Where Does The Time Go!

I can't believe that it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted but between hospital appointments, meetings at work and the mammoth task of trying to tidy up the craft room, the time has flown by.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my second attempt at a metalwork card with you. I was very pleased with how it turned out...what do you think? I used the Walnut Hollow tools and the fab texture sheet for the background and the oak leaves are from the Nature 1 unmounted stamp set. The colour on the foil is from the fantastic alcohol inks (no home should be without them!)


As I said at the beginning, I've been sorting out my craft room. Halfway through I wished that I had never started but I've found things that I had totally forgotten about so it's been worthwhile. I hadn't realised that I'd kept so many little scraps of paper so I finally got around to sorting them out and punching flowers and plant pots out of the small bits. My resolution for the New Year will be to stop keeping so many bits that I'll never use. The plus side is that I now have about 2,000 flowers in every colour you can imagine!

I had my hospital appointment and they confirmed that I will need an operation on my right shoulder and I've been booked in for February 4th to have it done. I'm not a happy bunny as I'll have my arm in a sling for 6 weeks and won't be allowed to use it at all. After that it's many weeks of physiotherapy to get the joint mobile again. I wonder what left handed crafting will be like! I can't go 6 days without getting withdrawal symptoms let alone 6 weeks!

Leonie (Pujol) has started a new craft club about 25 minutes from where I live and had her first meeting last night. It was great, there were some fantastic items that people had brought along with them and you get so much inspiration from seeing them. I can't wait to get started on some new projects (after I've cleared the last corner of my room of course).

We're getting closer by the day to reaching the 50 follower point so that I can hold the draw so watch this space. For more terrific candy you must have a look at Maria's blog and also the Particraft one. There are so many lovely goodies on offer.
Better finish now as I really do want to crack on with finishing my craft room (just so I can go and play). Until next time......keep crafting!

Blog Candy

Back again with more blog candy. This time there is an assortment of goodies and the picture really doesn't do it justice. Anyway, there's 10 sheets of lovely 12x12 papers, a pack of embossed cards and envelopes, lots of 3D stickers, chipboard embellishments, glitter ribbons, Anna Griffin ribbons, a storage caddy, toppers, K&Co letters and packs of Crafty Bitz messages and embellishments. I think that's about it! Anyway, to be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is to become a follower of this blog and leave a comment. If you link my blog to yours then you'll get 2 entries to the draw. As soon as I reach 50 followers I'll draw the winner. I think that explains it!

On to other crafting matters. I've just got hold of the fabulous metal kit from Particraft and had to play with it straight away. After I embossed the aluminium sheet, I covered it with alcohol inks and then rubbed off some of the colour to give it a distressed look. I used Distress Inks to colour the white card and then used Cosmic Shimmer glue to mount it. Not bad for a first attempt and I'm sure I'll get better with practice!

Off to see the surgeon on Friday to see what can be done about my torn shoulder muscle. I'm not looking forward to it as I've got a pretty good idea what he's going to say. I'll keep you posted with what happens!

Just had a very strange request for a special order Christmas card....could I make one with 2 giraffes on it! Luckily I've recently purchased the set of jungle stamps from Particraft so now all I need is inspiration!

Anyway, that's all for today so until next time....keep crafting!

First Canvas

Just wanted to share some piccies of the first canvas I've ever made. I'm really pleased with the results and it was so quick to make (once I'd decided what I was going to do)!
First of all I covered the canvas with Distress Inks. I used Broken China, Dusty Concord and Faded Jeans. I then used the crackle stamp and heat embossed it with Cosmic Shimmer Silver embossing powder. I had some Xmas paper that I loved and tore it then distressed the edges. I glued that onto the canvas and randomly stamped swirls from the Mini Swirls unmounted stamp set around the edge of it. I heat embossed the swirls with the silver again. I had some large letters from K&Co which I used to spell out Xmas and before sticking them onto the canvas, I tied sone silver ribbon around them. To finish, I just added some snowflakes and a ribbon on top. I hope you like it and would love to hear your comments.





Close up detail of one of the letters.



I've been busy making some gift bags as well using my trusty Cricut and have had a lot of fun with those. I do love making cards but it's nice to make other things occassionally.

I'm thinking of having a very special blog candy if I can get up to 50 followers and will announce what will be in it very soon so watch this space!

Until next time....keep crafting!

What a long time away

It seems as though I've been gone for ages and I suppose it was quite a while, nearly 5 weeks. The cruise was great fun and as usual we met some terrific people and saw some fantastic places. The workshops went very well and in total I ran 19 of them and taught 21 projects. The class was evenly split between German and English passengers and they were equally enthusiastic (we even had 2 gentlemen in the class, one of whom made the most fantastic lace). I didn't know I had remembered so much German until I had to use it and I don't think I'll ever forget that doppelseiteklebeband is German for double sided sticky tape!

Some pictures of the workshops on MS Marco Polo.

We must have done well as we've been asked back onto the sister ship "Ocean Countess" for a 6 night Nordic City cruise in May next year. Really looking forward to that as I love Scandinavia and it's beautiful in the Spring.
Of course, that is dependent on what the surgeon says when I see him on November 27th! I am dreading it as I know that surgery is inevitable but I'm scared that it could go wrong and I'll be left worse off than I already am. At least I can still craft, slowly and carefully but if I couldn't do that I don't know how I'd cope.

I'm making a start on the dreaded Christmas shopping in case I get hauled in for surgery before Christmas as I've been told that the recovery time from the op is 3 months.

I will post some piccies of cards I've been making on here but I just wanted to catch you all up. We were a day late getting home as the weather took a turn for the worse when we were due to leave Lisbon and so the captain took the decision to wait 24 hours as it was too dangerous to set sail. It was still quite bumpy but nowhere near as bad as it could have been.

One e-mail I had when we got home was terrific. Clare (the editor of Docrafts magazine) e-mailed to ask if I would like to be the Spotlight on talent feature. I have to design 3 cards using the materials that they supply. Of course, I said I'd be delighted and I should be in the March issue so I'm really excited.

Anyway, must sign off and get on with some more washing!

Until next time.......

It was really hard work and here's the photo that proves it!

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!