Getting to Know you - for Daring Cardmakers....

Dawn's turn to set the challenge this week, she calls it 'getting to know you' and wants to know where we craft, and our favourite techniques.....

So here is my little haven (I must admit these photos were taken soon after we moved in to this house, two years later, it's not quite as tidy!). But I still love it

and my sign (made with my Cricut) still hangs there - it amuses my grandchildren! 

and my card? I cheated a bit I suppose, turning the tag I made at the Paper Artsy workshop at Stitches into a card (well, I have had a very busy week....). But it does encompass a lot of what I love doing - stamping, inking, stencils and fussy cutting! So it fit the bill, and I like the way it looks against the black card 

How about you - where do you craft? Have you got a favourite technique? Join in over at Daring Cardmakers this week

A taste of 5* luxury......

We had a taste of luxury last weekend - at the Goring Hotel in London.......

 Now I am not a fan of publishing photos of hotel rooms, I mean, why on earth would anyone be in the least bit interested about where I lay my head for the night?

But I thought my friends from the USA would enjoy this, it's the hotel that a certain Miss Kate Middleton departed from, with her father, on her wedding day, to emerge from Westminster Abbey as the Duchess of Cambridge on the arm of her prince, to drive through the streets of London in a golden carriage.......truly the stuff of fairytales!

These life sized sheep footstools seemed to be a signature around the hotel, very comfortable they were too......

and this little sheep was on our bed for me to take home. 'Her name is Barbara' the valet announced. Barbara? How random! It wasn't until I really thought about it that I had a lightbulb moment............

Baaarbaaara!

Of course, makes perfect sense now

The wallpaper in the rooms was woven silk, make by the company who make the silk that lines the interiors of the royal carriages.....

 A bathroom to die for.......

One of the joys of a hotel visit in the UK - afternoon tea! This hotel is yards away from Buckingham Palace, and the Queen sometimes visits to take afternoon tea there (not when we were there though!)

I loved the floral decoration in the foyer - instead of showy flamboyant floral arrangements, they had simple pots of flowering daffodils and spring blossoms.......

and an evening at the theatre to see 42nd Street...perfect! Well it would have been even more perfect if I hadn't been sitting behind a Russian guy with a giant head. Honestly, the guy must have been a Nuclear Physicist at the very least if that giant head was filled with brains. He was determined that having paid a lot of money for his seat, he wasn't going to miss a single step of the energetic tap dancing, so the giant head wove backwards and forwards, side to side......while I sat mildly fuming with my inbred British stiff upper lip, far too polite to tap him on his giant shoulder and ask him to sit still....  

The trip was a gift from our children, what a brilliant present! They know we loved it.....

So a slightly different blog post from me today, but I hope you enjoyed it x

Elemental Inspiration - for Daring Cardmakers

This week Miri set the dare with these photos to inspire - the idea is that you choose three elements from the photos as your inspiration.......I found it hard to choose.....

In the end, I came up with this. I chose to reproduce the pattern on the light shades in the photo bottom right, and the fresh green colour, and some foamiran flowers from the middle photo. 

Do go HERE to see what the rest of the team came up with this week. I am always fascinated by the elemental challenges which start each month, it's really interesting to see how different eyes see different shapes, colours and translate into cards

Snowmaggedon has arrived! After dire warnings on TV and radio (reminding me of hurricane season in Florida), nothing much was happening in our neck of the woods, cars continued to race at high speed down the road past our house (supposedly a country lane, but they mistake it for the track at Silverstone...idiots!)....then it started to snow, just fine little flakes, like a snow drizzle. Well that stuff is sticking, cars have stopped practicing for the Grand Prix, and if the Met Office is to be believed, this is just the prequel. So we are battened down, warm and toasty, giving thanks that we no longer have to face a commute to work. Stay warm wherever you are xx

Wreath Elements - Spellblogger post for Spellbinders

A Spellblogger post for Spellbinders today, using the very useful Wreath and Wreath Elements dies designed by Lene Lok

I chose to make a Springtime card, using fresh colours (the snow was falling outside as I made this!)

