Zing Into Spring!

Hello blog land :) - Its nice to be back.  I have been so busy over the last couple of months getting ready for a Spring Fayre to raise funds for our local school.  The school kindly asked me to have a stall to sell my cards and crafty things.  It was a successful day and I made over £100 which was not bad for my first Fair!!  However, as a result of getting organised for the fair it did not leave me much time to do anything else - hence the lack of bloggage!  But I am here to change that and I will be a regular blogger again - promise :)

To celebrate my return I have made this for the Get Funky - Zing into Spring blog challange:

As you can see it is an easter sweetie bag filled with scrummy Cadbury Mini Eggs - delish.  It was a very quick and simple make - kids are on their easter holidays so I did not want to spend the whole day crafting and neglecting them - however, I think I just might cut out a few more of these and get them to decorate them on this wet afternoon :)  The papers are taken from Funky Hand Colour Me Happy craft CD.
Well I better go and get my ankle biters fed and watered - hopefully will be back soon!  TTFN Vx

Its a sad day - but here is a freebie giveaway!

It was a really sad day yesterday - it was my last day at the Papermill Shop in Livingston :(  They have taken the decision to close all their stores and concentrate on selling the paper online.  To say I am gutted is an understatement.  I really enjoyed working there and the girls I worked with are really lovely and I will miss working with them!  However, we are going to keep in touch and get together for some crafty sessions :) and I must admit a good thing to come out of this is that I have made 5 new really great friends :)

It is going to be very strange going into the centre and the shop being filled by someone else but unfortunately it seems to be how things are going at the moment.  So many great shops are going online to cut overheads and some are even closing completely and there are very few good craft shops left.  Its very sad to see.

On the bright side!! and yes there is one, one of the Girls who works in the shop has decided to start up her own craft shop.  Kim worked in the Papermill for 9 years and has lots of crafting experience.  She has been lucky enough to get the units from our shop to fit out her new premises in Veitch's Garden Centre in East Calder - which sounds like the perfect location as it has a Coffee shop and a Fabric shop too - What more could a crafter want!!  Cant wait for it to open now :)

As a result of the closure I was given a Popcorn the Bear Christmas Collection CD which was a free sample which was given to the store along with some other products.  I am now offering this a freebie to one lucky follower.  If you are interested in winning this please leave me a message below and I will pick someone at random on Saturday 29th January.  Please feel free to let all your crafty friends know about this giveaway as Popcorn needs to find a new home.

Well that's it for now as its bath time for the kids - thanks for reading :)

Vanessa xx

UPDATE - 29th January

The winner is Alison Bates who entered the competition on facebook and was chosen at random by my 2 year old Oliver :)

Winter Tales

Forgive me blogland for I have sinned - it has been 3 months since my last post!!  Thank you to my followers who have not unfollowed my blog - its so boring I almost unfollowed too.  I promise to try and be better.

I have been fairly crafty over the last couple of months but have been very silly and forgotten to take photo's of some of my creations :(  I made a lovely velvet pouch with felt flowers for a handmade secret santa gift which was handed out on Saturday - no piccie and I am gutted - might have to ask my work colleague if she can take a pitcture of it for me!  It was my first ever stitched make and I was very proud of it.  Will just have to make one for myself now!

On the card making front I have made these:

 This card was made for my OH uncle for his birthday and I have used Stampin 'Up stamps on this one and coloured the buttons (at the bottom of the card) with promarkers to tie in with the colours used for stamping.

This was made for my OH's 39th Birthday - will have to be a cheeky one next year!  This was created using my Cricut and the Indie Art cartridge.

I made this during a craft/chinese night with the girls from work.  Images are from Polka Doodles Fairy Flutterfly stamps.  The backing papers I have had for years!  I am on a mission to use up all my scraps that I have lying around.  I currently have a 19litre really useful box full of scraps but yet I cut a fresh piece of A4 card or print off another sheet of paper!! Doh - when will I learn!

We are currently having a fair bit of snow fall - 19 inches at the last count:

The schools have been off all week and it was announced that they would stay closed for the rest of this week as there is another 20com of snow forecast for overnight tonight.  I quite like the snow and it has been great getting a lie in and not having to brave the weather to take the kids to school....however..... I have been waiting for a couple of craft purchases and the postie's can't get through to deliver my goodies :(

I ordered these from the Polka doodles website and cannot wait for them to arrive :( - so snow snow go away, I want my craft stuff so I can play!!  Nikky did a fab demonstration with these on her PD show which aired on C&C on the 26th November.  Not that I will be able to recreate her lovely creation with promarkers and the house stamps but I will try......

I was also lucky enough to have one of my card samples shown on the same show :) It was sooo exciting seeing one of my cards on telly!  I hope to see more soon!!

On a christmas note and because of all the snow and being stuck indoors I made my first card for Christmas 2010

The image is a Digi Stamp from Digi Stamp Boutique and the papers I have had for ever!!  Again I have coloured the button using promarkers.  Well I think that is enough for now - hope to be posting again soon. Hope I have not bored you too much!  TTFN Vxx

Exciting News!

Oh dear it appears to have been a really long time since I blogged - oops.  To be fair I have had an excuse!!  My exciting news is that Nikky Hall from Polka Doodles asked me to be a sample maker for her new templates!  And very pleased I was too.  So that was all a bit of a whirlwind as she sent me eight templates to make cards for her upcoming show at Harrogate on 11th and 12th September (some of which are currently on display at http://www.polkadoodles.com/  I have had so much fun playing with the templates and coming up with alternative desgins - so thanks to Nikky for giving me the opportunity :)

My other exciting news is that I got offered a job at my local Paper Mill Shop.  Not sure if its a good idea as I think I will have my money spent before I earn it.  I think I am going to be in heaven working in a craft shop :) I start there soon and really am very excited about it.

