Out to lunch.

A little something to chew on while i make a start on those wedding invites. I took this photo at Cheste zoo 2 years ago.

Grass.....YUM !                    May report later,off to lock myself in my den,i don't know how long for though, LOL.

Another chistmas card.

I've been playing with my new Penny Black stamps.This one is from the christmas critters set. I've wanted it for ages,i don't know why it took me so long to buy it.

The backing paper is from the dovecraft victorian christmas pad.I coloured the image with promarkers and chalked the background.

 I added a few punched snowflakes and leaves, i don't think i like the white gel pen on the leaves but never mind.
I'm off to the Papermill shop this morning to buy the rest of the stuff to make the wedding invites. I've taken the week off to make them and i must admit i'm going to find it very boring and hard not to stray and play with the "other stash" which i'm bound to buy. I woke up at 6.30 this morning and thought i'd slip out of bed and make a non wedding card while i can. Guess what? The sleeping beauty woke up and asked for a cuppa. I took it in to him and he was wide awake!  Typical, any other morning he'd still be asleep at 9 o'clock. Of course i didn't want to abandon him on bank holiday so i didn't get to play. Oh well...........

Little gift set.

Morning everyone. A bit dull today, looks like there may be rain later. Still it is bank holiday weekend. It's race week next week here in Chester and the weather's always a bit iffy. The women will have bought their strappy frocks when we had that nice warm week and they'll still insist on wearing them no matter what the weather is like. You see some sights i tell ya!!
This little gift set cost me about 60p to make.

I bought some packs of habico card at Abakhan . They were 55p for 6 A4 sheets. The notecards were made from some 5x7 cards which I cut in half to fit some C7 envies from the papermill shop.

The image stamp is Penny Black and the message is from a Clare Curd clear set. The circle punches are EK Success. The colouring is done with promarkers as always.
There have been 2 pigeons canoodling in my window box for a couple of weeks. Last year we had a nest and a couple of chicks, i wonder if it's the same pair? Anyone wondering why i haven't removed the window box? I live 3 floors up and the window has been painted shut from the outside! So if anyone is wondering what a baby pigeon looks like I may have a photo by early June.
 It must be time to wake the sleeping beauty with a cuppa. Bye for now. DI.x

Oh I nearly forgot to tell you.....I won the blog candy from dippy doodles at the top of my page!!

Birthday Balloons.

I really love Penny Black stamps as you may have guessed! Apart from being nice images they always stamp really clearly.This one is from the "bubbly" clear set.

I think it's a great stamp and can be used for all ages, male and female.The paper is papermania creative tones......What makes you think i bought a pad of each colour in a sale? I bought the little flowers from Bury market when i went on a coach trip there last year.

I added a tiny amount of stickles to the hat and balloons. I'm taking this card and a few others to work where they will hopefully be sold. Speaking of work,,, i'd best get a move on or i'll be late.
                   Thanks for visiting.   Di.X

Birthday ship.

Quickie friday post today before i get off to work. A little card i made yesterday to put in my little shop display.

The stamp is by Inkadinkado and takes no time to colour. The card base is a Tesco 5"x5". A couple of little stickies and that's all there is to it except for the 2 score lines at the bottom which don't show up very well.

The nice postman came yesterday with my new stamps. I've been hankering for these for at least 2 years!! And yes of course i've played with them!

Friday weigh in 9st 12.another one off, not bad considering last weekends naughtiness. Big hurdle this week as it's bank holiday. I don't normally work mondays but Speedy will be off and wanting to play.

It's begining to look a lot like........

........CHRISTMAS!!!!  Last year i didn't start my christmas cards until september and was i sorry.There's no natural light after 3 o'clock and it's impossible to get colours right even with a Craft lamp. So this year i'm starting now. My cardmaking ground to a halt yesterday when a big fat queen wasp appeared in my room. (Not that i'm in any position to call anyone fat)! I sprayed it with flyspray and had to wait for it to finish break dancing on my desk, then i scooped it up with a sheet of paper and put it out of the window.Here's the first of my cards.

This is my favourite penny black stamp along with the little dog with the tie, mind you i have just ordered some more so they could be in for some competition. I made loads with this stamp last year. The paper is My Minds Eye bloom and grow.

The mouse is coloured with promarkers with a bit of glitter glue on the hat. Punched snowflakes, gems and a computer sentiment add the finishing touches.
Right quick hoover around and mop of the kitchen floor and off into my den. Thanks for visiting.  Di. xx

Bath time.

Yipee, off today and tomorrow. Apart from the household chores i need to get cracking on a load of cards for next weeks posts as i'm taking a week off to make 120 wedding invitations for my stepson. Luckily Nina, the bride doesn't want anything too fussy.We have put together a design with ivy ........wait for it................peel offs!!!!  Yuk, i hear you say but they're really nice burgundy glittery peel offs, and there was no way i was going to talk her into me stamping and colouring the same design 120 times. I mean lets face it there all going to end up in the bin in the end anyway. The hardest part fo me will be the tekky bit with the inserts. M&S sell a cd for this so i think i may invest in one.
  This card was so hard to photograph.The dark card is actually mid navy.

Well what on earth have Blogger done!!! It took me ages to suss out how to upload that photo.It is now nine o'clock and i'm not even showered. i so wanted to make an early start!
The image is by paper nation and papers are papermania creative tones

I'm going to stomp off into the shower now poor Speedy is on his way out to work and has had NO attention this moning, better go and give him a peck!

Scrappy birthday.

Here's the card i made with the little scrap of paper leftover from yesterdays card.

The image is "little black dress" by stamps happen.The greeting is by personal impressions and "i really need it" is by penny black.

The backing paper is Brenda Pinnick. I added some liquid pearls to the necklace and some blobs of glitter glue to the dress. Card base is 5"x5" from Tesco home extra £4.99 for 50 with envelopes.

Window shopping.

Well that garden centre was a bit of a let down yesterday.I haven't been since last summer and it's changed such a lot since then.The gift shop has gone smaller because they've extended the cafe.The prices have gone through the roof and the farm shop has turned into a bit of a supermarket. Even the veg aren't local anymore.We were talking to a local lady about it and she said they get a lot of coaches using it as a tea break stop off and they make a lot of money from them.Still we did find a nice hanging basket for mother in law so it wasn't a total waste of time.
  Anyway, here's todays card.

This stamp is from a set by My favourite things which i got from Dies to Die For. I think it's called window shopping but again it's not in its original packaging. I love it because it's so easy for paper piecing.

The paper is from the Papermania capsule collection.The great thing about this pad is thet you only get one A5 sheet of each design so you have to challenge yourself to get as much as possible out of the sheet. I even had a little piece left for tomorrows card.I had to colour the shoes with the fine end of my whispers pens as promarkers aren't quite fine enough.
  I'm going to mums with my sister today so i'd best go and get myself dressed and do something with my hair which was wet when i started this post but is drying itself into some ridiculous punk style!     Di.x

Chuckie chickens.

Morning all, what's it going to do today then? Speedy is taking me to Holt (near Wrexham a short drive away) later on. There is one of those pick you own fruit farms there and although there won't be anything ready to pick yet  there is also a big garden centre. They sell alsorts of gifty things, different to the usual garden centre stuff and there is also a big farm shop.The reason i'm getting this rare treat is because we need to get the mother in law a birthday pressie.My stepson is getting wed in september and i'm doing the invites and the flowers. There are some really gorgeous silk flowers in this shop so i'll be able to weigh them up too.
 Todays little morsel is a notelet set i made with the little wooden embelishments i bought last week.

I photographed these on thursday and try as i might, i couldn't get a decent photo, just like my last set. The chickens and gems are by Crafting For occasions ,( usually on twirly stands). The little cards are 4"x4" hessian look.

