Dolly's Dreamings

It's A Creative World Blog Hop with freebies

 

So it is finally here - THE event of the Spring season. A very special It's A Creative World Blog Hop

You should have arrived from the amazing Sutty's blog (her work is awesome ... simply awesome)

In case you get lost, the full list of links is at the end of this post.

I am so proud to be a part of It's A Creative World. There are so many talented ladies who scrap, craft, sew, bake, crochet, ink, stamp, garden and just plain rock out crafts. And to celebrate Spring we have got together to do a very special blog hop where you can see so many different ideas that we hope will inspire you to be creative yourself.

And there are even some freebies along the way.

My little freebie is a $5 voucher for Pickleberrypop so you can snaffle up something for yourself to help you get creative for Spring. There are so many great Spring kits available and whether you are a digital scrapper or a paper scrapper you will see things you love. If you are a paper scrapper you could spend the voucher on things to print to add to your pages such as cool journalling blocks and word art or images to make cards.

 

So IT'S FREE  and it is money to SPEND. What have you got to loose? Just pop a comment in the box at the end of the post and a free $5 could be yours.

 

I will pick a winner by selecting a random comment on Monday morning. So ALL YOU HAVE TO DO is leave a comment below and you could have a little Spring bonus to spend.

 So now on to my offerings for the blog hop - a couple of spring pages and cards

 Firstly, I fell in love with this range from Prima called The Sun Kissed Collection. I think it shouted SPRING! I was lucky to get to go to a local farm at lambing time and, whilst we didn't see any lambs born that night, we did see lots of cute little lambs just a couple of hours old and the love their gentle mothers showed was such an inspiration.

 

I used lots of small flowers, adding beaded centres and also a cute chipboard butterfly stamped with brilliance shimmer inks and text to coordinate with the page.

 I don't know about you but no matter how many letters and alphas I have I never have the right colour to coordinate with my page. So for this page I inked some chipboard letters and then stamped them with text and then versamark ink before using clear embossing powder - several coats - so that they look like enamel.

and I also used some cute new dies I bought from Memory Box - some lovely swirls and a cute little picket fence die.

 

Never one to miss the chance to use up scraps I made a card with some of the leftovers.

 

I used one of the Prima Notecards as the background and added flowers and butterflies from the Hero Arts/Sizzix Framelits set - which is a joy to use.

and for those of you who are digi scrappers - or those of you who fancy a bit of hybrid and want to use your $5 voucher, here are some digital and hybrid ideas.

 

This card uses  

Day of Grace Full Kit by Trixie Scraps Designs available at Pickleberrypop

 

 and this page uses the same kit

and the spring freshness in Dawn Inskip's Enchanted Garden collection from Scrapbookgraphics is great for your spring pages.

and  this one using a lot of Dawn Inskip products from her on line store here

And finally this springlike page using a whole range of products from Pickleberrypop and was made using Fayettes template for this month's template challenge (You so have to check out their challenges -they rock!. Find them here )

So enjoy your Spring whatever you do and remember to comment below to have a chance at winning a $5 voucher to spend in the store.

 From here you are hopping off to MANDY's Blog 

I can guarentee you are going to love what she has in store for you! 

Happy crafting and, if you get lost, here is the list of all of the blogs from the hop

Start at IACW-

1-Laura-

3-Doda -

4-Gabrielle-

5-Eleanor

6-Erika-

7-Ifa-

8-Katherine-

9-Dolly-

10-Mandy-

11-Leanne-

12- Kerry-

13- Tracey-

Finish _IACW

Ouch ... that'll hurt

It has been a glorious day here again - warm, sunny and very very springlike.

Makes you feel good to sea it.

See ... I am focusing on the positive. The nice day. Not on the dentist!

I had to go to the dentist today as I broke a tooth yesterday. They fitted me in with an emergency appointment but I just knew it wasn't going to be good.

The good news is it isn't hurting .... yet.

I was terrified. I am pretty dental phobic anyway and combine that with TMJ and the fact my dentist for 30 years retired in december and I hadn't even met the new dentist and you get an idea of how I felt. Plus I just had a bad feeling about the prognosis.

Turns out my feelings were right. It is a broken wisdom tooth and it is decayed and they feel that if they start drilling I will still end up with toothache and it will need to go in the end. Combine this with the fact that it would be root canal work and it doesn't meet the top teeth anyway (my teeth never meet properly which is part of the TMJ) and the tooth has to go. I don't mind losing the tooth ... I mind the losing bit.

