Feeling Lonely

Well I have sat here all day and not one sale, thanks to the big agricultual show at the Newark Showground today.   All roads into Newark were Jammed  and the lovely lady on the radio said do not go to Newark unless you really have to.  Thanks a lot
      I am in the middle of photographing my crafts stock and putting it on our new website www.giftsandpieces.co.uk  so that I can close down guardianangel crafts website.  Don't forget this blog will be renamed as well.
   Yesterday I was asked for a get well card for a man so I made two so that she could choose,  One I used my Serif Craft Artist package and the other I used a stamp and my promarker pens.

Sorry abouth the condition of the photos but not being technically minded I had took the photos on my phone yesterday .  So I posted the pictures from my phone to facebook  then went on facebook then saved the photos to my computer, I bet there are loads of people shouting out now the easy way to do it.
            I am also very proudof this teddy I crocheted

Changes are Coming

Hi
   It has been a very, very long time since my last blog but I have been very busy.   I now own with my daughter a gift/craft shop in Newark  and it has took all of my time up,  We are now in the January lull so I am now getting better organised.
    First off my daughter has set up a website offering website and blog designs and even though I say so myself she is very good.  www.bagglewebanddesigns.co.uk
    Abby designed our website www.giftsandpieces.co.uk which we are in the middle of putting all the shop stock on, also I will eventually be closing down my www.guardianangelcrafts.co.uk website and putting it all on gifts and pieces.
     The next job will be this blog page we will be changing the name to gifts and pieces and will be regular updates regarding my antics at work, and about all the new stock gifts and crafts.
    I am also on the look out for local crafters to hire out our craft room to teach their trade.  I already do cardmaking classes which are proving to be very popular.  We have One event booked in February a very talented lady from The Faff Room will be teaching how to make a lovely Bunny.
   Also lined up are Patchwork and Quilting classes.
Lastly in the shop we hire out shelves to local crafters we charge a monthly fee and nothing else.  There is a small waiting list so if anyone local toNewark is interested please let me know.
   I am getting known for my handcrafted cards and get a steady stream of orders.  This is my most recent one,  A difficult one because its for a MAN  from his wife for  their pearl anniversary.

Diet going well

If you have seen my previous blogs I have rejoined weight watchers  and everything is going well  I have lost a total of   36.5 lbs  still a long way to go, but already I am feeling healthier,

     The shop is beginning to get busier  and having lots of lovely chats to fellow crafters,  I have had a few special card orders and lots of my cards are selling.
    I have now got internet a the shop so I can get on with things  and then have the evening free to relax.  I have also took up crocheting again and have nearly finished the Teddy I am making
   
The other week I received a sample of some Neon pro markers to try and I have just had a quick go, and I love the colours.  Check out the Letraset website  here
 

               
   

Been absent for a long time but there is a good reason

Well I have not posted for a long time, but I have been very busy,  My daughter and I have opened a gift/craft shop in my local town Newark.  It has took a lot of planning, a lot of  worrying  but we have been open now for 4 weeks,  Today we finally got a visit from a BT engineer and have now got a phone line which means we can use  our card machine
    I have been taking a nice amount of card orders a couple of wedding stationery enquiries  and my stock of handcrafted cards have dwindled.
    In between serving, I make my cards and then if I have time I do some crocheting in the afternoon.  By the time I am home I am very tired but have loved my day

     I have not got a picture of a card but here is my shop.

                                                                                 

                                                                           

Finished decorating for a while

At last yesterday I finished doing all the glossing in the hall stairs and landing  and turning the bannister from a horrible mahogany varnish to pure white gloss.  I now just have to tidy the rest of the house and put away the paint tins ect  ,  do the ironing  then back to my card making
  Although I had my mother in laws birthday card to make for tomorrow and a silver wedding anniversary card for an order, so have had a pleasant morning
        I have a big craft fair that I am doing in a fortnight , it,s Southwells Folk Festival and runs from Friday afternoon until Monday night, I shall miss all the Festivities going on that weekend but hope to get my ipad working so I can watch on that,  I am also looking for someone to sleep under my table over night as they do not provide security  any one interested????  I will provide a sleeping bag and a flask of tea
   This is the Anniversary card,  I do love making Bookatrix cards
                                                   

                                                                 

                                                                         

Quickie Men Cards

Just lately I have had men family birthday cards to make, and as I have been a bit busy lately have left making the cards to last moment,  so out came my favourite cd rom of the moment  My Craft Studio, click Print and go
Not only is it quick and easy the finished card, I think looks great.
               So this is the latest card I made

                                                   

Also I am now on week 7 of my diet and I have lost 20lbs  so far,  so feeling very pleased with  myself,  still along way to go but finding the diet very easy to follow

 

Diet going well

I am on my 6th week now of my diet and up to now I have lost 1 stone and half a pound, I am so pleased but still have a long way to go.
    This week I have had a couple of friends birthdays , One was for a male friend so I had a look at my La Pashe cd rom and found the perfect one as he is into motorbikes in a big way,  I love this cd rom as there are a lot of quick and easy cards to make and they look really good when made up.

