October? Really???!

How can it be October already?!?   I don't know about you but here in deepest Sussex I still feel like I am waiting for the summer to arrive!

It's been quite an eventful few months since my last post.  Had to have a major op at the end of July which rendered me out of action for the rest of the 'summer' (tuts in disgust) and whilst I was quite looking forward to the prospect of being housebound for 6 weeks with 'plelnty of rest' (for rest read crafting) it was not quite as appealing as I had expected.  Turns out that the hospital part was the easy bit!  Once home I discovered that aside from the infection which didn't seem to know when it had outstayed it's welcome, I couldn't actually 'sit' for more than a few minutes at a time without being in complete agony and therefore, after several unsuccessful attempts at crafting in bed, finally gave up when I woke up from a nap with a roll of sticky dots stuck to my cheek! 

Still, almost back to normal now (well, as normal as I'll ever be .. snort) and thankfully snuggled back in my craft room away from the wet and windy weather!

After school broke up for the summer and before I was rendered 'craftless', we managed to fit in a family holiday to the US - one of our best ever!  We spent 3 days in Chicago - what a beautiful city - followed by a week in Montana.  WOW!  Spectatular... Breathtaking... Amazing ... all words that I could use to describe the constantly changing landscapes we encountered on our trip, however, none of those seem to even come close enough to do it any real justice.   Maybe this is one truly justifiable use for the word (which I admit is normally like fingernails on a blackboard to me) ... AWESOME!

I am planning to start scrapping the best of the 631 (ahem) photos we took during our trip later this week (can't wait!) but also wanted to share a couple with you here ...

Mammoth Hot Springs - Yellowstone

 





 

One of the many stunning views

 

and of course what trip to Montana and Yellowstone would be complete without spotting a bear!





So in the few weeks that I have been back at my crafting table (ahhh, can you see the smile on my face?), I have been making a few cards from the gorgeous 'Lavender Rose' kit from Kanban ... what do you think?

Oh well, guess it's finally time to give up on summer now... I don't think it's coming ... and go and dig out those woolly jumpers ... brrrrr! 

Stay warm Bloggers!

Bev x

School's Out (well, almost!)

I can't believe that once again the end of the school year is almost upon us - it doesn't seem 5 minutes since we were buying new pencil cases and school bags and I was sewing what seemed like a gazillion name tapes into newly purchased uniform (can't wait to do that all over again ...!).

For some reason, I always seem to end up making the class 'Thank You' card (can't think why ;-)), this year being no exception, so thought I would share the finished result.

I used the 'Color Me Janette' digi stamp from Kenny K (link to site  here ) which I coloured using Promarkers and then added the teacher details on the marker pen to personalise it.  The backing paper is some that I have had in my stash forever ... think it was from DCWV ... and a bit of organza ribbon for a finishing touch.

It appears that it is now customary to contribute to a joint class collection for the teacher's thank you present, which is fine by me, however, things have certainly moved on since Eldest was at school.  Then teacher's gifts were maybe a pot plant, a bunch of flowers or if they were really lucky, a bottle of wine.  Apparently now we are buying a Kindle ...!
Thanks for looking! x

Zelda Fever!

I can't believe that we are into March already and that Spring is finally on it's way, although having said that it seems to have deserted us again for the time being but hopefully only a temporary blip!  Neither can I believe that this week will also see 'Youngest'  turn 10 (or that 'Eldest' will turn 30 in a few months for that matter... eek!)  .... how did that happen?!  Time seems to be flying by so quickly that capturing and preserving all those previous memories is becoming ever more important  ... that reminds me ... must finish that heritage album that I started many moons ago ....!

Anyway, back to Youngest's birthday celebrations ...

As a worshipper of all things Nintendo, he is currently absorbed in the latest Zelda adventure, 'Skyward Sword' and therefore I used this as the theme for his Birthday Card this year.

