Ooops!!

I seem to have lost Monday!! Ha Ha. There it was gone!

Let me be a good girl (girl)!!! That's a laff!..........and do my 'Tag'.

1. If a movie was being made of your life, who would you like to be cast to play yourself and why?
   Patty Dukes Austin We were dead ringers for each other when I was a lot slimmer!


2. You are spending a whole month on a desert island for charity and you have to choose your favourite celebrity to spend the first two weeks with & your least favourite celebrity to spend the second two weeks with, who would they be & why?
   The first 2 weeks would be with Harrison Ford. Corrrr!
   The second 2 weeks I couldn’t care less ‘coz of the first 2 weeks!!!


3. What are your three favourite crafting products?
   Ribbon, Tildas and I’m sneaking in Hangler and Stangler stamps even though I haven’t got a hope in hell of ever having one.


4. If you could invent something to do anything what do you think it would be?
   A stamp machine where you feed a picture in one end and a stamp came out the other.


5. What are the last three books that you read?
   Miss Purdy’s Class, The Narrowboat Girl and at present, The Water Gypsies.


6. QVC or Create & Craft?
   C&C. (Only watch it now and again in case there’s any technique I might be interested in. QVC rushes too much.


7. Docrafts or Dovecraft or DCWV?
   Hmmm. Some of Dovecraft, some of DCWV and a little dab of Docrafts.


8. What is your claim to fame?
   Won the card competition on Rugby Crafts last year. That’s about as famous as I get I’m afraid.

Thank you Tara and Michelle. I will think who to tag later. Hmmm who will I choose)?

Happy wot's left of Monday!

What happened to Monday???

On Sunday, Pam And I went to Derby for the Gina Martin demo I spoke of in my last post.
It was brilliant.

We met up with our friends at the Derby Dabblers at 9am and all mucked in getting the hall ready for Gina's appearance at 10am.

We made 5 cards each using 'Art Impressions' stamps.

I bought 3 Art Impression stamps, Hero arts clear design cupcakes and I also bought 5 more Marvy pens.

I'm going to have to start leaving my purse at home!

I wrote all my answers out for the Tag I was doing set by Michelle and Tara.

Hit 'publish' and it all went wrong. The window was full of script and messages about HTML. ARGHH!
I give up!!! sorry girls. I'm a wuss, I know.
Here's a card I made today instead......

Blog cards

Sugar Nellie from Gina.

DP Basic Grey's Stella Ruby

Foerever Flowers Hydrangia

Dovecraft ribbon

Coloured with Crayola pencils and Sansador

Off to get my hair highlighted at Pam's in a minute. It's 20mins to her house!

Firstly got to drop off my D-i-L's birthday card off.

Back later hopefully! :)

Happy Saturday everyone!

OH! Just remembered!

I've been tagged by Tara and Michelle. As I'm out all day tomorrow, I'll catch up with it on Monday girls. :o)

I've been busy stamping images all day on and off.

Is it just me, or does anyone else seem to launch the ink pad all over your work! *sigh*.

I can't tell you the number of images that ended up in the bin because of my clumsy ink pads. It wasn't ME honest!! lol

I forgot to show you the baby cards I did for a friend of mine whos daughter has just had a little girl. Awww bless.
Well here they are now. I hope you like them. I think they are really sweet. :)

Off to Derby tomorrow for the day. Meeting up with the Derby Dabblers for a day of crafting. Gina Martin is coming to show us the correct way of using the watercolour stamps!! That will be interesting.

Bought my Crayola coloured pencils, Sansador and paper stumps. going to have a play with them later.

Andrea showed them to me at the card class last week. Thanks Andrea! :0)

Michelle has just told me how to change the colour of my text! THANKS Michelle!

Well I'd better get going. I'm starving. Hope you're all having a great weekend!

A big thankyou

Here's a 'Just made for fun' card.

Courtesy of Donna from Tilda & Co.
Thank you SO much Donna. I've been going round the bend trying to upload pictures.
You are a STAR!!! You ALL are. :)

Thank you to all you lovely ladies who have sent me hints and tips on how to format new lines and paragraphs.

The first lesson I've learned is to use < & > with a 'p' in the middle.

Had to do it that way or it would have just given me a new line wouldn't it! Ha Ha

I'm SO pleased that finally I can make a list, change paragraphs (using two lots of code) and make my text easier on the eye and smarter.

You are all amazing!

THANK YOU!

It's Thursday!

I'm so frustrated. I haven't been able to upload any cards since last Sunday. Arghhh!
It seems that I am one of those unfortunates, who has been blighted with the BX error code for uploading images in Blogger.
All I can do is link to them and that's not really a solution is it. We all like to see our cards displayed in the here and now.
I shall keep harrassing Blogger until it's sorted. In the meantime, please bear with me and thank you for using these links.

