Two special bears from two special people!!!!

Hello there!!! Hope you are well today!!!

(A little message before I start - when writing this post it has all the paragraphs in the right place but for some reason when it publishes it does so without them - so sorry if it looks like a bit of a badly written post but from the posting side it looks perfect.)

I'm kind of continuing the animal theme which has been running through the posts on here recently!!!

But today its a little different as I am not featuring anything I have made but two bears that are a little bit extra special to me!!!

At Docrafts we have some smashing designers - really friendly and supportive and talented to boot - what a potent mix!!!. As I have said a few times on here last year was particularly difficult for my family.... I don't go into details on here because its not the right place for it but I have received so much support from so many of them and I am eternally grateful for their patience, kind thoughts, kind wishes and for allowing me to rant and rave whenever I need to. Friends are a truly amazing thing... and I hope over coming weeks to introduce you to them all - i want to give each one their own little bit of the spotlight on my blog and I hope you will take the opportunity to visit their blogs and grab lots of ideas from them.

Well, today I'm featuring another of my Docrafts colleagues with the card that photographed below. I hope Nikki that you don't mind that your gorgeous little bear shares today's spotlight with another little bear that is very dear to me.

Before I turn to Nikki let me tell you a bit about "Linny" bear (the one not on the card!) He was my present from my dear hubby last year for our wedding anniversary. He is a bear all the way from Ireland's Linen Hall Library. You may wonder why!!! (and I don't blame you :o) )

On a previous post I mentioned that for our anniversaries we give each other gifts that relate to the traditional theme of the anniversary. It was our fourth anniversary last year - which is Linen. Often we try to find something obscure and this can be very good fun. This was hubby's offering and he now has pride of place in my craft room. He is very special because my bestest boy had wanted to surprise me with a trip there but circumstances have not allowed and he was so upset because he wished he could have taken me there... so this little bear is a promise that one day when things get better we will go there on a holiday.....

So before I get all tear-y myself at memories lets move on to the cute fellow on the card. Nikki is a lovely lady - often she has given me kind words of support over the past year and was very understanding when Christmas passed me by without our intended card swap being possible she agreed to do a New Year card swap with me as I thought it would be a lovely way to bring in the New Year. Sadly mine never reached its destination ( Royal Mail aaaaagggghhhh!) - and I will rectify that situation soon - but this beautiful card popped through my letterbox and really made me smile.

I love the embossed card stock background and the sparkly bottle (you can never have too much bling I say!) and the doodled year. Its a card I will treasure and now has pride of place in my craft studio!

So before I go let me tell you where to go and find out more about Nikki and also see more of her designs - I particularly like the St Patrick's Day card she created for the Forever Friends Challenge Design Team of which she is a member. So let me encourage you to click here and go and take a peak at her lovely blog. You may notice she has something of a "passion for purple"!!!

With love until next time - do come back soon!

Love

Becky xxx

Just in under the wire!!!!!

Cooorrrrr Lordy what a day!!!! Only just got a few mins to get on here - but I'm determined to keep on top of it this time so here you are - my five minutes worth for today!!!! :o)

Firstly I have to thank all you lovely ladies on the Isle of Wight who came to see me at Crafting Around yesterday for our Clearance demo. What bargains you all took home - thanks for making it such a successful day!!! It was, as always, lovely to see you all and to share lots of tips and techniques with you!!!! For me it was a challenge to revisit old products but as time goes on we all develop our styles and techniques and it was wonderful to look on these fabulous products with a fresh eye and see what i could do with them now!!! I hope you were all pleased with the results!!! I will post the pictures of the projects you all enjoyed the most on here over the coming week so don't forget if there was something you liked you can always come back on here to jog your memory!!! And for those of you who couldn't make it I hope that the designs to come will inspire you to drag products out, dust them off and look at them afresh. Its amazing what you can do with all those goodies you have packed away.

Now today's offering goes back a week or two - my goodness how time flies - to my bestest boy's Valentine's card. We don't do big things on Valentine's day - we have our own little ritual of KFC and a bottle of pink Cava (given to us by my mom and dad every Christmas) infront of a video. I know its daft but its our little tradition and we look forward to it!!!

