A COUPLE FOR CHRISTMAS !!!

Sorry for swearing...LOL!!
These were done for a forum Competition 'Buttons & Bows plus a Christmas Tree'

50th & 21st

 These were cards done for a neighbour, I don't get asked to do many cards, so It's always a panic. I actually chose a design of Lorraine's for the 50th as her cards always inspire me. I don't really have much faith in my own I'm afraid.
The 21st was inspired by a video I had seen on YouTube by Kim Burmeister her blog is 'Clearly Inspired', it's called a Flip Flop Card. I had to deliberate over this for a good while as this was for my neighbour's granddaughter and she is not 'Pink & Fluffy'....horror of horrors I can DO 'Pink & Fluffy' ...LOL!!! The papers for this card were out of a daisyd's 8" x 8" pad 'Beacon Hill'
 
 

I'VE BEEN TAGGED !!

I've been tagged by my forum buddy Clare XX
Sorry my answers are late...I was tagged in July...oh! the shame. :-/

What was happening 10 years ago? - I was actually working, my favourite job of all time. I worked in a local Veterinary Practice called Daleside and I was receptionist and did the accounts and ordered the stock. A very bitter sweet sort of job as you can imagine, very joyful times and also times when I went home crying.
I was single and on my own since the break up of my first marriage in 1987, all 3 of my children had left home. So it was just me and possibly 9 cats at that time. I was hugely into cross-stitch and hadn't yet found rubber stamping although I mad cross-stitched cards.


5 things to do today - well it's 4pm so not much of the day left, I have just put my lunch (late) on a plate - vegetable curry, so will enjoy that in a moment,/ I have buried a pigeon this afternoon which I found dead in the garden :( / must make a start on a few birthday cards for this month/ carry on sorting out old card-making magazines and keeping just the bits that are interesting and putting them in files/and finally make sure I watch the drama 'The Children' on ITV


Snacks I like - ice cream, cookies, chocolate, cheese & grapes ,Kettle Chips, olives, oatcakes, more chocolate, houmous...er! I could go on LOL!!

What I would do if I was a millionaire - Buy a house for each of my 3 children and a little cottage for myself with a room to have my craft stuff in. Have my own personal trainer and physiotherapist to sort out my stoopid body....and pay private for the ops I need.

Places I have lived - Chester, Ellesmere Port and Buckley

I now have to tag 5 people so I'm going to pass it on to Paula, Lisa, Mandy, Sarn & Valerie

Blog award

Thank you to Becky Stewart for this fab blog award:





The rules are:




1: The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2: Link the person you received your award from.
3: Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4: Put links of those blogs on yours.
5: Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you've nominated.



So here you go ladies - enjoy your awards:


Valerie
Mandy
Penelope
Michelle
Sarn
Caz
Paula

Have you missed me???

Where has all the time gone.??
My only excuse is I've been down, down, down. Not down under....I wish.
My mojo had briefly gone awol too and my duvet looked more inviting than my craft stool.
Hopefully things are on the up and I can show a few of the cards I have managed to do recently.
I'm afraid though that I have not done any scrapping at all. :(

September is a beautiful month, least of all because I was born in it. :P But I love the gradual turning of the leaves to all the golds and yellows...mellow fruitfullness of Autumn beckons.

The birdsong changes too, gone sadly are the screaming swifts which left much later this year ....on the 21st, only to be happily replaced by the beautiful song of a robin, I haven't seen it yet but will entice it with some mealworms methinks.

We used to have snow....

This is a LO I did with an old photo, which is a bit scratched, of my daughter Tracey in the winter of 1967. Do you too remember the snow we used to have.
It took an age to get a colour of paper to match the very odd colours of the photo. I don't believe I put her in red pants, pink top and blue mitts. :o
I settled for the greeny blue shade of the snow (paper I've had for ages which I think was K and Co) with a little pink glitter card cut with edging scissors to contrast. I used snowflake 'Pop-It' shapes which I covered in Stampendous Ultra Fine Crystal glitter to encircle the focal point of the photo. The ribbons used top and bottom were Anita's stick ribbon with a border top and bottom of Christmas Paper Lace.

Shaped Cards..............

These cards were done for a Forum competition 'Shaped Cards'
The Fan card was done with a rubber stamp by Friends Stamps 'Angie Bhatia' and the small Japanese images are by Clarity Imagina
The screen card was done with a home-made template and a various assortment of stamps and embelishments including Clarity Imagina, Hero Arts, Anna Griffin and K & Co. 'Kim Hodges' papers.
The pyramid was made from another hand-made template and decorated and heat embossed in gold with Egyptian stamped images all from Clarity Imagina
These sort of cards are very difficult to get a good photograph of unless you have some sort of fancy lighting system so hope you just get the general idea of these.
Thanks for looking.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK

That's my baby.....33 today. Have a good one and watch your brain cell tonight. LOL!!

 

50 GOLDEN YEARS.....

For the forum's 'Celebration' theme LO I also found some great old pics of Mum and Dad's Golden Wedding. It was a secret party and the look on their faces throughout the whole evening with each new element of surprise was wonderful to behold.<
 

WooHoo!!

