It's official - I'm too old for clubbing

Well, had the hen do last night & I couldn't wait to get home - why do they have to play the music so loud that your ears ring and you have to learn to lip read very quickly so that you can hold even a minimal conversation?  Give me a comfy sofa, something good on the telly and a nice cup of coffee any day (cheaper too!), I've also found that years of wearing flat shoes has made it impossible for me to wear heals for any length of time, my toes kept getting so numb I had to keep taking my shoes off.

Anyway, I promised to come back with pictures of the Christmas cards I made on Saturday, so here goes:

This first one was made using some stars that Sharon gave to me, she got them in the B&Q sale after Christmas one year - just goes to show you don't just have to go to craft shops to find things to use on cards, they are all over the place.  The sentiment is from an Inkadinkado set that I've had for ages, which I stamped in versamark and then embossed in white - the only problem with this is that when you emboss onto Kraft cardstock, the card warps more than normal card (don't know whether it has a higher moisture content?), so I ended up having to put it under some heavy books for a few hours to straighten back out before putting the stars on as they are quite dimensional.  I really like this card as it's really simple.





This next card was a copy of one from a magazine, but theirs was a 'thinking of you' card with soft colours, which i didn't have so decided to change it into a Christmas design.  The papers were from a Wild Rose Studio paper pack that I bought last year (I think - may be the year before, time seems to run away with me nowadays!) - the faux cross stitch edges were done with my trustee black fineliner - not sure I've quite got the hang of them, just seem a bit too uneaven for my liking.  The sentiment is another Inkadinkado and I even used some gold peel offs (only have half a ton of them still to use up - don't use them much as it feels too much like cheating to me).








Finally, this card was made using a very old sheet of PSX stickers that I've had for some time (probably 5 years or more!), can you believe I had 5 sheets of these stickers, which I had bought for only one thing on them, so all of the other stickers just stayed on the sheet, still at least I'm making a start on using them now.  You may recognise some of the backing papers used, they are some papermania ones that were out a few years ago, and yes, I'm still trying to use them up!









Anyway, hope you liked these - I've got to go back to work tomorrow, ah well, it's been a lovely week off, felt much longer than a week and I'm sure it will only take a couple of days before it feels like I'd never been away.  Hopefully I will be able to fit crafting in between work and looking after the family, so see you soon.

So much to do, so little time

Well, I may not have been blogging this week, but I have certainly kept myself busy.  I've had a week off work and so have been trying (weather permitting) to do things with family - not that the family want to do things with me, but that's just tough!

On Sunday we took the frisbee onto the moors, and had the obligatory ice cream whilst we were there, on Monday we visited Morwelham Quay - this was where they filmed the Edwardian Farm, and I actually got to go in the house that Ruth lived in for the year (well, she probably didn't but that's where all the filming was done), it's a brilliant place and really well worth the visit if you're down our way.  On Tuesday we went to the Cinema to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes - this was an amazing film! the special effects were stunning!  On Wednesday, we rested as DH had done far too much and was suffering quite badly from the previous days outings.

Thursday DD collected her GCSE module results - these are not the final grades but just the grades she has got for the parts she has sat so far (all very confusing nowadays - why can't they stick with one or two exams for each subject in the final year?)  She did really well and I'm very proud of her (B in Chemistry and C's for her other science subjects).

Also on Thursday, I spent the afternoon making my fancy dress outfit for a hen do I'm going to on Sunday - if you're in town on Sunday evening, I'll be the rather large lady dressed in green and purple satin (I'm going as the mad hatter).  Handy being able to sew when you're my size as the off the peg fancy dress outfits would not have fitted particularly well and if I'd tried to wear one I may well have been arrested for indecent exposure (they are all rather on the short side).

This week has also not been without some card making, and indeed today, on my crafty afternoon with Sharon, I managed to make 3 - YES 3! Christmas cards, but I shall blog those another day.  For today I'll just show you the ones I've made during the week.  The first is an unusual card shape that I copied from a magazine - theirs used a Lilli of the Valley stamp, but as I didn't have this, I used a freebie digi stamp that I've had for a while from Dustin Pike - the image has been coloured with my now trusty Spectrum Noirs and I highlighted the armour with Papermania Hot Foils in silver.  The sentiment is from an old set I got from Elzybells ages ago.

The next card was made using last weeks Sketch Saturday sketch (too late to enter it but never mind).  The image was from a freebie set that came with one of my magazines, not my best colouring, or even my favourite card but then they can't all be.  The only thing I was really happy with is the chevrons down the left side, this was made with one of my background stamps from Walzingmouse, and I think it looks really good (shame about the rest of the card!).



The stamping straight onto backing paper idea came in handy with my last card, which is really simple, but I love the colours.  The image is from a Kanban set, which I stamped onto the backing paper using Adirondack lettuce, I wanted the colours to be muted a bit, I then layered the image onto some peach card and then straight onto a Kraft card blank - simples!



Anyway, I'll be back soon with the Christmas cards I made today - in the meantime, Happy crafting!

Woo Hoo!

Well, I've had a good few crafty days, with a bit of work thrown in for good measure.  I've been sewing a top, crocheting slippers and I even found time to make this card.

