On Christmas Eve

I've been so busy lately that blogging has been scarce, sorry about that. And now my lappy is poorly and has been taken to PC hospital, so no pictures to add of cards or my gorgeous Christmas tree as they are all on Lappy and not on this PC. It's all a bit inconvenient as the PC is in the drafty hallway and my feet freeze, Brrrr.

Well here's a couple of pics to make you smile, giggle or go Aww. The first one is me and my brother, poss 1967.
And this one is my Mum, but I really couldn't tell you when it was, lol.
So just a quick post today wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Enjoy yourselves but stay warm and safe.

Luv Dee xxx

Christmas is coming....Yay!

Well the panic is well and truly setting in now. I still haven't finished all my Xmas cards and I've only got a few pressies so far. OMG what am I going to do, I have never ever been this late. I'm normally all done and dusted by now. It's been a real strange year that's all I can say. Well there has been some good bits, but the crappo bits are winning the competition this year that's for sure.

Before I go further, A mahoosive thank you to Kate and Nikky for sending me Gower Cottage Brownies last week. I can't thank you enough for the thoughtful gesture and they really were much appreciated, with not a crumb missed. I even grudgingly let Colin have one when he came home at the weekend, lol. And I did put a few crumbs on the side for Bilbo. He loved them too, so it seemed fitting to leave him some. They were gone in the morning, so someone enjoyed them. If you've never tried these brownies then I urge you to try them, they are heaven in a box make no mistake. Ordinarily I don't like brownies but these are so delish and scrumptious that you just can't stop eating them. Seriously they are nothing like all those yuckie shop bought ones that are dry and cakey with vile lumps of chocolate in. Just no comparison at all. There is a link to the online shop on the side bar if you fancy a treat, or if you want to send them to someone else. An excellent Xmas pressie for those people who are difficult to buy for. There is even gluten free and dairy free varieties available too. I've ordered a few for pressies this year I have to admit.

If you'd like a chance of getting your hands on a Making Memories Slice machine then hot foot it over to A Card 4 U's website. They're giving one away this month so it'd be rude not to now wouldn't it! link on the side bar.

I've done a bit of playing this week and I'm quite pleased with the results. Firstly I've decorated some candles. It's the first time I've tried this, and although they're not perfect, they're good enough to be given as pressies to a special couple of friends for Xmas.
How did I do it? Well it's actually quite simple and easy and if you look on YouTube you'll find several clips. Firstly stamp your images onto tissue paper with a permanent ink pad. I used a gorgeous stamp set by Blond Moments which can be purchased from Art From The Heart (link on the side bar)(Dyan I hope you likes what I did with em). Then I coloured them in with watercolour pencils and water. Then roughly cut them out. Place an image on the candle where you want it, then wrap a piece of good old fashioned greaseproof paper round the candle. Holding it tight at the back, heat the area with the image with a heat gun. The image will sink into the candle. You'll see a colour change through the paper, just don't go mad and over heat, or you'll end up with a melted candle, lol. Add the remaining images as before and voila it's finished and looking very swish.

And another little make over, but for me this time. I bought myself some tiny inexpensive clear glass baubles. I covered them with VersaMark ink and sprinkled with Blond Moments iridescent embossing powders (available from Art From The Heart as well as above stamps) and a few other ranger embossing powders then heated with a heat gun. While they are still hot add more powder and reheat. A brilliant way to get the colours you want, but remember to make sure they don't touch any lights on the tree, or the coating will melt if the lights get hot. Ooo and remember to hold them with tweezers while you're doing them to save burnt fingers and hang them up till they have cooled.

I just love them, and had a whale of a experimenting and mixing the powders. They're going to look stunning on my tree. If you've got bigger baubles why don't you try stamping small images on them and embossing. A larger Bauble with embossed snowflakes would look gorgeous don't you think?

And a few more pics of cards made from KaJeD Designs (available from A Card 4 U, link on the side bar). Nikky and Dyan skip past the first one, I don't want to be responsible for making you ill. Blimey the second one as well, LMAO.

I used the digi stamps on these ones

I'm rather fond of the reindeer images, can you tell?

From the papers .......

Take care all xxx

Angel wings

Some very sad news for this post I'm afraid. Sadly I lost Bilbo yesterday morning, he's been ill for a while and has fought like crazy to stay with us, but on Sunday evening I noticed he was a wee bit weak and wobbly on his back legs. I knew instantly that it was his time and took him to the vets on Monday morning. The vet confirmed my fears that there really wasn't any more we could do for him and it was time to say farewell. Bless his heart he kept purring right up to the last moment. He's well and truly earned his angel wings and he will always have a special place in my heart.

