Challenge No.1

Time for the first 'Something for the Weekend' challenge me thinks, for this week the sugestion from the imag-e-nation forum was because of all the rain to have a.......

**black & white theme**

Anything goes & anyone can join, if you want your card added to the forum post a link in the comment box so i can find your card & paste it onto the blog, have fun!

Ger

Janeygrey

PeeJay

BevR

Myra

Jak

Cal

Cheryl

Megapixie

Shirley Anne

Patsy

Sam

Viv

Rhomin

Trina

Kimbo

Dawn

Embossing

Got to try out my embossing folders last night & I'm soooo impressed with the results, especially after how easy they where to use, I love the top one as it can bee used to frame any embellishment and good for a quite last min card. I'll be adding more to my collection for sure, these little beauties where purchased from http://www.imag-e-nation/ the cheapest place I found and they have free p&p to boot along with great customer service what more do you need!

The Sun was out...

...for a change, it will probably be raining tomorrow knowing our luck this summer it's just dreadful. Well with the sun out we spent some time in the garden doing some weeding and putting up the canes support for the peas, Abbie is getting right into it which is great

This is the bottom section of Mum's garden, it has come such a long way in such a short space of time, last year this was just a strip of grass with loads of huge over grown bushes & a pile of rubbish where the greenhouse is, as you can see it's a big improvement
This is our lettuce & cabbage bed they are doing great, we have eaten a few lettuce and they taste great unfortunately because they are organic they don't keep so we've learned just to take what we need, all part of learning how to grow your own I guess

Our canes are in and ready to plant which is a job for my little helper Abbie, Matthew on the other hand is away playing with the boys next door but I'm sure he'll appear when it's time to eat everything

I've got lots of new stash to play with, huge smile on my face!! The pic above is a kit bought from UKscrapper which I have 12 projects to do & I can't wait and the bottom pic is just stuff I treated myself to in the sales.

These lovely little pink recipe book stands I bought for the shop to display scrapbooks on i got them in the sale & they should look great in the shop.

Just want to add a BIG THANKYOU! to the peeps on the imag-e-nation forum for cheering me up yesterday with me not entering the comp & thanx to all the guys who have been posting there comments on here it's real nice to come on and find people have been looking around, it's quite mind blowing knowing that your coming from all over the world, hope you all have a great day where ever you are xx

Never Mind

I'm afraid I done all the work for the Best Of British scrapbooking comp but I just couldn't hit the send button :O( I look about all these wonderful sites with their amazing creations and feel my work is no where near as good as that, I had great fun doing the layouts though so no all is lost and that's more than I managed to get done last year, how bad is that!

I love using things that have belonged to people in my pages with this layout I had some old clothes after clearing out the kid's wardrobe so thought I could use the buttons in some way & as you'll see with my layouts i have a thing with hidden pictures and journeling.

This layout was from a sketch from a blogg, I'll have to find the name later sorry, I never scrap me so this was a real huge out of my comfort zone!But it has my fave colour and fav peeps xx

I waned to try and mess about with the photo's in this one, not too sure about it but I like the last pic as it's printed in black & white and then I water coloured his hair and butterfly it looks quite cute.

This one of my Mum is vary rare she never gets her picture taken & will not be best pleased when she see's it's on my blog hahaha, all the embellishments are handmade on this one

I just love this paper and couldn't wait to use it, I bought is knowing Matthew was having a bowling party so new it wouldn't lye around like the rest of my papers. I didn't have a template for a skittle to use with Elmo so had to cut them out freehand, I really like this one it's just taken a long time to get done!

Step By Step

If your looking for instructions for making your own mobile/handbag charms I was published in this fab machazine with all sorts of great crafts,

http://www.makemag.co.uk/magazine.php?PHPSESSID=bed6d28003416bf17709522af7283817

Have fun!

Busy Bee Today

Well here it is mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm my dream car I announced to hubby today :O) oh he was sooo pleased NOT! Isn't it lush, this will be once I pass my driving licence that is heehee these pics will keep me going in the mean time xx

Well today while the rain was off Mum & I decided to do some gardening, I did some weeding in her garden first, there is still loads to do but it's looking great considering how it looked a year ago. I then found some onions that hadn't been planted in her greenhouse so I dug over my second bed and popped them in with come beetroot, carrots & radish, fingers crossed they come up. We did manage to pull some spring onions & a couple of lettuce, I made some wraps with mince & salad and they were real good, can't wait to see how the cabbage turn out.

Our first crop

My Dad made these great beds for me, I came up with what I was wanting and he made it possible how fab is that. They are just great & will look great when they are all finished with their paths etc. but my Dad is a busy man & has too much on but I can wait as I can still use them and so far are working a treat!