Here are the Wreath dies.....I can see myself cutting multiple layers in Kraft or White and layering them up to make a gorgeous dimensional wreath.....see them HERE in the store....

and here's the corresponding set called Wreath Elements. So useful, you get Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Elements to add to your basic wreath (I can see gorgeous autumn leaves, and a frosty white wreath sprinkled with snowflakes....and just look at the sweet butterflies! See it HERE in the store

As I  said, the weather is pretty Arctic here, freezing cold and lots of snow promised over the next few days. We aren't geared up to these extremes here of course, so trains are cancelled, people are panic buying in supermarkets, planes are cancelled, roads are chaos. Sigh.....think I will stay hunkered down in my nice warm house for a couple of days, and make Springlike cards to remind me that happy days are just over the horizon.... 

More loveliness from Stitches....

Firstly, a couple of samples that caught my eye on the WOW stand.....

and Paper Artsy.....

I loved the products on the Rico Design stand -
beautiful paper packs, washi tapes, yarns and fabrics 

 Some really lovely cross stitch designs - I loved that hare, and the Thelwell designs for a child's room

  a couple of samples from the UK stamp company Indigo Blu

and here are some samples made by the very talented Brenda Brown for the DecoArt stand

CHSI Stitches Trade Show

So the last couple of days were spent at the trade show held at the NEC (luckily only ten minutes away from my home!). My friends Kath Stewart and Anne Redfern came to stay with me - just look at the gorgeous hostess gift Anne made for me. She is on the Eileen Hull design team, and used the Cantilever Sewing Box die by Eileen to make me this perfect little box. I love it! See a step by step tutorial on how Anne made the box HERE

The stunning flower was made with Foamiran......

and Anne also made these really cute cards with her details on the reverse side to hand out at the show - I grabbed this one!

We did a make and take using various inky techniques with Jo Firth-Young and Leandra from Paper Artsy (don't you love those flowers? I got the stamp to bring home with me....)

Some Paper Artsy samples on display........

We stopped off to say hello to Michelle and play on the Stix2 stand, and were given coffee and this yummy scone, which we munched......

and got inky making this tag.......

We goofed around with the guys on the WOW embossing stand - Kath and Marion were crying with laughter in this photo....

I will post more photos of some of the stuff that caught my eye tomorrow, but not before I tell you about the trauma of the car park incident....

Living around the corner, I should know my way around the NEC (National Exhibition Centre). Of course I should....but my usual car park was blocked off and I was directed to another car park. So far, so good. Made my way to the show, and left with Kath and Anne, carrying their overnight bags. The system is that you take a shuttle bus back to the car park, huge huge car parks with hundreds of cars, divided up with low hedges and prominent signs with the number and location of the areas you are parked in.

Prominent did I say? Not prominent enough for me obviously, I had hopped out of my car without taking any note of where I was parked. So when the shuttle bus dropped us off (car parks N1, N2, N3 the driver announced cheerily), I had NO idea where to look. "I parked by a hedge" I whimpered "I remember a hedge". It was dark and freezing cold. Even Nanook of the North (Kath) was shivering. Eventually, a very kind woman took pity on us and offered to drive us around the car parks to find the car (she was clearly disturbed by the sight of two miserable, shivering women standing with their cases, as I ran around in circles like a maniac, pressing the car fob frantically). 

We were incoherent with gratitude, loaded the cases into her boot (trunk), dragged our cold, protesting bodies into the warmth of her car, and settled down to find my elusive car. I sat in the front seat "I will keep pressing this" I announced, pressing the key fob of my car (we hadn't even set off at this point). Flash flash went the lights on a car parked about 20 yards away. Click click went the key fob. Flash flash went the car....

So we unloaded bodies and cases, and slunk apologetically out of her car to walk the few yards to mine...... 

Time for a Break.....

