Bag instructions.

As promised here are the instructions for the bags I posted yesterday. I couldn't resist decorating a few as I have some birthdays coming up which I can use them for.

Nifty hey? And a good way to use all those scraps

First cut your paper to 21 cm x 30 cm. Then score the long edge at 14 cm and 28 cm.

Turn and score halfway down at 2 cm and all the way down at 19 cm. Cut away the shaded areas. The angles don't have to be an exact degree. Then fold the dotted lines and glue.

 Cut the flap in a curve shape with fancy scissors and you're done.

I live a tiny walk away from Abakhan who are having a pre sale evening tonight with cake and wine so guess where I'm going??

Couldn't say goodbye.

Hey! We've found somewhere to live. A friend of ours bought an ex council maisonette about 6 years ago in a nice quiet area. He's getting married and has decided to rent it out. Best thing is that it's got 3 bedrooms and although it's very small I get my own craft room which isn't shared with Speedy's junk.Yippee.
 Before we knew this I started purging all my belongings, including papers. I went through all my 12" stacks and took out all the pages which were too dull, or patterns too big to make cards intending to donate to charity. I put the bag by the door. Next night the bag got carted back into my craft room. I just couldn't part with my beautiful papers. So.................

I sat over the next couple of evenings and made nearly 300 paper bags. Crazy, I know, but I still have my babies. Here are a few designs.

And a few more.

 I could go on, but I won't, lol. They measure approx. 6"x 8" and are a good size for a posh choccie bar, a voucher and a card.  I have since taken a few of them up to the next level. Why do we suddenly become oozing with mojo when we should be doing other things? I'll  post a tutorial and later pics within the next couple of days between packing. xx.  Oh and we have a garden after living 14 years mid air. Big move in 4 weeks. xx

My Next House...

Oh, please!... Me and Speedy live in a huge flat. The rent has been obscenely low for 14 years. The landlords ( rich solicitors) have never reviewed the rent because we pay on time, but recently retired and engaged an agent. Get the picture? The agent came to look at the flat and you could see the pound signs in her eyes. We thought " that's it, the rent will be going up". The weeks passed and nothing. Until last Friday. We had a letter to say we've got two months to get out. They want to turn the flat into three separate bedsits. OMG!  All my stash! and my 5 slow cookers, about 150 cookery books! It's like being told to choose between your children. Because this place is so big it took a lot of stuff to fill it. So now starts the hurried process of cutting it down to fit into normal sized accommodation, which we are yet to find. Hence the card..

The image and sentiment are both from TLC Creations. xx

Well, blow me...

...I'm posting on my long suffering dormant blog.  Not a lot has happened since my last post. Life goes on. I have often wanted to add a little project or two but have been put off by all the photo editing and stuff. You all know what I mean. I've made loads of things but my style hasn't really moved on. I don't much care for all the die cutting stuff that's out there. I have a die cutting machine, The Wizard, one of the first but I don't quite get the die cut thingy. I like to see them on other peoples cards but I can see me owning hundreds of dies and only using them once. Anyway. I decided to post a few things now and again. sometimes from my phone camera, without the faffing, partly for my own record. Here's the first couple.

The image is from Meljens designs.

And another Meljens. The papers for this one are from the DCWV Girl stack which I got from TK Maxx ages ago.    xx

Sad News.

Just a short post to say that my mum passed away peacefully in hospital on the 21st of December. She was 92. She took ill in July with a chest infection which led to her having fluid on her lungs. She lost her appetite, or so we thought. We tried all ways over the next few months to get her to eat. She was losing a lot of weight and was getting weaker and weaker. To cut a long story short, she was admitted to hospital at the beginning of December and tests showed she was in the late stages of bowel cancer. She was too ill and weak for treatment but luckily she wasn't in pain. Just the discomfort and indignity of being bedridden for 3 weeks. Her body was shutting down and she wanted to go to my dad. I visited her 2 days before she died and she seemed to have a sudden rush of energy. She was very alert and knew it wasn't proper visiting time. She was demanding food and laughing about it. She ate half a sandwich and some jelly and ice cream and even had the strength to give me a hug before I left. But then she suddenly became very tired again .Less than 48 hour later she was gone. I will always remember that last little hour with her. She gave me the strength to go and finish my Christmas tasks. Thank you mum.

