Happy Fathers day

 Happy Fathers Day dad - love you xxx

This is the card I made for my dad this year

Everyone who knows me also knows just how special dad is and how much I rely on him at work as well as in my personal life, I hope you know how much I love and appreciate you dad xxx

I used Portobello Road papers and ribbon

The lettering is a Tim Holtz Die

The sentiment was computer generated

I also used Card Candi

Next up I have a card that I made for Robbie's best mate to give to his own dad

His dad is poorly and he asked me if I could make his father's day card

I thought it was so touching for a teenage boy to be thinking that a handmade card would be special for his dad, he's a good lad and it was a pleasure to do this for him

I used some Best Creations patterned papers

Card Candi

A Tim Holtz die for the lettering

And once again the sentiment was computer generated

I will be back later with the card I made for Neil, I ran out of time to get that one photographed.

A hug in a card

Sometimes a card is needed for someone for a 'non-happy' point in their life, ie not a celebration

I find these the hardest to make, partly because it makes me feel sad to think someone I care about is suffering. I am a 'fixer' and like to make things better, it's hard for me to have to admit that there is nothing practical I can do other than send a card to let the person know that they are being thought of.

This card is an unusual size for me, it is 8inches x 8inches and was made for my dear dear friend Pat, who's husband had been diagnosed with a serious illness. The card was intended for both of them, just to let them know that myself and the Running With Scissors 'family' were thinking of them

I used Graphic 45 papers, prima flowers and a sentiment stamp from Stampin' Up

I added paint to the tiny roses to soften the colour

I am so very sorry to say Brian lost his battle last week, the world is less one true gentleman

If you are reading this post Pat, we are all here for you and will be thinking of you on thursday when you say goodbye to your soul mate

With much love xxx

Birthday blessings

I made this card recently for a very special lady who comes to my card class and the crop on a friday

June is kind and generous to a fault always wanting to help and treat other people

We found out she was about to celebrate one of those 'milestone' birthdays

The papers I used are by Kaiser Craft

The image is one I have had in my stash for years - sorry I can't remember where it is from

Flower is handmade

Gem numbers are Mark Richards

Sentiment stamp is from Stampin' Up

I hope you have had a lovely birthday June and that you have been as spoiled as you deserve

xxx

Clippesby Hall - 2013

 Clippesby Hall 2013

Warning - photo heavy, non crafting post

I have a few photos to share of our  camping trip to Norfolk last week

We stayed at a lovely site - Clippesby Hall

Here is the Hall, set in pretty gardens and situated at one end of the site ( it's a fairly big site)

Around the site :

There were a couple of grass tennis courts, Neil and Rob had some pretty close matches ( I did well just to return the ball, scored no points, but did have a laugh)

There was also a really large play area, with various equipment for all ages, bordering a football pitch

AJ looking determined to score past Robbie

Our tent set-up :

The pitches are quite large and we were on an all-weather pitch, they are all immaculately kept and all the tents and caravans etc are nestled in little areas,  among the trees

Yes, we are back in the Bell tent, we sold the trailer last year - we didn't get on with it as well as we thought we would, I especially love my Bell tent and it is such a breeze to put up

The little seating and eating area to the side of the kitchen/utility tent, the windbreaker was a new addition to our supplies this year

All nice and cosy - barbecue time

Days out :

The boys took their bikes and scooters this year, we checked out all the local amenities and Great Yarmouth offered this fab indoor Skate Park, I would highly recommend it, the boys loved it and the guy who runs it was lovely.

Robbie - air-borne ( sorry for the blur - my camera does not like being indoors with moving objects)

Another great day out was Eaton Park in Norwich

One of the pretty gardens

You guessed it - there was also a skate park within the grounds, we left the boys here for a couple of hours, Neil and I went to play pitch and putt, also in the grounds of the park, and then we returned to take some photos of the boys  'doing their thing'

There are some things a mother does not need to see - ie your son flying through the air, doing all manner of tricks - over concrete

Heart in mouth, my nerves couldn't stand watching them for more than about ten minutes

Robbie balancing on the very edge of one of the bowls

AJ accomplishing a bar spin in mid air

And what did Neil and I do when the boys were scooting and BMXing ?

