Suzie's 365 photos day 155: gates

On Wednesday we went on the bus to East Dean, just on the outskirts of Eastbourne, where it was market day. I took a few photos and, looking at them this morning, I discovered there was one that included gates, so I've cropped that part of the photo for Suzie's day 155.

And in this picture of John you can just see these gates on the right:

Focus on the sentiment

This is my Christmas card for Lorraine's challenge for the Christmas Card Club to make a card with the sentiment being the main feature. As I'll still be in Eastbourne, I made this card quickly before leaving. It's very simple, using a Kanban sentiment panel matted on a a foiled frame. The background paper is from my offcuts box.

This is also for:

Christmas card challenges 2012 week 27: sentiment only
ABC Christmas: K for keep it simple
Gingerloft 41: circles, circles and more circles
Mema's crafts June: just words
Sentimental Sundays 105: show me your spots
Art impressions 65: seeing spots
Scrap-card challenge 29: anything goes
Catch the bug June: anything goes
Secret crafter Saturday 188: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 61

52 card pick up 22

Suzie's 365 photos day 154: in the distance

For the photo prompt today - day 154 - Suzie is asking us 'what can you see  in the distance?'

We walked along the prom this morning - I then looked back to where there is a flag flying near to the bandstand. I had to wait for some people to walk past and then managed go get this photo:

and here is part of the photo zoomed in to show the flag is really there!:

CHNC challenge 75: a right royal purple

It's time  for another CHNC challenge (this post is prepared and scheduled ahead because I am still in Eastbourne), so for challenge 75 I'm asking for you to use purple on your Christmas card.

For my card I've used some paper from the My Craft Studio beautiful baubles collection that I got some time ago with Making Cards together with a Kanban topper that I've had for ages - just a strip of glittered gold down the side and the card was done:

This is also for:

Christmas crafting June 12: purple Christmas

ABC Christmas: K for keep it simple
Sparkles forum Christmas June 17: monochromatic

Scrap-card challenge 29: anything goes

Catch the bug June: anything goes

Secret crafter Saturday 188: anything goes

Inspire me Fridays 61

52 card pick up 22

Suzie's 365 photos

Trying to keep up with Suzie's 365 photos while I'm away, so here are the last three days:

Day 151: groceries - a shop round the corner from the hotel:

Day 152: bargain - a quick photo taken showing a bargain in the window of Tesco Extra (unfortunately, reflection in the window of the buildings opposite, but nevermind):

Day 153: isolated - we caught a bus up to the other end of the seafront and had a coffee at the Pavilion before strolling along the prom. I then got a bit carried away and took loads of pictures for 'isolated', so here are some of them (I admit that I've cheated a bit on the third one because there were people in the photo and I've cloned parts of the photo to eliminate them):

Eastbourne collage

Thought I'd just show a little collage I've made with a few of our Eastbourne photos.

Suzie's 365 photos day 150: messy

Having told my facebook friends that I wasn't spending much time on the internet while I'm away, I still want to be able to keep up with Suzie's 365 photos if I can.

Fortunately, I had a peep before breakfast to see what the prompt was for day 150 today. I decided to have a treat this morning and have croissants for breakfast (glad that my doctor doesn't see my blog as they're not good for my high cholesterol) - anyway, you've heard the saying that you can't make omelettes without breaking eggs - well, I've got a new saying: 'you can't eat croissants without making a mess' - so here it is (had to take a very quick photo while no one was looking - bit of a strange thing to do!:

Suzie's 365 photos day 149: tools

When I saw Suzie's day 149: tools I wondered what I would find in the hotel. However, I was catching up with the Sunday newspaper supplements and came across this:

Suzie's 365 photos day 148: unfinished

I'm glad I found out what Suzie's day 148 prompt was before we had lunch today.

This is my unfinished seafood pizza:

And a bit later this was John's unfinished Hawaii pizza:

A bit later they were both finished and the plates were empty - a lovely lunch (particularly because I didn't have to prepare it and it was eaten in lovely surroundings).

