A christmas card or two

These are from the class I went to a few weeks back. The first used a masking technique and then acrylic paint on stamps to make the background lovely and textured



This was embossing on metal tape and then using alcohol inks and stazon to get the paint effect


More of the embossing on metal technique

*sniff* *sputter* * cough* *groan*

Yep, its winter cold time again! One of the dangers of working with small children is that I always seem to get a really bad cold around this time of year. This one seems to be worse than most, having laid me low since last Thursday and resulting in 2 days off work.

So I apologise if I have missed any birthdays, forgot to send any gifts or RAKs out or just not done any of the many things I should have done. Including keeping my blog up to date.

A quick list of things that blog land has missed:-

We have half decorated the bathroom. New taps, industrial cleaner on anything with limescale on it, regrouted and resealed, all new fittings, lots of painting, and new flooring. It is starting to look really great with only a final push when I am fit again to get it looking fab.

I did my first parent workshop for Surestart. It went really well and I had a reasonably good turn out. Its great to get the first one under my belt and I am now looking forward to my Christmas Story Sack one.

We went to see Harry Potter final book part 1 and apart from feeling like death warmed up, I really enjoyed it. Martin was working late so couldnt come, I will be forced into going a second time.

Sady the lady that worked in the garage with Martin passed away at the beginning of last week. It was really sad, she had suffered from a brain tumour but was responding to treatment so it came as a shock to hear of her death. Martin has to go to the funeral to represent Morrisons - he would have gone anyway though as she was a really lovely lady, and we feel for her family. RIP

As soon as I can find the lead to my camera I will upload my latest batch of christmas cards, not that I have made any since the workshop but it would be nice to share.

Off for more lemsip xx

Birthday week

Its been a great week all round really. I was asked to work an extra day which now means I have money coming in for four days a week guaranteed until next March which is good news on the cash flow front, and has allowed me to have a tiny bit of a splash out. Maybe not so great for the housework or my energy levels but we shall see. 

Its a good job there is a bit of spending money going as I have been to Kate's at Pickleberry Papercrafts twice in the past 8 days. Last week it was a free demo day which allowed me the chance to sit down with Jane and have a good old chin wag while she showed me tons of techniques to use with my zipemat (ok it was really to promote the Big Shot and sizzix stuff but since my zipe is still going strong, why throw out the baby with the bath water?) I ended up buying a couple of stamps with strong intentions to buy more on my next visit.

It is not like me to buy so much stash in one month and having already spent up at Ally Pally and then at The Range, I really should have stopped, but then we were back again this Saturday for a Christmas Cards with a Twist workshop run by the lovely Jenny. We got to play with lots of ranger products, learnt heaps and heaps, laughed lots and where present at the very moment Rosemary discovered she was to have a new addition to her family circle in the form of a small baby!! Congratulations my friend.

Jenny's teaching style is very unique and fast and furious but lots of fun. I only managed to get one card completely finished but bought home all the stuff to finish 5 others so it was a brilliant day and well worth the time and money. Of course it would have been rude not to at least browse in the shop and although I didnt spend that much still came out armed with more christmas stamps and a couple of new embossing folders.

Still my excuse is that it was my birthday on Friday. I had a fabulous day. The ladies I work for are all so lovely and friendly. When they found out it was my special day, they managed to pull a birthday card out of the bag at really short notice, and there were even danish pastries bought for a working breakfast. I made cake to share in the main office, and little rice crispie cakes for the three nurseries I was visiting on Friday. I had hoped to get back to the office to share the cake with the girls but I got held up, decided it was too late to return and so got a phone call half way home asking if it was ok to go ahead and eat the cake. How thoughtful?

Mostly the family gave me money so I can go on a few more spending sprees - my wish list is getting quite long. But Martin treated me to a new Kindle and I have been all weekend downloading free books onto it. 

I have also cut out and nearly finished a skirt with material for two more to do, we are starting decorating the bathroom tomorrow, and I also have plans for a patchwork quilt for the spare room. With Christmas just over the horizon I am not going to be short of something to keep me occupied on my one day off a week now.

Photos of cards made at workshop to follow, photos of fireworks after my birthday tea with the kids on Kelly's blog.