The dentist said there is no way she could take it out in the chair as with the TMJ I struggle with the mouth open enough as it is right at the back. Plus I am so scared I'd never cope with it. So I have to be referred to the sedation clinic and it could be a four week wait. Excellent! And it is not covered with Denplan and is going to be costly so ouch to my mouth and my purse.

Hey ho - I am still being positive. Compared to the last health issue this is minor and we move onwards and upwards, just with fewer teeth.

So lets have a nice cheery picture for today - the daffodils I snapped. (Goodness they are bright!)

 
 I have a card to share today - I don't very often share cards.

The rose was stamped and then cut out so the red ribbon really is tied around the rose. It is then stuck on with foam pads to raise it up.

The text background was also stamped and the edges distressed.

 

Today I am thankful for

the dentist not hurting me and the tooth actually crumbled but not painful. May it stay that way until it is removed.

Spring flowers

My one minute devotional calendar today was this

A while back, I bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. We were discussing our children when he said, “Our kids grow up and we grow old. Growing up is fun, but growing old sure isn’t.”

His remark gnawed at me. It forced me to admit that I, too, was coming along in years. Not that I was a senior citizen, but I could see white hair edging out the gray.

I began to feel sorry for myself, and to snap out of it, I decided to dive into some work. The basement needed cleaning, so I started by tossing away empty bottles and broken tools. Then I tackled a box of discarded books. Among the dusty college textbooks and now-forgotten bestsellers was a Boy Scout Handbook from some 40 years ago. On the cover, three boys sat around a campfire under the stars. I remembered camping out with my own troop; I could smell the wood smoke, feel the bite of the night air—too many years ago.

Thumbing through the book, I discovered a wealth of interesting things. Many of them I still remembered, like how to start a fire or pitch a tent. But others were brand-new. Wouldn’t first aid be a good thing to learn, even now? And what about knot-making? When I was a kid, those complicated patterns had seemed silly, but now, they fascinated me. Sure, I wasn’t a youngster anymore, but for just that reason I could enjoy these things in a way no child ever could.

Since then I’ve learned to tie a rolling hitch and to navigate by the stars. And I’ve learned that while growing up is fun, so is growing old.

I give thanks, Lord, for every precious day of my life.

—PHILIP ZALESKI

 

New toys to play with

I got home to find an order I placed at the weekend waiting for me. It is a lush set of Hero Arts Sizzix stamps and die cuts and I am already in love.

I haven't really played, just stamped a couple of the images, cut them out - so easy - and had a quick colour.

The detail on the stamps is lush and I am loving the dies.

I can feel another addiction coming but I intend to resist.

I don't make enough cards to warrant this, but I can justify this set as I will use them on pages.

I also had another gift which Nij wasn't sure I would want. You may remember he has been doing some work and training with Bourjois Cosmetics (lots of lovely free samples) well he had a sample of a big bottle of Soire du Paris perfume and it's very nice. Yes please ... thenk you.

As I feel I don't make enough cards to justify more of the Hero Arts sets I figured today I would share a card I made at the weekend.

It was for the daughter of a friend of mine who has just secured a great job. She is a huge animal lover and so it was, in every way, a very appropriate card.

 

Today I am thankful for

• the fact there are so many wonderful crafty things out there - new ideas all the time.

and this is my one minute devotional calendar page today

It had been six years since I’d lost my left leg to cancer, and I had finally found a sport I could compete in: ski racing. I’d been skiing for years, but this was my first race. I was nervous. An official wearing a radio headset was counting down: “Five … four … three … two … one … go, racer!”

I pushed through the starting wand and accelerated out of the gate. On the first turn, I almost lost my balance as my ski scraped across the ice. I continued to flail through the course until the third turn, when my ski slid out from under me and I crashed. I looked down to see if my ski was still attached to my boot. It was, so I was allowed to get back up.

Three turns later, I fell again. I got back up. Then I fell again. In total, I fell five times before I finally crossed the finish line. At this rate, I was sure I’d never make the Paralympics, the quadrennial competition for athletes with physical disabilities. Then I remembered something my coach had said: “It’s not the falling that matters for you right now as much as the getting back up.”

