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Hello friends and followers everywhere. Today we have blue sky and sunshine and it even feels a bit warmer. I am hoping this lasts as my daughter and son-in-law are coming on Friday until Tuesday. Well the Less is More style really isn't me though I did try it for a while but always wanted to add something as it didn't look right. Seeing as how Artful Times -well its predecessor, got me started with blogging I do try to have a go at their challenges every 2 weeks. Von and Neet are lovely ladies and also Oyster Stamps ,their sponsors, have lots to chose from if you win the prize. I used an embossing folder on the tag then stamped a little flower and Butterfly by Chocolate Baroque and cut down a dream ticket. The tie is some very plain raffia. Hope this is ok. Have a great day everyone Love Chrissie xx

Happy Monday and time for another Inchie Challenge at Every Inchie Monday  always good to test the old brain and see what I can fit onto an inch square :0) Well here it is for this week I copied the bike image from a drawing I found on Google--think it was how to draw a bike and maybe meant for children. All seemed to be going well until I added the handlebars and they are a bit fly away. Thanks for popping by Love Chrissie x

At Rhedd and Rosie the Theme  for their 5th challenge is Stitching (real or faux) I have been saying for week that I would set up my sewing machine and turn up the bottom on a pair of jogging pants so now was a good time :) It is always difficult for me to sew on craft projects and they usually end up in the bin unless I have done them by hand. Well I am no good on straight lines as you can see. The background I drew with my Promarkers, the material in the centre is covering some thick card and the flowers and the centre topper my daughter gave me ages ago. I have left the machine in place so that I can practice ! Thank you for dropping in. Chrissie x

Good Day Everyone. Dull and cold here so I am hoping to fit in some crafting. and catching up with posting challenges I have finished.  Hope you enjoy whatever you are doing today At Moo Mania this time the theme is Spring. We are still waiting for it to arrive in our bit of the UK.  I made my Moo into the centre piece of a tag. Thanks for looking Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone. Hope the sun is shining where you are and that you are ready for a beautiful weekend. At Addicted to Stamps and More this week they have the Make your Mark Challenge and after reading the post I thought I would try something other than just stamping an image and colouring it in. I used my Promarkers to design a background on the whole card Then I made a topper for it by using marker pens as inks on part of a Chocolate Baroque stamp. The leaves were a freebie stamp from a magazine ages ago. I then used the background markers on the Choc Baroque rose stamp and stamped that straight onto a Nestability round, scalloped shape. Same pens to go around the edge and to make the little flower for the sentiment. I so enjoyed making this though I shouldn't have used the Promarkers as 'inks' cause they have left some colour on the stamp. Message to self read posts more carefully--it say used water based pens to do this technique. Thanks for dropping by Chrissie x

Hello to all my friends and followers and people who pop in--hope you like what you see here. Thank you everyone who leaves a comment I always love to read what you have put The weeks seem to fly by and in no time at all it is Thursday again and time for a new challenge at Out of a Hat. So this week we are having as the theme ' Swirls and Hearts'. A lovely combination to come out of the hat so I hope you will join in with us and enjoy making something for the challenge. Carol is still our guest designer and she will pick a winner for the Tando prize at the end of the month and the winners will be announced on OOAH on May Ist. You'll need to pop to OOAH to see the details. Back to Hearts and Swirls--here is what I made I cut out 3 hearts shapes and used the smaller ones to make a base for the piece. The bigger heart I embossed in a folder and painted a paler colour and added a rose stamp. The Love die cut someone sent me a long time ago--thank you if it was you. The flowers

Hello Everyone This week at Every Inchie Monday  the subject is Spring Meadow. Well the meadows here are well behind with their flowering because of all the cold weather and making this inchie made me think of how wonderful they are when the time is right I love the big daisies and the primroses so tried to show those. Have a wonderful day all Chrissie 

We went decided to go for a walk yesterday as it was really sunny for a change. It is quite a walk to our station from our house but we walked there and got the train to Scarborough. After a walk down to the seafront and along we went into Peasholme Park and climbed all the way up to the top of the park which leads to the cemetery then from there back to the station, on to the train and walk back home-well over 10 miles for the day but worth everyone of the 22,000 steps--according to my pod pedometer. Vic remembered to take his camera and got some decent pictures so I thought I would share some of them with you. If you would like to save any for projects or anything else please do. The stream runs from top to bottom of the park finishes up in a beautiful lake. All the Park was man made in Victorian Times. There was a seat in this bit so we had our picnic lunch. Lots of squirrels, ducks, geese, swans and birds and lovely trees and shrubs Lots of blossoms out at the moment An old footbri

