+01:00

Nothing much on the desk this week.

Since the flower making session with the twins at the weekend I've just been fiddling with paper and copic markers.

The pink flower with a stem was one I made with the kids, I coloured it with copics and tried making a bud to go with it which isnt quite right yet. The stem is felt ric rac.

Info on flowers

2009-08-11T18:49:00.004+01:00

For those that asked...

All the flowers on the blog - the roses, the lillies and the anemonies (the curly flat ones) are made using the 6 petalled flower , cut from the Accent Essentials Cricut cart. Its on page 55 of the booklet. I guess you could use a punch like the woodware ones, so long as the petals are long enough they would work.

Everyone's Doing Flowers!

2009-08-08T22:37:00.004+01:00

Such concentration!

We had visitors today, my sister, her DH and the kids came round and have only just gone home. So I didnt have a very productive afternoon craft wise.

On the other hand, the twins did. They came up to the scraphovel for an hour or so and happily had a go at making their own paper flowers. I was mean and wouldnt let them use my inks or copics to colour the flowers, making them do it the old fashioned way with pencils. As you can see though they turned out really well. I promise you there was very little help in the curling from me. All I did was put the glue on the back of the flowers so they could stick them together and blob the stickles on L's (so we didnt end up with stickles everywhere), M opted for a star sticker in the centre of his and a stick for a stalk.

I also got them them to pose for some photos since I didnt get them on their birthday last week. We had some fun and I got some cute photos vaguely similar to the one in the LO from last week, except M moves faster now to get away!

They are growing up too fast.

:-)

WOYWW?

2009-08-05T11:06:00.004+01:00

To misquote a certain US cartoon character "mmmm Copics". As you can see I have been tempted and succumbed to the latest thing to hit the notsolocaltome craft store in Tidworth. Copic markers!

Had a little play to see what the differences are between these and Promarkers (which I may have had one or two of). Mainly, the nib of the smaller end of the Copics is more like a brush and there are waaay more colours, the pens themselves are thinner too, and aparently you can refill them.

The dragon piccie on the card above was a download from Dustin Pike http://dustinpike.blogspot.com/ who does the most fab cartoons just great for kids cards. The little girl sticking out underneath is a magnolia or something like that I got in a swap.

Have a good Wednesday everyone!

Its scrapday!

2009-08-01T19:39:00.005+01:00

Today I met my friends at the Ludgershall Crop. There arent many of us but we always have a good time, nattering, eating cake and sometimes chips, oh and scrapbooking too.

This is a LO I did today. The photo is of my Nephew and Neice on their birthday last year (they're twins). I try and get a photo of the kids each year around their birthday but this year they were on holiday so it'll have to be done in a week or two. Anyway back to the LO. he strips are all off the same peice of paper which was a Fancy Pants one, but I dont remember which. The red with green spots is some ribbon, and the stars, x's, and splat, dots and hearts are all stickles and smooch paint.

I cant take credit for it, it came from a fab magazine full of sketches and photos of gorgeous LOs done by other people. Its called Scrapbooks etc. Page Planner, I think its Canadian.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

WOYWW - again

2009-07-29T18:19:00.002+01:00

Gosh Wednesdays come round quickly.

Here is the snapshot of my life last night, I was really busy! I had 2 birthday cards to make for a colleague who had of course asked for them weeks ago and I forgot. I also had to download and sort out and print 100 piccies from a photoshoot I did (that sounds so pretentious) yesterday for another colleagues retirement celebrations. On top of that my computer decided to play up. It wasnt a good day really.

Luckily the PC is ok for now. The birthday cards turned out ok, the retirement stuff was fab, but I cant show that sorry, and I have Friday off so tomorrows the last day of work.

Phew!

More Alliums

2009-07-26T18:26:00.003+01:00

So, the little canvases didnt work for me, thats official. I brought more on Friday on a quick (ha who am kidding) trip to the notsolocal craft shop but they will wait for another day.

As I really wanted that gorgous allium cricut cut on my wall, I decided to go large and do a huge one. So I cut a 9" one from grey bazzill (then had to help release it by going round it with a knife - major PITA). Then I stuck that to a sheet of white embossed Bazzill (you cant really tell in the piccie but its the one with the little flowers all over) that I had cut with a scalloped edge. Then stuck that to a sheet of black swiss dot bazzill which was finally stuck to the remains of the white Bazzill to give just a thin edge showing.

