A Stampin' Up sort of a day...

Hello!!

Sorry I've not posted in a bit, I've been trying (and failing!) to get the kids ready to go back to school, most of the uniforms have been bought, shoes, trainers, and football boots have been purchased, and I have spent most of the week sewing name labels into everything.  Yes sewing... I cannot tell you how much I wish I'd just got the iron in ones now!!

Anyway, I've persevered and only have 3 jumpers, two blazers, the PE kits, lab coats and CDT apron to go... oh I thought I was doing quite well until I read the still to do list! :-(

I was pleased to take time out from stabbing myself with a needle this afternoon to go round my friend and colleague Sandra's house, as she was having a Stampin' Up party.  Now I'd never been to a Stampin' Up party before, and didn't quite know what to expect, but had a great time, and placed a teensy weensy order for a few bits and bobs :-D

The demonstrator, Caroline was excellent, and took the time to explain the products to the group, and let us have a little play :-D.  I'm looking forward to getting my order, although I think I've been a little conservative in what I've ordered, they are very me!  And I have Caroline's details if I want anything else :-D

Anyway, here's a few snaps from the afternoon (apologies for the poor quality of the pictures!)

Here's Caroline, with the demo card we made... I left mine at Sandra's, will post it another day (what an idiot!)  It's quite a simple design that is perfect for mass makes, but one that allows each person to customise the design to their tastes, adding more fuss and detail, or leaving it as is would make an equally striking card.

Browsing the catalogues

 Picking a winner of the lucky dip

The lucky winner, Suzie being presented with her prize by Caroline

Some of the ladies getting creative! - Sorry for the blurred image - its an action shot! :-D

 

All in all, it wasn't what I expected at all (for the better, before you wonder!), and it was lovely to meet some new people, catch up with others I'd met before, and spend some time outside of work with some of my colleagues

That's it from me for now, I'll be sharing some cards this week! 

Hope you've had a great weekend

Sue xx

Exciting News - crafty and home!

Hello!!

It's been a busy weekend - crafting (with a bit of crafty shopping for good measure) yesterday - I finished off a couple of cards which I'll share with you soon ;-).  And I got myself a couple of dies I've been hankering after, and refilled some of my c/s stash too!!

Good job too, as Ladybug Crafts Ink have a new release on Tuesday - hurrah!!  And we are having a blog hop to celebrate.  The new images are top secret at the moment, but all will be revealed Tuesday morning!!

On the way back from my little trip out my windscreen wipers decided to pack up on the car - good job it wasn't raining!!  This is the latest in a long line of niggles, and it's got to the stage where we would have to start spending serious money keeping it going, with the fear that something terminal was just around the corner.  I can't really complain, it's got a fair few miles under it's belt (as have I!) and it's done us well over the last couple of years, but HB was already working on a plan to replace it... bless him he was going to surprise me by just buying something, and doing the big bow on the top, but then he got cold feet over the colour, so fessed up and we went and had a look today... eeekk!!  I've always wanted one of these cars, and I'll be picking it up later in the week :-D  You'll have to wait and see what it is though!!

Hope you have had a good weekend

Sue xx

Sneeky peek, snow, and a video (not crafty, but thought I'd share!!)

Hello!!  I've got so much to share today I don't know where to start!!

OK, first up, a little teaser of some gorgeous new images from LCI, and it's just a teeny weeny peak, if you want to see the image in it's entirety then you'll just have to wait until next week!!  There are more peeks on some of the other DT's blogs  and on the challenge blog too - links in the sidebar...

In the meantime the current "Loves Me, Love's Me Not" Challenge is still going but next week the LCI team are having a blog hop to celebrate the launch of the new images along with a brand new challenge

and as always there are lots of fabby inspiration and gorgeous images with the added bonus of prizes!!  Whoo hoo!!  Why not grab the banner for above for your sidebar as a reminder?

Well it's been snowing here in the UK and I am seriously aching from having to dig ourselves out - whoever thought of putting a house on a top of a hill with a long drive!!  Uhhh, muscles I didn't know I had ache after sweeping and shovelling this lot out of the way!!

At least the kids enjoyed themselves on their personal sledging hill :-D  Although Sam did discover snow isn't as much fun when you wander into a bit that is deeper than your wellies are high :-D  LOL, such a bad mummy for finding that amusing :-D

The other thing we have been doing this week is following the progress of some friends as they competed in the Historic Monte Carlo rally in their 1965 Mini, they had a few issues along the way, not least dodgy time penalties for missing a time check when the stage was blocked by a fallen tree, and then by a recovery vehicle, but they came 117 overall, second in class and were the second highest placed UK team - they posted a short video of them in a transit section - here - and oh my word those mountain walls look scary!!  We know they wanted to do better, as they were hoping for a class win, but at least they and the car have come home unscathed :-D


Gosh, that was a bit of an ecelctic post!!  Little bit of everything :-D

Back tomorrow with a card, so normal service will resume, and hopefully the PC is being fixed as we speak so I should be able to post a bit more often and visit your blogs a bit more regularly!!  It only took HB 2 months to admit defeat and take it to the professionals, something that I would have done the day after it went wrong, but no, he was determined to get it sorted!!

