heheh, Well Deano liked it, lol

Heheh , well I had a good old chuckle this morning with Deano and Mike and Ian over on Create and Craft, did you?
this time I'm going to post 2 cards  one which Deano was Playing with in this mornings show, and the other is from an older CD which is selling really well apparently, so here we go:

This is my very large never ending card, using 8 toppers, two pages of papers which I printed off onto A3 pearlised card stock, and embellishments.

here are a couple of my samples from the  Vintage Chic CDs:

 Dont forget to tune in at 4pm, for more ideas from the boys, xxx

the eleven plus

Well for those of you who are UK based, yes the Eleven + still exists! And Youngest has just completed his today, so fingers crossed he gets a place!
For those of you from abroad, its an entry exam to one of the forms of schooling here in the UK, this is for a version of Secondary school, the Grammar School, and you have to sit a test to get in, and if you dont do well enough, well simply put you dont get in! Harsh? Maybe, but they are allowed to pick the best, as they arent exactly a government sponsored school. So fingers firmly crossed that he showed enough potential.......
Anyway this is a reminder for you to watch Create and Craft at 9 am, and 4 pm! Krafty Hands has 2 shows with Miranda and Mo tomorrow, or rather today by the time I finish writing this post, oops, so keep your eyes and ears open, and you may spot youngests contribution to the show as well!!
Here's another offering from me from the samples I sent in:

A Mel Heaton style of card, using scraps left over from one of the card making kits, and a small slice of backing paper.
So ears open at 9am, and eyes too and see how many samples of Mine, and Youngests you can spot...........................

hugs

Lou

Miranda and Mo.

Hi guys,
well here's one reason I have been quiet. Mother has been cracking the whip, and I had my nose to the grindstone, producing samples for tomorrows shows....................

This is one of my entries, lol
Its actually one of the Shaped Cards, printed on A3 size, then split down the join, and used to encase a box of shaped cards printed normal A4 size as a gift.
Each of the cards actually has a different greeting on it, as the pre-pared sheets incorporate all sorts of sentiments.

So tomorrow at 9 am, and 4 pm, and yes I have it set to record, and fingers crossed I will remember to watch as well, lol, tune into Create and Craft, and see what I and my fellow Team Samplers have been up to, xxx

Challenge for the New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!!
Well it doesnt seem as though I have done a lot since my last post does it? Mainly because I dont photo and post a card if I have made it specifically for someone, so most of my Christmas cards are not photographable. And then there been some private commissions, so I dont photo those either, but I will post one soon, of one commission, as I have permission from the Bride to post this one, just not the rest of the stuff, lol, so watch this space for a glimmer of what I have been up to.
Anyway, you're not here for that load of gossip, you're here because its a new challenge over at Krafty Hands this weekend!
New year, New Challenge, and a New beginning! And thats the Challenge over at KH HQ! A new Beginning!
So make a project, and it doesnt just have to be a card, using some of the products they sell, for a new beginning! Here's the rules:

"Anyone can enter our monthly challenges, the only criteria we have is that you must be a follower of our challenge blog, we know that taking part is 99.9% of the fun!

To be the monthly winner of the £20 Kraftyhands voucher, you must use at least one Kraftyhands or Crafter's Companion product in the creation of your challenge project.

That's as complicated as it gets!

Each month we choose 3 winners, the No1 winner will receive a £20 voucher to spend on the Kraftyhands webshop and the No1 winner's "blinkie", the other two winners will get a winner's "blinkie" for their blogs!"

Also there's currently a DT call going on for the two teams KH run, the TV sample group and the Blog challenge group, so do pop over to the blog and see whats going on..............
Right down to business, my inspiration entry for the New Beginnings Challenge:

 

This all came from the  Bouncing Babies CD, and is an entire project on the CD, a lovely Baby Book.


I simply printed it all out, mounted some pages onto card for added sturdiness, especially where I was putting pockets in the pages, to allow room for extra photo's and keepsakes. My project has 13 interior pages, all that were available, and double sided. There are additional elements you can use for Twins, they havent been forgotten!


I decoupaged the front of the book, by simply printing  the pages I needed several times. The blocks on the front were cut out and glazed with Crystal Accents before using sticky pads to mount them over the top of the blocks on the page. the flower was again decoupaged, on top of the original. The edges were sealed using Washi tape.

The tag was taken from another page on the CD, in the decoupage section, and backed with an additional tag. 

