Three from last week

The first of the three from last week is for Rita, whom my kids affectionately call their Foster Mum. My inspiration for this one came from the verse which I came across when looking for a verse for my friend Jane's card. The verse being -

Take each birthday with a pinch of salt

This works much better

if the salt is accompanied with a margarita

Why you ask why was this verse my inspiration? Well, Rita loves her cocktails and her 'Sunday Name' is Margarita.

The papers are from the Bo'bunny's Summer Breeze range, card and vellum and used lime green ribbon as a decorative touch. The sentiment was typed out in Word, cut out with using the Nestabilities 'Blossom' die.

The next card was one as I was asked to do a card by Pat, one of my Canasta buddies', for her brother's brithday. One of the things that I was told that he liked was motorbikes. Instantly knew what I would do for this card. I still had some papers from a pack of a set of Harley Davidson backing papers, which I used for another big project. And also the 'Motorbiker's Prayer' which used the 23rd Psalm as its guideline and et voila the end result.

Card has been delivered and Pat was delighted with it and as I type it is winging its way to South Africa.

The last card from last week was again a request from a friend, this time my best buddy who lives over in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. She wanted a anniversary card one for her good friends back home in the UK, Corrine and Dave's. Annie had said that she like the card I had done for one of my friends, Fiona and Stephen's anniversary. I did a similar card style of card for Annie, using Dorothy's instructions over on Amazing Paper Grace. For the insert inside the card, I incorporated a photo that Annie had sent to me that was taken of Corrine and Dave on their wedding day.

An Award and some Candy

Can't believe that I haven't posted anything on the Palace Noticeboard since the 15th of May. My mojo decided to jump on the nearest camel's back and go out on a wee desert trek. Can see him in the distant so hopefully he hasn't worked the camel too hard and will be back home soon.

Anyway a good friend of mine, Louise over at Lou's Asylum has awarded me with the Lemonade Award for 'Great Attitude as well as Gratitude'. Thanks Louise ever so much. She has had a three week stay in hospital getting treatment for her Rheumatoid Arthritis which has greatly improved her mobility. Louise, if you are reading this, hope the improvement continues.

Speaking of hospitals, Dorothy over at Never Enough Rubber Stamps is also heading for a stay in hospital. Dorothy wish you a speedy recovery. Despite the impending stays in hospital Dorothy has decided to have a weekly blog candy spot. To be eligible for the candy all you have to do is leave between 1 and 5 comments a week on her blog. The commentators will only know if they have been the weekly winner when Mr Postman makes a delivery.

Another June Birthday

Another June birthday card ticked off my list. This time it is for my niece but before I could get started on this card I had a wee disaster. As I was getting all the bits together to make the card and going through my tins of buttons, brads and flowers, I somehow managed to tip the whole lot on the floor. All I will say is that there was a slight navy tinge to the air around me as I scrambled about on my hands and knees trying to pick everything up.

I got a wee delivery from Cropstop, some new embossing folders from QuicKutz, one being the Scallops and Dots and this was my inspiration along with some gift ribbon from Hallmark which fitting nicely between the dots of the embossing folder.

After running the embossing folder through my trusty 'bug' I punched out the holes before fixing on the ribbon. Then matted onto cardstock from the Amy Butler Sola range and Remake Ocean Blues, both from K&Company. I distressed the edges of the Ocean Blues cardstock with Timber Brown Stazon.

The button embellishments are from Bo Bunny and the sentiment is a silver peel-off which I coloured with a brown marker pen and mounted it on a strip of the Ocean Blues cardstock.

Bee Crafty Challenge

Last night will doing a bit of surfing, looking for sites that sell Digital Stamped Images, as I can't get decent stamps out here and to buy them online can mean having to pay a lot for postage, I came across a lovely site, Bee Crafty. Her digital stamped images are fab. She is also running a challenge which finishes tomorrow noon - UK Time. For the challenge you have to use her 'slice of cake' image (a freebie into the bargain), so thought in return for downloading the image I would enter the challenge and get one of my June birthday cards done into the bargain.

I started off colouring the image using both watercolour pencils and sakura pens. The cake layers and icing were done with the watercolour pencils - Cadmium Yellow and Leaf Green. To give the edging icing on the cake a bit of texture I used a Sakura Souffle pen as well as the white icing. For the candle and the decoration on the side of the cake it was Sakura Glaze pens, watered down with a Koi brush.