Over the weekend I was busy making some cards with KaJeD downloadable papers, available from A Card 4 U (click on the link on the sidebar if you're interested in them). . The first few use the digi stamps and backing papers, the cardstock is all available from The Paper Mill Direct or their shops. I coloured in the stamps with Copic pens, I hope you like them.

These ones were all made with the craft sheets and backgrounds.

That's it for now, take care all and keep warm.

Exciting news...... whoopeeeeee

At last another post, and a long one too, so grab yourself a cuppa lol. There's very good reasons for the long gap in between, but I won't bore you all.

It's been a very eventful couple of weeks with trips to the hospital and doctors and so much more, that I can hardly remember it all now. The old memory has taken a battering as well, but what's new there then.

A huge thank you to the lovely Ems of The Little Brown Rabbit blog. I won her giveaway and chose a beautiful print from her Etsy shop. I'm looking for the perfect frame for it them I'm hanging it in my bedroom where there's no danger from being damaged by the sun (not that we get that much, but I'm not taking any chances). There's a link on the side bar for both Emma's Etsy shop and blog. Take a peek she really does have some beautiful prints, paintings and cards.

This is a card I made for Michele to sell for the Candyfloss Animal Sanctuary, the papers are By Crafty Individuals, the text stamp is by Illusive Images, and the tree stamp is by Art Stamps (I think) sorry too lazy to go and dig it out to check. I partly covered the tag with versamark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder, I also clear embossed the moon behind the tree at the bottom of the card. Sadly it doesn't show that well in the photo. Oh and I nearly forgot, I highlighted the tree with a white sukura glaze pen. That reminds me I have just had the red and green glaze pens come into my possession, thanks Amanda, they really are lush, I lurve em. And I didn't even know they had done them till you told me. Don't know how I managed without them, lol.

I've been doing a spot of shopping too, so I thought I'd share a few of my purchases with you. I bought these beautious gifts from The Laural Tree Shop. There's loads of gorgeous gift ideas in this lovely little shop. Not living that near the shop I ordered it all online. Brilliant service and very well packed. There is a link to the online shop on the sidebar, just click on the picture.

And I treated myself to a new pair of boots (or should I say the credit card did). Well I didn't have a lot of choice, my sad old pair had completely worn through, and I was fed up with getting wet feet when I took Sammy for a walk. It took me ages to find a pair that was comfortable and warm, but I finally found a pair in Ecco's.

And I just had to put in a pic of my sheepskin slippers. OK so they are actually boots, and they came all the way from New Zealand. Considering I get chilblains on my feet in the summer it's essential that I keep my tootsies warm, and these fabarooney boots do the job real well. I'm on my fourth pair, and in my opinion they are far better than Uggs.

And here is Bilbo having a chocolate mousse treat, it's one of his faves and he goes right to the bottom of the pot and gets it all over his face. Sammy's always on hand to help him wash it off though.

Sammy even shares his food with him.

And her royal plumpness Baggins having a snoozle on the cushion.

And drum roll please. KaJeD Designs have at last been released for sale. You can buy them from A Card 4 U (link to the shop on the side bar). The most mahoosive thanks to Julie for going to so much trouble and making it all possible. There are 5 sets of craft papers, 1 set of additional backgrounds and loads of digi stamps. I've put a few examples of the stamps on here, but please go and have a look at the rest, and please let me know what you think of them. Right just lost one of the pics of the paper bundles so you'll have to check it out on the website. Is it just me or does it drive you crazy when you try and tidy it all up, and poof your picture disappears!!!

Take care till next time, and please leave me a comment. xxx

I've been given a Blog Award

The very lovely Kirsticoo http://onemadmoo.blogspot.com/ gave me this award this week. Thanks for thinking of me! But should I be worried that it's for over the top?
The rules are: I need to pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know I left this award, and then I need to answer a list of questions in ONE word. Yeah right, like that's really gonna happen, as the queen of waffle I don't do one word answers, well not often anyway lol.

Well here we go, spot the one word answers, lol:

1. Where is your cell phone? … Haven't got a clue right at this moment

2. Your hair? … Straight, light mousey brown, with gray coming through

3. Your mother?… Guildford somewhere!

4. Your father?… With Mum

5. Your favourite food? … Sunday Roast rib beef

6. Your dream last night?… I couldn't possible comment on that

7. Your favourite drink? … Full fat Pepsi of course

8. Your dream/goal?… Sorry not enough room on here

9. What room are you in?… Living room

10. Your hobby?… That might just be craft then

11. Your fear?… Thumping great spiders with hob nailed boots on

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?… Somewhere hot and dry

13. Where were you last night? … Same place I am now

10 (Libby's birthday tea) sorry no question here chaps!!!

