Can't believe it's beginning of September tomorrow!

Hello all!! I am so sorry I haven't been around the last few weeks but I've been so busy with work and other things. I shall try get through people's blogs to see what wonderful things you have all been creating whilst I've been busy. I just can't believe it is September tomorrow already! Where has the time gone?!

I did go to the Range yesterday as I needed some more square card blanks but I bought a few extra bits and pieces too! I still managed to spend just under £10 so quite pleased with myself! I got three 12x12 Bazzil Basics card, two sets of metal charms (girly ones and boys ones), my card blanks and a pot of cute black and white felt adhesive flowers. I bought the fabulous Scrapbook Inspirations mag the other day too to read in my lunchbreaks. Some really great work in there as usual.

I have made three cards since I was here last; one for my new boss' birthday which was a very quick mad rush of a card but it turned out ok but not brilliant and then I made two cards to sell for charity today with my new card and metal charms and I used one of my gorgeous new papermania ribbons on one of them...the tinsel like silver ribbon!

I hope to get a few more cards made this week as I want to build up a good stock of cards before I start selling them so that there is plenty of variety. I'm also not sure what to sell them for so trying to figure that out too. I am thinking maybe £1.50 with £1 of that going to charity. They cost me more than 50p to make but I enjoy it so I don't mind putting more to charity. If anyone sells their cards please can you let me know if this is about the right price. I don't want to overcharge people but want to make some money for charity too.

Thanks for looking and as always, thanks so much for the lovely comments.

xx

New Papermania Acrylic Album!!

Right well this weekend I am afraid I haven't done much blogging as I have been busy playing with the gorgeous acrylic album from Papermania that is coming out 1st September (when I shall be queuing to buy a few!!).

For a while now I have been trying to do a scrapbook page (12x12) to go into a frame for my brother but I had too many pictures and couldn't get any inspiration for it. Then when I received this album to try out I realised it was perfect for my brother's birthday present and I am happy with the results.

The pictures are from his medal giving parade in Windor earlier this year after he got back from Afghanistan. You may notice a few pics with Prince Harry who got his medal the same day and was stood not far from my brother. Princess Anne gave out the medals so there are a couple of pics with her too. On one of the pics it looks like my brother is yawning at Princess Anne but he was just talking to her and it was just unfortunate timing of the picture being taken!!

I really love the acrylic album; the size is perfect, the number of "pages" is great and some extra pages could be added by drawing round the arcylic and cutting out extra pages from cardboard, chipboard or paper etc. I love the scalloped edges and it is nice thick acrylic rather than some of the flimsy ones you can get. I shall have to buy some when they come out and make some more albums for christmas presents.

I hope to play with some of my other goodies in the week and let you know what they are like too! I have to say I absolutely love these acrylic albums!

Thanks for looking! xx

I am such a lucky girl!

Firstly I would like to say thank you very much for all the kind and lovely comments I have been receiving about my knee and my new job and my craft projects! My first two days of work have gone well and so hopefully it'll be good for a few months until I can get to Sandhurst.

Now, this morning I had to pick up a parcel from the sorting office as they tried to deliver it whilst I was at work. I was thrilled to find these gorgeous new papermania goodies that Emma from Design Objectives very kindly sent me. I can tell you that they are fabulous and I can't wait to get playing with them. I shall let you all know what they are like when I have had a play after lunch.

Hope you are all well and have been very crafty recently!

xx

Now for some really good news!

I have a job starting tomorrow! I only had the interview this morning so I'm chuffed to bits. It does mean less time for crafting but it means more money for craft stash buying!! I might also see if I can sell my cards there for charity once I have a good handful or more of cards to show them and once I have settled into the job!

Thanks for all the lovely comments.

xx

Semi good news

Well today I had my appointment with a specialist about my knee as I have been having problems with it and have had to postpone going to Sandhurst to get it fixed. He thinks I may have torn the cartilage and so is sending me for an MRI scan on it. I think this is good news as I know it can be fixed with an operation (I had the same in my other knee 5 years ago). I am so glad that he doesn't think it's something which can't be sorted. Just hope it doesn't take too long to get the scan and find out exactly what is wrong and get an operation in etc so I can get to Sandhurst soon.

