Yeah - Party Time!!!!!

I've got a job, would have posted earlier, but I wanted it in writing (getting cynical in my old age!). finally I might be able to start sleeping properly & not worry about every penny I spend - in fact I have started spending my redundancy money as I won't be needing it to live on. I have some nestabilities coming from the states along with a couple of Cricut cartridges - Winnie the Pooh and Friends and the Paper Dolls cartridges, then I'm finally starting a Stampin Up collection, when I can get my order in with Tracy next week - Woo Hoo!!!!

Anyway, now I've got that sorted out I can also finally get back to card making a bit more....


As said on my previous post, I recently received some PIF candy, the first lot from Tracy is going to be quite a challenge as it's not things I would normally use, but I like this sort of challenge, moves you out of your comfort zone, which I need every once in a while! She sent me some wood embellishments, which have a hole in the top, so you can use them as tags - she also sent me some wooden sea creature shapes, which I was going to use on this card, but decided to use them as my inspiration & use one of the wooden tags, which I painted with an acrylic metallic paint by adirondack and then stamped over the top with a freebie stamp from a magazine, I then highlighted some of the lines with silver pen & used more acrylic paint to highlight areas of the design. I then mounted this onto silver holographic card (oh brad through hole). I covered the card in K&Company paper from the 6x6 K.Ology Addison collection. I cut a window in the card so that the fish could actually be mounted on the back of the card as it's quite heavy, used a sticker border round the window (slipped with the knife so needed to cover my mistake), and then added three gems as it seemed to need something more. Totally different for me, but I kinda like it!




The next card is courtesy of my other PIF candy, which Wendy very kindly sent me, which included this wonderful stamped image, which I coloured with watercolour pencils, I love these penny black hedgehogs! She also sent me the beautiful butterfly in the corner & the fab orange background paper - I'm really happy with the way this card turned out. Although I have to say I HATE RUB ONS!! It must be just me but every set I've ever had doesn't just rub on like they are supposed to - it took me ages to get this to work & nearly ruined the card in the process - and before you ask no I didn't buy the rub ons, they were a free "mystery prize" in a draw at a local craft shop (perhaps they knew they were duff?). Anyway it worked in the end & this is another card I really like.

I would like to say A HUGE THANK YOU to all my crafting buddies who have left me messages of support over the past few months while I've been going through the mill, it's truly wonderful to know you are all out there & I hope I can be there for you whenever you need it too.

Opinions Please

I know that it's a bit early for Christmas, but I had the three stockings already made and the idea just popped into my head - only thing is every time I look at this I keep thinking there is something missing. Can anyone tell me what it is, or make a suggestion as to how to improve this card?

Can I say thank you to Tracy and Wendy for my PIF candy (I will be posting some myself in a few days, once I've sorted out the goodies).

Anyway, as hubby has now started new job & daughter has an after school activity, I have some time to myself, so I'm off to play with my new goodies.

Back to birthdays

Well, as it was one of my nieces birthdays yesterday, thought I'd better get back to making cards. The idea for this one came from Sarah's blog - thanks for that Sarah! and uses my favourite Penny Black stamps - would have magnolia's or bellas as my favourites, but I don't actually own any of these, so stuck with the old faithful.

The background paper is from the Papermania Amethyst Infusion pack, and the gorgeous ribbon was from a Dovecraft special - 5 metres of ribbon for 99p!!!

I used watercolour pencils to colour the image, and although you can't see it, I also used some shimmering watercolour paints to add further highlights.

I hope she likes it!

Altered School book

Okay, so this is the before picture, yes I'm sure you all know what a schoolbook looks like, but I'm quite impressed with myself for this one.

I've started getting the BBC Easy Cook magazine, and have found quite a few recipes in it that we really enjoy, the only problem is when I go to find them again, I can never remember which magazine they were in and spend ages trying to find the recipe, so I thought I would make a place to keep all these recipes so I can find them again, and this is what I came up with....



The original plan was to cover the whole book in one sheet of paper, but I then realised that it was too big for this, so had to revert to plan B, and use a decorative paper across the spine and different card for the main part front and back. All the bits and pieces were cut on my Cricut (love that little machine!). Thought it best to get a picture of it now, because once I start using this book, it will probably end up covered in bits of food! still at least it's got a very practical use.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Well with the weather we're having anyway!

Thought I'd have a go at some slightly unusual colours - orange & green, have seen this on a few cards recently and quite liked it. Not too sure about this card though....

The background card was plain orange but I used a couple of stamps from the Whimsy Trees See D and the versamark stamp pad to create a watermarked background. the images are from a couple of christmas embossing sets for the cuttlebug, which I swiped over with a peach coloured chalk inkpad to highlight the ridges and then mounted onto green paper, they are slightly raised as I glued them on using silicone glue & didn't press too hard. The best bit of the card is the ribbon, though I still have to learn to tie knots neatly. I did think about highlighting the outside of the card by swiping with a gold inkpad, but decided that might be fiddling too much.

Like I said, I'm not sure if I like this or not, but at least I've got one card sorted for Christmas.

Off to try and find inspiration for some more cards.

Oh Well

Well, finally heard on Friday that the job I wanted had gone to the other candidate - apparently we were very close and they had a very difficult time choosing between us (my heart bleeds for them!!).

There is another job that has always been in the background, but it's not what I really want (means still dealing with financial services & I've been trying to get away from that) & it's also further away than I would really like to be travelling, but it would mean that I wouldn't have to take a pay cut and would get away from daytime telly!

I have also got another couple of interviews next week and an application for a brilliant job, which I could walk to & would also mean a pay increase!! Don't want to get my hopes up on that one though - look what happened last time.

Anyway, back to card making. As a friend of mine took my only stock sympathy card some time ago & I've been in that sort of mood, thought I would have a go at a replacement. Hope you like.

Interview

Sorry, I know I should have updated yesterday as I did promise to let you all know what was happening & you've been kind enough to pray and keep fingers crossed for me, but I was so p*ssed off yesterday that I thought it best to wait until I had returned to my normal calm self!

Anyway, went for my "informal chat" yesterday, thinking that this was merely a formality, but it turns out that it was yet another hoop to jump through - because the office manager was away when the original interviews were done, they whittled it down from 8 candidates to 2 (me and one other), who he is seeing this week. He did say that we should know hopefully on Thursday (tomorrow).

One good thing though - he'd read an article in the Times this week (The Times!!!) saying that scrapbooking was the new big thing in France, so at least we had a good chat about that - slightly sexist article though, suggesting that women scrapbook because they have too much time on their hands (france have a 35 hour working week) - Please don't shout at me, just google times online & shout at them instead.

Well - sorry I don't have better news, any chance you lot could say one last pray & keep fingers crossed just that little bit longer for me????