LittleBirdyScraps

Creaky squeaky :O

Well, hello there!  Can you hear the creaking of the blog door as I ease it open?  The rust flaking from the hinges and spiders scuttling away into the corners?

I have no excuse. 

Oh, all right then.  Every LO I've done for ages has been unshowable on here!  I have in fact also gone a bit mad making cards.  A while ago I thought I'd just clear out that section of my Expedit unit that contains card making stuff......four weeks later I've just about used up all the card blanks!

Now obviously it's perfectly possible for me to show you these cards, but I've been very lazy about taking pictures of them.  I did manage to take a couple of the Valentines and birthday cards that I made for my man, but Daughter has deleted them.  Sigh.....

Anyway.  Today on Scrap Whispers you can go and see the layouts we all did for our fun challenge this week.  And why is it a fun challenge, I hear you ask? (I've got very good hearing...)

Well, next Friday we will be relaunching the blog!  Our illustrious leader, Georgina, has been beavering away like a, erm, beaver, brainstorming and organising and making lists and naming dates....and from now on our challenges will be online of a Friday evening instead of Sundays.  We thought this would be better, so that people can get a grip on things over the weekend.

The fun challenge is called 'Glitterball' because we want you to create a page with a glittery border.  Or something.  I did a glittery border and some things:

 

There has also been some publishing going on, and I really should be blowing my trumpet a bit more.  Thing is, blow me down if I haven't gone and forgotten to scan the 'Spring Sunset' layout that was in Scrapbook Magazine.  And those of you who have the Scrapbook Inspirations book may have seen the following three LOs in the 'heritage' section

 

Fear not, though, gentle reader (assuming you're still there....): I have scheduled my blog posts now, to coincide with our Friday challenges.  I have calendar pages!  On my wall! With stuff written on them! And BLOG highlighted in orange!

Before I go, however, I will tell you about my shopping.  Yesterday was the Retro Fair at Brighton, where my man and I went for the day.  Well, some of the day, as our first stop was at Crafts U Love.  I hadn't realised that this shop was actually within driving distance of my home, until they sent me a newsletter that referred to their ex-demo sale, taking place yesterday.  Well, it didn't actually say in the newsletter that it was taking place yesterday, as that would just be plain unhelpful.  It said it was on Saturday the 17th.

So I looked it up on the AA routefinder and my man, who is very patient with crafty things, said he would take me there 'on the way' to Brighton.  Only I didn't look properly and we had to ask two postmen before we could find it.  Arrrgh.

The first postman, incidentally, assured us, in the manner of one speaking to total morons. that there were NO shops OR businesses within AT LEAST two miles of where we were standing.  The other postman, who coincidentally had the appearance of a total moron himself, nevertheless gave us flawless directions.  So.  Don't judge by appearances.  Not when it comes to postmen, anyway.

So.  When we finally got there, they had looooooaaaads of stuff!  I got lots of stamps (I'm extremely into rubber stamps at the moment, will show you some of my haul at some point, from the Netherlands no less).  I stopped myself buying some of the Buzzcraft fairy ones a few weeks ago, and was delighted to find them at Crafts U Love, ex demo of course, for half the price!

I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say I was a happy bunny.

And, honest injun, I will be back here on Fridays from now on, so don't forget me!

Scrap Whispers Challenge 58

This is a couple of days late, please excuse me for being too tired after two days back at work to cope with anything!

Challenge 58 on Scrap Whispers is to use the phrase 'The Long And The Short of it' as a title.

This is mine:

 

I bought a Purple Cow Creative Trimmer in Aldi the other week and used it to cut this oval.  Sadly they weren't selling a gadget that helps you line up your LOs in a straight sort of fashion - I know some people have things called 'eyes' but that isn't working for me...

See that very long, tall redhead on the right?  Well that's Youngest, that is. Legs like a grasshopper.  Some of the rugby team are really very small - they're at that age where there are huge differences in growth rates.

Today I have been making more cards, and also a couple of LOs for future DT reveals.  I must reveal some of my cards, tho - I'm having great fun rummaging through the enormous shoebox that holds all my cardmaking stuff, whilst watching cardmaking techniques on Create and Craft and QVC.  Had to laugh earlier when the presenter trying to shift huge quantities of Spellbinder Nestabilities had a Freudian slip and referred to them as 'Spendabilities'. 

Not laughing much, though, at the constant repetition of the phrase 'taking your crafting to the next level'.  My crafting is quite happy where it is, thanks.  Wonky and all over the living room carpet.

I must stop watching these programmes.  Trouble is there's not much else on, and I find them strangely soothing.  Unfortunately, whilst I usually manage not to order anything - apart from the foam-backed portrait stamps for which I'm on the Waitlist, and the Scallop Corner Chomper that only cost me £12.10 - what happens instead is that I think 'Oooh, I'd like one of them, bet I can find it cheaper', Google it, find it, erm.......buy it.

Today I found this place where they had Nestabilities and other dies for sale at 4 sets for £60, considerably cheaper than QVC and with free postage!

But I didn't buy the dies, I bought these instead

As you can probably see, the first sheet is a half one and the second a whole one, and both together cost me £11.98 including postage.  Bargain!

They also had these

Alcohol inks in vivid colours that work with St Tim's, and these

which are like Twinkling H2O's but fantastically much cheaper (and not discontinued, obviously, lol).  The same supplier sells their own watercolour solution which enables you to use these paints on shiny surfaces such as glass and acrylic.  Not only that, but when you buy one large set of these (shown) you get a smaller, 16 colour set free.

Okay, Daughter and Youngest have been indulging themselves in some sort of gay fashion shoot and keep coming in here to ask if a) they can upload the piccies and b) I can give them money for cinema, paintball parties, etc etc ad nauseum.  How the hell am I supposed to buy stash when I have children????????