About Me

My photo
WELCOME to my little arty world! Trying to make art is a huge part of my life ... love nothing more than messing around with inks and sprays and generally making a mess!

Wednesday 21 December 2011

WOYWW 133

Nothing on my workdesk YET ... fully plan on starting on my list of cards for 2012 and as the first birthday is on 3rd Jan I need to get going!
So all I can post for today's WOYWW is hubby's Christmas card.  The pine-cone die for my Vagabond finally arrived (shame on you Royal Mail!!!) but, of course, simply "running it through the Vagabond" does not necessarily mean I could then make the bloomin' things!  Severely burnt fingers from the glue-gun and a few missing "petals" from the cones but I managed to make three that were kinda, sorta ok and not too bad once covered in brown sparkles!  Is it called  Sparkles?  I don't think it is ... oh, silly Debbie - it's Stickles!

Friday 9 December 2011

WOYWW131 ... but they were made on Thursday!

At last I can post a photo' of this weeks WOYWW!!!!  Not quite finished but getting there!!!!

Thursday 8 December 2011

Better late ...

What is it they say about the best laid plans of mice and men ... or, in my case, a crafter-sewer-quizzer??? Just ran out of time yesterday to craft but did manage to get the last little bit of sewing done ...well, apart from now having - NO! - wanting - to sew one final little item for my sister.  She saw the stuff I'd done and announced "I want one of those" pointing to something ear-marked for someone else!!!! So, now I want to sew her one of course.  I will but not until I've done this crafting.
Am still battling with Royal Mail & the craft company I ordered the Tim Holtz pine-cone die from ... spent 20 mins yesterday listening to a robot on a recording telling me to "press 1", "press 2" etc., and wasn't able to actually get hold of a human but I just Emailed the craft company to say it pretty much looks like the recorded delivery item is lost and I NEED another one sending out URGENTLY.  
Well, here is my WOWYY photo ... a day late but perhaps better than never at all.  It shows a complete and utter mess as I just dragged my stuff into the dining room as it is far too cold to craft out in the conservatory which is where I prefer to work.  Now bear in mind I am a "neat-crafter" so this is currently "doing-my-head-in" ... need to get it sorted and organised before I can start!
So got my Michael Buble CD playing, have had my porridge, the heating just came on so I am set to spend the day with the FaNtAsTiC Mr. Holtz and will have stained and inky fingers by tonight ... bliss!!!!!!!
And if my pine-cone die never turns up then it will all have been a waste of time because I can't think what to do instead!

Wednesday 7 December 2011

WOYWW 131

Er, so where did last week go then?  It was Thursday before I realised I'd missed Wednesday so whilst I have no photo' to post YET at least I know what day of the week it is and am getting ready to WOYWW!!!!!
At least that's the plan.  I PROMISE I will post a photo' later as I fully plan on Tim Holtz'ing today just as soon as the postman brings my parcel!!!!!  It was sent recorded delivery on Thursday from a company and I am still waiting!  I was ordering stuff from the regular company that I use but they were out of stock of the gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous pine cone die for the Vagabond so after much searching I found one company that had some in stock.  Needless to say the parcel from my regular company (Country View Crafts) arrived the next day but the one sent recorded delivery remains in residence with our delightful Royal Mail service (who are, quite, quite hopeless at times!)
Sooooo, I shall make a start on hubby's card in anticipation of the die arriving ... might have to go to Plan B should it prove to be lost but am not moving from here until I have finished some sewing and, if all else fails, then I shall post a photo' of that!

Wednesday 23 November 2011

WOYWW

Well the papercrafting mojo is still firmly shut in the box so I've utilised the time to sew, sew, sew and I think I've just about won Round One!!!!!
I make loads of these each year and sew the Cash's embroidered labels on the back which are always the same so no matter what designs I do the date labels are always the same! 
Am just starting on Round Two but am feeling much less stressed ... do need to still tackle a couple of cards for family but I'll get there eventually.
So this is not really my worktable today but the produce of what has been my worktable this past week or so!




