Happy Birthday Speedy!

Yes Speedy is 60 today, bless him. He is a mechanic  so I looked up mechanic colouring pages on Bing and found this one. There's loads more HERE.

I added the name as there was a blank space nice and ready for me.

There he is working away, lol, and there's his little red car parked up outside. His garage is definitely not as tidy as this one though. What I want to know is why is there a woman's stocking hanging on the red bin!! Hmmmmmmmm..............

As you can see his Christmas themed party went really well. I was up at half four in the morning making food for 100 people. I made loads as I'd rather have too much than too little. Speedy's son is manager of a local restaurant and the chef made 120 mince pies, and it wouldn't have been Christmas without a turkey curry.
He even had his own beer pump. And what are father and son singing? "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" of course.
At the end of the night I looked in the fridge at the huge amount of food which still hadn't been eaten and declared Sunday as boxing day and we all went back in the afternoon and carried on.
Tonight we are going to his favourite food haunt for another big scoff. It's a hard life!

EDIT. Speedy said the woman's  stocking was used for a faulty fan belt! Yeah, right Speedy.

Rockin' from an early age.

Don't you just love that advert. The Duran Duran one. I'm not sure what it's for. Something technical, but I love the bit right at the end where he's looking at his flat mate as if to say " one more word and you're dead, mate". Imagine my excitement when I got an Email from Just Inclined to say they had some free digi stamps on their site. I when for a look and there was this one.

I looked it and just knew which caption to add. I think if I do another one I'll use a bolder font. The papers were from a DCWV pad and the circle sentiment is from Craftwork Cards. The card base is 6"x6".

 I think I'll give it to my stepson for his birthday next month as he has a little lad of 2. You can find the image HERE.

Well, since my last post I have lost my job completely. I complained about having to do more work in less hours as they made 3 girls redundant and cut my hours to 4 a day leaving just me and the boss. Of course there were still the same amount of tasks to do and they were just not getting done before I finished at half eleven. I said I felt like leaving and was told If that's how I feel I could go now. I know it's wrongful dismissal and proper complaint procedure wasn't followed as I've had legal advice, but haven't decided what to do about that yet. The main priority for the moment is to find another job. I loved that little shop but there must be better things to come.
 Take care y'all.............

Fab CD-ROM.

Hi, remember me, lol? I've just nipped back to recommend a cd rom from Just Inclined called "The Next Big Thing". I bought mine from HERE. I love all the digi stamps. they're so different and there's loads of them. Here's a few cards I've made from it.

Sentiment from TLC Creations.

Not sure where this sentiment was from.

This is the favourite. Papers for the last 2 are from the My Minds Eye "complete boy" 12 x 12 stack.

A million housewives every day...........

...............Pick up a tin of beans and say. I'm probably showing my age now but most of us will probably remember the old Heinz beans advert. And as we were kids at the time we just couldn't resist singing our own version could we. On my daily scavenge to the Free Digital Stamps site I found this image from Marlene at Disguised as a Grown Up.

Don't you just love his face? You have to be quick to get Marlene's images though as they are usually only available for 24 hours this one is now available from Dude Time Doodles HERE. The papers are downloaded from Summer Driggs.

Here's another version. I added the caption before printing the image.

I've had a right cold and cough this week and I've felt as "rough as our soles". I very rarely get ill so this came as a right shock to the system. I'm on the mend now though so hopefully I'll be OK for the next few years.

Friday weigh in.  9st 2lb. (target weight).

Ramblers Card.

Evening all, I won't say "good" because it's peeing down here in Chester.I managed to get back from town before it started though.

A friend of mine rang the other night to ask me to make a card for someone who has just completed the Wainwrigh'ts walks across the Pennines. I remember my dad doing this years ago. He used to walk for miles.In the days of using just wooden stamps, I'd have had to say no but I searched Google images and came up with a nice map to use as background paper and found a great image from Artur's Clipart  HERE.

And here's the result. I even managed to find some walking boots. I resized them, coloured them, then coated them with glossy accents.

The card base is 6"x6".

Well, I need to get myself into the kitchen now. Speedy is still not managing to eat properly and being quite picky, so I've put a chicken in the oven hoping the smell when he comes home will make him want to eat it.

Ride like the wind.

I was having a little look at Free Digital Stamps last week and came across a page of free images at Operation Write Home. I couldn't resist this little gem as it's perfect for younger men. It's my stepson's birthday next week so it came just in time.

I got the gingham card from Payperbox a couple of years ago when i was on holiday and I'm really tight with it because there isn't a Payperbox anywhere near me. So, Simon, consider yourself honoured!

I got the caption from TLC Creations HERE. It goes really well with the image.
Off to work now but I'll be back tonight to link up to any suitable challenges.

Challenges. Southern girls, Anything goes
                   Anything goes challenge. Anything goes.
                   Digital tuesday. People images.
                   Papertake weekly. Creature comforts
                   Top tip tuesday. Kids/teenagers.

Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, still a slightly naughty 9st 3lb.

Birthday gift.

Hello there. Has anyone seen my mojo? I seem to be having a little  "I hate card making and blogging" phase at the moment. But that's ok because I know it won't last long and in the meantime i can blitz the flat. I have got a couple of unblogged cards to keep me going and here's one of them.

The image is from Meljens and the paper is by Papermania.

I downloaded the ticket sentiment when i had my stupid head on and forgot to copy the webpage addy. If I'm bored enough tonight I'll try and track it down. I know i got it through the free digital stamps website and the date is in my file so we may be in luck.

Edit. I found the ticket sentiment freebies at SG Stamper HERE. There's a whole page of them too.


 Challenges. My  Mums Craft Shop.  Layer it up.
                   Cards for Men.  G is for.......( gift ).

Meanwhile I've got to go to Liverpool later as Speedy has a hospital appointment.

Today's weight 9st 2lb ( target weight).

Variations.

 Another sunny day here in Chester. The first two weeks in September usually are nice though. It's like last chance saloon before the autumn sets in. I don't mind it getting cooler but I can't stand dark mornings. I like to be awake early and the lack of daylight fools me into sleeping for longer. I hate waking up on my day off and realising it's 8 o'clock. I love the summer when i can be awake at 5 o'clock. I'ts hard to believe I used to lie in bed all morning in my teens. What a waste of life.

On to today's card share. I needed a couple of men's cards so I went down the easy road and made 2 similar ones.

The stamp is from a set called "Ethel and Murray" which I got from Create and Craft a few years ago.

The caption is from Gingers House. The patterned paper is from Papermania Henbury Lane and the main paper is an unidentified scrap.

Another TLC caption and again the main backing paper is an unidentified scrap. The striped paper is by Summer Driggs. Both card bases are 6" x6".

Challenges. Allsorts challenge blog.  Green and blue.
                  Challenge up your life, Something for a man.
                  Creative stamp friends.  For a man

My name is Diane and I'm an addict..........

.....................to Pinterest!!  Do NOT click on the link unless you've done all the housework. Loads of people already know this site but I was always the slow one, lol. So many nice things to look at and loads of crafty inspiration. Go there if you dare...........

Today's card share is a bit out of my comfort zone as it's a C6. I usually do square ones but I bought loads of these last year as they were in a sale. I tend to struggle a bit with layouts for rectangular cards but I really must use them or they weren't such a bargain.

The image is from Meljens Designs. The bones paper is DCWV from stack 6 and the dotty paper is by Papermania.

I coloured a fabric flower with a promarker and added a circle sentiment from Craftwork Cards. I have at least 120 of these cards left so I'd better get used to them.

Challenges,  One stop craft challenge. Anything but square.
                    Polka Doodles, Spots and dots.
                    Do you stack up. Masculine

Early Bird.

Yes that's me on Fridays. Up at 5.45 to get ready for work. Good job I'm not going in search of bread.

I made up the sentiment because I think I'ts so true of most supermarkets. The image is by Meljens Designs available from Whimsy Stamps.

There is a link in my side bar to the free digi buttons. You can't really tell in the pic but I've coated them with glossy accents. The paper is from my stash of unidentified scraps.

Time to get ready to go and sell newspapers to the early birds now, lol.

 Challenges. I love promarkers. Things with wings.

Todays weight 9st 2lb ( target weight ).

Dumb Animals.

Another card with a TLC digi. This one was e,mailed to all blog followers to celebrate Paulette having got to a grand total of 1280.

I love the image and although i couldn't wait to make a card, it took me a few days to come up with a caption. The dotty paper is from an 8"x8" stack by First Edition Paper. It's called Desert Blooms and has 48 sheets, half double sided and half glittered. It's a good weight for making box lids too and only £9.99 from WHS.

I printed the caption in Orange font size 24.

Challenges. Make it Monday. Anything goes.
                  My Creative Moments. Wild Animals.
                  Stampin' For The Weekend. Paws for thought.
                  Totally Papercrafts, One for the boys
                  I love Promarkers. Anything goes.
                  ABC Challenge, Z is for Zoo.

Speedy has gone to Nantwich show today with a mate. I'm glad it went a bit dull as it was quite hot this morning and there's no escape from the sun in the wide open fields.At least he won't come back with a sunburned head. Oh......last year he came home with 2 carrier bags of cheese. I asked him why the hell he'd bought so much and he said they were giving it away at the end of the day. So guess what we'll probably be living off for the next 6 weeks, lol.

Masculine box.

First let me say thank you for my "happy birthday" comments from yesterday. I had a lovely day in Nantwich. There's some really nice little shops there. All the little gifty type shops have gone from Chester now due to greedy landlords and councils. We came back in time to have a few drinks at the local then we got a Chinese and a bottle of wine. You always know you've had a good birthday when the scales tell you to get off them next day.

I've been making quite a few bags and boxes lately and decided to make a "non girly" one as men do exist and do appreciate handmade gifts.

Not much to it really. The paper is from a stack by K and Company. I started with a white box base and inked up the edges with brown ink.

I don't really do "dirty" but i like the way this one turned out so I'l be doing a few more. I'll probably make a matching tag for this one to finish it off. Perhaps a diary, a pen and a few notecards will go inside. One stocking filler sorted.

Challenges, C.R.A.F.T. Boxes.
                   Crafty Catz. A vintage look.

A card for my stepson.

The phrase "Christmas in July" is very appropriate for me and my family. There are so many birthdays it's like shelling out for Christmas twice a year. It's my stepson, Neil's turn next Tuesday and here's his card.

The main image and the bits of food are from a Papermania, Clare Curd clear set. The papers are from Summer Driggs but as my printer gives everything a blue cast even after loads of head cleaning the colours are not true to the originals.

Before i made this card i was looking through my digi stamps for ideas. I came across this baby one and had a light bulb moment. Our grandson Michael is also a July baby and will have his first birthday on the 19th. I think i got the image from a colouring book site but i've searched google images and can't find it. I downloaded it a couple of years ago before i needed to keep note for fellow bloggers.

Challenges,   Scrapalicious USA.  Use turquoise.
                    My time to craft,  Use food,  A La Carte

On the subject of birthdays, it's mine tomorrow. As usual, Chester races is on so town will be full of scallies. If it's not peeing down we're going to take a little trip to Nantwich on the bus. We'll have a wander around the shops and perhaps a pub lunch and we'll get a takeaway in the evening.

Today's weight 9st 2lb ( target weight).

Cute Card.

I think this is such a cute image and such a fitting caption. They are Both by TLC and are on this page. 

I'm 90% sure the stripy paper is from Summer Driggs' website. I downloaded it about 18 months ago. luckily I printed a few sheets out before my printer started playing up. The spotty paper is definitely one of Summer's. The Happy Birthday circle is from Craftwork Cards. The Card base is by Craft UK LTD and is a good quality and nice and white. I got mine from Hobbycraft when they were on offer ( and still might be ) at £4.99 for 50. This one is 5"x5".

Target weight, 9st 2lb.  Today 9st 1lb.  Speedy will put an end to that on his birthday on Sunday,lol.

Stripy Gift Set.

I've been a busy little bee today. I've been into town to get some bits and pieces this morning. I got some little hand creams from M&S for mums  gift bag and made her a necklace to but in her little box. I've just got to wrap her main pressies to take to her tomorrow. It's Speedy's birthday on sunday so I've made him a little gift bag and matching card while i'm on my day off.

There's more info about this bag on an earlier post HERE,  and instructions at Splitcoast Stampers HERE. After making a few of these bags i found that making the first 2 folds half an inch instead of an inch made them a little bit taller and made all the difference when finding things to put inside as they have to be fairly flat

You can just about see the side view of the bag here but my 2 links will show you better.  The little boat is a Meljens digi image.

Here's the matching card which is 6"x6". The paper is from DCWV stack six  12 x 12 papers. The " AHOY" is also by Meljen's.

And here's the set together. As you can see by the pic, the bag is about 5" square.  Things I've got for the bag so far are, a Thorntons  4"x4" bar of chocolate with ginger, a Cadbury's kids size bar of dairy milk ( the flat one) , a Caramac, some wrigleys chewing gum and a small 2" square Thorntons trial size white chocolate. I'm going to get a Scratch card and a lottery ticket as well.  Big kid he is, lol.

Challenges,  Meljens  Stripes ( how could i not )
                   Totally Papercrafts. Stripes and spots.
                   Sisterhood of Crafters. For men.

So very late....

