I got a Bigshot for Christmas and its Friday!

Whoohoo! Matt got me a BigShot for Christmas! How lucky am I! I also go some lovely new PJ's, speakers for my pc, the cutest little teapot, a mini greenhouse for bringing on my seedlings early and some fabby pennies! The greenhouse was from Matt's Mum and is great as it means I will be able to bring on the flowers Im going to grow for our wedding on nice and early, and speed them up if they need it, such a thoughtful gift.

Christmas day itself was lovely, we went to a gorgeous watchnight service, Ive never been to one before and it was beautiful, lovely to sing carols in such friendly company and the minister was really funny, smiley and caring. It was so frosty it looked like it had snowed, really beautiful, I tried to take some photos and will have a go at loading them later if they came out. Had a long lie on Christmas day morning and then spent the day at Matt's Mums house which was really relaxing. It was so nice just to chill out together and chat and share.

Then boxing day night, after a sloth like day, I came down with a nasty pukey bug and only really surfaced properly yesterday night, realising it was time for our latest dare...eek! Luckily this weeks is nice and easy. To make a simple and Stylish Thank you card. Mine's a blatant copy of a previous card I've done *blush* but I hope to do some more now I'm feeling better, to say thanks for all the gorgeous presents I received so as I do them I'll share them.
I've also received some more gorgeous birthday cards, lucky me again! I'll put them up shortly. I always keep all my birthday cards up as long as my Christmas ones so I'll still get to show them off for a bit yet. I hope you had a lovely Christmas too.

My Gorgeous Birthday Cards

I'm such a lucky girl to get all these beautiful handmade cards, arent my friends talented! Thank you to each and every one of you and for all the texts, emails and e cards too, you're all such fabby friends. And if this works I did my first slideshow!

The recipe for a good New Year

...is apparently a tall dark man arriving after just after the bells with coal and bread which represents the food and warmth you will have for the coming year. The reason a dark man was preferable seems to date back to when the vikings were pillaging in Scotland so a blonde man could be dangerous. Funny how these things start!

My recipe for a good new year is at home or at a friends home with lots of food and drink, good company, but not too much drink that you fall over, been there done that and I'm quite happy to see some of january the first instead of spending it hiding from the daylight nursing a hangover moaning why do I do this to myself. Familiar?

Anyway, we have a slightly different recipe for a new year dare card this week, see what I did there!

It's to make a New Year card using 3 brads or eyelets, 2 patterned papers and 1 die cut or punchie and daadaa!
I used DCWV papers, An Auntie Sarah's Daisy Bloom, Angel Kiss from LCC, Lil Davis foam stamps (part of my Birthday Stash) for the 2007 stamped in brown acrylic paint, brad from Dovecrafts, other brads and clip from a swap and QK Olivia for the greeting. Ok I know I used more than one die cut but I only used one alphabet... will you let me off?

So if you've completely missed the Christmas card posting dates how about doing New Year ones instead, I reckon you can send them til at least february!

Have fun playing and I hope Santa brings you lots of crafty goodies to play with.

Thank you

Thank you all for your lovely comments, its fab to be able to tell everyone our news, whoooohoooo!

I had a great birthday, was working, but hey it was crafty working so it was fun and I'm not complaining, then got treated to a gorgeous home made chinese, Matt's a star in the kitchen, king prawn stir fry, yummm, with profiteroles for afters. He lit the fire too and generally attended to my every need. What a star he is and by next years birthday the love of my life will be my husband *still grinning*

But I did promise to share my crafty stash with you, heres a pic of the bits I chose myself from LCC for Matt to give me.
Basic Grey luch tin with loads of bits inside, cherry arte stamps, the gorgeous flower ones, Lil Davis Foam alphabet, chipboard, my first proper chipboard, Ive been using homemade stuff til now! Ickle buttons, mahoosive brads and fabric blooms. Fab all of it, and cause it had been at least a week of waiting to open it (felt like a lifetime lol) I'd forgot what I'd ordered! I also got the sizzlits windows and frame set which is full of basic shapes, havent had a chance to play yet though, but the holidays are coming!

Matt also got me a beautiful Amarillis which is just about to bloom, a few other things and made me a card! Im so impressed I think its ace, he just used bits from my very messy desk. A huge thank you to all the fabby talented people who sent me birthday cards too, when I get a mo, I shall take pictures of them all and have a go at one of the cool slideshow thingys.

And tomorrow's friday, which can mean only one thing, dare day!

Now I can share...!!!!

