Unity & docrafts Adventures!

Morning! I’m sorry to have been away for so long- I’ve been travelling and working & other stuff- so much so, I’ve hardly had a minute to myself!

I’m over on Make The Day Special today with this project because the store are saying Goodbye to Unity. Not unity in general!- us gals are a pretty tight knit group but the company Unity who produce some beautiful sets. I was surprised at how many different styles they produce- there is something for absolutely everyone- from CAS, to artsy, to grungy, to cute.

This card combines two sets

and I’ve showcased quite a few projects harnessing the Harvest of Memories set (just pop the title into the search bar)

They have another 25% off, if you enter UNITY25 at the checkout, and it will remove the 25% as the order goes through. The paper is Fresh Cut from Basic Grey.

 

I have been a busy bee.. done a little travelling (if you can count Abingdon & Bournemouth as travelling!) The first place, Abingdon was to see my lovely friend Carole who has been doing quite a sterling job adding simplicity to the crafting world. For any of you with the WRMK envelope board or the Stampin’Up! one, she (with a little help from her techie husband David) have produced a gismo to give you the measurements of any sized envelope when you just pop in the cards measurements.

It’s GENIUS and it’s here.

A little bird tells me someone super famous in the crafting community will be featuring it on their blog very soon- I’ll tell you about that when it happens.

Her blog is here and she’s well worth a visit- she’s a marvel with the Silhouette- even gives coaching too.

After I’d laughed, got several inky alcohol stains all over my hands which I then realised needing removing pronto as they wouldn’t look good in filming, I scubbed them and fortunately got them clean.

She served some very awesome ‘duck puddings’ (we were in the South- good grief, she’s posh!!) & we crafted and sorted the world’s problems out in around 2 hours & then I had to go to bed reasonably early as needed to be on the road for 7am!

Filming for docrafts with Katy Godbeer & Rob is always funny & nervewracking and a case of thinking on your feet..like when you realise you’ve left the glue runner on the other side of the room and rather than having to do another take, you manage to carry on, gently stuffing the items into the pockets unstuck & hoping they’ll remain in place there for long enough to get the filming finished!

I went back to my Best Western hotel after a brief visit to HQ and was disappointed to find there wasn’t a bath.

It was supposedly one of the best hotels in Bournemouth (according to the travel reviewers) & it was certainly beautiful downstairs.

Having 5 kids and very little ‘downtime’ , an unhurried soak in the bath is my idea of relaxation (amongst other things!). So no bath was a little disappointing. I was scrupulously clean but a little on the ’80’s side’ in my bedroom anyway. I was showing my friend Virginia the pics and she (living in Canada) thought it was ‘quaint

The staff were really lovely & I couldn’t fault anything else (other than the crazily noisy fan in the bathroom which was more annoying than a whiney child!!)

Before I checked out, I went on a lovely beach walk (my legs were sore the day after on my demo day!!) 

When checking, there was the usual ‘was everything ok with your stay, madam’.

I told her how lovely the hotel was, clean, with attentive staff but mentioned the fan and the ‘sans bath’. She replied

‘well you should have booked a bath when you made your reservation’

I looked a little surprised.

This was not the time to bring up the fact I’d asked for a sea-view when booking and instead got one of the car park.

‘I didn’t realise I needed to book a bath’

She repeated her comment, maybe she thought I was a little hard of hearing.

‘You needed to have requested a bath when booking’.

At this point I wasn’t impressed. I replied

‘I have been to many hotels, and never have I needed to ‘book a bath’ before’

I guess you live and learn.

Britishness prevented me from issuing the following statement

‘Oh, ok. What’s next? Booking a kettle? Booking clean sheets?’!!

The manager emailed me (standard email) on Sunday morning, so I related this to him.

He’s yet to get back to me!

Maybe in light of the fact I was only 5 minutes away from the sea, I should have gone for a soak there? I’m not sure the swimming pool was the correct place either. Someone mentioned that I should just have sat in the bottom of the shower?

I didn’t fancy that option either.

Ah well, now you know.

Always book a bath… and maybe check there’s a roof on the hotel and a door on your bedroom whilst you’re at it!! (he he!)

 

See you when I’ve braved another beach to take the bottom 3 kidlets on a walk,

xx

 

 

Owl Be There For You & Woodland Walks!

 

The title does evoke the Friends theme tune! I’m not singing it for you- I’m sure you know the words already! These cuties needed a place to perch- so I thought a gentle scene ‘wood’ do (hehe!). The stamps are an Itty Bitty set from Unity.