Thanks for stopping by

Sue xx

Camping was OK!!!

Hello!!

Just a short post to say that the camping trip was OK, and that HB didn't blow my craft budget at the car show (Southern Mini Days at Bewl Water) either!!  It was flipping cold at night though which is so not right for August - HB went mad when he spotted me loading not just sleeping bags but blankets into the car, but I think he changed his mind around 3am on the first night when we woke up freezing cold. LOL... he also laughed at me packing waterproofs, and didn't take his, something which he regretted around 9.30 this morning when the heavens opened.  It only lasted about an hour or so though and I had taken a brolly so we were all dry enough, and the sun came out and it was a lovely day. 

We got a few pictures but I think this one is my favourite, check out the ickle caravan this lady uses as a tea room!!  

Of course I had to test the cakes and they were scrumptious!!  I think the kids enjoyed themselves too - although the youngest only came on Saturday as he is a bit too small to go camping, and he is a little wotsit for going to bed and staying there!!

  My eldest and I took the Mini out on the Saturday with about 70 or so others for a little drive, and there were so many people out of their houses waving... some of the cars were really rare ones and most that were there were in beautiful condition.  HB wasn't disappointed with his in comparison to others, although I'm not surprised as he does fuss over it!!

This is a pic of me and my son, not that you can see either of us!  And yes, the car is wet... this car is NEVER driven if it's raining!!  I had to dry it all off with one of his special cloths when we got back, LOL :-D 

Seriously though I am really proud of him -this was it shortly after we got it in 2009 - we jetwashed it and most of the paint came off!!  This picture was taken after he'd set too intentionally removing the rest of it!!

I don't think he'll ever actually finish it, but he's happy tinkering!!

 

I have a sneaking feeling that this may not be our only car related weekend as something was mentioned in passing tonight. I'll let you know what else he has planned for us when I'm told :-D

Have a great week, hopefully back to crafty stuff tomorrow

Sue xx

Look what I got :-)

Hmmm, doesn't look at lot, but this is my haul from Ally Pally

Some lovely Theresa Collins and Paper Salon Papers, Nesties, charms, more Copics, Ribbon (but I forgot to include them in the photo - duh!), flowers and some new stamps... whoo hoo!!

It was a really nice day and I think my friends from work Linda and Debs enjoyed themselves too, even if our feet were aching and our purses were empty at the end of it!

Saturday night HB and I went out with some of his collegues for a 40th birthday.  I had driven past where we were going and wasn't expecting much, but it was OK - much better than I had expected in fact and the food was excellent!

I've loads to show you over the next few days too :-)

In the meantime hope you had a great time if you went to Ally Pally, and enjoy the week :-)

Sue xx

Monday, Monday

I'm going to be honest and admit that it is the middle of the night, and I can't sleep...

I tried crafting but my mind cannot settle enough and I have given up :-( 

You see yesterday morning my Dad was taken fairly poorly - he is now in the Coronary Care Unit at the hospital, and is hooked up to all sorts. 

Frankly I am terrified, he's my Dad, and he looks so frail laying there. 

They have said that he had another heart attack (but being male he didn't tell my mum he was in pain, so waited hours before she gave up listening to his protests and called for an ambulance anyway) and that it has been caused by him losing blood from somewhere, and there not being enough in his veins for his heart to pump round.

He has been poorly for some time, and the hospital put him on one set of tablets for his own doctor to change them and take him off them completely.  I know he is in the best place for him now as the staff to patient ratio is 1:2, and they are giving him transfusions to try and get his blood count up, but I am still scared stiff, I just feel like I am waiting for the phone to ring :-(.  All I hope is that he can get through his and the hospital and his doctor sort themselves out and figure out what is best for him and figure out what is wrong and deal with it (is that too much to ask!).

