Bye Bye 2011!

It may only be 3pm but it's SOOO dark outside, it feels like the middle of the night! Not conducive to taking good photos but I have a couple of "themed" cards to show:

For a rambler!

For an accountant!

For an airline worker!

I enjoy building up a collection of designs to keep in my "repertoire" - next time I'm asked to make an accountants card I'll have a design to hand!!

I'm always late to catch onto things, but I've just discovered Pinterest - fascinating stuff - I can tell I'm going to spend a lot of time over there from now on!!!  Can't wait to start building my own pinboards!!

And so, another crafting year draws to a close.  I hope you've all had a great creative twelve months.  I certainly know what I'd like to achieve during the next twelve.  It's an exciting journey!

Happy Hogmanay everyone, see you in 2012!!!! :)

Lazy Lingerings

Howdy, peeps, how was your Christmas? I hope you all had a lovely time; I certainly did and I'm very grateful for that!  Too much was eaten, too much was drunk, too little exercise was taken, so the waistline has expanded, but that's what new year's resolutions are for, eh?!!

I don't tend to give a lot of gifts at Christmas (bah humbug!!!), mainly because I NEVER know what to get anybody and as a result usually give something very uninspiring.  The people that get presents for me, however, never seem to have that problem, and I received a very lovely array of goodies.

These included gorgeous toiletries to pamper myself with, some cute Pip items, a photography course (which is so thoughtful of Himself because I don't know how to use my camera properly!), a lovely lantern and lots of handy wee stocking fillers courtesy of Himself's mum.  Thanks to everyone, I hope the presents you received went down as well!

As is usual after all the festivities, I'm feeling VERY lazy and completely lacking routine, so today I plan to chain myself to my craft desk and remain there until productive things are achieved. I have a large card order to fulfill by the 8th January so I need to get my act together!!

I'm not one to hit the sales (I accompanied Himself to the shops on a shoe-buying mission yesterday and it was frankly, headache-inducing, although he did treat me to a nice meal afterwards!) but craft-wise I couldn't resist a pack of pretty sticky notes that had been reduced in Sainsbury's!  I made them into little books so they might make a good stocking-filler for next year!

Right, no more messing about - it's time to CREATE!!!! :)

Nearly There...

I've not been making much lately, caught up as I am in the seemingly never-ending Christmas preparations. This afternoon I did have a big sort-out of my stock ready for the new year as I'm planning to join a daily listings club on Folksy in order to get my shop filled up! I've not done one of these for a while but it's high time I was disciplined in my listing! I've also put aside a pile of images to work my way through and make things with, so that should keep me out of mischief! 

 Tonight I'm planning a quiet night in with the cat and a glass of wine and box of chocolates before the festivities properly begin! I hope everyone has a fantastically Happy Christmas, see you again soon! xxx

Weekend Wonders

I have enjoyed a very pleasant weekend, starting with my work night out on Saturday night (a tasty meal, bit of merriment and lots of dancing!)and yesterday Himself and I treated ourselves to a curry and then to the cinema to see a film/documentary that I'd heard about that really intrigued me - "Dreams of A Life". Unfortunately I can't post a link to any details because Blogger is playing up, but it's worth checking out. Himself and I don't usually come out of films deep in discussion; it's more like "So what did you think of that?" "S'alright." But this time we did have plenty of comments to make! It really makes you think!

Card-wise, here's a commission for someone who's worked in a variety of professions!!



Have a great week, everyone!

Winding Down...

So my tree is up, along with a few meagre decorations. I've only got a few more cards to write and post and a couple of pressies to make. I've got a cinnamony-scented wax tart to burn later and a glass of mulled wine to slurp. There are pine cones and baubles scattered about the place and I've been thinking about what veggie treat I could make as a turkey alternative on the big day. I made this tonight and it's quite tasty but not very festive.

I'm as Christmassed as I'm ever going to be!

This card is one I made for a recent commission, all drawn from scratch:

In the run up to the festivities I'm planning to wind down my crafting and my shops, and just take some time to chillax, but not for long because I've already got some ideas for next year!