2nd place in our Forum 'Celebration' LO competition has chuffed me no end, because I've only been scrapbooking for a few weeks. I have been scrattin' through boxes and boxes of old photos and found my mum's little album of my sister's wedding and thought them ideal to scrap as a 'Celebration'. Was worried because, of course, they were in black and white but was pleased with the result as I chose to do mainly pink as I remembered that was the colour of my bridesmaids dress. Yes I am the little bridesmaid...aged 9. I remember too that I had a circlet of real freesias on my head and tiny lace gloves

Sweet Memories

Boy, once you start scrapbooking there is no holding back.
I have been sifting through albums and boxes of old photos looking for something or other to keep my mojo afloat....and it's not hard with the amount I've got, added to those all my mums too.
Came up with this for a given sketch LO on the forum
Would you believe I thought I was fat then, I would give my right arm to look like that now. What are we like?....don't answer that. LOL!!

It's been a while.....

since my last post but I have been busy here are 3 cards for rhe Forum Challenges, 2 for the challenge 'Flowers'
and the other is for the challenge 'Got Your Number'
I have done 2 LO's which are for a forum competition at the end of the month so watch this space.

Happy Stampers Northwest

Had a wonderful few hours at this venue in Port Sunlight on saturday.
This was the Spring one and there is another one in October. It is ticket only £2 and I wouldn't miss it for the world. Even though it was hotter than ever...phew!!! I managed 2 hours with a sit down and a cuppa in the middle to recharge the batteries.
Brilliant to see Barbara Santerelli of Clarity Imagina Stamps, I love to see her work she is so vivacious and full of enthusiasm, but the stamp I wanted was sold out 'Feminine' :(
I did manage to spent a little cash, although the flow isn't what it was before I retired.
The large flower and sentiment are by Penny Black and the small flower is by Great Impressions and will be brilliant to use in scalloped circles with a sentiment inside.
Couldn't find any Hero Arts stamps that I wanted and no 12" x 12" paper at all. :(
But I have enough new stash to play with and have some ideas up my sleeve which I must get onto card....so watch this space! :)

Pink, plus.........

These were for a forum competition where the cards had to be pink plus additions of vellum, peel-offs and brads. Points being awarded for each element.
This really meant digging out old stash i.e. vellum and peel-offs lol.

May Bank Holiday

Well I hope you have all enjoyed yours, I spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday with my 2 sons Barney and Nick and their girlfriends Elen & Laura. We went for a pub lunch to the Cherry Orchard and I can whole-heartedly recommend this place. A great time was spent catching up and getting the banter on, haven't laughed so much in an age. Then it was back to Barney & Elens for coffee and snooker. C'mon on Ali !!!
So today I thought I better get some crafting done and have managed to cobble together my 1st ever double page LO. This was set as a challenge by Kerrie on the forum.
Wasn't too sunny for taking the pics today but I am happy with the result. And it just goes to prove that the humble dandelion can certainly hold it's own against the hybrid blouseyness of the pansies and tulips.
I definately I think I need an alpha for my 'bug' as I'm really scratting now for enough letters in any other format that I have to hand.

Black & White with a splash of colour

This was our forums' 4th April challenge.
The scalloped tag I made with a 2 1/2"punch and used my Hero Arts circle of dots stamp and an Elzybells sentiment.
Dotty paper is HOTP.
Please note that the marks on the black card are on the glass of my scanner which I really must clean for shame's sake.

I've Been Tagged......

By KERRIE
Ooo!! er!!! this is a first. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end. Well, here goes.
1. If a movie was being made of your life who would you like to be cast to play yourself? And why?
Pauline Collins because she is exactly the same age as me to the day and in 'Shirley Valentine' she was superb and that is sooooo me, down to the 'stretch marks' and the way she deals with what life throws at her.
2. You are spending a whole month on a desert island for charity and you have to choose your favourite celebrity to spend the first two weeks with & your least favourite celebrity to spend the second two weeks with, who would they be & why?
Favourite:Alan Titchmarsh, because I'd be bored and we could go plant hunting together....yes, plant hunting. And we could make a garden and chat about his books. I am such a good girl.
Least Favourite: Gordan Ramsey, well got to have someone there to do the cooking and I can teach him how to curb his foul mouth. I can drool over his rugged good looks but when he opens his mouth he is apalling, so he could do with a few lessons in manners.
3. What are your three favourite crafting products?
My Guillotine, although I could do with a new one.
My 'bug'....thanks girls.
Versafine black ink pad.
4. If you could invent something to do anything what do you think it would be?
A huge wind machine that blows the clouds away every day but sucks them back at night to rain on the gardens.
5. What are the last three books that you read?
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Wogan's Twelve by Terry Wogan
My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson
6. QVC or create & Craft?
Used to buy a lot off QVC and it got me started on rubber stamping, but not any more, far too expensive. I do not like Create and Craft presenters.
7. Docrafts or Dovecraft or DCWV?
DCVW
8. What is your claim to fame?
I stood Russell Roberts (Russ Abbot) up on a date.
I am mentioned in a book -'Ifs, Buts and Definate Maybes' by Jeff Baker
I'm passing this on to:

Valerie
Mandy
Becky
Kerryn
Lisa

Cousins.....

Well this has taken me all afternoon...phew!! why do I get so in a mess doing LO's. My bedroom looks like a battleground and goodness knows where I will sleep tonight LOL!! The cats have been demoted to the garden.
Well as you know this is my 3rd LO and is courtesy of the forum challenge which gives a set LO map each week. I think I'm missing one though.
The card is Bazzill, the paper is HOTP 20228 'Light Blue Flowers On Blue' , the chipboard letters are QVC but I got them off eBay for peanuts.
All other embellishments from my stash.