New stuff

New stuff #1
Grandma arrived with her new puppy spin. Aw! Of course the best photo of him I took without a flash. waah! so here he is in black and white. which is a shame as he is really a red collie (that's a kind of brown really). Now don't let Dutch our dog see these because he is not allowed on the sofa...

New stuff #2
I have had my hair chopped
Had to endure a ticking off from the hairdresser about the state it was in!

This isn't really a good photo of the front as it swings forward more. But the back is quite cool
New stuff #3
its card dare day and it was my turn to choose a theme. Mwah, hah, hah, hah.
This week you can do ANYTHING you like on a card BUT you can only use one colour.

I have enjoyed "helping" the team work out what is allowed and what is not. It is a shame to give up the power now!
anyway here is my humble attempt.
I used a March SA kit card and stamped sentiment. Aunt Sarah's Bloomer, Bazzill button, green staples from the 99p shop, Sophistiquins green sequins from Get Crafty and various bits of paper and vellum from my pile of green card and paper. The card swings out and I must add that the paper you can only see a little of has a green fleck on a very light green background and is NOT white (!)

New Stuff #4
I won the draw on Tracie's blog for some chipboard shapes. I am in awe of her talent and I think I have this idea that if I have some of her chipboard I will be able to scrap like her.
I know, but a girl can dream!

well we are heading into Holy Week - a very special week for me as I remember the last week in the life of Jesus, his death on the cross for me and his bringing of new life through his resurrection. It is also a very busy week work wise followed by a break/collapse at my parents the week after. so it is likely that this blog will be neglected for a little while.
May you too know the hope of new life in Jesus
Happy Easter!

About time I posted again

Life just gets too busy!
Saturday I did some work at the Church contact centre. Some weeks you can just read or cross stitch while keeping a careful eye out for trouble. I am woman. I can multi task. The cross stitch did not come out of the bag at all. Phew! new families, demanding children, infringements of the rules - I was exhausted! Afternoon was spent doing prep for Sunday and taking Carys to a craft party at Imagine That. She has done a lovely canvas which just needs a photo now. What a great idea for a party! (although i am still smarting from being mistaken for one of the partygoers. Yup 11. Time for some makeup I think...)

Sunday was spent celebrating 200 years since the passing of the abolition of slavery act; celebrating the retirement of my lovely church secretary after 34 (!) years including a big celebration lunch and doing tea and songs of praise for a group that takes the housebound out for tea.

And in case you thought I wasn't really a Minister...

Monday was spent taking Hywel to the orthodontist as some of his rubber bands had pinged off. Its all high tech stuff. Mr Davis was really fast - H was only in the chair about 3 minutes. But the whole journey there and back etc took 1 1/4 hours... that's my crafting time yer know.

Monday my friend Sue came round and we talked crafting and went to 2 craft shops. oh the restraint by yours truly. Sue had an Artbase card to spend. i did persuade her to buy me the piece of Bazzill i needed to finish a page as I couldn't wait another two weeks. It was hard to remember the page plan in the end but this is what I came up with

then we went to Imagine that and I booked some classes (not scrap spending) whilst Sue bought one or two more things and we bumped into Anita there who has got a potential new big order for cards. you go girl! So she stocked up on bazzill bling to help her do it. Bling is just heavenly and I will get some in my next SA kit! Managed not to upgrade my SA kit as to have it delivered on standing order is ok but to upgrade would count as shopping. (Hope the Lord is playing by the same rules or I'm in trouble)
The above LO uses the Feb kit.
The next LO uses the March kit.

its an 8x8 double lo and yes my hand did ache after all that cutting. Letters and journaling tags done on the robo.

I love the way my kids still need to do the same things every time we go places even though the oldest is now 14!

I leave you with Carys' very first LO planned and executed with her own fair hand and only a bit of help from mum programming the robo (font of went to town is Elise. v. cool. Paper is Junkitz)

Sad and tired

Tired... because I have spent all day at a meeting on Governance issues for trustees Actually a LOT more interesting than that sounds, but tiring.

