Retirement card - Saturday 10th January 2015

Hello Friends!

I would first of all like to say "Wow" ...thank you for all your lovely comments about my Stampscapes card! I was really thrilled, so much so,  that one evening with my iPad on my lap I went through and gave all of you a thank you! The card took ages to make, but I was pleased with it and I have some more of their stamps, so as soon as I have the time I will be having another go!

I would also  like to welcome a new blog friend...Becca Cruger...I discovered Becca and her fab blog through Darnell, you really should check her out...http://damselofdistressedcards.blogspot.co.uk

I am up to 88 followers, hopefully some time this year I may reach 100 (I can hope!) and if so, there will be candy!!!

I hadn't meant to leave it so long between posts, but...well those of you who go out to work know what it's like the first week back, especially after a long break like Christmas when the office has been completely closed! We are still 'battling' with the new national volunteering website and the people who own it and have not designed(in many peoples' opinions) it with Volunteer Centres in mind at all! It's not just us, it's all of us (about 300 offices) and I won't even try to explain because unless you work in a Volunteer Centre it will mean nothing to you!

Te site all goes totally live on Monday, so I am in the office more next week as I have to make sure our office volunteers are okay using it..hey-ho!

Thus...not much crafting got done last week and I spent all of Friday making cards and crafts using  little calendars. We are going to be using them in our  first workshop of the year next week and I've been trying to decide which design to give my ladies to make...I  started out with using some stamps, the original intention and disliked them so much, they went in the bin...the one I like best uses just dies and embossing, with the merest hint of stamping and I'm thinking maybe they'd like a little change from stamping anyway?? I 

will be showing you the ones I've made over the course of next week, so by the end of the week you will be fed up with calendars! I'll also be sharing with you a very special one that was made for me by one of my dear blog friends..I received it last September and should have shown you before, it really is very special.

So, for today's card...I made this one a few months ago and it was for our lovely mobile library driver Sylvia, who retired. I did actually make her 'colleague' card as well, but forgot to photograph it. This was my own for her. Sylvia has a lovely sense of humour and I was going to try a cartoony one with the library bus on it, but for about 2 weeks before she left, when we had a little chat in the staff room, me filling my kettle and she her flask, we would do a count down to 'no more alarm clocks' for her, so I made this instead and I'm pleased to report she loved it (and the other one!)

Sylvia is a bit like me, not particularly 'girly' so I didn't want to make the card too fussy.  I used polka dot backing paper, slightly distressed at the edges, the Tim Holz Sizzix alarm clock die and flower & butterfly dies by Spellbinders. I didn't photograph the inside (no idea why!), but I followed through with the papers and the greeting read "No more alarm clock!"

I just liked the idea, as with the assemblage clocks (one of which I still have on my shelf to alter), of just reusing the redundant clock as a piece of art!

That's all for now, I am typing this with very cold hands...Tom seems to have the 'create something' bug (I should not have let him near Pinterest). Ever since we had the new kitchen we have wanted somewhere else to store our wellies and garden shoes (don't want to mess up the new floor, lol); I wear my wellies every day to see to the hens, so they can get muddy. He has wanted a boot shelf combined with a coat rack for the downstairs cloakroom, saw an idea on Pinterest and today we began making it (this is the problem, I have to help). As he made such a good design with the stamp rack, I could hardly not look enthusiastic and to be fair, it's looking good...my goodness I am going to have a mega Annie Sloan day when the weather gets warmer!

We only came in from the garage a short while ago and my hands haven't yet thawed out!  I am really tired too...fortunately it's the weekend so Tom does the cooking!

After we finish that tomorrow, we have to re-felt the roof on my craft barn. I've been saying all summer it needs doing and guess what?  Yes it came off with the gales last night...now that's one job I'm not looking forward too!

Thank you so much for stopping by, I really appreciate your visits and comments and please enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Happy New Year! - 2nd January 2015

Good evening Friends!

I hope you all had a super Christmas and New Year...looking around your blogs it seems you did! I'm not making any apologies for not posting since Christmas Eve...I love Christmas, all the preparation, the decorations and opening the door on Christmas Day to welcome family. 

