Heeeellllooooo.......Is there anybody out there!!!

So I wonder how many of you have wondered "Where has Caz gone?".....

Well I actually haven't been anywhere, just was in a Crafty/Blogging Funk....I have been making a few cards but just could not find the motivation. I am not sure if my messy craft room is part of the problem, so I have some spring cleaning plans for it.

On a nice note....I actually WON a Do Crafts Creativity Club Draw....lots of yummy stuff from the new travel range....so pleased as I actually love it.

Will come back later to show a mix of the cards I have made since I last blogged....I just have to pop out to have a hair cut!....I love having my hait cut...

Sitting Casual....

After years of office working and clothing restrictions, I am now all about casual...well most of the time anyway. I thought I would show you a card with another of the new releases in March from The Greeting Farm. This stamp set is called Sitting Casual and I have stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink onto Craftwork Cards Digital Cardstock and coloured with Copics using the following colours...
Skin - E000/E00/E11/R20
Hair - E23/E25/E27
Clothing - B91/B93/B95/YG91/YG95
Couch - E41/E42/E43/E44
The papers are all Echo Park This & That Charming 6x6 pad and I have layered them with Bazzill Kraft cardstock. I have used sentiments from the same stamp set and also an additional circle sentiment by Craftwork Cards.

Have had a hectic week, and this morning I was at the Milton Keynes Woodwind Music Festival at The Church of Christ the Cornerstone. This event is for Primary School children learning a woodwind instrument with Milton Keynes Music Service. So Georgia's school entered an Ensemble of Flutists and they played beautifully and I am so proud to say that they won the gold award, and have been invited with the other winners to take part in the Concert this evening...needless to say we cancelled all our plans for this afternoon/evening so that she can take part...

Snow Fun Sunday

So no crafty project for me today as I have been having to get up early all this week and have been going to bed when I normally have time to craft...LOL

I just wanted to share a little montage of pics I took in the snow on Sunday.....and yes I am actually in TWO of the pics (but I kept them small...LOL).

What the montage doesn't show is David going into a tree...TWICE and also getting hit in the leg by a wooden sledge, and me getting knocked onto my butt by two small girls on a sledge.....both David and I are sporting some nice bruises...his worse than mine.

Will be back tomorrow with something crafty!!!!

MIA.......

So sorry I have been missing for the last 10 days....so much personal stuff going on, and not enough time or inspiration to craft....but I am back and today I am playing catch up.

I will post a little later some things I made and didn't show...

My New Kitchen....

Ok, so it was finished in August, but this has been the first chance I have had to show you a couple of pictures...

Here is a photo of what I call "the kitchen end"...

And here is a photo of what I call "the dining end"...

If you click on the images, you can see a little closer...

The other day I was asked what was my favourite thing....apart from all of it, my favourite things is that under the sink those handles pull out one big drawer that houses my rubbish bin and also my recycling bin....sad I know. Also next to the drawers under the hob is a two shelf carousel, so you can pull it out and get to all the items on that shelf....it houses tins and packets of things....so handy. I also love my big belfast/butler sink....I have wanted one of those for as long as I can remember.

So I am over the moon with my new kitchen, and actually enjoy keeping it super tidy (I hate cleaning), it may have taken me a couple of years to finally decided what style kitchen I wanted...but I think it was worth waiting for!

Artbase Hornchurch - Loyalty Stamps...

If you aren't already aware Artbase Hornchurch are will no longer be issuing their loyalty stamps from the 28th August, and completed cards must be redeemed instore by 30/9/10 and online by 31/10/10.

So now I have a plea....I have a card that has 31 of 50 stamps collected, and I wondered whether there was anyone out there with a few stamps that they would like to donate to me.

All donations gratefully received.

Hugs

Loads...

I have loads of new cards to show you....but not until tomorrow...release day of the Pearl collection on Pixie Dust Studio....follow the link to the right.