Out came my trusty 'Bug' and Deckled Rectangles from Nestabilities. Highlighted the deckled edge of the rectangle with the same green watercolour pencil and blended it using the Koi Brush. As I did this the edges turned up slightly, so decided to keep this effect when I matted it on to the back of Bo-Bunny's Back to Backs card stock - Alissa Look At Me, using foam pads just down the middle of the image. Mounted this onto another piece of Bo-Bunny's cardstock from the same Alissa range, this time, Alissa Spunky. The sentiment was done on Word and again used the Deckled Rectangles and highlighted in the same way using the green watercolour pencil.

Mounted all this onto plain white cardstock, again highlighting the edges with the green watercolour pencil. For a finishing touch, I added crystal stickers from my stash.

Hope Merrigan approves of my use of her digital stamp.

Been a bit quiet

Have been very quiet this week as I have a severe chest infection and have been signed off my work and have been put on a course of heavy duty antibiotics. Got to go back to see the doc on Sunday.

Today is the first day that I have felt like doing anything. It was a bit of a struggle, as I still feel a wee bit weak, but managed to get two cards done. This first card I did was for a friend who has had some knee surgery. Decided on a blue theme as he is a Glasgow Rangers fan. I used blue cardstock for the base and printed off a sheet of striped paper from Printable Heaven for the background. Then being a thrifty Scot, I used some of my scraps of card and with my Nestabilities - circles and inverted scalloped circles - cut out three sets. On each set stuck on one of the words of 'Get Well Soon'. Using more scraps cut three strips of navy blue cardstock which I stuck on the background stripes and at the end of each strip mounted one of the circle sets.

The second card I got done was a friend of one of our neighbours. The neighbours are organising a birthday party for him tonight and to which we have been invited but as I am still feeling a bit weak have declined. Don't know where the inspiration came from. When I was doing the 'Get Well Card' I was going through my stamps drawer for the sentiments and spied 'Claudette the Camel', which I stamped onto some scrap cream cardstock using brown ink. Then coloured it in with watercolour pencils. The Nestabilities came out again - deckled rectangles - and cutting out Claudette and the mat below. For the background of the card I used the darker section of the background section of Fred, She Said's Dancing Daisy and the 'Happy Birthday' sentiment came from the same sheet.

A Thank You

After having such a wonderful night on Thursday at the St George's Society Red and White Ball, I thought it would be nice gesture to send the Society a thank you from Billy and myself.

I found my layout inspiration at the Fab Friday spot over at Cuttlebug Challenges. As with any inspiration everyone's interpretation is slightly different, mine turned out slightly elongated. My colour scheme colour could only be based on the Union Jack, red white and blue and my image a Beefeater. We were greeted by two Beefeaters at the door to the Ballroom.

I settled down to get the card and out came my trusty 'Bug'. The sentiment is from the 'With Gratitude' die. I used the Nestabilities Large and Small labels for the matting for the sentiment. The matting for the image was done by just cutting out rectangles and rounding off the corners with a corner punch. For the red background, used mulberry paper which I embossed with the D'vine Swirl folder. And voila the end result -

Red & White Ball

A day late but Happy St George's Day to all my English friends.

Out here in Bahrain it was celebrated by the St George's Society with a Red and White Ball. Billy and I were there, seated at the top table, representing the Awali Callies.

Billy and me in front of the Union Jack

The Top Table with Beefeaters

The evening kicked off with a champagne and canapes reception. We then sat down to Cream of Broccoli Soup, followed by Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. Dessert was a Chocolate Mousse. Also on the table was a selection of cheese and crackers. It was all rounded off with coffee or tea with petit fours.

We then danced into the early hours to music by Krazy Kevin, who was suitable dressed in a red and white suit.

A Birthday Party

Sunday evening saw Billy and I off out to a birthday party. Not just any ordinary birthday but Queen Elizabeth II's at the British Embassy here in Bahrain. Not a casual affair but not stiff upper lip one either. We all turned up in our 'Sunday Best'.

The Official Invitation

I didn't take my camera with me as I didn't think I would be allowed it into the Embassy grounds. However I do know one of the guys who covers events in Bahrain for one of the glossy monthly magazines was there and who has kindly passed on the photo taken of me and Sarah, the British Ambassador's wife. You will see Billy just 'teeting' over Sarah's shoulder.

