I've not ...

... given up, it just seems that way!

I've been busy organising my little crafting space, decanting rubber stamps into CD and DVD cases to improve my storage (which involves putting some onto Eazimount) and then cataloguing them, along with punches, dies and folders. I've also been putting finishing touches to the organising of the House Party, which is fast approaching, and running around with Dad things ... just generally been quite busy. When I've had time that I could have blogged, I've not had the incentive to do so. I've updated Crafty Bits as I've had stuff to put on there but I've a lot to prep for this blog to be able to update it. Reckon I should put some dedicated time aside for a few weeks to get it back on track but ... do I want to?

I'm thinking that the time, or the need for 2 seperate blogs, is now past. I never intended there to be 2 in the first place but circumstances seemed to dictate the general direction that this one took - which was away from the more crafting based one I'd intended. Well, that's not strictly true. It was supposed to be a good mix of craft and personal bits. It's just the personal bits took a much higher profile from a very early stage of this blog and I made the decision to have it as my personal 'diary' and opened another for the crafty stuff. 2 now seem a bit irrelevant but ... I'm not yet at a stage where I can craft on a regular basis to give a good mix as originally intended.

I think that the dilemma I've now got is partly the reason why I've lost the incentive to update this blog but ... if I can get butt into gear and start updating perhaps, just perhaps, it might return! If I decide to close one/amalgamate the 2 - which one should I keep and which one should close? I like Ramblings. I like my header, I like the colour scheme and it was my first. I also like Crafty Bits but somehow I don't seem to have the attachment to that one that I have to Ramblings. If I could get the layout on Ramblings looking like the layout on Crafty Bits I'd have an easy decision but I can't. I've tried and it just doesn't work for some reason.

Ho-hum - more ponderings. In meantime I think it's time I went back to bed to try for some sleep. It's 05:16 in the morning and I've been up since just after 3. Yep, I'm still having the odd bad night - just not as many of them!

Thanks for dropping by .....
 

Birthday cards.

Two birthdays this week. Youngest grandson was 2 yesterday and a future step-grandson was 13 on Tuesday. Little one was easy enough to do. I'd bought a Kanban kit from QVC a few months ago. Don't normally go in for kits as I don't really relate to them as crafting. A bit of sticking and matting and layering and they're done. Doesn't do it for me unfortunately however I could see a use for this kit - Kanban Wobblers - because of the novelty value for kids of all ages. As Zac is a little monkey there was only one I could do ....

I made an acetate 'spring' to attach his head (lesson learnt from making the elephant earlier in year) and it is far more secure although it's not quite as 'wobbly'.  I curved the arms so they stood out from the body a way and curved the bow tie to give it dimension.  I then found my stash of wobbly eyes so added those over the printed eye. Trimmed the rocker so there wasn't as much 'spare' overhanging the edge, age added with peeloffs - job done!  Dont know what little Zac really thought of it 'cos he opened Great-Grandad's card, which was shop bought and had a teddy on it, and spent the next 15 minutes walking round with that repeating, like a broken record, 'oh look'!  Well, he is only 2 ... bless!

I don't really know the future step-grandson and have no idea what interests he has. When I see his Mum he's usually with his Dad so, although we do see him on occasion, it's not often. He seems a nice lad though and we have to recognise he exists so a quick phone call to eldest and it's football! Tottenham Hotspur to be exact. Just hope I got it right. Not heard to the contrary ....

Ingredients:

Textured card blank from stash

SU backing papers (offcuts from my stash),

Spellbinders Ribbon Tags Trio, Classic circles & scalloped circles for sentiment and rosette,

Pictures of strip from t'internet

Computer generated sentiments

Enjoy!!