BIRTHDAY LOVE

Hi Everyone

Once again huge apologies for being such a bad blog owner, and many thanks for all the enquiries as to whether all is OK in the New Home of Hearts .. .. you are all so very kind.

Life here has been (and still is) very hectic on many fronts and has seen me wearing many, many, many hats .. .. .. not many of which have involved the sheer pleasure I get from crafting/creating. 

I have to admit that I have never known life to be so busy, worrying, stressful, disorganised and yet exciting all at the same time!  

My new little crafty pod is now completed, at long last, and I am really happy with it.  Mr Heart has  constructed IKEA furniture for me whilst I have been busy with Mum.  I am now trying to get all my craft treasures organised (and then remember where I have put everything .. .. which is the hardest part).  

Progress has been mega slow in reaching this point though, mainly because Mum has needed me more. I have been spending a lot of my time with her, including spending three weeks camping on her settee .. .. .. due to a mixture of her not being well with a chest infection and her emergency alert call system not working! 

But let’s face it, in the grand scheme of things, she is way more important than anything else.  Decorating, housework, crafting and organising will always be around, but my Mum won't .. .. .. so I need to make the most of spending time with her while I can.  She was a whole 94 a few weeks ago and this was the card I managed to make for her .. .. amongst all the chaos.

This used:

Digital Download:  Floral Alphabet : AmeliaDigiArts
A snippet of pinstripe design paper
ProMarkers
Snippet of Ribbon
Gems for the daisy flowers and a big sparkly button

Things are progressing really well with me and everyone is telling me I am looking much better recently.  So that is good news, and my appetite is returning which will please my Oncologist. Not many people are encouraged to have what has been described to me as a "see food diet" .. .. .. "see food and eat it .. .. whatever it is!!"  LOL!! 

I am desperate to get back to some serious crafting, but dread to think how far away those days actually are.  But with Christmas looming at super fast speed I am going to have to really get a wriggle on there!!

The exciting news though is that we have finally got our bedroom decorated, carpeted and furnished .. .. .. (so we are no longer sleeping in the living room LOL!!), and in an ideal world the living room will be sorted by Christmas, fingers crossed. 

As everything but the base card and button on my card came from my snippet collection I am heading over to the Snippets Playground Challenge where we are encouraged to use up all those odds and ends of creative materials we all squirrel away. 

Take care everyone.  I sincerely hope that everything is running smoothly for you all .. .. .. and you have more Christmas cards made than I have! 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Hi everyone

Happy Friday .. .. .. .. 

Another quick play was squeezed into yesterday and allowed me to create this card which I was quite pleased with and can see being made for lots of different occasions and in different colours:

This used:

Heart Border Die:  Amazon unbranded 

Sentiment:  Mama Elephant "Bountiful Blessings" (stamped using Brilliance Pearlescent Beige ink) - may no longer be available as the set it came from is quite old now

Backing Papers:  The Works "Vintage Romance" (just love the colours in this pad so much)

My Trusty Sewing Machine

Sadly my Nail Heads haven't made an appearance yet so I had to resort to die cutting some little circles and I just added some Crystal Glamour Dust to them.

I am a bit ashamed to say that despite having packed and transported loads of design papers (and having that rather large box of snippets) I still ended up succumbing to "yet another" pad from The Works last week.  I tried really hard to walk past and did manage to on my way "into town", but was weak "on the way back"!!  LOL!!! 

But in my defence, I only bought one pad .. .. .. not the three I originally picked up!!

The floor is now done in the future craft room so time to limber up for some decorating over the next few days.

Make the most of the weekend when arrives everyone and many thanks for calling by.

I haven't forgotten my rash promises on the "Christmas" and "sketch" front and will be making amends for my absence soon.

SNIPPET TIME

Hi everyone

I hope you have all had a really good start to your week and have managed to squeeze in a bit of crafty time.

Not much actual "physical crafting" happening here since our move .. .. .. but amongst all the things we have to do I have been cracking on with the very enjoyable task of "organising a make-shift craft area". 

So I now have access to a table, a chair, a working printer, a limited supply of crafting goodies and my trusty sewing machine .. .. .. .. .. all nestled amongst piles of boxes that cannot be unpacked yet.  But that's OK - as long as I get a crafty fix somewhere along the line then all is good.

Just a very quick play today .. .. .. but even so it was enjoyable, and I intend to run over to the snippet playground challenge with the outcome.  

Recently, though I seem to spend longer trying to find the things I want to use than doing the actual making! LOL!!!

But my misplaced cutting plates turned up so I am at least able to let some of my dies see some action.

and these were the small pieces I started off with / cut into.. .. .. ..

This used:

A snippet of digital patterned design paper

Black, white and smooth silver glitter card snippets (originally A4 in size)

Julie Hickey "Happy" and "Birthday" sentiment and backing dies

Star Dies
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So in my previous post I eluded to all my patterned snippets now being condensed into one box.  Well here it is .. .. .. .. ..

and I am determined to try really hard to get this box greatly reduced .. .. but I know only too well that even though I will use what is stored in this box I will also be adding to it!  So it will no doubt still be like the Forth Bridge.

The majority of the contents are patterned papers, both digital printed ones and some from design pads.  There might be a small smattering of plain card in there as well, but the majority of my plain coloured card snippets are stored elsewhere in a much more organised manner, sorted by colour.  Mostly offcuts left over from wedding stationery orders in the past.