In the meantime, as I have nothing better to do than watch rubbish on telly I thought I'd show you some scrapbook pages from a recent class using some Prima papers

This is one of my SIL on her wedding day

And another page of my friends daughter

As ever these look much better IRL than my shoddy photography skills allow :-)

I suppose I should try and get some sleep, so I'll say goodbye for now - I'll be scheduling my posts for the LCI Challenge on Tuesday and Scrapbook Sisters on Wednesday, so apologies if they read a little odd

Hugs

Sue xx

Sorry I've not posted in a bit

Hi, hope you are having a great weekend, I'm so sorry I went AWOL for a bit :-)

Excuses first, well I went to Stitches (which is a craft trade show) with Kerry from Ladybug Crafts Ink at the NEC Sunday to Tuesday and then back to reality (Yawn!!) on Wednesday when I had to go back to the day job :-(. 

It was a busy three days, but I think by Friday everything was covered although I next week is likely to be manic again!  The show went well (hope Kerry agrees with me!) and once I had got over my nerves really enjoyed speaking to craft shop owners from all over the UK and Europe.  The stand looked fantastic and the samples were much admired too :-)  Here's hoping you will start seeing LCI stamps being stocked in a shop near you soon, it was great meeting Kerry - although on the drive up to Birmingham I had a sudden panic thought of "oh my word, what if we don't get on!!" but I think we did even if both of us were tired and achey at times :-)

It was good to see my friends Julie and Karen from Scrapbook Sisters on the Sunday not long after I had arrived, even though they were pooped by then!!!, I'm so looking forward to seeing some of the new goodies they have ordered arriving in the shop soon... hubby is strangely less enthusiastic!!!)...

and to meet Hayley (fellow DT at LCI and owner of Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn) on Monday, Hayley's hubby took this pic of Kerry, Hayley and I...

I'd never met Hayley before, only communicated by email, so it was lovely to meet her... hopefully it won't be the last time :-), she too has ordered some fabulous new collections.  I fear my stash diet (it's not going too well already) going completely to the wall :-)

I made it home really quickly on Tuesday night, only 2 hours after I had dropped Kerry at Karen's, which was quick considering the amount of roadworks on the M1 and M25, and in time to see the kids and relieve a slightly frazzled HB (please don't give him sympathy over having to look after his children... he goes away with work loads and I don't get a medal for managing to wash, feed and dress them on my own for 48 hours!! 

So the rest of the week passed in a bit of a blur, and yesterday we took HB's parents to B and Q and Ikea, as they don't have a car anymore since my FIL had to give up driving due to him having tunnel vision and MIL never having a licence and they need a hand to get further afield.  I wanted needed to get a couple of bits to keep my stash in order, so we took both cars over.  HB seemed confused as to how my storage is no longer up to the job as it was when I bought it... I'm not sure he believed me when I told him it was just me re-organising, nothing to do with new stash at all :-)  I don't think I am alone in being completely incapable to wander round Ikea without getting a few more bits and bobs than I had intended  We popped Sam in the Creche for 45 minutes and he went in all happy but bless him was in tears (proper ones, not the fake crying!!) when I picked him up as he was worried that I wasn't coming (I think that means he does love me really!!) and it took me 10 minutes before I managed to uncling him :-)  Then we went to Nando's for a bit of a pig-out and we spent the evening having a family movie night watching Despicable Me, (think lights out, all piled on the sofa, blankets and you get the picture).  I've seen better films but the kids loved it :-)

Right that's me all caught up, gotta get cracking as I have a day of trying to juggle housework (deep joy!!) and crafting ahead (after I tidy up all my stuff!! :-) )

Have a great day

Sue xx

In the dark...

... apologies for the lack of anything crafty today!  I came home to find my light on my desk has packed up and so colouring was out of the question with only the overhead light to work with (I struggle to stay within the lines with it on at times, without it doesn't even bear thinking about) so I will be dispatching HB tomorrow night to the DIY shop to get me a replacement while I take the kids swimming... he has checked and it's not the bulb so a new one is a priority!!

Good job I got a couple of projects finished already otherwise I'd really be panicking, but I can't share them with you just yet (how's that for a teaser!). 

There may be a post late tomorrow night, probably Saturday morning though, which is my last full day at home before I travel up to Birmingham on Sunday afternoon to give Kerry from Ladybug Crafts Ink a hand at Stitches on Monday and Tuesday.  I half jokingly offered to help a while back, and we confirmed things last weekend, so I'm going!!  I am quite excited, and not only cos I'm going to meet the Boss, but Hayley will be going on Monday too!

If you are lucky enough to be going why not drop in to Kerry's booth - BS12 - and say hi!

Right gotta go, my bed is calling!!

Thanks for stopping by

Sue xx

Busy, busy, busy...

Oh my, what a week, thank goodness it's Friday!!

