The UP-side of having false teeth and other inky antics!

No really, I do not have false teeth....although my goodness, I think that would have been preferable to never ending torture my dentist is putting me through - but I do have access to all manner of packaging which I am regularly liberating from work.

And this week, the lucky victim of the sue-bubbles recycle treatment was....




The Steradent display carton!

The minute I saw it, I was thinking....mmmm....Im guessing my Tim Holtz inks might just fit nicely in there - and what do you know, it was perfect!

I tested out different inks and colours on the underside, and found that the waterbased ones just disappeared into the polystyrene. But the alcohol ones worked a treat...good old alcohol eh! So I applied cranberry alcohol ink to the outside and top, and used some gold acrylic paint in the holes....just like this:



Now I dont know if I was just being impatient, but the acrylic paint just didnt want to dry. No worries - to the rescue came the Mod Podge!!! I coated the whole thing in the magic glue, and added a band of pinky paper to the outside...again Mod Podging over the top...thus:



I then told myself...'step away from the Steradent carton...allow it time to dry!', and I took myself off for a lovely long soak in some Christmas bubbles, and hooray...I came back to it well on its way to being dry!

I had my doubts at this stage however, if it would turn out pretty or a blooming great mess - but then I rootled for some vintage looking lace, and a Prima flower...and VOILA!



And here it is modelling a couple of inks...



I have to say, I am well chuffed with it! BUT...there is a problem...I do not have enough inks to fill it!!!!!! Oh no...I think that means I will have to go shopping...ha ha ha ha!

To continue with the Tim Holtz obsession, and to make use of some canvas on a roll that I bought in the 99p store some time ago - I made a canvas dotee...




I inked the body of dotee with green and red, and stamped vines using Stazon ink. The face is canvas inked up with 'tattered rose' ink, embroidered in my usual way and blanket stitched to the body using gold thread.

Here is a piccie of her rear so you can see the stamping...


Then...I went bonkers with beads, sequins, the odd button and whatever else I could lay my hands on, and I stitched her together right side out as the canvas would be too stiff to turn....I had to keep those stitches neat!

Having forgotten to add a ribbon at the sewing together stage, I punched a hole in her head (sorry dotee!) through which I threaded some twine for hanging. I didnt stop there - I tried out some clear crackle glaze here and there, but this seemed to soak in and didnt crackle, so I went over this with Rock Candy stickles - you can never have too much sparkle!

She's a bit mad, but a happy experiment!




Fancy some more inky stuff...? Here are some cards I made this week...







Not bad for a weeks work eh...phew!

Its been a busy old week - I worked 5 whole mornings...and for a lazy person like me, that really is going some! I had yet another visit to the dentist (aaaggggh!), with more to follow in April, x-rays on my hip....which appear to have cured my hip (?), oh and Dad exploded a plate this week by turning on the wrong hob! BUT...I did get out of the trauma of going shopping with him as he had to wait in for the new PC to arrive from Dell - oh joy! So I survived the week and enjoyed getting into a right inky mess into the bargain!

I think thats all for now folks...thank you for popping by, oh and BTW...only FIVE more sleeps!!!!

Sue x

THE camera....now has MY name on it....yay!

Oh my goodness, can I get any more excited???? I could not resist a moment longer and just had to ring John Lewis to see what their stock levels were of my must-have (like the air I breath) item....and the very very very nice man has reserved it for me...oh joy! Gone is the worry and the nightmares about the lack of stock, and now I can drool at ease as I gaze at the piccies below....aaaahhhh!

Now the butterflies in my tummy are happy sparkles, not panic stricken jitters!

Many apologies for being a gadget bore....oh, but I just cant help myself [giggles in a state of near hysteria] !

Have a lovely weekend my lovelies...lots of chilling and happy crafting for you all I hope!

Sue x

Did I mention that I am getting a new camera....? lol!

Oh I just cant stop thinking about it now....a week today, hopefully I will preparing to ZOOM over to John Lewis to buy this beautiful thing.....

I keep looking at it on the web, reading through all the spec...like I know what it all means, and then all the fabby reviews...and just knowing that I NEED IT!!!

Aw...just look at its flip around screen...



How cool is that....I ADORE IT!

But of course, I need a big fat zoom to take all those arty photos - so Im drooling over this aswell...



That little baby is going in my basket too!

THANK YOU Waitrose bonus!!!


Im madly excited - I get flutterings in my tummy just thinking about it...lol! Then I get the odd panic....what if they dont have any in stock - I know I could order it online, but I wouldnt get my staff discount then....and I need my staff discount as that equals STASH CASH! Oh I hope they have one - I will be ringing them the moment they open to check. It can be a beggar to park at Milton Keynes these days, and thats after tackling the M1....or would the A5 route be quicker - oh, dilemmas a plenty! Maybe I should ring a few days ahead....maybe even today - maybe they could get one in if they havent got any in stock????????

