Some Good News!

Afternoon all! Well the snow has finally caught up with us down in the South! We've got about 5 inches here, but it appears to have stopped now which is good because the original forecast was that it would be in for the day.

After the doom and gloom of my last post, it's nice to be able to share some good news for a change.  I have been chosen to be part of the Teddy Stampers Design Team for the first term of 2011!  This opportunity came at the right time with the sad news that the Just Cute Bears & Friends Challenge is to close.

I'm really looking forward to working with this amazing team and the fact that I can continue to use my lovely teddy stamps!

Thank you for all the lovely comments you posted after my last post, they really did mean a lot to me.

Please take care everyone and thank you for stopping by.  I really do appreciate all the support you continue to give me.

xx :0)

An Explanation and apology

I think I need to explain the reasons for my lack of crafting & blogging just recently.  There have been a few things going on that I have been struggling with and instead of crafting to relax & forget, I have been letting it all get me down.

I work for Natural England which is part of DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs).  As the majority of you will know, the Government have announced a number of cuts to reduce the country's debt, one of which is the cut of around 500,000 public sector jobs.  Natural England, as part of this review, announced that they would be reducing the number of offices around the country and, unfortunately, Reading appears to be one of those offices that are due to close.  The work of the team that my husband and I are part of means that unlike a number of our other colleagues, we cannot work from home.  At the moment, the latest we will be in work could be until 2014.  This may sound a long time but it is dependent on a number of factors including how many people decided to take voluntary redundancy now.  This is also being affected by the Government who are trying to change our accrued rights.  For me this isn't such a major issue as I have worked there 14 years so do not reach the maximum of 21 months (1 month for each year worked), but for my husband, these changes will mean that he will lose out on another 8 months money as he will have worked 29 years next month.  We do not want to take the redundancy, we want to work it out in the hope that things may change as 3 years is a long time in politics. However if things go against us, we could find ourselves out of work sooner and also potentially only on 12 months redundancy.

That is just of the things that has been troubling me.  The other is problems with my back/spine.  As a child I was diagnosed with Scoliosis (curvature of the spine).  I have a double curve.  I had spinal fusion at the age of 13 to help reduce this.  At the age of 25 I  had to have the rods removed from my spine as they had started to move.  Last Christmas, I had a fall in the snow and have been in pain ever since.  After 4 months, I went to the doctors as I was having pain down my leg. After an MRI scan I was told that the 2 remaining discs at the base of my spine had started to degenerate and one was bulging and pinching the nerves.  I had a nerve block into the spine 6 weeks ago where they also said that it looked like I have arthritis around some of the joints.  Yesterday I went back to the hospital.  The nerve block didn't really work as I am only getting maybe 2 days at the most without pain.  After telling me I had a choice over what was to happen next, I found myself being pushed down the route of a different type of injection (apparently I'm in no hurry according to the doc - let him say that after a year of pain!), so I am now back on a waiting list!

This has all been getting be down and I hate to say it but I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself including my crafting ability.  I entered the Cardmaker of the Year competition this year and didn't win anything, but one of my cards did get chosen for a High Commendation. You can find it here if you scroll right down to the bottom, I'm the 4th row down and the final one in the row.

I will show everything at a later date if that is okay.  I'm doing a Christmas fayre at the local primary school on Friday so have been a bit panicky about everything as I'm trying to make gifts more than cards!

If you're still here, sorry about the rant but thank you for staying with me, it is much appreciated.  I know I've said it the last 2 years, but I do aim to be a better crafter next year, I think I need to be for my sanity!!

xx

Winter Wishes

Evening all! I don't know what it's like where you are, but it's freezing here!!  We've luckily not had any snow, but when I got to work this morning, my pc was saying that it was -7 outside! Brrr!

I wanted to make a card this week, well more than 1 but I only managed it this evening.  I wanted to enter the Wild Rose Studio Blog hop as I love the Milton Bear stamps and wanted to use one of the new stamps I purchased at the NEC.  Dawny P has supplied one of her amazing sketches for the blog hop that was crying out to be used.

I've used Milton in Hat and coloured him with Copics and glittered with glamour dust before cutting and mounting onto SU Real Red CS.  The base is made up of the CS and DP from Forever Friends and then a smaller mat of CS and an embossed layer using the snowflakes CB embossing folder.  I've finished off with a CWC sentiment oval and some gems.

 I apologise for the photos, I will try and take again tomorrow morning when there is daylight!  I've attached a close up of little Milton.

As mentioned before, this card is for the Wild Rose Studio blog hop.  Closing date for entries is 1pm tomorrow so you need to be quick!

