17p Stocking fillers!!

I've been out and about looking for bargains. I needed some beads so I went to Abakhan and got 3 packs of glass pearls, one packet of 3 toggle fasteners and a little storage box. It came to £16, not a bargain! Now I remember why I stopped the jewellery making, lol. Next I went to Primark and bought 3 long sleeved t-shirts and 2 vests for the same amount. Deffo a bargain. Then I went and mooched around Wilkinson's because I had a brainwave for some notebooks. These notepads were 17p each (29p in Tesco if you don't have a Wilkinson's), so i scuttled home to alter them.

I had the "Liszt" idea when i was sorting my den and unearthed the manuscript card I got from Payperbox months ago. Don't worry, there's loads of manuscript papers on google images. I printed the "shopping liszt" in curly cue font size 32 using My Craft Studio. They looked a bit bare so the peel offs came to the rescue. I thought these were all I had left but found more after taking the photo. As if these weren't enough of a bargain check out these for 11p!

Apologies for the not too brilliant photos but yesterday was so dull all day. (They look a bit clearer if you click on them). Still at least Blogger has made the uploading easier, must have had complaints.      Thanks for looking and see you soon. Di.xx

Target weight, 9st 2lb. todays weight 9st 0lb. Don't ask me how, I've not done anything different to the last couple of weeks. Yippee though, a couple of pound to play with at the weekend.

Well, someone had to lower the tone,lol.

I've been making these "poop" bags for the last 2 Christmas's but I've been using the original poop verse. This year I thought I'd do a grown ups version. I'm surprised it has taken me this long to come up with a bit of festive smut!! Well if you're gonna do it do it good style. This is one for the grown ups, or at least the teenagers.

I've erased the naughty word using picasa retouch in case there's any kids looking. I'm sure they'll be able to work it out but at least I'm off the hook, lol. The reason I've done these 2 so early is because the chocs are Cadbury crunchy rocks which are £1 per big bag in Tesco at the moment.  I wanted to show you them before they go back up in case any of you fancy a bit of festive smut giving. I've stocked up and will be making loads of these a bit nearer the time and will be dishing them out in the pub on Christmas eve afternoon when everyone has had a few drinks. I did the verse on the computer and the little reindeer is a D'arcies stamp but a reindeer sticker would work fine. The bags are what I use for 4"x6" cards. I stapled the green layer on before I added the other layers.

EDIT, just out of curiosity, is it easy or hard to leave a comment here, only I've noticed recently on some blogs I have to mess about choosing an ID and signing in etc. If this is the case here I'll try and find out how to alter it.   Di.xx

Finished box.

I finished the little box I started on Thursday. I can see a little scraggy bit on the top corner which needs to be snipped off, lol.

The paper is Papermania Home for Christmas. The stamp is also from a papermania clear set. I bought it from the Docrafts website a while ago for the princely sum of 75p and it has been so useful. The box is quite simple and masculine, deffo one for the boys. Just need to find something to put in it now.

 Another beautiful day here in Chester, I think a wander around town is "on the cards" later, lol.

                                See you soon .     Di.xx

Box under construction.

I was perusing a really good blog called Flutterby Atomic Butterfly and loved Kelly's latest box. I set about making one but i couldn't understand the instructions ( well i did after a while) so i decided to just do my own thing.I started with an A4 sheet of card and trimmed the longer length to 11".

Place card horizontally on your score board and score at 2", 5", 7" and 10". Turn card around ( guess who didn't take a photo of this bit) and score at 11/2", 5" and 7".

With the smallest section on the right cut out to match the above pic ,then score and fold also as above.Sorry about the slightly vague instructions but between mine and Kelly's you should be able to make sense of it all.

This is how it looks when assembled. It doesn't look much at the moment but as mother says, unfinished things are for fools and children to see. I will decorate it on sunday morning and upload it when it's done.

 see you soon. Di, xx

Target weight 9st 2 lb. This mornings weight still 9st 2lb despite my "feeders" trying to fatten me up. Phew!!

Peel offs to the rescue.

I had a phone call on Monday at tea time from the bloke who owns the pub opposite the shop I work at. "I need  an anniversary card, anything with Ian and Sue on it will do" he said. Ok I said , "when do you want it for"? "Are you in work tomorrow" he said!!!. Mind you, he did apologise for the short notice. So off I went and looking round for something for a quick card I stumbled upon my peel offs. Oh, bliss, they come in handy sometimes don't they, lol. These were from the Papermill Shop.

With a bit of scrap paper and my new computer skills (lol) and it was done in a trice. The light wasn't very good for the photo though. I took it into work, didn't charge him as it was such a quickie and was rewarded with a big bacon buttie, yum!! Very nice, but the whole world including my mother,(who made me a full size coffee cake) is unwittingly out to make me fat again, lol. Ok, the odd treat won't hurt, but when these treats appear every day they will hurt badly. I'm going to have to put my foot down again. People think that once you get to your target, the diet is off. Wrong!!

