Sketch #80

on the ICS blog this week is sponsored again by Paper Romance

You will notice this time that I turned the sketch slightly as it suited my image better. I have followed the sketch properly but have just noticed from my photograph that, because I have used sheer ribbon on  a heavily patterned paper, apart from the bow, you can't actually see the ribbon!!!!

Paper - Papermania
Image - DewDrop Craftz
Promarkers
Glamour Dust
Sizzix corner die
Charm from stash and
Computer generated sentiment

By the time you read this post I should be home armed with loads of dirty washing and loads of well thumbed books. Thanks for looking.

Happy Monday

morning everyone :) Mind you, looking out of my studio window it isn't very happy looking. It's very grey but the sun is trying to poke it's little head through all of the miserable cloud......at least it isn't cold!! There, in true British style, that's got the conversation about the weather out of the way lol.

I had a card order to make over the weekend and as usual, left it till the last minute. The brief was that it was for a 10 year old James Bond fan so after faffing around with this little lot for ages (I always seem to end up with piles of dud copie paper when I'm doing something like this :))

to this

Apparently, the lad in question went to a fancy dress party as JB and has liked him ever since, hence the tux and not the gun or the car on the front of the card!

It was also DD1 and SiL's first wedding anniversary yesterday (it doesn't seem a year since the wedding) so I came up with this mini album/card for them.

I bought the kit from Funky Hand a while ago and had it cut out on my desk for a good couple of weeks before finally making it up this weekend. I've left large enough spaces in it for them to add some of their own photos and just added a couple of poems, some E Line Primas from Creative Treasures. The heart on the front of the card is made using Sizzix dies....this one is one of their place cards (which were suspended from wine glasses) with the name plate and ribbon taken off. It was well received!

Have a wonderful day, whatever you are up to and I hope your sky is brighter than our. LOL.

Just like buses....

.....nothing for ages then three posts at once :)

I'm sat here like old Granny Grunt at the moment, I've got a packet of Gaviscon at my side and am listening to Friday Night Is Music Night on Radio 2......they are featuring Paul Carrick and he is brill. He's singing the Living Years at the moment, fab!

Anyway, my third card is for a commissioned graduation card and uses the Papertake Weekly sketch from last week.

This is the first outing for a long time for the old Sizzix dies, I still find them useful so they were a good buy all those years ago :) A couple of the papers are by K and Co I think, they are all left over from assorted projects. the lace and diamante are from my stash.

Also this week I have made two seating plans, both very different, a set of bonbonierres and place cards for a wedding in St Lucia, two commissioned albums and some flower decs for a photo shoot at a new wedding venue! Oh, and a card to feature on Becky Fleck's June Card Maps and newsletter......how cool is that :)) You'll notice from my list that I've plenty more to show but I'll add some more over the weekend as I have more work to do.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for looking :)

Christening invitations

These were commissioned by a couple whose wedding invitations I made about four years ago! I was really chuffed as you don't get many repeat orders in the wedding stationery game LOL

and the little bag they were delivered in.

I used the sizzix dress die, Nestabilities and a little silver teddy charm to replace the shoes, which have now been discontinued! They were greatly received anyway :)I did find one supplier who were advertising the shoes on their web site. Unfortunately I am still waiting for a reply to my emails..........which I know arrived as I received automated replies.

This is a real big bug bear of mine, not replying to emails. There is an owner of a well known craft site who is good enough to send me her newsletters every couple of weeks but can't be bothered to answer my emails. I've emailed, used the contact form on her web site, left comments on her blog (which when I've gone back and looked, have been deleted) yet I have posted links etc to her site and generally praised her work at every opportunity. It takes a couple of seconds to say "thanks, got your email, bit busy at the mo, will catch you later!" I always, always answer mine within 24 hours but most of them I answer straight away and I am busy just like everyone else. Grrrrr !Sorry about that, rant over ;)

Getting nowhere fast!!!!

:))
I could do with another couple of months slotting in between now and Thursday............that way there might just be a chance that I will be slightly more ready than I am now LOL I've just looked at my 'to do' list and haven't made any headway at all, I keep getting side tracked. My idea was that I finished work last Friday which would have given me time to get myself sorted but 'Oh no' it just ain't happening!! I got a frantic message from one of my shops this morning "Can we have some more Snowman Poop please?" "yes" says I "but am on my way to town, will drop it round later." "Ok" says she "and we've just sold the last bag of Reindeer Food, can we have some more of that too?" I whizzed round town and didn't get what I wanted (I think half the population of England were queuing in our M & S..............has no-one told them that the shops are only shut on Thursday and that most will re-open on Friday!!!!
Another thing I got side tracked by was this mini album for my friend. I'm not really sure why I made it when her prezzies were all sorted anyway.........just another ploy to stop me doing the dreaded HW I suppose LOL

I actually used my Sizzix Album cover and page die for the first time in about 3 years. I think if cover die hadn't fallen off the shelf when I pulled some ribbon off a roll (the ribbon was trapped round the die but I didn't realise!) then she wouldn't have got the album LOL All the papers and bits and bobs used were on my desk.

