Booooooo

Well, as it's Saturday, was hoping that my crafty buddy Alison would be over & we could set the world to rights over some glue & paper (no sniffing involved!).  Unfortunately, having managed to look after herself all week to be well enough to come over, she pulled something in her back putting something in her wardrobe - oh the perils of tidying!!! - Ah well, get well soon Alison & stay away from the housework, it's bad for your health.

Speaking of housework, I always try and do some on a Saturday morning just so I can justify having the afternoon for myself.  Today however, I decided to carry the housework onto my craft desk too & did some tidying up there & putting away some stamps that have been sat on my desk just gathering dust (seems to be a lot of that about at the moment!).

I did make time to finish a card I've been working on, it's a Party Paws image (Bamboo) from Crafters Companion, coloured with my Speccies.  Believe it or not the background paper was made with a 6x6 mask and blow pens (I discovered them at the back of a cupboard and decided that as my daughter is all grown up she won't mind me playing with them), the butterfly is an EK Success punch, the sentiment was from the same Crafters Companion set - nice & bright considering the dull and grey weather we are having.

I also had a bit of a play with one of the new Crafters Companion embossing boards released for their birthday week.  This one is the Takeout box, and I think will make a brilliant gift box for small things - you could get some jewellery in there, or some sweets, or even a cupcake.  The base of the box is 2 inches by 2.5 inches, at the top its 3 inches by just over 4 inches and is about 2.5 inches high.  This was just a test piece so I just used plain white card, but I can't wait to have a play with printing off some of the wonderful background papers from my CDs and using them to make boxes - I've yet to make the popcorn box, milk cartons or gable end box, but I will get there.

I used some scrap paper to make the panels - finally trying to use some stuff up rather than just stroking it - I have a mountain of paper that I really need to unbury myself from (but then I think most crafters have - you have to see this video here, it is soooo familiar!!!).

Anyway, it's Saturday night and I have a Terry's Chocolate Orange (it's not Terry's it's MINE!!!) with my name on it.

Take care for now

Rach

x

Unexpected fun day

Well, yesterday I was supposed to be helping my mum tidy her house and like the dutiful daughter I am, I phoned her in the morning, about 10.30 a.m. to ask if she still wanted my help - I got the answer machine, which was not unexpected as she walks her dog first thing, so I left a message.

I then carried on with my day, expecting a call at any minute, well lunchtime came and went, and two gift cards and a Christmas card later, she finally phoned about 3 p.m. to say that she'd done 1471 and had a call from me - when I explained that I'd left a message she said, oh the answer machine isn't working, HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT!!! Anyway she'd done some tidying on her own, and in the meantime I'd had great fun with my cards - more than I usually make in a day.

This card I made using the Friday Sketch Challenge, which can be found here it's not a site I've used before, but my best buddy Alison has just become a design team member so I've now 'discovered' them, the sketch this week was just brilliant and I thought it would give me the perfect opportunity to use my new EK Success Circle Cutter pro - have to say it did a brilliant job (although I've just noticed that I mounted the teddy wonky - hey ho).  The image is a Lili of The Valley, coloured with my trustee Spectrum Noir pens, with a bit of Wink of Stella in clear over the gold tinsel and silver for the star.  The sentiment is one of my Whimsy Stamps (I have loads of these ticket stamps with the matching die - so brilliant for all sorts of occasions), as for the papers, I've had them for more years than I care to remember (hoarding runs in the family).

These two cards are gift cards, they are made from an A5 piece of card, which I folded at 7 and 14 centimetres on the long side so that it effectively makes a tri-fold card, I then took 2 c.m. off one side and stuck this down at either end so that it leaves a pocket in the middle so you can put a gift card in, and then decorated the outside.  The snowman one I very extravagantly used card from the Hunkydory kit to make the actual card.  I even made envelopes for these using my Ultimate pro!  If I ever get round to doing a craft fair I hope to have a few of these to sell.

Anyway, that's me for today - hopefully I won't be gone so long, I'm trying desperately hard to get back into blogging, but life keeps getting in the way.

TTFN!