Happy Day

Hello crafty peeps welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you've all had a brilliant Tuesday and if not just think, we're almost half way to the weekend! :) I'm not sure if anyone remembers me mentioning that I was taking part in a Readers' Design Team for Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine a couple of months ago but the magazine has finally come out! They only show three cards of the ten submitted and the others are supposed to be on a readers' gallery on their website. I've looked (pretty much every day since I got my subscription copy on Friday) and I can't find a readers' gallery on the website. As you can probably tell my card wasn't one of the three showcased in the magazine (check page 40 to see the beautiful designs that were - I especially like the one that used the Large Ringlets die by Memory Box, I will so be getting that die when I've got some money!) however if you look at the bottom right hand corner of the page where it says, "Find more amazing reader cards at www.cardmakingandpapercraft.com" you may notice a rather simple card in blue polka dots - that's mine! To be perfectly honest it's taken me until this afternoon to actually notice it which just goes to show how much I need to go have my eyes tested! I'm thrilled to be able to say that QCME magazine have also put my card up on their timeline along with the three showcased cards and if you'd like to have a look please click the link here https://www.facebook.com/QuickCardsMadeEasy if it's not showing please click on QCME photos and it's under the heading Reader Design Team issue 141 or click on the Facebook button on the sidebar and check out my timeline.

Here are a couple of photos just in case you aren't on Facebook. As you can see I kept my design very simple, the brief for the card was that it had to be flat, no larger than 15cm square and that the papers had to be the main focus of the card. We were allowed to use basic craft supplies. I think I may have taken the brief too literally (I do have a habit of doing exactly what is stated) as the cards showcased had 3D elements to them (absolutely gorgeous though!) and I even die cut a panel within the frame so it would lay totally flat rather than being layered and raised as I would normally do. I chose the simplest of the patterns available mainly because as they were mostly bird and floral patterns, I was worried that the sentiment would be overwhelmed by any other pattern apart from this polka dot one. And if I'm honest I really like polka dots! If I had the chance to do the card again I'd probably be a little bit more daring and add more layers to the card and a couple of embellishments. It was a lot of fun and I'm chuffed beyond words to see my card both in the magazine and on Facebook.

I'm progressing nicely in the Crudy Reshuffle, it's not complete but to be honest it's the sort of room/project that's always going to be a work in progress. I'm loving the extra room I have to actually craft, even though the surface of the breakfast bar is covered with items looking for a home (craft orphans - poor things!) I still have twice as much room as I did on my desk - in fact I actually had my paper trimmer fully on the desk rather than half on and the other resting on me! It's making a huge difference to being able to cut a straight line lol. I have a couple of projects that I need to complete in the next few days so once I've added this post to my blog I shall go into the crudy and find new homes for the craft items on my desk. Then I shall get on with Charlie's prom card (luckily I found the stamped and coloured images I've already done when I was putting stuff back). Once it's finished I shall add another post. As always if you have any comments or questions that relate to either this blog or to crafting please leave them in the usual places, please be aware that all comments are subject to moderation and any that I consider to be spam will not be added to this blog. By all means add links to your craft blogs but please don't add links to electroplating, lifestyle sites or similar - it's rude quite frankly. Mini rant over! lol. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and craft hugs,

Sarah xxx

Attack of the Time Vampires

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook!  I haven't been crafting as much recently as I would like and I've been trying to work out why that should be. I've come to the conclusion that it's down to an attack of the Time Vamps! What are Time Vamps? Time Vamps are those things you do when you think oh I've got a spare five minutes I think I'll go.... (FILL IN THE BLANK) and you suddenly realise it's now dark outside, the cat/kids/husband are about to eat each other and your bum's gone numb because you haven't moved in 3 hours. As I'm typing this I have two tabs open at the top of the page, my email account and Facebook and if you are anything like me these two are probably the two biggest time vamps that are guzzling up your precious time.I don't know about you, but I'm OBSESSED with checking my email and Facebook accounts. I can spend hours on Facebook checking on the groups I follow and reading every single little update on my friends and family's timelines. It's one of the reasons I've avoided joining for so many years, in a way I'm quite lucky because I have to make a conscious effort to get onto Facebook and my email accounts (and Twitter, Pintrest and even this blog!) because I don't have a tablet, smartphone or whatever gadgets most people use. Facebook has even spawned little time vamps - online games and quizzes. My sister keeps inviting me to play them but I know if I do I'll never come off Facebook, I practically needed to go into rehab over computer Solitaire (luckily Chris's PC doesn't have any games stored apart from Football Manager and I'd have to be extremely bored to play that!)

If you too are under attack from Time Vamps, don't panic there are ways to deal with them without having to forsake Facebook or the internet. The first thing I've found valuable is to work out what's important to me (goals, spending time with my husband etc, etc) one of the things I value most is the Bible Study I do every day, I haven't really mentioned my faith on this blog but it's something I find a great deal of comfort in and spending 15 minutes reading a set Bible study sets me up for the rest of the day.  I know that if I do other things first (apart from the usual just woken up activities - like COFFEE!!!) I'll put it off and end up forgetting about it so once I've made a cup of black coffee I settle somewhere quiet and read my Bible. So my first tip for slaying those pesky Time Vamps is to do what's the most important thing for you first if that's workable. Obviously if your personal goal is to spend some romantic time with your partner it isn't really something you should concentrate on first thing in the morning - unless of course your one of those revoltingly cheerful morning people - but instead of automatically reaching for your iPad or phone the minute you're fully awake go and do something a bit more meaningful like getting back into bed to give your other half a cuddle or whatever. I'm not a complete Luddite and I realise that keeping in touch in the viral world is part of life, but I'm suggesting that it shouldn't become the whole of your life. My second suggestion involves one of those gadgets everyone is so fond of - your mobile! Most phones have a timer function (I actually had one without and I hated it!) and a stopwatch, I would suggest that the next time you're online just killing time you stop a moment to set your stopwatch going - you may well be shocked at how much time you actually spend online. This brings me to the second part of my suggestion, if you're as shocked to realise how much time you've wasted as I was the first time I used my stopwatch, start using the timer function on your phone to limit your online surfing. If I know I have something I really need to be doing instead then I set my timer to go off in 20 minutes and as much as possible I stick to it (I say my goodbyes first of course!) then I go do something a bit more important even if it's just the washing up - it may be a chore but not doing it has consequences (no clean cups!). If I'm honest I use this principal to tackle the housework, I have a lot of lower back pain and find that 20 minutes of standing/cleaning is about my limit so I clean for 20 minutes then go read some of my book for 20 minutes. I'm always amazed about how much cleaning I can get done in such a short length of time. I think one of the reasons we're susceptible to Time Vamps is we underestimate how much time we spend on pleasurable activities (Facebook, reading, crafting) and over estimate how long an unpleasant activity will take. Doing both pleasant and unpleasant activities in 20 minute bouts means you manage to get both things done and if you don't finish them in the first 20 minutes after the switch you can carry on for another 20 minutes until the task is completed. None of what I'm writing is new of course, Time Vamps is just another name for PROCRASTINATION and there are hundreds of self help books out there but I've hope I've given you a few ideas and the next time you reach for your phone it'll be to activate your timer and not to go on Facebook ;).

I hope you've enjoyed my penny's worth of advice - if you love or indeed hate this post please leave a comment in the usual places so I'll know whether similar posts will be appreciated or if this should be the last one! Until the next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

P.S. this post does not in any way mean I dislike Facebook or any similar means of social media - I love 'em!

I Love Big Books (and I cannot lie)

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty nook. I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend. I'd like to share with you a little haul that arrived today from Clearly Besotted Stamps. Excellent service as always - Crafter's Companion could certainly do with some pointers from Stephanie who owns CBS, as a lowly mere bronze member of CC's Inspire Club it takes ages to get anything you order (I ordered a couple of items from them last week and got an email on Friday saying it's been dispatched but not arrived yet) whereas I ordered 5 items from CBS on Friday and got them today! Stephanie is fantastic and you get a really fast turnaround no matter how much you spend or how often you order.

