Autumn Sparkles

This glorious Autumn weather is really spoiling us isn't it. It's been fantastic here today, sunny and mild. We went to Harewood House to make the most of it and had a lovely walk round catching up with all our bird friends and Freya enjoyed the Scarecrow Trail, although we didn't manage to find them all. We even managed our lunch in the fresh air, on the last day of October, would you believe it. Although the leaves are falling quickly now I still managed to take plenty of lovely Autumnal photos.


I've also made a start on my Christmas cards, about time I know and the Simon Says Stamp challenge this week is "All that sparkles" so I've decided to enter my first effort as there's plenty of glitter paper and stickles been used, although it's not so obvious from the photo, apologies again for the poor light. I'm going to have to sort out how to photograph them better during the winter months.


The tree was inspired by one I'd seen that had been cut with a Spellbinders Pine tree die but me being me made my own tree template and hand cut each layer out of DCWV Christmas papers. It folds flat for posting but gives a lovely 3D effect. The greeting was taken from a stamp I've had for ages but I liked the modern look of it.


Before I sign off tonight I'd just like to thank Carol for becoming my 40th follower. You don't know how chuffed I am to have reached 40. I was so happy that just one person was following my ramblings when I first started out in Blogland not that long ago, so to get to 40 is amazing.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

All Sorted

Thank you so much for all your help again and your lovely comments. Thankfully, with Anne's help and finding out I've been a bit of a plonker everything is all sorted out now. Sorry if I've made a right mountain out of a molehill, I'll try not to do it again.

Sally made a lovely comment about my cakes and this reminded me I haven't shown you any sugar craft for ages. It tends to go on in the background and I forget to include it so I thought I'd show you a photo of a flower spray I've been making for a Diamond Wedding Anniversary. Isn't that impressive, 60 years!!!!!


My Mum In Law has made the cake for her friends but asked me to make the spray. It was quite difficult to come up with something suitable but in the end I found this spray in my trusty Alan Dunn books of an Orchid and silver chillies and leaves. I've added some sparkle to the chillies for the diamonds!

Apologies for the poor photo, it's so difficult to get anything decent when you don't have a cake to put them on and the light was so poor I had to use a slight flash to get the sparkle but not wash the colours out.

Thank you for visiting and have a lovely weekend.

More Help Please

Thanks so much for your fantastic suggestions. I loved the Crafty Gardener but after googling it there were several others, so I've been really boring and am going to go with Lisa's Craft Garden, well you know who I am after all!!!!

Anyway, it's late and I've got all muddled and now can't find out how to alter my header. It doesn't have an edit on the Layout and all I want to do is import my altered Photoshop header but I don't know how. Blogger help has been no help at all but I know you clever people will be able to sort it out for computer illiterate old me .

Sorry I'm being such an old fuss pot, I know there are more important things in life. Once I've sorted this I've got lots to show you.

I'm off to bed now, my head hurts!!!!

I've Been Cloned!!

Well, would you believe it, I've just discovered I've got a doppelganger, a double, a twin. What is she going on about? you might ask.

I was doing a bit of blog hopping before tea to catch up on what everyones been up to and there it was, a link to The Craft Garden and not MY Craft Garden. I had to have a look to see who this was and it wasn't me. Being the curious type I had a nosey and to my relief I hadn't copied anyone else's name.

So now I have a dilemma and I need your creative help. I don't like being a twin so I need to tweak my name slightly to make it mine again. I've decided to sleep on it to see what comes to me in the middle of the night, the time when the best ideas usually appear!!

But I would welcome suggestions please.


To help get those juices flowing and because I don't like posting without a photo, I thought I'd share a picture of a really unusual plant I have flowering in the garden at the minute. It's called a Nerine and it throws up lovely leaves in the summer which die off completely and disappear making you think it's died and then all of a sudden these pretty flowers appear in October and last well into November. A really lovely plant to have.

