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

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

Meet...

One of the other reasons for setting up my blog was to allow me to introduce all you lovely crafters out there who I meet to the individuals in the crafting world that inspire me and to be able to share with you their inspirations and talent....

When I'm out there demonstrating I often say that the thing I find about crafting people is we love to share and that makes it an incredibly social activity... Well it certainly seems like it to me when you are all chatting away, sharing your experiences and showing each other your designs!!!! My job is to provide you with inspiration and ideas but one you all pass so much back to me which I am able to learn from and share with others I have the pleasure of meeting.

So this time I would love you to meet a fabulously talented scrapbooker...

KATY GODBEER

Katy is a lovely young lady and at Docrafts she provides many of the "Scrapbook Projects of the Week", inspiring people to dig out their photographs and turn them into beautiful and artistic treasured memories. She has also had her layouts published in national craft magazines.

Recently she has been using the gorgeous NEW Basic Grey papers to produce some stunning layouts such as the one below:

I love the simplicity of this layout and the muted tones provide a calm and tranquil scene... and being a cat person I think Bruce is rather beautiful too - though I think looking at these pictures he knows that himself!!!! Take a peak at Katy's gallery to see even more of her projects.

Katy's own inspirations often comes in the shape of her two newfoundland dogs (which are frequently the subjects of her own layouts!) and she frequently publishes stunning pictures of them aswell as other gorgeous creatures on her own blog... I really wish I could take pictures like this...

So please meet Katy Godbeer and click here visit her own blog at for loads of inspiration, lovely photography and to find out what makes her tick...

With love until next time

Becky xxxx