August Already !!!!

OK, I know its almost the end of August ! where does the time go ? I saw my daughter back off to University today and the house tonight is sooooo quiet ! Mind you at least I am now getting started on some things that I am very behind with ! I have quite a few craft projects in hand including some wedding invites for my niece. I must take a moment to thank everyone for their birthday wishes yesterday. I had a great day, especially seeing as John is still the other side of the Atlantic!

I have had some real trouble with the background of my blog, so please excuse any error on it now! I have had to change it to one I am not completely keen on for the time being and sometime I will get round to sorting it properly.

What have I been making over the last 6 weeks or so? well the answer to that, is not a lot ! but I did make a very good friend a great Tinkerbell card and also used my newly acquired sewing skills to make a makeup bag.

The next birthday I had was for my Mum, its always so difficult to make for someone who is also so creative, well Mum and I share a love for dragonflies and butterflies so I found this great Inkadinkadoo stamp and went about making a card without my cricut! rare these days but I know Mum prefers my cards made from stamping and inks.

I also had a trip back to the UK since I last wrote this, and no trip home is made without a couple of handmade gifts, this time it was a clock for Freya and a tool box for Toby. Both of them loved their gifts and I hope you like them too.

As I say, I have not been doing too much recently, as I have had a house full so hopefully next time I write I will have more to share.

I hope you all enjoy the last few weeks of summer

Thanks for reading

Sue

Yes, I am back! finally!

It has been a long and hard 4 months with many factors thrown in and rather than moan and groan about it, I am going to just say, I AM BACK! I would like to think I can finally get to grips with writing this regularly but we will see.

I have not done a whole lot of crafting over the last couple months but there are certainly a few bits I can put up here. Firstly there was Mothers Day, the 2 cards that follow are the ones I made for my Mum and my MIL. The Kimono one was made from the cricut cartridge 'Pagoda' and the butterflies are from 'Hannah Montana' I really never thought I would use a Hannah Montana cartridge, but as it came free with another I took it, and to be honest its probably one of my most used cartridges. I find the alphabet selection on it really good.

I made this next card, for one of my sisters who was so wonderful to me recently when she came over to Florida from the UK to look after me when I recently had some surgery. I will be eternally grateful to her for doing that. I was misbehaving for a while and not taking the right medications etc so my DH decided she had to put on her Matrons hat and sort me out! well she did and it is thanks to her that I made the recovery I did. The least I could do was to make her this card. For those of you have ever met my sister I obviously had to add some bling, hence the crystals on the Dr's bag!

Welcome to the family Alex John Wetherall! As you can see we had a new addition to the extended family, I think he is my DH 2nd cousin but I may be wrong. (someone will correct me I am sure if I am) I used the babygros / onsies from New Arrival and the letters are form HM (I think).

This last item is a real shocker to all of my family ! I have ALWAYS said I can't and I won't sew ! Well, my Mum came to visit ( another Florence Nightingale in my time of need) and for some reason I got a real urge to learn to sew! I don't know who was more surprised, My Mum, Me or John? We took a little trip to Walmart where I bought half and got gifted half (early b'day) the most basic sewing machine and some fabric. Once home I took my 1st lesson as a grown up and made this makeup bag, yes I actually made this ! I have already gone on and made another one the same, but Gator fabric and once Mum had gone home I followed her instructions and made myself a bag, A real over the shoulder bag. I am very happy to have started doing some sewing, BUT it will never take over my love of paper crafts and please don't ask me to hand sew, unless you want to hear me ********

Well having finally got around to writing again, I guess I need to get this posted.

Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope to be back much sooner this time.

Sue

Craft Fair Preparations

Want to start this Blog of by wishing my Dad a very Happy 80th Birthday, sorry I can't be there but I will be thinking of you all day.

Just 1 month to go until my table at Celebration's Farmers market and craft Fair, YIKES ! Trying to spend lots of time preparing items to sell, so going to try and update this on a more regular basis to show you all what I'm making , now I have finally finished my 30 sock cupcakes!

The challenge is making some things that are cheaper to buy rather than having a table full of expensive items that no-one can afford, but yet are still well made and good quality. I have found altering these note pads really fun and should certainly be within most peoples budgets.

The glass etching is going really well, it takes a cheap vase and turns it into something far more beautiful and hopefully worth a few more pennies.

I also took this large plain jar from Ikea and have turned it into a stylish cookie jar.

