Secret sender blooms box

The other day I received the third item from my secret sender on Crafts by Carolyn. When I received the first item (altered notebook) I had a pretty good idea who my sender was and even though she tried to put me off the scent when the second item (keyring) was sent, when I received this gorgeous gift, I was convinced I knew who it was. And I was right! (I'm not saying here, because all hasn't been revealed on CBC yet). This is what I received:

The box was 'wow' enough in itself, but when I opened it, this is what was inside:

It really couldn't have been a better present, because my blooms boxes are overflowing and some I received bought had to end up in a carrier bag for the time being - now I have a new place for them. Thank you, secret sender!

Today on and off I've been doing some very boring, but necessary, tasks - inserts, bagging and labelling cards. So I haven't actually made anything, so I thought I'd show a few of the cards that you haven't seen before:

What a glorious day today

The weather today has been just right - quite a breeze, but lovely and hot and sunny (in fact, without the breeze it would have been too hot). So far this year we've hardly sat in the garden much and certainly haven't used the summerhouse.

So I spent some time lounging in the sun (very good for the bones with osteoporosis - with plenty of sun protection cream because I'm naturally fair skinned). And every now and again I had a little crafting session in the summerhouse. Well, if I'm honest, you could hardly call it crafting, as I was putting together some cards, gift cards etc that came with a Lisa Bearnson box of goodies. I'm still hoping to have a sale of cards for TEAR Fund in September and I know that this year I can't sit at the cardmaking as much as I used to, so, in order to get a number done I resorted to using the Lisa Bearnson box.

So there's no cards to show because I didn't really create them, just put them together. But I thought I'd show a few pictures of the garden and where I was crafting:

This is the view from tthe patio, just outside he door of my craft room, looking up the garden, with the summerhouse in the distance:

And this is my little summerhouse:

Our garden is mainly planted with shrubs, but we have some lovely rose bushes blooming atm:

One day soon I'll show some pictures of my craft room (wouldn't want to do it now because it's not tidy enough) - although it was done a few weeks ago, I'm still moving things around, finding places, sorting etc Acquired a 12 x 12 stack of trays the other day, so at least my papers are sorted.

Mum's visit on Thursday

I should have included this in my last post, but somehow it got crowded out. Mum came over Thursday afternoon and while she was here I altered a notebook for her. She is going to write some of her memories, family history, that sort of stuff. Although she likes seeing what I've made, she doesn't have much 'craftiness' herself, but she enjoyed seeing me put together the covr for her notebook. I used K & Co Brookfield papers and bits and bobs. I also showed her my robo and actually managed to cut a rocking horse (got the template from UKS - looked very impressive).

Better late than never

Jane set the dare on DCM last Friday:

"For my dare you can choose any theme for the card BUT it must incorporate 'Checks', whether it be gingham paper or ribbon or squares, any thing really as long as it incorporates some kind of shape with 4 equal sides....... so go on- I dare you to think outside the square/step out of the box ..............easy as, eh ?!!"

So here at the last minute are a couple of contributions from me - the first one with layered squares and the second one another of my Disney cards, this time with a strip of yellow gingham ribbon between the heart eyelets. I didn't make the cards today, I did them earlier, but haven't had a chance before now to put them on here:

Among all the excitement of the lead-up to the launch of Salt, I hadn't forgotten that I was tagged by Joanne (Angelnorth) with the Global Bumper Card Society thingie that's doing the rounds; I just hadn't got round to doing anything about it.



The "rules" are:
1) Send ONE card to someone you know within 7 days! (family, friends, associates, cyber people, etc.) ANYONE!!! Doesn't matter who... just do it. Can you imagine the smile on their face when they open their mailbox and see a card from you?
2) Tag (yes, I know, but this is the only way to spread this) 5 people you know to do the same thing (Tag means tag them to send their own cards to their own people).
3) Proudly display this on your blog to spread a little sunshine and pass it on.

More details here: http://papercraftingengineer.blogspot.com/2007/07/playing-tag-and-spreading-some-joy.html

If you get tagged again (we can all hope, can't we), send another card!

Right, my response:

1) Tomorrow I'm going to send a card to a 'crafty' friend who I know is going through a difficult time atm.


2) I'm tagging:


Melissa (http://melissalsmith.blogspot.com/)

Sharon (http://glitterangel.typepad.com/glitterangel_blog/)

Rachel (http://behanfamily.blogspot.com/)

Andrea (http://andreabrownjohn.blogspot.com/) and

Kate (http://www.noseycritters.blogspot.com/)

Great excitement

This doesn't look that exciting, but it is the first thing I've cut on my new Craft Robo! It's not even an exciting cardstock, just any piece of A4 that I put my hand on. It was using a template on UKScrappers submitted by Hesjane - thank you.

My robo was delivered at the end of last week and I loaded the software and have been looking at all the blurb and at various templates. To be honest I was scared of mounting the blade and actual trying it - thought I'd probably break the blade or do something wrong. But, hey, it cut perfectly the first time. I'm hoping that before long I'll come back with something more exciting to show (won't be today because mum's coming to visit very shortly).

Although I'm excited about this, I think I'm even more excited about the launch of the Salt Faith Challenge blog - if you haven't had a look yet, please do: http://saltfaithchallenge.blogspot.com

My contribution to Salt's Praise

I am so excited and privileged to be part of the Salt Faith Challenge team - the Saltinies! We are a group of ladies from various parts of the world who are combining our love of Jesus expressed in our Christian faith with crafting, which we all enjoy with the talents that God has given us.

And the first challenge is...

Praise

Express your praise to God in whatever way you choose.Praise is such a wonderful word. We give praise to people - especially children when they have done something that makes us proud and pleases us. We give praise to God because he has done everything for us and we are proud to be his children.Here is mine...

Please pop over to http://saltfaithchallenge.blogspot.com/ and check it out. We would love you to contribute.

July monthly swap on Carolyn's

I wasn't going to show these till people have received them, but, hey, if the lovely Melissa can show her August (yes, August!) swap cards, I can show these - lol!:




And unlike Melissa, I haven't started yet on the August swap cards.

I haven't achieved anything much crafty in the last few days - some of the time has been taken up with contributing to the team work of setting up the new Salt Faith Challenge - please hop over to http://saltfaithchallenge.blogspot.com/ and have a look and join in.

I'll be back later to tell you about my first adventure with my craft robo which was delivered the other day. So far I've loaded the software and had a look at various sites and templates, but haven't actually yet cut anything with it (too scared!).

Salt Faith Challenge

This morning has seen the launch of a new blog - please go on over there and join in:

http://saltfaithchallenge.blogspot.com/

Watch this space!!

Coming soon - an exciting new challenge blog - in just over 24 hours time this will be launched! Please come back and check it out and contribute.

Mickey and Minnie

Quite a while ago I bought a Disney kit from QVC that included lots of papers and also the rubber stamps for Mickey and Minnie. I've used some before for various challenges, but these now are for a rubber stamp Get Spotted challenge on Carolyn's to use spots or dots on a card:



And these are two simple new home cards (need to send one to a friend who's moved and could also do with boosting stocks). They are for Sue's CAC 007 'Home is where the heart is' challenge on Carolyn's:


Sorry that the card on the second one is white, so you can't properly see the edges!

A couple more cards

Doing the JB challenges is a good way of building up a stock of cards (hoping I'll be able to have an 'at home sale' in September to raise money for TEAR Fund - will depend on how I am and how prepared I can be).

Back to today: this card is for the chocachino challenge (apparently a drink available at Thornton's - I wouldn't know about such wicked things!) using the colours:
And the next one was a cardlift challenge. Here is the original example:

And here is mine:

The actual card is green (doesn't show too well in this light, as is the Birthday greeting) - don't often use green much for cardmaking (don't know why not), so it makes a change.

Trying to forget how I feel

Having had a 'not so good' day yesterday, I can't say I'm feeling much better today, but am doing some crafting to try and take my mind off the pain in my back. But, hey ho, no moaning, so on with the crafty outlook.

These are for the the JB July challenge 11 It's a match. We were asked to make a card/LO using these colours:

So here are two cards (which I admit were very quick makes because they were using bits from a kit by Lisa Bearnson purchased some time ago from QVC):

The LO took much longer - I actually started it the other day and gave up, so I came back to it this morning - I needed to print out the photos and generally finish off. My Grandad and Nan's wedding photo (15 February 1921) is in the middle and the other photos are of their sons' and daughters' wedding (although there were two that got missed off because they didn't fit the LO!):

The next LO is for the July challenge 18: the big picture (using just one large photo). The photo isn't very good (light is quite poor atm), but the top says 'mother' and the bottom says 'sweet daughter':

Not much today

It's not been a good day today - I know, I know, I probably overdid things yesterday, although nothing too much - think I didn't help my back by bending to pick things up - not always convenient to call for help from John.

Anyway, this morning just came and went - achieved nothing. But this afternoon did a LO that I can't show here yet (top secret - watch this space! - something new and exciting is about to happen).

But I can show some quick cards for challenges on Just Bex.

These two are for a 'less is more' challenge:


And these two are for a challenge to make a card using the colour of strawberries and kiwis (I know there's other colour but I hope it qualifies!):

And more!

JB July challenge 1: altered notebook:

Before:
After:

I used papers and bits from the K'Ology Hannah range.

This next one is for the JB July template 5 rectangles: I used papers from my new Papermania Inspirations black and white pack and highlighted the squares with craft stickers autcollants (have had these for ages and had never yet found a use for them.

And some more

Some more JB challenges. This time it's for the Friday night challenge to make a card and/or LO, using only one sheet of paper.

I did the card yesterday, but wanted to wait till I'd done the LO and put them both together.

The card was made out of a piece of card from the Making Memories Cosmopolitan collection called 'slimming stripe' (oh how I need slimming stripes!!). The little flowers were cut from an Ellison die and the lettering from an extended cut alphabet die - very small and fiddly (ds tape on the back first). The bottom is a 'double doo' border die:

The LO is a bit of a cheat really, because the background paper is from the K & Co Brenda Walton Brookfield range, which is double sided, so the bit used under the photo is the reverse side. There is so much on this paper that nothing much else is needed (well, it's not my fault if they make such a lovely paper that fits the bill!):

The photo shows my Mum, John and me, Mandy and the three girls - four generations!

And another - JB July challenge 3 - a sleeping scrapbook page LO:

Crafty catch up

These are the Just Bex challenges I did yesterday:

July challenge 7: Schools out for summer - card for a teacher that doesn't have 'teacher' on it (the 'distorted look towards the bottom is because there is an overlay of acetate which reflects the light):


Friday night challenge: Shape shifters - card of any shape other than rectangle or square (I made two because you can cut two out of an A4 sheet of card - the card has a glimmer sheen which doesn't show here):

Open:
Night in at the movies (based on 'The Wizard of Oz' (I chose 'red shoes' and the background paper seemed appropriate to the theme:

Close ups:


Jen's June challenge 1: using three different 'bling' techniques/products (I used glitter card for the matting around the photos and journalling, glitter glue for the blobby swirls - weren't really meant to be so blobby! - and sticky gems):

I've done a couple more challenges today:

Blooming flowers Craft Obsessions: make a vase full of beautiful paper flowers - I used my Sizzix paper sculpting Daisy to make the flowers out of papers from the DCWV pocket full of posies - something for me to enjoy on my windowsill:

July challenge 4: It's hip to be square - using nine squares in a 3 x 3 format - the background paper is Friendship Word, Creating Keepsakes:

I think I'm going to do some more LOs in this format - a good way of showing a group of photos for a particular occasion or holiday.