I'm not panicking.......

Hi folks, it's been a while since I added anything to this site but I'm officially on holiday now so in theory I have the time! Two weeks of doing absolutely nothing .... well maybe not. If I can get my head around the fact that Christmas is only 4 days away I may actually get my act in gear, but for some reason I am not in panic mode yet. Except  I may have had a little anxiety attack about 3pm today when I went into my local craft shop to buy those last minute, must have things because the shop is closing for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!! (Deep breaths, deep breaths)  Kate... I may end up at your door yet suffering from withdrawal symptoms!

I have been busy lately making even more leaving cards for people retiring/leaving/moving on, and some last minute Christmas cards because, despite cutting down on the number of cards I was sending this year, I seemed to need more(?) Got there in the end and I posted the last one today.

For a lady with a lot of strings to her bow

we will miss you Sinead.. and your lovely cakes

for Anne a lady who loves numbers

I think the main reason I am not panicking is my dearly beloved is also on holiday and is the chief cook and bottle washer when it comes to Christmas.  He will make lists and shop for all the food and cook it too. I am one lucky lady! I just have to organise everything else!

One last quick trip to Inverness early tomorrow (madness probably) to get a few things and we are home and dry. Maybe I'll manage to get to Hobbycraft too - well two weeks is a long time in crafting.

I have anew project waiting in the wings as my niece Lucy is getting married next year and has asked me to make her wedding invitations.(gulp!).  She has been browsing Pinterest for ideas and so far has chosen something which I feel is do-able. Simple but very pretty. Watch this space!

Outwith crafting I've been busy with my Rainbow Guides and we recently went to the Panto in Inverness.  It was an outing for the whole of Moray and we filled the theatre, all 815 of us! I had a fantastic time, as did my girls, but I had to give them a wee lesson on how to behave at the Panto.' Lots of shouting, booing, loud singing and plenty of clapping' I said. I must admit I'm a big kid really and I get quite carried away. At one point, when I was in full flow, I looked along the row to find them all staring at me as if I was mad.
Then last week we had a visit from Artie Tresize (Singing Kettle fame). The kids loved it and there I was, the biggest bairn of all, who knew all the words and actions of all the songs. I wonder if he needs an assistant?

I recently bought an envelope punch board - wow! it's the best thing since sliced bread! Not only does it make envelopes but a variety of boxes too. Take a tip from me if you haven't got one then go out and get one asap. They are well worth the money, and with the help of all the demonstration videos on Youtube you can't go wrong.

Then I discovered how to make these lovely flowers from scraps of material and I couldn't get enough of them. I made a fancy box(with my envelope punch) and topped it with one of these. Looks amazing. Pushed my glue gun to the limits though, so Santa if you're reading this......




Thanks to Kate at Papercrafts for providing me with the inspiration for the dimensional frame which I did for a friend who was retiring. I loved the sentiment, and I think it turned out quite well .There is so much more scope here as you can go wild with what you add in as the frames are quite deep. I added a lacy flower with an old pearl earring for a centre. Not bad for my first attempt, even though I say so myself.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Valxxx

I don't do Christmas in July....

Hello there,
This is my second attempt at posting this blog today after spending 2 hours composing and uploading photos the internet crashed and I lost it all. Hopefully this one will be an improvement on the first attempt.

As the title says 'I don't do Christmas in July'. Is it just me or are all the crafting web sites pushing Christmas supplies and card ideas at us? Am I the only one who feels like this? I'm at the stage where I instantly delete any email with the slight mention of the C word. The thought of sprinkling glitter on a card to make it look SNOWY is scarey.  It's summer for goodness sake. Let's enjoy it while we can.
For once we actually have sunshine here in Scotland. The real kind. The kind you can sit out in. What a novelty for us.  The downside is I'm not doing too well with the crafting side because of it. Things are beginning to pile up a bit, and I haven't even had a wee play with the lovely stamps I got for my birthday yet. I'm only taking time to write this blog because it's now raining cats and dogs.(Typical!)

I was uber busy before school broke up for the holidays. We had staff leaving, retiring, getting married and everyone wanted cards.  Not only that everyone wanted BIG cards. I am not overly keen on making A4 cards as there always seems to be a lot of space to fill. I had to put my thinking cap on and try to come up with something appropriate for each one too. Here's a small selection of some of the cards I produced.

this brought a tear to my eye

thank you to groom's parents

I loved the image of the little girl
and her dad

I downloaded an image of a father and daughter from a digital stamp company, coloured them in with promarkers and placed them behind the poem which I printed out on vellum. I like the effect.