As I suspected work has continued to be a nightmare all week with not enough hours in the day and people not realising that while I may be brilliant (LOL!), but even I can only manage to do one thing at a time, and so when I ask for priorities getting the answer "all of them" is not what I was looking for :-)

On top of that I have been busy getting my eldest, James, ready to go to Eurodisney with the cubs today.  Drama came Wednesday night when I realised that I could not find the Union Jack badge that ABSOLUTELY MUST be sewn onto his uniform or he would not be allowed onto the coach.  I spent four hours + searching, suspecting small sons kleptomaniac tendencies for it being missing...

... my grateful thanks to my crafty friend Bev for coming up with ideas where I might be able to source one at such short notice (you calmed me when I was panicking!!), but much to my annoyance HB walked through the door as I was still searching at 1am and found it within 30 seconds... how I had managed to miss it when it was right in front of me the whole time I have no idea!!  Maybe because in my head it was much bigger than the 1 x 2 inch size it actually is that my brain simply told my eyes it was not what I was looking for... still I have nice and tidy kitchen cupboards for the time being :-)

Last night was spent sewing the badge (plus others he got last night) onto his jumper, then packing everything he might need.  Then up early this morning to get his tea packed up for him to eat on the journey, before doing the daily school, nursery, work run.  No rest for the wicked :-)  No lunch (again!) and me packing my laptop up this afternoon while people where still asking me questions that absolutely could not be asked of someone else or wait until Monday (honestly, I don't think they got the hint!!), and it took me saying that I was leaving right then as I had to get my son sorted and he was more important before I was able to escape!!  Grrrrr.....

So picked up small son from nursery, big son from school then to MIL's to get big son showered and changed and meet up with HB then up the hill to where the coaches left from.  And OMG how many small boys (and a few girls!)... in all there are 8 coachloads of them making their way!  I did get a bit emotional seeing him going off, all full of confidence and excitement, he certainly isn't my baby anymore :-)  His best friend is going too, which both his mum and I are pleased about as at least they'll have each other if they get scared and lonely :-). 

It only struck me as we were going that while he has been away from home with the cubs, or with relatives ,before he has never been somewhere where I can't get to him relatively quickly in the event something happens and he needs me, so I'm going to be a bit of a spare part this weekend!!  Still I'm sure Sam will more than make up for it :-).

I'm hoping to be able to get creative tomorrow, I've got a couple of images coloured and ready to go, but we'll see how I get on!

Sorry for the long winded ramble :-)  More crafty things tomorrow

Sue xx

Teal card sale - how it went, a HUGE thank you and blog candy winner!!!

I'm so sorry I didn't post last night, I was shattered after yesterdays card sale in aid of Ovarian Cancer, after which I had to go to a kids party (too many kids, too much noise!!), we then had to go to a friends house and left earlier than we normally would have as I was feeling rough :-(  Just a cold, but I needed sleep!!  I have a couple of photo's but from when we got there we were setting up, then I helped the them as they were running behind, so managed to snap a quick couple of pics as the doors were opened and the people started to come in and from then on I was a bit busy!!  Just as a taster, here's a couple of the stall. If I do this again I'm going to invest in some stand thingys

OK, what do you want to know first???   The sale? 

Well, after a bit of a slow start I was panicking... too many people saying "ooh, I know I must need cards but I can't remember who for"... and we only had £5 to show for all the work everyone had put in, cursing people being awkward, and my poor selling technique (!) we got cracking, I changed tack and when they commented how lovely the cards were, suggested that maybe they buy one or two if they couldn't remember whose birthday was coming up, and putting them by ready and waiting... and they started to sell!!  There were so many lovely people who bought cards, and gave such lovely comments about how fantastic everyone who had helped were, especially those from outside the UK for whom the postage was quite a bit.  There are so many stories to tell, but I'll share this one... a lovely gentleman (who I think was with his mum or carer) told me that he loved Christmas and wanted special cards to send to his family, and bought every single Christmas card we could find, plus a couple of others, as I am a bit (read, a lot!) soft, I did give him a discount, as he bought so many, and then told everyone he saw how fantastic they were :-)  I think the people he sends them to will be as touched as I was, and delighted that he has bought them with love and care too :-)

In all we took just over £106, which in 2 hours was incredible, and there were a few cards left over for me to give to the family to carry on with their fundraising.

Jo, Claire and their Dad (such a lovely man) have asked me to thank everyone for your efforts, they were so unbelievably touched that so many people had come together to do something positive, in memory of Barbara, someone whom they had never met, with the aim of funding research into Ovarian Cancer, it's diagnosis and treatment... they are delighted at what we have raised already, and love that they have something different to allow them to continue to fund raise with...

so from me, but more importantly from Barbara's family a rather loud, rather huge....

THANK YOU!!!!!

(if I could have made that flash and made whooping noises I would have!!)

Right, so the only thing left to do is announce a winner of the blog candy!!

