A warm welcome to all my visitors,

Thank you for taking the time to come and look at my blog, I really do appreciate it. I would love you to leave me a comment, even if it’s just to say Hi. It means I can come visit you!

All my designs are original, so copyrighted to me. If I have been inspired by someone elses work, I have named them in the post, and where able, I have provided a link.

Please feel free to use my designs for inspiration, I just ask you to credit me, and provide a link back to my blog.

Thanks, Shaz XX

Wednesday 27 September 2017

WOYWW #434- The After Tim Holtz edition!

So, back in the land of reality, after a fabulous workshop at Art From The Heart, Harrowgate, with Tim Holtz & Mario Rossi.





A wonderful time was had by all, and 4 hours just flew by.
 At the end, we got goodies to rake away with us- the two stencils we used were made especially for the workshop, so won't ever be available to buy.




 Top left is an Apron, and bottom left is a bag for 'putting your thoughts and ideas into'. Those things we jot down on a bit of paper, then promptly forget what we did with them.







All those came in this bag with the Creative Chemistry Live UK Edition on, and our lanyards.










Next came a folder, with refill inserts, to store all our tags from the lessons in. Plus the specially printed badge for the front.








The folder itself, & inserts are available to buy, and a great way of storing tag samples.




  A notebook, to write thoughts and ideas in.




Again, this is available to buy as part of the regular Idea-ology range.









Final gift was a piece of 'Good Luck' jewellery from the Assemblage line.





Finally, I took my Compendium of Curiosities, and Distressables books with me, just in case I could get them signed. And sign them he did, quite happily.








Everything was so well organised, and both Tim & Mario took time with people, making them feel they were an important part of the day, it was a wonderful atmosphere.




I'll do another post later in the week on all the tags, and I'll bring them to the crop with me.


Even taking time for a silly photo!

I'm feeling much better this week than I did last, by Saturday, the worst of the side effects were easing off, which I was pleased about. Didn't expect them to shift quite so fast.I am still tired, but I think Sunday was such a long day, so accounts for some of that, and I have a really painful butt, as I sipped over in the bathroom on Saturday afternoon, and landed firmly on my rear, so it feels bruised.



Anyhow, I'm done, bed is calling. I'll be round during the day today. Hugs to everyone.


Wednesday 20 September 2017

WOYWW #433- The Zombie Edition

 It's the Zombie edition, 'cos that's exactly what I feel like. Morning are ok, I have enough energy then, but as soon as I get into the afternoon, all I want to do is sleep. I sit down for 5 minutes, and when I next open my eyes, it's 3 or 4 hours later. I also felt quite sick this afternoon, but fortunately I still have some jars of Crystallized Ginger from last time, and that stuff is bloody marvellous. I had 3 or 4 pieces, and I was fine straight after.
Good job I like Ginger, is all I can say.
 But, if being a bit tired is the worst of the side effects, then I'm counting myself lucky. The tiredness started on Sunday, so it's roughly on course for when it kicked in last time. So what else have I been doing? Well, there were these 3 cards for the Christmas Card Club challenge.






Then I got a box that's full of Christmas Papers out, to sort through.




 Mainly 8"x8" pads, and some other odds and ends in there.





And a box full of Christmas Cards I want to put into cellophane bags later.


And I think that's all there is from me. So, I'll be linking up at Julias place, The Stamping Ground later on.

This coming Sunday is the Tim Holtz Workshop at Art From The Heart, so there'll be pics from that next week.



And this is definitely me right now. 😀

Oh, and I also have to say that it wasn't BJ who put me onto the dies a couple of weeks ago, it was Elizabeth (Silverscrapper).  Just blame the  useless brain cells!

Tuesday 19 September 2017

Christmas Card Club- #19 Penguins & lots of Sparkle.

Well, I'm finally back,even if a little late for this week.
Every time I sit down to have a little rest, I wake up 3 or 4 hours later! But if thats the worst side effect I get from the Radiotherapy, I'll count myself lucky.
 I started these on Saturday, doing the stencil paste, and I used a Sweet Poppy stencil of a Penguin Snowglobe.
 I intended to make the black one all glitter, but due to poorly functioning brain cells, I mixed the Black Glitter with Black paste, instead of Translucent, so it's really hard to see that its glittery in the picture.
Its matted onto Black glitter card, and has black Happy Christmas Peeloffs in the corners.
 I used 6"x6" card bases, and the card is covered with a sheet of paper from a pad I picked up at Happy Stampers last year, called Jingle all the Way.











