Did You Miss This Too?

Just a quick post while I steel myself to go prep dinner - that'll be my energy gone for the day! Anyway, I've been feeling so lousy that I've not been doing my usual blog surfing & totally missed my profile piece on Deanne's Blog ... so if you want to know more about me (& who I am when I'm feeling chipper!) go take a lookie!
Don't forget to get in on Deanne's blog candy too *smiles*

Love From Lethargic, Dartford.

The last couple weeks have been horrendous! I have no energy & just can't be bothered to do anything. And I do mean anything! Getting up in the morning is about all I can manage & for anything else I have to force myself to get going. Do you have times like that?
Today, I have updated the Pen Pals blog - it has taken all day & largely all I had to do was cut & paste the information from a couple of e-mails ... what's that about?
You think I've blogged a bit lately? Yup! gotta love scheduled posting - but I'm almost out of those now, so if I don't get my act together soon it could be quiet for a li'l while.
OK, I'm almost done whining now.
Check out the Pen Pals blog for our latest challenge ... & maybe take part to cheer me up?

It's lunch time, I'm exhausted, back to bed methinks!

Di's Sept #4 Sketch

Here's my DT card for Di Hickman's Card Sketch this week (Sept #4). As always, really easy to use. I've used scraps of Fancy Pants Holly Jolly & a Maya Road chipboard butterfly, coated with Doodlebug flock ... full of yummy texture!
I've not crafted so much lately ... been busy in the garden & building my new 'green' blog. More on both fronts soon.

Fab's Big Christmas Challenge!

I totally missed Fab's Christmas Challenge last month ... 7 cards for July & the deadline for August is today - so another 8 due! So to stay at 'nutter' level - that's 15 Christmas cards ... go on, count them ... a total of 16!!!! (yup! mis-counted & made an extra one! LOL)
I'm not totally sure that they count as technically these are new year/happy winter cards ... I have a lot of friends who do not celebrate Christmas as such ... but it's still nice to let them know I'm thinking of them.
All these cards are based on this sketch by Di Hickman, the same one I used for my thank you cards last month too. Really great for whipping up a batch of cards quickly!! It works really well with the smaller 4.25" square cards, so your supplies go a really long way too!
More cards coming later this month!!

Deanne Has Blog Candy!!

Just a quick post to let you know what Deanne is doing to celebrate her 30,000 hits!!
Here's what she said:

The package will include:
~some Stampin' Up cardstock
~some stamped images on white cardstock
~a mixture of ribbon
~some buttons
~and anything else I can find around my scrappy area!

So, what YOU have to do for a chance to win this is to post here in the comments to say HI. If you post the second time with a link to your post where you told others about my blog RAK, then your name will go in twice!

So I'd jump on over to Deanne's site quick & get your name into that draw!! Good luck!

Tagged again!

No piccies today ... but I got tagged by my good friend Shirley & it would be rude not to play! LOL.

Here's the rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4.Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Not sure if these are weird or random ... or even if I've shared these before - but here goes anyway!

1. I love Marmite but hate Vegemite ... they are soooooo not the same thing!
2. I have lived in the same house for half my life (20 years) & lived in 9 different places during the first half.
3. I was born on 08/08/68 ... & share my birthday with (among others) Princess Eugenie & my Grandmother-in-Law
4. I cannot drive ... nor do I want to learn!
   
5. I've been 'green' since before it was fashionable
6. I get restless if I haven't done anything creative for a day or two. Doesn't have to be papercraft but if I haven't planted seeds, made li'l felt things or anything either ... I guess in some way I'm driven to make stuff.
7. Since I had my baby (now 4) I get scared ... a lot. I don't even leave the house alone. What's that about?

So that's me ... weird/random or whatever! LOL
I'm tagging:
Colette
Pam
Sharmaine
Brigitte
Nancy
Vanessa

Di's Sept #3 Sketch

OOOOps! The problem with scheduling posts is you have to get the dates right! LOL. This one should have published LAST thursday & it wasn't until I scheduled this week's one that I realised what I had done! LOL. Anyway, this was the post:
I couldn't decide which of these two cards I liked best. The top one, I used as my DT card for Di Hickman this week ... mostly cuz it has more 'substance'. Still using up scraps of Cloud 9 Designs Cocoa Mint as for last week, in fact I've managed to get a bit ahead of myself and scheduled this post on 9th September - go me! LOL. The rubz on this one are Upsy Daisy Designs, left over from a DT entry earlier this year.
The second card, I think I might like more than the first. It's slightly simpler, with the papers doing all the work for me. The flowers are a mixture of Yummy Cupcake Daisy Layers & Dahlia Box Blends, both by Petaloo - luuuurve their fabric blossoms! LOL. The rubz on this one are Scrapworks - I use these soooooo much, which is great while they are cheap!
Other than thank you cards (of which I have plenty right now) & some Christmas cards, I don't actually need any for the next few months so I've been struggling a li'l bit with what type to do ... & what to do with them when they are made! I think I have my answer & have decided to make a few boxes of assorted cards up for my sister in law, MIL & grandmother-in-law as Christmas gifts (yup! kids are back at school for the Autumn term ... time to think Christmas, folks!)