...my exciting news with all the world! Whoohoo!

On the 3rd of december Matt got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, and I said yes! We've been together 6 years and lived together for the last 4, he is the love of my life and now we're going to be husband and wife *Big Grin*. I've been dying to shout it from the rooftops for 2 weeks and its been so hard to keep my big mouth shut, but we wanted to make sure we told some really special and important people first, and they've been bloomin hard to pin down cause apparently there is this thing called Christmas happening soon !?!?Heres a piccy of me wearing my ring that we chose together, and one of it on its own. I love it, its so not traditional and its comfy and feels part of me already. *Another Big Grin* Its made by a local jeweller Michael Kay who's a member of my crafts association, you can see more of his work here. Oh by the way the paper background is one of the Scrumptious Basic Grey Blush papers, gorgeous!
We're planning on getting married in August next year in an intimate way with close family and friends although we haven't pinned down a date yet, so much to do! Its fantastically exciting and a little bit nervewracking as neither of us are very good at being the centre of attention!

And its my birthday tomorrow too, whoohoo!

Whats Black and White and Red all over?

A sunburnt penguin!
Black and white Christmas cards, maybe with a splash of colour! A nice easy not too challenging dare to get us through these busy weeks, heres what I came up with...
A simple stamped card using Royal and Langernickel clear snowflake stamps, Purple Onion background text stamp, a do crafts snowflake punch and a circle punch.

This one's done with the cute Bosscuts snowman. Snowflakes and sniny bits are done with a glaze gelly roll pen. I hope you're inspired, and if you have a few more Chiristmas cards to get made and sent then this is your chance. The design team has produced an amazing selection of cards.

Only 3 days til my Birthday and some rather interesting brown boxes have been arriving by courier. I gave them a quick once over and I know what I hope might be inside... They've now been hidden away from my grubby paws!

The only other thing to report is that last night I started the mamoth task of tidying my craft room. It was getting ridiculous with barely a path to my seat from the door for stuff, and of course every surface covered. Digging down through the layers was a bit like archeology, and there were random bits for a good few dares ago at the very bottom. I found some things I'd mislaid too which is always good. Today Im going to hoover and dust while I can see carpet and surfaces and then make some new mess.

There's a lot of nasty bugs going round right now, big hugs to everyone who's feling poorly and get well soon.

More Christmas Cards

I think hopefully this is almost the last batch for this year, all very similar, and only 2 pics came out, but it was getting too late for my head to come up with anything new, I think I have Christmas fatigue! I have almost finished my christmas presents shopping though, which is a huge relief. Its been the most horrible wet and windy weather but the blessing of that is that the shops are a bit quieter. I can't wait til its all finished then I can just laze about watching cheesy films and eatting chocolate, fab.

On a bit of a tangent, isn't it amazing how you're faith in the general good natured-ness of the human race is reaffirmed just when you need it. I went into town after work the other day on a mini mission for a couple of things. I was feeling a bit frazzled, tired and couldn't really be bothered as you do... and as I parked, I got a tap at the window and someone offered me their parking ticket which still had an hour and a half of time on it, what a lovely man. It's a small thing but it made me all warm and smiley inside and as I fought against the wind and rain to find what I was after I was all happy and filled with cheery thoughts.

Next week I'm teaching Mini books and waterfall cards, then its holidays, hooray! Is it just me or is everyone else knackered too and in need of a break?

Mini Book I can share!

I made this yesterday for my Grandma and Grampy's Christmas, luckily they don't do computers so I can share it safely knowing it'll stay a surprise for them. Its my first attempt at anything like this so I kept it simple but I'm quietly pleased with how it turned out. I made it so it can be hung up as a merry christmas decoration too. They stay down near Bath and don't travel much anymore so they havent seen our cats or where we live, the snowy photos are out the front and back of the house last february when we had tons of snow, hopefully they'll like seeing the pics. I just need to make a tag, trim the ribbons when I finally wrap it up and I'm done!

Now just a million other things to do today, lol!

Oh Christmas Tree

We put the Christmas tree up last night and it got me right into the whole thing, which was what I needed because I went into Arbroath yesterday. It was Manic. So busy that I had to park way out of town down by the water. And why did I think it was a good idea to leave going to the Post Office til Saturday afternoon. Doh! Still, I love the sense of cameraderie you get when things are so crazy in the shops, a rather tired looking random stranger in the supermarket was telling me if I thought this was bad, she'd been in Dundee all day. Hooray for internet shopping, no queues and you can do it in your pj's.

