Happy New Year !

Dreams do come true

I can't believe how things can change - this time last year I was just starting a term on a design team for a card making company. I'd never been in a team before so it was all very new and very exciting.
Then after christmas I was asked to be on the design team for A Trip Down memory Lane - to say I was chuffed to be asked is an understatement- and so far I have contributed to their gallery each month and also taught a class at the retreat in October.
Now things have moved on a bit more for me - I was asked to be on a team for a company called Aspire Crafts - who manufacture card making products and have made quite a few samples for them.
And now for the exciting bit .......
Tomorrow I will be making my first ever live appearance on Create and Craft TV with their new collection called 'Thoughts of Spring '
I will be on at 10. am
2 pm
And 7 p.m
So you see after all these Years of watching people doing their thing on tv it's my turn ---- eeeeek
I'm very excited, very nervous, buzzing, and wishing my mum and dad were here to share it with me

So if you are at a loose end tomorrow ( 4 days before Christmas ! )  and fancy seeing a gorgeous new fresh collection -I'll be there on your telly with it !

I'm not ready...

As usual time is creeping up on me again. Every year I make a decision to be making my cards early and aim to get them finished and out by the first of December ...
Yep you've guessed it, I haven't made any yet !
BUT i have been a very lucky girl and had a wonderful trip away to Bavaria last weekend just like last year where we visited the Neuschwanstein Castle again.
I was so hoping that it would be snowy again like last year,but wasn't holding out too much hope,but when we arrived it seemed that it was actually more snowy!

 

I won't bore you with too many photos  'cos I did that last year but it really is so pretty.

We took a horse and carriage up the mountain to the top as there were no buses running - and it really is more fun in the carriage.

When we got to the top - there was the same overpowering eerieness - with the mist and the cold and the castle on its own holding all it's secrets... although there were lots of people around it still had an amazing presence- maybe because of the snow and weird mist...

One minute the sky was blue,then suddenly a mist descended

 

So- no I'm not ready for that day yet,

but you know what,I'm going with the flow- it will all come together in the end... ( she says hoping ).

I will be Journalling my December Daily - a good mix of the two I hope... turkey is ordered.

I taught a class yesterday at our monthly crop which I'll blog about  soona nd I really will get down to those cards very soon!

Are you ready ???

Crafting Musketeers Challenge Eight

December already - and nearly Christmas. Where does this time go?
It's time for another challenge over at the Crafting Musketeers Challenge Blog and with the fact that it's getting nearer I thought I would make a festive card this month. The theme is 'Layerit Up' and for my card I have used one of my favourite ranges - Graphic45 Nutcracker

 

The sponsor this month is the wonderful Hunkydory   who  have donated a gorgeous prize

 

Looks good doesn't it ?

Hope you can pop over and have a look at some of the great  inspiration from the expanded Design Team.

Have a go - you know you want to !!

 

Simply a moment - busy exciting times

We arrived here yesterday,Bavaria Germany in order to visit the lovely castle that somehow seems to have become really special to us.
I'm sitting at the little table in our hotel room whilst himself is nodding off - of all things  he pulled his back just before we came out here and I can tell its troubling him.
In about half an hour we are going off to get pick our ticket up for the tour round the castle...but for the moment it's given me time to stop and take in all that has been happening this week.

This is the view from our hotel room this morning.If you look closely you will see the castle

just starting to appear through the mist. It has a strange way of making me feel calm.

Life has been pretty hectic recently and this week was no exception. Something very exciting for me happened. i have been part of a design team for Aspire Crafts for a while and when I was asked if i would be interested in going for a screen test to present on Create and Craft I immediately said 'oooh yes' - and then it kind of hit me that it was actually real...

Anyway, Thursday was the day, off I went - drove myself up to Peterborough. Checked make up ( nowadays thats more of an 'oh well' rather that an 'oh wow !!!' BUT I did my best with my new foundation ! I met two other lovely ladies who were equally as nervous as me as they planted the powerpack thingy around our waists and the microphone on our lapels ...and to cut a long story short,we all passed ....so in the near future you may be seeing  me on your screens showing you some products and demonstrating crafty things!

This quiet time has reminded me that I am so lucky to have great friends,blog and otherwise and a loving family who have all been excited for me 

and watch this space for further updates - who'd have thought it !

And now himself is awake and busying round me - he wants to go and get visiting that castle - so am off for a while. Back soon !

Aspiring Craftiness

A little while ago I was asked to join a new team of crafters for a new small company who manufacture card making supplies.
The company is called Aspire Crafts and have a wealth of knowledge within the industry.
The team were all sent box of goodies a while back to have a play with and make some samples .

The collection they have out at the moment is called 'Vintage Bloom' and is very Vintagey with a contemporary twist.
These are some of the cards I made with the goodies - I also made a tag using one of the Prima Dolly stamps I have in my stash...

Something else I really enjoyed using in the box was these lovey 'Dekromount' frames.

They can be left as they are or coloured with inks and paints or gilded - they're really versatile.

I'm not really a 'cat' person but this one really reminded me of some of the cards I found whilst going through Mum and Dad's things - very vintage !

I've had a little blog makeover - hope it is all hunky dory and everyone can read it all ok.

 

A bit of a messy page

I haven't been doing much crafty stuff over the last couple of weeks, there are lots of projects sitting in my little (?) crafty box to be finished from various retreats i've been to lately,and work has been really busy as well
I'm also having a bit of a bloggy makeover too - but I am really missing my blog friends - so I'm sitting myself down to say hello again everybody and catch up.

I don't know if anyone feels the same but sometimes I don't have any 'projects to share and think its a bit daft to sit and waffle on here but i really miss catching up with everyone so here i am!

