make a wish......

This card is one I made last year for a dear friend who was battling cancer, a group of us made cards to send to give her a boost and let her know we were thinking of her.

It's hard to know what sort of card to do in such circumstances, but knowing she liked butterflies I set to work with stamps, distress inks, gilding flakes and a crealie die. 

Sadly my friend lost her battle earlier this year. 

Today a random comment lead to a conversation about her and it made me smile so I thought I would post this on my blog as a permanent reminder of a lovely lady, who is never far from our thoughts.

what a week!

It's been a hectic week where I trialled a new job, sadly it wasn't the one for me and I had to make the tough decision not to continue with it. It was madness going out the door before 7am and not getting home again until after 6pm. The last thing I felt like doing when I got in was cooking the evening meal and crafting......however, today has been much nicer, I went to the Clarity East workshop and got to play with some lovely Clarity Stamps and stencils. The classes are really good, we learn new techniques and ways to use the stamps while crafting, then there's the chance to have a chat over coffee and cakes.

Most of the Clarity stamped cards that I make are given to my nearest and dearest, however, several times a year I co-host a workshop with two other ladies and I am in charge of the stamped cards. Last month I decided to use a Clarity stamp I received as a member of the New Design Club for one of my cards. I kept it small and simple with a distress ink background and then embossed a snowflake stamp in the middle to tone with the mirri used to mat and layer it. Quick but effective, we also made it in green and red, both of which looked stunning. A variety of colours in a handmade box made a nice gift for a local charity tombola as well.

I've decided to enter it in the Clarity Blog challenge. For November it's a Christmas theme, so this should fit in nicely, the other entries are fabulous - as always, go and take a look, you won't regret it :-)

http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/challenge-9.html

Ok, I have been very neglectful of my blog, despite my good intensions. I find there are not enough hours in the day with being a full time Mum, grandmother, crafter and worker...until recently when I was made redundant. Who knew finding a new job would be a full time role in itself!! I'm still unemployed, but hopefully that will change soon.
In recent months my son has married, my grandsons are growing quickly (and a joy to spend time with) and I am crafting whenever I can. I am a big fan of Barbara Grey and have many of her stamps, however, like chocolate, a girl can never have too many :-)
As well as watching Barbara on tv and her fantastic DVD's, I have been going along to the Clarity East stamping classes, run by the very lovely Janet. I have learnt so much from the classes and made many new friends into the bargain. The crafting world is certainly full of some wonderful people.
Barbara recently started a blog and I have been following it daily, but been unable to leave any comments. Until today...when I logged on with my laptop rather than the ipad.....problem solved :-)
One of Barbara's posts included a challenge, to get up to speed with the blogging world, and post a link to her blog, so other people can enjoy her posts. The bonus is a chance to to win a fantastic giveaway. It got me thinking it was high time I dusted off my blog, made it feel a bit more loved and got to grips with how it all works.
So here I am, ready to have a good look at what needs updating, what's new in blogger world and to have a peek around the blogs I have previously enjoyed visiting...maybe even find a few more :-)
I suspect my day is about to disappear into blogland, but with the miserable weather outside...why not  :-)
If you haven't already visited Barbara's blog, go take a look, I promise you will love it, the link is on my sidebar

Happy Easter everyone.

I am on cloud 9 at the moment, my son and partner became the proud parents of a baby boy yesterday. After 4 tough years losing 3 babies they finally have their own little baby to take home :-)

 I can now boast of two wonderful little grandsons, and can't wait to spend more time with the newest member of the family.

This is the card I made for the new parents, I was so caught up in the 'getting him here safely' bit that I clean forgot to make a card, so this was a bit rushed, but I couldn't possible turn up at the hospital without a card for him.

from black and white to pink and grey......

I'm at my happiest when getting inky fingers from playing around with stamps. This is a card I made using a Clarity stamp and mask, I really like the colours and layout and it's encouraged me to try other masks and colour combinations.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenge

ladybugs crafts ink challenge blog - think pink

Black and white card

This is a very early card that I made, I found the picture lurking in my album, so thought I would post it on here. I am determined to try and post once a week, so expect to see quite a few old card popping up in the next few weeks. It's been quite a challenge trying to remember how to link up etc, so apologies if anything isn't working properly, please let me know so I can fix it :-)

I would like to enter this in the following challenges

Joanna Sheen - Black and white

I really must try harder......

to post more often! After giving up on blogger many months ago due to access issues, I had forgotten all about it. A comment from a friend reminded me it had been a while since I checked in...well 17 months near enough.....so after finding it's working I have updated my 'About me' and will make sure I post at least once a month in future. I just need to try and remember how to post pictures and link up and with a bit of luck I can start joining in with some challenges etc.
So watch this space :-)