I am also entering this into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - Blast from the Past - I've gone for Challenge 86 Glitter Me Silly
Christmas Stampin - Anything Goes
Alphabet Challenge - E for Embossing
ABC Christmas Challenge - X For Xmas (I didn't do the optional extra of flowers)
Craft Creations - Christmas is Coming
Simon Says Stamp - Let it Snow
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.  I hope you have a lovely weekend, I'm attempting to make my Christmas cake tomorrow so wish me luck!!

xx :0)

Belated NEC Piccies

Morning everyone, don't you think Monday's come round really quickly?!  No sooner are you starting to enjoy your weekend then you find yourself back at your desk.

Because of reasons mentioned earlier, it's taken me until now to post piccies of the goodies I picked up at the NEC.  I think my best bargains were my Martha Stewart Punches which were at amazing prices.

 I was really happy to get my hands on the cute Snowy PB stamp as I've been after it for so long!  There's also some adorable Milton Stamps and LOTV rubbah!

 After seeing the gorgeous creations  of Ali, Annie & Sonia using Toby Tumbles, I couldn't pass by the Cuddly Buddly Stand and not add them to my HUGE stamp collection!  I also picked up some of the great LOTV card packs which will be perfect for those quick cards we all have to make.  I got a few aimed at the boys in our lives as I do struggle with those cards.

I did also pick up some yummy snow pearl CS, quick card kits and a great deal on the extra strong DST we
all need and love!

Hopefully you'll see some cards from using these goodies in the not too distant future!

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they 're greatly appreciated.

xx

Just Cute Bears #40 - Winter Birthday

Good morning, I hope you're having a lovely weekend so far.  I would like to start off by offering an apology to everyone for not having visited your creations for the last challenge, or anyone's blogs for the past few weeks.  I don't want to go into detail, but I've been having a tough time emotionally and personally just recently and have been struggling.  I'm doing my best to turn it round and hope to have more creations to show really soon and be back in blogland.

This weeks challenge at Just Cute Bears and Friends is to create something for a wintery birthday. 

I have used some of my gorgeous Forever Friends decoupage that in theory is for Christmas but is perfect for birthday's and have jazzed it up a bit with some Silver Spray & Sparkle.  The CS is Cherry Cobbler from SU! which I got from the lovely Jules.  The papers are part of the decoupage set and the punched element is from a Martha Stewart PATP set.  I finished off with some card candy in opposing corners and a CWC oval sentiment.



Don't you just think that is beautiful bunch of flowers?!  I've added close up so you can see a bit of the sparkle.

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

Cute Card Thursday - Sketch
Stampin for the Weekend - Winter

Please check out all the girls amazing creations.  I hope that you will join us for this challenge as I do love seeing everyone's interpretations and creations.

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave as they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)



Just Cute Bears & Friends #39 - Black, White and One Other

Good morning all, sorry I'm late posting my card this morning!  I have to admit I was making after an amazing trip to the NEC and was so tired that I feel asleep on the sofa before writing up my post!  I got to meet the amazing, Sonia, Jacqui and Bev but was sorry to miss meeting my lovely teamie Cathy.  It was so busy there, it's the first time I've been on a Saturday or to the November shows.  I think I will definitely choose a different day next time!

Anyway, enough chit chat, that's not why you've stopped by!  It was great to see so many of you take part in the last challenge, you all loved Helen's sketch as much as we did.  This weeks Just Cute Bears &  Friends challenge is Black, White and one other colour of your choice.  My first thought was red and I think a number of the girlies had the same idea!

I did have to change direction with my card as I was going to use a DP from my pc but my poor cat had a little accident on my printer, so I've had to go with an embossed background instead. although it doesn't seem to show up so well in the photo as I was using pearlescent cardstock.

I decided against colouring my bear in partly because to me Forever Friends bears are only one colour but the other reason was I thought it made the rose stand out more and give a striking effect.  The rose has been coloured in with a spica pen over the copics.  I used my new (purchased yesterday!) MS deep edge punch!  Great effect, pain to stick down!  The roses have also been spritzed with Pearl Glimmer Mist which I also purchased yesterday.  I finished off with some red gems on the punched centres and at the bottom of the card.

Please check out the rest of the girls cards, they are just stunning this week.  I hope you'll take part.

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

First Cricut Creations!

Sorry for the quick post, I just wanted to show a couple of photos of my first Cricut creations!

I made these cute little gift bags for Halloween and gave them to some colleagues at work for their children/grandchildren. 

The  bag and the scalloped circle were both cut out and the DP paper is from and old Daisy and Dandelion pad. The image and sentiment is from an Elzybells set I purchased last year.

They were filled with some Halloween chocs.  If I'd had more time (and orange/black CS) I'd have made some more and sold them at work as I did quite well last year with it.  However as there were only 5, I wanted to give them as gifts to people and showcase what I can do.

Hope you like!

xx :0)