WAKEY, WAKEY LITTLE BLOG

Hi Everyone

Warning .. .. super long and picture heavy post alert.

Happy Monday!!

My hugest apologies for my lack of activity in blogland.  I have been absent for nearly a month!!  

I have been the busiest I have ever been over the last six weeks or so, with even a few night shifts being worked .. .. .. but those weeks did see two weddings being finished and collected, along with all of my Christmas orders and magazine commissions being crossed off my list.  I even got the accounts finalised and off to the accountant. 

This now just leaves me with the making of Christmas cards for our own use (because currently the house of hearts has none) along with a few samples which are needed for happy couples who are getting married next year.  

But to add to the excitement Mr Heart has a birthday today and friends and family often ask me to make a card for them to give him.  So I thought I would wake my blog up and share those with you.  I will just say where the images and sentiments came from because the papers are all very random ones.

Image:  Digistamp Boutique "Cheeky Monkey"
Sentiment computer generated

Image:  Lili of the Valley "Candles"
Sentiment:  Computer generated

Image:  Bugaboo Stamps "Mouse Candle"
Sentiment:  Computer generated

Image and Sentiment:  Digistamp Boutique "Cheers to You"
I took my inspiration for this card from the sample on the website .. .. simply adding a little bit more wording to the sentiment.  The beer glasses were arranged to form the border using Craft Artist 2

Image:  Lili of the Valley Simply Print "On the Farm"
Sentiment:  Digistamp Boutique
"Simply Birthday Greetings - Male"

I bet you are thinking that doesn't look a very romantic birthday card .. .. and that is true (for the outside).  It actually represents a bit of a family joke based around a farm based computer game and he knew exactly why I had chosen that fabby image and loved it.

If you click on the DigiStamp Boutique links you will see there is a fabby sale on there at the moment .. .. I think I will be partaking of a few more sentiments and images for my download file before it runs out!!

Also, to finish I would like to thank everyone for all your lovely comments on the Teeny Tiny cards that made an appearance on my last blog post .. .. a few weeks ago! (shame on me - I really don't deserve such loyal blog pals).

I had a few emails and queries about what I had used on them stamp wise and was able to reply by email to most .. .. but for those I haven't been able to contact .. .. .. here we go:

1.  The Robin used for the first two cards is a Penny Black Stamp "2995F" Stocking.

2.  The second set of cards used a stamp I purchased years ago from a local craft store that closed down.  They used to do cardmaking classes and sold off all the "pre-loved" materials.  The stamp was labelled PSX "F-2104" sometimes called Christmas Town and other times Snow Village.  It seems to be just an Ebay stamp now.

3.  I think the two last cards with the little birds on got the most compliments  .. .. .. and a few more of those are definitely going to be made this week for my own use.  These used a Just Rite Clear Stamp Set "CR-05030" Doodled Birds and a Hobby Arts Clear Stamp Set called "CS138D" Nature Trail.

Enjoy your day.  I hope your Christmas plans are coming together nicely.  I will see you again before Christmas .. .. but for now I am off to start on the big clean up and to burn a few calories away before we go out to celebrate later!!

TEENY, TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday!

I hope your week has got off to a good start.

I have pulled in a few (much needed) teeny tiny cards today and whilst at it I decided whilst making one I should make two!  

Here is what I came up with:

I haven't made a note of everything I used because I got a bit carried away and wasn't expecting to do as many as I did .. .. but if there is anything in particular anyone wants to know then please just ask and I will let you know.

All I do know is that I used only snippets of card and paper which means I can make a very rare visit to the snippet playground to join in with Pixie's snippets challenge and see the lovely Di and all the playmates.

LET IT SNOW

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!

I hope your week has been going well.   Mine has been mostly wedding work but I was determined to pull in a Christmas card this morning before I returned to printing and ribbon tying duties.

Those of you who were kind enough to visit my blog last year will remember I fell in love with tartan and plaids for my Christmas makes .. .. .. well it looks like I didn't quite get it out of my system because it seems to be creeping into  Christmas makes this year too. 

In fact tartan ribbon has also made its way onto the wedding work I sent for the wedding cabinet I am fortunate to have in my lovely Sister and her partner's salon. Basically there is just something about tartan ribbon that I love!!  LOL!!

