Icecream Colours Scallop Punch Card

Does lots of sighing indicate anything? I’ve done plenty today…not the cross, frustrated type, or the sad and miserable variety or the nonchalant blow it out and get rid of the feeling ones. Nope, they’re just sighs. I guess its been a long and peculiar (and fun) day. It sort of began last  night (please, allow me a little context!) with the hubs having quite a bit of pain in his foot. Being the lay person with rather a surprising amount of firsthand knowledge, I was quick to point out that due to the lack of swelling and bruising, it probably wasn’t a break. Early this morning, the pain was pretty unbearable for him.. so much so we paid at a little visit to A&E. 2 hours later, with tired, hungry and fractious kids, we happily breathed fresh air and remembered that its probably not wise to drag 5 little people into a cramped and crowded environment with only ‘Sally’ and ‘Judge Judy’ for entertainment. Maybe I’m getting precious, but has anyone actually done research into what people want to look at whilst they wait their lives away? Me? Not Judge Judy and definately not ‘Sally’!

Somewhat later than planned, the hubs and the rest of us bundle into the car, with the sole intent on visiting an icecream farm to try and make something out of the day. Hmmm… everyone else had exactly the same thought. As I looked at our Sat Nav telling me that there was ‘only’ one hour of driving to do, the thought flashed across my mind that in fact it may be a little easier just to go to Tesco. When I considered the petrol (sorry, diesel) costs, these were going to be some gelatos. Add into the mix that you are on Day 3 of potty training, it all gets a little messy.

So, picture this.. I am driving, hubs has stretched his car seat nearly to crushing the legs of the child behind him and is in understandable pain (tendonitis pain according to Mr.Doc). Two kids are verbally sparring. One older child is lamenting the fact that all they had for breakfast was indeed 1 and a half Jaffa cakes and a bottle of water. I know- it’s not great, but you try and buy a balanced breakfast from a Tonka toy type garage. It ain’t gonna happen.  The littliest pipes up that he needs the loo. Remember, bladder control is still being delicately tuned and bless him, he was doing so well that I didn’t want to discourage him. Child 1 tries to swap with child 4 so as to try and assist with getting him relieved in a moving car. Child 4 is now extremely upset that he cant do up his seatbelt. Child 1 is trying to encourage the crucial business of child 5 in an extremely small container. Hubs helpfully suggests that the whole thing was a nonstarter and somehow Child 5 goes off the idea. The discontented pair in the back are now playing and I’m stuck in a very looong traffic queue. I’m feeling pretty thirsty as the elation of finding 6 bottles of water in said tonka toy garage are now diminishing as I realise that we have 7 in our family and I am now drinkless.

We found the icecream place and it was wonderful. (Thanks Dianne). I’m not convinced that Turkish delight icecream should ever share an sugar cone with Maple and Pecan, but it got my tastebuds going! The owners of the icecream place have sculpted a giant meerkat out of hay bales in the middle of their organic oat field. It was quite honestly fantastic. Whoever had created it should be given a ‘simples’ prize (I’m sorry, that was a bad joke), and the kids were amazed by it. I’m still thirsty.

After seeing the baby piglets (yep, I know, piglets are babies by definition), we braved several more non-moving lines of motorists and hunted for a place to eat breakfast-dinner-tea. All at once. It’s cheaper. You get it all over with in one sitting. I’m thinking it could catch on. The place we found looked sublime…organic fruit and veg on a barrow outside the shop. Homemade produce on the inside. Alice in Wonderland murals and theme inside the Tea Room. Alas, big families dont always go too well with the seating thing, but we got two tables next to each other. My parenting alarm bell started chiming quite loudly as I saw the chintzy china teacup and saucer at every setting. I whisked several out of the way and set about asking the kids to ‘shush’ every 10 seconds as we could practically hear the other couples’ taking breaths, it was that subdued. Normal people would’ve excused themselves and run for their cars, but we like putting ourselves through unecessary pain, so we stayed. Food ordered, and more importantly, I ordered a cup of tea. At last, I could drink.