Cute card Thursday

Just for fun

Just for fun again

Tilda & Co challenge.

I'm not clever enough to describe the materials too well with all this linking going on. I'll suffice to say that the background papers, are from Laura Ashley, Basic Grey's Stella Ruby and Scarlet's Letter paper pads. I really like these papers.
The pink Cadillac stamp is Pam's.

I DO hope Blogger sorts this problem out soon.
Thanks for stopping by!
Viv xxx

My glitzy challenge card

I'm having a devil of a time trying to upload images, so I've put my my Papertake Weekly Challenge here. At least it's here in spirit so to speak.

Can anyone tell me how to space my sentences and paragraphs?

They don't make for comfortable reading all bunched up together. I've tried all sorts to make the layout better, but it always comes out as one long paragraph.

Blog candy!!!!

Tara's achieved 20.000 hits and is celebrating by giving away this Tilda stamp! What a lovely piece of candy.
To be in with a chance of winning it, visit Tara's blog here.
Thank you Tara.

Kerfuddled!

Where HAS the week gone!!!
I took Mum for some shoes to the 'Helpful Hand' shop in Stockport, but they weren't too on the ball, so I'll have to re-visit the doctor and get her seen at the hospital. (This is where she should have gone in the first place).
My week's been pretty much taken up with Mum and the time I HAVE had, hasn't produced anything significant!

I've JUST finished and uploaded the first card I've made in days!! Unheard of for me.:0

I decided to try this card when I read about it on Heather's Blog a day or so ago.
What I didn't realise was, it was a SCS challenge and I'n not a member of that forum.
(Couldn't upload until today as there was a problem with Blogger).

Now, I need some help please. I need to know how to get my text looking better. No matter how hard I try, I can't manage to get paragraphs or fresh lines where I want them. Can someone please tell how to do it? Pressing 'return' doesn't make any difference. Any help will be greatly appreciated. :)
I'm going to put my mind to some challenges I AM eligible for now! Ha Ha.

It's Wednesday and all's nearly well!

It's been a bit of a hectic week for me since I last 'blogged'!
Went to Derbyshire (it's only the next county, but it's an hour and a half to where I was going).
A friend of mine had got us some Bazzill card at a really good price and rather than wait 'till we met up with her at the next Derby Dabblers meeting, Pam and I tore over there to get our hands on it!!! If the Bazzill manufacturers, by some fantastic co-incidence, happen to be reading my blog...(yeah right), PLEEEEZ make it in A4 size too. There's enough of us here 'over the pond' to warrent it surely. ;)
Right, begging letter sent, on to Alan..(hubby).
He was supposed to be riding his bike to Cornwall from Monday to Thursday, so Pam and I got together for a crafting day yesterday, (used Monday to make the place presentable). Got a phone call from him yesterday afternoon telling me he'd come off his bike and he'd damaged his ribs and knee. He's OK but battered and bruised, as is his bike and crash helmet. He's going to Gibralter in 6 weeks!!!! I'm going to be a bag of nerves. Made sure he was OK (ish) with some TLC before heading off to Andrea's crafting class at the Farm Gate Craft Shop. It IS really for beginners, but Pam and I really enjoyed getting away from it all and just having some 'us' time.
We made two cards, which I've destroyed 'coz I put them both together while the stickles glitter glue was still wet. DOH!!! Never mind, I've got the stamp so can easily replicate it if I want.
I am now going to do a challenge card or two as Alan has settled down and things are finally quiet. Watch this space! lol

Aren't I LUCKY!!!

I've been given the Arte Y Pico award for a second time!
It's been awarded to me by Eve.
Thank you SO much Eve. It means such a lot.
I need to figure out how to put a picture of it on my sidebar. Any help will be greatly appreciated. (I can't remember how to do it).

I also have display the rules which are as follows:






1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity,design,interesting material,and also contributes to the blogging community,no matter what language.




2. Each award has to give the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.




3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.




4. Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog,so everyone will know the origin of this award.




5. To show these rules.

This is the really hard part. Have you seen the list of 'My favourite places'? I could give any one of them this award and there are more being added daily.

Here are my nominations.

1/ Pam. She's my closest friend and got me started on the blogging trail.


2/ Running with Scissors . Her cards are an inspiration.


3/ Heather Like me, Heather is a ribbon addict and I'm SO jealous of her stash. lol. Her blog is well worth a visit.


4/ Vicki May A special lady with a heart of gold.


5/ NattyK Because her blog is a treat to visit and her cards are 'happy'.

That was HARD!!! I could go on and on.

Please consider yourself awarded this too. You've taken the trouble to visit my blog, which means such a lot to me. :)

Felt the urge, so went with it!

The papers are Craftwork Cards Paper Blox. Metallic browns and ivory. Yummy.
Used my retro flower punches and of course, the leaf punch.

Hope you like it. I'm quite taken with it. (I've put the missing stitch in now).
Bet you'll all be looking for it now. Ha Ha!





I thought the writing was a little hard to see, so I matted and layered it.
(And put the stitch back, remember).

Blog Candy to Die for!!!

Katherina is celebrating her 30th birthday on 17th April. To mark the occasion, she is giving away a much prized Hanglar stamp!!! Get over there and follow the simple steps to be in with a chance of winning one of these coveted stamps. :)

Happy Saturday!

As usual, I'm here in my craft room instead of dusting, polishing, mopping etc.

I DID give all the rooms a good looking at! Does that count? ;)

Made two cards this morning. I am DEFINATELY addicted to making cards!
It's a good job I've got somewhere to send the majority of 'em!
There's a friend of mine who lives in Spain. She helps run a cat charity over there and I send her my accumulated stash of cards now and again, to help raise funds.
(I send them to her England addy, not the Spanish one)! :)

Right, the cards..... On the Tilda one, I had to guess how you do paper piecing.
I had no idea how it's supposed to be done, so as with the faux stitching, GUESSED!
I've now found out that you stamp onto patterned paper and cut that out. Is that right? Well I didn't do that. No, I got me trusty craft knife and cut the skirt out, then glued a piece of patterned paper behind the gap.
Weeell, it's not too bad, is it?

The backing papers for both cards are out of my Two Scoops (Basic Grey) pads.
Got the pad from Craft Central in Congleton.

Hubby wants to go Manchester Dog's Home this afternoon. Not a problem says I.
I'll miss you!!!! HA HA!!!

Seriously, he's dying to get a dog, but I've put my foot down. He's off to Gibralter on his big grufty scooter at the end of May for 3 weeks and I don't want to be left holding the puppy while he's away. He can have one when he comes back.

We are only going to look today. Hmmmmmmmm....
WATCH THIS SPACE!!!! :O0

Got Candy!!!

The postman has just come!!! YES! 3:30...... WHAT!!!! He's either very early with tomorrow's mail, or really late with this morning's. I know which one I'm putting MY money on!

Anyway! He brought my blog candy off Gina!!! It's SCRUMMY!!!
Thank you SO much Gina!.......and David! ;)

New Tilda Stamp

I'm really keen on this one. Sh'e sitting down and I like her leggings, stockings or whatever they are. It was a good excuse to use up that lovely swirly paper from the previous card. (Wasn't going to waste it)! Ha Ha.

Happy Friday everyone!

Made a couple of cards. One yesterday and one this morning.
The first one is for a challenge on The Batty Cave and the other one because i'd just got the Bunny stamp off Ebay.
Both the swirly backgrounds are from a Basic Grey Two Scoops (or vice verse),
paper pad.

I've been wandering all over blogland trying to decide who I should pass the 'you make me smile' award on to. I can't choose, because you ALL do! Please, ALL of you accept it from me to you. You ALL deserve it, because you ALL make me smile.
(Especially when you leave me a lovely comment). ;)

Look what I've won HERE!!!!!!
I AM a happy bunny. :)
Have a lovely weekend!!!! :)

What will today bring

Thank you all for 'listening' to my stressed out self.
I feel tons better today and apologise for boring the pants off you. ;)

I am so lucky and as pleased as Punch too! Gina as given me this award. It couldn't have come at a better time too, with me feeling all sorry for myself.

I can't quite get over how, in the last month, (that's how long I've had a blog),
I've been given the Arte Y Pico award by Julia, won two challenges and now been awarded THIS!!! I can't thank you all enough for 'taking me to your bosom' so quickly!!
Especially as I'm not at all sure what on earth I'm doing properly still. lol
You and your fabulous cards, have launched me to a different level of cardmaking.
Pam and I constantly talk about the fabulous pieces out there in blogland. We are doing our best now to come a short way toward the standards we've seen.
You are ALL artists. :)
I will choose the five people to pass this on to later, as I have to take Mum to the Podiatrist shortly. :)

The end of a day and a half

Had rather a stressful day today. Went to take Mum shopping and put her hair in rollers, ready for her Thursday outing tomorrow.
Not to go into fine detail. I was tired by the time I'd been in two supermarkets and walked with Mum at a snail's pace. (She's 89 bless).
By the time I'd emptied the car and got her settled, I was about all in.
We had a 'misunderstanding' and ended up shouting at each other which really upset both of us. Anyway, it's left me feeling like a wrung out rag, so I'm hoping the lavendar essential oils in the bath I'm running. will help soothe me and bring my stress levels down to manageable proportions!!LOL

I went to my dear friend Pam's
yesterday and we did really well. I made three cards and she made four!!!!!
We had to bring all the craft gear down to the kitchen so we 'managed' with only a bit of her stash.

