Thursday, December 18, 2008

Nearly time for Santa...

Only 1 week to go until Santa comes to my house - I am sure he will be leaving quite a substantial pile of parcels under my tree as I have been a very, very good girl all year!

However I am seriously behind on any preparations for the big day and for a girl who spends all year making cards I have sent about 5 and haven't even thought about writing the rest yet and they will be shop bought. I have a load of presents still to buy, no wrapping paper and a million things still to do. One of the things still to do is fix my laptop which is running so slow it is practically going backwards and the battery pack has died so won't charge up

I do have some crafty projects to share from the past couple of weeks








Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Prima Hybrid...

Prima Hybrid is back :) These are a few of the projects that I have been playing with using the digital elements from two of the kits (Rudolpsh's Remix and Shades of Splendor) and my big box of Prima goodies.





And a message for Tracy - you asked how I did the number 8 on the mermaid card down there in my last post. It's a Scenic Route chipboard number, covered in patterned paper and cut out with a craft knife. I sanded all the edges with a sanding block.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Missing...

I've been missing, my blog has been missing a few entries, my days have been missing a few hours and my weeks have been missing a day or so. In general I am on the look out for a few spare hours each day! Let me know if you find any :)
I haven't done anything really exciting that has been taking up all my time, just working, sleeping and eating and trying to fit in some crafting but the working seems to have taken over slightly. I had to make the difficult decision to leave some of my creative teams as work is just so busy (and it should really come before my hobby in my priority list) and looks like it will be as busy for a little while yet.
I have managed to do some crafting and of course the spending and buying has continued :) so I have some bit and pieces to share
Sweet Shoppe Designs

Kay Miller Designs

The LilyPad/Kate Hadfield

Eva Kipler Designs


Funky Playground Designs



Well, I'm off to my bed now in preparation for some serious Christmas shopping tomorrow!

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Those Calendars...

A few people have asked which digital kits we used to make our magnetic advent calendars that I shared a few days ago.

The snowman calendar was made using Little Joys, by Zoe Pearn it is available from Sweet Shoppe Designs

The red and green calendar was made using Homespun Holidays and GingerFellas from Nitwit Collections and Cinnamon Sticks, by Melissa Bennet from Sweet Shoppe Designs. I hope this information helps!!


Magazines...

The people at Papercrafts magazine have done it again and they just released another fantastic special edition that I *need* to buy, PaperCrafts Gourmet is full of projects based on the theme of food - and who doesn't like food??? Anyway, the lovely people over there at PaperCrafts are kindly sharing some delicious recipes with bloggers around the world
Cheesy Garlic Drop Biscuits
Alisa Bangerter
This is a perfect recipe to pull out if you are short on time because there is no rolling or cutting. The cheese and garlic add extra kick to a plain biscuit, and kids love them. They are the perfect accompaniment to serve with soups or stews, and are great served with a salad.

INGREDIENTS
2 c. flour
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. butter or margarine
1 1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 1/4 c. milk
Chives (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in butter with pastry cutter until mixture is fine. Add cheese and mix well. Add milk and stir until just moistened. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Sprinkle top with chopped dried or fresh chives if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for approx. 15 minutes.


Enjoy Halloween Tag
Designer: Alisa Bangerter
SUPPLIES: Cardstock: (ivory) Dye ink: (Black) Stewart Superior Corp.; (Summer Sun) Stampin’ Up! Specialty ink: (Mango Lemonade color wash) Stewart Superior Corp. Color medium: (black chalk) Craf-T Products Accents: (black brads) Making Memories; (chipboard bat, moon) Melissa Frances Fibers: (black striped ribbon) Pebbles Inc. Font: (Black Family) www.dafont.com Adhesive: (foam tape) Finished size: 3" x 4 1/2"

1 Make tag from cardstock. 2 Crumple tag and smooth out. Spray edges with color wash; let dry. Apply chalk. 3 Ink chipboard moon; let dry. Chalk edges and adhere. 4 Ink chipboard bat; let dry. Adhere with foam tape. 5 Print sentiment on cardstock; trim and tear edges. Chalk edges and adhere with foam tape. Attach brads. Attach ribbon with brad.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Poor, neglected blog ...

Anyone left visiting this poor, abandoned blog will probably be thinking I have run away to join the circus. We just seem to have been really busy. Not doing a lot, but doing enough for me to just run out of time for blogging. However, a few of my friends have given me a nudge (see, sarcasm does work!!) and I am here again.
It's been half term holidays for us this week and my Mam took the week off too so we've been out and about having a few adventures. On Monday we went down to Middlesbrough, to where I go for a monthly crop for a lovely day doing my friend Gail Milburn's 'glue and stick' class. We had a really lovely day making advent calendars using a baking sheet and magnets. Everyone used the same design and just made them their own with the papers and embellishments. Mam made a snowman themed calendar in pink and blue colours and I made a more traditional red and green coloured one. They are both hybrid calendars, all the papers except one piece of patterned paper were printed from digital kits.








Yesterday we went for a day out to the Yorkshire Dales. We visited Richmond, Leyburn and Hawes and spent a rather scrummy half hour tasting cheese at the Wensleydale cheese factory. Of course we had to bring some home too and it is simply delicious :) The weather was sooooooooooo cold though, at 2.30 in the afternoon it was only 2 degrees!! These photographs don't really show how cold it was - I should have taken a picture of my blue hands and rudolph red nose!!








Tomorrow we are going out again, down the coast for a walk, a bit of a poke around some shops and fish and chips beside the sea - I shall wear my thermals.
I have managed to do some crafting in between these adventures, hopefully I shall manage some more at the weekend - I am feeling very inspired now to do all sorts of Christmas crafts :)

Monday, October 20, 2008

Blowing my own trumpet ...

Because if you can't toot your own horn on your own blog then there is something seriously wrong. I have two tootity toots today. On Saturday I flicked through the new Scrapbook Inspirations magazine whilst I was in The Scrapbook Shop and I have a layout published in there which made me happy.

Today my smile grew even bigger as the postman delivered a package from America with a copy of Papercrafts Magazine Card Creations 6 and I have a card published in there too. It's a fab magazine, I've only flicked through it but if you make cards then you really must by a copy, it seems to be jam packed with great cards, scrummy eye candy :)



Also, I spent a while playingwith paper over the weekend
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