April sunshine

How lovely has the weather been recently, it makes me want to take on the world and do all those jobs I don't have the inclination for during the winter.
The horses have all had their baths, tootsies done, manes and tails trimmed and are looking fantastic. Eilidh and I hacked out last night, it was a beautiful night and delightful to see all the fields and hedgerows starting to spring into life.
I have decided to have another craft room clear out.................where does all this stuff!!! come from...............is there a craft room fairy who deposits stuff!!! when no body is looking!!!!!!!! The garage, tack room and feed room have also been blitzed and yes I am pooped!!!!! so today I am going to have a couple of hours crafting, WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!
I did manage to make a little something over the weekend though. I always wanted a "dates to remember" notebook as my memory is atrocious so I set to........I remembered we did a notebook at one of Kerrys crops  http://ladybugcraftsink.blogspot.com/ and used a template from The Cutting Cafe to create what now has spiralled into, one for Mum, Mum-in-law, Eilidh and various other friends and you name it, so looks like I will be busy for a while..........

 I used BoBunny Jazmyne breeze and Jazmine mist ps, BoBunny back to back coloured ps, mounted it onto chipboard added some paper flowers and die-cuts and this is the result, hope you like it. I am off now to get busy crafting, enjoy your day Annette

Two's company

A good friend asked me to make a card for her daughter who had twins and as I had been considering entering Polka Doodles challenge this week which is NOT to use a patterned paper...... I set to making this cute little card. I used my new spellbinders die (beaded squares) which I absolutely love, added coloured chalk and backing card, stamped this cute little baby baby image from http://www.ladybugcraftsink.co.uk/, the base card is embossed with "That special touch" mask and coloured again with chalks. I love this little card and had great fun making it.
I have also picked up a craft I haven't done for a long time.......Knitting!!!!!!! I am having so much fun with it, I had to search for my pins and patterns, the patterns had to be put in the bin, just a bit too dated!!!! the pins fortunately were still in working order.....now me being me I am not happy with one project, I have completed two and have another four on the go!!!!!!! here's a picture of what's going on in Annettes world, LOL

 It all looks a bit of a jumble, I can assure you it all makes sense. Top right corner is a selection of beautiful light weight scarves, to cover those not so delightful neck lines we seem to attract when we hit a certain age!!!!! if you know what I mean..... and a warm, cosy cardigan to wear when I am crafting, you know those moments when you realise you have been in your craft room for hours and the heating has clicked off..... why do I feel as though I am suddenly turning into my Mother!!!!!!! HELP.....Oh well at least it keeps me out of trouble. So thats me off to enter my card into  Polka Doodles challenge and do a few more rows of knitting!!!!
Happy crafting, whatever it may be....Annette xx

 

Late, Late, Late!!!

This will be a very short post as I am rushing around as usual trying to do a million and one things!!!!

Firstly Hope you Mothers out there had a lovely "Mothers Day" and were totally spoiled. I had a lovely time, the kids and I took my Mum for lunch, David's mum wasn't very well, these are the cards I made for them. The images are taken from a Sharon Duncan CD, I just love this cd as it is full of butterflies.

 I made acetate boxes for them and I was really pleased how they turned out.

It was a lovely day, hope yours was also.

Now it will be Eilidhs birthday in a couple of weeks so I decided to make this card with a Nikki stamp from Ladybug crafts, she is learning to drive at the moment and would love a VW Beetle as her first car!!!! I think this was the perfect choice, no VW Beetle is complete without it's trade mark flower so I set to making one for her, I used my Big Shot and a sizzix die to create this, I love it, the centre was a little tricky though, hope you like it, I think I will enter this into ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.com hopefully I am not too late, late, late!!!!!!!

  OK that's it I really have to scoot, (note to self, try not to cram so much into a day!!)

Annette

Spring has sprung!!!!!

        Has it??!! Took this picture this morning!!!!!

