Inspiration

Dont wait for the perfect moment...take the moment and make it perfect.

Sign of the times

Lots of dust biting and shaking down in our industry. This time it is the giant home party company who really *got the party started* in the US. Not that size means anything, but it looks like bankruptcy beckons... and the downturn in the market (as well as sizable competition) only nailed the coffin. An attempt to restructure has been announced - but it is only an indicator of the current market trends. You need to be Noah to survive this flood...

Information taken from Scrap genie blog.

Stampers 10

How can someone who is soooooooooooo good also be so bad?

Last night our Stampers 10 group met and Michelle our demonstrator is so good to us and made a fabulous gift bag and a set of three cards, they were so much fun and everyone loved the project.
Despite a collective intake of breath the cards were much easier than they looked at first glance.

So you're all wondering how she is so bad. Well Michelle is so good at her job and designs fabby projects for us to make, but at the same time she makes our wish lists grow with new sets we hadn't noticed and yummy colour combinations that take us out of our white / cream comfort zone.

The set is by Stampin up and is Pocket Silouettes


Thank you Michelle we loved this 3D project.
Roll on next Friday when I am having a Christmas themed Stampin up party.

Batch Christmas cards

I am in the middle of making my batches of Christmas cards using my favourite Stampin up stamp sets, I dont usually enjoy making large batches of the same design, but as you can see each card is very similar although each has a subtle difference.

All of the card stock I have used is Stampin up.


Snowflake Spot.




Season of Joy

Christmas Insert verses

To those we love and see each day
and other loved ones far away
To all good friends who mean so much,
and those with whom we're are of touch...
Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy New Year.

One of the real joys of the holiday season
is the opportunity to say thank you for being a part of our lives
and to wish you the very best for the new year

Holiday Greetings and Best Wishes
For a New Year of Happiness in a World of Peace

May all the Joys of this Holiday Season
Be yours throughout the New Year

Season's Greetings...
with best wishes for your happiness in the New Year

Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a very happy New Year

Best wishes for a Happy Holiday Season and the New Year

Wishing you a beautiful holiday season and
a new year of Peace and Happiness with best wishes from...

May all the seasons of your life be filled with Peace and Love

May you be overwhelmed with Joy this Holiday Season

Best Wishes for the New Year

Warmest wishes for a Happy Holiday Season and a Wonderful New Year

May Joy be your gift at Christmas
And may Faith, Hop and Love be
your treasures in the New Year

The magic of Christmas never ends and its greatest of gifts are family and friends...
Best Wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season
and throughout the coming year

I wish you the gift of Faith, the Blessing of Hope
and the Peace of his Love at Christmas and always

May the Spirit of Christmas bring you Peace,
The Gladness of Christmas give you hope
The Warmth of Christmas grant you Love

May the wonderous spirit of Christmas fill your heart today and always

The wise still seek him...

The gift of love, the gift of peace, the gift of happiness...
May these be yours at Christmas

May you have the gift of Faith
the blessing of Hope
and the Peace of His Love at Christmas
and throughout the year

May the Spirit of Christmas bring you Peace,
the Gladness of Christmas give you Hope,
The Warmth of Christmas grant you Love

May the blessing of Christmas be with you today and tomorrow

The Blessings of Peace
The Beauty of Hope
The Spirit of Love
The Comfort of Faith
May these be your gifts this Christmas Season

May His coming bring you peace and blessings this Christmas

May the Spirit of Christmas be in your heart and soul
throughout the coming year

May you have the Spirit of Christmas, which is Peace
The Gladness of Christmas, which is Hope
The Heart of Christmas, which is Love

May the Blessings of Christmas be yours
And Happiness fill each day of the New Year

May His love fill your heart with Joy and Peace this Christmas
and each day of the year to come

One shining start to make the world bright,
One infant child on that wonderful night,
One little prayer for those we hold dear,
To bless you at Christmas and all through the year

May the Peace of the Lord fill your soul
May the Love of God fill your heart
May the Light of the Lamb shine upon your path
May Hope Eternal guide you through the world
May Christmas remain with you each and every day

Peace, Frieden, Paz, Joy, Joyeux Noel, Shalom, God Ful,
Frohe Weihnachten, Buon Natale, Prettige Kerstdagen,
Prosit Neujahr, Meilleurs Voeux, Paix,...
No matter what language or words we use
The heart still knows that these wishes are the best sent to you

God has given us two hands - one to receive with and the other to give with.
We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are channels made for sharing. Billy Graham
May you share the Love, Peace, Joy, Hope, and Faith of God with your fellow man.

Newsflash

Jarrolds in Norwich now stocks packs of copic markers.
priced at Just £9.99 a set
If these sell well then it may be possible to stock the pens individually.
Spread the word.

Stampin up party

If anyone is interested in popping along I have Michelle doing a Stampin up party for me on Friday 21st November at 7pm.

Michelle is a great demonstrator, on the night she will demonstrate a couple of make & takes ( time permitting ) on a Christmas theme.

So if you fancy popping along to have a play and see the wonderful new Stampin up catalogue and maybe a mince pie or two then drop me a line for further details.
It would be great to see you.

Excuses excuses ! !

