Blogtoberfest 2014 - Day 31 - Halloween and the last day of Blogtoberfest!!

Well here we are on Halloween and the last day of Blogtoberfest - a big round of applause for all those that have managed to post for 31 days, a big thank you to Shells for organising again and thank you to all my lovely blog readers who have been posting comments - I hope I haven't bored/irritated you too much by posting everyday!!

And as luck would have it I have found a Halloween themed layout that I haven't blogged before - I made this for my November page in my Document 2011 album.  My niece Milly had a horror themed 21st birthday party and everyone joined in with ghoulish fancy dress.

 

I'm not entirely sure what brand the paper is - it might be Bella Boulevard or My Mind's Eye.  The title is done with American Crafts Thickers and the paper flowers are from my stash.

I also found a card that I made for a crafty friend.  She is a digi-image (sadly the company doesn't exist anymore) and is called Red Heart Fairy but I always think of her as a vampire fairy, she does have a real vampish look about her.  The sentiment is by Lili of the Valley.

 

Blogtoberfest 2014 - Day 30 - Throwback Thursday

I made my first batch of mince pies this week and that got me thinking about the couple of layouts that I have done in the past about my mince pies.  I have always called them Cheat's Mince Pies as I use frozen pastry and for the mincemeat I buy the cheapest available and zoosch it up with the addition of cranberries, glace cherries and a generous glug of Cointreau!!

These are the ones that I made on Tuesday and they have passed the Mr P taste test!!

They first featured in my 2009 Journal your Christmas book -

 

And in 2010 I did a full size layout about them for Scrap Like You Mean It

 I used a Sarah's Cards kit - I think the papers might be Cosmo Cricket

Blogtoberfest 2014 - Day 29 - WOYWW #282

Gosh these Wednesday's roll round so quickly, I swear we only had one last week!!!

Well if it is Wednesday, it is time to pay a visit to Julia's desk and share What's on your Workdesk Wednesday.  So this is how my dining room table was looking for most of the weekend -

 I thought I would be brave and show what the whole table looks like.  I spent most of the weekend making cards for my fundraiser and did 15 birthday cards and 18 Christmas cards in the end - I will blog them all properly soon but here is a quick peek at some of the birthday cards.

And currently on my laptray is this -

A new to me Woodware stamp which I am colouring in with Promarkers

Blogtoberfest 2014 - Day 28 - Little boxes

Whilst away in the south west for a week I got to go over to Mere and take a class with the lovely Fiona from Staring at the Sea.  She showed us to how to make a lovely little box with a matching card.

We had a choice of using festive colours or more spring like ones - I opted for the festive colours.

Thank you for a lovely class Fiona.

And Fiona was on my Pass it Forward gift list so I remembered to make a little gift for her - some Christmas Yankee tealights in a little box.

 

I made the box following these instructions and decorated it with some lovely holly stamps from Crafty Impressions and SU inks Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green.  The tag was made using the Stampin Up tag topper punch.

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 27 - Me on Monday

It was a cardmaking marathon, heating on for the first time, naughty dinner eating, Strictly watching, wine drinking, crisp eating, knitted toy sewing up, hooray for an extra hour in bed kind of weekend.  The weather was grey, dreary and damp but I didn't care as I was tucked up warm indoors manically making more cards for my fundraiser (less than two weeks to go and I managed to make another 15 birthday cards and 18 Christmas cards).

 

By contrast today is sunny and warm with blue skies and I am back to wearing a summer shirt, though I suspect as soon as we lose the sun I will have to put a cardi back on!!

Every 3 weeks on a Monday you will find me doing this - unpacking my regular Avon delivery

I'm a bing bong Avon calling lady, though I don't do a round, I just sell to family and friends.

Well I had better get on - Avon orders do not unpack themselves!!  And I need to go and give a wave to Sian (From High in the Sky) who started Me on Monday.

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 26 - Love you to the moon and back

This is the second page that we did at Anita's September class using Authentique 'Strong' papers

I used a couple of photographs of Mr P from our 2011 Icelandic cruise.  I love the folded paper piece across the bottom but have already forgotten how we did it - ooops!!

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 25 - Beat the Christmas Rush

It is the 25th so that means it is the day to link up with Sue's Beat the Christmas Rush.  I am killing two birds with one stone this month and combining this challenge with the Scrapology card challenge which is to make Christmas cards in Blue and Silver.

Remember the embossed silver cardstock and blue die cut snowflakes that were littering my desk for WOYWW well they became these (and let me tell you they were a right pig to photograph due to the holographic nature of the silver cardstock!!) -

I made 5 cards using two different Cuttlebug snowflake folders and then stuck various die cut snowflakes over the top mainly using  Joy crafts, Cuttlebug and Penny Black dies.  I then accented the snowflakes with clear and blue gemstones from my stash.  The sentiment is by Penny Black and I used Stampin' Up punches for the mats.

Please excuse the awful quality of the photographs I tried so many different ways of trying to get a decent picture - in the end I had to stand really far away with no flash on and zoom in :(

There is still time to enter the Scrapology card challenge as it doesn't close till 15th November.