Half the food arrived. 10 mins later, -still no other half. Everyone else had lemonade. At this point I was struggling keeping my tongue from welding itself to the top of my palate. Politely we asked a waitress if she knew whether our food and tea was coming. 8 minutes later it arrived, after the kids had finished theirs. No tea. The waitress practically ran off before I could even ask her. 5 minutes- grabbed the next waitress. Please (pretty, pretty, pretty) could I have the tea. Oh, yes, of course, I’ll get it for you, she replied. More finger tapping and then hey presto a waiter looked in my direction.. I wondered if I could have my tea please. He didn’t return. He did come back past the table- I tried again. I was very restrained, although instead I felt that actually standing on the table and shouting like a Mad Hatter ‘tea please’ wouldn’t have been beyond the realms of acceptability. ‘Is the tea there? please’? Oh, yes, he said, and then I changed tack ‘I’m sorry, I’ve now asked 3 times and still no tea, so please could I have a lemonade’. I’m happy to report that he did indeed bring me a lemonade, but we ended up paying a little over £2 for each one. Daylight robbery. Hmm.. that’ll teach me  to plan ahead and buy 12 bottles of water instead of 6!

I must shorten my posts- you’re probably all asleep by now! I wanted to say that one of these gorgeous colours is going. Gone forever come October. Glorious green will soon be no more. I’m stocking up on my favourite colours and you should do to. Btw, I’m having a SALE night on Fri 10th September . It’s absolutely free, there’ll be a make and take with some of the brand new  stuff- you get a sneak peek! It starts at 8pm. Let me know if you’re coming – kerenjb@hotmail.co.uk .

I love trying to something different. Do you like the tiny jump rings connecting each scallop. The flower is from a pack of brads. I’ve just punched out a tiny blue circle and added some Crystal Effects to the middle.

Toodley pips xx

 

Card recipe. Cardstock, Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Glorious Green, Tempting Turquoise. Brad from pack of flower brads -16 for £7.50 (they’re really heavy and gorgeous). Ribbon- stitched bashful blue. Stamp from Tiny Tags. All supplies from Stampin’Up! except jump rings that I had in my cupboard.

 

Create your own Stampin’Up! Embossing Folders

I keep ignoring my diary. I do keep putting entries in and then refusing to acknowledge them. Even managed to double book myself (oops- thanks Hilary for playing virtual secretary for me!!). I think the head in the sand thing is directly linked to my refusal to acknowledge the imminent start of term. The thought of lunches and uniform and early starts and…. no, I will not go there for another 5 days!

So the busyness is sorta craft related. I’m trying to produce some video tutorials. My eldest just laughed at my paltry efforts. I was a tad proud of myself using my extremely ancient digital (it said digital on the outside) camcorder, only to discover that the memory card I’d discovered was actually for stills and all the stuff I’d actually recorded was on a mickey mouse tape contraption that sadly doesnt fit into any of the orafices of my laptop. Ok, so second round- try the Philips web cam I’d bought months ago and was languishing in a cupboard. Ermm.. the quality was sooo bad that the time delay between sound and picture was enough to make a cup of tea, wash your hair and whip up a batch of scrummy Coca-cola cupcakes. Alright, not quite that bad, but get my drift! so, plan C involves scouting for a more decent web cam. I’m hoping we can spot a reasonably priced Flip but the chances of that are about as likely as my hubby getting out of bed before 9am on a Saturday morning!!

This card is inspired by the girlies at The Shabby Tea Room challenge . I’m afraid it’s probably not ‘shabby’ enough but I did enjoy creating. Sorry if it lets the side down?!

See the title? Well I’ve been playing around. I bought a Cuttlebug (or Bug apparently if you’re in the know). It’s a die-cutting/embossing type machine for the uninitiated, but then if you haven’t heard of that, you just might not know what that kinda machine is either! Anyways, I possess two embossing folders and stumbled upon a YouTube vid of a lady creating folders with dies from her Cuttlebug. Now I don’t really have dies either, but I do have several great SU punches. So I’ll show you what I came up with- and it’s  free. Yay!

First get yourself a fairly thick piece of card- prob something inbetween card and board. (Don’t worry- you can always use extra shims in the Bug later).

