My Cricut has arrived!!!

...and I can't stop cutting stuff!! I love trying out all the cartridges and seeing the shapes and fonts and tricks and shadows ....... it is a FANTASTIC piece of equipment! Here are some of the cards I have finished. I have used the left over bit to make this card and I really like the effect.

I think the birthday presents look nicer here than if the actual shapes had been mounted.

Then I did some with my Cuttlebug embossers which are still in my favourite pile too. Very simple but gorgeous images.

I have to get some Mass Booklets out of the way this evening and get started on making my own Christmas Cards - wouldn't do to send out shop ones !!! Then I am making lovely labels for the Christmas presents we are giving. Of course I am using my beloved Cricut ...fun fun fun.

Been busy!

Been such a long time since I was on here! In between a mad few days making cards and doing Layouts we went to Manchester to visit relations and I went to London with my Mum and sister to sing in the Albert Hall! What a blast we had. We sang among thousands in the MESSIAH for all last Sunday. It was spectacular. We have sung in Messiahs in the past few years but the venue this year was amazing and it was incredible to be one amongst so many singers.My brother took pics so I must post them when he sends them on.

So another batch of Christmas cards have been completed and another batch await putting together!

I finished some baby Thank you cards for the beautiful Ellie(in the first LO).

Some baby and mommy cards....

My LO for SCRAPWEST this week . Picture quality is grainy - I must review the settings on my camera but the amazing thing about this LO is I have included my FIRST cuts from my CRICUT which arrived this evening from the US thanks to my wonderful and thoughtful darling husband. It is totally brilliant. I have 4 cartridges and have been experimenting and am off to find out more about this most wonderful piece of equipment. I am in LOVE all over again....!!!!

Christmas Challenge

Early in November I decided to participate in a Christmas card challenge on the chat forum on Craftsupplies . We had to put together 5 or more pieces of material and make a card and then send 2 kits of the same materials to a co ordinator(Thanks Sabrina!) who sent them out to different people so they could make a card from your materials! We then had to send pics of the completed cards to Sabrina and today she has posted them on a picture trail album on the form. Magnificent cards and so many different ideas even with the same materials.
Above is my card from Julie's materials and below is my card with Petra's materials. All materials were sent anonymously so we only found out this evening who sent what!

Here are the materials I sent - I really like this stamp from Craftsupplies..............

........and this is the card I made. I stamped with Stazon and coloured with watercolours.Di and Kiki made gorgeous cards with this kit.

The theme last week for SCRAPWEST was books. T got his first book home last week for homework. He will get a new book home every night and we had to record whether he liked it :)

didn't like it :( or didn't think much of it :I

I put the names of his interests at the moment down the spines of the books as I know over the years this will change and I want him to have a record of what he was into at 5.

Nearly December!!

If the kids ask me once more when Santa is coming.....Aaaaagh!!! We had it all worked out that it was T's birthday and then our trip to Manchester and then Granny's birthday and then Grandad's birthday and then it would be December and we could write to Santa and then put up the decorations and then make the reindeer food and THEN Santa would be coming!!!! Will it ever come!



In the meantime I am pacifying myself by making....Christmas cards. Here's one I made using a gorgeous old fashioned stamp from Craftsupplies . I really like the simple excitment you can feel jumping out at you.

Here is my contribution to Scrapwest last for last Friday. I love these funky papers and have loads left for more projects.

We had T's 5th Birthday Party at the weekend and there was a big dilemma over whether we could bring a cake,serve a cake, eat a cake blah blah in the indoor play centre where we went and at the 11th hour we got a call to say we could bring and serve and eat the cake.So we made a 5 cake and himself and his sister made a fine job of the stirring. It was devoured by everyone - children and adults. Not a crumb left over!! Thats to Orla for the recipe - 5 MARS bars and 5 oz butter melted and rice crispies added in - delicious.

Tis nearly the season to be jolly!!

The poem above has been written by an EXTREMELY talented lady. Yvonne O'Connor is her pen name. She is a mother of 9 and grandmother of 14. She began her story writing and poetry career after her last children -twins started school. She is the proud posessor of 4 I.C.A art awards and 13 Brannaras for proficiency in crafts - Knitting,Crochet,Hand Sewing,Embroidery,Patchwork, Lace MAking, Mountmellick Lace, Machine Knitting,Dress Making, Cake MAking, Floral Displays and Gardening!! TAlk about making me feel TOTALLY inadequate!
I am delighted to have designed cards for her on different occassions for different poems she has composed and each and every poem is wonderfully descriptive and evocative. She posted me the poem CHRISTMAS RENDEVOUS last week and I love it.

These are some other cards I have done for the Season. Some decoupage for a change and I really enjoyed doing these.

And finally a sneaky peak at my Layout for Scrapwest this Friday. I used fabby new papers I got from Annamarie in the Scrapbook Store. They are from the OOdles of Doodles collection.Why not give it a shot and copy a link into your comment on Friday? Go on.....

