Memos, Mail, Me on a Monday - errrr except it is now Tuesday

Whoops I didn't get here yesterday to join in with Sian's Me on Monday.  I do have a note from my Mum though LOL - I spent yesterday in hospital waiting rooms with her whilst she had more intra-ocular injections done and they found that she has another problem in her good eye.  It was also Dad's birthday yesterday but as we knew we were going to be at the hospital we went out with them on Friday to celebrate early.

It was a good weekend but one of those weekends when I just forgot to take any photographs.  We spent the day in town on Friday and had a birthday lunch with Dad.  Then on Saturday I had my monthly crop - a productive day with another two layouts finished from the 'to be finished' pile and another two layouts done from scratch plus a third one started.  Sunday was a lovely lazy day filled with bacon sandwiches, roast dinner, Prosecco and card making.

It has been a pretty quiet week mail wise apart from this lovely package -

This is the problem when you join the WI craft group and start learning new crafts - at our meeting last month we did some silk ribbon embroidery - I will shortly be making this into a card and of course I need more supplies and a book to help me do more!!

It was Dad's birthday yesterday and this is the card that I made for him -

The image is a new stamp from Stamping Bella called Calvin Loves His Computer and the papers are leftovers from a class kit, I think they are Echo Park 'Happy Days'.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

I also gave him this card with his birthday money in - we made it last weekend as one of the Stampin' Up make and takes at the retreat.

Right I had better pop over and see Sian at From High in the Sky and make my apologies for being late LOL!!  Hope you have a great week everyone!!

Happy New Year

I did very little crafting over the Christmas/New Year period as I was just feeling so blah, but I did get one of my new Christmas sets inky to make these New Year cards.

I used Stampin' Up 'Frosted Medallions' and Pool Party ink and cardstock.

The sentiment is from SU 'Good Greetings' set and heat embossed in silver.  The stars were punched from silver glitter cardstock with a EK Success border punch and the silver thread is from my stash.

Blogtober Day 26 - Beat the Christmas Rush - the October Edition

I need to up my production rate of cards the closer we get to December as I still have one more fundraiser to do plus I have my own cards to send.  So I made 10 cards for this month's edition.

I used a lovely doily die from Penny Black and mounted a snowman from Stampin' Up set 'Snow Place' on top of it, the little santa hat is also from that stamp and die set.

The little white peel off sentiments are from Woodware and the sequins are from my stash.

If you would like to join in with Beat the Christmas Rush please leave a link to your blog post below -

Blogtober Day 22 - Gorgeous Grunge meets Papillon Potpourri

At the beginning of the year I went to the Littlegreen Crop retreat which was held at a lovely hotel on the outskirts of Arundel.  One of the make and takes was this lovely card using Stampin' Up goodies.

When I got home I decided to make some more in different colour combos.

These use Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Wisteria Wonder and Blackberry Bliss

And Tip Top Taupe, Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron and Watermelon Wonder

And Smoky Slate, Basic Grey, Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay

The stamps used are Gorgeous Grunge and Papillon Potpourri with a mini flower punch and the butterfly punch that co-ordinates with the stamps.  All the greetings are from Personal Impressions. These are great cards when you need a quick batch in a hurry - thank you Sarah for the inspiration.

Blogtober Day 17 - Memorandum Monday

It is still Monday so time to link up with Sian over at From High in the Sky to share about the weekend.

It was a bitty weekend, apart from one plan we had nothing much organised so we did a bit of this and a bit of that - the weather was bitty too, one minute lashing down with rain, the next it was blue skies and sunshine - it couldn't make up it's mind what to do!!

The highlight of the weekend was going with my Mum to the cinema to see the 25th anniversary show of Miss Saigon - it was one of those one off live theatre screenings and our first time of seeing one.  I was very impressed, it did have the feel of being at the theatre, we were even given a programme on the door instead of the usual 'ugg' that you get from the teen doing the door.  There was an interval and everyone clapped and cheered at the end, just as if we were at the theatre.  The camera work was stunning, you would never see it that close up even if you were in the front row.  I saw Miss Saigon 24 years ago when it was just over a year into its West End run - it reduced me to a blubbering mess then and it still does!!

Today we went over to Rye to visit an uncle who is in respite care at the cottage hospital there.  As hospital visits go it was really good.  Uncle was very chirpy and chatty and before we knew it, four hours had flown by.  Hopefully he will be able to get home soon.  A quick pub stop for a meal on the way home and that was basically the day gone.

It was also a weekend of no photographs, so rather than leave this blog post photoless I will share a baby card that I made last week.

The bear stamp is a new one from Stampin' Up and is a three step stamp - I used Mint Macaron (stamped off once), Pool Party and Bermuda Bay.  The background was embossed with a SU embossing folder and the sentiment is from the bear stamp set.

Don't forget to go and give a wave to Sian if you have shared about your weekend.  And if you want to see what the other Blogtober peeps are up to, then check out Sy's blog

Blogtober Day 15 - Gorgeous Grunge Birthday

Last year for Beat the Christmas Rush I made these cards and at the same time I made some Birthday cards on the same theme.

The stamped background is made using stamps from Stampin' Up 'Gorgeous Grunge' and the flowers are punched using SU flower punches.

