HS:MS enjoy

'To take delight or pleasure in an activity or occasion. Find something you enjoy in your space today.'

The first photo is a cheat - I didn't take it - and it was taken quite some time ago (you can tell that because I'm much slimmer!) - mum and I having enjoyed a share dessert:



The next one I did take, but a while ago while on holiday abroad. This is to show that you can ejoy a cuppa anywhere at any time:

Big Ben

I thought I'd show a picture I took this afternoon as we left St Thomas' hospital after John's eye appointment. I was just glad that my back is feeling a bit better and I was able to go with him - I hadn't been out for a week.

If you want to see a much, much better picture of Big Ben, then go to HS:MS and see Anita's fab photo.

Meanwhile, here's mine:

HS:MS big

'Of considerable size, extent or intensity. Show us something big in your space today!'

My first thought for this was 'big toe', my second thought was 'I'm not showing mine', but I found a willing victim:



I've amended this post to exclude the other picture because of a comment made. I realise that by doing this, anyone now looking will probably think it was much worse than it was - just a picture of John's foot with a block where the second toe was. It's a pity that the person who made the comment chose to remain anonymous.

BF Think Pink challenge 7: tartography

At last I've done a couple of notebooks for BF Think Pink challenge 7: tartography.

I'd almost forgotten how to use my BIA!

The backgrounds of these notebooks are miscellaneous papers that were in my box (I think they were free with magazines). The backs are covered in the same papers and the insides have been covered with coordinating papers.

One for a lady:



One for a man:



Now I need to make some more for the TEAR Fund sale - I've already done a couple more, but not decorated them yet.

Nessy's blog candy

I came across Nessy's lovely blog from her comment left on the new BG challenge blog - she is offering some candy to celebrate her birthday: http://nessysnotes.blogspot.com/2008/09/birthday-blog-candy.html

Nessy said: 'so , to enter for my blog candy, all you need to do is :~ when you have created your girly card/or anything creative with some glitter on it (you know how i love my glitter) from now until the 28th of september, just leave a link to it on my blog and a link on your blog to mine telling everyone about my candy!! there is no need to make a card just for a chance to win some candy ~ just include any card you have made and you are showing on your blog!!'

So here is a birthday card and a Christmas card from me:

Quick way to make concertina zigzag cards

Claire was asking if I had a template for the concertina zigzag cards that I showed here: http://craftyhazelnut.blogspot.com/2008/09/concertina-zigzag-cards.html

I actually bought the ones that have a gingham pattern on them, but I made the four in the top picture.

Step 1: Take an A4 sheet and fold in four landscape:



Step 2: Fold the sheet as shown (if you want a longer bit on the first fold, just adjust the angle of the fold - this will just produce shorter cards:



Step 3: Cut along the crease:



Step 4: Fold each piece to make 2 concertina zigzag cards:



Step 5: Decorate however you wish. You can either then leave the card so that it fully opens, or stick down the zigzag bits so that it's just a simple opening card. I sometimes stick down the edges, that then leaves a pocket to take a tag.

Yesterday's decoupage

I didn't feel like doing anything much yesterday, but I found a couple of die cut decoupage sheets that I'd bought when I thought it would be a good idea (I quite like doing decoupage and sometimes cut by hand, but find it a bit of a chore, so the die cuts seemed to be an attractive alternative).

I decided to go for 'less is more' and just cover the cards with 'season's greetings' foiled card:

HS:MS juicy

'To be full of juice or succulent. Find something juicy in your space today !'







In case you wonder, it's a pear.

HS:MS float

'To be suspended freely in a liquid or gas. Find something floating in your space today.'

Apologies to SuzyB, who featured a great shot of a teabag for the recent 'bag lady' prompt; I was beginning to wonder what to do for today's prompt when I went to the kitchen to make a(nother) cup of tea and thought I'd use this:



Before that shot, I took a ridiculously close one which I wasn't going to include, but which I quite like:

A few cards

I feel pretty useless today - my back is still really paining me and I'm finding it difficult to move. I did nothing this morning, but this afternoon thought I'd try and do something to take my mind off it.

The other day I started some cards - very simple ones made from a QVC kit (I much prefer to make my own 'from scratch', but when you're feeling poorly and want to get some done, then this provided a little bit of gentle crafting. All these cards have inserted coordinating papers within the envelopes (I spoiled a few of these before I got the hang of the best way to stick them in).

This afternoon has been spent just finishing off bits and pieces, putting in inserts, bagging and labelling (the bit that tends to get left if I'm not disciplined).

Here are some of the cards:







One or two have duplicates, so there are 28 in all, and a few more still to do.

Birthday card

Card for a friend's birthday tomorrow (I think it's safe to show it, because I don't think she'll see it here):



The flowers are 3D rub ons.

HS:MS row

'A number of people or things in a straight line. Show us a 'row' in your space today.'

This is John's idea (I couldn't think of anything original - was going to go for a row of DVDs) - a row of broad beans in their pod:

HS:MS SOS continued

I thought I'd just try zooming into the section with the bee and see what the result's like:



No crafting today - my back is agony atm despite the painkillers (always does hurt, but this is off the end of the scale!) - yesterday I bent down to pick up some post and ... oh gosh, here we go again. I'm having to waddle across the room. Sitting is the most comfortable position - might try a bit of gentle crafting to try to divert my attention away from the pain.

And today has been lovely and sunny and I couldn't even get over the step to go into the garden to enjoy the late summer sunshine.

Sorry, shouldn't really moan.

Think I'll make a crafty list of things to do - you never know, I might get inspiration for what to do next when I feel like it.

Another little moan (while I'm at it - lol!) - sitemeter has upgraded it's site and now I can't get into it. I've found my username, but tried every possible password I can think of and can't get into my statistics. When I click on the forgotten password link, I'm told that an email has been sent, but I haven't got it. So now I don't know how many hits I've had - I'd already said that I'll do some blog candy when I get to 20,000 hits - I think the last time I looked it was about 19,600, so in the end I might have to guess it - so watch this space - blog candy coming soon!

HS:MS SOS

It's SOS day on HS:MS, so I thought I'd show some more photos that I took when we were in Eastbourne:

Christine's blog candy

Like buses, offers of blog candy seem to come along in groups. This time this is from Christine: http://craftlingscosycorner.blogspot.com/2008/08/10k-blog-candy.html

This is a bit of a different blog candy posting, because Christine points out the merits of turning off word verification. I must admit that I used to have it on and then for ages took it off. I did get a bit of spam, so put it back again. However, I've now taken it off because in the grand scheme of things it doesn't make much difference and is probably an annoyance to visitors to my blog.

Christine is one of the team on the new BG challenge blog.

BG challenge blog: ATC

Having found this new challenge site, I was interested to see that the new challenge today is to make an ATC.

Having already got out BG lilykate papers for the two cards I made earlier, I still had some bits left over (although I did start a new piece for the actual background). I used the scraps in my cricut to cut smaller versions of the same sort of flowers I'd made earlier for the cards (it's really useful because small scraps can be put in the corner of the mat and used on the cricut - it's amazing what you can do with scraps!)

I thought up the little phrase that I printed out. As before, edges are inked with lime pastel chalk inkpad:

Another BG lilykate card

Following on from making my card for the DCM challenge, I thought I might as well use up some of the pieces left over to make another card:



I'm really trying to ignore the pain in my back - not at all good atm.

Concertina zigzag cards

Ages and ages ago I cut the blanks for these and put the daisy sticky ribbons on and that's as far as I got, so, earlier in the week, I got them out and decided to finish them:



I also had kept these blanks in a box doing nothing for far too long, so I decided to use various stickers, rub ons etc to do these:



I even managed to bag and label them - all done!

A couple of birthday cards

I made these earlier.

For a friend's birthday (today):



For our son's partner (tomorrow):

DCM: the same but different

This week's DCM dare, set by Kathy (sorry, Kathy - originally said Lythan!), involves using a quote.

I used BG Lilykate papers and cut the flowers on my cricut. The paper on the left was embossed with one of the cuttlebug folders and the birds and edgings were inked with lime pastel chalk ink:



(I wonder why the quote looks crooked, but it's not irl!)

Thanks for a good challenge, Kathy - it made me think!

HS:MS SPS

Today is SPS day on HS:MS, so here's a shot taken with the capture camera on my Sony laptop, me looking over my glasses: