Sue's Krafty Kards and other stuff!

WOYWW (#138)

2012-01-25T12:28:00.002Z

So here we are at Wednesday again and as we all know, that means a mega blog hop courtesy of Julia and the What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday gang.

I actually ducked out of last week’s visit because I was trying to catch up with housework and stuff.

For some reason I was so behind but it was most likely due to the fact that I spent all day on the Monday crafting with my lovely friend Lythan at her house.

We haven’t seen each other since before Christmas so we exchanged Christmas gifts too which made it even more fun but our meeting was tinged with a little sadness because she’s moving down to Devon in July and I won’t get to see her so often.

Still there’s five months until then so we’ll have to fit in as many crafting sessions as we can between now and then!

Anyway, what’s on my desk this morning is the thing that I started when I was at Lythan’s and haven’t touched since.

When hopping around the desks the week before last I dropped into Jacqui’s blog “Jacques Junque” and watched a You Tube clip of a mini album she had made using the inside tubes from toilet rolls.

I got to thinking that it would make a nice little extra to go into my heritage album as I have quite a few photos of my Grandfathers siblings but only want to make one page for each of them in the main album. It would be such a shame not to include all the other pictures and this would seem to be the perfect solution, so I’m going to give it a go.

The papers that I’ve chosen for it are K & Co’s Blue Awning, which have a beautiful vintage look and some of the papers are textured too.

Also at the back of my desk this week you can see a plastic box which contains the finished wedding invitations I was making.

I’m just waiting for the bride to come and collect them and then I’m done for now until she gives me her list for the evening invites.

Please don’t think all the writing is smudged on the actual invitations, obviously I’ve done that so you don’t all gate crash her wedding, Lol!

For those of you who are interested in seeing some of my cross stitch projects that I’ve worked on over the years I’ve now several more projects to my other blog “I’d Rather Be Stitchin”, bringing it up to 2008.

Those I've included are a group project for a children’s hospice, my first squares for a charity group called Stitches of Love and Kindness and a project for a very special friend, so please pop across and have a look, I’d love to know what you think.

Links to latest projects added.

Please don’t take any notice of the dates on these posts, I’m in the process of putting all my old projects on in date order.

Cross Stitched Scrapbook Page Frame

Wall Hanging for Children’s Hospice

Stitches of Love and Kindness

SOLAK Squares

People who don’t like cats

More SOLAK Squares

Another SOLAK Quilt

Sharon’s Quilt

Here's a sneek peek

So that’s what’s on my desk this week……..now let’s see yours in all its glory.

I’ll be round after lunch to see what you’re up to.

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

Monochromatic

2012-01-15T22:14:00.002Z

Monochromatic describes paintings, drawings, design or photographs in one colour of varying shades of one colour and that’s exactly what the challenge over at Sir Stampalot Challenge Blog is this week.

As you can see I’ve gone Pink tones, inking directly onto the card and stamping over the top, which is something I don’t do very often.

Ingredients:
Stamps
Artemio - Modern Grasses
Craft Stamper – Free Flower Stamp

Inks, Paints & PensRanger – Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet, Tattered Rose & Spun Sugar)

SundriesCraft Creations – White Hammer Cardstock
The Range – Smooth White Card
Anita’s – Tiny Gems
Craftwork Cards – Birthday Greeting
The Paper Studio – Pearl Brad
Dovecraft – Glitter Glue (Crystal)
Ribbon
Blooms

65 Years Young

2012-01-15T21:28:00.001Z

I quite often get asked to make cards by family members and boy did my brother Michael come up with a corker on Thursday.

He wanted me to make a card for a friend of his called Bob, who will be 65 next week and the brief was Bob the Builder or something to do with scaffolding because that’s his job.

At first I panicked but after the initial terror subsided I started to have a little search on the web and came up with a kids colouring page of Bob the Builder standing on scaffolding……perfect!

The card was put together using the latest sketch from Sketch By Carly.

To continue with the building theme I decided bob looked as if he was guiding something up to where he is standing, so I’ve made it look like the number 6 is being pulled up on a chain by a crane and the 5 is already fixed to the wall.

Ingredients:

Patterned PapersDCWV – The Natural Stack

StampsImagine That – Just The Ticket

Inks, Paints & PensTsukineko – Memento (Tuxedo Black)
Tsukineko – StazOn (Jet Black)
Ranger – Distress Ink (Aged Mahogany & Forest Moss)
Making Memories – Acrylic paint ( Evergreen)
Letraset – Promarkers (Various Colours)
Sharpie – Fine / Ultra-Fine Marker (Black)

SundriesCraft Creations – Cream Hammer Cardstock
Dovecraft - Glitter Glue (Crystal)
Basic Grey – Alphabet Stickers
Chain
Photo Anchor (Black)
Brads (Black)
Earing Finding

Going Buggy - Challenge #1

2012-01-12T13:53:00.001Z

Emyfs has a great challenge this month over at Going Buggy.

The challenge is to make a card or project using Red, Gray and White and as I had a Ruby Wedding card to make colour choice was perfect for me. You might had already seen it on my desk yesterday when it was still a work in progress but it’s all finished now.

I started off by stamping the flourishes and some of the flowers directly onto the card stock.

My plan was to attach the die-cut with foam pads to make it stand out a bit from the card but I wanted the stamping on it to match up with the card so I had to think about how I was going to achieve it.

In the end I decided that my best plan of action was to lay a sheet of acetate over the card and positioned the die-cut no top where I eventually wanted it to be. This enabled me to line up the acrylic stamps with the image already stamped on the card…..result!

Next I stamped some extra flowers, painted them with Red Pearl Ex-Press watercolor and then decoupage them over the flowers already on the card, finishing them off with some diamantes and glitter glue.

I then added two little punched butterflies which I made bodies fir using gold wire and red seed beads and finally I finished off the card with a computer printed greeting, Red bow and stick pin.

Ingredients:

Stamps
Artemio – Arabesque 2
Papermania – Hampstead
Rubber Stamp Tapestry – Cherry Blossoms

Inks
Ranger – Pumice Stone Distress Ink
Versa Color – Cardinal
Versa Color – Chateau Gray

Punches & Dies
Personal Impressions – Butterfly
Nestabilities- Scalloped Oval
Nestabilities- Small Classic Oval
Go Kreate – Wavy Frame 1

Sundries
Craft Creations – White Hammer Cardstock
Craft Creations – Dark Gray Vanguard Cardstock
Dovecraft Glitter Glue – Crystal
Anita’s – Tiny Gems
Creative Expressions – Decorative Stick Pins
Red Organza Ribbon
Red Seed Beads
Gold Wire
Computer generated Greeting.

WOYWW (#136)

2012-01-11T07:44:00.009Z

An anniversary card is the order of the day, a Ruby Wedding one to be precise.

As you can see from the photo, the card is almost finished and as per usual all the things I’ve used to make it are still on the table, creating an every decreasing work space.

My Cuttlebug is out, along with the CD storage case that I keep my dies in, my Candi Cane is sitting in the drawer I use to store all my diamonties and gems and there’s several sets of stamps out too...........couldn’t decide which little flowers to use. You’ll also notice a couple of butterfly punches because again I couldn’t decide which one to use.

All this indecission I here you say.............it must mean I have way too many craft toys!

As if, Lol!

Anyway, once this card is finished I’ll be having a bit of a clear up and then it’s back to the Wedding Invitations.

I spoke to the bride on Thursday to see if she had her final list of guests ready and she mentioned that she would like to come and see me to discuss a couple of changes, so we meet up on Friday.

Turns out that she’d had second thoughts about the plain white card the invitation insert and RSVP is printed on and has decided that she wants it on Stardream instead.

So on Monday I went over to Craft Creations to get the new card stock (which you can see sitting on top of the drawers on the left) and now I need to make a new sample for her to ok before getting my teeth into it all again…….just as well I didn’t get very many of the RSVPs done last week because they all have to be scrapped now.

It’s not a problem because it’s important that she has everything exactly as she wants, but the down side to this is that she had already given me the ok on the first sample and I had brought everything I needed and started work on them.
Now I have to start from scratch because she’s also changed the wording and the colour of the text and she’s going to have to pay out again for the new card.

So that what’s going on in my neck of the crafting woods this week.

Why not join in with What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday and share the secrets of your work space with Julia and the gang.
We all love nothing better than having a good old nosy at what you’re up to at the moment.

I’ll be popping in later, so get the kettle on and have some virtual chocolate biscuits ready…….I’m so missing them since starting my diet back in October and this is the only way I can have them, Lol!

Happy Crafting!
x x x

Oh I nearly forgot to tell you that I had a bit of welcome news this week.
The card that I made for the Crafty Ribbons challenge last week was picked as one of their top three, so thanks girls, I’m glad you liked it.

Daring Cardmaker’s – First Friday Colour Challenge

2012-01-08T11:39:00.001Z

It’s been a while since I’ve joined in with a The Daring Cardmaker’s dare and this is what they have in store for us this week.

This week we have the very first in our brand new "First Friday" series. Over the last couple of years we've used Birthstones and Flowers for these challenges, and they've both been

interesting and inspiring themes to work with.

For 2012 the First Friday of each month will feature a Colour Combo Challenge

As soon as I saw the colours for this week dare I remembered that I still had some sheets left in my Linen Closet stack from DCWV that would be perfect and I ended up making no less than three cards.

The first WOYWW of 2012 (#135)

2012-01-04T14:25:00.000Z

Can you believe that here we all are, congregating over at the Stamping Ground for Julia’s first WOYWW of the year, that’s What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday for those not on the know…..although I don’t believe that there’s anyone left out in blog land who hasn’t heard of WOYWW, Lol!

If I’m honest, I glad to see the back of 2011 and I’m looking forward to a quieter year ahead but it’s not had a good start so far.

I got up yesterday morning to find my Right knee has swollen to twice its usual size and I’m limping like an good ’ne at the moment.
Every so often I get a collection of fluid on my knees and have had to go and have it aspirated in the past (not very pleasant I can tell you) but for now it’s just a case of keep popping the Nurofen and rest it as much as I can in the hope it goes down by its self.

Fortunately it’s not stopping me from sitting at my table and working on the wedding invitations you can see on my desk this morning.

All the wallets are stuck together now and this afternoon my plan is to cut all the Navy card to size and print the RSVP’s, which should keep me quiet for a little while.

I also want to get my tax return sorted in the next couple of days so I’d best get a wiggle on if I want to get it in on time…..don’t want any nasty fines dropping through my door now, do I.

Happy New Year to all my WOYWW friends …..and anybody else who just happens by my blog……I hope 2012 is a good one for you.

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x x x

Happy New Year everyone!

2012-01-01T12:28:00.005Z

No partying for me last night but I did see the New Year in with some very special people.

My God daughter Nichola & her husband Paul invited me to join Nichola’s Mum and Dad and Paul’s Mum for a games night.
We played a DVD horse racing game first and most impressively I didn’t manage to win one single race, then true to form I finished almost last in Trivial Pursuits too, Lol!

Still, I was all good fun and we had a bit of a laugh.

I hope you all had a good evening too.

So now, I’ve just got home after staying the night at Sue & Edd's and after a quick shower and change of clothes I’m off out again for lunch over at my brothers house, but before I go I wanted to share with you my first challenge card of 2012.

It’s a template challenge set before Christmas by the Crafty Ribbons challenge blog, but it’s still running so I thought I would use the template to make a birthday card.

Here’s the template:-

And here’s my very first card of 2012:-

Thanks for stopping by and .......

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Little Boxes Revisited

2011-12-30T21:52:00.005Z

When I visited The Stampman Challenge Blog today to see what their new challenge would be I discovered that they are actually holding their 3rd Annual Awards.

The idea is that everyone shares their favourite project of 2011, and I’ve interpreted that as meaning favourite stamped project, so here I go with mine…………………

Back in June I was looking for ideas for a birthday present for a really special friend and while looking through some old copies of Craft Stamper I came across a five sided Etui with little drawers inside that had been designed by Alix Waterhouse.

It was definitely out of my comfort zone but at the time I was looking to try something a little more challenging than cards or scrapbook layouts and this little box seemed to fit the bill.

You can read my original post here.

Aha, but I didn’t stop there…..oh no.

I enjoyed making the first box so much that I decided to make two more for another couple of crafty friends who also had birthdays coming up.

Here’s the original post of the other two and there's more pictures too.

Now, I know this is all supposed to be about stamping but there is one more project that I worked on last year that under other circumstances would have most definitely been my No1 project............nine quilts and eleven cushions, all cross stitched for St. Clare Hospice.

It was a real labour of love, if ever there was one!

Read the full story and see the rest of the photos here, including the presentation to the Hospice on what would have been my dad's 88th birthday.

Well thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed seeing my favourite projects of 2011………….I wonder what projects next year will bring!

So Late…………….. WOYWW (#134)

2011-12-28T16:12:00.000Z

I’ve got myself so confused with the days this week that I almost forgot to do a picture of my desk today.

I think what confused me was the fact that my Slimming World weigh-in was a day early this week, on Wednesday instead of Thursday and I’m still celebrating that I actually managed to lose half a pound over Christmas……don’t know how that happened because I’ve not stopped eating, Lol!

Any way, it really is Wednesday and that means all the snoops who hang out at Julia’s Stamping Ground each week will be stopping by to see what’s lurking one everyone’s desks.

As you can see mine is finally clear of the mess that had accumulated on it over the last week or so and I’m well and truly back in birthday card mode with no less than eleven needed for January. They are all needed in the first week or two so I need to get a wiggle on especially as I’ll also be working on getting the Wedding Invitation order done too so the New Year will be off to a busy start.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa brought you all lots of “crafty” presents. Mine was very quiet with just my brother and cousin joining me this year but after the last couple of week it’s was nice to just chill out and relax.

New Year’s Eve I’ll be going to my God daughters to ring in the New Year in their first home, which will be quite special.

Thanks for all the lovely messages that you have left for over the last year. Thanks to Julia I have founds some quite wonderful blogging friend who have supported me through some rough times and given me inspirations when it has been lacking.

I hope you all have a Happy and a Healthy New Year.

Love

Sue and Mr BoJangles

x x x

Home for Christmas!…………….. WOYWW (#133)

2011-12-21T11:09:00.000Z

Good morning to all my lovely blog land friends out there…..can you believe that it’s just four more sleeps until the big day.

Things are a little frantic here at Sue’s Krafty Kards the moment while I try to play catch up and I guess are probably the same for you at your end but I truly hope that you’re not trying to get on top of things for the same reasons that I am.

As you may have noticed I’ve not been around since my last blog post when I was telling you I was off to Cologne for the Christmas markets four weeks ago.

Well it all started out wonderfully with a long but enjoyable day on the coach, a slightly choppy channel crossing and a nice five star hotel waiting for us when we arrived.
We were all very tired so it was a quick freshen up and then find somewhere to eat and we found ourselves a very nice Italian restaurant right on the banks of the Rhine. I know……here we are in Germany and we go eat Italian, but we had the rest of the weekend to sample the German cuisine.

We had a little walk round the nearest market before it closed at 10pm and then it was back to the hotel for a night cap and then fall into bed.

Our plans for the following day were to visit all six markets in the area but then everything went pear shaped.

When we woke up on Saturday morning my cousin wasn’t feeling well and it turned out she had had a stroke during the night and ended up at the local hospital.
Her blood pressure was through the roof with both readings being more than 200 and once they managed to bring it down and stabilize her she was moved to another hospital on the outskirts of Cologne where she stayed for the next 16 days.

The rest of the party we were with came home on the Monday as planned, leaving Jane and I out there and I had a bit of a frantic time trying to sort out another hotel so I could stay with her.
I managed to get two extra days in the hotel we were already in and then found another that was nearer to the hospital which was about 20 mins. from the centre of Cologne in a residential arer of the city.
It still meant a couple of moves though because the hotel I found was full on one of the days.........what a nightmere..........talk about panic, especially as hardly anyone in the area spoke English and we didn't speak any German.
The guy in the hotel was really helpful though and he found me a room for the one night I needed and then it was back to his hotel for the rest of my stay.

I was beginning to think we wouldn’t be home for Christmas but fortunately it’s turned out to be only a mild stroke and Jane is making good progress, but still scary never the less and I’ve never looked forward to coming home from a break away more than this time.

The main thing is that she’s going to be ok, but having completely lost the last week of November and the first two weeks in December all our plans are now three weeks behind.

There’s still Christmas shopping to do and I hadn’t finished making all my Christmas cards so for the first time in eight years or more I’ve sent brought ones and decided to keep the ones I’ve already made for next year because I couldn’t decide who should have handmade and who the brought ones.

So it’s onto my desk and as you can see there’s absolutely nothing going on.

The remainders of the brought Christmas cards are sitting there just in case I’ve forgotten someone.

The lamp was moved from the living room when I put up my Christmas tree yesterday and has just been dumped on the table for the time being until I get around to tiding up and the other bits and bobs have been on the table since before I went away.

