And the winner is.....

I'm really sorry I couldn't draw the name last night but our computer had to go to computer hospital. It's back in fully functioning now so at last, the result of the blog candy draw.....and the winner is......
......
....
Drum roll please!
HILARY
If you'd like to e-mail me your address I'll get the stamps in the post to you. My e-mail is:
stephen.smith870@ntlworld.com
I'll try to do it today but if I don't manage it I'm afraid that it'll have to be after the cruise (again, many apologies)
Onto other matters...
My shoulder is worse than I thought. I've competely torn the muscle and it'll require an operation to fix it. I think that Steve Backley had to have the same op but I can promise you I haven't been throwing any javelins!
My poor ancient old dog, Tessa, had to be put to sleep last Wednesday. She was 18 1/2 years old and I'd had her for 17 years after getting her from an animal rescue centre. I really miss her and still look for her every morning when I get up. She was in so much pain that evening that I had no choice. The vet did offer to give her a pain killer but pointed out that it would only be effective for 2 days and so was just delaying the inevitable. I know that she lived a very long life but I still feel a bit of a heel taking her to the vets when I knew what the outcome would be. She was so trusting and would have gone wherever I wanted her to. I don't think that I would want another dog for a long, long time.
On a lighter note, we're off on the cruise tomorrow so I won't be blogging for a month unless we can find a Wi-fi hook up. Until I get back take care and keep crafting!

What a Month!

Well, a quick change to all of my plans! Four days after we got back from the cruise our agent phoned and asked us if we could work on the good ship "Marco Polo" sailing from Tilbury on October 6th. As it's a 32 night cruise to the Caribbean and back it would be rude to turn it down! The downside is that there are 18 sea days and I have to run a workshop on each day. Actually, that isn't the downside as I love teaching cardmaking. No, the downside is that I have had to come up with 18 projects that didn't involve a craft knife (you can never be too sure about the weather...could be choppy in more ways than one) or rubber stamping. Once the projects have been decided on, I then have to make up 50 packs of each project. Now I may not have been too good at maths when I was at school but by my reckoning that's 900 packs! The good news is that I have finished them!!!! After 8 days of stamping numerous images and cutting bits of card to size they are now all packed away and all of the sample cards are made. If anyone on the ship says that I only work an hour a day I might get tetchy! I must say a huge thank-you to Michelle and Lynsay who have kindly agreed to take over the demo and workshop that I had booked for October. It really is very kind of them as I hate letting anyone down.

One of the projects for the next cruise.

The other change of plan is the date of the blog candy draw. I will now be drawing the name out of the hat on October 4th so that I can get the stamps in the post before we go away.

It's goint to be a busy couple of weeks before we go as I'm off to Ally Pally this weekend (hope to see some of you there..do come over to the Particraft stand and introduce yourselves) and I'm now making up some samples. The following weekend I'm off to Wallingford in Oxfordshire to demo for a day so I need to put together some make and takes for that. The wierd thing is that when my daughter asked me if I had had enough of cardmaking I could honestly answer that I hadn't!

On top of all of this we have been having computer problems and have had to completely reset the whole shooting match. I seem to have lost everyone's photo's that were on here as followers. I apologise and can only say that I didn't do it!

On the medical front I have now had my MRI scan with the aid of a fairly hefty dose of tranquilliser! I should get the results on October 1st and I'm hoping that I haven't torn the muscle as I really don't fancy the operation.

One last thing before I go...have you had a look at the Particraft blog? Sue is offering some amazing candy so it's well worth popping over there.

Next Blog Candy Draw

As it's my birthday next month I've decided to have another blog candy draw.

This is a great set of stamps made by Creative Expressions which Sue Wilson has demo'd on Ideal World and Create and Craft. They're a lot of fun and the toadstool is useful for fairy cards as well. The snail is my favourite...very cute...reminds me of "The Magic Roundabout"!

Anyway, to take part the same rules apply as last time. Leave a message in the comments section and for a double chance of winning, link my blog to yours. I'm going to close the draw at 9pm on October 7th and draw the winner at 9am on October 8th.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the last one and hope to see you back for this one!

Onto other matters, I now have a new date for my MRI scan (17th September) and hopefully, with the aid of some fairly strong tranquillisers, I'll be able to go through with it this time! Saw the GP today and she has signed me off work for another 2 months. I'm going to be soooo popular, still, can't be helped.

Well, must get going as Christmas cards don't make themselves and it's taking me twice as long to do them at the moment!

Until next time...keep crafting!

And the Winner Is...

Wait for it....

Firstly, many thanks for taking part in my first blog candy draw and wading through my ramblings!

Now onto the important part.......

The winner of the blog candy is......

Drum Roll please........

Shell

Congratulations and please e-mail your address to stephen.smith870@ntlworld.com and I'll get the stamp set in the post to you. I hope you have as much fun with them as I've had with my set.

The good news is that I'm planning another blog candy so watch this space over the next few days.

Once again, many thanks to everyone who took part.

Until next time.....

I'm Home!

The children's table at the craft class (and some who weren't children!)

Craft class on the "Balmoral"

Well, that was another great cruise although far too short! I only got to teach 2 workshops and I would have liked to do more but there weren't anymore sea days! The weather wasn't too good but the ports we called into were lovely.