This last one will be framed and sent to Australia to match one of *s*n*o*w*f*l*a*k*e*s* I did last year for my neice (I'm not really her Auntie but she does insist on calling herself my neice ... but that's just fine by me!!!!!)

Sunday 13 November 2011

Progress of sorts

OK ... so those five little tree-hanging-thingies ARE finished and nestling in the box with a few others I managed to sew whilst having our annual Autumnal Highland Adventure ... and have now started on another batch of five ... really cute little polar bears for the nephew's girlfriends (well, four of them are and I forget for whom I have ear-marked the other one!) but the papers and bits'n'bobs for the "special" family and friends cards have started to go psssst to me.  Having said that nephew-number-four's girlfriends card has been going psssst to me for a couple of weeks now and time is running out so must, must, MUST get that one done as a priority.
Will post photo's of the finished tree-hanging-thingies but they have yet to be cut out, backed with felt onto which I have sewn a "Christmas 2011" embroidered label (which I buy each year from Cash's) and have a ribbon hanging loop attached.
Goodness knows where all this psssst'ing will take me in the morning but I am hopeful I will achieve something or other.
Watch this space!

Friday 11 November 2011

Two steps forward ...

... and then several backwards.  Or at least that is how it feels.  STILL have five half-finished projects in front of me despite several promises of "not going to bed tonight until these are finished" etc., or "these WILL be done before hubby gets home".  Unfortunately this is not taking into account the many distractions of blogging, Facebooking, quizzing, Christmas shopping, calls of nature and having to eat lunch, needing a mid-afternoon nap because you were up too late sewing, daddy calling with jam tarts and needing coffee to go with them.
SOooooo am moving the goal-posts again and saying right here, right now that these five little tree-hanging-thingies WILL be done before I go to bed tonight.  Really they will. Honest.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

WOYWW 127

SLR = Stress Levels Rising!!!!!
Oh the joy of having too much time on your hands is you never have enough time to do all you want. 
The box on my worktable contains all my Christmas crafting inspiration and mojo ... well, it must be in there because it sure as heck isn't in me right now!  To be fair I have been sewing, sewing, sewing into the wee small hours but really do need to teach my hands how to do different things at the same time ... thought us women were supposed to be able to multi-task - Oh, that doesn't mean sewing with my left hand whilst crafting with my right then? 

Am planning on spending today getting as far as I can with the old sewing ... I changed tack and instead of completing one little tree-hanging-thingy and then doing another I have five on the go stitching all the red on each one and then all the green and then all the purple etc., but that could well just mean I have five half-finished three-hanging-thingies rather than one or two complete ones ... time will tell, I guess.
Speaking of time, must crack on ... think I have just managed to put Julia's blog on my list so I don't have to access it through MAGGIEC's blog each time and now need to see if I can add myself to the WOYWW page for this week ... failed miserably last week and Maggie did it for me!  Here's hoping!  X

Thursday 3 November 2011

I did my best!

Well, I did my best yesterday popping along to as many blogs as I could but soon ran out of time and was struggling a bit.  I will do some more today and hope for the best.  I even got up an hour early this morning to try and catch up a bit. 
Fascinating seeing where everyone does their crafting ... what an excuse to be nosey!

Wednesday 2 November 2011

WOYWW 126

Ok ... if all goes to plan this should be my first WOYWW!!!! Am following MaggieC's instructions to the letter so here goes ...

Okay, so they have posted in the wrong order but never mind! 

Was really excited when I saw the Christmas stuff from Bo Bunny but have not yet really been inspired to do this year's family cards ... am hoping something will fall into place today ... once I am done with blogging, of course!                                                                     

I have a wonderful huge table in our conservatory (except we don't call it a conservatory but "The Hut") and on the one wall I have two floor to ceiling cupboards ... one for crafting and the other for sewing except, er, my crafting stuff has kinda spilled over into my sewing cupboard!

I need more TIME!!!!