Oh I think I could burst at any moment!!!!!!

A rude awakening and some random mutterings....

As I was violently woken in the early hours by what sounded like these two innocent looking fur balls tearing each other apart...but turned out to be Bubbles 'shouting' at a feline visitor through the window...I find myself with time for a little early morning blogging!

Firstly, lets back track to last Thursday and the joyous day of our bonus announcement! Here is the great envelope opening, with Jo doing the honours:



We were all very pleased and proud or our 15%, and I havent stopped daydreaming about my upcoming camera purchase since lol!

So what about the weekend......well, Saturday was a day of Zzzzzzzz's and more Zzzzzzzz's as I did not emerge from my nest until 1.30pm can you believe....well, yes Im sure you can lol!

At first...in my bleary eyed state, I was annoyed with myself for wasting a whole morning languishing under my duvet, but then it did seem to see off my nasty cold, so I guess I needed it...maybe...or maybe I AM the laziest person in the whole wide world!

I was barely half way down my first cuppa when my Joe arrived for the weekend...yay! I said to him ' fancy turning up at the crack of dawn when Ive just got up' he he... It was fabby to see him as I havent seen any of my boys since Christmas and I was missing those bear hugs big style!

Sunday was Mothers Day of course, and I managed to get myself up rather earlier on this day. My son was absent - having realised what day it was, he had dashed up to Tescos for a nice big supply of Mothers Day sweeties!

Carol came round with the crossword as always, but everything stopped as we prepared to watch the first F1 Grand Prix of the season. About half an hour into the race however...boredom set in and it was back to the crossy!

As we were settling into a chilled afternoon surrounded by dictionaries, theasurus' and crossword solver books (the begger wasnt going to beat us!)...all hell broke loose when Jamie and Tom arrived along with pups Ruby and Marley! Daisy disappeared 'somewhere' for many an hour until the coast was once again clear, but Bubbles sat under the kitchen table protesting that these mutts were in her space!

It was wonderful to see my lovely boys, and their doggies - we had so much fun, and here they all are...



Bless 'em!

So here we are a new week...and just 9 more days of skintness until our bumper payday - and THE CAMERA....!!!

Have a good one folks, and thank you for popping by!

Sue x

A very Happy Birthday to Maria & Steven!

As your birthday comes to a close Maria, I hope its been a great one for both you and Steven! I have to confess, I had forgotten that you shared a birthday, aw...thats nice!

The 11th is a 'special' day for me too...on this day in 1978 I got married. And on the same day in 1991.....I got divorced...he he!

On this day, THIS year...our bonus was announced at work as 15% which is fabulous, and will see me as the proud owner of a nice digital SLR camera come the end of the month..I cant wait!

So a very lovely special day all round...only marred by my sore and very drippy nose...sigh!

And for that reason, my post this evening will be short and sweet, as I will take myself off to bed to recover from my cold. A three day weekend ahead...that should do it!

Sparkles all round!
Sue x

Happy March everybody!!!

Okay..I know its already the 6th, and it might even be the 7th by the time Ive composed this, but on flipping my calendar over to update appointments, I realised that Kate and I havent exchanged pages for March yet...tut tut!

So off to the emporium I went and I decided to inflict some 'early sue-bubbles Tim Holtz art' on you Kate..lol! It will be in the post the moment I go near a letter box, but meanwhile...as its already March, you can view your page here:



I hope you like it...compared to most of what Ive 'created' this week with my inks, its a masterpiece!

Other 'getting there' pieces are..



Its amazing how the inks come to life with a little stamping on top and Prima flower!

Here I am showing off more inking work, and also my new dies - I think they are Nellies oriental dies, and they can be found for the best price at cuttingedgecrafts.co.uk - no connection, just a very happy (and very frequent) customer!



I love them! There are actually three sizes of the shape, only two are shown above. AND there is another, more square set - also a must have!

What else can I show you.....?

Oh yes, my atc for the March swap - the theme was 'my favourite non-alcoholic drink':




Thank you for such a fab theme Alma, my atc is now living with SusieJ!

I would show you my January atc - it featured Cliff Richard, as at last it reached Fiona...I wasnt quite so quick off the mark to post that one, but as that is living on the old banger of a pc, I cant get to it.

News on the old banger - she will be going into storage (somewhere?!?) until such time as my brother has the patience to 'deal with' her, and meanwhile...Daddy has ordered a new tower from Dell...hooray! It should be here within a couple of weeks and then we wont have to fight over the lappy!

Other crafty happenings are under wraps just now...one or two people have special occasions coming up, so ssshhhh they are secret! lol!

I found a box of chocolates that I was given at Christmas 2008....do you think they will be okay???

Mmmmm....worth a try Im thinking, but if you dont see me again any time soon...you will know why!

