Busy Bee

Well I've been a very busy bee recently.

On tuesday I managed to beg for a lift to Kanban's final clearance. I could not miss out on the opportunity to get their products at such a ridiculously low price. I'm now set for a good few months. Its a shame to see the company go as they had some brilliant stuff. My only hope is that the artists continue drawing and just find another company to produce the toppers.

Once I had found somewhere to put my new goodies, which took some time I have to say, I looked around my room to see what my next project should be. I've been crafting for 7 years now and I still have alot of the original stuff and plenty of bits and bobs that people have given me along the way. I thought that I should use up some of the stuff I'm not as fond of to make space for the products that fit my style. Although you may not realise it you do progress as a cardmaker. Looking back at my original stuff there is a big difference to what I do now. Also my tastes have changed, industry trends change and technologies evolve so I needed to see how to get rid of some stuff quickly, but by using it rather than donating it. The item I found I had way too much of was aperture cards, so I am currently trying to make my way through a rather hefty stash of them. I'm not so much worried about design but just getting something on them so I can sell them. I am trying to make a box up for the summer fete to sell for charity so this is a quick way to get some cards done. I some how managed to break one of my own records by making 15 cards in one evening. Very impressed.

After having a crafty weekend at my grans the week before and finding out that my auntie has a Create and Craft account I have been umming and ahhing over whether to buy a Grand Caliber. The a4 plate is whats enticed me as I could cut more dies at once and the new larger dies would also fit. The price is quite good at the moment compared to what I have seen it at before but technically its still just another die cutting machine. After searching the next last night I had another look at the extender plates for my Cuttlebug. The cheapest I had found them before was £66 but I've managed to find some, although they aren't Cuttlebug official ones, for £35. I hope they're good and solve my problem otherwise its alot to spend to end up buying a new machine as well later.

Crafty Update

I am hoping that this snow wont be getting in my way tomorow as, after years of talking about it, I have actually got myself booked on a scrapbooking course down at Samuel Taylors. Hopefully I will be shown how to make wonderful scrapbooking layouts with moving parts, something that I havent had much experience with previously. Ive got my photo sizes list so my next task tonight after writting this to to print my photos out to prepare. As I've not been to one of these things before and Ive been told I dont need to take anything with me, I am going to stick with generic pictures and take this more as a technique day than actually getting some themed scrapbook pages done. I cant wait.

All of my 2012 cards have now been updated on Docrafts so please do have a look. Im hoping this year will be a bumper year for both cards and scrapbooking so remember to check the Docrafts page out every month for my new creations.

 Look at this beautiful Mermaid stamp from Lili Of The Valley. It is one of the stamps that I won in the christmas time hamper. When these stamps came out I thought they were cute but wondered who on earth I would send a mermaid out to. Now I have had the chance to use them I dont know what I was worried about, they are wonderful. They are fun to colour in and go well with my seaside and beach papers of which I have quite a stash so this may become a very well used stamp. 

Happy New Year!

I would like to wish everyone a very happy and healthy new year. I hope you all had a great holiday season. Thank you for sticking with me through 2012 and I'm hoping that 2013 will be bigger and better both in terms of how this blog will grow as well as life in general.

New years day was a quiet one for me but that was just perfect as I had a day of doing nothing which was bliss. The day after I had to say goodbye to my brother and niece as they headed back home but I got some good family pictures of everyone which I will enjoy scrapbooking at some point this year. 

Please check out my docrafts gallery to see the last of my 2012 creations. Find me under username lexon5. I didn't manage to make enough cards for a card a day. I knew that I wouldn't make the target, with having 3 months off sick without the proper use of my arm, it would of been nigh impossible, but I am very pleased with the figures. I managed to make at least 50 more cards than the previous year, and did a fair bit of scrapbooking as well, so I am very happy with that. I will also be keeping a tally this year so I will see how it compares.

After stating that I had been out craft shopping and coming home without the dies I had gone for well guess what, I won some dies. It was so bizarre. I received an email on my phone at the very end of December saying 'only a few days left' to enter the December prize draw. I had no idea what the prize was but just clicked on it and I was automatically entered. A couple of days later I received an email back saying I had won some Xcut dies. I'm having a brilliant running streak of wins at the minute. It's a shame that it's never with the things I really want though. Ho hum. Still it's a nice way to vary the types of cards I make as some of the stuff I have won I wouldn't of bought so it's giving me new ideas and inspiration.

On sunday I finally got in the craft room. First time this year. I knew that I had to make 6 cards at least as it was the 6th day of the year and I at least what to start with good intentions. I managed to make 9 so I was well chuffed.   

Christmas Celebrations

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas, I know that I certainly have. After a pretty rubbish year I have had an amazing Christmas and boxing day with family which made it all worth it.

Just before the festivities I received a new free gift from the wonderful magazine people. It arrived in one piece this time and was a very nice surprise. I am aiming to at least of opened the box within the next 3 months as I'm afraid it is one of those messier time consuming products which look fantastic but that you have to put the time in for but to be honest I'm more a cut and stick girl. I did however see a gorgeous flower soft me to you bear which looked and felt amazing as it gave the illusion of fur. I will try to have a play soon. 