Thoughts Of Summer

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend and enjoyed your extra hour in bed.


It's been a wet and windy weekend here and although we did venture out it wasn't for long. Freya needed some winter boots so we had a drive over to Ilkley, at least we knew we could get a lovely cup of coffee at the same time, a must when we go shopping anywhere. She now has a very nice pair of boots and the cats have a big box to sleep in!!!


Both afternoons were spent crafting, a real luxury and I managed to finish a mini book I've been working on for a few days now. I've always been taken with word books, but not the cost of a template to make them, well I am from Yorkshire!!!! so I printed off some large letters from the computer, worked out the measurements for the pages and hey presto, with a bit of time and effort I've made a book of a holiday in Lake Garda we had quite a few years ago now, it was before I started Scrapbooking so there wasn't the wealth of photos to choose from, but I had plenty to complete my project.


The letters were painted with H20's and the swirls stamped with Walnut Stain distress ink which was also sponged around the edges so that they looked a little bit 3D. The first page had a cuttlebugged cover which had been sprayed with glimmer mists.


The main bp was Rouge de Garance, Jardin Secret. They are much brighter papers than I would usually choose but they matched the colours of Italy well. Each page was edged with a swirl and the embellishments were all chipboard, painted with H20's and Cosmic Shimmer watercolours which can be painted on really thickly to get a lovely shimmer.


Although the initial printing of the letters and working out the page sizes was time consuming I think it's been far more satisfying to complete something from start to finish and also I haven't spent even 1p, everything I've used was already in my stash or handmade!!!

Thank you for visiting and all the lovely comments you leave me. I appreciate them so much.

Such Dark Weather

I'm glad to see from your comments I'm not totally nuts and lots of other people have embossed in funny places!!

Is it dark and dull where you are or are you lucky enough to be having some sunshine?

I've had to have a light on all week and it's been impossible to take any decent photos of anything so I'm going to have to show you a card I made for a friend's birthday ages ago and it's similar to ones you've seen before so apologises for that. I am working on something at the moment but it's not finished yet!!


I made this card for one of our lovely neighbours whose well into her seventies but is so active and always on the go she puts me to shame. She loves flowers but hates pink so I had to try using colours that are totally different for me. I quite like them now though. The stamps were Elusive Images Wildflowers and the inks were colourbox pigments.


While I had my stamps out I did another strip in different colours and layered it up with some cuttlebugging.

I hope your week is going well and thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Embossing In A Power Cut!!

I got home from doing my shopping last Thursday to find we had a power cut. I don't know about you but you don't realise how much you use power until it's not there.

I threw my shopping in the fridge and freezer as quick as I could so that the doors were not open too long, made a sandwich and thought I can't sit in silence and eat it so I went hunting for my battery travel speakers and hooked up my Ipod. Music, great!!!!

I then decided I'd make a birthday card for my blogging friend Lynne and it was all going really well, one of those cards that just flowed, which is rare for me. I stamped out the birds, applied the embossing powder, got out the heat gun and then...........how do I plug this in I thought!!!! Now what do I do. Think Think Think. Mmmm I wonder if I can emboss it on the gas ring. After hunting round for a lighter to light the gas, I put the smallest ring on the lowest setting and held the card over and hey presto the powder melted. I did keep checking I wasn't setting fire to the other side!!!! Just shows what you can do when you have to!!


Anyway, this is the end result. The birds (from Crafty Individuals) were stamped onto moonglow spritzed card and embossed with clear powder. I stamped the hearts onto a scrap of card I'd used to wipe up some overspraying of glimmer mist from another project. These were cut out, decoupaged and glossy accents applied.


The cuttlebugged background had matching colourbox inks swipped over and I must say I was quite pleased with the results. The greeting was from a Kay Carley Flitters and Flutters stamp set.

Thankfully the power came back on after about three hours so I could have a much need cuppa!!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and I hope you enjoyed your special day Lynne.

