PUNCHES RE-DISCOVERED!

I have just re-discovered some old punches that I had, inspired by a blog which I came across called KITTIEKRAFTS.  I spent Sunday and last night playing, and this is what I came up with thanks to one of Kittie's tutorials on making a hydrangea.  

Am pretty pleased with it and I could get addicted to using punches to create flowers.  I have a lot of flowers from Wild Orchd Crafts, but sometimes they are just too big for what I want.  Punches combined with Spellbinders, Marianne D and Memory Box dies, I am in paper-heaven!

Tonight we are off for a curry with younger son, and are meeting his girlfriend for the first time, so I will be dreaming of flower-punching whilst gobbling a vindaloo (well not quite but you get the gist!).

TFL,
Mandi xx

Punched Flower Hydrangea Card

HAPPY NEW YEAR

First of all may I wish everyone (or anyone even!!) reading this a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

At the time of blogging, it is cold, wet, windy and ONLY 50 1/2 WEEKS UNTIL CHRISTMAS 2012 !!!!

Christmas 2011 has been and gone.  We enjoyed a family Christmas with quite a lot of variety, some good and some *interesting*.  (I love that word as it covers a multitude!).  My back was causing me mega-grief and I honestly am not sure how on earth I managed to cook Christmas dinner, but at least it made it onto the table.  It was Misha's first Christmas, so it was only proper that she joined us!!!  Paul still can't quite believe that he found himself cutting up Christmas dinner for a CAT!  

So what does the New Year bring?  Lots of good intentions and probably very few of them accomplished which is why I do not make resolutions!  I definitely need to get fitter in all sorts of ways, not least because my back needs it!  

On the crafting front, I don't have any plans as my styles seem to change so much.  Currently I am loving making easel cards as they can be used as a display piece when they are detached from the card base.  Over Christmas I found myself with all sorts of ideas BUT I didn't have any craft stuff with me at the cottage, and even if I had, I don't think that I would have had any time.  Now we are back, the ideas have deserted me and my creativity seems to have gone Ichabod but keep watching this space as it may return before too long.

Mandi xx

TIME FLIES!

Oh grief ... almost another two months disappeared into nowhere as far as blogging is concerned!  Again we have been busy bees, not helped by Misha who I am sure thinks that she is Stirling Moss at times.  She likes to muscle in on all the acts that go on in our household and is not too pleased when she is ignored!

She is not longer the tiny ball of fluff, skin and bones that she was when we found her in the nettle patch at the bottom of the garden and we are pretty sure that we know who the Mummy is due to her increasing Siamese looks and characteristics!  The question is ...... WHO'S THE DADDY?!!!  Again, we THINK we know who it is but not sure on that one.  If it is our prime suspect then his name is Hitch and he roams around the lane by the cottage!

WHO'S THE DADDY?


So .... because of the fact that this really should be a crafting blog, I have a confession to make ... I haven't done much!  I seem to go in fits and starts and lose my mojo at regular intervals, after which I have a growth spurt (a bit like Misha!).  Some of this is because my back has been giving me some major grief over the last few weeks and as I mainly craft standing up, the times when I have been *pain-free* enough to do it have been fairly few and far between.

I have, however managed to wrap presents and make mini Christmas cakes to give away as gifts to family and neighbours ... again with Misha giving a helping paw.  I am not sure if she is a help or a hindrance but she is very entertaining.

WRAPPING CHRISTMAS CAKES

Anyhow, whilst we were up at the cottage the other week (putting Christmas decorations up) we took a little trip out to Sir Stampalot in Peterborough.  Hmmm ... it was hubby's birthday and the poor darling took me craft shopping as a birthday outing!  Whilst there I spotted some easel cards that had been made and when we got home I searched online and found some which arrived two days later.  I have been playing with them this week and these are what I have come up with.  They look a bit naff in the photos but IRL look luverly!  One is a footprints one, where I have put small seashells on the *canvas* and the other was done with various dies.  Each can be removed from the card and used as a standalone altered easel.  