We had a lovely Christmas and as we are both on holiday from work until next week, we have caught up with family and friends, been for long walks(as the weather has been pretty good) and generally had a lovely time. When we are on holiday I make a point of ignoring the craft room as much as possible and to be honest after all the pre-Christmas crafting, I've felt like a break.

I have started the new blog year on a very good note as I have a new follower! Some of you are already familiar with Bibiana and if not, I urge you to visit http://stampingwithbibiana.blogspot.co.uk

Bibiana's blog posts are so beautiful and inspirational and I want to say thank you Bibiana,  for deciding to follow me.

Did any of you make any resolutions?? I didn't make any 'resolutions' as such, but I am going to try and keep my craft room more organised (it really had been getting me down!) and to relax a bit more, get less stressed. I can but try!

How about crafty presents? I was very lucky and had a gorgeous selection, including my main present which was a new blue Grand Calibur. I also had Tim Holz's Compendium of Curiosities Vol 3, and the Annie Sloan work book for my chalk paint projects...I had some lovely stamps and the Ranger spinner for my ink blending tools.

I want to share a few photos with you...all the hand-made cards we receive are always given pride of place on the mantelpiece and here is this Christmas' selection of gorgeous creations...some of you will recognise your cards there and I want to thank you so much for them Jackie, Claire, Patti, Amy,Anne, Sam, Maureen and Jan! The large one on the clock was made by one of the ladies from craft class (Maureen). The photos are Holiday cards from some of my cousins in California and friends in Boston.

In my Christmas Eve post I mentioned that Tom makes his card to me:he's so busy at work lately that I make him a little 'kit' and he takes it from there, so I gave him a card blank, some snowflake acetate, some sentiments and a sheet of Tilda toppers for him to choose from....he did the rest, including the die cutting and I think he did a fabulous job, don't you?

 Finally I thought I would show you a couple of frosty photos I took a few mornings ago..it's so pretty when you see it up close!

Tom and I have been making something for the craft room today- should be finished tomorrow, can't wait to share it!

That's all for now, it's good to be back! Thank you for stopping by and here's to a happy crafting in 2015!

Love and Hugs,
Carole  X 

When you hear a bell ring....Sunday 21st December

Hello Friends,

A scheduled post today as we will be spending today in a lovely little Oxfordshire village, with lunch at the local pub, with  Tom's parents, brother and cousins...the pub is just a short walk from their house, in a village with very few houses...it's gorgeous! There will be 12 of us and we have really been looking forward to getting together. One of my very favourite things about this Holiday time is visiting with friends and family.

I can't believe how close it is to Christmas now and it's the longest day already!

So, we al know the lines from 'It's a Wonderful Life' about how an angel gets his/her wings when a bell rings don't we? I made these little angel busts from a pattern in Tone Finnanger's latest Tilda book, Homemade and Happy. They are such a lovely little decoration to make...

The hair and bodice top are painted on with acrylic paint and then you simply decorate as you wish. I made most of them as little presets, but have two hanging from our mantelpiece.

I photographed the rest hanging from a little artificial tree that I have in my craft room. It was the tree Tom and I bought when we got married, so when it started to fall apart and had to be replaced, silly old me got a bit sentimental and instead of throwing it out, I get it out every year and decorate it for the upstairs landing or the craft room! There are also lots of bells hanging from it this year :)

Thank you for stopping by, I really love to read your comments...have a wonderful Sunday and I'll be back tomorrow.

Love and Hugs

Carole X

Reindeer Tentfold & Gift bags

Good Morning Friends!

First of all I want to thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my Reindeer wall hanging...he is on our lounge door with his cheeky grin to see whenever we go near it! Lol

I have more Tilda makes to show you, one more big one and lots of smaller cute and pretty decorations. I hadn't intended to miss the last few days, but we had a meeting at work on Thursday and then I had to finish up a few things before leaving the office, so it was late when I got home...it was my last day until 6th January though - yeh!! 

Yesterday some of my office volunteers came over to my house and I provided afternoon tea as a Christmas thank  you (we have out meal out in the Spring). It's so nice to get the all together as the work different days, in twos, so everyone had a good catch up!

