TUESDAY CATCH UP

Hi Everyone

Apologies for not being around for a few days.  Life has been super manic here .. .. but more about that later.

Belated happy November!  I wonder what chaos it is going to bring with it as we in England gear ourselves up for another month of lock-down.  Not for one minute do I expect us to come out of it come the start of December.  But we shall wait and see .. .. .. I would be happy to be proved wrong.

In the meantime I have lots to keep me amused here in the House of Hearts.  You could lock me down for two years and I would still have plenty to get on with.

It has all been super busy and the weekend saw us turn all the green tomatoes from the greenhouse into green tomato chutney .. .. .. and it is now sitting alongside the beetroot chutney we made a couple of months ago.  Another job off the list but sadly no crafty play time.

No luck in us finding any wallpaper for the kitchen yet .. .. and if we don't find something before lock-down kicks in then I can see our Christmas dinner being prepared in a "part decorated kitchen". But hey ho .. .. in the grand scheme of things what does that matter.

My bride who distributed her revised wedding invitations the other weekend has once again seen her wedding plans cancelled due to the impending lock-down.. .. .. .. but the minister was able to marry her tomorrow!!  Yay!!  So  quite a bit of my time has been spent frantically preparing repeat invitations, order of service booklets and placename cards for a "scaled down" wedding.

Surely nothing else can scupper things for them now and they will soon be a super happy "Mr & Mrs"!

So once all the wedding work was completed and delivered, and another order completed, I treated myself to a little play and created this scrapling card.  For anyone new to my blog these measure 6.5 x 13.5cm.

This used:

Background Stamp:  Stampin' Up! "Gorgeous Grunge"
Butterflies:  Hobby Art "CS077D" Butterflies

Versafine Ink Pad "Onyx Black"
Versa Color Ink Cubes: Orchid, Turquoise, Heliotrope, Paprika and Seafoam (stamping the background and painting the butterflies)
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and there we go.  All back on track again with a big crafty clear up planned for tomorrow.

Please stay safe and keep well .. .. .. and prepare yourself for the panic buying.  I nipped to the supermarket for Mum this evening and there were lots of empty shelves again.

CHRISTMAS POST

Hi Everyone

I hope your have had a good day.

My teeny tiny card has today morphed a little into a scrapling card (measuring 6.5 x 13.5cms).  These cards are made with the offcuts I am left with after creating my own card bases .. .. .. and I have rather a stack of them .. .. .. so they need to be used.

This used:

Make & Create Die Set: Post Box and all the elements from The Works
Backing Paper:  Pink Petticoat
Sentiment:  LOTV Christmas Tags
ProMarkers for colouring the birds
Pearls
Ribbon and Cord

Eyelet

My Trusty Sewing Machine

I think that post boxes are going to become our extra special best friend over the next couple of months because I doubt very much that we will be delivering our Christmas wishes in person this year!!  Boo hoo!

THANKS SO MUCH

Hi Everyone

One very busy and hectic day at this end with no crafty playtime until far too late .. .. .. so to satisfy my crafty fingers I grabbed a blank scrapling card measuring 6.5 x 13.5cm and created this:

This used:
Image:  Penny Black "3867K" Constellations
Script Background:  Memory Box "G1838" Vintage Dreams (Stamped using London Fog Memento Ink)
Sentiment:  Woodware Clear Stamp Set "FRCL 154" Salutations
Distress Ink:  Bundled Sage
ProMarkers
Ribbon and Cord
Charm
A little fine Purple Glitter
My Trusty Sewing Machine

Hopefully tomorrow is going to be kind to me and I can have a little more playtime than I managed today.

Thanks for calling by folks.  Your company is very much appreciated.

PEACE ON EARTH

Hi Everyone

I hope your day has been good and productive.

This evening I sat playing on a little lap tray in front of the TV .. .. armed with just a few supplies I came up with this little scrapling card which is made from the offcuts I get left with after making my card bases.  I trim them a little to measure 6.5 x 13.5cm.

Quick and easy to do, the masks took me longer to produce than the actual card!  But I love the finished look and will be making lots of them .. .. on my knee!  LOL!!

A quick run upstairs to my sewing machine and this is what I ended up with:

This used:

Image and sentiment:  Penny Black "3907J" A wish for all time
Stormy Sky Distress Ink
Promarkers
My Trusty Sewing Machine

Quite a short recipe list .. .. .. but the perfect amount of goodies for working on a lap tray.  I often play on one of those when making my teeny tiny and scrapling cards.  The perfect size for a small guillotine and a stack of card and design paper offcuts!