The Elusive Christmas Card

I didn't get the DT spot on Christmas Cards All Year 'Round ... Deanne had a bunch of entries from talented crafters not already on her Sketch DTs & decided to go with 3 of these new designers instead ... which is fair enough really! LOL. I will definitely apply again for the January team tho' .
In the meantime, here is the final card: the one that I sent to Deanne as my DT entry.
These cards will make another appearance, hopefully before September 24th. I am waaaay behind on Fab's Christmas Card challenge - totally missed last month, so this month I am determined to have made & displayed here a total of 15 Christmas/New Year cards: 7 for July & 8 for August - just in time to start over for September's challenge ... 9 cards by 24th October!
Hmmmmmm better get a move on then!

Christmas Cards ... All Year 'Round??

Yesterday, I mentioned Deanne's new Christmas Card challenge blog & I just had to submit for the DT. Of late, I'm finding that I just don't make time for any personal projects so the only crafting I'm doing is for various DTs ... & I'm loving it! LOL
I'd love a place on this DT - Deanne is offering just what I need right now ... A chance to create Christmas cards using my own stash. The last thing I need is more stash & I'm all about using what I have right now ... and making the most of my scraps - perfect!
Anyway, the deal was to create a card using the blog banner as inspiration. I guess you all know that I don't do things by halves, so I have e-mailed my submission in (containing one, newly created card) & these are the other four, also inspired by the blog banner (which is lovely! LOL)
In case you were wondering how my 'creative process' works ... this is the gist of it:
The inspiration for the first card was the colours (the buttons are a blue, which doesn't seem to have photographed particularly well!) taken from the banner - & the 'tree' theme. The second uses the same basic colour scheme & a simplified version of the banner's layout. Both cards were created from various HOTP Personal Shopper scraps that I might not necessarily have put together otherwise (the blue papers I would probably have used for 'icy pastel' cards).
The third card loosely uses not the colours themselves but a version of them (pink/burgundy replacing the red & a brighter lime green) & making the stripes (from the banner's border) the focal point.
The final card replicates most of the banner's elements, much in the same way as you might with a sketch. I have used the same bright papers ... so more funky than the banner, which is soft & pretty IYGWIM? I have sanded the edges of all the elements on this one & replaced the tree trunks with buttons. For cards #3 & #4 I used Fancy Pants Holly Jolly - I have tons of scraps left over from cards & layouts, so you could be seeing them again! LOL. I'm finding the Scrapworks Rub Ons invaluable too - I have sooooo many6 colours that, so far, I seem to have the right ones for every project I do!
I'm not sure that I can share the card I submitted - but Deanne is going to make her decision real quick - so I'll be able to share by the end of the week - one way or t'other! LOL In the meantime, you seriously need to check out Christmas Cards All Year 'Round, bookmark it, add it to your reader or subscribe to posts ... or all of those options & get ready for October ... I think it's gonna be a whole lotta fun!

Deanne's Mid-Month Sketch

Here's my take on Deanne's Mid-Month sketch
due to be posted some time today (15th September but I've scheduled this post for 16th ... confused yet???) ... but I'm an idiot & my camera battery went flat (how many times have I said I will top it up regularly instead of waiting until it dies??????? Do I learn? Apparently not! LOL) so I don't know if mine will be included or not ... we will see. Anyway, fabby li'l sketch & soooo easy to use. I've used K & Co Blue Awning, a few random buttons & a scrap from a verrrrry old record card (these were my Dad's & came my way when he moved to Bulgaria a couple years back - I scored a ton of stationary!)
You might want to check out the deets on Deanne's new Christmas Cards challenge blog too - it's called Christmas Cards All Year Round - yup! the clue is in the title there! LOL - I'm definitely up for it ... are you??