Suzie's day 147: cleanliness

It was easy to find a photo for Suzie's day 147: cleanliness - the bathroom in the hotel where we're staying:

Suzie's day 146: boring

When I saw Suzie's day 146: boring on Friday I wondered what I could depict that was boring, bearing in mind that this was my first full day on holiday in Eastbourne. We strolled along the prom and soon discovered that the bandstand is being renovated, so it isn't in use atm - which I think is quite boring (well that's the only thing I could find):

Suzie's 365 photos day 145: soft

Having come to Eastbourne on Thursday, I've got a bit behind with Suzie's photos prompts. I thought I'd try to do a few so that I don't get too far behind by the time I get home, so here is my 'soft' for day 145 - I'm showing some soft lighting - I played around with filters to soften the whole picture - not sure it's worked too well though.

CHNC challenge 74: Christmas foliage

It's time for another challenge on my CHNC blog (this is a scheduled post prepared before we came to Eastbourne) so here are my cards for CHNC challenge 74.

For the first card I've used a piece of NOEL paper from Flowersoft and a piece of holly paper from Flowersoft too. The image is 'holly' from Shelly's images (they are sponsoring challenge 74). coloured with copics. I've distressed the edges first with antique linen and then with fired brick DI using a new Ink Duster ink blending brush by inkylicious - this seems to work very well, pleased with it - makes a change to the sponging technique. The Happy Holidays sentiment is chipboard from Poundland some time ago.

For the second card I've used half of a card blank I've had for ages that has a feint pattern on it, a piece of green striped card that's been in my Christmas offcuts for ages and the chipboard sentiment bauble, again originally from Poundland a long time ago.

This time I've coloured the holly image from Shelly's with promarkers and again distressed the edges with my new brush.

I'm entering these for the following challenges:

Christmas cards all year round: inspired by a Christmas carol or song - 'the holly bears a berry'
Creative craft: distressing
Tanda teaser 197: something new - the ink duster blending brush, a new way of distressing with DIs
Rudolph day May
Charisma cardz 20: no flowers allowed

Suzie's 365 photos day 144: artificial

This is for Suzie's day 144: artificial - not much to look at, but a reminder of a very special day - our wedding (21 years ago this coming Friday):

We had twisted decorated candles on the tables to match the colour of our bridesmaids and this is one of the flower rings - I think I've still got a candle somewhere, but couldn't be bothered to look for that because today is a very busy day - we've been up to Guy's this morning, I'm off in a minute to get a haircut, then over to see mum ... and tomorrow we go to Eastbourne, so it's time to get the cases out!

ATCs sewn up for the BF May swap

The May ATC swap on the Bubbly Funk forum is 'sewing'. I actually showed one ATC the other day and today have made the other four ready for the swap. I distressed the original one a bit more as well.


The stamp is a Dawn Bibby design by Personal Impressions, inked with memento and then coloured with copics V000, BV00 and G21 before stitching with some embroidery threads.

I distressed the edges with dusty concord DI.

I had a bit of a panic when I ran out of green embroidery thread, but managed to find some more - slightly different colour, but it's not going to matter as the ATCs will be going to different people.

I'm entering these into the following challenges:

Tammy scraping corner 11: show us your distressed
Card caravan (the hybrid chick) 19: flowers
Crafty ribbons 19: flowers
Dilly beans: flowers challenge
LiaStampz 17: April showers bring May flowers

Suzie's 365 photos day 143: restful

Suzie's prompt for today is 'restful' - having had a very stressful day again yesterday, I'm trying to have a bit of a restful day today, but really I feel far from restful.

I'm cheating a bit today because I'm showing a previous picture of our garden with the sun lounger ready outside the summerhouse (and there's some crafting stuff in there) - an ideal recipe for 'restful' - wish that was me today. At least the sun is shining today and it's a lot warmer.

So here is day 143:

We' going off to Eastbourne on Thursday, so, hopefully, we will begin to feel more 'restful' there - this is where we'll be staying (photo taken when we were there last year):

Suzie's 365 photos day 142: ornament

On Friday we went into Bromley and John wanted to get a card for our anniversary (this coming Friday), so we went into Clintons. Because John has difficulty seeing I had to point him in the right direction for his choice of cards and then wander around while he used a magnifying glass to make his choice - bless him, not easy for him. While I was wandering around I saw this little ornament and told him about it and he bought it for me - just a bit of fun!