Punch out lots of your chosen image. These are the wings from the Large Bird Punch. Stick 3 on top of each other to make 1 thick layer and then start to stick these in a pattern on top of the thick card. I’ve chosen thick green card so you could see what I was doing. I’m starting to build the pattern in the top left. Cover the card until you the pattern you want. Don’t crowd it too much, make sure there are enough spaces to give an embossed effect.

 Now you’ve got the ‘folders’ completed you just need to run them through your Cuttlebug or Sizzix or whatever contraption you’re choosing to use. This is where a bit of experimentation is needed.

From the bottom up;

‘A’ Plate

Tan embossing sheet (rubber)

Embossing folder (your created one)

Piece of cardstock /paper

Tan embossing sheet (rubber)

‘C’ Plate

This is where you might find it doesn’t go through your machine or isn’t quite thick enough. You may need to remove the first tan embossing sheet or change your ‘C’ Plate to a ‘B’ plate and add a few shims (thin extra pieces of card just before the top plate). If you have any queries- just email me and I’ll try and help.

Here’s how mine came out.

Not bad eh?! I Forgot to photograph the harlequin scallop folder but it was just as good. The card at the top is using this embossing folder in brown- you can see it just about in this photo-

Well, more tidying up to do- the house is on the market, so now all that really hard work kicks in. Oh for a live-in maid (or is that what my kids are for?!!)

Domestic hugs xxx

 

To purchase any of these items, just email me on kerenjb@hotmail.co.uk 

Card project: Cardstock, Very Vanilla, Pretty in Pink, Soft Suede. Ribbon, Choc chip satin, Regal Rose grosgrain. Silver Clip, Bird Punch (also to create embossing folder) and Jewellery Tag punch. Linen thread, Ink- Pretty in Pink and Choc chip. Stamp set- Tiny Tags . All supplies apart from the lace from Stampin’Up! 

 

 

 

 

                                        

Calling all Liverpool Crafters!

Where have all the crafters gone? It’s really hard to find them. I’m about to start a new session of a monthly crop/cardmakers meet. Nothing too formal, just cake, coffee etc and a few hours with crafty girls. Please email me if you fancy coming. Cost is £4 to cover hall hire and refreshments. Saturday Sept 18th 9:30-11:30 at St. Annes Parish Hall Aigburth, Liverpool. Email for more details but anyone can come- you can bring all your scrap/card kit or come and use mine- there’s lots of stuff to use.

I’m sorry  about the  repeated  colour combo. I was just using up some left overs. You know all those left over scraps you’ve got. I just trimmed them down to a similar width, stuck them onto a coordinating piece of card and hey presto- striped cardstock. The dotty dots are using scraps punched out and stamped with the Dot,Dot,Dot stamp using Versamark ink. This stamp is only £8.95 and its one you’ll come back to again and again. Email me if you want to order it or the cardstock colours. 

Some unusual stuff has been happening in our house recently. One such incidence is the loo seat breaking. We have 2 loo’s and Steve is convinced that not only have I broken it but I should also go on ‘Biggest Loser’ (cheek!). After visiting  TKMaxx for a new purse (and coming out with way more than I had bargained for), I think my hubby just might be onto something. Inside the store I happened to be in one of those little torture rooms- you know, the ones with the door that never quite shuts properly or the curtain that just about closes. That tiny space of misery that shows every angle and bulge of yours in glorious triple 2D. If you were having a bad day before, it just got a lot worse. In vain, you switch your eyes from mirror to mirror hoping against hope that one view might actually be flattering. Sadly you leave that dreadful area vowing to return to Rosemary Conley until the next slab of Hotel Chocolat (that you picked up on holiday) starts whispering to you. You’ve been there, right?!

I was in that store getting some running accoutrements. Some days the urge to run into oblivion nearly gets a complete hold of me, but with a running machine upstairs, a broken loo seat and hubby practically emailing off my form for ‘Biggest Loser’, maybe it’s time I put my trainers on and got fit. Wish me luck- I just might need it.

PS- I went for the run- loved it – strangely. At the end of the run I looked down at my feet and realised I’d been running with one of my laces undone. Its fine I thought, I’ve run this far with them like this, I’ll just nip downstairs- yep, you guessed it… whoosh. Thanks to the bannister and a wall, I managed to avoid gracing the local A&E with my presence.