I love it, its just what I wanted, and it looks great on the bare wall over the computer monitor.

:-)

WOYWW?

2009-07-22T19:09:00.006+01:00

Not much on my desk this week, I haven't crafted since the weekend. I had dinner out with a group of crafty friends last night and the baggie of goodies on my desk is a pressie from one of them. We do a dinner and birthday pressie exchange once a month except because we all love getting presents we all have a present each month!

The lovely baggie has some BG Wisteria papers in some gems and a bottle of 'Smooch'. I haven't seen it before, so I am going to have to have a look for some ideas of what you do with it.

Oh yes, a couple of snacks seem to have snuck in the picture too. I dont know how they got there, they arent mine, honest!

:-)

Canvas updates and more flowers

2009-07-18T16:42:00.003+01:00

Well the canvases didnt quite work out as nicely as I had them pictured in my head, but see for yourselves. If I did them again, I would use thinner paper for the cut out and use a grey or black ink for the stamped background. You cant see but the paintbrush kind of shed a bit too so I would do something about that! I dont like the glossy finish on the varnish either, but thats just me.

On the other hand I am really pleased with my new flower. Its supposed to be an anemone and was made using 5 layers of Accent24s flower from the Accent Essentials Cricut cart. Cut 3 layers in one size (I did 2") and 2 layers in a smaller size (I did 1.5"). Snip each petal into three and curl them all. Then stick them all together with the smallest ones on top. Then blob a large circle of Stickles or glitter glue in the middle. The white one is just plain white card, the purple one was coloured with promarkers.

The card was made using one of the anemones I had made and a smaller version, the stalk was a piece of green cane I had that I cut to size. The leaves are just leaf shapes folded in half to give a little dimension and glued at one end. The backing paper is a piece of very old Basic Grey I think which is inked all round the edge in lavender chalk ink.

WOYWW - again

2009-07-15T18:53:00.003+01:00

Wow Wednesdays come round quickly don't they? I like Wednesday firstly its the middle of the week and so workwise its all downhill now to the weekend, and secondly I have an excuse to blog cos its WOYWW!

So here s my desk as it is tonight at nearly 7pm. The mini canvases I mentioned last night are gessoed (still not right) and I have stamped a piece of tissue paper then crumpled it and stuck it on with modge podge. The Cricut is cutting the aliums for them and I feel another 3d-ish cricut flower coming on.

Watch this space....

One cart so many possibilities...

2009-07-14T21:56:00.003+01:00

As you can see I am just loving Lyrical Letters. Still just a little bit obsessed with the Alium cut, and made a few cards with it over the weekend. The two dark turquoise ones were orders for people at work, hope they like them.

I spent a fun afternoon today with Mrs Dunnit and she gave me two little 4" square canvases which I have just guessod (that doesnt look right) and am going to decorate in black and white to go with the decor in the scraphovel. I think they might have an Alium stuck on them too!

Yay! Lyrical Letters arrived!

2009-07-11T20:31:00.003+01:00

My new Lyrical Letters cart arrived the other day. It is every bit as gorgeous as I thought it would be and I have been having fun cutting and sticking and generally seeing whats what on it.

At the moment I think my favourite cut is the spring connected shift option which gives you a lovely alim type flower and its companion frame connected shift whcih gives you a kind of three quarters of an alium flower inside a frame.

So, this weeks little project was done using the 'spring connected shift' kind of alium. First I cut one at 4" I used this as a mask and held it down while I wiped over it with my versamark pad. Then I removed the mask and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I cut another flower in the same card and style but at 3" and stuck it on top of the heat embossed one.

Finally I mounted them on to first some dark brown distressed card I had (probably a very old basic grey but who knows) and some swiss dot bazzill.

I love aliums, they are my favourite flower so I will be making more of these.

:-)

WOYWW

2009-07-08T19:11:00.002+01:00

Its WOYWW! Now you can see that sometimes I do completely trash my workdesk. This was taken last night after I finished playing with a not-so-little project mrs dunnit and I are working on.

I just need to thank everyone for the lovely comments about the lillies. I was surprised to get so many so quickly. I'll have to see if I can think up any more variations. If you look at the piccie really carefully - ok with a magnifying glass - you can just see a pile of flowers under my monitor ready to squiggle into other flowers.
:-)

More flowers!