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 24 - Stretchy bracelets

I try to have plenty of stocking filler style gifts on my stall when I do my fundraisers and I have found these little stretchy bracelets are inexpensive to make and very popular.  I have these all ready to sell at my fundraiser next month.

Since taking these photographs I have already sold both of the skull bracelets - I hope I can get some more of these beads as they have been very popular.

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 23 - Throwback Thursday (Happy New Year and Tandoori Nights)

It's Thursday and time for another blast from the past - I seem to have a lot in my 'to be blogged' folder that never made it here at the time.

Last year I missed a few people with Christmas cards so decided to send them a Happy New Year card instead.  I always miss all the extra mail dropping on the doormat so hopefully getting an unexpected card on a dull, dreary January day brought a little bit of cheer to some people.

I used some of my favourite Penny Black stamps and stamped them directly onto the card and coloured them with Promarkers. The sentiment is by Kaisercraft.  A bit of Stardust Stickles was added for some sparkle.

Today Wendy has shared a layout that she did in 2010 using a photograph from a post crop meal out.  At the time she challenged myself and Sy to use the same photograph and do a layout as well.  I did blog mine at the time here but thought I would pop it up here as well - notice that I did pinch Wendy's title!!

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 22 - WOYWW #281

It is Wednesday therefore it means it is time to fess up and show off the clutter that is on the dining room table.  I do promise you that I do clear this away when we need to eat - can be a right pain sometimes, but apart from my laptray it is the only work space that I have.

So on the dining room table I have some panels of silver cardstock that I have embossed and a pile of diecut snowflakes - they are for the Christmas cards that I have made for this month's Beat the Christmas rush and I will share them on the 25th.  In the background is my laptop - I often listen to crafty podcasts or watch videos on Youtube whilst crafting.  And the mug is my favourite Marillion one that I love to drink peppermint tea from.  At the front left are my Perfect Layers tool - my most used crafting tool - so much so that I have just treated myself to the larger size for scrapbooking.

And on my laptray I have -

Some Christmas cards that are a work in progress plus a pile of papers ready for other cards that I'm making.  These scissors are my favourite - they are Fiskars and have lovely large handles (I struggle with scissors as I have arthritis in my hands and my hands often lock onto the scissors with small handle), despite the large handles the blades have very fine tips and are brilliant for fussy cutting, I would be devestated if anything happened to these or I lost them as Fiskars don't seem to make them anymore.

If you want to join in or take a peek at other desks then head over to Julia's blog

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 21 - Bon Voyage

I have found another crafting blast from the past that I haven't blogged yet.  Over a year ago one of our lovely Meadow Barn friends Alison returned home to Australia with her husband and twin sons.  We were all very sad to see her go and she is much missed at our annual crafty weekend away (though we did have fun Skyping with her this year).  We all made a page to go in an album to celebrate our friendship so that hopefully she doesn't forget us.

I actually first met Alison many years ago when we use to go to Debden for an annual crafty retreat and before we discovered Meadow Barn we had our first Twilight Addicts retreat at a place called Peacehaven on the edge of the Cotswolds.  I used a group photograph from the Peacehaven retreat for my page.

I didn't record at the time what papers I used - I know they are kit leftovers and might be a mixture of October Afternoon and MME.  The punched butterflies are Martha Stewart and the chevrons are a Stampin' Up punch.

As well as making the page I also made a little Bon Voyage card using this sweet Penny Black stamp.

The paper is from a cruise themed set by Sandylion and the large sentiment is by Penny Black, the smaller sentiment is Personal Impressions.

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 20 - Me on Monday

Hello Monday, well here you are again!!

It was a summer shirt wearing, pie and mash eating, snowflake die cutting, Christmas card making, restocking my cards for sale box weekend.  Only three weeks to my big open house fundraiser that I do each year and as I sold plenty of cards and all my post it note pads at my last fundraiser I do need to make new stock.  So my weekends are very much taken up with that at the moment.

So Monday finds me with a dilemma or dimella as we call them at Parkhurst Towers, I really really want to play with new crafty stuff that was delivered this morning.

But instead I find myself doing this - oh well I suppose I can always do something crafty this evening.  I will feel virtuous if I can empty the ironing basket today!!

If you want to share all about your Monday plans then pop along and give Sian from High in the Sky a wave

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 19 - I Love My Daddy

Our September class with the lovely Anita we used some lovely male themed papers from Authentique 'Strong' range and made two layouts.

This is the first one using phototgraphs of myself and my niece Chloe with my lovely Dad at one of my nephews' 18th birthday meal -

I will share the second layout very soon.

Blogtoberfest 2014 Day 18 - My 50th birthday cards

I was very lucky to receive a large amount of cards for my 50th birthday and quite a number of them were hand-crafted.  Even though I took my cards down a couple of weeks ago I have still left the handmade ones up as they make me smile so much.  I am sure none of these lovely ladies will mind if I share the cards that they made for me.

From Lee -

 From Fiona -

 

From Lisa -

From Anita -

From Marion -

 From Sarah -

From Jacqui -

From Wendy -

From Christine -

 

Thank you ladies I loved all my cards xxx