Sad... becasue I have 2 funerals to attend next week. One for a dear friend who has died after a long illness. Our choir will never be quite the same again. One that I am taking, for a mother leaving 2 kids younger than mine, just about on their own.

So all that means my Friday blog post is late. And the photo is pants. But there you are. This weeks Daring Cardmaker Dare was set by the marvellous Keryn. She said

Your dare for this week is to create a card using any technique, any style, to welcome the birth of multiples. If you keep the card long enough there is bound to be someone you know having twins or more to send it to.

So here is my take on it...
White square card; printed sentiment; printed out lettering then covered with lots of tiny primas and opal liquid pearls (my style du jour really)
NB it takes quite a while to stick that many primas on. Just so you know.

Two posts in one day

Don't faint. But if you do I can send one of my Get Well cards. I thought I better post about them now in case someone was so impressed on the Daring Cardmakers Blog that they came racing here for details. (Pause for laughter) Actually I deliberately made them simple because sometimes simple is good.

Cream card with printed sentiment (I think the font is LD Delightful). Large QK plaster die and papers from an old SA kit.

Pink stardream card, printed sentiment (font Digs My Hart), lots of different size prima flowers, some mounted on sticky pads with pearl Liquid Pearl centres.

white card, printed sentiment (font tweed); hot water bottle (I thought you couldn't get any more but they are back at Mad About Cards - isn't it sweet); Making Memories ribbons wound round white card.

Told you they were simple!

So much to share

Had a busy weekend!
Carys and I had a lovely time with my good friend Anna. It only took 11/4 hours to get to Barnes Bridge from our house - I'm sure it has never been so fast before. Barnes is such a lovely place to live (slightly out of my price range) (well so is everywhere as we live in tied accommodation!). We spent the evening chatting, eating and watching Freaky Friday on DVD. Carys told me she has seen most of it before but she still enjoyed it. I love body swap films. The best is probably Face/off but Carys can't watch that!

Saturday we had a leisurely start then went walking along the South Bank to Tate Modern. Sadly there were tickets for the big slides and they weren't giving any more out at that time, but Carys went down a little one. But is it art?

She says yes.

There was a games area for you to choose things to do for free. We chose the surrealist stuff. I love this bag so much.

which was full of all sorts of things to do. We didn't use most of them and the gallery was a bit too full. But it was fun though! Then we carried on strolling through little shops and galleries etc up to London Bridge station where we went to our seperate homes. We had all brought each other pressies so came home lade. I made Anna a little prayer book and as she has nearly finished the notebook from last year I had better make another one of those soon. I have realised that I forgot to leave the thank you card behind (the one I made for the dare) so will have to retrieve it - but it may now be fatally bent out of shape!

Saturday night Phil's friends from the Omlet forum came round. I tidied away all my craft stuff too (big shock). They had been to Helen's grandma who lives nearby. poor Mike had eaten something that disagreed and spent the couple of hours with us throwing up. Poor chap. Phil ahd just cleaned the loo too...

Mother's Day was fun with brekkie in bed - Heat magazine (usually banned from the house for being a gossip mag and Carys frowned at Phil for even buying it for me then. She disapproves of such things). I later had some home made cards. Emrys' had a balloon attached. Must photograph them as I usually get cards as surreal as anything in the Tate and this year was no exception.
My favourite mothers day pressie was a song composed by Carys. "Mother dear I love you so" Awwwwww.

My Dad stayed with us overnight as he had a London meeting yesterday. I spent a lot of the day doing crafty things. Finally did a DCM midweek dare (see later for the reveal but don't get too excited) and two LO's. I'm getting in to this 12x12 now. May even change my SA kit again...
The first was more snow picutres - this time of the boys. I do worry about scrapping Carys more than them - but then she poses more!
{the layout will be back}

White card stock, BG Dasher; Craft Robo lettering, two circle punches and wooden snowflakes from an SA kit that I didn't think I would ever get to use!. I painted them white then embossed several times using winter wonderland embossing powder. You can't really see the sparkle but it is there. I did outline the letters but there is NO distress ink.


