Happy Valentines Day

I have been a very bad blogger !

I have been struggling for time a lot over the last year or so as I am now virtually full time which has definitely had an impact on my hobbies and pastimes.

Although I have not been the most prolific card maker in that time I am loving being in my new creative space.

I have room to play, and my stash is organised in such a way that I can very quickly find whatever I need.

I have made a pact that I will not buy any new stash (especially not paper). I am limiting myself, trying to only use what I have with the exception of the odd magazine with a great freebie. Even then I am questioning whether it is something I will really use....

It looks like many of the change blogs that I used to follow and participate in have closed. Also many of the digital artists that I have stamps for have close down which is sad to see.

Anyhoo, this is the Valentine's card I made for my hubby. We have been together for 30 years in July and our love grows deeper every year. I am lucky that he is very romantic and tells me he loves me all the time.

The heart background panel and sentiment are both from a Kanban card sheet, part of a kit that I had from QVC a million years ago.

The image is Emo Heart from Just Some Lines who seem to have closed now as I cannot find their site anymore.

Materials Used in this Project are as follows:- 

Card size – A5

Images – Emo Heart by Just Some Lines (now closed)

Heart panel Paper – Kanban

Sentiment – Kanban

Tools – Letraset Promarkers & Flexmarkers, 

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order):-

613 Avenue Create – #218 Anything Goes

A Gem of A Challenge - #3 Anything Goes

Addicted To Stamps - #171 Anything but a Square

Angie’s Digital Stamps - #28 Anything Goes / Twist Love

Artistic Inspirations – #212 Anything Goes Optional Twist Love it Up

Aud Sentiments  – #220 Love or Valentine Sentiment

Brown Sugar - #287 Love and/or St Valentine’s Day

Card Mania - #113 Love is In the Air

Corrosive Challenge - #2 Anything Goes

Craft Rocket Challenge - #56 Valentine

Crafting By Designs – Love is In The Air

Crafting With Attitude - #48 Anything Goes

Crafting With Friends - #80 Anything Goes

Crafts Galore Encore – #60 Anything Goes

Crafty Catz - #449 Anything Goes / Keep It Simple

Crafty Creations  – #384 Anything Goes

Crafty Friends - #103 Anything Goes

Creatalicious Challenges - #157 Anything Goes optional Girly

Creative Fingers - # 157 Anything Goes

Creative Moments - #162 Anything Goes Optional Romance

Di’s Digi Challenge - All About Love

Dragonfly Dreams - Include a Heart

Imagine That Creative Playground Challenge - #2 Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #100 Anything Goes

Pile It On - #151 Pretty in Pink or Feeling Blue

QKR Stampede - #335 Anything Goes

Simply Create Too - #146 Anything Goes / Twist Use Hearts

I'm Back !!

Hi everyone,

Long time no contact. Last time I blogged was April 2014 and it has been archived so I had to start a new blog. Not quite sure if/how I can integrate the 2. My techie hubby will have to look into that for me!

A lot has happened in my life since I blogged last. I think I am a different person so maybe the time is right to have a new blog after all....

My hubby and others had been trying to persuade us to move for a long time and I was adamant that I didn't want to move. I had lived there since 2000 and was determined that I didn't want to move. I had moved around a lot as a child and craved the stability of living in the same place and building a home.

I also don't like change and the thought of leaving what I knew absolutely petrified me. I realise now that wasn't particularly healthy but I have a complicated past and it is one of the ways I coped with my life.

I decided that 2015 was the year of not saying no. I stopped being so over cautious and embraced new experiences. I considered all things instead of automatically saying no to something I wasn't sure about. In May of 2015 I literally woke up one morning and said it was time to move! Talk about having a turn in my thinking LOL

That of course presented me with the challenge of needing to put the house on the market and I had a very small craft room overflowing with stuff. No way could we sell the house like that!

I set to sorting out my crafty stuff, boxing it up and putting it into storage. Watching the TV programmes over the years had taught me to make it look clean and inviting and de-clutter. My craft room became a home office making it more marketable. The house went on the market in October, we put an offer into a new house in November and we eventually sold our house in January 2016

End March 2016 we moved and I started decorating. Hubby was working from home 3 days a week and I did his office 1st but it was immediately apparent this would be too small. A good family friend suggested we look at having an extension to enlarge that room and make another bedroom. After a lot  of delays with planning applications the building work started in May 2017

Once I could see my crafty room taking shape it was lovely to be able to plan how I was going to use the space. I am very, very lucky that I have been able to buy the right storage to fit my room and have a purpose built sliding door cupboard that hides so many things.  IKEA Kallax furniture features heavily and it is very much how I planned it to be.

Just after Christmas I was able to finally unpack my boxes and since then I have been organising it all. I have cross stitch stuff, knitting, crochet as well as papercrafts.

I had started to organise my items before I moved following the 4 Section System that is taught by Tiffany Spaulding at Totally-Tiffany. Since I have unpacked I am completely embracing the system and it makes it so easy to find things. 

I am not quite finished yet, it is definitely a work in progress but I am so much happier as my crafty stuff is becoming more organised, easy to find and ultimately more useable.

I am starting to get itchy fingers and wanting to create again. The 1st item I made was a valentines card for my hubby. I will blog that shortly, just need to take a good photo.