Got my wee brothers Birthday bits off in the post and a couple of prezzies and my to do list is getting shorter and my birthday is a week tomorrow, whoohoo! Very bad family planning to have me and my twin brothers birthdays in december, lol!

Then I thought I'd start writing my Christmas cards as putting the tree up had made me all smiley in a Christmas way, only to realise I don't have enough, so had another making spree til 2am. Heres one of them, inspired by the challenge on UKS
Its a scan as the light is so bad here with all the drizzly cloud, but that does mean the frost has melted today! So more cardmaking today and with any luck I can get them all off in the post tomorrow.

Have a great day whatever you're up to.

Stamping With A Twist

Keryn set this weeks Daring Cardmakers Dare, which was to stamp with a twist using something other than a commercial stamp. Luckily, my fantabulous Matt had been making me a hot water bottle a couple of weeks ago (Ahhh isn't he a sweetheart) and discovered one of them had perished over summer... and he suggested I might want it for some crafty thing! What a mind reader. So as soon as this dare was set I chopped it up and realised he was bang on, it had some fantastic textures!
This one is made with HOTP Christmas papers, the embossed stripes on the letters are stamped with the outside of the hot water bottle and the gold flecks on the green are stamped with the inside which has a great texture because the rubber has gone all bumpy and gnarly. It sort of looks like gold leaf flecks which is a great expensive look for free! The stitching is a Leave Memories UM stamp and the greeting is Hero Arts.

I used the outside stripes of the hot water bottle stamp for this one too, as the background to the 18, along with some DCWV papers from the Black and White Stack.

Thanks Keryn for a great dare, I really wish I'd had more time to play as I have one of those blue heatable blocks that you can make textures with for stamping and have never used it and want to have a go now! I'm very happy that now I have 3 more texture background stamps in my collection from something that would have ended up in the bin, Yay!

I can't wait to see what you do for this dare!

Bad Blogger

I can't believe its been a week since I posted, I have to say Ive been really busy and I have some fabby things happening in my life right now. Im not quite ready to share them with you all just yet though so you'll just have to wait, evil aren't I!

Teaching the teachers was fantastic, they're just exactly like normal people but with stressful and responsible jobs! They had a ball, made a huge mess and the biggest shock of all was they tidied it all up again in time for the bell! Wow! Normally I have to nag my students about tidying up time so well done you fab teachers, Im sure it's because you spend so much time tidying up after the kids. We did 3 of the 4 cards I had prepared, which is what I expected we'd get through but I like to be overprepared. Here's the pics of my examples although a few of them went freestyle which is always great to see. I think they liked the fact they didn't have to do the curricular activities and we allowed to play. A fantastic class all round.

Then last weekend I started my Christmas shopping, yes I know started when so many people are smugly saying mine's finished and wrapped but there you go, Im a last minute kind of girl when it comes to Christmas, though I hope Im not going to be anywhere near a shop on Christmas eve. I started at my Crafts Association Christmas fair and it was amazing. So many wonderful things created by people living just round the corner, there really is so much talent in the area. Sunday I went back to help man the raffle for the morning which is actually more fun than it sounds nattering to people.

The beginning of this week is a bit of a blur to be honest, and in a good way, but one final thing I want to share with you is what the postie brought me only half an hour ago...Basic Grey BLUSH!!!!!! Yay!!!!!! Sorry about the excessive exclamation marks but its even more gorgeous than I fist thought when I saw the pics. Im so glad I got the little pad too, much easier to cut into to get started with it, and its all mine Mwahahahahah, but you can get it too from loads of places, mine came from here.

So until tomorrow my friends, when the next fabby dare is revealed, I shall love you and leave you in suspense. lol

Happy crafting!

Dared to Sing!

Ha! Have you heard me sing? Well its a good job I don't have a mic for the sake of your eardrums. Im an enthusiastic singer but thas about it! Kel set this fab new Dare, which was to make a card incorporating song lyrics.

Now I don't know if I should be worried but all my favourite songs are either protest songs (a la Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye,) Have really depressing lyrics (Prince, Nina Simone, Dido) or don't have many words at all. My boyfriend has loads and loads of house records from the late 90's early 00's and it was great fun giving them an airing, including the fabby Fix my Sink, great to have a boogie to but try getting that on a card!

I really really wanted to do a card with Everybody Loves the Sunshine. There have been so many great remixes using this vocal and its a proper smiley song, but inspiration wasn't on my side with that one even though I listened to several versions over and over. It did make me grin though!

So, well you can't go wrong with the wise words of John Lennon can you,


Paper is from Basic Grey, the background is an Urban Couture and letters and alpha stickers are from the Lilykate Collection Pack. I handcut the big love, several times to get it right! I was green with envy at those lucky people who have craft robo's to do this for them.


This second one was more challenging from me. Its a song from back in the day when we (me and my boyfriend) used to go out every weekend dancing. I never know how to describe music but its here if you fancy a 20 second snippet. The tune is called Transition by Underground Resistance. Its great to remember those city years but it just makes me realise even more how much I like being out here in the sticks.


DCWV cardstock, Sassafrass Lass paper which Ive had for ages and only just now used, ribbon printed on the pc, gorgeous Angel Kisses from LCC. I would never have normally put this sunny yellow with the pale pink flowers and brads but the paper just got it perfect and looked like it was meant to be!

Im just in the door from teaching the teachers, will write about that later though as I need this cuppa sitting in front of me!

How will you be defined in the dictionary?

Rhi -- [noun]: A person who is a master of making ravioli 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Always good to know!

A simple doodle

I've had a busy day today preparing for classes, and Im still not finished all my organising. I have learnt how to print a mirror image in word though, thanks for your help Jo and Tracie.

I was looking through my card gallery at the cards I was making earlier this year, and found this, its a really simple doodled card, so I thought I'd share it incase it inspired you to have a go at Jo's fab doodle dare!

Bee Happy! Rhi x

ps Vingt is 20 in french *blush* thanks Kel, I'm really going to be in a right pickle when I go to my friends wedding in france next year!

Douze points

Douze points, is douze french for 20? Well thats what Im up to now on UKS, yep, I managed one LO in a whole scrapping weekend, I must be the slowest scrapper in history! Its Debbie's bewitched class and here is my take. Its a pic of me and Matt at a party years and years ago, about 4 maybe..., in the days when we could hold our drink and stay up all night! The title's from the words of a tune from those times that both of us remember but neither of us can remember the title. Its a funky house tune, if you know it please leave a message and put us out of our trying to remember misery!
Theres so many inspirational classes to do, it going to keep me inspired for ages. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

One other little thing Ive achieved today is getting the Daring cardmakers a domain name. Now if you want to tell your friends about daring cardmakers you can use the web address www.daringcardmakers.com, much easier to remember than all that http dot slash stuff!

Right, need to get the roast chicken in the oven if we're going to eat any time soon.

Playing with Paisley

Ive been playing with paisley, great fun! Ive had a go at making the paper I intended to do for this dare but mucked up! This time I took my scanned paisley doodle, printed onto basic Grey Sublime and coloured in with pencils and chalks. Its a simple little card, curled up flowers influenced by the fantastic Carole Jansen who just does the most amazing 3D scrapping. Actually now that Ive seen the photo I think Im going to glossy accent the middle of those flowers...

Thats all for today, my face has swolen up something rotten (see dentist post below) so Im off out to see some good friends now its dark enough to leave the house without scaring children!

Doodley Doo Dare

Ive wanted to have a go at doodling for ages but as one of my mates Lynne is the doodling queen I was always a bit scared to have a go! But this weeks Daring Cardmakers Challege by Jo was the motivational kick in the right direction that I needed.

I have to admit, I tried on a piece of patterned paper and mucked it up completely (basic grey sublime, may it rest forever in its ruined state, sob). I I think I was just scared of ruining such a lovely piece of paper and forgot to relax. So I tried again in front of the telley with a plain piece and dahhdahh! Result! Its messy and not perfect but thats the point and it works! Before I chalked and coloured it for this card I scanned it into the pc to print onto the lovely patterned paper and that worked too, so if you get the fear of ruining scrummy paper thats my top tip! Plus you can muck about in photo editing programs and change the colours and stuff.


Apart from my doodled background I used...
Chalks and watercolour pencils
Big Brad from Gail, Its actually one of the spotty christmas dovecraft ones heated with a heat gun and dunked in some pearlustre Embossing powder then heated again. Hold your brad with pliers though, they get very hot!
Bloom from Sarah
Ribbon and ric rac from Carolyn

Home safe from the dentist

Yes I made it through. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, although bloomin 'eck the dentist needs sewing lessons, the stitches are really not prettily done. I was kind of hoping he'd do some sort of arty pattern!

Plus I'm under strict orders not to do anything strenuous, what a shame there goes the housework again, at least pc surfing and playing with paper are allowed!

Eeeeek!

Good morning blog readers, I still find it amazing that anyone reads my drivel at all but obviously you do! So thank you for stopping by. I'm having a bit of a nervous day as Ive got the dentist this afternoon. OK, I'd better give a warning here....


Nasty dentist story coming up!!! Feel free to go and read something more fun!


Personally I blame the marketing bods at cadburys. It all started when Finger of Fudge (remember them?) had a save up your packets promotion in the 80's. Of course I had to get 50 wrappers for a state of the art calculator ruler which was the Daddy of all giveaways. It took so long to collect them! It broke within a week by the way, theres a lesson to be learned there.

Anyway that meant I had to have fillings and one of the filled teeth had to get removed recently but it didn't want to come out, so half of the darn thing is left in there and he's going to take it out today.

Now I worked as a dental nurse for a while and the first time I saw this done I nearly fainted, so I know exactly what it is theyre going to do, and although i do trust my dentist (hes good and Ive had some bad ones!) he keeps doing the oh its simple and you'll be fine thing... but I know what theyre going to do. Im not going to tell you though cause some things its really better not to know.

So if I'm not back this afternoon then you know whats happened...

Be Yourself

This weeks LCC challenge was to
...create a project based on any theme but it had to contain the word BE in the title or greeting. Extra points if you used 2 or more patterned papers, fabric and more than one photo.

And heres what I did! In the nick of time as always! Papers from K & Co Studio K stack, cotton fabric stamped with a lovely stamp in coffee bean brilliance ink. I can remember the name of the stamp company but its a uk manufacturer and I'm sure I have the leaflet from the fair somewhere so I can find out if anyones interested! The rest was from my stash, how gorgeous are these paper flowers. I've just noticed on this pic theres a tiny sliver of the base card visible, Ive now sorted that on the card but I'll never get another halfway decent pic now its dark so you'll have to trust me, Ive fixed it.

The car has broken down twice in the past week, the first cost us £140 for the starter motor and the second which wasn't a real break down more of a won't start cost £60 for new glow plugs. All of its unplanned expense so it means Im on a stash diet til at least Christmas, boohoo. How am I going to cope, don't get me wrong, I have plenty of stuff to play with but there's always more wonderful tempting things out there, like chipboard, all mines homemade and I'd love an alpha to play with and LCC is having a 25% off everything sale so Im missing out on some gorgeous bargains as Tracie has oodles and oodles of gorgeous papers.

Such is life and priorities though, at least the poor little red fiat is well again, even if she is getting on a bit old.

Ive just had a thought, do you think Santa reads blogs? Maybe I should put my Christmas list up here incase he does!

Its been bloomin freezing today and right now I have a date with the sofa and a hot cup of earl grey and whatever rubbish telley I can find to watch.

Vaguely Human

Thats how I'm feeling! The cold seems to have past its worse and I'm feeling much much better. I think the worst thing about colds, apart from the physical yuckiness, is that they can make you feel so very down, which is not a nice thing at the best of times but when you are trying to stay out of the dark pit of depression it can be a bit too much like teetering on the edge for comfort. But hey ho, Ive got through this one, with a bit of help from my friends, my pharmacist and Lidl's fake Mars bars. Theyre like Mars bars but not so sickly and much yummier, and I read somewhere that chocolates very good for a sore throat. Thats my excuse anyway.

Thank you all for all your lovely comments about my cards. Sabine, the playstation controller is a QK die, and Gillian, I used ranger alcohol inks on my plastic milk bottle embellies, but try what you've got cause Ive heard there are better ones out there although I can't remember what theyre called right now, Pinyatas or something like that?

I hope I can fit in some of the craft time Ive missed and that I'll have something to share before too long.

Ribbon for men!

Thats the theme of this weeks dare by the Daring Cardmakers. This one was great fun, and with so many cool ribbons out there to choose from it was a great excuse to aquire a few more to add to my collection. Mens cards can be really difficult so I hope you find this challenge inspiring and make some fab cards for the men in your lives too. Rather embarassingly, all the ric rac for the happy birthday card and more was from my stash. Now why do I have 6 different colours of blue ric-rac. Not sure how that happened but it must have been for a very good reason!


The playstation one is made partly with ribbons already in my stash with a few extra from Little Silver Hat. the controllers and screen are glossy accented which is fast becoming my new favourite thing, well after ribbons and patterned papers anyway. I'm really looking forward to seeing your creations, remember you can still join in if you dont have a blog by emailing us, details are all on the dare blog at the top.

