The Queen Comes to Town......

Yep honestly, the Queen came to our little town, in the middle of nowhere to visit Maldon Salt Works and Tiptree Jam Factory..... how awesome..

And we were very close, we were on the barrier until the Queen arrived when we let some little girls go in front of us as they were trying to take photos with their phones and cameras....

I cannot believe how good these photographs came out, especially as it looked like it would rain when she arrived, luckily it held off until afterwards when we were walking back to our car....

When we arrived home we realised that although she flew into town, she would be driving 20 minutes to Tiptree to the Jam Factory and would therefore be going past the end of our road which is a cul de sac and so we have a pull in for cars at the end of our road, so along with some neighbours we took our flags and went and waited for her to drive past.... she was going past at about 35 miles an hour so photos are not very good, but she did wave to the cars that had stopped for her and at us... you can just about make her out in the back of the Bentley.... waving!!

So that was my exciting day, and when I arrived home there were 3 parcels awaiting me, some chain I needed for a cuckoo clock I am altering, my impressions plate from Papertrey Ink and my new ipad cover which matches my handbag, red crocodile skin... and a gorgeous Halloween card from Vannessa..... thank you so much Vannessa, it really means so much to receive cards from people....

Have a great evening everyone... xx

Busy, Busy, Busy, Busy.......

Have been busy, busy, busy.... Friday night we went to another Church as there was an awesome preacher there, just for the weekend, this guy always preaches what is on my heart and I couldn't pass up a chance to see him again, he is over 70 now and lives in Australia, so just HAD to see him...... So Friday evening we rushed over to Bishop Stortford to The Hub Church and watched this guy, the boys loved him too... then Saturday morning, back to The Hub for Leadership Training, so up again stupid o'clock for a Saturday morning, we arrived back at 6pm, and then Sunday morning stupid o'clock yet again to go to Peterborough to meet with my Stampin' Up! mummy and children and some other friends. We all live far away from each other so really good to meet up every now and again. So as you can imagine I need another weekend to get over last weekend.... roll on next weekend when we get an extra hour in bed.... lol

This is a card I made for my Church Order, I just love it, Papertrey Ink Stamps and Stampin' Up! Cardstock and ribbon..... and the gorgeous Martha Stewart Doily Edge Punch... the sentiment stamp is Verve Stamps..... Now this is not the sort of card I would normally make but I do really like it, watch out, you never know, I may be stepping out of the box more often.....

Have a great evening everyone xx

It will soon be Christmas at this rate......

How quickly are the weeks going? I think they are speeding by and I haven't even started on Christmas yet.... really do need to but seem to have so much else going on at the moment.... like 30 swaps for Peterborough on Sunday.... ha ha...

Today's card was for my Church Order.....

For this card I used the retired Stampin' Up! Sweet Pea Patterned Paper Stack and I made the top pattern by stamping an image from Delightful Dahlia from Papertrey Ink.... the Sentiment is from Verve Stamps.... the ribbon and cardstock are also Stampin' Up! so definately a mixture again today.... hope you like it, off to get busy... xx

A Bit of A Mixture.....

Have been a busy bee today and I dont mean scrapping either.... unfortunately. I need a really good day tomorrow, so far there is nothing to interrupt, and I'm hoping to get 2 birthday cards made, 4 thank you cards and 30 swaps for a Training Day in Peterborough on Sunday, and seeing as I am out Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday is the day, I really need to get a move on.

Today's card is a bit of a mixture, I seem to have used lots of companies stash....

I used Stampin' Up! Basic Black, Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake Cardstock along with some Striped Grosgrain Ribbon. The punches are from Martha Stewart and the sentiment is from Verve Stamps along with the butterfly image. The pearls I had in my stash... I must admit out of all the cards I made this was my least favourite but when I asked my boys which one they liked the best this was it.... so glad someone liked it... ha ha

See you all tomorrow xx

My Grandson's 1st Birthday

It was my Grandson number 4's birthday on Saturday, and we had a lovely party at his house for him.... but despite trying to coax him to walk he would have none of it, he can stand for endless times but wont move his legs.... but today when he is home with just his mum, he decides that today is the day and walks across the room unaided.

So Cain is not really a little monster but I thought my new stamp set was rather cute.... so just had to use it... you know what its like, get something new and either stroke it or use it, so I opted for the use...... The stamp set is Make A Monster and the Patterned Paper is also Stampin' Up! Don't forget to check out the new catalogue on the left hand side bar of my blog, it is full of awesome stuff. See you all tomorrow..... xx

Due to Requests......

Please scroll down for more up to date posts.....

I am setting up some shares..... a ribbon share and a paper share, I need 9 people for each ribbon share and 8 people for the paper share.... you can always buy more than 1 share....

This share is for the 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon. You will get 1.5m of each colour and there are 13 colours which means you get a total of 19.5m in total.

The above share will cost £7.25 a share, including shipping to you.

