Why I Abandoned Going Buggy...........

In Loving Memory of Mike

It has been a year since I posted here. A year which saw my husband Mike's health deteriorate greatly, and sadly his battle with heart problems, ended on January 21st 2023. All the hospital admissions, all the blue light dashes in ambulances, all the medications, all the problems, were endured by him with a smile and gratitude to those looking after him. He was a kind and loving husband and father and we all miss him so much

Unsurprisingly, crafting has seemed of no consequence at all these past months, but I am sure that one of these fine days I will wade through the dust on my desk and pick up my mojo from somewhere.......until then, I am just learning to take a day at a time with lots of help from my lovely family and friends

I have had lots of emails asking why I have been so silent, I owe it to all of you who have been so supportive of this blog over the years to let you know what has been happening, thanks for caring, and I will be back, just bear with me whilst I find my way along this new path xxx

 

Chocolate Heaven.....

Over at Daring Cardmakers this week, the theme is Chocolate - perfect topic for all the Easter eggs I hope you will be munching on this weekend....I found this random stamp which is an old one, and just coloured in chocolate shades. The square frame was embossed into the card with a MFT die. I do like these tall slim cards, but they are so difficult to photograph!

The roofers have been and repaired the leaky roof, now the next project has to be getting the damaged ceilings decorated - which includes my craft room, which is a bit scary as it is jam packed with stuff. The walls are sound and don't really need painting, but apparently making the ceiling presentable may mean the walls will then need painting as well, which fills me with dread, although I suppose it would be a chance to have a real spring clean.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend, wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope the sun shines for you x 

 

 

Floral Frenzy

I have been playing with new supplies - I bought this Floral Frenzy stamp and stencil set by Pink Fresh Studio some weeks ago and this is its first outing! If you haven't tried this sort of crafting, give it a go, it's quite addictive and you can get so many different looks all from the same supplies. This first one was stamped and embossed in gold, then you just put the layering stencils in order over the stamped image, and apply colour - I used distress inks and a blending brush. I die cut a frame from the finished panel and popped that up with foam pads

 

This next one was a simple stamp and stencil one, using the new distress Saltwater Taffy for the flowers and sentiment, but I added a shimmer spray to the whole panel, so it's really sparkly in real life

 .

This next one just used the stamp, embossed in white, then I inked the whole background with distress inks and didn't use the stencils at all......I used a mini mister and some mica gold powder to add a spray of sparkle

The last one used stamp with gold embossing,  and then stencils to layer colour, but then I filled in the background using a black promarker pen. I think this one is my favourite!

I did enjoy using these, and it's a brilliant way to colour images quickly, or make a quick card if colouring is not your favourite thing. I'm on the lookout for another set now

Thanks for dropping by, I'm always pleased to 'see' you x

April Challenge for DCM

The challenge this week on Daring Cardmakers is an inspiration photo which I failed to copy, you can pop over there to see the design team samples and the photo - I took the rabbit, the long stemmed flower and the little dots as my three elements. I love this little rabbit die, it is by Alexandra Renke, and I found it on the Charlie & Paulchen German website (such pretty and different stuff there...)

 We have sprung a leak in the ceiling of our dining room, this week has been wasted spent waiting for roofers to turn up to give estimates. Some didn't turn up at all, some came and five days later still haven't sent in a quote, one came and did that sharp intake of breath/sorrowful shake of the head thing that tradesmen do when the news is not good, then gave us a quote for rebuilding the house! Then along came Ron, a cheerful 68 year old who knew what he was talking about and gave us a reasonable estimate without all the fuss and palaver the others seemed to need. Guess who got the job.......

The Early Bird Catches the Worm

Over on Daring Cardmakers this week, the challenge is 'The Early Bird Catches the Worm' and I dug our these cute little worm stamps by Clearly Besotted to make some bookmarks

Do you prefer reading 'real' books, or have you changed to a screen? I must admit I do like my Kindle when reading in bed, I can turn off the light and read myself to sleep

The buttons at the top of Going Buggy have had a spring clean when my

computer 'doctor' was called in to get rid of the hackers efforts. Lots of the buttons led to nowhere, and the ones that did were hopelessly outdated. So I have put a few links on the Tutorial button - I just added links to the posts that I have most emails about.....'You gave a recipe for homemade texture paste, I can't find it.....' etc etc. So now I am all set up to add to the tutorial page as and when I do anything new. Browsing around old posts was a real walk down memory lane for me

The weather here in the UK is gloriously Spring like. The clocks change this weekend, and it is Mothering Sunday as well. I will be having my first potter in the garden I think.  Whatever you are doing, have a great weekend x 

 

Spring has Sprung.......

Today on Daring Cardmakers, the theme is Spring - perfect for making on a day which is grey, rainy and overcast here in the UK. I went simple on this, the flower stamp I have had for ages, fresh yellows and greens always look springlike, and I used dies to emboss a frame - instructions below.