Other exciting news today, our very own Daring Cardmaker Jo Kill is up for Cardmaker of the Year in Simply Cards and Papercraft mag. If you havent placed your vote yet you can find the form on the SC&P link. Congratulations Jo and best of luck, not that I think you need it, your work is stunning!

Teaching the teachers

Have you ever wondered what teachers get up to on those In service training days? Well the answer appears to be having a great time learning how to make cards with me! Its quite daunting as its going to be a huge group, (minimum of 25-30!) for 2 hours and Im sure theyre going to be naughty! Ive seen teachers when theyre off duty, lol! A huge thanks to the lovely Gail from Craftspirations who made this possible for me. And also for being an excellent enabler and having wonderful American Crafts ribbons by the meter especially for me, ok not really especially for me, but it does mean I can get some of the wonderful gorgeousness without spending a whopping amount on those big packs they come in.

Other that that, Im rattling like a pillbox with all the things the chemist gave me to fight off these darned cold symptoms, yuck. So rest and recuperation for me, but I'll still be up bright an early tomorrow as its Dare Day, and I can't wait to see your reaction to this one! Its a corker!

Wendnesday's Little Extra

For this weeks Little Extra we were challenged to use 1 tag, 2 different ribbons or fibres and 3 different patterned papers on a card and dahdah... here's mine... Cant't wait to see what you do.Papers are K'Ology Peabody again, I just love them! Fibres are wool from a charity shop, I just cant walk past a charity shop wool box without a good rummage to see what they have and Ive had some great finds.

Its been one of those funny weeks so far, the car broke down, its fine now its back from the garage (how much! argh!!!) but the poor things feeling her age, I can feel myself coming down with a lurgy so I'm dosing up on Satusmas for the vitamin C to give my body the best chance to fight it and it was the last week of teaching pottery as their funding has run out. I've managed not to let it get me down though which is good.

And on a positive note, Ive been asked to do some more papercraft teaching so they obviously like what I do, fabby. I get paid for doing what I love, I can't imagine anything better.

Off for an early night now!
Rhi x

More cards

Busy busy busy! Ive signed up to the UKS Cyber Crop and Im a Hufflepuff. Not sure how I'm going to keep up as its humungous but I have a very friendly 3rd Year Jay looking after me, thank you Jay, Im sure I shall be asking lots more silly questions very soon.

Managed to make another card for this weeks Dare using some long neglected stamps. the background text is a Purple Onion stamp and its so versatile it's probably my most used stamp, stamped in versamark for that watermark effect. It's olde worlde writing that you can't read, or I cant anyway! The main image is a beautiful stamp from a Sunday International UM sheet of botanical images, stamped onto chalked shrink plastic and coloured with watercolour pencils. I tried to take a fancy close up pic to show you the Latin text it has on it...but my photography skills are lacking and they all came out blurry. You'll just have to trust me on this one, its got Latin botanical words on it. Well I'm assuming their botanical... they could be really rude and I'd never know!

And a couple of leaving cards I've been asked to make. Thanks Lythan for your help with the wording when I had card makers block. You're a star!

Ive been looking at other peoples pics they take of their cards and trying to take inspiration for different angles. Im no photographer, I just use my cameras auto or macro and hope for the best but these have come out alright seeing as the light's pretty bad today. Happy Cardmaking, Scrapping, Crafting or whatever you're up to today!

It's Friday and it's Dare day!

Bonjour! Ok my grasp of french is pretty poor, I could ask you where the swimming pool was in theory but thats no good for a card! Tracie set a great dare this week, telling us it was easy, well I was stumped for ages, trying to remember the Welsh, Gaelic and French I learned in school. I dont think moving from Welsh Wales to Gaelic Scotland aged 10 helped me much with my languages!

In the end after a lot of humming and haaing, a few attempts in the bin, and a deadline looming, I decided to go with that most stylish of nations, France... And heres my card...
The border round the edge is printed from the pc and says 'Haute Couture' and 'La Mode' and the little tag says Joyeux Anniversaire. The papers are the gorgeous K'Ology Peabody that I got from the SECC and Im so pleased I managed to use some of them (theres 3 of each sheet so that helps!). I also used bablefish to check my spelling, a very useful site for this challenge! I cant wait to see what you come up with for this fantastic dare.

Meet the Chavix's

These are sizzix dolls I made ages ago for a laugh in a moment of boredom and then put out of the way never to see the light of day. As I was chatting with some friends on MSN about the merits (or not as the case may be) of these little sizzix people, I thought I'd dig them out of their rubbish life stuffed in a pocket on a wallhanger with other things like card mag freebies I'll probably never use and give them their moment of fame. So here they are, teehee! Mrs Chavix's earrings are much more sparky in real life by the way, thats because theyre genuine diamond-ish!

