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

Happy Birthday Niece

Another quick post before I carry on with my work. I made this card this afternoon between appointments.

It doesn't actually show in the picture but the base card is actually a beautiful pale green pearlescent and the ribbon is ivory! The image was stamped onto ivory card and again onto the brown patterned paper. The brown dress was cut out and paper pieced onto the ivory one and then I painted the rose corsage and the dummy stand with pearlescent paint. the brads are green pearls by Papermania and the dress stamp is from the Seedee's Vintage set. The flowers are a mix of Papermania and ............erm, I can't remember!!

Thanks for looking :)

Birthday Fairy

Just look what the birthday fairy brought me...............I was just so chuffed when I opened them on Monday morning!!

They will be fab on holiday instead of wearing my flat ones all the time. I have black Scutes, pale blue Athens, a pair of dark blue fake Caymens and now these :) I shall be wearing them when I exhibit at wedding fayres too, I think they will look dead smart with my suit :)

I got loads of other pressies too and was spoilt rotten all day :)

I have a couple of commissions to show too as I think the single card fits the DCM Little Extra this week The mid week dare this week is another one by Mel - these are a few of my favourite things. What you need to do is use one of Mel's favourite things on your card (embroidery cotton/thread, buttons, felt or fabric) and combine it with one of your favourite things.

The 'thread' on my card is the fringing on the rug and the wool for the knitting. My favourite things used are ribbon, a girl can never have too much and I've just placed another order with Ribbon Oasis oh, and diamantes of course.

This one fits too as I have used ribbon and diamantes on these invitations too.

Must go back to work (it's a good job I don't have to go far ;)) I have 2 more commissioned cards to make which are being picked up this afternoon. I also have an exploding box to do. It's all cut out, it just needs decorating and putting together.

I will try to scan my birthday cards some time this week. I got loads of beautiful handmade ones. :)

I would love you to leave a comment as I really enjoy reading them.

Thanks for looking. XX

Sunday, Sunday

It's been a really good today. I've made two cards, a box for one of them and also been out for lunch with all my family (parents, sister and brother etc). The weather was nice for us and the food was gorgeous.

Unfortunately one of the cards was a sympathy card. One of my friends husband lost his mum on Thursday evening so it was for them. She was ninety last August and until she went into hospital about five weeks ago she lived alone in her own house and looked after herself. Here is the card I made. I do try to stay away from black for sympathy cards unless it is specifically asked for.

The next card I made for a friend to give to a friend of hers. She will be 60 soon!!

It's difficult to show but it is actually an acetate card. If anyone has any tips on photographing acetate I will definately welcome them. I made the actual card from Crate Twirl collection (which I love)! I then fastened the card inside an acetate sleeve with Papermania pearl brads. The flowers are Prima, Papermania and the large one is from Dunelm. The front tucks into the flap at the bottom of the card. I cheated with the box............I put together a bought one and decorated it!I have two birthday club cards to make and 30 wedding invitations tomorrow so not too strenuous. Also tomorrow we are going for an all you can eat Chinese buffet. It is absolutely superb and at £4.99 a head it would be rude not to! LOL DD2 is cooking at school tomorrow, she is making a meat pie (Tuesday's tea) which means I don't have the dreaded task of thinking what to have for tea until Wednesday................I could get used to this!!!

Bye for now. xx

Surprise surprise!

I can't believe another week has passed us by! It's almost Easter already (ok I know it's early this year but time is still whizzing past) He, he................at this rate it won't be long till we are wishing each other a Merry Christmas again :))

Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to Kathy for returning the honours with the award. You're a star!

I have had two wonderful surprises this week. On Tuesday I received a big box and here is what was in it. This was my second prize from the English Paper Company competition last year in Cardmaking and Papercraft. Good eh! What a shame that they are no longer!!

