This Is Life...

This layout is rather busy for my taste. The photos are very busy in themselves and I'm thinking, in hindsight, I should have picked a less busy background and embellishments. Oh well! It's easy to think of those things afterwards... :)

Today I'm finding it a little difficult to get in a creative mood. Maybe because there are lots of other things needing to be done (that I'm doing), maybe it's the extremely dark weather, maybe it's something else...? Next in the pipeline is a card... But I have no idea what to make. I think maybe getting a few stamp sets out and picking a stamp for a focal point might be a good start. Then I at least can have that "in my head" while doing other things. This is usually how I (at the weirdest times, often while I'm about to fall asleep at night) suddenly come up with design ideas...

A Spooktacular Day...

I've been playing a bit more with the Oogly Boogly kit I had fun with the other day. In fact, I enjoyed making that hybrid card so much that I just had to make another one :)

[Supplies: Oogly Boogly - Kate Hadfield, Kaye Winiecki (from The Lilypad)]

I liked the frame by Kate so much that I decided to use that one again. And then I just went for some different colours and different elements in the kit compared to my other card. Well that is, apart from the pumpkins. I had to use them again... But instead of making them extremely large, I made them very small this time and just added them along the corner on this card.

I had so much fun making these Halloween cards :)

Trick Or Treat...

I've been working with a very fun new Halloween kit by Kate Hadfield and Kaye Winiecki at the Lilypad... Love cute Halloween kits :)

Anyway, I got the kit and I usually make layouts for my Creative Team work. But since we don't really celebrate Halloween as such I don't really have any Halloween photos... Well, maybe only the odd pumpkin or something...

So what to do? Then I thought it was a looooong time since I did some hybrid cards (I've kinda gone off them a bit, only due to the ink cost though). But I love them. :) And I love making cute Halloween cards. So I thought, why not...?

Below is my first card using the kit:

[Supplies: Oogly Boogly - Kate Hadfield, Kaye Winiecki (from The Lilypad)]

Flying High...

And no it's not me in the photo LOL! I'm not one for heights...

Recently (the first weekend in October) we had the most amazing weather. Over 26 degrees for 5 days in a row. Unheard of and beat the weather we had all summer here in the UK (am I so glad we got to spend some amazing summer weeks in Sweden!!).

Anyway the summer clothes came out (in October!! They were already washed and put away for next summer) and we went for a picnic. Up in the hills. Where some people (some sort of flying/gliding club? I really don't know the correct term!) had decided to go gliding (?) It was so amazing sitting there watching them all up in the sky. Or running off the cliff and just gliding out in the air just next to us. Very cool indeed :)

[Supplies: Autumn Swirls - Fei Fei's Stuff, Splatteriffic 12 - Karah Fredricks, Autumn Moon Ephemera - Sahlin Studio, Autumn Moon Papers - Sahlin Studio (all from The Lilypad)]

Now today's weather on the other hand should hardly be mentioned. Rainy, grey and VERY dark. It's not far off lunchtime and I'm sitting here with the LIGHTS on LOL!

Wishing I Had A Scor-Pal...

Well I kinda do have one... Or I do... But I need one! Let me explain my dilemma :)

Basically I SO want the new Scor-Pal (the one with more lines) but I don't know if (a) I can justify the cost when I have the original one and (b) if I can even buy it in the UK yet... (it's so unclear whether it's the new one or not in online shops)

(original Scor-Pal)

The Scor-Pal above is the one I have. And I love it! I use it every time I make a card without fail. But I want more score lines. So a while back (last year?) I got the Martha Stewart score board. It's got loads of lines plus a cool envelope making tool also. But no matter how much I try to get used to this one I really can't. I find it jumps out of the score lines. It's very hard to stay in the tracks. Which of course messes up your card stock. I've even tried different scoring tools. But they still jump (any tips anyone?). :(

(new Scor-Pal)

...so I discover that there is a NEW Scor-Pal! With MORE scoring lines! Yay! I'm thinking since I like the original so much (and it never skips out of the tracks when you score - unlike the one by Martha) I'd really, really, really like this. I'm guessing the chances are that this one will be as great to score with as the original one...!

But can I justify such a purchase to get some more lines...? I sooooo want it! I don't know what to do. And I'd love to get the Scor-Mat (which I never had with my original one) too. So that adds another cost.

Dilemmas. Dilemma. What would you do...?

Exhausted... But With A Little Smile...

I'm exhausted today. I really don't know what's up with me. I'm not sleepy. Just sooooo exhausted in my body. I feel battered. Totally. Completely. Like lifting an arm is impossible. Even writing this is a huge effort. Sitting on the chair is hard work. Yesterday was a very stressful day, so I'm hoping it's just some reaction to that. I really don't want to be coming down with something...

