That's better

Well, at least I think it is anyway!! I'm sure that it won't be the same as a Ben 10 or Power Rangers card but never mind. I felt that the other one just lacked a little something so I had a wee moment of inspiration earlier and chucked some more on the card. I'm going off now (well after I'd had this cup of coffee) to Braehead for some extra things for Scott's birthday.

Hugs.

Susan xxx

There is light at the end of the tunnel

The spare room is almost done. Our room is almost tidy and I'll get right back at it after my lunch. Might do another card for Scott later - or I might just go to Morrisons and get the Ben10 card he was after..... Hugs. Susan xxx

And another one

I'm happier with this one. It's just a pity Scott wouldn't be ;)

Thanks for looking.

Hugs, Susan xxx

Opinions please...

This is the card for Scott. Maybe. I'm not that happy with it but I'm not sure why. Thanks to Ali, Cathy, Lou and Michelle for nagging me on Facebook tonight! I really appreciate it.

I'd like to enter this in Charisma Cardz Challenge blog the theme of which is "Boy Oh Boy"

Thanks for looking.

Hugs. Susan xxx

Monday Monday

and, gasp, the sun is shining!!! Kids off school, Andy off work means I don't get my normal coffee and girly chat with the girls :( I'm trying to formulate a plan of action for the great decluttering/tidying adventure. So far it has involved putting the kettle on. Susan xx

Very unproductive

The house is now in a state of completely unorganised chaos. Andy and I decided to try and tidy the spare room out yesterday in preparation for his brother and his wife visiting at the end of the week. There is stuff everywhere now :( Never mind, tomorrow is another day and we can get back into it! Any tidying/decluttering vibes would be most welcome. Got loads of cards to make to but no motivation to do them! The most important being for Scott whose birthday it is on Wednesday :D My baby will be 6!!!! Can't believe it. Back tomorrow. Enjoy the bank holiday. Susan xx

A rare night out

with Andy! We're just back from seeing Jason Manford at the SECC. He was fab. I had tears rolling down my cheeks at one point. Just having a cuppa and a catch up and then it's off to bed. Susan xx

Normal service

will hopefully be resumed tomorrow. Today would have been my Dad's 86th birthday and I had intended to make a card using the SU Plane and Simple set and the LotV Aeroplane stamp. I never actually got round to it. That was one of the things I was trying to stamp last night and it just wasn't working. I will though! This is also the day 6 years ago that Scott was due...... his birthday is next Wednesday! Forgot to post BIL and SIL's anniversary card so hoping they'll get it before they leave for Yorkshire at the start of the week. Off tomorrow as the kids are off school. AGAIN! I'm thinking a wee spot of housework and a big spot of crafting.... they may have other ideas though lol. Susan xxx

Fiona's birthday candy

Fiona has some surprise birthday candy on offer which closes on 31st May!

I tidied the dining room table....

the rest of the house is still like one giant man drawer though!!

Never mind. There's always tomorrow. Still got loads of cards to make too but at least I can actually get stuff out now instead of trying to craft on top of a mound of craft stuff.

This is a card I've done for Andy's brother and his wife for their anniversary which is on Friday. They're the ones coming up for the weekend that I'm trying to tidy the house for!

Stamp -Everyday Phrases - SU

Paper - from stash

Cardstock - Bazzill and Bazzill Bling

Embellishments - Gems from stash

Tools - Big Shot, Sweet Treat Sizzix die, Fiskars Threading Water border punch

This second card I'm not so sure about. I had stamped the image when I was doing the "holistic" card but I decided I didn't like it. However, there was a piece of card lying about under it and I thought they looked ok together so I went with it. I was sooooo tempted to add lots more to the card but I resisted so it's looking a bit plain for me. I'd be interested to hear what you think...

