Doggy Bag

Hi all, I am hoping to participate in my first ever Folksy Friday this week, for my non Folksy friends this is a chance to show off some of the great talent The Folksters have by showing a small selection of items every week. I have been avidly following Haptree's tutorial for posting photo's with a link back to the designers page and whoop whoop, I think I've done it!!!! I've been practising and so as a trial run here is a bag I've had my eye on for ages crafted by Northfield Primitives - I think it's just Fab-U-lous!! Hope tomorrow flies by for all you hard workers and then it's holidays!!! Di x

Macmillan

Hi all from a wet and windy Bristol! What better to be doing than crafting on a day like this?
I would like to tell you about a new shop on Folksy. A lady called Kaz who has a shop called 'Buteartism' has opened a shop especially to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Care, despite going through treatment herself at the moment she is organising this fundraising effort - the very least we can do is support her. As many of you know I have received a lot of help from Macmillan over the last year so I am all for it. I have decided to make sure I continually have a card in my shop for which 100% of the selling price will go to this fund. As soon as the card sells, another one will replace it, I am planning to make some extra special ones next week. However, for now I have made my black and white handbag card my Macmillan card of the moment, you've seen it before but it's this one below. You can find it by clicking on the Folksy link on the left, for some reason I can't post a link here.
We all wish Kaz the very best through her chemo, I hope a lot more shops offer items for the cause too, speak soon all, Di x

Amelia Ted

Happy Sunday all :-) I have finally moved into my new little crafting space, I shall have to try and take a photo of my little Hobbit hole, let's just say it's cosy...at least I don't have to keep getting up and down to do things. I've been experimenting with Craftjuice, for those of you that don't know it's a website where you can upload photo's of your crafts, thus getting yourself seen, the site links back to your own shop should people want to look further. It's fun to do and your projects get voted on by other contributors. Naturally Folksy members, or Folksters all vote for each other so we're normally near the top of the list :-) I put my Arthur Ted card on today, my very first and favourite Ted Family card. Today I'll introduce you to Amelia Ted, a very spoiled Ted being the only girl - ( I collect Teddy bears so the Ted Family cards came about after I was trying to think of a new range of cards to make). There are 6 in the family so far but many more to come!

Craft Club!

Hi all - it's Friday again! For those of you who make return visits, I hope there are some ;-) ... I have re-vamped the look of the blog, what do you think? I love the outdoors so the natural background appealed to me, it's a change for now anyway - I'll live with it for a while and see how it feels.
I have been busy today making myself a new craft room - well clearing years of junk out of the spare room to find myself space to work that is! The worry is I'll disappear in there and not come out, you know how it is when you get carried away with crafting...hee hee.
Anyhoo, due to this I've nothing new to show you so how about something different - a photo of our not as regular as it should be Craft Club meeting - another one due soon!













I took this when everyone was unaware, busy at their patchwork on that day, some beautiful cushions were produced by Amy and Emily, I'll have to take some pics of them to show.
Bye for now all - have a great weekend! Di

Puppy Louis

Hi all and thank you to Amanda at Once Designer Jewellery for your enquiry about the handbag cards, I've now put them in my Folksy shop at £1.75 for anyone who's interested, Folksy can be reached by the badge on the left ;-).
A busy day today rushing around but managed to get a couple of cards made, these were for special order but are ones I can easily re-produce and personalise if required.The first one features Louis's puppy photo again, this time in turquoise, my favourite colour, it's too sweet a photo to only make one card with! I was then fiddling about with bits and bobs as you do, and came up with the flower card, made using Jiminey Cricut for the flower, this one looks better in real life as it's quite textured with the ribbon and the flower.
Hey ho - hope you like and call back again - I registered on Craftjuice today and am trying to work out what goes on - when I can work out how I'll post the link here and you can see for yourselves. Have a lovely evening, see you soon :-)

Handbag Cards

Evenin' all :-) It's gone 6 o'clock and it's still light - at last Spring is on the way! I've been busy making Easter cards, as well as quite a few special order cards made and delivered today. I had a lot of named cards to make with particular themes chosen but also some more handbags! These cards are so popular, I can't make them quick enough, these are blank but I make them with a birthday message or whatever's wanted really.

















Not too much chance to play around with Jiminey Cricut today, but did use it for cutting shapes etc...I know it can do lots more but I need a few days just for experimenting. Thank you for signing on to the new peeps, I know you don't actually get to read all this rabbitting and probably flick through the pics but big hi from me! I am trying to figure out how to link photo's from Folksy to here. There are some really talented Crafters on there whose work I'd love to share with you. Meanwhile have a great evening and speak soon, Di x

Live Well

Hello Peeps - big hi to new followers, you are very welcome, hope you're having a good Saturday! Today I made another quote card - this one saying "live well, laugh often and love much" - what a lovely sentiment, all it's missing is "eat chocolate" for the perfect life! Must do some chocolate quotes I think, there are a lot of us Chocoholics out there, maybe a card with a chocolate on it? Maybe not, the card would probably turn up with an empty wrapper on it! Anyway I tried to keep this card natural too using rafia and jute to pretty it, along with natural looking papers. I hope you like, I've put it in my Folksy shop too if you'd like to look.

Now off to start clearing out the boxroom to make into my craft room - or studio sounds grander ;-) - my little hidey hole where I can craft away to my hearts delight, will post pics when I've done, got to get through all the boxes of 'useful stuff' stored in there first!

Wall Plaques

Afternoon All :-) So much for writing more regularly - no sooner had I said that than the dreaded lurgy hit me and I've been fighting a cold ever since, grrrrrr.

Anyway, feeling a bit more human today so that means feeling crafty! I have some more plaques to make, I'm going to do a couple more Jesus one's to start as I sold two of these recently through my Folksy shop - one was a gift for a Vicar!! I did ask if that meant I could advertise as "approved by the Church of England" but maybe not. The colours don't come out as well as I would like on the photo's, there are several layers of paint on each plaque, distressed between coats using sandpaper and candle wax. Here are a couple of the ones I sold last month, I've got lots of ideas for new ones so better get on with it, will make sure and post tomorrow - I'm planning a Cricut day, experimenting so will make sure and show you the results.

Crufts and Cricuts...

Morning all, hope you've all had fab weekend's - I had a fantastic day out at Cruft's yesterday meeting up with a friend and spending far too much money. Back to crafting today and a few special order cards to make so a good excuse to practice some more with the Cricut! Anyway I put a new card in the Folksy shop on Saturday - an Inspirational promise card, one of the first of what I hope will be lovely range. I received some beautiful cards last year, and I know how much a card coming in the post can brighten up the day. I want this range to look more natural but still be pretty so on this first one I used shades of peach and cream to highlight this lovely message. A few hearts made with the trust Cricut, and some plaited ribbon (now that was a fiddly diddly job!) just finish it off nicely I think. Anyhoo - here it is, hope you like, will try and be a bit more disciplined and post
more regularly

Get Well Ted

Whoo hoo it's Friday already! Hope everyone's well and looking forward to a relaxing couple of days, me I'm off to Crufts on Sunday and meeting up with Heather who I've been online friends with for several years now...how great is that!
Anyway, I've had a surreal day talking to and tending to Big Ted! Strange you may think and yes it was a bit odd. I decided to photograph Big Ted, head of the Ted family for a Get Well card. So bandages out and after several attempts of which Florence Nightingale would NOT be proud Big Ted looked decidedly poorly. I found myself talking to him and apologising for pulling him about to get the best position for a photo, sticking pins in him and having to put up with 2 Miniature Schnauzers trying to attack him! I'm sure more than bandages would have been needed had Dexter got hold of him, as can be seen by the number of de-stuffed dog toys we have.
Here is the end result, it's made to fit in with the rest of The Ted Family range, there wasn't a blue card in the set and feeling blue, poorly seemed to fit:




















As with all the Ted Cards, there is a description on the back about the Ted, this one explains how Big Ted came to hurt his arm!

I had some lovely blue mulberry paper with silver droplets on it that I was saving to use for something special and this was perfect.