The next share is for the Striped 1 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon. There are 11 Colours and you will get 1m of each colour making that a total of 11m of ribbon.

The cost of the above share will be £13.25 per share including shipping to you.

The 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon is next. This comes in 13 colours and you will get 1.5m of each colour making a total of 19.5m.
The cost of this share will be £11.25 including shipping to you.

And the last ribbon share I have is the 5/8" Satin Ribbon. This comes in 13 colours and you will get 1.5m of each of the colours making a total of 19.5m.

The cost for this share is £10.50 including shipping to you.

If you would like to have a share in all 4 ribbon designs you can have these for £40.00.

The second share is for the new Designer Series Patterned Paper. There are 11 new packs and the share is for 66 sheets of 6x6 Paper. Each share will have six 6 x 6 pieces from each pack. Remember they are double sided so if you want a piece of all the patterns TO USE then you will need to order 2 shares, which means that you will get 2 pieces of each paper so you can use the pattern on the reverse too.




And all the patterns are above for you to look at. If you would like to see them more clearly then please check out the online catalogue by clicking on the catalogue icon on the left hand column. The cost of each share is £12.75 and that includes postage out to you. If you are interested, please email me at LindaLloyd@gmx.net. First come first served, so get your name down quickly.

As soon as I have enough interest I will get them ordered.... this is a great way to get a taster of everything without having to pay for a whole reel of ribbon or pack of paper...

Take care xx

So Where Did The Week Go?

I am just soooooo happy, my UPS man has bought my second order from the new catalogue and it is full of stamp sets..... cannot wait to play with them, but have really got into a book I am reading and so want to go read that too.... it is called Bomber's Moon by Iris Gower and I am really enjoying it...

May have a play later with the new Make a Monster Stamp Set as I have to make a card for my grandsons birthday tomorrow....

But for today I am showing you a card I made for my Church order this month. I made the rosette using the new Tim Holtz die which is awesome and definately makes it easy to make this wonderful rosette....

The Patterned Paper is retired from Stampin' Up! but the cardstock isn't and I used the new Cherry Cobbler Cardstock and Basic Black, and then the Cherry Cobbler Ink for the cross... I think this is my favourite card of all I made....

Have a great day, the weather is set to be really nice here today, the sun is coming out and it is really warm. Have also bought some Topside Beef and am going to cook roast beef and yorkshire puddings for dinner tonight, yum yum.... see you all tomorrow xxx

Guess What's Coming Today?

My new Stampin Up Stash..... woohoo!!!!! Am so excited and cannot wait, but whilst I am trying my hardest to wait patiently, I thought I would show you what I made for my neighbours Wedding a couple of Saturday's ago.... I used the Stampin Up Scrappin Kit Love Stories for this and I still have tons left.......

The letters are Thickers...

I used a piece of vellum to seperate each page so that when she adds photographs they wont stick together, I put rub-ons from Stampin Up onto the vellum....

The album was made by cutting chipboard out to 8" x 8" and covering with the Paper and Cardstock that came in the kit.....

And then I put it all together using my bind it all....

It only took me a few hours to make because everything in the kit coordinates perfectly, saving me time hunting stuff down that matches....

And the colours are perfect to go with Wedding Photographs.....

The bride this was for wore an ivory satin dress and her bridesmaids wore gold satin with cream sashes....

And there you have it, I must ask to see it once she has finished putting photographs inside. I guess she will have loads to go through as they put CDs on the tables for people to take home and put their personal wedding photographs onto and hand back to them....

Thanks for looking, UPS man hasn't been yet...... patience is a virtue I understand, shame you cannot buy patience in the SU catalogue... see you all tomorrow xx

ILWS Challenge 4

And the last challenge was a sketch challenge, I just love sketch challenges as I dont have to think so hard as to what to make..... lol

I did turn the image around.....

And again I used all my new Stampin Up Stash..... Greenhouse Gala Patterned Paper, isn't it lush? Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon, Perfect Punches and Ornate Flowers Stamp Set, Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip Ink and Choc Chip Cardstock..... why not join in the challenges on ILWS and post your project into the gallery for inspiration for others.... click on the link in my left hand side bar.

Well halfway through another week, am really putting my nose to the grindstone this week, it is my grandsons first birthday this weekend, and after making his invitations last week I need to make him a card.... cannot wait for his party. And tonight me and DH are off to Church again as we are running an Alpha Course and we are running the small groups there, its such a lovely evening as we all have a meal together first (yeah I know anything to get out of cooking... ha ha) and then we have a talk and discussion... better get busy then, cya all tomorrow xx

3rd ILWS Challenge

The 3rd ILWS Challenge was to make something using limited supplies. We were to stamp on something, anything we liked as long as it wasn't cardstock.... I stamped the Eiffel Tower image onto shrink plastic and shrunk it.... (Eiffel Tower image is from Artistic Etchings Stamp Set)..

