Back to Blogging

Once again, it's been some time since I last posted. For some reason, I found it pretty impossible to get any crafting done over the summer holidays, let alone blogging.  But, the girls have been back at school now for a couple of weeks, and I'm slowly getting back into a routine of sorts (not helped by sick children, sick dog and training for a half marathon - yikes!).  I've made a few cards, I'm working on some layouts, and I've also just finished a crochet scarf, and will share all these over the next wee while :)

First off, a card!

I've been following the Make-It-Monday Challenges over on Nichole Heady's blog for some time, but never got round to joining in.  This week, the challenge was to use colouring pencils!  Now, I don't have any Prismacolor pencils or odourless mineral spirits, but I do have watercolour pencils!!  And I love using them!  So I had a look through my PTI sets and picked out Up, Up & Away and some pencils in rainbow colours.  Enjoyed some pleasant colouring and a wee while later, had assembled my card.  Hope you enjoy, thanks for stopping by!

Checking in...

...to say "hi" :)  Boy, it's been a long time since I last posted!  And I haven't really got much to show either, my crafting has very much taken a back seat to life over the last couple of month.  At the end of May, my grandmother passed away (she was 98!!) and I took a quick trip to Germany for the funeral.  June was busy with end of school year activities for the girls and getting ready for our summer holidays.  And now we're back from hols, I'm catching up on all the washing and housework, the girls are home, in and out of the house constantly with their friends, we've had two sleepovers in the past week, and all I've managed is a tiny little bit of crochet.  My craft table is a disaster area which I'm just passing at the moment, trying not to look, there is a whole pile of new stamp sets on it and I have no idea when I'm going to have a spare half hour or so to try and play with them.  Yes, I've got withdrawal symptoms!!! ;-)

Anyhoo, I went through my camera card today and organised my photos a little, and I came across a card and a layout that I haven't shared yet.

The card was made for eldest daughter's friends birthday and coordinated very nicely with a couple of the little gifts we chose.  I love how the colours pop against the black background, nice and bright and summery :)

And this layout is of middle daughter, photo taken by my mum when we were visiting in February.  Doesn't she look sweet?  Oh, how looks can be deceiving! ;-)  Not sure this is my "normal" layout style, but I like it.

I'll leave you with a few pictures from our summer hols:

 The Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye

 Elgol, Isle of Skye

 Fairy Glen, Isle of Skye

 Schiehallion, Perthshire - that mountain caused us a lot of pain!  Hard work climbing up, just as hard going back down, legs sore for days!!!

My favourite view from the holiday cottage in Glen Quaich

Thanks for stopping by, hope to be back soon, hope you're enjoying your summer!

Swap Goodies

I recently signed up for a swap on Ravelry, in the We Love Lucy group.  This is a group of people who follow and are inspired by Lucy's blog Attic24, so the swap promised to be a very cheerful, happy and colourful affair :)  I have had a lovely time buying and making things for my swap partner Amy (photos of which I will post once she's received her package), and I was lucky enough to receive my parcel from Amy yesterday.  It was full to the brim with wonderful things, so I thought I'd share some piccies:

Crochet coasters, handmade by Amy

Yellow wool and teal cotton - the yellow is much brighter and sunnier in real life :)

The most amazing silk yarn, made from Sari remnants, and it's fairtrade, too :)

More goodies: chocolate, coffee and flowers - what more could a girl want?

I've really enjoyed this swap, just hope Amy will like her goodies, too! Thanks for stopping by :)

Cards!!

Like I said, I'm on a roll!  Here are a few cards I made recently:

The first two use a Lily of the Valley image I've had since before Christmas but never inked up - and that's despite having three pony-mad girls in the house!  I've got a little collection of horse/pony stamps now, and I'm planning to make a pile of cards with them which I'm hoping to donate to the girls' riding school to help raise funds.  They had to pull down one of their buildings and need to replace it with a new structure, so donations are welcome.

On this card, I've used my new Build A Blossom stamps from Stampin' Up!, along with the Blossom Petal punch.  I think I'm going to be using this a lot, it's got so many possibilities :)  The card layout is based quite closely on one in the mini catalogue.

And this last card was a commission I made back in March for Mother's Day - this was for a mum who loves dragonflies :)

That's all for now folks, best get going and get the tea on.  Hope the sun is shining as brightly in your part of the world as it is here (and has been for quite some time, very unusual for us!).  Thanks for stopping by.

Time For Some Layouts!

I've been working away at my 2010 album over the last wee while - this is an album that will feature one, maybe two layouts per month with the main events, highlights or just some fun stuff for that month.  Now it seems I've only taken pictures of some layouts, but I'll try and get the rest done soon.  Here are the ones I did most recently:

April 2

May

June 1



Had fun doing these :)  Will show more as soon as I've taken half decent photos of them.  I've also got some more cards to share, and more to make with some new goodies from a recent craft show.  Can you tell I'm on a roll and really enjoying my crafting just now? ;-)  Thanks for stopping by!!

Woolly WIP's

As promised, here's a wee peek at my current yarn WIP's.  I say "yarn" because, when I was getting out my crochet projects to photograph, I came across a knitting project, too, that I had almost forgotten about...  I am not going to start anything new until all my current projects are completed, promise!!

This is what I'm working on at the moment: some fresh and bright cushion covers for the living room, as my current cushions are anything but fresh and bright ;-)  The top two pictures are cushion #1 which I finished last week.  At the bottom is cushion #2, with the front panel well under way.  I'm joining as I go for the first time and it's working out quite nicely :)  I've got two more cushion pads to cover after this one, but I might start working on the matching blankie first.


Below are some squares for my autumn/winter blanket which I've been working on for SOME time...  I have abandoned it for the moment in favour of the brighter colours, I'm just not in the mood for warm and autumnal any more.

And this is the pile of all the squares that I've completed so far.  I'm just over half way there as far as the squares go, but as you can no doubt see, the ends still need to be weaved in and then there's the small matter of joining all the squares.  Maybe it'll be ready for Christmas this year...

And lastly, here's my knitting project:

It's a scarf following the same pattern as this one, only using DK yarn this time, making it less bulky and therefore suitable for eldest daughter's dainty frame ;-)

So there you go, a wee update on non-papery crafts going on here.  I've also got a card and a layout to share, but that'll have to wait till another time.  Thanks for stopping by :)



More Spring Cards

I'm definitely in the mood for fresh, spring-like colours, so here are a couple more cards that I made recently:

This is Sugarnellie's Daisy, and some DCWV paper that I've had for an eternity.  Sentiment is from Stampin' Up! Circle of Friendship.



And while I had the paper out, I made another card, spring-y too, but I'm not very sure about it.

On this last one, I went very bright, with a mix of Stampin' Up! and Papertrey stamps, and Stampin' Up! colours, card and DSP.  I only wish now I had stamped the sentiment in a darker colour, as it doesn't really show up very well.  Then again, I'm not sure how well black would have worked...  What do you think?

I'm going to try over the next few days and take some pictures of my current crochet WIP's - I have abandonned my autumn/winter blankie in favour of some brighter, lighter colours and am in the middle of making a cushion cover, which will then be followed by a spring/summer blankie :)

Thanks for stopping by!