Blogger is being a pain in the $*£(*”’@?# !

Well blogger is playing silly whatsits at the moment and won’t let me comment on anyones blog, although others seem to be able to comment on mine, so I’m not sure what’s going on.

It’s being a pain in the $*£(*”’@?# for the last week or more, so instead of reading the WOYWW posts I’ve given up for now, to return later and I’ve been sitting in my garden enjoying the sunshine instead. It’s really hot quite out there if I tuck myself in the corner where it’s sheltered from the wind.

Anyway, while I was sitting there I was fascinated by the wispy clouds that were coming over so I run in and got my camera. The picture didn’t really come out all that well really but I’m sure you’ll get the gist of why it was grabbing my attention.

I also took a couple of pictures of my small garden.

The beautiful Rose that I brought after losing Dad last year.
It’s called Glenfiddich and that was his favourite Whisky tipple. I just wish we had smell-a-vision here because it has such a heady scent you can smell it as soon as you walk into the garden.

My lovely Acer that I brought for the bargain price of £3 at a car boot sale a couple of years ago.

And of course a final picture of the lovely BoJangles who didn’t want to be left out and was also enjoying the sun with me.

I'll try the commenting thing again later but I've given up for tonight, I just can't stand the stress of it all.

Hope blogger plays fairly next week!

One Week To Go...........WOYWW #103

With only a week to go until the big day and excitement is reaching fever pitch over at the Julia’s place where the Stamping Ground is a buzz with anticipation for the 2nd birthday Pay It Forward.
My gift is all done and dusted, ready and waiting to go in the post but I still need to make a little card to go with it, so that’s part of my plans for today’s crafting action.

But before I start on that, I have to pack up some cards to go into the post and as you can see from my desk photo this morning BoJangles is sitting pretty waiting help me.........ok, he’s really waiting for me to take that coffee cup out into the kitchen and hoping that while I’m there he’ll get a handful of food.
He’s such a gannet!

As I understand it, for most cats ,including my previous cat Emily, you can put down a big bowl of food and they will quite happily graze on it all day but not Bo, oooh noooo, he scoffs the lot in one go and still wants more. He’ll eat and eat until he makes himself sick, so I have to weigh out his food in the morning and give it to him throughout the day in a bid to keep him happy, but his constant worrying for food can really try your patients sometimes.

Anyway I digress, it’s been such a relief to get back to card making after the trials and tribulations of the curtain linings last week. I finally managed to finish them though and while the sewing machine was still out I also made myself make the pelmet for my lounge which I’ve been meaning to do for the last eighteen months and also take the curtains up a smidgen because they’ve been dragging along the floor for the same length of time.
I’m so ashamed of myself for admitting that but they are done now and just waiting to go back up at the window so all in all so I should be feeling pretty happy.

If you want a better look at the cards I’ve made this week here they are:-

I was playing with my new set of Kanban stamps and some clear embossing for this first one.

Next is another stamped and embossed image but I can’t remember who it’s by because it’s not in any packaging. I’ve water coloured this one with Marvy LePlume pens and added some Crystal Lacquer to the tops of the waves for effect.

For the next two I’ve used a Sketching Stamper digital stamps and coloured them with ProMarkers.

Then I thought I would have a go at making my own rosettes using my new 'Hougie' board. If you've not heard of one of those it's just a 12 x 12 scoring board marked out in 1/2cms on one side and 1/2inches on the other and it's the best piece of equipment that I've brought in ages.

And the last but not least are a couple just using up some scraps that I had laying around.

So that’s it from me for another week, I need to pace myself ready for the fun and games of next week’s WOYWW.

Look forward to seeing you all at the party, so until then………

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

For a little update us to why I’m not commenting on people’s blogs at the moment click here.
Blogger is being a pain

WOYWW #102

Just a quick blog from me this morning and a very different work desk too.