Me and Sarah

For those with a sweet tooth!!!

Bev, at All The Things I Love, has some fabulous candy on offer to mark her blogoversary and passing the 200,000 hit mark. If you would like to be in with a chance of winning pop over and have a look, leave a comment and put a link on your own blog, if you have one.

Better hurry though, as it is only available until the 23rd.

Blog Candy - Limited Edition

Dorothy over at Never Enough Rubber Stamps has some exclusive candy on offer. I have never seen such a large inkpad. I hope you will drop and have a look.

April's Cards Finished

Had two cards to do to get up to date for April. The first one, I decided to tackle was for my brother-in-law. Had an idea of doing a triangular card for him, but my mojo had decided to go walkabout and although I got a card done I wasn't happy with it. Then my memory kicked in. I had done a card last year for a spare and thought it would be suitable, so when I looked it out I decided to use it instead, particularly he loves music and playing the piano.

Luckily my mojo seemed to come back when I started on an anniversary card for our good friends in Saudi, Annie and Mike. Scroll through some of my downloads came across a sheet that had downloaded from Fred-She-Said - Dancing Daisy. As there are two dancing daisy images on the sheet, I decoupaged one of the flower heads and used Inkssentials Glossy Accents to highlight the petals. Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Rectangles were used to for the bottom two layers of the mats and the Classic Rectangle for the top layer.

Being a thrifty cardmaker, I decided I wouldn't throw out the triangular card I had originally wanted to do for my brother-in-law, I finished it off with a couple of peel-offs and use it for a birthday card that I need for May. So it now means that all the cards I need for now till the end of May are done.

Got Round To Cardmaking

Having spent the last two days, re-organising the area where I do my cardmaking and scrapbooking, spent the morning getting a couple of cards done. It is almost done, just waiting for the carpenters/joiners to come to put up two extra shelves.

The first one is an order for business cards, for a gal pal of mine here who does Reflexology. She provided the image and I just incorporated it into a business card. Thought I would give it to her in a post, which I made up following the instructions on the Scor-pal website. I used a sheet of cardstock from the Bo Bunny's Back to Back range - Sweetie Pie Squeeze [page 55].

The second card of the day is a my dental assistant gal pal who has just moved house in Awali. The papers are from Printable Heaven. To wind her up a wee bit, I thought I would do the card using her least favourite colour, Pink. I am sure she will accept the card in the spirit that it is given. My reply, when she says something is pink, is always 'it is not pink but that is it a light shade of red'. Just have to wrap up her house warming pressies.

Patio Devastation

Thunder and lightening came to Awali last night. The thunder so loud it woke me up and the lightening was so bright that even with the curtains drawn the inside of the house was lit up. Woke up to this mini scene of devastation.

The bbq moved out of the corner.

Speak about being rootbound!!!

Almost 40 Egg Boxes Later!!!

As it is coming up for the Easter break from school, thought I would do a wee gift for the kids in nursery, all 28 of them plus the rest of the nursery teaching staff, and give them out on Thursday when we finish.

Adapted the design slightly from this year's April edition of Crafts Beautiful.

Using plain bright yellow card for the box I trimmed it with cardstock from the Bo-Bunny's Back to Backs range. The striped trim, for the boys, is Ella Stripe and the checked, for the girls, is the back of Ella Dot. Popping in a Cadbury's Creme Egg before adding a small name tag and tying up the box with bright green string.

On Easter Saturday we have been invited to a bbq, so did an extra 6 to give to the kids at the bbq.

Hopefully the start of cardmaking again

Card making has been quite thin on the ground just recently, particularly as Sarah was out visiting us for a fortnight, so I didn't want to disappear too often into the crafting 'black hole'.

While she was here I had to finish off an order for menus for the BTB's Sportman's Charity Dinner. Before I flew home for to surprise Dad on his birthday I got the tickets finished. Billy and I went along to the dinner and were seated with the after dinner speaker, Bob 'The Cat' Bevan, who had everyone in stitches with his speech, especially when he took the mickey out of Billy and Ally - the BTB's President. The night raised over BD5000 in aid of The Bahrain Children's Cancer Trust' to help establish a hospice.