Nouveau Flowers @ £2.75

Lovely Labels @ £2.75

Long Flag Die @ £3.50, Book Worm Additions Stamps and Book Worm Die @ £1.00 Collection

Bookworm Additions Stamps @ £4.00

My whole order only came to £15.20 including postage - bargain! The most expensive (!) item was the stamp set above but I couldn't resist the quirky sentiments and let's face it £4.00 is probably a posh coffee to most people (I know what I'd rather have!) To be perfectly frank the reason for ordering something online was because I got my new debit card on Friday and I wanted to make sure it was working lol. Anyway that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

The other thing I'd like to share with you is I've won some crafty goodies in a Facebook giveaway. I got a message today from Quick Cards Made Easy saying that they'd chosen me in a random draw. I can't express how happy it's made me, with the exception of the Passionista Blinkie I won from Passion for ProMarkers (and although I'm thrilled to have it on my blog it's not really quite the same as winning craft goodies) this is the first thing I've won since last March. I went through a patch of many craft blessings for about a year where I'd win something every few weeks or at least once a month and I got used to it. Although most stuff were from giveaways at least 4 big prizes came from actual card making comps run by QCME magazine and winning them made me feel like I do have a little talent after all. Plus having the prizes makes you a better crafter - a poor workman may blame his tools but I think in the case of crafters having the tools to craft with can make a huge difference to the quality of the end product, a simple thing like a good trimmer can make a world of difference.   Another pennyworth's of wisdom from my crafty corner lol. When my lovely goodies arrive, I will of course be sharing them with you. I have a card or two to make this week and of course it's Tuesday tomorrow so the new Passion for ProMarkers challenge will be announced. As always please leave comments etc below and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

An Anniversary Card featuring - yes you've guessed it another Morehead stamp!

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! As promised earlier, I'd like to share a first anniversary card I made for my very special friend, Adam and his lovely wife Victoria. I made this card a couple of weeks ago and I've been dying to share it with you but obviously I wanted Adam and Victoria to see it first.

First Anniversary card featuring Morehead Marriage stamp

I'm afraid I hadn't realised that the photo quality was so poor - I have some other photos which don't have the sentiment on so I'll add those to this blog too.

Victoria and Adam's wedding colour scheme last year was pink (I made the buttonholes for the wedding party) so I wanted pink to be the dominant colour on the card, I teamed this with Kraft card to stop it from being too girly. I made the flower using a die from Sizzix (can't remember which one - sorry) and I cut out five flowers which I then shaped using a Woodware Shaping Tool and the wrong side of a mouse mat. The process of rubbing the die cut flowers with the rounded end of the shaper tool against a soft surface like the underside of a mouse mat causes the fibres in the card or paper to break down and stretch as a result the petals begin to curl in upon themselves and the more you rub, the tighter the petals get. Each layer of the flowers was made by applying a little more pressure so it gets tighter and tighter towards the bud centre. Shaping with fingers helps to get the petals to layer upon each other to form the tight bud then I just layered them together using a quick drying glue.

Buttonholes for Wedding Party 2014

I thought you might like to see the flowers that I made for the wedding last year. The roses are made from handmade paper and the leaves are taken from the stems off silk flowers. Again please excuse the photo quality - this was taken using a very old camera phone.

Here are a few more photos of the first Anniversary card.

As you can probably tell from the last three posts, I'm really loving working with the Crafter's Companion Morehead stamps. Next month, Docrafts will be bringing out some more Simply Gorjuss stamps and hopefully I'll be able to get my mitts on them, and then I'll bore you all with endless blog posts featuring them! I suppose like a lot of other crafters once I fall in love with a product I tend to 'do it to death' as it were until the next lot of stamps catch my eye then I repeat the cycle until the next lot and so on. I do keep practically all my stamps though and every now and then dig out my older sets and have a play, I've invested a lot of money in my stamps and it seems foolish to get rid of them just because they've fallen out of favour. Craft styles tend to come back after a while (Oriental stamps for example) and it means it's possible to make a card in the latest style without investing in new stamps. *my penny's worth is now over*

I still have one more Mothering Sunday card to make and when I've made it (not sure of the theme yet) I'll share it here in my crafty nook. As always if you have any questions, comments, desire to let me know that someone does actually read this blog (I know you're out there - I can hear you breathing! lol) then please leave a comment in the box below or in the comments form in the sidebar. You can always come say hi on Facebook - don't be shy, I rarely bite! Until the next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx