Blog candy at Going Buggy

I recently discovered a great blog called 'Going Buggy'

It is a very inspirational blog and Enfys the lady who writes it is also very funny.

Today to celebrate 1 whole year of blogging she is giving some gorgeous BLOG CANDY away, go take a look !

All you have to do is leave a comment, link back to your blog to enter the draw

'The Wall'...

As promised the other day; here are some pictures of the wall I am painting in my Grandson's bedroom, the room will eventually be shared by 2 boys, Morgan and Riley.





The photo on the left is as you can see the station with Thomas and the Fat Controller, the one on the right is the same wall just taken further back. The photo below is of the boards I did which sit below the picture for them to hang their school bags and dressing gowns on. The boards are MDF which have been coated in blackboard paint and the engines are 3D foam stickers that were bought in B&Q to go on their walls. I thought they would look a little lost so I persuaded my Son and DIL to let me paint the picture and do the baords for the boys.






As this is the longest wall in the room I am going to continue with James and Morgan's favourite Bertie the bus with Harold the helicopter flying above them all.


Not sure how long it will take me to finish this but hopefully not too long.



Here are Morgan and Riley!








I will add more pictures as I do bits to it.

This is what I have been up to!

As promised, here are some of the new bits I have been making



This is another set of New Baby Boy announcement cards in a decorated box, there is 8 cards and the box is the one top left of the picture.

The cards measure 3" x 3" and are made from Bazzill card, the papers are from the Making Memories 'Max' collection. The 'B and Y' have been cut on the cricut and the 'O' is a shaker bubble from Pebbles inc. The box has been decorated with a green checked stripe cut from the same paper range, baby blue ric rac and buttons. The insert is a stamped image which allows you to add the baby's name, birth date, weight, length and parents names, the stamp was in a set from Hero arts.

I loved making these so much I then went on and did these as well

This set has been made onto C6 card blanks and the papers and Little Dots and the images are a set called Home Sweet Home, all from Pink Petticoat. This is the first time I have used anything digital or downloaded but I was very impressed.

I simply printed the papers I wanted, in this case I chose the plain Olive for the bottom of the cards and the littlest dots for the top, I ran the plain through the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and added a scalloped edge using the Martha Stewart punch to the bottom of the dots paper. The images I printed onto plain white card then water coloured, punched the corners off with my circle punch and matted them onto more olive card, I added a piece of ribbon behind the image and that's about it.

I do confess I am not a card maker so if you leave a comment please be kind!

We could be moving house!

We are going to look at another house tomorrow in Shepshed, it is near to where my 2 sons and my step son live so that would be nice. It is also closer for Hubby for work so that would be easier for him but there is a downside!!

The house was owned by an old lady who has passed away and although it has been well maintained it needs a little updating, the kitchen for example is quite a large room but it has 1 base unit with a sink in it, a pantry cupboard and that's the kitchen. It has the old metal framed windows but it does have central heating we think. It does have a large old washroom which would make a perfect craft room, alot of people have these converted into dinning rooms but I would add a conservatory for this leaving this a spare room for me!

It will take a bit of work to get it up to standard but we think it would be worth it as if we can get this at the price we think its worth we will be halving our mortgage and that's a good thing.

I am going to take some pictures in a bit of some of the things I have been making and will post them later, just need to do the school run first.

Back later

Good Sunday morning

Morning,

Well I got the skirt finished, not perfect but she said it looked as good as anyone else's, not sure that was a good comment, lets hope it holds together through 4 days of shows.

I had a visit from Mr. Postman yesterday with my new Martha Stewart punch and some new ribbons I bought online in a sale.

I love ribbons and buttons and stripes and spots so anything I see in these combinations always falls into my shopping cart!!

I am off to my Son's house for dinner today and am hoping to continue the Thomas the Tank engine I am painting on my Grandsons bedroom wall, I started this in October but with extra hours at work and family and Christmas I haven't been to do any more on it so today is the perfect opportunity, Hubby is putting his the new skirting board in the kitchen for them so I will take myself off to carry on painting upstairs whilst my dinner is cooked for me, Heaven!!!

I will take my camera and photograph the wall and post it later.

Have a great day

Sorry I havent posted...

but I have been a bit busy this week, what with work, family and my Granddaughter Amy things have been a bit hectic.

I am just adding a quick post whilst waiting for Amy and her mum to arrive at my house, Amy is a typical teenager, she knows everything but remembers nothing!

The problem is that she is involved in a school production of Grease, she was very lucky to get a part and has been rehearsing for months for it. The kids were all told before Christmas what costumes they would need, in her case a red circular skits and a black top, easy!! As the holiday was approaching Mum put it off until the new year, then she was away for a week skiing with school and she is also preparing for another show with her dance school, so lots to sort out but Amy isn't that organised and has phoned me to tell me she needs a circular skirt that I had started to make for her by tomorrow.

So I have machine ready and hopefully by tonight she will have her costume ready for this production, just the other one to sort out then.

The joys of being a crafty grandmother, eh!!
Love

Maz

I made this!!

today, it is a box of baby announcement cards.

The box measures 4" x 4" and holds the 8 cards along with 8 handmade envelopes, there are 4 of each pictured below.

The cards measure 3" x 3" and have space to fill in the details of the new arrival.

I used Bazzill for the cards and for the box and patterned paper from Making Memories Sam collection for the box lid and to add a mat to the cards.