I’ll hop off now xx

 

Card recipe: Cardstock- Soft Suede, Whisper white, Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive. Ink- Versamark. Old Olive satin ribbon. Stamp- Dot,Dot,Dot

 

 

 

On Stripes and Icecream

You can’t get me to wear to horizontal stripes (ok-I have one top!). I was brainwashed by the style police long ago to stick to vertical. I shouldn’t care really; but I do. My hubby is quite happy wearing stripes; of the rugby shirt variety. His parents were visiting and looking at our holiday photo’s (I was actually half smiling, half grimacing on one- (see previous post)). They commented that Steve actually looked like a bumble bee on one. This wasn’t down to him being furry or looking like he was about to aggress you with a sting, but namely due to the very dark blue and bee like yellow striped top he had on.I guess I never want to look like a little bee so I’ll stick to vertical stripes, should I ever actually find something like it. So why, if these north to south lines are so good at disguising what is already there, aren’t the manufacturers doing us all a massive favour and making such garments?

From stripes to nails- and not really a terribly smooth link. I have to shortly deliver a short presentation showing how to create something. That’s in theory ok. However, there will be some sort of camera software beaming my hands onto a largish screen so others can work out what I’m doing. There is a slight problem with this, in that my nails look like they have been in an altication with a lawnmower. Not terribly attractive. I have tried to avoid biting them (a completely reprehensible habit!) , and then they get snagged on something. Try acrylic nails?-someone suggested. Naively I asked how much this would set me back- oh about £20-25 ! Back to the drawing board really. If any of you lovely blog readers have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

This card started off with horizontal stripes, but I couldn’t do it and had to rotate them until I felt happy on the card’s behalf.

I love the colours on this card. Makes me think of icecream. Yum. While we were away on holiday, we went to an icecream parlour in Broadstairs called Morelli’s. We decided to buy 6 different flavours and do a vote on the favourite. We had lemon, hazelnut, mint choc chip, chocolate, coffee, hot fudge (a sundae). Why I thought we’d just peacefully pass around the sundae dishes whilst dutifully taking their turn escapes me. Eventually they got the idea to try and be patient, but with up to 3 spoons in one bowl at any one time, it teetered on being an icecream scrap. The lemon was nice but looked like you were eating unbaked meringue mix. The choc and coffee were amazing, but the outright winner was…hazelnut! Surprising really, but we enjoyed the experience. I did feel a little sorry for the staff though. Their uniform was a  white roundneck football strip design (and made of the same stuff) with purple stripes. On a hot day, they must have looked a lot like the icecream….melting.

Better feed my troops. They say an army marches on its stomach- mine march empty or full- but complain a lot more if its the former!!!

See ya!

Card recipe- Stamp set- Good Friend and Sweet Pea. Cardstock- Soft Suede, Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink and Old Olive. Ink in same colours. White signo pen. Crystal Effects (on bird and letters). 1″ circle punch. Old olive ribbon. All supplies Stampin’Up!

 

 

Card for Hope

I’m so glad to be back home! We have had a mostly fun and sufficiently exhausting time so I’m now taking a well deserved rest (umm..note to self.. holidays are not supposed to make you need a rest!).

As we were bombing it back up the M6 (within the speed limit, of course!), I reflected on the month, er 5 days that we’d just had and made the following discoveries. Please excuse the list format but I do love tidy lines!

Lessons learned from this years’ excursions!

Do…….

….Remortgage your house if you want to go to Disneyland. We got a great last minute deal, but boy do they see you coming once you get there. The bargain hunter in me was seriously disappointed although we did manage to find a deal ‘if you spent so much, you got a toy half price. The bloke behind the till was so nice, he gave us free vouchers for drinks for the kids.

….Try out your French (even if seriously limited- I speak ‘un peu’!). I had one conversation where someone babbled to me in french- maybe thinking I was actually French. I like to think it was my fluked accent when requesting boisson fraiches or maybe it had to do with the fact I was wearing a stripey blue and white scarf and sort of matching T-shirt!.

