It's Twinchie Time!

Happy Monday everyone, (what's left of it)

Hope you all had a good weekend.  As usual it was over far too quickly. 
I've got a really busy week again this week - nothing changes there then!  And I just can't seem to get going at all.  It could have something to do with a little distraction I have at the moment, called Alex! 
I'll apologise now if this post doesn't make sense, but it's really hard to concentrate when there's a little person riding around the kitchen on his Gruffalo trunki!

And you've got Thomas the Tank Engine in the background, for the 28th time this afternoon!!  It's going to seem so quiet when he goes home on Wednesday.

I thought I'd start this week off with a quick Blog Challenge entry, seeing as I didn't do any last week. 
Yes, it's that time again over at Show Us Your Twinchie. 
It's Challenge #7 and the theme is ANYTHING GOES, which means we can pretty much put what we like on there, as long as it's still only 2inches x 2inches.  The DT have already come up with some fabulous designs.

Here's mine .......

Talk about using up left over bits.  The words are the only thing I did specifically for this.  The butterfly was a spare from a challenge weeks ago and the black, Fran-taged 2x2 was cut from a piece of card left over from something I did last week, which I can't show you yet!
The words are from a set of Dylusions stamps which arrived in the old craft room last week (latest ebay purchases!) and had to be used straight away.
 
Well, that's one job done this week.  Unfortunately though my 'To Do' list just keeps growing and growing.  Never mind, I'll eventually get to the end, sometime!

We had a lovely afternoon out yesterday.  We went for a walk in one the National Glens on the island - Groudle Glen.

It was so pretty down there, and so quiet.

There's quite a few of these glens on the island, Stephen says he intends to walk them all.  We've done a few of them, and they're all different. 
Groudle Glen runs from Onchan, all the way down to the sea. There's a railway line that's open during the summer months which takes you up to the tea rooms at Sea Lion Rocks.  And in December they run 'Santa Trains' into the glen which take you to see the big man himself.

walking with Grandad

look Grandad ........ is that a bird?

If you're interested, you can find more info on Groudle Glen on Wikipedia

the Little Isabella

strange looking funghi

Lauren's 'arty' shot

time for a Tic Tac

Towards the end of the Glen we came across this guy.  He was amazing, someone's been busy. It looks as though he's been carved from an actual tree, recently, as the date 2012 was carved into the back of him.

Not quite sure who is, Stephen thought perhaps he was the island's mythological sea God - Manannan.

The glen does run all the way to the sea after all ....

Phew!  That was a long post.   If you're still reading, well done!  I promise I'll keep things shorter for the rest of the week.

Have a lovely evening. and I'll see you again soon.

Linda

x

A trip down Memory Lane

Hi everyone,
Hope you're all enjoying the weekend.
My first post on the Craftwork Cards Blog has gone live today and includes some of the samples from the brand new 'Memory Lane'  Project of the Month Kit.
Don't forget, there's also a fab competition running all this week to win a huge bag of Candi and all the extra goodies that go with it.  Why not pop over there and take a look - you have to be in it, to win it!

The GNPE is on again today in Harrogate, were any of you there yesterday?  I believe it was a busy show, lots of goodies to buy and great demonstrations. If you're off there today, enjoy yourselves.

One of the reasons I wasn't there this time is that my daughter and grandson are over for a few days.
We had a lovely day yesterday.  Picked them up from the airport first thing, then went on into Castletown for morning coffee and to do a spot of shopping.  My favourite butchers is down there and also our favourite wine shop too (food and drink again!).
All stocked up, we headed home for lunch, and in the afternoon we decided to take Alex on the steam train down to Port Erin.
He loves Thomas the Tank Engine, so it was the perfect adventure for him.

We had our own carriage - very posh .......

and he sat with Grandad all the way down to Port Erin.  He was quite impressed when the whistle blew everytime we came to a station.

Once we arrived, we had a stroll down to the beach, the weather wasn't bad, a bit breezy but at least the sun came out.

When we got back to the station for our return journey, our train had no engine .....

I think it was having a rest before changing ends ready to set off back.
Just had time for a coffee and ice cream and a quick look around the station, before the whistle blew again and we had to board the train for our journey home to Douglas.

On the way back we had to have the windows open so that Alex could watch the steam go by

We had one tired little boy by the time we got home, but he'd enjoyed his day on the trains.



Today it's Sunday lunch out, the whole family - no cooking for me (yeah!).  It's not very often that we're all together these days.  Christopher has taken the day off, and it was him that suggested we go out (thinking of his old mum - bless him!).

It's another gorgeous day too, sunshine and blue skies.  So we may just go for a lovely walk after lunch - burn off some of those calories.

I'll leave you with one of my designs from the CWC blog ..........

All the details how it was made are over on the blog.

Thank you for looking today, enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

See you all next week.

Linda

x

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

Morning everyone,

Just a quick post from me tody. I have to be at the airport shortly to pick up my daughter and that gorgeous Grandson of mine.

It's WORLD CARDMAKING DAY (whoo hoo!) and to celebrate there's a competition starting today, running all week until the 12th October, over on the Craftwork Cards Blog

CANDI 4 CANDY

 CANDY 4 CANDI

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is pop over to the Blog, and become a follower, if

you're not already. Then leave a comment EVERYDAY, until the 12th, using the magic word CANDI. 

The prize is fabulous, you won't want to miss out ........  it's a whole lot of Candi gorgeousness, and all the extras that go with it -  worth over £100!  (Wow!)

So go on, pop over there and start leaving your comments.  The DT will be posting everyday so there'll be something new to see and lots of inspiration on how to use your Candi and all the other great CWC products.  I've a post already to go, not sure what day it's going to be on there though, you'll just have to keep checking.

