Here's my first attempt with the Prismacolor

OK here is the much talked about card that I was playing with. Harvey had a party to go to today so I thought that I would combine the technique with a card I actually needed.

Materials Used : Whippersnapper stamp, Prismacolor pencils, Sansodor and Stumps, Rob and Bob paper, Alphalicous cricut, Crystal Glitter Glue, pink sheer ribbon.

Here are a few comments on my first experiences with it.

• I colour very lightly with watercolour pencils so I found it hard to make the colour much more intense, I will have to practise with this.
• I am used to watercolour pencils and the way you can pull the colour around much more
• I didnt use the correct weight cardstock. This was actually quiet smooth card and I think something with little more tooth will work better

That said I am actually quiet pleased with the results.

On a totally different note we had a 10 hour powercut today. Wow! how you miss the electric when it is gone. Lucky we have a gas hob so we could at least boil the water for Caidens bottles and make us cups of tea. I went out and brought sausages and burgers for a bar-be-cue but the coals weren't playing ball and I had to give up that idea and chuck a couple into the frying pa for Harvey who was getting very hungry and starting to sound like a scratched record with his "where is my burger" over and over again! I knew there was a reason I brought a gas hob though, exactly for this reason.

Thats all for now, I'll be back tomorrow and hopefully be able to play a bit more with these pencils. I wont let them beat me, I will fall in love with them!

Cute little pictures

I was finding it hard to see where one blog post started and one finished so I quickly knocked up these cute David Walker borders. These were all made using David Walker fonts and they can be purchased for download from http://twopeasinabucket.com I LOVE David Walker designs and my two favourite cricut carts are Paper Pups and Zooballoo. I am hoping that Cricut get a move on and make some more David Walker Cartridges and I am on a mission for a Cardboard Cats cartridge!

I had a little go at the prismacolor pencils yesterday, it was hard as Caiden didnt really sleep a great deal. I didnt use the right kind of cardstock so I dont think that helped, also I havent actually seen these pencils used or a card in real life so I am even unsure of what it is supposed to look like. I am quiet pleased with my first go despite what I just said. I was wanting to make it as a card before I posted a picture, so bear with me, it will be today.

Postman has been....

It wasnt of course my blackmarket stash, but something I ordered yesterday from www.artsupplies.co.uk I ordered some stumps and Sandsodor which apparently is what I need to use these prismacolor pencils. I am well impressed with the service, ordered yesterday and came today. I would recommend them. If you are going to them for the stumps and sandsodor then I would also point out something that I saw in the catalogue I received today but didnt (ARGH) order. A small metal container which is used for holding these types of solvents and it has a lid so you could use it to keep a small amount of this stuff in to work with instead of poking the stumps into the bottle! I will have to tag one onto another order, but I can see that that not be for a while as I ordered 5 packs of 2 stumps and have been told that will be more than enough.

Now if anyone has a magic spell to send Caiden to sleep coz of course Mummy wants to play but it seems so does he today! Talking of Caiden, he is a little mover. He is now crawling and cruising everywhere! Getting into all sorts of mischief. This morning he crawled out to the hall, to the stairs, standing up holding onto the bottom step and shouting and shouting, I swear he was calling for Harvey to wake up. So I took him up there and plopped him into Harveys bed. Harveys face from deep sleep to waking to his brother pounding his face was a picture, he loves his brother so much, he had a beautiful smile for his little bro.

Housework calling, better get that done and see what I can come up with this afternoon for my play with the pencils, I can not wait!! I am just trying to plan the perfect stamp to show off their colouring abilities. Oh I hope I can do it, I love watercolour pencils and I am quiet pleased with the results I can achieve so I will be disappointed if these dont work for me. But as I tell the ladies on the classes its practise practise practise so I suppose its the same for me with these ones.

Have a wonderful crafting day!

Shopping on the black market

Hmmm if there is a knock on the door in the next week or two it will either be the postman or the customs people coming to take me away for my black market goodies! LOL I wont say much more than..... give me a M - give me a I - give me a C - give me a K ..... you know the rest!! I am soooooooooooo excited. Shame on that little green bug for making me buy from the Black or should I say cricut green market. Lucky for me I have lots of wonderful friends on the web that are only to willing to help a girl in crisis.

