JUST FOR BEING YOU

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a good Tuesday.

Sadly my regular supplier of card blanks retired recently and as stocks are starting to run low here I have begun (after all these years) to make my own .. .. which inevitably means once I have cut my 14.5cm square base card from an A4 sheet I am left with a strip of card.   

No way can I throw that strip away .. .. .. and rather than add them to the "white snippets" box I thought I would put them to one side for tags at Christmas.  But then I looked at it again, folded my strip in half and wondered if it would make another good "small card" .. .. similar to my teeny tiny ones but a different shape.

So that was what I made .. ..  but I did cut the length a little to give me a base card that measures 6.5 x 13.5cm

But guess what?  It would appear other crafters use these "cut off" pieces and turn them into cards and bookmarks .. .. ..  and they have their own official crafty name .. .. scraplings!!!

Just look at these scrummy makes on Pinterest here .. .. all from scraplings .. .. and all individual works of art in their own right.  

So with itchy fingers and delight that my offcuts would come in useful this is what I came up with .. ..

This used:

Image:  Hero Arts "S5316" Silhouette Grass
Sentiment:  WOW!  "Stamp Set 41" Just Saying
Distress Ink Pads:  Spiced Marmalade, Dusty Concord and Faded Jeans
QuicKutz Dragonfly Die
My Trusty Sewing Machine

Mr Heart has also made me a template for my skinny envelope  -  but I haven't made that yet (having him at home more is proving very useful in some regards LOL!!)

So with offcuts used up what better place to take my creation than Pixie's Snippets Playground (sadly somewhere else I haven't had chance to visit recently .. .. sorry Di!)

You will notice in my material list a QuicKutz Die .. .. did anyone else invest in the QuicKutz Squeeze Die Cutter.

I still have mine and an array of little dies.  The dies are two inches square and you can see those in  that little plastic bag in the middle of this box.  You put the die on the magnetic plate then add your card and squeeze a few times for all your worth!!  Boy does it work your arm muscles!!

The picture above has come from the internet.  Mine no longer has it's box - it just had a layer of dust!!  Tut tut!!

Anyway, that is me, and many thanks for your lovely comments on my wedding work post of yesterday.  You are very kind.

Catch you soon.

MORE WEDDING WORK

Hi Everyone

I hope you have had a good Monday.

A really busy day here and no time to make anything to share, so I decided to take some more wedding stationery pictures and post those.

If Mr Heart and I were to be getting married again I think this is the stationery I would make for us to give  .. .. but ask me again tomorrow and I may choose a different one.  (Invitation that is not husband  LOL!!)

and that is me for today.

Short and sweet.

CHRISTMAS KICKSTART CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

Two posts in two days!!  Wow!!  Things are looking up!

A lovely day here that is going to be full of rain from start to finish .. . .. perfect for crafting and not feeling guilty about ignoring those outdoor chores .. .. and a day when once again the bird bath will be turned into an infinity pool!  Lucky birds - they will have fun in that!!

So we are into October and Christmas cards are high up on the "must do" list. 

With things having been so hectic during the last month I have unfortunately slipped back a little with these and sadly I have missed a couple of the Christmas Kickstart Challenges.  Sorry Jo!  But I am pleased to say I back today!  

The theme this fortnight is "woodland friends" and I think this little character fits in nicely.

This used:

Image:  LOTV Digital "Woodland Owl"
Sentiment:  LOTV Christmas Sentiment Tags
Backing Papers:  Make and Create "Merry & Bright"
ProMarkers
Crystal and Gold Glamour Dust
Ribbon and Twine
Glossy Accents
White Gel Pen
Nail Heads
Eyelet for the Tag
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So this now means I have made 39 Christmas cards this year so far .. .. nowhere near enough .. .. and  the ones I have made are no longer nestled in my stock box because I have sold most of them.

I must admit though I have been good this year and am putting to one side some I would like to send myself.  That is half the stress of Christmas for me.  I make cards and then sell them all and end up making my own in a panic at the last minute.  But not this year!!!  I have promised myself a stress-free Christmas with no last minute cards to make.  My own little stash is going to stay nicely tucked away.

Anyway, that is me for today.  Off to link up today's creation.

Have a good day everyone.  Sorry if the rain is going to spoil something you had planned.

WISH BIG

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday!

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

My whole week feels all mixed up because Mr Heart has now dropped down to a three day working week ahead of retiring next year .. .. and I no longer have the foggiest idea what day of the week it is LOL!!  I am sure I will get used to it eventually.

Most of my time this week has been spent making wedding samples for the "happy couples" I met last weekend .. .. .. but today I started with a card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  This challenge is always "anything goes" but with an optional theme which this month is "black and white and one other colour".

