2 Cards

Made this at Craft Club for MIL for her b'day next month.

And this one for another relative, male, haven't decided which one yet, there are several who need cards!

x Sally x

Demo Night

Happy Monday everyone!

Last Wednesday we had a demo at Craft Club from member Louise-Anne on storage boxes for photos, stickers, whatever you fancy! They have a concertina type insides for the storage.

Here is a pic of some we made, they haven't been embellished as that was a take home job, but these are the finished basic box. They turned out GORGEOUS! Love mine! (Its the pink one!!)

I plan on doing a step by step photo tutorial once I am back in the UK and settled (well when my craft stuff has arrived!), so keep an eye out for that one.

I am currently Wi-fi-ing on my laptop from my bed as I am not too well, oh the wonders of modern technology! I will upload the rest of the room later once I can get down to the other computer and resize them from there! Was a pain on here as this laptop is different to the computer, besides being one XP and one Vista!

On the plus side, our belongings get collected go to UK on Thursday - Yeh!!!

x Sally x

Sad news...

My craft stuff is all packed away. Sob......
Even the massive Madaboutcards order that arrived the day before yesterday, I opened it, admired its wonderfulness and packed it :(
See you in about 5 weeks wonderful, crafty loveliness......

But..... HURRAH for the Craft Club yeh!! I still get to play there twice a week!
Have now handed over to Martine and she has had a wonderful time spending the money on lovely goodies we played with last evening!! We have had a rearrange a couple of weeks ago and its a lovely friendly space now and much better organised, it also copes better with the huge increase of stock we have now have! It all gets used and played with too, nothing is out of bounds! Notice boards are decorated and up (Martines lovely hubby), huge filing cabinets (Martines DH again!) to cope with the abundance of paper, cards, cardstock etc. Lovely scrapbooking items, pens, ribbon, stamps, matching buttons etc for every occasion fill the shelves, there is so much to choose from!

I have had a great time doing all this and Martine is well up for continuing it all! We haven't had to ask for any money off anyone and its all been purchased from the reduced fees of £2 per week per person. I leave a wonderful place full of happy people, in the very capable hands of a treasured friend. Lots of new faces and old, going about in their creative ways - can you tell I am getting all emotional?? I am gonna miss it so much and all my friends when I go soon.

I am so glad of the day Gill made her double pronged attack on my email accounts begging me to take it over as she knew I could cope and had the skills to take it on, its been wonderful for both me and the club and I am so happy she trusted me enough to leave her club in my novice crafty hands. Thanks honey x
x Sally x

Busy evening at Craft Club tonight!

We had allsorts going on, card making, card stitching, jewellery making and beading, and fimo nativity figures!

And we had a full house! Great to see Jo, our community police lady has joined us again after last weeks demo night, with friend Leanne, wonderful to see Louise back again with her friend and another new lady Alison as well as a few regulars and returning newbies!

Here are a few of the 'different' things that went on tonight!

These are made by Louise, one of our newer ladies, fast becoming a regular, the father christmas head, christmas tree and angel are what we are making in our demo night next week! I am so excited to be learning new things again!

These fimo nativity figures by Louises friend (sorry forgot your name again - I have a brain like a sieve! Let me know again!) are just delightful and we are looking forward to a future demo on that too!

Walking on air today! With a thriving and happy craft club, learning amazing new skills from very talented women and a wonderful posting (can't believe how lucky we are!).

Creatively Yours
Sally x

Chrimble Cards and birthdays!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CELIA!!!!!
21 years young again, hope you have had a fantabulous day!

Here are a few more Christmas cards made recently!
These cards have used Peppermint Twist Die Cut Cardstock from K and Company, christmas pics from Pink Petticoat, ribbons, pearlescent card and Christmas reds cards, papers from Paper Adventures and Dovecraft Christmas Blues, eyelets (used with Big Bite), snowflake brads, snowflake punch, glitter glue, stickles, cuttlebug snowflake embossing on generic card, other card and foil cards from my stash.

I have also finished Annettes 40th Birthday card, and am very pleased with it! Of course I cannot post it yet cos its not her birthday for another month but its ready to go, lol.

We are enjoying having hubby back home sooo much (Big Grin!) and he seems to be not too adversely affected by his experience, thank goodness.

Also, we are now in the final countdown for the Sound of Music Production that my 2 eldest girls are in, they go on stage on 3rd Nov for 6 performances and also that week my brother in law and his family are visiting. We have front row seats for the Thursday night and we cannot wait!

