holiday and shopping in 6 days

well.....i havent had time to do anything crafty as i am busy with the usual stuff like work and housework plus i am going on holiday on the 10th to norfolk, can't wait. i have found a great looking shop in yarmouth called craftmania that looks fantastic, so will definately be doing some long awaited retail therapy there, seen as i missed ally pally again :-(. will put pics of items i buy on here.
hopefully i will be on here again with pics if i find some time to do anything crafty before i go.
bye for now. x

woohoo, mojo is back at last.

at last i found my mojo, yayyyyyy. after months of not doing anything paper crafty at all

i found some images i stamped and decided to colour them in and make these cards, they are nothing special but its a long awaited start back on the crafty road. hopefully my mojo will stay around for a while now as i have loads of ideas in my head, just got to find the time now to get them onto paper.

its been a long time

omg, i can't believe its been months since i was last on here, so long in fact that i forgot my password and had to reset it.
life has been very busy over the past months and i haven't had time to do much scrapping or papercrafting, i am hoping this will now change, especially from tuesday as i have 2 weeks off work.
i have not brought anything crafty for months, i really dont need to, i have loads despite sorting through and donating stash. tell a lie, i could do with some new stamps but that can wait as i am saving for my holiday to norfolk.
well thats it for now but i will be back on here to hopefully upload pictures of the things i have made.
see you soon.

sewing machine news

after my first project with the old sewing machine from freecycle i decided that i needed a better machine than a machine my dear mum would have had and in fact did have one many years ago. so after much searching i bought a lovely sewing machine, it arrived on tuesday but due to work i couldnt have a play until wednesday evening. so there was me all day wednesday cutting out 5 inch squares of my lovely material for my first quilt project, i was so excited about playing with my machine, so come the evening i plugged it in and set it up but the bloody thing wouldnt work properly, 3 hours later still no success so i packed it up, this morning i phoned up the help line and this lovely man told me what to try, if it didnt work then i was to phone him back and he would arrange for it to be picked up and he would send me out a new one. anyway i tried what he suggested and lo and behold i got it going, perfectly. so here is my first quilt i made today, well ok its the top as i need to buy the wadding and back material. i love it and i am quite proud of my first machine stitched quilt and i know it wont be my last.

sorry about the side angle lol.

freecycle sewing machine and first project

today i got the sewing machine off freecycle, not the one i was expecting as the woman said it didnt work so she gave me another one.......a very old singer sewing machine, my dear mum had one years ago, i think it should be in a museum for old sewing machines myself but as i cannot buy one yet and it works, i will keep it and use it until i can get a new one.
anyway my first project was a raggy doll, in primitive style, so i cut up a pillowcase, like you do, and set about making the doll, turning her little thin arms and legs in the right way were an achievement on there own, a knitting needle came in handy for that job and getting the stuffing inside them.her dress is an old blouse of mine that never saw the light of day, the image on her apron is a cut out from a piece of material with images of sarah kay dollies on. as you can tell by her face i have yet to master sewing faces onto things. anyway i still like her and her quirky looking face, her name is gemima.
she may be my first project but she will not be my last one

happy new year

first of all i would like to apologise for the long gap in my blog, bad blogger!!!!!
now to business;
happy new year to everyone and may 2010 be a good year for you all, anything has got to be better than the year thats just ended, steve lost his job, i had to do extra shifts to make up for some of the money we didnt have coming in. ohh well thats life.
the good news is we got a kitten in november, called pedro, he is a long haired fluffball, dark brown in colour and is very lively, loves climbing the clothes airer, lol.
not much scrapping has taken place apart from ukscrappers cybercrop, i got loads done and loved every mad minute of it, big thanks to my sister niki for letting me stay at her house for the entire weekend.
our christmas was ok, could have been better but wasnt that bad for a christmas on a very tight budget. the worse present i got was swine flu 3 days after christmas, still suffering now, damn you swine flu, damn you.
i have a bit of good news, i went on to my local freecycle group and have got an electic sewing machine coming today, the lovely lady is even bringing it to my house, how sweet is she:)
i have printed out some simple patterns to get me started as i havent used a machine for years, got to start somewhere.
i have been knitting things like a snowman, rabbit, angel and a scarf which is an ojgoing project lol.
i seriously need to buy some black double knit wool for this 18 inch dress up doll which comes with a wardrobe of clothes i am making my grand daughter for her birthday.
anyway thats the last few months of 2009 for me, written in a few sentences, not bad ehh.
last but not least, i am now just waiting for my NVQ4 certificate to be posted to me then i have the qualification i have been waiting months for.

my mojo is back at last

hooray, my lovely creative mojo has come back after quite a while of going in hiding.
i suspect it went missing because i have been very busy at work, in august i went on a works holiday with 4 kids, see bottom for pics

.

here is a 5x7 canvas i made today, i used sassafrass papers, flowers and gold gems. it is going to be hung in my lounge when it has been decorated.

above are a couple of pictures from my holiday, i could quite easily have stayed up there, the scenery was to die for, the people were all friendly and the homemade pork pies were divine.

leeds castle minibook

i had such a lovely time at leeds castle with steve, yazmin and nic that i thought i would make a minibook to keep some of the photos in but what to use to make the minibook. not enough mountboard left to make a book ( note to self, remember to go to lovely framers to pick up some free mountboard) but then i spotted a cardboard box that a parcel had came in, so i got to work cutting it up to make the pages for my book, tearing some of the top layer off to reveal the corrugated part of the box. i was going to bind it using my bia but the cardboard was too thick for it so i used my cropodile instead and used bookrings.

i used left over papers, the frame on the front page is actually a magnetic frame from poundland, 6 for £1.00, bit of a bargain i thought.

here are some pics of said book.

