Being Crafty...

...In between jobs. I've been a real housewife today - hoovered, cleaned and polished, washed, dried and hung all the clothes, shopped, cooked, tidied my workshop area as well as looking after my Mam (she's feeling quite well in herself but is still obviously quite sore) and taking her on her first walk outside - all this and I still managed to play with my GoGoGreetings September kit that arrived yesterday. The box is full of scrumptiousness and if you've ordered it you will love it :)

All that crafting I've done today is top secret so I can't share but I thought I would share some blogs that I'm frequenting.

Jen Hall

Jo Kill

Daring Cardmakers

Melissa Francis

Cards by Boop

Cindy G

Linda Aalbrecht

Taylor Vanbruggen

Just Dandy

Louly

Regina Easter

Danielle Flanders

If you have any blogs that you think I should visit and I obviously don't know about, then please leave me a comment

Love Andrea xx

Quiet day...

We've had a quiet day today, mooching in the house, a bit of crafting, eating chocolate etc. No pictures to share but I did have happy post this morning when I got a cheque from Canon for their £50 cashback promotion when I bought my new camera. So now I have the happy task of thinking of what to spend £50 on - that's roughly about $100 for all of you across the sea :) Hmmm - decisions, decisions......

A waiting kind of day....

Today my Mam has been in hospital having an operation so I've been waiting all day to get the call to go and collect her and bring her home. It has felt very odd not to have her here, knowing what was happening to her. Pleased to say though, that she's back home now, very sore but back where she belongs :)

So, what to do whilst waiting? Make cards of course!!

First up is a card made for this weeks CPS sketch challenge:

I turned the sketch on its end and then moved the stripes from the top to the bottom. The curve was too much like a hill not to make it green!

(The Shabby Princess papers, house and fence doodles by Kate Hadfield)

I cut the houses and picket fence on my robo and whilst it was chugging away I went blog browsing and came across Louly's blog - wouldn't you know she had a similar idea to me!

Next up is another card that uses Kate's doodles, I love that train! It was nice to make a card that had no reason other than because I wanted to make it!

(The Shabby Princess and Pink Petticoat papers, Doodles by Kate Hadfield, letters by the Shabby Princess)

As I was waiting and crafting and then waiting some more I visited some of my blog favourites and found this wonderful party set at Cindy's blog. So then I waited whilst buying up scrummy digi kits from Dani Mogstad Designs and making this super funky card and tag - you can't see from the photographs but the card is made of lots of layers but it was actually raining whilst I took these photographs so I wasn't going to hang around getting wet!

(Dani Mogstad and Pink Petticoat papers, Cuttlebug embossing folder, bookplate cut with sizzix die, CK Tailor Sloppy font, MAMBI alphabet stickers, Heidi Swapp chipboard star, tag cut with sizzix die)

A few people have asked where I got my Magnolia stamps from. I bought them direct from Magnolia Designs, I use Derwent watercolour pencils to colour them and Alex asked what the pink papers were that I've used. I use lots of pink Alex :) and most of the papers on my Magnolia cards are from The Shabby Princess

Sunshine Sunday...

We had a really nice day today weatherwise - lots of sunshine and blue skies. The weather was so good that we actually had a barbecue at teatime which was a nice treat.

This afternoon I have been working on some cards for a swap that I'm involved in with some friends, I really hope that they all like pink!

I've also been making some more cards using my lovely Magnolia stamps (I'm waiting on another delivery of these :) )

Even More Magnolia Stamps...

Just a few more to add, I really must stop using these stamps but I love them so much! I've been doing some other stuff too but I can't share it yet - let's just say that I've been humming Christmas carols!!!!

This card is for the DCM - I know you've all got buttons stashed away somewhere, whether they've been purchased at a cardmaking store or you thriftily snipped them off DH's old shirt. I'd like you to find those buttons and use them somewhere on a card. They can be real buttons, craft shop buttons, die cut buttons, faux buttons or another type of button, surprise us all.

A bit of a cheat as I was making cards with buttons on anyway!

I love this little stamp even though I think it looks like a hippo! I had to take a close up shot to show of the diamonds as they didn't come out too well on the first photograph.