As cards came in to me I gave you a number.... didn't know I was doing that did you!!  Tee hee!!

And the winner is...................

(Drum roll please....)

Number 24

Which unbeknown to you is....

....Sheila... aka http://thepainintheneck.blogspot.com/!!!

Congratulations Sheila!!!

I'll be in touch soon to arrange getting your rather fabulous candy to you!! 

On a personal note, I'd like to to thank everyone, especially all at Scrapbook Sisters for collecting cards for me, and to Hayley from Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn and Kerry from Ladybug Crafts Ink for their really generous contributions to the blog candy, and to everyone for getting involved in making a card... your help has made a difference, hopefully not only to the research and treatment of this illness but to the dedication of a family in their need to turn sadness into positive following the loss of Barbara, their wife, mum and nan


Thank you

Sue xx

An odd weekend, keep reading there is a card at the end!!

Hi, I'm back on line after a really odd weekend, this is going to be a bit of a long one, but feel free to skip all my waffle and have a peek at the card at the bottom!

Yesterday was the first time I didn't post anything since I started blogging :-(  I had a migrane that wiped me out for most of the day.  I thought it had lifted and nipped next door for my neighbours party but by 10pm it had returned and I had to go home - still at least I didn't have far to go!!

Thankfully a good sleep and a lot of painkillers later it had lifted enough for me and HB to go to Brands Hatch to watch the DTM (German Touring Cars) as our friends Alan and Tracy had invited us up to their suite again :-)

When we got there on the door of the suite next door was this sign

Now if you don't know who David Coulthard is, he is an ex Formula 1 driver who now is an F1 pundit for the BBC and also drives in the DTM, and yes, I really did take a picture of a door!! - although I did get Tracy's daughter to stand near it, so it kinda looked like I was taking a picture of her, but guess the secret's out now huh?!

Tracy and I did keep our eyes peeled, and I was hoping for a rather excellent photo opportunity (imagine the scrapbook page, LOL!), but this was the closest we managed to get to Mr Coulthard all day - he's driving the yellow car!!

Bother!!

Bizzare moment of the day came when we were in the suite and a couple of the kids from next door had come in to watch the British Touring Cars that was on the TV (don't think David's suite had a telly!!), one crashed (not badly though) and a "Uhhh, Dad!! he crashed last weekend as well" comment was made from one of the kids, turns out that his dad is a BTCC driver.  I'm not going to name and shame the driver involved, but it's nice to know that even if you are a racing car driver your kids are still embarrassed of you, LOL :-)

Right since I have done no crafting all weekend I thought I'd share this card, that I made a couple of weeks ago, with you - it's a variation on a theme from a few months back, but it's a design that works so well with pretty much any sitting down image it'd be a shame not to put it on my blog!

I'd like to enter this card for

The Pink Elephant Challenge 82 - use mainly white

The Paper Players Challenge 14 - Clean and Simple

2 Sisters Challenge 6 - Monochromatic

Secret Crafters Challenge 99 - Clean and Simple

Supplies - Daydreaming Ruby and Sentiment - Ladybug Crafts Ink, coloured with Copics and highlighted with Stickles and Glamour Dust;  Flowers - Wild Orchid Crafts; Pins - made by me!;  Ribbon from Stash; Nesties and embossing folder;

Thanks for stopping by - back to normality tomorrow :-)

Sue xx

What a busy weekend

Just thought I'd check in and say Hi!

It's been a busy weekend so far, London, lunch and the science museum yesterday - lunch lovely but a 15% service charge a bit naughty, esp when they added 3 desserts to the bill which we didn't have... hmmm... science museum, good in parts, a bit stuffy and outdated in others, we didn't see it all, but think Natural History Museum next door next time (if nothing else cos I love the building!).  We got a couple of pictures but not loads as I didn't want to take my big camera into town and SIL has borrowed the point and shoot so had to use the camera on my phone and the images aren't brilliant :-(

Today we have had friends down, and the kids have been charging around, dinner was a home cooked Lasagne, yum yum!  But too tired to craft tonight, and eldest is hogging the PC where I store all the pictures of my completed projects, so this is a pictureless post .

Having a crafty day tomorrow though :-)  Hope you are having a great weekend

Sue xx

A Ladybug Celebration!

Something very exciting has happened to me, and I am delighted, surprised and really, really happy all at the same time!

A little while ago Kerry who owns Ladybug Crafts Ink, one of my favourite stamp companies, asked for applications to join her new DT, well I applied, kept everything crossed, but not in a million years did I ever think I'd be chosen!!  But I have!!  Whoo hoo!!

