Christmas Crafting

Well the plan for today was to have a nice crafting session, and make a start on some Christmas cards.  It didn't happen.  Instead when I couldn't get inspired, I headed for the internet, looked at a few blogs, and came up with this.  For work.  I demo do crafts for hobbycraft once a month, and get a lovely box of goodies to play with, and, using a few little extras came up with this.

It was so busy last time I did a demo, that I hardly got to make anything I'd prepared, so this time I thought I'd get a few more projects finished before the demo.  I can still show the techniques used.

Anyway this uses the home for Christmas range of papers, and the tag stamps, along with red and brown inks (the brown was used for 'aging'). The snowflake is a marianne creatable, and I also used some coasters, and gold ribbon.

Fathers Day Card

YAY! It seems I can upload pics again.  

Testing

Just testing to see if blogger will let me publish this...

I borrowed the baby onsie die from the lovely Val to make this baby boy banner for my friend's baby shower a couple of weeks ago.  I'm pleased to say that she loved it.  And the triangular banner I'd made in felt with her son's name on - sadly (stupidly?) I have no photos of that one, but I'll try sneak up to his room to get a pic next time I visit her.

Essentially it was pretty much die cut and then the scallops (an oval scallop die sniped to the right size and tiny scalloped die from PTI). The pocket and hearts are both SU punches - the pocket is the large label punch and was perfect.  Then it was all just pegged out.

Unsettled

There was an accident, near where I live, at a level crossing.  A man died.  Today I discovered the name of that man, and I've a feeling I know him.  The right name, age, area he lived in (a good half hour drive from where the accident was), right number of children, and they are the right ages.  But information is brief, until I see more information I cannot be certain.  And I'm in shock.  I haven't seen this couple for at least 11/12years, but she was at one time my best friend.  I can't imagine what she must be going through.  And so I am unsettled.  Anxious.  And above all, sad.  I hope I am wrong, but I have a nasty feeling I am not.

Edited to say that sadly it was the person I know.  Can't stop thinking about how awful my friend must be feeling - I've sent a card to her, and will try and get in touch next week.  I cannot express how awful it was when I walked into the newsagent, and saw his face plastered all over the front of the local paper. 

More Chevrons!

Told you I love this die at the moment! This card is for the dies to Die for challenge here. Love the sentiment too. Paper/card SU, Die-namics chevron die, MFT stamp set and die - both from dies to die for.

Castle Card

A card for my neice - 6 yesterday. Using some papermaina papers, butterfly cut out and mounted for dimension, with a little bling for good measure. PTI circle dies (plain and zig zag) and framed out, along with die-namics chevron dies (again).

40th Birthday Card

Well, the kids are back at school, and the cupboards and fridge re-stocked, so I thought I'd take a break from clearing and sorting to play with my new die-namics dies that arrived this morning.

This is a card for my sister-in-law who turns 40 this coming weekend.

Brighter than what I usually go for, but I think it works well. After all, I have a mountain of card I really should use.

Die-namics dies - chevrons (love these, and I can see a few more cards using them coming up) and numbers

PTI - limitless layers dies and framed out #1 die and stamps

SU - cameo coral, pumpkin and summer sun card and inks.

More Ramblings

Not too much crafting has gone on around here lately. We decided to take the plunge and actually move the kids into seperate rooms - something we've been talking about now for some time (at least 12mths?).

So, the small pink one emptied her room out into the living room. We (mostly hubby) painted, and moved the big blue one into her old room. This involved lots of sorting, and a little 're-arrangement' of the bunk bed - it now only has a top bunk, and space underneath. So, son number 1 happy.

Meantime, son no. 2 and the pink one have been sharing the floor in the boys room. This was to be room no 2 to be decorated. So, it also needed to be emptied, allowing it to be 'pinked' up a little. Meantime all 3 are sleeping in the first bedroom to be done. I was relieved to come home from work to find most of the pink stuff in the pink bedroom - I'm fed up of tripping over her stuff, that in the week and a bit it took to get back into her new room had gradually been spilling all over the living room.

So, room no 3? Thats here. Where the pc is. So, phone line needs to be moved and lots of grown up stuff needs to be found a new home. Dispersed across the house. So, there is much sorting. I have a huge pile of paper recycling. Another huge pile of filing. And just 'stuff' to sort through. Still, we made a space on the floor for the middle one to sleep on. And I guess this week will see more sorting, a bigger recycling pile, and a full dustbin.

