Crochet and Cross Stitch For A Cause :)

Hello Everyone!! :)

I'm here for a flying visit tonight as I'm really not feeling well enough to be on the computer but I am determined not to let my 'One Post A Month' streak go!! So, to save my eyes and painful head, I have a quick share with some pics I already had edited of a couple of items I donated to a charity craft auction earlier this month in aid of Post Pals, a fantastic charity which sends post and arranges treats for seriously ill children and their siblings in the UK :)

First up is a crocheted baby blanket... I've made a fair few baby blankets but this has to be one of my absolute favourites!! :) The colours were insipred by my love of the film Frozen... not intentionally- I just picked some of my favourite colours and then wondered why I had 'Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?' in a loop in my head while I was working on it... had to laugh when that one finally clicked!! ;D The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK and the pattern is the simply gorgeous (and free!) Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket by Celeste Young on Ravelry, which my fabulously talented crochet friend, Heather, of The Patchwork Heart introduced me to through her instagram feed... I've made this in several colourways now and it always looks wonderful!! :)

The second item I donated is something that will be more familiar to my papercrafting followers as it's from the wonderful Lili of the Valley... but with a twist as it's not one of their adorable stamps but one of their adorable Cross Stitch Designs!! :) You may have seen me mention giving Cross Stitch a go again after twenty-something years in this post... well I loved stitching this sweet Odd Dog Picking Flowers design so much that I decided to make another for the auction!! :) I didn't take any pictures of the back, but for those who are interested, the aida is trimmed and gathered with a running stitch then all the ends and edges are covered by a circle of felt (hooray for papercrafting tools, my Grand Calibur came in useful for this!! ;D ) which I handstitched to the aida :)

I was so happy to be able to contribute to such a good cause by doing something I love!! :) There will be another craft auction in time for Christmas (which will be advertised on their Facebook page nearer the time) which I hope to be able to join in with again :)

Okay, I'm off to bed now to see if I can sleep off this headache... not that I'm really complaining... I only feel this ill because I did something amazing on Monday- I went to visit Jen at her house for the afternoon... the first time in 15 years that I have been able to visit someone else's house as she and her wonderful dad have made the outside/downstairs accessible for me in my wheelchair!!! :D :D Hope you all had a great Bank Holiday Weekend, too?!! See you soon!! :)

#ThrowbackThursday :: Cute & Cuddly :)

Hello :)

Long time, no blog again... health stuff... life stuff... etc., etc.... I won't bore you all with the details or excuses again!! ;) I'm glad to be back, anyway, and thought I'd get things going again with an idea I had a while ago whilst going through the mountains of photos on my computer... I realised I have a huge number of photos of cards, jewellery and other crafty things from quite a while back which I have never got around to posting and, since I am finding myself with less energy for crafting (cardmaking in particular) at the moment, I thought I would start a little as-and-when series of throwback posts... which I will post on a Thursday and tag with the well known #ThrowbackThursday or #tbt hashtag :) I will still be posting new cards when I can, of course, but I'm hoping this may help me to fill the gaps of time a little ;) 

So... up first in my #tbt series, a little CBS Baby card from about 18 months ago...

It was for my cousin to celebrate the birth of her little girl... I kept it simple as I was having trouble with the old mojo at the time but I ended up loving it :)

A stamped, diecut and watercoloured giraffe, along with an assortment of stamped hearts on the notebook page and two sentiments, all from CBS, and then a sprinkling of diecut hearts and gems was all there was to it... of course, we crafters know nothing is ever as 'simple' as that at the time but, looking back on it now, it seems like should have been!! ;)

I also stamped a few of the hearts on the inside lining papers to prettify it all a little... excuse the slightly grey area between the two hearts on the inside front in the photo above- I stamped the baby's name and birthdate in that gap but blanked it out for my post :)

{The List}

Cardstock - PaperMill Direct - Baby Pink, White Linen and assorted scraps for the hearts

Stamps - Clearly Besotted Stamps - Cute & Cuddly, Baby Love, Many Thanks, Many Messages and Just A Note

Dies - Clearly Besotted Stamps - Cute & Cuddly; Simon Says Stamp - Holiday Shapes and Large Holiday Shapes; MFT - Notebook Edge