That’s just the path my ski racing career has followed—a lot of falling, a lot of praying, a lot of getting back up. Five years later, when I did make the Paralympics, I managed to fall a lot less, but I never forgot the lesson I learned from that first race: Persistence, not perfection, is what counts.

Finally - another couple of those amazing photos (nearly done with those now!)

Airport in the Maldives is located on an artificial island in the middle of the Indian Ocean

Lighthouse guard in Mare , France must be one of the most courageous people on the planet! Not everyone will have a smoke in such weather, and in such a place!

Photo of storm in Montana , USA , 2010

 

Skyscraper-Crescent Crescent Moon Tower ( Dubai )

Heavy fog in Sydney , which enveloped the whole city

Black Friday sales

There are many traditions that migrate both ways across that great ocean between the UK and the US - some are wonderful, some maybe not so good.

However, one I have to say I love is the concept of Black Friday which, correct me if I am wrong, is an American tradition that is rapidly taking hold here too thanks to the wonder of internet shopping.

I have come home to no less than 12 e mails from different companies offering sales for Black Friday. Many of them are digital scrapbook stores and it would be rude to refuse ... wouldn't it!!!!

I really ought not to, as I have a whole mess of stuff, but heck. Those new word arts - yes all 12 packs - just slipped into my basket.

I must say I am actually very very lucky as I don't buy a lot of kits and collections because I get to work with Dawn Inskip's each week. Her work is awesome - it really is. The detail and realism is amazing and she always has really unusual stuff to.

She released a Christmas kit this week and I had great fun doing a hybrid card with it.

 

 Dawn's kits are always fabulous for hybrid work - they really are. You must give it a go. You can get Noel from Dawn's store at Scrapbookgraphics here

Today I am thankful for

• well Black Friday actually - great fun

 

So Christmas came early here

It has been a bit of a christmassy day today one way and another.

Shimelle has been hosting the christmas challenge weekend on her blog and I have been playing along.

One of the challenges was to make a page in readiness for your JYC album. JYC (Journal Your Christmas) is something I have done for the last 5 years. Each year I say it will be my last but heck, who am I kidding. I love Christmas and so it is just nice to journal it.

Anyway, the challenge was to think if album size and make a page ready and then there was another challenge to make something with a pocket in one form or another.

So it started me thinking how to do the journal this year. I have done two paper journals, an A - Z paper journal and two digital journals. I also fancied doing it a lot more based on journalling alone as I find the pictures the really taxing bit as most days I don't have time to take a photos.

Surfing along I came across a great You Tube video on an envelope album and I was away.

I used a pack of envelopes which I cut down so they are roughly 6 x 6 and used die cuts cut on my Cricut to join the pages together.

This is the shot of the book open - as I say it has no cover yet

 

I used all sort of scraps of paper and card for covering and for tags. I am pretty much put of time now so I haven't done the cover yet and I haven't embellished all the tags, but i will before the class starts. I have broken the back of it anyway.

There are probably more pages than I need as each page has a page, a double sides tag and then there are huge pull out tags in each pocket too. At the moment they are just plain card as you can see with them poking out here.

Page 1 - the tags slip under the un-glued bit of the snowflake 

 

 Page two the pages are joined by a present and the tags are again held on place by being tucked under the unglued section. It's a great idea - not mine - and works really well.

 The next page uses a snowflake again

 The next is joined by a tree but there wasn't enough to slip tags under and so they slip inside slots in the pages themselves

 The snowflake on this one is all embossed with startdust so really sparkles (doesn't show at all on the picture

 The page above is joined by a paper strip and a globe and I ran out of time to decorate the tags, but you get the general idea.  Below another present and unfinished tags.

 This one is the one that might get binned. It might look better when the tags are finished. Seemed like a good idea at the time and there is lots to hold the tags, but not sure about this one.

There was another challenge to use something in a different way and so - like the challenge card - I used a banner chipboard piece as a tree for a quick and simple card.

All in all, with Christmas music laying and a day of Christmas crafting it has been very festive here!

Today I am thankful for

• Crafting opportunities and the fact that I have cleared it ALL AWAY and have a pristine desk again.

 

Digital stamps

I haven't really got into digital stamps;  probably a good thing really as I don't need another addiction really.

However, when I was browsing at the weekend for NDSD goodies I spotted these. By the amazingly talented Kate Hadfield, they were just way too cute. I have already seen several cards witht hem on and couldn't resist.