Check out my new blog toy

Scroll right down and there is a funky new guestbook with pictures and all. Once you get over the shock of my ugly mug, please take a moment to sign it. As you all know, from my previous entry re the person from Spain (cough cough South Africa) my geography isnt the best and this fantastic tool will help me no end! Even on my little map(top right) there are a few red blobs I have NO CLUE what countries these are.

Right off I go, I am bellaing again :) Boys are napping and I am having fun.....

I've been tagged

Apparently, when reading the comments off my blog this morning, Regina has "tagged" me. This is what happens I need to tell you 7 facts about myself and then tag 7 more people, people whos blogs/work I admire. I am very new to this blogging lark, and I doubt I know 7 bloggers and the ones that I do know would be the same ones that 1/ tagged me 2/ would be tagged my Regina or others. So I will play along, in that I will choose 7 people, but if I know they have been tagged before I wont tag them back.

First for 7 facts.... 7 thats hard, I really am not that interesting LOL
1/ I hate spiders, I am scared of them, I know its silly but thats me
2/ I am a very fussy eater, I am a nightmare to cook for, I even drive myself nuts about it
3/ I wont leave the volume on the TV or radio on an odd number, has to be an even number
4/ I love animals, I have 2 cats Daisy and Poppy, 4 fish Bob, Thomas, Patch and Tres and 1 rabbit Stamper. I desperately want some gineau pigs but wont until the rabbit has gone :(
5/ I have a very dry and sarcastic humour
6/ I worry for England about everything! What people think of me, my kids, my house. ect ect
7/ I love my boys, my husband, my house, my crafting. I never take things for granted I am so lucky to have what I have. Of course its human nature to always strive for more, but if this is all I have right now I am happy :)

For the people I am tagging, I will have to give them some thought as 7 is a lot and I really dont know 7 bloggers!! Will be back later with a list.

Born to shop

This is todays and yesterdays card, it actually took me almost two days to complete what with the boys ect and trying to find "just the right" things. It took me the longest time and turned out the simplest of all the Bella cards?! I used a few items from my Secret Bunny stash, KimF from the Cricut forum was my bunny and I used the ribbons and paper from her beautiful package. Also I did have two flowers (these from SueB's package) that I was going to put on here but do you think I can find them? Nope! and I am NOT using two more when I know these two are floating about the house somewhere.... how mad is that!! I only had them last night, I was about to go upstairs to my craft room when I got distracted, ended up going shopping (just food nothing exciting) and now I can not find them.

Materials Used : Stampin Up! Doodle this set/ Michals $1 set for the born to shop/StampingBella for Main Image/watercolour pencils/aquabrush/black versafine/crystal glitter glue/ paper stack for background paper

Hmmm talking of craft rooms, you know, I have a room upstairs, all set up big craft table ect, but this is what I find myself working on everyday! Its the sideboard in the living room, reason I work there is Caiden naps on the sofa, so I cant go up and leave him so I bring "stuff" down and slowly but surely my front room looks like a craft room... until I say enough is enough, I drag it back upstairs and the whole process starts again.... I have lost count of the times I have vowed to myself that all my craft stuff MUST stay in one room. This brings me onto question of the day... shall I start one of those? seems like a fun idea right now, might end up question of the week as I run low on ideas. OK here it is.

How many rooms have craft stuff in them? and list what and where...

I will start - Living Room - stamps, pencils, card, cuttlebug, ribbons, inkpads Hallway - stamps, inkpads, ribbons, secret bunny package from Kim. Bedroom - up until this morning there was my penny black stamps and SU sets that I got recently, also craft books for bedtime reading Kitchen Yep there are crafty bits all over one of the units in there, mainly stuff that I have taken off Harvey which he stole from my craft room! Downstairs Bathroom OK no stuff but I have stamped the walls!! LOL Upstairs bathroom I believe this is the ONLY craft free room Harveys bedroom I am sure there are loads of stolen craft items in here, he has a passion for double sided tape, sticky pads and stickers!

Thats all for this post, will start another one shortly with some further ramblings...