My craft room does have a Christmassy feel thought because I’ve plugged in my little tree to give some festive colour.

And here’s a picture of my tree in the living room.

I wish each and everyone of you who joins Julia for What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday each week a very Happy Christmas and I hope Santa brings you everything that you hope for.

Now let’s see what’s on your desk this week!

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

A change is as good as a rest…………….. WOYWW (#129)

2011-11-23T03:37:00.002Z

Well, I know we are all always saying that the week between What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday’s seems to get shorter and shorter, but in my case it really does.

As you know, I was down in Bournemouth last weekend for a rendezvous with Captain Jack Harkness, aka, John Barrowman and despite my reservations, his show was absolutely fantastic.

He really comes across as being a family guy and throughout the show they were showing pictures of close family members and telling little stories about them. At one point he was telling a very funny story about his parents who are both in there 70’s and as he was telling us how they ‘kept things fresh’ two people came out on stage dressed as a builder and a NY cop, it was so funny. Turned out they were actually his mum and dad.

He was so proud of them both.

This weekend coming I’m away again and have to be up at silly o’clock on Friday morning to be on the coach for 5am bound for the Christmas markets of Cologne and a four day break, so I only have a few days to craft in this week, which brings me nicely to my desk.

As you can see from the photo my desk is in a bit of a frenzy.

The Christmas cards have been put on hold until I get back from my trip and the change I was talking about at the top of my post refers to me making a few birthday cards that are needed for the start of December.

The first is a card for a teenage boy, which just happens to be the theme on the Cupcake Craft challenge blog this week.
I always find it so hard to make cards for that age range and judging by my photo I must have pulled everything I own out of every cupboard and drawer, trying to come up with an idea or two.

In the end I had a look to see what templates were out there this week and found this one on the Sketch ‘n’ Stash blog.

I always find them a great starting point when I’m really stuck but eventually, with the help of the sketch I managed to make this:-

And here's the other couple of cards I made.

If you haven’t already, pop across to Julia’s at The Stamping Ground and give as a peek at what’s on your desk this week.

I myself need to get on and find my bigger case and get packing my wooly jumpers and thermals because according to the weather forecast we are in for some very cold weather while we’ve away. At least it’s not snowing like the last time I was in Cologne.

I'll be round to see as many as I can before the off on Friday, so get the coffee on!

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

A Sight I never Thought I Would See…………….. WOYWW (#128)

2011-11-16T09:26:00.000Z

And that’s the state that my work desk is in this morning, but before I go into details about what’s on my desk I would just like to apologize for the fact that I didn’t round to very many people last week, including one or two who left me messages. Time just slipped away from me, as it tends to do at this time of year but I hope to make a more concerted effort this week and visit as many of you as I can. But having said that it will be later in the week because I’m away at the weekend.

So then, back the main reason we are all here and that’s to see what’s on my desk this morning.

Julia, has her “Queen of Hop” crown on over at The Stamping Ground from where she hosts What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, so it’s full steam ahead.

As you will know from my previous posts, I’ve been up to my neck in Christmas card orders and I’m pleased to say that I am beginning to see the wood for the trees now, having really cracked on with them last week.

On my desk you can see lots of little piles of cards, all ready to be sent out to the people who have ordered them from me and I also managed to finish off the other 30 cards for the lady I was meeting last Thursday and delivered them to her by hand.

Here's a closer look at a few of the cards.

This is the one I was working on last week.

It’s somehow satisfying to see them all sitting there finished but I still have my own cards to complete, so I’m not quite at the finishing line just yet.

As I’m writing this, I’m just waiting for my friend Sue to arrive and then we are going Christmas shopping but when I get back this evening I have to finish off two birthday and one Christmas card that I need to leave at my brothers before I go away on Friday.
I’m off down to Bournemouth to see my Aunty for a few days with my cousin and while we are there we’ve got tickets to see John Barrowman at the BIC…..thought we would treat my auntie!

By the way, Pricilla was great last week.

What a fab show……..so flamboyant and over the top….great music and stunning costumes….what more could we ask for.

We had a lovely meal too, so fingers cross that when I go for my SW weigh-in tomorrow I’ve still managed to loose.
Last week I broke through the ½ stone and have lost a total of 8 ½ lb. in four weeks.

Right then I must get on and Sue will be here shortly.

Hope you all have a good week. See you soon.

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x x x

Withdrawal Symptoms WOYWW (#127)

2011-11-09T10:30:00.000Z

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday is here again, hosted by the lovely Julia over at The Stamping Ground and having missed last week’s round of desk hopping I’m suffering for withdrawal symptoms. It’s a scary thought, only having missed just one week but it feels like not seeing your family for a while and I really missed it.
Still, I’m here to make up for it this week and the picture of my desk shows the mess it was left in last night.

I’ve still been chipping away at the old Christmas Cards, some of which I need to finish today because I’m meeting up with the lady they are for tomorrow. We are going to the West End to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert , so I thought if I could get them finished I could save her the cost of me posting them to her.

At the back of the table you can see a few of the cards made from my new MME papers, Lost & Found Christmas and these are every bit are gorgeous as the Lost & Found papers I used in my heritage album……almost too gorgeous to use in fact!

At the front of the desk where I was last working is the start of two more cards (I tend to make them in pairs for some reason) where I have stamped the background to give it a nice marbled effect and then added a pine garland across the top and bottom.

My plan is to hang the baubles you can see from it.

This was the first time I’ve used these Marianne dies and I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with them but in the end I decided to cover the die cuts with distress in, give them a blast of the heat gun to dry them and then randomly dab them with a VersaMark ink pad and Gold emboss them. As it goes I’m quite pleased with the Vintage look I’ve achieved so I’ll definitely be doing some more.

On the other end of my table is my lap tray that I dumped there last night, covered with beads.

For the last week or so I’ve been cross stitching in the evenings while catching up on my favorite TV programs but last night when I settled down to watch The Jury I thought I would get my bead box out and crack on with a Christmas present that I wanted to make.

I finished up making a necklace, two bracelets and two pairs of earrings and I still have loads of the beads left to make some more bits.

So that’s it from me for another week.

My countdown to Christmas has well and truly begun because I have something special on now every week until the big day starting with Priscilla and an Itallian meal tomorrow.
The following weekend I’m going down to Bournemouth, the next weekend I going to Cologne to the Christmas Markets, the next week it a show at a local theatre and a girly night out for a meal, then our yearly Christmas show at the Royal Albert Hall and the following weekend is Christmas…Phew!

And in-between that little lot I’ll be trying to say on track for my Slimming World weigh in on a Thursday mornings, which isn’t going to be easy. I joined three weeks ago and am really hoping to break through the half stone tomorrow when I go, so wish me luck.

Right then, I really need to crack on and get these cards finished so I don’t expect to be calling in on you today (well may be this evening) but I’ll definitely be round at some point to see what you’re all up to.

Bye for now and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Crafting!

Sue
x

Don’t you just love it when your plans go bottom up. WOYWW (#125)

2011-10-26T05:30:00.002+01:00

And that’s exactly what happened to me yesterday.

I didn’t really have anything specific in mind when I got up, I just thought I would make some more Christmas cards to bring the ever growing list down a bit and continue to challenge myself in making my own backgrounds instead of using patterned papers.

So with Christmas firmly in mind I decided that I needed a Fired Brick or Barn Door Distress Stain to speed things up a little and as I don’t possess either I thought I would go on a little jaunt to my favorite craft shop Imagine That over at Upminster.
The trouble was it wasn’t until I actually drove into the road where the shop is that I remembered it’s shut on Tuesdays………..what am I like, Lol!

My next thought was to take a ten minute detour to the Romford Hobbycraft, but again my mind wasn’t on what I was doing and I took a wrong turning ….......don’t ask me how because I’ve done that trip I don’t know how many times…........and I ended up going in totally the wrong direction.

Half an hour later I made it to Hobbycraft, only to find they didn’t have any Distress Stains at all, so after that little lot I had no intentions what-so-ever of coming home empty handed and I treated myself to some new Christmas stamps and embossing folders instead.

You can just see them sitting at the back of my deck on top of the ice cream tub I use for my rubbish.

Here’s a better look.

So today is going to spent making Christmas cards, minus the Distress Stain but it’s been ordered on line now and should be with me in a day or two, along with a few extra colours that just happened to drop into my basket.
I should have done that in the first place but hind sight is a wonderful thing.

While I wait for them all to arrive I’ve been playing with my Promarkers instead, colouring these Penny Black images. They're a bit different for me because I don’t usually do “cute” but I'm glad I made an exception for these though.

I’ve also made two cards (which are sitting on the corner of the desk) for this week’s The Ribbon Girl challenge, which is “Jingle All The Way”.
If you look closely one of my Sleigh cards has a Jingle Bell as well as a “Jingle Bells” greeting so I think they should pass muster……..just!

So that’s what’s on my desk…......how about showing me what’s on yours.

Julia’s blog The Stamping Ground has all the details of what you need to do to join in if you don’t already know and I’m off to make a cup of coffee and settle in for a morning of blog hopping, curtsey of What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

See you on the hop……..

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

By the way, I’ve updated I’d Rather Be Stitchin with a few more projects if you fancy a peek.

Santa’s little helper…….I think not! WOYWW (#124)

2011-10-19T09:27:00.005+01:00

So the Christmas card making marathon is still in full swing and whereas Santa has his little helpers to get everything done in time I have BoJangles.

Helping….I think not, but good company and a joy to have around…........…...well,most of the time……......… but not when I’m trying to work to a deadline.
He has to be amongst it all and loves nothing better than sitting on my pretty papers and generally getting in the way as you can see.

Many a card I’ve sent to friends and family will have an inky paw print on it somewhere Lol, so if I’m working on commissions I have to be very firm with him and banish him from my work room which he will object too very vocally.

So on my desk this What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday morning apart from his furriness, is yes you’ve guessed it, a Christmas card!

I’ve been having a go and making my own backgrounds and have had a play with my Brayer, Tapestry stamps and Distress Inks.
I don’t think it turned out too bad as it goes and I love the way the greeting looks.
It’s the first time I ever used my Nestabilities as a stencil and inked over the top of it….heaven knows why I’ve never done it before, so you can expect to see a lot more of that going on.

I’ve also updated some more of My Cross Stitch Projects this week, including the one glimpsed below so if you’re interested in seeing the finished piece please stop by and leave some comments there as I would love to hear your thoughts about what I’m up to.

So that’s it from me this week as I have to go out now.
I have to take a cordless kettle back to the shop where I brought it yesterday because the base that was in the box wasn’t the one for the kettle…..I’m so annoyed because it means more than an hour round trip but I’ll be back later to see what everyone’s been creating this week.

Julia, Queen of Snoop has a list of everyone who’s joining in this week, so why not pop across and show us what you have on your desk.

Bye for now and……..
Happy Crafting!

Sue
x

Play Time! WOYWW (#123)

2011-10-12T11:27:00.001+01:00

So here we are, another day in the life of a “What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesdayer” and a good excuse for a good old nosey at everyone else’s work space.
Julia has all you need to know on her blog if you feel like bearing all and joining in with this fun weekly blog hop.

Here at Chez Krafty Kards it’s been a busy seven days since we last meet, with Wedding stationery, Christmas cards, Heritage LO’s and Cross Stitching all in the mix.

The one sad thing is that the winner of the duplicate Holly Mask that I brought didn’t reply to my email last week and hasn’t claimed her prize so I’ve picked another name.

And the winner this time is ………………

Sunshine Girl

So this week my own workspace is just a big clutter really and nothing much to show.

The table is more or less how I left in on Monday afternoon after my lovely friend Lythan left.
We get together every so often and spend the day crafting together, which is really fun.
She’s the most amazing scrapbooker , so she spent the time working on a couple of LO’s while I made a few more Christmas Cards.

Here's a few of the cards I made.

My other workspace on my computer table is covered with heritage stuff at the moment because yesterday I was doing the write up for the page I was working on last week of my Gt. Grandparents.

I’m please to say the LO’s all finished, except for the perishing clock hands that still haven’t come to light. I think they must be buried in “The Sands of Time”, Lol!
I’ve ordered some on Esty now, so when they arrive they will be added to the LO and then it ‘will’ be finished then.

If you’re interested, please feel free to visit Family Footprints in the Sands of Time and become acquainted with my ancestors and read their story.

For those of you who visited there last week and left so many wonderful messages, not only on the newer post but the older ones too, many thanks to you.
I’m pleased you are enjoying my trip back in time. I’m going to change the way the comments are done on here because I hadn’t realized that so many of you had left messages on the older posts.

I’ve also spent time adding some more of my completed cross stitch projects to I’d Rather Be Stitchin……than in the kitchen!

It’s getting to be quite a tedious job really and I did think about adding things as I finish them from now but then they wouldn’t be on there in the order that I stitched them, which is really what I wanted, so I just need to keep plodding on with it until I have it up to date.

The final bit of good news is that Carol picked up her Wedding Stationery samples last night and is over the moon with them and she also was thrilled with the Christening card that I shared with you a couple of weeks ago.
All I’m waiting for now is numbers and then I can get everything ordered and make a start on the invitations.
It’s more than a year since I worked on a big order like this and I’m really excited about doing it.

I’m off to grab a coffee now and have a blog hop to see what everyone’s up to this week, so sees you later.

Happy Crafting!

Sue
x

Where’s Mr. Blue Sky gone? WOYWW (#122)

2011-10-05T06:09:00.002+01:00

I suppose I shouldn’t complain because we were given that extra week of beautiful scorching hot weather last week but why does the temperature have to drop by more than 10 degrees in one fail swoop.
I’m freeeeezzzzing…..........….ok that is an exaggeration, but it does feel flipping cold and I’m even contemplating putting the heating on.

I’ve been busy since last we spoke, making Christmas cards, setting up templates for the Wedding Stationery and also playing with a few of my new goodies.

I’ve even been setting up another blog.

I know I already have two, this one and Family Footprints in the Sands of Time, my heritage blog but I wanted to have somewhere I could record all my cross stitch projects, going back to the 1980’s when I first got hooked.

I’ve actually been working on it for the last few weeks but I’m nowhere near up to date as yet and still have loads to put on there so it’s really a work in progress at the moment.
If you’re interested in cross stitch and would like to see some of the projects I’ve stitched pop across to I’d Rather Be Stitchin……than in the kitchen!

Now then, Julia is mustering the troops again for another day of blog hopping in the name of What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday and my photo is duly taken and ready to show the world.

As you can see I’m attempting another page of the Heritage album and have been sorting out some photos of my Great Grandparents on my Father’s side of the family.
There are quite a few to choose from but most were either out of focus or had damage on them so I’ve had a play in Photoshop again and finished up with some pictures that will just about pass. I think I might be trying to be too fussy with them and have to keep reminding myself that we are lucky to have the photos in the first place. I'm sure that whoever inherits the albums in years to come will be only to pleased to see the slightly out of focus pictures of their ancestors.

I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing with the LO and am making it up as I go along Lol, but I’m using some of the lovely TPC Studio and Pink Paislee ink resist papers that Lythan brought me for my birthday.

Watch this space to see what evolves!

One thing I had planned to do thought was add some black filigree hands to the clock face.
I’ve been saving a pair to use on a LO and they’ve been kicking around on my desk for ages but do you think I can find the darn things now I want to use them. They must be here somewhere so it looks like the rest of the day is going to be spent searching for them.

Well, thanks for dropping in on me this week and for all the lovely messages last week but before I go I need to announce who the winner of the Holly Mask is.
I made a list of the people who voiced an interest in winning it, put all the names in a bowl and picked one at random.

And the lucky winner is…………….
Claire.

Email me Here Claire with your details and I’ll get it in the post to you as soon as I can.

Enjoy your blog hopping and I’ll see you all soon.

Happy Crafting!

Sue
x

My Prize

2011-09-29T16:39:00.000+01:00

Well, I’m going the break with tradition and do a ‘What’s on your Workdesk Thursday’, as well as Wednesday’s one this week, and the reason……….………I wanted to share with you the gorgeous goodies that arrived in the post this morning.

This is the lovely stash that was my prize from the Particrafts draw at Alexandra Palace on Sunday and I can’t believe how much was in the box.

Lots of Cosmic Shimmer stuff including Mist, Fine Glitter, Mica Pigments and Iridescent Glitter Film and as well as that little lot the was also four sets of stamps, Lumin Arte Pure Colour Concentrate, 3D Crystal Lacquers, Ranger Distress Ink and Perfect Medium, Stick Pins, the most gorgeous Burgundy Organza ribbon and a Heat proof craft sheet (someone must have known I needed a new one)

What with all the bits I brought and this little lot I’m going to be having lots of fun over the coming weeks.

I’d just like to say a huge thank you to everyone at Particrafts for putting such a wonderful prize together, it’s absolutely fab!

Foot Soak anyone? WOYWW (#121)

2011-09-28T06:11:00.002+01:00

That would be me then!

