An All Round Lovely Day!

Today was my day off this week - a bit strange to have a Monday off but my colleague needed Wednesday this week so I swapped.  I started my day by rising at 6 am (I am an early bird so I'm cool with that) and then Kay came and collected me so I could visit with her in the store for a while which was really nice.  Shirley joined us mid morning and we had an impromptu tutorial.  I expect Kay will teach a Saturday class so if you want to make the cute little box I showed them how to make you'll just have to book on the class LOL!  Sorry!

Next I made it to the post office to post a package to Jessy since it was my turn and even ran an errand for Kay while I was there.  I've been too giddy to venture into town much so it was nice although I had to get right home for an appointment so I couldn't browse much.

My appointment went really well and I even had time afterwards for a quick bit of house cleaning (aaarrrggghhhhh!).  Actually I found a rather unpleasant spider lurking in the bedroom and managed to remove him so it was well worth it. The house isn't spotless - mine rarely is - but it's tidier at least.

Then would you believe?  My groceries were actually delivered at the beginning of my 2 hour delivery slot.  I think that's a first!  We're usually right at the end of the slot.  After I had finished putting them all away I even managed to craft a little before dinner which was a super easy favourite - jacket spud, cheese and beans with a yummy salad on the side - very few dirty dishes to clean too I might add - no wonder I like it LOL.

This evening I have even managed to finish the project I started and here it is.

I needed a birthday card for my youngest grandson who will be 9 next month and I fell in love with this little yellow beetle car!  Once I'd worked out my colour scheme I just grabbed from my scrap baskets and somehow it all came together nicely.

I really liked the black of the wheels and mirrors and since I happened to have a top note die-cut shape in black already cut out on the desktop I added it as a bit of the backdrop.  A few stamped zigzag stitches, some pen detailing and there you have it.  I finished it off with some fun 3D elements like the red chipboard '9', some little white buttons and those BIG gems I grabbed at a yard sale (massive bag for 50p!) that I have yet to use but were perfect for the cars headlights!!!

I know these pictures all look alike but I wanted to show this one to let you see how I changed up the red scalloped circle (way too girly) to a more masculine one.  Die-cut a nestabilities scalloped circle and then on the reverse make a pencil mark at the centre of each scallop (on the outer curved edge).  Working first in one direction - cut from this mark at a diagonal down to where the scallop ends so that you are left with half a scallop and half a point.  Work your way all around the entire circle.

Next flip your die-cut over and cut again - exactly the same as before, same direction, everything.  This should cut the other half of the scallop off leaving you with a pretty cool 'pointy' circle.  You can do this with any size scalloped circle too.  Hopefully this makes sense to you (and hopefully you'll give it a go).

And when I was putting a liner inside I used a 'make a wish' banner sticker I had my eye on and then added a handcut banner strip either side of it.  I may well stamp a further sentiment inside before I give this and if I do I'll use black ink.  I think my grandson is gonna love it!

I was inspired to get crafting today thanks to my visit with Kay and also thanks to her and Amanda yesterday when I attended the little craft fayre they were doing at Bramford near Ipswich.  They'd kindly given me some tickets and by pure chance both Jilly and my god-daughter Natasha were free for the afternoon so we had a 'girls' day out.  Natahsa is definately her 'mother's daughter' and if I have fun with Jilly then it's double fun with Natasha along.

I know this post is long but can I just give a SHOUT OUT to the lovely lady who served us tea and cake - you know who you are :-)  Actually I neglected to ask her name - shame on me! - but she recognised me because she follows my blog.  I promised I'd get back to it so I hope I haven't disappointed.  Maybe we'll bump into each other again and if we do I promise to ask your name - sorry.

Like so many out there I'm watching the pennies right now but I did splurge on some pretty papers and a fab 12 x 12 sticker sheet which was also my inspiration for this card.  Isn't it yummy?  The reverse of the yellow honeycomb paper has cute little bumble bees all over it!  It's made by Echo Park Paper Co. 

I had in mind to do a summer picnic page since we're taking the kids to the park this Friday.  The Abbey Gardens has totally revamped the kiddies play area and now has a little beach section with a decking bridge and a water pump so you can get the sand just right for building sand castles - how fun is that?

I have some brightly coloured buckets somewhere that I intended to use for Easter - one of those 'when I get around to it' projects.  Well I've now decided to pack picnics in each one, walk to the gardens (we're only 5-10 minutes away), eat our picnics and then use the buckets to play in the sand.  I thought I'd use a few of these stickers to make fun tags on each bucket and I even had the idea to tape some coins inside - under the picnic so the kids can go buy themselves an ice cream afterwards.  I'm told the weather should be good again by Friday.  Good - I can't wait but for now I'm lovin the rain cos it means we don't have to go water the vegetables for a while.  Instead we can come home from work, put on our PJs, lounge around and relax a bit.

And just in case you're out there thinking this all sounds like too much of a perfect day - it wasn't.  My washing got drenched and I've had to re-do it which was a bitter pill to swallow but then I did manage to get home from town without so much as a drop of rain on me so I can't really complain.

And I finished off the day with a completed project and a post on the ol' blog.  All in all a lovely day off I think :-)

Hugs to you all out there!  It feels good to be back, be inspired, be crafting again - I've missed it.  I'm now thinkin about the page I want to create with these yummy stickers.

Blessings

Suezie