The Baby's First Christmas Page was embellished using stickers, and the pockets were highlighted using Washi Tape.

 

I created a see through pocket on the page for Baby's hair, by using that old teachers favourite Fablon, you recall having to back your books using the clear plastic sticky stuff? Well I managed to pick some up from my local Pound shop, and created a see through pocket by sicking it to itself, leaving a margin on 3 sides, then folding the sides back to sick them to the page. Anyone who remembers using it, knows its not going to come off short of destroying the page! I will say its too elastic to cut on a manual die cutting machine! and I havent tried it through my electronic machines yet!

Right off to see what you have been upto, and hope you will join in the Challenge with us at Krafty Hands?

Hugs and wishing you a happy new Year, xxx

Lou

Aww Bless!

Aww how sweet of the Boys to let Mummy Linda stop chortling her little, (and if you have met her you know what I mean), toes off and put my mind at ease!
Ta boys, love you both!
Right if you missed my late night post yesterday, then here's the link  to the whole sorry story, which had Mummy Linda curled up on her craft room floor with tears coming out her little tootsies, How do I know this?
Coz when Mummy Linda phoned me tonight to commiserate, and yes she was still laughing, and crying and chortling away to herself, she was only an hour or so after Mikes email, (and I know he had a giggle over last nights post too, yes you young man, and Poor Ian how he puts up with you two I will never know!) letting me know that I could watch again at 10pm tomorrow, YES! you cant order yet, but as it all sold out, they have agreed to restock Create and Craft with it again! So go read the post, and tune in like me tomorrow night and grab your copy!
Right I'm off to sulk, as Mummies shouldn't really laugh at their children like that! Humpf!

Lou

Well Today went straight by me

And I didnt realise what today was until it was too late, so I dashed upstairs, looked at the schedule and sighed a big sigh of relief!
Then I came upstairs, got everything sorted and then howled in despair!
They had changed the schedule!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo!
I managed to catch a glimpse on product video but thats not the same!!! They had obviously done well enough that stocks are too low for a repeat show! Well done boys, but if anyone did record it can they please send me a copy? Pretty Please?

What am I on about? What do you mean you don't know? Cor Blimey Missus! I thought everyone knew!!! The Boys.......you know the boys, , no honestly if you have been to any craft fair in the past 4 or maybe even 5 years you will have seen the boys, you've probably bought from them in the past too!
The Boys, well actually they are gents but Mummy Linda calls them the Boys and its contagious! The Krafty Hands Boys! Yes them! Cor that was hard work!!
They had a show on Create and Craft today, at 11am, doing their new Motor Mania Double CD. I am one of the DT, and it was really important that I watched and recorded it, but I missed it! Our Louis (10) sent in a card for the boys to show, and it was shown and I missed it!!
So here's the samples I sent in:

 A slider card,

A money Wallet, or gift card wallet

Kinetic Card

Plain Simple, with some Red 1" ribbon down the centre

 Tag Card

The vinyl was cut on the Cameo

Money Wallet Pearlised card

3 Toppers to make the Hanger

A4 Sized, coz I could, ner!

Last But NOT Least, Our Louis' Card!

So if you did catch the show, let me know what you thought would you? What did I miss?

Lou

Eleanor and Pickles Magical Christmas Flight.

T'was the Night before Christmas, and Santa had a problem!!

 So this is the tale of Eleanor and Pickles Magical Christmas Flight.
Now this has taken a few days to do! Remember I am the one who is working with A4 images, which is the beauty of Digi's you can make them whatever size you want. But it does mean that there's a lot to do, and mistakes are more visible!

