Ally Pally fall out!

Well I set off at 6.30am yesterday to pick up Liz, Karen and Emma for out trip to Ally Pally (the Big Stamp and Scrapbook Show) London. We had a easy drive down no hold ups so arrived just before 9am.
We all spent and bought lots of goodies....we did have one heart stopping moment when Karen mislaid her brand new I_Pad.............thankfully it was being guarded by the stall holder that Karen last visited. By the time the show closed for the day at 5pm we were all shattered but thoroughly happy. We had a shock as it was tipping it down outside which made driving on the M25 a pain as you could hardly see 10 yards in front of you, never mind Chelmsford McDonalds beckoned.................we duly stopped there and filled our faces!
Yummy. We got back into Ipswich at 8pm, I dropped off Emma, then Karen and then Liz. I was shattered, crawled into my dressing gown, made a cup of tea and made the settee my home for the next 3 hours....pleased to say I slept well last night! I've taken photos of what I bought and I still managed to come home with nearly £60 in my pusre, so will save that for The Suffolk Papercraft Show on the 28th April at Bury St Edmunds leisure centre (10am-4pm). It'll now be Wednesday before I get to play with my new goodies as I'm at work tonight and Tuesday night.

Well lots to do dinner to cook.

                     Janina xx

Busy in my craft room.

I've been busy card making this week, which has been nice. I received my order from Craftwork Cards at the end of last week containing the Birdcage and Birdhouse card blanks, which I've fell in love with. Both look fab decorated and both are a generous size. Photos of what I've done;

The good thing is you can use up odds n ends you might have. I'm doing my best to use up stash I've had for ages if not years!
Ally Pally is nearly here. Saturday we'll be off to London and stash buying for the day, my shopping list has grown rather..............so if I can get some of what's on there I will be one happy bunny.
On a different note here's a photo of our cat Gus, he's such a big doppy softy....we love him loads.

                                Janina xx

A bright sunny Sunday.....

Woke up to gorgeous sunshine, certainly makes the inside of our house feel warmer! Yesterday was the Bramford monthly crop and 29 ladies turned up, so thank you to all of them for making it another enjoyable crop.
The past few days I've been making cards, no photos as yet though. This coming week I also intend spending quality time in my craft room card making. Then on Saturday Liz, Karen, Emma and myself are off the the Big Stamp and Scrapbook Show at Ally Pally London....whoop, whoop.I love this event, it's on twice a year and if you've never been I thoroughly recommend you do some time as it's a great day out. I'll will post next Sunday what I've bought!

This layout is the one I did at the March Papermaze workshop run by Lou Collins, it's designed by Lou....she's so talented. The photo is of me(with the balloon), I was 5yrs, my mum and dad and my brother Lee who was only a few weeks old. My parents did not own a camera so photos of us when we were young are few and far between, so what I do have are treasured ones.
Lou's next workshop at Papermaze is on Wednesday 17th April 10-12noon cost £11 per person....check out Papermaze web site if interested in going.
Well I'm going to have another go at putting my flaming contact lenses in! I'm new to this game and getting them in is certainly an art form. LOL

Have a great day and coming week.

                    Janina xx

Tina's craft day Bulmer Suffolk.

This is the first time I've been able to go to one of Tina's craft days at Bulmer due to working on Friday nights. Well what can I say, Tina did a fantastic job on organising and putting on this event. I had such an enjoyable day and can't wait for the next one on Saturday 29th June (she still has a couple of places left) and for £12 for the day which includes a fab goodie bag, free prize draw, bingo and card competition..............I must confess I won all 3 prizes. No fixing as it was judge by two ladies who came into the event late afternoon, so didn't know who'd made which cards. I'll post my designs. See above.

I also managed to do one layout and more cards, so my day was very productive. The layout was made completely out of scraps and odds n ends I had in my stash. The cards are Craftwork Card blanks that we got in our goodie bag, they are quite big approx 7" high. there's more cards but they're not quite finished.
The drive home was horrendous as we'd had lots of snow and it was still snowing. Took me over an hour driving at 20mph, but I got home safe.

