HAPPY EASTER WISHES

Hi Everyone

Oh dear .. .. .. how manic is my life?!?!?!?  LOL!!!

Big apologies for the lack of blog visits and posts from me over the last week .. .. ..  but life has gone up a gear on a few levels.  More about all that when I next post.

For now I am here with my sketch for this week though.  Another for adding to my square sketch collection which you will find at the top of my blog.

This used

Image:  Penny Black "1927K" Bunny Friends
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
Backing Papers:  My Lovely Studio "sadly no longer trading"
ProMarkers

Corner Rounding Punch

Nail Heads

A teeny tiny flower from my die cut flower box (I have small boxes that contain just random die cut flowers, another for butterflies, another for leaves, another for snowflakes.  I just cut and add them to the various boxes from offcuts as I go along to dip into later)

My Trusty Sewing Machine

and my sketch for this week .. .. number Fifty Seven

So a new sketch done .. .. tick!

I have also been playing truant from the snippets playground .. .. which will never do.  

But hopefully the lovely ladies in the playground office will appreciate what I have done with some of my offcuts this week.

We have got very friendly with a local charity store whilst doing our house clearance, and when dropping things off to them on Friday, for some reason physical price tags came into the conversation .. .. they make their own when they get chance using a craft punch.  But because I have all this time on my hands (LOL!!!) I volunteered to make them some. 

So here is my little collection for dropping off to them on our next visit.  I don't know how long this amount will keep them going, probably not long because they are always very, very busy, but I will definitely be making them more in the hope of making a little difference

1.  To the charity store

and

2.  To snippet mountain 

Here is the finished result ... .. and yes .. .. there is a heart tag included (just the one) .. .. can you spot it?

... ... and here are the snippets I used with the help of a die set that  I purchased from The Works many years ago!

Sadly no time for a Christmas card this week though .. .. .. .. .. my rash new year promise is broken and I am only three months in .. .. .. boo hoo!! .. .. .. but I will rescue it by imposing a forfeit on myself later when life calms down again.  I am determined to have 52 made by the time December is upon us!

Hopefully catch you again soon and fingers crossed the Easter bunny called by to leave you a treat.

DOUBLE WHAMMY DAY

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a good weekend. 

Mine was super exciting because I have had my first proper haircut today since my hair grew back .. .. .. woo hoo!!  I feel another happy step nearer to normality!

Not much crafting time at all this week so today I needed to meet my rash new year promises and use  my new sketch for this week to make Christmas card number 17 .. .. and this is what it looks like

This used:

Sentiment:  Christmas Ornaments SVG Bundle - Italica Studio via Etsy
Backing Papers:  An old Christmas pad from The Works
Die Cut Snowflakes
Corner Rounding Punch
Gems
Ribbon
My Trust Sewing Machine

and New Rectangular Sketch Number Twenty Three

Things are hotting up on the house move front.  The searches came through for our buyers last week, which is earlier than originally predicted so we might be getting close to actually setting a date for moving soon!  Then the fun will start!

Have a good week everyone .. .. .. .. .. .. ..  I think mine will see me making very best friends with my Mr Dyson, Mr Muscle and Mr Sheen products (and my Marigolds of course).

CATCH THAT TIME THIEF

Hi Everyone

Flying in very quickly .. .. .. unfortunately the time thief struck this weekend and stole so much time it is unbelievable!  

But I am here at last with my Christmas card for this week.  2024 Christmas card number 16! 

This used:

Image:  LOTV Digital Image "A Little Gift"
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
Backing Papers:  From Snippet Mountain
ProMarkers
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is as good as it gets!

Short and sweet tonight and hoping that the time thief gets caught smartish and the forthcoming week is a nice slow one where I can get lots achieved. 

RASH PROMISE TICKED

Hi Everyone

Happy weekend eve!

Just flying by with my new sketch for this week.

I am back to a rectangular one .. .. although to be fair even my rectangular ones can be adapted to work as square ones.  Just make them fatter!  LOL!!

This used:

A wide variety of card and design paper snippets
Sentiment:  Computer generated
MFT Dienamics Die:  Blueprint 14 for the flower
Ribbon and Thread

Nail Heads

X-Cut Corner Rounding Punch

My Trusty Sewing Machine

and my new sketch .. .. Rectangular Sketch Twenty Two

I am taking my creation over to The Snippets Playground where we are encouraged to use up our offcuts rather than cut into fresh new sheets of card/paper etc.