Image - Tim Holtz stamp Cardstock - from stash Ink - Tim Holtz distress inks I did try and stamp another couple of images as I've got some cards to do but tonight's one of the nights where nothing seemed to stamp right so I've given up and hopefully I'll start afresh and inspired tomorrow. TFL Susan xxx

woosh, there goes another night

that I haven't done any tidying. If I don't start soon Andy's brother and his wife won't have anywhere to sleep when they come and visit next weekend. I know I always joke about working better under pressure but it's getting to the ridiculous stage!! Been at Brownies tonight for their parent's night. I'm their visiting elder so I went along and helped out and had the honour of presenting prizes to the girls. Great fun! (although not as much fun as Anchor Boys) This is a card I've done recently - the image was matched up with the paper and card and coloured to take part in the Facebook Sugar Nellie challenge the theme of which was butterflies. Anyone who knows me knows that I HATE butterflies... AND PINK! but I decided to have a go. The card never actually got made in time for the challenge but I've put it together now!! Image - Fragile Beauty - Sugar Nellie coloured with Promarkers and Prismacolour pencils, LoTV Circular sentiment (coloured with Antique Linen Distress Ink) Cardstock - Bazzil, Stampin Up Paper - My Minds Eye Embellishments - Papermania gems from stash Tools - Martha Stewart flowery border punch Right, tomorrow - tidying and crafting. For now, I'm off to bed as my head is pounding! TFL Susan xxx

Gives self a good talking too

Went into the dining room, tried to get some inspiration to craft. Decided it was too late to start tidying before I could even begin crafting so I walked out the dining room again. Tomorrow. Definitely. Maybe. I hope. Susan xx

Candy

Bev has a lovely LoTV Occassions set on offer as Candy. Closes Monday night so be quick!

What a day

It was the Anchor Boy trip to Kelburn Country Park in Largs today. It rained. A lot. No, rain doesn't even begin to describe how wet it was!! We had a good time despite the weather. We got back and I took Scott and his wee pal, Aidan, back to Aidan's house where Scott was having a sleepover. Because Scott was having a sleepover, we invited Craig's friend John to have a sleepover at ours. I'm only now starting to feel human after being cold and wet for most of the day! Anyway, Craig and John weren't long in bed and had started watching a dvd when I got a phone call from Aidan's mum, Scott was sick! So I had to jump in the car and go and collect my poorly sick boy! I feel bad that I left Lorraine to clear up the sick but at least he made it to the bathroom and wasn't sick over Aidan. In fact, Aidan doesn't even know that Scott has gone home as he slept through the whole thing. Scott is now asleep in our bed as John is in his, so either Andy or I are sleeping on the sofa tonight. I'm not even sure where the spare duvet is. Oh hang fire on that, he's cleared a space in the spare room to put the futon down. Doesn't help though, that I still don't know where the spare duvet is.... oh dear...... someone is going to be cold tonight ;) So, no crafting done tonight either. I have to do some tomorrow otherwise Mr Mojo will go on holiday having not been used! Susan xxx

No crafting

Goodness, a few days have gone by and I haven't managed to blog or craft! It was the Anchor Boy display last night. The boys did really well (and I managed not to cry). Well ok, I managed not to cry a lot. I was fine until the Primary 3 parents gave all the officers a gift of a Braehead voucher and some chocolates. What a lovely surprise and very generous of them. A couple of new stamps from the LoTV Boy stamps arrived yesterday. I'm not quite sure how they managed to end up in my basket and on their way to me *whistles* Looking forward to inking them up. Hoping to get some crafting done tomorrow night as a wee treat for getting through the week although I may end up tidying as Craig is having his friend round for a sleepover on Saturday as Scott will be away at his pals. Scott and I are off with the Anchor Boy trip on Saturday all day to Kelburn Country Park in Largs and then he's going off to his pals for dinner and a sleepover. I'm going to try and keep them awake on the bus on the way back so they'll sleep for Aidan's mum!! See you tomorrow. Susan xxx