 I have two apologies to make.  One to Debbie and the other to Teri Louise.  These 2 lovely ladies were kind enough to award me lovely blog awards and as yet I have done nothing with them.  Sorry!!  I am currently perusing other blogs to pass on the compliment you kindly gave me and hope to post soon.  The school holidays have also curtailed my blogging and crafting acitvities, but now that the schools are back I hope to rectify this.

On the card front the only one I have made (other than the 10 cards for Polka Doodles) is this one:

The stamps are from PaperArtsy and have been sitting in my cupboard waiting to be used!  Quite pleased with the results but maybe over did the background slightly!  I really love the flowers and they come with a handy die to match!! :)

Well that's about it for now.  Hope to get back into the swing of things soon and get those blog awards sorted.  Take care Vxx

Something New

Woo hoo I got a card made today!!  I have an excuse to sit down and craft!!  Honestly.  For some unexplained reason my leg hurts - just beside my knee - the more I walk around the worse it gets, so I have self medicated some rest!  But rather than sit idle I got out my craft stuff and made this card:

The theme for the Funky Hand July challenge was a creation for 'something new'.  I don't know why this popped into my head as I do not know anyone that is starting a new job, other than me going back to work in January :( - however I thought that it is always good to have these kind of cards handy - just in case!

All the papers are from Funky Hand - Funky Daze.  As you can see I have cut 4 sqaures to from the basis of the background and used Banana Frog Stamps to create the faux stitching around each of the panels.  I downloaded the four leaf clover template from the internet and printed it onto the Funky Hand paper twice, cut around and inked the edges.  I placed the two four leaf clovers directly on top of each other, securing the bottom one flat to the card.  The second was just glued in the middle and curled at the edges to add dimenstion.  I used a white sakura gel pen to add detail to the clover.

The sentiment was stamped using a Studio G alphabet stamp and mounted onto card.  This card did not take me long at all.  Good job as my children were getting a bit restless and needed some attention.  Well I am off to sit with my feet up to try and rest this knee.  TTFN Vx

Just Stamps!

It has been such a long time since I blogged and what is even more worrying it has been that long sice I actually got to craft too.  Bahh school holidays :(  However my gran asked me to make a card for her friends Gold Wedding Anniversary so I got my chance!

I really hate making anniversary cards - I never seem to get them right.  It took me 3 attempts and I finally came up with this:

The whole card has been created using stamps only!  No fancy backing paper at all - just a little bit of gold glitter card backing the sentiment!  And this fits in nicely with the Polka Doodles challenge (but sorry don't have any PD stamps :(  YET!!)

I cut a square appeture into a piece of white copy paper and placed it over the base card.  I then used a stamp from Banana Frog Totally Tropical range and stamped randomly through the appeture, to create the frame for the number 50.  I then cut out the number 50 using the doodletype font cricut cartridge and used the appeture and placed it over the card.  (Hope this is making sense!)  I then used a sponge to ink through the '50' onto the paper and again, using the same stamp for the frame, stamped through the appeture with a darker ink.  (I now realise that I should have taken photo's of this process much easier than explaining!) 

The Sentiment was printed out and then using the same set of Banana Frog Stamps, decorated around the sentiment.

The flowers surrounding the frame were stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder, cut out and placed around the frame.

I cannot tell you how pleased I was when I finished this card.  It is more my style than my previous attempt (for a giggle here it is!):

Yes terrible I know :( - Anyway I better go as my little un is looking for some attention as my other 2 are playing on their DS'  take care and I hope to be back soon.  Vxx

School Holidays

Well the school holidays have landed!  Yay at not having to get up early and do the school run.  Boo having even less time to get crafty.  Its great having the kids around though and they love crafting so must get started on their holiday scrap books.

Holiday started with a trip into Edinburgh on the train.  Its a journey I used to take every day before the birth of Lewis (my first kiddie) so did not hold much excitement for me other than the delighted faces of my three kids, who don't get on the train very often.  For oliver (my third kiddie) it was his first ever trip and he was really excited and excited shouts of 'choo choo' echoed through the carriage.

(not sure if OH was aiming for Oliver or my chest!!!)

My kids are fascintated with the trams that are currently being installed in the city so it was a must to go and visit the tram located in Prince's Street.  Still cannot understand the appeal to be honest at its costing a pretty penny too.  But alas there is no point moaning about it now!

Gemma and Lewis were impressed though.

We went for lunch at the Golden Arches (posh name for McDonalds) and then took a lovely walk to Stockbridge via the water of Leith and spotted this:

It gave OH perfect opportunity to try out the new camera.

Other than actually taking the kids out for a lovely day I also had another job to do... yes crafty.. a visit to a fantastic bead shop where I purchased some lovely goodies.  I have been making some stampboard jewellery and needed some findings.  A few beads just happened to pop in there too!!  Oops!!  Must have been browsing for an hour.  Kids were very good though and were helping pick beads for me.  However Gemma got fed up and went to see her dad who took this georgous photo:

She is such a pretty girl (takes the good looks from her Dad)

Will post some photo's of the finished articles (when I finally get round to finishing!!)

We then headed back up to Prince's Street gardens so the kids could have a play at the park and we could have a seat.

However, Oliver decided that he wanted to play on the big slide which required both me and OH to supervise.  Kids had a great time though and gave them an appetite for their Pizza Express!  Yum

Delicious it was too!  After that we headed back up to get the train and had a lovely journey home.

On the crafting front I was commissioned to do some baby cards.  I used the toppers (below) but then forgot to take a picture of the card!! Arg but the other two cards, made for the same set of twins, I did remember to photograph.

Anyway will finish this later OH just calling from London.  TTFN Vx