Tired, oh so tired...

I worked last night, had the pleasure of looking after another lovely woman having her first baby, hope all went well today with the birth. But...only slept for 2 hours this morning...feel like I've got jet lag - where's the matchsticks for me eyes? In addition, my left wrist is a bit sore. In a rash moment, I volunteered to let one of my colleagues practice putting a drip up on me, which involved a sharp object going into my vein. As my last experience of this was when my youngest was being born almost 11 years ago, I'd forgotten how much it b****y well hurts. Serves me right I suppose. A nice glass of cider tonight might numb it though.

So no cards made yesterday or today (although me and Julie did make 40 wedding invitations on Saturday) so I thought I'd post a photo of a card I made in December for my mum's birthday. I stamped with white Staz-on onto acetate, then layered all my embellies (check out the bling on those flutterbies!) The sentiment and stamped frame are by Hero arts (luv this company, as much as I luv Stampin' Up).

I have a slight obsession with butterflies BTW. Actually, I have only realised in the last few months that I am addicted to them , I'll have to count up what I own! They seem to exert a magnetic force on me (much like the Copics) and end up coming home with me.

'My name is Alison and I'm a butterfly-a-holic...'

Dig out the duster

So I didn't post yesterday, because (wait for it, cue drum roll..) I did lots of cleaning! Generally I don't like cleaning, but if I'm in the mood, I have to do it immediately, before I go off the idea. It's all down to watching a cleaning presentation on QVC, it made me want to dig out the duster. It also affects me if there's a beauty hour - I go and tart myself up for no good reason. Strangely though, the craft hours have no strong effect anymore, I seem to have developed immunity.

So last night as well as doing colouring-in using the Copics, I put the finishing touches on this card, it's for my mum's friend, Sandy. She doesn't look or act 70!

In the interest of using up the stash, I've used some old K&CO papers and stickers, gold mirri, my QK monarch butterfly die and flatback pearls, C5 size. I've done this style of card for a few 'comissions' lately, it's been well received.

Hippy chick

This is what I made today, I think it's turned out a bit busy. I'm nibbling away at the Basic Grey stash pile, trying to use it up. The Kraft CS tones down some of those bright colours and I've replaced that red felt flower with a green one and it looks better. This design is a 'lift' from a beautiful card that Teri sent me, only hers is nicer! For anyone who's interested, I've used my new Stampin Up wheel 'It's Beautiful' down the left side of the CS, wheeled in versamark, then heat embossed with sparkly EP. That design looked FAB heat embossed in white EP on Kraft CS, BTW. But I need the wheel guide - my wheel driving's pretty bad!

I've spent the day making this and sorting (or should that be 'rearranging' ) stash LOL. At the last minute, before kids/DH came home, I did a bit of housework to look like I'd been busy all day!

I might do another Easter Basket tonight, I found a link on Monica's blog to show you how to create these - they're super-easy and look great! I shortened my basket strips to make my basket shorter and fatter (like Me!) as the first one hid my Lindt choccy bunny completely. I've even done my own shredded paper for the inside (using up that old stash of HOTP paper anyway I can!)

Single handedly keeping the art shop trading

Look at what arrived in the post today - rubber goodness! I've previously bought stamped images from ebay, which were fine with the prisma pencils and solvent. 'Cept I didn't like the skin coloured with the pencils.

I decided to try some Copic markers. I found that the stamped images were stamped on basic CS, and also they were stamped in Staz-on - neither of which are great with Copics. So then I had to buy some Bristol board card, then I had to buy some cute stamps and then... (can you see a trend here?)... some more Copics.

I balked at the cost of a set initially, "I'll just buy skin tones" I reassured myself. Which would still be true if you were an alien with 'B93 light crockery blue' or 'YG63 pea green' skin tones. Several other colours insisted that they go in my basket, 'RV42 salmon pink' was particularly keen and then, because of the fishy name, 'R22 light prawn' practically begged me to take it home... And now I realise I should have just bought THE SET because that would keep me OUT of the art shop and out of temptations way. So now I'd better do some SERIOUS colouring to justify this month's bad spending behaviour. And I'd better not see any alien stamps....

blog candy

well, the lady in the previous post had a beautiful little girl, popped to the ward to see her last night as soon as I went on duty.
Sarah (my Stampin Up! demo) is offering the chance to win a fab SU scallop circle punch, check out her blog http://www.dizzyscrafts.blogspot.com/ I'd love to win one of these (even though I have some Quickutz scallop dies). The punch co-ordinates with some of the Stampin Up stamps to make creating even easier.
In the photo, even more fab blog candy is up for a chance to win at http://www.stampwithus.blogspot.com/

Cant wait for the challenges to begin with this blog. I've been following Monica's blog for a while, GORJUSS creations on it, such an inspiration.

Nothing much to add today - worked all night, slept all day, back to work tonight. Looked after a lovely lady and her family last night, baby hadn't arrived when I left, so I'm dying to find out how the rest of her labour went.

First past the post!

Well I've finally succumbed to joining in with blogging. It'll be a steep learning curve, as I'm not that great with the 'puter, but here goes.
I'm a card maker and a scrapbooker, enjoy just faffing about with card and paper and making a huge mess along the way. As other crafters know, this stuff SPREADS around while you're being all creative. Then someone calls around unexpectedly (like my father-in-law) and you feel a bit embarassed when the craft stuff is in almost every room. Ah well...
So I've got to have a tidy now as I won't be crafting for a couple of days now - on night duty. I've posted a couple of pics of what I've been making - dont know how to resize yet, sorry for the huge pic of the easter basket. The chocolate has been hidden out of my familys sight, or it'll be back down to Sainsbury's for more!