Inks - Memento - Rose Bud, Lulu Lavender, Angel Pink and Lilac Posies

Colouring Medium - Watercolour with Brilliance Pearlescent Purple and Pearlescent Orchid

Embossing - Versamark Ink and Crafter's Companion White Embossing Powder

Tools - Heat Gun

Embellishments - Docrafts Anita's - 3mm and 2mm gems

Finishing Touches - Sakura Stardust Pen - Clear

Challenges I'd like to enter: Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes ; Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes ; Addicted to Stamps and More - Make Your Mark :)

I thought I would also share a pic of the felt heart decoration I made to send with the card with the little one's initial on it... this was my first felt decoration and, while not perfect by any means, I was pretty pleased with how it came out :) I did go on a search for a more solid felt after this though, as this wool/acrylic blend really wasn't very strong for sewing and stuffing... it is lovely and soft though and will get used for less demanding purposes :)

Okay, that's all from me today... I'll hopefully be back before *too* long, though, and will maybe share a few pics from my amazing outing to see the Cherry Blossoms at out local park last week, something that has been a dream through years of living housebound!! :) :) :)

Brrrr... it's cold!! I can help with that...

Hello!! :)

Long time no post again- same old reasons, I'm afraid... my health and life in general have had other plans for me than blogging no matter how much I'd have liked to post!! ;) Anyway, I have still been crafting in my absence, though I have had less time well enough to be at my desk so have been doing a lot of crocheting in bed to keep myself out of mischief... and that's what I thought I'd share with you today...

This piece of soft, snuggly, yarny gorgeousness is the Christmas present I made for Jen this year... a cowl to keep her nice and warm through this horrible winter :)

I taught Jen to crochet earlier this year so it has become yet another shared crafty love to add to the list and when I saw this yarn just after she sent me a Pin of a gorgeous cowl she'd found on Pinterest, I knew I had her Christmas present sorted!! :) The yarn is Stylecraft Weekender in Duck Egg, which I bought from Wool Warehouse, and I used the pattern on the Pin Jen found as a starting point to get the length of my chain right, then just winged the rest of it having been soaking in simple cowl pattern ideas from all around the web for weeks, doing 'half-trebles in the back loop only' to get the ribbed effect til it looked the right size ;) Aside from being super soft and beautifully coloured, this yarn is also Super Chunky so it didn't take too long to work up with my lovely new 10mm hook- these Knit Pro Waves hooks are so comfy and let my hands crochet for longer before the pain forces me to stop (thank you so much to Mel for sending me my first one!!)... I have almost every size now and I love them!! :)

As a little finishing touch, I added a hand stamped tag using one of mine and Jen's favourite metal stamps (another new craft we both became obsessed with last year... I shall share some of my pieces soon-ish, I hope!! ;D) as this was something we had been chatting about :)

I also got my mum to take a quick pic of the cowl on before I wrapped it up as you really can't tell what it looks like folded on my desk!! lol

Well, I hope you liked seeing something different on my blog today... I hope I will be back with more before too long but I really can't say when as I am having a bit of a hard time with headaches and eyestrain/pain at the moment, which is making editing pics and writing posts on the computer tricky :/ I have enjoyed writing this one though, so fingers crossed I can find a way!! :)

Thanks for reading and I hope you are all well and enjoying 2015 so far!! :)

Just a note...

Hey everyone :)

Just popping in with a quick post to let you know that Jen over at The Tiny Blue Butterfly has a some stamps and dies up for sale on her blog and has reduced the prices too... pop over to her sale page if you want to take a look!! :) {{Jen also has some details up of a challenge we're doing together for the next couple of months... I'll be back at some point to say a bit more about that myself!!}}

Hope you're all having a lovely Saturday and thanks so much for the lovely comments on my last post- I'm so glad to be properly back in blogland and posting again!! :)

Hello everyone :)

I'll hopefully be back before too long with a proper post... you know, one with actual pictures of crafty-ness in it!! ;) ...but, for now, I just wanted to pop in and wish anybody who's still reading my little blog a Happy Christmas... I hope you all have a wonderful time however you're spending it!! :)

xxx

Life after Google Reader... :( :(

Hello everyone!! :)

Just a quick little post to point out the options for following my lil' blog if , like me, you are a Google Reader user and will be being left bereft (and more than a tad annoyed- why oh, why, Google!!?!!) when Reader disappears very soon...