I'm so "broken" I haven't really managed anything all day apart from reading etc (I'm re-reading the Harry Potter books for the... I-don't-know-which-time).

Despite this incredible exhaustion something did manage to put a smile on my face a little while ago. I got an order in the post which I have been looking forward to a lot...

Studio Calico Mr Huey Shine Spray, Amy Tangerine American Crafts Mixtape (washi tape!), some more foam pads for my Tim Holtz inking tool, a set of Colorbox chalk inkpads, 2 lots of Hero Arts stamps, some distress inkpads + distress stains.

I'm really pleased to finally add some more colours to my Tim Holtz inkpad collection. Something I have been wanting for ages... :)

Another fun (and new thing to me) is the Distress Stains by Tom Holtz. I have never tried these before so I'm looking forward to have a play with those...

But if I had to pick one item I like the most, right now, it must be this Christams stamp set by Hero Arts. I just love those snowmen :)

Despite feeling so tired this fun parcel caused me to want to do something. I'd love to create a chart (just a simple name + a bit of a colour dab/swatch) of my Tom Holtz inkpads and distress stains. I find these kind of colour charts to be SO useful when I work on things. But I don't know if I really have the energy for that today. Maybe I just have to *think* about making a pretty chart and look happily at my new stash for today... :)

Fun Folded Card...

I love folded cards, cards that are slightly different than usual, but I rarely take time to make them. This time I spotted a cool card by Kristina Werner which I loved so much that I had to make one :)

It's very much a "scraplift"... well, is there a different term for that when it comes to card making? A "cardlift"?!? Does someone know please? Anyway...

I used Kraft card stock and the same butterfly punch as Kristina (since I just happened to have it) but the background and text stamps are totally different to what she used.

I hope the photo above gives you some idea of how it works. It's hard to show in photos. But I think (hope) you get the idea :)

You need two strips of Kraft card stock for this card (which you glue together). Or in my case, you need three, as I scored one of mine in the wrong position at first LOL!

It a square card that folds out to be pretty long and the greeting (made up of several stamps) is stamped in between the butterfly background :)

I'm really glad I took the time to try this - a very fun card indeed :)

Yes Indeed...

Following on from this post the other day, and my love for the Penny Black cat (and indeed hedgehog!) stamps I had the following comment/question left by Kat:

"I LOVE Margaret Sherry's cats as well!! :) Lovely stamps, got several of her Cross Stitch patterns, too. :) And the hedgehogs are fab, too. Do you know if they have anything new out this year for Christmas?"

Yes they do indeed :) *big smiles*

First of all they have this one (below) which I bought a few weeks ago. Totally adore the cat hanging in the wreath LOL! :)

This also have this one (again please see below) for Christmas 2011. I have not got this one (yet!?!). I so love the cat with the presents in the bottom corner!! But that's the only cat, which is a shame. So I don't know what to do. But I'm planning another stash order, maybe even later today, so I'm thinking it's a huge possibility that this might go in my cart:
And then we come to the problem, for me. Halloween stamps. This I believe is a new set for 2011 (yet again, see below please). I always want to get the Halloween cat/hedgehog sets by Penny Black but never do. I stick to Christmas and Valentine's.

Reason? We don't really celebrate Halloween here, neither do we have the need to send any cards.

Problem? I LOVE making Halloween cards and these stamp sets really appeal to me! I struggle every year to resist them.

Can I resist this year...? I don't know...!?! We'll see...

Hope this was of some help Kat :)

Love The Cats...

I'm sure I have mentioned several times here on the blog that I really, really like cats...

Both little cats (pets) and big ones (tigers, lions... etc). And when it comes to stamping it's the same. I love cat stamps :)

My favourite ones are the cat stamps by Penny Black. I have boought the special "T For Transparent" cat packs (Christmas, Valentine etc) now for several years...

I can't get enough of them and I'm so happy everytime it's a new holiday and a new stamp set is released featuring the cat :)

...and I love stamping with them too (not just admiring them LOL)! Colouring them with Copics (and the little cute hedgehogs that often are in the stamp sets too!) make me so happy :)

Things Are Slow...

I've hardly got anything done this week because of my knee. Well, I guess that's not quite true... I have gotten things done, but I have definitely gotten a lot less done... and in terms of crafting I have not even been at my desk for the last 3 days. A bit of digital scrapping has been happening but that's about it.

Knee is getting better but slowly. Yesterday I could not feel any improvement but today I think it's a bit better. So I think it will be a slow indoors type weekend for me. Lots of hugs, Kindle and iPad :) Sounds pretty perfect anyway :)