Thursday mornings and Tuesday nights are working out fabulously with the Craft Club, especially Thursday mornings, its great to see people there! We have two great demonstration nights planned before Christmas, Christmas card stitching and Christmas Card beading of Santas, quite intricate but cannot wait! Also have reorganised the management - Sarah M. is now secretary (she stepped in last meeting and did such a great job!), Sue S is treasurer (using all those wonderful skills she has!) and Martine (cos she is fab and will undoubtedly continue to take it on to bigger and better things) will be taking on my role when I go! Just a few months now, so its all in place ready, less to worry about when its comes to moving, knowing its all in fab and capable hands!

Creatively Yours
Sally x

Christmas Cards! Again!

I am getting quite into these now!

For these I used Pearlescent Cards which can be found here, and ribbon from the recently purchased craft club stash, gold and silver card, Angel punch is from Dovecraft, chipboard shapes from Dovecraft Winter Wonderland and Contemporary Christmas, also coordinating accessories like sticky ribbon and funky brad which can be found here and here, the brads are from my stash, staples, basic eyelets are from my stash and the novelty ones are from Eyelet Outlet, and the grommets are from the collection that came with my Pink Big Bite.

Creatively Yours
Sally x

So excited ..

4 weeks today my gorgeous hubby is due home and 1 week tomorrow my Bryony is coming to stay for 10 days! After the week I have had it was a great moment this morning when I realised! I am feeling blessed today.

I have had THE busiest week, on top of having an absess in my gum high above a wisdom tooth and have been in lots of pain, even my cheekbone and skin hurt! I am on highest strength painkillers and antibiotics, then my psoriasis has flared up due to pain, stress and being run down.
But I am feeling much better this morning and even had about 5 hours sleep last night, which for me at the moment is amazing.

I have also had some news which shows how Karma works - I can't share I am afraid, but I do believe in and LOVE karma - its why I try and be as nice as I can be, helpful and honest. I have Girlguiding is in my life - so I can share good values and voluntarily running the Craft Club (ok, I say voluntarily - Gill has a lot to answer for in that dept!! With her double pronged begging attack, lol) - Craft Club has changed my life and grown my friendships in a way I never believed possible. A reward in return for giving a little that I certainly wasn't expecting!

Treat others how you would like to be treated cos life has a funny way of jumping up and biting you in the ass!

Creatively Yours
Sally x

Here are a few more...

That I have made recently using various techniques, with the emphasis being on being simple and easy to make a load of while still regaining suitability and loveliness!! This is the simple 'pop out' decoupage, I was dubious as I am used to cutting it out myself, but its turned out just lovely!
A stitched card I was playing with, this is a free template and you can find more here and here.

Aperture/acetate card, this is actually a rub on from Craft Club we found when routing thru an old box of stuff!

Creatively Yours
Sally x

Morning!

Had a great Craft Club last night and welcomed another new lady - Hayley! Welcome to our group!

Its National Day here in Gib so we are heading off the rock to Decathlon in Spain instead as it is CHAOS all day here!

Have a few things we need and as there will be very few Gibraltarians leaving here today and all the Spanish kids are in school.... we thought we'd make the most of the opportunity! My kids start back Stagecoach again next week and they've all grown out of their dance kit!?!?! Big sighs...

Its a bonus that there is also a HUGE Toy's R Us over there ;) might be gone a while, hehe.......

I am soooooooooo looking forward to a couple of weeks time when BRYONY!!!!! (HI BIRD!) is coming over to stay for a little (10 day!) holibobs with her two little monkeys!!

Then after that its just a couple of short weeks and my gorgeous hero of a hubby is gonna be home from Afghanistan! :) and OH I cannot wait! Gets me all excited to think about it! Only 5ish weeks to go!

Steve on the radar he keeps tiptop shape!! And yup - big deserty thing behind!

Both of these things almost make me want to do housework in preparation! Almost but not quite - yet! Lol, I am a last minute girl when these things happen!

Creatively Yours
Sally x

My first 12 x 12 Page!

This week we changed days to Tuesdays nights and Thursday mornings for Craft Club which suit most people much better than what it was, and we have decided to do Demo Nights on the first Wednesday of each month (straight after payday!).

This months demo was a 12 by 12 scrapbooking layout. This is my first attempt ever at a 12 by 12 page having only ever made 2 (yes a whole 2!) 8 by 8's before now! Wow, daunting for a beginner!

Anyway this is my attempt and various closer aspects.
Here is the whole page, I have left space for journalling as I haven't decided what to write yet!
This is the top right corner, and my 2 eldest girls!

