Happy 2008!

Well, that's another one over with - unfortuantely work commitments have kept me away from blogland for far too long now, but with fingers crossed that won't be the case next year.

I just wanted to say a very grateful Thank You to all who visit here and who have been very kind enough to leave feedback - it's always most appreciated, and I would like to wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous (and of course Creative!) 2008!

Good luck to you all!

Christmas Decoration Swap

I recently organised a Hanging Christmas Decoration swap with a group of forum girls and this was my offering.

It was great fun to do because I haven't had my paints out for ages so it was good to give them an airing!

The sweeties are all made from Fimo and, although you can't actually see it on the photo, the roof has been done in the same way as the slide mailer below - loads of white UTEE allowed to 'run' while it's still warm, then I dabbed a touch of 'frost' onto it in the form of irridescent glitter glue - my favourite!

Thanks for looking in!

Skinny Saturday - Beauty

Phew! Made it! I found my camera - Hurrah! And I made it home with just enough daylight to manage to get a pic of my offering! Hurrah Hurrah!! Here is my very first Skinny Saturday offering which I actually did make earlier in the week but I'm managed to post it just in time for the new challenge tomorrow! I found the quote on the net - I think it was by my favourite quote guy, Ralph Waldo Emerson - he comes up trumps every time! ;o)

Thanks for looking in!

Last Christmas, I gave you...

... a slide mailer! Eek! I've lost my camera, so until it turns up I have to resort to showing off oldies :o( I decided to go through my archives and see if I could find anything seasonal and I came up with this slide mailer that I sent to Zuzu last year when a few of us took part in a slide mailer swap.

and here's the front

I can't remember who's the stamp is, but the 'snow' was created by heating several layers of white UTEE then letting it 'run' while it was still warm, then I touched it up with some clear glitter glue.

I do have one or two things I've been working on to put on here, but until my camera manifests itself, I'm stuck with archive stuff.

Happy Advent to all who drop by!

In the pub...

Thank God for weekends! Another busy week in school but I have been doing lots of creating this week - none of it I can show off unfortunately as they are props for the forthcoming Christmas play. Great fun though, and I haven't spent a penny this week! :D

I have got cause for celebration though as my card in the November issue of Beautiful Cards achieved 'Star Letter' status (YIPPEE!) for which I received a fabulous Christmas pack of Heat it Up Tinsel Embossing Powders, some gorgeous Rubber Soul Winter Solstice 8 x 8 cardstock which I immediately used up because I was really excited by them, and a few other bits and bobs.

The card uses a Magnolia image from Christmas 2006 - this is one of my all-time favourites because I use it for birthdays, christmas, and just general 'Hi!' cards, as in this case. All the papers are HOTP from their Citrus pack and this image was built by stamping onto various papers and assembled a la decoupage - a process I don't normally undertake because I find it quite tedious, but for some reason I find very therapeutic with these stamps!

Thanks for looking in! :o)

Blog Break

Ugh! I haven't got a single minute for me these days so I'm having to take a blog break for a while till I catch up on stuff. My only creations at the moment are costumes for the nativity play and although I'm desperate to get back to my papers and stamps, I have so many other commitments right now that I have to disconnect myself from blogland. Hopefully not for long because I'm desperate to get back to taking part in the challenges and seeing some of my favourite sites. See ya's soon! ;o) xx

Arty Girlz Challenge - Bling!

What a week! This working lark is a bit exhausting! I'm having the most fabulous time though and never have I loved a job as much as I'm loving this - just wish I was getting a salary though :o( Oh well, I've completed my first assignment now and come out with a glowing report so that's one hurdle out of the way. It does make craft time tricky though - it's not that I don't want to be playing with my stash, I just haven't had the time nor the energy.

However, I decided to take part in this week's Arty Girlz Challenge because you can't expect me to walk away from a challenge which has Bling! as it's subject! LOL! :0)

I made both of these this afternoon and couldn't decide which one to show as they're almost identical, so I decided to show them both.

The first is a Magnolia image and the second was sent by my lovely friend Carla, who has tagged me this week, so now I am going to respond to that. Thanks Carla, you're a gem ;o)

1. If you could have 100.00 worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments, which would you choose?
Argh!! How do you choose? Can’t I have a mix? No? OK, I’ll go for the embellishments, but can they be something like 7 Gypsies or Ranger?

2. If you had to choose between using only stamps or rubons, which would you choose?
Without hesitation , Stamps!

3. If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts but could only do one for a whole year, which would you do?
Tut! What a rotten question - I’d say cards because I think I could sneak the odd LO onto a card!! LOL!