I then made the images into earrings, how cute are they.....

And I got so carried away, I made something else... I took the Whisper White Satin Ribbon and stamped it using Baja Breeze and a stamp from the Vintage Vogue Stamp Set.... different ribbon would probably work slightly better as it did seem to soak up the ink quite a lot, but I loved the way the ribbon now matches the bath fizzers in the acetate box that I made.

And then I made something else..... well I know the way to do candles normally is to stamp onto tissue paper and melt it into the candle, but I am not very good at that, I tend to melt the wax too much on the candle, so I stamped onto vellum and then wrapped the vellum around the candle. I then put Real Red Grosgrain ribbon around the top and the bottom of the vellum to hold it securely in place.

Hope you enjoyed looking at the projects today, off to see my Mum now and wish her a happy birthday.... have a good day all xx

Halloween ILWS Challenge....

The second challenge on ILWS (Just click on the bar on the left hand side of the blog and it will take you to their forum where you can join in the challenges and upload to their gallery), is to make something Halloween....

I made these type of boxes last year but I loved them so much I thought I would make them again this year.... they are full of halloween style sweets, like eyeballs etc.

And this second little bag is from Papertrey Ink, its one of their new dies, and so is the big label which I stuck to the front. The stamp set is Tiny Treats - Halloween.... am definitely loving this set... Couldn't get away with using no Stampin Up product though, so I used Pumpkin Pie and Elegant Eggplant Cardstock..... and Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain Ribbon too, dont these colours go well together.

So here we are, the start to another week, need to get on and make my Mum a birthday card for tomorrow, you would have thought that by now I would have managed to be more organised.... no chance, we seem to have so many birthdays in October.... have a good day all, hope you are more productive than I have been lately... xx

Another Preview and ILWS Challenge

Its that time of the month when ILWS have their challenges, and this month they are really great ones.... the first challenge was a Colour Challenge, we had to use Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White.....

So I thought I would kill 2 birds with 1 stone and combine the Colour Challenge with new product from the new 2010\2011 Stampin Up Catalogue.... this set is called Ornate Flowers and the stamp set comes in Wooden or Clear Mount....

And because I really liked this colour combination I thought I would make another card using the same colours, so that is Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White Cardstock, Real Red Satin Ribbon, Ornate Flowers Stamp Set, image stamped in Basic Black and the Elegant Thank You Stamp Set which consists of only the 1 stamp so perhaps more affordable than a set of more.....

And yes, what am I thinking of blogging on a Sunday again.... lol. I am just so, so excited about this new catalogue, my new order is in and I am waiting on its delivery, I just cannot wait. Have a nice relaxing Sunday, take care everyone xx

Day 2 Preview.......

Today I thought I would show you a set I made, not sure who will get it yet, but may save it for Christmas, although it is not very Christmassy.... lol

I decorated a ruler and a pen with Patterned Paper called Greenhouse Gala, I then decorated the front of a notebook using the same Patterned Paper, I then cut a coaster in half, covered that in Greenhouse Gala PP and stuck a small pad of Post to it. I then made a box to put the goodies in and put a sliding acetate cover on it, I then made a box band to go around the box. The colours I used are Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzaz and Daffodil Delight. And can you see the new Large Flower Punch..... how awesome is that. Check out the new catalogue for loads more punches.

After making the little gift I decided that I needed to make a bag to put it in to give away, so again using the Greenhouse Gala Patterned Paper and Choc Chip 12 x 12 cardstock I made this gorgeous little bag. I even made a little pocket on the front incase you want to include anything else and an envelope for your greetings label to go inside. I used a brad for the closure, but this is only for show, I really used velcro to fasten it shut.

And so I thought a matching card was called for, so using the Stamp Set Ornate Flowers I stamped an image and coloured it in using my new Stampin Write Markers.... I also used the new Stamp Set Perfect Punches for my sentiment, and guess what? You can now get all the punches to match the sentiments.... how cool is that.

Hope you enjoyed looking at todays offering..... have a great day xx

Would You Like to Become A Stamping Up Demonstrator?

Would you like to join my team Linda's Ladybugs as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator? You could start your own business for just £119 and earn money by doing the thing you love.... stamping and crafting. I will be here to help you on your way with advice and help to help you get on with building your business.....

You may not want to start a business out of Stampin' Up!, but why pay full price for your Stampin' Up! stash when you could become a hobby demo... I started out as a hobby demo but changed my mind and decided to promote my business, I have now promoted to a Silver 2 and was Demonstrator Number 9 of the Year in 2009/2010. The pictures above show what you can get in your Starter Kit and you can chop and change stash to make it personal to you. If you are interested, please email me at LindaLloyd@gmx.net and I will be happy to answer any questions or give you more information... you could even join up now and get all your friends Christmas Presents at discounted prices as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. You dont have to live near me, most of my Team live a way away, but we all get along fine.... I look forward to hearing from you.