I need help!

Yesterday I went into Newcastle to drive Ian to his Eye appointment at the hospital. Whilst he was getting poked and prodded I took at little trip to a few shops which of course included a few that sell craft stash. I ended up buying nine sets of brads..and when I got home I thought 'you know I think I have a few boxes of brads already..' OMG I have over 35 boxes of brads, giant ones, tiny ones, matt, shiny, ones you can tie ribbon through and on..infact I think I have at least one of every brad that is available at the moment in the developed world!! I have always loved brads and find that I can't walk past any that I see but, I didn't realise how much I liked them!! But the worst of it is..I find myself not using my brads when I am making a card because then I wont have them in my stash anymore! I need help... seriously so, I have set myself a task. From now on I have to resist buying anymore brads until I have made even a slight dent in my collection and I have to use at least one brad each card creation. It's going to be really tough..but I can do it..I have the power!
Here's a picture I took this morning of just few of my collection of brads... now I have to look at my Prima Flower collection. I have a feeling that I am going to find the same problem there too!!

The madness never ends!

The show on Ideal World went great yesterday and I'd like to thank all my lovely customers and friends (real and virtual!) who were so supportive and complimentary. Funky Seasons sold out after about 25 mins which was a big surprise to me (it's available on my website still..just Ideal World stock sold out not all of mine!!) and then the other two were flying out too! When we got home last night after the 4 hour drive back to Newcastle Ian and I were both done in but once we were in the house our friends wouldn't let us stay in..we went out to our favourite local pub and had a meal and I drank rather alot of my favourite tipple Cherry Beer to celebrate a successful day!

I have been working on my next CD for while now and I am hoping to have it ready to launch at the Craft,Hobby & Stitch International trade show at the NEC in Feb. I still have a few things to finalise but I thought I would give you a sneak preview of a couple of the papers that will be available on it. I'm looking forward to making some sample cards with these ones as soon as I have got everything else out of the way!



Well I had best get back to processing orders, I'll be back when I have something new to share with you.

My next TV appearance looms!

Yep you will be able to see me again live with my three latest CDs It's Funky Too ,Funky Seasons and V Funky on Ideal World on Wednesday 2nd January at 11am
this time the show is on Ideal World rather than just Create and Craft so it can be seen on all the following channels Sky Digital Channel 634, Freeview Channel 22 and Virgin TV Channel 747. I hope that you can take a look if you are about..It will help with my nerves if I know friendly faces are watching!!!

I have been working away on new demonstrations for the last week but I have to admit that with Christmas I am a little behind! I have one more to complete today and then I'm all done! I'm also behind because I bought some great chipboard blanks from a seller on Ebay (very good prices!) and I have been playing with them rather than getting on with my demos! I thought I would share one of the creations with you to justify not having my work done!!




The chipboard circles are 6" and I covered them with two co-ordinating polka dot papers from my CD Funky Seasons I spent a terrible amount of time rubbing down the edges with a file to then not be sure what to do with them! I finally decided on decorating the front with a circle of co-ordinating paper and adding one of my new bazzill flowers (Xmas pressie from Ian!) and putting a picture of me at my Birthday bash inside. As I am wearing a lovely paper crown I might add 'Birthday Princess' inside we shall see if I have the time! I joined them together with lovely spotty ribbon which was RAK from Samm through holes I punched with my hammer and eyelet tool (great amount of fun making so much noise late at night, my neighbors must love me!!)
Well time is marching on and I have work to get finished. If I am not back before New Year have a great time.

Hello again..I've just arrived back from Christmas with my parents. My poor Dad was really ill all Christmas Day but we still had a great time. I've eaten far too much and after the three hour drive home we stopped off at the little Tesco extra nearby and bought yet more to eat this evening!! We have to get as much eating in as possible before New Year as that is when the dreaded diet begins!!!
I have lots of work to do over the next few days as I get ready new demonstrations for my next Craft hour appearance on Ideal World on the 2nd Jan. When I have completed some new samples I will share them with you and give you more info on the show. Well have to go, my pizza and garlic bread wont eat itself!!! Hope you had a great Christmas Day and are still enjoying the holidays. x

Happy Christmas everyone!