Did another layout during the past week, I started it at the Papermaze crop. It's Emily when she was approx 14 months old. I was so pleased with how this one turned out, again using up scraps from my stash.


Well coffee time. Hope you have a great week, stay safe.

                       Janina xx

Cyprus

I've been busy since I last posted. All my nephews wedding invites are finished and they've sent them all out, thankfully they were pleased with the design I came up with. I've managed to put together the Bramford crop kits for May and June, I'll give you a sneaky peek of the one I've designed for the May crop which is National Scrapbooking Day.....Saturday 4th 9am-8pm.

The layout I'm now posting of Cyprus is of my son Aaron when he went to Cyprus last year. It's one of those layouts that come together really quickly, no messing and I'm very pleased with the result. I also managed to put a pile of layouts into albums on Friday, still need to buy more albums. I like the American Craft D-Ring ones.
Went to Papermaze crop yesterday and had a lovely day. My crop mate for the day was Ang, we scrapped, nattered, ate, shopped and nattered some more......lovely.

Some other layouts I've done of late, the next one being from Lou's workshops held at Papermaze.

The next layout is of my daughter Emily, showing off the tattoo she had done in January. It's a design by Vanessa from the February Papermaze crop.

Lastly a sneaky peek of the Bramford May crop kit to tempt you. The papers are the new ones from Kaisercraft called 75 Cent and they are gorgeous.


Well lots to do no time to do everything. Work tonight 8pm - 8am tomorrow morning!


                      Janina xx

I'm Still Here!

Yes I'm still here but have been busy. I've done lots of extra hours at work over the last two weeks including day shifts and night shifts due to one of our members of staff dying suddenly. Eugene sadly died two weeks ago of a brain haemorrhage, but he was an organ donor and at least 6 people today have a better life ahead of them. We had a love hate relationship, he was a real git and not brilliant at his job, but I feel sad for him that in his last few hours of his life he suffered alone, he might of been a git but he didn't deserve that. So RIP Eugene.

Talking of donors my hubby Andy has been a blood donor since he was 18yrs and has now donated over 75 pints of blood. Last Tuesday we went to a presentation lunch at Ipswich Town Football Club for donors from Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk who have donated 75+ and 100+ pints of blood. It was a lovely afternoon.

I'm also in the middle of making my nephew Matthew and his future wife Sophie's wedding stationary. I'm hoping to get them all finished by the end of the month. They're based on an idea I got from the Crafts You Love website using the lovely Marianne dies. The embossing folder is an 8x8 Embossilcious by Crafters Companion.

I've also done a bit of scrapbooking. The christmas layout is one I designed for the January Bramford crop kit, which completely sold out. I used Kaisercraft christmas papers which were really lovely. The middle layout is of my DD Emily and her friend Hannah when we went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour last July. The last layout is of my DS1 Aaron when he was a baby, I've still to put a title on it.
The last photo is of my DD Emily in her Monkey Suit Onesie we bought her for Christmas!
Did I tell you all I finished my Diplomia in Health and Social Care and I've passed! WHoop, whoop, whoop. I'm just waiting for my certificate and return of my folder. I finished it the end of November...my fellow work mates are still plodding on, so I feel rather smug and chuffed with myself.
Well lots to do, like putting another load of washing out to dry...I'm making the most of the dry blustery weather and I've a pile of ironing to do...yuck my pet hate.

                       Janina xx

Creative Scrappers Blog Challenge

creativescrappers.blogspot.co.uk  have a sketch challenge and this is my take on the sketch, it's taken a few years ago when we took the children boating at Flatford. It was a good afternoon on the river and the children always enjoyed boating trips ...Flatford to Dedham and back again.
Have you had snow? We have our village by the river looks so pretty. Just put my head out the front door as the Rington tea man has just called.................it's freezing, a shock to my system as I haven't been outside since 8.30am this morning, it's certainly got colder. I'm at work tonight on a wake shift.....it'll be cold about 2am tomorrow morning. Scrapbooking at Papermaze tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to snow or no snow.LOL.

              Janina xx