My 'To Do' List
make

Crackers (I must be :))
5 gift voucher wallets (2 are in progress) done
2 necklaces for DD2 and her best friend almost done
a gardeners year book for my mum
a 'birthday book' and calendar for my brother who is lousy at remembering birthdays!! nearly done the birthday book (but have scrapped the calendar-he won't use it any way!!)
post it note holder for DS
cd clock for DS's best friend
a gift bag for a special friend done-see next post
Dad's birthday cards (Boxing day!)
5 forum birthday cards
clean my house erm it's even worse now
ironing
pop to town first thing on Monday morning to pick something up. done

The rest!

Are you sick of reading all this yet? Here is what I've been doing the rest of this week, I hope you are sitting comfortably!! LOL

Materials used

Cuttlebug embossing folder

Stickles

Pale lilac pearlescent card

Diamantes

Swarovski flat back crystals

Cuttleug embossing folder

Bazzil Bling card

Green paper from English Paper Company

Debbi Moore holly paper

Green ribbon

Christmas tree brad

Stickles

Funky Fairys freebie penguin

Papers-Lilli of the Valley and Anita's Blue Christmas

Silver ric rac

Snowflake brad

Stickles

Sizzix heart #2

3mm red ribbon

Rub on - Imaginisce

Felt Santa hat

Anita's Traditional Paper pad

Number 10

Here you go, as promised.


Kate Hadfield's papers and chicks can be bought from here and the elusive tenth card :) Another one which was influenced by this weeks dare over on the DCM blog

I think the green paper is from an old SA kit (and I mean old cos my membership lapsed about this time last year), the bag is by Sizzix. It is on the large red dress and accessories die. The flower is Prima and I'm not sure where the flower brad is from.

Back soon. x

Thank you.........

............to my fantastic customers who are keeping me so busy that I don't have time to do the housework! :))
This week they have ordered

A rather grand boxed acceptance card
A couple of wedding cards.................well there were four really, two of each.

A set of 16 place cards for a birthday party last Saturday.

An exploding box for a friend's daughter to give to a friend of hers who has been travelling. He has visited Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos!! It had to incorporate Christmas and the countries visited. They are celebrating Christmas when he returns next month so my friend is cooking him a Christmas dinner!

And finally, I made this this morning. It was ordered by an ex collegue of mine who is fed up of losing her memory stick in the bottom of her handbag. I made one for a friend at Christmas and Christine took a fancy to it so has bought her own.
That's about it for now as I have to go to the post office then make some more birthday cards and cut 200 Sizzix hearts for a wedding order!
I will try to make time to scan and upload my birthday cards too
Thanks for looking. x

Finally.........

I've got half an hour to update my blog!

First off is the DCM Little Extra - Now, as you are probably aware, both Lynne and Gillian sadly stepped down from the Design team recently, and all though the DCM team's door is always open for them, we thought it would be nice to pay a little tribute to them in appreciation for all their wonderful work during their time on the DCM design team. Lythan came up with an idea that we make a card in the 'style' of either Lynne or Gillian's cards. Or maybe pick your favourite of theirs and use an element from their cards on your own card. Everyone has their own style- we thought it might be a little challenge to try out a different style for a change! I decided to go with Lynne's 'style' albeit loosely! This was ordered by my friend Sue and her brief was just that...........brief!! A 'special' wedding anniversary card for Rob (her husband) and an equally special card for their son's birthday. I decided on the acetate card for Rob and the 'Lynne influence' is in the stitching, embossing and inking on the front (nowhere near Lynne's talent though). I ran some blue card through the Big Shot with a Cuttlebug folder and cut the hearts with one of the large Sizzix heart dies, I think it was #2. One was cut in dark blue and one in light blue and I just layered them one on top of the other and mounted them on the card. The acetate is from Joanna Sheen.

This was a card lift from one, made for a challenge, by the lovely Sue and this is it. Cute eh?

The next order I finished was for an exploding box.
Papers are a mix of Papermania, English Paper Company (who sadly are no more), ribbons are from Ribbon Oasis and the bits and pieces are from my many craft boxes.

I made the following card last night for another very good customer who likes the Sizzix figures. They are going to Barcelona next weekend for a friend's 30th birthday and this was the request....." Its my friends 30th and we are going to barcelona for weekend and thought a card with us 5 girls on the front with Happy 30th Birthday Becky and maybe barcelona here we come on the bottom or something. Our hair colours are me ginger, 2 long brown, 1 blond and 1 becky short brown. Just put us all in the same thing, like pink tshirt or something."

The orange and yellow papers represent the Spanish flag and the rest is self explanatory. The glasses are silver mirri card. Becky's badge is die cut 30 on a small red circle and covered with Glossy Accents.

I have another card to blog but that one deserves a post on it's own so I will do that one next then I shall do this weeks DCM dare as I have another card to make before I carry on with wedding stationery.

Tags!

Just finished another order and it fits with the Little Extra from yesterday :)

This is the last Christmas Little Extra before we let Santa's Little Helper put his feet up and have a rest.
By now you've probably finished making you cards, so for a change we thought we'd get you making some gift tags. However, if you've still got cards to make, then you can always use tags on cards instead. It's up to you, as long as there's a tag involved it's fine by us!