Hello Everyone and Happy St George's Day. We English don't seem to do anything to celebrate this day at all and I must confess if I hadn't seen it as my Google header today I wouldn't have even known it was our Saint's Day. No shamrocks, no daffodils and leeks for us-never mind we maybe will think of something by next year:( I joined in a charms swap at Artful Times  this was organised by Von at Artful Times who did all the work by receiving, sorting and sending the charms for us. Thank you Von. These are the ones that I received and I love all of them and the little labels that Von added are beautiful so I will keep those on the charms as well. The idea of putting them onto a card by Cindy  was exactly what I needed as I have been making charms/key rings and brooches for a friend with cancer to sell for the MacmIllan Appeal. I didn't know how to present them and the card idea worked just right I think This lot are all ready packed up to post so I will start on

I am still really enjoying doing the Alpha Pages set by the Craft Barn every 2 weeks. There are always wonderful samples and entries to admire and inspire. This time it is the letter W but as a twist in the tail you must use circles  on the background. I used various distressed inks to make the background colour then dabbed on some Distressed stain to make the circle shapes. Then sprayed the whole thing with gold Glitter mist. I had forgotten to highlight the word so I scanned it and added it separately. Sorry about the innocent drawing of a windmill- I am in my second childhood-well that's my excuse :) Thanks for looking Love Chrissie xx

Hello to Everyone who visits my blog- lovely to have you here. Today we have a thick frost again after thinking that Spring had arrived at last. I am hopefully that it will be nice later though as the sky is beautiful this morning. I have combined 2 challenges and also managed to make Vic's birthday card while he wasn't around. He usually keeps popping in to see what I am making which makes it difficult to keep things secret. At   Rhedd and Rosies  the challenge this time is Monochrome and there is lots of inspiration from the DT and the entries. Then at the Craft-Room Challenge  the theme is So Sentimental and just right for what I had in mind for the card. The poem on the front is by John Donne and one that we read often when we first met as no one seemed to think we should be together for so many reason and the words of the poem seemed to have the answers we were looking for.  The stamps are from Chocolate Baroque and I highlighted some bits with black pen. The edges of the

Hello to everyone who drops by my blog. I hope you are having a great crafty week and that you are keeping well and happy. A big thank you to everyone for the wonderful encouragement in your comments and the many inspiring ideas when I visit your blogs. This week at The Hatters  we have a circus theme. I still think back to the days when the circus was full of animals but now all the feats and fun are done by humans or robots which isn't quite the same for me. Half of the time I am too scared to watch now but that could be old age ! My favourite thing at the circus has always been the clowns so I have chosen to use one of those for my project I found an old set old coasters--we seem to have loads of old ones. I painted them with acrylic paints in bright colours. I am amazed at how cheap a set of acrylics are these days I used to pay such a lot of money years ago when was more into painting pictures--every blob was treasured then. I had a digi stamp of a clown's head so I printe

Hello to anyone who happens to pop into Jumbled Crafts. Always great to have visitors and I do love to read your comments -thank you. This week at Every Inchie Monday  the theme is 'Life'. I had to think about that one for a while but I cam up with this-simple but true I hope. Hope you like it Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone we have warmer and brighter weather today though as I write this it is clouding over already. I scheduled a long post for weeks ahead and my Internet went off and I hadn't noticed that the post wasn't scheduled properly so you may have got it in your blog roll and wonder what I am playing at. It did tell me that errors may occur because of the Internet failure but it seems to happen so often recently that I ignored it. I will make sure I reread everything in future--I say this now but I bet I won't. So back to the this post which is my entry for the challenge at Artful Times this fortnight. The theme is masks, stencils or both This is the back page of a book that is part of a swap with 3 other people--we all do three pages for each person and our own back, front and one other page. I painted the page with two coats of different coloured emulsion paint then used Distressed Stain and Distressed Ink to make the background after using some die cut flowers as a ma

Hello Everyone. Still no sign of Spring for us yet but I am hopeful as some daffodils are trying their best to look yellow and we have a few primulas with flowers. Hope you have a really great day, evening or sleep depending what part of the world you are visiting from to my blog.  This week has flown by and it is time for another challenge at Out of a Hat Creations .  It should be good fun as you have to decorate/alter a clothes peg or paper clip. Any type or peg or paper clip so lots of scope for this challenge I chose to use an old fashioned wooden dolly peg  as I have always loved making peg dolls ever since I was little girl. This one is quite revolutionary with her determined look and Votes for Women Banner. I started off by making the slit in the peg a bit longer so that the  pipe cleaner 'arms' would be shoulder height. Then I did the wool hair, the hat and the face. Next I  stuck the bottom of the peg onto a circle of wood and wound a baby wipe around it all to give it

Hi Again from me to you--it will be a busy posting day for me today At Moo Mania the challenge is numbers. It is always amazing to see how people use these small works of art in lots of different way. I have made this ATC for a friend who insists that her lucky number is 7. I thought this would be small enough for her to keep in her bag and it will bring her the Good Luck she deserves and needs at the moment. Thank you for dropping by Love Chrissie xx