Topper Sales

I'm getting fed up with selling my toppers through various places on the Internet I find one week they don't sell and then the next week the price goes through the roof but with all the charges I end up feeling customers are paying far too much and I pay far too many charges so I'm thinking of selling them here!
Well not here exactly on a page on my jewellery site but I'll announce it here when I have some for sale, I've heard quite a few people doing this and never really gave it a thought that I could.

Yesterday I had my Abbie's birthday tea it was pouring with rain but we had a blast there was ten kids & two babies & the mums. We had lots to eat & the kids all played in my two's rooms, there wasn't a cross word between them all and hardly any mess, great success.
Today however I'm knackered and going to spend some time in the garden with Abbie & Mum we have some serious weeding to do and I need to get some more veggies planted. Tonight i plan to get into my craft room as it looks like a bombsite, I got a lot of new stash and need to find a place for it all, oh what fun, I'll get some pics up later promise

Nothing Much!

Hi there I've not got much news I'm afraid, the kids are away with my Mum & Dad for a weeks caravaning down near Aviemore and me and hubby are left to paint. I can't understand how tired I am when all I'm doing is painting, but it's been good spending time just the two of us not having anyone else to worry about or fit in with.
We treated ourselves to dinner on Thursday before heading for some messages & I thrilled to bits to announce I managed to buy two size 14 top from the clothing section and they fit great :O)
Not sure what the next few weeks will bring with the kids being off school, Aaron is coming out to look at the shop this week so fingers crossed he comes with good news and ideas for the shop, hope to share some pic's soon take care xx

Busy again

Not much news just a few photo's of some card toppers, I've been busy with my jewellery website as I'm now low stock wise and I hadn't noticed- ooops so beads are on orders and I'm trying to make as fast as I can, hope you all have a great weekend.

Celebrating!

I am pleased to announce that I've lost a bit of weight 10lb in four weeks wooohooooo! so to celebrate instead of eating anything bad for me I mad some cards :O) I must admit I haven't done anything drastic just cut out crisps and cheap chocolate and it's worked wonders so far, here are the cards I came up with

Hubby Home

I'm a happy bunny Hubby got home safe and well on Saturday, he was due back on Friday but as usual like in the RAF never runs to plan, never mind he's back safe and well. The kids were so please to see him, i never tell them he's coming back in case he gets delayed as there would be disappointment & bad moods & I'm the one left to deal with it. I must admit it's a whole lot better when he's away now that we share with Mum & Dad, i have adults to talk to and the kids have two other's to bug!! I just wish my Dad would lighten up and get on better with Hubby it really gets me down as my Dad's mood change is disturbing it's like a light being switched off when Hubby walks thought the door, but enough of that horrid stuff.

I've been topper making,scrapping & card making a bit more lately seen as things with the shop are not moving, funny though it hasn't stopped my buying nice decorative bits though :O) I got a lovely PINK(of course) leatherette pen tidy reduced to £8 bargain & even better I got some recipe book stands PINK again that I'm going to use for showing scrap albums for 75p each so I just had to buy 3. I've got my bookcase's all picked out and even have to colours sorted, I'm all sorted but just need the council to be on my side for a change and give me my planning permission & building warrant, pretty pleeeease!!

I'm soooo excited for Jutta she's half way through her ninth week and she's beaten her busiest yet- woooohooooo, she had so little confidence so I hope this will make he believe in herself as she is great at what she does. I'm actually being your guinea pig tomorrow she's having a hair colour technician come and give her some training, it should be great fun and I'm looking forward to getting something different.

Here are few pic's of what i've been up too over the past few weeks-

Fed up wi this rain!

Flowers for 10th Anniversary from Hubby

Card I made for Hubby xxx

Toppers I made for sale on Ebay

The story goes on...

...the shop has taken another twist it looks like we underestimated the building warrant process, it will take longer than the planning permission so I'm hoping for a Christmas opening date now :O( not too happy about that but there is nothing I can do about it.
On an up side I have registered the business name with the U.K registration company so I am now the proud owner of the name "Cullen Crafts" I've designed my logo but that I'm keeping to myself for the moment

How Bad Am I????

I have soooooooo let my blog down :O( been really busy though in my defence, things with the shop aren't much better I'm sorry to say. Why is it folks don't tell you the whole picture untill your neck up in poo, it looks like we're on for the planning permission but it turns out the building warrent is a bigger deal. We have enlisted the help of an architect who has came out for a look at the shop an thinks we;ll get it fine, unfortunatly the bad news is we have the most stricked guy in the council dealing with it, never mind whats another spanner in the works. This means the shop will be open christmas/new year time, not good for the tourist season but great for getting into a routine and getting the workshops up and running & hopefully the crop club, never mind it will all be good in the end.Here are some random pics from the past few weeks ......

I've also been busy scrapbooking WOW I know, I looked at the pile of my pictures that keeps getting bigger so in my quest to give myself a kick up the ass I decided to enter Scrapbooking Best Of British, scarey as hell but so far I've completed 3 layouts in three days a complete record for me.