MIA again. Friends 'special' birthday!

Not got round to posting recently but I have been busy with a few things, so...........!  Had a brill day on Monday it was my neighbour and friend Val's Birthday bash, she has been whisked away to Venice today to celebrate lucky thing!!!  It was a special Birthday but I'm sworn to secrecy over which one, but she looks amazing and I'm thinking I'll have some of what she's on.

This is the Mini Book I made for Val, shaped like a handbag, with lots of pictures of her and her family taken over the last few years at our parties and get togethers and weddings here in the street.

We had a BBQ planned but the weather had other ideas, after I had made a huge pile of home made burgers too, so we cooked indoors and went off to Val's for drinks and food and of course........Cake!!!!  

The sweetest sight all the little ones lined up on Val's sofa cuddled under a furry rug munching popcorn watching 'Jungle Book' -PRICELESS!

Roadshow Demo Day come 'n' gone!

Well, the day arrived and it was great day!  Everything went very well on Saturday in Leicester, and my nerves stayed in check, hands didn't shake too much and I didn't lose any fingers!!!

The only thing that could have been better was that I could have had a slow motion button as the 15 minutes for each demo whizzed so fast and I wasn't able to show as much as I would of liked with regard the decoration of the items made, but there were finished samples so...............!

The 15 minutes diminished more because after each session Consultants hung around asking stuff and taking photos of all my samples - this really ate into the next 15 min session!! But it was lovely that they liked the stuff and wanted to chat about what I was doing, so not a bad problem really!!   I had a visit at the end from the main speaker of the Conference  to tell everyone to get their butts back into the Lecture Theatre for the rest of the show - whoops!!

The  demos I did were ' CD case'(inspired by the Scor-Pal project guide) , 'Photo Wallet Card'  ( adapted from the little stamped image wallets we all know and love, size adjusted to take photos) and ' Photo Squash Box' (Adapted from an 'explosion box' by the fab Dawn Griffiths) they were all well received, especially the little box. 

Feedback on the day was really fab, and I was so pleased, but I did not anticipate my name appearing on the Conference evaluation form.  So it appears I will be evaluated..........um........arghh...........OMG!! I did have a bit of a shock as I thought when I agreed to do the demonstration that it would be as it was last year, several people in a room doing their 'thing' while the Consultants all milled around............uh, nope -new format!!  2 people demoing, each in a separate seminar room and 50 people at a time in four sessions coming in sitting down and hanging on my every word - well sort of !!!!

Not sure if I knew that I would be on the evaluation form I would have maybe been a little more organised with my delivery as I went for the chatty relaxed style I would use at a class or shopping party! Wish I had been told all this before, but you live and learn!!

I normally hold my Workshops on Friday Evenings monthly, but due to Easter and my Son Sam's Birthday falling on a Friday it was a little tricky so I moved it to a Saturday (this wkend 25th) Afternoon 2-5pm so if there is anyone out there that lives near to Bristol and would like to come, I would love to see you!!  We are very close to the Mall at Cribbs Causeway, so you could shop til you drop in the morning and Scrap til you drop in the afternoon!!!!!  It is a Creative Memories Workshop, but there is absolutely NO restriction on what you bring and use at my Workshops!!  All my tools are available to use for the session, and I have a Canon Selphy Printer and Bigshot that will be there also!!  There is a £5 workshop fee that includes Tea/Coffee/Hot Chocolate and choccy (-very important) biccies  I do have a small stock of CM papers Albums, Pages & Protectors that you can rifle through if you so wish!!

Having read on Forums and Blogs there seems to be a bit of confusion and many misconceptions regarding Creative Memories, the image is that there is  a lot of restriction at events and that it's all a bit old fashioned and rigid, it could be your opportunity to have a look at the stuff use the tools check out the difference in the Albums and make your own mind up?! There really, really  is no hard sell- it is really not my thing!!!  If you are interested in more info about CM or want to find out about Saturday (venue etc) you can email me at belindaw@me.com

Belinda x

Little Donkey, Little Donkey (can I have a ride?)

What a gorgeous day it was today here in the West Country!  Neil, Livvy and me had a trip out this afternoon, and joined the many others in sunny Clevedon.  As soon as we had parked the car and jumped out, Livvy spotted Donkeys and decided she would like to have a ride.  She really is not the bravest child so somewhat surprised we said yes and headed towards them expecting her to change her mind when she got close - but she wasn't put off, climbed aboard a friendly brown donkey called Ben, and waited patiently for the other children to climb aboard their donkeys.  Off she went stroking Ben as she went.  She did wobble loads on Ben's back as she informed me 'Mummy I'm all wobbly on Ben!!!!' I asked if she liked being wobbly and she shouted back 'I'm having fun'.  This is her reply to anything that she doesn't want to stop doing, generally at bedtime when I say come on sweetie time for bed her usual reply ' But Mummy I'm having fun!'. The donkey ride was closely followed by a ride on the little red train that circles the field just by the sea wall.

We walked to the beautifully restored Clevedon Pier and decided to partake in a cake and coffee en route.  The pier was fascinating to Livvy who thought in order to look through the boards to see the water below, it was necessary to lie down on the floor and peep through the planks, much to the amusement of everyone else walking past her!!  

She truly is a one off - quite crazy!!!!

A lovely afternoon!

Belinda x

Hoppy Easter!

What a beautiful sunny day it was today, it so helps to lift the mood!  Had a lovely walk with Sam and Livvy this morning into the woods behind where we live to search for some twigs for our little Easter Tree.  Here is what it looked like when finished!!

I've been making a few Easter bits & pieces and some ordered cards but here is one made with some old and some new stuff.  The image was last years Pink Petticoat Easter chicks the dots are also PP, as is the background circle. The flowers are stamped with my new Elzybells  flowers background (in one of the new clear Easter stamp sets!)

It's a small card about 4'' square, I'm loving little cards at the moment!

Back soon with more easter stuff!

OMG I am in awe!!!!!!!!!!

Well, after talking to none other than Kirsty Wiseman last week on the blower (telephone!), I received Patti Picklicious and a lovely set of Doodlebug Baby stamps (I have wanted them for ever), from the uber talented Mrs Wiseman and can I just take a moment to say.........................wow!

Now I do like my downloads and I have a lot, but they are mainly soft pastel, or light colours - great, but sometimes you need some Zing if you know what I mean?!  Zing, ting, ting, Patti is soooooo full of fab pattern and colour!  There are image stamps, titles and sentiments too, at £15 incl post it's amazing value.  

Hey maybe now we are on speaking terms I should be asking for commission?!  

Big plug from me though, because if you love colour and you like something different you will love it too!!   Find Kirsty's Patti CD Blog here

I made this card as soon as I got it and that wasn't easy as I am a bit snowed under as I mentioned before, but, I was itching to get going with it so.............!

I used the 'Choc Fudge Sundae' papers from the CD and the baby carriage from the Doodlebug stamps.  paper pieced and I shrank the papers cos I fancied making a tiny card (loving mini cards at the mo!). to make the image smaller (I'm on Mac BTW) I opened the image in Preview (the Mac image browser) chose print and then selected to print more than 1 image on my A4 page, as I hate to waste paper & card I chose 4 to a page as I know I'll use it all, I love it so!  Did the same with both papers, to make a mini version!

I was so chuffed when I emailed it to Kirsty & she asked if she could pop it on her Patti Blog!!!

It is there in all it's glory and I am all warm and glowy inside!!!  I may be a wee bit of a saddo?! I'll let you decide!

Belinda x

Excuses, Excuses!

I am seriously bad at this malarky - keeping plates spinning is definitely not my forte! 