Hello to everyone who pops by and a warm welcome to any new followers. It seems a while since I have found time to join in at Addicted to stamps and more  but the great photo inspiration they have for the challenge this time was just too wonderful to resist. Do pop over and have a look and also see what the design team have made--very inspiring.  It is rectangular-honest it is. I must have taken the picture at an angle. I used one of my own photographs taken on our seafront here where we live. The thistle heads were brown but I did love the red of the wine so coloured them red. The rest of the card is as you see it--the Tim Holtz clock embossing folder, a flower cut from a Marianne die and a real sea shell from the beach. Have a great day everyone and nice of you to visit my blog Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone and a big, warm welcome to my latest new followers and to everyone else who visits today. At Every Inchies Monday this week the theme is mountain peak. I found this difficult to do and heaven knows why cause I have climbed enough mountains and stood on the top in my life. In the end I went for painting my little picture in Paint shop Pro and using a sunlight filter. Vic reminded me that I had once painted a picture of a mountain top with him coming down it on a rope. I searched for it but it must have been lost in the mists of time lol. Have a nice day and thank you for popping in Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone and a warm welcome to my 90th follower. I know people come and go and maybe tomorrow there will only be 89 but for today there are 90 so,  a big thank you to all of you and to the many who drop by and leave wonderful  comments. Well Spring still seems far away as I look out of the window at the dark clouds, the cold wind and the daffodil buds which are still waiting patiently to burst into flower Thought I might help Spring along by entering two challenges. At Tando Creative Challenges this time the theme is New Beginnings and what could be a better new beginning than the birth of a new life. When I was a chemistry lab technician at a large school they had eggs every Spring. All had been tested to make sure they contained chicks and they were for the first year lessons really. What softies we all became as word spread that one of the shells had a hole pecked  in it and all the staff flocked from far and wide to watch the chick immerge. Not a pretty site with its feather

Hello Everyone I am so pleased that you visited here today. A warm welcome to my newest followers and I hope you find something here of interest. Today I am posting two of my challenges in this one post as they seemed to have a common theme. The first one is my page for the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge which has the letter R this time. Always lots of different ideas from the team and from the many people who join in. I chose the word Railway as I just love travelling by train and visiting restored lines where volunteers run trips with old steam trains and carriages. I used two of our photographs taken at either end of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Part of this was used in the Harry Potter films as the Hogwarts Station and in many other films and television plays etc. It runs from Pickering to Grosmont and even as far as Whitby at certain times of the day. Well worth a visit to Grosmont to see where they do the restoration work--it is like Steampunk heaven with rusty old tanks and bi

Hello Everyone and big welcome to my new followers-always lovely to have anyone drop by and I love to read your comments. The latest challenge at Out of a Hat is Suitcase /Travel so lots of things you can make with that in mind. This week Carol has joined us as a guest designer for the month of  April  Here is what I made  A Book Case-It is a play on words as I made a suitcase shaped book. All the pages have travel quotes on them I would like to enter this in the Craft Room Challenge as well where the theme is In the Library Do visit Carol, Sandra and Janet's blogs to see what they have made this week Thanks for looking Love Chrissie xx

Hello Everyone. It is a beautiful sunny day here and we went to sit on the seafront for a while and watched everyone having fun on the beach--even the donkeys were giving rides to the children and the new Lifeguards were training for the coming season. It was still cold but it looked liked Summer :) At Artful Times  the challenge is to make charms of your choice and if you like you can send them to Von for a swap. I will be sending mine so I hope they are ok. I have made 3 of them from felt and the other one is layers of card made to look like metal by adding various colours and some gold embossing powder. Hope you day is going well and thank you for dropping by Love Chrissie xx

Hello from a cold NE UK. I was hoping that Spring might arrive today but it is still icy cold and cloudy so my hopes are fading fast. Hope the sun is shining where you are and Spring is coming into bloom. This week a t Every Inchie Monday  the theme is travel. This is mine. An inch square from an old canvas map and a cut-out of a car which is raised from the inchie though doesn't appear that way on the photograph. Always some wonderful ideas from people who enter so why not have a go. Thanks for looking Love Chrissie xx

Hello friends and followers and anyone else who pops by my blog. Happy April Fool's Day and Easter Monday. Still like winter here as far as the weather is concerned but the forecast says it the temperature may be a little bit higher later in the week so that will great. At Rhedd and Rosies challenge blog this time the theme is vintage/shabby. Not something I am very good at so I have kept it small and made a bookmark The stamps were free from a magazine a long time ago and it did say Vintage Collection so that bit is right. The bookmark is double so fits over the top of the page which keeps it in place. I used the same Distress ink colour on the background, the edge, the circle and the lace so that they would all match. Not very inspiring really but I did enjoy making it Love Chrissie xx