'New' Craft Space

Well these are the pics of my new craft desk and re-organised room.

I had previously worked on a very small desk which we bought about 9 years ago for Sallie to do her homework on.

The desk is looking very tidy and organised at the moment but probably won't stay like that once I get to work. It has a lovely pull out section at one end and we've put a 2 drawer filing cabinet under the other end. I've also got a magnetic notice board.The stacking boxes are full of stamps with a selection of unmounted stamps in Cd cases on top. My Cuttlebug can stay out now and hopefully be used more.

I already had this large storage unit in which I keep my boxes full of papers, card, tools, embellishments, inkpads etc. etc. etc. Also a pile of books and magazines and my card and Atc swaps.

We took the single bed out and replaced it with a sofa bed covered with the quilt and cushions. We'll see how comfy it is to sleep on when Sallie comes tonight.

Just call it my Ikea room 'cos that's where all the furniture apart from the chair came from. We bought the new items on Monday and they were delivered on Tuesday morning and all assembled and in place by yesterday. Mick reckons it is my Christmas present come early.

80th Birthday

Mick's Mum has asked me to make a card for her sister's 80th birthday next month which meant I also needed to make one from us as well.

This is the one I made for us to send, I used glitter board, brads, peel-offs and base card from my stash but the whole of the topper is made from freebies from Making Cards magazine with a little bit of glitter glue added.

I bought some Joanna Sheen stamps a couple of months ago when I was first asked about this card as I knew the look I wanted for it It is from the Happiness Oval set of Victorian Doylie range and has been stamped and embossed in pink on cream pearlescent paper.The 2 background papers are from Joanna's Oriental Dreams Cd. I found a bunch of fabric flowers in a local shop and used 3 from it to make a spray and added an organza ribbon bow which was all attached with silicone glue. The sentiment was printed on the computer. As the flowers stand out from the card so much I had to make a box on which I will stamp the name.

Baby Cardigan

The Think Pink sale is looming ever nearer and so I had to get this cardigan finished to send the pic to Di to put on the blog. I started it last month but put it away when we went on holiday, that is a fatal thing to do as I much prefer to get things knit in one go.

It is a much smaller version of one I did for Faith. This one buttons up the front though instead of being crossover. It's in the same cream yarn (I bought a BIG ball of it) and has small pink buttons. I love the way the bottom edge rolls up instead of being ribbed.

Cyber Crop

Over on the Bubbly Funk forum at the weekend we had a Cyber Crop with many of the members providing classes and tutorials for different craft items.

We also had online chats and help with any queries and we played 3 games of bingo in the chat room.

The bingo was more manic with each game we played, 1 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. On Sunday evening the pace of the comments were coming so thick and fast it was hard to keep up and concentrate on the game. Somehow though I managed to win the game.

All the forum members sent a big 'thank you' to Di who organised the whole thing and did the bingo and also to Caroline who runs the forum and Bubbly Funk Shoppe.

So far i've only managed to complete 1 class. That is for a Dotee Doll which was Suzie's class. It was inspired by this blog. It is so easy to make and so much fun. I've finished 1 of them and last night stitched the face and body of 2 more. I have no felt for the back though and no stuffing so they will have to wait until i've been shopping now.

I feel the hair was inspired by these pics I took of Faith after I had crimped her hair.

Bubbly Funk Birthday cards

Even more lovely hand crafted cards to show, this time from my friends on the Bubbly Funk Birthday list.

Ann used a lovely bright background, Ali sent a pot of flowers and Maxine used iris folding.

Tracy used spirelli and dry embossing, Janice sent a felt heart and Tracey a mini aperture card.Karen stamped and coloured, Beth sent flowers and Kaz a lovely pink button.Carol made a tag card and Kathy sent lots of flowers in pots.

Thank you so much for all your hard work. The cards have only been taken out of the lounge window this morning. they will all go into my craft room now for inspiration in the future.

Stamping Mad Birthday cards

These are the cards I recieved from my friends on the Stamping Mad forum Birthday list.

This first one from Keren has 4 panels but was difficult to photograph fully open.
Annie gave a pile of pressies, Santtu a coloured backer and Wendy sent flowers. Caz coloured the initial, Ruth sent the cake and Lynn sent flowers.
Trixie used butterflies and the girl in bonnet is from Megan.

Thank you so much for all your cards.

