Did someone say it was Christmas in June this year?

I know the weeks seem to be flying by but when Jo over at Daring Cardmakers set the dare for this week and it was Christmas; I nearly fell off my chair. Well I guess it is only 26 weeks away, so I suppose that Christmas in June isn’t a bad thing to help get organized with making the ever growing list of cards. I’ve still not quite got my head round the idea thought, so as soon as my card was made the box of Christmas goodies was returned to the top of the cupboard for at least another couple of months.

My card is based on one that I made in a class at Imagine That last year…..very simple and yet very effective …….well I thought so anyway!

This is the card we made at the class

And this is what I did with it myself


Card - Craft Creations Hammer card stock in Pale Blue and White
Paper – Craft Creations Vivelle Velvet paper in White
Stamps - Blond moments ‘Treemendous’
Shrink Plastic
Twinkling H2o’s
Liquid Pearls
Sizzix ‘Hunky Dory’ Alphabet die
Silver Marker Pen (which looks Gold in the photo)
Spotty Blue Ribbon
Silver Snowflake charm

A Quick Catch-Up

Now I’ve started to catch up with myself after the preparations for last weekend, so I’ll show you one or two of the cards I’ve been doing recently.

The first is a variation of the card layout I used for the quick and simple DCM dare. I love this layout and it works well for almost all occasions, in this case a 21st birthday.


All the papers used are from the Crate ‘Birdie’ collection.

For the second card I used my new Sizzix Cup Cake die for the first time…..don’t you think it’s cute. I can see this die getting lots of use in the future!

The papers on this one are Blonde Moments ‘Sugar Dumpling’

Another card I was asked to make was a real challenge. It was for a Partick Thistle supporter so it had to be something in their colours.

Basic Grey ‘Color Me Silly’ came up trumps with the perfect papers for this one.

The last card is a sympathy card that I made for my brothers family when my Sister in Law lost her mum a few weeks ago.

I kept it very simple with a cross stamped in Lavender and Green using my tapestry stamps.


I’ve had a little time for a quick bit of blog hopping again this morning and came across the new Spiral Whisper blog. It’s looking like it’s going to be a great place to visit in the future and at the moment they are running a competition to give names to two of the rubber stamps in their new family. One is a cute little ballerina and the other is a real cool dude. Why not pop over and have a look.

Happy Birthday Dad

Yah…..It my dad’s 85th birthday today

Happy Birthday Dad
and to celebrate he took us all out to lunch!
I feel bad about it really but he insisted on paying so I gave in gracefully in the end.

I did arrange a little BBQ at mine for him yesterday thought with a few friends and family which went down well. Mind you, when I got up yesterday morning and saw the rain I was wondering how on earth I was going to squeeze 15 people into my small flat. As it happened the rain did stop even if the sun didn’t shine and we sat out until around 10pm.


Silly me forgot to take any photos though, for which I could kick myself now but I made sure that I took my camera with me to the restaurant today so that we at least have a couple of photos to make the occasion.



Dad opening his cards and pressie



Dad and Me Big Brother KeithMiddle Brother Michael with his son Lee Just before we went out lunch time I was doing a bit of blog hopping and catching up on all the people who have taken up the challenge this week over at the Daring Cardmakers blog.

There are so many wonderful cards and some made in super quick time so if you get a moment hop over and take a look….you'll find some great inspiration there!

I've been tagged!

While I hopping I had a nosey on Kathy's blog and I noticed that she’s tagged me.I’m sure I didn’t get an email telling me about it but if I did I must have deleted it by mistake so I’m sorry Kathy.Apparently we have to answer the questions about ourselves and then tag another 5 people, so here goes........

Ten Years Ago:
I found this so hard trying to think what I was doing ten years ago, especially as I have such a mundane life.The thing that stands out most in my mind is that 1998 was the year that my dad had to undergo major surgery because he had an aortic aneurysm….extremely scary for him and us. The good thing is that although he took some time to recover he’s fine now and today we celebrated his 84th birthday
I was working as a Security audit Clark at the Bank Of England, where I worked for 28 years before retiring at the age of 47.I went to California for my holidays that year with my 'then' partner. It turned out to be one of the most memorable holidays I’ve had, due the fact that we were staying in Los Angeles and on our second night we were awakened by an earthquake. Not the first I’ve experienced but by far the scariest given where we were. There was another strong aftershock a couple of days later but thankfully we were all safe and we happily moved on down to La Jolla in San Diego for our second week.
That's about all I can remember.

