Anniversary Card & New Vernon

Its been a little while since I've made any cards so I had a good excuse to get all my stash out when my mum casually reminded me that its their anniversary on Sunday! I had forgotten but dont tell her that!

For my birthday back in June my mum & dad gave me the docrafts goodie bag which was out at the time. It includes the lovely Henbury Lane kit which even though it is beautiful and summery is not what I would use for my scrapping, but it has come in very handy for the anniversary card especially as my mum loves butterflies.



Yesterday I went with Ian to Market Deeping as he wanted to go to the bike shop there to have some brakes bled. While we were waiting we wondered down to the antique and craft centre there. Its a fab place made up of seperate units where people can sell antiques and bric-a-brac, you can spend ages having a good look plus theres the added bonus of a large craft shop at the back! As we stopped at one unit selling toy cars I glanced down and on the bottom shelf was another Vernon the Turtle from Over the Hedge! We love Vern, ours goes everywhere with us even up Snowdon, so we had to buy him plus he talks!!

Christmas LO in August!

Just a quick post to show a Lo I've just finished for both the weekly challenge on UKS and the mini challenge in the Twilight addicts set this month by Ali. When I saw this photos my dad took at Christmas I couldnt believe how dark my hair was, I look like Morticia Addams! So when I went to the hairdressers a couple of weeks ago I had it lightened up!

For the weekly challenge we were asked to use pink and/or blue so I used pink card and blue patterned paper. To use 3 of something so I used 3 diff Martha Stewart punches to make some fancey edges. Use a celebration theme, thats an obvious one lol! Finally hang some bunting, I've seen this on a number of Lo's recently and have been eager to give it a go I love bunting anyway!

For Ali's challenge she asked us to again scrap a celebration; use more than 1 pic; and to include some sewing which I cheated with by using doodled stitching as I'm not a sewer sorry!

Foxy Birthdays & a box of goodies

Get me I havnt been here for ages now 2 posts in one day! Lol!

This is a mini book I made for keeping all the birthdays and address's for the Crafty Foxes in. I recently brought a card magazine which had some papers from My Minds Eye as a freebie so used these, the pages are all the different papers but for obvious reasons I've not taken pics of these. The mini book was a gift from our Foxy leader Amanda


When I checked the internet on Thhursday I noticed Sarahs Cards were doing their fab grab boxes again. Basically you get £75 worth of stash for £25 and each box is different. This is the contents of my box which came yesterday, there are some lovely papers, some gorgous flowers from Prima and some transparencies which I've never used before so looking forward to giving them a go

CJ ready to go

Let me dust off the cobwebs from my blog! Sorry for neglecting it things have been hectic since I started my job (wish is great btw), plus we've been staying at the inlaws while they are away in their camper so have not been able to use our lappy, for some reason we cant get it to connect to their network! But anyway...while I've been up there the newbie CJ on UKS has been given its own thread so we start on Sept 1! So I took all my crafty bits up to the inlaws and took over the kitchen table to finish my journal.

This is my title page

My intro explaining what my theme is and my requests

This page leads onto the layouts. Originally I was going to start mine on the back of the requests page but silly me brought different coloured card for the pages and the OCD in me didnt want to have one purple page and one red! The little badge is from a set I got from Paperchase

This is my "dream destination" or one of them!

As before I had a page leading into the sign in page as I wanted it to match!


I've also made a mini book for the Crafty Foxes brithdays but I'll show this on another post as blogger wouldnt let me add anymore pics! xx

Exciting week

Another week has gone by time for a catch up. As I said in my last post mum & I were doing a carboot on Sunday, we had a really good morning and made £82!! For all the Skelly fans he went to a good home, hes going to be in a teenagers room somewhere.

On Tuesday I had an interview for a shop in town called Teatree Bay selling surfer, skate wear like Roxy, Quicksilver and Animal, very similar to what I sold when I worked in Mayhem a couple of years ago. Well the good news is... I got it!! Its 21hrs a week which is better than nothing. I had my first day yesterday and I came home with my head spinning, everything will sink in eventually I hope!