Some people are so kind!

Postman just knocked. Last week on the cricut forum I was asking about Primsmacolor pencils a lady emailed and said she had a set of 24 that she had never used and did I want them. Yes Please I said, let me pay you, nope she didnt want payment, it was RAK (random act of kindness) from her. How wonderful? Well today the package came, not only did she send the pencils, she sent some beautiful ribbons, prima flowers and a Making Memories mini blossoms and brads. I actually feel like I am welling up, I want to cry, this is such a wonderful thing for this stranger to do. So THANK YOU SUE BUNKLEY from Texas, you made my day!!

(((( HUG to you Sue ))))







Caz

Happy Birthday to me....

OK, its not my birthday for a few weeks yet, BUT a girl has to be organised and I have ordered my brithday pressie :) I will show Darren what he got me when it comes. Anyone guess what it is? I think I have hinted what it is before now.... and if your a member of the Bella yahoo group you'll know as I was Woo Hooing on there earlier. Whoops, theres a clue?! No surprise really.


I just wanted to add, Caiden is being such a good boy for mummy, he is napping now and allowing me to "blog" and stamp for an hour every morning, its fab, its doing wonders for me to take a little me time and not just do the housework whilst Harvey is at nursery.

Have a great day!

Do you try to break away...

From using the same old things? For me its colours, pink and purples are my passion. So I try to break away, only to find myself in a ORANGE HAZE! So it seems my plan on breaking away from the normal stuff isnt really working as I dont use Pink and Purple but it seems I have a third favourite colour which is orange :) Oh well, its such a bright zingy springy colour and makes me happy.



Here is what I am talking about.... another Bella card, this has to be my fav Bella so far... Flowahbella, I think I spelt that right?? I used the amazing David Walker Stylized Flowers embossing folder for the Cuttlebug machine. I used my watercolour pencils and aquabrush to colour the background in red, orange, green and yellow. Mounted onto a orange square card from www.craftworkcards.co.uk and some of the scrumptious ribbon that Candice sent me (and its all gone now BOO HOO - the orange one that is)



For UK readers I wanted to tell you about the white card I used. I used to use Stationery Box card, but as you may or may not know they are no longer. So I was walking down my local town and saw the shop was still open, apparently some of the store were purchased by Partners. So I went in to see what card they had. Ended up buying three packs. One was called THICK CARD and its like white chipboard, this will be fab for making books, that was in a pack of 10 A4 sheets, cant get to the price right now. The other was called COATED CARD Bright White, A4, 50 sheets 200gsm. OK its not the thickest of cards, but its perfect to stamp on. Its super smooth, takes the ink really well, even my versafine dried quickly, lovely and white and takes pencils well. I am impressed and this will be my new card to stamp on. It was £4.99 a pack so not too bad a price.





HINT OF THE DAY : If you dont own a cuttlebug or machine that can do this I hear a sprizt bottle and a rolling pin will do the job, sprizt your card, place inside the embossing folder and roll with rolling pin, I havent tried it but I am told it really does work!

Reginas Blog candy

Reginas blog is like eye candy, but she is giving away some blog candy! So in an effort to win this I am sending a picture of what I made my Mum for Mothers Day. I made this using Hero Arts rubber stamps, Cricut Flowers, ribbons, doodlebug papers and some white stones and dowling for the stems. My Mum had admired my Cricut flowers that I have on show so I knocked these out for her to take to work and leave on her desk.

Sunday ramblings

Had another lovely day at Creative Pastimes today and managed to make a nice pile of cards. I was using Whippersnapper designs and they are rather cute! Met a lady called Samm today, we chat on Cricut website and she dragged her husband along with her. Even though we have never met we managed to have a good natter and her hubby was very patient and just stood there as we chatted all things cricut, crafting and blogs! Only when she went I thought I should have got my camera out and taken a picture of one my cricut sisters!!

Included in this post are two of the 23 cards I made on these two days of fun. More can be seen on my webshots http://community.webshots.com/user/stampzuk click and have a look in the new cards folder.

Enjoy!

How's that for moving quickly?

