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 Lots of the buttons led to nowhere, and the ones that did were hopelessly outdated.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