Bad blogger

OK, so I've been a bad blogger for the last couple of days, but that's because I've got my latest Design team stash from Crop til you Drop and I've been playing!

Check out the Crop til you Drop blog, to see what I've been creating, and perhaps have a go at the first of our weekly challenges!

Swap time again!

It's card swap time again, over on the I Love Hot off the Press forum and here's my card - July's theme was "glorious tags". This card went to Beverley, and I'm proud to say it's now on display in her shop (Crop Til You Drop). In fact, she told me that the other day someone asked if it was for sale! She resisted and didn't sell it, but it's nice to think that someone liked it that much!

It's My Dad's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my Daddy! We've just been out for a lovely chinese (yum yum!) to celebrate. And here are the cards I made him - all 3 of them! One from me and Ash, one from my mum, and one from my nan.

One last thing before I go to bed, make sure you check out the Crop til you Drop blog, or the I Love Hot off the Press forum, for some exciting HOTP news (especially if you like clear stamps - that's all the clues you're getting! LOL)

Happy Birthday Auntie Jane!

OK so I'm a day late, but I have a good excuse, cos yesterday was Harry Potter day! (and Jane will understand, as she's just as passionate about books!) So here is her birthday card for the Birthday list on the I Love Hot Off the Press forum. I'm just hoping it managed to get to America on time!

And I've just sent off my entry for the Best of British Best New scrapbooking talent (so if pictures disappear from my blog and photobucket you know why!) I deliberated for ages over which LOs to submit (and being a newbie, I don;'t have that many to choose from!) but I'm pleased with my submissions, I think, and reason that you have to be in it to win it (a girl can dream!)

Will be picking up my next lot of Design team goodies from Beverley at Crop til you Drop tomorrow. So make sure you keep checking the shop's blog to see what I've been creating!

Nothing to see here.........

........well at least not today, been far to busy reading Harry Potter! and my god it is fantastic, finished about an hour ago (having started at about 11am) and whilst I won't give anything away in case people haven't read it, I really enjoyed it.
Will try and be a bit more focused on the crafting tomorrow and may have something to show you then..........

Trying to organise myself!

This is my second ever sarabinder (the first was a DT project for Crop til you Drop and can be seen here).

I now have an impressive collection of inkpads and A Muse stamps and so, to avoid duplicates, I made this little binder to list them all and take it with me when I go shopping - cool eh?!

I painted the binder with pink acrylic paint, and then used Cosmo Cricket Jitterbug papers and chipboard letters to decorate it, including the dividers.

I just wonder how long before I forget to update it and my endeavours to be organised go down the drain! LOL. Answers on a postcard.........................

Yet another LO!

OK, so this is a bit of a cheat - I actually completed this LO a few weeks ago, but realised today that I hadn't photographed and uploaded it.

These pictures were taken on Easter Sunday when we had our first BBQ of the year (we do like our BBQs!). I used SEI beatnik boy papers, stickers and die cut tags, The BBQ FUN title was cut using sizzix Fruit Smoothie alphabet.

All about the challenges!

Moving on from my first pencil lines sketch yesterday, I've now discovered the Daring Cardmakers blog. I've not made many cards recently, so I thought this would be good fun! This weeks challenge is to use something you'd find in a haberdashery department/store - so that just HAD to mean ribbons!!!! (and buttons too!)

The papers are the Junkitz salsa ones that came free with the last Scrapbook inspirations.

Hope you like it - looking forward to the next challenge now!

I've discovered Pencil Lines!

This is my first ever Pencil Lines layout, from Sketch #41. I've never done anything from sketches before and I had so much fun doing this!

The papers are SEI Winnie's Walls and as soon as I saw them I HAD to have them, but then wasn't sure what to use them for, however when I picked these photos I knew immediately that these were the perfect papers.

I've also used bazzill card (don't know what the colour is) and a large Bazzill blossom in crimson (the brad in the centre is from HOTP citrus embellishabilities). The arrows are autumn leaves stitched journalling stamps and the title is A Muse stitched alphabet stamps. I challenged myself to do a fair bit of hand cutting (the arrows, the title and the flowers) as I'm so rubbish at it and need to improve!

I can see myself getting a bit obssessed with this Pencil Lines lark - I've already printed off some of the older sketches too, so will be working my way forwards and backwards IYGWIM!

Hope you like it, and make sure you check back tomorrow to see what else I've made today (been a VERY busy bee!)

Another Birthday......

....... over on the I Love Hot Off The Press forum, and this time it's Looby Lou's. Here's the card I made for her, just hope it arrived on time!

The next one is Auntie Jane's on Saturday, and I really hope that one arrives on time, as it's get to get all the way to Cape Cod!

Will have to pull my finger out and do some serious crafting tomorrow, if I'm gonna keep up this posting something new daily lark! It was my first day back at work today after a week off, and I'm shattered! I just couldn't focus and feel like I've achieved nothing, oh well tomorrow is another day.

On a lighter note Ash is cooking me a BBQ for dinner, so here's hoping the rain holds off until about 8pm, after that I'd welcome it, as then I won't have to water my plants! LOL

Until tomorrow then.................

My Garden

As much as I begrudged doing all the cutting back and planting yesterday (but not the clearing up - Ash does that bit!) I'm so pleased the garden is finished - and only about 2 months later than normal (stoopid weather!)

The first pic is from the back door looking out, the second is from in front of the pond looking at the house. Third pic is the pond. Fourth and fifth pic are Norbert and Fat Duck (just 2 of the many creatures that frequent our garden - god we're such children! LOL)

OK so I didn't post yesterday (so much for everyday eh?!), but I do have a good excuse! Having been to Crop til you Drop yesterday morning, photographic evidence on Beverley's blog (I will get her back for that photo!!) I spent the afternoon sorting out my garden - horrible job but sooo glad it's done!! If the weather cheers up here, I'll post some piccies later!

2 posts in 2 days

Are you impressed?! LOL



Here's one of my latest creations using the HOTP Ultimate Creative Pack (I just love ALL these papers!)

This is for the birthday list over on the I Love HOTP forum, and Steph's birthday is today, but unfortunately due to the postal strike I doubt it's arrived yet!



I'm popping down to Crop til you Drop tomorrow (again) as it's A-muse-a-palooza week and there's loads of exciting stuff happening - will post a pic of all my new A Muse goodies tomorrow!

Finally something to look at!

So much for updating more often eh?! Can't believe it's been over a MONTH since I last posted! I just don't know where the time has gone!

I have been making stuff, but mainly its been going on the crop til you drop blog as it's been design team stuff.

Yesterday I made this card for a friend who's also a handyman and has been doing our bathroom for us (and a fantastic job he's made too!). It was really fun to make (been ages since I did a sizzix person!) and best of all he loved it!