This is just a very quick and simple card - when I have time I would like to do a more elaborate one.

 
As you can tell I am not good with the markers, but heck ... I had fun.

Today I am thankful for

• the unexpected M and S vouchers that same in the post - £25 to spend - lovely!

Normal service will be resumed and a masculine card

Not normal service today but I expect it to be resumed soon - well tomorrow actually.

Today is all a bit of a rush and so I am posting this briefly as there is not much of anything other than a card to share really.

I find making cards for men quite difficult and really struggle.

This was the card I made for Chris this year with a new stamp set I got and my spectrum noir pens.

 

Today I am thankful for

• getting my shoes off - 2 reasons. My feet were killing me in heels that were too high and also I am now on lovely soft new bouncy carpet. LUSH!

Tada - the house is finally finally finally completed. Everything. Done. No more DIY. No more B and Q. No more workmen. Not for ages and ages and ages I hope.

 

• 

 

All scrapped out and Card-a-palooza

 
Do you know

I truly think it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Oh yes. Too much scrapping actually.

Having not been away this summer I have enjoyed having scrapping time as well as time to walk, go out, read and relax. But I feel quite scrapped out. I have been trying to finish a page that has been on my desk for 24 hours and it is just not happening as I am just not motivated. But it is, after all, a hobby, and so I don't HAVE to do it.

I do, however, have an assignment to complete so really must crack on with that.

I took part in Card-a-palooza over August. Challenges set daily to make card with no sentiments. It was a little unnerving the make cards and not add the sentiment, but I could see the logic in it as then they are generic cards you can add appropriate sentiments to when you need them. Well, I think I can.

It was a card a day for 15 days and these are just a couple made for the event.

  
 

The second one used a lot of techniques which have photographed badly - but used embossing and misting and resist. Heck, two more for the box and hopefully more money for Lewis Manning hospice.  I would like to be able to get over the £500 raised by Christmas really. I am up to £480 so far so not too much to go and not a bad sum to have raised just from scrapping really.

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely walk and a sense of peace

 

 

 

How does your garden grow?

Well ours doesn't grow with silver bells and cockle shells, that's for sure.

It grows with quite a lot of weeds and very little grass.

Considering the summer hasn't been great, the back lawn in dried to a crisp and is more sort of dusty brown than green. The little blue flowers (Nigel insists on telling me they are weeds and he hates them) look awfully pretty though!

However, the garden looks an awful lot better now than it did this morning as it has had some TLC lavished on it and looks quite cared for now.

It's been awfully sticky here today and now is quite overcast and feels like a storm is a brewing. However, that will probably clear the air a little.

The challenge for card a paloza today was a monochromatic card and this is what I came up with

 

It forced me to drag out the Fresh snow ink that I had forgotten I loved so much.

The other page I have to share today was for the UKS weekly challenge this week and it included scrapping in a different size and shape than normal.

 
It is another for the digital Paris album, recalling the different way we approached Sacre Coeur this time.

Today I am thankful

• to sit here and look out on a spruced up garden. It will be worth the aches tomorrow!

 

A little squeeze and some butterflies

I have had a scrappy day today.

I started the morning by making a card for my neighbour whose birthday it is today. I used the ideas from yesterday's explore class and used concentric circles and they eneded up as a mount for the card.

 

 

 
and a little bit of bling in the flowers

 

Oh and tribute to Shimelle .... butterflies of course LOL

I then made a few pages for my California album. I haven't scanned them yet but will share them when I do. They are all quite simple as they are really just a travel record and not meant to be a great work of art. I'm actually not sure I ever make anything which is a great work of art.

But I do have a new digital page to share which I made with one of the new kits Dawn Inskip erleased yesterday. The kit is called Squeeze and is lush colours. She has another called Welcome to the World which is a verycute kit for babies as well. I will share that at a later date.

 

 

so here is one of my squeeze pages (Oh yes ... it had to be a butterfly page LOL)

 

 

I have also spent a long tme updating my kindle as I bought a collection of 70 books last night from e bay but they needed to be converted to mobi files and I had to down load calibre and then play around. But that was actually fun to do.

Today I am thankful for

• scrappy days
• Kraft card
• My kindle

 

 

The prompt for Explore today was about moments of perfection.  

