GIVE AWAY and NEW THINGS!!!!!!!

Cause I have just been on the blog of the lovely Brenda Pinnick!!!! As lot of you may know by now I am a fan and I am very excited cause she has some WONDERFUL new items coming up on QVC later this year and if you go to her blog you can see what she has on offer! I especially love the new Keeper Album kit which means you can scrap different sizes all within one album!

Her new paper are in my fave colours too of pink and purples and the chipboad some beautiful swirls, so I will be in heaven. Just need to work out how to pay for it all now LOL!

AND as if you needed any more encouragement you can even take part in a GIVE AWAY - just drop by her blog and find out how!

Oh yes of course you need to know where to find it all - well it is at http://brendapinnick.typepad.com/brenda_pinnick_news_ideas/. Tell her I sent you!
and can anyone tell me how to do the links on here please :)

Apologies

once again cause I have been a bad blogger! Things around here not been so great lately - poor Tangle had to have the emergency vet out last Sunday as he had a blocked bladder. Had to have an operation to set him right again and a stay at the vet's until Thursday so I will leave it to your imagination what the bill was like - typically of course we had just taken out insurance on him! It is like they know!

THEN I got sick too - lost my voice so has meant not talking (no comments please!) and also had a dreadful cough and generally feeling rotten so after a second trip to the doctors I now seem to be on the mend.

Work over the next few months is going to be on an album that I need to get ready for a special occasion in December - it is my parent's 40th wedding anniversary! I have chosen the album and the papers but the hard part has been getting photos together. My brother did a raid when they were on their hols earlier this year but could not find everything I needed so I am going to have to work with what I have now! First of all I need to tidy up this craft room............ think I will wait until I am fully recovered though LOL!!!

New template!!

I have to say firstly sorry I know this is not perfect! But thanks to the lovely Toni I have been pointed to a site where I can get this super funky background and there are LOTS more to choose from too so there will be more changes on here I guess LOL. Just got to get the colours right so it is easier to read so bear with me as I will be away for a few days now.

BUT if in the meantime you are inspired then look in the top left hand corner and there is a link for you to brighten your blog too!

I am BACK scrapping at last!!!!

Yes I am back!!!! After doing the intensive training at work and trying to keep that New Year's Resolution by making my own cards I have finally got the scrappy habit once again. It was tough I have to confess, I went along to a Scrapaholic's group in Bromley run by the lovely Pat and that kick started me but found it tough going! Still the lovely Helen was there next to me ripping away and filling me with inspiration! So what have I been up to then........

Well first of all I have finally got my DH onto a LO! Here he is the other week in the garden really chilled out. Been using my stash up so this is from a Doodlebug kit from Gottacraft that I have used some of but knew that I would end up using more for him.




Last month's Gottacraft kit was the lovely Crate Paper Blue Hills so these have just proved to be soo perfect for some lovely summery girlie LOs of DD and her cousins:

Birdie on this one is by the Artistic Stamper and has be lightly stamped and then I went over it with Sakara Souffle pen:
Finally I go back to the very beginning as it were with the kit that I got at the Scrapaholics crop. The techinique was Glossy Accents which I have used on the swirls kindly provided by using Pat's Big Shot and dies at the crop. Lots of butterflies (and the flowers!) from an Autumn Leaves set by Rhonna Farrer which have been coloured using H2Os. Lettering from a QVC kit by Brenda Pinnick!

MORE cards!!!

Sorry still no LOs forthcoming here! A couple of these cards are some I did a while back and never posted and the 5 one is for a birthday party DD is going to tomorrow and done with a Hanglar and Stanglar stamped image I was kindly sent! Did do another card with the H&S stamps but only just realised I never took a pic of it :(. The fairy cards are from QVC simply AGGGES ago LOL!

Still here are three others for you to look at!

New Job!!!

Just realised I have not posted on here to say I have a new job! Working for the same company as DH but it actually came through an agency LOL - when they asked if I had heard of the company I just laughed my socks off.