A tribute

Painting by Gerald Coulson. On the night of 16th/17th May 1943 19 Lancaster bombers left their base at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire on a night that was to earn them the title "The Dambusters". They set out under the leadership of WC Guy Gibson "Operation Chastise" was under way. Their mission was to attack the Rhur Valley and the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams using the "bouncing bomb" which had been invented by Barnes Wallis. The Lancasters left Scampton in three waves and flew low to avoid enemy detection. The attacks on the Mohne and Eder dams were successful. Of the 19 Lancasters which left Scampton, 9 returned. As a child, I remember well my Dad's obsession with the Dambusters. Our house was full of paintings of Lancasters and books about the Dambusters. One of his most treasured posessions was a copy of the Dambusters book by Paul Brickhill. It's an unassuming looking book. It's lost it's dustcover and is looking a bit tired. However, what is inside it was very precious to him and is now very precious to me. It is signed by many people who were involved with the Dams Raid. Sir Barnes Wallis and Sir Harold Brownlow (Mickey) Martin to name but two. And it is signed by other members of the Dams Raid who were later to become friends of my Dad's. Bill Townsend, Geoff Rice and Nicky Ross (who was later to come to my Dad's funeral). It's also signed by Richard Todd who played Guy Gibson in the film. A film which I love and the theme tune of which makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This is my tribute to the men of 617 Squadron and to my Dad. I made this card yesterday using the Plane & Simple set from Stampin' Up! I know it's not a Lancaster Bomber but I haven't found a stamp of one of them! I never got to make a Father's Day card for my Dad (or birthday card, more of which next week) as he died long before I took up cardmaking.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and looking. Susan xxx

Had to come back

and tell you that Craig was the leader of the best group at Junior Section this session. I'm so proud of him. Normally the group leaders are Primary 6's but as there are only 2 they picked 2 Primary 5's at the start of the year also to be group leaders. He's been given a shield which is A4 in size and has his name (and the best group leaders since 2001) engraved on it. It will need polishing in it's year's stay with us. Any chance that Craig will do it do you think?! I'm thinking of going to make him a card so I'm going now while the muse is with me. Susan xx

Sugar Bowl Challenge

Over at the Sugar Bowl the challenge to incorporate Erika's sketch with the distressed/vintage theme.

And by a happy coincidence a Facebook group I'm part of set a Man's Card challenge today so here you go, this is what I ended up with!

It's prizegiving night at the Boys' Brigade Junior Section which Craig is a part of so we're all of out later. You can tell it's coming up to summer when everything stops. Anchor Boys stops on Wednesday and although I enjoy it I can't wait for the break!!

I'm also the visiting elder for one of the Brownie units and their parent's night is next Tuesday so I'm looking forward to that too.

Might be back later with another card which I made today, or maybe I'll leave it till tomorrow! Have a good evening whatever you're doing.

Susan xxx

A little experiment...

I'm trying to schedule a post, so if you're reading this before 10am tomorrow morning then it's all gone horrible wrong. It's my friend Yvonne's birthday today (Monday) and up till 10.30pm tonight (Sunday) I had no idea what I was going to do. I was struggling a bit and then I started to tidy up and found this image which I coloured in ages ago and was already matched with paper and card. Perfect! Apologies for the quality of the photo but if I left it I'd forget to take a photo of it!! This is the first (in fact only) digital stamp I've bought, it's called End of Summer by Mo Manning. These are the papers, card candy and the image is coloured in with 2 of the Promarkers that Yvonne and Sandra gave me for my birthday. Hope she likes it!!

I've discovered that POTC is on! Love Jeffrey Rush as Barbossa (and Mr Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow obviously).

Have a good day whatever you're doing.

