I KNOW....

Sorry guys...I know I need to update my VERY neglected blog but sometimes the truth is I can't muster up the enthusiasm to do it....I promise I will try very hard over the next week to do it....xxx

BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY....

If you fancy some of this.....get yourself over to The Artful Splodger.....she is having a shop opening giveaway and if you don't win you could always have a wee look in her new shop...

RANDOMS....FROM SARAH'S BLOG....I LIKE IT

Was just having a browse on Sarah's blog a wee minute ago and thought this was a fun one to join in with...why not give it a go yourself!!!!

LISTENING TO Take That...can't wait to see them..10 weeks tomorrow(not that I am counting or anything..lol)

EATING nothing at the moment - not had any tea yet and wondering what there is to eat

DRINKING Schweppes Russian Tonic with lime...yumm

WEARING jeans, grey t-shirt, grey boyfriend cardigan with my big thick gray cardigan over the top(just been to pick the girls up from dancing) and a pink scarf

FEELING overwhelmed by life sometimes just now (4 kids does that to you sometimes!)

WEATHER was so so today but is now raining

WANTING a holiday in the sun

NEEDING a holiday in the sun!!!

THINKING this time last year we were in Tenerife!!

ENJOYING my kids being happy doing their football, dancing, etc

WONDERING if Allan REALLY will be home tomorrow(only been home for 12 days in the last 8 weeks!)

READING The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stiegg Larsson and thoroughly enjoying it - can't wait to start the 3rd one in the trilogy

PHOTO THAT MAKES ME SMILE

So there we have it...the last two I added in.....The whole thing made me smile...Thanks Sarah...x

SHE ART WORKSHOP...

Not only have I been a very bad blogger these last few weeks I have also failed miserably with She Art....and only managed one canvas so far despite the fact that I have done six backgrounds...rubbish I know....I am hoping to rectify that this next week or so....

Lots of lovely random stamping and rub-ons...

Adding lace and ribbon for the touchy feely effect...love it!!!

Now has pride of place in the archway into the kitchen....hopefully get caught up soon....

Kirsti xx

THE BUNTING...

Got the photos just before the rain came tipping down...OMG it's bucketing now...hope it doesn't turn to SNOW!!!!

This is some more of my blanks...covered 3 with Cath Kidston notepaper and two are painted red and some lovely antique white dots added....not much else to say really as it speaks for it's self...it's now in the shop...am considering doing personalised bunting...any thoughts greatly appreciated!!!

NEW THINGS IN THE SHOP

Some new things in the shop this week....

These two little owl cards I found in an old copy of the CARDS magazine and I thought it was cute so I did one each way...The patterned paper is a border cut using the Cricut and stretched...

Trying to use up older blanks I have in my storage boxes....these are so wee and dinky...

More using up stash....and some machine stitching...I am definitely getting better at that...

This came from an idea from RedLead(love their style)...I used the Cricut to cut the house shape from a piece of mountboard...not easy as it doesn't cut right through even with the deepcut blade(I think mine is broken tho as it kept going veering of so I changed back to the normal blade and just used a scalpel to cut through...) I had to cheat with the E as I didn't have any left so it's actually an F with the 'dot' (which is a square) from an exclamation mark and taped it on and then covered with patterned paper...There is also some more machine stitching on this one - zig-zag this time...getting braver...lol and the flower is a left over from another project...lots of upcycled pieces in here...

That's it today...Got some bunting that I need to string together and photograph but it's a little windy outside for pics so might not get that done today...I heard there is snow forecast for tomorrow so maybe not then either:0(

NEW CHALLENGE...

So there is a new Mood Board Challenge over at Simply Create.... Here's what Jacqui has to say... So for a long time I haven't had time to play but tonight's the night, I am in the mood for a challenge so I thought maybe you would be too, so you've guessed it another £100 of goodies up for grabs and maybe some little prizes thrown in too....make something using the colours from the inspiration board below and include a flower and a button in your project somewhere. So here's another one of those gorgeous inspiration boards: All I ask is that you leave a comment, become a member of the blog and link to the challenge on your side bar. I will announce the winner on the 30th March so have fun and can't wait to see all of your gorgeous creations. So why not pop over and have a go...you have to be 'in it to win it' as they say....