This one of Emrys flying through the air uses Crate Paper Cowboy paper and letter stickers; Craft Robo (heck I love my Jimbo and even if all he ever does is cut out letters that is great for me) ; distress ink (can't do without twice in one day); Christina Cole stand out stickers which are exactly the right colours. Don't you love it when that happens?

Then video night watching Van Helsing which is only a 12 - but still a bit scary which i how the kids like it. You can tell when they love a film cos they talk ALL THE WAY THROUGH.
Later started Carys off on her first scrap page. She is so excited. Hopefully we can finish it tonight.

Work beckons so have a good day!

It's a beautiful day

again!
The magnolia tree next door is in full bloom. I love that tree. Not only does it lift my heart with its beauty but i don't have to pick up all the pesky blossoms. here is how it looked last year... and it is even more lovely today.

Carys and I are going to stay with my uni friend/her Godmother Anna overnight which we are all looking forward to. Carys was v. busy last night making mothers day cards for her grandmas. I suddenly realised that while admiring the ones I had made that usually we send them from the children too. So Carys had an hour to get them done which was disturbed in the middle by tea. But she worked like a Trojan and did it. Inspiration came from what was on my messy table left over from the Daring Cardmakers Dare this week and together we came up with ideas and she did all the work. sorry the pics are blurred but I was rushing! Managed to get them in the post just in time!


And so onto the dare this week. Set by queasy Kel - feel better soon hun! we had to list craft items and get other members of the family to draw 5 things out of the hat.
I had

• acrylic paint
• glitter glue
• die cuts
• wood mounted stamp
• charms

eeek! But with a little bit of cheating I came up with this
cheating came with the white pen and the square punch.
I found a rubber stamp of a wiggle square and painted it in various colours on some card which i punched out. I painted the card base using a wet wipe - that si why the card looks slightly warped - it is. I used the left over die cuts from Monday which I had not put away, did my standard outlining, added some glitter glue which also went over the lettering. The charm is the butterfly which "accidentally" lost its loopy bit. How sad.
I can't wait to see what you all come up with.
I'll be back with my new of the trip away v. soon. have a good weekend what ever you do and I leave you with a picture that shows up my shallowness. it is entitled "happy" becasue that is how it makes me feel!

I've been selfish

See I had a day off yesterday and what I really should have done was a card for the Daring Cardmakers Little Extra and the big one for this week. But I didn't. I (almost) finished tidying all my craft stuff, went for a pub lunch with hubby (we sat outside! in March!). Did an 8x8 Lo of my da and then later went to a crop at Imagine That.
So all scrapping and no carding. How naughty is that. In my defense I don't have a lot of playing time and if I have too many deadlines then it gets stressful. I often don't have time fr the Little Extras. I did this week but played instead. Mind you it is no loss as the cards that were done by more conscientious people are super duper. Go and see NOW!!!

And then come and see what I did instead...
This is all from the latest Self Addressed kit (sold out already). Gorgeous papers and extra bits. I nearly used a real chipboard BG letter but couldn't bring myself to so this is a card version for the "t". We R Memory Keepers papers and chipboard circle and eyelet things which went on a breeze with my cropodile BUT I really wanted them in just a little furhter and it just woldn't reach. Sob!
Here is the journalling for you nosy ones! (like me)

And then the crop. Oh. My. Word. It was fantastic. I've never really done a class where you scraplift before and thought might react as Carys did when doing dancing lessons (why should they tell me what to do I just want to dance). But I loved it. I phoned Emma to find out what to bring and she said 3 photos. So I printed up a few lots of 3 to choose from cos i didn't ask what paper we were using. But a bit of scrappy magic happened cos the paper went so well with the photos I chose. My version is a bit messier than hers - but hope in a good way. I have to show you lots of photies cos I loves it so!