Anyway, I digress. As its coming round to the time of year when we all think of love and peace and families and all that I thought I would share a bit of a messy layout i did a while ago for A Trip Down Memory Lane's design team gallery .

It was using Prima resist canvas ,papers and products and some mists. 

The picture is a precious one of Dad and me and I really quite liked it when it was finished even though  its quite bright !

Anyway, I hope you're all well and getting those December Dailies and Journal your Christmas albums sorted!

Two retreats in a row

It's been a pretty busy crafty time here in Den's Crafty Land - Last weekend was a bit of a special one for me as I was one of the teachers at the ATDML weekend retreat that the lovely Mel and Jill run twice yearly.
I was introduced to the retreat nearly five years ago ( wow where has that time gone ) by a friend of mine called Hilary. We had met at another crafty class and she thought I would like it. She was right, I loved it. I've been attending for 5 years now and in January this year I was asked to join the Design Team,I'd done some guest spots before and was thrilled to be asked to be a member.
Fast Forward to now and it was my turn to take a class ...
I decided to use Echo Park Beautiful Life papers and here is the layout.

We  inked through a stencil for the background and stamped and layered flowers 

Class in full swing ..

and we made a little card too 

 

The time flew by and all too soon it was over. 

In the evening I took a make and take class .

We made Tags with Prima Dolly stamps - everyone loved them so I was really happy!

 

and this weekend I've been to another retreat run by the lovely Clare Charvill where we made a beautiful book using the Twelve Days Of Christmas papers by Graphic45. 

I'll post about that in a day or so.

Petty Pastels

It's that time again, time for another challenge over a the Crafting Musketeers Challenge Blog. It's number 7 this time and the theme this month is Pretty Pastels.
 The challenge is being sponsored by Little Claire Designs this month and there is a lovely stamp set for the prize..

                                                     and here's my card

A bit of a sewing theme on this one- all in one of my favourite colours .

With a little bit of bling for good measure . 

Happy crafting !

One picture- twenty words

Watching this one lunchtime was fascinating,fisherman washing and gutting his catch,the seagull ready to pounce for his dinner.

Proud Mum time

Second time around - and  now a qualified teacher 

Crafting Musketeers challenge

This month's challenge over at the Crafting Musketeers challenge blog is Christmas in October.
We've expanded the team with some more mega talented ladies,so do pop over and have a look as there are some really gorgeous cards this month.
The challenge is being sponsored by Bridlington Stationers owned by the husband of one of our design team - here's a short bio

Bridlington Stationers is owned by Darren Saul,.

Established in 1986, Bridlington Stationers Limited is a company brimming with experience. 

We are a customer focused business supplies company delivering over 30,000 products 

available on a next day delivery basis on a local and national scale.

The prize is they have donated is a gorgeous set of Pro Markers 

and here's my card for the challenge this month, I used Graphic45 this time - a nice old fashioned card 

Happy crafting !

The Snowman and Snowdog

I couldn't resist this kit when I saw it on TV - I've got such fond memories of the boys watching the original film of the Snowman. Now there is a new card kit with the snowdog as well- here's a couple of cards I made

Simple little cards but so so cute !

One photo - twenty words

Over on Abi's blog she has a challenge to post on our blog one photo and use 20 words......

Family meals all together don't happen very often but oh how special they are when they do -love you guys.

Crafting Musketeers Challenge 5

Can you believe we are into challenge number 5 this month ?

The theme for this month  is "Vintage" and has been sponsored by one of our fellow team members Nicola Saul.You can find Nicola here,http://pinkdelightcraft.blogspot.co.uk/ She has very generously donated a lovely prize for the winner, thank you Nicola .

Here's my vintage card for this month ....

and here is a little about the super talented  Nicola for those of you who don't know her.
Hi I'm Nicola and my blog is Pink Delight Craft. I created my blog to share my love of crafting with everyone. I have always been creative - my job as a hairstylist is creative. I have been crafting for around 8 years or so and absolutely love cardmaking. How did I choose my blog name? Pink is my favourite colour and it is a Delight to Craft! I am delighted to be a part of the Crafting Musketeers Design Team and to also be the sponsor for this month's 'Vintage' Challenge. Happy Crafting Love Nicola X.

Thank you to all who entered the last month's challenge,and DT call,the winning ladies for the DT will be announced very soon - and good luck if you enter this month.

Denise 

A Little Self Indulgence

Yours truly and Mario 

Checkout the new apron !

and we're off...

 

The ever so lovely Dyan Reaveley was in the house too !

Three and a half hours of lovely messy taggy fun 

Here's the front of mine - still more to do 

I loved the ruler binding - such a clever idea ...

I came away not only buzzing with ideas but had met some great

new friends too - can't be bad !

Not too much of a silly grin this time !

The excitement mounts ..

Here in Den's crafty world, the excitement is mounting as I am soooooo looking forward to Thursday when I will be partaking of a class with the legend who is Mr T Holtz
http://timholtz.com/uk-here-we-come/

hopefully, if I get a photo this time - I won't have such a stupid grin on my face ......

A lucky dog walk

Look what I found this afternoon, just looked down as the dogs were running around and there it was ......

Might buy a Euromillions ticket !

Christmas...... in August ??

I know,I know,it's really early-but I thought I'd share a couple of cards I made last week.
In the crafting world,Christmas products seem to get earlier,some people even start their cards in January !
It just so happened that I fancied making some cards the other evening and came up with these 

I used acetate as a wrap on the last one,not something i've used much before,but it kind of added a little something to it I thought..

So have any of you started on Christmas yet???

Also, I have a question,I want to change the font that I type in on here as the normal one is a bit small - can anyone tell me how to change it so the new one is the default? I'm getting fed up with highlighting it all and changing it every time! Thanks in advance if anyone does..