Hello! It's Me again!

It's been a while since I've 'blogged' so I might save this as a draft while I have a think!




Nope! Not allowed! I've got a Sid doing 'bezerkas'! It's been a card making frenzy for the last few weeks! Strike that! Few months!! I started this post way back when.......and just didn't come back....until now!! So, this is quite weird for me as I'm looking back at stuff I added to the post ages ago!!

The two above were for a girlfriend

These are my 'Man' Cards! 

And this one was for the lovely Karen when she left The Red Lion for a new job! We miss you!

This one I made for a dear friend for his Uncle

hyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj#- Says Sid! 'I got a Cat on the keyboard, What am I gonna do?' I was going to say that I really like this one! It looks like  a cat wearing a hat!! Just move back a bit... yep! that's far enough!

 All very different! Hope you like!

I promise to update again soon! This blog covers my antics up to about ages ago! It's sort of a little reminder that I'm still here and a BIG reminder to me to start regularly blogging again!!
Get your 'Ahem' in Gear Mrs C. and start Blogging! The World has been missing your Sid & Nancy Lol! (Don't think so! Think I'm a bit delusional but it's time to start bloggin!)
 Thanks for looking Peeps!

Can't believe that....

...my last blog was my 50th!! If I'd realised I would have done a little card or something to give away!! Bet you're all glad I didn't!!! Anyway, I thought I'd share my latest 'makings' and 'thinkings' in general!

Just watched the EuroVision Song Contest! I love it and have watched it for as long as I can remember!  I thought last night's show was the best in recent years, purely for song quality! I particularly liked the last song (yeah, I know it wasn't part of the competition!), when all the contestants took to the stage and joined Emmelie de Forest and joined in with her new song! The joy on their faces at just singing together made me quite emotional (yes. I cried. I do when something makes me happy!)- that is what music should be! As an aside, I had about 4 Facebook streams going on at the same time, all making comments on the show! Brilliant! It was like watching with all of my friends!  Which brings me neatly to my main bloggy bit!

I don't have my 'Chat' turned on when I'm on FB because Peeps can just access you instantly. I prefer to 'message', either privately or page to page (gives you time to think/have a wee!) Yesterday I pinged up a photo of a card I made, (bear with me, photos here soon! (can't believe I've just googled the correct 'Bare vs Bear!) and started a conversation with a FB friend who lives on the other side of the world! Yes, thanks to the powers of FaceBook, we were able to discuss the ins and outs of cards and papers to use!  Please check out Dot's blog here! (She's good!) Anyhoos, here are some piccies!

This is Liam's card for Poppy's 17th Birthday!

And here is mine! Outside first.....

And this is the inside - courtesy of beautiful free stamps by Indigo Blu that came with this month's 'Simply Cards & Papercraft' magazne!

And here is Sid - he loves to pose with my cards........

This is the other card I made this week for my mate Mark - lots of DI's in the brown tones!















Followed by my most favourite Stampin' Up! Stamp (at the moment - it changes on a regular basis!!) (ps - you can order it from me! Just go to the link above and 'find a demonstrator' enter my name and 'Shop'!)
 

Almost done! Just add a bottle of wine and a glass!

Hmmm.....needs a little bit more?

 Just needed some 'Petite Petals' stamped on book paper!

I loved how this turned out - so difficult to do Men cards!

Thank you for visiting my blog and spending time reading it - I really appreciate it!

Before I go, I would like to enter this in  The Artistic Stamper Monthly Challenge which this month is 'In The Garden!

TTFN! xxx

Happy Easter Everyone!

Yep! 2nd blog in a week! I've had a lovely week at home and managed to fit in some crafting! The Craft Room is still a Jumgle Room although I have tied up my 'heaps' into orderly 'piles'. So a bit like my Jumgle Room, where do I start? I think I might just upload random photo's and take it from there!

So, this is my April page for Kate Crane's Art Journalling Calendar, 1st two layers! The 'starburst' in purple at the top right and lower middle is actually a piece of 'mopping-up' kitchen roll that I saved from a workshop at the Artistic Stamper with Jennie! As I 'mod-podged' it onto the page it slightly disintegrated so I moved bits and pieces around until happy with the layout.  Yeah right! Actually, I stopped when my fingers got glued to the page!! I'm still peeling it off my fingers- very therapeutic!!

 Layer three is Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paint in Nougat through a TCW stencil and the hearts are from the 'cut-off' remaining when I die cut the hearts for the next layer! (My motto is 'Never throw anything away' - I'll probably be on telly in 10 years on that Hoarders programme!!)

And from a different angle.  I was really pleased with this!

 And for the first time, I remembered to add the month first before adding the calendar bits! I die cut the hearts using the small Tim Holtz Movers & Shapers mini hearts before colouring with DI. For some reason I went for Milled Lavender, Worn Lipstick and Dusty Concord rather than sticking with the yellow, orange and green of the back ground. Still not sure if it works!!

But I do quite like it!

And my workshop piece from the Artistic Stamper last weekend! Finally finished after inspiration came!

The chipboard background was coloured with Distress Stains in Pumice Stone, Tea Dye and Tumbled Glass. I then stamped 'Hardwood' from Stampin' Up! in Walnut Stain all over.

Must say, I'm rather pleased with this!!

Finally a couple of cards (yes, I'm still making cards!!)