So firstly it's quite a daunting image to work with in A4! There's a LOT of night sky to be done. My first issue was considering how to do it!
Okay so good think later, had an idea, so now to tackle the colouring of Eleanor!
I'm something of a traditionalist! I happen to like the Green and Purple versions of Christmas colours, as opposed to the soft drinks company version! So that was the colour scheme I went with. This time I have done a better Job on the hair colouring, dark for me as Grand daughter is dark haired, getting there slowly, and trying to convey a sense of dimension to the Sleigh was the  challenge!
In the end I used the whole of the spectrum of True Blues my choice of pens offered in order to do the sky, working with the lightest out to the darkest, and then trying to blend the colours.
So a finished coloured image.............okay NOW what do I do with it? Stickles out, and do the holly, Cosmic Shimmer red berries dimensional glue for the berries, and nose. Gems on her glasses, which is going to be a continuing theme for me, and then decide..............glitter or fluffy stuff for the snow on the rooves. (And before everyone goes nuts, Rooves was the accepted version of the plural of roof, when I was at school,  and if you check in the oxford dictionary, British and world English, Rooves is an accepted plural!)
So Fluffy Stuff! Unfortunately Fluffy Stuff isnt glittery! but very dimensional and tactile once heated and expanded. So now I needed to get some glimmer into the base image.........Rangers pearlescent paint! tiny dots daubed all over the background, and in real life they seem to fade into the background, and suddenly catch the light bringing them to the fore, last step was to use some Crystal Accents for the windows glasses and Pickles eyes, bless him!
So now to mount the image, now I was going down the route of Shadow boxes, but I changed my mind at the last minute, and decided on a hanging card.
So Matted and layered onto some silver mirri, then onto the base of untrimmed A4 navy Pearlescent cardstock, some Crushed silk ribbon for the handle,  now theres some space round the sides........................Okay, hmmn..................so some rub on shapes that are still sticky when you peel back, hah! so now some careful glittering! and I like it,
Dont forget the only Official Place to get hold of these images is directly from the lovely Heather, anywhere else isnt licensed to sell them!

Hope you do too, have fun,

Lou

hybrid Crafters heaven!

Hi guys, well this post is for those of us Hybrid Crafters in the UK, and isnt a craft post more a review. So while it maybe interesting for those over water, in which ever direction, its of more importance to those of us in the uk!

Now as I have previously stated I am a Hybrid Crafter. That means I find a digital image, print it out, then craft a physical product with it. Now I use a LOT of cds, digital papers and images, so that means I use a printer a LOT, at this point those in the UK are perking up their ears!
In the UK the laws arent the same as those in the USA, we invalidate our warranty if we install a CISS system! In America, they dont, as their government turned round and told the producers that it did NOT invalidate their warranty, as they werent doing anything harmful or permanent to the printers, just removing the extortionate cost of ink, and being kinder to the enviroment, by not having to recycle ink cartridges constantly!
So onto my new Baby!
I have had this for 10 days. As a hybrid crafter this has been through some work. By this time I would have been through a full set and a half of my normal cartridges, on my old, ancient, distorts the colours so I have to have special settings for it, and doesnt take what I want it to take printer!
So here's some pics, which I will go through and explain to you!

 The Printer itself is an HP Officejet 7500A. It has a Ciss installed which means that instead of cartridges which you have to replace every few pages, it has cartridges with a continuous supply of ink flowing into them. I have managed to find a small embossing powder jar to help support the lid, as the lid itself cant close as the gap is needed for the tubes carrying the ink to go into the machine.

It takes A3+. Anything from 4x6 inch photo paper to 13x 19 inch cardstock. From Tracing paper to 300gsm Pearlised Card stock! Get in there!!!!

It has an automated sheet feed scanner on top, and it still works even though the lid is open. It also has a flatbed A4 scanner

And now to the important part........the Ciss!!!
This is a printer that uses 4 cartridges, so 4 inks. Now I think you can see my issue here, this was full when I started! 3 A4 Colour Calendars, 14 A4 digi's, and 20 TV samples in 10 days later, and the ink is just over half way down. A LOT of ink!
So I have put this through its paces!