Oh, and jigsaws. The Easter weekend saw us completing (almost) lots of jigsaws, so we can pass them on. Now we have jigsaws all over the place too. With just 1 or 2 pieces missing. We keep hoping to find them, as we continue the whole sorting thing.

And odd socks. I was hoping that the big clear out would mean I could reduce my 'odd sock tally'. But no. It seems to have gone up from its average of 17 to 20. I have 20 odd socks. How can this be? Lets hope that further clearances can reduce this. I was kinda hoping the clearances would reduced this number to less than 10. Maybe even just 1 or 2. But no. Its still up there. 20. I guess I'll give the clearances a little longer, then call it a day, and bin them. I expect they'll turn up then.

Anyway, enough rambling. Stuff to sort. And kids to get ready for school again tomorrow. When at last I will have the house to myself. For a few hours anyway.

A London Themed Card

This is a card I made for a demo at work (shhh don't tell them, I've brought it home to photo - I'll have to take it back next week).


Its an easel card - you can see it a little more clearly from the side.

Papermania/Do Crafts, mostly from the portobello range, the acetate was a bit of packaging, stamped with stayzon ink in black.

A card

I have been doing a couple of demos at work in the last couple of months - for Do Crafts. I got given a big box of stash to work with. Most of what I've made is at work - I ought to bring it home and photo some of it. But this is one that I do have at home. Its all Papermainia products, apart from the sentiment, thats PTI. I used a card sketch from Clean and Simple Cardmaking.

Hopefully I'll get back into making at home soon. Just not feeling too inspired at the moment.

Pinterest and mad ramblings

No pics today. I joined pinterest. I've been pinning. But wondering if really, I should start making? And discovered this cool tool that lets you see if stuff has been pinned from your blog (waves a happy wave - hi guys). I was amazed I'd had stuff pinned. Wow! What an ego boost that was.

My current excuse is I've been ill. Perhaps not quite flu, but I've had aches, and temperature, and been completly knocked out (lost a few pounds too - always a bonus when your ill). I've had flu before, and thought I was dieing. I wasn't that bad this time. But I'm still completly exhausted. And my brain can't focus. I went shopping yesterday, made a list, and stuck to it. Normally I'll make a list, and ad-lib a little. Not yesterday. I'm sure I'll discover I'm short of stuff later in the week. Anyway, the weekly shop was cheaper than normal. Which is also worrying me. It does mean I have missed stuff off.

And I made a list of stuff to do today too. So far I've only managed the washing. But then thats a given, I have a special relationship with my washing machine. I feed it daily. It rewards me with clean damp clothing. I get twitchy if I'm running low on supplies for my washing machine. My children keep me well supplied with stuff to feed it with.

But I keep thinking I must make something, not just pin. Perhaps next week. When I'm feeling better. And all that excess cotton wool in my head is gone.

PTI Anniversary Challenge Day 2, part 2

This is it, last post for the PTI challenges for the anniversary release.

This is a slider card, and was fun to make (and not too fiddly either). I used the bottle die, and matching, slightly smaller tag die to make the mechanism that moves, a fillable frame die, and one of the freebie downloads from earlier in the week. Then I used the birthday tags and twinkle stamp sets.



Pull the ribbon to reveal the hidden image, and make a wish sentiment!

This really was fun to do, and the video tuts on Nichole's blog really were easy to follow, so with a little adaption (as the dies aren't released just yet) it wasn't too difficult to do. I'd like to have a go with a few more of the dies I've got - limitless layers ovals, and some of the mat stacks and layerz dies would probably work well too.

PTI Anniversary Challenge, Day 10

OK, nearly there, this is the last day of the PTI anniversary challenges. For the day 10 challenge, we had to make an interactive/moving card. So, never having made one of these before I thought I'd start with a spinner card, using Grunge Me, and a Boy Basics stamp set, along with one of the half and half dies. (This card will be for my Nephew).

And it does indeed spin as it goes down the track!

PTI Challenge Part 2

And another card to enter into the challenge for today. Nothing like leaving it till the last minute to get it all uploaded! Less than half an hour to go.

Anyway, turning a new leaf stamp set for the background, butterfly dies, mat stack die and layerz and sentiment from another pti set.