Have a great Sunday folks!
Sue x

Ive had complaints.....

'Why havent you updated your blog' they ask...!

Oh I dont know...I have felt my usual witty scintilating self lately..lol, and on top of that - our pc is very poorly. I dont mean 'man flu' poorly, or 'phoning into work and putting on your poorly voice when you have a bad back' poorly....I mean BLUE SCREEN poorly, otherwise known in the trade I gather as 'THE SCREEN OF DEATH'...sigh!

After its last minor illness following a spate of power cuts, you might recall I dashed out to purchase a memory stick with the intent of transferring all my photos off the old banger and onto my lappy. Well...I made a good start, I think I got all of last year, and maybe a couple of months of 2008...but then the novelty wore off and I gave up...sigh!

I do have a brother who is a computer whizz...and Im hoping upon hope that one day he will be able to bypass the screen of death and rescue my photos, but he has an awful lot on his plate just now so we are looking at buying a new pc as Dad NEEDS his solitaire (and evidently, a pack of cards just doesnt cut it any more!), and we are fighting over the lappy.

For some reason (madness I expect), I feel compelled to sit at the pc desk to use my lappy. I dont have the lappy on the desk...it is propped, well...on my lap - quite uncomfy really - but I have the mouse on the mouse mat shelf, rather than on a cushion if I was slobbed on the sofa, and my feet up on the arm of the armchair, so it kind of works I guess.... until I attempt to get up that is!

As some of you know, I am suffering not insignificantly just now with a very dodgy hip. I say hip, but thats just a polite way of saying bum muscle...yow, it dont half hurt! Being stuck in one position, with lappy on lap, therefore preventing me from wriggling...I find I seize up, and I must look like some 105 year old biddy when I need to prise myself off this chair!

And all of that waffle is my excuse for not blogging lately! lol!

Oh, and maybe the arrival of new goodies, in particular - Tim Holtz goodies! My lovely forum buddies create such beautiful things with his inks, stamps and pearls, and I have been very frustrated with these for a long time as all I make is a big fat mess. BUT, it turns out that the problem was - I didnt have enough stash...ha ha ha...well, not enough of the right stash - so the last week has seen me put that to rights!

Firstly, QVC brought us a TSV with Tims book and a little selection of supplies. Then, on Saturday it was demo day at Colemans, so a nice long list of Tim's goodies was made...and I was shopping for two as Gina needed supplies too. Saturday came around, and as I was about to leave, I knocked myself into my bedroom door. This sent shockwaves to the poorly hip, and OMG I could barely walk...such agony! Any normal person would have taken to the sofa and groaned all day long, but me..I had a rendezvous with a crafty warehouse and nothing, but NOTHING was going to stop me! I hobbled out to the car, poured myself in it and headed off to Colemans. Just my luck, the car park attendant pointed me to a far away space...which considerably delayed my arrival at Colemans door! Now then, this is a pretty crowded place and people need to shoot here and there, and here and there again...and all I did was get in everyones way. I couldnt just step...I had to think about the direction I wanted to go in, and kind of launch myself and brace myself for the pain. Only for crafty stash would I go through this..and it was oh so worth it! I couldnt be standing around thinking about things...should I have this or that - it was a case of 'chuck it the basket', hobble around the whole place to check I hadnt missed anything, then head for the till. At least the pain of my hip took my mind off the pain of the numbers that appeared on the till...he he! And then when I got home, my lovely new stash took my mind off my hip - sorted! Here is a piccie of 'some' of my new stash....




I have ink pads, re-inkers, crackle paints (which I adore!), stickles, perfect pearls...and so much more - lovely! I have shut myself away in the emporium and am slowly getting to grips with my new supplies. Ive a long way to go before I create beautiful things like my friends, but Im getting there...phew!

Now, I think I do have photos on the pc that were heading for my little blog, but Im darned if I can think what they were. But I do have some things to show you.....if you are still with me here....lol!

Firstly, I made these really random atc's for my buddies Gina, Maria and Valerie. They wanted the template for the little paper birdie I made, so to accompany that I thought I would make them a birdie themed atc...



I hope you like them girls!

Inbetween all this crafting, stash buying and hobbling, I actually had an evening out...woohoo!

The office chicks went out for a lovely meal to celebrate Lynns' retirement...here we are, with nice full tummies!




Everyone had been raving about the 'triple chocolate pudding', and I thought they were all having it....but as it turns out....I was the only piggy - just feast your eyes on my pud!



About ten minutes and one sticky toffee pudding, one chocolate pudding, and one spotted dick AND custard later....




Yummy yum yum!!!

And now Ive reminded myself that I have one of those new Galaxy Bubbles bars with my name on it out in the kitchen!

Must dash!

If you've reached this far (particularly if you didnt scroll down to get here), well done, and thank you for popping by!

Sue x