SHE ART WORKSHOP...

On Monday the She Art Workshop started and I was so excited....I hummed and haaaed about signing up as I am really bad at doing this and then not following through with them but I REALLY liked the look of this one....Christy is doing another one sometime in April so why not check it out....

Anyway we started on Monday with painting up and layering backgrounds on canvases which I am loving and suddenly seem to have got the hang of...

This one is direct to canvas using a stencil and some spray inks and a little paint and some bubble wrap and sequin waist...I also used a roller stamp over it in places...

This one is another direct to canvas using one of the kids ABC stencils and some spray ink...I toned down the green edges by rubbing some antique white paint (which was almost dry) into it and then added a mask and some pink spray ink...and down below another mask with blue and some more of the roller stamps randomly done...

This one has some old book pages, music pages, the postage sticker that came on a parcel that morning and a doilly...then some blue paint with yellow added thru sequin waste and bubble wrap with a bit of blue reverse sequin waste thrown in for good measure and some more random stamping...I love the way the whole stamp doesn't show up because canvas pushes down when you stamp being a softer surface if that makes sense???

This I think is my favourite..I scoured every charity shop in Inverurie looking for old dressmaking patterns to no avail so ended up buy one from the sewing shop...I covered pretty much the whole canvas and left all the wrinkles and then splodged green and blue paint all over, then more sequin waste and stencils...I love this one!!

This one has patterned papers and a piece of one of the girls old t-shirts on the bottom left all glued on using Mod Podge, then stencilled and stamped and I have even added some Glittered Mod Podge which you can't see in the picture but looks great IRL...(I only have a point and shoot camera and even if I did have really good one I wouldn't know how to use it...lol..)The colours are also way more vibrant IRL...I added some flowers which I just used my finger and some paint to do circles and then doodled round with a pen but I did that after taking the pics...

and last of all is this one...the patterns on here are the waste ink from the reverse of the stencils (wast not want not!!)...some of it pooled so I blew on it really hard to spread it..I like it as its wee and dinky - only 4" x 4" and the stamp in the corner is one of my all time favourites....

That's me for today, once I have cleaned the floors and had my shower (been for a 6 mile walk this morning) I was hoping to get at least one girl done but I won't have time now before school so will have to wait til after kids are in bed...

BLOG AWARDS....

I have been a very poor blogger this week...just haven't had the inclination...but here I am on Sunday filling in a bit of time before picking Libby up from extra dance practice (Modern exam coming up) and giving them a quick lunch before dropping Ellie of for her extra dance practice...

Last week I received THREE blog awards so I thought it was about time I passed them on...

The first two were from Sonja and Erika...

So I have to tell you 8 interesting facts about myself which may be tricky as I am not sure they are that interesting...

1. I took up crafting properly just over 9 years when I found out how much wedding invitations cost and decided to do my own

2. I used to be able to sit on my hair it was so long

3. I have been with Allan for 21 years at the end of March

4. Morgan and Ellie (my first two children) have the same birthday one year apart and there is only 9 minutes between their birth times

5. I love 'proper' coffee/cappuccino/latte, etc but the smell of instant coffee makes me want to throw up

6. I did the Moon Walk 4 years ago in 6 hours and 50 minutes

7. I went to see Bryan Adams in concert when I was 7 1/2 months pregnant and was right at the front

8. I wish i had more self confidence and belief in myself...

So that's that bit done...now i have to pass it on to 7 people who inspire me...

1. Christy Thomlinson 2. Ponderings 3. Red Lead 4. Unity Stamp Co 5. Paper Turtle 6. LilyBean's Paperie 7. ReVamp

I know most of these are commercial blogs but the do inspire me and that's what the award is all about...

