Please welcome.... Poppy!!!

Our newest grand daughter has arrived. She is gorgeous and I can't wait to get to know her. The last couple of weeks has been so unbelievably frenetic with visits and looking after Jaydn and Jasmine with their different timetables...I don't know if I'm Arthur or Martha! (That was just for my father-in-law who sometimes visits my blog and doesn't leave a message!!) Young mums now-a-days dash about all over the place with all the extra clubs and things as well as the normal mum stuff...I'm sure I would have been in a heck of a muddle if I had been left in charge. Anyway, this little mite is the reason for the nappy cake and my lack of blogging news. 

The weather here has been glorious and I have been working in the garden every morning till it gets too sunny. I have made friends with a couple of blackbirds (well...the missus is brown but you get my drift) it has been unbelievably peaceful sitting in the dirt just listening to nature...I hope Colin doesn't read this as I should have been able to write 'I have been working so hard getting the garden ready for the Spring' but sometimes you just have to sit back and smell the roses! I hope you have a great weekend and I will be hopping around the blogs tomorrow.

My first nappy cake

 Lisa and Manwai are having their baby next Wednesday so I thought I would have a go at making a nappy cake. I watched some demos on u tube but adapted them slightly. This is the top layer. I bought a large pack of pampers, a bag of elastic bands and  two pretty white baskets and filled them with baby goodies. I opened a  nappy and rolled it up and kept it in shape with an elastic band. I made enough of these 'rolls' to go around each basket and stood them upright with a very large elastic band. Then flattened out eight nappies to go round the rolls. I had ribbon left over from their wedding so that went round the outside, stuck in place with some double sided tape just on the two ends and finished up with a double bow. And of course, the sweetest cuddly rabbit to go on the top.

 This is the bottom layer, made the same as the top. But with after eights as a treat for mum.

This is the finished nappy cake, I just need to cover everything with cellophane, bows and tags but I didn't think a photo would show it very well. I am quite chuffed with my first effort, I hope you like it too.

Little Friends digi

Has it been cold where you live? It is like we're back in winter here and I had just got my violas ready to plant. If they survive the night I will be out in the garden tomorrow tucking them in. I have nearly finished digging over the veg plot and Colin has the seed potatoes ready to chit in the greenhouse. I had really been looking forward to a bit of warm weather so I hope next week is more springlike. As I am typing this I am nibbling away at a rock bun from the batch I made this evening...the recipe says they should be eaten fresh and who am I to argue with that? Ok so some can go in the cake tin but...Anyway...my card this week is a Karen Middleton digi from cuddly buddly called 'Little Friends'. I adore the way Karen depicts these fairies and they are a delight to colour. The backing cardstock is one from of those large packs of glittered cardstock from The Range. The image is coloured with my promarkers, the flowers and leaves from w.o.c. I made the greeting with m.c.s. and the swirls from my cricut. I hope you have a good week and are keeping warm.

Jasmine's 3

I made this card in m.c.s. with a photo taken last year at Lisa and Manwai's wedding. I was going to dress it up with swirls and flowers but really for a little girl I think this was pretty enough. I printed it onto matt photographic paper. We have been staying at Lisa's most of this week and we're both pooped! It has been great fun though, we have played with all her birthday toys. I have been climbed on and stood on and moaned at (when the sweets ran out) and hugged and cuddled (the early morning cuddles are lovely). I have been tested, before my morning porridge on skylander charactors, questioned about star wars light sabers whilst on the way to the loo. I have stood my ground when it came to the last piece of cake and roast potato and generally got in everyones way, and now we're home...Colin is catching up with the soaps and I am going to play with some new toys. I have a hot glue gun and a thingy for the Tim Holtz distress inks, some beautiful ribbon from the Hobbycraft bargain bin and some extra sticky double sided tape, oh yes...and two of the large sheets of lovely cardstock for my cricut. I am going to have fun playing with all that stuff. So Chris...some swirls will be coming your way very soon. I hope you all have a lovely weekend. sue x