Hence the review.
I have had a CISS before. I have had an HP before. So why did I go for this?
Okay My Old HP took everything I threw at it and more! But the inks were very and I do mean VERY expensive. So I switched to compatibles, but my old machine wouldnt work with the yellow inks. So I invested in a Ciss. Not from the company I got this from, but over the internet, and as an add on to my old machine, and Boy did I have trouble! Ink all over the place, It had air blocks, leaked, all sorts of issues, no support and in the end I threw it away. And ended up giving my old HP away as it was too expensive to run.
I then ended up with an Epson, and it wouldnt take the card weights, printed out too dark, even using their inks, all sorts of issues, Epson even replaced the printer at one point, so boy was I fed up! I did manage to find a company that did a decent replacement/compatible cartridge, but even so I still couldnt get the colours right!
So after all that trouble why on earth did I go for another HP and with a Ciss?
Basically to me a Ciss makes more sense, environmentally as well as financially. No cartridges to replace day after day, no half pages printed then have to re-do as it wont print the page again until you tell it to, so half a page of ink wasted! No frantic trips to the shops, as you have discovered that you have run out of ink to complete your project. How many of you are nodding in agreement?
The printer companies make their money from the ink, that's how they can churn out printers under £30, but only when you get it home, and have used up the 1/2 tank of ink they provided you with, do you realise that in most cases the ink costs the same as the printer was in the first place! There generally isnt anything wrong with the printer, but its now getting close to the point where its actually going to work out cheaper to buy a new printer every time instead of new Cartridges!
And Why did I want another HP, when the inks are so expensive? Because unlike most machines, it can and will take 300gsm Card stock! It takes Vellum, tracing paper, envelopes, tissue paper, photo paper and card, and most importantly has a full range of settings to enable it to take Greeting Card stock and Acetate!
Okay last point here, why did I go for an A3+ machine? Because so much is produced as 12 x 12 inch! Docrafts, Serif, etc all produce 12 x 12 inch. Digitally as well as Physically!
So the problem for me was finding someone that did an HP, on A3, with a Ciss, and support! All in one!
So I did some searching. Ideally I wanted the Ciss Set up for me, and as part of the package, so many hours of research later, I discovered that there was only one company that met with all my requirements.
So now to the test, I phoned them first and had a conversation with the guy who deals with sales, turns out he's the owner, lol! Okay full support promised, he wont sell it until he is sure it works properly, the printer is guaranteed for one year, standard guarantee, the Ciss for a life time. What did he recommend bearing in mind I'm a cardmaker...........He came up with the same answer as me, the HP, Ah I said but will it take 300gsm? Hmmn he said, I have some here, so I'll put it through the machine and email you back.
So he emailed me back the answer was yes, a couple of emails later I was ready to drive down to his office, and see it in operation before buying it. But he wasnt ready for me to go get it. I havent tested it fully yet, or done the videos, he said.
So I waited, impatiently!
12 days a go, I got the go ahead, and due to family commitments, had to wait til Friday! Gggrrrrr!
So I drove down to see it, watched it be put through its paces, talked to the guy, watched him box it up and put it in my car, paid the man and drove home!
Now I'm not saying it's cheap, it isnt, BUT it IS cheaper than buying proper ink cartridges again and again! Over a year even with compatible ink cartridges I am saving money, Time, and projects!
I have a printer that FINALLY prints as I see it on the screen! I have a printer that WILL take my heavier card stocks! And its an HP which means its a work Horse, and keeps going!
So If this has piqued your interest, and do sit down and think about how much YOU spend on ink per year, then pop over to this guy: City Ink Express and have a look, also check out his You Tube support videos, so you have an idea of what to expect! I wouldnt recommend it if I wasnt happy with it, and I do also post comments that disagree with my own views, see my Happy Cut reviews for example, okay its only one lady's bad experience, but I still did post it.

Hugs

Lou

Card for a child.

That's the challenge over at Kraftyhands HQ this month, now wether you are late doing your Christmas cards, or getting ahead, is up to you, as this challenge could well be a childs Christmas card, or Birthday card, the choice is yours!

Luckily I actually have MOST of the CD's by the Boys, Mike and Ian, and I am slowly building up a collection of their Stampography Stamps as well, they're yummy! So finding something to use for this challenge was Easy Peasy! And its actually a Child themed set, full of useful bits that I wish I'd had when the kids were younger, lets put it this way, parties would have been a breeze!

This is quite an old collection Pirate Island. But the oldies are the goodies, so here's what I came up with, and by the way, by the time you read this my 3 yr old Grandson will have had his Birthday card by a few weeks, so I was really pleased to see this challenge, as it killed 2 birds with one stone!

A stepper Easel Card, dont ask, made from one of the pre designed stepper card kits, and a backing paper.
Simply cut out, assemble, and embellish to your hearts content!
So using the base stepper card from the boys Template, if you dont know how to do one, its on the CD roms, I simply assembled the card using bits I had cut from the 2 sheets, then I decided to get creative.....................
Sometimes when cards are left on display for sometime, as I know my Grandson will NOT allow his Mum to put the card away when he gets it, the card starts to slide southwards. So my issue became how to make sure the card stays upright as long as possible? Putting supports inside the card is a no-no, as Grandson would pull it open. So how to get it to stay upright?
Aha! An Easel card! Erm but I have already made the stepper card!! Okay get creative!! I printed off one of the Backing sheets from the cd onto some base card. trimmed it to the width of the card, but added a centimeter to the depth. The I scored and glued the base card to the back of the stepper using Collall All Purpose Glue. This glue has become a firm favourite with me, as it seems to physically change the composition of the card! It makes it weld to each other, and really stiffens up any project, with the advantage of being able to wipe the glue away if it leaks out the sides.
Oh and I have just realised that I should have straightened the stepper before photographing it! It is actually straight, but the left side has not come forward enough, blast!!
To finish I used glittery Letters and his age, but I photo'd this before adding his name, as its not the sort of thing I want publicised.
So what can you come up with? You have until the first Friday of the Month to create a Card for a Child. Ideally we want you to use something from the Kraftyhands webshop, which includes the Boys stuff, and loads of products sold by Crafters Companion, so it doesnt matter where in the world you are, there's bound to be something that you can use!! You can also enter by email, pop here, to find out more, for those of you that dont blog but fancy a go!
If you use Kraftyhands or Crafters Companion products from the Boys webshop, and follow the Challenge blog then you stand the chance of a voucher towards some goodies. If you dont then you can win a Blinky for your blog!
So go create Guys and Girls! And dont forget to keep an eye on Create and Craft for more inspiration from the boys when they are on next, which is very soon, so I had better get creating!

Have fun

Lou

first of a couple of posts!

Okay this is the first of a couple of posts, and this and the next are crafty, the third one is for crafters in the UK!

I got given some new digi's to play with by the lovely Heather Valentin, an American Fantasy/Gothic artist, who I actually knew nothing about at first. The name and style didnt mean anything to me, but by gum does it mean something to the kids round here...........seems she is one of the subjects in Art Class at the local Secondary School! So she has a lot of fans in this area, and it's not just confined to my local area, but the North West in general it seems, according to Middlests ex-girlfriend, as she was a big fan as well!

So lets get to the reason you are here!
I am a hybrid crafter. Basically it means that I mix the digital with the physical product. I dont just design via a program and then save the image and post it as a finished product. It means that I might start with a digital image, but I ALWAYS have a finished crafted paper or card product at the end of it.
This time is no exception! And its a bit of a tale, so grab a cup of tea or coffee, a couple of biccies, and get comfy, you could be here a while, while I lead you down the road I traveled to come up with this!

Now this is actually a first for me, and if the lovely Hels reads this, yes you did inspire me to make one, Thank You, its perfect!