Today I managed to pick myself up a bargain from the shop where my mum works. The box below will come in handy for storing some crafty bits, I havnt decided what yet, and cost the princely sum of... £1!!


I've also done some scrapping today. This Lo is for this months Twilight Addicts challenge set by Judith. The challenge followed the wedding saying "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue". For old I used some letters I brought when I first started scrapping; something new is the Bo Bunny diecut paper; something borrowed (something we dont associate with scrapping) shells from Shell Island; something blue my cardstock. Photo is of Ian fishing off Barmouth Harbour just before he caught an eel!

Sizzling Saturday

Phew its a hot one today, one of those days when its too hot to do anything. Saying that I have managed to make some cards. I had a pack of Papermania flower shaped cards hanging around so decided to have some fun decorating them, I'm not the best at cutting put but have to say they've come out ok.



These are my favourite ones, I love the bright colours and the dolls are so cute. I might save one for my aunties birthday next year as she collects Kimmi dolls which are v similar to these


Tomorrow mum and I are having another go at having a carboot, we tried to have one last week but after packing the car up and heading out we got to my old school to find a tiny note saying it had been cancelled! So tomorrow we'll be going to the footie ground to one which is on every week. This picture is what the spare room has looked like since last week, hands up who wants my brothers old skeleton cd stacker!

Vintage Vogue covers

I was having a browse through the internet the other day and came across these covers from old issues of Vogue its a shame covers arent still like this really

Twit Towoo or something like that!

I was trying to be clever with the title but I dont think its worked has anyone got an owl dictionary!

I was trying to organise my magazines the other day and found a load of free papers from various mags which I havnt used. A few months ago I said I would use free papers to make cards for the Cancer Research Craft for Life so I've obviously been slacking! The cards below have been made with some Polka Doodles papers, the title will make sense now! I've not used coloured card for my base cards before so this is a first for me!

Sunny Sort out

Oops just noticed that another week has gone by without a post from me, I'll go and sit in the naughty corner after this! I would like to say this is because I've been super busy but the truth is I've been too hot (I know I musnt complain) and have not been able to get five minutes to myself to log on in peace.

One thing I have been doing this past week is sorting out my shopping for the CJ I've signed up to do on UKS. So far I have covered my covers, typed my introduction & rules, and have brought some luggage labels for the sign in page. I'm going to keep you all suspence and not post any pics of it until I've made it up though :)

I have also started sorting through all my junk for bits to carboot, bits to ebay & bits to take to the charity shop. While I was sorting out I came across my old nail varnishes I used to wear when I was younger. As you'll see by they photo they are bit varied and bright, isnt it funny what we used to wear when growing up thinking we were the bees knees and really cool! I remember wearing dungaree shorts over tights with trainer boots, I was really cool!

Another person who has been having a sort out is my friend and fellow Twilight Addict Gemma. Check out her blog for a fab Blog Candy http://thesteelenook.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-candy-day.html fellow

Birthday cards

Wow its the weekend again! I've had a busy few days since my last post. On Wednesday it was my birthday, I was a very lucky girl and received some lovely cards below are some of my favourites. I receieved this Jacob card from Val my old manageress who also had her brithday on the same day. Even though I'm team Edward I've still given the card a good lick! This card was from Amanda the team leader of the Crafty Foxes. We both love the Gorjus Girls so to have an image with the Crafty Fox on is fantastic. Once I've got the hang of stamping I think I'm going to have to get some of the Gorjus Girl stamps as they are just beautiful.

This is from my beautiful neice Ruby. Shes only 2 yrs old but is obviously a young crafter in the making!

Finally this is the card from the Twilight Addicts birthday fairy who I recently found out was Looby Loo (Linda). I can see me getting addicted to stamping as the Magnolia stamps are also lovely.

As I said at the start of this post its been a busy few days. Yesterday I went to Birmingham to meet my friend Anna. Anna travels down from Liverpool and Birmingham is smack bang in the middle of us, in fact our trains leave at roughly the same time and arrive within 10 minutes of each other! We had a lovely day gossiping and wandering around the shops, and lunch with a glass or two of wine at Wetherspoons.