Challenge winner!!

I found out today that I won the Layout challenge on Craftsupplies ! Yippee!! The theme was monochrome with a complimentary colour and something handcut. I used my scraps of bazzil left over from other Layouts and and their fabby letter stamps from craftsupplies .
I've been a bad blogger but am up to it making cards for people so will get my posting act together soon and take pics.

Christmas cards !!

Firstly can I encourage you to pop over to SCRAPWEST and take a look at the lovely creations for this weeks theme " Focus on the photo". I tried to add as little as possible and make the photo stand out by double matting it.

Secondly I have started making my Christmas cards - well it is nearly November and I know time will fly by. This is a Santa Silhouette with Glistening snow on the text.

I love this stamp of the Feathered Friends . I have coloured with watercolours and added glistening snow(can't you tell I like it!!!) under the robins as well.

This is a fabby design for a stamp. I love the way the Christmas Words shape the tree. I have stamped in OPALITE and added platinum liquid pearls for the decorations and a silver bow to finish it off.

These Furry Friends are looking very festive in their Christmas attire and the hats have tiny little furry pom poms on them too!!

A gold version of the Christmas word tree.

Here are the feathered friends again but with out the personalised name - just a Christmas greeting.

Finally I have included a picture of a card of which I have done a few for a very kind hearted lady who is raising funds for the Irish Cancer Society and has asked a few of us card makers to design and donate some cards for this very worthy cause.

Scrapwest & Cork Croppers

What a super day!! I headed off this morning to Carolines Cork Croppers Crop and spent the day in crafting heaven. I had 2 kits from the Scrapwest online crop with me so I got stuck in. There were a few people at the crop who had kits for my class and they did lovely layouts. I love the LO that KAte and Mireille from Crafteire did . A very elegant LO and one I will definitely do again. Thanks girls. The rub on is really stunning and the overlapping hearts are gorgeous.

I had great fun doing Eva's class. A very creative LO and beautiful papers. I just love the way the flap lifts up to reveal the full photo and the story behind it. Thanks for this Eva.



And then we had Caroline's Crop class and we used beautiful Daisy D's papers. I wouldn't normally use such bold colours but I really like the way this turned out. Caroline has such a great way with detail in her LOs and this is one to treasure. I think this picture will go in the photo albums of all my family as it is such a special moment shared between the generations.
I still have more classes to catch up on . It has been a very busy day. Make sure you check out the classes over on SCRAPWEST for wonderful inspiration.

Scrapwest - my class!

ONLY 3 more sleeps to Sunday and SCRAPWEST online crop on Sunday!
I will be using the Gretel papers but if you haven't got the kit or these papers what you can use are -
1 x sheet coloured cardstock of your choice
3 x sheets of contrasting patterned papers( the Gretel papers are double sided so you may need to add scraps of plain paper from your stash - something everyone has!!)
1 metre embroidery thread- colour of choice
Needle for stitching
Ink for distressing paper
White pen for doodling
Button x 1
Glossy accents - if you have great - if not - no worries!

The photo I used is a black & White landscape photo.
Hope you will join in.

Picasa to blogger

 

I've been playing around with my Picasa photo editing programme and have just discovered how to upload pictures to blogger directly from Picasa. This is a trial post...let's see...

A stitch in time

You have to visit SCRAPWEST this week to see some fabulous creations incorporating stitches. Some very unique takes on it. There are still kits available for our SCRAPWEST 1st Birthday online crop next weekend. It will be a great day for getting inspiration as well as sharing your progress online on some of the crafting forums.I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's work and participating in the classes.

Catching up...

Ooh Bad Blogger. I had a ball last weekend at SCRAPFEST. Great company with Audrey, Elaine and Linda staying here for the weekend and great uninterrupted hours of glorious scrapping with super classes. I made amazing LOs under the tutelage of Lainey, Beckie and Annamarie but have yet to get photos to put into them to take pics and show you them!!!! Will get my act in gear for the next post.
I do have a great pic of the kids with a New BEST FRIEND in this house - Audrey!!
She's still talking about you Auds!!!!
My parents came home from a trip abroad and brought their Princess crazy grandaughter these sugar characters. I had to take pictures of them as she ripped into them and decapitated them with delight.
How could she - they are sooo cute. Crying out to be included in a LO.

Eventhough I haven't posted my LOs from SCRAPFEST I have shamelessly lifted the one we did in one of Beckie's classes for a LO I had to do for someone. I will be using this design a lot! Thanks Beckie!

Today we visited my Granny, the kids Great Granny, who had a stroke at the beginning of the year. What a woman. She walked out to the front door to greet us and later proceeded to walk up the yard and into the milking parlour with her Zimmer Frame which is half on wheels!!She'll be 88 at the weekend. I love the picture below of Great Granny and Great Grandaughter.A keeper.