Today I am showing the tenfold card I made for some of them, it's a variation on the Dasher Deer DT card I made for Sam, but using a Tilda reindeer cut out. The other card I gave was similar  to the vintage Santa card I made for the Nicecrane DT last week.

Sorry about the photos I seem to be in too much of a hurry to take them and in bad light at the moment!

I also gave them some choccies in these little gift boxes.

A quick post today, still lots to do and I have a large polar bear to finish, as part of a present for Tom's cousins whom we are visiting tomorrow...just his nose left to stitch!

I'll be back tomorrow with a scheduled post as we will be in Oxfordshire all day, but thank you so much for stopping by,

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Throwback Thursday Challenge - Poppy Meadow: Monday 10th November 2014

Hello Friends,

I am continuing with the theme of Remembrance today and would like to enter this re-visited card  in the Stamping with Bibiana Throwback Thursday challenge #4. 

I have been wanting to enter this challenge, where we share a previously blogged creation..but well, you know how busy I have been of late. I see the challenge will be taking a break until January, but it is one I will definitely be coming back to in the New Year!

The theme this month is 'Anything Goes' and I thought that as it is November, which here in the UK is a special time for celebrating our veterans and especially this year, I would share this card that I posted a year ago. 

It uses the same poppy stamps (Poppy Meadow) by Indigo Blu, that I used for yesterday's post. I created the background on linen paper, using distress inks, which I then spritzed with water to create an uneven watercolour effect. The poppy stamps were stamped in black archival and heat embossed with clear powder before colouring with distress inks.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set. I finished with black and deep red ribbon.

I would like to enter this card in

http://stampingwithbibiana.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/throwback-thursday-challenge-4.html

Many thanks for stopping by today,

Love and Hugs,

Carole Z X

Remembrance - Sunday 9th November 2014

Good Morning Friends,

My post today is a little card I made for Remembrance Sunday..it's just a simple poppy, but that was the idea, I wanted the poppy to stand out; the splashes of red are to signify Flanders Fields. I have to be honest, I'm not happy with the photo (too little time to concentrate to get it posted for today) and if I get a chance I may replace the photo at some point!

I painted the background using distress inks as watercolours. The poppy is from Poppy Meadows stamp set by Indigo Blu. I stamped it with Versafine as it is quite a detailed stamp and then heat embossed with clear powder. I also painted it with distress inks and just to the poppy head, I added glossy accents, although it doesn't show in the photo.

Whilst we reflect on the brave men and women who have given their lives for their Country right up to the present day, I also wanted to share with you something we have been doing at work....some of you know that I manage a Volunteer Centre, where we promote and help people into voluntary work.

Back in September we decided to have an event for people who may want to volunteer just small amounts of time..micro volunteering. There are lots of ways to do this, most of them using social media, but one of them(close to my heart of course) is crafting and quite a few charities collect crafted items such as (for example) blankets for  premature  babies and at the opposite end of the spectrum, animal shelters. We had a drop off point through to the end of last month for people who wanted to join in with Age UK's Big Knit and we also collected cards for RAF personnel.

When I started tweeting several years ago(something else I seem to have little time for now), I connected with a group of crafters. I am still in touch with most of them via Facebook and several of us  have met in the past at the NEC craft show. One of them is a lady called Cazz Wright. Cazz has been collecting cards for RAF Blue Witch Squadron, serving  in Afghanistan, for some years now. We decided to hold a card drive through September and I can't begin to tell you how overwhelmed we were with the response.

In remote places the servicemen and women can't  just go out to the shops and buy cards to send home, so these cards were there for them in their NAAFI. Cazz has now had to stop her scheme for personal reasons and mostly because the Squadron's work over there is done and she hadn't been able to get a new address to carry on sending cards for all serving RAF personnel, which had been the intention .

Our collection was the last to be sent to them and in just one month we collected 70 cards. They were dropped in to the office by local people who saw our posters and local news articles; some of my group at our craft class gave me some and one of my fellow Teamie friends from Creative Studios, Jackie, sent some fabulous cards. Cazz was thrilled and wanted me to say a big thank you. 

Thank you for stopping by, I hope we can all take time to reflect today and wear our poppies with pride,

I will be back tomorrow, revisiting aRemembrance themed card, which I originally posted last year.

I would also like to enter this card in the current Allsorts Challenge week 284 , which has the theme of Poppies/Remembrance -
http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/week-284-poppiesremembrance_8.html


Love and Hugs,
Carole X

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Halloween Hocus Pocus revisited - Saturday 1st November

Hello Friends,

A late and quick post today and I will get around you all first thing tomorrow! I had one of those crazy days today where the craft room had been driving me mad, can't find a thing, decided to reorganise (why in the midst of Christmas crafting I'll never know!) and now I am surrounded, can't move in here and have made it 10 times worse...why when I have actually got rid of some stuff, will the rest not fit back in the room...now there's a conundrum!

Anyway, we had a fab Trick or Treat...well Tom got stuck at work so I was (sob) all alone, but 48 little spooks, princesses, pirates, pumpkins, witches and the like came a calling...and I got so many compliments for my porch..two 12 year olds exclaimed "amazing!"- chuffed! Yes I did count them...I was on my own, it was something to do!!!

Here are some pretty poor photos..

Today I also found out that my Psycho House/Poe graveyard made the Top 3 in the Artist Trading Post Challenge! I was so pleased as I had put so much time into that project, probably more than any before. I had it on my porch display and several of the parents stopped to ask about it. They all thought the house was the Psycho house, so it looks like I am going to have to start working on a Bates Motel to go with it for next year..watch this space!

Thank you for stopping by, I am leaving my mess of a room now to go and watch Strictly in peace!

Love and Hugs
Carole X

Happy Halloween! - Friday 31st October 2014

A Spookylicious good morning to you all!

I made quite a few Halloween inspired decor makes this year, but not so many cards so today a card!

For the side web background on this card I used the Tim Holz 'Shatter' mask, which was gifted to me last year by my lovely blog friend Anne (Redanne)..what a lovely surprise it was too! I actually had quite a few cards 'lined' up using this mask, but in the end only managed to make this one.

I inked it with embossing ink and ran it through my GC, then I coated it with  WOW gold embossing glitter. I added the digi stamp and the little dangling spider is a rubber stamp. I coloured the girl's hair quite 'messy'  and it doesn't show in the photo but I  streaked some gold  'wink of steel' through the hair.

Inside the card I die cut this Sizzizx  'Boo' '31' die on to purple glitter card and placed it inside so that it pops when the card is opened.

I didn't get time to use my new prize die, so it will have to wait until next year and I'm in work this morning so this post is scheduled. When I get home this afternoon, it will be time to decorate the front porch! I'll post some photos tomorrow x

Happy Halloween all!

Love and Bugs...oops I mean HUGS!

Carole X

Dasher in the forest - Monday 6th October 2014

Good afternoon friends,

Well I just did a quick round of your blogs, sorry for the quick comments but I still seem to be trying to catch up with myself!

Tom and I spent from Friday until yesterday lunch time painting in the kitchen..finally it looks like a kitchen and we can use it properly. We are still waiting for the glass splash back to be made and then the wall tiles will be placed and we'll be finished...another month I think.

I go back to work tomorrow and Tom went today - I don't think we have ever had such a non-holiday and felt so tired at the end of 2 weeks off! The first week was  enjoyable as we could at least go out, but last week was just working on house stuff...we painted the craft barn and the chicken coop. My back is very tender, but I'm due a sports massage on wednesday and am so looking forward to it.

For the last two weeks I have barely entered the craft room, but we have 2 workshops this week - a bit of a mistake after 2 weeks holiday, so I had to prep for them. The first one tomorrow night is a special 'one off' at the library, so as I work there and I can see myself being mega busy tomorrow, I probably won't come home in between!

The card the group is going to be making is based on one I made as part of Sam Poole's DT, I  only showed it on the last post I did before Sam went on maternity leave and that posted consisted of several projects, I've also changed it a little for the class.

It's a tent fold card using Dasher Deer and little trees stamps, please excuse me for not going into detail, but again this has to be a quick post, I'm still catching up with myself!


Hoping to slowly get back to normal blogging and commenting this week, meanwhile,
Love and Hugs
Carole X

A Festival of Hares...and a Rabbit! - Wednesday 1st October 2014

HI Friends!

Rabbits and Hares, they're all so adorable!

Please excuse the 'wordy' and photo heavy update post...

A week ago was my last post...it seems soooo long! How are you all ? It's also now October, what has happened to this year? Where has it gone? I love the colours and festivals of the autumn/fall, I just wish this season lasted a bit longer and winter would hold back.

This is the second week of our two week holiday and partly because of being in 'holiday' mode and mostly because the house has been in disarray through the kitchen fit, I have not felt like crafting at all, I haven't even wanted to get on the computer. The 'craftiest' thing I've done in nearly 2 weeks is look at Pinterest on the iPad....and as I pin, say to myself 'great idea, gotta make it'... I have managed to hop on to Mac (a not very original name for my iMac) every few days to catch up with you all though...I hate blog stuff on the iPad.

In truth, all I want to be doing at the moment is make Halloween cards, decorate my wooden and mdf pieces that are waiting for me in the craft barn..but I have craft commitments which have to come first! I have made a particularly Edgar Allen Poe-sih Halloween 'scene', which I am excited to share with you all soon though.

On the subject of Pinterest, following my Prim Folk art post recently, some of you said you'd never heard of it and asked what it is...well it's a form of American Folk art, based on very primitive art and ideas. If you look on Pinterest under 'Prim crafts' you will see lots of examples. I also have  a Board dedicated to Prim art and crafts on my account: Carole Zorzo

The two kitchen fitters, Martin and Justin, were wonderful and I can't believe how tidy they were: they finished Friday lunch time except for one thing...there is always one thing isn't there? We had ordered a glass splashback for behind the hob, in aubergine and I was so looking forward to seeing it up! Thursday evening as they were leaving, I asked about it and guess what? They knew nothing about it. They made a call to Magnet and to cut a long story short, basically the designer hadn't ordered it...it has to be made to measure, so we have another week to wait. But that's ok, otherwise we love our new kitchen!

Within an hour of them leaving, Magnet sent in two ladies to give it a thorough clean, that was  a nice touch.

As I write this, the floor tiles are being laid and the kitchen is again bare of everything and unusable. We still have the walls to do and some painting and then it will be finished. I've added a few photos at the end of this post showing what the kitchen was like for four days between the guys finishing and tiler Dave, starting... take no notice of the walls! We couldn't make up our mind what we wanted, they will be tiled, we've decided.

We have had some proper holiday time in between house stuff and on Monday we popped up to Cirencester. I've been following their Hare Festival all summer - they had lots of hares placed around the town, some designed by local celebs such as Laurence Llewellyn Bowen and Emma Samms - now they have all been removed and are about to be auctioned for charity, The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.  Until tomorrow they are all on a pre-auction display in one of the hotels and what a sight they are...photos at bottom of post.

So it's appropriate that today's card features a hare (well it's a rabbit but we can pretend). I made this card a few weeks ago using Sam Poole's bunny from the Woodland Creatures stamp sets

 Please excuse me for not going into details of everything else I used, there are already too many words in this post,but please ask if you would like to know!


First the hares in all their glory...

There were three rows of these hares...the one in front is Bare Hare

Some of the mini hares...the one in front is Vinny the Gangst-Hare

Woolly Jumper & Blue

Flame, the Phoenix Wayfarer

Hicarus

This is Hareoh the Pharaoh and was my favourite

Harelequin

Harry, King of the Hill

some more little 'ins: Bob and Neville

Buck the Trend and Material Girl

Hare

Hopportunity Hare

Pebley Hare

Patchwork,  Via Albatine & Bellaire

 There were so many more, all of them gorgeous!

Finally, the kitchen so far..the colour is a sort of sage-grey, in some lights it looks more grey, some more sage :)

The stools are up cycled! We were going to get new, but these belonged to Tom's grandparents have have always been with us, so I knew he'd rather keep them. I painted them with chalk paint (my fave Annie Sloan) and waxed them, then covered the seats with a fabric that has an aubergine pattern.

I think the pull out larder was the best choice we made, so much more storage!

Phew! Well thanks for sticking to the end...!

Love and Hugs
Carole X