Brilliant Day!

Hello friends
Well, what can I say...a wonderful day yesterday.  Totally overwhelmed by the turnout
and kindness of people - the words THANK YOU seem inadequate.
I think Elliott made it complete much later in the evening when he
just sat there with a big smile and said - mum, I've had an amazing day.

As promised, here are some photos!
Elliott, myself, Janice and Sally.
Huge thanks to Janice, Sally, Sue and more ladies from their craft group -
you are all lovely and you kindly gave up your day to demo stitching on cards and more.

A demo in action and visitors, it got really crowded at times.

Yummy cakes ....

 and more yummy cakes!

The GRAND cake... kindly made and donated by my sister.

As mentioned, Elliott was charged with picking out the winner of the Grand Cake.

 And Gillian was the lucky winner.

I know I didn't get round to talking to everyone (and believe me I can talk!)
apologies if I didn't get a chance to have a proper chat.  The day just whizzed by.

Now to the important news - how much have we raised for
Ronald McDonald House, Camberwell???

I am thrilled to announce the total is ........

£742.85 

Our aim had been to raise £500 so that Elliott could have a leaf on the charity tree at the
house, extremely pleased that we have exceeded that.

I can't begin to tell you how much this house helped me while Elliott underwent surgery,
mentally it allowed me to leave the hospital and recharge my batteries for a
few hours while Elliott slept. Practically, it was just around the corner from
King's so I knew I could be back at his bedside within minutes if needed.
It was a little safe haven away from the all the medical 'stuff'.

Elliott and I have been invited to call into the house for cup of tea whenever we are
visiting Kings and as that is every week for the next few weeks I think
we might take some cake with us too!

This fundraising has been successful down to all of you dear friends -
thank you for purchasing kits, raffle tickets, donating and coming along to the event.

Friends smooth out the bumps on the road of life.

Talking of the raffle... the raffle is now closed but please stop by tomorrow
and all of next week.  Every day there will be winning tickets revealed and the prizes.
Elliott and I are organising this today.

There are a few kits still available - grateful to those who have sent in images,
I have them all on display in the shop.

The kits are now £6.50 as there is no longer a raffle ticket enclosed, still have to
charge a tiny bit for Mr Royal Mail!  Please email me if you would like one.

Take care friends - much love from a very happy Emberson family.

It's Today!!

Hello friends

Today is Charity Event Day! 

I did hear that there is a Model Railway Show in the town hall...I'm thinking/hoping

that will not draw my visitors away!  Although I suspect one person may go looking -

Elliott is very partial to trains.

As mentioned, I will be taking photos and sharing them with you and there will be 

the very special Winners Week next week - remember to stop by every day and 

check your raffle tickets!  They will still be on sale until midnight tonight.

Okay, let's talk craft!

I created this card for Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L.

More photos and details are here on their blog - feel free to leave a comment there,

I'm always grateful and the company likes me then!

I went for a bold look using deep red cardstock as it picks out the red from the patterned paper.

Onto a cream card base I mounted red card and patterned paper cutting one edge with 

A2 Scalloped Borders One.

The frame is created using Labels Twenty.

Cut/embossed a piece of patterned paper for the aperture and stamped it 

(yes, I actually stamped - I can cope with little stamps!)

My favourite Foliage and Bitty Blossom dies - ta dah!  All done.

 A close up - will I ever tire of Bitty Blossoms?? No never!

Enjoy your weekend.

Take care friends.

Just quickly stopping by....

Hello friends

Cake baking frenzy!

While I was at work yesterday Mitchell got to grips with baking 

lemon and coconut cakes.

 

I believe we will have an offer 4-5 different sorts of cakes to have with a nice cup of

tea and coffee tomorrow.  

As soon as I'm home from work this evening I will be putting the finishing

touches to the studio/shop - we are really looking forward to tomorrow.

I wanted to let you know that raffle tickets will be for sale at the event and

also available to purchase up until midnight Saturday 20 July.  

The PayPal link is still working (thank you gremlins for staying away!) 

and can be found here.

On Sunday Elliott and I will be making the draw and from Monday onwards there will be

'Winners Week' - please stop by every day to see the winning ticket numbers and prizes.

There will be quite a few each day as there are A LOT of prizes! 

Exciting!! 

I wish I could magically arrange for everyone to be there - instead I will 

be posting lots of pictures.

Other news - still nothing from Suzy D with regard to winning the 

Gold Elements!

As it is now a week I thought it only fair to ask Elliott to pick out another name - 

his whizzy app selected.....

MRS B 

Please drop me an email christine.emberson@blueyonder.co.uk

and I will make sure they are sent out to you.

Sorry not very craft related today - but lots in the pipeline.

Take care friends - have a wonderful weekend, keep cool - eat plenty of ice cream!

"Building on the Core"

Hello friends

Today I'm going to talk about "Building on the Core" -

this is going to be an expression you will hear a lot from Spellbinders® 

especially with CHA just around the corner.

So what is "Building on the Core"?  

With each die set that is produced a clever thought process has been adopted -

if you own a set of Nestabilities, these are your "core".  

The "building" is layering them with die choices such as Majestic Elements,

Decorative Elements, Imperial Gold and now introducing NEW Enhancing Elements.