It's a variation on the butterfly card on my earlier post but uses the Martha Stewart button punch instead, I also used a white gel pen to do some faux stitching, which I thought sat quite well with the button theme.  The papers were from the Kate Knight Totally Tropical papers, which were free with the latest copy of Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine.  Another card without a stamped image, think I may need a lie down in a darkened room!

Anyway, this is just a quick post as I need to go and get ready for work again - hey ho....

Good Saturday

Well, I had a great afternoon on Saturday, my friend Sharon came over, and we both had a very slow start to crafting as neither of us could decide what we wanted to do.  I got out a huge (and I mean huge) pile of magazines and started to go through them to see if any ideas came up.  Eventually, I found the two cards I've made, I know they're copies of ones in the mag and in some respects are cheating, but I'm really pleased with them, they've helped to get my creative juices flowing and I've got loads of ideas (shame it's now Monday and I've got to go to work!).






This card should have used a scalloped square nestie, but I don't possess one of those, but I do possess a Cricut and so used that with my Accent essentials cartridge to create the scalloped square, the punch is by Martha Stewart, and the papers were a freebie with a magazine (Craftwork Cards Vintage Rose).  The butterflies and the backing paper are highlighted with my stickles glitter glue.








My second card was so simple, with two papers used for the background, one has been punched with my XCut border punch (this is not the one it should have been but I didn't have that).  The light green strips were actually white, and I coloured the paper with my Spectrum noirs.  I cut the flowers with my circle nesties, scrunched and layered up, then put candy dots in the middle.  The leaves are a sizzlets set and the Birthday wishes is from Stampin Up, stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold.


Hope you like them & if I get a chance before the creativity disappears I will try and make some more cards on the same theme, even if I don't I've got next weekend to look forward to & hopefully my other crafty friend Alison will be feeling up to some crafting.

Christmas is coming

Sorry, but you know it's true!

I was over on Tracy's blog the other day and she had made a card using a sketch challenge over at I{heart}2stamp (you can find the link on my 'challenge blogs' bar), well I went and had a look and thought it looked like a brilliant sketch - more so due to the fact that I already had an image coloured and ready to go, which I thought would sit well with the sketch.

The card took no time to make, hence, two days in a row I've managed to post something! (see miracles do happen!).

Okay, some deets for you, the stamp is one I've had for donkeys years (a proper, old fashioned, wood mounted one!) by Personal Impressions.  I coloured it with my spectrum noir pens (1 and 11 for the berries,  43 and 51 for the leaves, 91 and 92 for the branch and 163 for the outline), inked the edge with my Tim Holtz distress inkpad, Tea Dye, and then for good measure I used my glossy accents to make the berries really stand out.  The papers are all from a Trimcraft pad I got going cheap after Christmas last year.  The ribbon I got from Exeter a couple of years ago - see there is a good reason for buying and hoarding all that stuff, I do use it eventually.

Anyway, hope you like and maybe I'll even be back soon with some more (no promises though!)

You may need your sunglasses

I wanted to cover several challenges with one card - big challenge in itself. So I picked the Just Tracys Crafts Challenge, Creative Inspirations Challenge and Sketch Saturday. Well, the creative inspirations challenge was to just use yellow and white (you can use skin and hair colours as well, otherwise that would be just weird!), this was a perfect opportunity for me to use my new Spectrum Noir pens as there is a yellow set - so armed with only 6 pens I set to with this lovely Molly Blooms freebie stamp from a magazine a while ago. Finding yellow backing papers was a bit more difficult, but with a bit of digging I found a DCWV 12x12 pad, Nana's Kitchen, which a lovely yellowy/orange paper with the hearts and flowers, the paper strip across the middle is from some freebie papers, again from a magazine. I used my lovely EK Success border punch to create the flower strips. The sentiment is a LOTV and everything else is from my stash.

I started this card while my lovely friend Alison was round on Saturday - I always have a great time when Alison is over and manage to get loads of ideas, so hopefully I should be able to create more (fingers crossed).

Anyway, I really ought to go and get ready for work - the start of another week, hey ho...

Happy Birthday WWW

Well, according to the news this morning, it is the birthday of the World Wide Web - this day 20 years ago, a very clever man, called Tim Berners-Lee (now Sir) came up with a very clever way of connecting people/computers to the internet. He didn't charge for this invention and gave it to the world for free (I believe he is doing rather well for himself anyway), and it is thanks to him that I am able to produce this blog for the world to see (or the two or three people who look at it anyway).

This card has taken me all week to produce, and considering the image was already coloured and ready to go, that's not very good. I find that the more cards I make, the easier it gets to produce them, but recently I've not done many and so they are more difficult to compose and hence take longer.

The image is one of my favourite, but very old, Tilda's which I've coloured with my Spectrum Noirs (PMs now gathering dust), the papers are various from my stash (one is from Kate Knight, the others are Papermania ones I think). The flowers I made myself and glittered, the lace I've had for years (never throw anything out), the leaf is a Sizzix Sizlets die and the birthday wishes stamp is Stampin Up one.

Anyway, I'm getting ready for my good friend Alison who is coming over to do some crafting for the afternoon - you might like to visit her blog here - she updates much more often than me & even includes recipes (there's a rather good Baileys Cheesecake on there at the mo).

Hope you like, and see you again soon - Oh, I'm entering this in the Magnolia Inspiration challenge this week, which is for round cards.