4. Would you rather own a scrap booking store or have your own scrapping room at home (can’t have both hee hee).
I have this dream - at our local (huge) Garden Centre in their Outdoor Rooms area, they have a wonderful Garden Studio which costs about £10K and it’s so spacious and light and airy and it has a wonderful feel about it. I would love to have one in my garden just for my stash, but even if I could afford it, I don’t have the space in the garden to accommodate it!

5. What is your CURRENT card making or scrapping style?
Hmmm.... Not sure if I have a current style - not even sure if I have a ‘style’, so to speak, I tend to just go with whatever mood I’m in that day, or I might be inspired by something I’ve seen elsewhere and adapt my style to a similar project. Sometimes my style is inspired by a challenge.... I must confess though to having a bit of a thing about blue and gold at the moment though.

Here are the rules????..
Please answer the questions on your blog and tag 5 more people to answer the same questions???.make sure you list on your blog who you are tagging?.Thanks!

So now I tag:

Galina - Galina's Russian upbringing reflects in her style and I absolutely love her projects because they are so different from anyone elses I have ever seen. Plus, she does the most amazing things with relief paint you can imagine!

Elaine - Elaine is amazing, she is one of the first people who's work really, really inspired me and made me desperately want to improve my own style. She's also a really lovely lady who never seems to run out of energy!

Sam - Naturally, I had to have my lovely friend Sam in here because not only is she a good friend, she's also one of those people who's work makes me gasp and sigh and I sooooooo wish I could do it like that! I have sat and watched Sam craft (from the corner of my eye!) and her attention to detail is second to none - every single piece is carefully thought out!

Deb - Deb is a lovely lady I have known for a couple of years now and she never fails to amaze me! Deb is the Background Queen! She takes a blank card and turns it into an amazing work of art without spending a fortune on pre-printed papers!

Emma - Emma probably won't even have time to read this, let alone respond to it as her little angels take up most of her time, but when she does find time to create, she produces the most beautiful pieces of work that never fail to impress!

Right girls, over to you! Go gettem!!! LOL!!

Chocolate Ice Cream!

I've been so busy this week and have had no time whatsoever for blogging, crafting or catching up so all I have to offer is a published LO I had in The Scrapbook Magazine this month. The theme was 'Food' and this picture of my youngest with his chocolate ice cream face just said it all for me and I couldn't resist using this.

I didn't use any embellishments on the page apart from the little heart which is actually covering up a smudge on my doodling! Tut!! :o) I also used this foam stamp in the corners which I knew was a freebie from somewhere but couldn't remember, till Galina kindly pointed out to me that it was from 'a rival scrapbooking magazine' - oops! (blush!).

Thanks for looking in!

Autumn Magnolia DT Cards

Birthday Card

This is a card I've made for one of my forum friends (who cannot be revealed yet...!) and I've made it in conjunction with another of Carla's Blog Challenges! The main image is a Bella one which Carla herself sent to me and I couldn't wait to have a play! Thanks so much for that Carla, and my forum buddy, I hope you like this when you receive it! :o)

Postcard Swap

I recently took part in a Postcard Swap and the theme was Halloween. Here's the one I sent to Elaine.
Isn't she gorgeous!!! I absolutely love these stamps by Daniel Torrente of Stampotique Originals - Elaine's son described it perfectly, Ghoulish! The poem is one that I sourced from the web. As it had to go through the mail as a postcard I couldn't add any dangly bits which was a shame because I had a fab 'web' that would have just finished it off perfectly! At least it reached it's destination in one piece.
Thanks for looking in!

Carla's Sketch Challenge - Fall Theme

I haven't done a sketch challenge for a while and I saw this earlier on Carla's blog and I thought I'd have a go.

Paper is all HOTP from their Earth Tones stack, image is Magnolia and the buttons I've had for years! I have two big jars of these and Christmas buttons and both my boys used to love scattering them all over the floor and playing through them when they were toddlers - great for fine motor skills, but they used to make pictures with them too!

Thanks for looking in! :o)

Saturday Stampers - Pink Ribbon

Here is my Pink Ribbon offering for Saturday Stampers this week. I'm going to send this one to a very special lady who I've shared most of my life with but there were many, many other special people I was thinking about also while I made it.

I've also discovered what I was doing that prevented some of my pics from being enlarged when you click on them, and it works here if you want to see. Thank you for stopping by.