You know, considering I am a "lady of leisure" I have been rushed off my feet with no time to blog!  Even my darling little Farmville (Facebook) farm suffered and I lost an entire crop of jalopeno peppers!
I am absolutely determined to keep up my blog if only to act as a record of my crafting ... posting those rather old melting pot card photo's I realised how few photo's I have taken of stuff I have made and how your work changes and evolves over the years ... I certainly wouldn't make cards like that now - well, the melting pot bits would be pretty much the same but, oh dear, those backgrounds are simply awful!!!
I'm starting to get very stressed about everything I'd like to get done for Christmas ... I ran out of time last year to do all I wanted and this year looks like going the same way ... there are simply not enough hours in the day during which I can managed to keep my eyes open long enough to produce everything I have planned.  Am on point of having a rethink and deciding what I can "let-go" without beating myself up too much and feeling a complete failure.
Am hoping to make my first WOYWW post later ... once I understand what I should be posting where and what I should be doing!

Below are some of my most favourite Christmas cards I ever made ... they were made from "greyboard" and covered in Wassail papers (I think from Basic Grey) and I used heavy cotton lace and garden string and I enjoyed every moment spent making them.  If people would not get bored receiving the same style of card again I'd happily make more like this.






Friday 28 October 2011

Melting Pot cards

Whilst looking for some other photo's I came across these.  I LOVE playing around with my melting pot and these were some very early attempts ... the backgrounds of my cards have changed now as I no longer use peel-offs but the melted bits are much of a muchness.






Meagre offerings

Todays offerings must be short as I have 301 things to do today ... ok, maybe not quite that many but from here it feels like it!

Made a little start on family cards but am not happy with them ... rushed them and they are not really my style so will have to talk myself around that they will do the job and to non-crafters they are "only" a Christmas card and promise myself to do better next time.


In an effort to use up some last scraps of papers I made some very simple birthday cards - nothing too exciting or clever but kinda cute!


I always decorate the inside of my cards and these teddies just told me where they should go! 
Well, must get on ... you know how it is when you have SOoooo much to do and don't quite know where to start you end up wasting time deciding.  Am wasting time deciding so think I will have a cuppa and a bikkie instead!!!

Thursday 27 October 2011

One step forward - then a complete standstill!

THANK you so much for all your messages of encouragement and for stopping by to look at my blog ... I honestly never thought anyone would especially after hubby-dearests comment "who on earth would want to look at that" when I showed him my efforts back in February.  It is with GREAT delight I report my "page-view" count to him on a several-time-a-day basis (thank goodness I have unlimited texts!!) ... he did go so far as to suggest that 247 of the 250 page-views were mine though.

Progress today in that I managed to add myself to the WOYWW list on Julie's site BUT was not able to work out how or where I should post a comment or a photo ... that's my aim for next week now and hope to have it figured out by then. 

I "lost" today to doing a little bit of a lot of things and really achieving nothing!  Plan on getting those family Christmas cards sorted tomorrow or I will start to panic they are not done.  Just need two pairs of hand really and a few more hours in the day ... if only.

HOORAY !!!!

The HOORAY is official!!!! I have heard that I have indeed been able to comment on other blogs ... of course, the trick is to now do it again.

Not up to trying again just at this moment as I need to go and lie down in a dark room with a stiff drink (coffee probably ... or Baileys!) and gather myself together.

I can't thank those of you who have got in touch with me enough for all your help and suggestions ... really did appreciate it and it meant such a lot.  There is still plenty of tweaking to do as bits still seem to be missing and I still don't know how to become a follower of your blogs but MAGGIEC is getting inundated with emails and will soon wish she had never heard of me.  Luckily she is a "real-life" friend so hopefully doesn't think I am just some random mad-woman who appeared out of cyberspace!  Just a numpty who knows nothing about blogging!

Is it working????

Well, the signs are promising but I am not letting out a loud "hooray" until I have heard for sure that I  have managed to post comments!!!!

Have I, huh?  Have I?????