I am excitedly awaiting the arrival of my first GoGoGreetings kit as well as more stash deliveries - I had an email from Jill at AMLT to say that my orders from this week had been dispatched so I'll be watching for the postman next week.

Daytrippers...

We spent a lovely day in Harrogate yesterday, the weather was perfect and just how summer should be :)




There is a Betty's Teashop at the garden and as we left we spotted this little fellow - isn't he sweet!
Sadly though, he was just too tasty!!!!!!!!!
On the way to Harrogate we stopped off for a snack, drink and toilet stop and look what I bought in BHS of all places.
I have always wanted a picnic basket and this is just perfect - white wicker with pale pink polka dot lining and pink and white accessories.
SB and Percy just had to have an adventure in it too, they think it's their own personal carriage!
The squirrel has been back in our garden too. If anyone knows anything about squirrels could you comment on whether our little visitor is a red squirrel or a grey squirrel. He certainly not the same colour as the grey squirrels in the park who are quite dull and definitely grey, ours seems to have a ginger look to him, especially when the sun shines on him. He was rather naughty this time and he managed to knock the birds nut box off the bird table. I might have egged him on mind by sprinkling some nuts on the grass!

Friday morning and the sun is shining, the birds are tweeting and that squirrel has eaten all the nuts!...

... and I'm off out for the day to the RHS garden at Harrogate. I'm taking my camera and my Mam and we're having a picnic and we're going to have such a fab day :)

So no cardmaking or forum chatting (I seem to do more of that than anything else!!) until later on but I have more cards to share with you all - more Magnolia stamps and the Bella and the Tilda boat are recent Creative World projects.

If anyone has a cricut and would like to recomend any cartridges I would love to hear what you think as I am dithering over buying one.

Whoo Hoo!

My exciting news was announced today - I am now a Design Team member for GoGoGreetings and I get to play with their lovely stash every month. I am so excited to be part of it all!

Back down to earth with a bump this morning - we spent about 3 hours tidying and sorting in my new classroom, trying to get it looking good for the start of the new term in September. I've still managed to play with my stash this afternoon and have made a couple more cards using the lovely Magnolia Stamps. The pink one is for the DCM challenge - dots and dashes (a dotty flower and dashes around my little person)

Retail Therapy...

Oh dear, my plastic card has taken a hammering in the last week or so. Three parcels arrived today, lots of lovely stash to play with including these nice 8" wooden letters which will turn into a rather fancy piece of art for my workshop wall.

It's silly time in the middle of the night and I wanted to make a card when I should have been tidying up, really naff photographs because it's dark outside - ha! so sorry about that, it's for Monica's challenge.

Have you caught the bug yet?

The Magnolia Stamps bug?

More cards made with these utterly gorgeous stamps!

Exciting things are happening in my little world, I'll be able to share soon :)

Cards

More cards made with the Magnolia stamps. I've really enjoyed making them and now have a list of the new stamps that I's like :)

A Rainy Sunday...

It's been a very soggy, rainy day today but we've all been busy. We had a little visitor in the garden this morning - a squirrel!! He was pinching nuts out of the birdhouse and he's been back a couple of times this afternoon. We get all kinds of birds in our garden but never squirrels so it was quite exciting!

Yesterday I had a delivery of Magnolia stamps, so today I've been playing. I love these stamps so much, they are absolutely gorgeous and I can foresee more purchases in the very near future. This weeks challenge over at DCM is to use frills on a card. I'm not really a frilly person but I do love these sweet Doodlebug frills.

Happy Friday...

The sun is shining, it's Friday and whoohoo - it's payday :) Lots of reasons to be happy today.

Yesterday I spent a lovely day with some girl pals and I was meant to be having a girly pizza night with another girl pal but she's been sick so we had a family pizza night instead and watched Rick Stein exploring Corfu on the television. I've never been there but it did look like lovely.

I've been busy making cards and this week I had two pieces of very exciting news which I can't share yet but I am almost bursting with not being able to tell anyone.

I'm just off to get ready to have a mini adventure to Hexham this afternoon with my Mam, my camera and of course my little red mini cooper! So will leave you with some of the cards that have been up on the Creative World blog (if your child has been getting crafty this holiday why don't you enter their work in the kids art prize draw over at Creative World).