With the cut outs of the vinyl form the glass etching I made this candle and I love love love the way it has turned out. I am so tempted not to part with it at all, although the colour does not go with anything in my house so maybe I will just make myself one after everything else has been made.

Hello Kitty seems to be very very popular, I found these post it notes in the $ bin at Joann's and turned them into really cute notepad holders, I even headed back to Joann's to get a couple more, as I think (well hope) these will be a big hit.

Tonight I hope to get a couple of the frames finished that I have been working on so better get to it.

Will update with more, as and when I get them finished.

Thanks for stopping by and looking

Sue

Yipeeeee... I got round to writing this in less than a month this time ! Considering the month I have just had, that's quite an achievement. John is now living permanently in the UK to look or work and be there for his Mum. It has been a very long and hard decision to make, but we both feel its for the best and we know our love is strong enough for us to survive this. The plan is that early next year at the latest, I will join him back in the UK. It's going to be very hard for us but we can and will do it. I am already on count down till I see him, 72 days ! In the mean time I have also got a new job, I have moved from working at Epcot to one of the resort hotels. At the moment I am still in training but it is going well. I am hoping it will give me some great job skills for the move back to the UK and also a slightly more flexible schedule and therefore maybe some more time to craft !

I have been busy making lots of Small things ready for my craft fair, I think its important to have a variety of priced items and that way hopefully more will sell. I have been purchasing quite a few things from Michael's from their Dollar bins and then altering them. the 1st thing was these notebooks. I didn't like the pictures on the fronts so I cut out a variety of things using of course my trusty Cricut and went about changing them, added a bit of ribbon and there you have it, a small inexpensive gift. lets just hope they sell otherwise I have a lot of note taking to do !

Cupcakes! what a big thing they have become, so I have jumped on the band wagon and made some of these adorable sock cupcakes. I got the idea from the cricut website (I think from green bean) and have fallen in love with them. I had one made when a friend popped by and bought it straight away! I had to search hard for more socks as the shops around here are now out of wintry things but finally got some at my local M's and went ahead and made these this morning. They are just SO easy to make, the hardest part was getting the film to sit nicely around them. I see making quite a few more of these.

Lastly I made a couple more Hello Kitty bits but they have sold before I can get pictures of them up here. I will try and make some more before the next time I write and show you those.

Have a good week everyone, spring is on its way.

Thanks for stopping by

Sue

Happy New Year !

Well as you can see those New Years resolutions did not last very well, already we are 1 month into the New Year and this is the 1st time I have got round to writing. It has been a weird month so far with record cold temperatures here in Florida and more snow than I have ever seen back in the UK, maybe there is more to the changing weather climates than we all care to think about. Along with the cold weather everyone seems to be suffering with the sniffles, to those who are unwell I hope you soon feel better. My DH, John has now gone back to the UK for a month to sort a few things out, boy am I missing him. you would think it would give me so much more time to write this and and to craft but somehow I keep filling my days and I'm not really sure what with. Unusually for me I have been going to the gym and doing some exercise at home and I have been starting to prepare for doing my 1st ever 5k fun run. Well for those who know me well, you will understand this is a big achievement for me that I am even able to contemplate it, lets hope I can actually do it.

I have made a decision to finally really work on getting my business working and the 1st step is to take some things along to a Farmers market / arts and crafts fair that is nearby every Sunday so I am starting to work on products for that.

The 1st few pictures are of some glass etching I have been doing using the Cricut to cut the stencils, it is really easy to do and so effective.

I have also been making some Valentines cards to put in a shop nearby that hols a basket of my cards, I really need to make a few more and maybe take them into work. I really love the 'Bee Mine' one, it turned out really well however the LOVE ones are probably more my usual style.

This frame was made using the 'Hello Kitty' cartridge which is adorable, I know these will sell well as I already have an order for 1 at work. the frame is from Micheal's and I just covered it using Bo Bunny paper which is always such good quality.

I am going to leave it here for this post so that I can continue to make some more products for the upcoming fair.

I hope you all have a great week and I really will try harder at keeping this up to date.

Thanks for stopping by

Sue

Goodbye 2009

The New Year is almost upon us, what will your resolutions be ? My number 1 resolution is write this blog more often !!! With regards to any others I have 24 more hrs to make my mind up. In the past I have never managed to stick to any I have made so I am going to think very carefully this year and pick things that are realistic.

