Friday 30 December 2011

Here he is ............... Charlie (Sunday name Charles) John Ebdon Stobbs

Hello lovely Blogging Friends,

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope 2012 will be a kind year to each and every one of you and my wish for all of us is that we can be happy, healthy and enjoy the little things in life because that is mostly what our lives are made up of.

I'd also like to thank all of you for visiting and especially those of you who take the time to leave such lovely comments.  This crafting and blogging lark has given me some wonderful really close friends (some of them virtual ones) and for that I am really grateful.  My love and a big hug to you all.

2011 hasn't been too great a year for many of us I know and my family included.  There have been several sad changes to our lives but ................ it could have been worse and I'm not going to dwell on them.  Instead I am going to remember my favourite bits, the main one being the birth of our first Grandson, our gorgeous little Charlie and now I have a new camera, here he is

 Isn't he beautiful!

Here he is with his very possessive big sister, lol!

and getting to know his Uncle Jamie!

and his cousin Alexa! (My three precious people)

and his Mamma (me, in case you didn't know, lol)!
He always seems to fall asleep on me ....... I guess
it's the cushioning that does it ;-)

Whilst I'm sort of seeing out the old year I have to tell you that because of the extra demands on my time at home, I very reluctantly took the decision to resign from the Chocolate Baroque DT a couple of months ago,  mainly because I felt that I wasn't able to give the 100% commitment that Glenda and her company deserves.  I was very proud to serve on the CB DT and considered myself very fortunate to get to play with their beautiful stamps before most other people did and I will really miss it I know.  I am still a member of the CB Guild, still consider Glenda and the rest of the team to be my friends and will look forward to receiving my newsletter every month filled amongst other things with the fabulous designs from my ex-Teamies.  I'll still be buying their lovely stamps (I already have a couple of sets on my wish list already) and when I have time I will be promoting them on here when I can.  Have a great 2012 Chocolate Baroque!!!

And to finish my last post of 2011, here is a hanging that I made for the CB DT earlier in the year and which I can't remember if it appeared anywhere.  I really liked this piece when I finished it and loved the colours.  Hope you like it too after all the Christmas stuff, lol!


The Grungepaper flowers came from the Chocolate Baroque Doodle Butterflies stamp set and the lovely leaf spray is a Marianne die.  I painted the background with Viva Precious Metal paint over Gesso (I think) and deliberately left brush marks to give texture.  Looking at it again now (it was made back in March) I think I'll have to make another one, lol!



Bye for now lovely friends and I'll see you in 2012 (probably with a sneaky peek at my next Snazzy's DT project)

Lots of love to you all.
 Lesley  Xx

Wednesday 14 December 2011

The Happiest of News!

Hello Lovely Visitors,

First of all I must apologise to my blog buddies who I haven't visited for at least a week but I was finally summoned to dash up the A1 to go look after my gorgeous Isabella  when her new brother decided to finally make his appearance.  'Dashing' proved a little difficult as of course, it had to be rush hour didn't it, lol! Luckily our Daughter has some lovely friends up there, one of whom looked after Izzy for an hour or so until I could get there.  Mel, Jenna and I will be forever grateful you were there, mwah!  Anyway, at precisely 10.14 pm on 7th December Charles (to be known as Charlie) John Ebdon Stobbs was born weighing a hefty 9lb 5oz and he's absolutely gorgeous just like his big sister.

I didn't get to take loads of pics (did I hear someone say thank goodness, ;) ?) but my stupid camera has chosen this important occasion to go on the blink and is telling me there are no images on the card ?!**!!  I will be heartbroken if that's the case as he will obviously never be 1 day old again but he's here and he's healthy and my lovely Daughter is okay too so that's the main thing.  As soon as I get a photo I will show him off to you all.

In the meantime, while I was away I didn't get to show you a sneak peek at my projects this month for the Snazzys Design Team which were published last Friday.  Don and Val at Snazzys sent us some fabulous My Minds Eye products to work with which included a set of 12 x 12 double sided papers, some fun clear stamps and some great buttons and brads all from the same set.  They only arrived a few days before I went up to Harrogate but I managed to get a couple of cards made with them (would have liked more time to play) and here's a peek at one of them.


