Skullduggery

My teams turn at Twisted Sketches this week, so pop on over and join in the fun, the twist was ribbon, and here is my take:

This was our pumpkin this year, I always try and do a different design each year, it looks lovely but I don't half curse whilst doing it, this years was especially tricky as I was really not in the mood whilst doing it!

I have Jess home from school again at the mo, more headaches and dizzyness, bit worrying as in the last 14 days of school she has had 6 off. I think it may be a stress thing but theres no denying that she is hot and not well, poor thing.

Advent Calender Take Two!

If you're in the UK you may remember that 2 years ago Tesco were selling these wooden advent calendars that were a bargain £5 but were pretty yucky and definately in need of altering. They were a bit like gold dust to find as crafter after crafter snapped them up. I was a lucky one and managed to get my hands on one. In this post you can see a bit of how it looked and a bit of how I did it and in this post you can see the finished result.

After last years advent I thought it was looking a bit tatty and decided that I would remodel it in time for this christmas.



Well here it is, I am v pleased with this one, much nicer all round, it took me 4 hours to do. The paper covers on the drawers were cut on the Cameo as were the numbers, and all embellishment the only thing I cut by hand was the roof panel and for the scalloped roof edge I used a punch. I choose not to overembellish the calender as I thought it looked so pretty with just the patterened paper.

Marching for Remembrance

Its frustrating isn't it when you make a nice layout and it just will not photograph 'true' this is one of those layouts, looks lovely as its standing on my easel, but the photo of it is a bit 'meh'



Joe was part of the Remembrance Parade in Keynsham on Sunday, he was the very littlest of Air Cadets in the Parade, in fact he was the littlest by far of all the organisations that properly march (of course there were scouts and brownies walking behind). I was so proud to see Joey, standing straight, chin up and swinging his arms and lifting his knees - they do a quite exaggerated proper march. I used my new Cameo a bit on this, the poppy the 'remembrance and for' lettering and also the journaling which is a Print and Cut.

I got a nice parcel of paper today from Papermaze from their fire damaged stock which in actual fact was perfect, a little teeeny tiny small of smoke but hardly noticable. Nice to get new paper and its something that always inspires me, like it did today!

Right I am off to walk the dog, who is in the doghouse as he piddled in the kitchen yesterday, I noticed a smell but thought it was the cats food, the smell was under my nose all day, and today I found the piddle under my mop and bucket. Sometimes I could swing for that animal I really could!

Look what I got!

So this is what I was waiting for allllllll last week. The Silhouette Cameo! Any one who reads my blog often will know that I create a lot with my beloved craft robo, and that I got a lot of use out of it. I saved and saved for that Robo almost 3 years ago and then for the 1st 6 months or so I didn't really use it much, this was back in the days when the software was a bit of a faff. But you may remember my 'use my robo everyday' kick a couple of years ago and since then its become second nature to make stuff with it. Its on my desk and so its ready to go.



When I saw this being talked about at first I wasn't convinced but I soon saw it capabilities and possibilites. This one cuts like a dream and cuts true 12x12 which means I can cut fancy edged 12x12 for my pages. I got this on flexi pay and was so pleased when I saw that option as I was thinking I would not be able to get one til after christmas.


This is a card I made for my sister, its her birthday on Friday and today Jessica and I sat down and had a really nice couple of hours playing with Cameo and making this. Everything on this card was cut with the Cameo.

Closeup!

I also made Jess this box which because this cameo cuts so much bigger is actually a really good size. Jess and I also spent another hour cutting and assemblying all sorts of animals which she has names, fallen in love with and put in her box.

Bangs head against wall

I know I am an impatient person, I know this, but, I am also a realistic person, so when I order something I think ok: it will be despatched earliest tomorrow which means I will get it earliest the day after that and possibly not til 4/5 days post ordering this is ok, I can live with it.

What I find harder to live with is an order that takes:

1 day to process - perfectly reasonable!

2 days to await despatch - just put it on the bloody van already - you're a big company you must have several courier runs a day!

2 days post despatch where my tracking number yeilds no result and I am left wondering who now has it? Create and Craft? HDN? who? and now on the 6th day I finally see movement its in HDN's main hub, all I can say is that it had better get down my end of the country in plenty of time to be loaded on the van tomorrow, because I want it and I want it NOW - this thing cost me considerable money!

Tell you what it is when I have it in my grubby mitts, but I am v v excited about it!

But on to the craft - here is a card I made today, totally inspired by the background used in this card here, I'm always looking at the papertrey ink releases and wondering how I can imitate them! As usual this is a mainly Craft Robo card!

Being sneaky!

Ah I feel so much better now, its lovely to be up and about and walking the dog in the field again of a morning.

I've a couple of sneaks to show you today, its really all the crafting that I have done, but the assignment is finished now so I can finally scrap for myself for a bit, which will be lovely.

I've Jessica home from school today with a temperature and general bleugh feeling, theres not too much wrong with her really but I think she needs a day off, she is not settling in too well to secondary school and is struggling to form friendships, she was like this when she started castle 4 years ago, she expects too much too soon and can't understand why girls get bitchy at times, she gets hurt and confused when someone who she hung out with one day, snubs her the next. Poor girl its so upsetting seeing her come home in tears each day, but I am confident that time will sort it all out like it did last time, i'vehad a quick word with her tutor but at the moment she wants me to stay out of it, so stay out of it I will. Still I think a day home to regroup and destress will help her.

A Christmassy kinda post

Afternoon, apologies once again for my abscence, the poorly that I spoke of last week that was slowly leaving me decided to double back and knock me for six, I've had that bad of a cough that I have pulled a muscle in my neck and one in my ribs which doesn't make for comfortable coughing let me tell you!

Today is the first day since the weekend that I have felt able to really get stuff done! However enough of my moaning and on to the craft.

These are my latest for The Scrapbook Magazine that is out today. I had 2 commissions for this one, Get the cover look, made using the free papers:

And Homespun christmas which was quite tricky for me as I prefer to scrap bright and graphic! I was also sent some Bazzill Glazed cardstock that they wanted to use, which I found quite hard to fit into the theme but I did my best!

Aww the pic on this one is cute, Jess when she was 6 having a massive hug from the schools Father Christmas, I think the poor man was a bit taken aback when she lunged for him, she loves Father Christmas!

Ive been busy today scrapping for my next commission, they want a massive 5 layouts from me this time with a technique article, step by steps etc but I am having a blast with this commission and will prob show some sneaks of it soon.