So this year, after a very tough year personally, I wanted to tell him just what a special person he is to me. In this card I stamped and paper pieced my favourite Forever Friends stamp and used Basic Grey (LUUUUURRRRRVVVVEEEE Basic Grey) luscious cupcake papers. Its bright and bold but I was so pleased with the outcome. I hope you like it too and that it inspires you to grab those bold and sassy papers and not to be afraid to go mad in your own designs!!! Grab those sunglasses now!!!!

Lots of Love until tomorrow !!!

Becky

xxx

PS off to heat the oven and make some tea so I'll check for any typos tomorrow - sometimes my fingers work quicker than my brain!!!

An early(-ish) morning post!!

Helloooooooo!!!!!

Its a beautiful morning here down South and as you can see I am up and about early posting on to here. I'm about to rush out the door to work before returning to make some samples for tomorrow. If I don't get on here now it will all be lost in the melee of creativity which will be taking over our household later on today!!!!

I'm incredibly surprised at the speed the pc is letting me type into my blog today (hoorah!!!)- Friday is PC scan day - my hubby set it up that way (I think - or did it just set itself that way and am I falsely accusing him of setting it up on a weekday when I am often really busy and could do without the whole system being dragged down to snail pace....) Probably the latter - he is usually so good with these things!!! :o) Bless him where would I be without him.... LURRVEEE him to bits!!!

Anyway, today's post moves away from cards and papercrafting for the day! I tinker with beads and jewellery - its that sort of sat in front of the TV and really can't sit there still (despite hubby's best efforts) and so I have to create something. The little offering below is what I made for Becky (see post further) down for her 21st Birthday. As you can see I tied the colours of the card and the bracelet in together. I just love these bracelets - they are elasticated and make a perfect base to add charns and beads to your own design. You can add a large focal bead to make a simple, stylish design or really go all out for it as I have done here and add lots of charms and beads.

Well, thats me done for today! As I'm off on the early ferry very bleary eyed tomorrow morning for my demo and not back until the evening I won't be on tomorrow but I'll try my best to get back on here on Sunday.

Take care and Have a fab weekend!

Love

Becky

xx

Third Day in a Row!!!

Hi everyone!!!!

This must be a world record for me blogging!!! Three days in a row!!!

Just to let you know that today I've reloaded my demo dates so that they are now all up to date for 2009 - as you can see the old diary is getting busy so I do hope you can come along and say hello!!! It would be lovely to see you!! :o)

Sadly I have to go as I have ironing to do (how exciting life can be) and to work on some lovely new projects for Saturday (that's more like it!) so tatty bye for now!

See you soon!
Love
Becky
xxx

Were you at The Range in Swindon on Saturday?

If so I just wanted to say a HUGE "Thank you" for coming along and joining me at my demo. Over the next couple of weeks I'll try to get piccies of the cards on here and my docrafts gallery. I'm trying to allocate myself ten minutes a day to post a little message or some piccies on here - Can't say how long it will last but I will try my best!!


Anyway thanks for coming along and keeping me company - I love to see you all, have a good chat and pass on loads of tips with the Docrafts products!!!! Weren't all those new products they were putting up throughout the day just scrummy!!! Can't wait to bring those to you all next month and show you my favourite little tips and techniques for getting the most from your stash!!!

You may have noticed I did a little bit of housekeeping yesterday and removed all my demo's from last year - I'll get the new dates for this year on here shortly!!! Its starting to look like a busy year again - yippeeeeee!!!! I am so lucky to have this job!!!! :o)


Well take care everyone- see you soon
Love
Becky
xxx

Where has all the time gone??? Happy 21st Becky

Where have the past twenty years gone?????

Well there is a questions in itself but last week it was my best friend's niece's 21st birthday. Sarah and I met in 1989 and as you can tell if you do the math her niece was a babe in arms. I've been so lucky that Sarah has been my best friend all this time and I've been privileged to see Becky grow up into a lovely young woman. Life hasn't always been the easiest for her but, you know, she has battled through everything, she always has a smile on her face and I'm delighted she is part of my extended "family"!!!

