Monday 30 September 2013

Quiet day

Hello my dear friends

Hope everyone is well, hugs to those who are not.

I have had a very quiet day resting up after our busy weekend, Alan went back to work today so it was just Bella, Toby and myself at home.  Spoke on the phone to my sister for an hour and then sat down to make a card for a neighbours friend who has just had the all clear from cancer and she wanted a card with wonderful news on it so this is what I came up with, as it has to go in the post did not want to make it too heavy so made this on my Serif Craft Artist.

 
 
My second card is a Christmas card that I found nearly completed in a box when sorting out over the weekend so I finished it off this afternoon by putting the ribbon on and an insert inside, I also found quite a few Pergamano cards (not sure if that is the right spelling) that I had made ages ago but they need some sort of insert inside to highlight them so will have to sort them out over the next few days and will post them when done.  

 
I have someone coming over tomorrow to pick up loads of crafty bits that I had put up for sale on the South Hams facebook page so hopefully they will be gone by lunchtime.  Some bits to go to the charity shop and then the only sorting I have to do are the shelves under my desk not sure what is there so will probably have loads of stuff that I have forgotten I had.
 
Well am off to do a bit of blog hopping, hope you all have a good evening.
 
Loads of love
 
Alison 

Sunday 29 September 2013

Friday Sketch Challenge #53

Hi All

Wanted to show case this card that I have made for the Friday Sketch Challenge #53 I have not started yet as a member of the DT so am entering this week in the draw.

I used a Mo Manning image which I bought in Exeter at Westpoint on Friday the backing papers are from stash hope you like

Friday Sketch Challenge Number 53
 
 
My second card is a Clarity Stamp image and sentiment which I bought at Exeter, Westpoint today as Sarah wanted to go to the show to see what Cross Stich stuff she could pick up only went for a couple of hours, think I have overdone it though as I am aching all over, even though in the craft room I was sitting down and supervising it was tiring and then going to Exeter again this afternoon has killed me off need to rest now.
 
 
I loved these stamps so much that I had to buy them when I was there today I oohhd and ahhhd over them on Friday so as I was drooling yet again today I got them.
 
 
 
used my stormy sky distress ink on the edges of the card backed with dark blue edge and ribbon down the side hope you like this one.
 
Well am off to blog hop see you later
 
Alison xx


Oh dear where have I put

Morning all

Don't know about you but having a tidy up in your craft room is all very well if only I could remember where I had put stuff, lost some Avery labels whole pile of them in a clear folder, can't for the life of me remember where I have put them lol.  Think I may have put them on the shelves I have not yet tidied so whilst looking for the labels might as well sort the shelves out, these are the ones behind the door.  Can't believe how much stuff I have, wonder how long it will stay tidy.

Want to play with my new goodies but until I have finished sorting out unable to play, don't like starting a job and not finishing it, so will be back later to finish my post.

Finally finished the craft room mega tidy up few more pictures of it before I start crafting as it will not look like this for long lol
 
 
Shelving behind door  top shelves


Shelving behind door lower shelves

 
Under my desk below where my silhouette is 


 
Shelving above my printer
 
Shelving above computer


Well am off to make a card now will catch up with everyone later.
 
Love Alison xx


Saturday 28 September 2013

What have I started

Welcome everyone especially my new members, thank you for popping by.  As you know I bought some under the desk storage at Westpoint, Exeter yesterday, having to rearrange my whole craft area with help from Alan, Toby and Bella, didn't know I had so much stuff ie an old zyron die cutting machine, a friskars shape boss never been out of box have put it in our local ads and will see what happens.

At least my space is a bit tidier now and poor Alan is shattered mind so am I.  Loads of stuff for charity, some for the boy next door who likes to make things so only the top shelves to sort now this will have to be done over time.

No cards today as just sorting stuff out, Sarah and Alan have done most of the work but I needed to tell them what went where etc.

right hand corner top of desk

Right hand corner under desk with new storage
 shelves with A4 boxes
 


Top middle of my desk 

Top right hand corner of my desk 
 
My new printer which I love cannot rave enough about it. next to this is my E-Bosser
and next to that is the computer where I am typing.  Not showing you the shelving
above the computer and behind the door as they still need sorting out but am too tired to do anything now except take some painkillers and leave Alan and Sarah to sort tea.


Will be doing a bit of blog hopping later. 

Bye for Now
 
Alison

Friday 27 September 2013

What a day

Evening all

Late for me tonight but as I have been at Westpoint-Exeter all day I can be excused.  Rachel picked me up this morning at 09.20 and off we went or thought so anyway but then we hit traffic think it may of been an accident but we finally got to Westpoint around 11 ish I think. 