Today I have been sorting out my bits for a car boot I'm doing with Jo my sister in law. I've got a batch of cards I've made to sell so hopefully they'll fly out, that is if we can work out how to put the table up first!

My Sweet Baboo's

This week I've completed Lo's for both the house challenge & the weekly challenge on UKS. The subject of both these Lo's are the two men in my life Ian & Snoopy. This Lo of Ian finding a gap in a wall at Harlech Castle (which he claims was the kings throne)wasnt originally for the weekly but when I had finished I found it had ticked all the boxes! The criteria this week was:
*to scrap about someone you care about- Ian
*as its wedding season use 2 elements from something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue- I used blue cardstock, went mad on my old rub on's & opened a new packet of Thickers
*Use paint or ink/stamps- I inked the edges
*Have journaling on the Lo
For the House challenge we were asked to scrap about what we cant live without. I've had my old faithful Snoopy ever since I was 2 when I stole him off my mums bed! Since then he has gone everywhere with me, I even used to make my dad carry him inside his jacket when he took me to playschool so he didnt get cold but with his head out so he could see where he was going! Unfortionetly he's a bit battered and bruised now, he hasnt got his original eyes and his head is just about hanging on but he's still my Sweet Baboo! (BTW it took me ages to work out how to spell Baboo, still not sure if I've got it right!)

Hol Pics

Hi everyone the laptop has fixed itself so I can share some hol pics with you

This was the view from our tent on Shell Island there were some steps to the right which took you down to the beach

Harlech Castle. Got some cool pics of the ruins to scrap at some point. It was fun going up the towers but not coming down they should have built them like Helter Skelters it would have been easier!

Stormy backdrop to the Barmouth bridge. I love Wales for watching the clouds roll down the hills, v dramatic!

This shows how steep the final push to the top of Snowdon is in the train I had to tell Ian off for leaning out of the window. When you're walking its like this all the way as we found out!

Back from hols

Well I'm back from our hols in Wales feeling chilled but very stiff!

We decided to go a couple of days early and stayed at Shell Island, which I think everyone else in the country also decided to do as the queue for reception was manic! The site is lovely, its on a peninsular & when the tide comes in you're cut off from the main land! You can pitch wherever you like and we were lucky enough to have a spot practically on the beach, it was lovely just sitting out watching the sea, apart from when it rained all day on Saturday!

On bank hol Monday we moved to our fav camp site Trawsdir which is 5* so has fab clean loos and showers, plus they have radio 2 playing while you're in there!

Tuesday was a damp start but soon cleared so we got a bit of culture and went to Harlech Castle. It was fab walking thru the ruins and going up the towers, the only problem was coming down them they had small narrow steps which were fine going up but coming down when there is only a rope for a handle i was panicing!

Weds was the start of the lovely scorching weather so we decided to go to Snowdon and go up on the train and walk down. When we got there though all the trains were booked until Friday so we booked for then, there was no way I was going to walk up and down again! So after booking our tickets we went to a nearby woods to do an old Goldmine walk we found last year with lovely waterfalls but we couldnt find it this year but had a nice walk anyway!

On Thursday we just chilled at the beach in Barmouth ready for our trek down the mountain the next day. Ian got a crab line and modified it to do some fishing and caught a horrible eel! It was disgusting like a snake but slimey!

So that was our hols. We came home yesterday to find the laptop isnt turning on! I think (hope) that the power button has gotten stuck cos I think we press it down rather than in when we turn it on, naughty I know! So at the mo I'm using my mums comp while shes away then will try and get in touch with my uncle and see if he can do anything. I'll try and upload some pics at some point.

Sorry for the essay haha xx

Scrapping on a hot day

Even boiling hot summer weather cant stop us scrappers from scrapping, including me! After fighting with my Thickers, which wouldnt stick as the heat had dried the adhesive on the back, I managed to complete the weekly challenge on Uks. This wk we had to complete a Lo which was not the normal square 12x12, use something big & use bright colours.

I had had a Lo in my head for the bluebell photos which meant using some lovely green K & Company diecut paper I have but it just didnt look right so I used some daisy My Minds Eye card stock instead. For the big element I blew my photo up to 8x6 instead of the normal 6x4. Bright colours was easy as I just love them, the scallopped edging was cut from the bottom of a piece of Sassafrass paper I had. The Lo didnt turn out as I had orginally planned, as is normally the case, but I'm still happy with it. xx

Some pics to share

I thought as it such a lovely day I would share some pictures from a walk through the Bluebell wood at Rutland water. I went for the first time last year and it was just breath taking, I have never seen so many Bluebells in my life!

What a View!

I havnt been doing alot of scrapping lately, my mind has been elsewhere so I havnt been able to concentrate on a Lo, so have I have been making alot of cards instead both for myself to sell & also for the Red Cross. But today I have had the day to myself while Ian Gran-sits which meant I had plenty of room to spread out and not be interrupted so I decided to do some scrapping & came up with the above Lo which also cover the criteria for this wks challenge on Uks.

The photos were taken in Barmouth 2 years ago when we finally reached the top of the Panorama walk and could see the Mawddach Estuary in all its glory. For the challenge we were asked to use three photos, I used two but managed to trim them down into three to try and create a panorama photo. We also had a sketch to follow, and were asked to used ribbon and something floral.

We are going to Barmouth again in a couple of weeks so hopefully will get some more pictures like this just keep your fingers crossed for nice weather! xx

I'm an angel really!

Well I've just got back from town, had to go and buy some ribbon for my first ever swap on UKS, & got a couple of bargains while I was there. First we called into Colemans and they had half priced their Papermania Capsule paper packs so got myself a gorgeus Signiture pad with lovely chandalier images which I very nearly brought last week so saved myself some money there.

Then...well lets just say I'm not going to heaven... I brought myself a new cowboy hat from the market as my old one has unrolled itself on one side & looks a bit lopsided! Anyway just as I was getting my purse out of my bag I looked down and found a fiver on the floor, no one was around so I quickly picked it up and paid for my hat with it and quickly scarpered!!

To redeem myself I did go to a charity fashion show last night for Help for Heros and brought some raffle tickets, and I am going to make a batch of cards for the Red Cross to sell at their next coffee morning. Hopefully that will go in my favour...

Bad Blogger!

I put my hands up and admit I am a bad blogger I'm sorry! Since my last post I have lost my job hence the reason why I havnt been here, I didnt want to fill the place with negative, angry posts as this is a happy, crazy place! Anyway I am in a better place now, I managed to walk past the shop today without the urge to stick two fingers up at them, so will try and make more of an effort here!

I had an interview this morning, only to 10 hours a week but anything is better than nothing. I figured if I get it this will be my job seekers money rather than signing on & being sent to jobs which are miles away or are not right which the job centre always seem to do!

Anyway thats me for now but I promise I will be back or you have my permission to send me to the naughty corner! xx

Back to black

Its that dreaded time of year for Suzy Suu...MOT!!! March is always an expensive month as I've just taxed her for another year then she has to go for her check up! I hate it, I drop her off in the morning and walk to work then at the end of the day trundle back praying that nothing has come up!

This is mainly due to Poochy my last car. I was cursed with that thing first crashing her whilst reversing onto the drive wrecking my passenger door, then scrapping the driverside of her pulling off the drive, not too mention the engine always losing power which nobody could find a cure for, then when she went for her yearly check up she'd always need welding doing underneath stupid flipping thing!

Luckily touch wood Suzy has been hassle free, so as a treat she's just been to the car wash to have a spruce up so she'll look shiny and black for the garage rather than dusty grey! Fingers crossed for tomorrow! xx

Twilight addicts mini cc class 1

Wednesday saw the start of the first mini cyber crop for the Twilight Addicts on Ukscrappers. Our first class was set by Racheal Elliott from the Sarahs Cards design team. From this I made this Lo using a mixture of Bo Bunny papers from different ranges but they seem to go together nicely. It was a fab class which gave me the chance to do some distressing which I think I need more practise at, who knew it was so hard to tear and distress paper! The photo was taken while we were sat in the queue for a Bon Jovi concert 2 years ago, I gave it the title Always as this was the last song they played and the first time they've played it in the 5 times I've been lucky enough to see them!