I’ve sponged the background using a cut out cloud & then used that same cloud with the sponged ink on to complete the sky. Easy. This is for my day at Make the Day Special and they’ve new stamps, restocks and a new stamp line ‘Newton’s Nook’ which if you like animal images, you’ll love.

On Friday we all went out for the day (apart from No.2 who had a ton of work to do). The only down side to the walk was that none of us were aware we were going on a walk and certainly didn’t understand it was going to be a muddy woodland one. The day started well with steve cooking us all a breakfast- which helped keep us warm, because it was freezing. I was wearing a denim skirt and high heeled boots.

I was definitely correctly attired for an amble.

So not.

There was a lot of tiptoeing through mud, moans of ‘I’ve got my trainers mucky’ & ‘are we there yet’.

I was pretty chuffed that my boots remained fairly mud free. I got caught on several brambles & narrowly escaped sliding down a steep hill. Well, my boots have NO grip and are pretty high. To the correctly clad dogwalkers that we encountered we must have looked like idiotic townies. Ah well.

We found a strong rope tied to a tree & a short stubby branch tied to it. Steve checked out the strength of it. It appeared to be holding.

With visions of yet another kid falling and cutting themselves, I tried to look on positively.Fortunately after a lot of swinging & catching and innumerable selfies, we were ready for a drink.

 

Before we could leave the beautiful forest there was just the small matter of removing the mucky footwear. It wasn’t made easier by the fact we were parked in the middle of a giant puddle. After hopping daintily (yeah, right!) over the river (!) I managed to ease myself sideways into the car without getting my boots on the car. I managed to kick them off, narrowly avoiding dropping them into the muddy puddle & gently wiping off the mud with a tissue. The kids had to be balanced on the boot of the car (we have a ledge that opens down), shoes removed and they climbed in through the back or kinda hopped with one shoe still on & then one of us transported the shoe to the back!!

We found a little place that had been recommended to us. The waitress looked around and sure enough, there wasn’t anywhere to seat 6. Honestly, you’d think the average family only had 2 kids (;-)). Instead of asking us if we’d like to wait, it was quite clear they had no intention of seating us. That establishment has now been firmly crossed off our list! The kids were less than impressed with this and Will piped up “I’m glad we’re going, I don’t like the smell’. We were still in the place & his voice was less than quiet. However, we all laughed loudly & ushered the kids out quick!

The day finished with a quick trip to buy one of the older girls some new jeans & stock up on a couple of books.

The moral of the story is ‘plan your footwear to match the activity’. I’ll be asking before the next day out. I’ve only just finished washing 5 pairs of footwear!

See you soon- but in case you think I’ve been slacking- here’s a little photo frame of I project I undertook over the weekend- a bargain at £5 from Sainsburys- and now can house my alcohol ink pens! (& my Promarkers, but first I need to add labels so I can tell what colour they are!)

You’ll see me soon, but not until I’ve finished hoovering. Our hoover broke & I’ve never been so happy to see a new hoover in all my life (won’t last for long though,I’m no domestic goddess!) xx

Autumn & Birthdays!

Hey! It’s another card heavy post. This first one was for Make The Day Special
the set is called Harvest of Memories by Unity.I love cards with movement and spent a good deal of the evening snipping out around leaves! Just choosing autumnal leaves and adding a brighter colour gives it an seasonal feel with an extra ‘pop’!

The second is my lovely Dad’s Birthday card. For those of you without any die cutting machines, this card is for you. I simply found a basic picture on the Internet, copied it and made a template it. I then traced it twice on two different coloured pieces of card and adhered them together and added some twine for laces. The lettering is in fact using a Hero Arts alpha die set but you could use stamps or stickers instead.

I was going to post another one, but will save it for tomorrow.
My kids are planning their Birthdays in some detail.
Will wants to know how many days it is until his Birthday and is demanding a sleepover. I’m saying no. Way too young. He insists he’s perfectly old enough.
Jamie has many plans- they change nearly daily. The question is when do you nail it down knowing that he quite likely he’ll change his mind the day after ?
My eldest is wanting driving lessons for her birthday. Hmm. I’m not sure I have enough hair left to lose!
The other two have a fair while before their Birthdays come around again. It’s always someone’s Birthday in our house! At least there’s a regular excuse for cake.

Speaking of cake- is there a time of day when it’s ever unacceptable to eat it? ( trying to settle a debate!)
See you when I’ve picked up my car – it’s been in the garage for over a month!
X

Unity & Make The Day Special

Hey! Short and sweet from me today.
Firstly a quick card in response to a challenge here

Want to see the sketch?

