Blossoms and Bows

Morning Peeps, just shows my heads been all over the last couple of weeks as I realised last night with a bit of a panic that I had totally forgotten to prepare the mid months posts at Penny Black and More and Stamping Sensations challenges.

So without further ado here is my share for our Penny Black theme this month of Blossoms and Bows using the Lily punch and stamp set from Tonic, some Spellbinders dies and butterfly, and a Penny Black sentiment. The bow is a little tenuous, it's the thorax of the butterfly, but can assure you it's definitely there.

There is still plenty of time to join in with this months challenges where as always we have some fabby prizes on offer.

And just for a change I thought I would enter one or two challenges:

Crafty Creations - No patterned paper

Flutterby Wednesday - Sentiment as focal point with butterfly
Inky Impressions - Dies and Punches
The Paper Shelter - Make it Bloom
Cuttlebug Mania - Sentiments only
LEJ Designs - Emboss it

Thanks for dropping in and your lovely comments and also welcome to my new followers.

Have a goos Thursday everyone.

Crafters bosom ?

Good Morning, I don't have anything crafty to share but I have received an awful lot of messages and good wishes both on my blog and by e.mail  for which I am most grateful, so think this will be the quickest way to reach you all quickly.

Yesterday I saw two more doctors, lots of probing and delving, but the end result is there is "nothing pathologically amiss". We discussed what I do on a daily basis and as my dexterity is poor and hands weak I put excessive pressure on my right arm when I use die cutting machines and they thought that may be partly to blame for the lump in my breast.

So apart from being rather sore which is a minor issue by comparison and feeling physically drained from all the fretting, I am more than a little relieved as the last couple of weeks has gone by in a daze. 

One or two of my DT colleagues came up with their own names for the problem: "Crafters Bosom", "Crafters Chest" and one suggested I might need to take up a less aggressive hobby, but I do feel the excuse for a E.Bosser coming along. I love my Big Shot Express and GC, I had the electronic BS because of my dexterity issues, but of course needed the GC to take the larger dies. I even tried a Big Shot Pro which did all of those jobs but was just too heavy for me to work, so if anyone has experience of the E.Bosser I would love to hear your thoughts as the reviews seem mixed.

Another marathon achievement

As I alluded in my scheduled post yesterday, I am in the midst of a bit of a health scare of the female variety, hence no blogging the last week, I will hopefully be able to share more later next week.

Meanwhile I wanted to share a picture of another of our families athletes, so blessed are we to have so much talent amongst us. Whilst Alex was in Paris achieving his own PB in the marathon there, Zoe was in the Southern Moroccan Sahara competing in the Sultan Marathon Des Sables, a gruelling race said by many to be the toughest in the world covering 251km in six days with one rest day after the longest 75.7km leg over desert and rocky terrain. I should add that they have to carry a 7.5kg backpack with all their food and personal requirements for the whole race.

On the final day yesterday, Zoe (right in the photo) found herself in a podium position finishing third lady and 28th overall. I am not totally sure of the numbers, but close to 1,000 competitors finished the race so what a fabulous achievement and we are all suitably proud of her. And on Friday she and Alex both head off the Hamburg for yet another marathon !

Have a lovely Sunday everyone, we are promised 19 deg today so fingers crossed they get it right.

B for Butterfly and Blossoms and Saturday candy

Good Morning to you all, thanks so much for all your lovely comments and congratulations earlier in the week following Alex's marathon and apologies for the lack of activity and visits since that post, I've had a bit of a health scare this week and blogging has taken a back seat.

Fortunately from here on the post was scheduled ready to tell you about the theme Helene has come up with at Allsorts which is something a little bit different, she would like our cards to feature something that begins with the letter of our name, so of course Butterflies and Blossoms came immediately to mind with me. Our sponsor this week is Crimson Cloud.

I have used one of the Spring release Penny Black Stamps called Kisses in the Sun, stamped onto a background created with distress inks, Olive, Mustard Seed and Chipped Sapphire with a spritz of dazzling diamond Glimmer Mist. I decoupaged the butterfly and bleached out the colour from the leaves of the image. The background is stamped with the same distressed inks using Penny Black Floral Thread.

This weeks candy is a sweet set of stamps called Elegant Birds with several pretty birdcages and birdies. As usual the winner will be selected at random from all comments left during the week......... if you leave more than one then you get entered again, simple as that and the only other requirement is that......................

1) You are a follower (candy only blogs will be discounted)

2) Post the logo from my sidebar on your own blog

Last weeks candy winner is Carol from my Tuesday post, congratulations Carol please mail me with your full postal addy so I can get your paper pad in the post to you.

My second card is J for Jester (and Joy my middle name) and uses this lovely image from this weeks sponsor Crimson Cloud. The background is just a mixture of stamping, the sentiment which I cut into sections in an old wood mounted one with no name I'm afraid and I did some doodling round the edge of the base card, not sure if it works or not, but there done now.

I really can't wait to see what you all come up with this weeks theme as it's as I am sure there is going to great variety.

Blog celebration winners

Hello all my crafty friends....................be warned that this is a mega long post................the time has come to announce who has won some goodies from my blog celebration but first of all I want to say how very humbled I feel that so many of you joined in and that it was evident from every one that so much thought had gone into your work. My heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you. 

