IF YOU THINK IT'S TOO EARLYFOR CHRISTMAS LOOK AWAY NOW!

Hi All

I'm back. I've not drifted off into cyberspace or got fed up with my blog or anything - I love blogging - writing my own and reading everyone else's little slices of life. Rather, it's been challenging times. Some stuff quite frankly I could have done without (is it just me or are emotional crises more draining as you get older) and some stuff so exciting I've done well not to burst at times! Life as a rollercoaster in all its colours and hues. And I've been from inky black to zingy pink and back over the past few weeks.

But let's concentrate on the good. Smiley face. Big drum roll...... On September 1st I'm launching a little sideline company I've been working on in my spare time called "The Cat's Pajamas". I hasten to tell you that this is not a burlesque troop as I've been asked, but a very respectable (ha ha - as Janet would say) events company. Although my friends at Running with Scissors did volunteer to join if it was a burlesque troop and Tracey does have some tassels in stock I believe. Calendar girls eat your hearts out!!! I'm setting the thing up on a shoe string - or should I say a tassel! My daughter Alice has fashioned me a web site (thank you Alice!), I've got an email address and it's all coming together. So exciting. Hope you'll all keep your fingers and tassels xd that I get a couple of bookings! If you get a minute check out my site http://www.catspajamasonline.co.uk/

I've started making a few christmas cards. I saw Lorraine had posted her first one so I thought I'd share a couple of mine. I love The Night Before Christmas poem and have been hankering after the stamp (from Clarity Stamps) for a while. I've not done anything too fancy with the cards (mojo exhausted!) but I'm loving the little mouse asleep in the shoe. My other card uses an Inkadinkadoo stamp that mum bought me last year from Running With Scissors (thanks mum!) and I love it too. He's so easy to paint (always a bonus with Christmas cards!), I like choosing his hat and scarf colours and his twiggy arms are fab!

Back soon with more news and crafting!

FREEDOM

Dear Reader

This card is for The Sugar Bowl Challenge No 40 - Do It Yourself. The use of a Sugar Nellie stamp was needed but you could pick any of the previous sketches on the blog to use for the card. I chose no 33 (I think!) which was a fairly straightforward sketch that I'd missed. I like The Sugar Bowl Challenge as I love all the Sugar Nellie stamps and am always keeping my fingers xd that I win! I used up some papers I've had a while - MME, along with tonal bazzill and ribbon from RWS. I coloured the image which is Leanne Ellis's Annie with Tim Holtz distress inks and added a tiny tag on the birdcage. I used a couple of fabric butterflies as embellishments.

I loved the idea with this stamp of letting the bird go free. I think the stamp is called "Fly Away". Abroad last year in Croatia I was wandering through the back streets of Dubrovnik when I came across a host of birdcages, home to all manner of exotic coloured birds. They were beautiful but I always think there's something sad about caged animals and birds and I was itching to open their doors. For goodness sake birds were meant to fly! For some reason I took a picture of this orange bird, perhaps to take my mind off letting them all out and risking arrest lol - and the Dubrovnik birds came to mind again when I started making this card and I rooted around and found the picture. The irony is that as much as I dislike birds in cages I love bird cages themselves - I've got four in my house (ornate ones not blue plastic like the one in the photo in case you're wondering). None of them have birds in although one has one sitting on top of the cage! Makes no sense. Anyway, in my card the little bird is just plain brown and she's being set free. Perhaps I'm thinking that sometimes in life it's best not to be too showy!!

LORNA'S FIRST CARD

Dear Reader

Here's my friend Lorna. She's not keen on this picture but we were having fun last Christmas on a night out so it always makes me smile. (The guy is a very old friend John wearing a traffic cone hat. Don't ask).

Actually, I always thnk of Lorna as my jigsaw friend. I see her now and again through the summer and every week in the winter when I play for a ladies pool team but without fail we always get together over the Xmas holidays to do a jigsaw. We started when the kids were small doing a jigsaw on Christmas Eve in the vain hope that it would calm everyone down. Fat chance! But it became a tradition and even though all our kids are grown we still do the jigsaw, although now it's done after Christmas and in a slightly calmer environment, me with a bowl of pistachios and Lorna with a box of Celebrations. Oh yes, we know how to push the boat out lol

Anyway, last Christmas Lorna was looking at some of my craft projects and said could she have a try at making something. It's took us til last Saturday afternoon to get it together and make it happen. But happen it did. Lorna wanted to make a card but wasn't keen on painting an image so we dug around my stamps and she came up wth this fairly large 'Happy Birthday' stamp. She then looked through my papers and after a great deal of thought chose some from my old faithful K & Co pad. That pattern book is certainly a good workhorse - I've been chopping at it for about a year and it's still going strong! Anyway, Lorna took to crafting like a duck to water and I think the card she chose and made above is just fabulous. I think we may have a new craft addict, as she left (at 6 pm after four solid hours crafting saying "Wow that was fantastic" so if you see a lady looking like the picture above wandering into Running With Scissors, say 'Hello Lorna - how's the card making come along" !!!

