Oh Me Aching Head!!!

Think I might have picked up a bug from somewhere. I woke up with a really bad headache this morning and have felt quite sick all day along with really bad shivers and flueylike achiness all over.
Couldn't get into my cardmaking at all so I gave up and just pottered about tidying baskets out and sorting card blanks.
So just after 11pm and I am going to give in gracefully and go to bed.
The card I am sharing is just one I made using up bits and bobs.......some offcuts of velvet paper and some spotty paper I seem to have had hanging around forever. I did well out of the bits and bobs as I made eight of these in various layouts..just right for my stand at the local shop.
Busy day tomorrow as we will be packing up the last of the shop ready to move it all on Sunday although I don't think I am needed over the weekend as Deb has lots of relatives with vehicles going to help.
Right I am off.......I can barely keep my eyes open which is unusual for me.
Night night
Sheila-x-

DCM-Stockings and Gold

Oh yay!!! I have actually done a DCM dare on the day it was posted and I am chuffed to bits.
Today was Stockings......and not the saucy kind....lol!!! So despite having put a lot of my Christmas stuff away I do still have some stamps out and the little template I drew for the stocking a couple of weeks ago was still lying on my desk so..........the stocking has been cut from two pieces of Stazon/Isopropyl background card I made and this has then been stamped and embossed using a Penny Black stamp and gold embossing powder.
The Swirl and Merry Christmas stamp are from Hot Off The Press clear stamp sets and in hindsight I shouldn't really have embossed the greeting as the detail is quite fine but hey ho.......you learn by your mistakes.
The gems were free in a magazine package that DD bought for me and the stocking has been attached to the card with a little plastic thing from my new tag gun so that it swings.

This is my card for the Gold dare. The scan isn't fabulous because the embellishment I made is quite dimensional.
Background is once again Stazon/Isopropyl......cos I love it....lol!!!
The embellishment is shrink plastic with gold embossing powder and while it was still hot I sprinkled it with a turquoise and gold bead and glitter mixture. I think they are called Accentz and they are from Provocraft.
I have to stress that I did the wire myself..........only because usually if I do anything with wire it looks like something the dog chewed up and I am a bit pleased with how this turned out......lol!!!

Had a very busy day at the shop today. We were packing stock away and taking down the shelves and slat boarding. By 4pm my leg was absolutely killing me again so I reckon something must be a bit out of kilter in there somewhere.....may have to pay a visit to somebody to see if they can put it right.
I was so tired that I dozed off while watching a programme about the Titanic. I hope they repeat it as I think I have seen every film and documentary ever made on this subject.
No more playing for me tonight as I have to make some cards for the local shop. My stocks get very low while I am designing all the time for Christmas workshops and demos so now I have to play catch up with those and I try to make at least ten a day sometimes more if I can.
Bye for now then
Sheila-x-

Strange Day!!!

It has been a very strange day today. I got to the shop this morning to find all of the workshop area dismantled and all of our equipment packed away. Gosh it looked soooo bare. There wasn't much I could do in the way of packing as we are open until Friday and I couldn't make cards as there was no accessible equipment so for the first time in the five years I have worked at the shop I can honestly say I was bored witless. What a strange feeling that was.
Still........when I got home I did have some orders I needed to get done so that sorted me out. Didn't get an awful lot of time after doing them to play but I have started on my card for the Gold dare at DCM........a bit late but I am still playing catch up on the ones I missed as and when I can. No card to post tonight then but I hope to finish it when I get in tomorrow.



We had news today that we can actually move in to the new shop a day earlier than expected so hopefully everything will be moved into there by Sunday night and Monday we will start to set things out. If things go well we could be open by the middle of the week........but that's only if things go well.........lol!!!


I'm off for a snuggle now then. I have gone really cold.....ha.......I have just realised why......somebody has turned my heater off and I was so busy I didn't notice.......that accounts for my blue fingers and toes.


Bye for now
Sheila-x-

DCM-A Song Without Words!!!

Here's my card for this weeks 'dare' over at Daring Cardmakers You had to do a song title but without showing the words. Mine is a bit obvious but I wanted to use some jewel like colours to go with the background I created.
The background started life as a piece of thick handmade paper in off white. I sprayed it with water and then dabbed various dye inks onto a plastic mat, spritzed that with water and then dabbed and dragged the wet paper through the inks.....tis a good idea to wear gloves for doing that as it is quite messy.
Once dried I cut a piece to the size I needed, dabbed over it with a Versamark ink pad and just sprinkled it with silver embossing powder.
The crowns have been handcut.....using a little template I made from a Cricut die cut......from silver miror card that I had coloured using Stazon ink pads and Isopropyl Alcohol. The row of stars at the bottom are tiny peeloffs stuck to offcuts of the coloured mirror card and cut out.