                                                                             
    The other birthday was for a good friend of mine and she is also a cardmaker,  for her I made a cup and saucer, and made a box for it to go into, the template I got from Tina fallon, a very talented person who I recently  became friends on facebook.

Don,t forget to look at my previous post as I am doing a giveaway

                                                                               

Not made a card I can show you, and GIVEAWAY

I havn't made a card I can show you for the past week, as excitedly I am on a design team  making a card  for a new cd rom.

So I thought I would put a photo I took in my garden last year, I am only a point and shoot photographer so was very pleased with this picture.

     Now for something else  a bit different,  I am going to do a giveaway as I only have 55 followers and would love to have more.  The difference is it's not card making related but something we all need to keep going, a MUG for our cup of tea,  I found this one and fell in love with it.

So please pass this around and hopefully if I reach over 100 followers I will pull a name out of a hat.

  Please leave a comment after this post and pass the word around

Thank You

                                                 

I don't just do cards

Last week I had an urge to make a candle, so looked at all the candle suppliers, read what to do, ordered the things I needed and here is my first ever teacup candle  it was so easy and couldn't wait to light it, which I did the next day.  It burnt for 7 hours and it is only a small cup.  The only thing I did wrong was not enough oil as I could hardly smell it.
      I haven't got any cards to show as I have been busy making samples for a new cd rom ,  so excited about that.
    Third week of my diet I lost another 3lb (Total 10lb) not bad as I went out for dinner in the week on my daughters birthday and just had to have some birthday cake.
   I had one easter egg and that was from my mum  and it is sitting on the sideboard it is going to give me more pleasure than eating it, my son who is nearly 21 loves chocolate and ever since he was young he ate all of his eggs (over 10)   then ate all of his sisters because she doesn't like chocolate, then he would eat the remainder of his younger sister's when she gets fed up of hers.  So why am I going to enjoy mine without eating it? I can here you asking,  well it is going to stay sitting there and it will drive Tom made  he will keep asking if he can have it and I will be saying no.    ha ha ha

                                                             

Daughters Birthday

Thursday was my daughters 19th Birthday  and this is the card I made for her,  I bought the stamp ages ago and have never used it.  I also had a cake to make she showed me a picture of what she wanted  and I added a bit more.
   My second weigh in at weight watchers went well 3lb lost that a total of 7lb in two weeks.

Don't think it will be as good next week as we went out to dinner and I was forced into having a piece of the birthday cake

                                                                               

First weigh in

Well I have been to my first weigh in at Weightwatchers and have lost 4lb  so pleased with that start.  Yesterday I realized I hadn't done the two retirement cards I need for the end of the week, one for my brother who retires end of this week (I think its early retirement due to the government cuts He has worked for the REME since he was 16 and they have drastically cut his pension.  So he is now job hunting.  The other card my hubby asked me to make for a workmate who retires on Friday and when he asked me I thought I had  loads of time.

  I got out my La Pashe, The Big One cd  and this is what I came up with. I have only took a photo of one of them as I forgot and my brothers is sealed in an envelope ready to go to the post office for a large stamp,  But its the same man as this one but he is in the kitchen with a pinny on, a duster in one hand and a pint in the other

Sorry picture not as good as I had to take it quickly before it went

Mothers Day cards

These are the cards that I made for my mum, my mother in law and my daughters boyfriends mum's card, which reminds me she said she would pay for it.  I bought the new Click, Print, GO cd rom from My Craft Studio and I love it, for a card you need to make in a hurry this is perfect and Very effective.
 

My diet I think is going well, will find out wednesday,  not cheated once.

Today I have spent the day ironing and cleaning downstairs then tomorrow its bathrooms and upstairs I wish I could still do it in one day then rest of week is mine to craft, I have some samples to make and craft room needs a bit of a tidy first.

I am also thinking of doing a giveaway to attract some new followers  so watch this space

Week One, Day One

At last got my courage together and took myself to a Weightwatchers Meeting, I'm a lapsed lifetime member, and can't remember how many times I have rejoined, but this time I am staying till I am happy with my weight, not the weight I was in my twenties but a weight so I can wear some nice clothes again.  I checked on the website to see where the meetings were and picked one that had a leader I hadn't seen before.
   So Week one Day one porridge for breakfast then a trip to Morrisons for some weightwatchers meals, to make it easier because I still have a daughter and a son and a husband to feed and they are all fussy eaters, so they can keep having the same meals and I will have my dinner at lunch time.
   Now I have told the world (well whoever follows my blog) I will have to keep it up.  The eating is easy but No wine in the evening, I think I better get the daylight bulb for my craft room so I can keep crafting in the evening to keep my mind off having a glass.
     I have had a few family birthday cards to do this week, so havn't made a card just to make for fun so this afternoon that's what I will be doing although I have some sample cards to make for someone who is designing a new cd rom  ,   so excited.