The paper is Basic Grey Gypsy mixed with some gorgeous shades of Bazzill including the rather lovely whiter than white stripy bottom layer!
we had to stamp onto the Bazzill. I was, frankly, pants at it. But covered up my mistakes with some glitter glue at home and its a bit better now! The other two croppers there - Janet and Tracey managed it beautifully, grrr.
I chickened out of writing directly on to the LO as well. I then ran out of white for all the writing. Oh well.
And my pics were too big for the other mat so I made some of my favourite giant photo corners.
And we got to do some big flowers. Which are my new best friend. Emma added in the idea of acetate flowers. I tried adding a bit of paint to mine with mixed success, All of these die cuts were cut with two big shot flower dies. If you are a Big Shot user then these really ought to be on your must have list. Next time i get to a crop i will be taking lots of spare paper to cut them out from!
And some almost in focus close ups...

Thanks for sharing with me!

My baby is home!

Woot! (as my boys would say). I arrived home from a loooong meeting yesterday to discover that my CJ had arrived in the post. Oh it is fantastic to see all the hard work everyone has put into it.
Do you want to see it too?
Or hear about the family walk in the mud where Carys had so much fun squelching that she fell over?
OK, Cj it is then... And watch out eyes cos I'm going LARGE with the piccies!

My cover and intro pages are all Cosmo Cricket Wanted. I must say it all looks so much better with lots of ribbons sticking out all over the place rather than the rather bare version i sent out. And someone added ickle bells. Just perfick!

and my double layout. well it is really two layouts cos I picked two songs that tell something of my life.
Here is the pull out tag for Dancing Queen
and the slightly dark close up of the RHside
If only I had known in 1988 that cream and peach would be so horrid to scrap with in 2007. Still at least we still look at each other that way. Sometimes :)

And then all the fabby pages from my CJ buddies. First up was Net...
here is her tag
I just love all those fresh colours!
then we have Rachel
with lots of little pockets and pull outs and lists of hundreds of songs that got me singing along!
Alba jane - with her wonderful stories of Elvis
And sue W who did a super quick turnaround
and still manged to fit in a tiny little Maze book which is (cough) amazing - look!
All that is left for you to look at is the sing in page - well i mean sign in but hopefully you are singing by now...
and the back
Phil had an MandS hamper for Christmas from his Church and the hamper fits 12x12 albums in beautifully. It's a lovely place to store all the bits that I have done - albums and little books and all. So my CJ is now in my hamper of goodies ready for me to look at every day! (And I will).
Thanks again Team 1 - it has been such fun.

How time flies

cos it's Friday again!
Busy, busy working week. I have just spent a wonderful hour or so with a chap from my church who is housebound and in his 90's. We talked about prayer and faith a lot but also about his past. I love hearing about people's lives and it gave me a pang that so much of his life story will be lost in time. It made me more determined to scrap some family stories as well as pretty pictures of the kids. Must get my photo albums from my mum!
And if you know any older people - not just family - why not go round and have a chat - you will learn so much!

I did get to do some crafting at the crafty card Club at my Harold Hill church. That is the sort of work time I enjoy! I had meant to take my camera to do some step by steps on layered flowers. But I didn't. I would like to do that sometime soon for Net though, seeing as she asked so nicely!
And now she has her CJ here is a full version of the page...
Mine will be with me very soon - can't wait :)

And here is this weeks Daring Cardmaker effort.
Jo set the dare which had me running for cover. "I would like to challenge you to make a hero themed card. It could be a card for the Hero in your life or a Superhero themed card..."
I went for a hero in my life - me mam
Ingredients
Tall card
lots of printed out on card bits matted onto BG Phoebe
Phoebe background (Mum I hope you realise how much I love you by the amount of Phoebe on one card...)
cape and undies cut from Flair designs Girls in the swim paper
Auntie Sarah's Bloomer coloured with chalk ink
3 black brads

Now I have to make another similar one for Mother in Law!

work looms for most of the weekend but I have booked a scrapbook class at Imagine That on Monday night and I'm soooo excited.
Plus my latest SA kit came today so I am off to drool...