FOOTPRINTS EASEL CARD

VINTAGE EASEL CARD

Phew, that's my catch-up for today!  

TFL,

Mandi xx

GETTING THERE!

Good morning folkies!  A few blog posts ago I said that I had to try and get various cards done, including a New Home card, and a New Baby card.  Well, the New Home card was done (and blogged) a couple of weeks ago and I have finally got round to doing the New Baby card.  Wth a little moggy around things seem to take at least 3 times as long and I have to pick my moments - ie when I *think* that Misha is asleep because otherwise everything gets sabotaged by 4 paws!  I have discovered the true meaning of the phrase *cat nap* because Misha seems to have an amazing ability to be fast asleep and dreaming of mice one minute and then bouncing around like something on springs the next.

At the moment, Misha aside, things are frantic.  Tonight we are driving down to Kent to take daughter to a hospital appointment tomorrow.  She became seriously ill over Christmas and it has taken them this long to finally get down to the cause of it.  This year has been a huge round of hospitals and more hospitals, with a bit of messy art thrown in for good measure!  I think that getting messy is my sanity check but at the moment the chances to do that are a bit few and far between, and when I do have the space I don't have the oomph.

Anyhow, enough whinging!  Here is the New Baby Card.  I really don't like the way that colours scan in, as they either look washed out or too dark and this card is neither.  

TFL until next time!

Mandi xx

IT JUST AIN'T EASY!

It just ain't easy ... crafting with a cat!

I wanted to play with some Heartfelt Creations dies and stamps but was somewhat hampered in the process by Misha who insists on eating all thing to do with paper.  If she was not chasing a pen-lid round, she was chomping on the cardstock.  I eventually managed to put this ...........

....... together, which is the heartfelt creations hydrangea die and petals.  I had to cut out 24 of the stamped petals to layer on to the card.  The scan doesn't really do justice to the colours.  All this was interrupted by *thunderpaws* ... aka Misha as demonstrated below!

NEW HOME CARD

FINALLY managed to get round to making a New Home card ... which is not at all housey!  It hasn't scanned in very well as it is so bulky but the background has got lots of home-associated words on it.

I used my Heartfelt Creations die, and cut 6 lengths, which I then glued together and scored at 1/2 inch intervals.  I then glued these together, and made them into a rosette to fill an 8x8 card.  The sentiment is from Lily of the Valley stamps, and finished off with card candy.

TFL!

Mandi xx

WHERE DID I GO?

Disappeared ... that's what!  Disappeared in a sea of journeys to and from Kent, March and London ... oh, and the vet's!  Misha Moo is now very much a part of our lives and has managed to take over most of the downstairs rooms in the house, as well as our travel plans!  We can no longer *simply* get in the car and go ... we have to delicately plan every detail which also has to revolve around Misha!  The latest escape has been a two week trip to Cambridgeshire with Bex, which is normally quite a simple process but not any more!  Having decided that Misha would not cope with the journey to Kent from London, and then from Kent to Cambridgeshire, we had to do it in two stages ... all very precisely planned.  No longer do we simply pack a weekend bag, but cat litter, food, toys, feeding bowls, litter tray, scratching post, worming paste ... and cat has to come too - with an overnight stopover in the middle!

I have only tried paper-crafting once with Misha around and for me, it was not a happy, stress-free event.  For her, however it was a small piece of heaven ..... chasing screwed up paper balls around the house ... remnants of a project gone wrong.  On occasions such as these I wish that she was a dog.  At least she might bring the darn things back after chasing them!  The house is now strewn with little balls of paper, mini tennis balls, ping pong balls by the bucket load ... and pen lids which are her latest fad!

I MUST make a new home card, a new baby card, and a birthday card within the next week ...... or maybe I will just go to Tesco's and buy them!  Let me go and ask the cat what she would prefer!!!!!

I will TRY and be back soon!

Mandi xx