NOT a Happy Bunny

I knew the good news from last week was too good to last.
We spent from Friday evening until lunchtime today without heat and hot water (miserable) - apparently it was a complicated (and b****y expensive) repair. The boiler is only 4 years old so I am not impressed.

Football tonight - Wayne Rooney scores after 64 seconds - all is well until Bayern Munich get their revenge for 1999 by equalising in the 77th min and then scoring again in 92nd.
But much, much worse....Wayne Rooney is injured and it doesn't look good. We play Chelsea on Saturday - guess they'll win the Premiership title. More importantly - will he be fit for the World Cup?!!!

DS slept late today so still hasn't made it home - now coming tomorrow.
At least the washing has been delayed!

I'm now going to bed in the hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

The Makeover

This is the title of week 2 of the Design Contest.

We had to use a new technique and push ourselves out of our comfort zone.

Cardstock - Bazzill
Papers - K&CO
Title - Cuttlebug and Sizzix "Mango Tango"
Stitching - pattern drawn freehand to match paper, Bazzill thread.
New technique - first attempt at using Tim Holtz fragments with ephemera suited to the 50's (the photo dates from 1956).
Was well out of my comfort zone as I used green papers and green is one of my least favourite colours!

Woohoo! Good News (for a change!).

Had some good news yesterday - my LO  "Me, Myself" (see post from 21st March) won the weekly prize, for those taking part in the design contest for fun, on Wescrap.

Am chuffed to bits as have never won anything for my scrapbooking before.
Will let you know what the prize is when it arrives - it might be some time though as it has to come from Canada.

My team also won the Card Tag Race.

This is my effort.

ATC Swap - April

Hi, girls!
The theme for this month is "Springtime" as chosen by Carole.

Here is the list of official swap partners:

SusieJ to Jenni
Gina to Maria
Alma to Donna
Carole to Bev
Jenni to Tania
Maria to Val
Donna to Gill
Bev to Sue-bubbles
Tania to SuzieB
Val to FionaK
Gill to Karen
Sue-bubbles to Joanne
SuzieB to Carole
FionaK to Alma
Karen to SusieJ
Joanne to Gina


I've posted this a bit early but with Easter coming up I know we'll all be busy (I envisage lots of washing for me when DS comes home from Uni!).

As always the commitment is to make one ATC but you're welcome to make more and send them to others on the list.

Any questions or need for addresses please contact either Gina or me.
Have fun!

Blast From the Past

Personalize a collage

This is the title of the basic sketch I adapted from the My Mind's Eye website.
All the papers are from the special kit provided at the crop on Friday at A Maze of Memories.
Stitching done using Bazzill InStitchz template and thread.
Images and acetate from Crafty Individuals.
Camera by K&CO - Cut''n' Paste
Title - Thickers
Photo is of my Uncle Bob who died a couple of years ago. He was married to my Dad's sister Grace for over 60 years.

Home Alone, Headbanging and Housework Songs

Yes - at last !!!! I've had a day at home alone (apart from Max). TV has been off and my choice of music has been playing - at a somewhat loud volume! Just as well we live in
a detached house!
First up was the Headbangers Bible- oh yes! I am an  original headbanger - the first group I saw live was Deep Purple (Newcastle City Hall). Followed.. this up with Led Zeppelin and Free. Max was not at all impressed with my headbanging so moved on to Housework songs - and yes, I will survive! And does anyone else remember The Monkees? Daydream Believer is a "housework" song! Go figure.
In amongst the washing and other housewifely (?) stuff I did do some scrapping - pic will be uploaded tomorrow.
For now you'll have to make do with my stash from the w/end.

I have been coveting these stamps for months but at £25 couldn't justify buying them. However, the wholesaler is stopping selling them so Christina got them at a bargain price and we were able to buy them at less than half price! Result!