The is the bottom right with my 2 youngest girls!

Some of the embellishments, the beach bag and flipflops dome stickers, I bought especially for when I scrapped the beach pics. They are Papermania. The big bite was put into use with the eyelets and the chipboard star is TLC, as is the background card and red card.

The 'sun' showing all four girls together.Creatively Yours
Sally x

We Wish You A Merry Christmas....

I started this last week at Craft Club, glass painting on the reverse of acetate with a silver tree sticker on the front. As you know, chaos has ensued this week, so I finally got around to finishing it this evening.

An open shot here, clearly shows the acetate.
The christmas sentiment is K & CO, the ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, the stickers are Anita's I think, glass paint is generic cheap stuff from the club stash and the card itself and brads are from Madaboutcards, not sure the brand and plain silver generic stationary staples.

Creatively Yours

Sally x

Gib CCC facebook group...

Just a quick note to our Facebook CCC group members to let you know that the latest pics I have taken of recent work at group over the summer and a load Martine has uploaded are now in the Facebook Group! Couple of great new links on there too.
Enjoy!

Nice to see friendly members old and new, joining us there! Looks like both Lisa and Julie may be rejoining us! Thanks ladies for making my job super-easy!

Big Thanks to Jo for the fab re-organising of the stickers..... can't wait to show you the rest of the list of jobs that need doing..... you have such talent! Hehe!! At least we can find what we are looking for instantly! Thank you x

Also don't forget next week, we change days for both sessions and that the Scrapbooking Demo is on! See me or Angeline for booking :)

Creatively Yours

Sally x

Kristina's Colour Inspiration #20

This card is for Kristina's Colour Challenge #20 using the above colours:

Hope you like it! I made it this evening at Craft Club.

Creatively Yours

Sally x

Its Christmas!!

Ok, well not quite! Here is the Christmas card I made this week at Craft Club!

Also here is a card my Rachel made for daddy - FAB stands for Fantastic And Brilliant she informs me!!

I hope that you all don't mind me also posting my daughters creations too, its just that I am so proud of them and what they achieve and create! Each one is a little masterpiece in mummy's eyes! Their Brownie values of trying their best, love and kindness, really shine thru sometimes! As their Brown Owl and mum, I try my best to teach them good values like this - but it never seems to extend as far as a tidy bedroom!

Some cards..

I made this one using the new Happy Birthday background stamp I bought for the Craft Club, stamped onto black card and clear embossed, scrap slightly woollen ribbon, and one of the many new embellishments I got for the Craft Club. Punched the eyelets in withthe Craft Club's new crop-a-dile! A Pink one!!

These next cards are made by my daughter Rachel.

Isn't she talented? She just loves to install herself on mum's craft table...... :o/

Cards and goodies!

Here is a card made for one of my hubby's care parcels to Afghanistan, the sentiment inside reads "My love follows you". Used basic gold cardstock and the Papermania 'For Him' papers.

I had to show you this, I paid £29.99 for this! The bag and £100 worth of free crafty yumminess from Stamps! Both Christine and Martine got one too, but unfortunately by the time my daughter went to order one, they ran out so we are scouting around on Ebay and online sales for a bag and crafty goodies for her now!

These are simply adorable, I bought these for the craft club as there is a complete lack of big stamps, aren't they gorgeous? I think these were Stamps.co.uk, also below are 'mini' stamps, great for building up your pictures and making borders. The busy craftclub ladies are having a great time playing with these! We have had a MASSIVE restock and got almost everything off the ladies' wish list so we are doing well! Now when someone says "Do we have.....?" I can say "YES! Right here!".

Also GREAT to see Sue Slater back among us! We've missed you! Especially Christine, I have never seen her so smiley! Hi Sue, Hi Chris!

Talking of craft club, we've decided to go all the way thru the summer, how fab is that? The ladies are enjoying their Wednesdays so much they don't want a summer break! Fine by me cos it gives me a night out a week for adult conversation while hubby is away!

A couple of us have really gotten into scrapbooking now so its quite creative! And yes.... Christmas cards have begun to make an appearance already! I have been asked to make up a few examples so the ladies can copy them so that is my evenings taken up this week!

I have also been busy printing off pictures for my next pages - beach and sea themed, we've been having a great time at the beach in the gorgeous weather we have so my camera has been clicking away for memory preservation and to show hubby what we've been up to!

Anyone who is in my Facebook friends list can see them in full as well as the recent leaving do's I have been to!

Its great to be back in touch with both Gill and Annette, oh how I've missed you! And Gill... you owe me about a fiver in text credit just for last night! lol! Wonderful having you both back in contact, we've been missing you!