One for the boys.

It's my stepsons birthday on tuesday and as usual i thought i had loads of time to make a card until i looked at the calender. So i was banished to my den this morning to make him a card.

The image is from the Papermania, "It's a mans world" clear set. The backing paper is Papermania Hampstead, as is the paper piecing on the chair.

I put the gadgets and beer on 3d foam pads and added some stickles to the beer. the brad is also papermania. The sentiment was done on the computer, so glad i learned to do this, no more wonky stamped sentiments,lol.                                                                                                                                      That's it from me today as i want to play with my beads now. Thanks for looking and enjoy the rest of the day. Di.xx

Happy Day.

Why does Blogger have to change stuff for the worse? Everything was fine, then they decide to alter the photo upload system. It has taken me ages to upload a photo. They did this a while back and had so many complaints that they changed it back, so here's hoping it'll happen again.
  Today's card is another Elzybells creation.

The "bones" paper is from DCWV stack 6 and the other bits are from my scrap box. The butterfly is done with an X.Cut punch with a couple of gems added.
It was such a lovely day yesterday that i walked to Hobbycraft (2 miles away) and back. Walking that far is nothing to me these days. Six months ago i wouldn't have dreamt of it,lol. I bought a few bags of mixed beads for my jewellery making frenzy. I don't know how long it will last so i'm making hay while the sun shines.

Target weight 9st 2 lb.  Today's weight 9st 2lb. Good girl.

Bah humbug!

Christmas is on it's way again and it's time to make endless lists. I was mooching around Tesco yesterday and found some hardbacked notepads for 42p each. They were at the end of one of the aisles in those red boxes and there were only three left so i grabbed them and transformed them into these.

Perfect for all those lists.The image and sentiment are by Elzybells. The patterned paper is from the DCWV stack number 6 and is a border pattern which saves using more than one piece.

  A close up of the image, sparkled up with a bit of stickles.

On the back page i made a pocket from matching card for receipts. I'll be back in Tesco tomorrow hoping that there'll be some more. I'll give these to my mum and 2 sisters.
 Off to the kitchen now where i belong, lol. Beef and tomato casserole with olives and basil tonight, (small portion of course) with a bit of pasta on the side.

Quick wedding post.

A quickie post as i'm going out soon. I thought i'd post a couple of pics of the wedding yesterday, it was a beautiful sunny day but by 'eck it was cold.

Here they are Speedy, and his son Neil with his new wife Nina. A bit windswept and all looking at different cameras as everyone was taking pics at once,lol.

This one was taken at the afternoon reception at The Devon Doorway in Heswall on the Wirral. If anyone lives near there the food is excellent, not one of us was disappointed with their meal.

And last but not least the most beautiful mother and baby in the world. Why are they? Because i said so,lol. Now the wedding has been there is a nice big empty space in my brain, perhaps i can now start filling it with cardmaking ideas instead of dresses, suits, ties,shoes,flowers, invitations..................
Sorry there'n no piccy of me but that's because my lovely husband took 85 photos...............of eveyone else. Don't you just love 'em, lol. If someone e,mails me one i'll upload it, ( he will pay dearly for this believe me!).

Love is in the air.

Back with a couple of  love cards.The photo's aren't that good but neither was the light when i took them. I was about to give them out when i realised i hadn't photographed them so it was just starting to go, not dark, but dusky.The first one is for an order from my boss.

There's no stopping me now i've learned to print straight onto cards. The only facility i've got for adding text is "my craft studio". The good thing about this is that you can move the text around with your mouse and there's a little dot in the centre. My laptop screen now has a little dot done with a sharpie pen where the text dot should be so all i have to do is line them up,lol.My brain is wasted in that paper shop !.The background stamp is Penny Black and the heart stamp which i embossed was a freebie with a mag years ago.Patterned paper from stash and little hearts by Papercellar.

The first card saved me from racking my brains about Neil and Nina's wedding card .I don't have much wedding type stash. Just after i photo'd it i put a bit of stickles around the edges of the hearts an dried it with a cool hairdryer. I used red and cream to match their wedding theme. As i said the photos are bad and they look much better in real life. 
           Thanks for visiting, next time i post we'll have a new daughter in law and very lovely she is too.

Target weight 9st 2 lb   weight this morning 9st 1lb, that's a pound in my pocket to play with,lol.

What? No cards?

I'm so fed up of all the cutting and sticking of the last week or so that i decided on sunday to drag out my old jewellery making stuff from a couple of years back and have a little play.I found an unopened bag of mixed beads in purples and greens . Both colours are in all the clothes shops at the moment so i was well chuffed. I also took apart some necklaces i don.t wear any more and now i've got this little stash.

Treasure, me hearties! I managed to get 2 sets and have got loads of beads left.

The bracelets are elasticated as i didn't have any nice bracelet findings.

