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.