So, here with a little tartan ribbon is my share for today

This used:

Image:  Hobby Art Stamps "CS138D" Nature Trail

Sentiment:  Penny Black "30-259" Wonderful & Jolly

Backing Paper  Craft Sensations "Merry Christmas"

Circular Stitched Die for embossing with from Ebay

Distress Ink Pads:  Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass and Frayed Burlap for a bit of dodgy watercolouring!

Glamour Dust

Red Stickles

My Trusty Sewing Machine

Fabby Tartan Ribbon,Snowflakes and Gems from my crafty stash box

and that is it!

Coffee break over and time to get back to the wedding invitations.

Enjoy the rest of your day

QUICK CARDS

Hi Everyone

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and are all geared up for another week!

A scheduled post from me today (one of a few I have managed to cobble together) because I have a big week of wedding work ahead of me.

This one shows you my favourite makes for the latest Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine which is currently on sale.

My first commission saw me working on a Technique called "Mason Jar Cards" .. .. using a fabby stamp and die set from Stampin' Up! called Jar of Love.  Who would have thought it would team up perfectly with lots of penguins from DigiStamp Boutique.  I loved all of my cards from this collection but this one was my favourite .. .. and it is currently the wallpaper on my laptop!  A very festive reminder to crack on with more Christmas makes .. .. LOL!!

and my second commission was entitled Foil Transfers and saw me playing with foil transfers from Crafter's Companion.  Such a great selection of sentiments and designs .. .. and great fun to use too!  This one was my favourite from this collection

So that is me for today on the posting front.

More festive creations to follow as the week goes on .. .. yay!

Enjoy your day.

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday.

I hope your weekend has got off to a good start.

I have been busy working on weddings and a little bit of Christmas work .. .. of course the weddings are secret but I can share a little bit of Christmas:

This used:

Image:  Hero Arts "H5629" Many Branches Tree
Sentiment:  Penny Black "30-316" Season's Gifts
Backing created using Hero Art "CL622" Designer Snowflakes - some stamped with Hero Hues Unicorn Pigment Ink and others heat embossed with white embossing powder
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
X-Cut Star Palm Punch
Diamond Stickles
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is it!

Another much needed Christmas card added to the box.  Yay!!  

Many thanks for your lovely comments and messages following my last post.  You are all so very kind.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

A SHARE AT LAST

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!!

I hope everyone is well and life is being nice and kind to you.

I did warn you that life was going to be extra busy in the House of Hearts .. .. and there is still no change there .. .. but I am having to turn my hand to the odd Christmas card amongst everything else that is going on .. .. .. so I thought I would share one of them here with you in an attempt to shake my blog out of slumber.

Add into the mix being blessed with a dose of shingles and pretty much sleeping for a whole week and you will appreciate why my blog has been so quiet.  I am very fortunate in that I am only ever ill  once every five or six years .. .. just a shame now was the time .. .. but let's face it there is never a good time is there?  At least that will be it now until 2022 or 2023 .. .. what a great positive!

But hey, we will forget all about that now.. .. all is good again and I am back fighting fit, full of energy and raring to go .. .. just in time for Christmas .. .. yay!!

So to celebrate here is a rare Christmas card which uses one of my favourite Snowmen:

This used:

Image and Sentiment:  DigiStamp Boutique:  "Sketchy Snowperson" and "Large Xmas Word Art"

Backing Paper:  Craft Sensations:  Merry Christmas

ProMarkers

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

My Trusty Sewing Machine

Glamour Dust

Snowflakes, Ribbon and Gems from my crafty stash box

I will hopefully be back again soon with another of those Christmas cards I wish I had made earlier in the year!!  Will I never learn?!?!?!   LOL!!!

This little creation is also going to make its way to the DigiStamp Boutique Competition for November so just off to link up now!

Take care.

MAKING HEADWAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday!

No teeny, tiny make from me this week .. .. .. .. all my time has been scheduled for wedding and magazine work .. .. which is likely to keep me amused for the rest of this year and beyond judging by the orders and emails that are coming through.  But don't worry I will be trying hard to pull in and share with you some of those much needed Christmas makes too!

But for now I will share, as promised yesterday, my makes from the current issue of Quick Cards Made Easy, which is now on the shelves.