Well I have been into town this morning. The freezer shopping was a nightmare as the store was very busy and just for fun some stupid person has decided that all the aisles need to be narrowed even further than they already are by the placing of dump bins every few feet. Negotiating these with a trolley was bad enough but my sympathy is definitely with those people who need to use wheelchairs or disability scooters as trolleys abandoned halfway between the dump bins made it impossible for anyone to get by.
The trip was topped off nicely by a young lady arguing with her mum....in a very loud and whiny voice.... over a pack of chicken goujons.
I managed a quick dash into Evans and picked up a bargainous pair of knee high boots for twenty quid and a couple of jumpers for a tenner each. Restocked on inkjet printable film, ink cartridges and drawing pens.....and picked up three packs of gorgeous little cards and envelopes from Partners. Grabbed a couple of magazines from the newsagents and that was me had enough and ready for home.
Most of my Christmas shopping will be done online I think as I can't bear the thought of having to go again any time soon........lol!!!

Well I am off to have a tidy up and then I think I might start and box up my Christmas crafting stuff and put it away..........I have seriously had enough of Christmas cards now and I won't need to design any more for the shop for a good while.........ooooooh I am getting all excited thinking of flowers and pretty ribbons and papers and my new chipboard stuff...................I'm gone!!!

Sheila-x-

TGIF!!!!!

The end of a very long week...........I am so out of practice at leaving the house to go to work every day and I am absolutely shattered. Even more so because I have been struggling to walk properly all week due to having something wrong with either my hip or leg. Not sure what it was but it blooming well hurt. Luckily it seems to have gone now.

I did my last workshop on Thursday at Tutbury and Deb has her last one Saturday so the next time either of us do one it will be in our new workroom at the new shop. Deb started taking down the sample cards today and boxing them up so that she could fill the holes in the wall. It looks very bare already and she hasn't done a quarter of the job yet.

I've done a card for the DCM challenge this week but it isn't dry enough to scan yet. I will have to that later so I am posting a Caught In Crystal card done with the Dot and Stripe stamp set from TandaStamps. I have used a patterned napkin instead of the usual tissue for the background of the stamped image and I have also covered a piece of card to use as a layer.


Well hubby wants me to go and do a freezer shop with him today which is a job I hate so I think I will have to insist on a visit to Craft Central on the way home to console myself.......lol!!! I might try and fit in a flying visit round town as I very rarely get in these days. I'll go and see what bargains they have at Poundland and The Works.


Best get to sleep then as hubby will no doubt be waking me up at the crack of dawn.
Bye for now
Sheila-x-

Festive Frost!!!

I promised the ladies who came to my class yesterday that I would post these cards for them to see. They will find them truly shocking as they well know my dislike of pink and lilac.......lol!!!

The papers are from the Festive Frost pack by The English Paper Company.

Well it is now official so I can spread the word that the craft shop I work in......Monks Den Crafts of Tutbury is relocating to Ashby de la Zouch on 3rd December. We will be closing the Tutbury shop on Fri 30th November and will re-open at our new premises on Friday 7th December. There will be a Grand Opening evening and celebration on Friday 14th December from 5pm until 8pm with special offers and raffle prizes.

Customers who have left their details will be notified by post of our new address and telephone number but for ladies........and gentlemen of course who haven't left their details you will be able to find us on Brook Street in Ashby which is just off the main street.

Deb and I are very excited. The shop is gorgeous and we will have a lovely new workshop area upstairs away from the sales area which we hope will be a much more comfortable experience for both class members and shoppers.

I don't know how much card making I will get done over the next couple of weeks as we have lots of sorting and packing to do.

Right..........I had best go and get some sleep. I don't have a class tomorrow but I do have to design some new cards for our last class at Tutbury on Saturday which need to be 'not Christmas' so I need to give my brain a bit of a head start.

Bye for now

Sheila-x-

Another Catch Up Card!!!

This one is for the Circle of Friends dare.
Checked paper was printed from the computer.........I don't know where it came from so it must have been a free download from somewhere.
Image is from the Hug Club....printed twice the top layer has been cut. I glued the bottom edge and foam padded just under the hat to make it look like he is popping out of the card.
The snowflake border stamp used as tabs is from a set of Cuddly Buddly stamps sent to me by Rubbadubbadoo.
Sentiment is a 99p stamp from Craft Central.
Finished off with pen stitching.
I know this isn't my usual style but I just love the Hug Club images and have been collecting them for a few years now. I have nearly two hundred collections....fifty of which are Christmas. They don't get used very often......I just like looking at them...lol!!!