These were both ordered by a lovely friend. Simon is a great Doncaster Rovers fan, hence the red and white. Die cuts used are Sizzix, rest is from stash. This is the other bag for Simon's sister.

I would just like to apologise for not visiting everyone's blog but time is very precious at the moment and I am rapidly running out! I will make myself look, I promise, as I do love reading what everyone is up to (I'm just nosey).

Back to work for now. Thanks for looking.

What a week!

I can't believe it is 10 days since I last blogged. The second week in September is always chaos in our house as DH and DD have birthdays within two days of each other. However, this is how my week went. (I hope you're sitting comfortably :))

I spent all day Monday and Tuesday making a new collection of wedding stationery as I had a wedding fayre on Tuesday evening. The photos are on hubby's camera and not mine, but they will be on the web site shortly if you want a peep. I then remembered that it was DH's birthday on Wednesday and in true crafter's style, I hadn't made his birthday cards!! So this is what I came up with. The first is from me, the second from DS and the third from DD.

This card was made using the QK Cricket set and Doodlebug rub ons.

Another QK die. This time it was the single Party Hat die.

I bought these clowns on our local market about 4 years ago and keep finding them. I think they are cute. He is mounted onto paper from the Je Taime range by My Minds Eye. I just adore this paper, it is really bright and cheerful. The second and third cards fit the peel off challenge on the JB forum so I shall add them later.

So on Tuesday evening we trundled off to the wedding fayre which was on from 6pm until 10pm. I have done loads of wedding fayre but never an evening one so didn't know what to expect. When we got there we just had a bare trestle table. All the wedding fayres I have exhibited at until now have all provided plain white table cloths for you to dress as you please. Luckily DH had a black cloth which he uses to cover all his wires etc when he is DJing. He had forgotten to take it out of the car! So I set up in my little corner. I had requested electricity but we had to unplug everyone elses to plug our extension lead in. Anyway, it was a good job I had my halogen lamps because once it got dark outside it was like the black hole of Calcutta in the marquee!! We packed up at 9pm and were home for 9.45. I've got two appointments this week from it so I don't suppose it was all bad.

Wednesday was DH's birthday, I'll bet you can't guess how old he was :) We spent the day running around trying to find mountboard for a seating plan as my usual supplier had run out of the colours I wanted. We had a BBQ in the garden for tea and it was lovely. He had chosen a Thornton's toffee and chocolate cake as his birthday cake, as I didn't have time to make him one, and it was absolutely scrummy.

On Thursday I made 2 fairy cards which were ordered from the web site. I haven't made these for ages and the order was for two the same.

I still think they are cute! The fairy's dress is cut from gold glitter card and her hair is vivelle. All the dies used are by Sizzix. A friend came for lunch so we sat in the garden and while she had her lunch I sat and cut snowflakes from glitter card, for a stationery order.

On Thursday I made DD's birthday cards

This one is a bit cheeky as I am going to say that it matches the DCM Midweek Extra from last week. This was the challenge Big & Little We'd like you to use items in pairs of Big and Little - so you need to have both sizes on your card ie big & little buttons, big & little die cuts, big & little hearts, big & little circles etc The theme of your card can be whatever you like this time, so that's nice of us, isn't it? So, I have used big and little squares!!! The big square is Spongebob 'Square' Pants and he is mounted onto 4 small squares. Sorry girls but I thought it was good. ;) DD was actually 14 on Friday but she is Spongebob mad! Is this normal? LOL

This was the card I made her from DS. Playboy is another passion (a bit more normal me thinks!!)

DS had come downstairs on Thursday teatime complaining of a pain just above his right hip. He took two paracetamol and went to bed. The pain was still there on Friday morning when he got up so his dad took him to the doctor's. (he is almost 19, by the way) The doc took one look at him and admitted him to hospital, query appendicitis!! I packed him an overnight bag and they picked me up on the way to hospital where he was examined and put on a saline drip as he was nil by mouth in case he needed surgery. We finally left him at 9.30 pm, still in pain. Meanwhile poor DD had to make do with a Chinese take away with her big sis and two pals! We were supposed to be going out for Chinese! I rang the ward at 9.15 on Saturday and by this time they put him back on fluid but were keeping him under obs until tea time. Both DDs went to see him at lunch time and his dad went about 2pm and rang me to say that he could come home. I was just finishing a seating plan before we went to see him! Oh and I had made 72 lottery envelope favours and 7 table names on Friday too.

Here is the plan I delivered at a wedding fayre yesterday. The bride to be was really pleased with it.I was tagged by Hazel on Friday too. I'm so sorry Hazel, I promise I haven't forgotten and will do it tomorrow.

So we are now back up to date. Today I have printed 53 OoS and made beaded dragonflies to put on them. I posted the favour order from Friday and the phone hasn't stopped all day. I have people coming to see me tomorrow about an order so I really need to tidy my craft room. Oh and I am pooped so am off to bed.

And I would also like to say that if you have stuck with me this far, well done!!

Night night. xx