I'm a Winner!

Wahooooooooo! I just heard that I am one of the February winners at the Penny Black and More challenge blog, here is the card that won? I feel so encouraged and blessed to have been chosen even though its by a random thingy its still nice to win a pressie for my birthday!

 I have a £10 voucher to spend at Classy Crafts who were one of the challenge sponsors. I have been to their online shop and think I will choose a Leabilities die, they have at least three that I really like so I just need to decide now.   Thank You Classy Crafts and the Penny Black and More challenge blog 

Thanks for visiting enjoy your day, Love Crafteresa

I'm Gonna Scream With Delight!!!

I am sooooooo excited I can hardly contain myself
next week I will celebrate my 51st Birthday! but we can't do anything as we have absolutely no money ;o(  However, 2 friends have both asked what I would really really like for my birthday? I knew exactly what I wanted....in moving house somehow I have lost all my dies except just a few that were being used by my friend George. Why is it that life is all about loss??? That's all my birthday and Christmas gifts gone! I am very emotional and upset about this loss ;o(  To replace them all would cost hundreds of pounds that's money which I just don't have. So the offer to choose what I wanted was a no-brainer......    
 I WANT SOME DIES PLEASE my heart shouted.
Since I have been away from paper crafting Stephanie Weightman has designed and produced some amazing dies, they are the Tattered Lace collection, these dies are so different I am gobsmacked by them. It would be so easy to spend my friends money on replacing my original dies but I am believing that somehow they may be found (who knows maybe that's me just not wanting to let go?) So I decided to ask for some of these new Tattered Lace dies. Well it took a long time to choose which ones I wanted there were so many beautiful designs to choose from,  but I knew I needed some frames now that mine are all gone. along with the die my Kev is buying for me I have 6 dies on order, mostly frames except this one

I absolutely love these doves and can't wait to see the true size of them. I will show you all my birthday goodies when they arrive.,... I am soooooooo blessed....

But for now I will just have to contain my excitement I am definitely gonna scream with delight when my birthday arrives, (hope the neighbours are out!)

What a difference a year makes, I was 50 last year but spent my birthday and 5 and a half months in hospital, missing my party and most of the summer,, I would rather die than go back to that hospital ward again. I am so grateful that I can enjoy paper crafting again....Thank You LORD

thanks for looking

Crafteresa xx

Guard Your Heart

I've been thinking....

It's not what we say that really makes a difference

.....talk is cheap and no-one listens anyway

Its not even what we shout from the rooftops.....

 loud mouthed idiots are plentiful and people are still deaf!

Life is more about what we DO! 

Actions speak louder than words they say...

BUT

the real power, the source of real life, 

really begins with what lays secretly deep within our heart 

before anyone has heard it or seen its actions

our heart really does rule our head!

Both Hitler and Mother Teresa had a heart

ones source was the devil the other ones source was God

one was full of hatred but the other full of love,

one was full of death but the other full of life

we all know what followed in their lives

the fruit of their heart,

their actions are known all over the world

Guard Your heart above all else, 

for it determines the course of your life

proverbs 4:23

who or what is the source of your heart?

and as a result what is it full of?

Thanks for Visiting enjoy your day Love Crafteresa

Team Teddy centre step card

Today I want to show you a centre step card! Thanks to Brenda I have been thinking for nearly a week about what my "favourites" are in card making.

I wanted to enter her blog candy challenge, it's her 5th bloggerversary celebration (congratulations Brenda! what an achievement!) so this talented and generous papercrafter has put some Spellbinders dies up for prizes on her  Floral Fantasies blog,  here's the link To enter Brenda's Spellbinders candy challenge we are asked to use our all time crafting favourite item to create something new for the challenge.
My problem is that I have a lot of favourites! LOL

Here on this card is one of my all time favourite range of teddy bear stamps.  Anyone could tell you that I love my teddy bear stamps. I have a number of rubber stamps from different collections, I love the Forever Friends range,  I have a few PSX teddy stamps and some Funstamps teds too, I just love teddies! But my all time favourite has to be Rambling Ted and the more recent similar Team Teddy range by Penny Black
this stamped image is part of the Team Teddy bear stamp 398K
I have also used my very favourite papers which are from an A4 pad (front page missing so dont know the name of it) there are many different scaled rose patterned prints in either blue or pink and some checked papers too its so pretty.