PTI Anniversary Challenge Day 9

Here's my Day 9 entry - a challenge to use leaves and butterflies.

PTI butterfly die, green tea papers and vine impression plate

PTI Anniversary Day 7

Here's my entry to the Day 7 challenge - a project that includes hearts. I love this set, but really don't get it out often enough.

Love Lives Here stamp set and dies, and one of the fillable frames dies, 'cut down' to make a small hanging frame for the word Love. It's attached only by the jump rings, so moves freely.

This is the view from the side, so you can see the layers more clearly. And of course, so much better for being photographed in natural light.

And this is the brooch I made last summer (read about it here), that I kind of based the idea on for my card.

PTI Anniversary Challenge Day 6 Part 2

My second card for today, using a different card sketch for the challenge.


To say I struggled with lighting is a bit of an understatement :0( Just couldn't get the balance right, and its either too blue, or too yellow. (Posted both). Oh well, thats the trouble with trying to shoot at the dining room table in the evening.

Anyway, more of the paper I made with Beautiful Blooms, the oval die from the limitless layers set, part of the wine bottle die, sentiment from the last anniversary set, and celebrations frame die.

PTI Anniversary Day 6

My first card for todays competition uses this sketch
Lots of PTI goodies used, Beautiful Blooms stamps, the Heart Border Die across the top, and photo finish strips die with sentiment from Mega Mixed Messages. The card will be for my friends daughter, leaving my childrens school today, starting at another school after the half term holidays. I wanted to wish her good luck at her new school.

I was also inspired by Nicole's use of Frilly Flowers in her card designs for the background.

PTI Day 2, Part 3

OK, this is it for Day 2 challenge - mostly as I must get one and do the housework, hopefully I'll be able to do something for Day 3 Challenge.

This was done the the adorable little chick image, fillable frames (a favourite series that I really enjoyed collecting and using) and a favor die - another die that has seen lots of use.



This time I thought a bit more about showing the dimension on the front, so took a slightly angled photo too :o)

And this is the photo of the card in my previous post, to show the dimension.

PTI Anniversary Challenge Day 2, part 2

Here's the second card I made for the pti challenge - quite a quick one, with the image from Heather Nichols - I love the birdie image, and have the Little Bitty Bird set and dies. Anyway, this card uses the Bitty Background Blocks, and the Button Card Collection die and aqua mist ink. You can't really see from the photo, but the squares are all dimensional, and I cut the inner Square out on the printed image and raised that too.

PTI Anniversary Challenge Day 2

Its day 2 of PTI's anniversary release, and the challenge for today is to make a card using the free download of images, and of course, pti product. I printed them out, and cut them all out - the intention to make lots of entries. So far, and unexpectedly yellow, this is all I have managed - just ran out of time. Hopefully I'll get to play more later. Yellow is hardly a colour I use at all, but I took my cue from the little bee, used the limitless layers dies, and flourishes stamp set. Hopefully I'll be back later with more entries.

A clean and simple card

This card was inspired by one of the PTI design team - can't remember who (maybe Dawn McVey?). It doesn't photo very well. And I'm not sure if my card is too clean and simple - perhaps I'll have another go. Anyway, fits the Passion for Papertrey challenge, though I may try and make another card to enter.

Shiny things

First of all, hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. I kept meaning to blog a few cards I'd made - I even won a competition and got some yummy goodies to play with, with a Christmas card I'd made. But, what can I say, shopping, wrapping, planning, working and I just didn't feel crafty. Pretty much most of the cards I sent were made way back in October. I'd had big crafty ideas. But they didn't happen. There's always next Christmas. Perhaps if I start now?

Anyway, 'shiny things' - we spent weeks, no months trying to get our children to tidy their rooms - threats of withdrawing presents, and reducing gifts didn't work. Not really. The middle child was not interested in tidying. Eventually it was done. With much effort. But yesterday, it all came down to a shiny thing. Hubby was looking for a pen. He found a pen. It wouldn't write. But in the process of clicking it in and out he discovered it had a secret life. It lit up. This is not a new pen, its been in his work bag for a while. The middle son coveted the pen. It lit up after all. He cleaned the floor, he even hoovered. The bedroom is tidy (well, of sorts). And all for a pen, that doesn't write. But the pen does light up. If only I'd known before Christmas. Shiny things huh?