Its lying down as its still drying! So dont get picky on me, I cant fast forward time, actually would much prefer to stop time for a few blissful hours of uninterupted craft, but hey-ho, no chance there!
But I digress! This, for those of you who havent come across one before, is a Shadow Box. Basically its a recessed box for displaying anything, and comes in all sorts of sizes and styles. I have a wooden one the kids got me from Chester Zoo years ago, so the concept wasnt totally alien to me, but I didnt "get it" at the time! Now these versions I get, but the others that you fill up, with loads of little areas, sorry I dont "get" those ones!
However, unfortunately for me Darling Daughter was in my craft room when I got sent the image to play with, and she immediately seized upon it and demanded that I do it for my Grand-daughter for Christmas  Hmmn more like do it for her she means!
So how to do it as something that will last and be a treasured item that comes out on display every year? As basically that's what she was after! And you cant really bring out the same cards year after year now can you? And a batch of 7 cards just for her, erm I dont think so!!
So it had to be large, as in A4, Okay so I printed it out on some A4 card stock. So I sat looking at it, wondering what to do, where to start, where to finish...........................and it has to be something I can replicate in a series, which is what this image is, one of a series of the cute Eleanor and Pickles by the lovely Heather Valentin. If you check out a couple of other blogs providing we havent all started on the same one, then you will get to see more of them, so pop over to Lexies Blog, and also Linda's blog.
Right back to my story, now where was I? Oh yes, just starting, sorry! So first step was to colour it..........now I seem to have done a swap with Lexie, her complete collection of Spectrum Noirs, for my incomplete collection of Promarkers! So as they were new to me firstly I had to play on one that printed out waaaaay too big, which took a couple of hours to do, they are different to Promarkers, but the principle is the same, and actually I find them easier to use, as the naming system makes more sense to me. And Youngest agrees, at first he was disappointed that I had given my Promarkers to Lexie, then he turned round after 20 minutes of playing with the Speccies, and asked for them for himself!
So practice over, so come on Lou pick and image and get to work girl!!
Speccies to the fore, I sat and lost myself in the colouring for several hours. When I had finished I sat and looked at it.................not bad, some area's I need to practice on and I will work through the accreditation work, when I get a few hours. Hubby came up to ask me about when I was going shopping, chores, honestly, men just dont get it do they? Now Craft shopping isnt a chore, but having to dash out when I wanted to play? Er sorry Work? So I indicated what was lying on my work surface, now normally he doesnt get craft, and its a general "yes, very nice dear, now.................". This one prompted a comment........Boy is that in my album of moments he was interested! "Is that the one you were colouring?" so I handed it to him,
"(Snort of Laughter)Is that a Frog? Hahaha! Like it! Oh yes you did colour it! Shame it went through to the back though!" Sigh, he just DOESNT UNDERSTAND!
And what does he mean, "Oh yes you did colour it?" Does that mean he thought I was incapable of colouring it? Mr "I have an Art CSE and make sure you remember that!" Or "Wow that's good, looks very professional."?
Anyways, (oh and while I remember for those of you that caught my diatribe on last years wedding anniversary, well this year , and it's not long now till said anniversary, he is constantly going on about the date, and getting it right! Which is a miracle, but we'll see! Keep an eye on here!) now I had an image coloured, what was I going to do with it? I mean I had the first part done, so a step in the right direction, but now I had to make it into some thing that could be displayed every year.......................................
Now a few weeks ago the lovely Hels was on Create and Craft making Shadow boxes, now I didnt particularly pay attention, as it was on in the background, as is normally the case for me, but it must have sunk in, so Thank you Hels, as I now "get it"! So up popped the idea into my brain, and I did have some Shadow Box designs I had downloaded from the Silhouette online store. So off I trot, and would you Adam and Eve it, I dont have one big enough! So off to the online store I trot, and would you Adam and Eve it again, they dont have one in the size I want!
Not to be thwarted, I decided to adjust one of the pre-designed shadow boxes, so I could do one that would cover 11x8 inch, roughly the size I wanted, a few mistakes later, and I had it!
So next step assemble and decorate.........Collal Glue first, as its a strange glue, that seems to change the physical make-up of the card or paper you are working on, and I need this to be tough enough to withstand years of use! So a nice stiff shadow box was completed and the picture incorporated into it.
So now to finish decorating the image and box. So gems on her Glasses, and red pearls on the berries in the picture, some snow flakes by Papermania, and some Glossy Accents on glasses lenses, and Pickles Eye's.
On the outside, I used some Twisted Christmas Rope, from the Pound shop, for the handle, and trimming around the front, then I got some of the plastic Mouldable boughs, holly and pinecones, by MCS, snd trimmed and heated them to shape. I added a Poinsettia, leaves, and bits again by MCS in the bottom corner. all in all I like it! I like the colouring, and composition, and hope that you do too, and well done by the way on getting all the way down to the bottom!
Just in case you forgot what you came here for:

Right what you need:
Eleanor and Pickles. The only Official place you can get them from is the Lovely Heather. Anywhere else is NOT official.

Your choice of Colouring mediums, now I'm not going to tell you what colours to use, as its YOUR choice!

A Shadow Box, to suit the size you choose. You can cut them with an electronic cutter like me, or purchase them un assembled in card and wood.

Embellishments to suit your design. My project is to inspire you to go off and create your own version of this, so I have told you what I used, what you use is up to you!

Right off to sleep for a few hours, well it is 1am, lol, have fun, and take care, oh and if you do pop by Linda's blog, well she has some fab candy up for grabs!

Hugs

Lou

what I have been working on.........

Well these were popped in a box to keep them safe, just wish I could find the other box, but if you have seen the recent posts about my Craft room progression, you will have some idea of the challenge I face in here. I have over 70 A4 storage boxes, so ideas as to where exactly the other samples are would be appreciated!

This disk officially launched on the 17th Nov but some of you would have been lucky to grab a copy at the NEC, and if you like steam punk then this disk is for you! So Pop to the Krafty Hands website and get yours!

 This one was one of the 6x6 Card kits. I created the shaker card base, then found the sheet of toppers that co-ordinated with the card , and the backing sheet. I made the easel box using some more of the backing card. And Each of the little 4x4 cards is slightly different, both in design as in the Shape the guys at Krafty Hands created, and what I then did to them! Some have ribbon, some are glazed, both with ordinary embossing powder and the Tim Holtz Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint, Faux pearls using Cosmic Shimmer, dimensional glues, and 3d clear glaze. So quite a lot of work went into this project!

 Next a plain Shaker card, using one of the 6x6 card kits.