Oh yes, since seeing you all for last week’s What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday my poor little tootsies have done a far few miles in the name of crafting and I spent Sunday ambling around all the lovely stands at the Alexandra Palace Big Scrap and Stamp Show.
In the past I’ve usually gone on the Saturday but Sunday was much nicer, you could actually get to the stands and see what you were looking at without getting pushed and shoved from this direction and that….all very civilized I must say!

Needless to say I came home with a few new goodies and didn’t over do it for once, Lol, but can you spot the deliberate mistake?

My new stash includes, Distress Stains, two sets of Marianne spiral flower dies, a beautiful Lili of the Valley stamp and some of their die cuts, pin flair glue and glue dots, two bags of Christmas Card Candi, some Platinum Stickles and no less than five Masks to use with the Distress Stain......and eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that one of the designs I’ve managed to buy from two separate stands...........what am I like!

Oh well never mind, I’ve decided to give it as blog Candi to one of my commenters this week so if you fancy having a play with a Christmas mask just leave me a comment and mention that you would like to win it and I’ll do a random draw and announce the winner next week.

So now onto my desk and what’s on it this week.

As you can see I’ve already been playing with some of the new stash and made a Christening card using the stamp, Flower dies and spotty mask.

I’ve also used the Sketch from Cutie Pie Challenge

The card for the lady who asked me about the wedding invitations last week and there’s some good news on that front too. She’s asked me to do them for her so I’ll have lots of work coming up but I don’t mind.

I’ve managed to track down the special card she wanted so my next job is to make a proof for her to sign off and then I can get stuck in. The wedding is in August next year so the bulk of the order can be done after Christmas but she would like to get her invites in the post in early January so the sooner I make a start on them the better………….so pleased I make an early start on the old Christmas cards now.

If you want to see more desks go and see head desk hopper Julia and she’ll set you on the right road to see the craft spaces of the world and I’ll be back next week to reveal who’s the lucky winner thanks to my stupidity.

Until then……….

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x
Update :- Well they say that generosity is returned twofold and that seems to be the case here.

Ally Pally has certainly turned out to be a lucky day out for me because I’ve just received an email from The Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show team informing me that I have won the prize draw on the Particrafts stand…………and to think I wasn’t even going to bother filling out the slip.

Do I need to tell you all I’m a very happy bunny!

2011-09-25T08:20:00.000+01:00

Morning all,

Just thought I would pop in before heading off to Alexandra Palace for ‘The Big Stamp & Scrapbook Show’.

Will let you know later what goodies I snap up while I’m there.

I have some good news on the Wedding Invitation front……I’ve been given the commission, having tracked down the correct card stock, so watch this space…………yah!

I also thought I would pop a quick link on here to the bits I have up for grabs on eBay….well I needed to finance my imminent spend this morning Lol!

There’s still some bargains to be had and few finishing today so it might be worth you having a look.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/budrose7/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Well, my carriage awaits, so I’m off to the ball!

See you soon.

Sue

x

WOYWW?……….Lots! (#120)

2011-09-21T11:28:00.001+01:00

As you must know by now Wednesday’s are the day we all join in a worldwide blog hop to visit everyone’s craft desks and generally have a good old nosey at what everyone has been up to this week.

I've taken some photos of my desk this morning but they’ve got nothing on the pictures that greeted me when I popped in to visit Wipso this morning………........beautiful photos of the Twins that we have all been waiting for with bated breath.

Thanks to Wipso we’ve had updates on their development all through ‘M’ pregnancy and so many of us have been waiting for the news of their arrival.
So it’s Congratulations to ‘M’ and her OH and of course to Nan and Granddad and a big welcome to the world for little Lexi and Sam. They’re so beautiful!

Ok so now to what’s on my desk this morning……well, it’s a collection of things really that are left over from yesterday.

First is the Album sitting at the back of the desk under the pile of Christmas cards.

This is out because it’s full of Wedding Stationery that I’ve made in the past and a few samples and I was showing it to a friend of my God Daughter who has asked me to possibly do her stationery for her.
I haven’t worked on any big orders like this since doing Nichola’s at the start of last year so it will be a nice change to have something to get my teeth into.

(These are the ones I did for my God Daughter last year)

Carol already has an idea of what she wants so it’s just a case of sourcing the materials, making a sample and coming up with a price, so watch this space!

Next up is a pile of cards I’ve been working on.

All of these were made using toppers that I had made in the past but still had to mount onto the actual card and one of them was mounted onto one of my ‘need a card in a hurry’ card blanks. These are the ones I make with the scraps I have out after a crafting secession. Instead of putting paper scraps away never to be seen again now try to make a few card bases so that if I need a car in a hurry I just need to slap, sorry I mean add the topper. I have quite a collection now and although the one I’ve used wasn’t for a card I needed in a hurry on this occasion, it seemed to suit the topper I had to hand.

Last but not least are the Christmas cards I was working on last week.

Because I tend to work a stage at a time when I work in batches so I still don’t have a completely finished card to show you. I’m almost there though, I just need to add the greeting.

30 made and 20 to go!

So that’s the weekly tour of my desk, why not show us yours if you haven’t already?
Go visit Julia at The Stamping Ground and she’ll set you on the right road to join in with What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by.
I’m off to grab a coffee now and settle in for a trip around your Workdesk myself now.

Happy Crafting until next time!

Sue
x

Answer - Just One.

2011-09-20T08:55:00.000+01:00

Question ………How many candles?

And that’s exactly what the The Daring Cardmaker’s are asking us this week.

They want us to make a card with candles on to celebrate the launch of the new Funky Hand CD, Happy, Happy Birthday and Anice from Funky Hand is even offering a copy of the said CD as a prize, so it’s well work making a card and joining in which is exactly what I’ve done.

I don’t actually have much in the way of candles in my craft stash, a QuicKutz die and just one stamp to be precise, but the stamp is rather a cute one so I’ve used that.

I also took the opportunity to use up a few scraps of some really old (and I mean rearlllllly old) papers and play with my Prisma Colour Pencils too, which was quite satisfying.

So here’s my card

Card – Craft Creations, Creative Cover.
Patterned Papers – Blonde Moments, Sugar Dumpling
Inks – Tsukineko, Black Staz-On.
Pencils – Prisma Color
Rubber Stamps – Penny Black Critter Party (image and sentiment)
Glitter Glue - Stickles

Other BitsBrads
Fibres
Ribbon
Button

Christmas is coming!………….WOYWW (#119)

2011-09-14T10:51:00.000+01:00

A very Good Morning to my What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday pals out there and what a beautiful morning it is.
It’s still a little breezy here but the sun is shining and that makes a big difference in my book.

I can’t really say that I’ve had a very productive week to be honest and the heritage LO that I had hoped to make a start on hasn’t happened but I have made a start on the dreaded Christmas cards.
I like to get my own ones done and dusted before my friend start asking me to do theirs for them so an early start is essential if I don’t want to be chasing my tail come the start of December. And would you believe, I’ve even made a start on buying my Christmas presents so I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself.

My desk today is actually my desk yesterday and it shows the makings of my Christmas cards.
Just for speed I usually try to stick just a couple of designs for my own cards, so yesterday I was stamping and embossing with my new Penny Black stamp and getting in a right old mess with the Gold embossing powder.

Is it just me who ends up with it sprinkled all over the table and myself despite having a craft sheet down and one of those plastic trays to catch everything in?

So my first photo gives you a shot of my computer desk and some of the stamped images drying after I had coloured the berry’s and covered them with Glossy Accents.

The idea was that once it dried I would ink over the image with Distress Ink which I did on some of them and others I coloured with my Promarkers. As it goes I like the finish of those ones better but in reality when I need to make more than fifty the Distress Ink is going to be the quicker option.

My next photo shows the mess I was talking about previously.

Here I’ve cut out some of the tags from the images with the intension of layering them onto the card after coloring them with more Distress Ink and then I decided that instead of leaving it with the stamped snowflake I thought I would emboss some chipboard ones to stick on the top.

The other part of this card that’s time consuming is that I’m doing a spot of ‘fussy cutting’ (I only heard the term last week and Oh how I love it) by cutting around the images before putting them on the card so it’s just as well I’ve made an early start.

So that’s my desk this week.
Don’t forget to visit our ‘Queen of Snoop’ Julia for all you need to know to join in, but beware, it’s very addictive so don’t expect to get anything else done on Wednesdays. Lol!

And just before I go can say Thank You to anyone who had a look at the crafty bits I’m selling on eBay and made a bid on any of them. I’m pleased to say it’s gone really well and I’ve made around £40 to be split between the two charities, so Thanks again for your support.

I still have a few bits up for grabs Here here but they are not on eBay at the moment, so if you’re interested in anything just let me know.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sue

Wonderful day with a ‘Crafty’ friend…….WOYWW (#118)

2011-09-07T11:53:00.004+01:00

Hi all!

Well it looks like we’ve seen the last of our Summer and yesterday felt more like November rather than the start of September. I personally don’t mind it being a bit cooler or even windy but I have to draw the line at the torrential rain and I spent a good part of the afternoon watching the water level rise on my patio.

Still, it was a good excuse to stay inside and finish off the LO that I started on Monday over at my wonderful friend Lythan’s.

We take it in turns to visit each other for a play from time to time and this week it was my turn to go to hers which also meant a trip to her local craft shop Imagine That…….….needless to say I didn’t come home empty handed. Lol!

New Papers, some Distress Stains, 3D K & Co Stickers and beautiful adhesive Pearl Flourishes where part of the haul I came home with as well as a mystery package that is a pressie from Lythan for my birthday on Friday…… Thanks Lythan, I can’t wait to find out what’s inside!

Anyway, the main reason I’m here is because it’s Wednesday and that means it’s time to show you what’s on my work desk. I’m sure by now there can’t be anyone out there now who doesn’t know what this is all about but just in case you’ve been on another planet for last two years pop across and see our boss Julia, she’ll explain what What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday is all about.

So here’s my desk.

I have a few things going on, some left over from last night and a few parcels that I’ve packed up this morning to go in the post. They are the bits that I’ve managed to sell on eBay to raise some money for St. Clare’s Hospice and the Charity Stitching Project so I’m really pleased that I’ve managed to sell a few bit.

There’s still lost on there so if you fancy picking up a bargain pop across to Here and see what’s on offer.

I haven’t done very much to the address book that I started last week, in fact I didn’t do anything more to it until yesterday when I covered the front and back with some of the new papers that I’d brought on Monday and I’ve now got as far as adding ‘Address Book’ to the front in chipboard letters. I just need to think about what I’m going to do for the pages inside now…..you never know, I might just have thought of something by next week!

Also on my table is the ‘sort of finished’ Lo that I started at Lythan’s on Monday.

It’s the second part of the double Lo I was doing for Mum and Dad’s wedding
(The first page is here) I couldn’t completely finish it because I want to add a couple of 11mm Mother of Pearl buttons to the seam binding as I have on the first page but I’ve used all the ones I had so I’m going to have to go on line shopping to see if I can find some more. Apart from that everything else is done and I’m pleased with the way the picture of the church they got married in looks printed onto the Vellum.

Unfortunately the photos are not that great.
I tried copying them but they had so badly deteriorated with lots of marks and that metallic sheen you sometimes get on old photographs that no matter what I did they weren’t coming out well at all. The saving grace is that there were multiple copies of each of the photos so I’ve actually used originals.

I’m already planning my next two pages.
They will be of my dad’s Grandparents and I hope to have at least one of them done by the time I’m back here next week, so keep a look out for it.

In the mean time I hope everyone has a good week with lots of time free to pursue your crafty activities.

I’ll try and get round to as many as I can this week especially as I was rather bad at replying to those who left me messages last week. Please forgive me if you were one of them, it wasn’t intentional, the week just got away from me but I hope to do better this time round.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

I’m tired and want to go to bed.

2011-09-05T00:01:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post from me tonight as I’m tired and want to go to bed.

I just wanted to let you know that I’ve put some more bits on ebay today.

They had a free listing weekend and so I’m hoping to raise as much money as I can for our charity stitching project and St. Clare’s Hospice it was a good time to put them all on there.
Mind you it’s taken me nearly all evening to do it and I have a numb bum now!
Please pop over to the other page on my blog to see what’s on offer and if you’re interested in anything I’ve added links under everything so it will take you straight there.

Thanks for taking a peek.

Sue
X

And the award goes to......................Me!

2011-09-02T21:39:00.001+01:00

Last Thursday the lovely Twiglet, aka Jo, contacted me to say that she had left a blog award for me and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve only just got around to putting it on here, so apologise Jo.

The delay is probably down to the fact that I’m still in denial that she chose me because it’s the ‘Appreciated Followers award and when you consider that Jo has 88 other people that follower her blog, how she came to pick me I will never know.
Apparently she says and I quote, “I’m a very positive lady who takes a real interest in all of their crafty activities and is one of those really clever card makers”.
All I can say to that is that it’s easy to be positive and encourage people when they (Jo and her sister Annie) create such beautiful things. I know they’ve been a true inspiration to me since I found the two of them.

I decided to have a snoop at the other people she gave to award to as well.
Annie I’m already a follower of so I know what she gets up to in her craft/sewing room anyway, but I can’t say that I have ever visited Suz’s Blog before and wow, what a blog it is! It’s so full for beautiful colourful crocheting and it’s encouraged me to show you the very first double bed cover that I ever crocheted.

I was probably about seventeen when I made this so it’s been around for around 38 years.
It doesn’t get used on the bed anymore because It doesn’t go with the room, but I would never part with it.

Now I have to pass the award on to three of my own followers which is not going to be easy to do because I've always appreciated every single one of my followers,so for that reason I'm giving it all of you so please feel free to pick up the award if you would like.

But if I really have to pick just three who I feel have a made a big differance to me since I've been blogging I’m going to cheat little here and mention four.

My first award is going to go right back in the direction it came from to Jo, and her sister Annie, the sisters of crafty creations.
I envy these two ladies for their skill with a sewing machine and for all the beautiful things they make….......…a real inspiration!
I also can’t thank the pair of them enough for all the kindness and support they gave me last year when my dad was so ill.
Annie, I still carry my little Red teddy in my handbag!

Next I’m going to pass the award on to Angie from Glimpsing the Past.
If it wasn’t Angie I would never have got my finger out and continued plodding away with the Heritage Album that I started three years earlier.
She a real inspiration and full of encouragement, as well as being a fab scrapbooker herself.

And last but not least I'm going to pass the award onto someone who’s talented beyond belief, the lovely Vicki, from Stamped Smiles.
Apart from being an amazingly creative card maker her blog has loads of tutorials that she’s written from her own experiments, which are so helpful.

So pick up your awards girlies and display them with pride, as I intend to do.

Thanks again Jo for making my day!

Sue
x

Crafty Sort Out …….WOYWW (#117)

2011-08-31T11:44:00.003+01:00

Good morning my fellow What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesdayer’s!

I’ve actually made a big effort to get here a bit earlier this week seeing as it was turned 5pm when I joined you all last week. Julia our blog hop leader must have thought I wasn’t coming, I was so late.

My desk this morning is a mixture of new and old stash and a newly started project, which translates to one enormous clutter.

I started yesterday morning with the idea of making myself a new address book , you can just see it at the back of the table.
I was so fed up with my family and friends moving house and having to cross out entries making my current book look a real mess that I decided to try and make a ring binder type book, then doing a separate page for each person so that if anyone else should ever move I can just remove the old page and add a new one.
The theory sound good but will it work…….we shall see!

As you can see, I didn’t get very far.

This is the start of the two panels for the front and back.
I’ve run some Black card through my Cuttlebug with Nesties and an Embossing Folder and then swiped across the top with a VersaMark Pad and clear embossed it. The next step was paint it with Acrylic paint, wait for it to dry slightly and then wipe off some of the paint with a damp cloth, leaving it looking slightly distressed.
At this point I’m not sure what was more distressed, the covers or me because I don’t use Acrylics very often and I was getting in a right old state Lol!

While I was waiting for it to dry completely I got a bit waylaid.
I started having a sort out of craft bits I don’t use any more, mostly rubber stamps but other bits and bobs as well and I spent the afternoon getting some of it on eBay, which explains the piles of stamps still scattered all over my desk this morning.
If you’re interested in seeing what’s up from grabs there’s a full list Here with pictures and links that will take you to the eBay page or you can click the link at the top of this page.

I’m especially hoping to sell lots of the cross stitch threads because they are being sold to raise money for the Kids Company stitching project that I stitch for. If anyone is interested in them you can contact me direct rather than go via eBay because I had 30 or 40 of them.

Finally on my desk I have some new goodies.
While I was having a sort out postie came and brought me some new Promarkers, Distress stains and this gorgeous Penny Black stamp……..can’t wait to play with this one.

Well that about it from me this morning but before I go I just want to say that I hope everyone over there on the East coast of America are safe and well after that enormous storm. I can’t imagine what it must be like living with that threat every year.