Sallie's Cards

My daughter, Sallie, is well into cardmaking now and always makes cards for the family.

These are the ones she made for my birthday and our wedding anniversary last month.

The pink hearts card is one that Mick asked her to make for him to send to me for my birthday. Not sure that he's paid her for it yet!

Faith's birthday card

I made this card as soon as we came home from holiday as Faith's birthday is in the 2nd week of september.
The image is a stamp from from Paper Nation which has been coloured using polychromos and sansodor. It has been layered up onto lilac card and then onto pink cardstock. Faith's 2 favourite colours. I added a pink organza ribbon to make it even more 'girly' for her. The 'F' and '7' have been cut with my Cuttlebug and the other letters are peel-offs as is the greeting.

Back Home

We've just come back from 2 weeks in Tenerife where we have a timeshare apartment. Sallie met us there for the first week, she travelled from East Midlands while we flew from Birmingham.

We don't normally take many photos as we go there most years just to relax and lie by the pool in the sun.

This year however as we came out of the shopping centre one night we heard music and came across an acrobatic troope performing in the square.

This person managed to keep the pot balanced for what seemed like ages as he tossed it around on his head, shoulders and back.

The strength and balance of this man was amazing as he was handed chair after chair to balance on each other before doing incredible stunts at the top.

We took a walk one day and found a new shopping centre which has a water display with fountains. It was advertised as having a water and light display so we went along on our last night to have a look and were not disapointed.

There was music playing and the coloured lights and water seemed to perform in time to it. Very loud and very colourful and certainly worth a visit when we go back another year. Finally a couple of pics of the 2 of us by the water.

17th August 1974

17th August 1974, that was the day Mick and I were married -34 years ago.

This is the card I have made to give to him on our Anniversary this Sunday.

I used an cream A4 card in a hammered finish. The backing papers are from K & Co, Vines and Dots in peach and citrus. They were cut using the edge of a Fiskars template after being carefully lined up so that the pattern matches. Dufex boards in silver featuring hearts finish the card.

Dufex never shows up well in photos and the light isn't good today so the card looks much brighter in real life.

Think Pink Challenge

The Think Pink Challenge on Bubbly Funk is well underway now, in fact i think we are on challenge 6 already.

If you've not looked at this site yet please click on the link above or the banner at the top of my page to find out what it is all about.

We've been given a theme each week to work to and just dip in and out as the fancy takes us. Entries can be made any time not just the week of the challenge so it really is great if you don't get chance one week to catch up whenever you can.

This is my contribution so far. I have not blogged them as they were done but decided to wait until I had a batch ready to send away.

As the main theme is pink I decided to use up some of my knitting yarn and make this matinee jacket in my favourite pattern. It has turned out a bit peach coloured in the photo but is a bit pinker in real life.

Cute Card Thursday

This week the theme is 'The two of us'
We need to use two of something on our card, it could be 2 people, 2 animals or 1 of each.
This week Nikki from Dewdrop Craftz has very kindly donated a gorgeous stamp. Do pop into the shop and check out the other fantastic stamps they have to offer!

I've not done one of these challenges for a little while now but just happened to have this card ready made for another challenge but as it has not been shown on my blog yet here it is.

The image is Car Couple from Paper Nation, it has been stamped in grey versafine ink and coloured using polychromos for the couple and shimmery watercolour paints for the car. It was stamped onto white card and layered onto a piece of grey textured card.

The main card is a ready embossed one from DCWV called Dragonflower.

The card was originally made for the Think Pink Challenge over on the Bubbly Funk Forum. Do check this out as it is for a really good cause and lots of us on the forum are making things for it.

Cheap stamps

Popped into Lidl today as we had a free flyer through showing rubber stamp sets for only £2.99. Actually they are not too bad for the price. The set has 86 unmounted rubber stamps - all upper case letters, numerals and symbols as well as 40 animals ranging from insects, birds, farm creatures, sea creatures, wild animals and a few dinosaurs. The set also has a small blue pigment stamp pad as well as a pair of tweezers and stamp holders with handles, which I probably won't even try to use. I have some Ez Mount so will try a few on that and see what they are like before I commit to doing them all. I'm sure Faith will love them if the quality isn't up to much but for the price I couldn't just leave them could I!

Cardiff Festival

While Sallie and Pete were here with us over the weekend we went to Cardiff and on saturday managed to see the parade going past the Castle. Sallie and I saw it last year and were amazed at the number of participants and their colourful costumes.