I have added buttons on my sidebar to follow My Crafty Life with Feedly (my tool of choice for the moment- the best of the bunch for me, though still not up to par with Google Reader :/ ) and Bloglovin'. There is also the option to subscribe by email and I have created a Facebook page which my blog posts to so you can follow on there if you like, too (button also on my sidebar by my Pinterest link) :) Phew... so many options... !! ;)

I envy those of you who just use your Blogger Dashboard to keep up with the blogs you follow... as far as I can tell, that won't be affected at all and so all will stay nice and simple!! I had to switch to Google Reader when I started reading blogs on my phone and found it so much better that I never went back to the Dashboard... ah, well... we'll all make do, I guess!! :S

If you've read to the end of this then 'Thank you!!' for liking my little blog enough to care!! :) Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!! :)

Happy Sepia Everything...

Hi everyone!! :)

I am finally back with a post I have been wanting to write since Monday when the first Clearly Besotted Stamps Challenge launched... my body has been letting me know in no uncertain terms that a haircut and two trips out into the sunshine in the space of five days is a pace it does not like, however, so rest has been mandatory :S I am very happy to be able to join in with the challenge now though and these cards are my first (yes, there will- hopefully!!- be more before it closes!! :)) entries...

As regular readers of my lil' blog can probably guess, I made these just after the sepia FlexMarker experiments in this post... I had both the pens and the stamps still on my desk and just thought that the combination could be a good 'un... and I think I was right... room for improvement with the colouring, but I do very much like the results!! :)

A bit of a closer view below... I do like this Sunkissed Pink tone of FM with the sepia look... and  added a little green underneath the beiges on the stem for the 'Just for You' card which I think made a nice difference :)

{The List}

A6 top-fold cream card blanks plus extra card for image panels

Stamps - Clearly Besoted Stamps - Happy Everything and Spring Blooms (for 'HB' sentiment)

Woodware Clear Magic - Salutations (for 'JfY' sentiment)

Inks - VersaMagic Jumbo Java

WOW! Clear Semi-dull Embossing Powder

FlexMarkers -  Sandstone, Champagne, Linen, Antique White, Sunkissed Pink, Meadow Green and Blender (I think- apparently I didn't write a seperate list so having to make an educated guess from my Gorjuss cards list!)

Papers - scraps from First Edition's Spring Feast pad

X-cut Scalloped Border punch (including 'waste' piece for inverted scallops)

Cosmic Shimmer Pearl Glue - Milk Chocolate

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Clearly Besotted Challenge #1 - Anything Goes :) ; ATSM - Addicted to CAS :)

Okay, I'm off to link up... and I'll hopefully be back fairly soon... I have many more CBS cards to share- discovering Steph's fab company has been very good for my creativity... maybe a little less good for my bank balance (new dies, anyone... OMG!!!) but hey-ho, we won't talk about that!!lol Thank you for all your comments on my last posts and I hope you are all well... and not too cold and damp... blummin' British weather... still, at least the garden's getting a good drink the easy way!! ;)

Clean & Simple Characters - Clean & Simply Gorjuss...

Hello there!! :)

Well, I'm finally back after another unintended hiatus from blogging... have still been crafting though, so plenty to share with you!! :) Starting with the first post in my new little personal challenge series inspired by the lovely Jen :) I mentioned here that around the same time as Jen started her fab CAS Mondays with LOTV, I had also been having a craft-space sort out and realised anew just how many character stamps I had and how little use they were getting recently within my recent CAS stamps/inks/dies phase... and so, following Jen's lead, I decided I would set myself a little challenge too... and to keep me motivated, I thought I'd make it a series on my lil' blog...

... I am calling it Clean & Simple Characters and the idea is to still make CAS cards which are relatively quick and easy to put together but which also include all my lovely character images and give my ProMarkers and FlexMarkers a bit of use... until I started this they had barely been out of the box all year!! :S

I have been wanting to give sepia colouring with my PMs/FMs a go for a while since I saw my lovely friend, Elaine, making some fab cards this way and I decided to restrict myself to just the colours I have in my FlexMarkers to keep it all as simple as possible... I started with this lovely Gorjuss Girl stamp I got a little while ago, from the new DoCrafts GG range, and hadn't used yet (as the size of it threw me a tad to be honest- it's huge!!lol) and, until I had the CAS idea, I hadn't been able to work out what I could do with it...