Almost free!! But getting sad & friendship!

I have one last essay to complete today (on Stress of all things!!) then I am free at last from the OU for a while!!
It will be so nice to have nothing on but my family (albeit as a single parent to 4 under 12 for a few months and alone, far from home) and the Craft Club!!

Its getting closer and closer to Afghanistan for hubby now and I am getting more and more apprehensive. Just a couple of weeks, then he is gone for months. It is becoming more and more hard NOT to watch the news now, with the violence seemingly escalating and worsening again. I just hope with all my heart he stays safe while he is there and returns to us in a few months safe.

I have been getting great support from friends who have been fab these past couple of months especially after all the unwarranted crap I have been taking recently, with the dates of hubby's deployment changing on an almost fortnightly basis and the health issues and hospital appointments to top it all. I just hope that nothing else happens in the next month or 2 to throw a spanner in the works, because that will just be highly unfair with all I have to cope with at the moment already!!

I have also realised recently that some people in this world are just naturally nasty, self centred and vindictive, using any means necessary to upset, manipulate and gain attention.
I have also found recently that most people aren't stupid and can work out who these types of people are themselves without any guidance from me! They make themselves perfectly clear to everyone.
I am learning lessons about friendship here, yes at my age! I have always tried to be honest and loyal. This wins out in the end. Now I have good friends who like me for me - not what I can do for them or because I demand it (which I have never done). Who support me and know I won't lie to them. Because the other type of 'friend' is the one who loses out in the end. Thanks Girls. xx

This weekend I have yet another leaving do, this time for Annette (one of 2!!) and this time GASP! SHOCK! HORROR! We are taking hubby's with us!?!?! We figure they deserve a night out too, bless their cottons!! We are sooo gonna have to be on our very best behaviour (or try anyway... Annette, Martine, I shall be watching you, (snigger))!!!! Once again I will take pics and hopefully the less risque ones will make it onto here! Thats if I am not too drunk and actually remember to take pics!

Has anyone else scrapbooked a night of drunkenness? I figure taking pics will help us remember the 'do' cos the alcohol wont! HAHA!

Wow! Its been a week!

Oh we have been so busy!
Gill and I have an exam tomorrow that a little revision has been done for, I have had my 7 year olds birthday and bowling party, been to the pool, had swimming lessons, craft club, youth club, Fathers Day and we have been very busy preparing for hubby going to Afghanistan (as best we can anyway)!!
I have also made a couple of cards AND been getting bits together for my first proper attempt at a scrapbook page!
Once the exam is over tomorrow, I will play catch up and get some pics posted.
Hubby's dates have been changed yet again but now (unless it changes again of course!) they fall so no-ones birthdays should be missed and he should also be here for both of our daughter's plays (she is in High School Musical on 27/6 and Sound of Music as Brigitta Von Trapp for 6 performances in Nov).
So busy, busy and busy!!
We hopefully have quite a few new ones at Craft Club tomorrow and another returning one, so thats all very exciting too!
And phew (wiping brow) after tomorrow, my only commitment outside of my family for a few months is the craft club, so a relaxing summer is in order I hope!

Last night...

....we had 2 newbies, Yeh! Welcome to Liz and Eliza! So I had 2 to show around what we do - even did a Cuttlebug demo for Liz - I only learned last week myself.
Had a bash at Father's Day cards I haven't mine finished yet but will post when I do.
I demonstrated an origami shirt (that I found here at Madaboutcards the site contains a few free downloads too) and the cards seemed to feature a lot of washing lines and shirts of varying bright colours!!
Martine in particular (Hi Martine!!) got them right very fast and was most proud of herself - I can see a lot of cards with little origami shirts of different kinds for different occasions in her future!!

Back to the assignment :(

New craft links

Just to say I have popped a couple of links over at the side there..... Stitching Cards and Time for Crafting, both of which I have been exploring like a kiddie in a sweet shop this morning!
I met the lovely Diane from our Friday craft group when I popped up to introduce myself and she was stitching a card, it was so beautiful and quite an art! I don't think I have ever seen any card so pretty before that was stitched! She gave me a personal demonstration of how she did it and pointed me towards a couple of websites. I can't wait to get started - consider me inspired!
Time for Crafting I happened upon in my searches on the cardmaking list , I decided to explore the ones that weren't on the front page for a change and came up with some lovely sites in the 50+ section - I thoroughly recommend going to the other pages as there are some real gems to be found. Enjoy your blog hopping!
Enjoy your crafting.