Bit overwhelmed really

Have just logged-on quite determined to tweak all the little niggly problems into place and am sitting here looking at the screen feeling a bit overwhelmed really ... am not going to get into one of my stressy-tizzy moods and am brown-paper-bagging it to remain calm.  It's nothing that can't be put right eventually of course.

I have been able to add POLLYPOCKET's blog to my list but had no luck adding SHAZINOZ so please don't take it personally SHAZ!!!!  I can't seem to find your URL to add to my list but just as soon as I do I will add you to my bloglist and I can't wait to pop along and read your blog.

So the dilemma for this morning ... do I work on a quiz that needs finishing and that is right here by my elbow, do I catch up on some cross-stitching that I need to do for Christmas, do I immerse myself in gorgeous papers, embellishments and double-sided tape and make the special cards for my family or do I persist here and try and get it sorted?

No contest really!  (will post photo's of families cards later!!!!)

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness

First things first ... note to self : When making 180+ Christmas cards remember to check they will fit standard sized envelopes or you will spend the best part of two days adapting C5 size envelopes to fit ... and it is boring, boring, boring!!!!!

Having now got that jolly little task out of the way I am looking forward to getting out my new papers for this year's "special" cards for family and having a good sniff and then setting to work ... it is probably quite, quite illegal but I am very much a paper sniffer!

Now to my blog ... what problems!  Was merrily tweaking away the other night trying to make it look "just so" only to un-do just about everything I had previously done!  My beautiful brown mottled background was a hideous shade of blue and my lovely brown writing was plain black (still is, but I hope to solve that little problem before too long!) and, well, it wasn't "my" blog anymore.  Hubby-dearest managed to put it pretty much back to how it was despite knowing even less than me about blogging but it is still not quite how I want it to look ... what a learning curve!!!

Am still unable to post comments on any of your blogs and can't fathom out why.  MaggieC is being absolutely brilliant and SOooooo patient but something is obviously amiss so I have to apologise yet again for not yet leaving any messages for any of you.  PLEASE don't think I am just not bothering or am ignoring anything you say to me ... I'll get there but not being the brightest cookie in the packet it is taking me a while.

Now off to see if I can get any further with leaving comments.  You will be the first to know. 

Sunday 23 October 2011

Leaving comments

Message for MaggieC & Shaz ... SO sorry not to have yet left any comments on your blogs ... I am now a regular visitor and have tried and tried to leave you a comment but just can't yet figure out how to do it.
I LOVED your cards, Shaz, with the Santa face stamped on the front and can really appreciate the work that went into them.
I will persevere until I do know how to leave you comments ... you will both be the first to know when I finally manage it.

Saturday 22 October 2011

Adaptations

Adapted the bright "leaving to have your baby" card for a little bundle that had already arrived ...


Expectations & new arrivals

I was asked by a friend to make a card for a colleague who was leaving to have a baby ... I had very specific instructions ... bright colours, baby clothes, owls and a poem ... took a deep breath and came up with this ...


The final tag was blank for everyone to sign.
It didn't say new baby to me but, hey, sometimes you have to do what people want and put your own tastes aside.

From here to there and back again

Was chatting on FB with my friend in Australia and she was telling me all about her plans to renew her wedding vows in Canada in January.  She married her Canadian husband in Aussie and his family were unable to attend so they thought about the vow renewal for his family. To cut what could be a long story short my friend had not been able to find invitations she liked and ... well, you can see where this is going!  After sending many samples via Email and good old-fashioned "real" samples via snail-mail we were eventually able to come up with a design she liked ... as she will be renewing her vows in the *S*N*O*W* her theme was very definitely *S*N*O*W*F*L*A*K*E*S* ... one of my favourite themes too so not hard to play around with ideas based on what she wanted. 




She was very precise with just how she wanted them to look and I heaved a HUGE sigh of relief when I sent the finished inviations over to Australia and she was really pleased with them.  So that's invitations made in England and then sent to Australia for a function taking place in Canada! 

Friday 21 October 2011

No time today ...