Happy 18th

This lovely digi is from Karen at Cuddly Buddly printed on watercolour card and coloured with promarkers. The layering with my cuttlebug and the fantastic swirls with my cricut. I made the box with matching cardstock also with cricut swirls (really love them!) The flowers from wild orchid craft, the ribbon and papers from stash.
It was a beautiful day here Thursday and Friday so I was out in our garden. I made a start on our veg patch which was so weedy. I must admit I sat on the ground listening to the birds, it was so peaceful, I didn't get very much gardening done but I made up for it yesterday. Colin cut back the hedge and I weeded round my bulbs. I think the ground was warming up, I did pay for it later and almost dozed through Friday evening. Today is looking like another fine one. We are off round to see Jasmine our grand daughter...she had her third birthday during the week so we can play with playdoh to our hearts content. Hope you have a good weekend.  

Thinking of you...

I love this image...it's a digi from cuddly buddly printed on water colour paper, coloured with promarkers. Backing paper from stash, sentiment from m.c.s., flowers and leaves from w.o.c. and the swirl and bee from my lovely cricut - home decor cartridge.
I also was a busy bee yesterday. Apart from shopping of the boring kind  I am re-purpled, I visited the local hairdresser and had a very nice couple of hours with enough chat and hot chocolate to unwind ready to face the ironing. Hmmm...didn't work so I will face the ironing today perhaps with Haven on tv. I had finished a commissioned card for the hairdresser but would you believe it...I made a Diamond Anniversary instead of a Silver, oh well...that will go into stock and the Silver one will be finished hopefully later today. Good job she has a sense of humour. I woke up this morning with my hair all over the place but my fringe is looking pretty good! The garden is still covered with snow so I have Colin at home with me...lovely, means I get cups of tea made (I just cannot make tea that's drinkable)   I hope you all manage to keep warm, sue x

Eliza's daisy chain

Another Cuddly Buddly digi, printed on watercolour paper, coloured with promarkers-glossy accents on the shoes. Greeting from m.c.s. cut with my cuttlebug, swirl made with my cricut, flowers from w.o.c. I think the backing paper is Henbury Lane and ribbon from stash. I have some orders to complete so I am up n' at 'em early today, I think if I show willing with the housework then I can curl up with the promarkers, with Haven on the telly, hot chocolate by my side, cuddly blanket on my lap then I can shut out this frosty day and just play. I was quite good yesterday and even made rock buns (yes, Lexie...those rock buns) they were quite nice, I hadn't made any for ages so they made a nice change from cupcakes. My knees are recovering from last weeks tumble, luckily I have built in airbags...ok so I need to lose a lot of weight but the bit extra does come in handy when I am ambushed by the grandchildren! I hope you all manage to keep warm in this frosty weather.

Cuddly Buddly digi

Todays card is made with a really pretty digi stamp. Although my colouring still isn't as good as I would like...I am still enjoying working with digi's and this one is from Cuddly Buddly. Printed on watercolour paper, coloured with promarkers which hobbycraft have on sale at the moment, and embellished with flowers and leaves from w.o.c. the bud roses coloured with promarkers. The greeting is from my craft studio, swirls from my cricut with home decor cartridge and the image cut out with my cuttlebug. The ribbon and dragonfly are from my stash. The background paper from a selection called 'Neighbourwood'. Colin and I have been away all week staying with Lisa and her children. Manwai is away for the week and as Lisa is five weeks away from having a baby we stayed overnights just in case. I am pooped! I sat down in front of the telly last night still with a rather bent halo on my head. I had to sit down as the children had thought it a good idea to grab hold of my legs when I tried to pass them. The next thing I knew I was tumbling (I would have said flying but really it was more of a tumble) through the air to land heavily on my knees. It was rather like in star wars when those huge mechanical vehicles were stomping through the desert till Luke or Aniken wrapped the cables round the legs and they came crashing down. Not very elegant! I am home for the moment tucking into a slice of Lemon Drizzle cake. I think I deserved it. Anyway, the weekend is here, Yippeeeee

Sweet Blossom

This is one of my favourite digital stamps from Wee Stamps. She is called sweet blossom. I printed the image onto watercolour paper and coloured her and her little friend with promarkers. I used my cuttlebug to cut the circle round the image and my cricut for the swirls...home decor design. The sentiment, using my craft studio, was cut again with the cuttlebug. These digital stamps are a delight to work with, and, whilst I am not experienced with the shading etc, I do so enjoy curling up and colouring...I wish I had tried them sooner.
It is quite mild out today but dull and drizzly so I think I will be making boxes and inserts for the cards...after I have done loads of housework of course (that's in case Colin reads my blog) Anyway, I hope today is a good day for you. Keep warm, love Sue x

Christmas cards and thoughts...