This week it was my turn to set the challenge over on Daring Cardmakers blog, I chose a theme of 'Take a Break' -  use what ever gets you going again in the mid morning slump, when breakfast seems hours ago, and it's too early for lunch. Is it coffee? A refreshing cup of tea? A sneaky doughnut? For me, it has to be coffee, I seem to need gallons of the stuff in the morning, just to wake me up! Mind you, if there was a doughnut shop within walking distance, they would feature in a big way as well!

So here's my card, stamp by Spellbinders

Whatever you are doing this weekend, have a good one......we have family staying, Kiki and Monty are on half term, so enjoying them, and Sunday sees the opening of the trade craft show at the NEC, so you can look forward to lots of photos on the latest from the UK craft scene next week...

Get Well Soon - Spellblogger post for Spellbinders

Pretty get well cards today made with the new Marisa Job die called Get Well Soon Scalloped Circle from Spellbinders

The flowers were cut with Foamiran using a set of small flower dies from a past 'small die of the month club' (check out these clubs, they are great value and you get some really super dies to play with each month. Look HERE for details) 

Here is the same die  - this time I cut twice, once in white and once in gold card. I layered the white scallop circle on top of the gold, and added a white pierced circle for the sentiment. A die cut butterfly in gold finished it nicely....

See the die HERE in the Spellbinders store

Have you tried Foamiran? Fascinating stuff, a very thin foam, which you can die cut. I used white for my flowers and added colour by sponging on some oil based pastels. The fascination comes when you heat the foam (either by a hot air gun, or my preferred method of pressing the foam onto the plate of an iron set to a low setting, with no steam), and the petals curl and twist in a very natural way. You can get all sorts of colours, but I just use white and cream and add colour myself. Mine came from Amazon

Cosy Home - for Daring Cardmakers

This week on Daring Cardmakers,  the dare was set by Miri - her title is 'Cosy Home'

So here is a card that needs no special equipment apart from your trimmer, simple shapes cut out of patterned paper and assembled into three little houses on my card. I did punch out the gold heart, and added a stamped sentiment from Simon Says Stamp

Talking of cosy homes, could there be a worse week than this for the boiler (furnace for American friends...) to fail. 'it's a bit nippy this morning' I said, pulling on a second sweater. Two hours later 'it's REALLY cold today', going to warm my hands on the radiator. Only then did the penny drop, the radiators were stone cold. Luckily the guy who fitted a new boiler last year was working in a house just up the road, and came along in his lunch break to do some mysterious fiddling around with the controls, and everything fired up again.

 It made me think though, when I was a child, we had no central heating at all, I remember the patterns of the frost on the inside of the windows on a cold winter's day. My mum used to warm our clothes overnight on an airer in front of the range fire. Considering my early years, I should have grown up into some Spartan like hardy person, one of those women who wanders around in mid winter in a tee shirt.  Instead of which, by October I am wearing at least three layers, and making an art form of furtively turning up the heating thermostat while nobody is around! I could happily live in a tropical climate - no wonder I loved Florida so much.....

Splashing Puddles.....

A couple of cards made with  the lovely Memory Box Splashing Puddles die 

For this first one I inked the background, and added a cute little stamp by Inky Antics that I won as a door prize,  years ago, at a crop in Orlando. I knew as soon as I saw the die that the stamp would be perfect!

using the same die and inked background, but this time I dug out an old Penny Black stamp - those little frogs look really happy bouncing around in those puddles....this one will probably go to one of the grandchildren when I want to send an encouraging or 'well done' little note

Talking of happy, I wandered down the garden today to look at a fence panel that looks a bit battered after recent strong winds, and there, pushing up bravely through the frosty earth were some snowdrops, and signs of crocus and daffodils following on as well. Does anything lift the heart more on a cold February day than the thought that Spring is on it's way?  

New Daring Cardmakers Challenge......

Over on Daring Cardmakers this week, Dawn set the challenge with this elemental inspiration photo - be sure to pop over there to see what the design team came up with

I chose the large letter, balloons and the red, black and coral colours as my three elements for my card

A few of you have asked how Molly is coming along - the answer to that is totally adorable! Now a curly haired little poppet, she smiles and giggles her way through every day - joy!