This first one is from Georgina's free make and take for Easter at the Artistic Stamper yesterday, and yes, the stencil found it's way into my shopping basket!! This happens to be the same stencil I used on my Jig Saw piece (bottom middle panel - you can just about see it - purple shimmery bit) and it is also the pattern mopped up with kitchen roll and used on the journal page!!

 I used Cut 'n' Dry to colour using Distress Paints in Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon

I'm really pleased with this as I don't often use yellow and orange. I love the way it looks totally different depending on how you fold it!!

 And finally (thank you for being patient and getting this far!!). My dear friend Barry's uncle is 98 on St George's Day and Barry was bemoaning the fact that there weren't any combined St George - Birthday cards, so I stepped up to the plate and made this:

 I masked and painted the cross using Adirondack Paint Dabber in Watermelon.  The Lion is from the Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Regal Flourish Collection, and was embossed using Queens Gold embossing powder.

I added a sentiment .....

....and finished it off by stamping the name and date using the Tim Holtz Worn Text letters and numbers.

Thank you for popping by and I hope you enjoyed reading my blog!

TTFN xxx

P.S. Please can I enter my JigSaw piece in the following challenges:

Sunday Stampers - 304 - Memories

The Artistic Stamper April - Texture and Embossing

I'm a very bad 'blogger' because.....

...I just keep forgetting to 'blog'!!

Any way, thought I'd start again with this card my 6 year old grandson made while he was with us for the Easter break!

He used 4 of the Craft Stamper free Stamps..................

Quite good I'm thinking! He inked and stamped and coloured in! (I will say my face was an absolute picture when I said 'Lets colour that in with your pencils and he appeared with a box of my Distress Markers! But I thought, Hey ho! I loved using 'grown up' pens and paints when I was his age - it's a bit special and stays with you for life!).  Here are my efforts:

 My  'Alice' themed card!





The 'Alice Falling', 'White Rabbit' and 'Alice: Drink Me' are all Mabel Lucie Atwell stamps from the Artistic Stamper (sadly retired - I was lucky enough to buy the last ones!)

The cardstock is Crisp Canteloupe from Stampin' Up!

The paper for the panels is a retired one, again from Stampin' Up! (But check out their new ones - lots of lovely papers in the main catalogue and in the Spring/Summer catalogue!)

The stamped images were coloured with Distress Markers and the card 'closed' for posting!

T

This is my 'Tea Anyone? Card for Dee! I know she likes a cuppa!!

Hope you like it!

TTFN x

 I love it! Please leave a comment xxx

I really need to get......

Back in the Swing of Things!!

As a bit of a practice, tonight I've taken step-by-step pics of a card I've made for some friends (It's their wedding anniversary tomorrow (she whispers, so I don't think they'll be paying any attention!!).  I've used stuff from Stampin' Up mainly but this card can use anything in your stash. This first layer is heat embossed using Versamark and WOW white opaque on cream cardstock (I love it!). I gave my work surface and card a thorough rubbing with an anti-static bag first (hate to admit it, but it does make a big difference!)

Next layer was embossed using the Stampin' Up embossing folder from Sizzix, Decorative Dots. I made this as a separate panel because embossing tends to stretch the paper, so trimmed to size and added to a panel. Then removed it from panel as a lot of cat fur appeared. Stuck it to new panel. Removed  fur and started again. Finally got rid of the cat fur and was pleasantly pleased!

 (This isn't stuck down yet - just placing at the mo!) Still getting rid of cat fur :-(

Ooh! Did I tell you I added a bit of ribbon down one side

 The Medallion is from the 'Everything Eleanor' Stamp set from Stampin' Up. I stamped the medallion in pistachio pudding and the sentiment in Dusty Concord DI on top of the Pistachio Pudding Pannel (I have absolutely no idea where the 'Happy Anniversary' stamp came from. Mum got it for me ages ago!

 Added a few Petite Petals...

 But this is one very forlorn flower who didn't make it to this final cut! She will appear! Watch this space!

 Very happy with my finished card!

Especially with the pearls

Hello? Anybody out there??

Haven't posted for so long I've forgotten how much I enjoy it!! Anyway, Jennie's call for creative design team members over at the Artistic Stamper has been just the kick up the bum I needed to start blogging again!! Yep, you've  guessed it! I'd love to be on the design team and one of the requirements is......an active blog!! So ...............................ACTIVATE THE BLOG MRS CASTLE!!!............................
We had a wonderful workshop yesterday, with Georgina Ford! It was very well planned and everyone behaved and stayed on schedule! We all completed the three projects, working on all three at the same time (see, told you it was well planned!!)

Created using Fresco Finish paints, Distress Inks, Chipboard flowers 
and Melt Pot hemispheres.  Ooh! and grunge paste and stencilling too!!

Small jewellery box and chipboard shapes. Fresco Finish and stencilling again

And finally, a little plywood photo frame using the Tattered Florals die

And a round up! 

I did think the brown hemispheres looked like chocolate and the yellow ones definitely resembled lemon cough sweets!! 

And finally, something totally unrelated:

Yes, there really is a recipe for Ham and Baked Bean Soup and it is totally delicious! Just what's needed after a day crafting and it takes just 30 minutes from onion chopping to plate! Nom nom!!

Thank you Slimming World!!

Thank you for looking and happy crafting peeps!

TTFN

Sand x