...........and so very tired. What a couple of days!!  I went with Speedy to one of his hospital appointments in Liverpool yesterday morning and while we were there he came over all queer, sweating and feeling faint etc. He hates hospitals, but when his hands stated turning white there was a bit of a panic as it was obviously more than nerves. They took his blood pressure and pulse and both were dangerously low so they gave him oxygen and took him to A&E. He spent all day wired up to a monitor having ecg's and blood tests and they finally decided to keep him in. Luckily we'd gone by train and i finally got home at 9pm. I went back again today as they are keeping him in again tonight. I've just got home. Seems that one of his blood pressure tablets were too high and they are trying him on a lower dose. I'm glad we were there at the time as it could have happened anywhere and he probably would have ignored it, as a lot of us would,lol. I'll have to see what tomorrow brings but in the meantime here's a card.

I made it for my sister who's just got herself a puppy who looks just like the one on the card. This image was from Kids n Fun Colouring pages .  Isn't he cute. When she went to pick him up she said he's going straight in the sink when i get him home so i added the caption.

The paper is by Brenda Pinnick and there's a link to the digi buttons stamp in my sidebar at the top.

Apolojeez  four enee typows butt iem to nakred too ker, lolll.   XX

Challenges.   A spoonfull of sugar,  Splish Splash
                    Going Grey with Scrap Creations,  Anything goes.
                    Woodware USA,  Happy Birthday.

More quickie cards.

Bit of a rush jobbie these as i've been out most of the day but i needed some mens cards to take to work.

The stamp is by Inkadinkado and is great for quickies as there's not a lot of detail to colour. The papers are scraps left over from some i won a few weeks ago so i don't know their origin. The card bases are 5" x 5", and are on offer at £4.99 for 50 at Hobbycraft at the moment. Quite good quality too although they don't look very white in the pic.
I need to go and do my kitchen goddess thing now before a very hungry Speedy gets home,lol. I'll have to conjure something oriental up out of the Chinese pork i found in the freezer and the mushrooms and spring onions from the fridge. Bless him, he doesn't notice when I've been shirking my duties!

Remember Space Hoppers?

I needed to make a card for my nephews birthday. He'll be 22 on Saturday. I've got plenty of male stamps but they are either a bit too cutesy for a young lad or more suited to old fossils,lol. I've got a couple of cars but he's already had them so i went to scour the net. I googled digi stamps, male, images and eventually found THIS ONE  from Imag-e-nation.

What a hoot, and a bargain at £1.00. It takes me back to my childhood and that was when the original ones came out. The caption was from  Ginger's House  and i added the Hoppy Birthday before printing out the image.

Finished off with some of Torico's cute digi buttons, ( link in my side bar) coloured in and glazed with Glossy Accent's before cutting out. I think you'll be seeing loads of these on my cards, especially ones for men.

Well, that's it for today as I'm off to Hobbycraft.  Partly because i need more Glossy Accents but mainly because I'm going out for a big scoff tonight and i need to walk the 4 mile round trip.

Challenges.....Belli  challenge, the letter S ( space hopper)
                     Top Tip 35,  use 2 or more stamps.
                     Stamping Scrapping,  Masculine,
                     Stamps R Us  Go digital.

Another quickie.

Having a lazy day today so i thought a lazy card would be appropriate for today's post. I made it last week with no particular person in mind, just to top up my male card supply.

See?  Downright lazy, not much effort involved with this one. The stamp and sentiment are from the Papermania "it's a mans world" clear set and the paper is from my scrap box. Now i'm going to be really hard faced and enter it into a few challenges,lol.

Totally Papercrafts,  Don't be square.
Crafty Catz,  Anything goes.
Crazy 4 Challenges.  Humour.

Another Floyd and a new hero.

Well, i don't believe it i drafted a post last night ready for this morning and couldn't post it because of  Blogger being down. Fair enough but I've just got home from work to find not only my draft has disappeared but also my last post was gone. I managed to retrieve my last post (well, half of it)  but have had to rewrite this one.
Anyway this is the card i made for The Party Time Tuesdays gatefold challenge and it's the handsome Floyd again.

Details of the stamp in my last post. The papers were part of my prize from The Card Grotto.

I thought up the caption and printed it out before stamping Floyd at the side.

But here's the best bit. I was looking on the Free Digital Stamps site and found a link to these digi buttons by Torico I was so excited i scuttled off to print a sheet of various sizes. Then i coloured them with Promarkers before adding a coat of Glossy accents. Then i cut them out. Thank you Torico, my new hero,lol.

Here's the rest of my sheet.

Also entering;  Fab n Funky Challenge, Buttons and bows.


Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, 9st 3lb.