Oh dear .....

Well, today was (officially) my last day at work, I have unfortunately been made redundant which is a bit of a blow to be honest but I am looking at it positively - one door closes, another one opens - sort of thing. At least I shall have time to make cards and stuff - lol. I am looking around for new opportunities at the moment and I'm not sure which direction I want to go in. I am very lucky in that hubby says to take my time and not rush into the first thing that comes along which is very comforting I must say. I would love to be able to start my own business up but first I need an idea - lol. Not sure if I want to stay office orientated or have a complete change of direction. Still, at least I have the time to consider all my options.

Papertake Challenge (Group 4)

Well, I've finally finished my altered item. I used an old crisp tube (washed!) and decorated it with all the lovely papers and things I was sent. I added a few twinkly christmas trees and some stick-on jewels for the lid and some coloured cord but other than that I just used the items from the pack.


I am quite pleased with the results and I think it will make a great container for home-made biscuits to give at christmas - in fact, I am planning to make some more altered items like this to put pressies in for christmas!

I've been Tagged ...............

I've just been tagged by Anne so here are my answers :-


1. If you could have £100.00 worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments, which would you choose?
Irredescent paper and card in assorted colours

2. If you had to choose between using only stamps or rubons, which would you choose?
Stamps

3. If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts but could only do one for a whole year...which would you do?
Cards

4. Would you rather own a scrapbooking store or have your own scrapping room at home...
(can't have both he he he)
Its got to be the store, best of both worlds with that, you can craft at the store hahaha

5. And last but not least, what is your CURRENT cardmaking or scrapping style....
Currently its stamping and decoupage for Christmas Cards

Now for five more people to tag ...... thats hard ............ ok, think I've got it ..........

Jeannette
Nicki

Can't do Lou because she tagged Anne so I am stuck at two ...... sorry!

Crafters Companion Crafty Addicts Challenge

Here is the card I made for the first CC Crafty Addicts challenge organised by our lovely Lou. We have to post our pictures of this up on the forum tomorrow so I thought it would be OK to put it on here now! Lou provided us with a great kit using Pink Petticoat papers and images, a couple of flowers, ribbons and some stick-on stones. I decided to make a gatefold card and I am pleased with the result. I coloured the images in using my Whispers pens.

I haven't put a specific sentiment on it yet because I'm not sure which one to use! Happy Birthday, Thank You, or Best Wishes would all be good on here though.

Zutter Zisters Bind-it-All Machine

Well, I've just blown the budget completely! I went mad and ordered the Bind-it-All machine with the case and binding rings from Artymiss! I just couldn't resist it any longer - lol. In my defence I have thought about it carefully over the last few days (since the Artymiss email popped into my inbox) and I think it will prove to be a wise buy. It means I can make calenders for family, photo books, notebooks etc and give them as Christmas pressies - as well as loads of stuff for myself too - lol. Don't know what hubby will say - will face that when the time comes!
Unfortunatly it won't come straight away, not till after the 12th November but as it will be my birthday on the 15th perhaps it will arrive then and I will call it my present to myself - lol.

Glitter Girls Celebration Board

I can't believe I've had my board now for two whole days and havn't played with it yet!!! How sad it that!!! I put it down to it being half term and everytime I pick up something crafty I hear the words "oh mum, do you have to do that - play with me instead". And so I end up playing various 8 year old boy games (not always suitable for knackered mums!) instead of playing with my crafty stuff - it's just not fair - lol. Still, he will be back at school next week so I will have plenty of time to play with it then. Got some great ideas for Christmas Cards with it using images from Joanna Sheens CD's - I must make some for us to send and not just for sale I remembered - lol.
I finished all the CC Christmas Group's cards and have posted them off so that's another job well done, just hope everyone likes their card, I can't put up pics of them on here because a lot of the people who will be getting cards look at my blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise!
I'm still working on the Papertake Challenge, not finished yet but I think it will look good when it is done - hopefully!

