WHAT A DAY

Don't want another day like yesterday, it turned into a nightmare.
I have decided that our little 'porch', which isn't a porch any more as we knocked through to make it part of the kitchen, needs decorating. I sort of freshened it a bit last year by painting the squares on the paper below the dado and glossing the woodwork, but really it all needs re-doing including the kitchen ceiling. I've also decided to put myself through a bit of stress and make a Roman blind for the kitchen window re-placing the vertical blind, which I don't like. I say stress because I made one several years ago and they are really hard as getting everything straight isn't the easiest task especially when working space is limited and the floor no longer a possibility for 'crunching' joints. But I shall do it.
So this nightmare of a day began around 10am with a trip to the other side of Preston to buy a new tv aerial. The one we have is only about 3 years old but we have hardly used it as the only tv needing it is in the 'porch' and had a set top box with it. Hassle! so it never went on.

We bought a new tv on Tuesday with built in DVD player and Freeview so that DH can sit and watch films in peace while I watch the programmes on tele he doesn't like. Thoughtful wife here. Anyway, it turned out that the aerial was broken hence having to get another. So after that we had to go and get all the bits I need to make the blind, a trip to the other side of Preston, then for some wood, even further out of Preston only to come back again through Preston for the wood - needed to make a proper covering for the big pond courtesy of Mr Heron.
What should have been an easy shopping trip turned out not so because I could only get half of the velcro and blind tape I needed so after coming home, I had to set off again to this side of Blackpool to another Dunelm for the rest. Took me nearly 2 hours due to road closures and volume of traffic. Flippin heck.

At least I got it all. I'm using some new curtains I bought about October because the colour is just right. One will make the blind and the other a couple of cushions.

So I got back just before 4pm to a very unhappy hubby. He had been climbing up and down a ladder all the time I was out installing the new aerial and setting up his new red tele, BUT IT WOULDN'T WORK!!!!!!!!

The aerial is working perfectly, a meter checked that, so a phone call later meant another trip to the other side of Preston coupled with an engineers reference no. to return the faulty set and get another. It always happens to us - or do you know better I wonder?????
I've no idea how many miles we did yesterday but we had both had enough.
Today a family member should have been going into hospital but that's been cancelled until next month and I've just had a phone call cancelling my hair appointment today until next Tuesday. Nothing seems to be going right just now. However, there was one little ray of sunshine - well actually it was a lovely sunny day yesterday in the end and today is blue skies and glorious sun again - sorry, I got carried away - these:

Some of Andy Skinner's new masks and stencils and 2 from 'that special touch'.
Not sure when I shall find the time to play but am looking forward to when I do.
I wonder what today will bring especially as DH has just started to set up the new tele.........watch this space and better get prepared and close your ears!!!!!!!!!

NOT MUCH CRAFTING

I've done nothing remotely like craft for days now except an ATC for my next DT challenge a week on Friday, so can't even show that.
My emails are still playing up and I can't open them to actually do anything with them unless I am prepared to Ctrl/Alt/Delete every few seconds because my computer has frozen. It's become a problem really. I find I have been using my phone and not even switching my laptop on. There must be some files missing somewhere which is quite possible because I had a big clean up around October and I think I have been a bit heavy handed and deleted more than I should have.

So I shall just sit back and reminisce of lazy summer days gone by.

A BIRTHDAY BOY

Not only was it my friend Sylvia's birthday yesterday (you know the lady who opens presents a week early!!!!) but it was our son-in-law Quentin's birthday too. He is the amazing web creator who re-designed my blog for me.
I sent him this card which he was very happy with:

But he was even more happy with this:

His birthday cake - yes it really is a cake and everything you see is edible.
My step daughter Susi made it for him. She is a whiz at making novelty cakes. The only trouble with them is - you don't want to cut into them........
I reckon he had a super day.

ATCs WITH ATTITUDE - FAVOURITE COLOURS

Well done to the winners from our last challenge.
From now on the ATCs with Attitude challenges will only accept ATCs. Cards will not form part of our challenges and therefore should not be entered. We were always an ATC blog but kind of slipped away from them over the months but are back on track now.
Sponsors for this time are:
Beccy's Place

There are 3 digis for the winner from Beccy
Smeared Ink

There is a $15 voucher from Tori for the winner.

I chose an image from Beccy's Place titled Petite Paris and set to with my Copics to colour in all the tiny little bits of the image:

This was great fun.
Please come and join us this fortnight. All the details you need are HERE. 

WOYWW #194

Sorry Julia, leader of the desk snoop, but I didn't join in last week and almost didn't this week either. To be honest, I've hardly been on my computer at all but have been using my phone to keep up with things. A major problem with  the challenge blog that I am DT for (it was hijacked by some unsavoury person and deleted along with my boss's personal email and FB account) caused a lot of extra work and obvious stress until another link could be introduced. So texts were our only means of communication for a few days. All is fine again now and we are ready for our next challenge on Friday - see my side bar for the blog details.
Therefore, not much crafting this week meaning this is my workspace view this morning:

Told you.
The mini eggs are left from a 'comic' little project I made but can't show just yet, other than that - nothing.
I so wanted to buy some chipboard blanks from Alpha Stamps in America to make Xmas presents along the lines of the amazing Valentine Victorian Exploding Carousel made by Laura Carson, but would you believe postage has gone up to $23.95!!! Guess that thought is out. No-one in this country sells anything like that shop - unless you know better.......................
Right 'o, I have another project simmering in my mind which means a trip to B&Q for some info, if the power steering on my car works today that is.........

MY IMPATIENT FRIEND

That would be you SYLVIA.
It's not your birthday until next week and that's when you open cards and presents, not this week!!!!!!!
Sylvia lives in glorious Devon so I posted her present so that it arrived in time especially with the bad weather all over the country. I rang her to explain about one of the packages but I was too late. the box had arrived that morning and she had opened the lot....I ask you, LOL.
Anyway, I can reveal one of the things I sent her, it's the one I was having great difficulty with because the glue kept failing:

This began as a miniature whisky bottle which I started to colour with black alcohol ink. I then put peel offs around it and went over the whole thing with gold mixative. Once dry, I removed the peel offs to leave black impressions.

I then started to make the top decorations - this was the bit I had problems with. I had to glue 2 metal beads together which formed the 'neck' of the decoration and which also held the wired glass beads. I used some wire through it all to give some stability but it still decided to fall to pieces on several occasions:

I bent 3 metal filigree corners to form feet and stuck those to the bottle - that bit worked well. A small piece of bead ribbon covered some of the neck of the bottle and then I stuck the top bit and waited, and waited and when I thought it had stuck - about 3 hours later - it fell off!!!!!!!

I added some black sticky gems to the bottle and 3 little metal butterflies to each point where the 'feet' joined. I gave up with the E6000 glue for the top and reverted to the trusty Cosmic shimmer glue. This time it seemed ok.

I then hung some little metal butterflies to the top plus a metal heart which states 'made with love'. A few black and gold tiny paper roses (not shown) and a bit of black stickles finished it all.
Sylvia says it arrived intact inside it's makeshift Pringles tube!!!! I had fun making it despite the odd mishaps.

NO CRAFTING TODAY

I have a project ready but I may have a go at it tonight, not sure yet.
My phone hasn't been capable of making calls of late. Caused me to miss my friend Sonia last Friday at the Hobbycrafts show in Manchester. I was upset about that because I had an entrance ticket for her and she ended up having to pay. Anyway, my hubby went into town this morning so I decided to do a little food shopping. I was out a little longer than I planned so tried to ring him o see if he was home or not. Phone wouldn't call. Tried ringing the house phone - no luck. In the end I went
to town to EE who pressed a couple of buttons and hey presto - calls are back.
One day I will understand technology.....

12 TAGS OF 2013 - FEBRUARY

Thank you Tim for another challenge. All I had for this month's tag were distress stains and pens, the tag, cardstock, glue, vial labels and string. So, where to start.
I had some embossing folders that I thought might work so decided to give those a go and came up with this:

I embossed the Queen of Hearts and then rubbed a black Archival ink pad over the 2 pieces of card. After a quick zap with a heat gun, I coloured them with distress pens and a water brush. One of the images was then cut out. The Valentine embossing folder gives an impression which really is a little too big for this project but I just tore the card and made it fit. I don't have the cash keys that Tim used so I punched a circle of card, coloured it to match the tag and glued a brass ring to it. I then cut around it, pierced a hole through and inserted 2 jump rings and used a chit chat word to finish.
Despite everything, I managed to follow most of Tim's instructions and I reckon the tag will do.

WHERE DID YESTERDAY GO??

It dawned then disappeared so quickly. After weeks of waiting for Friday 8 February to arrive, my 2 girls and I didn't have to wait any longer. We were raring to go, even poor Paula who is so poorly this week, put in the biggest effort ever and managed to wander around the Hobbycrafts show in Manchester.
I was pleasantly surprised to see so many stalls many of which were at the last NEC show. Unfortunately for me though, most of them didn't have the crafty stash I now use and were instead full of printed card, beads, their own designs of stamps and dies or cheap tack. Having said that, I bought Tim's new Bigz die - Picture Wheel, mini blueprints stamps CMS 136, a Crafters Workshop brick wall stencil, some blending solution, a new pitch black alcohol ink (mine has almost run out) some wooden embellishments, jump rings red tape - get this - for 50p a roll, a couple of MDF hearts and some jewellery spacers.

