Man's Best Friend (don't tell the cat!)

My friend asked me if I would make her a set of doggy cards similar to ones I have made for her in the past. I no longer had the stamps that I used for the previous ones so I came up with my own doggy designs!

I hope she likes them!

Kim and I had quite a successful stall at the Matalan charity fashion show event on Sunday night. A lot of money was raised and, apart from a bit of a nail-biting wait at the beginning to get a table brought down in time for us to get set up, there was a great atmosphere and we had fun. And the contents of the home-baking stall were to die for! We would definitely do it again!

I'm currently up-to-date with my orders which means I have the fun task of choosing a new project to work on. Dinosaur cards or mini paper-pieced embellishments? Decisions decisions!!!

More designs...

....for weddings and engagements, featuring my happy couple - I need to think of names for them!

George and Mildred?

William and Kate??

Fred and Wilma???

Anyone got any better suggestions?? :)

Friday Already??

How is your week going? Yesterday I helped Himself's mum out on her stall at a craft fair organised in aid of Maggie's cancer charity. It was a long day but I got to meet some lovely local crafters with fabulous products, which really inspired me in my quest for crafting success. Thanks to all who turned out in the yucky weather to support the cause!

I've not done much myself apart from adding legs to my wee bag bird:

and Crafty Mushrooming a couple of notebooks:

I've also made my wedding cake design card available in my Folksy shop; it can be personalised if required. More designs to follow!!

Now I'm off to indulge in my current naughty addiction - peanut butter on toast! *smacks lips* Byeee!

Gusty!

I've made a couple more card bags and cards to go with them:

I think the bird needs some legs but I'm not sure quite what to use!

I also need to start using a bag colour other than pink!

Last night I had a rant about sewing on Twitter because I'm not very good at it and the cat's eye button was going on squint. I got there in the end but it was touch and go!

Hope you all had a good weekend and that you weren't blown away in the terrible gales yesterday! Where's the summer gone??

The Birds and the, er, Cats!

After another busy day yesterday, I'm having a more chilled-out, crafty time today! My wedding designs are completed and here's a sneak peek:

This and the other designs took me an age to get right but now I'm really looking forward to making some cards with them!

My next project is to make some more card bags because they're starting to sell quite successfully - hooray! I think they make great gifts and the bag is reuseable!!

So my craft desk is currently covered in items you normally wouldn't normally see sitting happily together in the same place:

Cats and birdies!!

Busy But Fun! (and lots of links!)

This is the first time my bottom has touched a seat today because, right from the start, it's been jam-packed with Things To Do.

I was up early to perform my essential ablutions (ahem) and do housework.

Then a brisk walk along to the chemist's and back, nearly being blown away by the wind in the process.

Back at home, I gathered some stock to top up with at Kimz where she kindly sells some of my cards and other bits and bobs for me.

Then it was off to the shops where I spent more than I care to think about on toiletries for my up-coming hols (am I really so vain as to need so many products??).

Then my grocery shopping and the grabbing of a quick lunch in the car. I think I hardly chewed, I was in such a hurry.

After that to the aforementioned Kimz where we nattered to Vanessa and Gill and I deposited my cards. Kim and I also discussed the stall we're joining forces to have at an event in the Livingston branch of Matalan a week on Sunday. It's a fashion show to raise funds for a local special needs nursery and there will be other stalls and discounts for shoppers, etc. It should be good fun.

I left amidst a torrential downpour and then rushed to go swimming before the pool got too busy (I like having as much space as possible, can't abide being splashed!). Swam 36 lengths and really enjoyed it.

Then I came home, wiped bird poo off my car, put my shopping away and finally sat down to have a coffee and a doughnut.

Now it's time to craft! On the agenda is the designing of images for wedding and engagement cards. A little like this one:

Last night I sweated for hours over a wedding cake image, trying to come up with little characters to add to it. I finally got there in the end, so hopefully the next few designs won't be so much of a strain to produce!

Wow, this has been a long entry for me! Apologies to those who are yawning after reading the blow-by-blow account of my day. It's just that busy days often aren't fun ones, and I've enjoyed this one so far!!

Paper Princess

Just a quick visit to show a new design I came up with for a recent commission - a pretty- in -pink fairy princess!

As always, she's made from lots of bits of paper!!

Un-Green-Fingered

After taking an unscheduled leave of absence, I'm a little tentative about posting in case Blogger throws a hairy and deletes things as it apparently did earlier. I hope everyone whose posts disappeared managed to get them back!!

I've had a busy week, with not much time for crafting, but I've tried to make up for that today. Unfortunately the projects I've been tackling are mainly commissions which can't be shown yet. One of them is for my increasingly self-sufficient friend Michelle, who kindly gave me a tomato plant and a cucumber plant last time we met.

I'm so un-green-fingered that I don't even know which is which, but they look like healthy little plants, so if I can only keep them that way, I should soon be carving my first cucumber!!

The other piece of veg in my life right now is the character I've created to put on my new business cards:

It's a crafty mushroom! (For those not in the "know", crafty mushrooms are ones which are sneakily added to recipes without mushroom-hating eating-partner realising, because the cook loves mushrooms and wants them in her food no matter what!!)

Ta-da!!

Art Attack

It was a very pleasant weekend, in between rain showers. Himself took me for a lovely meal at A Room in the Town on Saturday night, and yesterday we had a meander around the Dean Gallery and adjacent Modern Art gallery. Every time we do this we have a debate about what constitutes "art" and we always decide that, in the main, anything classed as "modern" art is generally (rude word coming up) poop! But on a rainy day these galleries are good places to go and the coffee and scones are pretty enjoyable too!

I've been coming up with my own "art", a new ACEO featuring Fred and Ginger:

and a set of tags for making Father's Day cards:


To me, true art is some of the fabulous items that can be found in places such as Folksy (not necessarily including my own creations, ahem!) and Etsy - you can tell just by looking that they have the heart and soul of their creator poured into every fibre, stitch or bead. Wibble!

Is it just me that doesn't get "modern art"? Am I missing something? Or am I just not intelligent enough to understand it??

Answers on a postcard please!

How Soon....

do we start thinking about Father's Day?

I ask because I have a set of cards ready to list on Folksy but I don't know if it's too early!

My gut feeling is that it's not too soon.



Especially if I'm also going to make the four animal designs available as toppers for those who want to get their dad's day cards ready ASAP!

I guess I've answered my own question there!!

Topper-tastic!

I love designing more than anything and I like making cards but I'd also like to make my designs more accessible to other cardmakers. There are, of course, many ways in which I could do that, and I'm exploring a few possibilities, but for now, the most straightforward way is to make toppers or embellishments that can then be used by others to create their own cards.

So with this in mind, I'll be adding a few to my Folksy shop tonight:

Happy Birthday party dresses.

And baby bear tags:

If you needed to make a card in a hurry you might find them helpful!

M.I.A.

My mojo has gone Missing In Action at the moment, but I have managed to complete a set of butterfly tags:

(Better photos needed before I put them in my shop!)

And a doggy bookmark as a gift for a friend:

Come back, mojo, all is forgiven!!!

Must Be Summer!

Well it's been about the 67th day of delightful weather in a row, I'm pleased to note! Yesterday, an afternoon of sitting on the decking, playing Scrabble (I won - har!) and this morning a bracing trek up to the top of Arthur's Seat for the first time since my childhood (we were too late to wash our faces in the dawn dew, but we did see a group of druids who probably had!) has meant a very pleasant weekend so far.

A couple of cards to show you:

A card for a golfer.

And a feminine butterfly card.

I'm just off to make a batch of those butterfly tags because they'll come in handy when I need a quick girly card!