Speedy recovery cards.

A quick update on Speedy. Wednesday and Thursday were not very good days for him. They took him off the morphine and replaced it with paracetamol which isn't as strong. He was in quite a lot of pain as morphine causes constipation, as well as the fact that they "inflated" him to do the op. He was warned of the windy pops before the op, but there wasn't much of that happening. It was just staying inside and bloating him even more. Today he felt much better, and when the doctor asked him, ( this is so funny.......well I think it is anyway ), had he passed any wind this morning he said " a little bit". At this, the bloke in the next bed poked his head through the curtain and said. "You did two bloody big uns in the night, nearly frightened me to death"! Needless to say this was why he's feeling better today,lol.

I made him and his sister,Diane matching cards. This is Speedy's.

And this is Diane's.

The images are Meljens Digis again and the paper was free in a mag a few months ago.

I added the caption on the computer.

More cards arrived this morning but I left the house before they arrived so I'll take them tomorrow.

Speedy is Sorted !!

Yes peeps, Speedy has 3 kidneys! His transplant went really well yesterday and his new kidney started to work straight away. All the surgeons are made up. He came back up to the ward sporting a bag full of pee!! He was really groggy and wired up to the hilt. I left him in a semi awake state.
I went back today and this is Speedy under the influence of lots of morphine and a bit of ice cream.

A few minutes after this ,there was a bit of a trauma because his morphine ran out at the same time as he needed to cough. The pain came back, and as 2 qualified nurses had to deal with the replacement as it was a certain type of drug, he had to wait what seemed like ages but was probably about 15 minutes. It wasn't nice to see him in so much pain and I had a go at the nurses when they arrived but this is what the NHS is turning into. The second nurse was dealing with something equally urgent and we had to wait.

Anyway, as much as I love him to bits, enough of him. Without his sister Diane this wouldn't be happening. She was always the family hero anyway. She was in nursing as a career, and she and her husband Gareth, along with Speedy, took on the major role in looking after after their dad in his later years after he had a stroke. Dad has now departed and Diane spends a lot of time at Mothers helping her as she is almost blind now.

Monday was a very emotional day for her husband and myself. He must be so proud of his wife. I know I'm very proud of my sister in law. Thank you Diane. Love you so much. xx.

Once again thanks for all cards received so far, and those yet to come.

Few Christmas cards.

My hand is back to normal and I've started making my Christmas cards. I'm sticking to variations of the one design this year because for some reason, I don't really like making them.

The image is a Meljens digi and doesn't require a lot of fancy colouring in or a fancy layout. I added the sentiment on the computer.

The red and blue papers were free with a magazine a couple of months ago and the green is from my scraps.

The holly sprigs are also a Meljens digi which I scaled right down and cut out. The little mittens stamp is Hobbycraft's own brand. It is one of the little clear ones they do for about £1 each. I put a little blob of liquid pearls on the marshmallows and a sprinkling of glitter glue. The cards are 5"x5".

The lovely Speedy is having his Kidney transplant on Monday. Him and his sister both go into Liverpool Royal on Sunday late afternoon. There is not much sleep going on at the Speed household lately I tell ya. He's terrified of doctors and hospitals,( as most of us are)  which is why he got into this state in the first place. It's not just the operation, it's the worrying about whether his body will reject the kidney. With modern medicine this shouldn't happen though. I want you all to keep your fingers, and legs crossed for the next week or so!  I'll keep you all informed. Thanks to the ladies who have sent him cards. He's made up with them. There are more to come so I'll do a  "show post" when they have all arrived and have been opened.

Bit of a slow start.

Hello all. Guess what I woke up with on Sunday morning.

Something bit my knuckle in the middle of the night! It wasn't too bad at first but by midday I noticed a "tracker" making it's way up my arm. I went to the pharmacist and he sent me off to A&E as he couldn't prescribe antibiotics. Two and a half hours later I got home with some pills to pop and strict instructions to go straight back if it travelled any further. I had to go back at 8pm as it had gone up past my elbow and after IV antibiotics and some lovely black pen marks ( if it went beyond the marks I was to go back) they finally let me go at 11pm. As I couldn't grip anything and it looked so horrible I've had to take a few days off work already. I called in the shop to show my boss because if I had a new member of staff calling in sick with an insect bite I would think they were taking the pee. It's much better today though but still a bit ugly.