So, I’ll be round to see what everyone is up to later.
Take care and …………

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Completely Forgot …….WOYWW (#116)

2011-08-24T17:16:00.001+01:00

Oh no, I almost missed it!
Can you believe that I forgot it was Wednesday and it’s turned 5pm and I’ve only just remembered to take a photo of my desk today for What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

The reason is that I’ve been completely engrossed in making birthday and new home cards so my desk is in a right old state.

I really wish I was one of those people who finish a card and put the stuff they won’t need again way before they start on the next one but as you can I’m definitely not one of those.

All I can show you of my days work at the moment is this birthday card using one of the fab stamps that were sent to me by Nicky aka Minxy a while back. Oh how I love these!

I’ve paired the image up with some Craftworks Cards papers from their Ohh La La collection which works well I think.

If you’re interested I’ve also finished off the LO that I was working on last week. You can see how it was done Here and read all about my mum and dad’s wedding on Family Footprints in the Sands of Time, my heritage blog.

I’ll try and get round as many desks as I can tomorrow when I have some time to spare but for now, thanks for stopping by and …………………………….

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Kid's Company Charity Bike Ride

2011-08-20T21:10:00.000+01:00

Please scroll down for my more recent posts but please read this first and consider helping us.

This post will stay at the top of my blog until the Charity bike ride is completed on 20th August. Thanks so much.
Sue
X

I don’t know if you’re aware of the work that Kids Company do, but their focus is on helping vulnerable children who can find themselves in all sorts of horrible situations through no fault of their own.
The Kid’s Company website explains what they do far better than I ever could so please pop along and read about all the good work they do for these children but naturally their work costs money and they are always looking for way to raise the 9 million pounds their website says they need this year.

As part of the fundraising, two fab guys, Dom Wright and Dom O’Neill set out on Friday 29th July to undertake a mammoth cycle ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats and they are looking for sponsors.
If you feel you can help by adding your name to their list of sponsors your donation would be gratefully received and I thank you in advance for your support.
Check out their blog for all you need to know to sponsor them and read about their progress.

Thanks once again for your help………..
and rather you than me boys, my legs (and other bits) ache just thinking about what you’re doing!

My Parents Wedding

2011-08-19T13:19:00.001+01:00

OK, panic over……….I’ve managed to get in touch with my brother and now know the name of the church were my mum and dad were married, so I’ve been able to finish my LO

I even managed to find this fab photo of it.

I’ve had a play with it in Photoshop to change to opacity, printed it out onto some white vellum and I’m planning to use it as a backing sheet for another page I’m going to do with more of the wedding photos, so that’s my next task.
But while you wait with batted breath for that one, here’s one I made earlier!

Click on the picture for a clearer look.

The frame was made by cutting the panels from one of the Basic Grey patterned papers and I’ve mitred the corners so that it fits together.
I’ve then cut out extra flowers and decoupage them to the frame and finished it off with some Glossy Accents and some Gold Peel-Off corners.

I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out to be honest!

The flowers were put together with some that were in my stash.
I’ve no idea where the large velvet ones came from but the Cream ones were bargain silk flowers that I brought in Dunelm Mill and pulled to bits………..really cheap and you end up with loads.
For the centres I’ve used some of the little Lemon Roses were in the candy that Brenda sent me recently.

I had fun with the ribbon too.

It’s actually seam binding rather than ribbon, that came from The Ribbon Girl.
To add interest to it I’ve folded it back and forth as I stuck it down and then sewed antique Mother of Pearl buttons along it at intervals.

But even after all that I still felt my page needed a something else so I decided to add the little dove and heart charms but they were Silver and didn’t really go with the page so it was my Krylon pen to the rescue and……….. ta dah……… Gold Charms!

Please pop across to my heritage site Family Footprints In The Sands Of Time, to read the full story of my mum and dad’s wedding day and find out an interesting little bit of trivia regarding someone famous.

Oh, I almost forgot, The Ribbon Girl Blog have a challenge on at the moment to use ribbon on a card or project so I’m going to enter my LO in the off chance of winning some fantastic bling.

Thanks for stopping by.
Sue
X

I've used :-

Patterned & Plain Papers
Cappella – Basic Grey

Other Stuff
Journaling Sticker and Wedding Tag – Basic Grey (Cappella)
Distress Ink – Ranger (Scattered Straw)
Yellow Roses - Recollections (Boutique Fleur)
Cream Seam Binding - The Ribbon Girl

From Stash
Velvet & Silk Flowers
Vintage Mother of Pearl Buttons
Heart & Dove Charms
Gold Brads
Gold Thread

Picture in a Frame…..at last! & WOYWW (#115)

2011-08-17T10:24:00.000+01:00

Hi all!

You know, I can’t believe that a week has gone by and we’re all back here nosing around the WWW again. That’s ‘World Wide Work desks’ in this case and as usual our hopper in chief is keeping us up to scratch with proceedings over at the The Stamping Ground, so pop over and join in the fun why don’t you.

I actually started the day making another LO for the family tree album, this time of my Mum and Dad’s wedding but when I came to do the journaling I couldn’t remember the name of the church they were married in.
The obvious place to look is on their marriage certificate but unfortunately my brother still has that and I couldn’t get hold of him so it was no help, but then I remembered the box file I have, full of all sorts of papers that dad had got together when he started to research the family.

I wondered if there might be anything in there, so the LO got pushed to the back of my desk and then I started to go through the papers……….now I know why I hadn’t tackled it before!

This is how my desk was looking last night.

As you can see, I have papers all over the place.

There’s lots of information there but it’s in no order what so ever, which is understandable given that dad could hardly see, bless and I’ve found multiple copies, sometimes as many as eight, of the same pages so I decided to leave the LO for a while and try and sort it out.

There’s lots of stuff in there for people I’ve never heard of but who are definitely part of the family so I need to take time to study it all and get in contact with a couple of the people dad was corresponding with via email in a bid to get some order to it all.

Oh, and despite all that sorting I still didn’t find out the name of the church so the LO will have to wait until I see my brother at the weekend.

You can just see a glimpse of the LO poking out from the pile of papers and the lovely vintage Mother of Pearl buttons that I plan to use somewhere on it.

And last but not least I thought I would share a photo of my mum and dad with you.

We don’t have many photos of them together, mainly because mum was so thin due to illness and hated the picture being taken but this one was snapped at a family wedding back in the 1980’s and I’ve only just this week managed to find a frame that I liked for it.

Hope you all have a fantastic week and …………………………

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Anniversary Waltz - WOYWW (#114) & Cupcake Challenge

2011-08-10T11:37:00.001+01:00

Good morning fellow crafters, I hope you are all safe and well after all the riots that have been going on across the country in the last few days……….. It’s all so scary, isn’t it?

I live quite close to London but fortunately far enough out not to have been affected personally so far.
I believe there were a couple of incidents in our high road with windows being broken and the police were out in force by the station just in case the thugs got on the central line trains and came down this way but that was the extent of it.
I did get up to find my garden covered with lumps of Black stuff that looked like polystyrene though. It had blown across from the Sony Warehouse fire in Enfield and you could see the plumbs of Black smoke from here too.

I’m sure that most people as I do respect the right of the family and friend of the guy that was shot (the incident that sparked this all off) to hold their peaceful demonstration but then the gang elements who have nothing to do with it get involved just for the sake of it and then all hell breaks loose.
My heart goes out to all those poor people who have lost homes and businesses through those mindless louts who are just out to cause trouble and words just fail me when you see images of youngsters of ten or eleven out on the streets joining in….where are their parents for heaven sake.

Sorry, rant over but I just had to get it off my chest.

Now then, on to happier things and what’s on my work desk this morning.
(click on the pictures for a clearer view)

As you can see it’s a bit untidy but that’s because I was working on a few Anniversary cards yesterday. You can see two of the finished ones there, the first is this one.

I’m entering it into this week’s Cupcake Challenge , which is to use stitching on our cards.

The stamp I’ve used is one of my favorites, Flying Stars, by Penny Black which I’ve water coloured with Distress Inks and added some tiny gems to
I’ve also used my new seam binding from The Ribbon Girl……..why is it that I’ve only just decided to give this a try…….......I love it, I love it, I love it!
As you can see if you look in front of my distress inks, I have brought a few colours to play with and I’m sure I’ll be going back to order more.......…oh yes!

For the second Anniversary card I thought I would get out my tapestry stamps which I’ve not used for a while.

I’ve dry embossed the heart using a brass stencil in my Cuttlebug and then stamped the flowers and leaves over the top, adding a few sticky pearls that I’ve coloured with Promarkers to the centre of some of the flowers.
I finished it off with a stamped greeting (Write Big – Imagine That) and some Gold edged organza ribbon.

Don’t forget to hop on over to the The Stamping Ground and join in with the fun of seeing what’s on other crafters desk this week.

Stay safe and ……………

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Flower of the Month

2011-08-08T11:01:00.000+01:00

It’s been a couple of weeks since I joined in with my old friends The Daring Cardmaker’s, but today I thought I’d make a card for their ‘Flower of the Month’ challenge and there are two to choose from this month, Poppy or Gladioli.

In a bid to use up some very old craft bits that I brought way back when I first started card making I thought I would use some Peel-Off’s.

Now I know that peel-off’s have a bad name in some camps and if I’m honest I don’t used them often myself other than the occasional greeting, but I remembered that I had these rather nice Poppies sitting in the box and they don’t look to bad when they are coloured.

I've printed the background directly onto my card, using the Artylicious ‘Season’s Greetings’.
I love this CD because although it’s intended for Christmas, there’s an awful lot that can be used at any time really, making it a good buy.

The Peel-Off’s were stuck to white card, coloured with Promarkers and then cut and layered along the edge of the card and around the bottom edge of the ovals that I cut with my Nesties.

And there you have it…..quick and easy, the way I like them!

What I’ve used:

Craft Creations – Embossed Hammer Card Stock

Craft Creations – Poppy and Butterfly Peel-Off’s

Craftworks Cards – Greeting

Promarker Permanent Ink Pens

Artylicious ‘Season’s Greetings’ CD

Ranger Distress Ink – Black Soot & Barn Door

Introducing ..........My Granddad

2011-08-04T12:43:00.001+01:00

I’ve finally finished the page for my Heritage Album that I was working on yesterday, so let me introduce you to my Granddad, Frederick James Gowers, my Mum’s Father.

I had fun with this Lay Out because I thought I would give that lacing technique try.

I’d seen it done on someone else’s blog in my travels, sorry, I can’t remember where, but I made a mental note at the time to give it a go at some point.

I think it works well on my page but I didn’t stop there, I decided to do cross stitching all around the edges too and ended up with nice sore fingers after all that hand stitching, but I think it was worth it.

Embellishment wise I was a bit stuck but then remembered that some time ago I had brought a pack of big Brass looking round stickers. I also came across the metal photo corners but the colour on all of them wasn’t right for what I wanted, so I’ve given then a dab of Alcohol Ink. Even after that the round stickers weren’t really right, so I had a rummage in my stash again and found the vintage brads which I proceeded to cut the prongs off and stick them to the middle with Diamond Glaze.

I also had the ‘Grandfather’ plaque to hand but I didn’t want to stick it directly onto the page so I decided to use one of the fab Brass tags that Lythan brought for me at Ally Pally as a thank you for driving there. I stuck the plaque to the tag added one of the brad top as well, just to tie everything together.

You can read all about my Granddad over at Family Footprints In The Sands Of Time, well as much as I know about him at the moment that is, but hopefully I’ll be able to add to it as the weeks go by.

Thanks for stopping by

Sue

x

I've used :-

Patterned Papers & Card Stock
Timepiece – Bo Bunny
Bazzill Basics

Other Stuff
Alphabet Stickers – Papermania & Basic Grey (Life of the Party micro stickers)
Brass tags – Vintaj Natural Brass Co.
Photo Corner – EK Success Architexture
Hemp Cord – Create Cousin
Distress Ink – Ranger (Vintage Photo)

From Stash
Grandfather Plaque (Costco Kit)
Brads
Eyelits
Dymo Tape

Sleepless in......Essex!……..WOYWW (#113)

2011-08-03T06:41:00.006+01:00

Doesn't have quite the same ring as Sleepless in Seattle does it but that was me last night.

Now, while I do love my little maisonette it has it’s disadvantages at times. I couldn’t sleep because of the heat and I couldn’t have the windows opened right up because I live on the ground floor, so I had them on the snib but they were letting hardly any air through.

Needless to say I was up at silly o’clock this morning playing in my craft room and as Wednesday’s here again that means that The Stamping Ground’s weekly blog hop is in full swing today.

Here's my desk this morning.

I turned out three very quick cards, two of which you can see on the back of my desk and now I have my Heritage album out and am working on a page of my Grandfather (Mum’s dad) Frederick James Gowers.

I’ve messed around with the photo to the best of my abilities in Photoshop but it’s really just trial and error because I have no idea how it should really be done, but I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

I’ve gone from this:-

To this:-

I never knew my Granddad because he died at the age of 55 from lung cancer before I was even thought of. But what I do remember is this very picture in a rather large frame, hanging on the wall in my Nans home.

I've always thought he had a slight resemblance to a young Prince Philip, what do you think?

Once the page is finished I’m going to have to do a lot of digging because I know very little about his life.

Obviously he was in the army and the census shows he was a soldier in 1918 so he fought in the 1914-1918 Great War but I’ll have to try and get hold of his service records to find out where he actually was.

He married my Grandmother Emily on 31st October 1918 and after leaving the army he worked for the London and North Eastern Railway, first as a General Labourer and then an electrician.

That's about as far as my knowledge of him goes so hopefully my investigations through various members of the family will come up with some more intresting facts about his life.

Thanks for stopping by this morning, I hope to repay the visit very soon myself once I've armed myself with a cup of coffee.

Happy Crafting
Sue
x

How Old!

2011-08-02T09:41:00.004+01:00

That’s exactly what the team over at the Cupcake Challenge Blog are asking this week.

It’s not often that I make cards that have an age on them but just like busses, you wait ages a then they all come along together.
Last month I had to make two for my friends four year old twin grandchildren, neither of which I remembered to blog about I might add and now I’ve been asked to make a 21st and 40th so this challenge has come along just at the right time.

The 40th card is still in the making but yesterday I finished of the other card and here it is……..yes I know, it’s another stepper!

The shoe and flowers are all digital stamps The Digital Stamp Boutique which I’ve coloured them with Promarkers and the greeting is also a digital stamp from Cindy Close.

What I've used

Patterned & Plain Papers/Card
White Creative Hammer Card – Craft Creations
Urban Prairie – Basic Grey

Equipment
Spellbinder Nestabilities – Scalloped Rectangles
Ranger Distress Ink – Worn Lipstick
Promarkers – Pastel Pink, Dusty Rose, Pastel Green, Soft Green & Black
Digital Stamps – The Digital Stamp Boutique & Cindy Close
Ranger Stickles - Diamond

Stash
Organza Ribbon
Gold Brads

Anniversary Wishes

2011-08-01T12:03:00.003+01:00

Challenge Up Your Life have an Anniversary theme this week and as I have no less than five to make this month I thought I would share this one with you.

The Dark Grey and Black & White papers are from the Colorbok pad that I brought in the USA while I was on holiday in February and it’s perfect for anniversary cards so you can expect to see a lot more of it!

The pretty stamp was a freebie on the cover of an old Craft Stamper. It’s been stamped with Black Versa fine and embossed with clear embossing powder and then I’ve given it a rub with some Silver wax rub-on but when the card was finished I decided it was looking a little plain. I gave it some thought and decided to add the Navy and Crystal gems because that was their wedding theme last year and I also added the Silver heart charm to finish it off.
The greeting was computer generated.

They’re Changing Guard At Buckingham Palace……..

2011-07-27T21:50:00.004+01:00

And we missed it because we were inside having a good old nosey around.

It was definitely a novel and interesting day, novel because I got to travel on the tube in rush hour......…deep joy!
I’ll never know how people can do that day in and day out and if I never have to do it again it will be a day too soon if you ask me. It was hot and dirty and I sent most of my journey home standing up and staring into the armpit of a man who had definitely had a hard day by the smell of things but hey ho, I can’t let a little thing like that spoil what was a wonderful day out.

We decided to set out early because we weren’t really sure how far it was from the station and I met my cousin Jane on Stratford station where we needed to change trains. Twenty minutes later we were taking a gentle stroll through Green Park

and had our first glimpse of Buckingham Palace………not my fist ever glimpse you understand, just the first glimpse of the day.

We were quite early for our allotted entrance to the Queens Gallery so we decided to find a café close by and have a quick coffee and croissant before heading back to see the magnificent collection of paintings by the Dutch artists.
Here’s a couple of the paintings that really caught my eye.

The Four Eldest Children of The King and Queen of Bohemia painted by Gerrit van Honthorst

Sorry the picture is not that great but although we were allowed to take photos in here we were not allowed to use flash and I think I had the camera on the wrong setting.
Now what struck me in this picture was the fine complections on the children’s faces, the folds in the White dress and most of all the dirt under the toenails of the eldest daughter.