Mine is the sketch one- I’ve gone with the doodling and basic sketch. Done in super quick time because I didn’t have much at that point.
It’s also up at Make The Day Special
I did do another card – a complete fail. This one was the colour challenge also on that picture above. The sentiment messed it up- well, where I placed it to be precise. I think it’s good to share failures sometimes! Here it is!

Had to put it smaller- doesn’t deserve any more space 😉
Well- better go. Loving the rain. Not.
See you when I’ve dried out.
I have some cracking stories to share with you very soon !!! xx

Itty Bitty Card & Lots of Play!

Morning (she says, in Policeman Plod tones!) – today’s project comes to you thanks to Itty Bitty stamps (Unity), twine and stitching (I’m sounding like the end of a Sesame street programme). I was playing around with the speech bubble stamp which would be perfect for a scrapbook journalling spot and decided to stitch it up. I seem to be sewing on card a lot at the moment. I wanted to add some colour with twine- initially I though I’d do bows on the butterflies- but that looked wrong & then I went to attaching one piece of twine that morphed to five & then I thought it would be fun to echo the chevron pattern of  the paper with the twine. My cards end up being completely random. Some are designed in my red design book, most are not.

This card was chiefly designed for Make The Day Special blog;- the girls over there are brilliant and hilarious.

The kiddos this week are being weaned off electronic devices including TV. For some, it may seem stupid- but the kids would spend all day glued into some grid, web or channel so I wanted them to exercise their creativity and have some less timetabled fun. We happened to pop into a charity shop (or thrift store!) & saw ‘Guess who’ which is a game I love & have always wanted to get it for the kids. There, waiting for us was Battleships, Game of Games (a new one for us) & Connect 4. We have had so much fun!

Even Will, is learning fast how to navigate grids & tactics with Battleships. He loves being able to play a game all by himself & there’s the sound of kids having fun. Granted, we’re going over being a good sport, not sulking & cheering on others (do those lessons ever end?!) but that truly was one of the best £9 I’ve spent in a long time. The kids seem proud of their ability to last the day without TV (although they’re getting to watch something at the end of the afternoon- I’m not a total ogre!).

I just need to play a little more now. Maybe not battleships, but ‘sit on the sofa without getting off, and minus the guilt’! Any of you faring well with that game?! 😉

 

See you when I’ve learned how to play that one successfully!

xx

 

Unity Challenge & The Range

Hey! Thanks for all your lovely comments recently. Really appreciated! Today is an ultra quick post. This time I’ve tried something new ( again!). There was a challenge at Unity but on their Facebook page & blog it was using a digital image by Angie Blom & was a colouring /creative contest. I’ve never used digi images before and our printer is nearly out of ink. I love a good challenge- and this one was a major challenge in terms of the style. I rarely seem to use flowers and am a novice with colouring! What you probably can’t see is there’s some cutout going on and stitching too

I was stunned that I’d got picked with 3 others for a voting later today. It’s a Facebook group vote and although I don’t expect to win (the others are seriously lovely) I’m chuffed to have been picked and because it’s in a style I found challenging.

Today, I’m off to the Range in Warrington 10-4. I’ve not been there before and am hoping for a lovely day. Do say Hi if you’re passing.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some more Fresh Squeezed goodness 😉

See you when I’ve dried out ( 3 balloon water fights yesterday makes for one wet momma!!) x

Casadia!

Hey, at last! It’s Friday! And I’m linking up to Wida Miller’s blog (Beachorada). She had an inspired idea to do a series called CASADIA- which is a card chain where you Case someone else’s card -or idea hence Case-idea–Casadia. You can read and see the card chain right here They are amazing- it’s so inspiring.

Now do you want to see the card I got to case?

This is designed by Tamara King & she blogs at Pickled Papercrafts. Now in case my logic isn’t obvious- these are the elements I’ve cased. I love the long tall shape & the stripe of white against the kraft. I’ve not kept the colour scheme but have used that design element. The other thing that inspired me was the twine flower- it reminded me of this set from Unity which I got from Make The Day Special. Although you can’t tell, the corrugated card is actually bright pink (Amy Tan) and behind the cut out swirl flowers is some more of the card at a different angle

 

I have to say a massive sorry to Wida for my tardiness. She said don’t hurry- which is a fatal comment for me. It went on the list but got quite far down so it got left a bit (ermm.quite a bit). Sorry about being the weakest link!

There’s usually family stories- but I’ll side with the sentiment on the card-and try and become quieter! (fat chance!).

See you when I’ve recovered from the silence! xx