Sending Birthday Wishes and an update.

Hi All,
Long time no see. As you may have noticed, my crafty mojo has been rather intermittent of late.
Do you ever feel like you are going round in circles getting no where fast...………….well that's me at the moment.

I do have occasional flashes, usually inspired by a fabulous class with the Girls on a Saturday.
We've played with bleach, 3D Embossing Folders, Paper Piecing, Inks, and most recently Penny Black Stickeroos and Lili of the Valley digi images.

Of course my usual Friday afternoon trip to see the youngest Grandchildren for a sleepover always picks me up, even if only briefly.
Recently however there have been a couple of rather eventful visits.
The first involved Jack finding out that he can roll over. The problem was that he was on the sofa at the time!!!
As he screamed inconsolably for a good 20mins, we were advised to get him checked out at A&E. As expected he was fine, and we laughed about what would probably be the first of many Friday night visits to the casualty department.
We shouldn't have tempted fate, cause only a couple of weeks later we were back only this time it was an ambulance ride with a really high temperature on the eve of his big sisters 4th birthday.

He could have definitely picked a better moment. With a couple of days on the ward hooked up to an antibiotic drip Mam-ma had to step into the breach on the birthday front.

Birthday breakfast at the local Costa and a shopping spree wasn't quite the same as swimming with Mum and Dad, but it was the best that I could offer.
Unfortunately the buggies were in the boot of the car at the hospital, and as I don't drive myself, my birthday treat turned into a bad back for me from carrying a backpack full of shopping and a small child home from said shopping trip.

I'm sure that Emma enjoyed herself, I'm just thankful that her party had already been scheduled for the following weekend, so at least I didn't have to entertain several small girls for a pamper session.

I finally managed to get Emma's birthday card finished a few days ago. A little bit late I know, but that is me all over I'm afraid as all of my family know.

I was a little more on time with this card, which was made for Emma to give to everyone at Nursery school. I can't believe that she will be starting school in September. Where did those last few years disappear to. Wasn't it only a few months ago that she was born lol.
Let's hope that it isn't quite as long till I manage to share with you again. Although my back is finally beginning to feel a little better I now have a dreadful cold which is making me feel like c..p.
Have a great evening. I'm going to get another early night since I have a 4am start at work tomorrow. Yes I am still at work. I know I'm stupid, but someone has to do it I suppose, and my parents raised me not to let people down.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

For a Special Someone

Evening Everyone,
Another commission for a friend. Hopefully it will brighten up a miserable and wet day.

 He does like an Easel card, because they stand out so well.

I do so love the LOTV digi images, all coloured in for me, so they are quick and easy to use, and oh soooo cute.

As you know I am on a mission to use up bits and pieces,

so as I had printed the images out two to a page,

and two different designs so that I could choose which one to use, I ended up with four cards in total.

I also need a card for an old friend who is moving away to start a new chapter in his life.

I always find making cards for men a challenge, so when my Granddaughters boyfriend announced recently that he was going back to collage in September I knew exactly which image to use for his birthday card.

In fact I made several more cards yesterday during my play session.

Including this little cutie for a first birthday.

At least it seems to have stopped raining here, although I'm not sure for how long. It looked like we were in for such a nice sunny day this morning as well.
Have a great evening.
Happy Crafting and Hugs
Kimx

Birthdays at CCM

Afternoon All
We have a new challenge starting today over at CCM. Josephine is our host for Birthdays.

 I often get asked to make a special birthday card for someone, and this is one such card. It was made for a friend to give to his Mum for her birthday.

She is fond of steam trains, but he also wanted something that would outshine his brothers and sisters! Nothing like a bit of sibling rivalry lol.

An easel card is always a really good way to make plenty of impact, and of course it stands up perfectly.

The image of a steam train is a delightful digi image from LOTV.

I added her name and age (as requested)

 and then some fussy cut flowers stamped and embossed onto background paper.

I also added a few die cut leaves and some sparkly gems.
I'm told that it fitted the bill perfectly, which is always nice to hear.
I hope that you can find time to join in with our challenge. I'm sure that we can all find a nice birthday card amongst our stash.
Have a great evening.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Rest and Relax

Hi All
What a glorious Bank Holiday weekend we had...….most unusual given that it usually rains, although it has reverted to type here where we have had torrential rain on and off today lol.
While most of you were enjoying the sunshine over the weekend, we were still open for business as usual at the garage. It was heaving with customers, mostly on the look out for BBQ items. They also managed to demolish the huge stack of Easter Eggs that we had. In fact one customer put it very well when she said that it looked like a plague of locusts had descended and stripped the shelves bare.
As well as the shop, and petrol, we also run a WBC (Wild Bean Café for those of you not in the know) which attracts lots of regular customer who come in for their daily caffeine fix.
One such regular, 'Mr Large Latte and All day breakfast' (now know as Richard) was at pains to point out that we had missed his birthday a few days ago, so I decided to surprise him with a belated birthday card when he popped in the following day for his usual breakfast.

He works on the building site just up the road, so I though that this is probably how he likes to spend his down time. The sentiment is from Woodware.

I made a couple of other cards while I was at it, to add to my stash.

They all use some of the fabulous digi images that I bought from Lili of the Valley.

Definitely my go to place for a quick card.

The chicken wire is a new die that I bought at Ally Pally a couple of weeks ago.

Glossy accents added to the stacked sentiment dies helps to make them pop.

This was my first thought for Richards card, but as he is an electrician I decided that this wasn't quite right.

