Teenage boys...

Can you believe that it's taken me about 4 days to get around to writing up a blog post? Every time I've sat with the laptop I seem to have got distracted onto something else, or not even had chance to put the laptop on! It's been 'one of those weeks', with a never-ending list of things to do either at work or home, and definitely not enough hours to get them all done! And then when I have finally collapsed into a heap on the sofa in the evening I've not really had the mental capacity to put a post together!  Some evenings, it's just enough to relax, with a hot mug of tea and some yarn & a crochet hook!  I thought this evening was going the same way when I'd just sat down and my son arrived home with about 5 of his friends - and much as I love to see them all, on a Friday evening it's just nice to have a bit of quiet down-time!

Anyway, I hope that your week has been a little less chaotic than mine - and you've had some crafty time too.  I've been very pleased to get a few orders in lately for cards to order, and it's always nice to think that people like my cards!  This one was made for an order, for someone's teenage son - and if I ever need an image for a teenager then I always look first at Mo Manning and her fabulous digi stamps!

I love this image - and it looks like so many teenage boys that I see (and trust me, I see a LOT of boys being the current owner of a teenage boy and working at a boys school lol!) - permanently plugged in to headphones and a mobile phone! 

I've coloured the image with my usual mix of copics, promarkers and graphit pens. The papers and sentiment stamp are from LOTV, and I've added some seam binding, bakers twine and steel grey brads.

I hope you like it! 

I'm looking forward to the weekend - a couple of cards to make for orders and then, hopefully, a day out on Sunday to visit my eldest stepdaughter and her partner in Shropshire!  And perhaps some time to relax! 

Back soon,

Kim x 

Cute Christmas Penguins!

Hello all, I hope that your week has been going well.  Thank you for all your lovely comments and your get well wishes about the migraines. I've not been too bad the last few days - so keeping my fingers crossed!  And I was pleased you liked the details about Knitted Knockers! I've been busy crocheting and hoping that I can soon meet the standards required.  But it's nice to spread the word to the many women who can benefit from the 'knockers' supplied by the charity - they are only made with 100% cotton yarn and are so soft. I'll let you know how I get on!

But I've also been busy adding to the Christmas card stash (although I use that word loosely - I'm not sure that 10 or so cards counts as a 'stash' haha!).  This card was made with the new trios from LOTV

These are such cute penguin images - and lovely to colour. I've added some liquid pearl drops and glamour dust

The paper and sentiment stamp are also from LOTV with some ribbon and charm from stash.

Hope you like this little cutie! 

I'm so pleased it's Friday tomorrow - it's been another busy week (at work and home!). Youngest is now taking his driving lessons (which I try not to think about - even though he's loving them!), and work is the usual busy-busy! I'm just hoping for a relaxing - and migraine-free! - weekend! I hope you enjoy your weekend whatever you have planned.

Back soon,

Kim x 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:-

Aud Sentiments Challenge - christmas + sentiment

Crafty Girls Creations - anything goes

FabnFunky - anything Christmas

New stamps..... and Knitted Knockers!

Hello all, I can't believe that another week has flown past and that it's Sunday evening again! I hope that you've been having a good week and weekend and plenty of crafting time too. I've been doing some crafting when I can, but have been plagued by headaches and a couple of horrible migraines this week - and a really stinky one from Friday night and all day yesterday.  That makes me even more resentful because I missed a whole day of my weekend lol!  But thankfully feeling a bit better today, even if a bit 'washed out', but I think another visit to the doctor might be in order to see if there's anything I can do.

Anyway, less of my moaning! I did treat myself last week to a couple of sets of the 'trio' stamps from LOTV, including a couple of the new Christmas ones which are sooo cute!  But this card was made with the very sweet teddies trio

The papers and stamps are from LOTV, and the sentiment ticket stamps are from Whimsy. I've coloured the teddies with copics and the die cut flowers were made with a Britannia die

Hope you like it! 

And you all know how much I love my crocheting (addicted to it is probably more honest), and I’m thrilled to be able to try using it for a brilliant cause.  A while ago I heard about a fantastic charity via the Joanna Sheen forum where I’ve been a ‘lurker’ for many years. And recently I volunteered my services –so I am currently working on knockers to become authorised to order board status for ‘Knitted Knockers UK’ and I’m hoping that soon my work can meet the standards required.  This is a wonderful charity that helps women who’ve had a mastectomy or lumpectomy, with gorgeously soft knitted or crocheted ‘prosthesis’ free of charge and the link to their website is HERE.  Do take a look if you’ve got chance – and help spread the word about the great work that they do. There is a fantastic team of talented ladies who volunteer lots of their time and skills in making the knockers and all support is welcome!  And it’s great to be able to spread the word about the Knitted Knockers to those many, many women who would benefit from their services. 

I'll keep you informed as to how I get on! 

I hope that you have a good week ahead - whatever you have planned. 

Back soon,

Kim x

Keeping busy (very!)