Dare day tomorrow, I love fridays!

The song that named my blog

Is finally being released, hooray! I heard it on Jo Whiley's show on Radio 1 ages and ages ago and just loved the words, and its a really upbeat tune that makes me want to sing along every time. I love that piano! Anyway I remembered the lyrics but not the band or title but luckily its just been on Zane Lowe's show as the hottest record in the world, so now I can share.

Click here to listen to a bit of it, its out november 13th. And lyrics here. Unfortunately this version cuts after 60 seconds but hey they have to make their money somehow!

Whoohooo...Prizewinner!

Remember I won a prize a wee while ago for a Card I made for the LCC Cyber Crop! Well its here, so I thought I'd share. I got some yummy tall thin card blanks with envies and a whole bag of pretty goodies that match, arent they scrumptious. Theres so many lovely blossoms and blooms in there that I havent seen in the flesh before, I can tell you now, most of them will be used for scrapping so I can keep them, teehee. Thank you so much to Tracie for running the most fantastically fun creative event, and to everyone who worked so hard to make such wonderful classes, you're all so talented. The Cyber Crop was completely inspirational and was the push I needed to start me scrapping after years of just thinking about it! Crafting's so much fun!

Look!

I have a proper banner! Whoohoo! Can you tell Im chuffed, its a complicated and scary thing this html stuff but I did it with a little, ok a lot of help from my friends and a wonderful link to a fabby tutorial from Claire which can be found here. I need to sort out the text colours and links and stuff properly as some of it dissapeared when I edited (as Claire said it would) and I did save an html copy somewhere but forgot to give it a name that I'd recognise... There's a lesson in there if you're going to try it!

I thought I'd make the most of the sun we had here this afternoon and given my new love of scrapping took my camera on my walk too. The new banner is made with a pic taken today about 10 minutes walk from my house and this particular track just leads to fields so the only traffic to worry about is the occasional tractor. I just love the light and the beautiful golden colours of autumn on days like today. Im so lucky to have all this beautiful space on my doorstep, and now I can remind myself of it when its fog as thick pea soup outside too. Glad I had my hat scarf and gloves on today, its getting chilly, brrrrr.

Did I mention Im chuffed about my banner *wink*

B&W with the only colour being ribbon

It was a hard challenge but this is what I came up with. I think it needs more ribbon somewhere but not sure where yet. I didn't have any black or white buttons so I die cut them from card and glossy accented them. *note to self -buy more buttons*

Its a bad pic, when the sun moves round a bit I'll try again.

Sunday Sunday

Managed to get my spring bulbs planted this morning, yay! Come spring I'll have some Iris' and Tulips among my daffs and snowdrops. Blooming freezing out though. I really fancied a long walk but the cloud hung around all day threatening to rain and didn't so I got on with cooking a scrummy roast dinner.

I really got in to this stitching malarkey this week, and its been great to see all the cards inspired by the stitching dare too. Heres a couple more from me on the Christmas theme...


Off to snuggle up on the sofa now and watch a film , winters not all bad!

Happy Stitching... Dare 3

When Kathy announced the dare for this week was Stitching I though great, I have those stitching stamps I haven't used in a while, I'll have a play with them... but then she added, it has to be real stitches...eek!

Actually It's been something Ive wanted to have a go at for a while, but getting round to it, finding space on my craft desk to put the sewing machine , and remembering at a reasonable time of day rather than 2am when all the worlds asleep and doesn't want to listen to my machine rattling away. Add to that that I'm an expert procrastinator and you can see whay I never managed to play!

No matter how big my desk is it always seems to get covered instantly, does that happen to you? So after a big clear-up out came the machine, the threads and as usual I made a huge mess again with lots of noise too. Its great fun and definately worth giving it a go. Here's what I came up withPaper from the DCWV 12x12 Christmas Stack, machine stitched and letters cut using Ellison's Block Party Alphabet. My top tip is leave the long ends hanging and you can thread them through to the back by hand to keep it neat.The background here is made on the sewing machine just using a straight stitch in pink on dark brown card and zooming back and forth in a wobbly manner. I found it frayed a bit when I cut it to size but as I'd used (cheap) nylon thread, a quick blast of the heat gun round the edges melts the ends of the thread and stops it unravelling. A lighter works too, but dont use a candle, it leaves horrid sooty marks! Gorgeous ribbon from Little Silver Hat and the die for the cute cupcake is from Bosscuts.