So here is my ornament for day 142:

Suzie's 365 photos day 141: minimalist

Oh dear, Suzie's prompt yesterday for day 141 was 'minimalist' - a difficult one. But this morning I've had a tidy up before Golddie comes to clean, so here is my miniamlistic workspace (it certainly didn't look like this yesterday!):

Christmas travel fun

Today's facebook Sunday's with Santa theme is 'travel' - the nearest I could get is to use some pictures left over from papers I bought a few years ago (think they were Dovecraft) of children travelling on a sledge. I've used up other offcuts that were in my Christmas box, so this is my first card of the week for Pixie's crafty snippets 21.  The trees and sentiments have been in my Christmas box for ages.The background papers are Papermania 'a Christmas carol'.

I've used the sketch for Sketch challenges 4:

and you will see that I made five cards with the same design - these will be another pack ready for my Tearfund sale in the autumn.

These are also for:


Sparkles forum Chjristmas challenge 16: Christmas tree
Woodware UK week 51: children's cards
Bunny Zoe 24: anything goes
Truly scrumptious 80: anything goes
Whimsy 39: anything goes
Just keep on creating 2: anything goes
Make it Monday 90
Inspire me Fridays 59
52 card pickup 20

Christmas birthday

'Christmas birthday' was the theme for last week's facebook Sunday's with Santa (yes, I'm a week behind - hope to do a card for today's challenge later). We have a lot of family birthdays around Christmas, so it's good to have the prompt to make some in advance.

I've used one of my favourite Greeting Farm Anya stamps that is just right for a winter birthday, colouring the image with copics and mounting on a piece of red polka dot card. I've put diamond stickles on the edges of the coat to add a bit of sparkle. The stamp is for All that scraps Wednesday challenge: anything goes.

I followed the sketch for Mojo Monday 241:

I used black, white and red for:

Farm fresh Friday
Addicted to stamps 30: white, black and ?
Lexi 65: black and white plus one other colour
Anything goes 67: colour combo - black with one other
Paper crafting journey 9: black + one other colour

Papers are 7 gypsies life noir and adore. The sentiment was generated on my dymo letratag and mounted on to a die cut label. The crocheted flowers have been combined with a couple of craftime flowers, the larger one held together with a material covered brad.

This is also for:

Flourishes timeless 169: alphabet letter - B - blooms, birthday, bling, black
The paper shelter 64: birthday cards with sentiment
Crazy 4 challenges 137: birthday card
Joanna Sheen: happy birthday
Stamp and create May: for the ladies
Crafty catz 133: girlie time
Sentimental Sundays 103: whimsical
Festive Friday 19 product challenge: glitter or glimmer
Stampin' sisters in Christ 140: build up your card - layers and stacked flowers
Hotshot craft 8: die cuts
Card caravan (the hybrid chick) 19: flowers
Critter 115: flowers
Tammy scraping corner 10: show me your flowers
Crafty ribbons 19: flowers
Die cuttin' divas 65: flowers
Stamp, scrap & doodle: flowers
Hooked on craft 20: flowers
Paper pretties Monday challenge: glitter
Cute card Thursday 217: a touch of sparkle
Di's digi designs: show us that bling
Let's ink it up 23: bling
Freshly brewed May challenge 94: tic tac toe - I chose: flowers, patterned paper, bling
Bunny Zoe 24: anything goes
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: show us what you got
Truly scrumptious 80: anything goes
Whimsy 39: anything goes
Just keep on creating 2: anything goes
Make it Monday 90
Inspire me Fridays 59
52 card pickup 20

Christmas aperture card

This is an aperture Christmas card for Zoe's challenge for this fortnight for the Christmas Card Club (for info about this please click on one of the names of my sidebar and contact for details). It's also another card for my own CHNC challenge 73: a touch of the blues.

I've used Patchwork Pals supplies from a kit that I've had for a few years now.

This is also for:

Stempelsonne 63: headgear
Glitter geeks 20: polkadots
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: show us what you got
Truly scrumptious 80: anything goes
Whimsy 39: anything goes
Just keep on creating 2: anything goes
Make it Monday 89
Inspire me Fridays 59