Di's Sept #2 Sketch

Back to Christmas Cards with this week's sketch from Di Hickman. I've been really slack at posting projects just lately ... but if you take a look at my Etsy store, its not because I haven't been crafting. I'm back to scheduled posting ... it's the only thing that works for me! LOL
I have been struggling to keep up of late, so if you are waiting for me to e-mail you, send you stuff or whatever ... please bear with me, I haven't forgotten about you & I'll get to it as soon as I can.

So, back to Di's sketch. The top card is the one I submitted & used up the couple of Noteworthy scraps I had left from my last layout. The one below is all scraps again, this time Cloud 9 Design's Cocoa Mint, from a layout I did a couple weeks back - love these colours & have enough scrap for a few more cards yet!
The rub ons are Scrapworks ... on offer in the webstore right now at 25% off - I really like this font & if your letters aren't straight, it looks deliberate! LOL. Talking about the webshop, I know some of my International visitors are disappointed that they can't buy from us ... Good News! Although I had trouble setting that up thru the store (don't ask, it's a long & tedious story!) I can do it thru the Etsy store. So if you see anything there, we can post it to Etsy as a special order, converting the cost to US $ ... cool huh?

Catching Up With Di's Sketches

This first card was my DT entry for Di's Sept #1 sketch ... but was in fact, my third attempt: The first one I hated, the second batch were, I thought, too simple & this one , I really like. I used Noteworthy scraps from the last layout I posted, with just a li'l ink & stitching to give a 'country charm' sorta feel to it ... v. feminine but I love it! All it took was a couple of odd paper flowers & some buttons (odd ones, same size ... they don't need to match!) ... finished!
This is such a versatile sketch & although the new one is up now, I can see me using it a whole bunch more! Especially as that sentiment stamp was a magazine freebie that came as a set of three (just as soon as I find where I stashed the other two! LOL)

The 'playtime' card was my first attempt at the sketch & at first I hated it. The problem was that I had the proportions all wrong (see, you can go wrong with a sketch, it seems) ... I added the ribbon in an attempt to sort it out, which didn't work - & then I added the flourish in the top corner. Still not my favourite card, but I like it more now than at first - live & learn! LOL
I have tons of these papers that are around a year old now & it was a case of either using them or chucking them out ... & I hate to throw things away! They are actually Christmas papers but I think they are pretty enough & not overtly Christmassy, so I've used them a lot of late.

As you can see in the next pic, I used the same sketch in it's simplest form & a bunch of toning 4" square card blanks to whip up a whole bunch of 'thank you' cards. These are the same 'Christmas' papers with the same stamp & a bunch of the co-ordinating artwork cut outs that came with the papers. A whole load of paper punched flowers secured in two layers makes for really easy cards. I have more than enough cards now for all the lovely birthday stuff I received & even to pop a blank one in with every webstore or etsy order. In fact, I've even listed a bunch of these on Etsy for others who might need a number of inexpensive notecards in a hurry. This was my first attempt at batch making cards - can you believe that I have never done that before???? I'll certainly do that again tho'. Some nights when I'm just too tired to think, it's nice to just cut a bunch of paper strips or make up the flowers, or if that is already done, I can just assemble them without thinking about design or whatever. Cool!
The last couple of cards were made for Di's August #3 sketch (totally missed #4!) but I forgot to e-mail to her DOH! Scraps again, this time Cloud 9 Design's Sunrise Smoothie ... & a few odd Flowers/Buttons (I really want to buy some more flowers but kinda thought I should use some of the old up first???). The rub ons are DCWV ... about 4 years old, so it's all about using up not just the scraps but all that old stash too - I'm seriously trying not to buy a whole bunch of new stash & to work thru what I have - it's an obscene amount of stuff really! The second card was really just to use up the scraps left from the first one ... did I mention I hate waste??? And I'm definitely into stitching right now too!

Is This Noteworthy?

I guess it is quite appropriate to have used Making Memories Noteworthy for this page. It is my first DT layout for Deanne Burton's Layout Sketch Design Team. & in true 'Crafty Moments' style, it also doubles for my Pen Pals Challenge layout this week ... to use numbers as the focus of your journaling. If you want to read the journaling, you'll have to check it out at Pen Pals.
We'd love to have some new visitors ... & some more entries to the fortnightly challenges, so do please feel free to pop on over - there's tons of inspiration each week as we publish all the entries that we receive (we will remove them if necessary, should they later be accepted for publication!) - so it's a good bit of exposure for your work too! & if its our favourite, you could also be chosen as our next Pen Pal Of The Week & have your own guest spot alongside me & Colette! Go on! You know you want to! LOL