Moving on

wedding party thank you

for another wedding
designed by the customer

new job

I blinged this one up

for a cat lover

for someone who
was leaving

the elusive gecko

I was so busy with orders that I was flying by the seat of my pants when I had to come up with a 21st birthday card for my daughter Fiona. Yes, a gecko card again! Poor Feef, she's still hankering for a real one. I could probably handle the lizard (even literally) but no way am I having live crickets in the house!

  

sunset over the hotel pool

Graham and I are not long back from our holiday in Spain. We have been going to the same area of Spain for a few years now mainly because it's really beautiful there. We booked the same villa as last year because it had everything we wanted in accommodation, ideally located and a private pool.  Mar Menor Golf Club near Torre Pacheco,is a gated community and is just a short drive to the beach and the airport. The site has loads of facilities and is really well maintained. Hark at me I sound like a holiday rep. We had a great time and even managed to meet up with my good friend Debbie who was holidaying a few miles away with her family. Why is your holiday fortnight the quickest two weeks of the year?  Here are a few pics of our time away.

our villa

me sitting on the edge of a fountain - risky!
I have a tendency to fall in them

Debbie came to Spain that colour!

adiós a mis amigos hasta la próxima vez!

Gung Hey Fat Choy

Here I am again wishing you all a Happy New Year, only this time it's in Chinese.  Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year - the year of the snake. (Known a few in my time, but enough of that).

I made the following card to give to my very good neighbours who happen to be Chinese.  They own a takeaway and every year they honour me by putting the card I make for them on display. I hope they like it,

the year of the snake

hope you like it too. I found it quite hard to design a nice card with a snake in it as snakes are so often seen as fearful creatures, but this one looks like it is smiling.

I am just getting over the dreaded lurgy namely 'man flu', which my husband gave me - generous to a fault. Needless to say I just got on with things, took my medicine and suffered in silence - except for the barking cough that is.  My turn to annoy him all night - revenge is sweet!

I am looking forward to having a few days off work this weekend as it is the mid term holiday.   I have a list of jobs written already, but my main task is to de-clutter the en-suite (20 years of make up) and the main bathroom, in preparation for getting new fittings and decor. We got a load of brochures with some very fancy designs, looked through them all and basically chose the plainest suites in the books. Typical, but at least we both agreed on the same style for once.

I have been busy making special cards for people at work, for the birthday club, for retirals and for my display box and here are a few of them.
I have also discovered digi stamps - aren't they just great. I loved this wee boy in his boat and the gardening one will come in really handy, and they don't take up any space in the craft room!

Conventional Engagement Card

No Worries - Mrs B

Another engagement card with a dinosaur theme
( I only  do as I'm asked!)

wedding acceptance card - I love butterflies!

An A4 card for everyone to sign for someone who was
leaving work. I loved making the flowers
on this one.

Digi stamp Boutique

I need a lesson from someone on how to set out my blog page better.  Looks like a right dog's dinner!
Till the next time 再見 (Chinese for goodbye)

Long time no blog

Happy New Year everyone and lang may yer lum reek! (A good luck wish in Scotland).  I don't make New Year Resolutions as a rule but as I sit here and type this blog I am resolving to keep it more up to date than of late. I don't know where the year has gone.  My excuse is I have been too busy crafting to blog. (LOL)

Christmas is NOT my favourite time of the year (oh dear, did I just admit that publicly). I find that from mid November time just snowballs (pardon the pun), too many chores to be done, shopping for presents, food etc and I feel like curling up into a ball and hiding from the world. Bah Humbug!

Now that it is past I can come out from my hibernation and face the world again. The weather has been so mild and relatively dry here in my neck of the woods, compared to some poor folks who got it bad again.

We did have some local storm damage to the sea wall at Lossiemouth and pictures of the sea at its highest were truly scary.

the snug

I did enjoy New Year however!! We went away with a group of close friends to a beautiful old house on the west coast at Gairloch for a few days to see the New Year in.  It was tremendous and the house could have been built for us. What a time we had. We ate like Kings, drank too much, walked some gorgeous beaches and had a Ceilidh.  Some neighbours, who we had never met before, 'first footed' us. The house even had its own 'snug' bar with a log burning stove which we stocked amply - needless to say we spent a lot of time in there.