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY - ONE STOP CRAFT CHALLENGE

Dear Reader

Here's the card that I posted the other evening. One minute is was there on the blog and the next 'puff' it was gone! Where to I don't know - it'll be up there in the ether somewhere I'm bound, along with all my other missing emails, reports and stuff. Not to be deterred I've posted it again! Well I like the card. I'm entering it for the One Stop Craft Challenge. Can't claim the design as I got the idea to decoupage the small bunch of flowers from a card I saw at Doncaster. It's funny how some cards just appeal to you and stay in your head. Being a lover of small tags - no smiles thank you I'm keeping this blog clean - I thought the flowers would be the perfect excuse to use one, along with a ribbon to tie them together. I've gone for a monochrome look as a change from pink and green (hurrah! they all shout) although I've sparingly used some green glitter to decorate the middle of the flowers. I love black and white with just a hint of one colour. It's a device I've often seen in films. Probably a funny thing to do or maybe it was an extremely long traffic tail back but one trip away when the girls were just getting into cinema we all sat and thought of films which were mainly black and white but used colour for effect. The one that always stands out in my mind was "Schindler's List" or was it "Schindler's Ark" (always get the book and the film muddled) with the little girl in the red coat walking through the ghetto. The author had her in a red coat in the book but using it as a device in the film was absolutely mind-blowing - edge of your seat stuff. I think another one was "Dead Men always wear Plaid" but I may be wrong . I'm sure Alice will put me right, as all that talk of films has given her a love of them and she now works at the cinema in Leeds and still adores watching them in between selling popcorn. Not quite sure how I've got from a missing photo to my daughter working in a Leeds cinema but thanks for looking in.

Googled in Goole

Dear Reader

Well it's been an age since my last blog. Where does the time go? I got a message from my lovely friend Janet to say "where are you?" and I suddenly realised that I'd completely disappeared off the blogging radar map. Sorry Janet. It's been a bit busy but no excuses really. I did have a bit of a week last week work-wise. The week went downhill from Monday. I had a meeting in Goole on Monday evening and got lost. I worry about getting lost in strange towns as I am directionally challenged so had taken the precaution of googling the address and a map of the company I was going to. I set off in plenty of time too. It was that baking hot day and the temperature in the car was hovering around 30 degrees and I was melting, travelling down the motorway with both windows open and conequently unable to hear anything on the radio and worrying about sucking in flies! When I arrived in Goole - after only a small town centre traffic jam - I only had to stop once at a garage for directions before finding myself at my destination. Congratulating myself and sighing with relief I turned to look at the company headquarters. OMG - the building was boarded up and everyone had gone. Of course I got on the phone and found out the company had moved (wish Google had moved with them) and set off again but by the time I'd found the new place I was a quarter of an hour late and extremely hot and bothered. Got in the meeting and tried to give an air of 'I know what I'm doing really' by putting on my reading glasses to study the agenda but as I put my head down my left lens fell out and bounced off my saucer. Really not my day.


Anyway, have been doing some crafting and below are the results of my endeavours. The first card is for The Sugar Bowl Challenge, which I followed the sketch for and used the theme which was to use the colour blue. Thanks to all the DT for the inspiration.I used a Sugar Nellie stamp and coloured in with distress inks. The image is outlined with China Blue distress ink The beige patterned paper is K & Company and the blue papers are from my stash - I think one was Bazzill. I decorated the card with a tiny baby shoe which I won in Jane of Jane's Lovely Cards candy giveaway a while back. The prize included six charms and they were all lovely. The ribbon is from my stash and I chose it to co-ordinate with the china blue ink.
















I've booked a table for the Chamber at the Ball below. It's being held by a Chamber member Nicky whose mum has been fighting breast cancer. Nicky and her husband Colin have arranged this event to raise money for breast cancer charities and Nicky has written to loads of celebs and local business people to ask for prizes for the auction she will be holding on the night. I'm currently saving up to be able to bid for a couple! I've crafted this card to send to my guests who are coming along on the night, along with their tickets and details of the auctions.