4 x 4 Friday - Numbers

My 6 year old came to me this morning with a dilemma - he couldn't work out how to draw a person without having a black line around them??? I asked him what he meant and he tried to explain that all his drawings of people have black lines around them, but people don't have black lines around them, do they?? He meant the outline, of course - OMG, he does pose some dilemmas! :o)

Anyway, here is my first offering for 4 x 4 Friday. There's so many blog challenges out there now that I don't know how people keep up.

Thanks for looking in! :o)

Zipper Charm

Just a simple offering today - this is a zipper charm I made for my son for his pencil case. He loves this Magnolia image and we were trying to think of something we could put it on and this is what I came up with. It's stamped onto white shrink plastic and coloured with pencils and I am really pleased with how beautifully they shrink down!

Arty Girlz Challenge - Glueless

Well the Arty Girlz challenge this week was a bit testing - I had plenty of ideas but the urge to pick up my glue stick, silicone tube, d/s tape etc... was sometimes hard to resist, so I kept it really, really simple and let the papers do all the work! When I'd finished however, the top tag was screaming for a little glitz so I succumed and added the tiny piece of German Scrap, but I applied it with Glossy Accents so that I didn't stray from the theme - I would never use Glossy Accents as an adhesive (and never will again!!!!!) so my conscience is quite clear!! LOL! Thanks for looking!

Gothic Arch Challenge - Flowers

I am way behind on some of my craft debts and I intend to get them all finished and in the post by tomorrow - so if you're someone who's waiting for something from me and you're reading this, I promise I WILL honour my commitment this week - postmen allowing!!!

Here's my Gothic Arch - I've missed this for the last two weeks through other stuff taking priority but I really wanted to have a go at it this week regardless of the subject. First I masked off the areas of the stamp I didn't want showing then stamped the rest of the image onto acetate. I like to use the kind that goes through your printer because it has a 'rough' back which is able to hold colour. I then painted it with Twinkling H20's then glued it onto the card which I aged with gesso and a toothbrush!

Thanks for looking!

Saturday Stamper - DPOV

Here's a quick tag set I started up this morning which I intend to fill with blog challenges - maybe not every time, but hopefully eventually fill it up. This is my first Saturday Stamper contribution which I made using a stamp that I bought from my friend Lorry last week when she was having a stash clearout. The charm is made from shrink plastic which I coloured using chalks. TFL!

Wednesday Stamper - Autumn Colours

I feel like I've been running along a conveyer belt this week, trying desperately not to fall off the end!! LOL!! I started my training this week then decided to transfer for many reasons, none of them reflecting the school I've been working at because it's so lovely. However, I need to earn some money, somehow, and so I'm going to switch schools and supervise at lunchtimes too! Nobody said this was going to be easy!

Anyway, here's my Wednesday Stamper piece for this week. For some reason the picture won't enlarge when you click on it and the wording on here isn't very clear - it says : Delicious Autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. (George Eliot). Which sums it up for me!

Just about everyone I know, including myself, adores the Autumn. I love the cool crispness of it, the deep richness of it, and I love Bonfire Night and Halloween too!!! Autumn is comfy, cosy season, and there's nothing like coming home on a dark, cold evening and putting your feet up with a cup of hot chocolate - especially if there are mini marshmallows floating on the top!! Mmmmm......

Thanks for looking in... :D

Arty Girlz Challenge - Tags

I was so inspired by my lovely friend Sam's tag this week that I decided to fit the Arty Girlz Challenge into my play time this week also - especially as I love tags anyway. I'm running short of time very quickly these days so I grabbed what I could from this morning and came up with this

It's a mountboard sizzix-cut tag which I painted first with moonglow stains (you can't actually see from the photo but it's quite sparkly IRL!), then I distressed (too much IMO) with inks and gesso. The paper is Brenda Walton and the stamp is a mag freebie and the Chocolate image is from my box of scrap collage pieces.

Thanks for looking!

Tagged

Hee!! Lovely Emma has tagged me but I only just spotted it, but Thank You m'dear! :D

I've not had a very creative week so far as I've started my new job and I have been so exhausted by the time I get home that I could sleep standing up!! Dear Lord, how on earth am I going to survive this one??? I'm working for two classrooms of 28 children in each, over 3 days a week! I'm sure it's the newness of it all, but everyone else just seems to breeze around quite calmly looking busy, yet in control, but I feel like a whirling dervish dashing about like a mad thing wondering which room I came from and how do I find my way back to it!!! It's scary...