... and I had so much fun that I went on, over the next few days, to colour my other three Gorjusses and a Simply Sassy in the same way, too, (along with a couple of flowers which I'll share soon but don't fit the series)!! :)

 This one was the first GG I got from Sugar Nellie years ago and is still my favourite... I just think she is so pretty with her little flowers :)

I embossed all the images with WOW! semi-dull powder before colouring and added a little Antique Linen Distress Stickles to them at the end :)

The frames on these two were leftovers/waste from some kraft squares I cut ages ago but saved as I thought they'd make great frames... nearly chucked them a few times as they were getting on my nerves on my desk but glad I didn't now!!lol

And for this last one, I pulled out a fab Simply Sassy stamp which I've had for ages and really love but, for some strange reason, hasn't been used that much... like the GGs, she was a dream to colour in this way and I had fun- and possibly got a tad carried away!!lol- playing with some teeny hearts and stars from CBS to make a bokeh-ish background for her :)

{ The List }

Cream card blanks (top- fold A6 and 5" Square) and more cream card from stamping on

Stamps - Simply Gorjuss - New Heights from Do Crafts

Gorjuss Girls - Poppy Fields, Little Goth Girl and Sitting from Sugar Nellie

Simply Sassy - Luv a Latte by Krista Smith from Sugar Nellie

VersaMagic Ink pad in Jumbo Java

Wow! Clear Matte Semi-dull embossing powder and heat tool

FlexMarkers - Rosewood, Auburn, Saddle Brown, Nutmeg, Cappuccino, Sandstone, Light Fawn, Champagne, Linen, Antique White, Sunkissed Pink

Button Twine and Seam Binding - Brown and Rose Petal from The Ribbon Girl

Clearly Besotted Many Thanks stamp set and VersaMagic inks in Wheat and Sahara Sand for hearts and stars background on Luv a Latte card

Sentiments - Poppy Fields card- Woodware Clear Magic Salutations

Sitting card- Papermania Honey and Hugs set

Little Goth Girl and Luv a Latte cards- LOTV Tags stamp sheets

Antique Linen Distress Stickles

Sakura Clear Stardust pen

I'd like to enter all but the first of these into the Sugar Bowl - Anything Goes challenge :) and the rest into: Passion for ProMarkers - Ribbon, Lace or Twine :) ; Addicted to Stamps - Make Your Mark :) ; Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes :)

Well, that's the first post- and the first *five* cards- in my little Clean and Simple Characters series... I love the sepia look and limiting my colour palette definitely helped the process go more quickly and feel much more relaxed... I have a lot more images I think would look great in sepia but I'd also like to try some other restricted palettes... and it was so much fun to play with my images and pens again!! :) Thank you again Jen for the inspiration!! :) My challenge is just for me- no linky or anything like Jen's) and it will be an 'as and when' kind of thing but I hope that it might be fun to read and maybe even inspire a few people to have a go and mix those character with CAS!! :)

Thanks for stopping by today and for reading this v long post (I was going to post all the cards seperately but it seemed daft to spend energy on several different posts when they'd all be so similar!!lol)... hope you enjoyed it anyway!! :) I'm not sure when I'll make it back but I hope it won't be too long :) Hope everyone's okay and had a lovely long weekend... I got to meet Jen who came to visit and we chatted like we'd known each other forever so I had a fab weekend- thanks hon!! :D :D

A little more LOTV... :)

Hello again folks!! :)

Yup, it really is me back so soon!!lol I couldn't believe my luck this morning when I saw that the new LOTV challenge was CAS... and I actually managed to get a card that would be perfect for it posted- *last* night!! Typical!!lol But that and the fact I so rarely get to enter over there has persuaded me to get on and post this one, which also fits but had been pushed back in my mental posting queue by the CBS cards I mentioned last night...anyway, this one is from the archives (ie. one of many on my computer I just haven't got to posting yet!!) and was made last October for my Gran's birthday...