I also realised with many smiles reading all your blogs that I am more than a little transparent when it comes to the things I most enjoy in my crafting endeavours and the elements of Nature I draw from everyday life. All of you reflected this in some way in your artwork adding your own personal slant which made each and every piece so special.................doesn't that make crafting the very best form of expression and escapism one could wish for ? You can check them all out here.

Anyhow, I need to cut to the chase and announce some names and this is the bit I have found so very difficult. It was my intention to choose some favourite entries to receive the prizes, but it soon became abundantly clear that was going to be an impossible task as I liked them all, so I moved to plan B and reverted to good old Ramdon Org., it seems the only way I could deal with it without heaps of guilt and not including everyone. 

So this is how I dealt with it, I packaged all the prizes shown in the photos on my original post plus a few more smaller ones of things like embellishments to spread the love a bit further. However I don't actually have the Grand Calibur as that will be sent direct from the supplier so I felt the fairest way was to allocate that to the first number drawn which was 52........................drum roll please........................

Tracy entry 52

From then onwards I placed names as their numbers came up onto random packages so I didn't have to make decisions who I would send what.................I'm such a coward with these things................so here are the names, fifteen in total and I am pleased that the mix was a really wide one all over the world and it really is a lucky dip as I have no idea what I am sending to who................

Shirely entry 25

Pauline entry 37

Paula entry 79

Lai-Yoke entry 30

Lynne entry 88

Eret entry 90

Sarah JW entry 23

Lau entry 64

Anne F entry 78

Marianne (Craftroom) entry 54

Tracy entry 53

Julie B entry 32

Sonia entry 33

And there is one final entry that I would like to mention, this name didn't come out of the draw and I hope nobody is offended and will understand my reasoning, but this entry has a very special place in my heart and I would like to send a little gift to Marianne entry no 22:

Please all mail me with your full postal addys and I will post you lucky dip prize off to you. And thank you all for giving me so much pleasure this last month and extending your friendship in such a very special way.

Paris marathon news

Good Morning Peeps, hope everyone is OK and thanks for all your lovely comments and good wishes for our trip to Paris and Alex's marathon Sunday.

I am thrilled to tell you all that he not only exceeded his own PB (Personal Best) but also the target set by his Asics/Runners Word coaching team and completed the race in 2.53 (2hrs 53mins) so we are mega proud of him as you can imagine. Running at that level every second is important so knocking four minutes off the target he was set by his trainers was very special

Not the best of pictures, I grabbed this one as he was taking his jacket off to do another photo shoot, but I should have some of the official ones very soon.

The weather was cold but sunny for the marathon and just like London the crowds lining the streets to the finishing line running up to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees were so supportive of all the athletes from the fabulous Kenyan elite athletes familiar from the Olympics, right through to those who took five hours and more.

Asics who were the marathon sponsors and also co-sponsors with Runners World of the competition Alex won had a hospitality suite in prime position right on the finish line and we were invited to watch the race from there, complete with glass in hand so that really made the day extra special. It was also right next to the winners podium so we were able to see the presentations of the winners of the men's, ladies and wheelchair races as well as Alex give his interview which will be on the UK website and in the Runners World magazine where he has appeared the last few months as they followed his training.

I can see some more peeps have joined in my blog celebration whilst we have been in Paris so I will be popping round to you all today then after work I will sort the winners draw and hope to post that either later today or tomorrow.

Spring blossoms and blooms

Good Morning all you crafty Peeps, another scheduled post with our new challenges at  Stamping Sensations where our theme is 'Special Occasions' and at Penny Black and More where we have 'blossoms and Bows'.

My Penny Black and More DT piece which is the top card is an order from my daughter for a leaving card for a teacher colleague and she specifically wanted me to use this PB sentiment, it had never occurred to me before to use it for that type of card but it is actually quite appropriate. She also wanted a simple but stylish design and a large card as all the Humanities department need to sigh it, so it's a 10x10 with a matching box.

I started by stamping and embossing the PB blossom stamp and then cutting round some of the blossoms so that I could place them over the edge circle nestie to they stayed intact before cutting the aperture. The background is shaded with Pan Pastels and the PB sentiment stamped and embossed in black. I added a little colour to the image and then some small punched flowers and as it's a 'special' card used swarovski crystals in the centres.



I have two DT pieces for Stamping Sensations, the first above uses lots of lovely poppy stamps, the one in the aperture is Penny Black and the ones around the frame which I stamped and then cut round so they go into the frame is a Clarity stamp, one of the very few from them that I own but this one was a must have. The flowers are all coloured with Pan Pastels and the sentiment is computer generated.

My second Stamping Sensation piece is a bit of die and flower indulgence really. The base piece is embossed with one of the new A4 size Spellbinder embossing folder which are so useful without all the faff of lining up patterns with the smaller ones.

The central mats are more Spellbinder dies (details to all on the thumbnail links below) and the flower made with Ruth's Tonic Pick of the Bunch stamp and punch set.

I really hope you will join in with our challenges this month, as always we have some fabulous prizes on offer.