The fasteners on the necklaces are magnetic and so easy to fasten. I also made 3 red and silver bracelets. I really enjoyed making these and can see it being a regular sunday pursuit as i can do it in the living room without making a mess. There is an Abakhan about 5 minute's walk down the road and they sell beads and stuff. How dangerous is that then? Now then, in which shop did i see that nice purple top...............

Score, fold, stick, repeat, score, fold,........

Hello everybody!  First of all thank you for all your lovely comments on Wednesday, much appreciated. Secondly sorry for the lack of comments from me. One of the "excuses" is these wedding favours. I know these cartons are easy to make but as I said in the last post faffing on the computer is a challenge to me , something that is easy for most is a big mission, especially as I've chucked all programmes off except "my craft studio" to make space on my laptop. These little tags took me ages to get the right font and size for the tag stamp which is from a papermania xmas clear set.

The striped card is from The Papermill Shop. It's great because there's no need for further decoration apart from the tags and ribbon. The little clips are from Wilkinsons and I've used red, black and gold to match the wedding theme.

The chocs inside are from Thornton's. The whole room smelled of chocolate and me on a diet, lol. Luckily I've only had to make 38 of them as the day reception is just for the close families. They worked out at about £1.75 each. Instructions for the boxes are HERE.

And now for the Friday weigh in. Life is strange sometimes. I went out for a big meal on Wednesday and this morning I weigh 9st 1lb. That's 2lb lighter than last Friday, total loss 1st & 1lb. I'm at my target weight now but it would be stupid not to carry on reporting every Friday as I'm sure this is the only thing that's kept me on track. I will allow myself the odd pound or two as long as it comes straight back off and I know you'll all be "watching me". Thanks for all your supportive comments.

P.S. Straight after publishing this post a google ad popped up for Thornton's chocs !! Marvellous things these computers.

I did it! I did it!!

Ten years ago today i got married. I weighed 9st 2lb. This morning i weigh 9st 1lb ! I've lost my stone plus another pound. I have worked so hard to get here in time for today. I've not dieted seriously at weekends but i've walked myself stupid to compensate.I'm so pleased !! I know it's not weigh in day today but the reason i'm telling you today is because i'm likely to be fat on friday after my big scoff tonight. Happy days!

Hello strangers!!!

Or is it me who's the stranger? I think so,lol. I've been making wedding favours. They required a bit of computer work which i'm crap at and the bridesmaids dresses changed colour slightly so i've been chasing ribbon.  They've been a slight headache but are in production at last. BUT......work has been interrupted by a very important matter. It's our  10th wedding anniversary tomorrow so i needed to make the lovely Speedy a card, and here it is.

This card sums us up to a tee. We are bezzie mates and are seriously joined at the hip, one is seldom seen without the other unless we are at work. It would probably drive some couples mad but we love it,lol. Just like Tilda , if we're out i have to sit within touching distance, if we're not, i'll pull the chairs closer. BLESS!! The papers are forever friends and while i was doing my head in on the computer i thought why not completely do my head in and print the greeting onto the card base. I got there in the end but a bottle of wine would not have been safe in the house. The little sentiment is an Elzybells stamp.

  We are going out for a meal tomorrow night and there's no way i'll be nibbling away on a melon fan and steamed fish,lol. Sod the diet, 10 years of cooking for Speedy deserves at least a 3lb gain. I'm going to go for it,i'll still be able to get into me frock a week on saturday. I know you'll all be thinking about me.........Right.........treadmill time ,lol..................

Friday Tilda.

Not the most original post title but never mind,lol.What nice weather we're having. I'm off next week so the monsoon will probably be back by then.Never mind i will be spending quite a bit of time making wedding favours. Luckily Nina wants them very plain which is a big help.
 Anyway,here's todays offering.

I was pottering around the house yesterday when i remembered my poor blog. I've got a whole sheet of Tildas all half coloured with different hair colours ready to finish off to match my card colours for times like this. I've got a Wizard and loads of nesties but i'm too lazy to crank away so it doesn't come out very often but when i was last in the Papermill shop i bought a Woodware 3" circle punch. It's slightly bigger than the nestie circle but that's fine by me all, i need to do is sit and crank a load of scalloped circles from my scraps to have on hand.The backing paper is K & Co. I bought the flowers from Hobby craft and the lazy sentiment was in a pack from The Papermill Shop.Add a punched butterfly  and a few gems and we're done.

"Are we indeed?", i here you say. No i haven't forgotten.........................

........The friday weigh in.  9st 3lb. Yippee another one off, total loss 13lb. I've got to the stage where i need to eat less or walk more and have chosen the latter,lol. I've walked loads this week both on and off the treadmill, i can't use it in the daytime because there's offices downstairs and people are tying to work so i've been out into the cruel world.It's our anniversary next week so i can't see me hitting my stone target as we're going out for a meal, Speedy will be off the next day which is always dangerous.Still if he wants to get into his suit trousers in 2 weeks time he'll have to behave, he's been struggling with the "diet thing" but the weekly try on of the suit reminds him of why he's got to do it,lol.