Burble along with me in my dream world

To live is to craft and to craft is to live-plus more homely bar room philosophy from a former barmaid and library assistant

Thursday 21 May 2009

Slowly coming round

Papers Shabby Princess free download
Card from stash (some years old but all from Paper Mill shop) and a fantastic match for the paper. Knew it would come in handy if I kept it long enough. Alphabet stamps are years old too from Jennie Hulme at The stamp connection. Just checked and she trades as www.theartisticstamper.com but I couldn't find that alphabet which I suspect I've had for about ten years.
Brads are Making memories and I got them from Arty Miss last week. It's the first time I've bought from them and their offers seem too good to be true or gone by the time you check them out but this time I did succumb quickly enough

Base card is Craftwork Cards Back to basics printed with a design from the Funky Fairy Boys and Girls collection. The Funky Fairy herself is coloured with promarkers (I've not got many so my colour scheme was decided for me almost).
Background is some lilac card which I've been very sparing with 'cos I don't know where it came from and I've not got much left. Hope I can find some more. I love to make those mounts smaller so that it gives the image more impact. Think you'll have spotted cuttlebug embossing and nesties.

Must still be weary as managed to delete a whole load of stuff instead of centering it as I meant to-ah well. Keep to the side and don't try to be clever.


This week I've made a couple of cards for family birthdays and thanks to Paul at Crafty blogocks my printing has improved dramatically and I visited Shabby Princess and got a great free paper download which I used to make the blokey card . Thanks also to Shaz at Funky fairys papercrafts I've now got a proper funky fairy 'cos she's made her available as a download.

Tuesday 19 May 2009

For further instalments of this thrilling saga

Keep watching and I might have time to tell you what else I've been up to in between trying to catch up with the cleaning. Cleaning always gets left 'cos people with FMS have to choose. Fun or duty and with me fun comes first. Eventually the muck gets on my nerves or we have visitors imminent so cleaning gets the upper hand but only for a short time.
Friday we're off to see The Hot Club Of Cowtown at Bury Met with some friends.Hope this link works as I've never tried doing this before but it should take you to a video of Jules Holland on New Year's Eve.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr8My5Uo0gE It's ages since we went to any live music so I'm looking forward to it and hoping I can stay the course.
I've got some piccies of jersey cows and a shire horse from the show as well so I'll have a go at posting them. I don't know what I do to the piccies but when I move them they won't enlarge any more. There must be another way of doing it. It's like stumbling in the dark.

Time to tell all (and try to keep it brief HA HA)


This is what some of it was about.


Back in April it seemed a doddle to enter five classes in Otley Show. Produce and handicrafts that is. Then it became a matter of pride and as I throw a paddy if I don't win (a bad example to my niece and nephew) I had to put everything to one side and concentrate. Besides I like to think I might inspire someone else to have a go.



Otley Show is the first Agricultural Show of the season and is the oldest in the country. It's a wonderful day out, very neighbourly and friendly but with stiff competition from my little sis there were reputations at stake. She beat me! That's why I got a second, but only in the jewellery class. She doesn't have as much spare time as me so I wasn't up against her in the other classes.



The most thrilling moment was seeing the look on my DH's face as he got to the soft toys. I knew I'd won as he looked at me and I will never forget that moment. I couldn't get a shot of my dolly so I took one in the bedroom at home. What you can't see are her little knickers trimmed with lace and ribbon. Squeezed them out of a scrap of fabric that I had left.So my secret is out. I don't just papercraft, I like to make other stuff especially jewellery although I haven't done any for a while I've got the bug again since I browsed the book I got the idea for the lariat from. I fancy having a go at another dolly too. I've been told to plan ahead for next year's show by DH-trouble is they don't always have the same classes so it's not always possible to plan ahead. I'll post another piccy of my necklace which I took at home. It's from a book by Carol Wilcox Wells called The art and elegance of beadweaving. I'm not taking orders by the way. It took me about three weeks of graft to make it and it was a labour of love and obsession. In case you're wondering the technique is called spiral rope and it's done with one beading needle and a lot of thread!

Friday 8 May 2009

Quick one for Jeanette




Couldn't resist a peek at the dashboard and spotted another follower and it's Jeanette who is the Stampin'Up rep round these parts and any other parts for that matter 'cos she'll post to wherever so I've popped these on to show her (and all the rest of you) that I am using the stamps I bought from her. Who is James you might ask? Well he doesn't really exist but I'll tell all later as I'm still a bit pushed for time.

The little alphabet was 99p and there were a lot of them about last year but don't know if they are still available as everything seems to come and go very rapidly these days

Thursday 7 May 2009

GOTTA LOTTA COMMITMENTS. AARGGHH!!!

Sorry folks. No blog for a bit. Will tell all when I've got things under control. For the time being it's off the computer and on with full craft mode so TTFN.

Saturday 2 May 2009

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Thanks for the feedback

Piccy to accompany this post is blogged separately 'cos I'm having probs since I did a big update yesterday.
I love to bloghop but I'm not always as dedicated about posting. On my travels yesterday I read about Spyder and her problems with sizes of cards. She's left me a comment which made me realise that perhaps a few of you don't know about this handy bit of kit. It's all because I don't get out much and I don't drive(long story). Any energy I do have I like to spend on stuff I enjoy doing plus trying to keep chez nous in some sort of order. Food comes into it somewhere. Credit where it's due, my DH irons and shops (and reads this blog-yoo hoo).
Back to thick cards, if you're following this.
What you need is a "pricing in proportion" ruler made by Helix. I've had mine a while now but I'm sure they will be available in any good office suppliers. Mine came from Staples and was about £2.00ish (I never remember what I've paid for something 'cos once it's paid for that's it and I wipe it from my memory banks). It's handy to print some little labels you can include with your cards if you sell them. I scribble mine at last minute but I have a plan to make something more posh which says something along the lines of "The beautiful card you have chosen has been handmade with love. If you post it you will need to use LARGE LETTER POSTAGE. Don't risk losing it in the post for the sake of a few pence." Something like that anyway.
Just in case you think I'm organised go back to the beginning of my blogging days and you'll find piccies of my craftroom on a good day.
As for other matters, well I'm struggling to set up my elderly scanner to work with my reasonably up to date computer. I've never bothered since I got it in 2007 but now I've got the Pazzle I want to scan drawings. Thought I'd cracked it yesterday but no-I'm missing something which is available somewhere but wasn't included in Vista 'cos it's old.Grrh. Stupidly I put off doing it while the message was on screen and now I've got to go to Microsoft website and find it.
Needles, haystacks, blind leading the blind and many other phrases spring to mind. My brain hurts and on top of this I got my Craftwork Cards newsletter this morning which says I can now follow them on TWITTER. As I've not even got to grips with I Pods/ Blue Ray and what's the other thing ah yes MP3 players how am I going to fathom TWITTER. Do I need to fathom it after all we are talking about cardmaking? I can blog and text and take passable piccies with my digital camera and I do know about pricing in proportion rulers.
Crafting has been the main driver in my quest to master new technology which is strange when you think that it's all to do with a handmade end product.