A busy week

Having been away from home quite a lot in the last couple of weeks I've had lots to catch up on both at work and home.  So I'm trying to limit the amount of time I'm on-line as it just seems to suck the time out of your evening.  Instead I've been trying to craft a little more.  Here's a card I've just made for the Get Sketchy Card Challenge Blog

I've had this pretty American Crafts paper for far too long.  The stamps are from Papertrey Ink and the scallop and nappy pin are cut on my Slice - yep, I'm still in love with my Slice.

Out for dinner

I've been at the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC in Birmingham for 4 days.  One of the best things about that is that I got to see my wonderful friend Anna and go out for dinner.  We went to the Loch Fyne restaurant in Knowle and as always had an adventure - this time it was on a plate!  You can tell it's going to be exciting when you get extra cutlery!

A challenge or two

As things are really busy at work at the minute I'm having to squeeze my crafting in whenever I can.  So here's 2 cards that I've made for a couple of challenges.

First up a challenge for A Passion for Papertrey.  The challenge this week is Easter/Spring.  So I went for a spring theme with bright colours and the beautiful tulip from the Wishing You set.  This is still one of my favourite PTI sets.

Secondly I decided to play with a QVC kit I've had for a while for the Daring Cardmakers challenge of Tweetie Pie.  The challenge was to use a bird or bird on your card.

Cute Card Thursday #104

The Cute Card Thursday Challenge this week was anything you like to celebrate each year.  So I opted for birthdays and decided to get out my Copics and colour in Popcorn the Bear Party stamp.

Lots of Thank Yous

I have lots of thank yous to say to my Swedish hosts - I apologise for any spelling mistakes in your names:
Birgitta and Bentt - thank you for you amazing hospitality.  Your home is beautiful:

I got to stay in the big house with Marie and Ülle's Mum & Dad.  This is the view from the front of the house:

Thank you to Marie and Ülle for inviting me over to teach.  It was lovely to see you again and great to see your offices and warehouse.  Thank you so much for my presents, I love them.  It was great to meet both your beautiful families.

Thank you to Terese and Lotta for making me so welcome and a big thank you to everyone who took my class and for speaking to me in English - it really is appreciated.

Åse - thank you for being my taxi driver and letting me be your shadow, you're a star.

So I leave Sweden having had a great time and hope that they'll invite me back xx

Party Time - Swedish Style

After class today it was time to relax and go to dinner.  We had a great Italian buffet and my Swedish education continued.  I now know several words:
Tack - Thank you
Hey - hello
Heste - horse
Skol - cheers
Great words but no real help to teach a craft class in Sweden.  Maybe I should learn the words for glue, score and fold!
We even managed a little swing dancing.  Both Marie and Lotta are great leads.

The lovely Lotta

Adorable Åse

Terese and Lena

Lotta and Marie

Time for class

Here's my classroom all prepped and ready to go.  So as my Swedish is non-existent I was going to be teaching in English and just hoping everyone could understand me.

I'm guessing everyone understood me as everyone who took the class (about 85 in total over the 2 days) left with a completed project.

Not only that, we had great fun :)

Off to Falkenberg

Today I've travelled to Falkenberg on the west coast of Sweden.  I've been invited by the lovely Marie and Ülle to teach this weekend at Reprint Art Stamps.

My journey was an adventure in itself in that the landing into Gothenburg Landvetter airport was aborted twice and instead we landed at Gothenburg City airport.  Luckily with one phone call to the lovely Åse I was rescued and she picked me up from the other airport and drove me out to Falkenberg. 

From the outside it might just look like an outbuilding but you should see all the delicious goodies that are inside this building:

Lots of beautiful patterned paper; Bo Bunny, Graphic 45, Webster's Pages, Kaiser Craft and Best Creations.  Team that with hundreds of fabulous rubberstamps and embellishments you could only dream of; flowers, pearls, gems, ribbon, brads.  Plus all the Tim Holtz inks and accessories, Crafter's Companion and Stickles.  

So what more could a girl want - great Swedish food?  As I was being so well looked after I got that too:

Flutterby's

The current challenge on Dutch Dare Card Challenges is a colour inspiration challenge.  This was the inspiration:

As soon as I saw this I knew the papers I just had to use.  Some SEI Jolie Chocolat that was begging to be turned into a set of little cards with a matching mini pizza box.

March Scrapbook Group

It's our Altrincham Scrapbook Group this Saturday so I thought I'd better do something with this months kit.  It's some old basic grey paper but I loved it then and I still love it now.  It's so versatile.  I've used it for 3 different layouts and even managed to squeeze a couple of cards out of the kit.  It's just a shame that I won't be there on Saturday but I know they'll still have fun.

Webster's Pages

Coming back to work after a weeks holiday can't be too bad when you're greeted with a pizza box filled with beautiful paper.  These papers are the new lines from Webster's Pages and have so much to look at on them - they are stunning.

They were sent from Reprint Art Stamps in Sweden so that I could prepare a class for them.  Here's what a came up with, a business card holder and a little note box, made on the Ultimate Pro:

  

The little bow is made from paper.

I also love the flowers and the pearls.  I had such a great time planning this class.

A spring walk

What better way to spend a sunny Sunday morning in March than going for a walk.  Steve, Jo, Ian, his Mum and Dad and little ol' me went for a stroll around Loggerheads Country Park.

We got there early so saw the best of the day before it got too busy.

Me & Stevie

Jo & Ian with Moel Famau in the background

Spring is sprung - the lovely snowdrops are out - hurray.

The perfect end to the perfect day - Sunday dinner of course - delicious rib of beef with all the trimmings.  Happy Days xx

Still Celebrating!

Yes a week after my birthday I'm still celebrating my birthday!  We went straight from the airport to my sister's house, so we could go out for dinner with my family.  We had a great night at the Kinmel Arms.  The champagne was still flowing as was a rather delicious bottle of vintage Rioja plus a menu so mouth watering that made it difficult to choose.   But everything we had was truly delicious both on the eye and the palate.  Thank you Stevie it was a fabulous night.