So apologies as there is now less time for crafting and less time for blogging too BUT will try and ensure I post on here every couple of weeks or so. Been doing so many cards lately I seem to have forgotten how to scrap, but certain I will get back into again soon - first of all got to sort out my crafty area. But in the words of Arnie - I WILL be back LOL!!!

Been Tagged!

by a duck obssessed woman called QUAKAS!!! SOOOO here we go:

What was I doing ten years ago today?
OMG - you mean I am meant to remember????? Well I can tell you that I was living in Croydon ten years ago with my DH in a one bedroomed flat with only dreams of living in anything larger! I would also have been preparing from my driving test which I passed in the August of 1998. As for work I would have been working for Hillman Saunders a recruitment agency as their Office Manager in Croydon with my lovely friend Rachael who has now moved to New York.

5 things to do today:
Well I am going to cheat as it is late in the day and include those I have done as well LOL!
1. Get some pink card from the Papermill for DDs birthday invitations
2. Get all the bits and bobs needed to put oup DDs hair for her ballet exam.
3. Return the forms and make certain everything is OK for DD to go to afterschool club from Wednesday.
4. Make said invitations!
5. Ring my Mum and Dad cause I have not spoken to them for nearly a week!

Snacks I like: basically everything unhealthy LOL! I love chocolate (except most white), Walkers cheese and onion crisps - oh and any sort of summer berries, now they are healthy!

What would I do if I was a millionaire?
Well the first thing I would do would be to go on holiday! First of all to see my friend Rachael (above!) who lives in NYC and also has a little girl and then head off to Australia to see my BIL, SIL and their children. Somewhere on this trip I would also stop off in Hong Kong as I have always wanted to go there for some reason! I would also go back to South Africa. Like most people I would also buy a new house - or rather I would prefer to build my own somewhere in Pembrokeshire and if possible near Tenby where I could see out over the sea. This would mean I would be closer to my family in Wales. Of course this house would have a dedicated purpose built scrap room!

Places I have lived:
Swansea, Croydon and Ashford! That's it!

Now I need to go find some others to tag so I choose Pink Fairy, Jo, Linds, Mandijane and Jo Bee!

Last Day!

Well for those of you who know me you will also know that today was my last day working for Craft Central. I have to say I will very much miss everyone I have worked with there but needs must and I am now heading off to new but unfortunately non crafty pastures working for the same company as DH! Luckily not in the same building though LOL!

I got some beautiful hand made cards as well as some lovely flowers and yummy Thorntons Continential Choccies from my friends there who as I said I will miss but am certain to pop in to visit at the weekends!! They don't get rid of me that easily.........

MORE........

Here are a couple of cards I have made in the past day or so! First of all this one for my cousin - Magnolia image used which was kindly sent to me by my teamie Tania so many thanks for this!
Flowers on this one from Rebecca's Scrapbooking Stash but the paper sorry I cannot recall it was from my scraps! Think it may possibly be Crate Paper?

AND NOW.......

A PREMIERE!!!! Here is the very first card made with on of my new H&S stamps! This has been done for my niece in Australia for her birthday in a couple of weeks. When she visited over five years ago she adored my kitty cats so this one is ideal for her. Flowers from Lakeland and papers are from a pack from QVC by American Crafts, again scraps left over from my scrapbooking.

Oh and even better I am now using my lovely Derwent Inktense pencils to colour these images - there are going to be many many more of them so hope you do not get bored to bits with them!

BLOG CANDY!!!

Well I am so so thrilled that I have just yesterday received some really beautiful Hanglar & Stanglar stamps from my lovely friend from UKS who lives in Sweden!

Another one of my lovely team mates is now being lovely and sharing her stamps with all of you in that she has some blog candy that could be heading your way! Of course you don't get them for doing nothing so head over to and have a look at her blog at http://www.thiscreativechaos.blogspot.com/ right now and you could be in with the chance of getting these really super stamped images!!!! Oh just one more thing - you MUST do this by 30 June in order to be in with the chance of winning these! Good luck!

