Get Well

I made this card for a special friend who also happens to be one of my wednesday ladies.

Helen has had a rotten year healthwise and eventually she had to stop coming to classes whilst she waited for an operation.

The class missed her and her super fun and bubbly nature and we can't wait to have her back in January.

This is the card I made on behalf of the ladies who also all contributed to  flowers and some bath treats to cheer her up whilst she convalesced.

I coloured Henry in with my Neocolours and used patterned papers by Nitwit.

And back to catching up with the Christmas cards.

This one I made for my mum and dad.

And as it was slightly too fat to fit in the envelope, I made a box to present it in.

These next two cards were made in Lindas last Stampin' Up class of the year - thanks Linda xxx

I am not a glitter person normally but fell in love with the colour of this glitter paper from Stampin' up - so lush !

And the sentiment on this card was lovely, I might have to treat myself to this stamp set !

Tomorrow I will be back with Neil's birthday card and the last couple of christmas cards I have remembered to photograph.

A Dog's Life

I didn't get to make as many handmade gifts this year as I had hoped.

Totally awful planning on my part - you would think that by now I would know that Christmas does indeed fall on the same date each year.

And yet each and every year without fail, the festive season sneaks up on me - by stealth - and catches me unawares and unprepared !

One I did manage to finish was a mini-book for my lovely friend Bonnie who has been an absolute rock all the time I have had the shop, she is my thursday lady, who teaches Parchment and die cutting, but she is so much more than that - to know her is to love her ! And she is one of the most generous people I have ever met, with her time as much as anything else.

Last year she got a new puppy who is adorable and Bonnie is smitten, so I made this little book to house a few of her favourite snapshots of him.

I used papers by Nitwit and some elements from a kit I had ordered from America - by The Paper Studio

I kept lots of the mats blank so Bonnie can add all her treasured photos or add in anecdotes to treasure.

This Nitwit pawprint paper was my favourite.

As promised yesterday her are a few more of the Christmas cards I made this year.

These two slight variations with the sleigh are for two of my neighbours.

One for Linda and her family.

And a slight variation for Bonnie and George

And this one had to be special - for Anita, you can't tell from the photo but the santa is suspended in the aperture of the tent card

A little bit closer to catching up my recent crafting projects

Don't forget the Running With Scissors January SALE is tomorrow - Saturday 5th January 10am - 4pm - lots and lots of bargains to be had !

I have a get well card and some more Christmas cards to share with you all tomorrow too, see you then.

Catching Up

Happy New Year

To all my friends and family and my blog readers too.

I do hope you all have a happy and healthy 2013.

I am going to be playing catch up for the next few posts as I took a little unplanned blog break over the last few weeks, so please forgive my  next few posts if they contain christmassy type crafts

 There will also be some non festive projects too, but I am going to try and clear the backlog of images I have on my Mac.

Before I forget - for all my crafting buddies locally, we are having our annual January SALE- SATURDAY 5th January at the shop, so if you are in the vicinity of Grimsby, I promise there will be LOADS of bargains, as always we will have our tables full of bargains with up to 90% of some items and everything else will have at least 20% off the original price.

A few of the cards I made this year

For my sister

For my niece Katie ( using the Stampin' Up Owl punch for Rudolph)

A couple of the cards I made for Neils work colleagues

For Neil's mum

And for my dear friend Beryl

And that's it for today, I am currently making lots of thankyou cards for all the generous people who bought myself and the family gifts this festive season.

See you tomorrow with a gift mini-book I made for a special friend and some more christmas cards.

Christmas is coming

First up -  apologies for being absent, more about that at the end of the post, first up some Christmas cards I have been making, all for close friends.

I have been busy with all the usual Christmas preparations, shopping, wrapping, card-making, decorating etc etc.

On top of my usual 2 hours a day at the gym, Neil and I have decided to try out the Insanity home workout programme, it is seriously eating into my free hours - hence lack of blogging and general internet use.

We have just finished week three and I am so proud of both of us for sticking with it so far. With all the usual Christmas preparations, me working and Neil working shifts, all the stuff that goes with having three kids and life in general, it has not been easy !

But I am feeling much, much stronger, I have broke through a plateau at the gym and increased my weights on every single exercise, I have also increased my cardio intensity and seem to be able to do all the usual daily tasks with much more ease, I have no idea whether I will see it through to the end, it is a 60 day programme, but I am determined to try !

Baby girl

It is not often I get the chance to make an overtly girlie card, especially a girlie baby card, so when one of Robbie's friends recently gave birth to a lovely baby girl I jumped at the chance of breaking out all the yummy pink supplies I have been hoarding.

I used a Marianne design die for the pram and papers by Nitwit, the banner was created using a Whimsy die and the lettering was created with a Tim Holtz die.