As you can see my desk is clear of all my card making things and in its place is my sewing machine, which rarely sees the light of day.
Now, I’m sure you’ve heard me exclaim loads of times that I can’t stitch a straight line to save myself but that just what’s needed here because I’m attempting to alter a pair of curtain liners.

Now hop on over to The Stamping Ground and join in the fun and I’ll be over in the next day or two to see what you’re all playing with this week.

Sorry I’ve got to blog and run but I have a date with Captain Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean!

Happy WOYWW!
Sue
X

Just two weeks to go until the 2nd anniversary and the ‘BIG’ P.I.F……..Yah!

WOYWW #101

Well, ‘that day’ is here again and as the work desks of the world go on public view for another What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday, mine is looking decidedly messy this morning and it’s not with a work in progress either, just the aftermath of yesterday’s crafting session.

The LO that I did of my Mum, which you can see better Here is sitting waiting to go into its final home next to Dad’s page in my scrapbook and at the front of the table you can see a printed picture of dads LO and the journaling that goes with it.

I’ve decided that I’m going to do this for all of my heritage LO’s because as I was working on mum’s page I was thinking about her life and the what to write about her when it suddenly occurred to me that not everyone who sees the scrapbook will necessarily have access to my Heritage Blog and therefor wouldn’t be able read the journaling.

By printing everything out there will be a written record that goes with each of the LO’s in the album but now I just have to decide the best way to present it. At the moment I have them in punched pockets but I don’t know whether I should find a way of keeping then in the album with the appropriate LO or if I should just keep them all in a separate ring binder to go alongside the album…........oh decisions, decisions!

As for the rest of my desk, well there’s paper, flowers and a pile of nesties all waiting to go back to their own homes!

So that’s it from me for this week. Pop across to The Stamping Ground if you want to join in with the fun and I’ll see you next time.

Happy Crafting
Sue
X

Yah…….only three weeks to go until the 2nd anniversary and the ‘BIG’ P.I.F!

And then there was Mum

Morning all.

Well, this scrapbooking malarkey is getting to be a bit addictive!

I've gone from not scraping at all to can't get enough of it, so much so that my card orders have been taking a back seat of late.

I never thought I would hear myself say that, but there it is!

So yesterday I had a wonderful day, I got up early, got the necessary housework out of the way and then headed for my craft room.

The first thing I did was this LO of my mum for my heritage album.

As you can see this is 'the other' Blue page I mentioned the other day and it’s Blue in an attempt to match the page I've already made of dad.
They look quite good in the album side by side.

Now, although I've just said that I'm getting addicted to scraping I'm still not brave enough to try and design a LO by myself yet so I found this old template on the Page Maps  site to work from.

The site is a great resource for page templates of all kinds, as well as cards.

Mum's Lo was always going to be done in these colours because they were one of her favorites, so when I visited the Stamp and Scrapbook show at Alexandra Palace back in April I was on the look out for things to use.  When I came across the beautiful pearl flourish and the paper flowers they were just crying out to me to be used and I'm so pleased that I brought them, they're gorgeous!



Now all I have to do is sit down and write her story which may take some time and then update my Heritage Blog.
Hopefully it will be done in the next few days, so don’t forget to call back and read all about her life.

Patterned Papers29th Street Market - My Mind’s Eye
Capella – Basic Grey
Ella Blue - G.C.D. Studios

Peel-Off Stickers –Craft Creations
Pearl & Iridescent Flower Stems – Craft Creations
Say it in Pearls Flourish & Butterfly – Prima
Small Mulberry Roses – The Hobby House
Medium & Large Mulberry Flowers - Prima
Journal – Computer Generated
Cotton Lace – Hobby Craft
Die cut lettering
Distress Ink – Ranger

EquipmentCuttlebug
Tag-a-Long
Nestabilities – Scalloped Ovals (sm) & Peony

Next I thought I had better tackle the every growing list of birthday cards waiting to be done.