I was very lucky to be asked to work on a few commission and these are my favourites from each commission:

The first one I will share uses the free gift .. .. which is a rigid plastic template and scoring tool along with free papers and toppers.  Great for making little filled gift boxes for hanging on the tree or even lining up to create a completely different type of advent calendar.  You could simply tie numbered tags to the little boxes! No glue needed, you just draw around the template, score the fold lines then cut and thread the little tags at the top through the slits you cut.

 The little box below was made for hanging on a tree

My second commission was to make Festive Bookmark cards.  I really enjoyed this commission and with knowing lots of avid book readers I think bookmark cards will be featuring in my card making a little more.  Of course all cards in the commission showed different styles of bookmarks .. .. but this was my favourite overall finished look.

My third commission saw me playing with the fabulous Mockingbird Hill dies from Sheena Douglas to make Festive Scene cards.  I glued my card elements inside an acetate fronted shadow box style card.  There were concertina style sides so that the different elements could be glued in a variety of positions to give the card some depth.

I actually saw Sheena on TV with the dies after I had finished my makes .. .. and she likened the dies to the Fuzzy Felts she used to play with as a child.  I knew exactly what she meant.  I spent many a happy hour playing with my Fuzzy Felts - mixing the sets together to make strange scenes  . .. ..  as you do!. LOL!! 

 So there we go .. .. a few makes for you to see today.

Must fly now though as my coffee break is over and I need to return to card cutting duties ahead of a major printing session this afternoon.

Take care everyone and have a lovely day.

WHAT CAN I SAY?

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday!

Well, what can I say about my absence from bologland?

To be honest I hadn't realised until now just how long it has been .. .. so much has been happening that time has been flying.

Mr Heart has started his 4 day working weeks (which in itself has changed the dynamics somewhat), we have had a mini break away, done a huge wedding fayre and I have been making samples for new couples like there is no tomorrow!  Some of which have already turned into orders.

Then on top of all that excitement my lovely Sister's eldest daughter got married yesterday.  A wedding that couldn't have been more perfect.  Lots of proud tears being wiped away yesterday from lots of eyes.  

So lovely for all the family to be together .. .. even the London kids were able to make the special trip to be with us .. .. but sadly they are on the train home now 😢.

I was honoured to get involved with my Niece's wedding stationery which at the end of the journey culminated in sitting in front of these place-names.  I needed to make 81 of these little beauties.

Not a brilliant picture unfortunately.  Sadly my ipad woudn't fit into my super dinky handbag so I took a snap on my phone and emailed it to myself.  Not perfect, but better than nothing.

So after a long weekend away celebrating we are now back home and I have a mountain of work to be cracking on with (don't tell my Mum but I took my Cuttlebug with me to get ahead of the game with a couple of my weddings for this week). I was more than happy to sit and turn my handle whilst folks were having afternoon snoozes .. .. no stamina some folk LOL!!!

So one very special wedding ticked off the list and lots of new ones being added.

It is definitely Weddings R Me at the moment .. .. which makes me very happy and excited.

I hope everyone has been getting along OK in my absence and the world is being kind.  Quite a few of my blog pals have been in my thoughts over the last few weeks as I know they are going through difficult times.  Still haven't found a magic wand for putting the world to rights for everyone .. .. but I will never stop looking for one.

I will catch you again tomorrow with my makes for this month's Quick Cards Made Easy magazine but in the meantime I need to unpack those cases, put the washing machine and breadmaking machine to work and then get the guillotine on overdrive for this week's wedding work!!

Don't anyone dare mention Christmas!!!!

Take care everyone.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Wednesday!

I hope all is well with everyone .. .. and if not that it improves smartish!!

All systems go still here for the House of Hearts .. .. hence my absence from blogland for far too long. Not sure when it is all going to calm down for me .. .. but all is good and exciting. 

New "happy couples" are arriving on the scene and that dreaded season that involves Christmas is looming at a super fast rate of knots!  So many Christmas cards in the shops already .. .. and still my box is far too empty!!  Eeekk!!

Mr Heart is on a week's annual leave which has caused chaos to my normal routine .. .. but he has taken me to see the fabby Joel Dommett at Chester (what a great laugh that was) and today has seen us seeking out new ribbon colours ready for a huge wedding fayre that is happening a week on Sunday.