I only put my site on UK Crafters the other day, about two days ago and already I am no 50 on their list! This from over 250 when I first went on it! WOW its a buzz to read that and know people are checking out what I am doing on here. Whether or not they will come back will remain to be seen. And have you seen the cluster map on here? WOW people from South Africa (cough cough, I say that like I knew LOL I said to my husband look someone from Spain has been on - need smilies on here and a ashamed one would be placed here ) America, Australia and England :)


Yesterday I was demonstrating for 6 hours at Creative Pastimes. I was using Whippersnapper designs. They are cute stamps, I will take photos later on what I did. Bear in mind though that when I demo its quick and not very exciting cards, I would love to have been able to add ribbons, flowers ect but you just dont get the time. I am back there today so will be creating more cards, its harder the second day as you are using the same stamps again.

Wanted to add, there have been a few people that have problems downloading the files from my blog. If you are having problems please email me (address above).

No pictures to share right now. Have a fantastic Sunday everyone.

Heres for number 6

OK this is my last Bella (for now) My birthday is next month, so I know what I will be ordering for myself and telling Darren what he got me :)
Here is another pregnant bella complete with shopping bags. Phrase was typed on the PC using a David Walker font. Beautiful ribbons are from a friend in the USA who sent me these as samples. Am I the only one who hates to cut their ribbons, use their brads and use their background papers? I mean, if I use them, they will be gone! Needless to say I have thousands of brads, lots of uncut 12 x 12 and a fair bit of ribbon. Dont tell Darren though, of course I still havent enough stuff!! Never will. One of my favourite stamping sayings is "She who dies with the most stamps wins" A saying I try and live by. You are crafters and understand my pain dont ya?

This about sums me up

A friend emailed this poem to me today, I thought it about sums me up! ENJOY

I think that I shall never see

My life return to normalcy

A life where rubber had no part

But now whose mention thrills my heart

And keeps me thinking all the day

Of how I can find time to play

A life where I was free to think

Of other things than stamp and ink

Where life was calm and life was quiet

But I saw a stamp and HAD to buy it

And the rest they say is history

I don't have stamps...............my stamps have me.

AUTHOR Peggy Crowe

Baby Bump Bella

Here is number 5 of my 6 bellas, I only have one more to play with. Love this preggas Bella and what a fantastic bump she has! I have seen some with her belly out, but I was never a belly out preggers person so I covered hers :) LOL I think she looks cute either way.

Rob and Bob paper, Friendship circle and watercolour pencils. Simple..... this was made when Caiden napped this morning and Harvey was at Nursery.

Weather here is beautiful, should really be outside but Caiden is napping again, dare I try for another card this afternoon? Maybe... watch this space.



ooppps forgot the picture, here she is

Another day, another Bella

I have managed two this nap time, one I like, one I am not too keen on. I wonder which you prefer?? Its funny as sometimes when I am demoing I will make a card that I really dont like. I keep it the table and that often gets picked as someones favourite card! I can never fathom that one, I guess it shows we are all so different in styles and what we like and dont like. I consider myself to be a simple stamper. I love to colour and add a few touches. I love what others do, when they seem to add loads more stuff than me, but when I do that on my cards they just dont look right!

Enjoy looking

Caz

You know what its like....

Waiting for the kids to nap before you can play! Caiden, my 10month old didnt sleep at all this morning. This afternoon he did, but not for long, it was long enough for me to make one more Bella card :) although as soon as I picked him up he promptly went back to sleep for a longer time and I could have made a few more, but I decided to snuggle down and catch up on LOST and HEROS that I had sky+ to watch. Ohhh I love lost, its fab! Have no clue were it is going, and I know some people are moaning they want things wrapped up, but for me, if they did that it would be meaning they were nearing the end and I dont want that. So for now I am quiet happy with how lost is going and I look forward to my usually monday catch up.

So for the card, I used the bella with the bags and I am sorry to the die hard bella fans, I dont yet know all their names. I also used the cuttlebug embossing folder and ribbon slider. Oh and I threw on a "Friendship Circle" for good measure. After all I spent three days making them so I thought I had better use them.

Enjoy and please do post to my blog, I love to read your comments :) Makes me feel little less like I am talking to myself.....