We played crazy golf, walked the sea front and generally just chilled out together

There were three Crazy golf courses on the front at Great Yarmouth, they were all really well kept - we love playing this silly game and generally find a course wherever we go

Neil seeking some much needed shade under one of the features of the course, we were extremely lucky with the weather and this day was particularly warm and sunny

And finally a couple of shots of 'my boys'

AJ

Rob

I know I am biased, but they are such good lads, I was so proud of them

I can take them anywhere, their manners are always impeccable and they are so helpful and loads of fun when we are away.

These photos are so rare too - its getting harder and harder to capture them without a goofy expression or a silly grin

Handsome little critters !!!

A cascade of cascades

I have a couple of 'same but different' cards to share tonight.

I have had an unusually busy time lately with cards, so to cut down a little on the thinking and planning time, two that needed to be made for the same day were from the same design

I recently taught this cascade style of card in class and it proved to be really popular

This first one was for my gorgeous friend Michelle, who is going through an absolute ordeal health-wise, I am not going to go into details on here, not sure I am the right person to say it and this is is not the right place.

Suffice to say I wanted to make a special card to let her know I love her lots and will support her always

And the back

And this second card was for my mother in law, for her birthday -  same card, different colour

One final sweet treat before I bid you goodnight

These yummy cupcakes briefly scented the house with vanilla before magically disappearing before my eyes, the joys of baking for a house full of boys !

21 and counting

It is Neil and my anniversary today, 21 years and counting

21 years !

Here is the card I made

I used some brand new papers and a new Stamp by Stampendous

We ran some errands together this morning

Neil booked half a shift off, coming home early from work to surprise me -  so we could spend the rest of the day together

We visited a friend this morning and we invited him and his dad out to lunch, at a local cafe and enjoyed a slap-up cooked breakfast

Neil's (bachelor) mate was marvelling at 21 years of marriage (he was Neil's best man) and he was teasing us with the fact we were celebrating at a greasy spoon with  sausage and egg and a lovely cup of tea !

I answered that, it was exactly why we were still blissfully happy

It is the little things that make us content

Just being together, enjoying the same things, laughing at the same jokes (although I am usually a little slower on the uptake lol)

The food of love

Tonight I have my tag for our RWS tag challenge

The theme for this month was music

I used a sheet of payper Box card for the background, the heart is a die cut, as is the treble clef, which I embossed through the Cuttlebug and rubbed with wax

The little tags were made with a woodware punch and stamped

The sentiment was computer generated, I used the fonts 'American typewriter' and 'Zapfino'

I hope you will join us in this fun monthly challenge, you can find all the details on our shop site HERE

Christmas greetings

The more observant of my blog readers would definitely be forgiven for thinking I had forgotten all about my-self set Christmas card challenge.

I am just a little behind ( mumbling the exact number of cards incoherently under my breath so as not to embarrass myself)

But I haven't given up and am determined to catch up 

Here is one I did complete a couple of weeks ago and haven't as yet shared on here

I used some of my new spellbinders dies and an image I stamped up last year and never got around to using. 

I think I might need to make myself accountable and start listing the challenges I am in and the progress I have made so far ( or maybe not lol)

The earth laughs in flowers

Tomorrow never comes, or so they say, well it certainly didn't come if my last blog post was anything to go by.

This is the post I should have made last monday and once again got waylaid.

My tag for Margaret's challenge over on the RWS shop site HERE

The theme for this month was flowers

The quote was computer generated, the papers are the new utterly gorgeous Secret Garden papers by Graphic 45.

Two quite random little acts of kindness made me smile this week.

The first of which was this yummy loaf, baked and delivered by my lovely friend Ann, she knows I absolutely love bread and this one is extra special, roasted onion and balsamic bread hmmmmmmmm and yes Ann I did share it with Neil, thankyou xxx

And these gorgeous tulips were brought in by mummy number two Beryl, she gave me a tip about keeping the stems erect ( still talking tulips in case you are getting excited !) But I quite like the haphazard way they cavorted in my vase, so I left them to go their own way.