Quick toilet break and off we went bought loads of goodies too many to photograph but as I make cards with them will say bought at Exeter. 

We also stopped off at the storage for crafters stall, lucky Rachel bought one of the cupboards that looks like a wardrobe and when you open it up its a crafters delight, I bought some under the desk storage will take a photo when put together tomorrow.

Bought tonic studio dies, some stamps, card stock and lots of other goodies too many to mention really, came home with some money though which is very unusual for me. 

Thank you Rachel for being an understanding crafting buddy and knowing that when papers are very pretty you just have to stroke them and say ooohhhhh........ oh yes and for stopping me from buying stuff that you know I am not going to use in this lifetime never mind the next. lol

The cards I am showcasing today are a Christmas Snowman Card and also a card I have made for hubby for his birthday on Tuesday, hope you like them

Papers for this card came from the Snowman CD from Crafters Companion which I have had for about two years now and hardly ever used but as I had just bought the Snowman die thought I should use the CD

 
 
This card was made from papers and image from Angie's Photo-Bucket the football dies came from ebay and the football boots well lord knows where I got these from but have around 11 pairs of them had them ever since I started crafting I think.


Well that's it from me tonight am off to bed shortly exhausted but happy bunny.  Will do some blog hopping tomorrow.

 Love to all and Goodnight
 
Alison

Thursday 26 September 2013

Commissioned Christmas Cards


Hi Everybody

Hope you are all keeping well and not getting too wet, although the sun is trying to come through the clouds here this morning.

Am off to Exeter tomorrow with Rachel to Wespoint, Stitch, Sew and Hobbycrafts to buy some goodies not sure yet what I want apart from some sticky tape and card stock will wait and see until I get there but no rubbish buying most years I have a small amount of stuff and when got home with it thought why!

Alan is back to work on Monday so peace will reside over our household and I can get back into my routine again.  Loved him being home really but I do enjoy my afternoons for playing in my craft room.

I was asked by my neighbour to make some cards for her for Christmas and this is what I have come up with, again I have used Serif Craft Artist to make these cards as she wanted something to put in the post and these are printed straight onto card stock so they are not heavy.



 
Well that's it from me today will be blog hopping later on.
 
Love Alison xx
 

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Oooh goodies in post

Hi All

Hope everybody is keeping well, rather a dull day here on Dartmoor but at least the rain is holding off for a little while.  Alan and I had to see a Notary today to get paper work signed off to sell our timeshare we are now £156.oo poorer, when we got home I had two parcels delivered one from Crafters Companion with my snowman die and Makey Bakey Mice CD and the other from Country View Crafts with my winning goodies from Lee (Crafty Loops)   Which I will try and use over the next couple of days not decided yet what I want to make with the stamps just need to get my creative juices going.

Today's card is one I made for our daughter Sarah to give to her dad as its his birthday on the 1st October, I am just waiting for bits to arrive for me to make the card from me hope they turn up in time for me to make it.

The image is of course a Bugaboo Digi Stamp as well as the sentiment coloured in with my prismacolor pencils.


I think I managed to catch up with most people last night but will do a bit of blog hopping later.

Love to all
 
Alison

Tuesday 24 September 2013

What a cheek

Evening all

My new printer arrived today Epson WF3540 and I love it, it takes my 300gsm card stock and also allows me to print on my 6x6 card which is great.  It arrived whilst we were out today not supposed to arrive until Thursday and as I had forgotten to lock the front door (we live out in the sticks) the courier actually came into the house and left the parcel in the living room what a cheek, we have a porch so why he didn't leave it there I will never know and how he got past Bella and Toby is another mystery phoned the company up and complained will let you know what happens, nothing is missing from home as far as I can tell.  My neighbour said she never even heard him otherwise she would have taken the parcel into her place until we got home.  Good job we had only gone the shop for some milk and bread.

Anyway I have set the printer up and I am loving it so far no more screaming and wanting to hit printer with a hammer lol. 

I have a few cards to show you today one of them is from when I went crafting at Rachel's on Saturday blog was playing up so could not post it yesterday so here is the first card, this is for my Brother in Law who says he is the dragon master lol.  My big sister is so sweet so how she is a dragon I don't know.

 
 
My second card is for my Nephew who is mad on bikes and this image is from my Serif Craft Artist  sentiment is computer generated.
 
 
Well am off to do a bit of catching up so
 
goodnight for now
 
Love Alison xx

 
 


Monday 23 September 2013

Missing in Action

Dear All

Sorry for not posting for a little while not been too good, have been making cards but just not blogging, so I hope to catch up with everyone over the next few days.

On Friday we had our Pig Race Night in the village hall and we made £630.00 profit, thank god we had a fairly good turnout. 

