Boy Oh Boy...

  

Well I just do not seem to be able to get started these past two weeks, now the weather has got really damp

and is playing havoc with my joints... Anyone with RA will know what I’m talking about.... When it is damp and grey and the air feels damp it seems to have an effect on how painful my joints are and how long it takes me to get going....a bit rubbish really, hayho there is always somebody worse off than me, that is for sure.... Enough about my woes.... I have also been a very bad bad blogger of late, I feel rotten Gemma over at Gem’s Little Creations gave me a lovely award two nearly two weeks ago and I have been so busy with life in general I Missed it, Gemma please do not think I don’t appreciate the award, I’m actually just rubbish at managing my time and body at the
moment...LOL Which brings me swiftly onto Netty, I got a gorgeous card from her to say thank you and forgot to show you all so I’ll post that on my next post but for now... Netty you are a treasure and I’m really very happy you loved the candy I sent to you....Note to self ( must be a better blogger....and post things on time..!!!) onto a much nicer things... Friday Sketchers Challenge.... Another brilliant sketch this one by the mega talented Beatrix and they do have some really good ones... I got the stamps I used for this one from my hubby sometime at the end of last year; they are the amazing Hanglar Stanglar... I’ve just been lucky enough to have kit twenty six and twenty seven purchased for me...yippee I cannot wait to get my hands on them... kit twenty six has been out for a while but twenty seven is new and looks absolutely fantastic...any way onto the little Hanglar boy in my card... I used prisma pencils for a change, I’ve been watching how other crafters who are brilliant at using prisma’s (Ila and Moni) show light and shade,to try and get a better grasp at showing it in my own creations... I think I have a way to go...LOL, still I do love how absolutely cute these stamps are... it is hard not to create a cute card with them... I used Oliver Basic Grey DP with the obligatory stitching... (I cannot remember the last time I created a card without any stitching at all...) The ribbon is binding tape, a must fashion accessory for all cards at the moment... I’ve taken delivery

of two hundred yards of an off white rayon binding tape recently, so I’ll be giving some away shortly...

This will make you laugh... typical crafter... the little train going up the side of the card is an old Quickutz set, I got it new when it first came out, years ago and this I am ashamed to say is the first time it has been out of its packet... I wonder how many crafters there are like me that have been crafting for years and have stash that has remained in its packaging for years and years...

well at least I have used it now... only another few hundred packets of unopened stash to go...☺ (only joking...) god I am rambling yet again.... one of these days I’ll get a post done without rambling at all...!NOT... Finally I finished the front of the card using a sentiment from an old Technique Tuesday stamp set I’ve had for yonks... (Yes I have used it before...hehehe) It’s not so much a sentiment as a decorative accent, I didn’t want to make this card for any one occasion... I’ve decorated the inside of my card and the front of the box using the same Oliver papers... I love the fact that these papers are both bold and muted in colour... so cool... see you again this week hopefully....My new Magnolia kit arrived today so I’m hopefully going to play with it tomorrow morning...yayyyy...It is just yummy.....
Before I do finally leave you in peace, thank you so much to all of the very special people who leave such amazing comments on my blog, you have no idea how much it means to have such mega talented crafters say that they like my creations..

Ingredients: Black CS (Stash) Basic Grey Oliver DP – Hanglar Stanglar & Technique Tuesday Stamps – Binding Tape (Wild Orchid) – Quickutz Train Dies

Beary Happy Birthday....

I just do not know what happened with me this last ten days, every time I tried to get into my work room something cropped up.... Life I am afraid took over and I have been AWOL for a few days... tut tut tut...

I have to try and make time for myself which is sometimes hard with the way things are here...

Anyway on to my card, I saw the Friday Sketchers Challenge and thought I'd give it a go, Bev has created a beautiful sketch... and here is the card that I created using the sketch.. The image is Teddy bo I have had some brilliant advice from the mega talented Rach, Thank you so much Rach, it really came in handy... and I do appreciate it..Bea is coloured using Tim Holtz distressing inks...