Anyway, here's my tag bit:

4 places I have worked
Alexandra Hospital in Redditch
AT&T
BBC in Birmingham
Serco Solutions (yah boo sucks!!!!)

4 places I have lived
Manchester
Worcestershire (3 different houses)
Only the two 'places' I'm afraid! I don't like moving house!

4 favourite foods
Olives (hee hee!!!! I know Sam will read this!!!)
Sun blush tomatoes
Dolcellate cheese
Tesco's Mediterranean Bread - when I can get hold of it!!!

4 places I would rather be
In a swimming pool all by myself and not having to rush off to anything
In a jacuzzi (all by myself and not having to rush off to anything)
In a fabulously organised and well-stocked craft room (all by myself and not having to rush off to anything!!!!)
On a balcony of a villa in Tuscany in the warm sunshine, with a sketch pad and pencil and a big bowl of olives by my side, listening to the sound of my children playing happily with their dad somewhere below! ;o)

And now it's my turn! I tag

Paula and Elaine
and I'll post an oldie pic here - this is one of the things I showed in my presentation to Magnolia when I answered their DT call. As this is a 'Tag' post, I felt it apt to show you a Tag card!! TFL!!!

My Aristrocratic Title!

This is me:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Grace Lady Anne the Sophisticated of New Invention Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

ROFL!!! I love it - you can get one too by clicking on the link! Have fun! ;o)

Bird Box Swap

One of my forum buddies organised a Bird Box Swap. She bought and distributed these tiny little birdboxes which we then had to give a makeover to then send on again to our respective swap partners, and here's mine.

This is the front:and here's the back:

I think most of us were a bit shocked when our 'blanks' arrived because they are much tinier than we first imagined!! LOL!!

Wednesday Stamper - MOO Cards

I've never heard of them!!! I clicked on the link provided by Wednesday Stamper and saw these and decided to give it a whirl! Here's my MOO cards - they are quite addictive, and now that they've been photographed I'm going to punch a hole through the lot and keep them on a clip ring and just add to them from time to time. I must admit I had more fun with these than I ever did with inchies!

Thanks for looking!!

Autumn is here...

Not so blustery today - well, not at the moment anyway - but I feared for the tree at the bottom of my garden yesterday. It's grown out of the side of a very steep banking and it's roots are exposed and it was swaying like mad in the wind yesterday. All the talk of tornadoes was making me very nervous indeed!

So, as it's that time of year I figured it was about time I started on some Christmas cards. This is a very, very quick one which is what I will be sending to my neighbours. The photo is my front garden and the road outside taken in the snow earlier this year. I played about with the image, cropping off all the bits I didn't want then added the frosty border. It's a nice and easy card and I make one for each of my neighbours in one night - sorted! :D

The next is using a Magnolia image (I love this one!!!) which I painted with H20's and placed on a cuttlebug embossed background. The paper behind is one from a Papermania "Warm Tones" stack that I bought for ripping up and collaging purposes, but as soon as I saw this I thought "Snow" and voila!

The one thing I really love about making Christmas Cards is that it's always a good excuse to get the glitter out and go mad!! In this case I've gone a bit OTT with crystal glitter glue which is my favourite because it dries nice and flat and is really 'crispy'! I've even bought cheap plain cards from the superstores and dressed them up with a tub of this stuff!! LOL!

Wot... No Eggs!

I'm in the doghouse! :o( Saturday mornings are special here because my boys love me to whip up a batch of pancakes and they sit in their PJ's watching Spongebob Squarepants munching away while the butter and maple syrup drips out all over the table, their plate.... their PJ's - but who cares - that's what washing machines are for!! However, I went shopping last night with little 'un and because he seemed unable to take ten paces without wanting to go for a widdle we spent too much time running up and down the store (why don't they put toilets at BOTH ends of these great big stores?? Or at least somewhere in the middle!! Not at the other end of the car park! ARGH!!) and not enough time putting essentials in the trolley - and I forgot the eggs! Eek! No pancakes this morning, 'fraid! :o( And there's no point in getting in the car and driving out to get some because we'd have to get dressed and pancakes don't taste the same when you're properly dressed!

Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but where has the week gone? I've had a very mixed bag this week, a little sorrow, a touch of anger (courtesey of Hobbycraft - am now boycotting their stores! grrrr) a heap of frustration (you can blame Led Zeppelin for that one!!! LOL!) but overall I'm still a happy bunny with my lot! 'Specially now that I've managed to pre-register for tickets! :o)

Tomorrow is my friend Becky's birthday. Becky has recently joined the ranks of Papercrafters(how's she managed to get away with it for this long??!! LOL!) and I was recently the recipient of one of her beautiful handmade cards, so now it was my turn. I made this for her as a means of introducting her to Rubber Stamping and also Magnolia - two jobs in one. Thanks as always for looking! :o)

TMTA - Slidemounts

Here is my very first contribution to TMTA which was introduced to me by Paula. This is also the first ATC I have made in months - probably since May so I've been a bit out of practice!

The stamp is Paper Artsy's Urban Snapshots and the background is chalked and stippled with various inkpads. Thanks for looking!

Gothic Arch Challenge - Family

I've only just discovered the Gothic Arch Challenge this week and it's so popular that I had to have a go too! Stamps are Non-Seq (I think!) and Judikins and pp is Basic Grey. (click pic to enlarge)

Thanks for looking

It's the weekend....

Ever had one of those days where you start a hundred and one things and finish none? I'm having one today! I was up at 6.15am and began working on a birdhouse challenge I've signed up for, and in the meantime I've found another load of challenges out there in blogland that have whetted my appetite too, so I've kind of started (and not finished!) some of those. The thing that keeps distracting me is that I keep remembering that I've got to make a card for a 7 year old girl for tomorrow and I don't want to do that - I want to get inked up to the eyeballs instead.

So, as I have no finished projects to show off, I'll put this on here which is a tag in pocket that I made for a forum buddy who had her birthday last week. Unfortunately I didn't know until it was too late that her birthday was a 'biggie' :o(

A bit blue...

Not really, I was feeling a little bit lost this morning after I had dropped the kids off at school, but no sooner had I got home and my phone began ringing. I managed to hold conversations till it was time to go out and do my lunchtime job, which had me run ragged, and then I came home and it rang again - this time I managed to keep chatting till it was time to pick the kids up from school.... where has the day gone!!! LOL!!! :o)

Anyway, this is a RAK I made for my lovely friend Sharon . It's another one of my folders that I made using the apperture from the Basic Grey sheet. The stamps I used are Hero Arts and the embossed card was made using a cuttlebug folder.

Thanks for looking!

One more day..

:o( Am I the only mum in the land who really does not want her kids to go back to school yet? I've yet to meet another mum who is really enjoying having her kids at home. Apart from one of two 'iffy' moments, they have been absolutely delightful boys and I have really enjoyed the summer break as much as they have. They, for their part, appear to be quite excited, though I'm not sure if that's because they've had enough of my company, or if they just want to get back with their mates - I've convinced myself it's the latter!! LOL! :o)

In the meantime, here's a card I made for a forum buddy's birthday - I can show it now because she'll have seen it already

The stamp was sent to me last week by my lovely buddy Elaine, though God knows why she wanted to part with it - I absolutely adore it and as soon as I saw it I had to use it. Elaine also very generously donated (along with a whole pile of fabulous goodies!) the ornate corner which is a cuttlebug die cut which I plastered with gold UTEE and I LOVE it!!! Got to have that die! The Basic Grey paper is also embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder.

Thanks for looking!

We have a winner....!!!

Whenever I've been on holiday, usually places like Devon, I always manage to end up at some village show or other and I love the twee-ness of the homecrafts area, you know, where people show off their pots of jam, or their handmade rag-rugs, etc., and secretly I've always wanted to take part in one of these - I love seeing the tables with their "First", "Second" and "Third" prize certificates, and of course the "Highly Commended" one's. The latter always make me laugh because I always equate them to the "Must try harder" comments that so frequently popped up on my school reports!! LOL!

Well, last week I noticed that the Village Show was to be held on 1st Sept so I picked up an entry form from the post office and was delighted to see that there was a category for a Christmas Card! Best of all, the first prize was 75p!!! OMG, I couldn't pass up this opportunity, so I sat up grafting all night (well, while the Big Brother celebrations were going on, anyway!) and I came up with these two. My Magnolia card was awarded 1st place with an overall score of 18.5/20, along with the comments "Great fun and good use of materials - a little more care needed with cutting!" WHAAAAA????? ROFL!!!! :o)

Unfortunately, there wasn't a "Highly Commended" certificate to be given, but this little beauty probably wouldn't have stood a chance anyway! It escaped with a score of 14/20, and I received the comments "A very good attempt - a paper insert would add to finish and presentation"! So I forgot!!!! OK???? LOL!