I have been sat here quietly musing about the whole concept of perfection. Am I a perfectionist? No! Have I ever been? No! Do I live with one? Oh my, yes.

I have always believed that, so long as you do your best, that is OK. It won’t be perfect – well I guess it could be but it would be fairly accidental and quite miraculous – but it should represent your best shot at whatever it is you are doing. I always joke, though there is a bit of heartfelt angst there too, that I grew up with the word ‘but’. My father was always striving to get me to be better, to do better, to extend myself and so most things I ever did were greeted with a ‘How fabulous, I love the xxxx, that’s a great xxxx, BUT….’ There was always a but. Now I don’t want you to think that he was a terrible man. He certainly wasn’t and those of you who read here often will know I always was a Daddy’s girl. But he did teach me that actually, chances are, I am not going to reach perfection and that there is always more to strive for, but what I generally do is pretty good. I guess the ‘but’ could have screwed me up completely, but actually it didn’t. It kept me grounded.

Nigel is a complete perfectionist. And, perhaps more importantly, he is a thinker and a planner. He thinks through everything before he starts it (drives me mad as I am a bull in a china shop sort of girl) and he plans and he takes time and care and spends hours and pretty nearly always does a perfect job with everything. I can give you a fairly classic example. Newly wedded bliss, we had a new garden to create, were into being self sufficient on a very small scale. We went out and bought about 20 different herbs. Had in mind a beautiful herb garden which would looks stunning, flavour the wonderful dishes I was going to cook (who am I kidding, I still can’t cook) and be the envy of all around. Little pots of herbs were lovingly carried home and down to the end of the garden. Nigel disappears (no idea where or why) The soil is already prepared so off I go, slipping them out of their pots and putting them in their new home. No sooner was one planted than I was on to the next one. I didn’t hang around. By the time Nigel was back they were more than half planted. Instead of the praise I expected, along the lines of, ‘Oh my darling you have worked your little fingers to the bone, what an amazing job you have done and what a hard worker you are.’ I got, ‘What the heck are you doing?’ (Yes, I toned that down a little)

He had gone in to get paper and pencil to draw out where everything would go based on how high the plants would grow, what colours they might be, what would looks both aesthetically pleasing and be practical. He was going to PLAN it. He was going to THINK about it. Oh I could give a gazzilion examples of that.

Actually I guess it needs both of us to make things really work. It needs him to be the planner and thinker and strive for perfection and it needs me to galvanise things into action and help us accept that, if it isn’t quite perfect it is probably still OK.

I also started thinking about what was perfect in my life. Nigel isn’t perfect – he has faults, as does everyone. But he is perfect FOR ME. Utterly perfect. We are totally in tune, opposites in many ways and identical in others. My parents were perfect FOR ME. Neither of them were perfect people but they gave me as near perfect a childhood as I recon it is possible to have and I miss them every single day. My cats are perfect FOR ME too. None of them is perfect – they each have little flaws in both character and physical stuff. Fiki is actually a pretty perfect monster mind you.

Our home isn’t perfect. There is much I’d like to change but equally there is much I love and I have to say the rooms we have recently renovated fill me with so much joy. OK so there may be small imperfections, but they have been so lovingly decorated and changed they look fabulous to us. I like to think I am the sort of person who doesn’t spend their life searching for perfection and being permanently dissatisfied with what they have. That is no way to live your life. Embrace what you have, take joy in it, and if it isn’t perfect enjoy those imperfections as well.

One of my favourite quotes is

 
Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have. Rabbi Hyman Schachtel

 

But I also did a search on some other salient quotes and found these that I liked.

No one is perfect... that's why pencils have erasers.  ~Author Unknown

Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.  ~Henry van Dyke

When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target.  ~George Fisher

 

And finally my photo and quote combined. It is printed out and in my play book.

The reason for the photo and words is very special to me. I really am very happy with what I have. Over the last year I have changed enormously and am far more at ease with myself and life and all I have. It's not perfect but it is pretty darned good. The photo is of Nij and I three months ago on our 25th wedding anniversary when we had just renewed our vows in Sacre Coeur and do you know what - by a strange twist of fate that moment when we renewed our vows was completely and utterly perfect. The place, the mass, the chanting and singing, the atmosphere, the awe and wonder. God blessed us with a perfect moment ... and we will never forget it.

 

Aim for the moon, that way, even if you miss you'll still be amongst the stars! - W. Clement Stone