SORRY!

Yes sorry to all of you who do come and read what I write! No one was more suprised that I was to get a message on UKS to ask why I had not update my blog for soooo long! Well considering it has been my birthday this month there really is not much excuse but saying that my mojo had gone and run off somewhere so hopefully it will come back very soon!

In order to aid that I went to the Scrapbooking Fayre at the Hilton Maidstone today, very short notice as I did not know about it until last night! Not many stalls there really but Scrapshed were there (www.scrapshed.co.uk) and I am pleased to say that there was not a problem spending even if there is using at the moment LOL! S

o for all of you were interested in how I have been spending the photos attached are for you, and I promise I will update more this week as I have pics of DDs Father's Day card to share with you plus an anniversary card that I made but of course not in the same league as hers! Hope you will come back again soon.... BUT in the meantime here is some stash to drool over!

Papers from Scrapshed which include MM Noteworthy, Prima Marketing Angelique, Prima Paintables and Rusty Pickle Pop Star!
More from the lovely Noteworth range - you just have to love those shaped edges!
BARGAIN from Scrapshed - just £2 in the sale for these vellum quotes! Also wanted some stamps like these for AGES, and you can just see the Mica Pigment Perlescent Paints from Stamp Connection. All resting on the BEST VFM pieces of chipboard from Stamp Connection too!
FINALLY by the Artistic Stamper a bit of an EXCLUSIVE as the stamps on the right are NOT available until next month and you could only get them at the show so how could I resist? Anyone else who loves them will have to wait but you can get them from the lovely Jennie at www.theartisticstamper.co.uk. She also took a workshop today and I made a great tag using the pearl paints and the sunflower stamp which I will share with you another time! as well as a great tag that Jennie made for me!
Hope you enjoyed and that you are now inspired to go and spend on on stash too!!!!

Getting technical now!

OK have created a playlist - here's hoping it works!!!!

Time for some LOs!

As promised but not much time to chat so hope you like these - if you do leave a comment to say so!

First one is of my niece who wrote the poem in school and my Mum asked me to do a LO for her. Used a Pencillines sketch for this one.

Second is the weekly challenge for w/c 12 May on UKS and also my team challenge where I was not allowed to scap a picture of a person, had to use green, buttons and show my handwriting too! From a Cloud 9 kit from QVC

Finally Grow is from a kit from Gottacraft and is using sketch no 4 from Pencillines. It is DD in the garden where she keeps watching and waiting for her plant to flower.

I am loving using sketches at the moment cause I find I can work so quickly from them. Also when used with a kit like the Gottacraft one you don't need to worry too much about your mojo going astray!

You wanted cards?

For a friend's husband's 60th birthday, the card was cut with my robo as were the numbers which were then triple heat embossed.


My teamie on UKS sent me some stamped images of the lovely Little Cotton Rabbits so this has been made from one of these by colourin with H2Os


A card for the lovely Hazel who I chat to on the Gottacraft thread who was in the Cook Island for her birthday and with whom I share a love of PURPLE!

For my niece's 7th birthday - she does not many things with her name on:

Well as you can see I have been busy and still have Father's Day to go! In the meantime I have been scrapping and have some LOs to upload on here too, but as DD is off school today then I will have to leave these until another day!

Sunshiney Day!

well in fact weekend! We have had glorious weather here all weekend, in fact so hot I have come inside to do this LOL!

Not done much scrapping since the CC but determined to get ahead with cards so that I can concentrate more on my LOs again, so aimming to get all those done that I need by the end of June before we get to the end of May! It is a busy month tho what with 3 wedding anniversaries and countless birthdays - including mine of course. I am taking pics of my cards and will share them all when I am done.

My Prize!!!!