I hope you all enjoy a perfect weekend and those of you crafting get creative! I'll post after Crufts and hope I haven't smuggled any Flat Coated Retrievers home with me. Di

Friend Card

Evening all, hope you've all had a good day. Apologies again to those of you who have tried to sign up on here but have been unable to ... darn new fangled computer thingummies!
Anyway, for those who haven't fallen asleep yet, I've been busy today making a lot of cards for a friend who is leaving her job and wanted personalised cards for each of her colleagues featuring whatever their hobbies were. One of them loved pigs so found a fab photo of 3 little piglets who were definitely posing for the camera, well they are vey intelligent so I understand.I went on to make a 'Friend' card with my new best friend Jiminey Cricut, this is the result:






It is really pretty again, as most of my cards tend to be, I try to do something plainer and more minimalist but always end up with one of my 'Lovelies' as I've begun calling them. You've got to worry about someone who gives their cards names now haven't you?!
I didn't get around to my photo shoot with Big Ted so will have to get on to that tomorrow, I thought I'd put some links on here to some of my favourite crafting sites too for anyone that's interested, also found You Tube to be an absolute mine of information for tutorials...who ever knew?! Take care all and catch you soon. P.S. Thank you so much to those of you who have kindly signed on as fans on Facebook, as I said autographed photo's will be available shortly...hee hee.

Puppy Card

Hi all!

Thank you to the new followers, it's great to see you and hi to Teresa in the USA!
Well have been having a play again with my Cricut machine (pronounced Crickut) and I love, love love it! I still only know the basics but what fun...I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to lose track of time completely and forget all about housework and cooking!
I made several cards and this one I put into the Folksy shop. It's a personalised photo card using customers own photo, this one features the cutest puppy ever, Little Louis, as a sample card



I used Jiminey (ie the name I gave the crickut) to cut the scallopped squares, the flowers, and the tags at the top. Some of it was a bit fiddly and took a bit longer than usual but I think it all goes together okay. I know it may be a bit busy for some but all the soft pinks and greens go well together and again, gotta have a bit of bling to finish off! Pet photo's will work well but any subject really as long as it's a reasonable quality picture.
Next project a Get Well card for the Ted Range so have to have a photo shoot tomorrow with my old 'Big Ted' sporting bandages. Yes, I know ... I've got to get out more!! Bye for now.

Baby Name Plaques

The weekend at last so hope you're all having a good one. Apologies to those who tried to sign on as followers but couldn't - don't get all the technical stuff so will find out what the prob is. I finished off a wall plaque today for a special order, will attach photo but think it looks better in real life...or real wood should I say! Anyway it's stained with pink, cream and lilac paint which sounds a bit much but is really very muted and pretty...it's for a baby's room so it needs to be,

The little wooden heart has a couple of sparklies on for extra prettiness. Anyway, will hope to post more soon on the new Cricut projects ... still trying to work out all the controls but I'll get there. Catch you soon x

Jiminey Cricut

Another week gone by and huge excitement for me...I finally bit the bullet and bought a Cricut machine!!! I've only had a day or so to play and I imagine it will take me ages to find out everything it can do but I did manage to cut out some flowers in different colours to make my own embellishments, I added a sparkly in the middle for pretty look and arranged them to make a Mothers Day card, here it is, as I say first attempt so quite amateurish but I liked it :-)
There are so many things the machine can do, it's a bit overwhelming at first...where do I start?? Anyway I'm sure there will be lots of mistakes along the way but hopefully lots of successes too which I'll record here in my little corner of the web. Next it's Easter cards so will have to see what the Cricut can do in the way of bunnies!!

Black & White Bag card

I just posted a long ramble and managed to delete it before posting so apologies that this will be short! I've had a busy couple of days making cards for Folksy and to special order. I made this one as an experiment with some pretty new paper and liked it so much I've put it in the shop. It's black and white with crisp clean lines and I thought suitable for all ages. The little mini handbag is so sweet and a satin bow just finishes off the girlie look! May make some in other colours, we'll see how this one goes but I have some pretty pink and purple handbags just waiting to be used....can't beat a bit o' bling!