2009-07-07T21:37:00.004+01:00

Still not bored with these. When I was making the roses I kept thinking how if I just used 2 layers of petals it would look like a lilly - maybe.

Well it does! Well I think so.

Cut 2 of the flowers (accent24s) on the Accent Essentials cricut cart. Use coloured card, or ink a white one if you want (I did one plain one inked pink).

Cut one petal out on one flower, and two petals out on the second flower and stick them (as per Marias blog in the entry below).

Use a cocktail stick or something similar to curl the petals over.

Put some glue inside the larger petal and stick the smaller one inside (no need to trim any off the bottom of the lillies).

Now, cut some really fine shreds of card (quite thick card is good, and the thinner you can cut it the better it will work) for the stamens. Gently curl the stamens.

Make a pool of glue inside the lilly and allow it to partially set before inserting the stamens and allowing it to dry.

Using stickles or something similar make blobs on the end of the stamens. If you want quite large blobs you may need to reapply the glue more than once.

Have fun!

Roses update

2009-07-04T21:48:00.002+01:00

The flower I used was Accent24s (thats s for shadow otherwise you get a hole in the middle) from the Accent Essentials Cricut cart. Basically I think any 6 petalled die would work so long as the petals aren't too long.

Have fun!

2009-07-02T19:31:00.015+01:00

Thanks for all your comments about the little grungepaper rose I made at a crop a week or two ago. I wsh I could take all the credit but I cant, they were made based on the instructions by Maria on her fab blog http://meholder.blogspot.com/2009/03/paper-flower-tutorial.html.

I played with them some more, and thought I would share these paper versions. I dont have the punch we used at the crop, so I had a go using my cricut and found one of the flowers on Accent Essentials worked just fine. Its not quite a symmetrical flower but that adds to the charm of the roses it creates I think, after all roses arent perfectly symmetrical are they?

These were done using plain white 80 or 100gsm printer paper. The pink one was just inked round the edges. The pale orange one was lightly inked all over, then stamped with a darker orange script stamp and also inked round the edges. They also feature in the photos I used to make my new banner.
:-)

Yay!

2009-06-28T20:58:00.002+01:00

I made a header! Only I did it pale and it definately didnt go with the old dark blue blog background. So now we have a nice bright white background, which will show up the piccies nicely and goes with the new header.
Hope you like it!

Card marathon day

2009-06-27T21:57:00.007+01:00

Today was a bit of a card marathon. A friend at work asked me to make 3 first birthday cards, a new baby and a christening card. My Circut has had to go and lie down now, he is worn out :-)

Above is a piccie of the baby card and two of the birthday cards, the third was the same but different boys name. I liked the idea when I was cutting them, but I'm not sure they worked with the busy background paper.

The 'One' strip was cut with the Graphically Speaking cart, and the names cut with the George cart. The baby card was designed in Design Studio. The frame round the outside is from Wild Cards, the Welcome Baby and heart are from Calligraphy Collection and the name was made using the font in Calligraphy, it was all welded together. I cut another heart from and different piece of card and layered it onto the base.

Happy WOYWW!

2009-06-24T18:28:00.005+01:00

I like WOYWW, firstly one of my best scrapmates invented it and she always comes up with cool stuff, and secondly it encourages me to blog and check out other peoples blogs at least once a week - and more often as you can see lately.

So, here is my desk tonight, after work and tea are over. The cardstock you can see peeking out of the the cricut mat is a project I am currently working on. I havent gotten any further tonight cos I need to re-glue my mat, I just tried a cut and the machine shredded it into confetti as the mat wasnt sticky enough.

On the left is my lovely new bag which has a pretty grungepaper rose on it that was the make and take at Crop Obsessions monthly Saturday crop, last weekend. I inked mine to match my bag but some of the girls there made theirs more realistic and there were some beautiful examples. Here's a closer up piccie of it.

Off now to see if my re-glued mat is dry and ready to cut with.

:-)

From One Cricut Cut...

2009-06-20T18:32:00.005+01:00

I wanted to cut some little fleur de Lys things from the Home Decor cart, and decided a whole sheet of them might be a nice idea sinceI had grand ideas of lots of FdL cards. I ran a piece of 12x12 Bazzill through my cricut set on 'Fill Page'.