I have to say I treated myself to another piece of ribbon today too to make it up to a metre each of 19 different ribbons now in the last few days not including the 5 reels of other ribbons! I think you may be seeing a lot of cards with ribbons on in the next few weeks!

Hope you are all well!

xx

Mr Froggy!

Well having made some Mrs Froggy cards I have now made a couple of Mr Froggy cards using the gorgeous Pink Petticoat images. I am not too happy with the first one because of my handwriting for the "Hoppy Birthday" but I am pleased with the second one although not a manly card after all!

I used papers that were free in a magazine ages ago, ribbon I bought from Hobbycraft yesterday x-cut circle cutter, Stamp Doctor eyelets, buttons from a haberdashery store and an ink pad for inking the edges from Lakeland. On the second card the froggy picture is actually stuck to the insert in the card so it's more of a window in the card.

Thanks for looking and thanks for all the wonderful comments you've been leaving me; they are really appreciated. xx

Birthday and buttons!

It is my brother's birthday this week so of course I had to make a card! I always struggle with men's cards but I got inspiration from Loretta's monday challenge on Do Crafts forum which gave me the layout idea. I did move the stamped image to the middle of the page, made the strips wonky and used buttons instead of flowers from the challenge so I hope Loretta doesn't mind that I didn't stick to it perfectly! I think this card may be better for a younger boy (my brother is going to be 25!) but if I can't make anything better it will do!

I used patterned cardstock from DCWV Glitter Mat Stack, Sarah Beise cake stamp, Papermania brads, Papermania rub on and various buttons from charity shops and haberdashery stores.

Thanks for looking!

xx

I've been shopping!!

I hope everyone is well on this blustery and damp august day! I decided to treat myself to a shopping trip to Craft Central yesterday only to get there 50 minutes and 30 miles later to find it had closed down! I was not a happy bunny wasting all that petrol and time and I had even checked on their website before I left and it was still listed there. I thought I'd go to Lakeland and the expensive but very lovely shop in the nearest town only to find that Lakeland no longer sell craft stuff and the craft shop now closes on Sundays! So, it was a complete waste of a journey and so I went the 30 miles home again empty handed. I did take a trip to Hobbycraft though which is only a few miles from my house and bought lots there and then today I went to Osborne Stationers (no relation to me!!), a haberdashery and a charity shop and got some real bargains! I got a handful of lovely buttons for 1p each and some ribbon for 5p, in Osborne's the papermania double sided cardstock was on offer and in hobbycraft I got more 12x12 paper in the sale too. I have gone a bit mad buying ribbons but they are all so lovely! The papermania chipboard letters were on sale in Hobbycraft too so I couldn't resist buying them!

No more spending for me for a while!

xx

Another award!

I am so honoured to have received this lovely award from Shelly (thank you so much Shelly...I love your blog too!).

So the rules are:

I have to pick 7 of my favourite blogs and:
1. The winner can put the logo on their blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated

This was so tricky as I have so many blogs I love and so many more than 7 favourite blogs. I eventually decided to award the following: Ana, Chrissie, Joanne, Michelle, Sarita, Natalie and Kerry

xx

Birthday card

On Friday it is my brother's girlfriend's birthday and her favourite colour is purple so I got out anything that was purple in my craft drawers and eventually came up with this and a pile of stash out everywhere!! I think my next job will be tidy up so that I have somewhere to sleep tonight!

I used some purple card I've had in my drawer for years (I think it came from WHSmiths about 4 years ago!), patterned paper from Papermania Vibrant Colossal designer paper pack, Papermania rub ons, Craft Planet lavender glitter glue, I hand drew the cake and cocktail and coloured in with pencil crayons, flower eyelets from The Stamp Doctor (which were green so I coloured them with a purple Whispers permanent pen), piece of purple ribbon which I'm not sure where it came from, and finally I used some 3d foam pads to make the middle bit stand out.