I used some old Bo Bunny papers called A Gift Of Love... along with the obligatory stitching LOL. Now I got the pink slightly the wrong shade when colouring Bea so i used some Suze Weinberg glue and added some Glamour Dust, which is mega sparkly, I'm not sure it shows that well in the photographs but it does help slightly with the colour match or miss match should I say....As most people who read my blog know, I have a little thing for dying and creating stuff from scratch or nothing in some cases...Generally I like to make a mess and get dirty...LOL  I ordered some Hug Snug Seam Binding a while back and decided to use it on this card. First I had to dye the binding using Ranger alcohol inks. I love the crinkled effect and

 I'm not sure if I am right in saying this, but, I have checked out other seam binding and none seems to crinkle like this one which could be because it is Rayon, If any body else has any thoughts on this I'd love to know......I kept this one really simple, the inside of the card is decorated as is the box, I'll be listing it in my etsy shop later so you can see more of it there.

Well I will have to dash or I won't get this added to the list in time.... ooooopppps....

Ingredients:

Black CS - Bo Bunny DP - Nesties - Teddy Bo Image - Hug Snug Seam Binding - Sentiment Home Printed - Glamour Dust - Tim Holtz Distressing Inks - Pins From Stash..

Purrrrrfect Scruffy.....

My apologies if this reads wrong.. I've added to it...it was scheduled for tonight anyway... Well I'm still poorly.... only now I've nearly lost my voice...my throat is so sore i can't hardly talk.. my darling hubby Mark keeps laughing at me and then saying awwwwww.... and mwah...he won't kiss me because he says he doesn't want my lurgy....so I'm getting childish kisses on the forehead for the foreseeable future..aww can't blame him really...I'm really sorry I've not been by for a few days... I'm still feeling pretty rough...thankfully I'd already created this post last Saturday.. scheduling is a godsend.. On to my little card for today.. i say little, but i wish i could show you just how big Scruffy is... imagine the size of the largest SU stamp and half again..you can see I've trimmed him and this is a six by six card.. he's huge.. and i love him.... i don't know why but I've made six cards including this one and this is the first I've shown...There is a fantastic sketch over at Friday Sketchers by the lovely and very talented Jacqueline.. i hope that you will all take the time to go and see the creations of the design team they are all amazing artists..and offer inspiration in bucket loads..For this card I took a piece of SU Bashful Blue CS and scored it using my Scorepal then trimmed it down to a six by six inch card.. i distressed all the edges and took some more CS in Real Red by SU and created the six triangular panels distressed them and laid a piece of Making Memories 5th Avenue DP that had been distressed over the top of each triangle and then stitched each panel using my Janome Mini Sewing Machine.. For the front of the card i then used two of the panels and attached them to the card on top of which i then attached a distressed rectangular panel of Su Real Red CS that had another piece of the same MM 5th Avenue DP distressed and stitched to it... finally attaching my gorgeous Scruffy image to the front.. Scruffy was coloured using my Zig Brushables.. (I'm a bit embarrassed I've had these nearly six months.. Mark got me the whole set way back in the summer when i was ill and this is only the first or second time I've used them.....naughty..) I don't know if you can see but Scruffy has slippers on.. these come as one slipper and you stamp it twice.. cute ayy... To finish the front i attached these beautiful flowers my dear friend Claudia sent to me last summer they are so yummy and i think I've probably said this a million times.. she always sends me the most yummy embellishments...Please take a look at Claudia's Blog she has an amazing new Tutorial on colouring with Copic Markers.. On the back of the flowers i attached two pieces of velvet powder blue ribbon BG if i remember correctly, to act as foliage..and finished the flowers off by using an Around The Block Pussy Cat Brad in the center of each of them.. i then attached a sentiment that was first attached to a distressed piece of SU Real Red CS.. The inside is pretty much made up following the sketch apart from the panels for writing on..i used some fish brads by Around The Block to attached some yummy ribbon to a paper clip then attached all of it to one of the rectangular panels.. The back is made up of two pieces of SU Real Red CS and one piece of MM 5th Avenue CS stitched together then the same ribbon, brad and paper clip embellishment attached to the panel before attaching it to the card.. there you go all done... i added a picture to show the panels on the front of the card as my image panel turned out huge because of Scruffy..hehehe...

I also created this little bag, as i was giving this card to my friend last Monday for her birthday.. Liz loved them both and even more the bottle of DKNY Red Delicious inside the little gift bag...hehehe..

I really am sorry I've not been around visiting.. I'm sleeping a lot when I'm not coughing...yuck.. Hopefully tomorrow is a new day and some of this nasty yucky coughy thing will be gone.. it's had it if it isn't, I'm off to the doctors tomorrow night...Antibiotics will knock it on the head...