Arty Girlz

Here is my Arty Girlz challenge card for Circles, Dots & Spots. The idea in my mind was good but it just isn't quite right - I'm not really happy with it as it is so I might have another try tomorrow.


The idea was to use circles and form them into the shape of a butterfly (which is what I did!) but it's just not right - the idea was there but not the execution - lol. I used some Pink Petticoat paper scraps I had left over from another challenge and I thought the colour and dotty pattern looked good.

Arty Girlz Challenge

The new Arty Girlz challenge has been posted and its Circles, Dots & Spots. This should be fun! I'm going to work on this one tonight so hopefully I shall have a picture to put up tomorrow morning. Not much else on the cards at the moment except for still making Christmas Cards for the sale next month. At least I have finished the ones for the Crafters Companion Christmas Group, they will be in the post tomorrow morning.

Not Looking Good

Oh dear, it's not looking for for Lewis Hamilton, I can hardly bear to watch - he's last. It's all going wrong for him, still it's not over till it's over so there is still hope ..... watch this space!

Well, that was a bit of a let down. No Rugby World Cup and no British F1 Winner!
Never mind, thats the way it goes sometimes. There's always next time!

Working Hard!

No pictures of anything to show today ..... yet, because I havn't taken any - lol. I've been working hard on getting more Christmas Cards done for the Craft Fayre and also the cards for the Crafters Companion Christmas group. I've also made a load of pyramid boxes on a Christmas theme to sell as table favours and loads of Pink Petticoat Christmas handbag cards in boxes, they are just so adorable I'm hoping they will sell really well.
What else have I been doing? Mmmm, can't think of anything great I've done, oh, except spend some more money of crafting goodies!!! I just couldn't resist the Glitter Girls new Celebration Board and so I had to order it - well, how could I not - lol. Can't wait for it to arrive as I've got loads of ideas for it already. Also ordered a couple of CD's from Create & Craft today, one for ordinary card making and the other for christmas card making - I thought they looked quite good and the price was reasonable, especially with my members discount so I just went for it - bad girl!!! I'll face up to hubby when the CC bill come in - he knows by now there are some things I just have to have - lol.
Well it's half-term next week so I doubt I'll get much card making done. Although now my pack has arrived for the Papertake Challenge I must get on with it. I've decided I'm going to do an altered item with the pack, won't say any more on it just in case it all goes horrible wrong!
I'm off the watch the F1 Grand Prix now so I can (hopefully - fingers crossed) see Lewis Hamilton make history! Even if he doesn't become world champion this year I'm sure he will next year, another great driver in Schumacher's mould and the best thing is ....... he's British, yahoo!!!

You Make Me Smile Award

I just got a "You Make Me Smile" award from Lou. Thanks Lou. Now I need ten people to send the award to, trouble is all the people I want to send it to Lou as already done - lol.

I only have three people I can send the award to who Lou hasn't already done.

Nicki
Leonie
Cen

Hope it doesn't matter if there is not ten!

Help!

I've just been back to Pink Petticoat again and bought another download ..... I promised myself I wouldn't buy anything else from them until next month! Ha ha ha! Oh well, those christmas handbags are just soooooooo adorable I couldn't resist them!

Oh, and something else I need help with. Does anyone out there know what is the best paint or similar to put a base coat on those little cardboard/papiermache boxes you can buy (I got mine from Telfords Direct) because I want to decorate them for christmas to use as table decorations but I don't want to cover them with paper because it will make them too bulky and the lids wont fit then! Would acylic paint be best or could I use white emulsion paint?
Any help you could give would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Papertake & Arty Girlz

Hooray, the Papertake Challenge (Group 4) packet arrived from Laura this morning. I've opened it up and had a look at all the goodies she put in it and I've got a few ideas kicking around but not exactly sure what I shall do yet so I will have to put my thinking cap on over the next few days!