Sorting my crafty goodies ahead of our move has seen all of my snippets come together into one place.. .. and boy there are tons and tons of the little blighters!  My blog could be easily be renamed as "Always with a Heart, A Stitch and a Snippet or two!"  LOL!!

Some of the mountain comprises of offcuts of design papers, but I also have lots of offcuts of plain card and paper from all the weddings I have done over the years .. .. .. so I need to think of ways to use all of those too!  I shall enjoy that!

Sadly I didn't take a "before" picture of my snippets (sorry ladies) I was far too busy just delving into the box and changing my mind about what to use .. .. but my whole card (other than the card base and the length of ribbon) came from my mountain of snippets. 

Have a good weekend when it arrives everyone.  Won't be long now!

ALL THINGS GROW BETTER WITH LOVE

Hi Everyone

I hope all is as good as it can be with you.

I have been spending time with Mum these last couple of days but snatched crafty sessions, alongside crafty packing, saw me finish and photograph the following before heading out to her:

Yep, I am still on the postage die obsession .. .. LOL!!

This used:

Postage Layout Die and Accessory Dies from Amazon
Images and Backing Paper from Snippet Mountain

Sentiment:  LOTV Digital "Stamp Block Sentiment"
Spellbinders:   Petite Circle and Petite Scalloped Circle Dies

Ribbon

My Trusty Sewing Machine

All of the little image rectangles were cut from one snippet of design paper that featured lots of small foliage images  .. .. .. just perfect for this little make .. .. .. but I have no idea where it came from.  Sorry.

I also created myself a stencil using a scrap of thin plastic using the main postage die with the corresponding rectangle dies .. .. .. so that will be a play session another day .. .. .. road testing that!

Enjoy the rest of your evening everyone.

If all goes to plan I am hoping for a good blog catch up later to see what you have all been up to.

HAP-PEA CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a good weekend .. .. .. and a good Mothering Sunday if you are here in the UK.

Here today (very late) sharing my "festive make" for this week, which makes my tally for my 2024 Christmas card collection reach the dizzy heights of number 16 !!   Woo hoo!  

Visiting my lovely Mum, and having wonderful Facetime calls and an Indian meal out this evening to celebrate being a Mum (and the daughter of someone super special), has taken its toll on my time, but it has been really lovely and made for a day I wouldn't have wanted to miss for the world.

My card is for taking over to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the theme is "Get Your Grinch On" .. .. .. .. aka .. .. .. ..  let green take centre stage!

This used:

Image and sentiment:  Crafter's Companion "Hap-Pea Christmas"
X-Cut Corner Rounder Punch
ProMarkers
Snippets of backing paper from Snippet Mountain
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me!!  

Have a good week everyone!  I wonder what this one is going to hold!

WITH LOVE

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a productive week.

All super busy here as the House of Hearts home move progresses.  We have had so much to read and work through from the solicitors that we have both been grateful we actually attended our reading lessons and didn't play hooky from school and skip them!!  LOL!!!

Moving has definitely changed big time since we moved here nearly 33 years ago.  In those days everything took around 6 weeks.  It is nearly 6 months since we did the first viewing of our new pad. 

So we are getting close to needing to start packing "everything we can manage without on a day to day basis" in readiness for beginning the "deep clean" prior to the great escape.  My remaining crafty goodies will be being lovingly packed over the course of this week (boo hoo) .. .. .. leaving me with just my emergency crafting kit.  

This week amongst all the legal and Mum stuff, I have been trying to get lots of cards made and orders completed to cover the next few months as I fear it is going to be quite a while before everything is available to me again and my "new normal" life begins.  Oh dear, I can feel withdrawal symptoms already!  I wonder how big a box Mr Heart will consider "realistic" for an emergency crafting kit?  LOL!!!