Today I am dropping Georgia off at school and then heading down to Maidstone to see my Auntie Sheena who is over from Cyprus for my cousins wedding at the end of the month....and we are going shopping in Bluewater....if I can find it...as I have never been before.

Laters...

So Gutted!!!

I may have mentioned that I was off for the weekend to Suffolk to a retreat with classes from Donna Downey....well I just had a call, and they have had to cancel. Donna is stuck in Germany, with no flights into the UK, and the airspace in Germany could possibly be closed at any time. Apparently there is not a single car available to hire, and so Amanda @ Your Touch of Craft had to take the difficult decision and cancel the whole weekend. They are hoping to reschedule and do it in October....let's hope I can still go. I have unfortunately lost out on the cost of my hotel room for tonight as it was a flat rate, no refund room....so I am out £21....C'est la vie.

Now what will I do this weekend...all my DT commitments are covered....so now I can do whatever I want....or maybe I should just get ahead of myself....decisions decisions!!!

Club Anya & Friends Sketchy Saturday...

Here is a card I made with the sketch from Saturday over on the Club Anya & Friends Blog. For my card I have used one of the Creepy Cakes....I do love to colour these cuties. The papers are SEI "Clare" and they are stunning and all are either foiled or embossed...sometimes both. I have layered the scrummy papers with Bazzill and DCWV cardstock and embellished with a piece of a Prima Bling Swirl, other bling from my stash and a sentiment by Craftwork Cards.

Had a lovely afternoon yesterday, Hubby was home from work by 5.15pm and we dropped Georgia off at Gymnastics (she has a comp on Sunday so needs the training) and then we popped into The Centre MK to look for a dress for me to wear to my cousins wedding in May....I like to be prepared just incase I don't see something I like straight away. Well all the new season dresses etc are just arriving and I got a dress and shrug in Debenhams from the Rocha by John Rocha range....it is navy and has a gorgeous applique flower in lime, pink and turquoise...and I got a matching turquoise shrug to wear over it.....now I need shoes...and possibly a bag!!!

I'm so excited....

I have so many exciting things going on at the moment, some of which I will not mention now, and one that I will.....Last year I took some amazing classes with Donna Downey @ ScrapFever. Well Donna showed us her Fabric Scrapbooking line, and I really really wanted to take a class...but nobody was running one in the UK.....until now. Your Touch of Craft in Suffolk have Donna coming over to teach in April, now had I not been signed up to Donna's mailing list I would never have known about it....so now I am booked on for not just one....but BOTH days. I will be taking three classes with her in total, one of which is a 5-6 hour class doing the fabric album....and I cannot wait. What a birthday pressie, my only weekend away doing classes this year...and what a stonker it is...

Crackers...

After watching Kirstie's Homemade Christmas the other week, I was inspired to make my own Christmas Crackers. Well having started a little late I won't be able to make a personal one for everyone, so I decided to make a cracker to wrap my Sisters pressie in....and here it is...
The paper is gorgeous flocked wrapping paper that I got from Paperchase for £3.50 a roll. I requires 3 toilet rolls to construct the cracker but only one stays in the middle, as you tie the end the other 2 crackers slide out. I have also used some ribbons from HobbyCraft and some Bazzill Tulle. Since the pic was taken I have also added a little tag that I cut using a Stampin' Up punch and some Doodlebug Flocked Cardstock. Inside there is a snap, but no hat or joke....however there is one of the large purple sweets from the Quality Street tin plus my Sisters Christmas pressie.

We woke this morning to about 4-5cms of snow....which looks pretty. Thankfully the school is still open for the last day, so Georgia is there, and at 2pm there is a Carol Service at the school....so I will be there too.

Off for a weekend of crafting and fun...

Well I am away for the weekend with the ladies from MKScrappers crop. We have the whole weekend to craft, eat and have a laugh.