 The Photo frame is full A4 size, with Acetate behind the first layer of the open frame, distress crackle glaze and 3d glaze. The the cogs were cut on my New cameo!

This final one was one of the A5 card kits, and is a slightly offset A5 card, with Insert from the cd.

So if Steam Punk is your style, then pop over here and snag a copy for yourself. I'm not fab at Steam Punk, I freely admit, but some of my Teamies are excellent at it, so be sure to pop over to their blogs, if you are umming and ahhing about why you need this disk!!

okay lets see if I can get this in order?

Hmmn, this could be interesting! And warning this is very heavy on photos!!

Basically, steps are being taken in the slow process of converting this box bedroom, (No Darling Daughter you are not moving back in!) into a craft room!
So in the beginning we had..........................
This: Taken about this time last year.

 Then we added this:

then the white cabinet joined in.

 Then Dads cabinet added:

which meant the table shifted over to the other side.

and shelves between the two.

and this happened in the old built in wardrobe.

and the pc squeezed into place.

 Now we have this:

Loads of storage from Weston Boxes.

an added shelf in Dad's unit.Sorry secret stuff on the desk!

and the start of the transformation. White cupboard is underneath, Cameo on the work surface behind the Ottlite, and the lovely Linda Simpsons gift to me last year, of a paint fusioned paint brush box!

E-craft next to it, and storage underneath. The shelves have now moved to the top of the worksurface.

Even had to bring in a bar stool to sit on!

And finally the walk in wardrobe thingy! You know the bit over the stairs!

And all this is still a work in progress!! As the shelves are being built for under the work surface as I type, and the whole thing needs a coat of paint, room as well as the wood!

And this isnt the end of the house transformation!

Outside there is scaffolding, been there for 3 weeks, but instead of a Dingy Grey pebble dash, we now have a fully insulated home, thats a lovely white!

The loft is being emptied tomorrow, so the craft room will be full of boxes, and the new loft insulation goes down on Thursday! And the new roof? Well Shouldn't be long! as I cant see them paying out again for the scaffolding!

And just incase you are wondering my house is a Pre-fab. its been here for 60 yrs, 10yrs past its sell by date, and was 2 slabs of concrete and pebbles and wire in the sandwich, no cavity walls, so it was Blooming cold and Damp! Not anymore! 6" of polystyrene all the way round! And BOY is it warm!! 

On the card front I am busy but its secret stuff, sorry!

I will post when I get time!!

hugs

Lou

Not Crafty BUT useful to know

I havent posted for ages, as I have been busy making stuff to sell, or samples for companies, so am not free to show them.........YET but I am still here!
Okay some of my friends in the crafty world use pc's well, loads actually, but some dont know much about basic Windows computer care, so here is a self help sheet for those that dont know this stuff!
None of this should damage your pc! These are tools built into the system by Microsoft, and as such are there to help.
Here we go:

Right now, what you really should do is run a disk clean up, and a full defragment of the hard drive.

If I am insulting you by teaching you to suck eggs, I am sorry, but I have learnt it's not wise to assume:

So, I need you to click on the my computer icon, so you can see the main drives, C,D, and possibly your external drive. C is your main hard drive, and D is your cd/dvd rom drive normally, or your restoration points drive, then E-Z are external drives normally.

So when you can see pictures of all your drives, I want you to right click on your C drive, it will open a new menu, and go down to the bottom, and left click on Properties.

Next you get a box, with about 7 tabs, General,Tools, Hardware, Sharing, Quota, Security and Previous versions.

On general there is a box, under an image of the hard drive showing how full it is, so its called Disk Clean-up. If you have never done a Disk Clean-up before, then be warned it will take a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG time for it to give you a result. So LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG that you will think its not working!! BUT it IS!!! Eventually it will give you a box with some ticks in:

Downloaded program files: Safe to get rid off if you have moved the files else where! So put a tick in the box if they are safe to get rid off, leave it unticked if they are not!

Temporary Internet files: things that are stored on your pc everytime you visit a different site. If you have your passwords and login details stored by Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome, this will NOT get rid of them!! It just gets rid of "cookies" stored on your machine by lots of different websites, and are safe to remove, so put a tick in this box!

Game News Files: Dont know if this is on all machines, or not, but it's on mine, and a new addition since I upgraded to Windows 7. Generally safe to put a tick in this box!