As you can see by the photo's there was quite a wide age range that attended...the youngest was 3 and the oldest was a lady in her 80's! There were 38 people in the class and so it was a bit hectic but Steve was a hero (as usual) and ran around helping everyone.

One of my favourite trips was to Monet's house and gardens in Giverny. It had poured with rain all morning and when we arrived at the gardens in the middle of the afternoon, the sun came out and the light was spectacular.

I was amazed at how well the photo's of the gardens came out!

I'm thinking of turning them into cards!

Anyway, see what you think. I'll add a few more next time.

Don't forget that the draw for the blog candy will take place tomorrow at 9pm and I'll put the winner's name up on Tuesday morning.

Until next time....keep crafting!

Last Post!

Don't panic...it's only the last one before I go away on the cruise! I thought I'd give a preview of the 2 projects that I'll be teaching on the good ship Balmoral. It's such a shame that we have a time limit on the classes as it means I can't really teach everything that I would like to. The main aim is to make sure that everyone goes away with a completed project that will hopefully give them ideas for things to do when they get home. The majority of passengers who come to the workshops are complete novices and I do get such a buzz when they have told me before the class that they won't be able to do it and then they see the finished results. I hope that I have been responsible for several new addicts!






The first project is the gift card pocket. It's a lovely simple idea but can be made for so many different occassions. You don't want to know how many paper flowers I punched for that one!


The 2nd one is a Popcorn the Bear Pyrimage card. Again, it's nice and easy but looks very effective. I'd really like to do some rubber stamping with them but I'd need 40 of the same stamp and heat embossing with my 3 heat guns would take forever! I'm hoping to start a craft club in the Dover area in the next few months so I'll be able to do all of that with the club. If anyone lives in the area perhaps they'd like to contact me and we can sort out a start date. I'm really waiting for my "shed" to be built at the bottom of the garden. My wonderful hubby (who I adore!) has said that I can have a cabin for my crafting. I've seen the one I want and we've been very busy clearing the patch at the bottom of the garden where it will go. It's 5x4meters so it will have enough room to run classes. I'm so excited and keep drawing up plans in my head for where everything will go. At the moment I'm working in the single bedroom and it's quite a squeeze as it's an attic room so doesn't have many walls that are over 3feet! I'll let you know how I get on with it. We've had an eye watering estimate but Steve has still said that I can have one...told you he was wonderful!





Thought I would leave you with this card. I know, it's still August and it's a Christmas card but we have to make a start! I've used the tree from Sheena's Create-a-Scene set of Xmas stamps and the message is from one of the A4 unmounted Xmas stamp sets. They've been stamped onto green Bazzill cardstock with a Perfect Medium stamp pad and then heat embossed with the Cosmic Shimmer Bright Gold embossing powder. The paper is from K&Co. Other than that it's just some matting and layering with gold Mirri card and a bow for the final touch.
If anyone would like a template for the gift card envelope, let me know and I'll send you one. I would e-mail it but the scanner isn't too happy at the moment! There's also still time to enter the blog candy draw which takes place on September 7th.
Until next time, happy crafting and thank you for reading the ramblings of a slightly demented crafter!

Medical Update

What a disaster. In spite of the fact that I have already had an MRI scan in the past so knew what to expect, I managed to have a massive panic attack and had to be pulled out of the scanner. I felt such a twit but the radiographers were very kind and told me that it happens quite often so they're used to it. I now have to go to see the GP for some tranquillisers so that I can try again. The appointment with the Occupational Health doctor this morning wasn't much better. He gave me a quick once over and declared that I would probably need an operation on the shoulder (which would be very painful because of all the nerve endings there) and might not be fit to return to my job for 15 months. I don't think there was any need for him to have sounded quite as cheerful when he was telling me about the pain!
Oh well, mustn't grumble...I probably will though!
On the brighter side of things at least I have the cruise to look forward to. We leave on Monday for 5 nights to Ireland and back. It's a good job that I made up the teaching packs a while ago, I'm not sure that I could manage cutting up 80 of everything. We're going to be making a gift card pocket. I learned how to do it a few months ago at a workshop and it's a great idea. We'll also be making a Pyrimage card, they're quite easy but do look effective and we're always against the clock. I'd love to be able to teach rubber stamping on there but with 40 in a class, it would be impossible. I'll try to remember to take some piccies of the workshops to put on here when we get back.



I had terrific fun making this card. I'd been playing with my gimmer mists making backgrounds and didn't want to waste what was on the craft mat so I got a piece of glossy card and just mopped up what was on there after sprizting it with a bit of water. I used the gold glimmer mist over the top when it was dry and then stamped the trees and stars from the Stylish Christmas set 3 unmounted stamp set with Perfect Medium and used Cosmic Shimmer Bright Gold Embossing Powder. After that it was just a quick job to mat and layer onto a card blank and add a message. I wish that the photo could pick up the sparkle in the background. If you go to the photo gallery on the Particraft website you can enlarge the photo and see the detail much better. Just tried it on here and you can enlarge the photo by clicking on it...doh!
Well, I'm off now as I have another card to finish and want to get it onto the gallery before I go away.
Hope to see some of you at Ally Pally...pop over to the Particraft stand and say hello. There'll be some of the demonstrators there and we'll only get lonely if you don't come over!
Also, don't forget that there's still time to enter the draw for the blog candy. Just scroll down until you come to the post with the details on. There's a photo of the candy and though I say it myself, they're a great set of stamps.
Until next time...keep crafting!