Well it is snowing here............yay!!!!! Bring it on.....I love it. Hubby is grumping about it but only because he knows it winds me up....lol!!!

Watched Harry Potter last night and I think I would have preferred to stare at a wall........what a load of boring rubbish. I shall be glad when the whole thing is done with and I don't need to watch them any more. Apologies to all the hard core fans but it just bored me rigid.

Desk is in desperate need of a tidy up so I had best go and do it as I need to make space to get the paper trimmer out to cut a few card blanks......not that I don't have hundreds already.........just not the right size as you might guess.

Bye for now

Sheila-x-

Catching Up With DCM!!!

I have managed to catch up with three of the 'dares' I missed and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing all of them. It made quite a change to do something I wanted to do and not something I had to.

So here we go.................... Piles of Presents

I hand cut a pile of presents from blue glitter card and then cut the lids again and attached them with foam pads.

I added hand drawn swirls and punched glitter snowflakes, wrapped it with silver ribbon and added a tag with the bow.

Snowmen and Snowflakes

Making this card did me a huge favour as I have used up nearly a whole sheet of silver snowflake peeloffs on it and as I am trying to banish everything but peeloff lines from my craft room I was very pleased with that.

The snowman is a Hug Club image which I have cut and layered with foam pads.

.....And Cut

Hand cut tag and holly leaves.

The tag is stamped with a Hero Arts stamp and the holly leaves are stamped and embossed using a Creative Expressions Christmas tree stamp which is made up of dots.

Paper is Hot Off The Press.

Crikey......I need a lie down after that lot......lol!!! I still have a few to go but they will be a bit slower coming as I have some jobs to do now and then I am at the shop every day next week on my own and I need to get stuff ready for the three classes I will be doing.

Best get cracking on that as DD has just gone out to buy the new Harry Potter to watch tonight.

Bye for now

Sheila-x-

Who Nicked Monday,Tuesday and Wednesday?!!!

Not wanting to cast any aspersions whatsoever on all you lovely bloggers and blog readers out there..............but someone must be stealing all these days and keeping them for themselves...lol!!! I turn my back for one minute and whoooosh there goes another day when I didn't get to do all the things I meant to do.....it's very scary.

Anyway I have a couple of cards to share today. These are made with some very nice Craft Creations papers that we had in at the shop and the Dot and Stripe stamp set from TandaStamps.


This first card is much better IRL.....the ribbon looks burgundy on the scan but it is actually red. No fancy techniques really I just stamped the baubles onto dark green card and again onto some of the patterned paper which I then cut out and glued over the green card.
For this card I took inspiration from a layout by Joanne Sanderson which was in the Christmas issue of Beautiful Cards. It was just perfect for the three circular stamps from the Dot and Stripe stamp set.
At the moment I am working on a card for the Pile of Presents challenge which was this weeks Little Extra over at DCM so I will hopefully get that finished to post tomorrow after I have attacked the huge pile of laundry that seems to have appeared from somewhere. I hate washing.......well I do in the winter as my tumble dryer is in an outside store and it is flippin' cold out there and my workroom doesn't get warm as I am in and out all day fetching dry stuff in and taking wet stuff out.
Well I am going to make myself a nice cuppa and the I'm going to read for a bit.
Bye for now
Sheila-x-

Daring Cardmakers-Getting Corrugated!!!

Yayyyy!!! At last I have had a bit of time to sit and make a card for the latest dare over at Daring Cardmaker's I have really missed these dares while I have been too busy to do them and am hoping to catch up with the ones I have missed over the next few weeks.
This weeks dare was to use corrugated card which I have to admit is not one of my most favourite things to use on a card but I do have a few bits of it lying around which could do with being used up.
So for this card I have used a tree shape (which I cut on the Cricut) as a template to cut a tree from very dark green corrugated card. This and the strip for the side have been dragged over with a white Stazon ink pad to lighten the colour a little.
The red background paper is a paper bag and the tiny 'Joy' sign was purchased from Cally's Christmas Cottage.
I used a white gel pen to add the writing and the stitching.


