New Blog Candy

OK Guys, here's the next blog candy, lots and lots of alphabets in all different fonts and styles. There are some card, chipboard, glittered and lots more. I'll draw the winner when we get to 75 followers and to enter, just leave a comment. For 2 chances to win, link my blog to yours...couldn't be easier and you don't need to have a blog to enter.

I thought I would dig out some of my old stamps and have a play with them. I'd forgotten about this one and really enjoyed stamping with it. It's from a set of 3 unmounted stamps from Particraft. I have to admit that since getting my Copic pens, I'm enjoying colouring in a lot more. I'm still practicing with them and hopefully I'll eventually get the hang of them but in the meantime I'm just having fun!

Anyway, just a quick post to announce the candy....check out the Particraft blog and Maria's blog for more superb candy up for grabs. Off to tidy the spare bedroom ready for the influx of visitors next week! Until next time have a very merry Xmas and a great New Year and....keep crafting!

Reached 50!

A Christmas card to you all!

Yay, we're there...reached the magic 50 today so drew the winner. Wanted to take a photo of the momentous occassion but I forgot to recharge the camera battery...oops!
Anyway, congratulations to the winner and everyone else can blame my long-suffering husband who I made draw the name out.

And the winner is .............

..............

Drum Roll.......

...........

........

.......

Maureen (Docrafts)

Congratulations Maureen....please e-mail me your address so that I can get the parcel in the post. My e-mail is stephen.smith870@ntlworld.com

I'm planning the next candy and should have details of it on my next post. Just thought I would get Christmas out of the way first.

Thank you to everyone who took part and can I just wish you all a very merry Christmas and a fab crafting New Year. Here's to health, wealth and happiness to each an every one!

Where Does The Time Go!

I can't believe that it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted but between hospital appointments, meetings at work and the mammoth task of trying to tidy up the craft room, the time has flown by.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my second attempt at a metalwork card with you. I was very pleased with how it turned out...what do you think? I used the Walnut Hollow tools and the fab texture sheet for the background and the oak leaves are from the Nature 1 unmounted stamp set. The colour on the foil is from the fantastic alcohol inks (no home should be without them!)


As I said at the beginning, I've been sorting out my craft room. Halfway through I wished that I had never started but I've found things that I had totally forgotten about so it's been worthwhile. I hadn't realised that I'd kept so many little scraps of paper so I finally got around to sorting them out and punching flowers and plant pots out of the small bits. My resolution for the New Year will be to stop keeping so many bits that I'll never use. The plus side is that I now have about 2,000 flowers in every colour you can imagine!

I had my hospital appointment and they confirmed that I will need an operation on my right shoulder and I've been booked in for February 4th to have it done. I'm not a happy bunny as I'll have my arm in a sling for 6 weeks and won't be allowed to use it at all. After that it's many weeks of physiotherapy to get the joint mobile again. I wonder what left handed crafting will be like! I can't go 6 days without getting withdrawal symptoms let alone 6 weeks!

Leonie (Pujol) has started a new craft club about 25 minutes from where I live and had her first meeting last night. It was great, there were some fantastic items that people had brought along with them and you get so much inspiration from seeing them. I can't wait to get started on some new projects (after I've cleared the last corner of my room of course).

We're getting closer by the day to reaching the 50 follower point so that I can hold the draw so watch this space. For more terrific candy you must have a look at Maria's blog and also the Particraft one. There are so many lovely goodies on offer.
Better finish now as I really do want to crack on with finishing my craft room (just so I can go and play). Until next time......keep crafting!

Blog Candy

Back again with more blog candy. This time there is an assortment of goodies and the picture really doesn't do it justice. Anyway, there's 10 sheets of lovely 12x12 papers, a pack of embossed cards and envelopes, lots of 3D stickers, chipboard embellishments, glitter ribbons, Anna Griffin ribbons, a storage caddy, toppers, K&Co letters and packs of Crafty Bitz messages and embellishments. I think that's about it! Anyway, to be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is to become a follower of this blog and leave a comment. If you link my blog to yours then you'll get 2 entries to the draw. As soon as I reach 50 followers I'll draw the winner. I think that explains it!

On to other crafting matters. I've just got hold of the fabulous metal kit from Particraft and had to play with it straight away. After I embossed the aluminium sheet, I covered it with alcohol inks and then rubbed off some of the colour to give it a distressed look. I used Distress Inks to colour the white card and then used Cosmic Shimmer glue to mount it. Not bad for a first attempt and I'm sure I'll get better with practice!

Off to see the surgeon on Friday to see what can be done about my torn shoulder muscle. I'm not looking forward to it as I've got a pretty good idea what he's going to say. I'll keep you posted with what happens!

