Out with the old ......

......... and in with the new!

September is one of those months that is filled with all things new. New teachers, new classrooms, new schools, new uniforms, pencils, pens, schoolbags, even new attitudes for some students. All nice and shiny and bright. And now for us craftier folk we have (drum roll please....) our new SU Seasonal Catalogue ..... exciting stuff eh?

I'm sure by now you all have wish lists as long as mine, I really do NEED approx 75% of what's in that catalogue ....... and I do mean NEED lol. But ...... there's always a but ....... i do need to make some room. I know i'm not on my own in saying that I have accumulated a large amount of product that I haven't managed to get through. On further inspection it really is worse than I thought. I have found papers and other bits and pieces that haven't seen the light of day for quite some time.

So, I have started off with this little project ........

.......... using an SAB set, elegant eggplant card and some .... wait for it ..... really rust DSP! I have a few of these old DSP pads so need to get cracking. I've used Pear pizzaz ink and ribbon. I had to improvise with the ink for the sentiment and ended up using my tangerine tango marker. Turned out quite pretty so i made a few more :)

Hope you are all using up what you have to make room for some new goodies!

Til next time ........... xx

Exam success

It's that time of year again when all the young folk see what they have achieved with all the had work they've put in. My niece is one of those young folk this year!

She did fantastically well in her GCSE's, a brilliant set of results so is heading back to college next week to begin her A level courses. We're all so very proud of her so I decided that even in my condition she deserved a special card :) 

It really didn't take much effort to produce this and all the components are easily identified, so that's it, plain and simple.

And now that i've started again, I may not be able to stop, after all, I do have another couple of months off work to recover :)

Til next time ........ xx

Recouperating ....

........ taking things very slow and easy at the minute. I can just about manage to make myself a cup of tea and I have been out and about for a few wee walks which is real progress.

Whilst I have been unable to do much physically I am longing to get back to my supplies to start on making some Christmas cards. I am always much more inspired for this occasion than any other and I find it much easier to come up with ideas.

However, to break the boredom I have been surfing the net in search of all things pretty and I have come across a novel idea ...... something I had never seen before ....... doorstops! In all shapes and sizes, from funky to quirky to retro to vintage and then of course plain and simple. Now, I am in no way a seamstress and I don't possess a sewing machine but I thought some of you guys might just give this a go. This is just a wee picture of the kind of thing I mean....

arn't they just so pretty and cute? Just imagine what they could look like in that delicious stampin' up fabric! I suppose this opens a whole range of products you could make, wee scented sachets etc  ....... ideal gifts for folk for birthdays or Christmas :)

I did find a tutorial on how to make a doorstop, not the shape as in the picture, a pyramid style which looks good too but i'm such you're a clever lot and can adapt to whichever size or shape you want. You can find the tutorial here.

Have fun with this and be sure to leave me a wee comment or a link to your blog if you try it. Would love to see a finished product :)

Til next time ......... xx

Olympic fever .......

So who have you been cheering on? For me, as always, it's the cycling that grabs my interest. I just love that Bradley wiggins got his hold medal. This time, I have plenty of opportunity to watch every piece of the action. Have had a wee ongoing health issue and was booked in for keyhole surgery. However, things didn't go as planned and I had to have open surgery, has knocked me completely off my feet which is unusual for me. I am extremely sore and am relying on help for the simplest of tasks. So, no crafting for a while but I do have a lot of time now to stalk everyone else's blogs so I'm relying on you guys out there to keep me entertained lol.

Time for a wee nap .......

....... Till next time xx

Sure just make it up as you go along .....

......... I had a picture in my head when I started of how this card was going to look......... can you  guess what happened ......

...... of course, it changed along the way. Not much I admit but enough lol.

Today, while the hubber was screaming at the tv, i mean watching football, I thought I would christen my new framelits label. I was a wee bit afraid to use these up to now as i wasn't really sure what to do with with. After some guidance from my Stampin' Up Mummy Monica I am now totally in love with these things. I suppose it didn't help that until a short while ago I was using a Cuttlebug for my dies and I did have a wee bit of difficulty in making my sandwiches. However, it was my Happy Birthday a few weeks back and the hubber bought me a BIG SHOT which is soooooooooo much easier to use.

Now, I'm probably a lot slower on the uptake than the rest of you, what I didn't realise until I popped the cut die was that you get a nice wee frame as well. This time I thought I wouldn't use it as a frame but just a base layer and pop the cut die up on dimensionals, you can just see the flash of white under the black, photo's not that great but I think you can see enough to get the idea. I have lots of pink ribbons but none that I wanted to use on this project so what I did was inked up some crochet trim and it's just perfect, well I think it is anyway :) You can't see from the photo but I have also sprayed some shimmer on the stamped image.

Another similar card, without the base layer (cos I had destroyed it just as I realised I could use it!)

Have a good week people ...... til next time ...... xx

It's my birthday soon ......

...... and most of my pressies are contained in this box!

Aren't I going to have some fun! :)

'til next time ....... xxx

Easy like Sunday morning ......

......... don't you just love sunny weekends :)


Yesterday I resumed my outdoor cycling training and i had some company for a wee lil change. No.2 son has expressed an interest in cycling so we went and got him a decent road bike, you can't really do many miles on a BMX!! So fully equipped we headed out and on his first road trip managed 11 miles which is fantastic! We averaged about 10mhp so for a 12 yr old and an almost 41 yr old that wasn't too bad. A little bit of work required before we can enter the Tour de France :O


Last night I spent making up little treats for the girls I work with. I do this each Easter and also at Christmas. I had all the components ready to go and just had to assemble them. I had a lovely wee night doing this whilst drooling over the hotness that is Danny from The Script - and now coach on The Voice. I met Danny a few years back when they did a concert in Belfast - I LOVE HIM!! lol


Anyway so here is a wee pic of this years treats ......

........ i still have a lot of designer paper kicking about so i have used up my supply of Cottage Wall papers from a while back to make these wee boxes which each hold a creme egg :) I suppose I should make a card to go with them but I haven't decided yet. I shall have to think about that today .......... but more importantly I have to think of my Stampin' Up order which I need to submit ......... all those yummy things that I can't tell you about just yet but watch this space :)

I can tell you however that in April for each order over £45 before p&P you get a free pack of DSP and you even have a choice between 4 sets ...... how cool is that?

Off to enjoy the rest of this sunny Sunday ....... 'til next time .......... xxx