What do you think to my new ribbon colour choices .. .. along with a  huge piece of hessian which is a theme bride and grooms are still loving?  

Personally I just love that Rose Gold colour which seems to be all the craze everywhere at the moment!

If I was getting married to Mr Heart all over again I don't know what I would choose from my wedding collection though .. .. I love it all .. .. and yet it is so diverse.  There is something for the rustic barn wedding, the fairytale princess bride, the traditional but no frills or bling wedding and the lace and romance theme and still I can't choose my favourite.  

I can't even pick my favourite colour.

Thank goodness I am not working for anyone as indecisive as me!  LOL!!. 

Hopefully things will soon be back to some resemblance of order here.  But I am guessing Mr Heart is going to have to return to work first!!  

Take care and hopefully I will catch you soon.

ONE DAY AT A TIME

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday.

This has been the last Monday I will be home alone .. .. .. Mr Heart has annual leave to take next week ahead of a new holiday year starting at the beginning of October .. .. which means from now on Monday's will be a whole new ball game .. .. both for him and for me!  I am definitely going to need a new work regime that's for sure!

We are both really looking forward to having more time together though .. .. the best times are always when we are side by side.

There have been lots of suggestions from my lovely blog pals as to what he can start doing with his extra day . .. . and I have passed them all on .. .. but so far the only response has been for him to laugh at each and every one!  He hasn't once said "that's a good idea"  or "I will have to think about that one"  LOL!

There are lots of things I am hoping he "might" do .. .. but I won't be holding my breath. It is fair to say (and he would be the first to admit it) that he doesn't have the practical DIY skills my fabby Dad used to have.  But I suppose he has other skills instead.

So I have made him a special card to mark this special day in his life .. .. and as the sentiment says .. .. the future comes one day at a time.  That is because he is going to keep reducing his working week a day at a time until he eventually retires and then every day will be ours!  Yay!!

So here we go:

This used:

Background Image:  Imagination Crafts (no name on the packet)

Butterflies:  Hobby Art Stamps "CS077D" Butterflies

Sentiment:  Paper Artsy "HP1004EZ"

Distress Inks:  Tumbled Glass and Spiced Marmalade

WOW!!  Metallic Brass Embossing Powder

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

Glamour Dust

My Trusty Sewing Machine

Mr Heart loves butterflies so I am sure he will appreciate his card.  I don't know about you but we have had hardly any in our garden this year .. .. and those we have seen didn't actually have glitter on them .. .. but mine have LOL!!

So now Mr Heart has opened his card I can post it here.

Super busy on the wedding front at the moment with two new happy couples joining my working list, lots of samples to make, a big wedding fayre looming,along with my Niece's wedding mid October. Busy, busy fingers!!

Enjoy what remains of your evening.

FREE GIFT

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday .. .. and happy weekend.

Another scheduled post from me today as I try to get ahead of the game in my crafty little world.

In my previous post I shared with you some of my makes from the current issue of Quick Cards Made Easy .. .. with a promise of sharing separately another commission I worked on.

Well, never being one to break a promise .. .. here we go with my third commission.  

This commission was to use the free gift .. .. and boy did I have fun!  I loved the gift so much and am still using it now!  What a great freebie!!

It is actually 9 craft items in one collection and comprises of four brilliant sentiment stamps, a Santa and his reindeer sleigh stamp, a star embossing folder .. .. and treat of treats a fabby stencil.

This is how it all looks when it is shiny and new and still in the packet:

You can't actually see the stencil too well in the packaging but this is how it starts to look when you have had hours and hours of fun with it LOL!!

I have inked through it, chalked through it, embossed through it, drawn round sections and either coloured or cut those sections out, I flipped it over so the houses and trees  ran in different directions .. .. .. and I am sure there is still much more I have yet to discover.

This won't be leaving my desk for a long time yet that's for sure.

Here are a few of the cards I  made for the magazine .. .. .. but I shall be making many more for my own Christmas stock box!!

There are instruction on how to make another of my cards using the gift here.

So there we go.  Free gift fun!!

Hopefully another scheduled post that will make an appearance.

I should probably schedule more to be honest.

My apologies for the lack of blog visiting at the moment.  I will catch up with your lovely blogs eventually I promise.

Enjoy your weekend.

JUST POPPING IN

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!

