Sweet Pea Stampers - A sprinkling of fairy dust

Whoops! Here I am again - 2 days in a row, it must be a record for me! I'm not in peak condition this morning, but save your sympathy, it's self-inflicted!! LOL! My SIL invited us to a barbie yesterday afternoon because the weather did a complete u-turn - it was glorious and the atmosphere was fab, and I'm afraid that I not only drank too much, but I committed the cardinal sin of mixing my drinks! Sooooo stooopid and I think I got off pretty light with just a thumping head and tiredness! I can just hear my mum this morning saying "That'll learn ya!" LOL!

Anyway, here is my sample card for this week's Sweet Pea Stampers themes - this week it's A sprinkling of fairy dust. so I used a bucket-load! OMGoodness, this card has so much diamond dust glitter on it that I'm thinking of getting it insured! LOL! The papers are Websters and I used a sketch from this weeks' Stempeleinmaleins challenge, which I've only just discovered but they have some fab samples so I was inspired to join in!


Well that's my lot for today - hope you like! Why not pop over to Sweet Pea Stampers or Tag, You're It! and join in with the themes for this week. Hope to see you there! Thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Tag, You're It! Heaven Sent

Bloomin' heck, this weather wasn't heaven sent, was it!! I'm freezing! Happy Bank Holiday weekend, bloggers. Typical BH, cold, wet, miserable - and the weather's not much better!! LOL!! First of all I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all those who left me comments about my Supporting ASC course, and those who have already offered to answer questions for me. I have deliberately not published any comments because I promised total confidentiality and I will email you all individually if I haven't done so already. Thank You!

Right then, over at Tag, You're It! this weekend our theme is Heaven Sent and here is my offering:

I dunno, something is missing - in my minds eye I'm seeing a sillouette of swans or geese flying across the moon, but I don't have a stamp to show that, so try and picture it if you can, it might add that something needed! LOL!! It's a really simple tag - the background is just chalked and I masked off the 'moon' with a punched circle of paper, then I stamped on the sentiment (I love this!) and gave it a blast with some glimmer mist - but then I think tags should be simple. If you like tags, and you like to receive artworks from other crafters, I URGE you to join us throughout June because we're hosting a Tag Swap! Everyone who plays along with our themes has the opportunity to send all their June tags to our lovely Janet who will mix them up and re-distribute them so that everyone receives a lovely surprise in the post! Why not pop over there to see what's what and take a look at all the other gorgeous tags, past and present, we have to offer!

Thanks so much for popping in and I hope you have a great BH weekend! :o) xx

Can You Help?

I'm currently on week 4 of an 8 week course entitled "Supporting Children with Autistic Spectrum Conditions" and I am seeking your help. I have deliberated long and hard about doing a Level 4 Accreditation - last week I had decided once and for all that I would just do the course and get my attendance certificate. However, I have now decided that I would be wasting a golden opportunity if I don't do it and have therefore enrolled (OMG, what have I done!!!)

Last night at our course we were introduced to a number of young people and their friends and families who were very happy to talk to us about living with their condition and although we got to ask many questions, I still have loads more that I would like to ask. There are hundreds of books, You Tube documentaries, films, etc... and by enrolling on the course I get access to a huge library of resources, but in my mind there is nothing like hearing it "from the horses mouth", if you'll pardon the expression.

I wanted to ask if you are somebody who cares for or supports a child with ASC, or if indeed you yourself have autism/aspergers if you would be willing for me to contact you via email to ask questions? I would like to build a bank of people who live with or care for/support people with ASC in order to get a variety of experiences. It goes without saying that confidentiality is my number 1 priority and that no information you care to impart would be passed on to any second party - it is solely for me to gain a better understanding of all areas of the spectrum, and help me to prepare my assignments.

If you would be happy to let me email you, please could you drop me a line to my email address and I will contact you at the earliest opportunity.

I would like to extend my grateful thanks in anticipation. :o) xx

Running with the Pack!