Sweetie Pouches

There have been sniffles 'n snow hindering progress here at Mushroom Cottage over the last few days. I've been too preoccupied with trying to keep my feet warm and dosing myself with Lemsip to do much crafting. However, I did feel a tad creative yesterday and, when I spotted this template for cute sweetie pouches, I knew I had to make some to take along to an evening of chat 'n pizza with the crafty girls.

They went down a treat and can be easily adapted for any occasion!

They went down a treat I think!

I've also got a couple more jute bags on the go:

And tonight I'm planning nothing more than an evening of mulled wine, mince pies and X Factor! Hope you're all having a great weekend!

New Projects

Now that the year's craft fairs are all done and dusted, it's now time to concentrate on other projects, such as my Folksy and Etsy shops. I plan to rethink my stock, and this will include making sure I have available all my card designs, including this new-style baby card:

As you can see, this card can be personalised and it's also available in a boy version!

That's not to say I won't be making other items, such as these Holly gift tags:

I hope you all have a great week and don't get too much snow!!

Folksy Free Listings!

Folksy is having a free listings day today so I thought I'd take the chance to make some cards using a selection of toppers I created a while back.

Things are running a little slower than normal on Folksy; I would imagine there's a LOT of people trying to list items all at once!

But who would pass up the chance of a freebie?? Not me! :)

Craft Fair Creations!

When I've not been making soup (lentil and mango - mmm!) or rushing off for long hot baths to combat this chilly weather, I've been working hard to get lots of products ready for the craft fair but it's been great fun coming up with new items for the Crafty Mushroom "range"!

First up, magnetic memo pad holders for the fridge:

And long shopping list pad versions specifically aimed at pet owners!!

And, using the same wee animal characters, a few keyrings, for pet owners that know their place!

I wonder how these will go down at the fair? If nothing else I might just have sorted out a few Christmas presents!

Post-it Crazy!

With just over a week to go until the next Craft Fair, I decided it was high time I made some more stock! So I've been going a bit post-it crazy!

These cute little post-it books are inspired by this clever lady and are great fun to make!

I tried to make some bigger ones too, but the post-its were quite heavy and kept unsticking from the backing card so I decided to hold them in place with a bookring instead:

I've also been making loads of other things; no pics yet, but they are items in the same "vein" as this little calendar:

Right, I'd better get back to work. Those papercrafts won't make themselves you know!! :)

Cards Completed

A couple of recent card commissions:

Hopefully the recipients will be happy with them!

A Wee Extra

I've decided that the next three people to purchase from my Etsy shop will receive a set of cute animal mini notecards absolutely FREE!

The cards measure 4" x 3", are blank inside and there will be four designs similar to those shown in the pic. Envelopes will also be provided and there will be no additional postage charge for the item!

Happy shopping!

Steamy Windows!

I picked up my new business cards and sticky labels today - woohoo! They feature my wee mushroom character and I can't wait to start using them!

I've got one jute bag and set of notecards completed, using nice wee butterfly wording tags from Craftwork Cards:

I really need to do something about the condensation on my windows!!

Cosy At Home

I'm having a Cosy At Home day today, which means a nice lie-in, leisurely lunch (spinach and mushroom mini pizzas), crafty afternoon, an Irish Coffee, pasta for dinner and, later on, (hopefully) a bubble bath and X Factor! It's nice to have At Home days once in a while!

Craft-wise, I'm playing with felt again as I've decided to make more jute bag notecard gifts because they've sold well recently. Photos to follow...

Meantime, I've made another two sets of tealight gift packs:

Christmas Berry-Scented

and Cupcake Cinnamon-Scented

They're great fun to make!

Enjoy the rest of the day folks!

Muffs and Bings! (?)

It's been a busy couple of days. I was helping a friend at her Bags, Jewellery and Accessories charity sale event yesterday and took along some of my tealight gift packs ; they were all snapped up pretty quickly but I forgot to take a photo of them beforehand - doh! There was some lovely stuff available. One item I had my eye on was something like this:

I thought they were fab but when I tried a pair on they just didn't suit me :( Pity, they would be just the thing to keep my lugs cosy!!