….Send your kids to Mickey Mouse land clad in protective clothing! In the what could only be described as a ‘scrum’ for the photo opportunity with a Disney character, various Spanish and French parents literally wrestled their kids over mine so to be at the front. Slightly more worryingly, Tigger got so excited that he bounced right in front of Will. The downside to this was that there was a solid wrought iron fence behind Will. The poor little two year looked somewhat shaken as he emerged after having been sandwiched between Tigger and the railings!

….Watch your back. I was pretty shocked when Buzz Lightyear came up behind me, stuck both his arms around my neck and wiggled his fingers in my face. Fortunately I don’t have a heart complaint, but you could have heard my yell for quite a distance!!

…Be prepared to ‘ooooh’ and ‘aaaahh’ at the fireworks. I can’t honestly say that I was smitten by the Disney bug but the fireworks were incredibly beautiful and even I could appreciate the big pink castle when it had a backdrop of  a pyrotechnic’s display!

….Take waterproof garb. Pride would not allow me to don an enormous yellow poncho with Mickey Mouse emblazoned on the back, however my newly acquired waterproof jacket did the trick. Less adequate was my footwear. If I’d known it was going to sooo wet, I’d have packed my wellies but i wasn’t going to fork out 30 Euro’s for a tasty b & w pair with everyone’s favourite mouse on!

 

Don’t…..

….Even consider for a second, trying to get 5 kids to sleep in the car- it’s not going to happen- ever. It was an astonishingly long night that began travelling all the way down to Folkestone and ended at 4:30am with me pleading with the Davy Crockett Ranch (yes, I know,…daft name!) people to let us sleep somewhere. I would have slept on the loo floor, I was that wasted!

…Try and use a roof rack without first waterproofing your luggage. As we waited to board the Chunnel we could see the weather forecast in subtitles. The weatherman made what I regarded at the time as a strange comment, ‘if you go over to France now, you’ll get a shock’. Hmm…we did. Torrential rain for over 16 hours.  Save for a few small items, our entire wardrobe was sopping wet. (I’m not exaggerating, we had to wring the water out!). We were very grateful to have towel heaters in our plastic log cabin (ok it was supposed to be wood effect). The cabin quickly looked like a mobile wash house. Things dried out slowly- along with the weather.

….Visit the beach without your bucket and spade. We had a fab afternoon on the beach but had to purchase two bucket and spade sets. Several kids got buried and after some of their arguing, I was tempted to leave them in that state! William actually threw two spades which hit another holidaymaker on the shins. Fortunately he was of a sturdy nature and the spades were of a thin and light disposition!

…..Give a two-year old a felt-tip. I didn’t,- but my 8 year old did. We were in a lovely cafe in Oxford having a semi-relaxed lunch. My relaxing came to an abrupt end when I saw the aforementioned 2 year old not sticking to colouring in the lines and instead straying onto a rather lovely highly polished table. Why don’t these people manufacture impenetrable tables I ask you?! After a significant amount of scrubbing, I had to admit defeat and go and sheepishly apologise to the cafe staff member. Thankfully she was very kind, although I’m not sure the management would have been quite so longsuffering….sharp exit required.

….leave your electronic devices behind. I’m always being told I should leave my phone alone. I do lots of stuff on my phone and Steve rues the day he got it for me. However, when you have nowhere to stay after spontaneously extending your holiday, its fab to find and book a hotel whilst trundling up the motorway.

…Go on holiday with a large family without praying for a large amount of patience. There were some amazing moments where the kids each found an activity or place that they loved, but it sure was taxing at points! 

…Expect it all to be tough.. I was completely entranced by the beauty of Oxford. So much so, it made me wish I’d gone there to Uni. I don’t think I’ve ever visited such an incredible city just steeped in history and gorgeous architecture. We visited Christ church college and sadly we couldn’t stay for Evensong but took an open-top bus tour and learned about some of the history. We saw a pub where C S Lewis, Tolkien and another writer used to meet up and share what they were scribing at that point- Wow- I’d have loved to have been a fly on that  wall! I also did a bit of reminiscing and visited Broadstairs in Kent where we had a lot of family holidays when I was a child. I guess the remembering with fondness bit signifies the fact I’m getting older. Don’t you just hate even bringing the words ‘when I was younger’ out of your mouth!