14. Something that you’re aren’t?… Normal!!!

15. Muffins?… Not keen on any

16. Wish list item? … World peace, ooo sorry thought I was on the stage in my tiara then

17. Where did you grow up? … Guildford

18. Last thing you did?… Fed the animals

19. What are you wearing?… PJ's and rather fetching dressing gown

20. Your TV?… Which one?

21. Your Pets?… 2 cats, 1 dog and a tank full of boring fish

22. Friends? … A few, scattered all over the world!!

23. Your life?… All over the place

24. Your mood?… I'll let you know later on about that

25. Missing Someone?… Yes

26. vehicle?… A red one

27. Something your not wearing?… A bra

28. Your favourite store? … Sorry just not enough roon for this either

29. Your favourite colour?… Purple and Blue

30. When was the last time you laughed?… this morning at Sammy

31. Last time you cried?… last week

32. Your best friend?… Jo down in deepest Cornwall at the mo, who knows where next year

33. One place that I go to over and over? … the Vets

34. Facebook?… No

35. Favourite place to eat?… The Cider House just outside Chichester, Gorge food and Cider

Well I did manage a couple of one word answers. Wonders will never cease

I'd like to pass this on to some people who give me loads of inspitation, or are just plain lurvley peeps and make me laugh. Thank you all. Dyan you would have been on my list but you've already been given it.

1. The very lovely Ems http://littlebrownrabbit.blogspot.com/

2. Fabrizio http://craftingmad.blogspot.com/

3. The talented and witty Kirsty http://www.limegreenbogiegirl.blogspot.com/

4. Leonie you never fail to make me smile http://leoniepujol.blogspot.com/

5. Julie http://lovefibres.blogspot.com/

Thank you one and all.

Please help, we need your cards.

Just a quickie to let you all know I'm still alive and not buried under one of my many paper mountains.

I'm sorry it's been a while, but I've not even had time to scratch my you-know-what let alone blog. In the next couple of days though that will be rectified, honest.

Before that though, I have a request. There is a very special lady (Michelle) in the Republic Of Ireland that needs our help. Can you spare a few hand made cards or even other small handmade items to help her raise money for her animal sanctuary. Michele is battling against the tide as it were and really does needs our help. Please read the piece below, which explains all about CandyFloss Animal Sanctuary and the wonderful work she does.

For further details on where to send anything on to, please email Lynne on the address below

CandyFloss Animal Sanctuary
candyflossanimal@aol.com


Hello!

Thank you very much for enquiring about our Sanctuary. Before I explain about the animals I would like to explain how we came to be here.

My Partner and I are originally from the UK. My life long dream was to have an animal sanctuary, but I was too busy working and bringing up three children to do anything about it although I always had several dogs and cats. Once my children had gone through university and had started out on their own life’s adventure, my Partner and I decided to take the plunge…….

I was aware that the issues concerning animals were much worse in Ireland than in the UK so we looked for, and found, a small farm in the mid-west of Ireland. In May 2007 we packed up and with our own cats and dogs came over and settled in.

As soon as word got around that we were opening a sanctuary we were inundated with animals. We were horrified to discover that cats are classed as rodents over in Ireland. They have no rights and no one to stand up for them. Cat ‘flu is at epidemic proportions, as is FIV and FeLV. Kittens are regularly thrown out of moving cars or tied up in bags and left by the roadside to die an horrific death. Indeed, we have several cats that were literally “thrown over” our hedge into our pig meadow. Cinders, one of these kittens, suffered a broken jaw and was blinded in one eye by the impact of being thrown. Happily, she recovered and is one of our many house cats, although her jaw is still slightly crooked! We have several cats that were just left in boxes by our front gate in the middle of winter. Many suffered hypothermia but all have thankfully recovered.

It is almost impossible to re-home these cats. Primarily because no one wants them and also because they almost all have cat ‘flu (or are carriers) or have FIV. Both of these viruses mean that they have to be house cats in order to stop the virus spreading. In Ireland there is no such thing as a “house cat” unless they are pedigree cats. There are some wonderful people over here that trap cats and neuter them and then release them; this stops breeding but doesn’t stop the viruses continuing to spread.

There are probably thousands of feral cats living in colonies which all have one or more of these viruses. It is truly heartbreaking to see them.

Dogs, although technically protected by animal welfare laws, don’t fare much better. Neutering is still something that many Irish people don’t agree with, so there is constant breeding of crossbreeds and they are unwanted and discarded. Collies and Lurchers are not treated much better than cats – they are at the bottom of the dog hierarchy in Ireland.
Most dogs are kept outside in sheds or small kennels and never allowed in the house. Many roam the streets all day – this is “normal” here. We have re-homed some dogs to caring families and sent many more over to the UK or Scandinavia to be re-homed.

