The end of another year

Can't believe how long it is since I last had time to sit down and post. It's been crazy busy - the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas went by in a blur of cleaning, shopping, making gifts, finishing orders, - had a sudden urgent order for Stained glass angels and fairies from a shop in Ireland!, cooking and more cleaning!
We had my sister and her lovely family to stay from the 23rd until today, they're on the train back to Hampshire as I write. So no time for blogging but we had fun eating, drinking and being merry although we were plagued by sneezes, coughs and stuffed noses! Nearly everyone was suffering from colds at one stage or another, Neil suffered most on Christmas Eve and on the day itself and then Steve, my brother-in-law succumbed to the bug and ended up with a nasty chest infection!
Christmas Day was lovely though and we had 13 for turkey and all the trimmings (the 2 youngest escaped upstairs to play the Wii), everyone was happy with their presents and we all were happy to be together for the festivities.



I got some great crafty presents - a Big Bite from Neil, a set of Prismacolor pencils from my lovely daughter Lynsey and a couple of jewellery making kits from my sister as well as lots of little crafty bits for cardmaking and scrapping. I have been trying to practice a little with my pencils and the results of my first attempts are below.
The first and last cards are made with a couple of the new stamps by Leanne Ellis from Funky Kits.







Now the end of 2008 is almost upon us I would like to take the opportunity to wish any and all readers of my blog a very Happy New Year for 2009.

Another FANTASTIC Blog Candy chance

Paula is offering an opportunity to win £40 worth of gorgeous Elf stamps over here, 10th of December is when the draw will take place.

Happy Christmas Birthday

Was asked this week for a card for a Christmas Day birthday.

I used Pink Petticoat backing papers and image coloured with Sakura glitter pens using a water brush for a water colour effect. Don't know if you can see the glitter in the pic but it's a lovely subtle effect. Finished off with a computer printed sentiment and organza ribbon. Had to try to find a suitable sentiment for an insert, (I must say that I don't usually bother with inserts so that customers can add their own words, I think it makes cards much more flexible) anyway I turned to my friends on the Trimcraft website for help and this is the sentiment I chose:

I wish for you this Christmas Day, all you wish yourself,
A birthday wish in bright array and cards upon your shelf.
And should you need some special thing, a gift for which you pray,
I wish for you that the Lord may bring you many more birthdays..

and here is the card:

Angel card

Have made a quick card just because I loved the background and was desperate to use it. It was a free download from Retrodiva designs.
The stamp is Sweetheart Angel from Uptown Rubber Stamps.

Another Whiff of Joy Blog Candy

Fran is offering two prizes on her blog, go and have a look at the gorgeous cards she has made and leave a comment before tomorrow (2nd Dec) for a chance to win one of the great Whiff of Joy stamps.

MORE blog candy

The very generous Bev is offering some candy, including a gorgeous Whiff of Joy stamp, go check it out now. Ends Dec 4th.

Blog Candy

Jude has some blog candy for reaching 3000 hits - go and have a look over here.

Scrapbooking Group

One of the members of the scrapbooking group I run at the library asked me for ideas of how to scrap Christmas photos, she wanted to do something "different" with her pics. The following was the result. I'm not quite sure whether it's finished yet but as she was unwell and unable to make the meeting I thought I'd put it up for her to see. Hope you like my idea of different....

Nose to the grinder

Have spent the last three days trying to rebuild my stock of stained glass ready for the next two weekends, Friday I made large fairies, yesterday small fairies and tree decorations and today thistles and more tree decorations. Had also to fit in a 16th birthday card for my middle child, Owen who's birthday is tomorrow, a congratulations card for a colleague (who upped and suddenly got married last week after 16 years together!), a birthday card for another colleague for next weekend and a few more Christmas cards to boost my stock. Can't show the birthday or congrats cards before I give them to the recipients so here is one of the Christmas cards.



I don't know what this Tilda image is called, I got it from someone selling stamped images on Ebay. Tilda was coloured with Pantone pens and Twinkling H2Os and I used some Stamp Art Confections (Enchantments) on Tilda's hood and sleeves.
Backing paper is Basic Grey Jack Frost, pearlised card from Southfield Stationers, also used Cuttlebug Christmas tree die, snowflake embossing folder and a Dovecraft Snowflake punch.

Jane's blog candy

Jane is giving away some fab blog candy for reaching her first 1000 hits. Congratulations Jane!

Debbie's FANTASTIC Blog Candy

Debbie has some awesome blog candy and some beautiful cards over here. The draw will be on the 26th so go and leave a comment.

New baby cards

Rushing today to get some cards done to replace stock sold at the last couple of craft fairs also trying to do a Christmas layout for Scrapbooking group which is straight after work tomorrow. Will show that when I've managed to get it right!
For now here are a couple of recent new baby cards, the boy one I made by scanning a pencil drawing I had done and printing it out on photo paper. I think it works quite well - let me know what you think....

