It's been almost a month since my last post, where does the time keep going. Things haven't been good so I've not really been able to keep on top of things recently. I would like to say Happy Birthday to a good friend of mine though as it's his birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Gambie have a wonderful day and I wish I was able to spend the day with you.

It's Breast Cancer Awareness month so I've done my bit by making a small donation to a very worthy cause. Hougie have launched a special Hougie Board in pink which I would dearly love and hope to be able to afford by the time I go to the NEC next month. The end of the month sees the launch of the RBL's Poppy Appeal, another very worthy cause and one I have taken part in since I was about 2 years old with my beloved grandad. Unfortunately due to health problems this year I won't be taking part which saddens me greatly. But I will be proud as always to be wearing my poppy along with my enamel poppy, wrist bands and Kleshna bracelet. All of these (other than the paper poppy) I wear throughout the year regardless as the appeal actually runs all year long but the main 'push' is always the two weeks leading up to Armistice Day on or around the 11th of November. Do please support these causes as they do magnificent jobs. Don't forget that the Legion carries on the jobs that Help for Heroes start. The Battleback centers being a prime example of this. Help the Heroes raised the money to build these buildings but it's the Legion using some of the money from the Appeal that actually runs the centers and it's your donations that help acheive this.

All the best

Lunch box

Afternoon all,

 Well I finally completed that lunch box. I'm really pleased with it and can't wait to make another. This time I'll try it with much paler papers. Although it was done as a money box I think it would look great as a letter keep. I remember my Grandparents putting important mail behind a clock on the mantle piece in the living room. I tend to pile them on the coffee table and then work through them. But it does show how times have changed as most of my mail is paperless these days as it's far more eco friendly. So I tend not to receive much in the way of snail mail. Though I do have a pen friend and we write to other and send handmade cards which I must say I really look forward to. The art of letter writing the 'old' way appears to be a dying art form as most people use email or type letters on their computer's and print them off to send.

Lunch Box

  I used some papers from a friend of mine, I think she picked them up from TK max. The stickers are Royal and Langnikel. The other papers are a mix of Heidi Grace(?) and Dessert Blooms from the First Edition range. I used a Tim Holtz die to create the rosette and a Marianne Creatable die for the roses and leaves.
  I've just caught a snippet of create and craft and the Kanban POTD. It was so nice to see that somebody has finally taken on board that some of us are not girly girls. I just wish now I could afford the multibuy as the toppers were gorgeous especially the tomboy style one's :-D. I love sport, football, rugby, hockey, formula 1 among others. I also love my cars, bikes and steam engines!! I don't even own a dress or skirt let alone a pair of girly shoes lol. Wow, whilst typing this my email was picked out of the cup again and I've won a Glitter Girl's card. I'm still waiting for my 'card' from Leonie's Grand Caliber show 2 weeks ago :-(, i do hope it didn't get lost in the post.


Happy crafting

Monday morning

Good morning all
Unfortunately I had a bad night last night with my joints so I'm running rather behind myself today. I stripped the bed last night and somehow managed to turn the mattress so all the bed linen is now being washed. I do love a fresh bed and hopefully I should sleep better now, hopefully.
Today's plan was to attempt to clean up before amercing myself in some crafting. I desperately need some therapy to get me through today. One of the tasks is to do that lunch box that I posted about on Saturday. I have cut out the chipboard but not chosen my papers that I want to use to decorate it. So watch this space!
The weather is beautiful today so KeishaBelle has gone out to play bless her. I've opened the windows up wide to make the most of the lovely breeze. It also makes it easier for Keish as she uses the small window to get in and out. When I open the big windows it means she doesn't have to jump quite so far. Being in a flat it's the only way she can go out. Spirit is sound asleep leaning against me for a pillow whilst I'm typing this! I love them both to bits as the really do keep me amused. I'm sure they don't realise they're animals.

Happy crafting

Lunch box

 It's been a fortnight since my last post so thought I ought to post and let you know what I've been up to. It's been a busy 2 weeks with appointments etc and very little crafting. I suffer with a few medical problems and find some things very difficult and no 2 days are ever the same. But crafting tends to get me through the hard times.
 I'm quite excited as I emailed into create and craft during one of Leonie's shows and was lucky enough to be drawn out of the cup. I'm just awaiting her make as she's asked for it to be made into something and then photographed to see what was made of it. Finger's crossed it arrives soon as this was a week ago Thursday during a spellbinders show. It's the 1st time I've ever been picked out of the cup.
 Today I want to try out a tutorial from the Graphic 45 blog:- Graphic 45 lunch box. I will post a photo once it's complete but do follow the link and try it out for yourselves. I've seen several projects on there that I want to have a go out. It's a chance to increase my skills in different things. Especially as my mum and I have the chance of a craft stall at out local Women's Section conference in November. This was because one of the committee members attended our yearly ploughman's lunch in August and had seen all my decorated gift bags on the tombola store that both my mum and I run every year now. I'd felt when we took it over that it needed jazzing up and have the creative skills went to town with decorative papers and embellishments managed to achieve just that and have managed to go from strength to strength with it. I just wish I'd remembered to take my camera with me to take a picture of the stand.

Happy crafting

It's been awhile...

It's been a very long time since I last posted. I've been keeping busy with my craft though things have been a little slow. I was lucky enough to join my very close friend Emma for a makeover and photo shoot. We had so much fun doing it. I've normally been very anti having my picture taken but just recently I've started to find my confidence in who I am. We had so much fun as did the photographer that he ended up taking over 200 photo's of us!!!! This year being the year for the Olympics, the Queens jubilee I just has to have pictures with the union jack. 