Tutu tantram

Below is a pic of my daughter, Yazmin, dressed in her party outfit, all her friends were going out to celebrate one of their 18th birthdays and the theme was coloured tutu's. I made the tutu after she said she wouldn't buy one and asked if i can make one for her, yeah no problem i said.... ha. Luckily i turned out ok and her friends loved it and one of them even said she didn't believe that i had made it, she thought Yazmin had brought it from a shop, now thats a compliment seen as i only finished it thursday night and they went out on friday night.

shopping expedition

today i went shopping with my sister,kath. she asked me the other day and yesterday we arranged for her to pick me up at 10am, well i set my alarm for 7.30 thinking thats enough time to bath, get dressed and do some housework before i leave, no chance, i woke up at 9.15, rushed for a bath, got dressed had my usual coffee and cigarette then it was time to go.

we went to the sugar and spice shop, pinnacle crafts and artbase, all i can say is wow, i felt like a kid in a sweetshop, never been to any of these shops before but am hoping i will go again. they were all overflowing with gorgeous stash which i will admit i bought loads of, it would be rude not to i thought.

below are pics of all the lovely stash i bought.

this is all the lovely stash i brought from the sugar and spice shop which was the first port of call. bargain of the day was the pack of 20 sheets of the whitewash 12x12 card, half price at £4.99 and a huge pack of scallop card in lots of colours for £9.99.

this huge and very heavy pile of stash was bought in pinnacle crafts, the bargains in this shop were the 3 packs of co-ordinating kits for £9.99 each instead of £19.99 each, i got then in pink, teal and blasck and white, they are full of papers, card and loads of embellishments. ohh and a huge pack of patterned paper for £9.99, ideal for layouts and cards alike.

and last but not least was this pile of stash from artbase, note the basic grey stamps with the birdcages on, i had been looking out for them everywhere and now i am the very proud owner of a set, woohoo.

what a great day i had and a huge thank you goes to kath and her boyfriend andrew who drove us there.

more cards

here are some cards i made today in my new craft room, with my new stamps and coloured in using my promarkers.

my lovely craft room, small and compact

here are some pics of my new craft room, its small but its all mine. i still have to sort some stash out but i am enjoying crafting in my own room.

couple of cards

here are a couple of cards i made, i used stamped images that my dear sister niki done for me, i coloured them in with my fantastic promarkers, the backing papers are dcwv blossoms and butterflies .

i havent done much of anything over the last couple of weeks due to working too hard but i am going to be scrapping and making cards until my heart is content during my week off work at the beginning of june.

it also looks like my DS will be moving out for real this time which means i get a craft room, if all goes to plan i will post piccies of said room.

golf and pub dinner

myself, steve, yazmin and her boyfriend went out this afternoon and we went to a local golf club to use the driving range, i hit quite a few over 150 yards, quite good i thought for someone who is left handed but was playing right handed.
we then went to a country pub for dinner, really lovely food.
next weekend we are doing something else then going to another pub for dinner.

blog candy

here is a link to some fantastic blog candy, she is celebrating getting over 50,000 hits on her blog and if you visit it you can see why. loads of inspiration there i can tell you.
http://stephmuchadoaboutnothing.blogspot.com/2009/04/blog-candy-50000-hits.html#comment-form

catching up on blogging

its been a while, hasn't it.

my promarkers arrived and i love them so much that i brought some more. i now own 41 just another 52 to buy until i have them all. i have been colouring in images to make cards with, i will post some cards once i get the time to make them up.

tomorrow i will be doing the ukscrappers april week 4 challenge and i will post a pic when its done.

i have had a go on photofunia.com with a couple of my lo's, pics are below.

awaiting postman

i am eagerly awaiting my postman to come banging on my door with my orders of stash and my gorgeous scrapagogo kit, the other parcels are for lovely papers, and my first but not last batch of promarker pens. i have heard such good reviews about these that i had to get some to test for myself. hese might get me using my new stamps that have not seen much of the light of day but i think this will change once i have these in my hand.
i will post pics of my creations once they are done.
off to bed now so i can get up very early to start the stalking.

blog candy

this link goes to a fantastic blog with gorgeous creative work on it, i have spent a long time looking at the l;ovely work on this blog, take a look for yourself and enter for the blog candy she is offering.
here is the link;http://mustgoonastashdiet.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-candy.html

3d exploding boxes

today i made 3 3d exploding boxes after seeing a blog with some on. anyway i found them really easy to make and i must say i really enjoy making them too.

i have been off work for 2 days and i seem to have wasted them again, i have all good intentions to get loads done but on the day before i go back to work i realise i have done nothing, i then cram in as much as possible before i go to bed.

here is one of the boxes i made today, it won't be the last either.

scrap place

well i am joining the gogo crowd and blogging my scrap area. its in my living room as i like to still feel part of the family when i scrap, obviously my thinking will change when my son eventually moves out and i get his room, lol.

here is the view of my space from the hallway.

it takes up one wall but i could take over the whole room if i had my way, who needs a living room anyway.

here are some ikea drawers i use to store alphas in.

here are my shelves of buttons and primas.

here are my jars full of my gorgeous ribbons.

here is my cake stand full of my paints.

here is my chest of drawers that hold all my cardstock.

here is my cutting area with my beloved cricut.
here is my stickles storage.i hope you liked the little tour of my scrapping space.