Sugar Nellie stamps blog candy

Gayle is offering a couple of gorgeous Sugar Nellie stamps on her blog over here. Congratulations Gayle on your new appointment on the Sugar Nellie blog!

Stained glass photo frame

Was asked recently for a photo frame for a christening present and this is what I made -
The little fairies are usually made as Christmas tree decorations but worked quite well on the frame I think.
Have to make another batch of fairies for next weeks craft fair along with some thistles (always a good seller) and some more of the sentiments, see older post, which I've almost sold out of, they have proved really popular this year. Only 3 more fairs and at least one jewellery party to go (was asked twice today if I could do more, will have to look at dates...) but now looking forward to the end of all the Christmas crafting so I can try some new things and maybe do some ATCs for swapping again!

Maria's Blog Candy

Maria has some fantastic candy up for grabs over here.
Go and take a look at her great blog.

Another award!

The lovely Heidi has given me this award



- thanks so much Heidi, I really appreciate it!
I have to nominate five more blogs to receive the award so here they all are:-
Deborah
Val
May
Andrea
Siobhan
All of these bloggers are friends from the Trimcraft forum and a very talented lot they are too!

Scrapbook pages to share

Been working a lot so I haven't had much time for crafting this week, swapped shifts with a colleague so having to work the weekend as well. So I thought I would share a couple of scrapbook pages from a couple of months ago. The first is of my daughter Lynsey, she was on a winter break in Prague with her (then) boyfriend and he took this photo with his phone, I thought it was really atmospheric and just had to do a layout with it.
The other is my youngest son, my niece and my nephew at a party. It's not often they are all in the same place at the same time so it's rare to have a pic of the 3 of them to work with. I have just started scrapbooking this year and love it but so far I've been fairly conservative and feel I need to be a bit more adventurous - just need more time!!!!

Gorgeous new stamp designs and blog candy

There are some great new stamps over here at Pink Gem Designs , go and have a look (there is also some fab blog candy on offer!)

Blog candy

Frances has some fabulous blog candy over here. She is celebrating her blogoversary!

My First Award

Last week I was given this fab award by no less than 3 of my crafty friends! Thanks so much Val, June and Julie you are a kind and talented bunch!

It has taken me a few days to decide on the seven people to pass this award on to, but I'm ready now to give it to these bloggers, all of whom I visit on a regular basis and who are all a source of inspiration for me:

Heidi
Sam
Suzanne
Christine
Jilly
Clare
Elaine

Three lots of blog candy

Three, count them, three lots of blog candy from Julie , Bev and Diane
Fantastic candy from 3 talented ladies so go and have a look now.

Fitted in a couple of cards

Managed to fit in a couple of cards yesterday while waiting for a new blade for my ringsaw to arrive in the post. The ringsaw is what I use to cut my glass - it really speeds up the process and helps me get through the quantity of glass I need to make at this time of year (not sensible enough to build up stock throughout the year :-)) but on Friday whilst cutting glass for 3 new angels the blade broke - Aaaargh! The blade is encrusted with diamond chips to easily cut through glass and costs £65 for a replacement!!









So the cards, first one I made with one of my Frosty Bob stamps from Blonde Moments and my new Spellbinders nestability dies to cut the scallop circles and stripy background paper from DCWV Christmas paper pack.
Next one was one of Elzybelles gorgeous Eskimo stamps, Juggling Eskimo, on another scalloped circle, the background was from Papermania Naughty & Nice pack.
Last I used the gorgeous new download Sweet Cheeks from Pink Petticoat to make the Baby's first Christmas card. The backing paper is also from Pink Petticoat.
By the time I'd got these done my blade had arrived and Neil had very kindly made the repair to my ringsaw and it was back to the porch for more stained glass.

and MORE fantastic Blog Candy

Another opportunity to win a fantastic Blog Candy prize is over here at Elaine's blog. Go and have a look now.

Blog Candy at Funky Fairies

Go and check out Funkyfairies for some great blog candy over here

Craft Fair today

Just back from today's craft fair, feet sore & freezing but it went quite well really. Thought you might just like to see some pics of my stall. These were taken just before it started this morning, have to do the same all over tomorrow but in a different venue.

Some blog candy

Leonie is offering some fab blog candy for reaching 10,000 hits, congratulations Leonie! Go and take a look.

Fitted in a quick Christmas card

A quick card made using a Tilda image from a batch I bought on Ebay recently. Coloured with water colour pencils, distressed round edge and layered on Cuttlebug embossed red card and finished off with organza ribbon. The sentiment was done on the computer and embellished with a button.