Me n my 'lil sis' Em

I'm a very big kid at heart and whilst out shopping with my mum we were trying to work out what treat we were going to have with our coffee when we got back to my mums for our regular craft get together. I saw a gingerbread gold medal with the ribbon and decided I wanted that. Typical me when I got back to my mum's I couldn't eat it till the obligatory photo was taken of me pretending to check it was gold!!!!! Well it just had to be done I dare anyone to say they wouldn't have been sorely tempted to act like a big kid and do the same thing lol. At the moment in between various jobs I'm thoroughly enjoying the Para Olympics, so far the competitors have been an absolute joy to watch. This morning I was watching the men's 1500 metres the first heat saw a lovely gentleman Omar Hassan Houssein run. Although he came in last place he showed real determination to finish the competition. Even with the other runners out lapping him he still manged to finish the race when I'm sure many able bodied people would give up. He really made me smile and the crowd were so wonderful standing up and giving him a standing ovation and encouraging him on to the finish.

Tutorial

I've done a Handbag stationary folder tutorial which is on the Crafty Ideas by Kaz blog. It was a lot of fun to do and really quite easy. I used my hougie board which I find makes life so much easier for all my craft projects.
I spent some of last weekend clearing up my craft stash in the dining room. I read an article in a craft magazine about keeping a catalogue of your craft stash. I had a spare notebook to hand and made my own page tabs from scrap pieces of card. I then set to and went through all my stamps, dies, embossing folders etc and wrote them all down. Now I needn't worry about doubling up on anything in future. Everything is also to hand now which is lovely as before things were dotted all over the place. Next task is to decorate which I've been promising myself for the past 2 years or so.

Have a fabulous crafty day

CraftArtist

I was lucky enough the other week to pick up the CraftArtist cd for just £2.99 postage and packaging. Needless to say I just had to have a play with it once it had arrived. I was a little concerned in the beginning having spent out a lot of money for Serif's DSA2 and several of the DaisyTrail cd's but I needn't have worried in the end as the digkits are compatible with CA so long as the kits were already on the computer.

There are so many beautiful kits that the next step with a workable printer will be printing off the papers etc and hybrid scrapbook with them.

Here are 2 of the pages I did

Happy crafting :-)

Boofle

Karen's birthday card

Karen's birthday card

These wonderful cards were made from the gorgeous Boofle kit I received the other day. The papers alone are divine and had to be used sparingly on a scrapbook layout along with several cards. I added some card candy from craftwork cards (always a must have I think in every crafters stash) and some ribbon from my stash. I also used a Marianne creatables die for my mat in the pink floral paper.

Dad's birthday card

I took a craftwork cards card blank for my dad's card. Inked around the edges nad added some faux stitches. I also used an X-cut border punch to add some detail.


Happy Crafting

Boofle

I had a lovely package arrive yesterday with the postie. It was a free gift from signing up with Papercraft essentials. I spent much of yesterday afternoon crafting with it. The gift were some Boofle goodies and I have to say they are devine. I will take some piccies of the cards I've done so far and post them. The scrapbooking papers are so gorgeous and will work well with the Kraft card I bought a little while back from Papermania, especially my photo's of KeishaBelle.

Happy crafting

I think I picked up these gorgeous digi stamps from Mami Doodles, the papers were free with Simply cards and Papercrafts and are by Craftwork cards the flowers i got from Crafty Ideas by Kaz and Wild Orchid crafts, I'm still learning with promarkers but was very pleased with the end result.

The weather is absoulutely wonderful out and Spirit and KeishaBelle are thoroughly enjoying themselves going out and playing. Lets hope the good weather continues throughout the summer. I'm a spring baby at heart but do love the warm weather as long as it's comfortable and not over bearing. Now the days are getting longer I have more time to craft in daylight and try out new things.

Today I am waiting in for a delivery from Royal Mail as they are delivering my new hub. tomorrow a BT engineer is coming out to upgrade me to infinity so will see how much better that is than standard broadband.

I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful weather too

Mothering Sunday

Mother's day card

This is my latest project which I am rather proud of. I did it for my mum for Mothering Sunday. I used stamps from Crafters Companion and stamped and watercoloured them, stamping again on patterned papers from Stampin up! to paper peice the dresses. I used some flowers from Wild Orchid and some pretty glittery flower peel offs i had in my stash that I put on the same papers from the project. I then used a bit of card candy in complimentary colours and some gem stones.

Organisation

Lily of the Valley

 I did this card using some new papers from Stampin Up! I've never used their products before but these were lovely to use and very effective. They matched perfectly with this gorgeous LOTV topper.

Ikea drawers

 I decided to revamp my craft space and I started with these drawers. I first painted them in emulsion to give them a key to work on and using some lovely K & Co papers that were to good to be used I covered the drawers to personalise them. I was really impressed with myself as this is the first time I've attempted a project on this scale.

Desk Tidy

Desk Tidy

mini desk tidy

I'm a big fan of recycling and being 'organised'. The lovely papers were from Debbie Moore's papercraft magazine. On the tin I added some flowers from Wild Orchid and a few gems to finish it. The glass jar was an old candle which I have wrapped with the same papers and put a band a co-ordinating ribbon around the lip of the jar. Now I can keep my table 'tidy' whilst I'm working and stops Keisha from taking any of my tools for a walk.