Major Catch Up & Why I Haven't Posted in a While {Sad Story}

Hi everyone, it's been almost 8 months since I last posted!
Gosh, it's a wonder I still have any followers left!

When I last posted in August, I knew that the next time I post would be in September, as I had a lot of birthdays that month, I guess I just never got around to it, and figured, 'oh I will post the pics at Christmas when I so my Christmas cards', however, my Christmas cards didn't photograph very well at all! So I though, 'ahhh screw it, not posting these pics'. On a better note, I got an awesome camera for Christmas!

Then in January, I got some news that would change my life forever.
At the time, I had taken up cross stitching again, which is another reason why I hadn't posted here, but I digress, (I will keep the story short and skip out a lot of details)...

In the early hours of 16th January, my younger brother went missing after a night out in the town with a friend.

At around 00:30, he became seperated from his friend, at this point he must have decided to make his way home. He was last seen about an hour later by a policeman, but because he wasn't aggressive he wasn't taken in, and because he wasn't paralytic no ambulance was called.
Yes, Steven had had a drink or two, but he wasn't a big drinker, so alcohol probably affected him quicker than some people.

The next two days there was an extensive police search including the force helicopter, dogs, police divers and boat, policemen on foot and horses. And of course all his friends and other people who knew Steven, and even people who didn't.

Sadly, on the 19th January Steven was found by a member of the public walking their dog, floating in the river.
When the ambulance arrived he was pronounced dead.

He had accidentally drowned.

Just one night and my baby brother was gone.

We had his funeral on the 2nd February, and we are trying to get back to normal now, though life without Steven will never be normal.

Steven, 08/03/88 - 19/01/11 - Aged 22

And this is why I am back. Steven always liked getting my handmade cards, (probably mostly for the money included in them though lol), and he wouldn't want me to stop doing something that I love, plus I have decided to start selling my cards for charity, one of which will be RASS riverandseasense.com which I have recently become involved in.

Anyways over the next few days you might see some changes to my blog, I thought it was time for a new layout. I am happy with this one, but I want to change this white part to a pink colour, but I can't see in the code where it is, so I will have to have a play with that.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, I got an awesome camera for Christmas (I also got a Robo Lite!!!), so I have re-taken pictures of cards that I still had in my possession, so I will re-post those over the next few days.

Anyways, first up is a card I made for my Mum for Mother's Day. Which came as a complete card kit in a magazine, though I chose to omit the card it came with, and used my own.

Remember you can click on the image to view in full detail, and now that I have a new camera, the full versions won't be all crappy and blurry lol

I made a bit of a mistake in the top left corner, so I covered it over with a prima flower lol

I would like to enter this card in to the following challenges:

• One Stitch at a time: Mother's Day/Babies
• Creative Inspirations: Mother's Day/Mum
• Alota Rubber Stamps: Use Green on card (Only just about managed this I think!}
• The Crafty Pad: Mother's Day
• Ooh La La Creations: Mother's Day/Special Friend
• Craft Your Days Away: For Mum or Special Lady
• Aly's: Spring {Nice Spring flowers! And Mother's Day is in Spring!}

And that is all for now.
I will be back with more posts later!

PS. I am having a hard time trying to follow blogs at the moment, but I will keep trying!

Green Card

Another new card today.
I've used a Penny Black stamp set that I won earlier in the year and have only just got around to using! And I will be using it again as I loved colouring it in!
And after playing around in PSP I managed to get my photos to not look so blurry, so much better quality pics today lol

Isn't that little hedgehog so cute!?!
And even though I do say so, I like the way I coloured in the bird, who is attached to some acetate so that he hovers above the tree. I did take a video of me flicking him but it is sooooo dark, so I will try again tomorrow in daylight lol
Also to add more dimension I snipped away at the little hedgehog to give him bristles, but you can't really tell on the photo :(

A side shot, to show the acetate.