Recycle Bin: again, generally safe to remove! As you have already "binned them" but you havent "emptied" the bin yet, and yes you do have to get rid of the rubbish, its just like filling the craftroom bin with paper, you still have to empty it! So put a tick in this box!

Temporary Files: Okay this IS NOT the same as Temporary Internet files, this is different! This is to do with the Installation of new programs generally. Basically the computer when it installs a new program, writes little notes to itself during the installation, "such and such goes here, this is the registration number" and so on, so you can put a tick in this box too, you don't need the notes anymore, the installation has finished.

Thumbnails: Now on Win 7 Windows automatically regenerates the thumbnail cache, every time you open a folder to vies picture, bearing in mind that these are thumbnails, and less than 50kbs, I am horrified to discover that I have 254MB of them! If Windows didnt want you to be able to delete them, and bearing in mind that every time you open a new folder, with pictures or videos in, it goes behind your back and writes the thumbnails as it finds them, its safe to assume that Microsoft dont have an issue with them being removed or it wouldnt give you the ability to remove them! So put a tick in this box!

Per-user archived Windows Error reporting files, well I dont have any on my machine, Yay! and again it wouldnt give you the option if it was going to damage the system, as Microsoft are very protective of their operating systems, so if you have any put a tick in the box!

System Archived error reports: Operative word, Archived, as in old information, that's probably already been reported back to Microsoft, where do you think all the updates come from? So put a tick in this box too!

And one that I know is on OLDER systems, Compress drive. I have been around Techies for years, I have had PC's since Windows '93, and the advice I was given, back when I had Windows '98 was DONT compress the files! Wether this is true for newer machines, I dont know, but until someone I trust tells me its NOT going to slow my system down, then I wont do it!

Now click and clean those old files off your system!

Next up, is the disk defragment: on the Tools tab of the properties box. This is useful! VERY useful!! Basically a computer does NOT write files in an order that makes sense! Imagine taking your local paper, opening it to the middle page, throwing all of them out of the window to the street below, then having to go down, collect all the pages up, and put them back in the right order so you can read the paper! Basically that's what you are doing EVERY TIME something new gets written to your hard drive! It doesnt go, "oh this is a group of files that belong together, so I'll put them all together here." No it goes, "Okay I have this picture, so where can I squeeze this picture in? I know I'll shove it in the middle of this lot! Right next I have this word document that goes with the picture I have just put in with the middle of that music file, so I'll put this document, in with the old rubbish that came from that webpage I visited 7 months ago, that she never went back to." And you wonder why the computer is slow to find stuff after a while?

so make sure your computer isnt going to go to sleep halfway through, click on defragment, and let the system put things in the proper places, thats what defragment does! Its the librarian putting all the books back in the right places on the shelves!

Hope that explains it in terms that make sense?

new challenge site

hi guys.

Well Krafty Hands has changed to blog format! So dont go looking for the new challenge on the website! this is the new address: http://kraftyhandschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

So to this months challenge, and the chance to win a £20 voucher to spend in the online shop for some physical goodies, instead of digi's!

I have to admit, that my current meds are making me feel as if I have had a goodnight out on the town, and I have never liked the feeling, so this post might not make sense!

heres the challenge for this month:

Christmas!
Rules use something bought from the fab tv stars at Kraftyhands, or something that is listed in their webshop .Anyone can enter our monthly challenges, the only criteria we have is that you must be a follower of our challenge blog, we know that taking part is 99.9% of the fun!

To be the monthly winner of the £20 Kraftyhands voucher, you must use at least one Kraftyhands or Crafter's Companion product in the creation of your challenge project.

That's as complicated as it gets!

Each month we choose 3 winners, the No1 winner will receive a £20 voucher to spend on the Kraftyhands webshop and the No1 winner's "blinkie", the other two winners will get a winner's "blinkie" for their blogs!
Heres my design team card:

This is a quick card page from the Team Santa cd.

The topper is decoupaged, which doesnt show in this photo, then sprayed with the Crafters Companion Spray and Shine, for some shine, obviously, see told you the meds are working, lol.

The background is using Imagination Sparkle Medium, Gold, and a Touch of Mica Snowflake mask.
A black base cardstock, the sparkled background, and then the green backing paper from the card kit, and the decoupaged topper, finished with a glazed greeting.

So there you go, my design card for this month, dont forget that this challenge runs until the first weekend in December, so pop over to the shop and have a butchers hook at whats on there, I can guarantee that even if you are USA based that you will find something you can use, so why not have a go?

hugs

lou