 The top two cards are both done with Hot Foil, one in Holographic Gold, the other in Holographic silver.




 The backing paper here is from a really old Christmas Pad, it might have been Dovecraft, not sure. Then the image was matted onto Silver Glitter card.
In the corners is Seasons Greetings, in a small peeloff again. I'm trying to use those up too,lol.












Final one of the three is this one.

This time the backing paper is one from Craft Creations, with Happy Christmas printed across it in gold,on an Ivory paper.
 It's matted on Gold Glitter card, with tiny peeloffs.




Wednesday 13 September 2017

WOYWW #432

It definitely feels like wednesday gets here faster every week, so, over to The Stamping Ground, where our lovely leader, Julia, is waiting with her Linky List for everyone.
 As I've been having a sort out & tidy, my UFO box has now expanded to two boxes, a lot of which are recent techniques I've been trying out, just waiting to be made up. So a start has been made, all the scenics, and the dragonfly images are now matted and some are having ribbon added.


For most, I'll leave them without a sentiment for now, so I can add whatever is needed at the time.











Thanks to BJ last week, who posted some dies she'd bought from The Range, and I loved the Bee ones, so I paid ours a visit in the hope of finding it. And I did, along with some bats, a cat and a hot air balloon.






Imagination crafts had a special over the weekend, with I think it was 15% off, so I bought three.




I think those Christmas trees will look great done with the Hot Foil. And the snowflake one will be good for a background.

Right, now I'm going to tell you about a place I found over the weekend. A number of people over on SCS had mentioned Aliexpress, and cheap dies. Mentioned it to Beloved Hubby, and he said it's basically the Chinese version of E-Bay.
If you like dies- and who doesn't- they have thousands, at ridiculously low prices. And free shipping, from China. All the American ladies who'd used it said they'd had no problems with orders, or cutting quality, so I had a browse.




 Just look at those prices- less than £3 a time.




And not only dies, but Embossing Folders as well. Apparently they also have a huge selection of clear stamps, but I haven't explored that yet, but again, there were favourable reports for them.
 I'll also mention something else, you can see along the top of the first screenshot something called 'Give as you Live'. I came across this a while back, and basically you register, choose a charity you want to benefit, and then when you shop at a few thousand online stores, a percentage of what you spend is donated to your chosen charity. No cost to you at all, you pay the same price as always but the company donates the percentage. Amazon are a part of it, E-Bay, Argos, B&Q, Crafters Companion- there are, I think it said, two thousand online participants. With Firefox, it puts a button on your toolbar, and you can add stores you use to your list from their pages, and it also pops up with the 'Give as you Live' banner when you visit any site affiliated with them. I know it's a tax deductible thing for the stores, but I thought it's a great way of donating, without it actually costing me any more money.
I had my fourth treatment on Monday, and my fifth and final one is today. So far, apart from being a little tired, I've had no serious side effects, so fingers crossed. Plus, my arm seems to FINALLY be getting better, it's still not right, but it's way less painful than it has been.
 And Finally.............this is totally true!



















Wednesday 6 September 2017

WOYWW #431

Definitely not a lot happening this week. I was late visiting some people last week, thanks to a dodgy shoulder. I'd had it for a couple of weeks, and thought at first I'd pulled a muscle at my exercise class. When it didn't get any better, I went to the docs, and he said I'd got inflamed ligaments, and that had trapped a nerve. Can't tell you how painful it was, a bit like having sciatica, but in my arm. In the end, after about 15 mins at the pc, I'd have to go and sit on the sofa, where I could rest it on the arm. Seemed to be the only thing that eased it a little. He gave me some anti inflammatory pain killer gel, and I found out I'm not supposed to use or take anything with Ibuprofen in, due to the COPD. But it finally seems to be working, as it's definitely not as bad as it was.
So, as and when, I've been occupying myself by sorting out all my paper pads & stacks. There are loads I haven't used, and most likely never will, so I'm having a de-stash for the 'Free to good home' table at the crop.
 The fake credit card at the front is one that came through the door on some junk mail,so I kept it to add to my collection for spreading glue/paint & so on.

I did treat myself to some new Lavinia Stamps, love the fern fiddleheads.



Had my second Radiotherapy dose today (Tuesday), and my 3rd one is on Thursday. All good so far.



And so on to my 'and finally'.......


Talking of the crop, I'll be bringing my dies as usual, so remember to pack your cardstock! 24 days to go. 😀😀

An End of an era

An end of an era

I write this with a broken heart, that only time can heal My beautiful, wonderful wifelet Shaz (Silverwolf) passed away peacefully in the ea...