Life is pretty hectic here at 'Stoke Park Towers', I am currently working on sample layouts, cards & papercrafts for the Creative Memories annual Roadshow held in Leicester mid April.  I am doing demo's to the consultants for an hour during the lunch-time period, and I'm bricking it!!!!!

Livvy has been really off-colour and has had a cough that is preventing her napping and interrupting her both getting to sleep and staying asleep argghhhhh!  These things are always ill-timed don't you think?!

Anyway I will share a couple of the samples and will probably be AWOL a fair bit, but will try to drop by briefly when I can!!!!!

Surreal moment yesterday morning, picture me (maybe not!) in the kitchen in my pj's bout 9:20 am (I had been up since 6:50 am!) phone rings I answer it - Voice other end says 'Hi is that Belinda?' I confirmed it wer me!  'It's Kirsty Wiseman here'  well at this point if you are still picturing me, I looked really weird, chin on floor, rest of me on the ceiling!

Turns out I had been the first peeps to go to Kirsty's little tab to buy her fabbaroonie Patti Pickleishious CD and she had called me to say how excited she was and that I was first!!!!!! Yeah!! Crazy eh?!  I was so chuffed and she was so lovely!!!!

Belinda x

NEC visit and Neil's Birthday

This first photo to share is Livvy looking for bugs on a lovely walk we took on Tuesday, St Patrick's Day and also Neil's Birthday!  What gorgeous weather it has been, and to take advantage we did a walk after having a lovely lunch out.  The walk took us along the estuary at Oldbury and past a lovely old church.  We followed a route from the 'Kiddiwalks in Bristol' book we got recently and I thoroughly recommend this book if you have small children and want to do a trek that's suitable for little legs!  We have a backpack for her but she is pretty heavy so, Neil gets a good workout when her legs get tired (well they are tiny legs, bless!)

Tea party later with cake and candles, bigger children (& young adults!) and Grandparents! A lovely day all in all.

Second photo is a card I made a couple of weeks ago for my friend Debbie's 40th, it doesn't have 40 on it as I feel us ladies are a tad sensitive about these things (save the big number cards for men!!) so the words 'Fabulous' say it all.  I used my One Four Zero petal stamps (which are fab btw!) rub ons, the butterfly paper was more like card (I think it was 'Paper Adventure' but i will check!

Well last weekend after a very rocky few days health wise for both myself & Olivia, I managed to get to the NEC in Birmingham for the Hobbycrafts show.  I met up with some other bloggers which was really nice and had a great day.  I went by train which is always a bit of a treat for me as I get to sit and do some thinking and planning so I always have my little notebook to jot them into. Strangely I have much more productive thought on the train!!! There were soooooo many exhibitors it was difficult to know where to start, but Clare, Emma & Katy had already been to some of the stands and pointed me in the direction of some of the ones I was looking forward to seeing.

Some hi-lights for me: seeing the lovely Julie hickey at the Craftwork Cards stand (love their stuff) the colours their were to die for, they always make me want everything - which we all know is good............but bad!!

Sissix wow every die imaginable and stunning samples!

Stamposaurus - love their stuff, stamps are so cute, but didn't buy any love their gallery on their website, their cards are amazing!

Little Clare- lovely stamps again, soooo cute and some nice male designs, like motorcycles & cars.  Managed to get the skintone promarkers here that I have wanted for ages!

Paper Cellar - brill cardstock some really gorgeous colours and cheap to buy by the box, but heavy to carry - should have got it just before I left and not on arrival doh!

There were lots of hi-lights meeting the girls being one of the best bits.  Chatting to Clare really took me back that lovely Welsh accent reminds me of my home in Wales many years ago and all my friends & family!  I am quite sad my accent has disappeared but at the time I arrived in Bristol I was a teenager who wanted to blend in, and so.............it was lost!  

I came home Saturday sounding more Welsh though so thanks Clare you helped me reminisce!

Belinda x