Christmas was interesting this year, it was on one hand a really lovely time as it was the 1st time in 4 years that we have been with our daughter, however it is a time when you really notice how much you miss family and when you call them on Christmas day and hear them all sitting down together to lunch you feel your heart strings pull. Prior to Christmas, just like everyone else it was a busy time for crafting and I was very glad tonight to put away all the Christmas card trimmings and start looking forward to some spring colours, I even bought a new valentines stamp yesterday.

I am just going to post a couple of pictures this week as apart from Christmas cards, which I am sure you are all fed up with, I have not made too much.

It was my niece's 4th birthday this week and like most 4 yr olds she is really into fairy's and ballerina's, however she really does not yet know who Tinkerbell is which is why I changed the colours on this one. Unfortunately as yet it has not arrived in the UK but I am hoping she really likes it. Tinkerbell is suspended with invisible thread and spins around showing her 2 different outfits.

I made some fun Christmas cards for the kids, not particularly artistic in their design but made with the children in mind. The snowman is made into a shaker card which my nephew loves shaking, I don't think there will be any seed beads left at this rate. The smaller snowman is a spinning card, so easy to make and so effective.

One week before Christmas I sold one of the post it frames through a shop I have my cards in, the lady really liked it and went on to order 19 more, all to be ready for the big day. Once I had managed to finally get hold of the frames I did get them all made and delivered on time. They were all on a theme similar to this one. It made me a nice little bit of extra pocket money at an expensive time of year.

The last picture I am going to post is of my daughter, I am so proud of how hard she works in school. We took an afternoon out of our schedule to go play in the Magic Kingdom and see all the great decorations. My DH had great fun taking lots of photos and I think you will agree that this is a fantastic shot of my beautiful baby ! ( she will always be my baby)

All that's left to say is, I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year brings us all good health and happiness.

Farewell to 2009 and hello 2010

Sue

Well the plan was to write this every week, and as we can all tell, that has not happened ! I don't know where the weeks go, I was always told when I was younger that times goes faster when you get older, and I never believed them, well now, I am that older person and it's true ! Since I last wrote I have had a fantastic trip back to the UK to see family and friends. Unfortunately there was not enough time to see everyone I wanted too, again it comes back to time going by so quickly. For those I did see, thank you for helping me have a great week and to recuperate and for those I didn't, you will top of my list next time.

Whilst home in England the main purpose was to rest which I did lots of, but I also had the opportunity to see all the family and have our own mini Christmases. Lots of presents were exchanged and we were all spoilt. The best part was though, that all the hand made gifts I made were also opened by the recipients, so I can share them with you all now, as they have seen them.

The biggest things I made were 4 individual calenders for Mum, Rose, Chris and Karin. These took many many hours and sorting of the photos was one of the most difficult things. Here are a couple of sample pages to show you. I would not dare to bore you with all 48 pages and 578 letters I cut just for the months ! I did not want to count how many letters in total, think I would have scared myself !

I find making (or buying) presents for my Dad really hard, don't we all?. My Mum came up with the idea of altering his diary, he actually writes in his every day. This one is well travelled, to ensure that the holidays etc were marked correctly my mum posted an English diary to me , I then altered it and took it back with me. A well travelled diary ! I put pictures of all his children and husbands in the front and ALL his grandchildren in the back. This means he can take a look at his family on a daily basis. I think he really liked it.

A candle was next on the list for Kerry, she is really enjoying her time meditating so I thought she could use this, however she has already said she will never burn it ! The saying ' Just for today' is her favourite and it is written in both English and Japanese.

It was also Chris's birthday just before we arrived, so she got double presents! We all love the 2 pictures used here and I went with the idea of making a clock to show how precious Grandparent time is. This is the 1st clock I have ever made. I am pleased with how it turned out although I have learned things from it on how to make a better job next time.

Well now back home and hopefully back to work finally this week I needed to finish a couple of orders I had for people at work. 1st to be done were these Princess paper dolls. I love them, and I really hope the little girl gets as much pleasure playing with them as I did making them.

Anything you see on my site can be orderedand personalised, if you are interested in anything to buy or would like more details on how I made them just e-mail me at just1stamp@hotmail.com

Well as today is my last official day on medical leave (here's hoping) I better put my time to good use and go clean the house...... on 2nd thoughts I am going to be crafty ALL day hehehe

Thanks for taking the time to look

Sue