Happy Sunday all! Phewwwww!!!! Sooooooo hot! Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - too much! I had the most wonderful night's sleep last night after I dug out my huge fan and just left it running all night - bliss!! Well, today was the day - what a scorching day it turned out to be for the Bromsgrove Race for Life! But I did it, despite the fact that I was so hot and sweaty that I finished up looking more like Jimmy Saville that Jimmy Saville does!! Oh the shame of it! LOL!! But here we all are showing off our medals with HUGE pride and a sense of pure satisfaction. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I feel really motivated to get out and walk some more. I've made myself a promise (you heard it here first!) that next year I will jog it! We did jog some today but the heat was so unbearable that it just wore you down.

The next picture was taken at about 1km mark - it's quite scary to see how many people were in front of me, but when I turned around I was sooooo happy to see that there were just as many, and more, behind me! My biggest fear was being the last to finish but I reackon that there must have been at least 1500 after me - plus the girls here (some of my colleagues) were brilliant and we just kept spurring each other on, and we crossed the finishing line 54 minutes after we set off! Not bad eh?!

My first commitment next pay day is a decent pair of trainers - I have blisters on my blisters, but I also have a Remington foot spa which proved to be a Godsend this afternoon! LOL!!!

Onto my Tag creation this week - our theme today is A Whiter Shade of Pale and we are asking players to make an all-white tag. We're not really cruel though, we do appreciate how difficult it can be so we have allowed minimal colour, as long as the overall impression is that of a white tag. Here is my DT offering:

It's to say THANK YOU to all of you who very kindly sponsored me today (it's still not too late if you're wishing you did - the link is still at the top of my blog). I did pledge to raise £150 but unfortunately I only succeeded in raising £120 so far but I'm hoping that some of the people I missed at work last week will kindly sponsor me retrospectively!

Well I definitely won't need any rocking to sleep tonight - I feel shattered now. My boys are both going off on their school residential trips tomorrow and I am in need of Separation Therapy! Boo Hoo!!!!!

Hope you have a great week, and long may this sun shine! Thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Vintage Romance

Aaaahhhh..... That's me and my boy back in August 1998 when we were young and gorgeous!! LOL! Our theme over at Tag, you're It! this week is Vintage Romance so I scanned one of our wedding photo's and sepia'd it up a bit! Unbelievably, although it was only 12 years ago (he says it feels MUCH longer!!!) our photo's were shot on 35mm and we had to do a deal with the photographer's to buy the negatives!! The bride wore lilac and cream - a dress I bought off the peg from Dotty P's the week before! We headed off on our annual holiday to a little cottage we used to rent just outside Oban, and stopped off en route to tie the knot at Gretna with my faithful pup Rosie as my bridesmaid proudly sporting her new tartan collar (though she hid it well here!!)

I had a moment of excitement and fame yesterday when the joke I sent to Rick Wakeman for his Planet Rock show was read out on air! As if that wasn't enough, 10 minutes later he revealed that I was also the winner of last week's Lyric Theatre! ROFL!!! My Saturday mornings are geared around Rick's show - he is so naughty and hilariously funny, and plays the best tracks and his interviews with rock legends are always brilliant! We went down to Devon a few weeks ago and I timed it perfectly so that we could just be hitting the motorway as Rick's show was starting, and with any luck, arrive shortly after it finished. So when the bloomin' engine died on the M5 with half an hour of the programme still to run I was furious! Not only did me and the boys and my dogs have to stand under a motorway bridge in the freezing cold and incredible noise for over an hour till the breakdown arrived, I missed the last half hour of Rick!!! Argh! Then to add insult to injury, Terry came home with a courtesey car that hadn't got DAB radio! Outrageous!

Thanks for stopping by here and if you find yourself with time to spare this week, get yourself over to TYI and make a beautiful romantic vintage tag of your own to show off! Go on, you know you want to!! :o) xxx

A Testing Time.....!