I wanted to keep her card calm and soothing as my Gran had lost her sister suddenly the week or so before... I knew she would still appreciate a pretty and cheerful card to celebrate her birthday but didn't want to send anything too bright and jarring or overly fussy... after much head-scratching, I remembered this lovely little LOTV bear and created one of my fav big scalloped circle cards to sit her on- I always think a circular base card makes a card look special even if the rest of it is very simple!! :)

I coloured with PMs and FMs in gentle, pretty tones and added just a smidge of Stickles, then dug out my last whole piece (eeek- only for someone really special!!) of my fav paper from the FF Pink Parfait range and some matching seam-binding...

A sublte white-embossed sentiment, some white layers and a few white pearls brought it all together... perhaps not as CAS as some of my recent creations but I think the limited, pale colour palette with plenty of white keeps it pretty simple and fresh... and my Gran was really pleased with it... so nice to have made her smile!! :)

{The List}

6" Sq. white card blank

Nesties - Grand Big Scalloped Circles, Big Scalloped Circles Large and Standard Circles dies

LOTV Posy Trio image, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers (sorry, no colours again... too long ago!!)

Paper - Forever Friends Pink Parfait pad

Blue textured pearl cardstock (from QVC many moons ago)

X-cut Scalloped border punch

Sentiment - LOTV

White Embossing Powder and heat tool

Seam Binding - Tile Blue from The Ribbon Girl

White 4mm pearls

Crystal Stickles

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Lili's Little Fairies - Clean and Simple :) ; Jen's CAS Mondays with LOTV (if it's CAS enough for you Jen?!) :) ; Papertake Weekly - Bingo (Glitter, Diecuts, Blooms is the one I've chosen but I think it would fit several lines!!) :) ; Joanna Sheen - Spring into Spring :) ; The Ribbon Girl - Just Add Flowers :)

Well, that's it from me for now... I hope you're all well- thanks for stopping by today and for your lovely comments!! :) See you again soon I hope- though maybe not quite so soon as this time!! :)

Just for You from LOTV...

Hello everyone!! :)

I have a card to share today which was inspired by Jen over at The Tiny Blue Butterfly... after clearing out her stash, Jen has challenged herself to make a CAS card each Monday using one of her neglected LOTV stamps... I have more than a few of those too so thought I'd join in!! :)

This cute image is one I have wanted for some time and have always thought would be well suited to CAS designs :)

I am very out of practice with colouring at the mo' as, especially with my health as it has been of late, I just haven't had the energy to sit and colour in the way I was a year or so ago (tons of pens out all over the place and spending ages paying so much attention to getting my blending as good as I possibly could, etc.) so I decided to used just my FlexMarkers to colour this one as I find it easier to relax and colour with a (quicker!) more sketchy style with them... so it's far from perfect but I am relatively happy with it (all but the skin anyway- don't have my usual skin colours in my FMs so that ended up a bit of a mess!) all things considered :) And- I had the whole card put together in less time than an image would normally have taken me!!lol

The layout is CASEd from this card by Jen who in turn, CASEd it from this card by Rebecca... and I think it's one I'll keep coming back to for CAS cards :) Thanks for the inspiration ladies!! :)

{The List}

A6 top-fold white card blank

Image - LOTV Milly Just for You, stamped in Memento London Fog and coloured with FlexMarkers (sorry, no colours... I'm so out of the colouring habit that I put them all away without thinking!!lol)

Paper - Forever Friends Springtime 6x6" pad

Sentiment - PTI Happy For You set

Twine - Papermania Spots and stripes Pastels Collection

Tiny pearls from Anita's

Sakura Clear Stardust pen

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Jen's CAS Monday with LOTV #3 :) ; ATCAS #10 - Friend :) ; Allsorts - Spring has Sprung :) ; Joanna Sheen - Spring into Spring :) ; Fab 'n' Funky - Spring Colours :) ; Divas by Design - Flowers (if the flowers in my image and papers are okay) :)

Jen's challenge set me to thinking about how many character stamps I have and how much I like to make more CAS cards with them with the image taking centre stage... so... I have decided to attempt a little personal challenge of my own and have been colouring like a crafter possessed since the idea hit... Gorjuss Girls aplenty coming to a blog near you soon!!lol Though I do have a couple of Clearly Besotted Stamps cards I want to share with you first... the sudden spate of creativity around here is causing problems as I have more cards to share than I have time or energy to blog... but I'd much rather have that problem than nothing to blog 'cause I've not managed any crafting!! :D

Thanks for stopping by today!! :) See you soon I hope!! :)