I Hate To Say This.............

.........but I HATE PAPER!!!
Well maybe that is a bit strong but after a day spent sorting and filling stands full of paper it is not my favourite thing at the moment.....lol!!!
I used some very bad unladylike language when a piece of paper sliced into an existing cut on my finger......oh gawd it did make my eyes water I can tell you.
Still the paper room is coming along now and there is only all the card stock to put out in there and it needs sweeping and mopping before Friday but I am not there again now until early Friday morning and we will be opening at 10am.
The shop is looking fabulous now that we have a lot of the stock out and Deb is taking a male friend with her tomorrow to help with all the heavier lifting and DIY jobs.
I am so shattered that I just can't face any cardmaking tonight so I am sorting through my files on my computer and moving all my archived cards to CD's......I have filled four so far.

Anyway I came across these projects which I thought might be a bit of a change from cards. They are some things I did when I was designing projects for Rubbadubbadoo and these are using some Celtic sets. This little Tag Book has been made using mountboard and a Sizzix die.

All the colouring is Fluid Chalk Ink and stamping is Stazon Jet Black.

The jigsaw pieces have been triple embossed and attached with PVA glue.

Lengths of fibres threaded with beads adds the finishing touch.

This Draughts board and game pieces was a labour of love and took me days to complete.

The board has been made so that it folded into a box which I made to go with it. The stamped squares were cut, stamped and attached individually.

The game pieces are stamped circles of funky foam which have been heated and stamped. They have then been coloured with Rub On Waxes in red and green and then edged in gold. Once cured they were glued onto circles of mountboard to add a little weight to them.

My daughter and I actually had a game with this.

Unfortunately I don't know where this is now as I sent it to somebody at the office.....(he knows who he is..wink, wink) and I have never seen it since. I reckon he thought it was rubbish and binned it.....lol!!!

I have a few more things to show you tomorrow which may give you some ideas for Christmas gifts.
I'm off for a Radox bath now to soothe my aching legs and feet.
Bye for now
Sheila-x-

Random Ramblings!!!

Just a quick blog tonight I'm afraid as I am up rather later than I should be given that tomorrow is the first day in the new shop and as it involves a half hour car journey I need to be at the boss's house for 9am. I didn't have to leave until 9.30am before and was at the shop in 15 minutes.


Didn't get any cardmaking done at all today as we had visitors this afternoon and they never left until 11.30pm.
I have found this card in my archives which I only did the other week and I thought I had posted it but can't find it on here.
Anyway the stamps are Elusive Images and I absolutely adore the Three Kings stamp.
I bought it as a single UM years ago at the NEC but they now have a set out with other stamps on it too and I have used the set as this card was for a workshop.
I drew a template for the shaped card front using an EI's worksheet as inspiration The blue paper has been dabbed with a Versamark pad and a fine fine sprinkling of silver EP has been added then heated. This gives a very subtle effect which doesn't show up too well on the scan.
The purple paper has been stamped with other stamps from the set.
The Three Kings have been stamped in Stazon and embellished with silver glitter and turquoise jewels.


Right I had best go and get some shut eye as we will be busy tomorrow unpacking all the boxes we just packed the other day. I expect I shall be shattered when I get home.
Night night
Sheila-x-

Daring Cardmakers-Birds

The 'dare' this week over at DCM is to make a card featuring birds. Now I am not very partial to birds I'm afraid after a traumatic incident when I was younger so I don't really have any bird stamps to speak of. Luckily I had a pack of the gorgeous Periphery papers from Basic Grey which has a couple of sheets with birds on. So this card is just a very simple one using papers and elements from the pack with a stamped sentiment. The stamp is from Creative Expressions.

The traumatic incident involving the bird was when I was about sixteen. I laugh about it now but at sixteen I was somewhat nervy and babysitting for the first time for a couple who lived in a house on the very edge of our village surrounded by fields and woods.
So I was sat watching TV.....can't remember what I was watching but knowing me it would have been a drama of some kind......all of a sudden I heard this flapping sound which just about frightened the life out of me and I just froze in my seat... like you do....and listened to see if I heard it again and the next minute something landed on my head and got caught in my hair. You can imagine how hysterical I was....lol!!!
So there was me running madly round the lounge trying to get this thing out of my hair which I eventually did and it turned out to be a flipping canary. It had escaped from it's cage in the corner of the lounge which I hadn't noticed when I went in.
I never sat for that particular couple again and I am still very nervous of anything that flies although I adore robins. Especially if they are like little tennis balls on legs.

Bug thing seems to have gone now thank goodness but the leg problem is back. At one point tonight it was so bad I had to resort to using my walking stick which I haven't used for years so I really must go and get it checked out. I'll see if it settles down a bit over the weekend as I did spend six hours today packing stuff at the shop which could have made it seem worse.

Anyway I am off to do a bit more of something..either tidying or cardmaking. Not ready for sleep yet.
Bye for now then
Sheila-x-

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-