Me,Myself

This is the title of my latest LO - made on Friday evening at our crop at A Maze of Memories.
It was made for a designer contest on the Wescrap website (I'm entering for fun only).
Cardstock is Bazzill (Marigold and Admiral), patterned paper/chipboard butterfly are Basic Grey "Ambrosia", cork from stash,lacing brads are Karen Foster,journalling strips are My Mind's Eye "Life Stories",twine, title cut using Alphalicious on the Cricut.
I had fun doing this (and a card which can't be revealed yet) and still have the mini-kit from the evening to use too.

As always it was a lovely evening and it really got me back into the swing of scrapping - it also helped that I spent some money on stash (will put a pic of that on next post !).

A Gallimaufry

Or a mixture , a medley.

Below is a slideshow of my latest bits and pieces.

Make your own free slideshow design

I need to pass on  congratulations  - some of them belated.

1. Well done United on retaining the Carling Cup - first trophy of the season.

2. Well done Paul Scholes on reaching 100 goals in the Premiership (19th player to do this).

3. Well done Arsenal on a great win against Porto (put in for my DS)!

4. Well done United on beating AC Milan so comprehensively  - do hope that Leonardo keeps his job though as he's still yummy!

5. Well done  (NOT) to my DS who texted me during the match to say that AC Milan must be playing c**p if Fletcher scored. He's very underrated as a player - so there!

6. A special well done to Wigan and Lille for beating Liverpool (I'm a United supporter - enough said).

And now some special thanks:

1. To Stephen Fry and the QI team for reminding me of the word "gallimaufry" - it just rolls off the tongue.

2. To Christina at A Maze of Memories for organising some brilliant classes (and saving me a place!). Looking forward to "Shimmer and Shine" on 10th April (perfect pearls - yay!!) and Altered Art Mirror on 1st May (a whole day of Tim Holtz techniques - double yay!!!!). Also doing "Chocolate Heaven" on 3rd April (will we have real choc samples?lol) and an evening crop in May.

3. To Linwood Barclay for his latest novel "Fear the Worst" - another real page turner (it arrived from Amazon yesterday and I've finished it - now to pass it on to Audrey).

Wishing you all fabulous weekends.
I have a couple of footie matches, a Grand Prix and an Indy Car race to watch; a pile of the dreaded "i" word to do and I plan to continue my experimenting with Tim Holtz techniques - hopefully with better results than my foray into the world of distress embossing - it was pathetic (and that's being kind!).

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there.

A Motto to Live By!

Found this on Gen's Blog  and just had to copy it! Thanks Gen!

No class for me this w/end but I do plan on crafting - my March ATCs need a finishing touch. Spent yesterday in a fog of tiredness after a good day out on Thursday (one of our Cross Channel trips ). Spent the morning covering a plain black box (from some Christmas smellies) in pretty paper and making sparkly flowers to go on top. It was only after I'd posted it, packed with b'day pressies for my friend Lynda tht I realised I hadn't taken a photo - doh! Also forgot my camera on Thursday - oh well the windswept look doesn't suit me anyway!

Sue xx

Some People Have All The Luck!

Went up to A Maze of Memories for a class on Saturday and there on the wall was the most beautiful mirror made by Christina at a Ranger on the Road workshop.
Not only was the workshop led by Suze Weinberg, Claudine Helmuth and Tim Holtz but Tim helped Christina with her first go using a melting pot! How lucky is that?!
Any chance you can get Tim to come and lead a session?

The good news is that we will be having sessions teaching us the techniques and the shop will have lots of Ranger goodies. Can't wait!

The class on Saturday was "School Days".

Since I've already done a few LO's of my own and Nicholas's school days I decided to use a photo from my early teaching career (circa 1979).
We used Black Magic (lots of sanding and embossing), Bazzill and Basic Grey.
The photo is on a flap so there's room for more photos underneath (when I track them down!).
There are three pockets on the other side of the LO with lots of tags and a mini report book for journalling.

Had a lovely morning of "me time"

ATC Swap

Here are the three ATCs I made for the Feb. swap (all safely received!):

And this is the beautiful ATC I received from Fiona:
Thanks Fiona!


Hope you're all still enjoying the swap!