This is almost certainly how many people spent the Bank Holiday weekend.
I hope that you are enjoying your day today, whatever you are up to.
I'm trying very hard to stay awake and stop impersonating a nodding dog. Perhaps I will just close my eyes for a minute or two...….
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Just to say........it's back to School time

Evening Everyone.
Is everything back to normal in your household? There were probably some very grumpy kids in my house this morning when they had to go off to school. I'm quite glad that I was at work.
I tried to get back to some sort of normality myself over the weekend even though I worked all over the Christmas period.
For me that means working my way methodically (or compulsively) through my long 'To do list'.
I have to admit to being pretty compulsive when it comes to my crafting which can be a bit of a problem since I find it hard to move on to something new until I have finished and tidied up from the previous project.
I would like to think that I am the same with all other types of paperwork, but who am I kidding, the carrier bag just gets more and more full :O)
There is an ever expanding pile of Stufftainers in my room with half finished class prep, there just never seem to be enough hours in the day.
I did try and have a bit of a sort out yesterday. I emptied a few boxes.....well I moved a few things around from one box to another. It did look good to have removed a couple of boxes from the pile, and it was very therapeutic lol.

Both my Boss and one of the Girls that work in the cafe have a daughter away at University.

It is the first time that they have been away from home, so I made them each a card and sent it to their Halls of Residence. It's always nice to get some post, especially when you are far away from friends and family.

The images are  LOTV digis which I printed out and then die cut using some fabulous Sue Wilson Octagonal dies.

I added a little bit of sparkle and a die cut sentiment with a shadow in a matching colour.

The background to the card (under the open work die) has been created using co-ordinating distress inks.

I think everyone has survived today, although I'm sure that there will be some rather early bedtimes. It's amazing how tired you get on your first day back after a few days holiday.

Have a good evening.

Happy Crafting and hugs

Kimx

It's the End of an Era

Afternoon Everyone.
Well it's the end of an Era here.
After a 35 year association with the local school, today marked the last day that one of our number will walk through the doors.
Both my Girls, four of my Grandchildren, and childminded children too numerous to count have all attended this fabulous school.
I was part of the PTA for more than 20 of those years, so you can see we have a rather long history.
To be honest it's all rather sad to think that we will no longer need to collect anyone from the playground.
I suppose there will still be a very slight connection, since Emma and Chloe have their swimming lessons in the pool there.
In fact one of the things that I did for more years than I care to think about was to open the swimming pool every afternoon during the Summer holidays.
How things change. We wouldn't be able to do it now with all the Health and Safety rules and regulations.
In those days, when my girls were young, it was just a couple of mums (usually just me) who sat there and supervised hour long sessions over the course of the afternoon. We had a small tuck shop with sweets and icecreams and we did have a limit on numbers, but I don't think anyone was a qualified lifeguard. We certainly couldn't do that now.
It was also an open air pool then so you didn't boil to death in the heat and it was kind of fun to swim in the rain which we seemed to have plenty of then.
I'm sure that it's all seen through rosy coloured glasses now, but they were good times.

 As usual I made Thank you cards for the Twins to give their teachers and TAs (teaching assistants).

I used some fabulous pre-coloured digi images that I bought from LOTV.

Although they are probably designed to be given to someone who has done well in their exams,

 I thought that the teaching element would work quite nicely when making my Thank you cards.

I rooted through my background paper bits box

to find anything that matched colourwize.

It means that they are all slightly different because of the shape and size of the papers that I found, but I did manage to use up quite a few bits of scrap paper.

Much as I would love to see the rain that is threatening at the moment, all the leavers and their parents have gone to the park at the back of us to meet up for a drink and a reminisce, so I do hope it holds off for a few hours at least.
Hope you have a great weekend, and a fabulous start to the Summer Holidays.
I'm off to prep for tomorrows class. Pixie powders and Brushos, brilliant fun.
Happy Crafting and Hugs
Kimx

A New Home with LOTV

Hello Everyone,.
Did you miss me?
Here we go again I hear you say. I keep apologising for my absence, hope to do better and then disappear for weeks at a time. I sound like a broken record!!
Seriously though, where is this year going? It doesn't seem five minutes ago that it was New Years day and now we are already days past the longest day of the year, hurtling towards Christmas once again.
While we are on that subject, one of the numerous reasons behind my absence from Blogland has been the making of said Christmas cards.
I am a very lucky lady because I get to make samples for Creative Expressions using some of the  latest stamp designs from Jane Gill.
There was a particularly tight turn round this time, so coupled with two TV shows to prep samples for, helping my daughter move into her new house, holding down a full time job and trying to get to the gym you will perhaps understand why something had to give.

I have always loved LOTV, I have a rather large collection of them, and was extremely saddened to hear them announce that they would no longer be manufacturing their rubber stamps.
Although I have never been a fan of digi images, they involve technology which you know I am not good with, I have recently purchased some pre-coloured digi images to add to my stash just because they were so darned cute, and I'm a sucker for a bargain.

They definitely came into there own this weekend when a friend came to me on Friday and asked if there was any chance that I could make them a New Home card over the next couple of days.
Now you know that I love stamping and embossing, but nothing beats a fabulous image coloured in by an expert when time is of the essence.

I used several dies and an embossing folder to mirror elements from the image, which makes it perfect for the new challenge that started today over at CCM where we are asking for your creations using two or more punches or dies.

I had great fun making the card, so much so that I decided to make a couple more for my stash.

As I said Becki moved a few weeks ago and so one of these is destined for her mantelpiece.

I hope that I will be forgiven for how late this is given that I have been helping out with the little ones as well.

I noticed that LOTV were actually on Hochanda today with a collection of rubber stamps, so perhaps I wasn't the only one to be upset by them stopping production of rubber stamps.

I hope that you have a good evening. I have failed miserably with the gym just lately as it has been too hot, although I have tried to go out for a walk later in the evening when it has cooled down a bit.

Happy Crafting and hugs,

Kimx