Becky isn't a girly girl so when I was designing her birthday card and present I didn't want to go with pinks but to make something that was feminine but using more unusual colours. I dragged some colour co-ordinated elements out of a kit I had and then as usual proceeded to take apart, ink, doodle, flitter and re-assemble with numerous other items out of my stash.

I'm loving metal charms, ribbons and Doodlebug mini rub ons on brads, buttons etc so I incorporated these to give the card below.

I also designed a bracelet for her using the same colours and I'll get round to posting the piccies of this over the next couple of days. I hope this design give you some ideas to try yourself though.

Well, I must dash as I am out to craft club with my friends tonight and I have a demo on Saturday so I need to pick out some things to work on for that.

Loads of love - be back soon

Becky

xxx

Just WHOOOOO Is MOLLY MOOOOOO????

I thought it was probably time to introduce the one, the only, the Molly Moo... So here she is....

Hope that didn't scare you too much!!!! She certainly was a scary sight first thing in the morning.... and at any time that KFC entered the house!!!

Molly was the most feisty, fun loving, playful, beautiful, fiery, stunning, rotund, inquisitive, precious, brave, funny, clever, unique fur baby that ever there was.

If you thought Garfield had cat-itude, he had nothing on Molly. She was a survivor, rescued from an estate where the children threw stones at her. She was determined she wouldn't love me when she was in isolation at the vets whilst she had all her injections after she was rescued, so much so the vets told me to let her go wild again.... but I was never going to give up on her and the minute I brought her back to my flat it was like she sighed a huge sigh of relief, found the end of my bed and fell asleep. There started our beautiful and special relationship.

It was Molly who told me my hubby was the man for me. In general she hated men and she never went on anyone's lap but the first time he came to visit she jumped straight up on to his legs, curled up and went to sleep... so you see I had to marry him for the sake of Molly... She was a S.E.R.I.O.U.S daddy's girl and if he was at home she was always with him!!!!

Molly had poor health off and on when she was with us - after all she had been living wild for some time (long story but her owners never really wanted her) and we had no idea of her medical history. She developed pancreatitis but she loved life and was quite happy taking her medication - just so long as you gave her two biscuits before, then her tablet and two biscuits afterwards. You couldn't fool her - that tablet would not go down until she had two biscuits (never one!!!) and she didn't leave you alone until she had had two biscuits after.

A couple of years ago Molly suffered from kidney failure and despite the vets trying to kick start her kidneys again (I think they were secretly in love with our gorgeous little girl too!!!) and despite her not wanting to give up we had to make that most hard of decisions and let her go. We only had her in our lives for a few years, I never knew her as a baby as she was grown when she came to me but I am so honoured and proud that she chose to love us and that for that short time she was happy to have us as her humans.

My dad (I've told you before he's incredibly clever with a camera and with photoshop - and that I am very jealous) pulled this image off a digital snap I had of her slung over her daddy's shoulder. Her face makes up about a twelfth of the picture, yet he pulled this bit off, applied watercolour effect and made this stunning image of her for us.... Not only that, he printed it off about A2 size in photoquality and it is now framed on our wall so we remember her every day... as if we could forget...

This picture of Molly is our memorial to her - it shows her defiant character and her beauty all in one and it is part of my brand for my cards and jewellery that I make and sell, along with any other odd gifts and products I design. And that is why this blog is named as it is and when I can figure out how to do it It will form part of my blog logo - as I say I'm not that clever with photo editors though.

They say that

Cats Leave Pawprints On your Heart....

This little girl not only left paw prints on our hearts but also all over us... and we have the scars to prove it!!!!

Take care and I hope you enjoyed meeting our precious girl, Molly

Lots of Love

Becky

xxx

This one's for you...

... Dawn Inksip!!!! After pointing out to me how long it had been since I posted on here I thought it was time I did something about it... you were absolutely right of course... sorry Katy, honestly I wasn't blog stalking just rushing from one thing to another feeling like I have been chasing my tail... How can it be that I haven't posted anything on here for over a month.... has someone stolen April and May and not told me about it???? Still atleast if you have been visiting Katy's blog you'll have seen something new every time as she religiously posts to it regularly... I really need to get my act together :o)

Anyway, I've just a few minutes now to catch you up with life, the universe and everything.... 20 minutes on a whole month??? Its going to have to be short and sharp!!!!

