Off to the sunshine - See you next week

Just a quick note to say bye bye for a week *waves*. I'm off on my hols at some unhuman hour tommorow morning - but it will all be worth it, a week of heat and sunshine in Egypt - so overly hyperactive at the moment, I can't wait! :D

I hope you all have a lovely week whilst i'm away and i'll try and send some sun in your direction. Take care of yourselves and happy crafting!

xx

First Easel Card

I've been admiring everyones easel cards of late and I kept putting off having a go. Afterall, I don't need to make any cards at the moment, and my stash of spare cards is large enough, but with nothing better to do this morning I figured why not take a shot at it? So here's my attempt:

Its not as great as most of yours but I didn't think it was too horrific for the first go - what do you think?

The card is 5" squares on plain black card stock. Purple and patterned paper from stash, as are all the ribbons, buttons and gems. Tilda image was coloured using my whisper pens - sadly not one of my own stamps, but an image sent to me - its on my Christmas wish list!

Thoughts, comments, opinions always welcomed! just click that little button down below :)

Hope you have a good day, thanks for stopping by and happy crafting! x

Sunday Ramblings - A Movie Review!

It's coming to the end of another weekend and I’ve shockingly done no crafting! Sadly I really needed to write a report up yesterday for the museum I’m currently doing volunteering at, as it needed to be emailed to them, as I won't see them now before I go on holiday and they really needed it. And then today.... well today has been playing catch up on housework and doing some online Christmas shopping and now I just can't be bothered to do any crafting as the light is awful and I have a headache from the bad weather. Oh well! maybe I’ll get some done before I fly to Egypt on Thursday.

So onwards with the movie review: last night, mum and I went to see the second part of the Twilight Saga - New Moon and it didn't disappoint. For those who know nothing about this series (which can't be many of you I'm sure) the Twilight Saga is based on a series of bestselling novels of the same name by a lady called Stephanie Meyer. The books took the literary world by storm, really hitting it off last year in the UK following the launch of the first movie 'Twilight'. The books are, to sum them up in one word, incredible! Now don't get me wrong, I’m not a screaming twi-hard fan who faints at the thought of been bitten by a vampire (well, I probably wouldn't say no, but....) and I'm not a lust-filled hormonal teenager (who the books were originally aimed at) but I am an avid reader - I’ve lost count of the number of books I’ve read through the years and I’m nothing if not critical of everything I read and as such few authors or books every get the highest of praise from me, but I can't fault these books and as such I was waiting to be disappointed by the movie - after all, how could it compare to my imagination of how the story plays out?

Nevertheless, the movie didn't let me down. For all the hype I’ve read in recent weeks about this film and how the cast aren't right (yet they were perfect in the first movie - so how does that one work?) and the director failed to produce anything of note, I think it's the fans who really should have the final say - not a critic who has failed to read more than the synopsis of the book. Whilst there are elements of the story missing, it simple remains the case that you cannot transfer the book line for line to the screen, it’s just not possible without dragging it out and boring the viewer and besides, these movies aren't aimed at generating a new audience, they simply need to please the fans who know the story inside out, back to front and probably better than the author now! as such, missing elements don't matter as they are easily filled in by the preset knowledge of what takes place in the books. As such, I thought the scripting was brilliant, it was enough to keep the tension going throughout all 2 hours 10 minutes of running time and heartbreaking enough that I wanted to adopt a werewolf before the end of the movie!

I won't spoil the film for those of you who have interest in seeing the movie but for those of you sitting on the bench about it (or the books) I’d recommend borrowing/buying the first (of both the book and movie) and seeing what the hype is about. This isn't a 'teenage' book, adults of all ages have read this series and fallen in love with it - when I was still working for Waterstones I had a lady of 85 talk to me about how much she had enjoyed the series and how her husband was just working his way through them, their grandchildren thought they were the coolest people ever! lol!

Having rambled for far too long and most likely lost everyone’s interest I’ll leave it here. But I’d be interested in hearing anyone else’s views - if you have one.

Anyway, I hope all are well and had a good weekend. Take care and Happy Crafting x

Can't you tell I have free time?

So here are two more cards I made last night, its shocking what being unemployed does for your crafting time! lol! I mean, don't get me wrong, I love being able to settle down and make cards and know that I don't have a report to type up or anything else, but really...... I want a job! sadly museums are all in a budget freeze and christmas jobs are thin on the ground....But enough of the moaning! The first card I did was using an image I was kindly sent and its probably one of the most simple layouts i've done in a very long time.

So the question is - does simple work? image is a PB coloured with watercolour pencils; backing papers, gems, ribbons, peel off are all from stash.

The second of my cards is a none traditional colour schemed christmas card. It was inspired by some papers I've had for a couple of years and I thought it was about time I did something with them so this is what I came up with.

The image was another I was kindly sent - love this little fellow- and was coloured using watercolour pencils and highlighted with my whisper pens. The wording on the right side is from a cuttlebug embossing folder and cut out, double mounted. All papers, ribbons, gems and buttons are from the stash.

All comments are welcomed. Thank you for looking.

Take care and Happy Crafting x

Anchors Away!

Today I made a birthday card for a good friend of mine who is an avid sailor. I wanted to make something that was a little different so I settled on this fabulous stitched design.

The image was stiched with gold and black metalic threads, mounted on black card with brads in each corner. The backing papers, base card and brads are all from stock but I think the simpleness of this card is effective - or am I totally going bananas?

All comments are welcomed, just click that little button below.

Thanks for looking and happy crafting! x

Todays trip to crafting land....

Todays little trip to crafting land saw me finally getting my ass into gear about my christmas cards, i've only been putting them off for.... well the whole year really. This year I thought i'd do some stitched cards, so i've kept it simple.

Stiched NOEL on white card, double mounted on corrosponding coloured card and accent. Edge and inner cut with X-Cut system and a matching ribbon. Simple!

Cards have been stiched in Red, Blue, Purple and Green (not shown as I need to locate some ribbon to finish them). I hope they go down well, now all I need to do is locate everyone's addresses!

Thanks for looking. Take care and Happy Crafting.
xx

2 New Cards

The first of the two cards today was for a fellow DC-er, who has been a gem waiting for me to catch up on life and so I really hope this card makes up for her wait.

Tilda stamp coloured with whisper pens; embossed paper using cuttlebug; backing papers, buttons, gems and flowers all from stash.

The second of todays cards was.... well just because. I wanted to make something that wasn't Christmassy, but did represent the season. This is what I came up with - what do you think?

Tilda stamp coloured with whisper pens; pearl drops using liquid pearls - white opal; backing papers, ribbons, gems and flowers all from stash.

Thanks for looking! Take care and Happy Crafting xx

Ooooh I Have Followers!

What a lovely surprise to find I have 5 lovely people signed up to follow my blog this morning! :)

A BIG thanks to AuntySue who posted a message on her fab blogspot letting the wider world know I exist! You're a gem!

Right, must finish a conservation report before I do any crafting today - wish me luck!

Take care and Happy Crafting
xx

Here goes nothing!

So more than a few people have asked me why I don't keep a blog..... good question, probably because I never feel I have the energy to maintain one! but after a few months of thinking it over (and more than a bit of nagging off some friends) I've decided to give it a go!

So here goes nothing.......

xx