My first WOYWW - # 137

Please feel free to skip the rambling and just look at piccy's (Long long post, lots of rambling and lots of photos)

I have been reading this blog STAMPING GROUND since well before it’s First Birthday but have never taken part, I used to craft at the dinning room table so as soon as I finished at the end of each day everything had to go away so we could use it to eat dinner, so I never had anything to show, I used to go around other blogs and marvel at the spaces, (I never managed all the blogs tho even in the early days, I love Julia’s way of writing and I decided that as soon as I started blogging again that I would take part, I am not sure if I will manage every week, it depends on how unwell I am, but today I thought I would show you my crafting space – no longer am I at the table but I have my very own space, I know many people have spare bedrooms or even proper offices but here in England you have to practically be a millionaire to own a big house with spare rooms (ok I might be exaggerating a bit) but generally our homes are quite small and I am far from a millionaire so when my son went to university we discussed with him about me sharing his room, as he is hardly here (holidays only Now :-( ) I also had a long list of what storage I would like and spent many hours drooling over spaces and homemade storage but knew that I would never be able to afford any posh craft stuff so when my sister in-law had a new extension (new kitchen, dinning room and treatment room, she is a reflexologist !) she offered us her old kitchen I can tell you I almost bit her hand off and so waited patiently (well not so patiently) till they got round to removing the cupboards and hubby collected them and with a bit of hammering, sawing, and adjusting and lots of swearing lol he put them into bedroom, I was a bit unsure how it would look but knew that I wanted all the craft stuff to be able to be put away when son comes home so he has his bedroom back ‘almost’ and i can honestly say it works really well, so here are a few piccys of my space.

So I have 2 1/2 wall cupboards with doors so things can be hidden away and then a small open wall unit which is perfect for 6x6 papers, there is also a corner display unit on the end which I have some of sons medals and awards standing, oh and a small cross stitched picture I did! Under the wall cupboards is a long strip of lighting and I have to use the small daylight lamp because as you can tell there is not a window, it's at the other end of the room.

I have 4 base cupboards I don’t know if you can tell but basically they go along one wall and a little bit around the corner onto another wall, well before son went to uni he worked at a DIY store and managed to purchase the kitchen work top for £10 (can you imagine how delighted I was, I bet you can)

My Bigshot is standing on an Old Card Table that folds flat when not in use and is the perfect height and fits into the large cupboard when not in use.

I am sure you are all very fed up by now but I wanted to show the just another few pictures of my Pen storage – this is a CD holder bought from a large supermarket (S) when it was on sale for £7 and hubby bought some black mounting board and made separate compartments big enough so that all my pens can fit in even when I expand I use copics mostly but have a collection of Pro-markers a few whisper pens and various other gel pens etc..And they all fit wonderfully with space for more!!! When I am unwell and need to craft in bed (another story for another day) I use a kitchen tool holder to hold my pens and not sure of the exact cost but it was only a few pounds I wouldn’t have paid more! But again it works really well for me and I think the total cost of my craft space and storage as well as it being recycled cost us less then £50 – I have lots of little storage boxes in the cupboard and some more crafty recycled storage but I will leave that for another day.

One day I will get around to painting the doors and maybe even getting some proper craft storage, but hubby is happy I am not using the table, (and making mess, I know he just didn't understand lol) and I am soooo happy that I can leave out the things I am working on and that it works well when my son is home, even the cat is happy

If your still here Thank you for looking and I will do my very best to get around as many of your blogs as possible. And remember to leave your love for Julia over at The Stamping Ground.

Lou xx

Cards For Men Challenge Card

I make A LOT of Men/Boys Cards - and this stamp is perfect, easy to colour and no need for much embellishments, which is great for boys cards.

I would like to enter this card into CARDS FOR MEN Challenge 2 Which asks us to make a card for Boys and Their Toys

Card is just a tiny bit under 6x6 in Design papers are K&Company pad called Hopscotch a Computer generated greeting, coloured with copics but i can't find the list anywhere! and the stamp is A Stampavie one by Gillian Roberts called Skateboard Dude

Thanks for looking

Happy Birthday Chloe

I adore this little fairy stamp - it is from Pink Gem Designs and is actually called Fairy Chloe

I made this card for someone else to give to our neice Chloe

I would like to enter this card into The ABC Challenge and this weeks letter is H for Happy Birthday - I think this might just meet the requirements hehe

I would also like to enter this into My Mum's Craft Shop Challenges and this weeks Challenge is Here Comes The Girls Challenge #39

Last but not least i would like to submit this card to The Crafty Pad 1st Challenge of 2012 which is Challenge # 153 SPARKLE - I hope that it is clear enough on the photo but the diecut letters were cut out of Pink Glitter card and her wings are glittered, along with her wand - I apologise for not using a Crafty Pad image you will see way back in my blog i was once a guest design team member for The Crafty Pad and purchased a few stamps and was lucky enough to get to use Butterflies with Verse & border which i loved so much i went on and purchased the stamp set as I had not and still have not got digi stamps mastered yet!!! It was only whilst i was browsing my blog list (instead of sleeping) that i noticed it would fit with this challenge as the card really was very very sparkly and thats what our Chloe loved about it.