Susan x

You could be forgiven for thinking I'm losing my mind

1 - look at the time, I NEVER post this early 2 - look at the card, IT'S PINK!!!! I was going to do this card last night, but got side tracked by the entertainment that was Facebook combined with Eurovision! Then I woke up at early o'clock this morning with the Facebook Sugar Nellie challenge on my mind. It was to do a pink card.... now, I don't really do pink. This isn't a pink household and I'm not a pink girly girl so it was actually more of a challenge than I thought. I also discovered I just don't have enough pink promarkers....... Whatever you're doing today, I hope you have a fantastic Sunday. Susan xxx

Hmmmm

thanks to all the entertaining Eurovision posts on Facebook tonight I have found myself laughing at Facebook and eventually turning onto the ESC! As a result, no crafting *shakes head* Maybe tomorrow! For now, good luck Blue!!! Susan xx

Candy

Debbi has some lovely candy on offer - closes 19th May at 12 noon.

Phew

I've been in a cold sweat. I thought blogger was terminally broken! Haven't been able to get on for a couple of nights. I've been twitching like an addict... oh dear, perhaps there is no hope. Well the kids have done their first 5 day week at school since the end of March. There don't seem to be any lasting ill effects and I've done my first full (3 days) week at work for 3 or 4 weeks - I'll reserve judgment on the ill effects on me though! I was going to get lots of cards made this week and enter lots of challenges. I'm afraid I have done neither. I have, however, made this card for a friend at work's 17 year old niece. It's the first time I've used Hippy Chick on a card. I love her though and I'm quite pleased with this one.

I'd like to enter this card in the Passion for Promarkers challenge, as the challenge this week is for teenagers!

Andy is away for a curry tonight. Now, do I do some housework or some crafting..........

Susan xxx

Just a quickie

I'll be back later hopefully. Cards to make, challenges to enter! I'm just finishing a cuppa then I'm going out to visit some people in my church district. Susan xx

Candy... but be quick

Debbi has some lovely blog candy on offer. Finishes tomorrow at 12pm though so be quick!

Goodness, this is an early post!

Don't think I've ever been so early!

I've got a parent council meeting tonight, so I might not get round to this later, lol.

Well, after a lot of walking away and scrapping of cards (and I don't mean that in the scrapbooking sense) I managed to come up with a card for my friend. This is the "holistic" type card she asked for.

It didn't come without it's share of stress. Wasn't really sure what she was after so it didn't come that easily. I then stamped some images, none of which I was happy with. Then I stamped what ended up on the finished card and was reasonably pleased. Put the whole thing together and stamped a sentiment in the inside. Squint! (should have used my stamp-a-ma-jig...) so I decided to use my new lacy oval nestie to stamp it again and cover the mistake. That was fine. Then I turned the card over and there was a splodge of ink on the back of it. I don't know if it was distress ink, it was certainly distressing me!! So I took the whole thing off the card and stuck it to another, clean, card blank. This is the first time I've made such a large card but it's for a large class to send to their massage teacher.

I liked the oval nestie with the sentiment in the inside so I kept that bit, even though this time, it's not hiding a wee mistook.

I'm kind of happy with what I've done. I don't hate it as much as a Cath Kidston wedding card I was asked to make once. It was hideous!!!!! So twee, horrible. Yeuch, I'm coming out in a cold sweat even thinking about it.

Anyway, my friend collected it earlier and was delighted so that's the main thing.

Close up .... The inside with that oval nestie...

I'd like to enter this card in the Allsorts challenge blog - the challenge was to use at least 3 different stamps :)

Susan xxx

Having a crisis

got myself into a paddy over this "holistic" type card I've been asked for. Twice I've started it and twice I've walked away! Going to have a look round some blogs and see if that fires up any enthusiasm but I'm not holding out much hope. Not had a good day tbh. Hopefully normal service resumed tomorrow. Susan xx

I know I should be crafting

but...... I'm not! Went to the demos at CraftWorld today. Saw some fab demos from Ruth, Cass, Lorraine R and Karen . Also grabbed a chat with my SU sister Lorraine H-R who is going to be starting some beginners Simply Stamping classes at CraftWorld soon. Bought some lovely things - spent the last of my birthday vouchers which was nice! And you'd think given all that inspiration I'd have been itching to get started. Well, I kind of am but I have no energy to move. Andy and I spent the afternoon splitting the boys bunk beds apart and tidying out their room. I say tidying but I think I just moved things from one spot to another. What I really need is to declutter the whole place and get rid of stuff. I'm not very good at throwing things out though. Lessons would be much appreciated. So, the boys are happy with their new layout. I'm not, means there is much less space in their room! Never mind, as long as the little darlings are happy eh?! I have been helped in this post by the lovely Ali , thanks hun. Love you! xxxx Susan xx

OK - who switched summer off?!

