It's Here!!

BRAND NEW CATALOGUE! The gorgeous new 2010 / 2011 Stampin' Up! Catalogue is  NOW LIVE! Have a look by clicking on this link: http://www2.stampinup.com/gb/eng/543.asp  or CONTACT ME to order your own copy for £5.95 incl delivery PLUS get £5 OFF your first order of £35 or more! NEW COLOURS - 4 revamped colour families   PLUS NEW IN-COLOURS for easier and up to date colour co-ordination.   NEW STAMPS - Some fabulous new designs mixed with some old favourites too!  Introducing CLEAR MOUNT STAMPS - a new option for a new catalogue - look in the price panel and if it shows W (wood mounted) or C (clear mounted) you can now choose how you would like your stamps! NEW PAPERS - fantastic new patterned papers - great for scrapbookers and cardmakers alike. NEW POSTAGE COSTS - Postage is now a FLAT RATE of £4.95 whatever the size of your order! Plus, if you host a workshop, attend my classes or join one of my stampers clubs you can benefit from reduced or even FREE postage! CONTACT ME to find out more.

Fathers Day

On with my catch up.. Toby & I managed to sit down together last weekend just in time to make Fathers Day cards ready for Sunday.

Here's my version using SU's To The Nines speaciality papers and one of the stamps from the Occasional Greetings stamp set. I needed to make 3 cards - Dad, Step-dad and FIL - so they all got slight variations of this card :-)

And here is Toby's version using "his stash" of older papers I have accumulated along my crafting journey ;-) He made this without help (OK I stamped the image and tied the bow for him but that's all) and I think he did a GREAT JOB. Dean was very impressed :-)

Catching Up..

..now I dont want to jinx myself, but so far my recovery is going very well :-)
My stitches were removed yesterday and although that seemed to make my belly a little more tender for a day, I think I am almost back to normal. The nurse made a point of telling me to take it easy and not to lift anything for a few more days but she also said I was a "strong woman" - well, to take one of my dad's favourite phrases when we were growing up: "I didnt get where I am today..." LOL

Anyhow, my surgeon insists I should be off work for a full 2 weeks (I balked at the suggestion of 3 weeks!) so I have a few more days to go yet..and as I can now sit comfortably at my PC I thought I should catch up with some postings & piccys...

My gorgeous son gave up his playtime at school last Tuesday to make me a get well card for when I got home from hospital. What a sweetheart <3 and what a lovely job he did:

Blogging from my hospital bed!

..although to be honest, if you took away the hospital bed and replaced it with a plush divan, you'd be forgiven for thinking I was in a nice hotel rather than a hospital room :-)
For the first time in my life I have needed to have an operation, so I am making good use of my firm's BUPA cover and am being very well looked after in London's Portland Hospital.

I even took a photo of my Room Service dinner yesterday! 3 courses, and not a bit like any hospital food I've ever seen before LOL. Yum!

When Dean brought Toby in to see me yesterday I had a rare treat - lots and lots of cuddles from Toby! Plus he'd also made some special cookies and made flags to go in each one such as "Toby's cookie", "Toby's other cookie"! and one for me that said "Get well soon Mummy" Bless him :-)

My op went smoothly yesterday and I am going home today with 2 weeks off work for recovery - this is more than a little alien to me as other than family holidays and my maternity leave with Toby, I have never had 2 weeks off work - my total sick leave in the last 10 years probably doesn't come to any more than that!

Naturally, I have some craft goodies on order and am hoping they turn up in the next couple of days..Toby has an INSET day on Friday so I want to be well enough by then to spend some special crafting time with my special boy. We have Fathers Day cards to make... come back next week to see what we've created...

2 weeks to go...

till my exam.....
...except I'm not going to be there - I've got to go into hospital on the very day I should have been sitting my exam! To be honest, I had a feeling that might happen, so I don't really mind that much - I need to have an ovarian cyst removed so I think that is more important right now, I can always sit the exam (along with another one or two) in December.

SO..make that 2 weeks to go until I have an enforced break from work & can spend 2 weeks crafting!! Yay!

Anyone have any good ideas about crafting in hospital? - I'm hoping that I'll only be in for 1 night, so I am thinking some stamped images and promarkers...

Revision avoidance!

It's been a really long hard week at work - it's just that time of year, so I've been getting home late & too tired to do pretty much anything. I have an exam looming in 4 weeks time so I really should be studying, but I'm not in the right frame of mind for that yet! Funny how even the housework is more attractive when exams are on the horizon, Lol.

Anyway, I've been looking forward to the weekend for lots of reasons - football season is all but over which means my son didn't have training this morning, and no match on Sunday, so we were able to have a nice lie-in :-)
This Sunday is also time for my monthly papercraft class - I run a small class at home, usually on the third Sunday in the month and I really enjoy it. (Hubby quite likes it too 'cos it means I spend Saturday tidying the house!)
So once I had tidied up I treated myself to a bit of crafting time & I made these...

This small pizza style box is made using SU Cardstock in Really Rust and Barely Banana, with matching ribbon and a small piece of patterned paper from my stash. The stamped greeting is from a retired SU hostess set called Best Yet.
The box is really easy to make and can easily be adapted to suit the size of whatever you want it to hold. This one is 4" square and 1" deep. I think it will make a nice gift with a set of small square cards inside.

After that I set to using up a few of my scraps & tried out the "Bag in a box" or "Box in a bag" that I have seen on several blogs recently. They are so sweet I had to give them a go...

Cute huh? It's one of my girlfriend's birthdays this week, so I'm planning to fill the larger of these with a few little crafting bits that I think she'll enjoy :-) Hope you like it Em!

Time for a new look...

Oh my goodness! I knew it was a long time since I last posted anything on my blog, but - well, I didn't realise it had been THAT long!

So I decided to give my page a bit of a makeover and have also made a promise to myself to post on here once a week at least.

And to start as I mean to go on... here is a scrapbook page I made recently at a weekend retreat  - I even managed to win a prize for it! Yay!

All papers, cardstock & ribbon are from Stampin' Up!

I'd love to receive your comments.

Back soon (next week latest I promise!)
xx