…Grumble. As I became thoroughly drenched and pretty uncomfortable, I thought about the millions in Pakistan and felt so sad that I have so much and they’re struggling, sick and dying. Despite feeling so exhausted after a whirlwind time away, I have to count all of the blessings God has given me- of which mine are too numerous to count quickly!.

 

Phew- sorry, that was a long post! The card is for a friend of mine who right now needs a bit of hope. Here’s sending a hug to you. xxx

Card recipe.

Textured card (from my stash)

Cardstock, Certainly Celery,Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo and Whisper White. Ink; Melon Mambo and Old Olive. crystal effects (sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds on the letters). stamp set- School book serif. Spiral punch. Regal Rose ribbon and rhinstone brad. All these supplies from Stampin’Up! 

Letter card

I’m pretty much tidied out! We’ve finally secured an estate-agent so our house is officially going onto the market (yay! I think?). It’s been a long slow to get here and I’m a little apprehensive about keeping the house immaculate (ok, I admit it, it is not going to happen!) Within half a day of the second estate-agent coming round, you’d have thought I’d never cleared up! I’ve been busy trying to take some nice pics of the house to send over to the estate agent as sometimes they take really duff photo’s. This way, I can take the pictures at different times of the day so to show each room in its best light (excuse the pun!).

I just can’t craft tidily. I’m not blessed with that skill!! I start out trying to be ordered and then the creative process takes over. It’s sort of organised chaos  (or at least that’s what I tell myself!). The kids are trying really hard to keep their rooms clean and they’re doing a pretty good job. Unfortunately they are limiting their efforts to upstairs and downstairs has taken a battering instead. I’d love to actually record the comings and goings in the house- see which part of the house is the most used and where people wear out the carpet the most. I suspect the little patch carpet right under my craft desk is perhaps looking a little threadbare!

I’m lamenting the end of the holiday and the beginning of the school year seems to be hurtling towards us at break neck speed. Where did the break go? I’m still waiting for the summer to arrive! I promised myself I would not be ironing on labels the last week before they returned, but regretfully everything else has gotten in the way. Now, if someone could create little labels that could magically stick (and remain on after washing) on the children’s clothes instantly, I’d happily pay double. You can imagine with 4 lots of uniform, just how many labels I need to iron on. It ran into well over 50 last year.

The card- it’s a bit manic. Far more cluttered than how I usually design. It was late at night and I got a bit carried away. Normally I have a stop button in my head that triggers my hands before they whack every colour and embellishment onto the card. Sadly, it seems to have been sleeping (which is probably what I should have been doing at the time!). My eldest actually thinks it’s cool and it’s a rare thing for her to even comment about what I make, so I can’t be too far off the mark! Anyways, I had to use the Stamp-a-majig for this, because there’s no way I could have done it this neatly by eye. If I’d had acrylic stamps then that would have been another story!

I need to go and finish off breakfast with the kids. It sounds like they’re having a discussion on the best way to create a bob hairstyle on an old Barbie! I can see the hoover coming out again!!

Take care and happy creating xx

 

Card project. Whisper white,Certainly Celery, Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquoise cardstock. Gray taffeta ribbon. Basic Gray, Melon Mambo, Glorious Green and Tempting Turquoise ink. Stamps sets- Schoolbook Serif and Pick a Petal. 

Boxes Galore!

Good morning! (said in a very yawny tone!). I’m still not quite awake and it’s 10:25! There’s lots to do today and I’m procrastinating, so I thought I’d better update my blog instead!

Last night was stamping class night with the theme of boxes. We had a really great time and it was great to welcome Jean, Janet, Lynda and Hilary, who I know but had never been to one of the classes. We made 4 different types of boxes and unfortunately ran on a little longer than ususal (sorry girls!!). The picture shows my favourite project of the night. It’s a ’2,4,6,8 box, but I decided to create a lid for it instead. I let the side down by buying chocolates to go in it that didn’t match the colour scheme. (shocking I know! One of the girls said that it really wasn’t good enough and she wasn’t coming again!!!!!- she was only joking!). To be fair, they were blue choccies and really spoiled the effect!- but I know for next time to make jolly sure that I’m entirely colour coordinated,. If I’m not careful, they’ll be wanting my clothes to match too!