Have fun sewing this week and if you do get round to it, we'd love to see what you make.

Potty potter

I had a busy day today teaching my pottery class. Its great fun and always very messy, especially on the wheel. Even though I wear an apron I still seem to come out covered in specks and blobs of dried clay. I get some funny looks when I pop into Asda on the way home. Luckily my crocs just need a wipe and theyre clean again, I love my Crocs! Im always so chuffed when my students do better than they think they can do, its so great to see their confidence building as they realise they CAN do it and its FUN!

Stayed up late last night doing my Friday night challenge for LCC. Yes I know it was Tuesday yesterday but the deadline was tonight so I had to get it done. Life's responsibilities can play havoc with your crafting time so I didn't get it done at the weekend. I was pleased with how it turned out. Papers from the DCWV 12x12 paper stack which is gorgeous and has so many ones that can be used for non Christmas stuff - well thats how I justified buying even more paper anyway *blush* Die Cut Quickutz snowflake and gretting printed on Inkjet acetate. Its the first time Ive printed my own acetate and it's a great technique.

Only 2 days til the next Dare!

Be happy and stay crafty.

A Crafty Tag

Thanks Paula , great tag!


1) What technique would you consider to be your "trade mark" (what do you do most?)

Hmm, probably die cuts, papers and coloured card blanks

2) Which technique(s) do you wish you could do/do better?

I wish I could do vintagey altered oldey worlde cards. When I do them they never look right. Also resist stamping with versamark, I've never successfully managed that after a lot of goes.
And doodling, one of my mates is an expert at this, you know who you are! And for those of you who don't, Lynne's doodling is fabulous! I wish I could do something even a quarter as good as that!

3) What are your 4 favourite embellishments?

Ribbon, Die Cuts, Brads, Eyelets. I think I need to get some big blooms too as they look gorgeous.

4) What are your 3 favourite gadgets?

TagAlong and Sizzix (although I really want a Big Shot but I'm waiting for a good deal)
My 99p rubber mallet, which I use for eyelet setting and paddle punches
My pc and printer

Im not really big on gadgets I suppose, I always like to find a cheap alternative if I can and save pennies or the pretty bits


5a) What do you like to do but haven't done in a while?

Stamping and chalking with versamark, its such a lovely effect.

5b) And what have you done recently & forgot how much you enjoyed?
I love stamping, and I have a lot of stamps which is embarassing as I dont use them nearly enough. I tend to use the words quite a bit, but I have so many lovely images sitting there neglected. I did some stamping yesterday though! Here's the cards I did. Stamps all by stampendous, really cute.

If you are reading this and you haven't been tagged
by

aula - then consider yourself tagged - thi

And if you're reading this...consider yourself tagged! s is real fun one :-) Thanks Paula :-)

Still playing with Milk bottles

I thought I'd have a go with doodling, so Ive combined it with the milk bottle embellies. This time for the wings, I used the textured part of the milk bottle for the dragonfly wings which you'll probably need to look up close to see. I think it works! Yummy papers from Debbie Mumm.

The SECC shopping challenge

Wowee, what a fantastic day! I'd been saving my pennies for these and being very good so it was a bit of a blowout for me. It got really busy just after lunch and I think it induced some sort of madness in us all as we got very silly which got us some strange looks. Here we are at the blonde moments stand and as you can see we're perfectly normal!


And here's the goodies I came home with!



Basic Grey Lilykate -Ive wanted this for a while
K&Co Kology Peabody -Total impulse buy once I'd seen it in the flesh. Its just beautiful and fab quality too
Blonde Moments Spring Fling and Sugar dumpling -good enough to eat
A few sheets of Basic Grey Blitzen
Assorted other papers
Christmas Vellum
A 12x12 scrapbook for a fiver!
Yummy Duo Designs UM stamp set
3 more bargain £1 stamps from the card fairy, you've gotta love their deals!
2 Brilliance dew drops in Pearlescent Crimson and Pearlescent Ivy
About 3 miles of ribbon, ok thats an exageration there...
3 new dies, ellison wand, pointy flower and a double do flower
2 mags which weren't ones I'd have bought at full price, they were £1 each, but actually theyre quite good

Not bad for a days gathering. Today I'm very tired but happy and once Ive done my 'have to' list Im going to sit down and play with my new goodies, I think I got enough so I can actually use some of it safely.