SATS everywhere!!! KS1 at work and KS2 at home! Still, it hasn't been as stressy as I was expecting it to be. My eldest was told to 'just have a relaxing weekend' by his teacher on Friday and trust me, he carried out her instruction to the letter!! tut! If only he would do what I tell him with such enthusiasm! LOL!!

Anyway, over at Sweet Pea Stampers we have a pretty theme of Pink, Green and Brown and we would love to see how people interpret that. I used Sketch Saturday's current sketch to make my card. My head is just so full of stuff that I HAVE to do at the moment that I can't seem to be 'free' with my creativity so I followed the sketch almost exactly and I have to say I'm not one to usually put my images at a 'jaunty angle' and I felt a bit unsure at first but having decided to just go with it, I am really pleased with the result and it's a great sketch that I will definitely use again!

Well that's my lot for today - I thank you for stopping by and I wish you a good week ahead. If you're at a loose end at all it would be great to see you over at Tag You're It! or Sweet Pea Stampers! :o) xxx

Sweet Pea Stampers - Sketch

Happy Bank Holiday Monday folks! Brrrr.... what a chilly one! Quick post from me today because I've already spent ages updating my Magnolias Only blog and I really need to crack on with some domestics!

At Sweet Pea Stampers this week we have a sketch for you, as well as some fabulous blog candy and amazing samples from our wonderful team and fabulous guest opportunities! Moving quickly on, here is the sketch:

and here is the card I made using the sketch.

Can you spot the difference!!! duh! Without boring you with details, we had an emergency dash to make yesterday and I forgot that I needed to put some finishing touches to my card. I didn't get chance to photograph it till this morning and it was only when I'd uploaded my pics that I realised I had forgotten to put the pearls on the end of the strips! Argh! So here's what it should have looked like, LOL!!!

Hope you have a great BH Monday, and thanks for stopping by my blog! :o) xx

Tag, You're It! Butterfly's Kiss!

OK, instructions on how to make this tag. You know when you make a card and start with a sheet of A4 cardstock, you then trim it down to make it 5x5 or whatever size... you get a couple of strips of card that you trimmed off. What are you going to do with them? Throw them in the recycling bin or save them 'for a rainy day'. Then one day you find you have heaps of scraps of card that are just in the way, taking up space and are probably never going to get used. Well, here's what I do with mine. Grab a box of chalks, or inkpads - whatever is closest to hand, and whizz some colour all over, randomly. It really doesn't matter how it looks because you then take a black inkpad, a stamp or two and stamp away to your hearts content! Next I trimmed the strip of card down at the points that I liked, punched a fancy edge 'for the heck of it' and stuck it onto another of the offcuts, punched a hole in it and threaded a ribbon! That's what tag-making is all about. It doesn't have to be elaborate or time-consuming. Sometimes, as in this case, if I find myself lost for inspiration I will just go through my tag box and maybe play with it some more. Here I just added a bit of stickles and a couple of gems but I made a foul-up with the middle butterfly by spilling some Glossy Accents on it. You can't hide that stuff, it will always shine, even after you've wiped it off!! LOL!! So I just punched another butterfly out in a circle shape, added some sparkly stuff and hid the offending area! This will end up on someone's doormat one day with a simple Thank You message written on the back and hopefully someone will enjoy receiving it as much as I enjoyed making it!

That's the really nice thing about Tag Art - it doesn't need to take an age to make one, you can knock them out while you're waiting for the kettle to boil! They're great for experimenting on and they don't have to be perfect, but they generally look very beautiful when you've finished them off with a gem or two and a bit of ribbon!


So if you've got a cup of tea to make at some point this week, why not pop over to Tag, You're It!, feast your eyes on the delish samples the team have provided to inspire you and while you're waiting for the kettle to boil knock out a tag with butterflies on using up your paper and card scraps that you can show off and inspire others - go on, you'll be glad you did!! :o)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great BH weekend!! :o) xx