In love with a bella!

OK I have been drooling over these cute quirky stamps for a few weeks, waiting patiently for my order and today they came. YIPPEE these stamps are fab. Even more fab is the fact that my boys are napping together at the same time today and I was able to have a little play. The stamp beautifully and all I did was use a glue stick onto the back of the rubber and stick onto the block, hardly done beautifully, but it stamped fine.

I used some beautiful ribbon that an on line buddy sent me (Candice), one of my circle words (see belows downloadable sheets) and watercolour pencils. Quick, easy and BRIGHT!! I love orange :)

I have 6 bellas in all, and I am sure to be getting more, birthday money here I come! Oh and Em, the lady that has designed these girls has designed some "Fellas" also. Check out her site on www.stampingbella.com and tell her Caz sent ya!

Variation on the card

When I was making the bear card I thought that it would be cute made bigger and also with a part cut out the centre. This card looks fab face on, its hard to get what it looks like in this photo.

Circle Mad

Yes I think I have finally gone circle mad, I cant seem to stop making them, I do enjoy doing stuff on the PC though.

Nearly the end of the school holidays. Harvey has been fantastic seeing that we werent able to go out the first week - ten days due to Caiden having the pox. Caiden is MUCH better, although both boys now have stinking colds and Harvey is coughing his little head off!!

Heres a picture of them, my nextdoor neighbour but one's little girl Enya left her play makeup round here the other night. Whislt I was cooking tea in the kitchen I came back to this. Aww how cute and look at those BLUE EYES!

The next day Harvey was dying to play with the makeup, I could tell, he kept fiddling with it, I said I'll put some on you, he did a little forced protest but then let me! LOL what fun! You cant see it too well in this photo but I just wanted to show you the difference in my boys eyes. Striking blue and Oh so brown. Both redheads though!

Will be stamping some tonight, got to finish prepping for my classes Saturday.

New Card - up and away bear

I have a class this weekend using the Penny Black critters, I have been given the names of the stamps they want me to use and I saw this idea for the fold of the card on the cricut forum. So this is one of the cards for one of the classes, I have had an idea for cutting this card fold to make a slighlty different one so I will be making that tomorrow night, I have to work tonight :(

ALL FIVE CIRCLE WORDS ARE HERE NOW

SAMPLE of Circle Words above

OK I have seen lots of people use these circle words that they have generated on the pc so I thought I would like some. Well since I was making them for me, I thought I would share and I have a stack of them done and lots for more to come.

It seems the host thing I was using has deleted the files from the links so if you want them you'll have to request them the old fashioned way and email me on stampingcaz@aol.com
Enjoy!!

Caz

Me again.... who else!

OK I have some stash!! YIPEE I got my Penny Black and punch just now, I have to be careful I dont blow the laptop up with all the drooling!! LOL

Now onto the circles, the question has been put to me about the circles and do we have to print them all... Hmmm well for now I think yes, HOWEVER I do plan on making the popular ones on one sheet, this now goes for me asking, which ones would you want lots of? bearing in mind I dont have lots of time, I cant possibly make single sheets for every phrase so I am thinking only the very popular ones for now. Happy Birthday of course imediately springs to mind, what else? Leave me a message on the blog OR email stampingcaz@aol.com and let me know your thoughts.

Right off to stroke my stamps now! and get a tissue for the drool

New Card - featuring Penny Black girl and circle word

Here is a card that I quickly added a circle word to. I left the inside of some circle words empty so you could add things like this flower, a punch or any other embellishment. The stamps are from Penny Black and the stitching, well I havent managed to fix my machine yet, thats faux stitching from Inky Antics clear set, I think it actually looks quiet realistic!

Why are we waiting??

Dont you hate waiting? I know I do, especially when its crafting goodies. I have been a little naughty of late, but I have needed it as the boys have been ill for so long. Anyway here are the goodies I am waiting for.

Stamping Bellas
SU Order
Clear $1 stamp sets (yep UK ladies that $1 sets!!!)
Penny Black Flowers and a File Tab punch
A ribbon RAK from a lovely lady in the usa

I will be sure to let you know when it all starts arriving.