After having some sleep I have found (I think) the details i wrote about the design papers and copic numbers so thought i would just add that to the description as I really like the blogs that include details!

A4 Pink card fold in half - (from Papermill) Then very simple a A5 Papermania Capsule Collection (Red Hot Paper Pack) Sparkly glitter card and Fairy Chloe from Pink Gem - the little butterflies are from Hobbycraft 99p for a big sheet of puffy butterflies (great value I think) and Flowers and brad from stash and onto the copics, i used

E11, E00, R20, Rvoo, Rv02, Rv04, Y17, Y21 & Y00 and also Poppy Pro-marker and gold pro-marker -

Boy those Design Teams are talented, i love looking and drooling over all the lovely images and projects

Thanks for looking

Introducing Ellie

This is Ellie, she was born 27th May 2010 and came to live with us on August 4th that year, she has turned our world upside down and we all can’t really believe how much we all adore her – My son started Uni in September 2010 and before that spent 6 months in Australia so I was suffering Empty Nest Syndrome v.badly. My daughter has always wanted a dog but we had a very old cat who would not of tolerated a dog and as she was poorly until she went to cat heaven there was no way we could put her though the trauma so when she passed in 2009 within a few months my daughter started asking (begging) for a dog, however we couldn’t decide on a breed, I wanted a yorkie, hubby wanted a Jack Russell and daughter wanted anything with four legs that barked. So the searching started and daughters birthday came and we said she could choose, within 3 days Ellie was living with us.

She totally rules our lives and we adore it, she is very spoilt but very well behaved and we have comments from other dog owners on how well behaved she is, our lives now revolve around 2 teenagers and Ellie, oh and the cats when they can get a word in hehe

A couple of cards to practise blogging!!!

I am trying hard to remember how to work this blogging thingy lol.so gonna do some posts just for practise and to keep a kind of diary of my crafting.

So yesterday I made 2 cards, I know 2, but I cheated they were both die cut decoupage ones but so I thought I would try and post details about them (really just to get the hang of this blogging)

So firstly I have this beautiful Bassett Hound decoupage – This of course was for a Bassett owner who owns 2 beautiful bassets who we all adore (I will ask them to pose for some piccys and introduce them to you at a later date)

This is a 3D die cut decoupage sheet from craftuk called Furry Friends Pets and includes 3 doggies this gorgeous Bassett a cute little Westie and a very handsome German Shepard it is a lovely quality A4 sheet, 220gsm and so easy to use just pop them out and layer them up with either silicone or 3d pads I used pads for this,

This card is a 15cm x 15cm cream base (from The Papermill) I have used Basic grey 6x6 Max and Whiskers paper and a couple of Dovecraft funky brads 'Pets' and a pre-printed Happy Birthday banner. Super easy to put together all I did was go around the edges of the diecut shapes with a Pro-marker just to hide the white edges – it didn’t really need this but I get a bit obsessed with white bits!

I would like to enter this into TotallyPaperCrafts Challenge #99 which is Spots and Stripes

So Secondly this is for our niece who is 3 on Saturday and she started taking dancing lessons a little while ago, so a perfect girly image, this is also a 3d die cut decoupage, I bought it in the sales after Christmas it was a half price kit called Daisy and Dandelion The secret Woodlands Die cut decoupage and pyramage pack and it Contains 4 x die cut sheets, 2 x background papers, 2 x patterned paper plus a free project sheet, so lots for your money however I wasn’t that impressed with the diecut there was huge white bits around the edges and you had to be very careful when popping them out because it would have torn really easily.

Another super easy card 15cmx15cm which is one of my favourite sizes for cards. A pink card base again from The Papermill then 6x6 Papermania Scrumptious Paper pad, a scalloped oval cut with nestabilities with stickles around the edge and a small piece of paper from the die cut kit – the teddy is layered using 3d silicone, best to use the silicone when doing little fiddly bits and I still use the cocktail stick method and then some peeloff's to spell out her name and a Happy Birthday Easy peasy.

Now let me see if i can get this to post with the photos in the right places!

I would like to enter his pink card into The Do You Stack Up Challenge #54 which is Be Pinky

And I would also like to enter this into Crafty Cardmakers # 59 and the rules say 'No Floral Embellishments'.

I think i have stuck to the rules and have linked up properly please forgive me if i have got it wrong.

Is there anybody out there?????

My goodness I have no idea how to work this now I cannot remember how to post messages and it looks like its all changed - its been such a looonnnggg time, A few changes have happened in my life and had a long break from crafting but i am back and hoping to get involved with my old groups and get to grips with these blogs - I love reading other peoples blogs and have a huge list saved as bookmarkswhich I visit daily if not weekly.

Anyway I am going to attempt to load a piccy now  - oh not sure where this is going to show up but this is one of the main reasons crafting stopped . A new addition to the family this is my baby she is a cross between shitzu and jack russell and is called Ellie, she has the sweetest temperament and makes me laugh and smile all day long.

Ermmmm well I think i have some reading to do so i know a little of what i am doing and i will be back to show piccys of my new craft area!!!! yipee yes my very own little space I LOVE IT and once I have got to grips with blogging again i will start showing you what I have been up to recently and I am planning on having a sort out of some stash so some blog candy could be on the cards if there is still anybody out there!!!!!!