September – a busy month

September is a busy month around here: DS’ birthday, our anniversary, DH’s birthday and our friend’s birthday and they all fall within the space of two weeks.

We received  a lovely handmade anniversary card from our dear friends, Paul & Hazel.  Having just discovered the delights of owning a cuttlebug & big shot they are both coming up with some amazing creations (see previous post for DS’ birthday card).

   Isn’t this a stunning card – made by Hazel (Thank you!)

DH celebrated his birthday yesterday.  We got him up early so that he could open his presents and cards before he went to work.  In the evening we cooked him a lovely meal which was followed by drinks with the neighbours.

DH is a difficult so & so to make a card for let alone two!  As we are a cat mad house I decided to make him a cat themed card from me; and as DH is a Top Gear fan (like most men of a “certain age”) I decided to use a car theme for the card from DS.

The results:


I stuck strips of paper (alternating the colours) on a cat face shape that I had previously drawn & cut.  I then embossed it with my Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug folder.  The nose is a heart shaped gem, the whiskers are gold peel-offs and the ears are cut from pink pearly paper.  I drew the eyes and mouth (which was a bit of a challenge as the surface was uneven due to the embossing!!).  

paul said...

We love the cat card you did for Mark brilliant. Intrigued as to the components used, the cat face shape and the card used?

1 October 2010 10:51

Lesley @ Krafted Keepsakes said...

Glad you liked the card - so did Mark (lol).
Will get back to you on how I made it. Watch this space . . . . . .

2 October 2010 02:00

Birthday boy

Yesterday we celebrated DS’ birthday.  Regular readers will know that he is a bit of a logo lover, so it has become a bit of a tradition (and challenge!!) to make his birthday cards incorporating the Converse logo.
This year, things were made easier as DS has developed a musical interest – he is an amazing drummer (mainly self taught, with some help from his school’s music teacher) and he is teaching himself the acoustic guitar.


The guitar card is actually 3D, although the picture doesn’t really show this.  I made the strings using a needle & thread.

DS also had another handmade card.  This is from our dear friends, Paul & Hazel and is one of Hazel’s lovely creations (or maybe Paul made it??).   Hazel recently got some new “toys” to create with.  See here for more of her (their??) creations.  I’m not sure who has been card making and therefore, who the credit should go to – I know it is Hazel’s hobby but also know, from reading Paul’s blog, that he couldn’t resist having a go too!

Anonymous said...

 

So glad Sam liked the card ...just read his email to us. Had a little chuckle over the mystery who did it..lol well new toys can be boys toys as well (big clue). Now the cards have been recived I'll add photos to my blog over the weekend when all will be revealed.

24 September 2010 23:41

Fishy goings on . . . .

It seems that my two plecs have been getting down & dirty.  When I turned the tank light off tonight I saw something strange in the tank – further investigation revealed a cluster of eggs!

The eggs can be seen in the picture, just next to the plant pot and with “daddy” plec keeping a watchful eye over his babies to be.  Isn’t nature wonderful?

At last

For my regular readers, you will remember that back in February we had a chimney fire.  (For those of you that aren’t, the story is here)

Six months, one week and one day later, I am relieved and pleased to say that the chimney has finally been fixed.  Back in February we were issued with a prohibition notice – we were banned from using our fireplace.  Well, we were banned but that didn’t mean to say we couldn’t.  If we carried on using our fireplace and something else happened then a) we weren’t covered by the insurance and b) we would have to pay all the fire brigades costs.  Needless to say – we didn’t use the fireplace!  All we are waiting for now is a visit from the fire brigade’s safety officer to check that everything is in order and the ban is lifted.

 

The repair of the chimney took less than one day – the other six months and one week has been spent “communicating” with the insurance company, waiting for everyone and his mate to inspect the damage, make their reports and then decide whether to pay out or not.  We even had one “inspector” come to see if we actually had a chimney – he must have been one of the worst people we have ever had to deal with.  He spent just 10 minutes in the house, looked at a previous inspection report (which he then made his own) and barely spoke to us.  How nice!! We seem to have spent the last six months dealing with people who say one thing and then do the complete opposite (my favourite sort of person, preferably on toast!).

So at long last, the saga of the chimney, that reached nightmare proportions at times, is finally over.

Roll on the winter (well, not too quickly , as it would be nice to have a bit of summer) and cosy Sunday afternoons in front of the fire.

Annoying

Isn’t it absolutely annoying when you receive an invite and although you’d love to go – you can’t?
We have been invited to my cousin’s son’s wedding but unfortunately we can’t go as DS will be in the middle of his exams.  We are so disappointed!  Although it was only expected that we should reply to the bride-to-be’s parents, I decided to make reply cards for my cousin and her son & intended as well.
It wasn’t a card that I really wanted to make as I had been hoping that I would be making the opposite (yes, we’d love to, sort of card!).
This is what I came up with:

World cup update

My nails needed doing, so this time I went for England & Nederland!

Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day! (Sorry it’s a day late!!)

DH had the Father’s Day he wanted – nice & quiet, doing what he pleased with a healthy dose of football watching thrown in for good measure!

 

As usual, I made cards for DH and my FIL.  I didn’t get around to photographing the card I made for DH but I did manage to get a picture of the other one.

Well, best get on . . .lots to do today before the football starts!

Retirement

A friend (and colleague of DH) is retiring.  DH asked me to make a retirement card and I was stunned when he told me who it was for as I didn’t believe that he was anywhere near retiring!

 

  I used some pretty butterfly paper as a background and used the dictionary definitions for “happy” and “retirement” as the basis for the design.

