Still Recovering...

...from a nasty tummy bug last week, and from a full 6 hours at the GNPE in Harrogate last Sunday. Well that's 6 hours excluding the dash to Sainsburys to get some more cash out of the hole in the wall...which also gave me an opportunity to stash what I'd already bought into the car to free up my hands and arms for more buying...
Sunday evening was like some form of torture - I stayed overnight in Harrogate but hadn't had the forethought to take a basic craft kit with me, so had to make do with lots of 'stroking' of new goodies...

I came back with a boot full of crafting goodies supplemented with the purchases made in Harrogate town centre on the Monday morning...oops!

Of course since I've been feeling poorly too I haven't really had much of a chance to create but have managed these 2 cards...

This one is made almost entirely from a Craftwork Cards goody bag - the middle flower stem was diecut and foiled and I just used the 'waste' either side to make the other stems.  The leaves were cut from waste at the corners of the same sheet. I used an apple green Promarker to colour them.  The mesh behind the flowers was originally plain white and also coloured with a PM (moss green I think)

This is the first card I made from my new stash and I think I managed to use 5 new products to make it.  The only things that weren't new were the rub-on sentiment and the black paper used for matting and layering.
Image is Indentz 'Funky Tree' embossing folder run through the Cuttlebug using Whitewash core-dinations cardstock. Card candy and backing paper from (another) Craftwork Cards goody bag, and of course the lace is a Martha Stewart punch.  The card itself measures about 8x8 inches and is made from an A3 sheet of pearlised card also bought at the GNPE. If I add in the envelopes and polybags bought separately that makes 7 of my weekend buys used for 1 card!

Off now for some crafting of a slightly different nature - I'm holding an Easter/Spring crafts session for children on Monday at the library where I work.  Watch this space...

It's exhausting being a good daughter!!

This is the Mothers Day card I made for my mam - sailed a bit close to the wind on this one, ie I didn't even start it until this morning! Luckily I wasn't seeing her until about 1pm, but I was a bit worried that the buttons wouldn't have stuck in time...

the base of the card is from a Kanban kit

 layered letters cut out with my Craft Robo

frame for sentiment is a 'Nellie's' die

bunny image is free stamp from Quick Cards magazine

coloured with Promarkers

There are 2 mistakes on the card - the first is that I used the wrong bunny image. I'd stamped and coloured a few bunnies in a variety of colours and stuck the wrong one onto the card but it looks ok so I decided not to risk wrecking the card to take it off.  The second mistake, which I realised only as I was putting the card in the envelope, is that the card base is upside down - I have 'Australian' flowers! Oops!  My mam loved the card though and although its quite small it really stood out amongst all the shop-bought cards on the mantlepiece...

And why exhausting? Well, I popped round there for a short visit and left after 4 hectic hours - take 1 mam, 2 of my sisters, 4 of their children, 1 friend and 2 dogs - throw in installing antivirus software on 3 laptops and fixing a loose key on 1 of them and then teaching my mam to play Mahjong on her laptop, and you can see why I was glad to get some peace and quiet :-)

Better late than never?

Just a quickie tonight, thought I'd post a pic of the project I should have been working on the other day when I was playing with my new Digistamp Boutique images.

This is a birthday card for one of my friends.  It was actually her birthday on Sunday but I didn't make the card until last night - I know, I'm a terrible friend! Trouble is I just couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to do, other than having the Pollycraft image in mind - actually its a kind of combo of 2 separate images to get the '30' but I like how it turned out. And why is it exactly that I work best under pressure???

It was my first attempt at this shape of card, which happened to give me a great excuse for not posting it (way too bulky - honest!). To try to make up for I made her a matching shrink plastic charm with the same image but forgot to take a pic in my rush to get to work this morning - doh!

I'm a bad, bad, blogger.....

I can't believe it's now 2 whole months since my 1st post, where did all the time go?

I'm sure no-one will be surprised to hear I've been too busy crafting to actually blog about it and, looking around the room right now, its in exactly the same state as on 1st January - I'm such an untidy crafter...this is my living-room floor right now...

And my friends and family wonder why I don't encourage unexpected visits! You can see the occasional patch of bare carpet which I use as 'stepping stones' to get from one end to the other - one of these days I'll do myself a serious injury, but what a way to go!

And I'd told myself I wasn't going to craft today, except for one 'must-do' project (that I haven't done...) but I really couldn't resist the new Spring Coco and Friends digi-stamps which I spotted on the Digistamp Boutique blog. They were only released today but I had to have them.

And this is what I've managed to create so far...

image is Coco Easter Stroll from Digistamp Boutique

coloured with Promarkers

scalloped frames from a Nellie's multiframe die

(the frame around the image was pieced together to get a larger frame)

patterned paper is from Imaginisce All Occasion Build-a-Card Pad

flowers cut with a sizzix die

image is Spring Coco from Digistamp Boutique

coloured with Promarkers

Prima flower, smaller flower and paper ribbon coloured with Promarker

backing paper from Forever Friends Hugs & Cuddles paper pack

And a quick close-up of 1 of the coloured images - the first time I've used my Promarkers in such a sketchy, watercolour type way...

...loving this effect!

Well, time to go to work now, the clearing up will have to wait until I get home...