The basic card cut and fold idea for this particular design came from a recent issue of Making Cards mag.  If you get chance to pop over to Snazzys DT blog you will see some fabulous designs by my teamie, Paula which you will have to scroll through to get to my post but that won't be any hardship as she has made some wonderful projects again this month.

Well, I hope you are all much better prepared for Christmas than I am.  I haven't written on a single card yet (and they are all going to have to be bought ones this year which really goes against the grain) and I don't even have my Christmas tree up which is unheard of this late in December!  Today I am treating myself to a rest and recuperating day catching up in Blogland before diving back into the fray tomorrow.  I hope the day treats you all kindly and you get to do something nice if it's only for half an hour.

With a bit of luck I'll be back with some photos of some description very soon even if it means a new camera!

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Sunday 4 December 2011

My Buddy's had another Celebration!

Hi Everyone,

After my friend Judith's Silver Wedding Anniversary a couple of weeks ago, she got to celebrate again last week because it was her birthday.  I would have shared the card I made for her before now but for the past 8 days we have had our Daughter Jenna and Granddaughter Isabella staying with us.  As quite a few of you will know Jenna is expecting our first Grandson who was due to be born yesterday but as we all know babies come in their own good time don't they and, inspite of a couple of false alarms this week, so far he's not deigned to join us.  However, as our Son-in-Law was away on a training course last week we thought it would be wise if Jenna and Izzy stayed here. 

Even though baby didn't arrive it turned out to be a wise decision because Jenna had a very scary episode on Wednesday with symptoms which appeared very like a stroke!!!  Our local hospital were excellent and after a chat to a midwife on the phone we were told to take her in for tests to make sure it was the migraine we suspected and not something sinister.  Luckily we were right and although Jenna felt very poorly for a couple of days I was able to look after Izzy and let her rest more than she would at home.  Her Hubby came back on Friday night and they were supposed to go home yesterday but Jenna ended up awake at 3 am convinced the birth was imminent ............................... wrong!!!!  The little monkey kept her awake all night only for everything to settle down again by lunchtime but they decided to delay going home for another day just in case.  As nothing else has happened and Jenna says she feels he's going to stay put for at least another week (hmmmm???) they went home after lunch today.  I now have to catch up on all my chores (nothing got done while they were here, lol) hopefully before I get a call to say baby is on his way for real.

Tonight though I am allowing myself a little playtime starting with showing you Judith's card.  I started with a white 21 cm square base card and adhered a slightly smaller square of purple pearlescent card.


Using a Heidi Swapp butterfly mask I blended Versamagic ink over a 19 cm square piece of white card moving the mask around at random.  I then stamped the beautiful Anemone corner from IndigoBlu in the bottom right and I used a lovely swirl from Chocolate Baroque (formerly Elusive Images) in the top left to create another corner image, using Archival ink.  Before adhering this square to the card base I stamped the quote using Versafine Onyx Black ink.  Using the Archival ink I stamped the Anemone Corner once more onto white card, coloured the anemones with Coloursoft pencils and then cut them out.  I shaped them a little before adhering them to the main image with Pinflair glue.  I  then put some Stickles onto my craft mat and used a damp brush to apply this to the anemones and highlights on the corner images.


Finally, I die cut and embossed two butterflies from old book pages using a Cuttlebug duo set, lightly inked the raised areas and then heat embossed with clear EP before adhering to the card leaving the wings free.


I really enjoyed making this card as, like Judith, I love anything with butterflies and anyway, it's always such a pleasure making something for a person who has become such a close and very dear friend as well as someone who you know will appreciate a handmade card.

Well that's my share for today and if I don't get to post anything or make any blog visits for a couple of weeks you'll know it's because my crafting activities have been severely curtailed by a little bundle of joy, lol!  I'm off to get my feet up for an hour (oooh, I have missed my l0 minute afternoon cat naps, he! he!) and then maybe I might get a Christmas card or two made ................. you've guessed it ........... I haven't made one yet.  I have a feeling most of my cards this year are going to be bought ones!

Take care all and I'll be back as soon as I can.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx