MIA

Busy busy busy. I'll be back soon .............................................. promise

Waste not, want not.

I've been doing a spot of recycling and have come up with a way to use the left over wax from all those scented candles in glasses.  I must admit I do stock up on them when they are on special offer as I burn them in my workroom when I'm in there.  You always get wax left in the bottom though, and being a crafter I never throw anything away that might be useful.  I always keep the glasses they come in and used to melt the wax and pour away.  Not any more though.  While I was having a tidy up the other day I came across some small glasses that had had small candles in and this got me thinking.  I then remembered I had some wicks, so now I've made my own little smelly candles from the leftovers.

I put the glass with leftover wax in the top oven while my Sunday roast is cooking in the bottom oven. By the time the roast is ready all the wax is melted.  I  pop a wick in the small glass and pour the melted wax in.  There may not be enough to fill the glass but that's fine, just put it to one side until the next one and pour that on top. Carry on till its full.  You can make some really lovely striped smelly candles that will change scent as it burns down.

I was also lucky enough to be sent some of the gorgeous new Wink of Stella pens by Kuretake (launching very soon).  Oh my what wonderful pens they are.  The effect they give is similar to Sakura's Stardust pens, but these are even more sparkly and the nibs are much finer so you can get some beautiful fine lines with them.  I have used them on the image below, but it's hard to get a good photo of them.  I stamped the Polka Doodle image onto watercolour paper using Zig Art and Graphic Twin pens directly on the stamps, I then bled the colour out with a damp brush.  And finally drew over all the lines with the Wink of Stella pens.  I love the The Art and Graphic twin pens, they are jam packed with rich pigment and when using them directly on the stamps the ink does not pool like other makes.  I've used a lot of different pens and they all tend to pool when applied onto the stamps so I was very impressed indeed.

Below is my DT challenge card for Polka Doodles.  All the backing papers and paper elements are form the Love and Cherish CD.  I overstamped the main backing paper with some lovey dovey sentiments and the hearts with heart flowers.  I added some clear dewdrops to the centre of the flowers for some added dimension.

And last but not least I have a happy tale to tell.  I learnt of a 10 year old cat that needed a new loving home.  The owner had gone to Chili and left the cat with her sister.  We were told that the previous owner had said to her sister that if she didn't want it to chuck it out, WTF!!!  Well we heard that the sister had done just that as she was in rented accommodation and was not allowed animals (we did find out afterwards that she was feeding it at least).  Anyway I was very upset by this and so were my parents, so they went over to Addlestone and picked the cat up.  They are big cat lovers but really didn't want another cat so we went to work looking for a new home for her.  I posted a message on Twitter to say we were wanting to rehome the cat.  The message got re-tweeted by many people and a lovely lady called Ali contacted me to say her dad had been thinking of getting an older cat.  I sent Ali a couple of pictures of Socks (the cat) and told her as much as I could regarding her temperament etc.  Ali's dad liked the look and sound of Socks, so yesterday they travelled up to Guildford to collect her.  She's now in a lovey rural village with a new owner who I've no doubt will spoil her rotten.  It will take her a while to settle down after all the upset, but once she has she will love it there.  A really happy ending for Socks the cat don't you think?

A right mixed bag

So sorry all, another long gap between posts but I really haven't had time to scratch my you know what, let alone sit down and get my head around blogging.  Between all the traveling backwards and forwards to visit Auntie and Uncle and keep an eye on them, I've been madly working to tight deadlines and getting my tax return done and dusted.  I hate those forms, I really can't make head nor tail of the damn thing, but I blunder my way through it every year hoping I haven't made any major mistakes that will come back and bite me, lol.

Health wise I've not been great either.  My Lupus seems determined to remind me everyday that it's there and not going anywhere.  I did drop one of my medications last summer.  It is actually chemo drugs used for breast cancer, but in smaller doses it can really help several autoimmune conditions such as Lupus.  It did work very well for me keeping the chest, back and shoulder pains at bay, and I only had a few bad flare ups while I was on it.  However as with most drugs it does have side effects, and these finally got to the point where I just couldn't live with them anymore.  So after a very hard decision and a long talk with my Consultant I stopped taking them, but boy do I know it now.  I'm back to all the daily aches and pains and the extreme fatigue.  Heyho, that's life, sometimes you get stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea with no apparent way of getting out.  It will get better though, positive thoughts can help tremendously so I'm not giving up just yet, or getting down about it.  It is what it is, better to find ways of working with and around it rather that than giving in to it, wasting time feeling sorry for myself and getting nowhere. 

Within the family we have also had some turmoil and bad news which has made my blood boil.  It's rocked my faith in human nature I can tell you, and it's made me very unsettled and unable to concentrate properly (just what I need at the moment!), I just can't comprehend how people can act in such a manor and still live with themselves.  So you see blogging has been the last thing on my mind.  I may elaborate more on this story later, I'm just waiting to see what happens next.

Enough waffle.  Onto some crafting bits and bobs.

Polka Doodles has 2 shows on Create and Craft today (Saturday)  at 11am and 3pm. She has some gorgeous new stamps for all and will be demoing her latest CD.  Having spoken to her the demos are going to be well worth watching.  So if you're going out set those recorders.

Kuretake sent me some more lush goodies to make them a Valentine's project.  I decided to do something a little different, so I got a wooden picture frame and a wooden word from HobbyCraft and set to work.  This is what I came up with.  I hope you like it.