The next Arty Girlz challenge is up (see my link on the right) and it's "Stitches". Mmmmn, not sure what I shall do for this one. These challenges certainly make you think!

Watch this space ...

Craft Club Pictures

Well here are the long awaited pic's of Craft Club!

Not all of us here this evening but we still had fun. I'm the one on the right in red and black!

See ............ we don't just drink coffee and gossip !!!!!




This is Lindsay who started the club and runs it for us, she makes lovely cards and does some great scrapbooking too.












This is one of the ladies doing her tapestry, as you can see we had three ladies doing tapestry last night.









Here are the gift boxes I was working on. I used the templates from Pink Petticoat and the papers too (what a surprise!).

We had a great evening - as usual - but will not be meeting again until the third Monday in November.

Craft Club ..... again!

Hooray, it's Craft Club again tonight. We all decided that we have so much fun we would meet again lol. As I have now become totally addicted to Pink Petticoat stuff (thanks a bunch Lou - lol) I have printed out some images for making christmas cards for the Christmas Card Group I'm in on the Crafters Companion Forum. Still haven't started them - been too busy doing other cards! I've got to make twenty so it looks like everyone will be having PP themed cards - hope they like them!
I'm going to take card blanks to score and fold ready as well as a few of the PP papers I printed out this afternoon just in case I can stop talking enough to actually do some crafting! I will definitely take my camera tonight (forgot it last week) and get some pics of us crafty girls doing our thing - lol. Time to go and pack my bag (or should that be crate lol) ready to leave. Will post up the pics tomorrow for you all to have a laugh at.

Seeing things?

No, you haven't all gone bonkers, I have changed the colour of my template - lol. No particular reason, just fancied a change, like you do!

Birthday Card

Today I have been making a card for my friend to give to her Mum for her 65th birthday next week. It took me a while to figure out what design to do, the only brief I had was that it had to have 'Happy 65th Birthday' on the front with either poppies, snowdrops or primroses. After searching through my Joanna Sheen CD's I plumped for snowdrops.
I made the card base with 350g white pearlescent card and then used the Glitter Girls board (the pale green one - can't remember which one that is!) to emboss some more card which I then cut on the embossing lines to create layers. Before fixing the top for the card I added a piece of gold and white ribbon. I did a little decoupage to the picture of the basket of snowdrops, added a little gold tag with a rub-on for 'Mum'. I layered this up and fixed with silicone glue. I printed out the wording in grey onto pearlescent paper, went over with with a versamark pen and then embossed it in gold, layered it in the same way as the topper and fixed using silicone glue. I then made the box using my Ultimate from Crafters Companion (so incredibly useful) and decorated it to match the card. I am pleased with the result and I really hope my friend likes it. She won't be collecting it until next week so you are all getting a sneak preview - lol.

Atry Girlz 'Glueless'

Well, here is my first Arty Girlz challenge, Glueless. This was quite a challenge for me as everytime I thought of something I wanted to glue it! I used Pink Petticoat papers (love 'em) and a pink card blank I already had together with brads and a thin strip of pink paper. I first fixed the cake topper to the next layer by cutting two slits in it and threading the pink paper strip through and then securing the whole thing to the card using two small blue brads. It still looked a little blank so I rummages through my bits box and came up with a small die cut flower which I fixed on with another flower shaped brad. It is a very simple card but I am quite pleased with it. A 'glueless' challenge really does make you think!

A new challenge

After looking at Jeanette's blog (I'm always in there - its just so interesting - lol) and seeing her Arty Girlz challenge I followed the link and have decided to join in myself. This weeks challenge is to make a card without using any glue/dst/sticky stuff etc. I am going to have a go at it this evening so look out tomorrow and hopefully I will have something to show off!
It's rained nearly all day here in Suffolk and apart from working (I do have a real job!) I have been thinking up different ideas for more Christmas Cards, this wretched Craft Fayre is looming ever closer and I'm beginning to wish I hadn't booked a table - what if no-one likes my stuff and I don't sell anything!!!????!?! You know how it is, just because you like something doesn't mean other people will ...... and then are they willing to pay a reasonable price? Oh dear, I really wish I hadn't booked it but what's done is done as they say.