Thank you as always for visiting.

For The Love Of Grunge!!

What a week.

People always say to me, oh you must have so much free time now you don't go out to work!! If only they knew. I think I'm far busier now than when I did work everyday and you don't clock off and relax at 5pm either. Not that I'm complaining, I love being at home, but this week has been mad.

I was a parent helper on Wednesday taking 50 children to the theatre in Bradford to see The Gruffolo which was fantastic. The kids loved it and joined in heartily and I think the grown ups enjoyed it just as much. It was so cleverly done, full of humour and catchy songs. We then went to the park for a picnic and a walk. The weather was cloudy but it stayed fine so was a lovely day out and the kids are great fun. I love helping out but it's really tiring. I was asleep in front of the telly by 8pm!!!!

Yesterday was a visit to the dentist, shopping and Parents Evening. I'm glad all thats over. Teachers (apologises to all you teachers out there) have a knack at making you feel inadequate as a parent sometimes. It may be partly down to the fact that Freya goes to the same school as I did many moons ago and some of the same teachers are still there. You never loose that feeling of being a lesser being I suppose.

Then to cap it all, we had to call the TV repair man out, we have a very fetching pink line down the middle of our TV and when he came this morning he said it has to be taken away to see if they can repair it which means we're back to watching a portable for a week. We don't watch it that much but I love my Strictly Come Dancing and it'll be weird to watch it on a a little TV. Still we'll manage, it's hardly a problem in the scheme of things.

Oh dear, I do seem to have had a moan this morning, I'm so sorry, some of you are having really difficult days I know so I have nothing to complain about.

So down to crafty things!! I've just discovered the fantastic grungeboard. What wonderful stuff. There is no limit to what you can do with it and it feels and smells just like leather.

I've started off with having a go at making some jewellery with it, inspired by the watch straps Sheena Douglas made on Create and Craft some weeks ago and these are the results.


The circles were cut using Nestabilities. They didn't cut right through so I finished off with a craft knife but you still end up with a perfect circle which is impossible to get with scissors. I embossed them with the swirls folder and then spritzed with glimmer mist and over sprayed with gold spray to get a lovely sheen. The swirls were highlighted with a matching gel pen. You can play to your hearts content, it was great fun. I punched a hole with a crop o dile and attached a brad to strengthen the hole.


For this one I drew round one of the leaf designs on the Elusive Images Diamante Delights sheet, cut it out, embossed and sprayed it in the same way.


The last ones were stamped with the same stamp and then inked with distress ink. I then overstamped the design and embossed to get a bit of a shine. The green one had copper cosmic shimmer sprayed on it.

I like the rougher surface of these, they look like leather in real life.

I have played with other things but I'll save these for another day. I've rambled on enough today and I don't want to bore you to tears.

Thanks as always for visiting and have a great weekend whatever you are doing.

Beautiful Autumn Colours

I hope your weekend was a good one and the weather was kind to you. It was glorious here. I just had to take some photos of this lovely new rose I planted a few months ago. It was from the bargain basket of our local DIY store and when I went out yesterday it was looking lovely in the late afternoon sunshine. Just shows you don't have to spend a fortune to get beautiful flowers.

The Autumn colours are beginning to look their best at the moment here, although it'll be a few more weeks before the trees provide that dazzling display that sets this time of the year alive and the lovely weather we've been having helps to make up for the dismal Summer. I love the mellowness of Autumn although I don't like the nights drawing in and the cold mornings!!

So many challenges seem to have an Autumn theme at the minute so I thought I'd get two in in one go again with another tag. Tuesday Taggers have the theme of "Shades of Autumn" and By The Cute and Girly's theme is "Autumn Glory".


My resolution of not buying craft things and using what I have seems to have slipped rather badly at the minute and I just had to give in and buy the beautiful Diamante Delights Elusive Images themeplate I've had my eye on for years, which is what I've used for this tag.


The flower was stamped out three times and painted with H20's, glitter was added and then it was decoupaged. I blended various colours of ink onto the tag and randomly stamped with various Heidi Grace stamps to create a background and then drew on the stitches with a brown gel pen.

Thank you for visiting and I hope your Monday is going well. I must apologise for not visiting all your lovely blogs lately. Spare time just seems incredibly short at the minute. I will try and get round them in the next few days. I don't want to miss out on anything!!

Where Does The Time Go!!

I can't believe it's Thursday already. Where are the weeks going, I really don't know, sometimes I wish they'd slow down just a bit.

I'd better get on with this post otherwise it'll be Monday again and I won't have done it!

Firstly I'd just like to say a huge thank you for all the lovely comments I've had recently. I love reading them and they are always full of such wonderful encouragement. The crafty blogland community is a lovely place to belong too.

It was my best friend's Wedding Anniversay back in September and this was the card I made for her.


Those trusty Inkadinkadoo mindscapes stamps again. I just love them. This time I inked them with the Muted Moods set of Colorbox inks which are beautiful. The image was clear embossed. The BP is an offcut of pink paper in my scrap box which was cuttlebugged and some darker pink ink wiped over to highlight the embossing. The blue BP was off cuts of Basic Grey.

The flowers were darkened with the same inks to match and some stickles and gems added.

I really must try using some of the sketches out there to alter my style. When I look back at my cards, they all tend to be laid out the same. It must be time for a change.

Thank you for visiting and I hope your week is going well.

Autumn Trees

I really tempted fate last time by saying how nice the garden looked didn't I? What happened, we had gale force winds on Saturday that blew all the leaves off, broke down the lovely grasses and left the garden looking decidedly the worst for wear. I've put most of it right now, but it's definitely past it's best!!!! Still, looking on the bright side, at least the sun is still shining.

There seems to be lots of challenges out there at the moment which all have similar themes, so I have combined one tag for two challenges this week, hope that's ok.


I blended lots of lovely coloured inks all over the tag to try and re create that lovely misty sky you get as the sun goes down in the Autumn. It seems to be on fire and the leaves on the floor are reflected in the sky. The tree stamp was from Crafty Individuals and I inked it in very dark blue and clear embossed it.

Tuesday Taggers have the theme of Trees sponsored by The Craft Barn and the Dragon' s Tag It On has the theme of Autumn so I hope my Tag fits both.

Thank you for visiting and I hope your Monday has gone well.

Some Scrapbooking At Last

I've been a really bad blogger lately, please forgive me. For once, I've done more crafting than blogging. I thought it was about time to dedicate some serious time to all the things I want to do and I've had a lot of cards to make for various occasions which have kept me busy. I will show you those at a later time.


The other reason has been this gorgeous weather we've been having. After the poor summer and the impending winter I've been spending every spare minute in my garden trying to get things sorted out and just enjoying being in it. It's looked a mess all though the rain but with the warm sunshine everything has suddenly come good and it's looking great at the minute. There are still bits left to do but we have got a bin strike on here at the minute and my garden bin and compost bin are full to overflowing and so there's nowhere to put anymore for the time being. At least the rubbish bin has been emptied and that's more than a lot of people have had so I'm not grumbling!


So what have I been doing with all this crafting time. Well, my scrapbooking mojo has finally returned thank goodness, it's been absent for awhile and I hate it, scrapbooking is my real relaxation time, and this is the first page I've made in ages.


I've grown chillies for the first time this year and they are so pretty I had to take some photos of them. The colours are great and the papers picked them up perfectly. I mixed Basic Grey BP with some cuttlebugged Coredinations that was then sanded back.


The embellishments were cut out of Imagination Project paper I've had for ages and it lent itself to being used for journalling on too. The title was cut from two different Sissix alphabets using Coredinations pearl and matt card. A bit of vellum and some gems finished things off.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a great weekend whatever the weather.