Glass, glass and more glass

Well finally got the angels done when we got power back again and today I made a couple of santa heads, some thistles and some holly.







The weather has been dreadful today, hail, sleet, snow - a bit of everything. I didn't really mind as I knew I just had to keep my head down and get as much done as possible.

My Mum and Lynsey were coming out to us for tea so stopped work mid afternoon to put a casserole on and then went back to finish off the soldering, just got done and went to make a cup of tea while I waited for Neil to bring Lyns & Mum when my aunt phoned to say Mum had fallen in the street and was being taken to A&E.

She was collected by an ambulance but didn't want to go to hospital so they took her home and cleaned her up. Fortunately she hasn't done too much damage, just a split lip and a broken tooth but she looked as if she'd been in the boxing ring! She was a bit shaky but decided she wanted to come for tea rather than spend the evening on her own.

Thank goodness it wasn't worse, she just got out of hospital a few days ago and the last thing she wanted was to go back!

Let's hope that's the end of the drama for this week....

Working Hard

Been working really hard over the last couple of days trying to get ready for two craft fairs this weekend. I took some days off work to get as much done as possible but things didn't quite go according to plan yesterday, I had cut glass for 20 little Christmas tree angel decorations then ground and foiled the edges and was almost ready to start soldering when the power went off!!!!

Neil went out to see what was going on and the workmen from Scottish Power who were digging at the back said it would be 2 - 3 hours before they could get it up and running again AAArrrrgh!! They said they had knocked on the door to warn us but both of us were home and didn't hear anything. I couldn't do a thing - no light to make cards, no power for my soldering iron and it was amazing how quickly the house cooled down - it was very cold yesterday.

So we decided to pop out to Ikea and Sainsburys to kill some time - it was warmer there! We got home at 2 o'clock and made ourselves some lunch, boiling the water for our tea on the (fortunately gas) cooker. Just after we finished eating the power came on again so it was back to work straight away.

Anyway here are a couple of pics of some of the things I've been working on.





These were sentiments stamped onto scrapbooking paper sandwiched between two pieces of glass then foiled and soldered, with little beaded charms to finish them off. I saw some similar ones on Ebay US and thought they'd make nice little gifts especially with the little handcrafted boxes (suggested by my daughter Lynsey).

The craft fairs are at Howgate Village Hall (10 miles south of Edinburgh) on Saturday from 10 - 2pm and at Carnwath Town Hall on Sunday from 2 - 6pm. If you are anywhere near one of the venues please drop in and say hello.

More Blog Candy

Go over to http://kreativkristin.blogspot.com to see her great blog candy. She is celebrating 15000 hits, wonder if I'll ever get to that kind of figure!!!

Pink card

Have added a pink card for Nikki's Breast Cancer awareness. She is offering some blog candy over at http://bunny-zoes.blogspot.com

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A tag book for Scrapbooking Group

Scrapbooking group meets at the library on the last Monday of the month, which is this coming Monday and this month I am going to demonstrate this little tag book which I found instructions for on Dawn's blog over at dawnsstampingthoughts

Bad couple of days

Not had a good couple of days, my mother has been in hospital after what was apparently a slight stroke but the upshot of it all is that she is having to face up to the fact that she is suffering from Alzheimers. She is still lucid and can understand what this means for her and her future. She was an English teacher and a writer and until recently was a very confident and strong woman but in the last year she seems to have aged about ten years and has lost all her confidence and self belief, it's very hard and sad to watch.

Have not had time to do any crafting for a few days and missed the opening of http://www.southfield-stationers.co.uk/ new shop which I intended going to yesterday. I am looking forward to seeing how much more crafty stuff they will be stocking and to the workshops and demos they intend having so will get over there as soon as I can.

There is some great blog candy over at http://saturdaysecrets.blogspot.com/ so go and take a look.

Haven't quite figured this out!

Not quite sure how to insert the pics in with the text so bear with me while I try to get to grips with this....





Ahhh - think I may have figured it out.
Any way enough for now, best go before I bore you all to tears.

A few cards

Have been trying to get going on the Christmas cards, I have committed myself to no fewer than 5, yes 5, craft fairs over the next six weeks or so. Therefore am needing plenty of new stock, in particular Christmassy stuff. Stained glass is probably the biggest seller for me at this time of year, but to get much done I need to have a decent run at it. It's not the kind of thing you can sit down and do if you just have an hour or two to spare so if I've finished a shift at the library or need to go to work in a couple of hours I spend what spare time I have trying to produce a card or three. Going now to see if I can upload a few of the latest ones..

Time to make a start

Been gearing up to start this blogging business for a while and have decided - today's the day. Not for any particular reason you understand, but I just felt it was time to make a start. So here goes.....