This Christmas was a bit of a jumble of feelings. My estranged daughter Sarah had a baby and my sadness at not seeing her or my grandchild hit me quite hard. The things family members do to each other at this time of year seems at odds to the idea of the family togetherness portrayed in Christmas films etc. anyway...I think these are the last of my Christmas cards to show here...

I printed the image onto matt photo paper, sprayed with crafters companion Spray and Sparkle "iridescent". The snowglobe is from mcs christmas bunny snuggles over an image of Jasmine and the flowers are from w.o.c.

I think the fireplace and the snowglobe are from bunny snuggles again, the florishes made with my cuttlebug, the wooden reindeer from a pack of Tesco tree ornaments.

And finally, for my stepdaughter Lisa and her husband Manwai.. the moon was from one of the christmas cd's from mcs, in fact, all the printed embellishments are mcs. The flourish from my cuttlebug, the image in the bauble is from their wedding day this year.
Our Christmas spent with Lisa and her family was lovely. Colin and I played with the children and their toys and it was just so peaceful and at times so funny...we were shattered and I could have slept for a week!
I hope you all had a very Happy Christmas.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas

I do hope you have a very happy and peaceful Christmas, spending the day however you wish. To be warm and light hearted, well fed and loved. 

Yet more mincepies.

I have been baking mincepies again today. Actually, this is a photo of last time's efforts but today's look the same. I think we all have our own recipe but this is how I make them.
7ozs plain flour
1 3/4oz icing sugar
4 1/2oz unsalted butter cut into small cubes (must be very cold)
pinch of salt
2 duck egg yolks

First I put the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and added the icing sugar and the butter. Then I sat and watched some of a Christmas film while I rubbed the butter into the flour with my fingertips. I then added the egg yolks and started to mix them into the flour/butter mix with a wooden spoon. I do it this way as my hands just get covered with the stuff. After a few moments the stuff comes together and I can get my hands in to form the pastry into a flat round. I lay a piece of clingfilm (large enough to wrap round the pastry) onto my worksurface and place the pastry into the middle of it and wrap the clingfilm round it. The pastry then goes into the fridge for two hours. Near the end of that time I get out my bun tray and grease it well with the wrapper from the butter, it has just enough butter to do the job. I turn on the oven to 170 (I have a fan oven). I get out a couple of little pots, one has some cold water in it and one has a beaten egg. I get my mincemeat and some sugar ready and my rolling pin and two pastry cutters. Then I get the cold pastry out of the fridge and roll it out (not too thinly) on a lightly floured worksurface. I use the larger of the two cutters and cut 12 'rounds'...these are place into the greased bun tray. I then cut 12 of the smaller 'rounds' and put these to one side. I use a teaspoon to place the mincemeat into the little pastry cases and dip my finger into the water and moisten the edges of the pastry cases, this helps the lids to stick. The I place the little lids onto the waiting pastry cases and press lightly to seal. I put an eggwash onto the lids and sprinkle a little sugar over them. Then they go into the oven for 15 minutes. When they are ready I take them out of the oven and leave them in the bun tray for a while before getting them out using a teaspoon and placing them onto a rack to cool. They are so yummy eaten warm but they do freeze really well.
There are so many ways to make these but this works for us....and I think I can hear Colin doing a spot of quality control in the kitchen! Hummmm....

Who's a lucky girl then?