My second parcel arrived this morning and was for having a card published in Papercraft Essentials :)Lastly, here is what I have been up to this week :)

Fifty day invitations, ninety evening invitations, one hundred and forty reply cards, one hundred and three favour tags, seven gift bags and a guest book.........phew! I've also made an invitation sample today :)

Tomorrow we are all going out for lunch. There are 15 of us altogether with my parents, brother and sister and their families and my kids. It's my birthday on Monday............I'm going backwards in age as of now :)

Well, I must go and get dressed. I need to post the sample this morning and I have some commissioned cards to make. I also have another wedding order which has just come in which they want by Wednesday!!! so no weekend off for me.

Whatever you're doing, have a good weekend and thanks for dropping by.

Happy Mother's Day

What can I say! I've just received this lovely award from a lovely lady who has become a new blogging (and email) buddie! Thank you Jo it made my day. :)

My youngest daughter forgot to get me a card, my son bought one of mine from my stock box (!) for me because " the ones round at the shop were crap" lol and a box of yummy Lindtor chocs and then my eldest daughter came round with a beautiful card, a lovely bunch of white lilies, Amy MacDonald's latest cd and Kate Rusbie's so I was well chuffed. DH said he would sort tea and promptly ordered a Chinese takeaway so a lovely day in all.Thank you everyone.
I now need to give this award to five other people so here goes. I shall nominate Kathy B and Sheila O because they make me smile, Lythan for being an all round lovely person and fab scrapbooker, Anna for giving me a kick up the bum when I needed it, Andrea for always leaving lovely comments on my blog and Andrea and Jo for being my mates!

Oops........just realised I can't count!!

Blog candy

Gosh, three posts in one day! I've just been doing a little blog hop (I'm supposed to be doing a wedding order ;)) and came across Leann's post for some fabby blog candy. You don't need to make anything, just pay her a visit (cos her cards are definitely worth looking at!)

Tagged........

.............by Hazel and Jo. Sorry for being so late with this ladies but I am up to my eyes at the moment.
What were you doing 10 years ago?
Running my own business. I had a farm shop on a garden centre which I really enjoyed working at. I had the shop for about 18 months and then it all fell apart (along with my marriage-long story)

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Working on my first really major wedding order. I'd had loads of smallish orders in the three years before that but this one was massive! Oh and I had to make over 300 beaded dragonflies........boy were my fingers sore :)

Five snacks you enjoy:
Chocolate
Bananas
Cream teas (but with coffee-I don't drink tea)
I can't think of anything else as I'm not a snacky person.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
Pay for my eldest daughter to have IVF
Move to Cornwall and buy a business
Buy a holiday home in Zakynthos
Make sure all my family were looked after
Employ a cleaner ;) (don't you just hate it when the dreaded h****work gets in the way of crafting!)

Five things you like doing:
Making cards and wedding stationery
Blogging (and blog hopping)
Scrapbooking
Walking
Messing about in my garden when I get the time.

Five things you would never wear again:
Platform shoes
A clothes size 12!! (I only ever managed that once :))
Stillettos
Leg warmers (what purpose do they actually serve?)
Fur

Five favourite toys:
I can only think of one from my childhood and that was my Tressy doll. She had a button in the middle of her belly and when it was pushed, her hair grew! I had loads of clothes for her too. I can remember playing in the garden with her one day and putting her and all her clothes into a carrier bag while I went in for my lunch. When I came back out the bin men had taken her!! I was sooooo upset. I did get another one though.
My fave toys now are my lap top, printer, Big Shot, Craft Robo, my kettle (because it helps me make lots of yummy coffee during the day)

There, I think that's them all. I shall now tag

Andrea
Jo K
Anna
Lisababe
Rachel B

I forgot to say on my last post that I have been invited by http://www.theartisttradingclub.com/ to be a Guest in their ATC club. ATCs are not something I have ever got into but I have accepted their kind invitation and am really chuffed to have been asked.
I have also been asked to be the Guest Designer for the month of June on Di Hickman's blog. I am really chuffed to little mintballs!!! :)

Daring Card Makers.............