      So not a card picture but one of myself  this is me now,  I am going to put on a new picture of me every month so I can see any difference and will make me keep to the diet (sorry not a diet, but healthy eating)
  Looking at this may treat myself to a new hairdo!!!!!!
  Sorry about this post but it just had to be done
  May have a card later today

Friends Birthday Card

It was my friends birthday last week on the same day as my Husbands so two very important cards to make, although my friends card I feel is most important of the two, as she has most of the cards I have given her framed and left out all year.

  Unfortunatly I forgot to  take a picture of her card but I had made two then decided which one to give her this is the one I didn't give her.
       I used a stamp that I had just bought and coloured with pro markers, the backing paper was from a free pack from a magazine added a little glitter and a nice friend verse.













My husbands card I printed a digi stamp from Just Inklined called Aubery and coloured with pro markers

 
 The rest of the week I need to finish an order I have for invites for a joint 18th birthday and 20th weding Anniversary

Send a friend a cup of tea

I've been busy this week, I have an order for some party invites which I am doing as a gift, also I have made up some little cards with a tea bag in them, the idea is that you send them to a friend or relative who you don't see very often and ask them to have a cup of tea and think of you and that you are thinking of them.
 I have already sold two although one was to my mum and the other to a friend,  I have one on ebay and later today I will be putting them on my website.

    I am having a busy day as I have a lot of photos to take and put on my gift website,  and half the day has already gone and not much has been done.   I have for the last hour been looking for my charger for the battery in my camera. I obviously have put it somewhere safe although I think someone comes in at night and hides things.

                                                                           

Having a Lazy Day

Today I am having a lazy day,  I have unloaded the dishwasher and put more pots in it, I have folded up the dry clothes off the airer and empted the washing machine and put them on the airer, I have put a new load of washing in the washing machine, I have tidied the kitchen then tidied the bathroom as 3 of my daughters friends are coming round to get ready for a big night, they are off to Nottingham to go to The  Wanted concert.  I have paid a couple of bills on the internet.
  Well it's sort of a lazy day.   I am going to spend the rest of the afternoon putting new stock on my gift website, www.giftsandpieces.co..uk 
      This is the card I made for my sisters birthday using a stamp I have had for a while but not used it yet, coloured with pro markers.

I have took this picture with a camera I have bought off my daughter it takes much better photos specially set on auto and I have now sorted out putting a watermark on my photos as well

                                                                                   

Husbands Valentine Card

Today I have made Hubbys valentine card, it's alright to show it on here as he doesn't Facebook, Twitter or look at Blogs.
  I have yet again used a Teddy Bo image and coloured with my Pro Markers I really need to get some more colours.  I have used a Buzzcraft backing paper which I have also made the flowers with.
       I've also applied today to a DT call thats 3 now that I am waiting to here on,  but there are so many people out there so much better than me.
       Any way here is my card today which I am entering into the Teddy Bo challenge.
     

                                                                             

Watermark problems

I was going to do such a lot today, my daughter has sold me her camera as she has just bought a fantastic new one, I have photographed a few cards and some new stock for my gifts website www.giftsandpieces.co.uk

     Well I downloaded the pictures to my computer then tried to find a free program to put a watermark on my cards,  I,ve now tried two programs and just can't get the hang of it, I also have a problem that I have been trying to sort out for weeks,

  When I try to open a document it tries to open with Internet Explorer and I have Google chrome as my prefferd site the screen just keeps flashing and I have to close the computer down  to get out of it,  I have looked at everything and cannot sort it out.

    So I give up,    any way here are the recent cards that I have made this week, using decoupage sheets that I have had for awhile, I really must use what I already have before buying anything else, also I  am wondering whether to buy a new die cutting machine  I have the original cuttlebug which is great but would love a bigger machine.
   Here are my non watermarked cards

                                                 

                                                                             

A Card for mum,s birthday

Today I put most of my christmas stuff away just leaving about a dozen decoupaged toppers ready to make into cards, all the papers and card I need have been chosen and left in a pile as well.
   So today is my first birthday card I have made this year and it's for my mum's birthday tomorrow.
I have used one of Teddy Bo's new digi stamps  and the paper was from a free pad of paper in a magazine,  I love making flowers with the same paper that I have used on the card.

    I also made a bookmark for her as we can't get her to agree to a Kindle which I think is the best thing since sliced bread.

      That all done I have come downstairs to sit in front of the gas fire as I am frozen ,  most of our radiaters don't work and for the past 2 years hubby has said he will mend it in the summer that's the same as when a job needs doing in the house he says he will do it at the weekend, trouble is he never says which weekend he means.