Anyway, onto my sketch for this week.  I decided to go for a square one and  used it to create this:

This used:

Image:  Purple and Gold Butterflies Watercolour Clipart Bundle WondersArtist (via Etsy) This one image is part of a huge bundle of over 400 images.  They print beautifully and have an amazing price point.  I am definitely looking forward to playing with more of them!
Sentiment Die:  Hunkydory Moonstone "MSTONE004" Frames With Love

Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat/The Lovely Studio (sadly no longer trading)

Nail Heads

My Trusty sewing machine

and of course Square Sketch No. Fifty Six (you can find the other Fifty Five on the Tab at the top of my blog if you fancy having a play with any of them).

and that is me for today .. .. and to keep my new year resolutions going, tomorrow I will share my Christmas make for this week.  Just need to go and make it now, along with a few others for the up and coming weeks!!!  LOL!!!

Enjoy the rest of Saturday.

JOY, LOVE, PEACE

Hi Everyone

Here today to live up to my rash new year promises of creating a new sketch and a Christmas card each week.  We are into March and I haven't failed with these rash promises  .. .. .. .. yet!!  2024 festive makes now total 15!  Woo hoo!!

I "have" failed (yet again) in my resolution to put an insert into each card as I complete it though, so that one is off the list and marked as a failure for this year.  Perhaps 2025 will be the year I make that one happen LOL!!  

So here we go:

This used:

Image: Woodware Clear Stamp Set:  "FRM025" Word Tree
Backing Papers:  First Edition "All that Glistens"  (quite an old pad which I am determined to use up along with lots of others)
Unbranded Fat Oval Die from Ebay
ProMarkers
Sparkly Ribbon
Glamour Dust
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and of course .. .. Sketch Number Twenty One from my Rectangular Sketch File, which you will find on the tab at the top of my blog .. .. .. if you fancy using any of them then please feel free to do so.

Have a good Sunday everyone.  We have started off very cold and misty here today .. .. .. but I am sure it will improve as the day goes on.

Many thanks for all your lovely comments on my postage die posts .. .. you are all very kind.  I have had lots more ideas on how to use them and am looking forward to a lovely play session at some stage .. .. but for now I need to get ahead of the game with a stack of card orders I need to complete before all my crafty stash gets boxed up.

House Move Up-date

Apparently land searches are taking a long time to come through at the moment and our buyer's solicitor doesn't expect to receive them until the end of March .. .. so I think we can definitely say I will be seeing the spring flowers in our garden before we abandon ship.

Take care, and try to find a bit of crafty fun time somewhere in your day!

SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND CHALLENGE NO. 474

Hi Everyone

Friday is here again in the blink of an eye .. .. and I need to scoot over to the Snippets Playground smartish before those gates get locked in a few hours time!  No stopping off at the sweet shop on the way!!!

I love this challenge because it encourages us to get using up all of the offcuts we all hoard away .. .. just in case they come in useful one day!

For the challenge this time I used the first postage stamp die I purchased and mentioned in my previous post.

This used:

Snippets of paper and card from the Nitwits Herbal Garden 
Postage Collage Die from Ebay
Coneflower Die from Ebay
Penny Black Clear Stamp Set "30-105" Gratitude
Distress Oxide Ink Pad: Wilted Violet
My Trusty Sewing Machine.

These are the snippets I grabbed from my Herbal Garden wallet (but I didn't use them all) .. .. and I had already made the flower head from white offcuts and it was sitting in my "emergency craft box. I just added the distress ink to tone it in with the papers.

I will introduce you to my growing emergency craft box one day when I consider it worth looking at!

In my previous post I mentioned that I like both of the postage stamp dies I have purchased, but for different reasons.  

Today I used the first die I purchased and it is one which if you look at where the dot lines meet they are perfectly in line which means you can cut the die up perfectly to end up with beautiful individual little postage stamp rectangles, as you can see in the picture below

Plenty I want to do with the full die and the little cut versions .. .. .. just wishing all of my crafty goodies were still around to play with and not packed away!  Mr Heart wouldn't be impressed if I started unpacking again so I am going to have to be a bit (or even a lot) patient and make do with what I still have available LOL!!!

If you look on my previous post you will see the holes in that die don't line up so beautifully so that when you cut those out the corners don't look as neat .. .. but you did get lots of dies including the ones that cut the rectangles (they don't match the die I used today though .. .. I needed to measure and cut my design papers to fill the rectangles.  But that's OK, I have the measurements all ready to go for next time.  

Right skipping off to the playground .. .. .. now.

See you over the weekend