When I was little I always new when Spring had sprung, my Mum would take my sister and I out of woolly tights and jumpers and put our lovely white ankle socks and pretty cotton dresses on, this was always around Easter time, and the sun was always shining for us to roll our eggs, that would definitely not be the case now, Mother Nature seems to be a little confused or like me is feeling her age and inclined to make the odd mistake!! I have decided to enter the card below into LCI blog challenge this week, the theme is Spring. I love this image by LCI. When I was 7, my brother George taught me to ride my bike in the Easter holidays, I still remember it so clearly and this image seemed just right. I found the sentiment in a magazine and felt it summed up just how I felt when I was off on my own...... I used my new flower dies from Marrianne designs, added some GA, spray and sparkle. The ps and cs is from my stash, I love using the colour yellow now, it is so fresh and Spring like, hope you like it and it may bring back memories of when you peddled off around the park for the first time.

 I would also like to share a picture with you, it is a cake my daughter Eilidh made for her friends 18th Birthday, she has orders for 3 more and she is absolutely delighted, she obviously has the crafty bug, so well done Eilidh and I hope you make a success of your new business xx

That's it for me, hope you all have a great weekend, stay safe Annette

Things come in 3's

Well that is definitely very true. I have finally decided that there comes a time in your life when you just have to say "Enough is Enough!"
1. Adam (my son) tore a muscle in his back (ouch!) rest, physio and painkillers for 2 weeks.
2. Last year Mum had Lucentis injections in her left eye to slow down the degenerative process, it was not really very successful, found out last week she has lost the sight in her right eye now, she is such a little trooper.
3. Bertie the young racehorse I have at the moment pulled me off my feet, pulled pectoral muscle (ouch!) rest, physio and painkillers for 2 weeks.
So "Enough already" the one good thing is I have to stay home and try to fill my time creatively!!!!!! I found LCI challenge blog interesting this week, "Anything but a card" so thinking cap, quick shuffle through ps and VOILA! My cousins daughter had a little baby a couple of months ago and although I had already given her a pressie and card I decided to surprise her with a wee added gift for Babies nursery. I used this tissue box, bought from Hobbycraft some time ago, covered it with Nit Wit papers, I can't get enough of these at the moment, they are so cute for Baby things, stamped Baby Baby images from LCI coloured with copics, I don't always feel too confident with these, I think I add too much colour at times, suppose it is all practice, added some glitter, buttons, ribbon and my own crochet flowers, mounted onto Nestie shapes, added sentiment and as this has taken me ALL WEEK I am exhausted LOL! Hope you like it.

I really must brush up on my photography skills, these pictures look so dark and there is a line on one side that is not on the actual thing! SPOOKIE ! I have a couple of cards to do so I am off for lunch before I get crafty, have a great weekend and stay safe, and I am really trying to stick to my "Enough is Enough" vow, Annette,


P.S. Thanks to all who have taken time to stop by and comment, it is very much appreciated. To all the clever, creative, inspiring  people out there, keep up the great work x

JACK!!

Things have been quite hectic this week between one thing and another, I was delighted to hear that I had won Polka Doodles "No Place Like Home" challenge and LCI "Plum Crazy with stitching"  in a fit of delight I  proceeded to pull out everything in my craft room that has been under wraps for a while (mad creative moment.) I found a box of brightly coloured cs I picked up from the Papermill ages ago, so what can I do with this???? LCI this week courtesy of Pinky has chosen "Card for a Child" as their challenge this week, PERFECT...... I don't have any cards to make for children at the moment so I rummaged through my stamps finding loads but not the right one (what I hear you say!) Now Kerry over at  LCI has a fantastic range of stamps, one being "Jack" who is the most adorable little boy who reminds me so much of my son when he was little. I pulled out my Nesties, cricut expression and the usual array of embellishments and copic markers. Wait a minute....  one problem I don't have any "Jack" stamps!!!!! O.K. quick e-mail to Kerry and the assistance of my very accommodating husband (he picked them up) problem solved....... Thanks Kerry, cheques in the post, oh no I will see you on Tuesday for a D'Lish and a catch up with what happened at CHA did you all know Kerry was at CHA.....HA HA!!! Any way I digress.... When my kids were small they never had door hangers with their names on so that was where I started the only thing was I couldn't decide which stamp to use so I used four of my favourites, cheeky, policeman, guilty and football. I seem to have this thing at the moment about making a box for my cards, this one was slightly more difficult as I made the first one too small to take the depth of the hanger, so I made another and yes too small again, back to the drawing board hopefully this one will be the right size!!!!!! Here is the finished hanger/ card, I added a 6 today with LCI sentiments just to show that it can be given as a birthday gift, hope you like it, I really enjoyed making it. I am off to have my dinner, Eilidh is chief cook and bottle washer tonight, Dad is lending a hand, although by the sound of hilarity coming from the kitchen I may have to go to the steaks rescue!! Have a great week Annette