Today, spent the morning, trying to tidy up the crafting 'black hole', but gave it up and got on with a card for Dorothy over at Never Enough Rubber Stamps, who is running a Spread a Smile Campaign.

Happy Mother's Day

Just wanted to wish you all a Happy Mother's Day. Sarah presented me with my Mother's Day present last night, a lovely Yankee Candle in a jar and two fridge magnets. Couldn't help but giggle when I read the magnets. The first one reads - Are my hot flushes causing global warming? and the second one - I'm still hot, it just come in flushes now.

I got a lovely surprise at work today. One of the boys in my nursery class came in bearing gifts, one for each of the teaching staff in nursery. I wasn't expecting anything from the kids and needless to say I was speechless. My present was a lovely hanging candle holder. But what made it more special was the words on the card that came along with the present, these were - 'For holding my hand and showing me the way, I just want to say thank you'.

More Candy - Better late than never.

Bev had some candy to offer but you better be quick as she supply runs out tonight. Nip along and have a squizz.

I've got everything crossed and hope I win.

Lazy Friday and Spending Saturday

Not much crafting be done this week, apart from working on the Menu for a forthcoming function for the BTB's, which I managed to get finished last night.

Yesterday, Friday, was a lovely day here in Awali. As it was Billy's first Friday off since the beginning of February and having Sarah out here as well, decided to have a day at home soaking up some of the rays and have the first bbq of the year. We did a roast beef, and I do have to admit it was delicious. Compliments to Chef Billy.

Today it was quite overcast, although still warm. Can't make up my mind if it was caused by a sandstorm or if it is an ominous sign of rain to come. So today we decided to head off to the City Centre Mall. Billy has been speaking about getting a Tux Suit to wear to some of the functions that we go to instead of his kilt. Did he get a Tux Suit, NO, but he came away with a Crombie-style overcoat which had been reduced in a sale by 75%. It is something he has wanted for years, so he can now score it off his wish list. Mind you don't when he will get to wear it out here. It will, more than likely, be going home to Fraserburgh the next time he heads home. I got a couple of 'Posh Frocks' as well as a couple of skirts and a pair of trousers for everyday.

Since we got home, have spent the time on a cut and paste job for the school. A new alphabet homework book, to use from September, instead of having to get sheets photocopied every week. Got the numbers one finished earlier in the week. All that remains to do is get the front cover sheets done, so better sign off for today and get them done.

Jak's Fabulous Candy

Jak over at Crafters Kitchen, an inspiration to many crafters has some wonderful candy on offer. Please pop over and have a look and leave a wee note of what got you into crafting and where you get your inspiration from.

My Secret - Revealed

Apologies, first of all, to all those who have been patiently waiting for my secret to be revealed, but haven't had a minute over the weekend to do the reveal.

Well, last Wednesday, the 11th, was my Dad's 80th birthday. For his present, as what do you give someone who is 80 and has almost all that he needs, Billy and I said we would pay for his birthday lunch. At the lunch were my Mam, my 3 kids, Dad's sister, brother and sister-in-law and 10 close friends. 18 in total.

The Cake

But what Dad or Mam didn't know was that there would to be 19 sitting down for lunch. The extra guest being Moi, me, my very ownself. Well you should have seen their faces when they walked into the restuarant and saw me sitting at the table along with the kids. I had flown into Aberdeen that morning, and arrived back in Bahrain last night. Mam thought she was seeing things, and kept looking at me throughout the meal just to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

Dad, not one to show his emotions in public, had a few tears but said that me being there, had made a happy occasion, just perfect.

The Birthday Boy and Me

Billy, unfortunately, had to miss out on the celebrations due to being in the middle of a shutdown at work. Well someone had to work to pay the bill!!!!!! But he did phone after lunch to wish Dad a happy birthday, which made Dad's day as well.

Blog Candy - Spread a Smile Campaign

Dorothy of 'Never Enough Rubber Stamps' kindly commented on a couple of Palace Notices and in return I thought it would be nice to spread the news of Dorothy's Spread a Smile Campaign. I hope that you have a wander over and have a look for yourself.

Shhh, I got a secret!!!!!!

Shhhhhhhh, I got a secret.

Will be busy over the next couple of days but all will be revealed by the weekend.

Had a 'Bugging' Day!!!!

