Hand Crafted Memories

I'm still catching up with my favourite blogs and postings following my absence from blogland. I noticed I hadn't posted my card for this months Crafty Calendar Challenge . This month they wanted to see fun or humorous cards to celebrate April Fool's day. Yes I know it's 30th April but the challenge was posted on 1st. Here is my card, I thought the biddy on the front was funny, just me then?

Our cybercrop  journey around the monopoly board continues on the way we might as well stop off briefly at Pall Mall. This lovely class saw us all making some home decor with this lovely heart shaped wreath. The class was led by Angela from Angel Crafts .Playing with chipboard is one of my most favourite things so this class was right up my street. It also helped me use up some of those scraps of paper that one day might be used for something. I know you know what I mean! It looks much larger on the photo than it really is, it's about 7-8 inches tall. This makes it big enough to be noticed but small enough for it to be delicate and not in your face. Don't forget the Craftwork Cards Card Candy challenge , final day for entries is tommorrow. The top 5 flayours that we as a design team choosewill be announced on 3rd May for you to start voting for your favourite flavour.

Carrying on our journey around the Monopoly board, we arrived at The Strand, this class was lead by Sarah Youde . I didn't dawn on me until much later that we used strands of thread to do the stitching. I really enjoyed the class and especially the little details. These are failry recent photos that were taken when my brother and his boys all had a go at tossing pancakes. Fortunatly nobody ended up with one on their head, but this one looked like it was going in that direction it went so high!

I almost forgot the post this card and mention the fabulous competition over at the Sir Stampalot Challenge Blog . The deadline is 12 o'clock lunchtime on 28th April, so I'm sliding in under the wire with this one. The theme of the challenge is Fantasies for you to interpret how you wish. Fairies, pixies, goblins elves all popped into my mind and I immediatly thought of this stamp. My best friends son and partner have just had a little girl, they are so happy the waiting is now over, this also made me think of this stamp. a little elf waiting. It was stamped and embossed with black ink and black embossing powder, then glitzed with pink and lilac glimmer mists. I masked the moon so it didn't get glitzed, then added some glossy accents to make it shine, dropping a purple gem over the end of the swirl. The rest is self explanatory. Phew! just in time. Don't forget you only have until Friday to enter the Craftwork Cards Card Candy Challenge , there's a great prize o...

Before I start ironing I made a card for the Allsorts challenge, this week it was a photo that is to be used as the inspiration for the card.    I want this bracelet! I came up with this card. I've got so much purple and lilac cardstock its not funny. I'm not even a purple fan! In an attempt to use some I've based the colours around purple and taken the butterflies as inspiration. I also placed them around a central greeting. I've used four different techniques for the squares, a bit like making twinchies and mounting them on the card. This layout is one favoured by Julie Hickey and a bit if a staple for me in both cardmaking and scrapbooking . I've used four different techniques for the squares, the first is punches then I used masking and spraying with glimmer mists I dug out my Marvy LePlume pens, I haven't used these in a lifetime since I discovered Copics pens for colouring. I coloured the stamp in two colours before stamping the butterfly. and finally w...

I have today off work, and do I need it. Originally I should have been in Cambridge at the Scrapping Angels Retreat , but when I came out of hospital I realised I wouldn't be able to drive for 2 hours or carry my  bags and crafting supplies. I was gutted, but there is a silver lining. Anna who organises the retreat is stuck in Florida because of the volcano, so the retreat was cancelled. I have to say its my silver lining not everybody  elses, How gutting for all the other ladies though that were going. This means when it is rearranged I will be able to go, YAY! and I could put my all into the Cybercrop. My next two stops on the Monoploy board just need a bit of tweaking so I'll show you Oxford Street hosted by Bexter , this was a biggy project. The technique here was the glimmer mists that seem to have gone everywhere, even though I covereed everythiong with newspaper. Never mind it was well worth the effort and mess. I took me ages and I tweaked it last night so tha...

I had such fun yesterday on the Cybercrop , loads of techniques to use, two of them featured glimmer mists. Oh my God! what a mess I made. The projects were beautiful but the cleaning up took ages. Today I look like I have been stealing Willy Wonka's meal replacement bubble gum. Rememeber the girl who ate the bubble gum that tasted of food, she ended up swelling up and going purple. Well I'm going blue from the fingertips up! Here we are moving round the Monopoly board, the second project was Angel Islington taught by Angie . This classes technique was to hand cut frames, yes HAND CUT. I bought a cricu t so that I didn't have to hand cut anymore, but entering into the spirit of the crop I did it and was so pleased with the results here is the page. I have to run to Asda now to collect my photos for the classes I completed yesterday. They were fabulous projects and need some photos before they are uploaded to claim my points for the cars team. Beep! Beep! Come back tommor...

I'm shattered this morning, I stayed up a bit too late with the Cybrerop . Even though I prepared all my kits before hand I wanted to wait until I saw the 'theme' of the layout before I picked my pictures. There lies the problem, I end up sorting through stacks of pictures, then I have to scan it and resize it. Never mind I'm really pleased with my efforts so far. Continuing with the Monopoly theme the first class last night at 7PM was Bow Street - hosted by Sarah Palmer , here is my page THe main technique that earnt extra brownie points was the title, a great way of using up those odd alphabet stickers that are left hanging around. Just stick them down (lightly), then dab some acrylic paint over the top of the letters. Give it a second and lift the stickers off. Great idea!