Hello all and I hope that you've had a good week - and that your weekend has been going well. It's been our usual busy one at home, with work, crafting and family life in general! I just thought I'd settle down yesterday afternoon to do some crafting as I had the house to myself (quite a rare occurrence) - I managed about an hour of colouring then got a text from darling son to say "is it ok if a few of us come back to ours for a bit?".  It ended up with having 7 teenagers (boys and girls!) lounging around the garden and conservatory, music playing and lots of chatter!  They'd all been to watch a rugby match at school and then ended up back at ours. But I'm not complaining really - I know only too well that in the blink of an eye there won't be any teenagers at home and then I'll really miss it! But the crafting came to a bit of a halt so I'll try and get some done this week!

I just thought I'd share a couple of the 'quick' cards that I made to restock the cardbox at home - those LOTV sentiment stamps are sooo handy for that!

This is using Kanban papers that I had in my stash, with some gold card for matting, and some lovely chunky buttons from the button box! 

This one uses LOTV papers with some lace and pearls. The metal flower embellishment was a stash find in a little craft shop when we were away in the summer! 

And the crocheting has still been underway - with a new baby blanket completed and added to the Etsy shop! 

I love the blue shades in this - and it's very soft and snuggly!  And I'm enjoying having the Etsy store - and was very pleased to get an order for a card from the US! Someone must have really liked my card and that is such a huge compliment!  Do take a look if you get chance HERE. 

I hope that the week ahead is a good one for you,

Back soon,

Kim x 

All sorts of recipes...

Hello all and I hope that you've had a good week - and I can't believe our weekend is nearly over again. It's just not fair that weekends seems to pass so quickly!

We've had a busy week and our youngest enjoyed his 17th birthday on Wednesday (despite having to be at school!) - and some of his friends were here to help him celebrate in the evening over pizzas!

I've been trying to make a few cards to top up the 'card box' that we have at home (and that occasionally gets taken into work by request when people need a card or two!).  Much as I love taking time over colouring stamped or digi images, sometimes time just doesn't allow, so I've been making a few that are a little quicker to finish - although I'm hoping they don't look 'rushed'!  I thought I'd share a birthday card and a Christmas card with you that I think look quite sweet, even though they don't have a coloured image!

The first one is a birthday card using an LOTV 'birthday recipe' stamp

The papers are also from LOTV. I've used buttons and twine from stash and a wooden star which I've stamped with a sentiment. Quite a simple card, and I think it's the colours I like! 

And a Christmas card using the LOTV 'Christmas recipe' stamps

I've added a touch of colour to the holly leaves, the papers are from LOTV and I've added a Britannia die poinsettia and Signature die holly leaves.

As I said, I think they are fairly simple but I think they work ok. 

I'll share some of the other 'card box' contributions this week! 

And I apologise for being a bit of a rubbish blogger just lately - I will make a concerted effort to catch up with everyone's crafting this week! 

Back soon,

Kim x

Special Birthdays....

Hello all and I hope that you've all had a good week, and an enjoyable weekend (even though it seems a long time ago now!).  We had a lovely Sunday evening, with some friends and some of my son Jack's friends here for a BBQ - making the most of the fine weather and just to mark his birthday. Tomorrow will be his 17th Birthday! I still can't quite get my head around the fact that my 'baby', the youngest of the family, is going to be 17 - although when I gaze upwards at all 6' plus of him it does remind me that he is growing up!  He's excited about the thought of starting driving lessons (which is his birthday present!) - and I've promised to warn our friends when he's on the road lol!  And I know that my view is a bit biased, but he's turning into a lovely young man - with a very sharp sense of humour!  We feel very, very blessed and proud of our gang - they've all turned into lovely people!

Anyway, thinking about birthdays, a friend had asked if I could make a birthday card for her daughter as she is celebrating her 18th so I came up with this one

I've used a Wee Stamps digi stamp - and I am so missing these digi stamps! I dearly hope that Sylvia Zett is soon able to sell her gorgeous digi stamps online again! 

I've coloured the image with copics and a touch of pencil.  The papers are from LOTV. I've added a die cut heart (from Memory Box), lettering from AllOccasions and Britannia die cut flowers.

Hope you like it. 

Back soon,

Kim x 

Little Christmas tree!

Hello all - I can't believe that it's nearly a week since my last post! Where does the time go? The last week of my school holidays has just flown by at breakneck speed and we are now back at school and back into routine.  And, with a certain predictability, chaos has broken out in our office at school as a new school year begins!  There are so many jobs to do, and it takes a while to get back up to full running speed - but at least it keeps me out of mischief!  Our daughter Lauren landed back in the UK this morning after having a fabulous time in New York for the past week, seeing all the sights and loving all things American!  And our son Jack landed back at home on Monday afternoon after spending 5 nights camping at the Leeds Festival with a whole group of his friends and they'd had a great time - and he was especially pleased to have a long hot bath, a big hot meal and an early night in a comfy clean bed lol!

Anyway, less of my waffle, and time to share another Christmas card with you (I must be on something of a roll with these....!)

Yet again I've made good use of my stash of LOTV stamps, sentiment stamps and papers!  I've coloured the cute image with copics and Graphit pens and added a good sprinkle of Glamour Dust

I've added some distress inks, gingham ribbon, a snowflake charm and used the Memory Box 'precious bells' die. 

Hope you like it! 

I'm going to try and keep up the good work of making the Christmas cards (in between all the other crafty projects that are on the go!) - once I've recovered from the 'back to school' bombshell! 

Back soon,

Kim x