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Tuesday 30 April 2013

Homework???

Who needs to do homework after school, when you could be crafting?



I asked her to put on her 'serious' face!

Now then, all together, awwww!!!!  Well I think awww anyway!  But then am I biased?  Just a bit maybe?  Not a lot, not at all - maybe, probably!

See you later,

Sarah

PS - Still no builder, hmmm I wonder if the aliens have got him?

Monday 29 April 2013

50 merit certificate day!

Hello blogworld

Hopefully, as you read this, me and hubby will be in SHMbO's school assembly watching her receive her 50 merits certificate.  I'm sure those of you with kids will either have them at a school, or been to a school, where they get some sort of reward for working hard, being good, thoughtful, helpful, - etc.

Well at her school they get a merit for that sort of thing.  SHMbO has now got 50 of those merits - at that point home gets a letter asking you to come into Monday morning assembly and watch them get presented with a certificate.  This is where we are right now.

Of course, another reason for posting this is that it's a new challenge over at The Cutie Pies and my last DT card for this fabulous challenge for 6 months.  I'm taking a break while the work is carried out on our house - of course in typical tradesman fashion our builder seems to think that we don't mind if he delays the start of the work slightly, ummm nope!!  So as yet all that's happened is that we are packing up and clearing out the office - no proper demolishing so far!!

Anyway - I digress, my last challenge with The Cuties for around 6 months - as they've very kindly allowed me a break but are taking me back!

This time the theme is 'Lots of Layers', and we have two wonderful sponsors 

they currently have a Spring Spectacular Event with reductions on nearly all products throughout the store including ribbon, twine, charms, pins, rubber stamps, pearls, rhinestones and much more. Pop over and grab a bargain while stocks last! Further reductions available in our sale section too.
and one lucky winner will win
and
Our lovely friends at cedar chest are providing a $10 gift certificate for their online store for one randomly chosen winner.

There is also the chance of a GDT with The Cuties - how fab is that!!

The DT were allowed an image or two to play with and this is my card:

Front shot:

The arty farty:

The close up:
I used:

Digi image:
Cedar Chest Designs - Shy Alice
coloured with a combo of Promarkers and Copics

Dies:
Nesties - oval and scalloped oval
C.C. Designs cutters - Umbrella

Papers:
My Mind's Eye - the sweetest thing

Anything else?
Craftwork cards - sentiment
Dies to Die For - Viva pearl pen
Velvet ribbon - from my stuff

And that's all folks! I'll see you as a Cutie in around six months or so. Ladies - it's been fab, it will be fab again and you're not getting rid of me that easily! I'll be back!!!

Sarah

PS - Thanks to all you wonderful bloggy friends who left the fantastic supportive comments on my whingy, whiny post about having too many cards. I'm soooo glad I'm not the only one - makes me feel heaps better!!

Saturday 27 April 2013

What do you do..

with your cards?

I've seriously made myself fed up this morning and wondering what the point is of this hobby.

I've made cards now for getting on for 10 years, happily playing with stamps and colouring, gorgeous little bits of paper, embellishments (various!), embossing - in fact anything that took my fancy.

Of the cards I've made, some have gone to family, fewer to friends and I've sold a handful (apart from sending some to Abi - and thank you for doing that for me! - to sell for me).

But what have I done with the rest?  Well put them in boxes!!  Over the years I've gone back and looked at my early ones and chucked them (I had a ginormous clear out a year or so ago).  The ones that hubby wouldn't let me chuck are now sat in a bin bag waiting for him to forget about them so I can either bin them or give them to a charity shop.

But what about the rest?  Well I have 3 boxes full of cards - and I just counted them.  What a mistake!

The box of heavily embellished ones are bending and some of the DST is no longer working and the cards are falling apart.  But who wants really thick, expensive to send cards?  There are 35 in there

Box two has flatter ones in - these aren't too bad, most of them I've made in the last year.  There are 31 in there.

Box three  (a box that I'd even forgotten I had) - flatter and flat cards.  116!!!! in there.

What do I do with them?  I want to give them to charity - hubby won't let me.  I tried SHMbO school - they put them in the office at £1 a go!  I'm sorry but I'd rather give them to charity.  They don't do 'craft fairs' neither do I think the Head would let me sell them at their summer fete.  Hubby reckons not enough people go to make it worth it anyway.

I make them for my friends kids / my friends (all 4 of them!) / family / friends of family - only two people have ever asked to buy any from me.  Are my cards that bad?

I don't know many people, and the people I do know don't want to buy.  I'm not the sort to wander into a shop and ask them if they want to try and sell my cards (I'd die of embarrassment!). So I can't see me putting them in a shop.