Whilst things are super busy this end I have lined up a few scheduled posts .. .. just to keep you busy heart searching!  I don't want you losing the knack of it LOL!!

Today I thought I would share some of my makes from the most recent Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine which went on sale this week. 

I worked on three commissions for this issue .. .. but will just share two of them today .. .. my third one I am going to give a whole post of its own because I loved the commission so much .. .. so more about that another day.

But for now here are my favourites from the other two commissions.

The first was for a technique commission called "Inlaid Glitter Cards Made Easy"

and my second was another technique commission called "Acetate Cards Made Easy" 

as always I find it hard to choose my favourites.

So all being well this post will have behaved itself and appeared .. .. another few days and I should be back on track.  

You never know I might even get a bit of housework done!!  Shock horror!

FOR THE LOVE OF VINYL

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday!

Regular visitors will know that I am the proud "part-producer" of two wonderful Sons.  The eldest one is the one who lives in London and the youngest lives locally and is obsessed with his music. 

Well it is a special day here as it is our youngest Son's birthday and my day saw me start even earlier than normal by making him a bacon, mushroom and tomato ketchup sandwich and delivering it to him along with any birthday cards and presents we had collected for him.  After the grand opening of everything I then gave him a lift into work to save him the walk.   (I promise I would do the same for you my lovely London kid if you lived close by .. .. the house next door is still for sale ??!?!! not that I would drive you to London .. .. probably just the train station.   LOL!!! xx).

The weekend saw Mr Heart and myself design a birthday card for the birthday boy based on his love of vinyl records. So here we go:

Not much I can say about it really other than it was made up of lots of die cuts, a bit of artwork in Craft Artist 2 for the record label and then some great design work from Mr Heart for the "arm" which I then scanned and cut out with my Scan N Cut (yes it is still getting used nearly every day).

So there we go.

If there is anything you would like to know then ask away, but I think it is all pretty self-explanatory today.

Many thanks for all the lovely comments on my gelli plate prints.  You are all very kind.  Surprising how so many of us crafters are so very alike.

Not sure when I am here next.  I have a few deadlines to meet.  But fingers crossed I won't be away for long.

GELLI PLATE REVIEW AND AN UP-DATE

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday!

My apologies for being absent for a few days .. .. it was all super manic on the build up to the wedding fayre .. .. and then even more manic after it was all over!

My feet don't seem to have touched the ground and this little crafty journey I took myself on really has turned into a full-time job! Every day, week, month and even year has to be planned .. .. just like it did when I was wasting my time working hard for other people .. .. when I should probably have been working on making this dream come true earlier!!  

I enjoy being my own boss much much more . .. though I am a bit of a hard taskmaster!

My fingers have been super itchy to play with the gelli plate I made and showed you in my last post though .. .. .. and yesterday I was determined to at least have a little play.  I have had so many you tube videos playing in the background whilst I have been beavering away on other projects that I felt really ready to try my luck and have a go.

These are my first two prints from my first experiment .. .. .. and I am well chuffed with them.  I used a brayer, acrylic paints, a stencil and a piece of corrugated cardboard  .. .. :

I didn't actually have any acrylic paints apart from a huge tube of white .. .. so I invested in a little box of mixed colours .. .. a whole £5

I enjoyed mixing and creating colours as much as I did the actual printing process.

So my gelli plate has worked brilliantly with acrylics .. .. .. but sadly the same was not true when I tried working with ink pads .. .. and I tried a few different types.

My ink just seemed to soak into the plate .. .. and hardly any would lift off .. .. even if I wet it.

Never mind.  

I am content to be working with the acrylics ... .. .. but am happy to say that  an "official" gelli plate will be making its way onto my Christmas list this year!  I will be interested to see how different they are to my own homemade version.

So, am I pleased I made one?  Yes.  

It proved that this is a different type of crafting that I would like to experiment further with.  But I do I need to get over my fixation of everything needing to be clean and pristine.  It was freaking me out that I had paint on the lids of my tubes and I found myself cleaning every speck off them before I could put them away.  Life really is too short for that surely?!?!?

So that is me for today.

Once I actually use my gelli prints I will show you what I did with them .. .. but that isn't going to be for a little white yet looking at my work list for the next few days!!

Enjoy what is left of your weekend.