Having cut my sheet full, I carefully peeled the waste off the cricut backing sheet, thinking what a nice stencil it would make. I put the little cuts aside for the time being and thought I'd have a go with using the waste as a stencil. I trimmed just 3 holes off the stencil and positioned it on some black bazzill and coloured it with an chalk ink pad. Then I repositioned it and continued till I had filled my piece of card. You could use repo glue of some sort, I just held it down. So long as you dab the colour on and do not rub it didnt go under the edges.

Later I trimmed a piece off the rest of the stencil and stuck it to some silver DCWV card I had. Then in the gaps between the holes I stuck some of the die cut FdLs.

Finally, I stuck more of the die cuts on to another piece of silver card.

All of them were decorated with stick on gems, and I got three different kinds of card toppers from one run through the cricut. I made mine into Fathers Day Cards.

:-)

WOYWT Wednesday

2009-06-17T18:40:00.003+01:00

My friend Julia Dunnit has started Whats on your Work Table Wednesdays, so here is my worktable this evening as I got in from work.

There's not much work at the moment, I suspect it'll be much less tidy later, but I know if I dont post now I'll miss the moment.

So, on the table tonight we have a bear stamp card topper that I coloured with Promarkers last night, ready for a wedding card for a friend at work. A pink enevelope with my sisters MP3 player in that she got me to put music on for her - she is a complete non-techie. Some cards I made incl a Fathers Day one - not for my Dad though, some left over die cuts - more about those and the cards later in the week, and lastly and most importantly a couple of choccie biccies!

:-)

A Flock of Birds

2009-06-14T20:26:00.004+01:00

A row of pretty bird cards sitting on my desk, all the same, but slightly different!

The background cards were made up of 3 Bugs in a Rug 'Happy Birday Paper', which is double sided - the spotty paper is the reverse side of the bird paper. I put rub on stitching over the seams between the paper strips. The little bird design was made in Design Studio using Home Decor and Plantin School Book carts. I cut it in white card and inked it and then inked round the edge of each card to match.

Inside I used the 'Its Your Day' cut from the Celebrations cart and again inked it to match the outside. A flock of simple little cards, which thriftily used up some scraps.

See how much I can achieve when the internet is down nearly all day?!

:-)

What A Week!

2009-05-26T20:13:00.006+01:00

I'm sorry I haven posted for ages, no excuse just nothing of interest to say. This past week however.....

Last Tuesday was my birthday. I took the day off work, and my brother took me to Ikea where we got the little picture ledges I had hankered after to finish off my office refurb. He then spent the rest of the day drilling holes in our walls, since I wanted 2 of the ledges on an exterior wall. Several hours and drill bits later, I think you will agree it was worth it.

Wednesday was eldest Neices birthday and as she was turning into a teenager this was a bit of an occassion for her. For me however, it was overshadowed by announcements of the new astronauts for the European Space Agency. A couple of colleagues applied for this last May, and on Wednesday lunchtime it was confirmed that Tim Peake had been selected. Needless to say everyone at work was hugely pleased, excited and proud of him.

Thursday night was a sqn dinner, and incidentally Tim's leaving dinner - along with two other pilots who leave shortly. At one point we didnt know if he would make it back in time, since he was still doing interviews that morning, but he did and a good time was had by all.

Friday - a day off work, and I met up with Mrs Dunnit for lunch and plotting of crafty things hopefully to come.

Saturday - one of my monthly crops, a fab day out, even got some LO's done.

Sunday - 2nd best day of the week. My friends took me to see John Barrowman at the POrtsmouth Guildhall. OMG this man is an all round entertainer. What a fab show. Seeing lots of other camera flashes going off I got my camera out and took one or two photos (ok rather a lot more than that). Then when I was about leave I got stopped and asked for my camera. The chap wanted to look at them to check there was nothing 'dodgy' (not sure what show he thought was on) or anything I could sell. Having assured himself I wasnt paparazzi, he let me go with my memory card intact.
So if you want to take pix at the Portsmouth Guildhall, dont take a great big SLR.

2009-04-12T23:03:00.023+01:00

I have had a bit of a post-redecoration clearout. Here are a list of stamps I have for sale and piccies so you can see them. Prices include p&p. If you are interested in any please pm me via UKS I may not get emails from this blog.