So tell me what do I do with them?  Apart from just chuck them in the recycling, which is what I feel like doing at the moment.

Anyone want 182 cards of varying quality????

I'm going now before I get even fedder up than I already am.  Maybe I'll stick to baking, at least a cake gets eaten.

Sarah

Thursday 25 April 2013

Breaking news....

there is a card on this blog!!!

Good morning blogworld,

Finally a card - I know, I know, you can't believe it can you!  It is though!

So this the card I made for this week's challenge over at MAWTT - it's my Teamie Marita's turn to pick the challenge and she chose 'Baby'.  So all those new arrival cards, please.

We are sponsored, with a fab prize, by:



The DT were allowed images to use, and this is the card I made with the image I used.

Front shot:


The arty farty:

I used:

Digi stamp:
Stichy Bear - A Mother's Love
coloured with my Pro and Flexmarkers

Dies:
Nesties

Papers:
First Edition - Up,Up and Away (background)
the dots - I've no idea

Anything else?
Buttons and twine
Create and Craft - flourish

I followed this week's sketch at Sketch Saturday with the intention of joining in, but the colouring on this is dreadful - so I've decided not to bother!  The dangers of not colouring (or creating) for ages, you get rusty!!

You should pop over and see the fab creations from my teamies - join in why you are there as well, you won't regret it.

So I'm off for my swim now, and will see y'all soon - I hope anyway.

Cheerio

Sarah


Tuesday 23 April 2013

It's starting!

Hi blogworld

Seeing as how a card is going to be a rarity on this blog for a while I thought I'd make a start with the chaos pictures.

To reassure you I will be posting two cards for my DT posts over the next few days and early next week, but after that you're into DIY only zone for two weeks!

So here is the start of hubby's move into my craft room:




Also a very kind lady on facebook shared an idea for Promarker storage and I've been spending a little time re-arranging and ordering - it's not finalised but it's a good start.



Hope everyone is well and happily crafting - I'll be back on Thursday with a, shock, horror, card!!

Sarah

Thursday 18 April 2013

The story continues

Hello blogworld

Long time no see, again and it's going to be even longer in between posts for quite a while.

Guess what happened today? We got our planning permission for our extension - whey hey!  Since last I mentioned planning things have changed quite a bit so I will update you.

You may, or may not depends on how interested you are in my waffle (and I forgive you if you are not interested in which case you will probably want to just leave now), recall that the last offer I had was raising the roof of the office, adding rooflights and the room becoming a kitchen.

My how things have moved on!  Final offer, which was accepted, was to add an extra floor to the single story building currently where the 'office' is thus creating a new room upstairs.  This new room is referred to in planning as bed 3 - in reality it will be hubby's hobby room.  He's into model trains and railwayana (and no I'd never heard of that until I met him either!).

So as of next week hubby is beginning the long process of moving out of 'the office' and into 'the craft room' seriously cramping my style.  Then in a couple of weeks time building work starts.

This is what we have now, from the outside:


The single storey will become a two storey and the new room will be in there. To get to this new room there will be a door in the outside wall of the current bed 3.  Current bed 3 will then be knocked down, the bathroom extended into where the bedroom was and what was left of the bedroom will become a large hallway - anyone having difficulty following?  I hope not!

When all the work is finished the outside will be rendered to get rid of those horrible blocked in doors.

I think I might even be able to show you the plans - let's see.

Yes, here you go - the now:


The after:



Of course all this means that I get a new kitchen, bathroom and craft room.  Hubby gets an office, with a door he can shut - this means a lot to him it would appear - and a large (20ft x 12ft) hobby room.

What we both get is chaos!  So I'm not going to be around much for quite sometime.

Will you abandon me?  I do hope not - but I will forgive you if you do!  If you don't abandon me I can only promise the occasional card and a lot of building waffle, which I will try to keep entertaining!

Oh and lots, and lots, and lots of photos!!!!

So that's my news - oh and I got a new car!  Well new to me anyway - my poor old faithful finally gave up the fight in the last week of school and over the holidays I took delivery of a 59 plate Vauxhall Corsa - very smart she is too.  SHMbO has been banned from even touching it - not much hardship there, to begin with she hated it!!!

So I will be back when I can, but I won't promise when.

Hope everyone out in blogland is keeping well and feeling crafty.

Sarah

Monday 15 April 2013

Guess what this morning is?

Good morning blogworld,

It's School is back morning!!  At this moment (ignoring the fact that it's actually Sunday evening while I'm typing this) I should be either driving back from school or just arriving home.

Also it's a new challenge morning over at The Cutie Pies and this time we'd like to see your Clean and Simple cards. I know this doesn't do it for a fair number of people, but I actually quite like them - even if I don't always get them quite right!