I have been a exceptionally bad blogger lately, I came back from my holiday re-charged and refreshed but I still seem to be so tired in the evenings that I am not getting much done.
At work we are very busy as everyone seems to have gone into Christmas shopping mode early this year and the queues of customers seem constant, not that i'm complaining at that, "keep them coming" I say.
I have been making cards but I am working my way through what I call my batch cards, many of you may remember that I decided not to make unique handmade cards for all of the relatives that we only see for births, deaths & weddings. I thought by doing this it would free up my time to make my individual family cards.
I am making the batches of cards from my two favourite Stampin up sets Snowflake spot & seasons of joy with Stampin up co-ordinated cardstock. Although they are a batch cards each is a very tiny bit different, but essentially they are the same design and its working I managed 20 cards over the weekend & I worked all day Saturday. So thats the reason I haven' had much to show for my efforts on my blog this last couple of weeks.
The other reason is Jamie Oliver keeps distracting me! well not the man himself but his new cookbook ministry of food, it's excellent and I have been trying a new recipie everynight, many are vegetable based so far and they do take a bit of time to prepare. Last night we had Homemade rolls with Sweet potato & Chorizo soup it was real winter food.

Five from one

I sneaked past the Ironing mountain with my eyes closed, just so I could have a little play with my favourite & in my opinion most versatile Stampin up set.
The colours are old olive, ruby red & the papers are from the recently retired Dashing set.

In my last order I got some of the stamp & Stick powder, I have tried one of the glue pads which is supposed to be similar but I never managed to achieve the desired effect with the glue pad and always ended up disappointed, so the pad went in the bin. So as you can imagine I was sceptical when I bought the "Stamp & Stick powder", but I was amazed at the results ( the camera doesn't do the shimmer justice ).
First I stamped my image with Always artichoke, close to cocoa for the tree trunk & a yellow star on top. I waited for a few seconds for the inks to dry and covered the whole are with Versamark ink, sprinkled on the Stamp & stick powder, tipped of the excess & heated with my heat gun. Then the magic bit, when the powder is shiny & melted tip on the glitter & shake of the excess, Heat for a few seconds to set & voilà sealed glitter effect.

All supplies are from Stampin up and available from Michelle

My Lounge on a Saturday night

My family on a Saturday night:from left to right Dan, Abi & Kirsten

Paul & I are relegated to the small sofa

Corfu 2008

Abi in Corfu town, bag heaven Leather bags 15 euro all designer copies

Praying Mantis

Abi's Nightly cocktail

Corfu from the fortress

Beautiful Sidari bay

Well after a less than perfect start to the holiday it was heavenly.
We arrived in Corfu at 11 at night, only to find the pre booked and pre paid taxi was nowhere to be seen, we eventually found someone to help us. We drove to the appartment's only to find that they were closed for the winter and our travel company had been advised some 17 days earlier & didn't let anyone know. The taxi driver was excellent and drove to appartments of a similar name. We weren't booked in there either, but the driver did manage to negotiate a bed for the night so we ended up at the Yiannis village where Telis was an amazing host by this time it was 1.15am and we had been travelling for 14 hours. With his help we managed to find that we should have been moved to Luisa appartments in Canal d'amour but they were also closed so we could only have a room ( No other facilities ). With a lot of phone calls to and from the Uk and and many to the Greek agents we managed to stay at the amazing Yiannis Village.
It didn't end there as on the flight home there was such bad unexpected turbulence that two of the stewardesses burnt them selves whilst serving hot drinks, which really frightened Abi who had already had a bad flight out to Corfu. Then when we arrived back at Gatwick the paperwork we had been given stated the wrong terminal so my SIL was in the wrong building when our flight landed.

I will be writing a letter of complaint to the travel company, but they didn't care when we phoned them from Greece so I doubt they will do anything.

But I can recommend Yiannis Village and Sidari, I can completely understand where Shirley Valentine was coming from.

Hubby's birthday card

Whilst we were in Corfu Paul had his birthday so I had to make his card before we went, I was short on time as I had a million and one things to try & do before you go on holiday so I cased a card from the old Stampin up catalogue, I was pleased with how it turned out.The set is a retired set called Happy Hearts and is still available whilst stocks last

Last couple of cards before I start packing

The stamp set on the above cards is a cute Inkadinkadoo mini set of clear stamps, the cardstock is Stampin up & the strip of background paper is by Doodlebug.

Just catching up on the last couple of October birthday cards, in-between cleaning the house and putting the washing on before I start packing tomorrow for 10 days in the sun. Everyone else has packed today and all the bags are sat in the lounge and Paul keeps weighing them and re weighing them just to check the kids haven't snuck anything else into there bags.
I am already in holiday mood and have two & a half weeks of work, so when I get back I hope to start scrapbooking some of the holiday pictures using the new seaglass papers & accesories from K & Co.

I have used the Stampin up set called Computer quips for this card the set is now sadly retired, the cardstock is all Stampin up.

I can relate to this

I can relate to this with an old dog in the cold weather & a kitten who only piddles in the cat tray.

Stampin up ~

Two cards made from a retired Stampin up set called In the Wild. The bamboo background stamp is a 2003 background stamp.
All of the cardstock is Stampin Up from the Rich regals colour family, if you haven't used the card stock from Stampin up then I urge you to give the mixed packs a try they certainly take you out of your comfort zone.
Try this site for help with mixing your colour combo's

Stampin up seasons of joy

I have had this set for about a year now and I still love it, it is in the new UK catalogue.
Seasons of Joy

This bag was made at Michelle's a couple of weeks ago using the season of joy set.


this set is versatile and many of the stamps have a wide range of uses, especially the flourishes.

1st meeting of Michells's stampers 10

Last night was the first meeting of Michelle's stampers 10, Michelle was an excellent hostess as always and she had some great projects for us using the Crazy for cupcakes set.