Here are my efforts for the day. What do you think?

Merry Christmas!!!

Watched it snow for a while last night, but it was quite late, so left it to it.
It's very strange how the road and pavement is clear! Unless the rain we had prior to the snow had something to do with it. Clear blue skies and bright sunshine now, so it will all be gone by this afternoon. Why can't we have it at Christmas!!
Stop press!!! It's Samm's blogaversary and there's candy up for grabs. Go see!!!
There's loads of fabulous work on there too!

My horse didn't win!.

I think it's still running. :0 lol
Never mind. Did this card to make up for it. I didn't have any plan in mind, but halfway through, had a mental block. (Get a lot of them), so wandered round a few blogs looking for an unblocker.
Somewhere along the line It worked.(I think).
Thanks everyone! Ha Ha ;)

It's the National!!!!

Happy Grand National Day!!!
Anyone having a flutter? Grand National Saturday was always a major event when I was young. It was an all dayer, with an old army blanket to block out the light and plates of pre-prepared food and tea-making equipment all ensconced in the living room.
The phone went off the hook, the door wasn't answered and it was heaven!
Ahhhh, happy days!
Not like yesterday when I killed me Cuttlebug!!!
I did salvage a piece of card that I was testing the CB with. It only cut one side.....but the side it did cut was quite appealing, so I've used it to mark the passing of my friendly CB. I've also entered it into the PTW as a fitting memorial. lol
Hope you like it. ;)

I'm not happy!

Please be warned! I was trying to emboss a Nestability die in my Cuttlebug this morning.
I should have stopped when the handle got tougher and tougher to turn.
But no, I kept going and before you know it....BANG! The left hand side shot off across the room and my CB 'died'.
The guy at Cutting Edge Crafts, (where I bought it's replacement this afternoon), told me that the CB cannot emboss Wizard dies. Any others..no problem, Wizard dies, no chance. I never knew that!
Has anyone managed to successfully emboss a Wizard die on their CB?

I look at my little Cuttlebug and could CRY! It's only 12 months old! :(

Faux Stitching

One or two lovely people have asked me how to do faux stitching.
I don't know if my method is the correct one, 'coz all I did was look at someone's card and figured it out..(I think).

I have a Perspex ruler with the squares marked out in 5mm increments. A normal ruler will do as long as the spaces are about 5mm.
Put the ruler down the side of the card and prick a hole at 5mm intervals. Keeping the line straight via the ruler.
Do this on all four sides. (Bit obvious that, isn't it).lol
Take a pen with a complementary/contrasting colour and draw a line from one hole to the next, until all the holes have a 'stitch'. VOILA!
Please let me know when you've used it. I'd love to see what you come up with. :)

Got the house to meself so I did another!

This is a Cuddly Buddly stamp. 'Charley'. Watercoloured with pencils.
Got a black ink spot on the skirt, so made a dotty skirt to cover it up! ;)
Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

Happy Thursday everyone!

First of all, I made an extra PTW card, totally by accident, (as you do).
Started off doing something totally different and ended up with this one! :0.
Quite pleased with it now it's done. :)
Hope you like it too.

I didn't get on here yesterday as I went to visit Mum. She goes to a pensioner's club on Thursdays so I go and wash her hair and put it in rollers.
Hoover up and wash the pots etc. She's 90 at Christmas and her legs are bad, but apart from that, she's more with it than ME most times!...!! lol.
Have a peaceful and carefree day. :)

Have a wander over to Nikki's Card Creations for a chance to win some blog candy.
Nikki has reached 15,000 hits!!! and is celebrating by giving away some lovely blog candy for the winner. Worth a visit as you get to see her lovely creations too! :)

My card for the Papertake Weekly Challenge

Here is my 'Making waves' card with scallops here and there, for the Papertake Weekly Challenge.
I enjoyed doing this one. (Enjoy doing them all actually). :)
I LOVE this imitation, (OK,faux), stitching! Just wish is was that easy on real clothes.

Hope you like it. ;)

It's Tuesday!

DH and I have just returned from the chinese supermarket in Manchester.

Bought loads of goodies ,as you do and DH will set to, making some yummy dinners again now we're all stocked up.

Just before we set off, Postie came with my stamps from Cuddly Buddly.
I didn't want to leave 'em! Had to, DH is reasonable, but not THAT reasonable! Ha Ha.
Well I'm back now and going to get stuck in to some serious stamping and colouring.
Watch this space!! :)