The UKScrappers Cybercrop has got of to a flying start. I have completed the first two classes and made two fabulous pages. I'm going to photograph them in tommorrow's daylight. I love these classes because they are technique based so each class challenges you to use a technique, some you may have used before but always there is something new to try.  There is always a pre crop challenge, bearing in mind that the theme of this Cybercrop is Monopoloy the precrop challenge was to make a page about Officer Mallory, the banker from Monopoly, a familiar face to all. This challenge was to scrap our own 'Officer Mallory', that person that has been a constant in your life. I didn't need to think about this one, I used my best friend Theresa, who is my constant. I guess I can show it here, now that the closing time for entries has passed. .

I am sitting in my craft room waitin g for the UKS crappers Cybercrop to start. I am surrounded by my snacks and kits, just beside myself waiting. So to keep my fingers busy I ate the Jelly Babies, this is not good they were supposed to last me all weekend! I'm like a kid bouncing on my chair and singing  are we there yet, are we there yet? Quite funny really the theme for this one is Monopoly and I'm in the cars team. Beep, Beep! To distract me from the stash of goodies I've made my card for this weeks Winter Wonderland Challenge , this week its anything goes! I love this stamp and made a similar card at a card class but can't remember where. It's quick and easy to do as a production line.Well that kept me busy for an hour, only 45 minutes to go!

Well I've done it I went back to work. It was great to see everybody and I had lots of lovely cuddles. Boy was I tired when I got home and my tummy was a bit sore but I was glad I had gone back. After day 2,  I was really sore and completly wiped out. Today I think I'm getting used to moving about a bit better and although I'm still sore and tired I feel I'm coping. I've got a couple of short weeks after this one so I think things are good. Its the Cybercrop this weekend and I now have all my kits ready, I was determined to use all my own stash and not buy new just so it's exactly the same as the class project. I did really well, only had a few bits to buy. Mainly a canvas and a couple of picture frames and some glimmer mist. For one of the classes I had three of the four colours, so I felt there was no point in missing out just for the sake of one. Other minor miscellaneous purchases were made.  Although I'm a bit light on the posting at the moment get re...

Here are the cards I made for Craftwork Cards from the stash of goodies they sent me recently. It was for them to add to my profile when I was recently introduced as one of their Design Team. Did I mention that the colours of the Carnival Papers are gorgeous? On another note, I recently posted a page inspired by a class I had attended with the fabulous Emma Trout and can you believe it, she saw it and left a message!! She read my blog!! I was so chuffed A. because she took the time to leave a comment and B. because she remembered me. Then when I thought about it why was I remembered , maybe not for good reasons? Only joking, I was very happy but couldn't say anything to anybody because they just wouldn't get it!

It looks like its going to be another gorgeous day. I can't believe how things happen. I've just had 6 weeks sick leave and decided last week that the monotony was just too much. I elected to go back to work on Monday (tomorrow), albeit to limited duties. It is a little bit too early to go back but as I'm restricted to what I can do it's boring at home. There are only so many times that you can watch the soaps, I was watching each episode 4 times in a week! So the timing, my Internet is back, this I could spend all day playing with.With the return of the Internet I discovered that UK Scrappers are doing their Cybercrop this weekend, I loved this last time and made some gorgeous pages. I've got very excited about the new one and have spent ages getting my kits together, this would have kept me busy for the rest of this week and over the weekend. Not to mention my blog. Oh well things happen for a reason. Have you been over to the Craftwork Cards blog recently? T...

Phew! I'm back on line, Bye Bye to the rude customer services at Talk Talk and hello BT Total Broadband. Talk Talk even had the cheek to call and ask me why I was moving. It took all of my will power to not say well you try crawling round on the floor and running up and down stairs repeating mindless tests , all only 14 days after having your stomach cut open and bits removed. While a young man tells you to shut up repeating that they had promised normal service after 24 hours. He being the one that kept repeating that he wanted me to go and knock on a neighbours door to see if they would let me test my equipment on their computer????? How much time did I want to reconsider, ooh it took me only one second! I now have lovely normal service and not only that BT's equipment is all modern and shiny, I like. Well I haven't been idle in my absence, I have done a bit of crafting so I'll post my efforts over the next few days, I'm still catching up with the backlog off b...

Just as I started to turn a corner from my op, disaster has hit my internet . It just suddenly stopped working, and Talk, Talk has subjected me to five days of the rudest and worst customer service I have ever received. As a consequence I have no connection until the 16 th April when my new provider takes over. It's a real pity because I am now feeling a bit more like myself and was looking forward to taking part in some crafting challenges. Occasionally I can check my e-mails at my friends, but its a bit sporadic, you don't want to abuse good people really. So check back in a couple of weeks and hopefully there'll be crafty goodiness to be seen.