Thanks for looking xx

Thank you so much

Just want to say a huge thank you to everyone for all the kindness you've shown and all the lovely comments and messages. Yesterday was a nice day despite the sadness and Gramps would have loved it. Thanks so much everyone.

I can also upload two cards that I made a week or so ago now as the lovely ladies (Sue and Babs) I sent them to have received them now so I don't have to worry about spoiling the surprise!

The first is made with some orange paper I had in my stash, stripey paper from the DCWV spring stack, Papermania brad and an Imaginisce flower.

For the second I used a Papermania designer card blank,

x-cut circle cutter, photo paper, pearl pink paper from The Papermill Shop, Papermania adhesive gems and Anita's sticky ribbon.

Thanks for looking and thanks for all the kindness you have all shown.

xx

Just to say...

Just to let you all know that Do Crafts is working again and my blog list is back and I didn't lose anyone so that is all good!! Technology is in my good books again...just about!

xx

Good Morning All

Well I have to say that I am a little lost this morning as I can't get onto the Do Craft website which I also couldn't do last night so I am unable to carry out my morning ritual of having a chat on the forum. I hope it is working soon.

I have just added another blog, My Paper World to my blog list as I fell in love with all the cards as soon as I came across the blog from a comment they left on mine but my blog list now seems to have disappeared so I really hope I haven't lost them all as I had so many wonderful blogs on there that I like to keep visiting. Technology hey?!

Back to the paper stuff...here is a card I made a day or two ago but didn't get round to uploading. It is the first of my cards to sell for charity made using a Papermania designer card blank, Imaginisce flowers, Papermania brad, ribbon from a cheapy shop and I drew around my chipboard letters from craftwork cards and used my craft knife to cut them out and then put a purple piece of paper in as an insert so that it shows through the "hi". I did make another two cards as well but I shall upload them once they have been received by the wonderful people I sent them to!

Hope everyone is well this morning and has a great day. Thanks for looking xx

Sympathy card

I decided to make Gran a card after Gramps died at the weekend but I have never made a sympathy card before so wasn't too sure what to do. I thought plain and simple would be the best but I had nothing to go on it. I went to my local card shop which has some card making and scrapbooking supplies at the back (but very expensive) and found these lovely charm crosses. The loop snapped off the top of this one but I think it looks better anyway. I had already bought the K&Co paper a while ago simply because I loved it even though I had no idea what to use it for. I then added a ribbon I found in my stash of ribbons and some handmade paper and papermania vellum I already had too. I think it turned out alright and hope that Gran likes it.

Thanks for looking and thank you so much everyone for all the support and emails and messages you've sent; I really appreciate them.

xx

Finally back!

I am sorry for not updating since Thursday but on Friday I couldn't get into any blogs or the blogspot home page and have only just managed to get back in after resetting my internet even though all other websites still worked. Very strange but nevermind I am back and will have to catch up on everyone's blogs again as well as update mine!

Very sadly my grandad passed away on Saturday night but unknowingly to me he passed at almost the same time that I put my new logo (which I designed to remind me of him and let him live on through my cards) on the back of a card for the first time. I want to say a huge thank you to all the lovely ladies on the do craft forum who have been so thoughtful and supportive since I told them my sad news.

Drawing isn't exactly a talent of mine but I felt it was important that the logo was my own work and after a lot of scribbling out and rubbing out and lots of screwed up paper I was eventually fairly happy with this one so I scanned it into my computer. I hope you like it!

I have also made a few cards but only taken a picture of one so far so I shall upload the others tomorrow. I made this card for a friend who is doing an intensive driving course this week and taking his test at the end of it. I used paper from DCWV spring stack, the brown frame and good luck came with some free papers in a magazine some time ago, I hand drew the car and then attached some ribbons from a cheapy shop with staples.

I hope to catch up with everyone's blogs soon and hope that I don't have any more problems getting into them.

xx