So here we go with my offering using black, white and yellow

This used:

Images:  Penny Black "3788F" Art of Love and Penny Black "3811J" Winsome
Sentiment:  DigiStamp Boutique (sadly no longer trading .. .. boo hoo!)
Backing Paper:  Pink Petticoat "Gingham"
ProMarkers
Glamour Dust
Nail Heads
Ribbon
Papermania Dew Drops
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today.

Enjoy your evening and I will catch you again soon.

RETURNING FOR DUTY

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday!

I hope you are all well.

Long time no posting from me unfortunately.  Lots has been happening here .. .. some good and some not so good.

For the good part .. .. .. Mr Heart has had some annual leave to take before his holiday year ran out so we treated ourselves to a few "escape days".   

We did a bit of "gadding about" starting off in Bristol for a couple of nights and whilst there Mr Heart explored the city whilst I went to see the fabulous new offices that Immediate Media have moved into and I caught up with lots of the lovely people I am so lucky to work for.  What truly wonderful offices!  They were out of this world and I was made to feel so welcome.  Thank you everyone!  It was lovely to actually meet you all in person xx.  

Our next stop was an overnight stay with great friends who live near Weston super Mare.  It is always so lovely to catch up with them .. .. and always sad to leave them too.

Then finally we spent a few days just outside of Oxford and returned home with our batteries re-charged ready hit the ground running with everything that had been piling up whilst we had been away.

But on the not so good side Mum has been poorly again.  We keep thinking we have her back on track again and then something happens to make us think we haven't .. .. but between us three kids we are making sure she is sorted each day.

So now we are round to today .. .. Monday 7th .. .. and the start of a sparkly new week .. .. .. and the day after my very last wedding fayre which took place yesterday.  Once again I met loads lovely couples .. .. some that had visited before and their day was now near enough for them to start planning and others who were sparkly newly engaged and full of excitement.

A great day but tinged with sadness too. I do love taking my work to the wedding fayres to display. There is something so satisfying about seeing all my hard work set out amongst all the props etc I have managed to collect over the years.

The 20th March 2011 saw me do my very first wedding fayre with my lovely Sis. I remember like it was yesterday us setting off all super excited and I played a CD with the song "The Greatest Day of  Our Lives" by Take That.  I saw it as an omen that we were doing exactly the right thing and we shouldn't doubt ourselves.  This omen proved to be very true.  It was a day that shaped my future.

But yesterday I had no CDs with me to pick my tune as we left our last fayre.  It was going to be pure fate and I was dreading turning the radio on and hearing what song came out.  What if it was something with sad lyrics and tones of losing something wonderful .. .. it would make me feel that I had made a bad mistake in not booking another fayre!!

But nonetheless, I was brave and turned the radio on anyway and out came the song "Up, Up and Away in My  Beautiful Balloon" by 5th Dimension (I did have to Google who sang it).  So yay!!!  A happy song and hopefully another omen that I have made the right decision to stop the wedding fayres and will be being carried off in another direction for new adventures.

But first of course I need to make all the lovely people I met yesterday happy and start creating samples for their "happy days".  Just because it was the last wedding fayre doesn't mean the wedding work stops .. .. there are still happy couples on my list .. .. and new ones soon to be added.

So as promised, I will now start sharing my wedding work more and below are table names and guest placename bobbins .. .. I have spent many a happy hour sitting winding and creating these little beauties.  They are really popular for rustic weddings and for weddings held in cotton mills!

Have a good day everyone .. .. nice to be back in blogland! 

I am hoping to see you again soon.

MUSIC SPEAKS

Hi Everyone

Happy Wednesday!

I hope your week so far has been a good one.  Mine has been one of those where time seems to be flying by far too fast!

Today is our youngest son's birthday.  The son who lives local to us and is trying hard to pursue a music career alongside his student support work at the local college.

My day started with our normal birthday routine where I arrive at his good and early armed with a warm bacon sandwich, a packed lunch for his dinner break and his pressies and birthday cards.  I then give him a lift to work.  

So a morning when he doesn't have to make much effort!  Lucky lad!!!

This was his card for this year:

This used:

Image:  Visible Image "Music Speaks"
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
Backing Papers:  Craft Sensations "Pastels"
Distress Ink Pad:  Spiced Marmalade 
Green Embossing Powder
Twine
Musical Charm
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is it.

Our son loves his music and spends every waking hour composing, listening or dreaming about it (a bit like me with my crafting LOL!!). 

His music went alongside this really interesting video where 12 calligraphers wrote psalms throughout the evening in a cathedral in Saint Petersburg last year. 

I love the video so much and have watched it so many times, completely in awe of  the immense talent shown by everyone.  How they can write so beautifully and accurately in the first place amazes me .. .. let alone do it with a camera inches away from them!!  My hands would be shaking like billy-o!

Anyway, that is me for today.  Best crack on with that "must do" list before another day disappears in the blink of an eye!

Have a good one everyone.

NOSE TO NOSE

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday!  I hope you have had a good day.

