Spring card and start of declutter…

 

 

Good afternoon all, glorious day here and forecast to stay sunny over the bank holiday which is great news!

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I haven’t started my declutter yet because it’s too nice to be inside. It might be a long job but as you said you were interested I did take some pictures, it’s a start and once I’ve shown you my clutter I’m committed to doing it!

So, here goes, I’m kicking off with my stamps…

 

…as you know my craft room is in the attic so I have these great Ikea units which fit perfectly along the sides of the room under the eaves. I am quite organised in that all the stamps are tidy and sorted, but I have so many that I haven’t a clue what I have which is why I need to index them so I can use the forgotten ones (which is probably about 80% of them if I’m honest) and also get rid of some. I’ll just highlight the stamps for now and get to the other stash as I go through it

In the unit along the top from left to right; A5 mixed clear stamps and LOTV sentiments, Stamping Bella, LOTV, Magnolia Tilda, JOFY

In the bottom unit from left to right; the pink and brown boxes contain wooden stamps which I’ll do later, the round box has other Magnolia images and minis, the spotty boxes have misc clear and rubber, then Stampin’ Up which you can’t really see

On the floor; one heart box is Christmas, other heart box is sentiments, black spotty box is small stamps and the pile is some I started sorting for selling/charity

 

This is a drawer full of my favourites that I’ve brought downstairs into my new craft area

Then I also have a box the same size that are more grungy and backgrounds that I sorted for mixed media but they were under a pile of other things so no picture yet!

I just remembered I also have Papertrey and h’Anglar that are in other boxes

oh, and I have 2 more boxes for Leonie and MMCS which I keep separate so they are all together for DT work!

So there you go, my stash of stamps collected over 25 years. Is it really bad that I have so many?

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right, moving quickly on and this is a card I made for a swap group I’m in on Facebook where the theme was Spring…

 

 

I love this LOTV image, it’s called Cartful of Sunshine. It doesn’t really show on the picture but I coloured an extra set of flowers, cut them out and stuck them on with foam pads

Papers are NitWits ‘One Birdie Lane’ and the die/stamp set I used for the sentiment is Wplus9 (sending, hoping, wishing)

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That was a long post for me, thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your Tuesday x

 

 

Organising – and new LOTV launched today!

 

 

Good morning crafty friends, the weekend again already and I can’t believe we’re at May 20th… where is the year going?

I’ve spent quite a lot of time recently watching a lady on you tube decluttering her crafty stash. Keith said it was like watching grass grow but I was hooked. There are plenty of shiny new craft rooms on display all beautifully organised but that isn’t reality for the majority of us

This lady went through every item, she ummed and arred about getting rid of things and found so much stuff she forgot she had. She didn’t mind showing the mess and the clutter and I was fascinated taking a peek into someone else's stash like that. Because she’s been crafting for as long as me (about 25 years) I found I have a lot of the items she was unearthing; hidden and unused in favour of new and many were from Companies that are no longer in business. You can find the videos under Rach0113 if any of you have 15 hours to waste…   by the way I had it on while I was crafting or watched in bed if I had a sleepless night, it wasn’t in one go !!

One thing that I did realise is that I seriously need to declutter and I also need to do some indexing. I have boxes of stamps that are never used yet I still always reach for the same few favourites. I just collect them and I’m going the same way with dies and papers. So, I’m going to start cataloguing and I’ll take pics as I go for anyone who is interested (maybe no-one, but I think it will be therapeutic!!) I am a very organised person usually and I do know where everything is, but (like many of you I suspect) I just have too much stuff

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Onto my cards and the new stamps from LOTV launch today. There are 20 of the most adorable images, these designs really are what everyone loves about Lili of the Valley and you will want them all!

First up is one of my favourites (if I had to pick one) and it’s called ‘Hand to Hold’…

 

 

My second card today is using ‘Two’s Company’…

 

I love creating a scene and this cute image is perfect for that using some clouds and a sun die

Hope you like them, the new stamps will be available in rubber, digi and simply print sheets from midday

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That’s it from me, Keith is at work this morning so I’m having an hour crafting before he gets home while it’s quiet

Enjoy your weekend everyone, as always thanks so much for stopping by

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squidgies, and facebook challenge

 

 

 

Good morning everybody, I hope you are having a lovely weekend

We’ve been enjoying some glorious weather the last couple of weeks and it’s been nice to get out in the garden. I hope it hasn’t peaked too early though, this has happened before and then we don’t get any Summer so you have to make the most of it!

My neck is finally feeling a bit better so I’ve been doing some crafting although I still can’t spend long colouring, I get engrossed and end up looking down for too long!

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I have 2 cards to share today, the first is another of the new stamps from Lili of the Valley which will be released on the 20th so not long to wait

There are some really adorable images and this one is called Ballet Shoes…

 

 

I used NitWits papers from the ‘Romance and Roses collection, the heart embossing folder is Sue Wilson (it’s my new favourite!)

The border die is Tattered Lace, the leaves are Noor design and the sentiment is Lili of the Valley

It’s a long time since I’ve put flowers on a card but this little girl is so pretty they are perfect with her; you can get the flowers as well as lots of other gorgeousness from the Ribbon Girl 

 

A final call for the May Facebook challenge as it closes tonight so just time to sneak in if you’re quick, the theme is ‘Happy Birthday’ so a nice easy one

There are some great prizes as always, you can enter and see all the details on the Facebook Page here

 

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My second card is using one of my favourite stamps from Stamping Bella; these Squidgie characters are adorable and this one is Huggy Squidgies…

 

 

The background was stamped Halftone Circles by Altenew which also includes some great sentiments and matching dies. I cut the ‘thanks’ 3 times in card and layered them together to create a dimensional embellishment

I used Pastel Dreams papers from NitWits, Spellbinders labels one with matching decorative elements, and the cute button flowers are Crafter’s Companion

I can’t wait for the latest designs from Stamping Bella and Kitty will have them in soon at My Mum’s Craft shop so keep an eye on the website

Now I’m looking at this I don’t like the heavy strip across the middle so I think I’ll be changing it. I always lay my cards out before I stick them and then inevitabley change my mind about something the minute I’ve glued it!

 

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Thanks so much for stopping by and for taking the time to leave me a comment, I love to read them

Enjoy your Sunday crafters