Last weekend I visited the Doncaster craft fair and came upon a stand called The Studio Partnership. They specialised in crafting technique/paper called Decopatch. I was quite taken with their examples and bought several sheets of paper to try it out at home, as I had lots of alterables in my bottom draw waiting their turn to be altered. Well, I have to say its the easiest craft in the world but very effective, with quick results and I think a nice finish. Perfect for little gift boxes or for anything that's a slightly funny shape. I used my papers on a mirror, an oblong box, a round scalloped lid box and a lovely photo frame that my crafting friend Lynda bought for me recently (thanks Lynda - it's lovely) and put in a picture of Maurice and I on holiday this year. And yes, before anyone comments I know I did pick predominantly green and pink papers but I'm still stuck in the pink/green rut with no sign of coming out of it yet! All you basically do with the papers is randomly tear them into small pieces and stick them on to your alterable with a pot of special paper glue. The boxes and frame were done with this technique but the 60's style altered IKEA mirror paper was cut into squares and placed a bit more carefully(unlike my finger which you can see in the mirror lol). The trompe de l'oeile picture is one paper stuck randomly and then one paper cut into the indiviudal motifs and added,. Can't say I'm overly keen on this one but I thought I'd blog it so you could avoid it! Maurice likes it though so perhaps it's a matter of taste..... Don't have a website for the company if anyone fancies a go but if you Google Decopatch you'll come up with lots of companies that do it - worth shopping around for best prices. A great summer holiday craft idea if anyone has young children or grandkids to entertain on wet days. Sorry about the sun shining and shadows on the photos.

Here is a card I made with a new stamp I bought at Doncaster. I really wasn't supposed to be buying any more stamps but I just fell in love with it. It's Penny Black. The spotty card and matting and layering card (bazzill) was from my stash and I added a tiny punched Woodwasre tag and a ribbon. It's for a friend not a Challenge. I have done a similar one in black which I'll post tomorrow as I posted it in this blog and it's disappeared. Doh!

I made this card one evening to use an image I'd coloured in some time ago. Someone at craft crop at RWS lent me the stamp after I'd admired it and I can't remember for the life of me who it was. Oh the shame! Anyway, thank you very much and in my defence I think it was some months back. Anyway, finally got round to making up the card when I came across some K & Co paper that made me think of the coloured image. I like Sarah Kay images - they remind me of the 70's! I've matted and layered using Bazzill and used some flowers given to me by Tracey (thanks Tracey!) with a jewelled brad and some pearls from RWS.

Phew that was a long blog! Thanks for reading........

SUMMER'S HERE

Dear Reader

Here's a card I made for a commission for a lady who wanted a card with her grandaughter's name on it. And what a lovely name it is too for a little girl born in August. I bought the stamp from RWS and I think someone in the shop suggested swopping the stamped 'legs' for string ones. Can't remember who it was - maybe Jane - but thanks for the idea if it was you Jane. I then had to think how to hide the string legs and Tracey came up with the idea of stamping the image twice and hiding them between two layers of skirt. Cracking idea! Thanks Tracey. And I thought 'Well if it's good enough for the skirt we'll double up on the crown too, just to add a bit more dimension. So I did.

I cut the image out which was a bit on the tricky side and matted and layered it onto a Me and My Big Paper Pad paper, cut round with a Martha Stewart round the page punch. Yes, now I've discovered how to use it I can't stop! I tried not to go too overboard with decoration - as that was the brief - so just used some pieces of a Prima rose swirl and some individual half pearls to decorate. But of course the fairy got stickled to death. I made the top sentiment using my Xyron print machine. The little hearts were from my stash, as was the bottom sentiment which may be a Kraftworks one but may not be. Can't remember. Anyway, Anne - the lady who commissioned the card - seemed pleased with it this morning so that was a relief! I'm promising myself that my next card is not going to be pink and green as I seem to be in somewhat of a rut with the same colours. But I had fun making it which is the main thing.

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE WILDFLOWERS

Dear Reader

I just had to stop this morning and take a couple of pictures to share with you of the wildflower border along Humberston Road, Cleethorpes (or is it Grimsby Road Humberston - never sure as at one time we had one signpost on one side of the road and another quite different on the other side). Near the Cleethorpes Tesco......

Anyway, I've been noticing something 'happening' there but today in the sunshine with all the pinks, purples, blues and whites bobbing their heads in the breeze and enjoying the fine weather it was in its prime and absolutely stunning. There are hundreds of tiny flowers, most look like some kind of cornflower but there are other bits and bobs in there too (not a wildflower expert as you can tell!). OK, don't expect showy actors like the cultivated roses, peonies or azaleas we have in our gardens or floral soldiers planted in lines and patterns of the kind we find in local authority bedding schemes , but in my book this border is so subtle, so understated and so so pretty. It runs for quite some distance, starting just past the Pear Tree pub restaurant and if you're in the area take the time to check it out. I did get a couple of funny looks as I screeched to a halt, leapt out of my car and started photographing the verge but hey ho I like flowers! I'm guessing it's been planted by the Cleethorpes in Bloom people and what a wonderful job they've done. I love it when we have something to celebrate in our area. Yes, I know it's just a tiny thing but someone somewhere has come up with the idea, planted the seeds and they must be bursting with pride now that it looks so good. If I'd done it I'd be marching up and down with a sandwich board on saying "Noticed the border yet?!" There are no empty patches, no vandalism (although I bet a few schoolkids might be tempted to pick some for their mum), just a sea of nature's finest for the whole community to enjoy. My idea of floral heaven.