I managed to find a cool picture of Link by searching for 'Zelda Colouring pages' on the Web.  I have found these to be a great source of images for cards in the past as you can usually find all the latest characters and therefore pretty much guarantee finding something that will fit the bill (last year it was Phineas and Ferb!).  I printed the image of Link onto a piece of white cardstock and coloured in using my Promarkers (don't look too closely at the colouring - not my strong point!).  I then cut it out and mounted on foam pads.  Using cream cardstock for the base card I found a paper from the Once Upon a Time paper stack by DCWV which featured an old stone castle window which was perfect for the look I was trying to achieve.  I mounted this centrally for the background, adding the glittered crown and key die cuts and a strip of ribbon also from this collection.  The lettering and numbers were cut from gold foil card using my Cricut Expression machine. 

Thought I would also include a picture of the fab cake my sister made too!

Pure Elegance!

I still get excited when the postman delivers a parcel (even when I already know what's inside!) and today was no exception. 

I had been waiting for my new Cricut Damask Decor cartridge to arrive since the beginning of last week and so when it dropped on the mat this morning I couldn't wait to have a play.

It is a fabulous cartridge packed with elegant & intricate designs, however, it also allows you to also cut cards, tags and envelopes.  The options and possibilities are endless!  I would recommend investing in the Cricut toolset (or similar) though, as some of the designs are so intricate it can be a bit tricky to get them off the mat without tearing them.  I will definitely be adding this to my wish list!

I created this lovely card in just over 30 minutes (as I am still finding my way around my Expression machine otherwise I am sure it would have been even quicker!), with the card, overlay and envelope all being cut from the same cartridge.  I then added a touch of white organza ribbon and a few jewels .... et voila!

February's Simple Recipe

After while-ing away a very pleasant few hours devouring the latest crafting blogs (now that I have the time!), I decided to have a go at this month's Simple Recipe challenge from UK Scrappers.

The challenge was to create a scrapbook page based on the colours below, adding additional ingredients in the form of buttons, paints and mist (or a variation adapted from your existing stash). 

This immediately appealed to me as I love pink and orange together (yes really!) and would not have thought of using the turquoise as a highlight but it works really well.  
These are the ingredients I gathered together for my recipe:

• Solid colour card stock in red, orange and turquoise
• a gorgeous patterned paper from Anna Griffin that I had been waiting to use on the right project
• some buttons, ribbons and beads 
• fabric flowers
• I don't have any paints or inks at the moment but whilst creating my layout remembered some glimmer chalks that have lain unused for an age and so adopted some artistic licence and used these as a finishing touch to my page! 

    
Now to choose some photos ... I pulled out the packs of holiday photos still waiting to be scrapped and was amazed to find that the majority of last years summer holiday to Cornwall featured those very colour combinations - who knew!
The Anna Griffin paper lent itself very well to cutting around some of the flowers and so I used this as a background on plain white card stock. I then selected my photos, mounting two of them on the solid card and punching a decorative border on each. I decided not to use the fabric flowers as they werent quite the right shade and so cut out spare flowers from the remainder of the decorative paper and used buttons as centres. I added strips of turquoise and pink ribbon, letter stickers for the title and finally after remembering the chalk, some shading as a finishing touch.
Here is the end result ...

Hearts and Flowers

So, now that I find myself 'between contracts' on the work front (and not planning to look for a new one for a while!), I have promised myself I will catch up with some crafting and get to grips with my new Cricut Expression 2 machine. 

I thought I would share some of my designs (and other ramblings!) on a Blog, so here is my first attempt ...

Valentines Card created for my DH.

I am so far restricted to the two pre-loaded cartridges that came with the CE2 (Cricut Alphabet & Cricut Essentials) and so cut one of the heart & swirl designs from the Cricut Alphabet in hot pink cardstock using pink mirri card for the overlay.  I chose a plain white scalloped edged card and used patterned paper and grosgrain ribbon from Anna Griffin.  I finished it off by adding some heart shaped bling to the bottom of the heart and pink diamonte initials in the centre.

Hope you like it!