Next was this
A Rough Dog by George Stubbs, painted in 1790.

I think the background of this looks a little childlike but the dog itself is amazing. You almost feel you could burry your fingers in its coat.

Our next stop was at the Royal Mews where we saw some of the carriages used for state occasions, including the Glass coach that Lady Diana Spencer rode to St Paul's Cathedral in

and the Gold State Coach

Aparently it requires a window above some hidden doors to be removed and central heating pipes altered when the coach is need and takes two days to get it out.

From here we went a had a spot of lunch and then joined the enormous queue to see the State Rooms and ‘That Dress’. Mind you, I have to say the staff there had it all so well organised and there were plenty around to point you in the right direction and offer extra information that wasn’t already on the audio tour we were listening to.

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos here but the rooms as you can imagine were magnificent with wonderful treasures everywhere you looked.

We finally entered the Ballroom and there it was, Kate’s wedding dress in all its glory. It was truly breathtakingly beautiful.

We sat for a while and watched a film showing how the dress was made and all the detail that had gone into it.
Apparently they had cut tiny motifs from six different types of lace and hand stitched them on to very line tulle (on close inspection you couldn’t see a single stitch) to make a one off unique lace especially for the dress.

The Dress

They even stitched the same motif on her shoes which were beautiful but I was surprise how high the heels were.

The Shoes

In the same cabinet as the shoes were her diamond earrings,

The Earings

the tiara that was loaned to her by the Queen

The Tiara

and also a silk replica of her pretty bouquet.

The Bouquet

In the next room we were treated to a close up view of the magnificent 8 tiered cake made with 17 cakes in total. Having decorated cakes myself in the past I can really appreciate the work that had gone into this because there were 900 sugar flowers and leaves decorating the cake and the lattice scallops hanging from some of the layers were so fine and delicate. You could even see where William and Kate had made their first cut.
You can see it here in detail

The Cake

Once we had finished out tour of the State Rooms I had a nice Iced Coffee and a Strawberry and Cream Scone on the terrace before we had a walk along one side of the gardens and the lake.

One thing struck me here, the distinct lack of flowers but I guess with all those garden parties they have they need the space but it still would have been nice to see some colour there.

All in all it was a really good day and the great thing is that if you get your tickets stamped they are valid for a year and you can go back as many times as you like free of charge to see the other exerbitions they put on, so although our tickets cost £31, I think it was well worth it.

Puss Cat, Pussy Cat, where have you been……..WOYWW (#111)

2011-07-26T06:00:00.008+01:00

I’ve been up to London to visit the Queen.
That’s exactly where I am as you read this because today myself and my cousin Jane are up in London playing at being tourists and we have tickets to tour the Buckingham Palace state rooms and see at close quarters Kate’s wedding dress and the Queens collection of Faberge eggs. We are also going to the Queens gallery where there’s an exerbition of the Dutch painters and then on to see the Royal Mews, so we have a full day ahead of us.

Now, I have a rather lovely WOYWW to share with you this week because my desk is covered with all the goodies that were in the amazing blog candy that I was lucky enough to win when Brenda was celebrating her 500th post on her blog.

Thanks so much Brenda, you’ve been so generous and I can’t wait to get started with those new sets of stamps and all the other goodies too!

Also on my desk but a little earlier in the week was another exploding box.

This one was made as a gift box for a bracelet that I made as a birthday present so it was quite a bit smaller than the others that I’ve made.

Julia is hosting our blog hop as usual so don’t forget to stop by her blog over at The Stamping Ground and join in the fun, but be warned, it’s very addictive!

Thanks for stopping by and until we meet again……….
Happy Crafting!
Sue
x
How silly am I feeling.
I only went and posted this on Tuesday, thinking it was Wednesday and was wondering what had happened to Julia when there was no post from her to add my link too.....now I know why, Lol!
All I can do is put it down to excitement about my day out and I can at least tell you now that Kate's wedding dress is absolutely amazing, as is the cake. Well worth a visit if you get a chance this summer.

Wednesday’s child is full of wow (#111)

2011-07-20T13:18:00.005+01:00

But not today because Wednesdays are the day we all visit The Stamping Ground for a taste of What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Because I’ve been away for a few days (see previous post) I’ve been catching up on a few cards for a friend who asks me to make all her cards for her, so my desk this morning has the makings of an Anniversary card that I was half way through………. and the usual mess that I always seem to work in.

Here’s the finished card, made using the beautiful Basic Gray Cappella papers.

I just love the colour range in this collection.
My card is decorated with a covered chipboard heart, handmade paper roses and some tiny gemstones for a touch of added glitz.

Next I made a birthday card using the July template from Kathy’s Waffle Sketch File

More Basic Gray papers for this one but this time they are from my ‘Marrakech’ pad that’s been hanging around for what seems like a life time.

I’m trying to use it all up but I’m not quite there yet….will be soon though and then I will have an excuse to go out and buy another new pad. (as if I need an excuse. Lol!)

Also this week I can also show you another couple of those boxes that I’ve been making, seeing as I now know my dear friend Sharon has received hers.

The original was in an old edition of Craft Stamper and it was made using using the beautiful Wrought Iron Gate stamp from Paper Artsy. You can see the first one I made at the end of this post Here

I’ve used papers printed from the Glenda Waterworth Artylicious ‘Butterfly Bliss’ CD to decorate the box and filled all the little drawers with jewelry findings and the centre tube with beads and I’ve made some beaded charms to decorate the five tags.

Click on the pictures for a better look.

And here’s a glimpse of the third box, this one is for my friend Nicki in Switzerland.

It’s basically the same as Sharon’s but Nicki’s is filled with sewing things and the centre tube with buttons.

So that’s about all there is to show you for now.

I’m not sure if there’ll be much to show you next week as I’m going to see the new Harry Potter film tomorrow and I’m at a big family party at the weekend.
It seems that I don’t do anything or go anywhere for ages and then it all comes along together , not that I’m complaining but hopefully there’ll be a least some small thing to share come next Wednesday, so until then………..

Happy Crafting!

Sue
x

Flower Power

2011-07-19T13:27:00.003+01:00

Hi all, it’s been a week or more since I last posted but that doesn’t mean that I’ve not been busy, just that I was making things that I couldn’t show you just yet.

I’ve also been out and about, first on a day trip to the Hampton Court Flower Show which was spectacular but silly me forgot to take my camera with me.
The show gardens were amazing and so was the flower marquee but unfortunately because of the rain it was packed solid with people trying to avoid the showers. Still, it didn’t spoil the day and I saw lots of beautiful and strange plants.

This Mauve and White Clematis ‘Florida Sieboldii’ caught my eye first because of it’s really large flower heads.

What made it really unusual was the fact that as the White petals fall off you're left with a sweet little Mauve flower because the centre is still intacted, so you get two for the price of one.

The other very unusual flower that caught my attention was this odd looking one.

It’s a Tacca Chantrieri, also known as a ‘Bat Flower’…………very strange!

I was visiting even more gardens last week because I went on a four day break down to Ferndown, in Dorset to visit my aunt.
We had a day out at Compton Acers, near Sandbanks, which has lots of themed gardens to walk round and it's well worth a visit if you’re ever in that neck of the woods.
I won’t bore you with all my photos because I took loads (think I was making up for not having it with me the week before, Lol!) but here are a couple of the Italian Garden and the Woodland walk to give you a taster.

Now then, onto my main reason for visiting this afternoon and the card I’ve made for this week’s challenge over at the The Daring Cardmaker’s.

Can’t say I’ve ever heard of Pinterest before but Nat would like us to find a picture on the site and use it as inspiration for a card.

I picked out this one and tried to use the same colours.

Patterned Papers
Artylicious Peacock Summer Party

Rubber Stamps
Papermania - Hampstead

Other Equipment
Craft Creations – Embossed Hammer Card Stock
Craftworks Cards – Greeting
Martha Stewart – Brownstone Ink
Promarker Permanent Ink Pens

Stashrganza Ribbon
Brown Lace
Blue Gems

Oh What A Night (late December back in 63) and WOYWW (#108)

2011-07-06T10:30:00.004+01:00

Now can you guess where I went yesterday?

Yep, to see ‘The Jersey Boys’ in London.

I have to say it’s the best show I’ve seen in ages which is borne out by the fact that the lady I was sitting next to in the stalls was watching her fourth performance and Ryan Molloy who played Frankie Valli had the most amazing voice. It’s well worth a visit if you get the chance and I can promise you an evening of well know songs to sing along to. We finished our evening off with a nice Italian meal before heading home on the tube so all in all we had a fab afternoon and evening.

Then just to finish the day off well I turned on my computer to find a lovely message on my blog from Brenda (Butlers Abroad) telling me that I was the lucky winner of her gorgeous blog candy that she was giving away in celebration of her 500th post so how fab was that and what a great end to my day.
Thanks so much Brenda.

Now then, on to What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, the weekly blog hop hosted by Julia, over at the Stamping Ground and on my desk today you can still see what I was working on the day before yesterday.

I really seem to have become hooked on stepper cards at the moment and with my new Hougie board they are so quick and simple to do but look like you’ve spent ages making them.

The two you can see are both the same but done in different colours and I also made this Lavender one which my friend Susan asked me to make for her mum’s birthday.

There’s not much else on interest, just the Promarkers used to colour the Butterflies and a few ink pads and other pariphanailia that I seem to accumulate on the desk when I’m working. I often wonder if I had a bigger desk to work on would it still get cluttered as much but I think we all know the answer to that one don’t we, Lol!

Here’s another stepper card, a wedding one this time, using a Digital Stamp Boutique digi stamp as the main image and I’ve coloured it with my Promarkers again.

I also have something else to show you.
Do you remember a couple of weeks ago I showed you this gorgeous box designed by Alix Waterhouse and was a project in Craft Stamper,

well I’ve finally finished mine.

Just a few differences in that I stamped my own backgrounds instead of using patterned papers and I made all my own little boxes. I just need to find something to fill them all with now!

Hope you all have a great week, see you next time.
Sue
x

Something Old, Something New…………..

2011-06-24T16:43:00.004+01:00

Something Borrowed, Something Blue -ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, I've still got memories to cherish.

Just love that old song by The Fantastics and thanks to Lythan I can’t stop singing it now. Just as well you can’t hear me, Lol!

Now before I go any further can I just say a big thank you to everyone who commented on my post on Wednesday about the quilts for the hospice. I’m glad you all liked them and the hospice were over the moon and said they will be well used, so thanks again for all your lovely comments, they are really appreciated.

Right then back to Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue because it’s the theme for the dare over at the The Daring Cardmaker’s this week and Lythan came up with it because she has a family wedding firmly on her mind. She’s challenged us to include all four things on our cards if possible but some aspects are a lot easier than others.

Something old was the cardmaker!
Ok it was really the paper pad from G.C.D studio that I had for a while.
Something new is the little heart charm. They were a nice little barging from The Works….6 for 99p
Something Borrowed was a little more difficult and I don’t know if I can get away with this one but I ‘borrowed’ an old March 2007 card sketch from Page Maps to work from. Oh, just realised that’s another old!

Last but not least I think the Something Blue part speaks for itself really as I used Blue papers, Blue Organza ribbon and even Blue Pearl embossing powder on the Sentiment and stamped flourishes.

Patterned & Plain Papers
G.C.D Studio – Ella Blue

Rubber Stamps
Artemio - Arabesque 2
Imagine That – All Occasions

Equipment
Craft Creations – Embossed Hammer Card Stock
Martha Stewart Punches - ?//Border Punch, Frond, Hydrangea & Carnation
Spellbinder Nestabilities – Labels 5
Ink – Versa Magic (Aegean Blue)

Stash
Organza Ribbon
Clear and Silver gems
>br>

The culmination of one year’s work (WOYWW #107)

2011-06-22T08:30:00.014+01:00

Today is going to be quite a hard day for me, but tinged with the sadness that today would have been dads 88th birthday is a good and happy feeling too. You know, the kind of feeling you get when something you’ve been working on for a very long time is finally finished and you can sit back feel proud of what you and some very special friends have achieved.

By now you must be thinking, what the hell is she going on about, it’s Wednesday and we're only here to see what’s she has on her desk, but today I’m not going to show you my desk at all.

What I am going to show you though is my sofa because it’s covered with nine beautiful lap quilts and thirteen cushions that have been made for the hospice that cared for dad in his last months.

Dad and I came up with the idea while he was having his treatment at the hospice because we wanted to give something useful back to them as a special thank you from the family for all the kindness and care they gave to dad. Mind you, I couldn’t have completed the project if it hadn’t been for some very special people and I can’t thank them all enough for making my insane idea of making nine quilts and matching cushions happen.

There have been a few road and air miles involved in this project too.

Four sets of the squares were cross stitched by two lovely ladies in Holland, Marg and Marie-Thérèse.
I didn’t even know them until my friend Nicki suggested that they might like to give me a hand with the cross stitching, so I sent them all the threads and material they would need and also one square stitched by me. The reason for that was that I wanted to have at least one piece of my own stitching on each and every one of the quilts so I also stitched all the logo's.

I myself stitches all the squares for another four sets and also some of the Gerbera’s squares for the final quilt which was being stitched in Bristol by my other wonderful friend Sharon.

As we finished the sets of squares we sent them out to Nicki in Switzerland, another very special friend and very clever lady with a sewing machine, and she stitched her magic with the fabric that dad paid for himself and made all the squares into the beautiful quilts and cushions.

Last week they all arrived back in the UK and later this afternoon my two brothers and I are making a very special journey to the hospice on dad’s birthday to deliver the quilts and cushions together with this card that I’ve made.

Following this are some close ups of all the quilts and cushions if you would like to see them but be warned, there’s a lot of photos and later today I hope to have a photo of us actually handing over the quilts.

Thanks for stopping by this week and don’t forget to visit Julia to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Have a great day and…………
Happy Crafting!
Sue
x
Quilt #1

Quilt #2

Quilt #3

Quilt #4 -

Quilt No5

Quilt #6

Quilt #7

Quilt #8

Quilt #9

Update

I have one final photo to share with you from this afternoon.

Right to left - Essie, one of the nurses who spent an awful lot of time with dad, Michael (middle brother) Keith (eldest brother) and me. (didn't realise just how White my hair is now)

The nursing staff were overwhelmed with the quilts and cushions and we spent a lovely hour on the unit catching up with the staff who looked after dad.

Thanks once again girls for all your stitching and making a very personal project so very special.
Sue
x

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday (#106) Little Boxes

2011-06-15T09:25:00.002+01:00

So here we are at Wednesday again and it’s time for another hop around some of the spaces that my fellow crafters use to make their beautiful creations.

My desk is as I left it last night and it looks like a bomb has struck which is not unusual. Lol!

Over the last few weeks I’ve been itching to get my teeth into a slightly more testing project from the normal cards and LO’s that I do, so I’ve been flicking through my pile of old and new Craft Stampers and found just the thing, this fab five sided Etui with little drawers inside, designed by Alix Waterhouse.

I spent ages going through my stash trying to find suitable papers and stamps and in the end I printed some papers from the Glenda Waterworth Artylicious ‘Seasons Greetings’ CD , not that my box is going to be Christmas themed.
Stamp wise I fell back on my old faithful flower stamps (sorry, I can’t remember who their by) and I just love the Wrought Iron Gates from Paper Artsy but I didn’t have them. Needless to say…..I’m awaiting a delivery!

Once the stamps arrive I can finish the outside but my project for today is to make all the little drawers for the inside. The one in the mag is done with covered matchboxes but I don’t have them either so I’ve found a template on the web and am going to make them from scratch, so wish me luck.

Don’t forget to visit our esteemed leader Julia over at the The Stamping Ground for the list of everyone who’s joining in this week and go see what everyone id up to but beware, it’s addictive!

I’ll be dropping by later but until then…………
Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Fancy Folds

2011-06-11T16:13:00.001+01:00

Yet another challenge card………I must be on a roll!

This one is for Stamp Something where the team are asking for cards using punches or die cuts.
I’ve made a Diamond Fold card and called my Nesties into service for this one.

I’ve also had a play with digital stamps again and used a gorgeous Fuchsia stamp from Sketching Stamper as my main image and a conventional Penny Black stamp, which I just love, to do the two side panels. Both were coloured with Marvy Le PlumeII pens.

As there wasn’t really enough space on the side panels to add a greeting that I wanted I’ve decorated the back of the card as well and then can add the greeting to the central panel when I’m ready.

Hope you’re enjoying a creative day.
Sue
x

I’ve used:

Patterned Paper – My Mind’s Eye, Wild Asparagus
Stamped Image – Penny Black, Bush Fuchsia
Digital Stamp – Sketching Stamper
Nestabilities – Large and Small Scalloped Circles, Large Classic Circle.
Craftworks Cards –Birthday Greeting
Ranger Distress Ink – Vintage Photo & Victorian Velvet
Marvy Le PlumeII – Iris Purple, Bubble Gum Pink, Eggplant, Pine Green, Olive Green & Jade Green

New Shape

2011-06-10T10:27:00.006+01:00

I wish I was talking about my body when I say ‘New Shape’ but alas I’m not, it’s a new shaped card that I’ve made for the first time.