Apart from a slight outbreak of sunshine around 4 this afternoon, it's been raining! And I've been feeling vaguely flu like for a couple of days. Loads of things I need to be doing but have no energy to do them :( Andy's brother and his wife are visiting for the weekend soon so I may have to do some housework - I may need to lie down in a darkened room if that happens lol! I'm off to the Spring Event at Craftworld in the morning. Looking forward to it. Maybe it will inspire me to do a bit of crafting later. Have a good weekend. Susan xxx

Sorry

This isn't the best photo in the world but I'm not feeling at my best tonight so it'll have to do. This is the card for a 70th birthday that I was asked for by someone at work. It's based on (and is almost the same as) the one I made at the end of March for Jenny's birthday.

Kids are off school again tomorrow for the election so hoping for a long lie.... maybe, lol.

Susan xxx

Confessions of a crafter

whisper this.... I bought a card today..... I ran out of time to do a first birthday card last night (well, I was too tired and decided to go to bed!). I was (honest) going to make one this afternoon so that I could give it to the wee girl next door when they got back in this evening. However, I was out for coffee with Yvonne and Cass this morning and decided that Marks do cards for £1 and as Quinn is only 1 she wasn't going to appreciate a hand crafted card.... and having delivered her card and present earlier on this evening I realised I was right in this - she chucked the card all over the living room and chewed it! I've also decided that given my lack of a birthday card for a 1 year old that I'm going to make more of an effort to be organised and actually have a stash of cards that I could use for such occassions. Any occassions really, not just a first birthday card. I know it's nice to make an effort for a personal card but sometimes I just don't have the time (or the inspiration). So, you heard it here first, I am going to be organised. Aye. Right. See how long that lasts eh?! This card is for someone who might appreciate a hand made card a little more than a 1 year old! And look, it's not square!!! It was almost C6 in size. Cut an A4 sheet of SU Crumb Cake cs and was about to score it on my M&F board when I had a sudden thought and scored it at A5 gatefold instead! Woohoo! I'm quite pleased with it. I hope Sharon is too. Cardstock - Crumb cake, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso - SU Image - Martini Nikki, Martini Sentiment and Birthday Sentiment from Ladybug Crafts Ink Colouring - Promarkers Paper - Elegent Soiree - SU Embellishment - Adhesive Pearls SU Susan xxx

Right, I should really be in bed

Had a disturbed night last night as the wounded soldier was up sick through the night. After I'd cleared up I was wide awake and didn't get back to sleep till about 5am when I fell asleep on the sofa. I woke just before 7 and crawled into Scott's bed as he was in ours. So I really really want to be in bed, now! I have spent the evening watching the snooker final when I should have been crafting. Never mind.... I have made this one though which is for Scott's wee pal whose birthday was yesterday. Scott wanted me to make him a card so he can give him it at school tomorrow. Now, this is the second time I've written this post. No idea what I did the first time but I managed to delete it. I'd written under the picture all the stuff I'd used to make it but I'm too tired to type it for a second time tonight so you'll need to wait till tomorrow!

Cardstock - Real Red, Pacific Point - SU

Paper - Celebrations SU

Tools - Top Note Sizzix Die - SU, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (that I can't remember the name of), Big Shot

Stamps - Party This Way, Make A Monster - SU

Embellishment - Glossy Accents

Ink - Real Red, Pear Pizzazz - SU

Colouring - Promarkers Night, night! Susan xxx