As always I am not my most productive when I am away from my craft room. I have however donw the first page in my Prima Fabric Album...as designed for them by Donna Downey. I first saw these albums back in April @ ScrapFever when Donna herself showed me her finished album....and I fell in love instantly and it has taken from then until last weekend for me to get my hands on one of the albums.....I promise to come back tomorrow and show you the first page.

Well off to bed for me now....so much crafting to do tomorrow.
Caz
x

We are away!!!

This morning we left my Dad's in Surrey for a weeks holiday in Looe, Cornwall. After a 6am start and a stop for brekkie, we finally arrived at 11.30 this morning. We have bought my Dad with us and also my Niece Hannah. Georgia & Hannah seem to want to do everything in the first day/evening....although they crashed out this evening just after 9.3opm.

When we arrived at Looe Bay caravan park we found out that our booking had been upgraded and we have been given a newer and much nicer caravan (double glazed and central heating to name a few extras) and to be honest with the look of the weather forecast it looks like we may well be needing it...LOL

Last year we were unable to use our 3G mobile broadband dongle, but I decided to bring it again this year just incase...and would you believe it because we are at the back of the site and slightly higher with no trees...I can use it....YAY ME. So here I am blogging as the girls are sleeping and the men are in the bar drinking beer....a womans work is never done.

So I do have a very limited stash with me in the caravan (I couldn't not have something to colour...LOL) so may well make something during the week, although I will have things to show you tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday....I was super busy before I left...LOL

I will be back tomorrow to show you my first Anyone for Anya? DT card....so until then...night night.

Fab news to share....

Today I received an email from Tracy @ Squiggle Stamps asking if I would be interested in becoming a member of her Design Team...and I am very pleased to announce that I said.....YES!

I'm so excited to be working along side some very talented crafters and can't wait for my first package of rubber to land on my door mat, so I can start to play. Squiggle Stamps are a small UK based stamp company launched in Summer 2009, and carry a unique range of cute and whimsical stamps designed by a talented team of illustrators.

Make sure you add the Squiggle Stamps new blog to your blog list, I have insider infomation that there's is gonna be an official launch of the blog on September 1st, with maybe some yummy candy going too.

And here is a list of all the new Design Team Members...

I am delighted to have the following 5 amazingly talented crafters on the Squiggle Stamps Design Team

Karen - http://karenscards.blogspot.com/

Jenny - http://stampspencilsandpaper.blogspot.com/

Tara - http://happilyevercrafting.blogspot.com/

Tracy - http://camsmum-tg.blogspot.com/

Caz - http://aloadofoldblogocks.blogspot.com/ - Me

Today has been.....

Operation Clean Up My Craft Room... For almost a year my Office/Craft Room has become a dumping ground for anything anyone couldn't find a home for....so much so that I was unable to craft in there....so my stash (or as DH calls it.....Cr*p) has been slowly making it's way downstairs and never making it's way back up there. So today I decided that enough was enough and I am reclaiming my space. Now this is no easy task and it always looks so much worse before it gets better, at the moment I have just broken the back of so much worse.

Georgia is in her element though as she has inherited enough craft materials to keep her busy for the next couple of years....LOL. I am hoping that tomorrow will get things back to useable, and then I will just be sorting what I know I will use from things I might not use...the never pile is what I gave Georgia....LOL

I think I will certainly have some wooden stamps to sell, plus a Making Memories Toolkit, Cuttlebug, Quickutz Red Handle, and a Quickutz Revolution. I will need to make some money to buy me some more storage solutions....LOL, although finally I have managed to fit some cubes from Storage 4 Crafts that I was given by a lovely lady on UKScrappers that I bought some of the trollies that hold Artbins from....so at least that saved me some cash....I can feel a trip to Ikea coming on...I need something to from hang my punches on the wall, and I know just the products (thanks to Marlene), and another chair and a new blind for the window.

I am soooo HAPPY!!!

I got a text from Sony on Friday to say that my Sony Vaio Laptop was on it's way home...and this morning it arrived.