So an extra Christmas card from me this month which is good because I wanted to play along with the Rudolph Days Challenge for September where the theme is always "anything goes .. .. as long as it is Christmas".

So that is me for today - another day just about done and dusted.  Why do they have to fly by so quickly?

BEST WISHES

Hi Everyone

I hope you have really enjoyed your Bank Holiday Weekend .. .. today was the best day here weather-wise .. .. and I took Mum for our first walk out since well before lockdown started.  We had cocooned Mum before Boris said we all had to stay indoors because we were paranoid about her catching anything.

Mum enjoyed her taste of freedom, and it was a very different world to the one she last saw .. .. .. and she certainly didn't like wearing a mask .. .. but it had to be done!

Once I got home it was crafty playtime and this is what I came up with today using one of my scrapling cards which measure 6.5 x 13.5cm

This used:

Bird Image and Background:  Hero Arts "CL338" Be Yourself 

Sentiment:  Clearly Besotted "CBSFA085" Fancy Sayings

Flower Stamp:  Creative Expressions "UMS633" Shaded Peony and matching die set
Distress Inks:  Tumbled Glass and Bundled Sage
ProMarkers
Hole Punch for the flower centres
Glossy Accents
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today .. .. can you believe we are starting September tomorrow?  

SNOW IS FALLING

Hi Everyone

I hope that you have had a really good Saturday.  A much more pleasant day here temperature wise that's for sure.

Both our youngest Son and my Mum were into the snooker when I called on them yesterday, sadly they drew me in and I have ended up watching it today.  Thank goodness it is the final this weekend and I haven't got interested early on in the tournament!!  LOL!

Today my crafty play session used one of my scrapling cards, which are the leftovers I have after cutting my base cards from an A4 piece of card.  I trim them down a little more though so they finish up measuring 6.5 x 13.5cms.

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "1873H" Xmouse Ornament!
Sentiment:  Hobby Art Ltd "CS144D" Christmas Frostings
Backing Paper:  Wallpaper as mentioned in my post here 
ProMarkers
Distress Ink Pad:  Stormy Sky
Ribbon
Snowflake Charm
Gems
Nailhead Heart
Crystal Glamour Dust
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So that is me for today with another Christmas card added to my box.  But only my third for August.  Still another two to go!

I am taking my card over to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the theme this fortnight is "snow is falling".  Hopefully it doesn't matter that a mouse is hanging onto the snowflake LOL!!.

LET IT SNOW

Hi Everyone

I hope all is good with everyone .. .. .. .. things have been a bit busy here in the House of Hearts .. .. ..  Mr Heart's early retirement is definitely making days and weeks fly by even faster than they did before!  Even if we are keeping ourselves in lock-down for the majority of our time.

Today I decided to raid my scrapling card box, which is where I put all the offcuts from the card bases I make.  I usually use these cards in portrait style .. .. but today have gone for landscape.

A little bit of playtime this evening created my second Christmas card for August .. .. using one of my favourite techniques (one of probably 50 LOL!!) the "inlaid die-cut" technique.   I call it a jig-saw puzzle for crafters.

This used:

Apple Blossom Die:  Large Snowflake (another very old die)

Sentiment:  Pink Petticoat

Very fine Silver Glitter Card

Nail Heads

Metallic Cord

This was made for taking over to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the theme this fortnight is  "Snow is Falling".  

Hopefully catch you again soon.

A THANK YOU SCRAPLING

Hi Everyone

I hope your day has gone well?  I thought today was supposed to be much cooler and with the possibility of mega rain and thunder storms.  Nothing yet here and definitely still very hot .. .. but there is still time for those thunder storms to kick in.

Much of my day has been taken up getting work finished and into the post .. .. so a few more "ticks" have appeared on that ever growing crafty "do list".

Then this evening I had a quick play and created this:

This used:

Background Stamp "Hero Arts" Background Thank You Dictionary Definition Stamp  (what a big title)

Sizzix Thinlits Die Set "664163" Wildflower Stems #1

LOTV Embossed Labels

Bleeding Tissue Paper

My Trusty Sewing Machine

These scrapling cards (which I trim down to measure 6.5 x 13.5cms) are building up rather quickly since I have been making my own base cards .. .. far more quickly than I am using them that's for sure.  I keep them all in a box at the back of my desk to remind me to use them .. .. even if it only for stamping small images or sentiments onto.

Tonight's card used bleeding tissue paper to create the background and once dry I stamped on it using the Hero Arts stamp.  Not sure whether that is still available, I bought it from Ebay last year.

So that is me for today.

