'A cut above the rest......'

One of my lovely friends from choir recently moved into new business premises so I thought I'd make her a 'Good Luck' card for the occasion.  As she's a hairdresser I thought this lovely stamp from C.C. Designs was just the job.

The pink star paper I used was from Dovecraft and other papers were freebies from Cardmaking and Papercraft.  I've coloured the stamp using Promarkers and used a pink pearl for 'Hairdresser Honey's' hair slide.  I've used Nestabilities Scalloped circles and I created the quirky sentiment using the PC.

Sorry this picture of the stamp is a little blurred, but hopefully you get the idea.

I'm entering this creation in the following challenges:

Totally Gorjuss - #138 Sweet & Simple

Thanks for stopping by! x

'Ozian' friends

For my friend's birthday back in March I decided to give my favourite 'Magic of Oz' selection another airing.  This was a very simple card where I went for darker colours to match the Scarecrow and Tin Man and stamped a sentiment onto one of the matching chip boards.  I've used brown Mulberry paper to mat the Oz postcard which was torn along the edges.

Thanks for stopping by! x

A sunny but wet day out in Wales

A couple of weeks ago 'P' finally managed to book his White Water Rafting experience at Canolfan Tryweryn that I bought him for his 40th birthday last year.  As luck would have it, his choice of weekend was superb as the weather was far better than most we'd seen so far this year.  The location of Canolfan Tryweryn couldn't have been more perfect.  Situated in Bala, North Wales the surrounding countryside was just lovely, made even better by the fact it was warm and the sun was shining.



After a talk on rafting instructions and safety, 'P' was then bussed up to the start point to begin his rafting session.  The children and I sat at the centre, where there were picnic benches and cafe facilities, awaiting 'P's first run down the river.  A few of the participants in 'P's raft had missed their slot which meant that rather than having a full raft, there were just two others and the instructor.  This unfortunately meant that some of the tricks that are carried out on the river weren't successful as the raft simply wasn't heavy enough.  This didn't stop 'P' having a fabulous time though.  He had 4 runs down the river in total which I thought was extremely good value for money.





The children and I walked Arnold along the trail that follows the river.  This allowed us to take up different vantage points for snapping pictures as 'P' whizzed past!  By the time he was finished he was completely knackered, but he did say he'd love to go back at some point and give the kayaking a try.





I'd really recommend Canolfan Tryweryn to anyway who'd love to give rafting a go.  The venue was smashing and all the staff extremely pleasant and helpful.  We've already said we'll go back and have even talked about the prospect of group rafting.  I have to say though, it's one occasion when I'm more than happy to 'walk the dog'.  Water and I don't mix and the thought of being drenched from head to toe does not appeal in the slightest.

June already?

Yes, it's June already and the longest day today too!  Hard to believe really looking out the window.  Today we have a mix of rain, cloud and yet more rain.  Beginning to wonder if we will actually have a Summer this year.

The last few months have been full on with work, in fact, for our little business year 5 has been our busiest to date (not that we're complaining!).

The lovely ladies choir that I belong to finally put on their concert back in April after 9 months of busy rehearsal.  We raised around £1600 in total half of which went to Short Cross Methodist Church and the other half toward research into Lupus.  Since then we've taken the concert out to a couple of other venues and we'll be performing again on Saturday night but this time in aid of Birmingham St Mary's Hospice who do invaluable work offering help and support to people with terminal illness.  This should then be our last performance of 'Film Fantasia' and then we'll have a short break before starting up again later in the Summer.

 

The school choir will be performing their Summer concert next Tuesday after rehearsing since January.  During the last few weeks we've taken a small group from the choir to sing at the Salvation Army's Birmingham Citadel and also at the 'Time Out' group's Jubilee Party.  We were made to feel very welcome on both occasions and children sang their hearts out.  They're more than ready now to perform their final concert and I think we're all a little sick of the songs if I'm completely honest!

My running has recently come to a bit of a standstill unfortunately due to some health worries.  Everything now looks to be clear so I'm hoping to get out for a run at the weekend.  This will be my first in 2 months so as you can imagine I think I'll struggle to get to the end of the street rather than manage the 7 miles level I'd finally reached.  It's a bit disappointing really as I felt I was doing so well, but I'm determined to get back to it and build it up gradually again as I did before.

The family are all well.  The school year seems to have whizzed by so fast, can't believe 'A' is nearly at the end of her first year of high school.  It doesn't seem 5 minutes since we were stressing about how she'd settle in.  'S' has had a good first year of study for his GCSE's and has done some marvellous things in Music in particular.

'P' celebrated his birthday at the start of the month so thought it was about time he booked in his birthday present from LAST year.....White Water Rafting.  See my next post for all the fun and photos!  He's still running and his performance has come on no end since he's been regularly running with the club.  He has another race tomorrow in Blakedown and during March managed to win 1st place in the competition on RunBritain for most improved running handicap..

Arnold celebrated his 2nd birthday on Tuesday.  Hard to believe he's been part of our family now for 2 years.  I can still remember when he first came home with us, I had to wear my knee length boots around the house in the peak of Summer to fend off his feisty puppy needle teeth!  Well worth the pain though, we wouldn't be without him :).

Happy 9th Anniversary

Last month saw mine and lovely Hubby's 9th wedding anniversary.  I decided to make a card with something that had a meaning to both of us so went with a selection of the lyrics from 'our song' - Oh, Baby I by Eternal.

I used a torn effect on the verse and had a go (for the first time!) with my Tim Holtz distress ink and blending tool.  I was really pleased with the result :).

The heart was from my stash but I think was originally purchased from Hobbycraft.  The letters were from a local hardware store.  The green card was from The Range and is by Papermania and I believe the spotty paper was from a selection of My Mind Eye bought from Ebay.

Thanks for stopping by! x

The Magic of Oz - Happy Birthday Niece

Last year I saw these wonderful papers and chip boards in one of my craft magazines and couldn't wait to get my hands on them.  At first I thought them a little expensive but the quality of the material is just superb.  I've made several cards with them already but here's the first attempt I made for my Niece as she just adores The Wizard of Oz.

The range is called 'The Magic of Oz' and is from Graphic 45.  There are 8x8 and 12x12 papers, 2 different sets of chip boards and 3 sets of cling stamps in the range.  I settled for the 8x8 pad in the end, managed to find both sets of chip boards on Ebay and bought cling set '2' which included this lovely Dorothy stamp, Toto, the yellow brick road, 'There's No Place Like Home', ruby slippers and a Munchkin character.

I've used Promarkers to colour Dorothy and Toto and embellished the ruby slippers with red glitter glue.  The flower, velvet brad  and blue gingham ribbon are from my stash and the chip board is from the Oz collection.  I've used a Martha Stewart punch along the bottom edges of the Kraft card and the Graphic45 papers.  I printed the sentiment using the PC.

Thanks for stopping by! x

A late start to 2012......Get Well Dad

Oh my.....it's been a while!
Card making and all things crafty have taken a back seat unfortunately since Christmas due to work commitments, but none the less I thought it was time to at least post.... something.  Although, I've not had the time to sit and craft for endless hours, I've been making the odd creation here and there for family and friends so here goes......my first post of 2012!

Dad was admitted to hospital earlier in the year for a heart valve replacement and this is the card I made him.  Being an avid ornithologist (or bird-watcher to the rest of us) I thought it was very appropriate.

The paper and card was from a random selection purchased on Ebay a while back.  The digi-stamp was from Meljen Designs and is called Garden Bird House.  I coloured this using Promarkers and then added a decoupage effect by creating a second layer for the birds, bird house roof and two of the flowers.  The ribbon and buttons were from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by! x