Night Night Sleep Tight.. Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite.....LOL

Ingredients: SU Real Red & Bashful Blue CS, So Many Scallops Stamps ~ Making Memories 5th Avenue DP ~ Scruffy & Slippers From Stamp Addicts ~ Ribbons & Brads From Stash ~ Beautiful Flowers From Lovely Claudia ~ Zig Brushables.

A Belated Valentine.. For A Friend...

A while back my dear friend Carole sent me a gorgeous package of yummy stash which included the papers i used on this creation... so i thought it only fitting she should get the first card i created with them...hehe...I did actually create this one before the tag card, but didn't show it until dear Carole got it this morning... I was sending some yummy bits and pieces anyway so i decided to create a card to go with them..

There is a wonderful sketch by my dear friend Heidi over at Friday Sketchers, thank you sweetie it's wonderful, i decided to use her sketch to create this card... I'd got it into my head that i wanted to ruffle some tulle after seeing something very similar on Hanne's Amazing Blog.. but don't know if it quite worked the way i wanted it to..

I used the lovely Dovecraft papers Carole sent to me.. (see Carole i said i couldn't stop using them..hehehe) I started by taking a Dove Grey piece of CS scored using my Scorepal into an almost 6x6 card.. i used An SU Pink Ink Pad to stamp a flourish decoration around the outside of the card on all four sides..it's from the BG Flourish Edges Set.. I then cut the gorgeous papers Carole sent me into the mat layers, using a deeper grey CS to back them onto.. and used An SU Corner Punch on all of the corners... I stitched around the outside of the main matt. I then cut an oval using my Nestabilities and stamped again using the BG Flourish around the outside, i then matted it onto a Scalloped Oval cut from Pink Bazzill CS and again stitched around the outside, i used grey cotton to do all of the stitching.. I then used a small amount of Pink Tulle to create two sort of puffed up flowers, and attached hearts to it which were cut from Pink Bazzill CS and stamped using the same BG Flourish Stamp, then cut the hearts from a Cuttlebug Hearts Die My Dear Friend Moni sent to me... thank you so much sweetie... it's wonderful.. I used again my Unity Stamp to stamp out the Valentines greeting, and attached another of my favourite pearl loops, i also attached the pearl loops to the tulle puffy flowers and also one of the new pins i created, (I'll be creating a short post for the weekend.. i created 100 of them...most went to friends).. I've done a great job describing this haven't i....NOT...LOL finally on the front i used this cute Tilda coloured with copics to finish off...I used basically the same layout inside the card apart from the hearts which where stitched to the Scalloped Ovals... The back of the card has another of my puffy flowers..LOL with hearts in it... i actually do like the way this one turned out...although I'm not happy about the my description of this card or colouration of the Tilda... i coloured her before I'd learned to use the copics properly...boohoo... I have to get some practice, but i have a mountain of images already coloured so I'm going to have to use them... i colour when I'm not well enough to make cards, so i end up with a ton of images already coloured..OK your asking how do you get the colours right... i punch tiny squares of any DP i have come through the letter box, and staple any sets together, i have a big bag of them, i just go through the bag, Mark brings me what ever colouring materials i need, and i basically sit and colours images for hours... better than sitting vegging out in front of the TV, which isn't a bad thing, but i only really watch crime, and a little reality TV anyway... any how, enough of that.... I also wanted to show you this gorgeous card my dear friend Moni sent to me for Valentines... i think these colours are just so yummy..... and this is one of my favourite images of all time... WOJ are just so dreamy....( My kit still isn't here..boohoo ) she also added some lovely red sweets..she knows i love.... I can't eat chocolate.. it gives me flashing lights..weird i know... thank you so much my dear sweet friend... you are an angel.. Well that's all from me for tonight.. i have to go check on my candy...Have a great day tomorrow... it's Friday....Yayyyyyyyyyy

Ingredients: Stamps Magnolia, Unity, Basic Grey ~ CS Bazzill & From Stash ~ DP Dovecraft From Lovely Carole ~ SU Pink Classic Ink Spot, Punch, Brads ~ Pearl Loops & Hand Crafted Pin From Stash ~ MS Punch ~ Nestabilities & Cuttlebug Heart Dies From Dear Moni ~ Original Copics.....

Happy 18th Birthday....

Wooooow what a couple of weeks I've had...... i am still totally on cloud nine.... but don't know yet if I'm going to be able to travel to Australia later this year...... I've been really swollen for the last four or five weeks with no sign of my leg joints going down, i have to get permission to travel so far to Australia, get a medical and have a letter to say it's safe for me to fly and then still need to find someone who will insure me... so the trip is a way off yet... i just want to jump a flight but...... My little sister (she's three years younger than me...awww) has been all upside down since we got back in touch with Carl, we've all been doing lots of talking, e-mailing catching up and sending photographs.... one of the things Carl said he missed was getting cards from his sisters...so i just sent Carl and Miah a Valentine.. it won't get there in time but it will be the first card he's had from me, in so many years.... I'm still bursting into tears at the drop of a hat, but i expect that will all calm down soon... Anyway I'd like to apologise guys for not e-mailing or getting in touch... i hope you all understand... it's been so surreal....I'll be blog hoping this evening and in the morning.. to see all of your wonderful creations.... I've really missed blogging... did you all get the new Magnolia's....? wow.... and what about the Gorjuss girls OMG i am so getting them all....how cute how cute how cute!!!!!!! and just how Gorjuss are they..hehehe

Guys i know that i said i'd show the chest i altered but i wanted to get this one in first....then I'll post the chest tomorrow night along with some yummy yummy candy....

My friend Elaine at work asked me to make this card for her nephew, and with every thing happening i forgot, so i created it a little too quickly for my liking... i like to take my sweet time... but here goes... I used my wonderful friend Claudia's sketch, she created it for Friday Sketchers so i thought I'd enter as I've not entered a sketch for ages...I used an old Edwin from last year... and the brick wall i have to tell you, Claudia has an amazing tutorial on copic colouring a brick wall on her blog, as you can see it works with inks too, she used copics but i wanted to use my SU Inks so i followed her tutorial with the inks and i think it worked, i just have to follow her tutorial on faces now...LOL I used Little Yellow Bicycle DP Zach's Life Collection, (the majority of which i distressed) i love this DP, it's very boy....if you know what i mean... I used my nestabilities again.. and the SU die Top Note i got last year to create the shapes on this sketch, i had to use a rectangle card as my friend needed a large card and wanted it A4 fold.. I've been at the sewing machine again... i think I've created two or three cards this year and not used it.... I'm now officially a Janome Mini freak.... The numbers are chip board and from my stash.. i used my quickutz...Yaaaayyy the first time in i don't know how long... i cut the game controller from the DP then used pens to colour the buttons, i then used Anita's glaze to make it shine, then the same with the TV to make the screen shine... The Calender stamp is just a cheap little one by Sagem..but i thinks it's really neat..

Inside i used the same DP with some craft CS stitched onto Bazzill then two die cut plates for adding sentiments to... i finished by stamping Happy Birthday in four places inside the card...My wonderful friend Ila sent me these small sentiment sets last summer and they come in so handy plus they fit into the SU Hodgepodge Book Plates... thank you again sweetie..The back has just a distressed piece of DP with a circles cut using Nestabilities from craft and Bazzil CS with two Quickutz footballs added..

Ingredients: Little Yellow Bicycle Zachs Life DP ~ Bazzill CS ~ Craft CS ~ Magnolia Stamps ~ Nestabilites ~ Stampin Up Top Note Die ~ Quickutz Dies (TV & Controller) ~ Stampin Up Inks ~ Janome Mini Sewing Machine ~ Stampin Up Jumbo Eyelets ~ Other Stamps (Sentiment From My Dear Friend Ila, Sagem Calender Stamp) ~ Chip Board Number From Stash ~ Letters BG Coloured With Copic Markers..

My friend Heidi challenged me to do the Photo Challenge just before i was absent for a couple of weeks, i know you've all seen it and probably had it so I'm not going to pass it on, however I'm going to join in.. so as not to be a spoil sport. I have to pick my sixth picture from my sixth folder and say what it is.... Boy did i regret that when i opened the sixth folder....so here it is...... I have to tell you this is a rare occurrence... there are not many pictures of me but this one was taken about four years ago while we were on holiday in Spain (Cambrils if i remember rightly) i hate having my picture taken, i am a complete photo phobic...LOL OMG i can't believe i just did that....Do you think i look like my little brother...hehehehe

Well that's all for tonight folks...

Night Night Sleep Tight.. Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite..

Two Cards For The Birthday Boy & Awards For Me...

This was meant to be Just a quick post tonight but then i created two cards and i got some yummy awards too..

There is a scrummy sketch over at Friday Sketchers by lovely Murielle... it is a sketch that you can really play with and be creative... i created two cards from it..... My First...