I said I'd show some photos of the walk Himself and I took last Sunday - we visited the landscape-dominating "bings"; huge piles of spent shale which are the result of extensive mining in the area for shale oil during the last century. Now nature has taken control and they're starting to grass over but the bright orange colour does lend an unearthly ambience.

It's a very popular location for motocross riders and quad bikes - they were whizzing about all over the place!

And once again, it was superb weather!

Today I've been approving the proofs of my new-style business cards and labels which should hopefully be ready soon - very exciting!

Meet Me On Monday #14

My Uncle has recently moved into a new "pad" so I made him a card to wish him well; he's a big Doctor Who fan so I just had to incorporate this theme!

Not that I'm insinuating that A) His new place is anything like the TARDIS or B) My Uncle resembles in any way, shape or form the alien in the drawing! Just thought I'd better clear that up!

Himself and I took advantage of the lovely sunny weather this weekend to visit two very interesting places in my local area. I was inspired to take my camera on both occasions.

The pics I'll show tonight are from our visit to Bangour Village Hospital. I have a great interest in Urban Exploration and even though we didn't get to go inside any of the decrepit buildings, it was fascinating to wander around the extensive grounds of this abandoned hospital and to imagine it when it was fully operational!

I'll post pics of our second outing next time!

And now it's time for

Meet Me On Monday #14


This week I shall be...

MAKING: Lots of tags with Christmas Cupcakes on them!

EATING: More fruit and veg than I have of late. I think I've been eating too much brown and beige recently; it's time to reintroduce some colour!

DRINKING: Anything but coffee as I seem to have gone off it. Again.

PAMPERING: Myself with some new skin products to combat winter dryness and wrinkles!

BAKING: Absolutely nothing after the Whoopie Pie disaster last week. Bleh! Shop-bought cakes it is then! :(

HOPING: I get to meet up with a friend for a girly natter!

Join in here and have a great week!

Window Dressing!

I was able to be a bit creative in my day job (at an optician's) this week, when I was asked to do a window display for kid's spec frames. So I brought some bits from home and set to work and was quite pleased with the result.

I covered each shelf with bright-coloured paper, added a card featuring my fairy princess design to the "girl's" shelf, a card featuring my robots to the "boys" shelf, and I made some paper bunting and a sign. I think the bunting came out pretty well! Hopefully it will catch people's attention!

Also this week, a crowd of friendly-looking monsters have found their way onto my desk:

They will be appearing on a new set of cards soon!

Cupcake Delights!

Thank you, readers, for the various suggestions as to how best to manage my, er, wind problem at the craft fair the other day! Sadly, perhaps my bean-induced billowings did keep people away as my wee stall didn't do quite as well as it has on other occasions! Never mind, it was a fun day, the fair as a whole was busy and there were lots of lovely crafty people there to chat to! Roll on the Christmas Fair!!

Yesterday, Himself and I were out rambling around in the countryside (as we do) and we came across a little gem of a place called the Cupcake Cafe Bar! We just had to sample the wares and we could hardly bear it when we came to the last mouthful!

On the subject of cupcakes, I couldn't not mention the delish banoffi cupcake I bought from this lady who had the stall next to mine at the fair. It was to die for and made the perfect treat to cheer me up when I got home after the event! So it's been a heavenly cupcake weekend!

Now, onto Meet Me On Monday #13 !!

This week I'll be...

Eating: Onion bhajis, vegetable pakora, samosas and naan bread left over from curry night, with lashings of mango chutney - yum!!

Drinking: Another flavoured cider by Magner's - Spiced Honey and Apple - slurp!

Buying: Ingredients to make Whoopie Pies as I really fancy trying it!

Making: Christmas tealight gift sets, once I've bought the tealights!

Listening to: For the first time, my music collection on an Ipod lent by my Dad - yes, he's embraced the technology of the 21st century quicker than I have!

Printing: New business cards and labels for Crafty Mushroom - that's the plan anyway!

Join in with MMOM here!