I'm afraid I won't be cardmaking today, going to have my hands full I think.  I was busy yesterday though, but I can't share it with you just yet.  I made a Wedding Anniversary card for one of hubby's work colleagues to give to his wife.  It's their 1st anniversary so I wanted to make something special. - where did that year go!
I like it, just have to wait and see if he does (fingers crossed!)
Here's something I can share though .........  it's a bit of a blast from the past, about this time last year.  I don't think it's been on the Blog before, apologies if it has.

It was for a very special friends birthday.  Made using some of my favourite Hero Arts stamps, I love that large ruffled flower.  I've paper pieced the petals to match the background and layered it up.  You can see I've also used the lovely foliage stamp behind to add a bit of depth, and it's all finished off with a beautiful large silk ribbon bow.

Well, that's me done. Sorry it's a bit short and sweet, but I can't go to the airport in my PJ's so I'd better get a move on.  

If you're off to the GNPE in Harrogate today, enjoy!  If not make the most of World Cardmaking Day.

Have a great weekend, and I'll see you all again soon.

Thanks for looking

Linda

x

I'm a Perfect Pinky!

Afternoon all,

That's right, I am a Perfect Pinky - yeah!!
I got a lovey surprise this morning when I found out my entry was one of those chosen to receive the Pinky Badge for the last In the Pink Blog Challenge

Thank you so much girls.  My badge is now proudly displayed on my sidebar.

I've had a busy couple of days trying to get some DT samples finished for Craftwork Cards.  It's the GNPE  (Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza) this weekend over in Harrogate and I wanted to get some designs done for the stand at the show.  I can't be there myself (sigh!) but at least my projects will be.

Anyway, I finally got them in the post this morning, and they should be there tomorrow. 
Here's a few sneaky peeks of what was in the box I sent ........  If you want to see them in full, you'll have to check out the Craftwork Cards Blog.  I shall be doing my first post on there later this evening - nervous or what!  Some of the other Design Team members have already been posting on there and they've done a great job.  If you get the chance, please pop over and have a read.  

clean and simple cards

any occasion

ooh ....... a little bit of glitz

something special

create keepsakes

All the projects have been made using the new Craftwork Cards  Project of the Month Kit - 'Memory Lane' and it is sooo pretty.  As always you get loads in there, from card blanks right through to the finishing touches for your projects.  Can't say anymore than that ..... you'll have to read my CWC Blog Post (sorry!)
If any of you are going to the GNPE have a great time - I'm so jealous!   And say Hello to the girls on the Craftwork Cards stand.

Right, I'm off now to make a start on that first blog post (eek!) Wish me luck.

Bye for now

Linda

x

White Rabbits! White Rabbits! White Rabbits!

Hi everyone,
Well,  it's the first of the month again. Time flies when you're having fun - doesn't it just.
I apologise to anyone who thinks it's a little early for the Christmas Countdown Banner, but I must confess, I love the build up to the big day, plus it's going to keep me on my toes as far as my Christmas cards go - I hope!
Did you all have a good weekend?  Mine wasn't bad.  Saturday was a bit hectic, but yesterday was nice and relaxing so I'm all ready for another busy week.

Stephen and I did the Poker Stars Treasure Hunt on Saturday.  Unfortunately we didn't win anything this year but we had a great time. The weather was fab and the course took us along parts of the island we hadn't seen before

Views from Sulby Reservoir

Our final destination was the famous Cregg Ny Baa on the mountain road on the TT Course.

It was a bit of a tough one this year and the competition was very strong.   We didn't do too badly though - at least we didn't come last!

The questions score was out of 56 .......


we had all the collectables on the list ......

a hat
a tea bag
some elestic
a 20p coin
a red crayon
an envelope
and a golf tee
(by the way, the hat wasn't mine.  It actually belongs to my son???!)


It was the pictures that let us down this year, only 6 out of the 10.  We really could have done with an extra pair of eyes to look for these.  Last year we had Lauren with us, that's our excuse anyway.
The joint winners had 70 points, third place 69 so our 66 was pretty good.  We very happy with that.

This weekend is going to be another busy one I think.  Lauren and Alex are coming over for a few days on Saturday.  Last time they were here Alex thought Grandma's playroom looked like fun

the new King of Distress I wonder ....

Think I'm going to have to sort him a little box out with craft goodies in and a space so he can play along with me.

Really looking forward to seeing them both, they don't come often enough.  However I am going to have to get a move on this week and make sure all the stuff that needs doing is done and out of the way.

Before I go and get started, just a little bit of cratfyness.  You remember I showed you one of the samples I sent to Kay for last weeks C&C shows.  And how I said I would look a right ninnie if it wasn't on - well if the cap fits!!
You guessed, or saw if you watched the shows it wasn't on! (I didn't see it anyway).
Not sure why but hey ho!  Actually they didn't get to show a lot of the samples in any detail as everything was selling out so fast (Kay did another great job).
This is what was inside the box anyway .......

It was a Christmas decoration.  This started out as a small wooden heart that I covered with Flitter Glu and Flakes.  I made a rosette from the Wishi Washi Tape and used one of the stamps from the new Christmas set 'Looks Like Rain, Deer' for the centre.
If you feel like popping over to the Indigo Blu Blog page I posted some of my samples from last weeks show on there.  You'll also find some fab posts from the rest of the Design Team.

Well, that's it for today.  Off to play with some Craftwork Cards goodies this afternoon.  Hopefully I'll see you later in the week with a sneaky look at what I come up with.

Thanks for looking today, enjoy the rest of Monday.

See you soon

Linda

x

PS  Ooh, almost forgot.  If you look down the right hand side you'll see details of two fabulous Giveaways that are currently running - chances to win some gorgeous Ribbon Girl goodies.  Don't miss out on these.  xx