I have a little crafty tip for you..........I have always hated using those wedgy make up sponges for distressing the edges of cards........they just don't seem to work too well for me.
Anyway the other week I unpacked some MM flowers and brads and the brads were pushed into some quite dense foam which I thought would be a shame to throw out so I have cut it into wedges and it is fantastic for distressing with inks and also for applying chalks. Using this foam with chalks you seem to be able to apply much deeper colour than when you use cotton wool.
I have quite a pile of them now as I have also purchased some Dovecraft brads which came in the same sort of foam.
Hope you find this tip useful.
Well I am off to do a bit more crafting before dinner. Hubby is cooking today and hopefully it will taste as good as it smells.


Bye for now
Sheila-x-

Blogging In Daylight.......Again!!!

Well this is becoming a bit of a habit. I usually update my blog in the wee small hours when everyone is tucked up in bed and I was going to do that today. Unfortunately I couldn't get near the computer as I had been having a bit of a sort out and the poor thing was buried behind a pile of boxes which I didn't feel like moving at 3am.

Hubby has let me have the cupboard under the stairs as extra storage space so I have been moving things about and putting stuff in there that I don't use that often or that is too big to fit in my room. I now have a relatively clear work space......wonder how long that will last......lol!!!

The cards I am sharing today are a couple more I did with the Hero Arts stamps.
The Mona Collage Tag is the Caught In Crystal technique but with a slight twist......I used Christmas napkins instead of plain tissue. The one I used makes a beautiful background as it is gold and beige with small snowflakes in it.


The background for the wisemen card has been made using the Cuttlebug Swirl embossing folder. I then used Opalite Nordic Ice over the top of this and embossed with one layer of clear embossing powder which gives a fantastic texture and doesn't make the piece too thick or heavy for the card.
For the main piece I stamped onto black card using Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder then again used Opalite ink pads in Sterling Frost and Nordic Ice to add the colour.


I am having a lazy day today.....well lazy for me anyway....lol!!! I'm all snuggled up in my workroom with a tidy desk so I am making a few more cards for the local shop after that I will try and come up with a few designs for workshops and samples for the shop. I have an embarrassingly large pile of new stamps that have not yet been touched including all of the new Hot Off The Press clear sets.......well I couldn't just pick one.....they were all gorgeous...lol!!! What's the betting though that it will take me three hours to decide which stamps to use.


Right best go and start deciding then.
Thanks for dropping by.
Sheila-x-

I'm Back!!!

Oooooh I can't tell you how great it is to be finally done with going away for this year.

Totnes was fabulous as usual. Dave, Liz and the staff at Finishing Touches gave us a very warm welcome as always. Lots of familiar faces at both the demo and the workshops and some new ones too and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

I spent an obscene amount of money while I was down there in Finishing Touches and at a gem of shop in Buckfastleigh called Cally's Christmas Cottage. If you like American Primitive and Folk Art style you really need to visit this beautiful shop. Cally is a lovely lady and she didn't bat an eyelid at a mad 50 year old ooooohing and aaaaahing like a five year old in a toy shop.

Much as I love doing the classes and demo's the designing, planning and preparation is very hard work..........not that I am going to be putting my feet up much you understand. I have a list of jobs as long as a squids tentacle which need doing both workwise and housewise. Also the shop I work at is relocating......hopefully at the end of November but possibly the end of December. Deb and I are very excited as the new shop is absolutely gorgeous. I'll give more information when we have a definite date.

I have a few new cards to share with you. Dave asked if I would do my demo with the new collage stamps from Hero Arts..........how could I refuse.......lol!!!

So the first card is done using Alcohol Inks on silver card. I applied the inks in single colors using Raisin, Denim and Stonewashed inks and then overstamped using one of the stunning corner stamps from one of my Fancy Pants stamp sets. All of the gems were clear to start off with and I coloured them using peeloff pens.

The image is stamped in White Stazon onto black card and attached behind the aperture. I stamped the smaller image onto the piece I removed and mounted it on a foam pad.

The second card is just stamping and layering on Dovecraft Christmas papers and Bazzill card.


Well I ought to go and get some sleep. I am not quite up to scratch healthwise at the moment. I've had a very sore back and hip for a couple of weeks and I have also been snookered by another ailment........details would be too much information but suffice it to say I think I am single handedly keeping the cranberry juice industry going..lol!!!
I have just about managed to get through the last two days at work but thankfully I have Wednesday off and then a long weekend to look forward to after Thursday.
I was going to the NEC on Friday but DD bought my Christmas pressies down in Totnes so we are not going to bother. We're going to have a lazy day at home instead watching DVD's and getting our strength up to finish off some decorating jobs on Saturday.


Bye for now
Sheila-x-