I also entered one of my watercolours in the Painting category and came away with Second prize (50p!) and the comment "Excellent detail - well mounted. A little more care needed to avoid prencil showing" and it received a score of 17/20!

I must admit, I was extremely pleased with this because I've never shown any of my watercolours off anywhere, though having said that, it's a few years since I actually did any! tut!

All in all it turned out to be a great day! And on top of all that, ecstatic with my winnings (£1.25 for those who've not been keeping a running total!! LOL!) I found myself signing up to join the committee, and my first gesture was to donate my winnings to the Village Hall Fund (though God knows I need it more than they do!!! LOL!)

Thanks for dropping in - as always your lovely comments are very much appreciated! :o)

Where did August go???

I can't believe it's exactly 4 months to Christmas now! Where did August go? It's been a really hectic month for me. Terry took two weeks off work and his neice got married smack in the middle of that fortnight which didn't really give us much opportunity to get away. The first week was spent shopping for outfits, haircuts, etc. etc. then last week we spent out and about and having a lot of fun!

At the beginning of the week was my lovely friend Sam's birthday and I made this card for her using the Ancient Page inkpads as recommended by Barbara -thanks for the tip Barbara, they worked fabulously and I'm now totally addicted!

I also made this mini album which was supposed to be made with CD envelopes but as I didn't have access to any, nor could I find any on my cyber travels, I had to improvise and make my own. A lot of work but brilliant fun, and once I get some spare time for myself I'm going to make another one for my own use!

The inside is filled with tags and pockets and envelopes and mini cards, but as I don't have access to Sam's personal photo collection, I decided to leave them all blank for her to fill in herself!

I had a birthday all of my own this week too and I received a whole ton of fabulous cards and handcrafted goodies and I would like to say a huge Thank You to all those lovely friends who very kindly helped to make my day a very special one - you all know who you are and you're diamonds, every one of you ;o)

Well that's my kick up the backside from Sam (for not updating my blogger enough!!) out of the way. Thank You for passing through and I'll try and keep up-to-date a bit more! :o)

I've been tagged!

Hey!! Thank You Kim for tagging me with the Bumper Card Society Tag - I only just spotted this! I'm very proud ;o)

Right then, here are the rules copied directly from Kims blog so that I don't mess up:

1) Send ONE card to someone you know within 7 days! (family, friends, associates, cyber people, etc.) ANYONE!!! Doesn't matter who... just do it. Can you imagine the smile on their face when they open their mailbox and see a card from you?

2) Tag (yes, I know, but this is the only way to spread this) 5 people you know to do the same thing (Tag means tag them to send their own cards to their own people).

3) Proudly display this on your blog to spread a little sunshine and pass it on.If you get tagged again (we can all hope, can't we), send another card!

I tag


Sam

Paula

Sherri

Elaine

Sharon

Go gettem girls!! :o)

Emergency Birthday

There we all were plodding about in our PJ's way past mid-morning having a lovely lazy Saturday when I suddenly remembered my Isaac is meant to be going to a 6th birthday party this afternoon! OMG! I toyed with not reminding him about it but then guilt kicked in and I figured that it will do him good to see some more of his classmates before they go back to school. However, because I only just remembered the party, I obviously hadn't prepared anything for it, so Thank God for Magnolia! I have only used their stamps on 'adult' cards up to now, but of course, they're perfect for children. I escaped to my room for half an hour and this is what I emerged with....

One of the very first things I ever bought when I began crafting (or should that be when I first discovered QVC!!! LOL!) was a set of Fiskars templates and to this day they have sat on my shelves unused - till now that is! I used the largest heart shape to cut the hearts out and a notch & die tool to do the scalloping around the background heart. The slider is my brand new Cuttlebug die which arrived only this morning (I am absolutely mad about a lot of the Cuttlebug products) and the corners and 'hinges' were freebie stickers with Issue 30 of Scrapbook Inspirations.

Thanks for dropping in! ;o)

Jus' Playing

This is something that I made in 5 minute blocks over a length of time, just playing around. I've had this on my desk for over a week and everytime I got stuck for an idea I'd get this out again and just add a bit more to it - it was meant to just keep my hands busy while I thought about what I will do next.

I made a template from the hole left in the Basic Grey folder I played with earlier and made the folder from that. Everything else on here is just bits that I've played with, and piled all together in here.

It was never intended to be anything, it wasn't made for any purpose or occasion. It was quite therapeutic to make because I didn't intend to actually make anything from it - an exercise I'll definitely perform again.