Well as I guess a lot of you are aware by now I was the lucky winner of the Chip n Dale class by Caroline of Bubbly Funk (http://www.bubblyfunk.co.uk/) during the cybercrop on UK Scrappers last weekend. This week a super scrummy parcel arrived for me and I could not have won a better class as I got lots of CHIPBOARD:

As well as ribbons, blooms, and buttons! I think she might have been in my craft room LOL!

Anyway I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to Caroline for such a lovely prize as well as getting it out to me so fast.

Well then it was back to earth with a crash as I have lots of occassions coming up that need cards. I am part of the May/June birthday swap on UKS and this the card that I came up with for another Caroline, who I understood loves green and black as well as her kitties! The cat and the Happy Birthday were cut from templates on UKS (sorry cannot remember whose they were!) and how lucky am I to be able to share in the work of these talented people who can design such things.

As I said so many cards and soo little time so this is what I came up with for my brother in law - simple but fast! I could not resist this little Westie who came in this week at work and is helping me stick to my new year's resolution of making all my cards this year - this next month or so is going to be a toughie!

Anyway that is a little insight to my crafting world this week! I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings and do leave a comment to say you stopped by!

EEEK I've been TAGGED!!!

Well Claire (Feline) has got me! Now who do I tag back - not eve certain how!

So 7 random facts about me (guessing some of you may have heard some of these tho!)

1. I took my driving test 4 times (or was it 5 - I lost count!) and finally passed at 29 after a break of 12 years!!!
2. I HATE fish!
3. I am very very untidy at home but neat at work! (go figure!)
4. I never used to like pink until I had a DD.
5. I have a passion for ginger cats!
6. I have been banned from Radio One
7. I have been on page 3 of The Sun!

OK now am guessing I need to add some peeps to a list and guessing it must be another 7 (don't think I even read that many blogs!!!)

Top of the list must be Mandijane55, Mandy Charlton Designs, MadHatterMillie, Lindschick, errrmmm then I struggle a bit cause the others are those that Claire has already done!

Am guessing that you should also be able to their blogs too but have not got a clue how to do this! Sorry maybe someone needs to give me a lesson!

Check out my Slide Show!

Been Cybercropping

Well this is what I have been up to all weekend!!! Cybercrop on UKS. Had a great time starting off on Friday Evening with a great class called "Stand by Me" by Margaret of Artbase (http://www.artbasehornchurch.co.uk/). That was all for Friday and I carried on Saturday morning with this too - forget the scrapping this got me using Photoshop and turning my pics to black and white for the very first time.

I also did some of the challenges and on the Blank Cheque one did a photo that was recently rediscovered when my Mum scanned in some old slides and found this one of me and my grandparents so it was great to get them on the page too - just need to check what the year was - definitely 1970's sometime and I think it was either '73 or '74!

I loved doing the class by Caroline of Bubbly Funk last time and so I rushed to get the kit this time and for once did not go with DDs choice of pink and got the green instead. I really love using her chipboard so if you want to see more then go to http://www.bubblyfunk.co.uk/. The real suprise with this class tho was that I won a prize!!!! DH could not believe it when I nearly screamed the house down at 10pm at night. Photo was taken by my BIL so big thanks to him too for sharing it with us.

The most anticipated class of the CC had to be the one by the lovely Annette aka Voodoo Vixen and she showed us how to make a great book - it was so quick to do and really effective. I know I will just be using this design over and over again. I really hope that she is persuaded to do one another time as she is just so talented! I know she has a blog too so must find that and post a link here for you all to see.

Done a LO!!!

Yes at last I have finally got around to doing a LO! These photos were sent to me by my Mum of my nieces, my baby bro and his new girlfriend. I don't think I have ever scrapped photos so fast ever and it also meant I got to use my Gottacraft kit (http://www.gottacraft.co.uk/) from March at last.

Anyway do leave a comment to say you have been!

Back to the vets!