The blue circles were cut using my Nestabilities and the white circles on my Cricut. The sentiment was stamped and finished with a little polka dot ribbon in brown.

I stamped the little giraffe then water coloured and cut them out, they were mounted using 3D foam pads.

I think these are really cute, what do you think?

Love

Maz

Thank You Lorna!

I received this on Monday from my Friend Lorna, for the past couple of years we have had a Diary/notebook swap at our crop and for the last 2 years I got one made by Lorna, well last year we didn't do it and so I didn't have a Diary.

I mentioned this casually as you do at the last crop and Lorna said she would make me one and here it is! so

A VERY HUGE 'THANK YOU' Lorna, you are brilliant, I love it!




Love

Maz

Blog Candy up for grabs!!!

I have to say I am nearly always a lurker on other peoples blogs and very rarely leave a comment (naughty I know!) I get an enormous ammount of inspiration looking at other peoples work and have recently taken up stamping because of the beautiful designs I have seen.


There is one blog that I visit everyday without fail and today to celebrate having had 200,000 hits; Jak at Crafters Kitchen has blog candy up for grabs. It is a complete set of her Flippin' Men by La Pashe, great for men's cards. All you have to do is leave a comment saying who and why you would make the cards for.


Couldnt be easier!

Maz

p.s. more posts later

Crafting Essentials

I have a very small craftroom/office and as such I am very limited to what I can actually make/do in there. As you can see it really is small so it needs to be kept very organised, because of this I am only going to buy crafting essentials this year.

Essential 1

I took on an extra job before christmas so I could buy a Cricut which now sits on the desk in my craft room/office, this I did consider to be essential as I needed something to cut circles with, its very hard with a craft knife and a glass you know.

Essential 2

I am also looking at buying a Cuttlebug, my DIL has one and it looks so much easier to use and store than the great heavy red Sizzix machine I have, less strain on my back picking it up off the floor to use on my desk so I consider this to be in the interest of health, I also love the large embossing folders and buying them would help save the earth from global warming as my DIL has some but she lives 25 minutes away by car so it doesnt make sense keep popping over to borrow them.

Essential 3

I also really 'need' to own the nestabilities dies, I recently bought the scalloped circle and to save money I got the ones that match the size of circle I can cut on my cricut. I have seen so many gorgeous projects using these I figure it would be almost criminal for me not to own some of them

Essential 4

I searched the internet for days to find this next essential and as it was the only one I could find I figured I had got to buy it. It is on its way and my hope is that in some small way I am helping to boost the economy as I am with all of my purchases.

So this is my motto for 2009, only to buy crafting essentials

At Last I can show you...

...something I have made.



I made this for my very special friend Lorna who has just become a first time Grandmother to Baby Jake.




To be honest i first saw the idea on the internet and it had been made for Christmas, but you know sometimes you see something and an idea pops straight into your head, this was one of those times, it just said 'New Baby' to me so here it is.


I have designed the milk cartons in two parts so they dont have to be opened in the traditional way, the top just slides off.

Two of the cartons have tops made from Bazzill and two have paper tops, each carton is decorated with the paper or card from the opposite carton to continue the theme.




I used Bazzil cardstock - Splash and the paper is from the English Paper Company Garden range called 'Out and about denim'



Each of the boxes were filled with items to go with the teddy bear theme, socks in one, bibs in another then I added a Teddy to the third and lastly a pair of fluffy boots with paw prints on the bottom.
The whole set and its contents..




I gave the set to Lorna at the crop today and everyone loved it, so now they want me to use the idea as a class kit at our weekend crop in April, looking forward to that as they will all have their own take on what it can be used for.

Next project should be completed by tomorrow so watch this space!!

Love

Maz

Nestabilities

I have just bought my first set of Nestabilities dies from a very nice lady on e-bay, I have been looking at them for months and finally took the plunge and got the scalloped circles.

My new cricut can cut the standard circles for me so I just bought the scalloped circles and I am sure thats all I shall need !!! Lol. I can see me buying more of these.

I don't have to work tomorrow so I am hoping to get one of my new projects completed, if I can keep off the pc long enough that is.

Payday on Friday and Lorna's crop all day on Saturday, my friend Rachel is taking her Bind it all so going to show her how to work that, just need something to do myself.

Take care all and keep warm

Love

Maz

Monday Morning..

.. again, where did the weekend go?

I had loads planned for this weekend but achieved not a lot, I am working on some new ideas and spent half of Saturday crafting with my DIL but by the end of the day we still hadn't got anything finished and Sunday wasn't any better, had family round for dinner so nothing done on the crafting side at all.

The kids here are back to school tomorrow so maybe I will get my self sorted out a bit more then, loads of ideas and no time to get things done at the minute.

I have one thing to show you though, a present that my DIL made me

It has been made using tiny canvases that only measure 2" x 2", I love it and its so nice to actually get something that someone has taken the time and trouble to make just for me. Thank you Karen, I will find somewhere to hang it so the many visitors to my house will see it.

Well back to work for me and Hubby is also back after finishing work on Christmas eve, I think I am in the wrong job, I got Christmas day and Boxing day and the Sunday after Christmas off but its been work for me since, the joys of retail!!!

Take care and keep warm

Love

Maz

Happy and Healthy New Year!!

I would just like to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy 2009.

I would also like to thank all the lovely people who have inspired me with their work in 2008, I spend too many hours looking at others work on some wonderful blogs but in 2009 I am hoping to spend less time browsing and more time crafting.

Love

Maz