On a totally different note, I want to tell you all about an amazing service called FREECYCLE. I am sure we have all had items that we no longer want, but feel they are too good just to chuck away. Do a search for FREECYCLE and find your local group. Poeple advertise the stuff they have and want to get rid of, you can also place wanted ads. I have myself advertised baby items, such as a pram/travel system and also collected items such as a childs sand pit, flower pots ect. It really is great to know that someone is taking something from you and will find good use out of it. I picked up the sandpit yesterday and Harvey and the neighbours little girl were in it virtually all day!! So go check out freecycle, check out your junk drawers, sheds, garages and lofts and see if you can make someones day.

Have a Happy Easter

What a beautiful weekend it looks in being. we had a lovely day yesterday in the garden, pottering around, planting, clearing up. We let "stamper" our rabbit out for a run, he loved it. The cats enjoyed chasing him, but as soon as Stamper turned towards them they ran away, it was very comical to watch. Looks like the start of another lovely day today so I am sure there will be much of the same.



I hope to get something stamped or cricutted this weekend, I went to town yesterday for an hour yesterday on my own and it was bliss, after being stuck inside for a week with Harvey and "spot" it was great to have some me time, I brought some easter goodies for the boys, too much really but, hey if you cant spoil your kids once in a while. I will take some photos tomorrow of the garden and easter bunny treats. I am planning a little hunt with Harvey tomorrow. I got Harvey some lovely books, OK not a usual easter treat but they were £1 each and I cant resist kids books and afterall I am the one that reads them every night.




Here is a cute picture of my boys, Caiden all spotty with his pox, he is on the mend and has slept for 2 nights, so mummy is feeling much better now! Harvey just loves his brother and you can see it here, he keeps saying sorry for giving him the pox, I keep trying to explain that he didnt mean to but he is a sensative soul.

Have a great easter everyone, I love these long weekends with family.

Cricut Dog Box

I love my Cricut machine and I love the David Walker designs from Paper Pups and Zooballoo. I spend most of my freetime on the www.cricut.com forum. There you can find the most wonderful inspiration and some lovely people some of which I consider to be far away friends. If you go there please take time to check out a few of their shining stars!

In no particular order they are

CandiceLighty
reginaeaster
DazyCutr
{RedBecca}
CindyG

Thank you to the above ladies and so many more, this is just from memory and I dont have a great one so forgive me if I have left you off.

Cricut & Cuttlebug Creations

Some more cards

If you wondered what happens at one of my demonstrations here are the cards that I made at the Glitter Pot the other weekend using the fantastic new Penny Black stamps.

Usually the demonstration will have a theme and this one was NEW PENNY BLACK. I love to colour and I love the cute images that penny black make. I would have liked to embellish these a little more but I didnt have the right stuff with me.

This blog is so easy!

I love this place, its so easy to use and it looks fab. Here are a few of my recent pictures, I havent had much time at all for crafting, other than prep for classes or magazine work. So it has been fun the few times recently that I had time to play for me.

The above is a banner I made for Harveys "bugs and butterflies" birthday. I have since took off the is 4 and put it on his door as his name banner. There is also a close up of one of the bugs. I did this using Opposites Attract Cricut cartridge and Doodlecharms for the bug.

Welcome to my Blog

Well I hope to keep this up to date with cards, hints, class dates and more to this site, so keep checking back. I am not sure if there is a newsletter signup that you can join to keep updated I will have to look into this.

To the left you will see one of the wonderful new Penny Black stamps. You can purchase them in the UK from www.theglitterpot.co.uk

Friends, customers and colleages will already know that I decided to close my website down. www.chickenshackcrafts.com is still open and I am selling all the stock at 30% off so please check in and help me shift this lot!

This month has been a hard one, Deciding to close my business. Harvey getting chicken pox and then myself and Caiden getting a tummy bug AND Caiden being smothered in pox, much more than his brother, or maybe its as he is smaller, he does have a lot more than Harvey did though. Things can only go up from here in :) And now the pox are out of the way at least we can book holidays without worrying that they would catch it!

Most of you know, I do my typing ect whilst the boys are busy or asleep so please do excuse typos.

Happy Stamping

Caz