The end of an era

I posted off a completed circle journal yesterday. Gave me a bit of a pang! I'm excited for Net whose journal it is but it feels funny now we have reached the end of the circle. Mine won't arrive back today but Sue W who has it now, not only does splendiferous pages but also is super speedy! So it won't be long.
Net's CJ was called "Did you know" - a crafty way to be nosy if you ask me (and i just wish i had thought of it first!) Most of the interesting things about me I share anyway so I decided to put 6 truths and 6 fibs and you have to work out which are which. Net also wanted the CJ to be "purty" so i was very brave and broke out my fave BG Phoboe papers. Oh they are even nicer to use than to look at!
There will be a big reveal so I can't really share but I will give you the tiniest peek!

I then used the same papers to make a Carole Janson style birthday card. I showed people how to make these at the cardmaking club at church and they went down a treat. The funny thing is that i suggested inking the edges first but they prefer not to do that (wastes too much time) and my hands then itch to get at the paper and ink it myself. Oooh I am such a tyrant! There were 10 of us there and they all have so much fun. I end up shattered though!
Anyway this card is for a lovely lady at Church. Numbers were die cut as I was trying to robo something for someone else at the same time. I have tried to make my own mat for Jimbo out of laminating sheet and repo spray but it has not been successful so far. Stems were hand drawn although i could have used my stamps. Just didn't have time as I needed to get to the post office!
One day I will get a good close up of these flowers. Still haven't got the knack (must read camera manual)

Last night we watched the remake of the Poseidon Adventure. Carys was on the large sofa with Emrys and I was enjoying a rare snuggle with H. I looked at Carys and her face was a bit drawn "Do you need a cuddle?" (there were lots of dead bodies). She practically leapt into my arms, it was so funny. Today she declared that although she hid her face for some of the film (more dead bodies) she really enjoyed it.
I entered calmer waters later with my LO of the walk at Maldon.
I'm still trying to things the Ali Edwards way and mix up papers from different companies but it isn't half messy! and I had just about decided on the papers and was seeking letters when my eye fell on these Fancy Pants scalloped stickers. So all the little bits I have already punched out of three different papers will have to be saved (yup I will need to take a photo to match!). Other paper is Chatterbox and Feb SA kit which I can't remember the name of, for the journalling.
Here is the journalling close up - it is not very erudite but I love to have a nose at what people have written on their LO's and I'm just thinking of your eyes!
I'm still shattered after a long weekend of work so i am having a night off tonight too. But my brain will be stretched by the current DCM dare! They are getting harder and harder!

Oooh nearly forgot Gillian sent me a fandabbidozie (!) RAK which will be great for Mothers Day cards. smooches Gillian!

PHEW!!!!!!

Got the letter today and Carys has got into Gaynes. I cried with relief. It is so stupid because as long as the application form was in there was almost no chance of her being sent anywhere else. But there was that lingering doubt - what if I hadn't sent the form after all and was put down as an uncaring parent?
I'll find out about everyone else at home time today. it is quite hard for Carys as we didn't get into our catchment area primary school so most of the Year 6 will go to a different secondary school. But I'm sure she will make new friends. Emrys has a great set of friends now at Gaynes that he didn't have at Junior School. He had a postcard today from the Geography Department to say well done on getting a level 6c in his exam. I think that is a brilliant idea!

Here are my Daring Cardmaker cards this week. I did two - similar in style as I used up the black cards with the Jan SA kit but using different out of my comfort zone techniques. The one on the site uses some rather strange peel offs that I bought ages ago and hadn't used. All black plastic bits. I think they are Francoise Read. I meant to use the more normal type of peel off but just was not inspired. It isn't a criticism of those who use peel offs because they can look great, but they are so not me any more!
The head, hat and little black flowers are peel offs
KI memories paper, Prima flowers, brads from Carolyns shop, safmat sentiment (love that word that the Americans use. Greeting sounds so much colder doesn't it?!). Both the ribbon and the mat for the head are actually pale blue!
This one uses some papermania stickers that I have had for ever and never used. They are very sweet but I obviously wasn't as inspired as I thought I would be when I bought them! Stripy paper is from SA Jan kit (one of the best ever!); ribbons and brad from stash; safmat sentiment; Auntie Sarah's bloomer.