The next one I received was from Susan...

and I am passing this one onto.....

Sonja...we have very similar taste in craft although there is a lot that I like but she doesn't and vice versa

Kath...I love her very inspired cards

Anne...her sewing skills are fabulous

Judy...her cards never cease to amaze me and for some reason we have this uncanny knack of coming up with the same ideas at the same time

Darcy...I like the fact she has her own style and isn't afraid to use it..Pencils through her ear springs to mind...lol

Kate...I wish I could lay down colour as good as she can...

So that's it for now...I do have some crafty stuff to show but not done photos yet as the light has been so poor these last few days (what am I talking about it's been the last few months!!!)...it has been constantly pouring with rain and dull and overcast...

Thank you to all the ladies who left me these awards....xxx

VINTAGE STYLE SEWING NOTEPAD

A little altered shoppers notepad...I love taking these really cheap little boring notepads and making them into something a little bit special... The papers are by....I can't remember...but are the same ones I used to make my paper wreath which must have been pre-blogging days as I this is the only reference I can find to it!!! Think they might be Kay and Co (double sided)... The dressmakers form and sentiments are Hero Arts...

the seam bind is from Prairie Bird Boutique...I have just ordered the Marie Antoinette and the Victorian Beauty bundles as it's so lush...

I ventured into stitching it all together and am quite pleased with how it turned out...I can see the sewing machine being used a lot more in the future...anyway I have just added this to my Etsy shop...

Thanks for looking...
Kirsti xx

SIMPLY CREATE CHALLENGE...

If you hop on over to Simply Create you will notice that they have a fab challenge going on at the moment with 100 pounds of stash up for grabs...and if you hurry you still have time to enter...closing date is 14th February...

This is my entry...
I used an SVG template from Dan99 for the Cricut and cut out this gorgeous wee house...it is actually a Christmas house in his description but I have made it a lovely Spring house for my project....

I used some cardstock from a pad by We R Memory Keepers that I picked up in TK MAXX last weekend for about 7 pounds...there are some gorgeous colours in it and it has a white core so is ideal for distressing...

I overstamped the house shape with the Tim Holtz brick stamp and then punched out some mini flowers and drew on the stems...

The roof is actually a piece of the blue cardstock but I coloured it with brown ink and then ran through the Big Shot with the woodgrain texture plate(borrowed from Sonja) and the eaves are made using the Scallop punch from Stampin' Up...

The butterfly is one I had left over from a couple of cards I made last week...It is a digi one from Hero Arts that I have had my eye on in the 'real life' set but wasn't so keen on the rest of the pack so bought this one instead...

Thanks for looking....

Kirsti xx

BIRTHDAY INVITATIONS...

The other week my friend Gaynor asked me if I would do some invitations for Layton's 5th birthday using the photographs from the Christmas cards she had left over...

She wanted them done on the same card as I had used for Niamh's birthday invites last year but I didn't have any left so I dug into my precious Stampin' Up 12"x12" Kraft card that I have been stroking for about 8 months now...I was really annoyed with myself tho as I wasted about 4 or 5 sheets between a cutting error and my printer not playing nicely...was really not a happy bunny as I hate waste!!!

Anyway this is what I came up with and Gaynor was so pleased with them...I started by printing the wording out(very stressful!) and then I cropped the photo from the old Christmas cards and used an EK Success punch to edge the bottom of them. I rounded all the corners and used the Tim Holtz splatter type stamp round then edges in Chocolate Chip by Stampin' Up and then stuck the photo on...I was really pleased how they turned out(I have deleted the date and contact details for obvious reasons!)...

I am getting quite a few orders through word of mouth at the moment so I am pondering whether having the Etsy shop is a good idea just now...I keep adding bits and pieces but not really selling anything...I have also been considering changing to Folksy since it is a British forum and I do think people are put of with Etsy being in $s even tho you can view in your own currency...What do you think? Does it put you of buying?

That's all for today...
Kirsti xxx