Many thanks for your kind comments, and birthday wishes for my lovely Mum yesterday  .. .. we both had a lovely time together and made some more happy memories that I won't forget.

As you would expect the weddings are now starting to slow down "a little" which means I can give my blog some of the attention it deserves.  I do love my blog and really enjoy it when I have time to post and visit my blog pals.   

But big changes are afoot which will hopefully mean I will have more time for my little blog in the future.

I have decided that the next wedding fayre I do in October will be the last one I do .. .. I already have weddings booked for 2020 and will take more orders for next year .. .. but nothing beyond 2020.  One more busy year and that will be it on the wedding front.

So many of my suppliers are stopping trading, and some of those that remain are cutting back what they stock (clearly a sign of the times).  This makes it more and more difficult to maintain samples that you can confidently display and offer to "happy couples".  For my last wedding fayre in October I am already going to have to replace at least half of what I display with new designs (so quite a bit of work to do ahead of that). 

I don't normally post my most recent wedding work onto my blog, or even my wedding website, as I find it gets copied, but after October I will share more of it as by then I won't mind if it is copied .. .. I will have enough "happy couples" on my list to keep me occupied until that side of my life finishes and then no doubt other ventures and adventures will come into play.

I think ten years of wedding work is a "good stint" and I am super lucky to have made some lovely friends along the way.  Some I am still in regular contact with and others where we simply exchange Christmas cards.  

So if me posting some examples of wedding work helps someone else build a successful wedding stationery business then I am happy with that .. .. and I hope they get as much enjoyment and pleasure from doing so as I have.

But for the next few weeks my blog will continue with just my general makes and this is my offering for today:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "30-521" Nose to Nose

Sentiment:  Computer generated using font "Sweetheart Script"

Backing Papers:  The Lovely Studio "Snow Flurry"
Penny Black Die Set:  "51-375" Snowflake Stitch Frames
Distress Ink Pads:  Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire
ProMarkers
Crystal Glamour Dust
Masking Fluid
Ribbon
Little Stars from my snowflake box
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So that is me for today.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!  Catch you again soon.

FOR THE LOVE OF POPPIES

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday .. .. another weekend is nearly upon us and it looks like it might be a chilly one.  In fact I have even had to break out the "long sleeves" again this week!

A busy day here with quite a bit of it spent with my lovely Mum as today is her birthday.  She is now a whole 89 years young and this is the card I made for her which reflects the poppy flowers on her tea cup and lap tray .. ..

This used:

Image:   Penny Black "4065K" Bountiful
Sentiment:  Lili of the Valley "Sentiment Tags"
Backing Papers:  Frou Frou Craft "Red Poppies"
ProMarkers
Ribbon and metallic cord
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is it.

Many thanks for your lovely comments on my previous post .. .. I was asked how I made the jar look full of water.  To do this I stamped the jar twice and die cut them both.  Next I stuck stamped and coloured die cut flowers on top of the first jar, then trimmed an aperture into the centre of the second.  This was then glued on top of the first and then glossy accents was used to fill the aperture.  All you needed then was a barrow load of patience to leave it alone and not keep poking it to see if it was dried through.  Once it was it could be added to the card front.

So that is me for today.

Happy weekend everyone!  I am hoping for a super productive one!

TEENY TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a happy Tuesday!

We started off with a beautiful sky today that was full of sunshine and thankfully it lasted for quite a bit of the day!!  Let's hope we are still going to get a few more days like this .. .. I'm not ready for summer to end yet!

Today I am sharing a little "teeny tiny" card, which for anyone new to my blog is a whole 3.5 inches square .. .. just perfect for using up those snippets (but to honest I would need to make a few thousand to make any impact on the offcuts I have piling up).

But never mind .. .. making anything is good .. .. and I love that I make use of every scrap of paper and card.

This used:

Image:  Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection "CMS297" Flower Jar and matching die set

Sentiment:  Hobby Art Clear Stamp Set "CS013D" Floral Greeting
ProMarkers
Glossy Accents
Ribbon

My Trusty Sewing Machine

We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board

and that is me for today, and as I have attacked my snippets I am popping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground to show of my creation.

Everything came from my snippet collection other than the paper for the envelope.

Catch you again soon.

CHRISTMAS KICKSTART CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday and Happy September  .. .. ..  where is 2019 disappearing to?

Just flying in quickly today with a card for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the theme this fortnight is to take your inspiration from the challenge's blog header.  What a clever theme!!

This is what I have come up with:

This used:

Image and sentiment from "Digistamp Boutique" sadly no longer trading .. .. boo hoo (please come back!!)
Backing Papers from "The Works" 
ProMarkers
Crystal Glamour Dust
Snowflakes from my snowflake box
Creative Expressions "Aqua Dazzlers"
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So after all my ramblings of yesterday today is short and sweet and Christmas card number 37 goes into my box .. .. woo hoo!!

Hopefully catch you again tomorrow.