This time our sponsor, with a fab prize, is:


The DT were allowed to pick an image and this is my card with my pick:

The lonely, only shot:

I used:

Stamps:
Bugaboo - Girlz - Bare feet
coloured with Promarkers and Copics
Lili of the Valley - flowery edges
sentiment - can't remember whose it is.

Anything else?
Distress Ink 

And that's it folks

You should really pop over to the challenge blog and look at my Teamies lovely creations and why not pop in an entry while you're there.

Hopefully I should be back blogging on my own behalf soon, but first I've got to clear away nearly three weeks worth of child at home junk.  Maybe I'll emerge sometime later in the week.

Cheerio

Sarah


Thursday 11 April 2013

Another film!

Hi Blogworld

Nope I ain't dropped off the face of the earth - I've just been up to my eyes in school holidays and a visit from my Father-in-Law.  Normal service will be resumed in due course.

For now this is a short post (as I'm scheduling this last night and I've still got a card to make and floors to mop) to let you all know that there is a new challenge over at Moving Along With The Times and the theme, as chosen by my Teamie Tammy, is "Inspired by a Film or Song".

We have another lovely sponsor, with a $10.00 voucher, who is:



I've already gone over my film preferences with my last post - so you should know that I prefer Sci-Fi (oooh anyone eagerly awaiting the new Star Trek film?  I know I am!!), Action / Adventure, Fantasy.

The DT were allowed a digi to use and this is my card.  Bearing in mind my film preferences I bet you can guess that this was inspired by 'The Pirates of the Caribbean' films.

Front shot:

The close up:

 The arty farty:

I used:

Digi stamp:
Digi My World - Ahoy Pirate (Jack)
coloured with my Promarkers

Papers:
A real mish-mash of very old 6x6 stacks

Dies / Punches:
Nestie Circles
Fiskars border punch

Anything else?
We Are Memory Keepers - Brad
Craftwork Cards - sentiment
Ribbon - from my stuff

Right well I'm off now, I won't say that I'll see you soon as I don't have another card to show until Monday and I doubt that I'll be back before then.

Instead, I'll say goodbye to the follower who has left me, and hope that some of you will still love me enough to still be here when next I blog ;-) 

Sarah

Monday 1 April 2013

Cooo-eee

me again!

So no waffle this time, as I did all that in the previous post.

Onto the point then - this time I'm here for the new challenge at Flat Friends and the theme there is 'stitching' so, along with your Emma Canning digi, we'd like to see some stitching on your entry.  Fake or real doesn't matter, just as long as it's there somewhere.

This is my card, please excuse the wonky stitching - I broke my pokey tool on the first attempt at this card doing faux stitching and had to start again.  So I pulled out the old sewing machine.  First time I've used it since before Christmas and I've not got the hang of it yet.

Front shot:

The Close Up:

 The Arty Farty:
 I used:

Digi:
A freebie Emma has on the blog - isn't it pretty?
coloured with my Promarkers

Dies:
Memory Box - swirl and flowers

Papers:
First Edition - Summer Breeze

Anything else?
Craftwork Cards - card blank and sentiment
Hobby House - gems
Heart from stash

So that'll be the last you see of me for a week or so - don't miss me too much, eh!!!

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter and didn't make yourselves too sick on Easter eggs!  I know I'm sick of the sight of chocolate now!!

Sarah

So what's your favourite?

film, that is?

Hi blogworld,

This is the first of two posts for me today - and then you won't hear anything for awhile as I don't have any DT commitments and we've got my Father-in-Law staying for a week, so will be on the busy side.

So first up it's time for a new challenge over at The Cutie Pies and the theme, as you may have gathered, is 'your favourite film', as always with a cute twist.

Our sponsor is, with a fab prize, is:


Now I do like a good film, but the ones that I would pick don't really have a cute theme as I tend to go for Sci-fi or fantasy - with the occasional action adventure thrown in.  I do have a very large soft spot for the original Disney films though, so my film is 'Sleeping Beauty'.

I was still feeling rough when I made this card - so I used a pre-coloured topper.  That, however, made me feel a bit guilty, so I chucked everything but the kitchen sink at it!!!

Hope you like:

Front shot:

The Arty Farty:
I used:

Image:
Pre-coloured topper from the Hobby House

Dies:
Memory Box - hearts

Papers:
The background is, I think, First Edition - Birdsong
The roses are also First Edition - Rose Garden
I'm not sure what the green is.

Anything else? - loads!!
Wild Orchid Crafts - flowers
Hobby House - lace and gems
Create and Craft - gem swirl
Distress Ink for a bit of definition

So I hope you find a chance to pop over and join in - you'll love what my teamies have created.

See you in an hour!

Sarah