When I was visiting a few of my blog friends yesterday I noticed that the lovely Vicki and made one of those centre easel cards and had added a link to a very clear tutorial which has been put together by Frances Byrne, so I thought I would give it a go.

I have to say, it wasn’t a complete success because for some reason I couldn’t cut a straight line but I managed to salvage it and if I’m honest, for a first try it’s not too bad.

I’m entering it in the Paper Play challenge, where this week the theme is to make a card for a man or a Father’s Day card.

I’ve used:
Patterned Paper & Plain Papers – DCWV The Natural Stack
Stamped Image – Papermania Nostalgia Pastimes
Craft Creations – Embossed Linen Card Stock
Craftworks Cards –Birthday Greeting
Ranger Distress Ink – Vintage Photo
Marvy Le PlumeII – Various colours

Stash
Eyelets & Brads

In the Garden

2011-06-09T14:11:00.007+01:00

Well, I’m most definitely not in the garden today because it’s chucking it down out there.

Instead I’ve stayed in and made a ‘garden’ card with no less than ten layers and it fits in perfectly with the Digital Tuesday challenge .

I’ve used:

Patterned Paper & Plain Papers – Memory Stor Kit from Costco
Digital Image – Sketching Stamper
Craft Creations – Embossed Linen Card Stock
Craftworks Cards –Birthday Greeting
Ranger Distress Ink – Vintage Photo
ProMarkers – Various colours
Mather Stewart Border Punch
Stash
Ribbon, Paper Flowers & Brads

Long Time, No Play.

2011-06-08T07:55:00.001+01:00

Hi guys, well it’s an age since I’ve joined in a dare with my old DT buddies over at the The Daring Cardmaker’s so this week I’ve decided is the week to get back into it and playing along for fun.

The theme this week is the Flower of the Month series that runs all year and that means Roses or Honeysuckle because they are the flowers for June.

I’ve used sketch #118 from Inspirational Card Sketches and I’m hoping it’s a lucky omen because 118 just happens to be my house number.

Here's what I've done with it.

I’ve covered my card blank using two K & Co papers, stamping on the lighter one with a VersaMark ink pad and giving it a dusting of eye shadow (my version of chalks). The ribbon, complete with ribbon slide was wrapped around the paper as I was sticking it to the card.

I stamped the rose using Black Memento Ink and coloured it with ProMarkers. It was then cut into an oval, the edges distressed and inked and then it was layered and mounted onto the card.

Next I added a few finishing touches; Gold Card Candi and a Birthday Greeting from Craftworks Cards,some Crystal Lacquer to the petals and leaves and a rose charm which incidentally was Silver to start with but I've coloured it with a Gold Krylon pen.

Patterned Papers
Classic K McKenna Pad – K & Co

Rubber Stamps
Rubber Stampede – Antique Rose
Artemio - Arabesque 2

Equipment
Craft Creations – Embossed Hammer Card Stock
Craftworks Cards – Card Candi & Birthday Greeting
Ranger Distress Ink – Victorian Velvet
ProMarkers – Antique Pink, Dusky Rose, Pastel Pink, Cool Grey1 & Blender

Stash
Satin Ribbon
Ribbon Slide
Metallic Thread

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday Year 3 (#105)

2011-06-08T07:33:00.007+01:00

Well, what an exciting week it’s been.

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday has celebrated its 2nd birthday with a worldwide PIF (that’s a Pay it Forward of gifts for those not in the know) and it’s all thanks to Julia over at the Stamping Ground. And because it was such a special week I even made a big effort and managed to get round to everyone for the first time, but I think it will be a one off because it took forever and a day.
I admire you girls who manage it every week but I'm afraid I'll be going back to my random visits, by looking to see what number I am on the blog list and then visit everyone who's number ends in the same one as mine. That works well for me and it usually means that I visit different people each week.

Anyway, emails have been flying backwards and forwards us we've all been waiting with bated breath for Mr. (or Mrs.) Postie to deliver our awaited treasures.

I’m pleased to report that my wait ended yesterday when a little surprise dropped onto my doormat and inside was this lovely little card and pretty mini wooden tray/hanger from the very talented Ali.

Thank you so much Ali, it’s absolutely gorgeous!

I love that each of the little sections behind the flowers and the bird are covered in what must be hundreds of tiny little blue seed beads that make such a lush and sparkly backing and if you look closely at the picture of my desk this week you can see it hanging from the shelf where it will live until I find somewhere better (and safer) to hang it.

I think it’s also safe to show you gifts and cards I made to send to Teresa and Julia and it’s very strange because I used the exact same colours as Ali did for my gift.

I’ve made them both wall hangings that are the same, but different.

This one’s Teresa’s:

And this one’s Julia’s:

I can’t actually take full credit for the design because the idea came from a class I did at a local craft shop last year.
Mind you, I didn’t have all the materials we used in the class so I’ve had to improvise.
The first thing was the canvas for the base.
Julia’s one was fine but when I came to do Teresa's one do you think I could find a square canvas the size I wanted, not on your life. In the end I had the idea of covering a chipboard square with canvas photo paper and it worked perfectly. I also had to use the canvas paper again on one of the smaller squares and was worried that it wouldn’t emboss properly but that
worked out fine too.

They were great projects to work on and it was fun getting messy with alcohol and distress inks, as well as playing with metal and embossing folders. Throw into the mix some acrylic paint and beads and you can imagine what my desk was looking like on that day, suffice to say, you couldn’t see it Lol!

The cards I made to go with them were both the same.

I’m loving these easel fold cards at the moment, so thought I would have a go at a different shape. As you can see, I’ve based the design on the wall hangings.

So back to my desk this week and on it you can see the working of a card I’ve made for the Daring Cardmaker’s challenge this week. You can see the finished card Here.

The only other thing that might be of some interest is my big box of eye shadows. They were a bargain buy after Christmas a couple of years ago from Superdrug and I use them as chalks. The colours are great because they are real dusky shades and not colours that I’ve ever seen in chalks.

Well, that’s it from me and I’m sorry that this turned out to be a long and picture heave post but I had so much I wanted to share with you all.

Have a great day and…………
Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Bold and Bright

2011-06-07T09:31:00.003+01:00

Hi All, well the sun is back out again this morning, after the down poor yesterday.
I can’t really complain thought because the South East has had so little rain this year, the garden really needs it but the best thing is that it saved me going out and watering all my pots last night.

Because the weather was so rubbish I spent my day ironing, which wasn’t very pleasant…….. I really hate it with a vengeance, Lol, but with that out of the way I could play for the rest of the day guilt free.

Having said that, I didn’t really achieve very much in the end and the only thing I can show you is the card that I made for the monthly challenge over at Craft Creations where the theme is ‘Bold & Bright.

I think my card is Bold & Bright but in a subtle way.

Don’t you just that cute butterfly? He was cut for one of the patterned papers and dressed up with a beaded body and some gems and glitter glue.

Thanks for stopping by.
Sue
x

Patterned & Plain Papers
Urban Prairie – Basic Grey

Equipment
Craft Creations - Peel-Off Border Stickers
Craftworks Cards - Birthday Greeting
Fiskars Paper Punch – Sunburst
Ranger Distress Ink – Worn Lipstick
Marvy Le PlumeII Pens – Dusty Pink, Manganese Blue & Citrus Yellow

Stash
Velvet Ribbon
Beads
Gold wire
Round & Square Gems
Glitter Glue

Inky Paws & Fingers

2011-06-05T14:58:00.002+01:00

I was doing a spot of hopping around a few of my favorite stamp sites this morning and discovered that Waltzing Mouse do a weekly template challenge. I don’t know how I’ve missed it all this time but now I’ve found it I’ll be joining in as often as I can.

Here’s this week’s template and strangely it’s almost the same as a couple of cards I made to go with my PIF for What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Unfortunately I can’t show you those until Wednesday and they wouldn’t have been any good for the challenge anyway because there weren't any Waltzing Mouse stamps used on them, so this morning with the aid of my little helper

(I really mean hinderer but don’t tell BoJangles that or he’ll take the huff) I’ve had a play and made this.

No patterned papers used here just a few Distress inks and lots of different stamps including the flowers from the ‘Say it with Style’ set and a frame from ‘Very Vintage Labels No. 1.

This is the front when it's laying flat.

and this is the inside.

Inks
Distress Inks - Victorian Velvet, Wild Honey, Brushed Corduroy and Forest Green
VersaMark

Stamps
Waltzing Mouse – Say it with Style (Swirly Flowers), Very Vintage Labels No. 1. (Vintage Frame)
Blond Moments – Just Plain Dotty (Spotty Flower)
Penny Black – Flying Stars
Artemio - Modern Grasses

Greeting
Craftworks Cards

Dies/Punches
Nestabilities - Labels No1
Martha Stewart – Frond Branch

Stash
Buttons
Pin
Beads
Ribbon
Gem

Happy 2nd Birthday, What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday…………………….….yah!

2011-06-01T06:00:00.005+01:00

Now the party is in full swing and Workdesk Wednesday’s here,

The day we share the projects that we’ve made
throughout the year.

But this week’s very special, we've reached a mile stone,

Two years of sharing work desks, starting out at Julia’s home.

So to mark this great occasion, a gift I send to you,

But you must Pay It Forward before you get back to your glue.

Back to the paper, stamps and paints that we all hold so very dear,

And wait in anticipation as we look forward to another year.

Happy What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday!

Hope you like my little ode to the phenomenon that’s become the biggest weekly blog hop on the web.

I’m sure that Julia couldn’t have thought that when she posted a picture of her Workdesk that very first time way back in 2009 that she would be seeing nearing 200 of us visiting her each week.

It’s strange how things just seem to catch on and I like a lot of you I should imagine am very grateful to her for the fun that it gives us each week and the opportunity to visit so many very talented people that I otherwise might not have found.
Added to that there’s the friendships that have been made along the way, so raise a glass with me……yes I know it a bit early in the morning but I’m sure we can make an exception on this occasion…………and let’s make a toast.

To Julia and 2 years of What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday.
Long may it continue!

To celebrate the 2nd anniversary I thought I would show you
my very first posting for What’s On Your Workdesk,
back in August 2009. It had only been going for about two months then but even so it was popular, with lots of people playing along.

There wasn’t very much on my desk back then but I did have a new toy to share with you and I still love it!

Now to my desk this week:-

You can see two very special parcels that are waiting to go in the post………….wonder what they might be?

I can’t show you what’s in them until next week when each of the recipitant’s have received them and I also can’t show you the two cards that I’ve made either, for obvious reasons, so you’ll have to tune in next week for the big unveiling.

Thanks for stopping by on this very special day and I hope everyone enjoys the party that is being hosted by the mega queen of snoop. (I mean that in the nicest possible way Julia)

If you want to join in the fun, hop across to snoop central at The stamping Ground to find all you need to know.

Lots of Love my fellow crafters……see you next time!
Sue
X x x

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

2011-05-25T17:40:00.003+01:00

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

2011-05-25T11:49:00.004+01:00

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

2011-05-18T08:51:00.002+01:00

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

2011-05-11T10:08:00.003+01:00

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

2011-05-10T09:01:00.002+01:00

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!

2011-05-07T11:55:00.005+01:00

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

2011-05-03T18:06:00.014+01:00

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?

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday #99

2011-04-27T10:42:00.006+01:00

Good morning Workdesk Wednesdayer’s and what a fab morning it is.

Despite the weather forecast for rain, my little corner of the South East has so far missed it again and the sun is still shining here even if it’s not as warm as it was, so I’ve been making the most of it.

I’ve been out and about over the weekend visiting a sick cousin who’s been in hospital but is home now (Get well soon Ken) and also I was at a BBQ on Sunday with my very good friends Susan and Edd and my two God Daughters, which was lovely.

The consequence of that is that there’s been very little creativity going on because I haven’t really settled down to doing very much since.
I did come close yesterday though because I’ve finally decided that it’s time to sit down and do a scrapbook page of my dad.

I know it sounds silly but since losing him last August I just couldn’t face doing it for some reason, but now I ready and yesterday I started to sort out the papers and get everything together that I had brought to do it but I didn’t get very far.
I couldn’t find the old photos that I wanted to use and I spent the rest of the morning searching through drawers and cupboards looking for them.
I wouldn’t mind, they should be easy to see because all four of them are in quite big frames from when I had them hanging on the wall in my bedroom so they won’t have just been tucked away somewhere. All I can think is that they are still over at my brother’s house because we had them on show there after dad’s funeral.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that after all that searching the page didn’t get done in the end and the papers and things are still on the corner of my desk waiting to be used.

The only other things of interest on my desk are two cards, one of which you have seen before but is having a bit of a tweak.

I made the Fairy card a couple of weeks ago as part of a five card order and had them all packed up and ready to post when I received a reply to an email I sent last week asking if she wanted an age on the front of the card. When I didn’t hear anything back I assumed that she didn’t and packed everything up but it turned out she was waiting for a reply from Australia because she was checking the age, so this morning I’m just adding the ‘8’ to the front and then will post them as I go out.

The other card is for a wedding and is my first attempt at making crinkled paper flowers using Mr. Holtz tattered flowers. I love the way they turned out and they were so easy to make so you can expect to see loads more in the coming weeks.

So that’s about it from me, I’m off now to drink that cold cup of coffee you can see on my desk then get that card finished.

Don’t forget to drop by The Stamping Ground where Julia has the list of everyone who’s joining in this week and visit a few blogs.

I’ll be stopping by later to see what you’re all up to, so bye for now and ……………

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Ahead of Myself

2011-04-20T10:10:00.004+01:00

I couldn’t make it to WOYWW last week and didn’t want to miss it two weeks in a row, especially as the excitement is growing as we get ever nearer to the big P.I.F in celebration of the second anniversary so here I am with a photo of my desk this morning.

I’m making no apologies for the poor quality of the picture.
The sun was streaming through my window leaving shadows over everything but I’m sure you will still be able to get the gist of what I’ve been up to.

The first thing you may notice is that there’s been a little change to the storage boxes at the back of my desk.

For some time I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a new container to store my distress inks.
Up until now I’ve had them all thrown into one of the drawers at the back of my table but they were often awkward to get to because of all the stuff that gets piled up in front of them. I wanted them to be within easy reach and found just what I was looking for in Hobbycraft last week. I think it’s meant to go inside a drawer but I’ve stood mine on its end, which meant I had to have a bit of a ‘rearrange’ and relocate a few bits but over all I’m very pleased with the way it’s worked out. Now I just have to reach out and grab the one I want!

Scattered across the rest of my desk are the working of my Nephew’s birthday card. I’m feeling quite smug because I’m ahead of myself in the card order stakes and already working on cards needed for June.

You can see the remains of my Basic Grey ‘Marjolaine’ pad lying at the back of the table and also some tickets, cut with the Sizzix strip and finished off with the coordinating stamps from Imagine That
Actually, it’s the first time I’ve used them and if I’m honest I think I’m going to need lots of practice with them because I had awful trouble lining the stamps up with the die cut even though I used a clear acrylic block.

There’s nothing else very exciting on my deck this week, just the usual crafting necessities.

I’ll be round to visit as many as I can during the week and be back next time when we will find ourselves a week closed to the second anniversary bash.
For everything you need to know to join in with WOYWW and the anniversary P.I.F. please hop on over to Julie’s blog The Stamping Ground.

Have a good week and a very happy Easter
Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Playtime at last!

2011-04-06T09:52:00.009+01:00

Oh, I’ve had such a lovely start to my week.

My crafty pal Lythan came to call on Monday and we ‘played’ all day.
It’s been so long since we’ve been able to get together to craft and have a good natter, so you can bet that we made up for lost time. Lol!

We had a very productive day too.

Lythan was working on two 12 x 12 layouts that she had brought with her and I decided to make my P.I.F. for What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday’s second anniversary, which is coming up very shortly.
If you’ve no idea what WOYWW is all about hop across to The Stamping Ground where you’ll find all you need to know.

Now, for obvious reasons I can’t show you my P.I.F. yet but I can show you what’s on my desk this morning it’s something that I don’t often dabble with……………

I have my bead box out!

The beads may or may not have something to do with my P.I.F. but what you can see in the picture are the bracelets that I’m making for my friend Sandy.

We saw the beads in Wal-Mart while we were in America in February and it was a good job I’m not into jewelry making in a big way because I think my luggage would have been way over weight on the way home. There were so many gorgeous beads and all soooo cheap. A ‘real’ beader would have struggled to restrain themselves, I’m sure.

I picked up a big bag of various shades of Brown and Beige beads and this string of beautiful Black wired glass beads for myself.

Sandy decided on the two sets you can see on my desk……wish I had got some of those Blue ones for me now.