Right off to the Traidcraft coffee Morning at church now to celebrate Fairtrade fortnight!

"It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining

I think I'll go and see my friend Big Ears!"

One of those things I say on a lovely day like today and part of a joke that is just a little too rude for this blog (not crude for a change, just sweary) but that will keep me snorking to myself all day in boring meetings (most aren't but anything involving numbers makes me light headed) (and snork is the noise I make when I laugh at rude stuff)

Anyway the sun is shining and I so love getting up in the daylight again. Clocks go forward soon (on Mother's Day which is so wrong. That should be lie in day not get up extra early day). Busy day but wanted to catch up with the blog as
1: I have monogram cards to share. i tried to put one on the Daring Cardmakers blog but it ate Jo's and as she is well scary in real life I took mine away again quick!
If I am honest I didn't make them this week. One was as part of the card making Club at Church and the other was for Hywel's birthday. But I think they are good, if simple ideas of how monogram cards can work.
This is a cereal packet "t" which has utee triple embossing on it. I think chipboard would have held the powder better as I didn't intend quite the shabby chic look! It was outlined with krylon pen. "hankyou" was printed on card. Add one strip of stripy paper, and 5 eyelets added with a cropodile (got to love its action!) and theres your card.
3 Bugs H and stripy paper. Opened up my dictionary and found lots of words beginning with H which i wrote on with white pen. Attached with big green brads. don't you love it when you find something JUST the right colour in your stash?

2: Here is the LO I was struggling with. And it is pretty simple really! As I put it out again to assemble the BG Scarlet Letter paper fell in a different place and I thought - that's it! The blue I needed has come from a strip of blue vellum which I doodled white flowers over and attached with brads. The little white dots are... little white dots with my precious white pen too. I printed "party @ 10" on to card using 2 peas wild child font and left a small outline round each letter. The index card comes from here such a fun idea! And I struggled to attach it with the clip until I realised I could use it as a highlighting circle. Sweet! Circle clip from Carolyn's shop
absolute bargains and so versatile!

3: Carys wanted me to take her photo with a straight banana. It is a real struggle for a mother with a filthy mind I can tell you. I think this one is innocent enough anyway.
And she does have an orange moustache. It is from peach and carrot smoothie.

4: It is St David's Day. Hurray! "Every day when I wake up I think the Lord I'm Welsh" as Catatonia will tell you.
BUT it is also the day that every mother in the land dreads.
World.
Book.
Day.

"dress up as your favourite character from a novel" AAAAAAAAAAAaaaargh.
I finally remembered to ask Carys on Tuesday morning what she wanted to be. "Alice in Wonderland". Great. Anyway with a bit of ingeneious thinking on my part I came up with something rudimentary that might work. I was just about to proudly share my news with her when she said "I've changed my mind want to be Pinocchio". She saw my face and sia d rather hurredly and in a slightly scared voice "it's ok I'll be Alice"
She is wearing a dress worn by a bridesmaid at my mother's wedding and a pinny worn in the 50's by a friends mum working as a waitress. Please let it come home ok.

5: I cut the boys hair last night (they refuse to go to the barbers. I am NOT a v. good hairdresser though) . Managed to give Emrys a little bald patch behind his ear. well when i say little, it's not really. He hasn't noticed. yet.

6: Tomorrow we should find out about senior schools. Carys has two siblings in the one just around the corner so should be a shoo in. But what if Carys didn't hand in the form? And the school just thought I wasn't bothered? And she has to go to one of the ones with spaces because no one wants to go there? For those who dread tomorrow my prayers are with you cos it is so hard when it your children's future education is at stake.