I would like to enter this card in to the following challenges:

• Ooh La La: Spots & Dots {spots on the panels}
• I Love ProMarkers: Use Acetate {I used acetate to make the birdie hover - I hope this counts!}
• Penny's: Anything Goes
• Delightful Challenges: Animals or Insects using Dots and Stripes {I have two animals, dots on the panels and stripes on the backing paper phew!}
• Cute Card Thursdays: Trees or Leaves {I have used a tree lol and the flower to the left of the tree has a little leaf}

Recipe:

• Penny Black Stamp Set
• PaperMania's Creative Tones backing paper {the stripes} 'Olivine Essence'
• Claire Curd's 'Big One' paper {dots} which I coloured over in a Mint ProMarker to darken it a little as it was far too light.
• Prima Flower
• Self Adhesive Pearl in the centre of the flower
• Silver Mirror Board
• Green Card stock
• Sentiment which was also coloured with my Mint ProMarker
• ProMarker colours used: Mint, Grass, Pine, China Blue, Azure, Cool Aqua, Cocoa, Cinnamon, Lilac, Rose Pink, Peach, Blush, Gold and Cool Grey 3
  

I Really Should be a Better Blogger!

OMG I haven't updated since April!
Then again, I really haven't done all that much crafting since then.
I promise I will do more crafting and update my blog more often from here-on in!! I promise!

Anyways, here are the few makes I have done since then, including a couple of kitting projects I am working on. Be nice, I am a first-time-self-taught-knitter!

Oh yes, and I have had a birthday recently too and got some new crafty pressies, including more ProMarkers, Jewellery making stuff and a few other bits and pieces.

Large Marilyn Twisted Découpage. Needs a sentiment putting on it.

Smaller Marilyn Twisted Découpage. Needs a sentiment putting on it.

Smaller Marilyn Twisted Découpage. Needs a sentiment putting on it.

Large Audrey Découpage. Needs a sentiment.

Large Audrey Découpage. Needs a sentiment.

Father's Day card for my Step-Dad.

Owl Card #1 from the C&C POTW in July, which I got for my birthday.

Owl Card #2, which my son and I made for his school teachers.

Knitting Project #1 - Day 1 - I totally *heart* this funky furry wool!

Knitting Project #1 - Day 2

Knitting Project #1 - Day 3

Knitting Project #1 - Days 4 & 5 - Not much done as I was hunting out a loose thread lol

Knitting Project #1 - Day 6

Knitting Project #1 - Day 7 - Againg not much done as I was chasing another loose thread lol

Knitting Project #1 - Day 8

Knitting Project #2 - Day 1 - For some reason this seems a lot softer than the other blue project, yet it is the same type of wool?

Anyways, that is all for now.
And I WILL stick to my promise, as I don't want to keep lumbering you all with these long rambling posts and lots of pics in them lol

Catch Up

Time for a bit of a catch up, firstly a card that I just finished making, I did make a matching envelope too but I forgot to take pics before I put it inside the envelope to be posted lol
I used my own sketch for the layout.
The card itself is for my younger brother who has just moved out of home and into his own flat with his girlfriend.

The front, I used all new goodies (see below), on this card.

The inside with one of the new papers I got :)

A side view (before I put the flowers on it, because I only just remembered about them after I took this picture lol
As you can see I printed out the digital stamp 4 times (it has 1 dog and the house, but as it was for a couple I thought it would be a nice touch to add a second dog). I popped up the original dog and the ladybird then I also popped up the second dog along with the sentiment, which I hand-wrote and then I finally popped up the whole image from the card. I also drew a little bow for the second dog
I coloured with Whispers brush markers and chalked the sky and added a little chalk to the grass also, so it blended a little above the 'grass lines' and around the flower heads.

The sketch I made and used for this card.

And finally, some more goodies that arrived in the post a few days ago all from madaboutcards.co.uk
6x6 'Secret Garden' papers by Papermania (£1), 4x Fabric Flowers (40 per pack @ 50p each!), 4x Duo Snag 'Em stamps (50p each!), 3x Sticky Ribbons, 1x Black Ink, x2 ATC Backgrounds, Kimono Decoupage sheet, 2x Double sided tape, 2x Music Embellishments, Miniture Oriental Postcard embellishments

What a bargain too, everything was either 50p or £1 and the sale is still on so get yourself over there!