So I can now display this badge

How cool is that!!  Honestly I never imagined for one minute when I started cardmaking and more recently when I started blogging that I would ever get picked for a DT!

After that it seemed only appropriate to make a card last night to celebrate!!  Winestool Nikki seemed the obvious choice :-)

The papers are more from the Peacock Lane range by Bo Bunny, and I have coloured Nikki with Copics.  For a change I've put the ribbon top to bottom, and used some lovely organza that was lurking in my stash, along with some adhesive gems I'd forgotten all about :-)  Oh and there is a dot or two of stickles above her glass, and glossy accents on her shoes too.  As there is teal in there, I'm going to add this to the pile for the 25th of September - there is still plenty of time to join in with this and win some Blog Candy! 

I've no idea why the gems look like they do in the pics - they look like i've added them in photoshop afterwards, but I promise they are attached to the card and look nice and sparkly - if I get chance later I'll retake them in better light :-)

The first challenge is happening on Tuesday 14th September so keep an eye on Kerry's blog for more info

Joining Kerry on the DT are Anita; Tams; Hayley; Pinky; Mary J; Gaelle; Michele; and Lisa... oh, and me!

Supplies: Winestool Nikki, Ladybug Crafts Ink; Sentiment, from Papermania set; Copics; Stickles; Glossy Accents; Papermania self adhesive gems; Papers Peacock Lane and Double Dot by Bo Bunny; Organza ribbon from stash, Bazzill Basics gem template

I'd like to enter this card for

Totally Papercrafts Challenge - Let's keep it clean and simple

Stampavie and More Challenge 105 - Swirls

And... I've got more exciting news to share soon as well!!  It's a good job I'm good at keeping secrets LOL!! (and no, before anyone asks, I am not, repeat not, having any more kids!)

Thanks for stopping by, off to London and the science museum now, more tomorrow!

Sue xx

Brilliant but unexpected day

Hi! hope you are having a good weekend... it's been a busy but lovely one so far here

It was my youngest son's third BD on Thursday, and I was a bit tardy in sorting something out.  I waas thinking about doing a party for him and a few of his friends at one of the play gym places but they were so expensive and I wondered if he would really remember it as he's only 3, next year we will do it, but this year... anyway I didn't book it and left it so late to sort something else out that it was only going to be us, SIL/BIL and two of our friends and their kids

One of our friends couldn't make it cos she was working during the day and her HB was going to be taking their daughter & her friend to the Kids class at Scrapbook Sisters, as they live in SE London it was too much to ask for him to do so much running around with 2/3 kids in tow... but got a call early this morning to say that my friend wasn't working after all, and daughters friend was ill so not going to kids class, so could they all descend on us after kids class had finished :-)

Other BF couldn't make it as she has had an operation on her nose - and although is home is getting nose bleeds with the slightest movement, driving therefore not an option :-(  We would have gone and got them, but she really wasn't up to it... but more on what we did for her in a minute...   Now these girls are like my sisters, we have been friends through our other half's for over 10 years and we support each other, have the occasional fight, but we mean the world to each other, and when I needed them the most they stood by my side and held onto me, literally, and whispered words of encouragement when I struggled through the reading at my middle sons funeral.  Girls, if you are reading this, I love each and every one of you to bits  xx

Ahhh!!! OK, slushy moment over... so me and my friends daughter decided we needed to make cards for our friend who couldn't make it, to wish her well, and to let her know there was someone missing today

First up, this outstanding effort by my friends daughter

She is only 10!!   Can you believe that she did this with very little help, all on her own!!

I didn't help her much at all, all the cutting, glittering sticking and colouring were done by her!  And it's perfectly central!!! But my word I take my hat off to Karen and Julie for doing a kids class at all, it's just so stressful!! 

My card by comparison is a bit boring, so I'll save it for another day :-)

I'll leave you with an action shot from my son.. Happy 3rd Birthday Sam, love you xx

More tomorrow

Sue xx

So very tired!

Hasn't it been a long week!!  I've just got home and I wouldn't mind but I finished work just after 4 today, but the kids had their last swimming class of the term tonight so at least for the next 6 weeks Friday evenings aren't going to be quite so busy!

I swear it's my age, hormones, or something but I have been a bit naughty tonight... I'm hugely ashamed to say that I actually got out of the car at a junction to explain safe stopping distances to the car behind that was tailgating me.  Ok the phrase 'tail gating' may not have made it into my "do you want to see what is in my boot or are you just a huge pillock?"  rant... and I don't think I said pillock either, but you get the idea... in my defense he had been harrasing me through country lanes for over 5 miles, and I think
 my actual description was therefore factual and not a cause for intellectual debate :-)

 I'm clearly turning into some batty old dear wayyyy before my time... even though it does amuse me just a little bit to say what is on my mind!.. at this point I will confess to an incident last week involving a teeny weeny itzy bitzty young thing, a mis-used supermarket parent and child space and a caustic comment from me which resulted in stunned silence, and a sniggering customer service advisor...   I must do my level best to ensure this side of me is limited to complete (brainless) strangers though, must not, repeat, must not, do this at work - fear it would not do me any favours...