Don't normally get to spend a Monday cardmarking. But as today is the Prophet's Birthday out here, got a day off school, so thought I would put it to good use and get ahead on my birthday/anniversary card list. Got as far as mid-April.

The first card I did was for our friends', Fiona and Stephen's 1st wedding anniversary. As lilac and purple are two of Fiona's favourite colours thought it would be ideal colours for the card. Saw this cuttlebug technique, Cuttlebug Circular Embossing, ages ago but have never got round to doing a card. Want to say thanks to Becca Feeken for sharing it with us. I used the same embossing folder that Becca used. Then cut out two scalloped nestability ovals. For the words, sorry you can't read them, but printed them onto the cream card using word and surrounded them with a very thin oval, before cutting out the oval, using the plain oval nestability.

The second card, was a really quick one. Used the embossing folder from the Welcome Baby set and then again using Word printed out the sentiment. Fixed in some brads and matted it all onto a card with foam pads.

The last one, is for my brother-in-law's sort of stepson's birthday. Using the jigsaw die cut out out the jigsaw in three different colours before sticking them on to card with the 'knobbly bits' of the jigsaw just touching where they should fit into. Used the Olivia dies to spell out the word 'birthday' and stuck each letter onto a separate jigsaw piece before mounting the whole thing onto white card and rounding off the open corners with a corner punch.

Today's crafting.

Am trying to get ahead of the game on the card front and managed to get three cards done today. The first one is a thank you card that I was asked to make for the couple who represented the Callies at the recent Welsh Society's St David's Day Ball. Out came my trusty 'bug' and highlighted the flowers and stems with Sakura glaze pens.

The second one is my Mam's Mother's Day card, as I need to get it posted soon so that it will arrive in time. Again used the 'bug' and Sakura pens.

The last one for today is a birthday card for Gayle, my boss from my days as a Legal Secretary at Stewart & Watson, Fraserburgh. Mounted a sheet from DCWV's 'The Glittered All Dressed Up matstock' onto some plain white cardstock. Used another sheet of the matstock and a piece of black stock and my nestabilities flower for the flower. Finished it off with a sentiment - silver peel-off coloured black.

Adorable Candy

Linda at Pinklilacs, who loves pink and lilac pointed me in the direction of Pink Gem where Janet is giving away some adorable candy.

For a change to win, drop by and leave Janet a comment.

Blog Candy

For anyone who has a bit of a sweet tooth, there is some candy at Julie's Leapblog. Why don't you drop by and have a chance of getting something, but remember to drop by before 8pm GMT on Monday 2nd March

On a roll today

As Billy was working today, the Refinery has a big shutdown ongoing, decided to spend the day cardmaking for the March birthdays. Managed to get four done.

The first card is for Grace at works birthday tomorrow. It will be a day late in being delivered. Used on of the images on the cd that came along with Papercraft Essentials Issue 37 and decoupaged the large butterfly and used Sakura glaze pens to highlight the wings.

The second card is for Marylin, aka Mog, who I used to work with in Stewart & Watson's. Again using an image from the cd and decoupaging one of the fairy queens and using white Sakura glaze pen to highlight the decoupaged wings.

The third card, is for Rita & Doug's wedding anniversary. Took out my 'Bug'. Using the heart die in the Olivia Alphabet set cut out three hearts in differing shades of red and pink. In the same shades of red and pink cut out a plain circle and scalloped circle using my nestability dies. Made a DL card and trimmed an inch off the front, matted on the front of the card a piece of Bo Bunny's Ella Strip. Mounted the hearts and circles so that they overhung the cut edge. The sentiment I printed off using Word.

The final card of the day, is my Dad's birthday card. He is 80 this year. At first I thought about doing something with the numbers 8 and 0, but couldn't get it to work. So decided to rummage through my Wendy Stenton templates and came across the wine bottle template and it seemed to speak to me. Cut it out as though I was going to use it as a card, but mounted it onto a C5 card trimming off the extra at the top. Using Word did the label '80 years old, What A Vintage'. Using the Sizzix Shadow Box to cut out 'Dad' in two shades of green. Once I had all these fixed onto the card, I felt it was still missing something. Ended up getting a photo taken of my Dad on his birthday a couple of years and mounted it on the same cardstock that I used for the bottle.