Well, it’s on with my day.

The ironing board is calling unfortunately but I hope to be back later to visit a few more desks than I managed last week and leave more comments.

Thanks to everyone who left comments for me last week too, they are always most appreciated.

Oh yes, my week is set to end well too, because Lythan and I are off to Alexander Palace on Saturday for the Big Stamp Show.
May see you there if you're going too!

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Great Grandma Jessy

2011-03-30T14:02:00.005+01:00

So everything is stuck in its place now and I can reveal the lay out that was strewed across my table first thing this morning when I showed you what was on my workdesk.

The WOYWW post is below this one)

As I mentioned before, I wanted this page of me Great Grandmother to match & complement the one that I had previously made for my Great Grandfather, so I’ve used the same K & Co papers from the Blue Awning pad…….I just love these papers, so much so that I even made the paper flowers from them.

I’ve also used some of the same embellishments on both Lo’s to tie them together, but I didn’t want the layouts to be exactly the same, so I’ve used this week’s sketch (231) from Pencil Lines.

I’ve used their card sketches many times before but never a 12 x 12 sketch, so this is a first for me and that’s because I’m a card maker rather than a scrapbooker and never feel confident when doing layouts so the sketch was a great help. With lots more of my ancestors pages still waiting to be made I can see myself coming back for more, time and time again.

WOYWD #95

2011-03-30T09:17:00.003+01:00

Snooping day is here again and it’s a good excuse to grab a coffee and take a tour of everyone’s desk.
I bet Julia didn’t realize when she blogged a photo of her desk for the first time that it would go ‘global’, but it has and now she’s getting on for 200 of us joining in each week, which is amazing.

If you fancy joining our merry band of Workdesk Wednesday’ers then visit The Stamping Ground for all you need to know and maybe I’ll see you next week!

I’ve had a very quiet crafting week since last we meet, only making one card, which in fact isn’t even finished yet.
I kept getting distracted by the lovely weather and wanted to be doing things in the garden, drinking coffee and reading being two of them, Lol, but I did do a spot of gardening as well and I still have the aches and pains to prove it!

My evenings too have been taken up by another distraction, the hospice cross stitching project I’m working on.
It’s getting quite exciting now because seven of the quilt and cushion sets are completely finished and the project is nearing its end. I’ve just finished stitching all the squares for the eighth set and they will be winging their way to Nicki in Switzerland to be made up very soon. My good friend Sharon is working on the squares for the final quilt set and now my stitching is done I’ll lend a hand to get them finished too.

Here’s a sneak peek.

These are the squares (all the same) for the second Brown quilt.

And this is one of the squares for the seating area quilt.

Unlike the other quilts, this one will have different squares on it but they will all be Gerbera’s because they are the logo for the hospice.

The good news is that it’s dull and miserable this morning and the garden isn’t calling me at all today so I’ve finally made a start on the LO of my Great Grandmother that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.
I want it to match the one I’ve already finished of my Great Grandfather which you can just make out on the back Right-hand corner of my desk.

I’ve decided on all the bits I want to use and sorted out where I want everything to go, with the exception of the flower. I don’t like that one very much and think I might make cut some distressed flowers with my Tim Holtz die, we shall have to see.

If you’re interested in heritage scrapbooking, visit Family Footprints in the Sands of Time where you can see some of the other pages I’ve done and read a little bit about their lives. I still have a few other finished pages to put on there but need to do a little bit of research first.

Well, the kettle has just boiled, so I’ll be off to make my coffee and then I’ll be round to see what you’re all up to this week.

Have a good week and ……….
Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris (WOYWW #94)

2011-03-23T11:12:00.012Z

Well once again the sun is shining this morning and for some reason it brought to mind this little ditty that Spike Milligan used to recite quite often…..showing my age now Lol!

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris.
I wonders where the birdies is.
They say the bird is on the wing.
Ain't that absurd?
I always thought the wing was on the bird.

It certainly make me feel better when the sun is shining and the opportunity to finally get out in the garden and have a tide up is a welcome one.
I even had the help of a little Robin sitting by my feet yesterday as I was working out there. He was obviously looking for some tasty morsel to eat to be honest and not really craving my companionship but his presence never the less was a welcome one.

It’s hard to stay inside and work when the sun is shining the way it is but needs must and my desk today shows why.

On a follow up to last week’s desk, when I was franticly trying to get the Order of Service booklets finished after my blunder, I’ve now been asked to make some Thank You cards for the flowers.

Sandy's asked for something similar to the ones I made for my dad, so the old faithful Penny Black Single Iris stamp has come out again.
I just love this stamp and never get fed up with using it.

As you can see from the photo I’m just in the process of cutting the card to postcard size and then I’ll get onto the stamping.

Pushed to the side of my table is what I was working on earlier in the week…….yes, it’s another page for my family tree album.

This one is of my Grandmother (mum’s mum) and I think of all the pages I’ve done so far this has to be my favourite.
The colours are beautiful and the papers, Basic Grey ‘Curio’ are perfect for heritage pages.
I especially loved the flowered paper, which I’ve cut round and decoupaged and then added a little more interest with seed beads threaded onto wire to make the stamens.

You can read all about her on my Family Tree Blog Family Footprints in the Sands of Time.

Just sitting under the layout you can glimpse of yet another moment of weakness.

When I popped to Hobbycraft for extra card last week I just happened across these beautiful My Mind’s Eye, ‘Lost & Found’ papers that are also earmarked for the album.
They are almost too gorgeous to use and deserve to be stroked for a while before I find out if I actually have the courage to cut into them…..we shall see!

Right then, the sooner I get these Thank You cards done the sooner I can get back the garden with my little Robin friend.

Don’t forget to call in and see Julia, over at the Stamping Ground where you’ll find all the links to those join in with What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday.
It’s really great visiting all the different blogs but there are so many taking part now that it’s near impossible to visit and comment on every one, so I’ve come up with a random way to visit as many as I can.
Hopefully that way I’ll get round to everyone.......... eventually.
I hope that’s ok with everyone.

Special thanks to everyone who takes the time to call in on me and leave comments, especially those who stop by regularly. Your comments are always most welcome and often encouraging.

Have a happy crafting week until we meet again.
Sue
x

WOYWW #93

2011-03-16T09:18:00.003Z

Well, here we are at Wednesday again and a wet and soggy one it is too, here in Essex.

As you know, Wednesday’s are the highlight of the week here in blog land because Julia takes us on a tour of the craft desks of the world.
If you’ve no idea what I’m going on about, that’s nothing unusual, but if you go visit the The Stamping Ground all will become clear and you’ll find the details of how to join in.

So my desk today is how I left it in the wee small hours of this morning after a very manic crafting session.

I’ve been making the Order of Service booklets for Rene’s (my friend’s mums) funeral which is this afternoon. Talk about cutting things fine!

I only got the final draft for the service on Sunday evening and because I had to be places on Monday and Tuesday, one being the hospital about my eye which I will tell you about in a mo, I had very little time make them in the end and it was all a bit of a rush really.

I was up until very late on Monday night setting up all the templates for the pages and I sent a copy to my friend so she could give it the once over…… I’m not known for my good spelling and this was all done in a hurry so it was best to get it checked.
When I got the ok from her yesterday afternoon I made a start on the printing and had just finished folding the fifty double sided covers when the phone rang.

It was Sandy with some bad news.

Her brother had just come in and spotted that there was a mistake on the front with one of the dates. I could really kick myself for missing it but then again several other people had looked at it too by then and nobody had noticed I had put the wrong month on it.
It was a complete waste of time, card and ink but I so glad it was spotted before the service because it would have been so embarrassing.

Anyway, I reprinted all the covers (luckily I had brought extra card and spare ink cartridges) and did the inserts which all come out ok in the end.

There’s something very satisfying about all those little piles of Order of Service don’t you think?

Now all we need to do is hope that the rain stops before the service this afternoon.

Now my eye………

I’ve been discharged from the hospital……Yah!

It’s been sixteen months of hell really, from finding I had a detached retina and needing emergency surgery the following day and a second op a year later, to my discharge on Monday but my consultant said that the outcome has been extremely good, given the severity of what I've just gone through.

Now all I have to do is go to my own optician to sort out my new contact lenses (this Saturday) and then it’s onwards and upwards and I won’t be boring you all anymore with my eye problems ……........I can here you all saying, thank heavens for that Lol!

Right then, I must go get a wiggle on because I still have a couple of things to sort out before going to the funeral.

See you soon and thanks for stopping by

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

WOYWW #92

2011-03-09T12:01:00.005Z

Just a very quick one from me this morning as I’ve lots of jobs to get done today.

Here’s my desk and if you look closely you’ll see that my threat to do a scrapbook page last week actually did happened, although I’ve not yet put it up on my other blog, Family Footprints in the Sands of Time

The page is of my Great Grandfather James Gowers, who was born, in 1863.

Now the reason it’s still out on my desk this week is because last night I decided that I would do a coordinating page for my Great Grandma to go next to it in my album.

As you can see the pad of papers is out and I think I’ve settled on the Blue and Green stripy paper for the background and then it will tie in with the other LO because I’ve used some of it on there too.

Oh well, on with my long list of jobs……….…I can only put them off for so long!

Don’t forget to go over and visit Julia’s blog if you haven’t already and join in with ‘What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday’ and I’ll be over as soon as I can to see what you’re all up to this week.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving such nice comments and ………

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

WOYWW #91

2011-03-02T10:35:00.008Z

Good morning all you WOYWW’ers!

You know, I never believed my dad when he used to say to me that as you get older the time just seems to fly by but he was right you know because another week has gone in a flash and here we are at the start of March already……….it’ll soon be Christmas!

It also means that Wednesday is here again and it’s time to hop around the craft desks of the world, courtesy of
Julia and the phenomenon that is ‘What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday’.

You’ll be pleased to hear that I finally managed to put away all the holiday leftovers that were still on my desk last week so my table is looking very tidy for once.

I’ve been busy making cards too but I had some very sad news yesterday that my good friend Sandy’s mum, whose birthday cards I had just made, had passed away suddenly, so I had to stop making the birthday cards and make a sympathy card as well.
It’s come as such a shock because I only saw Rene just before we went on holiday and there was no sign that anything was wrong.
Sending love to the family Sandy (if you’re reading this) and I’m thinking of you all at the sad time.
R.I.P Rene.

I always worry when I make Sympathy cards that I go a bit OTT so I tried to keep it as simple as I could by just using Mauve and White and adding the detail with the embossing and the little crystal flowers which I colour tinted with Promarker. Hope I got the balance right with this one.

I won’t show you the birthday cards I made for Rene but here are the other two I made.
Didn’t realize I had a bit of a ‘Blue’ thing going on until now!

The first one is for my God Daughter.

She in Thailand at the moment, volunteering at an Elephant rescue centre so I thought a card with a paper pieced elephant on would be apt. The Basic Grey, Marrakech papers were perfect too, with all those little elephants over it.

The second card is for an old work colleague.

Again I’ve used Basic Grey papers, this time from the Marjolaine pad and a stamped flower image.

Now I hope you’re sitting down............... because for the rest of the day I plan to try and do a page for my Family Album. I’m not really a scrapbooker so I never find these at all easy to tackle but when I see the beautiful pages that Angie makes over at Glimpsing the Past, I always feel a tinge of guilt for not making more of an effort, so today’s the day.
Hopefully I’ll have something to show you very soon!

In the mean time, I hope you all have a very crafty and productive week and thanks for stopping in to see what’s going in my little corner of the world.

Sue
x

Back from the Rockies……..and a scrap lift.

2011-02-23T17:35:00.001Z

Hi all, well I’m back from my much needed holiday and my desk this week is covered with bits and pieces that still need to be put away.

I’ve just had ten wonderful days in the snow having spent my break in Breckenridge, Colorado on a skiing trip with some friends and boy did we get snow….......more than 12 inches in just one night and that was just the start of it.
As it happens we arrived in Denver at just the right time because the day after we got there we heard that they had to cancel more then sixty flights in due to the weather conditions, but I’m not complaining because the most important point to a skiing holiday is snow, right!

Here are a couple of pictures

Our apartment was right on the mountain so the skiers in our party could literally roll out of bed and get straight on the slopes.

There was lots to do for us non skiers too because Breckenridge has a lovely main street with lots of interesting little shops to investigate. Sadly there was only one very small Bead/ Scrapbook shop and a Wal-Mart to satisfy my crafty cravings but I did manage to bag a couple of bargains to bring home with me so I was happy.

We also had a couple of days out and about exploring the other ski resorts in the area, namely Beaver Creek and Vale so all in all we had a busy time of it.

Just look how deep that snow is!

I got back home last Wednesday and straight away had to prepair myself for the cataract operation that I was due to have on Friday.

I’m pleased to say that's behind me now too and it all went well, so I can breath a sigh of relief knowing that all the months of worrying that my sight had been permanently affected by the detached retina are laid to rest and I can look forward to the future.

I now have perfect distance vision in my Right eye again and although I will still need reading glasses for close work it’s a small price to pay after all I’ve been through.
Things are still a bit difficult at the moment though. While I’m waiting for everything to heal I’m having to manage with an old pair of glasses, which aren’t perfect but when I go back to the hospital in three weeks time they’ll sort out my new contact lenses/ glasses and hopefully everything can get back to how it was……..crafting included!

Anyway, back to what’s on my table this week…..

As I said it’s a dumping ground for my holiday bits and bobs this week, including the crafty goodies that I brought home with me.

The first thing that stands out is the gorgeous Lilac hand luggage bag that I brought just before I went away. As if I didn’t have enough bags…........but this one was just calling out to me so I treated myself, as you do!
The Lilac theme didn’t stop there because I also treated myself to the document wallet and passport cover that you can see just behind the bag.

There was a mostly uninteresting pile of mail waiting for me when I got home too, which is now waiting for the shredder, but in amongst it was a lovely surprise, a £25cheque from a Premium Bond win, how nice was that!

And last but not least on my table is the pile of crafty goodies that found their way home with me.

Even thought the exchange rate isn’t that good any more I was still pleasantly surprised at just how much cheaper things are in the USA so I came home with two $5 Colorbok (A4) paper pads, that’s just £3.30 each, two sets of rubber stamps, rub-ons, two cards of hemp cord, blooms, chip board flowers and some beads, so that little lot should keep me quiet for a while.

So there's what's on my my desk this week.
If you want to join in with What’s On Your Work Desk Wednesday than hop on over to the Stamping Ground where Julia tries to keep us all on our toes each week and have a good old snoop around the craft desks of the world.
It’s really fun!

I do have something crafty to show you too this week.
You may remember a few weeks ago I mentioned that while looking at peoples desks I came across a layout made by the very talented Lisa

At the time I was looking for inspiration because I wanted to make something for a special friend who had just sadly lost her beloved dog Tosca and my idea was to make something around the beautiful Rainbow Bridge verse. As soon as I saw Lisa’s layout about ‘What’s at the end of a Rainbow’ and saw all those flowers I know I had to have a go.

Here's her masterpiece

And this is what I came up with

Thanks Lisa for the inspiration.

Last but not least I want to tell you about some great blog candy that's up for grabs.
All you WOYWDW fans might want to stop off at Jude’s Blog, especially if you’re a Tim Holtz fan because she’s giving away some great Half Term blog candy.

Well that really is it from me this week. Thanks for dropping in.

Sue
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In the Pink

2011-01-26T09:27:00.009Z

It’s another Work Desk Wednesday and as you’re reading this I’m somewhere on the M25 heading for Lakeside shopping centre hoping that Blogger has done it’s work and automatically posted this for me.
Darn it…..…..Blogger didn’t play the game and this didn’t get posted after all, so as you’ve probably guessed I’m back from my shopping spree and I'm having to do this myself now, so sorry it’s a bit late in the day.
Thanks to every one who stopped by last week and offered some suggestions regarding my new trimmer.
Impatient as ever I returned the trimmer to shop in the end, but not before sending another scathing email to Purple Cow. This time I did get a reply (on the same day too) saying they were looking into it. Shame…..if they had told me that in the first place they might not have lost a customer who was about to spend in the region of £60…..their loss!

I’ve had a busy few days making cards and trying to get ahead of myself before my holiday……it’s almost upon me Yah!
There’s just eleven days (and counting) until I go away and the need to be in front with everything has never been more important because I’ll be away for ten days and then two days after I get back I go for eye op, so who knows when I’ll be back to crafting again. My fingers are crossed that it won’t be too long, but you never know so the pile of cards you can see are all orders for March and are awaiting their inserts.

My desk is a little cluttered with inks and stamps and clearly the ice cream tub I use as a desk top rubbish bin needs emptying but at least for once there’s actually a gap in the middle that I've been able to work in.