I’m entering this card into the monthly challenge over at Craft Creations the place I get all my card stock from. The challenge is to use flowers so I think my little posy counts, don’t you?

Hope you all have a good day and I'll be back tomorrow with WOYWW (What's on your Workdesk Wednesday) when you'll be able to see the aftermath of a crafting session later today.

Bye for now
Sue
x

Here he is again!

The second page of dad in four days and yes, it’s another Blue page.



I just seem to be drawn to the colour for some reason but my excuse is that that it lends itself beautifully to the old Black and White photos that I’m using. And just to forewarn you, the papers I have for mum’s page are Blue too, so be warned.

Well as you can see this is a photo of my dad in his army uniform, aged about nineteen…….….wasn’t he handsome, it’s no wonder mum fell head over hills in love with him!
You can read his full story over at Family Footprints in the Sands of Time, my heritage blog.

For my starting point I’ve used an old page template from So Sketchy and used a combination papers from My Mind’s Eye, Basic Grey and G.C.D Studios.

The border was cut from one of the papers, embellished with eyelets (I always seem to forget to use those) and then layered with 3D foam and to give the LO some extra dimension I’ve also added some real and faux stitching.



Patterned Papers
29th Street Market - My Mind’s Eye
Capella – Basic Grey
Ella Blue - G.C.D. Studios

Alphabet Stickers – Basic Grey
Micro Mono Stickers (numbers)- Basic Grey
Card Candi – Craftworks Cards
Best Dad Plaque – Making Memories
Hemp Cord – Create Cousin
Journaling – Computer Generated
Brads from stash

First page of Dad & WOYWW #100

Morning peeps and a happy Workdesk Wednesday to you all.

This week I’ve taken my photo from a slightly different angle. It’s not much different because my room is so small you can’t swing a cat but it's given you a glimpse of the picture on my wall.

BoJangles is off to hide on the window ledge now just in case I give it a go but don't worry Bo I don’t plan to try it.

As you probably know, cross stitching is another passion of mine and this was something I stitched some time ago from a Butternut Road chart called Catch the Wind.

I’ve changed the colours of mine because I wanted it to go with the Lemon walls of my craft room, so instead of the dark Red, Green and Blue I’ve used Lemon, Pale Green and Pink and framed it in Blue and Lemon which I think worked well.

Original Colours


Changed Colours




Anyway, onto the main matter of the day and that’s what’s ‘on’ my workdesk.



Last week I mentioned that I was going to do a scrapbook page of my dad but couldn’t find the photo that I wanted to use. Well I did eventually do a page even if it wasn’t the one I wanted to do first and it’s sitting in the left hand side of my table.


Don’t you just love this photo!

Dad was just six months old when this was taken and who would have guessed then that he would live to the ripe old age of 87.

The papers I’ve used are all Lost and Found from My Mind’s Eye as is the large brad with the bird on.
I’ve kept the page quite simple, just adding the Tim Holtz Metal flowers and leaves that have been coloured with Alcohol inks and the building blocks.


I made the blocks by printing out a children’s colouring page and inking them with Distress ink before stamping them with some tapestry stamps and adding the die cut letters.

After completing the baby page I resumed my search and the good news is that I eventually found the original picture I was looking for and a lovely one of mum too, so spread all over my desk now are the papers and other bits and pieces that I’m planning to use on the next two Lo’s.
Looks like I have a busy day ahead of me. Lol!




Well thanks for dropping in, I hope you like what you’ve seen.

I’ll be making a few calls on some new blogs this week (my way of random visiting seems to be working for me) and see what craftiness everyone is up to and if you’re wondering what on earth I’m going on about, stop in on Julia, over at the Stamping Ground where everything will become clear…..hopefully!

Happy Crafting!
Sue
X
By the way it’s only a few more weeks until the birthday PIF and my little gift is all ready to go. Here’s a little sneak peek to wet your appetite.


I wonder what it is and who this will be going to?