I'm not 100% sure what the sentiment stamp is because it's not in it's original packaging but i think it could be a Hero Arts clear set. Look under notecards in my "labels" to see more sets.

Thinking of you.

Quickie post this moning as i'm on my way to work. This card is one of a few i made to take to work to replace some which have been sold.

The stamp is by Hero Arts. I stamped it 3 times onto hessian look card and chalked the background.
        Thanks for visiting.  Di.x

Altered notebooks.

I was wandering around Wilkinsons last week looking for bargains and came across these notepads for 49p each.

They are quite small, about 6"x4" and pretty boring.I bought 2 of each colour and plonked them on my desk.Yesterday i decided it was about time i made something other than a card so the books sprung to mind.The best thing about this hobby is the joy of seeing what a bit of paper and glue can do to brighten up the dullest things.

The tree stamp is from a clear set called spring garden by Kanban. The letters are a set of square "peg" type stamps. I got them from WHS when i first started stamping. I never used them until i bought a square punch in just the right size. The papers are Clare Curd (again).

I even heat embossed the trees which i'm normally too lazy to do.I may add a couple of gems to them. They've gone into my emegency gift stash.
   Best get ready for work or i'll be late!   Love Di. x

Friday weigh in 9st 13lb, one pound off, quite lucky as i was naughty at the weekend.If Speedy has his wicked way i'll be naughty this weekend too. Still if i can lose a pound a week instead of putting a pound a week on like i was i'll be happy enough.

Farmyard Antics.

Hello everyone,another nice sunny day, my computer says it's minus one out there but i don't believe it. I've got to waste a few hours today sitting in the hospital waiting room. Speedy's got to have a heart scan, he had kidney failure last year and they like to keep an eye on him. The kidney failure was due to a back up of urine as a result of ignored enlarged prostate symptoms,which caused his pipes from kidney to bladder to collapse. One kidney is fine but the other is damaged. So if your othe half is struggling to pee drag him to the doctors like i should have done.
I kept off the docrafts site yesteday between 10am and 6pm and as a result i've got 7 creations in the "photo bank". I'll try and do more this afternoon because i like to have stuff in reserve in case i don't have time now and again.

The image for this card is by penny black and is called "the sensations".I coloured it with promarkers and added some gems to the pigs necklace.The dotty paper is by Clare Curd. The other one is very old and i think it could be either docrafts or paper mania.

A bit of ribbon and fibre, a punched flower and some stickles completes the card.
 I'll go and wake the sleeping beauty with a cuppa now. He completely hates anything to do with hospitals and doctors, mind you don't we all.
                       See you soon, Di. xx

It's a mans world number two

I really love this new "man" stamp set from Clare Curd. I love all the little elements which can be cut out or used to make a backing paper,(watch this space).

I reckon it's a real bargain at £5.99 and i'll get loads of use out of it for making cards to sell as they will look as good with just "flat" colouring.I enjoyed making this card but i think i'll keep it for personal use as people won't pay for all that fiddly cutting out.

I usually feel more comfortable making square cards but this image is more suitable for a rectangular 5" x7" card. The backing paper is Papermania green capsule collection.

You can't see very well in the photo but i put all the little bits of junk food (yum) onto 3d foam pads.I drafted this post last night to give myself as much time as possible to make some "stuff" for the rest of the week.
   Thanks for visiting, see you soon.  Di. xx

Another kids card.

I've decided i need to spend more time doing some actual crafting instead of spending so much time on the DC website. I've spent so much time fiddling and faffing about trying to sort out stuff on there i've hardly made anything in the last week. Well NO MORE i say!! I don't mean i won't be going there at all but i need to get making otherwise i'll have nothing to show you.
I did manage a couple of cards yesterday and this is one of them.

The stamp is a set from Kanban coloured with promarkers. Paper is out of a pack i've had for about 2 years and have lost the cover off it. The tag stamp is from a Papermania clear christmas stamp set.
 Off to work now to earn an honest crust.   Di.