Anyway, I was going to post a card up but it's not finished yet and I'm too tired to do anything tonight,  my creativity having been wasted on devising witty put downs for middle aged men driving cars that they can afford but are far too old for... grrr...

Back to crafty stuff tomorrow

Sue xx

Cards for Michelle and My First Blog Award! (now with photo's!!! oops)

Hi, can you believe it's Thursday already!!!  Where has this week gone??

It's been quite a crafty week this week, I was crafting on and off quite a bit over the weekend, then I had my scrapbook class at Scrapbook Sisters on Tuesday (lovely, lovely lovely!!!) and then spent far too long round my friend from work, Debs, house last night - we suddenly realised it was just gone midnight, so had to pack up!

OK, got a bit to share with you... I was blog hopping just before typing this post, and wow!!! there was my card featured from last weeks Little Red Wagon nestabilities challenge!!  I've never been featured before and bounced round the living room for a bit.  I know my HB likes my cards, but he's my HB and he's biased, but I'm really, really honoured when others in the crafty community make lovely comments, and am especially honoured to get featured!!

I need cheering up today, and it's certainly done the trick - this morning while I was getting ready for work my 2 year old decided to do a bit of colouring himself... he'd helped himself to a pen from his brothers room and I now have a cream hall, landing and stairs with lots and lots of blue squiggles... I then discovered he's also scribbled all over my leather sofas!!!  Little horror didn't quite cover it!!  I've managed to get the pen out of the sofas with the special stuff that came with them, but have got to paint everywhere else he attacked.  Needless to say the art and craft boxes in my eldest's room have been elevated!!

Anyway, last night... OK where Debs and her HB have been renovating their new house all her crafty stuff has been stored up, but she opened the boxes last night, and after a lot of "oooh I forgot about these!!" we got cracking.  We had decided during the day that we would take part in the Spoon Full Of Sugar card drive for one of their DT, Michelle following an accident in which she has lost an eye (you can read more about Michelle here).  We used the rather lovely Whimsy digi download that has been designed especially for the card drive - they are asking for a token Paypal payment to go to Michelle to help her cover her medical bills instead of charging for it.

Anyway this is what we came up with... hope you like them

Here's Deb's design

I love how she has accented the swirl with the flowers and gems

This was her first go at colouring with Copics - I think she's done brilliantly!!  I have apologised to her HB in advance as I think they (and Nesties, and Martha Stewart punches) are on her wish list!!

And here's my card - I've used some of the new Nitwits papers

Both of us used the out of the frame nestie technique - I just love his ears!

I'm entering my card for the MTSC 82 challenge, although I have flipped the design by 90 degrees!

Please have a go at making a card for Michelle

Thanks for stopping by

Sue

xx

Who keeps nicking the post it pad?

I don't think I'm alone in this, but Post It pads seem to have a habit of growing legs and walking off my desk at work! 

And it's really blooming annoying!!!

So... during lunch at the Scrapbook Sisters Birthday Bash (check out their blog for some pics) I popped to the newsagent next door and found a pack of 4 post it pads in co-ordinating colours to the papers... was that fate???  I like to think so!! 

So while everyone else was busy making an additional mini project during the break - I skived off for a bit and went and sat in the sunshine for a while and missed the instructions :-)  - I made a little post it note cover thing, and it's quite cute, even if I do say so myself and would make a great token gift for a work colleague - and hey, you're gonna know pretty quick exactly who has "borrowed" your post it pad.

The paper is part of the class kit - by K&Co.  The butterfly and flower punch are from Tesco's (actually they're not bad for £2.50 each!), the letters are Loopy Lou by Doodlebug and the gems are cabochon type ones from my stash of all things shiny!

In the end I gave this to my friend Stacey, I think she liked it!

Right, better go, off to class and don't want to be late

Thanks for stopping by

Sue

A cardstock experiment - I can't help it, it's how my brain works!!

Since i started getting collecting copics (shh... HB thinks they breed in the box) I've been having real trouble with what cardstock to use.

Some cardstocks bleed too much, some don't take the colour at all (that one was odd) and some is just too darned expensive!  Now I know its all personal choice, but personally I don't like cardstock that bleeds too much - it's all very well that your colours blend nicely, but when you've just spent an age colouring an image only for it to bleed over the edge its just plain annoying!