.........Just Bex Forum and Di Hickman I managed three challenges this morning as it is my daughter's birthday tomorrow and I hadn't made her cards. First we have the DCM dare and this week it's Lythan's turn to set the dare.
My theme this week is
I am woman
As its coming up to Mothers day in the UK here’s a chance to make a card that celebrates women and girls . So I’d like to see a card with at least one feminine image on it . And that's it for rules really.Apart from this one. And it is sneaky.
No Tildas, Sugar Nellies or Bellas please. I love them all. But there are loads of great challenges out there using them so for this challenge you can give them a well earned rest.
I didn't find this bit too hard because I don't have any Tildas or Bellas! Anyway, here is my card

Meet Henrietta! I think she is brill, she is one of the new kits from Pink Petticoat. The papers are Pink Petticoat too. Her bum, bow and heart are paper pieced and I painted her first with silver pearlescent paint. Flowers and ribbon are both Prima and she was finished off with a couple of diamantes.
My next card is for the Friday night challenge on the Just Bex Forum posted by Nicky.
Get Girly
This is a weekend for celebrating women, so we're giving you this challenge set by Lisa (Funky Fairy), and we're asking you to.....get girly! Let's see all your 'girly' cards, the girlier the better . and I came up with this one
The image is also a new one from Pink Petticoat Again this was painted with my paints from The Works and I 'coloured' the bubbles with Stickles Stardust glitter glue. I added a couple of diamantes as bubbles.
Finally the card I made from hubby and I. I used Di Hickman's latest template for this card. She loves Forever Friends and this die cut was sent to my by a friend as a RAK. Perfect timing Sheilagh, thank you. He is really cute but I'm not very good with faces :(
Papers are Shabby Chic by Junkitz (I think), ric rac is a page frill by Doodlebug and I think the greeting is by Lettraset.
Well, it's March already which means loads of birthdays in our family, including my eldest daughter and an uncle tomorrow, my nephew's on Monday and mine next week (but I think I will cancel it this year cos I'm too old!!)
We had a weekend away last week and we went to Perth (DH's choice as neither of us had been :0) Not exactly my idea of a romantic weekend away. The service in the hotel was diabolical too so we shan't return ;)
I'm still very busy with work, which is why I haven't got very much to show at the moment. I also finished my first magazine commission this week and sent it off. Fingers crossed now that they find it good enough to publish.
I have been tagged twice in the past couple of weeks so I will now disappear to the blogs and grovel, then come back with the tags. I must also go and get dressed :)
Thanks for looking and again to all the lovely people who leave comments - I'm really missing blog hopping again. Message to self......make half an hour before bed and visit blogging buddies.

Perfect!!

With not being able to rise to many challenges at the moment, I was dead chuffed to see the Little Extra over on the DCM blog. I was making Easter cards for the shop yesterday and made an exploding box last night............and they all fit the challenge which is..........

Now on to this weeks little extra (just to keep you on your toes !) :) This weeks little extra is an idea from Mel. Oh sooo juicy -oh so juicy - make a card using lemon or orange toned colours.

Papers are DCWV and K & Co 6 x 6 pads

flowers are Papermania and Prima

Die cuts are all Quickutz

I made the exploding box for MiL's birthday tomorrow (last minute I know!)

All papers are Pink Petticoat and K & Co
Flowers are Dunelm, Prima and Papermania

Back to work now, thanks for looking. xx

Need a favour

Gosh, I am so bad at thinking up titles for posts!! Anyway here are some pics of what I have been up to this week.

I am doing two guest books at the moment then tomorrow morning I'm having my nails done and tomorrow afternoon I shall make two seating plans and a few more place cards. We are dressing two very different venues, at the same hotel, on Sunday. One is a Victorian House which we are doing in burgundy and gold and the other is very modern in dark blue and gold.

I will be taking my camera with me so will post some pics soon.

Take care. x

More good news!