Too Cute For Words

Saturday, Saturday!!

I used to think Saturdays were for chilling out, meeting friends and generally doing nothing at all, not this one. My house has been full of teenagers ALL DAY!!! so you can imagine............................ FOOD, DRINK, WOOHOO!! FOOD, DRINK, WOOHOO!!!! My head is about to burst and it is only 6 o'clock in the evening. They ARE about to start to get ready for a big night out so we are back to FOOD,DRINK, WOOHOO, FOOD, DRINK, WOOHOO!!!! and yes just when I will be in the best deep sleep ever......probably around 4 a.m. they will arrive home full of the joys and FOOD, DRINK, WOOHOO will start all over again. Oh to be a teenager again, when nights were for partying and days were for sleeping...........

In between the Mumm...! can we haves, I finished my card for LCI blog challenge, "Plum Crazy with stitching" using some lovely ps I had from another project , think it is Bobunny (not sure, had it so long) with bazill cs, inked up Martini Nikki which is one of my favourite from Kerry, coloured her with copics and added this great LCI sentiment. I cut some flowers from the ps and made a CHA CHA CHA Club poster for a giggle, I would like to think Kerry will be having one "Shaken not stirred!" to toast her trip to the US.

I added glossy accents to her shoes and glass, a swarovski crystal to her very glittery dress, (think I can just remember when I MAY have fitted into one like it!)

I have to share these pictures of Aster, I think she is thoroughly fed up she can't be a part of the makeup and dress up "shenanigans" and she really pushed her luck thinking it was O.K. to sit up at the table for some dinner!!!!!

How Cuuuuute is she!!

Well I am off to sit down, relax and chill before I am sure to be asked "Muuum..... can you drop us at the train station please!!!!!!!! Have a great weekend and keep safe Annette

GOOD LUCK

Well Kerry has finally set off for CHA, Good Luck, I am sure you will have a great time and return with many special stories to tell us. After spending many hours on my Cricut, cutting, sticking and stacking different items for Kerry I have renewed my passion for crafting, I have so many ideas swirling around in my head I feel as though it is about to burst!!!!! First off I made a Dog House Thank You card box the other week for a friend of my Mums, when Kerry saw it she asked me to make one to take to CHA, so here it is, I would like to enter this into Polka Doodles "No Place Like Home" challenge, hopefully I will follow all the steps correctly.

Recipe is as follows:
Selection of My Minds Eye cs, Bazzil green cs, ribbon, flowers and buttons from Hayley at Funky Farm Scrapbookbarn, Buttercup stamp from Kerry at Ladybugcraftsink, coloured with copic markers and loads of glitter.

 The Doghouse is filled with 6 notelets and envelopes, so hopefully it will be successful at CHA. Finally as I have a really busy weekend ahead, I decided to enter http://ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.com "Plum Crazy with stitching" challenge, so I am off to put the finishing touches to it and will post it tomorrow. Thanks for dropping by, Annette

                   WOO HOO!!!! My blog has "Attitude"



Thank you Kerry, I always knew I had attitude, my blog is another matter!!!!!!! I will try to live up to this, although I don't think that will be very difficult!!!
 I am really enjoying helping Kerry with her preparations for CHA, it has made me spare up time to craft which I find really difficult on a day to day basis. It is amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. I have three other projects on the go as well as Kerry's, unfortunately David has taken my camera today (just wait till I get him!) ATTITUDE!!!! WOOHOO!!!! so photos will have to wait till tomorrow. With the My blog has attitude award, you have to add 3 things that may be interesting about yourself, HMMMM! I think I am quite boring, I will try,

