Something New

To celebrate the new year, Scrummy Stash Cafe blog has a challenge to use the theme 'new'. I made a new home card, using a new stamping wheel by Stampin' Up! and colouring the houses with various Sakura pens. The letters are by American Crafts and Papermania (felt).

Children's games

I had fun creating this layout about the games I played when I was a child. Children nowadays lose out because they're kept indoors all day and get driven to school. Why I do not know: the number of child murders and abductions has more or less stayed the same since the 60's. Paedophilia is more openly discussed and known about, whereas a few years ago paedeophiles stalked children from the innocent offices of cubs, brownies, the church and so on.

When I was a kid we went out all day to play. We only came back at tea-time. And what fun we had. Going to the fields behind our houses picking bluebells. Creating a den in the undergrowth at Harewood House and looking for murders in the Spy Club. Picking blackberries or beech nuts. Creating a play, usually "the ghost in the noon day sun", with the theatre's "curtains" suspended from the clothes line in the garden. Driving up and down in Henry, the formidable go-kart my dad built for me. And having fights with the kids from "the enemy end" at the bottom of the road. Oh, and skipping. Long hours spent skipping. Must have been wonderfully fit.

Supplies: pp - BasicGrey Two Scoops; Stampington. Wings rub-on: Hambly; letters - Papermania; chipboard arrow: Stampin' Up; kitten - Lakeland.

Using ribbon

Latest challenge at the Scrummy Stash Cafe Blog is to use ribbon. I love using ribbon though it's sometimes difficult to stick the damned stuff down, particularly if it's thin. This card I made on Sunday uses two types of ribbon. It's my favourite Hanna stamp and I coloured it in with pencils and gelly roll pens. I embossed the "But I need it" title in copper. The blue paper is by Twelveby12.

I also made a couple of Easter cards. Here's one, which is a lily decoupage I highlighted with glitter. I always associate lilies with Easter because of the glorious heady scent of lilies in Buckfast Abbey when we visited one Easter. The decoupage pack (including card blank) came from Lakeland and the ribbon sticker is by Papermania. The Easter greeting was free with a magazine last year.

Finished the Christmas cards!

I've now made 26 Christmas cards, which is nowhere near enough but I decided I wouldn't send a hand-made card to everyone. Last year I made around 55. As you cardmakers will know, a lot of people don't appreciate handmade cards very much so I'm only sending them now to close friends and family.

It didn't cost me much to make my cards this year because I had a LOT of supplies left over from last year and I made good use of a free stamp that came with Papercraft Essentials. I did buy some snowflake stick-ons and a snowflake punch, and these were fab. I also bought some large aperture card blanks which make "special" cards, and some great texured card blanks from Papermania. Well worth the investment.

I've grouped some of the cards together to give an overview of what I made.

Sourcing stash in Devon

Well I'm back from a week of sightseeing with my mum down in Plymouth. And during our day trips, a few craft shops were visited and some stash purchased (it would be churlish not to).

The photo shows the stash in all its glory. Didn't realise it was so much!

In Exmouth I went to Japonica in The Parade and was well impressed by the quality of the stash (gorgeous K&Co papers and albums, for example.) There I bought some Woodware red velvet paper, which I thought would be excellent for Christmas cards, a tag punch and a gold acrylic paint dabber.

Plymouth has several craft shops and in CDS/The Range (very large range indeed!) I treated myself to a new lilac scrapbook album, Papermania chipboard Christmas embellishments, shrink plastic, Papermania gold embellishments, parchment paper, card blanks, micro beads, a sea horse rubber stamp, something similar to magic mesh and some silver glitter letters. Finally, in Endsleigh garden centre on the A38 near Ivybridge, I bought two Sakura gelly roll pens and some tiny shells.

When I got home, I found I had a stash delivery from BG Payne - some silver and cream double gatefold aperture cards, a pink Ink It Up pad and pink embossing powder.

Most of the stuff I bought was on my list and intended for various projects. With the seashells and sea horse I can now start my long awaited canvas. It's going to be seaside themed in shades of turquoise and mauve. With the tag punch, magic mesh and some UTEE I bought before the holiday, I can create a gorgeous golden wedding anniversary card I've been visualising. The aperture gatefold cards are for some special birthday cards for next year. The parchment paper is to try dry embossing. I recently used the Fiskars ScrapBoss and embossed the edges of a scrapbook layout. I was quite impressed with the results and have numerous embossing boards that were free with magazines, so I thought I would try it on cards. The various Christmas embellishments will be used making cards and for scrapbook layouts.