Its been a very busy month - I've done loads and loads of demo's - three for Hobbycraft around the Solent and Bournemouth area. These have been special Docraft demonstrations for Hobbycraft as they expand the range of Docrafts products they stock.. It was really lovely to meet people I haven't had the opportunity to meet before. I find that crafty people really are so very very friendly. In addition I have visited The Market Gallery in Poole, Busy Bee on the Isle of Wight (yes ladies i love coming over to see you on the Island - its like a mini holiday!) and The Range in Southampton just on the Saturday just gone. Thank you to all of you who came to see me - it was lovely to see new faces and also to see old friends again... it really is like meeting up with friends and having the pleasure of sharing my hooby with you... after all what more could I ask for in a job - I get to do my two favourite things - craft and chat.... I just feel sorry for my poor old hubby because after a quiet day on his own he often gets me returning not having run out of all my words for a day and he finds it takes time to adjust to having a bouncing "Tigger" back home :o). Anyway - what can I say after these demo's except you ladies just LUUURRRRVVVEEEE your multishapers... I don't think in all my time demonstrating has one product captured your interest so much... I know you always love our new Docrafts products but this one really seems to have rocked you boats!!!!

I should add aswell that as always it was fabulous to see the stockists - as always thank you for keeping me supplied with coffee and tea, chocolate cake (Busy Bee do a scrummie chocolate cake in their coffee shop and I am easily bribed... and my waistline is easily expanded...hmmmm) and the all important comfy chairs!!!!

There has been a lot going on in the background of our lives which I'm not going to go on about here but though this has taken up alot of time and has impacted on my blogging time I have also had a few days away to see my parents (can't believe my dad is 65 - he seems no different to me than he was when I was a youngster... the only thing is we get on so much better now) and i had a weekend off demonstrating a few weeks ago so had the wonderful opportunity to catch up with a couple of fellow Docrafts designers - Amanda Curtin and Liz Trimby. Amanda and her hubby were attending an event down here in Southampton so we gently "gatecrashed" a demo Liz was doing to say "Hi" as we hadn't had the opportunity for some time to do so... Liz produced some really fabulous cards which I may have to "borrow" myself - hope you don't mind Liz!!! Then Amanda and I shared a coffee and a gossip before she headed off to party away the afternoon and evening.

Well my alloted twenty minutes for this blog has swiftly passed by and I wanted today to introduce you to someone else so who's turn is it to be blog-spotted???? In my blogI'd really like to introduce you all to some of the other talented designers who I have the pleasure of calling colleagues and friends....

So yes

DAWN INKSIP

today we go "through the keyhole" to take a little peak at your blog. Just to fill you Dawn is a really funny lady (that is funny haha by the way).... I recently had the opportunity to spend some time having a good old chat to her (do you notice a trend in what seems to make up alot of my waking hours??? I do do other things honest!) during which time she mentioned that nothing had moved on my blog.... And I thought out their you would all love to see what she gets up to and also catch up with some of her crafting work.... after all isn't great to get inspiration from people - I know I can't get enough of enjoying other people's work... I've just taken a peak at Dawn's website which is filled with loads of real life chat as well as crafty inspiration. I tried to link one of Dawn's piccies but for some reason I can't get it too work but I really think the pink card with the heart on the front is very very yummy on her latest post....

So why not click here to go and find out more about another of our great designers!!!

Well, there we go, that was a good day's posting... it was about time for things to move on a bit... though what happened to the short and sharp 20 minutes I really have no idea. I will, however, endeavour to make sure I find more time to spend on here... Next time I'll have to put a project on for you all.

Until next time take care of yourself and enjoy yourselves!

Love
Becky
xx

Its taken a little time....

but atlast I have a few minutes just to say to everyone I met at Clarke's Stationers in Crawley - how lovely it was to meet you all!!! I hope you went away with lots of inspiration to go and try out all those fabulous products you kept disappearing off to purchase!!!

As you can see I have (atlast) figured out how to put my piccies onto the blog - it really was very easy in the end - though taking the piccies themselves was another matter - I am most certainly not a photographer and I wish I was. I have pledged to myself to learn more about photography this summer!!! My dad is a superb photographer but I don't seem to have inherited his talent - mind you he has been doing it for thirty years more than me so he does have a bit of a head start!!!!.... Anyway now I have mastered that I will be able to put even more of my projects up on line so you can come back and refresh your memories of what we were doing on the day!

Big thanks also go out to the staff at Clarke's for keeping me stocked up on cups of tea and the offers of collecting me a little lunch... It was an absolute pleasure to meet you all and to share with you all my ideas and to chat to you about your enthusiasm and passion for crafting. I'm always easily bribed with cake and chocolate and it took real will power not to take up the offer of cake... but my hubby is so organised in the mornings when I am demonstrating (which I most certainly am not!!! I'm not a morning person... now that I DID inherit from my dad...) that he has my flask and lunch ready for me to take.

Finally it was lovely to meet Kay from Sakura pens - what a bright and bubbly lady who really knows her stuff!!! And I find it wonderful to gain inspiration from other people - be they other demonstrators or crafters.

Well, today is a little busy so I will close now with the promise that I am going to be loading up a couple more projects this week and I also want to introduce you to someone who I think is very talented... so do return over the next few days to find out what is in store for you...

Until then love to you all
Becky
xxx

Lots of Thank You's!!!

Well I can't believe I haven't found any time to get on here since I first set up the blog a couple of weeks ago and now it is the first day of April.... where is time going this year????

Easter has come and gone - I ate far too much chocolate (hubby and I were given an Easter egg each by my parents and they left this mortal coil in a very disciplined fashion - one for breakfast on Easter Sunday and the next for breakfast the following day!!) but we also made progress on the house - our kitchen still comprises an old worksurface between two workbenches, but my lovely new work room and studio is starting to take shape.

My studio is the place I intend to pursue my design and crafting career in papercrafting and jewellery and whatever craft comes along and takes my fancy. There is the work surface set up for me so I can stand whilst I work (which is very important to me as I find sitting can be uncomfortable) and so many cupboards that I hope I don't fill. However, I suspect I will have to be ruthless and throw out that stuff that as crafters we hoard just in case ... because you never know just what you might need when do you???? That should be fun... perhaps I'll have to have some sort of crafting sale.... anyway one of my next tasks is to figure out how I add piccies to this blog so as soon as I've done it I'll upload some pictures so you can track progress too...

Now before I went off on a tangent as is my want -if you've been to one of my demo's you'll know what I mean :o) - the purpose of this post was to say thank you's to all you lovely people I met at my last two demonstrations at Emerald Crafts in Lyndhurst (22nd March) and Crafting Around in Wootton Bridge on IoW (29th March). It was wonderful to meet new people and newbie crafters as well as all you familiar faces and to share my inspirations, tips and designs with you. I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did, went away with loads of inspiration and I promise those piccies of designs will be going up on here just as soon as I figure out how to do it!!! This blogging thing is still so new to me but I know I will have lots of fun!!! And of course I have to thank Oliver, Louise and Sarah in Lyndhurst and Brenda and her mom in Wootton Bridge for looking after me so well. I really do love coming along to you all at your shops.. and I just can't help spending some of my hard earned money with you aswell... I love seeing all the different things that you have for sale which inspire me to try new products and techniques....

Well, I must close now with the promise that I will develop this site as time allows and get plenty of those piccies, tips and techniques up for you to see as I master this blogging lark!!!

Take care and thanks for dropping in - I'll be in touch again soon
Becky
xx

My very first post!!!!

Well, here it is! My very own crafty blog for me to keep in touch with everyone that I meet whilst I am out and about crafting - I meet so many wonderful people when I am demonstrating for Docrafts and with blogs being the new must have accessory for crafters I thought it was about time I dragged myself into the 21st Century!!!

At present I only have small pockets of time to spend on my blog but over time I hope to develop this site to show you all my crafting inspirations, with lots of pictures to show you what I have been working on and hopefully inspire you to go out and try some of these ideas yourself.... I'll be introducing you to some of my favourite products and designers as well as keeping you up to date with how my plans for a crafting career are developing!!! I also hope I will be able to meet other papercrafters along the way... This is my little crafting corner of heaven... I hope you enjoy visiting it!!!

Until next time - happy crafting!

Love
Becky
x