I added liquid pearls to the quilted paper and bows to add a little softness

I am sorry, blogging has been a little scarce lately, I have still been crafting  - unfortunately some has been Christmas related and cannot be shared yet as the recipients read my blog, also I have been working on ATC's and our Circle journal both of which are projects which cannot be shared, hopefully soon things will return to normal and I will be able to share a little more regularly.

Happy birthday sis

For my little sister Helen, who celebrated her birthday yesterday and will be reaching a landmark birthday next year.

I used stampin' Up stamps, Hero Arts flowers and obviously lots of love.

Bloomin' Banner

Today I have a banner to share which I started approximately one month ago.

The components of which have travelled back and forth from home to shop and back again, with me adding a ribbon here and a button there.

I used the elements from the Molly Bloom christmas kit

The alphas, I drew onto cream card, cut out and embossed using the Cuttlebug with a Stampin' Up folder

The images were all painted with Tim Holtz Distress Inks

All finished with some ribbon, lace, holly leaves and little red pearls for the berries.

Lots of the girls from the shop have also been making these banners and although we are all using the same supplies it is amazing just how very different they are all looking.

Boo !

These are my ATC's for our last swap

Sarah chose the theme for October and we were required to use a Halloween theme and the colour silver

I use a vintage girl stamp and turned her into a little witch by adding a hat, which I cut by hand and then embossed through the Cuttlebug

The silver was added by way of a background stamp and silver embossing powder and I finished the cards with a little washi tape and some table confetti from Tescos

You can see the rest of the ATC's entered into the swap and find out who won, by checking out the shop blog - HERE

Bye Bye Bob.

Mixed post tonight, very photo heavy

First up a card for my friend and neighbour Jenny

Whilst we were away on holiday our dear neighbour Bob died suddenly, we didn't know anything about it until we got home.

Bless him, he was a lovely, lovely man. Bob and Jenny become our friends shortly after moving in over the road from us a few years ago and have been brilliant with our boys, they have a grandson a similar age and have been incredibly kind and generous with our three.

Bob was originally from America and had a really laid back and languid way about him, always had time to stop and natter and always genuinely cared when he asked how you were.

We will miss him and we hope his wife Jenny will find some comfort in knowing how loved her husband was. 

On another note entirely.

Here are our pics from our holiday in The Lakes a couple of weeks ago.

We stayed once again at the Quiet Site just outside Penrith.

St Andrews church - Penrith

Just so happened to be right next to a lovely little craft shop !

The weather was pretty miserable, until now we have been incredibly blessed by fair and dry weather whenever we have visited Cumbria, but the legendary rain caught up with us this time.

So we spent a little more time pursuing indoor activities this time round

We even ventured as far as Newcastle and enjoyed a day at the metro centre.

The Christmas decorations were up and the boys had a little pocket money to spend.

We had a day out at Whitehaven and ended up taking the boys bowling

Rob had just scored a strike so was super happy, mum won at the end of the day (least said about that the better - none of the boys were happy to be beaten by a girl !)

Later in the week and after a walk up to Penrith, we called in a pub for some liquid refreshments and we all enjoyed a few games of pool and darts.

Our new trailer tent, which did us proud, the weather certainly tested its durability.

The view from our tent door on the final day before heading home, the skies were a beautiful clear blue and totally devoid of clouds, in the distance we could just make out a three quarter moon.

And the view towards the rear of the tent

 

And the inside ( for Marie - who wonders how we keep so organised lol)

This is the left hand rear corner of the living area, with the fridge and tea making area.

And the right hand side of the living area, with two larder units.

The left hand one contains all the non perishable food.

The right hand one contains all the pots and pans, cutlery, cooking equipment etc, on top is our new grill ( for those all important early morning bacon butties !)

As always we have board games, playing cards and plenty of reading material to keep everyone entertained in the evenings.

To the right of the silver chair is the oversized buckets for the shoes and wellies and the black square basket at the back is for laundry.

And this is the trailer part of the tent and the sleeping area

Lots of storage underneath the cushions. The boys slept in the bedroom pod on the left and Neil and I slept in the one on the right.

 

Neil's and my bed ( bedding from Ikea)

The boys bed ( much more comfortable in proper quilts this year and bedding from my mum - thanks mum )

 And just before leaving on the final day, car all packed up ! Yes it really all does fit away quite neatly.

Leaving Watermillock we just had to stop and capture this beautiful image, see those white peaks ? Yes there was snow on them there mountains !

Camping in the Lakes in early November definitely is not for the faint hearted but it was beautiful and it didn't spoil my love for this breathtaking part of our country. All coming from someone who 'doesn't do' cold !