Isn’t the red such a scrummy colour? We’ve got a couple of new reds coming in October, and I can’t wait to try them out. I think my favourite is going to be the Cherry Cobbler; with a name like that, what’s not to like! I’d love to be a fly on the wall in Stampin’Up’s offices as they have the creative meetings to name all the colours!

The papers used are only definately available until the end of september (and even then, only while stocks last). It looks highly likely that they’ll retire. If you like them, let me know and I’ll order you a pack. It’s a scrapbooking/card making kit called Christmas Jingle and has 6 sheets of double sided paper, 2 sheets each of 4 different coloured textured 12×12 cardstock (8 sheets) and 6 large sheets of self-adhesive die-cuts. All for £15.50.

I mentioned in a previous post about our Passport fiasco. Honestly, it really does serve us right for being completely disorganised. We have learned that it’s probably best to check the validity of your passports before you book a holiday. Oh, and it’s always a good idea to double check that all of your family actually owns a passport! Our solution involved many many miles of travelling up and down from the Lake District back to Liverpool and returning within a couple of hours, across the lake District itself and then to and from the Lake District up to Durham. We were having a really relaxing holiday up to that point. We also had to get new photo’s arranged for our eldest girls who were actually away on camp at the time, and get them countersigned by a lovely girl who rang home to get her parents to visit her house and get her passport details! Honestly! We didn’t half put other people out. It was fascinating to discover that 2 of our kids had actually travelled to France two 3 years ago with out of date passports (big oops!).

We’re now up to date and significantly lighter in the pounds department. The passport people see disorganised people coming! I’m not usually unorganised, so it really did hurt a lot to be in such a mess (and an expensive one to boot!). Shockingly, the extra paraphanalia you need to actually visit France is nuts- one high-visibility jacket per passenger to kept in the main part of the car (not the boot) at all times, plus the red triangle and other stuff. I think it actually might be amusing to break down, so I can get a shot of the family looking rather silly in 7 high-vis jackets. It would make a great scrapbooking page!

Whenever we end up going on this trip, I hope it’s worth it! At least we can just relax and look forward to it now!

See you soon!

Keren x

Box; cardstock, real red. Christmas jingle papers. Old Olive satin ribbon. Linen thread. Square scalloped punch. Acetate sheet. Tiny tags stamp set. White Stazon. Supplies all Stampin’Up!.

Acrylic fragment- Tim Holtz.

 

 

 

Shadow Stamped Card

I’m back from my holidays. Had such a relaxing start and then a manic end. The end could be aptly named ‘The Passport Fiasco’ and the beginning simply ‘The Holiday’. I may give you the ridiculous details later!

This card is using a shadow technique. You could use white as the shadow, or another darker colour. Here, I’ve used Basic Grey. These cards are useful for lots of different situations. The one I was thinking of was due to the fact that I’d let someone down at the last minute by not turning up for a social at their house. I felt so bad, but was in the middle of desperately trying to get the house spick and span and ‘estate-agent suitable’ for a valuation the next day. I do love a clean house, but it nearly killed me!!

Just cut out two lots of whatever word (or works great ith images too). Angle the shadow up and slightly right to the front image and there you have your shadow. Easy as anything and pretty effective! It just addds dimension and interest to what might be a flat card otherwise.

I’ve just about finished the holiday washing (don’t you love it!) and today is going to be one of those ‘sorting everything out that you didn’t get to before the hols’  days. The kids are happily amusing themselves playing ‘Personal Trainers’- and not the stinky running type, the ‘I’ll tell you exactly how many star jumps to do and you’ll oblige, whilst I shout mostly encouraging things at you!!!’ Hopefully it will wear them all out.

I’d better vamoosh,

PS- I’ve got a couple of places left on my Making Boxes class this Friday at 8pm. Email or phone to reserve the last few places!!! It’s no ordinary box making- come and try your hand at some unusual boxes- don’t worry, I’ve done most of the hard work for you already!!

Keren x

Card recipe; Cardstock and ink, Melon Mambo, Basic Grey, Bordering Blue and Whisper white. Grey taffeta ribbon. Stamp set- Good friends. Dazzling Diamond glitter. Melon Mambo spotted ribbon.