Five things in today's 'to do list':

1. Clear up the mess from last nights BBQ
2. Do the insert for Dad’s birthday card
3. Drive Dad and Keith to the restaurant for lunch
4. Stitch some more of the panel for the Kids Company charity cushion
5. Can’t think of another one, besides, it’s Sunday and I’m in weekend mode

Snacks I enjoy:

Cashew Nuts.
Black Grapes
Ice Cream
Not necessarily in that order!

Things I would do if I was a millionaire:

If there was a glimmer of a chance that my dad’s eyesight could be restored (which sadly there’s no hope of) I would gladly give up every single penny. But as that’s never going to happen I guess it will have to be the same as Kathy, save some, spend some and give some away.

Places I have lived:

Very boring I’m afraid
I’m an Essex Girl and always have been. In fact I’ve lived in Loughton all my life and I now live less than half a mile from my home as a baby.

Now I have to tag another five people so typing fingers at the ready girls!
Juliet
Lythan
Jackie
Sheila
Judy

Need A Card in a Hurry…….then try this DCM dare.

It’s Tracie’s turn to set the dare over at the Daring Cardmakers this week.

She said:-
It’s my turn (Bondgirl) to set the dare this week and it’s inspired by my life. As you all know I have 2 small children (2 and 4 months!) and managing life with them, my housewifely duties, studying for my BA, life, etc etc etc crafting sometimes has to take a back seat. You know what it’s like for every item you cross off your to do list, another 2 get written on. And then comes the dilemma, its X's birthday, or A and B's anniversary - what do you do? Time isn’t on your side to make a card but you don’t want to pay a small fortune for one in the shops either. Well hopefully this dare will help you out.
I want you to make a QUICK CARD! a card that takes you no more than hmm say 30 minutes max to do - start to finish. No set ingredients and pick your own theme, but be quick and be crafty! (and don’t forget to tell us how long it took too)

I have to say, most of my cards are labour intensive and usually take ages to make but on this occasion I managed one in under ten minutes…………Not bad when you consider that most of that was spent fuffing around trying to set up the printer to print directly onto the card.


The rest is simply four various sized rectangles cut from a Basic Grey ‘Mellow’ paper pad that have been inked along the edges, a QuickKutz Pussy Cat die cut, some doodling and a bit of bling.
That’s all there is to it

More Cross Stitch

I just thought I would give you a little update on my cross stitching seeing as I haven’t done so for a little while.

The first bit of news is that I can now reveal what the secret project was that I mentioned back in April.

I seem to have become part of a stitching circle (if you can call three of us a circle) with my good friends Sharon and Nicki. We all met on the forum at Crafts By Carolyn and have become the best of friend, so much so that I’m going out to Switzerland to visit Nicki at the start of August, but I digress.

Hazel, the person who our surprise was for was also a member of the forum and I have to say, she is one of the loveliest people I have ever met.
Earlier in the year I was reading her blog and read that her husband’s guide dog Josey had to be returned to the association because John had been quite ill and was no longer using her enough to warrant still having her. Although she was a working dog she was still a pet to them and part of their family so how Hazel and John coped with handing her back I will never know.
It made me feel so sad to read about it all that I decided that I wanted to do something to cheer the two of them up a bit, so I spoke to Sharon and Nicki they both agreed it would be wonderful to make something for them.

We had loads of discussions on the designs for the panels as well as the verses we were going to put on each cushion and then we finally got down to some stitching, Sharon doing the panel for John and myself doing Hazels.

John's (Stitched by Sharon)
Hazel's (Stitched by me)
When we had finished the stitching the panels were sent out to Nicki and she made them up for us. She thinks of everything does Nicki, even down to how John will be able to tell which cushion is his even though he's unable to see them. She came up with the great solution of adding buttons and fringing to John’s cushion and on Hazels it was little flowers and piping.

Cushions (made by Nicki)



So that was them finished.
The first that Hazel knew about any of this was when she received an email from me telling her that there was a surprise on it’s way. In a day or two she would receive a card from me but under no circumstance was she to open it until the parcel arrived as well.
Our intention was that she should read my card which explained why we had made them and then in the parcel with the cushions Nicki had made another card to explain the differences in the cushions.

So there you have it….. three ladies who enjoyed every minute spent on this little project and hopefully Hazel and John resting comfy on their new cushions, which incidentally match their room perfectly……how lucky was that!

Another thing I’ve been working on is a Birthstone Fairy for SOLAK

She’s part of a stitch-a-long, that’s were twelve people all work on a set of charts and stitch on the same material. Then when all twelve squares are finished they are made up into a quilt which is auctioned to raise money for the charity.
For some reason this little fairy had been missed and a message was put up on the board asking for a volunteer who didn’t mind stitching on evenweave fabric so I gave a shout and before I knew it the material and chart were on their way to me. The other reason I offered to stitch her was because she is the Sapphire Fairy which just happens to me my birthstone!
Here she is…….isn’t she cute!

Last but not least is another charity project that Nicki asked if I would like to be involved with. It’s all to do with children this time and the charity Kids Company, who help kids with all sorts of problems.

Nicki has started to make cushions for some of the kid who have nothing to call their own so when she asked if I would like to help out I jumped at the chance.
I’m working on my first panel at the moment so it’s still a work in progress.

Another Little Extra from the Daring Cardmakers

It’s time for another little extra from the Daring Cardmakers and it’s another in the series, using traditional and modern Anniversary gifts for inspiration.

It’s the 10th Anniversary this time which means Tin/Aluminum or Diamond Jewellary.

I decided not to choose one or the other for my card but instead went for both options, using diamantes in the centers of my foil embossed flowers after I had given them the ‘alcohol ink’ treatment.



I’ve used papers from DCWV - Far East Stack and a sheet from my Memory Stor Costco Kit as well as some Black card for matting

The rubber stamp is Penny Black’s Letter Background which has been stamped with Whispers archival dye based ink.

I made the flowers by cutting them out of a sheet of ‘Make Me’ metal foil using a Sizzlits Flower Die and then run them through my Cuttlebug in an embossing folder. They were then given a coating of Ranger alcohol inks and finished off with some diamantes from my stash before being attached to the ribbon.

Last but not least I’ve printed a computer generated greeting and added some Tulip 3 dimensional fabric paint to the edges of the mats.

A.W.L. .......... That’s Absent With Leave in this case!

Did you miss me?

Actually, I bet no one even noticed that I wasn’t here but I’ve just had a break from my crafting for a week.
The week started with a lovely weekend away with my good friends Susan and Edd in the Black Country where we had a trip to the Living Museum and on the Sunday we visited Dudley Castle and Zoo. I’ll tell you more about that later and show you a few of my photos.
The rest of my week was taken up with the usual household chores, shopping and because the weather was being kind I decided to jet wash my two patio areas…..a job that spread over two days………..please remind me to get someone in to do it for me next time!

As you can imagine, there was little time for crafting but I got my act in gear last night and made my card for this weeks Daring Cardmakers challenge.

It's Kathy’s turn to set the dare this week and she’s come up with a ‘Wheely’ good one!
Yep, you’ve guessed it………she wants us to make a card which has wheels of some description on it.
My thoughts immediately went to a Form-A-Line stitching kit from Card Inspirations that I had sitting in the drawer. It’s all Vintage transport and I thought it would be perfect for this dare.

Here’s my little effort.



Paper – Crate – Avenue Collection
Inks – Color Box – Fluid Chalk Cat’s Eye
Thread – Anchor Silk
Stamps – Greeting, Whispers Words – Penny Farthing, Tanda, Transport Set 1
My Stash – Black Brad.

A Dareing Cardmakers with another skill under her belt!

Not much crafting being done this week because I’m trying to get straight and sorted before going off on a weekend break. I did manage the Daring Cardmakers Little Extra this week though.

They are still working their way randomly through the list of traditional and modern wedding gifts and using that as I guide line for our cards.

This week it’s has to be something in Jade of Coral, representing the 35th Wedding Anniversary
I used this dare to make a card for an order and have to say I was chuffed with the results especially as I managed to learn another little computer skill along the way.

As usual I started by covering an A5 card blank with paper from We R Memory Keepers. I love this paper from the Precious Metal Vintage Brass range because the colours are beautiful….what’s more they were a gift from the lovely Kathy, which makes them even more special!

I then cut three wavy borders using the Creative Memories Cutting System and layered the first two on top of one another.

Next came a spot of embossing with my Cuttlebug. I’ve used one of the small folders to emboss two squares and the third wavy border and then inked across the top of each with Ranger Distress Ink in Tattered Rose. The final border was then layered on the other two and attached down the side of the card. The two squares were also layered onto the card.

The next bit I’m feeling quite pleased with myself about because I’ve finally managed to make my own greeting using photoshop7. I'm now able to move the text around to exactly where I want it to be and not where ‘Word’ dictated it had to be...........not very spectacular you might think but it’s such an achievement for me because I’m useless with anything other than basic on the computer.
Anyway, I left a gap on the greeting so I could add the Heidiswapp chipboard numbers that I had covered with Precious Metal paper and given a coat of Diamond Glaze and finally finished the whole thing off with some little flowers that were cut from the papers and given a little sparkle with Stickles glitter glue.

Thanks to everyone who drops and takes the time to see what I’ve been up to and thanks also for all the lovely comments you leave, they are much appreciated.
Thanks again
Sue
x x x