Angel Anya (new, unused) - £5 SOLD

Unmounted Dragonfly (lightly stained) - £1.20 SOLD

Paw Prints (lightly used some staining)- £1.20

Party! (new unused)- £1.20

Party Hat and food (new unused) - £1.20

Flower Vase (lightly used some staining)- £1.50

Technique Tuesday Borderline - Notions (lightly used may be some staining) £4.50

SOLD

Blonde Moments Festive Fancies background stamps (used once some staining) - £6.00

From the top:
Art Warehouse: Harlequin Small (as new, unopened) - £10

Art Warehouse: Memories Interactive Circles Small (opened but unused) - £5 SOLD

Art Warehouse Memories strips (not actually sure thats what they are called. 2 stamps stained, 2 stamps unused) - £5 SOLD

Art Warehouse: Memories Interactive Circles Large (2 stamps used and stained, the rest unused) - £10 SOLD

Impression Obsession Wordplay - Squares (2 squares stained, the rest unused) - £5.00 SOLD

Dovercraft Smirk Series - Sweetheart (unused as new) - £2.50

Funstamps 'Nature's Paintbrush' (as new unused) - £4.50

Top Left - Studio G alphabet series 1 (unused as new) £2.00

Bottom Left - Inkadinkadoo 'Art Tiles' stamp (lightly used, lightly stained) £5.00 SOLD

Right - Inkadinkadoo 'Winged Post' collage stamp (lightly used, staining to the wood surround) £6.00

2009-04-11T22:07:00.007+01:00

Happy Easter!

Hope you all have lots of lovely choccy (if thats your fave). I have had a couple of days off work, and had eldest Neice to stay.

Today was her last day and we spent the afternoon making Easter gift bags. Em made on each for her younger brother and sister and I made one for her. Then we put just a little few jelly sweets in and a chick or bunny pen (youngest Neice isnt allowed many sweets they make her crazy).

So late this afternoon, the rest of the tribe arrived for tea and dvd's and a nice family time for a few hours. Em went home with the rest of them, and peace and quiet (and tidyness) is now re-installed.

:-)

2009-04-05T18:56:00.008+01:00

I'm sorry its been so long since I posted, I have been distracted by a yummy new crafty thing.

Last month, my friend Julia and I went to the craft show at Farnborough. One of the stalls were demoing copic markers and we both fell in love with them. Later on line I found Promarkers

which are very similar if not the same, brough a little starter pack for each of us, and I fell in love with them.

One month, 45 markers, a couple of stamps and some card later and I can say these are utterly fab.

So here are a few of my creations so far. These are 2 downloads from http://grab-a-doodle-do.blogspot.com/.

:-)

2009-03-21T15:44:00.007Z

Happy Mothers' Day to all those Mummies out there.

Here are a few ideas for those of you who may be looking for last minute ideas.

1. Is a card I made for a commission, who specifically wanted a picture of lilac on it. I found this on a free image website, printed it out twice and layered it up with foam pads. The background and circular message was made on the PC in Word.

2. Was done using my Cricut with the Wild Card cartridge and Design Studio to weld the frame and Happy Mothers Day message together. Then I cut some flowers (cant remember which cart) and a butterfly and its shadow from the Home Accents cart. The flower and butterly both have a layered look and are 3D.

3. Was a rose from the same image website as before, done the same way with foam pads. The background and circular message are the same. The rose was stuck onto a piece of home made silk paper which I found in my stash.

4. Was just a simple little card. A circular message stuck onto a couple of girant purple Heidi Swapp flowers, little gem hearts are stuck in the corner, and the edge is punched before sticking onto the base card.

I see a repetitive theme here, think I may have a thing for purple?

2009-03-20T11:14:00.008Z

and the answer is.... you get rid of a load of it and you put the rest in a cupboard!

Well the re-furb is done. The friends are wonderful and I owe them biggest big time ever.

This I am ashamed to say is the scraphovel before the refit. As you can see it was rightly called the hovel. There was barely room to swing a cat, let alone have me and three kids in there scrapping (which happens when the nephew and neices come over).