That is where we went on Friday with Cheshire - seems he has some sort of urinary infection so today is being spent trying to get him to wee on some special cat litter so that we can get a sample otherwise he has to be admitted and they will get one from him at the vets.

Finally been doing some scrapping rather than just doing cards, used the Gottacraft March Kit (yes I am a bit behind!) but if you want to see the past kits or even get hold of the next one have a look on Sandra's site www.gottacraft.co.uk under kits. I got a really lovely photo of my brother and my two nieces from my mum last weekend and immediately they shouted SCRAP ME! So I have finally got around to it - just need to cut a title, stick it all together and do the journaling and I will be done and hopefully will upload tomorrow when DD is back at school.

Talking of which the holidays are just so silly this year - it is only 5 weeks and then they are off again and there is a bank holiday in between as well. Still she has been really good with me working and DH looking after her whilst I am there for the last week. We have also had some time to do her first two scrapbook pages and this afternoon the plan is to paint a mug which she got in a kit for Christmas. Lots of pics to be taken and uploaded this week and this is all before the UKS Cybercrop which starts on Friday evening!

Go and check this guy out!

OK I appreciate that this is going to sound like "oh yes she would say that cause she knows Nige & Rosemary" BUT you really have to go and listen to their highly talented SON! Yes you did read correctly - go and listen to what Joel can do you will not be disappointed cause this guy can sing and if they do not start playing him on the radio VERY soon I want to know why cause I have heard stuff that is no where as near as good as this being played! Go check him out www.myspace.com/joeluk .

THEN if you love what you hear on 20 April if all runs to plan Nige tells me his new album is going to be dropped on iTunes! Forget the scrapping connection and go let this new artist shine on his own merits!

Back from the Palace!

YES I DID IT!!! I drove to Ally Pally and got back again. Not half as bad as I thought so will be saving up to go again. What a great time as I met so many people from UKS and also Amanda from craft.co.uk - special mention as she gave me some goodies.
Sooooooo............ what did I get?

Papers - including some NEW coloured core cardstock which is available from www.capturethemagic.biz - it can be sanded, torned and scrumpled to give a different shade underneath - they also do this with a black face and colour underneath but thought I would have a play with these to start with. Great Value at just 55p per sheet too! Could not resist getting some papers where I have to colour them in myself as well as some Bo Bunny, Fancy Pants and Crate Paper to name a few!


Lots more goodies including some much longed for H2Os and some journalling stamps! A couple I wanted were out of stock so the lovely gentleman on Stamp In stand said to email him in a couple of days and he will get them sent to me!

And FINALLY how could I resist these wood buttons - especially the cat ones and being Welsh I just loved the little love spoons! These can be coloured with Sakura pens or paints - wonder if those H2Os will work on them!

Not very good...

at this blogging lark! Think it is cause I look at everyone else's and they look so fabby and mine well tis rather basic and I cannot even post links back to www.craft.co.uk which by the way is a real fabby craft website! We had a BIG techie problem there a few weeks back but now we are back BETTER than ever!

Since my last post (yes a long time ago!) we have unfortunately had to say goodbye to Ebony but in the end we know it was the right decision for her so on 7 December, Alan was very brave and took her to the vets. He stayed with her until the end and she even started purring for him as if saying her final farewell. For such a quiet little puss cat she is missed very much and no one will ever fill that place in our hearts - she will hold that forever.

So on that note back to something much happier! On Sunday I am taking my first trip to Alexandra Palace to the BIG Scrapbooking and Stamping Show - I have been saving for months and months now so have some money to spend but will be like a kiddie let loose in a sweet shop with all the lovely things there! I am also meeting up with some people from the forums I chat on - 5 all in all plus Claire who I am going to travel up with. Hopefully she will keep me sane whilst I try and drive there!

Well I will try and blog again after the weekend - but in the meantime if you are going and happen to read this then look out for me and my Bagpuss badge!