Card Recipe:

• Card Stock
• 6x6 'Secret Garden' paper pack by Papermania
• 'Welcome to my Home' digital stamp by Elizabeth, available here from Softpencil on Etsy
• Butterflies & Flowers Sticky Ribbon by Papermania from stamps.co.uk
• Fabric Flowers
• 3d Foam Squares
• Whispers Brush Markers
• Faber-Castell Chalks for the sky, grass and her cheeks. Colours used were; 146 (sky blue), 101 (white), 141 (delft blue), 171 (light green), 280 (burnt umber), 188 (sanguine) and 182 (brown ochre)
  
• Double sided tape
• Scoreboard
• Bone folder
  

Thank You Card made by my Son :)

I thought I would share this card that I helped my 10 year old son to make for his Great-Auntie Sandra, to say 'Thank You' for the watch she gave him, which belonged to my Uncle Steve before he died last month.

As always click on the images to enlarge :)

The card along with the matching envelope that I made.

Close up of the card.

A better shot?

And the envelope.


Recipe:

• White card stock
• White paper stock
• 'Girl with Flowers' digital stamp by Elizabeth Pujalka from Softpencil on Etsy
• Papers including the paper to make the envelope from The Big One by Clare Curd available from Stamps.co.uk
• Tags from Papermania's Designer Shapes from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Brown Ribbon from the Papermania Couture Brown Ribbon pack
• Green Ribbon from the 'Naughty but Nice' Smirk Embellishment Tote from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Butterflies from a 'Butterflies and Hearts' pack I picked up from a local craft store
• Standard colouring pencils
• Faber-Castell Chalks for the sky and her cheeks. Colours used were; 152 (middle phthalo blue), 146 (sky blue) and 119 (magenta hell)
• Diamond Stickles from madaboutcards.co.uk from edirectory.co.uk

Also I received my latest bacth of goodies that I ordered a few days ago, which I can't wait to get using :)

A5 Watercolour Pad (from artdiscount.co.uk), Reeves Watercolour Tube Set (Just £4.49 from artdiscount.co.uk) and a Fiskars Paper Crimper from (Amazon.co.uk) which I specifically got for next years birthday cards after seeing this tutorial from splitcoaststampers.com

Altered Notebook

I altered this notebook before I went to Leeds to visit family last week.
It was kind of a rush job, which is why it isn't as pretty as it should be ;)
Anyways, I just kinda made it up as I went along, but I did take photographs along the way so I thought I would share it with you.
As you can see I made it to take notes in about my family tree as I have been researching it for a while now.

I used an A6 £1.49 spiral notebook from Sainsburys.

Flip to the back of the notebook and take the back cover off.

Then go to the front and take the front cover off. (You have to take the back cover off first to be able to get the front off).

Ribbon is optional.

Adhere ribbon to the inside of the front cover. I used double sided tape.

Do the same to the back cover, then hide messy part by adhering white card over the whole covers. I used a regular hole punch to punch out the holes.

Pick out your papers and adhere to the outside covers, you can also adhere to the inside covers too like I did. I used papers from the Laura Ashley Traditional collection designer pack.
Then when you are done with adhering the papers onto your covers, put the front cover on first, swivel the spiral around then put the back cover back on.

Embellish as you wish. I used the scallop border of this Fiskars shape template on another Laura Ashley Traditional sheet of paper.

I then stamped a pattern on to some card stock along with some papershapes from Papermania and wrote 'family tree notes' and inked around the edge of the panel.

As I said, it's not the prettiest of notebooks, but it serves a purpose.


Recipe:

• A6 Spiral Notebook from Sainsburys.co.uk
• Laura Ashley's Traditional papers from ArtyMiss.co.uk
  
• Ribbon from a box of Thornton's chocolates lol
• Floral Foam Stamp from Papermania
• Paper shapes from Papermania
• Whispers ink (Will look up the exact colour later) from madaboutcards.co.uk
  
• Whispers Brush Marker Pens from ArtyMiss.co.uk
  
• White card stock
  
• Double sided tape
• Fiskars Shapes Template from Amazon.co.uk