Charleston House

Sunset over one of the beaches

I also went Geocaching for the first time. My friend Christine is into this big time and will use any excuse to cache. For the uninitiated geocaching is a world wide treasure hunt, using map references and a gps system to find little, or as the case may be not so little, treasures which someone else has hidden. Great fun and gets you out and about and to some pretty remote spots. The treasure is never of any value, just a few nick knacks in a waterproof container. You log your find in the notebook that comes with the box, and then on the website. A stout pair of boots is                                                                          essential!!

The excitement of the find! ' Calm down ladies it's only a tupperware box! Right where's the next one on the list'. You don't have to be mad to do this, but it helps.

for a wedding

And finally some of the crafty stuff I managed to fit in.

three kings

 I bought the Molly Blooms Christmas Carnival Magazine for £7.99 (fantastic value as there were a load of stamps included), and I made several cards from the contents. (Too many to show)

One of my own design

For a special octogenarian

Pacman card for an ardent gamer

Thanks to Kate @ Papercrafts I made this festive After Eights dispenser box which made its way westwards for New Year's Day Dinner, and now sadly lies empty......maybe it's just as well as the diet started today!

Happy Crafting folks... untill the next time... haste ye back!

Busy, busy, work, work busy.....

Hi folks it's been a while since my last post but that's because my feet haven't touched the ground lately!
Rushed off our feet at work with one of the team down with back pain (get better soon Debbie), lots going on in the family, what with anniversaries and big birthdays, and the holiday is just a bit of a blur now.


Thanks to Kate's class at Papercrafts on Tuesday the first festive card is in the bag. Maybe this will kick start me, although with a good friend about to turn 40 I am expecting one or two orders for special cards from work mates.


So far I have managed to avoid the Christmas 'thing', but with the shops now displaying festive goods and every crafting email trying to sell me 'Joy' and 'Peace to all' I can no longer hide my head in the sand.   I have promised myself that I will start my Christmas cards in the October holidays (as well as finishing the major re landscaping of the front garden, and having a  few days away.) All in two weeks?

Since the end of August our family has celebrated a silver wedding anniversary, a 50th birthday and are about to have an 80th birthday celebration. Here are some of the cards and tags I made for them.


This always makes me smile 'Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, give him a rod and you won't see him for a week!' How true.

for a special couple

My attempt at a Timmy Tag using what I had in my stash.Not overly fancy but the recipient was delighted with it.

Lots more to come, but hubby is champin' at the bit to use the computer so in the words of Bugs 'That's all folks' see you soon.

The craft Barn

I am now following the above blog. I have purchased several items from the Craft Barn and I have found them to be very reasonably priced and they deliver promptly. thecraftbarnblog. By becoming a follower you can be in with a chance to win the above goodies.

Zen and the meaning of holidays...

Well I finally got my act in gear, and started all the jobs on my 'holiday' list. I got the shed painted in a dry spell  between the soggy bits, relaid a garden path, went to the recycling centre, several times, with loads of  dross, dug the garden, cut the hedge and the grass. I even overcame my arachnophobia and tidied out the greenhouse. Chopped up sticks for the chiminea and planted some bushes in my newly dug border.

As for the inside jobs, well they got done too but only because we couldn't find the' Zen' for playing music as we wanted it to take on holiday with us, and in attempt to find it I turned all the cupboards inside out. Then I thought if I'm going to this bother I may as well have a clear out,  threw out the unwanted bits, tidied and put all the other stuff back -  job done!  No Zen though.

Despite vowing that I wouldn't get sucked into 'Olympic Mania', I did, but whilst watching the telly I managed to finish the last of the 10 scarves I knitted for a local charity shop.

I even managed to make a few cards, had an attempt at alcohol inking and made a gift box

an anniversary card for my sister-in-law and her husband

For a beautiful wee girl 

for  my teenage nephew

For a 40yr old who once starred in a school production of Grease 

What's inside?

All this and a surprise visit from my eldest daughter for the weekend. Not bad going.  Now I am ready for my actual holiday which starts tomorrow!! We are off to (hopefully) sunny Spain for two weeks. I am fair excited.   Two weeks of doing nothing...... gulp! What no crafting for two weeks? How will I cope?
Last year I think I may have been  the saddest person on the planet because I actually took my promarkers (or some of them) with me to Spain, and a batch of stamped images just in case I got bored. I worried for two weeks about my markers because it was so hot!  So this year I am taking stamped images and a small watercolour set, some brushes, some artists pencils.......... what's the baggage allowance again?

Hasta la vista baby!