Camping & charity cards

Blimey where have the last few days gone! I've been busy sorting out our holidays and I'm pleased to say they are all booked and only one involves mountain biking! In April we are going to Yorkshire to watch the first round of the MTB World Cup at Dalby Forest. I was unsure when we originally decided this but after checking out the schedule it sounds fun, it is the cross country round where they race each other through the forest, lots of jumps, mud & falling off (so Ian says)! Then in June we were going to the MTB event at Fort William which I was not looking forward to, there is only so much mountain biking & mud a girl can take, but now we've decided to go back to Wales to the campsite we stayed at 2 years ago just outside Barmouth. Hehe I got my way!!

On Sunday I took mum to Asda in Corby but took a detour via Primark (big mistake) and came out £80 lighter! While we were there we popped into Wilkinson as mum has just had her bathroom decorated and wanted a few bits to finish it off. We came around the last aisle and we were in heaven, I did not know they sold a selection of Create & Craft bits!! I was very good though and only brought some toppers for £1 which I've teamed up with some free papers from a back issue of Scrapboook magazine to make these cards. I've popped them into a couple of the Craft for Life cellophane bags and taken them to Cancer Research for them to sell xx

Buster & his bike!

Today has been my day off so after a lovely phone call from Ruby the birthday girl this morning, I was able to crack on with this weeks challenge. I nearly scrapped this photo on Sunday as its been in my box for a while but I wasnt in the "zone", I had picked out the paper to go with it but just couldnt motivate myself to do anything else! Luckily though when I checked this weeks challenge one of the criteria was bright/bold colours, this was enough to get the creative juices flowing so out came the stash all over the bed, QVC on, cuppa tea made and off I went!

The photo is from January this year when we were trying out the camera we received for Crimbo. Ian wanted to be the first to use it as he had just finished building up his latest bike project. So we went to Rutland Water with Buster to stand in the cold while he faffed around getting the peddles just right! Well, I think Buster was just as bored as I was cos he just walked around the monument we were using as a back drop and plonked himself down in front of the bike & wouldnt budge! I love the photo cos its almost as if hes looking at Ian and saying "Get a bloody move on will you", exactly what I was thinking!

Bad Hair day!!

It was back to the grind stone today, yep the holiday is over and time to go back to work boo! I cant complain though as the boss is away in Lapland of all places at the mo so at least I could ease back into things slowly! But how typical that first day back and I have had the ultimate bad hair day, yesterday it looked lovely today no matter how much I brushed it I still looked like I'd just gotten out of bed GRRR!! Call it sods law or just a typical Monday but that is my random post for the day! Ranting over...

See you later xx

Shiney & New!

This weeks challenge on UKscrappers was inspired by the introduction of decimalisation. We had to include 10 of something, scrap about change, have a fancy edge & include red. This was my layout about when I got Suzy Suu 2 years ago, the change being a new car with lots of perks! I used Basic Grey Lime Rickey paper to create an eyecatching border and finally got to use my Martha Stewart loopy punches for the photo mount (well OH did but dont tell him I told you!)

My first card & fighting with wrapping paper!

I made my first card this afternoon! I used the lovely Love Bird die from Sizzix with Coredinates card which I sanded on the birds tummy. I just need to and a sentiment and then its finished.

Being on holiday this week means I can just take it easy so I have just been pottering around the house. On weds I'm going over to see Kelly & Ruby so I had to wrap up Ruby's birthday pressies (I cant believe she'll be 2 next week!), an easy job I hear you say & I would normally agree except I brought some wrapping paper at work which is too good a quality, it is a pain to fold and mold how you want it, & as I have found out does not like being stuck down with sellotape! The blooming things kept coming unstuck so now have about 7 layers of tape on them god knows how Ruby will open them!

I'm official a Blogger!

Well I've been thinking about it for long enough and have finally thought "what the hell" and I now have my own blog! I have no idea what will appear on here probably lots of random musings from me but I will try and put some of my crafty bits on here too! BTW the title Beauty Queen from Mars comes from the Bon Jovi song "Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen from Mars"!

Well I cant think of anything else interesting to post at the moment so I think it will be ttfn and I'll check back with you all later. xx