I just wanted to send seasons greeting to my customers old and new and to everyone who I have been lucky enough to meet this year through this wonderful thing the 'internet'!! It's been a mad year for me with loads of exciting things happening. 2008 looks like it's going to be just as exciting! I have another show coming up on Ideal World TV which I will tell you about in my next post but for now..I have to get ready to go out to dinner. How posh are we??!! Enjoy yourselves whatever you are up to. xx

New Papers, New Cards...

Ian went out for a Christmas get together for work last night so I designed some new papers for my next CD. I was so pleased with how they turned out that I was inspired to make our parents Christmas cards, thank goodness something got me going!



They are a bit Funky and retro but I am pleased how they turned out!!

Blogging two days in a row..what's going on?!

I was a busy bee yesterday making Christmas cards and I also had to make a birthday card with a mobile phone theme (!) Here is the result



I have to admit it didn't take very long and wasn't particularly inspired. Luckily I had a few of these Lily of the Valley toppers left in my craft box so I layered up two (my pathetic attempt at decoupage!!) The paper is from the Black and white Collection from my CD Funky Seasons The happy birthday stamp is a well used Penny Black that comes out for pretty much ever birthday card these days. Note to self 'buy some new stamps in the new year'!!

Why do us crafters change our minds so much?

Or maybe it's just me!! I had pulled together a quick idea for Christmas cards this year as I have been so busy and couldn't put as much effort into them as I would have liked. Today was the final day for getting them done, otherwise I would be missing Christmas. I sat down in my craftroom.. and then thought 'maybe I could do something different'..over an hour of precious Christmas card making time later I was still messing about with other ideas!

Here are my final cards and I have loads of them drying all over the craftroom and office so this is it..no more changes!







The paper designs are all taken from my CD 'Yule Be Funky which I'm amazed is still selling well..maybe I'm not the only one who is leaving making their cards to the last min!!

Yesterday I did the last of the Christmas shopping, it was a pretty nightmare day. I drove into Newcastle city centre and then sat in traffic queuing to get into a car park for over an hour! I'm not the calmest car driver at the best of times so I have to admit to a bit of subdued road rage. In the end I was out of the house nearly two hours just trying to park! I ended coming back home and calling a cab to go back in! I got everything done thank goodness but I was two cab fares lighter in my purse.

All this trouble and stress for one day..makes you wonder why we bother really!!

Now I have to make a card for Ian's nephew we have bought presents for but to make up the gift are giving cash for him to use on his mobile (he's only nine..who's he calling you wonder!!) and I have to make a 'mobile' themed Christmas card..why do I do this to myself?!!

I need to get a bit more 'Christmasy' around here!

So here's a little Christmas Tree I made earlier!


I have actually had time today to start back on the designing track for my next CD..but then I didn't get very far because I started playing with this Christmas Tree. I can get so easily distracted when I am working in Photoshop! Anyway I thought I would share it with you and get my blog looking at little more Christmas like!
I am waiting for Ian to get home from work and we are off to the Metro Centre to get our Christmas shopping done. Life has been so busy recently that we are really really behind this year. So, we are going shopping and we have a pact that we are not coming home till it's all done... I think it might be a late night as I haven't a clue what to get everyone yet! Wish me luck!

This is my 100th blog post!

I suppose I should be doing something special but I have just been so busy recently I haven't had a chance to think of anything exciting! Maybe I'll come up with something for the 200th!

One exciting thing I have done today though is make cards! Wow!..I hear you say isn't that what you do? But recently all my cards have been business related, I haven't made cards for an occasion. So today I got to make my first Christmas cards and a Birthday card for Ian's brother who lives over in the US. Even though I have made cards they unfortunately have had to be made faster than the speed of light so they are pretty simple.
Here are a couple colour ways of this years Christmas cards. The card has been printed onto directly from one of my papers from my CD 'Yule Be Funky' and I threw the topper together on photoshop in about five mins flat!












The birthday card has the same basic theme (I'm embarrassed to admit!) I printed one of my papers from 'V Funky' straight on to card and made the card base and then added a 'BRO' topper from the same CD. A simple Happy Birthday stamp by Penny Black and it was all finished.



I'm hoping to be able to get back to making more cards and joining in with a few more challenges soon.. but with my next TV appearance looming I think that might be a bit of a dream.. Oh well no rest for the wicked!!!