Enhancing Elements are 'inset' dies, there is no cut edge to the perimeter 

but by mixing them with your 'core' dies you can create superb effects.

Stacy Caron has put together a video that explains it all.

Now, while watching the video just glance over the top of Stacey's head,

just a glance mind - I don't want you to lose concentration!  

There is a project on the shelf that is mine!  

An altered book - I made this in my first year with Spellbinders so I am really

chuffed it is on the shelf at their offices.

Inside the book it looks like this...it seems I've always liked butterflies and bird cages!

Now, other releases just in case you may not have caught them...

FONTS!
Oh yes, happy dance - been wanting these for ages.

Upper case

Lower case

and Sentiments too!

There is so much lovely new stuff! 

Right, other news - hospitals!

Huge thanks for all your comments and good wishes, Mitchell is doing okay but

dosed up with medication.  His working day today involves being pampered by his 

grandparents and baking cakes!  Money for old rope wouldn't you agree!

Elliott's trip to King's yesterday wasn't as fruitful as we had hoped.  

We had been wanting to hear there may be an alternative to the daily growth injections -

(a form of gas pump as developed and currently used in the US) but sadly it is not available here. 

Knowing he has many years ahead of these injections has brought him down 

but he is really looking forward to Saturday, especially as he has been charged 

with selecting the winner of the Grand Cake!  

My sister is making one of her

amazing cakes which will be available to win on the day - entry will be £1.  

In case you haven't seen one of her cakes - they look something like this...

and this...

and look at this - created for a Mad Hatter's Tea Party! 

Now I need to eat cake but there is nothing like this in my larder! 

Take care friends, I'm back soon.

Unexpected!

Hello friends

Yesterday morning Mitchell ended up here....

and this afternoon Elliott is going here...

I think we are a little tired of hospitals! 

Mitchell ended up going to Accident and Emergency first thing yesterday

morning due to some complications following his surgery. 

For any of you who don't know - let's just say, he had an operation some time ago on 

a rather 'delicate area'!   Poor lad, so embarrassing for him and I'm making it worse

by telling you all via my blog! (aka mother's revenge!)

He was sent home with medication but under review as to whether he may need another little op.

I did quiz him whether he would like his time off yesterday as a day's holiday! ;)

Next son...Elliott is back at King's this afternoon.  

We are one week into the injections and I'm afraid it is still horrible.  

We are going to be grateful to speak to a Professor today to seek his advice and help.

His medication also makes him very hot so this weather is excruciating for him.

We have found ways to help - handheld fan, fan in his room and at crisis point, washing him down 

with the hose in the garden! 

Okay enough of the medical traumas!  Let's talk craft.

The lovely Cosmo Cricket papers - Odds and Ends -  

I'm afraid I do not stock them but I have managed to track some down for sale here.

Talking of this gorgeous paper - how about a few more projects using them.

An envelope gift bag.

 A notebook

 and festive card featuring a Labels Twenty-Two aperture.

All these festive projects use Layered Poinsettia - LOVE this die set so much.

I've just taken delivery of more but as yet have not had a chance to upload them

to Amazon or the new website.  That reminds me - if there is a die you need please get in touch -

I have a separate stock in the shop and I can always specifically order dies too.

So, a batch of Christmas projects - all very appropriate for this hot spell we are having!! 

Pat asked yesterday if I could explain how I make my cards etc - I really must and
I plan to get back into doing this with tutorials, Friday Die Days and more.
Hoping for a little bit of calm soon and extra hours in the day :)

Take care friends and thank you again for your kind comments.

Fonts, Fabric, Pretty Paper and More....

Hello friends

Lovely response to yesterday's post, I enjoy reading all the comments - 

I take a peek at them throughout the day and go over them again in the evening

so I don't miss any.  

The papers I used for the Reminder Box yesterday are Cosmo Cricket - 

Odds and Ends.  They are my most favourite papers to date - I have

a tiny little bit left and I refuse to use it!   

Although the range is summery, I used it on 10 Christmas projects a while ago!

Here is two of them, a Christmas card featuring Layered Poinsettia cut from glitter card.

 Chocolate bar wrapper - love making these.

I have just discovered they have

brought out the design in fabric too - be still my craving creative heart!! 

Now to fonts, Maddie asked this question yesterday. 

I will hold my hand up and confess something...

'My name is Christine and I'm not very good at stamping!' 

So, when I create I nearly always go to my computer, select a font and print it onto

good quality cardstock - I use PaperMill Direct - Ivory Card Linen most of the time.

I do not have a snazzy printer either - it is a HP Inkjet, very basic.

I then decide on the size, print and die cut the shape.

The font I use the most, and the one featured on the Reminder Box is Edwardian Script.

We made progress yesterday - here is Mitchell setting out some of the raffle prizes...

it's a crafty feast for sure!

Also another Charity Kit has been completed - this time by Jen,
you can view her completed tag book on her blog here but before you hop over there...
I cannot resist sharing this photo - absolutely gorgeous!

If you have completed your kit I would dearly appreciate some photos or send 

me a link to your blog.

Take care friends - I'm back soon.