Just had a very strange request for a special order Christmas card....could I make one with 2 giraffes on it! Luckily I've recently purchased the set of jungle stamps from Particraft so now all I need is inspiration!

Anyway, that's all for today so until next time....keep crafting!

First Canvas

Just wanted to share some piccies of the first canvas I've ever made. I'm really pleased with the results and it was so quick to make (once I'd decided what I was going to do)!
First of all I covered the canvas with Distress Inks. I used Broken China, Dusty Concord and Faded Jeans. I then used the crackle stamp and heat embossed it with Cosmic Shimmer Silver embossing powder. I had some Xmas paper that I loved and tore it then distressed the edges. I glued that onto the canvas and randomly stamped swirls from the Mini Swirls unmounted stamp set around the edge of it. I heat embossed the swirls with the silver again. I had some large letters from K&Co which I used to spell out Xmas and before sticking them onto the canvas, I tied sone silver ribbon around them. To finish, I just added some snowflakes and a ribbon on top. I hope you like it and would love to hear your comments.





Close up detail of one of the letters.



I've been busy making some gift bags as well using my trusty Cricut and have had a lot of fun with those. I do love making cards but it's nice to make other things occassionally.

I'm thinking of having a very special blog candy if I can get up to 50 followers and will announce what will be in it very soon so watch this space!

Until next time....keep crafting!

What a long time away

It seems as though I've been gone for ages and I suppose it was quite a while, nearly 5 weeks. The cruise was great fun and as usual we met some terrific people and saw some fantastic places. The workshops went very well and in total I ran 19 of them and taught 21 projects. The class was evenly split between German and English passengers and they were equally enthusiastic (we even had 2 gentlemen in the class, one of whom made the most fantastic lace). I didn't know I had remembered so much German until I had to use it and I don't think I'll ever forget that doppelseiteklebeband is German for double sided sticky tape!

Some pictures of the workshops on MS Marco Polo.

We must have done well as we've been asked back onto the sister ship "Ocean Countess" for a 6 night Nordic City cruise in May next year. Really looking forward to that as I love Scandinavia and it's beautiful in the Spring.
Of course, that is dependent on what the surgeon says when I see him on November 27th! I am dreading it as I know that surgery is inevitable but I'm scared that it could go wrong and I'll be left worse off than I already am. At least I can still craft, slowly and carefully but if I couldn't do that I don't know how I'd cope.

I'm making a start on the dreaded Christmas shopping in case I get hauled in for surgery before Christmas as I've been told that the recovery time from the op is 3 months.

I will post some piccies of cards I've been making on here but I just wanted to catch you all up. We were a day late getting home as the weather took a turn for the worse when we were due to leave Lisbon and so the captain took the decision to wait 24 hours as it was too dangerous to set sail. It was still quite bumpy but nowhere near as bad as it could have been.

One e-mail I had when we got home was terrific. Clare (the editor of Docrafts magazine) e-mailed to ask if I would like to be the Spotlight on talent feature. I have to design 3 cards using the materials that they supply. Of course, I said I'd be delighted and I should be in the March issue so I'm really excited.

Anyway, must sign off and get on with some more washing!

Until next time.......

It was really hard work and here's the photo that proves it!

And the winner is.....

I'm really sorry I couldn't draw the name last night but our computer had to go to computer hospital. It's back in fully functioning now so at last, the result of the blog candy draw.....and the winner is......
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....
Drum roll please!
HILARY
If you'd like to e-mail me your address I'll get the stamps in the post to you. My e-mail is:
stephen.smith870@ntlworld.com
I'll try to do it today but if I don't manage it I'm afraid that it'll have to be after the cruise (again, many apologies)
Onto other matters...
My shoulder is worse than I thought. I've competely torn the muscle and it'll require an operation to fix it. I think that Steve Backley had to have the same op but I can promise you I haven't been throwing any javelins!
My poor ancient old dog, Tessa, had to be put to sleep last Wednesday. She was 18 1/2 years old and I'd had her for 17 years after getting her from an animal rescue centre. I really miss her and still look for her every morning when I get up. She was in so much pain that evening that I had no choice. The vet did offer to give her a pain killer but pointed out that it would only be effective for 2 days and so was just delaying the inevitable. I know that she lived a very long life but I still feel a bit of a heel taking her to the vets when I knew what the outcome would be. She was so trusting and would have gone wherever I wanted her to. I don't think that I would want another dog for a long, long time.
On a lighter note, we're off on the cruise tomorrow so I won't be blogging for a month unless we can find a Wi-fi hook up. Until I get back take care and keep crafting!