Am being kidnapped by my Lil' Sis' so no time to craft or blog today.  Dinner at nephews new house for the first time tonight ... well, he is laying the table and we are bringing takeaway in with us!  Got crafting / blogging withdrawal symptoms already.

Thursday 20 October 2011

Haven't worked out yet ...

... how to reply to any comments made so please don't think I am ignoring you!
I do LOVE Tim Holtz!  And I LOVE making tags in his style ... not everyone "gets" it though and I need to improve my technique but the finished versions of these went down quite well.  They tend to get either a "WOW" or an "OH" (with the "oh" being said in a disappointed tone) ... but I enjoy doing them so will continue.


Don't hold your breath but ...

I think I might be getting somewhere with this blogging business!  Wouldn't have even found my blog if it were not for you MAGGIEC so THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your time and patience with me! 
None of my family actually understand my desire to have a blog ... they don't actually understand my passion for crafting either so you can see what I am up against.  At least now I have somewhere to indulge myself with anything and everything crafty and have a way of keeping a "crafting diary" .... well, I'm interested to see how it develops even if nobody else is!
As you can see from the few photo's I've managed to post I am a huge Tim Holtz fan and love nothing better than working in his style ... which I am hoping to develop as my own style but it is taking a while.  Often have to make more mainstream cards though as not everyone "gets" the grunge/aged/vintage look.  Hubby thought I was quite, quite mad putting old rusty gear-wheel-thingies on his birthday card but he thinks I am quite mad at the best of times.  I sorted through one of his bits'n'bobs box in the garage and found the gear-wheel-thingies and then when he saw them on his card he maintained he would have used them "one day" ... I argued they had been in the box, untouched for at least 30 years so doubted he would be needing them anytime soon.
Will hope to get more photo's on here so you have something to look at rather than just reading my ramblings ... I am known for my "spontaneous ramblings" but will try to keep them short.  I'll try. Really I will. 

Wednesday 19 October 2011

This was hubby's birthday card. Just posted it now to see if I could figure out how to post photo's!  I guess I did.

No to that font

Didn't like that font so reverting to my original one but maybe a bit larger.

I was lost again there for a while and couldn't remember how to post this message ... I really am struggling here.

Am calling it a day for now but WILL try again later.  With a bit of help I just might get there ... eventually. Maybe.  Perhaps.

I posted!

Soooo I managed to post my last message!  But that's it ... baffled by the rest.

MaggieC said something about me having to put my followers somewhere ... can anyone tell me how to do that please? (not that there will be any!) (as my hubby said when I first showed him my blogging attempts "who on earth will want to look at that?" ... does kinda put you off!)
Hopefully I have now changed my font to something more readable - time will tell.

Trying again

Well I've been inspired by a friend to have another go at getting this blog up and running.  Thanks MaggieC!!!!
Have absolutely no idea what I am doing or even if this message will post itself ... well, I know I have to click on something to help it along but have yet to figure out what!
Am not giving up this time so bear with me please and shout out any help or tips you can ... all will be gratefully received.

Saturday 26 February 2011

Still struggling

Thought this blogging business was supposed to be easy. 


Have been lost in cyberspace now since making my first entry and it has taken me this long to find myself again and even now I have no idea what I am doing.


Have photo's to post but have not a clue how to do it.  A friend said to ditch this blog and start again with another blog-provider-service-thingy but I couldn't understand that one any more than this so will just have to persevere.  I guess there are lots of people using blogger so maybe I could find someone to help me out.


Maybe.


Now to see if I can figure out how to post a photograph.


Don't hold your breath.

Monday 14 February 2011

Utterly confused

Utterly confused pretty much describes my normal state of mind but am even more so as I try to produce my first (and only) blog.


Am wanting to share my love of paper-crafting with like-minded crafters so I no longer need to bore my FaceBook friends with my efforts.  I want to learn and grow and develop my crafting and take inspiration from others.


I don't know how far I will get with my blog or if anyone will ever want to look - but I am giving it a go and will be amazed if it works.  Technology is not my thing ... give me an ink pad and a sheet of paper any day please!