Mon to Wed. - P and K cleared my room while I was at work.
Thursday - Lil' brov and I brought the flooring and paint stuff and generally took advantage of his staff discount at the DIY store. Then K and I painted.
Friday - P laid the laminate flooring.
Saturday - day off I was at the theatre (which I'll tell you about later)
Sunday - Lil' bruv and I went to Ikea to buy desks, got home and found we had the wrong legs!
Monday - Go to Ikea with K and get the legs changed, buy another unit and a couple of funky things to go on the walls. Put the legs on the desks and get PC up and working again. Yay!
Tuesday - K comes round to help build units, but does most of it cos she is a hero, and I feel crappy.
Wednesday - Start putting stuff back into the former scraphovel, oh look I have a bedroom floor!
Thursday - Finish clearing bedroom, can't clear everything out of the landing cupboard as I seem to have less storage now. Get everything in and straight-ish
Friday - Yay get to play! Have lost my voice with the aforementioned crappyness.

There is still sorting to be done, but that can happen gradually when I feel like it. Everything is up and working again though. I love P & K and Lil' bruv.

Here is the end result. Isn't it lovely?

Now I can sit in my beautiful ex-scraphovel, and create some lovely things to show you all.

Maybe.

2009-03-08T21:05:00.002Z

Well the crop came and went, and so did another one. I did make a couple of LOs but mostly made Mothers' Day cards. So where are the piccies I hear you cry? Well the camera has them but the camera and half my scraphovel is currently in bags and boxes around the house. My very dear bestest friend (give me 10/10 for grovelling) is coming to pack the rest up for me over the next couple of days.

Then.... insert drum roll.....

We are finally going to paint this baby, maybe re-cover the flooring (which it really needs) and get some new furniture. So hopefully by the time I get to blog again, I will be able to show you the before and after photos.

Trouble is, how do you get so much cr*p into such a small room (its only 2 x 3.5 meters) without it looking like it does now?!

2009-02-27T19:25:00.003Z

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." ...Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple).

I thought that was an interesting quote, since that's kind of what we are all doing by writing and reading each others blogs, (well I know 4 of you read this one sometimes).

Anyway I digress, I am off to one of my monthly crops tomorrow. I really love the two crops I go to, it's a day out with friends and I get uninterrupted crafting time.

But...

The packing up and deciding what to take is terribly stressful. I can't take all my stash with me, so I need to decide what I am going to work on and take what I need (which inevitably never happens as friend K will witness).

So far I have nothing prepared and nothing packed up. I need to print photos, find papers and embellies, cut titles etc.

But...

I am sat here blogging and reading blogs, I've had a little nose on a ng I frequent, and I'm listening to music.

Why?????

Answers on a postcard please.

Ok I'm going to do it now, I promise :-)

2009-02-26T21:34:00.004Z

I am easily excited. It doesnt take much.

A trip to Ikea. A new Expedit bookcase. Meatballs and chips for tea. A grand total of four followers on my blog! You see what I mean?

My brother and I ventured to our local Ikea last night to get me an Expedit while they were still half price. The idea is that I am going to clear out and refurbish my scraphovel but thats a way off yet, so the Expedit is a big brown cardboard monolith lurking over me in my bedroom. Hmm maybe I should 'alter' it?

Hope it doesnt fall over in the night and squish me!

2009-02-24T21:13:00.007Z

Mothers' Day is coming up.

I guess I had better work out a couple of cards for the boys at work who will forget, and hope I can save them at the last minute.

This is a bunch of flowers I made for my Mum last year when she was in hospital and wasn't allowed to have real flowers. She isnt with us now, but these sit on my desk and still look just as bright and cheerful.

The vase was a baby food jar covered in patterned tissue paper. The flowers are cut on the Cricut using Accent Essentials cart, then stuck either side of the stalks using foampads. You could use gardening wire or something like that for the stalk, I was lucky I found an old green cane decoration in the pound shop that I chopped up. The centres of the flowers are metallic stickers from Paperchase.

2009-02-22T19:37:00.002Z

Welcome to my blog.

I've been told I should have one - so here it is, and since it needed a name, I came up with Serendipity (as in happy accident) and Paper cuts (cos thats mostly what I do).

I use my Circut mostly but have been known to break out a scalpel or pair of scissors now and then to chop up paper into little bits and stick them back together again. When I put it like that it seems kind of pointless, but you all know thats not true, right?

Here is a little taste of things to come. This is a card I made for valentines day last week. The inside says "not stupid".

The words were welded together and also welded to the back of the card, using Design Studio. The pale pink is a vellum liner I made so I had something to stick "not stupid" without it showing through the holes in the front.

I hope the recipient found it as funny as their other half and I did.