Digital Experiment

This evening I stumbed across a great blog called Cen's Loft. This is a great blog by a wonderful lady called June who does digital stuff and offers some of it free on her blog. I made a page up from her freebie called 'Purrfect' which is all about cats - me and my cats, lol. It's copyrighted to her so always make sure she gets the credit if you use her stuff. Anyway, check out June's blog, I have put a link to it on the right.
Here is the page I had a go at. I like it because it is a really easy way to make something so cute.
She has other designs to download so please go and look.

Craft Club

Off to Craft Club tonight. We usually only meet once a month but decided to meet twice for a while due to popular demand. There are only about ten of us and not everyone comes each time but we have fun which is what its all about. The main activity seems to be scrapbooking with a couple of us who like to make cards. We have a couple of knitters and one watercolour painter also. I like to take something different each time and at the last meeting I had to explain all about ATC's and Fat Pages as no-one had heard of them before! I can't wait to start explaining about the monthly Papertake Challenge!!!
This evening I am going to finish some Christmas themed ATC's for the Crafters Companion swap and then I will do some cutting out/assembling some toppers for more Christmas Cards. I will also take my Bookatrix Board and do several 'pages' ready for assembly - I am really into bookatrix at the moment and can't seem to leave it alone!
I might take my camera and take a piccy of us all crafting away just to show that we don't just drink tea, eat biccy's and gossip all evening!

Bookatrix

Here are two of the Bookatrix cards I made the other day, there are more but they are not completely finished yet. My photography isn't great but I hope you can see the finished results OK. I am quite pleased with them and I hope I will get some orders from people at the craft fayre in November. I have decided to make these to order as they are quite expensive and I think people would like to have particular wording on them to suit the person they are sending them to.
I have been making more Christmas Cards today using the Anna Griffin box I ordered from QVC some time ago. The designs are lovely but the card is a little bit flimsy so I have been putting in quite sturdy inserts to make the cards more robust. With all the bits and pieces left over I intend to use them up making ATC's for the Crafters Companion Christmas ATC Swap but first I must make the Halloween ones! I must also make sure that I have twenty Christmas Cards for our Christmas Group as well - I like a challenge but I wish I could get myself more organised each month - lol.
And now a quick thank you to Jeannette for sending me some instructions on how to put an 'email me' link on my blog - THANKS JEANNETTE.

Dressing Up Day

The Captain Jack outfit went down a storm and apparently he had a great day at school. There were about 10 Captain Jacks I think so the idea was certainly popular!
I haven't had any electricity until now so I have spent the day making some christmas cards. I decided to do Bookatrix ones today and I am pleased with the results. I have only made one before but once I got into it I couldn't stop and have made 4 and cut out lots of pages for making more! I have made matching boxes too. I will post up some pictures tomorrow so you can all see my efforts.
My son Will is at a friends tonight for a sleepover so hubby and I are taking advantage and going out for a meal which will be a real treat - we havn't been out for ages so we are both looking forward to it - and a lie-in tomorrow morning too, sheer bliss!
Well, I must tidy away all the crafting 'mess' for now and jump in the shower and make myself beautiful - lol.