On Saturday although I was not feeling very well managed to get to Rachel's for the afternoon where we chatted and made cards, I managed to make three and Rachel bless her only made two as I kept disturbing her as her craft space is under her stairs and we were playing in the dining room bet she lost loads of weight that day it was her birthday too. 

I made three cards the first is a card for a neighbour who has just moved into our little corner of Cornwood so thought I would welcome her with this:
 
Image is from party paws Cd and the welcome was computer generated, the butterfly was made using memory box die and the picture was backed onto some brown card.
 
My next card is for my niece, usually I do handbags or shoes for her but this year I wanted to do something different and so I came up with this
 



The image is from Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine volume 2 and backing papers were also enclosed, the flowers I made using a Marianne design die cut and just put some orange stripes through to give the flowers some dimension along with some beads for the added bling.

I will attach my third card when I next blog as my computer seems to be playing up at the moment taking ages to sort itself out and I keep getting an error message so obviously something is wrong somewhere in blog land

Hope you all had a good weekend, Catch up soon.
 
Love Alison
 

Thursday 19 September 2013

Late posting today

Hello my fellow bloggers

Late posting for me today what with Alan being home I am so out of my routine how I have not murdered him I don't know bless him he is trying to help but keeps getting in the way.  We went to Lidl's today about the 2nd time I have ever been there but they are artist pads on offer for 1.99 which has 50 coloured blank pages in them Wow I bought three and then I saw a patterned A4 card pack so picked that up as well. 

The card I have made today is again from the Serif Craft Artist love the delicate colours of this card, glittered the snow on the houses to add a bit of bling and used Sakura Glitter Pens on the berries


 
Well am off to do a bit of blog hopping before bed as I can feel my Fibromyalgia flaring and don't want to be back where I was before our holiday so early to bed for me I think with a sleeping tablet to help me rest as I was up through the night about 5 times with restless legs and not able to settle. 
 
Keep warm and well.
 
Love Alison xx

 
 
 


Wednesday 18 September 2013

Can now share my brilliant news

Afternoon everybody hope you are all keeping well and warm.

I wanted to share my brilliant news with you that I mentioned a couple of blogs ago am delighted to say that I have been invited to become part of Friday Sketch Challenge Design Team, I have tried on a couple of occasions to become part of a DT but never got anywhere and thought my cards weren't good enough so you can imagine my delight when was asked if I would like to take part in the Friday Sketch Team and of course I said yes, and on top of that I won a prize from Coops (Lee) can't wait to start using my pressie.

Today's card was inspired by Nat's cards (www.NGCards.blogspot.com) using the Wild Flowers Set 3 Art Pad from LOTV so I just had to have it as Nat made some wonderful cards.  I used my Serif Craft Artist for the background paper and sentiment, Memory Box butterfly die flowers are from stash (bought from the Ribbon Girl) and die cut the image using a spellbinders die (sorry taken them out of packs and put them onto magnetic sheets) so don't know the name of the die.

 
Well am off to do a bit of blog hopping before I need to get the dinner ready
 
Love to all
 
Alison





Tuesday 17 September 2013

Using Serif Craft Artist Professional 2

Evening all

I bought Serif Craft Artist Professional 2 yesterday and have been having a play with it but I don't consider this as handmade cards as it is computer generated I know I have to put everything together but it just doesn't feel right.  But it looks as though it is going to be a good tool when I finally get round to doing some scrapbooking which I have been thinking about for a while now as we have loads of lose photo's in the cupboard.

I also bought the Wild Flowers set 3 art pad from Lili of the Valley which were showcased in Nat's blog (www.ngcards.blogspot.com) she made some beautiful cards and inspired me to get this pad as I had been thinking about it for a little while now.

Had a bit of a bad day today energy levels were very low major effort to even sit and craft and everything took twice as long to put together.

We have finally got our NIE numbers which we need to sell our timeshare in Gran Canaria and now just have to make an appointment with a Notary which will be next week now as he is in London until Tuesday to get the power of attorney signed and the Apostille of the Hague sorted all of which will cost around £156.00 but at least then the timeshare will be off our hands thank goodness as we have not used it since 2008 because of my health and have been paying maintenance for it every year of around £400.00. 

Well here is my card for today which was as I said created using my Serif Craft Artist programme

 
I then added glitter and pearls to add a bit of bling
 
Am off to do a bit of blog hopping
 
Love Alison xx

Monday 16 September 2013

Sketch Saturday # 276


 


Morning all

Just thought I would give you a quick update on Alan he is doing fine, driving me mad will I last the 4 weeks that he is going to be off work (don't think so) want to murder him already bless.