But the best stash was waiting for me when I got home, Tim's new distress paints, all 24 of them. Half of these are courtesy of Paula again who gave me craft vouchers for my birthday and Xmas, so thank you again 'cos I'm a happy girl.

It's not often you get to see my craft space in such a mess and today it really is a terrible mess. I've had to put stuff on the floor just to be able to use my computer. Hey, I'm not complaining.
The highlight of yesterday was meeting up with my pal Sonia whom I haven't seen for about a year. I asked her to ring me when she arrived but my phone just wouldn't work inside the venue and I ended up missing her arrival. In the end I got our Susi to send her a text so we could meet up. Different phone providers see. anyway, Sonia brought a big bag of material for the girls which I thought was so kind of her and for which the girls are thrilled to bits. Thank you all round.

I think I shall just leave this mess 'til later as I have to go out now.
Enjoy your day.

ATCs WITH ATTITUDE #33 - BE MY VALENTINE

Thank you for all the lovely entries for our last challenge and a big well done to the winners.

Our theme for this fortnight's challenge is BE MY VALENTINE 
We have a new sponsor - When the Scrap Hits the Fun

I chose 'Peter & Mary with Balloon & Sentiment' for my sample.

My background card was made by mopping up ink on my craft sheet from a previous project and once dry running it through my Big Shot using a Tim Holtz Valentine Alterations embossing folder. I re-sized the didi image to ATC measurements and printed it twice. The balloon frill is tissue tape pleated around the outside of the image and the heart was cut from the centre of it and stuck to the front with 3D foam.
I coloured Peter and Mary with Distress pens and added a bit of glossy accents to the 3 hearts on the basket. I then re-arranged it all on the card, again with 3D foam and a bit of string. The sentiment is attached with a tiny staple.
The photo could be better so I am really sorry about that but the light quality is awful just now and despite playing around with different camera settings, white card and various places around my home, this was the best I got.
Now then. Over the last several months our little challenge blog has gradually stepped away from it's true meaning ie, making Artist trading Cards. The themes have been generally forgotten and a whole lot of 'anything goes' greeting cards have been entered. From our next challenge on 22nd February, we will no longer accept anything other than ATCs and they must be made with the relevant theme in mind.
If you take a look back at our promotion challenge - details HERE - you will be amazed at some of the ATC creations and I hope there will be something there to inspire you and encourage you to have a go.  We look forward to seeing what you make.

WOYWW #192

It's a beautiful day to be travelling around the world of craft desks all via Julia's of course, the inventor of the craft snoop. Without her genius none of us would have a big nose would we.... LOL. I love to see the work of you all plus your latest bit of stash, alas, there are far too many to get to so just a few each week is all I can usually manage. Perhaps it will be yours this time.
Mine has been busy looking these last few days but I clear away after each project ready for the next and that is where I am up to this morning:

The next project is ready to start. I may be able to show this one when it's done because the recipient doesn't follow my blog. I note a couple of distress stains yet to be put away plus a partly eaten bag of wine gums - they need to be put away too just not in the same place!!!!
So there you have it for another week. I have my list ready for the Hobbycrafts show in Manchester on Friday so hope to knock a few items off that. By the way - I ordered a set of Distress Paints last night. That's my birthday and Xmas present vouchers spent at last. Can't wait for those to arrive and have a play.
If anyone apart from my friend Sonia is going on Friday, let me know and we can have a chinwag.

A BUSY CRAFT WEEK

I have so much crafty stuff to get on with this week due to up coming birthdays, DT work, altered art and an exciting day on Friday at the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft show in Manchester with my 2 step daughters. Sore feet and back ache watch out!!!!
I have been trying to make a piece of altered art for a special friend and spent most of Saturday waiting for glue to dry only for the whole thing to fall to bits late afternoon when I wasn't even near it.......argh!!!!
For obvious reasons I can't show you the piece - which by the way, has finally stuck, yippee! - but here is a little teaser:

I used E6000 glue but for some reason it didn't want to play so in the end I used a mixture of that together with Cosmic Shimmer. Result.

This was my makeshift support. Glad to say that the glue didn't stick any of these to my project!!!!!!!
Right, got to get cracking.