Summer anniversary

I find that I make a lot of anniversary cards between May and September.  It becomes increasingly difficult to come up with ideas, especially as I like to make the cards unique.

For this one, I made a woven raffia heart, added some white paper daisies with button centres.  Only using nice, fresh summer colours made the design stand out (and I did hear that the recipients like it too!)

World cup time

Are you world cup ready? I am - the garden is decorated and the flags are in the window and of course I had to have some portable world cup stuff . . . . .

What do you think??

End of the dancing season

Two weeks ago we finished our dancing lessons for year 1.  We have had a fantastic time learning all the dances and we can't wait for the season to begin again in September.  All in all we had 30 lessons and learnt the: waltz, quickstep, swing fox, tango, cha,cha,cha, rumba, salsa, jive and the Viennese Waltz.

We’ve also been to the black & white ball and the Christmas ball along with a number of dance cafés throughout the year.

On Saturday we took our bronze dance exam.  We had to dance four ballroom and four Latin dances (every dance we had learnt except the Viennese Waltz).  I am very pleased to be able to say . . . . . WE PASSED!!  We were marked independently and we each scored 8.5 for all the dances, with DH getting 8.5 for his cha,cha,cha (I got an 8+) and we both got an 8+ for the jive.  (NB marks were out of 10).  Not bad eh? 

Thank you DH for being a wonderful dancing partner and I can’t wait for year 2 to begin – can you?

Anniversary time again

Last year, our dear friends celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary and of course I made them a very special card (see here)

Well, it’s another year on and another card was required (where does the time go?).

Deciding on a cat theme (what a surprise!!), I came up with this – 2 cats side by side with their tails entwined.

50 + 50

Friends of ours celebrated their 50th birthdays this weekend.

I decided to use the 1960’s as a starting point for their cards.

I found pictures of the two of them and using a nifty little program that I found on the net, gave then the “Warhol” treatment.  I then cut the numbers from white card, mounted them on 3d foam stickers and their cards were done.  On the inside I added a heart decorated pocket (colours to suit the individual card) for the gift.

 

I hope they like them and that they enjoyed their birthday celebrations.

And for the parents-to-be

It wouldn’t have been right to have made a card for the grandparents-to-be and not for the parents-to-be would it?  And of course, I couldn’t miss out on making another card, could I?

I’ve always wanted to make a card with the “baby on board” sign, so I did.

Using my lovely Swiss Dots folder for the embossing and some pale yellow gingham ribbon, it all seemed to come together rather well.

Good News

Friends of ours have just told us that they are going to be grandparents this year (not that they are old enough yet!).  Naturally, I had to make a card to celebrate this fantastic news.

I used the theme of time (as in countdown to the happy event)and my grandfather clock Sizzix die and marking the clock face 3, 6 and 9 (for the months).

While the cats sleep . . . . .

I actually managed to get some work done whilst the cats were sleeping – miracles do happen!

To ease my self back into “creativity” mode I trawled the internet for inspiration.  I saw this and decided to give it a go. 

I made two (as you can see), one for a birthday and one for a thinking of you/get well soon

New blog

In response to the lovely comments and e-mails we have received about our new additions we decided to give them their own blog.  You can have a read about their antics and see their latest photo’s. Feel free to leave a comment – we love reading what you have to say.

Both moggies are currently asleep, so I guess I’d better head off and actually get some work done.

Until the next time . . . . . .

The next chapter

Let me introduce you to the girls . . . . .
  This is Mango.  She is apparently 10 months old but we believe that she is much younger – between 6-7 months.  She is quite timid at the moment and is keen to hide.  Left to her own devices she does put in an appearance!  With time & patience she will become a confident, affectionate moggie.   Mango has taken a big liking to DS much to his delight.  By just talking to her she flops on her back and loudly purrs.


And this is Poppy – the hooligan in heels!!  Poppy is about 10 months old and a right bruiser.  Keen to be the boss about the house, she has already had a rude awakening.  She is a tough cookie probably as she has had to fend for herself - she is believed to have been roaming on a farm for 2 months during the winter.  She loves to be brushed and has the weirdest purr – well, it’s not a purr it’s more like a growl.

Needless to say we are over the moon with our new additions to the family and in just 24 hours they have made their presence felt.  They have started to settle in and once we have ironed out Poppy’s want of hissing at Mango peace and harmony will reign.  Nothing that time and patience won’t fix.


Anonymous said...

they are beautiful Lesley and Mango looks very photogenic, I'm sure they will soon integrate fully into your family.
I will get down to writing that long overdue email asap.


Lots of love Paul and Hazel



23 March 2010 18:51

Birthday card

I needed two birthday cards for last weekend.   They were for men (always difficult to design for) and given all that has happened in recent weeks, I was not really in the mood to design.

I decided to keep things simple and not “overthink” the design.

 
I used a purple (not blue as it looks in the picture) card blank as the starting point of my design.  I embossed this with one of my favourite cuttlebug embossing folders – D’vine Swirls.  As the card blank had a white core, I decided to sand the top layer of colour away to reveal the white layer underneath, giving a distressed effect.  Adding a silver line and pre-made embellishment completed the card. 

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all you Mums in the UK.

This year I wanted to make Mum a different sort of Mother’s Day card.  After some thought I came up with the idea of making an easel style card.  I wanted the design to be personal and this is what I came up with.

Front view:

 

Top View

I embellished the card with handbags (MIL keeps all the cards I have made her in a handbag).

Until the next time.