I managed to make a card last week before the attack.

Meljens had a digi stamp sale on last week and I couldn't resist nipping back for just a couple more as I love them. The circle sentiment is by TLC and the ticket is one I forgot to take note of. The papers are from the papermania summer bloom pad and the card base is 6"x6".

How time flies.....

...............when you're not having fun .The last six weeks have not been the happiest. I always thought it would be great not to have to go to work and just potter around doing housewifely stuff and crafting the day away. I was so wrong. My mojo disappeared with my self respect when I lost my job. I mean, OK winning the lottery would have made a bit of a difference but "jobless" is not the same, and the Job centre is a really degrading experience.
  BUT!!!! That's all over!! I've started work today. Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe closed down a few months ago in Chester and has just been taken over by a lovely lady. We spent all day stocking up for the reopening tomorrow. There are three fantastic students working there and another girl ( who may be assistant manager) who is on hols at the mo. I have the same hours as in my last job but better arranged, and it's in the same street. I'm going to go and give my ex boss Patrick a hug next week as although he was a bit naughty, I still love him to bits. Water under the bridge now. These things happen for a reason.
 The best news?!!!! Speedy is having his kidney transplant on sept 3rd. His sister is donating. My new boss is very understanding and the students are willing to cover some of my hours..........................I can feel a card coming on!  Watch this space.   Love to you all.

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.

Card for a Tailoress.

This card is for my twin sister ( she doesn't look at my blog, lol ). Our birthdays are on July 9th but as I've got a major mission on my hands, ( more of that later) before then I've made her card today.

She works as a tailoress, measuring inside legs etc for a men's outfitters. Her name is Isobel, but as a child I found that a bit of a mouthful so she became, and still is, Bell. The image is from an amazing freebies website I found through Pinterest , HERE. 

The tape measure is from The Clipart Fairy, but I didn't take note of the page. Sorry, but I didn't save the cotton reels either. I didn't think I would end up out of work and blogging properly again, lol. I will do a search in the next couple of days and try to add a link.

Now then...... My mission???...... Speedy is having a 60th birthday party at a local club on the 30th June. Nowt unusual about that then?   Oh yes there is. This is Speedy we're talking about here. It is to be a CHRISTMAS PARTY!!!!!! Yes, complete with tree, decs, pressies for the kids, mince pies, crackers, you get the gist, lol. Unknown to him, we are trying to get a snow machine and a live reindeer ( he also never looks at my blog, bless him ).

Update on his kidneys, for those who are following the story. I got tested to give him one of mine and scored one out of six. Could still do it with loads of medication for him but his sister came forward and scored better and is having further tests. If all goes well it should happen in about 3 months time. Speedy is feeling fit and well and you wouldn't really know there was anything wrong with him. We are just trying to get a transplant before there is a need for dialysis. He has kidney damage rather than kidney disease so doesn't feel ill.

Thanks for visiting. xx

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.............

Scrappy Pictures.

Hello again. Long time no see, lol. Since my last post I've had my hours cut at work. I'm in 5 days a week instead of three but have lost seven hours as I'm doing short shifts. Bit of a bummer but the main cause is the opening of a new Tesco Express at the end of the street. They should never be allowed to do this. There is also a cheese shop and a butcher who have been affected.
Anyway as a result I've had less cash to play with but more time to get thrifty. I've been scouring the charity shops for bargains to paint up or alter and have found quite a few cheap picture frames. My obsession with Pinterest came in handy here and I thought I'd show you what can be done for next to nothing.

Sorry about the reflection in the glass. This one was punched out of a map of Paris and the surrounding area, also from a charity shop.

This one was made with all sorts of bits and bobs.

And this is my favourite. I've done this one for the bathroom as I've just bought towels, curtains and accessories in burnt orange and pear green, not from the charity shops, lol.
The little heart punch was £1,65 from Abakhan. Another bargain.

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.