I was lucky enough to receive Samuel Taylor vouchers for both my birthday and Christmas so the day after boxing day I went down to have a look. It was the start of their sale so it turned into quite a massive spending spree. I purchased a new guillotine as mine is getting abit blunt and with it only being a small travel one I thought I would splurge and get a 12 x 12 cutter. This should save on paper as at the minute I have to waste some of the pattern by cutting the card the way it will fit in the machine and not necessarily the way that looks best or is most efficient. I also got a craft tote in the hopes it will encourage me to craft away from home as I can stash all my goodies in it. They were my sensible spends. The rest of the money went on anything that took my fancy or that I had seen during the year and liked but for whatever reason hadn't bought. I was pleased that I was able to get a mix of card making and scrapbooking goodies. Yet again I have ended up with alot of stamps which seems to be a reoccurring habit at the moment even though I'm not really a stamper. This is something that will have to change in the new year as I now have quite a collection of stamps and so I will be having a play with stamping techniques and colouring in in the new year. Strangely I did not come home with any die cuts which is what I have tended to go for before and that I had actually gone to get. I am wanting a corner die cut, some sort of flourish, but just can't seem to find the perfect one so am going to leave it until the right one comes along. Any ideas on this please let me know.

Published Humphrey Card

Previously I mentioned that I had sent in some card samples to Simply Cards and Papercraft in the hopes that they would publish one of them. well guess what, they have! I had to pay to purchase the magazine but as I was dying to find out which card they had published and to see it in colour print it was worth it. Luckily the lady from the magazine had told me exactly which issue it was in, which is the current one issue 105. Ive been going round showing everyone whether they are interested or not.


Aswell as getting put in the magazine I was sent a free gift. I seem to be having a lucky streak for these at the minute. Unfortunately the postman decided to bend the product and so has damaged part of it. This is why I can never get my magazines with free gifts or papers delivered as he tends to destroy them. I had won a sheet of die cut snowflake chipboard by Woodware. I emailed Simply Cards to thank them for the gift but to explain what the postman had done and the wonderful lady is going to send me out another gift, a more robust one she has stated so hopefully the postman wont mess if this one. Yeah more gifts.

I won!

I can't believe it but I won the crafty hamper!

I couldnt believe my eyes when I got the email. The news totally topped off what was already an amazing craft bargain day. I collected the hamper yesterday morning from Lili Of The Valley and was amazed by the size of it, its huge. I hadn't looked at it properly when I signed up for the raffle but its massive. Unfortunately I didnt have time to open it as I had some cards to make, house to clean and then a birthday meal to attend to so had to wait until night time to have a look. There is such a wonderful range of goodies in there from stamps to paper packs, ribbon to glue, charms to glitter. I did a little count and worked out that theres just under £200 worth of stock in there. I am so grateful and thankful for this prize it is amazing and has really made my year especially with it been so close to my birthday and christmas. As alot of the stock is christmas I will hopefully have some fantastic christmas cards to make next year with it. Although I would love to dive in and play with it all now I still have plenty of christmas stash to finish off the cards I still need to make this year. I still get to play with alot of stamps, inks and flowers in the new year though. Brilliant.  

Crafty Weekend

I cant believe its been so long since I've been on here. I've just had so much going on that Ive not had a chance. The free time that I have had has been spent in the craft room desperately trying to make as many christmas cards as humanly possible as because my card sales went so well I've been left in the strange situation of having not enough christmas cards to send out my self. I've managed to sell a massive 30 cards and get orders for 3 commissioned cards as well.

On saturday I went to spend my hard earned cash and treat myself to some crafting goodies. My first stop was the Craftwork Cards Warehouse Wipeout where I managed to pick up some amazing bargains with everything being around half price. I was able to get some paper packs that I had seen and liked previously but that I found was a little pricy. The warehouse sale was the perfect chance to treat myself to products that I wouldn't normally get as well as stock up on loads of pearlised card and paper.

My next stop was a little detour from the original plan and I went to Samuel Taylors as it was on the way to our next crafty outlet. I managed to get some fantastic savings on 12 x 12 scrapbook pages. not that I need any more I know but this was just too good to miss. The deal was 5 for £1.00, one of which I had paid £3.99 for just the one piece only a couple of months before and that sadly I have not used yet. Because I find there's too much faffing around changing projects I either card make or scrapbook. With it being christmas my only focus at the minute is cards but in the new year there will be plenty of scrapping going on.

My final port of call was Lili Of The Valley for one of their open days and launch of their new stamps. It was very busy so I just grabbed what I needed/ wanted and joined the queue. The queue was a 40 minute wait but I managed to have a chat with some of the other crafters and got my 10% off at the till. I also was surprised to find out that there was a free gift waiting for me, a choice of 1 of 5 stamps. This was excellent as they retail at £4.50 each. I've also been put down for a raffle prize draw so fingers crossed.