One last thing before I bid you goodnight.

We have a brand new challenge up and running on the RWS shop site, you can find all the details HERE

Please check it out and join in the fun

I have also added Margaret and Anita as authors and Design Team members to the shop blog, pop along and give them a warm welcome, Margaret's first post is on there now, you can read what she has been up to HERE

I hope you are all having a restful and enjoyable Bank Holiday

xxx

The language of Friendship

I do hope Margaret approves of this post, I am finally all caught up with the tags for her challenge.

This is the one I created for last months theme of friendship.

I used some of the irresistible new Secret Garden papers we have in the shop.

The heart is chipboard, painted with two shades of Tim Holtz Distress paint and then coated with Rock Candy.

I will be back tomorrow with this month's tag.

Virgin on the sublime

Well, a little later than promised, here I have the card I mentioned last week.

I was all set to upload and then POOFFFFFFF !!!  My modem decided to go up in smoke, no internet for a whole weekend.

Anita's theory is that it was Candy crushed and she is probably right lol

Anyway long story short

Rang virgin

Virgin came

Virgin tested

 - EVERYTHING

Not just modem, but both Tivo boxes and both V+ boxes and every other single item in the house and all their cables

Virgin installed new modem

and new remote control and promised to come back next week to re pull our cables

So t'internet is fixed and we have just about all of the 100meg we should have

Two brand new shiny appliances

And a promise that it will be even faster when the repull is done

So...... thankyou Virgin, whatever anyone else says  - you are ACE !!!

And the engineer was a diamond too

So, tonight, thanks to Virgin, I do have the card to share that I made for my dear friend Ann last week

Ann adores all things butterfly related so I couldn't resist adding this little beauty to the front of her card

The patterned paper was a sheet gifted to me by my lovely friend Carole, thankyou honey, I am sure you will approve of who I used it for !

I hope you had a lovely birthday Ann and was totally spoiled by Dave ( although I have no doubt he made your day very special)

And what came of the time I gained from not having my Mac hooked up to the world wide web all weekend ???

Well the house got cleaned from top to bottom

All the laundry got done superfast

Blitzed the garden

Went to the gym

Repainted a mirror frame

Did some DIY

Cleared out wardrobes

Made some cards

Totally revamped craft area

Baked for the kids

Polished the dog

Yadda Yadda Yadda

All in two days phewwwwwwww

Might need to ban myself from the internet a little more often ( although I am sure the novelty would wear off eventually)

Candy Crush here I come !

Marching along with Tim

This is my take on Tim's tag for March

I didn't have his seasonal paper pack so chose a different paper for my background and I didn't have anything remotely bunny like so went with a heart for my aperture.

Neither did I have that weird stuff Tim used in the aperture and to be honest I am really funny about textures and didn't fancy working with it, even glitter card is a stretch for me, although I am quite fond of this glitter card which is from Stampin' Up and is a stunning colour.

And there we have it ! Almost caught up ! I have actually finished the April tag so I will be sharing that in a couple of days

I will be back tomorrow with a card that I made for a very special friend, I can't share it yet as she reads my blog and won't be opening the card til tomorrow.

Spring into Spring

Tonight or is it this morning ( when blogging at a quarter past two in the morning, the appropriate greeting seems a little confusing) I have to share last months ATC

The theme was spring quotes and the required colour was yellow, as was chosen by Margaret the previous months winner

At first I was stumped - Spring, the quote part and the 'ATC' part of the challenge definitely did not phase me at all, but yellow is not a colour I tend to opt for in my crafting, but, once I got started I  enjoyed using a colour I am not generally enamoured with, it is challenging to step out of ones comfort zone occasionally, so thankyou Margaret for encouraging me to step out of my box.

I will be uploading all the other ATC's and announcing the winner of the challenge on the RWS site tomorrow evening.