I managed to get hold of some samples of various cardstock to have a play with, and I'm afraid my maths/stats/science brain kicked in and before I knew it I had created a mini experiment... I'm going to blame the day job here, it's not something that a crafter should do!

I started with several types of Cardstock - Gina K Luxury Cardstock, Neenah Cardstock, Magna Art Board; plus a random cardstock from The Papermill. I noted which piece of card was which and stamped each piece of cardstock with my image twice using Momento Ink. I coloured one image of the two on each card type with the copics - I used the same colours for each and tried really hard to do each one the same!

And the results?

Quite astounding really - here's some pics

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Sample 4

So which was which?

Sample 1 was cheapy paper from the Papermill - it bled quite a bit and I got the impression that I was using loads of ink up, although I can refill the Copics it's not something I really want to be doing frequently! The uncoloured stamped image is OK but it's not a perfectly sharp image. At £4.99 a box though it's not a bad choice (and since doing this experiment I have got other card from them that doesn't bleed as much, it seems to depend on what they have in at the time).

Onto sample 2. This one was lovely - it's Gina K Luxury Cardstock - but at $6.95 for 25 sheets plus shipping from the US it wasn't cheap! The colours merged really well, but were really easy to control, and the stamped image was very crisp. I really liked that this is a really thick card - and was the only one of the 4 that the colour did not bleed through to the back - perfect if you want to colour straight onto your card

However I couldn't really see much difference between sample 1 and sample 3 - which was detailed as being Magna Art Board. I had really high hopes for this, but the image wasn't even as clear as the card from the Papermill and it bled loads too...

Sample 4 was Neenah Classic Solar White - not normally available in the UK but The Hobby House has some - £10.99 for 50 sheets, plus P&P. This gave a lovely crisp image and like the Gina K is a brilliant as opposed to off white. It blended well but again was controllable.

So it being my birthday the other day I asked for... the Neenah... yes the Gina K is slightly better, and if I can find anyone going over to the US anytime soon I'll probably ask them to get me some, but I didn't think it was worth the extra shipping costs.

I have heard that there are lots of other cardstocks that are pretty good too (Stampin Up seems to be a favourite) - I can feel another experiment coming on! I just need more samples!!

Thanks for looking

Sue xx

Another lovely day, two cars and and (mini) adventures

Weekends shouldn't be this busy!

Yesterday was the fab Scrapbook Sisters Birthday Bash, then HB and I went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday - we didn't stay out late, but it was lovely to be able to have a meal together without worrying what the kids were up to!!

Today was an early start as I went to the Scrapbook Sisters Treasure Hunt with my friend Vicky who goes to the same fortnightly class.  I was driving (both of us in headscarves in a vain effort to stop the wind making us both look like scarecrows) so most of the pics are on Vicky's camera but think we got some good ones.  I understand Karen and Julie were lurking and have got some candid ones too... they'd probably have got more but we kept getting lost!! At this point I'm going to say that it was not the fault of navigator or driver, but whoever wrote the hunt that Karen and Julie bought off of the internet left quite a few important instructions out - most of them turn left or turn right, or straight on - all of which would have helped!

We were doing quite well for the first few questions but ended up driving round a one way system repeatedly... hmmm....  we gave up on the instructions and followed our noses and somehow got back on the right road, but by this time we were both tired, grumpy and hungry (as was the car, which spent more time in reverse than is normal!!)  As we passed the place where we were meant to be meeting for lunch we made the decision to give up and lounge on a village green instead, a bit of a cop out I know, but hey, it's Sunday, so I think we can be forgiven.

Needless to say we didn't win, but had a great time anyway.    Here's a few pics of the prize giving and the winners!  You can see more pics here

.

Whilst I was there I got a text from HB to say he had managed to get the Mini going... now this has been a source of great consternation over the past week as it ran initially last weekend and stubbornly refused to fire after that.  Once they realised their schoolboy error ( :-) ), and ordered more parts to replace the ones that had been innocent casualties it still wouldn't go... he was getting more and more frustrated... by process of elimination he finally sorted it and its now going!!  Whoo hoo!! 

Here's a pic of HB having driven it down the drive - it went back up too!!

And my word, it sounds rather lovely, the engine my Dad built sounds all brummy (is that a word??) and with that whine that a proper mini should have.  So now it moves under it's own steam (or should that be petrol??), so a few more little bits of tinkering to the suspension is required, carpets to order and go in and it's pretty much all finished. 

Oh, and despite my pronouncements that I wouldn't drive it, did I have a little go up and down the drive?? 

You bet I did, couldn't resist :-)

Thanks for stopping by - back to crafty stuff tomorrow

Sue xx