I used my favourite flower stamp too it's a rose by Penny Black which is very well used and has been since I started card making,. This stamp was one of the very first rubber stamps I bought. back in 1990's

As I got into the flow of thinking "favourites" I used my present favourite card shape  too which is a centre step card. I think I have hit the favourite spot with every element!  so here's hoping for a prize!!! it would make a great pressie for my birthday next week!

As this is another Penny Black stamped image I am entering this card to the Penny Black and More Challenge HERE as a 2nd entry. They they ask us to add some sparkle! so I blinged it up with lovely AB clear gems, I love the way they sparkle with hints of rainbow colours.
I have so enjoyed myself today, my teds always make me smile!


Thanks for Looking
please leave a comment

Love Cafteresa xx

Mobile Again YAY \0/

Today was a much better and brighter day for me, I have been struggling a lot since the mobility scooter which friends had loaned me ceased to work. it was just dead!!! I didn't have the money to fix it and believed I had broken it so I should pay for it, therefore, I have been without wheels for a few weeks.

Even though it was bit chilly at Fairhaven Lake in St Annes due to a brisk breeze coming off the sea

I couldn't wait to get out in the fresh air, and Lulu my Westie was well pleased too.

 having that little bit of independence again sure put a smile on my face...

looking back over the last few weeks, it felt like 'd had my wings clipped!

well the battery has been replaced and I am now able to enjoy a measure of freedom again.

Rambling Ted again and again!

Getting back into card making after all this time hasn't been as easy as I expected, The biggest problem is that I have become quite indecisive...I found it hard to decide what to do once an image had been coloured (I use Promarkers mostly). So I had the brain-wave to look at some of the cards which I made back in 2011-12, and use them as layout inspiration until I get back into the flow!

so here's the card I shared back in august 2012...

I have always loved my Rambling Ted rubber stamps by Penny Black, 343J "Bunches of Wishes"

is the one used for these cards. I love the feel of this card with its pretty pink and brown colour combo, so I copied it! I didnt have the same papers and used a different die to create this card...

I am not very pleased with the sentiment. the banner backgound should have been a bit lighter

but I am quite pleased to actually create a cards!!!

I had stamped and coloured this image four times so now I felt ready to attempt something a little different but loosely based on the same layout. I wanted to enter a challenge, after all my confidence was growing and I needed the practice! I found the Penny Black and More Challenge" Blog   their February challenge is "Make it Sparkle" which was just right for my card

The sparkle was added to my card by using stick on gems to the image flower centres, the prima flower centres and the little banner which was cut using a Sizzix die, I finished the card off by using guipure lace at the top. here's a close up...

 I like the gentle feminine feel of this card, but anyone who knows me will know I love pretty and cute!  I have enjoyed myself and feel eager to create some more cards.

thanks for visiting, please leave a comment ;o)

I AM BACK!

Sorry I haven't blogged for over a year  

I have missed the fun of blogging and sharing my thoughts and creations. I have been absent because I have been seriously ill, I am now disabled and still coming to terms with my physical disability and the mental illness which caused me to be sectioned on a psychiatric ward for my 50th birthday and 5 and a half months of 2013 I missed the whole summer!. It's the biggest struggle I have ever had. I am now a shadow of the woman I once was. I am unable to work, so I have to depend on benefits now to exist, life is hard as we scrape through financially not even managing to pay all our bills but I am alive and desperate to get back to whatever normal is!

Lost But Loved

During this time of struggle, I found it hard to pray, to exercise my faith, and believe God cared about me or still had a plan for my life. I was upheld in prayer and loved by my friends and church family, I didn't appreciate it back then, I felt absolutely lost and very angry, but God is faithful even when I am not! I had a group of very close friends who loved me through and as I still struggle with depression and mood swings and try to find myself again, these friends are still there. my awesome family and friends are my greatest treasure in this life

Starting to Make Cards Again

I plan to start cardmaking again, and to blog regularly. I want to get back into challenges etc as I rediscover my crafting skills but I cannot buy any new dies or stamps or any of the other goodies which I loved shopping for previously, therefore I will be using what I've got ( I gotta lotta stash to get through!!!)! this in itself is a challenge a frustrating one but I will rise to it and enjoy myself too!

so I guess I better announce......

              ........I AM BACK!!!