We currently have 18 dogs living with us. Six dogs are our own that we brought over with us from the UK and the rest are dogs that we have taken in or been given here. Most have come to us with either behavioural or psychological issues and are unable to be re-homed. All of them live in the house and have their own comfy beds (but usually end up in a pile on our settee, while we sit on hard chairs!), with regular meals, and a huge field to exercise on. They all get on very well together and we rarely have any problems with arguing. This takes a great deal of time, training, rewarding and patience but the end results are well worth it.

Laddie, a beautiful black and white collie, was brought to us by the garda (police). He had been found wandering in the town centre. His collar was a makeshift one – two pieces of belt attached together by staples. The staples had buried into his neck so that every time he turned his head he was in agony. It took us a month to get this collar off him as he would bite you if you touched his head or his neck – understandably. Two years on and he is a happy contented boy, but he will not tolerate a collar or lead.

Hannah, a yellow Labrador was brought to us by someone who had found her wandering down a country lane. She is not a young dog and appears to have had several litters as her paps are hanging at almost ground level. Her hind legs are deformed – possibly from broken knee joints and her claws curl around her pads. We think she had been kept in a small shallow kennel where she was unable to stand up properly and possible used as a brood bitch; perhaps thrown out eventually as she was too old to breed from any more.

Barney, a St Bernard, was kept for all his two years in a cow-shed and never exercised. It took us almost three months to get him to come into the house. Even now, he will go and lie outside, even in the rain.

These are just a few of our stories about the animals we care for. There are many more stories, but too upsetting to recount here. We also have a rescued goat called William, who was brought to us by the ISPCA after being rescued from life in a filthy horse box, and four pigs – two we saved from the bacon factory, and two pot-bellied who had been living inside a terraced house for six months! The pigs have their own sheds and field to run in (and share it with two feral cats) and William has his own field and shed. He runs with the dogs every day on the field and I don’t know who enjoys that more, the dogs or William!

We don’t receive any financial help from anyone and cannot register as a charity because both my Partner and I are disabled. We fund everything ourselves. My dear friends on Twitter, who I cannot thank enough, picked up on this and have offered to help us by making cards for us to sell to raise funds. I make cards in my spare time to sell for funds, but don’t have that much spare time……. Martyn Parker – who I also cannot thank enough – has offered to spread the word as well, both on air and on Twitter and Facebook.
Our main concern is the constantly huge vet bills we have to pay. If you can help in any way – by sending me cards to sell, or even some die-cuts so that I can make cards more quickly – we would be so grateful.

Thank you so much for your enquiry, I have attached a few photos of our animals for you to see.
(Sorry folks but I can't get the pictures to load at the moment. If I get it sorted I will add at a later date. Dee)

Take care,

Michele

Due to the cost of postage to the Republic of Ireland, any cards/card making materials you donate can be sent to a UK address for onward posting. Thank you.

Bye for now, luv Dee

My mini portfolio

Sorry all, it's been a while again. I have been busy though and very tired, so between the two I haven't had much chance to concentrate and update.

First things first, Bilbo came home last Sunday and is doing quite well all things considered. The vet sent him home with eight pills a day though, poor little sod, it's a good job he's really good with pills or I wouldn't have any hands left now. If it was Baggins I'd have Bob Hope with that lot. I nearly fainted when they told me the amount on the bill though. two nights, 3 days, a scan, a drip, a full blood test and meds adds up to an average weeks wage. Funny how you never see a bankrupt Vet. Still Bilbo is worth it, he's fought all this time and is still very happy and interested in what's going on around him, so I have to do all I can for him.

Sammy is continuing to grow and get into all sorts of mischief. Today he pulled out the telephone wire from the sky box and chew it up. Not a habit I want him to get into, the little monkey.

Remember the plaster piece from the previous post, well this is the card made up. It didn't end up as I had planned. I was going to stamp a reindeer onto metal, play with it a bit then put it on the plaster panel, but Mr ticky-tock time had other ideas.

And this is what I did with the other bits I showed you. I made a little mini portfolio, it's quite cute and shows a few different styles and techniques.

I made a stencil of diamonds from an acetate sheet and dragged an inkpad over the holes to make the backing paper, then overstamped with a stamp from Grahicus.

Perfect pearls on this page. and a spot of digi scribblings for obvious reasons. I actually quite like the scribbles, I'm going to have to remember that one. You never know what else I can use it on lol.

There are more pages but it's just pages of photos, so a bit boring to put them all on here.
And will you look at this, now don't faint, my work room is T.I.D.Y. Or at least it was till today when I started on a new project. I had to capture it it all its neatness (well neat for me anyway) just so I can prove it does get sorted every so often. lol

I kept the old cat scratching post as it's perfect as a stand for Lappy so I can keep an eye on emails and twitter while I work, hehehe. Can't quite make the cat's understand that it is no longer their post. You'd think the lack of rope might give them a clue, but no, they's still be scratchin on the cardboard tube.

Well that's all for now, take care till next time.