I was so nervous opening up the box wondering whether they had managed to repair it without loosing all my data, pictures and programmes.....Well I am so so happy to report that everything is intact, all the pictures of Georgia playing in the garden that I hadn't printed or backed up yet...all safe. Even the ones with her goofy teeth. I am so happy that I shed a few tears of joy....how silly am I.

This has taught me a valuable lesson, and I sent David off to PC World a couple of weeks ago to get us a wireless USB Hub so that our portable hard drive stays plugged into it and I can access it wirelessly anywhere in the house to get all our computers backed up.

I have been so lucky, with both my technical problems...remember my frozen Nano....received a replacement and now my mended Vaio.

Will be back shortly to show you a couple of cards made over the weekend.

I am in Punch Heaven...

Well after almost giving up hope on ever getting my order for the Martha Stewart Valentines Lace punch.....Craft Obsessions got their delivery, even though they were told it was discontinued and unlikely ever to appear...

Not only that Pam, my Mother in Law managed to get me an X-Cut Dimension Butterfly Punch from The Range in Southampton...the last one they had.

Seems like the punch fairy is looking after me today....yay!!!

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 62 "Bit o' Bling!"

This week over on the Cute Card Thursday Challenge Blog we have a theme of "Bit o' Bling". We want to see sparkle on your cards. For my card I have used the new Matey stamp set from The Greeting Farm, coloured with Copics. The papers are a mixture of Karen Foster and Rusty Pickle. The treasure chest is a stamp I borrowed from Marlene and I think it is by Charmed Delectables...although I cannot be sure. I cut the lid off the treasure chest so that I could add the gems and pearls inside.

I have added this picture to show you the gems inside the treasure chest...


Come on over to the Blog and join in the fun...we have a prize and also a wonderful Guest DT..Sue...aka Susie Sunshine.

We had a fun day yesterday with Marlene and the Girls...although the day sped by far too quickly.

Today is a quieter day, but tomorrow we will be going to the circus...yay...never been to a circus before...

Also David took my laptop into the shop to be looked at and they think that there is a graphics card problem, and they are going to get all my pics and stuff off and save it to my backup hard drive...yay....so things are looking better...the lappy is sick rather than dead.

My Big News!!!!

Those of you who are regular readers of my Blog will know that I have been a temporary DT member over on Cute Card Thursday Challenge Blog while Lynn & Annie are taking a well earned rest. Well I had a lovely email from Deb & Andrea asking me to stay on.....so now I am officially a permanent member of the Cute Card Thursday DT.

I was so chuffed as this has always been among my favourite challenge blogs.

Birthday Month Blog Candy

BLOG CANDY NOW CLOSED - WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW

THIS POST WILL REMAIN AT THE TOP UNTIL FRIDAY 20TH MARCH (MY BIRTHDAY)

OK, I promised a Blog Candy as this month is my Birthday.... I will be giving away two sets of The Greeting Farm stamps......Dress Up Anya & Ian and the other set is their additional clothes.

So...

FIRST PRIZE - Dress Up Anya & Ian and their additional clothes plus an assortment of 50 stamped images of your choice from hAnglar & stAnglar, Magnolia, Penny Black, The Greeting Farm (Anya's).

SECOND PRIZE - a Black Market Paper Society "Letters from Paradise" plus 25 assorted stamped images from the same selection as above.

THIRD PRIZE - An assortment of 20 stamped images, selection as above.

I haven't included pictures of the stamped images as I will stamp them once the winners are drawn and then they can tell me which medium they use to colour and I can then stamp using the right ink and paper....and also images of the winners choice.

So, what do I need to do you ask...Well all you need to do is leave me a comment and spread the word by posting details and a link back on your blog. If you don't have a blog, don't worry you can still be in with a chance by leaving a comment and becoming a followers of my Blog.

You have until 11.50pm on Friday 20th March (the date and time I was born) to take part, and I will draw the names on Saturday morning when I get up. I WILL ship worldwide.
Good Luck