Woohoo...Colin has bought me a cricut create! I must be on Santa's 'nice' list! He ordered it yesterday and I was told it will be here before Christmas. Now then, is it a ploy to get me to do as much housework as I can so that I can play when it arrives? Well...it worked! I am going to clear a pathway through my craft room and get everything ready for its arrival-I knew I would find a use for those bits and pieces of pretty papers, I am all excited and keen to get my hands on this fantastic piece of kit and I will be visiting loads of your blogs to get some ideas. Colin has been busy taking photos of my cards and stuff so I will get up to date with that as well. And maybe, just maybe I will get some more mincepies baked later today. Anyway, I am going to be scooting round so if I am passing by the computer I will stop by and say hello.

Do you think I like purple?

Another image from dulemba.com they really are amazing digi's and so easy to colour.
pearlescent card from the Range, flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, coloured with promarkers, papers, ribbon and buckle from stash. I have made this for my hairdresser...I am off there in a few moments to be re-purpled! Yes, I have purple hair, not bright purple but still an obvious purple. I will be taking a tub of hot chocolate drink with me and I would have taken some mincepies but they won't be ready in time. I think Colin took some photos of the last batch so I'll put them on here when I come back. Hoping you all have a very nice Tuesday, keep warm.

So pretty....

This is another image from Elizabeth at dulemba.com  I am amazed she allows us to practise colouring with her amazing images. This is printed onto the Daler Rowney Bristol Board, coloured with promarkers and embellished with Wild Orchid flowers. The background is card from my stash and the star is from a large set of christmas decorations which Tesco has on sale at the moment...I think they are just tree decorations. The greeting from Kanban.
November, for me, has been really difficult but this month is going to be much better. Colin bought me a halogen oven and today I cooked a chicken in it. Took hardly any time at all and all I had for dinner was half a little chicken. Cooo....I think I could live on roast chicken!

My first....

I have wanted to be able to colour and shade images for so long. I have visited other blogs and been amazed at their talents. I have tried unsuccessfully to learn about shading etc but now I am ready to show my efforts... There is an amazing artist who has her own site where she provides the most beautiful digital images for free to enable us to practice colour techniques. You can find this amazing artist Elizabeth O. Dulemba dulemba.com  it was there that I found this little fairy who was so easy to colour. I downloaded a few digital images and printed them on the most amazing paper called Daler Rowney Bristol Board-Airbrush this was only £5.95 from Jarrolds in Norwich...they are a family business but I expect you can get this anywhere. So, this was coloured using promarkers and I went a bit mad with my first order at Wild Orchid Crafts, haven't they got the most amazing stuff!!! so the flowers were from w.o.c. and the sentiment a little something using my craft studio. I hope you like it.

One way to use images from Polkadoodle

This is the way I use images from Polkadoodle discs in My Craft Studio. I am sure there are much easier ways but this works for me. It is a bit long winded and you may find you can cut corners but this has been quite successful.
Make sure you have the 'Paint' option available from the start menu. Insert Polkadoodle disc. Choose and click on the image you want to work with. Go to the drop down 'Edit' menu. Copy file to clipboard. Go to the start menu and select 'Paint'. Go to the drop down 'Edit' menu. Select 'Paste'. Your selected image will then be in front of you. Again go to the drop down 'Edit' menu. Choose 'Save as' and you can save and name  the image where you can easily find it. Close down 'Paint' and you are back to the Polkadoodle disc. You can then open mcs and use the image as you would any other saved image. There are ways to trim the image and only save the part you want to work with but I am quite happy to have the whole image in mcs and I can crop, lassoo or scissor the image there. Like I said...there will be much easier ways to do this but this works for me so, if like me, you have spent days wondering how on earth can you use these lovely images then maybe give this way a try..

I hope this works ok...please let me know if the image comes out huge again. Those gremlins just don't know when they're not wanted! I have really missed blogging and seeing what you are all up to. This card is made with the image from polkadoodle's Pretty Sweet, flowers from mcs, angel from Kanban and sundry items from stash.

Right....I hope this image isn't swamping the blog. I am chasing gremlins at the moment as I can't see images on the blog. If anyone is hopping by my blog...is this image normal size? would be grateful if you could leave a comment.

another trial image