Items used were;

Kuretake

Decoration Heart corner punch

Funky Heart punch

Black Painty pen

Gold Painty pen

Zig Art and Graphic Twin pens – 76, 77, 23, 29 and 260

Heart and Triangle clips pack

Queens Gold Embossing Powder

Red Ribbon pack

Red Assorted Fibre pack

Red Gem Accent Sticker pack

Brown Gem Accent Sticker pack

Zig two-way glue

Other

Plain wooden picture frame - Hobbycraft

Wooden ‘love’ word – Hobbycraft

Selection of vintage style printed papers in creams and brown (I used Brenda Walton Maison papers)

Selection of rubber stamps – Rose spray, dotty background, antique script, floating dandelion seeds, flourishes and suitable sentiment (I used Creative Expessions stamps)

Buff, brown and gold acrylic paints

VersaMark Inkpad

It will be on the Kuretake website next week along with the full instructions for making it. 

I have 2 Polka Doodles challenge cards for you today.  The first is week 3's card which was to make a project for a new home and I used papers from the the new cd Paper Boutique III.  The lush spotty ribbon is from The polka Doodles website as well.  The second card is this weeks challenge card (week 4) which was set by Tracie and she wanted to see some party projects.

This is another sample for Nikky using one of the House stamps on acetate, with silver leaf on the back and glaze pens used to colour i in.

Now here are some more cards for you to peruse.  The first one is a valentines card which I used an ATC on for a topper.  The remainder ones are cards that have recently been in Making Cards magazine.

Have a good weekend all and happy crafting.

I'm back ..... at last

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year.  Christmas was rather hectic but then we had a quiet new year to recover.  It has been very hectic since though, hence the neglected blog for which I do apologise.  I won't whitter on today as I have loads of pics for you to peruse.

First up my Polka Doodles design team card from last week.  Now I made a bit of mistake with this one, I have to admit I did make it in a rush.  We had to follow a sketch designed by Nikky (I got that bit and followed) but we also had to use the colours red, white and blue.  Unfortunately my brain just didn't hang onto the latter part of the challenge, so my card is not red, white and blue!  Am quite angry with myself but I'm blaming it on old age stupidity setting in, lol.

All the papers and elements are from Sugar Birdies collectors edition.  The ribbon is by East of India and you can find them at Polka Doodles as well as the CD.

Here are my sample cards for the new Polka Doodles CD, Paper Boutique Vol III. It was a big success and you can get it from here.

 Front

 Inside

 Back

 Front.  I made his coat and bow from checked material I had.

 Inside

 Inside

 Back

 Front

 inside

 Inside

Back

 I made the dogs into cats for this one.  Dead cute don't you think?

 Front

 Inside

 Front

 Back

I've more to show you, but I think this is more than enough for now.  The rest will have to wait for the next post.

Happy Christmas One and All

Right it's a real quickie today, I had lots to say, but time pushes on so I'll keep it quick.

Firstly, I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.  Yeah I know, It may be hoping for too much, but we can all have dreams can't we?

Here are the last 2 Polka Doodles challenges for you.  Don't forget that Nikky has a show on Create & Craft sky671 or freeview36 the the 4th January.  Then she has another show on the 8th Jan launching her new CD, so get those dates fixed and don't miss them.

For today's (Friday 24th) challenge I've made a gift bag from a C5 envelope. My main image is Nikky's gorgeous cupcakes which I've stamped onto pale blue card and used silver embossing powder. I then watercoloured it with Aquamarkers. I'm sorry to to say it doesn't show that well in the photo, I seem to be going through a bad photographer phase at the moment! I've used papers from Paper Boutique Vol1 cd, Tea Dye and Stormy Sky distress inkpads, Martha Stewart corner punch, recycled brown card, raffia and eyelets.

I made fun loving 50 year old card for last weeks challenge.  All the papers and extra bits are from Sundae of Seasons CD. I edged the numbers with a silver ProMarker, first the fat nib then I went round again with the fine nib. I've added adhesive gems, ribbons and added some faux stitching.

 The inside of the card.

Well that's it for now.  Enjoy the holiday period.  Eat, drink and be merry as the saying goes.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Well I managed to get loads of annoying bits and bobs done today, so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself.  I didn't manage to get my Aunties all-in-one working properly though.  I really think these printers are made not quite right just to keep us all annoyed with them.  It's all working except the scanner wirelessly. It's time to contact HP, deep joy!

I do now feel that the light at the end of the tunnel is just round the corner and I will be ready for Christmas. It may not be till midnight Christmas eve, but I WILL be ready.  Well actually I have to be, because I've got to cook for 10 this year.  And all in my slimline cooker (eeeks), I hope they all have big breakfasts before they come round, lmao.  It's going to be a squash in our tiny little home but at least we won't get cold with all that body heat.

It was my turn to set the challenge for last Fridays blog post over at Polka Doodles.  The theme I chose was to make a project that would hold a gift of some sort. 

I made a Christmas cracker for my project and  filled it with jelly beans, but you could put what ever you like in it as long as it fits. All the papers and elements are from Jingle Jangles CD. I just love all the whimsical artwork on it. I added red polka dot and gingham ribbon and used a Martha Stewart punch. I resisted the urge to smother it in glitter.

 

 I had some yummy stash from Kuretake so I set to work on making some samples using them.

Here are the results.

Altered cigar box. I marbled the paper using alcohol inks, then stamped and overstamped using black sparkle embossing powder.  The stamps are by Creative expressions.

 Glass heart. Alcohol ink on the back, Painty pens and an old Basic Grey rub-on on the front.

 

Alcohol inks on mirri card.  Creative Expressions stamps.

 My marbled paper (I was very pleased with the results). Elusive Images stamps.

 More marbled paper and a Polka Doodles stamp.

 A gift bag made from a C5 envelope, decorated with oriental paper, ribbons and brads.

That's enough for tonight, I need some sleep. Take care all.