Colours used are Blushing Bride, Smoky Slate and Melon Mambo

The sentiment is from SU 'Sassy Salutations'

The butterfly punch is by Martha Stewart

The other colour combo was Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight and Bermuda Bay

Blogtober 2016

A huge thank you to Sy from KarmaCraftBlog who is going to host Blogtober for me this year - it is a huge weight lifted from my shoulders.   Go check out her blog to see what you have to do to take part.  The idea is to get blogging more regularly, in the past we have blogged every day for a whole month but this year you can set your own goal of what you would like to do.  So I am going to pledge to blog a minimum of four times a week - they will probably be just very quick, snappy posts but better than my blog being totally neglected for weeks at a time!!  If you are interested then leave your blog address in the linky on Sy's Blogtober post

So whilst I am here I might as well share a card I made recently for a friend's 60th Birthday.  I was playing with new stamps and dies from Stampin' Up and managed to get two new stamp sets and two new dies sets onto one card.

The ink colours used are Mint Macaron, Dapper Denim and Flirty Flamingo.  The flowers and leaves are a new set called Penned and Painted, I love them - they are really easy to use to get a layered look to the flowers and are very easy to cut out if you use the outline stamp.  The numbers are a stamp and die set and the lacy background is a new Sizzix thinlet die set from Stampin' Up.  Fingers crossed I will make it back here for the 1st October!!

Beat the Christmas Rush - June Edition

Well that last month disappeared in the blink of an eye, can't believe it is time to share another batch of Christmas cards.

I delved into the bag of shame again (where I keep my new but unused stamps and dies) and found a lovely stamp and die set from Stampin' Up - Snow Place.  I just didn't get time last year to use them, but I am glad I have now used them, they are so lovely.

 I embossed the background (with a SU embossing folder) onto Pool Party cardstock.  The speech bubble and sentiment are also from Stampin' Up.

I then went round the outside of the background with Stardust Stickles to add a bit of sparkle.

If you would like to join in then all you have to do is make some Christmas cards and share them on your blog (put a link in the linky tool below)

Beat the Christmas Rush - the March edition

A little bit late but here are my cards for Beat the Christmas Rush - if you would like to join in and get organised for Christmas by having a nice stack of cards made ahead, then feel free to join in.  All you have to do is make a few cards (I aim for at least five cards each month) and then link them here so that everyone can take a look and we can share inspiration.

For this month's cards I used a die that I bought last year and to my shame never got round to using.  I am so glad that I have now dug it out and used it as it is lovely and I will definitely be making more cards using it - I am thinking blue and silver for my next cards.

The dies are Thinlets by Stampin' Up and are called Delicate Ornaments, there is also a matching set of stamps that I haven't used yet - maybe I will use those next month!!

The papers are some that came free with a magazine and should have been for making Christmas Crackers with, but they are perfect for cards.  The top layer is cut with SU Cherry Cobbler and the bottom layer is various gold and mirri cardstock from my stash.

The sentiment is by Lili of the Valley and the bows are ones that I have rescued from shop bought cards.

I can't add a linky tool at the moment so if you do join in please leave a comment and I will come and see what cards you have made.

Easter Cards - part 3

And some more Easter cards from me (I don't usually make this many but I needed a lot this year for my fundraiser the other week).

For these I used an Easter cross stamp from Stamping All Day.

The sentiments are a mixture of Pink Petticoat, Woodware and Stamps Away.  The flower punches are all from Stampin' Up.

I only made four of these as I was running out of time but wished I had made more as I sold these four straight away.  I'm not sure who the sentiment is by as I got it one year at Ally Pally - it was from one of those stalls with boxes and boxes of unmounted stamps and you had to wade through them all with a mirror to find the sentiment that you wanted - I seem to remember that Wendy and Sy really helped me that day to find Easter sentiments.  The flowers decorating the cards are a new stamp from Stampin' Up called 'Grateful Bunch' and it comes with a co-ordinating punch for three different sized daisies.

And if you are wondering where Beat the Christmas Rush has got to this month - don't worry, I have a blog post planned for the 30th - I wanted to get Easter out of the way before posting Christmas stuff!!

Blogtober 2015 Day 28 - Watercolour Wishes Thank you cards

I have found some thank you cards that I forgot to share when I did my mini series on thank yous.

These are made with Stampin' Up Watercolour Wishes Card kit - great for making very quick and easy cards and after the kit has been used you are left with a lovely set of sentiment stamps that you can use over and over.  I did actually buy the kit as it was the only way to get the sentiment stamps!!

Blogtober 2015 Day 25 - Beat the Christmas Rush (And SIPIDI)

It is the 25th of the month so time to share my Beat the Christmas Rush cards.  I am also joining in with Fiona's SIPIDI (see it, pin it, do it) challenge.  This is the pin that I have used for inspiration.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up 'Oh What Fun' and I used Stampin' Up colours Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler and Crumbcake.

The flowers were two different Stampin' Up punches and the bling is from Majorcrafts.  The background stamps are all from Gorgeous Grunge (SU)

I also made some in a different colourway - Bermuda Bay, Smoky Slate and Mint Macaron.

Thank you to Sarah and Wendy for taking part last month, if you would like to join in, just make some Christmas cards and add your link below.