Be sure to pop over to Daring Cardmakers to see all the design teams efforts

 I created this embossed frame to frame my flower stamp........

I used the Sissix foldaway, but whatever machine you have, use your normal sandwich for thin dies (minus any thin die shims). Here I have base plate, cutting mat, rubber mat, card, die (cutting edge down), cutting plate

The important thing is the rubbber mat - put

your die cutting edge down onto this, you get 

a beautifully embossed outline. Try it with intricate

dies too - a good way of stretching your supplies

Following on from my musings about my hacked blog, it reminded me of a Dunkin Donuts story that I told you before, years ago, but is relevant again now. I was sitting in the Florida sunshine enjoying my iced coffee when two cops came in and asked if they could join me. When they heard my accent they asked where I was from. 'UK' I replied.

Well one guy started talking quite randomly about Russia, he knew a heck of a lot, talked about the Tsar being assassinated, red army etc etc. His partner was open mouthed with admiration about his grasp of the subject. 'Hey Brad, you sure know a lot about this stuff......'

'yeah, it's kinda a hobby of mine'..... so we chatted for a while, they got up to go and Brad said 'It's been great to meet you, never met anyone from the Ukraine before'

Well, what could I say? If I had corrected him he would have felt a real idiot in front of his buddy, so I nodded, smiled and said goodbye. But now I wonder if there is a cop in the USA who is telling everyone 'I met a woman from the Ukraine once, spoke really good English. Hope she's okay........'

Revisiting old supplies - and hacking saga

I've had a bit of a tidy up in my craft room and found these old favourites from MFT - the Rain or Shine stamp set and the raindrops/puddle background

 What a saga the blog hack turned out to be. If you remember, I suddenly found the whole background of Going Buggy was in the blue and yellow of the Ukranian flag, with bold black NO WAR banners everywhere. It made the blog unreadable. I struggled for ages to put it right, but in the end I had to call in a IT company for help. I called a local firm, the guy who answered the phone sounded like an older chap, who said he wasn't on the technical side. He struggled to understand the problem, but when I said I needed to get rid of the flag, he said in an outraged voice 'you aren't pro Russian are you? If so we won't come out to help'

I assured him my motives were pure, but it set me wondering, after loads of Google searches I haven't come across anyone else who was targeted in this way. Why me? Does the name Going Buggy translate into something entirely different in another language. Did Anonymous think I was an oligarch? It's baffling, and cost me £132 to put right. So please Mr Hacker, don't stop here again, I can't afford it

Elemental Inspiration for DCM

I seem to have been targeted by hackers who have put NO WAR banners in the Ukrainian colours on here. I have no idea how to get rid of this - working on it. Going Buggy is not, and never will be a place to advertise politically, however just their cause is.  

Another Friday, another challenge....... I found this one hard! The inspiration collage is above, and below is what I came up with. A very loose interpretation this time. The background stamp, sponged with distress inks is called French Script - that takes care of Paris then! I found a circle and some greenery there as well.......it turned into a clean and simple card that I am a bit obsessed with at the moment. The heart stems and that stitched circle are by Memory Box

The light was fading fast on a miserably grey day by the time it was ready to photograph, so this was the best I could do before I popped it in an envelope to fly down to Surrey for daughter in law Lidia's birthday

 Not much in the way of cheerful news this week, like the rest of the world I am fixated with watching in horror the news channels. I did meet up with two friends for lunch yesterday, we went to a Carvery (which is a bit of a depressing experience these days as the whole place on weekday lunchtimes is crammed with some very ancient looking pensioners.......until the realisation dawns that actually you are in the company of your peer group). From every group of tables, snatches of conversations drifted over....over and over again the words Ukraine, Russia and Putin drifted around the room. The world is weeping

Compton Verney

I recently visited Compton Verney in the Worcestershire countryside with some friends to see a Needlecraft fair....the house was derelict until a wealthy patron of the arts rescued it and turned it into a venue for all kinds of art displays/concerts etc. The house is now managed by a charitable trust. The building itself is pretty unremarkable, (apart from a glorious Art Deco chapel), but the grounds were landscaped by Capability Brown (a great English landscape gardener), and are just delightful. No formal flower beds, just great sweeping vistas of lawns, leading down to a river bordered with bullrushes, and home to families of ducks

Look at this first photo - did you think it was pen and ink drawings onto fabric? So did I, until you got up close and realised that all those buildings have been faithfully recreated with the finest black embroidery threads......
 

Look at this - it looks like a painting, but every detail, water, grass, sky, has been embroidered onto linen

I liked the fact that there were exhibits from young people as well, all these samplers were made by youngsters, some as young as twelve! 

The last two to catch my eye are these fabulous felted scenes, they were for sale, but were way above my budget!

I am a real grasshopper type of crafter, if something grips and inspires me, I rush ahead like a bull in a china shop thinking "I could do that!"...........the reality is, of course that I can't. I was tempted to rush out and invest in embroidery threads, but common sense kicked in, even I, despite my misplaced enthusiasm, know with certainty that there is NO way I would have the patience to produce anything worth looking at. So maybe I will save some pennies so that the next felted cow that steals my heart can come home with me 

Elemental Inspiration for Daring Cardmakers

It's my turn to set the challenge on DCM this week, as always, the first challenge of each month is a mood board for inspiration, here is what I chose - mainly because I love the teal and pink colours! The idea is that you choose three elements from the board for your project, go ahead...join in....have fun with us! To see the design team cards, go HERE

Here is mine - I chose the teal and pink of course, some tiny hearts (the girl in the photo is holding hearts), and I used a MFT die which is part of a set which makes a plaid, to mimic the door panels behind the girl. The stamp is by Clearly Besotted

What three elements would you have chosen?

Looking in my photos file, I totally forgot to post photos of a visit made to Compton Verney to visit a needlework fair, I will dig them out over the weekend....I hope whatever you are doing, you have a great weekend 

 

In the Frame

Over at Daring Cardmakers this week, Nat set the challenge of 'In the Frame'

I used the Memory Box Sea frame for mine. Background done with distress inks, and lots of little fishes.....

 Do pop over to see what the design team came up with, and join in if you can

I wonder what life is like for all of you in your countries now? Here, most of the restrictions have been lifted from today. I honestly wonder if things will ever get back to normal. Hopefully soon, it will all seem like a bad dream for all of us. In the meantime, I have a streaming cold, so it's time to dust off the lateral flow tests again.....

Edited to say it was negative 😊

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a good Christmas, ours was interrupted again by Covid - our eldest son and his family were due to spend it with us, but our grandson Monty tested positive, so that plan flew out the window. But all our family managed to visit at some stage over the past two weeks, so it has been fun, and now the tree and decorations are down, the house is quiet again and I can potter about in my craft room to my hearts content.....

It's my turn to set the challenge over on Daring Cardmakers this week, I chose a theme of 'Up UP and Away' which is to use balloons on your creations. After I set the challenge I wondered what had possessed me, as I couldn't find a single balloon stamp or die , but after much rummaging around, found this hot air balloon die from Spellbinders, and made this card which has three opening flaps on the front..

It makes a cheerful card for a child I think........

Baubles for Daring Cardmakers

This week on Daring Cardmakers, the challenge is Baubles, Boxes and Bows - I went down the bauble route with this trio of baubles made with Spellbinders dies. The background is a Christmas word background, embossed in silver (it shows up a lot more in real life....)

Do pop over there to see what the team have all come up with this week, I always love the fact that everyone has such a different take on the same subject

 

Trim the Tree for Daring Cardmakers

This week on Daring Cardmakers, the challenge is 'Trim the Tree'. I decided to go for a winter landscape using a very old favourite, the Lovely as a Tree stamp set by Stampin Up

I stamped it onto a white panel twice, I worked out the center on the second panel and inked that piece with Stormy Sky and Milled Lavender distress inks (I didn't bother to mask it, just made sure I didn't ink the snowy ground). I added some white falling snow - my go to white pen is by Signo. I added glitter to the snow....

The two panels were edged narrowly with silver, then the coloured panel was popped on with foam pads

 

Elemental Inspiration for Daring Cardmakers

There is a great winter mood board over at Daring Cardmakers this week, pop over to see how it inspired the Design team. Here is mine......

My Christmas cards are done, now for the bit I hate - writing and addressing them. Every year I feel as though just signing them simply isn’t enough when sending to a cousin or friend that I haven’t seen for years, so I sit there chewing the end of my pen desperately thinking of something relevant/witty/interesting to say, and let’s face it, the past few months have not been a barrel of laughs for any of us. There is not much you can say about the joys of masks/social distancing/isolation......maybe this year I really will just sign our names with a flourish and be done.....at least they will know we are still around 😁

Chatsworth at Christmas

No card today but I thought you would enjoy seeing some photos of a recent visit to Chatsworth - especially those of you who live overseas and like to see how the aristocracy live.....shades of Downton Abbey!

Each year the house (the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire) is decorated for Christmas, with dozens of Christmas trees, heaven knows how long it takes, it is a labour of love for me to get the baubles for one tree out of the loft....

This next room was decorated to celebrate the Nutcracker ballet, the dancer you see was inside a box that opened like a music box, with music from the ballet playing......

Imagine sweeping down those stairs in your Christmas party outfit.....

My friend Heather and I had to make do with puffa jackets instead of silk and velvet.....

The library was fascinating, it was a theme of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' and all the glass fronted bookcases had paper cut outs of the images from the song, here are twelve ladies dancing....

 

and Lords a leaping - I love the way they are all different poses and sizes

There were other signs of a handmade Christmas as well, these paper angels were used to tie back drapes

Imagine sitting here for Christmas lunch!

I hope you enjoyed your visit to one of England's most beautiful stately homes