Enjoy your weekend when it arrives .. .. .. and stay away from those beaches for a little while longer!!  I don't want to catch you sunbathing on the news reports tomorrow evening!!!  LOL!!!

BE HAPPY

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a lovely Thursday.  It was beautiful and sunny here .. .. and with good news from Boris with regards the lockdown.  I am certain lots of us will definitely "be happy" at the thought of meeting up with our loved ones .. .. even if it does have to be in the open air.

Many thanks everyone for your lovely comments on my CAS card of yesterday.  You are all very kind and encouraging.  I think I will continue torturing myself a little more with this style before I "give in".  You never know, the style might become less painful as time goes on.

But today's little scrapling card in comparison has hardly any white at all .. .. LOL!!

This used:

Image:  Hero Arts "S5316" Silhouette Grass

Sentiment:  LOTV "Embossed Labels"

Memory Box Dies:  "Moonlight Butterfly and Kaleidoscope Butterfly"

Distress Inks:  Fossilized Amber, Tumbled Glass and Peeled Paint

My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today.  In and out quickly as it has been a pretty busy old day today.

SCRAPLING

Hi Everyone

I hope you  have all had a good day.

Mine has disappeared in the blink of an eye .. .. which isn't a good thing when you have lots of crafty missions to accomplish!  

At least it has rained again all day so no washing .. .. which means no ironing!! Yay!!!  

I am working on lots of things I can't share at the moment .. .. but managed to pull in a little scrapling card this evening for adding to my stock box.  These are great for just popping on a present or sending a quick message to someone and measure a whole 6.5 x 13.5cm. 

This one used:

Image:  Stampendous! Cling Rubber "CRR112" Ranunculus Field

Sentiment:  LOTV "Embossed Labels"  -  one of the new releases that came out today

ProMarkers

Heart Punch

and that is it!!

I hope you are all coping OK .. .. .. lock-down is slowly starting to feel like the norm don't you think?  

Has anyone starting snipping away at their hair .. .. .. or is that just me? LOL!!!

QUICK AND SIMPLE

Hi Everyone

I hope your day has gone as well as it could .. .. and you have all been good and obeyed our lockdown rules.  We certainly didn't expect this when we were celebrating bringing in the new year just a few weeks ago did we?

I was just relieved to hear that I was going to be allowed to travel to continue looking after Mum .. .. .. otherwise it would have been a case of me taking up residence with her and sleeping on her sofa again.

I did a tiny bit of "crafty sorting" first thing and all my scrapling card bases, made from the offcuts left over after cutting my base cards, now have their own designated box.  I was rather surprised at how many I have accumulated already .. .. so used one of them to make a quick and simple card using one of my favourite Penny Black stamps  .. .. .. great for anyone and any age!

So here it is:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "3212K" Much Gifted!

Sentiment:  Polkadoodles Clear Stamps "PD8024" All About Her Sentiments

ProMarkers

My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is it.

Take care everyone and stay safe.

TEENY TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you have all had a good day.

I spent some time at the weekend making up a stack of card bases in readiness for some cardmaking hyperactivity (she hopes!!) .. .. and of course this inevitably left me with an equal pile of "scrapling" cards (trimmed down a little to be 6.5 x 13.5cm).  These are going down just as well with my customers as my teeny tiny makes .. .. .. so there are going to be lots more of them in the pipeline.

So one of each today.  A scrapling and a teeny tiny make (which are just under 9cm square).

These used:

Images and Sentiment for the Teeny Tiny Card:  Clear Magic Singles Stamp Set "JGS573" Sweet Tweet
Sentiment for the Scrapling Card:  Wow! "Stamp Set 33" Big Words
Design Papers "Sizzix Little Sizzles" .. .. Country and Pastels
Distress Ink Pads:  Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron and Bundled Sage
ProMarkers (for the tiny dots I didn't have the patience to cut out and paper-piece)
Gems and Sticky Dew Drops
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today.

I do love a good paper-piecing session!

TEENY TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a good Tuesday.

It has all been very busy here .. .. hence my lack of posting and visiting .. .. AGAIN!!!  Sorry!

Lots of making happening but not much of it is for sharing unfortunately.

I did take a bit of time out this evening though to make another couple of "scrapling" cards which measure a whole 13.5 x 6.5cm  .. 

These used:

Image:  The Lovely Studio "Christmas Diva Doodles"
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
ProMarkers
Jelly Roll Pen
Glossy Accents
Ribbon
Tiny Gems
My Trusting Sewing Machine

and that is me for today .. .. whilst it is still Tuesday.