This year there didn't seem to be as many paople taking part but it was still well worth seeing, especially as we had the castle walls as a backdrop.

The Red Dragon radio station were doing an outside broadcast and there was an open air stage with live bands and a fun fair. We just stood around eating burgers, it really was too hot and sunny to do much else.

Usually when you walk through the shopping streets there are a few attractions to look at. This person has been there almost every time and always has a group of onlookers around him. He manages to stand totally still until someone drops a coin for him. Little girls get blown a kiss, older girls get a kiss on the hand and boys get a hand shake.

Sallie decided she would give a coin but instead of kissing her hand he held onto her shopping bag. She was desperate not to let him take it as she had just bought her holiday 'frillies' and bikini.

Anniversary cards

I've been asked by a work friend of my husband to do an Anniversary card for his wife. These are 2 ideas that I have come up with at the moment for him to look at.

This one is on cream card and has the word 'love' randomly stamped all over it in grey Versafine ink. The hearts have been stamped onto smooth cream card and cut out. Both have a seed bead embellishment stitched onto them. The plaque at the bottom is also stamped onto cream card. All the stamps are from the With Love From Me to You Unmounted Rubber Stamp Theme Plate from Elusive Images and are inked with pads from the Brilliance range.

This 2nd one is on white hammered card and uses stamps by Cuddly Buddly and the border from the stamp used for the plaque on the previous card. The images have been stamped onto cream card with grey versafine ink and coloured using shimmery watercolour paints. The sentiment is a gold peel-off.

Garden Fun

Sallie came to spend a couple of days with us at the weekend. The sun shone and everyone was very hot so Fifi's watering can was made good use of. Of course she was the first to cool off in the few inches of water that we managed to get in there.

That did nothing to help cool her down so we all decided to have a water fight. No pictures of that though as I was too busy wetting Sallie and Faith and avoiding the water being thrown at me.

Late this afternoon black clouds came rolling in and brought lots of rain and a few claps of thunder. Mick rushed inside from the lounger and we all stood by the open doors and just watched the rain come down. Faith joked about it being just like the shower so I picked her up and stood her just through the door - I expected screams and a long face but she surprised us by going in the middle of the lawn to sing and dance in the rain. She had a super time as the pictures show.

In the garden

After we came home this afternoon we blowed up the Fifi and the Flowertots 'thing' we bought for Faith a few weeks back. She saw it for the first time last night. We had to blow it up in the kitchen and open both patio doors to get it outside. It took some blowing up I can tell you, even with an electric pump and a manual pump.


Faith loves it and took her colouring things out there right away.

Grandad had to try it as well!

It's supposed to be a ball pool but we parted with all the balls we had when she was a baby so might put some water in it over the next few days.

Chepstow Castle.

We went up to visit family on Tuesday and yesterday we brought our Grandaughter Faith back to spend a few days with us.

Today we went to Chepstow and went to look round the ruins of Chepstow Castle. It really is a massive place and must have been quite something in it's time. It stands right on the banks of the river Wye overlooking England. The river was used to bring food, wine and ale into the Castle, it all being hoisted up from the boats below.

The weather was beautiful and I think Faith was worn out with walking up and down all the steps before we were. She was a bit unsure of some of the stone spiral stairscases, but it was worth the climbs to see the views.

We sat in the grounds outside the Castle and had our lunch and tried to show Faith how to make daisy chains. Grandad's idea of this was to tie the daisies together!

Anniversary card

Just couldn't wait to try my new stamps so I made this card ready for my parents' Wedding Anniversary next month.

I used a pale pink base card. The image has been stamped in versafine ink in grey and coloured using polychromos and sansodor. I cut round it in a crescent shape and layered it up onto a heart pattern dufex board. The sentiment was done on the computer. The stamp is from Cuddly Buddly and is from the hearts and daisies set.

New stamps

On friday evening I ordered 3 sets of stamps from Cuddly Buddly.

They do the cute sort of stamps that I seem to be collecting at the moment. I have a wish list with them but only ordered 3 to try them out before I commit to more.
Well this morning the postman delivered my stamps - how good is that for quick service.

I've already mounted them onto the backing provided and cut them out now I can have a play later.


I would really recommend that you check out their website as they have lots of things on there, not just stamps. You even get free downloads on some things.