And to round off...

...a busy week.

I have spent today at the monthly Artbase workshop/crop.

We finally got to do the BoBunny board book that Emma had planned to do earlier in the year - kits didn't arrive on time so this was held over for a later date.

I have completed the book but not added any photographs or embellies yet as I need to re-size some pics.

I'll let you see it in more detail when it is all done..................

Cards, and...

...more cards.

Wednesday was the monthly card workshop at Dawn's. I look forward to this every month as it is always a fab day of crafting.

Although the day started a bit breezy it turned into the most wonderful day which was easy to enjoy as the class is held in a marquee and lunch was served on the patio.

A bit of stamping, embossing and colouring produced this cute card and we made an envelope from scratch to go with...

I wasn't sure what to expect from the description "flap, flap, flap" but this pretty silver and pink card was the result. It did take a lot longer than Dawn had hoped because a lot of the die-cut pieces had to be released from the backing card by cutting round with a craft knife (unfortunately her Cricut had been playing up and wasn't cutting correctly :o()

A card for a teenage girl complete with a mobile phone hanger. The image was stamped on card to create the topper image which was duly coloured in. The phone charm was the same image stamped onto shrink plastic...

The tag card has to be my favourite of the day - not just cos I love the idea but also the colours. Embossed mirri board on the cover and some stamping/heat embossing...

...inside was just like a flag book with various decorated tags...

Lunch was 'brill (as always) - a hot & cold buffet, quiche, salad, new potatos, eggs, ham, sausages, pickles and fresh bread. To round it all off was a fab individual fresh strawberry pavlova mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Cos it was so warm in the afternoon we had icecreams instead of cake with our tea/coffee.

Roll on next month.......................

The Wedding...

...with the snakes.


Saturday 27 June saw Connie & Peter celebrating their wedding with friends and family.

A friend of theirs had made their cake stand specially for them so that the theme of the two cobras was continued - the cake looked lovely...even if the top tier did have a very large sugar spider on it LOL

The happy couple looked fabulous in their gold & cream outfits.

The pair will be winging their way to the jungle to enjoy their honeymoon (more snakes & spiders)...have a wonderful time....................

More...

...Wedding cards.

This time for a friend.

Pete & Connie's wedding is next week and I have really struggled to come up with a design for their wedding card that I thought would be suitable.

I have spent much of today 'titty-vaiting' and have come up with two cards...

I have made a card with a cutout inside displaying dangling hearts and a "hide & seek" card - I think I will be giving them the cut-out card.

A sheet of A4 pearl card foldeed in half, a second sheet with a heart shape cut from the centre and folded like a 'w' and some hammered gold card for decorating inside the spine and down the edges. Cream organza ribbon, some gold peel-offs and some glitterations border strips.

...tried to keep it classic but un-cluttered.

The hide & seek card came out better than I had hoped (only the second one I have ever made) but I'm not sure the couple would understand the mechanics behind the design.

I love these cards and the fact that they hold a surprise.

A sheet of A4 pearl card 'w' fold. Two A5 sheets of hammered gold card - folded lengthways and slightly trimmed. Glitterations border strips and alphas plus a selection of gold peel-offs. The trickiest part of these cards is probably the cutting and folding of the base card to allow for the gold card to slot in - then it is just a case of decorating.

This card will go into my card box and hopefully I'll be able to give it to someone who crafts and will understand the workings.............

Ouch...

...ouch, ouch!!!

Yesterday I took Kristy to Basildon to collect the photos she had ordered on-line from the various pics that folk took of the wedding...just a few photos...202!!!

As she also wanted to take a look around to start getting a few bits & pieces for her and Dan's new home I decided the normal car park I use wouldn't be suitable as it has a 2hr limit.

Basildon claims to have a specific car park for disabled use - anything less suitable for disabled folk I have yet to see. Only a handful of parking spaces have an area blanked out for ease of getting a wheelchair user in & out (the blanked out area is only on one side so the bays are not overly wide). Worse still are the remaining bays...unless you are about 2ft tall and drive a Noddy car there is no way you can get a disabled person in and out of the vehicle - it is hard enough for an able bodied person. So Kristy had to get out of the car before I could park it.

Fun & games...huh...that was just the start...

I went to get the ticket from the machine and as I turned to go back to the car I tripped and went flying - what I thought to be an uneven area turned out to be the start of a sloped area of paving (unmarked). Luckily I had trousers on but it was still very painful.

Here are some pics of how the damage looked this morning (sorry they are not best quality but it was a little difficult taking them LOL).

Grazing to the heel of my right hand...

Bruise on right hip...

Graze & bruise on left knee...

To top it all off, the shopping trip wasn't that successful - so we went and had lunch at Barleylands...followed by a little retail therapy..................

Now I feel...