The Card today is from the Sketchsaturdayblogspot.com #276


It is a commissioned card for a friend whose uncle is going to be 102 on the 21st September and apparently he likes a bit of humour on his card so this is what I came up with.  Image is Gus from Bugaboo coloured in with Prismacolor pencils the balloons have glossy accents on them.


 
Well am off to do a bit of blog hopping now
 
Love Alison

Sunday 15 September 2013

Crafty Afternoon

Hi all

Hope everybody is ok and enjoying the weekend despite the horrid weather.

I went to Rachel's yesterday for a crafty afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed myself it was great to catch up as we had not seen each other for a little while.

I made some cards two of them commissioned and a thank you card for our friends in Sicily who we stayed with and made us feel so welcome, Maggie is seriously into owls so I decided I would make her a card with my Marianne Design Owl that I got for Christmas from our daughter Sarah very naughty this is the first time I have used it.

 
Sentiment was done on the computer which Rachel helped me with as I could not sort out the paper size no matter what I did my fibro-fog gets in the way of thinking these days.
 
 
The next card was made for a friends grandson who is into Spiderman in a big way, the spider has squiggly eyes and the web was created on my silhouette cameo which is badly in need of a new blade must sort that out soon.
 
 
 
Have a couple of pictures of Bella and Toby to show you.  We picked Toby's bed up off the floor and put it on my chair and look who we found in it when we turned around
 
 
And of course could not go without showing you the monster in disguise called Toby he is one holy terror never know what he is going to get up to next
 
Pretending to be cute on Sarah's quilt

trying to play peek a boo through the blinds in the living room 
 
Well that's it from me for now will be doing a bit of blog hopping later.
 
Love Ali xx


Friday 13 September 2013

Friday Sketch Challenge #52

Afternoon All

2nd post for me today which is most unusual.  I would like to show you a card I have made using the Friday Sketch Challenge #52

 
this is my take on the sketch hope you like it.  Used Card from Stash, Image from Pink Gems pre coloured, sentiment is one I made using PowerPoint, memory box corner die and a spellbinders die for layering, glittered the edge of the card to add some bling. 
 
 
Really need to find a way to brighten my photo's as they are looking rather dark need different lighting in my crafty corner will have to look into it.  
 
Toby the terror has grown so much since we went away will have to take some more pictures of him and put them on my blog.  Will try and catch up with everyone over the next few days but needed to recover from my holiday first but we had a great time and were made to feel very welcome by our friends who we stayed with, can't wait for the next reunion.
 
Bye for now
Love Alison xx
 
 
 
 


Hellooooooo I'm Back

Hi All

Just wanted to let you know back from our hols in Sicily had a wonderful time with friends got back today at around 10.30 am, after landing at Heathrow at 6.30 pm last night after a whole day of travelling.

We could not get wi fi where we were staying but it was so relaxing I didn't care, lol xx

Hope everybody is ok I do have a couple of cards to make which have been commissioned and will get on to them this afternoon.

Had a very bad night last night with my restless legs could not keep them still therefore only had around 2 hours sleep am exhausted today.

Alan had his hernia op yesterday and they discharged him at 7pm last night, our new bed was also delivered yesterday and Sarah bless her managed to put it together and did a very good job of it too, but of course Alan was so frustrated as he was unable to help as we tied him to the chair to keep him from interfering lol. 

I have a couple of photo's to share with you from our holiday in Sicily

The ladies
From left to right
Josie, me (Alison), Cath and Maggie

 Church in Palazzolo

 
The old farts outside the Villa
 
Syracuse
 
 
I have had some good news but can't share with you just yet but I am really excited and want to shout it out loud but must behave myself.
 
Well I must get cracking on my cards will do a further post later today if I can.
 
 
Love Alison xx
 

Sunday 1 September 2013

Friday Sketch Challenge #51

Afternoon All

Sorry I have not been blogging but have not felt very well for a little while now starting to pick up but still not completely better but you don't want to hear about that.

We are off to Sicily tomorrow and will be home again around the 10th September I have made a card today for the first time in ages or so it feels to go with the Friday Sketch Challenge Blog

 
This is what I came up with the image is a LOTV background card from Stash die cut can't remember think it is a Joys Craft one though flowers from a birthday cake from my elderly neighbour which she saved for me  sentiment is also a LOTV.
 
 
 
Sorry about the picture being a bit dark not sure what is happening with my camera will have to check it out.
 
Hope you are all having a good weekend.  I am being looked after by Alan and Sarah who have cleaned the house right through again even cleaning the cooker.  Sarah changed our bed for me this morning and did the washing bless her.  Alan is cooking dinner as I type.  Well am off to do a bit of blog hopping and trying to catch up with everyone. 
 
Loads of Love Alison xx