I used two Magnolia stamps, both of the dogs... i love these little chaps, they remind me of my boys... Gizmo & Pika... i coloured the images on both cards using Prisma Colour Pencils and blended using Sansodor and Stumps... i tried to add the colour to match our boys on this one.. as this card was made for hubby....I used an old piece of Crate Paper from an old kit I'd not yet used... the bones have been cut using a Sizzix die from a piece of BG DP and then coloured around the edges with an ink pad from my Close To My Heart Distressing Kit... i love this little box, it has every thing i need for distressing and i got mine really cheap from EBay for just £10...... an absolute bargain...i say i, hubby got it...he's brilliant at spotting bargains or looking up prices to save money, you wouldn't think he'd only been using the computer for three years..(he was a complete technophobe...) now he's the king of finding bargains on-line...LOL

The little dog bone paper clips were from a photo holder a friend at work got me for Christmas, it's a little dog with a crocodile clip attached to add a photograph and then there is a dog bowl full of these clips that came with it...so cute... the charm i added to this card is a Sterling Silver Dog Bowl a little extravagant but this card is for my hubby, he deserves all the extravagance i can give him.... The brown velvet ribbon is from Hobby Craft an absolute bargain at just 99p and there is lots of it.(not extravagant but gorgeous anyway)..This card was again put together by my Janome Mini Sewing Machine... I got mine after speaking to my Friend Carole last year... I told my son about it and he got it for me as a gift... if you don't have one of these or are struggling using a full sized machine, go splash out £50 at Argos on this one... it is fantastic...and so easy to thread and use... I also decorated the inside of this card again, i used the same Crate Paper with the bones just set off the panel... then added another of the bone paper clips.. I did it again i forgot to put the stamp on the back of my card before i took the photograph...... doh.......

Well that was my first card and this was the second one i created using again this gorgeous sketch by Murielle...

This time i used an Alota stamp I've had for such a long time but not used,(Helene has a fabulous sale on at the moment so, why not go get a bargain..) i have to stop getting stamps for a while, i have so many that haven't even been inked yet, i feel awful for not using them as so many have been given to me as gifts.... (i show my family the sites i buy from and add all of the stamps on my wish list to the basket... they go in and buy the ones they want to give me as pressies when it's my Birthday or Christmas... we think it's a great idea cause they always get me something i really want... which makes them happy.and me even happier..LOL better than buying smellies all of the time... although the odd 50ml bottle of 212 is a lovely change....)

Back to the card.. i used SU Old Olive patterned paper from last years catalogue and some Bazzill card stock to create a card blank... i used my nesties on this one... another gift from Mark this Christmas... I also used Old Olive and Chocolate Chip Brads, the silver clips are also SU i think i used lots of SU on this one....the sentiment is an Elzybells sentiment and the lovely ribbon die-cuts are from an old standard die from Accucut, i used to collect dies and had a collection of over 2000 lots have now been sold but i still have quite a collection i can't part with... Again i decorated the inside of my card, just using nestie diecuts and SU Old Olive Brads.. The one thing i used on both of these cards to tie them together was the bling.... i created two circles on each card with Kaiser kraft sticky gems... and again this one was stitched using my old faithful.... and i used the same brown ribbon i used on the doggy card...

Well i think that's it for the cards...... phew..... i bet that's what you are saying...hehehehe

Not finished yet....... i got these awards this week as well... this lovely award was from Viv. today... Thank you so much sweetie you made my day with this one today... i was a little down... (don't know why just one of those days...) you really cheered me up....

Last but by no means least.. i got these two awards from Lovely Heike.... thank you so much my friend.. you are so kind to think of me and i am honoured that both of these lovely ladies thought to give these awards to little old me....

I promise I'll pass them on later this week when I've had time to check out a few blogs....

Well Night Night Sleep Tight, Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite....

(Ash my son used to say Bite Them Back when i said this at night to him..hehehe)

Ingredients: Stamps By Magnolia, Elzybells, Alota ~ CS By Bazzill ~ DP By Stampin Up, Crate Paper ~ Prisma Colour Pencils, Sansodor, Paper Stumps ~ Nestabilities ~Kaiser Kraft Gems ~ Stampin Up Brads Chocolate Chip & Old Olive ~ Stampin Up Clips ~ Sterling Silver Charm From My Jewellery Making Stash ~ Sizzix Dog Bone & Basket Die ~ Accucut Standard Bow Die ~ Brown Ribbon Hobby Craft ~ Janome Mini Sewing Machine ~ Finally Lots & Lots Of Love..hehehe