Life in General

Well, it's 5.45pm and there is a lasagne in the oven which is nearly ready, some garlic bread and some fresh veggies and it smells wonderful in here I can tell you! Can hardly wait for the next 10 minutes to pass so I can get stuck in - yummy!
Today I finished my first challenge for the Crafters Companion, Crafty Addicts challenge - its all done apart from some flowers which got missed in my kit but Lou has since posted them to me so as soon as they arrive there is a space waiting for them. I have to say I am pleased with the result but I can't show it on here yet because we are all posting them on the same day on the CC Forum which isn't until the end of the month.
I am still waiting for my kit for the Papertake Challenge and I hope it doesn't get held up for too long by the postal strikes.
I managed to get outside today and do some gardening - hasn't the weather been gorgeous today, a really lovely day of Autumn sunshine just like I remember as a child! Managed to tidy up a rather messy corner of the garden near the pond - I noticed that there are still lots of dragonflies about and the fish were all up hoping to be fed.
Whoopie - the timer has gone off so dinner is ready !!! Will finish this post when I've cleared my plate!

I have to say that was delicious.

Panic stations - my son just announced that they have to dress up as a character from a book for school tomorrow, nothing like a bit of notice. He says he wants to go a Captain Jack Sparrow and assures me that there is a book of Pirates of the Caribbean (not sure about that one!) so we have hunted high and low for his special 'Captain Jack' headband - which we found eventually under his bed (along with a lot of other long lost treasures and something green and furry which we shall not mention - god alone knows what it was!). We then found an old pair of trousers which we cut up a bit, got one of Dad's old white t-shirts and found a big brown belt ..... wow, its as though Johnny Depp was here - lol, wishful thinking - but he does look good. I hope tomorrow's bus driver is of sound constitution because there will be a very strange collection of children on the bus tomorrow including a Simba the Lion, Harry Potter and Will Turner to name a few!

Tomorrow I plan to do some more gardening when I finish work and then I will crack on with some more Christmas Cards for the Christmas Craft Fayre I am doing in November. I want to make some gift boxes too because I think they will sell well, especially ones specially sized for CD's and Play Station Games! At least I hope they will!

Thats all for today - goodnight all.

My ATC's

Thought I would put these pictures of some recent ATC's I made. These will be going to Leonie's swap which I have been a member of for a while but not sent her any! For those of you who don't know who Leonie is, she is Dawn Bibby's helper on QVC and often presents when Dawn is away. She also has her own show on a Friday. She is great and I love her enthusiasm for papercrafting and the way she enjoys getting mucky!
Most ATC's I make for the various swaps on the Crafters Companion Forum. We currently have swaps which include Vintage, Floral, Oriental, Cute & Cuddly, Flitter & Flutter to name a few. They are great fun and there is no obligation to send in each time, just when you feel like it.

Hooray! I received my pack from Lou today for the Craft Addicts Challenge (Group 1). Its got some really pretty papers in it from Pink Petticoat (which I love) and I can't wait to get started - got an idea of what I am going to do already but can't tell until we have all finished and posted our creations on the Crafters Companion website otherwise its not fair to the other members in the group. I'm looking forward to when its my turn to provide the materials - I already have some ideas of what I shall do. I think its a while before its my turn though as I am fourth on the list.
I am also expecting my pack for the Papertake Challenge any day now. I saw a previous of this on the Papertake Blog and its looks great too so another one I cant wait to get stuck into. Have no clear ideas on this one yet and will wait until it arrives before I decide. I just hope it doesn't get held up with the Postal Strikes which are scheduled this week and next.

Well, its October 1st, doesn't time fly? The nights are drawing in and its getting chilly now - just the right sort of weather to be indoors making cards, atc's and fat pages, doing crafty challenges and generally any type of papercrafting - and being able to do them without feeling guilty about the weeds in the garden!
Waiting for my first challenge pack from Lou (Crafters Companion forum), I am in group 1 and there are five of us, the pack looks great so I cant wait to get stuck in. I hope that I can be inventive enough when it comes to making up the packs for everyone else.
I'm still trying to work out how to put pictures and nifty little gimmics on here and hopefully one day soon I will get it right. I know someone who has done a grand job with her blog - you know who you are Jeannette - lol (see the link) so I think I will have to ask her for some help.
Jeannettes blog is well worth a visit as it has lots to see and some great links too - she has done a fab job on it.