Yesterday saw what will be my new crafty space have a screed added to the floor ahead of it being laminated (hopefully) tomorrow or Thursday.  Then it will be out with the sandpaper, paintbrushes and rollers!

Anyway, that is me for now.

I hope you are all keeping well and apologies for being a stranger.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT!

Hi Everyone

Well it might have been very quiet on my blog for the last few weeks, but life itself has been anything but .. .. .. mainly because things suddenly moved very quickly on the house selling front and a special truck at long last pulled onto our driveway and moved Mr Heart and I to our new adventure!  Woo hoo!!

The removal men were so fast .. .. and so strong!!  

I had been worried that some of the boxes (especially the craft ones) might be too heavy, but they could even carry those  .. .. ..  two at a time!!

By mid afternoon the monies had all been transferred and we were allowed to pick the keys up and escape to our new abode. 

Everyone keeps asking if we were sad to be leaving what has been our home for the last nearly 33 years .. .. .. but the answer is "definitely not"!   It had become far too big for us to cope with (especially the huge garden) and as we no longer know what the future holds for us (who does?) we know we are doing the right thing in "future proofing" ourselves for all eventualities while we are still in a position to do so. 

Don't get me wrong, our old home has been a fantastic place for us and we have been very very happy there .. .. especially when the lads were still at home .. .. but we didn't need to remain there just because of that.  The memories of those wonderful happy years spent in what we will call "the family home" will live with us always  .. .. memories to us aren't held in bricks and mortar or even belongings .. .. they are held in our hearts!  

We will drive past our "family home" many times, as we have only moved about 3 miles up the same main road, and will no doubt look and smile at our old home every time we drive by. But the fun and excitement has now started in creating our next home, where we have lots to do .. .. room by room.

It will be quite a while before all the work is done and we are still surrounded by loads of boxes that it is pointless unpacking at this stage.  But as a clue to the chaos we are currently enjoying .. .. .. we have our bed set up in the living room and just flop into that every night.  I jokingly say we are like John and Yoko at the moment (if you are old enough to remember them).

We loved our new home immediately and feel like we are on holiday .. .. .. we moved on the 15th April .. .. .. and when we have driven past our old home we feel like it is ages ago we used to live there.

But despite all the chaos and work we are doing, my brain and hands still want desperately to craft - so I have begun creating a temporary crafty area in the corner of what one day will be our bedroom!  I packed knowing I would “need” to have “crafty fixes” and have condensed lots of patterned paper snippets into one single box - so let’s see how long it takes me to empty that!!!!! Years by the look of it!  But more about that another time because at the moment I can't find everything for even basic crafty sessions.  Three die cutting machines but no cutting plates to be found .. .. yet .. .. LOL!  Clearly bad planning and last minute panic packing on my part.

So for now I will just kick-start my blog again with a card I made prior to packing everything away

This used:

Image:  Purple and Gold Butterflies Watercolour Clipart Bundle WondersArtist (via Etsy) 
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat/The Lovely Studio (sadly no longer trading)
Die-Namics Blueprints 14 Die Set - My Favorite Things
Ribbon
My Trusty Sewing Machine

so back today to more lovely sorting and organising.

Hopefully it won't be too long before I am able to make use of my temporary crafty corner and post something new.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone.

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

I FEEL A NEW OBSESSION COMING ON

Hi Everyone

I hope your week is going to plan.

I am a little worried that I have sent myself along the track of another obsession!!

Not only can I not stop making this type of card (I make one most days in various colours and for various occasions) but I now feel I might also end up on the same slippery slope with this style of card too because it holds so many possibilities   .. .. 

This used:

Globeland Postage Die (via Amazon)
Sentiment Globeland (via Amazon)

Images:  Digital Download from DigiStamp Boutique (sadly no longer trading Boo Hoo!!)
Backing Paper from Snippet Mountain
My Trusty Sewing Machine

This is the second postage stamp style die I have purchased .. .. the main draw being that it included lots of additional dies, the most useful being the rectangles to fit within each section.  

I have lots of ideas and plans for this style of card .. .. .. just not enough time to put them all into action at the moment.  

The first postage stamp die I purchased was simply a background frame and is also brilliant but for a different reason .. .. .. I will share that one with you another day.

JUST TO SAY .. .. ..

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all  looking forward to your weekend .. .. .. ours started with one very big covering of frost, but some beautiful sunshine has since appeared and has now melted it all away.  Definitely makes a change from all the rain we have been deluged with recently!

Today I am sharing sketch number 20 which has been added to my rectangular sketch library (you will find others on the tab at the top of my blog if you fancy playing with any of them|).

I used the sketch to make the type of card that I am always grateful to see in my stock box when I need a card in a hurry .. .. a "just to say" card!  Always handy to have on hand because they can be used for a multitude of occasions.

This used:

Image:  Stampendous Cling Stamp "CRR112" Ranunculus Field
Sentiment:  LOTV Digital "Stamp Block Sentiment"  (love this sentiment set and use it loads and loads)
Card and Paper from Snippet Mountain
ProMarkers
Spellbinders:  Circle and Scalloped Circle Dies

Unbranded Stitched Tag Die
Nail Heads

Ribbon
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and Sketch Number Twenty

Not made for any other reason than the fact that I need lots and lots of cards before my little crafty pod is finally emptied of all things crafty and the big move happens.  

Enjoy your weekend and I hope you manage to find a little bit of crafty playtime to lose yourself in!

Take care.