The papers and card kit you can see are from one of my favorite Basic Gray collections, Cappella.
I think they have a shabby Chic feel to them and the colours although darkish are quite subtle if you know what I mean.
I’ve used the card kit, which incidentally is intended for weddings, to make an anniversary card but I don’t like just following the instructions in the kit to the letter; I like to make it my own so I've used the original card (the square on the front)and made it into an A5 size by adding the background and another greeting.

The rest of the cards I've made have a distinct Pink theme going on because I'm still trying to use up some of my old collections. The good news is that I've succeeded in using up all of this one now and with the final tiny bits that were left I made two more card blanks that are ready for an image to be added when I need a card in a hurry.

Julie is presiding over things as usual over at the Stamping Ground, so get on over there and join in the fun that is What’s On Your Work Desk Wednesday.

Thanks for dropping in and I’ll be calling in to see as many of you as I can manage later in the week.

Bye for now.
Sue
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Stylish Blogger………..who me?

2011-01-24T13:47:00.013Z

A couple of weeks back the lovely Ady very kindly awarded me this Stylish Blogger award and it’s taken me until now to add it to my blog and pass it on to no less than fifteen other ‘stylish’ bloggers who deserve recognition.

There were a couple of conditions that went with it, the first being that I share seven things with you about myself that you may or may not already know, so here goes…………

1) I’m 54 and retired.
Actually I retied at 47 when I found myself in the lucky position of being offered severance from my job with the Bank of England and being over forty I was allowed to take my pension. I can happily say I’ve never looked back.

2) My first love hobby wise is cross stitching, although I have always crocheted and knitted for as long as I can remember. But I can’t sew a straight line on a sewing machine for toffee though!

3) I’m mum to this good looking little fellow.

His name is BoJangles and he’s a 7 year old rescue cat who’s been with me for five years now. He’s very loving and would eat all day long if I allowed him too.

4) I had my first major operation at the age of four after swallowing a cherry stone. It got stuck in my appendix, which had to be removed in an emergency operation but it burst while they were removing it causing an abscess and I then needed to have another operation a couple of days later to clear up the infection.

5) My favourite colour is Lavender and has been for as long as I can remember.
I must admit, it’s not a colour that wear very often, because it doesn’t go very well with my very White hair but from a very young age my room and other belongings have been in those shades.
In fact, only this week I have brought myself a lovely Lilac overnight bag to use as hand luggage when I go away to Denver in a couple of weeks time…..and it’s sooooo scrummy!

6) When I was 7 I almost crushed my Left hand by accidentally putting it through the electric wringer/mangle on the top of my mum’s washing machine.
Bet not many people can claim to have done that!

Picture the scene………It’s Sunday morning.
Lunch is in the oven and mum is in the kitchen finishing off the last of the washing. I arrive home from Sunday school and want to help her finish up. Mum says no but I keep on worrying her so she relents and gives me a Blue face cloth to put the wringer. She waits to retrieve it at the other side but instead of the face cloth, my fingers emerge and panic ensues. Needless to say lunch was ruined because the rest of the day was spent in A & E but thankfully there were no broken bones and I had escaped with no more damage than bad bruising.

7) I’ve had my fifteen minutes of fame.
It was when I submitted a picture of one of my cross stitch projects to The World Of Cross Stitching and became their ‘Stitcher of the Month’.

The project was of my first rescue cat Emily.

I had taken a digital photo of her and turned it into a graph using a computer program. I think they liked my story because Emily used to sit on my lap while I was stitching to keep an eye on my progress. I think she wanted to make sure I was doing her justice.

Well that’s my seven facts about myself; I hope you’ve found them interesting.

Now onto the fifteen people I would like to pass the award onto…not an easy task when you visit so many different people over time. Still, I’ve managed to whittle my list down to the number needed and if you’re not on my list it doesn’t mean to say I don’t find your blog inspirational, more that I would be here all week typing this.

So here goes.

1)Slightly Squiffy
The first spot has to go to one of my very first blog mates Lythan who is not only a crafting pal but has become a very very good friend over the seven years I have known her. Her craft work is simply beautiful and that’s borne out by the fact that she has just been awarded Runner Up in the Scrapbooker of the Year competition which is well deserved if you ask me. Please pop across to her blog and see yourself, I’m sure you’ll agree.

All the rest are in no particular order but all have inspired me in one way or another over the years and I thank you for that.

2) Kathy’s Waffle
3) All That Glitters
4) A Stitch in Time
5) Twiglet
6) Paula’s Paper Playground
7) Lisa’s Craft Garden
8) Manic Stamper
9) Lynda Loves Crafting
10) Glimpsing The Past
11) Stamped Smiles
12) Simply One Of A Kind
13) Simply Sue
14) My Crafty Outlook

So there you have it.

Thank you again to Ady for thinking my blog worthy of such an award, I really appreciate it.

Sue
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The King’s Speech

2011-01-19T16:02:00.005Z

Have you see this film yet?
If not, I can really recommend it.

I went to see it yesterday with my cousin and was a little skeptical about just how good it would actually be given all the hype, but I can honestly say it’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen and Colin Firth so deserved his award for his portrayal of King George VI.
Go and see it, I’m sure you’ll love it.

While I was in town I popped into Poundland and WH Smiths, so my work desk shows the spoils of my little shop. Nothing very exciting, just essentials like double sided sticky pad, staples, Magic Tape, smooth plain White card for stamping onto and two new Black Sharpie pens….last of the big spender, err?

The eagle eyed of you will have spotted something else that’s new on my desk…..yes, I’ve joined the ranks of the lucky crafters who own a glass cutting mat……and I love it! Don’t know why I didn’t invest in one of these before but at least I have it now.

And there's something else....my new Purple Cow Ultimate Trimmer that you can see in the box at the side of my table, but as it goes I’m not very happy with that new toy.

I had been specifically looking for a trimmer that measured to at least 30cm, which according to the picture on the box this one does but when I got it home (after a round trip of an hour) I found that the measuring platform is marked out in inches and not centimeters. Don’t know why they can’t put both on there as my old trimmer has, but no, just inches.
I emailed Purple Cow on Friday to see if it’s possible to buy a new measuring platform, (thinking that if there's a picture on the box of one then they must make them) rather than return the trimmer to the shop but I’ve not heard a peep and I’m still waiting for a reply from them, so I’m not very impressed with their customer service either come to think of it.

Now I’m in a bit of a dilemma because tomorrow I’m going over to near where to the shop is that I brought it from and I don’t know if I should just return it and have done with it or wait a bit longer to see if Purple Cow get back to me. Trouble is if I take it back I need to start looking for another trimmer that goes up to those measurements and I’ve no idea where to start…..it’s so frustrating!

Sorry, rant over……best get back to my desk.

There’s just the usual mess on there that I manage to leave after a card making session. Pen’s, ink pads, piles of backing off the double sided tape that I've used and a big box of cheap eye shadows. Why the eye shadows…….I use them like chalks and very well they work too!

There are also these finished cards.

I was trying to do a few birthday cards using my cupcake stand stamp but they all turned out looking almost the same, mind you the Green one standing up on the shelf in the main picture looks more like a Wedding card if you ask me.
Oh well, back to the drawing board!

Then last but not least was this easle card.

Oh well, that’s it from me for this weeks what’s On Your Work Desk Wednesday.

Pop off over to Julie’s and join in why don't you, it's all good fun and you get to have a good nosey around too!

Bye for now.
Sue
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What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday

2011-01-12T11:22:00.006Z

Well, it may be another year but these Wednesday’s keep coming round faster than ever.
It doesn’t seem two minutes ago that I was telling you I had a clear desk ready to do my tax return, which incidentally is now done, and now I’m here again with a desk that’s looking a little more cluttered.

So what’s there to see this morning?

Well, there’s evidence that I’ve been busy in the last few days because there’s a box full of stamps and wet’n’dry foam that needs cleaning and putting away in their rightful places, there’s my spice rack full of gorgeous colorful flowers and there’s also my latest copy of Craft Stamper that postie brought on Monday.
I subscribe to this magazine each month in the hope that I will learn some new techniques and be more adventurous in my card making but sadly that hasn’t really happened yet and more than a year down the line I still always manage to stay inside my comfort zone.
Hopefully things will change…..one day!

The magazine is actually strategically placed on my desk, hiding the project that I’m working on.
It’s going to be a surprise gift for someone who often visits my blog so all I can tell you is that it’s a 12 x 12 layout (not something I make often) that is destined to end up in a frame and the inspiration for it came when I was blog hopping for last weeks WOYWDW and visited Lisa’s blog, Lisa’s Craft Garden

Whenever I visit a blog for the first time I like to spend a while looking back at the all the projects they’ve made. Lisa’s work is simply beautiful, especially her gorgeous boxes and the sugar craft work she does but what really caught me eye while I was snooping was this layout that she had made over a year ago.

It’s a stunning piece of work and seeing it gave me the idea for my project, so I scrap lifted it…I hope you don’t mind Lisa.
That’s all I can say for now without giving away what I’m up to but when it’s finished and the person has received it I’ll show you the finished article I promise.

Thanks for stopping by this week………and all the other weeks, your comments are always welcome and most appreciated.
I’m off to Julie’s Stamping Ground now, where our great leader Julia presides over the biggest weekly blog hop ever.
Why not come and join in!

See you all soon
Sue
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Feeling Archaic

2011-01-11T12:17:00.007Z

Yes folks, that’s how I’ve been feeling this morning, old and crotchety.
I ache all over and I’m hoping that it’s mainly due to the fact that I had a restless night and could really do with a new bed rather than I’m coming down with something.

My challenge to myself this week has been to try and use up some of the rements of my ever growing paper stash, instead of keep buying new stuff, so the last couple of days have been spent making cards.
Some are needed for orders but while I had my Basic Grey ‘Archaic’ pad out I decided that I wouldn’t put it away after I’d made the cards I needed, I would use it all up instead……a scary thought! Mind you, once I had got into it I really enjoyed myself trying to use the tiniest of scraps as it goes.

So alas, Archaic is no more but on the bright side I have a little collection of ‘spare’ men's cards, which I always find hard to make in a hurry and there will also soon be room for new stash at a later date, yah!

Here’s the little collection.

And here they are close up.

On an even brighter note, I had a visit from my lovely friend Lythan yesterday.
We’ve been trying to get together for ages but all my problems, Lythan’s work load and the weather all scuppered our plans to get together before Christmas. We finally managed it yesterday, so I made lunch, we had a good old natter and exchanged Christmas gifts before she headed off home for an evening at the pictures with her family. Hope you enjoyed the film hun and thanks for my beautiful necklace……I have it on now!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you soon.
Sue
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Happy New Year!

2011-01-05T10:26:00.009Z

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Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all had a great Christmas.

Before I get going I just want to say a Big thank you to everyone who visited my blog over the course of last year and to thank those who gave me some much needed support.

Can’t say I’m sad to see the back of last year, what with all my medical problems and then loosing my dad so quickly after he was diagnosed with cancer, so I’m keeping everything crossed that this year will be a better one with a lot less trauma.
I do still have another eye op to look forward to in February but on the positive side, I hoping it will restore my sight enough to make my card making and some scrapbooking (I hope to really get stuck into that family album at long last) a lot easier afterwards.

Anyway, it’s the start of a New Year and hopefully lots more fun over on the Queen of Snoop’s Blog, where I’m sure that Julia will still keep us on our toes by keeping a look out for what’s on our work desk every Wednesday.

Here’s the fist photo of my desk this year and I’m sorry to say it a very boring one this morning.

It’s all very clear and tidy by necessity really because it’s that time of year again when the old tax return needs to be filled in, so that’s exactly what I plan to do today.
Now if it had been What’s on your Work desk Tuesday that would have been different story because I spent most of yesterday clearing up the mess that I made while making a few urgently needed birthday cards …..and what a breath of fresh air they were after making all those Christmas cards!

The first few cards are made using the Craftworks Cards set Ooh La La papers and Die-cuts. The colours are just so scrummy and go together so well….I love them!

These other cards are made using scraps and I can’t remember what they were, sorry.

Right then, I’m going to grab a cup of coffee, hit the tax return and then hopefully I’ll have time later to do a spot of hopping to see what you’re all up to.

Catch you later.

Sue
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Baby, it’s cold outside!

2010-12-15T14:53:00.003Z

And getting colder according to the weather forecast.

I shouldn’t complain because my little South East corner of the UK always seems to miss the worst of the bad weather and on the bright side the snow will help me acclimatize ready for a trip to the snow in Breckenridge, Denver. No skiing for me this year due to bad hip and knees but lots of Après-ski and shopping I hope!

Anyway, it’s Wednesday again so that means a photo of my desk today.

As it goes, there’s not much on there because I had a tidy up after finishing a couple of cards last night.

The stuff that’s on there now is all ready for me to make my Christmas tags this afternoon and when they are done I plan to wrap a few pressies.

The card that’s lying on the table is a card for my neighbor Pat from Bo Jangles (my cat) to say Thank You for taking such good care of him and feeding him so many times this year while I was otherwise occupied with family things.

He’s such a clever cat because he also brought her the most beautiful White Orchid in a Snowflake container from M&S!

I’m so lucky to have such a good friend on hand to help out at the drop of a hat and give me one less thing to worry about....I can’t thank her enough.

Here’s Bo Jangles card.

The two cards that I finished off last night were an order from a friend.
Each year she asks me to make her Christmas cards and every year she sets me a challenge with the two cards for her twin Grand Children who are 3 this year.

Last year it was Bob the Builder and a Princess which wasn’t too bad but this year I was stumped when she asked for Christmas cards with Buzz Lightyear and Woody on them........where to start!

Seeing as I’ve been experimenting with different folded cards this year, Easel Cards, Step Cards, and Swing Cards, I decided to have a go at something different again and went for Tri fold cards.

Oh well, that’s it from me this week as I’d best get on if I’m going to get these tags made and my pressies wrapped.

Don’t forget to stop by our leader Julia’s Blog and join in with ‘What’s On You Work Desk Wednesday’, it’s good fun having a good old snoop at other crafters workspaces.

Bye for now and thanks for stopping by.

Sue
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It’s that day again!

2010-11-24T11:18:00.007Z

For everyone that’s in the know, they’ll understand exactly what I mean by that, but for those that don’t have a clue what I’m going on about, it’s What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday, the day we all converge on Julia’s Blog, grab a cup of coffee and join in the biggest and fastest growing weekly blog hop on the web.

Unfortunately I missed last weeks round of visits because I came down with germs, a really nasty chest infection that needed the help of antibiotics to shift it and I didn’t really feel like spending hours sitting in my craft room on the computer, which is what it now takes to get round to see everyone each week. But this week I’m feeling a little better, even thought it’s not gone completely and I intend to make a big effort to visit as many people as I can.

My photo shows the way I left my desk last night after a mammoth crafting secession………….I think it’s going to take me forever to get tided up after that lot!

As you can see, there’s a big muddle of inks, rubber stamps, papers and also evidence of my latest attempt to get some order into the way I store my unmounted stamps. I didn’t realize that I had so many Christmas stamps until I started to put them all together in an A5 ring binder……..and that’s without the big box of wood backed stamps.

There's a little pile of various cards on the back of the table.

The first is one that I had real trouble with, a Retro 60th birthday card.

I seem to always struggle with retro but luckily I remembered some papers that I brought ages ago for a Daring Cardmakers dare and came up with this.

Bright of what?

The next two cards are made using the new stash that I brought at Imagine That’s Forth birthday party on Saturday.

The gorgeous papers, die cut image, flowers and card candy on this 80th birthday card are all from Craftworks Cards new ‘Ooh La La!’ collection.
In addition I've added some stamping around the side edges of the card and flower using a new set of Artemio flourish stamps and a computer generated greeting.
The only other thing is that I decided to add a little colour to the image which was originally all sepia with my Promarker pens.

Next is a New Home card for my friend Tracey who lives along the road from me. She’s moving out tomorrow and I’m going to miss her loads. So will BoJangles because he goes to visit her and sleeps on her chair when I’m not around. Hope the new people like puddy cats because he's still sure to visit!

For this one I used one of the Craftworks templates for the first time, Bird ‘N’ Trees.

The last two card are Christmas ones.

I've used the beautiful Snowman Collection from Stamps Happen that I won earlier in the year.

I’ve chosen Light Blues and Lavenders to colour mine, using Promarkers and added a large Nesti snowflake and a Martha Stewart Snowflake border.

And finally, the last one is using a wonderful fun stamp from the Penny Black ‘Jolly Holly’ collection, again coloured with Promarkers.

Well, I guess it’s about time I made a start on clearing space on my table again so I can play some more today.

Oh yes, and there was one little bit of good news I have to share with you.

As some of you know, I’ve had problems with my eye sight over the last year due to a detached retina. The operation for that was a success but the outcome was that it caused a cataract to grow in my eye and ever since the op at the end of last year I’ve had very little vision in my right eye and have triple vision to go with it.
Anyway, I had to go to Moorfields hospital on Monday and I have an appointment to have the cataract removed in February, which should improve things immensely.

Right, I really am going this time and I’ll try and get round to as many as I can during the week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sue
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