1. I walked at 8 months. All those years ago I was known as "The Wonder Child" It was front page of  the    local rag, pretty amazing YEY?!
2. I swam competitively all through my teenage years, "Junior Schools Champion" at 15. WOOHOO!!!
3.I am a "Sucker" for "Lame Ducks" over the years I have rescued various animals,dogs, cats, horses, sheep, anything that pulls at my heart strings, AHHHHHHH!!!!

 So there you go just a "normal" person really............... I will have to think about who I will pass the award onto, I don't really know very many people with blogs, so watch this space, you may one of them.
I will share a picture I took just after Christmas

I was thinking about my Dad one day, feeling quite melancholy, missing him as I do at certain times of the year, I looked out the window and saw these two crosses made by what was probably an airplane, I thanked my Dad for not one kiss but two, soppy I know.
Have a great day and pass on, if not a kiss, a smile to someone, it's infectious...........
Annette x

January- Already!!

Time always seems to be against me just now, between house, horses and dogs. I feel as though I have had no time for anything else although Kerry over at http://ladybugcraftsink is off to CHA at the end of the month with her range of stamps and goodies. To help her out with decorating her 15x15ft stand myself and a couple other friends are busy making flowers, vines, letters , ladybugs and lots of other delightful creations. I have used my cricut expression to cut these and have now decided after 2 years, it's the best craft tool I possess. I have only just figured how to use the cricut in conjunction with my PC, WOW!!!!! I really admire who ever created this marvelous machine. Below is just a few of the fantastic things my cricut has produced.

 It does not look very much in the picture, I can assure you there's lots there and Elaine has made over 100 ladybugs, so "Good Luck" Kerry.

I did manage to make a birthday card for my husband David. I just love bugaboo digital downloads and Gus is one of them, I used  my favourite easel card, ps is My Minds Eye, coloured with copics and finished with a lovely manly button, so happy birthday David (25th Jan) bit early, have to be organise!!

 So that's the end of another busy day, back to cricut cutting tomorrow. Annette

Time does fly!!!!

HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR.............
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and a joyful New Year, I feel as though I have not had a minute to myself. My family came to visit for New Year and we had a FANTASTIC time in our local, dancing and singing along to a friends band....... my brothers had not spent a Hogmanay in Scotland for over 20 years and they were not disappointed, vowing to make it a date next year. It did take me some time to get back to normal when they left as the house seemed so quiet! Anyway a New Year and many resolutions to keep, one being to make more time to craft!!!!!!
An old friend of my Mum's moved house just before Christmas, this was her first move since being married 60 years ago!!!! how brave of her especially as she is only 88yrs young!....... I really wanted to make her a  special New Home card, so armed with a load of unused stash (another resolutions, (NO CRAFT PURCHASES IN JANUARY!) I set to stamping, colouring, cutting, sticking, huffing and puffing!!
"VOILA!!"

Once again, pictures never do the real thing justice. I really love this image by Kerryhttp://ladybugcraftsink.com/
I resized the image of Buttercup in his little house as I wanted to use 4x4" cards in the box, each card, six in all with envelopes are stamped with resized Buttercup sniffing a flower, he(she) is just adorable. The ps is a selection of My Minds Eye spring papers, a little premature I know, I just love the patterns and colours. All sides of the box are embelished with ribbon, buttons and paper flowers. (purchased from Hayley http://www.funkyfarmscrapbookbarn.co.uk/catalog/) before January,(honest)

I thought it would be nice for Mums' friend to have some little notes to thank those who helped with her removal. I think I will enter this into Ladybug crafts "Anything goes" challenge. http://ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.com/

So, it's the end of another snowie day, I have fullfilled the first part of my New Years resolution, it's time to rest the creative matter to live to create another day!!!!!

GOOD LUCK FOR THIS NEW YEAR
Annette