...very sad :o(

I follow Annette West's blog (Voodoo Vixen on UKS) as I love to see what she has been up to with her latest finds in the shops out in Saudi, or her latest projects for the Zutter DT blog.

For some reason Blogger is blocking her from following me...

It's not fair - oh how I wish I was more techy - can I just state for the record...SORRY ANNETTE...if I knew why it was happening I'd go and fix it...........

We have a new....

...blogger.

My niece Kristy has finally submitted to all my nagging (luffs you lots 'pesty') and set up a blog. For someone who hasn't had a blog for more than 5 mins she has made it look really lovely - only took me a year to work out how to change the header LOL.

If you would like to pay her a visit just blop over to Mrs Elmo

I know Julie will love the reason behind my niece's user name as she is rather a fan of Elmo.

Well done Kristy, I look forward to future posts about my new extended family as well as seeing what you get up to craft-wize.............

So how does this...

...work?????????

As you all know, I am not very techy when it comes to PCs, in fact I'm rather proud that I have managed to create a blog and maintain it for as long as I have...you know it's coming...the big BUT...LOL

A few days ago I noticed on my Dashboard (blogger, not car) that I had 16 followers "ooo a new one" I thought and clicked to find out who had added me to their collection - this is where it gets StRaNgE...the follower page opened proclaiming 15 followers and there were 15 pics ##puzzled## went to view blog and yep, 15 followers & 15 pics ##really puzzled## went back to the dashboard and noticed a tab saying 'blocked followers' - had I managed to block someone? Went and checked, nothing ##even more puzzled##

If you are reading this 'new follower' I'm sorry you seem to be stuck in cyberspace somewhere but you are welcome :o) (wanders off muttering to self - "do PCs have Warp cores?...could be a Warp core anomaly - must brush up on my quantum physics")...................

Oh my...

..UKS folk are fabulous.

In particular Nic (aka Nellyphant) who has very kindly produced this for me.



I so wanted to combine one of the photos from my niece's wedding with a background photo that I had taken but unfortunately I hadn't a clue how to go about it. A post on UKS asking for advice and this lovely lady came forward and said she would have a go for me and this was the result.

There are so many clever and helpful folk over on UKS, I am so glad I found that website. It never ceases to amaze me how generous folk can be with their time and their skills.

Thank you so very much Nic.....................

Underneath the...

...lamp-post.



Still playing LOL This one is of the bestman and the groom.

I love this old fashioned effect, it really is great for some of the more 'fun' photos that were taken..................

The "Happy" (???) couple...

...another pic.

I've been having a play with photo effects (very hit and miss as I'm not very techy LOL) and I've managed to come up with this...

I wanted a fun type pic and thought this was just right.

As you can see, my niece is putting her spouse in his place right from the start LOL................

Two Awards...

...from the very talented Maz

Maz is currently undertaking the 365 card challenge and her cards are just fab - I don't know how she comes up with all those ideas. However, she is not just a card maker...if you have a browse of her blog you will find a whole host of lovely gifts that she has produced for friends and family.

Here are the two awards she has passed to me. There are some rules attached and I do have to pass them on to some other lovely crafters but I'll have to come back to that shortly as blogger hasn't been playing nicely today :o(


These are the rules for the first award - I must link back to the person who gave me the award, which I have done

I must give 10 pieces of information about myself.

So here goes-

1. I have crafted for as long as I can remember.
2. I love dogs and would dearly love to have another but the hours I work don't make this practical.
3. I love the house I live in but would love to be able to pick it up and put it in the middle of a wooded glade.
4. I find it difficult to say no when folk ask me to make stuff but find it even more difficult asking for the payment.
5. I love my niece to pieces and will not stand for anyone causing her hurt or harm.
6. I have recently been asked to organise projects for the Thursday night crop at my local craft store.
7. I love being able to drive and would be totally lost without the freedom that it gives me.
8. I am a bit obsessive about how cutlery is stored in the drawer in the kitchen - can't stand pieces being in the wrong place or the handles pointing the wrong way.
9. I share my birthday with a number of famous events (22 November) - JFK was shot, Maggie Thatcher resigned, C S Lewis the auther of the Narnia books died and Jamie Leigh Curtis was born.
10. I am interested in aromatherapy, crystals, Wicca (although don't practice it) and a lot of the Folklore that surrounds these things.

I must put a copy of The Honest Scrap Logo on my blog which I have proudly done!

I must select at least 7 other worthy blogger's & list their links (this could take a while to sort as there are many people I would like to include) Here goes...
Annette
Cal
ffroggie
Leigh
Julie
Rebekah
Paula


The second award is to be passed on to 5 other folk (this too could take a while to sort out) - here are the five...
Debbie
Annette
Helen
Cal
ffroggie
Promise to be back soon to complete this post...DONE IT!!!