DH came home last Friday with the new Paper Essentials magazine for me. I don't buy many card making mags now as I just don't have time to read them and I have a pile of them waiting to be read. I always have a quick peep if I'm out and if something takes my fancy I will buy it. Anyway, he brought the mag home and I've scanned through it two or three times so far. Last night I wasn't feeling too good so after hubby went to bed I curled up on the settee with a blanket to have a nose at my mag, only to find that a piece of my work has been published! I hadn't even noticed it before. lolI made my little maze book as part of last years comp in which I was a runner up but didn't realise that it would be used in the mag. I felt all giddy when I saw it. Apart from competition entries and adverts in bridal mags it is only the second time my work has been published and it's a wonderful feeling.
Now for my second piece of good news....................When I entered the competition in PE last year, I also entered the one in CM & P. I saw loads of blogs where people had been winners or runners up in different competitions and just assumed my work hadn't been place as I hadn't heard anything. However, yesterday morning I got a letter from Kirstie (the editor of CM & P) informing me that I have won second prize in the English Paper Company category. My prize is £150 worth of English Paper Company products. Yay...........go me!!! LOL
I am such a bad blogger at the moment but work has got in the way. Hopefully I will be back later with a couple of pictures (but don't hold your breath:))
Thanks very much to those of you who keep visiting and leaving your lovely comments, they are really appreciated.

Done it...........

the DCM challenge that is!! This week is a template challenge.

I've had two appointments today with brides to be (wanting stationery) and sorted out a calendar for MiL and at 4.30 pm DD proudly announces that she needs a birthday card for her friend for this evening. Laura is having a birthday sleepover and DD was going at 6! I had specific instructions too in that it had to have Sponge Bob Square Pants on the front. Kids............don't you just love them. LOL

Here we have simplicity at it's best.

Papers are My Mind's Eye- Je T'aime, pressie is a Cuttlebug embossing folder with a bit of bling added and the pic and the greeting were done on the pc.

Take care and enjoy your weekend. Thanks for dropping by.

Lady Luck!!

This last few days have just been wonderful! It started when I got my award from Jo (I will get around to passing it on), then I found out I was a blog candy winner over on Anna's blog I did a wedding fayre on Sunday at a new venue and it was brilliant. I had a meeting on Monday with reference to doing some of the decs (seating plan, place cards etc) at an open day at a local hotel and......................I got my first magazine commission. I am just so chuffed :)) It's not an easy one but hey, we love a challenge don't we!?! I'm finishing the first part of a wedding order at the moment, I have a lady coming tomorrow about her wedding stationery and another two coming on Tuesday. Oh and DH wants to go away for the weekend two weeks today!!

All of the above is just to explain my absence from blogging and why I have no cards to show. I will have next week as I've got two small commissions too so might be able to use a challenge. For now I will leave you with a couple of pictures of my table at the wedding fayre and my cabinet in the new hair and nail salon in the village.

Thanks for looking. xx

It's February already

How on earth did that happen? I'm sure someone has put the calendar on fast forward!!!

I actually managed a challenge from Just Bex yesterday morning. I had to make some baby cards for the shop and when I went to check out the forum, two of them fitted Nicky's brief!! Scalloped edges are SO very in, darling, so to cash in on the trend, for this challenge you need to make a card featuring a scalloped edge somewhere. You could use appropriate scissors, or scalloped punch, or any kind of die cutter, but if you haven't got any of those, you could always draw some scallops and cut round them (so no excuse for not entering.) I've just noticed that six of my cards fit the challenge :)

All my scallops were cut with punches, embossing was done using various Cuttlebug embossing folders, papers and card were from my offcuts box (so I've not idea what most of them are!) die cuts are a mix of Cuttlebug, Quickutz and Sizzix, flowers are Prima and the other bits were all from my stash :)

No more crafting till tomorrow evening (apart from finishing off a set of wedding stationery). I've just bought another Pink Petticoat cd which is urging me to use it so tomorrow I will play!

I have a couple of appointments today (but they are coming to me so I don't have to go out). I do need to go and get dressed though LOL

Tomorrow I have a wedding fayre at a new (to me) venue so if anyone is thinking of getting married and fancies an amble round a lovely hotel then we are at Hellaby Hall near Rotherham.

TTFN and thanks for looking :)